Price Discrimination by Coupons Restriction

In this paper we show how the use of a restricted number of coupons in the presence of different types of customers is an effective means of implementing a price discriminating policy. Hence, firm profits can be increased even when traditional price discrimination is forbidden.     

Stock market bubble effects on mergers and acquisitions

We investigate if and how mergers and acquisitions are affected by trends in the capital market, and particularly by a stock market bubble. Our main findings indicate that while the prevalence of M&A increased during the technology bubble, the pricing of M&A did not change. Moreover, the bursting of the bubble seems to have led to further cautiousness by investors, which extended throughout the years subsequent to the bursting of the bubble, even when prices on the exchange had rebounded. While we do not find robust evidence for changes in price multiples outside the exchange in concomitance with the changes on the exchange, we document changes in the information used by investors to value their targets. It seems that investors experienced a learning process in terms of the type of variables preferred, appearing to be more cautious since the bubble burst. This learning process investors undergo in concomitance to processes in the market seems to result in their being less affected by periodical or cyclical sentiments of euphoria and depression in the capital market.     

Withdrawal behavior and withholding efforts at work (WBWEW): Assessing the financial cost

In the continuing effort to confront the loss of profitability to industry as a result of withdrawal behavior and withholding efforts at work, this article presents an advanced and improved formula for estimating both the direct and indirect costs to a company resulting from this errant behavior. The emphasis is on a quantitative approach that incorporates the added value of forgone revenue rather than merely the cost of payments to the absentees as in earlier quantifications.     

Mobility or mobilities: Terrestrial, virtual and aerial categories or entities?

This article attempts to assess the three leading categories of mobility: terrestrial, virtual and aerial, in order to see whether they constitute categories of a single entity of mobility, or alternatively, they constitute three distinct entities of mobility. This exercise is of significance because of the tendency to refer to ‘mobility’ in a rather general sense. Coping with this question, we will, first, put it within a review of relevant concepts and structures. Then, we will elaborate on the distinct features of each of the three mobility categories through their comparison, highlighting mainly differences among them. This will be followed by a presentation of a somehow opposite perspective through the examination of convergences among the three categories of mobility. These two discussions will lead us to view mobility as one single entity consisting of three categories, since all the three categories are IT-based and IT-dependent, and given that they all share a similar model of mobility cycles for both moving people and mobility systems. Using this approach we will compare terrestrial public and personal mobilities, as well as aerial and virtual mobilities, followed by a discussion on implications of a single general mobility model.     

AN OLD-NEW CONCEPT OF CONVEX RISK MEASURES: THE OPTIMIZED CERTAINTY EQUIVALENT

The optimized certainty equivalent (OCE) is a decision theoretic criterion based on a utility function, that was first introduced by the authors in 1986. This paper re-examines this fundamental concept, studies and extends its main properties, and puts it in perspective to recent concepts of risk measures. We show that the negative of the OCE naturally provides a wide family of risk measures that fits the axiomatic formalism of convex risk measures. Duality theory is used to reveal the link between the OCE and the φ-divergence functional (a generalization of relative entropy), and allows for deriving various variational formulas for risk measures. Within this interpretation of the OCE, we prove that several risk measures recently analyzed and proposed in the literature (e.g., conditional value of risk, bounded shortfall risk) can be derived as special cases of the OCE by using particular utility functions. We further study the relations between the OCE and other certainty equivalents, providing general conditions under which these can be viewed as coherent/convex risk measures. Throughout the paper several examples illustrate the flexibility and adequacy of the OCE for building risk measures.     

Characteristics and Trends in the Israeli Service Economy

Long-term and short-term characteristics of the Israeli service economy are described and analysed. The percentages of service employment in Israel are similar to current ones in developed countries, but a variety of factors make the Israeli case unique. The roots of the Israeli service economy lie in the 1920s when the British established a civil service, while the Jewish population developed the Histadrut, the Jewish Agency, party and municipal services. Meanwhile, the geographical separation between the capital city (Jerusalem), and the largest city (Tel A viv), which became a primate city, encouraged the evolution of services. The constant and very large import of capital, the supply of service-oriented immigrants and the demand for improved health and education services are additional factors. The politicisation of services and bureaucratic activism have a strong impact from a political viewpoint. Altogether, the Israeli service economy has been uniquely structured in an immigration society driven by political rather than economic forces. During the last decade pressures for change have surfaced, due to the development of modern agriculture, manufacturing and domestic consumption. These have increased the finances, insurance and real estate sector, and decreased the dominance of Tel Aviv. The current economic crisis in Israel is interpreted as a crisis of the services.