Managing uncertainty in on-demand air travel

Fractional management companies (FMCs) that provide on-demand air travel services experience frequent changes in aircraft availability and flight requests. We propose scheduling heuristics which are both cost-effective and persistent (i.e., close to the original schedule) to address the uncertainty. The heuristics include pro-actively enforcing idleness of aircraft in creating the original schedule, strategically repositioning aircraft to serve yet-unknown demand and dense scheduling. Computational experiments are conducted in a simulator that mimics FMCs’ daily operations. Simulation results quantify the value of each heuristic, which can be easily incorporated into existing computational methods used in FMCs for static scheduling problems.     

Coordination with a backup supplier through buy-back contract under supply disruption

This paper studies a buy-back contract between a buyer and a backup supplier when the buyer’s main supplier experiences disruptions. The expected profit functions and the optimal decisions of the contract players are derived through a sequential optimization process. The common properties of the contract as well as the differences under the demand uncertainty and the main supplier’s recurrent supply uncertainty are explored through comparative studies and numerical examples. The study contributes to the literature by providing a better understanding of the impacts of demand and supply uncertainties and by shedding insights on the value of a backup supply.     

Trends and prospects of ensuring energy resources in Ukraine

The article examines the state of power supply in Ukraine for the period from 2000 to 2010. The trend in the Ukraine GDP energy intensity (at purchasing power parity), compared to other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, is analyzed. The key points of demand determination and of alternative ways to satisfy it in Ukraine for the period until 2015 are formulated. A forecast of production and consumption of energy resources was conducted in accordance with the expected socioeconomic development of the country through the development of advanced fuel and energy balances.     

Discretionary accounting choices and the predictive ability of accruals with respect to future cash flows

Using a sample of restatement firms and a meet-or-beat model to classify firms as making discretionary accounting choices for opportunistic meet-or-beat (OP-MB) reasons, we show that originally reported earnings and accrual components are less predictive of future cash flows relative to the restated numbers. We find the opposite is true for firms classified as making discretionary accounting choices for non-OP-MB reasons. We consider a number of competing explanations for these latter results. Our findings are most consistent with the informational hypothesis, weakly consistent with conservative-motivated efficient contracting hypotheses, but inconsistent with opportunistic contracting and misapplication/errors of GAAP explanations.     

Measurement of market integration and arbitrage

We develop a measurement theory of market integration, basedon two notions of 'integrated markets'. First, two markets cannotbe perfectly integrated in any sense if one can construct twoportfolios, one from each market, that have identical payoffsbut different prices. In that case, the law of one price isviolated across the markets. Second, they cannot be integratedin a stronger sense if there are cross-market arbitrage opportunities.Two measures of market integration are developed, respectivelyreflecting these notions. The smaller the measures, the moreclosely integrated (in the respective senses) the markets. Amongother things, they are interpreted as measuring pricing discrepancybetween markets.     

Regionalism: An Overview

Regional trading arrangements are proliferating. This overview considers some of their implications. Section I reviews the paradigm of traditional trade theory which emphasizes the "second best" nature of these arrangements. It also evaluates the conditions under which they are permitted by the GATT. Section II notes that these arrangements increasingly move beyond simply removing internal border barriers toward deeper forms of integration involving common behind-the-border policies and systems of governance. Taking account of these aspects of the arrangements requires a different analytic paradigm, which evaluates these arrangements as an alternative to national governance rather than simply as a means of liberalizing trade. Section III considers existing and emerging regional arrangements in Europe, North America, and Asia in light of these paradigms. J. Japan. Int. Econ., Dec. 1994, 8(4), pp. 365–387. John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.     

Optimum allocation in Bayesian stratified two-phase sampling when there arem-attributes

The problem of optimally allocating a sample amongk-strata at the second phase of a two-phase sampling procedure when the sampling is for proportion has been discussed byNewbold [1971] and then by the author [Khan, 1972].This paper deals with optimum allocation of the sample amongk-strata at the second phase of a two-phase sampling procedure, when the sampling is form-attributes. The problem is to estimate the proportion of each attribute in the population. Here (m–1) dimensional Dirichlet distribution is taken as the prior distribution.