Endogenous monetary commitment

We develop an asynchronous framework in which each player can optimally select the frequency of his moves based on cost-benefit considerations. To demonstrate how such ability to commit can alleviate coordination problems, we apply the framework to monetary policy.     

Moving towards sustainability? Mobility styles, attitudes and individual travel behaviour

Future scenarios for the transport sector are increasingly confronted with the finite nature of fossil-based resources (petrol, natural gas) and an urgent need for reductions of negative transport-related effects (CO₂ and other exhaust emissions, noise, land consumption). In view of limited technical advances and efficiency improvements, along with growing traffic volumes, behavioural changes towards more sustainable travel futures have attained a crucial importance. This paper will discuss initial results from a 2-year project (funded by the British Economic and Social Research Council - ESRC) which aims to develop the notion of sustainability-related ‘mobility styles’ as a context for applying targeted social marketing policies to specific population segments. Based on ten focus group discussions and a survey of more than 1500 participants in the South West of England, two segmentation approaches are used to identify gaps between different domains of individual travel behaviour and the varying role of attitudes for travel decisions. The results demonstrate the usefulness and limitations of existing segmentation approaches and underline the need for more complex and comprehensive mobility style frameworks as basis for measures aiming at behavioural change towards sustainable mobility.     

Financial and operational instruments for commodity procurement in quantity competition

We analyze a commodity procurement problem under uncertain future procurement prices and product demands. An optimization model is presented that finds the best mix of advance procurement, spot market procurement, and financial options to satisfy demand in an asymmetric and duopolistic sales market. One firm can only procure just-in-time whereas the other can additionally procure in advance via inventories or option contracts. We show that even under arbitrage-free procurement prices, inventories and option contracts both provide an advantage in comparison to pure just-in-time procurement. However, inventories turn out to dominate option contracts due to a stronger capacity commitment.     

Sprawl and blight

The objective of this paper is to show how the same market failures that contribute to urban sprawl also contribute to urban blight. The paper develops a simple dynamic model in which new suburban and older central-city properties compete for mobile residents. The level of housing services generated by older properties depends on current maintenance or reinvestment expenditures. In this setting, market failures that reduce the cost of occupying suburban locations, thus leading to excessive suburban development, also depress central-city housing prices and undermine maintenance incentives, leading to deficient levels of central-city reinvestment. Corrective policies that shift population from the suburbs to the center result in higher levels of reinvestment in central-city housing, therefore reducing blight.     

Market orientation and marketing in nonprofit organizations. Indications for fundraising from Victoria

The effectiveness of a market orientation has been established in other parts of the world. Using a modified replication study of 401 nonprofit organizations from Victoria, this research took some initial steps to assess fundraising and marketing activities. Studies in Australia have usually focused on only one part of the Third Sector. This study takes a different view and uses a criteria sampling method to survey all 11 sections named by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The self‐reported data of fundraising activities showed that there were several choices available to all nonprofit organizations that can lead to an improvement in organizational performance. Results suggest that should nonprofit organizations have knowledge generating systems that evaluate their performance, this will improve outcomes for them. Even though organizational size is strongly linked to fundraising performance, there are key drivers that can aid even small organizations in their efforts. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Common inventory modeling assumptions that fall short: Arborescent networks, Poisson demand, and single-echelon approximations

Traditional multi-echelon inventory theory focuses on arborescent supply chains that use a central warehouse which replenishes remote warehouses. The remote warehouses serve customers in their respective regions. Common assumptions in the academic literature include use of the Poisson demand process and instantaneous unit-by-unit replenishment. In the practitioner literature, single-echelon approximations are advised for setting safety stock to deal with lead time, demand, and supply variations in these settings. Using data from a U.S. supplier of home improvement products, we find that neither the assumptions from the academic literature nor the approximations from the practitioner literature necessarily work well in practice.In a variation of the strictly arborescent supply chain, the central warehouse at our real company not only replenishes other warehouses but also meets demand from customers in the region near the central warehouse. In this paper, we study this dual-role central warehouse structure, which we believe is common in practice. Using high and low volume product demand data from this company, we use Monte Carlo simulations to study the impact of (1) the use of a dual-role centralized warehouse, (2) common demand assumptions made in multi-echelon research, and (3) single-echelon approximations for managing a multi-echelon supply chain. We explore each of these under both centralized and decentralized control logic. We find that the common assumptions of theoretical models impede their usefulness and that heuristics that ignore the actual supply chain structure fail to account for additional opportunities to utilize safety stock more effectively. Researchers should be aware of the gap between standard assumptions in traditional literature and actual practice, and critically evaluate their assumptions to find a reasonable balance between tractability and relevance.     

Modeling data revisions: Measurement error and dynamics of “true” values

Policy makers must base their decisions on preliminary and partially revised data of varying reliability. Realistic modeling of data revisions is required to guide decision makers in their assessment of current and future conditions. This paper provides a new framework with which to model data revisions.Recent empirical work suggests that measurement errors typically have much more complex dynamics than existing models of data revisions allow. This paper describes a state-space model that allows for richer dynamics in these measurement errors, including the noise, news and spillover effects documented in this literature. We also show how to relax the common assumption that “true” values are observed after a few revisions.The result is a unified and flexible framework that allows for more realistic data revision properties, and allows the use of standard methods for optimal real-time estimation of trends and cycles. We illustrate the application of this framework with real-time data on US real output growth.     

Contribution rates to funded pension systems in the new member countries

The paper examines implications of real convergence for fully funded pension systems in the new member countries of the European Union. The process of convergence implies that contribution rates would have to be up to 70% higher in the new member countries in order to achieve the same replacement ratio as in a steady-state economy. This effect is partially due to higher growth rates during the process of real convergence and partially due to lower rates of return. The rates of return will be lower due to nominal convergence.