Transplanetary subway systems

Planetran is a global subway in which passengers recline comfortably on gimballed seats, having paid $54 to travel in 54 minutes from the centre of New York to the centre of Los Angeles. Electromagnetic fields propel and support the carriages in evacuated tubes. Energy consumption is negligible, a freight system can be incorporated, tunnel costs can be reduced by providing facilities for defence agencies and other utilities, and there is little environmental pollution. After discussing the economics of Planetran, the author concludes that the political outlook is much less optimistic than the technical one. Even if Planetran is not implemented, we should now be making integrated transport plans for our future needs.     

Is There Catch‐Up Growth? Evidence from Three Continents

The ability to correct deficiencies in early childhood malnutrition, what is known as catch‐up growth, has widespread consequences for economic and social development. While clinical evidence of catch‐up has been observed, less clear is the ability to correct for chronic malnutrition found in impoverished environments in the absence of extensive and focused interventions. This paper investigates whether nutritional status at early age affects nutritional status a few years later among children, using panel data from China, South Africa and Nicaragua. The key research question is the extent to which state dependence in linear growth exists among young children, and what family and community level factors mediate state dependency. The answer to this question is crucial for public policy due to the long‐term economic consequences of poor childhood nutrition. Results show strong but not perfect persistence in nutritional status across all countries, indicating that catch‐up growth is possible though unobserved household behaviours tend to worsen the possibility of catch‐up growth. Public policy that can influence these behaviours, especially when children are under 24 months old, can significantly alter nutrition outcomes in South Africa and Nicaragua.     

The role of codified sources of knowledge in innovation: Empirical evidence from Dutch manufacturing

This paper explores ongoing debates about the role that codified forms of knowledge play in fostering innovative behaviour. It aims to provide an empirical exploration of the use of codified sources of information for innovation at the firm and sectoral level. Despite considerable interest in David and Forays (1995) work on the codification of knowledge and the changing nature of innovation due to the use of information and communication technologies, there are relatively few empirical studies that probe the role of codified sources of information in the innovation process. Our goal is to assess how important codified sources of information are for innovation among different firms and sectors. We find that use of codified sources of knowledge is highly concentrated in high technology sectors and among firms with existing absorptive capacity. The analysis shows that the use of other sources of information for innovation is a strong predictor of a firms use of codified sources. The data used for the analysis is based on The Netherlands Community Innovation Survey (II) for the manufacturing sector and covers over 2001 firms in 11 industries.JEL Classification: L60, O32, O33     

SeMS and sensibility: Security management systems and the management of risk in the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority

Following International Air Transportation Association requirement for all member airlines and airports to have a security management system (SeMS) beginning 1 March 2007, many organizations are looking to learn from safety and quality management systems. Without specific guidelines or best practices, organizations are forced to imitate these processes designed for different goals. Since safety, quality, and security environments operate on radically different principles, SeMS implementation must take a different tack. The case of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority illustrates the importance of a custom-designed program that meets public and corporate needs. The Authority is responsible for security screening of passengers, non-passengers, and baggage within selected airports. As a crown corporation with a precise statutory mandate and regulatory environment, the development of a SeMS illustrates some of the key problems for the application of SeMS to larger organizations.     

The role of technology in the shift towards open innovation: the case of Procter & Gamble

As with all new ideas, the concept of Open Innovation requires extensive empirical investigation, testing and development. This paper analyzes Procter and Gamble's 'Connect and Develop' strategy as a case study of the major organizational and technological changes associated with open innovation. It argues that although some of the organizational changes accompanying open innovation are beginning to be described in the literature, more analysis is warranted into the ways technological changes have facilitated open innovation strategies, particularly related to new product development. Information and communications technologies enable the exchange of distributed sources of information in the open innovation process. The case study shows that furthermore a suite of new technologies for data mining, simulation, prototyping and visual representation, what we call 'innovation technology', help to support open innovation in Procter and Gamble. The paper concludes with a suggested research agenda for furthering understanding of the role played by and consequences of this technology.     

Economics of Food Labeling

Federal intervention in food labeling is often proposed with the aim of achieving a social goal such as improving human health and safety, mitigating environmental hazards, averting international trade disputes, or supporting domestic agricultural and food manufacturing industries. Economic theory suggests, however, that mandatory food-labeling requirements are best suited to alleviating problems of asymmetric information and are rarely effective in redressing environmental or other spillovers associated with food production and consumption. Theory also suggests that the appropriate role for government in labeling depends on the type of information involved and the level and distribution of the costs and benefits of providing that information. This report traces the economic theory behind food labeling and presents three case studies in which the government has intervened in labeling and two examples in which government intervention has been proposed.     

Debt Erosion and the Market Process

This paper explores the effects of debt erosion on the market process. Debt erosion is the attempt by government to lower the real value of its debt through the creation of unexpected inflation. In addition to the costs recognised by most economists, debt erosion through unexpected inflation can impair the price system's ability to coordinate exchange activity and can result in costly capital misallocations. This is because the creation of unexpected inflation implies disequilibrium in the money market. To avoid the harm from such monetary shocks, this paper suggests a separation between money and state, enshrined in an explicit rule at the constitutional level.     

How Pretrial Expectations and Anticipated Obstacles Impact University Brand Identification

ABSTRACT

Despite the growing interest in brand identification as a mechanism of soliciting organizational citizenship behaviors, little is known about the role of expectations and anticipated obstacles as antecedents of the construct. To address this gap, this study examines antecedents of brand identification including academic and social expectations as well as academic, financial, and personal obstacles in first-time incoming first-year college students. Results align with the theoretical underpinnings of brand identification, namely social identity theory, by showing that social expectations explain far more variance in brand identification than the other antecedents in the model. The resulting insights provide guidance to administrators on the pretrial consumer perceptions of students that correlate with brand identification.     

Theory of the / : The Suture and Critical Border Studies

Borders are crucial sites of political and spatial contestation: and in an attempt to evade the lamentation for an ideal model of a single line or the empty insistence of the dominance of that line, this article argues that the trope of the suture better captures the dual world-creating functions of the border. By examining the critical border theories of Agamben, Walker, and Galli, the suture better focuses analytical attention towards the role of borders in the creation of both sovereign states and the system of sovereign states.