Memorandum

This report provides new series of ICT investment and ICT capital, estimates of the contribution of ICT capital to output and labour productivity growth, and the TFP contribution stemming from ICT production for the European Union from 1980 to 2000. The investment numbers are based on series from national statistical offices, complemented with new estimates which are specifically constructed for this study. The main findings are that even though real investment and capital service flows in the EU increased as rapidly as in the U.S., the shares of ICT in total investment and capital service flows in the EU have been approximately half to two thirds of the U.S. level throughout the period. In relative terms ICT capital in the EU was about half of the U.S. contribution to labour productivity growth up to the mid 1990s. Since the mid 1990s the relative contribution of ICT capital improved, but overall EU productivity growth collapsed. The study shows large variations in terms of ICT and TFP contributions to labour productivity growth between European countries, but no EU country (except Ireland) is ahead of the U.S. in terms of the total contribution from ICT.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a multi-disciplinary subject and definitions vary with regard to the perceived scope or boundaries of the corporation's responsibility. In this paper, corporate motives for CSR are explored, along with the notion of an altruistic ethical impulse among business leaders or managers, perhaps motivated by religious beliefs. It is suggested that the formal adoption of CSR by corporations could be associated with the changing personal values of managers and that there may be an association between different industries, the personal values of the managers who work in them and their commitment to CSR. This paper is preparatory to an empirical investigation that will address how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is interpreted and institutionalised by organisations, including an analysis of firms' perceptions of the boundaries regarding where and to whom their corporate social responsibilities lie.

In this paper we consider open-loop Nash equilibria of the linear-quadratic dierential game. As well the nite-planning-horizon, the innite-planning horizon as convergence properties of the nite-planning-horizon equilibrium if the planning horizon is extended to innity are studied. Particular attention is paid to computational aspects and the scalar case.

The paper studies the effects of international remittances on poverty and inequality in Ethiopia using an urban household survey from 2004. In order to identify the effects of remittances on poverty and inequality, counterfactual consumption in the hypothetical case of no remittance is estimated in a selection corrected estimation framework. Inequality and poverty values in the hypothetical and actual cases are then compared. There is a significant reduction in poverty while inequality does not change. The head count, the poverty gap and the squared poverty gap ratios decreased by 2.5%, 1.1% and 0.6% respectively.

We focus on axiomatizations of the Pareto equilibrium concept in noncooperative multicriteria games based on consistency. Some axiomatizations of the Nash equilibrium concept have immediate generalizations. For strategic games it was shown that there exist no consistent refinements of the Nash equilibrium concept that satisfy individual rationality and nonemptiness on a reasonably large class of games. We show that such refinements of the Pareto equilibrium concept on multicriteria games do exist. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Number: C72. ᮊ

Individuals with a preference for keeping moral obligations may dislike learning that voluntary contributions are socially valuable: Such information can trigger unpleasant feelings of cognitive dissonance. I show that if initial beliefs about the social value of contributions are su¢ ciently low, duty-oriented consumers are willing to pay to avoid information. Attitude campaigns can increase contributions from such consumers by providing them with unwanted information. Consequentialist warm glow types with low initial beliefs, however, will seek low-cost information on their own initiative; thus, campaigns will have less e¤ects for such consumers.

The paper analyses incentives for, and the benefits of a possible international cooperation to reduce CO 2 emissions. The negotiations are modelled as a (static) reciprocal-externalitygame in CO 2 emissions between five world regions. CO 2 emissions affect the players in two ways: first, each country's income depends (via energy inputs) on the amount of CO 2 emitted; on the other hand, emissions may cause future damage due to climate change.

With the aging of society, issues concerning the reform of the Dutch health care system are ranked high on the political agenda. Sensible reforms of the health care system for the elderly require a thorough understanding of the health status of the old and of its dynamics preceding death. The health status of the elderly is intrinsically a multidimensional and dynamic concept and a rich set of indicators is needed to capture this concept in its full extent. This feature of health requires techniques to reduce dimensionality as, in general, it is difficult to simultaneously handle all indicators in any economic analysis. In the first part of this paper we focus on methods that comprise these multidimensional measures into a limited number of indices. The Grade of Membership (GoM) approach introduced by Manton and Woodbury (Methods of Information in Medicine 1982; 21) is specifically designed to characterize the complex concept of health. The method simultaneously identifies all dimensions of the concept of interest and the degrees to which an individual belongs to each of these types (i.e. grades of membership). We apply the method to a set of 21 indicators from a rich database of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). The individual degrees of involvement in the different health dimensions obtained from this method are used in subsequent analyses of health and mortality.

This paper examines collusion among firms whose discount factors are private information. Mutual uncertainty regarding intentions to restrict competition might undermine the possibility of tacit collusion. Firms that want to collude may, however, reveal their intentions by consciously acting in breach of antitrust laws. As antitrust activity makes explicit collusion costly in expected terms, it can potentially be (ab)used as signaling device. We show that the fight against cartels may indeed facilitate collusion.

The dynamisms of the present realities have propelled multinationals worldwide to engage in Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR). This explains to a large extent why there are different models of community interface and development which serve as the means to dispense CSR to stakeholders. The Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) is the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) existing major community interface model in Nigeria. And like all models of interaction and development, it has its own challenges. Therefore, the aim of this study was to x-ray the qualities and the maintenance of projects born-out of the model and the problems associated with the community-based managers of the model called the Cluster Development Boards' (CDBs) in the Niger Delta Communities. Explanatory Survey design was chosen for the study and primary and secondary data were collected from well-informed sources related to the variables from different stakeholders. The central conclusions of the study are that the projects sited in various communities through the model are not generally very high in quality and they are not adequately maintained by the communities were the projects are sited. And CDBs membership disagreements in the various communities are commonly propelled by greed and government officials' interference with the process of selection/appointment.

Primary care physicians have two roles: healer and gatekeeper. We show that, due to information asymmetries, better gatekeepers are poorer healers. This inherent conflict is amplified by competition: patients, whether truly sick or shirkers, prefer physicians who give priority to healing. Thus, unless they have implausibly strong preferences for being good gatekeepers, physicians will not keep the gate. Focus group interviews with Norwegian primary care physicians confirm the theoretical results: Our interviewees report that shorter sick leaves are granted at request, while longer sick leaves are normally granted if the patient still prefers so after discussions with the physician.

KNAW Narcis. Back to search results. Publication Efficient progressive taxes and education subsidies (2000). Pagina-navigatie: Main. Title, Efficient progressive taxes and education subsidies. Published in, Research Memorandum, Vol. 170. Author, Ewijk, van C.; Tang, P. ...

Informal groups cannot rely on external enforcement to insure that members abide by their obligations. It is generally assumed that these problems are solved by 'social sanctions' and reputational effects. The present paper focuses on roscas, one of the most commonly found informal financial institutions in the developing world. We first show that, in the absence of an external (social) sanctioning mechanism, roscas are never sustainable, even if the defecting member is excluded from all future roscas. We then argue that the organizational structure of the rosca itself can be designed so as to address enforcement issues. The implications of our analysis are tested against first-hand evidence from rosca groups in a Kenyan slum.

We advocate the use of absolute moment ratio statistics in con-junction with standard variance ratio statistics in order to disentan-gle linear dependence, non-linear dependence, and leptokurtosis in financial time series. Both statistics are computed for multiple return ...

This paper aims to map out the consequences of migration flows for modern cities, and in particular it analyses various aspects of urban cultural diversity. It argues that the sustainable and innovative development of cities under conditions of creative cultures is possible, and it presents a 'pentagon model' as an analytical tool for investigating the necessary conditions for achieving a balanced and thriving urban development. The paper also pays attention to the socioeconomic aspects of urban pluriformity caused by the emergence of ethnic or migrant entrepreneurs. The paper presents an integrated overview of the advantages and drawbacks of cultural diversity in relation to mass migration inflows into modern cities. A major part of the paper is devoted to the positive and negative socioeconomic implications of cultural diversity. To that end, a series of extensive survey tables is provided. Finally, the relationship between diversity and innovativeness is addressed.

Organic production techniques are an increasing, though minor so far, part of agriculture, and organic wines are increasingly produced and appreciated. Nevertheless, since the organic technique is more costly, a crucial question is whether organic wines benefit from a price premium. In this paper a hedonic price function has been estimated for Piedmont organic and conventional wines. Unlike the current literature on the determinants of wine prices, we used data on the production side in addition to variables of interest for consumers. One question was whether farm and operator’s characteristics of no interest for consumers affect wine prices. The second question was whether organic wine obtains a price premium relative to conventional wine. Our results show that, along with characteristics that are of interest to consumers, like the appellation and the variety, some farm and producer characteristics that are not directly relevant for consumers do significantly affect wine prices. We...

Current literature on business process re-engineering (BPR) lacks detailed guidance and support for the actual execution of re-engineering. Many publications illustrate the situation before and after BPR; but do not discuss the path that has been travelled to reach the final situation. We think that it is possible to provide tools to support practitioners executing BPR projects.

, as well as participants at presentations at Harvard University and Virginia Polytechnic and State University, for useful comments on earlier drafts, to Larry Katz and Greg Mankiw for helpful discussions, and to NBER for the hospitality when this paper was written.

We thank Stefano Breschi for helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. We also acknowledge comments from Marco Darin, Alessandro Sembenelli, and the other participants in the MURST Project "Information Spillovers and Technological Diffusion in Italy and Europe". We had useful discussions with Davide

Entrepreneurs as the dominant employment source in rural areas play a crucial role, not only in the continuity of the rural economy but also in the continuity of rural life. The aim of this study is first to explore the profile of rural entrepreneurs, and second to identify the most important factors that determine their different embeddedness levels in rural areas. To achieve this aim, we will first use descriptive statistical techniques, and later on one of the artificial intelligence methods, i.e. rough set data analysis in order to investigate 255 entrepreneurs from Turkish rural areas on the basis of the data obtained from in-depth questionnaire interviews. This study is the first attempt to evaluate rural entrepreneurs and their place in rural areas. Descriptive statistics on entrepreneurs show that the gender gap and the education problem still exist in many villages, although depopulation is somewhat limited due to the motivation of entrepreneurs. However, most entrepreneurs want to stay in their villages: they have stated that the continuity and the success of their entrepreneurial activity are very much related to the social relations and their involvement in the village social life. According to the results of our second analysis, embeddedness and disembeddedness of entrepreneurs are strongly associated with the remoteness of villages, the personal profile, and the use of external information by entrepreneurs.

Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis (MAMCA) has proven to be a suitable tool for the evaluation of transport projects. It allows to incorporate explicitly the aims and views of the actors involved, which is essential in the context of transport appraisal issues where stakeholders are getting increasingly involved in the decision process. If their interests are not involved or not taken into account, action groups may emerge in order to eventually prevent the implementation of the decision that is taken. MAMCA, as an extension of a traditional multi-criteria analysis, does not require monetary values but is able to work with all types of quantitative and even qualitative inputs in a multi-actor choice context. In the context of sustainable mobility and sustainable logistics this kind of evaluation tool is more and more needed. Different alternative solutions to a problem are evaluated according to multiple criteria, so as to eventually determine which one of them is the preferred option. The method does not replace the policy maker, but allows him to come to a judgment in an informed and balanced manner.

This paper provides an extensive Monte-Carlo comparison of sev-eral contemporary cointegration tests. Apart from the familiar Gaus-sian based tests of Johansen, we also consider tests based on non-Gaussian quasi-likelihoods. Moreover, we compare the performance ...

In %sjgaper the economie effects of a regulating energy levy are ïllustrated usmg a small macro-economie empirical simulation model for TTie Netherlands, called theEnTech-model. The model is especially designed to reckon with the effects of changes in prices on the bias of technological progress. It appears that a so-called employment doublé dividend, i.e., increasing employment and decreasing energy use at the same time, can occur. A general levy yields stronger results than a levy on household use only. However, the stronger effects of a general levy on employment and energy use are accompanied by shrinking production and, under some scenarios, by decreasing disposable income of workers and/or non-workers. Furthermore, total R&D-expenditures decrease due to shrinking production. This latter effect can, however, be compensated using part of the proceeds of the levy. All in all, the effects of a regulating energy levy will not be very spectacular, considering the size of the levy. m Paper prepared for presentation at the 50th congress of the International Institute of Public Finance. First version.

People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:

Recent location patterns of modern firms appear to exhibit high mobility patterns with a tendency towards footlooseness. The spatial-economic dynamics -sometimes across the border -of firms is encapsulated in the term 'nomadic firms'. This paper adresses the issue of nomadic behaviour of firms against the background of globalisation trends. After a critical discussion of globalisation phenomena and a review of the literature on nomadic entrepreneurial behaviour, the paper sets out to formulate a series of relevant hypotheses of spatial relocation behaviour of intemational firms in a globalizing network economy. The analytical framework is tested by means of interviews among actual or potential nomadic firms, in both the Netherlands and abroad. Infrastructure quality and geographical accessibility appear to play an important role, but also opportunity seeking behaviour has a prominent place in nomadic behaviour.

III this paper. \ve analyse interregional freight transport movements in Europe with a view on new spatial patterns based on transport economic scenarios for environmental sustainability. T\vo different approaches are compared. viz. the logit model and the neural netivork model. The paper will essentially deal with a research experiment for the robustness of interregional freight flows by comparing the two above n~ctl~odologics. Our results in this framework highlight the fact that the two models adopted. although methodologically different. are both able to provide a reasonable spatial representation of the interregional transport Ilows in Europe.

People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:

The coping literature has demonstrated that differences in personality affect how individuals adapt to various stressful events, such as physical pain and traumatic experiences. This paper extends these findings into a stressful event in the financial domain, investment losses. We hypothesize that differences in the Big Five personality traits can explain variance in individuals' extent of adaptation to financial losses. The reported findings show that individuals scoring higher on agreeableness and intellect, and lower on conscientiousness adapt more to losses. It will be argued that these findings suggest that adaptation requires willingness and ability to process new information.

Curso de introdução à historiografia da psicologia: apontamentos para um curso breve -parte terceira. Memorandum, 3, 112-131. Retirado em / / , do World Wide Esta terceira parte do "Curso Breve" compreende depoimentos que o professor Brožek forneceu naquela ocasião acerca da própria vivência pessoal de pesquisador. Constitui, portanto, uma fonte rica e inédita para a reconstrução da história deste pioneiro da historiografia da psicologia, através do testemunho de sua próprias memórias pessoais acerca dos acontecimentos históricos dos quais fora protagonista. Conclui-se assim a edição desta documentação referente ao "Curso de introdução à Historiografia da Psicologia", proferido pelo Professor Josef Brožek no curso de Psicologia da Faculdade de Filosofia Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, no mês de maio de 1996. 113 Brožek, J. e Massimi, M. (ed.). (2002) Curso de introdução à historiografia da psicologia: apontamentos para um curso breve -parte terceira. Memorandum, 3, 112-131. Retirado em / / , do World Wide

O texto apresenta questionamentos e considerações produzidos a partir de um trabalho de extensão desenvolvido ao longo de oito anos, com o Grupo de Inculturação Afrodescendente Raízes da Terra, na cidade de São João del-Rei, MG. As reflexões e análises são resultados construídos a partir de diários de campos dos estagiários, uma entrevista semi-estruturada realizada com a Coordenadora do Grupo e dados da ata de registro civil do Grupo. Articulam-se elementos teóricos ligados aos conceitos de produção da identidade afrodescendente e memória coletiva, bem como às vicissitudes sofridas pelo Grupo, principalmente no que se refere às manifestações de preconceito, atuando como entraves ao desenvolvimento do processo grupal e, como conseqüência direta, influenciando no trabalho de transmissão da memória coletiva, processo este que fornece o alicerce cultural, a base para a produção da identidade grupal.

People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:

This paper focuses on two specific waterfront revitalization projects: The Docklands (London. Great Britain) and Minato Mirai 21 (Yokohama. Japan). The paper examines the projects from two vantage points: (1) the contributions and achievements of the private sector towards waterfront revitalization projects, and (2) public participation in the development of the new waterfront plans. The schema of the paper is developed accordins to a 'sand-glass' structure. First, we broadly analyze the two aspects of public participation and private sector involvement in the urban planning process. From this analysis. by way of an inference argument. we have concentrated upon the specific cases of The Docklands and LMinato Mirai 2 1. The study of these two examples of waterfront revitalization has next allowed us to develop the third part, where we have described a possible policy approach towards waterfront projects. ' We can identify these two notions of the relationship city-water in the Japanese word mimtto. which in English means pot-r. The three phonetic syllables that compose the word mirrnto have the meaning of 'door ar ivurer'and with this detinition. the functional aspect of the port is emphasized. But if we consider the Kanji ldeopraph which depicts the word micro. this means 'HOW aside the \rntrr'.

Brasil Resumo O tema felicidade é visto sob o prisma de um texto autobiográfico medieval da teologia cristã, utilizandose do livro A vida Feliz de Santo Agostinho, no qual o autor se empenha na discussão sobre a felicidade com base no conhecimento da verdade na interioridade da alma. Como pensador da memória, Santo Agostinho faz a sua autobiografia, inscrevendose, assim, na busca constante do amor de Deus, pois a felicidade é um dom dado por Ele. A vida feliz agostiniana só pode ser alcançada na busca de Deus. É voltandose a Ele que a pessoa poderá atingir a verdadeira felicidade e a completude do seu ser. Marca, assim, um desenvolvimento pessoal, capaz de olhar profundamente dentro de si mesmo, em uma incursão autobiográfica, registrando na História, o hino de vida e esperança na vida feliz. P alavraschave: escrita; autobiografia; literatura cristã; felicidade. A bstract The present essay aims at presenting the theme of happiness from the perspective of an autobiographical text from the medieval Christian theology, based on the book The Happy Life by Saint Augustine. In this book the author discusses happiness based on truth from the inner soul. As a thinker of the memory, Saint Augustine writes his autobiography by inscribing himself on the continuous search for God's love, because happiness is a gift given by Him. The Augustinian's happy life can only be reached in the search of God. It is in turning to Him that one is able to reach the true happiness and the fulfillment of his being. It highlights a personal development which is able to dig deeper into one's self, in a process of autobiography which registers in History, the hymn of life and the hope in a happy life. Keyw ords: writing; autobiography; Christian literature; happiness. Considerações iniciais Buscamos compreender a felicidade aplicada à construção de uma cultura de sustentabilidade e bemestar coletivos, interessamonos em abordar o tema da felicidade no início da Idade Média, do ponto de vista da Teologia Cristã, especificamente em Santo Agostinho (354430) como autobiografia. Portanto, escolhemos o texto agostiniano "A Vida Feliz" (De beata vita), onde ele se empenha na discussão sobre a felicidade, pois que está centrada no conhecimento da verdade na interioridade da alma, cuja felicidade feliz está plasmada na busca de Deus. (1) O tema felicidade é despertado em Santo Agostinho, a partir do contato com a obra latina Hortensius, de Cícero (10643 a.C.), onde este aborda o conceito de filosofia como sabedoria e arte de viver, que proporciona a felicidade verdadeira. Santo Agostinho, no entanto, vê, na subjetividade, a felicidade para se alcançar a Deus, pois, para ele, é feliz quem possui a Deus, finalidade maior da existência humana, considerando que a vida, em sentido cristão, vai além da morte, em busca mesmo da vida plena em Deus. Interessante notar que, aos trinta e dois anos, Santo Agostinho se converte ao Cristianismo e redige o livro "A Vida Feliz", procurando na filosofia, a possibilidade de achar o sentido da felicidade. Filosofia que está pautada no conhecimento perfeito de Deus. A sabedoria que nos dá a felicidade consiste em fruir, deleitarse com Deus, a

This paper proposes a unified approach to Monte Carlo estimation of sensitivity of European option premiums with respect to some arbitrary parameter. The classical framework assumes that the underlying parameter is some intrinsic parameter of the model, e.g., interest rate, volatility or time to maturity, in which case sensitivities are also known as ”Greeks”. Intrinsic parameters only induce variability in the dynamic of the stock-price(s) under consideration. The present approach allows the parameter under discussion to induce variability in the payoff function and also in the exercise rule of the option. Our leading examples come from the family of the so-called digital options, i.e., financial options which pay off some (apriori) fixed amount of money provided that the stock-price(s) at maturity lie in some certain region, such as (finite intersections of) polyhedra and/or spheres, in the n-dimensional space, where n ≥ 1 denotes the number of underlying assets. For such options,...

O presente estudo objetiva compreender a ideia de formação que perpassa as primeiras propostas curriculares para o ensino da Psicologia no Brasil. Para o alcance deste objetivo foi utilizada abordagem descritiva e analítica da história da Psicologia científica, a partir do estudo de duas fontes principais, sendo elas o currículo de 1932 proposto por Waclaw Radecki e o currículo mínimo de 1962 reconhecido pelo Estado brasileiro, além de fontes complementares que versam sobre o tema. Foram identificadas duas categorias que circularam as proposições curriculares do ensino em Psicologia no Brasil, a saber: formação do psicólogo generalista e do especialista, sendo prevalente esta última. Concluímos que as propostas formativas que visaram alcançar o perfil do graduado em Psicologia no Brasil, sobretudo em sua gênese, revelam muito mais uma reação às questões político-sociais e culturais da época do que a construção de um sentido próprio para a formação do psicólogo brasileiro.

We consider marriage problems where myopic and farsighted players interact. To study such problems, we use the pairwise myopic-farsighted stable set. Blocking occurs by coalitions of size one or two. We require that all blocking players should strictly improve. We pay particular attention to the question whether core elements survive in this environment. This is the case when all players are myopic as well as when all players are farsighted. It also holds for matching problems satisfying the top-coalition property. For general matching problems where all women are farsighted, there is only one core element that can belong to the pairwise myopic-farsighted stable set, the woman-optimal stable matching, so all other stable outcomes are excluded for sure. If the woman-optimal stable matching is dominated from the woman point of view by an individually rational matching, then the pairwise myopicfarsighted stable set cannot contain a core element. We show that blocking by coalitions of arbitrary size leads to identical results.