bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pneumococcal meningitis post‐cochlear implantation: Potential routes of infection and pathophysiology
Authors: Wei Benjamin P.C. , Shepherd Robert K. , Robins‐Browne Roy M. , Clark Graeme M. , O'Leary Stephen J.
Published: July 2017

Objective

This review describes the current concept of pneumococcal meningitis in cochlear implant recipients based on recent laboratory studies. It examines possible routes of Streptococcus pneumoniae infection to the meninges in cochlear implant recipients. It also provides insights into fundamental questions concerning the pathophysiology of pneumococcal meningitis in implant recipients.

Data Sources

Medline/PubMed database; English articles after 1960. Search terms: cochlear implants, meningitis, pneumococcus, streptococcus pneumonia.

Review Methods

Narrative review. All articles relating to post‐implant meningitis without any restriction in study designs were assessed and information extracted.

Results

The incidence of pneumococcal meningitis in cochlear implant recipients is greater than that of an age‐matched cohort in the general population. Based on the current clinical literature, it is difficult to determine whether cochlear implantation per se increases the risk of meningitis in subjects with no existing risk factors for acquiring the disease. As this question cannot be answered in humans, the study of implant‐related infection must involve the use of laboratory animals in order for the research findings to be applicable to a clinical situation. The laboratory research demonstrated the routes of infection and the effects of the cochlear implant in lowering the threshold for pneumococcal meningitis.

Conclusion

The laboratory data complement the existing clinical data on the risk of pneumococcal meningitis post‐cochlear implantation.
The Development of Hinterland Transport by Rail - The Story of Scandinavia and the Port of Gothenburg
Authors: Bergqvist Rickard , Woxenius Johan
Published: July 2017

This article analyses the phenomenon of hinterland transport by rail and the remarkable journey that has taken place during the last ten years in Europe, especially in Scandinavia. Furthermore, it includes a brief examination of how current trends affect the role and development of rail for hinterland transport. In fact, particularly in Scandinavia, most of the potential market for hinterland transport of maritime containers is already realised. Nevertheless, stakeholders face new challenges as a result of the current financial crisis and global recession. As a result, transport systems, such as the Scandinavian rail shuttle system, now show modest growth figures in comparison to the 15 to 20 percent of annual growth over the last ten years. Ultimately, rail shuttle services and dry ports will still play an important future role in ensuring competitive and sustainable logistics systems assuming that these companies are able to cope with the imminent challenges.
A study of the incremental power of using Statement of Cash Flows ratios in predicting companies' failure in Malaysia
Authors: Tse Chin-Bun , Pak Mei-Sen
Published: July 2017

The main purpose of this study is to test whether adding statement of cash flow data to accrual ratios can increase the prediction power of the company failure model applied to Malaysian listed companies. As a starting point, we apply Multiple Discriminant Analysis (MDA) to develop a brand new company failure prediction model. Our empirical evidence shows that a combined use of ratios derived from income statement (I/S), balance sheet (B/S) and statement of cash flow provides a better predicting power than only using I/S and B/S. Our results show high successful prediction rates of our model. Tested on holdout samples, we achieved 91.07 percent for a one-year prediction and 89.29 percent for a two-year prediction.
The Use of Metaphors and Principles from Biology in Economics
Authors: Elkjaer Jorgen Ravn
Published: July 2017

As put forward by Pinfold (2000) and several other articles in this journal the study of the sciences is often a fruitful way of stimulating the development of new thinking and new concepts. In the present article the methodical interest is attached to economists’ use of evolutionary and biological concepts and theories, because this subject is interesting in a broader sense. The evolutionary theories of the nineteenth century were of importance to the development of economics and social science in general; this tradition is in the article exemplified by contributions from the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. However, it is of importance to distinguish between on one hand the use of biological metaphors and on the other hand the assumption that certain principles are common to biology and the economics. It is argued in this article that the use of biological concepts and theories as metaphors in economics—more than as principles in common—implies an advantage because the biologists’ own professional doubts are not in a decisive way a matter of importance to social scientists.
Distribution of Income and Expansion of Education in some East Asian Countries
Authors: Mukhopadhaya Pundarik
Published: July 2017

This paper examines the trends in income inequality in Singapore during 1974–1999 using Labour Force Survey data of Government of Singapore. It is found that income inequality in Singapore is quite high. This paper investigates the Singapore government’s efforts in bringing about equality in educational opportunity. This paper also examines the relationship between inequality and poverty in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Governments’ efforts in these three countries in bringing social justice through enhancing educational opportunities are examined at a comparative basis.
The Holistic Approach to Development Research
Authors: Amini Amin
Published: July 2017

While recognising the contribution of the traditional approaches and the vital role of the economic components of development, this article is an attempt to explore the need for a radical shift from partial understanding of development, as purely economic phenomena, to a comprehensive and integrated appreciation of development as a multidimensional socio-economic process. In an integrated system nothing can be clearly understood and analysed in isolation. Although components of the interconnected system have separate functions, their compositions, cooperative collectiveness, interrelations and interdependencies, that represent the characteristics of the whole, may not be studied and analysed in isolation and require a multidisciplinary or holistic approach.

This paper will discuss a paradigm which considers the economic system as a subsystem of the complex social system. It will emphasise that development research must adopt a holistic approach which considers the political, social, cultural, environmental, religious, geographical, educational and economic dimensions of ecologically sustainable development. It will also argue that the present global conditions necessitate a paradigm shift to include social and moral in addition to economic dimension in development research and studies.
Errors and the Austrian Business Cycle: a Subjectivist Perspective
Authors: Yu Tony Fu-Lai
Published: July 2017

Based on the subjective interpretation framework, this paper attempts to develop a concept of social construction of error. Following Max Weber, this paper argues that action has meaning attached to it as human agents make sense of their everyday life. Making sense of the external world means interpretation. When human agents experience, interpret and make sense of the external world, their knowledge grows. At any given point of time, human agents possess a stock of knowledge that serves them as a scheme of interpretation and determines their anticipation of things to come. This implies that the interpretation framework is largely biographically determined, a social construction of reality. Individuals assess incoming events in the light of difference between what has been expected and what has actually happened. When expectation differs from outcome, agents will adjust their behaviour. The process of re-interpretation constructs new meanings and at the same time reduces uncertainty. An important implication of this argument is that persistent bias is possible. This systemic bias is termed ‘social error’. The concept of social construction of error is then applied to explain the Austrian theory of business cycle in general and clusters of errors which cause depression in particular.
Documenting the Informalisation of Work in South Africa: Evidence from National Household Surveys, 1997–2001
Authors: Muller Colette , Esselaar Jeanne
Published: July 2017

Using data from selected national household surveys we demonstrate that most of the employment growth in South Africa since the late 1990s is the result of more individuals being employed informally. We also show that the informalisation of employment in South Africa has resulted in a decline in both nominal and real mean earnings of individuals who are informally employed, possibly due to occupational crowding. Finally, we explore the informalisation and casualisation of the labour market more broadly by examining the conditions of employment of all workers in the South African labour market. Our findings suggest that while the majority of workers involved in ‘informal’ employment experience poor employment conditions, there is also a significant proportion of ‘formal’ workers employed under conditions usually associated with informality.
Roncaglia on Sraffa and Wittgenstein: Further Comment
Authors: Grieve Roy H.
Published: July 2017

This paper considers whether, as suggested by Roncaglia (1978), there exists a similarity, in how they relate to foregoing ideas, between Sraffa’s approach to the theory of value in the Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities and Wittgenstein’s later linguistic philosophy as expressed in the Philosophical Investigations. McLachlan and Swales (1998) take the view that no such affinity exists. We dispute the McLachlan and Swales assessment on the grounds that, in the works in question, Sraffa and Wittgenstein – each with reference to his own sphere of interest – are, in an analogous manner, denying the possibility of analysing, as previously thought feasible (neoclassical orthodoxy, the Tractatus theory of language), all problems in economics or linguistics in terms of a single, all-comprehending general theory, and implying or indicating that the appropriate approach is instead to seek to understand economic and linguistic phenomena by analysis which is specific to the problem in hand and which sets that problem within the appropriate social context.
Demise of Reductionism: From Growth to Concentration
Authors: Amini Amin
Published: July 2017

If there is one word that can represent the social, economic and political problems of both the industrialised and developing countries, that word is “concentration”. There are few problems in our present society that are not originated from the concentration of power, people and production. Concentration of political and financial power in the hands of the rich, concentration of people in the large cities of the world and concentration of production in a relatively small number of large organisations are the major sources of the problems threatening the security of human society. This article will discuss how development activities, based on economic growth and traditional reductionist approaches, caused concentration of wealth, people, production and power. As a multidisciplinary and holistic approach is adopted, discussions in this article will touch on many of the economic and non-economic development-related issues such as history and theory, globalisation, environment, disparities, poverty, warfare, academic responsibilities and development of development understanding.
Ethical Principles and Economic Analysis
Authors: Dietrich Michael , Rowen Donna
Published: July 2017

Traditional economics assumes that economic agents are self-interested, whereas arguably individuals are ethically motivated and aware, and hence economic analysis can benefit from an incorporation of ethical motivation, awareness and intention. We argue that ethics can be incorporated into the individual decision-making process by adapting the assumption that individuals are self-interested through an expansion of the notion of self-interest which is consistent with rationality. Ethical motivation therefore has a self-interested foundation, as ethical motivation appears as an extension of self-interest rather than as pure ethical motivation alone. The ethical behaviour which is most appealing is where individuals act ethically due both to an intrinsic valuation of ethics and because it is in their self-interest, rather than because it is in their self-interest alone. This type of ethical behaviour can be represented using a two-stage process, whereby individuals firstly adopt ethical principles because they value ethics in itself, and secondly because it is in their interest to do so. This two-stage process builds on insights provided by, among others, Sen and Etzioni. The first stage of the two-stage process (where the individual makes a commitment to ethical principles due to the intrinsic value of ethics rather than its instrumental value) is the most challenging for economic analysis. Two possible frameworks are suggested based on commitment and learned behaviour and institutional analysis. We find that both frameworks are suggestive but a complete analysis requires inputs from wider socio-political factors.
Organizational Failure and Organizational Revitalization in the Relationship Between Government and Non Profit Organizations
Authors: Wallis Joe
Published: July 2017

The economic literature on NPOs stands on four theoretical “legs”: Weisbrod’s conception of their emergence in response to differentiated preferences for collective goods; Hansmann’s theory of trust-signaling through the non-profit form; the economics of altruism and commitment; and the theory of ideological entrepreneurship. Salamon sought to augment and reframe these models so that they could address “voluntary failures” and collaboration between government and NPOs. A theory of NPO leadership is developed to explain how the capacity of NPO leaders to sustain stakeholder commitments may be affected by government stakeholdership and why organizational revitalization through collaborative partnerships with government agencies may require a more appreciative leadership style.
Costs of district hospitals in South Africa
Authors: Olukoga Abiodun , Harris Geoff
Published: July 2017

The district hospitals are an integral part of the district health system (DHS) in South Africa fulfilling several important functions. Using data obtained from relevant published reports. The district hospital costs were allocated using the ‘ingredients approach’ that combined a top-down method and step-down sequence. The costs in the treatment of patients were grouped into six cost centres: buildings, drugs, equipment, materials, personnel and utilities. The unit costs were broadly grouped into two categories using the hospital departments (fixed and variable costs) and input use (direct and indirect costs). More than 30% of the total public expenditure on hospitals in the country was on district hospitals between 1996/97 and 1998/99. They had more beds per population (1.08/1000) than other public hospitals. The bed occupancy rates in these hospitals were generally very low varying between 57% and 75%. The average length of stay (ALOS) was within acceptable range in the hospital except in Osindisweni hospital. Personnel costs were more than 70% and drugs only 3% to 6% of the total costs. McCord hospital was the most expensive using total and unit costs. Harrismith hospital had the lowest total costs and Osindisweni hospital the lowest unit cost. Most of the costs were fixed or direct costs in all the hospitals. There is the need for the adoption of measures to ensure that the hospitals are efficiently run while maintaining access for vulnerable groups.
Meanings of Ownership of the Firm
Authors: Learmount Simon , Roberts John
Published: July 2017

The notion of ‘ownership of the firm’ is central to conventional treatments of corporate governance, yet there is very little discussion about what this means in practice. In this paper we briefly draw attention to some of the debates around the notion of ownership in various disciplinary fields, and then recount and discuss some of the meanings associated with ownership of the firm that we have found in two empirical studies carried out in the UK and Japan. Our aim is to illuminate and disturb some of the commonly taken for granted notions of what it means to ‘own’ a firm.

JEL Codes: G34, L20, L00
Towards Environmentally-Conscious Management from the Corporate Law Approach
Authors: Yamaguchi Sachiyo
Published: July 2017

This paper examines the US corporate law approach to persuading companies to adopt environmentally-conscious management practices, and considers the corresponding Japanese situation. The US Securities Laws have an environmental disclosure system for investors, which helps investors to exert market forces on companies to address ecological management actively. Shareholders have used shareholder proposal systems actively to request that companies better address such issues, including higher-level environmental disclosure. These measures are worth considering, so that both the managers and owners of companies recognize that environmentally-conscious management is a significant part of good corporate governance.
When Management Theory Meets Economics: Towards Innovation and a Dynamic Growth Model of the Firm
Authors: Lange Thomas
Published: July 2017

It has been argued that the dynamic effects of economic development through innovation are poorly understood by mainstream economic theory. This paper provides a conceptual and heuristic framework that is intended to move us closer to a dynamic growth model of the firm in a high-tech, knowledge based economy. A Cobb-Douglas production function with components of high tech capital and skills and with assumptions on the origin of innovative processes is being introduced to provide structure to the arguments. By drawing on the strategic groundwork of management theorists Moran and Ghoshal, it proceeds by applying an “appreciative” hypothesis of economic development (that is, a descriptive tool rather than a formal model) to test a Schumpeterian scenario of iterative creative destruction, thus answering the call for a dynamic Schumpeterian process. It also provides a response to the call for a broadened agenda to include a greater degree of attention to the selection [and de-selection] mechanism that influences the use of resources. These issues and others are investigated and some conjectures offered.
Contemporary Environmental Policy: The Need for an Economics and Management Approach
Authors: Sadler Thomas R.
Published: July 2017

With respect to environmental quality, separate actions of corporations have collective consequences. Any prospect, therefore, for lower pollution levels depends on the consideration of the interests of others. Society manages this interdependence through accountability. For corporations, higher levels of accountability – to stakeholders, shareholders and government – lead to more responsible environmental performance. By bringing together research usually reported in isolation, this paper first provides examples of successful policies and programs – external and internal to the firm – that have been successful in improving environmental quality. This paper then develops a comprehensive program of environmental oversight (EO) that entails coordination among public and private sectors, a mix of public sector and market based governance, and the empowerment of corporate stakeholders. The program of EO would achieve three goals. First, in the regulatory process, policy makers, corporations and stakeholders would come together to set new regulation. Second, corporate accountability and transparency would increase. Third, for specific pollution situations, a single framework would make clear the full range of available environmental policies and procedures.
Book Review: Creating Performing Organisations: International Perspectives for Indian Management
Authors: Rishi Dr. Parul
Published: July 2017

Creating Performing Organisations: International Perspectives for Indian Management. Editors – Biswajeet Pattanayak, Vipin Gupta with Phalgu Niranjana
Toward an Integrated Strategic Management
Authors: Stegmann Juan Pablo
Published: July 2017

Based on research of 168 US companies, this paper integrates most of existing strategic management thinking. It reviews a wide spectrum of literature in areas such as Industrial Organization, Resource-Based View of the Firm, Value Based Management, Knowledge Management, Transaction Costs Economics, and other disciplines. The statistical analysis correlates two existing variables: Economic Value Added and Growth of Operating Capital with two new testable variables: Market Power and Knowledge. This paper shows how the framework developed integrates competitive strategies, corporate strategies, and functional strategies. It shows that the different existing models and theories produce different results in terms of stock value creation.
Book Review: The Science of Happiness
Authors: Morgan Dr. Stephanie J.
Published: July 2017

The Science of Happiness Linley, P.A. & Joseph, S. (Eds.) PositivePsychology in Practice. Wiley: New Jersey (2004). and Synyder, C.R. & Lopez, S.J. (Eds.) Handbook of Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press: New York (2005).
Globalization for Nation-Building: Taiwan’s Industrial and Technology Policies for the High-Technology Sectors
Authors: Fuller Douglas B.
Published: July 2017

In the spectrum of East Asian technology policies from the explicitly technonationalist strategies of Korea and Japan to the MNC-embracing policies of Singapore, Taiwanese policy occupies an intermediate position. Taiwan has used technoglobalist means to leverage ongoing international linkages in order to realize the technonationalist ends of enhancing the ability of domestic firms to play in global markets. These technohybrid tactics have sometimes engendered dependence on and sometimes interdependence with the outside world. The contradiction between the nation-building project and the technoglobal one is only resolved through sacrificing the technonationalist ambition of more complete control over the forefront of technology.
Creating Economic Growth through Networked Entrepreneurship
Authors: Williams Christopher
Published: July 2017

Lawton Smith, H. (2006) Universities, Innovation and the Economy. Abingdon: Routledge.

Taplin, R. (2007) Innovation and Business Partnering in Japan, Europe and the United States. Abingdon: Routledge.
The Political Economy of Jihad and the War on Terror
Authors: Wallis Joe
Published: July 2017

This paper treats the “war on terror” as a battle to engage the hopes of a target population. bounded by shared “conspiracist” beliefs. These are seen as countering the cognitive dissonance arising from a history of perceived humiliation. A small militant minority within this target population will have a tendency to perpetrate acts of terror both as an expression of their “apocalyptic hopes” and to evoke such hopes among their potential or latent members within the target population. In reacting to these acts through a preventive “war on terror” that is unrestricted in time and space, the superpower is setting itself the ambitious goal of extinguishing these hopes. Questions must therefore arise as to whether the pursuit of this option rather than “a more focused, restrained international response” can be explained in terms of a dispassionate assessment of the public interest being over-ridden by the passions provoked by a sense of superpower humiliation or by private considerations of political interest.
Book Review: Reform of the International Institutions: the IMF, World Bank and the WTO
Authors: Brownlow Dr. Graham
Published: July 2017

Reform of the International Institutions: the IMF, World Bank and the WTO. Peter Coffey and Robert J. Riley, Edward Elgar 2006, 167 pp. ISBN 0978 1 84376 036 9.
Book Review: The Japanese Mission to Europe, 1582–1590: The Journey of FourSamurai Boys through Portugal, Spain and Italy
Authors: Cortazzi Sir Hugh
Published: July 2017

The Japanese Mission to Europe, 1582–1590: The Journey of FourSamurai Boys through Portugal, Spain and Italy. Michael Cooper, Global Oriental, 2005, ISBN 1-90190338-9, 262 pages (plus xix, black and white plates, notes, bibliography and index).
A Deterrence Perspective on Damages for Fraudulent Misrepresentation
Authors: Zhou Qi
Published: July 2017

The purposes of this paper are twofold. First, it provides a theoretical framework for understanding the deterrence function of damages as a private legal remedy for fraudulent misrepresentation, explains, from an economic perspective, why fraudulent misrepresentation is socially undesirable, and then shows how the damages rule can be used as a deterrence instrument. Second, it conducts a brief analysis of the deterrence of fraudulent misrepresentation in English tort law and argues that, despite some imperfections, damages in tort law can provide a valuable complement to some traditional deterrence sanctions to fraud such as criminal law and regulation.
A Comparative Review of Innovation Systems: Strategies, Practices, and Connections
Authors: Arogyaswamy Bernard , Taplin Ruth , Nowak Alojzy Z.
Published: July 2017

Innovation is one of the key drivers of growth in any modern economy. There are a variety of ways in which innovation can be fostered, and this paper explores four categories of Innovation Systems-National (NIS), Local (LIS) or clusters, Regional (RIS), situated spatially between NISs and clusters, and Corporate (CIS). The raisons d’etre of the Innovation Systems, their strategic purposes, operational principles, and the conditions under which they work best, are studied. The paper concludes with an exposition of the contrasts and complementarities among the Systems, and by applying the framework to a particular country whose innovation performance appears in need of considerable improvement.
An Assessment of Nobel Laureate A.K. Sen’s Economic Method
Authors: Kamath Shyam J.
Published: July 2017

This article analyzes the methodological foundations of Nobel Laureate A.K. Sen’s economic method as it pertains to his work on equality, poverty and economic development. The fundamental approach of “functionings” and “capabilities” that has been the hallmark of Professor Sen’s approach to problems of inequality and development are first presented and the common bases identified. The basic methods used are then analyzed from a logical and empirical perspective. Three levels of economic discourse in Professor Sen’s work are examined in detail and a fundamental critique is developed on logical grounds. The adequacy of this approach is then scrutinized by contrasting alternative approaches of end-state and process notions of equality. These two notions are compared on nine characteristics and the underlying differences and methodological problems with these two approaches are then identified. A comprehensive critique is developed and the major shortcomings of Professor Sen’s method are detailed. Professor Sen’s approach is found to be inadequate on logical and empirical grounds. Hence, it is suggested that this approach may be an inappropriate guide for economic policy to facilitate human development.
Book Review: Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads
Authors: Johnson Dr. Thomas G.
Published: July 2017

Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads. Best, Joel. 2006. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 201 pp. ISBN:0-520-24626-8
Book Review: Outsourcing and Human Resource Management: an International Survey
Authors: Brewer James
Published: July 2017

Outsourcing and Human Resource Management: an International Survey, edited by Ruth Taplin. Price £75. Routledge Studies in the Growth Economies of Asia. ISBN 9780415428910.
Making Employability ‘Work’
Authors: deBruin Anne , Dupuis Ann
Published: July 2017

Employability is a widely used term in the labour market lexicon. Yet there is no consensus on how the concept should be applied and a fog of ambiguity surrounds the term. Making employability ‘work’, however, is essential not only for younger people to access and sustain work but also for addressing skills shortages that plague many developed economies. This article positions the employability concept in relational terms and highlights the importance of effective information flows across the various labour market stakeholders. Employability is a shared outcome and responsibility even though individuals’ skills and knowledge is the foundation of employability. Empirical data from a major New Zealand labour market research programme is used to support contentions.
Book Review: Opting Out?: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home
Authors: Meares Carina
Published: July 2017

Opting Out?: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home Pamela Stone, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007, 285 pages ISBN 978-0-520-24435-1
Winds of Change in Latin America: Populism, Pro-Market Policies and the Challenge of Sustainable Economic Growth
Authors: Gallo Andrés
Published: July 2017

The general perception in South American countries was that the structural reforms of the 1990s did not produce the expected results. As a result, these countries followed diverse paths in the quest of economic growth. One group of countries departed from the market reforms towards populism, while another group continued applying market friendly policies. This paper analyzes the performance of both groups inquiring if the effort and pain of pursuing market reforms and pro-market policies will bring long term rewards, or if populism would deliver similar results without having to pursue strict policies. The evidence seems to indicate that reforming countries are not performing better than populist ones, but they seem to be both more stable and attractive to foreign investment. It remains to know if turmoil in international markets will allow pro-market countries to continue to entice foreign investors.
Development, Innovation and Natural Resources: The Latin-American Case
Authors: Feeney Roberto
Published: July 2017

In this paper we analyze the development strategies that may be most suitable for Latin American countries. These countries are characterized, among other things, by a relative abundant endowment of natural resources. However, a development strategy based purely on natural resource factors seems very weak and plagued with pitfalls that have hindered socio-economic development in these countries in the past. We explore an alternative strategy based on the combination of a knowledge-based/natural-resource strategy that may help to foster innovation in these countries with abundant natural resources to rely on, and in this way, promote long-term human and economic progress. Through the explanation of two cases of countries which have been able to develop successful knowledge systems we show that the concepts natural resources and innovation are potentially mutually reinforcing in promoting development for countries with rich endowments of natural resources. The implications in terms of public policy are related with the usage of a long-term innovation scoreboard, the benchmarking with other successful national innovation systems, and especially the linking of the knowledge system with the development of a strong agro-food system.
Turkey’s Membership to the EU in Terms of “Clash of Civilizations”
Authors: Öner Selcen
Published: July 2017

Especially after September 11, increasing Islamophobia in Europe has led to discussions on Turkey’s membership to the EU in terms of compatibility of Islam and European identity. The beginning of the negotiation process with Turkey on 3 October 2005 have increased discussions on the accession of a country which has a predominantly Muslim population for the first time in the history of the EU. Huntington claims that in the post-Cold War era the ‘clash of civilisations’ will dominate global politics. He refers to Turkey as a “torn” or “semi-European” country. Especially after September 11 the question of Turkey’s membership to the EU has started to be discussed on the basis of the idea of “clash of civilisations” both by supporters and by the opponents. For some of the opponents of Turkey’s membership, Turkey can not be a member of the EU because of not being part of a European civilisation. On the other hand, some people perceive the integration of Turkey to the EU as a counter example of the “clash of civilisations”. If Turkey can be integrated to the EU on the basis of common values of the EU, it will prove the compatibility of Islam and European identity and stronger construction of European identity on civic basis. Turkish membership to the EU will also show that Muslims, who are living in the EU, are already part of European identity. It may also help smoothing the growing tension between the West and the Islamic world.
The Concept of Turkishness and the EU Membership
Authors: Yumul Arus
Published: July 2017

The issues of ethnicity, minorities, cultural rights – all taboos for the Turkish political and social context – emerged as one of the most discussed and hotly-debated concepts during the EU accession negotiations. The representatives of the official ideology resisted any attempts to change the hegemonic understanding of the nation- conceived as a homogeneous entity based on Turkishness. This paper attempts to locate the discussions surrounding the concept of Turkishness and minority rights in the recent years.
Turkey’s State of the Environment through the Spectacles of the EU
Authors: Yenigun Orhan , Canbulat Tahsin
Published: July 2017

Turkey is in the long process of becoming a member of the European Union and the Environment is one of the crucial headings in the negotiation processes. In the advancement to membership volumes of EU directives have to be transposed and environment, by itself, is a challenging area. The environmental acquis includes legislation on air quality, all aspects of water, waste management, pollution prevention, chemicals, noise and natural life. Since 2003, the year when Turkey signed legal documents to start the accession process, improvements in the implementation of the acquis have been slow and criticized on annual progress reports. Complete transposition requires a substantial amount of investment, simplification in bureaucratic procedures, public participation and most importantly, time. Alignment of many of the EU directives has been completed and the rest have been assigned to a calendar. However level of harmonization and implementation of legislation is low.
Ten Questions for Legal Scholars
Authors: Hsiung Bingyuan
Published: July 2017

By raising and discussing ten questions, this paper attempts to continue the dialogue between economists and legal scholars. The questions examine the nature of causal relationship, the benchmarks used in economics and legal studies, the meanings of morality, the strengths and weaknesses of doctrinal analysis, and the generality of legal theories. The paper concludes with a summary of the implications of the economic approach to legal scholars.

JEL classification: B41, K10.
Price Reduction Strategy for a Multi-Category Retailer
Authors: Kuo Chris
Published: July 2017

Multi-category businesses often reduce the price of one category to generate purchases for other categories. The extra profit from related purchases will hopefully justify the sacrificed margin in the promoted category, and eventually lead to overall profit increase. The author develops a model incorporating three critical factors that determine the magnitude of the price promotion effect: the profit margins, the sales volumes, and the own- and cross-category price elasticities. The model shows that only in certain conditions can a price cut lead to net profit increase.

Retailers reduce the prices of the target category as well as the complementary categories to create the maximal price-cut image. This strategy often results in the loss of total store margin, though the sales increases. The reason for the profit loss is because the retailer has given away the margins of the target category as well as that of the complementary categories. The author suggests a managerial procedure for a storewide pricing decision. The first step is to identify categories into complementary groups according to the cross-category elasticity estimates. The second step then selects carefully a target category for each complementary group. This implementation can maximize the profit increase, increase the sales and still maintain a storewide price reduction image.
Institutions and Natural Resources Sustainability in Poor Socio-Ecological Systems: Closing some Dynamical Loops
Authors: Bueno Newton Paulo
Published: July 2017

The goal of this paper is proposing an alternative strategy to analyze the relationships between institutions and common-pool resources management in small rural communities in less developed countries. It will be suggested that the cross-section statistical methods used in almost all the quantitative researches in the field, due to difficulties related mainly to the endogeneity among variables, seem little promising in helping to answer some recent important criticisms. The main reason is that the relationships among institutions, population and common resources are, for their own nature, endogenous, and therefore trying “to correct” this problem would mean discarding the more relevant mechanisms and processes involved. The methodology to be adopted – system dynamics – emphasizes exactly the most relevant endogenous causal chains in poor socio-ecological systems (PSES) dynamics. In order to test the hypotheses to be formulated it will be suggested a methodology that emphasizes not the comparison among cases but the time dynamics of specific cases, that is a (kind of) time series approach instead of the cross-section approach traditionally used in applied studies on commons.
On the (Mis)Measurement of Transport Costs in Econometric Modelling
Authors: Chasomeris Mihalis
Published: July 2017

Several world institutions and researchers use import cif/fob ratios to measure a country’s international transport costs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the (mis)measurement of transport costs in econometric modelling. The paper discusses the econometric assumptions that are used to justify the (mis)use of country cif/fob ratios to measure international transport costs. Several econometric studies use a country’s cif/fob ratios as exogenous explanatory variables, whereas this study shows that the ratio may indeed be an endogenous variable, hence generating spurious empirical results. In this paper, the relationship between annual cif/fob ratios and compositions of imports are examined via correlation analysis. The findings show that where the quality of the data is reliable, a country’s composition of imports has a significant effect on that country’s cif/fob ratios; hence researchers cannot use the ratio as a dependable measure of direct shipping costs. Researchers should be wary of substituting country cif/fob ratios for direct measures of transport costs.

JEL Code: F10
Book Review: Mental Health Challenges Facing Contemporary Japanese Society, The ‘Lonely People’
Authors: Cortazzi Sir Hugh
Published: July 2017

Mental Health Challenges Facing Contemporary Japanese Society, The ‘Lonely People’ by Yuko Kawanishi, pp. 175 including index and bibliography, ISBN 978-1-906876-00-5, Global Oriental, 2009.
Currency Markets, Performance, and Mutual Fund Cash Flows
Authors: Adams John C. , Hartsfield F. Reid
Published: July 2017

We analyze cash flows in and out of US based domestic and international mutual funds. Our results suggest that currency market changes are important considerations when investors decide to purchase or redeem mutual fund shares. Specifically, we find that increased foreign currency values are positively related to fund flows. While exchange rates are important considerations for investor cash flows in and out of domestic and international funds, we find that foreign fund flows are more sensitive to exchange rates. Furthermore, the increased flows into international funds over the 1998–2007 sample period are not exclusively due to superior risk adjusted performance relative to domestic funds.

JEL Classification: G23, F31
Do We Eat Too Much? The Current Economic Crisis as a Result of Overconsumption
Authors: Jaworski Piotr Marek , Weber Jörg
Published: July 2017

Over the past 15 years, a fairly synchronised and steady increase of the current account deficits of the US and the UK has been witnessed, while at the same time real house prices and real wages in these two economies increased sharply. We analyse the offspring of the economic crisis of 2008 within the framework of Minsky’s theory of financial crisis, and identify the reasons behind this development as the global imbalances. Our empirical results show that overconsumption in the US and UK caused unsustainable growth, which manifested first in real wage inflation. Within this development, neither the financial sector nor failed regulation is to blame, as financial intermediaries merely fulfilled their requirements as the vehicle between borrowers and lenders. Instead, we argue, our ‘need’ for overconsumption is to blame, and policy makers are required to address this issue as soon as possible in order to avoid another, probably more severe crisis in the long-run.
Damages in German Labor Law – Amending the AGG
Authors: Frenzel Hartmut H. , Thöni Magdalena
Published: July 2017

The European legislature has enacted European anti-discrimination laws (Race Equality Directive – 2000/43/EC, Employment Equality Directive – 2000/78/EC, Directives on equal treatment for men and women – 2002/73/EC) with the task of all member states of converting them into national laws. The German legislature has decided to enact in the General Act on Equal Treatment ( Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz – abbreviated AGG) by means of civil law with damage-compensation and compensation for non-economic-loss.

The focus of this work at hand is to assess whether the existing form of the AGG is efficient from the perspective of law and economics.

Firstly, we will assess the legality of damage-compensation and compensation for non-economic-loss as well as the role of the legislator and legal application.

Secondly, we will analyse the perspective of Law and economics in examining civil law sanctions such as efficient alternatives for amending the AGG.
Book Review: Bioeconomics: Economics of the Third Way Between the Old Local Economy and the New Global Economy
Authors: Ma José
Published: July 2017

Bioeconomics: Economics of the Third Way Between the Old Local Economy and the New Global Economy by Mansour Mohammadian. Editorial: Edición Personal; Madrid ISBN: 978-84-612-1037-4
Socio-Economic Analysis of Dualistic Economies: A Review of Methodological Alternatives
Authors: Dutta Dilip K.
Published: July 2017

Many of the less developed countries not only are internally segmented and differentiated by different socio-economic-technological environments, but also have different socioeconomic groups/classes. Contrary to the mainstream economists’ fiction of perfectly competitive markets instituted in a harmonious and well-ordered societal system, markets in these countries are usually less organized, inadequately monetized, and, therefore, the transactional modes of developed market economies exist only in some limited degree. The nature of their economic growth and development, and the resulting pattern of resource allocation and income distribution, are often determined more in the socio-political arena than in the market place. To identify, understand, and explain this systemic structural mechanisms of the developing world better, the socio-economic methodologies of structuralism, functionalism, and institutionalism are more relevant than the orthodox economists’ methodology of atomistic choice theory. Functional dualism, rather than economic dualism, is, for example, an appropriate analytical concept for the socio-economic analysis of dualistic economies.
Urban ‘regeneration’: reflections on a metaphor
Authors: Furbey Robert
Published: July 2017

Recent British urban policy has pursued ‘regeneration’. This article offers a critical reflection on this pervasive metaphor. ‘Regeneration’ is a signifier of profound change in many religious traditions and political ideologies, both radical and conservative. In practice, however, the more conservative meanings, deriving from individualistic spiritualities and ‘psychologisms’, sociological organicism and statist interventionism, remain dominant. Hence, for all its ‘holistic’ and ‘inclusive’ novelty, contemporary urban regeneration preserves some familiar limitations of perspective. In particular, in its quest for ‘social inclusion’, often the ‘excluders’ are not in view and the ‘excluded’ are not in focus.
Urban Planning as Professional Mediation of Territorial Politics
Authors: Roweis S T
Published: July 2017

This paper proposes an alternative way of looking at urban planning practice in contemporary North America. The discussion is organized into four major sections. Section 2 follows a brief introduction and contains a partial critique of ‘mainstream’ planning theory. The critique serves as a basis for developing and explicitly stating three presuppositions which underpin the rest of the paper. Section 3 discusses basic relationships between politics, professionalism, and the process of land occupancy. The attempt here is to conceptualize some salient features of the sociohistorical context of urban planning practice. Having sketched this context, I develop and discuss in section 4 a set of propositions regarding the nature and distinctiveness of urban planning as an occupation, the requisite competencies this distinctiveness calls for, and the role(s) of urban planning in contemporary North America. The paper concludes with a brief discussion, in section 5, of the preconditions for, and prospects of, developing a relevant and useful planning theory.
The Geography of Planning Practice
Authors: Forester J
Published: July 2017

Planning practice is a contingent situated activity. The anatomy of planning practice may be understood as a structure of communicative action involving claims regarding content and context, thus systematically presenting questions and demanding judgments in the face both of uncertainty and of ambiguity. Practical communicative claims are established in the planning process through the ongoing social reproduction of beliefs, consent, trust, and attention. If planners are to be sensitive to these processes of social reproduction, they must be attentive to four dimensions of the geography of their practice: a cognitive geography of knowledge production, a political-legal geography of power and consent, a ritual geography of social identity, and an economic-resource geography of attention. Recognizing this structure and field of practical action, planners may enhance social learning, resisting threats to democratizing movements, in part by distinguishing and protecting learning processes in two dimensions, the technical and the practical. Refusing to reduce issues of normative ambiguity to issues of technical uncertainty, planners may themselves continue to learn about the political and normative aspects of their practice and so foster, rather than render apolitical, democratic social-learning processes.
The Voluntary Sector in Urban Communities
Authors: Wolch J R
Published: July 2017

A range of questions about the urban voluntary sector is discussed. These questions involve the often contradictory relationships between this sector and population welfare, social structure, and economic development in US cities. The functional linkages between public, private, and voluntary sectors are also considered. Recent political claims that an increase in voluntary activity can substitute for public action are shown to be unwarranted because of the structural reliance of the voluntary sector both on the state and on the market.