Demand Payment Research Articles

Violence, Intervention, and the State in Central Africa

Violence, Intervention, and the State in Central Africa Scott Ross Marielle Debos, Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity, and State Formation. Translated by Andrew Brown. London: Zed Books, 2016. 239 pp. Louisa Lombard, State of Rebellion: Violence and Intervention in the Central African Republic. London: Zed Books, 2016. 287 pp. In central Africa, the state's supposed monopoly on violence is tenuous at best. Road checkpoints staffed by armed men who determine right to passage, search vehicles, and demand payment may seem like familiar characteristics of the state: security, violence, taxing. But these actors may not necessarily be state security personnel. They could be Chadian bogobogos, ex-rebels that act as "volunteer customs officers," who at times enforce the Chad–Cameroon border and at other times facilitate smuggling. They could also be Central African coupeurs de route, "road robbers," who take from travelers with relative impunity and with political ideologies that are not immediately obvious. Such actors in central Africa could be any number of characters from a cast of men in arms in the region—conventional rebels, [End Page 401] soldiers, ex-rebels, or ex-soldiers—sometimes even at the same time, only some of which can be categorized in terms of relation to the state. These examples emerge from two new monographs—each drawing on a decade of research in central Africa—that help shed light on the region's politics and the role that conflict and arms play in it: Marielle Debos's Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity, and State Formation and Louisa Lombard's State of Rebellion: Violence and Intervention in the Central African Republic. They are useful studies of central Africa on their own, but also complement each other. Their analyses describe processes that are particularly pronounced in their field sites, but are also common—though subtle—phenomena the world over. For example, they explore how violence is carried out in war, how armed actors relate to one another during and after conflict, and how demobilization programs fail in the wake of conflict. These are just some of the subjects that both authors address with a critical lens on how war is understood. A central theme the authors tackle is the role of the state—how politics are conducted outside of the state's territory, and how France and the broader international community (or "good intentions crowd" [30], as Lombard describes it) engage with the state. The result is that these books, and the dynamics drawn out in them, offer much to scholars of the state, war, and intervention everywhere. This updated translation of Marielle Debos's work conceives of taking up arms as a practical occupation—a métier—shared by soldiers, rebels, and bandits, with the same person often moving between these categories. The one constant is how these men (and they are almost always men) leverage their guns to make a living. Debos explores the blurred boundaries for armed actors in times marked by neither war nor peace (Richards 2005) by studying both how men wage war and how they use arms and uniforms outside of wartime. Labeling this moment and place as "the inter-war," she sketches out an experience that may not necessarily be violent but is founded on the threat of potential violence and operates under the assumption that "war is always emergent" (Debos 2016:8). This métier is linked to both the mode of governance and the mode of economic accumulation in Chad. The practical occupation of arms in war and inter-war periods is discussed throughout the book's three parts—the history of Chad, the careers of men in arms, and the governance of Chad today. Part 1 focuses on the history of armed action in Chad from the precolonial era and French colonialization through decolonization to the present moment. Debos begins in Chapter 1 by discussing how France kept Chad [End Page 402] in a perpetual state of inter-war throughout colonization, a state in which both armed resistance and colonial conscripts circulated around the colony, creating a common foundation from which men in arms would later emerge. In Chapter 2, she looks at the process through which peasants...

A Sraffian (no) trade‐off between autonomous demand and transfer payments

AbstractThis paper explores the matrix demand multiplier in Sraffian frameworks and shows that it involves an autonomous demand‐transfer payments curve, which exhibits formal similarities with the well‐known consumption (wage)‐growth (profit) curve in steady‐state capital and growth theory.

Labor Demand and Unequal Payments: Does Wage Dispersion Matter? Using German Employer-Employee Data to Analyze the Influence of Intra-Firm Wage Inequality on Labor Demand

AbstractA theoretical analysis examines the relationship between intra-firm wage dispersion and employment at establishments. The analysis relies on the absence of a theoretical consensus regarding the influence of wage dispersion on labor demand. To prove the theoretical considerations, regressions were conducted on German linked employer-employee data from the Institute for Employment Research (LIAB) for 1996 through 2008. More specifically, fractional probit models for the panel data and a fixed effects regression with a log-odds transformation of the dependent variable were used to estimate the share equations of a labor demand model, including different measures of wage dispersion. The results illustrate a negative influence of the residual wage inequality that takes into account the composition of the workforce in the establishment. In addition, an increasing wage dispersion at the lower end of the wage distribution decreases the labor demand of the establishment; however, this leads to the estimates of the overall wage dispersion becoming insignificant.

SPRZEDAŻ RZECZY KRADZIONEJ

THE SALE OF STOLEN GOODSSummary The most complex analysis of the legal consequences resulting fromthe sale of stolen goods can be found in the Digest 18,1,34,3. Paul frames three separate hypotheses, in which the solutions differ depending on whether the contracting parties, or at least one of them, when stipulating the contract, were aware that the goods for sale had been stolen. If both parties were aware that the object of sale was res furtiva, the contract was void, i.e. neither party was obliged towards the other. Where only the buyer was aware of the circumstances then the seler was not bound by the contract. However, only if he voluntarily delivered his performance, could he demand payment. If only party aware that the goods were stolen was the seller, whereas the buyer concluded the contract in good faith, the sale was valid as a whole. This judgement conforms with the opinion of earlier jurisprudence, especially that of Pomponius.The question of what reason underpinned the jurists’ decision on the invalidity of sale, which had res furtiva as an object and was concluded by the parties aware of this fact, appears the first problem to be solved. I would rather dismiss the notion that such a solution could have been based either on the idea of impossibility of performance or on the mere mala fides of the contracting parties.Given that the seller was not bound to transfer ownership to the buyer, the execution of the contract of sale, the object of which was res furtiva, had to be considered possible. Neither does it seem plausible that the invalidity of the contract was provoked merely by the mala fides of the parties. It would be difficult indeed to speak of one party’s bad faith, if there is no good faith to be protected on the other side of the contract.In all probability the objective the jurists had in mind when excluding the validity of a deliberate sale of res furtivae, was to stop the circulation of such goods and render it easier for the owners to recover them. Therefore a deliberate sale of a stolen thing must have been considered invalid on the ground that it tended to violate one of the principles of legal order and hence was contra bonos mores.From the analysis of the three hypotheses considered by Paul results, that the validity of the sale of res furtiva depended on the good faith of the purchaser. Wherever he was unaware that the object of sale had been stolen, the contract was valid, irrespective of the good or bad faith of the seller. On the contrary, if the purchaser was aware, that the object of sale was res furtivay the contract was void in principle. The seller however, if in good faith, was granted the possibility to convalidate it by spontaneous performance.The reason for such a differentiation was probably the fact, that of the two reciprocal performances, which constituted the substance of the contract of sale, only the one, to which the seller was obliged, could violate the legal order and thus was considered defective. Therefor it was precisely the claim of the purchaser, trying to force such an execution in spite of His knowledge of the status of the goods, that was contra bonos mores and hence invalid. In such a situation the seller was not obliged to deliver his performance. Considering the principle of reciprocity of the contract of sale, one must conclude, that the purchaser could not be obliged towards the seller either, and thus, in principle, the whole contract was void.On the other hand, even though the seller could not have been forced to deliver his performance, he did have the possibility to deliver it voluntarily. In such a case, on the basis of the principle of reciprocity, he could claim payment from the purchaser. On this basis the contract became valid.

ВІДСТУПЛЕННЯ ПРАВА ВИМОГИ ВИПЛАТИ ДИВІДЕНДІВ В АКЦІОНЕРНИХ ТОВАРИСТВАХ

An article explores theoretical and practical problems of the assignment of the claim dividends to joint-stock companies. The author pointed to the legal nature of the transfer of the right of claim. Were studied the peculiarities and procedure of transferring the shareholder's right to receive dividends due to him to third parties. The right to receive dividends by a shareholder gives rise to a monetary obligation, the parties to which are a company (the debtor) and a shareholder (the creditor). We can see the possibility of assignment of the right to claim payment of dividends as a legal basis for replacing the creditor (shareholder) in the obligation because of the absence of a direct legal prohibition, as well as the personal nature of the legal relationship between the company and the shareholder. The practical implementation of this possibility is complicated by several factors, including the lack of a clear legal position on the nature of dividends, as well as the right to receive dividends; legislative non-regulation of the procedure for assignment of the right to demand payment of dividends. The analyzed decisions of the state regulator indicate the impossibility of replacing the creditor in the obligation to pay dividends if the shareholder transfers his rights to another person under the transaction (agreement) in the manner prescribed by regulations. The legal doctrine shows, the essence of the shareholder's right to dividends allows distinguishing the corporate right to dividends, and the right to claim payment of dividends (obligatory). Accordingly, the right to claim payment of dividends has the characteristics of an independent property object (asset), which may be the object of a contractual relationship. The obligatory right to demand payment of dividends will be the subject of a contract of assignment of the right to claim dividends to be paid (cession), as a kind of agreement of assignment of the right to demand a monetary obligation. The conclusion of an agreement on the assignment of the right to claim dividends is possible only after the acquisition by the shareholder (original creditor) of the right to claim the company.

Letter from America.

I have a photo from a collection from the National Archives taken during the 1930s. It shows a GP sitting at his desk with a stern look on his face and a sign that reads ‘Consultations: Cash Only’. Although one might be amused by the 80-year-old photo, offices and hospitals still demand payment from the patient, albeit more subtly, even if the patient has health insurance. ‘Co-pay’ and ‘deductible’ are the terms used these days for the portion of the bill patients must pay and are among the more maddening aspects of US health economics. Patients who have to make frequent visits may have $40 charges for each visit in addition to their insurance, and so patients with chronic diseases that require frequent monitoring can quickly run up bills that keep them away even though they are ‘insured’. Drug costs are another example. I am on an anticoagulant for which I had a ‘co-pay’ of $15/month for the past year but my …

Why Multinational Companies Doing Business in China Fall into the Trap of Making Payments to China's Police

Multinational Companies (MNCs) doing business in China often fall into the trap of making payments to the Public Security Bureau (PSB), China’s Police, in order to enlist the help of the PSB in law enforcement. The MNC might have suffered a theft of intellectual property rights or might be faced with an issue of unfair competitor involving an ex-employee and a competing business operator. The MNC believes that criminal enforcement will send a stiff message and will be a more effective deterrent against future offenses. Under China’s laws, many economic offenses can give rise to criminal liability but in order to initiate a criminal investigation, the MNC is often asked by the PSB for the payment of an administrative fee, often couched as advanced payment for the reimbursement of expenses needed for the investigation. The payment is usually small, several thousand dollars, and seems innocuous to the MNC. Although the initial payment may seem harmless, it might lead to a string of additional demands by the PSB for more and larger payments and the MNC might become enmeshed in entanglements with other PRC authorities, brought in by the PSB, that also demand payments. A string of multiple payments then becomes much more problematic for the MNC and the entanglements might become hostile as the MNC feels increasingly trapped and exploited.

Implementing Symmetric Treatment of Financial Contracts in Bankruptcy and Bank Resolution

Financial contracts, such as swaps, repos, and options, are excepted from the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay by the so-called derivative “safe harbors.” The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 provides a graphic illustration of how these safe harbors make it almost impossible for a non-bank financial firm, or other firm with significant derivative exposure, to restructure in chapter 11. Without the restraint of the automatic stay, non-debtor counterparties enjoying safe harbor protection may exercise early termination rights, demand payment, and offset obligations. The effect mimics a bank run, where value is drained from the struggling debtor in a destructive rush.The resolution regime for banks takes a different approach. It does not include such safe harbors. Instead, it imposes a short stay on financial contract termination to permit the orderly transfer of a failed bank’s derivative portfolio intact to a solvent bank. This approach has been used for decades to preserve the value of financial contracts and to minimize the systemic disruption occasioned by a bank failure.In this Article, we offer a road-map for translating and generalizing the “short-stay” regime used for banks into chapter 11. The key to this synthesis is the bankruptcy concept of “adequate assurance of future performance,” and the mechanism for providing that assurance is bankruptcy’s commonplace debtor-in-possession financing. This financing can backstop the debtor’s timely performance of its financial obligations. We note that our approach would facilitate the “Single Point of Entry” strategy for restructuring financial firms contemplated by the Dodd-Frank Act. Our approach also would, we contend, bring greater stability to financial markets, preserve otherwise evaporating value for insolvent debtors with a significant book of derivatives, and ultimately make it possible for many more firms to restructure in bankruptcy.

Harvesting Water for the Future

Examination of the distribution of climate vulnerability, water resources, and economic opportunities in a Peruvian watershed suggests that, rather than the concept of adaptation, a focus on political agency is important to highlight the creative and dynamic political action in local responses to climate change. Peasant farmers and herders in the Peruvian headwaters are among the most vulnerable to global warming, since they are the first to experience the changes in water supplies. Leaders in the highlands claim rights connected to a fluid ownership of water that is born in their territory and demand payments from the companies making money on this water based on the principles of reciprocity and justice. These demands are attempts at taking control of an uncertain future and as such are examples of political agency relating to climate change.El examen de la distribución de la vulnerabilidad climática, los recursos hídricos, y las oportunidades económicas en una cuenca peruana sugiere que, en lugar del concepto de adaptación, un enfoque sobre la agencia política es importante para resaltar la acción política creativa y dinámica en las respuestas locales al cambio climático. Los campesinos y pastores en las cabeceras de cuencas se encuentran entre los más vulnerables al calentamiento global porque son los primeros en experimentar los cambios en las reservas de agua. Los líderes en las partes altas reclaman derechos conectados a una pertenencia fluida del agua que nace en su territorio y exigen pagos de las compañías que hacen dinero de esta agua basándose en los principios de reciprocidad y justicia. Estas demandas son intentos de tomar control de un futuro incierto y como tal, son ejemplos de agencia política relacionada con el cambio climático.

Cloud computing in human resource management (HRM) system for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Enterprise systems consist of numerous integrated applications including manufacturing, logistics, distribution, accounting, marketing, finance, human resources, and others. Enterprise system is intended to enable automation as it offers the availability of real-time data, improved process visibility, and an increased level of automation. In this paper, we propose to use cloud computing technologies to share computing resources and support advanced features such as on demand payments in human resource management (HRM) sub-system, and we focus on the applications in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The presented work consists of the following four parts. First, we discuss the cloud computing concept extensively in terms of the definitions, the classifications, and main characteristics, as well as its applications. Second, we perform the game analysis on the cloud computing of HRM in SMEs. Third, we propose new infrastructure of cloud computing to implement HRM in SMEs. Fourth, we illustrate the applications of the proposed infrastructure in HRM; in particular, we discuss some cloud-computing-based enterprise systems application systems including human resources management alliance, human resources management consulting services, and human resources shared services for process reengineering. Our innovation is the primary attempt of applying cloud computing technologies to elevate HRM sub-system in enterprise systems for SMEs.

Failure to Demand Payment of Interest and Its Transfer Pricing Implications

Polish courts have recently held that transfer pricing provisions may apply in the case where the arm’s length contractual stipulations were executed in a way departing from the arm’s length standard. They also claimed that hypothetical transactions that would have taken place if transactions between associated enterprises had been at arm’s length, should have been considered in evaluating whether transfer pricing provisions were applicable.

Display Advertising Auctions with Arbitrage

Online display advertising exchanges connect Web publishers with advertisers seeking to place ads. In many cases, the advertiser obtains value from an ad impression (a viewing by a user) only if it is clicked, and frequently advertisers prefer to pay contingent on this occurring. But at the same time, many publishers demand payment independent of clicks. Arbitragers with good estimates of click-probabilities can resolve this conflict by absorbing the risk and acting as an intermediary, paying the publisher on allocation and being paid only if a click occurs. This article examines the incentives of advertisers and arbitragers and contributes an efficient mechanism with truthful bidding by the advertisers and truthful reporting of click predictions by arbitragers as dominant strategies while, given that a hazard rate condition is satisfied, yielding increased revenue to the publisher. We provide empirical evidence based on bid data from Yahoo's Right Media Exchange suggesting that the mechanism would increase revenue in practice.

“讨薪秀”：正当权利非正式维护的实践逻辑

Dramatic demonstrations to ask for back wages, especially among construction workers, have attracted much attention. This paper is intended to explore the mechanism behind these demonstrations. Government and capital have reached a kind of tacit agreement centering on informal economic practices. In the opposition between capital and migrant workers, the lack of unified labor action places the latter at a disadvantage when bargaining with the former. The informal economy and its practices have encouraged capital to delay the payment of wages and have rendered the state’s labor laws largely ineffective, leaving migrant workers little choice but to go outside the law to protest. Multilayered subcontracting in the construction industry has aggravated delays in the payment of wages and has made it more difficult for workers to obtain payment. The subsistence pressures faced by the workers in their growing proletarianization have driven them to demand payment. The state’s insistence on stability, capital’s preoccupation with “rational” profit-seeking, and the elitism that currently dominates popular culture have together shaped the form of the dramatic demonstrations. To solve this problem at its root, workers’ self-organizing to change their disadvantaged status might offer a way out—something the government should encourage and support in order to maintain social stability. This article is in English. 农民工，尤其是建筑业农民工的“讨薪秀”行为得到广泛关注。本文尝试揭示该行为背后的机理。分析发现：在转型社会这个场域中，国家和资本在“发展”的大背景下达成一种“合意”，即非正规化的经济实践；在资本和农民工的博弈中，农民工尚未联合起来形成一股足以与资本议价的力量，从而处于下风。非正规经济实践放任了资本的欠薪行为，并从根本上导致了国家劳工保护性立法对于农民工的无效性，使得农民工几乎只能进行法外维权。建筑行业的劳动分包体制加剧了其欠薪的严重性和讨薪的艰难性。农民工生存权利在日益深入的无产阶级化中受到的威胁要求他们尽可能讨回薪水。处于法律之外的讨薪方式，在国家的稳定逻辑、资本的现实理性和精英主义的大众文化的共同运作下，最终聚焦于“讨薪秀”这种方式。要从根本上改变这种境况，农民工自我组织化可作为未来考虑的方向。

CONSTRUCTION GUARANTEES: FINALLY CLOSING THE DOOR ON EXTRANEOUS DEFENCES Coface South Africa Insurance Co Ltd v East London Own Haven t/a Own Haven Housing Association 2014 (2) SA 382 (SCA)

The issuing of performance bonds or construction guarantees in terms of a building contract may hold important consequences for the parties to a construction guarantee. Recently construction guarantees have received much attention from our courts and some of these cases even proceeding to the Supreme Court of Appeal. There may be various reasons for this sudden escalation in litigation with construction guarantees as the subject matter. One of the reasons may be due to numerous major construction projects that have been undertaken in the last few years in South Africa. Notable examples of these major construction projects include the building of stadia for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, the Gautrian Project, and the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project. One of the aspects of construction guarantees that our courts has had to deal with was the nature of construction guarantees. The nature of construction guarantees is not only of academic interest but also has very important practical implications. Building, engineering and construction contracts such as the family of New Engineering Contracts and The Joint Building Contracts Committee agreements make provision for the employer or the party commissioning the construction works (“the works”’) to place a contractual obligation on the contractor to furnish a construction guarantee. Shortly after the award of the construction contract (“the underlying contract”), the contractor will instruct its insurer or banker to issue such a construction guarantee to the benefit of the employer. From the employer’s perspective, the construction guarantee serves a dual purpose: firstly, the willingness of a financial institution or insurer to issue such a construction guarantee is, to a degree, an indication of the contractor’s financial welfare. Secondly, in the event of the contractor's default, the construction guarantee enables the employer to gain immediateaccess to funds to properly complete the works in terms of the underlying contract. A contractual relationship is created by the construction guarantee between the employer and the issuer thereof. When properly drafted, a construction guarantee entitles an employer to demand payment from the issuer unconditionally upon the occurrence of a specific event. The liability of the issuer of the construction guarantee is subject only to the employer complying with the terms and conditions contained in the construction guarantee. Normally, the employer is required to issue a certificate in terms of which it is confirmed that the contractor is in default of the building contract or underlying contract and therefore the employer demands payment in terms of the construction guarantee. The main advantage that a construction guarantee offers to an employer is when enforcing the construction guarantee, the issuer thereof may not raise defences of an extraneous nature. This prevents protracted litigation over complex factual disputes. Fraud in such circumstances that makes it obvious is the only defence the issuer of a construction guarantee may raise to avoid liability under the construction guarantee. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Dormell Properties 282 CC v Renasa Insurance Co Ltd reopened again the possibility of raising extraneous defences. The Dormell judgment caused much uncertainty on whether extraneous defences may be raised to avoid liability in terms of a construction guarantee. The confusion regarding the true legal position was further exacerbated by the fact that in subsequent cases involving construction guarantees, the Supreme Court of Appeal chose not to overturn the Dormell case but rather to distinguish the facts of subsequent cases from Dormell. This case note therefore deals with the latest reported judgment on construction guarantees delivered by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Coface South Africa insurance Co Ltd v East London Own Haven t/a Own Haven Housing Association (2014 (2) SA 382 (SCA)). This case is of particular interest because the Supreme Court of Appeal unequivocally held that its judgment in Dormell was clearly wrong. This judgment has now once and for all put the question of whether or not extraneous defences may be raised in order to avoid liability under a construction guarantee to bed. The court also once again confirmed that the English doctrine of consideration does not form part of the South African law of contract.

How Should the Hospital Assign Service Volume to Private Payers Optimally?

U.S. hospitals are confronted with challenges of increasing service volume demand and inequitable payment by different private payers. Under this circumstance, budgeting the medical service volume efficiently and allocating the volume among private payers strategically becomes very important. Our paper proposes a hospital service volume assignment model to provide feasible solutions for hospitals. We develop our base model in the radiology department that provides comparatively homogenous medical service and involves high fixed cost. Under the fee-for-service payment schedule, the base model suggests that the hospital contracting decision with a private payer (insurance company) depends on an intuitive critical ratio. The critical ratio measures the tradeoff between the outsourcing cost generated from the actual service volume in excess of the capacity and the idling cost generated from the actual service volume below the capacity. Besides the base model, we explore two model extensions. First, we examine the criteria to budget the service volume above or below the service volume capacity. Second, we include the processing cost in the cooperation of the hospital and the insurance company. Efficient algorithms are presented for all models. Our findings provide managerial insight on hospital service volume budgeting decision by incorporating inequitable payment information.

Teoria i praktyka windykacji we współczesnej bibliotece (wybrane problemy)

According to Polish library law, services provided by libraries are free of charge. However, there are cases when a library may demand payment from the reader. One of them is a delayed return of borrowed materials. In such a case the libraries are entitled to introduce procedures mentioned in civil procedure code, but due to economical reasons they seldom do this. More often they use self-developed informal methods or hire debt recovery agencies.

Countermanding Payment of a Cheque

A legal obligation envisages performance and is extinguished when the required performance is duly made. Monetary obligations must normally be discharged by the payment of the appropriate sum of money, that is to say, by means of legal tender. It is trite that a cheque is not legal tender and that a creditor, to whom a money debt is owing, may insist on strict compliance with the contract and demand payment by means of legal tender, that is, cash. However, the creditor may agree to accept a cheque in payment of the debt. Indeed, it is a principle of our law that a debtor is only entitled to pay by cheque if his creditor expressly or impliedly agrees to accept a cheque in payment of the debt.

The Gathering Storm: Contingent Liabilities in a Sovereign Debt Restructuring

The contingent liabilities of a sovereign, such as guarantees of the debts of third parties, can normally be kept off the balance sheet of the sovereign guarantor. That is their charm. As the debt to GDP ratios of many developed countries approach red-zone levels, contingent liabilities are increasingly being favored over direct, on-the-balance-sheet, borrowings. But what happens if a country carrying large contingent liabilities needs to restructure its debt? The borrower dare not leave its contingent claims out of the restructuring. To do so would risk undermining the financial predicates of the sovereign’s economic recovery program should the beneficiaries of the guarantees demand payment in full after the restructuring closes.Attempting to shoehorn sovereign contingent liabilities into a debt restructuring, however, is a particularly challenging task. There are few precedents for how to do so, and no good precedents. The explosion in the size of contingent sovereign obligations since the financial crisis began in 2008 inevitably means that these issues will need to be confronted sooner or later, probably sooner.

The Ability of Landowners and Their Cooperatives to Leverage Payments Greater Than Opportunity Costs from Conservation Contracts

AbstractIn negotiations over land‐right acquisitions, landowners have an informational advantage over conservation groups because they know more about the opportunity costs of conservation measures on their sites. This advantage creates the possibility that landowners will demand payments greater than the required minimum, where this minimum required payment is known as the landowner's willingness to accept (WTA). However, in recent studies of conservation costs, researchers have assumed landowners will accept conservation with minimum payments. We investigated the ability of landowners to demand payments above their WTA when a conservation group has identified multiple sites for protection. First, we estimated the maximum payment landowners could potentially demand, which is set when groups of landowners act as a cooperative. Next, through the simulation of conservation auctions, we explored the amount of money above landowners’ WTA (i.e., surplus) that conservation groups could cede to secure conservation agreements, again investigating the influence of landowner cooperatives. The simulations showed the informational advantage landowners held could make conservation investments up to 42% more expensive than suggested by the site WTAs. Moreover, all auctions resulted in landowners obtaining payments greater than their WTA; thus, it may be unrealistic to assume landowners will accept conservation contracts with minimum payments. Of particular significance for species conservation, conservation objectives focused on overall species richness, which therefore recognize site complementarity, create an incentive for landowners to form cooperatives to capture surplus. To the contrary, objectives in which sites are substitutes, such as the maximization of species occurrences, create a disincentive for cooperative formation.La Habilidad de Propietarios y Sus Cooperativas para Implementar Pagos Mayores que los Costos de Oportunidad en Contratos de Conservación

Interrelating operational and financial performance measurements in a multiproduct inventory system

Financial supply chain management and working capital management are increasingly under the spotlight as effective approaches to optimising working capital levels and directing cash flows. Especially in a multiproduct environment, efficient working capital allocation can boost company performance, achieve significant cost savings and demonstrate risk-pooling benefits. In this paper, we focus on the interrelation of working capital and stocking decisions for functional, innovative and heterogeneous product portfolios. We analyse the effect of demand correlation, lead time, payment delays, portfolio sizes, and service level constraints for multiproduct portfolios. Due to the dynamic nature of working capital, we resort to simulation in order to derive managerial insights. Our results attest the importance of payment delays on the profitability of a company. In addition, we demonstrate risk-pooling benefits from a financial perspective.