Foundations of mechanism design: a tutorial Part 1- Key concepts and classical results

Mechanism design, an important tool in microeconomics, has found widespread applications in modelling and solving decentralized design problems in many branches of engineering, notably computer science, electronic commerce, and network economics. Mechanism design is concerned with settings where a social planner faces the problem of aggregating the announced preferences of multiple agents into a collective decision when the agents exhibit strategic behaviour. The objective of this paper is to provide a tutorial introduction to the foundations and key results in mechanism design theory. The paper is in two parts. Part 1 focuses on basic concepts and classical results which form the foundation of mechanism design theory. Part 2 presents key advanced concepts and deeper results in mechanism design

The Toolkit of economic sociology

In this brief paper I will argue that economic sociology would do well to follow the example of political economy in this respect and pay more attention to analytical economics and its ideas. Contemporary economic sociology, I argue, focuses far too much on social relations and views the impact of these as the explanation to most of what happens in the economy. What is wrong with this approach is that it disregards the importance of interests or the forces that drive human behavior, not least in the economy. What needs to be done – and this will be the red thread throughout this paper – is to combine social relations and interests in one and the same analysis. If we do this, I argue, we may be able to unite some of the basic insights from economics, with some of the basic insights from sociology (e.g. Swedberg 2003). As opposed to modern economics, economic sociology does not have a core of basic concepts and ideas, welded together over a long period of time. Instead economic sociology, mirroring sociology itself, consists of a number of competing perspectives, some more coherent than others. Many economic sociologists, for example, draw on social constructivist perspective, others on a Weberian perspective; some follow Mark Granovetter in emphasizing embeddedness, others Pierre Bourdieu in approaching the analysis of the economy with the concepts of field, habitus and different types of capital. The reader who is interested in an introduction to these different perspectives is referred to The Handbook of Economc Sociology (Smelser and Swedberg 1994; second edition forthcoming in 2005). In what follows I shall first discuss two of the most important concepts in modern economic sociology – embeddedness (including networks) and field. I will then proceed to a discussion of two concepts that I argue should be at the center of contemporary economic sociology: a sociological concept of interest and an interest-based concept of institutions

Cooperative game theory and its application to natural, environmental, and water resource issues : 1. basic theory

Game theory provides useful insights into the way parties that share a scarce resource may plan their use of the resource under different situations. This review provides a brief and self-contained introduction to the theory of cooperative games. It can be used to get acquainted with the basics of cooperative games. Its goal is also to provide a basic introduction to this theory, in connection with a couple of surveys that analyze its use in the context of environmental problems and models. The main models (bargaining games, transfer utility, and non-transfer utility games) and issues and solutions are considered: bargaining solutions, single-value solutions like the Shapley value and the nucleolus, and multi-value solutions such as the core. The cooperative game theory (CGT) models that are reviewed in this paper favor solutions that include all possible players and ignore the strategic stages leading to coalition building. They focus on the possible results of the cooperation by answering questions such as: Which coalitions can be formed? And how can the coalitional gains be divided to secure a sustainable agreement? An important aspect associated with the solution concepts of CGT is the equitable and fair sharing of the cooperation gains.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Livestock&Animal Husbandry,Education for the Knowledge Economy,Education for Development (superceded)

Introduction to LaTeX

LaTeX is a document preparation system used in a wide variety of disciplines. Originally written for mathematics, LaTeX is now used throughout the sciences and in fields as diverse as linguistics, economics, and political science. With LaTeX, users can create professional-looking articles, lab reports, and presentations with complex mathematical expressions. LaTeX is widely used, especially in the sciences, but the learning curve for LaTeX is steep and can be daunting to new users. While it may be necessary for future success in the student’s discipline, getting started with LaTeX can be a significant hurdle. For graduate students, a structured introduction provides a supportive way to begin using LaTeX for articles, dissertations, and other documents. In this session, participants will take part in a graduate level workshop entitled “Introduction to LaTeX.” This workshop was developed in response to requests for LaTeX instruction and emphasizes basic concepts that can be applied in any LaTeX document

Mobile Internet based M-Commerce Management Architecture & System

The mobile Internet exits already in very many forms on the market. However, there are definitely still a lot of possibilities to improve the current concepts and solution, and thus a lot of room for future R&D activities. This paper is divided five parts as followings: First of all, introduction; Secondly, the basic concept of mobile Internet is introduced, and its’ develop- ment status is described simply; Thirdly, the process of come into being M-commerce based on Internet and the existing modes of M-commerce are discussed respectively; the differences between E-commerce and Mcommerce are also shown in the paper; Fourthly, an M-commerce system model is presented, the model involves its’ basic elements such as hierarchical architecture, management mechanism, system decision-making, application procedure etc; Fifthly, development trend and application fields for coming the new economics times are forecasted; Finally, how to build a M-commerce management system and make applications for business via CERNET** (one of the biggest Internet platform in China) are introduced primarily in end of the paper

PENERAPAN METODE DISKUSI SYNDICATE GROUP UNTUK MENINGKATKANPEMAHAMAN MAHASISWAPADA KONSEP DASAR PENGANTAR ILMU EKONOMI

The objectives of this study are to improve the learning quality Introduction to Economics, to improve students’ spirit in learning, to improve lecturers’ skill in developing learning model and media and  also to improve students’ achievement in learning. This study was class action research consists of three cycles. Result of study showed students’ achievement was improving on each cycle. Students’ learning completeness before applying syndicate group discussion method was 0%, after applying syndicate group discussion group; students’ achievement after final test was 94%. Students’ interest, activeness and relationship in learning process with range 1-4, the result was good (3.2). Result of observation related to lecturers’ skill in managing the learning process which used map concept method with range1-4 showed a good result with average of cycle 1, cycle 2 and cycle 3 was 3.2. That score was the average of all aspects investigated on three cycles. Based on result of study, it was suggested that for lecturers of Introduction of Economics subject to apply syndicate group discussion method in teaching-learning process. This methodwas approved to improve students’ ability to analyze the case and understand the concepts of Introductions to Economics. This was because students are given opportunity to do research in the field related to the topic and then find the problems that will be discussed in the class. Thus, students are usual to think critically and analytically to face a case. And finally, students can find the topics concepts. Moreover, result of study can be applied for other subjects because this study gives the positive impact. Key words: Syndicate Group Discussion Method, Basic Concepts of Introduction to Economics. </em

La economia y las uvas de la ira

Un estudiante me dijo una vez: “La economía no es verdadera”. Este trabajo trata de mostrar cómo nos ayuda la economía a entender mejor nuestro mundo. Usando la muy conocida novela de Steinbeck Las uvas de la ira traté de relacionar los conceptos económicos básicos con la acción que se narra en el libro, para mostrar que la economía, o la literatura, son útiles para explicar la complejidad de la Gran Depresión, específicamente la complejidad asociada con las migraciones de trabajadores a otros estados. Este texto puede ser estimulante en los cursos de introducción, pues indica que las leyes del mercado son nociones básicas útiles, así como la información imperfecta, los mercados competitivos o la negociación colectiva.Students may remark that, “Economics are not real.” This work suggests how Economics may help us to understand our world better. Steinbeck’s well-known novel, The Grapes of Wrath, tried to relate basic economic concepts to the events portrayed in the book to show that both Economics and Literature are useful for explaining the Great Depression’s complexity, specifically the complexity associated with workers migrating from state to state. This should make this text stimulating for some introductory undergraduate courses, suggesting market laws and other useful basic notions such as imperfect information, competitive markets or collective bargaining.Ce travail essai de montrer comment l´économie nous aide à mieux comprendre notre monde. En utilisant le roman très connu de Steinbeck Les raisins de la colère j´ai essayé de mettre en relation les concepts économiques de base avec l´action racontée dans le livre, pour montrer que l´économie, ou la littérature, sont utiles pour expliquer la complexité de la Grande Dépression, et plus particulièrement la complexité associée aux migrations de travailleurs vers d´autres états. Ce texte peut être stimulant dans les cours d´introduction, car il indique que les lois du marché sont des notions de base utiles, comme l´information imparfaite, les marchés compétitifs ou la négociation collective

Entrepreneurial competencies in Elementary Schools

Entrepreneurial competencies are key elements for the development of any national economy. Almost every European country has those competencies in the national curriculum for all ages as its important aims, goals and objectives (from preschool through elementary school to high school and university). Croatian National Curriculum Framework emphasizes entrepreneurship as a cross-curricular topic. Its goals, objectives and outcomes are acquiring knowledge, skills and aspects necessary for planning and organizing entrepreneurial activities, development of communication skills and responsibility for self and others, overcoming difficulties and acquiring economic literacy. Introduction of Entrepreneurship as a Cross-curricular Theme in Primary Schools has been implemented in the Elementary school Precko, Zagreb, in order to develop the curriculum for entrepreneurial learning and development of student’s entrepreneurial competencies. University College of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Management „Nikola Subic Zrinski“, Zagreb, conducted Workshops and In-service Training for teachers. They were introduced to the basic economic concepts. All teachers conducted entrepreneurial workshops with students from the 5th to the 8th class year with the objective of producing a particular product. All involved students at the workshops are introduced to the basic concepts of: entrepreneurship, raw materials, profitable risk taking, loss and profit, creating new values, calculation of production costs and value-added tax (VAT). Students found practical work and use of motor skills very challenging. School presented final result of workshops to the general public, the media and the parents with the public presentation. Students tried their skills in the public presentation of their products, presenting what they have produced in the workshops and business concepts they adopted