Navigating the migration industry: migrants moving through an African-European web of facilitation/control

ABSTRACT

This paper approaches the African-European migration industry as a complex web of relations in which different actors liaise, objectives oppose each other, and roles overlap. Starting from this notion, the question emerges: How do migrants navigate this fuzzy web of migration facilitation/control? To answer this question, this paper uses a ‘trajectory ethnography’ that follows the im/mobility processes of migrants from West – and Central Africa to, and inside, Europe. In so doing, it particularly focuses on two practices that are related to the concept of social navigation. First, it concerns débrouillardise, a term that points to the power of improvisation, creativity and hustling. Second, it regards social negotiation, a term referring to the process of how migrants ‘massage’ their relations with important actors in the field. The findings stress the relational dimension of the migration industry in the sense that the functioning of one actor depends so much on the intentions and efforts of others. I conclude that we could enhance our knowledge on migration industries with studies that constantly shift between the perspective of the migrant, the social network, the facilitator and controller. Such a dynamic approach unpacks further the multiple efforts that produce migrant im/mobility.     

Sourcing with Deferred Payment and Inspection under Supplier Product Adulteration Risk

We study the deferred payment and inspection mechanisms for mitigating supplier product adulteration, with endogenous procurement decision and general defect discovery process. We first derive the optimal deferred payment contract, which reveals that either entire or partial deferral can arise, depending on the moral hazard severity and the information accumulation rate. Because of the supplier's incentive to adulterate, the optimal procurement quantity under deferred payment generally is smaller than the first‐best quantity. We then investigate the inspection mechanism and characterize the equilibrium. We find that under the inspection mechanism, the optimal procurement quantity is no less than the first best. A comparison between these two mechanisms shows that the deferred payment mechanism generally can outperform the inspection mechanism when either the market size is small or the profit margin is low. However, we find that these two mechanisms can also be complementary, for which we characterize a necessary condition.     

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.     

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.     

内控有效性、高管代理成本与多重并购绩效

立足于企业转型升级和跨越式发展的战略诉求,并购成为企业实现迅速扩张和优化资源配置的重要工具.本文选取2009-2014年发生并购重组事件的A股上市公司作为研究对象,以并购交易绩效、并购整合绩效和并购可持续增长绩效多重指标为研究侧重点,结合我国特有的产权制度背景,考察内部控制有效性、高管代理成本对多重并购绩效的影响.研究发现,高质量的内部控制能够有效改善多重并购绩效,高管代理成本会抑制并购后主并公司的多重并购绩效;同时,内部控制能减弱代理成本对并购绩效的损害程度,但这一治理作用在国有企业与非国有企业中表现各异.研究结论为我国进一步加强包括内部控制和公司治理机制在内的制度建设提供决策依据.     

内部控制审计制度的执行增加了审计费用吗

文章检验了内部控制审计制度执行前后内部控制审计对审计市场收费的影响,同时将样本公司按照不同板块及规模进行分类,研究不同公司内部控制审计制度对审计收费影响的差异性.研究结果发现:内部控制审计制度执行后相对于执行前,小型公司的审计费用显著增加;大型公司中,只有披露内部控制审计报告公司的审计费用显著上升,而未披露内部控制审计报告公司的审计费用没有显著变化.内部控制审计制度执行后,中小板和创业板小型公司无论是否披露内部控制审计报告,其审计费用没有显著差异;而大型公司中,披露内部控制审计报告的审计费用显著更高.此外,主板公司无论大型还是小型,披露内部控制审计报告的,其审计费用均显著更高.内部控制审计制度执行后,首次执行内部控制审计的小型和大型公司的审计费用均显著增加.研究结论为规范审计市场的审计收费提供了参考.     

财政调控的价值定位、方式创新及法治化路径

近期财政部出台的法治财政建设实施方案将宏观调控的创新方式借用于财政领域,提出财政面向上的区间调控、定向调控、相机调控、精准调控和适时预调微调等,体现出财政的工具主义价值。从形式上来看,这与当下公共财政时代所要求的规范主义价值,存在着阶段性目标追求的二律背反,但基于财政有效治理的国家任务,两者又统一于良法善治的终极价值属性之中。对于仍深受财政工具主义思维禁锢的当下中国而言,更应提倡的是财政的规范主义价值,防止偏重调控结果有效而轻视调控过程正义,从遵循调控法定、尊重市场规则和坚持民生导向的路径出发,以期实现在调控权力控制下的国家全面可持续性发展。     

稳压电源的自适应去火弧技术

针对传统基于继电器控制的稳压电源在带负载工作时,档位切换常常伴随火弧现象的问题,设计了一种可广泛 应用于此类稳压电源上的自适应去火弧技术：使用光耦和多级运放完成对零点和电压电流的采样;基于单片机的10量, 实现对继电器的驱动和控制;基于RCC自激震荡原理为系统提供稳定电源;设计了稳压器的完整软件系统程序,并在软 件中应用自适应去火弧算法。实验结果表明：自适应去火弧技术,能够有效地规避火弧现象的产生,并能够根据条件作 出调整。采用自适应去火弧技术的稳压系统达到了设计目标,延长了系统工作寿命。     

基于自组织的大型建筑企业控制力协同进化研究

针对大型建筑企业控制力动态协同的定量化仿真问题,基于复杂系统视角,应用自组织理论分析大型建筑企业控制力自组织耦合网络作用关系,选择有效朗之万方程构建大型建筑企业控制力系统的自组织协同进化模型,通过线性近似法的性态稳定求解非线性方程的稳定性,得出大型建筑企业控制力系统协同进化演化过程的四个决定性参数,并通过MATLAB软件进行参数枚举取值,具体分析企业控制力协同演化。案例验证该模型可对大型建筑企业控制力协同演化最佳状态实现更加精确的参数取值,并发现大型建筑企业控制力协同演化最佳状态的充要条件,以及一种新的大型建筑企业控制力协同演化状态。     

太湖流域的治水传统与水生态文明的承传

通过对太湖地区传统水利生态的一些基本规律的认识,诸如太湖与三江一体化,活水周流等,分析了水生态文明结构的长期稳定性,及其水文生态结构的长期承传性。新时代下基本生态水文结构所形成的水环境问题,仍可以从古代的水利生态结构中寻求解决之路。许多现代水利工程所产生的问题,仍可以从古代的经验中得到解决。水污染的解决,景观水面的增加,古代的活水周流经验可以直接应用。传统文人所重视的水文景观,需要在现代社会承传并推广。