The results presented in this book originate from the last decade research work of the author in the ?eld of duality theory in convex optimization. The reputation of duality in the optimization theory comes mainly from the major role that it plays in formulating necessary and suf?cient optimality conditions and, consequently, in generatingdifferent algorithmic approachesfor solving mathematical programming problems. The investigations made in this work prove the importance of the duality theory beyond these aspects and emphasize its strong connections with different topics in convex analysis,...

This volumecomprisesthe proceedingsof the 8th InternationalConferenceon M- tiple Objective and Goal Programming: Theories and Applications (MOPGP08). ThisconferencewasheldinPortsmouth, UnitedKingdomonthe24th 26thSept- ber 2008. The conference was attended by 59 delegates. The countries represented were Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Kuwait, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States. The MOPGP conference series is now a well-established discussion forum for practitioners and academics working in the eld of multiple objective and goal...

The introductory chapter consists of four sections. In Sect. 1. 1 we reveal the c- rent situation in hospitals that is faced by the management. We address the general issue of personnel scheduling in the service industry in Sect. 1. 2. Then we motivate our research by considering physicians as the scheduling object. In particular, we show the complex nature of physician scheduling in a hospital environment. The focus of the research is presented in Sect. 1. 3. Finally, we conclude the chapter by illustrating the outline of the thesis. 1. 1 General Economic Situation in Hospitals The mounting...

1. 1 Wage Setting vs. Wage Taking Inhisground-breakingmonographMonopsonyin Motion: Imperfect Competitionin Labor Markets, Manning (2003a, p. 3) starts his argument in favour of a monop- nistic approach to labour market phenomena with a compelling case against perfect competition: What happens if an employer cuts the wage it pays its workers by one cent? Much of labor economics is built on the assumption that all existing workers immediately leave the rm as that is the implication of the assumption of perfect competition in the labor market. Taking the model literally, this would indeed be its...

In the course of the last fifty years, mathematica1 too1s became a staple in the deve10pment of economic theory. Economists continue to invoke sophisticated and diverse mathematica1 ideas to understand and exp1ain comp1ex situations. This interdiscip1inary process brings the fie1ds of mathematics and economics c10ser together. By now it is ap- parent that in order to advance our understanding of the socia1 sciences, there must be cooperation between mathematiciansand socia1 scientists. We be1ieve that this volume will contribute toward cooperation of this nature. On February 10-12, 1984, a...

The following monograph deals with the approximate stochastic behavior of a system consisting of a sequence of servers in series with finite storage between consecutive servers. The methods employ deterministic queueing and diffusion approximations which are valid under conditions in which the storages and the queue lengths are typically large compared with 1. One can disregard the fact that the customer counts must be integer valued and treat the queue as if it were a (stochastic) continuous fluid. In these approximations, it is not necessary to describe the detailed probability distribution...

The book reports on recent experimental research on expectations and decision making in bargaining, markets, auctions, or coalition formation situations. The investi- gated topics deliver building stones for a bounded rational theory as an approach to explain behavior and interpersonal interactions in economic and social relationships.

Controlling the production in an industrial organisation is very complex. There are two different reasons for this complexity. On the one hand, complexity is due to the variety in range and in level of detail of the activities that playa role in such a control (think of manufacturing process development, capacity planning, coordinating the flow of material through the production process, releasing of workorders, and scheduling). On the other hand, the production process itself may be complex (many products, many stages, complex interrelationships between resources, and uncertainty in the...

This volume studies the development of Marxian value theory in a modernised context. The controversy about Marx's value theory is now in its third stage. The first stage was marked by Bohm-Bawerk, and the second by Samuelson soon after the World War II. In this second stage, the basic results in Marx's economics were examined and formulated by Okishio and Morishima-Seton in the Leontief economy case. The third stage was opened by Morishima, who developed the Marxian theory of value on the ba~is of von Neumann's theory. In Chapters I through IV, a concise but comprehensive overview of the...

1.1 Some characteristics of the floating exchange rate system The flexible exchange rate system has functioned far less satisfactorily than many anticipated in 1973, when the major industrialized countries decided to let their currencies float. The dominant currencies' exchange rates have fluctuated more 1 than expected. These fluctuations concern both short-term movement- intraday fluctuations and movements during a week or a month - and long term changes that last for more than a year. Daily percentage changes of one percent are not unusual for the recent float (see MacDonald, 1988, p.8)....