Planning with uncertain materials availability: The value of workday flexibility

In this paper, we consider the problem of a manufacturer that faces uncertainty in the availability of its raw materials. This can occur, for example, in a remanufacturing setting where replacements for damaged components are not always available as needed. We examine the potential for flexible workday policies to mitigate the impact of uncertain materials availability, and present a simulation optimization approach to determine staffing levels under various levels of workday flexibility. An example implementation of the aggregate planning model we develop is provided using data from a cell phone reassembly facility in Hong Kong. Our model provides insights for managers regarding the benefits of increasing levels of workday flexibility when raw material availability is uncertain.     

Accelerated share repurchases

Accelerated share repurchases (ASRs) are credible commitments by firms to repurchase shares immediately. Including an ASR in a repurchase program reduces the flexibility that firms have to alter an announced program in response to subsequent changes in the price and liquidity of its shares, unexpected shocks to cash flow and/or investment, etc. Thus, we investigate whether firms' decisions to include ASRs in their repurchase programs are associated with factors expected to influence the costs of lost flexibility and the benefits of enhanced credibility and immediacy. We find robust evidence consistent with the costs of lost flexibility and the benefits of credibility and immediacy being important determinants of ASR adoption. Additionally, we find that ASR announcements are associated with positive average abnormal stock returns.     

低利率承诺，意义重大的新型非常规货币政策工具

【摩根士丹利5月1日】面对金融风暴，各大央行不仅大力运用常规的货币政策工具——下调短期政策利率，而且动用了各种非常规货币政策工具。目前，最引人注目的是各类量化宽松和信贷放松举措，     

Is Peasantry Dead? Neoliberal Reforms,the State and Agrarian Change in Bangladesh

This paper focuses on three decades of agrarian reform policies and the resulting peculiarity of the development trajectory in Bangladesh. I interrogate the ways in which the reforms have led to a paradoxical situation consisting of partial protelarianization in attempting to promote a market‐based economy. I contend that the particular positioning of the state is central to understanding this dialectic between proletarianization and the persistence of small peasants amid a huge rush towards the formation of a capitalist market economy. I conclude that the partial nature of agrarian transformation that we now experience in Bangladesh may not be resolved in favour of a complete proletarianization of small peasants in the foreseeable future.     

Country-of-origin effects on product quality judgments: An information integration perspective

Functional measurement methodology is used to examine the simultaneous effects of country-of-manufacture and price information on judgments about product quality and overall product evaluation The results suggest that a simple (constant weight) averaging model adequately accounts for the cognitive algebra used by consumers to integrate country image and price cues Also, the derived scale values for country image and price suggest that these variables produce roughly equivalent (and strong) effects on product Judgments Implications of these results for future research on country-of-origin effects are discussed.     

The effect of time-varying covariances on asset risk premia

In this article we examine an intertemporal capital asset pricing model (CAPM) that allows for time-varying conditional covariances that are assumed to follow a multivariate integrated generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (IGARCH) process. The resulting pricing equation includes idiosyncratic risk premia in addition to the usual market beta. Empirical analysis based on ten size and ten industry portfolios reveals significant idiosyncratic premia for most portfolios. Overall, we reject the static CAPM in favor of the intertemporal CAPM.     

Resurrecting the weak credibility hypothesis in models of exchange-rate-based stabilization

We analyze how weak credibility affects the volatility of consumption spending in a model of exchange-rate-based stabilization that allows for both durable and nondurable goods. The inclusion of durables greatly improves the explanatory power of the weak credibility hypothesis. The hypothesis can account for the main qualitative properties of the boom–bust cycle provided the elasticity of durables expenditure with respect to Tobin's q is greater than the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. Moreover, the quantitative effects are very large. In numerical simulations based on conservative assumptions about the expenditure share of durables (20%) and wealth effects (none), aggregate consumption increases 17–22% and the real exchange rate appreciates 24–26% when the crawl decreases from 100% to zero for 3 years. In variants of the model that incorporate supply effects, the consumption boom is equally strong but appreciation of the real exchange rate rises to 30–40%.