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Historical-materialist policy analysis (HMPA) aims at analyzing how specific policies are formulated against the background of essentially competing and contradictory interests of different social forces. It examines how, if at all, these policies contribute to societal reproduction and the regulation of social contradictions and crisis tendencies. This article provides a concise introduction to HMPA as well as to the key theoretical concepts and perspectives underpinning its policy concept. Against this background, it further elaborates on how to operationalize HMPA for empirical research, drawing on but also going beyond the three-step process of context-, actors- and process-analysis suggested by the Research Group 'State Project Europe'. In this way, we seek to enhance the analytical and methodological repertoire of historical materialist political science, and at the same time open up new analytical perspectives within the comprehensive field of critical policy analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We seek to contribute to evidence-based teaching for management by providing an example of translating a theory into an evidence-based intervention by developing action principles; moreover, our work here shows how such an intervention affects the success of firms by way of changing managers' actions. The concept of action principle is central to this intervention, and we describe this concept with the help of action regulation theory. We conducted a randomized controlled field intervention with a theory-based 3-day program to increase personal initiative (using a pretest-posttest design and a randomized waiting control group). The sample consists of 100 small business owners in Africa (Kampala, Uganda). The intervention increased personal initiative behavior and entrepreneurial success over a 12-month period after the intervention. An increase in personal initiative behavior was responsible for the increase of entrepreneurial success (full mediation). Thus, the training led to an entrepreneurial mind-set and to an active approach toward entrepreneurial tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Students are more effective when they employ appropriate strategies to regulate their learning processes and outcomes. However, many teachers do not provide, or provide very little, explicit instructions to promote this self‐regulated learning (SRL). This suggests that teachers' belief systems may include beliefs that may be inconsistent with SRL. Aims: This paper reported the validation of the 78‐item Beliefs about Teaching and Learning (BALT) instrument designed to measure pre‐service teachers' beliefs about learning and teaching with particular emphasis on SRL. Samples: Out of the 78 items included in the BALT instrument, 50 of them were administered in BALT 1 and 53 in BALT2 with 25 items administered in both surveys and were common to both instruments. The BALT 1 was administered to 430 pre‐service teachers. BALT 2 was administered to 366 pre‐service students. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis and the Rasch model were used to investigate the unidimensionality of the scales and psychometric properties of the items. In addition, the summated rating scale procedure was used to create composite scores for the examination of the coexistence of beliefs both consistent and inconsistent with SRL. Results: Pre‐service teachers expressed high overall agreement with items related to beliefs consistent with SRL and low agreement with items related to beliefs inconsistent with SRL. However, many of them also indicated high agreement with items related to beliefs in Transmissive Teaching. Conclusions: The study resulted in the development of a 58‐item instrument, which was balanced with respect to the inclusion of SRL‐consistent and SRL‐inconsistent items. This study also provided evidence for the coexistence of pre‐service teachers' beliefs in Constructive Teaching and Transmissive Teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues the importance of reconsidering the way that institutionalist-heterodox development discourse has essentialized culture at the expense of acknowledging the need for generalization-based theories of economic development. It points out that such a state of affairs obscures the purposive function of socio-economic development, which is to create or radically reconfigure existing national institutions in order to fit the intended goals of social progress and the universal protection of human rights. In light of this necessity, a convergence hypothesis—whose significance lies in its emphasis on the common humanity and universally shared values in different socio-economic systems— deserves re-reading and re-interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of crisis, comparative capitalism analysis has difficulties differentiating crisis symptoms and effects from trends that may be more long-term. In this paper, I propose that by looking at the discursive strategies of central actors within the political economy, we may improve our understanding of capitalist trajectories. Drawing on Regulation Theory and Gramsci, the main empirical argument is that the French accumulation regime and its regulation are changing to a more explicitly export-oriented and financialised capitalism. This is underscored by the political project of capital-friendly austerity corresponding to a shift in the relationship of forces, the establishment of a neoliberal understanding of competitiveness, and the fading-out of purchasing power. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to integrate more closely critical discourse analysis with a critical political economy perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamical models for genomic regulatory networks are studied. Models include a sigmoidal function, weighted regulatory matrices, and 2 parameters. Description of attracting sets for some specific cases is provided. Examples with specific sigmoidal functions are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why has a developing country like Iraq shown a fragile economic development, despite the rosy picture that had been drawn about the potential of the Iraqi economy? To answer this question, an attempt has been made to look at the Iraqi development from the new institutional economic (NIE) perspective. This article contains a brief summary of a Ph.D. dissertation on the economic development of contemporary Iraq. In essence it traces the role of institutions, institutional policies and how the rapid and frequent institutional changes have driven the Iraqi economy for decades. Although applying the NIE to Iraq expands the range of choices of institutions that could be examined, the choices have been narrowed down by focusing on three central issues: agriculture, oil and wars. The picture emerging from the dissertation is one of abrupt and instantaneous institutional changes, through which institutions were repeatedly subject to reshuffle and facing changing circumstances. Consequently these changes have markedly affected the path of economic development in Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how and the extent to which barriers to change inhibit new ideas about note disclosures to manifest themselves in annual reports.Design/methodology/approach The study employs regulation theory and draws on case studies in Denmark and the UK to understand compliance motivations and, on that basis, to identify the barriers to and enablers of changes to note disclosures in annual reports.Findings It is demonstrated how certain characteristics of the annual report preparation process can dampen the potential for change. It is also shown how preparer perceptions of oversight agents (auditors, enforcers, audit committees) have effects on disclosure behaviour. These characteristics appear to cause defensiveness among the actors involved in the process, inhibiting changes. In contrast, enablers are related to trust in regulatory enforcement, facilitation from enforcers, user orientation and shared understanding among functional groups involved in the preparation process.Practical implications The preparation of notes is susceptible to the influence of a range of factors, such as company politics, perceptions of enforcement styles and actors’ concerns about being blamed for inappropriate responses to regulation. These findings could be considered by regulators, auditors and preparers in enhancing understanding of their respective roles in the annual report preparation process.Originality/value This study illuminates the conditions that facilitate change when new ideas are introduced to a highly normative and detailed field. The study contributes to previous research by providing a fieldwork-based analysis of the practices, judgements, discussions and actors involved in the preparation of note disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics frequently argue that nudges are more covert, less transparent, and more difficult to monitor than traditional regulatory tools. Edward Glaeser, for example, argues that “[p]ublic monitoring of soft paternalism is much more difficult than public monitoring of hard paternalism”. As one of the leading proponents of soft paternalism, Cass Sunstein, acknowledges, while “[m]andates and commands are highly visible”, soft paternalism, “and some nudges in particular[,] may be invisible”. In response to this challenge, proponents of nudging argue that invisibility for any given individual in a particular choice environment is compatible with “careful public scrutiny” of the nudge. This paper offers the first of its kind experimental evidence that tests whether nudges are, in fact, compatible with “careful public scrutiny”. Using three sets of experiments, the paper argues that, even when entirely visible, nudges attract less scrutiny than their “hard law” counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the theoretical connection between John R. Commons, régulation theory, and convention theory. In institutional economics (Commons 1934), by applying the idea of “multiple causation,” Commons approached macro-dynamics based on the expansion of some key concepts and studies on income distribution and demand growth. It is a prototype of the growth analysis based on the cumulative causation model, with the various forms of coordination later formulated by régulation theory. The two-layered coordination in convention theory attempted to explicitly explain the individuals’ reflexive capacities to change preference endogenously and to evaluate collective and social value, which were implicitly assumed in Commons’s term “intellect.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that corporate social responsibility depends on two distinct stylized facts concerning régulation and power. The first--institutional CSR--is institutional in nature, the other--strategic CSR--is economic and productive. The former permits and stabilizes the latter, which in turn gives rise to political compromises structuring institutional mechanisms. CSR strategies and institutions correspond to a private, oligopolistic régulation which shows no signs of being able to pursue a sustainable development regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new regulatory approach that implements capital requirements contingent on executive incentive schemes. We argue that excessive risk taking in the financial sector originates from the shareholder moral hazard created by government guarantees rather than from corporate governance failures within banks. The idea behind the proposed regulatory approach is thus that the more the compensation structure decouples the interests of bank managers from those of shareholders by curbing risk-taking incentives, the higher the leverage the bank is permitted to take on. Consequently, the risk-shifting incentives caused by government guarantees and the risk-mitigating incentives created by the compensation structure offset each other such that the manager chooses the socially efficient investment policy. This paper was accepted by Amit Seru, finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical gaps exist in the literature about diverse forms of capitalism. The first is thematic, involving the incomplete institutional and political account of how the state can, through a series of policies, shape the development of domestic enterprises. The second gap is regional in nature: this literature does not deal with the historical development of firms that have played a central role in industrialising Southeast Asia. One reason for this is that since most existing theories are based on Western contexts, they are theoretically ill-equipped to deal with the concepts of power and state-business nexuses when the political system is not democratic in nature. But state-business ties, where politicians in power distribute government-generated rents on a selective basis, have resulted in diverse business systems such as highly diversified conglomerates, state-owned companies and small- and mediumscale enterprises. This article deals with these theoretical and empirical gaps. To better understand the nature and implications of evolving state-business ties in Southeast Asia, this topic is examined through the lens of regulation theory. To appreciate the complexity and implications of state-business configurations on the political system and forms of enterprise development, a case study of Malaysia is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students often complain about unsatisfactory experiences resulting from disproportionate contributions to collaborative projects. To improve the experience, we applied regulation theory to design a process to document regulation on a blog and examined whether such documentation enhanced students' self-regulation and co-regulation skills while working on a collaborative project. The results indicate that students improved both their self- and coregulation skills significantly and they were highly satisfied with their experiences in the collaborative task. In addition, the content analysis performed on the documented regulation reveals that students engaged in diverse types of regulation processes through social interaction with group members. A discussion of teaching and learning strategies when using a blog in a collaborative task is included in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study investigates the importance of two main channels through which upstream anti-competitive sector regulations impact productivity growth: investments in R&D and in ICT, as opposed to alternative channels we cannot explicitly consider for lack of appropriate data such as improvements in skills, management and organization. We specify a three equations model: an extended production function relating total factor productivity to both R&D and ICT capital, and to upstream regulations, and two factor demand functions relating R&D and ICT capital to upstream regulations. We estimate these relations on an unbalanced panel of 15 OECD countries and 13 industries over the period 1987-2007. We find that the total impact of upstream regulations on total factor productivity is sizeable, a large part of which is transmitted through investments in R&D and ICT, mainly the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a theoretical interpretation on the limits and potentials of the internationally highly acclaimed Brazilian urban reform as implemented since the 1990s. We argue that representations grounded in collaborative planning and neo-institutional property theory are of little help in providing insights to the somewhat disappointing progress of ‘really existing’ Brazilian urban reform. We provide a different theoretical framework based on adapted regulation theory and critical Brazilian urban scholarship. While it underlines that better plans, planning processes and redistributive land-market instruments frequently fail to produce better cities in light of a contradictory developmental state mode of production itself, it also recognizes potential progressive praxis of social movements and local governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental regulation theories claim that continuing to pursue a goal when it becomes blocked contributes to poorer wellbeing. This consequence is expected to lead to the use of self-regulation strategies in the form of higher disengagement from the goal and higher reengagement in other meaningful goals. The use of these strategies is expected to lead to better wellbeing. A systematic-review and meta-analyses were conducted to test the major predictions of developmental regulation theories for blocked parenthood goal and to investigate possible moderator variables, particularly type and degree of blockage. A total of eight meta-analyses were performed using random-effects models. Moderation was tested with subgroup analysis. After searching eight databases, 4977 potential relevant manuscripts were identified but only six met inclusion criteria. From the eight meta-analyses conducted, only two were significant. In line with prediction, higher goal blockage was related to higher negative mood and reengagement in other life goals was associated to higher positive mood (p < .001). From a total of eight subgroup analyses performed, results showed that disengaging had a positive impact on wellbeing for people experiencing an unanticipated type of blockage (i.e., infertility) but not for those with an anticipated one (i.e., postponing parenthood; X2 = 4.867, p = .03). From the total of twelve sensitivity analyses performed only one suggested that results might differ. The association between disengagement and mood varied according to study quality. When only average studies were included this association was negative, although non-significant. The evidence obtained did not fully support developmental regulation theories for the pursuit of parenthood goal, but primary research had too many methodological limitations to reach firm conclusions. Future studies aimed at investigating blocked parenthood goal are required to evaluate the value of developmental regulation theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explains the history, current problems, and future possibilities of Islamic insurance (takaful) in Bangladesh. To articulate these issues, the researcher has adopted the qualitative method, and data has been collected through secondary sources i.e. articles, books, and online resources. The study reveals that Islamic insurance in Bangladesh is regulated by the Insurance Act 2010 which is contradictory with Islamic insurance causing numerous problems for Islamic insurance. This study also points out that Islamic insurance is a fast growing industry with huge prospects in Bangladesh. The government should introduce separate regulations for both Islamic and conventional insurance. The research concludes with suggestions for the further development of Islamic insurance in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On June 9–12, 2015, the International Conference of Research & Regulation 2015 was held in Paris. The theme of this international conference was “the theory of regulation in times of crises,” and around 200 experts and academics from all over the world attended this distinguished conference. Centering on this theme, the hosts selected over 170 papers from those submitted and divided them into 23 topics, among which topics such as reflection and criticism on the economics methodology, labor-management relations and capitalism crisis, financial system and development mode in the post-crisis era, sustainable development and global governance, capitalism diversity and East Asian economy are emphasized and discussed. Many academics who attended the conference also proposed a lot of useful ideas, suggestions for the development of regulation theory, as well as theories and proposals for criticism on neoclassical economics, the emergence system of economic crisis, improvement of global economy, environment and sustainable development, capitalism diversity and development of East Asian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New bank formation in the U.S. has declined dramatically since the financial crisis, from over 130 new banks per year to less than 1. Many have suggested that this is due to newly-instituted regulation, but the current weak economy and low interest rates (which both depress banking profits) could also have played a role. We estimate a model of bank entry decisions on data from 1976 to 2013 which indicates that at least 75 % of the decline in new bank formation would have occurred without any regulatory change. The standalone effect of regulation is more difficult to quantify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presented article deals with the formation of an institutional environment that determines the direction and speed of institutional changes, creates conditions and guidelines for selection of effective elements of the institutional structure from alternative forms of economic coordination. The emphasis is on turning the internal structure of the company into a network that will allow greater transparency in management and coordination, create greater openness of the company, lead to a decrease in transaction costs of an innovative nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth and determines how the regulatory regime of the countries affects the FDI-growth relationship for 22 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1980–2011. Using General Methods of Moments (GMM) estimation technique, the findings of the study show that both FDI and regulations (total regulations, credit market regulations, business regulations and labor market regulations) do not have an independent significant effect, however, their interaction has a significant positive effect on economic growth. This implies that the growth effect of FDI is stimulated in the presence of effective and quality regulations. Therefore measures have to be put in place to strengthen regulations in sub-Saharan Africa in order to realize the benefits of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare the analytical approach of John R. Common and Ronald H. Coase to institutional analysis and social provisioning. In particular, we examine their similarities in (i) the definition and role of institutions in the economy, (ii) the allocative (social provisioning) role of institutions in the economy, and (iii) the inescapable and unchanging role of institutions in shaping the social provisioning process. We contend that Commons and Coase had more in common than did Coase and many of his followers in the “new institutional economics.” In particular, the two had strong similarities in both (a) their insights into the nature of institutions in the legal-economic nexus that is the foundation of the economy and (b) their methods for conducting economics research. Because this role of institutional evolution is, as Warren Samuels noted, an inescapable and unchanging part of an economy’s social provisioning process, it will remain an integral part of any such work in the future, regardless of the “school of analysis” or methodological approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores corporate social responsibility ( CSR) within the franchising sector. More specifically, using regulation theory, stakeholder-agency theory, transaction cost analysis, and literature on plural form, along with an empirical study conducted on the franchising sector in the French market, we find significant and positive relationships between chain size and the extent of corporate social disclosure ( CSD) on franchisors' websites and between the percentage of company-owned units within the chain and the extent of CSD on franchisors' websites. Moreover, though findings reveal that 86.03 percent of the 136 sampled franchisors communicate about at least one of their CSR activities on their websites, differences in terms of highlighted categories (e.g., environment, human resources, and products) and the extent of available CSR information exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1987 to 2009, Irish social partnership operated as a national framework for industrial relations. The contribution of the article is twofold. We seek to link the institutional dynamics of social partnership with the Régulation School's notions of modes of accumulation and regimes of régulation. This framework is used to explain the rise and fall of social partnership in Ireland. We argue that the regime of social partnership in Ireland can be divided into two distinct periods. In the first, social partnership contributed positively to a benign productivity-led mode of accumulation. In the second, it lost its economic functionality due mostly to financialisation taking a grip in the Irish economy. The conclusion is that social partnership had both positive and negative features, but it is unlikely to be repeated in the foreseeable future, at least not in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the current conjuncture of neoliberal urbanism, when more than 20 years have passed since scholars identified the retrenchment of the federal state from urban affairs and the shift from urban government to urban governance, those of us engaged in questions of urban politics have much yet to learn about the power relations in American cities. At the same time, we must recognize those key concepts and frameworks that have shaped our ability to understand both the processes involved in urban politics and the expressions of those processes, as they are manifest in concrete places and often, literally, in places made of concrete. The urban regime, as explained by Clarence Stone a quarter century ago in Regime Politics, is one such concept, as illustrated in a very compelling empirical investigation, that has shaped the lexicon of how we understand cities. Stone’s contribution came along at a time when geographers were grappling with understanding the local and the global and their relationship to capitalism. Geographers engaged regime theory in fits and starts with other conceptual innovations in the field, including the regulation approach, flat ontologies, and relational sense of place. If we apply these three conceptual innovations to the regime approach, as I argue we should, then we get a much more robust conceptual tool to understand the contemporary urban political landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper expands our understandings of corporate social responsibility ( CSR) as a form of roll-out neoliberalism, building on analyses of CSR initiatives as elements of a capitalist system actively working to create its own social regularisation - to secure a socio-politico-economic context supporting capitalist development. Using an ethnographic analysis of the rise and fall of an indigenous protest group that targeted a multinational mining project in New Caledonia, this paper has two theoretical aims. First, it builds on literature that analyses neoliberalism as 'articulating' with particular politico-economic conditions in order to argue that such articulation is also, necessarily, cultural. I describe how the mining company undercut and ultimately co-opted local resistance, largely by successfully capturing culturally-based ideologies of customary and indigenous legitimacy. Thus, neoliberalisation's articulations may involve attempts to capture not only formal but also informal regulation or regulators, through direct personal benefits and also indirectly through the capture of culturally valued ideologies. These ideologies, in turn, are caught up in culturally grounded hegemonic processes. This leads to the paper's second theoretical aim, which is to explore what happens when different forms of hegemony, based in distinct cultural formations, encounter each other as well as counter-hegemonic forces. In engaging directly with customary authorities rather than exclusively with activists, the company re-legitimised itself by delegitimising its activist opponents, repositioning them as subordinates within their own culturally informed social hierarchy, and reinstating customary authorities' privileged hegemonic status. Thus, multiple, culturally distinct hegemonic processes may co-exist and interact; here, they reinforced each other by suppressing counter-hegemonic activities. However, some customary authorities still sympathised with the protestors' aims and perceived potential threats from the company's expanding economic power. I end by suggesting that counter-hegemonic possibilities reside in the perpetual dynamism of cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship of curriculum and didactics through a social realist lens. Curriculum and didactics are viewed as linked and integrated by the common issue of educational content. The author argues that the selection of educational content and its organisation is a matter of recontextualising principles and that curriculum and didactics may be understood as interrelated stages of such recontextualisation. Educational policy and the organisation of pedagogic practice are considered as distinct although closely related practices of 'curricularisation' and 'pedagogisation'. Neo-Bernsteinian social realism implies a sociological approach by which educational knowledge is recognised as something socially constructed, but irreducible to power struggles in policy arenas. More precisely, curriculum and didactics are not only matters of extrinsic standpoints. Recontextualising practices may also involve intrinsic features, that is, some kind of relatively generative logics that regulate curriculum design as well as pedagogic practice. In order to highlight certain implications for both curriculum and didactic theory, the author develops a typology that is analytically framed by principles of extrinsic relations to and intrinsic relations within curriculum or didactics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The mixed results of previous empirical investigations on the relevance of firms' reporting on sustainable development could be due to the absence of a theoretical paradigm able to capture the differences across countries. We apply the varieties of capitalism approach on a sample of European listed banks from 2005 to 2011, to evaluate whether the different institutional contexts affect the value relevance of sustainability reporting in European stock markets. The results show that sustainability reporting is more relevant in coordinated market economies compared with liberal market economies and mixed market economies. The main findings are that systemic and institutional factors influence the impact of sustainability reporting on the firm's market value, and the varieties of capitalism approach provides an important theoretical framework to grasp and highlight differences across European countries on the value relevance of firms' reporting on sustainable development. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important part of the criticism raised against the adoption of advanced contract automation relates to the inflexibility of automated contracts. Drawing on rational choice theory, we explain why inflexibility, when seen as a constraint, can ultimately not only enhance welfare but also enable cooperation on algorithmic markets. This illuminates the need to address the inflexibility of contracting algorithms in a nuanced manner, distinguishing between inflexibility as a potentially beneficial constraint on the level of transactions, and inflexibility as a set of systemic risks and changes arising in markets employing inflexible contracting algorithms. Using algorithmic trading in financial markets as an example, we show how the automation of finance has brought about institutional changes in the form of new regulation to hedge against systemic risks from inflexibility. Analyzing the findings through the lens of new institutional economics, we explain how widespread adoption of contract automation can put pressure on institutions to change. We conclude with possible lessons that algorithmic finance can teach to markets deploying algorithmic contracting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: First, to outline the paradigm change of the past 20 years that has transformed the theory and practice of child and adolescent psychodynamic psychotherapy; second, to update aspects of the current Practice Parameters for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy with Children to align with the paradigm change driven by the principles of regulation theory, relational trauma and repair, and the critical need for clinicians' self-care in trauma informed psychotherapy.Conclusion: The emerging neuroscience-driven paradigm of psychotherapy poses challenges for the child and adolescent psychotherapist: to embrace the new conceptual reference points as organising principles leads to an urgent need to rethink traditional diagnostic formulations and time-honoured techniques for intervention. Our child patients and their families are entitled to benefit from the translation of the new research evidence from attachment regulation theory to clinical psychotherapy. Our clinical psychotherapy should sustain the 'best-interest-of-the-child' standards for well-being while also heeding Frances Tustin's warning for therapists to avoid the 'perpetuation of an error' by overlooking recent developments from allied fields in developmental psychology and the neurosciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the implications of the regulatory benefits that the investors derive from holding highly rated securities for a credit rating agency's (CRA) rating policy. The CRA's endogenous rating fee is shown to be decreasing in the accuracy of the rating. The CRA provides a rating only when the investors' regulatory benefit exceeds a minimum threshold. The regulatory reliance on ratings unambiguously reduces rating quality. Strategic rating inflation is more likely for complex financial securities with high fixed evaluation costs, and regulatory reliance on ratings expands the class of assets where rating inflation can occur. The ratings solicited by issuers who are more exposed to negative balance sheet shocks are more likely to be inaccurately optimistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ensaios FEE is the property of Fundacao de Economia e Estatistica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over time, the comparative analysis of capitalism has moved beyond the strict confines of the narrow varieties of capitalism (VoC) framework. In this sense, it is possible to observe an emergent post-VoC discussion that goes beyond the static design and methodological nationalism that can be found in a strictly comparative and institutionalist account of capitalism. So far, however, the post-VoC discussion has been barely able to address important politico-economic and societal themes and issues. For the most part, assertions about time-diagnostic characterisations of the current state of capitalism, the causes and processes of specific crisis dynamics inherent to this current form of capitalism, and the asymmetrical forms of international networks or formative transnational power relations, remain weak or chaotic. In order to overcome these existing deficiencies, this paper argues from an analytical perspective that situates itself in regulation theory and allows itself to be characterised as an extended neo-Gramscian international political economy (IPE) approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the development and changes in Swedish public policy relating to tourism from the 1930s to 2010 is described and interpreted from a political economy perspective. A case study, compiled from mainly secondary sources, is analyzed from a theoretical framework based on regulation theory. The purpose with this study is to increase the understanding of how the macro political economy context has influenced the policymaking in tourism in Sweden, but also to make a contribution to an area which seems to be quite neglected when it comes to research. The changes are analyzed according to the three periods denoted as pre-Fordism (mid-19th century-1930s), Fordism (1930s-1970s) and post-Fordism (1970s to present). It is observed how the general changes between these periods regarding aspects such as regulation and deregulation, and the degree of state involvement, have affected tourism policy making. The tourism policy making has changed from being insignificant, to a high degree of state involvement including planning, control and supervision, to a situation where the market rather than government regulation is considered as state of the art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Santa Fe Style is an assembly of cultural features associated with the city of Santa Fe and its surrounding Upper Rio Grande Valley. The style, often dismissed as a confection for tourists because of its gloss and worldliness, is in fact a manifestation of reflexive regionalism. This overlooked cultural process occurs when worldly outsiders fashion regional traits into responses to the life challenges that they and their extraregional reference groups face. In this case, outsiders fashioned what they found in early-twentieth-century Santa Fe into responses to challenges that accompanied the rise of American industrial capitalism. Threats to elite hegemony, the destruction of established lifeways, and the need for new perspectives on American society were prominent among the challenges to which the Santa Fe Style responded. Reflexive regionalism is thus the kind of cultural process that Regulation Theory posits but has found difficult to convincingly identify in the real world, i.e., one that adapts individuals and societies to periodic shifts in the logic and practices of capitalism. I examine seven individuals who made signal contributions to the Santa Fe Style. Each reveals a key facet of Santa Fe’s reflexive regionalism. Together they show how this process created the Santa Fe Style and, more generally, how it works as an engine of cultural invention. The key concepts here are reflexive regionalism, the Santa Fe Style, cosmopolitanism, Regulation Theory, the work of the age, and the project of the self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Schmollers Jahrbuch is the property of Duncker & Humblot GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue Tiers Monde is the property of Librairie Armand Colin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigate aspects of institutional change in an evolutionary game-theoretic framework, in principle focusing on problems of coordination in groups when new solutions to a problem become available. In an evolutionary game with an underlying dilemma structure, we let a number of new strategies become gradually available to the agents. The dilemma structure of the situation is not changed by these. Older strategies offer a lesser payoff than newly available ones. The problem that agents have to solve for realizing improved results is, therefore, to coordinate on newly available strategies. Strategies are taken to represent institutions; the coordination on a new strategy by agents, hence, represents a change in the institutional framework of a group. The simulations we run show a stable pattern regarding such institutional changes. A number of institutions are found to coexist, with the specific number depending on the relation of payoffs achievable through the coordination of different strategies. Usually, the strategies leading to the highest possible payoff are not among these. This can be taken to reflect the heterogeneity of rules in larger groups, with different subgroups showing different behavior patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an analysis of the post-convertibility development model within the current process of the transformation of capitalism and overcoming the neoliberal phase as a development strategy. We present the theory of regulation as the theoretical framework on which our study and conceptualization of the development model rests. From there, we advance in defining the key elements of the development strategy that led to the 2001 crisis, making way to reorganize the social and economic structures of Argentinean capitalism. In this context, we analyze the configuration of the development model from 2003-2010 to determine the scope of transformation relative to the neoliberal cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walls create spatial sequences, connecting and separating spaces and the people experiencing them. Traditionally, spatial organization plays an important role in creating or disturbing privacy. With the advent of the so called digital revolution however, many disciplines focus on a kind of privacy that does not seem to have any spatial connotations: privacy on the Internet for example. One result is that traditional theories of privacy are being increasingly questioned. The current essay joins this discussion from the point of view of architectural theory. In this discipline, one widely accepted theory of architectural space refers to space, which acquires its meaning from the active behavior and multimodal perception of the animate form of human subjects. Phenomenological space depends on direct experience of the environment. In the mean time, experience of coded information about space, mediated by a mobile phone for instance, has also become an issue in the way we perceive, experience, and enact space. Consider two banal examples of how the widespread use of digital devices and applications has changed the way public and private spaces are established in everyday life. If you look for WLAN access at an airport, you might gravitate towards a big crowd of people. Sometimes, a high density of people translates into the quintessential public space but in this case chances are the travelers are either waiting for the boarding of the plane or simply hanging around because they get the best Internet reception at that location. On the other hand, if you sit alone in a café and want to enjoy a cappuccino in peace, it is a good idea to appear preoccupied with the mobile phone. Most people will regard the phone as a "do not disturb" sign. The task of this essay is to take a close look at how some of these practices establish or negate boundaries and, consequently, at how they create or disturb privacy. Taking Irwin Altman's privacy regulation theory and Daniel Solove's more recent taxonomy of privacy as points of departure, the aim is to argue for the urgent need to rethink privacy such that it will accommodate new experiences between human subjects and private space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present world crisis is not a mere financial crisis, but the crisis of the liberal-productivist model of development, dominant from 1980. This article analyses the crisis — an over-accumulation crisis stemming from the weakness of labour-share, combined with a double ecological crisis (food, energy/climate) — in its social and ecological dimensions, according to the concepts of regulation theory. Due to its ecological aspects, the exit from the crisis could not be a globalised reproduction of the Roosveltian New Deal. This paper proposes a ‘blueprint for a Green Deal’ to answer the challenges of the complex social, ecological and financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to achieve more insight into the complex interplay between the 'external' market regulations and 'internal' regulations (corporate governance) of energy firms. In recent years, many countries have deregulated the incumbent energy monopolies and have introduced new modes of regulation. However, the new incentive schemes do not represent an unmitigated success story. A major problem seems to be the neoclassical framework that is used for the analysis of energy markets. Therefore, an important goal of this paper is to clarify the boundaries of neoclassical regulation theory. There are two restrictions that hamper the neoclassical analysis of energy markets. The first is the difficulty of overcoming the widely held 'black box' view of firms. The second is the idea that agents always make rational choices. The paper proposes a kind of theoretical division of labor for understanding the effectiveness of regulatory schemes in energy markets. Neoclassical economics points out to the sources of market failure, and helps to identify where in particular on the supply chain one is likely to observe natural monopolies. Transaction cost economics explains appropriate governance of vertical relations along the supply chain. And organizational theories can elucidate what happens within firms: their response to regulation, competition, and relations with suppliers. A research agenda for the third component is proposed, drawing on insights from New Sociological Institutionalism and organizational behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory oversight is a key feature of public governance. This study argues – based on recent trust research – that the way in which the relation between trust and control is conceptualized in the dominant responsive regulation theory (RRT) may be improved using self determination theory (SDT). RRT relies heavily on the game-theoretic tit-for-tat strategy to conceptualize cooperation/trust and repression/control as substitutes. A model is derived to show how regulator trust and control may complement each other in their effect on regulatee compliance. Propositions are formulated and implications for further research are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the regulation of advertising by considering market-driven firms (those seeking to keep within the boundaries set by social and industry norms) and market drivers (those seeking to stretch boundaries to gain a competitive advantage). Thought is also given to the costs of regulation and tolerance to the social purse, and the benefits gained by compliance and violation. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop a conceptual argument for boundary stretching where market drivers are present in a marketplace dominated by market-driven firms. The authors then apply a game theory model to examine the conditions, the firm responses, and Government responses. In doing so the authors investigate incentives for non-compliant behavior in a self-regulated market and show that a firm can achieve a market advantage by stretching advertising boundaries. Findings – Results suggest that when government takes a "wait-and-see" approach of partial tolerance, then the market driver can become the focal point for the market-driven, and a shift will take place in the regulatory boundary. If the government is the boundary shifter then social engineers are taking advantage of artificial boundaries they know will not be enforced, with implications for campaigns such as drink-driving, smoking, and domestic violence. Also, the market driver will gain a competitive advantage by entering a market-driven marketplace through boundary shifts, even after incurring an initial penalty. Research limitations/implications – The research demonstrates a need for research into marketing regulation to consider firm types, violation types, and tolerance levels. The study contributes to our understanding of marketer activity with two implications; first the firm is shifting the boundaries and redefining the market focal point as themselves, rather than violating the boundaries and setting themselves outside the rules. Second, depending on the level of tolerance that government has with the regulation of advertising, there is a cost to both the social purse and to market-driven firms associated with boundary shifters. Practical implications – A market driver, looking for growth opportunities, should try to enter markets dominated by market-driven firms, and which have self-regulation, while market driven firms should either look for regulatory protection or act collectively to wield power over third parties – for example forcing media outlets not to carry market driver advertising. Originality/value – By introducing the concept of boundary stretching and allowing for market drivers and market driven firms, the authors show the effects of regulation (or tolerance) in a realistic setting and allow for the real-world dynamics of a marketplace where new ideas create new focal points for social acceptance. This study also provides a clear illustration of the usefulness of game theory in marketing studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental sustainability of economic growth has been subject to much debate for many decades. Recently, two alternatives to the growth paradigm have been put forward: namely, "a-growth" and "degrowth." The first proposes to ignore GDP information and focus instead on sound environmental, social, and economic policies independently of their effects on economic growth. The second recommends a downscaling of the economy so as to make it consistent with biophysical boundaries. We compare these approaches in the context of the growth paradigm and examine whether they have any merit. We further consider the potential contribution of institutional economics to further develop such alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant role played by financial services within liberal market economies, and the 2008 economic crisis, has variously been depicted as the product of regulatory failure, 'irrational exuberance', the over-prioritization of shareholder value or as part and parcel of an epochal change in social and economic life. Current regulationist thinking suggests that recent developments represent a long period of systemic experimentation, evolution and change, which dates back to the end of the long boom in the 1970s. In this article, we introduce and discuss current regulationist thinking regarding systemic crisis, evolution and change, and follow on with a more detailed look at the diversity and varied outcomes associated with a key area of the financial services sector, private equity (PE) and public to private buy-outs of listed corporations (PTPs). We have chosen this area because of the critical importance of capital for innovation at the same time as investment horizons have generally become more short term, and the challenges that exist in reconciling these competing needs and agendas. We conclude that, as with any innovation and experiment, the outcomes of private equity are mixed. This would suggest that the emerging financial architecture that will inevitably comprise any return to growth will, in part, incorporate aspects of private equity. Indeed, to the extent that private equity buy-outs involve the acquisition of firms in distress, they may have a positive contribution to make in resolving the problems of recession and financial crisis. The failure of unsustainable experiments does not mean, however, that renewed growth will simply result through natural selection: it depends on continued innovation and experimentation across the entire economy, coupled with relevant formal and informal socio-economic regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]