Asymmetric demand information in uniform and discriminatory call auctions: an experimental analysis motivated by electricity markets

We study the outcomes of experimental multi-unit uniform and discriminatory auctions with demand uncertainty. Our study is motivated by the ongoing debate about market design in the electricity industry. Our main aim is to compare the effect of asymmetric demand-information between sellers on the performance of the two auction institutions. In our baseline conditions all sellers have the same information, whereas in our treatment conditions some sellers have better information than others. In both information conditions we find that average transaction prices and price volatility are not significantly different under the two auction institutions. However, when there is asymmetric information among sellers the discriminatory auction is significantly less efficient. These results are not in line with the typical arguments made in favor of discriminatory pricing in electricity industries; namely, lower consumer prices and less price volatility. Moreover, our results provide some indication that discriminatory auctions reduce technical efficiency relative to uniform auctions.

Dead-End Jobs or Career Opportunities? Advancement opportunities in call centers

Employment in call centers has grown significantly throughout the world over the past 15 years. In debates about the quality of these new jobs, there are few studies that specifically address promotion opportunities. Using a survey of over 2400 call centers in 16 countries, this paper documents levels and analyzes factors shaping promotions in call centers, and discusses implications for promotions in the service sector generally. On average, less than 10% of call center agents are promoted in any year--5.7% promoted internally to the call center, and 4% promoted elsewhere in the business. Firms that have more complex labor processes and require agents to have higher levels of firm-specific knowledge tend to also have greater promotion opportunities, which might be expected. There are also unexpected findings, including that increased autonomy in the workplace often provides a ‘substitute' to advancement opportunities, and that unionization is associated with fewer advancement opportunities within call centers, though more advancement opportunities to other parts of the business. Key words: promotions, service industries, call centers.

Rigid flat webs on the projective plane

This paper studies global webs on the projective plane with vanishing curvature. The study is based on an interplay of local and global arguments. The main local ingredient is a criterium for the regularity of the curvature at the neighborhood of a generic point of the discriminant. The main global ingredient, the Legendre transform, is an avatar of classical projective duality in the realm of differential equations. We show that the Legendre transform of what we call reduced convex foliations are webs with zero curvature, and we exhibit a countable infinity family of convex foliations which give rise to a family of webs with zero curvature not admitting non-trivial deformations with zero curvature.

Social network measures for "nosduocentered" networks, their predictive power on performance

Our purpose in this article is to define a network structure which is based on two egos instead of the egocentered (one ego) or the complete network (n egos). We describe the characteristics and properties for this kind of network which we call “nosduocentered network”, comparing it with complete and egocentered networks. The key point for this kind of network is that relations exist between the two main egos and all alters, but relations among others are not observed. After that, we use new social network measures adapted to the nosduocentered network, some of which are based on measures for complete networks such as degree, betweenness, closeness centrality or density, while some others are tailormade for nosduocentered networks. We specify three regression models to predict research performance of PhD students based on these social network measures for different networks such as advice, collaboration, emotional support and trust. Data used are from Slovenian PhD students and their s

On the term structure of Interbank interest rates: Jump-diffusion processes and option pricing

In this paper we study the dynamic behavior of the term structureof Interbank interest rates and the pricing of options on interest ratesensitive securities. We posit a generalized single factor model withjumps to take into account external influences in the market. Daily datais used to test for jump effects. Qualitative examination of the linkagebetween Monetary Authorities' interventions and jumps are studied. Pricingresults suggests a systematic underpricing in bonds and call options ifthe jumps component is not included. However, the pricing of put optionson bonds presents indeterminacies.

On equilibria in duopolies with finite strategy spaces

We will call a game a reachable (pure strategy) equilibria game if startingfrom any strategy by any player, by a sequence of best-response moves weare able to reach a (pure strategy) equilibrium. We give a characterizationof all finite strategy space duopolies with reachable equilibria. Wedescribe some applications of the sufficient conditions of the characterization.

On the receiver pays principle

This paper extends the theory of network competition betweentelecommunications operators by allowing receivers to derive a surplusfrom receiving calls (call externality) and to affect the volume ofcommunications by hanging up (receiver sovereignty). We investigate theextent to which receiver charges can lead to an internalization of thecalling externality. When the receiver charge and the termination(access) charge are both regulated, there exists an e±cient equilibrium.Effciency requires a termination discount. When reception charges aremarket determined, it is optimal for each operator to set the prices foremission and reception at their off-net costs. For an appropriately chosentermination charge, the symmetric equilibrium is again effcient. Lastly,we show that network-based price discrimination creates strong incentivesfor connectivity breakdowns, even between equal networks.

The three strands of intercultural polities: a comprehensive view. A critical review of Bouchard and Cantle recent books on interculturalism

Within the emerging policy debate on interculturalism we critically review two recent books in 2012: Bouchard’s L’interculturalisme: un point de vue quebecois, and Cantle’s Interculturalism: The New Era of Cohesion and Diversity. In my view, both contribute very directly to open a foundational debate on interculturalism. In addressing the point of convergence and the dividing lines of these two contributions, I will claim that in spite of having one core concept of interculturalism, there are, however, at least two basic conceptions that have to be interpreted in complementary ways: Bouchard’s essay represents the contractual strand, Cantle’s book the cohesion strand. At the end I would also suggest that these two strands do not manage to express explicitly that diversity can also be seen as a resource of innovation and creativity, and so can drive individual and social development. This view is based on the diversity advantage literature already informing most of the diversity debate in Europe and elsewhere. This is what I will call the constructivist strand. My ultimate purpose is to defend a comprehensive view, grounded on the argument that no one can have the sole authority to define intercultural policy, since the three strands can be applied at different moments, according to different purposes and policy needs. The challenge now is that policy managers be able to achieve a balance between these three policy drivers.

Performance evaluation of MPEG-4 Video encoder on Adres

Actualment un típic embedded system (ex. telèfon mòbil) requereix alta qualitat per portar a terme tasques com codificar/descodificar a temps real; han de consumir poc energia per funcionar hores o dies utilitzant bateries lleugeres; han de ser el suficientment flexibles per integrar múltiples aplicacions i estàndards en un sol aparell; han de ser dissenyats i verificats en un període de temps curt tot i l’augment de la complexitat. Els dissenyadors lluiten contra aquestes adversitats, que demanen noves innovacions en arquitectures i metodologies de disseny. Coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs) estan emergent com a candidats potencials per superar totes aquestes dificultats. Diferents tipus d’arquitectures han estat presentades en els últims anys. L’alta granularitat redueix molt el retard, l’àrea, el consum i el temps de configuració comparant amb les FPGAs. D’altra banda, en comparació amb els tradicionals processadors coarse-grained programables, els alts recursos computacionals els permet d’assolir un alt nivell de paral•lelisme i eficiència. No obstant, els CGRAs existents no estant sent aplicats principalment per les grans dificultats en la programació per arquitectures complexes. ADRES és una nova CGRA dissenyada per I’Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Center (IMEC). Combina un processador very-long instruction word (VLIW) i un coarse-grained array per tenir dues opcions diferents en un mateix dispositiu físic. Entre els seus avantatges destaquen l’alta qualitat, poca redundància en les comunicacions i la facilitat de programació. Finalment ADRES és un patró enlloc d’una arquitectura concreta. Amb l’ajuda del compilador DRESC (Dynamically Reconfigurable Embedded System Compile), és possible trobar millors arquitectures o arquitectures específiques segons l’aplicació. Aquest treball presenta la implementació d’un codificador MPEG-4 per l’ADRES. Mostra l’evolució del codi per obtenir una bona implementació per una arquitectura donada. També es presenten les característiques principals d’ADRES i el seu compilador (DRESC). Els objectius són de reduir al màxim el nombre de cicles (temps) per implementar el codificador de MPEG-4 i veure les diferents dificultats de treballar en l’entorn ADRES. Els resultats mostren que els cícles es redueixen en un 67% comparant el codi inicial i final en el mode VLIW i un 84% comparant el codi inicial en VLIW i el final en mode CGA.

De la mano de Keynes: "A tract on monetary reform"

En Tract on Monetary Reform, John Maynard Keynes propuso utilizar la base monetaria y el coeficiente de reserva bancaria como variables instrumentales d¿una política monetaria que había sido considerada hasta entonces innecesaria. En este trabajo se intenta desvelar las primeras contribuciones de Keynes al progreso del análisis económico

De la mano de Keynes: "A tract on monetary reform"

En Tract on Monetary Reform, John Maynard Keynes propuso utilizar la base monetaria y el coeficiente de reserva bancaria como variables instrumentales d¿una política monetaria que había sido considerada hasta entonces innecesaria. En este trabajo se intenta desvelar las primeras contribuciones de Keynes al progreso del análisis económico

Fronts from integrodifference equations and persistence effects on the Neolithic transition

We extend a previous model of the Neolithic transition in Europe [J. Fort and V. Méndez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 867 (1999)] by taking two effects into account: (i) we do not use the diffusion approximation (which corresponds to second-order Taylor expansions), and (ii) we take proper care of the fact that parents do not migrate away from their children (we refer to this as a time-order effect, in the sense that it implies that children grow up with their parents, before they become adults and can survive and migrate). We also derive a time-ordered, second-order equation, which we call the sequential reaction-diffusion equation, and use it to show that effect (ii) is the most important one, and that both of them should in general be taken into account to derive accurate results. As an example, we consider the Neolithic transition: the model predictions agree with the observed front speed, and the corrections relative to previous models are important (up to 70%)

VoIP: Making Secure Calls and Maintaining High Call Quality

Modern multimedia communication tools must have high security, high availability and high quality of service (QoS). Any security implementation will directly impact on QoS. This paper will investigate how end-to-end security impacts on QoS in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The QoS is measured in terms of lost packet ratio, latency and jitter using different encryption algorithms, no security and just the use of IP firewalls in Local and Wide Area Networks (LAN and WAN). The results of laboratory tests indicate that the impact on the overall performance of VoIP depends upon the bandwidth availability and encryption algorithm used. The implementation of any encryption algorithm in low bandwidth environments degrades the voice quality due to increased loss packets and packet latency, but as bandwidth increases encrypted VoIP calls provided better service compared to an unsecured environment.

Performance evaluation of MPEG-4 Video encoder on Adres

Actualment un típic embedded system (ex. telèfon mòbil) requereix alta qualitat per portar a terme tasques com codificar/descodificar a temps real; han de consumir poc energia per funcionar hores o dies utilitzant bateries lleugeres; han de ser el suficientment flexibles per integrar múltiples aplicacions i estàndards en un sol aparell; han de ser dissenyats i verificats en un període de temps curt tot i l’augment de la complexitat. Els dissenyadors lluiten contra aquestes adversitats, que demanen noves innovacions en arquitectures i metodologies de disseny. Coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs) estan emergent com a candidats potencials per superar totes aquestes dificultats. Diferents tipus d’arquitectures han estat presentades en els últims anys. L’alta granularitat redueix molt el retard, l’àrea, el consum i el temps de configuració comparant amb les FPGAs. D’altra banda, en comparació amb els tradicionals processadors coarse-grained programables, els alts recursos computacionals els permet d’assolir un alt nivell de paral•lelisme i eficiència. No obstant, els CGRAs existents no estant sent aplicats principalment per les grans dificultats en la programació per arquitectures complexes. ADRES és una nova CGRA dissenyada per I’Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Center (IMEC). Combina un processador very-long instruction word (VLIW) i un coarse-grained array per tenir dues opcions diferents en un mateix dispositiu físic. Entre els seus avantatges destaquen l’alta qualitat, poca redundància en les comunicacions i la facilitat de programació. Finalment ADRES és un patró enlloc d’una arquitectura concreta. Amb l’ajuda del compilador DRESC (Dynamically Reconfigurable Embedded System Compile), és possible trobar millors arquitectures o arquitectures específiques segons l’aplicació. Aquest treball presenta la implementació d’un codificador MPEG-4 per l’ADRES. Mostra l’evolució del codi per obtenir una bona implementació per una arquitectura donada. També es presenten les característiques principals d’ADRES i el seu compilador (DRESC). Els objectius són de reduir al màxim el nombre de cicles (temps) per implementar el codificador de MPEG-4 i veure les diferents dificultats de treballar en l’entorn ADRES. Els resultats mostren que els cícles es redueixen en un 67% comparant el codi inicial i final en el mode VLIW i un 84% comparant el codi inicial en VLIW i el final en mode CGA.