Out of sight: problem sequences and epistemic boundaries of medical know-how on glaucoma

This paper analyses the process of knowledge growth in a branch of medical science. It proposes a study on the scientific advances in glaucoma research organized in two parts. The first presents a qualitative overview of the problem sequences that have characterized 150years of medical research in ophthalmology. This is complemented in the second part by a network analysis of scientific publications and collaborations of the last 50years. Medical knowledge, we surmise, is punctuated by patterns of specialization, diversification and coordination that emerge both within and among scientific, technical, institutional and organizational realms.     

On e-business strategy planning and performance: a comparative study of the UK and Greece

In this research study the effect of Financial and Non-Financial performance of organisations on e-business strategy planning is investigated. The strategic planning parameters of Phillips model are examined when applied to e-business strategy planning. The relationships between these parameters, that is, Formality, Participation, Sophistication and Thoroughness, and Financial and Non-Financial Performance, are examined and the directions of these relationships are investigated. A conceptual model has been constructed and quantitative research methods are used to test four hypotheses. The proposed e-business model was tested in two EU countries, the UK and Greece. A synoptic statistical analysis and comparative numerical results are given showing that in both countries Participation has a positive relationship with Financial Performance and Formality has a positive relationship with Non-Financial Performance. The proposed model is extendable and valid in countries other than the UK and Greece, thus being able to be adapted to and used in other national environments.     

ACCOUNTING FOR RISK AVERSION, VESTING, JOB TERMINATION RISK AND MULTIPLE EXERCISES IN VALUATION OF EMPLOYEE STOCK OPTIONS

We present a valuation framework that captures the main characteristics of employee stock options (ESOs), which financial regulations now require to be expensed in firms' accounting statements. The value of these options is much less than Black–Scholes prices for corresponding market-traded options due to the suboptimal exercising strategies of the holders, which arise from risk aversion, trading and hedging constraints, and job termination risk. We analyze the combined effect of all of these factors along with the standard ESO features of multiple exercising rights, and vesting periods. This leads to the study of a chain of nonlinear free-boundary problems of reaction-diffusion type. We find that job termination risk, vesting, finite maturity and non-zero interest rates are significant contributors to the ESO cost. However, we find that in the presence of vesting, the impact of allowing multiple exercise rights on ESO cost is negligible.     

Complex Systems and the Merger Process

This paper considers how some of the generic principles that have emerged in the course of recent study and thinking around complex systems might be applied in a helpful way to the particular context of understanding the nature of the merger process. Theoretically, the paper stresses the connections between the processual and time-dependent nature of learning and knowledge acquisition and the systemic nature of socio-economic development and transformation. When carried into the substantive domain of mergers and their contribution to restructuring in the pharmaceuticals industry, we suggest that the complex systems approach provides a fruitful complement to alternative conceptual frameworks, albeit one which is still at an early stage of development in terms of this particular application.     

Adaptive economic growth

This paper develops an evolutionary theory of adaptive growth,understood as a product of structural change and economic self-transformation,based upon processes that are closely connected with but notreducible to the growth of knowledge. The dominant connectingtheme is enterprise, the innovative variations it generatesand the multiple connections between investment, innovation,demand and structural transformation in the market process.The paper explores the dependence of macroeconomic productivitygrowth on the diversity of technical progress functions andincome elasticities of demand at the industry level, and theresolution of this diversity into patterns of economic changethrough market processes. It is shown how industry growth ratesare constrained by higher-order processes of emergence thatconvert an ensemble of industry growth rates into an aggregaterate of growth. The growth of productivity, output and employmentare determined mutually and endogenously, and their values dependon the variation in the primary causal influences in the system.     

Estimation of a Stratified Error‐Components Model*

This article shows that the presence of incidental parameters in Baltagi and Griffin's (International Economic Review 29 (1988), 745–53) generalized error‐components model implies there is no guarantee feasible and true GLS estimators have the same asymptotic distribution. The article then considers a related stratified error‐components model that has no incidental parameters. In this model, unobserved heterogeneity occurs through variances changing across strata. The article provides an EM algorithm for calculating estimates of the model's parameters without assuming observations can be classified into strata, derives a bootstrap test for identifying the number of strata, and applies the new methods in an example.     

How Does Industry Affect Firm Financial Structure?

We examine the importance of industry to firm-level financialand real decisions. We find that in addition to standard industryfixed effects, financial structure also depends on a firm’sposition within its industry. In competitive industries, a firm’sfinancial leverage depends on its natural hedge (its proximityto the median industry capital–labor ratio), the actionsof other firms in the industry, and its status as entrant, incumbent,or exiting firm. Financial leverage is higher and less dispersedin concentrated industries, where strategic debt interactionsare also stronger, but a firm’s natural hedge is not significant.Our results show that financial structure, technology, and riskare jointly determined within industries. These findings areconsistent with recent industry equilibrium models of financialstructure.     

Robust tests of forward exchange market efficiency with empirical evidence from the 1920s

This paper provides a robust statistical approach to testing the unbiasedness hypothesis in forward exchange market efficiency studies. The methods we use allow us to work explicitly with levels rather than differenced data. They are statistically robust to data distributions with heavy tails, and they can be applied to data sets where the frequency of observation and the futures maturity do not coincide. In addition, our methods allow for stochastic trend non-stationarity and general forms of serial dependence. The methods are applied to daily data of spot exchange rates and forward exchange rates during the 1920s, which marked the first episode of a broadly general floating exchange rate system. The tail behaviour of the data is analysed using an adaptive data-based method for estimating the tail slope of the density. The results confirm the need for the use of robust regression methods. We find cointegration between the forward rate and spot rate for the four currencies we consider (the Belgian and French francs, the Italian lira and the US dollar, all measured against the British pound), we find support for a stationary risk premium in the case of the Belgian franc, the Italian lira and the US dollar, and we find support for the simple market efficiency hypothesis (where the forward rate is an unbiased predictor of the future spot rate and there is a zero mean risk premium) in the case of the US dollar.     

Communicating the health effects of consumer products: The case of moderate alcohol consumption and coronary heart disease

Moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages (MAC) has been estimated to significantly reduce the risk of myocardial infarction. This paper examines effective ways to communicate this information to guide individuals and their physicians, who must weight personal benefits and costs when deciding about drinking. It argues that presenting a scalar representation of the effect, life years saved, is much more effective than the ways such information is currently communicated. A simulation using data from the Framingham Heart Study and a conservative estimate of the effect of MAC calculates age-specific gains in mortality, and survival gains from MAC. They are roughly 0.75 and 0.63 years, respectively, for men and women ages 21–50. Any MAC decision should weigh the benefits of cardiac risk reduction against possible financial, lifestyle or offsetting health costs.