Non-manipulable domains for the Borda count

Summary. We characterize the preference domains on which the Borda count satisfies Arrows independence of irrelevant alternatives condition. Under a weak richness condition, these domains are obtained by fixing one preference ordering and including all its cyclic permutations (Condorcet cycles). We then ask on which domains the Borda count is non-manipulable. It turns out that it is non-manipulable on a broader class of domains when combined with appropriately chosen tie-breaking rules. On the other hand, we also prove that the rich domains on which the Borda count is non-manipulable for all possible tie-breaking rules are again the cyclic permutation domains.Received: 24 November 2003, Revised: 12 December 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: D71. Correspondence to: Clemens PuppeThe third author gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Graduiertenkolleg 629 at the University of Bonn and from the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA F 043496).     

Pitfalls in estimating β-convergence by means of panel data: an empirical test

This article aims to test the conjecture advanced in a recent work by Bianchi and Menegatti (Appl Econ Lett 14:963–967, 2007) that usual β-convergence panel regressions may produce biased evidence, due to their inability to distinguish between actual catching-up across countries and decreasing growth rates over time within countries. The test considers different sub-groups in a dataset of 72 countries for the period 1970–2000 and introduces both human capital and proxies for technological differences into the analysis. The results confirm the conjecture that traditional evidence about β-convergence may be misleading; they also show that catching-up across countries is weaker than usually claimed and that this process occurred only in some sub-groups of countries.     

Peer effects in computer assisted learning: evidence from a randomized experiment

We conduct a large scale experiment to investigate peer effects in computer assisted learning (CAL). Identification relies on three levels of randomization. We find an average 0.17 standard deviation improvement in math scores among primary school students. This average effect is the same for students treated individually or in pairs, implying that peer effects double the learning benefit from a given equipment. Among paired students, poor performers benefit more from CAL when paired with good performers and vice versa. Average performers benefit equally irrespective of who they are paired with. This suggests that the treatment is dominated by knowledge exchange between peers. We also find that CAL treatment reduces the dispersion in math scores and that the beneficial effects of CAL can be strengthened if weak students are systematically paired with strong students.     

试议我国零售商自有品牌的开发

开发零售商自有品牌是零售商取得市场经营的主动权,增强市场竞争能力,更好地满足消费者多样化需求的有效途径之一,是零售商实施品牌战略的重要手段。在开发自有品牌过程中零售商具有多种优势,也存在一定的困难,但它已成为商品品牌发展的重要趋势。     

Tourism Restructuring and the Politics of Sustainability: A Critical View From the European Periphery (The Canary Islands)

There has been considerable discussion of sustainable tourism development, in both theory and practice. Less attention has been paid to the discourses, ideologies and power relations which help to shape 'sustainable' tourism policies and planning instruments. This paper analyses recent initiatives introduced by the regional government of the Canary Islands, designed to bring about a more sustainable model of regional tourism, including a temporary moratorium on tourism development and the drafting of a strategic and normative set of guidelines for sustainable tourism. The paper considers the contested nature of the public debate that accompanied these initiatives within the wider context of the regionally distinct pattern of tourism and capitalist development. It is argued that the legacy of uneven development, and the entrenched power of regional economic and political élites, is likely to undermine the prospects for a just model of sustainable tourism, and to consolidate the continuing privatisation of space and socio-spatial inequalities across the region.     

精神文明建设在改革和发展中的作用

精神文明建设与物质文明是社会主义现代化建设两个基本方面,提高全民的两个素质,培育"四有公民",促进社会的全面进步是精神文明建设的根本宗旨.精神文明建设对改革和发展有较为重要的作用.     

Regional trade and foreign currency regimes among the former Soviet Republics

The paper examines the problems arising from the adoption of national currencies in former Soviet Republics, and advances proposals to avoid excessive trade and output contractions. The move towards national currencies in many republics — though politically unavoidable and economically efficient in the medium term — is seen as having disruptive effects on interrepublican trade in the short term, with heavy losses of incomes and employment, which add to the costs of market transition. Mutual convertibility among the new currencies could allow some of the negative consequences on trade and production to be overcome, while in the event of mutual currently inconvertibility the effects on interrepublic trade could be disastrous and only some form of payments agreement could reduce the magnitude of the contraction. An intermediate currency regime which could sustain the level of income and employment would be based on the use of the Russian rouble as a regional means of payment. Such an event, however, would require as a pre-condition the stabilization of the Russian currency.