FirmNet: the scope of firms and the allocation of task in a knowledge-based economy

The increasing knowledge intensity of jobs, typical of a knowledge economy, highlights the role of firms as integrators of know how and skills. As economic activity becomes mainly intellectual and requires the integration of specific and idiosyncratic skills, firms need to allocate skills to tasks and traditional hierarchical control may result increasingly ineffective. In this work, we explore under what circumstances networks of agents, which bear specific skills, may self-organize in order to complete tasks. We use a computer simulation approach and investigate how local interaction of agents, endowed with skills and individual decision-making rules, may produce aggregate network structure able to perform tasks. To design algorithms that mimic individual decision-making, we borrow from computer science literature and, in particular, from studies addressing protocols that produce cooperation in P2P networks. We found that self-organization depends on imitation of successful peers, competition among agents holding specific skills, and the structural features of, formal or informal, organizational networks embedding both professionals, holding skills, and project managers, holding access to jobs.

基于SFA和卡尔曼滤波方法的分析

利用随机前沿生产函数模型对中国28个省区1985～2007年的全要素生产率进行了测算和分解,并通过建立状态空间模型测算了全要素生产率各分解成分对中国地区差距的影响程度及变化趋势.研究结果表明,技术效率是导致中国地区经济差距扩大的最主要原因,其次是技术进步的影响,而规模经济性对地区差距的影响非常有限.     

省域低碳经济发展分类及评价研究

在构建区域低碳经济评价指标体系的基础上,在省区低碳经济分类评价中,运用多元统计方法中的聚类分析和系统工程学中的密切值法,结合2011年中国统计年鉴的统计数据对相关指标的数据样本进行了聚类分析,将低碳经济发展相类似的地区划成群体,再用密切值法对聚类所得的群体进行排序,从而评价出各地区的低碳经济发展水平.     

基于机器学习的Airbnb房源价格预测及影响因素研究——以北京市为例

Airbnb是全球最大的旅游房屋租赁平台之一。本文综合利用多种机器学习方法,基于房源本身的特征、房源的位置、设施与服务、租赁规则、房东的特征和房源的声誉这六类解释变量对北京市Airbnb房源价格进行了预测,并探讨了六类解释变量对房源价格的影响。发现：(a)六类变量中房源本身的特征对房源价格的影响最大。(b)非线性方法的表现明显优于线性方法。(c)与以往研究发现的Airbnb房源价格与允许即时预定呈负相关关系相反,北京市允许即时预订的房源价格高于不允许即时预订的房源。(d)房源容量、房间类型以及房源与市中心的距离是最重要的影响因素。本文为Airbnb房源定价研究提供了新的视角,同时有利于Airbnb房东更好地为其房源设置价格,作者从理论和实践的角度作出了可能的解释。     

基于双层规划的高速公路收费费率优化模型

在全国联网收费的背景下,从动态收费的角度考虑,建立了双层规划模型,上层规划中将路网管理者作为领导者,以高速公路收费效益最大化为目标函数,同时考虑道路运营管理方的合理收益和养护成本支出情况,下层规划则以用户出行效用最大化为目标,充分考虑了道路使用者的道路选择差异性及道路拥堵对交通分布的影响,建立随机用户均衡模型.最后结合...     

Recovery of Terephthalic Acid from Densified Post-consumer Plastic Mix by HTL Process

In this study, we investigate the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of PET separated from a densified postconsumer plastic mix, with the aim of recovering its monomer. This second raw material is made up of 90% polyolefin, while the remaining 10% is made up of PET, traces of metals, paper, and glass. After preliminary separation by density in water, two batch experiments were performed on the sunken fraction (composed mainly of PET) in a stainless steel autoclave at 345 °C for 30 and 20 min. Both trials resulted in similar yields of the three phases. In particular, the solid yield is around 76% by weight. After a purification step, this phase was analyzed by UV–Vis, ¹H-NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy and resulted to be constituted by terephthalic acid (TPA), a product of considerable industrial interest. The study proved that the hydrothermal liquefaction process coupled with density separation in water is effective for obtaining TPA from a densified postconsumer plastic mix, which can be used for new PET synthesis.     

Commercialization of Ionic Liquids in Pursuit of Green Chemistry: Must we Each Become an Entrepreneur?

There will be common challenges to scaling-up any ionic liquids separations technologies which require very large volumes of ionic liquid. Some of these challenges are illustrated in this personal account which chronicles the extraction of chitin from shrimp shell from discovery to current commercialization efforts. The road being taken from discovery in an academic laboratory, through attempts to navigate the scaling-up to commercial scale using the vehicle of a faculty startup company is rewarding, but fraught with roadblocks, detours, and unexpected challenges. The differences in ‘technically feasible’ and ‘commercially viable’ are not always evident from the beginning of the journey, however, one wonders what achievements we miss as a Society because it was assumed to not be commercially viable.     

Platform exploitation in the sharing economy

We model a revenue sharing contract between a sharing economy platform and a freelance service provider, where the latter hides revenue from the former by canceling some assignments and performing them for cash (“platform exploitation”). The platform counters this via costly, imperfect audits with endogenous success probability, and a variable payment. We show that at equilibrium, all agent types except the highest, indulge in revenue falsification. This problem is exacerbated by the principal's ability to extract restitution from the agent.