Contributions in Merlin

As previously argued, the correlation between included and omitted regressors generally causes inconsistency of standard estimators for count data models. Non-linear instrumental variables estimation of an exponential model under conditional moment restrictions is one of the proposed remedies. This approach is extended here by fully exploiting the model assumptions and thereby improving efficiency of the resulting estimator. Empirical likelihood in particular has favourable properties in this setting compared with the two-step generalized method of moments, as demonstrated in a Monte Carlo experiment. The proposed method is applied to the estimation of a cigarette demand function.

In order to support the processing of qualitative spatial queries, spatial knowledge must be represented in a way that machines can make use of it. Ontologies typically represent thematic knowledge. Enhancing them with spatial knowledge is still a challenge. In this article, an implementation of the Region Connection Calculus (RCC) in the Web Ontology Language (OWL), augmented by DL-safe SWRL rules, is used to represent spatio-thematic knowledge. This involves partially ordered partitions, which are implemented by nominals and functional roles. Accordingly, a spatial division into administrative regions, rather than, for instance, a metric system, is used as a frame of reference for evaluating closeness. Hence, closeness is evaluated purely according to qualitative criteria. Colloquial descriptions typically involve qualitative concepts. The approach presented here is thus expected to align better with the way human beings deal with closeness than does a quantitative approach. To illustrate the approach, it is applied to the retrieval of documents from the database of the Datacenter Nature and Landscape (DNL).

Was die SP vermutet hat, betrachtet sie nun als erwiesen: Gemäss einer Studie, die sie in Auftrag gegeben hat, sind Grossbanken gefährlich für die Volkswirtschaft. Zur Lösung des Problems braucht es laut der Studie Massnahmen auf verschiedenen Ebenen.

This peer-reviewed book contains papers describing the major scientific achievements supported by European funding in the area of Future Internet. It is published in the context of FIA, the Future Internet Assembly, which is structured to permit interactions across technical domains from researchers and other stakeholders active in Future Internet research. FIA holds two meetings per year and calls on those involved in relevant funded research projects to participate actively and to steer its work. European scientists proved that they are at the forefront of Internet research already since the invention of the web. But the challenges are huge and complex and cannot be dealt with in isolation. The European Future Internet Assembly is the vehicle to a fruitful scientific dialogue, bringing together the different scientific disciplines that contribute to the Future Internet development.

The Internet has allowed market-based systems to become increasingly pervasive. In this paper we explore the role of user interface (UI) design for these markets. Different UIs induce different mental models which in turn determine how users understand and interact with a market. Thus, the intersection of UI design and economics is a novel and important research area. We make three contributions at this intersection. First, we present a novel design paradigm which we call hidden markets. The primary goal of hidden markets is to hide as much of the market complexities as possible. Second, we explore this new design paradigm using one particular example: a P2P backup application. We explain the market underlying this system and provide a detailed description of the new UI we developed. Third, we present results from a formative usability study. Our findings indicate that a number of users could benefit from a market-based P2P backup system. Most users intuitively understood the give & take principle as well as the bundle constraints of the market. However, the pricing aspect was difficult to discover/ understand for many users and thus needs further investigation. Overall, the results are encouraging and show promise for the hidden market paradigm.

null

Since the 1990ies the higher education system in the German speaking area has been faced an essential paradigm change: The model of governmental steering and control was replaced by the model of governmental supervision following the concept of New Public Management. It was assumed that an enlargement of autonomy would increase the effciency of the whole tertiary system. At the same time, the restructuring of the European higher education system has been started in 1999 by implementing the Bologna reforms. To investigate how the Swiss universities have digested the national and international reforms we apply an input distance function and estimate the technical effciency of a panel data set containing all of the 12 Swiss universities for the period of 1999-2008 both at university level and discipline level. We find essential effciency variations across the disciplines caused by structural differences regarding the endowment with ressources and output targets which indicate the need to analyse effciency at a disaggregated level. Furthermore, our results show that there are external determinants that affect the effciency of Swiss universities.

null

null