Adjustment Costs,Inventories and Output

This paper analyzes the optimal adjustment strategy of an inventory‐holding firm facing price‐ and quantity‐adjustment costs in an inflationary environment. The model nests both the original menu‐cost model that allows production to be costlessly adjusted, and the later model that includes price‐ and quantity‐adjustment costs, but rules out inventory holdings. It is shown that the firm's optimal adjustment strategy may involve stockouts. At low inflation rates, output is inversely related to the inflation rate, and the length of time demand is satisfied increases with the demand elasticity but decreases with the storage cost and the real interest rate.     

Employers' Unfair Advantage in the United States of America: Symposium on the Human Rights Watch Report on the State of Worker's Freedom of Association in the United States, continued

Articles featured in the symposium:
Author's reply to Wheeler–Getman–Brody papers by Lance Compa, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
The Wagner Act Model: A Toxic System beyond Repair by Roy J. Adams De Groote, School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Choosing an Interpretation of the Right to Freedom of Association by Sheldon Leader, Department of Law and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Essex     

Tariff (De‐) Escalation with Successive Oligopoly

This paper explores the issue of a simultaneous reduction in tariffs at different stages of a vertically related market where each stage is oligopolistic. When vertically related markets are characterized as a successive oligopoly, reducing tariffs by an equivalent amount on upstream and downstream imports will have a differential effect on market access and hence profits at each stage as a result of a combination of horizontal and vertical effects. These differential effects have implications for the tariff structure post‐trade reform.     

Symmetric and asymmetric committees

This paper studies the assignment of decision makers to two committees that make decisions by a simple majority rule. There is an even number of decision makers at each of the various skill levels and each committee has an odd number of members. Surprisingly, even with the symmetric assumptions in the spirit of Condorcet, a symmetric composition of committees is not always optimal. In other words, decision makers with different skill levels should not generally be evenly divided among the committees. However, in the special case of only two skill levels, it is optimal to compose the committees evenly.     

Markov Aging Process and Phase-Type Law of Mortality

Abstract

In this article, we propose a finite-state Markov process with one absorbing state to model human mortality. A health index called physiological age is introduced and modeled by the Markov process. Under this model the time of death follows a phase-type distribution. The model possesses many desirable analytical properties useful for mortality analysis. Closed-form expressions are available for many quantities of interest including the conditional survival probabilities of the time of death and the actuarial present values of the whole life insurance and annuity. The heterogeneity or frailty effect of a cohort can be expressed explicitly. The model is also able to explain some stylized facts of observed mortality data. We fit the model to some Swedish population cohort data and life tables compiled by the U.S. Social Security Administration. The fitting results are very satisfactory.     

Accounting standards, disclosure requirements and foreign company listings on stock exchanges

Some have claimed that there would be more foreign companies listed on American stock exchanges if foreign companies could use International Financial Reporting Standards （IFRS） instead of American generally accepted accounting principles （GAAP） and could be exempted from some of the disclosure requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission and of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In spite of these requirements, as of December 31, 2007, there are approximately 421 non-U.S, companies valued at $11.4 trillion listed on the New York Stock Exchange （NYSE）. Of these 421 companies, 41 companies are from China. This study examines the reasons for Chinese companies choosing to list on the New York Stock Exchange and their experiences with incremental disclosure and listing requirements on the Shanghai, Hong Kong, London, and New York stock exchanges. The lesson for foreign companies everywhere should be that foreign companies should search for those cross listings adding value and not be searching for countries and stock exchanges with weak disclosure and listing requirements.     

THE WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF NITROGEN LIMITATION POLICIES

The effects of nitrogen limitation policies on the UK fertiliser market are considered. Using a simulation model which incorporates some structural aspects of the UK fertiliser industry, the extent and distribution of the welfare effects of nitrogen tax and quota policies are estimated. The results show that, while farmers lose from both policies, the main fertiliser manufacturers may gain in the short run from a quota policy, while profits would be reduced with a nitrogen tax policy.