Suchergebnisse

Welfare ranking of policy instruments is addressed in a two-sector Ramsey model with monopoly pricing in one sector as the only distortion. When government spending is restricted, i.e. when a government is unable or unwilling to finance the required costs for implementing the optimum policy, subsidies that directly affect investment incentives may generate higher welfare effects than the direct instrument, which is a production subsidy. The driving mechanism is that an investment subsidy may be more cost effective than the direct instrument; and that the relative welfare gain from cost effectiveness can exceed the welfare loss from introducing new distortions. Moreover, it is found that the investment subsidy is gradually phased out of the welfare maximizing policy, which may be a policy combining the two subsidies, when the level of government spending is increased.

It may be optimal from a welfare perspective to use R&D subsidies when the source of R&D distortions originates from the surplus appropriability problem and technological spillovers in the form of knowledge spillovers, creative destruction, and duplication externalities are absent. Hence, R&D subsidies may constitute the optimal policy even when subsidies directly targeted on monopoly pricing could be applied. The result holds when dynamic effects are important relative to static effects and when governments spending is restricted. The latter characteristic arises when a government is unable or unwilling to use the level of spending required to implement the optimum policy. The argument is developed in a semi-endogenous growth model where the only distortion is monopoly pricing of intermediate goods.

Why do humans form groups? Why would a brain, preoccupied with predicting the world, make the formation of cultures possible? And how does our socio-historical context shape the way we think? In a world faced with numerous global challenges and burdened by conflicts defined along cultural boundaries, now more than ever we need a comprehensive theory of the role of culture in human cooperation. Cultures persist: not only because they enable coordination and cooperation between otherwise selfinterested individuals, but because they cultivate our minds to make us grasp and sense the world in a particular manner, creating enduring structures of mutual solidarity based on a shared experience of reality. But cultures are not static: they evolve. As we endeavor to predict and classify the spheres of interaction in which we participate, culture falls into place and can be seen to function much like an immune system. If we are to understand the resilience of cultural groups and the evolution of the human mind, we need only look inside ourselves, to our predictive brain and to the immune system regulating the interaction across borders of both cells and cultures. Alongside our natural immune system, humans are endowed with cultural immune systems that bestow individuals and groups alike with resilience and adaptability. This book is a call for the formation of a genuine cultural immunology

Building on recent theories of interactive governance and political leadership, 'Interactive Political Leadership' develops a concept of interactive political leadership and a theoretical framework for studying the role of elected politicians in the age of governance. The purpose of the theoretical framework is to inspire and guide empirical research into how elected politicians perform political leadership in a society where citizens and other stakeholders play an active role in making and implementing political decisions and what barriers, challenges, and dilemmas they encounter in relation to the performance of interactive political leadership. The research framework draws extensively on recent theories of interactive governance and political leadership and other new developments in political science and public administration research.

Building on recent theories of interactive governance and political leadership, 'Interactive Political Leadership' develops a concept of interactive political leadership and a theoretical framework for studying the role of elected politicians in the age of governance. The purpose of the theoretical framework is to inspire and guide empirical research into how elected politicians perform political leadership in a society where citizens and other stakeholders play an active role in making and implementing political decisions and what barriers, challenges, and dilemmas they encounter in relation to the performance of interactive political leadership. The research framework draws extensively on recent theories of interactive governance and political leadership and other new developments in political science and public administration research.

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Presentation: Dialectics, Deontology and Democracy -- Interlude: Arguing for Classical Critical Theory: Horkheimer, Marcuse and others -- Economy -- An Alternative Agenda for Political Economy: Durkheim and others -- From Restricted Economy to General Economy – and Back: Bataille -- Dialectics -- On the Contribution of Dialectics: Plato and others -- Totalizing Negativity and Change: Bataille, Hegel and others -- From Ontology to Epistemology: Tong, Mao and Hegel -- Critique Presupposes Alienation: Hegel -- On the Way to Liberation: Marcuse -- Postscript: Continuing the Critique of Capitalism and Political Economy -- Back Matter -- Name Index and Bibliography -- Subject Index -- Detailed List of Contents.

The same computer games are played by youths all over the world, and worldwide games become matters of concern in relation to children: worries rise about addiction, violence, education, time, and economy. Yet, these concerns vary depending upon where they are situated: in families, legal contexts, industry or science. They also play out differently across countries and cultures. This situated nature of computer game concerns is generally neglected. Not in this book: It gives a detailed mosaic of the complex and multiple everyday realities of computer game concerns in relation to children, as they are variably situated throughout society and across cultures

The same computer games are played by youths all over the world, and worldwide games become matters of concern in relation to children: worries rise about addiction, violence, education, time, and economy. Yet, these concerns vary depending upon where they are situated: in families, legal contexts, industry or science. They also play out differently across countries and cultures. This situated nature of computer game concerns is generally neglected. Not in this book: It gives a detailed mosaic of the complex and multiple everyday realities of computer game concerns in relation to children, as they are variably situated throughout society and across cultures.