Algorithm of Ecocompensation in Sloping Land Conversion Program Based on Heckman’s Two-Step Model

In this paper, we broadly generalize the assignment auction algorithm to solve linear minimum cost network flow problems. It is significant to establish a market-based compensation mechanism by way of conservation auctions based on peasant households’ willingness, which can promote the innovation of ecocompensation policies, green development, and balanced growth. Using the survey data collected from 453 households within 3 national pilot counties in ecologically fragile regions in northwest Liaoning for the Sloping Land Conversion Programme, measuring peasant households’ willingness to accept ecocompensation through sealed auctions, we built a database through cloud computing to realize information collation and query and applied the Heckman’s Two-Step Model to study the impact of risk preference, social capital, cognitive preference, land parcel characteristics, and family endowments on farmers’ willingness to participate in protection auctions and their bid prices. The results reveal that the average bid price of peasant households in the ecologically fragile region in northwest Liaoning for the Sloping Land Conversion Programme is annually 274.5 yuan per mu and that risk preference and social capital have positive impacts on peasant households’ willingness to participate in conservation auctions and on their bid prices, cognitive preference has a positive impact on peasant households’ bid prices in conservation auctions, and land plot characteristics have a negative impact on peasant households’ bid prices in conservation auctions. It is suggested that ecocompensation policies should be optimized with such methods as lowering peasant households’ perception of high risks, setting role models for them to follow, and strengthening their perception of the environment, income, and property rights.

Developing a Risk Management Process for General Contractors in the Bidding Stage for Design–Build Projects in Vietnam

Design–build (DB) projects have become increasingly popular for construction projects in developing countries due to the cost and scheduling advantages and their design optimization ability. As a result, much research has been conducted on improving DB efficiency in terms of cost, scheduling, risk management, etc. However, the existing studies have mainly focused on the owner’s roles, whereas general contractors (GCs) must also take many risks on behalf of owners in DB projects. The adequate identification and assessment of risks before engaging a contractor can increase the likelihood of a project’s success, at least from a DB contractor’s perspective. Therefore, this study interviewed procurement experts to conduct a survey at the local level, then analyzed, developed, and proposed an additional risk management process (RMP) for use by GCs during the bidding process of DB projects. A case study was conducted with a large Vietnamese GC to evaluate the effectiveness of the process and find ways to optimize it in the future. The results of the study showed that risk management during a DB project is imperative. Nevertheless, preparing bids is time-consuming and increases the contingency costs, reducing the competitiveness of the bid prices for contractors. Therefore, depending on the specific project and risk management objectives, an RMP is recommended for adjusting the risk management target to reduce the risk, while still maintaining the competitiveness of the bid prices.

Concentration of Bid Prices Just Above the Standard Minimum Price in Public Construction Works

In Japan, contract offices are mandated to set threshold prices for public works. A threshold price is the upper limit of the bid price, and a contractor who exceeds this threshold is disqualified. Furthermore, based on the threshold price, a minimum price is set as a price requiring investigation before acceptance. In recent years, bids and contracts for public works have generally had bid prices concentrated slightly above the standard minimum for investigation. It has been pointed out that this tendency is detrimental in terms of the motivation of engineers and social costs. In this study, we confirm that this tendency was alleviated and that the level of the winning bidder's technical evaluation score was feasible at the same time. In addition, we obtained quantitative findings on variables that affect both above. Furthermore, although it is impossible to achieve a perfect balance between alleviating the tendency of prices to concentrate slightly above the standard minimum for investigation and sufficient technical evaluation scores, elements necessary to improve the overall situation were quantitatively identified.

Analysis the Centralized Drug Procurement Results at Ho Chi Minh city Department of Health

In recent years, the procurement of drugs in public health facilities is mostly done in the form of bidding. In particular, the concentrated bidding form at the Department of Health brings advantages to the process of drug supply as well as safe, appropriate and effective management of drug use. In the period 2014-2019, at the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health (DoH), the number of drugs in the concentrated bidding list increases year by year, from 92 (2014) to 101 (2019). The number of winning drugs on the list promulgated by the Ministry of Health has increased year by year. DoH focuses mainly on purchasing drugs under generic packages when the quantity of drugs is in the range of 67-70% higher than the quantity of drugs in the original brand name package (30-33%). In terms of value, compared to the total planned value, the generic package decreased by 65% (2017-2019), while the original brand name package only decreased by 35%. Bid prices and winning prices of each commodity decrease over the years. The difference between bid prices and winning bid prices ranged from 20% to 40%. DoH's locally concentrated list of tenders has not yet fully met the needs of local health facilities, so there is still planning to add new drugs out of the list. Therefore, it is advisable to conduct a further survey on drug use needs in each health facility through data from open bidding at hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. From there, consider which drugs should be added to DoH's centralized procurement list. Keywords: Centralized bidding, generic bidding package, original brand name bidding package, drug price, HCMC Department of Health. References [1] World Health Organization, How pharmaceutical systems are organized in Asia and the Pacific, OECD Publishing, 2018.[2] Government of Vietnam, The World Bank, Fiscal Policies towards Sustainability, Efficiency, and Equity, World Bank Washington DC, 2017.[3] Ministry of health, Circular 09/2016/TT-BYT promulgation of list of drugs for procurement through bidding, list of drugs for concentrated procurement, list of drugs for procurement through price negotiation, 2016 (Vietnamese).[4] Ministry of health, Circular 21/2013/TT-BYT prescribing organization and operation of the drug and treatment council in hospitals, 2013. (Vietnamese).[5] Xuan-Phuoc Nguyen-Thi et al, Analysis of drug bidding results in the form of centralized drug bidding at the Nghe An Province Health Department, Pharmaceutical journal 59 (7), 2019, 03-07 (Vietnamese).[6] Ministry of health, Circular 11/2016/TT-BYT bidding for supply of drugs for public health facilities, 2016 (Vietnamese).[7] Ministry of health, Joint Circular 01/2012/TTLT-BYT-BTC guiding bidding of drugs procurement in the medical facilities, 2012 (Vietnamese).

Pricing and Matching with Forward-Looking Buyers and Sellers

Problem definition: We study a dynamic market over a finite horizon for a single product or service in which buyers with private valuations and sellers with private supply costs arrive following Poisson processes. A single market-making intermediary decides dynamically on the ask and bid prices that will be posted to buyers and sellers, respectively, and on the matching decisions after buyers and sellers agree to buy and sell. Buyers and sellers can wait strategically for better prices after they arrive. Academic/practical relevance: This problem is motivated by the emerging sharing economy and directly speaks to the core of operations management that is about matching supply with demand. Methodology: The dynamic, stochastic, and game-theoretic nature makes the problem intractable. We employ the mechanism-design methodology to establish a tractable upper bound on the optimal profit, which motivates a simple heuristic policy. Results: Our heuristic policy is: fixed ask and bid prices plus price adjustments as compensation for waiting costs, in conjunction with the greedy matching policy on a first-come-first-served basis. These fixed base prices balance demand and supply in expectation and can be computed efficiently. The waiting-compensated price processes are time-dependent and tend to have opposite trends at the beginning and end of the horizon. Under this heuristic policy, forward-looking buyers and sellers behave myopically. This policy is shown to be asymptotically optimal. Managerial implications: Our results suggest that the intermediary might not lose much optimality by maintaining stable prices unless the underlying market conditions have significantly changed, not to mention that frequent surge pricing may antagonize riders and induce riders and drivers to behave strategically in ways that are hard to account for with traditional pricing models.

Analisis Pelaksanaan Pengadaan Barang/Jasa Secara Elektronik pada Pemerintah Kabupaten Gresik

Benefits of e-procurement is not only for the agency or the developer of the system itself but also for the providers of goods and services and the general public who want to know the process of procurement of goods and services procurement organizers get More bid prices and more simple nobility processes. As for the provider of goods/services can expand the business opportunity, create a healthy business competition, open the opportunity of business actors openly for anyone and reduce administrative costs. Additionally, e-procurement is also believed to improve collaboration between buyers and suppliers, reducing personnel needs, improving coordination, reducing transaction costs, shorter buying and selling of goods, facilitating Greater inventory and transparency. Information technology can make costs more effective and public procurement systems are more innovative.

THE ECONOMICS OF LUCKINESS: HOW CRAZY ARE MALAYSIAN CHINESE TOWARDS CAR PLATE NUMBER “8”?

The Chinese society is well-known for its obsession towards number “8”. Eight is the luckiest number to the Chinese as its pronunciation resembles the meaning of prosperity, wealth or fortune. Prior research estimating the marginal effect of “8” on winning bid prices of car plate numbers attributes the positive impact of “8” on bid prices to superstitious value. However, the estimated positive effect could also be attributed to Veblen goods and future resale consideration. Thus, an upward bias might exist in prior research’s estimation. This study aimed to circumvent this issue by comparing the marginal effect of all “8” car plate numbers of Malaysian Chinese bidders and their non-Chinese counterparts who are neutral towards number “8”. Descriptive statistics results reveal that the majority of all “8” plates are won by Chinese bidders. However, regression results reveal that Chinese bidders have a lower estimated marginal effect of number eight than their non-Chinese counterparts. This implies that while number “8” is popular among the Chinese, this popularity does not translate into higher bidding prices. These findings suggest the roles of Veblen goods and future resale consideration should not be ignored in estimating the superstitious value in car plate numbers.

Web Comparison of Three Contingent Valuation Techniques in Women of Childbearing Age: The Case of Ovulation Induction in Quebec

Background In Canada, 11.5% to 15.7% of couples suffer from infertility. Anovulation, or failed ovulation, is one of the main causes of infertility in women. In Quebec, the treatment for ovulation induction and other services related to assisted reproductive technology (ART) have been partially reimbursed by the government since 2010. Objective This study aimed to compare the willingness to pay (WTP) of women of childbearing age to receive drug treatment in the event of failed ovulation according to 3 different contingent valuation methods. Methods The following elicitation techniques were used: simple bid price dichotomous choice (DC), followed by an open-ended question (DC-OE), and a simplified multiple-bounded discrete choice (MBDC). Each participant was randomly assigned to 1 of 3 elicitation techniques. Bid prices ranged from Can $200 to Can $5000. Of the 7 bid prices, 1 was randomly proposed to each participant in the DC and DC-OE groups. For the DC-OE group, if the answer to the DC bid price was no, respondents were asked what was the maximum amount they were willing to pay. For the MBDC group, each respondent was offered an initial bid price of Can $1500, and the subsequent bid price offer increased or decreased according to the answer provided. “Do not know” responses were considered as a “no”, and each individual was questioned as to their certainty after each choice. WTP values were estimated using probit and bivariate models; the Welsh and Poe model was also performed for the MBDC group. Results The survey was conducted from 2009 to 2010 with a total sample of 680 women. Analyses were performed on 610 respondents (199 DC, 230 DC-OE, and 181 MBDC). Of the 70 respondents who were excluded, 6 did not meet the age criterion, 45 had an annual income less than Can $2500, and 19 did not respond to the WTP question. Mean WTP values were Can $4033.26, Can $1857.90, and Can $1630.63 for DC, DC-OE, and MBDC, respectively. The WTP for MBDC “definitely yes” and “probably yes” values were Can $1516.73 and Can $1871.22, respectively. The 3 elicitation techniques provided WTP value differences that were statistically significant (P<.01). The MBDC was the most accurate method, with a lower confidence interval (Can $557) and a lower (CI/mean) ratio (0.34). Conclusions A positive WTP for ovulation induction was found in Quebec. Adding a follow-up question resulted in more accurate WTP values. The MBDC technique provided a more accurate estimate of the WTP with a smaller and, therefore, more efficient confidence interval. To help decision making and improve the effectiveness of the fiscal policy related to the ART program, the WTP value elicited with the MBDC technique should be used.