Cognitive Ability and the Stock Reallocations of Retirees during the Great Recession

Retirees are increasingly responsible for managing their retirement savings. The ability to manage these assets efficiently can have an important impact on retirement well‐being. Lower levels of cognitive ability in old age can reduce an investor's ability to control emotional responses to a loss. Greater sensitivity to loss may increase preferences for safety following a market decline, resulting in allocations away from stocks that are associated with long‐term underperformance. We investigate whether cognitive ability is related to stock reallocations among retirees during the Great Recession. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we find that cognitive ability is negatively related to allocations away from stock. Compared to those with the lowest levels of cognitive ability, respondents with higher cognitive ability are 40% less likely to reduce their stock allocation by 50% or more. These results suggest that the quality of investment decisions in old age may be compromised by cognitive decline.     

Adequacy of International Codes of Behavior

International codes of corporate behavior have been proposed, discussed, negotiated, and promulgated by governments, transnational corporations, and inter-corporate associations over the past few decades. It is not clear that they have been resoundingly as successful in changing corporate behavior – particularly as to corruption and environmental protection – as have national government requirements imposed on foreign enterprises and their own officials. This article arrays the many attempts to structure cooperative action to re-order corporate behavior on several dimensions – restrictive business practices, labor conditions, human rights, environmental production, and corruption. It then assesses the extent to which behavior has been changed and what techniques are more effective in making corporate behavior more ethical.     

Using Bids,Arguments and Preferences in Sensitive Multi-unit Assignments: A p-Equitable Process and a Course Allocation Case Study

Bonus distribution in enterprises or course allocation at universities are examples of sensitive multi-unit assignment problems, where a set of resources is to be allocated among a set of agents having multi-unit demands. Automatic processes exist, based on quantitative information, for example bids or preference ranking, or even on lotteries. In sensitive cases, however, decisions are taken by persons also using qualitative information. At present, no multi-unit assignment system supports both quantitative and qualitative information. In this paper, we propose MUAP-LIS, an interactive process for multi-assignment problems where, in addition to bids and preferences, agents can give arguments to motivate their choices. Bids are used to automatically make pre-assignments, qualitative arguments and preferences help decision makers break ties in a founded way. A group decision support system, based on Logical Information Systems, allows decision makers to handle bids, arguments and preferences in a unified interface. We say that a process is p-equitable for a property p if all agents satisfying p are treated equally. We formally demonstrate that MUAP-LIS is p-equitable for a number of properties on bids, arguments and preferences. It is also Pareto-efficient and Gale–Shapley-stable with respect to bids. A successful course allocation case study is reported. It spans over two university years. The decision makers were confident about the process and the resulting assignment. Furthermore, the students, even the ones who did not get all their wishes, found the process to be equitable.     

Fair,Efficient and Envy-Free Bargaining: An Experimental Test of the Brams-Taylor Adjusted Winner Mechanism

The Adjusted Winner mechanism for two-player bargaining has been theoretically shown to produce “fair” (efficient and envy-free) outcomes (Brams and Taylor 1996). We study this claim experimentally in a bilateral bargaining game of incomplete information for two divisible goods using three information conditions. Results indicate that the Adjusted Winner mechanism can be quite effective in achieving both efficient, equitable and envy-free outcomes in an experimental setting but results vary greatly depending on the knowledge that each party has of the preferences of their bargaining partner. Under conditions of common knowledge, when players have competing preferences, their bilateral decisions converge toward efficient outcomes, yet only one-third can be classified as “envy-free.” In an environment where there is more uncertainty about preferences, pronounced strategic bidding emerges yet the result is twice as many envy-fee outcomes with increased levels of efficiency. Despite the fact that players dramatically misrepresent their true valuation for objects when ordinal preferences are commonly known to be complementary, both efficiency and envy-freeness approach maximum levels.     

The economics of enforcement: The case of OSHA

A model of enforcement is developed that determines the impacts of OSHA actions on regulated parties. This model analyzes the effect of decision procedures developed by OSHA to enforce the law and their effect on resource allocation within the firm. It is concluded that the impacts from both the initial inspection and reinspection programs on the resource allocations of firms have likely been insignificantly different from zero. If OSHA is to increase the allocation of injury control resources of firms through its enforcement program, it must increase the costs of noncompliance that it imposes on firms.     

Aggregating Incomplete Individual Ratings in Group Resource Allocation Decisions

This paper addresses a decision to be made by a group of evaluators as to how to allocate a pool of monetary resources to a set of candidates. The group decision is an aggregation of the individual allocation recommendations by the evaluators. Evaluators may also be candidates to receive allocations and not allowed to vote a recommendation for themselves. Further, evaluators can elect to exclude some candidates from their evaluations because they do not believe they are qualified to judge some candidates. Two models are presented for aggregation of individual evaluations using the mean and median, respectively, as the basis for the group consensus. In circumstances where some evaluators do not recommend allocations for all candidates, the calculation of the mean recommendations requires the solution of a system of linear equations and the calculation of the median recommendations requires an iterative search algorithm. Conditions for existence of a group consensus allocation for each model are described and the strengths and weaknesses of each model are explored. The models can be applied to a variety of different group decisions, including rating of candidates for a job or allocating a budget.     

The Head, The Heart, and Business Virtues

In Section I, I criticize the view, implied by the concept of rational economic man, that feelings are inherently opposed to rationality. I attempt to show that emotions or feelings are essential to the proper functioning of reason, rational objectivity, and practical rationality or rational decision making. In addition, I argue that emotions can help to resolve certain ethical dilemmas. In Section II, I consider business writers who criticize business for overemphasizing the head at the expense of feelings or the heart. In Section III, I discuss the connection between material self-interest (as manifested in trade) – a concept of rational economic man – and business virtues.     

Control mechanisms across a buyer–supplier relationship quality matrix

This study develops a buyer–supplier RQ matrix and explores changes in the use of selected control mechanisms, including coercive power, non-coercive power, contracts, and relational norms, across this matrix. The results indicate, under four distinct contexts of RQ, that coercive power execution is relatively low and has no significant differences in different quadrants of the matrix; that contract execution is relatively high and likewise has no significant differences; and that execution of non-coercive power and relational norms increases as the level of RQ improves. These findings reveal the important roles of contracts, the limited roles of coercive power, and the changing roles of non-coercive power and relational norms, as displayed in four distinct contexts of RQ. They make new contributions to the buyer–supplier relationship management literature and provide insightful theoretical guidance for buyer–supplier relationship managerial practice.     

Negotiation Support for Multi-Party Resource Allocation: Developing Recommendation for Decreasing Transportation-Related Air Pollution in Budapest

Decisions about how to allocate scarce resources among potential programs are common sources of conflict in both public and private life. This paper describes a case in which negotiation support was provided for a five-member task force trying to reach agreement about how to allocate limited resources among programs designed to improve the air quality in Budapest, Hungary. The intervention consisted of a series of facilitated decision conferences, plus individual interviews. The task force eventually reached agreement about a recommended package of 15 air quality management programs costing 1,500 million Hungarian forints. The research makes four significant contributions. First, it demonstrated that resource allocation models provide a useful framework for understanding and facilitating multi-party negotiation processes. Second, because resource allocation models were elicited individually for each group member before building a single group model, it was possible to analyze the five-dimensional feasible settlement space (i.e., the joint distribution of benefits for each task member for all possible resource allocation packages). Third, several innovative applications of analytical techniques (i.e., Pareto-efficiency analyses, numerical and graphical analyses of feasible settlement spaces and efficient frontiers, and analyses of task force members' investment progressions) served to improve understanding of disagreements within the group and to evaluate the quality of potential resource allocation packages. Fourth, changes in individual preferences and group agreement were assessed over time. Group members appeared to change substantially and their level of agreement to increase markedly over time.     

Maximin Envy-Free Division of Indivisible Items

Assume that two players have strict rankings over an even number of indivisible items. We propose two algorithms to find balanced allocations of these items that are maximin—maximize the minimum rank of the items that the players receive—and are envy-free and Pareto-optimal, if such allocations exist. To determine whether an envy-free allocation exists, we introduce a simple condition on preference profiles; in fact, our condition guarantees the existence of a maximin, envy-free, and Pareto-optimal allocation. Although not strategy-proof, our algorithms would be difficult to manipulate unless a player has complete information about its opponent’s ranking. We assess the applicability of the algorithms to real-world problems, such as allocating marital property in a divorce or assigning people to committees or projects.     

The obsolescing bargain model and oil: the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company 1933–1951

We employ archival evidence to investigate events culminating in the nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) in 1951, which followed disagreements over profit allocations arising from a previously negotiated concession. The case study expands the traditional obsolescing bargain model (OBM) by accommodating the use and impact of accounting information in negotiation contexts. The analysis reveals that managerial control and the deployment of accounting information by the AIOC temporarily strengthened its bargaining power vis-à-vis the Iranian government leading up to the nationalisation crisis, demonstrating the potential importance of these new dimensions in wider contexts.     

The Inefficiency of First and Second Price Auctions in Dynamic Stochastic Environments

First and second price auctions are optimal mechanisms for resource allocation in many situations and are used widely. However, unlike the static once-and-for-all situations for which auctions are efficient, in dynamic stochastic environments these standard auctions cannot necessarily support optimal allocations. The potential inefficiency of auctions is demonstrated by example. A computer server is modeled as a non-interruptible M/M/1 system, with heterogeneous users. The optimal allocation of jobs is derived, and it is shown that this allocation cannot be supported as either a first-price or a second-price auction equilibrium.     

The role of channel quality in customer equity management

Maximization of customer equity is a core objective of customer–company relationship management. We present an extended model of customer equity for determining the optimal allocation of marketing resources across acquisition and retention activities. Focusing on the negative relationship between acquisition and retention, we motivate channel quality as a relevant decision variable, explicate its role in the model, and demonstrate the existence of an optimal value. In addition, rather than making concavity assumptions about acquisition and retention rate response curves, we use the flexible ADBUDG model (Little, JDC, Models and Managers: the Concept of a Decision Calculus. Manag Sci 1970; 16(8): 466–484.), which allows for both S-shaped and strictly-concave relationships, and parameterize it using decision calculus. We show how to estimate and apply the model and then provide sensitivity analyses with respect to changes in the true values of model parameters as well as inaccuracy in managerial inputs. We conclude by comparing our model with extant models and discussing the implications of our research.     

Resource Allocation through Negotiation and Compromise: A Database Approach

In this paper, a resource allocation system is modeled with relational database technology. To allocate resources through a negotiation-based system, two steps of pre-allocation and negotiated allocation have been modeled with a join procedure for two relations. These relations represent the requirements for experiential nursing practice and the availability of such experience at hospitals, respectively.The first step was implemented through a new join operation called -Distance Join. After the first step, some nursing departments and some hospitals have fully satisfied requirements or fully utilized availability. Other nursing department and hospitals have partial or no satisfaction of requirements or availability, respectively.The second step was implemented through a custom-designed implementation of a user-interface that provides coordinated negotiation among the nodes involved in the system. With the customized interface and join operation, an off-the-shelf or packaged database management system is used. Through this interface, nursing departments and hospitals negotiate until potentially all demands and availability are totally satisfied. This negotiation takes place without face-to-face meetings but with complete knowledge of the entire situation by all parties. This provides the potential for complete fulfillment of nursing experience requirements and total utilization of hospital experience availability.     

论温室气体排放配额的初始分配

温室气体排放配额初始分配的方式有无偿分配和有偿分配两类。无偿分配按照分配方法又分为基于祖父法则的分配和基于基准法则的分配。有偿分配主要有政府定价和拍卖两种。在当前各国的立法实践中,温室气体排放配额分配主要采取无偿分配方式。温室气体排放配额分配应当坚持效率原则、公平原则和环境效益原则,未来排放配额的分配应当采取有偿方式。     

Allocation of Windfall Income: A Case Study of a Retroactive Pay Increase to University Employees

Household allocation of windfall income has been a controversial topic since Friedman proposed the permanent income hypothesis. Release of retroactive pay checks to a group of university employees provided the opportunity for further investigation of this issue. Responses to a mail survey of these employees suggested that funds were evenly distributed among current expenses, outstanding debts, financial investments, and new expenditures. Reclassification of allocations as either consumption or savings indicated that somewhat over one-third of allocations were to consumption and slightly less than two-thirds were to savings. Discriminant analyses demonstrated that size of windfall was the most important discriminator with respect to type of allocation. The data have implications for policy regarding notification concerning a windfall distribution. It appears that quality of decision making may be improved by insuring that recipients are provided with some advance notice of an impending windfall.     

Redefining Business Success: Distinguishing Between Closure and Failure

New firms are believed to have high closure rates and these closures are believed to be failures, but two U.S. Census Bureau data sources illustrate that these assumptions may not be justified. The Business Information Tracking Series (BITS) showed that about half of new employer firms survive beyond four years and the Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) showed that about a third of closed businesses were successful at closure. The CBO also made it possible to compare results of models of business survival and business success, but because of non-response bias logit models were used. Similar to previous studies, firms having more resources – that were larger, with better financing and having employees – were found to have better chances of survival. Factors that were characteristic of closure – such as having no start-up capital and having a relatively young owner – were also common in businesses considered successful at closure. Hence, few defining factors can be isolated leading to true failures. The significant proportion of businesses that closed while successful calls into question the use of "business closure" as a meaningful measure of business outcome. It appears that many owners may have executed a planned exit strategy, closed a business without excess debt, sold a viable business, or retired from the work force. It is also worth noting that such inborn factors as race and gender played negligible roles in determining survivability and success at closure.     

Vice and Virtue in Everyday (Business) Life

This paper describes how a family of ethical concepts can be taught through focusing on how values play out at the most basic level – in the sphere of everyday business interactions. If our goal is to create an "ethical business culture," it makes sense to attend to our treatment of one another in the simplest, and most frequently occurring of duties. The paper examines the kinds of daily interactions common to many business settings – attending meetings, sharing information, taking phone calls, utilizing common resources – and demonstrates how these practices set up encounters in which lived moral values can make a difference in the quality of life, morale, and company productivity.     

Uncertainty,Power, and Organizational Decision Making: A Constructive Replication and Some Extensions

This study examines the effect of uncertainty on the use of power and various decision criteria in resource-allocation decision making. Using a methodology similar to that of Pfeffer et al (1976), the study explores how power affected decisions in the allocation of research funds in four major scientific fields. Consistent with our hypothesis and that of Pfeffer et al, it was found that as uncertainty increases, power differences (using measures similar to those of Pfeffer et al) become more important in influencing decision making outcomes. The moderating effects of scarce and visible resource-allocation decisions were also examined. The data suggests that scarce and highly visible allocations tend to be influenced more by measures indicating power differences, with a concomitant increase in the influence of objective decision criteria. Lastly, the power of a sub-unit was also measured and its effect on resource allocation examined. Sub-unit power was found to be more critical in influencing decision making when uncertainty was high. Résumé Cette étude examine les effets de l'incertitude sur l'usage du pouvoir et les critères de décisions en matière d'allocation des ressources. Cette étude, qui utilise une méthodologie semblable à celle de Pfeffer et al (1976), explore comment le pouvoir influence la prise de décision relative à l'allocation de fonds de recherche dans quatre domaines scientifiques importants. En concordance avec notre hypothèse, ainsi que celle de Pfeffer et al, l'étude indique qu'à mesure qu'augmente l'incertitude, les différences de pouvoir (les méthodes étant semblables à celles de Pfeffer et al) influencent davantage la prise de décision. Les effets modérateurs de décisions relatives à l'allocation de ressources rares mais visibles ont également été examinées. Les données suggèrent que des allocations rares mais très visibles sont davantage influencées par des facteurs indiquant les différences de pouvoir accompagnées d'une augmentation correspondante des critères décisionnels objectifs. En dernier lieu, le pouvoir des sous-unités a également été mesuré et les effets sur l'allocation des ressources ont été examinés. Selon les résultats de l'étude, l'influence du pouvoir sur la sous-unité se fait plus forte lorsque le niveau d'incertitude est plus élevé.