A common problem in the empirical production analysis at the firm-level is that the initial values of capital are often missing in the data. Most empirical studies impute initial capital according to some ad hoc criteria based on a single arbitrary proxy. This paper evaluates the bias of...

In this paper, quantitative models for direct marketing models are reviewed from a systems perspective. A systems view consists of input, processing, and output and the six key activities of direct marketing that take place within these constituent parts. A discussion about inputs for direct...

The article addresses the potential role of geosciences in development of civilian nuclear power plants (NPPs). We firstly highlight the fact that the Fukushima accident of 2011 is different from previous major nuclear accidents at the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl in that the former was...

People who are unable to maintain the same standard of living as others around them experience a sense of relative deprivation that has been shown to reduce feelings of well-being. Relative deprivation reflects conditions of worsening relative poverty despite striking reductions in absolute...

The recent increase in Chinese house prices has led to concerns that China is vulnerable to asset price shocks. In this paper, we apply recently developed recursive unit root tests to spot the beginning and the end of potential speculative bubbles in Chinese house price cycles. Overall, we find...

To remain competitive in the present dynamic environment, ‘governance for agility’ has become a key solution. Past literature paid little attention to understanding how governance for agility, particularly in regard to the delivery of Information Technology (IT) implementation....

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in companies can be implemented to Multi National Corporation (MNC), Larger Enterprise, and Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). In China, 99% of all companies can be categorized as SMEs. With a decade of high-speed economy development after entering...

It has been widely documented that the poor spend a significant proportion of their income on gifts even at the expense of basic consumption. We test three competing explanations of this phenomenon--peer effect, status concern, and risk pooling--based on a census-type primary household survey in...

This paper accounts for China?s economic growth since 1980 in a uni-fied endogenous growth model in which a sequencing of physical capital accumula-tion, human capital ac-cumulation and innovation drives the rise in China?s aggre-gate income. The first stage is characterized by physical capital...

This paper derives the structure of a production function which is necessary and sufficient for generating a fixed cost. We extend the classical production function in order to allow each input to have a fixed and a variable part. We characterize and estimates both fixed and variable components...