Experiments Testing Multiobject Allocation Mechanisms

This paper reports the results of over 130 auctions conducted under controlled conditions to examine the robustness of several auction mechanisms to allocate multiple objects. The simultaneous discrete auction process used by the Federal Communications Commission to allocate Personal Communications licenses was contrasted with a sequential auction and a combinatorial auction over a variety of demand conditions. In test environments created to check only the minimum competency of the procedures, the simultaneous discrete auction process produces highly efficient allocations, approaching levels similar to those found with a continuous form of the auction, and it outperforms a sequential auction. However, in environments created to stress test the procedures, a combinatorial auction outperforms the simultaneous discrete auction.     

IBM绝地大反攻Ⅱ:加强与微软的合作

虽然网络服务目前还只是处于萌芽阶段,但IBM与微软早已积极思考未来。不管是两家公司的竞争对手、或者合作伙伴,甚至是客户,接下来大家的焦点都将放在谁能享有下一代网络的免费通行权上     

The fragility of a discipline when a model has monopoly status

We consider the consequences of a scientific literature with only one model of an important phenomenon. The falsification of the model would mean falsification of the science. Scientists who would prefer not to have their discipline falsified will be tempted to find ad hoc explanations to excuse the failure. To test this hypothesis we propose a study of the economic forecasts of the comparative Soviet and American growth rates in the years before a public choice model of central planning was a viable alternative to the public interest model. JEL Code A11, B23 Earlier versions of the paper were presented at the University of Manitoba Economics Department Retreat in October 2005 and at the Center for Study of Public Choice Wednesday Seminar in November 2005. We thank the participants for their suggestions. All the remaining errors are our responsibility.     

'multiculturalism' or assimilation: still to decide

Can communities of emigrants be assimilated? David Coleman of Oxford University examines how the issues have been dealt with in the United Kingdom.     

European and American Executive Values

Recent research shows interesting differences and similarities in attitudes and priorities of CEOs in various parts of Europe and in the USA. Professor Mathison is Chair of the Department of Management in Loyola Marymount University's College of Business Administration, Los Angeles.     

Travellers under fire: Tourists in the Tibetan uprising

Following the demonstrations in Lhasa in the fall of 1987, tourists who witnessed the events became the principal source of information to journalists denied access to Tibet and gathered material on arrests, torture, and imprisonment for human-rights organizations. A loosely knit network that arose in the first few days following the demonstrations continued to function for more than 2 years, recruiting new volunteers to take the place of those who left. Using material collected as a participant-observer among individual travelers in Tibet during 1987 and 1988, the article examines the growth of this network in terms of the response of different travel cultures to political unrest.     

Managerial evaluation of exogenous forecast sources

This paper concerns the managerial evaluation of forecast vendors—individuals or firms offering for sale future forecasts of random variables relevant to managerial decision making. Assuming the forecasts are exogenous in the sense they are generated by a methodology unknown or unproven to management, the paper uses a logistic regression model to present a statistical test for informativeness that allows for an interpretation of the vendor's abilities. The advantage of the approach is that it requires as input only knowledge of the unconditional probability distribution of the variable being forecast and a relatively small historical track record of the vendor's forecasting performance. No benchmark forecast is necessary and few assumptions are required about the statistical process that generates the forecasts. As an illustrative empirical application, the paper presents an evaluation of the informativeness of the published long-range price forecasts by a veteran analyst of the Iowa hog market.