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Covariate adjustment can increase the precision of estimates by removing unexplained variance from the error in randomized experiments, although chance covariate imbalance tends to counteract the improvement in precision. The author develops an easy measure to examine chance covariate imbalance in randomization by standardizing the average covariate difference between the treatment and control condition. The standardized covariate difference must not exceed an upper bound in order to gain precision in covariate adjusted analysis. The author then shows how to select an adequate sample size to mitigate chance covariate imbalance and improve precision in small pilot studies.

The small and medium sized enterprises which are predominantly economic superior in the European small countries mainly produce, process, import and export advanced technical products with high added value and scientific content. They facilitate the development of the economy through technical creation, which is also benefited from the highly efficient economy system established cooperatively by government, bank, and non-government organizations. The experience in Europe provides instructive reference for the development of middle and small sized enterprises in China. Key words: small and medium sized enterprises; economy with high efficiency; reference Résumé: Le nombre des PME occupe une place prépondérante dans l'économie européenne. La plupart d'entre elles se spécialisent dans la production, dans la transformation et dans l'importation et l'exportation des produits de haute valeur ajoutée, ou de haute technologie. Elles s'appuient sur l'innovation technologique afin de promouvoir le développement économique. Une économie efficace fondée sur la base d'une coopération étroite entre le gouvernement, les banques, les organisations non gouvernementales a jouéégalement un rôle très important. Le succès de l'expérience européenne est une référence utile pour le développement des PME en Chine. Mots-clés: PME; économie efficace; références 摘 要:歐洲小國經濟中數量占絕對優勢的中小企業以生產、加工和進出口附加值高、科技含量大的高新技術產 品為主,並依靠技術創新推動經濟發展,政府、銀行、非政府機構密切合作建立起的高效率經濟也起了極大的促 進作用。歐洲的成功經驗給中國中小企業發展提供了有益借鑒。 關鍵詞: 中小企業;高效率經濟;借鑒

ABSTRACTThis article studies the role and value of information disclosure in a reward‐based crowdfunding campaign for a new product development (NPD) project under quality uncertainty. The creator sets a funding target that is subject to a minimum capital requirement and prices for a leading backer and a following backer arriving in two sequential periods. The backers form a prior belief about the quality of the product and update their valuation according to their private signals before they decide whether to bid for the products. The leading backer's bid, if disclosed, may be used by the subsequent backer to infer the former's private signal. We identify two interacting effects that drive the bidding decisions and the profitability of the campaign: an observational learning effect driven by information disclosure and a targeting effect. When the target is relatively high, information disclosure can always benefit the creator. When the target is relatively low, information disclosure may hurt the creator. The optimal target level is always equal to the minimum capital requirement. We further extend the analysis to a setting with a forward‐looking leading backer who may strategically wait and identify the conditions under which information disclosure can also increase the profitability of the campaign. Interestingly, to counteract the strategic delay, the optimal target can be set higher than the minimum capital requirement in the presence of information disclosure.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study how supermarkets can maximize profits of selling perishable food through price adjustment based on real‐time product quality and values.Design/methodology/approachThe value of the perishable food can be traced based on an automatic product identification technology radio frequency identification (RFID). With the support of the RFID, an optimization model can be developed to enable product tracking.FindingsThe analysis of the model shows promising benefits of applying a dynamic pricing policy and obtains the optimal ordering decision in respects of deterministic and stochastic demand function with RFID.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough technological approaches for tracking products have attracted increasing attentions in both research and practice, little research have proved the profit using RFID by mathematics, the result of this paper can prove the benefit by using RFID.Practical implicationThe result of this paper can tell the supermarket how to make the price and the ordering decision by using the RFID.Originality/valueThis study proves the benefit of using the RFID by mathematical model based on the conceptual model before, and tell the method how to use RFID for pricing and making ordering decision.

This paper examines China's water governmentality in advancing the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). It attends to how discourses, used as a political instrument, are framed, justified and contested in the reshaping of international hydrosocial territories. China's official and popular discourses present the LMC as promoting multilateral politics, economic benefits and social integration, while they obscure polarizing politics, external interventions and regional conflicts. Using strategies of positive publicity first, top-down communication and mutual empathy creation, these discourses aim to deflect attention away from controversies and geopolitics in the region to construct governable hydrosocial territories. However, in a transnational context where the Chinese state cannot unilaterally control geographical imaginaries, alternative discourses depict China as a "hydro-hegemon" that poses threats to downstream countries. The discursive dichotomy reflects multiple ontologies of water and power struggles in international river governance, bringing regional stability and sustainable development into question. (China Q/GIGA)

This study examines how preauthorization affects outpatient behavioral health utilization under managed care by comparing plans with similar benefits, but differing in the number of visits authorized. The authors compare plans primarily authorizing in increments of 5 visits to plans authorizing in increments of 10 visits. They analyze the likelihood of terminating outpatient service between the two groups using conditional logistic regression. Results suggest that patients whose treatment is authorized in increments of 5 sessions are nearly 3 times more likely to terminate treatment at exactly the fifth visit than if their treatment is authorized in increments of 10 sessions conditional on being in treatment until the 5th visit. The likelihood of termination peaks in both the 5- and 10-session authorization at the 10th visit, but the difference is not statistically significant. The authorization effect differs by provider type and is weaker among psychiatrists than among nonphysician providers.