Opportunities For Strategic Behavior Research Articles

Toward higher import substitution: does quality governance matter for uptake and pricing of improved local rice in Ghana?

PurposeProduct quality standardization is the solution to market collapses due to quality-insensitive pricing regimes prevalent in West African (WA) rice value chains. However, access to local rice that is differentiated by quality standards is limited. This paper explores feasibility of quality standardization of local rice and evaluates how its price–quality connecting effect depends on retailer characters/reactions.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses panel data from a wholesale randomized control trial (RCT) and three surveys of 135 rice retailers in Ghana.FindingsImproved local food value chains and access to quality differentiated products are impactful entry points for import substitution policies. The strength of interretailer competition, retail infrastructure and wholesaler activities matter for a stronger connection of prices and quality, given uptake of quality-standardized local rice.Research limitations/implicationsAccess to quality-differentiated local rice can be increased via private and third-party certification. This addresses the prevailing inefficient pricing and its related problems. The positive impacts of such access would be magnified by designing quality certification interventions to elicit regular-frequent purchases by retailers and target retailers with adequate retail infrastructure in high competition areas. However, this study only explored profitability and opportunities for strategic behavior as the behavioral basis for quality-sensitive pricing. Other impact mechanisms could be explored in further research that includes consumer data.Originality/valueDespite their difficulty and limited use in value chains studies, RCT and panel data methods are used. This study is the first to empirically analyze feasibility of introducing product standardization, a missing institution in the WA local rice markets.

Risks in Small Electricity Markets: The Experience of Finland in Winter 2012

The structure of the Nordic market opens up opportunities for strategic behavior. To solve this problem, policymakers should either launch a more transparent system for evaluating the role of single demand and supply acts of individual players, or increase regulation, with the obvious risk of ‘government failures.’.

Decentralization and Fiscal Discipline in Subnational Governments:The Bailout Problem in Uruguay

This paper analyzes the reasons behind Central Government (CG) bailouts of Subnational Governments (SNGs) in the case of Uruguay. We argued that Uruguay represents a good example of the risks of fiscal decentralization, in the context of adjustment policies, and when SNGs` responsibilities and resources have not been carefully defined. We show that, in unitary countries where SNGs lack the opportunities to misbehave that they have in federal countries (e. g. , public debt issuance, international borrowing), SNG officials find ways to finance deficits through non-compliance with politically contestable obligations. In particular, SNGs in Uruguay finance their deficits by accumulating debts with other government agencies and obtaining discretionary transfers from the CG. Through statistical analyses we show that debts and deficits are mainly related to vertical fiscal imbalances and economic conditions in the SN jurisdictions. Yet, the analysis of recent bailout episodes suggests that institutions and political factors play a role (i. e. , they are important ex-post factors). This implies that bailouts have been more than simple compensations for structural imbalances, thus creating opportunities for strategic behavior on the part of SNG authorities (partly confirmed by the disparate fiscal performance of Montevideo vis-a-vis the rest of the country).

Information systems implementation within US agribusiness: an applications approach

The complexity and sophistication of information system depends upon the information processing needs at the firm level. Agribusinesses tend to be heterogeneous in terms of firm size, operator characteristics, and opportunities for strategic behavior. Thus, information system hardware and software sophistication is expected to differ significantly even within similar industries. This study employs survey data from US agribusiness firms in order to determine the factors that contribute to hardware and software sophistication. Sophistication levels relative to hardware and software many times are a function of firm size and sales. It is also shown that a manager needs to recognize the level of sophistication in order to gauge competitive positioning against firm rivals. To be competitive within specific agribusiness sectors a firm must maintain or acquire the requisite information technology of its rivals.

The effects of the change in the NRMP matching algorithm. National Resident Matching Program

Following 2 years of heated controversy about the resident match, the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) recently voted to replace the existing matching algorithm with a newly designed applicant-proposing algorithm. To design an applicant-proposing algorithm for the match and compare it with the existing NRMP algorithm to determine how many applicants and residency programs could be expected to receive better or worse matches from the 2 algorithms, how the different algorithms influence the opportunity for strategic behavior, and what advice can be given to participants. Computational experiments compared the newly designed applicant-proposing algorithm with the existing NRMP algorithm on the rank order lists (ROLs) submitted by all applicants and residency programs in the 1987 and 1993 through 1996 NRMP matches. Differences in the matchings produced by the 2 algorithms are small: fewer than 1 in 1000 applicants would have received a different match. Most (but not all) of the few applicants who are matched to different positions by the 2 algorithms do better when the applicant-proposing algorithm is used; the opposite is true for programs. Opportunities for profitable strategic behavior are very rare for both applicants and programs under either algorithm. With either algorithm, both applicants and programs can be advised that trying to get a preferred match by behaving strategically is far more likely to harm than to help them. The existing NRMP algorithm and the newly designed applicant-proposing algorithm perform similarly. Both algorithms make it sensible for applicants and residency programs to arrange their ROLs based solely on their preferences for possible matches. The choice of algorithms will systematically affect the matches of only a small group of applicants (<0.1%). The NRMP's recent decision to use the applicant-proposing algorithm starting in 1998 reflects a judgment about the impact of this difference on applicants and programs.

Auctions and Alternative Procedures for Allocating Pollution Rights

This paper considers two different types of auctions which the government could use to sell discharge rights: (1) an auction where rights are sold for a single clearing price, and (2) a special type of discriminating auction that discourages strategic manipulation of bids by individual dischargers. Based on both theoretical and practical considerations, there appears to be a fundamental trade-off between reducing the financial burden of rights purchases and eliminating the incentives for strategic behavior. Very few discharges in either case study would have lower expenses under government sales of rights than under uniform treatment. The simulations also suggest that there may be opportunities for strategic behavior under nonincentive-compatible procedures because of small numbers of dischargers, despite its problems with respect to incentive compatibility, the right allocation approach of free distribution followed by exchange may offer the most desirable package of features. This approach can yield dischargers savings over the expenses of present uniform regulations as well as provide incentives for efficient allocation of treatment efforts. 25 references, 1 figure, 5 tables.