Nash implementation via hyperfunctions

Hyperfunctions are social choice rules which assign sets of alternatives to preference profiles over sets. Therefore, they are more general objects compared to standard (social choice) correspondences. In fact, every correspondence can be expressed in terms of an equivalent hyperfunction. We give a partial characterization of Nash-implementable hyperfunctions and explore the conditions under which correspondences have Nash-implementable equivalent hyperfunctions. While the strength of these conditions depends on the axioms used to extend preferences over alternatives to sets, they are at most as strong as the conjunction of Maskin monotonicity with the no veto power condition. Thus, our approach expands the set of Nash-implementable social choice rules. In fact, social choice rules such as the majority rule and the top cycle are Nash-implementable through their equivalent hyperfunctions, while they are not Maskin-monotonic, and thus, not Nash-implementable in the standard framework.

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Efficient nonanthropocentric nature protection

This paper analyzes nature protection by a social planner under different ‘utilitarian’ social welfare functions. For that purpose we construct an integrated model of the economy and the ecosystem with explicit consideration of nonhuman species and with competition between human and nonhuman species for land and prey biomass. We characterize and compare the efficient allocations when social welfare is anthropocentric (only consumers have positive welfare weights), when social welfare is biocentric (only nonhuman species have positive welfare weights) and when social welfare is nonanthropocentric (all species have positive welfare weights). Not surprisingly, biocentric social welfare calls for suspending all economic activities. It is more important, however, that both anthropocentrism and nonanthropocentrism make the case for nature protection through different channels, though. Our analysis suggests that one may dispense with the concept of nonanthropocentric social welfare provided that in the anthropocentric framework the consumers' intrinsic valuation of nature is properly accounted for.

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Pride, empowerment, and return to work: on the significance of promoting positive social emotions among sickness absentees

Sickness absence is a great public health problem and there is a lack of knowledge concerning the hows and whys of success or failure in promoting return to work of sick-listed persons. Discussions of and research into social and psychological aspects of this problem area are in need of theoretical contextualisation. In this paper it is suggested that theories of social emotions may be useful, and that the concept of empowerment can be applied provided that it is reasonably well defined. The notions of pride/shame and empowerment are elucidated and discussed, and it is shown that they can be related in the context of research into emotional dimensions of sickness absentees' experiences of the rehabilitation process in a way that may help to guide empirical studies. A simple model of hypothetical relations between pride/shame, empowerment/disempowerment, work ability, health, and return to work is sketched.     

Die Wirkung ausländischer Direktinvestitionen auf die Beschäftigung im Heimatmarkt: Eine empirische Analyse des deutschen Mittelstands

Outbound FDI of German SMEs is often assumed to have a negative impact on domestic employment due to job replacement into low wage countries. In this context research often disregards, that FDI can be of horizontal or vertical nature and therefore has different effects on domestic employment. We analyze domestic employment effects using a sample of 1.106 German SMEs. The results show, that a differentiated view is appropriate and necessary to generate a more complete picture of the effects of FDI on job development in the domestic market. Whereas horizontal FDI has complementary effects on domestic employment, vertical FDI is linked to substitutional employment effects.     

Gerechtigkeit: Die Wahrheit der Demokratie

It seems reasonable, that Badiou declares, it should be possible to find a fixed point in the universe, from which democracy and social justice could be justified in away to which truth could be attributed. For, the point of departure can only be found in the human life-form. And the human life-form must be understood as a fact. For facts, however, we claim truth. From the truth of the human life-form a second statement of truth can be derived: the constructivity of the social order. This, finally, leads to the postulate of the democratic order of society and its justice. For philosophers it might seem unthinkable to derive a normative postulate from a fact. However, in an epistemological refined thinking in a world that has become secular the procedure is not unavoidable. Furthermore it makes good sense to declare that the human life-form (a fact) demands democracy (a normative postulate).     

Cross-National Measurement Invariance of the Teacher and Classmate Support Scale

The cross-national measurement invariance of the teacher and classmate support scale was assessed in a study of 23202 Grade 8 and 10 students from Austria, Canada, England, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia, participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2001/2002 study. A multi-group means and covariance analysis supported configural and metric invariance across countries, but not full scalar equivalence. The composite reliability was adequate and highly consistent across countries. In all seven countries, teacher support showed stronger associations with school satisfaction than did classmate support, with the results being highly consistent across countries. The results indicate that the teacher and classmate support scale may be used in cross-cultural studies that focus on relationships between teacher and classmate support and other constructs. However, the lack of scalar equivalence indicates that direct comparison of the levels support across countries might not be warranted.     

Estimation of structural impulse responses: short-run versus long-run identifying restrictions

There is evidence that estimates of long-run impulse responses of structural vector autoregressive (VAR) models based on long-run identifying restrictions may not be very accurate. This finding suggests that using short-run identifying restrictions may be preferable. We compare structural VAR impulse response estimates based on long-run and short-run identifying restrictions and find that long-run identifying restrictions can result in much more precise estimates for the structural impulse responses than restrictions on the impact effects of the shocks.     

Variable selection in linear regression analysis with alternative Bayesian information criteria using differential evaluation algorithm

In statistical analysis, one of the most important subjects is to select relevant exploratory variables that perfectly explain the dependent variable. Variable selection methods are usually performed within regression analysis. Variable selection is implemented so as to minimize the information criteria (IC) in regression models. Information criteria directly affect the power of prediction and the estimation of selected models. There are numerous information criteria in literature such as Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC). These criteria are modified for to improve the performance of the selected models. BIC is extended with alternative modifications towards the usage of prior and information matrix. Information matrix-based BIC (IBIC) and scaled unit information prior BIC (SPBIC) are efficient criteria for this modification. In this article, we proposed a combination to perform variable selection via differential evolution (DE) algorithm for minimizing IBIC and SPBIC in linear regression analysis. We concluded that these alternative criteria are very useful for variable selection. We also illustrated the efficiency of this combination with various simulation and application studies.     

GMM inference in spatial autoregressive models

In this study, we investigate the finite sample properties of the optimal generalized method of moments estimator (OGMME) for a spatial econometric model with a first-order spatial autoregressive process in the dependent variable and the disturbance term (for short SARAR(1, 1)). We show that the estimated asymptotic standard errors for spatial autoregressive parameters can be substantially smaller than their empirical counterparts. Hence, we extend the finite sample variance correction methodology of Windmeijer (2005 Windmeijer, F. (2005). A finite sample correction for the variance of linear efficient two-step GMM estimators. Journal of Econometrics 126(1):25–51.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to the OGMME for the SARAR(1, 1) model. Results from simulation studies indicate that the correction method improves the variance estimates in small samples and leads to more accurate inference for the spatial autoregressive parameters. For the same model, we compare the finite sample properties of various test statistics for linear restrictions on autoregressive parameters. These tests include the standard asymptotic Wald test based on various GMMEs, a bootstrapped version of the Wald test, two versions of the C(α) test, the standard Lagrange multiplier (LM) test, the minimum chi-square test (MC), and two versions of the generalized method of moments (GMM) criterion test. Finally, we study the finite sample properties of effects estimators that show how changes in explanatory variables impact the dependent variable.