"Free Entry and Exit" from the Market: Simplifying or Substantive Assumption?

Economic theory, of necessity, presents an abstraction to the reader. Abstraction is required to achieve the perspective that allows for theory, that is to say, understanding and interpretation, to occur. If the abstraction is done well only inessential details are set aside -- details that would otherwise divert the theorist from grasping the essential or fundamental elements of the process under examination. For example a study of the mechanisms that cause a moving automobile to stop can reasonably abstract from the vehicle's color scheme. For this process to be valid it is critical that the theorist distinguish between "simplifying" and "substantive" assumptions. The former clears away the inessential. The latter elevates or prioritizes the inessential -- thereby contributing to a distorted understanding. The difficulty is that distinguishing between simplifying and substantial assumptions remains, and will always remain, something of an art. Fifty years ago the siren of "Positive Economics" proposed that this critical distinction could be reliably made by adhering to a set of clear and simple rules. While some economists and empirical psychologists maintain a nostalgic commitment to that eclipsed understanding of science, today most thinking practitioners are aware that such an epistemological stance, with its triumphant dismissal of the need for defensible assumptions, was naive -- even misguided. Out of this epistemological vacuum economists have retreated to several crude "fixes" to guide their selection of abstractions. Occasional assertions to the contrary, these methods are conventions. Innocent of any knowledge of these issues, many economists instinctively deploy the abstractions used by their graduate advisor, or rely on those that most frequently appear in what are held to be the profession's premier journals. Economics, perhaps more than ever, is now defined by what economists do. Ideally, the distinction between substantive and simplifying assumptions could be grounded in something more meaningful. Such a ground does exist -- it is called judgment. Unfortunately judgment, like "beauty" or "goodness," is difficult to define without invoking specific cases. The reason is that good judgment requires a sense of context. Context is most readily gained through direct experience, a study of history, or the comparative method. Once acquired, this knowledge enables the researcher to "compare and contrast" one situation with another, to learn from previous efforts to interpret the subject at hand, or to benefit from multiple approaches to a single question. In short, judgment requires the kind of broad-ranging knowledge that is largely absent, even disdained, in the training of the economists of our era ("training" is the appropriate term in this context -- to be contrasted with "education"). To appreciate the implications and importance of the distinction between "simplifying" and "substantive" assumptions, consider the conventional assumption of "Free Entry and Exit."

Was finde ich wo? : ein praktischer Führer durch Frankfurts Bibliotheken

In Frankfurt gibt es große und kleine Bibliotheken. Neben den bekannten Häusern, wie der der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek, der Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg oder der Stadtbücherei bietet die Stadt aber auch viele kleine Institutionen mit speziellen Sammelschwerpunkten. Für Informationssuchende haben wir 35 Bibliotheken übersichtlich zusammengestellt. ..

Die List in der Vernehmung und Befragung des Beschuldigten - zugleich ein Beitrag zur Auslegung des Täuschungsverbots des § 136a StPO

Meine Dissertation "Die List in der Vernehmung und Befragung des Beschuldigten - zugleich ein Beitrag zur Auslegung des Täuschungsverbots des § 136a StPO" beinhaltet u.a. folgende Punkte: Erster Teil - Der Begriff der List Die "List" im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch List im materiellen Strafrecht Zweiter Teil - Die List im Strafprozeß Vereinbarkeit von List und Menschenwürde Vereinbarkeit des Einsatzes von Täuschung mit der Würde des Menschen Vereinbarkeit des Einsatzes von List im weiteren Sinne mit der Würde des Menschen List und Nemo tenetur Vereinbarkeit des Einsatzes von List mit Nemo tenetur -. Erörterung der Problematik anhand der "Hörfalle" -. Positiver Gehalt des Nemo tenetur-Grundsatzes; Folgen für die Zulässigkeit von List List in der Vernehmung des Beschuldigten § 136 StPO (Beschuldigten- & Vernehmungsbegriff; Zweck der V.; Belehrungspflicht) Das Täuschungsverbot des § 136a StPO -. Grundgedanken des Täuschungsverbots -. Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von Täuschung und Wahrheit -. Die tatbestandlichen Voraussetzungen des Täuschungsverbots -. Vernehmungsstrategien unter dem Aspekt der Täuschung (typische Bezugsobjekte einer Täuschung; Täuschungspotential diverser Kommunikationsformen) List in Befragungen außerhalb der Beschuldigtenvernehmung -. Offene (informatorische) Befragung -. Verdeckte Befragung Spontanäußerungen [Exkurs] Verteilung und Erfüllung der Beweislast bei Verstößen gegen § 136 I 2 StPO bzw. § 136a StPO [Exkurs

Constituting the Cold War Commonplace: U.S. Presidential Public Address and the Inventional Possibilities of Speaking In Situ

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. May 2016. Major: Communication Studies. Advisor: Karlyn Campbell. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 381 pages.Although the “spatial” turn has generated significant advances in many areas of rhetorical theory and criticism, few scholars have considered how speakers (and specifically U.S. presidents) have drawn on the symbolic and physical elements of the speech setting as a material means of persuasion. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to demonstrate how U.S. presidents have invoked place as a rhetorical strategy. I contend that recent rhetorical approaches to space and place offer a fruitful theoretical and methodological perspective that enlarges and enriches our understanding of U.S. presidential public address as rhetoric designed for and delivered in situ, or in place. In this dissertation, I analyze three examples of Cold War presidential discourse: Harry S. Truman’s 1947 speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the Lincoln Memorial, John F. Kennedy’s 1963 “Ich bin ein Berliner” address at the Rudolph Wilde Platz in West Berlin, and Ronald Reagan’s 1984 commemoration of D-Day at Pointe du Hoc, France. I argue that Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan invoked place to (1) invest the speech setting with symbolic meaning; (2) harness always already present political and cultural symbols to build conceptual and literal commonplaces (topoi) for ideological metaphors, analogies, and networks of shared meaning embedded in that place; (3) constitute a specific geopolitical vision of the world and the United States’ role in it; and (4) reaffirm their role as moral leader and head of state. This study also offers a theoretical and methodological framework—specifically, a rhetorical theory of deixis—for analyzing the persuasive power of rhetoric in situ

Measuring Snow Liquid Water Content with Low-Cost GPS Receivers

The amount of liquid water in snow characterizes the wetness of a snowpack. Its temporal evolution plays an important role for wet-snow avalanche prediction, as well as the onset of meltwater release and water availability estimations within a river basin. However, it is still a challenge and a not yet satisfyingly solved issue to measure the liquid water content (LWC) in snow with conventional in situ and remote sensing techniques. We propose a new approach based on the attenuation of microwave radiation in the L-band emitted by the satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS). For this purpose, we performed a continuous low-cost GPS measurement experiment at the Weissfluhjoch test site in Switzerland, during the snow melt period in 2013. As a measure of signal strength, we analyzed the carrier-to-noise power density ratio (C/N-0) and developed a procedure to normalize these data. The bulk volumetric LWC was determined based on assumptions for attenuation, reflection and refraction of radiation in wet snow. The onset of melt, as well as daily melt-freeze cycles were clearly detected. The temporal evolution of the LWC was closely related to the meteorological and snow-hydrological data. Due to its non-destructive setup, its cost-efficiency and global availability, this approach has the potential to be implemented in distributed sensor networks for avalanche prediction or basin-wide melt onset measurements

How Will Hydroelectric Power Generation Develop under Climate Change Scenarios?

Climate change has a large impact on water resources and thus on hydropower. Hydroelectric power generation is closely linked to the regional hydrological situation of a watershed and reacts sensitively to changes in water quantity and seasonality. The development of hydroelectric power generation in the Upper Danube basin was modelled for two future decades, namely 2021-2030 and 2051-2060, using a special hydropower module coupled with the physically-based hydrological model PROMET. To cover a possible range of uncertainties, 16 climate scenarios were taken as meteorological drivers which were defined from different ensemble outputs of a stochastic climate generator, based on the IPCC-SRES-A1B emission scenario and four regional climate trends. Depending on the trends, the results show a slight to severe decline in hydroelectric power generation. Whilst the mean summer values indicate a decrease, the mean winter values display an increase. To show past and future regional differences within the Upper Danube basin, three hydropower plants at individual locations were selected. Inter-annual differences originate predominately from unequal contributions of the runoff compartments rain, snow-and ice-melt