Public Hospital Costs in Two Australian States

This study examines the long-run and short-run behaviour of public hospital average costs in two Australian States: Victoria and Queensland. Using adjusted weighted inlier-equivalent separations as a measure of hospital output, and floor area as a measure of capacity, the study finds a hump- or '∩'-shaped long-run average cost curve at the 5 per cent significance level in both data sets. The study also finds a saucer- or '∪'-shaped relationship between capacity utilisation and short-run average cost at the 5 per cent level.     

OPERATING SYSTEM PRICES IN THE HOME PC MARKET*

Because the demand for OS is a derived demand revealed through the demand for PCs and because its elasticity is relatively small, the profit‐maximizing price of DOS/WIN that would result from a static equilibrium is much higher than the observed price. We investigate this assertion empirically by fitting a differentiated‐products model of the home PC market to panel data of all PC brands sold in the G7 countries over the period 1995–1999. The results confirm that the low value of the aggregate elasticity of demand for PCs is the result of differentiation and substitution among PCs.     

Customer Response to Carbon Labelling of Groceries

Thirty-seven products were labelled to indicate embodied carbon emissions, and sales were recorded over a 3-month period. Green (below average), yellow (near average), and black (above average) footprints indicated carbon emissions embodied in groceries. The overall change in purchasing pattern was small, with black-labelled sales decreasing 6% and green-labelled sales increasing 4% after labelling. However, when green-labelled products were also the cheapest, the shift was more substantial, with a 20% switch from black- to green-label sales. These findings illustrate the potential for labelling to stimulate reductions in carbon emissions.     

A survey of market orientation research (1995-2008)

Since 1990, market orientation (MO) has received considerable attention in the marketing literature. Little research so far provides preliminary and useful information to facilitate good understanding of MO. This study presents a comprehensive survey of extant marketing literature using keyword classification from 1995 to 2008. It serves as a tutorial and aims to help the beginner researcher or practitioner to have access to MO, including its definitions, applications and problem domains. Based on the scope of 514 MO articles, we find that the number of publications on MO has significantly increased since 2001 with steady growth in recent years. In addition, these selected articles are scattered across 153 journals and mostly published in 10 academic journals. The contribution of our paper is to provide a means (i.e., keyword index) to conceptualize and operationalize the coverage of MO. It provides a conceptual framework to organize this vast body of research. This study ends with some discussions and conclusions.     

The positioning of overseas honeymoon destinations

The objective of this study was to investigate the competitiveness of seven overseas honeymoon destinations among potential Korean tourists, and the positioning among them. The main analytical techniques used were multidimensional scaling and correspondence analyses. Results included a variety of information on image similarity, strengths, and ideals of destinations among seven sites, as well as the relationships of major sociodemographic and tourism variables to the sites. The results provide significant insights for a more effective approach to the market positioning of competing places for a honeymoon trip.     

Creating a corporate culture in support of a global strategy

If U.S. companies want to succeed both domestically and internationally, that means many need to begin now making some major changes to their corporate cultures.     

Super-Exponential RE bubble model with efficient crashes

We propose a dynamic Rational Expectations (RE) bubble model of prices, combining a geometric random walk with separate crash (and rally) discrete jump distributions associated with positive (and negative) bubbles. Crashes tend to efficiently bring back excess bubble prices close to a “normal” process. Then, the RE condition implies that the excess risk premium of the risky asset exposed to crashes is an increasing function of the amplitude of the expected crash, which itself grows with the bubble mispricing: hence, the larger the bubble price, the larger its subsequent growth rate. This positive feedback of price on return is the archetype of super-exponential price dynamics. We use the RE condition to estimate the real-time crash probability dynamically through an accelerating probability function depending on the increasing expected return. After showing how to estimate the model parameters, we obtain a closed-form approximation for the optimal investment that maximizes the expected log of wealth (Kelly criterion) for the risky bubbly asset and a risk-free asset. We demonstrate, on seven historical crashes, the promising outperformance of the method compared to a 60/40 portfolio, the classic Kelly allocation, and the risky asset, and how it mitigates jumps, both positive and negative.     

Export diversification in a transitioning economy

How does the process of export diversification take place in an economy in transition, especially in light of government policy aimed at trade liberalization? This article examines this question by considering a directed policy effort by Syria – an economy in transition from both economic centralization and resource dependence – to liberalize its trade between 2001 and 2008. In addition to documenting the patterns of diversification at the aggregate level since the implementation of the policy, we also examine factors that are related to diversification at the sectoral level. Our findings suggest that, while Syria has achieved reasonably rapid export diversification, this may to a large extent be the result of structural transformations in the economy, and that further diversification may require continued policy reform designed to strengthen Syria's weak institutional and business environment.     

Monetary policy and risk management at a time of low inflation and low unemployment

I do not see it as likely that the Phillips curve is dead, or that it will soon exact revenge. It is more likely that many factors, including better conduct of monetary policy over the past few decades, have greatly reduced, but not eliminated, the effects that tight labor markets have on inflation. However, no one fully understands the nature of these changes or the role they play in the current context. Common sense suggests we should beware when forecasts predict events seldom before observed in the economy.