Two new proofs of Afriat’s theorem

Summary. We provide two new, simple proofs of Afriats celebrated theorem stating that a finite set of price-quantity observations is consistent with utility maximization if, and only if, the observations satisfy a variation of the Strong Axiom of Revealed Preference known as the Generalized Axiom of Revealed PreferenceReceived: 12 June 2003, Revised: 9 October 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: D11, C60.Correspondence to: A. Fostel     

Does salesperson's customer orientation create value in B2B relationships? Empirical evidence from India

Although value creation in business relationships has taken an important position in the literature, yet scant attention has been paid to the precise nature of creation or destruction of value in b2b customer-oriented selling. Moreover, very few empirical studies in the b2b customer value research have focused on emerging markets, especially the BRIC countries. This study carried out in the context of small and medium sized firms in India, empirically examines from the SOCO perspective (Saxe and Weitz, 1982), value creation in customer-oriented selling, and value destruction in sales-oriented strategies. We model value creation, relationship development, and customer satisfaction as direct and indirect consequences of salesperson's customer orientation. Based on a sample of 249 small and medium sized Indian firms, we show that salesperson's customer orientation directly leads to value creation and relationship development with customers. On the other hand, a sales orientation destroys value, although it may lead to relationship development in the short-term. We also found that customer satisfaction was unrelated to both types of salesperson's orientations. Our study has considerable impact for small and medium sized businesses in emerging BRIC markets such as India, as it throws light on how supplier firms can leverage their salesforce to create value creation with their customers.     

发展无线局域网技术

无线局域网(Wireless Local Area Networks；WLAN)技术是当今无线通信领域最有发展前景的技术之一。WLAN中最新的IEEE802．1lg协议在2003年6月发布，由于它向后兼容IEEE802．11b协议，提供了一种兼容多种操作速率的模式，因而会有良好的发展前景，将成为无线网络的主流标准。     

Investment responses to Japanese tax reforms: A cross-industry comparison

This paper examines the investment responses to past Japanese tax reforms for individual industries. To identify the tax effect, this paper estimates investment functions by using a covariate of the change in tax-adjusted q caused by tax reform. This method alleviates the measurement error problem and enables the derivation of estimates indicating the valid adjustment cost of investment. Moreover, the findings suggest that firms’ investment responded significantly to tax reforms in the 1980s in general. Also, investments of only a few industries responded to those in the late 1990s, implying that the manner of investment response slightly differs among industries.     

The α-beauty contest: Choosing numbers, thinking intervals

We present a model for the α-beauty contest that explains common patterns in experimental data of one-shot and iterative games. The approach is based on two basic assumptions. First, players iteratively update their recent guesses. Second, players estimate intervals rather than exact numbers to cope with incomplete knowledge of other players' rationality. Under these assumptions we extend the cognitive hierarchy model of Camerer et al. [Camerer, C., Ho, T., Chong, J., 2003b. A cognitive hierarchy model of one-shot games. Quart. J. Econ. 119, 861–898]. The extended model is estimated on experimental data from a newspaper experiment.     

中国原材料出口措施案:争论焦点与败诉因由剖析及反思

\"中国原材料出口措施案\"是继\"中美轮胎特保案\"败诉后的又一个中方败诉案。中国被指控对9种原材料实施出口限制措施违反《中国\"入世\"议定书》和GATT等相关义务,而中国则以实施出口限制措施是为了保护人类及动植物的生命或健康,保护环境和自然资源为由援引GATT第20(b)和(g)条作为抗辩依据。令人遗憾的是,专家组对本案相关条文均采用了刻板与严苛的解释,裁决结果对中国十分不利。然而,中国举证不足和中国\"入世\"法律文件及国内相关立法与政策存在的诸多问题,值得我们总结和反思,只有这样,才能有效应对未来的WTO诉讼。     

GAME CALL OPTIONS REVISITED

In this paper, having been inspired by the work of Kunita and Seko, we study the pricing of δ‐penalty game call options on a stock with a dividend payment. For the perpetual case, our result reveals that the optimal stopping region for the option seller depends crucially on the dividend rate d. More precisely, we show that when the penalty δ is small, there are two critical dividends 0 < d₁ < d₂ < ∞ such that the optimal stopping region for the option seller takes one of the following forms: (1) an interval if d < d₁; (2) a singleton if d∈ [d₁, d₂]; or (3) an empty set if d > d₂. When d∈ [d₁, d₂], the value function is not continuously differentiable at the optimal stopping boundary for the option seller, therefore our result in the perpetual case cannot be established by the free boundary approach with smooth‐fit conditions imposed on both free boundaries. For the finite time horizon case, the dependence of the optimal stopping region for the option seller on the time to maturity is exhibited; more precisely, when both δ and d are small, we show that there are two critical times 0 < T₁ < T₂ < T, such that the optimal stopping region for the option seller takes one of the following forms: (1) an interval if t < T₁; (2) a singleton if t∈ [T₁, T₂]; or (3) an empty set if t > T₂. In summary, for both the perpetual and the finite horizon cases, we characterize in terms of model parameters how the optimal stopping region for the option seller shrinks when the dividend rate d increases and the time to maturity decreases; these results complete the original work of Emmerling for the perpetual case and Kunita and Seko for the finite maturity case. In addition, for the finite time horizon case, we also extend the probabilistic method for the establishment of existence and regularity results of the classical American option pricing problem to the game option setting. Finally, we characterize the pair of optimal stopping boundaries for both the seller and the buyer as the unique pair of solutions to a couple of integral equations and provide numerical illustrations.