Optimizing lot size and setup time in a JIT environment: a multiple objective application

The just-in-time (JIT) system has been studied extensively and implemented by a number of US firms as an ell'ective production system. The core of JIT involves determination of lot size and setup time reduction so as to increase manufacturing flexibility while minimizing the inventory level. This decision problem usually involves multiple conflicting objectives and mixed-model production. In this paper, goal programming (GP) is applied to a real-world JIT problem involving fabrication of different automotive and industrial rubber composite belts. The model results provide new insights concerning the conflicting nature of several goals, especially between meeting demand and reducing setup or idle time. Also, the GP solution is superior to the current JIT practice of the company.     

REPUTATION,PRICE, AND DEATH: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF ART PRICE FORMATION

We analyze how an artist's death influences the market prices of her works of art. Death has two opposing effects on art prices. By irrevocably restricting the artist's oeuvre, prices, ceteris paribus, increase when the artist dies. On the other hand, an untimely death may well frustrate the collectors' hopes of owning artwork that will, as the artist's career progresses, become generally known and appreciated. By frustrating expected future name recognition, death impacts negatively on art prices. In conjunction, these two channels of influence give rise to a hump‐shaped relationship between age at death and death‐induced price changes. Using transactions from fine art auctions, we show that the empirically identified death effects indeed conform to our theoretical predictions. We derive our results from hedonic art price regressions, making use of a dataset which exceeds the sample size of traditional studies in cultural economics by an order of magnitude. (JEL Z11, J24, G12)     

ENDOGENOUS TIMING IN CONTESTS WITH DELEGATION

We study two‐player contests in which each player hires a delegate, and the delegates decide endogenously when to expend their effort. First, we look closely at the delegates' decisions on when to expend their effort, given contracts between the players and the delegates, and look at the players' decisions on their contracts. Then, we compare the outcomes of the endogenous‐timing framework with those of the simultaneous‐move framework. We show that the higher‐valuation player offers her delegate greater contingent compensation than her opponent, the delegate of the higher‐valuation player chooses his effort level after observing his counterpart's, the equilibrium expected payoff of the delegate of the higher‐valuation player is greater than that of his counterpart, and economic rent for each delegate exists. We show that, in the endogenous‐timing framework, each player offers her delegate better contingent compensation, each delegate's expected payoff is greater, and each player's expected payoff is smaller, as compared with the simultaneous‐move framework. (JEL D72)     

台湾储蓄互助社规模与成长之研究——Gibrat＇s Law应用

本文系探讨台湾储蓄互助社规模与成长间关系有否符合吉尔伯特法则（Gibrat＇s Law）,利用1996年至2007年储互社纵横资料（panel data）分析台湾310家储蓄互助社的资产总额、社员人数及教育支出等变数。经由Levin,Lin＆Chu及IPS单根检定结果发现,台湾储互社规模变量皆拒绝虚无假设,且呈现定态不具有单根的现象,此显示出台湾储蓄互助社规模与其成长实际上具有关联性,隐含了储互社成长没有随机漫步现象也不符合吉尔伯特法则,表示台湾储互社长期无需集中扩大增加其规模。     

Women inventors in Canada in the 1980s

Les femmes inventrices sont rares. Elles sont redéfinies, reformées et rendues invisible par des structures patriarcales et de genre. Dans cette étude, les expériences et réalités de 21 femmes inventrices contemporaines canadiennes, des femmes qui sont dans des occupations inusités même pour des hommes, sont rapportées. Les femmes inventrices, n'importe leur degré de succès, ont souvent de la répugnance à reconnaître qu'elles sont, de fait, inventrices. Un inventeur, dans notre imagerie culturelle, est un pionnier mâle qui est eccentrique, incompris, mais qu'on estime talentueux. Les femmes semblent être moins voulante ?accepter le stigmate associéà ces images. Les personnes qui sont proches des femmes inventrices, incluant leurs maris, font collusion en trivialisant les tentatives des femmes à inventer. Plusieurs forces entrelacées sont en opérations parmi les expériences des femmes inventrices. Les contributions des femmes ont tendance àêtre rendues invisibles dans une société patriarcale qui redéfinie tout ce que les femmes font en terme mâle. ?idéologie masculin prédomine ?en terme dont elle contribue à reformer ?expérience vécue des femmes dans un moule qui renforce les mythes de ce que la femme est et fait. Les femmes ne sont pas percues comme jouant un rôle actif dans la création et le contrôle de la technologie, mais plutôt comme étant contrôlé par celle-ci. Women inventors are rare. They are redefined, reshaped and rendered invisible by patriarchy and gender structure. In this study, the experiences and realities of 21 contemporary Canadian women inventors, women who are in an unusual occupation even for men, are related. Women inventors, no matter how successful, are found to be reluctant to acknowledge that they are, indeed, inventors. An inventor, in our cultural imagery, is a male pioneer who is eccentric, misunderstood but ultimately brilliant. Women seem less willing to accept the stigma associated with these images. People who are close to women inventors, including their husbands, collude in trivializing women's attempts to invent. Several interwoven forces are operative in the experiences of women inventors. Women's contributions tend to be rendered invisible in a patriarchal society which redefines all of what women do and are on male terms. Male ideology predominates in such a way as to reshape women's lived experiences to fit myths of what women are and do. Women are not seen as playing an active role in creating and controlling technology but in being controlled by it.     

ECONOMIC RESPONSE TO A CRIME DETERRENCE PROGRAM: MANDATORY SENTENCING FOR ROBBERY WITH A FIREARM

This paper reports the results of the application of intervention analysis, an interrupted times series methodology, to test the deterrent response of criminal offenders faced with changes in the penalty structure for the crime of robbery with a firearm. The results are consistent with the hypothesis of general deterrence as set out by Becker and extended theoretically and tested empirically by others. Offenders in Arizona metropolitan areas rapidly reduced the number of robberies with a firearm supplied as penalties for firearm use became more severe. This finding suggests legislation which punishes those who choose to use such weapons in illegal activities may be effective while leaving intact the rights of private citizens to own firearms. One disturbing finding was that a Portion of the deterrent effect of harsher mandatory sentencing for firearm use in robbery may have been offset by substitution of other types of robbery not covered by the new legislation.     

“审美性”与“体贴”——论《红楼梦》的女性文化意涵

<红楼梦>是中国最具性别反省向度的一部小说,本文从观察小说大观园女儿国中的群体生命面向的特色,以及此中人们之间的关系这两个层面入手,并参之以西方女性主义关怀伦理学的观点,以呈现女性文化的特色.<红楼梦>所构建的"女性文化",呈现了一个"审美"的生命面向,此中人的存在或者是从事的活动,都带着一种当下的、偶兴的,以及充满意趣的审美性.他们也用这样的美感来观照自己与他人,所以,群聚本身并不明显地通向一个具有如传统儒家价值的目标意义.而也在这样的审美特质上,他们彼此之间也发展了一种超越功利性与实用性的"体贴"关系.在这种关系里,他们有别於父权的上下名位序列的关系,而构作了一个平面网络关系,彼此之间互为主体,当他们以对方为主体而全心挹注在对方身上时,温暖的情谊便在其中流动.<红楼梦>呈现的女性文化对比著男性文化总带有较多的理想色彩,因为那是一个超越了名位阶级的人人为主体的平等关系,以及不带功利与道德价值判定的审美世界.自然,我们也可从中解读出文本中对於传统男性文化的反省,以及对於女性文化的向往.