The analytics of search with posted prices

Summary. This paper investigates the characteristics of the optimal posted price in the standard sequential search paradigm. Much of the intuition gleaned from the extensive sequential search literature in which the seller adopts a reservation price does not carry over to the posted price setting. For example, an increase in buyer valuations can lead to a reduction in the optimal posted price. We do, however, provide sufficient conditions on the hazard rate function h which ensure that an increase in demand induces an increase in the optimal posted price. As exhibited herein, the analysis of the posted price model depends critically upon analytical properties of h. Amongst the issues treated are the elasticity of demand, finite horizon, sale of multiple units, and competitive equilibrium. Received: October 21, 1999; revised version: March 7, 2000     

Joint Management of Emission Abatement and Technological Innovation for Stock Externalities

We investigate how emission abatement and technological innovation provide different solutions to reduce pollutant emissions. In the case of a stock externality emission abatement leads to a smooth and continuous adjustment of emissions. Conversely, technological innovation has to be interpreted as an option on a less polluted environment and can justify the use of a pollution threshold above which it is optimal to start a research and development programme for a less polluting technology. It is shown that technological innovation interferes with the traditional emission abatement approach. The optimal abatement level is logically lowered once the less polluting technology is available; nevertheless a temporary increase in emissions is optimal during the research and development period. The usual Pigouvian tax system proves to remain an efficient corrective instrument. A numerical application to the Greenhouse effect is provided.     

Cow-calf profitability and leptin genotyping

Profitability of cow-calf production is determined largely by market prices, calf weaning weights, and cow productive life. While producers individually have no effect on prices, weaning weights and productive life have genetic influences and hence can be altered by selection programs implemented by producers. We investigate the impact of a mutation in the leptin gene (exon 2; single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] 305) on cow-calf profitability. Prior research shows that this mutation has effects on performance and traits of fed cattle and milk production in dairy cows. Using data from a teaching-research herd, we find that it is also associated with calf weaning weights and cow productive life. A bio-economic stochastic simulation demonstrates that the mutation has statistically positive impacts on profits, suggesting that producers can profitably make use of this information.     

George Hudson's financial reporting practices: putting the Eastern Counties Railway in context

George Hudson was the most important railway promoter of his time. He had a particular aptitude for visualizing and arranging spectacular company and line amalgamations and his activities helped to bring about the beginnings of a more modern railway network. In 1849 he exercised effective control over nearly 30 per cent of the rail track then operating in the UK, most of it owned by four railway groups, the Eastern Counties Railway, the Midland, the York, Newcastle and Berwick, and the York and North Midland, before a series of scandalous revelations forced him out of office. The economic, railway and accounting literatures have treated George Hudson as an important figure in railway history, although concentrating largely on the financial reporting malpractices of the Eastern Counties Railway, while Hudson was its chairman, which were incorporated into the influential Monteagle Committee Report of 1849. Relatively little attention has been paid, however, to events at Hudson's other major companies. This paper analyzes the available evidence, particularly that produced by the Committees of Investigation established at all four railway groups, in order to provide a more balanced assessment of George Hudson's approach to financial reporting and thereby place events at the Eastern Counties Railway in a broader context.     

Multi-factor financial planning: an outline and illustration

This paper deals with the support of strategically oriented financial planning processes in business firms. In handling a financial planning problem, the decision maker has to deal with a number of complications. In this paper special attention is paid to the risk with regard to the outcomes of the financial plan and the existence of multiple, conflicting goals. An interactive approach to financial planning is presented. Risk is modeled by means of so-called multi-factor risk models and multiple goals are explicitly accounted for through the use of an interactive goal programming method. The use of the interactive approach will be numerically demonstrated by means of an exemplary planning problem.     

Goal programming solutions to transportation problems with variable supply and demand requirements

This article deals with goal programming as an aid to resolving transportation problems. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the use of goal programming as an approach to reducing total cost in transportation problems that possess variable supply and demand requirements. A generalized goal programming model is formulated and applied to a series of transportation problem situations based on the empirical data provided by a medium-size trucking firm. Comparison of the results demonstrates the cost advantage of using the goal programming model in place of the transportation method and integer interval linear programming.