Ethical Transparency and Economic Medicalization

This article introduces the concept of economic medicalization where non-medical problems are transformed into medical problems in order to achieve the objective of corporate shareholder wealth maximization. Following an overview of the differences in ethical norms applicable to medical ethics and business ethics, the economic medicalization of medical research practice and publication is examined in some detail. This motivates a general discussion of the problems involved in the ethical approval process for medical research that balances the interests of both business and government in the market for medical products and services.     

Business groups and profit redistribution: A boon or bane for firms?

This article examines the phenomenon of profit redistribution in Indian business groups and relates redistribution with the underperformance of group-affiliated firms relative to unaffiliated firms. The study also documents that profit redistribution is more pronounced in groups of large sizes and high levels of corporate control. The relative underperformance of affiliated firms persists even after controlling for other explanations such as corporate diversification and resource transfers to unlisted firms. The empirical results of the study lend support for the inefficient profit redistribution explanation of the “business group discount”.     

Economic Benefits Resulting From Irrigation Water Use: Theory and an Application to Groundwater Use

Traditional economic analysis using a crop production function approachhas assumed that all variable factors, including irrigation water, arefully employed in the crop production process. However, this paper firstdemonstrates that economic benefits of irrigation water areoverestimated when the crop production function, and therefore theirrigation water demand function, is expressed in terms of irrigationwater supplied, rather than consumptive irrigation water use. Second,the paper demonstrates that the magnitude of the estimation bias isproportional to the rate of irrigation water losses through leaching,runoff and evaporation. Consequently, the model misspecification problemwould lead to increased irrigation water use and reduce incentives forfarmers to adopt improved irrigation technologies.     

营利性组织和非营利性组织的战略联盟分析

本文时营利性组织和非营利性组织进行界定和区分,探讨了目前两者的合作现状,分析了二者合作的可能性,阐述了非营性组织的自身评估问题,可能选择的对象以及二者成立战略联盟的运作问题等,以期对二者在实践中的战略联盟有一定的理论指导意义。     

供需因素博弈下常设机构利润归属方法的新思路

在传统物理经济中,囿于信息技术水平的限制,跨国企业生产经营活动以固定性、有形性、不易移动为特征,趋向于生产供应方向,且销售、市场等需求因素只是消极地提供单一消费市场,对于企业价值创造与营业利润的实现影响甚微.对此,贯彻以“以供应为基础”理论的功能独立实体法尚且能在居民国、来源国间合理划分常设机构的可归属利润.然而,经济...     

ROBUST UTILITY MAXIMIZATION WITH LÉVY PROCESSES

We study a robust portfolio optimization problem under model uncertainty for an investor with logarithmic or power utility. The uncertainty is specified by a set of possible Lévy triplets, that is, possible instantaneous drift, volatility, and jump characteristics of the price process. We show that an optimal investment strategy exists and compute it in semi‐closed form. Moreover, we provide a saddle point analysis describing a worst‐case model.     

Aggregate Fluctuations and International Migration

In this paper, we study the role of short‐run factors such as business cycles or changes in employment rates in explaining international migration flows. First, we derive a model of optimal migration choice predicting that short‐run economic fluctuations trigger migration flows on top of the impact exerted by long‐run factors. Second, we empirically test the magnitude of the effect of these short‐run factors on migration flows. Our results indicate that both aggregate fluctuations and employment rates affect migration flows. Third, we provide evidence that the Schengen Agreement and the euro significantly increased the international mobility of workers between the member countries.uuuü     

National culture and incentives: Are incentive practices always good?

This study evaluates national culture’s influence on the incentive practice-firm performance relationship. Hofstede’s work (1993) and institutional theory (North, 1990) suggest national culture will moderate incentive effectiveness, while others suggest it has minimal impact (Gerhart & Fang, 2005). We find performance orientation (PO), in-group collectivism (I-GC) and uncertainty avoidance (UA) dimensions explain strength and direction of incentive-performance relationships. Profit-sharing―performance relationships are favorably supported by cultures with high PO, high I-GC, and low UA; however, the individual-bonus―performance relationship is enhanced by the near-opposite culture profile. There was no evidence that the team-bonus―outcome relationship is influenced by national culture.     

Agricultural economic zones in Thailand

The Thai government introduced agricultural economic zones (AEZs) to mitigate risks for farmers from variations in crop price stability and increase production productivity, but the zone policy contradicts other policies, resulting in its limited success. This paper identifies the factors affecting farmland owners’ decisions to allocate farmland to different crops in order to analyse the root cause of the failure of the AEZs programme in Thailand. The study area was Khon Kaen province, where a total of 745 farmland parcels were selected as samples for the research. The optimisation method based on duality production theory and simultaneous Tobit estimation was used for this study. The study identified the factors not covered by the government when AEZs were established, including crop prices, input prices and property right. The findings indicate that farmers do not consider physical and environmental characteristics of their parcel as a top priority when making a decision to allocate their farmland use. Instead, their top priorities are economic factors. Therefore, the government should reconsider the AEZs programme in order to prevent further loss of government budget spending on the programme. By recognising the root cause of the failure of the AEZs, the government should be able to better manage their agricultural policies more appropriately.     

The estimation of profit efficiency

This article discusses a way of solving the ‘Greene Problem’ that has been termed for a technical difficulty in estimating a profit system with technical and allocative inefficiencies. As the ‘Greene Problem’ is due to the existence of unobserved technical inefficiency interactive in a nonlinear form, the article proposes a use of homogeneity in technology to untangle the nonlinear form, enabling the estimation of a profit system as well as the identification of the source of inefficiencies.