Group selection and the evolution of altruism

‘Group selection’ is an oft-cited but controversialexplanation for the survival of altruism. Rather than enterthis debate, this paper asks whether a group structure alonecan provide a reasonable explanation for the survival of altruisticbehaviour in an evolving population. If altruism (defined astaking a cooperative action in a standard Prisoners' Dilemma)is to flourish, either groups need to be isolated from one anotherfor multiple generations, or groups need to be constructed ina positively-assortative manner. Concentrating on the formercase the paper shows that the size of the group, the relativebenefit to cost of altruism and the number of generations inisolation all play a critical role. The smaller the group size,or the larger the benefit-to-cost ratio, the higher the survivalchances of altruism. Additionally, for altruism to survive,the number of generations spent in isolated groups must be neithertoo big nor too small.     

Real money balances and the productivity growth slowdown: The U.S. manufacturing sector, 1955–81

Summary and Conclusions The model of labor productivity for the U.S. manufacturing sector was developed in this paper within the context of a three-input production function where time entered as a proxy for technical change. The growth rate of labor productivity was found equal to the share-weighted contributions from growth in the capital-labor ratio, changes in the composition of the capital stock, growth in the money-labor ratio, and total factor productivity.The empirical results of this research yield three important conclusions. First, labor productivity growth has suffered a continuous and increasing retardation, the most severe of which occurred in the newly-examined 1978–81 time period. Second, real money balances were shown to have contributed to this slowdown in the same direction as, but somewhat less than, the contributions of either the capital-labor ratio or changes in the composition of the capital stock. Thirdly, a deletion of the monetary effect from the analysis results in an overestimation of the importance to productivity growth and its slowdown of both the capital-labor and the composition effect.Based upon these main empirical results, this study concludes that the real money balances held by firms in the U.S. manufacturing sector have played a non-passive role in that sector's labor productivity growth slowdown.This paper is part of the author's doctoral dissertation, written at West Virginia University.     

A simplified portfolio analysis of the long-run demand for money in Australia

The paper derives the form of a money demand equation when money is explicitly considered as one element of a limited set of financial assets. The results from estimation of the portfolio model are compared with those from the typical single equation form and are superior in a number of respects. In contrast with the traditional model the impact equations of the portfolio model provide no evidence of serial correlation or parameter instability. Systems estimation provides for a much faster speed of adjustment than is in evidence with the traditional model. Estimation by ridge regression procedures to accomodate collinearity among the regressors further enhances this speed of adjustment.     

Some simple structure significance tests for exploratory component analysis with market survey data

Several uncertainties continue to hinder researchers using exploratory factor analysis. Among other decisions, the choice of the number of factors to retain and the interpretability of the rotated solution remain problematical. In this paper, we suggest a simple structure criterion as a general framework for choosing the number of factors and for interpreting the rotated factor structure matrix. The proposed methodology is demonstrated with demographic data from a consumer panel. The results show the importance of increasing the information yield from exploratory factor analysis.     

INFORMATION EXTERNALITIES, SHARE-PRICE BASED INCENTIVES AND MANAGERIAL BEHAVIOUR

Abstract. We survey recent theoretical research on the effects of short-term share-price based managerial incentive schemes. Such schemes can induce inefficient managerial behaviour in both hidden action and hidden type contexts. These problems arise from informational asymmetries: managers take actions to manipulate the information flow rather than to maximize firm value. More generally, imperfect transmission of information between managers and shareholders or between managers of different firms can lead to similar distortions even when the parties' interests are aligned.