Governance Implications of the Global Financial Crisis: United States Experience

In the financial debacle, public and private organizations failed to protect owners and stakeholders from calamity. Given the immense financial bubble, could improved governance have made a difference? Many large complex financial institutions may not be sufficiently governable to avoid unpleasant major surprises. Ponderous processes of enacting laws and regulations, and the substantial influence of powerful stakeholders in those processes, mean that fluid markets are likely to mitigate or even avoid the impact of regulatory improvements that policymakers suggest. Better information must flow to decision makers, but the dynamics of a bubble may impede effective risk management by financial firms and government.     

Gray Markets and Supply Chain Incentives

“Gray markets” are unauthorized channels that distribute a branded product without the manufacturer's permission. Since gray markets are not officially sanctioned by the manufacturer, their existence is assumed to hurt the manufacturer. Yet manufacturers sometimes tolerate or even encourage gray market activities. We investigate the incentives of a manufacturer and its authorized retailer to engage in (or tolerate) gray markets. The firms need to consider the trade‐off between the positive effects of a gray market (price discrimination and cost savings) and the negative effects (cannibalization of sales and a loss in consumer valuation). Generally, gray markets can be categorized into two types: (i) a “local gray market,” where a retailer diverts products to unauthorized sellers operating in the same region as the retailer; and, (ii) “bootlegging,” where the retailer diverts products to unauthorized sellers in another market where the manufacturer sells through a direct channel. We characterize the equilibrium in each type of gray market and identify conditions under which the retailer will divert products to the gray market. Incentive problems are more complicated when the retailer bootlegs and, in this case, we show that conflicting incentives may lead to the emergence of a gray market where both the manufacturer's and retailer's profits decrease.     

Costs of partner search and selection in strategic alliances

This study examines the costs associated with alliance partner search and selection as well as their antecedents. Based on transaction cost economics and the network perspective on inter-organizational relationships, the findings drawing on survey-based data from a sample of 83 firms in the German telecommunications industry reveal that partner search and selection costs are closely connected but differentially affected by task- and company-related factors. When firms must make alliance-specific investments, search and selection costs increase. A firm’s number of current alliances decreases search and selection costs, whereas neither alliance scope nor firm performance significantly affect them. Additional analyses show that alliance-specific investments especially increase search costs but do not affect selection costs, whereas a firm’s performance decreases search costs but does not reduce selection costs.     

Explicating donor trends for population assistance

Using population assistance data, this study divides donor trends for population assistance into five distinct epochs: until the mid-1960s, the population hysteria of the 1960s and 1970s, Bucharest Conference and beyond, the 1984 Mexico City conference, and the 1990s. A number of decisive events, as well as changing views of the population problem, characterise each period and have affected the sums of population assistance from donor nations. Taking a long-term view of global population assistance, the research shows that four factors account for most of the historical funding trends from primary donors: the association between population assistance and foreign aid, the role of alarmists and doomsayers in the public debate over population issues, individuals in a position of power within donor governments, and decennial international population conferences.     

“Replacement Migration” from the Perspective of Equilibrium Stationary Populations

An equilibrium stationary population results whenever a population is projected assuming (constant) below-replacement fertility and annual flow of net migrants whose age-sex composition is also fixed. This framework is useful in interpreting the results in the U.N.'s report on Replacement Migration. It is especially helpful in seeing why the annual volume of immigration must accelerate if the policy goal is to maintain today's relatively youthful age structures. Replacement Migration is largely demographic in nature and ignores a number of potential connections to economics and other social sciences. Had those connections been strengthened, readers might have been more convinced that population aging and population decline are important problems that require immigration as a solution.     

An analysis of public opinion toward undocumented immigration

Public opinion toward illegal migration to the United States varies considerably across different segments of the population, but little is known about why some individuals hold more liberal attitudes than others. Several hypotheses are scattered throughout the research literature, but they have not been brought together in one place and tested using a common data set. Nor have the limited tests been satisfactory from a methodological standpoint. Instead of using multiple regression, typically analysts have relied on cross-tabulations of the data. This paper tests five hypotheses about attitudes toward illegal immigration and undocumented migrants using public opinion data from southern California. Only weak support is found for a labor market competition hypothesis. There is firmer evidence for hypotheses relating to cultural affinity between respondents and undocumented migrants and to the role of education. Respondents' evaluations of tangible costs and benefits to themselves also influence their assessments of illegal immigration. Finally, the results of this analysis provide additional support for a symbolic politics model of opinion formation when the model is extended to the issue of undocumented migration to the United States.     

Compensating changes in fertility and mortality

This paper illustrates a method of studying changes in vital rate schedules which have no effect on the intrinsic rate of population growth. These changes are described as compensating changes in fertility and mortality. The analysis proceeds from the discrete perspective of Leslie matrices, wherein the central idea is to establish the set of all compensating changes by identifying that class of Leslie matrices which possess the same positive eigenvalue, λ₁. A root-squaring technique is adapted for the purpose of estimating λ₁. Finally, a variety of compensating fertility and mortality changes is illustrated using data from Japan.