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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Kevin Roberts (Nuffield College, Oxford University) |
| Abstract: | For over a quarter of a century, the use of utility information based upon interpersonal comparisons has been seen as an escape route from the Arrow Impossibility Theorem. This paper critically examines this informational basis approach to social choice. Even with comparability of differences and levels, feasible social choice rules must be insensitive to a range of distributional issues. Also, the Pareto principle is not solely to blame for the inability to adopt rules combining utility and non-utility information: if the Pareto principle is not invoked then there is no way of combining utility and non-utility information in a ranking of states unless levels of utility are comparable; with only level comparability, information must be combined in restrictive ways and the notion of giving different independent weight to different considerations is ruled out. If informational bases are viewed as the restriction on information that is available, rather than a theoretical limit on information, then there exist methods to estimate richer informational structures and overcome some of these difficulties. |
| Date: | 2005–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:econwp:0523&r=ict |
| By: | Marilena Locatelli; Steinar Strøm |
| Abstract: | In this paper we describe a software instrument, implemented with GAUSS, to evaluate a tax reform in terms of change in household welfare, and in particular in term of Compensating Variation (CV), within a random utility model. The program flow and the program list with comments are supplied. |
| Keywords: | Compensating variation, computing welfare change, GAUSS application, tax system evaluation |
| JEL: | C63 B21 |
| Date: | 2006–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp02_06&r=ict |
| By: | Lundin, Per (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The paper describes and analyses a Scandinavian research project on trade union based development of, and training in, computer technology and work organization, especially text and image processing in the graphic industries, that was named UTOPIA and carried out between 1981 and 1986. UTOPIA gave rise to the so called Scandinavian School of System Development (Den skandinaviska skolan) where the users participation in system development have become a key element. The role of labour movement in technological change is highlighted and it is underlined that there are different incentives for technological change. Corporations developing technology usually pursued increased efficiency in production, while the labour movement and UTOPIA aimed at other goals such as translating social values regarding job skills, quality of work, and quality of products into new computer hardware and software for the graphic industries. It is argued that the UTOPIA-project may be seen as an attempt to establish an innovation system in computer system development where these kind of different values were pursued. The innovation system consisted of industry, research institutes, trade unions, and universities, and was characterized by strong labour interests. |
| Keywords: | History; history of computers; history of technology; industrial democracy; innovation systems; management; technological change; trade unions |
| JEL: | J50 N00 N73 O14 O30 |
| Date: | 2006–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0052&r=ict |
| By: | Mihai Orzan (School of Marketing, Academy of Economic Studies) |
| Abstract: | When we address the topic of ethical issues on the Internet we are generally referring at two different matters: privacy and intellectual property. Each has been examined extensively in the last five years, since the Internet explosive intrusion in everyday life activities, each has an important number of sub fields that require special attention from managers and other business professionals. The purpose of this paper is to make a short presentation of most relevant developments pertaining Internet ethical issues in direct connection with the business world. |
| Keywords: | ethics, etica, libel, trademark, patent, defamation, privacy, spam, Internet, personal information |
| JEL: | I20 K20 |
| Date: | 2001–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ase:wpaper:1002&r=ict |
| By: | Lisa Borland (Evnine-Vaughan Associates, Inc.); Jean-Philippe Bouchaud (Science & Finance, Capital Fund Management; CEA Saclay;); Jean-Francois Muzy (Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, Pessac, FRANCE); Gilles Zumbach (Consulting in Financial Research) |
| Abstract: | This is a short review in honor of B. Mandelbrot's 80st birthday, to appear in W ilmott magazine. We discuss how multiplicative cascades and related multifractal ideas might be relevant to model the main statistical features of financial time series, in particular the intermittent, long-memory nature of the volatility. We describe in details the Bacry-Muzy-Delour multifractal random walk. We point out some inadequacies of the current models, in particular concerning time reversal symmetry, and propose an alternative family of multi-timescale models, intermediate between GARCH models and multifractal models, that seem quite promising. |
| JEL: | G10 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sfi:sfiwpa:500061&r=ict |
| By: | Clive G. Bowsher (Nuffield College, Oxford University) |
| Abstract: | A continuous time econometric modelling framework for multivariate financial market event (or 'transactions') data is developed in which the model is specified via the vector conditional intensity. This has the advantage that the conditioning information set is updated continuously in time as new information arrives. Generalised Hawkes (g-Hawkes) models are introduced that are sufficiently flexible to incorporate `inhibitory' events and dependence between trading days. Novel omnibus specification tests for parametric models based on a multivariate random time change theorem are proposed. A computationally efficient thinning algorithm for simulation of g-Hawkes processes is also developed. A continuous time, bivariate point process model of the timing of trades and mid-quote changes is presented for a New York Stock Exchange stock and the empirical findings are related to the market microstructure literature. The two-way interaction of trades and quote changes is found to be important empirically. Furthermore, the model delivers a continuous record of instantaneous volatility that is conditional on the timing of trades and quote changes. |
| Keywords: | Point process, conditional intensity, Hawkes process, specification test, random time change, transactions data, market microstructure. |
| JEL: | C32 C51 C52 G10 |
| Date: | 2005–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:econwp:0526&r=ict |
| By: | Kevin Roberts (Nuffield College, University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | An intertemporal voting model is examined where, at each date, there is a pairwise majority vote between the existing chosen state and some other state, chosen randomly. Intertemporal voting simplifies the strategic issues and the agenda setting is as unrestricted as possible. The possibility of cycles is examined, both in the intertemporal extension to the Condorcet paradox and in more general examples. The set of possibilities is rich, as is demonstrated by an exhaustive study of a three person, three state world. Equilibrium in pure strategies may fail to exist but a weakening of the equilibrium concept to admit probabilistic voting allows a general existence result to be proved. The analysis leads to the development of a dominant state which extends the notion of a Condorcet winner. |
| Keywords: | Condorcet paradox; Condorcet winner; Condorcet winner; majority voting; intertemporal voting; strategic voting |
| JEL: | C73 D72 D78 |
| Date: | 2005–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:econwp:0515&r=ict |