Wie viel Geschichte braucht die Ökonomie? Das Verhältnis von Theorie und Geschichte in evolutionstheoretischer InterpretationHow Much History Does Economics Need? Theory and History in an Evolutionary Perspective

Economic History and History of Economic Thought haven been relegated increasingly from the teaching and research curricula of economics in recent years. The paper starts off arguing that this trend is due to the mechanistic ontology of mainstream economics, and it continues setting out an alternative evolutionary ontology expounding how the historical element must and can be integrated into the body of economic theory. Centre stage is a lingua franca composed of analytical terms that are designed to bridge the domains of theoretical and of historical economic analysis. Economists are viewed in their status as observers whose cognitive dispositions as well as social behaviour co-evolve with the environment they inhabit. Further advances in economic theory are seen as being critically dependent on employing an evolutionary approach and on establishing a communication link to economic history and the history of economic thought which likewise may get essential inspirations from applying that approac

The economic agent as rule maker and rule user: Homo Sapiens Oeconomicus

Abstract.: The paper discusses the micro foundations of evolutionary economics, introducing a unified concept of the economic agent as a rule maker and rule user. Based on recent findings of the neuronal, cognitive and behavioral sciences, Homo Sapiens Oeconomicus emerges as an alternative to Homo Oeconomicus. A taxonomy of rules distinguishing between cognitive, behavioral and blueprint rules and a set of theoretical propositions related to the structure and evolution of those rules are suggeste

The origins of meso economics: Schumpeter's legacy and beyond

The paper starts from Schumpeter's proposition that entrepreneurs carry out innovations (the micro level), that swarms of followers imitate them (meso) and that, as a consequence, ‘creative destruction' leads to economic development ‘from within' (macro). It is argued that Schumpeter's approach can be developed into a new—more general—micro-meso-macro framework in economics. Center stage is meso. Its essential characteristic is bimodality, meaning that one idea (the generic rule) can be physically actualized by many agents (a population). Ideas can relate to others, and, in this way, meso constitutes a structure component of a ‘deep' invisible macro structure. Equally, the rule actualization process unfolds over time—modelled in the paper as a meso trajectory with three phases of rule origination, selective adoption and retention—and here meso represents a process component of a visible ‘surface' structure. The macro measure with a view to the appropriateness of meso components is generic correspondence. At the level of ideas, its measure is order; at that of actual relative adoption frequencies, it is generic equilibrium. Economic development occurs at the deep level as transition from one generic rule to another, inducing a change of order, and, at the surface level, as the new rule is adopted, destroying an old equilibrium and establishing a new on

Zur Neubestimmung von Geschichte und Theoriegeschichte in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften: Ko-evolution von Wirtschaftsbeobachtung und Wirtschaftswirklichkeit

Economic History and the History of Economic Thought haven been relegated increasingly from the teaching and research curricula of economics in recent years. The paper starts off arguing that this trend is due to the mechanistic ontology of mainstream economics, and it continues setting out an alternative evolutionary ontology expounding how the historical element must and can be integrated into the body of economic theory. Centre stage is a lingua franca composed of analytical terms that are designed to bridge the domains of theoretical and of historical economic analysis. Economists are viewed in their status as observers whose cognitive dispositions as well as social behaviour co-evolve with the environment they inhabit. Further advances in economic theory are seen as being critically dependent on employing an evolutionary approach and on establishing a communication link to economic history and the history of economic thought - which likewise may get essential inspirations from applying that approach. --Neuroeeconomics,Behavioural Economics,Entscheidungsverhalten,Validierung ökonomischer Modelle

Why evolutionary realism underpins evolutionary economic analysis and theory: A reply to Runde's critique

This paper offers a reply to Jochen Runde's critical appraisal of the ontological framework underpinning Dopfer and Potts's (2008) General Theory of Economic Evolution. We argue that Runde's comprehensive critique contains several of what we perceive to be misunderstandings in relation to the key concepts of ‘generic' and ‘meso' that we seek here to unpack and redres

Cattle Trade and the Risk of Importing Animal Diseases into the Netherlands

Projections of live cattle trade in the EU-25 assist to reduce the uncertainty on the risk of importing animal diseases in the Netherlands. The accession of 10 member states to the European Union has a potentially large impact on livestock trade in the EU as it liberalized in one stroke a trade that was administered by the Management Committee for Beef until May 1, 2004. The approach combines AG-Memod partial equilibrium with GTAP general equilibrium modelling in order to estimate the impact of quota liberalization. Quota removal will substantially alter the regional structure of livestock imports, as the share of new EU member states in the east triples to 25%. The risk outlook indicates a need for enhanced animal health services in the new member states.livestock, animal disease, trade, projections, quota, EU-enlargement, Risk and Uncertainty, F17, I18, Q17,

Intracluster proton transfer in protonated benzonitrile–(H2O)n≤6 nanoclusters: hydrated hydronium core for n ≥ 2

Protonation and hydration of aromatic hydrocarbon molecules and their derivatives play a key role in many biological and chemical processes. The recent detection of benzonitrile (BN, cyanobenzene, C6H5CN) in the interstellar medium suggests the existence of its protonated form (H+BN) in both the gas phase and in or on ice grains. Herein, we analyze the vibrational signatures of size-selected protonated clusters composed of BN and water (W, H2O), H+(BN–Wn=1–6), in the XH stretch range (X = C, N, O) with the aid of dispersion-corrected density functional theory calculations (B3LYP-D3/aug-cc-pVTZ). The size-dependent frequency shifts provide detailed insight about the site of protonation and the structure of the hydration shell. For n = 1, the proton is attached to the N atom of the CN group in BN, and W acts as a proton acceptor in an NH⋯O ionic hydrogen bond (H-bond) of a H+BN–W type structure with cation–dipole configuration. For n ≥ 2, the proton is transferred to the H-bonded hydration network, consistent with thermochemical arguments arising from both the relative proton affinities of BN and Wn and the solvation energies. In these proton-transferred BN–H+Wn structures, the excess proton is more or less localized at a H3O+ hydronium core solvated by neutral W and BN ligands. At least for the considered cluster size (n ≤ 6), the BN impurity molecule is located in the first solvation shell of the H3O+ ion, consistent with the larger electric dipole moment and proton affinity of BN as compared to W. However, the energy gap between these structures and surface isomers with BN solvated further away from the charge decreases with cluster size, suggesting that BN is located at the surface in large BN–H+Wn clusters. While for smaller clusters (n ≤ 4) the hydration network prefers branched structures at T = 0 K, in larger clusters (n ≥ 5) cyclic configurations with four- or five-membered H+Wn rings are most stable because they feature more H-bonds than the branched structures. Comparison with bare H+Wn clusters reveals the substantial effects of the perturbation by the BN impurity on the structure of the hydration network.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Microhydration of protonated 5-hydroxyindole revealed by infrared spectroscopy

Controlled microsolvation of protonated aromatic biomolecules with water is fundamental to understand proton transfer reactions in aqueous environments. We measured infrared photodissociation (IRPD) spectra of mass-selected microhydrates of protonated 5-hydroxyindole (5HIH+–Wn, W = H2O, n = 1–3) in the OH and NH stretch ranges (2700–3800 cm−1), which are sensitive to the spectroscopic characteristics of interior solvation, water network formation, and proton transfer to solvent. Analysis of the IRPD spectra by dispersion-corrected density functional theory calculations (B3LYP-D3/aug-cc-pVTZ) reveals the coexistence of C3- and C4-protonated carbenium ions, 5HIH+(C3) and 5HIH+(C4), as well as the O-protonated oxonium ion, 5HIH+(O). Monohydrated 5HIH+–W2/3 clusters are formed by hydrogen-bonding (H-bonding) of the first water to the most acidic functional group, namely, the NH group in the case of 5HIH+(C3), the OH group for 5HIH+(C4), and the OH2 group for 5HIH+(O). The latter benefits from its twofold degeneracy and the outstandingly high binding energy of D0 ∼ 100 kJ mol−1. Larger 5HIH+–W2/3 clusters preferably grow (i) by H-bonding of the second water to the remaining vacant functional group and and/or (ii) by formation of W2 water chains at the respective most acidic functional group. Our IRPD spectra of 5HIH+–Wn do not indicate any proton transfer to the solvent up to n = 3, in line with the proton affinities of 5HI and Wn. Comparison of 5HIH+–Wn to neutral 5HI–W and cationic 5HI+–Wn clusters elucidates the impact of different charge states on the topology of the initial solvation shell. Furthermore, to access the influence of the size of the arene ion and a second functional group, we draw a comparison to microhydration of protonated phenol.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Spectroscopic identification of fragment ions of DNA/RNA building blocks: the case of pyrimidine

Pyrimidine (Pym, 1,3-diazine, 1,3-diazabenzene) is an important N-heterocyclic building block of nucleobases. Understanding the structures of its fragment and precursor ions provides insight into its prebiotic and abiotic synthetic route. The long-standing controversial debate about the structures of the primary fragment ions of the Pym+ cation (C4H4N2+, m/z 80) resulting from loss of HCN, C3H3N+ (m/z 53), is closed herein with the aid of a combined approach utilizing infrared photodissociation (IRPD) spectroscopy in the CH and NH stretch ranges (νCH/NH) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. IRPD spectra of cold Ar/N2-tagged fragment ions reveal that the C3H3N+ population is dominated by cis-/trans-HCCHNCH+ ions (∼90%) along with a minor contribution of the most stable H2CCCNH+ and cis-/trans-HCCHCNH+ isomers (∼10%). We also spectroscopically confirm that the secondary fragment resulting from further loss of HCN, C2H2+ (m/z 26), is the acetylene cation (HCCH+). The spectroscopic characterization of the identified C3H3N+ isomers and their hydrogen-bonded dimers with Ar and N2 provides insight into the acidity of their CH and NH groups. Finally, the vibrational properties of Pym+ in the 3 μm range are probed by IRPD of Pym+-(N2)1–2 clusters, which shows a high π-binding affinity of Pym+ toward a nonpolar hydrophobic ligand. Its νCH spectrum confirms the different acidity of the three nonequivalent CH groups.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 202

Unraveling the protonation site of oxazole and solvation with hydrophobic ligands by infrared photodissociation spectroscopy

Protonation and solvation of heterocyclic aromatic building blocks control the structure and function of many biological macromolecules. Herein the infrared photodissociation (IRPD) spectra of protonated oxazole (H+Ox) microsolvated by nonpolar and quadrupolar ligands, H+Ox-Ln with L = Ar (n = 1–2) and L = N2 (n = 1–4), are analyzed by density functional theory calculations at the dispersion-corrected B3LYP-D3/aug-cc-pVTZ level to determine the preferred protonation and ligand binding sites. Cold H+Ox-Ln clusters are generated in an electron impact cluster ion source. Protonation of Ox occurs exclusively at the N atom of the heterocyclic ring, in agreement with the thermochemical predictions. The analysis of the systematic shifts of the NH stretch frequency in the IRPD spectra of H+Ox-Ln provides a clear picture of the sequential cluster growth and the type and strength of various competing ligand binding motifs. The most stable structures observed for the H+Ox-L dimers (n = 1) exhibit a linear NH⋯L hydrogen bond (H-bond), while π-bonded isomers with L attached to the aromatic ring are local minima on the potential and thus occur at a lower abundance. From the spectra of the H+Ox-L(π) isomers, the free NH frequency of bare H+Ox is extrapolated as νNH = 3444 ± 3 cm−1. The observed H+Ox-L2 clusters with L = N2 feature both bifurcated NH⋯L2 (2H isomer) and linear NH⋯L H-bonding motifs (H/π isomer), while for L = Ar only the linear H-bond is observed. No H+Ox-L2(2π) isomers are detected, confirming that H-bonding to the NH group is more stable than π-bonding to the ring. The most stable H+Ox-(N2)n clusters with n = 3–4 have 2H/(n − 2)π structures, in which the stable 2H core ion is further solvated by (n − 2) π-bonded ligands. Upon N-protonation, the aromatic C–H bonds of the Ox ring get slightly stronger, as revealed by higher CH stretch frequencies and strongly increased IR intensities.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201