bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Efficiency and market share in the Hungarian corporate sector
Authors: Halpern László , Körösi Gábor
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the link between competition and efficiency for the Hungarian corporate sector during various phases of the transition process. We employ frontier production functions to explore differences among groups of firms, and to identify the typical adjustment process of each group separately throughout the transition period until 1997. The estimated production functions indicate a gradual improvement in efficiency and a shift from decreasing to increasing returns to scale due to the growing share of small firms. Market share can be explained by domestic and foreign competition and by the efficiency of the firm.

JEL classification: C23, D21, D24.
Integration and transition: Scenarios for the location of production and trade in Europe
Authors: Forslid Rikard , Haaland Jan I. , Knarvik Karen Helene M. , Maestad Ottar
Published: March 2003

Applying a newly developed CGE‐model, we present scenarios for the future economic geography of Europe. The model divides the world into ten regions, five of which are European, and 14 industries, of which 12 are imperfectly competitive. With a complete input‐output structure, the model captures comparative advantage mechanisms as well as intra‐industry trade and ‘new economic geography’ agglomeration forces. The simulations focus on the consequences of successful transformation in Eastern Europe. The results indicate that transformation and European integration are of great importance for Eastern Europe, while the overall effects for other European regions are small. Individual sectors in the EU, such as Textiles and Transport Equipment, are, however, in some cases strongly affected.

JEL classification: C68, F12, F17, R11.
The risk of a currency swap: a multivariate‐binomial methodology
Authors: Ho T.S. , Stapleton Richard C. , Subrahmanyam Marti G.
Published: March 2003

In general, the risk of a financial instrument on a future valuation date depends on several stochastic variables. In the case of a currency swap, its value on a future date, can be modelled as a function of five stochastic variables. These represent the factors that determine the term structure of interest rates in the two currencies, and the foreign exchange rate between the currencies. The joint‐probability distribution of the relevant variables on the horizon date is approximated by a multivariate‐binomial distribution. The proposed methodology provides a fast and flexible alternative to Monte‐Carlo simulation of the swap value. The distributions of value produced by the method can be employed to assist with both market and credit risk management.
Bid–ask bias in cumulated returns: an analytical approach
Authors: Datar Vinay T. , Naik Narayan Y.
Published: March 2003

Several studies in finance and accounting literature have measured security returns subsequent to some economic events over long horizons by cumulating the returns over time. It is well known that when single period returns are cumulated over long horizons, the bid–ask error in the measured returns could be very high. One way of estimating the bid–ask error is by simulation. This paper offers an alternative to the simulation approach and provides a closed form expression for the bid–ask error in cumulated returns. Our analytical approach has two main advantages over the traditional simulation method; first it quantifies the bias precisely and second, it is computationally simpler by several orders of magnitude.
The Role of Beta and Size in the Cross‐Section of European Stock Returns
Authors: Heston Steven L. , Rouwenhorst K. Geert , Wessels Roberto E.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the ability of beta and size to explain cross‐sectional variation in average returns in 12 European countries. We find that average stock returns are positively related to beta and negatively related to firm size. The beta premium is in part due to the fact that high beta countries outperform low beta countries. Within countries high beta stocks outperform low beta stocks only in January, not in other months. We reject the hypothesis that differences in average returns on size‐ and beta‐sorted portfolios can be explained by market risk and exposure to the excess return of small over large stocks (SMB). Consistent with recent US evidence, we find that after controlling for size, there is no association between average returns and exposure to SMB.
The Government As Venture Capitalist: Organisational Structure and Contract Design in Germany's Privatisation Process
Authors: Dyck I. J. Alexander , Wruck Karen H.
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the role that organisation structure and contract design played in resolving economic and political problems that arose during Germany's privatisation process. We find that German officials structured organizations and contracts in a way that made credible the government's commitment to rapid privatisation. This credibility served to protect the process from political and social opposition. In addition, it enabled Germany to attract talented private sector managers to its privatisation effort. This began with the establishment of an independent privatisation agency, the Treuhand. It culminated with the creation of another set of independent organisations called Management KGs, to which the Treuhand outsourced part of its restructuring, management and privatisation work. The Treuhand provided funding to this effort, thus serving as a kind of venture capitalist.
Banking and Capital Market Activity in Dublin: Recent Developments and Future Prospects under the Euro
Authors: Hutchinson Robert W.
Published: March 2003

The introduction of Europe's single currency will have an immediate effect on the financial sectors of participating economies. While research in this area has focused on the broad implications for Europe's banking structure, this has been at the neglect of the smaller European financial centres which, while peripheral, make important contributions to their domestic economies. As a representative study, this paper examines how the recent developments in Ireland's financial sector will be affected by the introduction of the euro. It focuses on the probable contraction of Dublin's financial markets and assesses the threat of foreign acquisition facing its main domestic clearing banks.
Risk Aversion and the Bid–Ask Spread
Authors: Roger P. , Eeckhoudt L.
Published: March 2003

This paper studies the properties of bid and ask prices posted by a monopolistic market maker, without parametric assumptions about the utility function of the market maker or about the probability distribution of the return of the risky asset. We first prove that the two prices can be higher or lower than the expected value of the asset, and that the spread is decreasing in the initial wealth when the market maker exhibits decreasing absolute risk aversion. We conclude by some examples illustrating the fact that almost all shapes can be obtained for the bid–ask spread (as a function of the inventory) depending on the probability distribution of the payment of the risky asset.
Improving Portfolio Performance with Option Strategies: Evidence from Switzerland
Authors: Isakov Dušan , Morard Bernard
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the performance of a global investment strategy that combines diversification and option strategies, in particular the covered call strategy, on the Swiss Exchange over the period 1989–96. As the return distributions of portfolios including options are possibly non‐normal, the mean‐variance framework may not be appropriate to assess the relative performance of such portfolios. Stochastic dominance and modified betas are the alternative approaches, robust to departure from normality, used in this paper to compare the performance of portfolios. The results show that the use of option strategies consistently improves the performance of stock portfolios, even in the presence of transaction costs.
Valuation Effects of Listing on a More Prominent Segment of the Stock Market: Evidence from France
Authors: Bacmann J. F. , Dubois M. , Ertur C.
Published: March 2003

We examine the behaviour of stock prices during the period around the transfer to the Marchéà Règlement Mensuel. First, we discuss the financial reasons, which can justify abnormal returns around the transfer. Second, an event study based on a sample of 71 firms is set up to test the existence of the exchange listing effect on the French market. Third, we explore three hypotheses in order to explain the impact on stock returns: the informative content of the transfer, the increase in the relative size of the firm’s investor base, and the reduction of trading costs (immediacy and adverse selection). Cross–sectional regressions show that the increase in the relative size of the firm’s investor base is the only variable, which helps to explain the valuation effect.
A Note on the Three–Portfolios Matching Problem
Authors: Trojani Fabio , Vanini Paolo , Vignola Luigi
Published: March 2003

A typical problem arising in financial planning for private investors consists in the fact that the initial investor’s portfolio, the one determined by the consulting process of the financial institution and the universe of instruments made available to the investor have to be matched/optimised when determining the relevant portfolio choice. We call this problem the three–portfolios matching problem. Clearly, the resulting portfolio selection should be as close as possible to the optimal asset allocation determined by the consulting process of the financial institution. However, the transition from the investor’s initial portfolio to the final one is complicated by the presence of transaction costs and some further more specific constraints. Indeed, usually the portfolios under consideration are structured at different aggregation levels, making portfolios comparison and matching more difficult. Further, several investment restrictions have to be satisfied by the final portfolio choice. Finally, the arising portfolio selection process should be sufficiently transparent in order to incorporate the subjective investor’s trade–off between the objectives ‘optimal portfolio matching’ and ‘minimal portfolio transition costs’. In this paper, we solve the three–portfolios matching problem analytically for a simplified setting that illustrates the main features of the arising solutions and numerically for the more general situation.
The Inventions of Autonomy
Authors: Darwall Stephen
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

J.B. Schneewind, The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy
The Authority of Avowals and the Concept of Belief
Authors: Hamilton Andy
Published: March 2003

The pervasive dispositional model of belief is misguided. It fails to acknowledge the authority of first‐person ascriptions or avowals of belief, and the “decision principle”– that having decided the question whether p, there is, for me, no further question whether I believe that p. The dilemma is how one can have immediate knowledge of a state extended in time; its resolution lies in the expressive character of avowals – which does not imply a non‐assertoric thesis – and their non‐cognitive status. The common claim that there are higher‐order beliefs concerning ones present beliefs is rejected as unintelligible. The decision principle is defended against claims of “unconscious belief”; there is no interesting such category, since all beliefs are liable at some time to be considered, but mostly to be out of mind. Belief is not constituted by a disposition, but is connected with dispositions – it is an “attitude concept”.
Two Kinds of Purposive Action
Authors: Butterfill Stephen
Published: March 2003

It is normally assumed that there is only one kind of purposive action. This article argues that there are two kinds of purposive action, which require different models of explanation. One kind of action is done without awareness of reasons; another kind of action is done because the agent is aware of reasons for that action. The argument starts by noting that philosophers disagree about what explains action. Some claim that actions are explained by impersonal facts, such as facts about how things should be or have been historically (e.g. Millikan, Stout). Others claim that actions are explained by mental states, such as beliefs and desires (e.g. Davidson, Velleman). These philosophers are usually regarded as offering conflicting accounts of one thing. However, they are best understood as giving accounts of different models of action‐explanation. Neither model fits every case, so there are at least two kinds of purposive action.
Democracy and Rule‐making Within the EC: An Empirical and Normative Assessment
Authors: Craig P. P.
Published: March 2003

The object of this article is to consider the democratic legitimacy of the structure of legislative authority which exists within the EC. The analysis draws upon the work of Joseph Weiler, and accepts that different conceptions of democracy may best explain different aspects of the Community. The present article addresses only what Joseph Weiler terms the supranational aspects of the Community and suggests that a replication model of democracy can help us to understand the division of competence in this area. While changes can undoubtedly be made which will improve the operation of democracy within this sphere of the Community, and such changes are suggested in the subsequent analysis, it is argued that the republican model provides a sound basis on which to build.
A European Constitution for Citizens: Reflections on the Rethinking of Union and Community Law
Authors: Reich Norbert
Published: March 2003

Whilst the European Union or Community is not a state and does not possess a political constitution in the sense of a series of irrevocable norms existing prior to and above Community or Union law, the evolution of the European legal system might nonetheless be regarded as a fundamental constitutional process. In this light, primary and secondary European law, together with the jurisprudence of the ECJ, might be said to be subjectivising certain specifically European principles thus contributing to the legal creation of sometimes novel rights for European Citizens. In a legal process similar to that seen within 19th Century Germany, European law is seeking a compensate for an incomplete political constitution through the development of a – second best – European Charter for Citizens.
A Manifesto for Social Europe
Authors: Bercusson Brian , Deakin Simon , Koistinen Pertti , Kravaritou Yota , Muckeberger Ulrich , Supiot Alain , Veneziani Bruno
Published: March 2003

The European Union is still far from having social legitimacy. The issue is indicative of a huge uncertainty about Social Europe. What is it? What are the principles of social justice behind it? In our view, a new social constitution of the European Union is needed. Political democratisation must be accompanied by the foundation of a social Europe. We argue that were the IGC to combine the Charter of The Fundamental Social Rights of Workers with the Maastricht Protocol on Social Policy, inserting both into the TEU, it would lay the legal foundations for a dynamic European social constitution; a Social Europe dedicated to the combating of social exclusion and the maintenance of solidarity.
Constitutional Change and Contractual Revision: Principles and Procedures
Authors: Abromeit Heidrun , Hitzel‐Cassagnes Tanja
Published: March 2003

This paper tackles the modes and procedures of institutional change, as well as those of constitutionalisation. The starting point for discussion is the current debate on the gradual/factual ‘constitutionalisation’ of the European Union: a constitutionalisation which seems, to a large degree, to derive from the rulings of the European Court. The decisive question, however, is one of whether such a mode of institutional/constitutional change might be considered to be ‘adequate’ within the current European setting. Following a brief explanation of the diverse notions of ‘constitutions’ and ‘contracts,’ the various modes of effecting ‘constitutional’ change—change by usage, by authoritative interpretation and by formal amendment—are contrasted with the primary method of ‘contractual’ revision; or, change through mutual consent. The various differences between the highlighted methods of change are investigated with reference to (1) the respective roles of the constituent and the constituted powers and (2) the respective relations between notions of ‘exit’ and ‘voice’. This theoretical exercise is followed by illustrations which highlight German and Swiss practice. The conclusion is drawn that in a context of ‘competing identities’, heterogeneity and segmentation, as well as one of ‘a polity in the making’, the contractual mode of institutional revision must be the preferred option.
Review of Books on Competition Law and Policy
Authors: Shaw Jo
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

G. Amato, Antitrust and the Bounds of Power: The Dilemma of Liberal Democracy in the History of the Market

S. Anderman, EC Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights: Regulating Innovation

M. Cini and L. McGowan, Competition Policy in the European Union

European Competition Law Annual, 1997, The Objectives of Competition Policy

M. Furse, Competition Law of the UK and EC

D.J. Gerber, Law and Competition in Twentieth Century Europe: Protecting Prometheus

D.G. Goyder, EC Competition Law

V. Korah, An Introductory Guide to EC Competition Law

L. Ortiz Blanco, European Community Competition Procedure

B.J. Rodger and A. MacCulloch, Competition Law and Policy in the European Community and United Kingdom

W. Sauter, Competition Law and Industrial Policy in the EU
Review of Books on Private Law and EU Law
Authors: Mattei U. , Antoniolli L.
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

H. Kötz, Europäisches Vertragsrecht, Band I: Abschluß, Gültigkeit und Inhalt des Vertrages

H. Kötz, A. Flessner, European Contract Law, vol. 1: Formation, Validity, and Content of Contract; Contract and Third Parties

U. Drobing, Private Law in the European Union
Deficiencies in the Development of European Criminal Law
Authors: Albrecht Peter‐Alexis , Braum Stephan
Published: March 2003

Criminal law is beginning to outgrow the shoes which were fitted to it by European law. It is seeking to come of age, to play the role in European law previously reserved to commercial law, private law, employment law, and public law in the broadest sense. Economic knowledge and legal‐political organisational interests have long grouped around ‘European criminal law’; a still vaguely determined object. A desire also exists to make criminal law justiciable in Europe. Thus, the ranks of the contributions to European criminal law are swelling, European associations of lawyers are developing, legal practitioners are launching appeals3 and winning influence within European institutions. These institutions themselves are beginning to accept and to use criminal law as a political option. This article aims to (I) reflect upon the contents of this development, (II) to clarify their tendencies, and (III) to examine the contents of these premised tendencies, in order to (IV) furnish a critical evaluation.
The Power of EU Collective Action: The Impact of EU Data Privacy Regulation on US Business Practice
Authors: Shaffer Gregory
Published: March 2003

Contemporary critiques of globalisation processes often focus on the potential levelling of regulatory standards and the export by the United States of neoliberal norms of deregulation and market facilitation. This paper, in contrast, examines the extra‐jurisdictional impact of EU regulatory policy on the behaviour of foreign private parties, even in powerful states such as the United States. Shaffer finds that the threat of curtailing access to the EU’s large market provides the EU with leverage. By acting collectively, EU Member States can magnify the impact of European policy on US business practice and enhance EU Member State clout in the negotiation of de jure and de facto foreign standards. The site of analysis is the current dispute between the United States and the European Union over the provision of ‘adequate’ data privacy protection in accordance with the EU Directive on data privacy. The paper explores the many ways in which the Directive affects US practice through changing the stakes of US players – including regulators, businesses, privacy advocates, lawyers and privacy service providers – and thereby shifting the playing field in the United States on which competing interest groups clash. In examining the interaction of EU law, US practice and international trade rules, the author finds that WTO law, rather than constraining the Directive’s extra‐jurisdictional impact, provides the EU with a shield against US retaliatory threats, thereby facilitating a trading up of data privacy standards. The paper concludes by examining the conditions under which cross‐border exchange can lead to a leveraging up of social protections: the desire for firms to expand their markets, Member States’ collective bargaining power buttressed by market clout, the nature of luxury goods, the externalities of foreign under‐regulation legitimising EU intervention, and the constraints of supranational trade rules.
Constitutions, Constitutionalism, and the European Union
Authors: Craig Paul
Published: March 2003

The institutional reforms of the EU, coupled with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, have fuelled the debate about a European Constitution. This paper begins by examining the nature of constitutions and constitutionalism. The focus then turns to the EU itself. It is argued that the Community has indeed been transformed into a constitutional legal order, and that the arguments to the contrary are not convincing. This does not however mean that the EU has, or should have, a European Constitution cognisable as such which draws together the constitutional articles of the Treaties, together with the constitutional principles articulated by the European Court of Justice. The difficulties with this strategy are examined in detail, and the conclusion is that we should not at present pursue this course. It would be better to draw on the valuable work done by the European University Institute in its recent study in order to simplify and consolidate the Treaties.
Adjudicating the Market
Authors: Everson Michelle
Published: March 2003

The true governance challenge within Europe remains the resolution of conflict within the Internal Market and the identification of efficacious solutions, to its regulatory and redistributive problems. Absent the legitimising sovereign power once furnished by the national constitutional settlement and without recourse to a pre‐political principle of pluralist self‐limitation, Europe’s law must supply a pluralist and contested internal market polity with authoritative adjudication on the meaning and content of institutions of market governance, including ‘law’ itself. In the endeavour to ‘socialise the market’, or to re‐establish the determinative links between society, politics, and the market place caste asunder by a rationalising process of European economic integration, Europe’s law is seemingly returning—via judicial dialogue between national and European courtrooms—to the ancient legal grammar and semantics of ‘reasonableness’ and ‘equity’. Such an adjudicative return serves: (i) the processing of reasonable pluralism within the market in the light of deliberative values: and (ii), the re‐establishment and maintenance of the law’s factual (non‐natural), logical (internally coherent and impartial) and moral (real‐world) legitimacy.
From Boundary Drawing to Transitions: the Creation of Normativity under the EU Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control
Authors: Lange Bettina
Published: March 2003

This article aims to make a contribution to debates about how to conceptualise normativity. It argues that normativity can not be just understood through defining it and in particular through identifying conceptual boundaries around the normative and the non‐normative. Instead the article suggests that it is important to explore how transitions between the non‐normative and the normative occur in practice. This argument is developed through a critical examination of literature on legal pluralism and an analysis of qualitative empirical data on the drafting of technical guidance documents under the European Union Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (96/61/EC).
Process, Responsibility and Inclusion in EU Constitutionalism
Authors: Shaw Jo
Published: March 2003

This paper it looks at some of the normative questions which frame debates about the EU constitutional architecture. Its main objective is to identify the core facets of a ‘responsible and inclusive EU constitutionalism’, and to argue for a focus on process, freedom, fairness and democracy as well as formal constitution–building within the debates inside and outside the Convention running up to the Intergovernmental Conference anticipated for 2003/2004. A model using the work of Canadian political theorist James Tully is constructed. The paper applies this framework in order to analyse some aspects of the work of the Convention on the Future of the Union, looking especially at questions of autonomy, representativity, internal dynamics, deliberation, receptiveness, and decision–making. The interim conclusion is drawn that the Convention method contains within itself the seeds of a critical and reflexive approach to EU constitutionalism.
Device‐independent Color Correction for Multimedia Applications Using Neural Networks and Abductive Modeling Approaches
Authors: Shastri Vasant , Rabelo Luis C. , Onjeyekwe Egondu , Vila Joaquin
Published: March 2003

Although color has appeal for developers and consumers alike, color reproduction poses a major problem in many computer based applications including multimedia and desktop publishing. The problem arises because of the device‐independence of color, and the way each device processes color. Matching the appearance of monitor and print images, and achieving satisfactory results is complex. Not only are there fundamental differences between computer screen (additive) and printers (subtractive), but subtractive color is in general more prone to errors due to dye inadequacies. In order to control the error in porting color, different techniques have been applied. In this paper, the utilization of artificial neural networks as well as abductive modeling approaches to color error reduction are introduced from an RGB (Red Green Blue) color model perspective. Analysis of the results and on‐going research issues are discussed.
Natural language interface for an expert system
Authors: Lee Yoon‐Hee , Evens Martha W.
Published: March 2003

This paper provides complete analysis of natural language interface from the screen manager to the parser/understander, even though it has some limitations. The main focus is on the design and development of a subsystem for understanding natural language input in an expert system. Fast response time and user‐friendliness were the most important considerations in the design. The screen manager provides an easy editing capability for the user. The spelling correction system can detect most spelling errors and correct them automatically, quickly and effectively. The Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) parser and the understander are designed to handle most types of simple sentences, fragments, and ellipses. As a result, this system as applied to a man‐machine dialogue gives improved ill‐formed natural language input handling capabilities to the expert system.
Extending CLIPS to support temporal representation and reasoning
Authors: Chinn Susan J. , Madey Gregory R.
Published: March 2003

Applications using expert systems for monitoring and control problems often require the ability to represent temporal knowledge and to apply reasoning based on that knowledge. Incorporating temporal representation and reasoning into expert systems leads to two problems in development: dealing with an implied temporal order of events using a non‐procedural tool; and maintaining the large number of temporal relations that can occur among facts in the knowledge base. In this paper we explore these problems by using an expert system shell, CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System), to create temporal relations using common knowledge‐based constructs. We also build an extension to CLIPS through a user‐defined function which generates the temporal relations from those facts. We use the extension to create and maintain temporal relations in a workflow application that monitors and controls an engineering design change review process. We also propose a solution to ensure truth maintenance among temporally related facts that links our temporal extension to the CLIPS facility for truth maintenance.
A function‐centered framework for reasoning about system failure at multiple levels of abstraction
Authors: Russomanno David J.
Published: March 2003

This paper presents the knowledge organization for a simulation subsystem that is a component of a comprehensive expert system for failure modes and effects analysis. Organizing the simulation subsystem’s knowledge base around a function‐centered ontology produces an architecture that facilitates reasoning about an engineering design at multiple levels of abstraction and throughout the life‐cycle of the design. Moreover, the resulting architecture provides the capability for incorporating computer‐aided analysis and design tools early on into the conceptual design of an engineering system before a commitment is made to a specific technology to implement the system’s behavior. The result is an expert system simulation knowledge source that can be used to reason about the effects of system failures based on conceptual designs, i.e. designs in which commitments to an underlying technology to achieve the system’s function have not yet been made but computer‐aided assistance for reasoning about the system’s potential failure modes and effects is useful.
Diagnostic expert systems: a method for engineering knowledge used in sequential diagnosis
Authors: Mussi Silvano
Published: March 2003

The paper presents a method for helping knowledge engineers in modelling the knowledge involved in sequential diagnosis. In particular, we consider sequential diagnosis as a process which occurs in the following type of scenario: (1) there exist some candidate hypotheses which are to be pursued; (2) for each hypothesis there are some alternative tests which might be executed to pursue it; (3) the available knowledge about the world precludes projecting into the future (in other words, the available knowledge about the world does not afford the information needed for planning sequences of tests, i.e. for projecting the consequences of possible sequences of actions and picking the best sequence); (4) the choice of the next test (or tests) is made on the basis of the current state of knowledge; (5) the outcome of a test execution is affected by uncertainty. The suggested method addresses the problem of engineering the knowledge experts use for making decisions under uncertainty. A practical example of the method is also presented: at any time of the diagnostic process the expert is provided with a dynamically updated list of suggested tests in order to support him or her in the decision‐making problem about which test to execute next.
A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process approach in modular product design
Authors: Lee W.B , Lau Henry , Liu Zhuo‐zhi , Tam Samson
Published: March 2003

Product development stages. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which breaks down a complex problem into simple hierarchical decision‐making processes, can be incorporated with fuzzy logic to suggest the relative strength of the factors in the corresponding criteria, thereby enabling the construction of a fuzzy judgement matrix to facilitate decision‐making. This paper proposes a fuzzy AHP approach in modular product design complemented with a case example to validate its feasibility in a real company. Test findings indicate that the approach is helpful for providing key decision support information in terms of product module selection during product development stages. The significance of the contribution of this paper is the suggestion of a novel approach in modular product design, embracing a combination of computational intelligence and traditional techniques, thereby providing more alternatives and ideas for those researchers who are interested in this field of study.
Rule–based reasoning and neural network perception for safe off–road robot mobility
Authors: Tunstel Edward , Howard Ayanna , Seraji Homayoun
Published: March 2003

Operational safety and health monitoring are critical matters for autonomous field mobile robots such as planetary rovers operating on challenging terrain. This paper describes relevant rover safety and health issues and presents an approach to maintaining vehicle safety in a mobility and navigation context. The proposed rover safety module is composed of two distinct components: safe attitude (pitch and roll) management and safe traction management. Fuzzy logic approaches to reasoning about safe attitude and traction management are presented, wherein inertial sensing of safety status and vision–based neural network perception of terrain quality are used to infer safe speeds of traversal. Results of initial field tests and laboratory experiments are also described. The approach provides an intrinsic safety cognizance and a capacity for reactive mitigation of robot mobility and navigation risks.
An Examination of Budgetary Inefficiency in Education Using Data Envelopment Analysis
Authors: Chalos Peter
Published: March 2003

The generally weak association between educational spending and performance is a source of ongoing debate. This study examined size, type and source of educational operating expenditures as potential explanators of this weak relationship. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and publicly available input‐output performance metrics, budgetary efficiency was measured across school districts. Budgetary inefficiency was found to be significantly and positively associated with (1) budget size (2) administrative overhead and (3) local revenue accountability. These findings offer a partial explanation for the weak relationship traditionally found between educational spending inputs and performance outcomes. The results are suggestive of how school districts might improve their budgetary goal setting, performance auditing and resource allocation practices.
How Purchasing Decisions are Made in the Mixed Economy of Community Care
Authors: Mannion Russell , Smith Peter
Published: March 2003

Under the ‘Community Care’ programme, English local authorities have become responsible for assessing the needs of those affected by problems associated with ageing, mental illness, learning difficulties or physical disability. They also have the responsibility of designing a suitable package of care for the individual, and for purchasing that care from a range of statutory, voluntary and private providers. This paper focuses on how purchasing decisions in community care are made. Concepts such as trust and reputation are found to be very important, and the paper therefore argues that the new economic sociology offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for examining the new market than the conventional neoclassical critique.
Asset Revaluations in the Accounts of UK National Health Service Trusts
Authors: Hodges Ron , Mellet Howard
Published: March 2003

This paper reports the results of an investigation into the impact of the revaluation of fixed assets on the reported results of NHS ambulance services. It recalculates the accounting rate of return of individual trusts after removing revaluation adjustments and examines the published responses of trusts. The numerical analysis demonstrates that, in general, revaluation has depressed the stated rate of return in an inconsistent manner. Failure to meet the required rate of return may cause a trust to be subjected to additional monitoring and management reorganisation while the trusts respond by explaining deviations in the accounting return measure by referring to revaluations and other technical adjustments. Management decisions made in response to these accounting measures may be sub‐optimal in delivering health care but appropriate in achieving the desired accounting outcome.
Public Audit: A Comment and a Clarification of CIPFA's Views
Authors: Evans Martin
Published: March 2003

This article aims to clarify CIPFA’s views on the arrangements for ‘public audit’, as reflected in its submissions to the Nolan Committee and the subsequent Cabinet Office/Treasury Review of external audit in the public services. In particular, it attempts to correct perceived misapprehensions about CIPFA's attitude to the role of the private audit firms in public sector audit.
Governance and Funds Allocation in United States Medical Research Charities
Authors: Dyl Edward A. , Frant Howard L. , Stephenson Craig A.
Published: March 2003

We examine boards of directors of medical research charities and find that medical charities spend less on program activities and more on fund‐raising when the executive director of the charity serves on the board of directors, especially when the board is small. Executive salaries are also higher at charities where management is represented on the board. Management and general expenses and fund balances are, however, unrelated either to the presence of an insider on the board or to the size of the board.
The Meaning of Balanced Scorecards in the Health Care Organisation
Authors: Aidemark Lars‐Göan
Published: March 2003

This study investigates the introduction of balanced scorecards in a health care organisation. It analyses a top‐down control system, built on measurement, in a medical professional context, where attempts at implementing systematic performance auditing are expected to meet resistance. The study shows, however, that balanced scorecards, redesigned by medical professionals and used in a dialogue about service activities and finances, are regarded attractive successors to criticised financial control systems. In the light of the markets, hierarchies and clans perspective, developed by Ouchi, this popularity becomes comprehensible. Balanced scorecards are seen to reduce both the ambiguity of performance evaluation and the goal in‐congruence between parties in the organisation.
Benchmarking as a Tool for the Modernisation of Local Government
Authors: Bowerman Mary , Ball Amanda , Francis Graham
Published: March 2003

This paper examines benchmarking as a tool of the modernisation process in local government and the contradictory tensions in the Best Value scheme are explored. Benchmarking is shown to encapsulate the dichotomous nature of a modernising philosophy which espouses innovation and local solutions alongside the government’s centralising tendencies. One consequence is the advancement of ‘compulsory’ and ‘defensive’ modes of benchmarking with local authorities benchmarking for external accountability reasons; issues of tangible improvement are secondary concerns. These tensions are viewed as irreconcilable, the implication is that local government will need to carefully manage and evaluate its benchmarking activities.
A Decade in Review: New Zealand’s Experience with Resource Accounting and Budgeting
Authors: Pallot June
Published: March 2003

Ten years before the United Kingdom introduced RAB a similar regime had been introduced in New Zealand. What evidence is there, then, that the experience with RAB has lived up to the promises made of it? While the speed with which RAB was introduced in New Zealand may make it appear easy, there were a number of theoretical and practical accounting and auditing issues involved in pioneering these developments. This paper explains how these difficulties were overcome, the benefits achieved, the outstanding issues to be resolved, and some new directions currently being proposed.
How to Access Financial Data of the Internet and Use for Research In Finance And Economics
Authors: Zaher Tarek
Published: March 2003

Information access at no cost or low cost is becoming vital for academic researchers in finance and economics. As a result of the budget cuts at most universities in the United States, the vast majority of schools of business, other than research I institutions are now unable to purchase readily available financial data on CDs or tapes (such as CRSP or Compustat data). In order to continue their research agenda, researchers at such schools must find alternative low cost sources of data. In addition to the difficulty in locating the data, iit is a challenge to downloadthe data that one needs in a timely manner. In fact, locating and downloading a particular set of financial data when time is at a premium can be a source of frustration for researchers and educators. This paper removes some of the difficulties that researchers and educators encounter when trying to locate and access financial data on the Internet. It provides an easy way of accessing and downloading one of the most useful financial data sets available on the Internet. In particular, the author shows how to download sets of selected interest rates of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago web site. The same steps could be used to access and download other financial data sets that are available on the Board of Governors web site or any of the remaining eleven Federal Reserve Banks’ web sites. The data sets include current and historical daily, weekly and monthly rates for a number of financial securities including, certificates of deposit, commercial paper, federal funds, banker's acceptance, Eurodollars deposit, Treasury‐bills, Treasury ‐bonds, finance paper, state and local bonds, conventional mortgages, and rated corporate bonds. The data sets also include the Federal Reserve discount rate, foreign exchange rates and a wide selection of macroeconomic variables.
Women Students and the London Medical Schools, 1914–39: The Anatomy of a Masculine Culture
Authors: Dyhouse Carol
Published: March 2003

During the First World War in Britain, women were exhorted to rally to the nation's need and to train as doctors. A number of the London medical schools opened their doors to female students for the first time. After the war, several of these schools reverted to their former status as exclusively male institutions. This article looks at these events in some detail, focusing on the controversies over co‐education in medicine and attempting to unravel some of the issues and politics involved. It is suggested that the gender politics which characterise these debates illuminate our understanding of the social history of work cultures and masculinity in the period.
The Gender of Militancy: Notes on the Possibilities of a Different History of Political Action
Authors: Aurélio Garcia Marco
Published: March 2003

Departing from some texts that examine women's participation in clandestine organisations in Brazil and Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s, the author discusses possibilities of a different approach towards the historiography of political action, particularly focusing on left‐wing parties. Oral history contributes towards recovering subjectivity, a dimension little explored in political historiography. This dimension is usually confined to a private sphere that appears as radically severed from the public sphere. The articulation of these two spaces as well as tensions, conflicts and complementarities between masculine and feminine roles take the history of women away from the ghetto, allowing this new perspective to analyse political action in a complex way
Gender and Science
Authors: Löwy Ilana
Published: March 2003

While there are several different approaches to the study of gender and science, this paper focuses on the consequences of the introduction of the concept of gender on studies of scientific and medical practices. It is limited, in the main, to historical studies of twentieth‐century biomedicine, which allows an examination of the validity of scientific assumptions underlying our understanding of the natural world, the genesis and the present status of scientific definitions of masculinity and femininity, and the ideological basis of science‐based technological interventions in the domain of sexuality and reproduction.
Work, Gender & History in the 1990s and Beyond
Authors: Avdela Efi
Published: March 2003

By the end of the 1980s, having amply demonstrated that the study of class could no longer be separated from the study of gender, feminist historians were advocating a new gendered history of work. At the beginning of the 1990s, American historian Ava Baron identified four problems that women's labour history had left unresolved: the need to move women's labour history out of its ghetto; an explanation for the mechanisms of sexual difference in labour relations; the theorisation of women's and men's ‘consent’ to oppression; and an understanding of the differences among women. The quest for a gendered labour history required new conceptual tools and new theoretical approaches. This paper tests this agenda against research on work and gender in the last decade of Gender & History. The moves toward the interrelation of public and private, work and family, as well as toward the construction of identities calls into question whether work remains a distinctive historical field.
Gender and the Categories of Experienced History
Authors: Leydesdorff Selma
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the problematic relationship between oral history and gender and women's history. The article suggests that the methodological and research problems currently facing oral historians of gender in the context of multiculturalism and globalisation can only be overcome by undertaking research that links the small, local and regional focus characteristic of much oral history to new pat‐terns of history writing so that a plurality of voices may be heard. The argument is illustrated by reference to two current research projects: a comparative study of the lives of young migrant women in six European countries; and a study of the meaning of Islam for migrant and non‐migrant women in Bangladesh, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Mali, and Senegal compared with migrant women in the Netherlands.
Writing Gender into History and History in Gender: Creating A Nation and Australian Historiography
Authors: Damousi Joy
Published: March 2003

This paper reflects on the impact of gender in the writing of history by considering the reception of Creating A Nation, the first gendered history of Australia. It argues that while there has emerged an impressive volume of feminist history and with it has come an important acceptance of women's historical experience, the reception of ‘gender’ within the historical profession has paradoxically been ambivalent and ambiguous. This is the case because of an unease about feminist theory and its relevance to history. There also remains a prevailing belief that a gendered neutral historical place exists, to which historians can retreat.
Renaissance Women
Authors: Neher Gabriele
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

Judith Brown and Robert Davies (eds), Gender and Society in RenaissanceItaly

Trevor Dean and Kate Lowe (eds), Marriage in Italy, 1300‐1600

Deanna Shemek, Ladies Errant: Wayward Women and Social Order in Early Modern Italy

Paola Tinagli, Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender, Representation,Identity