Production under uncertainty and choice under uncertainty in the emergence of generalized expected utility theory

This paper presents a personal view of the interaction between the analysis of choice under uncertainty and the analysis of production under uncertainty. Interest in the foundations of the theory of choice under uncertainty was stimulated by applications of expected utility theory such as the Sandmo model of production under uncertainty. This interest led to the development of generalized models including rank-dependent expected utility theory. In turn, the development of generalized expected utility models raised the question of whether such models could be used in the analysis of applied problems such as those involving production under uncertainty. Finally, the revival of the state-contingent approach led to the recognition of a fundamental duality between choice problems and production problems.

Műszaki és gazdasági hatékonyság Koopmans termeléselméletében (Technical and economic efficiency in Koopmans' theory of production)

Koopmans gyakorlati problémák megoldása során szerzett tapasztalatait általánosítva fogott hozzá a lineáris tevékenységelemzési modell kidolgozásához. Meglepődve tapasztalta, hogy a korabeli közgazdaságtan nem rendelkezett egységes, kellően egzakt termeléselmélettel és fogalomrendszerrel. Úttörő dolgozatában ezért - mintegy a lineáris tevékenységelemzési modell elméleti kereteként - lerakta a technológiai halmazok fogalmán nyugvó axiomatikus termeléselmélet alapjait is. Nevéhez fűződik a termelési hatékonyság és a hatékonysági árak fogalmának egzakt definíciója, s az egymást kölcsönösen feltételező viszonyuk igazolása a lineáris tevékenységelemzési modell keretében. A hatékonyság manapság használatos, pusztán műszaki szempontból értelmezett definícióját Koopmans csak sajátos esetként tárgyalta, célja a gazdasági hatékonyság fogalmának a bevezetése és elemzése volt. Dolgozatunkban a lineáris programozás dualitási tételei segítségével rekonstruáljuk ez utóbbira vonatkozó eredményeit. Megmutatjuk, hogy egyrészt bizonyításai egyenértékűek a lineáris programozás dualitási tételeinek igazolásával, másrészt a gazdasági hatékonysági árak voltaképpen a mai értelemben vett árnyékárak. Rámutatunk arra is, hogy a gazdasági hatékonyság értelmezéséhez megfogalmazott modellje az Arrow-Debreu-McKenzie-féle általános egyensúlyelméleti modellek közvetlen előzményének tekinthető, tartalmazta azok szinte minden lényeges elemét és fogalmát - az egyensúlyi árak nem mások, mint a Koopmans-féle hatékonysági árak. Végezetül újraértelmezzük Koopmans modelljét a vállalati technológiai mikroökonómiai leírásának lehetséges eszközeként. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: B23, B41, C61, D20, D50. /===/ Generalizing from his experience in solving practical problems, Koopmans set about devising a linear model for analysing activity. Surprisingly, he found that economics at that time possessed no uniform, sufficiently exact theory of production or system of concepts for it. He set out in a pioneering study to provide a theoretical framework for a linear model for analysing activity by expressing first the axiomatic bases of production theory, which rest on the concept of technological sets. He is associated with exact definition of the concept of production efficiency and efficiency prices, and confirmation of their relation as mutual postulates within the linear model of activity analysis. Koopmans saw the present, purely technical definition of efficiency as a special case; he aimed to introduce and analyse the concept of economic efficiency. The study uses the duality precepts of linear programming to reconstruct the results for the latter. It is shown first that evidence confirming the duality precepts of linear programming is equal in value, and secondly that efficiency prices are really shadow prices in today's sense. Furthermore, the model for the interpretation of economic efficiency can be seen as a direct predecessor of the Arrow–Debreu–McKenzie models of general equilibrium theory, as it contained almost every essential element and concept of them—equilibrium prices are nothing other than Koopmans' efficiency prices. Finally Koopmans' model is reinterpreted as a necessary tool for microeconomic description of enterprise technology.

On Measuring the Efficiency of Monetary Policy

Cecchetti et al. (2006) develop a method for allocating macroeconomic performance changes among the structure of the economy, variability of supply shocks and monetary policy. We propose a dual approach of their method by borrowing well-known tools from production theory, namely the Farrell measure and the Malmquist index. Following FÄare et al (1994) we propose a decomposition of the efficiency of monetary policy. It is shown that the global efficiency changes can be rewritten as the product of the changes in macroeconomic performance, minimum quadratic loss, and efficiency frontier.

A leitura através do currículo: uma análise do PCN de Língua Portuguesa - a compreensão em foco

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

La psicologia della Gestalt. Ricerche teoriche e sperimentali sulla percezione sonora e musicale (1890-1939)

The aim of the present work is a historical survey on Gestalt trends in psychological research between late 19th and the first half of 20th century with privileged reference to sound and musical perception by means of a reconsideration of experimental and theoretical literature. Ernst Mach and Christian von Ehrenfels gave rise to the debate about Gestaltqualität which notably grew thanks to the ‘Graz School’ (Alexius Meinong, Stephan Witasek, Anton Faist, Vittorio Benussi), where the object theory and the production theory of perception were worked out. Stumpf’s research on Tonpsychologie and Franz Brentano’s tradition of ‘act psychology’ were directly involved in this debate, opposing to Wilhelm Wundt’s conception of the discipline; this clearly came to light in Stumpf’s controversy with Carl Lorenz and Wundt on Tondistanzen. Stumpf’s concept of Verschmelzung and his views about consonance and concordance led him to some disputes with Theodor Lipps and Felix Krueger, lasting more than two decades. Carl Stumpf was responsible for education of a new generation of scholars during his teaching at the Berlin University: his pupils Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Koffka and Max Wertheimer established the so-called ‘Berlin School’ and promoted the official Gestalt theory since the 1910s. After 1922 until 1938 they gave life and led together with other distinguished scientists the «Psychologische Forschung», a scientific journal in which ‘Gestalt laws’ and many other acoustical studies on different themes (such as sound localization, successive comparison, phonetic phenomena) were exposed. During the 1920s Erich Moritz von Hornbostel gave important contributions towards the definition of an organic Tonsystem in which sound phenomena could find adequate arrangement. Last section of the work contains descriptions of Albert Wellek’s studies, Kurt Huber’s vowel researches and aspects of melody perception, apparent movement and phi-phenomenon in acoustical field. The work contains also some considerations on the relationships among tone psychology, musical psychology, Gestalt psychology, musical aesthetics and musical theory. Finally, the way Gestalt psychology changed earlier interpretations is exemplified by the decisive renewal of perception theory, the abandon of Konstanzannahme, some repercussions on theory of meaning as organization and on feelings in musical experience.

Essays in structural heuristics

This dissertation introduces and develops a new method of rational reconstruction called structural heuristics. Structural heuristics takes assignment of structure to any given object of investigation as the starting point for its rational reconstruction. This means to look at any given object as a system of relations and of transformation laws for those relations. The operational content of this heuristics can be summarized as follows: when facing any given system the best way to approach it is to explicitly look for a possible structure of it. The utilization of structural heuristics allows structural awareness, which is considered a fundamental epistemic disposition, as well as a fundamental condition for the rational reconstruction of systems of knowledge. In this dissertation, structural heuristics is applied to reconstructing the domain of economic knowledge. This is done by exploring four distinct areas of economic research: (i) economic axiomatics; (ii) realism in economics; (iii) production theory; (iv) economic psychology. The application of structural heuristics to these fields of economic inquiry shows the flexibility and potential of structural heuristics as epistemic tool for theoretical exploration and reconstruction.

Shareholder protection and stock market development

The dissertation contains five parts: An introduction, three major chapters, and a short conclusion. The First Chapter starts from a survey and discussion of the studies on corporate law and financial development literature. The commonly used methods in these cross-sectional analyses are biased as legal origins are no longer valid instruments. Hence, the model uncertainty becomes a salient problem. The Bayesian Model Averaging algorithm is applied to test the robustness of empirical results in Djankov et al. (2008). The analysis finds that their constructed legal index is not robustly correlated with most of the various stock market outcome variables. The second Chapter looks into the effects of minority shareholders protection in corporate governance regime on entrepreneurs' ex ante incentives to undertake IPO. Most of the current literature focuses on the beneficial part of minority shareholder protection on valuation, while overlooks its private costs on entrepreneur's control. As a result, the entrepreneur trade-offs the costs of monitoring with the benefits of cheap sources of finance when minority shareholder protection improves. The theoretical predictions are empirically tested using panel data and GMM-sys estimator. The third Chapter investigates the corporate law and corporate governance reform in China. The corporate law in China regards shareholder control as the means to the ends of pursuing the interests of stakeholders, which is inefficient. The Chapter combines the recent development of theories of the firm, i.e., the team production theory and the property rights theory, to solve such problem. The enlightened shareholder value, which emphasizes on the long term valuation of the firm, should be adopted as objectives of listed firms. In addition, a move from the mandatory division of power between shareholder meeting and board meeting to the default regime, is proposed.

A COMUNICAÇÃO ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO EPISTEMOLÓGICO

Este trabalho consiste num estudo epistemológico tendo por objeto a produção teóricometodológica em Comunicação Organizacional produzida no Brasil e no exterior. A tese procurou identificar, descrever, comparar e avaliar suas principais denominações, escolas, correntes teóricas, vinculações filosóficas e fatores sociais condicionantes. Para esse empreendimento houve a necessidade de elaboração de uma ampla revisão bibliográfica em epistemologia, assim como a proposição de metodologia específica para estudos epistemológicos. Essa metodologia contemplou abordagens qualitativas, provenientes da Filosofia, e abordagens quantitativas, provenientes da Bibliometria, entre outros. Neste caso, foram avaliados 1.181 registros e 517 documentos internacionais disponíveis nas bases de dados Web of Science, além da literatura produzida no Brasil e no exterior sobre o assunto. O estudo demonstrou que, em sua concepção hegemônica, a Comunicação Organizacional é profundamente marcada pelas ciências do management e concebida como um conjunto de práticas e atividades de comunicação voltadas à eficácia empresarial. Entretanto, enquanto realidade social e histórica, a comunicação organizacional é um objeto muito mais amplo e extenso, devido não apenas à existência de diversas formas de organização, mas também porque a interação das organizações, na atual configuração da sociedade em rede, é cada vez mais complexa.(AU)

A COMUNICAÇÃO ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO EPISTEMOLÓGICO

Este trabalho consiste num estudo epistemológico tendo por objeto a produção teóricometodológica em Comunicação Organizacional produzida no Brasil e no exterior. A tese procurou identificar, descrever, comparar e avaliar suas principais denominações, escolas, correntes teóricas, vinculações filosóficas e fatores sociais condicionantes. Para esse empreendimento houve a necessidade de elaboração de uma ampla revisão bibliográfica em epistemologia, assim como a proposição de metodologia específica para estudos epistemológicos. Essa metodologia contemplou abordagens qualitativas, provenientes da Filosofia, e abordagens quantitativas, provenientes da Bibliometria, entre outros. Neste caso, foram avaliados 1.181 registros e 517 documentos internacionais disponíveis nas bases de dados Web of Science, além da literatura produzida no Brasil e no exterior sobre o assunto. O estudo demonstrou que, em sua concepção hegemônica, a Comunicação Organizacional é profundamente marcada pelas ciências do management e concebida como um conjunto de práticas e atividades de comunicação voltadas à eficácia empresarial. Entretanto, enquanto realidade social e histórica, a comunicação organizacional é um objeto muito mais amplo e extenso, devido não apenas à existência de diversas formas de organização, mas também porque a interação das organizações, na atual configuração da sociedade em rede, é cada vez mais complexa.(AU)

A COMUNICAÇÃO ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO EPISTEMOLÓGICO

Este trabalho consiste num estudo epistemológico tendo por objeto a produção teóricometodológica em Comunicação Organizacional produzida no Brasil e no exterior. A tese procurou identificar, descrever, comparar e avaliar suas principais denominações, escolas, correntes teóricas, vinculações filosóficas e fatores sociais condicionantes. Para esse empreendimento houve a necessidade de elaboração de uma ampla revisão bibliográfica em epistemologia, assim como a proposição de metodologia específica para estudos epistemológicos. Essa metodologia contemplou abordagens qualitativas, provenientes da Filosofia, e abordagens quantitativas, provenientes da Bibliometria, entre outros. Neste caso, foram avaliados 1.181 registros e 517 documentos internacionais disponíveis nas bases de dados Web of Science, além da literatura produzida no Brasil e no exterior sobre o assunto. O estudo demonstrou que, em sua concepção hegemônica, a Comunicação Organizacional é profundamente marcada pelas ciências do management e concebida como um conjunto de práticas e atividades de comunicação voltadas à eficácia empresarial. Entretanto, enquanto realidade social e histórica, a comunicação organizacional é um objeto muito mais amplo e extenso, devido não apenas à existência de diversas formas de organização, mas também porque a interação das organizações, na atual configuração da sociedade em rede, é cada vez mais complexa.(AU)

Laadun ja oikean tiedon varmistaminen pk-yrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjussa

Oikean tiedon siirtyminen oikeaan aikaan, sekä laadukkaan työn tekeminen yrityksen tilaus-toimitusketjun jokaisessa vaiheessa, ovat avaintekijöitä arvolupauksen ja laadun täyttämiseen asiakkaalle. Diplomityön tavoite on kehittää pk-yritykselle työkalut parempaan tiedon hallintaan ja laadukkaan työn tekemiseen toiminnanohjausjärjestelmässä. Tutkimusmenetelmänä diplomityössä käytettiin toimintatutkimusta, jossa diplomityön tekijä osallistui kohdeyrityksen päivittäiseen työn tekemiseen neljän kuukauden ajan. Tutkimuksen tiedon keräämisessä käytettiin myös puolistrukturoitua haastattelua, sekä kyselytutkimuksella. Tutkimusote työssä on kvalitatiivinen eli laadullinen tutkimusote. Työ koostuu teoriaosasta sekä soveltavasta osasta, jonka jälkeen työn tulokset esitetään tiivistetysti johtopäätöksissä ja yhteenvedossa. Toiminnanohjausjärjestelmät keräävät ja tallentavat tietoa, jota työntekijät ja yrityksen rajapinnoilla työskentelevät ihmiset siihen syöttävät. Onkin äärimmäisen tärkeää, että yrityksellä on kuvatut yhtenäiset toimintamallit prosesseille, joita he käyttävät tiedon tallentamisessa järjestelmiin. Tässä diplomityössä tutkitaan pk-yrityksen nykyiset toimintamallit tiedon tallentamisesta toiminnanohjausjärjestelmään, jonka jälkeen kehitetään yhtenäiset ohjeet toiminnanohjausjärjestelmään syötetystä myyntitilaussopimuksesta. Teoriaosuudessa esitetään laatu eri näkökulmista ja mitä laadunhallintajärjestelmät ovat ja kuinka niitä kehitetään. Teoriaosassa myös avataan tilausohjautuvan tuotannon periaatteet, sekä toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän merkitys liiketoiminnalle. Teoriaosuudella pohjustetaan soveltavaa osuutta, jossa ongelma-analyysin jälkeen kehitetään yritykseen oma laadunhallintajärjestelmä, sekä uudet työmallit tiedonvaihtoon ja sen tallentamiseen. Tuloksena on myös toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän käytön tehostuminen ohjelmistotoimittajan tekemänä. Ohjelmasta karsittiin turhat nimikkeistöt ja sen konfigurointia tehostettiin. Työn tuloksena saatiin työohjeet ydinprosessien suorittamiseen, sekä oma laadunhallintajärjestelmä tukemaan yrityksen ydin- ja tukiprosesseja, sekä tiedonhallintaa.

Self-organization and complexity theory to support evolvable production systems

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Determination or determinants? A debate based on the Theory on the Social Production of Health

This article aims to discuss the concepts of Social Determination of Health and Social Determinants of Health, by establishing a comparison between each of their guiding perspectives and investigating their implications on the development of health policies and health actions. We propose a historical and conceptual reflection, highlighting the Theory on the Social Production of Health, followed by a debate on the concepts, with a comparative approach among them.

A search theory of money and commerce with Neoclassical production

This paper advances a highly tractable model with search theoretic foundations for money and neoclassical growth. In the model, manufacturingand commerce are distinct and separate activities. In manufacturing,goods are efficiently produced combining capital and labor. In commerce,goods are exchanged in bilateral meetings. The model is applied to studythe effects of inßation on capital accumulation and welfare. With realisticparameters, inflation has large negative effects on welfare even though itraises capital and output. In contrast, with cash-in-advance, a deviceinformally motivated with bilateral trading, inflation depresses capitaland output and has a negligible effect on welfare.

Reception of Walras' theory of exchange and theory of production in Russia

This paper evaluates the reception of Léon Walras' ideas in Russia before 1920. Despite an unfavourable institutional context, Walras was read by Russian economists. On the one hand, Bortkiewicz and Winiarski, who lived outside Russia and had the opportunity to meet and correspond with Walras, were first class readers and very good ambassadors for Walras' ideas, while on the other, the economists living in Russia were more selective in their readings. They restricted themselves to Walras' Elements of Pure Economics, in particular, its theory of exchange, while ignoring its theory of production. We introduce a cultural argument to explain their selective reading. JEL classification numbers: B 13, B 19.