Galactic Air Improves Ancillary Revenues with Dynamic Personalized Pricing

Ancillaries are a rapidly growing source of revenue for airlines, yet their prices are currently statically determined using rules of thumb and are matched only to the average customer or to customer groups. Offering ancillaries at dynamic and personalized prices based on flight characteristics and customer needs could greatly improve airline revenue and customer satisfaction. Through a start-up (Deepair) that builds and deploys novel machine learning techniques to introduce such dynamically priced ancillaries to airlines, we partnered with a major European airline, Galactic Air (pseudonym), to build models and algorithms for improved pricing. These algorithms recommend dynamic personalized ancillary prices for a stream of features (called context) relating to each shopping session. Our recommended prices are restricted to be lower than the human-curated prices for each customer group. We designed and compared multiple machine learning models and deployed the best-performing ones live on the airline’s booking system in an online A/B testing framework. Over a six-month live implementation period, our dynamic pricing system increased the ancillary revenue per offer by 25% and conversion rate by 15% compared with the industry standard of human-curated rule-based prices.

DISPARITY OF PRICES IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY

Agriculture is the city-forming branch of the agro-industrial complex, the share of which in recent years in the gross domestic product annually amounts to about 5%. Despite the positive dynamics of the development of the last decade, quite a lot of unresolved problems have accumulated in the agricultural complex. One of them is the disparity of prices, which consists in a faster growth of price indices for industrial goods and services used in agricultural production in comparison with the growth of price indices for agricultural raw materials and products. This hinders the development of agricultural production in solving the problem of ensuring food security and import substitution, has an impact on the level of profitability and competitiveness of rural producers. The conducted research made it possible to establish price imbalances between the economic entities of the agro-industrial complex and the need to improve the pricing system based on taking into account the real contribution of all participants.

Genderized Implications of Bride Pricing Culture in Igbo Land

The study aims at ascertaining the actual implication of bride pricing system in traditional marriages in Igbo land. A total of fifty respondents (thirty women and twenty men) from the five states that make up the southeast zone in Nigeria were selected for the study. Being a qualitative research, the study adopted the ethnographic research design and employed a purposive non-probability sampling method in selecting the respondents. The study made use of focused group discussions, unstructured interview and participants’ observation method as instruments of data collection. The collection of data lasted for a period of six months from June 2020 to November 2020. The research is anchored on Radical and Snail sense Feminism theories and data for the study were analysed using descriptive thematic method. Findings from the study reveal that payment of bride price does not reduce women to mere commodities in Igbo land. It also reveals that it gives undue privileges to men in Igbo land among other findings. Finally, it was shown that Igbo men and women still regard bride price payment as an important aspect of their culture which should not be abolished.

Research on Dynamic and Complexity of Duopoly Price Strategies between Low-Carbon and Nonlow-Carbon Products under Cap-and-Trade Policies

This paper studies the complexity of the pricing system for the production of low-carbon and nonlow-carbon products in a market composed of duopoly manufacturers under the cap-and-trade policies. Through nonlinear system theory and numerical derivation and simulation, it considers the influence of different market power structures, carbon trading prices, consumer environmental awareness, and other factors on price decisions, carbon emission decisions, profits, and system stability. The influence of price adjustment parameters and unit product carbon emission decision adjustment parameters on the complexity of the pricing system under different market power structures is analyzed. And, it was found that compared with the variable feedback chaos control method, the parameter adjustment chaos control method is more effective in controlling the pricing system in this paper. Our research provides management implications for market competition and operational decision-making for low-carbon and nonlow-carbon products.

Are Bottle Banks Sufficiently Effective for Increasing Glass Recycling Rates?

The Netherlands is a frontrunner in the EU regarding the circular economy. On a national scale, there are higher targets than the EU for different packaging materials as plastics, glass, paper/cartons, and aluminium. For glass, the government advocates a recycling rate of more than 90%. In 2017, the rate realised was 86%. To reach this 4% higher goal, the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate wants to improve the collection infrastructure by increasing the number of bottle banks, with 800 by 2021. However, in the literature, an effectiveness analysis is lacking. Based on empirical evidence with data from 2007–2019, we show that increasing the number of bottle banks is not effective. Implementing a unit-based pricing system as a priced bag or container for unsorted waste can be more effective in achieving this goal, although this can have serious drawbacks.

Complexity Analysis for Price Competition of Agricultural Products with Regional Brands

The disordered price competition among various agricultural business agents leads to chaos of agricultural products’ prices, which makes it difficult for customers to form stable price expectation and correct brand cognition, restricting the sales of agricultural products with regional brands. Based on the Salop circular market model with bounded rationality and delayed feedback, this paper discusses the complexity in price competition of agricultural products with regional brands. It is found that when the price adjustment speed of agricultural business agents exceeds the stability region, the pricing system of agricultural products with regional brands would appear the phenomenon of periodic bifurcation or chaos. The delayed feedback controlling mechanism of price adjustment could make the pricing system in the chaos state turn to the equilibrium state. Therefore, the price fluctuation of agricultural products with regional brands needs reasonable control from the industrial associations and government departments.

Modern aspects of Russia's foreign trade policy and its export potential in the grain market

A comprehensive study of the foreign trade potential of the country's grain complex is conducted, considering compliance with the requirements of food security and the development of foreign trade cooperation. Analysis of the system of legal regulation of grain exports and imports, state support not only for exporters but also for intermediaries along the entire logistics route, and research of the potential opportunities of the grain market and directions for the development of grain policy, considering the existing problems allow the authors to conclude that this area is a priority for the Russian economy. This determines the relevance of the study. The article reveals contradictions in the pricing system on the Russian grain market since the close dependence of domestic prices for major cereals (wheat, barley, rice) on their value in the international market is determined. The importance of the policy of supporting not only grain producers but also the transport and logistics sector, terminals, and warehouses for expanding the transshipment capacity of the grain trade business is highlighted.

TRANSFER PRICING OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS

Background. In the context of globalization, transnational corporations have turned into highly concentrated points of the world economy and the principal markets for goods and services. It is under such conditions that a comprehensive research of the pricing system within the framework of their activities is relevant. Analysis of recent research and publications has revealed that the process of setting prices for products within their activities in different countries and the development of innovations in domestic legislation require in-depth study. The aim of the article was to study possible transfer pricing systems for TNCs in order to eliminate risks when calculating the exact cost of products and avoid possible situations of non-payment of due taxes. Materials and methods. A set of general scientific methods of cognition is applied: inductive, deductive, system analysis, theoretical generalization, formal-logical, analysis and synthesis. Results. The transfer pricing system is becoming the key direction in the process of planning and profit maximization. The methods of setting the transfer price are legally enshrined in the current Tax Code of Ukraine. However, the use of these methods is a top priority for checking compliance with the «arm’s length»principle. It is determined that in order to comply with this principle, it is necessary to compare controlled and uncontrolled transactions, based on the criterion of tax benefits, as well as to analyse all the advantages and disadvantages that they create. Conclusion. The issue of proper transfer pricing plays a leading role in the export or import of goods. Particular attention should be paid to the sources of information indicated by taxpayers and used in order to ensure compliance with the requirements for justification in the documentation on transfer pricing compliance with the conditions of controlled transactions with the arm’s length principle. Prospects for further research are to provide practical recommendations for compliance of the legal and regulatory framework for transfer pricing with the requirements of the world economy in the direction of preventing the implementation of tax avoidance schemes.

2016–2020 Alabama Pasture to Rail Program and Data: An Educational Retained Ownership Program for Alabama Cattle Producers

The Alabama Pasture to Rail Program gives cattle producers across the state an opportunity to retain ownership of a portion of their calf crop and receive feedlot performance, health and carcass data. From October 2016 through December 2020, 3,200 calves from 98 Alabama farms and 1 farm in southern Tennessee were commingled at central shipping locations and transported to Hy-Plains Feedyard in Montezuma, KS to be fed until harvest. Of these, 2,188 were harvested and data collected at the time this abstract was written. Overall, these calves averaged 1.55 ± 0.38 kg/d ADG, 94.45 ± 11.70 cm2 Ribeye Area (REA), 1.51 ± 0.51 cm Backfat Thickness (BF), 385.32 ± 45.21 kg Hot Carcass Weight (HCW), and a 473.84 ± 98.17 Marbling Score (MS), with 76.10% grading Choice or Higher and 90.07% Yield Grade 3 or Lower. From a cattle heath perspective, 11.88% of the cattle were treated at some point during the feeding period, with 2.65% of calves dying or being sold as chronically sick calves prior to harvest of their respective groups. Compared to the estimated value of the calves prior to shipping to the feedyard, calves generated an average of $77.17/hd additional profit for consignors for a total of $168,855.69 profit. At the conclusion of the program, each producer received a summary of the performance of the calves on the truckload which their calves shipped, the individual data for all of their calves, payment for the calves based on a grid pricing system, and an individual analysis of the performance of their calves and how they might improve them in the future. Additionally, producers were asked to complete a survey on their satisfaction with the program and how they intend to use the data in the future. On a scale from 1 to 6 (6 being extremely satisfied), producers were asked to rank their satisfaction with the overall program (5.56), shipping protocols (5.67), data and summaries (5.78), and performance of their cattle (4.89).