Thinking about predation — A personal diary

Special Consultant, National Economic Research Associates. Inc.     

Urban renewal: The case of Buffalo,NY

Scholars of urbanism have long been critical of America’s post-World War II efforts at urban renewal. What is generally less well understood is the theoretical context out of which urban renewal policy arose. This analysis sets forth the key precepts of modernist thinking in city planning as the explanation for urban renewal’s policy miscalculations. Data for Buffalo document the case, with emphasis upon the exclusion of blacks in the redevelopment process. Following three decades of failure, 1950 to 1980, a neighborhoodbased renewal project is now showing promise in meeting the housing needs of inner-city black households.     

Estimating firm-level and country-level effects in cross-sectional analyses: An application of hierarchical modeling in corporate disclosure studies

Researchers in the field of international accounting are often confronted with observations of firms clustered into higher-level units such as countries. Using data from a corporate disclosure study including 797 firm observations from 34 countries, we demonstrate that the inferences obtained from the most commonly used Ordinary Least Square (OLS) test, which pools the firm and country data either under the disaggregation or aggregation approach, are problematic and misleading. To overcome the methodological limitation, we subsequently employ hierarchical modeling to simultaneously estimate both firm-level (within-country) and country-level (cross-country) disclosure determinants. We find that the clustering effects are significant in almost all firm-level variables. Once such effects are adjusted, only three firm-specific variables are significantly associated with corporate disclosure. Evidence provided by this study has important implications for most international accounting studies conducted in cross-level contexts.     

Developing a performance measurement framework to enhance the impact orientation of the Food Research Institute, Ghana

Research institutions in Ghana are facing various challenges. It is the contention that viable research and development institutions are needed for achieving sustainable change in areas of national importance. A key aspect of institutional viability is strong performance management. This implies clear and workable approaches to performance measurement. This paper looks at the initial experiences in a collaborative effort to develop a performance measurement framework for the Food Research Institute (FRI) and the application of the Balanced Score Card (BSC) at institutional level. The process of diagnosing and analysing institutional monitoring and evaluation capacity and systems is described using a mix of diagnostic tools. Stages in applying the BSC approach are documented and the added value of the scorecard perspectives in highlighting focal areas for performance measurement and management within FRI. These are placed in the context of ongoing changes in the external environment posing both threats and opportunities. Changes implied by the introduction of the concept are discussed in the context of current constraints and the way forward is mapped out in terms of enhancing FRIs' impact orientation through the application of improved performance measurement and management.     

Shifting the goal posts for design management in capital goods projects: 'design for maintainability'

Two case studies of capital goods projects, both of which were faced with new forms of demand for their products, are reported in this paper. In both cases, the contracting organisations involved were adjusting to new customer requirements for the long-term provision of the services associated with the capital goods they normally produced, rather than for the capital goods themselves. While both contracting organisations recognised the need to re-focus their equipment design efforts, to reflect the need for long-term service reliability (both contracting organisations were tied to penalties associated with agreed service levels), they nevertheless responded differently to this challenge, and their differing responses reflected the differing natures of the extended networks which comprised both projects and the organisational architectures in which the projects were themselves embedded. The paper explores the differing opportunities and barriers to the management of design in complex projects presented by these two case studies. In so doing it points to the conclusion that successful design management in complex projects can depend upon the successful management of the (multiple) contexts in which design takes place.     

Zu den methodologischen Grundproblemen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Motivations for aid to developing countries

This paper attempts to identify the underlying principles of aid allocation, and particularly the balance of motivations as between the needs of recipient countries and the interests of donor countries. Two alternative models are fitted by cross-country regressions to bilateral and multilateral aid flows to some 80 developing countries in 1969–1970 and 1978–1980. The first (recipient need) model assumes that all aid is given to compensate for shortfalls in domestic resources. This model provides a reasonable explanation for the distribution of multilateral aid, but it is clearly not applicable for bilateral aid flows. The second (donor interest) model assumes that all aid serves only donor interests, defined to cover political/security investment and trade interests. This model gives generally good explanations of bilateral aid, but is a poor fit for multilateral aid. The relative importance of the various donor interests differs sharply among donors. The paper ends with an analysis of the shift in the balance of aid over the 1970s towards the recipient need element, and with a reference to the sharp change in policy in the 1980s towards increasing emphasis on donor interest aid.     

Wachstum und umwelt: Ein modell optimaler kontrolle

Summary Growth and Environment: A Model of Optimal Control. — Agrowth-cum-environment model is analyzed assuming reproducible factors of production subject only to economic constraints, fund factors like exhaustible or energy resources subject to environmental and economic constraints, and environmental services subject to the constraint of the assimilative capacity of the environment. The formal set-up of the model is severely aggregated, but particular attention is given to the admissable economic specification of the model framework. It is assumed that by investing capital (that may embody technical progress) into the environment, it may be possible to overcome any limits to growth. Restrictions to the growth path are imposed by the specification of the production function, the waste function, and a function describing the interdependency of the environment and the economic process. The model is set up as a control problem. An analytical solution is provided, and an elementary example is given to illustrate how the solution might be applied.

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Résumé La croissance et l’environnement. -Un modèle de contróle optimal. — L’auteur analyse un modèle de croissance y compris l’environnement qui est aussi flexible que possible à l’égard des limites de la croissance. Les conditions de production sont classifiées en trois groupes: des facteurs de production reproductibles qui ne sont soumis qu’aux contraintes économiques, des facteurs épuisables comme des ressources naturelles qui sont de plus soumis aux contraintes de l’environnement, des services de l’environnement qui sont soumis à la contrainte de la capacité assimilative de l’environnement. Tandis que les deux premières conditions apparaissent expressément comme des facteurs de production, la troisième condition n’est introduite dans le modèle que par la consommation. Quoique l’exposé du modèle soit limité sur la structure principale, les implications économiques sont accentuées. Il est supposé que le potentiel de ressources peut être régénéré et aggrandi par des investissements dans l’environnement y compris le progrès technique. Les paramètres décisifs pour la voie de croissance sont préfixés par la spécification de la fonction de production, de la fonction de déchets et d’une fonction qui décrit l’interdépendance entre l’environnement et le processus économique. Le modèle suit les lignes dessinées par les problèmes du contróle optimal. Une solution analytique est donnée ainsi qu’un exemple élémentaire pour illustrer comment la solution peut être appliquée.

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Resumen Crecimiento y medio ambiente: un modelo de control óptimo. — Se analiza un modelo de crecimiento que envuelve al medio ambiente, pero que en lo posible se comporta en forma flexible ante cualquier barrera para el crecimiento. Además se dividen las condiciones de producción en tres grupos: factores de producción reproducibles, para los cuales solamente tienen validez restricciones de tipo económico, factores de fondo, como los recursos agotables, sujetos a restricciones económicas y de tipo medio-ambiental y, los llamados servicios medio-ambientales, para los cuales el límite lo constituye la capacidad de asimilación del medio ambiente. Las primeras dos condiciones aparecen explícitamente como factores de producción y la tercera condición se introduce al modelo a traves del consumo. La representación del modelo queda limitada a la estructura de fondo, mas las implicaciones económicas son acentuadas. Se asume, que a traves de inversiones de capital (las que deben incluir el adelanto técnico), se puede regenerar el potencial de recursos y aún aumentarlo. Restricciones a la trayectoria de crecimiento del modelo se imponen mediante la especificación de la función de producción, la función de desechos y una función que describe la interdependencia entre medio ambiente y proceso económico. El modelo está constituido sobre la base de un problema de control. Se provee una solución analítica y se muestra un ejemplo elemental para ilustrar la forma de aplicación.