Resilience strategies for sustainable supply chains under budget constraints in the post COVID-19 era

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused uncertainty risk surges,increased sustainable supply chain vulnerabilities,and challenges to sustainable supply chain resilience(SSCR)management.Therefore,improving SSCR is necessary to alleviate vulnerabilities,and SSCR management must generate large capital investments.However,the economic downturn brought about by the COVID-19 epidemic has made some companies have limited budgets that can be used to improve SSCR.Therefore,the design of resilience solutions needs to fully consider the constraints of budgetary costs.Most of the existing related literature only discusses optimal resilience solutions under certain cost constraints,so such resilience solutions cannot be applied to most enterprises.In this study,we set the cost constraint as a variable quantity,using resilience efficiency and customer satisfaction as indicators,to determine the changing laws of optimal resilience strategies when cost constraints change.These rules can be applied to enterprises with different budgeted costs.Our findings suggest that companies should prioritize sacrificing resilience measures(RMs)related to adaptive capacity when budget costs gradually decline,and RMs related to absorptive capacity are indispensable at all budget levels.Furthermore,the pursuit of environmental and social sustainability cannot be abandoned,no matter how limited the flexible budget may be.

BUDGET CONSTRAINTS IN HOMOGENOUS MULTI-UNIT AUCTIONS

A homogenous multi-unit auction model is studied in two conditions： One is that the bidders face budget constraints and another is that the bidders do not face budget constraints. Two equilibrium bidding strategies of each bidder are presented in these two conditions. By comparing them, the authors show that the equilibrium unit price bid in the presence of budget constraints will be less than that in the absence of budget constraints. The difference between the two equilibrium bids leads to the reduced revenue of the seller. And this difference will decrease as the number of the bidders increases.

Combination advertising with budget constraint

An appropriate advertising mode selection and allocation of advertising budgets considering advertising budget constraints are developed with the game theory and optimization model.The results show that the advertising budget and the weakening factor of the online advertising effects on the traditional advertising affect sellers advertising,pricing strategies and budget allocation.The effectiveness of combination advertising is a Pareto optimum relative to the traditional advertising in a certain range.The weakening effect of the online advertising on the traditional advertising has a nonlinear effect on the advertising strategy and pricing strategy.In addition,sellers choose combination advertising with different budget constraints,and there is an optimal budget allocation ratio.In certain cases,sellers can obtain an optimal advertising expenditure less than the budget constrain.When sellers adopt combination advertising with enough budget,they do not invest in traditional advertising without limit.Moreover,compared with enough budget,when sellers adopt combination advertising with budget constrain,sellers do not decrease the advertising allocation of online advertising since online advertising is more efficient.

Reflections on the Microeconomic Basis for Soft Budget Constraint in the Market Economy

Historical analysis of the market economy indicates that soft budget constraint is becoming increasingly pervasive and broad-rooted. Using an analysis of micro-level entities in the market economy, this paper describes how soft constraint derives from interdependence among corporations, banks, and the government. Soft constraint is explained in relation to changes in concentrated shareholding ownership, the increasing dominance of the financial sector, and financial insurance. We conclude： 1） concentrated shareholding ownership and institutionalized soft budget constraint create sub-optimal allocation of resources in the market economy; 2） neoclassical microeconomic principles cannot explain the economic actions of organizations in the market economy and should be revised; 3） externalities associated with soft budget constraint have spread across the globe to become both the cause and primary effect of cyclic global financial and economic crises. Hence, the government, banks, and the corporate sector must work together to overhaul supervisory mechanisms. On a global level, governments must collaborate to build a new international economic order. Correcting imbalances in international reserve currencies and fortifying administration of cross-national economic organizations will mitigate the effects of soft budget constraint.

Local Government Debt Management Solutions

Two rounds of leveraging-up have led to a high debt ratio in the Chinese economy, triggered liquidity mismatch and increased systemic financial risks. The key causes of local government liabilities are soft budget constraints and non-market-based factor allocation. Currently, the risks of local government liabilities are generally controllable. This paper concludes that the long-term solution to managing local government liabilities is to enhance budget constraint and institutional assurance and proposes countermeasures in the reform of urban construction investment and ftnancing mechanisms.

The state capital investing and operating company pilot reform and SOE bailouts

This paper explores the influence of the State Capital Investing and Operating Company(SCIOC)pilot reform on SOE bailout using a staggered differencein-differences model.Based on a sample of listed SOEs during 2011-2018,we find that when the real controllers of listed SOEs enter the list of SCIOCs,soft budget constraints are alleviated and listed subsidiaries are less likely to become distressed.Mechanism tests indicate that SCIOCs help distressed firms through exiting the market,reducing bank loans,enhancing corporate governance,and improving operating efficiency.Heterogeneity tests show that the effect of SCIOC establishment is more significant in central and western regions,in public welfare and special function industries,for central SCIOCs,for state capital investing companies,when firms are organized in more layers,and for firms that engage in M&As.The empirical results show that the implementation of SCIOCs benefits both micro-enterprise development and state capital layout optimization.

A review of the methods for determining cost-effectiveness threshold in health care

Cost-effectiveness analysis（CEA） is increasingly important in health care decision making.Cost-effectiveness threshold is a critical parameter in the cost-effectiveness analysis.This review introduces the concept of cost-effectiveness threshold, summarizes its determining methods,and classifies the existing methods into two kinds according to budget constraints,then analyzes the merit and demerit of every methods.When there is a flexible budget,the methods for determining the cost-effectiveness threshold include inferring the threshold from previous decisions,comparison with other health care technology or transfer from elsewhere in the public sector,social willingness-to-pay approach,GDP per capita criteria,and rule of thumb.When there is a fixed budget,the methods for determining the cost-effectiveness threshold include shadow price approach,opportunity cost approach,and ICER threshold-searcher model.Each approach to determining threshold has its strength and weakness.The aim of this article is to introduce the existing methods and discuss the features of each method.The background information,such as the definition of threshold,is also described.The basic theory of cost-effectiveness threshold is elaborated,and we recommend the establishment of a cost-effectiveness threshold in the Chinese health care.

WTO,credible commitments,and China’s reform of state-owned enterprises

This study focusses on the relationship between China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation(WTO)and its reform of stateowned enterprises(SOEs)and suggests that the major incentive for the Chinese government to join the WTO is to promote economic reforms through overcoming domestic obstacles.After other options such as decentralisation,legalisation,and privatisation failed to enhance viability of SOEs,the Chinese government began to rely on international institutions to enhance its credibility and harden the budget constraints on SOEs.The WTO is one of the most important international organisations and has binding force for its member states.China’s participation in the WTO will effectively harden budget constraints on its SOEs and improve the efficiency of these enterprises through introducing competition into the domestic market.Historical data support our argument and indicate that China has effectively enhanced the credibility of government commitments and promoted the reform of its SOEs since its accession to the WTO.

Urban wage inequality:The reform of state-owned enterprises in China’s great transition

Along with the further reforms of state-owned enterprises(SOEs),urban China has experienced an evident increase in wage inequality.Using provincial-level data for the period 1993–2013 and individual-level data from five waves of the China Household Income Project from 1988 to 2013,this paper investigates how the SOE reform affects wage distribution in urban China by considering three mechanisms:wage determination,ownership structure and institutional segmentation.The results of this study show that overall inequality increased with the reduction of SOEs’share in the economy.Moreover,through a detailed Oaxaca–Blinder re-centred influence function decomposition,this experiment obtains consistent and robust results.Based on the theory of soft budget constraint,this study demonstrates that the increase in urban wage inequality has been mainly caused by wage structure effects.Since the SOE reform in the 1980s,the wage determination mechanism has changed with the increase in the return of the labour force to education.During this period,institutional segmentation was of less significance in explaining the wage gap between SOEs and non-SOEs.Furthermore,the accelerating ageing process of China’s population had no significant effects on the trajectory of urban wage inequality throughout this period.