Partnering relationships in construction: A literature review

There is no unified view as to what partnering relationships are in the construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature in order to identify the main assumptions about partnering relationships in construction research and practice. The literature is compared to the Construction Industry Institute’s (CII, 1991) frequently cited definition of partnering as a long-term commitment between two or more parties in which shared understanding and trust develop for the benefits of improving construction. The literature review reveals a tendency to focus on project partnering in dyads between clients and contractors and there is also an emphasis on formal tools to develop these relationships, even if social aspects and relationship dynamics are recognised. The paper discusses these findings and suggests that, in order to increase the understanding of the substance and function of partnering relationships, it could be useful to incorporate knowledge from theoretical perspectives that are more in line with the CII definition. Two perspectives that seem particularly interesting in this respect are Supply Chain Management (SCM) and the Industrial Network Approach (INA), both of which focus on long-term relationships between actors beyond the dyad. INA also emphasises the informal aspects of relationship development. Incorporating these dimensions of partnering relationships requires processual and longitudinal studies, which are relatively rare in the contemporary partnering literature.     

Minimax optimality of CUSUM for an autoregressive model

Different change point models for AR(1) processes are reviewed. For some models, the change is in the distribution conditional on earlier observations. For others, the change is in the unconditional distribution. Some models include an observation before the first possible change time – others not. Earlier and new CUSUM type methods are given, and minimax optimality is examined. For the conditional model with an observation before the possible change, there are sharp results of optimality in the literature. The unconditional model with possible change at (or before) the first observation is of interest for applications. We examined this case and derived new variants of four earlier suggestions. By numerical methods and Monte Carlo simulations, it was demonstrated that the new variants dominate the original ones. However, none of the methods is uniformly minimax optimal.     

No Small Hope: The Basic Goods Imperative

The continuing gender and race/ethnic pay gaps continue to be a matter of considerable concern. Using detailed NLSY data we examine the effects of a number of variables often thought to explain a large part of these gaps. Because the new variables explain some of the differentials our results provide no justification for ascribing all the remaining differentials to discrimination. On the other hand, they explain very little and therefore give no support to those who would discount the possibility of discrimination.     

2011年美国消费者行为九大趋势

预测消费者行为的走向是有一定风险的,特别是在如今充满不确定性的经济大气候和市场环境下.但全球化的市场研究机构Mintel依然接受了挑战,发布了2011年消费者行为的九大趋势.从购物时讨价还价,到退休后依然坚持工作,消费者的各种行为趋势都与经济衰退及其带来的后续影响紧密联系在一起.     

Restructuring the Innovation Capacity of the Business Sector in Estonia: Business Survey Result

The growth prospects of the Estonian economy depend on transforming the former 'socialist' industrial R&D into competitive business-sector innovation activities, establishing interactions between firms and other research units, and accelerating international diffusion. An additional task, specific for a transition country, is intensive utilization of the inherited human capital. The results of a business survey conducted in Tallinn in the summer of 1996 indicate that favourable restructuring of industrial R&D and the development of new innovation capacities are indeed taking place. The regression models indicate, however, that while the results seem to be mostly successful, some detailed support is needed. Firstly, further qualitative changes seem to be necessary in the state-owned and privatized electronics firms. And secondly, newly emerging firms need easier access to the capital market and management expertise.     

Measuring Regional Economic Resilience across Europe: Operationalizing a complex concept

This paper describes an approach developed to measure regional economic resilience across Europe which is novel in three key dimensions. Firstly, it seeks to date regional downturns as opposed to assuming that all regional economies are affected by economic shocks at the same point in time; secondly, it measures the amplitude and duration of economic downturns and subsequent recoveries; and thirdly, as well as measuring recovery, it measures the resistance of regional economies to economic shocks. The paper applies this methodology to selected European countries to provide an analysis of differential regional responses to several economic shocks since the early 1990s. The paper then reflects upon the utility of this methodology for operationalizing regional economic resilience in cross-comparative studies.     

Profit taxes and the growth of fringe firms

In this paper we examine the optimal taxation of corporate profits in a multi–period limit pricing model where a dominant firm faces expansion by a competitive fringe. The optimal policy requires tax rates to vary both intertemporally and across firm sizes, and balances the benefit of fringe growth in eroding the market power of the dominant firm and the cost of displacing the dominant firm's output with the higher cost output of the fringe. The results are relevant for assessing the policy of giving preferential tax treatment to small firms, as practised by several OECD countries. JEL Classification: H32, L11
Impôts sur les profits et croissance des entreprises périphériques. Ce texte examine la fiscalité optimale des profits des sociétés dans un modèle de tarification limite à plusieurs périodes quand une entreprise dominante fait face à l'expansion d'entreprises périphériques qui la concurrencent. La politique optimale requiert des taux d'imposition qui varient à la fois dans le temps et selon la taille des entreprises, et cherche un équilibre entre les avantages d'une croissance à la périphérie qui entame le pouvoir de l'entreprise dominante, et le coût d'un déplacement de la production de l'entreprise dominante vers des entreprises périphériques dont les coûts de production sont plus élevés. Les résultats de l'analyse sont pertinents pour l'évaluation des politiques accordant un traitement fiscal préférentiel aux petites entreprises, comme c'est le cas dans plusieurs pays de l'OCDE.