Suchergebnisse

In recent years numerous critics, generally those with strong nationalist inclinations, have attempted to demonstrate that Canadians are no longer autonomous in cultural and educational pursuits. Whether or not such autonomy ever existed to any substantial degree, especially for non-French Canada, might itself be disputed. Indeed, a good case can be put forward for the proposition that the gradual diminution of British practices, norms, and expertise in many facets of Canadian education, if not in Canadian culture generally, was accompanied by a concomitant increase in American practices, publications, and personnel rather than by any emerging period of distinctly Canadian expression. That most of the substantial Americanization in postsecondary education and many other areas was occasioned by Canadian invitation tends, however, to be widely ignored. Be that as it may, most critics now prefer to focus on the actual state of affairs and the continuing trends rather than on historical causes.

Die Verfasser definieren die wissenschaftliche Forschung als Dialog zwischen Theorie und Daten: Wissenschaftlerinnen formulieren eine Theorie, analysieren Daten, um die Theorie zu testen, und modifizieren die Theorie anhand der neugewonnen empirischen Befunde. Der gleiche Prozess kann auch bei den Daten beginnen: Wissenschaftler machen Beobachtungen, entwickeln Theorien, um diese Beobachtungen zu erklären, und sammeln dann zusätzliche Daten, um ihre Theorien zu testen. Nicht jedes Forschungsprojekt muss alle Schritte innerhalb dieses Zyklus durchlaufen, denn Forschung ist ein kollektives Unterfangen. Während sich einige Projekte auf das Testen bestehender Hypothesen konzentrieren, erklären andere einzelne Beobachtungen und generieren neue Hypothesen. Es wird die These vertreten, dass alle Forschungsprojekte, die Teil des Dialogs zwischen Theorie und Daten sind, die gleichen Kernprobleme des Forschungsdesigns bearbeiten und lösen müssen: die Definition der Forschungsfrage, die Spezifikation von Konzepten und Theorien, Operationalisierung und Messung, die Auswahl der Fälle und Beobachtungen, die Kontrolle von alternativen Erklärungen und theoretische Schlussfolgerungen. Diese Fragen stellen einzelne Schwerpunkte der Studie dar. Abschließend werden die einzelnen Beiträge des Bandes präsentiert. (ICF2)

In today s increasingly competitive business environment, many firms in declining industries have been confronted with the need to restructure.However, lobbies in these industries have often managed to attract government subsidies instead.This paper looks at the decision of a loss-making firm whether to lobby for subsidies or whether to restructure in the context of a contributions game as in Magee et al.(1989).We further analyse the role of tariffs in restricting uncompetitive practices such as granting state aid to unprofitable firms.Several results stand out.Firstly, there is a trade-off between spending resources on lobbying for subsidies and costly restructuring such that both restructuring and subsidisation take place in our model.Secondly, countervailing tariffs on subsidised exports shift the decision in favour of restructuring, thereby hardening budget constraints. Hence, the model illustrates that external constraints such as countervailing tariffs can help to establish internal financial discipline when first-best solutions are politically unfeasible. Thirdly, the social planner always prefers full restructuring implying that political competition comes at a cost of lower economic welfare in our model.