Computer assisted text analysis in the social sciences

We use the term “Computer Assisted Text Analysis” in a broad sense to refer to a range of current techniques from quantitative social science and content analysis to ‘data mining’ and ‘text classification’, including the analysis of open-ended survey questions, transcribed interviews and speeches, wherever, in fact, the researcher is confronted with data in the form of natural language texts of social scientific interest. These methods are often used in exploratory data analysis, but can also be applied systematically with moderate statistical rigour in the development and testing of hypotheses at various theoretical levels, ranging from the statistics of word usage to changes within or between discourses over time. The general approach is in the tradition of content analysis, by which words which occur together in relatively close proximity in the same context are interpreted as relating to a common theme or concept in the discourse studied. We review a comprehensive set of tools to identify and visualize structures of co-occurrence of words and concepts both within, and in comparing, a number of texts. These produce results not essentially different from those reached by representing word co-occurrences in terms of network analysis or neural network programming using schematic linguistic templates of various kinds. A comparison of the relational data analysis vs. a dictionary-based MDS approach shows that these provide very close if not identical results, despite the fact that the underlying assumptions are frequently represented as different theoretical approaches.     

Labour disputes,investment decisions and the judiciary

In this article, we show that the presence of the judiciary in the background of labour relationships is not neutral within these relations: its potential intervention in case of an ex-post layoff and conflict over the severance payment can promote ex-ante efficient specific investment decisions. This ability to promote efficiency depends on the judiciary's aptitude to balance out the parties' ex-post bargaining powers. Interestingly one of the results shows that, if workers' bargaining power in wage negotiations is low, which implies that they expect low returns from continuing the relationships, an increase in the exogenous layoff probability should lead judges to be less lenient towards them.     

Induced innovation and land degradation: Results from a bioeconomic model of a village in West Africa

This paper introduces a modeling method which simulates a village's response to population and market pressure. The method combines a recursive and dynamic linear programming model with a biophysical model of soil condition and plant growth that predicts yields and land degradation for different type of land, land use and cropping patterns. The linear programming model simulates farmers' plans aggregated at the village level under constraints of risk aversion, food consumption, land area, soil fertility, soil depth, labor and cash availability. Detailed agroecological factors determine Ihe main processes of land degradation. A large number of technological alternatives, representing different degrees of labor and/or land-saving techniques available in the study areas, are introduced, taking into account their respective constraints, costs and advantages. The method has been calibrated for a village located in the sub-humid region of Burkina Faso. Several simulations are carried out to the Year 2030. The results show that population pressure leads to intensification and investment in land conservation practices out not necessarily to better farm incomes. Increasing market opportunities can play a more positive role in boosting productivity, but for the next decades the best way to increase production per farmer is to let farmers migrate from the high-population-density areas to the low-population-density areas because, under the current economic conditions of most Sahelian countries, intensification per hectare is stil more expensive than the fallow system.     

Tariff equivalents of nontariff measures: the case of European horticultural and fish imports from African countries

In the context of the Partnership Agreements between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries, this study estimates ad valorem tariff equivalents of European food safety standards on imports of key horticultural and fish products from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The study uses an extension of the price‐wedge method to account for imperfect substitution and factor endowment in monopolistic competition. The estimated tariff equivalents are 55% and 98% for imports of fresh peas from Zambia to the Netherlands and the U.K., respectively. They range from 39% to 64% for imports of green beans and avocados from Kenya and from 63% to 270% for imports of frozen fish fillets in EU countries from the East African Community. We also observe large variations in tariff equivalents for the horticultural and fish products over time and EU importing countries.     

International portfolio diversification: Currency,industry and country effects revisited

We examine the relative importance of country, industry, world market and currency risk factors for international stock returns. Our approach focuses on testing the mean-variance efficiency of the various factor portfolios. An unconditional analysis does not show significant differences between country, industry and world portfolios, nor any role for currency risk factors. However, when we allow expected returns, volatilities and correlations to vary over time, we find that equity returns are mainly driven by global industry and currency risk factors. We propose a novel test to evaluate the relative benefits of alternative investment strategies and find that including currencies is critical to take full advantage of the diversification benefits afforded by international markets.     

Innovation and diffusion of environmental technology: Industrial NOx abatement in Sweden under refunded emission payments

We study the actual process of technical change in the case of NOx abatement from large stationary sources that have been regulated by very forceful policies in Sweden. Considerable progress has been made in lowering aggregate emissions and this paper seeks to disaggregate average industry improvements to study how much of it is due to innovations by first movers, and how much is achieved by adoption and diffusion of technology. We find both factors very important. Innovation has been rapid: the best firms have cut emissions on the order of 70%. In spite of this, reductions have actually been even more rapid for the majority of firms so that the median firms have caught up with best practice. We analyze various characteristics of the technological change observed.     

NO MARGINAL ARBITRAGE OF THE SECOND KIND FOR HIGH PRODUCTION REGIMES IN DISCRETE TIME PRODUCTION–INVESTMENT MODELS WITH PROPORTIONAL TRANSACTION COSTS

We consider a class of production–investment models in discrete time with proportional transaction costs. For linear production functions, we study a natural extension of the no‐arbitrage of the second kind condition introduced by Rásonyi. We show that this condition implies the closedness of the set of attainable claims and is equivalent to the existence of a strictly consistent price system under which the evaluation of future production profits is strictly negative. This allows us to discuss the closedness of the set of terminal wealth in models with nonlinear production, functions which may admit arbitrages of the second kind for low production regimes but not marginally for high production regimes.     

Technik für ein langes Leben

Megatrend Ambient Assisted Living - Im Jahr 2035 wird in Deutschland jeder dritte Mensch ?lter sein als 60 Jahre. Die Nachfrage nach Dienstleistungen und unterstützenden Systemen wird steigen. Technische Assistenzsysteme für Pflegende, Pflegebedürftige und deren Angeh?rige sollen das Leben im Alter sicherer und bequemer machen.     

ALCHIAN AND DEMSETZ'S CRITIQUE OF THE COOPERATIVE FIRM THIRTY‐SEVEN YEARS AFTER

The author discusses the critique of cooperatives implied in Alchian and Demsetz's argument that efficiency is maximized when the central agent managing the firm and watching the labour force at work is the residual claimant. Entering upon a number of criticisms that Alchian and Demsetz's approach attracted over the years, he concludes that their critique does not hold, and his basic argument is that cooperative firms vesting the monitoring function in elected managers will not be less efficient than capitalistic firms in the same situation.