Forecasting prices in online auctions is important for both buyers and sellers. With good forecasts, bidders can make informed bidding decisions and sellers can select the right time and place to list their products. While information from other auctions can help forecast an ongoing auction, it...

Semi-continuous data arise in many applications where naturally-continuous data become contaminated by the data generating mechanism. The resulting data contain several values that are "too frequent", and in that sense are a hybrid between discrete and continuous data. The main problem is that...

This paper presents a novel intelligent bidding system, called SOABER (Simultaneous Online Auction BiddER), which monitors simultaneous online auctions of high-value fine art items. It supports decision-making by maximizing bidders' surpluses and their chances of winning an auction. One key...

Purpose – This paper therefore aims at systematically estimating the agricultural trade induced farm employment effects in China. Design/methodology/approach – Using detailed agricultural trade and production data during 1994‐2009, the authors estimate the “labor contents” of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether China is still a passive price taker from the US soybean futures, or instead domestic futures market has developed certain degrees of pricing power through time. The finding helps to identify the importance of China soybean futures in...

In the pharmaceutical industry, sales representatives visit doctors to inform them of their products and encourage them to become an active prescriber. On a daily basis, pharmaceutical sales representatives must decide which doctors to visit and the order to visit them. This situation motivates...