FROM EXPERIENCE: Balancing the Product Development Process: Achieving Product and Cycle-Time Excellence in High-Technology Industries

Most companies' product development process (PDP) is inefficient and slow. Consequently, products are often late-to-market, over cost and not well-aligned with customer's needs. Because it involves all levels of the organization and crosses all functional boundaries, the PDP is very difficult to control. Unbalanced control is at the root of many of the symptoms of a troubled PDP. Michael T. Anthony and Jonathan McKay investigate the four primary unbalanced PDP behaviors exhibited by organizations and present four balancing mechanisms to correct these flaws. In their view, a balanced PDP contains a structured development methodology and project reviews at specific, high-impact points that involves top management appropriately while still allowing empowerment of the project teams.     

A random coefficient autoregressive Markov regime switching model for dynamic futures hedging

The random coefficient autoregressive Markov regime switching model (RCARRS) for estimating optimal hedge ratios, which generalizes the random coefficient autoregressive (RCAR) and Markov regime switching (MRS) models, is introduced. RCARRS, RCAR, MRS, BEKK‐GARCH, CC‐GARCH, and OLS are compared with the use of aluminum and lead futures data. RCARRS outperforms all models out‐of‐sample for lead and is second only to BEKK‐GARCH for aluminum in terms of variancereduction point estimates. White's data‐snooping reality check null hypothesis of no superiority is rejected for BEKK‐GARCH and RCARRS for aluminum, but not for lead. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:103–129, 2006     

An Exploration of the Conditional Timing Performance of UK Unit Trusts

Abstract:  We examine the conditional market timing performance of UK unit trusts between January 1988 and December 2002. We find no evidence of superior conditional market timing performance by UK unit trusts either across different portfolios of trusts or by individual trusts. We also find that benchmark investing is significant for UK unit trusts and trusts have high numerical risk aversion to deviations from the benchmark. Our findings suggest that UK trusts act like benchmark investors.     

Optimal Real Estate Portfolios

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid the problem of analyzing, evaluating and selecting real estate investments within the context of a portfolio. Most approaches simply attempt to adapt existing theory and models from the well-developed literature of securities investments. Most adaptations or extensions to real estate are not without serious problems, however, because of several fundamental difficulties relating to optimization technology inadequacies and a general lack of reliable and consistent market data.
This article deals with the major problems of utilizing some of the classic securities investment models for real estate. Further, a risk-return model is advanced which overcomes most of the fundamental problems outlined earlier in the article.     

Discount rate changes and the foreign exchange market

Changes in the discount rate can have associated announcement effects on the foreign exchange value of the dollar only if these changes are not anticipated by the market. This paper provides evidence to support this contention. Specifically, discount rate changes made for reasons other than technical adjustments have not been anticipated fully and, consequently, their announcements have had a significant impact on the dollar's exchange rate. Furthermore, results are obtained that support the hypothesis that unanticipated discount rate changes alter inflationary expectations.     

THE EFFECT OF MINIMUM WAGES ON UK AGRICULTURE

Since the abolition of the Wages Councils in September 1993, agriculture is the only sector in the UK economy covered by any form of minimum wage legislation. However, the recent denunciation of an ILO convention covering minimum wages in agriculture has paved the way for the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Boards. This paper investigates the impact of the system of minimum wages on the level and structure of earnings and employment in agriculture. On wages, our main conclusion is that the minimum wages set by the Agricultural Wages Boards are important determinants of the average level and distribution of earnings in UK agriculture. On employment, our main conclusion is that there is no evidence that minimum wages have reduced the level of employment in agriculture. If anything, our estimates imply a weak positive, though statistically insignificant, impact of minimum wages on employment. This seems to be true when we disaggregate by sex and skill.     

Tax effects on job search,training, and work effort

The conventional economic model of labour supply is extended to include job-search activity or off-the-job training. For most tax and transfer policies, the slope of the labour-supply schedule affects the direction of search incentives relative to laissez faire. Only the income subsidy exerts unambiguously negative effects on search activity. A proportional income tax offers greater search incentives than an equal-revenue progressive income tax. The positive marginal subsidy range of an earnings subsidy evokes more search than an equal-transfer wage or income subsidy, but ranking of the latter two programs is ambiguous. Work and search effects are combined in an analysis of the impact of each policy on workers' gross market earnings.     

Learning to agree

An explicit model of communication and informational equilibrium is constructed and some results generalizing Aumann's theorem on the impossibility of agreeing to disagree are obtained, together with an example showing that full rationality may be sub-optimal.     

Is advertising rational?

Advertising is not a process by which gullible consumers are persuaded to buy things they don't want, according to the authors of this paper. Instead, it furnishes consumers with some useful information. It is not so much the claims made by advertisers that are helpful, but the fact that they are willing to spend extravagant amounts of money on a product that is informative. The authors find tentative evidence for this view of advertising and discuss its implications.     

Robust asset prices with bubbles

We generally establish equilibrium asset prices than can include price bubbles yet (a) be robust to truncations of the economy and (b) exclude trade in non-consumables, like money, stock certificates, or land deeds.