Reallocation Mechanisms

We consider reallocation problems in settings where the initial endowment of each agent consists of a subset of the resources. The private information of the players is their value for every possible subset of the resources. The goal is to redistribute resources among agents to maximize efficiency. Monetary transfers are allowed, but participation is voluntary. We develop incentive-compatible, individually-rational and budget balanced mechanisms for several classic settings, including bilateral trade, partnership dissolving, Arrow-Debreu markets, and combinatorial exchanges. All our mechanisms (except one) provide a constant approximation to the optimal efficiency in these settings, even in ones where the preferences of the agents are complex multi-parameter functions

Financial Friction, Capital Reallocation and Expectation-Driven Business Cycles

In this paper, we show that news on future technological improvement can trigger an immediate economic expansion in a model with financial friction on capital allocation. The arrivial of good news on future technology reduces such frictions and generates significant increase in current Total Factor Productivity via capital reallocation. This triggers an immediate boom in output, consumption, investment and hours worked. Our empirical evidence using firm-level data supports strongly the above mechanisms for news to affect current aggregate productivity.Financial Friction; Capital Reallocation; Business Cycle

Labor Force Participation Dynamics in the Romanian Labor Market

We use micro data from the Romanian Labor Force Survey to analyze the effect of the restructuring process on the Romanian labor market. We identify the reallocation mechanisms at work in the Romanian labor market, and we analyze the way personal characteristics influence inviduals' ability to adjust to labor market transformations. Participation decisions made by individuals are modeled as Markov decision processes. The resulting multivariate probit models are estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39866/3/wp481.pd

Determinants of plant closures in Swedish manufacturing

We study the derminants of plant closures i Swedish manufacturing using linked employer-employee data. From our theoretical framework we derive and empirically test hypothesis regarding the linkages between the probability of plant failure and: 1) industry-specific characteristics of production and product demand; 2) local labor market conditions; and 3) plant-specific sources of heterogeneity, including the importance of insider mechanisms in wage determination, plant specific human capital, selection mechanisms and technology vintage effects. Our results suggest that all these factors matter in ways that by and large conform to the a priori hypotheses.Plant closures; job reallocation; insider wage determination; selection mechanisms; capital vintage effects; linked employer-employee data

Comparative assessment of risk mitigation options for irrigated agriculture

Presented during the USCID water management conference held on October 13-16, 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The theme of the conference was "Water rights and related water supply issues."Includes bibliographical references.The impact of reallocating water from historical agricultural uses to expanding non-agricultural uses depends crucially on how reallocation occurs. This paper examines the water reallocation problem from a Federal perspective, focusing on alternative instruments to indemnify or compensate irrigators in the event of reallocation. These include insurance strategies (crop insurance, direct payments, and new financial instruments such as tradable bonds), conservation initiatives, and market-based measures (buyouts, contingent markets, and water banks). Policy mechanisms differ in the level of compensation provided, capacity to address concerns of stakeholders, and reliance on Federal outlays. No clear "winner" emerges among the potential mechanisms to mitigate foregone irrigation returns. The merits of alternative mechanisms depend on the evaluation criteria considered, site-specific conditions, and current water institutions.Proceedings sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Central Utah Project Completion Act Office and the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage

Markets and Growth

This paper studies key markets (financial, labor, natural resource, and product) to assess how they are facilitating or constraining growth. First, we draw on the body of existing theoretical and empirical literature to discuss the links between markets and growth. Second, we present four stylized scenarios of the process of growth, which summarize market infrastructure and efficient factor reallocation in response to shocks appear to be among the most important growth determinants. We highlight the relative lack of research on the relationship between labor markets and growth, as opposed to the relationship between human capital production and growth. Finally, we combine suggestions of Topel (1999) and Pritchett (2000) to argue that country-specific markets should be a principal focus of future research on growth. This paper provides a framework for such studies.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39766/3/wp382.pd

Labor Force Participation Dynamics in the Romanian Labor Market

We use micro data from the Romanian Labor Force Survey to analyze the effect of the restructuring process on the Romanian labor market. We identify the reallocation mechanisms at work in the Romanian labor market, and we analyze the way personal characteristics influence inviduals' ability to adjust to labor market transformations. Participation decisions made by individuals are modeled as Markov decision processes. The resulting multivariate probit models are estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques.labor force participation, transition economy, Markov chain Monte Carlo

Energy-aware Load Balancing Policies for the Cloud Ecosystem

The energy consumption of computer and communication systems does not scale linearly with the workload. A system uses a significant amount of energy even when idle or lightly loaded. A widely reported solution to resource management in large data centers is to concentrate the load on a subset of servers and, whenever possible, switch the rest of the servers to one of the possible sleep states. We propose a reformulation of the traditional concept of load balancing aiming to optimize the energy consumption of a large-scale system: {\it distribute the workload evenly to the smallest set of servers operating at an optimal energy level, while observing QoS constraints, such as the response time.} Our model applies to clustered systems; the model also requires that the demand for system resources to increase at a bounded rate in each reallocation interval. In this paper we report the VM migration costs for application scaling.Comment: 10 Page