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.     

Information Sharing in a Manufacturer–Supplier Relationship: Suppliers' Incentive and Production Efficiency

While there have been vast discussions on the materialistic benefits of continuous improvement from the Toyota and Honda experiences, the academic literature pays little attention to information sharing. In this study, we construct a dynamic adverse selection model in which the supplier privately observes her production efficiency, and in the contractual duration the manufacturer obtains an informative but imprecise signal regarding this private efficiency. We show that despite the disclosure of proprietary information, information sharing may benefit the supplier; the supplier's voluntary participation is more likely to occur when the shared information is rather imprecise. On the other hand, our analysis also reveals that this information sharing unambiguously gives rise to an upward push of the production quantity, and may sometimes lead to an upward distortion that ultimately hurts the supply chain. We also document the non‐trivial impact of the timing of information sharing on the supplier's incentive to participate.     

Dynamic Marriage Matching: An Empirical Framework

This paper develops a new model for empirically analyzing dynamic matching in the marriage market and then applies that model to recent changes in the U.S. marriage distribution. Its primary objective is to estimate gains by age from being married today (till death of at least one spouse) relative to remaining single for that same time period. An empirical methodology that relies on the model's equilibrium outcomes identifies the marriage gains using a single cross‐section of observed aggregate matches. This behavioral dynamic model rationalizes a new marriage matching function. The model also solves the inverse problem of computing the vector of aggregate marriages, given a new distribution of available single individuals and estimated preferences. Finally, this paper develops a simple test of the model's empirical validity. Using aggregate data of new marriages and available single men and women in the United States over two decades from 1970 to 1990, I investigate the changes in marriage gains over this period.     

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.     

京津冀三地创新绩效比较研究

京津冀地区是中国重要的经济区域,但近年来三地发展水平出现分化,京津两市与河北省的差距拉大,有出现“极化”效应的可能。通过构建创新效率的评价体系,对京津冀三地3年的技术创新投入和产出作DEA方法分析,结果表明河北省的创新效率明显低于京津两市。京津冀三地在综合发展水平、劳动力素质、R＆D活动经费投入和外商投资企业的技术溢出水平上的差异,是这种技术创新效率产生差异的原因。     

贸易开放对中国水环境污染影响的实证研究

文章基于2004-2013年中国31个省市的面板数据,采用动态面板模型和差分GMM估计方法,分别选取化学需氧量排放和氨氮排放作为水环境污染的有机污染物和无机污染物的排放指标,对贸易开放的结构效应引致的中国水环境污染排放进行了实证研究.研究结果表明,经济增长的规模和技术效应是影响水环境污染排放的主要因素,直接结构效应对中国水污染排放的影响不显著,贸易开放的结构效应也在一定程度上加剧了中国水环境污染的排放.通过引入贸易开放的相关交叉项进一步对决定贸易结构效应的比较优势来源进行识别,结果发现,对于中国水环境污染排放并不存在所谓的“污染天堂效应”和“要素禀赋效应”.贸易的结构效应会导致西部经济欠发达地区的水污染排放降低,而对中东部经济相对发达地区,贸易的结构效应会引致其水污染排放量的增大和排放强度的加剧.     

碳排放约束下能源经济效率的区域空间分布研究——基于能源消费结构门槛视角

利用2000—2012年样本数据对全要素省际能源经济效率进行了测算,研究发现样本期间绝大部分省市自治区能源经济效率整体都呈不断下降的趋势,并且生产过程中低效率地区大幅增加,分布状态由“点状”向“面状”扩散,尤其是中西部地区下降较为明显,究其原因主要为:二氧化碳排放和能源消费结构是能源经济效率变化和地区差异的重要影响因素;据此运用门槛分析方法对其进行区域空间分布研究,将全国30个省市自治区划分为低排放—结构较合理、低排放—结构欠合理、高排放—结构较合理类群、高排放—结构欠合理和高排放—结构不合理5大类群,最后结合各类型区域自身发展特点,提出因地制宜的低碳绿色发展建议,并从需求侧和供给侧两方面提出能源经济效率改善的政策建议。     

毛竹林单户经营规模效率及影响因素分析--基于福建三明的调查

基于福建省三明市的163户农户调查数据,采用DEA-Tobit模型分析了毛竹林地经营规模效率及其影响因素。在效率测算方面,福建省样本调查地区单户经营的毛竹林的总体规模效率平均为0.91,而林地平均规模效率为0.86。可以看出,毛竹林总体经营规模效率较高,但林地这一要素的规模效率较低。单户经营林地最优规模为60~70亩(4~4.67 hm2),总体投入产出要素配置比例相对协调,但中小规模经营面积的农户经营效率仍有待提高。在分析影响因素方面,家庭劳动力数量、从事林业经营活动经验、林地面积与毛竹林经营规模效率存在正相关关系;户主性别、年龄、生产周期投工费用与规模效率呈反向变动关系。提出因地制宜确立林地经营效率最优适度规模、加大力度扶持中小规模林地经营农户、加强林业经营者队伍质量建设等建议。     

竞争市场中生产与碳交易策略

在碳排放约束下,利用动态古诺模型,分析厂商如何优化产量、交易碳排放权的规模、净化节约额以实现利润最大化的问题,得到相应的均衡量和各阶段最优量,并给出竞争市场中的企业减排策略以及政府的行为和碳排放权价格对企业减排策略的影响,阐述在竞争市场中减排和碳排放权交易的运行机制。研究发现: 双寡头竞争市场中存在均衡状态;在减排率较低时,制造上获得最高利润,而企业追求过高的减排率将会导致过分依赖碳减排市场而获得较低的利润;制造商应该适时低价购入过量碳排放权,而在高价时卖出多余的碳排放权,以充分利用碳排放权市场以增加利润降低成本;制造商的利润会随着政府碳排放权分配系数的增加而增加。