Inter-basin water transfers under uncertainty: Storage capacity and optimal guaranteed deliveries

This paper deals with water transfers between jurisdictions not claiming riparian rights to the same water source, and taking place through straightforward sales. Taking into account the uncertain nature of water surpluses, we investigate, within a partial equilibrium framework, the implications of a third party's provision of storing facilities upon the potential supplier's decision whether, and to what extent, it is worthwhile to guarantee a constant amount of water exports. The analysis suggests that there exists a minimum storage capacity below which the potential supplier will never find it profitable to divert a constant amount of water outside his boundaries; the greater the uncertainty about future surpluses and/or internal costs due to even occasional water shortages resulting from the water export commitment, the higher the required minimum storage capacity will be. Above this minimum, an increase in the capacity would be better for the surplus agent, but in a situation in which water surplus is expected to decrease over time, increases in storage capacity would make him willing to guarantee a smaller amount of water deliveries.This work has been carried out under the auspices of the European Science Foundation's research program Sharing fresh water resources in the Mediterranean region: An economic perspective. Previous versions have been presented at ESF workshops held at the Universities of Haifa, Padova and Crete. Financial support from MURST (funds 40% — 1992) is gratefully acknowledged. We wish to thank Nunzio Cappuccio, Haluk Akdogan, Karl Mäler, Mordechai Shechter, Naomi Zeitouni, and two anonimous referees for helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies.     

财产保险公司资产负债管理多维量化评估体系研究

良好的资产负债管理是保险业可持续发展的基石,也是支持保险业在日益复杂的风险环境中保持稳健发展、防范系统性风险的重要保障。近年来,随着我国金融市场发展,业务产品创新加快,保险业在资产端与负债端的业务结构和风险特征出现了新情况、新变化。特别是部分保险公司缺乏有效的治理结构,采取激进经营、激进投资的策略,导致业务快进快出、风险敞口过大以及流动性问题,对保险公司资产负债匹配管理、风险控制提出了挑战。本文介绍了财产保险公司资产负债多维度量化评估规则设计原理、主要评估模型和评估方法,针对财产保险公司的负债特性提出的沉淀资金匹配,在成本收益匹配中有机地将资产投资收益与承保业务综合成本进行匹配,在现金流匹配模式中打破了僵化的匹配模式,解决了长期困扰财产保险公司的资产负债期限不匹配的问题,对财产保险公司资产负债管理具有重要意义。     

The Impact of Acquisitions on Operating Performance: Some Australian Evidence

This study investigates the impact of acquisitions on the operating performance of Australian firms. For a sample of 36 Australian acquisitions occurring between 1986 to 1991 inclusive, and using matched firms to control for industry and economy-wide factors, the results based on four accrual and four cash flow performance measures show that corporate acquisitions do not lead to significant improvements in post-acquisition operating performance. The consistency of the results with the agency, the hubris and the financial motivation hypotheses suggests that corporate acquisitions in Australia may be undertaken for other than synergistic reasons. The results assist in explaining inconsistent findings reported in the literature.     

中国金融市场分割问题探源

银行的不良贷款问题得到了学术界的广泛关注,而金融体系中另一个潜在的缺陷,资本的低效率使用问题却没有引起足够的重视。金融理论告诉我们分割的金融市场是阻碍资本自由流动的原因, 本文的目的在于对我国金融市场分割的原因进行探讨。     

可持续增长率与财务管理目标相关性分析

可持续增长率是企业现有财务资源所能够支持的销售收入的最大增长率,代表企业最适宜的增长速度。企业的财务管理目标是企业价值最大化,而决定企业价值的重要因素是由销售收入增长所带来的未来现金流量。企业以可持续增长率作为销售增长目标,有利于企业价值的持续增加;而将企业价值最大化作为财务管理目标又有利于企业的可持续增长,可持续增长率与财务管理目标密切相关。本文将以可持续增长率与财务管理目标的相关性作为研究起点,试图从财务管理目标的角度来进一步认识可持续长率。     

构建有价值的企业预算管理框架

企业实施预算管理不仅具有企业层面的价值,而且具有政府层面的价值.要发挥预算管理的作用,关键是构建有价值的预算管理框架.本文分别从企业预算目标的确立、预算管理信息系统的建立、现金流管理、内部控制制度以及综合性方面,提出了构建有价值的企业预算管理框架的思路.     

Non-coercive influence: Scale development and validation based on resource and relational paradigms

To overcome competition in an increasingly network dependent market, retailers are required to influence upstream channel partners while sustaining relationships. However, the contemporary supply chain literature has not sufficiently leveraged the resource and relational paradigms to examine influence. Grounded on resource dependency theory and commitment-trust theory paradigms, this study describes conceptualization and operationalization of a 12-item scale for measuring non-coercive influence on upstream channel partners in retail supply chain management (R-SCM) context. The study is based on responses from 547 retail professionals in India obtained over four successive surveys. Psychometric properties were assessed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The proposed scale demonstrates construct validity. Invariance-testing carried out over 4-levels of increasingly demanding equivalence confirmed cross-validation. Nomological validity of the scale was tested by evaluating association with suppliers’ intention to cooperate. The results indicate existence of three dimensions of non-coercive influence: collaborative intent, market intelligence dissemination, and operational support. Retailers can use the scale to assess their personnel's non-coercive influence behavior over suppliers.     

The raw material basis of global value chains: allocating environmental responsibility based on value generation

A new approach to allocate environmental responsibility, the ‘value added-based responsibility’ allocation, is presented in this article. This metric allocates total environmental pressures occurring along an international supply chain to the participating sectors and countries according to the share of value added they generate within that specific supply chain. We show that – due to their position in global value chains – certain sectors (e.g. services) and countries (e.g. Germany) receive significantly greater responsibility compared to other allocation approaches. This adds a new perspective to the discussions concerning a fair distribution of mitigation costs among nations, companies and consumers.     

A toolbox for garden governance

A substantial fraction of the open space in (peri-) urban and rural areas is covered by domestic gardens which support the delivery of multiple ecosystem services. Although individually they may look insignificant, the aggregation of domestic gardens and of gardening actions can be significant. Referring to ‘the tyranny of small decisions’, we launch the concept of a ‘resource by small gardening actions’: the positive cumulative outcome of individual garden owners adopting pro-environmental gardening practices. Using qualitative research, we gained a thorough insight into the barriers and levers related to the development of domestic gardens as a ‘resource by small gardening actions’. By combining the data from expert interviews with a design workshop addressing garden and landscape architects, and focus groups with private garden owners, we identified eight barriers and nine levers. These levers are part of a ‘mix and match’ toolbox, allowing the development of tailor-made strategies for garden governance. These insights increase the understanding on if and how private actors and their properties could become part of policy plans to support ecosystem services. This adds to the global understanding of the strategic value of daily-life landscapes that exist all over the world.     

基于组合评价法的混流生产系统运行绩效评价

在目前集装箱制造行业转型升级的背景下，以某集装箱制造公司的特箱生产系统为例，构建混流生产系统运行绩效的评价指标体系，运用组合评价法对运行绩效进行评价。借鉴平衡计分卡的分析思路，对特箱生产系统的生产管理给出了相关的决策建议。此研究成果对其他制造型混流生产系统具有实际的指导意义。