The determination and consequences of international liquidity

Summary In the 20 years since 1969, international reserves have shown considerable increases, that seem to be far in excess of any long-term global need. This was a consequence of the prominent role that the dollar continued to play in the monetary system, which made it easy for the United States to finance balance of payments deficits in its own currency, increasing the amount of dollars in reserves. In addition the Eurodollar market made international reserves to some extent demand/determined: there was a very elastic supply of liquidity in this market. These developments in international reserves have inflationary consequences. To prevent such consequences in the future, central banks should set up a systematic surveillance system for international liquidity together with the IMF and BIS. An essential instrument in this context would be for the United States to finance its balance of payments deficits in foreign currencies in world capital markets.Keynote speech for the Foundation Robert Triffin Szirak on 17 November 1994 in Brussels.     

Inductive research in last-mile delivery routing: Introducing the Re-Gifting heuristic

The last-mile problem presents a daunting challenge for many logistics service providers, especially some 7000 small, localized operations for whom the cost of complex software solutions is often prohibitive. As a result, last-mile dispatchers rely on simple heuristics to ensure adequate customer service at an acceptable cost. This research effort extends prior qualitative work by developing and testing a simple vehicle routing heuristic, based on behaviors observed in practice, that prioritizes customer service over cost against other simple vehicle routing heuristics across a variety of environments using simulation. The results support the inclusion of a customer service focus in vehicle routing and the addition of such heuristics to existing algorithm portfolios, specifically in urban areas with well-developed highway systems.     

Some ethical consequences of economic competition

Commonly accepted dictates of morality clash with the a priori laws of free economic competition. These divergent directives — that stem from the essence of their sources and cannot be changed or negated without altering their sources — contradict each other and so set up conflicts of the most fundamental kind in men's psyches (or souls). In addition, this clash of moralities implies a most serious question respecting real freedom under a system of so-called free-enterprise. For, if in order to thrive, we must perform actions that at the same time violate our own moral self respect, we cannot call ourselves free.     

Integrating strength-weakness analysis into strategic planning

Strength-weakness assessment, which must be performed as a part of any strategic planning process, is presented in terms of a process, termed SWA, that involves managers in making the critical informational choices that are implicit in strategic assessments of strengths and weaknesses. The process is illustrated in terms of its underlying premises, their implications, its benefits, and an illustrative substantive framework that can be used to guide the process.     

Humor and cognitive responses to advertising stimuli: A trace consolidation approach

Despite the predictions of several attitude change theories, most empirical research suggests that humorous communications are no more persuasive than their serious counterparts. The present study adopted a trace consolidation theory approach and tested the hypothesis that humorous appeals are more persuasive than serious appeals when time for trace consolidation is allowed. The trace consolidation theory hypothesis was supported most directly by shifts in cognitive responses. On some measures, sex differences were also observed. Specifically, males were found to be more susceptible than females to the humorous persuasive appeal.     

Improving the effectiveness of persuasive communications: Matching message with functional profile

The functional approach to improving communication strategy has received little attention. This research attempts to partially correct this oversight by experimentally verifying the major functional hypothesis: matching message with functional profile brings about attitude change. Working adults were integrated into an experiment which was a before-after with control. The major functional hypothesis was confirmed at the 0.10 level. An associated hypothesis regarding the relative ease of changing value- expressive attitudes compared to utilitarian attitudes was confirmed at the 0.10 level. The results show the importance of matching message with functional profile and highlight the potential inherent in the functional approach.     

Semantics and capital market efficiency: Testing the market's reaction to the naming of stock distributions as splits or dividends

The AICPA and NYSE urge corporations to avoid the term “stock dividend” and use the term “stock split” when referring to large common stock distributions. Theoretically these large distributions do not convey any economic value to the stockholders. Therefore a rule was considered necessary so as not to mislead them as to the actual nature of the distributions. The purpose of this study is to examine security price reactions to the differential naming of these distributions. The results strongly suggest that security returns are not differentially affected by naming a large common stock distribution a stock dividend rather than a stock split. That is, the capital market appears to be semantically efficient between terminologies.     

Prospects for the international oil market

The OPEC price conference in Geneva on May 25–26, 1981 did not resolve the disagreement among OPEC member countries over official prices. As a result of this stalemate, Saudi Arabia with its intention to moderate prices will in the foreseeable future probably not be prepared to make substantial reductions in its high volume of production with which it puts pressure on prices. What short- and medium-term perspectives for the international oil market arise from this situation?