The Case Against a U.S.-Arms Monopoly

The U.S. government is the dominant player in the global arms market. Existing literature emphasizes the many benefits of an international U.S. government arms monopoly including: regional and global balance, stability and security, the advancement of U.S. national interests, and domestic economic benefits from international sales. The purpose of this paper is to balance this largely one-sided treatment of the U.S. government’s dominant position in the international arms market. We discuss several negative consequences and costs associated with U.S. arms sales which call into question the net benefit of the U.S. government’s control over global arms.     

The product elimination function

Historically, major consideration given to product management has focused on research and development or the introductory stage of the product life cycle. The authors present an empirical study delineating the variables to be considered in the product elimination process. More specifically, the elimination process is evaluated under a situation of poor product performance despite a generally viable market. The basic objectives of the study were: to determine the significant variables in the product elimination process of the Small Appliance Industry; to determine the relative importance of the variables; to examine the interaction among variables. The data obtained through personal structured questionnaire interviews were analyzed and provided a ranking of twenty-six variables relevant to the elimination process. Moreover, the Johnson's Hierarchical Clustering Schemes was applied to determine the interaction among variables. The results indicate that profitability and financial variables are most significant in the elimination decision-process. Second, the primary clusters of importance are concerned with market share, market growth rate, consumer awareness, and competitive action.     

Endowment Origin,Demographic Effects,and Individual Preferences in Contests

In modern firms the use of contests as an incentive device is ubiquitous. Nonetheless, experimental research shows that in the laboratory subjects routinely make suboptimal decisions in contests even to the extent of making negative returns. The purpose of this study is to investigate how earning the endowment, demographic differences, and individual preferences impact behavior in contests. To this end, we conduct a laboratory experiment in which subjects expend costly resources (bids) to attain an award (prize). In line with other laboratory studies of contests, our results show that subjects overbid relative to theoretical predictions and incur substantial losses as a result. Making subjects earn their initial resource endowments mitigates overbidding and thus increases efficiency. Overbidding is linked to gender, with women bidding higher than men and having lower average earnings. Other demographic information, such as religiosity, and individual preferences, such as preferences toward winning and risk, also influence behavior in contests.     

An Empirical Investigation into the Excessive-Choice Effect

Recent marketing and psychological studies have shown that more choice does not always benefit consumers. This excessive-choice effect (ECE) is examined empirically using food items in four experiments. The first experiment investigates whether people would voluntarily reduce their choice-set size. The second seeks to replicate previous experimental results. The third and fourth experiments employ nonhypothetical Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) soda auctions and hypothetical ground beef choice experiments to further detect the prevalence of the ECE in alternative settings and explore the role of personality in decision tasks. Results suggest the ECE exists, but is less prevalent than previous studies suggest.     

The Welfare Economics of a Biofuel Tax Credit and the Interaction Effects with Price Contingent Farm Subsidies

A framework is developed to analyze the effects of a biofuel consumer tax exemption and the interaction effects with a price contingent farm subsidy. Ethanol prices rise above the gasoline price by the amount of the tax credit. Corn farmers gain directly while gasoline consumers only gain from any reduction in world oil prices due to the extra ethanol production. Domestic oil producers lose. Historically, the intercept of the ethanol supply curve is above the gasoline price. Hence, part of the tax credit is redundant and represents rectangular deadweight costs that dwarf triangular deadweight cost measures of traditional farm subsidies.     

Verification of Web Service Compositions: An Operationalization of Correctness and a Requirements Framework for Service-oriented Modeling Techniques

Web service compositions coordinate Web services of different enterprises. They are expected to constitute the foundation of service-oriented architectures, to improve business processes as well as to foster intra- and inter-organizational integration. Especially in inter-organizational contexts, quality of service referring to non-functional requirements and conformance to functional requirements are becoming vital properties. With Web service compositions being asynchronous and distributed systems, the latter property – which is also called correctness – can be shown best by verification. This paper examines from a system-theoretic perspective how correctness can be operationalized for Web service compositions. It also proposes a requirements framework for service-oriented modeling techniques so that correctness can be shown by verification and Web service compositions can be modeled intuitively. In order to show the framework’s principle applicability, an example approach is analyzed with respect to the corresponding requirements.     

Business cycle synchronisation in East Asia

Against the background of the rapid inter- and intra-regional integration of East Asia, we examine the extent and nature of synchronisation of business cycles in the region. We estimate a dynamic common factor model for output growth of 10 East Asian countries. A significant common factor is shared by all Asian countries considered, except China and Japan. The degree of synchronisation has fluctuated over time, with an upward trend particularly evident for the newly industrialised economies. Synchronisation appears to mainly reflect strong export synchronisation, rather than common consumption or investment dynamics. A number of external factors, such as the oil price and the JPY–USD exchange rate, appear to play a role in synchronising activity.