The effects of biased technological changes on total factor productivity: a rejoinder and new empirical evidence

The paper by Ji and Wang (J Technol Transf, 2013) calls new attention on the analysis of the effects of the direction of technological change. The aim of this paper is to better articulate and test the theoretical arguments that the direction of technological changes has specific effects on the efficiency of the production process and to study the incentives and the processes that lead to its introduction. The decomposition of total factor productivity growth into the bias and the shift effects enables to articulate the hypothesis that the types of technological change whether more neutral or more biased reflect the variety of the innovation processes at work. The evidence of a large sample of European regions tests the hypothesis that regional innovations systems with a strong science base are better able to introduce neutral technological changes while regional innovation systems that rely more upon learning processes and tacit knowledge favor the introduction of directed technologies a form of meta-substitution that aims at exploiting the opportunities provided by the most intensive use of locally abundant factors.     

A Knowledge Management and Organizational Intelligence Model for Public Administration

This study explores the development of a KM-OI model and empirically tests, using structure equation modeling (SEM), nine hypotheses related to the following research questions: RQ1: To what extent does organizational culture impact strategy structure learning with environment and information technology?; RQ2: To what extent does information technology impact learning with environment?; RQ3: To what extent does strategy structure, learning with environment impact policies and practices of KM?; RQ4: To what extent do policies and practices of KM impact organizational intelligence? Based on the results of a web survey applied in two of the six largest economies, Germany and Brazil, the article shows the importance of KM and OI for public administration and concludes that the KM-OI model is useful to identify influential factors that must be taken into consideration to improve the processes of creation (KM) and application of knowledge (OI).     

A microeconomic model of the demand of civil justice: is one institutional context better than another?

The paper analyzes how institutional elements affect the decision to file of risk neutral agents. In particular, we introduce an objective probability of winning given by the combination of a precedent-weight parameter (defining the type of legal system) and a transparency factor. 603,000 simulated trials, shaped upon our model, reveal two main findings: (1) the transparency level matters in terms of inefficient decisions; (2) a precedent driven system is not necessarily more efficient. Hence, policy makers should invest in increasing the level of information among courts and between courts and the parties both in civil and common law systems.     

The effects of biased technological change on total factor productivity: empirical evidence from a sample of OECD countries

Technological change is far from neutral. The empirical analysis of the rate and direction of technological change in a significant sample of 12 major OECD countries in the years 1970–2003 confirms the strong bias of new technologies. The paper implements a novel methodology to identify and disentangle the effects of the direction of technological change upon total factor productivity (TFP) and shows how the introduction of new and biased technologies affects the actual levels of TFP according to the relative local endowments. The empirical evidence confirms that the introduction of biased technologies enhances TFP when its direction matches the characteristics of local factor markets so that locally abundant inputs become more productive. When the direction of technological change favours the intensive use of production factors that are locally scarce, the actual increase of TFP is reduced.     

Between practices and demands: ambiguities,controversies and constraints in the emergence of active citizenship in Turkey

This article discusses the emergence of active citizenship in Turkey in the light of two working definitions that provide different outcomes in terms of research objectives and aims. On the one side, we define active citizenship as a practice stimulated by public institutions through public policy with the aim of promoting civic and political engagement in order to shape participatory policy processes and ultimately improve the democratic bases of policy-making. On the other side, we define active citizenship as a demand, which becomes particularly important where the civil society expresses certain claims through different means using both traditional and alternative channels of mobilization. In our discussion, we have examined different macro-processes and macro-events that have been key in bringing about different formulations of active citizenship. Using a case study method – where we overview different contextual elements/dynamics that bring to the fore various elements of civic and political engagement and civic and political participation during the past 15 years – we argue that, in a context where the expression of active citizenship is volatile and constrained, further research should take into account different top-down and bottom-up dynamics that bring about different challenges for the study of this subject in Turkey.     

The Doppelgänger phenomenon and death: a peculiar case of homicide by a subject with first-episode psychosis

The Doppelgänger phenomenon refers to the experience of a direct encounter with one’s self, characteriswed by: (i) the perception of a figure with one’s own identical physical features; or (ii) the apprehension that the perceived figure shares the same personality and identity. The Doppelgänger does not only look like the same person, it is his/her double. The perceptual element is usually a hallucination, although occasionally a false perception of an actual figure may be involved. This phenomenon has been described in individuals suffering from overwhelming fear, severe anxiety or intoxication, epilepsy, as well as in the sleep-wakefulness transition. It has also been reported in major psychoses. The fear of imminent death often precedes the Doppelgänger experience. This report presents the case of a 30-year-old man, Mr. Y, who was stabbed to death by Mr. X, his “double”. The aggressor and his victim, although not related, were truly doubles; remarkably, they shared the same name and surname, age, professional activity and place of work. Moreover, they attended the same sports center but barely knew each other. The forensic psychiatric evaluations in Mr. X, subsequent to the crime committed, were suggestive of a psychotic condition. This case is unique in the scientific literature. In the most serious psychotic forms, the issue of the “double” calls into question not only the dissociative processes involved in the etiopathogenesis of the disorder, but also bio-psycho-social elements, as well as personal data in this case, which made the victim and the aggressor “identical”. In the context of psychopathological functioning, the delusional mood (Wahnstimmung) that precedes the development of delirium is a sort of gateway to an impending psychotic illness, involving delusional awareness or mood (atmosphere). In psychosis, splitting is the main issue and this influence is seen as an evil, foreign, apocalyptic and unknown side no longer recognised as belonging to the self even in a physical sense. In such a situation, it is felt that the only way to survive is by suppressing one’s double as a defense against disorganisation of the self.     

Open parliament policy applied to the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

ABSTRACT

This article will analyse the implementation of an open parliament policy that is taking place at the Chamber of Deputies, in accordance with the guidelines of the Open Government Partnership international programme (OGP), regarding the action plan of the Opening Parliament Work Group in particular, one of the subgroups of OGP. The authors will evaluate two blocks of initiatives for open parliaments executed by the Chamber in the last few years, that is, digital participation in the legislative process and Transparency 2.0, in order to observe their impasses and results obtained until now. In the first part the authors will study the e-Democracy portal and in the second part the authors will focus on open data, collaborative activities to use those data (hackathons) and the creation of the Hacker Lab, a permanent space dedicated to open parliament practices. The analysis considers the initiatives that the authors evaluated as part of the transformative and arena profiles of the Brazilian Parliament, according to Polsby's classification, with exclusive characteristics.     

Efficient Influence Activities with Endogenous Rent

This paper analyzes the effects of influenceactivities on organizational efficiency ina principal-agent framework with endogenousrent. It shows that, with endogenousrent, influence activities canimprove efficiency even if theirinformative value is low. Effects on thedissipation rate of rent are alsoconsidered. In particular, it is shownthat, with endogenous rent, more powerfulincentives on influence activities only increasethe dissipation rate when the sum ofthe elasticities of the influence costsfunction and of the production function isgreater than one.     

Active Citizenship in the UK: Assessing Institutional Political Strategies and Mechanisms of Civic Engagement

Abstract

Shaping active citizenship, motivating civic engagement, and increasing political participation of minority groups have become some of the key political priorities in the UK since at least the end of the 1980s. Academic research shows that this shift goes hand-in-hand with a review of the integration policies in the country. The ‘politics of integration’ correspond in fact to a policy response to various social problems (such as discrimination, racism, intolerance) that emerged in various areas, and represent a new political discourse regarding active citizenship. This reflects an overall strategy meant to reframe the basis for civic and political engagement and participation in Britain. Our article is thus meant to highlight the dynamics underlying the development of the concept of active citizenship in the UK by looking at the factors that intervene in its shaping and enhancement. We identify political priorities and key mechanisms of participation that enable engagement in the public sphere. This article first considers the development of the specific ‘British discourse’ regarding active citizenship by taking into consideration the political priorities that emerged as part of the New Right discourse in the 1980s and then New Labour after 1997. We then refer to a set of data collected during our field work conducted in the UK between 2010 and 2011 with civil society activists and policy-makers in order to underline the meaning, practices, and feasibility of active citizenship.