Optimizing service-level and relevant cost for a stochastic multi-item cyclic production system

A multi-item make-to-order production system in a stochastic environment is analyzed. Assuming a common cycle production approach, the impact of safety stock, cycle time, demand, processing time and setup time on service-level and total relevant cost (holding, setup and backorder cost) is determined. To illustrate this relationship a trajectory for the service-level with respect to the relevant cost (holding and setup) is presented. Furthermore algorithms to calculate the cycle time which leads to maximum service-level at constant safety stock and to calculate the pair cycle time and safety stock which minimize total relevant cost are introduced.     

Declining Discount Rates: The Long and the Short of it

The last few years have witnessed important advances in our understanding of time preference and social discounting. In particular, several rationales for the use of time-varying social discount rates have emerged. These rationales range from the ad hoc to the formal, with some founded solely in economic theory while others reflect principles of intergenerational equity. While these advances are to be applauded, the practitioner is left with a confusing array of rationales and the sense that almost any discount rate can be justified. This paper draws together these different strands and provides a critical review of past and present contributions to this literature. In addition to this we highlight some of the problems with employing DDRs in the decision-making process, the most pressing of which may be time inconsistency. We clarify their practical implications, and potential pitfalls, of the more credible rationales and argue that some approaches popular in environmental economics literature are ill-conceived. Finally, we illustrate the impact of different approaches by examining global warming and nuclear power investment. This includes an application and extension of Newell and Pizer [‘Discounting the benefits of climate change mitigation : how much do uncertain rates increase valuations?’ Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 46 (2003) 52] to UK interest rate data.     

The Economics and Bioeconomics of Folk and Scientific Classification

Synopsis This paper is the product of a collaboration between a biologist (Ghiselin 1997) who works on the philosophy of classification and an economist (Landa 1981, 1994) who works on the ‘Economics of Identity’: how and why people classify people based on identity in the context of a theory of ethnic trading networks. In developing the ‘bioeconomics’ (the synthesis of economics with biology) of classification, we crossed a number of disciplinary boundaries—anthropology, economics, sociology, biology, and cognitive psychology including evolutionary psychology’s ‘fast and frugal’ heuristics. Using a bioeconomics approach, we argue that folk classifications—the classifications used by ordinary persons—have much in common with scientific classifications: underlying both is the need for economy of information processing in the brain, for the efficient organization of knowledge, and for efficiency of information acquisition and transmission of information to others. Both evolve as a result of trial and error, but in science there is relatively more foresight, understanding, and planning.     

Methods for Environmental and Economic Accounting for the Exploitation of Wild Fish Stocks and their Applications to the Case of Icelandic Fisheries

The paper discusses methods for estimating the value of commercially exploited fish stocks and the cost of exploiting them. Methods which are recommended in the System of National Accounting (SNA) satellite system and the System for Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) and relevant for this task are discussed. The paper questions the relevance of some of these methods. It argues for the integration of economic accounting for wild fish stocks with estimation of efficient management of them. Using biological and economic data makes it possible to produce consistent estimates of the value of fish stocks and the cost of exploiting them. These estimates are useful for national accounting and for guiding management of fisheries. This method allows estimation of the cost of inefficiency of fisheries management besides estimation of the cost of depletion. The different methods are illustrated using data on commercial fisheries in Iceland and the fish stocks that they exploit. It is shown that even if all methods are based on market valuation and use only objective data they lead to very different outcomes.     

Free Entry under Uncertainty

When focusing on firm’s risk-aversion in industry equilibrium, the number of firms may be either larger or smaller when comparing market equilibrium with and without price uncertainty. In this paper, we introduce risk-averse firms under cost uncertainty in a model of spatial differentiation and show that the impact of uncertainty will increase the number of firms in an industry. With increased uncertainty, the risk premium of the marginal buyer increases by more than the risk premium of the average buyer, so that the price increases by more than the risk premium. When turning to the free entry game, we find that the market generates too many firms.     

Enforcing Emissions Trading when Emissions Permits are Bankable

We propose enforcement strategies for emissions trading programs with bankable emissions permits that guarantee complete compliance with minimal enforcement costs. Our strategies emphasize imperfect monitoring supported by a high unit penalty for reporting violations, and tying this penalty directly to equilibrium permit prices. This approach is quite different from several existing enforcement strategies that emphasize high unit penalties for emissions in excess of permit holdings. Our analysis suggests that a high penalty for excess emissions cannot be used to conserve monitoring effort, and that it may actually increase the amount of monitoring necessary to maintain compliance.The authors are grateful to Anthony Heyes and three anonymous referees for their valuable comments. Partial support for this research was provided by the Cooperative State Research Extension, Education Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station under Project No. MAS00871.     

股权结构对股权代理成本的影响——来自中国上市公司的实证检验

股权代理成本可细分为两种:一是股东与经营者之间的利益矛盾而引起第一类股权代理成本;二是控股股东与中小股东之间的利益冲突而引起的第二类股权代理成本。在理论分析和研究假设基础之上,本文建立了两个回归模型来分别检验我国上市公司的股权结构对两类股权代理成本的影响,并提出通过调整和完善上市公司的股权结构来降低其股权代理成本的建议。     

我国资本成本理论研究的现状及其未来展望

资本成本是公司财务管理的核心概念之一.与国外发达的资本市场相比我国的资本市场发展时间短,对资本成本理论研究尚处于探索之中.在借鉴国外资本成本理论研究成果的基础上,结合我国资本市场发展过程中上市公司的融资特点,国内学者对资本成本理论研究的内容主要集中在公司融资偏好和影响资本成本的因素两方面;在研究方法上主要以借鉴国外已有的模型和方法,采用描述性统计和多元线性回归的方法进行研究.鉴于国内资本成本理论研究的现状,我们对未来我国在该领域的研究提出了几点展望.     

民族地区集市交易行为的非经济因素分析——以湘西墟场集市为例

集市作为民族地区市场体系中的基层市场,在人们日常的生产和生活中发挥着重要的作用。笔者以湘西民族地区墟场集市为研究案例,以集市交易行为为研究起点,以非经济因素这一新颖性的角度来进一步研究民族地区市场问题。研究认为民族地区集市的运行更多的受到少数民族的伦理道德、文化习俗以及意识形态等非经济因素的影响。     

浅谈电子商务环境下物流发展对策

随着现代电子科技的发展,电子商务的发展远远超过了物流企业的发展。而物流作为电子商务在现实运营中的重要环节,它的发展问题已经成为电子商务发展的重要制约因素之一。