Priority rules for check processing in multiple branch banking: An experimental analysis

The check-processing activity represents a major function in a commercial bank. If checks are quickly processed through the bank, then funds will be transferred to appropriate accounts and the bank will experience minimum float. This paper discusses the use of priority rules to maximize the dollar value of checks processed each day. A series of experiments are developed to test a set of priority rules (heuristics) under different operating conditions of check processing capacity, transit dollar levels, and branch characteristics. The results indicate that significant differences in performance are present for different rules. Also, the usefulness of some rules are dependent upon the commercial bank's operating characteristics, which has important implications for operating managers.     

Second-best policies for congestion externalities

This is the third in a series of three articles on the topic of congestion externalities. We use an urban general-equilibrium model to test the efficiency of several second-best policies for congestion externalities. The most efficient second-best policy is a program of land-use controls; the program generates a welfare gain of $3.38 per household per week. A unit tax on commuting is a less efficient policy, with a welfare gain of $1.15.     

On stable rules for selecting committees

A voting rule is said to be stable if it always elects a fixed-size subset of candidates such that there is no outside candidate who is majority preferred to any candidate in this set whenever such a set exists. Such a set is called a Weak Condorcet Committee (WCC). Four stable rules have been proposed in the literature. In this paper, we propose two new stable rules. Since nothing is known about the properties of the stable rules, we evaluate all the identified stable rules on the basis of some appealing properties of voting rules. We show that they all satisfy the Pareto criterion and they are not monotonic. More, we show that every stable rule fails the reinforcement requirement.     

Maximin choice of voting rules for committees

In the context of a probabilistic voting model with dichotomous choice, we investigate the consequences of choosing among voting rules according to the maximin criterion. A voting rule is the minimum number of voters who vote favorably on a change from the status quo required for it to be adopted. We characterize the voting rules that satisfy the maximin criterion as a function of the distribution of voters’ probabilities to favor change from the status quo. We prove that there are at most two maximin voting rules, at least one is Pareto efficient and is often different to the simple majority rule. If a committee is formed only by “conservative voters” (i.e. voters who are more likely to prefer the status quo to change) then the maximin criterion recommends voting rules that require no more voters supporting change than the simple majority rule. If there are only “radical voters”, then this criterion recommends voting rules that require no less than half of the total number of votes.Received: June 2003, Accepted: September 2004, JEL Classification: D71Salvador Barberá, Carmen Beviá, Mirko Cardinale, Wioletta Dziuda, Joan Esteban, Mahmut Erdem, Bernard Grofman, Matthew Jackson, Kai Konrad, Raul Lopez, Jordi Massó, Hugh Mullan, Shmuel Nitzan, Ana Pires do Prado, Elisabeth Schulte, Arnold Urken and two anonymous referees provided helpful comments. Finally, I also acknowledge financial support from Capes, Brazilian Ministry of Education and Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (Project BEC2002-02130).     

Optimal stopping rules for multinomial observations

Many times sampling from a known or an unknown population results in observations that are integers and there is a payoff which depends on the observations. Thus, the experimenter is tempted to continue sampling in the hope of increasing his payoff. On the other hand, usually each observation costs a fixed amount and thus the experimenter also is reluctant to continue sampling because each additional sample increases the total sampling cost. The problem is to determine a place to stop making observations such that thenet payoff is a maximum. This paper considers stopping rules which will maximize the net payoff to the experimenter when the observations come from a multinomial population.     

Empirical Bayes analysis of log-linear models for a generalized finite stationary Markov chain

This article presents the empirical Bayes method for estimation of the transition probabilities of a generalized finite stationary Markov chain whose ith state is a multi-way contingency table. We use a log-linear model to describe the relationship between factors in each state. The prior knowledge about the main effects and interactions will be described by a conjugate prior. Following the Bayesian paradigm, the Bayes and empirical Bayes estimators relative to various loss functions are obtained. These procedures are illustrated by a real example. Finally, asymptotic normality of the empirical Bayes estimators are established.     

Retirement policies for the 21st century

As we rapidly approach the 21st century, current human resource management policies emphasizing early retirement may prove shortsighted. Changing demographics and projected labor shortages in certain critical occupations may require a reversal of present early retirement policies. This article reports the views of a national sample of 897 executives on work and retirement. We report their reactions to pressures for early retirement, their responses to proposed incentives to delay retirmeent, and finally, their planned post retirement activities. Their responses have important implications for revising human resource policies in the years ahead.     

Inventory policies for humanitarian aid during hurricanes

In this work we present a stochastic programming model minimizing costs, to support the decision process of inventory policy which best satisfies the demand for food in shelters when hurricane winds are about to impact a town. In this model we consider perishable products as well as the first in first out (FIFO) system for their consumption. In order to make the model closer to reality ordering cost is time-varying and we add a penalty cost in case the shortage exceeds a known limit for two days in a row. Finally the cost to dispose of expired food is greater than the purchase cost of the product since throwing away food has ethical implications. Starting from a stochastic programming model, we present a procedure to transform it to a deterministic mixed integer programming model (MIP) with non-convex objective function over its entire domain, which closely states the situation in reality. Preliminary computational results and discussion are presented.     

促销多打文化牌

英特尔是知名度很高的公司,但是该公司在推销新产品时,并不仅仅靠名气,相反,十分注重文化促销。比如他们推出10M/100M桥接器时,采用通俗易懂的话剧来进行产品的推广。该话剧借用白雪公主与六个小矮人的故事,白雪公主有一颗     

政府审计职责法律制度的实证分析

本文在透视我国审计立法对政府审计职责制度安排的基础上,通过对我国政府审计职责制度运行效果的剖析,揭示了我国现行政府审计职责制度设计存在的缺陷,从有利于更好发挥政府审计职责作用的角度,对完善我国政府审计职责法律制度作了一些理性思考。     

Decision rules for the choice of structural equations

In practical econometric analysis we are faced with the problem of how to specify structural equations. The conventional t-test of coefficients is apparently inappropriate. The smallest root, say λ, of a certain determinantal equation provides us with basis for the test of overidentifying restrictions. The preliminary test, based on λ, may give us a possible decision rule for choosing a structural equation from nested alternatives. However, ambiguity remains in specifying the significance level. We propose a decision method called the unbiased decision rule; unbiased in the sense that we attain a correct decision with probability of more than a half. The critical points are found as the medians of non-central F-distributions. The degrees of freedom and the non-centrality parameter of non-central F-distributions are determined by the properties of contending models. We also discuss the implications of the unbiased decision rule in the context of the conventional pre-test.     

The impact of citizens' groups on urban policies: towards a contextual analysis

Book reviewed in this article: Castells, M., Cherki, E., Godard, F. and Mehl, D. 1978: Crise du logement et mouvements sociaux urbains; enquěte sur la région parisienne. Godbout, J. and Collin, J.-P. 1977: Les organismes populaires en milieu urbain: contre-pouvoir ou nouvelle pratique professionnelle? Abu Lughod, J. and Hay, J. R. 1977: Third world urbanization. Costello, V. G. 1977: Urbanization in the Middle East. Aubin, H. 1977: City for sale.     

Bank lending rules for managing sovereign risk

A simple domestic lending rule is one that ensures that the loan rate exceeds the bank's cost of capital and the borrower's expected cashflows exceed the terminal value of the loan. Because a sovereign loan is not collateralized and lacks recourse, the domestic lending rule is not adequate for making sovereign lending decisions. Three modifications are suggested. First, the sovereign borrower's time preference for consumption needs to be considered. Second, the domestic borrower's decision to default voluntarily is made after observing the value of the collateral whereas the sovereign borrower's decision is made after observing earnings. In this paper, the sovereign borrower upgrades expectations in a Bayesian manner. Although no lending rule will completely prevent a default, the probability of default can be managed leading to a third modification.     

电信客户信用评价实证分析

文章主要立足于客户长期价值提升的思想,基于定性和定量结合的层次分析法建立电信企业的客户信用评价指标体系,重点分析了个人用户的信用评价指标体系的建立过程,最后给出了数据实证分析。     

Retirement policies: Evidence of the need for change

Although flexible retirement is widely advocated in the professional literature, a recent survey indicates little movement toward flexibility at the operating level. Human resource managers perceive limited top management support for flexibility. Educational and research efforts are needed to improve retirement policies and more effectively utilize an aging work force.     

An evaluation of overtime policies for a repair shop

This article presents the first attempt to develop and examine overtime policies for a repair shop environment. Overtime is used to augment repair capacity as needed to offset short-term demand fluctuations. If overtime provides sufficient additional repair capacity, it may be possible to reduce investment in spare parts inventory.The use of overtime in a repair shop requires managerial attention to several issues. In this article, the following five issues are examined: The relationship between overtime policies and spares stocking levels The timing of overtime—reactive or proactive The amount of overtime to use The level in the product structure at which overtime is most beneficial The priority scheduling and labor assignment policies usedSix overtime policies are developed that explore the above issues. These are examined using a simulation model of a hypothetical repair shop. Since the focus of the article is on overtime policies, a single labor assignment policy is used in conjunction with two priority scheduling rules.The results indicate that reactive overtime policies work well in this environment and overtime is most effective at the lowest level of the product structure, where repair times are relatively shorter. In addition, lowest level parts provide more usage flexibility to handle anticipated future failures.     

A simulation-based methodology for optimization of ambulance service policies

A simulation-based methodology for the evaluation of the emergency ambulance system in the Vancouver, Canada, metropolitan area has been created. Outputs from the simulation of the system are utilized in the creation of the objective function of a branch and bound optimization procedure. The solutions are thus obtained at a significantly lower cost than if only simulation were used. The final solutions were verified by simulation runs.