50,430 research outputs found
Energy markets in transition: The case of Belgium
No full textpeer reviewedForeword by Per Agrell and Axel Gautie
Multi-Period Dea Incentive Regulation in Electricity Distribution.
No full textMulti-period multi-product regulatory schemes for electricity distributors are presented, based on cost information from a productivity analysis model and an agency theoretical decision model. The proposed schemes are operational and demonstrate considerable advantages compared to the popular CPI-X revenue cap regulation. The schemes avoid arbitrariness, too high or negative informational rents as well as ratchet effects and they promote rapid productivity catch-up by making full use of available data. More generally, the paper contributes to the theoretical unification between firm-based Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) productivity models and micro-economic reimbursement theories.Regulation; Efficiency analysis; Incentive systems
Gestion durable de la chaine d'approvisionnement - Études de cas dans le secteur de la grande distribution
No full textGESTION DURABLE DE LA CHAINE D’APPROVISIONNEMENT ÉTUDES DE CAS DANS LE SECTEUR DE LA GRANDE DISTRIBUTION Présenté par : Hategekimana-Dushime Wilfried Noma : 998310-00 Promoteur : Professeur Per Agrell Résumé du mémoire: Au cours des dernières années, l’intérêt pour l‘étude de la gestion durable de la chaine d’approvisionnement n’a cessé de grandir. Les problèmes systémiques qui existent à l’intersection du développement durable, de la gestion environnementale et de la gestion de la chaine d’approvisionnement, sont les raisons lesquelles il est nécessaire d’implémenter la gestion durable de la chaine d’approvisionnement. Dans ce mémoire, il est question de circonscrire les notions de la gestion durable de la chaine d’approvisionnement dans le secteur de la grande distribution, ainsi que le processus de mise en œuvre séquentielle. Pour aborder le sujet proprement dit, les analyses portent sur la cohérence entre la formulation et l’implémentation de la stratégie de développement durable, les influences des facteurs clés de succès dans l’implémentation des pratiques écologiques internes à l’organisation et leurs effets ultérieurs sur les mesures de performance économique, environnementale et opérationnelle. Les résultats présentés sous forme d’une synthèse des cas pratiques et des discussions ont permis d’apporter une réponse exploratoire aux questions soulevées dans le cadre de ce mémoire et d’émettre des hypothèses à vérifier pour les recherches futures.Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion, Université catholique de Louvain, 201
How to Increase the Achievable Information Rate by Per-Channel Dispersion Compensation
No full textDeploying periodic inline chromatic dispersion compensation enables reducing
the complexity of the digital back propagation (DBP) algorithm. However,
compared with nondispersion-managed (NDM) links, dispersion-managed (DM) ones
suffer a stronger cross-phase modulation (XPM). Utilizing per-channel
dispersion-managed (CDM) links (e.g., using fiber Bragg grating) allows for a
complexity reduction of DBP, while abating XPM compared to DM links. In this
paper, we show for the first time that CDM links enable also a more effective
XPM compensation compared to NDM ones, allowing a higher achievable information
rate (AIR). This is explained by resorting to the frequency-resolved
logarithmic perturbation model and showing that per-channel dispersion
compensation increases the frequency correlation of the distortions induced by
XPM over the channel bandwidth, making them more similar to a conventional
phase noise. We compare the performance (in terms of the AIR) of a DM, an NDM,
and a CDM link, considering two types of mismatched receivers: one neglects the
XPM phase distortion and the other compensates for it. With the former, the CDM
link is inferior to the NDM one due to an increased in-band signal--noise
interaction. However, with the latter, a higher AIR is obtained with the CDM
link than with the NDM one owing to a higher XPM frequency correlation. The DM
link has the lowest AIR for both receivers because of a stronger XPM
”inte kan jag berätta allas historia?” Föreställningar om nordisk arbetarlitteratur
No full textDenna boks titel är hämtad ur Kristian Lundbergs vittnesmål från bemanningsföretagens tidevarv, romanen Yarden (2009). Frågan rymmer en viktig förskjutning i föreställningen om arbetarlitteraturens anspråk – från förra sekelskiftets kollektivism till 2000-talets postindustriella individualism.
Hur finns och görs klass, och hur märks detta i arbetarlitteraturen, nu som då? Hur gestaltar arbetarlitteraturen samhällets historiska och politiska förändringar, och hur påverkas den i sin tur av läsekretsens förväntningar? Detta är frågor som hela tiden måste ställas på nytt.
Volymen samlar 14 bidrag som behandlar föreställningar om den nordiska arbetarlitteraturen utifrån följande perspektiv:
arbetarlitterär tradition; genreproblem; reception, medier och offentlighet; genus och sexualitet; religion och existens. Medverkande: Beata Agrell, Christer Ekholm, Anna Forssberg, Anker Gemzøe, Christine Hamm, Carl-Eric Johansson, Bibi Jonsson, Ole Karlsen, Katarina Leppänen, Per-Olof Mattsson, Sandra Mischliwietz, Magnus Nilsson, Birthe Sjöberg och Anders Öhman
DEA-Based Incentive Regimes in Health-Care Provision
No full textA major challenge to legislators, insurance providers and municipalities will be how to manage the reimbursement of health-care on partially open markets under increasing fiscal pressure and an aging population. Although efficiency theoretically can be obtained by private solutions using fixed-payment schemes, the informational rents and production distortions may limit their implementation. The healthcare agency problem is characterized by (i) a complex multi-input multi-output technology, (ii) information uncertainty and asymmetry, and (iii) fuzzy social preferences. First, the technology, inherently nonlinear and with externalities between factors, yield parametric estimation difficult. However, the flexible production structure in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) offers a solution that allows for the gradual and successive refinement of potentially nonconvex technologies. Second, the information structure of healthcare suggests a context of considerable asymmetric information and considerable uncertainty about the underlying technology, but limited uncertainty or noise in the registration of the outcome. Again, we shall argue that the DEA dynamic yardsticks (Bogetoft, 1994, 1997, Agrell and Bogetoft, 2001) are suitable for such contexts. A third important characteristic of the health sector is the somewhat fuzzy social priorities and the numerous potential conflicts between the stakeholders in the health system. Social preferences are likely dynamic and contingent on the disclosed information. Similarly, there are several potential hidden action (moral hazard) and hidden information (adverse selection) conflicts between the different agents in the health system. The flexible and transparent response to preferential ambiguity is one of the strongest justifications for a DEA-approach. DEA yardstick regimes have been successfully implemented in other sectors (electricity distribution) and we present an
operalization of the power-parameter p in an pseudo-competitive setting that both limits the informational rents and incites the truthful revelation of information. Recent work (Agrell and Bogetoft, 2002) on strategic implementation of DEA yardsticks is commented in the healthcare context, where social priorities change the tradeoff between the motivation and coordination functions of the yardstick. The paper is closed with policy recommendations and some areas of further work
Rethinking Regulatory Capture
No full textConventional capture models rely on the idea that regulator is induced to lenient behavior by the regulated firm through offers of monetary transfers, the bribery model, or future employment, the revolving doors model. To avoid socially costly capture, the political principal should then either implement collusion-proof mechanisms through the delegation of welfare gains, or severely restrict the career paths of regulatory staff. The paradox of capture is that neither the two modes of capture, nor the remedy are commonly found in practice. This paper proposes to rethink capture based on the widespread use of industry-commissioned consultants, experts and lobbyists that produce information for regulatory and policy use. A small model (Agrell and Gautier, 2010) introduces a 'soft capture' concept based on a self-enforced collusion between the firm and regulator, linked to the role of the regulator as information-processing intermediate for the political principal. The firm puts processed but biased information at the free disposal of the regulator, 'no strings attached', who can then either use the submitted information or produce a more accurate information by a costly process. Under a set of mild conditions, the equilibrium involves soft capture and the regulator uses the submitted information, leading to some distortions in welfare. A case study of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in USA serves to motivate and illustrate the model. As shown by the case, the soft capture model may have a stronger positive potential than the conventional models, also implying that policy advice based on it may be valuable
DEA-Based Incentive Regimes in Health-Care Provision
No full textA major challenge to legislators, insurance providers and municipalities will be how to manage the reimbursement of health-care on partially open markets under increasing fiscal pressure and an aging population. Although efficiency theoretically can be obtained by private solutions using fixed-payment schemes, the informational rents and production distortions may limit their implementation. The healthcare agency problem is characterized by (i) a complex multi-input multi-output technology, (ii) information uncertainty and asymmetry, and (iii) fuzzy social preferences. First, the technology, inherently nonlinear and with externalities between factors, yield parametric estimation difficult. However, the flexible production structure in Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) offers a solution that allows for the gradual and successive refinement of potentially nonconvex technologies. Second, the information structure of healthcare suggests a context of considerable asymmetric information and considerable uncertainty about the underlying technology, but limited uncertainty or noise in the registration of the outcome. Again, we shall argue that the DEA dynamic yardsticks (Bogetoft, 1994, 1997, Agrell and Bogetoft, 2001) are suitable for such contexts. A third important characteristic of the health sector is the somewhat fuzzy social priorities and the numerous potential conflicts between the stakeholders in the health system. Social preferences are likely dynamic and contingent on the disclosed information. Similarly, there are several potential hidden action (moral hazard) and hidden information (adverse selection) conflicts between the different agents in the health system. The flexible and transparent response to preferential ambiguity is one of the strongest justifications for a DEA-approach. DEA yardstick regimes have been successfully implemented in other sectors (electricity distribution) and we present an operalization of the power-parameter p in an pseudo-competitive setting that both limits the informational rents and incites the truthful revelation of information. Recent work (Agrell and Bogetoft, 2002) on strategic implementation of DEA yardsticks is commented in the healthcare context, where social priorities change the tradeoff between the motivation and coordination functions of the yardstick. The paper is closed with policy recommendations and some areas of further work.Data Envelopment Analysis, regulation, health care systems, efficiency, Health Economics and Policy,
Harmonizing the Nordic Regulation of Electricity Distribution
No full textRegulators for electricity network infrastructure, such as electricity distribution system operations (DSO) face some particular challenges in the Nordic countries. Due to institutional, economic and historical reasons the DSOs in the Nordic area are relatively numerous and heterogeneous in terms of ownership structure, size and operating conditions. Since the deregulation in 1994-1999, the national regulators have independently devised regulation mechanisms that address the heterogeneity through econometric or engineering cost models as a basis for high- powered regimes. The frontier analysis models (such as Data Envelopment Analysis in e.g. Norway and Finland) are particularly useful here, given their incentive properties and cautious estimation of the production set. However, the total information rents in yardstick regimes and the bias in the frontier estimation are related to the number of observations (firms), which undermine their future application in the Nordic area under increasing interregional concentration. This paper develops a proposal for an alternative model, the revenue-yardstick model, that can be ap- plied across the national regulations and permit frontier estimations on final user cost rather than cost estimates, sensitive to e.g. capital cost estimates, periodisation and allocation keys. The core of the model is a dynamic frontier yardstick model such as Agrell, Bogetoft and Tind (2005), but here applied only to strictly exogenous conditions, the output dimensions and the claimed revenues of the DSO. An equilibrium is implemented using asymmetric penalties for positive and negative deviations from the ex post frontier revenue, the yardstick, using the classic superefficiency model in analogy with Shleifer (1985). The model is particularly aimed at an international (interregional) application as it may embed national differences in regulation without jeopardizing the long-term sustainability of the model
requirements' specifications for staffing in a network organization
No full textInternational audienceThe idea of a learning organization has become accepted as a generic concept and has grown into being a well-defined management domain (Senge 1994). The term learning organization has almost become a cliché. In this article, we try to provide concrete and specific an example of an application developed within a network based staffing firm. The idea of promoting generic competences and have those better described in CVs (Curriculum Vitae) and in requirement specifications were designed and tested in an earlier project for the Swedish Defence. (Agrell 2006) Feed-back from the contracting firm prompted us to engage in a much more thorough theoretical investigation. We have identified the following steps as necessary ones in the organization of staffing operations: o negotiate with international partners about the Swedish styles of leadership and organization, o match individual competences with described leadership styles, o model pre-requisite specifications for troop and personnel and express the requirements in adapted formats throughout the staffing process, o reach an adequate balance between immediately operational abilities and those to learn and/or adapt, o identify and recruit those who have potential to acquire abilities and attitudes in due time. The experience we have gained in the for specifying the types of factors to consider for staffing in a networked organization
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