On Stephen Parsons' Philosophical Critique of Transcendental Realism

This paper replies to Stephen Parsons' critique of Tony Lawson's Economics and Reality recently published in this journal. The topics addressed include Lawson's critique of empirical realism; Lawson's definition of 'structures'; theories of truth; the relationship between mainstream economics and empirical realism; and the possibility of naturalism .     

THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITIVENESS IN HUNGARIAN AGRICULTURE: FROM TRANSITION TO ACCESSION

MOCT-MOST: Economic Policy in Transitional Economies -     

Networks and network resources in technological innovation systems: Towards a conceptual framework for system building

Previous research has shown that formal networks can play a crucial role in the formation of technological innovation systems (TIS). Firms and other actors collaborate in formal networks not only to generate new knowledge but also to strategically create and shape supportive system resources such as technology specific R&D programs. This paper takes a closer look at the resources, which are developed and deployed by networks to facilitate the building up of a TIS. Networks rely not only on the organizational resources of their members but also on new resources developed at the network level including network governance structures, trust among network members, a common understanding of the strategic goals or a good reputation of the network. Our analysis shows that the capacity of networks to fulfill different tasks of system building especially depends on the network resources they are able to establish. With the differentiation of organizational, network and system resources we introduce a conceptual framework, which makes three important contributions. It highlights the strategic nature of (innovation) system building; it allows us comparing the contribution of different actors and formal networks in this regard; and it improves our understanding of how firm and system level processes are intertwined.     

Disability Reporting Choices by Married Couples: Evidence from Census Data

The purpose of this paper is to analyze determinants of the decision to self-report health impairments that limit or prevent work. Its particular focus is on joint reporting behavior by married couples, with a view toward potential interdependence of spouses' reporting decisions. The model is based on a large sample of married couples taken from the 1990 Public Use Microdata Sample of the U.S. Census. Empirical analysis is based on a simultaneous probit model of spouses' reports. Results of the analysis show evidence of an association between spouses' reports, after controlling for important background variables. The extent of association appears to be more pronounced among low earners and among older wives.     

The supply of and demand for accounting information

The article analyzes the use of accounting information in Russia. We assess reporting behaviour in the lending process for a sample of Russian companies in the years 1999–2004 and postulate that Russian companies manage their earnings in order to avoid showing losses when applying for bank financing. Once a credit has been granted, companies are predicted to manage earnings because of the bank's monitoring activities. By means of univariate and multivariate analysis we are able to attribute the discontinuity around a zero target in the earnings distribution with firms’ response to the banks’ assessment of accounting performance. This implies that financing considerations affect the reporting incentives of Russian companies.     

Staging of Venture Financing, Investor Opportunism and Patent Law

Abstract:  Stage financing provides a real option that is valuable when facing external uncertainty. However, it may also induce investor hold-up, if the property rights on an invention are not sufficiently protected. As a consequence, the entrepreneur may not work hard. Investor opportunism is less likely to occur, if investors' residual cash-flow-rights are contingent on verifiable 'milestones' in the previous stage. Equity-linked financing also provides high-powered incentives to the investor not to 'steal the idea' because his payoff becomes sensitive to the project value. The paper provides a new explanation for both types of contractual provisions.     

Medien-Priming — Grundlagen, Befunde und Forschungstendenzen

Media priming is the process by which information from the media make disposable units of knowledge cognitively more easily accessible. This increases the chance that they be better applied to subsequent information from the environment than less accessible units. Research on cognitive media effects, though, does not seem to agree on what the bases of media priming are, what the state of knowledge is, and what remains to be studied. This article attempts to do away with these disagreements by (1) describing the (cognitive-)psychological bases of the concept of media priming, (2) by structuring the crucial empirical results with regard to these bases, and, starting with the traditions and also the deficiencies of recent research, by (3) presenting a program for future research.     

Konsonanz 30 Jahre später

Consonant coverage is assumed to be an important prerequisite for media effects to occur. However, empirical evidence for this assumption is largely missing. Focusing on the issue of European integration, this study investigated, in 13 EU member states, whether consonant coverage affected EU citizens’ opinions on the issue. For each country and at the individual level of analysis, the study linked content analyses of the main evening news and the most prestigious newspaper with survey data. Consonant coverage influenced people’s opinions about European integration, while dissonant coverage made no impact. Both EU supporters and EU opponents were susceptible to the effects of consonant coverage, which tentatively suggests that consonant coverage may surmount selective mechanisms. In sum, the study is the first to provide evidence that consonant coverage may indeed enhance media effects.