Automation of Warehouse Management and Assortment in the Distribution of Durable Goods: An Analysis for the Ceramics and Building Supplies Industry in Spain

The introduction of information and communication technologies can be a source of competitive advantages for the retailer, even if at significant cost. In the present work we try to identify the factors that characterize companies that invest in these technologies to automate warehouse management and, in particular, the relation between the degree of automation and the retail assortment. In order to achieve this aim, we consider a sample of distributors of ceramics and building supplies in Spain. The results suggest that warehouse management automation is related to the depth and breadth of the products carried in the retail assortment.     

Stabilization policies and stagflation: The cases of Brazil and Chile

This paper is a comparative study of the economic stabilization policies in Brazil 1964–1968 and Chile 1973–1978. The periods chosen correspond to the first phase of authoritarian regimes whose avowed aim was to re-establish economic equilibrium and ‘put order’ in society in general, after severe disruptions caused by populist or socialist experiences.The economic policies of these regimes have been characterized as a radical attempt to apply orthodox tools in the context of semi-industrialized economies. Conventional wisdom has it that Brazil was the precursor in the orthodox experiments and one imitated by southern-cone countries in Latin America in the 1970s. Our study reveals deep differences between the cases of Brazil and Chile.The study discusses initial conditions, macroeconomic results, the use of monetarist tools, deviations from orthodoxy, the connection between stabilization policies and the long-term development model, and the effects of the policies on income distribution.     

Tax Setting in a Federal System: The Case of Personal Income Taxation in Canada

In a decentralised tax system, the effects of tax policies enacted by one government are not confined to its own jurisdiction. First, if both the regional and the federal levels of government co-occupy the same fields of taxation, tax rate increases by one layer of government will reduce taxes collected by the other. Second, if the tax base is mobile, tax rate increases by one regional government will raise the amount of taxes collected by other regional governments. These sources of fiscal interdependence are called in the literature vertical and horizontal tax externalities, respectively. Third, as Smart (1998) shows, if equalisation transfers are present, an increase in the standard equalisation tax rate provides incentives to raise taxes to the receiving provinces. A way to check the empirical relevance of these hypotheses is to test for the existence of interactions between the regional tax rate, on the one hand, and the federal tax rate, the tax rate set by competing regions, and the standard equalisation tax rate, on the other hand. Following this approach, this paper estimates provincial tax setting functions with data on Canadian personal income taxation for the period 1982–1996. We find a significant positive response of provincial tax rates to changes in the federal income tax rate, the tax rates of competing provinces, and the standard equalisation rate (only for receiving provinces). We also find that the reaction to horizontal competition is stronger in the provinces that do not receive equalisation transfers.     

An Operative Framework for Total Hicksian Income Measurement: Application to a Multiple-Use Forest

A methodology for estimating total hicksian income in multiple-use forests is presented. The approach consistently incorporates commercial as well as non-commercial economic values and enables the measurement of national accounting aggregates taking into account variation in man-made and natural capital. Innovative solutions are developed (i) for the estimation of non-market values, such as recreation, where an attempt to determine exchange values has been made simulating markets, (ii) for timber, where standing timber valuation methods have been extended to cover uneven stands, and (iii) for carbon fixation valuation, where only permanently fixed carbon after 1990 has been taken into account. The methodology is applied to a multiple-use pinewood in the Guadarrama mountains, near Madrid (Spain). Timber, cattle grazing, hunting, recreation, carbon fixation and conservation values are measured and integrated in the accounting system, using primary microeconomic data from the case study. Results indicate the importance of non-commercial income, which accounts for 51% of the total income, and the social relevance of the analysed forest, implying that only 31% of the total income generated is appropriated by the forest owner.     

Bribe-proof rules in the division problem

The division problem consists of allocating an amount of a perfectly divisible good among a group of n agents with single-peaked preferences. A rule maps preference profiles into n shares of the amount to be allocated. A rule is bribe-proof if no group of agents can compensate one of its subgroups to misrepresent their preferences and, after an appropriate redistribution of their shares, each obtains a weakly preferred share and all agents in the misrepresenting subgroup obtain a strictly preferred share. We characterize all bribe-proof rules as the class of Pareto efficient, strategy-proof, and weakly replacement monotonic rules. This class is larger than the set of sequential allotment rules identified in Barberà et al. [Barberà, S., Jackson, M., Neme, A., 1997. Strategy-proof allotment rules. Games Econ. Behav. 18, 1–21].     

Effect of information quality due accounting regulatory changes: Applied case to Mexican real sector

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether changes in accounting standards improve value relevance of financial information on listed companies in Mexico. The research was conducted for the period 2000–2013 using a sample of 141 companies that report to the Mexican stock exchange using the methodology of panel data. Our findings show that changes in local regulations (generally accepted accounting principles) to internationally approved standards (Financial Reporting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards) increase the value relevance and therefore the quality of information. The study shows that the accounting information with international Financial Reporting Standards is more trustworthy for foreign and national investors.     

Maximal Domain of Preferences in the Division Problem

The division problem consists of allocating an amount of a perfectly divisible good among a group of n agents. Sprumont (1991) showed that if agents have single-peaked preferences over their shares, then the uniform allocation rule is the unique strategy-proof, efficient, and anonymous rule. We identify the maximal set of preferences, containing the set of single-peaked preferences, under which there exists at least one rule satisfying the properties of strategy-proofness, efficiency, and strong symmetry. In addition, we show that our characterization implies a slightly weaker version of Ching and Serizawa's (1998) result. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D71, D78, D63.     

Bridging the Gap between Partial and Total Factor Productivity Measures Using Directional Distance Functions

Technical dependencies as well as data constraints limit our ability to allocate inputs across sectors and hence our ability to measure sectoral productivity. We adapt a directional measure of efficiency to the measurement of sector-specific productivity that does not require allocating all inputs across sectors. Applied to the agricultural sector of a group of countries, the results show important differences in livestock and crops productivity growth. Commonly used partial factor productivity measures for livestock and crops tend to overestimate productivity growth in most developing countries while underestimating it in European countries.