Suchergebnisse

Rick Farmer's article focuses on ways in which academic political scientists can influence policymakers. At the Toronto meeting of the Working Group on Practicing Politics, government political scientists also recognized that academics often are frustrated by the process of getting information from the government and cooperation from officials.

In modern societies gender gap attracts significant attention. Scientists are
trying to research this issue from different aspects: demographical,
sociological, economic, etc. The goal of this paper is to define the basic
variables that explain variation on the labor markets in Europe from the
gender point of view and to compare labor market in Serbia with European
countries in order to identify the countries with the most similar gender
performances, with intention to overview their experiences concerning the
policy measures for gender gap reduction. Analysis is conducted through
observations of activity rates, employment rates, unemployment rates,
inactivity rates, and long-term unemployment rates. With use of factor
analysis we have identified the main factors on the labor markets in Europe
and on the basis of cluster analysis we have conducted grouping of countries
on the basis of discovered factors. Identification of cluster with Serbia was
conducted and also the place of the Serbian labor market in the same cluster.
On the basis of quantitative results qualitative analysis was conducted to
overview the experience in the field of gender differences on the labor
market in the countries from the same cluster as Serbia, with special
attention to Italy. Contemporary researches define labor market policy
measures oriented to reduction of inequalities in the field of paid and
unpaid labor. Decrease of these inequalities will consequently lead to the
increase of female labor supply on the market. Final result of this research
is the recommendation of policy measures in order to reduce gender
differences in economic activity with final goal of creating modern society
in Serbia and convergence with the most advanced countries in that field.

Realists argue that balancing occurs in response to changes to the balance of power. Recent informational approaches have focused primarily on informational asymmetries or commitment problems. The article combines these two approaches and builds on them by incorporating characteristics of the revisionist state and the potential balancer, as well as the specific challenge to the balance of power. The model confirms that informational asymmetries often lead to commitment problems, which are a necessary condition for balancing. However, whether or not informational asymmetries create commitment problems depends on both the nature of the challenger's move and the relative power of the challenger and respondent. The article shows under what conditions balancing is likely to occur and, counter-intuitively, that less revisionist challengers are often more willing to risk being balanced against than are more aggressive challengers.

Realists argue that balancing occurs in response to changes to the balance of power. Recent informational approaches have focused primarily on informational asymmetries or commitment problems. The article combines these two approaches and builds on them by incorporating characteristics of the revisionist state and the potential balancer, as well as the specific challenge to the balance of power. The model confirms that informational asymmetries often lead to commitment problems, which are a necessary condition for balancing. However, whether or not informational asymmetries create commitment problems depends on both the nature of the challenger's move and the relative power of the challenger and respondent. The article shows under what conditions balancing is likely to occur and, counter-intuitively, that less revisionist challengers are often more willing to risk being balanced against than are more aggressive challengers. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

The study presents a historical and sociological interpretation of the events that marked the gradual integration of the Bata Company into the Indian economy and society from the mid-1920s to the early 1960s. Within this context, in addition to the general economic, political and cultural developments, particular attention has been devoted to the everyday life of Indian and Czech workers in the Bata company town of Batanagar. The study is based on a comparative-historical analysis of available archival sources and a secondary analysis of the relevant academic literature. The results of the research indicate that during this period, Bata was forced to adapt continuously to the cultural specifics of Indian society, that is, the process of its integration into the Indian economy and society had pronounced glocal characteristics.

AbstractThe paper addresses the persistent finance gaps facing young, innovative SMEs, by examining the financing pathways of 40 UK businesses in a post global financial crisis (GFC) environment. Using a unique combination of finance escalator and resource‐based view theories four propositions are tested by examining: (i) early and growth stage development; (ii) innovation R&D investment horizons; (iii) the management resource base; (iv) finance gaps and their implications. The paper finds that successful financing strategies are emerging, using a mix of bootstrapping, collaboration and new emerging post‐GFC finance escalator funding, which is heavily reliant on government interventions. It also pinpoints remaining finance gaps and the need for more cohesive financing and support policy to address these.

Several occupational exposure models are recommended under the EU's REACH legislation. Due to limited availability of high-quality exposure data, their validation is an ongoing process. It was shown, however, that different models may calculate significantly different estimates and thus lead to potentially dangerous conclusions about chemical risk. In this paper, the between-model translation rules defined in TREXMO were used to generate 319000 different in silico exposure situations in ART, Stoffenmanager, and ECETOC TRA v3. The three models' estimates were computed and the correlation and consistency between them were investigated. The best correlated pair was Stoffenmanager-ART (R, 0.52-0.90), whereas the ART-TRA and Stoffenmanager-TRA correlations were either lower (R, 0.36-0.69) or no correlation was found. Consistency varied significantly according to different exposure types (e.g. vapour versus dust) or settings (near-field versus far-field and indoors versus outdoors). The percentages of generated situations for which estimates differed by more than a factor of 100 ranged from 14 to 97%, 37 to 99%, and 1 to 68% for Stoffenmanager-ART, TRA-ART, and TRA-Stoffenmanager, respectively. Overall, the models were more consistent for vapours than for dusts and solids, near-fields than for far-fields, and indoor than for outdoor exposure. Multiple linear regression analyses evidenced the relationship between the models' parameters and the relative differences between the models' predictions. The relative difference can be used to estimate the consistency between the models. Furthermore, the study showed that the tiered approach is not generally applicable to all exposure situations. These findings emphasize the need for a multiple-model approach to assessing critical exposure scenarios under REACH. Moreover, in combination with occupational exposure measurements, they might also be used for future studies to improve prediction accuracy.

This paper studies the time evolution in the degree and level of anchoring of inflation expectations in four Central and Eastern European inflation targeting countries. The results suggest that the degree of anchoring of inflation expectations increased gradually in all countries over the last decade, while the level of implied inflation targets moved towards the official target. The extent of anchoring increased more strongly in the first years following the IT adoption and more gradually over the later period. We also find that smooth changes of the official target had a positive impact on anchoring.