A Two-Level Analysis of Israel’s Strategy toward Peace during the 1990s

This paper suggests a two-level game analysis of Israel’s strategy toward peace during the 1990s. The paper shows how various paradoxes in Israeli society create domestic obstacles and internal opposition that weaken Israel’s bargaining position toward neighboring countries. Treating domestic parameters in these countries as a given, we argue that Israeli leaders can hardly use this weakness to manipulate information in the bargaining process, because neighboring countries can observe Israel’s internal processes. Therefore, attempts by Israeli leaders to create the impression that they are willing to adopt a conflictual approach towards neighboring polities, especially the Palestinians, without actually creating the necessary internal conditions for such a policy, may finally lead to a sub-optimal equilibrium for Israel – in terms of territory and deterrent ability – since it will have to compromise under difficult conditions. Several practical implications as to the preferred bargaining process under these conditions follow

Quantum point contact on graphite surface

The conductance through a quantum point contact created by a sharp and hard metal tip on the graphite surface has features which to our knowledge have not been encountered so far in metal contacts or in nanowires. In this paper we first investigate these features which emerge from the strongly directional bonding and electronic structure of graphite, and provide a theoretical understanding for the electronic conduction through quantum point contacts. Our study involves the molecular-dynamics simulations to reveal the variation of interlayer distances and atomic structure at the proximity of the contact that evolves by the tip pressing toward the surface. The effects of the elastic deformation on the electronic structure, state density at the Fermi level, and crystal potential are analyzed by performing self-consistent-field pseudopotential calculations within the local-density approximation. It is found that the metallicity of graphite increases under the uniaxial compressive strain perpendicular to the basal plane. The quantum point contact is modeled by a constriction with a realistic potential. The conductance is calculated by representing the current transporting states in Laue representation, and the variation of conductance with the evolution of contact is explained by taking the characteristic features of graphite into account. It is shown that the sequential puncturing of the layers characterizes the conductance.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, 9 figures (included), to be published in Phys. Rev. B, tentatively scheduled for 15 September 1998 (Volume 58, Number 12

On the error from compounding with the arithmetic mean interest rate

This paper examines the error that arises when one uses an arithmetic mean rather than a geometric mean for computing future values. We evaluate the error both in the case where interest rates are known and in the case where interest rates are random. The analysis contains comparative statistics with respect to the number of compounding periods and the arithmetic mean of the series of interest rates. An illustrative example is also provided

A production model for a flexible production system and products with short selling season

We address a practical problem faced by many firms. The problem is deciding on the production levels for a product that has a very short selling season. The firm has a full period to produce and meet a lumpy demand which occurs at the end of the period. The product is no longer demanded after the end of the period. A constant production rate which minimizes average unit cost may increase holding costs. Varying the production rate at discrete points in time may increase production costs but may also decrease holding costs. In addition, allowing changes in the production rate enables the incorporation of forecast revisions into the production plan. Therefore, the best production plan depends on the flexibility of the production system and on the holding cost. In this paper, we formulate and solve a model of this production planning problem. Two models are developed to deal with two types of the average unit cost function. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the results of the model