Search

Mexico and China have used trade liberalization as a growing strategy. Trade liberalization has forced companies to prepare themselves for international competition, which does not always mean just and equitable trade. The textile industry--one of the most important economic branches worldwide--has been strongly impacted in terms of production, employment and sales. In Mexico, this industry ranked as the fourth most important manufacturing activity in 2011. It ranked first in employment generation and second in export activity. This work presents a situational analysis of both countries, with an emphasis on the state of Jalisco, and proposes a model for companies to develop competitive strategies that take into consideration every area of the organization in order to successfully compete with China's textile product industry in the current context as a member of the World Trading Organization (WTO). Keywords: Textile industry, Mexico--China's relationship, Competitive strategies., INTRODUCTION The textile industry is one of the main economic activities worldwide. In terms of trading, it represents 4% of worldwide exports. In Mexico, it represented the fourth most important [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2010.01.011 Byline: Carlos Pestana Barros (a), Milton Nektarios (b), A. Assaf (c) Keywords: Insurance; Greece; Productivity change; Bootstrapped DEA Abstract: This paper employs the two-stage procedure of to analyse the effects of deregulation on the efficiency of the Greek insurance industry. The efficiency is estimated by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA). The companies are ranked according to their CRS efficiency score for the period 1994-2003. The first stage results indicate a decline in efficiency over the sample period, while the second stage results confirm that the competition for market shares is a major driver of efficiency in the Greek insurance industry. Author Affiliation: (a) Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, Technical University of Lisbon, Rua Miguel Lupi, 20, 1249-078 Lisbon, Portugal (b) Dept. of Statistics and Insurance, University of Piraeus, Greece (c) Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA Article History: Received 24 July 2007; Accepted 7 January 2010

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5982.2010.01596.x Byline: Jean-Francois Wen (1), Lasheng Yuan (1) Keywords: H4; L1; L9 Abstract: Abstract. We examine restructuring, divestiture, and deregulation of a vertically integrated public utility, (e.g., electricity), from a public finance perspective. How an optimal restructuring plan for the utility depends on the cost of public funds and on the X-efficiency gains from privatization, how the optimal degree of competition in the upstream and downstream segments are connected, and implications of privatization for consumer prices are examined. The higher the cost of public funds, the more likely the post-privatization price will exceed the regulated public utility price. The greater the X-efficiency gains from privatization, the more likely the post-privatization price will fall. Abstract (Spanish): Privatisation optimale dans un service public verticalement integre. Ce texte examine la restructuration, le desaississement et la dereglementation d'un service public integre verticalement (comme par exemple l'industrie de l'electricite), du point de vue des finances publiques. On montre qu'un plan optimal de restructuration depend du cout des fonds publics et des gains en efficacite de type X qui emergent de la privatisation, ainsi que du degre optimal de concurrence dans les segments en amont et en aval. On examine aussi les implications de la privatisation sur les prix aux consommateurs. Plus les couts des fonds publics sont eleves, plus il y a de chance que les prix apres la privatisation vont exceder les prix du service public reglemente. Plus les gains en efficacite de type X sont importants comme resultat de la privatisation, plus il y a de chance que le prix post-privatisation tombe. Author Affiliation: (1)Department of Economics, University of Calgary

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2009.01.046 Byline: Stefan Bock Keywords: Transportation; Real-time control; Multiple transshipment Abstract: Western European freight forwarders are continually being forced to increase the efficiency of their transportation processes because of the liberalization and deregulation of the European transport market. This paper proposes a new real-time-oriented control approach in order to expand load consolidation, reduce empty vehicle trips, and handle dynamic disturbances. This approach integrates multimodal transportation and multiple transshipments for the first time. Thus, it enables the flexible generation and adaptation of transportation processes. In order to be able to handle occurring disturbances, an optimization procedure that adapts the transportation processes is continually applied. Vehicle breakdowns or deceleration of vehicles, traffic congestion, and street blockages are integrated as possible disturbance scenarios. At the same time, dynamically incoming transportation requests are also dealt with. Moreover, cooperative agreements between freight forwarders, which are gaining increasing importance, are integrated by mapping hubs and external services. The efficiency of the new real-time approach is validated by several computational experiments. In particular, the use of the entire execution time for plan adaptation as well as the integration of multiple transshipments has shown promising results. Author Affiliation: Institute of Business Computing and Operations Research, University of Wuppertal, 42097 Wuppertal, Germany Article History: Received 4 September 2007

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2008.02.010 Byline: Aiying Rong (a), Risto Lahdelma (b), Martin Grunow (a) Keywords: Combined heat and power production; Unit commitment; Energy optimization; Unit decommitment; Deregulated power market Abstract: This paper addresses the unit commitment in multi-period combined heat and power (CHP) production planning, considering the possibility to trade power on the spot market. In CHP plants (units), generation of heat and power follows joint characteristics, which means that production planning for both heat and power must be done in coordination. We present an improved unit decommitment (IUD) algorithm that starts with an improved initial solution with less heat surplus so that the relative cost-efficiency of the plants can be determined more accurately. Then the subsequent decommitment procedures can decommit (switch off) the least cost-efficient plants properly. The improved initial solution for the committed plants is generated by a heuristic procedure. The heuristic procedure utilizes both the Lagrangian relaxation principle that relaxes the system-wide (heat and power) demand constraints and a linear relaxation of the ON/OFF states of the plants. We compare the IUD algorithm with realistic test data against a generic unit decommitment (UD) algorithm. Numerical results show that IUD is an overall improvement of UD. The solution quality of IUD is better than that of UD for almost all of tested cases. The maximum improvement is 11.3% and the maximum degradation is only 0.04% (only two sub-cases out of 216 sub-cases) with an average improvement of 0.3-0.5% for different planning horizons. Moreover, IUD is more efficient (1.1-3 times faster on average) than UD. Author Affiliation: (a) Technical University of Denmark, Department of Management Engineering, Produktionstorvet 425, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby (Copenhagen), Denmark (b) University of Turku, Department of Information Technology, Joukahaisenkatu 3, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland Article History: Received 28 June 2007; Accepted 12 February 2008

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0307-3378.2008.00277.x Byline: Michelle C. Baddeley (*) Keywords: computerization; financial deregulation; structural shift; unemployment Abstract: ABSTRACT This paper analyses UK unemployment in the period 1979-2005. Structural breaks are identified endogenously and they coincide with key institutional changes associated with financial deregulation and computerization in the New Economy. A vector error correction model is estimated and it confirms that computerization and financial deregulation have had counteracting impacts on UK unemployment. The results are consistent with three hypotheses: technological advances associated with computerization have moderated inflationary struggles between firms and insiders by increasing total factor productivity; financial deregulation has generated financial fragility fostering rises in unemployment; financial deregulation and computerization together have been associated with shifts from manufacturing towards services, fostering structural unemployment. Author Affiliation: (*)Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK Article note: Correspondence: Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TA, UK. Tel: +44 1223 332497; Fax: +44 1223 332456; Email: mb150@cam.ac.uk.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2005.11.025 Byline: Youdi Schipper, Peter Nijkamp, Piet Rietveld Keywords: Game theory; Transportation; Airlines; Frequency; Deregulation Abstract: This paper models airline competition as a two-stage game in frequency and prices, allowing for asymmetric frequency equilibria. The approach follows the spatial multiproduct oligopoly literature. The dynamic structure gives airlines an incentive to choose asymmetric frequency equilibria such that price competition is reduced. This feature is most pronounced in the case of inelastic demand, for which a maximum differentiation result is derived. We apply the model in a simulation study of airline deregulation of the Amsterdam -- Maastricht market in The Netherlands, calculating welfare effects for various types of post-deregulation entry. Author Affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands Article History: Received 6 October 2003; Accepted 30 November 2005

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2005.09.009 Byline: Aiying Rong, Risto Lahdelma Keywords: Linear programming; Envelope; Combined heat and power production; Deregulated power market; Energy optimization Abstract: Combined heat and power (CHP) production is an important energy production technology that can yield much higher total energy efficiency than separate heat and power generation. In CHP production, the heat and power production follows a joint characteristic, which means that the production planning must be done in coordination. Cost-efficient operation of a CHP system can be planned by using an optimization model. A long-term planning model decomposes into thousands of hourly models. Earlier, in the regulated electric power market, the planning problem was symmetrically driven by heat and power demand. The liberalization of the power market has created an asymmetrical planning problem, where heat production responds to the demand and power production to the volatile market price. In this paper, we utilize this asymmetry to develop novel envelope-based dual algorithms for solving the hourly CHP models efficiently. The basic idea is to transform the three-dimensional characteristic operating region for heat and power production of each CHP plant into a two-dimensional envelope by taking the power price as a parameter. Then the envelopes of each plant are used for looking up the optimal solution rapidly. We propose two versions of the algorithm: the on-line envelope construction algorithm (ECON) where the envelopes are constructed for each hour based on the power price and the off-line envelope construction algorithm (ECOFF) where envelopes are pre-computed for all different power price ranges. We derive the theoretical time complexity of the two algorithms and compare their performance empirically with realistic test models against the ILOG CPLEX solver and the Power Simplex (PS) algorithm. PS is an extremely efficient specialized primal algorithm developed for the symmetrical CHP planning problem under the regulated market. On average, when reusing previous basic solutions, ECON is 603 times faster than CPLEX and 1.3 times faster than PS. ECOFF is 1860 times faster than CPLEX and four times faster than PS. Author Affiliation: Department of Information Technology, University of Turku, Lemminkaisenkatu 14 A, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland Article History: Received 28 July 2004; Accepted 7 September 2005

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2005.06.006 Byline: Pehr-Johan Norback, Lars Persson Abstract: This paper determines the equilibrium ownership structure in an emerging market deregulated by a joint privatization and investment liberalization. It is shown that bidding competition in the privatization stage is not sufficient for reaching an efficient equilibrium market structure. Competition in the ensuing entry stage is also required. Otherwise, one firm can induce another to take the role of the weak firm in the subsequent product market competition, by making concessions in the bidding in the privatization auction. It is also shown that Employment Guarantees may 'help' the buyer of the privatized firm 'abstain' from investing and thus create a less competitive market structure. Author Affiliation: Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Sweden Article History: Received 27 October 2003; Accepted 21 June 2005

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2005.01.020 Byline: Simo Makkonen (a), Risto Lahdelma (b) Keywords: Energy management; Deregulation; Energy market; Optimisation; Mixed integer programming Abstract: The European electricity market has been deregulated recently. This means that energy companies must optimise power generation considering the rapidly fluctuating price on the spot market. Optimisation has also become more difficult. New production technologies, such as gas turbines (GT), combined heat and power generation (CHP), and combined steam and gas cycles (CSG) require non-convex models. Risk analysis through stochastic simulation requires solving a large number of models rapidly. These factors have created a need for more versatile and efficient decision-support tools for energy companies. We formulate the decision-problem of a power company as a large mixed integer programming (MIP) model. To make the model manageable we compose the model hierarchically from modular components. To speed up the optimisation procedure, we decompose the problem into hourly sub-problems, and develop a customised Branch-and-Bound algorithm for solving the sub-problems efficiently. We demonstrate the use of the model with a real-life application. Author Affiliation: (a) Process Vision Ltd, Melkonkatu 18, FIN-00210 Helsinki, Finland (b) University of Turku, Department of Information Technology, Lemminkaisenkatu 14 A, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2005.06.007 Byline: Simon Koolen Keywords: Highly dynamic markets; RBV; Monti; Deregulation in the European automative industry Abstract: In 2002 Mario Monti, the European Competition Commissioner (in the period 1999-2004), concluded that there was not enough competition in the European market for the distribution of cars and spare parts. Consumers were not getting enough benefit from the internal European market. Now that deregulation has come into effect, the dynamics in the sales and servicing markets have increased. Due to these changes, market players in the brand distribution chain face a lot of uncertainty and competitive complexity. This article describes: 1) the key issues arising from Monti's regulation; 2) the effects on market dynamics; and 3) the main strategic implications for an importer of cars and parts in The Netherlands, particularly in its relationship with its dealers. Using the Theory of Dynamic Capabilities, this article shows that continuously building on new knowledge, the proactive development of new concepts in pilot environments, and building strong relationships with players in a broader automotive environment, are key success factors in maintaining the competitive advantage in highly dynamic markets. Author Affiliation: Automotive dealer/Consultant, The Netherlands

This paper analyses the effects of trade liberalisation on the location of manufacturing firms that are vertically linked and differ in factor intensities. I extend the new economic geography literature, by embedding a model with vertical linkages within a Heckscher-Ohlin framework. I show that lower trade costs can lead to an agglomeration of all upstream and downstream firms in one country, even when they differ in factor intensities. These industrial location patterns do not always lead to factor price convergence; and may result in an increase in returns to both factors in the country where the agglomeration locates. JEL classification: F10; F12; F15 Keywords: Agglomeration; Fragmentation; Trade liberalisation; Vertical links