Optimal generation and reserve dispatch in a multi-area competitive market using a hybrid direct search method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chun Lung Chen

2005-01-01

With restructuring of the power industry, competitive bidding for energy and ancillary services are increasingly recognized as an important part of electricity markets. It is desirable to optimize not only the generator's bid prices for energy and for providing minimized ancillary services but also the transmission congestion costs. In this paper, a hybrid approach of combining sequential dispatch with a direct search method is developed to deal with the multi-product and multi-area electricity market dispatch problem. The hybrid direct search method (HDSM) incorporates sequential dispatch into the direct search method to facilitate economic sharing of generation and reserve across areas and to minimize the total market cost in a multi-area competitive electricity market. The effects of tie line congestion and area spinning reserve requirement are also consistently reflected in the marginal price in each area. Numerical experiments are included to understand the various constraints in the market cost analysis and to provide valuable information for market participants in a pool oriented electricity market. (author)

Optimal generation and reserve dispatch in a multi-area competitive market using a hybrid direct search method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, C.-L.

2005-01-01

With restructuring of the power industry, competitive bidding for energy and ancillary services are increasingly recognized as an important part of electricity markets. It is desirable to optimize not only the generator's bid prices for energy and for providing minimized ancillary services but also the transmission congestion costs. In this paper, a hybrid approach of combining sequential dispatch with a direct search method is developed to deal with the multi-product and multi-area electricity market dispatch problem. The hybrid direct search method (HDSM) incorporates sequential dispatch into the direct search method to facilitate economic sharing of generation and reserve across areas and to minimize the total market cost in a multi-area competitive electricity market. The effects of tie line congestion and area spinning reserve requirement are also consistently reflected in the marginal price in each area. Numerical experiments are included to understand the various constraints in the market cost analysis and to provide valuable information for market participants in a pool oriented electricity market

Probabilistic methods in exotic option pricing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Anderluh, J.H.M.

2007-01-01

The thesis presents three ways of calculating the Parisian option price as an illustration of probabilistic methods in exotic option pricing. Moreover options on commidities are considered and double-sided barrier options in a compound Poisson framework.

Willingness to Overpay for Insurance and for Consumer Credit: Search and Risk Behavior Under Price Dispersion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergey MALAKHOV

2014-11-01

Full Text Available When income growth under price dispersion reduces the time of search and raises prices of purchases, the increase in purchase price can be presented as the increase in the willingness to pay for insurance or the willingness to pay for consumer credit. The optimal consumer decision represents the trade-off between the propensity to search for beneficial insurance or consumer credit, and marginal savings on insurance policy or consumer credit. Under price dispersion the indirect utility function takes the form of cubic parabola, where the risk aversion behavior ends at the saddle point of the comprehensive insurance or the complete consumer credit. The comparative static analysis of the saddle point of the utility function discovers the ambiguity of the departure from risk-neutrality. This ambiguity can produce the ordinary risk seeking behavior as well as mathematical catastrophes of Veblen-effect’s imprudence and over prudence of family altruism. The comeback to risk aversion is also ambiguous and it results either in increasing or in decreasing relative risk aversion. The paper argues that the decreasing relative risk aversion comes to the optimum quantity of money.

Uranium price forecasting methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuller, D.M.

1994-01-01

This article reviews a number of forecasting methods that have been applied to uranium prices and compares their relative strengths and weaknesses. The methods reviewed are: (1) judgemental methods, (2) technical analysis, (3) time-series methods, (4) fundamental analysis, and (5) econometric methods. Historically, none of these methods has performed very well, but a well-thought-out model is still useful as a basis from which to adjust to new circumstances and try again

Method of determining the efficiency of price and non-price competition in service sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Savel’eva Nadezhda

2017-01-01

Full Text Available With the end of 2014, the domestic banking system has serious difficulties with the availability of capital for lending and investment programs. Problems based on international political divisions, and their resolution lies in the distant future. in these circumstances, the government is concerned about the development of the Russian banking system in terms of ensuring their competitiveness in the international arena. foreign capital has always been a cheap resource for the domestic banking system, the problem area remains its state at the time of lifting of sanctions. Nowadays banks are forced to use different competition methods in target to adapt to environmental changes and ensure competitive success. So the development of methods for price and non-price competition has economic importance. Analysis of qualitative methodological foundations in banks service revealed strong background. Based on neoteric qualitative evaluation methodology, authors developed method for price and non-price competitiveness. It defines variables of price and non-price competitiveness, to set the value factors, to identify the closest competitors, and to set the position of a particular bank among other participants. It also helps to shape competitors dossier based on the evaluated score.

Electric Cars and Oil Prices

OpenAIRE

Azar, Jose

2009-01-01

This paper studies the joint dynamics of oil prices and interest in electric cars, measured as the volume of Google searches for related phrases. Not surprisingly, I find that oil price shocks predict increases in Google searches for electric cars. Much more surprisingly, I also find that an increase in Google searches predicts declines in oil prices. The high level of public interest in electric cars between April and August of 2008 can explain approximately half of the decline in oil prices...

TRANSFER PRICING AS A TOOLFOR FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OFENTERPRISES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexey S. Besfamilnyy

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The article outlines the basics of using transfer pricing methods applied to the financial analysis of the enterprise. It focuses on the application of transfer pricing methods not only over prices control between related organizations, but for analysis of the financial performance of companies. It proposes to use comparison of profitability of comparable companies during the reporting period. Shows an approach for the search and selection of comparable companies using information systems SPARKS or Bureau van Dijk. It analysis some examples in which the methodology is applicable transfer pricing as a tool of financial analysis.

Patients' views on price shopping and price transparency.

Science.gov (United States)

Semigran, Hannah L; Gourevitch, Rebecca; Sinaiko, Anna D; Cowling, David; Mehrotra, Ateev

2017-06-01

Driven by the growth of high deductibles and price transparency initiatives, patients are being encouraged to search for prices before seeking care, yet few do so. To understand why this is the case, we interviewed individuals who were offered access to a widely used price transparency website through their employer. Qualitative interviews. We interviewed individuals enrolled in a preferred provider organization product through their health plan about their experience using the price transparency tool (if they had done so), their past medical experiences, and their opinions on shopping for care. All interviews were transcribed and manually coded using a thematic coding guide. In general, respondents expressed frustration with healthcare costs and had a positive opinion of the idea of price shopping in theory, but 2 sets of barriers limited their ability to do so in reality. The first was the salience of searching for price information. For example, respondents recognized that due to their health plan benefits design, they would not save money by switching to a lower-cost provider. Second, other factors were more important than price for respondents when choosing a provider, including quality and loyalty to current providers. We found a disconnect between respondents' enthusiasm for price shopping and their reported use of a price transparency tool to shop for care. However, many did find the tool useful for other purposes, including checking their claims history. Addressing the barriers to price shopping identified by respondents can help inform ongoing and future price transparency initiatives.

75 FR 34074 - Postal Pricing Methods

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-16

... Methods AGENCY: Postal Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking. SUMMARY: The... price sensitivity (elasticity) to volumes actually mailed during the rebate program. This method is... indicated by the market elasticity. Mitchell Comments at 4-6. Postal Service method. In its data collection...

Error Analysis for Fourier Methods for Option Pricing

KAUST Repository

Häppölä, Juho

2016-01-06

We provide a bound for the error committed when using a Fourier method to price European options when the underlying follows an exponential Levy dynamic. The price of the option is described by a partial integro-differential equation (PIDE). Applying a Fourier transformation to the PIDE yields an ordinary differential equation that can be solved analytically in terms of the characteristic exponent of the Levy process. Then, a numerical inverse Fourier transform allows us to obtain the option price. We present a novel bound for the error and use this bound to set the parameters for the numerical method. We analyze the properties of the bound for a dissipative and pure-jump example. The bound presented is independent of the asymptotic behaviour of option prices at extreme asset prices. The error bound can be decomposed into a product of terms resulting from the dynamics and the option payoff, respectively. The analysis is supplemented by numerical examples that demonstrate results comparable to and superior to the existing literature.

Modifying nodal pricing method considering market participants optimality and reliability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. R. Soofiabadi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper develops a method for nodal pricing and market clearing mechanism considering reliability of the system. The effects of components reliability on electricity price, market participants’ profit and system social welfare is considered. This paper considers reliability both for evaluation of market participant’s optimality as well as for fair pricing and market clearing mechanism. To achieve fair pricing, nodal price has been obtained through a two stage optimization problem and to achieve fair market clearing mechanism, comprehensive criteria has been introduced for optimality evaluation of market participant. Social welfare of the system and system efficiency are increased under proposed modified nodal pricing method.

Study on Comparison of Bidding and Pricing Behavior Distinction between Estimate Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Morimoto, Emi; Namerikawa, Susumu

The most characteristic trend on bidding and pricing behavior distinction in recent years is the increasing number of bidders just above the criteria for low-price bidding investigations. The contractor's markup is the difference between the bidding price and the execution price. Therefore, the contractor's markup is the difference between criteria for low-price bidding investigations price and the execution price in the public works bid in Japan. Virtually, bidder's strategies and behavior have been controlled by public engineer's budgets. Estimation and bid are inseparably linked in the Japanese public works procurement system. The trial of the unit price-type estimation method begins in 2004. On another front, accumulated estimation method is one of the general methods in public works. So, there are two types of standard estimation methods in Japan. In this study, we did a statistical analysis on the bid information of civil engineering works for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation in 2008. It presents several issues that bidding and pricing behavior is related to an estimation method (several estimation methods) for public works bid in Japan. The two types of standard estimation methods produce different results that number of bidders (decide on bid-no bid strategy) and distribution of bid price (decide on mark-up strategy).The comparison on the distribution of bid prices showed that the percentage of the bid concentrated on the criteria for low-price bidding investigations have had a tendency to get higher in the large-sized public works by the unit price-type estimation method, comparing with the accumulated estimation method. On one hand, the number of bidders who bids for public works estimated unit-price tends to increase significantly Public works estimated unit-price is likely to have been one of the factors for the construction companies to decide if they participate in the biddings.

12 CFR 327.9 - Assessment risk categories and pricing methods.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Assessment risk categories and pricing methods... OF GENERAL POLICY ASSESSMENTS In General § 327.9 Assessment risk categories and pricing methods. (a... and a weighted average of CAMELS component ratings will be multiplied by a corresponding pricing...

Using Partial Differential Equations for Pricing of Goods and Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Traykov Metodi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article is based on the methodology of comparative analysis, using an innovative approach for pricing of various goods and services. Benchmarking is the continuous search to find and adapt better pricing methods that leading to increased profits. We will consider the numerical solution of partial differential equations, based on Black-Scholes model for pricing of goods and services within European option. Also, we will present formulation and numerical behavior of explicit and implicit methods that can be use in pricing for company assets within European option.

Biogas slurry pricing method based on nutrient content

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Chang-ai; Guo, Honghai; Yang, Zhengtao; Xin, Shurong

2017-11-01

In order to promote biogas-slurry commercialization, A method was put forward to valuate biogas slurry based on its nutrient contents. Firstly, element contents of biogas slurry was measured; Secondly, each element was valuated based on its market price, and then traffic cost, using cost and market effect were taken into account, the pricing method of biogas slurry were obtained lastly. This method could be useful in practical production. Taking cattle manure raw meterial biogas slurry and con stalk raw material biogas slurry for example, their price were 38.50 yuan RMB per ton and 28.80 yuan RMB per ton. This paper will be useful for recognizing the value of biogas projects, ensuring biogas project running, and instructing the cyclic utilization of biomass resources in China.

Error Analysis for Fourier Methods for Option Pricing

KAUST Repository

Hä ppö lä , Juho

2016-01-01

We provide a bound for the error committed when using a Fourier method to price European options when the underlying follows an exponential Levy dynamic. The price of the option is described by a partial integro-differential equation (PIDE

The measurement of house prices : A review of the sale price appraisal ratio method

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Haan, J.; Van der Wal, E.B.; De Vries, P.

2009-01-01

The sale price appraisal ratio (SPAR) method has been applied in a number of countries to construct house price indexes. This paper reviews the statistical and index number properties of the SPAR approach. Three types of SPAR indexes are distinguished: a weighted index, which aims at tracking the

48 CFR 514.270-7 - Guidelines for using the price list method.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... on knowledge of the supplies or services and previous contract prices. (d) First time use for an item... price list method. 514.270-7 Section 514.270-7 Federal Acquisition Regulations System GENERAL SERVICES... for using the price list method. (a) General. The price list method helps avoid unbalanced bidding...

Energy prices and agricultural commodity prices: Testing correlation using copulas method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koirala, Krishna H.; Mishra, Ashok K.; D'Antoni, Jeremy M.; Mehlhorn, Joey E.

2015-01-01

The linear relationships between energy prices and prices for agricultural commodities such as corn and soybeans may have been affected, over the last several years, by policy legislations in the farm sector, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and the Renewable Fuel Standard Program for 2014. Using high-frequency data and newer methodology, this study investigates dependence between agricultural commodity futures prices and energy futures prices. Results reveal that agricultural commodity and energy future prices are highly correlated and exhibit positive and significant relationship. Findings from this study highlight that an increase in energy price increases the price of agricultural commodities. - Highlights: • Energy policy mandates production of 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol by 2015. • Energy-intensive agriculture has a link between energy sector and crop production costs. • We investigate correlation between energy prices and agricultural commodity prices. • Agricultural commodity and energy future prices are highly correlated. • Increase in energy price increases the price of agricultural commodity

TARGET CONTROLLING METHOD OF THE PRICING PROCESS IN THE TOURISM ENTERPRISES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Sagalakova

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Key stages of the pricing process in the tourism enterprises are investigated: subprocess of establishing of nominal value of the new tourism product price and subprocess of adjustment of the established price depending on a situation in the tourism market. For establishing of nominal value of the price it is offered by use of optimizing model, which maximizes the usefulness function of structural parts of the tourism product price. For adjustment of the tourism product price under change of external conditions procedure of installation of the target with use of the process behavior charts of the pricing process is applied. The new methodology of the pricing process controlling in the tourism enterprises, which based on complex application of methods of the statistical processes control and a method of dynamic programming, is presented in article and fully considers one of key features of the tourism sphere - seasonal fluctuations of the tourism product price.

Affordability of cataract surgery using the Big Mac prices

OpenAIRE

Van C. Lansingh; Marissa J. Carter; Kristen A. Eckert; Kevin L. Winthrop; João M. Furtado; Serge Resnikoff

2015-01-01

Purpose: One barrier to cataract surgery is its high price in some countries. This study aims to understand to what extent the price of cataract surgery is over- or undervalued and whether it varies in relation to GDP using The Economist newspaper Big Mac Index (BMcI) methodology, which measures the purchasing power parity between different currencies. Methods: Peer-reviewed articles containing information on cataract surgery prices were searched from 1993 to June 2012 in databases. Ophtha...

Search Advertising

OpenAIRE

Cornière (de), Alexandre

2016-01-01

Search engines enable advertisers to target consumers based on the query they have entered. In a framework with horizontal product differentiation, imperfect product information and in which consumers incur search costs, I study a game in which advertisers have to choose a price and a set of relevant keywords. The targeting mechanism brings about three kinds of efficiency gains, namely lower search costs, better matching, and more intense product market price-competition. A monopolistic searc...

Ordered Consumer Search

OpenAIRE

Armstrong, Mark

2016-01-01

The paper discusses situations in which consumers search through their options in a deliberate order, in contrast to more familiar models with random search. Topics include: network effects (consumers may be better off following the same search order as other consumers); the use of price and non-price advertising to direct search; the impact of consumers starting a new search with their previous supplier; the incentive sellers have to merge or co-locate with other sellers; and the incentive a...

Impact of Rainfall, Sales Method, and Time on Land Prices

OpenAIRE

Stephens, Steve; Schurle, Bryan

2013-01-01

Land prices in Western Kansas are analyzed using regression to estimate the influence of rainfall, sales method, and time of sale. The estimates from regression indicate that land prices decreased about $27 for each range that was farther west which can be converted to about $75 per inch of average rainfall. In addition, the influence of method of sale (private sale or auction) is estimated along with the impact of time of sale. Auction sales prices are approximately $100 higher per acre than...

NewsMarket 2.0: Analysis of News for Stock Price Forecasting

Science.gov (United States)

Barazzetti, Alessandro; Mastronardi, Rosangela

Most of the existing financial research tools use a stock's historical price and technical indicators to predict future price trends without taking into account the impact of web news. The recent explosion of demand for information on financial investment management is driving the search for alternative methods of quantitative data analysis.

TRANSFER PRICES: MECHANISMS, METHODS AND INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pop Cosmina

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Transfer prices are considered the prices paid for the goods or services in a cross-border transaction between affiliates companies, often significant reduced or increased in order to avoid the higher imposing rates from one jurisdiction. Presently, over 60% of cross-border transfers are represented by intra-group transfers. The paper presents the variety of methods and mechanisms used by the companies to transfer the funds from one tax jurisdiction to another in order to avoid over taxation.

Dynamic Price Dispersion of Storable Goods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gao, Cixiu

2014-01-01

with different search costs and willingness to wait. I demonstrate that the high-price-low-price pattern is rational for storable goods. In a Markov-perfect equilibrium, agents’ actions depend on consumer inventory, and purchase decisions are characterized by a critical price. The equilibrium price series...

An approximate moving boundary method for American option pricing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chockalingam, A.; Muthuraman, K.

2015-01-01

We present a method to solve the free-boundary problem that arises in the pricing of classical American options. Such free-boundary problems arise when one attempts to solve optimal-stopping problems set in continuous time. American option pricing is one of the most popular optimal-stopping problems

A comparison of alternative methods for measuring cigarette prices.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaloupka, Frank J; Tauras, John A; Strasser, Julia H; Willis, Gordon; Gibson, James T; Hartman, Anne M

2015-05-01

Government agencies, public health organisations and tobacco control researchers rely on accurate estimates of cigarette prices for a variety of purposes. Since the 1950s, the Tax Burden on Tobacco (TBOT) has served as the most widely used source of this price data despite its limitations. This paper compares the prices and collection methods of the TBOT retail-based data and the 2003 and 2006/2007 waves of the population-based Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS). From the TUS-CPS, we constructed multiple state-level measures of cigarette prices, including weighted average prices per pack (based on average prices for single-pack purchases and average prices for carton purchases) and compared these with the weighted average price data reported in the TBOT. We also constructed several measures of tax avoidance from the TUS-CPS self-reported data. For the 2003 wave, the average TUS-CPS price was 71 cents per pack less than the average TBOT price; for the 2006/2007 wave, the difference was 47 cents. TUS-CPS and TBOT prices were also significantly different at the state level. However, these differences varied widely by state due to tax avoidance opportunities, such as cross-border purchasing. The TUS-CPS can be used to construct valid measures of cigarette prices. Unlike the TBOT, the TUS-CPS captures the effect of price-reducing marketing strategies, as well as tax avoidance practices and non-traditional types of purchasing. Thus, self-reported data like TUS-CPS appear to have advantages over TBOT in estimating the 'real' price that smokers face. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Impact of European pharmaceutical price regulation on generic price competition: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Puig-Junoy, Jaume

2010-01-01

Although economic theory indicates that it should not be necessary to intervene in the generic drug market through price regulation, most EU countries intervene in this market, both by regulating the maximum sale price of generics (price cap) and by setting the maximum reimbursement rate, especially by means of reference pricing systems. We analyse current knowledge of the impact of direct price-cap regulation of generic drugs and the implementation of systems regulating the reimbursement rate, particularly through reference pricing and similar tools, on dynamic price competition between generic competitors in Europe. A literature search was carried out in the EconLit and PubMed databases, and on Google Scholar. The search included papers published in English or Spanish between January 2000 and July 2009. Inclusion criteria included that studies had to present empirical results of a quantitative nature for EU countries of the impact of price capping and/or regulation of the reimbursement rate (reference pricing or similar systems) on price dynamics, corresponding to pharmacy sales, in the generic drug market. The available evidence indicates that price-cap regulation leads to a levelling off of generic prices at a higher level than would occur in the absence of this regulation. Reference pricing systems cause an obvious and almost compulsory reduction in the consumer price of all pharmaceuticals subject to this system, to a varying degree in different countries and periods, the reduction being greater for originator-branded drugs than for generics. In several countries with a reference pricing system, it was observed that generics with a consumer price lower than the reference price do not undergo price reductions until the reference price is reduced, even when there are other lower-priced generics on the market (absence of price competition below the reference price). Beyond the price reduction forced by the price-cap and/or reference pricing regulation itself

The impact of alternative pricing methods for drugs in California Workers’ Compensation System: Fee-schedule pricing

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Leslie; Turkistani, Fatema A.; Huang, Wei; Tran, Dang M.; Lin, Tracy Kuo

2018-01-01

Introduction California’s Workers’ Compensation System (CAWCS) Department of Industrial Relations questioned the adequacy of the current Medi-Cal fee-schedule pricing and requested analysis of alternatives that maximize price availability and maintain budget neutrality. Objectives To compare CAWCS pharmacy-dispensed (PD) drug prices under alternative fee schedules, and identify combinations of alternative benchmarks that have prices available for the largest percentage of PD drugs and that best reach budget neutrality. Methods Claims transaction-level data (2011–2013) from CAWCS were used to estimate total annual PD pharmaceutical payments. Medi-Cal pricing data was from the Workman’s Compensation Insurance System (WCIS). Average Wholesale Prices (AWP), Wholesale Acquisition Costs (WAC), Direct Prices (DP), Federal Upper Limit (FUL) prices, and National Average Drug Acquisition Costs (NADAC) were from Medi-Span. We matched National Drug Codes (NDCs), pricing dates, and drug quantity for comparisons. We report pharmacy-dispensed (PD) claims frequency, reimbursement matching rate, and paid costs by CAWCS as the reference price against all alternative price benchmarks. Results Of 12,529,977 CAWCS claims for pharmaceutical products 11.6% (1,462,814) were for PD drugs. Prescription drug cost for CAWCS was over $152M; $63.9M, $47.9M, and $40.6M in 2011–2013. Ninety seven percent of these CAWCS PD claims had a Medi-Cal price. Alternative mechanisms provided a price for fewer claims; NADAC 94.23%, AWP 90.94%, FUL 73.11%, WAC 66.98%, and DP 14.33%. Among CAWCS drugs with no Medi-Cal price in PD claims, AWP, WAC, NADAC, DP, and FUL provided prices for 96.7%, 63.14%, 24.82%, 20.83%, and 15.08% of claims. Overall CAWCS paid 100.52% of Medi-Cal, 60% of AWP, 97% of WAC, 309.53% of FUL, 103.83% of DP, and 136.27% of NADAC. Conclusions CAWCS current Medi-Cal fee-schedule price list for PD drugs is more complete than all alternative fee-schedules. However, all

Price forecasting of day-ahead electricity markets using a hybrid forecast method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shafie-khah, M.; Moghaddam, M. Parsa; Sheikh-El-Eslami, M.K.

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → A hybrid method is proposed to forecast the day-ahead prices in electricity market. → The method combines Wavelet-ARIMA and RBFN network models. → PSO method is applied to obtain optimum RBFN structure for avoiding over fitting. → One of the merits of the proposed method is lower need to the input data. → The proposed method has more accurate behavior in compare with previous methods. -- Abstract: Energy price forecasting in a competitive electricity market is crucial for the market participants in planning their operations and managing their risk, and it is also the key information in the economic optimization of the electric power industry. However, price series usually have a complex behavior due to their nonlinearity, nonstationarity, and time variancy. In this paper, a novel hybrid method to forecast day-ahead electricity price is proposed. This hybrid method is based on wavelet transform, Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models and Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFN). The wavelet transform provides a set of better-behaved constitutive series than price series for prediction. ARIMA model is used to generate a linear forecast, and then RBFN is developed as a tool for nonlinear pattern recognition to correct the estimation error in wavelet-ARIMA forecast. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to optimize the network structure which makes the RBFN be adapted to the specified training set, reducing computation complexity and avoiding overfitting. The proposed method is examined on the electricity market of mainland Spain and the results are compared with some of the most recent price forecast methods. The results show that the proposed hybrid method could provide a considerable improvement for the forecasting accuracy.

Price forecasting of day-ahead electricity markets using a hybrid forecast method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shafie-khah, M., E-mail: miadreza@gmail.co [Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Moghaddam, M. Parsa, E-mail: parsa@modares.ac.i [Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Sheikh-El-Eslami, M.K., E-mail: aleslam@modares.ac.i [Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2011-05-15

Research highlights: {yields} A hybrid method is proposed to forecast the day-ahead prices in electricity market. {yields} The method combines Wavelet-ARIMA and RBFN network models. {yields} PSO method is applied to obtain optimum RBFN structure for avoiding over fitting. {yields} One of the merits of the proposed method is lower need to the input data. {yields} The proposed method has more accurate behavior in compare with previous methods. -- Abstract: Energy price forecasting in a competitive electricity market is crucial for the market participants in planning their operations and managing their risk, and it is also the key information in the economic optimization of the electric power industry. However, price series usually have a complex behavior due to their nonlinearity, nonstationarity, and time variancy. In this paper, a novel hybrid method to forecast day-ahead electricity price is proposed. This hybrid method is based on wavelet transform, Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models and Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFN). The wavelet transform provides a set of better-behaved constitutive series than price series for prediction. ARIMA model is used to generate a linear forecast, and then RBFN is developed as a tool for nonlinear pattern recognition to correct the estimation error in wavelet-ARIMA forecast. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to optimize the network structure which makes the RBFN be adapted to the specified training set, reducing computation complexity and avoiding overfitting. The proposed method is examined on the electricity market of mainland Spain and the results are compared with some of the most recent price forecast methods. The results show that the proposed hybrid method could provide a considerable improvement for the forecasting accuracy.

Convergence of in-Country Prices for the Turkish Economy : A Panel Data Search for the PPP Hypothesis Using Sub-Regional Disaggregated Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mustafa METE

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper tries to examine that in-country prices from the Turkish economy can be specified as a stationary relationship giving support to the long-run purchasing power parity in economics theory. For this purpose, a sub-regional categorization of the economy is considered over the investigation period of 2005-2012, and, following Esaka (2003, the study uses a panel estimation framework consisting of 12 disaggregated consumer price indices to search for whether the relative prices of goods between sub-regions of the Turkish economy can be represented by stationary time series properties.

A JOINT EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF INVESTOR BEHAVIOR IN IPO PRICING METHODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vinicio de Souza e Almeida

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This article jointly examines the differences of laboratory versions of the Dutch clock open auction, a sealed-bid auction to represent book building, and a two-stage sealed bid auction to proxy for the “competitive IPO”, a recent innovation used in a few European equity initial public offerings. We investigate pricing, seller allocation, and buyer welfare allocation efficiency and conclude that the book building emulation seems to be as price efficient as the Dutch auction, even after investor learning, whereas the competitive IPO is not price efficient, regardless of learning. The competitive IPO is the most seller allocative efficient method because it maximizes offer proceeds. The Dutch auction emerges as the most buyer welfare allocative efficient method. Underwriters are probably seeking pricing efficiency rather than seller or buyer welfare allocative efficiency and their discretionary pricing and allocation must be important since book building is prominent worldwide.

Applying Activity Based Costing (ABC) Method to Calculate Cost Price in Hospital and Remedy Services.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajabi, A; Dabiri, A

2012-01-01

Activity Based Costing (ABC) is one of the new methods began appearing as a costing methodology in the 1990's. It calculates cost price by determining the usage of resources. In this study, ABC method was used for calculating cost price of remedial services in hospitals. To apply ABC method, Shahid Faghihi Hospital was selected. First, hospital units were divided into three main departments: administrative, diagnostic, and hospitalized. Second, activity centers were defined by the activity analysis method. Third, costs of administrative activity centers were allocated into diagnostic and operational departments based on the cost driver. Finally, with regard to the usage of cost objectives from services of activity centers, the cost price of medical services was calculated. The cost price from ABC method significantly differs from tariff method. In addition, high amount of indirect costs in the hospital indicates that capacities of resources are not used properly. Cost price of remedial services with tariff method is not properly calculated when compared with ABC method. ABC calculates cost price by applying suitable mechanisms but tariff method is based on the fixed price. In addition, ABC represents useful information about the amount and combination of cost price services.

Fast Fourier Transform Pricing Method for Exponential Lévy Processes

KAUST Repository

Crocce, Fabian; Happola, Juho; Kiessling, Jonas; Tempone, Raul

2014-01-01

We describe a set of partial-integro-differential equations (PIDE) whose solutions represent the prices of european options when the underlying asset is driven by an exponential L´evy process. Exploiting the L´evy -Khintchine formula, we give a Fourier based method for solving this class of PIDEs. We present a novel L1 error bound for solving a range of PIDEs in asset pricing and use this bound to set parameters for numerical methods.

Fast Fourier Transform Pricing Method for Exponential Lévy Processes

KAUST Repository

Crocce, Fabian

2014-05-04

We describe a set of partial-integro-differential equations (PIDE) whose solutions represent the prices of european options when the underlying asset is driven by an exponential L´evy process. Exploiting the L´evy -Khintchine formula, we give a Fourier based method for solving this class of PIDEs. We present a novel L1 error bound for solving a range of PIDEs in asset pricing and use this bound to set parameters for numerical methods.

On Mergers in Consumer Search Markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.C.W. Janssen (Maarten); J.L. Moraga-Gonzalez (José Luis)

2007-01-01

textabstractWe study mergers in a market where N firms sell a homogeneous good and consumers search sequentially to discover prices. The main motivation for such an analysis is that mergers generally affect market prices and thereby, in a search environment, the search behavior of consumers.

Fundmental Analysis for Stock Price Valuation by Using Price Earnings Ratio Method (Study at Mining Companies Listed on Indonesian Stock Exchange Year 2011-2013)

OpenAIRE

Wahyuningtyas, Rovi; Suhadak,; Hidayat, Raden Rustam

2015-01-01

The research was conducted based on the misprice on the investment of stock. The misprice of investment on stock can be reduced with evaluate the reasonable of stock price by using fundamental analysis. The fundamental analysis that used in this research is Price Earnings Ratio (PER) method. The PER method aim to know the reasonableness of stock price with compare the intrinsic value of stock and the stock market price. The research is descriptive quantitative method. The research takes the s...

Stock price estimation using ensemble Kalman Filter square root method

Science.gov (United States)

Karya, D. F.; Katias, P.; Herlambang, T.

2018-04-01

Shares are securities as the possession or equity evidence of an individual or corporation over an enterprise, especially public companies whose activity is stock trading. Investment in stocks trading is most likely to be the option of investors as stocks trading offers attractive profits. In determining a choice of safe investment in the stocks, the investors require a way of assessing the stock prices to buy so as to help optimize their profits. An effective method of analysis which will reduce the risk the investors may bear is by predicting or estimating the stock price. Estimation is carried out as a problem sometimes can be solved by using previous information or data related or relevant to the problem. The contribution of this paper is that the estimates of stock prices in high, low, and close categorycan be utilized as investors’ consideration for decision making in investment. In this paper, stock price estimation was made by using the Ensemble Kalman Filter Square Root method (EnKF-SR) and Ensemble Kalman Filter method (EnKF). The simulation results showed that the resulted estimation by applying EnKF method was more accurate than that by the EnKF-SR, with an estimation error of about 0.2 % by EnKF and an estimation error of 2.6 % by EnKF-SR.

Price knowledge during grocery shopping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Birger Boutrup; Grunert, Klaus G

2014-01-01

applying a multi-point, multi-measure approach, consumers appear to know more aboutprices than suggested by past research. Determinants of price knowledge are also examined and the results indicate that price knowledge buildsup not only because of active search but also due to accidental exposure to prices......Past research on consumer price knowledge has varied considerably partly due to differences in how and when price knowledge is measured.This paper applies a multi-point, multi-measure approach to reconcile differences in past price knowledge research by examining systematicrelationships between...... time of measurement and type of measures applied. Examination of consumer price knowledge before, during, and afterstore visit sheds light on what is measured at the individual points in time: episodic price knowledge and/or reference prices? With a between-subjects design interviewing 1...

Tight Error Bounds for Fourier Methods for Option Pricing for Exponential Levy Processes

KAUST Repository

Crocce, Fabian

2016-01-06

Prices of European options whose underlying asset is driven by the L´evy process are solutions to partial integrodifferential Equations (PIDEs) that generalise the Black-Scholes equation by incorporating a non-local integral term to account for the discontinuities in the asset price. The Levy -Khintchine formula provides an explicit representation of the characteristic function of a L´evy process (cf, [6]): One can derive an exact expression for the Fourier transform of the solution of the relevant PIDE. The rapid rate of convergence of the trapezoid quadrature and the speedup provide efficient methods for evaluationg option prices, possibly for a range of parameter configurations simultaneously. A couple of works have been devoted to the error analysis and parameter selection for these transform-based methods. In [5] several payoff functions are considered for a rather general set of models, whose characteristic function is assumed to be known. [4] presents the framework and theoretical approach for the error analysis, and establishes polynomial convergence rates for approximations of the option prices. [1] presents FT-related methods with curved integration contour. The classical flat FT-methods have been, on the other hand, extended for option pricing problems beyond the European framework [3]. We present a methodology for studying and bounding the error committed when using FT methods to compute option prices. We also provide a systematic way of choosing the parameters of the numerical method, minimising the error bound and guaranteeing adherence to a pre-described error tolerance. We focus on exponential L´evy processes that may be of either diffusive or pure jump in type. Our contribution is to derive a tight error bound for a Fourier transform method when pricing options under risk-neutral Levy dynamics. We present a simplified bound that separates the contributions of the payoff and of the process in an easily processed and extensible product form that

Method of evaluation of solar collector cost under fuel price change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Klychev, Sh. I.; Sadykova, N. S.; Saifiev, A. U.; Ismanzhanov, A. I.; Samiev, M.

2013-01-01

When we take into account the problems of large-scale use of solar energy, the matters of economic perspectives of solar plants in the future become vital. We present the method on whose basis evaluation of the cost of solar collectors is performed taking into account the change in the fuel prices. The method is based on the approach to evaluation of the cost of energy generated by the solar plants offered previously by the authors. Assuming that the components of expenditures for production are not changed, we obtained that the cost of solar collectors will grow, at approximately the same ratio as the growth of the prices for fuel (energy). Thus, the problem of creation of the economically effective solar collectors should be solved already today, at the existing prices for materials and fuel. At present, it is assumed that competitiveness of the solar plants will increase with the growth of the fuel prices. (authors)

Study protocol: combining experimental methods, econometrics and simulation modelling to determine price elasticities for studying food taxes and subsidies (The Price ExaM Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wilma E. Waterlander

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is a need for accurate and precise food price elasticities (PE, change in consumer demand in response to change in price to better inform policy on health-related food taxes and subsidies. Methods/Design The Price Experiment and Modelling (Price ExaM study aims to: I derive accurate and precise food PE values; II quantify the impact of price changes on quantity and quality of discrete food group purchases and; III model the potential health and disease impacts of a range of food taxes and subsidies. To achieve this, we will use a novel method that includes a randomised Virtual Supermarket experiment and econometric methods. Findings will be applied in simulation models to estimate population health impact (quality-adjusted life-years [QALYs] using a multi-state life-table model. The study will consist of four sequential steps: 1. We generate 5000 price sets with random price variation for all 1412 Virtual Supermarket food and beverage products. Then we add systematic price variation for foods to simulate five taxes and subsidies: a fruit and vegetable subsidy and taxes on sugar, saturated fat, salt, and sugar-sweetened beverages. 2. Using an experimental design, 1000 adult New Zealand shoppers complete five household grocery shops in the Virtual Supermarket where they are randomly assigned to one of the 5000 price sets each time. 3. Output data (i.e., multiple observations of price configurations and purchased amounts are used as inputs to econometric models (using Bayesian methods to estimate accurate PE values. 4. A disease simulation model will be run with the new PE values as inputs to estimate QALYs gained and health costs saved for the five policy interventions. Discussion The Price ExaM study has the potential to enhance public health and economic disciplines by introducing internationally novel scientific methods to estimate accurate and precise food PE values. These values will be used to model the potential

Employed and unemployed job search methods: Australian evidence on search duration, wages and job stability

OpenAIRE

Colin Green

2012-01-01

This paper examines the use and impact of job search methods of both unemployed and employed job seekers. Informal job search methods are associated with relativel high level of job exit and shorter search duration. Job exists through the public employment agency (PEA) display positive duration dependence for the unemployed. This may suggest that the PEA is used as a job search method of last resort. Informal job search methods have lower associated duration in search and higher wages than th...

Irregular grid methods for pricing high-dimensional American options

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berridge, S.J.

2004-01-01

This thesis proposes and studies numerical methods for pricing high-dimensional American options; important examples being basket options, Bermudan swaptions and real options. Four new methods are presented and analysed, both in terms of their application to various test problems, and in terms of

ACCOUNTING ASPECTS OF PRICING AND TRANSFER PRICING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TÜNDE VERES

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The pricing methods in practice need really complex view of the business situation and depend on the strategy and market position of a company. The structure of a price seems simple: cost plus margin. Both categories are special area in the management accounting. Information about the product costs, the allocation methodologies in cost accounting, the analyzing of revenue and different level of the margin needs information from accounting system. This paper analyzes the pricing methods from management accounting aspects to show out the role of the accounting system in the short term and long term pricing and transfer pricing decisions.

A homotopy analysis method for the option pricing PDE in illiquid markets

Science.gov (United States)

E-Khatib, Youssef

2012-09-01

One of the shortcomings of the Black and Scholes model on option pricing is the assumption that trading the underlying asset does not affect the underlying asset price. This can happen in perfectly liquid markets and it is evidently not viable in markets with imperfect liquidity (illiquid markets). It is well-known that markets with imperfect liquidity are more realistic. Thus, the presence of price impact while studying options is very important. This paper investigates a solution for the option pricing PDE in illiquid markets using the homotopy analysis method.

Comparison tomography relocation hypocenter grid search and guided grid search method in Java island

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nurdian, S. W.; Adu, N.; Palupi, I. R.; Raharjo, W.

2016-01-01

The main data in this research is earthquake data recorded from 1952 to 2012 with 9162 P wave and 2426 events are recorded by 30 stations located around Java island. Relocation hypocenter processed using grid search and guidded grid search method. Then the result of relocation hypocenter become input for tomography pseudo bending inversion process. It can be used to identification the velocity distribution in subsurface. The result of relocation hypocenter by grid search and guided grid search method after tomography process shown in locally and globally. In locally area grid search method result is better than guided grid search according to geological reseach area. But in globally area the result of guided grid search method is better for a broad area because the velocity variation is more diverse than the other one and in accordance with local geological research conditions. (paper)

Rent pricing decision support mathematical model for finance leases under effective risks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rabbani Masoud

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, leasing has become an increasingly important and popular method for equipment acquisition. But, because of the rent pricing difficulties and some risks that affect the lessor and lessee's decision making, there are many people that still tend to buy equipment instead of lease it. In this paper we explore how risk can affect the leasing issue support mathematical model. For this purpose, we consider three types of risk; Credit risk, Transaction risk and Risk based pricing. In particular, our focus was on how to make decision about rent pricing in a leasing problem with different customers, various quality levels and different pricing methods. Finally, the mathematical model has been solved by Genetic Algorithm that is a search heuristic to optimize the problem. This algorithm was coded in MATLAB® R2012a to provide the best set of results.

48 CFR 36.207 - Pricing fixed-price construction contracts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Pricing fixed-price... Contracting for Construction 36.207 Pricing fixed-price construction contracts. (a) Generally, firm-fixed... methods. (b) Lump-sum pricing shall be used in preference to unit pricing except when— (1) Large...

Study protocol: combining experimental methods, econometrics and simulation modelling to determine price elasticities for studying food taxes and subsidies (The Price ExaM Study).

Science.gov (United States)

Waterlander, Wilma E; Blakely, Tony; Nghiem, Nhung; Cleghorn, Christine L; Eyles, Helen; Genc, Murat; Wilson, Nick; Jiang, Yannan; Swinburn, Boyd; Jacobi, Liana; Michie, Jo; Ni Mhurchu, Cliona

2016-07-19

There is a need for accurate and precise food price elasticities (PE, change in consumer demand in response to change in price) to better inform policy on health-related food taxes and subsidies. The Price Experiment and Modelling (Price ExaM) study aims to: I) derive accurate and precise food PE values; II) quantify the impact of price changes on quantity and quality of discrete food group purchases and; III) model the potential health and disease impacts of a range of food taxes and subsidies. To achieve this, we will use a novel method that includes a randomised Virtual Supermarket experiment and econometric methods. Findings will be applied in simulation models to estimate population health impact (quality-adjusted life-years [QALYs]) using a multi-state life-table model. The study will consist of four sequential steps: 1. We generate 5000 price sets with random price variation for all 1412 Virtual Supermarket food and beverage products. Then we add systematic price variation for foods to simulate five taxes and subsidies: a fruit and vegetable subsidy and taxes on sugar, saturated fat, salt, and sugar-sweetened beverages. 2. Using an experimental design, 1000 adult New Zealand shoppers complete five household grocery shops in the Virtual Supermarket where they are randomly assigned to one of the 5000 price sets each time. 3. Output data (i.e., multiple observations of price configurations and purchased amounts) are used as inputs to econometric models (using Bayesian methods) to estimate accurate PE values. 4. A disease simulation model will be run with the new PE values as inputs to estimate QALYs gained and health costs saved for the five policy interventions. The Price ExaM study has the potential to enhance public health and economic disciplines by introducing internationally novel scientific methods to estimate accurate and precise food PE values. These values will be used to model the potential health and disease impacts of various food pricing policy

A comprehensive method for exotic option pricing

OpenAIRE

Rossella Agliardi

2010-01-01

This work illustrates how several new pricing formulas for exotic options can be derived within a Levy framework by employing a unique pricing expression. Many existing pricing formulas of the traditional Gaussian model are obtained as a by-product.

Two pricing methods for solving an integrated commercial fishery ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this paper, we develop two novel pricing methods for solving an integer program. We demonstrate the methods by solving an integrated commercial fishery planning model (IFPM). In this problem, a fishery manager must schedule fishing trawlers (determine when and where the trawlers should go fishing, and when the ...

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING METHOD IN DETERMINING SELLING PRICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhtarudin Muhtarudin

2017-08-01

-Based Costing method. After applying the latter cost determining the method there turned out to be a significant difference in the shoe production cost resulted from the inaccurate price calculation in the former method, as here a selling price is fixed by marking-up efforts aiming to cover the production cost. Determining a selling price in this way causes the selling price to be too low; thus it cannot optimize the profit. Keywords: Activity-Based Costing; Production Cost; Selling Price

Consistent Estimation of Pricing Kernels from Noisy Price Data

OpenAIRE

Vladislav Kargin

2003-01-01

If pricing kernels are assumed non-negative then the inverse problem of finding the pricing kernel is well-posed. The constrained least squares method provides a consistent estimate of the pricing kernel. When the data are limited, a new method is suggested: relaxed maximization of the relative entropy. This estimator is also consistent. Keywords: $\\epsilon$-entropy, non-parametric estimation, pricing kernel, inverse problems.

Heuristic method for searching global maximum of multimodal unknown function

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kamei, K; Araki, Y; Inoue, K

1983-06-01

The method is composed of three kinds of searches. They are called g (grasping)-mode search, f (finding)-mode search and c (confirming)-mode search. In the g-mode search and the c-mode search, a heuristic method is used which was extracted from search behaviors of human subjects. In f-mode search, the simplex method is used which is well known as a search method for unimodal unknown function. Each mode search and its transitions are shown in the form of flowchart. The numerical results for one-dimensional through six-dimensional multimodal functions prove the proposed search method to be an effective one. 11 references.

Price strategy and pricing strategy: terms and content identification

OpenAIRE

Panasenko Tetyana

2015-01-01

The article is devoted to the terminology and content identification of seemingly identical concepts "price strategy" and "pricing strategy". The article contains evidence that the price strategy determines the direction, principles and procedure of implementing the company price policy and pricing strategy creates a set of rules and practical methods of price formation in accordance with the pricing strategy of the company.

Phonetic search methods for large speech databases

CERN Document Server

Moyal, Ami; Tetariy, Ella; Gishri, Michal

2013-01-01

“Phonetic Search Methods for Large Databases” focuses on Keyword Spotting (KWS) within large speech databases. The brief will begin by outlining the challenges associated with Keyword Spotting within large speech databases using dynamic keyword vocabularies. It will then continue by highlighting the various market segments in need of KWS solutions, as well as, the specific requirements of each market segment. The work also includes a detailed description of the complexity of the task and the different methods that are used, including the advantages and disadvantages of each method and an in-depth comparison. The main focus will be on the Phonetic Search method and its efficient implementation. This will include a literature review of the various methods used for the efficient implementation of Phonetic Search Keyword Spotting, with an emphasis on the authors’ own research which entails a comparative analysis of the Phonetic Search method which includes algorithmic details. This brief is useful for resea...

A Robust Search for Determinants of Price Convergence in European Union - Known "Suspects" or New "Villains"?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vaclav Zdarek

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The article sheds some light on the problem of determinants of comparative price levels in the EU. A thorough search for determinants is carried out with help of the Bayesian approach (Bayesian model averaging. This state-of-the-art econometric approach allows researchers to deal with problems such as model uncertainty and open-endedness. Consequently, these cause problems with empirical modelling when using ‘classical’ approaches (e.g. cross-sectional estimations. We utilize dataset consisting of a broad range of variables both already utilized in empirical studies and new ones associated with broadly defined institutional environment and covering the period 1997–2011 for EU-26. Our benchmark results confirm the importance of some ‘traditional’ determinants such as labour costs and output gap and broadly defined environment (institutional factors including a monetary regime. An extension of the basic model so that a potentially differentiated impact of determinants in old and new EU member states can be accommodated does not provide sufficient evidence for differentiated effects of individual price level determinants in new and old EU member states.

Price strategy and pricing strategy: terms and content identification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Panasenko Tetyana

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the terminology and content identification of seemingly identical concepts "price strategy" and "pricing strategy". The article contains evidence that the price strategy determines the direction, principles and procedure of implementing the company price policy and pricing strategy creates a set of rules and practical methods of price formation in accordance with the pricing strategy of the company.

Two pricing methods for solving an integrated commercial fishery ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

a model (Hasan and Raffensperger, 2006) to solve this problem: the integrated ... planning and labour allocation for that processing firm, but did not consider any fleet- .... the DBONP method actually finds such price information, and uses it.

Error analysis in Fourier methods for option pricing for exponential Lévy processes

KAUST Repository

Crocce, Fabian

2015-01-07

We derive an error bound for utilising the discrete Fourier transform method for solving Partial Integro-Differential Equations (PIDE) that describe european option prices for exponential Lévy driven asset prices. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of a L? bound that separates the dynamical contribution from that arising from the type of the option n in question. The bound achieved does not rely on information of the asymptotic behaviour of option prices at extreme asset values. In addition, we demonstrate improved numerical performance for select examples of practical relevance when compared to established bounding methods.

Error analysis in Fourier methods for option pricing for exponential Lévy processes

KAUST Repository

Crocce, Fabian; Hä ppö lä , Juho; Keissling, Jonas; Tempone, Raul

2015-01-01

We derive an error bound for utilising the discrete Fourier transform method for solving Partial Integro-Differential Equations (PIDE) that describe european option prices for exponential Lévy driven asset prices. We give sufficient conditions

Calculation and decomposition of spot price using interior point nonlinear optimisation methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie, K.; Song, Y.H.

2004-01-01

Optimal pricing for real and reactive power is a very important issue in a deregulation environment. This paper summarises the optimal pricing problem as an extended optimal power flow problem. Then, spot prices are decomposed into different components reflecting various ancillary services. The derivation of the proposed decomposition model is described in detail. Primary-Dual Interior Point method is applied to avoid 'go' 'no go' gauge. In addition, the proposed approach can be extended to cater for other types of ancillary services. (author)

Fourier and wavelet option pricing methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S.C. Maree (Stef); L. Ortiz Gracia (Luis); C.W. Oosterlee (Cornelis); M.A.H. Dempster; J. Kanniainen (Juho); J. Keane (John); E. Vynckier (Erik)

2018-01-01

textabstractIn this overview chapter, we will discuss the use of exponentially converging option pricing techniques for option valuation. We will focus on the pricing of European options, and they are the basic instruments within a calibration procedure when fitting the parameters in asset dynamics.

Day ahead price forecasting of electricity markets by a mixed data model and hybrid forecast method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amjady, Nima; Keynia, Farshid

2008-01-01

In a competitive electricity market, forecast of energy prices is a key information for the market participants. However, price signal usually has a complex behavior due to its nonlinearity, nonstationarity, and time variancy. In spite of all performed researches on this area in the recent years, there is still an essential need for more accurate and robust price forecast methods. In this paper, a combination of wavelet transform (WT) and a hybrid forecast method is proposed for this purpose. The hybrid method is composed of cascaded forecasters where each forecaster consists of a neural network (NN) and an evolutionary algorithms (EA). Both time domain and wavelet domain features are considered in a mixed data model for price forecast, in which the candidate input variables are refined by a feature selection technique. The adjustable parameters of the whole method are fine-tuned by a cross-validation technique. The proposed method is examined on PJM electricity market and compared with some of the most recent price forecast methods. (author)

Mixed price and load forecasting of electricity markets by a new iterative prediction method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amjady, Nima; Daraeepour, Ali

2009-01-01

Load and price forecasting are the two key issues for the participants of current electricity markets. However, load and price of electricity markets have complex characteristics such as nonlinearity, non-stationarity and multiple seasonality, to name a few (usually, more volatility is seen in the behavior of electricity price signal). For these reasons, much research has been devoted to load and price forecast, especially in the recent years. However, previous research works in the area separately predict load and price signals. In this paper, a mixed model for load and price forecasting is presented, which can consider interactions of these two forecast processes. The mixed model is based on an iterative neural network based prediction technique. It is shown that the proposed model can present lower forecast errors for both load and price compared with the previous separate frameworks. Another advantage of the mixed model is that all required forecast features (from load or price) are predicted within the model without assuming known values for these features. So, the proposed model can better be adapted to real conditions of an electricity market. The forecast accuracy of the proposed mixed method is evaluated by means of real data from the New York and Spanish electricity markets. The method is also compared with some of the most recent load and price forecast techniques. (author)

An automated full-symmetry Patterson search method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rius, J.; Miravitlles, C.

1987-01-01

A full-symmetry Patterson search method is presented that performs a molecular coarse rotation search in vector space and orientation refinement using the σ function. The oriented molecule is positioned using the fast translation function τ 0 , which is based on the automated interpretation of τ projections using the sum function. This strategy reduces the number of Patterson-function values to be stored in the rotation search, and the use of the τ 0 function minimizes the required time for the development of all probable rotation search solutions. The application of this method to five representative test examples is shown. (orig.)

Gas prices and price process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Groenewegen, G.G.

1992-01-01

On a conference (Gas for Europe in the 1990's) during the Gasexpo '91 the author held a speech of which the Dutch text is presented here. Attention is paid to the current European pricing methods (prices based on the costs of buying, transporting and distributing the natural gas and prices based on the market value, which is deducted from the prices of alternative fuels), and the transparency of the prices (lack of information on the way the prices are determined). Also attention is paid to the market signal transparency and gas-gas competition, which means a more or less free market of gas distribution. The risks of gas-to-gas competition for a long term price stability, investment policies and security of supply are discussed. Opposition against the Third Party Access (TPA), which is the program to implement gas-to-gas competition, is caused by the fear of natural gas companies for lower gas prices and lower profits. Finally attention is paid to government regulation and the activities of the European Commission (EC) in this matter. 1 fig., 6 ills., 1 tab

The COS Method : An Efficient Fourier Method for Pricing Financial Derivatives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fang, F.

2010-01-01

When valuing and risk-managing financial derivatives, practitioners demand fast and accurate prices and sensitivities. Aside from the pricing of non-standard exotic financial derivatives, so-called plain vanilla European options form the basis for the calibration of financial models. As any pricing

ACCOUNTING ASPECTS OF PRICING AND TRANSFER PRICING

OpenAIRE

TÜNDE VERES

2011-01-01

The pricing methods in practice need really complex view of the business situation and depend on the strategy and market position of a company. The structure of a price seems simple: cost plus margin. Both categories are special area in the management accounting. Information about the product costs, the allocation methodologies in cost accounting, the analyzing of revenue and different level of the margin needs information from accounting system. This paper analyzes the pricing methods from m...

Investigating price clustering in the oil futures market

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Narayan, Paresh Kumar [School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Deakin University (Australia); Narayan, Seema [School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne (Australia); Popp, Stephan [Department of Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)

2011-01-15

Price clustering can be a source of market inefficiency. It follows that searching for price clustering in markets have gone beyond share prices into real estate, interest rate, and exchange rate markets. In this paper, we extend this line of research to oil futures markets. In particular, we consider five different forms of oil futures contracts and test for evidence of price clustering. Our results reveal strong presence of price clustering in the oil futures market. This finding implies that price clustering can potentially be a source of oil market inefficiency, which can influence trading strategies. (author)

Investigating price clustering in the oil futures market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narayan, Paresh Kumar; Narayan, Seema; Popp, Stephan

2011-01-01

Price clustering can be a source of market inefficiency. It follows that searching for price clustering in markets have gone beyond share prices into real estate, interest rate, and exchange rate markets. In this paper, we extend this line of research to oil futures markets. In particular, we consider five different forms of oil futures contracts and test for evidence of price clustering. Our results reveal strong presence of price clustering in the oil futures market. This finding implies that price clustering can potentially be a source of oil market inefficiency, which can influence trading strategies. (author)

The impact of alternative pricing methods for drugs in California Workers' Compensation System: Fee-schedule pricing.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Leslie; Turkistani, Fatema A; Huang, Wei; Tran, Dang M; Lin, Tracy Kuo

2018-01-01

California's Workers' Compensation System (CAWCS) Department of Industrial Relations questioned the adequacy of the current Medi-Cal fee-schedule pricing and requested analysis of alternatives that maximize price availability and maintain budget neutrality. To compare CAWCS pharmacy-dispensed (PD) drug prices under alternative fee schedules, and identify combinations of alternative benchmarks that have prices available for the largest percentage of PD drugs and that best reach budget neutrality. Claims transaction-level data (2011-2013) from CAWCS were used to estimate total annual PD pharmaceutical payments. Medi-Cal pricing data was from the Workman's Compensation Insurance System (WCIS). Average Wholesale Prices (AWP), Wholesale Acquisition Costs (WAC), Direct Prices (DP), Federal Upper Limit (FUL) prices, and National Average Drug Acquisition Costs (NADAC) were from Medi-Span. We matched National Drug Codes (NDCs), pricing dates, and drug quantity for comparisons. We report pharmacy-dispensed (PD) claims frequency, reimbursement matching rate, and paid costs by CAWCS as the reference price against all alternative price benchmarks. Of 12,529,977 CAWCS claims for pharmaceutical products 11.6% (1,462,814) were for PD drugs. Prescription drug cost for CAWCS was over $152M; $63.9M, $47.9M, and $40.6M in 2011-2013. Ninety seven percent of these CAWCS PD claims had a Medi-Cal price. Alternative mechanisms provided a price for fewer claims; NADAC 94.23%, AWP 90.94%, FUL 73.11%, WAC 66.98%, and DP 14.33%. Among CAWCS drugs with no Medi-Cal price in PD claims, AWP, WAC, NADAC, DP, and FUL provided prices for 96.7%, 63.14%, 24.82%, 20.83%, and 15.08% of claims. Overall CAWCS paid 100.52% of Medi-Cal, 60% of AWP, 97% of WAC, 309.53% of FUL, 103.83% of DP, and 136.27% of NADAC. CAWCS current Medi-Cal fee-schedule price list for PD drugs is more complete than all alternative fee-schedules. However, all reimbursement approaches would require combinations of pricing benchmarks

A systematic review of reference pricing: implications for US prescription drug spending.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Joy Li-Yueh; Fischer, Micahel A; Shrank, William H; Polinski, Jennifer M; Choudhry, Niteesh K

2012-11-01

Given rising pharmaceutical expenditures and the widespread use of reference pricing as a costcontainment instrument abroad, we systematically reviewed the evidence evaluating reference pricing policies. We performed a structured electronic search of peer-reviewed journals for studies published before that reported on the effects of reference pricing policies on medication use, payer and patient spending, and resource consumption. Our search yielded 16 studies describing 9 reference-pricing policies from 6 countries. Reference-pricing policies led to decreases in drug prices and increases in utilization of targeted medications, while also reducing payer and patient expenditures. In addition, these policies did not lead to increased use of medical services, such as physician office visits and hospitalization. These results suggest that reference pricing may be an attractive policy strategy for the US healthcare system.

Determinants and Sustainability of House Prices: The Case of Shanghai, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gao Lu Zou

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Recent housing policies include measures for home purchase control and shanty town redevelopment. This study proposes sustainable pricing, in that the long-run equilibrium price is determined by the fundamentals of house prices. We argue that changes in CPI might have led to rapidly growing house prices and rather high price levels. We investigate the long-run or short-run impacts of new commodity housing completions, transacted square meters of commodity housing, and CPI for house prices in Shanghai. We adopt monthly data for the period of 2005–2010. We test for unit roots using both the ADF and PP techniques and structural breaks using both the Zivot-Andrews (Model B and Perron (Model C methods. Considering Cheung-Lai and Reinsel–Ahn finite-sample corrections, the results suggest a long-run equilibrium. Housing completions negatively impact house prices in the short run. A positive volume-price relationship is suggested. Housing sales affect house prices in the short run but not vice versa. Hence, the empirical evidence supports the search model. In addition, CPI is strongly exogenous with respect to the long-run relationship and thus is a long-term determinant of house prices. CPI also positively and drastically influences house prices in the short run. Therefore, a reduction in inflation rate could stabilize house prices, increasing the chances of sustainable prices in the future.

Option pricing with COS method on Graphics Processing Units

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B. Zhang (Bo); C.W. Oosterlee (Kees)

2009-01-01

htmlabstractIn this paper, acceleration on the GPU for option pricing by the COS method is demonstrated. In particular, both European and Bermudan options will be discussed in detail. For Bermudan options, we consider both the Black-Scholes model and Levy processes of infinite activity. Moreover,

Adaptive wavelet method for pricing two-asset Asian options with floating strike

Science.gov (United States)

Černá, Dana

2017-12-01

Asian options are path-dependent option contracts which payoff depends on the average value of the asset price over some period of time. We focus on pricing of Asian options on two assets. The model for pricing these options is represented by a parabolic equation with time variable and three state variables, but using substitution it can be reduced to the equation with only two state variables. For time discretization we use the θ-scheme. We propose a wavelet basis that is adapted to boundary conditions and use an adaptive scheme with this basis for discretization on the given time level. The main advantage of this scheme is small number of degrees of freedom. We present numerical experiments for the Asian put option with floating strike and compare the results for the proposed adaptive method and the Galerkin method.

Understanding Air Transportation Market Dynamics Using a Search Algorithm for Calibrating Travel Demand and Price

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Vivek; Horio, Brant M.; DeCicco, Anthony H.; Hasan, Shahab; Stouffer, Virginia L.; Smith, Jeremy C.; Guerreiro, Nelson M.

2015-01-01

This paper presents a search algorithm based framework to calibrate origin-destination (O-D) market specific airline ticket demands and prices for the Air Transportation System (ATS). This framework is used for calibrating an agent based model of the air ticket buy-sell process - Airline Evolutionary Simulation (Airline EVOS) -that has fidelity of detail that accounts for airline and consumer behaviors and the interdependencies they share between themselves and the NAS. More specificially, this algorithm simultaneous calibrates demand and airfares for each O-D market, to within specified threshold of a pre-specified target value. The proposed algorithm is illustrated with market data targets provided by the Transportation System Analysis Model (TSAM) and Airline Origin and Destination Survey (DB1B). Although we specify these models and datasources for this calibration exercise, the methods described in this paper are applicable to calibrating any low-level model of the ATS to some other demand forecast model-based data. We argue that using a calibration algorithm such as the one we present here to synchronize ATS models with specialized forecast demand models, is a powerful tool for establishing credible baseline conditions in experiments analyzing the effects of proposed policy changes to the ATS.

An introduction to harmony search optimization method

CERN Document Server

Wang, Xiaolei; Zenger, Kai

2014-01-01

This brief provides a detailed introduction, discussion and bibliographic review of the nature1-inspired optimization algorithm called Harmony Search. It uses a large number of simulation results to demonstrate the advantages of Harmony Search and its variants and also their drawbacks. The authors show how weaknesses can be amended by hybridization with other optimization methods. The Harmony Search Method with Applications will be of value to researchers in computational intelligence in demonstrating the state of the art of research on an algorithm of current interest. It also helps researche

An electricity price model with consideration to load and gas price effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Min-xiang; Tao, Xiao-hu; Han, Zhen-xiang

2003-01-01

Some characteristics of the electricity load and prices are studied, and the relationship between electricity prices and gas (fuel) prices is analyzed in this paper. Because electricity prices are strongly dependent on load and gas prices, the authors constructed a model for electricity prices based on the effects of these two factors; and used the Geometric Mean Reversion Brownian Motion (GMRBM) model to describe the electricity load process, and a Geometric Brownian Motion(GBM) model to describe the gas prices; deduced the price stochastic process model based on the above load model and gas price model. This paper also presents methods for parameters estimation, and proposes some methods to solve the model.

The prospective impact of food pricing on improving dietary consumption: A systematic review and meta-analysis

OpenAIRE

Afshin, Ashkan; Peñalvo, José L.; Del Gobbo, Liana; Silva, Jose; Michaelson, Melody; O'Flaherty, Martin; Capewell, Simon; Spiegelman, Donna; Danaei, Goodarz; Mozaffarian, Dariush

2017-01-01

Background: While food pricing is a promising strategy to improve diet, the prospective impact of food pricing on diet has not been systematically quantified. Objective: To quantify the prospective effect of changes in food prices on dietary consumption. Design: We systematically searched online databases for interventional or prospective observational studies of price change and diet; we also searched for studies evaluating adiposity as a secondary outcome. Studies were excluded if price dat...

Day-ahead electricity prices forecasting by a modified CGSA technique and hybrid WT in LSSVM based scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shayeghi, H.; Ghasemi, A.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Presenting a hybrid CGSA-LSSVM scheme for price forecasting. • Considering uncertainties for filtering in input data and feature selection to improve efficiency. • Using DWT input featured LSSVM approach to classify next-week prices. • Used three real markets to illustrate performance of the proposed price forecasting model. - Abstract: At the present time, day-ahead electricity market is closely associated with other commodity markets such as fuel market and emission market. Under such an environment, day-ahead electricity price forecasting has become necessary for power producers and consumers in the current deregulated electricity markets. Seeking for more accurate price forecasting techniques, this paper proposes a new combination of a Feature Selection (FS) technique based mutual information (MI) technique and Wavelet Transform (WT) in this study. Moreover, in this paper a new modified version of Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) optimization based chaos theory, namely Chaotic Gravitational Search Algorithm (CGSA) is developed to find the optimal parameters of Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) to predict electricity prices. The performance and price forecast accuracy of the proposed technique is assessed by means of real data from Iran’s, Ontario’s and Spain’s price markets. The simulation results from numerical tables and figures in different cases show that the proposed technique increases electricity price market forecasting accuracy than the other classical and heretical methods in the scientific researches

An investigation into the pricing methods used by small and medium-sized enterprises / Hamilton Tshegofatso Gape

OpenAIRE

Gape, Hamilton Tshegofatso

2007-01-01

This thesis investigates the pricing methods used by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Prices are a key determinant of demand which influences revenue and in turn the business' profits. A business may fail if products and services are priced incorrectly. Pricing decision is, therefore, one of the critical success factors of a business, including SMEs. There is consensus widely disseminated in the textbook literature, that successful pricing can only be achieved when...

A Generalized Schwartz Model for Energy Spot Prices - Estimation using a Particle MCMC Method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lunde, Asger; Brix, Anne Floor; Wei, Wei

structure. Instead of using various filtering techniques for splitting the two factors, as often found in the literature, we estimate the model in one step using an adaptive MCMC method with a Rao-Blackwellized particle filter. We fit the model to UK natural gas spot prices and investigate the importance......We propose an energy spot price model featuring a two-factor price process and a two-component stochastic volatility process. The first factor in the price process captures the normal variations; the second accounts for spikes. The two-component volatility allows for a flexible autocorrelation...... of spikes and stochastic volatility. We find that the inclusion of stochastic volatility is crucial and that it strongly impacts the jump intensity in the spike process. Furthermore, our estimation method enables us to consider both continuous and purely jump-driven volatility processes, and thereby assess...

The California ISO experience with price spikes and search for remedies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barkovich, B. R. [Barkovich and Yap, Inc., San Francisco, CA (United States)

2000-07-01

An overview of the conditions under which price spikes have occurred in California, and the attempts to eliminate those conditions are discussed. Several periods of price spikes have occurred since the competitive electricity market became a reality in California, usually at times of high system load.. Price spikes in the ancillary services (A/S) (one of the two markets run by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the other being balancing or real-time energy), occurred when the supply of competitive bids has been restricted either by bid insufficiency or gaming. Bid insufficiency is the failure of the market to produce enough bids for a particular product. Gaming is defined as taking advantage of an occasion when there is likely to be short supply due to transmission constraints or geographical distribution of generation and using the occasion to maximize prices. The key tool used by the CAISO to reduce price spikes has been to reduce and adjust procurement of A/S by instituting additional enforcement of market participants' ability to meet their requirements to provide A/S on command. If they fail to do so, they do not receive payment for capacity that has been bid, with the bids accepted, but not provided. Changes in the scheduling system to facilitate inter-Scheduling Coordinator trades of A/S obligations, designed to reduce procurement through the CAISO markets and thus potentially lower market clearing prices for A/S in those markets, has been another technique used. The institution of 'Rational Buyer' has been yet another, and more substantial, means used to reduce price spikes. This mechanism, involving demand substitution across the markets for A/S, has the effect of defeating attempts by a generator to place a high-priced bid in a generally lower value market in the expectation of a smaller number of bids in that market. Significant decline in the amount of A/S procured, and a significant decline in the ratio of the total cost

The California ISO experience with price spikes and search for remedies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barkovich, B. R.

2000-01-01

An overview of the conditions under which price spikes have occurred in California, and the attempts to eliminate those conditions are discussed. Several periods of price spikes have occurred since the competitive electricity market became a reality in California, usually at times of high system load.. Price spikes in the ancillary services (A/S) (one of the two markets run by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), the other being balancing or real-time energy), occurred when the supply of competitive bids has been restricted either by bid insufficiency or gaming. Bid insufficiency is the failure of the market to produce enough bids for a particular product. Gaming is defined as taking advantage of an occasion when there is likely to be short supply due to transmission constraints or geographical distribution of generation and using the occasion to maximize prices. The key tool used by the CAISO to reduce price spikes has been to reduce and adjust procurement of A/S by instituting additional enforcement of market participants' ability to meet their requirements to provide A/S on command. If they fail to do so, they do not receive payment for capacity that has been bid, with the bids accepted, but not provided. Changes in the scheduling system to facilitate inter-Scheduling Coordinator trades of A/S obligations, designed to reduce procurement through the CAISO markets and thus potentially lower market clearing prices for A/S in those markets, has been another technique used. The institution of 'Rational Buyer' has been yet another, and more substantial, means used to reduce price spikes. This mechanism, involving demand substitution across the markets for A/S, has the effect of defeating attempts by a generator to place a high-priced bid in a generally lower value market in the expectation of a smaller number of bids in that market. Significant decline in the amount of A/S procured, and a significant decline in the ratio of the total cost of A

Discounted Cash Flow and Modern Asset Pricing Methods - Project Selection and Policy Implications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Emhjellen, Magne; Alaouze, Chris M

2002-07-01

We examine the differences in the net present values (NPV's) of North Sea oil projects obtained using the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) and a Modern Asset Pricing (MAP) method which involves the separate discounting of project cash flow components. NPV differences of more than $1 Om were found for some oil projects. Thus, the choice of valuation method will affect the development decisions of oil companies. The results of the MAP method are very sensitive to the choice of parameter values for the stochastic process used to model oil prices. Further research is recommended before the MAP method is used as the sole valuation model. (author)

Discounted Cash Flow and Modern Asset Pricing Methods - Project Selection and Policy Implications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Emhjellen, Magne; Alaouze, Chris M.

2002-07-01

We examine the differences in the net present values (NPV's) of North Sea oil projects obtained using the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) and a Modern Asset Pricing (MAP) method which involves the separate discounting of project cash flow components. NPV differences of more than $1 Om were found for some oil projects. Thus, the choice of valuation method will affect the development decisions of oil companies. The results of the MAP method are very sensitive to the choice of parameter values for the stochastic process used to model oil prices. Further research is recommended before the MAP method is used as the sole valuation model. (author)

Discounted Cash Flow and Modern Asset Pricing Methods - Project Selection and Policy Implications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emhjellen, Magne; Alaouze, Chris M.

2002-01-01

We examine the differences in the net present values (NPV's) of North Sea oil projects obtained using the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) and a Modern Asset Pricing (MAP) method which involves the separate discounting of project cash flow components. NPV differences of more than $1 Om were found for some oil projects. Thus, the choice of valuation method will affect the development decisions of oil companies. The results of the MAP method are very sensitive to the choice of parameter values for the stochastic process used to model oil prices. Further research is recommended before the MAP method is used as the sole valuation model. (author)

THE PROBLEMS OF TRANSFER PRICING

OpenAIRE

Tursunova Nargiza

2015-01-01

Each item has a price, but not every company is able to independently set the price at which it wants to sell its goods. Firms need to have a streamlined method of setting prices for their goods, and their financial condition depends on it. When choosing a method of pricing, there must be considered and internal and external constraints. The paper discusses the stages of formation of prices in a continuous process of pricing, as well as methods of pricing, their advantages and disadvantages. ...

THE LONG MEMORY PROPERTY OF HUNGARIAN MARKET PIG PRICES: A COMPARISON OF THREE DIFFERENT METHODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SÁNDOR KOVÁCS

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The present study investigates the long memory property of market pig prices. Simply knowing that these time series have long term dependence could have strong significance when forecasting prices. The presence of long memory is crucial information in making business decisions and creating portfolios. Long memory can be measured by calculating the so-called Hurst exponent. In our article, we studied and described three different methods (Rescaled range, Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, Autoregressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average. Data consist of four time series (piglet, young pig, sow, slaughter pig between 1991 and 2011. Before conducting the econometric analysis, all the series were seasonally adjusted using the TRAMO/SEATS method. Data preparation was followed by differencing the time series and testing their normality and stationarity. In the next step, we divided the analysed period into four parts and determined the Hurst exponent for each sub-period, using all three methods. In summary, results showed that slaughter pig prices are random; pig and piglet prices developed similarly and have long memory, while sow price changes definitely have short memory. Among the methods of pinpointing long term memory, ARFIMA was used for making the forecast. The forecasting ability of the method was compared to the traditional ARIMA model, with ARFIMA proving to be the better of the two.

Statistic methods for searching inundated radioactive entities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dubasov, Yu.V.; Krivokhatskij, A.S.; Khramov, N.N.

1993-01-01

The problem of searching flooded radioactive object in a present area was considered. Various models of the searching route plotting are discussed. It is shown that spiral route by random points from the centre of the area examined is the most efficient one. The conclusion is made that, when searching flooded radioactive objects, it is advisable to use multidimensional statistical methods of classification

Method of moments approach to pricing double barrier contracts in polynomial jump-diffusion models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eriksson, B.; Pistorius, M.

2011-01-01

Abstract: We present a method of moments approach to pricing double barrier contracts when the underlying is modelled by a polynomial jump-diffusion. By general principles the price is linked to certain infinite dimensional linear programming problems. Subsequently approximating these by finite

Offering A Price Transparency Tool Did Not Reduce Overall Spending Among California Public Employees And Retirees.

Science.gov (United States)

Desai, Sunita; Hatfield, Laura A; Hicks, Andrew L; Sinaiko, Anna D; Chernew, Michael E; Cowling, David; Gautam, Santosh; Wu, Sze-Jung; Mehrotra, Ateev

2017-08-01

Insurers, employers, and states increasingly encourage price transparency so that patients can compare health care prices across providers. However, the evidence on whether price transparency tools encourage patients to receive lower-cost care and reduce overall spending remains limited and mixed. We examined the experience of a large insured population that was offered a price transparency tool, focusing on a set of "shoppable" services (lab tests, office visits, and advanced imaging services). Overall, offering the tool was not associated with lower shoppable services spending. Only 12 percent of employees who were offered the tool used it in the first fifteen months after it was introduced, and use of the tool was not associated with lower prices for lab tests or office visits. The average price paid for imaging services preceded by a price search was 14 percent lower than that paid for imaging services not preceded by a price search. However, only 1 percent of those who received advanced imaging conducted a price search. Simply offering a price transparency tool is not sufficient to meaningfully decrease health care prices or spending. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

A Possible Method for Warning of House Price Bubble

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anthony Yanxiang Gu

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Metropolitan areas that had the most house price inflation between 1998 and 2006 and the highest price to income ratios are characterized by strong income growth and high population density. Areas with the highest price to income ratios in 2006 and lowest population density suffered the largest percentage price declines after the bubble burst. An equation is established for estimating warning level against house price bubble, and the estimated warning could leave 19 percent room and more than two years of time for action.

A Collocation Method by Moving Least Squares Applicable to European Option Pricing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Amirfakhrian

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The subject matter of the present inquiry is the pricing of European options in the actual form of numbers. To assess the numerical prices of European options, a scheme independent of any kind of mesh but rather powered by moving least squares (MLS estimation is made. In practical terms, first the discretion of time variable is implemented and then, an MLS-powered method is applied for spatial approximation. As, unlike other methods, these courses of action mentioned here don't rely on a mesh, one can firmly claim they are to be categorized under mesh-less methods. And, of course, at the end of the paper, various experiments are offered to prove how efficient and how powerful the introduced approach is.

Ex-vessel Fish Price Database: Disaggregating Prices for Low-Priced Species from Reduction Fisheries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Travis C. Tai

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Ex-vessel fish prices are essential for comprehensive fisheries management and socioeconomic analyses for fisheries science. In this paper, we reconstructed a global ex-vessel price database with the following areas of improvement: (1 compiling reported prices explicitly listed as “for reduction to fishmeal and fish oil” to estimate prices separately for catches destined for fishmeal and fish oil production, and other non-direct human consumption purposes; (2 including 95% confidence limit estimates for each price estimation; and (3 increasing the number of input data and the number of price estimates to match the reconstructed Sea Around Us catch database. Our primary focus was to address this first area of improvement as ex-vessel prices for catches destined for non-direct human consumption purposes were substantially overestimated, notably in countries with large reduction fisheries. For example in Peru, 2010 landed values were estimated as 3.8 billion real 2010 USD when using separate prices for reduction fisheries, compared with 5.8 billion using previous methods with only one price for all end-products. This update of the price database has significant global and country-specific impacts on fisheries price and landed value trends over time.

The value of price transparency in residential solar photovoltaic markets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

O’Shaughnessy, Eric; Margolis, Robert

2018-06-01

Installed prices for residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have declined significantly in recent years. However price dispersion and limited customer access to PV quotes prevents some prospective customers from obtaining low price offers. This study shows that improved customer access to prices - also known as price transparency - is a potential policy lever for further PV price reductions. We use customer search and strategic pricing theory to show that PV installation companies face incentives to offer lower prices in markets with more price transparency. We test this theoretical framework using a unique residential PV quote dataset. Our results show that installers offer lower prices to customers that are expected to receive more quotes. Our study provides a rationale for policies to improve price transparency in residential PV markets.

Monte Carlo methods for pricing financial options

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

R. Narasimhan (Krishtel eMaging) 1461 1996 Oct 15 13:05:22

traded by financial institutions, fund managers and corporate treasurers in the over the counter market. Options can often be ..... (under which discounted security price processes are martingales). This corresponds to ..... However, it requires explicit knowledge of option prices at all states of the Markov process and hence is ...

48 CFR 16.203 - Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment. 16.203 Section 16.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 16.203 Fixed-price...

Method for Developing Descriptions of Hard-to-Price Products: Results of the Telecommunications Product Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Conrad, F.; Tonn, B.

1999-05-01

This report presents the results of a study to test a new method for developing descriptions of hard-to-price products. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is responsible for collecting data to estimate price indices such as the Consumers Price Index (BLS) is responsible for collecting data to estimate price indices such as the Consumers Price Index (CPI). BLS accomplishes this task by sending field staff to places of business to price actual products. The field staff are given product checklists to help them determine whether products found today are comparable to products priced the previous month. Prices for non-comparable products are not included in the current month's price index calculations. A serious problem facing BLS is developing product checklists for dynamic product areas, new industries, and the service sector. It is difficult to keep checklists up-to-date and quite often simply to develop checklists for service industry products. Some people estimates that upwards of 50 % of US economic activity is not accounted for in the CPI

Pricing Mining Concessions Based on Combined Multinomial Pricing Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Xiao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available A combined multinomial pricing model is proposed for pricing mining concession in which the annualized volatility of the price of mineral products follows a multinomial distribution. First, a combined multinomial pricing model is proposed which consists of binomial pricing models calculated according to different volatility values. Second, a method is provided to calculate the annualized volatility and the distribution. Third, the value of convenience yields is calculated based on the relationship between the futures price and the spot price. The notion of convenience yields is used to adjust our model as well. Based on an empirical study of a Chinese copper mine concession, we verify that our model is easy to use and better than the model with constant volatility when considering the changing annualized volatility of the price of the mineral product.

Two-Dimensional Fourier Cosine Series Expansion Method for Pricing Financial Options

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruijter, M.J.; Oosterlee, C.W.

2012-01-01

The COS method for pricing European and Bermudan options with one underlying asset was developed in [F. Fang and C. W. Oosterlee, SIAM J. Sci. Comput., 31 (2008), pp. 826--848] and [F. Fang and C. W. Oosterlee, Numer. Math., 114 (2009), pp. 27--62]. In this paper, we extend the method to higher

Internet resource pricing models

CERN Document Server

Xu, Ke; He, Huan

2013-01-01

This brief guides the reader through three basic Internet resource pricing models using an Internet cost analysis. Addressing the evolution of service types, it presents several corresponding mechanisms which can ensure pricing implementation and resource allocation. The authors discuss utility optimization of network pricing methods in economics and underline two classes of pricing methods including system optimization and entities' strategic optimization. The brief closes with two examples of the newly proposed pricing strategy helping to solve the profit distribution problem brought by P2P

A discontinuous Galerkin method for numerical pricing of European options under Heston stochastic volatility

Science.gov (United States)

Hozman, J.; Tichý, T.

2016-12-01

The paper is based on the results from our recent research on multidimensional option pricing problems. We focus on European option valuation when the price movement of the underlying asset is driven by a stochastic volatility following a square root process proposed by Heston. The stochastic approach incorporates a new additional spatial variable into this model and makes it very robust, i.e. it provides a framework to price a variety of options that is closer to reality. The main topic is to present the numerical scheme arising from the concept of discontinuous Galerkin methods and applicable to the Heston option pricing model. The numerical results are presented on artificial benchmarks as well as on reference market data.

Energy prices and taxes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

Energy Prices and Taxes contains a major international compilation of energy prices at all market levels: import prices, industry prices and consumer prices. The statistics cover main petroleum products, gas, coal and electricity, giving for imported products an average price both for importing country and country of origin. Every issue includes full notes on sources and methods and a description of price mechanisms in each country

ARSTEC, Nonlinear Optimization Program Using Random Search Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasmuson, D. M.; Marshall, N. H.

1979-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: The ARSTEC program was written to solve nonlinear, mixed integer, optimization problems. An example of such a problem in the nuclear industry is the allocation of redundant parts in the design of a nuclear power plant to minimize plant unavailability. 2 - Method of solution: The technique used in ARSTEC is the adaptive random search method. The search is started from an arbitrary point in the search region and every time a point that improves the objective function is found, the search region is centered at that new point. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: Presently, the maximum number of independent variables allowed is 10. This can be changed by increasing the dimension of the arrays

Real-time earthquake monitoring using a search engine method.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jie; Zhang, Haijiang; Chen, Enhong; Zheng, Yi; Kuang, Wenhuan; Zhang, Xiong

2014-12-04

When an earthquake occurs, seismologists want to use recorded seismograms to infer its location, magnitude and source-focal mechanism as quickly as possible. If such information could be determined immediately, timely evacuations and emergency actions could be undertaken to mitigate earthquake damage. Current advanced methods can report the initial location and magnitude of an earthquake within a few seconds, but estimating the source-focal mechanism may require minutes to hours. Here we present an earthquake search engine, similar to a web search engine, that we developed by applying a computer fast search method to a large seismogram database to find waveforms that best fit the input data. Our method is several thousand times faster than an exact search. For an Mw 5.9 earthquake on 8 March 2012 in Xinjiang, China, the search engine can infer the earthquake's parameters in <1 s after receiving the long-period surface wave data.

Platform pricing in matching markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Goos, M.; van Cayseele, P.; Willekens, B.

2011-01-01

This paper develops a simple model of monopoly platform pricing accounting for two pertinent features of matching markets. 1) The trading process is characterized by search and matching frictions implying limits to positive cross-side network effects and the presence of own-side congestion.

Automated search method for AFM and profilers

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, Michael; Martin, Yves C.

2001-08-01

A new automation software creates a search model as an initial setup and searches for a user-defined target in atomic force microscopes or stylus profilometers used in semiconductor manufacturing. The need for such automation has become critical in manufacturing lines. The new method starts with a survey map of a small area of a chip obtained from a chip-design database or an image of the area. The user interface requires a user to point to and define a precise location to be measured, and to select a macro function for an application such as line width or contact hole. The search algorithm automatically constructs a range of possible scan sequences within the survey, and provides increased speed and functionality compared to the methods used in instruments to date. Each sequence consists in a starting point relative to the target, a scan direction, and a scan length. The search algorithm stops when the location of a target is found and criteria for certainty in positioning is met. With today's capability in high speed processing and signal control, the tool can simultaneously scan and search for a target in a robotic and continuous manner. Examples are given that illustrate the key concepts.

A method for short term electricity spot price forecasting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koreneff, G.; Seppaelae, A.; Lehtonen, M.; Kekkonen, V.; Laitinen, E.; Haekli, J.; Antila, E.

1998-01-01

In Finland, the electricity market was de-regulated in November 1995. For the electricity purchase of power companies this has caused big changes, since the old tariff based contracts of bulk power supply have been replaced by negotiated bilateral short term contracts and by power purchase from the spot market. In the spot market, in turn, there are at the present two strong actors: The electricity exchange of Finland and the Nordic power pool which is run by the Swedish and Norwegian companies. Today, the power companies in Finland have short term trade with both of the electricity exchanges. The aim of this chapter is to present methods for spot price forecasting in the electricity exchange. The main focus is given to the Finnish circumstances. In the beginning of the presentation, the practices of the electricity exchange of Finland are described, and a brief presentation is given on the different contracts, or electricity products, available in the spot market. For comparison, the practices of the Nordic electricity exchange are also outlined. A time series technique for spot price forecasting is presented. The structure of the model is presented, and its validity is tested using real case data obtained from the Finnish power market. The spot price forecasting model is a part of a computer system for distribution energy management (DEM) in a de-regulated power market

A method for short term electricity spot price forecasting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koreneff, G; Seppaelae, A; Lehtonen, M; Kekkonen, V [VTT Energy, Espoo (Finland); Laitinen, E; Haekli, J [Vaasa Univ. (Finland); Antila, E [ABB Transmit Oy (Finland)

1998-08-01

In Finland, the electricity market was de-regulated in November 1995. For the electricity purchase of power companies this has caused big changes, since the old tariff based contracts of bulk power supply have been replaced by negotiated bilateral short term contracts and by power purchase from the spot market. In the spot market, in turn, there are at the present two strong actors: The electricity exchange of Finland and the Nordic power pool which is run by the Swedish and Norwegian companies. Today, the power companies in Finland have short term trade with both of the electricity exchanges. The aim of this chapter is to present methods for spot price forecasting in the electricity exchange. The main focus is given to the Finnish circumstances. In the beginning of the presentation, the practices of the electricity exchange of Finland are described, and a brief presentation is given on the different contracts, or electricity products, available in the spot market. For comparison, the practices of the Nordic electricity exchange are also outlined. A time series technique for spot price forecasting is presented. The structure of the model is presented, and its validity is tested using real case data obtained from the Finnish power market. The spot price forecasting model is a part of a computer system for distribution energy management (DEM) in a de-regulated power market

MARKET ECONOMICS PRICING PARTICULARS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. I. Parshin

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The price performs several economic functions: accounting, stimulation, distribution, demand and offer balancing, serving as production site rational choice criterion, information. Most important pricing principles are: price scientific and purpose-aimed substantiation, single pricing and price control process. Pricing process factors are external, internal, basic (independent on money-market, market-determined and controlling. Different pricing methods and models are to be examined, recommendations on practical application of those chosen are to be written.

48 CFR 16.205 - Fixed-price contracts with prospective price redetermination.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-price contracts with prospective price redetermination. 16.205 Section 16.205 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 16.205...

A closed-loop energy price controlling method for real-time energy balancing in a smart grid energy market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alagoz, B. Baykant; Kaygusuz, Asim; Akcin, Murat; Alagoz, Serkan

2013-01-01

Future smart grids will require a flexible, observable, and controllable network for reliable and efficient energy delivery under uncertain generation and demand conditions. One of the mechanisms for efficient and reliable energy generation is dynamic demand-responsive generation management based on energy price adjustments that creates a balance in energy markets. This study presents a closed-loop PID (proportional–integral–derivative) controller-based price control method for autonomous and real-time balancing of energy demand and generation in smart grid electricity markets. The PID control system can regulate energy prices online to respond dynamically and instantaneously to the varying energy demands of grid consumers. Independent energy suppliers in the smart grid decide whether to sell their energy to the grid according to the energy prices declared by the closed-loop PID controller system. Energy market simulations demonstrate that PID-controlled energy price regulation can effectively maintain an energy balance for hourly demand fluctuations of consumers. - Highlights: • This study presents a control theoretic approach for management of energy balance. • A closed-loop PID controller-based price controlling method is used in smart grid. • The simulation results demonstrate advantages of PID-based energy price control. • This method is appropriate for demand responsive management of smart grid markets

Pricing American and Asian Options

OpenAIRE

Pat Muldowney

2015-01-01

An analytic method for pricing American call options is provided; followed by an empirical method for pricing Asian call options. The methodology is the pricing theory presented in "A Modern Theory of Random Variation", by Patrick Muldowney, 2012.

New evidence on the asymmetry in gasoline price: volatility versus margin?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abosedra, S.; Radchenko, S.

2006-01-01

This paper examines recent evidence on the role that gasoline margins and volatility play in the asymmetric response of gasoline prices to changes in oil prices at different stages of distribution process. In a regression model with margins, we find that margins are statistically significant in explaining asymmetry between crude oil and spot gasoline prices, spot gasoline prices and wholesale gasoline prices, and wholesale gasoline prices and retail prices. In a regression model with input volatility, we find evidence that volatility is responsible for asymmetry between wholesale gasoline prices and retail gasoline prices. When both, gasoline margins and gasoline volatility are included in the regression, we find evidence supporting margins, the search theory, volatility, the oligopolistic coordination theory and an explanation of asymmetry. (author)

48 CFR 1416.203 - Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment. 1416.203 Section 1416.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 1416.203...

48 CFR 916.203 - Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustments. 916.203 Section 916.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 916.203 Fixed...

48 CFR 1216.203 - Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment. 1216.203 Section 1216.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 1216.203 Fixed...

48 CFR 416.203 - Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment. 416.203 Section 416.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 416.203 Fixed...

48 CFR 616.203 - Fixed-Price contracts with economic price adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-Price contracts with economic price adjustment. 616.203 Section 616.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF STATE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 616.203 Fixed...

48 CFR 1316.203 - Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Fixed-price contracts with economic price adjustment. 1316.203 Section 1316.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 1316.203 Fixed...

Fast radio burst search: cross spectrum vs. auto spectrum method

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lei; Zheng, Weimin; Yan, Zhen; Zhang, Juan

2018-06-01

The search for fast radio bursts (FRBs) is a hot topic in current radio astronomy studies. In this work, we carry out a single pulse search with a very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) pulsar observation data set using both auto spectrum and cross spectrum search methods. The cross spectrum method, first proposed in Liu et al., maximizes the signal power by fully utilizing the fringe phase information of the baseline cross spectrum. The auto spectrum search method is based on the popular pulsar software package PRESTO, which extracts single pulses from the auto spectrum of each station. According to our comparison, the cross spectrum method is able to enhance the signal power and therefore extract single pulses from data contaminated by high levels of radio frequency interference (RFI), which makes it possible to carry out a search for FRBs in regular VLBI observations when RFI is present.

The end of meta search engines in Europe?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Husovec, Martin

2015-01-01

The technology behind the meta search engines supports countless number of Internet services ranging from the price and quality comparison websites to more sophisticated traffic connection finders and general search engines like Google. Meta search engines generally increase market transparency,

Valuing inter-sectoral costs and benefits of interventions in the healthcare sector: methods for obtaining unit prices.

Science.gov (United States)

Drost, Ruben M W A; Paulus, Aggie T G; Ruwaard, Dirk; Evers, Silvia M A A

2017-02-01

There is a lack of knowledge about methods for valuing health intervention-related costs and monetary benefits in the education and criminal justice sectors, also known as 'inter-sectoral costs and benefits' (ICBs). The objective of this study was to develop methods for obtaining unit prices for the valuation of ICBs. By conducting an exploratory literature study and expert interviews, several generic methods were developed. The methods' feasibility was assessed through application in the Netherlands. Results were validated in an expert meeting, which was attended by policy makers, public health experts, health economists and HTA-experts, and discussed at several international conferences and symposia. The study resulted in four methods, including the opportunity cost method (A) and valuation using available unit prices (B), self-constructed unit prices (C) or hourly labor costs (D). The methods developed can be used internationally and are valuable for the broad international field of HTA.

Pricing strategy in a dual-channel and remanufacturing supply chain system

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Chengzhi; Xu, Feng; Sheng, Zhaohan

2010-07-01

This article addresses the pricing strategy problems in a supply chain system where the manufacturer sells original products and remanufactured products via indirect retailer channels and direct Internet channels. Due to the complexity of that system, agent technologies that provide a new way for analysing complex systems are used for modelling. Meanwhile, in order to reduce the computational load of searching procedure for optimal prices and profits, a learning search algorithm is designed and implemented within the multi-agent supply chain model. The simulation results show that the proposed model can find out optimal prices of original products and remanufactured products in both channels, which lead to optimal profits of the manufacturer and the retailer. It is also found that the optimal profits are increased by introducing direct channel and remanufacturing. Furthermore, the effect of customer preference, direct channel cost and remanufactured unit cost on optimal prices and profits are examined.

Crying wolf? On the price discrimination of online airline tickets

OpenAIRE

Vissers, Thomas; Nikiforakis, Nick; Bielova, Nataliia; Joosen, Wouter

2014-01-01

International audience; Price discrimination refers to the practice of dynamically varying the prices of goods based on a customer's purchasing power and willingness to pay. In this paper, motivated by several anecdotal ac-counts, we report on a three-week experiment, conducted in search of price discrimination in airline tickets. Despite presenting the companies with multiple opportunities for discriminating us, and contrary to our expectations, we do not find any evidence for systematic pri...

A comparison of discounted cashflow and modern asset pricing methods - project selection and policy implications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emhjellen, Magne; Alaouze, Chris M.

2003-01-01

We examine the differences in the net present values (NPVs) of North Sea oil projects obtained using the weighted average cost of capital and a modern asset pricing (MAP) method which involves the separate discounting of project cashflow components. NPV differences of more than $10 million were found for some oil projects. Thus, the choice of valuation method will affect the development decisions of oil companies and could influence tax policy. The results of the MAP method are very sensitive to the choice of parameter values for the stochastic process used to model oil prices. Further research is recommended before the MAP method is used as the sole valuation model

Dating breaks for global crude oil prices and their volatility : a possible price band for global crude prices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liao, H.C.; Suen, Y.B.

2006-01-01

Global oil prices are among the most visible of all historical commodity records. This paper presented and applied the multiple structural change method developed by Baie and Perron (BP) to investigate daily West Texas Intermediate (WTI) spot prices from January 2, 1986 to December 30, 2004 as collected by the United States Department of Energy. In particular, the BP statistical method was used to estimate the number and location of structural breaks in global oil price series and their volatility. The objective was to precisely determine the exact structural break in the global oil market. The breaks for both the price of oil and its volatility were successfully located and dated. It was shown that the break for the structural change in oil prices occurred on November 12, 1999, where the average oil price was U$19.02 per barrel previously, and U$30.90 afterwards. Two breaks for oil price volatility were also found, the first in March 1991 and the other in December 1995. The volatility was measured in 3 regimes by dividing these 2 breaks. It was suggested that since oil prices increased more rapidly during the second half of 2004 and 2005, it is possible that another structural break may be found during this period. However, it wa cautioned that it is difficult to find another significant break until more data becomes available, particularly for periods characterized by a rapid increase in price. 24 refs., 5 tabs., 2 figs

Dynamic cyclical comovements of oil prices with industrial production, consumer prices, unemployment, and stock prices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ewing, Bradley T.; Thompson, Mark A.

2007-01-01

This paper examines the empirical relationship between oil prices and several key macroeconomic variables. In particular, we investigate the cyclical comovements of crude oil prices with output, consumer prices, unemployment, and stock prices. The methodology involves the use of the Hodrick-Prescott [Hodrick, R.J., Prescott, E.C., 1980. Post-War US Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation. Working Paper, Carnegie Mellon University] and Baxter-King [Baxter, M., King, R.G., 1999. Measuring business cycles: approximate band-pass filters for economic time series. Review of Economics and Statistics 81, 575-593] filters, as well as the recently developed full-sample asymmetric Christiano-Fitzgerald [Christiano, L.J., Fitzgerald, T.J., 2003. The band pass filter. International Economic Review 44, 435-465] band-pass filter. Contemporaneous and cross-correlation estimates are made using the stationary cyclical components of the time series to make inference about the degree to which oil prices move with the cycle. Besides documenting a number of important cyclical relationships using three different time series filtering methods, the results suggest that crude oil prices are procyclical and lag industrial production. Additionally, we find that oil prices lead consumer prices. (author)

Money flexibility, price elasticity, and elasticity of marginal utility of consumption

OpenAIRE

Malakhov, Sergey

2014-01-01

The development of G.Stigler’s original model of search describes the mathematical relationship between the elasticity of the marginal utility of consumption, the price elasticity, and the elasticity of the marginal utility of money income with respect to increase in the price of living and/or to inflation. This relationship can be used not only in economics of well-being but also in microeconomics where the increase in the price of living, i.e., in purchase price, can make consumption “bad” ...

TARGET CONTROLLING METHOD OF THE PRICING PROCESS IN THE TOURISM ENTERPRISES

OpenAIRE

N. Sagalakova

2016-01-01

Key stages of the pricing process in the tourism enterprises are investigated: subprocess of establishing of nominal value of the new tourism product price and subprocess of adjustment of the established price depending on a situation in the tourism market. For establishing of nominal value of the price it is offered by use of optimizing model, which maximizes the usefulness function of structural parts of the tourism product price. For adjustment of the tourism product price under change of ...

Price Comparisons on the Internet Based on Computational Intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jun Woo; Ha, Sung Ho

2014-01-01

Information-intensive Web services such as price comparison sites have recently been gaining popularity. However, most users including novice shoppers have difficulty in browsing such sites because of the massive amount of information gathered and the uncertainty surrounding Web environments. Even conventional price comparison sites face various problems, which suggests the necessity of a new approach to address these problems. Therefore, for this study, an intelligent product search system was developed that enables price comparisons for online shoppers in a more effective manner. In particular, the developed system adopts linguistic price ratings based on fuzzy logic to accommodate user-defined price ranges, and personalizes product recommendations based on linguistic product clusters, which help online shoppers find desired items in a convenient manner. PMID:25268901

Efficient searching in meshfree methods

Science.gov (United States)

Olliff, James; Alford, Brad; Simkins, Daniel C.

2018-04-01

Meshfree methods such as the Reproducing Kernel Particle Method and the Element Free Galerkin method have proven to be excellent choices for problems involving complex geometry, evolving topology, and large deformation, owing to their ability to model the problem domain without the constraints imposed on the Finite Element Method (FEM) meshes. However, meshfree methods have an added computational cost over FEM that come from at least two sources: increased cost of shape function evaluation and the determination of adjacency or connectivity. The focus of this paper is to formally address the types of adjacency information that arises in various uses of meshfree methods; a discussion of available techniques for computing the various adjacency graphs; propose a new search algorithm and data structure; and finally compare the memory and run time performance of the methods.

The commission errors search and assessment (CESA) method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reer, B.; Dang, V. N

2007-05-15

Errors of Commission (EOCs) refer to the performance of inappropriate actions that aggravate a situation. In Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) terms, they are human failure events that result from the performance of an action. This report presents the Commission Errors Search and Assessment (CESA) method and describes the method in the form of user guidance. The purpose of the method is to identify risk-significant situations with a potential for EOCs in a predictive analysis. The main idea underlying the CESA method is to catalog the key actions that are required in the procedural response to plant events and to identify specific scenarios in which these candidate actions could erroneously appear to be required. The catalog of required actions provides a basis for a systematic search of context-action combinations. To focus the search towards risk-significant scenarios, the actions that are examined in the CESA search are prioritized according to the importance of the systems and functions that are affected by these actions. The existing PSA provides this importance information; the Risk Achievement Worth or Risk Increase Factor values indicate the systems/functions for which an EOC contribution would be more significant. In addition, the contexts, i.e. PSA scenarios, for which the EOC opportunities are reviewed are also prioritized according to their importance (top sequences or cut sets). The search through these context-action combinations results in a set of EOC situations to be examined in detail. CESA has been applied in a plant-specific pilot study, which showed the method to be feasible and effective in identifying plausible EOC opportunities. This experience, as well as the experience with other EOC analyses, showed that the quantification of EOCs remains an issue. The quantification difficulties and the outlook for their resolution conclude the report. (author)

The commission errors search and assessment (CESA) method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reer, B.; Dang, V. N.

2007-05-01

Errors of Commission (EOCs) refer to the performance of inappropriate actions that aggravate a situation. In Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) terms, they are human failure events that result from the performance of an action. This report presents the Commission Errors Search and Assessment (CESA) method and describes the method in the form of user guidance. The purpose of the method is to identify risk-significant situations with a potential for EOCs in a predictive analysis. The main idea underlying the CESA method is to catalog the key actions that are required in the procedural response to plant events and to identify specific scenarios in which these candidate actions could erroneously appear to be required. The catalog of required actions provides a basis for a systematic search of context-action combinations. To focus the search towards risk-significant scenarios, the actions that are examined in the CESA search are prioritized according to the importance of the systems and functions that are affected by these actions. The existing PSA provides this importance information; the Risk Achievement Worth or Risk Increase Factor values indicate the systems/functions for which an EOC contribution would be more significant. In addition, the contexts, i.e. PSA scenarios, for which the EOC opportunities are reviewed are also prioritized according to their importance (top sequences or cut sets). The search through these context-action combinations results in a set of EOC situations to be examined in detail. CESA has been applied in a plant-specific pilot study, which showed the method to be feasible and effective in identifying plausible EOC opportunities. This experience, as well as the experience with other EOC analyses, showed that the quantification of EOCs remains an issue. The quantification difficulties and the outlook for their resolution conclude the report. (author)

Judgments about Judgments: The Dissociation of Consideration Price and Transaction Commitment Judgments

Science.gov (United States)

Janiszewski, Chris; Lichtenstein, Donald R.; Belyavsky, Julia

2008-01-01

There are many contexts in which people make judgments about prior judgments. For example, Internet shopping bots (e.g., NexTag.com) allow consumers to search for products and, if the price is too high, list a price at which they would consider making the purchase (i.e., base judgment). If the price drops to this level, the vendor generates an…

Job Search Methods: Consequences for Gender-based Earnings Inequality.

Science.gov (United States)

Huffman, Matt L.; Torres, Lisa

2001-01-01

Data from adults in Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles (n=1,942) who searched for work using formal (ads, agencies) or informal (networks) methods indicated that type of method used did not contribute to the gender gap in earnings. Results do not support formal job search as a way to reduce gender inequality. (Contains 55 references.) (SK)

Homotopy Analysis Method for Boundary-Value Problem of Turbo Warrant Pricing under Stochastic Volatility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hoi Ying Wong

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Turbo warrants are liquidly traded financial derivative securities in over-the-counter and exchange markets in Asia and Europe. The structure of turbo warrants is similar to barrier options, but a lookback rebate will be paid if the barrier is crossed by the underlying asset price. Therefore, the turbo warrant price satisfies a partial differential equation (PDE with a boundary condition that depends on another boundary-value problem (BVP of PDE. Due to the highly complicated structure of turbo warrants, their valuation presents a challenging problem in the field of financial mathematics. This paper applies the homotopy analysis method to construct an analytic pricing formula for turbo warrants under stochastic volatility in a PDE framework.

The duty of buying electricity from renewable sources and from cogeneration versus purchasing prices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piha, M.

1992-01-01

Electricity purchase prices are regulated and should not exceed the price at which electricity is purchased from the transmission system belonging to the dominant supplier, viz., the CEZ company. The suitability is discussed of the employed method of average price comparison. Drawbacks of such a comparison lie in the lower reliability of supplies from renewable sources, the necessity of having power reserves available for the case of renewable source failure, power supplies which are economically discriminated in favor of coal fired power plants based on costs which fail to cover simple reproduction, and failure to respect the supply prices in the different tariff classes. In fact, cost and price comparison is only reasonable if it concerns electricity supplies providing the same benefit and having the same or similar parameters and characteristics. Two approaches to the search of an optimum alternative are described, viz. the system approach, respecting the aspects of the complex integrated power system, and the market approach, which is based on the lowest operator's cost of electricity purchase. (J.B.). 1 tab

Search and foraging behaviors from movement data: A comparison of methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Bennison, Ashley; Bearhop, Stuart; Bodey, Thomas W; Votier, Stephen C; Grecian, W James; Wakefield, Ewan D; Hamer, Keith C; Jessopp, Mark

2018-01-01

Search behavior is often used as a proxy for foraging effort within studies of animal movement, despite it being only one part of the foraging process, which also includes prey capture. While methods for validating prey capture exist, many studies rely solely on behavioral annotation of animal movement data to identify search and infer prey capture attempts. However, the degree to which search correlates with prey capture is largely untested. This study applied seven behavioral annotation methods to identify search behavior from GPS tracks of northern gannets ( Morus bassanus ), and compared outputs to the occurrence of dives recorded by simultaneously deployed time-depth recorders. We tested how behavioral annotation methods vary in their ability to identify search behavior leading to dive events. There was considerable variation in the number of dives occurring within search areas across methods. Hidden Markov models proved to be the most successful, with 81% of all dives occurring within areas identified as search. k -Means clustering and first passage time had the highest rates of dives occurring outside identified search behavior. First passage time and hidden Markov models had the lowest rates of false positives, identifying fewer search areas with no dives. All behavioral annotation methods had advantages and drawbacks in terms of the complexity of analysis and ability to reflect prey capture events while minimizing the number of false positives and false negatives. We used these results, with consideration of analytical difficulty, to provide advice on the most appropriate methods for use where prey capture behavior is not available. This study highlights a need to critically assess and carefully choose a behavioral annotation method suitable for the research question being addressed, or resulting species management frameworks established.

PRICE AND PRICING STRATEGIES

OpenAIRE

SUCIU Titus

2013-01-01

In individual companies, price is one significant factor in achieving marketing success. In many purchase situations, price can be of great importance to customers. Marketers must establish pricing strategies that are compatible with the rest of the marketing mix. Management should decide whether to charge the same price to all similar buyers of identical quantities of a product (a one-price strategy) or to set different prices (a flexible price strategy). Many organizations, especially retai...

Effects of reference pricing in pharmaceutical markets: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Galizzi, Matteo Maria; Ghislandi, Simone; Miraldo, Marisa

2011-01-01

This work aims to provide a systematic and updated survey of original scientific studies on the effect of the introduction of reference pricing (RP) policies in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. We searched PubMed, EconLit and Web of Knowledge for articles on RP. We reviewed studies that met the inclusion criteria established in the search strategy. From a total of 468 references, we selected the 35 that met all of the inclusion criteria. Some common themes emerged in the literature. The first was that RP was generally associated with a decrease in the prices of the drugs subject to the policy. In particular, price drops seem to have been experienced in virtually every country that implemented a generic RP (GRP) policy. A GRP policy applies only to products with expired patents and generic competition, and clusters drugs according to chemical equivalence (same form and active compound). More significant price decreases were observed in the sub-markets in which drugs were already facing generic competition prior to RP. Price drops varied widely according to the amount of generic competition and industrial strategies: brand-named drugs originally priced above RP values decreased their prices to a greater extent. A second common theme was that both therapeutic RP (TRP) and GRP have been associated with significant and consistent savings in the first years of application. A third general result is that generic market shares significantly increased whenever the firms producing brand-named drugs did not adopt one of the following strategies: lowering prices to RP values; launching new dosages and/or formulations; or marketing substitute drugs still under patent protection. Finally, concerning TRP, although more evidence is needed, studies based on a large number of patient-level observations showed no association between the RP policy and health outcomes.

Differences in price elasticities of demand for health insurance: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Pendzialek, Jonas B; Simic, Dusan; Stock, Stephanie

2016-01-01

Many health insurance systems apply managed competition principles to control costs and quality of health care. Besides other factors, managed competition relies on a sufficient price-elastic demand. This paper presents a systematic review of empirical studies on price elasticity of demand for health insurance. The objective was to identify the differing international ranges of price elasticity and to find socio-economic as well as setting-oriented factors that influence price elasticity. Relevant literature for the topic was identified through a two-step identification process including a systematic search in appropriate databases and further searches within the references of the results. A total of 45 studies from countries such as the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland were found. Clear differences in price elasticity by countries were identified. While empirical studies showed a range between -0.2 and -1.0 for optional primary health insurance in the US, higher price elasticities between -0.6 and -4.2 for Germany and around -2 for Switzerland were calculated for mandatory primary health insurance. Dutch studies found price elasticities below -0.5. In consideration of all relevant studies, age and poorer health status were identified to decrease price elasticity. Other socio-economic factors had an unclear impact or too limited evidence. Premium level, range of premiums, homogeneity of benefits/coverage and degree of forced decision were found to have a major influence on price elasticity in their settings. Further influence was found from supplementary insurance and premium-dependent employer contribution.

A Trial-and-Error Method with Autonomous Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Traffic Counts for Cordon-Based Congestion Pricing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhiyuan Liu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This study proposes a practical trial-and-error method to solve the optimal toll design problem of cordon-based pricing, where only the traffic counts autonomously collected on the entry links of the pricing cordon are needed. With the fast development and adoption of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I facilities, it is very convenient to autonomously collect these data. Two practical properties of the cordon-based pricing are further considered in this article: the toll charge on each entry of one pricing cordon is identical; the total inbound flow to one cordon should be restricted in order to maintain the traffic conditions within the cordon area. Then, the stochastic user equilibrium (SUE with asymmetric link travel time functions is used to assess each feasible toll pattern. Based on a variational inequality (VI model for the optimal toll pattern, this study proposes a theoretically convergent trial-and-error method for the addressed problem, where only traffic counts data are needed. Finally, the proposed method is verified based on a numerical network example.

The estimation of time-varying risks in asset pricing modelling using B-Spline method

Science.gov (United States)

Nurjannah; Solimun; Rinaldo, Adji

2017-12-01

Asset pricing modelling has been extensively studied in the past few decades to explore the risk-return relationship. The asset pricing literature typically assumed a static risk-return relationship. However, several studies found few anomalies in the asset pricing modelling which captured the presence of the risk instability. The dynamic model is proposed to offer a better model. The main problem highlighted in the dynamic model literature is that the set of conditioning information is unobservable and therefore some assumptions have to be made. Hence, the estimation requires additional assumptions about the dynamics of risk. To overcome this problem, the nonparametric estimators can also be used as an alternative for estimating risk. The flexibility of the nonparametric setting avoids the problem of misspecification derived from selecting a functional form. This paper investigates the estimation of time-varying asset pricing model using B-Spline, as one of nonparametric approach. The advantages of spline method is its computational speed and simplicity, as well as the clarity of controlling curvature directly. The three popular asset pricing models will be investigated namely CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model), Fama-French 3-factors model and Carhart 4-factors model. The results suggest that the estimated risks are time-varying and not stable overtime which confirms the risk instability anomaly. The results is more pronounced in Carhart’s 4-factors model.

GRID PRICING VERSUS AVERAGE PRICING FOR SLAUGHTER CATTLE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

OpenAIRE

Fausti, Scott W.; Qasmi, Bashir A.

1999-01-01

The paper compares weekly producer revenue under grid pricing and average dressed weight pricing methods for 2560 cattle over a period of 102 weeks. Regression analysis is applied to identify factors affecting the revenue differential.

Tobacco price increases and population interest in smoking cessation in Japan between 2004 and 2016: a Google Trends analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Tabuchi, Takahiro; Fukui, Keisuke; Gallus, Silvano

2018-01-31

Tobacco price increases can generate increased public interest in smoking cessation, but it is not clear how long this interest lasts. Our objective was to evaluate the duration of the impact of cigarette price increase in Japan using Google search data. Monthly or daily aggregated Google search volume for smoking cessation in Japan from 2004 to 2016 was collected in terms of relative search volume (RSV) ranging from 0-100. Using monthly RSV data, we evaluated possible relationships between the RSVs and tobacco control measures in Japan. Time periods within which the impact of search volume significantly increased were identified by cluster detection test, using daily RSV data. A spike in RSV preceding the enforcement of a cigarette price increase revealed an anticipation effect. Between 2004 and 2016 the three highest monthly RSV spikes were observed in July 2006 (RSV=66), when cigarette prices increased by 11%, and in September (RSV=90) and October 2010 (RSV=100), when cigarette prices increased by 37%. Regarding daily RSV, the detected cluster size around the price increase in 2010 (52 days) was longer than that in 2006 (17 days). In 2010, a cluster period of 25 days before the date of the price increase was observed, suggesting an anticipation effect. After the onset of the price increase, a cluster of 27 days was detected. When the cigarette price increased due to consumption tax in April 2014, almost no anticipation effect was observed. The population impact of tobacco price increases on smoking cessation may be assessed using Google Trends data. The cluster indicates that a higher cigarette price increase had a higher and longer-lasting effect on population interest in cessation, but the impact may continue for a relatively short time. To examine the duration of the impact of cigarette price increases on population interest in smoking cessation in Japan, Google search data for smoking cessation was analyzed. Between 2004 and 2016 the three highest spikes of

FTR-option formulation and pricing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parmeshwaran, Vijay; Muthuraman, Kumar

2009-01-01

Recent changes in electricity markets have advocated the use of Local Marginal Prices (LMP) for congestion management and pricing. From the perspective of market participants, the LMPs pose a risk since they are not known before a transaction on the grid is made. Financial transmission rights (FTR) are instruments that help market participants hedge this risk and are issuable in two flavors - obligations and options. While pricing obligations are much easier, pricing FTR options pose a significant challenge. In this paper we develop a computational method for pricing FTR options. We also discuss the problem of designing financial instrument sets that assure revenue adequacy for the issuer. We point out the difficulty in assuring revenue adequacy when FTR options are present and propose a scheme for overcoming the difficulty. The proposed pricing method can be used to compute prices of options and obligations in the primary market or as a reliable pricing tool to compute option prices in the secondary market. Finally using a test network we present and discuss numerical results. (author)

Estimating household fuel oil/kerosine, natural gas, and LPG prices by census region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poyer, D.A.; Teotia, A.P.S.

1994-08-01

The purpose of this research is to estimate individual fuel prices within the residential sector. The data from four US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, residential energy consumption surveys were used to estimate the models. For a number of important fuel types - fuel oil, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas - the estimation presents a problem because these fuels are not used by all households. Estimates obtained by using only data in which observed fuel prices are present would be biased. A correction for this self-selection bias is needed for estimating prices of these fuels. A literature search identified no past studies on application of the selectivity model for estimating prices of residential fuel oil/kerosine, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas. This report describes selectivity models that utilize the Dubin/McFadden correction method for estimating prices of residential fuel oil/kerosine, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas in the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West census regions. Statistically significant explanatory variables are identified and discussed in each of the models. This new application of the selectivity model should be of interest to energy policy makers, researchers, and academicians

The method of search of tendencies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reuss, Paul.

1981-08-01

The search of tendencies is an application of the mean squares method. Its objective is the better possible evaluation of the basic data used in the calculations from the comparison between measurements of integral characteristics and the corresponding theoretical results. This report presents the minimization which allows the estimation of the basic data and, above all, the methods which are necessary for the critical analysis of the obtained results [fr

Semi-Analytical method for the pricing of barrier options in case of time-dependent parameters (with Matlab® codes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guardasoni C.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available A Semi-Analytical method for pricing of Barrier Options (SABO is presented. The method is based on the foundations of Boundary Integral Methods which is recast here for the application to barrier option pricing in the Black-Scholes model with time-dependent interest rate, volatility and dividend yield. The validity of the numerical method is illustrated by several numerical examples and comparisons.

Transfer pricing: van basismethoden tot systeem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steens, H.B.A.

The paper describes basic transfer pricing methods (e.g., cost plus, sales minus) and a framework for developing a consistent transfer pricing system as a consistent set of transfer prices for transactions using the basic methods and meeting managerial and fiscal requirements.

48 CFR 1615.407-1 - Rate reduction for defective pricing or defective cost or pricing data.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... defective pricing or defective cost or pricing data. 1615.407-1 Section 1615.407-1 Federal Acquisition... CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 1615.407-1 Rate reduction for defective pricing or defective cost or pricing data. The clause set forth in section 1652.215-70...

Prices and Price Setting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

R.P. Faber (Riemer)

2010-01-01

textabstractThis thesis studies price data and tries to unravel the underlying economic processes of why firms have chosen these prices. It focuses on three aspects of price setting. First, it studies whether the existence of a suggested price has a coordinating effect on the prices of firms.

A hybrid credibility-based fuzzy multiple objective optimisation to differential pricing and inventory policies with arbitrage consideration

Science.gov (United States)

Ghasemy Yaghin, R.; Fatemi Ghomi, S. M. T.; Torabi, S. A.

2015-10-01

In most markets, price differentiation mechanisms enable manufacturers to offer different prices for their products or services in different customer segments; however, the perfect price discrimination is usually impossible for manufacturers. The importance of accounting for uncertainty in such environments spurs an interest to develop appropriate decision-making tools to deal with uncertain and ill-defined parameters in joint pricing and lot-sizing problems. This paper proposes a hybrid bi-objective credibility-based fuzzy optimisation model including both quantitative and qualitative objectives to cope with these issues. Taking marketing and lot-sizing decisions into account simultaneously, the model aims to maximise the total profit of manufacturer and to improve service aspects of retailing simultaneously to set different prices with arbitrage consideration. After applying appropriate strategies to defuzzify the original model, the resulting non-linear multi-objective crisp model is then solved by a fuzzy goal programming method. An efficient stochastic search procedure using particle swarm optimisation is also proposed to solve the non-linear crisp model.

Method of Improving Personal Name Search in Academic Information Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heejun Han

2012-12-01

Full Text Available All academic information on the web or elsewhere has its creator, that is, a subject who has created the information. The subject can be an individual, a group, or an institution, and can be a nation depending on the nature of the relevant information. Most information is composed of a title, an author, and contents. An essay which is under the academic information category has metadata including a title, an author, keyword, abstract, data about publication, place of publication, ISSN, and the like. A patent has metadata including the title, an applicant, an inventor, an attorney, IPC, number of application, and claims of the invention. Most web-based academic information services enable users to search the information by processing the meta-information. An important element is to search information by using the author field which corresponds to a personal name. This study suggests a method of efficient indexing and using the adjacent operation result ranking algorithm to which phrase search-based boosting elements are applied, and thus improving the accuracy of the search results of personal names. It also describes a method for providing the results of searching co-authors and related researchers in searching personal names. This method can be effectively applied to providing accurate and additional search results in the academic information services.

The price of pollution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bleijenberg, A.N.; Davidson, M.D.; Wit, R.

1998-06-01

The market does not create a price for environmental pollution for the simple reason that there is no market for the environment. What can be done is to calculate shadow prices for environmental pollution, which is achieved by calculating the price that would arise if there would be a market for the environment. In applying this method, it generally proves to be necessary to base calculations on government environmental targets. Using available research data, the method is used to calculate shadow prices for a number of key pollutants. The present report is based on the CE studies 'Schaduwprijzen Prioriterings Methodiek (SPM)' (1997), commissioned by ICI Holland BV, and 'De prijs van Milieuvervuiling' (1997), commissioned by KNP BT Packaging

How to Find the Price That's Right.

Science.gov (United States)

Crompton, John L.

1981-01-01

Five primary methods used by recreation and park agencies to establish a price are reviewed: (1) going-rate pricing; (2) demand oriented pricing; (3) variable cost pricing; (4) partial overhead pricing; and (5) average cost pricing. (CJ)

How German Online Retailers Price Foods: An Empirical Analysis for Chocolate Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Svetlana Fedoseeva

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Despite the increasing importance of online grocery retailing, little is known about price dispersion across online providers, the relation between online and offline prices as well as the frequency of price adjustments. We employ means of descriptive and inductive statistics as well as panel econometrics to address these issues for German online food retailers. Daily online prices for twelve chocolate products charged by eight pure online and multichannel retailers and collected over three months are investigated. Information economics suggests that a maturing online market will call forth more price homogeneity online due to lower search costs by consumers as well as more flexible prices due to lower costs of price adjustments by retailers. Our results suggest, however, that neither homogenous prices nor frequent price adjustments do occur on the German online chocolate market.

Price-Transparency and Cost Accounting

Science.gov (United States)

Eakin, Cynthia; Fischer, Katrina

2015-01-01

Health care reform is directed toward improving access and quality while containing costs. An essential part of this is improvement of pricing models to more accurately reflect the costs of providing care. Transparent prices that reflect costs are necessary to signal information to consumers and producers. This information is central in a consumer-driven marketplace. The rapid increase in high deductible insurance and other forms of cost sharing incentivizes the search for price information. The organizational ability to measure costs across a cycle of care is an integral component of creating value, and will play a greater role as reimbursements transition to episode-based care, value-based purchasing, and accountable care organization models. This article discusses use of activity-based costing (ABC) to better measure the cost of health care. It describes examples of ABC in health care organizations and discusses impediments to adoption in the United States including cultural and institutional barriers. PMID:25862425

Price-Transparency and Cost Accounting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Hilsenrath PhD

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Health care reform is directed toward improving access and quality while containing costs. An essential part of this is improvement of pricing models to more accurately reflect the costs of providing care. Transparent prices that reflect costs are necessary to signal information to consumers and producers. This information is central in a consumer-driven marketplace. The rapid increase in high deductible insurance and other forms of cost sharing incentivizes the search for price information. The organizational ability to measure costs across a cycle of care is an integral component of creating value, and will play a greater role as reimbursements transition to episode-based care, value-based purchasing, and accountable care organization models. This article discusses use of activity-based costing (ABC to better measure the cost of health care. It describes examples of ABC in health care organizations and discusses impediments to adoption in the United States including cultural and institutional barriers.

Searching for Suicide Methods: Accessibility of Information About Helium as a Method of Suicide on the Internet.

Science.gov (United States)

Gunnell, David; Derges, Jane; Chang, Shu-Sen; Biddle, Lucy

2015-01-01

Helium gas suicides have increased in England and Wales; easy-to-access descriptions of this method on the Internet may have contributed to this rise. To investigate the availability of information on using helium as a method of suicide and trends in searching about this method on the Internet. We analyzed trends in (a) Google searching (2004-2014) and (b) hits on a Wikipedia article describing helium as a method of suicide (2013-2014). We also investigated the extent to which helium was described as a method of suicide on web pages and discussion forums identified via Google. We found no evidence of rises in Internet searching about suicide using helium. News stories about helium suicides were associated with increased search activity. The Wikipedia article may have been temporarily altered to increase awareness of suicide using helium around the time of a celebrity suicide. Approximately one third of the links retrieved using Google searches for suicide methods mentioned helium. Information about helium as a suicide method is readily available on the Internet; the Wikipedia article describing its use was highly accessed following celebrity suicides. Availability of online information about this method may contribute to rises in helium suicides.

Young people’s knowledge of alcohol prices in a retail context

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Birger Boutrup; Godt, Diana; Gadensgaard, Birgitte

Several European governments consider an increase in taxation of alcoholic beverages to confront increased alcohol intake by young people. However, little is known as to young people’s knowledge of alcohol prices and thus whether they will notice such price increases. In the present study, young...... people’s price knowledge of alcoholic beverages is examined by a price recall and a deal spotting test. The results indicate that the vast majority of young people hold fairly accurate reference prices, while a rather large segment of young people appears to actively search for prices of alcohol in store....... Results from logistic regressions are reported. The authors find a significant effect of ‘purchasing a special’ and ‘recognisable prices’ on price recall. However, no significant effect of purchase frequency, recency or demographical variables is found. Implications for public policy and managers...

Food pricing strategies, population diets, and non-communicable disease: a systematic review of simulation studies.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helen Eyles

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Food pricing strategies have been proposed to encourage healthy eating habits, which may in turn help stem global increases in non-communicable diseases. This systematic review of simulation studies investigates the estimated association between food pricing strategies and changes in food purchases or intakes (consumption (objective 1; Health and disease outcomes (objective 2, and whether there are any differences in these outcomes by socio-economic group (objective 3. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Electronic databases, Internet search engines, and bibliographies of included studies were searched for articles published in English between 1 January 1990 and 24 October 2011 for countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Where ≥ 3 studies examined the same pricing strategy and consumption (purchases or intake or health outcome, results were pooled, and a mean own-price elasticity (own-PE estimated (the own-PE represents the change in demand with a 1% change in price of that good. Objective 1: pooled estimates were possible for the following: (1 taxes on carbonated soft drinks: own-PE (n  =  4 studies, -0.93 (range, -0.06, -2.43, and a modelled -0.02% (-0.01%, -0.04% reduction in energy (calorie intake for each 1% price increase (n  =  3 studies; (2 taxes on saturated fat: -0.02% (-0.01%, -0.04% reduction in energy intake from saturated fat per 1% price increase (n  =  5 studies; and (3 subsidies on fruits and vegetables: own-PE (n = 3 studies, -0.35 (-0.21, -0.77. Objectives 2 and 3: variability of food pricing strategies and outcomes prevented pooled analyses, although higher quality studies suggested unintended compensatory purchasing that could result in overall effects being counter to health. Eleven of 14 studies evaluating lower socio-economic groups estimated that food pricing strategies would be associated with pro-health outcomes. Food pricing strategies also have the potential to reduce

Job Search as Goal-Directed Behavior: Objectives and Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Van Hoye, Greet; Saks, Alan M.

2008-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between job search objectives (finding a new job/turnover, staying aware of job alternatives, developing a professional network, and obtaining leverage against an employer) and job search methods (looking at job ads, visiting job sites, networking, contacting employment agencies, contacting employers, and…

Evaluation of a new method for librarian-mediated literature searches for systematic reviews

NARCIS (Netherlands)

W.M. Bramer (Wichor); Rethlefsen, M.L. (Melissa L.); F. Mast (Frans); J. Kleijnen (Jos)

2017-01-01

textabstractObjective: To evaluate and validate the time of completion and results of a new method of searching for systematic reviews, the exhaustive search method (ESM), using a pragmatic comparison. Methods: Single-line search strategies were prepared in a text document. Term completeness was

7 CFR 1000.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing... advanced pricing factors. Class prices per hundredweight of milk containing 3.5 percent butterfat, component prices, and advanced pricing factors shall be as follows. The prices and pricing factors described...

Examining A Health Care Price Transparency Tool: Who Uses It, And How They Shop For Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinaiko, Anna D; Rosenthal, Meredith B

2016-04-01

Calls for transparency in health care prices are increasing, in an effort to encourage and enable patients to make value-based decisions. Yet there is very little evidence of whether and how patients use health care price transparency tools. We evaluated the experiences, in the period 2011-12, of an insured population of nonelderly adults with Aetna's Member Payment Estimator, a web-based tool that provides real-time, personalized, episode-level price estimates. Overall, use of the tool increased during the study period but remained low. Nonetheless, for some procedures the number of people searching for prices of services (called searchers) was high relative to the number of people who received the service (called patients). Among Aetna patients who had an imaging service, childbirth, or one of several outpatient procedures, searchers for price information were significantly more likely to be younger and healthier and to have incurred higher annual deductible spending than patients who did not search for price information. A campaign to deliver price information to consumers may be important to increase patients' engagement with price transparency tools. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Bayesian methods in the search for MH370

CERN Document Server

Davey, Sam; Holland, Ian; Rutten, Mark; Williams, Jason

2016-01-01

This book demonstrates how nonlinear/non-Gaussian Bayesian time series estimation methods were used to produce a probability distribution of potential MH370 flight paths. It provides details of how the probabilistic models of aircraft flight dynamics, satellite communication system measurements, environmental effects and radar data were constructed and calibrated. The probability distribution was used to define the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean. The book describes particle-filter based numerical calculation of the aircraft flight-path probability distribution and validates the method using data from several of the involved aircraft’s previous flights. Finally it is shown how the Reunion Island flaperon debris find affects the search probability distribution.

Intranational Price Convergence and Price Stickiness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bergman, Ulf Michael; Heebøll, Christian; Hansen, Niels Lynggaard

2017-01-01

We show that estimates of the half-life of deviations from LOOP are biased when not taking into account the precision when aggregating over types of goods. Using a comprehensive dataset with monthly price data for 124 homogeneous products across regions in Denmark over the period 1997–2010 we find...... a large positive aggregation bias. On average, we find that the half-life is 8.4 months when taking the bias into account compared to 28.7 months when applying the standard method. The heterogeneity in estimated half-life can be explained by price stickiness, distance between regions and whether the good...

Deconstructing Solar Photovoltaic Pricing: The Role of Market Structure, Technology, and Policy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gillingham, Kenneth [Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States); Deng, Hao [Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States); Wiser, Ryan [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Darghouth, Naim [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Nemet, Gregory [Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Barbose, Galen [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Rai, Varun [Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Dong, C. G. [Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

2014-12-15

Solar photovoltaic (PV) system prices in the United States display considerable heterogeneity both across geographic locations and within a given location. Such heterogeneity may arise due to state and federal policies, differences in market structure, and other factors that influence demand and costs. This paper examines the relative importance of such factors on equilibrium solar PV system prices in the United States using a detailed dataset of roughly 100,000 recent residential and small commercial installations. As expected, we find that PV system prices differ based on characteristics of the systems. More interestingly, we find evidence suggesting that search costs and imperfect competition affect solar PV pricing. Installer density substantially lowers prices, while regions with relatively generous financial incentives for solar PV are associated with higher prices.

Prices versus Quantities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lars Gårn; Jensen, Frank

illustrate that this result does not generalise to a search fishery, where marginal costs are allowed to depend on harvest. Hansen et al (2008) study a fishery where non-compliance with regulations is a problem. When the regulator is uncertain about non-compliance (compliance uncertainty), then landing fees......Weitzman (2002) studies the regulation of a fishery characterised by constant marginal harvest costs and shows that price regulation performs better than quantity regulation when the regulator is uncertain about the biological reproduction function (ecological uncertainty). Here, we initially...... are the preferred type of regulation, and Hansen et al (2008) find that this result does generalise to a search fishery where marginal costs depend on harvest. In this paper, we simulate a stochastic stock-recruitment model for the Danish cod fishery in the Kategat capturing both ecological and compliance...

Distributed Cooperative Search Control Method of Multiple UAVs for Moving Target

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang-jian Ru

2015-01-01

Full Text Available To reduce the impact of uncertainties caused by unknown motion parameters on searching plan of moving targets and improve the efficiency of UAV’s searching, a novel distributed Multi-UAVs cooperative search control method for moving target is proposed in this paper. Based on detection results of onboard sensors, target probability map is updated using Bayesian theory. A Gaussian distribution of target transition probability density function is introduced to calculate prediction probability of moving target existence, and then target probability map can be further updated in real-time. A performance index function combining with target cost, environment cost, and cooperative cost is constructed, and the cooperative searching problem can be transformed into a central optimization problem. To improve computational efficiency, the distributed model predictive control method is presented, and thus the control command of each UAV can be obtained. The simulation results have verified that the proposed method can avoid the blindness of UAV searching better and improve overall efficiency of the team effectively.

Dynamic Relation Mechanism between Cotton Future Price and Stock Price of Related Listed Companies

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2011-01-01

The Dynamic relation mechanism between ZCE cotton futures price and related listed company stock price has been studied based on the metastock historical data in January 1st,2007 to September 1st,2010,Johansen co-integration analysis,Vector error correction model,Granger causality test and variance decomposition method.The results indicated that:long-term equilibrium relationship existed between ZCE cotton futures price and Xinsai share stock price while which changed in the same tendency and speed in the long-term.Cotton futures price is the main reason for the changing of Xinsai share stock price.The lead-lag relationship in changing course had been confirmed that existed between ZCE cotton futures price and the Xinsai share stock price.Meanwhile,the forward pass mechanism of price changing information had been found only from the ZCE cotton futures market to the stock market while showing asymmetry.Conclusions of the study can be used for cotton and related corporate to hedge business risks by the cotton price changes.

Export pricing objectives and factors influencing them

OpenAIRE

Snieškienė, Gabrielė; Pridotkienė, Jūratė

2010-01-01

Pricing is recognized as one of the most important tools to achieve a successful export operation. The starting point in every pricing effort is the process of creating pricing objectives. Pricing objectives are the strategic and economic goals desired by management in pricing the product. Pricing objectives constitute the basis on which pricing methods and policies are formulated. Therefore, a better understanding of the pricing objectives should direct the company’s overall pricing process....

48 CFR 215.402 - Pricing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Pricing policy. 215.402... OF DEFENSE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 215.402 Pricing policy. Follow the procedures at PGI 215.402 when conducting cost or price analysis, particularly...

Pricing of temperature index insurance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Che Mohd Imran Che Taib

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to study pricing of weather insurance contracts based on temperature indices. Three different pricing methods are analysed: the classical burn approach, index modelling and temperature modelling. We take the data from Malaysia as our empirical case. Our results show that there is a significant difference between the burn and index pricing approaches on one hand, and the temperature modelling method on the other. The latter approach is pricing the insurance contract using a seasonal autoregressive time series model for daily temperature variations, and thus provides a precise probabilistic model for the fine structure of temperature evolution. We complement our pricing analysis by an investigation of the profit/loss distribution from the contract, in the perspective of both the insured and the insurer.

Is the Internet making markets more efficient? The evidence according to price indicators in Spain

OpenAIRE

Sabaté i Garriga, Ferran; Cañabate Carmona, Antonio; Cobo Valeri, Erik; García, Dominie

2009-01-01

It has been theorized that low search costs associated with e-commerce imply greater levels of efficiency relative to the conventional retail channels. Multiple empirical studies confirm this hypothesis concerning price level, although the evidence is mixed relative to price dispersion. This article empirically compares the efficiency of the Internet with the conventional retail channel through 4 price indicators for the CD market. The results, based on 1,603 prices collected in Spain, are su...

Economic Evaluation for Energy Business Using Real Options Pricing Method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yun, W.C. [Korea Energy Economics Institute, Euiwang (Korea)

2001-11-01

Recently, facing the new era of restructuring, privatization, and liberalization the energy industry in the world is changing rapidly, and thus the uncertain factors tend to increase. This would imply that energy-related business is now confronted with new market risks as well as the simple price risks. The traditional investment valuation method using the concept of net present value (NPV) or internal rate of revenue (IRR) might not incorporate the managerial alternatives which enable managers to respond flexibly to the changes in business environment. This study pointed out the problems of the traditional discounted cash flow (DCF) method when evaluating a certain capital investment in energy industry. As an alternative, the real option pricing method (ROPM) was proposed, which is widely adopted in the field of profit projection for the venture business. In addition, when applying to energy sector the feasibility of ROPM was discussed, and the frameworks and major results of previous related studies were described. For those using the ROPM in real business, I explained the detailed procedures and solutions of ROPM, and introduced the log-transformed binomial model which provides a more efficient solution. In order to verify the usefulness of the ROPM, this study performed an empirical analysis for a virtual construction and operation project of power plant. And, the results from the ROPM was compared to those from the traditional DCF method. Based on the empirical results, the values of various investment opportunities were shown to be high. Therefore, the project not justified in terms of traditional DCF would turn into the project with a positive gross project value, properly reflecting managerial flexibilities inherent in the original project. (author). 58 refs., 32 figs., 33 tabs.

Remarks on search methods for stable, massive, elementary particles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Perl, Martin L.

2001-01-01

This paper was presented at the 69th birthday celebration of Professor Eugene Commins, honoring his research achievements. These remarks are about the experimental techniques used in the search for new stable, massive particles, particles at least as massive as the electron. A variety of experimental methods such as accelerator experiments, cosmic ray studies, searches for halo particles in the galaxy and searches for exotic particles in bulk matter are described. A summary is presented of the measured limits on the existence of new stable, massive particle

PRICE-RESPONSE ASYMMETRY IN DOMESTIC WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DIESEL 2 MARKETS IN PERU

OpenAIRE

Arturo Vasquez Cordano

2005-01-01

This paper tests and confirms the hypothesis that retail and wholesale Diesel 2 prices respond more quickly to increases than to decreases in wholesale and crude oil prices, respectively. Among the possible sources of this asymmetry, we find: production / inventory adjustment lags, refining adjustments, market power of some sellers, searching costs, among others. By analyzing price transmission at different points of the distribution chain, this paper attempts to shed light on these theories ...

Research on choices of methods of internet of things pricing based on variation of perceived value of service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Li

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: With the rapid progress of Internet of Things technology, the information service of IoT has got unprecedented development, and plays an increasingly important role in real life. For the increasing demand of information service, the pricing of information service becomes more important. This paper aims to analyze the strategic options and payoff function between information provider and intermediaries based on Stackelberg game. Firstly, we describe information service delivery method based on the Internet of Things specific function. Secondly, we calculate the consumer demand for the information service. Finally, we explain two kinds of strategic options by the game theory, and then discuss the optimal pricing method of information services based on profit maximization.Design/methodology/approach: To achieve this objective, Considering the consumer perceived value of Internet of Things Service changing, we establish a Stackelberg model in which the supplier is the leader followed by the middleman. Then, we compare the advantages of using individual pricing with that of bundling pricing.Findings: The results show that whether information providers adopt bundling pricing strategy or individual pricing strategy depends on the cost of perception equipment, if information providers want to adopt individual pricing strategy, the variation of consumers’ perception value of information services must meet certain conditions.Research limitations/implications: the providers make price for the information service, in addition to continuously improve the quality of information service, it also devotes resources to tapping and understanding market information, such as the sensor device price, the variation of perception value of information services and so on, so as to create competitive advantage. This paper is just a preliminary model, it does not take into account the effect of mixed bundling.Originality/value: In this research, a new model for

Exploration of Stellarator Configuration Space with Global Search Methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mynick, H.E.; Pomphrey, N.; Ethier, S.

2001-01-01

An exploration of stellarator configuration space z for quasi-axisymmetric stellarator (QAS) designs is discussed, using methods which provide a more global view of that space. To this end, we have implemented a ''differential evolution'' (DE) search algorithm in an existing stellarator optimizer, which is much less prone to become trapped in local, suboptimal minima of the cost function chi than the local search methods used previously. This search algorithm is complemented by mapping studies of chi over z aimed at gaining insight into the results of the automated searches. We find that a wide range of the attractive QAS configurations previously found fall into a small number of classes, with each class corresponding to a basin of chi(z). We develop maps on which these earlier stellarators can be placed, the relations among them seen, and understanding gained into the physics differences between them. It is also found that, while still large, the region of z space containing practically realizable QAS configurations is much smaller than earlier supposed

A Research for Determination of Pricing Methods Applied to Food and Bevarege Enterprises That Had Tourism Operation License in Gaziantep

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adnan AKIN

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The number of the food and beverage businesses is getting higher day by day. As a result of this, an intensive competition is seen. That the businesses are based on labor-intensive and capital and that the products which are produced in businesses can’t be stocked and weakness of them and also the rivalry between the businesses make pricing important. Because of this reason, during the pricing products which are produced by businesses , determining a right method and applying it is important for the future of the business. The main purpose of this study is to specify the methods which are applied pricing the products which are produced by food and beverage services having tourism certified. In southeast’s largest province Gaziantep, a survey was conducted by using face to face method in order to determine about tourism certified business pricing with status of current all of the business(18 pieces. And by using surveys results, frequency distributions were examined and as part of 5 points Likert analyze, it was determined that the businesses apply methods which are intended to profit and cost. And also the owners and administrators who joined survey are not sure about whether place of the business has an importance on pricing or not

Why are product prices in online markets not converging?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takayuki Mizuno

Full Text Available Why are product prices in online markets dispersed in spite of very small search costs? To address this question, we construct a unique dataset from a Japanese price comparison site, which records price quotes offered by e-retailers as well as customers' clicks on products, which occur when they proceed to purchase the product. The novelty of our approach is that we seek to extract useful information on the source of price dispersion from the shape of price distributions rather than focusing merely on the standard deviation or the coefficient of variation of prices, as previous studies have done. We find that the distribution of prices retailers quote for a particular product at a particular point in time (divided by the lowest price follows an exponential distribution, showing the presence of substantial price dispersion. For example, 20 percent of all retailers quote prices that are more than 50 percent higher than the lowest price. Next, comparing the probability that customers click on a retailer with a particular rank and the probability that retailers post prices at a particular rank, we show that both decline exponentially with price rank and that the exponents associated with the probabilities are quite close. This suggests that the reason why some retailers set prices at a level substantially higher than the lowest price is that they know that some customers will choose them even at that high price. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that price dispersion in online markets stems from heterogeneity in customers' preferences over retailers; that is, customers choose a set of candidate retailers based on their preferences, which are heterogeneous across customers, and then pick a particular retailer among the candidates based on the price ranking.

Why Are Product Prices in Online Markets Not Converging?

Science.gov (United States)

Mizuno, Takayuki; Watanabe, Tsutomu

2013-01-01

Why are product prices in online markets dispersed in spite of very small search costs? To address this question, we construct a unique dataset from a Japanese price comparison site, which records price quotes offered by e-retailers as well as customers’ clicks on products, which occur when they proceed to purchase the product. The novelty of our approach is that we seek to extract useful information on the source of price dispersion from the shape of price distributions rather than focusing merely on the standard deviation or the coefficient of variation of prices, as previous studies have done. We find that the distribution of prices retailers quote for a particular product at a particular point in time (divided by the lowest price) follows an exponential distribution, showing the presence of substantial price dispersion. For example, 20 percent of all retailers quote prices that are more than 50 percent higher than the lowest price. Next, comparing the probability that customers click on a retailer with a particular rank and the probability that retailers post prices at a particular rank, we show that both decline exponentially with price rank and that the exponents associated with the probabilities are quite close. This suggests that the reason why some retailers set prices at a level substantially higher than the lowest price is that they know that some customers will choose them even at that high price. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that price dispersion in online markets stems from heterogeneity in customers’ preferences over retailers; that is, customers choose a set of candidate retailers based on their preferences, which are heterogeneous across customers, and then pick a particular retailer among the candidates based on the price ranking. PMID:24015219

Advice Complexity of the Online Search Problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Clemente, Jhoirene; Hromkovič, Juraj; Komm, Dennis

2016-01-01

the minimum amount of information needed in order to achieve a certain competitive ratio. We design an algorithm that reads $b$ bits of advice and achieves a competitive ratio of (M/m)^{1/(2^b+1)} where M and m are the maximum and minimum price in the input. We also give a matching lower bound. Furthermore......The online search problem is a fundamental problem in finance. The numerous direct applications include searching for optimal prices for commodity trading and trading foreign currencies. In this paper, we analyze the advice complexity of this problem. In particular, we are interested in identifying......, we compare the power of advice and randomization for this problem....

Finite Volume Method for Pricing European Call Option with Regime-switching Volatility

Science.gov (United States)

Lista Tauryawati, Mey; Imron, Chairul; Putri, Endah RM

2018-03-01

In this paper, we present a finite volume method for pricing European call option using Black-Scholes equation with regime-switching volatility. In the first step, we formulate the Black-Scholes equations with regime-switching volatility. we use a finite volume method based on fitted finite volume with spatial discretization and an implicit time stepping technique for the case. We show that the regime-switching scheme can revert to the non-switching Black Scholes equation, both in theoretical evidence and numerical simulations.

Harmony Search Method: Theory and Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

X. Z. Gao

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The Harmony Search (HS method is an emerging metaheuristic optimization algorithm, which has been employed to cope with numerous challenging tasks during the past decade. In this paper, the essential theory and applications of the HS algorithm are first described and reviewed. Several typical variants of the original HS are next briefly explained. As an example of case study, a modified HS method inspired by the idea of Pareto-dominance-based ranking is also presented. It is further applied to handle a practical wind generator optimal design problem.

"Photographing money" task pricing

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Zhongxiang

2018-05-01

"Photographing money" [1]is a self-service model under the mobile Internet. The task pricing is reasonable, related to the success of the commodity inspection. First of all, we analyzed the position of the mission and the membership, and introduced the factor of membership density, considering the influence of the number of members around the mission on the pricing. Multivariate regression of task location and membership density using MATLAB to establish the mathematical model of task pricing. At the same time, we can see from the life experience that membership reputation and the intensity of the task will also affect the pricing, and the data of the task success point is more reliable. Therefore, the successful point of the task is selected, and its reputation, task density, membership density and Multiple regression of task positions, according to which a nhew task pricing program. Finally, an objective evaluation is given of the advantages and disadvantages of the established model and solution method, and the improved method is pointed out.

Dynamic pricing of a resource

KAUST Repository

Al-Dawsari, Monther Abdullah; Jamjoom, Hani Talal; Podlaseck, Mark Edward; Qu, Huiming; Ruan, Yaoping; Saure, Denis Roland; Shae, Zon-yin; Sheopuri, Anshul

2013-01-01

A method of dynamic pricing of a resource is presented. For example, the method includes determining a set of anticipated demands for one or more users to acquire the resource according to uncertainty of the one or more users in preferring one or more certain time periods of a plurality of time periods for acquiring the resource. Prices for the resource differ between at least two of the plurality of time periods. Each anticipated demand of the set is associated with a different one of the plurality of time periods. The method further includes setting prices for the resource during each of the plurality of time periods according to the determined set of anticipated demands. The determining of the set of anticipated demands and/or the setting of prices are implemented as instruction code executed on a processor device.

Dynamic pricing of a resource

KAUST Repository

Al-Dawsari, Monther Abdullah

2013-06-04

A method of dynamic pricing of a resource is presented. For example, the method includes determining a set of anticipated demands for one or more users to acquire the resource according to uncertainty of the one or more users in preferring one or more certain time periods of a plurality of time periods for acquiring the resource. Prices for the resource differ between at least two of the plurality of time periods. Each anticipated demand of the set is associated with a different one of the plurality of time periods. The method further includes setting prices for the resource during each of the plurality of time periods according to the determined set of anticipated demands. The determining of the set of anticipated demands and/or the setting of prices are implemented as instruction code executed on a processor device.

PRICING STRATEGY FOR DIGITAL PRODUCTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MARIA MAGDALENA CRIVEANU

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The current society imposes an alert pace on companies that need to adapt to change, become more flexible and adopt new strategies to maintain market share. Digital marketing is a useful tool for promoting products, as customers can access a range of product information at any time and from anywhere. At the same time, another advantage on the part of companies is the lower promotion costs as compared to traditional promotional methods, as well as the establishment of a connection and a communication bridge with each client. The most important component in the process of purchasing a product is inevitably the price. It communicates a series of information about the product and the customer so that the price can be an important element of persuasion in relation to other marketing strategies. Most of the time, the smallest price is the most important factor in making a decision about buying a product, and digital marketing offers the posibility to compare prices. In this sense, digital marketing can provide both an advantage and a disadvantage for traders, as the small price may invalidate other marketing strategies or product features. In this sense, pricing is a challenge for marketing departments because the pricing strategy is deferring from the sterile formula of pricing which meant covering costs and making profit. This paper aims to analyze the extent to which price is an important element in purchasing a product, as well as highlighting a variety of methods and techniques used in pricing. Quantitative research is based on a questionnaire applied to 100 respondents in order to identify the correct pricing strategy. Research results communicate an important message to merchants who have to adjust the price of each buyer individually, so that the buyer profile is particularly important in setting the price.

Forecasting Changes in Stock Prices on the Basis of Patterns Identified with the Use of Data Classification Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szanduła Jacek

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The paper develops the concept of harnessing data classification methods to recognize patterns in stock prices. The author defines a formation as a pattern vector describing the financial instrument. Elements of such a vector can be related to the stock price as well as sales volume and other characteristics of the financial instrument. The study uses data concerning selected companies listed on the stock exchange in New York. It takes into account a number of variables that describe the behavior of prices and volume, both in the short and long term. Partitioning around medoids method has been used for data classification (for pattern recognition. An evaluation of the possibility of using certain formations for practical purposes has also been presented.

Consumer search and pricing behavior in Internet markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janssen, Maarten C W; Moraga-González, José Luis; Wildenbeest, Matthijs R.

2007-01-01

Throughout economic history, changes in technology have had a substantial impact on consumers' search and transportation costs and, consequently, on the size of the relevant market. One example is the progressive decline in transportation costs that historically has taken place through the use of

Building maps to search the web: the method Sewcom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corrado Petrucco

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Seeking information on the Internet is becoming a necessity 'at school, at work and in every social sphere. Unfortunately the difficulties' inherent in the use of search engines and the use of unconscious cognitive approaches inefficient limit their effectiveness. It is in this respect presented a method, called SEWCOM that lets you create conceptual maps through interaction with search engines.

TRANSFER PRICING - ECONOMIC OUTLOOK FOR BUSSINESSES IN MOLDAVIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Ion DIACONU

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Transfer pricing is a complex , current and original topic for Moldovian enterprises. In terms of decentralization of responsibilities it is not so much a challenge as a necessity to determine a transfer price based on certain, rational, fair and effective fundamentals. From an economic perspective most empirical studies regarding the matters of transfer pricing, converge on delimitation of the methods for determining transfer prices fall into 3 groups: cost-based methods; methods based on market value and methods based on negotiation. But we can say with certainty that there is no perfect method of calculation that would meet all the criteria. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to present methods for determining transfer prices from an economic point of view, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

Tiered gasoline pricing: A personal carbon trading perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Yao; Fan, Jin; Zhao, Dingtao; Wu, Yanrui; Li, Jun

2016-01-01

This paper proffers a tiered gasoline pricing method from a personal carbon trading perspective. An optimization model of personal carbon trading is proposed, and then, an equilibrium carbon price is derived according to the market clearing condition. Based on the derived equilibrium carbon price, this paper proposes a calculation method of tiered gasoline pricing. Then, sensitivity analyses and consumers' surplus analyses are conducted. It can be shown that a rise in gasoline price or a more generous allowance allocation would incur a decrease in the equilibrium carbon price, making the first tiered price higher, but the second tiered price lower. It is further verified that the proposed tiered pricing method is progressive because it would relieve the pressure of the low-income groups who consume less gasoline while imposing a greater burden on the high-income groups who consume more gasoline. Based on these results, implications, limitations and suggestions for future studies are provided. - Highlights: • Tiered gasoline pricing is calculated from the perspective of PCT. • Consumers would be burdened with different actual gasoline costs. • A specific example is provided to illustrate the calculation of TGP. • The tiered pricing mechanism is a progressive system.

Economic Impact of Tobacco Price Increases Through Taxation: A Community Guide Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Contreary, Kara A; Chattopadhyay, Sajal K; Hopkins, David P; Chaloupka, Frank J; Forster, Jean L; Grimshaw, Victoria; Holmes, Carissa B; Goetzel, Ron Z; Fielding, Jonathan E

2015-11-01

Tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and around the world. Increasing tobacco price through higher taxes is an effective intervention both to reduce tobacco use in the population and generate government revenues. The goal of this paper is to review evidence on the economic impact of tobacco price increases through taxation with a focus on the likely healthcare cost savings and improvements in employee productivity. The search covered studies published in English from January 2000 to July 2012 and included evaluations of national, state, and local policies to increase the price of any type of tobacco product by raising taxes in high-income countries. Economic review methods developed for The Guide to Community Preventive Services were used to screen and abstract included studies. Economic impact estimates were standardized to summarize the available evidence. Analyses were conducted in 2012. The review included eight modeling studies, with seven providing estimates of the impact on healthcare costs and three providing estimates of the value of productivity gains. Only one study provided an estimate of intervention costs. The economic merit of tobacco product price increases through taxation was determined from the overall body of evidence on per capita annual cost savings from a conservative 20% price increase. The evidence indicates that interventions that raise the unit price of tobacco products through taxes generate substantial healthcare cost savings and can generate additional gains from improved productivity in the workplace. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The Use of Resistivity Methods in Terrestrial Forensic Searches

Science.gov (United States)

Wolf, R. C.; Raisuddin, I.; Bank, C.

2013-12-01

The increasing use of near-surface geophysical methods in forensic searches has demonstrated the need for further studies to identify the ideal physical, environmental and temporal settings for each geophysical method. Previous studies using resistivity methods have shown promising results, but additional work is required to more accurately interpret and analyze survey findings. The Ontario Provincial Police's UCRT (Urban Search and Rescue; Chemical, Biolgical, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives; Response Team) is collaborating with the University of Toronto and two additional universities in a multi-year study investigating the applications of near-surface geophysical methods to terrestrial forensic searches. In the summer of 2012, on a test site near Bolton, Ontario, the OPP buried weapons, drums and pigs (naked, tarped, and clothed) to simulate clandestine graves and caches. Our study aims to conduct repeat surveys using an IRIS Syscal Junior with 48 electrode switching system resistivity-meter. These surveys will monitor changes in resistivity reflecting decomposition of the object since burial, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of resistivity when used in a rural, clandestine burial setting. Our initial findings indicate the usefulness of this method, as prominent resistivity changes have been observed. We anticipate our results will help to assist law enforcement agencies in determining the type of resistivity results to expect based on time since burial, depth of burial and state of dress of the body.

New hybrid conjugate gradient methods with the generalized Wolfe line search.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Xiao; Kong, Fan-Yu

2016-01-01

The conjugate gradient method was an efficient technique for solving the unconstrained optimization problem. In this paper, we made a linear combination with parameters β k of the DY method and the HS method, and putted forward the hybrid method of DY and HS. We also proposed the hybrid of FR and PRP by the same mean. Additionally, to present the two hybrid methods, we promoted the Wolfe line search respectively to compute the step size α k of the two hybrid methods. With the new Wolfe line search, the two hybrid methods had descent property and global convergence property of the two hybrid methods that can also be proved.

Implementation Of Haversine Formula And Best First Search Method In Searching Of Tsunami Evacuation Route

Science.gov (United States)

Anisya; Yoga Swara, Ganda

2017-12-01

Padang is one of the cities prone to earthquake disaster with tsunami due to its position at the meeting of two active plates, this is, a source of potentially powerful earthquake and tsunami. Central government and most offices are located in the red zone (vulnerable areas), it will also affect the evacuation of the population during the earthquake and tsunami disaster. In this study, researchers produced a system of search nearest shelter using best-first-search method. This method uses the heuristic function, the amount of cost taken and the estimated value or travel time, path length and population density. To calculate the length of the path, researchers used method of haversine formula. The value obtained from the calculation process is implemented on a web-based system. Some alternative paths and some of the closest shelters will be displayed in the system.

The Interval Slope Method for Long-Term Forecasting of Stock Price Trends

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chun-xue Nie

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A stock price is a typical but complex type of time series data. We used the effective prediction of long-term time series data to schedule an investment strategy and obtain higher profit. Due to economic, environmental, and other factors, it is very difficult to obtain a precise long-term stock price prediction. The exponentially segmented pattern (ESP is introduced here and used to predict the fluctuation of different stock data over five future prediction intervals. The new feature of stock pricing during the subinterval, named the interval slope, can characterize fluctuations in stock price over specific periods. The cumulative distribution function (CDF of MSE was compared to those of MMSE-BC and SVR. We concluded that the interval slope developed here can capture more complex dynamics of stock price trends. The mean stock price can then be predicted over specific time intervals relatively accurately, in which multiple mean values over time intervals are used to express the time series in the long term. In this way, the prediction of long-term stock price can be more precise and prevent the development of cumulative errors.

Probability, Problem Solving, and "The Price is Right."

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Eric

1992-01-01

This article discusses the analysis of a decision-making process faced by contestants on the television game show "The Price is Right". The included analyses of the original and related problems concern pattern searching, inductive reasoning, quadratic functions, and graphing. Computer simulation programs in BASIC and tables of…

7 CFR 1124.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1124.50 Section 1124.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued... prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1030.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1030.50 Section 1030.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued... prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

Substitution biases in price indices during transition

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hanousek, Jan; Filer, Randall K.

2004-01-01

Roč. 21, č. 2 (2004), s. 167-177 ISSN 0167-8000 R&D Projects: GA MŠk ME 595 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z7085904 Keywords : price liberalization * substitution bias * transition economies Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://search. ebscohost .com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=17109091&site=ehost-live

Price variability and marketing method in non-ferrous metals: Slade's analysis revisited

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gilbert, C.L.; Ferretti, F.

2002-01-01

We examine the impact of the pricing regime on price variability with reference to the non-ferrous metals industry. Theoretical arguments are ambiguous, but suggest that the extent of monopoly power is more important than the pricing regime as a determinant of variability. Slade (Quart. J. Econ. 106

Mechanistic approach to generalized technical analysis of share prices and stock market indices

Science.gov (United States)

Ausloos, M.; Ivanova, K.

2002-05-01

Classical technical analysis methods of stock evolution are recalled, i.e. the notion of moving averages and momentum indicators. The moving averages lead to define death and gold crosses, resistance and support lines. Momentum indicators lead the price trend, thus give signals before the price trend turns over. The classical technical analysis investment strategy is thereby sketched. Next, we present a generalization of these tricks drawing on physical principles, i.e. taking into account not only the price of a stock but also the volume of transactions. The latter becomes a time dependent generalized mass. The notion of pressure, acceleration and force are deduced. A generalized (kinetic) energy is easily defined. It is understood that the momentum indicators take into account the sign of the fluctuations, while the energy is geared toward the absolute value of the fluctuations. They have different patterns which are checked by searching for the crossing points of their respective moving averages. The case of IBM evolution over 1990-2000 is used for illustrations.

Price setting in turbulent times

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ólafsson, Tjörvi; Pétursdóttir, Ásgerdur; Vignisdóttir, Karen Á.

This price setting survey among Icelandic firms aims to make two contributions to the literature. First, it studies price setting in an advanced economy within a more turbulent macroeconomic environment than has previously been done. The results indicate that price adjustments are to a larger...... extent driven by exchange rate fluctuations than in most other advanced countries. The median Icelandic firm reviews its prices every four months and changes them every six months. The main sources of price rigidity and the most commonly used price setting methods are the same as in most other countries....... A second contribution to the literature is our analysis of the nexus between price setting and exchange rate movements, a topic that has attracted surprisingly limited attention in this survey-based literature. A novel aspect of our approach is to base our analysis on a categorisation of firms...

Marketplace pricing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1991-01-01

As discussed in this chapter, interest in marketplace pricing has been increasing in recent years, reflecting the societal trend toward substituting competition for regulation where appropriate. Competition is valuable because it encourages utilities to make efficient decisions with a minimum of regulatory intervention. It enhances efficiency through the incentive for innovation by the regulated companies and by increasing the likelihood they will come forward with proposals for better services, lower prices or both. Ultimately, consumers are beneficiaries. Marketplace pricing is emblematic of the view that the degree of regulation should reflect the degree of market power, that workably competitive markets should be allowed to operate with as little regulatory interference as possible. The Edison Electric Institute has made perhaps the most detailed proposal on marketplace pricing. It and others perceive numerous benefits from this method of pricing transmission services. Given the undeniable market power resulting from line ownership, FERC has emphasized the need to find a workably competitive market before approving such proposals. The ability to make this distinction without a full-blown antitrust review for every transaction is questionable, and FERC has yet to provide generic guidance. Finally, FERC's legal ability to depart from cost-based standards is questionable

The price of environmental pollution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bleijenberg, A.N.; Davidson, M.D.

1996-11-01

There is no market price for environmental pollution, simply because of the fact that there is not a market for the environment. However, it is possible to calculate so-called shadow prices for environmental pollution. The calculation method can be summarized as follows: determine the price that exist when there would be a market for the environment. In many cases the calculation must be based on environmental targets as determined by the government. Based on that method and on available data and information, shadow prices are estimated for 18 different pollutants: CO2, CO, CH4, SO2, NH3, NOx, volatile organic materials, final wastes, phosphates, nitrates, COD, fine dust, toluene, benzene, benzopyrene (to air and water), zinc (to water), and copper (to water). 7 figs., 5 tabs., 43 refs

Nodal pricing in a coupled electricity market

OpenAIRE

Bjørndal, Endre; Bjørndal, Mette; Cai, Hong

2014-01-01

This paper investigates a pricing model for an electricity market with a hybrid congestion management method, i.e. part of the system applies a nodal pricing scheme and the rest applies a zonal pricing scheme. The model clears the zonal and nodal pricing areas simultaneously. The nodal pricing area is affected by the changes in the zonal pricing area since it is directly connected to the zonal pricing area by commercial trading. The model is tested on a 13-node power system. Within the area t...

A method of searching LDAP directories using XQuery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hesselroth, Ted

2011-01-01

A method by which an LDAP directory can be searched using XQuery is described. The strategy behind the tool consists of four steps. First the XQuery script is examined and relevant XPath expressions are extracted, determined to be sufficient to define all information needed to perform the query. Then the XPath expressions are converted into their equivalent LDAP search filters by use of the published LDAP schema of the service, and search requests are made to the LDAP host. The search results are then merged and converted to an XML document that conforms to the hierarchy of the LDAP schema. Finally, the XQuery script is executed on the working XML document by conventional means. Examples are given of application of the tool in the Open Science Grid, which for discovery purposes operates an LDAP server that contains Glue schema-based information on site configuration and authorization policies. The XQuery scripts compactly replace hundreds of lines of custom python code that relied on the unix ldapsearch utility. Installation of the tool is available through the Virtual Data Toolkit.

Can nutrition be promoted through agriculture-led food price policies? A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Dangour, Alan D; Hawkesworth, Sophie; Shankar, Bhavani; Watson, Louise; Srinivasan, C S; Morgan, Emily H; Haddad, Lawrence; Waage, Jeff

2013-06-25

To systematically review the available evidence on whether national or international agricultural policies that directly affect the price of food influence the prevalence rates of undernutrition or nutrition-related chronic disease in children and adults. Systematic review. Global. We systematically searched five databases for published literature (MEDLINE, EconLit, Agricola, AgEcon Search, Scopus) and systematically browsed other databases and relevant organisational websites for unpublished literature. Reference lists of included publications were hand-searched for additional relevant studies. We included studies that evaluated or simulated the effects of national or international food-price-related agricultural policies on nutrition outcomes reporting data collected after 1990 and published in English. Prevalence rates of undernutrition (measured with anthropometry or clinical deficiencies) and overnutrition (obesity and nutrition-related chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes). We identified a total of four relevant reports; two ex post evaluations and two ex ante simulations. A study from India reported on the undernutrition rates in children, and the other three studies from Egypt, the Netherlands and the USA reported on the nutrition-related chronic disease outcomes in adults. Two of the studies assessed the impact of policies that subsidised the price of agricultural outputs and two focused on public food distribution policies. The limited evidence base provided some support for the notion that agricultural policies that change the prices of foods at a national level can have an effect on population-level nutrition and health outcomes. A systematic review of the available literature suggests that there is a paucity of robust direct evidence on the impact of agricultural price policies on nutrition and health.

Assessing the effect of oil price on world food prices: Application of principal component analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Esmaeili, Abdoulkarim; Shokoohi, Zainab

2011-01-01

The objective of this paper is to investigate the co-movement of food prices and the macroeconomic index, especially the oil price, by principal component analysis to further understand the influence of the macroeconomic index on food prices. We examined the food prices of seven major products: eggs, meat, milk, oilseeds, rice, sugar and wheat. The macroeconomic variables studied were crude oil prices, consumer price indexes, food production indexes and GDP around the world between 1961 and 2005. We use the Scree test and the proportion of variance method for determining the optimal number of common factors. The correlation coefficient between the extracted principal component and the macroeconomic index varies between 0.87 for the world GDP and 0.36 for the consumer price index. We find the food production index has the greatest influence on the macroeconomic index and that the oil price index has an influence on the food production index. Consequently, crude oil prices have an indirect effect on food prices. - Research Highlights: →We investigate the co-movement of food prices and the macroeconomic index. →The crude oil price has indirect effect on the world GDP via its impacts on food production index. →The food production index is the source of causation for CPI and GDP is affected by CPI. →The results confirm an indirect effect among oil price, food price principal component.

Study on boundary search method for DFM mesh generation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Ri

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The boundary mesh of the casting model was determined by direct calculation on the triangular facets extracted from the STL file of the 3D model. Then the inner and outer grids of the model were identified by the algorithm in which we named Inner Seed Grid Method. Finally, a program to automatically generate a 3D FDM mesh was compiled. In the paper, a method named Triangle Contraction Search Method (TCSM was put forward to ensure not losing the boundary grids; while an algorithm to search inner seed grids to identify inner/outer grids of the casting model was also brought forward. Our algorithm was simple, clear and easy to construct program. Three examples for the casting mesh generation testified the validity of the program.

Search Method Based on Figurative Indexation of Folksonomic Features of Graphic Files

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oleg V. Bisikalo

2013-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper the search method based on usage of figurative indexation of folksonomic characteristics of graphical files is described. The method takes into account extralinguistic information, is based on using a model of figurative thinking of humans. The paper displays the creation of a method of searching image files based on their formal, including folksonomical clues.

Price changes in the gasoline market: Are Midwestern gasoline prices downward sticky?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-03-01

This report examines a recurring question about gasoline markets: why, especially in times of high price volatility, do retail gasoline prices seem to rise quickly but fall back more slowly? Do gasoline prices actually rise faster than they fall, or does this just appear to be the case because people tend to pay more attention to prices when they're rising? This question is more complex than it might appear to be initially, and it has been addressed by numerous analysts in government, academia and industry. The question is very important, because perceived problems with retail gasoline pricing have been used in arguments for government regulation of prices. The phenomenon of prices at different market levels tending to move differently relative to each other depending on direction is known as price asymmetry. This report summarizes the previous work on gasoline price asymmetry and provides a method for testing for asymmetry in a wide variety of situations. The major finding of this paper is that there is some amount of asymmetry and pattern asymmetry, especially at the retail level, in the Midwestern states that are the focus of the analysis. Nevertheless, both the amount asymmetry and pattern asymmetry are relatively small. In addition, much of the pattern asymmetry detected in this and previous studies could be a statistical artifact caused by the time lags between price changes at different points in the gasoline distribution system. In other words, retail gasoline prices do sometimes rise faster than they fall, but this is largely a lagged market response to an upward shock in the underlying wholesale gasoline or crude oil prices, followed by a return toward the previous baseline. After consistent time lags are factored out, most apparent asymmetry disappears

Imputed prices of greenhouse gases and land forests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uzawa, Hirofumi

1993-01-01

The theory of dynamic optimum formulated by Maeler gives us the basic theoretical framework within which it is possible to analyse the economic and, possibly, political circumstances under which the phenomenon of global warming occurs, and to search for the policy and institutional arrangements whereby it would be effectively arrested. The analysis developed here is an application of Maeler's theory to atmospheric quality. In the analysis a central role is played by the concept of imputed price in the dynamic context. Our determination of imputed prices of atmospheric carbon dioxide and land forests takes into account the difference in the stages of economic development. Indeed, the ratios of the imputed prices of atmospheric carbon dioxide and land forests over the per capita level of real national income are identical for all countries involved. (3 figures, 2 tables) (Author)

Transfer Pricing - An Innovative Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ramona MAXIM

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents transfer pricing and elements of drafting the transfer pricing file by the big companies. The transfer pricing procedure was founded based upon Order no. 442/2016 and the Fiscal Procedure Code and it represents a method upon which the tax base is transferred from a high tax country to a country with low taxation. This legislation outlines the conditions which companies must observe in order to draft the transfer pricing documentation and the significance thresholds. The purpose to draft a transfer pricing file is to reduce the differences between prices and market value and the actual results of company taxation. Economic double taxation occurs when tax authorities apply price adjustments because the company did not respect the principle of market value. Keeping records of transfer pricing and practicing a price aligned to market requirements contribute to an understanding of business development and the creation of appropriate tax planning. Taking into account all these aspects and the fact that any taxpayer is tempted to pay the lowest possible fees, tax havens become an option. In this context we can speak of a tax haven as a loophole in the use of the market price.

A semantics-based method for clustering of Chinese web search results

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hui; Wang, Deqing; Wang, Li; Bi, Zhuming; Chen, Yong

2014-01-01

Information explosion is a critical challenge to the development of modern information systems. In particular, when the application of an information system is over the Internet, the amount of information over the web has been increasing exponentially and rapidly. Search engines, such as Google and Baidu, are essential tools for people to find the information from the Internet. Valuable information, however, is still likely submerged in the ocean of search results from those tools. By clustering the results into different groups based on subjects automatically, a search engine with the clustering feature allows users to select most relevant results quickly. In this paper, we propose an online semantics-based method to cluster Chinese web search results. First, we employ the generalised suffix tree to extract the longest common substrings (LCSs) from search snippets. Second, we use the HowNet to calculate the similarities of the words derived from the LCSs, and extract the most representative features by constructing the vocabulary chain. Third, we construct a vector of text features and calculate snippets' semantic similarities. Finally, we improve the Chameleon algorithm to cluster snippets. Extensive experimental results have shown that the proposed algorithm has outperformed over the suffix tree clustering method and other traditional clustering methods.

Constructing forward price curves in electricity markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fleten, S.-E.; Lemming, Jørgen Kjærgaard

2003-01-01

We present and analyze a method for constructing approximated high-resolution forward price curves in electricity markets. Because a limited number of forward or futures contracts are traded in the market, only a limited picture of the theoretical continuous forward price curve is available...... to the analyst. Our method combines the information contained in observed bid and ask prices with information from the forecasts generated by bottom-up models. As an example, we use information concerning the shape of the seasonal variation from a bottom-up model to improve the forward price curve quoted...

Dual-mode nested search method for categorical uncertain multi-objective optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Long; Wang, Hu

2016-10-01

Categorical multi-objective optimization is an important issue involved in many matching design problems. Non-numerical variables and their uncertainty are the major challenges of such optimizations. Therefore, this article proposes a dual-mode nested search (DMNS) method. In the outer layer, kriging metamodels are established using standard regular simplex mapping (SRSM) from categorical candidates to numerical values. Assisted by the metamodels, a k-cluster-based intelligent sampling strategy is developed to search Pareto frontier points. The inner layer uses an interval number method to model the uncertainty of categorical candidates. To improve the efficiency, a multi-feature convergent optimization via most-promising-area stochastic search (MFCOMPASS) is proposed to determine the bounds of objectives. Finally, typical numerical examples are employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed DMNS method.

Relating price strategies and price-setting practices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ingenbleek, P.T.M.; Lans, van der I.A.

2013-01-01

Purpose - This article addresses the relationship between price strategies and price-setting practices. The first derive from a normative tradition in the pricing literature and the latter from a descriptive tradition. Price strategies are visible in the market, whereas price-setting practices are

Improved Methods for Predicting Property Prices in Hazard Prone Dynamic Markets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Koning, Koen; Filatova, Tatiana; Bin, Okmyung

Property prices are affected by changing market conditions, incomes and preferences of people. Price trends in natural hazard zones may shift significantly and abruptly after a disaster signalling structural systemic changes in property markets. It challenges accurate market assessments of property

On pricing of interest rate derivatives

OpenAIRE

Di Matteo, T.; Airoldi, M.; Scalas, E.

2004-01-01

At present, there is an explosion of practical interest in the pricing of interest rate (IR) derivatives. Textbook pricing methods do not take into account the leptokurticity of the underlying IR process. In this paper, such a leptokurtic behaviour is illustrated using LIBOR data, and a possible martingale pricing scheme is discussed.

Pricing decisions from experience: the roles of information-acquisition and response modes.

Science.gov (United States)

Golan, Hagai; Ert, Eyal

2015-03-01

While pricing decisions that are based on experience are quite common, e.g., setting a selling price for a used car, this type of decision has been surprisingly overlooked in psychology and decision research. Previous studies have focused on either choice decisions from experience, or pricing decisions from description. Those studies revealed that pricing involves cognitive mechanisms other than choice, while experience-based decisions involve mechanisms that differ from description-based ones. Thus, the mutual effect of pricing and experience on decision-making remains unclear. To test this effect, we experimentally compared real-money pricing decisions from experience with those from description, and with choices from experience. The results show that the mode of acquiring information affects pricing: the tendency to underprice high-probability prospects and overprice low-probability ones is diminished when pricing is based on experience rather than description. The findings further reveal attenuation of the tendency to underweight rare events, which underlies choices from experience, in pricing decisions from experience. The difference occurs because the response mode affects the search effort and decision strategy in decisions from experience. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Fast Radio Burst Search Method for VLBI Observation

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lei; Tong, Fengxian; Zheng, Weimin; Zhang, Juan; Tong, Li

2018-02-01

We introduce the cross-spectrum-based fast radio burst (FRB) search method for Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) observation. This method optimizes the fringe fitting scheme in geodetic VLBI data post-processing, which fully utilizes the cross-spectrum fringe phase information and therefore maximizes the power of single-pulse signals. Working with cross-spectrum greatly reduces the effect of radio frequency interference compared with using auto-power spectrum. Single-pulse detection confidence increases by cross-identifying detections from multiple baselines. By combining the power of multiple baselines, we may improve the detection sensitivity. Our method is similar to that of coherent beam forming, but without the computational expense to form a great number of beams to cover the whole field of view of our telescopes. The data processing pipeline designed for this method is easy to implement and parallelize, which can be deployed in various kinds of VLBI observations. In particular, we point out that VGOS observations are very suitable for FRB search.

Analysis of the uranium price predicted to 24 months, implementing neural networks and the Monte Carlo method like predictive tools

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Esquivel E, J.; Ramirez S, J. R.; Palacios H, J. C.

2011-11-01

The present work shows predicted prices of the uranium, using a neural network. The importance of predicting financial indexes of an energy resource, in this case, allows establishing budgetary measures, as well as the costs of the resource to medium period. The uranium is part of the main energy generating fuels and as such, its price rebounds in the financial analyses, due to this is appealed to predictive methods to obtain an outline referent to the financial behaviour that will have in a certain time. In this study, two methodologies are used for the prediction of the uranium price: the Monte Carlo method and the neural networks. These methods allow predicting the indexes of monthly costs, for a two years period, starting from the second bimonthly of 2011. For the prediction the uranium costs are used, registered from the year 2005. (Author)

Fuzzy Search Method for Hi Education Information Security

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grigory Grigorevich Novikov

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The main reason of the research is how to use fuzzy search method for information security of Hi Education or some similar purposes. So many sensitive information leaks are through non SUMMARY 149 classified documents legal publishing. That’s why many intelligence services so love to use the «mosaic» information collection method. This article is about how to prevent it.

7 CFR 1131.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1131.53 Section 1131.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1005.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1005.53 Section 1005.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1126.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1126.53 Section 1126.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1032.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1032.53 Section 1032.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1030.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1030.53 Section 1030.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1033.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1033.53 Section 1033.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1001.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1001.53 Section 1001.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1007.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1007.53 Section 1007.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

7 CFR 1006.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1006.53 Section 1006.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

Performance comparison of a new hybrid conjugate gradient method under exact and inexact line searches

Science.gov (United States)

Ghani, N. H. A.; Mohamed, N. S.; Zull, N.; Shoid, S.; Rivaie, M.; Mamat, M.

2017-09-01

Conjugate gradient (CG) method is one of iterative techniques prominently used in solving unconstrained optimization problems due to its simplicity, low memory storage, and good convergence analysis. This paper presents a new hybrid conjugate gradient method, named NRM1 method. The method is analyzed under the exact and inexact line searches in given conditions. Theoretically, proofs show that the NRM1 method satisfies the sufficient descent condition with both line searches. The computational result indicates that NRM1 method is capable in solving the standard unconstrained optimization problems used. On the other hand, the NRM1 method performs better under inexact line search compared with exact line search.

7 CFR 1033.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1033.50 Section 1033.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1005.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1005.50 Section 1005.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1001.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1001.50 Section 1001.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1006.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1006.50 Section 1006.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1126.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1126.50 Section 1126.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1032.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1032.50 Section 1032.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1131.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1131.50 Section 1131.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

7 CFR 1007.50 - Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1007.50 Section 1007.50 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued..., and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.50. ...

48 CFR 215.403-5 - Instructions for submission of cost or pricing data or information other than cost or pricing data.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... submission of cost or pricing data or information other than cost or pricing data. 215.403-5 Section 215.403... DEFENSE CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 215.403-5 Instructions for submission of cost or pricing data or information other than cost or pricing data. When the...

7 CFR 1124.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 9 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. 1124.53 Section 1124.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture... Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors. See § 1000.53. ...

Resident Load Influence Analysis Method for Price Based on Non-intrusive Load Monitoring and Decomposition Data

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Wenqian; Zeng, Bo; Yang, Zhou; Li, Gang

2018-01-01

In the non-invasive load monitoring mode, the load decomposition can reflect the running state of each load, which will help the user reduce unnecessary energy costs. With the demand side management measures of time of using price, a resident load influence analysis method for time of using price (TOU) based on non-intrusive load monitoring data are proposed in the paper. Relying on the current signal of the resident load classification, the user equipment type, and different time series of self-elasticity and cross-elasticity of the situation could be obtained. Through the actual household load data test with the impact of TOU, part of the equipment will be transferred to the working hours, and users in the peak price of electricity has been reduced, and in the electricity at the time of the increase Electrical equipment, with a certain regularity.

SELECTING THE WAY OF MEASURING THE PRICE EVOLUTION USING THE METHOD OF INDICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihai GHEORGHE

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The price indices have a long history and a large variety of uses, from the adjustment of the wages, pensions and payments included in a long-term contract, the deflation of aggregates in National Accounts, to the elaboration of economic policies.Having identified the purpose of the index, we`ll have to choose the target index and the calculation formula, this operation being carried out based on the observed prices and on the quantity and quality weights.In the statistical practice, the price index is often calculated by aggregating the elementary indices using the weighted arithmetic mean, using annual weights from a period that is previous to the reference period.In this situation, the question about the possible impact of the weights update (by prices on the interpretation of price indices becomes legitimate, also the question about the influence of using this approach on measuring the price change. We can get a possible answer to this question using the Lowe and Young indices introduced by the Consumer Price Index international manual.

Constructing forward price curves in electricity markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fleten, Stein-Erik; Lemming, Jacob

2003-01-01

We present and analyze a method for constructing approximated high-resolution forward price curves in electricity markets. Because a limited number of forward or futures contracts are traded in the market, only a limited picture of the theoretical continuous forward price curve is available to the analyst. Our method combines the information contained in observed bid and ask prices with information from the forecasts generated by bottom-up models. As an example, we use information concerning the shape of the seasonal variation from a bottom-up model to improve the forward price curve quoted on the Nordic power exchange

A new greedy search method for the design of digital IIR filter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ranjit Kaur

2015-07-01

Full Text Available A new greedy search method is applied in this paper to design the optimal digital infinite impulse response (IIR filter. The greedy search method is based on binary successive approximation (BSA and evolutionary search (ES. The suggested greedy search method optimizes the magnitude response and the phase response simultaneously and also finds the lowest order of the filter. The order of the filter is controlled by a control gene whose value is also optimized along with the filter coefficients to obtain optimum order of designed IIR filter. The stability constraints of IIR filter are taken care of during the design procedure. To determine the trade-off relationship between conflicting objectives in the non-inferior domain, the weighting method is exploited. The proposed approach is effectively applied to solve the multiobjective optimization problems of designing the digital low-pass (LP, high-pass (HP, bandpass (BP, and bandstop (BS filters. It has been demonstrated that this technique not only fulfills all types of filter performance requirements, but also the lowest order of the filter can be found. The computational experiments show that the proposed approach gives better digital IIR filters than the existing evolutionary algorithm (EA based methods.

Binomial tree method for pricing a regime-switching volatility stock loans

Science.gov (United States)

Putri, Endah R. M.; Zamani, Muhammad S.; Utomo, Daryono B.

2018-03-01

Binomial model with regime switching may represents the price of stock loan which follows the stochastic process. Stock loan is one of alternative that appeal investors to get the liquidity without selling the stock. The stock loan mechanism resembles that of American call option when someone can exercise any time during the contract period. From the resembles both of mechanism, determination price of stock loan can be interpreted from the model of American call option. The simulation result shows the behavior of the price of stock loan under a regime-switching with respect to various interest rate and maturity.

Edgeworth Price Cycles, Cost-Based Pricing, and Sticky Pricing in Retail Gasoline Markets

OpenAIRE

Michael D. Noel

2007-01-01

This paper examines dynamic pricing behavior in retail gasoline markets for 19 Canadian cities over 574 weeks. I find three distinct retail pricing patterns: 1. cost-based pricing, 2. sticky pricing, and 3. steep, asymmetric retail price cycles that, while seldom documented empirically, resemble those of Maskin & Tirole[1988]. Using a Markov switching regression, I estimate the prevalence of patterns and the structural characteristics of the cycles. Retail price cycles prevail in over 40% of ...

Comparing the Precision of Information Retrieval of MeSH-Controlled Vocabulary Search Method and a Visual Method in the Medline Medical Database.

Science.gov (United States)

Hariri, Nadjla; Ravandi, Somayyeh Nadi

2014-01-01

Medline is one of the most important databases in the biomedical field. One of the most important hosts for Medline is Elton B. Stephens CO. (EBSCO), which has presented different search methods that can be used based on the needs of the users. Visual search and MeSH-controlled search methods are among the most common methods. The goal of this research was to compare the precision of the retrieved sources in the EBSCO Medline base using MeSH-controlled and visual search methods. This research was a semi-empirical study. By holding training workshops, 70 students of higher education in different educational departments of Kashan University of Medical Sciences were taught MeSH-Controlled and visual search methods in 2012. Then, the precision of 300 searches made by these students was calculated based on Best Precision, Useful Precision, and Objective Precision formulas and analyzed in SPSS software using the independent sample T Test, and three precisions obtained with the three precision formulas were studied for the two search methods. The mean precision of the visual method was greater than that of the MeSH-Controlled search for all three types of precision, i.e. Best Precision, Useful Precision, and Objective Precision, and their mean precisions were significantly different (P searches. Fifty-three percent of the participants in the research also mentioned that the use of the combination of the two methods produced better results. For users, it is more appropriate to use a natural, language-based method, such as the visual method, in the EBSCO Medline host than to use the controlled method, which requires users to use special keywords. The potential reason for their preference was that the visual method allowed them more freedom of action.

American option pricing with stochastic volatility processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ping LI

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In order to solve the problem of option pricing more perfectly, the option pricing problem with Heston stochastic volatility model is considered. The optimal implementation boundary of American option and the conditions for its early execution are analyzed and discussed. In view of the fact that there is no analytical American option pricing formula, through the space discretization parameters, the stochastic partial differential equation satisfied by American options with Heston stochastic volatility is transformed into the corresponding differential equations, and then using high order compact finite difference method, numerical solutions are obtained for the option price. The numerical experiments are carried out to verify the theoretical results and simulation. The two kinds of optimal exercise boundaries under the conditions of the constant volatility and the stochastic volatility are compared, and the results show that the optimal exercise boundary also has stochastic volatility. Under the setting of parameters, the behavior and the nature of volatility are analyzed, the volatility curve is simulated, the calculation results of high order compact difference method are compared, and the numerical option solution is obtained, so that the method is verified. The research result provides reference for solving the problems of option pricing under stochastic volatility such as multiple underlying asset option pricing and barrier option pricing.

An assessment of innovative pricing schemes for the communication of value: is price discrimination and two-part pricing a way forward?

Science.gov (United States)

Hertzman, Peter; Miller, Paul; Tolley, Keith

2018-02-01

With the introduction of new expensive medicines, traditional pricing schemes based on constructs such as price per pill/vial have been challenged. Potential innovative schemes could be either financial-based or performance-based. Within financial-based schemes the use of price discrimination is an emerging option, which we explore in this assessment. Areas covered: In the short term the price per indication approach is likely to become more prevalent for high cost, high benefit new pharmaceuticals, such as those emerging in oncology (e.g. new combination immunotherapies). 'Two-Part Pricing' (2PP) is a frequently used payment method in other industries, which consists of an Entry Fee, giving the buyer the right to use the product, and a Usage Price charged every time the product is purchased. Introducing 2PP into biopharma could have cross-stakeholder benefits including broader patient access, and improvement in budget/revenue predictability. A concern however is the potential complexity of the negotiation between manufacturer and payer. Expert commentary: We believe 'price discrimination' and 2PP in particular can be relevant for some new, expensive specialist medicines. A recommended first step would be to initiate pilots to test to what degree the 2PP approach meets stakeholder objectives and is practical to implement within specialty care.

Competitive Pricing by a Price Leader

OpenAIRE

Abhik Roy; Dominique M. Hanssens; Jagmohan S. Raju

1994-01-01

We examine the problem of pricing in a market where one brand acts as a price leader. We develop a procedure to estimate a leader's price rule, which is optimal given a sales target objective, and allows for the inclusion of demand forecasts. We illustrate our estimation procedure by calibrating this optimal price rule for both the leader and the follower using data on past sales and prices from the mid-size sedan segment of the U.S. automobile market. Our results suggest that a leader-follow...

Real-Time Pricing-Based Scheduling Strategy in Smart Grids: A Hierarchical Game Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jie Yang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a scheduling strategy based on real-time pricing in smart grids. A hierarchical game is employed to analyze the decision-making process of generators and consumers. We prove the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium and utilize a backward induction method to obtain the generation and consumption strategies. Then, we propose two dynamic algorithms for the generators and consumers to search for the equilibrium in a distributed fashion. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheduling strategy can match supply with demand and shift load away from peak time.

A Study on the Determination of the World Crude Oil Price and Methods for Its Forecast

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, J.K. [Korea Energy Economics Institute, Euiwang (Korea)

2001-11-01

The primary purpose of this report is to provide the groundwork to develop the methods to forecast the world crude oil price. The methodology is used by both literature survey and empirical study. For this purpose, first of all, this report reviewed the present situation and the outlook of the world oil market based on oil demand, supply and prices. This analysis attempted to provide a deeper understanding to support the development of oil forecasting methods. The result of this review, in general, showed that the oil demand will be maintained annually at an average rate of around 2.4% under assumption that oil supply has no problem until 2020. The review showed that crude oil price will be a 3% increasing rate annually in the 1999 real term. This report used the contents of the summary review as reference data in order to link the KEEIOF model. In an effort to further investigate the contents of oil political economy, this report reviewed the articles of political economy about oil industry. It pointed out that the world oil industry is experiencing the change of restructuring oil industry after the Gulf War in 1990. The contents of restructuring oil industry are characterized by the 'open access' to resources not only in the Persian Gulf, but elsewhere in the world as well - especially the Caspian Sea Basin. In addition, the contents showed that the oil industries are shifted from government control to government and industry cooperation after the Gulf War. In order to examine the characters and the problems surrounding oil producing countries, this report described the model of OPEC behavior and strategy of oil management with political and military factors. Among examining the models of OPEC behavior, this report focused on hybrid model to explain OPEC behavior. In reviewing political and religious power structure in the Middle East, the report revealed that US emphasizes the importance of the Middle East for guaranteeing oil security. However, three

When and How Is the Internet Likely to Decrease Price Competition?

OpenAIRE

Rajiv Lal; Miklos Sarvary

1999-01-01

Conventional wisdom seems to claim that, by lowering the cost of distribution and by making search easier for consumer, the introduction of the Internet is likely to intensify price competition. This paper intends to challenge this view by asking: When and how is the Internet likely to decrease the level of price competition between firms? To answer this question, we develop an analytic model with the following characteristics. On the demand side, consumers need to gather information on two t...

Diversification of Oil and Gas Companies’ Activities in the Condition of Oil Prices Reduction and Economic Sanctions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasia V. Sheveleva

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the influence of the economic sanctions imposed from the USA and the EU and oil prices reduction on the oil and gas companies and the directions of diversification of their activity as a method of management of price risks are considered. In the modern dynamic and quickly developing world, in the conditions of globalization and market economy, the oil and gas companies are affected by various risks which can exert negative impact on production and financial results. Risks can arise in absolutely various spheres, beginning from natural and technological hazards, and finishing with price risks. Sharp reduction of oil prices and decrease in demand for energy resources in the world markets, first of all in the European countries, input of financial or technological sanctions from the USA and Europe against Russia in 2014 has caused necessity of search a new more effective methods of price risks management of the oil and gas company. The methods of price risk management include the creation of commodity reserves, the establishment of a reserve fund, long-term contracts, subsidies from the state and the diversification of activities. The most effective it is possible to offer diversification of oil and gas companies' activity. It is expedient to carry out diversification of oil and gas companies' activity in such directions as geographical diversification of the oil, oil products and gas realization directions, geographical diversification of oil and gas companies' purchasing activity, diversification of oil, oil products and gas transportation ways, diversification of oil and gas companies' business. This approach allows to expand the activities of the oil and gas companies and create additional ways to generate revenue and enhance efficiency of oil and gas companies.

List prices vs. bargain prices: which solution to estimate consumer price indices?

OpenAIRE

Carlo De Gregorio

2010-01-01

Alternative approaches to CPI surveys are here evaluated, in markets where final prices are based on some sort of price listing. Three types of surveys are compared: local surveys (LOC), with small samples and a local price collection; list price surveys (LIS), with huge samples and centralised collection; mixed surveys (MXD), in which LOC and LIS are jointly used. Based on a multiplicative pricing model, some conditions are derived to establish the relative efficiency of these approaches. Th...

Detecting method for crude oil price fluctuation mechanism under different periodic time series

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, Xiangyun; Fang, Wei; An, Feng; Wang, Yue

2017-01-01

Highlights: • We proposed the concept of autoregressive modes to indicate the fluctuation patterns. • We constructed transmission networks for studying the fluctuation mechanism. • There are different fluctuation mechanism under different periodic time series. • Only a few types of autoregressive modes control the fluctuations in crude oil price. • There are cluster effects during the fluctuation mechanism of autoregressive modes. - Abstract: Current existing literatures can characterize the long-term fluctuation of crude oil price time series, however, it is difficult to detect the fluctuation mechanism specifically under short term. Because each fluctuation pattern for one short period contained in a long-term crude oil price time series have dynamic characteristics of diversity; in other words, there exhibit various fluctuation patterns in different short periods and transmit to each other, which reflects the reputedly complicate and chaotic oil market. Thus, we proposed an incorporated method to detect the fluctuation mechanism, which is the evolution of the different fluctuation patterns over time from the complex network perspective. We divided crude oil price time series into segments using sliding time windows, and defined autoregressive modes based on regression models to indicate the fluctuation patterns of each segment. Hence, the transmissions between different types of autoregressive modes over time form a transmission network that contains rich dynamic information. We then capture transmission characteristics of autoregressive modes under different periodic time series through the structure features of the transmission networks. The results indicate that there are various autoregressive modes with significantly different statistical characteristics under different periodic time series. However, only a few types of autoregressive modes and transmission patterns play a major role in the fluctuation mechanism of the crude oil price, and these

Arbitrage Pricing, Capital Asset Pricing, and Agricultural Assets

OpenAIRE

Louise M. Arthur; Colin A. Carter; Fay Abizadeh

1988-01-01

A new asset pricing model, the arbitrage pricing theory, has been developed as an alternative to the capital asset pricing model. The arbitrage pricing theory model is used to analyze the relationship between risk and return for agricultural assets. The major conclusion is that the arbitrage pricing theory results support previous capital asset pricing model findings that the estimated risk associated with agricultural assets is low. This conclusion is more robust for the arbitrage pricing th...

Output Price Risk, Material Input Price Risk, and Price Margins: Evidence from the US Catfish Industry.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Bouras

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Aim/purpose - To develop a conceptual model for analyzing the impact of output price risk and material input price risk on price margins. Design/methodology/approach - To analyze the combined effect of output price risk and material input risk on price margins, we use a series of comparative static analyses, GARCH models, and data ranging from 1990/01 to 2012/12. Findings - The theoretical results indicate that the impact of output price risk and the impact of material input price risk on price margins are ambiguous and, to a great extent, hinge on the correlation between output price and material input price. The empirical results show that whole frozen catfish price risk and live catfish price risk negatively affect the price margin for frozen catfish. The empirical results, however, indicate that the risk of the price of live catfish affects markedly the price margin for frozen whole catfish in contrast to the impact of the risk of the price of frozen whole catfish. Research implications/limitations - The empirical results have significant implications for managerial decision-making especially when crafting strategies for improving price margins. Accordingly, in order to beef up the price margin for frozen whole catfish, catfish processors may consider engaging in vertical integration. This paper has some limitations: first, it assumes that firms operate in competitive markets; second, it assumes that firms produce and sell a single product. Originality/value/contribution - Unlike earlier studies that focused solely on the effect of output price risk on price margins, this paper analyzes theoretically and empirically the impact of output price risk and material input price risk on price margins.

Non-contact method of search and analysis of pulsating vessels

Science.gov (United States)

Avtomonov, Yuri N.; Tsoy, Maria O.; Postnov, Dmitry E.

2018-04-01

Despite the variety of existing methods of recording the human pulse and a solid history of their development, there is still considerable interest in this topic. The development of new non-contact methods, based on advanced image processing, caused a new wave of interest in this issue. We present a simple but quite effective method for analyzing the mechanical pulsations of blood vessels lying close to the surface of the skin. Our technique is a modification of imaging (or remote) photoplethysmography (i-PPG). We supplemented this method with the addition of a laser light source, which made it possible to use other methods of searching for the proposed pulsation zone. During the testing of the method, several series of experiments were carried out with both artificial oscillating objects as well as with the target signal source (human wrist). The obtained results show that our method allows correct interpretation of complex data. To summarize, we proposed and tested an alternative method for the search and analysis of pulsating vessels.

Electricity Price Forecasting Based on AOSVR and Outlier Detection

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhou Dianmin; Gao Lin; Gao Feng

2005-01-01

Electricity price is of the first consideration for all the participants in electric power market and its characteristics are related to both market mechanism and variation in the behaviors of market participants. It is necessary to build a real-time price forecasting model with adaptive capability; and because there are outliers in the price data, they should be detected and filtrated in training the forecasting model by regression method. In view of these points, this paper presents an electricity price forecasting method based on accurate on-line support vector regression (AOSVR) and outlier detection. Numerical testing results show that the method is effective in forecasting the electricity prices in electric power market.

Spot Pricing When Lagrange Multipliers Are Not Unique

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Feng, Donghan; Xu, Zhao; Zhong, Jin

2012-01-01

Classical spot pricing theory is based on multipliers of the primal problem of an optimal market dispatch, i.e., the solution of the dual problem. However, the dual problem of market dispatch may yield multiple solutions. In these circumstances, spot pricing or any standard pricing practice based...... on a strict extension of the principles of spot pricing and surplus allocation, we propose a new pricing methodology that can yield unique, impartial, and robust solution. The new method has been analyzed and compared with other pricing approaches in accordance with spot pricing theory. Case studies support...

Search in the product market and the real business cycle

OpenAIRE

Mathä, Thomas Y.; Pierrard, Olivier

2009-01-01

Abstract Abstract Empirical evidence suggests that most firms operate in imperfectly competitive markets. We develop a search-matching model between wholesalers and retailers. Firms face search costs and form long-term relationships. Price bargain results in both wholesaler and retailer markups, which depend on firms? relative bargaining power. We simulate the general equilibrium model and explore the role of product market search frictions for business cycles. We conclu...

7 CFR 1000.53 - Announcement of class prices, component prices, and advanced pricing factors.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... advanced pricing factors. 1000.53 Section 1000.53 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture..., component prices, and advanced pricing factors. (a) On or before the 5th day of the month, the market... administrator for each Federal milk marketing order shall announce the following prices and pricing factors for...

Estimating the impact of extreme events on crude oil price. An EMD-based event analysis method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Xun; Wang, Shouyang [Institute of Systems Science, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); School of Mathematical Sciences, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Yu, Lean [Institute of Systems Science, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Lai, Kin Keung [Department of Management Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon (China)

2009-09-15

The impact of extreme events on crude oil markets is of great importance in crude oil price analysis due to the fact that those events generally exert strong impact on crude oil markets. For better estimation of the impact of events on crude oil price volatility, this study attempts to use an EMD-based event analysis approach for this task. In the proposed method, the time series to be analyzed is first decomposed into several intrinsic modes with different time scales from fine-to-coarse and an average trend. The decomposed modes respectively capture the fluctuations caused by the extreme event or other factors during the analyzed period. It is found that the total impact of an extreme event is included in only one or several dominant modes, but the secondary modes provide valuable information on subsequent factors. For overlapping events with influences lasting for different periods, their impacts are separated and located in different modes. For illustration and verification purposes, two extreme events, the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the Iraq War in 2003, are analyzed step by step. The empirical results reveal that the EMD-based event analysis method provides a feasible solution to estimating the impact of extreme events on crude oil prices variation. (author)

Estimating the impact of extreme events on crude oil price. An EMD-based event analysis method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Xun; Wang, Shouyang; Yu, Lean; Lai, Kin Keung

2009-01-01

The impact of extreme events on crude oil markets is of great importance in crude oil price analysis due to the fact that those events generally exert strong impact on crude oil markets. For better estimation of the impact of events on crude oil price volatility, this study attempts to use an EMD-based event analysis approach for this task. In the proposed method, the time series to be analyzed is first decomposed into several intrinsic modes with different time scales from fine-to-coarse and an average trend. The decomposed modes respectively capture the fluctuations caused by the extreme event or other factors during the analyzed period. It is found that the total impact of an extreme event is included in only one or several dominant modes, but the secondary modes provide valuable information on subsequent factors. For overlapping events with influences lasting for different periods, their impacts are separated and located in different modes. For illustration and verification purposes, two extreme events, the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and the Iraq War in 2003, are analyzed step by step. The empirical results reveal that the EMD-based event analysis method provides a feasible solution to estimating the impact of extreme events on crude oil prices variation. (author)

A comparison of two search methods for determining the scope of systematic reviews and health technology assessments.

Science.gov (United States)

Forsetlund, Louise; Kirkehei, Ingvild; Harboe, Ingrid; Odgaard-Jensen, Jan

2012-01-01

This study aims to compare two different search methods for determining the scope of a requested systematic review or health technology assessment. The first method (called the Direct Search Method) included performing direct searches in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE) and the Health Technology Assessments (HTA). Using the comparison method (called the NHS Search Engine) we performed searches by means of the search engine of the British National Health Service, NHS Evidence. We used an adapted cross-over design with a random allocation of fifty-five requests for systematic reviews. The main analyses were based on repeated measurements adjusted for the order in which the searches were conducted. The Direct Search Method generated on average fewer hits (48 percent [95 percent confidence interval {CI} 6 percent to 72 percent], had a higher precision (0.22 [95 percent CI, 0.13 to 0.30]) and more unique hits than when searching by means of the NHS Search Engine (50 percent [95 percent CI, 7 percent to 110 percent]). On the other hand, the Direct Search Method took longer (14.58 minutes [95 percent CI, 7.20 to 21.97]) and was perceived as somewhat less user-friendly than the NHS Search Engine (-0.60 [95 percent CI, -1.11 to -0.09]). Although the Direct Search Method had some drawbacks such as being more time-consuming and less user-friendly, it generated more unique hits than the NHS Search Engine, retrieved on average fewer references and fewer irrelevant results.

Next Generations of Road Pricing: Social Welfare Enhancing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Omid M. Rouhani

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper offers a broad overview of road pricing from a social welfare perspective. I first examine two common objectives of road pricing: congestion management and profit making. My goal is to provide a guideline explaining how to promote a social-welfare-enhancing road pricing scheme. To this end, we should: (i consider and improve public transportation systems by providing more environment-friendly transport options; (ii include tolling profits in our welfare analysis (as opposed to what economists suggest since residents are the real owners of roads not users, and since some users are from outside the region and so might not be excluded from analysis; and (iii search for a holistic approach that takes into account system-wide impacts, disutility to users who change their travel behavior (i.e., switch to public transportation, shift their travel, or do not travel at all, and the impacts on land use, employment, and residents.

Research on nonlinear stochastic dynamical price model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Jiaorui; Xu Wei; Xie Wenxian; Ren Zhengzheng

2008-01-01

In consideration of many uncertain factors existing in economic system, nonlinear stochastic dynamical price model which is subjected to Gaussian white noise excitation is proposed based on deterministic model. One-dimensional averaged Ito stochastic differential equation for the model is derived by using the stochastic averaging method, and applied to investigate the stability of the trivial solution and the first-passage failure of the stochastic price model. The stochastic price model and the methods presented in this paper are verified by numerical studies

Searching for Truth: Internet Search Patterns as a Method of Investigating Online Responses to a Russian Illicit Drug Policy Debate

Science.gov (United States)

Gillespie, James A; Quinn, Casey

2012-01-01

Background This is a methodological study investigating the online responses to a national debate over an important health and social problem in Russia. Russia is the largest Internet market in Europe, exceeding Germany in the absolute number of users. However, Russia is unusual in that the main search provider is not Google, but Yandex. Objective This study had two main objectives. First, to validate Yandex search patterns against those provided by Google, and second, to test this method's adequacy for investigating online interest in a 2010 national debate over Russian illicit drug policy. We hoped to learn what search patterns and specific search terms could reveal about the relative importance and geographic distribution of interest in this debate. Methods A national drug debate, centering on the anti-drug campaigner Egor Bychkov, was one of the main Russian domestic news events of 2010. Public interest in this episode was accompanied by increased Internet search. First, we measured the search patterns for 13 search terms related to the Bychkov episode and concurrent domestic events by extracting data from Google Insights for Search (GIFS) and Yandex WordStat (YaW). We conducted Spearman Rank Correlation of GIFS and YaW search data series. Second, we coded all 420 primary posts from Bychkov's personal blog between March 2010 and March 2012 to identify the main themes. Third, we compared GIFS and Yandex policies concerning the public release of search volume data. Finally, we established the relationship between salient drug issues and the Bychkov episode. Results We found a consistent pattern of strong to moderate positive correlations between Google and Yandex for the terms "Egor Bychkov" (r s = 0.88, P < .001), “Bychkov” (r s = .78, P < .001) and “Khimki”(r s = 0.92, P < .001). Peak search volumes for the Bychkov episode were comparable to other prominent domestic political events during 2010. Monthly search counts were 146,689 for “Bychkov” and

Fluctuation traits of Litchi wholesale price in China

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, F. F.; Qi, W. E.; Ouyang, X.

2017-07-01

This paper chose the wholesale price of litchi as research object based on the daily data of 11 main sales markets in China -- Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hefei, Jiaxing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Changsha, Zhengzhou and Chongqing from April 1, 2012 to September 30, 2016. After analyzing the fluctuation characteristics with BP filter method and H-P filter method, and the fluctuation trends of litchi wholesale price in China obtained by BP filter are roughly consistent with the trends obtained by H-P filter. The main conclusions are as follows: there is strong cyclicality in the fluctuation of litchi wholesale price; the period of fluctuations of litchi wholesale prices are not repeatable; litchi wholesale price fluctuates asymmetrically in one fluctuation cycle.

Research on Large-Scale Road Network Partition and Route Search Method Combined with Traveler Preferences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

De-Xin Yu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Combined with improved Pallottino parallel algorithm, this paper proposes a large-scale route search method, which considers travelers’ route choice preferences. And urban road network is decomposed into multilayers effectively. Utilizing generalized travel time as road impedance function, the method builds a new multilayer and multitasking road network data storage structure with object-oriented class definition. Then, the proposed path search algorithm is verified by using the real road network of Guangzhou city as an example. By the sensitive experiments, we make a comparative analysis of the proposed path search method with the current advanced optimal path algorithms. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can increase the road network search efficiency by more than 16% under different search proportion requests, node numbers, and computing process numbers, respectively. Therefore, this method is a great breakthrough in the guidance field of urban road network.

Approach of optimum cross-section choice for cable lines in market prices conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guseva, S.; Petrichenko, L.

2012-01-01

In this paper an approach for choosing the optimum cross section for cable lines in conditions of incomplete and uncertain information is considered. The existing method economic current's density has the disadvantages connected with the assumptions and the lack of reliable information. In the work the modification of the economic intervals' method is offered under market conditions of prices. The method is based on search of minimum total annual costs for lines' construction. As example, 20, 110, 330 kV cable lines with copper vein are selected. Economic nomograms with different standard cross-sections are calculated and constructed for practical using of method. The choice of cross-sections by economic considerations is actual and for modern market conditions of economy. The graphics using MathCAD software are offered. (Authors)

An Analysis of the Applicability of Federal Law Regarding Hash-Based Searches of Digital Media

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-01

similarity matching, Fourth Amend- ment, federal law, search and seizure, warrant search, consent search, border search. 15. NUMBER OF PAGES 107 16. PRICE ...containing a white powdery substance labeled flour [53]. 3.3.17 United States v Heckenkamp 482 F.3d 1142 (9th Circuit 2007) People have a reasonable

Pricing and sales tax collection policies for e-cigarette starter kits and disposable products sold online.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuomo, Raphael E; Miner, Angela; Mackey, Tim K

2015-10-23

Previous studies have examined marketing characteristics of e-cigarettes sold online and others have examined e-cigarettes pricing in retail (non-Internet) settings. This study expands on these findings by examining pricing and marketing characteristics of interest among e-cigarette online vendors. Structured web searches were conducted from August-September 2014 to identify popular e-cigarette Internet vendors. We then collected pricing data (e-cigarette starter kits and disposables), sales tax collection policies and other vendor marketing characteristics. Average price for each product category was then compared with marketing characteristics using linear regression for continuous variables and independent t-tests for binary variables. Our searches yielded 44 e-cigarette Internet vendors of which 77% (n = 34) sold a total of 238 starter kit offerings (Mprice = $55.89). Half (n = 22) sold disposable types of e-cigarettes (Mprice = $7.17 p/e-cigarette) at a price lower than reported elsewhere in retail settings. Average disposable e-cigarette prices were also significantly higher for vendors displaying more health warning notices (P = 0.001). Only 46% disclosed sales tax collection policies and only 39% collected sales tax in their state of business. This study expands on current understanding of e-cigarette pricing and availability online and finds variation in e-cigarette pricing may be influenced by type of product, use of online health warnings and vendor sales tax collection policies. It also finds that e-cigarette online access and availability may be impacted by a combination of pricing and marketing strategies uniquely different from e-cigarette retail settings that requires further study and targeted policy-making. [Cuomo RE, Miner A, Mackey TK. Pricing and sales tax collection policies for e-cigarette starter kits and disposable products sold online. Drug Alcohol Rev 2015]. © 2015 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and

Bayesian Option Pricing using Mixed Normal Heteroskedasticity Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rombouts, Jeroen; Stentoft, Lars

2014-01-01

Option pricing using mixed normal heteroscedasticity models is considered. It is explained how to perform inference and price options in a Bayesian framework. The approach allows to easily compute risk neutral predictive price densities which take into account parameter uncertainty....... In an application to the S&P 500 index, classical and Bayesian inference is performed on the mixture model using the available return data. Comparing the ML estimates and posterior moments small differences are found. When pricing a rich sample of options on the index, both methods yield similar pricing errors...... measured in dollar and implied standard deviation losses, and it turns out that the impact of parameter uncertainty is minor. Therefore, when it comes to option pricing where large amounts of data are available, the choice of the inference method is unimportant. The results are robust to different...

Is the Internet making markets more efficient? The evidence according to price indicators in Spain

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ferran Sabate

2009-04-01

Full Text Available It has been theorized that low search costs associated with e-commerce imply greater levels of efficiency relative to the conventional retail channels. Multiple empirical studies confirm this hypothesis concerning price level, although the evidence is mixed relative to price dispersion. This article empirically compares the efficiency of the Internet with the conventional retail channel through 4 price indicators for the CD market. The results, based on 1,603 prices collected in Spain, are surprising. The conventional channel shows greater efficiency for both posted and final prices. These findings together with the coincident results of other reviewed studies would suggest key factors related to the development of e-commerce. Implications of the study and future considerations are discussed.

How does market concern derived from the Internet affect oil prices?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo, Jian-Feng; Ji, Qiang

2013-01-01

Highlights: • The impact of market concern derived from the Web on oil volatility is analysed. • It has an equilibrium relationship between oil prices and long-run market concern. • The short-run market concerns have an asymmetric influence on oil price volatility. • The Internet can exaggerate the impact of information shocks on oil price. - Abstract: With the acceleration of oil marketisation and the rapid development of electronic information carriers, external information shocks can be easily and quickly transmitted to the oil market through the Internet. This paper analyses the impact of short- and long-run market concerns, derived from search query volumes in Google for different domains around the oil market on oil volatility using co-integration and the modified EGARCH model. Empirical results suggest there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between oil prices and long-run market concern for oil prices and oil demand. The short-run market concerns for the 2008 financial crisis and the Libyan war convulsion have a significant and asymmetric influence on oil price volatility. This indicates that market concern transmitted through the Internet can strengthen the linkage between oil price changes and external events by influencing the expectation of market traders, and to some extent it can exaggerate the impact of nonfundamental information shocks

Value based pricing: the least valued pricing strategy

OpenAIRE

Hoenen, Bob

2017-01-01

Pricing has been one of the least researched topics in marketing, although within these pricing strategies: cost-plus pricing is considered as the leading pricing strategy worldwide. Why should companies use such an unprofitable strategy, where fighting for a higher market share due to low prices is more a rule than exception? VBP is one of the most underestimated strategies by organizations. The definition of VBP is: 'value pricing applies to products that have the potential of being differe...

Locational Prices in Capacity Subscription Market Considering Transmission Limitations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Babaeinejad Sarookolaee

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This study focuses on one of the most effective type of capacity markets named Capacity Subscription (CS market which is predicted to be widely used in the upcoming smart grids. Despite variant researches done about the mechanism and structure of capacity markets, their performances have been rarely tested in the presence of network constraints. Considering this deficiency, we tried to propose a new method to determine capacity prices in the network considering the transmission line flow limitations named Local capacity Prices (LP. This method is quite new and has not been tried before in any other similar researches. The philosophy of the proposed method is to determine capacity prices considering each consumer share of total peak demand. The first advantage of LP is that the consumers who benefit from the transmission facilities and are the responsible for transmission congestions, pay higher capacity prices than those whom their needed electricity is prepared locally. The second advantage of LP is that consumers connected to the same bus do not have to pay same capacity price due to their different shares of total peak demand. For more clarification, two other different methods named Branches Flow limit as a Global Limit (BFGL and Locational Capacity Prices (LCP are proposed and compared to the LP method in order to show LP method efficiency. The numerical results obtained from case studies show that the LP method follows more justice market procedure which results in more efficient capacity prices in comparison to BFGL and LCP methods.

Animal Diet Formulation with Floating Price

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S.H Nasseri

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In the process of milk production, the highest cost relates to animal feed. Based on reports provided by the experts, around seventy percent of dairy livestock costs included feed costs. In order to minimize the total price of livestock feed, according to the limits of feed sources in each region or season, and also the transportation and maintenance costs and ultimately milk price reduction, optimization of the livestock nutrition program is an essential issue. Because of the uncertainty and lack of precision in the optimal food ration done with existing methods based on linear programming, there is a need to use appropriate methods to meet this purpose. Therefore, in this study formulation of completely mixed nutrient diets of dairy cows is done by using a fuzzy linear programming in early lactation. Application of fuzzy optimization method and floating price make it possible to formulate and change the completely mixed diets with adequate safety margins. Therefore, applications of fuzzy methods in feed rations of dairy cattle are recommended to optimize the diets. Obviously, it would be useful to design suitable software, which provides the possibility of using floating prices to set feed rations by the use of fuzzy optimization method.

A human-machine interface evaluation method: A difficulty evaluation method in information searching (DEMIS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ha, Jun Su; Seong, Poong Hyun

2009-01-01

A human-machine interface (HMI) evaluation method, which is named 'difficulty evaluation method in information searching (DEMIS)', is proposed and demonstrated with an experimental study. The DEMIS is based on a human performance model and two measures of attentional-resource effectiveness in monitoring and detection tasks in nuclear power plants (NPPs). Operator competence and HMI design are modeled to be most significant factors to human performance. One of the two effectiveness measures is fixation-to-importance ratio (FIR) which represents attentional resource (eye fixations) spent on an information source compared to importance of the information source. The other measure is selective attention effectiveness (SAE) which incorporates FIRs for all information sources. The underlying principle of the measures is that the information source should be selectively attended to according to its informational importance. In this study, poor performance in information searching tasks is modeled to be coupled with difficulties caused by poor mental models of operators or/and poor HMI design. Human performance in information searching tasks is evaluated by analyzing the FIR and the SAE. Operator mental models are evaluated by a questionnaire-based method. Then difficulties caused by a poor HMI design are evaluated by a focused interview based on the FIR evaluation and then root causes leading to poor performance are identified in a systematic way.

Energy prices, equalization and Canadian federalism : comparing Canada's energy price shocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Courchene, T.J.

2006-01-01

Revenues from natural resources during periods of high energy prices can create problems with the way the Canadian federal government distributes wealth through equalization. This paper traced the history of equalization in comparison with energy prices from the years 1973 to 2003. It was noted that the National Energy Program, section 92A of the Constitution, and the 5-province standard were all federal responses to initial energy price increases. It was suggested that current increases in energy prices demand a different response. The author examined a method of using the national average standard to calculate equalization payments as a means of eliminating the inequities created by the current 5-province standard, which excludes both Alberta and the Atlantic provinces. It was argued that the exclusion of Alberta's energy resources creates a false impression that other provinces such as British Columbia and Saskatchewan are rich in resources. It was suggested that fiscal imbalance between provinces is a significant challenge to the current Canadian government. New approaches to cash transfers to the provinces were discussed. A 2-tier equalization scheme was proposed that separated natural resource revenues from other revenues. It was concluded that the government's previous response to high energy prices will not be appropriate for addressing the current price shock. A 2-tier equalization scheme will mean that resource-rich provinces have an opportunity to participate more fully in federal decision-making. 53 refs., 3 figs

Pricing decision-making units

OpenAIRE

R F&aauml;re; S Grosskopf; D Margaritis

2013-01-01

In this note we extend the standard DEA paradigm to address the question of how one can price DMUs (decision-making units). To do this we use an adjoint transformation to the technology generated by these DMUs which links to traditional linear programming theory of the firm and is similar to pricing portfolios in financial markets. We also provide a numerical example illustrating the practicality of the proposed method.

Logistics: Price Rises Incurred by High Oil Price

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Lai Zhihui

2011-01-01

@@ "When the oil price grows by 100%, the logistic indus-try will see a price growth of 40%, while the logistics in-dustry a price rise of 35%, which means every price increase of 5% in the oil price will bring along that of 2% in this industry." said Liu Zongsheng, General Manager of Itochu Logistics Co., Ltd., on the seminar "Focusing on the eco-nomic consequences of raising oil price, interest rate and deposit reserve ratio", which was held recently.

Beam angle optimization for intensity-modulated radiation therapy using a guided pattern search method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rocha, Humberto; Dias, Joana M; Ferreira, Brígida C; Lopes, Maria C

2013-01-01

Generally, the inverse planning of radiation therapy consists mainly of the fluence optimization. The beam angle optimization (BAO) in intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) consists of selecting appropriate radiation incidence directions and may influence the quality of the IMRT plans, both to enhance better organ sparing and to improve tumor coverage. However, in clinical practice, most of the time, beam directions continue to be manually selected by the treatment planner without objective and rigorous criteria. The goal of this paper is to introduce a novel approach that uses beam’s-eye-view dose ray tracing metrics within a pattern search method framework in the optimization of the highly non-convex BAO problem. Pattern search methods are derivative-free optimization methods that require a few function evaluations to progress and converge and have the ability to better avoid local entrapment. The pattern search method framework is composed of a search step and a poll step at each iteration. The poll step performs a local search in a mesh neighborhood and ensures the convergence to a local minimizer or stationary point. The search step provides the flexibility for a global search since it allows searches away from the neighborhood of the current iterate. Beam’s-eye-view dose metrics assign a score to each radiation beam direction and can be used within the pattern search framework furnishing a priori knowledge of the problem so that directions with larger dosimetric scores are tested first. A set of clinical cases of head-and-neck tumors treated at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Coimbra is used to discuss the potential of this approach in the optimization of the BAO problem. (paper)

A Countrywide House Price Index for 152 Years

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lunde, Jens; Helding Madsen, Anders; Lundbæk Laursen, Maria

for Herengracht (the Netherlands), Norway, USA, France, and recently also Australia. Until now, the here presented house price index for Denmark is the longest countrywide house price index ever been published, based on official data, and qualitatively probably the best long house price index....... in house prices is depicted. The Danish house price index covering all the 152 years is in reality a simple average sale price index for houses. From 1920 on it was possible to construct another and a “pure” house price index, based on the Sales Price Appraisal Ratio (SPAR) method. Several challenges...... for creating the house price index arose, especially in converting the previous registered house prices in the statistics into current market prices. In real terms, the average sale price index increased more than the SPAR index for the years where the two indices were compared, and the difference express...

Improving the Forecasting Accuracy of Crude Oil Prices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuluo Yin

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Currently, oil is the key element of energy sustainability, and its prices and economy have a strong mutual influence. Modeling a good method to accurately predict oil prices over long future horizons is challenging and of great interest to investors and policymakers. This paper forecasts oil prices using many predictor variables with a new time-varying weight combination approach. In doing so, we first use five single-variable time-varying parameter models to predict crude oil prices separately. Second, every special model is assigned a time-varying weight by the new combination approach. Finally, the forecasting results of oil prices are calculated. The results show that the paper’s method is robust and performs well compared to random walk.

Novel method to achieve price-optimized, fully nutritious, health-promoting and acceptable national food baskets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Parlesak, Alexandr; Robertson, Aileen

2015-01-01

available foods. The study was designed to obtain healthy, affordable, and socially acceptable diets for three European countries (Denmark, Slovenia, and Romania) and in three regions within Canada, Argentina, and Switzerland. Moreover, the costs for the “limiting” micronutrients and relative price......Purpose: The purpose of this study was to generate a framework for the development of health-promoting, fully nutritious, socially acceptable, and affordable national food baskets to be used as an advocacy tool by governments. In addition to containing all (micro-)nutrient requirements, food...... baskets should also reflect dietary guidelines to prevent non-communicable diseases and be optimized to achieve the highest possible social acceptance. So far, integrative approaches that include all these aspects are lacking. Methods: Food composition, local availability, food prices, national...

Enhancing medicine price transparency through price information mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinsch, Michael; Kaddar, Miloud; Schmitt, Sarah

2014-05-08

Medicine price information mechanisms provide an essential tool to countries that seek a better understanding of product availability, market prices and price compositions of individual medicines. To be effective and contribute to cost savings, these mechanisms need to consider prices in their particular contexts when comparing between countries. This article discusses in what ways medicine price information mechanisms can contribute to increased price transparency and how this may affect access to medicines for developing countries. We used data collected during the course of a WHO project focusing on the development of a vaccine price and procurement information mechanism. The project collected information from six medicine price information mechanisms and interviewed data managers and technical experts on key aspects as well as observed market effects of these mechanisms.The reviewed mechanisms were broken down into categories including objective and target audience, as well as the sources, types and volumes of data included. Information provided by the mechanisms was reviewed according to data available on medicine prices, product characteristics, and procurement modalities. We found indications of positive effects on access to medicines resulting from the utilization of the reviewed mechanisms. These include the uptake of higher quality medicines, more favorable results from contract negotiations, changes in national pricing policies, and the decrease of prices in certain segments for countries participating in or deriving data from the various mechanisms. The reviewed mechanisms avoid the methodological challenges observed for medicine price comparisons that only use national price databases. They work with high quality data and display prices in the appropriate context of procurement modalities as well as the peculiarities of purchasing countries. Medicine price information mechanisms respond to the need for increased medicine price transparency and have the

Dynamic Pricing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sharifi, Reza; Anvari-Moghaddam, Amjad; Fathi, S. Hamid

2017-01-01

Dynamic pricing scheme, also known as real-time pricing (RTP), can be more efficient and technically beneficial than the other price-based schemes (such as flat-rate or time-of-use (TOU) pricing) for enabling demand response (DR) actions. Over the past few years, advantages of RTP-based schemes h...... of dynamic pricing can lead to increased willingness of consumers to participate in DR programs which in turn improve the operation of liberalized electricity markets.......Dynamic pricing scheme, also known as real-time pricing (RTP), can be more efficient and technically beneficial than the other price-based schemes (such as flat-rate or time-of-use (TOU) pricing) for enabling demand response (DR) actions. Over the past few years, advantages of RTP-based schemes...

The price of information: Increased inspection costs reduce the confirmation bias in visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajsic, Jason; Wilson, Daryl E; Pratt, Jay

2018-04-01

In visual search, there is a confirmation bias such that attention is biased towards stimuli that match a target template, which has been attributed to covert costs of updating the templates that guide search [Rajsic, Wilson, & Pratt, 2015. Confirmation bias in visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/xhp0000090]. In order to provide direct evidence for this speculation, the present study increased the cost of inspections in search by using gaze- and mouse-contingent searches, which restrict the manner in which information in search displays can be accrued, and incur additional motor costs (in the case of mouse-contingent searches). In a fourth experiment, we rhythmically mask elements in the search display to induce temporal inspection costs. Our results indicated that confirmation bias is indeed attenuated when inspection costs are increased. We conclude that confirmation bias results from the low-cost strategy of matching information to a single, concrete visual template, and that more sophisticated guidance strategies will be used when sufficiently beneficial. This demonstrates that search guidance itself comes at a cost, and that the form of guidance adopted in a given search depends on a comparison between guidance costs and the expected benefits of their implementation.

Optimal Pricing and Power Allocation for Collaborative Jamming with Full Channel Knowledge in Wireless Sensor Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Dae-Kyo; Kim, Insook; Kim, Dongwoo

2017-11-22

This paper presents a price-searching model in which a source node (Alice) seeks friendly jammers that prevent eavesdroppers (Eves) from snooping legitimate communications by generating interference or noise. Unlike existing models, the distributed jammers also have data to send to their respective destinations and are allowed to access Alice's channel if it can transmit sufficient jamming power, which is referred to as collaborative jamming in this paper. For the power used to deliver its own signal, the jammer should pay Alice. The price of the jammers' signal power is set by Alice and provides a tradeoff between the signal and the jamming power. This paper presents, in closed-form, an optimal price that maximizes Alice's benefit and the corresponding optimal power allocation from a jammers' perspective by assuming that the network-wide channel knowledge is shared by Alice and jammers. For a multiple-jammer scenario where Alice hardly has the channel knowledge, this paper provides a distributed and interactive price-searching procedure that geometrically converges to an optimal price and shows that Alice by a greedy selection policy achieves certain diversity gain, which increases log-linearly as the number of (potential) jammers grows. Various numerical examples are presented to illustrate the behavior of the proposed model.

Optimal Pricing and Power Allocation for Collaborative Jamming with Full Channel Knowledge in Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dae-Kyo Jeong

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a price-searching model in which a source node (Alice seeks friendly jammers that prevent eavesdroppers (Eves from snooping legitimate communications by generating interference or noise. Unlike existing models, the distributed jammers also have data to send to their respective destinations and are allowed to access Alice’s channel if it can transmit sufficient jamming power, which is referred to as collaborative jamming in this paper. For the power used to deliver its own signal, the jammer should pay Alice. The price of the jammers’ signal power is set by Alice and provides a tradeoff between the signal and the jamming power. This paper presents, in closed-form, an optimal price that maximizes Alice’s benefit and the corresponding optimal power allocation from a jammers’ perspective by assuming that the network-wide channel knowledge is shared by Alice and jammers. For a multiple-jammer scenario where Alice hardly has the channel knowledge, this paper provides a distributed and interactive price-searching procedure that geometrically converges to an optimal price and shows that Alice by a greedy selection policy achieves certain diversity gain, which increases log-linearly as the number of (potential jammers grows. Various numerical examples are presented to illustrate the behavior of the proposed model.

Transfer pricing rules in EU member states

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Veronika Solilová

2010-01-01

Full Text Available One of the important area of international taxes is transfer pricing. Transfer price is a price set by a taxpayer when selling to, buying from, or sharing resources with a related (associated person. The tran­sac­tions between these persons should be assessed at their arm’s length price in according the arm’s length principle – international accepted standard – as the price which would have been agreed between unrelated parties in free market conditions. This paper is focused on the tranfer pricing rules used in particular EU Member States so as if EU Member States apply the arm’s length principle, define the related persons, apply recommendations of the OECD Guidelines, use the transfer pricing methods, require TP Documentation, exercise specific transfer pricing audit or impose specific penalties and apply APAs. Transfer pricing rules should prevent taxpayers from shifting income to related person organized in tax havens or in countries where they enjoy some special tax benefit.

State energy price and expenditure report 1990

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

The State Energy Price and Expenditure Report (SEPER) presents energy price and expenditure estimates individually for the 50 States and the District of Columbia and in aggregate for the United States. The estimates are provided by energy source and economic sector. This report is an update of the State Energy Price and Expenditure Report 1989 published in September 1991. Energy price and expenditure estimates are published for the years 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1985 through 1990. Documentation follows the tables and describes how the price estimates are developed, including sources of data, methods of estimation, and conversion factors applied

Does PPP hold for Big Mac price or consumer price index? Evidence from panel cointegration

OpenAIRE

Chien-Fu Chen; Chung-Hua Shen; Chien-An Wang

2007-01-01

This paper examines the validity of purchasing power parity (PPP) using CPI and Big Mac prices. The benchmark model, i.e., the OLS method, which does not take nonstationarity into account, rejects the hypothesis of PPP regardless of prices used. We next use the panel cointegration method to consider the nonstationary nature of variables. Estimated results for CPI are mixed. The PPP is rejected when the nominal exchange rate is employed as the dependent variable but is not rejected when the pr...

Management control as basis for a transfer pricing system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steens, H.B.A.; Van Dam, Harmen; Casna, Richard

2003-01-01

The chapter documents the contribution to a international seminar on transfer pricing. The chapter describes how key management concepts can contribute to shaping transfer pricing systems and defining transfer pricing methods.

Best, Useful and Objective Precisions for Information Retrieval of Three Search Methods in PubMed and iPubMed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Somayyeh Nadi Ravandi

2016-10-01

Full Text Available MEDLINE is one of the valuable sources of medical information on the Internet. Among the different open access sites of MEDLINE, PubMed is the best-known site. In 2010, iPubMed was established with an interaction-fuzzy search method for MEDLINE access. In the present work, we aimed to compare the precision of the retrieved sources (Best, Useful and Objective precision in the PubMed and iPubMed using two search methods (simple and MeSH search in PubMed and interaction-fuzzy method in iPubmed. During our semi-empirical study period, we held training workshops for 61 students of higher education to teach them Simple Search, MeSH Search, and Fuzzy-Interaction Search methods. Then, the precision of 305 searches for each method prepared by the students was calculated on the basis of Best precision, Useful precision, and Objective precision formulas. Analyses were done in SPSS version 11.5 using the Friedman and Wilcoxon Test, and three precisions obtained with the three precision formulas were studied for the three search methods. The mean precision of the interaction-fuzzy Search method was higher than that of the simple search and MeSH search for all three types of precision, i.e., Best precision, Useful precision, and Objective precision, and the Simple search method was in the next rank, and their mean precisions were significantly different (P < 0.001. The precision of the interaction-fuzzy search method in iPubmed was investigated for the first time. Also for the first time, three types of precision were evaluated in PubMed and iPubmed. The results showed that the Interaction-Fuzzy search method is more precise than using the natural language search (simple search and MeSH search, and users of this method found papers that were more related to their queries; even though search in Pubmed is useful, it is important that users apply new search methods to obtain the best results.

Compound Option Pricing under Fuzzy Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiandong Wang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Considering the uncertainty of a financial market includes two aspects: risk and vagueness; in this paper, fuzzy sets theory is applied to model the imprecise input parameters (interest rate and volatility. We present the fuzzy price of compound option by fuzzing the interest and volatility in Geske’s compound option pricing formula. For each α, the α-level set of fuzzy prices is obtained according to the fuzzy arithmetics and the definition of fuzzy-valued function. We apply a defuzzification method based on crisp possibilistic mean values of the fuzzy interest rate and fuzzy volatility to obtain the crisp possibilistic mean value of compound option price. Finally, we present a numerical analysis to illustrate the compound option pricing under fuzzy environment.

Consumer behaviour towards price-reduced suboptimal foods in the supermarket and the relation to food waste in households.

Science.gov (United States)

Aschemann-Witzel, Jessica; Jensen, Jacob Haagen; Jensen, Mette Hyldetoft; Kulikovskaja, Viktorija

2017-09-01

To combat food waste, supermarkets offer food items at a reduced price in-store when they are close to the expiration date or perceived as suboptimal. It is yet unknown, however, which considerations consumers engage in when deciding about the offer, and whether focusing particularly on the price during food purchase might be related to greater food waste at home. Knowledge about both the consumers' food purchase process for these price-reduced foods and the potential wastage of price-focused consumers can contribute to the assessment of whether or not offering suboptimal food at reduced prices in-store actually reduces food waste across the supply chain. We explore these questions in a mixed-method study including 16 qualitative accompanied shopping interviews and a quantitative online experimental survey with 848 consumers in Denmark. The interviews reveal that the consumers interviewed assess their ability to consume the price-reduced suboptimal food at home already while in the store. Consumers consider the relation between product-related factors of package unit, expiration date, and product quality, in interaction with household-related factors of freezing/storing, household size/demand, and possible meal/cooking. The survey shows that consumers who are more price-focused report lower food waste levels and lower tendency to choose the optimal food item first at home, than those who are not emphasizing the price-quality relation or do not search for price offers to the same extent. Higher age and high education also played a role, and the price-focus is lower in high-income groups and among single households. The findings allow deriving recommendations for retailers and policy makers to support both the marketability and the subsequent actual consumption of price-reduced suboptimal food, but they also raise questions for further research of this underexplored area. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

48 CFR 16.202 - Firm-fixed-price contracts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Firm-fixed-price contracts. 16.202 Section 16.202 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES TYPES OF CONTRACTS Fixed-Price Contracts 16.202 Firm-fixed-price...

48 CFR 15.404-3 - Subcontract pricing considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 15.404-3 Subcontract pricing considerations. (a) The contracting officer is responsible for the determination of a fair and... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Subcontract pricing...

Searching for truth: internet search patterns as a method of investigating online responses to a Russian illicit drug policy debate.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheluk, Andrey; Gillespie, James A; Quinn, Casey

2012-12-13

This is a methodological study investigating the online responses to a national debate over an important health and social problem in Russia. Russia is the largest Internet market in Europe, exceeding Germany in the absolute number of users. However, Russia is unusual in that the main search provider is not Google, but Yandex. This study had two main objectives. First, to validate Yandex search patterns against those provided by Google, and second, to test this method's adequacy for investigating online interest in a 2010 national debate over Russian illicit drug policy. We hoped to learn what search patterns and specific search terms could reveal about the relative importance and geographic distribution of interest in this debate. A national drug debate, centering on the anti-drug campaigner Egor Bychkov, was one of the main Russian domestic news events of 2010. Public interest in this episode was accompanied by increased Internet search. First, we measured the search patterns for 13 search terms related to the Bychkov episode and concurrent domestic events by extracting data from Google Insights for Search (GIFS) and Yandex WordStat (YaW). We conducted Spearman Rank Correlation of GIFS and YaW search data series. Second, we coded all 420 primary posts from Bychkov's personal blog between March 2010 and March 2012 to identify the main themes. Third, we compared GIFS and Yandex policies concerning the public release of search volume data. Finally, we established the relationship between salient drug issues and the Bychkov episode. We found a consistent pattern of strong to moderate positive correlations between Google and Yandex for the terms "Egor Bychkov" (r(s) = 0.88, P < .001), "Bychkov" (r(s) = .78, P < .001) and "Khimki"(r(s) = 0.92, P < .001). Peak search volumes for the Bychkov episode were comparable to other prominent domestic political events during 2010. Monthly search counts were 146,689 for "Bychkov" and 48,084 for "Egor Bychkov", compared to 53

Effects of fundamentals acquisition and strategy switch on stock price dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Songtao; He, Jianmin; Li, Shouwei

2018-02-01

An agent-based artificial stock market is developed to simulate trading behavior of investors. In the market, acquisition and employment of information about fundamentals and strategy switch are investigated to explain stock price dynamics. Investors could obtain the information from both market and neighbors resided on their social networks. Depending on information status and performances of different strategies, an informed investor may switch to the strategy of fundamentalist. This in turn affects the information acquisition process, since fundamentalists are more inclined to search and spread the information than chartists. Further investigation into price dynamics generated from three typical networks, i.e. regular lattice, small-world network and random graph, are conducted after general relation between network structures and price dynamics is revealed. In each network, integrated effects of different combinations of information efficiency and switch intensity are investigated. Results have shown that, along with increasing switch intensity, market and social information efficiency play different roles in the formation of price distortion, standard deviation and kurtosis of returns.

Repeat Assessed Values Model for Housing Price Index

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carini Manuela

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study proposes an innovative methodology, named Repeat Appraised Price Model (RAV, useful for determining the price index numbers for real estate markets and the corresponding index numbers of hedonic prices of main real estate characteristics in the case of a lack of data. The methodological approach proposed in this paper aims to appraise the time series of price index numbers. It integrates the principles of the method of repeat sales with the peculiarities of the Hedonic Price Method, overcoming the problem of an almost total absence of repeat sales for the same property in a given time range; on the other hand, the technique aims to overcome the limitation of the repeat sales technique concerning the inability to take into account the characteristics of individual properties.

77 FR 58991 - State-Level Guarantee Fee Pricing

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-25

... FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY [No. 2012-N-13] State-Level Guarantee Fee Pricing AGENCY: Federal... guarantee fee pricing by state. FHFA's proposal described here would adjust the upfront fees that the... final state-level guarantee fee pricing method, FHFA expects to direct the Enterprises to implement the...

48 CFR 15.407 - Special cost or pricing areas.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Special cost or pricing... CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 15.407 Special cost or pricing areas. ...

48 CFR 1315.407 - Special cost or pricing areas.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Special cost or pricing... CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 1315.407 Special cost or pricing areas. ...

A hybrid model for electricity spot prices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, C.L.D.

2004-01-01

Electricity prices were highly regulated prior to the deregulation of the electric power industry. Prices were predictable, allowing generators and wholesalers to calculate their production costs and revenues. With deregulation, electricity has become the most volatile of all commodities. Electricity must be consumed as soon as it is generated due to the inability to store it in any sufficient quantity. Economic uncertainty exists because the supply of electricity cannot shift as quickly as the demand, which is highly variable. When demand increases quickly, the price must respond. Therefore, price spikes occur that are orders of magnitude higher than the base electricity price. This paper presents a robust and realistic model for spot market electricity prices used to manage risk in volatile markets. The model is a hybrid of a top down data driven method commonly used for financial applications, and a bottom up system driven method commonly used in regulated electricity markets. The advantage of the model is that it incorporates primary system drivers and demonstrates their effects on final prices. The 4 primary modules of the model are: (1) a model for forced outages, (2) a model for maintenance outages, (3) an electrical load model, and (4) a price model which combines the results of the previous 3 models. The performance of each model was tested. The forced outage model is the first of its kind to simulate the system on an aggregate basis using Weibull distributions. The overall spot price model was calibrated to, and tested with, data from the electricity market in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The model performed well in simulated market prices and adapted readily to changing system conditions and new electricity markets. This study examined the pricing of derivative contracts on electrical power. It also compared a range of portfolio scenarios using a Cash Flow at Risk approach

A hybrid model for electricity spot prices

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anderson, C.L.D.

2004-07-01

Electricity prices were highly regulated prior to the deregulation of the electric power industry. Prices were predictable, allowing generators and wholesalers to calculate their production costs and revenues. With deregulation, electricity has become the most volatile of all commodities. Electricity must be consumed as soon as it is generated due to the inability to store it in any sufficient quantity. Economic uncertainty exists because the supply of electricity cannot shift as quickly as the demand, which is highly variable. When demand increases quickly, the price must respond. Therefore, price spikes occur that are orders of magnitude higher than the base electricity price. This paper presents a robust and realistic model for spot market electricity prices used to manage risk in volatile markets. The model is a hybrid of a top down data driven method commonly used for financial applications, and a bottom up system driven method commonly used in regulated electricity markets. The advantage of the model is that it incorporates primary system drivers and demonstrates their effects on final prices. The 4 primary modules of the model are: (1) a model for forced outages, (2) a model for maintenance outages, (3) an electrical load model, and (4) a price model which combines the results of the previous 3 models. The performance of each model was tested. The forced outage model is the first of its kind to simulate the system on an aggregate basis using Weibull distributions. The overall spot price model was calibrated to, and tested with, data from the electricity market in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The model performed well in simulated market prices and adapted readily to changing system conditions and new electricity markets. This study examined the pricing of derivative contracts on electrical power. It also compared a range of portfolio scenarios using a Cash Flow at Risk approach.

IS THE PRICE RIGHT? PRICING FOR LONG TERM PROFITABILITY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea Erika NYÁRÁDI

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The way how we choose our pricing strategy has a significant impact on company’s success. Nowadays companies more and more adopt a new way of thinking in pricing, namely pricing for a long term period in order to bring higher profitability, to build an efficient pricing strategy. Marketers have only recently begun to focus seriously on effective pricing. These companies are the so called progressive companies. They have begun doing more than just worrying about pricing. To increase profitability many are abandoning traditional reactive pricing procedures in favor of proactive pricing, making explicit corporate decisions to change their focus to growth in top-line sales to growth in profitability. The long-term implications of price strategies are still under-researched, and managers should be aware of shifts in customer reactions that may result from frequent adoption of certain strategies. The company pricing strategy should be seen in relation to developments in the company variables, internal ones (capital strength, competencies, organizational conditions, efficiency of the work force etc. as well as external ones (customers, competitors, the technological development etc., adopting strategic pricing. In this paper I will present the most effective pricing strategies leading to long term profitability, and also suggest practical conditions for pricing strategies to maximize profit in the long run.

48 CFR 1815.407 - Special cost or pricing areas.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Special cost or pricing... ADMINISTRATION CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 1815.407 Special cost or pricing areas. ...

48 CFR 1815.403 - Obtaining cost or pricing data.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 true Obtaining cost or pricing... ADMINISTRATION CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 1815.403 Obtaining cost or pricing data. ...

Incorporating the value of changes in price volatility into cost-benefit analysis-an application to oil prices in the transport sector

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Thomas Christian; Møller, Flemming

2010-01-01

in the policy assessment taking into account the most significant correlations between prices of alternative fuels and between fuel prices and consumption in general. In the present paper, a method of valuing changes in price volatility based on portfolio theory is applied to some very simple transport...

Analyzing the effects of past prices on reference price formation

OpenAIRE

van Oest, R.D.; Paap, R.

2004-01-01

textabstractWe propose a new reference price framework for brand choice. In this framework, we employ a Markov-switching process with an absorbing state to model unobserved price recall of households. Reference prices result from the prices households are able to remember. Our model can be used to learn how many prices observed in the past are used for reference price formation. Furthermore, we learn to what extent households have sufficient price knowledge to form an internal reference price...

Comparison of tiered formularies and reference pricing policies: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Steve; Hanley, Gillian; Greyson, Devon

2009-01-01

To synthesize methodologically comparable evidence from the published literature regarding the outcomes of tiered formularies and therapeutic reference pricing of prescription drugs. We searched the following electronic databases: ABI/Inform, CINAHL, Clinical Evidence, Digital Dissertations & Theses, Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews (which incorporates ACP Journal Club, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Methodology Register, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, Health Technology Assessments and NHS Economic Evaluation Database), EconLit, EMBASE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, MEDLINE, PAIS International and PAIS Archive, and the Web of Science. We also searched the reference lists of relevant articles and several grey literature sources. We sought English-language studies published from 1986 to 2007 that examined the effects of either therapeutic reference pricing or tiered formularies, reported on outcomes relevant to patient care and cost-effectiveness, and employed quantitative study designs that included concurrent or historical comparison groups. We abstracted and assessed potentially appropriate articles using a modified version of the data abstraction form developed by the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group. From an initial list of 2964 citations, 12 citations (representing 11 studies) were deemed eligible for inclusion in our review: 3 studies (reported in 4 articles) of reference pricing and 8 studies of tiered formularies. The introduction of reference pricing was associated with reduced plan spending, switching to preferred medicines, reduced overall drug utilization and short-term increases in the use of physician services. Reference pricing was not associated with adverse health impacts. The introduction of tiered formularies was associated with reduced plan expenditures, greater patient costs and increased rates of non-compliance with

A tree-based method to price American options in the Heston model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vellekoop, M.; Nieuwenhuis, H.

2009-01-01

We develop an algorithm to price American options on assets that follow the stochastic volatility model defined by Heston. We use an approach which is based on a modification of a combined tree for stock prices and volatilities, where the number of nodes grows quadratically in the number of time

Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Prices : Utilizing Hourly Prices

NARCIS (Netherlands)

E. Raviv (Eran); K.E. Bouwman (Kees); D.J.C. van Dijk (Dick)

2013-01-01

textabstractThe daily average price of electricity represents the price of electricity to be delivered over the full next day and serves as a key reference price in the electricity market. It is an aggregate that equals the average of hourly prices for delivery during each of the 24 individual

Corporate debt pricing I.

OpenAIRE

Ilya, Gikhman

2007-01-01

In this article we discuss fundamentals of the debt securities pricing. We begin with a generalization of the present value concept. Though the present value is the base valuation method in the modern finance we will illustrate that this concept does not sufficiently accurate in producing instrument pricing. The incompleteness of the unique present value approach stems from variability of the interest rates. Admitting variability of the interest rates we define two present values one for buye...

New Internet search volume-based weighting method for integrating various environmental impacts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ji, Changyoon, E-mail: changyoon@yonsei.ac.kr; Hong, Taehoon, E-mail: hong7@yonsei.ac.kr

2016-01-15

Weighting is one of the steps in life cycle impact assessment that integrates various characterized environmental impacts as a single index. Weighting factors should be based on the society's preferences. However, most previous studies consider only the opinion of some people. Thus, this research proposes a new weighting method that determines the weighting factors of environmental impact categories by considering public opinion on environmental impacts using the Internet search volumes for relevant terms. To validate the new weighting method, the weighting factors for six environmental impacts calculated by the new weighting method were compared with the existing weighting factors. The resulting Pearson's correlation coefficient between the new and existing weighting factors was from 0.8743 to 0.9889. It turned out that the new weighting method presents reasonable weighting factors. It also requires less time and lower cost compared to existing methods and likewise meets the main requirements of weighting methods such as simplicity, transparency, and reproducibility. The new weighting method is expected to be a good alternative for determining the weighting factor. - Highlight: • A new weighting method using Internet search volume is proposed in this research. • The new weighting method reflects the public opinion using Internet search volume. • The correlation coefficient between new and existing weighting factors is over 0.87. • The new weighting method can present the reasonable weighting factors. • The proposed method can be a good alternative for determining the weighting factors.

New Internet search volume-based weighting method for integrating various environmental impacts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ji, Changyoon; Hong, Taehoon

2016-01-01

Weighting is one of the steps in life cycle impact assessment that integrates various characterized environmental impacts as a single index. Weighting factors should be based on the society's preferences. However, most previous studies consider only the opinion of some people. Thus, this research proposes a new weighting method that determines the weighting factors of environmental impact categories by considering public opinion on environmental impacts using the Internet search volumes for relevant terms. To validate the new weighting method, the weighting factors for six environmental impacts calculated by the new weighting method were compared with the existing weighting factors. The resulting Pearson's correlation coefficient between the new and existing weighting factors was from 0.8743 to 0.9889. It turned out that the new weighting method presents reasonable weighting factors. It also requires less time and lower cost compared to existing methods and likewise meets the main requirements of weighting methods such as simplicity, transparency, and reproducibility. The new weighting method is expected to be a good alternative for determining the weighting factor. - Highlight: • A new weighting method using Internet search volume is proposed in this research. • The new weighting method reflects the public opinion using Internet search volume. • The correlation coefficient between new and existing weighting factors is over 0.87. • The new weighting method can present the reasonable weighting factors. • The proposed method can be a good alternative for determining the weighting factors.

Searching the ASRS Database Using QUORUM Keyword Search, Phrase Search, Phrase Generation, and Phrase Discovery

Science.gov (United States)

McGreevy, Michael W.; Connors, Mary M. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

To support Search Requests and Quick Responses at the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), four new QUORUM methods have been developed: keyword search, phrase search, phrase generation, and phrase discovery. These methods build upon the core QUORUM methods of text analysis, modeling, and relevance-ranking. QUORUM keyword search retrieves ASRS incident narratives that contain one or more user-specified keywords in typical or selected contexts, and ranks the narratives on their relevance to the keywords in context. QUORUM phrase search retrieves narratives that contain one or more user-specified phrases, and ranks the narratives on their relevance to the phrases. QUORUM phrase generation produces a list of phrases from the ASRS database that contain a user-specified word or phrase. QUORUM phrase discovery finds phrases that are related to topics of interest. Phrase generation and phrase discovery are particularly useful for finding query phrases for input to QUORUM phrase search. The presentation of the new QUORUM methods includes: a brief review of the underlying core QUORUM methods; an overview of the new methods; numerous, concrete examples of ASRS database searches using the new methods; discussion of related methods; and, in the appendices, detailed descriptions of the new methods.

The search conference as a method in planning community health promotion actions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva Magnus

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Aims: The aim of this article is to describe and discuss how the search conference can be used as a method for planning health promotion actions in local communities. Design and methods: The article draws on experiences with using the method for an innovative project in health promotion in three Norwegian municipalities. The method is described both in general and how it was specifically adopted for the project. Results and conclusions: The search conference as a method was used to develop evidence-based health promotion action plans. With its use of both bottom-up and top-down approaches, this method is a relevant strategy for involving a community in the planning stages of health promotion actions in line with political expectations of participation, ownership, and evidence-based initiatives.

Oil prices and the stock prices of alternative energy companies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henriques, Irene; Sadorsky, Perry

2008-01-01

Energy security issues coupled with increased concern over the natural environment are driving factors behind oil price movements. While it is widely accepted that rising oil prices are good for the financial performance of alternative energy companies, there has been relatively little statistical work done to measure just how sensitive the financial performance of alternative energy companies are to changes in oil prices. In this paper, a four variable vector autoregression model is developed and estimated in order to investigate the empirical relationship between alternative energy stock prices, technology stock prices, oil prices, and interest rates. Our results show technology stock prices and oil prices each individually Granger cause the stock prices of alternative energy companies. Simulation results show that a shock to technology stock prices has a larger impact on alternative energy stock prices than does a shock to oil prices. These results should be of use to investors, managers and policy makers. (author)

Forecasting Day-Ahead Electricity Prices: Utilizing Hourly Prices

OpenAIRE

Raviv, Eran; Bouwman, Kees E.; van Dijk, Dick

2013-01-01

This discussion paper led to a publication in 'Energy Economics' , 2015, 50, 227-239. The daily average price of electricity represents the price of electricity to be delivered over the full next day and serves as a key reference price in the electricity market. It is an aggregate that equals the average of hourly prices for delivery during each of the 24 individual hours. This paper demonstrates that the disaggregated hourly prices contain useful predictive information for the daily average ...

Welfare and distribution effects of water pricing policies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ruijs, A.J.W.

2007-01-01

In this paper, distribution and welfare effects of changes in block price systems are evaluated. A method is discussed to determine, for a Marshallian demand function, equivalent variation in case of a block price system. The method is applied to analyze welfare and distribution effects of changing

Higher Education Prices and Price Indexes. 1976 Supplement.

Science.gov (United States)

Halstead, Kent D.

The 1976 supplement presents higher education price index data for fiscal years 1971 through 1976. The basic study, "Higher Education Prices and Price Indexes" (ED 123 996) presents complete descriptions of the indexes together with index values and price data for fiscal years 1961 through 1974. Indexes are presented for research and development,…

A numerical method to estimate the parameters of the CEV model implied by American option prices: Evidence from NYSE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ballestra, Luca Vincenzo; Cecere, Liliana

2016-01-01

Highlights: • We develop a method to compute the parameters of the CEV model implied by American options. • This is the first procedure for calibrating the CEV model to American option prices. • The proposed approach is extensively tested on the NYSE market. • The novel method turns out to be very efficient in computing the CEV model parameters. • The CEV model provides only a marginal improvement over the lognormal model. - Abstract: We develop a highly efficient procedure to forecast the parameters of the constant elasticity of variance (CEV) model implied by American options. In particular, first of all, the American option prices predicted by the CEV model are calculated using an accurate and fast finite difference scheme. Then, the parameters of the CEV model are obtained by minimizing the distance between theoretical and empirical option prices, which yields an optimization problem that is solved using an ad-hoc numerical procedure. The proposed approach, which turns out to be very efficient from the computational standpoint, is used to test the goodness-of-fit of the CEV model in predicting the prices of American options traded on the NYSE. The results obtained reveal that the CEV model does not provide a very good agreement with real market data and yields only a marginal improvement over the more popular Black–Scholes model.

Another look on the relationships between oil prices and energy prices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lahiani, Amine; Miloudi, Anthony; Benkraiem, Ramzi; Shahbaz, Muhammad

2017-01-01

This paper employs the Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lags (QARDL) model developed recently by Cho et al. (2015) to investigate the pass-through of oil prices to a set of energy prices. This approach allows analyzing simultaneously short-term connections and long-run cointegrating relationships across a range of quantiles. It also provides insights on the short-run predictive power of oil prices in predicting energy prices while accounting for the cointegration between oil prices and each of the considered energy prices in low, medium and high quantiles. Two key findings emerge from this paper. First, all considered energy prices are shown to be cointegrated with oil price across quantiles meaning that a stationaryequilibriumrelationship exists between single energy price and oil price. Second, we find evidence that oil price is a significant predictor of individual petroleum products prices and natural gas in the short run. This paper has important policy implications for forecasters, energy policy-makers and portfolio managers. - Highlights: • The pass-through of oil prices to a set of energy prices is investigated for US economy. • All considered energy prices are shown to be cointegrated with oil price across quantiles. • Oil price is a significant predictor of individual petroleum products prices in the short run. • Oil price also predicts natural gas prices in the short run.

Mellin Transform Method for European Option Pricing with Hull-White Stochastic Interest Rate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ji-Hun Yoon

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Even though interest rates fluctuate randomly in the marketplace, many option-pricing models do not fully consider their stochastic nature owing to their generally limited impact on option prices. However, stochastic dynamics in stochastic interest rates may have a significant impact on option prices as we take account of issues of maturity, hedging, or stochastic volatility. In this paper, we derive a closed form solution for European options in Black-Scholes model with stochastic interest rate using Mellin transform techniques.

Search method for long-duration gravitational-wave transients from neutron stars

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prix, R.; Giampanis, S.; Messenger, C.

2011-01-01

We introduce a search method for a new class of gravitational-wave signals, namely, long-duration O(hours-weeks) transients from spinning neutron stars. We discuss the astrophysical motivation from glitch relaxation models and we derive a rough estimate for the maximal expected signal strength based on the superfluid excess rotational energy. The transient signal model considered here extends the traditional class of infinite-duration continuous-wave signals by a finite start-time and duration. We derive a multidetector Bayes factor for these signals in Gaussian noise using F-statistic amplitude priors, which simplifies the detection statistic and allows for an efficient implementation. We consider both a fully coherent statistic, which is computationally limited to directed searches for known pulsars, and a cheaper semicoherent variant, suitable for wide parameter-space searches for transients from unknown neutron stars. We have tested our method by Monte-Carlo simulation, and we find that it outperforms orthodox maximum-likelihood approaches both in sensitivity and in parameter-estimation quality.

Hybrid Genetic Algorithm - Local Search Method for Ground-Water Management

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Y.; Nishikawa, T.; Martin, P.

2008-12-01

Ground-water management problems commonly are formulated as a mixed-integer, non-linear programming problem (MINLP). Relying only on conventional gradient-search methods to solve the management problem is computationally fast; however, the methods may become trapped in a local optimum. Global-optimization schemes can identify the global optimum, but the convergence is very slow when the optimal solution approaches the global optimum. In this study, we developed a hybrid optimization scheme, which includes a genetic algorithm and a gradient-search method, to solve the MINLP. The genetic algorithm identifies a near- optimal solution, and the gradient search uses the near optimum to identify the global optimum. Our methodology is applied to a conjunctive-use project in the Warren ground-water basin, California. Hi- Desert Water District (HDWD), the primary water-manager in the basin, plans to construct a wastewater treatment plant to reduce future septic-tank effluent from reaching the ground-water system. The treated wastewater instead will recharge the ground-water basin via percolation ponds as part of a larger conjunctive-use strategy, subject to State regulations (e.g. minimum distances and travel times). HDWD wishes to identify the least-cost conjunctive-use strategies that control ground-water levels, meet regulations, and identify new production-well locations. As formulated, the MINLP objective is to minimize water-delivery costs subject to constraints including pump capacities, available recharge water, water-supply demand, water-level constraints, and potential new-well locations. The methodology was demonstrated by an enumerative search of the entire feasible solution and comparing the optimum solution with results from the branch-and-bound algorithm. The results also indicate that the hybrid method identifies the global optimum within an affordable computation time. Sensitivity analyses, which include testing different recharge-rate scenarios, pond

Forecasting of palm oil price in Malaysia using linear and nonlinear methods

Science.gov (United States)

Nor, Abu Hassan Shaari Md; Sarmidi, Tamat; Hosseinidoust, Ehsan

2014-09-01

The first question that comes to the mind is: "How can we predict the palm oil price accurately?" This question is the authorities, policy makers and economist's question for a long period of time. The first reason is that in the recent years Malaysia showed a comparative advantage in palm oil production and has become top producer and exporter in the world. Secondly, palm oil price plays significant role in government budget and represents important source of income for Malaysia, which potentially can influence the magnitude of monetary policies and eventually have an impact on inflation. Thirdly, knowledge on the future trends would be helpful in the planning and decision making procedures and will generate precise fiscal and monetary policy. Daily data on palm oil prices along with the ARIMA models, neural networks and fuzzy logic systems are employed in this paper. Empirical findings indicate that the dynamic neural network of NARX and the hybrid system of ANFIS provide higher accuracy than the ARIMA and static neural network for forecasting the palm oil price in Malaysia.

Environmental prices in the long term; Miljoepriser paa lang sikt

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-12-31

Economic analyses may undervalue important long-time environmental impacts of economic activities if the calculated price of the impacts are wrong. This report discusses how one may estimate the future calculated price of some environmental services. The term environmental service denotes something the presence or absence of which has an impact on the environment that can be valued. Thus, puffins, NOx emissions and suspended dust are all environmental services. The calculated price of an environmental service is the price used in socio-economic benefit-cost analyses. A calculation method is proposed and evaluated by application to such diverse environmental services as the stock of puffins, impregnated wood, NOx emissions and suspended dust. None of these services are priced in the market. The proposed method can be used to estimate the future prices of environmental services that are not priced in the market. The most important difficulties experienced with the method have been (1) how to find data for the increase in the supply of environmental services and (2) how to define environmental services in a satisfactory way. 29 refs., 5 figs., 6 tabs.

Text mining for search term development in systematic reviewing: A discussion of some methods and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Stansfield, Claire; O'Mara-Eves, Alison; Thomas, James

2017-09-01

Using text mining to aid the development of database search strings for topics described by diverse terminology has potential benefits for systematic reviews; however, methods and tools for accomplishing this are poorly covered in the research methods literature. We briefly review the literature on applications of text mining for search term development for systematic reviewing. We found that the tools can be used in 5 overarching ways: improving the precision of searches; identifying search terms to improve search sensitivity; aiding the translation of search strategies across databases; searching and screening within an integrated system; and developing objectively derived search strategies. Using a case study and selected examples, we then reflect on the utility of certain technologies (term frequency-inverse document frequency and Termine, term frequency, and clustering) in improving the precision and sensitivity of searches. Challenges in using these tools are discussed. The utility of these tools is influenced by the different capabilities of the tools, the way the tools are used, and the text that is analysed. Increased awareness of how the tools perform facilitates the further development of methods for their use in systematic reviews. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Adaptive Strategies for Dynamic Pricing Agents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S. Ramezani (Sara); P.A.N. Bosman (Peter); J.A. La Poutré (Han)

2011-01-01

htmlabstractDynamic Pricing (DyP) is a form of Revenue Management in which the price of a (usually) perishable good is changed over time to increase revenue. It is an effective method that has become even more relevant and useful with the emergence of Internet firms and the possibility of readily

The impact of electricity price changes on industrial prices and the general price level in Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lim, Seul-Ye; Yoo, Seung-Hoon

2013-01-01

Electricity has played an important role in the economic development of Korea and, thus, has become a critical factor in sustaining the well-being of the Korean people. This study attempts to investigate the impact of electricity price changes on industrial prices and the general price level using input–output (I–O) analysis. To this end, we apply the I–O price model to the 2011 I–O table recently produced by the Bank of Korea, paying particular attention to the electricity sector by considering it as exogenous and then investigating its impacts. The impacts of the electricity price changes on each industrial sector's prices and the general price level are quantitatively derived. For example, the overall impact of a 10% increase in electricity price on the Korean national economy is estimated to be 0.4367%. We also report the results from the model with the electricity sector endogenous and the model with endogenous electricity and labor sectors. This information can be usefully utilized in decision-making regarding price management for electricity. - Highlights: • We investigate the impact of electricity price changes on the Korean economy. • We use the input–output (I–O) analysis specifying the electricity sector as exogenous. • We apply the I–O price model to 2010 I–O table produced by the Bank of Korea. • The impact of a 10% increase in electricity price on the Korean economy is 0.2176%

The prospective impact of food pricing on improving dietary consumption: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Afshin, Ashkan; Peñalvo, José L; Del Gobbo, Liana; Silva, Jose; Michaelson, Melody; O'Flaherty, Martin; Capewell, Simon; Spiegelman, Donna; Danaei, Goodarz; Mozaffarian, Dariush

2017-01-01

While food pricing is a promising strategy to improve diet, the prospective impact of food pricing on diet has not been systematically quantified. To quantify the prospective effect of changes in food prices on dietary consumption. We systematically searched online databases for interventional or prospective observational studies of price change and diet; we also searched for studies evaluating adiposity as a secondary outcome. Studies were excluded if price data were collected before 1990. Data were extracted independently and in duplicate. Findings were pooled using DerSimonian-Laird's random effects model. Pre-specified sources of heterogeneity were analyzed using meta-regression; and potential for publication bias, by funnel plots, Begg's and Egger's tests. From 3,163 identified abstracts, 23 interventional studies and 7 prospective cohorts with 37 intervention arms met inclusion criteria. In pooled analyses, a 10% decrease in price (i.e., subsidy) increased consumption of healthful foods by 12% (95%CI = 10-15%; N = 22 studies/intervention arms) whereas a 10% increase price (i.e. tax) decreased consumption of unhealthful foods by 6% (95%CI = 4-8%; N = 15). By food group, subsidies increased intake of fruits and vegetables by 14% (95%CI = 11-17%; N = 9); and other healthful foods, by 16% (95%CI = 10-23%; N = 10); without significant effects on more healthful beverages (-3%; 95%CI = -16-11%; N = 3). Each 10% price increase reduced sugar-sweetened beverage intake by 7% (95%CI = 3-10%; N = 5); fast foods, by 3% (95%CI = 1-5%; N = 3); and other unhealthful foods, by 9% (95%CI = 6-12%; N = 3). Changes in price of fruits and vegetables reduced body mass index (-0.04 kg/m2 per 10% price decrease, 95%CI = -0.08-0 kg/m2; N = 4); price changes for sugar-sweetened beverages or fast foods did not significantly alter body mass index, based on 4 studies. Meta-regression identified direction of price change (tax vs. subsidy), number of intervention components, intervention

Effect of the 1973 oil price embargo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goel, R.K.; Morey, M.J.

1993-01-01

This paper focuses on the effect of the oil shock of 1973 on US gasoline demand by examining the price elasticities of demand before and after the 1973 embargo. Price elasticities provide useful input to the development of public policy dealing with taxation and pollution control. The extensive data used include state level observations for nearly three decades spanning 1952-80. We apply non-parametric regression methods that are more appropriate to our investigation than traditional parametric techniques. Unlike standard regression techniques, non-parametric methods neither assume a functional form for the demand relation nor restrict the distribution of the dependent variable. Our results show that the mean price elasticity of gasoline demand for the USA was - 0.243 for 1952-73 and the corresponding number for 1973-80 was - 0.576, statistically different at the 5% level of significance. The relatively higher price elasticity in the post-embargo period is consistent with the hypothesis that consumers sought substitutes and restricted their consumption in response to prices as well as social responsibility. The policy implications of these results are also discussed. (author)

Advertising and consumer search in a duopoly model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janssen, Maarten C. W.; Non, Marielle C.

We consider a duopoly in a homogenous goods market where part of the consumers are ex ante uninformed about prices. Information can come through two different channels: advertising and sequential consumer search. We arrive at the following results. First, there is no monotone relationship between

Evaluating Drug Prices, Availability, Affordability, and Price Components: Implications for Access to Drugs in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Babar, Zaheer Ud Din; Ibrahim, Mohamed Izham Mohamed; Singh, Harpal; Bukahri, Nadeem Irfan; Creese, Andrew

2007-01-01

Background Malaysia's stable health care system is facing challenges with increasing medicine costs. To investigate these issues a survey was carried out to evaluate medicine prices, availability, affordability, and the structure of price components. Methods and Findings The methodology developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International (HAI) was used. Price and availability data for 48 medicines was collected from 20 public sector facilities, 32 private sector retail pharmacies and 20 dispensing doctors in four geographical regions of West Malaysia. Medicine prices were compared with international reference prices (IRPs) to obtain a median price ratio. The daily wage of the lowest paid unskilled government worker was used to gauge the affordability of medicines. Price component data were collected throughout the supply chain, and markups, taxes, and other distribution costs were identified. In private pharmacies, innovator brand (IB) prices were 16 times higher than the IRPs, while generics were 6.6 times higher. In dispensing doctor clinics, the figures were 15 times higher for innovator brands and 7.5 for generics. Dispensing doctors applied high markups of 50%–76% for IBs, and up to 316% for generics. Retail pharmacy markups were also high—25%–38% and 100%–140% for IBs and generics, respectively. In the public sector, where medicines are free, availability was low even for medicines on the National Essential Drugs List. For a month's treatment for peptic ulcer disease and hypertension people have to pay about a week's wages in the private sector. Conclusions The free market by definition does not control medicine prices, necessitating price monitoring and control mechanisms. Markups for generic products are greater than for IBs. Reducing the base price without controlling markups may increase profits for retailers and dispensing doctors without reducing the price paid by end users. To increase access and affordability

Evaluating drug prices, availability, affordability, and price components: implications for access to drugs in Malaysia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zaheer Ud Din Babar

2007-03-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Malaysia's stable health care system is facing challenges with increasing medicine costs. To investigate these issues a survey was carried out to evaluate medicine prices, availability, affordability, and the structure of price components. METHODS AND FINDINGS: The methodology developed by the World Health Organization (WHO and Health Action International (HAI was used. Price and availability data for 48 medicines was collected from 20 public sector facilities, 32 private sector retail pharmacies and 20 dispensing doctors in four geographical regions of West Malaysia. Medicine prices were compared with international reference prices (IRPs to obtain a median price ratio. The daily wage of the lowest paid unskilled government worker was used to gauge the affordability of medicines. Price component data were collected throughout the supply chain, and markups, taxes, and other distribution costs were identified. In private pharmacies, innovator brand (IB prices were 16 times higher than the IRPs, while generics were 6.6 times higher. In dispensing doctor clinics, the figures were 15 times higher for innovator brands and 7.5 for generics. Dispensing doctors applied high markups of 50%-76% for IBs, and up to 316% for generics. Retail pharmacy markups were also high-25%-38% and 100%-140% for IBs and generics, respectively. In the public sector, where medicines are free, availability was low even for medicines on the National Essential Drugs List. For a month's treatment for peptic ulcer disease and hypertension people have to pay about a week's wages in the private sector. CONCLUSIONS: The free market by definition does not control medicine prices, necessitating price monitoring and control mechanisms. Markups for generic products are greater than for IBs. Reducing the base price without controlling markups may increase profits for retailers and dispensing doctors without reducing the price paid by end users. To increase access and

Vertical price leadership : a cointegration analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuiper, W.E.; Meulenberg, M.T.G.

2002-01-01

Here we detail a method to test whether or not retailers allow suppliers to set the wholesale price not only on the basis of the costs faced by the suppliers but also on the basis of consumer demand. Using standard theory, long-run price relationships between the stages in the channel are derived.

Location, location, location: Extracting location value from house prices

OpenAIRE

Kolbe, Jens; Schulz, Rainer; Wersing, Martin; Werwatz, Axel

2012-01-01

The price for a single-family house depends both on the characteristics of the building and on its location. We propose a novel semiparametric method to extract location values from house prices. After splitting house prices into building and land components, location values are estimated with adaptive weight smoothing. The adaptive estimator requires neither strong smoothness assumptions nor local symmetry. We apply the method to house transactions from Berlin, Germany. The estimated surface...

Unit Price Scaling Trends for Chemical Products

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qi, Wei [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Sathre, Roger [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Morrow, III, William R. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Shehabi, Arman [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2015-08-01

To facilitate early-stage life-cycle techno-economic modeling of emerging technologies, here we identify scaling relations between unit price and sales quantity for a variety of chemical products of three categories - metal salts, organic compounds, and solvents. We collect price quotations for lab-scale and bulk purchases of chemicals from both U.S. and Chinese suppliers. We apply a log-log linear regression model to estimate the price discount effect. Using the median discount factor of each category, one can infer bulk prices of products for which only lab-scale prices are available. We conduct out-of-sample tests showing that most of the price proxies deviate from their actual reference prices by a factor less than ten. We also apply the bootstrap method to determine if a sample median discount factor should be accepted for price approximation. We find that appropriate discount factors for metal salts and for solvents are both -0.56, while that for organic compounds is -0.67 and is less representative due to greater extent of product heterogeneity within this category.

Value of information and pricing new healthcare interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Willan, Andrew R; Eckermann, Simon

2012-06-01

Previous application of value-of-information methods to optimal clinical trial design have predominantly taken a societal decision-making perspective, implicitly assuming that healthcare costs are covered through public expenditure and trial research is funded by government or donation-based philanthropic agencies. In this paper, we consider the interaction between interrelated perspectives of a societal decision maker (e.g. the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence [NICE] in the UK) charged with the responsibility for approving new health interventions for reimbursement and the company that holds the patent for a new intervention. We establish optimal decision making from societal and company perspectives, allowing for trade-offs between the value and cost of research and the price of the new intervention. Given the current level of evidence, there exists a maximum (threshold) price acceptable to the decision maker. Submission for approval with prices above this threshold will be refused. Given the current level of evidence and the decision maker's threshold price, there exists a minimum (threshold) price acceptable to the company. If the decision maker's threshold price exceeds the company's, then current evidence is sufficient since any price between the thresholds is acceptable to both. On the other hand, if the decision maker's threshold price is lower than the company's, then no price is acceptable to both and the company's optimal strategy is to commission additional research. The methods are illustrated using a recent example from the literature.

Price fairness

OpenAIRE

Diller, Hermann

2013-01-01

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to integrate the various strands of fair price research into a concise conceptual model. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed price fairness model is based on a review of the fair pricing literature, incorporating research reported in not only English but also German. Findings – The proposed fair price model depicts seven components of a fair price: distributive fairness, consistent behaviour, personal respect and regard for the partner, fair dea...

Effect of oil price on Nigeria’s food price volatility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ijeoma C. Nwoko

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study examines the effect of oil price on the volatility of food price in Nigeria. It specifically considers the long-run, short-run, and causal relationship between these variables. Annual data on oil price and individual prices of maize, rice, sorghum, soya beans, and wheat spanning from 2000 to 2013 were used. The price volatility for each crop was obtained using Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedascity (GARCH (1, 1 model. Our measure of oil price is the Refiner acquisition cost of imported crude oil. The Augmented Dickey–Fuller and Phillip–Perron unit root tests show that all the variables are integrated of order one, I (1. Therefore, we use the Johansen co-integration test to examine the long-run relationship. Our results show that there is no long-run relationship between oil price and any of the individual food price volatility. Thus, we implement a VAR instead of a VECM to investigate the short-run relationship. The VAR model result revealed a positive and significant short-run relationship between oil price and each of the selected food price volatility with exception of that of rice and wheat price volatility. These results were further confirmed by the impulse response functions. The Granger causality test result indicates a unidirectional causality from oil price to maize, soya bean, and sorghum price volatilities but does not show such relationship for rice and wheat price volatilities. We draw some policy implications of these findings.

DEFINITION OF COMPETITIVE PRICE OF HOUSES PROCEEDING FROM THEIR CONSUMER PROPERTIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Хакимзян Амирович Фасхиев

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The method of determination of competitive prices of individual houses, which is based on the price depending on the customer value of the object to the decision maker. Line «red price» compared to residential houses built on the basis of an assessment of their quality aggregate-decomposition method. The price of the test at home is determined by the line «red price» for its calculated level of quality. The technique can be used in the valuation of real estate activities. An example of determining the price of an apartment house, located in the suburbs of a large city.

Valuation of wind power distributed generation by using Longstaff–Schwartz option pricing method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Díaz, Guzmán; Moreno, Blanca; Coto, José; Gómez-Aleixandre, Javier

2015-01-01

Highlights: • We analyze the economic value of wind power distributed generation (DG) projects. • Unlike NPV, RO approach accounts for the flexibility for decision-making. • We adapt Longstaff–Schwartz (LS) option pricing to multivariate wind power setting. • LS finds optimal times for DG investment under revenue uncertainty and decaying costs. • We find this method best suited for valuating DG projects of expected low revenue. - Abstract: In the context of decaying capital cost and uncertain revenues, prospective valuation of a wind power distributed generation (DG) project is difficult. The conventional net present value (NPV) presents a static picture that does not account for the value of waiting for better market conditions to proceed with a DG investment. On the contrary, real options (RO) analysis does account for the managerial flexibility to switch between options over the investment horizon. In this paper we argue that the value of a DG wind-based project can be revisited by means of Longstaff–Schwartz method, originally intended for the evaluation of American financial options. The adaption of this method to the wind power DG setting provides a means for (i) efficiently dealing with the several stochastic processes involved (spot electricity prices and possibly various wind speed processes) avoiding the curse of dimensionality, (ii) accounting for the decaying capital cost of DG, and (iii) solving the perfect foresight problem presented by Monte Carlo conventional simulations. We present in this paper the procedure to follow when applying the method to the wind power DG setting. Particularly, we discuss the standardization of the wind speed and spot price processes, and the advantages of building a state space model that includes all the correlated processes by adequately transforming Box–Jenkins and Ornstein–Uhlenbeck models. Also we discuss the representation of the capital cost forecast by means of learning curves. On the whole, we

Cumulative query method for influenza surveillance using search engine data.

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Dong-Woo; Jo, Min-Woo; Sohn, Chang Hwan; Shin, Soo-Yong; Lee, JaeHo; Yu, Maengsoo; Kim, Won Young; Lim, Kyoung Soo; Lee, Sang-Il

2014-12-16

Internet search queries have become an important data source in syndromic surveillance system. However, there is currently no syndromic surveillance system using Internet search query data in South Korea. The objective of this study was to examine correlations between our cumulative query method and national influenza surveillance data. Our study was based on the local search engine, Daum (approximately 25% market share), and influenza-like illness (ILI) data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A quota sampling survey was conducted with 200 participants to obtain popular queries. We divided the study period into two sets: Set 1 (the 2009/10 epidemiological year for development set 1 and 2010/11 for validation set 1) and Set 2 (2010/11 for development Set 2 and 2011/12 for validation Set 2). Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated between the Daum data and the ILI data for the development set. We selected the combined queries for which the correlation coefficients were .7 or higher and listed them in descending order. Then, we created a cumulative query method n representing the number of cumulative combined queries in descending order of the correlation coefficient. In validation set 1, 13 cumulative query methods were applied, and 8 had higher correlation coefficients (min=.916, max=.943) than that of the highest single combined query. Further, 11 of 13 cumulative query methods had an r value of ≥.7, but 4 of 13 combined queries had an r value of ≥.7. In validation set 2, 8 of 15 cumulative query methods showed higher correlation coefficients (min=.975, max=.987) than that of the highest single combined query. All 15 cumulative query methods had an r value of ≥.7, but 6 of 15 combined queries had an r value of ≥.7. Cumulative query method showed relatively higher correlation with national influenza surveillance data than combined queries in the development and validation set.

48 CFR 15.403 - Obtaining certified cost or pricing data.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... or pricing data. 15.403 Section 15.403 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACTING METHODS AND CONTRACT TYPES CONTRACTING BY NEGOTIATION Contract Pricing 15.403 Obtaining certified cost or pricing data. ...

Delivered Pricing, FOB Pricing, and Collusion in Spatial Markets

OpenAIRE

Maria Paz Espinosa

1992-01-01

This article examines price discrimination and collusion in spatial markets. The problem is analyzed in the context of a repeated duopoly game. I conclude that the prevailing pricing systems depend on the structural elements of the market. Delivered pricing systems emerge in equilibrium in highly monopolistic and highly competitive industries, while FOB is used in intermediate market structures. The fact driving this result is that delivered pricing policies allow spatial price discrimination...

Product price control using game theory: A case study of a fish price in the state of Terengganu

Science.gov (United States)

Safiih, L. Muhamad; Afiq, R. Mohd Noor

2014-07-01

The increase in the price of goods is often a concern among the community. This is caused by factors that beyond of controlled such as a natural disaster, and others that cause the demand exceed the current supply. However, what is more concerning is the increase in price of goods due to the individual who raises the price in order to earn higher profits. Therefore, to overcome this problem, a method of price controls using Game Theory is considered. The Game Theory realizing a form of observational on the action and effects that occur by an individual or group to maximize the utilization under certain circumstances. The study was conducted on prices of 14 fish commodities in the state of Terengganu and also to see the cooperation effect between players of commodity prices. Data were analysed by using the software Gambit. The result shows that there is significant increase due to the influence of middlemen. The findings also shows that the price controls are applied at a set time, then it was applied to other times, prices are more stable and profitable returns to all parties can be maximized.

Energy prices, equalization and Canadian federalism : comparing Canada's energy price shocks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Courchene, T.J. [Queen' s Univ., Kingston, ON (Canada). School of Policy Studies; Institute for Research on Public Policy, Montreal, PQ (Canada)

2006-04-01

Revenues from natural resources during periods of high energy prices can create problems with the way the Canadian federal government distributes wealth through equalization. This paper traced the history of equalization in comparison with energy prices from the years 1973 to 2003. It was noted that the National Energy Program, section 92A of the Constitution, and the 5-province standard were all federal responses to initial energy price increases. It was suggested that current increases in energy prices demand a different response. The author examined a method of using the national average standard to calculate equalization payments as a means of eliminating the inequities created by the current 5-province standard, which excludes both Alberta and the Atlantic provinces. It was argued that the exclusion of Alberta's energy resources creates a false impression that other provinces such as British Columbia and Saskatchewan are rich in resources. It was suggested that fiscal imbalance between provinces is a significant challenge to the current Canadian government. New approaches to cash transfers to the provinces were discussed. A 2-tier equalization scheme was proposed that separated natural resource revenues from other revenues. It was concluded that the government's previous response to high energy prices will not be appropriate for addressing the current price shock. A 2-tier equalization scheme will mean that resource-rich provinces have an opportunity to participate more fully in federal decision-making. 53 refs., 3 figs.

Pricing and Trust

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Huck, Steffen; Ruchala, Gabriele K.; Tyran, Jean-Robert

-competitive (monopolistic) markets. We then introduce a regulated intermediate price above the oligopoly price and below the monopoly price. The effect in monopolies is more or less in line with standard intuition. As price falls volume increases and so does quality, such that overall efficiency is raised by 50%. However......We experimentally examine the effects of flexible and fixed prices in markets for experience goods in which demand is driven by trust. With flexible prices, we observe low prices and high quality in competitive (oligopolistic) markets, and high prices coupled with low quality in non...

A fast tomographic method for searching the minimum free energy path

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Changjun; Huang, Yanzhao; Xiao, Yi; Jiang, Xuewei

2014-01-01

Minimum Free Energy Path (MFEP) provides a lot of important information about the chemical reactions, like the free energy barrier, the location of the transition state, and the relative stability between reactant and product. With MFEP, one can study the mechanisms of the reaction in an efficient way. Due to a large number of degrees of freedom, searching the MFEP is a very time-consuming process. Here, we present a fast tomographic method to perform the search. Our approach first calculates the free energy surfaces in a sequence of hyperplanes perpendicular to a transition path. Based on an objective function and the free energy gradient, the transition path is optimized in the collective variable space iteratively. Applications of the present method to model systems show that our method is practical. It can be an alternative approach for finding the state-to-state MFEP

Negotiating transfer pricing using the Nash bargaining solution

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Clempner Julio B.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes and proposes a solution to the transfer pricing problem from the point of view of the Nash bargaining game theory approach. We consider a firm consisting of several divisions with sequential transfers, in which central management provides a transfer price decision that enables maximization of operating profits. Price transferring between divisions is negotiable throughout the bargaining approach. Initially, we consider a disagreement point (status quo between the divisions of the firm, which plays the role of a deterrent. We propose a framework and a method based on the Nash equilibrium approach for computing the disagreement point. Then, we introduce a bargaining solution, which is a single-valued function that selects an outcome from the feasible pay-offs for each bargaining problem that is a result of cooperation of the divisions of the firm involved in the transfer pricing problem. The agreement reached by the divisions in the game is the most preferred alternative within the set of feasible outcomes, which produces a profit-maximizing allocation of the transfer price between divisions. For computing the bargaining solution, we propose an optimization method. An example illustrating the usefulness of the method is presented.