The coherence of EU trade, competition, and industry policies in the high tech sector : the case of the telecommunications services sector

We analyze the coherence existing among European Union competition, industry, and trade policies in the high tech sector in general terms focusing on its specific features (externalities, fast progress) and their effects on the emergence and treatment of policy consistency and conflicts. Second, this analysis is applied to the European telecommunications services sector. The examination of this sector and the relevant EU policies reveals a consensus on giving priority to competition. However structural factors prevent policy implementation to reflect much liberalization and harmonization and business responses to trade globalization challenge effective competition. The potential, important role of standardization is shown.economics of technology ;

How to Assess Advantages of Economic-Geographical Position for Russian Regions

The category of economic-geographical position (EGP) was formalized based on a review of the scientific literature. The developed method of international and interregional EGP potential assessment was based on the use of gravity models; it can further be widely used in regional studies to explore the benefits of the spatial location of objects (countries, regions, cities, etc.). These calculations for Russia’s regions showed significant spatial differentiation. The maximum potential of interregional EGP potential have the regions located near Moscow and St. Petersburg agglomerations, the potential decreases uniformly to the east. The maximum international EGP potential concentrated in regions on the coast of the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Sea of Japan. The potential of the Kaliningrad region 5.6 times higher than it is for the Tyva Republic. In addition, it was revealed a significant increase in the total EGP potential in the 2000s, and its shift to the southern regions of the Far East due to the growth of the Asia-Paci c economies. The results were also used to identify connections between the EGP potential and indicators of socio-economic development. It was found that favourable EGP is one of the factors for GRP growth, investment, foreign trade, migration growth and spread of new technologies. Formalizing EGP as a category allows using it to predict the spatial changes in the socio-economic development of Russia

The Impact of Investment in IT on Economic Performance: Implications for Developing Countries

This paper reviews quantitative and qualitative evidence on the impact of IT on economic performance in developed and developing countries. Two strands of this literature are considered: the IT-productivity connection and the effects of IT on labor composition and the work environment. Policy implications for developing countries are considered.

Fundamental structures of dynamic social networks

Social systems are in a constant state of flux with dynamics spanning from minute-by-minute changes to patterns present on the timescale of years. Accurate models of social dynamics are important for understanding spreading of influence or diseases, formation of friendships, and the productivity of teams. While there has been much progress on understanding complex networks over the past decade, little is known about the regularities governing the micro-dynamics of social networks. Here we explore the dynamic social network of a densely-connected population of approximately 1000 individuals and their interactions in the network of real-world person-to-person proximity measured via Bluetooth, as well as their telecommunication networks, online social media contacts, geo-location, and demographic data. These high-resolution data allow us to observe social groups directly, rendering community detection unnecessary. Starting from 5-minute time slices we uncover dynamic social structures expressed on multiple timescales. On the hourly timescale, we find that gatherings are fluid, with members coming and going, but organized via a stable core of individuals. Each core represents a social context. Cores exhibit a pattern of recurring meetings across weeks and months, each with varying degrees of regularity. Taken together, these findings provide a powerful simplification of the social network, where cores represent fundamental structures expressed with strong temporal and spatial regularity. Using this framework, we explore the complex interplay between social and geospatial behavior, documenting how the formation of cores are preceded by coordination behavior in the communication networks, and demonstrating that social behavior can be predicted with high precision.Comment: Main Manuscript: 16 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary Information: 39 pages, 34 figure

International Propagation of Financial Shocks in a Search and Matching Environment

This paper develops a two-country multi-frictional model where the freeze on liquidity access to commercial banks in one country raises unemployment rates via credit rationing in both countries. The expenditure-switching channel, whereby asymmetric monetary shocks traditionally lead to negative comovements of home and foreign outputs, is considerably weakened via opposite forces driving the exchange rate. Meanwhile, it is proved that financial market integration forms a transmission channel per se, without resorting to international cross-holdings of risky assets. The search and matching modeling serves two purposes. First, it accounts for the time needed to restore a normal level of confidence following financial market disruptions. Second, it allows dissociating pure liquidity contractions from non-walrasian financial shocks, arriving despite global excess savings and due to heterogeneity in the quality of the banking system. The former induce negative comovements of home and foreign outputs, in accordance with the literature, whereas the new type of financial shocks does generate financial contagion.matching theory, financial markets, credit rationing, financial multiplier, international transmission, financial crises, open economy macroeconomics

Understanding Continuous Use of Business Intelligence Systems: A Mixed Methods Investigation

Business intelligence (BI) systems play an important role in organizations’ decision-making processes. The existing literature has long focused on the continuous use of information systems (IS). However, the specificities of BI systems such as voluntary use, long-term return of investments, heterogeneity of their use cases, and innovative rather than routine use in such systems motivate our investigating continuous use in the specific context of BI systems. To theorize continuous use of BI systems, we investigate the influencing factors and their interactions. By means of an exploratory and confirmatory mixed-methods research design that comprises a literature review, a single-case study, and a survey, we integrate the identified factors and hypothesize their influence on the continuous use of BI systems in a research model. We test the research model following a partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modeling (SEM). The paper makes two primary contributions: 1) it confirms certain well-established constructs and relations in the specific context of BI systems, which are generally theorized for the continuous use of IS, and 2) it introduces either new constructs or new relations through the given investigation in the context of BI systems. Future studies can test these new constructs and relations as potential input for theorizing general IS continuous use

Remittance flows to post-conflict states: perspectives on human security and development

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Center Task Force Reports, a publication series that began publishing in 2009 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.Migrant remittances – that is, money or other goods sent to relatives in the country of origin– play an increasingly central role in post-conflict reconstruction and national development of conflict-affected states. Private remittances are of central importance for restoring stability and enhancing human security in post-conflict countries. Yet the dynamics of conflict-induced remittance flows and the possibilities of leveraging remittances for post-conflict development have been sparsely researched to date. This Pardee Center Task Force Report is the outcome of an interdisciplinary research project organized by the Boston University Center for Finance, Law & Policy, in collaboration with The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The Task Force was convened by Boston University development economist John R. Harris and international banking expert Donald F. Terry, and social anthropologist Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Visiting Researcher at the Boston University African Studies Center, served as lead researcher and editor for the report. The Task Force was asked to research, analyze, and propose policy recommendations regarding the role of remittances in post-conflict environments and their potential to serve as a major source of development funds. The report’s authors collectively suggest a broader approach to remittance institutions that provides flexibility to adapt to specific local practices and to make broader institutional connections in an era of growing population displacement and expanding human and capital flows. Conditions for more productive use of migrants’ remittances are analyzed while drawing upon case studies from post-conflict countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The papers in this Task Force Report establish the importance of remittances for sustaining local livelihoods as well as rehabilitating institutional infrastructures and improving financial inclusion in post-conflict environments. Highlighting the increasing complexity of global remittance systems, the report examines the growing informality of conflict-induced remittance flows and explores solutions for more efficient linkages between financial institutions of different scales and degrees of formality. It discusses challenges to regulating international remittance transfers in the context of growing concerns about transparency, and documents the increasing role of diaspora networks and migrant associations in post-conflict co-development initiatives. The Task Force Report authors outline the main challenges to leveraging remittances for post-conflict development and make recommendations for further research and policy applications

Territorial innovation dynamics and integration of SMEs into the collaborative innovation projects of French competitiveness poles: the underlying mechanisms

Geographical clusters are nowadays considered as a relevant factor for competitiveness, thanks to their innovative capabilities. In this context, public policies based on this approach are flourishing all over the world. The French “Pole of competitiveness” (PoC) policy (Politique des pôles de compétitivité) is one of these initiatives. It is the new French industrial policy aiming at reinforcing the specializations of the economy and the attractiveness of territories by fostering the development of R&D projects, bringing together multinationals, universities, and particularly Small-Middle-Sized-Enterprises (SMEs). Precisely, significant research suggests that in order to innovate SMEs need to cooperate and they are also vital for the functioning, and survival of innovative milieux. Consequently, their integration is a key issue for French PoC' success. However, the call for projects shows that despite their efforts, French Poles of Competitiveness are not totally successful: a gap remains especially between the massive financial investments helping SMEs innovate and the expected results. Yet, this issue is only analysed by focusing on intrinsic weaknesses of SMEs' management or on the complexities of existing support programmes supporting SMEs' innovation. This is insufficient. Innovation dynamics are different from a cluster to another and many failures of innovation policies come from the lack of identification of these specificities. Therefore, this paper aims are threefold: it aims at introducing the French PoC, indeed, the French PoC policy is the main new policy gathering all the nation's innovation programmes. But few papers are explaining how they work. It aims at identifying the territorial innovation dynamics within PoC and how they work, and then combine this analysis with the intrinsic features of SMEs management, to better understand how they get involved in these dynamics. It finally aims at presenting the preliminary results of the first stage of research: the analysis of a specific French PoC, the “Secured Communicating Solutions”(SCS) PoC as well as the further research questions they raise for the next stage of research.clusters, interaction, knowledge management, SMEs

The Role of Disgust in Eating Disorders

Disgust, a basic emotional response, which influences approach/avoidance behaviors, has been studied in various psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. The current study employed exploratory correlations and hierarchical linear regressions (controlling for race, anxiety, and depression) in order to be able to observe the relationships among three traditional domains of disgust (i.e., core, animal-reminder, contamination) and eating disordered behaviors. Results revealed significant correlations between core disgust and dieting behaviors, in addition to contamination disgust and bulimia and symptoms of food preoccupation as well as behaviors concerning self-control around food-related stimuli (i.e., oral control). More importantly, disgust sensitivity was significant in predicting oral control and significantly accounted for 4.7% of the unique variance in predicting symptoms of bulimia and preoccupation with food. These results reveal the significant role of contamination disgust in the development and maintenance of eating pathology above and beyond known predictors of maladaptive eating and other domains of disgust. Implications of the current findings as well as future directions are discussed