Specification and negotiation in incomplete contracts

We investigate contractors' bargaining power and holdup on buyers in procurement auctions of incomplete contracts held by California Department of Transportation. Using a model where contractors bid competitively in response to a buyer's choice of initial contract design, we infer the contractors' costs and bargaining power from the bids and transfers negotiated after the auction. We find that the contract winners have substantial bargaining power in post‐auction negotiation. The average holdup on the buyer is about 20% of project costs. Counterfactual cost‐plus contracts would reduce the buyer's surplus in 72% of the projects, with an average reduction over $382,000.     

Energy‐milk price transmission at the product brand level

This article estimates the pass‐through rates between diesel fuel and retail milk prices at the product brand level. Using a random coefficient logit demand model and taking the direct and indirect impacts of energy prices, this research identifies changes in pass‐through rates before and after the great recession in 2008. Empirical results show that diesel prices significantly impacted the retail prices of milk products and are an important determinant of food price inflation. Pass‐through rates are estimated to range from 0.16 to approximately 0.60 through 2008 with an average of 0.22 for the whole period. Statistical tests indicate that pass‐through rates before June 2008 were significantly higher than after June 2008 when they dropped significantly to 0.04 to 0.17. Interestingly, private label brands have the lowest pass‐through rates, implying that compared to manufacturer brands, private label prices are more insulated from diesel price shocks.     

A quantitative study of financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies: A three‐stage data envelopment analysis

This study set out to evaluate the financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies. Applying a three‐stage data envelopment analysis with the data from 85 listed companies in China's low‐carbon industries over the period 2011 to 2017, this study has found that the overall financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies was relatively high, and the pure technical efficiency was quite steady over the period. The overall financing efficiency of these low‐carbon companies on average tended to change with the scale efficiency. This study has also shown that the scale efficiency was the main constraint influencing the financing efficiency of low‐carbon companies in China over the period. Our results are robust and have significant implications for policy makers and corporate managers.     

Arrow–Debreu equilibria for rank‐dependent utilities with heterogeneous probability weighting

We study Arrow–Debreu equilibria for a one‐period‐two‐date pure exchange economy with rank‐dependent utility agents having heterogeneous probability weighting and outcome utility functions. In particular, we allow the economy to have a mix of expected utility agents and rank‐dependent utility ones, with nonconvex probability weighting functions. The standard approach for convex economy equilibria fails due to the incompatibility with second‐order stochastic dominance. The representative agent approach devised in Xia and Zhou (2016) does not work either due to the heterogeneity of the weighting functions. We overcome these difficulties by considering the comonotone allocations, on which the rank‐dependent utilities become concave. Accordingly, we introduce the notion of comonotone Pareto optima, and derive their characterizing conditions. With the aid of the auxiliary problem of price equilibria with transfers, we provide a sufficient condition in terms of the model primitives under which an Arrow–Debreu equilibrium exists, along with the explicit expression of the state‐price density in equilibrium. This new, general sufficient condition distinguishes the paper from previous related studies with homogeneous and/or convex probability weightings.     

Optimal insurance under rank‐dependent utility and incentive compatibility

Bernard, He, Yan, and Zhou (Mathematical Finance, 25(1), 154–186) studied an optimal insurance design problem where an individual's preference is of the rank‐dependent utility (RDU) type, and show that in general an optimal contract covers both large and small losses. However, their results suffer from the unrealistic assumption that the random loss has no atom, as well as a problem of moral hazard that provides incentives for the insured to falsely report the actual loss. This paper addresses these setbacks by removing the nonatomic assumption, and by exogenously imposing the “incentive compatibility” constraint that both indemnity function and insured's retention function are increasing with respect to the loss. We characterize the optimal solutions via calculus of variations, and then apply the result to obtain explicitly expressed contracts for problems with Yaari's dual criterion and general RDU. Finally, we use numerical examples to compare the results between ours and Bernard et al.     

绿色城市理论与实践探索

从20世纪七十年代开始,国际上开展了绿色城市广泛的实践活动。力图在中外实践的基础上构建起绿色城市理论的体系框架;明确绿色城市理论支撑、研究范畴与目标愿景,辨析绿色城市的定义内涵;构建绿色城市发展原则、发展目标与指标体系的全空间目标体系;提出完整的绿色城市的全要素技术体系;提出绿色城市规划建设管理与评估监督的全过程标准体系;覆盖不同地域、规模、类型、专业领域的绿色城市的全领域示范体系。     

浅析农村地区线损管理工作的完善和创新

文章在阐述农村电网线损分类的基础上,从电网建设、平衡三相负荷、经济运行、加强无功补偿等方面论述了提高线损管理水平的技术措施,并从强化计量管理、营业普查、反窃电等角度阐述了相应的对策措施。     

谈“创先争优”的结果与过程

先进和优秀是中国共产党人的特征和追求,其本质是创和争,核心点是争创的过程。结果只是节点,过程才是更重要;结果体现绩效,过程更彰显价值。创先争优的过程体现了组织者的号召力和人生境界,体现着组织文化。     

黑龙江省假冒学术期刊泛滥探析

黑龙江省是期刊大省,截止到2010年共有期刊314家,其中绝大多数是学术期刊。但近年来某些假冒学术期刊现象严重,侵犯了杂志社的知识产权,扰乱了出版秩序,败坏了学术风气,造成了恶劣影响,对于我们建设边疆文化大省、出版强省的目标破坏极大。所以有必要对此开展研究,寻求对策,以扼制这股歪风邪气。     

浅谈企业供应链管理及发展趋势

本文介绍了企业供应链管理的运作模式、研究领域、实质,分析了企业供应链管理的发展趋势,提出了政府在支持企业供应链管理上的政策导向.