A Comparative Analysis and Evaluation of a University Employee Assistance Program

Abstract

The major goal of this presentation is to provide overview of evaluation results of the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) Faculty and Staff Assistance Program (FSAP). The major goal of the Pitt FSAP evaluation was to generate information pertaining to the program's service adequacy, program effectiveness, client satisfaction, cost-efficiency and cost-savings. Such an evaluation effort is becoming increasingly important due to the recent trend of organizational downsizing and coping with resource constraints. As Universities downsize, it can be challenging to justify allocating scarce funds to employee assistance programming. This study also includes review of EAPs among eighteen universities and colleges from around the country in order to compare program performance of the Pitt FSAP system.     

外商直接投资在中国经营方式变迁的新制度经济学分析

通过回顾外商直接投资在中国经营方式的变迁,认为经营方式的独资化趋势是一种自上而下以渐进式发生的强制性制度变迁,是在中国政府政策引导下的有微观主体自愿参与的制度变迁。运用新制度经济学的研究方法,通过对谈判结构和交易成本的分析,揭示了这一变迁的原因在于：合营企业和合作企业与外资企业在设立与运营过程中由于谈判结构的不同,而使后者在产权保护以及协议执行的成本更低,从而导致了外商直接投资在中国的独资化趋势。认为中国政府应出台政策提高利用外资的质量和水平,以降低＂独资化＂带来的负面影响。     

从国际视野看研究生教育成本分担

在西方国家,研究生交费入学,即生均教育成本分担被视为必然现象。如何联系我国研究生教育发展的实际,积极借鉴发达国家发展研究生教育的经验,把制订研究生教育成本分担与资助政策作为推进我国研究生教育运行机制改革的有效手段,已成为人们关注的焦点。建议在构建我国研究生教育投资主体多元化与资助政策的过程中,积极引进政策调节与市场竞争相结合的机制;实行研究生教育成本分担与资助的政策措施要与高校内部管理体制的改革有机结合起来。     

Benefits of Hybrid Lateral Transshipments in Multi‐Item Inventory Systems under Periodic Replenishment

Lateral transshipments are a method of responding to shortages of stock in a network of inventory‐holding locations. Conventional reactive approaches only seek to meet immediate shortages. The study proposes hybrid transshipments which exploit economies of scale by moving additional stock between locations to prevent future shortages in addition to meeting immediate ones. The setting considered is motivated by retailers who operate networks of outlets supplying car parts via a system of periodic replenishment. It is novel in allowing non‐stationary stochastic demand and general patterns of dependence between multiple item types. The generality of our work makes it widely applicable. We develop an easy‐to‐compute quasi‐myopic heuristic for determining how hybrid transshipments should be made. We obtain simple characterizations of the heuristic and demonstrate its strong cost performance in both small and large networks in an extensive numerical study.     

The Effects of Multitasking on Operations Scheduling

This study considers a typical scheduling environment that is influenced by the behavioral phenomenon of multitasking. Under multitasking, the processing of a selected job suffers from interruption by other jobs that are available but unfinished. This situation arises in a wide variety of applications; for example, administration, manufacturing, and process and project management. Several classical solution methods for scheduling problems no longer apply in the presence of multitasking. The solvability of any scheduling problem under multitasking is no easier than that of the corresponding classical problem. We develop optimal algorithms for some fundamental and practical single machine scheduling problems with multitasking. For other problems, we show that they are computationally intractable, even though in some cases the corresponding problem in classical scheduling is efficiently solvable. We also study the cost increase and value gained due to multitasking. This analysis informs companies about how much it would be worthwhile to invest in measures to reduce or encourage multitasking.     

Inventory‐Based Dynamic Pricing with Costly Price Adjustment

We study an average‐cost stochastic inventory control problem in which the firm can replenish inventory and adjust the price at anytime. We establish the optimality to change the price from low to high in each replenishment cycle as inventory is depleted. With costly price adjustment, scale economies of inventory replenishment are reflected in the cycle time instead of lot size—An increased fixed ordering cost leads to an extended replenishment cycle but does not necessarily increase the order quantity. A reduced marginal cost of ordering calls for an increased order quantity, as well as speeding up product selling within a cycle. We derive useful properties of the profit function that allows for reducing computational complexity of the problem. For systems requiring short replenishment cycles, the optimal solution can be easily computed by applying these properties. For systems requiring long replenishment cycles, we further consider a relaxed problem that is computational tractable. Under this relaxation, the sum of fixed ordering cost and price adjustment cost is equal to (greater than, less than) the total inventory holding cost within a replenishment cycle when the inventory holding cost is linear (convex, concave) in the stock level. Moreover, under the optimal solution, the time‐average profit is the same across all price segments when the inventory holding cost is accounted properly. Through a numerical study, we demonstrate that inventory‐based dynamic pricing can lead to significant profit improvement compared with static pricing and limited price adjustment can yield a benefit that is close to unlimited price adjustment. To be able to enjoy the benefit of dynamic pricing, however, it is important to appropriately choose inventory levels at which the price is revised.     

供需不确定条件下基于CVaR的零售商库存鲁棒优化模型

在经典报童模型下考虑供应和需求不确定性,研究了具有风险厌恶的零售商库存优化问题。采用条件风险值（CVaR）对库存绩效进行度量,构建了基于CVaR的零售商库存运作模型;在此基础上,考虑上游供应商供货能力和下游市场需求不确定性,并采用一系列未知概率的离散情景进行描述,给出了供需不确定条件下基于CVaR的零售商库存鲁棒优化模型。进一步,采用区间不确定集对未知情景概率进行建模,给出了基于最大最小准则的鲁棒对应模型。针对同时考虑供需不确定性导致的模型非凸性,采用标准对偶理论将其转化为易于求解的数学规划问题。最后,通过数值计算分析了不同风险厌恶程度和不确定性程度对零售商库存决策以及库存绩效的影响。结果表明,供需不确定性的存在虽然会导致零售商库存绩效损失,但损失值较小。特别地,依据文中模型得到的鲁棒库存策略在多数情况下能够保证零售商获得更优的库存绩效。此外,不确定性和风险厌恶程度的增加虽然会影响零售商库存决策和运作绩效,但在同等风险厌恶态度下,随着不确定性程度的增加,基于文中方法得到的鲁棒库存策略仍能确保零售商获得理想的库存绩效,表明文中所建模型在应对供需不确定性方面具有良好的鲁棒性。     

基于RFID技术的双供应链投资决策研究

本文考虑零售商主导的分别由一个供应商和一个零售商组成的两条竞争型供应链中,当两个供应商都未投资RFID技术、只有一个供应商投资RFID技术以及两个供应商同时投资RFID技术时,考虑供应商成本结构的差异,对比分析供应链的投资决策。由于模型解析解过于复杂,本文通过算例分析,着重考虑产品的替代率、RFID标签价格以及库存可获得率三个因素对供应链成员利润的影响。结果表明两条供应链对RFID技术的投资决策会因成本结构和产品替代率的不同而发生变化,其中在两个供应商生产成本差异较大且产品竞争强度较低时,生产成本较高的供应商更愿意投资RFID技术,而生产成本较低的供应商不愿意投资RFID技术,两个零售商则希望使用RFID技术,所以此时仅会有一条供应链上的成员达成一致,决定投资使用RFID技术。     

发电成本垂直差异电力市场概率发电——基于大用户电量偏好视角

针对碳减排后普遍存在的发电成本垂直差异电力市场及其显著的大用户电量偏好差异,本文提出概率性电量供给以及与之对应的概率发电,并利用价格杠杆调控发电商低碳发电尤其高发电成本发电机会与供给效能不足.先后构建发电成本内、外生选择下的概率发电模型,求解发电商的电量供给均衡并分析概率发电策略的最优性.最后,将发电成本内生选择模型拓展到分解市场需求不确定性的概率发电模型.研究发现:相比基准发电,概率发电可以作为一种有利可图的发电容量过剩的解决方法,即使在发电成本内生选择时也是可行的;当发电商采用“强”成本差异的发电策略时,引入折中的概率发电会让产品线上成本水平相互更接近,且大用户的消费者剩余得到提高;与此相反,在市场中实施“弱”成本差异发电,发电商利用概率发电则增大成本分离并降低大用户的消费者剩余;在不确定性市场需求下,当偏好低发电成本电量的大用户对单位发电成本的估价相对于偏好高发电成本电量的大用户对单位发电成本的估价足够高时,概率发电可以以一种管理不利需求状况工具的身份出现.     

碳排放权分配对碳市场成本有效性的影响研究

交易成本和市场势力影响碳市场成本有效性,不同的碳排放权分配方法是否造成不等的碳市场效率损失? 本文构建碳交易机制下企业决策模型,探究交易成本、市场势力存在时,碳排放权分配方法的选择对碳市场成本有效性的影响． 研究发现: 1) 交易成本中交易佣金会导致碳市场效率损失,基准法和祖父法的影响程度小于拍卖法; 2) 碳市场存在市场势力时,祖父法和基准法导致的碳市场效率损失小于拍卖法; 3) 当碳市场同时存在交易成本和市场势力时,市场势力进一步加剧了交易成本导致的碳市场效率损失,祖父法和基准法导致的增加损失小于拍卖法． 本文建议政策制定者采用祖父法或者基准法对市场势力企业进行碳排放权分配,并取消交易佣金．