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The Civil Aviation Authority has decided to adopt JAR‐25, in place of section D, as the British Civil Airworthiness Requirements for Large Aeroplanes from 1 July, 1979, following consultations with UK aviation interests and the Airworthiness Requirements Board.

This study examined the macroeconomic effects of COVID-19-induced economic policy uncertainty (EPU) in Nigeria. The study considered the effects of three related shocks: EPU, COVID-19 and correlated economic policy uncertainty and COVID-19 shock.

First, the study presented VAR evidence that fiscal and monetary policy uncertainty depresses real output. Thereafter, a nonlinear DSGE model with second-moment fiscal and monetary policy shocks was solved using the third-order Taylor approximation method.

The authors found that EPU shock is negligible and expansionary. By contrast, COVID-19 shocks have strong contractionary effects on the economy. The combined shocks capturing the COVID-19-induced EPU shock were ultimately recessionary after an initial expansionary effect. The implication is that the COVID-19 pandemic-induced EPU adversely impacted macroeconomic outcomes in Nigeria in a non-trivial manner.

The result shows the importance of policies to cushion the effect of uncertain fiscal and monetary policy path in the aftermath of COVID-19.

The originality of the paper lies in examining the impact of COVID-19 induced EPU in the context of a developing economy using the DSGE methodology.

This paper investigates the impact of credit risk shocks on the evolution of banking efficiency in China.

This paper introduces credit risk as a bad output into a bootstrap data envelopment analysis (bootstrap-DEA) model.

During a credit risk shock, the efficiency levels of both state-owned commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks are significantly higher than those of urban/rural commercial banks, and the efficiency differences between these banks further increase during a period of economic slowdown. This paper also finds that the efficiencies of joint-stock commercial banks are the most sensitive to credit risk shocks; these banks are the first to be affected and the first to completely adjust. However, urban/rural commercial banks adjust very slowly.

Most scholars still use the traditional DEA method to estimate China's banking efficiency. The bootstrap-DEA method is clearly able to obtain a more exact estimated efficiency score. In fact, in comparison with the bootstrap-DEA model, we found that the traditional DEA method overestimates China's banking efficiency, and this is an especially serious problem for those banks that have a high efficiency score.

A methodology of structuring a garment production simulation model using a spreadsheet is described to minimize the average daily production cost through the investigation of various man‐machine combinations. The capability and usability of an easily available modern spreadsheet Excel 7.0 to simulate a simple garment production system is accessed with an attempt to demonstrate the simulation model building in a user friendly environment rather than learning and using costly simulation programming languages or simulation software packages. Simulation has evaluated the resource utilization and measured the system performance and developed strategies for taking operational decisions in a logical and better way to minimize the garment production cost. It may also assist and benefit the garment production managers to plan, design and operate their systems in an efficient manner in a competitive environment.

To recognize and investigate the hypotheses that opportunistic behaviour of project participants in infrastructure public–private partnerships (PPPs) changes over the project’s life cycle. Case study methodology is adopted. The first Indian highway PPP project, awarded with negative grant, is used as the case context. Opportunistic behaviour is a continuous game played by the project stakeholders. Its manifestation depends on the vulnerability of the other party at that point in time in the project life cycle and the past display of opportunism. Because the study is limited to a highway project in an emerging economy, the findings may lack generalizability for which further research is recommended. PPP is increasingly popular. Stakeholders recognize that the existing ex-ante contractual arrangements that seek to mitigate opportunism are not enough for project success. This study addresses this difficulty by providing a closer understanding of how opportunistic behaviours evolve over projects’ life cycle and what steps are necessary to negotiate. Failure to address the antecedents of opportunistic behaviour in time leads to a competition to be more opportunistic, in which the common public gets short changed. This study is an attempt to advance understanding of stakeholders’ behaviour outside the ambit of contract. The extant literature is largely silent on the timing and vulnerability of opportunistic behaviour, viewing it as a static concept. The study demonstrates the changing nature of opportunism that manifests in different forms over the projects life cycle.

Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.

Adversarial contracting methods are used for most public infrastructure procurement and timely delivery on budget remains a problem. In the past 20 years, OECD countries have adopted a number of alternative procurement methods that are based on collaborative principles including public private partnerships, long-term outsourcing arrangements and relationship/alliance contracts. We review the theoretical principles that operate for both adversarial and collaborative contracting methods. We identify the characteristics of non-adversarial contracting methods such as the output specification, qualitative selection criteria, the alignment of incentives, discrete allocation of residual control rights, life cycle costing, and risk-weighted value for money measurement that are delivering better procurement outcomes for government.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the benefits of integrating IT tracking and routing systems into last-mile distribution operations. The paper also demonstrates the role of field experiments as a valid approach for improving the rigour of logistics research.

The study employs a field experiment approach. Data were collected before and after the experimental treatment from 16 participating vehicles, which were used as inputs and outputs to calculate vehicles' efficiencies using data envelopment analysis.

Through employing manipulation and random assignment to investigate causality in naturally occurring contexts, the study results show statistical evidence for the role of vehicle tracking and routing systems in enhancing fleet efficiency. Furthermore, results show that field experiment is an appropriate method for capital budgeting of deploying IT systems in the distribution function.

Distribution managers can use a field experiment setup to assess the potential impact of installing IT solutions prior to large-scale implementation or prior to purchasing.

The study fills a gap in the literature through the application of a field experiment approach to establish causality relationships in distribution and logistics research. This study should encourage new research on the role of field experimentation in evaluating the benefits gained from, and the capital budgeting of, the modern disruptive technologies in supply chains.