Defined benefit versus defined contribution pension plans: How are the interests of employees and the public best served?

Prior to the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 the rate of formation of defined benefit retirement plans exceeded the rate of formation of defined contribution retirement plans. Following its enactment the trend has been reversed. This article reviews the development of public policy with respect to privately sponsored retirement benefits, takes note of the legislatively mandated regulatory distinctions between defined benefit and defined contribution plans, outlines the distinctions between the plans from the perspective of plan sponsors versus plan participants, and questions the appropriateness of the movement away from defined benefit plans in terms of public policy objectives regarding retirement income security.     

A quantitative approach to stakeholder interests

In an age when the role, behaviour and performance of the firm are under greater scrutiny than ever before, it is important to pursue quantitative empirical research in the area of social auditing. Using data relating to one particular company, the various inputs and outputs attributable to the firm's different stakeholders, (shareholders, employees, consumers and the community) are examined and corresponding rates of return calculated. Considerable methodological and data problems arise and consequently the results need careful interpretation.     

运用模糊综合决策进行供应商选择

供应链中供应商是否适合企业对到核心企业生产的好坏、成本的高低和产品质量的优劣影响很大。利用模糊综合决策给出了选择供应商的一种简单易行的办法,并举例说明了该方法的可行性与准确性。     

AR公司供应链环境下供应商关系管理改进研究

供应链环镜下的企业竞争行为发生了巨大变化,供应商关系管理的理念、目标和方式方法也都随之发生了重大变化,企业应该在对采购物资进行分类的基础上选择相适应的供应商和确定供应商关系战略,通过供应商绩效评价和激励,达到控制供应风险和调控企业外部资源的目的.     

拆分招标的供应商数量研究

许多企业在采购时,常常将整笔业务拆分为两个合同:较大的第一合同和较小的第二合同,通过分批二级价格封闭式招标来选择不同的供应商供货。本文通过建立分批招标模型分析了供应商的投标策略和买方的采购策略,得出了当参加第一合同竞标的供应商数目和第二合同新引入的供应商数目满足一个不等式时,拆分招标的采购成本小于整体招标的采购成本,并且指出了拆分比例对拆分招标的采购成本的影响。     

政策性破产下的地方利益驱动

2002年11月河南省焦作煤业(集团)破产重组的某公司由于资源枯竭而正式启动政策性破产程序,2003年9月破产程序终结.在破产清算期间,为了生产自救公司一直进行煤炭开采.2003年1月,由于矿井地质条件复杂,安全设施历史欠账太多,该公司发生了瓦斯突出的重大安全事故,造成19人死亡.事故为何会发生,明显与井下地质条件和安全设施有着密切关系,但是为何已实行政策性关闭破产的矿井应关未关?如果矿井关闭,就不会有这样的事故发生了.     

我国水资源利用及水环境污染控制对策

面对水污染日益严重的形势,结合工作实践,提出了解决水环境问题的对策,加强水资源的规划管理,对我国的水资源管理问题提出了自己的看法。     

Promoting from within: the best way to build management

One of the best ways to build knowledgeable, quality management is to promote from within the ranks of your organization. Allowing employees to work their way up the pyramid of promotion will give them the necessary knowledge to run your Call Center effectively and successfully.     

A proactive approach to supply chain risk management: Shifting orders among suppliers to mitigate the supply side risks

Globalization, e-trade, advanced technologies and emerging production techniques have increased supply chains’ efficiency and added value. However, despite numerous advantages, these factors make supply chains more fragile and vulnerable to risks. For this reason, companies that perform supply chain risk management gain competitive advantage. In the past, supply chain managers mainly focused on reducing costs; but recently, they have begun to give importance to supply chain continuity and resiliency which have significant impacts on costs as well. Hence, conventional reactive planning has given way to proactive planning in supply chain risk management. In this study, the supply chain risk management process is investigated and a procedure is proposed in the risk mitigation phase. In the first stage of the proposed procedure, an initial procurement plan is obtained via a linear programming model, considering the cost criterion as the first priority. In the second stage, this plan is revised by including the risk criterion into the planning as the second priority. The aim of this procedure that enables proactive planning is to reduce the supply side risks. The model is tested with a hypothetical data set and the cost analysis is performed to evaluate the performance of the procedure. Finally, the whole supply chain risk management process including the proposed procedure is applied to an international automotive company.     

利用标准化手段克服贸易技术壁垒迎接“入世”挑战

中国加入世界贸易组织 (WTO)指日可待,如何应对入世后面临的挑战是人们正在广泛讨论的问题。本文主要从技术壁垒角度进行分析。技术壁垒是当前国际贸易中最难克服的壁垒,也是我国出口产品遇到的最主要的障碍。因此,这个问题也正是我国加入 WTO后的难点所在。 1新贸易保护主义和非关税壁垒 1． 1新贸易保护主义产生的背景 　　二战后,各国都保持很高的关税壁垒,客观上阻碍了各国的经济发展和全球性的经济技术交往。 1945年,以美国为首的 17个国家在美国建议的基础上进行关税谈判。 1947年签订了 123项双边减让关税协议,即《关税及…     

A MCGP decision aid for homebuyers to make the best choice

This study adopts a new approach, the multi-choice goal programming (MCGP), to evaluate houses in order to help homebuyers to find better house based on the residential preferences. According to the function of MCGP, homebuyers can set multiple housing goals with multiple aspiration levels. This increases the flexibility to find a suitable house. Compared with other classical methods such as checklist and analytic hierarchy process, MCGP is more efficient, especially while considering a lot of housing criteria and house alternatives. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of MCGP decision aid for housing selection, a real case study is then provided. Furthermore, ten volunteers are invited to participate in the empirical experiment. The results also validate the effectiveness and efficiency of MCGP decision aid.     

公共景观与公众利益——关于“公园地产”的规划控制和引导

针对当前"公园地产"开发的无序、失控和超强度,从公共景现和公众利益入手探讨规范和控制公园地产开发的必要性,从影响因素、空问模式和视线分析等方面分析公园地产对公园景观环境的影响,从控制性详细规划的角度提出对公园地产进行规划设计控制和引导.     

What is the best way to impede a central bank?

Recent work has found several ways of restricting central bank behavior to achieve much of the gain of commitment over discretion. This paper compares three such impediments: A quadratic penalty on interest rate changes, a fixed penalty on any rate change, and forced infrequency of rate change. All three achieve significant improvement over discretion, and often come close to interest rate rule commitment. The fixed penalty is frequently the best performing restriction, although the quadratic penalty does best in certain alternative parameterizations. Combinations are found to provide no improvement over the individual impediments alone.