Approaching maker's phenomenon

The rising of maker's movement in recent years has been spoiled by the popularization of open source technologies like 3d printing and many others. The expiration of a set of patents have made possible the emergence of several and different communities that play and tinker with technology. At the same time, these new sociotechnology based collectivities have its origins in other pre-existing ones such as "Do It Yourself" and "Hackers". Our goal in this paper is to perform a comprehensive analysis of all these trends reviewing the existing literature and identifying the main features, values and aspirations. Moreover, we argue some policy recommendations in order to maximize the impact of these spaces into the urban sphere trying to boost its potential in education and social innovation

Exchange Rates Dynamics in a Target Zone – A Heterogeneous Expectations Approach

The target zone model of Krugman (1991) has failed empirically. In this paper, we develop a model of the exchange rate with heterogeneous agents in a free floating and a target zone regime. We show that this simple model mimics the empirical puzzles of exchange rates: excessive volatility, fat tails, volatility clustering, and disconnection from the fundamentals. In addition, the target zone regime replicates a reduced nominal volatility for the same level of fundamental volatility as in the free floating regime and the distribution of the exchange rate within the band is hump-shaped.exchange rate, heterogeneous agents, target zones

Beyond Statistics and Technology - Risk Handling in a Decision-Maker's Perspective

Studies of high-level decision-makers considering societal risks have demonstrated that their ways of actually dealing with such issues do not conform very closely to the normative pattern emerging from conventional risk analyses. The scientific concept of risk does not appear to be very useful in this context. The decision-makers are less concerned about information and knowledge than about problems related to polarized opinions among those affected by risks, surprises, mistakes, contradictions and other transscientific phenomena. Improvements of so-called decision support for high-level decision-making on societal risk need the application of perspectives other than those adopted in most conventional risk analyses. What is required are changes in attitude and mentality in order to be able to really care for the decision-makers. In the end, what really matters is values, interests and will of persons

The political economy of recasting the constitutional debate in Hong Kong

People obtain value, or gain utility, from procedures rather than merely from outcomes. Academic researchers are slowly and selectively coming to terms with this fact, but it is neither sufficiently nor widely appreciated by actors in Hong Kong's political arena, whether at the center or on the periphery. The territory is grappling with the issue of democratic reform— both its pace and scope— but the heated exchanges between the proponents and the opponents of representative government are confined to the outcome utility of the various constitutional proposals. It is essential to incorporate the procedural element into this incomplete picture

Defining the Scope of Broker and Dealer Duties -- Some Problems in Adjudicating the Responsibilities of Securities and Commodities Professionals

The purpose of this Article is to stress the need for grounding broker-dealer duties in sound, articulated understandings of the investment markets, as well as defensible statements of the responsibilities and expectations of both customers and market professionals. This important need will be demonstrated through the use of several cases illustrating problematical or failed processes by which broker-dealer duties have been established. This Article will focus primarily on two recent decisions, In re E.F. Hutton & Co., and Wasnick v. Refco, Inc., both of which have been criticized for inappropriately expanding broker and dealer duties. Each decision is better understood, however, as a case where the creation of a sound substantive duty becomes suspect because of the failure to state a wholly persuasive foundation for the establishment of that duty. This Article will begin with a rather detailed description of the Hutton litigation as it unfolded. Next, the aftermath of Hutton and a market-based alternative argument for the disclosure of the limit order execution policy required by Hutton will be discussed. Finally, the Article will review Hutton in the context of other litigation, focusing in particular on the expansion of a commodities broker\u27s duty to the customer resulting from Wasnick

Risk Attitudes and Measures of Value for Risky Lotteries.

The topic of this thesis is decision-making under risk. I focus my analysis on expected utility theory by von Neumann and Morgenstern. I am especially interested in modeling risk attitudes represented by Bernoulli utility functions that belong to the following classes: Constant Absolute Risk Aversion, Decreasing Absolute Risk Aversion (understood as strictly decreasing) and in particular a subset thereof - Constant Relative Risk Aversion. I build a theory of buying and selling price for a lottery, the concepts defined by Raiffa, since such theory proves useful in analyzing a number of interesting issues pertaining to risk attitudes' characteristics within expected utility model. In particular, I analyze the following: - Chapter 2 - expected utility without consequentialism, buying/selling price gap, preference reversal, Rabin paradox - Chapter 3 - characterization results for CARA, DARA, CRRA, simple strategies and an extension of Pratt result on comparative risk aversion - Chapter 4 - riskiness measure and its intuition, extended riskiness measure and its existence, uniqueness and propertiesdecision-making under risk; lottery; gamble; expected utility theory; risk attitudes; CARA; DARA; CRRA; buying and selling price for a lottery; D81; D03; C91;Decision making; Strategic planning; Risk-taking (Psychology);

Decision Making: A Computer-Science and Information-Technology Viewpoint

We address the phenomenon of decision making from the viewpoint of computer science and information technology. The basic question from this viewpoint is: what can the computer offer to decision makers and how it can support their work? Therefore, the main issue is to provide support to people who make complex decisions. In this article, we first present the taxonomy of disciplines that are concerned with methodological and operational aspects of decision support. At the main level, we distinguish between decision sciences, which are concerned with human decision making, and decision systems, which address computer decision making. This is followed by basic definitions related to decision processes and their components. We also describe properties that characterise different classes of decision problems. In the main part of the article, we present three prevailing approaches to decision support and give illustrative examples of their application: decision analysis, operational research, and decision support systems. Finally, we make a short overview of the area of decision systems and its achievements.decision making, decision sciences, decision support, decision analysis, decision systems

COMBINING THE SUITABILITY-FEASIBILITY-ACCEPTABILITY (SFA) STRATEGY WITH THE MCDM APPROACH

Suitability-Feasibility-Acceptability (SFA) is a fundamental tool for the development and selection of strategy. Any type of decision-making problem can be resolved by Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods. In this research, we explore the complexity of determining the proper goal market for the Chilean fish market. This study proposed a combined approach of SFA with MCDM methods in a real case study. The proposed structure helps to assign the best market for Chilean export fish to West Asia. Three countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman) are selected as a target market in this region, and then related criteria are obtained from various sources. In order to develop a new market for the Chilean fishery industry, five major criteria, including the potential of a target market, region's economic attractiveness, consumption of the seafood, location, cost of transportation, and country risks, were selected based on the SFA framework. Calculating the criteria weights is performed by the Best-Worst (BWM) method, and ordering the alternatives is operated by Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to compromise Solution (MARCOS) methods. The results showed that Oman is the best destination (importer) for the Chilean fish market (Salmon fish as the case)

What Cognitive Dissonance Tells Us About Tone in Persuasion

This Article takes the first step in thinking about where good advocacy should draw the line between zeal and coercion. Legal advocates differ about how to navigate that line.\u27 Is the best service to the client to be found in the most aggressive, strongest, hard-line approach? Or is a more tempered, reasonable approach most likely to produce the best results? This Article looks at cognitive science for guidance on this question. One cognitive process that seems to be integral to tone is cognitive dissonance, a concept I will explain in Part II. I then take a close look at two types of advocacy strategies that exemplify the conflict between the hardline and tempered approaches to advocacy. The first advocacy strategy, addressed in Part III, focuses on how to deal with arguments and information that undermine your position. Is it best to sound like you believe your case to be ideal and that contrary arguments are wholly without merit or even spurious? Or is it best to acknowledge that there are possible reasonable counterviews while still arguing that your position has greater merit? The second advocacy strategy, addressed in Part IV, is how to approach a controversial rule or premise for which you are advocating. Is the best approach to push early and hard in support of the rule, or to ease the reader into the controversial point by taking her through a step-by-step thought process that guides her to the controversial point? The bottom line is that in both rhetorical situations, cognitive dissonance supports an advocacy approach that, while still strong in pursuit of a favorable outcome, appears more gradual, objective, and reasonable. In other words, it is often advisable for lawyers to present arguments in a way that appears to be reasonable, measured, and objective