Global models applied to agricultural and trade policies: a review and assessment

The continuing process of global integration bears implications for farmers and related supplying and processing industries in all parts of the world, but also for the rest of the world economy. An assessment of agricultural and trade policy impacts is bound to be complex and is often supported by quantitative modeling analysis. This article provides an assessment of the present state of applied modelling in the area of trade and agricultural policies. We provide in this paper a comparative assessment of alternative modelling approaches, considering a total of 16 partial equilibrium and general equilibrium models. The assessment includes theoretical modelling foundations, datasets employed and institutional aspects, such as model maintenance and dissemination of results. A typology of models is provided by structuring the assessment along a clear set of evaluation criteria.     

Perceived importance of native language use in service encounters

Despite the importance of interactions in services, the role language plays in services is an under-researched field. This paper outlines for which services language is especially important. Consistent across studies in three countries (Belgium, Canada and Finland), the findings suggest that bilingual consumers find it particularly important to be served in their native language in high-involvement services. Moreover, for high-involvement services, all consumers find it important to be served in their native language. For low-involvement services, elderly consumers are less willing to switch language than young consumers. The importance of native language use did not differ between males and females.     

The Difficult Client‐Acceptance Decision in Canadian Audit Firms: A Field Investigation*

Auditing is often depicted in scientific and professional literature as being subject to conflicting forces, such as mechanization versus flexibility, and professionalism versus commercialism. This paper examines how auditors actually make the client‐acceptance decision in the midst of these forces. The investigation was conducted via a field study at three Big 6 firms located in Canada. The results show that in all firms the client‐acceptance decision process in action is largely flexible, being characterized by a high degree of informal communication and the adaptation of the client‐acceptance written policies and decision aids to circumstances. Furthermore, while commercialism in one firm (A) has a significant influence on the decision process, in the two other firms (B and C) the decision process is mostly consistent with professionalism. This result conflicts with the concerns that North American regulators have recently expressed about auditors' professionalism.     

Condorcet cycles in bipartite populations

Summary. Simple majority voting between pairs of alternatives is used to aggregate individual preferences. The occurence of Condorcet cycles is limited thanks to a principle of homogeneity on individual preferences. The restrictions induced on the domain of the latters are weak: among the n! possible orderings of n alternatives, more than one half are admissible within a domain. The resulting aggregated preference has then a neglectable probability of showing up cycles. We show moreover that the set of individual preferences can be `naturally' partitioned into two such domains. Received: June 17, 1996; revised version: April 15, 1997     

Mythical representations of trust in auditors and the preservation of social order in the financial community

The present paper investigates financial practitioners’ use and perception of audited financial statements. In-depth interviews, which we conducted with Canadian institutional investors, financial analysts and bankers, indicate: (1) a firm tendency to favour the quality of management over the content of financial statements in investment decisions and recommendation processes; and (2) a fundamental scepticism regarding the work of auditors. However, representations of auditor trustworthiness abound in formal texts surrounding the financial analysis domain—as if audited financial statements and the trust they convey towards numbers are indispensable to the work of financial analysts. Based on the work of Roland Barthes, we argue that financial practitioners’ trust in auditors constitutes a mythical representation whose main function is to maintain order and reproduce status quo within the financial system.     

On the satisfaction of peak demand in the certainty case

The concept of full-capacity flat-rate equilibrium is explored for a version of the Arrow-Debreu model with time-differentiated goods and production subject to a capacity constraint. The corresponding equilibrium allocations are shown to be inefficient in general. It is also shown that rationing peak demand is Pareto superior to non-rationing.     

How to boost frontline employee service recovery performance: the role of cultural intelligence

Service Business - Satisfying complaining customers is challenging, especially when dealing with the increasing number of customers with culturally diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study is...     

Withholding investments in energy only markets: can contracts make a difference?

Although there are mechanisms to control market power in the spot market, withholding investments can still increase profits and hamper adequate capacity expansion. We examine the effect on investment of one suggested approach to reducing market power, contracting longer term. We construct a stylized model of an energy-only market where two firms, each specializing in one technology, invest in a first stage, contract part of their production in the second stage and sell the rest in the spot market in the third stage. We compare this model to one of an energy-only market having two stages, investment and a spot market. We find cases where the contracts change neither capacity nor peak prices, where the foreclosing effect of one player blocking the other from contracts markets increases investments and reduces prices, and where the opportunity to foreclose the market can incentivize one firm to lower its investment and increase its pricing power to the detriment of consumers. The model relies on the simplest possible assumptions of imperfect competition (subgame perfect equilibria with Cournot agents). We illustrate the different outcomes in a numerical example with two load steps (peak and off-peak) where we change one parameter, the height of the off-peak time segment. We find cases with increased and decreased capacity as well as no change in capacity. Since there is no general characterization of the consequences of contracts in this simple example, there can be no characterization in more complicated models that contain the market structures included here, and regulators or competition authorities cannot rely on contracts to induce sufficient capacity expansion by reducing market power. One other market mechanism that has been proposed to induce investment, a capacity auction with predetermined capacity requirements, is a potential alternative to limit market power that deserves further exploration to determine the extent to which it can provide an adequate incentive to invest in the presence of market power.     

Sampling Procedures for Coordinating Stratified Samples: Methods Based on Microstrata

The aim of sampling coordination is to maximize or minimize the overlap between several samples drawn successively in a population that changes over time. Therefore, the selection of a new sample will depend on the samples previously drawn. In order to obtain a larger (or smaller) overlap of the samples than the one obtained by independent selection of samples, a dependence between the samples must be introduced. This dependence will emphasize (or limit) the number of common units in the selected samples. Several methods for coordinating stratified samples, such as the Kish & Scott method, the Cotton & Hesse method, and the Rivière method, have already been developed. Using simulations, we compare the optimality of these methods and their quality of coordination. We present six new methods based on permanent random numbers (PRNs) and microstrata. These new methods have the advantage of allowing us to choose between positive or negative coordination with each of the previous samples. Simulations are run to test the validity of each of them.     

On the stability of nonsunspot equilibria

This paper analyzes the stability of the (Pareto efficient) nonsunspot equilibria as a function of the constraints faced by consumers in their ability to transfer wealth between states of nature. Equilibria that are stable for the certainty economy define nonsunspot equilibria that are stable in the following two polar cases: 1) All consumers are unconstrained; 2) All consumers are fully constrained. Furthermore, the stable certainty equilibria with small trade vectors define nonsunspot equilibria that are also stable independently of the constraint levels. Instability can develop only at intermediate constraint levels and for nonsunspot equilibria that feature sufficiently large trade vectors.