Wal-Mart, Private Labels, and Supermarket Milk Prices

Wal-Mart, private labels, strategic reactions, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis,

Mining, regional Australia and the economic multiplier

Mining in Australia has traditionally delivered a strong development multiplier for regional communities where most mines are based. This relationship has weakened in recent decades as a result of the introduction of mobile workforces - typically known as fly in, fly out. Political parties have responded with policies known as ‘royalties for regions’, though in designing them they overlooked long established Indigenous arrangements for sharing benefits with areas affected directly by mining

The U-shaped Investment Curve: Theory and Evidence

This paper examines how the investment of financially constrained firms varies with their level of internal funds. We develop a theoretical model of optimal investment under financial constraints. Our model endogenizes the costs of external funds and allows for negative levels of internal funds. We show that the resulting relationship between internal funds and investment is U-shaped. In particular, when a firm's internal funds are negative and sufficiently low, a further decrease leads to an increase in investment. This effect is driven by the investor's participation constraint: when part of any loan must be used to close a financing gap, the investor will provide funds only if the firm invests at a scale large enough to generate the revenue that enables the firm to repay. We test our theory using a data set with close to 100,000 firm-year observations. The data strongly support our predictions. Among other results, we find a negative relationship between measures of internal funds and investment for a substantial share of financially constrained firms. Our results also help to explain some contrasting findings in the empirical investment literature.Financial constraints, capital market imperfections, financial contracts, investment, internal funds, investment-cash flow sensitivity

The Limits of Professional Autonomy: An Interview-based Comparative Analysis of the Workplaces and Perceptions of Educators and Healthcare Professionals

Workplaces are the locations of significant social outcomes that are worth studying in their own right. In addition to pursuing and achieving their own intended outcomes (i.e. a well-educated and healthy public, in the case of the American public education and American healthcare systems), they are resources on which individuals rely for social, psychological, spiritual, and economic fulfillment and identity. Central to a person’s overall efficacy within the workplace is the extent to which they exercise influence over their time and behaviors. In contrast to sociological works on bureaucracies, research on professional autonomy tends to be symbolic-interactionist and qualitative in its theoretical approach and methods (the latter tending toward ethnographic and interview-based studies). There is significantly more sociological literature on bureaucracies than on professional autonomy. The few works on professional autonomy have done little to change thinking on bureaucracies – perhaps because they have limited their focus to the needs and opinions of workers and not the needs and opinions of the bureaucracy (as expressed by the bureaucracy executives). The following 3-part, interview-based dissertation examines the perceptions and opinions about professional autonomy of two sets of professionals: 1) public high school teachers and principals in Louisiana, and 2) doctors and healthcare executives in one New England (U.S.A.) state. Professional autonomy is revealed to be a highly subjective idea – that is to say that the way an interviewee defines and thinks about professional autonomy depends on the things that matter most to them in the workplace. A nurse, for example, defined professional autonomy as the right to be treated as a doctor’s equal because she was very frustrated by people treating her as less than a doctor. Interviewees attempt to balance these desires with the needs and mandates of their organization (and the superiors who enforce those mandates), and are often frustrated by their inability to accomplish both. Nearly every interviewee expressed strong emotions toward the experiences and feelings they associate with professional autonomy, and revealed their workplaces to be locations of emotionally intense conflicts about, and struggles over, influence in the workplace

Segregation in sheared granular media–effects of intrinsic particle properties such as size, density and shape

When granular media which have different size, density, shape or even frictional properties flow they will tend to segregate. This is of fundamental scientific interest but also has significance in a variety of industries including mining, pharmaceuticals, food processing as well as for natural phenomena such as landslides. Here we consider segregation that occurs when a granular mixture is sheared, such as when it flows down along an inclined slope. A partially filled cylindrical drum is being slowly rotated about its axis (which is perpendicular to gravity) is a popular test-bed to examine sheared granular segregation. Here we consider simulation (Discrete Element Method, DEM), experiment and continuum theories in order to understand the segregation that occurs. Using DEM simulations we can clearly determine the underlying causes of segregation which intimately depend on intrinsic particle properties such as their size, density and shape. We compare these DEM simulations with both experiments and continuum theories, for a number of these properties, and find very good agreement. It will be shown that segregation arising from differences in particle size is the strongest, with stable asymptotic states being reached after only one or two cylinder rotations. Density segregation is the next strongest followed by segregation due to particle shape. The underlying physical mechanism leading to segregation is different in each of these properties. We compare and contrast these mechanisms in detail

The Utility of a Rapid Application Development (RAD) Approach for a Large Complex Information Systems Development

Rapid Application Development (RAD) as a development methodology has its origins based within the commercial arena. As a result individual philosophies and perceptions of its rationale and applicability have led to considerable debate about its appropriateness for large complex Information Systems (IS) development. Even though RAD is becoming an increasingly accepted approach to IS development, existing literature does little to clarify the position and continues to question its suitability for large complex development projects. Contrary to published beliefs, a RAD type approach is being adopted for a large complex IS that is currently being implemented within UK Regional Government. This paper describes the case study that presents an interesting and atypical opportunity to examine the use of RAD within such a complex development environment. This research adopts an interpretive approach using an ethnographic style of qualitative research that literature posits has been effectively used for the study of information systems. It looks at the application of the development approach, considers the problems identified with such an approach and highlights the issues that impact and impinge upon the utility of RAD for such milieux

The influence of cam geometry and operating conditions on chaotic mixing of viscous fluids in a twin cam mixer

Smooth particle hydrodynamica (SPH) simulations were used to better understand the mixing performance of a class of two-dimensional Twin Cam mixers. The chaotic manifolds of the flow are used to describe the mixing and to identify isolated regions. For an equilateral triangle cam geometry, a figure-eight manifold structure traps a layer of fluid against the cam boundaries. Changes in the differential rotation and phase offsets between the cams results in modest improvements in the mixing rate across the manifold barrier. Reducing the apex angle of the triangle changes the manifold structure and allows the trapped layer of fluid to mix more effectively with the rest of the domain. This article shows that examining the chaotic manifolds within a typical industrial mixer can provide valuable insight into both the transient and long-term mixing processes, leading to a more focused exploration of possible mixer configurations and to practical improvements in mixing efficienc

Health and Social Service Needs in a Northeastern Metropolitan Area: Ethnic Group Differences

Data from a representative sample of Boston area residents were analyzed to examine differences among ethnic populations in perceived needs and use of services for eight problem areas. The areas studied were: employment problems; financial problems; problems of the aged living alone; alcohol problems; personal; family or marital problems; child behavior or education problems; the need for homemaker services; and the need for a home nurse. The results indicate substantial differences between perceived needs and reported use of services, and both those factors varied by ethnic identification