Visual Imagery in Deductive Reasoning: Results from experiments with sighted, blindfolded, and congenitally totally blind persons

We report three experiments on visual mental imagery in de-ductive reasoning. Reasoning performance of sighted partici-pants was impeded if the materials were easy to envisage as visual mental images. Congenitally totally blind participants did not show this visual-impedance effect. Blindfolded par-ticipants with normal vision showed the same pattern of per-formance as the sighted. We conclude that irrelevant visual detail can be a nuisance in reasoning and impedes the process

Ranking economics departments worldwide on the basis of PhD placement

An objective ranking of economics departments worldwide in terms of graduate education is derived. The central idea is that the value of a department is the sum of the values of its PhD graduates, as reflected in the values of their current employing departments. The scores are thus derived as solutions to a linear system of simultaneous equations in the values. The sample includes the top fifty-four departments, the composition of which is determined endogenously using a criterion requiring a minimum of four placements in the departments comprising the sample. Two other related rankings are proposed, which place more emphasis on more recent faculty recruitments. The results point to a very high concentration in the economics PhD education market worldwide, confirming the dominance of the top U.S. departments, in particular of Harvard and M.I.T. Nevertheless, a modest de-concentration trend is under way. The rankings are in close agreement with the 1994 National Research Council survey ranking based on the perceived quality of PhD programsEconomics PhD education; scientific evaluation methods; economic department ranking

Endogenous Heterogeneity in Strategic Models: Symmetry-breaking via Strategic Substitutes and Nonconcavities

This paper is an attempt to develop a unified approach to endogenous heterogeneity by constructing general class of two-player symmetric games that always possess only asymmetric pure-strategy Nash equilibria. These classes of games are characterized in some abstract sense by two general properties: payo? non-concavities and some form of strategic substitutability. We provide a detailed discussion of the relationship of this work with Matsuyama’s symmetry breaking framework and with business strategy literature. Our framework generalizes a number of models dealing with two-stage games, with long term investment decisions in the first stage and product market competition in the second stage. We present the main examples that motivate this study to illustrate the generality of our approach.firm heterogeneity; submodular games; business strategy; innovation strategies.

A Little TLC: Tender, Liability, and Covenants Vis-A-Vis Recovery of Pre-notice Defense Costs After Paj, Incorporated v. Hanover Insurance Company and Its Progeny

This article analyzes the impact of PAJ, Inc. v. Hanover Insurance Company and similar cases on the arguments by insurers to deny prenotice defense costs. This article also analyzes decisions in other jurisdictions that support the recovery of pre-tender defense costs

Conceptual Reflections on a cultural paradigm shift: The example of Fair Trade

Fair Trade is an alternative trading approach that emerged during the 1950s and attempts to establish fairer trading relations between rich and the poor countries, thus achieving a fairer distribution of wealth. Fair Trade as a label is defined by certain standards, such as minimum prices, in order to improve working and living conditions of underprivileged employees in Third World countries. When looking at the expansion rate of Fair Trade products, there seems to be a growing appreciation of the Fair Trade concept. This essay presents reflections on the question of how product labelling and changes of cultural paradigms are intertwined. On the one hand, I will discuss whether there has been a paradigm change within the Fair Trade movement itself. To that end it will examine the niche where Fair Trade first emerged as a political and cultural movement. Did Fair Trade standards that were part of the original paradigm change over the last few decades? On the other hand, this chapter is also concerned with the values that define the Fair Trade movement; fairness, solidarity and sustainability. I shall deal with the question of whether and how these values have become part of mainstream society. It is this ‘mainstreaming’ of Fair Trade, that is the base of the paradigm shift that I discuss here. Therefore this chapter aims at describing and analysing the character of a (cultural) paradigm shift in general and in the context of the Fair Trade movement. I base my argument mainly on sources from those engaged in Fair Trade (including interviews). The claims that I make about attitudes and practices of the consumers are thus of an indirect and somewhat hypothetical character. It will be left to future empirical research to substantiate these claims, and the framework that is proposed in this essay by more detailed consumer studies.

On the exterior boundary-value problem for the time-harmonic Maxwell equations

AbstractFor the exterior boundary-value problem of electromagnetic reflection at perfect conductors a new integral equation approach is developed. It extends the method introduced by Brakhage and Werner and by Leis for exterior boundary-value problems for the scalar Helmholtz equation to the underlying case of Maxwell's equations. In a unified approach for all frequencies the existence of a solution is established by using the first part of Fredholm's alternative only

A study of the views of local public health nurses on the functions and activities of district public health nursing supervisors

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit