CAPITAL AGGREGATION IN THE PRESENCE OF OBSOLESCENCE-INDUCING TECHNICAL CHANGE

The major question addressed is the treatment of capital embodied technical progress. Should Obsolescence be deducted to calculate a net stock, or should quality adjustments be made in each vintage of new capital, or both, or neither? In order to estimate the contribution of new investment to growth it is necessary to use a capital stock where different vintages are weighted in proportion to their marginal products. The commonly used gross capital measures do not do this, because they do not allow for the higher marginal product of more modern capital. Such an allowance for capital embodied technical progress can be made either by quality adjusting new capital or by incorporating obsolescence into the valuation of the old capital (but not both). However, even if new capital incorporates an allowance for improved quality, it will still be necessary to revalue the old capital. Frequently, a reasonable approximation to the net capital stock results from a linear decline in quasi-rents and can be approximated by published estimates of the stock of capital net of straight line depreciation. Steady technical progress will not lead to the commonly used exponential service decline functions. To avoid overestimating the return to investment when technology changes it will be necessary to use information on capital embodied technical change to revalue old capital, rather than to change the price indices for new capital.     

Industrial cogeneration and regulatory policy

The 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA) fostered decentralized generation of electricity, particularly in the form of cogeneration. A model of a firms' decision to cogenerate is developed that illustrates both the interface between the firm and an electric utility, and the firm's internal interface between its primary product and cogeneration technologies. The model is used to show that the firm may operate inefficiently in both the short run and long run owing to the fixed-proportions technology of cogeneration and PURPA mandated operating procedures, respectively. Cogenerating firms that dump heat into the atmosphere may signal inefficient behavior; therefore, monitoring heat dumping may be important in measuring the success of cogeneration.     

美国反倾销诉讼案上升的历史透视

原载:http://www.nber.org/papers/w10582一、引言反倾销条款作为美国贸易法的一个组成部分虽然已有80多年的历史,但只是在近20年间才格外引人注目。在美国的贸易政策中,反倾销在过去一直不引人注意,实际上,直到Finger,Hall和Nelso(1982)写出了开拓性的论文之后,才有这方面的经济研究。从此,对反倾销政策的研究几乎全都集中在1980年以来的这段时间里。因此,我们对1980年以前的反倾销法规的运用知之甚少,对逐渐转向更频繁地运用反倾销补救措施的程度亦知之甚少。本文旨在用历史的观点研究美国近来的反倾销,特别关注二战以来这段时间。这一…     

Comprehensive assessment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation using deterministically linked administrative claims and patient-reported data: the Chronic Constipation and IBS-C Treatment and Outcomes Real-World Research Platform (CONTOR)

Abstract

Aims

To characterize a US population of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC) using CONTOR, a real-world longitudinal research platform that deterministically linked administrative claims data with patient-reported outcomes data among patients with these conditions.     

Income Redistribution with Well-Informed Local Governments

This paper examines the problem of redistributing incomeacross jurisdictions and to mobile workers within jurisdictionswhen local governments have better information than the centralgovernment about local production conditions. Under the centralgovernments optimal policy, the subsidies or taxes that localgovernments provide to mobile workers normally depend on whetherthese governments are net recipients or net donors of interjurisdictionalincome transfers. Moreover, the public-input decisions of somelocal governments are distorted. The analysis demonstrates thatit may not be desirable to harmonize social policies across jurisdictions,even when the beneficiaries are quite mobile.     

Inventory accuracy in 60 days!

Despite great advances in manufacturing technology and management science, thousands of organizations still don't have a handle on basic inventory accuracy. Many companies don't even measure it properly, or at all, and lack corrective action programs to improve it. This article offers an approach that has proven successful a number of times, when companies were quite serious about making improvements. Not only can it be implemented, but also it can likely be implemented within 60 days per area, if properly managed. The hardest part is selling people on the need to improve and then keeping them motivated. The net cost of such a program? Probably less than nothing, since the benefits gained usually far exceed the costs. Improved inventory accuracy can aid in enhancing customer service, determining purchasing and manufacturing priorities, reducing operating costs, and increasing the accuracy of financial records. This article also addresses the gap in contemporary literature regarding accuracy program features for repetitive, JIT, cellular, and process- and project-oriented environments.