Download or read book Constructing Scalar Valued Objective Functions written by Andranik Tangian and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For several decades, scholars have developed methods for solving optimization problems which emerge in economics, econometrics, operations research, and other disciplines. A considerable effort has been made to construct equations from which constraints can be derived, but surprisingly little has been done to construct the other part of optimization models: the scalar-valued objective function, the constrained maximum or minimum of which gives the optimal solution. The given volume is intended to attract attention to the problem, to present the major achievements in the field and to stimulate further research and teaching.

Download or read book Constructing and Applying Objective Functions written by Andranik S. Tangian and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For some seven decades, econometrics has been almost exclusiveley dealing with constructing and applying econometric equation systems, which constitute constraints in econometric optimization models. The second major component, the scalarvalued objective function, has only in recent years attracted more attention and some progress has been made. This book is devoted to theories, models and methods for constructing scalarvalued objective functions for econometric optimization models, to their applications, and to some related topics like historical issues about pioneering contributions by Ragnar Frisch and Jan Tinbergen.

Download or read book Classification and Information Processing at the Turn of the Millennium written by Reinhold Decker and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains revised versions of selected papers presented dur ing the 23rd Annual Conference of the German Classification Society GfKl (Gesellschaft fiir Klassifikation). The conference took place at the Univer sity of Bielefeld (Germany) in March 1999 under the title "Classification and Information Processing at the Turn of the Millennium". Researchers and practitioners - interested in data analysis, classification, and information processing in the broad sense, including computer science, multimedia, WWW, knowledge discovery, and data mining as well as spe cial application areas such as (in alphabetical order) biology, finance, genome analysis, marketing, medicine, public health, and text analysis - had the op portunity to discuss recent developments and to establish cross-disciplinary cooperation in their fields of interest. Additionally, software and book pre sentations as well as several tutorial courses were organized. The scientific program of the conference included 18 plenary or semi plenary lectures and more than 100 presentations in special sections. The peer-reviewed papers are presented in 5 chapters as follows: • Data Analysis and Classification • Computer Science, Computational Statistics, and Data Mining • Management Science, Marketing, and Finance • Biology, Genome Analysis, and Medicine • Text Analysis and Information Retrieval As an unambiguous assignment of results to single chapters is sometimes difficult papers are grouped in a way that the editors found appropriate.

Download or read book Econometric Decision Models written by Josef Gruber and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains a refereed selection of revised papers which were originally presented at the Second International Conference on Econometric Decision Models, University of Hagen (FernUni versitat). The conference was held in Haus Nordhelle, a meeting place in the mountainous area " Sauerland" , some 50 kilometers south of Hagen, on August 29 - September 1, 1989. Some details about this conference are given in the first paper, they need not be repeated here. The 40 papers included in this volume are organized in 10 "parts", shown in the table of contents. Included are such "fashionable" topics like "optimal control", "cointegration" and "rational expec tations models". In each part, the papers have been arranged alphabetically by author, unless there were good reasons for a different arrangement. To facilitate the decision making of the readers, all papers (except a few short ones) contain an abstract, a list of keywords and a table of contents. At the end of the proceedings volume, there is a list of authors. More than ten years ago, I began to organize meetings of econometricians, mainly called "seminar" or " colloquium". One major purpose of these meetings has always been to improve international cooperation of econometric model builders (and model users) from "the East" and "the West". Unprecedented changes to the better have taken place recently ("perestroika"). For a large fraction of participants from the Soviet Union, the 1989 conference was the first conference in a Western country.

Download or read book Efficiency versus Sustainability in Dynamic Decision Making written by Bodo Glaser and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To all who taught me, and to all who will. Over the past fifteen years the notions of efficiency and sustainability have, more than any others, influenced the academic and public discussion concerning the intertemporal allocation of resources, especially as regards the economics of growth and environment. This treatise formally develops and counterposes these notions by means of the construct of a trajectorial objective, which is here developed, along with its implications, as a natural advance upon the classical scalar objective. In the course of this study it becomes clear that efficiency and sustainability are by no means identical, given that efficiency, on the one hand, is the concept for avoiding wasteful behavior, and sustainability, on the other, is the concept for ensuring that certain critical aspiration levels, which usually reflect the wish for survival, are maintained. Nonetheless, contrary to what may be assumed, these two concepts do not generally yield mutually exclusive solutions; in fact, they can be combined to complement each other in the quest for unimprovable long-term solutions which sustain given and necessary aspiration levels. This treatise develops and analyzes dynamic decision models (DDM) with one trajectorial objective according to the methodology of multi criteria decision making (MCDM). Moreover, introducing the method of distance maximization crucially augments MCDM and proves to be invaluable for DDMs in the case of a nonexistent utopia trajectory as well as in the case of sustainability as objective.

Download or read book Intelligent Strategies for Meta Multiple Criteria Decision Making written by Thomas Hanne and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Multiple criteria decision-making research has developed rapidly and has become a main area of research for dealing with complex decision problems which require the consideration of multiple objectives or criteria. Over the past twenty years, numerous multiple criterion decision methods have been developed which are able to solve such problems. However, the selection of an appropriate method to solve a particular decision problem is today's problem for a decision support researcher and decision-maker. Intelligent Strategies for Meta Multiple Criteria Decision-Making deals centrally with the problem of the numerous MCDM methods that can be applied to a decision problem. The book refers to this as a `meta decision problem', and it is this problem that the book analyzes. The author provides two strategies to help the decision-makers select and design an appropriate approach to a complex decision problem. Either of these strategies can be designed into a decision support system itself. One strategy is to use machine learning to design an MCDM method. This is accomplished by applying intelligent techniques, namely neural networks as a structure for approximating functions and evolutionary algorithms as universal learning methods. The other strategy is based on solving the meta decision problem interactively by selecting or designing a method suitable to the specific problem, for example, the constructing of a method from building blocks. This strategy leads to a concept of MCDM networks. Examples of this approach for a decision support system explain the possibilities of applying the elaborated techniques and their mutual interplay. The techniques outlined in the book can be used by researchers, students, and industry practitioners to better model and select appropriate methods for solving complex, multi-objective decision problems.

Download or read book Research and Practice in Multiple Criteria Decision Making written by Yacov Y. Haimes and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2000-05-26 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the past two decades, the consideration of mUltiple objectives in modeling and decision making has grown by leaps and bounds. The nineties in particular have seen the emphasis shift from the dominance of single-objective modeling and optimization toward an emphasis on multiple objectives. The proceedings of this Conference epitomize these evolutionary changes and contribute to the important role that the tield of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) now plays in planning, design, operational, management, and policy decisions. Of special interest are the contributions of MCDM to manufacturing engineering. For example, it has recently been recognized that optimal, single-objective solutions have often been pursued at the expense of the much broader applicability of designs and solutions that satisfy multiple objectives. In particular, the theme (MCDM and Its Worldwide Role in Risk-Based Decision Making) of the XIVth International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making (Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, June 8-12, 1998) represents the growing importance of risk-cost-benefit analysis in decision making and in engineering design and manufacturing. In such systems, minimizing the of rare and extreme events emerges as an essential objective that risk complements the minimization of the traditional expected value of risk, along with the objectives attached to cost and performance. These proceedings include forty-five papers that were presented at the Conference. A variety of techniques have been proposed for solving multiple criteria decision-making problems. The emphasis and style of the different techniques largely reflect the fields of expertise of their developers.

Download or read book New Frontiers Of Decision Making For The Information Technology Era written by Yong Shi and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2000-05-24 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume provides users and developers of the IT/S (information technology and systems) with information about the advances in decision making and decision-making support that empower and enable information technology in the direction of productivity and effectiveness of decision making in business. The chapters have been written by well-known international experts in decision making and they explore the frontiers of decision making in the era of IT/S.The book is intended to serve as a research source, scientific reference and business support source, as well as a book of student readings that will appeal to a larger international audience.

Download or read book Dynamic Macroeconomics with Imperfect Competition written by Leo Kaas and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1999-08-19 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis was stimulated throughout the time of my participation in a research project on Dynamic Macroeconomics, supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The starting point was the central question of how to integrate price setting firms in a dynamic disequilibrium model. Almost all recent literature on imperfect competition in macroeconomics applies the objective demand approach by assuming that firms know the true demand curve they are faced with. While this approach can be ap plied in temporary monetary equilibrium models, it proves inadequate for formulating price adjustment in a dynamic disequilibrium model, where it has to be replaced by the concept of subjective demand. Based on this distinction, the thesis starts out with a comparison of the concepts of subjective and objective demand in an abstract framework and surveys the literature on general equilibrium theory with imperfect competition. The objective demand approach is criticized not only on the grounds of its strong rationality requirements and existence problems, but also by the observation that it cannot be applied successfully to characterize determinate rational expectations equilibria in intertemporal macroeco nomics. Finally, price setting firms using subjective demand functions are integrated in a dynamic disequilibrium model in order to study mo nopolistic and oligopolistic price adjustment.

Download or read book The Core of Economies with Asymmetric Information written by Ulrich Schwalbe and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: and should therefore constitute a part of every area of economic 3 theory. The spectrum covered by information economics today ranges from Stigler's search theory4 to industrial economics, including oligopoly theory, innovation, as well as research and develop 5 ment. However, the area information economics is most closely connected with is the theory of optimal contracts, mainly ana 6 lyzed in principal-agent models. Contract theory deals primar ily with the question of how optimal arrangements (contracts) for the purchase and sale of commodities and services between two or more agents should be structured. In these models, it is often assumed that the parties to the contract are informed differently or asymmetrically about relevant variables (e. g. the health of one party in the case of insurance contracts, or the effort in relation to employment contracts). As a result of this asymmetric in formation, phenomena such as moral hazard, adverse selection, signaling, and screening may arise. Frequently, results from con tract theory are referred to when making statements about the effects of asymmetric information on an economy. Models of this kind are often used to explain phenomena such as fixed wages or unemployment, among others. 7 However, such conclusions must be treated with caution for two reasons. In the first place, in these models, a contract (explicit or implicit) is determined by the solution of an optimization prob lem.

Download or read book Fiscal Policy Public Debt and the Term Structure of Interest Rates written by Roland Demmel and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The introduction of the thesis consists of four parts: first, we motivate our chosen macroeconomic setting by looking at some real world phenomena. For a better understanding of these phenomena, we argue that the mutual dynamic interactions between flScal policy and financial markets need to be closely examined in a macroeconomic framework. Second, we review different strands of the economic literature in order to show that most of the literature has so far exclusively concentrated either on fmancial market dynamics or on flScal policy issues. We conclude that a more integrated model setting is called for in order to explain the dynamic interactions observed in reality. Third, we discuss at length the economic assumptions underlying our model. This avoids multiple repetition later on. Finally, we outline the structure of the thesis and the objectives we pursue in the different chapters. 1. 1 Motivation Fiscal policy and financial market reactions are increasingly receiving world wide attention. The most recent examples are the Maastricht criteria about flScal control, the South-East Asia financial crisis and the resulting IMF policy stance, the high level of public debt in developed and developing countries and the effect on interest rates and economic growth. In contrast to the still underdeveloped theoretical literature on these dynamic links, finding empirical evidence that supports the existence of these links is not a very hard task.

Download or read book Money Illusion and Strategic Complementarity as Causes of Monetary Non Neutrality written by Jean-Robert Tyran and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In principle, money illusion could explain the inertial adjustment of prices after changes of monetary policy. Hence, money illusion could provide an explanation of monetary non-neutrality. However, this explanation has been thoroughly discredited in modern economics. As a consequence, economists have ever since the 1970s searched for alternative explanations for nominal rigidity. These explanations are all based on the assumption of fully rational economic agents, holding rational expectations. This book argues that money illusion has been prematurely dismissed as an explanation of monetary non-neutrality. Methods of experimental economics are used to investigate the real aggregate effects of money illusion. It is shown that money illusion in fact causes (short-run) real income effects if strategic complementarity prevails. Strategic complementarity is an important characteristic of naturally occurring macroeconomies and is a recurrent theme in most models explaining nominal rigidity.

Download or read book Capacity Reservation for Capital intensive Technologies written by Stefan Spinler and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2003-01-21 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses two key issues of central importance in emerging electronic markets: first, improved coordination of supply and demand through options / forward contracts on output and capacity, and second the integration of such contracting methods with B2B exchanges and electronic markets. The book provides both a thorough review and synthesis of the growing literature in these areas as well extending this literature to accommodate state-dependent demand and contracting. The latter is an important issue since the spot markets for many markets, e.g. energy, are fundamentally conditioned on such variables as temperature, and therefore these "states" need to be accomodated in the underlying theory of financial instruments supporting such contracting. A discussion of emerging applications in logistics, energy, chemicals and e-manufacturing illustrate the importance of the subject matter.

Download or read book A Theory of Interregional Dynamics written by Wei-Bin Zhang and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-09-07 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over more than two centuries the development of economic theory has created a wide array of different theories, concepts and results. Nevertheless, there is no general theory, which mrifies these varied theories into a comprehensive one. Economics has been split between partial and conflicting representations of the functioning of market economies. We have a collection of separate theories such as the Marxian economics, the Keynesian economics, the general equilibrium theory, and the neoclassical growth theory. These diverse economic theories have co-existed but not in a structured relationship with each other. Economic students are trained to understand economic phenomena by severally incompatible theories one by one in the same course. Since the end of Second Wodd War many crises in economic theory have been announced. The economist experienced the crisis of the general equilibrium economics, the crisis of the neoclassical growth economics, the crisis of the Keynesian economics, not to mention the crises of the Marxian economics. It is quite reasonable to expect the loss of confidence in theoretical economics even among professional economists after so many crises in a very short period of time. But a crisis offers new opportmrities for change, either for better or for worse. The past crises in theoretical economics may be perceived as a historical opportmrity to construct a general economic theory by which the traditional theories are integrated into a higher whole.

Download or read book Quantitative Approaches to Distribution Logistics and Supply Chain Management written by Andreas Klose and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing customer needs, the globalization of markets and the evolution of e-commerce add to the complexity of logistic processes. In today's business, it is well understood that an effective management of logistic processes is impossible without the use of computer-based tools and quantitative methods. This book presents in a systematic way quantitative approaches to distribution logistics and supply chain management. The main orientation of the book is towards practical problem solving, and numerous case studies and practical applications are presented. The topics covered include: supply chain management, revers logistics, e-commerce, facility location and network planning, vehicle routing, warehousing, inventory control.

Download or read book Corporate Finance Innovation and Strategic Competition written by Cornelia Neff and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes how corporate finance decisions influence strategic competition and innovation of firms in the product market. We consider bank loan financing and venture capital financing. Due to assymetric information, firms must sign special contracts with banks or venture capitalists. The financial contracts, in turn, determine the competitive strategies of firms in the product market. Firms compete in prices for market shares. In addition to that, firms invest in R&D in order to induce product or process innovation. We show that better access to financial resources improves a firm's market position and leads to a higher rate of innovation. Cash-rich firms may even decide to prey upon financially restricted rivals in order to prevent new market entry or to induce market exit.

Download or read book A Theory of Supply Chains written by Carlos F. Daganzo and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work was stimulated by a comment made by a former student (Prof. Alan Erera of Georgia Tech) in connection with an inventory stabil ity game he was going to play in one of his logistics classes. This was the well-known "beer-game" that is often played in business schools to illus trate the "bullwhip" effect in supply chains. Al had said to me that he did not have to tell his students how to reorder replacement parts from the other members of the supply chain because he knew from experience that the order sizes the players would generate as the game progressed would become chaotic anyhow. Since I had not played the beer game, his asser tion was intriguing to me. Why would such an unstructured game always lead to the same undesirable effect? Did it have something to do with psy chology? What is it that players did to generate instabilities? I posed these to other people but could not get completely satisfactory an questions swers. Thus, the bullwhip mystery remained, at least in my mind. Since inventory chains are "conservative" systems analogous to a traffic stream, and since traffic flow models exhibit similar effects (the instability of automobile platoons and of certain numerical methods being two nota ble examples)' I suspected that traffic flow theory might shed some light on the puzzle.