Total Factor Productivity and R&D Capital in Manufacturing Industries

This study analyzes total factor productivity in manufacturing industries for a sample of OECD countries. The estimates of Malmquist indexes clearly indicate that research and development (R&D) capital is an important determinant of productivity growth in manufacturing industries. The empirical results also show that it is the pace, not the intensity, of R&D investment that is significantly related to the extent to which R&D capital formation contributes to output growth. Furthermore, this study finds that productivity gains in manufacturing industries depend importantly on R&D spillovers as well.

Is South Korea's green job policy sustainable?

South Korea’s green job policy was implemented in February 2008 as a part of low-carbon green growth policy, but has been discontinued at the present. The country’s actual energy and environmental consumption has continuously increased, and South Korean society has grown increasingly distant from sustainable development. The study constructs a theoretical framework centering on sustainable development and analyzes the process and contents of South Korea’s green job policy. We suggest four findings: First, in terms of ideology, the nation’s green job policy was based on green growth. Implemented as a strategy typical of developing countries, South Korea’s green growth was pursued as weak ecological modernization, relatively stressing economic growth and excluding citizens’ participation. Second, in terms of governance, the nation’s green job policy was led by the central government, thus nearly completely destroying existing legal and institutional infrastructures related to sustainable development. Third, South Korea’s green job policy was defined on the basis of a growth orientation and concentrated on the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project and the NPP project, both of which betrayed considerable problems from the perspective of sustainable development. Fourth, green jobs were created in traditional environmental protection and pollution reduction and therefore limited

Precarious Moral Economy: Female Sex Workers in Post-Socialist China

This article examines what I describe as a “fleeting moral economy,” a system of culturally shared mores formed among migrant women who are engaging in illegal and stigmatized activities in urban areas. I suggest that the rationale or norm for the particular value of reciprocity varies not only by the complexity of a society or a culture, but also varies due to specific networks or communities depending on their particular circumstances, especially level of resource needs. This short communication is the product of my 27 months of ethnographic field work in post-reform southern China

The Role of Socially-Mediated Alignment in the Development of Second Language Grammar and Vocabulary: Comparing Face-to-Face and Synchronous Mobile-Mediated Communication

Decades of research has shown that speakers mutually adapt to each other’s linguistic behaviors at different levels of language during dialogue. Recent second language (L2) research has suggested that alignment occurring while L2 learners carry out collaborative activities may lead to L2 development, highlighting the benefits of using alignment activities for L2 learning. However, despite the notion that speakers linguistically align in interactions happening in socially-situated contexts, little is known about the role of social factors in the magnitude and learning outcomes of alignment occurring in L2 interaction. The purpose of the study was to examine the pedagogical benefits of alignment activities for the development of L2 grammar and vocabulary during peer interaction across two different interactional contexts: Face-to-Face (FTF) and synchronous mobile-mediated communication (SMMC; mobile text-chat). The target vocabulary items included 32 words and the target structure was a stranded preposition construction embedded in an English relative clause. Furthermore, this study investigated whether social factors (i.e., L2 learners’ perceptions of their interlocutor’s proficiency, comprehensibility of the interlocutor’s language production, and task experience with the interlocutor) and cognitive factors (i.e., individual differences in language aptitude, cognitive style, and proficiency) would modulate alignment effects. Ninety-eight Korean university students were assigned to either the FTF or SMMC group. They completed two alignment activities in pairs, three measurement tests (pre-, post-, and delayed post-test), various cognitive ability tests, and perception questionnaires over four weeks. Results indicated that alignment occurred at the structural and lexical levels in FTF and SMMC modes, but also that structural alignment was facilitated significantly more in the SMMC mode when compared to FTF. However, there was no significant modality effect on the degree of lexical alignment. Findings also demonstrated beneficial role of alignment activities in L2 grammar and vocabulary learning, irrespective of the modality. Furthermore, results suggested that language proficiency and explicit language aptitude were significantly associated with structural alignment driven learning. Learners’ perceptions did not show a significant impact on the degree of alignment and learning outcomes. Implications for the benefits of interactive alignment activities for L2 development and the effect of modality, social factors, and cognitive factors are discussed

Selection and assessment of bivariate Markov random field models

A multivariate Markov random field (MRF) model can be an appealing approach to an analysis of spatially correlated data, where multiple responses at each location may contain complex dependence structures, both across and within the areal units. To develop such a model, a functional form of the conditional distribution (with dependence parameters) for the multiple random variables must be determined. In this work, we study alternative formulations of a bivariate Gaussian MRF which are distinguished by choice of spatial or non-spatial neighborhood structures. We then consider a problem of MRF model assessments to diagnose the adequacy of the model structure (e.g., spatial neighborhood) for observed spatial data. We develop a procedure for assessing a particular dependence structure made in bivariate MRF model formulation, using the method of spatial blockwise empirical likelihood (SBEL). Simulation studies show that the proposed SBEL method provides a way to detect an incorrect assumption of the conditional dependence structure used in bivariate model construction. This procedure is also illustrated with an example of the daily average temperatures and dew points measured in Iowa during 2016

Graduate Recital, Flute

Andre Jolivet is an iconic figure in contemporary French music. Many of his composition have a unique configuration of high character, maturity, combined with a sense of mysticism, religious influence, and the concept of returning to its origin give the foundation for Jolivet\u27s music. Jolivet\u27s composition, Chant De Linos, was composed during his mid-life stage (2nd stage) for the Paris Conservatory as a competition piece for the Morceau de Concours. Chant de Linos is a literal translation Linos\u27 Song and depicts a chant during an ancient Greek funeral. Jolivet combined the Greek funeral chant with his unique compositional style. Mourning , Cries , and Dance are the reoccurring themes throughout the piece. Primitive and exotic element of the flute and piano can be expressed through modern compositional style, stable technique, and rhythmic repetition, which all come together to create the magical effect of Andre Jolivet\u27s Chant de Linos. Throughout this analysis, an in-depth analysis will be done about Jolivet\u27s past, the importance and development of 20th century French contemporary music and it\u27s the use of woodwind instruments, and finally the compositional techniques used by Andre Jolivet in composing the Chant de Linos

Trust your instincts:The relationship between intuitive decision making and happiness

Epstein (1994; 2003) proposed that there are two cognitive information processing systems that operate in parallel: the intuitive thinking style and the rational thinking style. Decisional fit occurs when the preferred thinking style is applied to making a decision and research has shown that this fit increases the value of the outcome of a decision. Additionally, decisional fit leads to less regret, even when post hoc evaluations show the decision to be incorrect. It has not yet been determined whether decisional fit correlates with greater happiness and hence, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the difference between styles of thinking, styles of decision making and the impact of decisional fit on happiness scores. Individual differences in thinking and decision style were measured using an online interactive questionnaire (N = 100), and an ANOVA, hierarchical multiple regression, and a series of t-tests, were used to investigate the relationship between thinking style, decision style, decisional fit, and happiness, thereby addressing a gap in the existing literature. The major findings from the current study show that intuitive thinking has a strong positive correlation with happiness; that intuitive thinkers are more likely to utilize intuitive decisional style, than rational thinkers; and that when both rational and intuitive thinkers experienced decisional fit, higher ratings of happiness were reported. Explanations and recommendations for future studies are outlined in the discussion

Picturing Queer Death: Alternative Instantiations of Temporality within Process Art

During the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, the U.S.’ hegemonic heteronormative society saw AIDS as an epidemic threat to the future rather than as a threat to the present, which helped mark queer bodies affected by the virus as being erasable and replaceable. In response to this rise in fear and rage as the only potential affective productions of AIDS-related deaths, much of the queer art produced during this time sought to capture the permanence as well as ephemerality of queer desire and mourning. This project seeks to locate these alternative instantiations of temporality within queer art’s vivification of death during this time period in order to disrupt the narrative of chrononormativity—as passage of time being only linear and one-directional—that is employed by neoliberal biopolitics to police and exclude subaltern bodies. To do so, this thesis applies a critical visual analysis to two photography pieces and two process art pieces that depict forms of loss or death by way of a reparative reading that is affectively driven and motivated by desire, pleasure, and curiosity

Currency crisis contagion, capital flows, and sovereign ratings: empirical studies of emerging markets

Followed by the introduction, we begin the thesis by focusing on providing a quantitative indicator of the currency crisis contagion during the 1997-98 East Asian crisis. The severity of contagion is measured using a state-space model and a technical apparatus known as the Kalman filter. The results show that the contagion level is exceptionally high during the peak of the Asian crisis from June 1997 to January 1998. Further econometric tests were carried out to identify whether the crisis is transmitted to countries linked through trade or to countries characterized by macroeconomic similarities. The results indicate that the macroeconomic similarity dominates trade linkage as the major crisis transmission channel. Further, the high level of domestic claims which were financed by foreign capital inflows were shown to be the most significant factor in explaining crisis contagion in 1997-98. The next part of the thesis develops and implements a method for fore-casting capital flows to emerging markets. We provide capital flow forecasts to thirty-two developing countries using a vector autoregressive (VAR) framework based on the underlying fundamental factors driving capital flows. We also use our estimated models to carry out simulation exercises for the behaviour of capital flows under various economic scenarios. In the following part of thesis, using an unobserved components model and maximum likelihood Kalman filtering estimation, we separate out permanent and temporary components of capital flows. Based on these models, and using monthly data up to December 2000, forecasts of various capital flows are presented for the period January 2001 to December 2003. The results of the time series-based forecasts are then compared to those obtained using the fundamentals-based approach