Bioeconomics of some nonhuman and human societies: new institutional economics approach

New institutional economics (NIE) has been very successful in explaining the role of institutions such as the firm, money, and contract law in facilitating production and exchange in human societies. In this paper, I will show that the NIE approach, which so far has been used by economists to analyze institutions and organizations in human society, including the ethnically homogeneous middleman groups, can also be extended to explain the high degree of cooperation and coordination of activities of honeybees, ants, and schooling fish. In addition, the paper emphasize the importance of identity in nonhuman and human societies in eliciting cooperation and in detecting cheaters or fakers. This paper thus contribute to the integration/consilience of economics and biology by providing a more unified view of aspects of the bioeconomics of nonhuman and human societies.     

Coping Strategies in Call Centres: Work Intensity and the Role of Co-workers and Supervisors

It has been observed that customer service workers often develop mutually supportive coping strategies to protect themselves from the emotional strain of overwork. These strategies can receive tacit support from supervisors, who may accept them as a means of getting the work done. The study explores the impact of a number of different forms of support on emotional exhaustion among a group of 480 call centre workers focusing, in particular, on the role of supportive behaviours relating to absence taking. The research shows that a supportive co-worker absence culture and team leader absence permissiveness can lessen the effects of job demands on emotional exhaustion and improve worker well-being. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Smoothing Mechanisms in Defined Benefit Pension Accounting Standards: A Simulation Study*

The accounting for defined benefit (DB) pension plans is complex and varies significantly across jurisdictions despite recent international convergence efforts. Pension costs are significant, and many worry that unfavorable accounting treatment could lead companies to terminate DB plans, a result that would have important social implications. A key difference in accounting standards relates to whether and how the effects of fluctuations in market and demographic variables on reported pension cost are “smoothed". Critics argue that smoothing mechanisms lead to incomprehensible accounting information and induce managers to make dysfunctional decisions. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these mechanisms may vary. We use simulated data to test the volatility, representational faithfulness, and predictive ability of pension accounting numbers under Canadian, British, and international standards (IFRS). We find that smoothed pension expense is less volatile, more predictive of future expense, and more closely associated with contemporaneous funding than is “unsmoothed” pension expense. The corridor method and market‐related value approaches allowed under Canadian GAAP have virtually no smoothing effect incremental to the amortization of actuarial gains and losses. The pension accrual or deferred asset is highly correlated with the pension plan deficit/surplus. Our findings complement existing, primarily archival, pension accounting research and could provide guidance to standard‐setters.     

Sourcing strategies of U.S. service companies: a modified transaction–cost analysis

Global procurement of services has been receiving an increasing amount of managerial attention in recent years. Service firms seem to have begun sourcing part of their service activities from abroad in much the same way as manufacturing firms have sourced components and finished goods in the past 30 years. However, little is known about the nature of service sourcing strategy. In this study, we employ a modified transaction–cost analysis to examine empirically the locational (domestic vs. global sourcing) and the ownership (internal vs. external sourcing) aspects of service sourcing strategy. In addition, performance implications on both the locational and ownership aspects of service sourcing are investigated. The results show that, similar to components and finished goods procurement, supplementary services are sourced globally, either internally or externally. Furthermore, the relationship between asset specificity and internal sourcing of supplementary services is moderated by the level of inseparability and transaction frequency. Finally, internal sourcing and foreign sourcing of supplementary services are negatively related to a service’s market performance. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

实现2035年发展目标的潜在增长率

党的十九届五中全会提出了到2035年人均GDP达到中等发达国家水平的远景目标,因此测算和回答能否和如何如期实现该目标,对于我国实现第二个百年奋斗目标和坚持“四个自信”具有重要的意义。为此,本文根据跨越和陷入“中等收入陷阱”经济体的发展经验,对2021—2035年我国潜在增长率变化进行了测算。一是参照跨越和陷入“中等收入陷阱”经济体在我国相同发展阶段时各主要生产要素的变化,模拟设定我国未来各主要生产要素的增长率;二是通过运用附加人力资本的增长核算模型测算基准、乐观和悲观三种不同情境下未来我国经济的潜在增长率,验证我国2035年发展目标实现的可能性;三是依据主要要素对潜在增长率的贡献度,提出我国如期实现2035年发展目标的相应政策建议。     

中国经济学的世纪:21世纪

中国转轨与发展的经济实践是中国经济学成长之母,具有勤奋、睿智而甘于奉献的牺牲精神、宽广而深厚的经济学、数学和人文科学功底的中国经济学家是中国经济学的成长之父。     

Estimating and testing process accuracy with extension to asymmetric tolerances

Pearn et al. (Commun. Stat. Theory Methods, 27(4):985–1000, 1998) introduced the process accuracy index C _a to measure the degree of process centering, the ability to cluster around the center. In this paper, we derive an explicit form of the cumulative distribution function for the estimator [^(C)]_a{\hat{C}_a } with the case of symmetric tolerances. Subsequently, the distributional and inferential properties of the estimated process accuracy index C _a are provided. Calculations of the critical values, P-values, and lower confidence bounds are developed for testing process accuracy. Further, a generalization of C _a for the case with asymmetric tolerances is proposed to measure the process accuracy. Based on the results practitioners can easily perform the testing of the process accuracy, and make reliable decisions on whether actions should be taken to improve the process quality. An application is given to illustrate how we test the process accuracy using the actual data collected from the factory.     

精益六西格玛在装备维修保障中的应用研究

我军装备保障体制中存在保障力量不足和高新技术装备维修效率不高的情况。精益六西格玛采用"定义——测量——分析——改进——控制"流程,并在实施中加入了精益的哲理、方法和工具,通过对流程的分析与改进能显著提高质量和效率,本文对精益六西格玛在装备维修保障中的应用方法进行了研究,能够减少装备维修过程中的浪费与变异,从而提高装备维修效率,保障作战(训练)任务的完成。     

状态观及过程观视域下组织变革准备研究综述与展望

变革准备是组织成员关于组织变革必要性、组织变革能力等方面的信念、态度和意图,是评价组织成员（个体或群体）变革反应的重要指标,其理论基础包括变革干预理论和动态能力理论。研究发现,自我概念、风险态度、学习动机、智商等个体因素,以及领导、沟通、组织氛围等情境因素都会影响变革准备,而变革准备直接影响员工变革意愿与变革行为,进而对组织效能产生影响。目前,变革准备研究还未形成独特的研究路径,也不足以为理论系统化提供支持,未来研究还需对变革准备的影响因素、维度结构、测量工具及内在认知机制等开展进一步探讨。