Pricing the cloud: a QoS-based auction approach

ABSTRACT

Cloud computing is an evolutionary technology that offers on-demand resources and elastic services through the Internet. Most providers adopt fixed-price mechanisms (e.g. pay-as-you-go). However, a few providers have recently employed auction-like approaches to price cloud services. Meanwhile, cloud consumers pay more attention to Quality of Service (QoS) such as availability, which measures how well a service is performed. This paper proposes a novel auction approach that can efficiently allocate resources according to customers’ QoS preferences. The QoS-based pricing can generate more revenue than a fixed-price strategy. This research lies at the intersection of cloud computing, economics, and information systems.     

质检信息化绩效管理体系研究综述

从信息化与绩效管理的融合作用、质检信息化绩效管理体系研究的必要性、信息化绩效评估相关理论研究、开展质检信息化绩效评估的基本思路、质检信息化绩效评价指标体系介绍等几个方面对质检信息化绩效管理体系研究的相关问题进行了阐述。     

Carbon emissions and stock returns: Evidence from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the effect of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme on German stock returns. We find that, during the first few years of the scheme, firms that received free carbon emission allowances on average significantly outperformed firms that did not. This suggests the presence of a large and statistically significant “carbon premium,” which is mainly explained by the higher cash flows due to the free allocation of carbon emission allowances. A carbon risk factor can also explain part of the cross-sectional variation of stock returns as firms with high carbon emissions have higher exposure to carbon risk and exhibit higher expected returns.     

Advancing the evidence base for public policies impacting on dietary behaviour,physical activity and sedentary behaviour in Europe: The Policy Evaluation Network promoting a multidisciplinary approach

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of global mortality. As the social and economic costs of NCDs have escalated, action is needed to tackle important causes of many NCD’s: low physical activity levels and unhealthy dietary behaviours. As these behaviours are driven by upstream factors, successful policy interventions are required that encourage healthy dietary behaviours, improve physical activity levels and reduce sedentary behaviours of entire populations. However, to date, no systematic research on the implementation and evaluation of policy interventions related to these health behaviours has been conducted across Europe. Consequently, no information on the merit, gaps, worth or utility of cross-European policy interventions is available, and no guidance or recommendations on how to enhance this knowledge across European countries exists. As part of the Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” (JPI HDHL), 28 research institutes from seven European countries and New Zealand have combined their expertise to form the Policy Evaluation Network (PEN). PEN’s aim is to advance tools to identify, evaluate, implement and benchmark policies designed to directly or indirectly target dietary behaviours, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour in Europe, as well as to understand how these policies increase or decrease health inequalities. Using well-defined evaluation principles and methods, PEN will examine the content, implementation and impact of policies addressing dietary behaviour, physical activity levels and sedentary behaviour across Europe. It will realise the first steps in a bespoke health policy monitoring and surveillance system for Europe, and refine our knowledge of appropriate research designs and methods for the quantification of policy impact. It will contribute to our understanding of how to achieve successful transnational policy implementation and monitoring of these policies in different cultural, demographic or socioeconomic settings. PEN will consider equity and diversity aspects to ensure that policy actions are inclusive and culturally sensitive. Finally, based on three policy cases, PEN will illustrate how best to evaluate the implementation and impact of such policies in order to yield healthy diets and activity patterns that result in healthier lives for all European citizens.     

Qualidade da informação contábil em empresas familiares: influência dos níveis diferenciados de governança da BM&FBovespa,tamanho e independência do conselho de administração

The study aimed to analyze between families of different economic sectors of the BM&FBovespa Brazilian companies are those listed in different levels of governance, boards of smaller and independent directors had a better quality of accounting information. Quantitative research conducted with 96 family companies. To analyze the quality of information, we used four characteristics: (Bushman et al., 2004) persistence of the results and cash flow (Dechow e Schrand, 2004), conservatism (Ball e Shivakumar, 2005) and opportunity; relevance (Ohlson, 1995). In relation to corporate governance, it is concluded that the adoption of different levels of governance BM&FBovespa and greater independence of the board influence to greater persistence, conservatism, opportunism and relevance of accounting information occurs. However, it was not possible to conclude that the size of the board influences the quality of accounting information.     

政府审计信息披露质量评价体系构建

政府审计信息公开是政务信息公开的一个重要方面,审计署公开审计信息一方面提高审计监督的透明度,另一方面保障公民、法人和其他组织对审计的知情权、参与权和监督权。文章阐述了政府审计信息披露的理论基础和现状,并在此基础上对审计署近几年公布的审计信息公开工作报告进行加工整理,进而对政府审计信息公开工作报告存在的问题做出尝试性的归纳和总结。最后,提出中国政府审计信息披露质量评价指标体系由及时性、完整性、准确性、客观性、重要性及清晰性等六个方面质量特征构成。     

关于中国经济发展质量的探讨

从1978年的改革开放到现在,经济总量从1978年世界排名第15位到2014年将跃居第一位。但是中国经济发展也产生了一些负效应,例如:物价飞涨、没有实现藏富于民、政策性垄断的低效率、资源和市场对外依赖的风险等,这为中国经济的可持续发展埋下了隐患。本文探讨了中国经济目前的弊病和风险,并提出了改革措施为中国经济健康、持续、协调的发展提供借鉴。     

浅议如何提高商业银行内部审计质量管理水平

商业银行内审部门要达到持续取得审计成果,增加商业银行价值的目标,就必须持续提高内部审计质量管理水平,通过对商业银行价值创造性审计管理刚刚起步、风险评估技术和流程提升空间巨大、审计报告风险反映的全面性和形式有待完善、跟踪审计整改标准和机制形式重于实质等现状进行分析,提出提高服务意识、加强政策导向、完善审计规范,提高审计计划风险评估技术和建立审计项目的风险评估流程,全面反映风险和拓展报告形式,制定分类整改标准、完善系统性整改机制、修正整改考核体制的改进思路。     

政治关联与会计信息质量——基于我国民营上市公司的实证研究

采用2007~2011年持续经营的民营上市公司为样本,对不同政治关联方式与会计信息质量的关系进行实证研究,结果表明,不同政治关联方式对会计信息质量的影响程度不一致:政府官员类政治关联的负影响最大,代表委员类则是正相关关系,其他背景类则影响不大;在后金融危机时代,政治关联对会计信息质量的这种负面影响更为显著。