Bring in the Green Cat

The New York Times, November 15, 2006 I've been a regular visitor to China since 1990, and here's what strikes me most: Each year that I've come here, China's people seem to speak with greater ease and breathe with greater difficulty. Yes, you can now hav…     

A Test of Two Skew Models to Explain Cooperative Breeding

Synopsis Two competing models, reproductive skew and skew selection, have been constructed to explain the evolution of cooperation among unrelated breeders. Reproductive skew is a trade-off model that assumes breeding occurs under scarce resource conditions. One breeder gains units of fecundity at the expense of other breeders during aggressive, altruistic or tug-of-war transactions. After joining, the distribution of fecundity among breeders shifts from symmetrical to asymmetrical. In contrast, skew selection is a surplus model that assumes breeding occurs during a springtime glut. Skew selection assumes that fecundity among breeders is initially asymmetrical and that joining reduces the asymmetry of fecundity. This paper reports findings from a breeding experiment on the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, which supported skew selection rather than reproductive skew. Joining was a win-win strategy for alpha and beta breeders; beta breeders gained within-group survival benefits; alpha breeders gained between-group survival benefits. In summary, skew selection extends Darwin’s theory of natural selection by revealing the self-interested core of cooperative breeding.      

Technological leadership and sectorial employment growth: A spatial econometric analysis for U.S. counties

This paper studies the determinants of technological catch‐up considering spatial and sectoral aggregation of industries. We investigate how geographical and technological proximity to the technology leader impact regional employment growth. We model technological progress by means of a hierarchical process of catch‐up to the technology leader. We also incorporate measures for knowledge spillover effects to test the roles of competition, specialisation, and diversity at the industry level. Empirical results using data at the county level for different economic sectors (2‐dig NAICS) for the United States indicate that human capital plays a crucial role in promoting sectoral employment growth. The association between technological/geographical distance to the technology leader and employment growth varies across sectors.     

家长式导师风格对研究生科研创造力的影响机制研究——学术激情与科研自我效能感的作用

明晰导师风格和研究生科研创造力的关系对提高研究生培养质量、完善培养机制具有重要意义.以社会交换理论、自我决定理论及社会认知理论为基础,构建了以家长式导师风格为自变量,学术激情为中介变量,研究生科研创造力为因变量,研究生科研自我效能感为调节变量的研究模型.通过对问卷调查数据进行回归分析和Bootstrap检验对研究模型进行了检验.结果表明:家长式导师风格的3个维度(仁慈导师风格、威权导师风格、德行导师风格)正向显著影响了研究生科研创造力和学术激情,学术激情的两个维度正向显著影响了研究生科研创造力;学术激情在家长式导师风格对研究生科研创造力的影响机制中有中介作用,其中强迫学术激情完全中介了威权导师风格的正向影响作用;研究生科研自我效能感对学术激情的中介作用有显著的强化作用.在研究生培养过程中塑造家长式的导师风格对提高研究生科研创造力具有积极的意义.     

An exceptional development pattern

This paper investigates India's exceptional development pattern, specifically the major importance of information technology services (ITS), and compares it with China's development pattern. Both countries want to develop capabilities for carrying out the innovation of technologies that compete at the state-of-the-art in the world market. The paper posits that technological/economic success in the contemporary world market requires the ability to innovate complex technologies and complex technology-related services. The share of trade represented by complex technologies is compared with the “high-tech” share. The trading patterns of the two countries are compared using United Nations data. Two case studies of Indian ITS companies are then compared with two case studies of Chinese manufacturing companies. Historical and cultural differences appear to explain some of the differences in the development patterns of the companies located in the two countries.     

Bureaucracy and student performance in US public schools

This paper tests the hypothesis that monopoly power of school districts allows bureaucratic expansion and fosters poor academic performance in the public school system in California. Evidence indicates that monopoly power is positively associated with employment of administrators and teachers, and therefore supports the bureaucratic expansion hypothesis. While numbers of teachers do not influence performance measures, numbers of administrators are shown to positively affect performance - results that suggest that too many teachers, but too few administrators, are employed. While bureaucracy theory may explain the resource misallocation, other reasons might include rising public pressures on hiring teachers over administrators, spending equalization policies, and the weak California economy in the period under investigation.     

Moonlighting: multiple motives and gender differences

This paper examines the incidence and reasons for moonlighting with a focus on gender differences. The study specifies and estimates a bivariate probit model of labour supply and the decision to hold more than one job. It is found that the factors leading men and women to moonlight are similar. A wage decomposition analysis reveals that 93 percent of the differential between male and female moonlighters' wages is not explained by differences in characteristics, and little connection is found between an individual's human capital and their moonlighting wage. Finally, it is found that moonlighters are less likely to report their income.