Inequality and Unsustainable Growth:TWO Sides of the Same Coin?

Over the long run, sustained growth is central to poverty reduction.The rapid growth seen in much of the world over the past few decades, notably, but not only, in China and India, has led to an unprecedented reduction in poverty.And, in general, increases in per capita income tend to translate into proportionate increases in income of the poor.As Dollar and Kraay memorably put it, "Growth Is Good for the Poor."Some inequality is integral to the effective functioning of a market economy and the incentives needed for investment and growth.But too much inequality might be destructive to growth.Beyond the risk that inequality.     

Industry changes in technology and complementary assets and the creation of high-growth firms

This study uses employment data to examine why some industries host more new high-growth firms than others. Using a unique data base of 201 industries over a 15-year period, we find that increases in the proportion of employment of scientists and engineers in industries are positively associated with counts of fast-growing new firms; however, we do not detect a relationship between fluctuations in the proportion of employment in sales and production occupations and counts of fast-growing new firms. The findings suggest that technological innovation is an important determinant of entrepreneurial opportunity. Further, they suggest that private new firms are an important means of organizing commercial innovation and that new firms may be less constrained by complementary assets than has been previously understood.     

Nonlinear dynamical systems and inventory management

Surprisingly, deterministic time series can generate highly irregular, random-appearing trajectories. These deterministic time series result from nonlinear dynamical systems of differential or difference equations. The random appearance displayed by these systems is called nonlinear dynamical complexity. Properties of nonlinear complex systems include aperiodic random appearance, sensitive dependence on initial conditions and model parameters, and nonstationarity. Experiments involving the operation of simulated business environments and theoretical nonlinear dynamical models for inventory are reviewed to explore motivating factors that can give rise to demand with nonlinear complexities. The experimental and theoretical evidence reviewed indicates that nonlinear complexities in demand have significant implications for inventory management. Thus, researchers and practitioners in inventory management need to consider these properties when choosing inventory management methods. Characteristics of nonlinear dynamical systems and their implications for inventory management are presented in this paper. The use of the Brock, Dechert, and Scheinkman (1987) (BDS) test for nonlinear dependence is demonstrated on actual demand data.     

Prediction of decomposition limits for ethylene oxide-nitrogen vapor mixtures

A decomposition limit equation applicable to liquid ethylene oxide storage conditions based on recently obtained data is presented. Comparison is made with a second correlation equation developed from literature data. Adjustment of predicted decomposition limits to produce recommended safe operating limits is discussed.     

Beyond the agroecological and sustainable agricultural intensification debate: Is blended sustainability the way forward?

With the sustainable development goals has come a renewed global interest in ending hunger and achieving food security, while preventing natural resource degradation. Despite this renewed interest and increased commitments to invest in agricultural development, there is an outstanding debate over the technological trajectories to sustainability. The debate centres on sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) and agroecological intensification (AEI) pathways to agricultural sustainability. Using a systematic literature review approach, this study examines the debate over AEI and SAI. This study employs a theoretical framework based on the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of sustainable agriculture within a policy and institutional space. Based on the sustainability dimensions, a discourse analytical technique is applied to unravel the debate. The results reveal differences in actor composition in the SAI and AEI pathways. Both pathways aim to promote food security with optimal and sustainable use of inputs; however, the actors differ on discourse relating to the concept of farming, the role of genetic engineering, the scale of operation, land use and soil health. Resolving these differences requires a blended sustainability approach that moves beyond the current AEI and SAI debate by acknowledging the tradeoffs and synergies of the socio-economic and ecological dimensions.     

Encouraging Professional Skepticism in the Industry Specialization Era

This paper provides theory and experimental evidence that, under common audit conditions, industry specialization inhibits some aspects of auditors’ professional skepticism. As auditors amass industry experience, they develop extensive knowledge of non-misstatement explanations for unusual financial statement fluctuations. This knowledge coupled with confidence in their ability to analyze audit evidence inhibits their inclination to be skeptical when there are no overt indicators of elevated misstatement risk. Although these conditions are, by definition, the conditions where misstatements are least likely, they are also the same conditions where the PCAOB has alleged pervasive insufficient professional skepticism and where well-concealed fraud is possible. These results pose an ethical dilemma for the PCAOB in terms of weighing its charge to protect the public interest against the fairness of its inspections to audit firms. Encouragingly, I also predict and find that audit firm efforts to promote professional skepticism are more effective for specialists as non-specialists are skeptical regardless of these efforts.     

Disentangling location-based advertising: the effects of location congruency and medium type on consumers' ad attention and brand choice

Research on location-based advertising (LBA) suggests that the merits of LBA lie in the fact that consumers can be targeted with location-congruent ads on their personal mobile devices. However, LBA consists of two underlying constructs: a mobile (vs. point-of-sales) advertising medium and location congruency (vs. location incongruency). This study aims to disentangle these underlying constructs by showing that they differentially affect the efficacy of an ad. Using a virtual reality lab experiment, this study shows that location-congruent ads result in increased choice for the target brand as compared to location-incongruent ads, independent of medium type. However, in location-incongruent situations, mobile ads attracted more attention than point-of-sales display ads. The advantages of LBA thus do not seem to emanate from medium type, but rather from the congruency between the ad and product location. When the ad is received at a different location than the product, the mobile medium is able to enhance consumers' ad attention.