The aim of this article is to explore the current European debate over labour market flexibility. First, it considers lessons from economic theory. The classical consensus…
Abstract
The aim of this article is to explore the current European debate over labour market flexibility. First, it considers lessons from economic theory. The classical consensus considering unemployment to be purely voluntary, the Keynesian consensus introducing the concept of demand deficient involuntary unemployment and finally the neo‐classical consensus returning us to the classical viewpoint of the dominance of real conditions in the labour market. In order to proceed without confusion the article provides a clear working definition of the natural rate of unemployment and its three main components, voluntary unemployment, structural unemployment and involuntary unemployment. It then proceed to analyse each of these main components in detail, illustrating the difference between a free market approach and a European Commission approach to reducing each component of unemployment. The article concludes that the future is dependent on all EU citizens as electors of governments and holders of wages to moderate.
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Explores the economic implications of the single European market (SEM). Alternative economic explanations of key issues are put forward beginning with the SEM. The SEM will…
Abstract
Explores the economic implications of the single European market (SEM). Alternative economic explanations of key issues are put forward beginning with the SEM. The SEM will deliver lower prices and greater efficiency if it stimulates competition and allows the realisation of economies of scale. Continues by exploring how EU competition policy must be applied to prevent governments and firms from frustrating the realisation of greater competition or further economies of scale. Questions of regional policy, such as will the SEM minimise or accentuate regional differences, are considered, as is the matter of whether the SEM will enhance the EU’s long‐term growth prospects. Questions of macroeconomic policy, such as should the EU prioritise the fight against inflation above all other macroeconomic policy objectives are also considered.
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Feng Liu, Jian-Jun Wang, Haozhe Chen and De-Li Yang
The purpose of this paper is to study the use of outsourcing as a mechanism to cope with supply chain uncertainty, more specifically, how to deal with sudden arrival of higher…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the use of outsourcing as a mechanism to cope with supply chain uncertainty, more specifically, how to deal with sudden arrival of higher priority jobs that require immediate processing, in an in-house manufacturer's facility from the perspective of outsourcing. An operational level schedule of production and distribution of outsourced jobs to the manufacturer's facility should be determined for the subcontractor in order to achieve overall optimality.
Design/methodology/approach
The problem is of bi-criteria in that both the transportation cost measured by number of delivery vehicles and schedule performance measured by jobs’ delivery times. In order to obtain the problem's Pareto front, we propose dynamic programming (DP) heuristic solution procedure based on integrated decision making, and population-heuristic solution procedures using different encoding schemes based on sequential decision making. Computational studies are designed and carried out by randomly generating comparative variations of numerical problem instances.
Findings
By comparing several existing performance metrics for the obtained Pareto fronts, it is found that DP heuristic outperforms population-heuristic in both solutions diversity and proximity to optimal Pareto front. Also in population-heuristic, sub-range keys representation appears to be a better encoding scheme for the problem than random keys representation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the limited yet important knowledge body on using outsourcing approach to coping with possible supply chain disruptions in production scheduling due to sudden customer orders. More specifically, we used modeling methodology to confirm the importance of collaboration with subcontractors to effective supply chain risk management.
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In a supply chain, an order often connects a number of companies whose schedules affect the success of the order. This paper proposes distributed supply chain scheduling in the…
Abstract
In a supply chain, an order often connects a number of companies whose schedules affect the success of the order. This paper proposes distributed supply chain scheduling in the agent architecture instead of centralised supply chain scheduling. The companies communicate through their agents that share only the information relevant to the supply chain scheduling. This scheduling relies on distributed parallel forward simulation in which simple messages are exchanged between the agents periodically. According to these messages, each agent simulates the production orders of its company and receives and sends messages about the purchase and sale orders. This synchronises the simulation of the agent with the simulations of the other agents. Distributed simulation reduces the competitor's opportunities to manipulate the company's performance through the schedules of its suppliers and customers. Although distributed simulation does not optimise the schedules, it is capable of finding feasible schedules.
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Sahar Tadayonirad, Hany Seidgar, Hamed Fazlollahtabar and Rasoul Shafaei
In real manufacturing systems, schedules are often disrupted with uncertainty factors such as random machine breakdown, random process time, random job arrivals or job…
Abstract
Purpose
In real manufacturing systems, schedules are often disrupted with uncertainty factors such as random machine breakdown, random process time, random job arrivals or job cancellations. This paper aims to investigate robust scheduling for a two-stage assembly flow shop scheduling with random machine breakdowns and considers two objectives makespan and robustness simultaneously.
Design/methodology/approach
Owing to its structural and algorithmic complexity, the authors proposed imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), genetic algorithm (GA) and hybridized with simulation techniques for handling these complexities. For better efficiency of the proposed algorithms, the authors used artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the parameters of the proposed algorithms in uncertain condition. Also Taguchi method is applied for analyzing the effect of the parameters of the problem on each other and quality of solutions.
Findings
Finally, experimental study and analysis of variance (ANOVA) is done to investigate the effect of different proposed measures on the performance of the obtained results. ANOVA's results indicate the job and weight of makespan factors have a significant impact on the robustness of the proposed meta-heuristics algorithms. Also, it is obvious that the most effective parameter on the robustness for GA and ICA is job.
Originality/value
Robustness is calculated by the expected value of the relative difference between the deterministic and actual makespan.
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Kokin Lam and Wenxun Xing
Reviews some new trends in parallel machine scheduling (PMS). PMS, as an area of research, is governed by questions that arise in production planning, flexible manufacture…
Abstract
Reviews some new trends in parallel machine scheduling (PMS). PMS, as an area of research, is governed by questions that arise in production planning, flexible manufacture systems, computer control, etc. The main characteristic of these problems is to optimize an objective, with jobs to be finished on a series of machines with the same function. Gives a short review of new developments in PMS associated with the problems of just‐in‐time (JIT) production, pre‐emption with set‐up, and capacitated machine scheduling. Discusses non‐regular objectives oriented by the JIT concept; pre‐emption with set‐up; capacitated machine scheduling; and relationships between PMS and vehicle routeing problems.
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Men are often considered by the health care system to be a disengaged accessory when it comes to family planning. In reality they act as an equal part in the reproductive…
Abstract
Men are often considered by the health care system to be a disengaged accessory when it comes to family planning. In reality they act as an equal part in the reproductive equation. Despite qualitative research suggesting some men currently do take primary responsibility for family planning, men are further marginalised being classed as an irrational variable in large national datasets. Reports ignore men in general by failing to record basic demographics, for example, age is not captured and ethnicity has two options: white and non-white. This leaves little ability to analyse men's family planning knowledge, attitudes and beliefs. Technological advancements have resulted in new forms of male contraceptive methods reaching phase III testing (from pills to gels), and the market is moving towards diversified options that will allow even more men to take primary contraceptive responsibility. Other advancements include the sexual enhancement product Viagra becoming available over the counter, and reproductive wellbeing apps have been created to allow men to test their fertility at home. Without research to understand the ever-changing landscape for men we are ill-prepared to understand what these new products and advancements mean for men's role. Using various forms of publicly available online data and previous empirical research, this chapter will review men's response to new contraceptives, sexual enhancement products, and reproductive wellbeing apps. The results will be discussed in relation to updating the Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) Theory, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the integrated developmental and decision-making contraceptive models used by health psychologists.
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Keryn Chalmers, David Hay and Hichem Khlif
In 2001, the US moved to regulate internal control reporting by management and auditors. While some jurisdictions have followed the lead of the US, many others have not. An…
Abstract
In 2001, the US moved to regulate internal control reporting by management and auditors. While some jurisdictions have followed the lead of the US, many others have not. An important question, therefore, is the relevance of internal control to stakeholders. The more specific issue of the benefits of US-style regulation of internal control reporting is also topical. We review studies on the determinants of internal control quality and its economic consequences for stakeholders including investors, creditors, managers, auditors and financial analysts. We extend previous reviews by focusing on US studies published since 2013 as well as all non-US studies investigating IC quality including countries regulating IC disclosure as well as unregulated settings and both developed and developing economies. In doing so, we identify research questions where evidence remains mixed and new directions in which there are research opportunities.
Three main insights arise from our analysis. First, evidence on the economic consequences of internal control quality suggests that the quality of internal control can have a significant effect on decision making by users of financial information. Second, the results of research on the empirical association between ownership structure, certain board characteristics and internal control quality is generally mixed. Empirical evidence concerning the association between audit committee characteristics and internal control quality generally supports a positive and significant association. Finally, while studies in non-US jurisdictions are increasing, opportunities remain to explore the determinants and consequences of internal control in other jurisdictions. Our review provides evidence for policy makers of whether there are benefits from requiring management and auditors to report on internal control over financial reporting.
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Lauren Rogers-Sirin, Selcuk R. Sirin and Taveeshi Gupta
This three-wave longitudinal study explored the relation between discrimination-related stress and behavioral engagement among urban African-American and Latino adolescents, and…
Abstract
Purpose
This three-wave longitudinal study explored the relation between discrimination-related stress and behavioral engagement among urban African-American and Latino adolescents, and the moderating effect of school-based social support.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 270 African-American and Hispanic/Latino adolescents attending urban public high schools completed three annual surveys starting with 10th grade.
Findings
Growth curve analysis revealed that discrimination-related stress was associated with decreased behavioral engagement over time.
School-based social support moderated this effect in that discrimination-related stress had less of an impact on behavioral engagement as level of school-based social support increased.
Practical implications
School-based supportive relationships serve as a protective factor for urban African-American and Latino youth, helping them remain engaged in school as they deal with the negative effects of discrimination-related stress.
Originality/value
The findings reveal that the development of positive, supportive relationships in school seems to be a malleable variable that interventionists and educational advocates can focus on in an effort to bolster academic achievement among academically stigmatized youth.
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The purpose of this paper is to contrast conventional economists' belief that human needs are optimally satisfied by the market, with Marx's view that capitalism has a narrow…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contrast conventional economists' belief that human needs are optimally satisfied by the market, with Marx's view that capitalism has a narrow focus on money making, where satisfying human needs is at most a by‐product of the system's restricted purpose.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores conventional economics, then Marx's economics, focusing on the issue of saving the environment, as the most basic human need is having a viable environment.
Findings
Economists' focus on use‐value and optimality is explored. Marx's alternative explanation of capitalism is then introduced. The author explains why Marx thinks capitalism has a tendency to boom and slump and to produce rising levels of inequality and considers how, under capitalism, the environment could be saved, and concludes that both human needs and the environment are best secured in a more advanced social system than capitalism.
Research limitations/implications
To properly understand capitalism, one must look to Marx's unsurpassed analysis of capitalism, rather than conventional economists' attempts to justify, but not actually explain, capitalism.
Practical implications
Saving the environment is likely to be far more difficult and disruptive to the economy than conventional economists imagine.
Social implications
For society to actually focus on satisfying human needs, including, crucially, saving the environment, there needs to be a move to a more advanced social system than capitalism.
Originality/value
The paper challenges orthodox views by applying Marx's deeper understanding of the economy to the question of human needs/the environment.