IMPERFECT INFORMATION AND THE CHOICE BETWEEN COLLUSION AND HORIZONTAL MERGER

If the payoff obtained by the parties of an agreement depends on the values set for variables the value of which cannot be described precisely or monitored accurately, then the first best outcome may not be achieved. It is shown here that in some cases a second best long term agreement gives the parties a higher payoff, in other cases a short term arrangement is preferred. The interpretation of this result given in the paper is that when a long term contract is preferable, then firms are unable to commit themselves to it through a collusive agreement, and they will try to merge. Vice versa, no need to integrate arises when the preferred second best agreement is the short term one. The last section provides an example, where advertisement effort is non-contractible, while prices are.     

More bang for the buck: Getting the most from accident investigations

An Incident Investigation system based on a combination of Fault Tree Analysis logic and the Deming Principles of Systems and Quality was developed during a three-year period. The system was given an excellent test in the investigation of the explosion of a tank car filled with methacrylic acid. In this case, the Event Tree constructed during the investigation was easily converted into a Fault Tree. The Fault Tree so constructed was then used to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed corrective changes to the production, loading, and analytical systems before the changes were actually implemented. By making use of these tools to guide the addition of feedback loops (“And” Gates in fault Tree terminology), the intrinsic safety of the methacrylic acid production and shipping system was greatly enhanced at a relatively low cost.     

Laboratory and large-scale dust explosion research

This paper describes dust explosibility research in full-scale experimental mines and a 20-L laboratory chamber at the U.S. Bureau of Mines and in a 1-m³ laboratory chamber at Fike Corporation. The purpose of this research is to improve safety in mining and other industries that manufacture, process, or use combustible dusts. As part of this work, carbonaceous dusts with a wide range of volatilities and various particle size distributions were studied. Laboratory data on the minimum explosible concentrations of predispersed dusts were comparable to mine data for nominal dust loadings that were dispersed by the aerodynamic disturbance from a gas ignition zone. Recommendations are given on the limitations of small-scale testing such as “overdriving” by too strong of an ignitor. The effect of dust particle size on explosibility data is illustrated for coal and aluminum dusts. For both dusts, the finest sizes were the most hazardous. The inerting requirements for preventing explosions were also measured in both laboratory and large-scale systems. All the data show relatively good agreement between the laboratory and the large-scale tests.     

Analyzing online reviews in hospitality: data-driven opportunities for predicting the sharing of negative emotional content

Hospitality is one of the sectors that are nowadays most heavily characterized by consumers’ tendency to share online reviews on dedicated digital platforms. While most past work has focused on understanding the effect of online reviews and ratings on consumers’ evaluation and purchase decisions, this research tackles the issue of what drives the sharing of certain types of online content. Specifically, we investigate the sharing of user-generated content characterized by negative emotional valence, and study the effect of two factors on the extent to which user-generated content contains negative emotions. One such factor is reviewer's expertise, while the other is hotel quality. Our analysis of 1200 TripAdvisor reviews on Italian hotels located in three major Italian cities confirm our hypothesis that expert reviewers might share reviews containing less intense negative emotional content compared to less expert reviewers especially when the hotel is of high quality. To support our hypothesis, we build on the research on psychological antecedents of word-of-mouth behaviour suggesting that expert consumers are particularly reluctant to share negative word-of-mouth to avoid projecting a negative image of themselves in social contexts, thus possibly damaging their reputation.     

Do satisfying walking and cycling trips result in more future trips with active travel modes? An exploratory study

Previous studies have indicated that travel satisfaction - the experienced emotions during, and cognitive evaluation of, a trip - can be affected by travel mode choice and other trip characteristics. However, as satisfactory trips might improve a person's attitude towards the used mode, persons may be more likely to use that same mode for future trips of the same kind. Hence, a cyclical process between travel mode choice and travel satisfaction might occur. In this paper we begin to analyse this process—using a structural equation modelling approach on cross-sectional data—for people who engage in walking and cycling for leisure trips in the Belgian city of Ghent. The focus on walking and cycling reflects recent studies indicating that active travel is often associated with the highest levels of travel satisfaction. Results of this exploratory analysis offer tentative support for the idea of a cyclical process: the evaluation of walking and cycling trips positively affects the respondents' attitude towards the respective mode, which in turn has a positive effect on choosing that mode.     

Golf Versus Nongolf Club Operations: Benchmarks for 2014

With the club industry comprising of different types of clubs, a more in-depth analysis separating clubs with and without golf operations would be beneficial. Financial performance can be summarized via financial ratios. This study surveyed 115 clubs regarding their financial performance and calculated 24 financial ratios for 2014. The median profit margin of all clubs was at 1.65%. Clubs with golf operations reported a median profit margin at 1.73%, doubling that of the nongolf operations at 0.83%. T-tests using means of financial ratios showed a statistically significantly difference in only the food inventory turnover by days.     

Farmland for tomorrow in densely populated areas

The paper describes the results of a research that aimed to come up with a well structured method to estimate future farmland requirements in densely populated areas. By using in depth interviews, scenario analysis and strategic orientation rounds, a method is developed to support policy optimization and to explore alternative future developments. The method is applied to the case of agriculture in the Flemish part of Belgium to show the feasibility of the model and to provide input for the discussion among policy makers in Flanders. The research results can be used by policy makers to build a new Spatial Plan Flanders for the period 2007–2013.     

Composite commodities, housing characteristics and the Hicksian surplus measures of welfare change

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on previous research that deals with the implications of alternative housing concepts for the estimation of the welfare effects of housing programs. We compare one housing concept, which defines housing in terms of a composite good housing services with an alternative in which housing is treated as a bundle of attributes. We extend the analysis in the literature by concentrating on welfare measures that are applicable to a much broader class of government programs than those that have been discussed before. We focus in the Hicksian surplus measures which are particularly suited to handle structure in which constraints on quantity are impused. In the theoretical sections we rigorously show that the Hicksian surplus measures of welfare change based on the composite good housing services will be biased whenever a housing program imposes restrictions on the consumption of attributes. The direction of the bias depends on the nature of the program. Empirical work confirms the predictions of the theoretical analysis.