Price Incentives and Coordination in a Two‐Product Decentralized Supply Chain

We investigate pricing incentives for competing retailers who distribute two variants of a manufacturer's product in a decentralized supply chain. Under a two‐dimensional Hotelling model, we derive decentralized retailers' prices for the products, and distortions in pricing when compared to centrally optimal prices. We show that price distortions decrease as consumers' travel cost between retailers increases, due to less intense competition. However, price distortions do not change monotonically in consumers' switching cost between products within stores. To fix decentralized retailers' price distortions, we construct a two‐part pricing contract that coordinates the supply chain. We show that the coordinating contract is Pareto‐improving and analyze increase in the supply chain profit under coordination.     

RETURN ON INVESTMENT AS A CRITERION FOR INVENTORY MODELS

In the past most inventory formulations have utilized cost minimization or profit maximization as an optimizing criterion. When viewed from the standpoint of the owner or investor, maximizing the return on investment (ROI) is an appropriate criterion for many types of inventories. This paper proposes ROI as a criterion for inventory models and derives optimal reorder rules for some common assumptions. An economic order quantity that differs greatly from the traditional formulas is discussed. The paper also enumerates the conditions under which ROI is an appropriate criterion and contrasts it to the traditional cost minimization and profit maximization criteria.     

Improving Intimate Partner Violence Services in Home Visiting: A Multisite Learning Collaborative Approach

Abstract

To improve intimate partner violence (IPV) service delivery, the Florida Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Initiative’s continuous quality improvement (CQI) team implemented a Breakthrough Series model Learning Collaborative with eight program sites. Using mixed-methods, we: examined post-Collaborative changes in Florida MIECHV home visitors’ knowledge, system awareness, and confidence; identified strategies to address challenges in supporting families with IPV; and assessed post-Collaborative program improvements. The Collaborative included three interactive 2-day sessions, six webinars, and testing strategies using the Model for Improvement (Plan-Do-Study-Act). Three online surveys assessed changes influencing IPV screening, referrals, and safety planning. Thematic content analysis of qualitative data revealed existing barriers and strategies to address challenges. Home visitors reported accurate knowledge (change: 2.3%-34.8%), confidence (change: 31.8%-37.9%), and system awareness (change: 22.7%-53.5%) for all items from baseline to final survey. There was also an increase in rates of IPV screening (change: 88.0%-91.0%) and referrals (change: 43.0%-100.0%). Strategies for addressing challenges in supporting families experiencing IPV were identified at the individual (self-care, continuous education); interpersonal (reflective supervision, trauma-informed approach); organizational (defining success, supportive agency/program, policies); and community (collaboration with IPV service providers) levels. Lessons learned from the MIECHV IPV Learning Collaborative informed future CQI projects.     

Childhood nutrition and later fertility: Pathways through education and pre-pregnant nutritional status

Better childhood nutrition is associated with earlier physical maturation during adolescence and increased schooling attainment. However, as earlier onset of puberty and increased schooling can have opposing effects on fertility, the net effect of improvements in childhood nutrition on a woman’s fertility are uncertain. Using path analysis, we estimate the strength of the pathways between childhood growth and subsequent fertility outcomes in Guatemalan women studied prospectively since birth. Height for age z score at 24 months was positively related to body mass index (BMI kg/m²) and height (cm) in adolescence and to schooling attainment. BMI was negatively associated (−0.23 ± 0.09 years per kg/m²; p < . 05) and schooling was positively associated (0.38 ± 0.06 years per grade; p < .001) with age at first birth. Total associations with the number of children born were positive from BMI (0.07 ± 0.02 per kg/m²; p < .05) and negative from schooling (−0.18 ± 0.02 per grade; p < .01). Height was not related to age at first birth or the number of children born. Taken together, childhood nutrition, as reflected by height at 2 years, was positively associated with delayed age at first birth and fewer children born. If schooling is available for girls, increased growth during childhood will most likely result in a net decrease infertility.     

Assessing Type I error and power of multistate Markov models for panel data—A simulation study

Ordinal outcomes collected at multiple follow-up visits are common in clinical trials. Sometimes, one visit is chosen for the primary analysis and the scale is dichotomized amounting to loss of information. Multistate Markov models describe how a process moves between states over time. Here, simulation studies are performed to investigate the Type I error and power characteristics of multistate Markov models for panel data with limited non-adjacent state transitions. The results suggest that the multistate Markov models preserve the Type I error and adequate power is achieved with modest sample sizes for panel data with limited non-adjacent state transitions.     

Stochastic indicators of occupational mobility,Canada: 1951–1961

Though various studies on spatial mobility are available, little is known about occupational mobility in Canada. This study is concerned with the estimation of Canadian occupational mobility from aggregate census data. The process of occupational mobility is characterized as a stationary Markov chain and certain meaningful conditions are imposed on the transition probabilities to convert the estimation strategy into a linear programming problem. Cross-section data for 1951 and 1961 are employed for estimation purposes. The study reveals that in 1951–61, the Canadian females had higher rates of mobility than the males.     

On the dependence of age structure on asequence of mortality and fertility schedules: An exposition of a cyclical model of population change

In this paper a method to investigate the dependence of age structure and growth rate on a given sequence of fertility and mortality schedules under the conditions of unchanging mortality and absence of migration is discussed. The method consists in projecting an arbitrary population classified by age to the ends of successive periods assuming that a given age pattern of mortality will remain without change and that a given sequence of fertility schedules will repeatedly operate on the population in a cyclical fashion. It is shown that after a sufficiently large number of repetitions of the cycle, the shifts in age structure between the ends of successive periods and the changes in the growth of the different age groups from one period to the next show a cyclical pattern. Formulas are derived expressing the above changes in terms of a sequence of k growth multipliers, k being the number of schedules in the fertility sequence, and the survival rates in the mortality schedule. A numerical illustration of the theory is given using fertility data from Finland.