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The purpose of this work is to use information technology to help management decisions. The crux of the problem is the choice of suppliers of materials and components for mechanical engineering companies. Periodically, in the procurement process, suppliers should be assessed on a number of criteria. The importance of rating is due to the fact that in today's market there are a large number of suppliers of the same material resources. Purchase is made from the most competitive suppliers, constantly confirming their status as a reliable business partner. The company developed a method of evaluating suppliers based on the system of management of the bases of the bath Microsoft Office Access. MS Access works in the Windows operating environment and allows users to organize a local database (DB). The local Access database has its own tables, forms, reports and other DB facilities of the organization with a relatively small amount of data. With the help of the scoring method, suppliers are ranked by their level of reliability. The relationship is terminated with a supplier that does not meet the required level of reliability. In this way, management solutions for logistics of supply receive a tool to hang the efficiency and get good results of the enterprise, to achieve its market stability.

The orderly release of electricity plan is an important measure for China’s electricity market reform which also lead to excessive pressure for coal power units caused by the low planned electricity quantity. Allowing high-priced units to participate in the market can effectively alleviate the market pressure. However, the participation of high-priced units in electricity market will have an impact on the declaration behavior of other generators. In this context, an evolutionary game model of bidding for two groups of generators considering the market liberalizing degree (MLD) is proposed. Above all, the profit model of two kinds of generators is proposed under two bidding strategies considering the MLD. On this basis, an evolutionary game model of generators’ bidding is built to qualitatively analyze the market equilibrium solution which is affected by the MLD coefficient. Thus, the expected evolutionary stable equilibrium of bidding can be formed spontaneously in electricity market by adjusting the MLD coefficient. The case studies are performed for demonstrating the proposed evolutionary game model of generators’ bidding, and simulation results show that different MLD and the initial state of bidding behavior of generators will influence the final evolutionary stable equilibrium of bidding market, and it also shown that the government can make the electricity market develop towards​ the expected state by adjusting MLD and supervising the bidding behavior of generators.

This review begins with a discussion of the general properties of gelatin and its sources, particularly in the food and health industries, and then briefly address the status quo of gelatin in today's market. Apart from the basic chemical compounds and gelatin types, this paper also discussed the commercialisation of gelatin. This study also highlights the production of conventional gelatin and its current method of processing, i.e. enzymatic hydrolysis. In addition, the variety of raw materials of collagen is outlined and briefly broached the plant hydrocolloids which have been labeled as 'veggie-gelatin'. With regard to the potential and market stability of gelatin, its recent studies are summarised in this paper. Accordingly, this paper focuses on assessing the general utilities of the various sources of collagen as gelatin derivatives. At that basis, the aim of this review is to provide an insight into gelatin in current applications, market value and progress in gelatin extraction.

There are limitations in the understandings of investors’ overreaction to the volatility in less transparent industrial sectors. Investors investing in a less transparent sector are likely to over-interpret available market information. This article compares investors’ reaction to market shocks across different industrial sectors, through analyzing the information content in implied volatility using financial derivatives of individual companies in Singapore. Investors in the less transparent property and financial service sector are found to overreact on market shocks, further destabilizing the market. The findings imply that regulatory measures that increase the level of transparency could aid the stabilization of markets. JEL Classification: G13, G14, G18

We explore the link between mutual funds and fragility risk in the corporate bond market. We classify a fund’s trading style based on its responses to signals of large dealer inventories. Trading style is persistent and the majority of funds demand liquidity. Notably, a subset of funds earn positive alpha by intentionally supplying liquidity during periods of sustained customer selling (with transitory price effects). Liquidity-supplying funds maintain their relative trading style when facing large outflows and elevated market stress, thus alleviating fragility risk. Our results add nuance to existing evidence that mutual funds pose a threat to market stability.

Today, the competitiveness and image of an organization at the core market depends on the professional level of its employees. A senior manager as an employer chooses the most active methods of attracting the best professionals to his team using innovative technologies for working with the staff and candidates for positions. An instrument of this new approach to personnel management is branding policy, which implementation is carried out through the formation of which organization’s HR-brand at the labor market.Aim. To study the theoretical substantiation of the essence of the category “HR-brand” and the determination of its attractiveness for employees of pharmaceutical companies.Results. The article analyzes the concept of the “employer brand” and describes the components of the organization’s HR brand. The theoretical analysis conducted allows us to form a fairly complete understanding of the “HR-brand” concept, which is relatively new for the Ukrainian organizations. The article also analyzes the importance of the HR brand for pharmaceutical organizations and reflects the views of specialists from production plants, wholesalers and the pharmacy sector regarding the level of implementation of branding policies and the structure of the ideal employer offer. The results of expert assessment of the factors affecting the formation of the HR brand of a pharmaceutical organization are given.Conclusions. Thus, in order to create an effective staffing in pharmaceutical organizations it is necessary to implement a branding policy, which is based on the formation of the HR-brand of the employer at the labor market. This will enable enterprises in the manufacturing, wholesale and retail sectors to attract the best talented employees, who will significantly enhance their competitiveness and market stability.

There is an active search for ways and mechanisms to upgrade the agrarian economy in the Republic of Belarus and increase its efficiency in conditions of stiffen market situation, but no efficient mechanisms have yet been found. In this regard, we’ve carried out systematic research and prepared a research papers that answer many questions regarding raising the agricultural economy and market challenges. We believe that it can become the basis for accepting specific recommendations. Conditions forming market stability and determining an enterprise’s strategy are determined during the research. A range of factors have been identified. Implementation of these factors will mobilize the entire arrangement and production system and the practice of management to achieve targeted economic and financial results, especially for profitability and profit. The first part of the paper defines the role, functions and significance of such fundamental factors of efficient agriculture management as intensification, concentration, specialization and distribution of production facilities.

Paddy rice is one of the most important crops to offer daily food for human beings and has a strong influence on food security and market stability. Therefore, it is of significance to obtain first-hand information related to rice such as rice planting extent. In order to timely and accurately obtain the spatial distribution and temporal variations of rice plants, remote sensing techniques have been introduced and applied to achieve this goal, among which the phenological method is unsupervised and can be used to automatically extract rice. However, the phenological methods are strongly dependent on the weather conditions, and the resultant extraction results might be damaged or incomplete. Additionally, the machine learning-based methods are less influenced by the weather contaminations but are restricted by the availability of training samples. In consideration of the challenges of each approach, this study combines these two approaches to extract rice by using the initial phenology-based rice samples as the training samples of machine learning models, thus obtaining more complete results and high accuracy. This strategy is tested in the Central Valley of California, USA, one of the main rice-producing areas in the United States, and is compared with the rice maps derived from Cropland Data Layer (CDL) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The results show that through the incorporation of the phenology- and machine learning-based methods, the derived rice maps present high consistency with the CDL-rice map, and high accuracy is achieved in terms of OA and Kappa values reaching up to 0.96 and 0.86 respectively, while the purely phenology-based rice map shows great misclassifications thus leading to a sharp decrease in the Kappa value (0.49). This comparison proves the effectiveness of this strategy. The satisfactory results in this study show the possibility of extending this strategy to other regions for rice mapping.

International audience; In October 2015 the European Parliament has established a Market Stability Reserve (MSR) in the Phase 4 of the EU-ETS, as part of the 2030 framework for climate policies. In this paper we model the EU-ETS in presence of the Market Stability Reserve (MSR) as it is defined by that decision and investigate the impact that such a measure has in terms of permits price, output production and banking strategies. To do so we build an inter-temporal model in which polluting firms competing in an homogeneous good market are price takers in a permits market and face an uncertain demand. Our main finding is that the MSR succeeds in increasing the permits' price correcting an excess supply (and conversely decreasing it in case of excess demand). However, when the output demand is stochastic, the MSR may alter the arbitrage conditions that determine permits' prices. In some cases which depend on the extend of the demand variation, unintended effects on the price pattern appear. This in turns may adversely affect welfare.

Applying a principal-agent perspective on trilogue negotiations, this article examines how the rapporteur and the Presidency, as agents of respectively the European Parliament and the Council, are able to reach a deal with their fellow agent while avoiding an involuntary defection among their principals. Despite these intra- and inter-institutional constraints, early agreements can be concluded because agents execute two parallel tasks on behalf of their principals: representing them inter-institutionally and acting as the deal-facilitator intra-institutionally. We identify three ways in which the agents can combine these two acts of delegation and conclude an early agreement: (1) creating a tied-hand situation for themselves; (2) affecting the intra-institutional coalition formation by bringing in allies from the other institution; and (3) actively searching for signals from the principals and the fellow agent on the zone of possible agreement. We illustrate these dynamics through a case study of the policy-making process on the 2015 Decision on the Market Stability Reserve.

Because of their size, Institutional Investors have significant influence over financial systems. In this paper, I look at how institutional investors’ actions can significantly affect market stability. We first look at investment bank, Lehman Brothers and how its actions during the Great Recession rippled through the larger American and European financial system. We then follow Lehman by charting the various ways institutional investors can and do hold sway over a company and its decisions.

The most important direction in the development and implementation of the financial policy of the enterprise is the management of current assets. In the scientific article the conceptual approach based on the theoretical and methodological essence of current assets, which allowed to identify three main directions of management impacts, is proposed and substantiated. Application of conceptual provisions of current assets management is tested on practical data of agricultural enterprises of the agroindustrial complex of the Leningrad region. The use of the proposed approach will allow for quality monitoring of the state and use of the most important components of current assets, to control the provision of the enterprise with inventories, biological and financial assets, to monitor changes in the composition of liquid assets to ensure the market stability of the enterprise.

In response to recent reports by influential financial regulatory bodies the article aims, firstly, to outline the financial, operational and systemic risks affecting the stability of virtual asset trading platforms. It highlights risk management techniques which can be used to mitigate against them. Some of these risks are applicable to trading platforms in general and some are unique to blockchain technology. Secondly, it makes the case for international self-regulation by virtual asset trading platforms, and outlines the measures which platforms can adopt in order to build market stability and enhance client security. It argues that self-regulation can align platform and client interests, reduce systemic risk in the virtual assets market and act as a viable alternative to regulation from national or international bodies.

The scenario of the banking sector is articulated by the theoretical background backed up by practical evidences relying on panel data of thirty-two (32) commercial banks for the period of 2006-2016. The study addressed the problem of endogeneity, heterokedasticity and auto-correlation by selecting the two-stage-least-square (2SLS) method in data analysis. In fact, the study explores its area of concentration in the banking sector and developed models based on bank risk, disclosures, and corporate governance in the developing country context. It is true that good governance can ensure bank transparency and market stability. The study revealed that banks disclosures and corporate governance have a significant effect on bank risk-taking behavior and also found a reciprocal effect in the case of disclosure model and governance model.

In the green agricultural supply chain, the farmers who are at the top of the supply chain receive low income, and consumers who are at the end of the supply chain pay agricultural products with high prices for the lengthy intermediate links. In view of this phenomenon, this paper assumes that farmers provide the green agricultural products to consumers directly. We define a new parameter: brand grade coefficient and conduct the dynamic analysis of the evolution of the game between the farmers, the government and the consumers. We assign the parameters and then analyze the dynamic graph of evolutionary game under different initial strategies drawn with MATLAB. Finally, we conclude the final evolution trend of the three-dimensional evolutionary game. That is, the role of the government in the market slowly fades finally and the stability of the market mainly relies on the participation of consumers in the market and the game between consumers and farmers. The results indicate that consumers who take the initiative to participate in the market have a certain degree of substitution to supervision of the role of government regulators. Strengthening the consumer to participate in the market is conducive to maintaining market stability.

We investigate whether there are any identifiable differences in market perceptions of rating news released by Moody's, S&P and Fitch following the establishment of a new regulatory regime in July 2011, when the European Securities and Markets Authority assumed responsibility for rating agencies' regulation in Europe. We focus the analysis on the impact of bank rating actions on stock returns and volatility during 2008–2013. Among the intended effects of the new regulatory regime are higher rating quality and enhanced market stability, yet we find very mixed evidence. Many differentials in market responses across CRAs are identified, which mean that a consistent effect of the new regulatory regime is not discernible.

FinTech is a new part of the financial industry that is radically innovating the way financial services are built and offered. In this paper, we analyse FinTech characteristics, their activities and related risks, highlighting analogies and differences in the activities performed by the financial intermediaries and the financial markets that are subject to specific regulation. In general, the study underlines the opportunity to pursue an effective balance between the urge to stimulate innovation and competition in the financial markets to bring benefits to the customers, on the one hand, and the need to ensure market stability both at micro and macro-level, transparency and fairness towards customers, as well as the prevention of unlawful activities, on the other hand. Additionally, the paper provides an overview of the main strategies that incumbents are following in the new market conditions.

Fresh-cut and ready to eat products are gaining market shares over fruits and vegetables. Dining habits and cooking time are changing over time and life styles are modifying the food preparation and the time used for eating. In the meanwhile, prices could be playing an important role in the substitution between fresh products and ready-to-eat alternatives. Therefore, the present paper tests the following hypotheses: - measuring the direct price effect on ready-to-eat and fresh cut product in order to verify market stability and price war probability; - measuring the substitution effect between fresh and ready-to-eat categories; The hypotheses have been verified throughout the estimation of a la/aids model that considers a system of 10 equations. The data used for the analysis have been collected by iri-Infoscan and represent the total Italian grocery sales for the years 2008-2010. Results provide evidence that the market is price sensitive and that substitution effect is negligible. Therefore, past, present and future evolutions of fresh-cut and ready-to-eat products should be attributed to price wars. Promotional activities, private label strategies and other price reduction strategies could be winning strategies in order to gain market shares within fruits and vegetable market.

As the privatized foodgrain management agency, BERNAS plays its roles in supporting and complementing the national food security policy of Malaysia. These include: (1) promoting market stability and thereby stabilizing rice prices, making them affordable to the consumers; (2) ensuring sufficient supply of rice of various grades and qualities anywhere in the country, making rice easily accessible to all; and (3) supporting the sustainability of domestic rice production which is deemed important to the national food security. These roles have established BERNAS as a ?rice institution? rather than a ?rice shop? whereby its main function is not to compete with other players in the market, but to make sure that all players in the industry would have sufficient margin to enable them to continue with their respective businesses. In doing so, BERNAS serves the interests of all stakeholders in the paddy and rice industry, including farmers, industry players, consumers, government and the nation as a whole. Due to these roles, BERNAS always has to balance between its commercial interest, since it must make reasonable profit in order to survive, and the interest of the nation as a whole. It is a delicate task in ensuring the confidence of the public and various stakeholders.

Durante las dos últimas décadas se ha observado preocupación de organizaciones para lograr competitividad y obtener estabilidad en el mercado, impulsándolas a analizar ventajas de ir a un futuro deseado, haciendo uso de herramientas como los estudios prospectivos. Con el fin de optimizar la aplicación de estudios prospectivos, se han desarrollado herramientas de apoyo que aún no abarcan ciertos intereses de los involucrados como el uso de recursos económicos, ambientales, tecnológicos y humanos. Para suplir la necesidad encontrada, se planteó un software que contribuya al acompañamiento de estudios prospectivos apoyándose de tecnologías Web 2.0 independientemente de técnicas utilizadas por la persona guía del mismo, para lograr racionalizar recursos aprovechando las ventajas que ofrece la web. La investigación permitió concluir que los estudios prospectivos constituyen una alternativa viable para las organizaciones que desean planificar para alcanzar sus objetivos empresariales. Sin embargo, el intento de lograr el futuro deseable traería una serie de costos, que se incrementarán cuando la aplicación de estos estudios se lleve a cabo al margen de las herramientas, software y modelos adecuados. Por esta razón, el hombre debe emplear herramientas tecnológicas que combinen métodos, software, capacidad colaborativa y de integración como la ofrecida por la Web 2.0 para optimizar sus procesos y permitir así, que áreas como la prospectiva, alcancen un alto nivel de eficiencia y masificación

The deregulation of many electricity markets over the last two decades raises a number of issues, among which: securing adequate investments in capacity, and the possibility of cyclical behavior in capacity, are important for security of supply. A number of policies and market mechanisms aiming for capacity adequacy and market stability exist; in this paper we focus on one of these, mothballing of generation capacity. In electricity markets, mothballing is the possibility for a power generation company to temporarily withdraw generation capacity for a time, often for a year or more. Our hypothesis is that mothballing will help to stabilize markets, but at the same time increase prices. We test this hypothesis using laboratory experiments, with a simplified model of a generic electricity market. We report an experiment with twelve markets, where subjects make investment decisions; half of them had full capacity utilization (T1) and the other half had the option to mothball capacity (T2). The predictions of the effects of mothballing were confirmed in the experimental markets: prices and generation capacity exhibit clear cycles in T1, and damped cycles in the second set of experiments, T2. Furthermore, mothballing leads to higher prices on average.

Often, novel gene and cell therapies provide hope for many people living with incurable diseases. To facilitate and accelerate a successful regulatory approval and commercialization path for effective, safe and affordable cell and gene therapies, the involvement of patient advocacy groups (PAGs) should be considered early in the development process. This report provides a thorough overview of the various roles PAGs play in the clinical translation of cell and gene therapies and how they can bring about positive changes in the regulatory process, infrastructure improvements and market stability.

This paper analyzes characteristics and changing phenomenon of Chonsei & monthly rental real estate market based on a survey of participants. The frequency analysis, mean analysis, and cross-table analysis was utilized for this study, and a survey for 2,000 rental market participants was accomplished. The survey result of tenants and land-owners regarding the Chonsei market stability indicates the expansion of public housing supply is needed together with lowering of mortgage related restrictions. The major conclusions include that the expansion of public housing and rental supports for low-income families are needed, due to the population structural change and an aging society. In addition, survey result suggests the tenants require the expansion of public housing supply for the residence stability.

Firm size is found to affect strategic decisions significantly, whereas technology and market stability stimulate product development and innovation.

The presence of sequences of top and bottom (TB) events in financial series is investigated for the purpose of characterizing such switching points. They clearly mark a change in the trend of rising or falling prices of assets to the opposite tendency, are of crucial importance for the players’ decision and also for the market stability. Previous attempts to characterize switching points have been based on the behavior of the volatility and on the definition of microtrends. The approach used herein is based on the smoothing of the original data with a Gaussian kernel. The events are identified by the magnitude of the difference of the extreme prices, by the time lag between the corresponding events (waiting time), and by the time interval between events with a minimal magnitude (return time). Results from the analysis of the inter day Dow Jones Industrial Average index (DJIA) from 1928 to 2011 are discussed. q -Gaussian functions with power law tails are found to provide a very accurate description of a class of measures obtained from the series statistics.

The paper examines the factors that lead farmers to participate in c the contract farming in the Peninsular Malaysia. The primary data was collected through a survey using a questionnaire on the total of two hundred and eight farmers from various states in Malaysia. The study utilizes the stratified sampling method. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The survey identified forty-one contract farmers. Factor analysis was carried out to identify the factors that lead farmers to participate in the contract farming. Based on the analysis, five factors were identified as the reasons for contracting, namely, market stability, and access to marketing information and technology, transfer of technology to improve farming practices, access to inputs and indirect benefit. Contract farming or contract arrangements can be a valuable source of an additional income and knowledge that can be employed to enhance the productivity of the entire farming enterprise.

Uncertain economic times have substantial impact on global markets. With economic recessions come drastic changes in business dynamics. This paper explores the effect of economic recessions on market stability and delineates practical aspects of innovation that can be effectively utilized to boost economic sustainable development and combat downturns. The paper also presents operational strategies for organizations across industries and in telecommunications industry in specific. The findings described in this paper stem from the innovation theory and the value chain framework, and are based on modeling the best practices that can be used by organizations to not only survive, but also thrive in turbulent times.

Fishery products represent one alternative to improve nutrition levels for low-income consumers. Governments and aid organizations in Less Developed Countries often attempt to help low-income consumers and simultaneously to improve fishery marketing operations. Increased market stability beneficial to sellers and/or high-income consumers of fishery products may have serious distributional consequences in an equity context which completely eliminate low-income consumers from purchasing products. Aquacultural alternatives are discussed as means to satisfy low-income demands and raise incomes of sellers of fishery products.

Models of social networks depict individuals’ dependency. They offer a systematic way to capture the connectedness and opinion formations in the complex web of interpersonal influences. This paper studies price stability of a capital market, where the dynamics of participants’ opinion formations is formalized using social network models. Stability condition is derived. It is also identified how network structures are important in communications and in determining market stability. It is found that factors of highly-connected networks and balanced weight allocation on information sources can in fact be stabilizing. In applications, this study supports the view that the key to reduce the volatility behaviour of emerging-market securities lies in the development of an efficient investor base. It is suggested that one way to achieve this is by broadening and diversifying both the international and domestic investor categories for the underlying market.

We analyze incentives to invest in renewable energy technologies induced by the overlap of two types of policies: feed-in schemes and carbon mitigation instruments. We find that results differ markedly depending on the specific types of policies in place, reflecting different impacts of uncertainty. As a result, the recent reform to the EU-ETS system that has established the Market Stability Reserve (MSR), effective in 2019, requires to appropriately fine-tune the direct RES-E support schemes. We show that this may involve moving away from feed-in tariffs towards feed-in premia. Our results suggest that the schemes currently adopted in Germany and in Italy, broadly based on feed-in premia for large generators and on feed-in tariffs for the small ones, could well fit also the post-MSR EU carbon mitigation policy. To the contrary, other countries (e.g. France and the U.K.) may have to modify their support schemes as the MSR will become operational.

This chapter uses comparative law analysis to examine the systems and processes of post-trading infrastructure – clearing and settlement – in the UK and Taiwan. Its purpose is to identify the differences in the operating models, the governance and the regulatory thinking behind them. Taiwan clearly shows its cautious approach to post-trading infrastructure which is evidenced in its vertical silo system and in its direct and transparency holding system. However, Taiwan does not provide clear legal rules dealing with insolvency risk and settlement finality. It is also not clear why Taiwan does not follow the ‘place of the relevant intermediary approach’ (hereinafter ‘PRIMA’). It is argued that Taiwan can learn from the UK’s non-vertical silo model to increase innovation. Taiwan could also adopt the trust and non-transparency indirect holding system to increase investor protection and settlement finality to increase legal certainty.

Direct payments are high on the agenda for social care with the government keen to radically increase the number of people accessing user-controlled support. Making this a reality presents local authority commissioners with a number of challenges: balancing the required financial flexibility whilst ensuring market stability; planning for the whole community; greater partnership working; developing a new workforce of personal assistants and working with a remodelled social work role. This paper looks at the background to direct payments and considers these challenges.

A special safeguard mechanism is an attractive policy tool for low-income importing countries because it is automatic and does not require an injury test. Exporters might accept a safeguard for low-income countries if it results in larger tariff cuts than in its absence. The effects of a special safeguard mechanism on market stability and welfare are evaluated using wheat as a case study. The results show that a safeguard mechanism is not very trade distorting. Almost 80% of the increase in world welfare is still realized when low-income countries are granted a safeguard mechanism. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Breakdown of a company is examined and the concept of its stability is given. A system of indexes for characterizing the market position of an enterprise in the chemical industry and predicting its dynamics is proposed. An integral index can be an effective tool in the hands of managers in making managerial decisions related to effectively reacting to changes in the company's market position.

The discussion around the role of nonbanks and their impact on financial stability is a healthy development. However, the author believes the current debate is filled with a number of misconceptions and omissions that detract from the goals of enhancing market stability and economic growth called for in the Dodd Frank Act. Moreover, the lack of a consistent market framework that is publicly articulated by regulators limits the ability of investors and consumers to better understand the risks in nonbank business models. Regulators in the U.S. and other nations have been focused on the growth of nonbanks as an area of future risk. Regulators and investors need to be more careful in parsing the risks posed by different categories of nonbank entities. Investors, regulators and policy makers need to be more aware of the different types of business models in the nonbank universe and the types of risks they pose, and fashion public policy accordingly.

Editor’s Note: A hypertext-enhanced version of this article can be found at http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0208/Urbance0208.html Due to increasing energy and environmental concerns automakers have recently become more interested in lightweight alternatives to traditional component designs. Magnesium, the lightest standard engineering metal, has often been cited as showing potential in the automotive world, but has been resisted by automakers due to high prices and limited availability. Small production resources of magnesium limit the potential of magnesium in the automotive arena if growth in interest leads to material shortages and price volatility. To investigate the dynamics of the magnesium market, a system dynamics simulation model of the market was created. The model, which simulates supply, demand, and price interactions, was used to investigate market stability strategies that will benefi t all market players.

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), as implemented, has introduced uncertainty into US ethanol producers and the supporting commodity market. First, the fixed mandate for what is mainly cornstarch-based ethanol has increased feedstock price volatility and exerts a general effect across the agricultural sector. Second, the large discrepancy between the original Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) intentions and the actual RFS2 implementation for some fuel classes has increased the investment uncertainty facing investors in biofuel production, distribution, and consumption. Here we discuss and analyze the sources of uncertainty and evaluate the effect of potential RFS2 adjustments as they influence these uncertainties. This includes the use of a flexible, production dependent mandate on corn starch ethanol. We find that a flexible mandate on cornstarch ethanol relaxed during drought could significantly reduce commodity price spikes and alleviate the decline of livestock production in cases of feedstock production shortfalls, but it would increase the risk for ethanol investors.

International wholesale financial markets have long been used to exploiting the cutting edge of technology to find more efficient ways of doing business. But now new electronic technologies are changing the structure and dynamics of markets themselves as seldom before, and the rate of change is increasing. To enable financial markets and the investors and entrepreneurs who use them to obtain maximum benefit, governments and regulators need to be careful not to constrain these developments by reference to traditional structures and standards which may no longer be appropriate. They should instead embrace the benefits which change brings, and radically re‐examine legal and regulatory frameworks in the light of the evolving landscape of opportunity and risk. This re‐analysis should take into account that the transparency and competitiveness of e‐commerce is bringing about a new alignment between investor protection, market stability and commercial advantage. Policy should be developed in partnership with users of the markets. The authorities will also need to take into account how new technologies are, as never before, globalising world markets — competitive advantage will go to wherever the most market‐friendly equilibrium is struck and maintained between commercial freedom and regulation.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to examine the impact of mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on the informational efficiency, market stability, and price adjustment of underlying stocks in Europe.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines 1,187 stocks from 20 European countries to assess the impact of the mandatory adoption of IFRS on certain aspects of the market quality of the adopting firms.FindingsThe observed decrease in the first order autocorrelation and the permanent component of the conditional variance indicates that the mandatory IFRS adoption enhances informational efficiency and contributes to the market stability of the underlying stocks. The authors find no evidence that IFRS adoption affects the role old news has in determining the conditional variance of adopting firms. The effects of IFRS adoption on the equity cost of capital are shown to depend on the country‐specific characteristics. Specifically, IFRS adoption is more likely to increase (decrease) the betas of stocks that are listed in the common (civil) law countries.Research limitations/implicationsLike any empirical event‐study, the validity of the results depends on the absence of confounding events.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to use GARCH type models to empirically examine the effects of mandatory IFRS adoption on the informational efficiency and market stability of adopting firms.

The banking industry has gone through turbulent times in the last 30 years. From the Asian crisis of the 90s, through the inception of sophisticated financial instruments such as derivatives, the genesis of shadow banking, and culminating with the subprime disaster, market players and authorities have scrambled to understand and react to these dramatic changes. On this paper the variables involved in these changes are discussed, and a recommendation to the structure of the financial industry provided, to maintain market stability and competitiveness in this important segment of the economy.

With the vigorous development of the internet medicine market, the real-name system for market ontology is increasingly becoming the main factor to maintain market stability and development. This chapter describes the current status of the real-name system for internet medicine market and the goals need to achieve, analyses the key technologies for the market ontology real-name system, proposes a security system for market ontology real-name system, at last, designs an implementation process based on the real-name system security system.

As Chinese economy has become one of the world’s economic powerhouse, research on guanxi, social or business ties in China, has been gaining ground in business research. The study is couched in the theoretical framework of social embeddedness in which the flows of information, resources, and opportunities occur across recognized members of a social network to create mutual benefits. This study empirically tests the major impetus for Taiwanese small to medium sized firms (SMEs) to utilize guanxi networks with business community, local governments, and the central government in China. The study results indicate the extent to which Tawanese firms utilize different types of guanxi differ by firm characteristics (i.e., resources, capabilities, and entry mode) and market factors (i.e., market stability and competition).

Pediatric vaccine stockpiles have been in place in the U.S. since 1983 to address the potential disruption in supply of routine pediatric vaccines. Increases in the number of vaccines recommended for pediatric and adolescent patients have increased the cost of stocking and maintaining the stockpile. Based on a spreadsheet-based model (VacStockpile) we developed, we estimated potential supply shortages of 14 stockpiled vaccines as of August 1, 2008 and its health and financial impacts under various shortage and stockpile scenarios. To illustrate the implications of policy options, we compared "high" to "low" stockpile scenarios. The high stockpile scenario ensures a 6-month vaccine supply to vaccinate all children according to recommended schedules. The low scenario comprised of 50% of the high scenario or existing stocks, whichever is smaller. For each vaccine, we used a weighted average of five shortage scenarios ranging from 0% to 100%, in 25% increments. Demand for each vaccine was based on current distribution or birth cohort size. The probabilities of shortages were based on number of manufacturers, market stability, history of manufacturing problems, and production complexity. CDC contract prices were used to estimate costs. Expert opinion and literature provided estimates of health impacts due to shortages. Applying the probabilities of shortages to all vaccines in a single year, the "low" scenario could cost $600 million, with 376,000 vaccine-preventable cases occurring and 1774 deaths. The "high" scenario could cost $2 billion, with an additional $1.6 billion initial stocking, and result in 7100 vaccine-preventable cases occurring and 508 deaths. Based on the assumptions in the model, there is the potential for large differences in outcomes between the scenarios although some outcomes could potentially be averted with measures such as catch-up campaigns after shortages. Using the VacStockpile policy makers can readily evaluate the implications of assumptions and decide which set of assumptions they wish to use in planning.

During the last few years minority shareholders have suffered many shocks. Their rights and options were compromised. New legal and regulatory initiatives have failed to establish stability and trust on the mechanisms and contracts that are essential for organizational and market stability. The paper cites the basic rights of minority shareholders and analyzes the feasibility of their protection and enforcement. Minority shareholders are, in essence, without any choices or the choices that they have to rely on are the will and faculty of the dominant group (managers in the case of the Anglo-Saxon countries and major shareholders in Continental Europe countries).

From an approach utilizing a variation of the economic theories of organization and the contract, this article analyzes the causes of the current instability of international crude markets. Little prospect is seen for future market stability. This lack of stability, it is argued, will ultimately increase future North American and European dependence on low cost crude producers, here primarily those within Opec.