Gazelles, Industry Growth and Structural Change

This paper examines to what extent gazelles are the drivers of the growth of industries and structural change. To this purpose we analyze gazelles over a 12 year period (annually from 1997 until 2008) in the Netherlands, and relate them to the dynamics in employment per industry. We use a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model to explore the relations between the presence of gazelles and industry (employment) growth (with 43 two digit industries). An increase in the presence of gazelles in an industry appears to have a positive effect on the subsequent growth of the industry. We do not find evidence for an inverse causal relation: there are no long run positive effects of increases in industry growth on the presence of gazelles. There is also no relation between the overrepresentation of gazelles and subsequent industry growth.entrepreneurship, gazelles, industry growth, structural economic change

Gazelles, Industry Growth and Structural Change

This paper examines to what extent gazelles are the drivers of the growth of industries and structural change. To this purpose we analyze gazelles over a 12 year period (annually from 1997 until 2008) in the Netherlands, and relate them to the dynamics in employment per industry. We use a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model to explore the relations between the presence of gazelles and industry (employment) growth (with 43 two digit industries). An increase in the presence of gazelles in an industry appears to have a positive effect on the subsequent growth of the industry. We do not find evidence foran inverse causal relation: there are no long run positive effects of increases in industry growth on the presence of gazelles. There is also no relation between the over-representation of gazelles and subsequent industry growth.industrial organization ;

Competition versus Collusion: The Impact of Consumer Inertia

We consider a model of dynamic price competition to analyze the impact of consumer inertia on the ability of firms to sustain high prices. Three main consequences are identified, all of which contrast with predictions of the standard model of collusion: (i) maintaining high prices does not require punishment strategies when firms are sufficiently myopic, (ii) if buyers are sufficiently inert, then high prices can be sustained for all discount factors, and (iii) the ability to maintain high prices may depend non-monotonically on the level of the discount factor when the industry exhibits network externalities and demand is sufficiently viscous. These results provide a number of interesting insights with regard to competitive and collusive pricing behavior. In particular, we illustrate how direct communication between firms may facilitate collusion.microeconomics ;

Atomism and Cartesianism:Gassendi and Gorlaeus (and More) in Utrecht Disputations in the 1650s

In the 1650s, two professors of philosophy at the University of Utrecht defended atomism. Interestingly, one of them, Johannes de Bruyn, is considered to be a staunch Cartesian, while the other, Daniel Voet, was a neo-Aristotelian and strongly opposed to Descartes’s philosophy. This article examines this curious situation and analyses the theories of both professors. While converging with Gassendi on several crucial points, their theories relied mainly on other sources. Since De Bruyn’s atomistic view has never been studied before, the main part of the article is devoted to him and his sources. Surprisingly, it turns out that David Gorlaeus was a source of inspiration for De Bruyn’s development of a new type of Cartesianism.</p

Atomism and Cartesianism:Gassendi and Gorlaeus (and More) in Utrecht Disputations in the 1650s

In the 1650s, two professors of philosophy at the University of Utrecht defended atomism. Interestingly, one of them, Johannes de Bruyn, is considered to be a staunch Cartesian, while the other, Daniel Voet, was a neo-Aristotelian and strongly opposed to Descartes’s philosophy. This article examines this curious situation and analyses the theories of both professors. While converging with Gassendi on several crucial points, their theories relied mainly on other sources. Since De Bruyn’s atomistic view has never been studied before, the main part of the article is devoted to him and his sources. Surprisingly, it turns out that David Gorlaeus was a source of inspiration for De Bruyn’s development of a new type of Cartesianism.</p

iLIF: illumination by Laser-Induced Fluorescence for single flash imaging on a nanoseconds timescale \ud

The challenge in visualizing fast microscale fluid motion phenomena is to record high-quality images free of motion-blur. Here, we present an illumination technique based on laser-induced fluorescence which delivers high-intensity light pulses of 7 ns. The light source consists of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and a laser dye solution incorporated into a total internal reflection lens, resulting in a uni-directional light beam with a millimeter-sized circular aperture and 3° divergence. The laser coherence, considered undesirable for imaging purposes, is reduced while maintaining a nanoseconds pulse duration. The properties of the illumination by laser-induced fluorescence (iLIF) are quantified, and a comparison is made with other high-intensity pulsed and continuous light source