Evaluating manufacturer's buyback policies in a single-period two-echelon framework under price-dependent stochastic demand

This paper attempts to model the profitability of a secondary market, in a newsvendor setting, to a profit-maximizing manufacturer, who is offering to the retailer a buyback policy for the unsold merchandise left at the end of the selling season. With a buyback agreement, the manufacturer shares the risks of demand uncertainty, thus inducing the buyer to place larger orders. The manufacturer's risk is mitigated to some extent by the availability of an extra market to dispose off the unsold merchandise. Both parties are risk-neutral profit-maximizers and both have the same information about the final demand for the product and its uncertainty. The manufacturer's decision is to arrive at an optimal wholesale price and the buyback price. Based on this offer, the retailer in turn sets the optimal amount of merchandise to purchase, as well as the unit selling price to meet a price-dependent uncertain demand for the merchandise in question. Due to the difficulty of obtaining analytical results, we have undertaken a numerical analysis to (i) compare the optimal policies across demand functions and error structures for three situations namely the no-incentive case and the buyback policies with and without a secondary market; (ii) indicate the conditions whereby the trade incentive is beneficial to both parties; (iii) assess the efficacy of the policies using two other performance indices (probability of achieving a target profit, and pass-through ratios) alternate to profit maximization; and (iv) conjecture the conditions for successful buyback policies and the nature of the benefits from the secondary market.     

农村土地流转市场参与主体行为分析

通过对土地流转一级市场和二级市场不同行为主体行为的博弈分析,找出影响土地流转市场失灵的因素及规范行为主体的措施,得出土地征用或流转行为受土地市场交易费用,征地损失与补偿,违规风险和执法力度等多项因素影响。研究认为完善农村社会保障,增加非农就业机会,降低土地流转市场交易费用以及继续发展农业科技来提高农业生产力等措施有利于促进我国农村土地流转市场的发展。     

Discrete associated kernels method and extensions

Discrete kernel estimation of a probability mass function (p.m.f.), often mentioned in the literature, has been far less investigated in comparison with continuous kernel estimation of a probability density function (p.d.f.). In this paper, we are concerned with a general methodology of discrete kernels for smoothing a p.m.f. f. We give a basic of mathematical tools for further investigations. First, we point out a generalizable notion of discrete associated kernel which is defined at each point of the support of f and built from any parametric discrete probability distribution. Then, some properties of the corresponding estimators are shown, in particular pointwise and global (asymptotical) properties. Other discrete kernels are constructed from usual discrete probability distributions such as Poisson, binomial and negative binomial. For small samples sizes, underdispersed discrete kernel estimators are more interesting than the empirical estimator; thus, an importance of discrete kernels is illustrated. The choice of smoothing bandwidth is classically investigated according to cross-validation and, novelly, to excess of zeros methods. Finally, a unification way of this method concerning the general probability function is discussed.     

Does residential mobility improve educational outcomes? Evidence from the Netherlands

This paper explores the impact of residential mobility on educational outcomes. By considering a large Dutch city with substantial internal residential mobility, we examine how residential mobility influences the decision of students to drop out of school. The paper exploits a rich administrative dataset with extensive information on educational, individual, family, housing and moving characteristics of students. It combines a matching design with a multivariate regression analysis, such that the evaluation draws on a well-comparable control group for the treated students. Accounting for individual, family, educational, neighborhood and housing characteristics, as well as for school and year fixed effects, we observe that residential mobility increases the probability of school dropout in the first few years after moving. The estimated effect changes, however, to a lower risk of early school leaving after an initial period, and then changes again to a higher risk after 6 years. This effect remains, regardless the level of education the students attended, or whether the student moves to a better or a worse neighborhood.     

论"二级识别"

识别是国际私法中的一个基本问题.本文首先从"二级识别"理论的提出开始,通过对识别制度的分析,从概念、目的及对象等方面,论述了识别冲突的根源,并揭示出识别的两个阶段第一个阶段是对法律事实的定性,第二个阶段是对连结点的解释.并得出结论识别的第二阶段是存在的,而且非此不能正确的适用准据法.     

我国农民工城市化问题阐析

随着中央政府对农民工城市化在整体上由限制转入鼓励以来,各地方政府竞相推出了促进农民工城市化的个性方案。通过对农民工城市化宏观层面上整体判断,中观层面上体制制约因素,微观层面上农民工成本支付能力,以及地方政府激励相容性的阐析得出:成本支付是农民工城市化问题的核心,而在城乡统筹前提下的农民工自由选择权是关键。在农民工城市化的过程中,政府既不能缺位,也不能越位,不应该制定功利性的目标和政策。     

中职语文教学中激发学生兴趣的策略与方法探究

学习兴趣是保证学生有效学习发生的重要因素,培养学生的学习兴趣是提高教学质量的重要方面。通过对中职学生能力素质实际、专业发展需要方面的讨论,就在教学过程中激发学生兴趣的教学策略与教学方法展开探究,并结合实际提出此过程中应注意的问题。     

发展我国住宅二级市场的思考

我国住宅二级市场处于起步阶段,政策的出台并没有完全奏效,需要研究更有效的措施刺激二级市场的发展,以促进这个住宅消费市场的发展。作者对发展我国住宅二级市场的现实意义、制约因素进行了分析,从销售措施、租赁措施两个方面提出了促进我国住宅二级市场发展的建议。     

Designing a tabu search algorithm for the two-stage flow shop problem with secondary criterion

This paper discusses the process of desigining a tabu search-based heuristic for the two-stage flow shop problem with makespan minimization as the primary criterion and the minimization of total flow time as the secondary criterion. A factorial experiment is designed to analyse thoroughly the effects of four different factors, i.e. the initial solution, type of move, size of neighbourhood and the list size, on the performance of the tabu search-based heuristic. Using the techniques of evolution curves, and response tables and response graphs, coupled with the Taguchi method, the best combination of the factors for the tabu search-based heuristic is identified, and the effectiveness of the heuristic algorithm in finding an optimal solution is evaluated by comparing its performance with the best known heuristic to solve this problem.