Maximum efforts in contests with asymmetric valuations

Efforts may be reduced when players with different valuations participate in a contest. This paper considers the problem of designing a contest to elicit maximum aggregate effort from players with asymmetric valuations. Optimal designs for different classes of contest technologies are computed and characterized. A value weighted contest is optimal in the concave case. In the unconstrained case, the optimal contest is equivalent to a first price all-pay auction with a reserve price. The optimal design discounts the effort of the high valuation player in order to induce him to compete vigorously.     

Behavioral portfolio selection and optimization: an application to international stocks

The behavioral approach of decision making has emerged as a diversified solution in the presence of risk and uncertainty. Using the popular cumulative prospect theory as an objective function for portfolio selection, this study implements the classical mean–variance model to compare the portfolio performance of high behavioral stocks with that of stocks with lower behavioral values. Based on a sample of 37 international stocks over the period from October 1998 to November 2017, empirical results from D-vine pair copula GARCH-GEV indicate that the portfolio of high behavioral prospect stocks outperforms the portfolio of stocks with low behavioral scores. This finding may suggest that portfolios with high behavioral values coincide with rational efficiency sets.     

Designing an optimal contest

The paper brings a mechanism design perspective to the study of contests. We consider the problem of selecting a contest success function when the contest designer may also value the prize. We show that any equilibrium outcome that can be achieved by a concave increasing contest success function can be replicated by a linear contest success function. An expected utility maximizing designer should employ a linear homogeneous contest success function. We explicitly derive the optimal contest for a risk-neutral designer and present comparative statics results. Tullock's contest is optimal only when the designer's valuation for the prize is low.     

CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE INTERNET‐ENABLED LOGISTICS SUPPLY CHAIN: WEBSITE DESIGN ANTECEDENTS AND LOYALTY EFFECTS

This article extends the existing research on logistics customer service‐loyalty relationships to the online logistics supply chain environment by examining potential website determinants of logistics customer service quality. A structural equation analysis of 373 online shopping transactions suggests that perceived quality of all logistics customer service activities (perceived cycle time, in‐stock availability, and customer responsiveness) varies inversely with: (1) perceived ease of use, and (2) content vividness of the website; and positively with product information content. However, only retailer customer responsiveness assessment was found to have any significant influence on consumer intended loyalty behavior in Internet‐enabled supplies chains.     

Integrated Strategy Approach for Poverty Alleviation: A Paramount Priority for Africa

Abstract: This paper examines the nature and extent of poverty in Africa. It recognizes that poverty in the region is essentially a rural phenomenon and women are disproportionately affected. The paper argues for an integrated strategy approach to poverty alleviation in Africa which deals with the problem of poverty uprooting at three levels: 1) on those which can be addressed by an effective long term strategy of rapid and broad based economic growth; 2) those which require active population and human resource development policy; 3) and those which need special programs to uproot poverty Résumé: Ce document examine la nature et la portée de la pauvreté en Afrique. Il reconnait que la pauvreté est essentiellement dans la région un phénomène rural et les femmes sont disproportionnellement touchées. Le document plaide en faveur d'une approche de stratégic intégrée de la lutte contre la pauvreté en Afrique qui traite des problèmes d'eradication de la pauvretéà trois niveaux: 1) ceux qu'on peut résoudre par une stratégic efficace à long terme de croissance économique rapide et à base étendue; 2) ceux qui exigent une politique active de developpement de la population et des ressources humaines; 3) ceux qui ont besoin de programmes spéciaux pour extirper la pauvreté.     

Principles of a Pan-African economic ideology

Summary In this paper, an attempt has been made to integrate the politics of Pan-Africanism with its economic ideology. The basis and need for such an ideology has been explored. It has been argued here that the roots of underdevelopment in the Black World lie in the historical evolution of the world market economy; that continued participation in monopoly capitalism serves to reinforce the international inequality; and that the localization of economic activity by multinational firms within the Black World countries deepens internal inequality by suffocating the internal markets and impoverishing the indigenous class. It is argued further that the Absorption hypothesis, seeking wage employment in the “modern” sector for the army of unemployed being generated under international monopoly capitalism, is an hypothesis of the impossibility. The “modern” sector cannot expand fast enough nor adapt its techniques of production to absorb the unemployed.     

Explaining underpricing of IPOs in frontier markets: Evidence from the Nigeria Stock Exchange

The paper provides empirical analyses of IPO underpricing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, from the period 1990 to 2006. The results indicate an average abnormal initial day returns of 43.1%. There is evidence of long-run underperformance of 0.6%. Results from our regression model explaining initial abnormal returns for the IPOs of Nigeria show that size of firm and audit quality are important variables affecting underpricing. The results also show the presence of a non-linear relationship between the offer price and underpricing.