Price integration in the Australian rock lobster industry: implications for management and climate change adaptation

Rock lobster fisheries are Australia's most valuable wild fisheries in terms of both value of production and value of exports. Different states harvest and export different lobster species, with most of the landings being sent to the Hong Kong market. A perception in the Australian lobster industry is that the different species are independent on the export market, such that a change in landings of one species has no impact on the price of the others. This study investigates the market integration of Australian exports to Hong Kong for the four species and different exporting states. Our results indicate all four species and producers/export states are perceived to be substitutes for one another, so that, in the long run, prices paid to operators in the industry will move together. The integrated nature of the Hong Kong export market for Australian lobster suggests that the potential impacts of alternative fisheries management and development strategies at state and species levels cannot be considered in isolation, at least from an economic perspective. In addition, impacts of external shocks affecting production in one state (e.g. climate change) can be expected to affect all Australian lobster fisheries.     

The emergence of the Big Five in Sweden

The accounting profession is dominated by the Big Five, which in 1999 and in order of revenue size were PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Arthur Andersen. A specific feature of the profession in Sweden is that three firms dominate the market –; PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG – while Arthur Andersen and Deloitte & Touche are of less relative importance compared with their standing in other countries. The objective of this paper is to explore the development of the auditing profession in Sweden 1912–99, in order to find the growth strategies that generated today's structure. Particular attention will be paid to the gradual emergence of the Big Five. The Big Three auditing firms in Sweden in 1999 engaged 55% (1,105 authorized public accountants) of the total population of authorized public accountants. However, the proportion of ‘sole practitioners’, i.e. firms with no more than one authorized public accountant, was 81% in the same year. An overwhelming part of the auditing firms in Sweden are thus very small. It seems quite obvious that the activities within these small firms in many important ways differ from the activities within the medium-sized and big firms. A common feature of the firms that subsequently became the Big Three in Sweden is that they were established at a very early stage. There seems to have been a first-mover advantage in the auditing profession. The Big Three firms have adopted different growth strategies. They have increased in size by organic growth, by establishing or buying branch offices in different parts of Sweden or by merging with large firms.     

ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION AND EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION ABOUT PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION

We introduce asymmetric information about consumers’ transportation costs (i.e., the degree of product differentiation) in the model of Hotelling. When transportation costs are high, both firms have lower profits with asymmetric information than with perfect information. Contrarily, if transportation costs are low, both firms may prefer the asymmetric information scenario (the informed firm always prefers the informational advantage, while the uninformed firm may or may not prefer to remain uninformed). Information exchange is ex‐ante advantageous for both firms, but ex‐post damaging if transportation costs turn out to be low. If the information is unverifiable, the informed firm does not represent a reliable source of information, since it always prefers to announce that transportation costs are high and there is no contract that induces truthful revelation.     

China and Japan: Culture,economics, and geopolitics in the quest for a leading international role

The Western view of China and Japan is often based on a perception that they are both Confucian and, therefore, are more similar than is actually the case. Although both do share some fundamental characteristics of Asian culture, certain unique features of each, particularly at the level of social relationships and cultural landmarks, make them quite different. Analysing what these features are allows us to understand what influence they have on personal choices and on the decisions of leaders on important issues in these countries. The Asian financial crisis of 1997–99 can be taken as a useful acid test for evaluating the different decision‐making capacities of the Chinese and Japanese leaders. Currency devaluation, exchange rate intervention, banking system restructuring, economic reforms, and responses to international pressure were the main areas in which government action took place. Interpreting the decisions made in these areas from a geographical‐cultural perspective provides a solid basis for analysing geopolitical dynamics and the ‘global’ prospects of the two most important nations of the Far East.     

Does Cue competition reduce conditioned liking of brands and products?

The present studies investigated whether the visual co‐presentation of a brand name and a product visual increases or decreases the acquisition of liking toward these stimuli in a conditioning paradigm. In Study 1, participants were presented with an elemental brand name, an elemental product visual, or a compound of both stimuli, along with liked faces. Results indicated that the mere pairing with the liked face led to increased liking in the elemental condition, but not in the compound condition (i.e., cue competition). Study 2 showed that this effect is due to the divided attention toward the compound, but not due to competition among conditioned stimuli (CSs) to predict the unconditioned stimulus (US). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Financial Majordomo,More than VIP Sprvice

From cradle to grave For high net worth individuals (HINWIs), private banking involves a scientific management of wealth, risk,and stable growth of wealth value.     

Registration of longitudinal data by means of musical notation: some applications

Graphic representation of complicated courses is often necessary to detect patterns that may be worth analysing. Examples are given to show how musical notation or modifications of musical notation may be used to register courses (or cross-sectional data) with more variables than usual. One can register courses with known duration of components (and then also simultaneities); the time scale may be defined according to data. One can also register sequences without known duration of components. Finally the method can be modified so as to suit cross-sectional data. The method can be used to register a single case but also a group of cases that are thus rendered comparable. It is a method of registration, not of analysis but one that may help prepare a refined analysis.     

A short history of algebraic statistics

In algebraic statistics, computational techniques from algebraic geometry become tools to address statistical problems. This, in turn, may prompt research in algebraic geometry. The basic ideas at the core of algebraic statistics will be presented. In particular, we shall consider application to contingency tables and to design of experiments.