Contributions in Merlin

This paper examines the distributional effects of international outsourcing in a two-sector, two-factor model. The analysis allows for switches between diversified and specialized equilibria. Also, equilibria in which only some firms of a sector outsource (incomplete or partial outsourcing) are considered. It is the interplay of the cost-saving and substitution effects of international outsourcing that determines the nature of the outsourcing equilibrium and its distributional consequences.

Editing graphic models always entails layout problems. Inserting and deleting items requires tedious manual work for shifting existing items and rearranging the diagram layout. Hence, techniques that automatically expand a diagram when space is required for insertion and contract it when free space becomes avaliable are highly desirable. Existing layout generation algorithms are no good solution for that problem: they may completely rearrange a diagram after an editing operation, while users want to preserve the overall visual appearance of a diagram. We have developed a technique which automatically expands or contracts a diagram layout when items are inserted or removed while preserving its overall shape, i.e. the positions of the items relative to each other. Our technique has been implemented in a prototype tool. We are using it not just for simplifying editing, but primarily for implementing an aspect-oriented visualization concept.

Many extensions to text-based, data-intensive knowledge management approaches, such as Information Retrieval or Data Mining, focus on integrating the impressive recent advances in language technology. For this, they need fast, robust parsers that deliver linguistic data which is meaningful for the subsequent processing stages. This paper introduces such a parsing system and discusses some of its disambiguation techniques which are based on learning from a large syntactically annotated corpus. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 explains the motivations for writing the parser, and why it profits from Dependency grammar assumptions. Section 3 gives a brief introduction to the parsing system and to evaluation questions. Section 4 presents the probabilistic models and the conducted experiments in detail.

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has been one of the first incarnations of E-Learning, which has not only become a trend nowadays but also a commercial factor. CALL has its own international conferences and a wide range of academic prototypes and commercial products are available. As with E-Learning software in general, advanced CALL systems are based on the principles of multi media design, facilitating modalities like audio and video, e.g. speech input and output, animated graphics and avatars for guiding the user. Although these design standards do improve the quality of E-Learning systems, it is widely accepted that an optimal learning environment is one where the learner is guided by an intelligent personalized tutor, that adapts to the level of expertise of the learner, for example in tailoring explanations to the user's domain knowledge and selecting appropriate exercises. This is the area of Intelligent Tutorial Systems (ITS) and User Modelling (UM), so far a mainly academic discipline. If at all, only few commercial (CALL) products incorporate such capabilities. The problem is that domain knowledge, reasoning and learning facilities and - in the case of verbal explanations - natural language understanding capabilities are to be integrated; altogether a non-trivial task for many application areas. As a consequence, intelligent tutorial systems seem to be suited well only for restricted domains, e.g. circuit design (Davis 1984).

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We consider the design and estimation of quadratic term structure models. We start with a list of stylized facts on interest rates and interest rate derivatives, classified into three layers: (1) general statistical properties, (2) forecasting relations, and (3) conditional dynamics. We then investigate the implications of each layer of property on model design and strive to establish a mapping between evidence and model structures. We calibrate a two-factor model that approximates these three layers of properties well, and show that a flexible specification for the market price of risk is important in capturing the stylized evidence in forecasting relations while factor interactions are indispensable in generating the hump-shaped dynamics of bond yields.

This paper provides an analytical characterization of Markov perfect equilibria in a model with repeated voting, where agents vote over distortionary income redistribution. A key result is that the future constituency for redistributive policies depends positively on current redistribution, since this affects both private investments and the future distribution of voters. The model features multiple equilibria. In some equilibria, positive redistribution persists forever. In other equilibria, even a majority of beneficiaries of redistribution vote strategically so as to induce the end of the welfare state next period. Skill-biased technical change makes the survival of the welfare state less likely.

Zur Steigerung der Schweizer Arbeitsproduktivität wird oft die Erhöhung der Studierendenzahl gefordert. Für die Autorin des folgenden Beitrags führt eine übereilte Akademisierung in die falsche Richtung. Anzustreben seien vorerst eine Differenzierung der Hochschullandschaft und die Sicherstellung der Schweizer Berufsbildung. Für die Effizienz der dualen Berufsbildung spricht etwa, dass die betrieblichen Kosten durch zahlreiche Vorteile, wie die Reduktion der Rekrutierungskosten, aufgewogen werden.

Economists have confined the concept of "sustainability" to intertemporal distributional equity.We propose a broader definition, combining dynamic efficiency and intergenerational equity, and relate it to two concepts from neoclassical economics: potential Pareto-improvements and inter-personal compensation.