Cooperative membership and farmers’ choice of marketing channels – Evidence from apple farmers in Shaanxi and Shandong Provinces,China

Cooperatives are established to improve farmers' production conditions, to increase their bargaining power and to enable them to benefit from modern value chains. In China, farmers are members of a cooperative for multiple reasons. Little is known on whether and how cooperative membership affects farmers’ choice of marketing channels. This paper examines determinants of farmers’ choice of marketing channels, especially how cooperative membership impacts upon this choice. Our analysis is based on survey data collected in 2015 among 625 apple growing farm households in the provinces Shaanxi and Shandong. We employ endogenous switching probit models to deal with potential endogeneity of membership in estimating the determinants of marketing channel choices. We find that cooperative membership has a positive impact on selling to wholesalers and a negative impact on selling to small dealers, but no significant impact on selling to the cooperative itself. As products sold through cooperatives generally comply with relatively stringent food quality and safety standards, these results imply that policies promoting cooperative members to sell their products through cooperatives are likely to have a significant impact on food quality and food safety in China.     

结合新型模糊支持向量机和证据理论的多传感器水质数据融合

在多传感器水质数据融合领域，证据理论是有效的数据融合方法之一，但基本概率分配一般不易确定，从而使数据融合能力难以有效发挥。支持向量机是统计学习理论之上的高级分类算法，具有普适性和全局优化等特点，但输出的基本概率分配有待进一步提高。提出了一种基于证据理论和新型模糊支持向量机相结合的数据融合方法，通过建立基于分类超平面距离的模糊隶属度，训练模糊支持向量机提高传统支持向量机的基本概率分配，并结合证据理论进行海河水质数据融合。通过证据理论分别结合支持向量机和模糊综合评价法与上述方法进行对比实验，经精度、平均绝对百分误差、均方根误差等指标验证，精度提高10.5%，表明所提方法是一种可靠的多传感器的水质融合方法，较其他方法具有更高的融合精度。     

Granting preferential market access in services sequentially versus jointly with goods

Despite the cost and resource‐effectiveness of joint trade negotiations and complementarities between goods and services‐trade flows, more than 12% of the 132 WTO‐notified services‐trade agreements (STAs) in force until August 2015 were entered into effect sequentially to goods‐trade accords. This stylised fact motivates our study of the determinants of joint versus sequential negotiation/accession of goods and services accords, a subject hitherto unexplored in the growing literature on the determinants of STA membership. Our results suggest larger marginal effects of fundamental economic, geographic, institutional, doing business and services regulatory factors on the propensity of joint negotiation/accession compared to STA formation alone. Moreover, cultural‐distance variables are only found to affect the likelihood of joint preferential liberalisation of goods and services trade, without influencing STA‐only membership.     

Risk Preferences and Gender Differences in Union Membership in Late Nineteenth-Century Swedish Manufacturing

Women are generally seen as less inclined to join trade unions. This study matches firm–worker data from the Swedish cigar and printing industries around 1900 and examines information on men and women holding the same jobs; such data are rare but important for understanding gender gaps. The results explain the gender gap in union membership among compositors, but not among cigar workers. Differences in union membership varied considerably across firms, with the largest differences found in low-union-density cigar firms where indirect costs (that is, uncertainty and risk) accrued in particular to women workers. The lack of gender differences in mutual aid membership indicates that women were not hard to organize but avoided organizations associated with greater risk for employer retaliation and uncertain returns according to a cost–benefit analysis.     

上市公司内部审计独立性的现状分析

独立性是内部审计的灵魂,是决定内部审计职能能否得到充分发挥和内部审计目标能否实现的关键因素。目前,我国上市公司内部审计部门主要隶属于董事会、审计委员会和总经理,并且隶属于审计委员会已经成为主流态势,独立性较高。内部审计独立性因上市公司的财务状况、控制人性质、所处行业、所在地区不同呈现出较为明显的差异。     

A membership pricing policy to facilitate service scale-expansion

This paper proposes a multi-year membership pricing policy for a service business like a gym chain. In the pricing policy, the equivalent membership price per year is relatively low to attract customers, and the multi-year membership fees must be prepaid in full. The prepaid cash provides resources for scale-expansion by opening new stores. We develop a nonlinear mixed integer programming model to formulate the pricing decisions. Numerical experiments reveal that the multi-year membership pricing policy, from a long-term perspective, is substantially better than the business-as-usual pricing policy (1-year membership) in cash balance, profit, and market share. Yet, the performances of the two pricing policies do not differ much from a short-term perspective. These findings indicate that the multi-year pricing policy may be a good strategy, because it initially attracts less attention of competitors; suddenly it emerges and substantially outperforms its competitors in cash balance, profit, and market share.     

Religion,social capital and business bankruptcy in the United States, 1921–1932

We consider the value of social capital that derives from membership in a church. American states with larger churchgoing populations had lower business bankruptcy rates from 1921 to 1932, and states in which the churchgoing population was concentrated in few churches had business bankruptcy rates that were lower still. Both voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy were lower in states with higher church membership. The evidence suggests that church membership acted on bankruptcy through a safety net mechanism and not solely through indicating a preference for honouring commitment.     

Assessing Different Spatial Grouping Algorithms: An Application to the Design of Australia's New Statistical Geography

Abstract

Algorithms have been used to assist in the design of statistical geographies which define areal groupings for which official data are collected. Typically the groupings based on different parameter values or different algorithms are not formally compared, but summary statistics based on each solution can be constructed, some of which are based on fuzzy set principles. These principles can also be used to make incremental adjustments to solutions, based on different criteria. In this paper, we adopt the above methodology to compare the new statistical geography for New South Wales developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics with that generated by an amended version of the Coombes algorithm.

RÉSUMÉ On a utilisé des algorithmes pour faciliter la conception de géographies statistiques définissant des groupements par zone pour lesquels des données officielles sont recueillies. En général, on ne compare pas officiellement les groupements basés sur différentes valeurs paramétriques ou différents algorithmes, mais il est possible de créer des statistiques sommaires sur la base de chaque solution, certaines desquelles sont fondées sur des ensembles de principes flous. Ces principes peuvent également être utilisés pour effectuer des modifications progressives sur des solutions, sur la base de différents critères. Dans la présente communication, nous adoptons la méthodologie susmentionnée pour comparer la nouvelle géographie statistique pour la province des Nouvelles Galles du Sud, créée par l'Australian Bureau of Statistics, avec celle qui a été produite par une version modifiée de l'algorithme de Coombes.

EXTRACTO Se han utilizado algoritmos para ayudar en el diseño de geografías estadísticas que definan los agrupamientos de áreas para los que se recopilan datos oficiales. Típicamente, los agrupamientos basados en valores de parámetros diferentes o algoritmos diferentes no se comparan formalmente, pero pueden construirse estadísticas resumidas basadas en cada solución, algunas de las cuales se basan en principios establecidos difusos. Estos principios también pueden emplearse para hacer ajustes incrementales a soluciones, basados en diferentes criterios. En este estudio, adoptamos la metodología anterior para comparar la nueva geografía estadística aplicable a Nueva Gales del Sur, desarrollada por la Australian Bureau of Statistics, con la generada por una versión modificada del algoritmo de Coombes.

摘要 : 在统计地理学设计中人们引入一些算法来定义采集官方数据的不同区域

分组 。通 常情况下 ' 基于不同参数或者算法的分组方式之间不会进行正式比较 ' 但是我们可以基于每种方法构建统计概要 ' 其中有一些使用了模糊集合理论 。这些理论也可用来根据不同准则对方案进行增量调整 。本文中 ' 我们使用上述方法比较了澳大利亚统计局为新南威尔士州建立的新统计地理学和采用修订的Coombes算法 得到的统计地理学 。     

Evaluating change in European industrial relations: research evidence on trends at organizational level

This paper uses evidence from organizations with more than 200 employees in several countries across Europe to explore the proposition that industrial relations in Europe is becoming more convergent around a non-union HRM model. The evidence indicates that, although there are some similar moves taking place, national patterns remain distinctive, the IR/HRM distinction may not be sustainable in Europe and there are significant elements of continuity in industrial relations in Europe alongside the changes that are taking place.     

我国刑罚模糊裁量的弊病与对策研究

我国刑罚模糊裁量方法(即传统的综合估量的量刑方法)导致我国刑事审判长期存在着"重定罪轻量刑、重经验判断轻理性决策、重定性分析轻定量分析"的弱点,导致相同案件因法官不同而量刑轻重悬殊的形式上"合法而不合理"以及在量刑的过程中法官的自由裁量权过大的现象,从而引发量刑擅断、司法腐败。在刑罚模糊裁量引入模糊集合中隶属度函数的方法,可结合具体案件,把模糊的量刑情节和法定刑幅度数值化,从而为法官断案提供一个可资借鉴的相对客观的量刑参考,减少由于个人因素对断案带来的偏差。