Multiple product qualities in monopoly: Sailing the RMS Titanic into the economics classroom

In this pedagogical contribution the authors extend the traditional three-class tariff employed in the French passenger railway system with the more resonant story of the service quality variations associated with the three passenger classes of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. In doing so, they provide economics instructors with an opportunity to integrate the well-known motion picture Titanic (Cameron and Landau 1997 Cameron, J., and J. Landau. 1997. Titanic. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Lightstorm Entertainment. [Google Scholar]) into the teaching of economics. This article provides instructors with resources that can be used to link historical and modern travel examples of price discrimination in order for students to reach a “deeper understanding of course concepts” (Salemi 2002 Salemi, M. K. 2002. An illustrated case for active learning. Southern Economic Journal 68 (3): 721–31.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 725).     

Exploring how innovation strategies at time of crisis influence performance: a cluster analysis perspective

This paper analyzes the connection between innovation activities of companies – implemented before crisis – and their performance – measured at time of crisis. The companies listed in the STAR Market Segment of the Italian Stock Exchange are analyzed. Innovation is measured through the level of investments in total tangible and intangible fixed assets in 2006–2007, while performance is captured through growth – expressed by variations of sales, total assets and employees – profitability – through ROI or ROS – and productivity – through asset turnover or sales per employee in the period 2008–2010. The variables of interest are analyzed and compared through statistical techniques and by adopting cluster analysis. In particular, a Voronoi tessellation is also implemented in a varying centroids framework. In accord with a large part of the literature, we find that the behaviour of the performance of the companies is not univocal when they innovate.     

Demographic Transition and Economic Development in Karnataka

The universal process of population change has significant attainment of social and economic implications at global level. Demographic transition is not only consisting of population growth tendency but much more along with economic consequences Karnataka is in the third stage of demographic transition and this scenario is marked with opportunities and challenges. This paper examines the demographic trends of Karnataka by using different Census data collected from Census reports and time series data over the time period of 1991–2014 collected from SRS. The fertility and mortality levels in the state have declined considerably. The districts in the Karnataka state have shown considerable increment in HDI from decade to decade. The study used the bound testing approach to co-integration; Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model was also applied for analyzing the long run relationship whereas Error Correction Mechanism (ECM) was applied for analyzing the short run link of the demographic variables with economic growth. The study exhibited that the demographic transition positively affected the economic growth in the long run and negatively in the short run.

     

An Empirical Analysis of the Average Plant Start-Up Size in Turkish Manufacturing Industries

Many studies have found start-up size of a firm to be an important determinant of its subsequent performance and probability of survival. The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of average plant start-up size in 51 four-digit Turkish manufacturing industries for the period 1993?C1999. The results of the study suggest that while industry characteristics such as industry growth rate and capital intensity have a positive impact on the average plant start-up size, industrial concentration, import penetration, and the change in research and development expenditures are negatively associated with the same variable. In addition, the macroeconomic environment is also an important determinant of the choice of plant start-up size. Finally, we find evidence that may indicate ??following?? (herd) behavior in Turkish manufacturing industries.     

A profit assessment model for equipment inspection and replacement under renewing free replacement warranty policy

For many types of equipment whose maintenance requires skilled labor or whose random failure may have serious consequences, such as aircraft engines, medical equipment and others, customers generally prefer to entrust maintenance activities to the manufacturer or any of its representatives. The latter must, in turn, provide the customer with a maintenance program that is economically viable for both parties. In this study, the customer and the manufacturer agree on what follows regarding a non-self-announcing failure equipment whose state is only known through inspection: during the warranty period, the manufacturer inspects the equipment according to a specified schedule which he establishes taking into account that the costs incurred for inspections and replacements are supported by him during the warranty period. After the expiration of the warranty, inspections and replacements are performed by the manufacturer and billed to the customer. Moreover, penalties related to inactivity periods between failures and their detection are always supported by the manufacturer. The warranty is applicable to any equipment replaced during the validity period of the service contract. This type of contract generates a profit for the manufacturer. In this paper, an analytical model taking into account the commitments of both parties has been developed. The model allows generating the instants (x₁, x₂,…, x_n) at which the inspections must be performed and the corresponding expected profit for the manufacturer while considering the warranty period offered on the market for similar equipment. An algorithm has also been developed to generate the inspection instants given the costs structure and the lifetime probability distribution of the equipment. In a context where business models argue for a greater implication of suppliers towards their customers, the proposed decision model may be relevant and very useful.     

Tax Interaction Effects,Environmental Regulation,and “Rule of Thumb” Adjustments to Social Cost

Preexisting distortions in factor markets complicate the estimation of the social welfare effects of regulatory interventions. The existence of these tax interaction effects (TIEs) suggests that general equilibrium (GE) approaches should be used to evaluate regulatory policies. However, formal GE analysis is not always feasible for the numerous environmental regulations proposed by federal, state, and local agencies. The question addressed in this paper is whether an empirically based rule of thumb upward adjustment factor is appropriate to properly scale social cost estimates in environmental policy. We argue that such rule of thumb adjustments are significantly less reliable than estimates based on a detailed general equilibrium analysis because of the uncertainty about both the magnitude and sign of the social cost distortion. In addition to addressing this question, the paper gives an overview of TIEs and their relevance to environmental policy.     

A Survey and a Theoretical Model of Distance Education Programs

In search of a distance education programs crucial success factors, this research was conducted through a designed survey and evaluation instrument, for a predominantly doctoral program at DE University (DEU, an adopted name). Also, the survey has identified some challenging factors along with students most crucial reasons for adopting distance education programs. The author has presented a Testable theoretical model of distance education programs. The top four success factors were revealed to be program quality, general recognition and academic integrity, students satisfaction, and students progress toward the ultimate goal of graduation. Lack of time and worries about the degree recognition by prospective academic and nonacademic employers were the most crucial challenging factors.The 57th International Atlantic Economic Conference Lisbon, Portugal, March 10–14. This research is appreciably funded by a research grant from Walden University.     

Endogenous fertility and modified Pareto-optimality

In a world of endogenous fertility, where the number of descendants is an integral part of the economic allocation, the traditional concept of Pareto-optimality cannot be applied any longer: the number of individuals to be present on earth may vary between any two allocations we wish to compare. Therefore, the concept needs to be modified in order to give new life to the discussion of economic efficiency. This work introduces a straightforward variation of the Pareto-principle and characterizes the optimality of economic allocations according to this concept. It is shown that some of the well-known traditional results on intertemporal optimality do no longer hold. In particular, lump-sum tax instruments (or the rearrangement of initial endowments) are no longer a sufficient tool to achieve efficiency. Received: March 2003, Accepted: September 2005 This work has greatly benefitted from comments by Oded Galor, Karl Shell, Vasco Santos and an excellent anonymous referee. Many thanks to the Editor of this Journal for providing an impeccable refereeing process. Support by the European Union via the Human Capital and Mobility Grant #ERBCHBICT941218 is gratefully acknowledged.     

On Input and Output Translation Homotheticity

This note determines necessary and sufficient conditions for a production technology to exhibit both input translation homotheticity and output translation homotheticity without invoking joint efficiency.