Measurement of competitiveness in smallholder livestock systems and emerging policy advocacy: An application to Botswana

Farm level cross sectional data of 556 randomly selected livestock producers were used to investigate the competitiveness of smallholder beef farmers in Botswana. The results show the presence of inefficiency, with about 74% of the variation in actual profit from maximum profit (profit frontier) between farms mainly arising from differences in farmers’ practices rather than random variability. Further the mean profit efficiency level of 0.58 suggests that there is a substantial scope to improve beef profitability in Botswana. Significant profit efficiency drivers include, among others, education, distance to market, herd size, access to information and access to income from crop production. Considering the importance of livestock sector for wealth creation and poverty eradication in the rural areas where poverty is more pronounced, there is a need for appropriate development strategies and policies directed towards addressing these factors. In particular there is need to invest in market infrastructure in order to improve market access, hence profit efficiency of smallholder livestock farmers.     

Convex duality and Orlicz spaces in expected utility maximization

In this paper, we report further progress toward a complete theory of state‐independent expected utility maximization with semimartingale price processes for arbitrary utility function. Without any technical assumptions, we establish a surprising Fenchel duality result on conjugate Orlicz spaces, offering a new economic insight into the nature of primal optima and providing a fresh perspective on the classical papers of Kramkov and Schachermayer. The analysis points to an intriguing interplay between no‐arbitrage conditions and standard convex optimization and motivates the study of the fundamental theorem of asset pricing for Orlicz tame strategies.     

On equity market inefficiency during the COVID-19 pandemic

We show that during the weeks following the initiation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States equity market was inefficient. This is demonstrated by showing that utility maximizing agents over the time period ranging from mid-February to late March 2020 can generate statistically significant profits by utilizing only historical price and virus related data to forecast future equity ETF returns. We generalize Merton’s optimal portfolio problem using a novel method based upon a likelihood ratio in order to construct a dynamic trading strategy for utility maximizing agents. These strategies are shown to have statistically significant profitability and strong risk and performance statistics during the COVID-19 time-frame.     

Optimal execution with uncertain order fills in Almgren–Chriss framework

The classical price impact model of Almgren and Chriss is extended to incorporate the uncertainty of order fills. The extended model can be recast as alternatives to uncertain impact models and stochastic liquidity models. Optimal strategies are determined by maximizing the expected final profit and loss (P&L) and various P&L-risk tradeoffs including utility maximization. Closed form expressions for optimal strategies are obtained in linear cases. The results suggest a type of adaptive volume weighted average price, adaptive percentage of volume and adaptive Almgren–Chriss strategies. VWAP and classical Almgren–Chriss strategies are recovered as limiting cases with a different characteristic time scale of liquidation for the latter.     

Efficiency in Turkish banking: post-restructuring evidence

Turkish banking sector went through a significant restructuring process in the aftermath of the country's financial crisis of 2000–2001. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of banking performance using a novel approach due to Ray [(2007). “Shadow Profit Maximization and a Measure of Overall Inefficiency.” Journal of Productivity Analysis 27, 231–236]. We derive ‘shadow unrealized profit scores’ as well as ‘shadow input–output prices’ for each year and bank in the sector from 2002 to 2011. We argue these scores operationalize the Hicksian concept of ‘monopolistic quiet life’. We provide some evidence the sector came closer to the ‘zero profit condition’ as well as displaying a closer approximation to the ‘law of one price’ over time. We show the variability of these ‘shadow prices’ essentially coincides with that of corresponding actual prices. We utilize shadow price information to show that business models and competitive choices of banks differ across ownership types with foreign banks competing on the broadest front compared to state-owned and privately owned Turkish banks.     

Corporate Governance and the Goal of the Firm: In Defense of Shareholder Wealth Maximization

This essay is based on my keynote address at the 2016 annual meeting of the Eastern Finance Association. I propose that misunderstandings about the traditional model of corporate governance, with its emphasis on shareholder wealth maximization, contribute to negative societal attitudes about corporations. I discuss the implications of shareholder wealth maximization for other corporate stakeholders, the dangers of deviating from shareholder wealth maximization, and the roles that the media and the government play in the governance of corporations.     

制造产业集群内企业利益分配博弈分析

通过分析制造产业集群合作机制,将博弈论中合作博弈的基本理论和方法应用于制造产业集群内企业的利益分配中,在基于多人合作博弈的传统Shapley值分析方法基础上,建立考虑投资额、风险以及技术创新等多种因素对利益分配结果影响的新模型,得到了一种新的利益分配方法,实证结果表明,建立的新模型更科学、更合理,同时合理的利益分配有助于制造产业集群稳定发展.     

收益最大化中心选址问题的数学模型

物流中心的选址问题在物流中心的规划设计中占有重要的战略地位,合理的物流中心选址方案可以有效地节约费用,提高企业的竞争力。文章针对第三方物流企业选址的要求,以物流中心收益最大化为目标,并同时考虑物流中心固定运营成本和可变运营成本以及退货所产生的损失费用等因素,建立了一个新的物流中心选址模型。并针对该模型,提出了一种改进的微粒群算法。     

媒介物与员工激励

本文在对现有媒介最大化主要文献回顾的基础上,对市场环境和组织管理环境下的媒介物种类、媒介物的特征、媒介物作用对象的差异进行深入分析。深入探讨了组织管理领域媒介物影响个体行为的可能机制。本文认为,组织管理领域对组织成员的行为影响可能与个体需要的满足、目标引导、能力显示等作用机制有关,通过这些作用可改变个体的“努力→结果”之间的关系,发生组织管理领域“媒介最大化”现象。本文的观点为未来实证考察组织管理情境下媒介物对员工行为的作用提供了参考,并有利于丰富媒介最大化理论。     

协同机制下供应链剩余利润合理分配的影响因素研究

首先论述了供应链剩余利润以及该利润分配在协同供应链系统中的重要作用,分析了影响利润分配的系统外部和内部的各种因素,并利用层次分析法确定了供应链成员协作满意度和所担风险两个关键因素,指出了在有限条件下协同供应链剩余利润分配研究的重点。