Doctors on the move

We surveyed your colleagues to find out how they're responding to health-care turmoil. Our comprehensive findings show them selling, merging, relocating, or joining up.     

Collusive equilibria in oligopolies with finite lives

It is generally accepted that collusive agreements cannot be sustained in oligopolies with finite lives. In this paper it is shown that, provided the number of competitors is neither too small nor too large, the most restrictive output, i.e., the monopoly output, can be sustained as a perfect Nash equilibrium. If the number of firms is too small only sequences of the Nash equilibria of the constituent market game can appear as perfect Nash equilibria. If the number of firms is too large the power of the cartel falls sharply.     

“U-Taiwan计划”及其出台的原因分析

在"e-Taiwan计划"、"m-Taiwan计划"的基础上,台湾地区最近又出台了"u-Taiwan计划",3年内(从2008年起)将列支160亿新台币.该计划目的是希望将台湾地区在信息通信技术(ICT)领域的优势扩展到社会领域,建设优质的网络社会.本文较为详细地介绍了该计划出台的沿革、计划内容等,并分析计划出台的原因,以期了解台湾地区ICT下一步发展的动态.     

Antwerp, a city on the move

Afewyearsago,themunicipalorganizationofthecityofAntwerpwas,duetoitsdisastrousfinancialsituation,forcedtoreduceitsPersonnelandtoshrinkitsbudgets.Allnecessaryandpainfuloperationsresultedinalotofcommotionandunrest.Thecitymanagementfounditselfconfrontedwithanumberofexternalandinternalfactors.overtheyears,thedissatisfactionoftheAntwerpcitizenstowardstheaservice-performance"ofthemunicipalorganizationhadgrown.Ingeneral,thepublicliadanextremelynegativeimageofthemunicipalofficial.Moreover,theresultso…     

Collusive behavior in noncooperative epsilon-equilibria of oligopolies with long but finite lives

In a game of a finite number of repetitions of a Cournot-type model of an industry, if firms are satisfied to get close to (but not necessarily achieve) their optimal responses to other firms' sequential strategies, then in the resulting noncooperative “equilibria” of the sequential market game, (1) if the lifetime of the industry is large compared to the number of firms, there are equilibria corresponding to any given duration of the cartel, whereas (2) if the number of firms is large compared to the industry's lifetime, all equilibria will be close (in some sense) to the competitive equilibrium.     

Why does the velocity of money move pro‐cyclically?

The velocity of money usually rises in expansions and falls in recessions This paper explains this pro‐cyclical movement of velocity using two ideas: (i) during business cycles the movement of investment and consumption of durable goods has a larger amplitude than consumption of non‐durable goods and services; (ii) the velocity associated with expenditure on investment and durable goods is much higher than the velocity associated with consumption of non‐durable goods and services, because the former expenditures are synchronized with the attainment of money by economic agents whereas the latter are not. In this setting, the rise in the weight of expenditure in durable goods relative to the weight of non‐durable goods and services, which occurs during expansions, generates an increase in the average velocity of circulation. The opposite happens during recessions and thus velocity moves pro‐cyclically.     

The effect of career breaks on the working lives of women

In this paper we examine the effect of career breaks on the working lives of women using survey data from the state of Queensland in Australia. After estimating the income penalty faced by women with career interruptions – according to the duration of, and reasons for, the interruptions – we seek to address a wider set of issues regarding: patterns of job change and income gains or losses related to job change; determinants of career re-entry plans; and satisfaction with hours worked. As women increasingly combine motherhood and employment, they face both penalties and costs, particularly if they have taken a career break in order to care for their young. This general labor market failure that penalizes motherhood should be addressed by relevant measures related to their income, working hours, and the type and status of employment, particularly on their re-entry into employment after a child-related career break.