...Information Sara Fisher Ellison M.I.T. Christopher M. Snyder Dartmouth College June 2010 Abstract: We study competition among a score of firms participating in an online market for a commodity-type memory module. Firms were able to adjust prices continuously and prices determined how the firms were ranked and listed (lowest price listed first), with better ranks contributing to firms' sales. Using a year's worth of hourly data, we document the pricing dynamics, cycles, and other patterns in this market. We then characterize empirically the factors which drive price changes, noting clear evidence of firm heterogeneity in the choice of pricing strategy. Finally, we develop a framework for simulating counterfactual market settings, using the simulations to examine counterfactuals involving different mixes of firms according to pricing strategies. JEL Codes: L11, C73, D21, L81 Contact Information: Ellison: Department of Economics, M.I.T., 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142; tel. (617) 253-3821; fax. (617) 253-1330; email sellison@mit.edu. Snyder: Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, 301 Rockefeller Hall, Hanover, NH 03755; tel. (603) 646-0642, fax. (603) 646-2122, email chris.snyder@dartmouth.edu. Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful to Hongkai Zhang for superb research assistance and to Glenn Ellison for a number of useful conversations. 1. Introduction There is a vast and rich theoretical literature on the dynamics of repeated games. One conclusion...
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...the matching quality has to be assessed and treatment effects and their standard errors have to be estimated. Furthermore, questions like ‘what to do if there is choice-based sampling?’ or ‘when to measure effects?’ can be important in empirical studies. Finally, one might also want to test the sensitivity of estimated treatment effects with respect to unobserved heterogeneity or failure of the common support condition. Each implementation step involves a lot of decisions and different approaches can be thought of. The aim of this paper is to discuss these implementation issues and give some guidance to researchers who want to use PSM for evaluation purposes. Keywords. Propensity score matching; Treatment effects; Evaluation; Sensitivity analysis; Implementation 1. Introduction Matching has become a popular approach to estimate causal treatment effects. It is widely applied when evaluating labour market policies (see e.g., Heckman et al., 1997a; Dehejia and Wahba, 1999), but empirical examples can be found in very diverse fields of study. It applies for all situations where one has a treatment, a group of treated individuals and a group of untreated...
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...TRENDS IN CHARGES FOR PAY TV SERVICES, THE QUALITY OF SERVICES PROVIDED TO CONSUMERS AND SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS Introduction and executive summary 1. In its Third Consultation Document, Ofcom concluded that there are relevant markets at the retail level for (a) “supply of Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2 or Setanta Sports 1 as well as HD versions of these channels or TV packages that contain these channels” and (b) “supply of television bundles containing Core Premium Movie channels”1. Part of Ofcom‟s analysis in support of these conclusions has involved consideration of changes over time in: (a) (b) (c) 3. charges for Sky‟s pay TV services; the quality of services provided by Sky to consumers; and the number of Sky subscribers. 2. In its inquiry Ofcom has put forward a view that Sky has continually raised charges for its pay TV services over time, reducing the value for money received by consumers, while at the same time increasing the number of its subscribers. Ofcom then infers from this assessment that Sky does not face effective competition at the retail level. Sky considers that the facts of the matter wholly contradict this assessment by Ofcom, and the inference that is drawn from it. Sky has already provided Ofcom with significant evidence collected by PwC, which shows that in relation to pay TV services UK consumers are well served compared to their European peers. Similarly, in its Response to Ofcom‟s Third Consultation Document, Sky demonstrated that Ofcom‟s proposition...
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...differences in ideology or fundamentally different theoretical orientations. This does not seem to be the case with respect to the sanctions debate. Under appropriate circumstances, it is quite possible for liberals, neoliberals, realists, neorealists, or globalists to argue in favor of using economic sanctions. If the sanctions debate is bogged down, the explanation does not seem to lie in the essentially contested nature of the subject matter. A second potential explanation is that scholars are talking past one another because they ask different questions, use different concepts, and set the discussion in different analytical contexts. In short, they are talking about different things. This article explores the second explanation. The basic paradox at the heart of the sanctions debate is that policymakers continue to use sanctions with increasing frequency, while scholars continue to deny the utility of such tools of foreign policy. 4 Two explanations for this David A. Baldwin is Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies in the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. The author would like to thank the following for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article: Richard Betts, Alexander George,...
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...Prof. Hammad Mushtaq Presented By: Syed Kafait Hussain ID No: 14021034013 Q No.1: How do smart grids differ from the current electricity infrastructure in the United States? Ans: Difference between current electricity infrastructures in the United States Current Electricity Grid: Current electricity grid was conceived more than 100 year ago. Power generation was localized and built around the communities. The grid was designed for utilities to deliver electricity to consumer’s home and bill them once a month. This limited one way interaction makes difficult for the grid to respond to the ever changing and rising energy demand of the current century therefore Smart Grid is a better technology. Smart Grid: These are basic function of Smart Grid: The digital technology that allows for two-way communication between the utility and its customers, and the sensing along the transmission lines is what makes the grid smart. Like the Internet, the Smart Grid will consist of controls, computers, automation, and new technologies and equipment working together, but in this case, these technologies will work with the electrical grid to respond digitally to our quickly changing electric demand * Two way interaction : Smart Grid introduces a Two way interaction (dialogue) where electricity and information can be exchanged between the utility and its consumers. * Developing networking: It’s a developing networking of communication, controls, computers, automation...
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...On How to Build a Moral Machine Paul Bello PAUL . BELLO @ NAVY. MIL Human & Bioengineered Systems Division - Code 341, Office of Naval Research, 875 N. Randolph St., Arlington, VA 22203 USA Selmer Bringsjord SELMER @ RPI . EDU Depts. of Cognitive Science, Computer Science & the Lally School of Management, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 USA Abstract Herein we make a plea to machine ethicists for the inclusion of constraints on their theories consistent with empirical data on human moral cognition. As philosophers, we clearly lack widely accepted solutions to issues regarding the existence of free will, the nature of persons and firm conditions on moral agency/patienthood; all of which are indispensable concepts to be deployed by any machine able to make moral judgments. No agreement seems forthcoming on these matters, and we don’t hold out hope for machines that can both always do the right thing (on some general ethic) and produce explanations for its behavior that would be understandable to a human confederate. Our tentative solution involves understanding the folk concepts associated with our moral intuitions regarding these matters, and how they might be dependent upon the nature of human cognitive architecture. It is in this spirit that we begin to explore the complexities inherent in human moral judgment via computational theories of the human cognitive architecture, rather than under the extreme constraints imposed by rational-actor models assumed throughout...
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...that is a common contemporary way of thinking about the African economic situation. INTRODUCTION This essay, which really is an essay rather than a sustained scholarly encounter with the problem, proposes an alternative to the “poverty trap” analytic for understanding extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The poverty-trap idea is well instantiated by the following quotation from Jeffrey and Lisa Sachs, and it is common among liberal Western commentators on African economy. For the world’s poorest people, daily life is a struggle for survival, with millions of impoverished people each year losing that struggle to famine, disease, environmental catastrophes, and violent conflicts that arise in conditions of extreme deprivation. . . . One basic point, not always remembered, is that impoverished countries lack their own budgetary resources needed to supply vital—indeed life-saving—services such as primary healthcare or support for smallholder famers. The poor are thereby trapped. The lack of public services leads to hunger, poverty, and disease, while the poverty means that the tax base of government is too small to support public policies to alleviate hunger, poverty and disease. Foreign assistance is then needed * Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence, Harvard Law School....
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...to see how it could be part of the physical world. So it seems that to find a place for consciousness within the natural order, we must either revise our conception of consciousness, or revise our conception of nature. In twentieth-century philosophy, this dilemma is posed most acutely in C. D. Broad’s The Mind and its Place in Nature (Broad 1925). The phenomena of mind, for Broad, are the phenomena of consciousness. The central problem is that of locating mind with respect to the physical world. Broad’s exhaustive discussion of the problem culminates in a taxonomy of seventeen different views of the mental-physical relation.2 On Broad’s taxonomy, a view might see the mental as nonexistent (“delusive”), as reducible, as emergent, or as a basic property of a substance (a “differentiating” attribute). The physical might be seen in one of the same four ways. So a fourby-four matrix of views results. (The seventeenth entry arises from Broad’s division of the substance/substance view according to whether one substance or two is involved.) At the end, three views are left standing: those on which mentality is an emergent characteristic of either a physical substance or a neutral substance, where in the latter case, the physical might be either emergent or delusive. 1 Published in S. Stich & T. Warfield, eds, Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind (Blackwell, 2003). This paper is an overview of issues concerning the metaphysics of consciousness. Much of the discussion in this paper...
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...Impact assessment of capacity building and training: assessment framework and two case studies Jenny Gordon and Kevin Chadwick Centre for International Economics, Canberra February 2007 The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) operates as part of Australia’s international development cooperation program, with a mission to achieve more-productive and sustainable agricultural systems, for the benefit of developing countries and Australia. It commissions collaborative research between Australian and developing-country researchers in areas where Australia has special research competence. It also administers Australia’s contribution to the International Agricultural Research Centres. ACIAR seeks to ensure that the outputs of its funded research are adopted by farmers, policy makers, quarantine officers and other beneficiaries. In order to monitor the effects of its projects, ACIAR commissions independent assessments of selected projects. This series reports the results of these independent studies. Communications regarding any aspects of this series should be directed to: The Research Program Manager Policy Linkages and Impact Assessment Program ACIAR GPO Box 1571 Canberra ACT 2601 Australia tel +612 62170500 email © Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research GPO Box 1571, Canberra ACT 2601 Gordon, J. and Chadwick, K. Impact assessment of capacity building and training: assessment framework and two case studies. Impact Assessment...
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...SOLD TO THE FINE kaptoxic@yahoo.com THE OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS CANVAS Dr. James V. Green Copyright © 2013 by Venture Artisans Press All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by Photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher. www.opportunityanalysiscanvas.com Publication Data Green, James V. The opportunity analysis canvas / James V. Green Edition 1.0 1. Entrepreneurship 2. Innovation i For Jamesia and Ally Thank you for giving me the opportunity every day to be a husband and dad. ii ABOUT THE AUTHOR An award-winning educator at the University of Maryland, Dr. James V. Green leads the education activities of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute. As its Director of Entrepreneurship Education, he manages 25 undergraduate and graduate courses in entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology commercialization. He has created and led a host of innovative programs and activities to serve 100,000 innovators and entrepreneurs from 150 countries. With 20 publications, he is a thought leader in entrepreneurship education pedagogy and entrepreneurial opportunity analysis. In 2011, he earned first prize in the 3E Learning Innovative Entrepreneurship Education Competition presented at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). In 2013, he launched the University of Maryland’s first course with Coursera, “Developing...
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...nd Ontology aa e ysics of Ide etaph as M rn de o Id An Ess M Marc A. Hight ay i nE ar ly Idea and Ontology Idea and Ontology an essay in early modern metaphysics of ideas marc a. hight t h e p e n n s y l va n i a s t at e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s u n i v e r s i t y p a r k , p e n n s y l va n i a Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hight, Marc A., 1969– Idea and ontology : an essay in early modern metaphysics of ideas / Marc A. Hight. p. cm. Summary: ‘‘Provides an interpretation of the development of the ontology of ideas from Descartes to Hume that reaffirms the vital role metaphysical concerns played in early modern thinking’’—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978–0-271–03383–9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Ontology. 2. Idea (Philosophy). 3. Metaphysics. I. Title. BD301.H54 2008 110.9—dc22 2008002466 2008 The Pennsylvania State University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802–1003 Copyright The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses. It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. This book is printed on Natures Natural, containing 50% post-consumer waste, and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material...
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...USAID Project CYCLE OVERVIEW SUMMARY This paper provides an overview of the Program Cycle to all USAID staff and their development partners. The overview demonstrates how the components of the Program Cycle support each other and relate to annual processes and documents. We now live in a more dynamic world, however, with new development partners, more coordination among various US Government actors, shorter execution cycles, new policies and fiscal realities, and greater appreciation for the complexity and contingency of development. The Program Cycle acknowledges that development is not static and is rarely linear, and therefore stresses the need to assess and reassess through regular monitoring, evaluation, and learning. The Program Cycle encourages planning and project management innovations to reduce the unit cost of delivery and increase the cost-effectiveness and lasting impact of development cooperation. In short, we are not going back to the future, but moving forward based on historical best practices. PROGRAM CYCLE COMPONENTS: 1. Agency Policies and Strategies. 2. Country Development strategies 3. Project Design and Implementation 4. Monitoring 5. Evaluation 6. Learning and Adapting 7. Budget Resources Agency Policies and Strategies: The Program Cycle is informed by a series of U.S. Government and USAID policies and strategies that define the goals and purpose of this approach, and that ultimately strive to make...
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....................................................... 3 3.0 Impact Assessment Design...................................................................................................... 5 3.1 Limitations in Pursuing the ‘Gold Standard’ ................................................................................. 5 3.2 Alternative Evaluation Design Pursued......................................................................................... 5 3.3 Intervention and Comparison Villages Surveyed .......................................................................... 7 4.0 Methods of Data Collection and Analysis ................................................................................ 8 4.1 Data Collection .............................................................................................................................. 8 4.2 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 8 4.3 Main Problems and Constraints Encountered...
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...This article was downloaded by: [123.255.73.85] On: 02 November 2013, At: 21:59 Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) INFORMS is located in Maryland, USA Operations Research Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://pubsonline.informs.org Inventory Management of a Fast-Fashion Retail Network Felipe Caro, Jérémie Gallien, To cite this article: Felipe Caro, Jérémie Gallien, (2010) Inventory Management of a Fast-Fashion Retail Network. Operations Research 58(2):257-273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1090.0698 Full terms and conditions of use: http://pubsonline.informs.org/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used only for the purposes of research, teaching, and/or private study. Commercial use or systematic downloading (by robots or other automatic processes) is prohibited without explicit Publisher approval. For more information, contact permissions@informs.org. The Publisher does not warrant or guarantee the article’s accuracy, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Descriptions of, or references to, products or publications, or inclusion of an advertisement in this article, neither constitutes nor implies a guarantee, endorsement, or support of claims made of that product, publication, or service. Copyright © 2010, INFORMS Please scroll down for article—it is on subsequent pages INFORMS is the largest professional...
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...Grade Failure, Drop out and Subsequent School Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Uruguayan Administrative Data Marco Manacorda This version: November 2006 QMUL, CEP and STICERD (LSE) and CEPR This paper uses administrative longitudinal micro data on about 100,000 Uruguayan students in public non-vocational Junior High school (grades 7-9) to identify the causal effect of grade failure on students' subsequent school outcomes. Exploiting the discontinuity in promotion rates induced by a rule that establishes that a pupil missing more than 25 days during the school year will automatically fail that grade I show that grade failure leads to substantial drop out and lower educational attainment after 4 to 5 years since the time when failure first occurred. Complementary evidence based on a change in the regime of grade promotion provides additional support for this conclusion. Keywords: grade retention, school drop out, age-grade distortion, regression discontinuity. JEL codes: I21, I22, J20 I am grateful to Jerome Adda, David Card, Thomas Lemieux, Alan Manning, Guy Michael, Justin McCrary, Enrico Moretti, Barbara Petrongolo, Tommaso Valletti, Steve Pischke, Miguel Urquiola and seminar participants at UC Berkeley, LSE, Paris-Jourdan, University of Toulouse, IGIER-Bocconi, the Universidad de la Republica (Montevideo) and the Gerencia de Planeamiento y Evaluación de la Gestión Educativa de ANEP for many helpful comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to Veronica Amarante...
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