1,883 research outputs found
Why growth equals power - and why it shouldn't : constructing visions of China
When discussing the success of China's transition from socialism, there is a tendency to focus on growth figures as an indication of performance. Whilst these figures are
indeed impressive, we should not confuse growth with development and assume that the former necessarily automatically generates the latter. Much has been done to
reduce poverty in China, but the task is not as complete as some observers would suggest; particularly in terms of access to health, education and welfare, and also in
dealing with relative (rather than absolute) depravation and poverty. Visions of China have been constructed that exaggerate Chinese development and power in the global
system partly to serve political interests, but partly due to the failure to consider the relationship between growth and development, partly due to the failure to disaggregate
who gets what in China, and partly due to the persistence of inter-national conceptions of globalised production, trade, and financial flows
Multifractality in Time Series
We apply the concepts of multifractal physics to financial time series in
order to characterize the onset of crash for the Standard & Poor's 500 stock
index x(t). It is found that within the framework of multifractality, the
"analogous" specific heat of the S&P500 discrete price index displays a
shoulder to the right of the main peak for low values of time lags. On
decreasing T, the presence of the shoulder is a consequence of the peaked,
temporal x(t+T)-x(t) fluctuations in this regime. For large time lags (T>80),
we have found that C_{q} displays typical features of a classical phase
transition at a critical point. An example of such dynamic phase transition in
a simple economic model system, based on a mapping with multifractality
phenomena in random multiplicative processes, is also presented by applying
former results obtained with a continuous probability theory for describing
scaling measures.Comment: 22 pages, Revtex, 4 ps figures - To appear J. Phys. A (2000
Net neutrality discourses: comparing advocacy and regulatory arguments in the United States and the United Kingdom
Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this has been occurring in the United States around efforts to introduce "Net neutrality" regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has not developed in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe. We develop a comparative analysis of U.S. and UK Net neutrality debates with an eye toward identifying the arguments for and against regulation, how those arguments differ between the countries, and what the implications of those differences are for the Internet. Drawing on mass media, advocacy, and regulatory discourses, we find that local regulatory precedents as well as cultural factors contribute to both agenda setting and framing of Net neutrality. The differences between national discourses provide a way to understand both the structural differences between regulatory cultures and the substantive differences between policy interpretations, both of which must be reconciled for the Internet to continue to thrive as a global medium
Net neutrality discourses: comparing advocacy and regulatory arguments in the United States and the United Kingdom
Telecommunications policy issues rarely make news, much less mobilize thousands of people. Yet this has been occurring in the United States around efforts to introduce "Net neutrality" regulation. A similar grassroots mobilization has not developed in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe. We develop a comparative analysis of U.S. and UK Net neutrality debates with an eye toward identifying the arguments for and against regulation, how those arguments differ between the countries, and what the implications of those differences are for the Internet. Drawing on mass media, advocacy, and regulatory discourses, we find that local regulatory precedents as well as cultural factors contribute to both agenda setting and framing of Net neutrality. The differences between national discourses provide a way to understand both the structural differences between regulatory cultures and the substantive differences between policy interpretations, both of which must be reconciled for the Internet to continue to thrive as a global medium
De Jure Determinants of New Firm Formation: How the Pillars of Constitutions Influence Entrepreneurship
This paper provides empirical evidence supporting the view that constitutions may influence the organization of economic activities. Dealing with the issue of the institutional determinants of entrepreneurship, it shows that some of the provisions contained in national constitutions are positively and significantly associated to a standard measure of entrepreneurial dynamics, namely the rate of new business density. Using a novel dataset containing the characteristics of the constitutions enacted in the world and a sample of 115 countries, the paper finds that provisions about the right to conduct/establish a business, the right to strike, consumer protection, protection of trademarks, and education promote higher rates of new firm formation
The effect of social interactions in the primary life cycle of motion pictures
We model the consumption life cycle of theater attendance for single movies
by taking into account the size of the targeted group and the effect of social
interactions. We provide an analytical solution of such model, which we
contrast with empirical data from the film industry obtaining good agreement
with the diverse types of behaviors empirically found. The model grants a
quantitative measure of the valorization of this cul- tural good based on the
relative values of the coupling between agents who have watched the movie and
those who have not. This represents a measurement of the observed quality of
the good that is extracted solely from its dynamics, independently of critics
reviews.Comment: 9 Pages, 3 figure
Endogenous technological change, innovation diffusion and transitional dynamics in a nonlinear growth model
This paper addresses capital accumulation and capital productivity change in an economy with endogenous technological change and floors and ceilings in activity. The properties of the resulting two-variable nonlinear differential equation system are studied in some detail. The welfare implications are also considered. When discrete lags are introduced, wide-ranging behaviour emerges, which includes convergence to a steady-state, catastrophes, hysteresis, limit cycles and chaos. Simulations illustrate the results. It is found that external shocks, such as the diffusion of innovations from elsewhere, do not just change the level of the steady-state equilibrium but also the dynamical properties of the paths of output and productivity
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