An integrated production–distribution model for the dynamic location and allocation problem with safety stock optimization

The design and management of a multi-stage production–distribution system is one of the most critical problems in logistics and in facility management. Companies need to be able to evaluate and design different configurations for their logistic networks as quickly as possible. This means coordinating the entire supply chain effectively in order to minimize costs and simultaneously optimize facilities location, the allocation of customer demand to production/distribution centers, the inbound and outbound transportation activities, the product flows between production and/or warehousing facilities, the reverse logistics activities, etc.Full optimization of supply chain is achieved by integrating strategic, tactical, and operational decision-making in terms of the design, management, and control of activities. The cost-based and mixed-integer programming model presented in this study has been developed to support management in making the following decisions: the number of facilities (e.g. warehousing systems, distribution centers), the choice of their locations and the assignment of customer demand to them, and also incorporate tactical decisions regarding inventory control, production rates, and service-level determination in a stochastic environment. This paper presents an original model for the dynamic location–allocation problem with control of customer service level and safety stock optimization. An experimental analysis identifies the most critical factors affecting the logistics cost, and to finish, an industrial application is illustrated demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed optimization approach.     

Incorporating Discontinuous Preferences into the Analysis of Discrete Choice Experiments

Data from a discrete choice experiment on improvements of rural landscape attributes are used to investigate the implications of discontinuous preferences on willingness to pay estimates. Using a multinomial error component logit model, we explore differences in scale and unexplained variance between respondents with discontinuous and continuous preferences and condition taste intensities on whether or not each attribute was considered by the respondent during the evaluation of alternatives. Results suggest that significant improvements in model performance can be achieved when discontinuous preferences are accommodated in the econometric specification, and that the magnitude and robustness of the willingness to pay estimates are sensitive to discontinuous preferences.     

The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Enterprises in Small Backward Economies: the Case of Chad and Gabon

This paper examines the impact of trade and fiscal reforms and of the 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc on enterprise development in Chad and Gabon. These reforms provide a natural experiment to assess the impact of trade liberalization in countries with a small and backward manufacturing sector. The empirical analysis is based on a new panel data base covering virtually the whole population of manufacturing firms in Chad and Gabon, and containing data spanning from the year before to two years after the reforms. The paper finds that although firms’ response to changing incentives was non‐negligible, with a shift of output from nontradable to tradable and an increase in productivity, the reform process was unable to generate a virtuous and self‐sustained circle, where export expansion brings a generalized productivity increase which in turn feeds on further export growth.     

Long-run Effective Demand in the US Economy: An Empirical Test of the Sraffian Supermultiplier Model

The Sraffian supermultiplier is a model of demand-led growth that stresses the importance of the autonomous components of aggregate demand (exports, public spending and autonomous consumption). This article tests empirically some major implications of the model employing macroeconomic data for the United States. In particular, we study the long-run relation between autonomous demand and output through cointegration analysis. The results suggest that autonomous demand and output are cointegrated and that autonomous demand exerts a long-run effect on output. There is also some evidence of simultaneous causality, especially in the short-run. Movements in autonomous demand and in the investment share are also found to be positively related, with Granger-causality going from Z to I/Y.     

Central government accounting harmonization in EU member states: will EPSAS be enough?

A highly controversial topic in the EU is the need for harmonized accrual-based standards to improve the quality of public accounts and reduce differences (adjustments) between the micro-(governmental accounting) and macro- (national accounting) levels. This paper shows that a set of high-quality accounting standards, like the future EPSAS, are not going to be sufficient to overcome the present lack of harmonization. The authors explain why this is the case having researched accounting data from 28 EU member states.     

Cost thresholds,cut-offs and sensitivities in stated choice analysis: Identification and implications

Within the discrete choice literature, there is growing recognition that some respondents do not process all attributes when evaluating their choice outcomes. Worryingly, the cost attribute is often among those attributes that are likely to be ignored by respondents. We use probabilistic decision process models (similar in form to latent class models, but where we define the classes to describe specific heuristics) to facilitate situations where respondents adopt cost thresholds and cut-offs. We further develop this model to address the potential confounding between preference heterogeneity and processing heterogeneity by simultaneously allowing for a segmentation of respondents based on their sensitivities to cost. Results, based on an empirical dataset on the existence value of rare fish species in Ireland, provide further confirmation that a share of respondents did not attended to cost. Importantly, however, when heterogeneity to cost levels is accounted for the inferred incidence of complete non-attendance is markedly lower, to the extent that when cost thresholds and cut-offs are also accommodated it almost disappears. This modelling approach leads to significant gains in model fit and has important implications for welfare analysis.     

THE DIVERSITY OF ACCRUAL POLICIES IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCIAL REPORTING: AN EXAMINATION OF INFRASTRUCTURE,ART AND HERITAGE ASSETS IN GERMANY,ITALY AND THE UK

This paper examines the norms and practices for infrastructure, art and heritage assets in six cities, across three European countries, to determine how the national norms of accrual accounting compared with each other, and with IPSAS, and how the practices in each city compared with the norms. We identify significant diversity between actual practices and the norms imposed by national policy‐makers or set by IPSAS. Given that a longstanding concern of the literature has been on whether these kinds of assets should be included in governmental balance sheets and operating statements at all, it is striking how often the question was settled in practice by excluding art and heritage assets, even when this meant non‐compliance with national norms. In our three countries, it is clear that comparability of the financial statements between countries was not a concern of policy‐makers, and comparability between cities within each country not a concern of preparers.     

Dispersed initial ownership and the efficiency of the stock market under moral hazard

We generalize a standard general equilibrium framework extended for moral hazard to allow for a dispersed initial ownership distribution of firms. We show that the market allocation is constrained-efficient only when in each firm the entrepreneur who generates payoffs through unobservable effort has full initial ownership in his firm.