Loss-Avoidance and Forward Induction in Experimental Coordination Games

We report experiments on how players select among multiple Pareto-ranked equilibria in a coordination game. Subjects initially choose inefficient equilibria. Charging a fee to play (which makes initial equilibria money-losing) creates coordination on better equilibria. When fees are optional, improved coordination is consistent with forward induction. But coordination improves even when subjects must pay the fee (forward induction does not apply). Subjects appear to use a "loss-avoidance" selection principle: they expect others to avoid strategies that always result in losses. Loss-avoidance implies that "mental accounting" of outcomes can affect choices in games

Allocation with demand competition: Uniform, proportional, and lexicographic mechanisms

We examine capacity allocation mechanisms in a supply chain comprising a monopolistic supplier and two competing retailers with asymmetric market powers. The supplier allocates limited capacity to retailers according to uniform, proportional, or lexicographic mechanism. We study the impact of these allocation mechanisms on supplier pricing decisions and retailer ordering behavior. With individual order size no greater than supplier capacity, we show that all three mechanisms guarantee equilibrium ordering. We provide precise structures of retailer ordering decisions in Nash and dominant equilibria. Further, we compare the mechanisms from the perspective of the supplier, the retailers, and the supply chain. We show that regardless of whether retailer market powers are symmetric, lexicographic allocation with any priority sequence of retailers is better than the other two mechanisms for the supplier. Further, under lexicographic allocation, the supplier gains more profit by granting higher priority to the retailer with greater market power. We also extend our study to the case with multiple retailers. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 64: 85–107, 2017Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137514/1/nav21734.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137514/2/nav21734_am.pd

Retail Store Density and the Cost of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The density, size, and location of stores in a retailer\u27s network influences both the retailer\u27s and the consumers\u27 costs. With stores few and far between, consumers must travel a long distance to shop, whereas shopping trips are shorter with a dense network of stores. The layout of the retail supply chain is of interest to retailers who have emission reduction targets and urban planners concerned with sprawl. Are small local shops preferred over large, “big-box” retailers? A model of the retail supply chain is presented that includes operating costs (such as fuel and rent for floor space) as well as a cost for environmental externalities associated with carbon emissions. A focus on exclusively minimizing operating costs may substantially increase emissions (by 67% in one scenario) relative to the minimum level of emissions. A price on carbon is an ineffective mechanism for reducing emissions. The most attractive option is to improve consumer fuel efficiency—doubling the fuel efficiency of cars reduces long-run emissions by about one-third, whereas an improvement in truck fuel efficiency has a marginal impact on total emissions

Magnetic systems for the ADCS of a femtosatellite

Magnetic attitude control systems are suitable for very small satellites, and yet provide a simple and robust method to detumbling and attitude control. In this work we analyse the use of hard ferromagnetic materials and magnetorquers to control the attitude of a spherical femtosatellite. The model will propagate the orbit of the satellite (disregarding the effects of the atmosphere) by means of SGP4 or SGP8. Once the orbit is propagated, we will use a suitable model of the geomagnetic field (IGRF13 or WMM) to determine the magnetic field in the location of the satellite. Passive ADCS will be obtained by means of the use of hysteresis rods. In order to add some control, a set of magnetorquers will be designed.Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructur

Linkage analysis in adenomatous polyposis coli families in the United Kingdom, and a search for highly polymorphic markers

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), also known as adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), is a relatively common autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the development of hundreds to thousands of pre-malignant adenomatous polyps in the colon and rectum by the third decade of life in most affected individuals. Colonic polyposis with the addition of extracolonic lesions was formerly considered to constitute a distinct syndrome first described by Gardner. The gene for APC has been mapped to chromosome 5, region q21-22, by linkage to the DNA marker, C11p11 (D5S71). Linkage to the more informative markers, n227 (D5S37), ECB27 (D5S98) and YN5.48 (D5S81) was subsequently reported. The evidence now available suggests that Gardner's syndrome maps to the same region of chromosome 5 as APC and the prevailing opinion is that the two cannot be clinically distinguished. This study comprised 26 families, 206 individuals, segregating for FAP. The DNA markers used for the linkage analysis were C11p11, n227, ECB27 and YN5.48. The purpose was to estimate the genetic distance between these markers and the disease locus in order to be able to assess the reliability of these markers for prenatal and presymtomatic diagnosis of FAP. Not a single gene order could be established from our data, although either of the orders 227-Cllpll-ECB27-APC-YN5.48 or 227-C11p11-ECB27-YN5.48-APC were possible. The genetic distances were estimated as 17 cM between n227 and AFC, 4 cM between n227 and ECB27. YN5.48 was found to be extremely close to AFC, with the highest lod score obtained at a recombination fraction of nought. Although the DNA markers were quite informative, there were instances where none or only one was informative in a given family. The recent discovery of frequent length variation in dinucleotide (C-A) repeats which are uniformly spaced throughout the genome, provides the basis for the isolation of potentially informative markers. The construction of a cosmid library was undertaken and it was subsequently screened with all the DNA probes. Two different clones were isolated using ECB27, both of which contain the same (C-A) repeat. One of them was sequenced and found to be repeated nine times. When tested for its polymorphic value it gave two alleles, one corresponding to (C-A)9 the other to (C-A) 10. This polymorphic marker showed complete linkage disequilibrium with ECB27

Campbell Soup\u27s Continuous Replenishment Program: Evaluation and Enhanced Inventory Decision Rules

Campbell Soup\u27s continuous replenishment (CR) program is a novel innovation designed to improve the efficiency of inventory management throughout the supply chain. With CR (1) retailers pay a constant wholesale price but continue to participate in consumer promotions, (2) retailers transmit to the supplier daily inventory information via electronic data interchange (EDI), and (3) the supplier assumes responsibility for managing retailer inventories, i.e., vendor managed inventories (VMI). We develop simple inventory management rules to operate CR, and we test these rules with a simulation using actual demand data provided by Campbell Soup. On this sample we find that retailer inventories were reduced on average by 66% while maintaining or increasing average fill rates. This improvement reduces a retailer\u27s cost of goods sold by ~1.2%, which is significant in the low profit margin grocery industry. Furthermore, these savings could have been achieved without VMI

Dynamic versus Static Pricing in the Presence of Strategic Consumers

Should a firm\u27s price respond dynamically to shifts in demand? With dynamic pricing the firm can exploit high demand by charging a high price, and can cope with low demand by charging a low price to more fully utilize its capacity. However, many firms announce their price in advance and do not make adjustments in response to market conditions, i.e., they use static pricing. Therefore, with static pricing the firm may find that its price is either lower or higher than optimal given the observed market condition. Nevertheless, we find that when consumers are strategic and can anticipate such pricing behavior, a firm may actually be better off with static pricing. Dynamic pricing can be ineffective because it imposes pricing risk on consumers - given that it is costly to visit the firm, an uncertain price may cause consumers to avoid visiting the firm altogether. We show that the advantage of dynamic pricing over static pricing. However, the superiority of dynamic pricing can be restored if the firm sets a modest base price and then commits only to reduce its price, i.e., it never raises its price in response to strong demand. Hence, a successful implementation of dynamic pricing tempers the magnitude of price adjustments

Competing Retailers and Inventory: An Empirical Investigation of General Motors\u27 Dealerships in Isolated U.S. Markets

We study the following question: How does competition influence the inventory holdings of General Motors’ dealerships operating in isolated U.S. markets? We wish to disentangle two mechanisms by which local competition influences a dealer’s inventory: (1) the entry or exit of a competitor can change a retailer’s demand (a sales effect); and (2) the entry or exit of a competitor can change the amount of buffer stock a retailer holds, which influences the probability that a consumer finds a desired product in stock (a service-level effect). Theory is clear on the sales effect—an increase in sales leads to an increase in inventory (albeit a less than proportional increase). However, theoretical models of inventory competition are ambiguous on the expected sign of the service-level effect. Via a Web crawler, we obtained data on inventory and sales for more than 200 dealerships over a six-month period. Using cross-sectional variation, we estimated the effect of the number and type of local competitors on inventory holdings. We used several instrumental variables to control for the endogeneity of market entry decisions. Our results suggest that the service-level effect is strong, nonlinear, and positive. Hence, we observe that dealers carry more inventory (controlling for sales) when they face additional competition