The Growth and Decline of the Modern Sector and the Merchant Class in Imperial China

This paper offers an explanation of why, in Imperial China, the merchant class expanded and the economy modernized up to the 13th century, and why it entered into decline from the 14th century onward. The modernization of China required the accumulation of public capital and the building of good institutions, upon which a vibrant class of merchants and entrepreneurs could gradually emerge. This class contributed to the enrichment of the society and the emperor, but its activities also weakened the dominance of the emperor and the élite, who would then prefer to block the modernization of China and to restrict the size of the merchant class, putting the economy into long‐run stagnation. However, when the emperor faced severe foreign military threats and when he realized that a modern sector improved the defense capabilities of China, he made the opposite choice.     

Dynamic usage of narrowband spectrum

We examine the potential for expansion of the white space spectrum sharing model in the 400 MHz band. As opposed to UHF broadcast spectrum, which contains unassigned or idle segments known as white spaces, the 400 MHz band is characterised by intensive licence usage. However, productive spectrum usage does not guarantee allocative efficiency, which would require knowledge of the highest value service for each licence. 400 MHz frequencies are not priced on opportunity cost. It is therefore difficult to ascertain the economically efficient mix of services to deploy in the 400 MHz band. Drawing parallels with the high-economic value revealed and generated through the operations of unlicensed white space devices in UHF broadcast spectrum, we identify untapped 400 MHz spectrum capacity, which we refer to as narrowband spaces. Encouraging dynamic spectrum usage of narrowband spaces could, similarly to TV white space usage help realise the efficient allocation of the 400 MHz band. However, the narrowband nature of the 400 MHz licences and high licensing turnover imply a significantly different concept of dynamic spectrum access than that considered for TV Bands. The paper discusses regulatory implications and the type of services suited to exploit narrowband spaces.     

Gender Differences in Psychosocial Determinants of University Students’ Intentions to Buy Fair Trade Products

This study examined gender differences in university students’ intentions to buy fair trade (FT) products through the lens of the moral norm extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Data were obtained from 782 students at the University of Luxemburg. Results of structural equation analysis indicated that the inclusion of moral norms increased the explained variance in behavioural intentions from 62 to 69.4%. Compared to men, women reported more favourable attitude, higher moral obligation, and stronger intentions toward buying FT products. Moderating analyses showed that the attitude–intentions relationship was stronger for men, whereas the perceived behavioural control–intentions relationship was stronger for women. The implications of the moderation analysis are that sustainability professionals seeking to encourage university students’ intentions to buy FT products should develop gender-targeted interventions: for men, more emphasis should be placed on attitude toward buying FT products (i.e., the advantages of adopting this behaviour), and for women, more emphasis should be placed on perceived behavioural control (e.g., factors that facilitate the purchase of FT products).     

Tax structure and entrepreneurship

Using macro-level panel data, we examine the effects of taxation and tax progressivity on entrepreneurship in a large group of European countries. We address two main questions. First, we try to explore whether tax increases discourage entrepreneurial activity, focusing on new self-employment (nascent entrepreneurship). Second, we investigate the impact of tax progressivity on entrepreneurship, again focusing on new self-employment. We find that tax progressivity at higher-than-average incomes has a robust negative effect on nascent entrepreneurship. We discuss the policy implications of our results.     

Infrastructure and Public Utilities Privatization in Developing Countries

Should governments in developing countries promote private ownershipand deregulated prices in noncompetitive sectors? Or shouldthey run publicly owned firms and regulate prices at the expenseof rents to insiders? A theoretical model is used to answerthese normative questions. The analysis focuses on the tradeoffbetween fiscal benefits and consumer surplus during privatizationof noncompetitive sectors. Privatization transfers control rightsto private interests and eliminates public subsidies, yieldingbenefits to taxpayers at the cost of increased prices for consumers.In developing countries, where budget constraints are tight,privatization and price liberalization may be optimal for lowprofitability industries but suboptimal for more profitableindustries. And once a market has room for more than one firm,governments may prefer to regulate the industry. Without a credibleregulatory agency, regulation is achieved through public ownership.     

Reifying Behavior in Decision Support Systems

In order to realize the kind of active, intelligent decision support system advocated by previous authors, we argue that the implementation should be based on reified models of the system behavior, an approach called meta-level reification. In this article, we describe the nature and benefits of meta-level reification for arbitrary computation systems, and relate the benefits to decision support systems. To further illustrate our approach, we present an implementation of a reified architecture based on the MAX architecture (Kuokka, 1990), and show its application to several simple decision support functionalities in an investment domain. Finally, we discuss the advantages, disadvantages and future work of our approach.     

Scenarios and Actors' Strategies:: The Case of the Agri-Foodstuff Sector

The importance of the agricultural market in France prompted BASF to seek out a new way of strengthening relations with its partners in the agrifood sector. In 1996, against a backdrop of change (EU legislation) and upheaval (Mad Cow Disease), BASF offered operations managers or officers of distribution companies an opportunity to reflect upon the future in a workshop setting. This innovative three-stage exercise, guided by Professor Michel Godet (CNAM) and the Gerpa consulting team, met with enthusiasm, and was expanded beyond the original group and time frame. In fact, the distribution chain was opened up to include various actors, for example, consumer advocacy groups, so that we speak of the agri-food channel and sector. Original questions focused on farmers' expectations and distribution problems with specific horizon lines. Environmental and genetic issues soon came to the forefront. Besides workshops and meetings, the Delphi-Régnier Abacus technique was applied, as explained in this step-by-step review of the BASF project. Overall, futures thinking has become part of the BASF France way of doing business. Indeed, the BASF “Futures Studies Group,” expanded to include mass distribution representatives, intends to continue working on the very timely theme of food safety.     

Using low frequency information for predicting high frequency variables

We analyze ways of incorporating low frequency information into models for the prediction of high frequency variables. In doing so, we consider the two existing versions of the mixed frequency VAR, with a focus on the forecasts for the high frequency variables. Furthermore, we introduce new models, namely the reverse unrestricted MIDAS (RU-MIDAS) and reverse MIDAS (R-MIDAS), which can be used for producing forecasts of high frequency variables that also incorporate low frequency information. We then conduct several empirical applications for assessing the relevance of quarterly survey data for forecasting a set of monthly macroeconomic indicators. Overall, it turns out that low frequency information is important, particularly when it has just been released.