Search Results

AbstractAfter fifty years of catching up to the U. S. level of productivity, since 1995 Europe has been falling behind. The growth rate in output per hour over 1995-2003 in Europe was just half that in the United States, and this annual growth shortfall caused the level of European productivity to fall back from 94 percent of the U. S. level to 85 percent. Fully one-fifth of the European catch-up (from 44 to 94 percent) over the previous half-century has been lost over the period since 1995.Disaggregated studies of industrial sectors suggest that the main difference between Europe and the U. S. is in ICT-using industries like wholesale and retail trade and in securities trading. The contrast in retailing calls attention to regulatory barriers and land-use regulations in Europe that inhibit the development of the ‘big box' retailing formats that have created many of the productivity gains in the U. S. For many decades, the U. S. and Europe have gone in opposite directions in the public policies relevant for metropolitan growth. The U. S. has promoted highly dispersed low-density metropolitan areas through its policies of building intra-urban highways, starving public transit, providing tax subsidies to home ownership, and allowing local governments to maintain low density by maintaining minimum residential lot sizes. Europeans have chosen different policies that encourage high-density residential living and retail precincts in the central city while inhibiting the exploitation of ‘greenfield' suburban and exurban sites suitable for modern ‘big box' retail developments.The middle part of the paper draws on recent writing by Phelps: economic dynamism is promoted by policies that promote competition and flexible equity finance and is retarded by corporatist institutions designed to protect incumbent producers and inhibit new entry. European cultural attributes inhibit the development of ambition and independence by teenagers and young adults, in contrast to their encouragement in the U. S. While competition, corporatism, and culture may help to explain the differing transatlantic evolution of productivity growth, they reveal institutional flaws in both continents that are inbred and likely to persist. The final section of the paper identifies the roots of the favorable environment for innovation in the U.S. compared to Europe. Elements include an openly competitive system of private and public universities, government subsidies to universities through peer-reviewed research grants rather than unconditional subsidies for free undergraduate tuition, the world dominance of U.S. business schools and management consulting firms, strong U.S. patent protection, a flexible financial infrastructure making available venture capital finance to promising innovations, the benefits of a common language and free internal migration, and a welcoming environment for highly-skilled immigrants.

AbstractThe paper argues that post-Keynesian theory has reached a third stage in its development, that of empirically validating its arguments. The failure of the alternative neoclassical paradigm to meet any of the necessary empirical tests — the correspondence, comprehensiveness, parsimony and praxis tests in particular — is first pointed out. The methodological pitfalls which post-Keynesian theory must guard against if it is to avoid the same result are then indicated. From this line of argument emerges the imminent research agenda if post-Keynesian theory is eventually to place economics on a scientific basis by developing a body of theory which can be both empirically validated and conducive to further empirical research.

This article relates to the discussion taking place about the possibility of identifying an implicit social clause in the text of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The recognition of such a clause would eventually allow World Trade Organisation (WTO) member states to use the exceptions in article XX of the GATT to adopt restrictive trade measures against countries liable for breaches of fundamental workers' rights, including the right of children to be protected against hazardous work. The analysis in this article will focus on the exception under article XX(a) concerning the protection of the public morals of the importing country. Specifically, this article will attempt to demonstrate prima facie that the exploitation of child labourers during the production of imported goods undermines the public morality of the importing country and, therefore, that measures related to those goods could be justified under article XX(a) of the GATT, subject to satisfying the necessity condition of this rule.

This article aims at revealing a CSR model resulting from entrepreneurs' representations in an African context. The discourse of ten entrepreneurs of VSEs established in Cameroon is analysed through the justification and legitimation concepts, coupled with the conciliator mechanism's approach. It appears that in this context, the entrepreneur perceives his/her responsibility situating him/herself simultaneously in three kind of wolrds: the domestic one, the commercial and the spiritual one. The CSR emerging model is three-dimensional. It corresponds to an aggregation of genealogical, geo-economic and spiritual responsibilities, each being respectively anchored in one of the aforementioned worlds. The CSR discourse and practices to be promoted in this continent could be inspired by this model.

Keywords: RSE, TPE (Très Petites Entreprises), mécanisme conciliateur, justification, Légitimation, Afrique subsaharienne/Cameroun, CSR, TPE (Very Small and Small Enterprises), conciliator mechanism, justification, Legitimation, Sub-Saharan Africa/Cameroon, RRSE, TPE, mecanismo conciliatorio, justificación, legitimación, África subsahariana/Camerún

Using the culture and tradition theoretical framework, this paper examines the influence of traditional values on the relationship between service quality, perceived value and purchase intention in Senegal. Based on a sample of 303 African customers of an innovative shopping mall. Using structural equation models (PLS) the results show that service quality influences the perceived value of the innovative shopping mall which in turn affects the consumer's purchase intention. This work establishes a moderating role of traditional values on the relationships between specific dimensions of service quality and the perceived value of the innovative shopping mall.

Keywords: Centre commercial innovant, Intention d'achat, Qualité de service, Valeur perçue, Valeurs traditionnelles, Innovative shopping mall, Purchase intention, Service quality, Perceived value, Traditional values, Centro comercial innovador, intención de compra, calidad de servicio, valor percibido, valores tradicionales

AbstractThe basic question delt with in this article is that of the relation between science and philosophy. This question is approached through a consideration of the phenomenological critique of science. The philosophy of Merleau-Ponty is taken as an example of the phenomenological position. The aim of the article is to show the insufficiency of Merleau-Ponty's position — and, by implication, of phenomenology in general — as regards his estimation of the true nature of the scientific project. To this end an attempt is made to seize hold of the true meaning of recent developments in science by examining four special instances : nuclear physics, psychology, molecular biology, cybernetics. The result of this analysis is to show that Merleau-Ponty's interpretation of aims and tendencies of science was mistaken and that the position normally taken by phenomenology cannot be defended. As, however, the author is in agreement with the basic motivation of Merleau-Ponty and of phenomenology as regard the irreducibility of the subject or consciousness to scientific objectivism, he is thus led to ask what might be a satisfactory phenomenological position vis-a-is science. The article thus ends a critique of all positivist (and structuralist) positions in philosophy and with an attempt to indicate what must be the true nature of philosophical discourse, once this has been purified of all empirical elements, i.e., of all claims to positive knowledge.

In small numbers, first of all during the American Revolution (1775-1781) and in the wake of the Insurrection of 1837-1838 in Lower Canada, but especially by the thousands between the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the Great Depression of the 1930s, Québécois in search of a better life settled in New England. Today, their descendants, the Franco-Americans, total more than three million, or nearly half of Québec's present population. As a means of preserving and promoting more or less successfully the French language and Franco-American culture while becoming integrated into the American way of life, institutions of all types were created. Professor emerita of French, author, translator, president of the Fédération féminine franco-américaine and founding director of the Institut français of Assumption College, Claire Quintal ranks among those dynamic individuals to whom is owed the miracle of a francophone minority still in existence in New England nowadays.

This paper describes and analyses the introduction of reindeer herding in Amadjuak, on Baffin Island, in 1921. The operation involved several Saami families and Inuit, hired at the last moment to help the Saami and take over reindeer herding. But the operation resulted in a failure and all the reindeer died, many of them eaten by wolves and dogs. Using archival sources – and more particularly the journal of the Hudson's Bay Company agent – as well as oral sources, the authors evoke the reasons explaining this dramatic experience. They emphasize the difficulty of transforming hunters into herders, these two activities being connected with quite different perspectives of the relationships between human beings and animals. Finally they stress the fact that among Inuit, the caribou is often associated with the deceased and with spirits (ijirait), a connection that is never made with respect to the reindeer imported by the qallunaat.

Keywords: Inuits, Saamis, élevage du renne, caribou, Amadjuak, Inuit, Saami, reindeer herding, caribou, Amadjuak, Inuit, Saami, cría de renos, caribú, Amadjuak