Content analysis research method with Nvivo-6 software in a PhD thesis: an approach to the long-term psychological effects on Chilean ex-prisoners survivors of experiences of torture and imprisonment

The aim of this paper is to review the usefulness of the software CAQDAS QSR—Nvivo-6 in a PhD. Thesis, which consisted of finding the long-term psychological effects of experiences of imprisonment and torture for political reasons in their Chilean survivors. For this research, it was created and administered an in-depth interview to 60 survivors, from which outcome was 9900 paragraphs, coded into 784 categories. The software QSR Nvivo-6 threw a report of frequencies, which were compared quantitatively using Pearson’s χ ² square test and cluster analysis. We conclude that the software facilitates the development of qualitative thematic content analysis, simplifying the coding, analysis and display of data. In Addition, it is very useful when working with large quantities of information, promoting the reliability and validity of studies. However, other aspects are also required to ensure the rigor of a qualitative study.     

Influence of institutional environment on entrepreneurial intention: a comparative study of two countries university students

Institutional environment influences the perceptions of desirability and feasibility, society’s social and cultural environment, such as beliefs, values and attitudes, conditions behaviour and decisions made by individuals. This research evaluates the influence of institutional environment on entrepreneurial intention using a comparative analysis of different attitudes among university students in two countries: Portugal and Spain. In particular, this study aims to examine the perceptions of desirability, feasibility and intention toward the creation of one’s own business and how that variables influence the entrepreneurial intention as compared these two different institutional contexts. Results revealed difference among attitudes toward entrepreneurship in both countries. With respect to the perception of feasibility, the majority of students in Extremadura (Spain) consider that it is easier to create a business in nowadays than it was several decades ago. However, from the students of Beira Interior (Portugal) consider that it is more difficult. Furthermore, in Extremadura, the entrepreneurial intention is higher than in Beira Interior.     

Determinants of total efficiency in water utilities in Mexico

By using panel data analysis across 368 water utilities in Mexico over the period 2010–2014, we find that small firms are more efficient than medium and large providers and that increasing production is associated with less efficiency. Billing, income collection and profitability are relevant factors to improve efficiency. Medium and large firms require to measure consumption by service with meters in order to increase efficiency, while small firms do not require it.     

Multiple product qualities in monopoly: Sailing the RMS Titanic into the economics classroom

In this pedagogical contribution the authors extend the traditional three-class tariff employed in the French passenger railway system with the more resonant story of the service quality variations associated with the three passenger classes of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. In doing so, they provide economics instructors with an opportunity to integrate the well-known motion picture Titanic (Cameron and Landau 1997 Cameron, J., and J. Landau. 1997. Titanic. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and Lightstorm Entertainment. [Google Scholar]) into the teaching of economics. This article provides instructors with resources that can be used to link historical and modern travel examples of price discrimination in order for students to reach a “deeper understanding of course concepts” (Salemi 2002 Salemi, M. K. 2002. An illustrated case for active learning. Southern Economic Journal 68 (3): 721–31.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 725).     

Political markets? Politics and economics in the emergence of markets for biodiversity offsets

This paper analyses the relationship between politics and performativity of economics in the emergence of markets for biodiversity offsets. While the role of economics in constructing markets has been demonstrated by sociology and social studies of science, it has also become apparent that politics plays an important role in the material outcome of economic experiments. Two case studies of the creation of markets for biodiversity offsets are analysed, in the United States and England. The findings suggest that the creation of both markets is rooted in the language, concepts and models of economics. Politics, on the other hand, functions as a mediator of the material expression of those models. Through this mediation effect, similar economic models are performed differently, resulting in a variety of markets. This suggests that the material outcomes of processes of market creation are not defined at the outset, but can be influenced by political processes.     

Trees and decisions

Summary. The traditional model of sequential decision making, for instance, in extensive form games, is a tree. Most texts define a tree as a connected directed graph without loops and a distinguished node, called the root. But an abstract graph is not a domain for decision theory. Decision theory perceives of acts as functions from states to consequences. Sequential decisions, accordingly, get conceptualized by mappings from sets of states to sets of consequences. Thus, the question arises whether a natural definition of a tree can be given, where nodes are sets of states. We show that, indeed, trees can be defined as specific collections of sets. Without loss of generality the elements of these sets can be interpreted as representing plays. Therefore, the elements can serve as states and consequences at the same time.Received: 23 January 2003, Revised: 2 November 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: C72, D70. Correspondence to: Klaus RitzbergerWe are grateful to Larry Blume, Ariel Rubinstein, Jörgen Weibull, an anonymous referee, and seminar participants at the universities of Vienna, Salamanca, and Heidelberg for helpful comments. Financial support from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under project P15281 is also gratefully acknowledged.     

Enforcing Emissions Trading when Emissions Permits are Bankable

We propose enforcement strategies for emissions trading programs with bankable emissions permits that guarantee complete compliance with minimal enforcement costs. Our strategies emphasize imperfect monitoring supported by a high unit penalty for reporting violations, and tying this penalty directly to equilibrium permit prices. This approach is quite different from several existing enforcement strategies that emphasize high unit penalties for emissions in excess of permit holdings. Our analysis suggests that a high penalty for excess emissions cannot be used to conserve monitoring effort, and that it may actually increase the amount of monitoring necessary to maintain compliance.The authors are grateful to Anthony Heyes and three anonymous referees for their valuable comments. Partial support for this research was provided by the Cooperative State Research Extension, Education Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station under Project No. MAS00871.