bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dynasties and Destiny: On the Roles of Altruism and Impatience in the Evolution of Consumption and Bequests
Authors: Falk Ita , Stark Oded
Published: March 2003

We study the joint role of altruism and impatience, and the impact of evolution in the formation of long–term time preferences and in the determination of optimal consumption and optimal bequests. We show how the consumption paths of dynasties relate to altruism and to impatience, and we reason that long–lived dynasties will be characterized by a higher degree of altruism and a lower degree of impatience than short–lived dynasties.
World Increasing Returns and Production Subsidies
Authors: Chandra Vandana , Franck David , Naqvi Nadeem
Published: March 2003

Increasing returns of the international kind as opposed to the usual national kind do not justify subsidies by a small country.
Microsimulation of Social Policy in the European Union: Case Study of a European Minimum Pension
Authors: Atkinson Tony , Bourguignon François , O’Donoghue Cathal , Sutherland Holly , Utili Francesca
Published: March 2003

While policies to eliminate poverty remain the responsibility of member states, the European Union may have a role to play in setting minimum standards. This paper explores the implications of a European Minimum Pension. A prototype Europe–wide tax benefit microsimulation model is used to examine the distributional impact of the reform, asking how far such a policy is ‘targeted’ on the poorest pensioners. We conclude that the formulation of policy for the protection of Europe’s poorest people requires an appreciation not only of the situation of this group, but also of the assumptions that have been used to identify it.
On the Choice of Tenancy Contracts in Rural India
Authors: Chaudhuri Ananish , Maitra Pushkar
Published: March 2003

This paper uses data from rural India to analyse how cultivating household and plot level characteristics affect contract choice on a particular plot of land. We estimate a sequential choice model where the landowner first decides whether to cultivate the land on his own (possibly with hired labour) or to lease it out. If the latter, then a choice is made between fixed‐rent or share‐cropping. One interesting finding is that the greater the value of the plot, the greater is the probability that the plot is owner cultivated. Moreover, among tenant cultivated plots, higher value plots are share‐cropped.
Market Shares, Financial Constraints and Pricing Behaviour in the Export Market
Authors: Gottfries Nils
Published: March 2003

A structural dynamic model of price and quantity adjustment is estimated on time series data for exports and export prices. Two sources of dynamics are considered: customer markets and preset prices. As predicted by the customer market model, the market share adjusts slowly after a change in the relative price and financial conditions affect prices. Prices are found to be sticky in the sense that they do not reflect the most recent information about costs and exchange rates. A parsimoniously parameterized structural model explains about 90% of the variation in market share and the relative price.
Why Do Policy Makers Give (Permanent) Power to Policy Advisers?
Authors: Swank Otto H. , Dur Robert A. J.
Published: March 2003

Using a simple game‐theoretical model, this paper analyzes the role of policy advisers in the policy‐making process. We show that policy makers are inclined to appoint advisers whose preferences coincide with their own preferences. Furthermore, we show that policy makers are biased towards erecting permanent advisory units. This result stems from the policy makers' desire to affect the actions of their successors. A permanent advisory unit induces future policy makers to act in accordance with the preferences of current policy makers. The policy‐makers' bias towards erecting permanent advisory units may drive a wedge between actual policy outcomes and socially desired policy outcomes.
Campaign War Chests, Entry Deterrence, and Voter Rationality
Authors: Dharmapala Dhammika
Published: March 2003

It is often claimed that the accumulation of “war chests” by incumbents deters entry by high–quality challengers in Congressional elections. This paper presents a game–theoretic analysis of the interaction between an incumbent, potential challengers, an interest group, and a representative (rational) voter, where the incumbent’s “quality” (or “legislative effectiveness”) is known to the interest group, but not to the voter or to potential challengers. Under certain conditions, a perfectly revealing equilibrium exists; the incumbent signals her quality by raising funds from the interest group to accumulate a war chest. The entry deterrence effect thus operates solely through the role of war chests in signaling incumbent quality.
A Spoonful of Sugar: Privatization and Popular Support for Reform in the Czech Republic
Authors: Earle John S. , Gehlbach Scott
Published: March 2003

We analyze the role of privatization in creating a constituency for economic reform, markets, and democratic institutions, focusing on the Czech Republic. Drawing on a 1996 survey, we examine the 1,459 respondents’ opinions on reforms, economic policies and systems, the legitimacy of transition, and democratic values. Using ordered probit estimation, we find that receiving property through restitution is strongly associated with support for reform and markets. Concerning voucher privatization, we find positive effects for participants retaining shares, but little impact of participation alone. Our simulations suggest that policy designs have substantial consequences for citizens’ support of reforms, markets, and democracy.
Private sector employment in Russia: Scale, composition and performance
Authors: Gimpelson Vladimir , Lippoldt Douglas
Published: March 2003

In Russia, as across Central and Eastern Europe, privatization and the establishmemt of new private firms have been viewed as key factors in labour market adjustment during the transition period. This paper considers the overall employment developments in the private sector in Russia and the extent to which the private sector employment performance is differentiated from that of other sectors in five Russian regions. The analysis is based on a fresh look at these issues using official statistics published by Goskomstat and drawing on microdata from the March 1996 Russian Labour Force Survey (LFS). A special questionnaire attached to the LFS in the study regions provides supplementary information.

The paper highlights shifts in the sectoral composition of employment, including growth in private sector employment. Compared to other forms of ownership, the analysis confirms a tendency for private sector ownership in the study regions to be associated with stronger employment performance with respect to hours worked and, in some cases, timely payment of wages. Private sector firms appear to have relatively flexible employment patterns, utilizing more fixed‐term or part‐time employment than other types of firms and experiencing greater labour turnover. Also, private sector employees tend to be somewhat younger and probably more adaptable people. However, there is significant variation across the study regions and substantial exceptions exist with respect to the above‐mentioned tendencies. With respect to employment issues, the differentiation between sectors appears to be less pronounced than one might have expected.
Liquidity Constraints and Investment in Transition Economies
Authors: Budina Nina , Garretsen Harry , De Jong Eelke
Published: March 2003

We use Bulgarian firm‐level data to investigate the impact of liquidity constraints on investment performance. Internal funds are an important determinant of investment in most industrialized countries. We test whether internal funds are important for firm investment during the current transition process in Bulgaria. We use a simple accelerator model of investment to test whether liquidity constraints are relevant in the case of Bulgaria. Our estimations are based on data for the period 1993–95, prior to the Bulgarian financial crisis in 1996–97. It turns out that Bulgarian firms are liquidity constrained, and that firms' size and financial structure help to distinguish between firms that are more and less liquidity constrained. In our view, liquidity constraints can be given a different interpretation in the case of transition economies as compared to Western economies. A more in depth analysis of the data reveals that liquidity constraints, and consequently the access to external funds for Bulgarian firm investment, are to be seen against the background of soft‐budget constraints and the failure of the financial system to enforce an efficient allocation of funds. In our view, the lack of liquidity constraints may actually be seen as a sign of financial weakness in the case of Bulgaria.
Gender Discrimination in Central Europe during the Systemic Transition
Authors: Pailhé Ariane
Published: March 2003

In this paper we measure the extent of gender discrimination on Central European labour markets (Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak) during the first years of transition. Using Oaxaca's method and Social Stratification Survey data for 1993, we estimate that discrimination explains about half of the wage gap. Gender discrimination is significantly weaker in Hungary and stronger in Slovakia and Poland, where a large part of discrimination is tied to segregation. More fundamentally, we try to determine the nature of this discrimination; we conclude that discrimination is mainly statistical (both group and individual), but also deliberate, and the labour market is partly inefficient.
The Limits of Discipline: Ownership and Hard Budget Constraints in the Transition Economies
Authors: Frydman Roman , Gray Cheryl , Hessel Marek , Rapaczynski Andrzej
Published: March 2003

The existing literature on soft budget constraints suggests that firms may be subsidized for political reasons or because of the creditors' desire to recover a part of the sunk cost invested in an earlier period. In all these models hard budget constraints are viewed as being, in principle, capable of inducing the necessary restructuring behaviour on the level of the firm. This paper argues that the imposition of financial discipline is not sufficient to remedy ownership and governance‐related deficiencies of corporate performance. Using evidence from the post‐communist transition economies, the paper shows that a policy of hard budget constraints cannot induce successful revenue restructuring, which requires entrepreneurial incentives inherent in certain ownership types (most notably, outside investors). The paper also shows that the policy of hard budget constraints falters when state firms, because of inferior revenue performance and less willingness to meet payment obligations, continue to pose a higher credit risk than privatized firms. The brunt of state firms' lower creditworthiness falls on state creditors. But the ‘softness’ of these creditors, while harmful in many ways, is not necessarily irrational, if it prevents the demise of firms that are in principle capable of successful restructuring through ownership changes.
The Uzbek Model of Economic Development, 1991–91
Authors: Pomfret Richard
Published: March 2003

Uzbekistan has been difficult to classify among the thirty‐plus economies in transition during the 1990s and has posed a puzzle, because it is a slow reformer but relatively good performer. This paper argues that there is no simple Uzbek model. Uzbekistan's economic reform process has been inconsistent gradualism through three different phases during the 1990s. Economic performance was due to favourable external conditions during the first half of the 1990s and to reasonably good policy‐making, although policy errors in late 1996 led to negative effects. Uzbekistan illustrates the importance of policy, but sheds little light on a debate framed in terms of rapid reform versus gradualism.
Is inflation targeting feasible in Poland?
Authors: Christoffersen Peter , Sløk Torsten , Wescott Robert
Published: March 2003

In this paper we analyze whether inflation targeting is feasible in Poland. There are at least three prerequisites for successful inflation targeting: 1) central bank independence, 2) a high degree of central bank accountability, transparency, and communication to the public, and 3) a predictable and stable relationship between inflation and the instruments of monetary policy. While the first two prerequisites are relatively easy to analyze, the third criterion requires formal statistical analysis, which we undertake in this paper. The first two prerequisites for targeting are found to be met in Poland, and the empirical analysis shows some evidence of significant relationships between inflation and monetary instruments in Poland. Hence inflation targeting appears feasible in Poland.
Painless disinflation? Monetary policy rules in Hungary, 1991‐99
Authors: Golinelli Roberto , Rovelli Riccardo
Published: March 2003

We estimate a small structural model for inflation, the output gap, the domestic interest rate and the exchange rate for Hungary during the period of the transition (1991‐99). The transmission of monetary policy impulses to macro variables is characterized in a similar fashion to that of advanced open industrial countries. In particular, in the context of our rational expectations, forward‐looking model, the interest rate channel on aggregate demand and the exchange rate channel work together as parts of the same disinflation policy. We draw several conclusions on understanding and modeling the effects of monetary policy, and also on the desirable design of policy rules during the process of disinflation.

JEL classification: E17, E52, P24.
The Diversion of Order Flow on French Stocks from CAC to SEAQ International: a Field Study
Authors: Jacquillat Bertrand , Gresse Carole
Published: March 2003

The competition between SEAQ International and Continental European equity markets to attract transactions in the most actively traded European stocks has intensified since the late 1980s. Because their transactions are organised in a different manner, and because reporting standards are not the same, comparisons of official transaction volumes from SEAQ International and the French CAC market system are misleading. The objective of this paper is to scrutinise the order flow for French stocks and the reporting procedures on both market systems, so as to ascertain the effective transactions on each market and estimate actual market shares. Based on both the observation of official statistics and a field study of order flows conducted among five large and active brokerage houses with a book on both markets, SEAQI's market share in French stocks as reported in previous studies using only official volume statistics seems largely overstated.
The Quasi‐split Effect, Active Insiders and the Italian Market Reaction to Equity Rights Issues
Authors: Bigelli Marco
Published: March 2003

The positive market reaction at the announcement of most European rights issues can be explained by two major factors which distinguish them from a US public offering: active insiders, and a quasi‐split effect which signals a large increase in the dividend yield. An analysis of 428 Italian rights offerings and an event study involving 82 observations in the 1980–94 period show that Italian insiders are completely ‘active’, and almost 85% of the equity rights issues result in a dividend yield increase, which corresponds to the quasi‐split effect in approximately 40% of the issues. The dividend yield rises, on average, by a significant +61% after a combined rights offering and by a significantly lower +20% following a fully‐paid rights issue. The market reaction to the announcement is significantly positive for combined rights offerings (+2.77%) and positive, but not significant, for the whole sample (+0.79%). The dividend increase signalled by the quasi‐split effect explains almost 30% of the abnormal returns' cross‐sectional variation and it is the only significant explanatory variable.
Earnings Announcements, Asymmetric Information, Trades and Quotes
Authors: Gajewski Jean‐François
Published: March 2003

This paper empirically analyses trades and quotes around the times of 37 earnings announcements in the Paris Bourse. We find that trading volume is larger on announcement days, spreads are wider after announcements, and the permanent positive (resp. negative) price impact of purchases (sales) is greater around announcements. While the findings pertaining to the spread and the permanent impact of trades are consistent with the view that earnings announcements correspond to an increase in information asymmetries, the result that trading volume is larger suggests that other effects are at work.
The direct costs of UK rights issues and open offers
Authors: Armitage Seth
Published: March 2003

The paper describes selling and underwriting procedures in rights issues and open offers, and analyses the costs of issue reported in prospectuses, including the substantial costs which are not for underwriting. The impression is often given that costs are fixed at 2% of gross proceeds, but they vary and average 5.78%(median 4.28%). Controlling for economies of scale and fees not related to the issue, costs increase with the proportion of the issue underwritten and with the depth of discount, and decrease with the proportion of the company owned by large shareholders.
Ex Ante Hedging Effectiveness of UK Stock Index Futures Contracts: Evidence for the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 Contracts
Authors: Butterworth Darren , Holmes Phil
Published: March 2003

Ex ante hedging effectiveness of the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 index futures contracts is examined for a range of portfolios, consisting of stock market indexes and professionally managed portfolios (investment trust companies). Previous studies which focused on ex post hedging performance using spot portfolios that mirror market indexes are shown to overstate the risk reduction potential of index futures. Although ex ante hedge ratios are found to be characterised by intertemporal instability, ex ante hedging performance of direct hedges and cross hedges approaches that of the ex post benchmark when hedge ratios are estimated using a sufficient window size.
The Effects of Liberalisation on Market and Currency Risk in the European Union
Authors: Carrieri Francesca
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the effects of liberalisation on the pricing of market and currency risk for a number of financial markets in the European Union (EU). An International Asset Pricing Model with a multivariate GARCH‐in‐Mean specification and time‐varying prices of risk is used for the four markets with the largest capitalisation in the EU. Only one price of market risk exists and international investors are rewarded for their exposure to currency risk. The evidence shows that all prices of risk are time‐varying and have been decreasing during the process of liberalisation. There is also evidence that markets react to period of uncertainty in the process toward the completion of liberalisation. In addition, the operation of the European Monetary System has generated lower covariances. As a consequence, total risk premia have declined in the last decade.
Belgian Intragroup Relations and the Determinants of Corporate Liquid Reserves
Authors: Deloof Marc
Published: March 2003

The determinants of liquid reserves are investigated for a sample of 1038 large Belgian non‐financial firms in the 1992–94 period. The results confirm the hypothesis that the terms of payment of intragroup claims can be adjusted to the firm’s liquidity needs, thereby reducing the need for liquid reserves. Furthermore, the results confirm the transaction motive for holding liquid reserves, but only partially confirm the precautionary motive. Finally, the results indicate that liquid reserves play a significant role in the financing of new investments, as predicted by the pecking order model of Myers and Majluf (1984).
Simulating the Evolution of the Implied Distribution
Authors: Skiadopoulos George , Hodges Stewart
Published: March 2003

Motivated by the implied stochastic volatility literature (Britten–Jones and Neuberger, forthcoming; Derman and Kani, 1997; Ledoit and Santa–Clara, 1998) this paper proposes a new and general method for constructing smile–consistent stochastic volatility models. The method is developed by recognising that option pricing and hedging can be accomplished via the simulation of the implied risk neutral distribution. We devise an algorithm for the simulation of the implied distribution, when the first two moments change over time. The algorithm can be implemented easily, and it is based on an economic interpretation of the concept of mixture of distributions. It can also be generalised to cases where more complicated forms for the mixture are assumed.
Adorno on the Ethical and the Ineffable
Authors: Finlayson James Gordon
Published: March 2003

The thesis is that Adorno has a normative ethics, albeit a minimal and negative ethics of resistance. However Adorno’s ethical theory faces two problems: the problem of the availability of the good and the problem of whether a normative ethics is consistent with philosophical negativism. The author argues that a correct of understanding the role of the ineffable in Adorno’s Negative Dialectics solves both problems: it provides an account of the availability of the good that is consistent with his philosophical negativism. The author counters the prevalent objection that Adorno’s aporetic philosophy, like some negative theology, leads to irrationalism and mysticism. The parallel with negative theology is developed by means of a comparison with Nicholas of Cusa. Drawing on Wittgentstein’s saying/showing distinction and Adrian Moore’s work the author argues that Nicholas and Adorno can be seen to share a philosophically defensible notion of ineffable knowledge.
The Voice of the Community in Private Law Discourse
Authors: Collins Hugh
Published: March 2003

Formalist private lawyers, with their view of law as an autonomous sphere and their emphasis upon allocative rules, tend to approach the issue of the harmonisation of private law in Europe with the following question: are the substantive rights and remedies of private individual actors sufficiently similar within each of the Member States to allow for the unification of autonomous private legal systems. Here the issue is essentially one of terminology. While sceptical voices maintain that formal private law is also a more complex matter of interrelated procedures and practices, many formalists conclude that whilst the terms of rights and remedies may differ slightly throughout Europe, there is sufficient substantive convergence to allow for harmonisation. However, lawyers of a sociological persuasion who see private law as being contingent upon society ? a process reflexively and recursively facilitating economic activities and responding to social change ? consider harmonisation to be dependent upon the harmonisation of market practices themselves. This paper, one of the most subtle of sociological contributions, tackles this issue with an innovative eye to the increasing blurring of the distinction between public and private concerns. The voice of Europe is the voice of a political collective and theoretically, under the once sacrosanct paradigm of the public/private divide, should not be heard within the ‘individualistic’ sphere of private law. However, just as national private law judges are generally responding to social concerns and are seeking to integrate collective voices within a once ‘atomised’ realm, so too are they taking note of the political voice of Europe: attempting to respond to the desire for integration and harmonisation within their jurisprudence.
The European Union and Penal Law
Authors: Delmas‐Marty Mireille
Published: March 2003

Technically‐speaking, penal law remains outside the competence of the European Communities and Union. However, mirroring other legal developments within Europe, a combination of higher Community ‘principles’ such as proportionality, non‐discrimination, free competition and loyal co‐operation, together with secondary Community law, has on the one hand, led to an unforeseen process of the harmonisation of national penal systems; with national norms either being set aside by Community law, or given extended scope in the pursuance of EC/EU goals. On the other hand, certain European interests – most notably, the need to safeguard the European Union budget – have proven strong enough to prompt the evolution of a nascent penal law of the EU; the most noteworthy development here being the drawing up of an independent European ‘corpus juris’ covering penal policy and procedure in the area of EU budget protection.
Reconsidering the Premises of Labour Law: Prolegomena to an EU Regulation on the Protection of Employees’ Personal Data
Authors: Simitis Spiros
Published: March 2003

With its 1985 Directive on Data Protection, the European Union highlighted its commitment to the constitutionalisation of European law and, in particular, underlined its vision of the individual European as a rights‐bearing individual; empowered through ‘knowledge’ and thus advantaged in communicative processes of political/social/legal bargaining. As such, the move to a data protection regime founded upon notions of individual empowerment, also mirrors a recent and fundamental re‐alignment in the guiding principles of regulative labour law, which has seen the paradigm of ‘collective laissez‐faire’ challenged, if not superseded, by a redirected emphasis upon the communicative empowerment of the individual employee rather than the representative function of employees’ representatives. Accordingly, it is less than surprising that the field of labour law has seen increasing demands placed upon the Commission to fulfil its promise in the pre‐amble to the 1985 Directive, and promulgate Regulations crafted to ensure data protection in line with the specific demands of individual societal sectors. This paper is a policy statement. It re‐iterates the need for a Regulation on the protection of employees’ data. Building on the comparative experience of the Member States, it outlines the nature, provisions and scope which such a regulation should entail so as to reflect, both the reality of the modern employment relationship, and a new normative vision of the workplace which aims to inject such relationships with a measure of communicative participation.
The Harmonisation of Rules of Conduct in EU Financial Markets: Economic Analysis, Subsidiarity and Investor Protection
Authors: Avgouleas Emilios
Published: March 2003

The rules that regulate the market conduct of traders and the conduct of the business of investment intermediaries in the context of financial markets have not been comprehensively harmonised in the EU. As a result, cross‐border trading in financial products and provision of other financial services is regulated by largely asymmetrical national rules. Host state regulators have remained responsible for the supervision of the compliance of banks and investment firms with national rules of conduct when they engage in the cross‐border provision of banking and investment services. However, the advent of both the EMU and global trends in the financial services industry have transformed the market landscape. The regulatory challenges that recent market developments pose require a more efficient supervisory regime and a harmonised regulatory environment. These points were focal in the Commission's recent Communication, entitled ‘Action Plan for Financial Markets’. This article examines the current regulatory framework in the area of market conduct and conduct of business in the EU. It argues, with the aid of economic analysis, for the harmonisation of rules of market conduct and for the further harmonisation of conduct of business rules at retail investor level. The harmonisation of conduct of business rules goes beyond the Commission's plans and might raise issues of Community competence. However, such harmonisation is dictated by the challenges of investor protection that changing market conditions create. Also, the transaction costs associated with indirect fragmentation inhibit the growth of cross‐border trade in this area.
The European Court, National Judges, and Legal Integration: A Researcher's Guide to the Data Set on Preliminary References in EC Law, 1958‐‐98
Authors: Sweet Alec Stone , Brunell Thomas L.
Published: March 2003

We hope to stimulate more systematic research on all areas of legal integration by making available for free and open use a comprehensive data base on preliminary references in EC law. The Data Set, which has been under construction since 1996, is now online at various websites. The data are not publicly accessible elsewhere. In this article, we provide a brief summary of the data base and its potential uses. We begin by introducing the main features of the Data Set. We then discuss some of the dynamics of legal integration in light of our analyses of the data.
ICADS: Intelligent Car Audio Design System for product planning
Authors: Ngai E. W. T , Chow D. Y. H
Published: March 2003

This paper describes the development of a system, ICADS (Intelligent Car Audio Design System), that can be used to effectively support product development engineers in car audio product design. We have demonstrated the use of expert system technology and the technique of quality function deployment (QFD) in supporting car audio design planning. QFD is applied as a knowledge acquisition method in this study to support car audio design teams in the development of products in a structured way that relates market demand via engineering specifications to parts specifications. We believe that other industries can use a similar approach for developing an expert system that can support product design planning.
Connectionist symbolic rule encoding using a generalized phase‐locking mechanism
Authors: Seog Park Nam
Published: March 2003

This paper describes a connectionist inference architecture which performs standard symbolic inference on a subclass of first‐order predicate calculus. This work first involves constructing efficient connectionist mechanisms to represent basic symbol components, dynamic bindings and basic symbolic inference procedures, and devising a set of algorithms which automatically translates input descriptions to localist neural networks. These connectionist mechanisms are built by taking an existing phase‐locking mechanism and extending it further to obtain desirable features to represent and manipulate basic symbol structures. The existing phase‐locking mechanism represents dynamic bindings very efficiently using temporal synchronous activity between neuron elements but has fundamental limitations in supporting standard symbolic inference. The extension addresses these limitations. The extended system encodes a significant subset of a Horn clause language in a connectionist style.
GDKAT: A goal‐driven knowledge acquisition tool for knowledge base development
Authors: Wu Chien‐Hsing , Kao Shu‐Chen , Srihari K
Published: March 2003

While knowledge‐based systems are being used extensively to assist in making decisions, a critical factor that affects their performance and reliability is the quantity and quality of the knowledge bases. Knowledge acquisition requires the design and development of an in‐depth comprehension of knowledge modeling and of applicable domain. Many knowledge acquisition tools have been developed to support knowledge base development. However, a weakness that is revealed in these tools is the domain‐dependent and complex acquisition process. Domain dependence limits the applicable areas and the complex acquisition process makes the tool difficult to use. In this paper, we present a goal‐driven knowledge acquisition tool (GDKAT) that helps elicit and store experts’ declarative and procedural knowledge in knowledge bases for a user‐defined domain. The designed tool is implemented using the object‐oriented design methodology under C++ Windows environment. An example that is used to demonstrate the GDKAT is also delineated. While the application domain for the example presented is reflow soldering in surface mount printed circuit board assembly, the GDKAT can be used to develop knowledge bases for other domains also.
A Model‐Based Method for an Online Diagnostic Knowledge‐Based System
Authors: Angeli Chrissanthi , Atherton Derek
Published: March 2003

Fault diagnosis is very important for modern production technology and has received increasing theoretical and practical attention during the last few years. This paper presents a model‐based diagnostic method for industrial systems. An online, real‐time, deep knowledge based fault detection system has been developed by combining different development environments and tools. The system diagnoses, predicts and compensates faults by coupling symbolic and numerical data in a new environment suitable for the interaction of different sources of knowledge and has been successfully implemented and tested on a real hydraulic system.
Development of an Intelligent Data‐Mining System for a Dispersed Manufacturing Network
Authors: Lau H.C.W. , Jiang Bing , Lee W.B. , Lau K.H.
Published: March 2003

Recent advances related to on‐line analytical processing (OLAP) have resulted in a significant improvement in data analysis efficiency by virtue of its multidimensional database structure and pre‐computing operations of measuring data. However, the research related to the design and implementation of OLAP, particularly in the support of dispersed manufacturing networks in terms of ‘intelligent decision making’, has yet to be considered as remarkable. Research studies indicate that the level of intelligence of decision support systems can be enhanced with the incorporation of computational intelligence techniques such as case‐based reasoning or rule‐based reasoning. This paper describes the development of an intelligent data‐mining system using a rule‐based OLAP approach which can be adopted to support dispersed manufacturing networks in terms of performance enhancement. In this paper, the techniques, methods and infrastructure for the development of such a data‐mining system, which possesses certain intelligent features, are presented. To validate the feasibility of this approach, a case example related to the testing of the approach in an emulated industrial environment is covered.
A Radial Basis Function Neural Network Multicultural Factors Evaluation Engine For Product Concept Development
Authors: Yan Wei , Chen Chun‐Hsien , Khoo Li Pheng
Published: March 2003

In recent years, new product development (NPD) has become more and more competitive and globalized. In order to succeed in the global marketplace, it is imperative to take multicultural factors into serious consideration during the stage of product concept development. Generally, the voice of customers has been treated as a starting point to downstream product definition and design metrics determination in developing new product concepts. As a result, the elicitation, representation and management of customer requirements will determine the success level of an organization's NPD efforts. Therefore, multicultural factors, also known as the ‘macro’ perspective in the business environment, are the most significant imperatives for organizations to handle, especially in the current trend of globalization. In practice, there are few holistic and promising systems for multicultural factor evaluation in customer requirements. This work aims at realizing a prototype system that combines the strengths of the laddering technique and the radial basis function neural network for customer requirements acquisition and multicultural factor evaluation. The performance of the prototype system is illustrated by using a case study on the design of a refrigerator. The results obtained from the case study are discussed.
Expert system for nuclear power plant accident diagnosis using a fuzzy inference method
Authors: Lee Mal–rey
Published: March 2003

Huge and complex systems such as nuclear power generating stations are likely to cause the operators to make operational mistakes for a variety of inexplicable reasons and to produce ambiguous and complicated symptoms in the case of an emergency. Therefore, a safety protection system to assist the operators in making proper decisions within a limited time is required. In this paper, we develop a reliable and improved diagnosis system using the fuzzy inference method so that the system can classify accident symptoms and identify the most probable causes of accidents in order for appropriate actions to be taken to mitigate the consequences. In the computer simulation, the proposed system proved to be able to classify accident types within only 20–30 s. Therefore, the corresponding operation guidelines can be determined in a very short time to put the nuclear power plant in a safe state immediately after the accident.
Mining clusters and corresponding interpretable descriptions – a three–stage approach
Authors: Drobics Mario , Bodenhofer Ulrich , Winiwarter Werner
Published: March 2003

This paper presents a three–stage approach to data mining which puts special emphasis on the visualization and interpretability of the results. In the first stage, the input data are represented by a self–organizing map in order to allow visualization and to reduce the amount of data while removing noise, outliers and missing values. Then this preprocessed information is used to identify and display fuzzy clusters of similarity. Finally, descriptions close to natural language are computed for these clusters in order to provide the analyst with qualitative information. This is accomplished by generating fuzzy rules using an inductive learning method. The proposed approach is applied to three case studies, including image data and real–world data sets. The results illustrate the robustness, intuitiveness and wide applicability of the method.
Decentralisation and Management Accounting in Central Government: Recycling Old Ideas?
Authors: Bromwich Michael , Lapsley Irvine
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the Next Steps development from both contemporaneous and historical perspectives. Specifically, it traces the reliance on a distinct model of management and accounting in Next Steps (1988) and its predecessors (FMI, 1982; and Fulton, 1968). This shows not only that there are a series of commonalities within the details of these various reforms of central government, over the past three decades, but also that these various reforms share foundations which are embedded in ‘management thought’ on best practice in the 1950s and 1960s. We identify contemporaneous studies in both management and management accounting which could have informed these reforms, and make suggestions for situationally specific means of improving management and accounting in central government.
The Private Finance Initiative in the National Health Service: An Unhealthy Development in New Public Management?
Authors: Mayston David J.
Published: March 2003

New Public Management has expanded the role of the private sector in the provision of public services through ‘contracting out’ the supply of many public service inputs to the private sector. This paper examines the case of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which is of increasing importance in extending these inputs to include those of major capital assets, such as hospital buildings. Concerns arise as to whether this process does genuinely increase efficiency and accountability, and over the role of accounting in meeting the new demands being placed upon it, in the context of one of the most sensitive public services, that of health care.
Accounting for the Private Finance Initiative in the United Kingdom National Health Service
Authors: Hodges Ron , Mellett Howard
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the operation of the UK government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI) from the viewpoint of accounting in the National Health Service. It explores how the entity concept may be used to remove representation of the economic consequences of such schemes from public accounting reports. Illustrations are provided from the accounts of hospital NHS Trusts, with their high‐value and politically sensitive capital projects. The paper provides contemporary evidence of the financial reporting of PFI schemes and the contradictions between the form and substance of these transactions.
Accounting for Infrastructure Service Delivery by Government: Generational Issues
Authors: McCrae Michael , Aiken Max
Published: March 2003

Infrastructure service provision by government creates huge distributional issues about service availability and performance over time and the relative funding burdens borne by successive generations of consumers across time. But providing financial disclosure on these issues through inter‐generational accounting pre‐supposes that accounting measurement is both generationally neutral (temporal neutrality) and does not legitimate any particular pattern of distribution. At the very least, accounting measurements of service provision costs should possess the attribute of distributional fairness. They should not bias the inter‐generational allocation of cost or funding burdens. We argue that the forced application of inappropriate commercial accounting concepts of asset valuation, depreciation and capital maintenance does produce significant generational bias. More flexibility is required to produce the necessary accounting measurement attributes for financial disclosure on whether government has discharged its continuing accountability for inter‐generational equity in burden sharing. We discuss three conceptual issues and illustrate the need for flexibility by proposing an alternative ‘flow of obligations’ approach which does not require reference to valuations of community service resources or arbitrary cost allocations under depreciation.
The Attitudes of British National Health Service Managers and Clinicians Towards the Introduction of Benchmarking
Authors: Jones C. S.
Published: March 2003

This paper describes an empirical study, conducted in three acute hospitals, of the attitudes of central managers, medical managers and clinicians towards the adoption of benchmarking. Benchmarking was portrayed in The New NHS White Paper (1997) as an important means of improving efficiency over the next decade. The present paper examines the context of change and nature of benchmarking. Findings are presented in seven sections including: the understanding which respondents had of benchmarking; their willingness to be involved in benchmarking; the existence of strategies and policies for implementing benchmarking; the relevance of existing costing information; and the role of networks in facilitating benchmarking. The study concludes that the process of change adopted contradicted most of the factors associated with creating receptivity to change. Also, that the publication of the National Reference Costs seemed to have more relevance to resource planning at central National Health Service Management Executive level, than to effecting improvements at operational level in acute hospitals.
Creation, Virginity and Diet in Fourth‐Century Christianity: Basil of Ancyra’s On the True Purity of Virginity
Authors: Shaw Teresa M.
Published: March 2003

Shaw explores the connections between dietary theory, Christian ascetic fasting, gender and the ideology of virginity in late antiquity, especially as represented in the fourth‐century treatise on virginity by Basil of Ancyra. With its remarkable attention to the practicalities of embodiment and sexual renunciation, Basil’s treatise is distinctive in its genre. After discussing Basil’s treatise of creation, the nature of male and female sexual attraction and physiology, the control of bodily passions and the value of ascetic fasting for reducing desire, Shaw sets these topics in the context of ancient medical theory, gender and the theology of paradise.
Gender, Race, and Rumours: Re‐examining the 1943 Race Riots
Authors: Johnson Marilynn S.
Published: March 2003

Focusing on three riots of the World War II era – those of Beaumont (Texas), Detroit, and New York's Harlem – this essay examines the rumours that sparked these disturbances to uncover the gendered ideologies that underlie racial violence. In these rumour narratives, women appear as either rape victims or tortured mothers, while men appear as either depraved rapists or noble protectors. The deployment of these images helped forge a defensive collective identity that facilitated the outbreak of violence. Because racial and gender ideologies were intimately linked, the author argues, race riots must be analysed through the lens of gender in order to be fully understood.
Enfranchised Selves: Women, Culture and Rights in Nineteenth‐Century Bengal
Authors: Sarkar Tanika
Published: March 2003

The essay identifies previously unnoticed signposts charting the construction of women in nineteenth‐century Bengal as autonomous, self‐possessed persons, with entitlements to an intellectual life and immunities against physical and sexual death. Out of these claims, the notion of the female citizen would emerge as a coherent and convincing possibility in the next century. This essay focuses on three pieces of colonial legislation, on specific court cases and social reform movements, and finally, on women's self‐narrativisation against these developments. Laws resonant in the emergent public sphere weakened the absolute authority of norms, while the multivocal public sphere interrogated the jurisdiction of colonial laws. Thus, neither norms nor laws could claim the hegemony that earlier religious prescriptions had possessed because of the symbiosis between legality and morality. This breakdown of the hegemony of religious precepts and laws thus created a space for women's self‐creation as autonomous subjects.
Citizenship as Non‐Discrimination: Acceptance or Assimilationism? Political Logic and Emotional Investment in Campaigns for Aboriginal Rights in Australia, 1940 to 1970
Authors: Lake Marilyn
Published: March 2003

This article explores the relationship between the United Nations sponsored principle of non‐discrimination and the policy of assimilation in the context of campaigns for Aboriginal rights in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. The principle of non‐discrimination was important to the elaboration of the goal of an equal citizenship, to the fight against the practice of segregation and as a basis for political organisation. The campaign for the 1967 referendum on Aboriginal citizenship was led by an inter‐racial, cross‐class alliance of women, whose common commitments were, however, shaped by different emotional and historical investments and different logics of pain. Hence, the large ‘Yes’ vote was an ambiguous triumph: from an Aboriginal point of view full acceptance into the nation‐state could also mean their ultimate assimilation as a people. Moreover, in allowing for the leadership of women, coalitional politics could lead to the political domination of women and thus exacerbate the emasculation of Aboriginal men. This article focuses on the emotional structure of political subjectivities and the gendered and racialised dynamics of their formation.
The Queen – A Middle–Class Tragedy: The Writing of History and the Creation of Myths in Nineteenth–Century France and Germany
Authors: Schulte Regina
Published: March 2003

This article is an interpretation of historical narratives written by nineteenth–century German and French historians (among them Johann Gustav Droysen and Jules Michelet) about the French Revolution and the biographies of notable queens. Central to this historical narrative are Marie–Antoinette of France, Louise, queen of Prussia, and Elizabeth, empress of Austria. The text is concerned with the process of transforming the executed queen of ancien régime France into the image of the nineteenth–century bourgeois ideal of women and monarchy. Thus the essay is also about the creation of myths and about male bourgeois and middle–class fantasies.