Building human-centered systems in the network society

This paper considers the development of selected projects which have been engaged in building information and communication networks in urban and regional environments, with the ultimate goal of developing networked places. It is argued that such networks have the potential to attract and mobilize people into a “culture of knowledge” and make public administration and free markets more effective, but require adequate infrastructures, incentives and institutional frameworks.The analysis builds on the co-evolution of human and social contexts at local levels and the endogenous process of technical change, namely in terms of information and communication technologies. We conclude that networked places should be designed holistically, adaptable to change and continuously assessed in order to accommodate humanity.The first generation digital cities have shown the need to build flexible and interoperable technological infrastructures, yet robust and user friendly, to support knowledge networks. The new paradigm of semantic grids may respond to the increasing complexity and heterogeneity of humanity and urban environments and support more effectively the creation and diffusion of knowledge networks to help mobilizing the information society and to promote the inclusive development of networked places.     

Analysis of the Lotka-Volterra competition equations as a technological substitution model

This paper provides insight into the dynamics of the Lotka-Volterra competition (LVC) equations, a much used competition model, and compares the dynamics of LVC competitive substitution to that of several well-known substitution models. The behavior of the LVC equations is analyzed for the special case of a dominant competitor at equilibrium being replaced after the introduction of a small population of an invading competitor with a competitive advantage. Expressions are derived that describe the growth of the invading competitor and that growth is shown to be of four classes: left asymmetric, logistic, right asymmetric with 1−ε₂ asymptote and right asymmetric with γ asymptote. It is shown that the LVC model reverts to logistic substitution in a market of fixed size, a result with important implications. The LVC equations are fitted to the Gompertz, Bass, Non-Symmetrical Responding Logistic (NSRL) and Sharif-Kabir substitution models and compared using a novel graphical technique. The LVC equations can reasonably mimic the full range of curve shapes exhibited by each of these models.     

Visioning the regional future: Globalization and regional transformation of Rabat/Casablanca

The mainstream literature on globalization and regional transformation emphasizes two major perspectives. The first perspective combines global city theory with macro theories of transformations with a normative bias often leading to deterministic conceptualisations of globalization links to regional transformation. The other perspective emphasizes economy as the most important if not the only pushing factor for regional transformations with little attention to all transformations involving soft and informal structures The latter may be vital for such transformation. This paper takes a completely new approach namely to analyse local stakeholders' visions of regional transformation of the Rabat/Casablanca region in face the challenges that globalization poses.     

Is the Patent System an Even Playing Field? The Effect of Patent Attorney Firms

The patent system underpins the business model of some of the fastest-growing companies. Used appropriately, it should support frontier technologies and nurture new firms. Used perniciously, it can stifle innovation and protect established technological behemoths. We analyze patent examination decisions at the American, European, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese patent offices and find evidence that patent attorneys have a surprisingly significant role in the patent system. Our results suggest that some forces within the examination system maintain the uneven playing field by allocating monopoly rights to inventors with better access to influential attorneys, rather than leveling it by favoring inventors with better, nonobvious ideas. Attorney quality is most important, vis-à-vis invention quality, in less codified and more rapidly changing technology areas such as software and ICT.     

Diversity and integration of science and technology policies

This paper discusses recent conceptual approaches to technical change, based on an emerging diversity of policies and increasing “institutional specialization” and clarification of the role of the private and public incentives to support S&T. This fact is reflected in the trend in developed economies towards increasing private investment in science and technology and we argue for the need to promote public policies in modern societies fostering competence building.This broad concept has motivated the work behind the present special issue, which was launched during the 6th International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation (ICTPI), hold in Monterey, Mexico, in the summer of 2003. Under the broad designation of “Connecting People, Ideas, and Resources across Communities” the Conference brought together a range of experts to discuss technology, policy and management in a context much influenced by a dynamic of change and a necessary balance between the creation and diffusion of knowledge. Thus, this special issue includes a set of extended and revised contributions to the Monterey conference that are largely grounded on empirical experiences of different regional and national contexts. The aim of this introductory paper is to set the stage for these contributions, with an original contribution on possible views for emerging science and technology policies.     

National Cooperative Commercial Banking and Development Strategy in Guyana

Abstract . The evolution of the cooperative movement in Guyana resulted in the adoption of a new development strategy. In it a leadership role is given to a new type of government bank, the Guyana National Cooperative Bank. Its mission is to protect and nurture the developing country's cooperative societies, organized mostly on Rochdale principles or on those of the Scandinavian marketing cooperatives. Basically a development savings bank, the GNCB is also an organ through which the Government is minimizing the role of foreign banks in the export sector of the national economy.     

Unemployment and employment offices’ efficiency: What can be done?

Regional employment offices provide placement services to job-seekers and employers and organize active labor market programs. In this paper, we carry out a quantitative evaluation of the employment offices’ performance in Switzerland based on production efficiency measures. We use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate the performance of all employment offices and then account for factors in the local operating environment that are outside managerial control. This approach, and the ranking of employment offices, may easily be interpreted by policymakers and provides guidelines for raising the efficiency of the public employment service. Our findings suggest that there is considerable room for improved efficiency in employment service, which could lead to a lower level of structural unemployment. We also find that differences in the external operating environment have a significant influence upon the efficiency of employment offices.     

次贷危机下的CDS市场:风险与变革

作为有效的信用保险产品,信用违约互换在金融市场上扮演着重要角色。然而,交易的集中化、投机化和去监管化却又蕴积出市场风险,并在美国国际集团接管事件中凸显出来。剖析次贷危机所暴露出来的信贷市场风险,研究次贷交易过程中的过度投机和监管漏洞,对于确立我国CDS的场内交易机制不无裨益,也有助于建立对交易主体资格、交易信息披露、履约争议解决、市场稳定性影响等事项的持续监管机制。     

Hospital demand for physicians

This article develops a derived demand for physicians that is general enough to encompass physician control, simple profit maximization and hospital utility maximization models of the hospital. The analysis focuses on three special aspects of physician affiliations: the price of adding a physician to the staff is unobserved; the physician holds appointments at multiple hospitals, and physicians are not homogeneous. Using 1983 American Hospital Association data, a system of specialty-specific demand equations is estimated. The results are consistent with the model and suggest that physicians should be concerned about reduced access to hospitals, particularly as the stock of hospitals declines.