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We study the effect of multilateral private information on the efficiency of markets where capacity-constrained upstream agents supply a resource to downstream entities facing uncertain end-demands. We analyze two models: a 'pooling system,' in which a single downstream principal pools a resource from multiple upstream agents; and a 'distribution system,' in which one upstream principal allocates a resource across multiple downstream agents. We show that the presence of multilateral private information does not hinder efficiency in the pooling system. In contrast, in the distribution system, the quantities allocated to downstream agents can exceed, as well as fall short of, their first-best levels. These results shed light on the recently improved performance of U.S. agricultural produce market, and the observed episodes of shortages/oversupplies in flu vaccine and other seasonal markets. History: Accepted by Manel Baucells, decision analysis. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2574. Keywords: resource allocation * mechanism design * private information, 1. Introduction Over the past few decades, the U.S. food industry has experienced an unprecedented increase in consolidation, primarily through mergers and acquisitions (Sexton 2000). As a result, large processing [...]

Like other states, Michigan has implemented a number of policies to change governance and administrative arrangements in local school districts deem to be in financial emergency. This paper examines two [...]

Online auction markets play increasingly important roles for resource allocations in distributed systems. This paper builds upon a market-based framework presented by Guo et al. (Guo, Z., G. J. Koehler, [...]

ABSTRACT The goal of this study is to simultaneously explore resource allocation across schools within large urban school districts and across all schools within major metropolitan areas that include those [...]

We provide a branch-and-price algorithm for the bin packing problem with conflicts, a variant of the classical bin packing problem that has major applications in scheduling and resource allocation. The [...]

We consider an assemble-to-order system in which multiple products are assembled from a common component and a set of product-dedicated components. Component capacities are chosen prior to a finite-horizon selling season, and the common component is allocated to the products based on observed demands. We propose a collection of allocation mechanisms involving varying degrees of demand aggregation, ranging from a scheme under which all demands are observed prior to making the allocation decision to allocations made for each arriving demand. In this context, we explore the impact of the allocation scheme on sales, profits, and capacity decisions, including the degree of capacity imbalance. We find that the benefit from increased demand aggregation is closely linked to the degree of capacity imbalance: profit gains from delayed allocation tend to be higher in systems in which the optimal capacity portfolio is highly unbalanced when the allocation decision is made after observing all demands. We develop insights into what detailed system parameters lead to the largest gains from demand aggregation and also explore the trade-offs associated with the choice of an allocation scheme when customers exhibit impatience if the allocation scheme forces them to wait to be served. Key words: assemble-to-order; inventory production; policies; capacity; stochastic; multi-item History: Received November 30, 2007; accepted February 18, 2011, by Ananth Iyer, operations and supply chain management. Published online in Articles in Advance April 29, 2011., 1. Introduction Many firms that offer multiple related products choose an assemble-to-order (ATO) approach for production, holding inventories only at the component level and waiting until demands arrive to assemble [...]

We propose a message-passing paradigm for resource allocation problems. This serves to connect ideas from the message-passing literature, which has primarily grown out of the communications, statistical physics, and artificial [...]

In six experiments, we investigated the role of resource valence in intergenerational attitudes and allocations. We found that, compared to benefits, allocating burdens intergenerationally increased concern with one's legacy, heightened ethical concerns, intensified moral emotions (e.g., guilt, shame), and led to feelings of greater responsibility for and affinity with future generations. We argue that, because of greater concern with legacies and the associated moral implications of one's decisions, allocating burdens leads to greater intergenerational generosity as compared to benefits. Our data provide support for this effect across a range of contexts. Our results also indicate that the differential effect of benefits versus burdens in intergenerational contexts depends on the presence of two important structural characteristics that help enact concerns about legacies, including (1) future impact of decisions, and (2) a self-other tradeoff. Overall, our findings highlight how considering resource valence brings to the fore a number of key psychological characteristics of intergenerational decisions--especially as they relate to legacies and ethics.

Conditions for achieving efficient allocation of resources in a dynamic private values setting where designers learn about the distribution of agent values are studied. Implementation of efficient policies is possible upon delaying necessary monetary transfers.

The influence of landscape structure on abundance or spacing patterns of generalist bird species may be nonlinear and vary annually depending on the severity of environmental conditions. The Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo sylvestris) is a generalist forest species that experiences high mortality when snow reduces food availability. Although increasing amounts of cornfield habitat may benefit Wild Turkeys by providing an alternate food source, reduced forest cover or elevated levels of forest fragmentation associated with increased corn (Zea mays) production could be detrimental. We evaluated the hypothesis that spring density of male Wild Turkeys increases with the amount of corn habitat as long as forest cover remains a dominant landscape component and that this increase is more prominent following a winter with thick snow accumulations. We performed point counts and corrected for imperfect detection in 2003 and 2004 at 130 randomly distributed sites in southern Quebec. After a mild winter, male density peaked in landscapes characterized by 25-50% forest cover and a large amount of edge between forest and open habitats. After a harsh winter, male density decreased with annual crop cover when forests represented 40%. Male aggregation was higher and increased with male density at a slower rate than if individuals had been randomly distributed, yet landscape structure had only a marginal effect on aggregation. Our results suggest that Wild Turkeys' response to landscape structure depends on environmental conditions and that this generalist forest species benefits from cornfields where forest cover is fragmented but abundant. Key words: agricultural intensification, fragmentation, generalist species, interannual variation, landscape structure, mating systems, Meleagris gallopavo, spatial distribution, Wild Turkey.

Limited stopover habitat along migration routes is a possible contributor to population declines in migratory landbirds. In highly fragmented agricultural landscapes, potential stopover sites are often limited to riparian corridor forests and small forest patches, but there are little quantitative data on stopover habitat selection in these areas, especially with regard to how migrants use isolated versus connected, and riparian versus upland, habitat patches. We examined the use of upland forest woodlots in the forest--agricultural landscape of northwest Indiana as stopover habitat, to determine whether migrants selected stopover sites on the basis of proximity to riparian corridor forest. In two spring and two fall seasons, we conducted 384 surveys in 12 small woodlots at three levels of isolation from a riparian forest corridor, detecting 3,695 en-route migrants of 76 species. We detected no difference in migrant abundance or species richness among distance classes in either season, and a principal-component variable comprising several woodlot isolation metrics was not a significant contributor to migrant abundance in linear regression models. Fall migrant abundance was positively associated with early-successional forests containing fruiting trees and shrubs, whereas spring abundance was not associated with any vegetation characteristics. The lack of patterns of habitat occupancy at the landscape level suggests that migrants select stopover sites on the basis of local habitat characteristics such as food resources, regardless of the landscape context. Small, isolated woodlots composed largely of forest edge with high fruit and insect abundance may, therefore, be important conservation targets in highly fragmented landscapes where forest cover is limited. Key words: forest patches, habitat selection, migration, migratory landbirds, stopover habitat.

In this essay I argue that many of the technical and analytical developments in public financial management--known broadly as public financial engineering--have weakened rather than strengthened public budgeting. Our central challenge going forward is to understand how these developments will continue to reshape public management. KEYWORDS: budgeting, financial management, resource allocation

In this paper, we investigate the resource allocation in a differentially modulated relay network. In addition to the energy optimization, we also consider location optimization to minimize the average symbol error rate (SER). The closedform solution is derived for the single-relay case, and formulas allowing numerical search are provided for multiple-relay cases. Analytical and simulated comparisons confirm that the optimized systems provide considerable improvement over the unoptimized systems, and that the minimum SER can be achieved via the joint energy-location optimization. Index Terms--Differential phase shift keying, resource management, relays, cooperative system.

The trends of research into the utility of resources to fulfil the needs of human beings, since the development of the hedonimeter by Edgeworth are described.