A new multi-layer artificial neural network learning algorithm based on pattern search method is proposed. The learning model is designed to provide a very simple and effective means of searching the minima of objective function of a multi-layer neural network directly without any knowledge of...

This study aims to examine the impact of unbundling regulation (vertical separation) on incentives for pipeline investment. Recently, the Japanese government has decided to institute vertical separation of natural gas companies. Major existing natural gas companies, called incumbents, will be...

In the past few decades, the market environment of the liner shipping industry has changed. The most important changes are in market power and regulation, such as the Shipping Act of 1984 and the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998 in the United States. We estimate and draw the time-varying...

This paper examines the effect of inter-port competition between two ports by applying a game theoretical approach. We construct a non-cooperative game theoretic model where each port selects port charges strategically in the timing of port capacity investment. We derive the Nash equilibrium and...

We focus on non-storability, a characteristic of shipping freight that leads to an enormous gap between the widely-used no-arbitrage pricing theory and shipping freight derivative markets. Our main contribution is to modify and generalize the Bessembinder and Lemmon (2002) model. Equilibrium...