An exchange economy can have an empty α-core

Summary Yannelis has shown that under very mild conditions on preferences, a 2-agent exchange economy has a nonempty -core [4, Corollary 4.2]. The purpose of the present paper is to demonstrate that an exchange economy with three or more agents can have an empty -core. Hence, Yannelis' result would not extend to three or more agents. Examples are provided with and without free disposal, and all preferences are described by linear utility functions. These results are compared with those of Scarf [3], who proved the existence of an -core solution for a large class ofn-person games. The comparison is carried out on two levels. First, since Scarf [3] and Yannelis [4] use different definitions for the -core of an exchange economy, we compare these definitions. Second, the present results show that a natural extension of Scarf's theorem forn-person games fails if certain feasibility constraints are incorporated.I am grateful to Nicholas Yannelis, Atsushi Kajii, Stephan Krasa, and an anonymous referee for their comments, and to a second anonymous referee whose suggestion substantially simplified the 3-agent example.     

A measure of service quality for retail stores: Scale development and validation

Current measures of service quality do not adequately capture customers’ perceptions of service quality for retail stores (i.e., stores that offer a mix of goods and services). A hierarchical factor structure is proposed to capture dimensions important to retail customers based on the retail and service quality literatures as well as three separate qualitative studies. Confirmatory factor analysis based on the partial disaggregation technique and cross-validation using a second sample support the validity of the scale as a measure of retail service quality. The implications of this Retail Service Quality Scale for practitioners, as well as for future research, are discussed. She received her Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Her research interests include attitude and choice models, service quality and customer satisfaction issues, technology in service delivery, and business-to-business relationships. She has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, Journal of Health Care Management, International Journal of Research in Marketing, andPsychology and Marketing, as well as in various conference proceedings. She also holds a B.S. and an M.S. from Florida State University and an M.B.A. from Mercer University. Her research interests include services marketing, service quality, retailing, and manager-employee relationships. Her publications include articles in theJournal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, The Service Industries Journal, and in various conference proceedings. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. His research interests include cohort analysis, measurement issues, generalizability studies, and customer satisfaction. He has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, as well as in several conference proceedings.     

The language of leaders

Information fatigue, analysis paralysis, communications gridlock: These and other terms entered the business lexicon with the rapid acceleration of information technology and globalization in the late 20th century. Taken together, these terms paint a picture of an increasingly complex workplace and hint at the challenges facing leaders in the 21st century. Today's leaders cannot afford to focus solely on the inspirational rhetoric that their predecessors used to build commitment. In fact, we argue that there are four significant objectives that leaders must accomplish with their language: building and breaking down commitment and building and breaking down understanding. By focusing on all four objectives, leaders engage the hearts (through commitment) and minds (through understanding) of their followers. We draw from literature in communication, management, organizational behavior, and psychology to describe and illustrate techniques and objectives with contemporary examples of executives such as Steve Jobs of Apple Computer and Gary Kelly of Southwest Airlines. By providing a thoughtful analysis of the critical language objectives and techniques in a contemporary context, we not only highlight cutting‐edge work on leader communication, but also provide actionable insights for leaders, researchers, and students who want to improve their understanding and execution of the language of leadership.     

An Agent-Based Model of Border Enforcement for Invasive Species Management

This paper presents a model of border enforcement in order to address trade‐related invasive species risk. An agent‐based modeling (ABM) framework was developed based on a theoretical economic model that incorporates a spatially explicit damage function. The framework was applied to a representative commodity (broccoli), invasive species (crucifer flea beetle), ports‐of‐entry (Calexico and Otay Mesa U.S./Mexico land ports), and vulnerable location (California). The ABM evaluated the economic impacts of port‐specific and importer‐specific enforcement regimes, enabling regulators to improve both the allocation of scarce enforcement resources and the effectiveness of current enforcement policies. The analysis generated several policy relevant findings concerning importing firm behavior and suggests conditions under which increasing enforcement may or may not significantly reduce invasive species risk and associated crop damages. The analysis illustrates that with a more realistic parameterization, the ABM could be used to make real‐world policy decisions concerning allocation of limited resources across ports‐of‐entry. Dans le présent article, nous présentons un modèle de renforcement des frontières pour examiner le risque d'introduction d'espèces envahissantes par le biais d'échanges commerciaux. Nous avons élaboré un modèle multiagent fondé sur un modèle économique théorique qui intègre une fonction de dommage spatiale. Nous avons appliqué ce modèle à une denrée représentative (le brocoli), à une espèce envahissante (l'altise des crucifères), à des points d'entrée (les points d'entrée terrestre de Calexico et d'Otay Mesa à la frontière des États?Unis et du Mexique) et à un endroit vulnérable (la Californie). Le modèle multiagent a évalué les répercussions économiques des régimes de renforcement spécifiques à un point d'entrée et à un importateur, permettant aux organismes de réglementation d'améliorer à la fois l'allocation des ressources de renforcement qui sont rares et l'efficacité des politiques de renforcement actuelles. L'analyse a généré plusieurs résultats quant aux politiques concernant le comportement des entreprises importatrices et indique des conditions dans lesquelles l'accroissement du renforcement pourrait diminuer considérablement ou pas le risque d'introduction d'espèces envahissantes pouvant causer des dommages aux cultures. L'analyse a montré que, à l'aide d'une paramétrisation plus réaliste, le modèle multiagent pourrait être utilisé pour prendre des décisions stratégiques du monde réel quant à l'allocation des ressources limitées dans les points d'entrée.     

Cheating? The Case of Producers’ Under‐Reporting Behavior in Hog Insurance in China

Information asymmetry exists in virtually every insurance setting. The institutional arrangement of hog insurance in China offers a unique opportunity to investigate the farmer's behavior of under‐reporting the actual number of finished hogs on one hand, and the insurer's efficiency in determining the actual numbers on the other. Using data on 444 hog operators synchronized from farm production survey and insurance records, results showed that farmers report on average 11.5% fewer hogs to the insurance company. The level of under‐reporting is positively associated with the size of operation. Farmers with longer farming experience and more conservative risk attitude report more accurately. The under‐report behavior is also partially attributed to a farmer's limited capacity of accurate estimation. Due to information barrier, the insurance company is only able to recover 18.6% of the under‐report at the indemnity payment stage. Results are robust after controlling for potential sample selection problems. It is suggested that technical supports, public programs and premium incentive designs in repeated insurance should be considered to promote more accurate reports.     

Characteristics of Asian and white female business owners

Abstract The study was designed to compare the demographic profile, business characteristics and entrepreneurial profile of Asian and white women owning small businesses in the clothing sector in Manchester. Data were collected through personal interviews administered to a population of 60 women (30 Asian and 30 white). Results revealed that the Asian and white entrepreneurs differed significantly in their level of education, type of family and family size. The business characteristics assessed by the entrepreneurs themselves were similar. The majority of Asian entrepreneurs had prior experience of business ownership. In addition, these respondents mentioned a desire to earn more money as the primary reason for starting their venture, whereas the white entrepreneurs were motivated by the feeling of independence that they obtained through ownership. Only a few respondents had received any business-related training during the start-up phase. Personal savings and family contributions were most commonly cited as major capital sources used to start the business. The biggest problem for Asian respondents concerned the management of business, whereas for white women it was attracting customers. Our results raise broader concerns regarding the formulation and implementation of special policy measures designed to assist female business owners in the small-business sector.     

Correction to: The stories groups tell: campaign finance reform and the narrative networks of cultural cognition

Quality & Quantity - The article “The stories groups tell, campaign finance reform and the narrative networks of cultural cognition”, written by “Aaron Smith-Walter, Michael...     

Fourth order pseudo maximum likelihood methods

We extend PML theory to account for information on the conditional moments up to order four, but without assuming a parametric model, to avoid a risk of misspecification of the conditional distribution. The key statistical tool is the quartic exponential family, which allows us to generalize the PML2 and QGPML1 methods proposed in Gourieroux et al. (1984) to PML4 and QGPML2 methods, respectively. An asymptotic theory is developed. The key numerical tool that we use is the Gauss-Freud integration scheme that solves a computational problem that has previously been raised in several fields. Simulation exercises demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of the methods.     

The challenge of increasing minority-group professional representation in the United States: intriguing findings

Census statistics highlight the increasing diversity of the populace in the United States. However, minority-group Americans continue to be under-represented in professional occupations. Six propositions for low minority-group professional presence in US organizations are that under-representation is due to leader racial insensitivity, discrimination, the (small) pipeline of minority-group professional employees, (un)equal opportunity theory, rational person economic theory, and low organizational diversity strategic priority. We describe and explore these six arguments with related empirical tests. Results indicated that leader-rated importance of cultural change, above and beyond leader racial awareness, influenced representation. The more specific strategies of diversity recruitment and provision of performance feedback also predicted minority-group representation, while diversity as an organizational strategic priority did not. We discuss the implications of these findings and present directions for future research.     

Combining Household Income and Expenditure Data in Policy Simulations

The analysis of the distributional impact of fiscal policy proposals often requires information on household expenditures and incomes. It is unusual to have one data source with information on both and this problem is generally overcome with statistical matching of independent data sources. In this paper Grade Correspondence Analysis (GCA) is investigated as a tool to improve the matching process. GCA draws out the relationships between the common variables to enable the sample to be partitioned into more homogeneous groups, prior to matching. An evaluation is conducted using the UK Family Expenditure Survey, which is unusual in containing both income and expenditure at a detailed level of disaggregation. Imputed expenditures are compared with actual expenditures through the use of indirect tax simulations. The most successful methods are then employed to enhance data from the Family Resources Survey and the synthetic dataset is used as a microsimulation model database.