The Impact of Bullwhip Effect on the Cash Flow in Two-Parallel Supply Chain Systems with the Competition Effect

While considering the competition effect and market share, this study discusses how the cash flow bullwhip effect (CFBE) is impacted in two-product and two-parallel supply chain systems by comparing the situation that it has one kind of product in two-level supply chain (SC). Specifically, the study aimed to examine two-product and two-parallel SC systems that include two suppliers and two retailers. Assuming that the demand function is a linear relationship of price self-sensitivity coefficient and price cross-sensitivity coefficient, which is an AR(1) process, two retailers share the demand. After that, the quantitative equation of the CFBE was deduced from two-product and two-parallel SC systems. Finally, we get the condition that the competition effect and the market share increase or decrease the CFBE, which was in contrast to the situation without the competition effect and the market share. The paper suggested that the manager can cooperate with their partner if two products are substitutable. On the other hand, the firm should improve the forecasting accuracy of the customer’s demand and improve the service quality so that it can increase the market share and reduce the CFBE in two-parallel SC systems.

Analyzing the Value and Evolution of Land Use Functions from “Demand–Function–Value” Perspective: A Framework and Case Study from Zhangjiakou City, China

Understanding land use functions (LUFs) value is critical for implementing sustainable land resources management and optimizing territorial space in China. However, existing research insufficiently portrays the contributions of land use to economic activity and people’s well-being. To address this crucial absence, this paper attempts to clarify the connotation of LUFs’ value and the logic of LUFs’ optimization under the national territorial space planning system by applying the “demand–function–value” integrated framework. Based on this framework and taking Zhangjiakou City as a case study, we classified LUFs into economic, social, and ecological functions. Then, we assessed the monetary value of LUFs at the grid level using spatialization and environmental economics methods. Besides, we analyzed the evolutionary characteristics of LUFs and their diversity and dominance. The results showed that the total value of economic, social, and ecological LUFs increased continuously between 1990 and 2015. Spatially, the ecological function showed an opposite pattern to that of social and economic functions. Additionally, the dominant role shifted from ecological function to social function, and the dominant functional combination changed from ELP-ENS-ST to SP-ENS-ELT over this period. Lastly, this paper proposes that policymakers identify and optimize ecological–production–living space through LUFs’ value assessment and coordination. The results provide a new methodological insight into the assessment and coordination of LUFs and adaptive land use management.

The Market Structure Simulation of Heterogenous Firms

The paper aims at the need for economic policy evaluators to assess how and whether specific measures can influence the development of markets in a way that achieves greater wealth. Therefore, this study concentrates on well-documented firms’ heterogeneity that significantly impact their ability to compete, influence the market structure, and decide to participate in trade. For the initial attributes and features of the simulated model, we chose Ottaviano demand function. However, we took a different approach regarding demand and its elasticities in the market by employing distributional functions to model the market demand and the demand for each firm’s product. Allowing for the evolution of the market structure, the model reveals the importance of endowment factors and suggests the crucial role of firms’ abilities to compete. What is more important—it affects the time needed for the market structure formation. Although the model does not track all the aspects of a firm’s heterogeneity, it might guide economic policy makers to not only support the business in increasing its capabilities but keep it struggling over the competition to impede the collecting of Ricardian rents.

Import Demand Function in India Under the Liberalised Trade Regime

The trade liberalisation policy was initiated in India in the 1980s but executed effectively since the early 1990s. Since then India’s foreign trade embarks on a new road with a rapid expansion of export and import. Over the period, import exceed export. Identifying factors influencing such a significant elevation of import is a relevant issue of research. This study appraises import demand function in India for the liberalised trade regime particularly, for an extended period 1980–2018, and for the post-reform period, 1992–2018. The study identifies domestic income in aggregated and disaggregated level with exchange rate, trade openness and population growth as significant determinants of import demand. The income has a positive impact on import demand, where income elasticity of import demand differs significantly across the aggregate income and its components—consumption, investment and export expenditure. The exchange rate has a negative impact, implies a depreciation of Indian currency decrease import demand. The trade openness causes a rise in import demand both in the long run and in the short run. Population growth also raises import demand. The econometric diagnostics corroborate the fact that the estimated import demand functions are stable and robust. JEL Codes: F10, F14, C22

Investment Decisions of the Blockchain-Based Anti-Counterfeiting Traceability Service in A High-Quality Fresh Supply Chain

Applications of the blockchain-based anti-counterfeiting traceability system (hereafter, blockchain-based ACTS) present a positive result in helping improve the repeat purchase rate and the product circulation rate. However, using the blockchain-based ACTS needs chain members’ additional expenditure. They want to know investment conditions about the blockchain-based ACTS and how to coordinate the supply chain. To solve these problems, we chosen a supply chain with one fresh producer and one retailer as the study object. Afterwards, considering the changes of the repeat purchase rate and the product circulation rate, we revised the demand function. Then, we constructed the profit functions before and after adopting the blockchain-based ACTS, and then a price discount and revenue-sharing contract was put forward to coordinate the supply chain. Findings: with the growth of the repurchase rate, benefits of chain members in the proposed three situations will increase. Thus, we can know that after using the blockchain-based ACTS.

The Unmet Medical Demand among China’s Urban Residents

Our work aimed to build a reasonable proxy for unmet medical demands of China’s urban residents. We combined health demand modeling and stochastic frontier analysis to produce a frontier medical demand function, which allowed us to disentangle unmet medical demands from the unobservable effects. We estimated unmet medical demands by using China’s provincial dataset that covered 2005–2018. Our estimates showed that unmet medical demand at the national level was 12.6% in 2018, and regions with high medical prices confronted more unmet medical demands than regions with moderate or low medical prices during 2005–2018. Furthermore, medical prices and education were the main factors that affected unmet medical demand; therefore, policy making should pay more attention to reducing medical costs and promoting health education.

Estimation of Tourism Demand and Supply Functions for Azerbaijan: 2SLS Approach

In this paper, there was investigated tourism demand and supply functions in the case of Azerbaijan. The authors have applied the 2SLS method to identify these functions. The authors came to the conclusion that the demand function of tourist trips to Azerbaijan varies depending on the level of income of tourists’ origin countries and the price level in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic impacts not only the restriction policy of origin countries, as well as income in these countries. By decreasing the income levels of the population in these countries will be decreased the number of tourists to Azerbaijan.

A Subsidy Strategy to Boost the Activity of Small Milk Producers in Morocco

The dairy sector in Morocco is a sector that struggles to develop by facing several difficulties. Therefore, a significant gap has emerged between the main national producers and small farmers, while in the economy, the development of small economic actors presents an important lever of growth. If we assume that the consumer’s milk demand function is linear, that it depends only on the consumer’s price, and that production costs follow a decreasing return, and finally, by considering only two actors representing the different types of producers, we will show in this paper that a competitive production subsidy of 0.5 MAD can triple the market share of small farmers while being in a situation of Nash-Cournot’s equilibrium. In addition, the addition of a subsidy to production costs will reduce the price of milk and, thus, increase the annual milk consumption of Moroccans from 59 liters, which is below the world average consumption, to 94 liters annually, thus benefiting the consumer in addition to small farmers.

Robust sustainable multi-period hub location considering uncertain time-dependent demand

This paper presents a mathematical programming model for designing a sustainable continuous-time multi-period hub network considering time-dependent demand. The present model can be used in situations where the distribution of parameters related to the demand function is unknown, and we only can determine the range of changes of these parameters. To model these conditions, we consider interval uncertainty for the demand function parameters. The proposed model is a nonlinear multi-objective model. The objectives of the model cover economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability. These objectives include minimizing total costs, minimizing emissions, and maximizing fixed and variable job opportunities. We linearize the model by using some linearization techniques, and then, with the help of Bertsimas and Sim’s method, we construct a robust counterpart of the model. We also present some valid inequalities to strengthen the formulation. To solve the proposed model, we use Torabi and Hassini method. From solving the proposed model, network design decisions and the best time to implement decisions during the planning horizon are determined. To validate the model, we solve a sample problem based on the Turkish dataset and compare the designed network in two cases: in the first case, the demand function parameters take nominal values, and in the second case, the value of these parameters can change up to 20% of their nominal values. The results show that in the second case, the total capacity selected for hubs and hub links is greater than the first case. To investigate changes in objective functions to parameters level of conservatism and probability of constraints violation, we perform sensitivity analysis on these parameters in both single-objective and multi-objective optimization cases and report the results.