Lobbying and Bribes - A Survey-Based Analysis of the Demand for Influence and Corruption

We use survey responses by firms to examine the firm-level determinants and effects of political influence, their perception of corruption and prevalence of bribe paying. We find that: (a) measures of political influence and corruption/bribes are uncorrelated at the firm level; (b) firms that are larger, older, exporting, government-owned, are widely held and/or have fewer competitors have more political influence, perceive corruption to be less of a problem and pay bribes less often; (c) influence increases sales and government subsidies and in general makes the firm have a more positive view on the government. In sum, we show that “strong” firms use their influence to bend laws and regulations, whereas “weak” firms pay bribes to mitigate the costs of government intervention.

Strong Firms Lobby, Weak Firms Bribe: A survey-based analysis of the demand for influence and corruption

We use survey responses by firms to examine the firm-level determinants and effects of political influence, their perception of corruption and prevalence of bribe paying. We find that: (a) measures of political influence and corruption/bribes are uncorrelated at the firm level; (b) firms that are larger, older, exporting, government-owned, are widely held and/or have fewer competitors, have more political influence, perceive corruption to be less of a problem and pay bribes less often; (c) influence increases sales and government subsidies and in general makes the firm have a more positive view on the government. In sum, we show that strong firms use their influence to bend laws and regulations, whereas weak firms pay bribes to mitigate the costs of government intervention.

Dynamic Coupling of Piezoelectric Effects, Spontaneous Polarization, and Strain in Lattice-Mismatched Semiconductor Quantum-Well Heterostructures

A static and dynamic analysis of the combined and self-consistent influence of spontaneous polarization, piezoelectric effects, lattice mismatch, and strain effects is presented for a three-layer one-dimensional AlN/GaN wurtzite quantum-well structure with GaN as the central quantum-well layer . It is shown that, contrary to the assumption of Fonoberov and Balandin [J. Appl. Phys. 94, 7178 (2003); J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 22, 2190 (2004)], even in cases with no current transport through the structure, the strain distributions are not well captured by minimization of the strain energy only and not, as is in principle required, the total free energy including electric and piezoelectric coupling and spontaneous polarization contributions. Furthermore, we have found that, when an ac signal is imposed through the structure, resonance frequencies exist where strain distributions are even more strongly affected by piezoelectric-coupling contributions depending on the amount of mechanical and electrical losses in the full material system

Fortiden genoplivet i erindringen

Den erindringsproblematik, som den uundgåelige spalte mellem en begivenheds erfaring og dens erindring i en repræsentation forårsager, er ligeledes central i Morten Lassens undersøgelse af Elie Wiesels kanoniserede vidnesbyrd Natten fra 1958 og autobiografien All Rivers Run to the Sea fra 1994. Lassen påviser en række uoverensstemmelser mellem de to vidnesbyrd, som er de eneste i det omfangsrige forfatterskab, hvor Wiesel skriver direkte om sine egne oplevelser i Auschwitz, ikke for at så tvivl om Wiesels oprigtighed, men for at påpege vidnesbyrdaflæggelsens processuelle og uafsluttelige aspekt og for at påpege, at den uafhjælpeligt indebærer brug af retorik og æstetiske strategier. Hermed problematiserer Lassen Wiesels forsøg på at sakralisere og slå en flammekreds om holocaust og begivenhedens vidnesbyrd og derved gøre dem utilgængelige for kritik og videnskabelig undersøgelse, idet han plæderer for en overvindelse af den sympatiske, men på flere måder misforståede berøringsangst, som præger receptionen i forhold til vidnesbyrdets rekonstruktion af den traumatiske erfaring