Strategic Similarity and Emergent Conventions: Evidence from Similar Stag Hunt Games

This paper reports evidence on the origin of convention in laboratory cohorts confronting similar but not identical strategic situations repeatedly. The experiment preserves the action space of the game, while randomly perturbing the payoffs and scrambling the action labels in an effort to blunt the salience of retrospective selection principles. Hence, the similarity between stage games is reduced to certain strategic details, like efficiency, security, and risk dominance. Nevertheless, we do observe conventions emerging in half of the laboratory cohorts. When a convention emerges subjects's behavior conforms to the selection principles of efficiency rather than security or risk dominance. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, C78, C92, D83.     

Sequential Procurement With Subcontracting

Two symmetric sellers are approached sequentially by fragmented buyers. Each buyer conducts a second-price auction and purchases from the seller who offers the lower price. Winning an auction affects bidding for future contracts because the sellers have nonconstant marginal costs. We assume that the sellers are completely informed, and we study the unique equilibrium that survives iterated elimination of weakly dominated strategies. If subcontracting between the sellers is impossible, the final allocation of contracts is generally inefficient. If postauction subcontracting is possible, the sellers can be worse off, ex ante , than when subcontracting is impossible.     

The Welfare State, Budgetary Pressure and Labour Market Shifts

Public debate about the welfare state in OECD countries has emphasized the need for reform to meet a twofold set of shocks: budgetary pressure and a labour market shift against unskilled workers. The aim of the paper is to set out a framework for examining the implications of these shocks for the optimal scale of social transfers and, in particular, the impact on different societies, distinguishing a restricted welfare state, labelled "the United States" and a more extensive welfare state, labelled "Continental Europe".     

A tale of two volatilities

We show that there are two distinct ways to make volatility stochastic that are differentiated by their consequences for skewness. Most models in the literature have adopted the relatively tractable methodology of using stochastic time changes to engineer stochastic volatility. Unfortunately, this is also the one that can conflict with the relationship occasionally observed in markets between volatility and skewness. Research enhancing the tractability of the second approach to stochastic volatility based on scaling is called for.     

Momentum profits in the Australian equity market: A matched firm approach

This paper examines momentum trading strategies within the Australian equity market over the period 1990 to 2007, inclusive. We analyse excess returns employing both Jegadeesh and Titman's (Jegadeesh, N., Titman, S., 1993. “Returns to buying winners and selling losers: implications for stock market efficiency”. The Journal of Finance, 48:65–91) zero cost investment portfolio approach and a matched control firm approach. We also allow for short sale restrictions, liquidity constraints and transaction costs in the form of bid-ask spreads. Testing reveals that both the Jegadeesh and Titman (Jegadeesh, N., and Titman, S. (1993). “Returns to buying winners and selling losers: implications for stock market efficiency”. The Journal of Finance, 48:65–91.) zero cost investment portfolio approach and the matched control firm approach yield excess profits. While the implementation of short sale restraints increases momentum profitability, the subsequent inclusion of bid-ask spreads results in a reduction in these gains. Further, we find that executing a momentum strategy in Australia results in statistically significant dollar profits.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE VALUE OF CROSS‐DOCKING FOR SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Cross‐docking is the practice of transferring materials from an incoming shipment directly to an outgoing shipment without storing them at the transfer point. This essentially eliminates the inventory‐holding function of a warehouse and can reduce supply chain costs. We investigate the value of one type of cross‐docking in a variety of supply chain environments.     

Business Ethical Values in China and the U.S.

The research presented in this paper focuses on business ethical values inChina, a country in which the process of institutional transformation has left cultural values in a state of flux. A survey was conducted in China and the U.S. by using five business scenarios. Survey results show similarities between the Chinese and American decision choices for three out of five scenarios. However, the results reveal significant differences in rationales, even forsimilar decisions. The implications of similarities and differences between the U.S. and Chinese samples are discussed.     

Residential renovation in the low income public housing sector: A case study in Merebank

Housing, an important research theme in development studies in recent years, is currently a central focus of concern in South Africa. Largely as a result of the inadequate supply of suitable housing the present trend among Indian households in the public sector in the Durban region is to renovate existing dwellings to suit their residential preferences and aspirations. This paper examines the nature of residential renovation in the public housing sector in order to identify and explain the processes that produce its occurrence, and to determine those factors which can be considered in policy formulation. The study was conducted in Merebank, a low income public housing scheme inhabited by Indians, and situated 15 km south of Durban. Changes in family size and composition, and a shortage of suitable housing, influenced the decision to renovate. The main concern was the addition of more space, especially bedrooms. Most of the renovations were undertaken on a self‐help basis, and financed from personal savings. Some of the problems experienced by renovators included: features of the original dwelling; building regulations; lack of loans; high interest rates; and shortage of materials. Access to finance, encouragement of self‐help improvement efforts, and flexibility in the design of low cost dwellings will help facilitate the residential renovation process.