Is altruism bad for cooperation?

Some philosophers and social scientists have stressed the importance for good government of an altruistic citizenry that values the well being of one another. Others have emphasized the need for incentives that induce even the self interested to contribute to the public good. Implicitly most have assumed that these two approaches are complementary or at worst additive. But this need not be the case. Behavioral experiments find that if reciprocity-minded subjects feel hostility towards free riders and enjoy inflicting harm on them, near efficient levels of contributions to a public good may be supported when group members have opportunities to punish low contributors. Cooperation may also be supported if individuals are sufficiently altruistic that they internalize the group benefits that their contributions produce. Using a utility function embodying both reciprocity and altruism we show that unconditional altruism towards other members attenuates the punishment motive and thus may reduce the level of punishment inflicted on defectors, resulting in lower rather than higher levels of contributions. Increases in altruism may also reduce the level of benefits from the public project net of contribution costs and punishment costs. The negative effect of altruism on cooperation and material payoffs is greater the stronger is the reciprocity motive among the members. JEL Categories: D64 (altruism); H41 (public goods)public goods, altruism, spite, reciprocity, punishment, cooperation

Territorial cooperation and regional economic development: a case study

Cooperation may be defined as the collaboration between two or more parties which fuels initiatives that have shared, or converging interests and objectives. In the European Union territorial cohesion has recently been included in the draft of the European Constitution and is complementary to the EU drive towards economic and social cohesion. This adds a new dimension to European integration which clearly recognises that considering things from a territorial dimension is a tool for reducing the territorial disparity currently present in the EU. In fact, well before its enlargement, significant disparities in prosperity levels existed both between and within member states: prosperity levels in the ten most dynamic regions of the EU, based on GDP per capita, were nearly three times higher than that of the ten least developed regions and regional differences have widened with enlargement. In this context, the territorial cooperation objective aims to: improve cross-border cooperation through joint, local and regional initiatives; strengthen trans-national cooperation by means of actions conducive to integrated territorial development linked to Community priorities as well as to strengthen interregional cooperation and the exchange of experience at the appropriate territorial level. Three different typologies of territorial cooperation have been identified with the European territory: cross-border cooperation, trans-national cooperation and Interregional cooperation. The paper focuses on the territorial cooperation objective and presents a case study with large and strong economic, social and environmental disparities. It includes EU members and non EU members. More specifically, the IPA (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance) Adriatic Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) Program, which includes three EU Member States, one Candidate Country, and three Potential Candidates Countries.cooperation, regional disparities, european external instruments

Econometric Models and Causality Relationships Between Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing Production in MOROCCO, TUNISIA and other Northern African Countries, 1950-2000

This article presents a general view of economic development in the countries of Magreb, analyzing the impact of manufacturing and imports on economoic growth and cycles, by means of cross correlations, Grangers´s causality analysis and dynamic models: for each country and for a panel of 4 Northern African countries. The analysis shows that these countries have low levels of trade among them and that they could improve their economic development with more industrial production and trade, both among themselves and with other areas as the Mediterranean countries of European Union. The EU agreements with Magreb are focused to foster free trade between North and South Mediterranean. Although this policy could be positive for development is not enough and EU should in our view have a more positive role to foster economic and educational cooperation with those countries in order to increase their income per inhabitant and their levels of employment. The alternative to the lack of cooperation policies could be the increase of disparities with EU and emigration pressures from Northern Africa towards most prosperous countries.Northern Africa, Development of Magreb, Causality and Economic Development, Manufacturing in Africa, Tunisia, Morocco.

Governance and Creativity on Urban Regeneration Processes

Governance has become a central topic among policymakers. There is an international consensus that policymaking is evolving from a traditional top-down government approach towards a system of governing that focuses on engaging the citizens within an area (Cabus, 2003). New forms of governance targeting urban competitiveness are increasingly oriented to vertical (between lower and high levels of government and cooperation forms between entities and firms along the production chain) and horizontal (between firms or different municipalities or public and private entities) cooperation (OEDC, 2005). Based on a study research methodology, this article seeks to contribute to answer to the following research questions: i) what is the role of governance in the processes of urban regeneration?; ii) what is the role of governance in the development of creative processes for urban regeneration? and iii) what is the potential of governance to support urban regeneration strategies based on creativity and creative industries?Territorial governance, Creativity, Urban regeneration.

CIS Countries' Interests vis-a-vis the European Union and Its Eastern Policy

The CIS countries' EU-related interests are very heterogeneous. The countries themselves differ not only in terms of their geopolitical and geo-economic situations, and how those affect their relations with the EU, but also in their levels of ambition in relation to the Union, as well as their specific sectoral interests. Some Eastern Partners have set full EU membership as their strategic goal; others want to enjoy the benefits of the common free market, and the ambitions of others are limited to developing cooperation in selected areas. Similarly, the EU's policy towards its Eastern neighbourhood is multi-level and very diverse, considering as it must the different characters of mutual relations. The EU and most of its Eastern partners have a sufficient number of common or converging interests to expect reasonable cooperation between the two sides to develop and deepen. However, serious challenges and problems exist that may prevent this positive scenario from being realised.ENP, CIS countries, EU

Ways to open innovation: main agents and sources in the Portuguese case

Facing increasing open innovation trends, Portuguese enterprises are considering the related processes and impacts. Thus, this work aims to identify the sectors whose enterprises most engage in open innovation (such as cooperation on this issue) and which sources/agents are most used. This is analyzed by sector and type of innovation as an interesting way of differentiation for better open innovation strategy delineation. Using the data from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS-2012), it first appraises the nature of the innovation process, either cooperative or firm-based, as the starting level of analysis. Then, it differentiates the results by sector illustrating which cooperation sources/agents are most used (scope) and relative intensity of use (scale). This is important to assess levels of openness and related factors. Results show that main innovating sectors in Portugal are of three types: research-based, knowledge-based and service-based. They reveal an increasing focus on knowledge and services, trends that have been leading to more active openness towards innovation. For instance, health and construction are increasing their openness for innovating and internationalizing processes. However, Portuguese innovation is still more firm-based (in-house) than cooperation-based, especially concerning new products' launching. This work and future analyzes around it can contribute to encourage the open innovation strategy in more sectors of the economy as an easy and effective way to cope with rapid trends and changes. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

New horizons shaping science, technology and innovation diplomacy: the case of Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union. EL-CSID Working Paper Issue 2018/20 • August 2018

Europe and the world face a moment of transformation. The global financial crisis wiped out years of economic and social progress, exposed structural weaknesses in world economies and emphasised the importance of the real economies and strong industries. Modernisation and digitalisation of the industrial base together with the promotion of a competitive framework for industry through research, technology and innovation are drivers for recovery. Innovation, and particularly open innovation, is a key factor of global competitiveness. The European Commission (EC) addresses international cooperation policy in a wider framework and adapts to the evolving needs of partner countries at different stages of development (EC, 2018a). Latin America and the Caribbean countries’ (LAC) and the European Union’s (EU) cooperation on science, technology and innovation has a long history based on cultural roots and common concerns. They share a strategic bi-regional partnership, which was launched in 1999 and stepped up significantly in recent years. The two regions co-operate closely at international level across a broad range of issues and maintain an intensive political dialogue at all levels. EU-LAC relationships are moving from a traditional cooperation model towards a learning model, where sharing experiences and learning from innovations appear to be decisive (OECD, 2014). This paper focuses on the challenges that innovation nowadays poses to international relations and diplomacy. It is based on the evidence gained by the research team from participation in several EULAC projects, especially the ELAN Network project coordinated by TECNALIA, the INNOVACT project as well as other projects and activities

The Analysis of Russian Industrial Situation and Strategic Direction of Sino- Russian Cooperation

Since 2020, Russia had implemented an active import substitution policy in the industrial sector, and industrial development had gradually shown a recovery in the process of anti-crisis. In 2021, the instability of Russia’s industrial development would increase due to factors such as the international COVID-19 epidemic. In order to achieve stable industrial growth and reduce the impact of uncertain factors, Russia had taken various measures, including financial support, to create favorable conditions for industrial development. In the new situations of military conflict and stalemate between Russia and Ukraine. It can be predicted that China on one hand will adheres to a neutral stance and advocates promoting negotiations through peace, actively developing normal international economic and trade relations. On the other hand, fully leverages the advantages of China and Russia to accelerate industrial chain cooperation, cooperation in industrial parks, the transformation of energy cooperation, and the promotion of industrial high-tech cooperation with Russia, to promote industrial cooperation between China and Russia towards broader fields, higher levels, and higher levels in the future

The Strategy Method Risks Conflating Confusion with a Social Preference for Conditional Cooperation in Public Goods Games

The strategy method is often used in public goods games to measure an individual’s willingness to cooperate depending on the level of cooperation by their groupmates (conditional cooperation). However, while the strategy method is informative, it risks conflating confusion with a desire for fair outcomes, and its presentation may risk inducing elevated levels of conditional cooperation. This problem was highlighted by two previous studies which found that the strategy method could also detect equivalent levels of cooperation even among those grouped with computerized groupmates, indicative of confusion or irrational responses. However, these studies did not use large samples (n = 40 or 72) and only made participants complete the strategy method one time, with computerized groupmates, preventing within-participant comparisons. Here, in contrast, 845 participants completed the strategy method two times, once with human and once with computerized groupmates. Our research aims were twofold: (1) to check the robustness of previous results with a large sample under various presentation conditions; and (2) to use a within-participant design to categorize participants according to how they behaved across the two scenarios. Ideally, a clean and reliable measure of conditional cooperation would find participants conditionally cooperating with humans and not cooperating with computers. Worryingly, only 7% of participants met this criterion. Overall, 83% of participants cooperated with the computers, and the mean contributions towards computers were 89% as large as those towards humans. These results, robust to the various presentation and order effects, pose serious concerns for the measurement of social preferences and question the idea that human cooperation is motivated by a concern for equal outcomes