The Impact of Income Disparity on Financial Regulation

Denna rapport återger arbetsprocessen kring att utvärdera datalagringsstruktur och förbättra prestanda för generering av parameterfiler för kortterminaler. Arbetet utfördes på plats hos Esplanad AB, ett företag som bland annat arbetar med säkerhetslösningar och distribution av inställningar för betalstationer. Uppgiften bestod av att utvärdera möjligheter till att förbättra databasen som sparar alla inställningarna för betalsystemen, samt att förbättra kodstruktur och prestanda för programmet som genererar filerna. Rapporten beskriver testning av prestanda, både på Esplanads gamla program för att generera parameterfiler och det nya som konstruerades. En lösning presenteras som inkluderar förbättring av filgenereringens prestanda och en ny struktur på databasen för ökad skalbarhet. Tester visar att det nya systemet klarar av att skapa parameterfiler på TLV-format ungefär 16 gånger snabbare. Den föreslagna lösningen implementerar parallella processer och replikering av databasen.This thesis describes the process of analyzing and evaluating the structure of data storage and improving the performance for generating parameter files destined for card terminals. The work was done in house at Esplanad AB, a company dealing with security solutions and distribution of settings for payment stations. The first task was to evaluate the possibilities for improving the database storing the settings for each card reader. The second task was to improve the structure of the code and also improve the file generating systems performance. The thesis describes testing performance, both for Esplanad’s old system for generating parameter files, and the new one constructed. The solution presented includes improved performance of the file generating process and a new structure for the database that increases scalability. Tests show that the new system is capable of generating parameter files with TLV-format, about 16 times faster. The proposed solution implements parallel processes and database replication

Coordination incentives, performance measurement, and resource allocation in public sector organizations

Why are coordination problems common when public sector organizations share responsibilities, and what can be done to mitigate such problems? This paper uses a multi-task principal-agent model to examine two related reasons: the incentives to coordinate resource allocation and the difficulties of measuring performance. The analysis shows that when targets are set individually for each organization, the resulting incentives normally induce inefficient resource allocations. If the principal impose shared targets, this may improve the incentives to coordinate but the success of this instrument depends in general on the imprecision and distortion of performance measures, as well as agent motivation. Besides decreasing available resources, imprecise performance measures also affect agents' possibility to learn the function that determines value. Simulations with a least squares learning rule show that the one-shot model is a good approximation when the imprecision of performance measures is low to moderate and one parameter is initially unknown. However, substantial and lengthy deviations from equilibrium values are frequent when three parameters have to be learned

\u3ci\u3eThe Angry Prince\u3c/i\u3e

Once there was a prince who was so fair nothing ever made him angry in his life, except one thing. His face always shone with a smile tinged with sadness

Newspaper Analysis

Our team is currently working on a suite of products to provide media analytics to e.g. political campaigns. As part of this project we perform some analyses of traditional media including online newspapers to obtain differents metrics (theme of day, relation candidates-daily themes, repercussion of announcements, relations between candidates, importance of candidates in the daily news, etc) that will be used by the political analysts of a campaign.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Newspaper Analysis

Our team is currently working on a suite of products to provide media analytics to e.g. political campaigns. As part of this project we perform some analyses of traditional media including online newspapers to obtain differents metrics (theme of day, relation candidates-daily themes, repercussion of announcements, relations between candidates, importance of candidates in the daily news, etc) that will be used by the political analysts of a campaign.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Organizational coordination and costly communication with boundedly rational agents

How does costly communication affect organizational coordination? This paper develops a model of costly communication based on the weakest-link game and boundedly rational agents. Solving for the stochastically stable states, we find that communication increases the possibilities for efficient coordination compared to a setting where agents cannot communicate. But as agents face a trade-off between lowering the strategic uncertainty for the group and the costs of communication, the least efficient state is still the unique stochastically stable one for many parameter values. Simulations show that this is not just a long run phenomena, the stochastically stable state is the most frequent outcome also in the short run. Making communication mandatory induces efficient coordination, whereas letting a team leader handle communication increases efficiency when the leader expects others to follow and has enough credibility. The results are broadly consistent with recent experimental evidence of communication in weakest-link games

Special assortments on the Swedish round wood market : a survey of wood trade and measuring

Rundvirkesmarknaden i Sverige domineras av det som kallas standardsortiment. Med standardsortiment avses i princip barrsågtimmer och massaved. För dessa sortiment finns branschgemensamma kvalitetsklassningsregler som framtagits av branschens arbetsgrupper och som alla aktörer på virkesmarknaden följer. Det är av avgörande betydelse för en effektiv virkesmarknad att virkesmätningen fungerar väl. Vid sidan av standardsortimenten finns specialsortiment. Det övergripande problemet är att det saknas kunskap om hur handeln med specialsortimenten ser ut i dagsläget. En kartläggning av detta är därför nödvändig, eftersom specialsortimenten från och med juli 2013 kommer att omfattas av virkesmätningslagen. Syftet med den här studien är att öka kunskapen om special-sortimentens roll på virkesmarknaden, samt att öka förståelsen för hur de mäts och värderas. För att uppfylla studiens syfte har ett kvalitativt angreppssätt valts att tillämpas, genom personliga intervjuer med aktörer som hanterar specialsortiment. I den här studien visade det sig att specialsortimentshandeln är av relativt liten omfattning sett till antalet aktörer och förbrukad råvara. Specialsortimentens omfattning uppgår till ungefär 1,2 milj. m3fub/år, eller 2 % av nettoavverkningen i Sverige 2011. Samtliga kartlagda köpare vidareförmedlar virkesinformationen till SDC. Enligt köparna av specialsortiment är volymen den viktigaste parametern att vidareförmedla vid mätningen. En spridningskvot som beskriver standardavvikelsen är en parameter som bör vara av godo att vidareförmedla vid mätningen av specialsortiment och som det i dagsläget råder en avsaknad av. Branschens uppfattning är att specialsortimentens omfattning troligtvis inte kommer att öka i framtiden. En allmän uppfattning är också att de stora aktörerna kommer att gynnas och de mindre att missgynnas av den nya virkesmätningslagen. Huvuddelen av specialsortimenten kommer förmodligen att leva upp till kraven som kommer att ställas på virkesmätning, i och med den nya virkesmätningslagen. Detta beroende på att allmänna rekommendationer om hur mätningen bör gå till redan finns framtagna och tillämpas i stor utsträckning. Vissa sortiment kommer att få svårt att leva upp till kraven såsom exempelvis stolpar. Kostnader som kommer att påverka de aktörer som köper specialsortiment är kopplade till humankapitalspecificitet inom transaktions-kostnadsteorin. Teorin säger att humankapitalspecificitet inträder då den ena eller båda parter utvecklar särskilda färdigheter eller kunskaper som endast är värdefulla för de båda parterna när ett affärsmässigt utbyte sker. Ett specialsortiment som kräver stora mätningskunskaper är stolpar, eftersom det finns drygt hundra olika kvalitetsklasser inom detta sortiment. Ett annat problem är avsaknaden av individuellt anpassade barkfunktioner för lövträd, vilket innebär att sortimentet kommer att få svårt att leva upp till virkesmätningslagens krav.The Swedish round wood market is dominated by what can be termed standard assortments. Standard assortment refers to, in principle coniferous saw logs and pulpwood. These assortments have industry-wide quality classification rules developed by industry working groups, in which all wood market stakeholders participate. It is crucial for an efficient timber market that the wood measurement system works well. In addition to standard assortments, there are special assortments. The main problem is a lack of knowledge on how the current trade in special assortments operates. An understanding of the special assortments is thereby necessary because of the new wood measurement law, which will apply also to the special assortments by mid 2013. The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge about the role of special assortment in the timber market and increase understanding of how they are measured and valued. To fulfil the purpose of the study, a qualitative approach has been applied to the problem, through personal interviews with people in the special assortment industry. This study has shown that the special assortment trade is relatively small in terms of numbers of buyers and raw material consumed. The annual amount of special assortments consumed is about 1.2 million m3fub/year, or 2 % of Sweden’s net felling in 2011. All of the studied buyers transmit information about the wood to SDC. Volume, according to buyers of special assortments, is the most important parameter to transmit in wood measuring. Currently, there is a lack of a dispersion ratio that describes the standard deviation, which is a parameter of high interest to transmit in the measurement of special assortments. According to industry, the amount of special assortments will not likely increase in the future. The big buyers will most likely benefit from the wood measurement law while the smaller ones most likely will be disadvantaged. Most of the special assortments are likely to fulfil the measuring requirements that will be stated in the new wood measurement law. This is because of the existing general recommendations on measurement, which are widely implemented by buyers. However, some assortments such as poles will have difficulties issues fulfilling the requirements. Costs that will affect buyers are linked to human-asset specificity according to transaction cost theory. According to the theory, human-asset specificity appears when one or both partners develop specific skills or knowledge that is only valuable to the parties in a business-like situation. Poles are a special assortment that requires a lot of knowledge about measurement, since there are over a hundred different grades within the assortment. Another issue is the lack of individually adapted bark functions for hardwood, which means that the assortment most likely will not fulfil the requirements of the wood measurement law

Information, Switching Costs, and Consumer Choice : Evidence from Two Randomized Field Experiments in Swedish Primary Health Care

Consumers of services that are financed by a third party, such as publicly financed health care or firm-sponsored health plans, are often allowed to freely choose provider. The rationale is that consumer choice may improve the matching of consumers and providers and spur quality competition. Such improvements are contingent on consumers having access to comparative information about providers and acting on this information when making their choice. However, in the presence of information frictions and switching costs, consumers may have limited ability to find suitable providers. We use two large-scale randomized field experiments in primary health care to examine if the choice of provider is affected when consumers receive comparative information by postal mail and small costs associated with switching are reduced. The first experiment targeted a subset of the general population in the Swedish region Skåane, and the second targeted new residents in the region, who should have less prior information and lower switching costs. In both cases, the propensity to switch provider increased significantly after the intervention. The effects were larger for new residents than for the general population, and were driven by individuals living reasonably close to alternative providers