Equally Weighted Strategic Allocation and Balanced Funds in Brazil

This article analyzes equally weighted strategic asset allocation portfolios in Brazil between 2004 and 2016 and shows that their average returns are not always statistically greater than those of balanced funds, with significance changing in sub-periods. Fixed-income portfolios frequently outperform balanced funds, whose active management underperforms their declared benchmark portfolios. Balanced funds underperformed probably because they deviated from their investment policy. Transaction costs and other rebalancing frequencies do not change the conclusions. Robustness tests indicate that this evidence is valid out-of-the-sample. Investors can mimic balanced-fund policy and possibly do better by means of indexing according to this policy.     

Using the Pack‐and‐a‐Half Rule to Eliminate Backroom Inventories in Retail Operations

In the retail industry, backroom inventories are typically associated with higher labor costs and greater operational complexity. Thus, retailers look for ways to eliminate backroom inventories. A heuristic used for this purpose is the pack‐and‐a‐half rule which suggests that the shelf space allocated for a product should be at least 50% larger than the case pack quantity in which the product is delivered. Despite its popularity among retailers, the pack‐and‐a‐half rule has been ignored in the academic literature. We introduce the pack‐and‐a‐half rule, assess its impact on a retailer's profits, identify cost, demand, and product characteristics driving this impact, and propose a modification. Based on an analysis of data obtained from a retailer on 1,986 SKUs in 20 categories, we find that the pack‐and‐a‐half rule decreases a retailer's profits, on average, by 10% when applied uniformly across all SKUs. Further, this decrease is significantly affected by product depth, product width, demand elasticity, case pack quantity, and inventory carrying cost. Finally, we develop a set of modifications based on these variables where the pack‐and‐a‐half rule is applied selectively and in a stepwise fashion. These modifications limit the decrease in a retailer's profits to a range between 6% and 7%.     

基于引力模型的省域创新产出空间联系研究

基于引力模型，结合社会网络分析法的凝聚子群分析，对31个省（区、市）的创新产出空间联系进行探究，研究发现：我国省域创新产出空间联系主要集中于京津冀和长三角一带，呈现出严重的分布不均状况，具有较强的区域集中性和空间依赖性；北京、天津、上海、浙江、江苏作为区域创新产出引力较强的节点省（区、市），对周边区域的创新产出具有较强的辐射作用；总体来看，省域创新产出空间联系并没有形成贯穿东西南北的交叉网状结构，中心省（区、市）数量较少且分布不均，辐射范围有限。基于此，提出加大区域创新投入、减少区域创新产出联系的政策性障碍、营造区域创新产出联系的良好环境等政策建议。     

The making of public investments: The role of champions,co-ordination,and characteristics of nutrition programmes in Mozambique

This study examines governance and institutional factors that influence how public resources are allocated for nutrition interventions in the context of a developing country—Mozambique—with very high rates of malnutrition. Based on qualitative empirical analysis building on a political economy framework, we explore the importance of two agent-centred and two investment-centred factors that determine how decisions on budget allocation to nutrition are made. The analysis finds that public decisionmakers strongly favour highly visible nutrition investments and those with a short duration between the time that spending is incurred and outcomes or outputs are achieved. Co-ordination has been quite successful among donors, and mainly of a spatial nature. Co-ordination is significantly weaker among government agencies, given the absence of fiscal tools of the co-ordinating agency, and its placement in a sector ministry rather than at a supra-sectoral level. Champions as change agents have had a truly influential role in attracting more funding to nutrition and improving its allocation. But their influence is also fleeting and difficult to sustain.     

视频业务识别方法综述

视频用户体验的质量要求给网络传输带来了巨大挑战，未来的虚拟现实/增强现实(Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality，VR/AR) 视频业务则对交互时延提出了更高要求。视频业务识别是网络运营商及视频业务提供商对视频进行优先网络资源分配和自适应速率控制的基本前提。综述了业务识别领域的一般研究方法及其对视频业务的具体应用。首先，总结了每种业务识别方法的工作原理，对比了这些方法应用于视频业务时的优缺点及在准确率和召回率指标上的识别性能;然后，特别介绍了可以提升识别准确率和计算性能的特征选择算法;最后，阐述并分析了高吞吐量网络分类速度不够、无成熟视频业务识别平台和样本分布不均衡等视频业务识别面临的挑战，并针对现有业务识别方法存在的问题，给出了引入移动边缘计算、基于端口的方法串联其他识别方法等可能的解决方案。     

Factor allocation,economic growth and unbalanced regional development in China

On the basis of development accounting techniques and a factor misallocation framework, we use panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2013 to assess how factor allocation affects economic growth and unbalanced regional development in China. In particular, we decompose economic growth into three parts, namely sector productivity (SP ), factor market efficiency (FME ) and factor endowment (FE ). We then conduct counterfactual analyses to investigate the short and long‐run roles of factor allocation in the income distribution across provinces. The results show that SP , FME and FE can explain 23%, 8.5% and 68.5% of economic growth, while labour, capital and energy reallocation account for aggregate productivity growth of about 47%, −4.8% and −0.1%. Furthermore, when the factors are efficiently allocated, transferring labour (capital, energy) from agriculture (service, industry) to the other sectors will increase the income per capita by 29.5% and 42.5% in the short and long term. Meanwhile, efficient factor allocation accounts for 32% and 29.7% of aggregate productivity and reduces the income variation across provinces by 25.5% and 23% in the short and long run, respectively.     

Supply chain capabilities for facilitating the internationalisation of retailers – a multiple case study of three Swedish retail companies

ABSTRACT

Market-oriented aspects of retail internationalisation have received a lot of research attention since the 1990s. However, beyond these aspects lies also supply-chain oriented capabilities that are necessary for retailers to successfully internationalise into foreign sales markets. By using a perspective based on resource-based theories, this paper explores supply-chain oriented capabilities that facilitate retail internationalisation. The research is based on a multiple case study of three Swedish retailers. Through the perspective of research based theories, specifically capabilities, the empirical data is studied in a single-case as well as a cross-case analysis. Findings reveal three supply chain-oriented capability categories (leadership capability, integration capability and learning capability) of importance for retail internationalisation. Resources necessary for the capabilities are to be found internally at the retailer, but also externally at other firms. This research adds to the market-oriented knowledge on retail internationalisation by adding a supply-chain oriented perspective. Further, it provides an understanding of the early phases of retail internationalisation.     

水权配置视角下新型农业节水机制和路径研究

加快实施最严格水资源管理制度的重要目标是形成以节水为目标的新的社会运行机制和社会治理模式。农民在农业灌溉中自发形成的用水组织是这一变革中的重要社会力量。通过对农民用水协会特征的分析,认为在"水权配置"的视角下,发展与规范农民用水组织,变原有农业用水过程中的行政管控为社会治理,是建立农业"节水型"社会并支持其良好运行的重要保障,并就如何健全农民用水组织的内部治理结构、克服农民用水组织自身的消极因素提出了建议。     

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) to finance new ventures

In an initial coin offering (ICO), new ventures raise capital by selling tokens to a crowd of investors. Often, this token is a cryptocurrency, a digital medium of value exchange based on the distributed ledger technology. Both the number of ICOs and the amount of capital raised have exploded since 2017. Despite attracting significant attention from ventures, investors, and policy makers, little is known about the dynamics of ICOs. This initial study therefore assesses the determinants of the amount raised in 423 ICOs. Drawing on signaling theory, the study explores the role of signaling ventures' technological capabilities in ICOs. The results show that technical white papers and high-quality source codes increase the amount raised, while patents are not associated with increased amounts of funding. Exploring further determinants of the amount raised, the results indicate that some of the underlying mechanisms in ICOs resemble those found in prior research into entrepreneurial finance, while others are unique to the ICO context. The study's implications are multifold and discussed in detail. Importantly, the results enable investors to more accurately understand crucial determinants of the amount raised (e.g., technical white papers, source code quality, token supply, Ethereum-standard). This reduces the considerable uncertainty that investors face when investing in ICOs and enables more informed decision-making.     

中国区域农业科技资源配置能力及比较优势研究*——基于省级农业科学院视角

[目的]通过测算各地区农业科技资源的配置能力,分析其比较优势并找出不足以便弥补差距,促进各区域农业科技配置能力的提高,为各地区农业经济的发展提供支持。省级农业科学院作为各省市规模最大、综合实力最强的农业科研机构,是农业科技创新的重要主体之一,分析其科技资源配置能力具有重要的现实意义。[方法]基于2009—2016年相关数据,遴选了有代表性的评价指标体系,运用突变级数法计算农业科技资源配置能力,运用NRCA模型定量分析农业科技资源配置效益的比较优势。[结果]山东农业科学院科技资源配置能力位居全国第一,甘肃、江苏、青海农业科学院分别在农业科技人力、物力、财力资源方面具有明显的比较优势。[结论]省级农业科学院科技资源配置能力区域差异十分明显,但区域格局变化不大,且大致与各地区经济实力相吻合;农业科技资源配置能力较高的农业科学院大多在农业科技物力资源配置效益方面具有比较优势,在农业科技人力、财力资源配置效益方面不具备比较优势。