Decentralizing lottery allocations in markets with indivisible commodities

Summary In economies with indivisible commodities, consumers tend to prefer lotteries in commodities. A potential mechanism for satisying these preferences is unrestricted purchasing and selling of lotteries in decentralized markets, as suggested in Prescott and Townsend [Int. Econ. Rev.25, 1–20]. However, this paper shows in several examples that such lottery equilibria do not always exist for economies with finitely many consumers. Other conditions are needed. In the examples, equilibrium and the associated welfare gains are realized if consumptions are bounded or if lotteries are based upon a common sunspot device as defined by Shell [mimeo, 1977] and Cass and Shell [J. Pol. Econ.91, 193–227]. The paper shows that any lottery equilibrium is either a Walrasian equilibrium or a sunspot equilibrium, but there are Walrasian and sunspot equilibria that are not lottery equilibria.This paper is based on Chapter 3 of my doctoral dissertation, written while I was a student at Cornell University. I thank Larry Blume, Yue Yun Chen, David Easley, Aditya Goenka, John Marshall, Bruce Smith, John Wooders and an anonymous referee. I am particularly grateful to Karl Shell and Cheng-Zhong Qin. I thank the Academic Senate at UCSB for financial support.     

Patterns in UK company innovation styles: New evidence from the CBI innovation trends survey

This paper reports on the results of an analysis at Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC) of the data from the 1996 and 1997 Survey of Innovation Trends conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in conjunction with the NatWest Bank in the UK. This is one of the few, direct surveys of innovation activity, as opposed to R&D and patenting actvity, which is conducted in the UK It is characterized by the fact that it asks responding firms to report on trends in a wide variety of aspects of their innovative behaviour. The central feature of the analysis in this paper is a factor analysis of the answers to a set of 15 questions on different aspects of innovative behaviour. This results in a three-factor solution which reveals three distinct ‘styles’ of innovation in the behaviour of respondents. These three styles are shown to be broadly applicable to both manufacturing industry firms and service industry firms in the sample, thus revealing a dimension of innovation in the service sector which is not so readily disclosed by analysis of R&D or patent statistics. Statistical modelling of the constraints and incentives influencing innovation shows that while constraints do not appear to be very significant, competitive pressure and the utilization of collaborative linkages are strongly positively associated with innovation, and especially with a more radical s o b of innovation. Ihe paper concludes that the CBI survey provides data about innovation in the UK which are not easily provided through other means. Its format allows certain aspects of innovation—particularly the similarities and differences between manufacturing and services —to be examined in an interesting way.     

From the Digital Internet to the Physical Internet: A Conceptual Framework With a Stylized Network Model

Despite the increasing academic interest and financial support for the Physical Internet (PI), surprisingly little is known about its operationalization and implementation. In this paper, we suggest studying the PI on the basis of the Digital Internet (DI), which is a well‐established entity. We propose a conceptual framework for the PI network using the DI as a starting point, and find that the PI network not only needs to solve the reachability problem, that is, how to route an item from A to B, but also must confront a more complicated optimality problem, that is, how to dynamically optimize a set of additional logistics‐related metrics such as cost, emissions and time for a shipment. These last issues are less critical for the DI and handled using relatively simpler procedures. Based on our conceptual framework, we then propose a simple network model using graph theory to support the operationalization of the PI. The model covers the characteristics of the PI raised in the current literature and suggests future directions for further quantitative analyses.     

Rod F. Ziemer**

This paper investigates the effect of disequilibrium prices on consumer and producer surplus in the U.S. fed beef market. An econometric model which allows for the possibility of prices that do not clear the market was used in the analysis. Results indicated that (I) the effect of disequilibrium prices in the U.S. fed beef market in the 1960s was relatively small compared to the 1970s and (2) recent price controls on beef caused price distortions that yielded surplus gains to consumers while producers suffered surplus losses. Cet article a pour but de déterminer ?effet du déséquilibre des prix sur le surplus du consommateur et du producteur dans le marché des bovins ?alimentation, aux Etats- Unis. Dans cette analyse, nous avons utilisé un modele économétrique qui peut s'appliquer aux cas où les prix ne sonl pas à la situation ?équilibre. Les résullats indiquent que: (1) ?effet do déséquilibre des prix dans les années 60 aux Etats- Unit était relativement modeste compareéà?effet enregistré dans les années 70; (2) les récents contrölles de prix imposés sur les bovins ont causé des distortions de prix. lesquelles distortions ont entrainé un accroissement du surplus du consommateur au détriment du surplus du producteur.     

Comparing the impact of leader–member exchange,psychological empowerment and affective commitment upon Australian public and private sector nurses: implications for retention

This study uses Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) theory to test the associations between the supervisor–subordinate relationship, psychological empowerment and affective commitment amongst 1283 nurses working in Australian public and private hospitals. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, analysed and presented. The findings show that the quality of LMX is more important in public sector nursing contexts than in the private sector with regard to the relationship between empowerment and affective commitment. Furthermore, the relationship between empowerment and affective commitment is stronger for nurses in public sector organisations with low-quality LMX than for nurses in public sector organisations with high-quality LMX. As empowerment and affective commitment are both predictors of staff retention, the findings can assist in developing targeted current and future retention strategies for healthcare management.     

Understanding Attitude and Behavior of Canadian Consumers Toward Organic Wine

The main objective of this study is to identify the determinants of organic wine purchase and understand their effect in order to illustrate what influences whether Canadian consumers are willing to buy this special type of wine. The data for this study were collected across Canada by means of an online self-administered consumer questionnaire survey. Our major findings indicate that the attitude toward organic wine is defined mainly by consumers’ health consciousness and is negatively influenced by the wine involvement pleasure experienced with regular wine. Interestingly, Canadians are not forming positive attitudes toward organic wine based on their knowledge of organic production and its offering. The main predictors of organic wine purchase are attitude toward organic wine and wine involvement interest. Unexpectedly, price consciousness was not found to be a good predictor of organic wine purchase.     

Intellectual Property Rights and Economic Growth

Interest in links between protection of intellectual property and growth has been revived by developments in new growth theory and by the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement. The relationship between the strength of a country’s intellectual property rights (IPRs) regime and rate of growth is ambiguous from a theoretical standpoint, reflecting the variety of channels through which technology can be acquired and their differing importance at different stages of development. We investigate the impact of IPR protection on economic growth in a panel of 79 countries using threshold regression analysis. We show that whilst the effect of IPR protection on growth depends upon the level of development, it is positively and significantly related to growth for low‐ and high‐income countries, but not for middle‐income countries. This suggests that, although IPR protection encourages innovation in high‐income countries, and technology flows to low‐income countries, middle‐income countries may have offsetting losses from reduced scope for imitation.