Brand versus generic advertising and the decision to advertise collectively

This study uses Lancaster's (1966, 1979) characteristics model of consumer theory, combined with imperfect information, to support a firm's advertising choice of a combination of brand and generic advertising. However, as consumers become well educated about a firm's product, spillovers from generic advertising become large. When spillovers are large, firms have a greater incentive to collude on generic advertising. The firm's decision to include advertising collectively with its competitors will follow from its own analysis of the benefits versus the costs of such a union. The success of collective advertising may, however, depend on the control of free-riders.     

Economic performance, cost economies and pricing behaviour in the US and Australian meat products industries

The cost and demand structures of meat products industries in the US and Australia from 1970 to 1991 are examined. Scale economies, technical change and trade impacts and output pricing behaviour are evaluated, using short- and long-run input cost and input and output demand elasticities. The greatest technological impacts stem from large-scale economies, which are similar across countries. Unit cost savings from output expansion involve capital investment and materials saving in the long run, although input-specific patterns vary by country. Import competition appears to motivate capital expansion further. Finally, large mark-ups of price over marginal cost are found, which are consistent with low profits as a result of the underlying scale economies.     

Soft and Hard Models of Human Resource Management: A Reappraisal

Two of the most widely adopted models of human resource management are the hard and soft versions. These are based on opposing views of human nature and managerial control strategies. The hard model is based on notions of tight strategic control, and an economic model of man according to Theory X, while the soft model is based on control through commitment and Theory Y. We argue that because these assumptions are so divergent, they cannot both properly be incorporated within a single model of human resource management. Eight in-depth case-studies were carried out, involving questionnaires, interviews and focus groups in order to find out whether organizations were practising either form of HRM. We found that no pure examples of either form existed. The paper concludes that the rhetoric adopted by the companies frequently embraces the tenets of the soft, commitment model, while the reality experienced by employees is more concerned with strategic control, similar to the hard model. This distinction between rhetoric and reality needs to be taken into account in conceptualizations of human resource management.     

Corporate greening through prosocial extrarole behaviours – a conceptual framework for employee motivation

Scholars in environmental management have called for better grounding of research on corporate greening within established organizational theories. We propose a conceptual framework (including suggestions for operationalizing it) that embeds empirical research within behavioural intent models and the concept of value‐creating prosocial behaviours. We argue that conceiving of corporate greening as a prosocial behaviour in this manner provides an improved understanding of the dominant factors that motivate employees to engage in ecoinitiatives. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

欧洲空间局的测控系统

本文介绍了欧洲空间局（ＥＳＡ）目前广泛使用的航天测控系统，描述了两种系统：Ｍｅｔｅｏｓａｔ测距系统（ＭＲＳ）和多用途跟踪系统（ＭＰＴＳ）。ＭＲＳ现在正用于Ｍｅｔｅｏｓａｔ，其设计满足其它任务与多点测距共享一个信道的要求。结果设计出一种以相位分层数据格式为基础的新颖的编码测距技术且得到了发展。ＭＰＴＳ（原深跟踪系统－ＤＳＴＳ）首先因Ｇｉｏｔｔｏ任务而研制并推广使用。在稍后阶段中，该系统增加了近地跟踪     

Some observations on MMT: what’s right,not right,and what’s too simplistic

Business Economics - Three observations on modern monetary theory (MMT): (1) What’s right is not new—Consolidating public finance, whether it’s held on a balance sheet of the Fed...     

HMO Participation in Medicare+Choice

In recent years, many health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have exited Medicare+Choice (M+C), the program that provides a managed‐care option to Medicare. This paper answers the following questions: How does the equilibrium number of HMOs participating in county M+C markets vary with the capitation payment they are offered? How large a payment is required at the margin to ensure that various percentages of county markets have a M+C HMO, or to ensure that various percentages of Medicare beneficiaries have the choice of a M+C plan in their county of residence? The strategy for identifying the effect of government payment on HMO participation relies on a natural experiment; in 1997, Congress divorced M+C payments to HMOs from changes in underlying costs. The results in this paper suggest that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has consistently underestimated the payment necessary to support HMOs in rural, sparsely populated areas. We also find that it would require a large incremental payment to support HMOs in M+C for the final 10% of counties or final 10% of Medicare beneficiaries.     

Monetary union in West Africa: who might gain,who might lose,and why?

Abstract.  We develop a model in which governments' financing needs exceed the socially optimal level because public resources are diverted to serve the narrow interests of the group in power. From a social welfare perspective, this results in undue pressure on the central bank to extract seigniorage. Monetary policy also suffers from an expansive bias, owing to the authorities' inability to precommit to price stability. Such a conjecture about the fiscal‐monetary policy mix appears quite relevant in Africa, with deep implications for the incentives of fiscally heterogeneous countries to form a currency union. We calibrate the model to data for West Africa and use it to assess proposed ECOWAS monetary unions. Fiscal heterogeneity indeed appears critical in shaping regional currency blocs that would be mutually beneficial for all their members. In particular, Nigeria's membership in the configurations currently envisaged would not be in the interests of other ECOWAS countries unless it were accompanied by effective containment on Nigeria's financing needs. JEL classification: E58, E61, E62, F33     

Nutrition research policy : US progress in the past decade

Human nutrition research is receiving a great deal of attention from the media, consumers and the US government. This article focuses on policy problems facing the government in the development and implementation of the federal human nutrition research programme: establishment of priorities, organization and funding. The background leading up to the present situation is developed, and the political bodies and federal agencies participating in the debate are described. The authors identify the policy issues, and discuss progress towards their resolution.