Seasonal labor constraints and intra-household dynamics in the female fields of southern Cameroon

African agricultural production is modeled as a sequential decision process, with men's labor first allotted to clearing, then women's labor allotted to harvesting. A switching regression is then used to measure the constraints due to clearing labor capacity and harvesting labor capacity. The import of men's clearing labor depends on the valuation of shadow wages. Output appears to be more frequently constrained by husband's clearing labor, and in this situation male labor appears under‐utilized. However, output is also significantly constrained by female harvest labor, although the findings imply that female labor is over‐utilized at this stage.     

Ambiguous professionalism: managing efficiency and service quality in an Israeli call centre

This case study examines the management of frontline employees in an Israeli call centre by focusing on the organisational rhetoric of 'professionalism' and the implementation of integrative human resource practices (debriefing, covert call monitoring, information and technology software, and a monthly bonus). This culture is critically explored as a ceremonial facade that covers the conventional quantity/quality tension.     

Female consumers: Decision-making in brand-driven retail

This article is a theory-building exploratory study conducted to investigate how female shoppers make meaning in a branded-retail store shopping experience. This study extends research on retail consumers' decision-making and the retail shopping experience using hermeneutic phenomenology. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with respondents, who were self-identified customers of a leading intimate apparel retailer. The results suggest that consumers' retail shopping decision-making incorporates a complex set of interactive components that are brand-driven and simultaneously affect and are affected by the interaction of in-store shopping and retail setting. The findings show a rich understanding of the consumer decision-making process is achievable by including the actual in-store experience, consumers' prior contextual experiences and expectations regarding retail visits.     

AN ONLINE PORTFOLIO SELECTION ALGORITHM WITH REGRET LOGARITHMIC IN PRICE VARIATION

We present a novel efficient algorithm for portfolio selection which theoretically attains two desirable properties:

相似文献   

Aggregation of binary evaluations

We study a general aggregation problem in which a society has to determine its position (yes/no) on each of several issues, based on the positions of the members of the society on those issues. There is a prescribed set of feasible evaluations, i.e., permissible combinations of positions on the issues. This framework for the theory of aggregation was introduced by Wilson and further developed by Rubinstein and Fishburn. Among other things, it admits the modeling of preference aggregation (where the issues are pairwise comparisons and feasibility reflects rationality), and of judgment aggregation (where the issues are propositions and feasibility reflects logical consistency). We characterize those sets of feasible evaluations for which the natural analogue of Arrow's impossibility theorem holds true in this framework.     

Aggregation of binary evaluations with abstentions

A general model of aggregation of binary evaluations over interrelated issues, introduced by Wilson and further studied by Rubinstein and Fishburn and by the authors, is extended here to allow for abstentions on some of the issues. It is shown that the same structural conditions on the set of feasible evaluations that lead to dictatorship in the model without abstentions, lead to oligarchy in the presence of abstentions. Arrow's impossibility theorem for social welfare functions, Gibbard's oligarchy theorem for quasi-transitive social decision functions, as well as some apparently new theorems on preference aggregation, are obtained as corollaries.     

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN A KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY: A NEW FRAME-OF-ANALYSIS

The debate on software intellectual property rights (IPRs) has not only highlighted fundamental issues regarding the scheme of protection that software enjoys, it has also pointed out major gaps in the representation of computer programs as economic goods. In this respect, various interpretations of software propose a limited outlook by referring only to particular aspects of computer programs.

The paper discusses the economic nature of software and computational processes and how they should be properly represented as commodities by focusing on software IPR legislation in the US. It elaborates the similarities and differences between software applications and machines on the basis of historical evidence from the evolution of information technologies and computer science. Further, we discuss whether computer programs should enjoy IPR protection (like their physical equivalents) and which legal regime would induce the maximal degree of societal benefits, while satisfying private and public interests.

The paper also elaborates the essential issues of the distinction between ideas and expressions and the ways they are treated as intellectual property. It highlights major aspects in the debate over protection of software applications by both patents and copyrights and analyses the economic impact of the joint regime.

By highlighting the dissimilarities in the economic nature and market behaviour of ideas and expressions we point out the difficulties in drawing parallels between software and physical equivalents. Finally, we provide alternative ways to establish coherent juridical basis and legal policy of software IPRs that aim at stimulating innovation and developing the technological landscape in information technologies.