Bribery and Favoritism by Auctioneers in Sealed Bid Auctions

No abstract.

Raynaud's of the tongue

We describe a 40-year-old lady who presents with a painful white tongue on exposure to the cold. The differential diagnosis and investigations are outlined with a discussion about this unusual presentation of a common problem

Auctions for Split-Award Contracts

The buyer of a homogeneous input employs split-award contracting to divide his input requirements into two contracts that are awarded to different suppliers. The buyer uses a sequential second-price auction to award a larger primary contract and a smaller secondary contract. With a fixed number of suppliers participating in the auctions, we find that the buyer pays a higher expected price than with a sole-source auction. The premium paid to the winner of the secondary contract must also be paid to the winner of the primary contract as an opportunity cost of not winning the secondary contract. With fixed costs of participating in the auction, we identify the conditions under which a secondary contract can increase the number of suppliers and lower the expected price paid by the buyer. An optimal secondary contract can internalize the cost reductions from the new industry capacity and extract the rents of the suppliers. An optimal secondary contract can be particularly beneficial when the number of suppliers is limited by high fixed costs.

Preferred Suppliers in Auction Markets

In a procurement setting, this paper examines agreements between a buyer and one of the suppliers which would increase their joint surplus. The provisions of such agreements depend on the buyer's ability to design the rules of the final procurement auction. When the buyer has no such ability, their joint surplus can be increased by an agreement which grants to the preferred supplier a right-of-first-refusal on the lowest price offer from the other suppliers. When the buyer does have this ability, one agreement which maximizes their joint surplus includes a revelation game for the cost of the preferred supplier and a reserve price in the procurement auction based on that cost.procurement auctions, bilateral agreements

Neurosyphilis presenting with papillitis

Syphilis is one of the oldest described infectious diseases in the world and is caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum[1]. Although now a rare disease, incidence is increasing with the number of diagnoses of the disease rising in England from 1688 to 2713 between 2003 and 2012 (a 61% increase)[2]. Major outbreaks of syphilis have been documented in London, Manchester, Dublin, and Brighton particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM)[3]. Diagnosis remains difficult on account of multi-system symptoms, duration of the condition, and social stigma

Moved by the Company - Employee Relocation and Regional Migration

Organisational labour migrants are those being moved by their employer typically in response to organisational rather than labour market characteristics. Employment continuity and subsidised relocation costs give them advantage over other migrants. Evidence from a survey of large employers in New Zealand indicates that this form of migration has reduced but that it generates a distinctive migrant flow

Community Enterprise: What type of enterprise for what type of community?

This paper examines Scottish experience, especially its community economic initiatives through the establishment of the Community Employment Group. Local authorities are also increasingly involved in promoting local economic initiatives. This activity has grown because of the urgent need to respond to rising unemployment but unless there is a clearer understanding of the types of initiatives that will work, well-intentioned efforts will be wasted. Much activity has been based on a mistaken impression of Scottish experience and especially the supposed success of community business. Moreover as we explain below, New Zealand is a less favourable for community business than Scotland. Community cooperatives and the community credit unions may well be better examples to build on. Before explaining these arguments, some discussion of the recent growth of community enterprise in New Zealand is needed