With the rapid growth in various types of corporate combinations, many opportunities arise in which increased internal efficiency in the allocation of capital budgeting resources may be obtained. Although the resource-transfer methodology proposed in this paper is discussed within the context of a merger/acquisition environment, the operational analysis conveivably could be applied to multiproduct, multifirm, or multinational situations. This study examines an application in which a linear programming model can be used operationally as an analytical planning device (1) to obtain efficient capital budgets for the merged companies, and (2) to quantify the monetary value of potential gains in efficiency produced by a merger. Conceptually, the model assists management in searching for excess capacity in each company, efficiently combines scarce resources, selects an optimal project list for the merged company, and indicates what the composition of the new capital budget should be. In addition, a variable step function provides for multiplicative adjustments in common resource constraints. These adjustments might be positive (negative) if the combination results in a more than proportionate increase (decrease) in the availability of a scarce resource.

Markowitz's [2] portfolio selection model was originally concerned with financial investments, but the model's implications for capital budgeting are now well recognized. Markowitz's basic idea is that the optimal portfolio for an investor is not simply any collection of good securities, but a balanced whole, providing the investor with the best combination of “return” and “risk.” Return and risk are to be measured by the expected value and variance of the probability distribution of portfolio return. Although financial writers have generally accepted Markowitz's measure of return, they have not been completely satisfied with his suggested measure of risk [1]. In fact, Markowitz himself had reservations about choosing variance as a measure of risk.1 Besides variance, he considered five other alternative measures of risk:

(1) The expected value of loss;

(2) The probability of loss;

(3) The expected absolute deviation;

(4) The maximum expected loss; and

(5) The semivariance.

Professor Yen-p'ing Hao analyzes the economic, social, political, and intellectual roles of a Chinese mercantile class which served as a link between China and the West.

A question that bedevils the academic economist, the trustbuster, and the community at large is whether conglomerate merger activity is a force for good or evil. In common with horizontal and vertical merger activity, the critical consideration is whether conglomerate mergers produce better uses of resources, increases in monopoly power, or some mixture of these two results. Economists have been examining these mergers in an effort to determine whether efficiency in the use of resources is, in fact, promoted. However, when investigating this question, the subject of inquiry is usually confined to the optimizing decision of the firm. It has been argued that conglomerate activity involves the best use of resources from the standpoint of the firm.

This paper examines the operating efficiency of three types of financial intermediaries in the United States: (1) credit unions, (2) savings and loan associations, and (3) mutual savings banks during the past three decades. In particular, it examines by how much, if any, the operating efficiency of these intermediaries has been enhanced.

Pressures for expansion of production brought by World War I caused labor problems which led many American manufacturers to begin organized personnel work. Morris E. Leeds, despite setbacks caused by the 1920–1921 recession, succeeded in creating one of the most comprehensive employee programs in the United States.