Theoretic Explanation Research Articles

Dynamic explanations of industry structure and performance

Examines the exercise of market power in vertical channels. Reviews the development of food systems over the past century. Presents neoclassical models arising from the work of Adam Smith, George Stigler, Harold Demsetz and John Spengler that are in juxtaposition to the more commonly advanced agency theoretic explanation of vertical organization and performance. Develops a structural model of price transmission in a channel that has differentiated product oligopolies at two stages. Increasing concentration at successive stages creates a problem of double marginalization. Vertical trading partners reduce it by avoiding vertical Nash (arms length) pricing via the use of trade promotions and other coordination methods such as private label. Finally, the rise in retail‐buyer concentration (six supermarket chains now control 52.6 percent of supermarket sales in the USA) portends a possible shift to the European model in which food retailers develop and promote their own brands.

Outlet Ownership In Franchising Systems: An Agency Based Approach

Building on prior agency theoretic explanations of the franchisor-franchisee relationship, this paper introduces the franchise system manager in the traditional dyadic channel. This allows us to link the franchisors internal agency problems of providing incentives to managers to their external agency problems of acquiring and extracting rents from franchisees. We find preliminary empirical support for this approach in a structural equations model estimated on a franchise system dataset. We then develop and analyze an agency-theoretic model with agency tradeoffs. An explicit rationale for mixed ownership in franchising emerges from the model, where the share of company owned outlets is endogenously determined as the tradeoff between franchisee rents and managerial compensation.

Neoclassical explanations of vertical organization and performance of food Industries

This paper examines the exercise of market power in vertical marketing channels in a more general and novel fashion than prior research. Neoclassical models arising from the work of Adam Smith, George Stigler, Harold Demsetz, and John Spengler are presented in juxtaposition to the more commonly advanced agency theoretic explanation of vertical organization and performance. The paper develops a structural model of price transmission in a channel that has differentiated product oligopolies at two stages. Increasing concentration at successive stages creates a problem of double marginalization. Vertical trading partners reduce it by avoiding vertical Nash (arms length) pricing via the use of trade promotions and other coordination methods such as private label. Finally, the rise in retail buyer concentration, six supermarket chains now control 52.6% of supermarket sales in the U.S., portends a possible shift to the European model wherein food retailers develop and promote their own brands. [EconLit Citations: L13,Q13]. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Third Generation (Umts) Spectrum Auction in Germany

The third generation UMTS auction in Germany raised an enormous amount of revenue, and at the same time achieved a more competitive market structure than other UMTS auctions in Europe. The present paper explains the design of that auction, and presents a game theoretic explanation of observed events during the crucial phase of that auction, which have puzzled several observers. In addition, the paper evaluates the merit of the German UMTS auction design, relative to the English design, that was predominantly employed in Europe.

Bankruptcy Priority for Bank Deposits: A Contract Theoretic Explanation

Over the past decade several countries, including the US, have introduced or redesigned legislation that confers priority in bankruptcy upon all or some bank deposits. We argue that in the presence of contracting costs such rules can increase efficiency. We first show in a private information model that a borrower can reduce overall costs of finance by letting informationally heterogeneous lenders choose between junior and senior debt. In particular, we find that debt priorities reduce socially wasteful information gathering by investors. We then argue why, particularly in banking, legal standardization of debt priorities may be superior to bilateral private arrangements. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.

A study of the competing discourses of ‘not-for-resuscitation’ policies and practices

This study analyses printed educational material on cholesterol, food and health-related lifestyle changes used in primary care in southern Sweden. Two theoretically grounded perspectives are used: orientation of knowledge and rhetoric. According to the first one, the material contained many examples of abstract and detailed knowledge, such as tables of energy contents, and a little less of action-oriented and detailed knowledge, such as food recipes. We also found a few examples of comprehensive, abstract knowledge, such as theoretic explanations. Action-oriented and comprehensive knowledge, relating health to lifestyle, were rare. The rhetoric style of the material was generally dominated by plain facts, without any identified voice (i.e. sender) or any emotional orientation. Overall, information was not related to ‘the voice of the life-world’ but to ‘the voice of medicine’, and it was in character more general than specific.

Game Theoretic Explanations and the Evolution of Justice

Game theoretic explanations of the evolution of human behavior have become increasingly widespread. At their best, they allow us to abstract from misleading particulars in order to better recognize and appreciate broad patterns in the phenomena of human social life. We discuss this explanatory strategy, contrasting it with theparticularistmethodology of contemporary evolutionary psychology. We introduce some guidelines for the assessment of evolutionary game theoretic explanations of human behavior: such explanations should berepresentative, robust, andflexible.Distinguishing these features sharply can help to clarify the import and accuracy of game theorists' claims about the robustness and stability of their explanatory schemes. Our central example is the work of Brian Skyrms, who offers a game theoretic account of the evolution of our sense of justice. Modeling the same Nash game as Skyrms, we show that, while Skyrms' account is robust with respect to certain kinds of variation, it fares less well in other respects.

The discursive formation of health. A study of printed health education material used in primary care

This study analyses printed educational material on cholesterol, food and health-related lifestyle changes used in primary care in southern Sweden. Two theoretically grounded perspectives are used: orientation of knowledge and rhetoric. According to the first one, the material contained many examples of abstract and detailed knowledge, such as tables of energy contents, and a little less of action-oriented and detailed knowledge, such as food recipes. We also found a few examples of comprehensive, abstract knowledge, such as theoretic explanations. Action-oriented and comprehensive knowledge, relating health to lifestyle, were rare. The rhetoric style of the material was generally dominated by plain facts, without any identified voice (i.e. sender) or any emotional orientation. Overall, information was not related to ‘the voice of the life-world’ but to ‘the voice of medicine’, and it was in character more general than specific.

The theory and practice of financial stability

This paper reviews sources of market failures in financial institutions and markets and what can be done to alleviate them. It examines game theoretic explanations for financial instability, in particular the role of asymmetric information in generating destabilising behaviour. Parallels are drawn between the forces that can lead to a crisis in financial institutions and those that make for price volatility in asset markets. In the area of remedies, the paper analyses the potential contribution of official ‘safety-nets’ and what can be done to minimise the associated moral hazard. In this context, it discusses the role of regulation and enhanced transparency. Lastly, the paper discusses techniques for stabilising asset prices in markets.

Modeling lossy transmission lines using the method of characteristics

This brief offers a circuit theoretic explanation of the pseudolumping technique that uses the method of characteristics for analyzing lossy transmission lines. A matrix-operator based error analysis is presented in the frequency domain, which can be used to define the validity of the approach within some error bounds and to efficiently arrive at the order of "lumping" in terms of the line parameters.

D strings and F strings from string loops.

Since the background fields of the string low energy action are supposed to be the long range manifestation of a condensate of strings, the addition of world sheet actions to the low energy effective action needs some string theoretic explanation. In this paper we suggest that this may be understood as being due to string loop effects. We first present arguments using an equation due to Tseytlin and then more rigorously in the particular case of type IIB theory by invoking the Fischler-Susskind effect. The argument provides further justification for SL(2,Z) duality between D-strings and F (fundamental)-strings. In an Appendix we comment on recent attempts to relate the type IIA membrane to the 11-dimensional membrane. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

IS THE INDEPENDENT ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRM A VALUABLE ORGANIZATIONAL FORM?

This paper provides an agency theoretic explanation for the economic value of the independent entrepreneurial firm. It demonstrates empirically that real economic growth in the U.S. economy was enhanced by growth in me prevalence of the independent entrepreneurial firm as an organizational form during the period 1947-1990.

Recent research on the national accounts of the UK, 1700–1939

Abstract Compared with other European countries the historical national accounts data for Britain are relatively high quality and are well-known. This paper concentrates on controversial aspects rather than full description and orientates its discussion towards issues relating to economic growth. Among the episodes given serious attention are growth of industrial output during the industrial revolution and the discrepancies in the national accounts at the time of the alleged late Victorian/Edwardian climacteric. Some suggestions for further development of estimates of variables relevant to new growth theoretic explanations of British growth performance conclude the paper.

M-Resolutions and Deformations of Quotient Singularities

INTRODUCTION Due to the work in [Brieskorn], [Tjurina], [Artin], [Wahl 2] and [Lipman] one understands very well the notion of simultaneous resolution for rational surface singularities. Given a rational surface singularity X, there exists a smooth parameter space Res representing the functor of deformations of the (minimal) resolution. The family Y ---+ Res contracts to X ---+Res. The fibers yt---+ X 1 are the minimal resolutions of Xt. There is a finite and Galois map Res ---+ Defx (the versa! base space of X). The image is the Artin component, which represents the functor of deformations of X with simultaneous resolution after finite base change, and the covering group W is a reflection group which is also the monodromy group of the component. In the case of rational double points (RDPs) W is the Weyl group of the corresponding root system (Ak, Dk, E6, E1 orEs). In general much information about the deformation, e.g. the discriminant and adjacencies, may be read off the geometry of this covering. The reflections in W are related to certain divisors, called roots, on Y and their liftings. The contraction map is induced by contracting RDP-configurations on Y. In connection with his work on deformations of cyclic quotient singularities ( CQS), the second author observed a natural Galois covering of each component in the reduced versal base space of a CQS. In the case of the Artin component the observed covering group was the same as for Res---+ Def. (See [Christophersen 1] and [Christophersen 2].) The first author conjectured that this was the monodromy cover and we asked ourselves if there was a deformation theoretic explanation. The purpose of this paper is to answer this question. We will show that something similar to the Res ---+ Def picture actually happens for every non-embedded component of the versa! base space of a quotient singularity. (For us a quotient singularity is the singularity of C2 /G where G C GL(2, C) is a finite subgroup which we can assume to be without pseudo-reflections.) For quotient singularities, the construction of the Artin component is a special case of a procedure involving deformations of certain modifications which we call M-resolutions. The application of threefold theory to deformations of rational singularities as found in [Kollfu--Shepherd-Barron] was important both for discovering M-resolutions and for the proofs of their properties. In fact, our results are anticipated in Theorem 3.5(a) of that paper. Still the definitions and statement of the main result may be made without reference to that work. The relevant results from [Kollfu--Shepherd-Barron] are postponed to §1. Consider a smoothing of a normal surface singularity X with smooth generic fiber F. The Milnor number of this smoothing is p. = rk H2 (F) and depends upon the component of the versa! base space of X on which the smoothing appears.

The rhetoric of the reasoned social scientific fact

An analysis is provided for one possible practical link between rhetorical and social scientific inquiry. That link is found in the rhetoric of the reasoned social scientific fact. Understanding this point of intersection involves grounding a rhetorical theory of how to create and to evaluate arguments (a rhetorical theory of invention and judgment) in the practical problems that confront contemporary social scientists during their efforts to construct reasoned social facts. The applicability of this invention and judgment framework to analysis of the rhetoric of social science is illustrated with reference to a controversy over the legitimacy of rules theoretic explanations of human communication processes. Implications of the practical link between rhetorical and social scientific inquiry are then drawn out.

How not to pay for the war

As a result of allied subsidy and the influence of sunk costs, the marginal cost of the Gulf War to the US was reduced to negligible size. This result is at variance with the Olson‐Zeckhauser thesis that in an alliance “the small exploit the large.” A game theoretic alternative explanation suggests that the relation between allies resembles the game of Chicken, successfully played by the US. The ability to shift the marginal costs of war in the short term raises questions about the possible underestimation of long term effects.

A Review of In Vitro Studies: Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields

In vitro studies of effects of low-frequency (LF) electromagnetic (EM) fields have revealed a variety of sensitive cell-physiologic end-points. Effects have been reported on (1) DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis; (2) cell proliferation; (3) cation fluxes and binding; (4) immune responses; and (5) membrane signal transduction (i.e., hormones, enzymes, and neuro-transmitters). Typically such effects occurred as a result of short-term exposure of cells to EM at frequencies of 100 Hz or less and at low field intensities. The dependency on frequency or modulation, as well as the apparent weak cellular interaction of these LF EM fields, lacks theoretic explanation. It has not been determined whether effects are induced by electric or magnetic fields. Confounding interpretation of the results are phenomena such as (1) transient or time-delayed responses; (2) modulation- and intensity-specific effects, referred to as modulation or intensity “windows;” and (3) general lack of dose- (or dose-rate) response data or EM field thresholds. Consequently, although it is well-established that LF EM fields affect biological systems in vitro, use of these data to assess human health effects is limited. This paper reviews selected published reports of LF EM fields on in vitro systems. Where possible, relevance of the findings to occupational exposures will be assessed, principally by considering the consistency of in vitro and in vivo EM exposure effects and comparison of EM field intensities that affect in vitro systems with occupational EM exposure intensities. Finally, suggestions will be made for the direction of future in vitro research of direct pertinence to potential occupational exposure problems.

A review of in vitro studies: low-frequency electromagnetic fields.

In vitro studies of effects of low-frequency (LF) electromagnetic (EM) fields have revealed a variety of sensitive cell-physiologic end-points. Effects have been reported on (1) DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis; (2) cell proliferation; (3) cation fluxes and binding; (4) immune responses; and (5) membrane signal transduction (i.e., hormones, enzymes, and neuro-transmitters). Typically such effects occurred as a result of short-term exposure of cells to EM at frequencies of 100 Hz or less and at low field intensities. The dependency on frequency or modulation, as well as the apparent weak cellular interaction of these LF EM fields, lacks theoretic explanation. It has not been determined whether effects are induced by electric or magnetic fields. Confounding interpretation of the results are phenomena such as (1) transient or time-delayed responses; (2) modulation- and intensity-specific effects, referred to as modulation or intensity "windows;" and (3) general lack of dose- (or dose-rate) response data or EM field thresholds. Consequently, although it is well-established that LF EM fields affect biological systems in vitro, use of these data to assess human health effects is limited. This paper reviews selected published reports of LF EM fields on in vitro systems. Where possible, relevance of the findings to occupational exposures will be assessed, principally by considering the consistency of in vitro and in vivo EM exposure effects and comparison of EM field intensities that affect in vitro systems with occupational EM exposure intensities. Finally, suggestions will be made for the direction of future in vitro research of direct pertinence to potential occupational exposure problems.

Continuous Hahn Polynomials of Differential Operator Argument and Analysis on Riemannian Symmetric Spaces of Constant Curvature

AbstractFor the three types of simply connected Riemannian spaces of constant curvature it is shown that the associated spherical functions can be obtained from the corresponding (zonal) spherical functions by application of a differential operator of the form p(i d/dt), where p belongs to a system of orthogonal polynomials: Gegenbauer polynomials, Hahn polynomials or continuous symmetric Hahn polynomials. We give a group theoretic explanation of this phenomenon and relate the properties of the polynomials p to the properties of the corresponding representation. The method is extended to the case of intertwining functions.

Moduli, matter scalars, and low energy superstring Lagrangians

A general method for calculating effective Lagrangians from the accidental symmetries of the string generating functional is discussed. We use this method to derive the Kahler potentials for the moduli of Z N orbifolds. Accidental symmetries are also used to construct the Kahler potential for the moduli of the Z 3 orbifold coupled to 27 and 27 matter scalars. This work provides a string theoretic explanation of the origin of no-scale models in superstring theories. Finally, the Zamolodchikov metric associated with the Z 3 orbifold coupled to 27 and 27 matter scalars is evaluated. It is shown to be identical to the metric in the scalar kinetic energy of the effective Lagrangian determined using accidental symmetries.