Price Indexes for PC Database Software and the Value of Code Compatibility

Changing product quality poses a challenge for the computation of price indexes, in particular in technologically advanced industries. We assess the differences between traditional and quality-corrected indexes by computing hedonic and matched-model price indexes for personal computer database software. Our database covers the price development in Germany from 1986 to 1994. Quality-adjusted software prices decline by 7.4 percent according to our hedonic index. Surprisingly, a matchedmodel index based on linking the prices of directly comparable program versions decreases even faster than the hedonic index (9.3 percent). This unusual result is apparently caused by the simultaneous selling of old and new versions of a given software product. The estimation results also confirm the importance of network effects. Code compatibility, i.e. the capability of executing programs written for the dominant database product, yields a significant price premium. The ability to read and write data in the dominant spreadsheet format (file compatibility) is also associated with higher prices, but the price differential is much smaller than in the case of code compatibility. --price indexes,hedonic methods,technical change

Three Remarks on “Reflective Equilibrium“

John Rawls’ “reflective equilibrium” ranges amongst the most popular conceptions in contemporary ethics when it comes to the basic methodological question of how to justify and trade off different normative positions and attitudes. Even where Rawls’ specific contractualist account is not adhered to, “reflective equilibrium” is readily adopted as the guiding idea of coherentist approaches, seeking moral justification not in a purely deductive or inductive manner, but in some balancing procedure that will eventually procure a stable adjustment of relevant doctrines and standpoints. However, it appears that the widespread use of this idea has led to some considerable deviations from its meaning within Rawls’ original framework and to a critical loss of conceptual cogency as an ethico-hermeneutical tool. This contribution identifies three kinds of “balancing” constellations that are frequently, but inadequately brought forth under the heading of Rawlsian “reflective equilibrium”: balancing theoretical accounts against intuitive convictions; balancing general principles against particular judgements; balancing opposite ethical conceptions or divergent moral statements, respectively. It is argued that each of these applications departs from Rawls’ original construction of “reflective equilibrium” and also deprives the idea of its reliability in clarifying and weighing moral stances

Rotating Black Branes wrapped on Einstein Spaces

We present new rotating black brane solutions which solve Einstein's equations with cosmological constant $\Lambda$ in arbitrary dimension $d$. For negative $\Lambda$, the branes naturally appear in AdS supergravity compactifications, and should therefore play some role in the AdS/CFT correspondence. The spacetimes are warped products of a four-dimensional part and an Einstein space of dimension $d-4$, which is not necessarily of constant curvature. As a special subcase, the solutions contain the higher dimensional generalization of the Kerr-AdS metric recently found by Hawking et al.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX, no figures, thermodynamical discussion and 2 references adde

Federalism in Middle Europe: a model for a future European education system?

The article discusses the principle of federalism as a potential institutional principle of the future education system in Europe. It reminds of the strengths and weaknesses of federalism in the history of Central Europe and clarifies the differences between Germany, Austria and Switzerland with respect to the practice of federalism in the education sector. The implications for the variability of structures, the competition of solutions, the allocation of financial resources and for participation are worked out under the auspices of their relevance for a future European education system. (DIPF/Orig.