Long waves in prices: new evidence from wavelet analysis

In this paper we apply wavelet analysis to study the dynamics of long-term movements in wholesale prices for the USA, the UK and France over the period 1791–2012. The application of wavelet analysis to long-term historical price series allows us to detect long waves in prices whose periodization is remarkably similar to those provided in the literature for the pre-World War II period. Moreover, we find evidence on the existence of long waves in prices also after World War II, a period in which long waves are generally difficult to detect because of the positive trend displayed by prices. The comparison between the long wave components extracted through wavelets and the Christiano–Fitzgerald band-pass filter suggests that wavelets provide a reliable and straightforward technique for analyzing long waves dynamics in time series exhibiting quite complex patterns such as historical data.     

Information technology impact on market orientation in e-business

This study presents how information technology (IT) contributes to market orientation (MO). The authors analyze the way companies deal with market intelligence to facilitate the identification of customer needs and to generate the appropriate response to such needs. Research methodology includes multiple case studies of retail companies with e-business operations (the three largest in Brazil). The findings indicate that investment in interorganizational systems strongly supports the development of MO capabilities. The article develops a framework to help companies in assessing how IT applications support their MO behaviors; as an academic contribution, the study presents two hypotheses for future studies.     

The generalized bin packing problem

In the Generalized Bin Packing Problem (GBPP), given two sets of compulsory and non-compulsory items characterized by volume and profit and a set of bins with given volume and cost, we want to select the subset of profitable non-compulsory items to be loaded together with the compulsory ones into the appropriate bins in order to minimize the total net cost. Lower and upper bounds to the GBPP are given. The results of extensive computational experiments show that the proposed procedures are efficient and the bounds are tight.     

International competitiveness,job creation and job destruction—An establishment-level study of German job flows

This study investigates the impact of international competitiveness on net employment, job creation, job destruction, and gross job flows for a representative sample of German establishments from 1993 to 2005. We find a statistically significant but economically small effect of real exchange rate shocks on employment, comparable to the one found in studies for the United States. However, contrary to the United States, the employment adjustment (among surviving firms) operates mainly through the job creation rather than the job destruction rate. Job destruction occurs essentially through discrete events such as restructuring, outsourcing and bankruptcy. We suggest that these findings are consistent with a highly regulated labor market, in which smooth adjustment is costly and possibly delayed.     

An optimization model for volunteer assignments in humanitarian organizations

One of the challenges facing humanitarian organizations is that there exist limited decision technologies that are tailored specifically to their needs. While employee workforce management models have been the topic of extensive research over the past decades, very little work has yet concentrated on the problem of managing volunteers for humanitarian organizations. This paper develops a multi-criteria optimization model to assist in the assignment of volunteers to tasks, based upon a series of principles from the field of volunteer management. In particular, it offers a new volunteer management approach for incorporating the decision maker's preferences and knowledge into the volunteer assignment process, thus allowing him or her to closely examine the tradeoffs between potentially conflicting objectives. Test results illustrate the model's ability to capture these tradeoffs and represent the imprecision inherent in the work of humanitarian organizations, and thus demonstrate its ability to support efficient and effective volunteer management.     

The Valuation of Insurance under Uncertainty: Does Information about Probability Matter?

In a laboratory experiment we test the hypothesis that consumers' valuation of insurance is sensitive to the amount of information available on the probability of a potential loss. In order to test this hypothesis we simulate a market in which we elicit individuals' willingness to pay to insure against a loss characterised either by known or else vague probabilities. We use two distinct treatments by providing subjects with different information over the vague probabilities of loss. In general we find that uncertainty about probabilities has a weak impact on consumers' valuation of insurance. However, additional information about probabilities tends to marginally increase the price individuals are willing to pay to insure themselves. Implications for the insurance market are derived.     

Measuring Value‐at‐Risk in Project Finance Transactions

Despite the remarkable importance of project finance in international financial markets, no quantitative models to measure and quantify the risk associated with a deal for the project's lenders have been developed yet. The topic has recently become crucial, since the New Basle Capital Accord gives banks a choice of whether to adopt simpler (but possibly higher) standard capital requirements or to develop internal rating models for project finance transactions. The paper proposes how Monte Carlo simulations may be used to derive a Value‐at‐Risk estimate for project finance deals and discusses the critical issues that must be considered when developing such a model.     

Der gegenwärtige Stand der reinen Theorie der Finanzwissenschaft in Italien

Ohne ZusammenfassungDie erste aus einer Serie von Prof. M. Fasiani's Abhandlungen über die reine Theorie der Finanzwissenschaft in Italien, die in den folgenden Nummern der Zeitschrift erscheinen werden. (Anm. d. Schriftleitung.) Die Arbeit wird fortgesetzt (Übersetzt von P. N. Rosenstein-Rodan, Wien)     

Der gegenwärtige Stand der reinen Theorie der Finanzwissenschaft in Italien. III (Schluß)

Ohne ZusammenfassungVgl. Heft 5, Bd. III und Heft 1, Bd. IV der Zeitschrift (Anm. d. Schriftleitung).Aus dem Italienischen übersetzt von Hans Fried, Wien.