bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature
Authors: Anderson Craig A. , Bushman Brad J.
Published: March 2003

Research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. A meta-analytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experimental and nonexperimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases prosocial behavior.
Altruism and Antisocial Behavior: Independent Tendencies, Unique Personality Correlates, Distinct Etiologies
Authors: Krueger Robert F. , Hicks Brian M. , McGue Matt
Published: March 2003

The relationship between altruism and antisocial behavior has received limited attention because altruism and antisocial behavior tend to be studied and discussed in distinct literatures. Our research bridges these literatures by focusing on three fundamental questions. First, are altruism and antisocial behavior opposite ends of a single dimension, or can they coexist in the same individual? Second, do altruism and antisocial behavior have the same or distinct etiologies? Third, do they stem from the same or from distinct aspects of a person's personality? Our findings indicate that altruism and antisocial behavior are uncorrelated tendencies stemming from different sources. Whereas altruism was linked primarily to shared (i.e., familial) environments, unique (i.e., nonfamilial) environments, and personality traits reflecting positive emotionality, antisocial behavior was linked primarily to genes, unique environments, and personality traits reflecting negative emotionality and a lack of constraint.
Explaining Math: Gesturing Lightens the Load
Authors: Goldin-Meadow Susan , Nusbaum Howard , Kelly Spencer D. , Wagner Susan
Published: March 2003

Why is it that people cannot keep their hands still when they talk? One reason may be that gesturing actually lightens cognitive load while a person is thinking of what to say. We asked adults and children to remember a list of letters or words while explaining how they solved a math problem. Both groups remembered significantly more items when they gestured during their math explanations than when they did not gesture. Gesturing appeared to save the speakers' cognitive resources on the explanation task, permitting the speakers to allocate more resources to the memory task. It is widely accepted that gesturing reflects a speaker's cognitive state, but our observations suggest that, by reducing cognitive load, gesturing may also play a role in shaping that state.
Where Did 1850 Happen First—In America or in Europe? A Cognitive Account for a Historical Bias
Authors: Moshinsky Avital , Bar-Hillel Maya
Published: March 2003

A professor of history at The Hebrew University noted that his students were often surprised to learn that some event in America happened at about the same time as another in Europe, because the American event seemed to them to have happened more recently. We confirmed the validity of this anecdotal observation experimentally, and offer an explanation. We discuss how this bias may be an effect of judgment, rather than memory. We then show experimentally that students like those who demonstrated the bias regarded America as the New World, as opposed to Europe's Old World. Our theoretical account, based on judgment by representativeness, posits that if one category is deemed more X than another (e.g., American history is deemed more “recent” than European history), then its members will be judged more X than members of the other, ceteris paribus. Hence, an American historical event will appear more recent than a contemporaneous European event.
Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Recognize Spatial and Object Correspondences Between a Scale Model and Its Referent
Authors: Kuhlmeier Valerie A. , Boysen Sarah T.
Published: March 2003

In the present study, the contributions of spatial and object features to chimpanzees' comprehension of scale models were examined. Seven chimpanzees that previously demonstrated the ability to use a scale model as an information source for the location of a hidden item were tested under conditions manipulating the feature correspondence and spatial-relational correspondence between objects in the model and an outdoor enclosure. In Experiment 1, subjects solved the task under two conditions in which one object cue (color or shape) was unavailable, but positional cues remained. Additionally, performance was above chance under a third condition in which both types of object cues, but not position cues, were available. In Experiment 2, 2 subjects solved the task under a condition in which shape and color object cues were simultaneously unavailable. The results suggest that, much like young children, chimpanzees are sensitive to both object and spatial-relational correspondences between a model and its referent.
Energy and Environmental Governance under Ecological Modernization: a Comparative Analysis of Nordic Countries
Authors: Midttun Atle , Kamfjord Svein
Published: March 2003

In this study of energy and environmental governance in four Nordic countries, we aim to shed further light on the question of organization of political governance under transition to ecological modernization. Our findings are that, in spite of a number of similarities, the Nordic countries seem to be pursuing programmes of ecological modernization under rather different regimes of political governance. However, we do not find the diversity of national energy‐environmental governance regimes by reference to national policy‐making styles. Instead, our analysis indicates that a more plausible explanation of the variety may lie in differences in their industrial and resource‐based structure. Given diverse industrial structures, similar policy measures may have very different effects on national economies, and hence, motivate distinct governance measures. The paper concludes that a lock into a standardized ‘first‐best’ mode of environmental governance may prove detrimental to environmental modernization in practice, since it might expose economies to unacceptable consequences and then to a fallback to traditional industrial strategies.
Implementing ‘Best Value’: Local Public Services in Transition
Authors: Martin Steve
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the impacts of the ‘Best Value’ regime on the management of local public services in the UK. It argues that the regime marks an important shift in the framework of national regulation of local authorities and the services they provide but that the initiatives developed by the councils which have been piloting the new framework reflect a variety of approaches to local implementation. This suggests not the arrival of a new, hegemonic ‘outcomes‐focused paradigm’ but a more gradual transition characterized by the co‐existence and interaction of hierarchical, market based and collaborative frameworks for co‐ordinating service delivery. The search for ‘citizen‐centred’ services is likely to lead to a shift in the ‘mix of governing structures’ with an increasing number of services structured around ‘cross‐cutting issues’, specific client groups or local communities. However, these more integrated approaches to local service delivery frequently require internal re‐structuring as well as more effective collabor‐ation with other local service providers and with local people. They may not therefore lead to immediate improvements in public services and will require local and central government to embrace new approaches to learning.
Developments in Policy Analysis and Evaluation in Public Administration
Authors: Geva‐May Iris , Kfir Aharon
Published: March 2003

Established in 1948, Israel can be considered a new developing state in transition; on the other hand, it can be viewed as a modern western society and the only strong democracy in a rather unstable region. While the former implies lack of public administration tradition and the need to invest in basic infrastructures, the latter requires, among other responsibilities, the adoption of norms of systematic policy planning and accountability. In Israel, security problems, limited (and loss of) resources, lack of stability and huge waves of immigration have displaced more mundane issues such as administrative reforms and systematic policy planning approaches. From its inception, there was constant criticism of the state’s lack of established norms, functions, and skilled practitioners, particularly in policy analysis and evaluation. At first the criticism came from academia (especially Dror 1968, 1971), but in time it crossed lines and was raised by parties and Members of Parliament (the Knesset), and constituted a major issue in the work of different committees concerned with reforms in the public service and in government reorganization. This paper (1) will discuss the main reasons for the shortcomings of Israeli public policy analysis, evaluation and planning, and (2) will present shifts in conceptualization during recent years, with regard to systematic policy making.
Managing the Budgetary Process in a Hung Council
Authors: Leach Steve , Charteris Sue
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the impact of a change in 1994 from majority control to no overall control on the operation of a strategic medium‐term budget and policy plan‐ning process in Kirklees MBC. Six hypotheses are set out regarding the changes that might have been anticipated in the budget process, in the light of recent trends in the approach to budgeting in British local government, and the particular political context and recent political history of the authority. Use is made of a diary kept by a participant observer (who is also one of the authors) to document and analyse key events in the budget process. The six hypotheses are examined against the evi‐dence, and with some exceptions are confirmed. It is concluded that Kirklees’s well‐structured budget process did survive the transition to no overall control, but not without considerable difficulty. Careful management from the Executive Board, especially in brokering discussion, was a critical factor and highly advantageous to the success of the process.
Local Government Modernization in Germany: Between Incrementalism and Reform Waves
Authors: Wollmann Hellmut
Published: March 2003

In taking a historical‐institutionlist approach, this paper looks at the development of administrative reforms in German local government which, because of the comparatively high degree of political and administrative decentralization of the Federal Republic has played a crucial role in the latter’s entire politico‐administrative setting and, hence, in its institutional reforms. The paper mainly identifies three stages in the post‐war development of administrative reforms. During the ‘planning movement’ of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Germany’s local level government and administration underwent significant and, to a considerable degree, lasting institutional changes. The 1980s were a period of incrementalist adaptation. Since the beginning of the 1990s, conspicuously later than in the Anglo‐Saxon and Scandinavian countries, but earlier and faster than the federal and the Länder levels, Germany’s local government has embarked upon dramatic changes particularly on two scores. First, in a growing number of municipalities and counties, administrative modernization was incorporated under the heading of a ‘New Steering Model’ (NSM) that largely drew on the dominant international New Public Management (NPM) debate. The dynamics of the ongoing administrative reforms are marked by an ‘amalgamation’ of NPM/NSM and earlier (‘traditional’) reform concepts. Secondly, at the same time, the political institutions of local government have under‐gone a significant shift as a result of the introduction of direct democratic procedures (direct election of mayors and heads of counties, binding local referenda). The paper argues that it is this co‐incidence and co‐evolution of administrative and political reforms that make for the peculiarity of Germany’s current modernization trajectory, distinguishing it from the Anglo‐Saxon and, to a lesser degree, from the Scandinavian modernization paths.
Rational Management, Performance Targets and Executive Agencies: Views from Agency Chief Executives in Northern Ireland
Authors: Hyndman Noel , Eden Ron
Published: March 2003

The way in which central government services are delivered in both Britain and Northern Ireland has changed significantly since 1988. Executive Agencies have been created with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery, with changes being supported by an increasing focus on the rational management model as a basis for improving management in the public sector. This paper is a case study of nine agencies within the Northern Ireland ‘family of agencies’ and is the first study of its type in the UK. It presents the results of a series of interviews with agency Chief Executives that attempted to identify perceptions with respect to the development, use and impact of mission statements, objectives, targets and performance measures (components of a rational management approach). The main findings of the research include: Northern Ireland Chief Executives perceive an increased focus on quantification since agencification; this focus is viewed as helpful in providing a basis for improving management; systems in practice are considered to be much more flexible than a rigid management model would normally suggest; and, it is thought that the potential adverse consequences of such an approach can be managed.
Measuring Innovation – Applying the Literature‐Based Innovation Output Indicator to Public Services
Authors: Walker Richard M. , Jeanes Emma , Rowlands Robert
Published: March 2003

Governments have been encouraging public service organizations to innovate. However, little is known about the extent of innovation in public service organizations. A private sector approach to the measurement of innovation ‐ the literature‐based innovation output indicator (LBIOI) ‐ is applied to public service organizations to address this significant information gap. The method is described and then explored in one public service sector, English housing associations. A sample of 257 innovations is constructed and then subject to analysis. This initial testing of the LBIOI indicates that the approach can be applied across public services to create longitudinal data sets, which will enhance the communication of good practice and the use of evidence in public policy, management and research. This methodology is demonstrated to offer initial insights to public service innovation and would allow relationships to be explored notably innovation and performance, a relationship central to government’s promotion of innovation.
The contribution of external service inputs to the product development efforts of small manufacturing firms
Authors: MacPherson Alan
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the contribution of external inputs to the innovation performance of small manufacturing firms (SMFs) in New York State. Survey data from a 4‐sector sample of SMFs is presented. Particular attention is given to recent patterns of external spending on technological, management, and information services. The results suggest that innovation performance is enhanced by external sources of scientific, technical, and professional support. SMFs with well developed internal technical skills are found to exhibit above average spending on external help. Elaborate patterns of external knowledge acquisition are found to be particularly prevalent among innovative firms that derive a substantial proportion of their current sales from new or significantly improved products. The empirical results are compared with the findings reported by other North American and European studies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implication of the survey results for regional development agencies and R&D managers.
Extending continuous improvement to the new product development process
Authors: Caffyn Sarah
Published: March 2003

As the benefits of applying continuous improvement (CI) are reported and the pressure on companies to improve their processes for new product development (NPD) increases, there is growing interest in how these two developments can be brought together. This paper presents a model for CI and suggests how it may be used as a framework for looking at CI within the context of NPD. The final section raises some of the issues and challenges companies face as they attempt to extend CI to the NPD process.
System modeling of the R&D domain through the object–process methodology: a practical tool to help R&D satisfy its customers' needs
Authors: Meyersdorf Doron , Dori Dov
Published: March 2003

Research and Development is an intricate process involving a host of challenging technological frontiers. This paper presents a practical tool to help R&D personnel satisfy the needs of customers by a systematic evaluation of R&D performance. To establish a sound methodology for R&D performance evaluation, we employ the object‐process analysis (OPA) part of the object–process methodology. Using OPA, we gradually expose the constituents of the R&D system, its environment and the interaction between them. Through this systematic top‐down refinement, we provide a comprehensive generic view of the R&D domain. The framework presented in the paper allows the user to describe, order, and inter‐relate the issues that R&D managers should consider when managing, evaluating and planning R&D. As the approach addresses structure and behaviour in a unified, integrated manner, the analysis provides insights into both the static and dynamic aspects of the R&D domain and establishes a solid basis for its enterprise modeling.
Technology management as part of strategic planning – some empirical results
Authors: Brockhoff Klaus
Published: March 2003

During the past years R&D management has been broadened into technology management, and the fruitfulness of its integration into strategic management has become clear. Empirical research has shown that R&D contributes relatively more to conventional output measures of firms that capital, and might therefore be expanded. However, whether its strategic direction should be aligned with that of other business functions is less than clear. Better information, including competitor technological intelligence information, is needed to better support strategic decisions.
Alliances and other things
Authors: Nueno Pedro
Published: March 2003

Every time we talk about alliances it is important to clarify what are we talking about. Obviously an acquisition is not an alliance. A McDonalds franchise is not an alliance. A contract to supply tyres for the new VW Beetle is not an alliance. We consider alliances to be other types of agreements between companies, affecting parts of their operations on a permanent or temporary basis, different from the conventional customer/supplier relationships, generally involving sharing resources in some way, while not preventing competition. We will refer in this presentation to alliances as situations where the partners do not individually have the necessary resources to accomplish whatever is their objective and then, they decide to combine their efforts sharing some of their resources. For example, if six airlines, including United and Lufthansa form the so‐called Star Alliance, or if Coca‐Cola and Nestle decide to get together to produce, sell and distribute Nestea, these are alliances. However, if General Mills decides to distribute its breakfast cereal in China through Nestle or Jaguar and Louis Vuitton decide to sponsor together a golf tournament, these are a conventional distribution agreement, and a conventional joint promotion. If Philips and Sony agreed in some way on the standards for the minidisk, or the high definition TV, things that I do not imply, I am not sure we could call this an alliance, I would call it just a non‐competing agreement. Perhaps with a lot of sense, but, at the end, a non‐competing agreement.
R&D at Indian Organic Chemicals Limited (IOCL) – from a service to an enterprise: a case study
Authors: Divakar Kikkeri J.
Published: March 2003

IOCL is a pioneer in the country in the field of bulk chemical manufacture. The company achieved its leadership position by utilizing the locally available feedstock i.e. ethyl alcohol from molasses and homegrown technologies to produce a range of bulk chemicals.

The R&D activity in the company started almost simultaneously with the erection of the first production plant. It was envisaged to play a role of a typical ‘in‐house’ R&D set up. Thus, its activities encompassed the traditional spectrum that most in‐house R&D departments of the times were built to perform. These were:

1. Supporting ongoing production activity.

2. Value addition by extending the product line.

3. Improving the quality of the products.

The R&D department played these roles competently. Towards this end, the department was well served by trained task oriented staff. However, perhaps the very success of its efforts led to the development of a highly inward‐looking culture. However, the post liberalization era brought with it a new set of challenges. With entry barriers slowly diminishing, the company was no longer able to sustain its position of pre‐eminence in the fields that it was a leader. Local competition by leaner and meaner players equipped with better technology also played its part in this erosion. Unfavourable economies of scale and lower margins on the traditional products led to the management to rethink on future business strategy.

A change of course was called for. For a company with IOCL’s resources, the course change that the management thought would preserve share holder value, was to shift the product mix from bulk chemicals characterized by high volume/low value to fine and specialty areas characterized by low volumes and high value. It decided that the R&D would provide the driving force for this strategic change. In essence, the R&D would be supporting a cluster of new activities, which would be revenue generating and thus be able to metamorphose from a cost center to a profit center. In order to play its new role, the R&D required to redefine its own character. Several changes in the existing systems and introduction of some newer management practices were necessary. The steps to be taken were identified as follows:

1. Shifting from a skill‐based to knowledge‐based staffing;

2. Creating a structured approach to project management;

3. Initiating a multi functional approach to shorten the project time cycles;

4. Putting in place mechanisms to interface and interact with the customers;

5. Inculcate a business orientation into a traditionally groomed group of scientists and technicians;

6. Integrating the activities of R&D into the enterprise resource planning network of the company;

7. Most importantly, set up a mechanism to market the R&D services.
Analytic solutions for the value of the option to (dis)invest
Authors: Biekpe Nicholas , Klumpes Paul , Tippett Mark
Published: March 2003

It is well known that costly reversibility complicates capital investment analysis to the point where closed form expressions for the value of a firm’s investment opportunities seldom exist. In such circumstances numerical evaluation is normally taken as the most practical (and often, the only) way of determining investment value. However, we demonstrate that power series expansions can often be used to obtain analytic expressions for the value of a firm’s investment opportunities. We use them in a research and development (R&D) setting to determine investment value when cash flows are generated by two well known stochastic processes. The first is based on the Cox, Ingersoll and Ross (1985) ‘square root’ process; the second on the Uhlenbeck and Ornstein (1930) mean reverting random walk. The criteria which lead to optimal investment decisions when the option to abandon or take up investment opportunities have the non‐trivial values implied by these processes, are also briefly examined.
Managing alliance relationships: Key challenges in the early stages of collaboration
Authors: Kelly Mícheál J. , Schaan Jean–Louis , Joncas Hélène
Published: March 2003

Recent surveys indicate that executives of technology companies consider strategic alliances to be central to their competitive strategies. Yet the barriers to successful alliances are formidable. In many instances, these barriers develop in the early stages of an alliance. This study identifies and analyzes the types of challenges that companies face in the start–up phase of their alliances. It is based on a survey and interviews with executives in the Canadian high technology industry. The study finds that the principal challenges in the first year of an alliance relate to relationship issues between the partners. It suggests stronger attention to these issues in the design and implementation of an alliance. The paper concludes with guidelines to build and sustain effective working relationships between partners.
Product innovation charters: Mission statements for new products
Authors: Bart Christopher K.
Published: March 2003

This article presents findings from an exploratory study into the content and impact of product innovation charters (PICs) in 86 North American corporations. The findings demonstrate that managers have some distinct preferences in terms of the items that they choose to include in a PIC and that certain components seem to be more important to mention than others. The findings also make evident the relationship that PICs have with selected performance measures. The results suggest that product innovation charters, like their mission statement ‘cousins’, may be of more value than most managers realize.
Leveraging talent: spin–off strategy at Industrial Research
Authors: Davenport Sally , Carr Adrian , Bibby Dave
Published: March 2003

The formation of new businesses from research organisations has historically been seen as one of the more effective ways in which new knowledge and technology is commercialised. These spin–offs result from the transfer of people and intellectual property from the parent institution. It is the transfer of the tacit knowledge embodied in the human capital that differentiates this technology commercialisation mechanism from technology sale, licensing or joint ventures and alliances.

Science parks and cooperative centres associated with universities are examples used internationally of incubator environments designed to nurture spin–offs. In New Zealand, however, there have been very limited attempts to develop such incubators. However, one Crown Research Institute, Industrial Research, has recognised that developing a spin–off strategy is a valid way for it to leverage its intellectual property and motivate its scientific talent, in order to satisfy the institute’s mandate to ‘create benefit for New Zealand’.

It is rare to find studies of the spin–off activity focused primarily on the parent. This paper charts the development of Industrial Research’s spin–off strategy over the past eight years from an unintentional consequence of restructuring and changing funding priorities, towards a purposive strategy requiring different management structures and processes. A three–stage model is developed to describe the spin–off strategy evolution and the risks, benefits and components of such a strategy are discussed.
Actions and Events: Some Semantical Considerations
Authors: Alvarez Maria
Published: March 2003

Since the publication of Davidson’s influential article ‘The Logical Form of Action Sentences’, semantical considerations are widely thought to support the doctrine that actions are events. I shall argue that the semantics of action sentences do not imply that actions are events. This will involve defending a negative claim and a positive claim, as well as a proposal for how to formalize action sentences. The negative claim is that the semantics of action sentences do not require that we think of actions as events, even if these sentences are best formalized in the manner that Davidson himself favours. The positive claim is that the simplest way of formalizing actions sentences which captures all and only licit inferences requires quantification only, over the results of actions. If this is right, then the argument from semantics evaporates, and the claim that actions are events needs to be freshly argued for – or against.
Friendship Without Partiality?
Authors: Jollimore Troy
Published: March 2003

Consequentialism involves a kind of strong impartiality which seems incompatible with the sort of partiality manifested in friendships. Consequentialists such as Kagan respond that friendship does not, in fact, require partiality. Against this, I argue that friendship cannot exist without expressions of personal feeling, and that such expressions necessarily involve a kind of partiality. Because her every action is determined by the goal of maximizing the impersonal good, a consequentialist cannot use her actions (including actions of speech) to express her feelings for her fellows. I argue that we should expect this problem to afflict sophisticated as well as straightforward consequentialism. Finally, I consider and reject the suggestion that the consequentialist agent, who has no particular friends, can be considered a friend to everybody.
Against Analytic Moral Functionalism
Authors: Zangwill Nick
Published: March 2003

I argue against the analytic moral functionalist view propounded by Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit. I focus on the ‘input’ clauses of our alleged ‘folk moral theory’. I argue that the examples they give of such input clauses cannot plausibly be interpreted as analytic truths. They are in fact substantive moral claims about the moral ‘domain’. It is a substantive claim that all human beings have equal moral standing. There are those who have rejected this, such as Herman Göring. He was loyal to a sub‐class of humankind, but he suffered no conceptual confusion. Claims about what is morally relevant are substantive claims that cannot be known on purely conceptual grounds.
Attributive Uses of Prosentences
Authors: Beebe James R.
Published: March 2003

Defenders of the prosentential theory of truth claim that the English language contains prosentences which function analogously to their better known cousins – pronouns. Statements such as ‘That is true’ or ‘It is true’, they claim, inherit their content from antecedent statements, just as pronouns inherit their reference from antecedent singular terms. Prosentential theorists claim that the content of these prosentences is exhausted by the content of their antecedents. They then use the notion of the inheritance of content from an antecedent to explain the various functions of the predicate ‘…is true’. Defenders of the prosentential theory of truth are mistaken, I claim, in thinking that in order to oppose the view that ‘…is true’ is used to ascribe a substantive truth property to propositions they need to claim that no uses of ‘…is true’ ever attribute any property. I identify an ‘attributive’ use of prosentences in which reliability is implicitly attributed to a subject. I then use the capacity of prosentences to serve as implicit attributions of reliability as a basis for explicating the logical structure of explicit attributions of reliability. The identification of an attributive use of prosentences does not constitute a fundamental change in the prosentential theory.
State Tasks and Human Rights
Authors: Denninger Erhard
Published: March 2003

This paper analyses the change in the notion of fundamental and human rights in Germany and throughout the European Union during the process of European integration. This change, that can be summarized in the formula “from human rights to state tasks,” signifies the integration and partial amendment of the French Revolution's ideals (liberté, égalité, fraternité) with the new ideals of security, diversity and solidarity. These new ideals make it necessary for the state to play a positive role in devising, for example, a policy of minority recognition and a long list of social rights. These rights are often translated into merely generic “norms on state objectives” and not directly binding law in force. This means that such rights increasingly become a political and legislative issue making it more difficult for the Courts to offer guarantees.
The Meanings of the Logical Constants in Deontic Logic
Authors: Coyle Sean
Published: March 2003

If deontic logic is to cast light on any of the normative sciences, such as legal reasoning, then certain problems regarding its logical constants must be faced. Recent studies in the area of deontic logic have tended to assume that it is our responses to the “paradoxes” of deontic implication which are fundamental to resolving problems with the use of deontic logic to investigate various branches of normative reasoning. In this paper I wish to show that the paradoxes are of secondary importance; that they are merely by‐products of the central issue, namely the ability of certain syntactic forms to embody natural language structures used in reasoning about norms. An investigation of modal syntax is proffered as the best starting‐point from which to tackle the questions that still dog the legitimacy of deontic logic. Part I provides some philosophical background to the discussion of deontic logical constants. Part II addresses in greater detail issues concerning the representation of normative concepts; and Part III offers a few remarks on the general issue of deontic logic's fruitfulness as an analytical tool.
On the Structure of Legal Principles
Authors: Alexy Robert
Published: March 2003

The author offers a sketch of his thesis that legal principles are optimization commands. He presents this thesis as an effort to capture the structure of weighing or balancing and to provide a basis for the principle of proportionality as it is applied in constitutional law. With this much in place, he then takes up some of the problems that have come to be associated with the optimization thesis. First, he examines the objection that there are no such things as principles, but only different modes of the application of norms. Second, he discusses problems concerning the concept of an optimization command and the character of the “ought” contained in principles. He concludes that the distinction between commands to optimize and commands to be optimized is the best method for capturing the nature of principles.
Lessons from the Nursery: Children as Writers in Early Years Education
Authors: Clark Lesley
Published: March 2003

This paper considers the rationale of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) for changing approaches to the teaching of writing in the early years. Existing pedagogy and practice are summarised and mapped against the NLS requirements. It is suggested that there are tensions both in ideology and practice which are particularly striking for the Reception year. Research in early years classrooms in three primary schools in Southern England draws attention, in particular, to the ways in which the NLS is prompting changes in contexts for writing and in the nature of teacher intervention, with an increasingly early emphasis on the didactic teaching of writing conventions. The paper concludes that developmentally appropriate, affirming strategies need not contravene the educational ideals of the NLS, providing the professionalism of early years practitioners is genuinely nurtured and respected.
Hourwatch: monitoring the inception of the National Literacy Strategy
Authors: Anderson Holly , Digings Mena , Urquhart Isobel
Published: March 2003

This article outlines the preliminary findings from a small scale research project set up by a group of UKRA members to monitor teachers’ views of the literacy hour in its first year. The research draws on questionnaires, interviews and video data to reveal issues which concerned those teachers taking part in the survey and provides a snapshot of what it was like for some teachers coping with this initiative.
Vertical Links Between Formal and Informal Financial Institutions
Authors: Sagrario Floro Maria , Ray Debraj
Published: March 2003

The paper investigates vertical linkages between formal and informal financial institutions. Specifically, it studies a policy that expands formal credit to informal lenders, in the hope that this will improve loan terms for borrowers who are shut out of the formal sector. Special attention is paid to the Philippines. It is argued that the effects of stronger vertical links depend on the form of lender competition. In particular, if the relationship between lenders is one of strategic cooperation (sustained by threats of reprisal in a repeated setting), an expansion of formal credit may worsen the terms faced by informal borrowers.
Asymmetric Country‐of‐Origin Effects on Intraindustry Trade and the International Quality Race
Authors: Basu Arnab K. , Chau Nancy
Published: March 2003

A model of North–South intraindustry trade in quality differentiated products is proposed to examine the role of country‐of‐origin reputation in determining the competitive edge of emerging industries. It is shown that if consumers rationally harbor negative expectations about the quality of Southern products, economic progress in either the North or the South shifts the terms of trade against Southern exports, and worsens Southern producers' incentive to produce high‐quality products. In addition, the paper illustrates the role of income redistributive policies in shifting consumer's demand in favor of Southern high‐quality products.
Insider Power in Wage Determination: Evidence from Brazilian Data
Authors: Carneiro Francisco G.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the determinants of industrial real wages in Brazil, making use of panel data on 22 industry sectors with monthly observations for the period 1985–93. The main objective is to test whether industrial wages in Brazil respond to sectoral performance. In line with the evidence for other countries, the overall results suggest that sectoral conditions (insider effects) play an important role in real wage determination in Brazil. This is also indicative that the Brazilian wage‐setting structure is far from conforming to the traditional textbook description of competitive models and appears rather conducive to rent sharing.
What Drives Public Employment in Developing Countries?
Authors: Rodrik Dani
Published: March 2003

An excessive level of employment is a frequent complaint made about public‐sector governance in developing economies. The explanation typically offered is that governments use public‐sector employment as a tool for generating and redistributing rents. This article suggests an alternative hypothesis: relatively safe government jobs represent partial insurance againstundiversifiable external risk faced by the domestic economy. I show that countries that are greatly exposed to external risk have higher levels of government employment and have experienced faster rates of growth of government consumption. The basic finding on this (partial) correlation is robust against the hypotheses typically offered.
Foreign Aid Reduces Labor Supply and Capital Accumulation
Authors: Gong Liutang , Zou Heng‐fu
Published: March 2003

In an optimal growth model with foreign aid, foreign borrowing, and endogenous leisure‐and‐consumption choices, it is shown that a permanent rise in foreign aid reduces long‐run capital accumulation and labor supply, increases long‐run consumption, and has no effect on long‐run foreign borrowing.
Public Investment and Economic Growth in Latin America: an Empirical Test
Authors: Ramirez Miguel D. , Nazmi Nader
Published: March 2003

The paper analyzes the impact on economic growth of public investment spending and other relevant variables (such as human capital) for nine major Latin American nations over the 1983–93 period. The results suggest that both public and private investment spending contribute to economic growth. Overall central government consumption expenditures, on the other hand, are found to have a negative effect on private investment and growth. Finally, public expenditures on education and healthcare are found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on private capital formation and long–term economic growth. From a policy standpoint, the results suggest that indiscriminate cuts in public and private investment spending are likely to be counterproductive in the long run, and more importantly, scarce public expenditures should be channeled to the promotion of new human capital (via primary and secondary education) and the maintenance of existing human capital (through healthcare expenditures).
The Penalties of Inefficient Infrastructure
Authors: Rioja Felix K.
Published: March 2003

In most developing countries, irrigation, road, and power networks are not in good condition. In Latin America, for example, the effectiveness of such public infrastructure is only about 74% of that of industrialized countries. Low effectiveness imposes a cost on these countries in terms of forgone output. This paper develops a general–equilibrium model to study the long–run consequences of ineffective infrastructure. The model is solved numerically using parameters from seven Latin American countries. Results show that the long run penalty of ineffective infrastructure is about 40% of steady–state real GDP per capita. Raising effectiveness is shown to have sizable positive effects on income per capita, private investment, consumption, and welfare. Nevertheless, policymakers instead usually emphasize building new infrastructure. If effectiveness is low in the existing infrastructure network, new infrastructure investments can negatively affect per–capita income, private investment, consumption, and welfare.
Price or Quantity Competition? Oligopolistic Structures in International Commodity Markets
Authors: Carter Colin A. , MacLaren Donald
Published: March 2003

International commodity markets may be characterized by price or quantity competition and by product differentiation. As an illustration, this paper presents a set of models of the Japanese market for imported beef. The models are evaluated using a non‐nested econometric test. The one which best fits the data is a Stackelberg model with price leadership by Australia. This result provides evidence on the explicit nature of the game being played by exporters, unlike the applied conjectural variations approach which provides only an index of how competitive the market is.
The Dynamics of Tariff Retaliation Between the United States and Canada: Theory and Evidence
Authors: Bohara Alok K. , Gawande Kishore , Kaempfer William H.
Published: March 2003

This paper presents theory and empirical evidence showing a retaliatory pattern in US–Canadian tariff interactions in the period 1868–1970, whereby the changes in the tariff level of each country are Granger‐caused by the other. In the long run, the USA maintains the tariff changes that it initiates while the Canadian policy tends to back away from changes that it initiates. Furthermore, Canadian policy demonstrates a permanent change following US innovations, while in the long run the US tariff returns to its own internal equilibrium unaffected by innovations in the Canadian tariff.
North–South Trade and Occupational Wages: Some Evidence from North America
Authors: Reinert Kenneth A. , Roland‐Holst David W.
Published: March 2003

The issue of trade and wages in general, and of North–South trade and wages in particular, has recently received a great deal of attention by economists and public policy analysts. This paper offers some empirical evidence of the effects of North–South trade on occupational wages in North America. Using a detailed, applied general equilibrium model, results are obtained indicating that it is possible for trade liberalization among the North American countries to entail real wage benefits for most occupational groups in all three countries. An exception to this general pattern is the case of agricultural laborers in Mexico.
Dynamic Externalities and Policy Coordination
Authors: Datta Manjira , Mirman Leonard J.
Published: March 2003

The paper introduces trade into dynamic models with externalities and capital accumulation, and evaluates the efficiency of the Cournot–Nash equilibrium. It considers mixed economies characterized by a blend of strategic and nonstrategic sectors. Also, there are two sources of interdependence: the existence of production externalities and the endogenous determination of market prices. It is shown that policy coordination is not needed when preferences are the same. In this case, the production externalities are internalized, so that an inefficient solution becomes the efficient integrated world equilibrium due to trade.
Relative Demand for Skills in Swedish Manufacturing: Technology or Trade?
Authors: Hansson Pär
Published: March 2003

The rate of change in the share of skilled labor has increased steadily over the past 35 years in Swedish manufacturing. A closer inspection of the period after 1970 indicates that, while relative supply changes of skilled labor seem to have been the main driving force behind the growing skill shares in manufacturing industries over the period 1970–85, an acceleration in the relative demand for skills appears to have propelled higher skill shares during the late 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s. Consistent with such a development is the finding of an increasing degree of complementarity between knowledge capital and skilled labor, and that Swedish manufacturing firms, in recent years, have invested heavily in R&D. There is also some support for the belief that intensified competition from the South has increased the relative demand for skilled labor. However, the impact appears to be small and essentially driven by the textile industry.
The Benefits of Environmental Fiscal Reforms in an Integrated Europe
Authors: Carraro Carlo , Galeotti Marzio
Published: March 2003

This paper analyses the effects of an environmental fiscal reform where the environmental tax revenue is used to reduce the tax burden on labor in order to increase employment. The study tries to assess the benefits generated by this type of reform in an integrated Europe where different degrees of tax harmonization can be achieved. The differential impact of cooperative fiscal reforms versus noncooperative ones is quantified through the use of a newly developed general equilibrium model. The results suggest that only a high degree of harmonization, in which both revenue and expenditure policies are coordinated, can provide significant environmental and employment benefits.
Absolute and Comparative Advantage, Reconsidered: The Pattern of International Trade with Optimal Saving
Authors: Brecher Richard A. , Chen Zhiqi , Choudhri Ehsan U.
Published: March 2003

The paper obtains new results about absolute and comparative advantage, by introducing international technological differences into the three–sector Findlay–Komiya and two–sector Oniki–Uzawa–Stiglitz models of open–economy growth with optimal saving. For example, if a country has the same Hicks–neutral advantage in all industries, it exports the capital–intensive tradable, even though the technological advantage is only absolute rather than comparative. Alternatively, even a small comparative advantage in some good is sufficient for the advanced country to export this product, regardless of relative factor supplies. In either case, the fundamental reason for trade is technological superiority rather than factor abundance.