Analysis of Production and Location Decisions by Means of Multi-Criteria Analysis

During the last few years economists and operations researchers have paid much attention to multi-criteria analysis as a tool in modern decision-making. The basic feature of multi-criteria analysis is the fact that a wide variety of relevant decision aspects can be taken into account without a necessity to translate all these aspects in monetary terms. This article will give a brief survey of these new methods in both a quantitative and in a qualitative sense. After this survey the relevance of multi-criteria analysis for entrepreneurial decisions in the field of production and investments will be exposed. The analysis will be illustrated by means of two examples of entrepreneurial decision-problems, which have been solved by means of multi-criteria analysis

Agricultural program planning to reflect potentials of small farms with applications to Mysore State, India

India, under its Fourth Five Year Plan, is placing greater emphasis on helping small farmers to increase their productivity and incomes. Small Farmer Development Agencies (SFDA) have been established in selected districts of Mysore and other states to coordinate the activities of relevant government agencies. The concern of this disser-tation was with the program results that might potentially be achieved if the resource constraints, production capabilities, and motivations of the small farmers themselves are taken adequately into account. Possible reasons why small farmers fail to respond to assistance programs were diagnosed. A general approach was suggested for selecting representative farmers, analyzing their potential responses to such help as more credit and irrigation, and assessing the aggregate implications in terms of program benefits and resource needs. This approach,was then illustrated to the extent possible with available farm data from a distributory in the Tungabhadra Irrigation Project in Mysore State. Bearing in mind the likely limitations in time and analytical capacity of district level agencies, a three-stage approach for using information about farmer situations and potential to help determine program content was suggested: Stage 1; The application of budgeting or linear programming to representative farms to ascertain their potential output response and input needs associated with alternative assistance proposals, taking into consideration the individual resource, constraints, technical capacities, and interests that they reflect. Stage II; Aggregation of these results to estimate the areawide benefits to small farmers and costs to the Agency stemming from each program alternative. Stage III; Use of benefit-cost or linear programming analysis to obtain an optimal SFDA program mix, considering the net benefits estimated in Stage II, the resource constraints of the Agency, and its objectives. The Tungabhadra illustration drew on survey data for 40 small farms and related production input-output information that had been synthesized from several sources. In this particular application, irrigated land area and operating capital were found to be the resources that most severely constrained farmers from achieving higher incomes. The linear programming analysis also brought out the fact that it is important to have detailed information about farmers\u27 production conr-straints, such as seasonal distribution of available family and hired labor, if farmer response potentials are to be realistically estimated. When SFDA assistance in the form of production credit and/or more irri-gated land was assumed, the additional credit generally came out as contributing more to incomes than additional irrigated land, especially on the larger representative farms. Labor was not a constraint except under very liberal assumptions about additional capital and irrigated land area. The overall implication for this Tungabhadra situation at least was that if SFDA wants to maximize its net contribution to small farmer incomes, it would not necessarily provide the same mix of assistance to every farmer, nor would it rationally expect all farmers to respond with identical changes in crops or practices. This study also explored, using the Tungabhadra data to illustrate where possible, some modifications in the basic procedure that might be considered by agencies like SFDA. These included: (1) use of principal component and factor analysis to divide farms into homogeneous groups for linear programming and aggregation purposes; (2) estimation of out-put changes and input needs, given the reality that farmers do not all take advantage of new opportunities at the same pace; and (3) simple approaches that SFDA workers might consider in the near future to improve the collection and analysis of farm level information for program plan-ning purposes

An investigation into the investment decisions of small manufacturing firms in the Durban-Pinetown-Pietermaritzburg metropolitan area.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1989.No abstract available

Some analytical techniques for improving resource allocation in a university system

Some of the problems concerning the present educational programs which confront the institutions of higher education are, reviewed. Resources allocation is at the root of the issue. Budgeting orientations are presented with special emphasis on Planning Programming Budgeting Systems. PPBS is still in its developmental stage in the field of education, primarily due to the difficulty of measuring educational outputs. Siegel's method and the improved Churchman-Ackoff procedure are introduced for measuring the relative significance of educational outputs, and for comparing the desirability of alternative programs which are to achieve the organization's objectives. Cause and effect analysis and input-output analysis procedures are discussed. Linear programming, methods from welfare economics and capital budgeting techniques are presented as potential optimization tools for a university. The following conclusions were made. 1. For more effective analysis and subsequently better decisions in regard to resource allocation, more comprehensive and more relevant data is needed. 2. A management information system may be designed and implemented to meet this need. 3. With the development of new measurement methods and further application of the currently available ones, the output of a university will be more satisfactorily measured. This prepares the way for introducing many analysis and optimization techniques which are widely used in other areas, to the field of education. 4. In applying the Planning Programming Budgeting concepts a long span of time into the future should be considered for more meaningful planning and budgeting. 5. A management information system may be designed to fulfill the information requirements of a Planning Programming Budgeting System

Bedingungen der Anreizkompatibilität, Fundierung von Unternehmenszielen und Anreize für deren Umsetzung

Vor dem Hintergrund allgemeiner Bedingungen der Anreizkompatibilität wird für verschiedenen Kapitalmarktmodelle untersucht, ob zwischen den Anteilseignern eines Unternehmens Einmütigkeit besteht und, wenn ja, mit welchem Unternehmensziel der finanzielle Nutzen der Anteilseigner maximiert wird. Von besonderer Bedeutung für die Anreizkompatibilität der üblichen linearen Erfolgsteilung ist die Bedingung pareto-effizienter Risikoteilung. Sind für den Erfolg des Unternehmens spezifische Störterme relevant und soll der Entscheidungsträger in relativ starkem Umfang am Erfolg beteiligt werden, ist die Risikoteilung zwischen ihm und den (anderen) Anteilseignern pareto-inferior. Anreizkompatible erfolgsorientierte Belohnungs- bzw. Prämienfunktionen für den Entscheidungsträger sind dann konvex und zustandsabhängig. Aktienoptionsprogramme können als Approximationen an solche Prämienfunktionen interpretiert werden.The paper derives and discusses general conditions for unanimity under investors and for preference similarity in the relationship between investors and managers. It is argued, that the conditions of unanimity and preference similarity are both central for discussing corporate goals and the design of incentive contracts. It is shown that the frequently used explanations for unanimity under spanning and competitivity are misleading. Instead more general conditions are derived, and the central role of the spanning condition for market valuation is discussed. In a second step of analysis, incentive contracts are analyzed which ensure preference similarity, i.e. which align managers' monetary interest with that of the investors. It is shown, to what extend incentive contracts have to be conditioned on states of aggregate wealth, and to what extend incentive contracts that ensure preference similarity can be found in practice, e.g. in Stock option plans