An inquiry into the Ramsey-Hotelling connection

Ramsey’s 1928 Ramsey, F. P. 1928. “A Mathematical Theory of Saving.” Economic Journal 38 (152): 543–559. doi:10.2307/2224098[Crossref] , [Google Scholar] paper on saving and Hotelling’s 1931 article on exhaustible resources are considered to be two seminal contributions in economic dynamics. They have been associated because of their temporal proximity, use of the calculus of variations, and because of Hotelling’s citation of Ramsey. This connection however needs to be precisely investigated and characterized. On the basis of archival material, this paper shows that, on the interpersonal and theoretical ground, the connection is quite thin, but that significant parallels are found in Ramsey’s and Hotelling’s expectations with mathematical economics for the progress of science and for informing public decision.     

A gene to drug venture: Poisson options analysis

We provide a Poisson real option model of a gene‐to‐drug venture. First we describe a general new drug discovery programme as well as a specific secretory protein research programme. Then we model both the candidate secretory gene and the 'hot' gene discoveries as Poisson processes. Gene deal value sizes are modeled as lognormal distributions. Then we calculate the expected R&D value (EV) of the Poisson discoveries times the value distributions, for both stages. Finally, for generic collaborating‐funding arrangements, we show the Merton (1976) standard mixed diffusion‐jump option value, compared to a risk neutral 'intrinsic' value. Under simple assumptions, the real option value is substantial, even if there is no intrinsic value.     

Applying Industrial Design and Cost Engineering to New Product Development in Early‐Stage Firms

For early‐stage firms, successful commercialization of each new product is critically important, given the shortage of financial resources, the limited product portfolio, and small staffs typical of such firms. This paper investigates two key contributing factors for new product success in entrepreneurial firms: designing products that are appealing to target users in both form and function and designing products that can be manufactured at an attractive margin so that the new enterprise can generate much needed positive cash flow. These two practices—industrial design and cost engineering—are well studied in the context of larger, established corporations but have not been explored in the context of new ventures. This study focuses on the intensity of individual and combined adoption of design and cost engineering as measured by product development efficiency and effectiveness. The study was conducted on a homogeneous sample of early‐stage firms that develop physical, assembled products where design plays a role. The data collection focused only on the first product developed by each firm respectively. The results show that when implemented together, industrial design and cost engineering enhance both the effectiveness and efficiency of new product development in early‐stage firms, to greater effect than each does individually. Intensive individual adoption of practices had a negative impact on development efficiency measures such as development cost and duration. Only cost engineering individually had a beneficial impact on development effectiveness as measured by product margins. When combined, these two practices had a beneficial impact on both development duration and cost for the company's first commercial product, thereby reducing time‐to‐market and precious cash expenditures while maximizing project breakeven timing. The most successful firms in the study achieved a balance between creative innovation and cost discipline in the NPD process with third‐party design and manufacturing resources. It was found that integrating third‐party design firms into the development process can challenge, simplify, and add additional creative resources to the core entrepreneurial team, maximizing the ability to catalyze beneficial tension between creativity and cost discipline.     

Subjekt,Objekt, Didaktik

Heilberufe - In diesem Artikel wird die Orientierung der Pflege am Subjekt im Kontext der Ausbildung betrachtet. Es werden Beispiele für didaktische Prinzipien, sowie Methoden, die einem...     

Efficiency and deficiency: Central planning,trade and dumping

Summary In this article an effort has been made to demonstrate that trade effectiveness indicators, as used in the decision-making process in centrally planned economies, tend to induce Eastern European dumping on Western markets.     

Temporary Migration and Bilateral Trade Flows

Empirical evidence on migration and trade has established that permanent migration promotes trade. This finding has been interpreted as proof for the role of migrants in reducing trade‐related transaction costs such as contract enforcement costs or information costs. This paper contributes to improving our understanding of trade‐related transaction costs by analysing empirically whether temporary migrants, like permanent migrants, have an impact on bilateral trade flows. Temporary migrants can be expected to be less integrated in the host country than permanent migrants. At the same time, their knowledge of the home country can, on average, be expected to be more up‐to‐date. Our findings therefore give insights as to the relative importance of knowledge on the host and the home country for trade‐related transaction costs. Using a gravity approach in our empirical analysis, we find that temporary migration has a positive and significant effect on trade and that temporary migration tends to have a stronger and more significant effect on both imports and exports than permanent migration. Interestingly, the role of temporary migrants in reducing trade costs does not appear to be associated with their skills.     

Objektorientierte Kostenrechnung

In diesem Beitrag wird auf Basis der objektorientierten Programmierung der Ansatz einer objektorientierten Kostenrechnung vorgestellt.     

Firm racial segregation and affirmative action in the highway construction industry

In this paper I document that highway construction firms in California, particularly those owned by blacks and Asians, exhibit considerable racial segregation in that they are disproportionately located in zip codes with the greatest concentration of own-race residents. I find that segregated firms serve a larger market than minority-owned firms that are not segregated and that this effect is concentrated in black-owned firms. I next exploit the segregation of firms to examine the effect of affirmative action on the success of minority-owned firms. Following the significant curtailment of affirmative action in California due to a direct statewide ballot initiative, the number of highway construction establishments located in zip codes with the highest concentrations of black and Asian residents fell relative to the rest of the state, even conditional on the number of non-construction establishments. This suggests that affirmative action policies may play a role in the net survival rates of minority-owned firms.     

Market Power in the Cheese Industry: Further Evidence

The recent public disclosure of proprietary information providesinsights into the pricing conduct and performance of leadingcheese marketers. Most important, the evidence supports thehypotheses that following its acquisition by Philip Morris in1988, Kraft became particularly aggressive strategically,both byselling on the NCE to drive bulk cheese prices lower and byincreasing the selling prices and gross profit margins on theirfinished cheese. The result was significantly higher prices toconsumers and lower prices to suppliers of bulk cheese, as Kraft'sgross profit margins rose from an estimated $880 million in1989 to $1020 million in 1991.