Electricity Prices and Generator Behaviour in Gross Pool Electricity Markets

Electricity market liberalisation has become common practice internationally. The justification for this process has been to enhance competition in a market traditionally characterised by statutory monopolies in an attempt to reduce costs to end-users. This paper endeavours to see whether a pool market achieves this goal of increasing competition and reducing electricity prices. Here the electricity market is set up as a sealed bid second price auction. Theory predicts that such markets should result with firms bidding their marginal cost, thereby resulting in an efficient outcome and lower costs to consumers. The Irish electricity system with a gross pool market experiences among the highest electricity prices in Europe. Thus, we analyse the Irish pool system econometrically in order to test if the high electricity prices seen there are due to participants bidding outside of market rules or out of line with theory. Results indicate that the Irish pool system appears to be working efficiently and that generators are bidding their true marginal costs. Thus, the pool element of the market structure does not explain the high electricity prices experienced in Ireland.Electricity Markets; Auction Theory; Multiple Regression Analysis

Managing the boundary of an 'open' project

In the past ten years, the boundaries between public and open science and commercial research efforts have become more porous. Scholars have thus more critically examined ways in which these two institutional regimes intersect. Large open source software projects have also attracted commercial collaborators and now struggle to develop code in an open public environment that still protects their communal boundaries. This research applies a dynamic social network approach to understand how one community-managed software project, Debian, developed a membership process. We examine the project's face-to-face social network over a five-year period (1997-2001) to see how changes in the social structure affected the evolution of membership mechanisms and the determination of gatekeepers. While the amount and importance of a contributor's work increased the probability that a contributor would become a gatekeeper, those more central in the social network were more likely to become gatekeepers and influence the membership process. A greater understanding of the mechanisms open projects use to manage their boundaries has critical implications for research and knowledge-producing communities operating in pluralistic, open and distributed environments.open source software; social networks; organizational design; institutional design;

Denying the Spoils of War

Joseph O'Mahoney systematically analyses 21 case studies – including the Manchurian Crisis, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and Russia’s annexation of Crimea – to explore why so many states have adopted a policy of non-recognition of the spoils of war

Hume's Correlationism: On Meillassoux, Necessity and Belief

The article argues that Meillassoux's 'After Finitude' underestimates the nature and profundity of Hume's sceptical challenge; it neglects the fact that Hume's scepticism concerns final causes (and agrees fundamentally with Bacon and Descartes in this respect), and that in Hume even the operations of reason do not furnish entirely a priori knowledge. We contend that Hume himself institutes a form of correlationism (which in part showed Kant the way to counter the sceptical challenge via transcendental idealism), and sought not merely to abolish the 'principle of sufficient reason' but to salvage it in a weak form, in turning his attention to the grounds for our beliefs in necessity. We argue further that the 'mathematizability' of properties is not a sufficient criterion to yield realist, non-correlational knowledge, or to demonstrate the 'irremediable realism' of the 'ancestral' statement. Finally, we contend that Meillassoux himself relies on a certain 'Kantian moment' which exempts the reasoning subject from otherwise 'omnipotent' chaos, and that ultimately the 'speculative materialist' position remains exposed to the original Humean sceptical challenge.

The assessment of pain in older people

Pain is under-recognised and under-treated in older people. It is a subjective, personal experience, only known to the person who suffers. The assessment of pain is particularly challenging in the presence of severe cognitive impairment, communication difficulties or language and cultural barriers. These guidelines set out the key components of assessing pain in older people, together with a variety of practical scales that may be used with different groups, including those with varying levels of cognitive or communication impairment. The purpose is to provide professionals with a set of practical skills to assess pain as the first step towards its effective management. The guidance has implications for all healthcare and social care staff and can be applied in all settings, including the older person’s own home, in care homes, and in hospital

Power and the diffusion of management ideas:The Case of McKinsey & Co.

In studies of the diffusion or translation of management ideas, power is frequently implied but is rarely theorised explicitly. Moreover, when it is recognised, the focus is often on only one form of power. This can obscure how different forms of power relate to each other, shape idea diffusion and connect to different forms of resistance. Using Lukes’ classic framing of power, we explore the activities of a key agent in the diffusion of ideas – management consultancy – and one of the leading players in that field – McKinsey & Co. We draw on diverse, publicly available forms of data on three different management ideas to identify how different forms of power and resistance enable and constrain the diffusion of management ideas. Our study emphasises both the dynamic relations between different forms of power over time and the importance of acknowledging the unintended consequences of power. At the same time, by focusing on power dynamics mostly operating outside of consulting projects, we add to our understanding of the role of consultancy in the diffusion of management ideas more generally

Denying the Spoils of War

Joseph O'Mahoney systematically analyses 21 case studies – including the Manchurian Crisis, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and Russia’s annexation of Crimea – to explore why so many states have adopted a policy of non-recognition of the spoils of war