Convergence of optimal harvesting policies to a normal forest

This paper extends the forestry maximum principle of Heaps (1984) to allow the benefits of harvesting to be the utility of the volume of the wood harvested as in Mitra and Wan, 1985, Mitra and Wan, 1986. Unlike those authors, however, time is treated as a continuous rather than as a discrete variable. Existence of an optimal harvesting policy is established. Then necessary conditions are derived for the extended model which are also sufficient. The conditions are used to show that under certain boundedness conditions, sequences of optimal harvesting policies contain subsequences which converge pointwise a.e. and in net present value to an optimal harvesting policy. This result is then used to show that any optimal logging policy must converge in harvesting age to a constant rotation period given by modified Faustmann formula. The associated age class distribution converges to a normal forest.     

Local complexities and global uncertainties: a study of foreign ownership and human resource management in China

Drawing on qualitative data, this paper examines developments in human resource and employment policies and practices among a sample of joint venture and wholly owned foreign enterprises operating in China. The research reveals that the effects of parent company nationality and ownership form were most visible in the areas of remuneration, worker representation and aspects of employee selection. There was, however, little overt involvement of multinational parent companies in the management of human resources of their Chinese operations. The trend was towards indirect reporting relationships with regional sub-units of multinational companies rather than direct links with the parent headquarters. Overall, these intermediate sub-units were playing an important role in the integration of Chinese business units in the global management systems of multinational companies.