Testing sensitivity of student enrollment with respect to tuition at an institution of higher education

This study was conducted to measure the impact of H-University's (HU's) tuition increases on enrollment. Based on an internal survey, this study attempts to explain the sensitivity of student enrollment to tuition variations. In addition, this paper develops an aggregate enrollment model and uses the common economic variables such as tuition, income, wage rates, financial aids, and unemployment rates to explain the sensitivity of demand. The most significant finding of this study is that tuition consideration seems to have a relatively small effect on students' decisions. Actually, enrollment at HU (a private institution) have increased despite higher tuition rate. Possible justifications could be proposed, such as the necessity of higher education and the fact that higher education is a continued investment in human capital, in which the more relevant decision factor is the corresponding expected rate of return and not just the cost of investment. Presented at the International Atlantic Economic Society's Conference, Vienna, Austria, March 2003.     

Analyzing Quality of Supply Chain Management in Hotels of Isfahan Using the Partial Least Squares (PLS)

ABSTRACT

Hotels, as one of the major tourism service providers, must offer high quality products to survive in this severely competitive environment so that they can preserve their competitive advantage dealing with other competitors. Therefore, considering the high importance of this subject, this study aims to analyze the quality of hotels supply chain in Isfahan- Iran. On this account, the literature of quality in supply chain is reviewed and seven factors affecting the supply chain are identified. Then research hypotheses are raised in accordance with the seven factors. Data was gathered using questionnaire and Partial Least Square was applied in order to analyze the data. The obtained results indicate that focus on customer, supply chain quality leadership, supply chain quality strategies, supply chain quality information and process approach results in an increase in supply chain quality; meanwhile, the two hypotheses regarding supplier quality management and human resources development of supply chain are rejected. The results of this article will be beneficial to hotels which want to increase the level of their service quality.     

Hybrid flow shop scheduling with parallel batching

In this research the problem of parallel batch scheduling in a hybrid flow shop environment with minimizing C_max is studied. In parallel batching it is assumed that machines in some stages are able to process a number of operations simultaneously. Since the problem is NP-hard, three heuristic algorithms are developed to give near optimal solutions. Since this problem has not been studied previously, therefore, a lower bound is developed for evaluating the performance of the proposed heuristics. Several test problems have been solved using these heuristics and results compared. To further enhance the solution quality, a three dimensional genetic algorithm (3DGA) is also developed. Several test problems have been solved using 3DGA and the results indicate its superiority to the other heuristics.     

Social exclusion and labour market transitions: a multi-state multi-spell analysis using the BHPS

In this empirical paper, we assess how social exclusion arises in the context of labour market transition behaviour. We estimate a multi-state multi-spell competing risks model and identify five states: high skilled employment, intermediate skilled employment, low skilled employment, unemployment and out-of-the-labour market. Using data from the first seven waves of the British Household Panel Survey, we show that a substantial number of workers were trapped in a vicious circle of low-skilled employment, unemployment and inactivity in the 1990s. Workers who are part of the so-called flexible workforce are more likely to suffer social exclusion.     

Earnings Management in Response to the Introduction of the Australian Gold Tax*

Earnings from gold mining in Australia remained tax‐exempt for almost seven decades until January 1, 1991. In the early 1980s, rapid economic prosperity induced by escalated gold prices brought the Australian gold‐mining industry under intense political scrutiny. Using a variant of the modified Jones model, this paper provides evidence of significant downward earnings management by Australian gold‐mining firms, which is consistent with their attempts to mitigate political costs during the period from June 1985 to May 1988. In contrast, test of earnings management over a similar period in a control sample of Canadian gold‐mining firms produced insignificant results. Further, empirical results are robust to several sensitivity tests performed. During the period from June 1988 to December 1990, the Australian firms were found to have engaged in economic earnings management. This is consistent with the sample firms' incentive of maximizing economic earnings immediately prior to the introduction of income tax on gold mining. The findings of this study help to understand the impact of earnings management on the efficient resource allocation in an economy. They also contribute toward understanding the linkage between regulation of accounting for special purposes and general‐purpose financial reporting.     

Point pattern analysis of regional city distributions

Point processes are used in any field of investigation where the data set is in form of a collection of points in some space. Here we analyze the distribution of cities in two subregions of Iran by fitting proper point process models to three data sets where the third set of data is the cities in one of the subregions at a subsequent time.     

Product differentiation,market dynamics and the value relevance of trade payables: Evidence from UK listed firms

This paper provides a comprehensive evidence on how product and market dynamics affect the value relevance of trade payables. Using a sample of 2559 UK listed firms over the period 2005–2014, we find a positive relationship between trade payables and firm performance. Our evidence suggests that trade payables increase (decrease) performance in firms with differentiated products and demand uncertainty (larger market share). We demonstrate that the relative value relevance of bank credit versus suppliers’ credit is dependent on the nature of the product, the level of sales volatility, and market share. We use an innovative approach to assess the robustness of our results to omitted variable bias.     

Stable Tariffs and Retaliations*

A two‐country, two‐commodity model of trade is considered to reformulate the tariff retaliations. It is known that tariff retaliations lead to a Nash‐equilibrium, a non‐free‐trade outcome. However, the negotiation process underlying the Nash equilibrium does not capture the notion of retaliation properly. We use the “contingent threat situation” to reformulate tariff retaliations. In this context, we show that the free trade is a stable outcome. More surprisingly, this interesting result is also valid for the “Johnson case,” where one country is better off under the tariff‐ridden Nash equilibrium compared to free trade.     

Merton Model and Capital Measurement in Commercial Banks: A Case Study of Selected Emerging Countries in Southeast Asia

Following the implementation of Basel III criteria concerning the supervision of banks capital, this paper attempts to examine the competence of Merton-type probability of default as an indicator for measuring optimal capital in commercial banks of five Southeast Asian emerging economies. The estimated default risk changes are consistent with the changes in market value of banks’ asset in countries studied. Using a forward-looking approach, the banks required capital has been measured to reach a hypothetical level of probability of default as an accepted level by policy makers. Empirical results show that the banks had to increase their current capital in order to reduce the risk of bankruptcy in crisis times. The findings of this study refer evidently to the efficiency of Merton-type default risk to estimate the adequate capital and to use in micro and macro-prudential studies or stress tests on commercial banks.     

Sanctions and the shadow economy: empirical evidence from Iranian provinces

Using Iranian province level data from 2001 to 2013, this study finds that the international sanctions of 2012/2013 had a significantly stronger negative impact on the growth rate of the shadow economy than they did on the official GDP growth rate. Thus, the international sanctions on Iran have damaged the informal economy even more than the formal economy.