Employment dynamics of newly established and traditional firms: A comparison of Russia and the Ukraine.

Dynamics; Employment; Firms;

The Role of Ideology Through the Lens of Primary Elections

This paper serves as an in-depth look at the role ideology plays in modern America, and uses the primary electoral system as a mechanism through which one can examine ideological shifts in politicians and the electorate. The evidence gathered indicates that primary elections are breeding grounds for increased ideological extremism as a result of the more radical nature of politically engaged voters, the only group who on average take part in these elections. As a result, only the most ideologically dogmatic candidates move on to the general election and thus potentially into office. The effects this has upon policy and American democracy are significant, as radical politicians have proven less willing to compromise with opponents or moderate their views, contributing to contentious gridlock in Congress and growing public discontent. The mostly moderate American electorate has thus been slowly eroded by ideologues to become increasingly polarized, displaying that in contemporary America, ideology serves to harm institutions and civil discourse rather than bolster them

Successful Factor Market Competition Pre-Privatisation? China`s eclectic.com

Can factor market competition, given pertinent incentives, bring about efficiency gains, or is privatisation necessary? We assess the impact of factor market competition on Chinese state-owned enterprises' productivity in a laboratory-like setting. The empirical evidence suggests that substantial efficiency gains are achievable pre-privatisation. Methodologically, we adapt an algorithm developed by Olley and Pakes (1996) which deals with simultaneity and selection bias in production function estimation. This is required since the reform process that introduced factor market competition involved endogenous group selection. While macro-level timing was important, enterprise characteristics, chiefly capital intensity and productivity, played an important role in the sequencing of reforms. Further, reform-induced competitive pressures brought about significant efficiency gains prior to privatisation. Finally, not controlling for selection bias would have resulted in an overestimation of reform-related productivity gains by up to fifty percent.

Traditional Biocidal Replacement Viability of Microcrystalline Silver Chloride

The antimicrobial effects of silver ions and silver chloride nanoparticles have been well established while the efficacy of microcrystalline silver chloride has been less studied. Certex-AM, a microcrystalline silver chloride product produced by Cerion, Rochester, NY, was tested for its antimicrobial properties as a possible replacement for traditional biocidal techniques used in water cooling towers. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the compound was determined using a microtiter broth assay. The compound was found to have inhibitory effects on bacterial growth for all tested organisms at concentrations greater than 9 ppm. Additional testing simulating a water cooling system showed the effectiveness of reducing an established wild population at concentrations of 10 ppm of the microcrystalline silver chloride. Certex-AM was found to be a promising replacement for traditional biocides as well as for other applications. Introduction of effective antimicrobial compounds such as this could reduce the pathogenic risk to humans associated with water cooling towers

New tools in comparative political economy: The database of political institutions.

[Dataset available: http://hdl.handle.net/10411/15987]

Hierarchical social modularity in gorillas

Modern human societies show hierarchical social modularity (HSM) in which lower-order social units like nuclear families are nested inside increasingly larger units. It has been argued that this HSM evolved independently and after the chimpanzee–human split due to greater recognition of, and bonding between, dispersed kin. We used network modularity analysis and hierarchical clustering to quantify community structure within two western lowland gorilla populations. In both communities, we detected two hierarchically nested tiers of social structure which have not been previously quantified. Both tiers map closely to human social tiers. Genetic data from one population suggested that, as in humans, social unit membership was kin structured. The sizes of gorilla social units also showed the kind of consistent scaling ratio between social tiers observed in humans, baboons, toothed whales, and elephants. These results indicate that the hierarchical social organization observed in humans may have evolved far earlier than previously asserted and may not be a product of the social brain evolution unique to the hominin lineage