FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS AND INNOVATION: WHY POOR COUNTRIES DON'T CATCH UP

This paper examines micro‐level channels through which financial development can affect such macroeconomic outcomes as level of income. Specifically, we investigate theoretically and empirically how financial constraints affect a firm's innovation activities. Theoretical predictions are tested using unique firm survey data, which provide direct measures for innovations and firm‐specific financial constraints, as well as information on shocks to firms' internal funds that serve as firm‐level instruments for financial constraints. We find unambiguous evidence that financial constraints restrain the ability of domestically owned firms to innovate and hence to catch up to the technological frontier.     

Choice of reinforcement rates and work rates with concurrent schedules

A constrained optimisation theory or choice in concurrent schedules of reinforcement is presented. The theory posits that subjects evaluate both reinforcement rates and the work rates required to produce them and select the most highly valued combination. The chosen reinforcement rate is obtained by efficiently allocating work rate across schedules. The theory provides a unified explanation for maximisation of the overall reinforcement rate, the law of least effort, choice under Conc FR FR, Conc VR VR. Conc VI VI and Conc VI VR schedules, and choice of work rate.     

Unemployment and economic psychology: An introduction

Starting from literature a short sequential scheme is being presented, including contextual and causal factors of employment, phenomenal aspects of unemployment, moderator variables, effects and lastly interventions and solutions.General aspects as well as more restricted aspects of unemployment as an area of research within economic psychology are mentioned. The contributions within this issue are discussed in connection with the scheme and the different aspects that were distinguished.     

Geography, demography, and early development

This paper explores the role of geography in early development. It presents a model where the odds of survival are higher in geographically favorable regions. In such regions, higher life expectancy prompts parents to devote more of their resources to old-age consumption and enables them to invest relatively more in the quantity and quality of their offspring. Investment in education, together with population growth, helps geographically-favorable economies to attain high levels of a more educated population that is necessary for sustained economic growth. The empirical evidence is generally supportive of the view that geographic attributes influenced regional population levels in Europe and its colonial offshoots around 1500 A.D. and that they affected population levels and educational attainment in low-income countries of the 1990s. For useful comments and suggestions I thank the editor, two anonymous referees, Daron Acemoglu, Ann Carlos, Phil Graves, Naci Mocan, Oded Stark, seminar participants at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Colorado at Denver, and the 2002 Royal Economic Society Annual Conference. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my advisor Herschel Grossman who passed away in October 2004 after leaving his mark on many of us in the profession. The standard disclaimer applies. Responsible editor: Alessandro Cigno.     

烧结温度对CaCu3Ti4O12性能的影响

传统的烧结法，经850℃、980℃预烧和1000℃-1125℃烧结制备了CaCu3Ti4O12巨介电常数陶瓷．通过X射线衍射（XRD）对体系进行了结晶性能和形貌测试，用阻抗分析仪对试样在50—300K范围内的介电性能进行了测试．研究结果表明：CaCu3Ti4O12的介电常数直接受材料的结晶程度、晶粒大小及致密度控制．通过改善预烧粉末先驱体的结晶程度、提高材料的晶粒尺寸和致密度、改善烧结样品的结晶程度可以获得性能优良的材料．结晶完整，晶粒尺寸大及致密度高的CaCu3Ti4O12在较大的温区范围具有高的介电常数．     

韩国新一轮产业结构调整及其对我国经济结构调整的启示

20世纪90年代以来,韩国经济发展速度放慢的一个重要原因,就是产业结构调整的滞后。目前,韩国正在进行新一轮的产业结构调整,并且初见成效。研究并借鉴韩国产业结构调整的得失,对正处于经济结构调整关键时期的中国来说,大有裨益。     

韩剧热播的社会效益及对中国电视剧的启示

近年来，韩国电视剧在儒家文化圈，特别是在中国传媒市场上呈现强劲趋势，给韩国带来了巨大的经济收益，带动了众多相关产业，甚至扭转了其他国家对韩民族的文化偏见。探讨韩剧如何火爆，对中国电视剧的发展有一定的启示。     

Exchange rate policies simulated by means of a disequilibrium model of the Finnish economy

In this paper a model for the Finnish economy with disequilibrium in the goods and financial markets is specified and estimated by single equation methods. The transmission mechanisms of the model are studied in the framework of various devaluation simulations. The model is very sensitive, especially with respect to the prevailing credit market regime and possible regime changes. Policy effects are not so much affected by conditions in the goods market, assuming moderate policy shocks. These considerations suggest the importance in policy planning of identifying the regimes prevailing in the markets.     

Whose rights are they anyway?: The supreme court and the rights of Juveniles

This article examines selected United States Supreme Court decisions from 1923 through the 1984 term of the Court. The selection, which includes Wisconsin v. Yoder, In re Gault, In re Winship, and Schall v. Martin, traces and illustrates the triangle of interest among parent, child, and state as parens patriae, when the issue raised is the interest of children. The focal question is: Have children been recognized as having their own individual Constitutional rights, or have their rights been merged with those of their parents and/or the state standing in the place of the parents?