Indian Statistical Institute

About: Indian Statistical Institute is a education organization based out in Kolkata, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cluster analysis. The organization has 3475 authors who have published 14247 publications receiving 243080 citations. The organization is also known as: ISI & ISI Calcutta.

Market Entry Costs, Producer Heterogeneity, and Export Dynamics

Abstract: As the exchange rate, foreign demand, and production costs evolve, domestic producers are continually faced with two choices: whether to be an exporter and, if so, how much to export. We develop a dynamic structural model of export supply that characterizes these two decisions. The model embodies plant-level heterogeneity in export profits, uncertainty about the determinants of future profits, and market entry costs for new exporters. Using a Bayesian Monte Carlo Markov chain estimator, we fit this model to plant-level panel data on three Colombian manufacturing industries. We obtain profit function and sunk entry cost coefficients, and use them to simulate export responses to shifts in the exchange-rate process and several types of export subsidies. In each case, the aggregate export response depends on entry costs, expectations about the exchange rate process, prior exporting experience, and producer heterogeneity. Export revenue subsidies are far more effective at stimulating exports than policies that subsidize entry costs.

Toward a theoretical model of voluntary overcompliance

Abstract: We explain why some firms voluntarily overcomply with environmental regulation. In our model all consumers value environmental quality but differ in their willingness to pay which depends on their income levels. Publicly available information on environmental performance of firms enables consumers to identify clean firms. Firms participate in a two-stage duopoly game where they first choose their levels of cleaning technology and next engage in price competition. The market gets segmented by income levels. A minimum standard binding on the dirty firm has the effect of improving the performance of the cleaner firm. A subsidy obtains the same competitive outcome.

Nonnegative Matrices and Applications

Abstract: This book provides an integrated treatment of the theory of nonnegative matrices (matrices with only positive numbers or zero as entries) and some related classes of positive matrices, concentrating on connections with game theory, combinatorics, inequalities, optimisation and mathematical economics. The wide variety of applications, which include price fixing, scheduling and the fair division problem, have been carefully chosen both for their elegant mathematical content and for their accessibility to students with minimal preparation. Many results in matrix theory are also presented. The treatment is rigorous and almost all results are proved completely. These results and applications will be of great interest to researchers in linear programming, statistics and operations research. The minimal prerequisites also make the book accessible to first-year graduate students.

A robust self-tuning scheme for PI- and PD-type fuzzy controllers

Abstract: Proposes a simple but robust model independent self-tuning scheme for fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs). Here, the output scaling factor (SF) is adjusted online by fuzzy rules according to the current trend of the controlled process. The rule-base for tuning the output SF is defined on error (e) and change of error (/spl Delta/e) of the controlled variable using the most natural and unbiased membership functions (MFs). The proposed self-tuning technique is applied to both PI- and PD-type FLCs to conduct simulation analysis for a wide range of different linear and nonlinear second-order processes including a marginally stable system where even the well known Ziegler-Nichols tuned conventional PI or PID controllers fail to provide an acceptable performance due to excessively large overshoot. Performances of the proposed self-tuning FLCs are compared with those of their corresponding conventional FLCs in terms of several performance measures such as peak overshoot, settling time, rise time, integral absolute error and integral-of-time-multiplied absolute error, in addition to the responses due to step set-point change and load disturbance and, in each case, the proposed scheme shows a remarkably improved performance over its conventional counterpart.

Mapping human genetic diversity in Asia

Abstract: Asia harbors substantial cultural and linguistic diversity, but the geographic structure of genetic variation across the continent remains enigmatic. Here we report a large-scale survey of autosomal variation from a broad geographic sample of Asian human populations. Our results show that genetic ancestry is strongly correlated with linguistic affiliations as well as geography. Most populations show relatedness within ethnic/linguistic groups, despite prevalent gene flow among populations. More than 90% of East Asian (EA) haplotypes could be found in either Southeast Asian (SEA) or Central-South Asian (CSA) populations and show clinal structure with haplotype diversity decreasing from south to north. Furthermore, 50% of EA haplotypes were found in SEA only and 5% were found in CSA only, indicating that SEA was a major geographic source of EA populations.