Private Supply Research Articles

Gender bugdeting w rodzinie i gospodarstwie domowym: od nowo przemyślanej funkcji ekonomicznej do demokratyzacji życia rodzinnego

The purpose of this article is to present the relationship between gender budgeting (GB) and the economic function in the household and family life. The discussed dependency concerns the division of budgetary resources with particular reference to gender. This strategy assumes a balanced distribution of resources and a fair distribution of goods, funds and capital in order to reduce any inequalities resulting from distinctions or gender divisions, and then to eliminate discrimination in the area of private economics and supply.

Institutional complexity and sustainable supply chain management practices

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of institutional pressures, institutional logics and institutional complexity on Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) practices across mixed public and private sector supply chains.Design/methodology/approachMulti-case study data were collected from three tiers of food and catering supply chains: the customer/consumer tier; focal public sector UK Universities; and private sector suppliers/contractors.FindingsThe findings indicate that: normative and mimetic pressures are more prevalent in focal Universities, compared to suppliers; there is typically no single dominant logic across these supply chains; and the multiplicity of institutional logics (e.g. sustainability logic versus financial logic) increases institutional complexity. Therefore, in the typical case of homogeneity in terms of institutional pressures and logics, e.g. with a dominant sustainability logic throughout the supply chain, radical change in SSCM practices is facilitated. In contrast, in the more typical case when there is heterogeneity, with competing logics at different supply chain tiers, this limits SSCM to more incremental changes in practices.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to three tiers of the food and catering supply chains of UK Universities.Practical implicationsTo aid in the successful implementation of SSCM, this study suggests a need for managers to develop an initial understanding of the prevailing institutional logics and pressures at different tiers of the supply chain.Social implicationsA number of the SSCM practices studied address social sustainability.Originality/valueNo previous studies have empirically investigated the impact of institutional complexity in the context of SSCM practices across supply chains, involving both mixed public and private sector organisations.

The Safe Assets Shortage Conundrum

A safe asset is a simple debt instrument that is expected to preserve its value during adverse systemic events. The supply of safe assets, private and public, has historically been concentrated in a small number of advanced economies, most prominently the United States. Over the last few decades, with minor cyclical interruptions, the supply of safe assets has not kept up with global demand. The reason is straightforward: the collective growth rate of the advanced economies that produce safe assets has been lower than the world's growth rate, which has been driven disproportionately by the high growth rate of high-saving emerging economies such as China. The signature of this growing shortage is a steady increase in the price of safe assets; equivalently, global safe interest rates must decline, as has been the case since the 1980s. The early literature, brought to light by Ben Bernanke's famous “savings glut” speech of 2005, focused on a general shortage of assets without isolating its safe asset component. The distinction, however, has become increasingly important over time, particularly in the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis and its sequels. We begin by describing the main facts and macroeconomic implications of safe asset shortages. Faced with such a structural conundrum, what are the likely short- to medium-term escape valves? We analyze four of them, each with its own macroeconomic and financial trade-offs.

PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND BACTERIOLOGICAL COMPOSITION IN A METROPOLITAN DRINKING WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IN KATHMANDU

The study was concentrated on water quality appraisal in metropolitan drinking water distribution system in Kathmandu during 2011 to 2015 AD. The study covers 24 research areas from surface water sources, treatment plants, processing and water supply networks of public, private and community drinking water suppliers in the main city of Kathmandu valley. Water quality was analyzed under six physical, seventeen chemical and two bacteriological parameters. All tests were conducted in accordance with the procedures laid down in the Standard Methods. Total 320 samples collected during two years of periods. The physico-chemical parameters of tested water samples from sources, reservoirs and taps were found to be within the range of National Drinking Water Quality Standard (NDWQS). The turbidity and pH values for most of the tested water samples from sources, reservoirs and taps except for a few source and tap samples were found to be within the NDWQS guideline values. The chemical parameters values of majority of tested source water samples were below the maximum level. The values of iron, manganese, sodium and chloride content of some source samples were found higher than the maximum permissible level recommended by NDWQS and WHO guideline. Bacteriologically, larger proportion of water samples (sources, reservoirs and taps) were found to be unacceptable. The present study disclosed fecal contamination to be the major problem in drinking water from source to the distribution for city water supply systems in selected metropolitan areas. The physico-chemical qualities of water in most cases were within acceptable limit.Journal of Institute of Science and TechnologyVolume 22, Issue 1, July 2017, page: 159-164

A hybrid machine learning model to predict and visualize nitrate concentration throughout the Central Valley aquifer, California, USA

Intense demand for water in the Central Valley of California and related increases in groundwater nitrate concentration threaten the sustainability of the groundwater resource. To assess contamination risk in the region, we developed a hybrid, non-linear, machine learning model within a statistical learning framework to predict nitrate contamination of groundwater to depths of approximately 500m below ground surface. A database of 145 predictor variables representing well characteristics, historical and current field and landscape-scale nitrogen mass balances, historical and current land use, oxidation/reduction conditions, groundwater flow, climate, soil characteristics, depth to groundwater, and groundwater age were assigned to over 6000 private supply and public supply wells measured previously for nitrate and located throughout the study area. The boosted regression tree (BRT) method was used to screen and rank variables to predict nitrate concentration at the depths of domestic and public well supplies. The novel approach included as predictor variables outputs from existing physically based models of the Central Valley. The top five most important predictor variables included two oxidation/reduction variables (probability of manganese concentration to exceed 50ppb and probability of dissolved oxygen concentration to be below 0.5ppm), field-scale adjusted unsaturated zone nitrogen input for the 1975 time period, average difference between precipitation and evapotranspiration during the years 1971–2000, and 1992 total landscape nitrogen input. Twenty-five variables were selected for the final model for log-transformed nitrate. In general, increasing probability of anoxic conditions and increasing precipitation relative to potential evapotranspiration had a corresponding decrease in nitrate concentration predictions. Conversely, increasing 1975 unsaturated zone nitrogen leaching flux and 1992 total landscape nitrogen input had an increasing relative impact on nitrate predictions. Three-dimensional visualization indicates that nitrate predictions depend on the probability of anoxic conditions and other factors, and that nitrate predictions generally decreased with increasing groundwater age.

Shadow money and the public money supply: the impact of the 2007–2009 financial crisis on the monetary system

ABSTRACTThis article explores the effects of the political reactions to the 2007–2009 financial crisis on the monetary system. It chimes in with the view that shadow banks create ‘shadow money’, i.e. private substitutes for bank deposits. The article analyses how the three main forms of shadow money – money market fund shares, overnight repurchase agreements and asset-backed commercial papers – were affected by the short-term government intervention and medium-term regulation during and after the 2007–2009 financial crisis in the United States. The analysis reveals that the measures taken between 2007 and 2014 integrated some shadow money forms in the public money supply. In the year after the Lehman collapse, the initially private shadow money supply was either publicly backstopped or de-monetised as it had broken par to bank deposits. The public backstops took on the form of emergency facilities established by the Federal Reserve and guarantees proclaimed by the Treasury. Those backstops imply that the public institutional framework to protect bank deposits was extended to some forms of shadow money during the crisis. This tendency has continued in post-crisis regulation. Accordingly, the 2007–2009 financial crisis has triggered a paradigmatic change in the monetary system, attributable to the political decisions of US authorities.

Reconciling Conflicting Policy Objectives in Public Contracting: The Enabling Role of Capabilities

AbstractThis paper analyses how capabilities can reconcile conflicting objectives in policy driven public contracting. Results obtained from a quasi‐experiment involving a policy intervention to favour small firms (SMEs) in Brazil show that public manager's contract‐management capabilities can promote cost savings, increased responsiveness (government‐level outcomes), and enhanced buyer‐supplier coordination when favoured firms are successful in public contracting. Execution capabilities of private suppliers positively influence firm‐level outcomes by attenuating the severity of sanctions against favoured firms due to deficient provision. The paper highlights the mechanisms for leveraging performance in public‐private interactions when conflicting goals are present despite inherent contract incompleteness and bureaucratic rigidity, thus adding to the current knowledge of strategic management in the context of public organizations.

Insurance-markets Equilibrium with Sequential Non-convex Private and Public-Sector Labor Supply

This paper describes the lottery- and insurance-market equilibrium in an economy with non-convex private- and public-sector employment. In contrast to Vasilev 2017, 2015, the public-sector labor supply decision is a sequential one. This requires two separate insurance market to operate, one for private-sector work, and one for public-sector employment. In addition, given that the labor choice for private- and public-sector hours is made in succession, the insurance market for public emloy- ment needs to open once the other insurance market has closed. This segmentation and sequentiality of insurance markets operation is a new result in the literature and a direct consequence of the double non-convexity, and the sequential nature of the sectoral labor supply decision.

A comparison of purchasing’s organizational roles and responsibilities in the public and private sector

This research focuses on a comparison of public and private sector supply organizations in terms of organizational structure, supply chain responsibilities, the chief purchasing officer (CPO) and reporting line, teaming and involvement in major organizational activities. A unique opportunity to identify similarities and differences was presented in 2000 when the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing Research (NIGP) and Florida Atlantic University replicated in the public sector a study that the Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies (CAPS) conducted in the private sector in 1995. Significant differences and similarities are identified and are discussed in this paper.

Monotonicity and revenue equivalence domains by monotonic transformations in differences

In a mechanism design setting with quasilinear preferences, a domain D of admissible valuations of an agent is called a monotonicity domain if every 2-cycle monotone allocation rule is truthfully implementable (in dominant strategies). D is called a revenue equivalence domain if every implementable allocation rule satisfies revenue equivalence. Carbajal and Müller (2015) introduced the notions of monotonic transformations in differences and showed that if D admits these transformations then it is a revenue equivalence and monotonicity domain. Here, we show that various economic domains, with countable or uncountable allocation sets, admit monotonic transformations in differences. Our applications include public and private supply of divisible public goods, multi-unit auction-like environments with increasing valuations, and allocation problems with externalities. Single-peaked domains admit only a modified version of monotonic transformations in differences. We show that this property implies too that single-peaked domains are revenue and monotonicity domains.

Auctions for Private Congestible Infrastructures

This paper investigates regulation by auctions of private supply of congestible infrastructures in two networks settings: 1) two serial facilities, where the consumer has to use both in order to consume; and 2) two parallel facilities that are imperfect substitutes. There are four market structures: a monopoly and 3 duopolies that differ in how firms interact. The effects of an auction depend on what the bidders compete. With a bid auction, the bidders compete on how much money they transfer to the government. This auction leads to the same outcome as the unregulated game (for a given market structure), since this gives the maximum profit to transfer. An auction on the capacity of a facility leads to an even lower welfare than no regulation, because firms set very high capacities and usage fees. Conversely, an auction on generalised price or number of users leads to the first-best outcome. Moreover, these two auctions are robust: they attain the first-best regardless of whether the facilities are auctioned off to a single firm or to two firms, and for all market and network structures. On the contrary, the performances (relative to the first-best) of the bid and capacity auctions strongly depend on these considerations.

‘Sweet deals’: State-owned enterprises, corruption and repeated contracts in public procurement

We show how a price analysis of stable relations between customer and supplier in the public procurement of homogeneous goods can help differentiate opportunistic from honest behaviour among economic agents. We consider two types of stable relations: repeated procurements and connections based on the state ownership of suppliers. On the basis of a large dataset on the procurement of granulated sugar in Russia from 2011 to 2013, we find that for private suppliers, prices of repeated contracts were lower compared to one-time deals when procured through more transparent procedures and higher when procured through non-transparent procedures. For non-transparent procedures, we observe significant overpricing of contracts with state-owned suppliers compared to private suppliers, especially in the case of repeated contracts, whereas for competitive e-auctions, there is only a small difference between the contract prices of state-owned suppliers and private suppliers.

Applying an Extended Kernel Density 4-Step Floating Catchment Area Method to Identify Priority Districts to Promote New Publicly Financed Supply of Gastroenterology Exams

In continental Portugal, the publicly financed supply of gastroenterology exams was limited since the end of the last century, restricted to a fixed set of private providers that was hired by the Portuguese state. This way of contracting created market entry barriers and is inefficient, since prices are administratively set. Besides, it produced access inequalities, because of the way that the supply was geographically distributed. This paper applies the Extended Kernel Density 4-Step Floating Catchment Area (EKD4SFCA) method to identify priority districts for the promotion of new supply by the state, in order to choose the appropriate way of contracting new private supply, as determined by current law, and to reduce access inequalities. The applied method enables the identification of the Portuguese regions with strong competition between health care providers and where patients’ access to publicly financed gastroenterology exams is relatively low. In these regions, the state should promote public bids to stimulate new supply, exploring thereby the potential for setting lower prices and reducing access inequalities.

Private Road Supply in Networks with Heterogeneous Users

We study different mixes of private and public supply of roads in a network with bottleneck congestion and heterogeneous users. There are two parallel links for one origin and destination pair and two groups of travellers, where the group with a higher value of time also has higher schedule delay value. Previous scholars argued that as users become more heterogeneous, they benefit more from product differentiation, making private supply of roads more efficient. However, we find that local monopoly power might also increase. This may occur if one group prefers one road over the other as the two offer different combinations of toll and travel delay. The private supplier can thus increase the toll on its link without worrying that the targeted travellers will move to the other link. This can undermine the efficiency of private supply of roads. The problem is especially severe with flat tolls. With queue-eliminating tolls, both types tend to travel on both roads, and competition remains relatively intense. Flat tolling is always worse for users than time-variant tolling as it has the higher generalized prices, and it also leads to a lower welfare.

An Analysis of Various Types of Supply Chain Management Systems: Case of Global Public Sector versus Private Sector Procurement

Public institutions are subject to huge range of legislative restrictions, controlled by the legislative, executive and judicial authorities and subject to criticism by the public at large as compared to private sector procurement processes which are led by profit motives (Fourie, 2009). In both public and private sector procurement, the goods, services and or works have to be acquired, which is the most similarity between these two sectors. In the final analysis, Oughton (2007) alluded to the fact that, it is how well these concepts work that truly determine their worth; it is clear that public and private sector supply chains truly are "two sides of the same coin" and that many private sector best practices can be used in the public sector with great success and with little or no modification; thereby fostering the much needed partnership between these two sectors. A general concern among public sector procurement processes is a low level of trust to the suppliers in that the best price offer ultimately is selected or given high weight like in the South African 80/20 and 90/10 preferential point system, however there is a contrast, in that the private sector often considers performance equally or even more important than price so the 80/20 and 90/10 principle wouldn’t work in private sector procurement. Private sector procurement managers are said to be more interested in the quality of performance than costs; therefore the public sector procurement officials can learn more of these good practices from the private sector.

Private Road Networks with Uncertain Demand

We study the efficiency of private supply of roads under demand uncertainty and evaluate various regulatory policies. Due to demand uncertainty, capacity is decided before demand is known but tolls can be adjusted after demand is known. Policy implications can differ from those under deterministic demand. For instance, for serial links, the toll in the second-best zero-profit case is no longer equal to the marginal external congestion cost. In the first-best scenario, the capacity under uncertain demand is higher than that under the deterministic demand of the same expected value, though self-financing still holds in expected terms. Regulation by perfect competitive auction cannot replicate the second-best zero-profit result and thus leads to a lower welfare, whereas without uncertainty various forms of competitive auctions can attain this second-best optimum. For more complex networks, when private firms add capacity in turn, contrary to the case without demand uncertainty, some form of auction performs better than others with demand uncertainty.

Strategic Pricing and Competitive Procurement in the Physician Services Market

We propose and test a model of the strategic interaction between public (e.g., Medicare) and private insurers in the physician services market. Our model nests two alternatives: 1) cost shifting, which predicts negative correlations between public and private prices and physician supply that is inelastic with respect to relative public and private prices; and 2) competitive procurement in which public and private prices are positively correlated and physician supply skews towards the more generous payer. These alternatives have contradictory implications for both public policy and structural estimation. Using a data set of private and public sector prices and public sector quantities, we find clear evidence favoring the competitive procurement model. Private sector insurers strongly mimic public sector price changes, consistent with recent findings. Moreover, providers supply Medicare beneficiaries 1%-14% fewer services for every 10% increase in private prices, ceteris paribus.

Pricing and Matching with Forward-Looking Buyers and Sellers

Motivated by the emerging sharing economy, we study a dynamic market of a single product or service, to which buyers with heterogeneous private valuations and sellers with heterogeneous private supply costs sequentially arrive following Poisson processes. A single market making intermediary dynamically decides on the ask and bid prices posted to buyers and sellers, respectively, and on the matching decisions after buyers and sellers agree to buy and sell, respectively. Buyers and sellers can strategically wait for better prices after their arrivals. The intermediary’s problem is a multi-dimensional mechanism design problem that is hard to analyze. We propose a simple heuristic policy, that is, a fixed ask price charged to the buyers and a fixed bid price offered to the sellers plus a price adjustment as compensation for expected waiting cost, in conjunction with the greedy matching policy on a first-come first-served basis. These fixed base prices balance demand and supply in expectation, and can be computed efficiently. The waiting adjusted ask and bid price processes are time dependent and tend to have opposite trends in the beginning and end of the horizon. Under this heuristic policy, forward-looking buyers and sellers behave myopically without wait. We show that this heuristic policy is asymptotically optimal for the intermediary and the waiting time compensation becomes negligible, as the volumes of demand and supply arrivals proportionally grow. Our results suggest that the random arrivals of heterogeneous buyers and sellers, alone, may not be sufficient to justify contingent pricing. Given Uber changes its prices every five minutes to rapidly micro-match supply with demand, our result suggests Uber may not lose much optimality by reducing the frequency of price changes, unless the underlying market conditions have significantly changed. This is because our fixed pricing has captured the first-order effect and the benefit of surge pricing diminishes as the volumes of the platform grow, not to mention frequent surge pricing may agonize riders and induce strategic behaviors of riders and drivers that are hard to account for.

Solving the Phosphorus Pollution Puzzle: Synthesis and Directions for Future Research

AbstractDespite the success of efforts to reduce phosphorus (P) pollution from point sources, P from non‐point agricultural sources remains a vexing problem with many U.S. water bodies having impairments. Key to solving the P pollution puzzle is to take stock of progress to date, the puzzle pieces available, and the gaps to be filled. In this paper, we synthesize the state of knowledge on P pollution, discuss the state of existing public programs, and review economists' contributions to informing P pollution policies. We review the water quality valuation literature, identifying limitations in the linkages to policy‐relevant environmental quality metrics. We examine how and why P is used agriculturally, along with recent advances in market‐based policy design and field testing. We survey new knowledge in biology and engineering, including improved understanding of the fate and transport of P. In light of recent learning and persistent knowledge gaps, we recommend directions for economic research to add needed pieces to the puzzle of how to protect our water bodies. Puzzle gaps meriting attention include mechanisms to target public funds more effectively in voluntary abatement programs, policy design for emerging mitigation technologies, new ways to implement performance‐based policies, means to leverage social norms and behavioral cues, changes in the “pay‐the‐polluter” paradigm, and application of state‐of‐the‐art evaluation methods to conservation programs. Beyond the realm of public policy lies that of private supply chains, where establishment of environmental standards holds additional promise. Rich research opportunities exist for economists in tandem with biologists, engineers, and others.

"I go I die, I stay I die, better to stay and die in my house": understanding the barriers to accessing health care in Timor-Leste.

BackgroundDespite public health care being free at the point of delivery in Timor-Leste, wealthier patients access hospital care at nearly twice the rate of poorer patients. This study seeks to understand the barriers driving inequitable utilisation of hospital services in Timor-Leste from the perspective of community members and health care managers.MethodsThis multisite qualitative study in Timor-Leste conducted gender segregated focus groups (n = 8) in eight districts, with 59 adults in urban and rural settings, and in-depth interviews (n = 8) with the Director of community health centres. Communication was in the local language, Tetum, using a pre-tested interview schedule. Approval was obtained from community and national stakeholders, with written consent from participants.ResultsLack of patient transport is the critical cross-cutting issue preventing access to hospital care. Without it, many communities resort to carrying patients by porters or on horseback, walking or paying for (unaffordable) private arrangements to reach hospital, or opt for home-based care. Other significant out-of-pocket expenses for hospital visits were blood supplies from private suppliers; accommodation and food for the patient and family members; and repatriation of the deceased. Entrenched nepotism and hospital staff denigrating patients’ hygiene and personal circumstances were also widely reported. Consequently, some respondents asserted they would never return to hospital, others delayed seeking treatment or interrupted their treatment to return home. Most considered traditional medicine provided an affordable, accessible and acceptable substitute to hospital care. Obtaining a referral for higher level care was not a significant barrier to gaining access to hospital care.ConclusionsOnerous physical, financial and socio-cultural barriers are preventing or discouraging people from accessing hospital care in Timor-Leste. Improving access to quality primary health care at the frontline is a key strategy for ensuring universal access to health care, pursued alongside initiatives to overcome the multi-faceted barriers to hospital care experienced by the vulnerable. Improving the availability and functioning of patient transport services, provision of travel subsidies to patients and their families and training hospital staff in standards of professional care are some options available to government and donors seeking faster progress towards universal health coverage in Timor-Leste.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1762-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.