Morphogenesis Of Social Networks And Coexistence Of Technologies ∗

The aim of the article is to relate the formation of influence networks to the coexistence of technologies in the long run. In the spirit of Plouraboue et al. (1998), we postulate that potential adopters of a technology are situated in a social network. In our model, initial relations are partly negative and all the expected utilities are revised in parallel. In the case of an exogenous network, opinions can fluctuate endlessly. When agents reallocate their relationships, this reinforces trust in agents whose opinion is close to theirs. As a result of this process, the network stabilizes in the long run, generating diversity in expected utilities.     

Technological Expectations And The Diffusion Of ‘Intermediate’ Technologies

The concept of ‘technological expectations’ has established itself as a key one in the smdy of innovation adoption. The article suggests that it may help explaining not just the adopters' timing decisions, but also their decisions regarding the kind of innovation they adopt. Innova tions that set the technological frontier face the competitive diffusion of some ‘intemdiate’ technologies. These may be either old technologies or ‘midrange’ ones. which purposefully lag behind the frontier, in order to impose lower adoption costs to their users.

Taking into account midrange innovations casts new light on the supply side of the diffu sion process. in terms of technological variety and selection effects. Drawing examples from the electronic colour pre-press industry, we highlight the equipment suppliers' anxious quest for the successful midrange innovation, able to hit the right txade-off between proximity to the frontier and adoption costs.     

Market Structure And The Adoption Of Innovations: The Case Of The Spanish Banking Sector ‡

This paper is an empirical study of the determinants of adoption time for the teleprocess terminal by Spanish commercial and savings banks. The explanatory variables include the characteristics of the adopting firms, size, and in the case of the savings banks, the structure of the market and concentration. The results indicate that the speed of adoption is maximized at intermediate levels of size and market concentration, confirming one theoretical prediction of models of diffusion: namely, that adoption time is minimized at intermediate levels of market concentration.     

Of Markets And Martyrs: Is It OK To Pay Well For Care?

If caring work were well paid, would it lose some of the special, emotional, interpersonal aspects we want in "real" care relationships? Some fear that the introduction of "market values" would lead to such an outcome. This article seeks to bring to light some logical fallacies and insufficiently expunged gender dualisms that may lie, unexamined, under such concerns. Examining the ways we think and talk about markets, meanings, and motivations, it argues that the foci of feminist concern should instead be the concrete structures of caregiving and the problem of under-demand.     

The Impact Of New Technologies On Wages: Lessons From Matching Panels On Employees And On Their Firms †

We study the impact on New Technologies (NT) on wages using a panel that matches data on individuals and on their firms. In his article on the same topic, Krueger (1993) did not give a definitive answer to the following question: if workers who use NT are better paid, is it because they are abler or because NT increases their productivity. We try to provide an answer to this question. Comparing cross-section estimates and individual fixed-effect estimates, we show that computer-based new technologies are used by abler workers. These workers learn and become more productive when they get more experienced with these NT. In terns of wage differentials, the introduction of computer-based NT contributes to a small increase. The use of firm-level data does not modify these conclusions.     

The Mother Of All Toxic Cleanups

No one knows how todealwiththeuntoldtonsoflethalgoop———orwho willpayAs rescueworkerscontinuethegrim searchforbodiesin New Or-leans, environmentalengineersarestrugglingwith what willprobablybecome thebiggestchallengeofKat-rina———themess. A toxicbrew ofoil, chemicals, bacteri,a debri,s andgarbage must be clearedand theground scrubbedbeforethecitycanbe rebuil.tUnfortunatel,ytheexpertshave few new ideasabout how totacklea cleanupofthisscale.“Thereisno silverbulle,t and I would behighlysus…     

Competition,Rivalry And Innovative Behaviour ∗

This paper is an empirical study of the importance of competition and rivalry in explaining innovative behaviour by software firms. The paper distinguishes between two notions of competition. One in which rivalry occurs due the possession of greater market power, and the other in which rivalry occurs due to diffennces in the abilities of firms. In addition the paper also decomposes changes in the extent of innovation due to the activities of firms that are innovators and due to changes in the probability of innovating. Competition always influences the extent of innovation by changing the propensity of firms to innovate.     

Increasing Returns,Learning-By-Doing And Neural Networks ∗

In this paper we draw an analogy between the process of learning-bydoing and the learning process which develops in a neural network context. The bridging tool we refer to is a dynamic production function whose only variable input is labour. By concentrating on the ‘neural network production function’ we show that the learning process can lead to increasing returns. The simulations show that when learning is characterized by an upper limit. returns are increasing for some time, while in the long run they go back to the level where they are constant.     

Can Capital Income Taxes Survive? And Should They?

The article surveys some main results in the theory of capitalincome taxation in the open economy; reviews recent trends ininternational taxation and discusses alternative blueprintsfor fundamental capital income tax reform from the perspectiveof an open economy faced with growing mobility of capital incometax bases. (JEL code: H21, H25)     

Haarlem,One of the Most Ancient Cities Of Netherlands

HaarlemisoneoftheNetherlands'mostbeautifulancientcitieswithastunningcityscapethatbeckonsvisitorsfromafar.Itisapleasant,safecity,hometo150,000inhabitantsandsituatedontheriverSpaarne.Theoldcity,repletewithnumerouslistedbuildings,offersahostofsitesofinterest…     

A Coalition-Form Analysis Of The “One Country - One Vote” Rule In The Governing Council Of The European Central Bank *

This paper analyses the “one country—one vote” rule for monetary policy decision

making of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank in a framework of cooperative game theory. The Shapley value is used as a solution concept. In contrast to former papers analysing the allocation of abstract "voting power" in committees of international organisations, preferences for monetary policy are modelled to obtain a prediction about potential transfers implied by an equal allocation of voting rights when countries are of different size. It is shown that if the number of countries participating to a currency union grows and the weight of the largest country within the currency union becomes small, the allocation of voting rights becomes irrelevant in the sense that transfers per country tend in any case to zero. [C71, E5, F02]     

Positive Analysis Of Income Disparity between Towns＇ Residents and Rural Residents in Hebei Province

With the economic development, the income disparity between towns＇ residents and rural residents in China shows an enlarging trend. This phenomenon becomes a hot issue of the whole society. The income disparity between towns＇ residents and rural residents in Hebei province also shows an enlarging trend. The authors study this problem with the positive analysis method from the situation, the developing trend in the future, the reasons of the income disparity between towns＇ residents and rural residents in Hebei, and put forward proposals about how to reduce the income disparity.     

What are the ethics of welfare economics? And,are welfare economists utilitarians?

Four questions: (1) What is welfare economics? (2) Is it an ethical system?  (3) How do welfare economists differ from one another? And (4), how do they differ from other economic ethicists? Then utilitarianism is discussed. I was taught, and have inferred to others, that welfare economists are utilitarians. They are not. Welfare economics is an atypical form of welfare consequentialism: consequentialist in that whether an act or policy is right or wrong is a function of only its consequences—the adjective “welfare” because the only consequences that matter are the welfare (well-faring) consequences. Most welfare consequentialists are neither welfare economists nor utilitarians. And, most moral philosophers are not welfare consequentialists—neither are most normal folk.     

The Impact Of Information Technology On High-Skilled Labor In Services: Evidence From Firm-Level Panel Data ∗

This paper analyses the link between the high-skilled employment share and the level of investment in information technology (IT) in the service production process. The analysis is based on an unbalanced panel data set for 933 West German firms over the period 1994–1996. To account for firms which do not employ high-skilled labor. proxied by university graduates. fixed and random effects Tobit models are applied. We investigate whether the impoflance of IT varies across subsectors by allowing coefficients to differ across the main service sector industries. The empirical evidence indicates that firms with a higher IT investment to output ratio employ a laier fraction of high-skilled workers. However the size of the IT effect on skill intensity is rather small.     

And if the ball does not cross the line? A comprehensive analysis of football clubs’ performance

The football club market is changing fast in the social media era. In this global market, clubs must maintain or improve fans’ attendance at the stadium; simultaneously, they need, more than ever, to take care of social media. The aim of this article is to test and discuss a comprehensive approach to analysing the performance of football clubs regarding their multiplicity of objectives. We analyse the efficiency of English Premier League (EPL) clubs during three seasons (2012/13–2014/15). The methodologies employed are data envelopment analysis (DEA) and a bootstrapped DEA model. The input is the market value of the squad, and the outputs are sports results, total revenue, the ratio of stadium utilization during the season and an index of social media impact. The results are robust to alternative estimation methods and indicate that EPL clubs still have a margin for improving their overall efficiency, mainly the medium clubs. The analysis of football clubs’ performance with the proposed comprehensive approach provides a useful tool to help managers with evaluation and feedback considering the actual context of the market. The approach brings closer the opportunity to design appropriate strategies to improve clubs’ efficiency as well as competition policies.     

WHAT DETERMINES THE “LEGAL” QUALITY Of BANK REGULATION AND SUPERVISION?

This article has two contributions. First, using the methodology of Neyapti and Dincer, it provides measures of legal quality of bank regulation and supervision (RS) for a new set of developed and less‐developed countries. Second, it investigates the determinants of RS in view of the hypothesis that the existing institutional environment matters for the quality of formal institutions such as banking laws. The empirical evidence in this article demonstrates that past financial crises and prevailing levels of both financial market development and foreign direct investment inflows affect RS beyond and above the effects of other potential factors, such as macroeconomic performance and good governance. Evidence from transition economies also supports these findings. (JEL E44, G2, K29, O1)     

Bursting Out Of China——TCL''''s deal with Thomson puts it in reach of aglobal electronics market

It’steatimeataphonefactoryinthesouthernChinesecityofHuizhou,andhundredsofemployeesaretakingabreakfromassemblingcellularhandsetsforoneofChina'shottestelectronicscompanies,TCLCorp.Someoftheworkersgathernexttothewindowsandchat.Otherssimplyputdowntheirheadsa…     

二语动机框架理论对高中生英语阅读动机的激发——以Come And Eat Here教学过程设计为例

随着社会的发展,英语阅读在学生的学习,生活及未来的工作中起着非常重要的作用.但就目前来看,他们对英语阅读积极性并不高,动机也不强,所以阅读能力差也是必然.为了解决这个问题,在高中教学过程中教师要关注如何能使阅读教学更具有效性、趣味性,如何能使学生在体验课堂阅读快乐,积极参加阅读教学活动的过程中,主动获取资源信息,提高阅读欲望,形成一种坚韧持久的以兴趣为导向的阅读倾向.本文将以Dornyei的二语动机框架理论为基础来设计阅读材料Come And Eat Here,以此来探讨该理论对学生阅读动机的激发.