Staff turnover costs: In search of accountability

The nature of staff turnover accounting procedures in a labour intensive context has been examined by conducting interviews with twenty eight managers in large three to five star hotels and two theme parks. It was found that the main staff turnover accountability procedures adopted involve monthly departmental reporting of staff turnover percentage levels and also the conduct of exit interviews. A degree of staff turnover costing was noted, although this practice was not extensively applied. Most interviewees supported the notion of allocating staff turnover costs to those operating departments experiencing the turnover. A muted form of this practice was observed in one hotel, however most interviewees had never contemplated or heard of the practice. Agency theory has been utilized as a framework for structuring a range of observed and potential staff turnover accountability relationships.     

A Gendered Model of the Peasant Household: Time poverty and Farm Production in Rural Mozambique

Using insights from a case study on the allocation of labor in subsistence households in Mozambique, this study develops a conceptual framework for examining linkages between time poverty and farm production. An unexpected event such as a health crisis increases the demand for labor provided by women, thus making them more time poor. The model and numerical simulations show that a deterioration in a woman's time constraint will have an adverse effect on agricultural output of the household. This occurs because most women respond to an increase in household work by reducing their work hours on the farm and by reducing their leisure time. The latter outcome is expected to have a negative effect on women's physical and mental health, which will then cause a decline in their productivity on the farm.     

Stochastic seat allocation models for passenger rail transportation under customer choice

We study the seat allocation problem for passenger rail revenue management, in which a rail operator attempts to determine the optimal quantity of seats to be allocated to each cabin class for each train service. We formulate the problem with single-stage and multi-stage decisions as two stochastic programming models that incorporate passengers’ choice behavior. We transform the stochastic models into equivalent deterministic mathematical programs that are easy to solve. Then, we form a variety of seat allocation polices from the optimal solutions to the seat allocation models. A number of simulation tests are offered to test the policies.     

Risk-based capital for credit insurers with business cycles and dynamic leverage

This paper develops a risk-based capital pricing model for credit insurance portfolios held by a vulnerable insurer. The model accounts for business cycles using a two-state Markov switching model, and allows for dynamic leverage adjustment by the insured firms. The new proposed model, which incorporates risk-based capital practice, is better for both the insurer and the insured firms. Based on the risk-adjusted performance metric, we found that the insurer is better off insuring short- and medium-term loans in expansion and steady states, while it is better off backing both short- and long-term loans in recessions. Our results also emphasize that macroeconomic uncertainty significantly impairs the creditworthiness of the insurer and insured firms.     

基于机构投资者非理性报价的IPO定价分析

本文主要研究机构投资者非理性报价行为。在发行人(发行人与承销商的统称)理性假设下,建立模型并研究了机构给出不同价值信号时的发行价格设定与机构获配情况。文中分析发现当机构投资者拥有好的价值信息时,发行人的报价约束是有效的;当其拥有不好的价值信息时,报价约束完全不起作用,机构投资者会蓄意传达无价值或是好的信号,造成新股价格高于其价值。     

Optimal investment strategies in an international economy with stochastic interest rates

We investigate how investors should optimally choose to invest in a dynamically complete international market. We find closed-form solutions for the optimal investment strategy and for the wealth loss an investor suffers from not investing internationally. Theoretically, we show that the gain from international investment is due to the speculative investment only, and why it is important for an investor from a large economy to invest in a small economy. In a numerical example we compare the wealth losses investors from Denmark and the U.S. suffer due to home bias.     

Financial deregulation,credit allocation across sectors,and economic growth: evidence from China

This paper investigates whether financial deregulation causes economic growth through financial development. Financial development is measured by two channels: (1) changes in the allocation of credit across sectors, and (2) changes in savings and investment rates. We measure financial deregulation in China at the provincial level from 1981 to 1998. Our results suggest that financial reform causes economic growth in China. Further, its effect largely comes through the reallocation of credit across sectors, rather than changes in savings and investment rates.     

Gender Differences in Time-Poverty in Rural Mozambique

Based on time-use data from a 2013 primary household survey, this study examines the nature and extent of time-poverty experienced by men and women in peasant households in Mozambique. The main findings indicate that while women's labor allocation to economic activities is comparable to that of men, household chores and care work are almost entirely women's responsibility. The heavy burden of responsibilities leave women significantly time-poorer compared to men. Women's time-poverty worsens when the burden of simultaneous care work is taken into account. In addition, due to multitasking, the work tends to be more taxing. The examination of determinants of time-poverty shows that common measures of individual economic power, such as assets and education, do not necessarily affect the time-poverty faced by women.     

Labor Income Taxation,Human Capital,and Growth: The Role of Childcare*

In this paper, we examine the effects of labor income taxation on growth in an overlapping generations model in which schooling and childcare play a role in the production of human capital. We compare such effects with those obtained in a model in which only schooling matters for skill formation. We show that the omission of childcare from the technology of skill formation can bias the results related to the impact of labor income taxation on growth.     

Models for relief routing: Equity, efficiency and efficacy

In humanitarian relief operations, vehicle routing and supply allocation decisions are critically important. Similar routing and allocation decisions are studied for commercial settings where efficiency, in terms of minimizing cost, is the primary objective. Humanitarian relief is complicated by the presence of multiple objectives beyond minimizing cost. Routing and allocation decisions should result in quick and sufficient distribution of relief supplies, with a focus on equitable service to all aid recipients. However, quantifying such goals can be challenging. In this paper, we define and formulate performance metrics in relief distribution. We focus on efficacy (i.e., the extent to which the goals of quick and sufficient distribution are met) and equity (i.e., the extent to which all recipients receive comparable service). We explore how efficiency, efficacy, and equity influence the structure of vehicle routes and the distribution of resources. We identify trends and routing principles for humanitarian relief based on the analytical properties of the resulting problems and a series of computational tests.