Scientific policy and free riders

This paper presents econometric evidence of the effects of knowledge capital and institutions on technology transfer funding. A model is proposed and fitted for 31 research units on agricultural, forestry, and food sciences in Catalonia, Spain from 1990 to 1996. We find a strong impact of knowledge capital and institutional variables on technology transfer funding. Considering administrative costs strengthens the main points of the model and in some cases greatly changes the results. In particular, we reject the hypothesis that administrative costs do not matter. We also find evidence of the existence of free-rider strategies and that increasing returns-to-scale economies exist when bidding for technology transfer funding.An earlier draft of this paper was completed while the author was a visiting scholar at Iowa State University. The author is grateful to Wallace Huffman, Todd Sandler, and Simon Vicary for comments. Financial support was provided by the Interministerial Commission for Science and Technology project, SEC96-2300, and the Interdepartmental Commission for Research and Technological Innovation project, SGR97-333.     

In Defense of DEFECT

The one-state machine that always defects is the only evolutionarily stable strategy in the machine game that is derived from the prisoners' dilemma, when preferences are lexicographic in complexity. This machine is the only stochastically stable strategy of the machine game when players are restricted to choosing machines with a uniformly bounded complexity. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C70, C72.     

INTERNATIONAL LISTINGS, THE SECURITY MARKET LINE AND CAPITAL MARKET INTEGRATION: THE CASE OF US LISTINGS ON THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE

This paper examines for international capital market segmentation by testing for changes (both inter-temporally and inter-beta) in the parameters of the riskreturn pricing relationship caused by the listing of US stocks on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) between 1965 and 1987. It is hypothesized that international listings reduce the negative effects associated with barriers to international investments, help integrate world markets and therefore decrease internationally listed stock's required returns. Significant negative deviations from the Sharpe-Lintner (SL) pre-listing pricing relationship during the postlisting period are therefore expected, primarily caused by decreases in the intercept parameter. We find, in support of the hypothesis, significant negative deviations from the predictions of SL for our sample, although they do not appear to have an intertemporal dimension. These deviations are largely associated both with decreases in the value of the SL model's intercept parameter and with low beta firms, and point toward some integration benefits from US listings on the LSE.     

Resource allocation, equality of access and health

Based upon the experience of Tanzania, this paper relates resource allocation in the health sector to the output of health, by contrasting access to and utilization of available health services by urban and rural populations. The writer argues that increased health expenditures alone cannot yield an efficient health care return unless the additional expenditure is spread ‘thinly’, in keeping with the realities of population distribution, transport possibilities, and disease patterns in most poor countries. Detailed data are presented for recurrent and capital expenditures for health facilities at different levels, and the output of those institutions is considered in terms of the volume of services offered. Those services are then measured according to their utilization by urban and rural populations. Because referral systems are found to function only marginally, it is argued that further building of large hospitals is not justified in the present situation of most poor countries. Specifically, the writer describes the ways in which Tanzania is changing its inefficient and unjust health care system. The paper concludes that the major obstacles to change are not shortages of resources or technologic ignorance but social systems that do not place high value upon the health care needs of rural peasants. It is in this way that the professional and elitist interests of the few are often destructive of the needs of the many.     

Foreign Direct Investment and Trade: A Causality Analysis

In this article, we analyze the relationship between outward foreign direct investment (FDI) and exports, using Spanish quarterly data for the period 1977–1998, by means of Granger causality tests in a cointegration framework. Our results point to the existence of a relationship of complementarity between both variables, with Granger causality running in the short run from outward FDI to exports, and bilateral Granger causality in the long run.     

Terrorism and tourism as logical companions

The symbiotic relationship between terrorism and tourism needs to be understood and acted on, not just in terms of security and marketing, but in terms of such factors as planning, site development, employment policies, political risk analysis and emergency management. This article looks at the relationship between tourism and terrorism from several perspectives. The political and economic impact of terrorism on tourism is assessed, including the sensitivity of the tourism industry to general political strife and the vulnerability of travellers and tourist facilities to terroristic activity. The nature of terroristic violence and the objectives of terrorist groups are evaluated to determine why and how attacks on tourists and facilities may fit the organizational and political objectives of terrorist groups. Finally, the article suggests how the industry and policy makers must proceed to reduce the vulnerability for tourists and the travel sector.     

Computerized management of tourism marketing information

This article discusses the benefits of applying computers to the management of marketing Information by the tourism industry. It looks at the role of regional tourism associations, and the monitoring of promotional programmes and details how such a system operates and draws together its potential applications.     

Book reviews

Abstract

This article examines the cultural field of fitness as a network of producers, consumers, products and practices that has developed around the care of the body through physical exercise. Drawing on a thematic text analysis of US exercise manuals, the paper focuses on how the commercial fitness field naturalizes associations between physical exercise and leisure, and between leisure and self‐work. In particular, the analysis examines three themes and their relevance to our broader understanding of leisure in contemporary consumer society: the management of leisure time; the use of leisure for self‐investment strategies; and the promotion of consumption as the framework for leisure and an accompanying notion of pleasure. The fitness field casts light on how leisure more generally is constructed as a sphere of obligations to make productive use of one’s time, to improve one’s body and self, and to do so through the wares of the consumer marketplace. The cultural imaginary of leisure as a time of freedom from work and responsibility is thus recast, in an age of individualization, as a time of freedom to accomplish the work of self‐production.