1,652 research outputs found

    Forced Information for Information-Theoretic Competitive Learning

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    Behavioral Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Behavior

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    Nobel Prize lecture.Behavioral economics;

    Machine Learning

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    Machine Learning can be defined in various ways related to a scientific domain concerned with the design and development of theoretical and implementation tools that allow building systems with some Human Like intelligent behavior. Machine learning addresses more specifically the ability to improve automatically through experience

    Learning in Evolutionary Environments

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    The purpose of this work is to present a sort of short selective guide to an enormous and diverse literature on learning processes in economics. We argue that learning is an ubiquitous characteristic of most economic and social systems but it acquires even greater importance in explicitly evolutionary environments where: a) heterogeneous agents systematically display various forms of "bounded rationality"; b) there is a persistent appearance of novelties, both as exogenous shocks and as the result of technological, behavioural and organisational innovations by the agents themselves; c) markets (and other interaction arrangements) perform as selection mechanisms; d) aggregate regularities are primarily emergent properties stemming from out-of-equilibrium interactions. We present, by means of examples, the most important classes of learning models, trying to show their links and differences, and setting them against a sort of ideal framework of "what one would like to understand about learning...". We put a signifiphasis on learning models in their bare-bone formal structure, but we also refer to the (generally richer) non-formal theorising about the same objects. This allows us to provide an easier mapping of a wide and largely unexplored research agenda.Learning, Evolutionary Environments, Economic Theory, Rationality

    The Theory of Institutional Change Revisited: The Institutional Dichotomy, Its Dynamic, and Policy Implications in a More Formal Analysis

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    The original institutionalist theory of institutional change as elaborated by Paul D. Bush (1987) in the traditions of Veblen, Ayres and J.F. Foster (called here the VAFB-paradigm), provides a most important theoretical and empirical device for critical institutional analysis, with its clarification of the value base and of different forms and dynamics of value-behavior patterns. Bush’s paper was certainly one of the most important ones in Institutionalism. The Theory of Institutional Change pushed Institutionalism to a certain limit by elaborating its logical relations and systems that have been underexplored for so long. Coming from different ‘galaxies’, established formal approaches and methods, such as system dynamics, econometrics, network analysis, graph theory, or game theory—in fact, often applied only bluntly in the mainstream—have been interpreted, developed and applied by institutional and evolutionary economists in an evolutionary-institutionalist perspective in recent decades. However, a theoretical and methodological gap somehow still existed until recently that those practicing institutionalists had to deal with. This gap seems to become closed in different areas (such as the Theory of Institutional Change or the Social Fabric Matrix Approach) currently. This paper tries to demonstrate that careful proper interpretations allow, in a ‘dialectical’ process, to bridge the remaining gap and reveal surprising equivalences and complementarities with resulting synergies for the future. The example here is the mutual approximation of the VAFB-paradigm and evolutionary-institutionally interpreted game theory, called the EIGT-paradigm here. Should such bridge-building be corroborated in the near future, Institutionalism would be enabled to cut across traditional and long lasting boundaries with respect to deeper both empirical and logical analysis. This might turn out to be a historical project of the extension of Institutionalism’s reach. The particular asymmetry of the logics of instrumental vs. ceremonial warrants explains a general dominance of the ceremonial. The forms of change of institutional value-behavior structures derived are (1) (reinforced) ‘ceremonial encapsulation’, (2) regressive institutional change and (3) progressive institutional change. In the cases (2) and (3), the degree of ceremonial dominance will have to increase (decrease) and the system’s ‘permissiveness’ to decrease (increase). The conceptualization of institutions, the asymmetric schematization of value-behavior-structures, the reason for ceremonial dominance, and the possibility of progressive institutional change will be reconsidered and compared in this paper using a game-theoretic perspective, with its basically instrumental comprehension of institutions and with the ceremonial warrant comprehensible only as a degeneration of the instrumental. We refer to a most simple social dilemma interaction structure and a supergame solution. Surprising equivalences and complementarities emerge, with potentials of cross-fertilization. An initially instrumental institution is considered to develop (in fact degenerate), together with (1) the emergence, or reproduction, of status and power differentials in hierarchical systems, and (2) the striving for easy, smooth, and cheap decision-making, or ‘economies of scale’ of decision-making, first into a still instrumental norm and eventually into a ceremonial or abstract norm. The latter takes place, when original conditions have changed but the institutional structure will not properly adapt because of the two motives of status gain and economies of scale of institutionalized decision-making. In a game-theoretical perspective, ceremonial dominance and ceremonial encapsulation preventing a new progressive institutional change would translate into an insufficient new collective action capacity, due to (1) habituation, (2) an insufficient incentive structure and (3) a neglect of the common future. The conclusion of the critical role of policy to initiate, accelerate, and stabilize progressive institutional change is shared in the original institutionalist and the game-theoretic perspectives as well. A well-defined institutional policy approach, inferable in some detail from the game-theoretic logic, may initiate a lock-out of ceremonial encapsulation, through a change of the incentive structure and an increase of the importance and awareness of interdependence and a common future. The public agent must be capable of ‘meritorizing’ the private-interaction outcomes through a negotiated, participatory social process. Thus, the public agent would interact with the interaction system of the private agents in a well-defined way, i.e., ‘institutional policy’ as a double interactive policy. In all, large potentials for cross-fertilization of institutionalism and game theory

    An Analytical Approach to Lean Six Sigma Deployment Strategies: Project Identification and Prioritization

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    abstract: The ever-changing economic landscape has forced many companies to re-examine their supply chains. Global resourcing and outsourcing of processes has been a strategy many organizations have adopted to reduce cost and to increase their global footprint. This has, however, resulted in increased process complexity and reduced customer satisfaction. In order to meet and exceed customer expectations, many companies are forced to improve quality and on-time delivery, and have looked towards Lean Six Sigma as an approach to enable process improvement. The Lean Six Sigma literature is rich in deployment strategies; however, there is a general lack of a mathematical approach to deploy Lean Six Sigma in a global enterprise. This includes both project identification and prioritization. The research presented here is two-fold. Firstly, a process characterization framework is presented to evaluate processes based on eight characteristics. An unsupervised learning technique, using clustering algorithms, is then utilized to group processes that are Lean Six Sigma conducive. The approach helps Lean Six Sigma deployment champions to identify key areas within the business to focus a Lean Six Sigma deployment. A case study is presented and 33% of the processes were found to be Lean Six Sigma conducive. Secondly, having identified parts of the business that are lean Six Sigma conducive, the next steps are to formulate and prioritize a portfolio of projects. Very often the deployment champion is faced with the decision of selecting a portfolio of Lean Six Sigma projects that meet multiple objectives which could include: maximizing productivity, customer satisfaction or return on investment, while meeting certain budgetary constraints. A multi-period 0-1 knapsack problem is presented that maximizes the expected net savings of the Lean Six Sigma portfolio over the life cycle of the deployment. Finally, a case study is presented that demonstrates the application of the model in a large multinational company. Traditionally, Lean Six Sigma found its roots in manufacturing. The research presented in this dissertation also emphasizes the applicability of the methodology to the non-manufacturing space. Additionally, a comparison is conducted between manufacturing and non-manufacturing processes to highlight the challenges in deploying the methodology in both spaces.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Industrial Engineering 201
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