Between meaning and machine: Learning to represent the knowledge of communities

Representing knowledge in codified forms is transformative of ones orientation to that knowledge. We trace the emergence of a routine for knowledge acquisition and its consequences for participants. Over time, participants in the earth science project GEON, first learned about ontologies and then learned how to create them. We identify three steps in the routine: understanding the problematic of interoperability; learning the practice of knowledge acquisition; and engaging the broader community. As participants traversed the routine they came to articulate, and then represent, the knowledge of their communities. In a process we call reapprehension, traversing the routine also transformed participants’ orientation towards their data, knowledge and community, making them more keenly aware of the informational aspects of their fields.     

Forecast Release

Although the Chancellor did not say in so many words precisely what lay behind his thinking on the Budget, the implicit message was clear. His aim was to rebalance fiscal and monetary policy, tightening the former so that the monetary relaxation that we have already had does not have to be quickly reversed. In so doing, he has increased the chances that interest rates can stay lower for longer than would have been the case if he had not acted on the PSBR. The reaction of the foreign exchanges critical but again the Budget makes it more likely that the devaluation of the pound since last September can be made one off, not the precursor to a prolonged downward float. This is a necessary condition for a 'successful' devaluation, but it is not sufficient: the wage response is also critical. High unemployment is helpful in this respect, though it has not stopped us frittering away the benefits of previous devaluations. Our February forecast was pessimistic on the UK's ability to hold onto the competitive advantage that devaluation brings; the Budget, while short on monetary underpinning, increases the odds in favour of a more optimistic outturn.     

The Substitution Theorem in Urban Consumer Theory

This paper presents two nonparametric approaches to urban household location theory. For each model two sets of own price substitution theorems are presented, one for goods whose prices vary spatially and one for goods whose prices do not vary spatially in the market area. The usual substitution theorem derived in nonspatial demand theory is seen to hold for goods whose prices do not vary spatially. Goods whose prices vary spatially, however, reveal a significant departure from standard demand theory in that the substitution theorem is shown to hold unambiguously only for "parallel" shifts in spatial price surfaces. Further, the results are robust, extending to consumers in nonmonocentric urban areas, regardless of consumer tastes for travel distance or labor/leisure choice complications.     

Adjustment of Input–Output Tables from Two Initial Matrices

The compilation of the information required to construct survey-based input–output (I–O) tables consumes resources and time to statistical agencies. Consequently, a number of non-survey techniques have been developed in the last decades to estimate I–O tables. These techniques usually depart from observable information on the row and column margins, and then the cells of the matrix are adjusted using as a priori information a matrix from a past period (updating) or an I–O table from the same time period (regionalization). This paper proposes the use of a composite cross-entropy approach that allows for introducing both types of a priori information. The suggested methodology is suitable to be applied only to matrices with semi-positive interior cells and margins. Numerical simulations and an empirical application are carried out, where an I–O table for the Euro Area is estimated with this method and the result is compared with the traditional projection techniques.