Conventional Proposition Research Articles

Positive-Incentive Noise.

Noise is conventionally viewed as a severe problem in diverse fields, e.g., engineering and learning systems. However, this brief aims to investigate whether the conventional proposition always holds. It begins with the definition of task entropy, which extends from the information entropy and measures the complexity of the task. After introducing the task entropy, the noise can be classified into two kinds, positive-incentive noise (Pi-noise or π -noise) and pure noise, according to whether the noise can reduce the complexity of the task. Interestingly, as shown theoretically and empirically, even the simple random noise can be the π -noise that simplifies the task. π -noise offers new explanations for some models and provides a new principle for some fields, such as multitask learning, adversarial training, and so on. Moreover, it reminds us to rethink the investigation of noises.

Impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on retail stock trading patterns

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns on retail stock trading patterns, at a transnational level. Cross-sectional empirical research was utilized with five samples of public companies from the US, Europe, Asia, and blended equity capital markets globally. The impact of the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns on stock trading patterns was investigated using median tests and the factors that influence retail stock trading were explored with regression analyses. Contrary to the conventional proposition that stock trading activity is reduced during times of crisis, the results of this study indicate that retail stock trading increased during the first wave of COVID-19 lockdowns. In addition, the findings raise awareness of the risks to novice retail investors associated with the increased stock trading due to herd behavior.

‘I bu Delaila ji aguba’: Revisiting the perception of sociopaths in an African community

Reports of increasing family violence abound in Nigeria. Although studies have implicated cultural constructs as the basis for this trend, this study specifically contemplated the nexus between the increased violence and Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). The purpose of this study was to connect these abusive and violent behaviours in their specific contexts as evidence of ASPD. The study was hinged on autoethnographic research which I systematically analysed as lived experiences with a sociopath. Data for the analyses was drawn from purposively sampled participants (n-70) of victims of family violent abuse. Thematic, interpretative analytical approach and the theories of sociopathy, particularly Hare, Psychopathy Checklist-revised (PCL-R) were used to analyse the data from my personal experiences, and the interviews. The results indicated that only five participants representing 7.14% of the purposively selected population, admitted knowing sociopaths as conscienceless murderers and serial killers. The majority of participants (90%) contemplated sociopaths in religious terms (as incarnated evil beings). Only 2.86% rightly expressed their understanding of sociopathy and related personality disorders in a much-informed manner. Although the results of this study contrast with conventional propositions on ASPD, they revealed how religious belief and superstition among Nigerians frame the conversation on sociopathy and other variants of ASPD. Findings suggested that the growing superstitious beliefs on the causes, nature and remedy to ASPD particularly those associated with sociopathy provide the space for people living with these behavioural conditions (particularly violent sociopaths) to continue abusing unsuspecting individuals in the society. Contribution: The finding of this study specifically challenged the faith-based misconceptions associated with ASPD. Therefore, it is expected that the new insight on ASPD, particularly sociopathy ushers in proper understanding and ways of dealing with the morally insane.

‘I bu Delaila ji aguba’: Revisiting the perception of sociopaths in an African community

Reports of increasing family violence abound in Nigeria. Although studies have implicated cultural constructs as the basis for this trend, this study specifically contemplated the nexus between the increased violence and Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). The purpose of this study was to connect these abusive and violent behaviours in their specific contexts as evidence of ASPD. The study was hinged on autoethnographic research which I systematically analysed as lived experiences with a sociopath. Data for the analyses was drawn from purposively sampled participants (n-70) of victims of family violent abuse. Thematic, interpretative analytical approach and the theories of sociopathy, particularly Hare, Psychopathy Checklist-revised (PCL-R) were used to analyse the data from my personal experiences, and the interviews. The results indicated that only five participants representing 7.14% of the purposively selected population, admitted knowing sociopaths as conscienceless murderers and serial killers. The majority of participants (90%) contemplated sociopaths in religious terms (as incarnated evil beings). Only 2.86% rightly expressed their understanding of sociopathy and related personality disorders in a much-informed manner. Although the results of this study contrast with conventional propositions on ASPD, they revealed how religious belief and superstition among Nigerians frame the conversation on sociopathy and other variants of ASPD. Findings suggested that the growing superstitious beliefs on the causes, nature and remedy to ASPD particularly those associated with sociopathy provide the space for people living with these behavioural conditions (particularly violent sociopaths) to continue abusing unsuspecting individuals in the society.Contribution: The finding of this study specifically challenged the faith-based misconceptions associated with ASPD. Therefore, it is expected that the new insight on ASPD, particularly sociopathy ushers in proper understanding and ways of dealing with the morally insane.

Who Polices the Administrative State?

Scholarship on oversight of the bureaucracy typically conceives of legislatures as unitary actors. But most oversight is conducted by individual legislators who contact agencies directly. I acquire the correspondence logs of 16 bureaucratic agencies and re-evaluate the conventional proposition that ideological disagreement drives oversight. I identify the effect of this disagreement by exploiting the transition from George Bush to Barack Obama, which shifted the ideological orientation of agencies through turnover in agency personnel. Contrary to existing research, I find ideological conflict has a negligible effect on oversight, whereas committee roles and narrow district interests are primary drivers. The findings may indicate that absent incentives induced by public auditing, legislator behavior is driven by policy valence concerns rather than ideology. The results further suggest collective action in Congress may pose greater obstacles to bureaucratic oversight than previously thought.

A Moral Absolutist Definition of Meaningful Work

Many researchers and laypersons agree on at least two conventional propositions about meaningful work: first, it means different things to different people; and second, it is worthwhile. Separately...

Fluid populations, immobile assets: Synchronizing infrastructure investments with shifting demography

In this article we reconstruct and test conventional economic theory’s deductive claims about the nature of infrastructure assets and the demography of end-users who demand infrastructure outputs. We find that the conventional theory puts forward three mutually reinforcing propositions: that infrastructure assets have a natural tendency towards monopoly owing to technical economies of scale; that infrastructure outputs (such as cubic metres of water or kilowatt–hours of electricity) and end-users of these outputs are essentially homogenous; and that future demand of infrastructure is predictable with a reasonable degree of certainty. These conventional propositions in practice have promulgated a ‘bigger is better’ paradigm in the planning of infrastructure assets and networks that has entrenched the practice of building large immobile infrastructure assets. In contrast, building on evidence from multiple cases – Berlin water authority (Berliner Wasserbetriebe) and World Bank-financed water supply projects in six developing countries – we show that conventional economics theory has led to the development of poor planning practices that are yielding unfavourable outcomes in infrastructure investments. We find that the heterogeneous populations of end-users (individuals, households and organizations) are fluid across space and time. This fluidity makes immobile assets subject to frequent and costly obsolescence. Instead of being theorized as large immobile (and monopoly tending) assets, infrastructure assets should be viewed as modular, plug-and-play, increments. These modules can be flexibly assembled over time to expand or contract capacity in specific places for specific users.

The Ontogenetic Origin of Human Beings in the Scientific-Ethics Perspective and its Implications on Abortion

Abortion implies legacy, ethics, moral, religious, theological and political considerations and consequences. Abortion implies two main actions: 1) interruption of pregnancy with fetus nonviable ex-uterus or 2) killing the embryo or fetus. The intention to kill the human conception is a necessary condition for being an abortion. However, at what stage the zygote, embryo or fetus is an individual of the Homo sapiens species as to decide that action was an abortion? We have two contradictory positions: 1) the scientific or ontic position establishing that endogenous processes and conditions determine humans; 2) the conventional or gnosic position believing that this determination is an exogenous deliberation from religious, ideological or legal assumptions. Scientific Ethics (Sc-Et, a new form of Ethics) assumes the ontic position. For Sc-Et humans and any living being begin its individual existence due to specific endogenous matter-energy processes regardless human conventions. We, humans should study these processes and allow them to convince us on their specificities. Sc-Et accepts the process of cosmic and organic evolution and uses all kinds of demonstrations to establish its notions and definitions. For Sc-Et the process of evolution generated humans and their ethics and culture; it is not the human thinking that generates evolution. For Sc-Et, humans are individuals of Homo sapiens species that begin as an individual as any living being begins as an individual of their respective species. The phylo-ontogenetic process auto-define endogenously (from within) the beginning of H sapiens at the zygote stage. This viewpoint disagrees with most conventional religious, ethical and law positions which may lack of reality. Several conventional propositions on the ontogenetic origin of H sapiens are refuted showing that the present ethical, bioethical, law, religious or ideological approaches to this subject are often contradictory and show rather a picture of cultural schizophrenia.

Policy Decisiveness, Public Regardedness, and Unity of Purpose: The FATF and the Policymaking Process for AMLA

The story of the Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLA) is about the contemporary impact that an international organization has on the policymaking process. The dynamics of the crafting of this law illustrated the asymmetrical relationship between the international organization and the central policy actors. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a non-veto player, through incentives and constraints, profoundly influenced the behavior of the veto players, determined the tempo of the process, and delineated the legislative outcome. First, the FATF, was able to set the agenda and subdue the political inertia that worked against the law in the executive and legislative branches. Second, the FATF ensured the enactment and amendment of the law. Third, it made certain that the law did not cater to vested interests and complied with international standards. The external demand was so overwhelming that the FATF was able to guarantee the unity of purpose (the threat of sanction compelled the veto players to collaborate) that in turn resulted in the policy decisiveness of the process (the unyielding deadline defined the pace and direction of the proceeding), and in the public regardedness of the policy (the global standard shaped the content of the AMLA). In the theoretical sphere, the engagement between the FATF and institutional policy actors demonstrated a new dimension in the veto players framework, and modified the conventional proposition — that the more veto players, the harder it is to generate or change policy (policy stability), and the more watered down the output policy (private regardedness) will be. Instead, the presence of an international organization “refashioned” the lawmaking process, making policy enactment easier (policy decisiveness) regardless of the number of veto players, and ensuring that the policy responds more to global interest (public regardedness) notwithstanding the presence of a multiplicity of interests among the veto players.

The Relative Efficient Markets Hypothesis: Information Space and Refutable Models

The concept of information is not specified with an information space in the conventional proposition of Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH). As a result, due to the “joint-hypothesis problem” (Fama, 1991), the EMH is not well-defined and empirically refutable. Nonetheless, the EMH or its accompanying model of equilibrium becomes well-defined and empirically refutable once the concept of information is confined to some particular information space. The EMH hence can be deciphered either way: the traditional none-refutable way or the information-specified refutable way. The former is what we call the absolute EMH and the later the relative EMH. By virtue of a Hilbert space we demonstrate how an information space alternative to the neoclassical one is characterized and how its relative efficiency is compared against the neoclassical information space in terms of viable price systems or pricing kernels.

Equilibrium dynamics in discrete-time endogenous growth models with social constant returns

The existing literature establishes possibilities of local determinacy and dynamic indeterminacy in continuous-time two-sector models of endogenous growth with social constant returns. The necessary and sufficient condition for local determinacy is that the factor intensity rankings of the two sectors are consistent in the private/physical and social/value sense. The necessary and sufficient condition for dynamic indeterminacy is that the final (consumable) good sector is human (pure) capital intensive in the private sense but physical (consumable) capital intensive in the social sense. This paper re-examines the dynamic properties in a discrete-time endogenous growth framework and finds that conventional propositions obtained in continuous time need not be valid. It is shown that the established necessary and sufficient conditions on factor intensity rankings for local determinacy and dynamic indeterminacy are neither sufficient nor necessary, as the magnitudes of time preference and capital depreciation rates both play essential roles.

A DYNAMICAL ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF AGRICULTURAL LAND TENURE

ABSTRACTThis paper explores a dynamic model of an agricultural sector in which farms are leased to cultivators on fixed rent contracts or on sharecropping contracts and in which cultivators are subject to credit rationing by banks. The model, which can exhibit complex dynamics, is used to compare the two pure forms of land tenure and to explore some implications of the coexistence of both types of tenure. The central conclusion from the dynamic simulations is that, contrary to the conventional proposition based on static analysis, both landowners and cultivators may be better‐off under sharecropping.

An Empirical Investigation of Budget and Trade Deficits: The Case of Nigeria

This paper uses cointegration and vector error-correction techniques, Granger-causality tests and, generalized impulse response analysis to examine the "twin deficits" phenomenon in Nigeria - a small open but oil dependent economy in Africa. We find evidence of positive relationship between trade and budget deficits in both the short- and long-run. This finding supports the conventional Keynesian twin deficits proposition and refutes the Ricardian Equivalence Hypothesis. Contrary to the conventional proposition that budget deficits cause trade deficits, our results indicate unidirectional causality from trade deficits to budget deficits for Nigeria. An implicit policy implication of our findings is that attempts to reduce budget deficits in Nigeria must begin with reductions in trade deficits which could be achieved through indirect monetary channels.

Exchange Rate Volatility and Trade Flows of the U.K. in 1990s

This paper examines the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows in the U.K. over the period 1990–2000. According to the conventional approach, exchange rate volatility clamps down trade volumes. This paper, however, identifies the existence of a positive relationship between exchange rate volatility and imports in the U.K. in the 1990s by using a bivariate GARCH-in-mean model. It highlights a possible emergence of a polarized version with conventional proposition that ERV works as an impediment factor on trade flows.

Partners to a preferential trade agreement: Implications of varying size

Most often, the theory of preferential trade agreements assumes a “small” home country, and a “large” partner. In this paper, the welfare implications of a small trading partner are examined. A distinction is found between two ranges of size: a country may be just “small”, or be “ultra-small”. Conventional propositions about the likelihood of a gain or a loss from entering into a preferential agreement would still hold when the partner is “small”; whereas some of them would have to be reversed when the partner is an “ultra-small” economy.

THE LEBANESE STATE: LEBANESE UNITY AND THE SUNNI MUSLIM POSITION

The objective of this paper was to test the veracity of the conventional wisdom of Lebanese Sunni perceptions which states that they perceive members of the other confessional groups negatively, avoid contact with them, and look with disfavour at the Lebanese state. The data, which were collected between November 1989 and April 1990, come from a nationwide survey that comprised 500 male Lebanese Sunnis. The findings disclose that, with the exception of Sunni negative views on the Shi'is, they are not markedly hostile to Lebanon's other major ethno-religious groups. The Sunni propensity for inter-group cooperation, while symmetrical with their inter-group perceptions, is conspicuously more positive in its intensity. Finally, and in sharp contrast with the conventional proposition, the Sunnis exhibit very strong support for an independent and centralised Lebanese state.

City Shoppers and Urban Identification: Observations on the Social Psychology of City Life

Chicago housewives comprise four types of shoppers: economic, personalizing, ethical, and apathetic. The personalization and moralization of customer-clerk relationships cannot be inferred from conventional proposition about the anonymity of city life, yet the shoppers are urbanites. Each type of shopper is distinguished by a specific pattern of social characteristics reflecting her position in the social structure of her residential community. Moreover, some evidence suggests that personalizing shoppers draw on their relationships with clerks to form subjective identifications with a community in which they have restricted opportunities for participation.