Kaila's Reception of Hume

In this paper, I discuss Eino Kaila's (1890-1958) understanding of David Hume. Kaila was one of the leading Finnish philosophers of the 20th century and a correspondent of the Vienna Circle. He introduced logical empiricism into Finland and taught Georg Henrik von Wright. Final draf

Kinetic theory and thermalization of weakly interacting fermions

Weakly interacting quantum fluids allow for a natural kinetic theory description which takes into account the fermionic or bosonic nature of the interacting particles. In the simplest cases, one arrives at the Boltzmann-Nordheim equations for the reduced density matrix of the fluid. We discuss here two related topics: the kinetic theory of the fermionic Hubbard model, in which conservation of total spin results in an additional Vlasov type term in the Boltzmann equation, and the relation between kinetic theory and thermalization.Comment: 19 pages, submitted to proceedings of the conference "Macroscopic Limits of Quantum Systems", Munich, Germany, March 20-April 1, 2017 (eds. D. Cadamuro, M. Duell, W. Dybalski, S. Simonella

Maintenance of a gambling monopoly in the EU: Finland’s gambling policy as a case

The EU Member States in general have striven to comply with Court of Justice of the European Union rulings while holding on to their national regulatory power as far as possible. The Finnish gambling policy is an example. The analysis is based on case law and policy documents. The results of the analysis point to the interpretation that Finland has successfully contained the EU’s politico-legal influence on its national gambling policy and to a great extent kept regulatory power in its own hands. It is suggested that the development of the Finnish gambling policy in relation to the EU from the early period of Finland’s accession to present day can be productively interpreted as having been formulated from national starting points but with ‘EU in mind’. Finland has managed to secure its national competence regarding its gambling policy. The national discretion has even increased and it is hard to perceive much EU influence in the decision to merge the three gambling monopoly operators into one in 2017. It is concluded that it seems likely that EU will in the future allow more national discretion for Member States

Demand Functions for Services of Public Railway Passenger Transportation: An Empirical Analysis for Slovenia

The paper deals with the estimation of demand functions for services of public railway passenger transportation in the case of Slovenia. Six demand functions were selected and separately interpreted. The aggregate values of demand elasticities reported in this paper suggest that the railway passenger demand is price and income inelastic. Coefficients of income elasticity below unity show that the services of railway passenger transportation in Slovenia can be classified among normal goods. A hypothetical increase in average real fares leads to a percentage decrease in the number of passengers travelling by rail that is smaller than the percentage increase in fares. The estimated price elasticities imply that, in the short run, there is potential for improving revenues of the railway operator by increasing average real fares.