Stochastic dynamic programming for election timing: A game theory approach

In this paper, we consider dynamic programming for the election timing in the majoritarian parliamentary system such as in Australia, where the government has a constitutional right to call an early election. This right can give the government an advantage to remain in power for as long as possible by calling an election, when its popularity is high. On the other hand, the opposition's natural objective is to gain power, and it will apply controls termed as "boosts" to reduce the chance of the government being re-elected by introducing policy and economic responses. In this paper, we explore equilibrium solutions to the government, and the opposition strategies in a political game using stochastic dynamic programming. Results are given in terms of the expected remaining life in power, call and boost probabilities at each time at any level of popularity.

The risk premium for equity: implications for resource allocation, welfare and policy

Analysis of the equity premium puzzle has focused on private sector capital markets. The object of this paper is to consider the welfare and policy implications of each of the broad classes of explanations of the equity premium puzzle. As would be expected, the greater the deviation from the first-best outcome implied by a given explanation of the equity premium puzzle, the more interventionist are the implied policy conclusions. Nevertheless, even explanations of the equity premium puzzle consistent with a general consumption-based asset pricing model have important welfare and policy implications.

Methods for conflict resolution in policy-based management systems

While developments in distributed object computing environments, such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) [17] and the Telecommunication Intelligent Network Architecture (TINA) [16], have enabled interoperability between domains in large open distributed systems, managing the resources within such systems has become an increasingly complex task. This challenge has been considered for several years within the distributed systems management research community and policy-based management has recently emerged as a promising solution. Large evolving enterprises present a significant challenge for policy-based management partly due to the requirement to support both mutual transparency and individual autonomy between domains [2], but also because the fluidity and complexity of interactions occurring within such environments requires an ability to cope with the coexistence of multiple, potentially inconsistent policies. This paper discusses the need of providing both dynamic (run-time) and static (compile-time) conflict detection and resolution for policies in such systems and builds on our earlier conflict detection work [7, 8] to introduce the methods for conflict resolution in large open distributed systems.

The Politics of Permaculture: Towards an Ecologically Situated Approach to Resource Policy and Governance

The contributions to environmental politics of Torgerson, Oelschlager, Dryzek, Harrè and others, converge in their respective acknowledgements that the shift towards an ‘ecologically situated’ approach to environmental policy, including resource governance, will require the emergence and consolidation of a new lingua franca of environmental discourse. In this paper, I suggest that an extrapolation of permaculture ethics may provide a gambit through which such a discourse may be assembled and organised. I examine six key signifying elements derived from Orr and Capra’s approach to ecological literacy – network, nested system, flow, cycle, development and dynamic balance – and explore the implications that these might have for resource governance and policy, including the (re)framing of assessment indicators, energy auditing, resource management and integrated planning and development.

Cost-based pricing in the NHS internal market : accounting choices and the achievement of economic efficiency

Since 1988, quasi-markets have been introduced into many areas of social policy in the UK, the NHS internal market is one example. Markets operate by price signals. The NHS Internal Market, if it is to operate efficiently, requires purchasers and providers to respond to price signals. The research hypothesis is - cost accounting methods can be developed to enable healthcare contracts to be priced on a cost-basis in a manner which will facilitate the achievement of economic efficiency in the NHS internal market. Surveys of hospitals in 1991 and 1994 established the cost methods adopted in deriving the prices for healthcare contracts in the first year of the market and three years on. An in-depth view of the costing for pricing process was gained through case studies. Hospitals had inadequate cost information on which to price healthcare contracts at the inception of the internal market: prices did not reflect the relative performance of healthcare providers sufficiently closely to enable the market's espoused efficiency aims to be achieved. Price variations were often due to differing costing approaches rather than efficiency. Furthermore, price comparisons were often meaningless because of inadequate definition of the services (products). In April 1993, the NHS Executive issued guidance on costing for contracting to all NHS providers in an attempt to improve the validity of price comparisons between alternative providers. The case studies and the 1994 survey show that although price comparison has improved, considerable problems remain. Consistency is not assured, and the problem of adequate product definition is still to be solved. Moreover, the case studies clearly highlight the mismatch of rigid, full-cost pricing rules with both the financial management considerations at local level and the emerging internal market(s). Incentives exist to cost-shift, and healthcare prices can easily be manipulated. In the search for a new health policy paradigm to replace traditional bureaucratic provision, cost-based pricing cannot be used to ensure a more efficient allocation of healthcare resources.

Dynamic spectrum access in heterogeneous unlicensed wireless networks

Existing wireless systems are normally regulated by a fixed spectrum assignment strategy. This policy leads to an undesirable situation that some systems may only use the allocated spectrum to a limited extent while others have very serious spectrum insufficiency situation. Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) is emerging as a promising technology to address this issue such that the unused licensed spectrum can be opportunistically accessed by the unlicensed users. To enable DSA, the unlicensed user shall have the capability of detecting the unoccupied spectrum, controlling its spectrum access in an adaptive manner, and coexisting with other unlicensed users automatically. In this article, we propose a radio system Transmission Opportunity-based spectrum access control protocol with the aim to improve spectrum access fairness and ensure safe coexistence of multiple heterogeneous unlicensed radio systems. In the scheme, multiple radio systems will coexist and dynamically use available free spectrum without interfering with licensed users. Simulation is carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme with respect to spectrum utilisation, fairness and scalability. Comparing with the existed studies, our strategy is able to achieve higher scalability and controllability without degrading spectrum utilisation and fairness performance.

An empirical investigation of audit pricing in the public sector:the case of Greek LGOs

This paper investigates the associations between audit pricing and multidimensional characteristics of local governments by using a sample of Greek municipalities. The Greek institutional setting is interesting because it is politically pluralistic. Moreover, independent auditors appointed through a bid process exclusively perform the audits. Our results suggest a considerable variation on audit fees which is mainly driven by politically related factors indicating the importance of relevant theoretical anticipations in audit pricing in the public sector. Agency costs appear strong enough to explain audit pricing. We also confirm prior findings on the significance of audit complexity and size. Results also suggest that audit fees are reduced when an internal team dedicated to accrual accounting is appointed. Therefore, our conclusions offer practical implications for policy setters and regulators in the public sector in relation to audit quality.

Rebuilding the city:a focus for European industrial policy?

While the city offers the potential of dynamic agglomeration economies which can spur the achievement of economic growth and act as an engine that powers the economy, it often appears as a centre of crisis in mature ‘developed’ regions and countries, even before the most recent economic downturn. This paper attempts to reconcile these two seemingly paradoxical observations by bringing in a strategic choice perspective to explain how concentrated strategic decision making in the corporate entities that dominate our cities has diminished the very diversity that Jacobs identified as being essential for cities to flourish and develop. The industrial policy implications for cities are subsequently explored in terms of building new industrial districts, developing high skill ecosystems, and fostering multinational webs of cities, all with the aim of ensuring the conditions exist in cities for creativity and development to flourish, notably a diverse and democratic economic system.

Policy through procurement:introduction of digital signal process (DSP) hearing aids into the English NHS

Despite being a major user of many technologies and innovations, the healthcare sector's role and influence as a procurer of technologies has been poorly represented by the literature and consequently is not fully understood. Providing a practical example of the introduction of digital signal process (DSP) hearing aids in to the English NHS, this paper discusses the role of public sector procurement agencies in the uptake of technologies from the private sector and their adoption by the public sector. Employing a system of innovation (SI) approach, the paper highlights the need for policy-makers to adopt a dynamic as well as systemic perspective that recognises the shifting roles, responsibilities and interactions of key stakeholders throughout the innovation process.

Dynamic complementarities in innovation strategies

Using a panel of Irish manufacturing plants over the period 1991-2008 we test for dynamic complementarities in the joint use of internal R&D and external knowledge sources. We find little evidence, either from considering successive cross-sectional waves of comparable surveys, or in terms of the strategy switch choices of specific plants, that there has been a systematic move towards the joint use of internal and external knowledge in innovation. We then test formally for the presence of complementarities in the joint use of internal R&D and external innovation linkages. In static terms we find no evidence of complementarity, but in dynamic terms find evidence that strategy switches by individual plants towards a more 'open' strategy are accompanied by increased innovation outputs.

Improving scheduling techniques in heterogeneous systems with dynamic, on-line optimisations

Computational performance increasingly depends on parallelism, and many systems rely on heterogeneous resources such as GPUs and FPGAs to accelerate computationally intensive applications. However, implementations for such heterogeneous systems are often hand-crafted and optimised to one computation scenario, and it can be challenging to maintain high performance when application parameters change. In this paper, we demonstrate that machine learning can help to dynamically choose parameters for task scheduling and load-balancing based on changing characteristics of the incoming workload. We use a financial option pricing application as a case study. We propose a simulation of processing financial tasks on a heterogeneous system with GPUs and FPGAs, and show how dynamic, on-line optimisations could improve such a system. We compare on-line and batch processing algorithms, and we also consider cases with no dynamic optimisations.

Tax implications of dividend policy

This study examines the tax-arbitrage possibilities on the Budapest Stock Exchange between 1995 and 2007. The theoretical possibility for the arbitrage is the different taxation for different stockholders, for the private investors and for the institutions: the institutions had higher taxation on capital gain while private persons in the whole period had tax-benefits on capital gains. The dynamic clientele model shows, that there is a range of the price drops after dividend payouts which guarantees a risk-free profit for both parties. The research is based on the turnover data from 97 companies listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange. We have tested the significant turnovers around the dividend-dates. The study presents clear evidence that investors continuously did take advantages on the different taxation.

State–society relations in a dynamic framework: The case of the Far East and Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the textbook approach, the developmental states of the Far East have been considered as strong and autonomous entities. Although their bureaucratic elites have remained isolated from direct pressures stemming from society, the state capacity has also been utilised in order to allocate resources in the interest of the whole society. Yet, society – by and large –has remained weak and subordinated to the state elite. On the other hand, the general perception of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been just the opposite. The violent and permanent conflict amongst rent-seeking groups for influence and authority over resources has culminated in a situation where states have become extremely weak and fragmented, while society – depending on the capacity of competing groups for mobilising resources to organise themselves mostly on a regional or local level (resulting in local petty kingdoms) – has never had the chance to evolve as a strong player. State failure in the literature, therefore, – in the context of SSA – refers not just to a weak and captured state but also to a non-functioning, and sometimes even non-existent society, too. Recently, however, the driving forces of globalisation might have triggered serious changes in the above described status quo. Accordingly, our hypothesis is the following: globalisation, especially the dynamic changes of technology, capital and communication have made the simplistic “strong state–weak society” (in Asia) and “weak state–weak society” (in Africa) categorisation somewhat obsolete. While our comparative study has a strong emphasis on the empirical scrutiny of trying to uncover the dynamics of changes in state–society relations in the two chosen regions both qualitatively and quantitatively, it also aims at complementing the meaning and essence of the concepts and methodology of stateness, state capacity and state-society relations, the well-known building blocks of the seminal works of Evans (1995), Leftwich (1995), Migdal (1988) or Myrdal (1968).

A vállalatok árképzési gyakorlata a versenyképesség szolgálatában (The pricing practice of corporates and the competitiveness)

A marketing-szakirodalom szerint az ár az egyik legfontosabb marketingeszköz, és a vállalati versenyképesség értelmezésében is meghatározó szerepe van. A megfelelő árképzés kialakítása ugyanakkor összetett folyamat, amely önmagában is külön képességnek tekinthető, és kell befektetést igényel. A szerző az elemzés során így arra volt kíváncsi, hogy a vezető, azaz a versenyképes vállalatok árazási gyakorlata mutat-e eltéréseket, és, ha igen, melyek azok a területek, amelyek leginkább összefüggnek az eredményességükkel. A háromszáz hazai vállalatra kiterjedő kutatás során azt találta, hogy a vezető vállalatok valamelyest másképp tekintenek az ár szerepére és szignifikánsan magasabb árszínvonalon értékesítenek. Ez nagyobb mozgásteret enged számukra, a versenytársak árkihívásaira így könnyebben tudnak árakciókkal válaszolni. Árképzési céljaikban azonban kevésbé mutatkoznak különbségek, mert számukra is kihívást jelent a válság, és nekik is több szempontnak kell egyszerre megfelelniük. Az árak meghatározásánál azonban több tényezőt vesznek figyelembe és jobban támaszkodnak a vevőkről szerzett információkra. ______________ According to the marketing literature the price is one of the most important marketing tools and it plays a dominant role in the interpretation of corporate competitiveness, as well. The appropriate pricing, however, a complex process that can be regarded as a distinct capability and it requires sufficient investment itself. In this analysis the author enquired if the pricing practice of the leading, that is, the most competitive companies has a different profile, and if yes, which areas are associated with the success of them. Based on the survey of 300 domestic organisations he found that the leading companies consider the role of price in a slightly different way and they price their products or services significantly higherthan the others. This let them some space to manoeuvre and they can react with price promotions when the competitors challenge them with price activities. Regarding the pricing objectives the author couldn’t identify differences. The leading companies are also affected by the economic crisis and they have to match many expectations at the same time but they take more factors into consideration when they set their prices and more likely use customer information.

Individual decision-making by top executives as a valuable resource for strategic management – A resource-based view and dynamic capability approach

Strategy is highly important for organisational success and the achievement of competitive advantage. Strategy is dynamic and it depends on accurate individual decision-making from medium and high-level managers and executives. Since managers always formulate strategy, its formulation depends mostly on their assertive decisions. Making good decisions is a complex task, even more in today’s business world where a large quantity of information and a dynamic environment forces people to decide without having complete information. As Shafir, Simonson, & Tversky (1993) point out, "the making of decisions, both big and small, is often difficult because of uncertainty and conflict". In this paper the author will explain a basic theoretical framework about top manager's individual decision-making, showing how complex the process of making high-impact decisions is; then, he will compare this theory with one of the most important streams in strategic management, the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm. Finally, within the context of individual decision-making and the RBV stream, the author will show how individual decision makers in top management positions constitute a valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable resource that provides sustained competitive advantage.