A la recherche de la puissance culturelle dans les relations internationales: essai de caractérisation du concept et d'appréhension du phénomène

Dès lors qu'on admet que la puissance se joue sur plusieurs échiquiers politique, militaire, économique et culturel, il importe de prendre la puissance culturelle au sérieux; car, elle marque l'assujettissement des esprits, le contrôle des manières de penser, de représenter ou de signifier par un groupe ou par un individu. On comprend alors que la puissance culturelle soit au c?ur des relations internationales en tant qu'attribut d'acteur étatique ou non étatique, facteur d'hiérarchisation et enjeu.     

Bayesian Inference in Dynamic Disequilibrium Models: An Application to the Polish Credit Market

We propose a Bayesian approach for inference in a dynamic disequilibrium model. To circumvent the difficulties raised by the Maddala and Nelson (1974) specification in the dynamic case, we analyze a dynamic extended version of the disequilibrium model of Ginsburgh et al. (1980). We develop a Gibbs sampler based on the simulation of the missing observations. The feasibility of the approach is illustrated by an empirical analysis of the Polish credit market, for which we conduct a specification search using the posterior deviance criterion of Spiegelhalter et al. (2002).     

On random variate generation for the generalized hyperbolic secant distributions

We give random variate generators for the generalized hyperbolic secant distribution and related families such as Morris's skewed generalized hyperbolic secant family and a family introduced by Laha and Lukacs. The rejection method generators are uniformly fast over the parameter space and are based upon a complex function representation of the distributions due to Harkness and HarknessThe author's research was sponsored by NSERC Grant A3456 and FCAR Grant 90-ER-0291.     

The strong uniform convergence of multivariate variable kernel estimates

We show that sup, completely as, where f is a uniformly continuous density on are independent random vectors with common density f, and f_n is the variable kernel estimate Here H_ni is the distance between X_i and its kth nearest neighbour, K is a given density satisfying some regularity conditions, and k is a sequence of integers with the property that log asn     

Recursive estimation of the mode of a multivariate density

Let f be an unknown possibly multimodal density on R^d and let X₁, X₂, … be a sequence of independent random vectors with density f. Several recursive estimates of the mode of f are proposed, and sufficient conditions ensuring their weak and strong consistency are established.     

What sex abusers say about their treatment: results from a qualitative study on pedophiles in treatment at a Canadian penitentiary clinic

This exploratory study used qualitative methodology to examine what pedophiles think about treatment, as well as their daily experience of a treatment program. To this end, twenty-three offenders receiving treatment from the La Macaza federal penitentiary clinic were interviewed using non-directive semi-structured interviews. Comparative analysis was used to analyze the resulting material. The following themes are discussed based on the results of this analysis: (a) the participants' past experience of therapy; (b) motivations for choosing the La Macaza clinic for treatment; (c) the structure of the program; (d) the group dynamics; (e) the therapists; and (f) the hardships and difficulties of treatment. Results suggest that the therapists and the program may have a function of containment or holding. Although part of the therapeutic process involves a focus on identifying and reducing cognitive distortions, results also warn therapists against misusing this concept by applying it to legitimately different opinions. Findings are discussed in terms of possible program improvements. The authors conclude that greater attention must be given to process research.     

Toward Less Division of Labor? New Production Concepts in the Automotive, Chemical, Clothing, and Machine Tool Industries

In this contribution, we focus on the results ofthe Belgian Trend Study. The intention of this study wasto examine the prevalence of new production conceptswithin the widest possible range of companies in the automotive, the machine tool, thechemical, and the clothing industries. The Trend Studyaimed to answer the following questions: is theTaylorist division of labor a thing of the past? Whatare the alternatives? Are shifts in the division oflabor accompanied by another type of personnel policy,and do traditional industrial relations have to make wayfor this new approach? The methodological concept used had to guarantee that the findingsat the level of each industry could be generalized.Though the picture emerging from the empirical datacollected in the four industrial sectors is inevitablydiverse, the data make it possible merely to suggest aneo- rather than a post-Taylorist or -Fordistconcept.     

FINANCIAL DEPENDENCE,BANKING SECTOR COMPETITION,AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

The relationships among competition in the financial sector, access of firms to external financing, and associated economic growth are ambiguous in theory. Moreover, measuring competition in the financial sector can be complex. In this paper we first estimate for 16 countries an industrial organization‐based measure of banking system competition. We then relate this competition measure to growth of industries and find that greater competition in countries' banking systems allows financially dependent industries to grow faster. These results are robust under a variety of tests. Our results suggest that the degree of competition is an important aspect of financial sector functioning. (JEL: D4, G21, L11, L80, O16)     

Gender differences in entrepreneurial intentions: A TPB multi-group analysis at factor and indicator level

Previous research suggests that diverse factors predict gender differences in entrepreneurial intent. Our paper integrates and expands on previous findings using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), including the deeper-level measurement model, allowing for a better understanding of the origin of differences. The results of a survey with business students indicate that the effect of gender on entrepreneurial intentions is mediated via personal attitudes and perceived behavioral control but not social norms. More precisely, vis-à-vis their male counterparts, women are more driven toward entrepreneurship by motives to ‘get organized’ (balance) that are less dominant in predicting personal attitude. Moreover, female students are somewhat less driven toward entrepreneurship by beliefs of internal control that are more dominant in predicting perceived control. Finally, while female students are also more motivated to comply with normative role models, this did not influence their entrepreneurial intentions over and above perceived behavioral control and personal attitude. We discuss both practical and theoretical implications of our findings.