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While industry and regulators' interest in decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) is long-standing, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated and broadened the adoption and experience with these trials. The key idea in decentralization is bringing the clinical trial design, typically on-site, closer to the patient's experience (on-site or off-site). Thus, potential benefits of DCTs include reducing the burden of participation in trials, broadening access to a more diverse population, or using innovative endpoints collected off-site. This paper helps researchers to carefully evaluate the added value and the implications of DCTs beyond the operational aspects of their implementation. The proposed approach is to use the ICH E9(R1) estimand framework to guide the strategic decisions around each decentralization component. Furthermore, the framework can guide the process for clinical trialists to systematically consider the implications of decentralization, in turn, for each attribute of the estimand. We illustrate the use of this approach with a fully DCT case study and show that the proposed systematic process can uncover the scientific opportunities, assumptions, and potential risks associated with a possible use of decentralization components in the design of a trial. This process can also highlight the benefits of specifying estimand attributes in a granular way. Thus, we demonstrate that bringing a decentralization component into the design will not only impact estimators and estimation but can also correspond to addressing more granular questions, thereby uncovering new target estimands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 denotes a fundamental change on how production and business in general is perceived and organized. This paper questions the role of logistics within this context and raises a claim for a central role in future. It is a revision of a current position of the Scientific Advisory Board of Bundesvereinigung Logistik (BVL). Based on the insight that Logistics 4.0 is a crucial element for the implementation of Industry 4.0 three hypotheses are derived. In further elaboration, the paper introduces a total of 11 key research questions that are of central importance to the research community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable advances in developing new and more sophisticated impact evaluation methodologies and toolkits, policy research continues to suffer from persistent challenges in achieving the evaluation trifecta: identifying effects, isolating mechanisms, and influencing policy. For example, evaluation studies are routinely hampered by problems of establishing valid counterfactuals due to endogeneity and selection effects with respect to policy reform. Additionally, robust evaluation studies often must contend with heterogeneity in treatment, staggered timing, and variation in uptake. And finally, on practical grounds, researchers frequently struggle to involve policymakers and practitioners throughout the research process in order to engender the type of trust needed for policy influence. While it can be difficult to generalize about appropriate evaluation methodologies across contexts, prominent policy interventions like governance reforms for improving health services delivery nonetheless demand rigorous and comprehensive evaluation strategies that can produce valid results and engage policymakers. Drawing on illustrations from our research on health sector decentralization in Honduras, in this paper we present a quasi-experimental, multi-method, and participatory approach that addresses these persistent challenges to policy evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an effective method to control distributed energy resources (DERs) installed in a microgrid (MG) to guarantee its stability after islanding occurrence. Considering voltage and frequency variations after islanding occurrence and based on stability criteria, MG pre-islanding conditions are divided into secure and insecure classes. It is shown that insecure MG can become secure, if appropriate preventive control is applied on the DERs in different operating conditions of the MG. To select the most important variables of MG, which can estimate proper values of output power set points of DERs, a feature selection procedure known as symmetrical uncertainty is used in this paper. Among all the MG variables, critical ones are selected to calculate the appropriate output power of different DERs for different conditions of the MG. The values of selected features are transmitted by the communication system to the control unit installed on each DER to control its output power set point. In order to decrease the communication system cost, previous researchers have used local variables to control the set point of different DERs. This approach decreases the accuracy of the controller because the controller uses incomplete information. In this paper, multi-objective approach is used in order to decrease the cost of the communication system, while keeping the accuracy of the preventive control strategy in an allowable margin. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison with other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has seen an unprecedented increase in rural-to-urban migrants in the last three decades, and the extension of welfare programmes to these migrants has been a public concern in urban society. The wellbeing of rural-to-urban migrants is closely associated with their access to various welfare programmes. Although pilot reforms on social insurance extension, which often require co-contribution from both employers and employees, have been implemented in several cities, the participation rate remains low. Participation in non-contributory welfare programmes is closely related to the hukou status, which is also undergoing reform. From a social exclusion perspective, this paper examines the critical issues in China's welfare reforms in relation to the wellbeing of rural to urban migrants. Using qualitative data on welfare programme participation on both institutional and individual levels, this paper argues that the trends of welfare marketization and decentralization lead the welfare provision system to be more selective than universal. This welfare selectivity helps rural migrants with higher economic status become integrated into urban society and enjoy a sense of belonging in cities, while also creating a dual exclusion for rural migrant workers who are disadvantaged in the urban labour market. Individual-level factors, including employment selectivity, information obtainment, settlement intention, and confidence in future reform, influence the choice to participate in welfare programmes. This paper calls for an increased centralization in welfare system reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bitcoin, the most innovate digital currency as of now, created since 2008, even through experienced its ups and downs, still keeps drawing attentions to all parts of society. It relies on peer-to-peer network, achieved decentralization, anonymous and transparent. As the most representative digital currency, people curious to study how Bitcoin' price changes in the past. Methods: In this paper, we use monthly data from 2011 to 2016 to build a VEC model to exam how economic factors such as Custom price index, US dollar index, Dow jones industry average, Federal Funds Rate and gold price influence Bitcoin price. Result: From empirical analysis we find that all these variables do have a long-term influence. US dollar index is the biggest influence on Bitcoin price while gold price influence the least. Conclusion: From our result, we conclude that for now Bitcoin can be treated as a speculative asset, however, it is far from being a proper credit currency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed description of the Eurace@Unibi model, which has been developed as a versatile tool for macroeconomic analysis and policy experiments. The model explicitly incorporates the decentralized interaction of heterogeneous agents across different sectors and regions. The modeling of individual behavior is based on heuristics with empirical microfoundations. Although Eurace@Unibi has been applied successfully to different policy domains, the complexity of the structure of the model, which is similar to other agent-based macroeconomic models, makes it hard to communicate to readers the exact working of the model and enable them to check the robustness of obtained results. This paper addresses these challenges by describing the details of all decision rules, interaction protocols and balance sheet structures used in the model. Furthermore, we discuss the use of a virtual appliance as a tool allowing third parties to reproduce the simulation results and to replicate the model. The paper illustrates the potential use of the virtual appliance by providing some sensitivity analyses of the simulation output carried out using this tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a pricing decision problem with two competing supply chains which distribute differentiated but competing products in the same market. Each chain can be vertically integrated or decentralized based on the choice of the manufacturer. The manufacturing costs, sales costs and consumer demands are characterized as uncertain variables, whose distributions are estimated by experienced experts. Meanwhile, uncertainty theory and game theory are employed to formulate the pricing decision problems. The equilibrium behaviors (how the supply chain members make their own pricing decisions on wholesale prices and retailer markups) at operational level under three possible scenarios are derived. Numerical experiments are also given to explore the impacts of the parameters' uncertain degrees on supply chain members' pricing decisions. The results demonstrate that the supply chain uncertain factors have great influences on equilibrium prices. In addition, we also evaluate the effects of competing intensity (substitutability) of the two products on the strategy behaviors, vertically integrated channel strategy versus decentralized strategy, of the manufacturers. It is found that the manufacturers are better off to distribute their products through a decentralized channel rather than an integrated one when the substitutability is greater than some value. Besides, the uncertain factors in the supply chain might reduce the value contrast to the one in deterministic case. Some other interesting managerial highlights are also provided in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the political economy of pricing and investment for excludable and congestible public goods in a federal state. Although the model applies to many local congestible public facilities (such as libraries, museums and public swimming facilities), our main motivation is the problem of providing and pricing road infrastructure in federal states. The two-region model we develop allows for spill-overs between regions, it takes into account congestion, and it captures demand heterogeneity both between and within regions. Regional decisions are taken by majority voting; federal decisions are taken by a minimum winning coalition in a legislature of regionally elected representatives. We have the following results. First, when users form the majority in at least one region, decentralized decision making performs certainly better than centralized decision making if spill-overs are not too large. Centralized decisions may yield higher welfare than decentralization only if users have a large majority and the infrastructure in a given region is intensively used by both local and outside users. Second, if non-users form a majority in both regions, centralized decision making and decentralized decision making yield the same socially undesirable outcome, with prices that are much too high. Third, the performance of decentralized supply is strongly enhanced by local self-financing rules; this prevents potential exploitation of users within regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding how decentralized clinical trial (DCT) solutions can mitigate existing challenges in clinical development, particularly participant burden and access, and the collection, management, and quality of clinical data. This paper examines DCT deployments, emphasizing how they are integrated and how they may impact clinical trial oversight, management, and execution. We propose a conceptual framework that employs systems thinking to evaluate the impact on key stakeholders through a reiterative assessment of pain points. We conclude that decentralized solutions should be customized to meet patient needs and preferences and the unique requirements of each clinical trial. We discuss how DCT elements introduce new demands and pressures within the existing system and reflect on enablers that can overcome DCT implementation challenges. As stakeholders look for ways to make clinical research more relevant and accessible to a larger and more diverse patient population, further robust and granular research is needed to quantify the impact of DCTs empirically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature that analyzes the coordination of environmental taxes by governments considers that firms produce a single good at a single plant. However, in practice firms tend to produce several goods at various production plants (multiproduct firms). These firms may organize themselves in a centralized or decentralized fashion for purposes of decision-making: This affects their output and pollution levels. This paper sets out to analyze the coordination of environmental taxes considering multiproduct firms. We find that the organizational structure chosen by the owners of the firms depends on whether or not governments coordinate with one another in setting taxes, and on whether the goods produced are substitutes or complements. Social welfare is greater if a supranational authority sets taxes in all countries. In this case, joint welfare is never lower if the authority is constrained to set the same tax in all countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines an endogenous timing game in product differentiated duopolies under price competition when emission tax is imposed on environmental externality. We show that a simultaneous-move (sequential-move) outcome can be an equilibrium outcome in a private duopoly under significant (insignificant) environmental externality, but this result can be reversed in a mixed duopoly. We also show that when environmental externalities are significant, public leadership yields greater welfare than private leadership, and that public leadership is more robust than private leadership as an equilibrium outcome. Finally, we find that privatization can result in a public leader becoming a private leader, but this worsens welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the effect of two policy changes on the efficiency of Italian regional governments in the provision of health care services: first a change in the electoral system, second a process of fiscal decentralisation. The paper provides two main contributions: (1) a comprehensive analysis of the two main reforms that involved Italian regional governments and the health care sector during the 1990s, (2) the evaluation of the impact of the electoral reform in a quasi-experimental setting. Final results are in line with recent theoretical predictions that show a positive relationship between government efficiency and the electoral accountability enhanced by institutions such as electoral rules and fiscal decentralisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software-defined networking (SDN) introduces a new method in networking that by offering programmability and centralization, it can dynamically control and configure networks. In traditional networks, data plane did the whole forwarding process, but SDN decouples data plane and control plane by using programmable software controllers for deciding how to forward different flows. By implementing control plane in a software-based independent layer, the network management will become much easier and new policies can be applied to the network by changing a few lines of code. Since the resource allocation and meeting the required service-level agreement are really important in large-scale networks such as cloud datacenters, using SDN can be very useful. In these networks, one logically centralized controller cannot handle the whole network traffic and it will become network bottleneck. Therefore, multiple distributed controllers should be allocated in different regions of the network. Since the request rate of switches varies in time, by dynamic allocation of controllers, network resources will be allocated efficiently and this approach can also reduce power consumption. In this paper, we are going to propose a framework for provisioning software controllers in cloud datacenters by using metaheuristic algorithms. These algorithms can be less accurate compared to other kinds, but their main characteristics like simplicity, flexibility, derivation free, and local optimum avoidance make them a good nominee for solving controller provisioning problem and controller placement problem. Our framework improves computation time and reaches better results compared to other allocation techniques, but it is less accurate in some scenarios. Therefore, we believe metaheuristic approach can be very useful in developing new technologies for SDN in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing decentralization of the power supply poses new challenges to the market integration of renewable energies. One concept for the market integration of distributed energy resources (DER) is the virtual power plant (VPP). A VPP aggregates a portfolio of smaller DERs and operates them as a unified and flexible resource on the energy and balancing power markets. The operation planning of the market participation is, however, characterized by uncertainties, mainly due to the forecasting errors of renewable energy resources. Thus, this paper presents a model for the multi-market operation planning plan of a VPP with regard to the forecasting errors of the associated DERs. The spot- and intraday markets and the balancing power markets are modeled individually to ensure a valid market participation of the VPP. The forecasting errors are integrated in the planning process through a two-stage stochastic optimization. Exemplary results show the impact of controllable DERs in the planning process of a VPP consisting of a storage system and several PV power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To tackle the impacts of the intermittent infeed of renewable energies, power system management evolves from a centralized to a decentralized grid control strategy, thereby micro-grids are getting more relevant, especially regarding the self-sustaining energy supply of building complexes and premises. For control of the power flow and for energy management purposes within micro-grids, the exchange of information between the components is essential. A range of several hundred meters, data rates of several hundred kbits, and low latency are key requirements in widespread premises. This paper addresses the investigation and development of a novel communication technology that is highly suitable for a robust and interoperable micro-grid control and local energy management. The introduced fieldbus protocol is based on RS-485 and an adaption of the IEEE Std. 802.15.4 in combination with the modern Internet of Things protocols. Besides the introduction of the so-called IoT-Bus protocol, the evolutionary approach of adapting and combining existing technologies is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profit sharing schemes have been analysed assuming Cournot competition and decentralised wage negotiations, and it has been found that firms share profits in equilibrium. This paper analyses a different remuneration system: employee share ownership. We find that whether firms choose to share ownership or not depends on both the type of competition in the product market and the way in which workers organise to negotiate wages. If wage setting is decentralised, under duopolistic Cournot competition both firms share ownership. If wage setting is centralised, only one firm shares ownership if the degree to which goods are substitutes takes an intermediate value; otherwise, the two firms share ownership. In this case, if the union sets the same wage for all workers neither firm shares ownership. Therefore, centralised wage setting discourages share ownership. Finally, under Bertrand competition neither firm shares ownership regardless of how workers are organised to negotiate wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geosensor networks present unique resource constraints to spatial computation, including limited battery power, communication constraints, and frequently a lack of coordinate positioning systems. As a result, there is a need for new algorithms that can efficiently satisfy basic spatial queries within those resource constraints. This paper explores the design and evaluation of a family of new algorithms for determining the topological relations between regions monitored by such a resource-constrained geosensor network. The algorithms are based on efficient, decentralized (in-network) variants of conventional 4-intersection and intersection and difference models, with in-network data aggregation. Further, our algorithms operate without any coordinate information, making them suitable applications where a positioning system is unavailable or unreliable. While all four algorithms are shown to have overall communication complexity O( n) and optimal load balance O(1), the algorithms differ in the level of topological detail they can detect; the types of regions they can monitor; and in the constant factors for communication complexity. The paper also demonstrates the impact of finite granularity observations on the correctness of the query results. In the conclusions, we identify the need to conduct further fundamental research on the relationship between topological relations between regions and limited granularity sensor observations of those regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the strategic effects of decentralized user-fee and enforcement policies for the financing of interregional spillover goods. We derive the equilibrium pricing and enforcement rules for a n-region economy. We show that under mild conditions on the pattern of substitution between spillover goods and contrary to the 2-region case, the decentralized equilibrium cannot be Pareto improved by coordinated policy changes. However, decentralized equilibria are suboptimal from the point of view of utilitarian welfare. We characterize the direction of the distortion for this case. The regions' incentives for user-fee enforcement are ambiguous in general. With only two regions and if regions only charge non-residents, however, there is overinvestment in user-fee enforcement in the decentralized equilibrium. For the case of a Tullock enforcement function and linear demand for the spillover goods we show that welfare is u-shaped in a parameter that measures the technological advantage of user-fee enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the size of regional governments in Spain, by controlling for economies of scale, interregional heterogeneity and institutional framework. We study it over 1985 to 2004 using a panel dataset of seventeen spanish regions. The results can be easily summarized. Firstly, it supports the classic public goods theory of a trade-off-between the economic benefits of size and the costs of heterogeneity. Secondly, it doesn't reject the 'Leviathan' hypothesis and neither does the 'common pool' hypothesis. Thirdly, by contrast, the paper partly rejects the 'Wallis'' hypothesis. It argues that government size is mediated by financial resources obtained through intergovernmental grants, consistent with welfare economics and positive economic policies. We conclude that later advances in the decentralisation process must be compatible with the goal of reducing fiscal imbalances that emanate from the vertical structure of fiscal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Organizations (VOs) are dynamic collections of individuals, institutions, and resources. VOs are widely accepted in grid and other distributed computing environments. Previous VO research produces several separate tools to provide part of the functionality including user registration, user mapping, authentication, authorization, and VO management. However, none of the work covers all the functionality or focuses on non-functional properties. This paper formally defines virtual organization in terms of three functional requirements and four non-functional properties. The functional requirements are user management, resource management, and VO management. The non-functional properties are decentralization, flexibility, simplicity, and efficiency. The problem is formulated as designing a VO architecture to satisfy the functional requirements and achieve the non-functional properties at the same time. This paper presents a layered architecture with GNode abstraction to construct Agora, an implementation of VOs. In Agora architecture, all the entities including users, resources, and agoras are abstracted as GNodes. A naming layer is constructed to manage these GNodes. At the top, there is a logic layer implementing all Agora functionality based on GNode and managing the physical layer resources. The Agora architecture has been implemented in the Vega Grid Operating System. Agora is deployed in the China National Grid and other grid platforms with more than 27 sites and 19 applications. The evaluations through real applications, high performance computing VO scenarios, and micro benchmarks show that the Agora architecture provides complete VO functionality, while achieving decentralization, flexibility, simplicity, and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to give practical meaning to ‘capacity building’ through (a) identifying a suite of practical measures, such as mentoring or best practice guidelines, that have been shown to or are considered to build human, social, institutional, and economic capital; (b) placing these measures within a broader systems framework; and (c) exploring stakeholder feedback on specific measures to inform framework implementation. The 29 measures described provide actors, whether government or nongovernment, with a suite of practical investment choices for building capacity. These measures are then clustered into eight groups according to their primary purpose and placed within a systems framework. The framework provides a tool for actors with responsibilities for or an interest in capacity building to inform more holistic and strategic targeting of effort and investment. Stakeholder feedback gathered through surveys and workshops is subsequently reported to further inform implementation of specific measures within the framework’s eight groupings. The framework presented may be built upon through the identification and inclusion of further capacity building measures. The research is conducted within the context of decentralized governance arrangements for natural resource management (NRM), with specific focus on Australia’s recently formalized 56 NRM regions and their community-based governing boards as an informative arena of learning. Application of the framework is explored in the Australian setting through the identification and comparison of measures supported and most preferred by four major stakeholder groups, namely board members, regional NRM organization staff, policy/research interests, and Indigenous interests. The research also examines stakeholder perceptions of capacity issues, and whether these issues are likely to be addressed through implementing their preferred measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The participation of local stakeholders in governance of water resources is regarded as inalienable for ensuring efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. To enhance gender balance in the water governance process, institutions are being designed and executed globally to elicit enhanced participation of women. This paper contends that in the context of local communities, the new institutional framework is divorced from the traditional social institutions that in turn operationalize their resource management systems. Based upon empirical evidence from rural Indian setting, the paper deciphers the paradoxes between the two sets of institutional paradigms and illustrates how these paradoxes at the 'interface' between the local community context and the development strategy lead to problems with effective women's participation. On the basis of the findings, it argues that the institutional paradigm for achieving equitable gender participation in local water governance does not represent a truly 'bottom-up' approach. It further raises the concern that if the institutional paradigm for participation is contradictory to local institutions, then how can the objectives of participation founded thereupon be seen as achievable? The paper proposes the need to design participatory paradigms that are more realistically rooted in community-based institutional frameworks so as to enhance effectiveness of the endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, decentralized inventory control in a divergent multi-echelon network is considered. All stockpoints are controlled by continuous review (s,nQ)-installation stock policies. Due to the fact that orders from a stockpoint to its predecessors may have to wait, this delay must be incorporated into the lead time of an arbitrary replenishment. We develop analytical approximations for the first two moments of this waiting time. These results enable us to accurately approximate the relevant performance characteristics at each stockpoint, given its (s,nQ)-policy. The performance measure considered in this paper are fill rate and average physical inventory. The analysis can easily be extended for other performance measures. The main contribution of this paper is the fact that the results apply to arbitrary divergent multi-echelon systems, with stochastic transportation times, arbitrary lot sizes and compound renewal demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's complex and decentralized organization gives rise to organizational needs for both loyalty and institutionalized whistle blowing. However, ethicists see a contradiction between both needs. This paper argues there is no such contradiction. It shows why earlier attempts to go beyond the dilemma are not satisfying. The solution proposed in this paper starts from an organizational perspective instead of an individual one. It does so by reframing the concept of loyalty into "rational loyalty". This means that the object of loyalty is not the physicality of an organization, but its corpus of explicit mission statement, goals, value statement and code of conduct. An implication is that organizations are--as their side of the duty of loyalty--obliged to institutionalize whistle blowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that decentralized control of local pollution is inefficient if the central and the local authorities are imperfectly informed. This paper shows how the central authority can introduce a flexible grant-in-aid system that induces the local authority to use a weighted combination of local and central information when the local authority suffers from confirmatory bias. If the central authority is highly uncertain about the environmental effects of a specific pollutant, the tax/subsidy scheme can be designed to allow local information to play an essential role in the environmental policy. If the central authority is certain that a pollutant must not exceed a specific limit, the tax/subsidy scheme can be designed to allow local information little influence on the environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose to employ the framework of graph-transformational swarms for the modeling of dynamic logistic networks with decentralized processing and control. The members of a graph-transformational swarm act and interact in a common environment graph with massive parallelism of rule-based activities according to local control conditions and a global cooperation condition. This corresponds directly to the logistic hubs and their processes in a logistic network where the processes run simultaneously and autonomously with a proper way of coordination. This covers also dynamic changes on the network structures as the members of a swarm can change the environment anyhow. The approach is illustrated by the modeling of automated guided vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of two time-based payment contracts in an assembly system that consists of one assembler and two suppliers, in which both suppliers' production times are stochastic. The assembler initially chooses the contract type (delay payment contract vs on-time payment contract) and the buffer time, and two suppliers have to simultaneously determine their production lead times. We find that in equilibrium, both suppliers cut down their production lead times under the delay payment contract, and this makes them worse off than that under the on-time payment contract. Differently, the delay payment contract is the assembler's dominant option. This is because by setting the buffer time, the assembler can significantly mitigate the possible delay risk caused by the suppliers' decentralization under the delay payment contract. It also shows that the entire supply chain achieves the same service level under either the centralized condition or the decentralized condition, regardless of the applied payment contract type. Note that these results are robustness when we extend the model into the system containing N ( N $$>$$ 2) independent suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of art and craft fairs in the contemporary stained glass profession. Full-time, non-traditional stained glass work could be considered a marginal profession in that it lacks a centralized source of control. The institutionalization of fairs is one solution to problems of decentralization in this profession. Three patterns of participation are noted for stained glass practitioners. First, some artisans participate in art and craft fairs as a stepping stone in their professional development. Second, some practitioners have custom-work studios and continue to participate in the fairs after they have established their studios. Third, for some the art and craft fair is an end, rather than a means. Art and craft fairs serve as a functional equivalent to apprenticeships and other centralized sources of control in the stained glass world. Quantitative and qualitative data are used to support the arguments. The paper concludes by discussing the applicability of these ideas to other contemporary arts/crafts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia's oil palm expansion during the last two decades has resulted in widespread environmental and health damages through land clearing by fire and peat conversion, but it has also contributed to rural poverty alleviation. In this paper, we examine the role that decentralization has played in the process of Indonesia's oil palm development, particularly among independent smallholder producers. We use primary survey information, along with government documents and statistics, to analyze the institutional dynamics underpinning the sector's impacts on economic development and the environment. Our analysis focuses on revenue-sharing agreements between district and central governments, district splitting, land title authority, and accountability at individual levels of government. We then assess the role of Indonesia's Village Law of 2014 in promoting rural development and land clearing by fire. We conclude that both environmental conditionality and positive financial incentives are needed within the Village Law to enhance rural development while minimizing environmental damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes to model market mechanisms as a collective learning process for firms in a complex adaptive system, namely Jamel, an agent-based, stock-flow consistent macroeconomic model. Inspired by Alchian's (J Polit Econ: 5(3):211–221, 1950) "blanketing shotgun process" idea, our learning model is an ever-adapting process that puts a significant weight on exploration vis-à-vis exploitation. We show that decentralized market selection allows firms collectively to adapt their overall debt strategies to the changes in the macroeconomic environment so that the system sustains itself, but at the cost of recurrent deep downturns. We conclude that, in complex evolving economies, market processes do not lead to the selection of optimal behaviors, as the characterization of successful behaviors itself constantly evolves as a result of the market conditions that these behaviors contribute to shaping. Heterogeneity in behavior remains essential to adaptation. We come to an evolutionary characterization of a crisis, as the point where the evolution of the macroeconomic system becomes faster than the adaptation capabilities of the agents that populate it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on resource conservation in a model of decentralized management of groundwater and rainwater. We show that a conservation policy may have opposite effects on the level of the resource, depending on the outcome of the decentralized management. More precisely, we consider identical farmers who can use two water resources (groundwater and/or rainwater) and we study the symmetric and asymmetric feedback stationary Nash equilibria of the dynamic game. We show that a subsidy on the use of rainwater may increase the level of the aquifer at the symmetric equilibrium, whereas it decreases the level of the aquifer at the asymmetric equilibrium. This suggests that the usual focus on (interior) symmetric equilibria in dynamic games may provide misleading policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralized scheduling with dispatching rules is applied in many fields of logistics and production, especially in highly complex and dynamic scenarios, such as semiconductor manufacturing. Many dispatching rules are proposed in the literature, which perform well on specific scenarios. No rule is known, however, consistently outperforming all other rules. One approach to meet this challenge and improve scheduling performance is to select and switch dispatching rules depending on current system conditions. For this task machine learning techniques (e.g., Artificial Neural Networks) are frequently used. In this paper we investigate the use of a machine learning technique not applied to this task before: Gaussian process regression. Our analysis shows that Gaussian processes predict dispatching rule performance better than Neural Networks in most settings. Additionally, already a single Gaussian Process model can easily provide a measure of prediction quality. This is in contrast to many other machine learning techniques. We show how to use this measure to dynamically add additional training data and incrementally improve the model where necessary. Results therefore suggest, Gaussian processes are a very promising technique, which can lead to better scheduling performance (e.g., reduced mean tardiness) compared to other techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study innovation and the resulting Schumpeterian economic growth that this innovation gives rise to in a model with N heterogeneous regions. For each region i where i = 1,..., N, our analysis leads to six findings. First, we define the balanced growth path (BGP) allocations and the equilibrium of interest. Second, we stipulate the form of the innovation possibilities frontier that is consistent with balanced economic growth. Third, we derive the growth rate of the ith region in the decentralized equilibrium. Fourth, we solve the social planner's problem and derive the Pareto optimal growth rate in the ith region. Fifth, we compare the two preceding growth rates and then discuss the circumstances in which there is either too much or too little innovation in (i) the ith region, (ii) an aggregate economy of N>2 regions and (iii) an aggregate economy of N=2 regions. Sixth, we briefly discuss interregional trade and its effects in an aggregate economy of N=2 regions. Finally, we conclude and then offer suggestions for extending the research described here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Good' governance is often promoted for economic growth, but its impact on natural resource use in developing and transitional economies is not well understood. For example, many scholars promote improved governance as a means to slow resource use, whereas others have found that better governance increases extractive resource activities. In this paper we use within-country variation in Russia to test the impact of governance on timber harvesting. Using a reduced form fixed-effects model and satellite-based estimates of forest cover we find a statistically significant and non-linear effect of governance on the area of timber harvested: for a marginal improvement in governance timber harvesting increases, but this effect decreases at high levels of governance. These results are robust to alternative specifications and when instrumenting for economic growth. Governance could impact timber harvesting in Russia through ownership risk (i.e., tenure security), through the costs of doing business (i.e., bribes), or both. Nonparametric regressions and qualitative evidence suggest that both factors are at play in Russia. This analysis provides additional evidence that improving governance may increase natural resource extraction. This has important implications for policy prescriptions that suggest 'good' governance will slow resource use in developing and transitional economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the complex relationship between decentralization, national context and environment policy performance with the cross-sectional data from 118 countries. Decentralization is decomposed into three dimensions: political, fiscal and administrative. Both multiple regression analysis and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis are adopted. Results show that: (1) political, fiscal and administrative decentralization differ in their impacts on environmental policy performance. (2) There are multiple pathways, constituted by specific configurations of decentralization and context conditions, to high (or low) environmental policy performance. (3) High environmental policy performance occurs most often when a country is fiscally and administratively decentralized and its context is favorable, i.e. advanced economy, good governance and stringent environmental regulations. In this situation, political decentralization seems to be irrelevant to the outcome. (4) Low environmental policy performance occurs most often when a country, without the favorable context mentioned above, become fiscally centralized, regardless of whether political and administrative decentralization is present or not. This study suggests policy makers should keep in mind the contextual fit of decentralization and adopt a configurational thinking in environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of the ability to build an observer for a complex system using a decentralized multi-agent system for the coordination of mobile sensors. The environment is modeled using a CA model representing forest fire spread. The initial distribution for the different species in the vegetation is generated using a Perlin algorithm. Implementation is realized on GPGPU. A coherence measure for the observation error is defined. The observation itself is realized with mobile sensors and a decentralized coordination of the trajectories. We analyze the balance between individual and collective behaviours of agents which is required to achieve the best performance with respect to the chosen coherence measure. Two kinds of agent’ behaviour are studied: reactive and cognitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries patient involvement is high on the healthcare policy agenda, which includes patient representation in collective decision-making. Patient organizations are generally considered to be important representatives of patients. Other actors also claim to represent patients in decision-making, such as politicians, healthcare professionals, and client advisory councils. In this paper we take a broad view of patient representation, examining all the actors claiming to represent patients in the Dutch debate on the decentralization of care. We conclude that variety in forms of representation could help do justice to the variety of patient preferences. In addition we conclude that in order to ensure the democratic quality of patient representation, actors making representative claims have to reflect on how their claims relate to each other and how they can ensure authorization and accountability in the representative relationship with those they claim to represent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide a state of-the-art survey over Bitcoin related technologies and sum up various challenges. Bitcoin is the first and most prevalent decentralized crypto-currency to date. It is decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency in which coins are produced by an appropriated set of excavators and exchange are communicated by means of a peer-to-peer organize. While Bitcoin gives some level of secrecy by urging clients to have any number of irregular looking Bitcoin addresses, late research demonstrates that this level of obscurity is fairly low. This urges clients to associate with the Bitcoin arrange through anonymizers like Tor and propels advancement of default Tor usefulness for prevalent versatile customers. A low-asset aggressor can increase full control of data streams between all clients who utilized Bitcoin over Tor. Specifically, the aggressor can connect together client’s exchanges paying little respect to pen names, control which Bitcoin squares and exchanges are handed-off to the client and can defer or dispose of client’s exchanges and pieces. Bitcoins have risen as a conceivable competitor to regular monetary forms, yet other crypto-monetary forms have similarly showed up as competitors to the Bitcoin currency. The extending business sector of crypto-monetary forms now includes capital comparable to 1010 US Dollars, furnishing the scholarly community with a bizarre chance to examine the development of significant worth. Bitcoin is an absolutely online virtual currency, unbaked by either physical wares or sovereign commitment; rather, it depends on a mix of cryptographic security and a peer-to-peer protocol for seeing settlements. Understanding Bitcoin related technologies and challenges would help maximize its usage in community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal fiscal rules have been introduced in many countries throughout the world. While most studies focus on the intra-jurisdictional effects of fiscal rules, vertical effects on the finances of other levels of government have yet to be explored thoroughly. From a theoretical point of view, vertical effects could work in opposite directions, i.e., improve and burden other levels’ finances. This paper is the first formally investigating the influence of Swiss debt brakes, which primarily target the cantonal level, on municipal finances. A difference-in-differences estimation (two-way fixed effects) of aggregated and disaggregated local panel data provides unique evidence that suggests little effect of budget constraints at the cantonal level on average municipal finances and fiscal decentralization. The results are confirmed by a wide range of robustness tests. If anything, cantonal debt brakes are associated with improved local finances and fiscal centralization. These findings run counter to popular fears and emphasize the possibility of positive spillover effects of fiscal rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is currently a lot of work in Ambient Intelligence-or AmI-reporting on specific scenarios, or on implementations of particular cases. In the same time, there is a common agreement of the fact that AmI applications should be pervasive, covering a large number of devices, assisting a large number of people, and serving a large number of purposes. In an attempt to achieve scalable scenarios and implementations, we have focused our research on the development of a generic middleware layer for the context-aware transfer and exchange of information between devices. This paper presents a model for a such middleware, based on software agents, in which context-awareness is implemented both in the agent's representation of context information, and in the logical topology of the agent system. The model is oriented towards decentralization of the system and relies mostly on local behavior. The paper also reports on several proof-of-concept applications that have been developed and tested using the proposed model, proving thus the validity of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between the size of an economic union and the degree of policy centralization. We consider a political economy setting in which elected representatives bargain over the degree of centralization within the union. In our model, strategic delegation affects the identity of the representatives, and hence the equilibrium policy outcome. We show that the relationship between the extensive and the intensive margin of centralization may be non-monotonic: Up to a certain threshold a larger size implies deeper integration, whereas beyond that threshold centralization declines with further increases in size. We also show that freezing the level of centralization and associate memberships can mitigate this trade-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the insights of Austrian economics to an important issue in local political economy. Basic economic theory holds that greater competition produces superior outcomes in private goods markets. The same should be true in the 'markets' for the output of local government. Brennan and Buchanan (, ) show that interjurisdictional competition may serve as a potential restraint on the monopoly powers of local Leviathan and Tiebout () shows that it may help lead to the production of efficient quantities of local public goods. However, other potential virtues of competition in the market for local collective goods have been largely ignored. This paper explores those other virtues as well as the neoclassical theoretical foundations of the Tiebout () model, upon which much of this literature is based. This has public policy implications for local governments, which have taken on increased importance given the recent global movement towards more decentralized government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When complete contracting is not possible, allocating control structure becomes the second-best arrangement. This paper analyzes the design of optimal divisional structure within an organization where ex post bargaining between the potential divisional managers is possible. In much the same light as Aghion and Tirole (J Political Econ 105(1):1-29, ), we study the control problem in the context of search for projects. Our model shows that when the managers cannot bargain with one another, internal integration is preferred to internal separation. Where bargaining is possible, formal divisional structure defines both the ex post bargaining position of the two managers and their incentive to search ex ante. When the managers tend to arrive at a more favorable project to the principal via bargaining, the general leader of a firm may want to choose separation instead to increase the probability of bargaining, as the symmetrical incentive requires both managers to search and get informed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper is to provide a link between the location decision and the internal organization of vertically integrated firms. The results of the model show that the decisions about location and managerial (de)centralization are interdependent: For certain parameters, firms should change both aspects simultaneously as a response to lower communication costs. The positive correlation between the decentralization of decision-making and geographic decentralization predicted by the model is supported by empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of regulation on productivity is an issue that has attracted increasing interest in recent decades, as some scholars have argued that the proliferation of red tape may be the cause of slower growth rates in some western economies. Regulation (and other public instruments) has significant effects that may be either benign or harmful. Justified and well designed regulation protects consumers from potentially unsafe products, limits pollution, enhances workplace safety and contributes to public health and safety, as well as a more productive and fair society. However, an overabundance of rules or badly designed regulation can cause confusion and delay, impose unreasonable compliance costs in terms of capital investment, labour and official paperwork, retard innovation, lower productivity and, accidentally, distort incentives for private initiative. The objective of this paper is to examine the possible impact of regulatory activity in the Spanish regions over the past decade (1989-2001) on growth and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed water infrastructure (located at the community or the household level) is relatively untried and unproven, compared with technologies for managing urban water at higher (e.g. regional) levels. This work presents a review of currently available options for distributed water infrastructure and illustrates the potential impact of their deployment through a number of indicative infrastructure strategies. The paper summarises the main categories of both centralised and decentralised water infrastructure, covering all three flows (water supply, wastewater and drainage) and their integration through recycling and reuse. The potential impact of the identified infrastructure options for urban water management is examined. The desirability of the strategies examined, is dependent on (case specific) constraints to urban development, including for example regional or local water resource availability, treatment plant capacity, cost of upgrading infrastructure, potential for (distributed) energy (micro) generation and climatic changes (and other non-stationary processes). The results are presented and discussed. It is concluded that there is currently a significant potential for a range of improvements in urban water management which could result from the context-aware deployment of a portfolio of technological infrastructure options. It is also suggested that there are trade-offs between water use, energy use and land use, and these have an equilibrium point that is associated with the technological state-of-art. At a given technological state-of-art, further reductions in water savings signify increase either energy consumption (for high-tech solutions) or land use (for low-tech solutions). The strategies’ evaluation indicates however, that until this equilibrium point is reached there can be significant gains in all three aspects. After this equilibrium, improvements in one aspect inevitably signify costs in others. The choice of desired trade-off then depends on the specific constraints of the problem at hand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the impact of decentralization of health care administration on inequity in health care access in Canada. We extend previous studies in two ways. First, to explore the spatial dimension of inequity, we adopt a perfect decomposable inequality measure—the Theil index—in our analysis. Secondly, we conduct a before and after comparison of a change in the degree of decentralization in Canada—the introduction of the CHST in 1996/1997. This may shed some lights on the casual relationship between decentralization and health-related inequity. The results of our analysis show that the overall inequity in health care utilization is mostly explained by variations within provinces in Canada. The increase in the degree of decentralization is related to lower degree of overall and within-province inequity in the use of GP and hospital services, and lower between-province inequity in the use of all the three health care variables examined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the fundamental causes of the widening inland–coastal inequality in China during the post-reform period 1978–2004 within a systematic framework of economic development theory. We highlight the roles of three policy variables, namely globalization, decentralization and marketization, in determining the income gap between the inland and coastal regions. The results derived from both time-series and panel data provide strong evidence that these policies are thus far inequality-enhancing. This finding is robust to the use of different estimation methods, alternative proxies for policy variables and regional income, as well as the inclusion of other controls. We also find significant but economically small spillover effects from the coastal to inland provinces. Our results suggest that more efforts should be made to improve the policies to reduce regional inequality in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas existing OLG models with endogenous longevity neglect the impact of environmental quality on mortality, this paper studies the design of the optimal public policy in a two-period OLG model where longevity is influenced positively by health expenditures, but negatively by pollution due to production. It is shown that if agents, when choosing how much to spend on health, do not internalize the impact of their decision on environmental quality (i.e. the space available for each person), the decentralization of the social optimum requires a tax not only on capital income (to internalize the pollution externality), but, also, on health spending (to internalize the congestion externality). We also examine the second-best policy under a limited set of taxation instruments, and explore its sensitivity to the pollution process and to individual preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]