Agent Theory Research Articles

Bound by debt: Nutmeg trees and changing relations between farmers and agents in a Moluccan agroforestry systems

Agroforestry is a land management system long practiced by communities in the Moluccas. The practice is commonly known as "Dusung", where one cash crop in particular, nutmeg, is interspersed throughout farmer groves. Farmers have faced a number of challenges in recent years, especially concerning a system of debt bondage inflicting undue losses upon them. This study aims to explain the involvement of farmers within the debt bondage system, otherwise known as the tree mortgage system. We utilize a case study methodology, whereby data were collected through interviews and participant observation and results analyzed using principal agent theory. Findings highlight that nutmeg farmers, what we call the Principal, incur high risks when debt bondage is applied by an Agent that has the increasing ability to deny and change the terms of an agreement. This occurs when Agents exploit information unavailable to farmers about nutmeg marketing prospects, which weakens farmer negotiating positions. Improving institutional support for contracts in the tree mortgage system could help to ensure a more equitable arrangement, improving the terms for nutmeg farmers, meanwhile also encouraging the continued preservation of the dusung system, which has long helped to manage forest resources sustainably.

The Study of the Two-Way Principal–Agent Model Based on Asymmetric Information

The mechanism of profit distribution is the key to strategic social cooperation’ s operation. However, the research on the mechanism of profit distribution based on the traditional principal–agent theory was confined that the principal–agent relation between the members of the social cooperation is one-way, which is difficult to describe the two-way principal–agent problem in the new economic environment. This paper established a model to describe the two-way principal–agent problem based on asymmetric Information, and two cases that the virtual principal and the two entity agents choose only two actions and choose continuum of actions are discussed. Then the method of Lagrange multipliers is proposed to solve the model. The numerical example is given to illustrate the application of our model, it shows that in order to guarantee fairness and to strategic the social cooperation’ s operation, the members of the social cooperation shall share the profit, risks and losses in accordance with their investment share.

The Involvement of Venture Capital and the Internationalization of Entrepreneurial Firms: An Empirical Study Based on China's Listed High-tech Companies

Venture capital has very important influences on entrepreneurial firms' growth. Then, what would be the impact of venture capital on firms' internationalization? Based on RBV, agent theory, and signal transition theory, this paper analyzes the mechanism of the effect of venture capital on the internationalization of entrepreneurial firms, and the relation between characteristics of venture capital institutions and the internationalization of entrepreneurial firms, and empirically tests the hypotheses by unbalanced panel data from China's 300 listed high-tech companies. It comes to the results as follows:firstly, the involvement of venture capital not only improves the breadth of firms' internationalization, but also strengthens the depth of internationalization; secondly, the characteristics of venture capital institutions have different influences on entrepreneurial firms' internationalization, and entrepreneurial firms with foreign venture capital, venture capital with high industrial expertise, and syndication venture capital, have the advantages of broadening the breadth of the internationalization of entrepreneurial firms and promoting deep roots of entrepreneurial firms in international market. This paper not only extends existing firm internationalization theory, but also has reference for internationalization practice of entrepreneurial firms.

Grappling with the “real politics” of systemic corruption: Theoretical debates versus “real‐world” functions

A growing body of research argues that anticorruption efforts fail because of a flawed theoretical foundation, where collective action theory is said to be a better lens for understanding corruption than the dominant principal–agent theory. We unpack this critique and advance several new arguments. First, the application of collective action theory to the issue of corruption has been, thus far, incomplete. Second, a collective action theory‐based approach to corruption is in fact complementary to a principal–agent approach, rather than contradictory as is claimed. Third, applications of both theories have failed to recognize that corruption persists because it functions to provide solutions to problems. We conclude by arguing that anticorruption effectiveness is difficult to achieve because it requires insights from all three perspectives—principal–agent theory, collective action theory, and corruption as serving functions—which allows us to better understand how to harness the political will needed to fight corruption.

Enforcing the European Semester: the politics of asymmetric information in the excessive deficit and macroeconomic imbalance procedures

ABSTRACTThe European Semester is an information-driven surveillance system that relies upon budgetary and economic statistics collected from the European Union’s memberstates and analyzed by the European Commission. This is true for both the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) and the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure (MIP). This article employs Principal–Agent theory to analyze the politics of asymmetric information in the EDP and MIP. The study explores how the statistical requirements of the Six-Pack have been enforced by the Commission and the Economic and Financial Affairs Council to strengthen the EDP, even as the statistical integrity of the MIP received less protection. The article examines how the misrepresentation of statistics by Spain’s Autonomous Community of Valencia provoked the first financial sanction in the history of Economic and Monetary Union, as well as the Commission’s unsuccessful efforts to strengthen the reliability of MIP statistics.

Review of Poor States, Power and the Politics of IMF Reform

The book examines the major cases and policy initiatives of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Low-Income Developing Countries (LIDCs) in the post-Washington consensus. The IMF policy reform invites scholarly debate, different theoretical explanation and practically problem oriented in addressing the LIDCs needs and powerful states interests. Hibben analyses the driving factors of IMF LIDCs reforms and stakeholder interests and policy tools to achieve the objectives in place. In doing so, even though author presents the book through lenses of various IPE theories, mainly he posits the IMF policy reforms through the frameworks of the Principal Agent, Constructivist, and Historical structural theories.

The Deviated Mechanisms between Chintrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship– Collectivism or Individualism in Forming the Mechanism of China-way of Entrepreneurship

Is entrepreneurship the cause, or the consequence of economic development? Why does an economic downturn provide opportunities for entrepreneurship? How is the mechanism of entrepreneurship differentiated between developed and developing economies? How can the democracy and free-market based agent theory explain the mechanism of entrepreneurship in an autocratic and cronyism-oriented political system like China? Motivated to explore these unsettled conceptual questions, an extensive literature review and a broad range of interviews were employed as the method of this study to rationalize the formational and functional mechanism of Chintrepreneurship (China-way of Entrepreneurship) in boosting the leapfrog of China economy. This paper argues that, neither Schumpeterianism nor Keynesianism alone is able to theoretically reflect the path-dependent rise of Chintrepreneurship in today’s dynamically globalized and diversified business environment. Instead, only the combination of the two camps can help rationalize the mechanism of how government intervention can act as an indispensable and irreplaceable adjustor of political-economical environment to cultivate entrepreneurship. Hence, the traditionally presumed tripartite framework (entrepreneurship, industrialization, economic growth) must be adjusted in order to offset or overcome the weakness of existing literature, and to solve the dilemmatic puzzle: which one of individualism and collectivism is more contributive to the mechanism of entrepreneurship? By defining a series of critical conditions and criteria, this paper proposes a BRIDGE model to rationalize the role of government intervention, and the observed trade-offs, such as the impact of dual-track policy on regional and wealth disparities in China. Two case studies and recommendations are suggested.

Optimal placement of fast cut back units based on the theory of cellular automata and agent

The thermal power generation units with the function of fast cut back could serve power for auxiliary system and keep island operation after a major blackout, so they are excellent substitute for the traditional black-start power sources. Different placement schemes for FCB units have different influence on the subsequent restoration process. Considering the locality of the emergency dispatching rules, the unpredictability of specific dispatching instructions and unexpected situations like failure of transmission line energization, a novel deduction model for network reconfiguration based on the theory of cellular automata and agent is established. Several indexes are then defined for evaluating the placement schemes for FCB units. The attribute weights determination method based on subjective and objective integration and grey relational analysis are combinatorically used to determine the optimal placement scheme for FCB unit. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated by the test results on the New England 10-unit 39-bus power system.

Moral Enhancement Meets Normative and Empirical Reality: Assessing the Practical Feasibility of Moral Enhancement Neurotechnologies.

Moral enhancement refers to the possibility of making individuals and societies better from a moral standpoint. A fierce debate has emerged about the ethical aspects of moral enhancement, notably because steering moral enhancement in a particular direction involves choosing amongst a wide array of competing options, and these options entail deciding which moral theory or attributes of the moral agent would benefit from enhancement. Furthermore, the ability and effectiveness of different neurotechnologies to enhance morality have not been carefully examined. In this paper, we assess the practical feasibility of moral enhancement neurotechnologies. We reviewed the literature on neuroscience and cognitive science models of moral judgment and analyzed their implications for the specific target of intervention (cognition, volition or affect) in moral enhancement. We also reviewed and compared evidence on available neurotechnologies that could serve as tools of moral enhancement. We conclude that the predictions of rationalist, emotivist, and dual process models are at odds with evidence, while different intuitionist models of moral judgment are more likely to be aligned with it. Furthermore, the project of moral enhancement is not feasible in the near future as it rests on the use of neurointerventions, which have no moral enhancement effects or, worse, negative effects.

Modeling collusion-proof port emission regulation of cargo-handling activities under incomplete information

This study models the emission regulation of a port's cargo-handling activities when the regulatory government agency lacks complete information on the cost of reducing emissions for the port. The goal is to identify rules for determining the optimal port charge and capacity to allow port emissions to be regulated in an environment with incomplete information. We evaluate the effect of introducing a risk-averse environmental monitor as a supervisor to provide the government with additional information (a signal) on the port operator's emission reduction cost. To prevent the environmental monitor from colluding with the port operator, we develop a collusion-proof regulation scheme based on the principal–agent theory. The scheme is modeled as a bi-level problem faced by the government and the monitor. We find that, compared to the case with complete information, collusion-proof regulation do not distort optimal port charges only when the port operator is efficient and has low emission reduction costs. When distortion does occur, it depends on the monitor's degree of risk aversion and the accuracy of the signal about emission reduction cost. Besides, information asymmetry leads to less cargo throughput, a lower emission level, and reduced port capacity. Such regulation-induced downward distortion can be either alleviated or aggravated by the collusion-proof regulation, depending on the quality of the information received by the environmental monitor. Our theoretical models are tested using a case study based on container terminals in the Port of Shanghai. The numerical results suggest that a risk-averse environmental monitor can improve port user's social welfare in the presence of imperfect information.

Economic Democratization in Korea and Governance from a Canadian Versus a U.S. Corporate Law Perspective

대한민국의 경우 연속된 정치적 또는 경제적 위기로 인하여 최상위급 결정권자 차원에서 공적 영역과 사적 영역이 구분되지 않고 있다는 공통의 인식이 더욱 입지를 더해가고 있다. 지배권의 개혁이라는 주제에 대한 가장 기본적인 단서가 미국회사법을 관통하고 있는 모델을 불행하게 패러디한 경제민주화라는 이상론에 집중되어 있다. 개혁을 이야기함에 있어 경제민주화라는 이상으로 인하여 주주권의 범위와 행사를 조정하는 정도를 넘어, 그 이상일 것이 요구된다. 즉 대한민국의 경우 미국회사법상 2가지 가장 중요한 원칙이라 할 수 있는 주인과 대리인모형(principal and agent theory) -즉 주주권을 원칙으로 하는- 및 대안정책팀(alternative team model) 모형 -즉 이사회의 권한을 강화하여 모든 이해관계자의 권한을 조정토록 하는 -이 적절하게 적용되지 못하고 있다. 본고는 이러한 문제에 당하여 대안으로 BCE v. 1976 Debentureholders에서 확인된 2008 캐나다대법원을 판결을 지지하는 이론 등 캐나다회사법을 적극 검토할 것을 제안하려 한다. BCE 사건은 동사건에서 캐나다의 집중주주(concentrated shareholders)의 경우처럼, 한국 재벌들이 이사회가 주주들의 부를 착취하는 것을 못하도록 하여 대리인 비용을 절약할 수 있다는 논리를 지지하는 근거가 될 수 있다. 대한민국법의 경우 이사는 선량한 관리자로서의 주의의무가 있는 바, 이는 BCE 사건에서 확인인 이사의 충실의무와 기능적으로 동일한 것이라 할 수 있다. 이러한 충실의무는 선량한 회사원의 기준에서 회사에게 가장 이익이 되도록 형평과 공정의 이념에 따라 행동함으로써, 회사의 경제적 이익을 증진하여야 할 의무를 말한다. 대한민국 회사의 경우 지배주주 및 기타 주주들간의 이해의 충돌을 최소화하기 위해 이사들의 법적 의무를 발전시키고 실제로 이행되도록 하여야 할 필요가 있을 것이다. 그러나 헌법 제119조2항의 한국경제의 민주화 조항은 제119조1항을 포함하여 시장경제를 지지하고 있는 다른 헌법조항과 균형되게 이해되어야 한다. 즉 민주화를 위한 이사회제도 개혁문제 등에 있어 제2항은 제1항, 즉 원칙적 시장경제 조항에 부차적인 것이라는 학자들의 논의에 귀를 기울일 필요가 있다.In Korea series of major political and economic crises reinforce the common perception that public and private sector interests are intertwined at the highest levels of decision-making power. A main thread of governance reform discourse centers around the idealism of “economic democratization” based on what may be an unfortunate parody of the model dominating U.S. corporate law. Economic democratization should not be limited to adjusting shareholder rights and powers, and the two major theories of corporate law in the United States, the prevalent principal-agent model, supporting shareholder primacy, and the alternative team production model, proposing to empower directors to balance the interests of all residual constituents, do not adequately describe the situation in Korea. This paper proposes instead that greater scholarship be directed to Canadian corporate law, such as the theories that support the holding of BCE Inc. v. 1976 Debentureholders , a 2008 opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada [BCE]. The decision in BCE helps to support the argument that, as with concentrated shareholders in Canada, the heads of Korea’s chaebols may help to reduce agency costs by discouraging directors or managers from expropriating wealth from shareholders. Under Korean law, a director has a duty of care of a good manager, which may be “functionally equivalent” to the fiduciary duty of directors, as confirmed by the BCE Court, to promote the firm’s economic interests, by acting equitably and fairly, in the best interests of the corporation viewed as a good corporate citizen. Minimizing conflicts of interests between controlling and other shareholders in Korean firms may require further development and enforcement of the directors’legal duty of care. However, the democratization of the Korean economy, enshrined in art.1 19-(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Korea, must be balanced against the constitutional provisions supporting the market economy, including art.119-(1) of the Constitution, requiring attention to the argument of scholars that art.119-(2) is subordinate to art.119 (1) of the Constitution.

Corruption and public governance: implication for customer due diligence in Africa

Certainly, corruption is not a new thing in human societies. It is an age-old menace which can cause tremendous harm to society. Corruption has attained the state of pervasive and phenomenal social behaviors in public service, which has not only eaten deep into the fabrics of African society, but also soiled the character of its people and is hampering the effective delivery of public governance in the continent. In this paper, corruption is principally examined as a governance issue, a challenge to African democratic functioning. It is a failure of both institutions and the larger framework of social, judicial, political and economic checks and balances needed to govern effectively. Therefore, the paper sought to determine the causes and effects of corruption on service delivery in Africa. It is within this context that this paper explored Principal Agent Theory to explain the relationship between corruption, public governance, customer due diligence and the various aspects of development including economic growth and sustainable development. The paper recommended that the way and manner to encourage and assist individuals and financial institutions which work to promote and protect customer due diligence in Africa is to engage them with corruption issues and collaborate more closely with anti-corruption organizations. The paper also concluded that public-private technical assistance is needed for Africa to effectively implement anti-corruption interventions to reduce menace of corruption and recognize the value of good governance as roadmap to sustainable development.Keywords: Corruption, Public Governance, Customer Due Diligence

Microbubbles used for contrast enhanced ultrasound and theragnosis: a review of principles to applications.

Ultrasound was developed several decades ago as a useful imaging modality, and it became the second most popular diagnostic tool due to its non-invasiveness, real-time capabilities, and safety. Additionally, ultrasound has been used as a therapeutic tool with several therapeutic agents and in nanomedicine. Ultrasound imaging is often used to diagnose many types of cancers, including breast, stomach, and thyroid cancers. In addition, ultrasound-mediated therapy is used in cases of joint inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis. Microbubbles, when used as ultrasound contrast agents, can act as echo-enhancers and therapeutic agents, and they can play an essential role in ultrasound imaging and ultrasound-mediated therapy. Recently, various types of ultrasound contrast agents made of lipid, polymer, and protein shells have been used. Air, nitrogen, and perfluorocarbon are usually included in the core of the microbubbles to enhance ultrasound imaging, and therapeutic drugs are conjugated and loaded onto the surface or into the core of the microbubbles, depending on the purpose and properties of the substance. Many research groups have utilized ultrasound contrast agents to enhance the imaging signal in blood vessels or tissues and to overcome the blood-brain barrier or blood-retina barrier. These agents are also used to help treat diseases in various regions or systems of the body, such as the cardiovascular system, or as a cancer treatment. In addition, with the introduction of targeted moiety and multiple functional groups, ultrasound contrast agents are expected to have a potential future in ultrasound imaging and therapy. In this paper, we briefly review the principles of ultrasound and introduce the underlying theory, applications, limitations, and future perspectives of ultrasound contrast agents.

Improving Deep Reinforcement Learning with Knowledge Transfer

Recent successes in applying Deep Learning techniques on Reinforcement Learning algorithms have led to a wave of breakthrough developments in agent theory and established the field of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). While DRL has shown great results for single task learning, the multi-task case is still underrepresented in the available literature. This D.Sc. research proposal aims at extending DRL to the multi- task case by leveraging the power of Transfer Learning algorithms to improve the training time and results for multi-task learning. Our focus lies on defining a novel framework for scalable DRL agents that detects similarities between tasks and balances various TL techniques, like parameter initialization, policy or skill transfer.

A FRAMEWORK FOR THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS: A CASE STUDY OF A ZIMBABWEAN UNIVERSITY

Ponte Academic JournalOct 2017, Volume 73, Issue 10 A FRAMEWORK FOR THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS: A CASE STUDY OF A ZIMBABWEAN UNIVERSITYAuthor(s): JL Geldenhuys ,E. ManyumwaJ. Ponte - Oct 2017 - Volume 73 - Issue 10 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2017.10.13 Abstract:The aim of this study was to develop a framework for the inclusion of students with visual impairments that can be adopted by a Zimbabwean university. The study was informed by Bronfenbrenner�s ecological and Bandura�s agentic theories. The transformative paradigm which guided the study emphasised improving the participants� social situation to create a more equitable society. The study was a qualitative case study and purposeful sampling was used. Data were generated using interviews, photo-voice, document analysis and observation. The data were analysed using open and analytical coding. Five themes, which steered the development of the framework, emerged, namely, guiding statements and principles, traffic safety, information on buildings and facilities, provision of assistive devices and instructional strategies. Recommendations included the establishment of different committees at the meso and micro levels. Visual impaired students should be incorporated in these committees and be proactive in the formulation of policies affecting them. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

Experimental study on fracturing coal seams using CaO demolition materials to improve permeability

Abstract Currently, methane gas disasters in underground coal mines are a major problem which seriously threatens safe mining. This study employed soundless chemical demolition for fracturing coal seams with low permeability. Additionally, the fracturing theory and failure mechanisms of soundless chemical demolition agents were investigated. Materials such as CaO, naphthalene-based water reducer, sodium gluconate and silicate cement were used to prepare the novel soundless chemical demolition agent, whose optimum proportion was discovered to be 90:3:5:7 by carrying out orthogonal experiments. The innovative demolition agent cracked briquettes and the maximum width of cracks reached 16.33 mm, showing significant potential for improving the permeability of coal seams.

Natural vector multi-agents geo-inspired in environmental management

Environmental management requires new models to minimize or control the effects of environmental problems on the population. The complexity of environmental problems requires conducting studies to develop models to adjust the environment’s dynamics. The proposed geo-inspired model of natural vector multi-agents (Multi-AVNG) allows for the computational observation of the dynamism of the environmental entity studied. This model is based on the theory of vector agents, changing its structure to include the environmental dynamic aspect using only two behaviors, the natural and the induced, through the vector model in geographic information systems and a function which will control the progression of the environmental entity according to the model’s defined parameters.

RISK AVERSION IN THE BOARD ROOM. AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE OF GERMAN STOCK-LISTED COMPANIES

According to the agency theory, a positive relationship between company performance and good corporate governance should exist. A broader study of the author of this paper examines a sample of German stock-listed companies whereas Germany can be seen as one of the most highly regulated countries concerning corporate governance. The overall purpose of the author’s study is to analyze the effect of supervisory board characteristics and procedures on firm performance. Several corporate governance variables such as number of committees, board independency, supervisory board compensation, personal risk liability, etc. are examined regarding their effects on firm performance in terms of firm growth and profitability. Two different approaches were selected: (1) a quantitative data analysis, based on financial figures and corporate governance variables, and (2) a survey of supervisory board members out of this sample. The total sample consists of 128 German stock-listed companies. The financial data are obtained from the financial databases providers ThomsonOne and Morningstar. The corporate governance data are also collected from annual reports and from corporate governance compliance statements. According to the German Corporate Governance Codex (DCGK) each stock-listed company has to explain their compliance with the DCGK rules. Thus, the DCGK represents a benchmark of good corporate governance and allows collecting objective and comparable quantitative data to estimate the corporate governance level. The main data analysis methods are bivariate analysis and tests for statistical differences (t-test), the latter in particular to find differences between groups clustered by their 5-years total shareholder return (TSR) growth resulting in a TSR top-30 group and TSR bottom-30 group. While the fulfilment of good corporate governance standards over all shows no significant effect on firm performance, this paper focusses on the findings that risk aversion in the board room is increasing as a result of governance regulations and that growth outperformers have a lower degree of risk aversion. It is concluded that an own-risk deductible in the DO Supervisory Board; Principal–Agent Theory; Risk Aversion; Firm Performance; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.10.16191

Kitcher y la organización de la investigación científica: un análisis de la ciencia desde los modelos ideales de la economía

Este documento muestra el trabajo de Kitcher en relación a la organización de la investigación en las ciencias. Se argumentará que el propósito del autor es valorable porque pretende mostrar desde un argumento nacido de la economía, que los científicos al buscar sus propios intereses (no necesariamente epistémicos) pueden lograr la verdad científica. El hecho de integrar elementos sociales e individuales en el desarrollo de la ciencia y con ello lograr conocimiento es una avance con relación a la epistemología tradicional y las epistemologías relativistas; sin embargo este desarrollo de la epistemología social tiene una limitación en términos de su perspectiva ontológica individualista la cual no permite sino ver al científico, como un agente que elige estratégicamente la teoría donde quiere inscribirse. La pintura de la ciencia así lograda se limita a ilustrar el trabajo de científicos de juguetes ofreciendo una postura limitada del trabajo científico. Se sugieren rutas de análisis que den mejor cuenta del trabajo científico al complementar los desarrollos de epistemología social con una ontología social más adecuada al propósito de la organización del trabajo científico.

MAS-based self-adaptive architecture for controlling and monitoring Cloud platforms

The theory of agents and multiagent systems can provide a new model for managing Cloud Computing systems based on the distribution of responsibilities, flexibility and autonomy. Managing the functions of the nucleus of a CC system through an agent-based model allows the resulting platforms to be much more efficient, scalable and adaptable than they currently are. This article presents an architecture to model the control and monitoring system of a Cloud Computing platform by using a Virtual Organization of intelligent agents that self-adapt and reorganize according to the needs of the surrounding environment.