Blockchain in Additive Manufacturing and its Impact on Supply Chains

Additive manufacturing (AM) appears to be a particularly attractive use case for blockchain. This research combines inductive in‐depth interviews with the Delphi method to explore what potentials blockchain technology in AM creates, which adoption barriers firms need to overcome, and how supply chains will be affected by the integration of these two potentially disruptive technologies. The results suggest opportunities that are related to intellectual property (IP) rights management, the monitoring of printed parts throughout their lifecycle, process improvements, and data security. The most important barriers for blockchain adoption in AM are an absence of blockchain‐skilled specialists on the labor market, missing governance mechanisms, and a lack of firm‐internal technical expertise. By addressing important limitations of AM, blockchain is expected to improve the competitiveness of AM in parts’ production, catalyzing the trend toward more decentralized manufacturing resulting in more agile, resilient, and flexible supply chains and reduced logistics costs. Beyond that, blockchain‐based AM platforms are expected to enhance supply chain visibility, drive supply chain digitalization, support supply chain finance, and contribute to the emergence of shared factory systems.     

Unbiased estimation of expected return using CAPM

Estimation of expected return is required for many financial decisions. For example, an estimate for cost of capital is required for capital budgeting and cost of equity estimates are needed for performance evaluation based on measures such as EVA. Estimates for expected return are often based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), which states that expected excess return (expected return minus the risk-free rate) is equal to the asset's sensitivity to the world market portfolio (β) times the risk premium on the “world market portfolio” (the market risk premium). Since the world market portfolio, by definition, contains all assets in the world, it is not observable. As a result, an estimate for expected return is commonly obtained by taking an estimate for β based on some index (as a proxy for the world market portfolio) and an estimate for the market risk premium based on a potentially different index and multiplying them together. In this paper, it is shown that this results in a biased estimate for expected return. This is undesirable since biased estimates lead to misallocation of funds and biased performance measures. It is also shown in this paper that the straightforward procedure suggested by Fama and MacBeth [J. Financ. Econ. 1 (1974) 43] results in an unbiased estimate for expected return. Further from the analysis done, it follows that, for an unbiased estimate, it does not matter what proxy is used, as long as it is used correctly an unbiased estimate for expected return results.     

Inflation dynamics in Kazakhstan1

In January 1992, Kazakhstan initiated a reform programme to move towards market-determined prices. The price liberalization process was characterized by large relative price shifts and an increase in the overall price level towards those observed in market economies. The paper shows how the piecemeal manner in which prices were liberalized resulted in strong relative price variability over a prolonged period of time, against a background of high inflation. Convergence towards international relative and absolute price levels has progressed but is not complete, with prices for energy and services in particular still below market economy levels.     

Self-Efficacy Toward Service, Civic Participation and the Business Student: Scale Development and Validation

This paper presents the development andvalidation of new measurement tools to exploreself-efficacy toward service and toward civicparticipation. We developed and administereda survey to 851 students in an AACSB-accreditedcollege of business at a comprehensive publicuniversity located in the Midwest. Traditionalscale development methodologies plusconfirmatory factor analysis and simultaneousfactor analysis in several populations wereused to analyze both a primary sample and aholdback sample. Results strongly support thevalidity and reliability of the surveyinstrument. Future use for the instrumentincludes verification of the effectiveness ofpedagogies designed to increase self-efficacytoward service and motivation for civicparticipation in business students.     

Debt relief for Eastern Europe — Its costs and the distribution of proceeds: Some preliminary results

Zusammenfassung Schuldenerla? für Osteuropa - Kosten und Verteilung der Ertr?ge. Einige vorl?ufige Ergebnisse. - Zweck dieses Aufsatzes ist es, die Kosten zu sch?tzen, die von einer internationalen Finanzinstitution im Falle eines Schuldenerlasses für Osteuropa getragen werden mü?ten. Da derartigen Kosten, die letzten Endes von den ?ffentlichen Haushalten der Gl?ubigerstaaten zu tragen w?ren, Ertr?ge gegenüberstehen, die mit einem solchen Schuldenerla? verbunden sind, ist es auch m?glich, die Verteilung dieser Ertr?ge unter den Begünstigten zu untersuchen. Zu diesem Zweck entwickelt und diskutiert der Autor ein einfaches Modell eines Schulden-Rückkaufs. Darin werden sowohl die Kosten gesch?tzt, die mit einem solchen Rückkauf zugunsten Osteuropas verbunden sind, als auch die voraussichtliche Verteilung der Ertr?ge.

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Résumé Remise de la dette des pays en Europe de l’Est - Les co?ts et la distribution des bénéfices: Quelques résultats préliminaires. - L’objet de cette étude, c’est l’estimation des co?ts qui devraient être payés par une institution internationale au cas d’une remise de la dette en faveur de l’Europe de l’Est. Comme ces co?ts, qui devraient être payés par les budgets publics des états créanciers en fin de compte, se sont accompagnés par des bénéfices, il est aussi possible d'examiner la distribution de ces bénéfices entre les bénéficiaires. Par conséquence, l’auteur de cette étude développe et discute un modèle simple pour analyser les effets d’un rachat des dettes. Il estime tous les deux facteurs, le montant des co?ts impliqué par un tel rachat des dettes en faveur de l’Europe de l’Est et aussi la distribution probable des bénéfices.

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Resumen La reducción de la deuda externa de Europa Oriental. Sus costos y la distribución de sus beneficios: algunos resultados preliminares. - El objeto de este trabajo es estimar el costo que podría ser asumido por una institucíon internacional en caso de una reducción de la deuda externa de Europa Oriental. Debido a que estos costos, que en última instancia podrian ser asumidos por los presupuestos públicos de los países acreedores, son compensados por los beneficios que la reducción aporta a los participantes, también es posible examinar la distribución de los beneficios. Por ello, el trabajo desarrolla y discute un modelo simple de compra de deuda por parte de los países deudores mismos. Se estiman los costos de una compra de deuda a favor de Europa Oriental y la posible distribución de los beneficios.

     

Growth, Inequality, and Well-Being: Intertemporal and Global Comparisons

We use several well-being measures that combine average incomewith a measure of inequality to undertake intertemporal andglobal comparisons of wellbeing. The conclusions emerging fromthe intertemporal analysis are that the impact of these measureson temporal trends in well-being is relatively small on average,but changing across the decades. In particular, it suggeststhat changes in well-being were understated in the 1960s and1970s and overstated in the 1980s and 1990s. Our global analysiscovering ca. 81 per cent of the world's population demonstratesthat global well-being is at least 50 per cent smaller thanworld per capita income if the unequal income distribution isalso factored in. Conversely, growth in world well-being hasbeen larger than world income growth between 1970–1998.Since the inclusion of inequality has an important impact onwell-being comparisons, it is of great importance to generatemore consistent and intertemporally as well as internationallycomparable data on inequality. (JEL I31, D63)