On measures of technical inefficiency and production uncertainty in stochastic frontier production model with correlated error components

Analysis of the behavior of technical inefficiency with respect to parameters and variables of a stochastic frontier model is a neglected area of research in frontier literature. An attempt in this direction, however, has recently been made. It has been shown that in a “standard” stochastic frontier model that both the firm level technical inefficiency and the production uncertainty are monotonically decreasing with observational error. In this paper we show, considering a stochastic frontier model whose error components are jointly distributed as truncated bivariate normal, that this property holds if and only if the distribution of observational error is negatively skewed. We also derive a necessary and sufficient condition under which both firm level technical inefficiency and production uncertainty are monotonically increasing with noise-inefficiency correlation. We next propose a new measure of the industry level production uncertainty and establish the necessary and sufficient condition for firm level technical inefficiency and production uncertainty to be monotonically increasing with industry level production uncertainty. We also study the limiting probabilistic behavior of these conditions under different parametric configuration of our model. Finally we carry out Monte Carlo simulations to study the sample behavior of the population monotonic property of the firm level technical inefficiency and production uncertainty in our model.

On the frontier between possibility and impossibility theorems in social choice

This paper attemts to make precise the frontier between possibility and impossibility theorems in social choice. It is shown that some criterion of rejection of some alternative is the critical factor. In the absence of such a condition, it is possible to construct a fairly wide class of “democratic” decision rules which satisfies a class of consistency conditions. Any one of these, together with the criterion of rejection, generates a power structure similar to the ones discovered by Arrow, Gibbard, and others when the decision rule is required to satisfy the weak Pareto principle and the independence condition.     

Efficient bargaining,welfare and strategic export policy

We present an efficient bargaining model and analyse the welfare effects of unionization, where rival exporting governments employ strategic export policy. The domestic firm is unionized and conducts a Nash bargain with its union to determine wage and employment. The union may be wage oriented, wage neutral or employment oriented. The foreign firm is non-unionized. Stability of the reaction function equilibrium in policy space is sufficient for the following results: (i) domestic welfare increases with the degree of wage orientation; (ii) an increase in the union's bargaining power leads to higher (lower) domestic welfare if the union is wage (employment) oriented; (iii) if the domestic social marginal cost of labour is less than or equal to the foreign marginal cost, domestic market share is higher under wage orientation.     

Responsible Marketing: Can Social Enterprises Show the Way?

In this article, the authors present a new perspective on responsible marketing. We discuss if and how social enterprises can present a new understanding of responsible marketing. Relevant publications (14 on social entrepreneurship, 40 on marketing in non-profit organizations and social enterprises and 41 papers on marketing) are selected and reviewed. The result of the literature analysis and synthesis show that social enterprises can gain from a more formal, systematic approach to marketing. Since social enterprises prioritize social goals over business results, successful adoption of marketing policies and practices can help then create a blueprint for responsible marketing. Marketing of socially relevant products and services by social enterprises thus create a new paradigm of responsible marketing. Such models can also be useful for larger corporations who look at social business and shared value creation as part of their business and marketing strategy.     

Situating the tourist gaze: from appropriation to negotiation

For decades, scholars have emphasized the power of the Western tourist gaze to construct Third World destinations as the ‘Exotic Other'. Scholars have also shown that ‘Third World’ tourism fuelled by media fantasies of the Other represents neo-colonization in the twenty-first century. However, considering all its intentions/claims of impartiality, tourism research has generally travelled in only one direction (from the West to the East). In this study, conducted in Goa and Puducherry, focusing on the social contexts in which people are viewed and photographed, we ask – what do the ‘Third World’ people think of Westerners gazing at them, and their surroundings? How do Western tourists react when photographed by domestic tourists? What are the power relations within which the photographer and the photographed are located? We recognize that no simplistic analyses are possible in the postcolonial context. Directing a critical lens at the tourist gaze, this essay moves from an understanding of the gaze as appropriating to that of the gaze as negotiated.     

Offshoring Quotas and Strategic Export Subsidies

We present an analysis of strategic export subsidization in the presence of exogenous limits on the extent of offshoring that is permissible for a domestic firm. Rather than offsetting a quota’s cost-raising effect, the government reduces its optimal strategic subsidy compounding the negative effects on the domestic firm’s market share. This double jeopardy of lower subsidies and greater offshoring restrictions must reduce domestic profits as well as domestic welfare. Finally, we show that there is no guarantee that such an offshoring quota will raise domestic employment in the oligopolistic sector, calling into question the efficacy of such a barrier.     

A cross-cultural study of influence strategies and satisfaction in marketing channels

The relationship between communication in the form of influence strategies used by suppliers in marketing channels and dealer satisfaction is examined in the two diverse cultures of the US and India. The frequencies of use of six types of influence strategies by suppliers-information exchange, recommendation, request, promise, threat and legal plea-are measured. The same measurement scales for the six influence strategies and dealer satisfaction are applied in the electric lamp and lighting equipment channels in the two countries. In both cultures, a structural equation model relating the influence strategies with dealer satisfaction is found to be statistically significant. However, when the impact of individual influence strategies on dealer satisfaction is considered, differences are found between the two countries. In the US, recommendations affect dealer satisfaction positively whereas requests and threats affect it negatively. In India, recommendations and legal pleas impact on dealer satisfaction positively.     

Distribution Costs and International Trade: A Ricardian Model

This paper studies the role of the distribution sector in determining a country's pattern and terms of trade. The effect of an improvement in distribution technology is analyzed using a Ricardian trade model with an endogenous distribution sector. The results are found to depend on the magnitude of distribution costs relative to manufacturing costs and preference for distribution services in the trading countries. This has important implications for the Structural Impediments Initiative, which maintains that a more efficient distribution sector in Japan would benefit both the USA and Japan.