Home Menu
icon-menu-close.svg

Research Productive

Show result

Clear
Search Query :
Area :
Search Query :
3552 items in total found

Working Papers | 2000

Preservation of Proximity and Merging Functions

Lahiri Somdeb

In this paper we are interested in a property due to Baigent (1987) called proximity preserving. In the conventional model of voting theory it was proposed by Baigent that aggregation procedures should be proximity preserving in the sense that given three preference profiles if the second is closer to the first than the third according to an additively separable metric then the second social ranking should also be closer to the first social ranking compared to the third social ranking. In this framework distance between profiles is measured as the sum of distances between the preferences of each agent. In this paper we assume a metric on the space of alternatives and thereby generate an entire family of metrics on ballot profiles. An interesting special case of our family of metrics is the distance between two profiles measured as the sum of the distances between the candidates of each agent on the two ballot profiles. In this framework we obtain the result that there is no merging function which satisfies anonymity and the proximity preservation property. A particular case of a merging function is when the universal set of alternatives is finite and the elected outcome is required to be a candidate who must have received at least one vote. We call such merging functions vote aggregators. It therefore follows as a consequence of the above result that there is no vote aggregator which satisfies anonymity and the proximity preservation property. Two similar results, one about social welfare functions and the other about social decision functions can be found in Baigent (1987). However, not only is the context of our analysis different, but the method of proof bears little resemblance to the ones available in the work just cited.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

A Survey of Mathematical Programming Applications In Integrated Steel Plants

Robert Fourer and Goutam Dutta

Mathematical programming techniques were used in the steel industry as early as 1958, and many applications of optimization in steel production have been reported since then. In this survey, we summarize published applications in the largest steel plants by type, including national steel planning, product mix optimization, blending, scheduling, set covering, and cutting stock.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

Axiomatic Analysis of Choosing The Second Best

Lahiri Somdeb

The dominant theme in decision theory has been the one where an agent chooses what is perceived to be the best outcome out of a (finite) set of outcomes. This has been the model that economic theory has traditionally favored. In a paper by Baigent and Gaertner (1996) we find a departure from this theme. It is argued there that if there is a unique best outcome then often one may forgo one's claim to it out of politeness. A similar consideration is that of altruism which manifests itself in similar behavior. However, can there be no other type of consideration which prompts one to judiciously avoid the best? In this paper we provide two axiomatic characterizations of the decision rule which invariably selects the second best alternative. Unlike Baigent and Gaertner (1996) we restrict ourselves to the situation where no two alternatives share the same rank.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

Building Technological Capabilities In a Liberalising Developing Economy: Firm Strategies and Public Policy

Pankaj Chandra and Rakesh Basant

As a consequence of economic reforms, the Indian manufacturing sector faces a variety of technology related challenges. It not only has to quickly develop world-class manufacturing capabilities, but also gear up to develop new products and processes. In this paper we analyse the technology strategies of six Indian firms in different product groups which are trying to build competitive manufacturing & technology capabilities. The linkages between corporate, technology, and manufacturing strategies are explored and the role of complementary assets is studied in order to identify patterns through which these firms are building capabilities of various kinds. Specifically, we evaluate the extent to which firms use supply chains to develop product & process technologies. Some links between public policy and firm level technological capabilities are also explored to identify a few key priorities in the current context.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

The Orlovsky Solution for Acyclic Comparison Functions

Lahiri Somdeb

In this paper we characterise the Orlovsky solution and what we refer to as the family of threshold solutions. Our family of threshold solutions are somewhat larger than the family of solutions which select only those alternatives that secure a certain prespecified proportion of the votes against all other alternatives. Our family of threshold solutions also include ones which select only those alternatives that exceed a certain prespecified proportion of the votes against all other alternatives. This is the price we pay for ommitting continuity from our axiomatic characterizations.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

Achieve Zero Customer Dissatisfaction for Corporate Immortality

Ramachandran K

Growing environmental turbulence has made the challenge to keep customers satisfied all the more difficult. Corporate mortality of firms including those favoured by customers is not under control. There seems to be conceptual and methodological weaknesses in the approaches currently used by corporations to achieve customer satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a new concept, "Zero Customer Dissatisfaction" (ZCD). The objective in this approach is to identify customer dissatisfaction from the perspective of organisational strategy and eliminate it entirely as it emerges. The argument for ZCD originates from the concept of latent demand or a demand, which is existing but not yet exploited by any firm. In the ZCD approach, the sources of dissatisfaction can be internal or external to the organisation, and modifications on the value chain may be required to achieve ZCD. Identification of customer dissatisfaction has always been challenging. Drawing from anthropological literature, participant observation is found to be very appropriate to study customers, both internal and external on the value chain. This technique can be used along with other existing methodologies. The paper goes beyond the term of marketing and other specific functions, and identifies ZCD approach as the route to ensure corporate immortality. The paper draws on experiences of a number of companies to support the arguments.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

Scheduling Partially Ordered Activities Under Resource Constraints on Parallel Machines

Bagchi Amitava, Dhavale N P, and Sanjay Verma

A four-step strategy is proposed for scheduling a set of partially ordered resource-constrained activities on a given number of identical parallel machines. For regular measures, the generated schedule is optimal. In the first step, the difficulty level of the problem instance is estimated using the problem parameters as arguments. Easy problems are solved using a best-first tree search algorithm. For harder problems, an approximate algorithm is employed to determine a good upper bound on the measure. This bound is fed to a breadth-first tree search algorithm, making the pruning more effective and reducing the memory requirement of breadth-first search. When the number of parallel machines is 2, 3, 4, 5 or unlimited, this strategy is able to solve all except a small number of the benchmark PROGEN problems on a Linux-based Pentium PC or a UNIX-based RS 6000 machine. On projects without resource constraints, the proposed method is faster than the earlier method of Chang and Jiang [1994] by orders of magnitude.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

Comment on Icmeli and Erengucs

Bagchi Amitava, Dhavale N P, and Sanjay Verma

In a recent paper, Icmeli and Erengue (1996) present an algorithm to maximize the Net Present Value (NPV) of a given project under renewable resource constraints. It is shown here, with the help of an example, that in some cases the algorithm fails to find an optimal solution. A simple modification in the last step of the algorithm resolves the problem.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

Modelling Credit Risk In Indian Bond Markets

Ragunathan V and Jayanth R. Varma

Government bonds are subject only to interest rate risk. However, corporate bonds are subject to credit risk in addition to interest rate risk. Credit risk subsumes the risk of default as well as the risk of an adverse rating change. Considerable work has been done in the US and other countries on credit rating migrations. However, there is little work done in India in this regard. In this paper therefore, we analyse credit rating migrations in Indian corporate bond market to bring about greater understanding of its credit risk.

Read More

Working Papers | 2000

The One Dimensional Kakutanis Fixed Point Theorem in Problems of Fair Division: A Classroom Capsule

Lahiri Somdeb

In this paper, we provide a simple proof of the one-dimensional version of the Kakutani's fixed point theorem, which is required to prove the existence of a Walrasian equilibrium in a two commodity multi-agent economy where preferences are convex. In a final section of this paper we apply the Kakutani's fixed point theorem to prove the existence of what we call an equitable equilibrium with rationing in a model where each individual is endowed with positive quantities of two goods. The solution is very similar to the solution due to Dreze (1975) except that ours is not a fixed price solution. It is a problem of resource allocation from an initial position and the solution we propose falls within the general category of non-Walrasian equilibria.

Read More