The timing of residential land development: A general equilibrium approach

A formal model of the development process is constructed in order to arrive at a better understanding of the land development process, the change in land prices over time, and the effects of public policy on these variables. The relationship between the rate of interest and the rate of price appreciation on land is shown to depend upon development costs, agricultural opportunity costs, market structure, and the level of Ricardian rents on land. The effects of a land tax and a capital gains tax on the rate of development are also analyzed.     

OR vice: Forecasting and classification techniques for narcotics interdiction

Counternarcotics interdiction efforts have traditionally relied on historically determined sorting criteria or “best guess” to find and classify suspected smuggling traffic. We present a more quantitative approach which incorporates customized database applications, graphics software and statistical modeling techniques to develop forecasting and classification models. Preliminary results show that statistical methodology can improve interdiction rates and reduce forecast error. The idea of predictive modeling is thus gaining support in the counterdrug community. The problem is divided into sea, air and land forecasting, only part of which will be addressed here. The maritime problem is solved using multiple regression in lieu of multivariate time series. This model predicts illegal boat counts by behavior and geographic region. We developed support software to present the forecasts and to automate the process of performing periodic model updates. During the period, the model was in use at. Coast Guard Headquarters. Because of deterrence provided by improved intervention, the vessel seizure rate declined from 1 every 36 hours to 1 every 6 months. Due in part to the success of the sea model, the maritime movement of marijuana has ceased to be a major threat. The air problem is more complex, and required us to locally design data collection and display software. Intelligence analysts are using a customized relational database application with a map overlay to perform visual pattern recognition of smuggling routes. We are solving the modeling portion of the air problem using multiple regression for regional forecasts of traffic density, and discriminant analysis to develop tactical models that classify “good guys” and “bad guys”. The air models are still under development, but we discuss some modeling considerations and preliminary results. The land problem is even more difficult, and data collection is still in progress.     

Executive Stock Ownership After the Acquisition

How does a company, buying another company, replace the acquired company's executive stock options? This article details what companies are doing and examines the advantages and disadvantages of replacing these options. The authors propose that the success or failure of an acquisition can hinge on the resolution of these issues.     

Human capital in the Dubai hotel industry: A study of four- and five-star hotels and the HR challenges they face

Dubai brands itself as an international leisure and business center and home to the luxury hotel market. While hotel growth has been, and continues to be rapid, little is known about hotel employees, their demographics or how they feel about working in this industry. This article reports the findings of what is the first review of Dubai hotel human capital, noting there are significant difference in workforce demographics to other countries, for example, it is male dominated, highly educated, and employees note positive levels of organizational social capital. It also highlights potential challenges going forward.     

Job Security Provisions and Employment: Revised Estimates

This article provides estimates of the effect of statutory severance pay and notice on four labor market outcome indicators, closely following Lazear (1990) but correcting for errors in his dependent variables and covariates. Although we corroborate the directional influence of severance pay for three of the indicators, there is little to suggest that its contribution to rising unemployment is material. Also contrary to Lazear, longer notice appears to be associated with broadly favorable outcomes.     

Updating the Determinants of Firm Performance: Estimation using the 1998 UK Workplace Employee Relations Survey

We examine the determinants of establishment performance in the UK, using cross‐sectional data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey to replicate research by Fernie and Metcalf (1995) who used data from the 1990 Workplace Employee Relations Survey; specifically, we test whether employee representation, contingent pay and efforts to boost employee participation affect a set of economic and industrial relations outcome indicators in the manner they suggest. We also re‐estimate the influential WERS90‐based study of Machin and Stewart (1996) on the links between union status and financial performance. In both cases we report very different results.     

On the variance of the ratio estimator for midzuno-sen sampling scheme

Summary For the sampling scheme ofMidzuno [3] andSen [4], which provides unbiased ratio estimators an expression for the variance of the estimator does not seem to be available in literature. An expression for the same is derived in this note.