The New British Railways Structure A Transaction Cost Economics Analysis

The 1993 reform of rail transport in Great Britain led to an outright break-up of the British Rail vertically integrated monopoly. All railway activities have been isolated and divided among private operators whose relationships are determined by contracts. This paper examines the relevance of a vertical separation between train operations and rolling stock ownership and the stability of this new structure. Transaction cost theory, which mainly concentrates on vertical integration and contractual coordination issues, provides a relevant analytical framework. It is argued that the disintegrated governance structure is not suitable to the features of the relationships between lessors and lessees of rolling stock. Moreover, the coordinative mechanisms of existing leases cannot solve the problems caused by vertical separation. Therefore, operators have adapted the structure and change the characteristics of the rolling stock market transactions.vertical integration, public utilities reform, transaction cost economics

A Political Economy of Privatization Contracts : The Case of Water and Sanitation in Ghana and Argentina

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Hulya Dagdeviren, Simon A. Robertson, 'A Political Economy of Privatization Contracts: The Case of Water and Sanitation in Ghana and Argentina', Competition & Change, Vol. 18 (2): 150-163, April 2014. The final, published version is available online at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/1024529414Z.00000000053. Published by SAGE.In general, the process and outcomes of privatization have been studied from the point of view of efficiency. In this article, we consider issues in the course of contract design, implementation, management and enforcement in privatized public services and utilities. The study is based on two case studies, involving several water concessions in Argentina and a management contract in the urban water sector in Ghana. Three key arguments are presented on the basis of these case studies. The first is that an individualistic analytical framework is often utilized by the mainstream economic perspectives, but these are inadequate for a comparative assessment of private versus public provision in public services where there are distinct collective or group interests and hence a wider socio-economic context and representation of different interests becomes highly important. Instead, the article proposes a political economy perspective, which pays due attention to distributional issues, group interests, ideology of states and power relations for the assessment of privatization contracts. Second, the administrative capacity of states and their resources play a key role for the outcomes of privatization. Finally, while some contractual issues could be resolved through resourcing and experience over time, others are inherent to the contractual relations with little prospect of remedy.Peer reviewe

Credit and information in universal banking : a clinical study

We studied information and interaction processes in six lending relationships between a universal bank and medium sized firms. The study is based on the credit files of the respective firms. If no problems occur in these lending relationships, bank monitoring is based mainly on cheap, retrospective and internal data. In case of distress, more expensive, prospective and external information is used. The level of monitoring and the willingness to renegotiate the lending relationship depends on what the lending officers can learn about the future prospects of the firm from the behaviour of the debtors. We identify both signalling and bonding activities. Such learning from past behaviour seems to allow monitoring at low cost, whereas the direct observation of the firm's investment outlook seems to be very costly. Also, too much knowledge about the firm's investments might leave the bank in a very strong bargaining position and distort investment incentives. Therefore, the traditional view of credit assessment as observation of the quality of a borrower's investment programme needs to be reconsidered

NS-2 based simulation framework for cognitive radio sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a simulation model for cognitive radio sensor networks (CRSNs) which is an attempt to combine the useful properties of wireless sensor networks and cognitive radio networks. The existing simulation models for cognitive radios cannot be extended for this purpose as they do not consider the strict energy constraint in wireless sensor networks. Our proposed model considers the limited energy available for wireless sensor nodes that constrain the spectrum sensing process—an unavoidable operation in cognitive radios. Our model has been thoroughly tested by performing experiments in different scenarios of CRSNs. The results generated by the model have been found accurate which can be considered for realization of CRSNs

Cost optimization of maintenance scheduling for wind turbines with aging components

A major part of the wind turbine operation cost is resulted from the maintenance of its components. This thesis deals with the theory, algorithms, and applications concerning minimization of the maintenance cost of wind power turbines, using mathematical modelling to find the optimal schedules of preventive maintenance activities for multi-component systems.\ua0 \ua0 The main contributions of this thesis are covered by the four papers appended. The unifying goal of these papers is to produce new optimization models resulting in effective and fast algorithms for preventive maintenance time schedules. The features of the multi-component systems addressed in our project are: aging components, long-term, and short-term planning, planning for a wind power farm, end of the lifetime of the wind farm, maintenance contracts, and condition monitoring data.\ua0 \ua0 For the long-term maintenance planning problem, this thesis contains an optimization framework that recognizes different phases of the wind turbine lifetime. For short-term planning problem, this thesis contains two modeling frameworks, which both focus on the planning of the next preventive maintenance activities. Our virtual experiments show that the developed optimization models adopt realistic assumptions and can be accurately solved in seconds. One of these two frameworks is further extended so that available condition monitoring data can be incorporated for regular updates of the components\u27 hazard functions. In collaboration with the Swedish Wind Power Technology Center at Chalmers and its member companies, we test this method with real-world wind farm data. Our case studies demonstrate that this framework may result in remarkable savings due to the smart scheduling of preventive maintenance activities by monitoring the ages of the components as well as operation data of the wind turbines. \ua0 \ua0 We believe that in the future, the proposed optimization model for short-term planning based on the component age and condition monitoring data can be used as a key module in a maintenance scheduling app

Effects of opportunistic orientations and opportunistic actions on franchise systems

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014.The business literature has long heralded franchising as an economically efficient business strategy for sustainable job, wealth and value creation, economic transformation and small business development. However, opportunism, being the tendency of the parties involved in the franchise relationship to act in their self-interest at each other’s expense resulting in misaligned incentives, may undermine the long-term efficacy of the franchising system. Such opportunism may be enacted at different times by either the franchisor or the franchisee. For the above reasons, this thesis focuses on the role of opportunism, a key aspect of Transactions Cost Economics theory, within the franchising system. Following an extensive review of the franchising, opportunism and related literatures, the thesis goes on to theorising and investigating a two-dimensional conceptualisation of opportunism, namely ‘opportunistic orientations’ and ‘opportunistic actions’. Secondly, the thesis theorises and investigates various key antecedents and consequences of opportunistic orientations (OO) and opportunistic actions (OA) from the perspectives of both franchisors and franchisees. Ultimately, this thesis proposes an integrated model combining structural, contextual and strategic factors as antecedents affecting OO which, in turn, leads to OA. The model further proposes that OA impact the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems. In order to test this model, this thesis used a mixed methods strategy to undertake empirical fieldwork conducted separately among x franchisors and franchisees. The franchisor study was based on questionnaire data gathered from 111 purposefully sampled franchisors analysed principally through multivariate correlational techniques including structural equation modelling and canonical correlations. The franchisee study involved gathering semi-structured interview data from a purposeful sample of 30 Johannesburg-based franchisees, analysed through content analysis. To a large extent, while the results of the empirical fieldwork supports the proposed model as outlined above, the results of the franchisor study produced some unexpected outcomes. These relate mainly to the findings that structural and strategic factors directly affected the competitiveness of franchise systems and that contextual and strategic factors also directly affected the growth and survival of franchise systems and not through the intervening variables, that is, OO and OA. These findings suggest that structural, contextual and strategic factors may create entrepreneurial orientations (EO) and not OO within franchise systems. Nevertheless, this thesis makes several important and unique contributions to the study of franchising in South Africa, possibly with broader applications elsewhere, which include the following: - extending the opportunism construct by conceptualising the OO notion which helps to increase understanding of the manifestation of opportunism as a central problem within franchise relationships; xi - examining the antecedents and consequences of OO and OA in the same model to test the opportunism-performance hypothesis probably as the first study to do so among franchisors and franchisees in general and particularly in this country and continent; - applying TCE and RET theories to explain OO and OA and strategies to curb or minimise it within franchise relationships; and - incorporating some aspects of the country’s marriage laws into the franchise relationship to provide for secured tenure among franchisees by expunging the expiry clauses from franchise contractsWithin the context of Relational Exchange Theory, this thesis mainly and uniquely suggests the use of: - psychological contracts between franchisors and franchisees to help align the incentives of these parties largely through mutually agreed norms of acceptable behaviour, role expectations and objectives; - independent and statutory bodies such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), law societies and medical or nursing councils as dispute resolution mechanisms to help mediate or resolve franchising disputes fairly, quickly and cheaply; and xii - “evergreen” franchise contracts which make no provision for expiry clauses to attenuate opportunism among franchisees through secured tenure. On the whole, this thesis recommends the use of the above interventions as governance mechanisms to help improve franchisor-franchisee relationships and the reputation of franchising in South Africa by aligning the incentives of the parties and creating an environment in which franchise relationships can flourish. Finally, the thesis also implores future researchers to investigate the impact of existing legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act and the measures suggested above on franchising in this country and the rest of the continent; and the relationship between EO and the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems

Cooperative retransmission protocols in fading channels : issues, solutions and applications

Future wireless systems are expected to extensively rely on cooperation between terminals, mimicking MIMO scenarios when terminal dimensions limit implementation of multiple antenna technology. On this line, cooperative retransmission protocols are considered as particularly promising technology due to their opportunistic and flexible exploitation of both spatial and time diversity. In this dissertation, some of the major issues that hinder the practical implementation of this technology are identified and pertaining solutions are proposed and analyzed. Potentials of cooperative and cooperative retransmission protocols for a practical implementation of dynamic spectrum access paradigm are also recognized and investigated. Detailed contributions follow. While conventionally regarded as energy efficient communications paradigms, both cooperative and retransmission concepts increase circuitry energy and may lead to energy overconsumption as in, e.g., sensor networks. In this context, advantages of cooperative retransmission protocols are reexamined in this dissertation and their limitation for short transmission ranges observed. An optimization effort is provided for extending an energy- efficient applicability of these protocols. Underlying assumption of altruistic relaying has always been a major stumbling block for implementation of cooperative technologies. In this dissertation, provision is made to alleviate this assumption and opportunistic mechanisms are designed that incentivize relaying via a spectrum leasing approach. Mechanisms are provided for both cooperative and cooperative retransmission protocols, obtaining a meaningful upsurge of spectral efficiency for all involved nodes (source-destination link and the relays). It is further recognized in this dissertation that the proposed relaying-incentivizing schemes have an additional and certainly not less important application, that is in dynamic spectrum access for property-rights cognitive-radio implementation. Provided solutions avoid commons-model cognitive-radio strict sensing requirements and regulatory and taxonomy issues of a property-rights model

Current policy issues in the governance of the European patent system

The European Parliament has been working towards building a discussion platform and a resource for further policy actions in the field of intellectual property rights. The Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel has set the goal of further enlarging the area of investigation in light of recent policy developments at the European level. In particular, the current study covers current policy issues in the governance of the European patent system, such as the backlog issue, the enhancement of patent awareness within the European Parliament, patent enforcement, the regional dimension of intellectual property in Europe, patents and standardisation, the use of existing patents, and patents and competition. These issues were discussed in the conference with stakeholders from European to national patent offices, from private to public sector actors. As a result of the conference, it was stated the need for an IP strategy for Europ

TIFues : an examination of the history and current issues in tax increment financing

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is currently used in 48 states as an economic development tool, method of urban blight reduction, and infrastructure conservation tool. Yet, its history, in terms of legitimization, goes back as far as 1929. With such a long institutional record, much debate has occurred as to the constitutionality, effectiveness, and public benefit that accrue with the use of such a tool. To this point, TIF statue varies widely by state; some have a more “open checkbook” approach while others are more fiscally conservative. In all generality, TIF does seem to be a useful tool for “economic development”, but with many years of use comes much room for abuse. It is thus the purpose of this article to explore contemporary issues of TIF, as well as provide historical context to create a more robust analytical framework for its evaluation