Artificial neural networks (ANNs) constitute a class of flexible nonlinear models designed to mimic biological neural systems. In this entry, we introduce ANN using familiar econometric terminology and provide an overview of ANN modeling approach and its implementation methods. † Correspondence: Chung-Ming Kuan, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, 128 Academia Road, Sec. 2, Taipei 115, Taiwan; ckuan@econ.sinica.edu.tw. †† I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the editor, Professor Steven Durlauf, for his patience and constructive comments on early drafts of this entry. I also thank Shih-Hsun Hsu and Yu-Lieh Huang for very helpful suggestions. The remaining errors are all mine.

Artificial neural networks

r 9HE purpose of this paper is to explore a hypothesis, based on acIcumulating evidence, regarding the character of inventions likely to issue from the research laboratories of the large industrial corporations. Simply put, this hypothesis may be stated as follows: with few exceptions, the large industrial laboratories are likely to be minor sources of major (radically new and commercially or militarily important) inventions; rather they are likely to be major sources of essentially "improvement" inventions. Put more precisely, the hypothesis states that the proportion of all minor inventions originating in the large industrial laboratories is likely to exceed the proportion of all major inventions originating in these laboratories. Note that the stress on the relative importance of these laboratories as sources of improvement inventions is not necessarily a denigration of the economic importance of this contribution. The cumulative effect of these improvement inventions may be, and often has been, of substantial importance over long periods of time for advancing technology, investment opportunities, and economic growth. The stress on improvement inventions as the principal product of the research laboratories of the large industrial corporations is meant simply to emphasize that, whatever the importance of their contributions, most of the latter is not likely to involve radically new inventive activity. I cannot claim originality for this hypothesis. After it suggested itself in the course of my investigations, I discovered that others, some of them in the most unlikely positions,2 had earlier said much the same thing. But, apart from occasional remarks, I can find no discussions attempting to explain or justify it. And because, if reasonably accurate, it has numerous ramifications, I have felt the need to set down an extended analysis of 1 I wish to thank members of the Seminar on Law and Technology, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Law School under the auspices of the Ford Foundation, for their many helpful comments on this paper. Especially do I wish to thank Professors Jacob Schmookler, Robert Merrill, John Stedman, Harrison White, and John Heath. 2 See particularly the statement quoted below (p. 114) of D)r. Frank Jewett, former president of Bell Laboratories.

The journal of political economy

This text aims to provide a survey of the state of knowledge in the broad area that includes the theories and facts of economic growth and economic fluctuations, as well as the consequences of monetary and fiscal policies for general economic conditions.

Handbook of macroeconomics

This book distills out of the rich vein of sociological research some of what is known about the structure of stratification in the United States. It emphasizes the importance of power for understanding the structure of stratification.

The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States, The, CourseSmart eTextbook

Recent tests for the convergence hypothesis derive from regressing average growth rates on initial levels: a negative initial coefficient is interpreted as convergence. These tests turn out to be plagued by Galton's classical fallacy of regression towards the mean. Using a dynamic version of Galton's fallacy, I establish that coefficients of arbitrary signs in such regressions are consistent with an unchanging cross-section distribution of incomes. Alternative, more direct empirics used here show a tendency for divergence, rather than convergence, of cross-country incomes.

Galton's Fallacy and Tests of the Convergence Hypothesis (Now published in Scandinavian Journal of Economics 95 (4), 1993, pp.427-443.)

Many poverty authors point out that the various ways poverty is conceptualized and measured are very crucial because different poverty measures tend to capture different people as poor. The main focus of this research is to review the theoretical and empirical research on theories of poverty, poverty measures and outcomes. Subsequently, we discuss conceptual framework of the different poverty measures.

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Theories of Poverty: A Comparative Analysis

Effect of macroeconomic instability on the economic growth through the use of time series data and macroeconomic instability indicator in the years from 1974 to 2008 is the main objective of this study. For this purpose, a regression equation has been used based on neoclassical endogenous growth model. The results, within the framework of collective method and vector error correction model, show that economic growth in Iran has a long-term relationship with the macroeconomic instability. In other words, changes in macroeconomic instability indicators will be associated with the increase (decrease) of economic growth in the long run. Also, the obtained results show that although population growth rate is effective on the long-term economic growth, it is not influenced by the consequences of this effect. In fact, this variable is weak in comparison with other exogenous variables in the short run.

/pdf/the-effect-of-macroeconomic-instability-on-economic-growth-kx4h2hplbs.pdf

The Effect of Macroeconomic Instability on Economic Growth in Iran

While economic deterrence models are fully based on maximizing economic utility; social psychology models explain human behavior by examining the underlying attitudes, norms and beliefs. Tax morale is defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes. However, determinants of tax morale need to be investigated for a more comprehensive understanding of tax morale. In this paper we analyze the most important determinants of tax morale in Iran using data from World Values Surveys (WVS). Determinants of tax morale are categorized into four main groups: social capital, conditional cooperation, demographic factors and economic situation of the respondents. Estimating ordered probit model, we find that conditional cooperation and economic situation have the most important effects on tax morality. However, some of the social capital variables like importance of politics and religion and demographic factors like gender and marital status don’t have significant effect on tax morale in Iran.

/pdf/analyzing-determinants-of-tax-morale-based-on-social-195q2h16pg.pdf

Analyzing Determinants of Tax Morale based on Social Psychology Theory: Case study of Iran

Economic convergence is one of the important topics of new macroeconomics. It refers to tendency of income per capita of countries (regions) to converge to their steady-state value. There are two kinds of convergence: conditional and absolute convergence. This paper examines income convergence between 22 MENA countries during the period of 1970-2003 by using the neoclassical growth model of Barro-Salla-i-Martin for both kinds of convergence. Non-linearity of the underlying relationships, the restrictiveness of assumptions of functional forms and econometric problems in the estimation and application of theoretical models advocate for the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) algorithms. We show that by changing the quantitative tools of analysis and using ANN, the results become more precise. Results show that absolute convergence and conditional convergence are significant but the rate of convergence is low.

/pdf/inquiry-into-income-convergence-in-mena-countries-a-neural-23a9kzuel4.pdf

Inquiry Into Income Convergence in MENA Countries: A Neural Network Approach

Since Investments in R&D have been identified as a major engine of growth by recent endogenous models, many studies have investigated the determinant R&D intensity. This paper analyzes the impact of determinant factor on the R&D investment with emphasize on openness trade by a panel data model of R&D .the result from OECD countries from 1996-2008 shows that economic growth, openness trade and R&D expenditure that funded by government have positive impact on R&D intensity while openness trade has more effect than others.

Majid Sameti

Papers

Theories of Poverty: A Comparative Analysis

The Effect of Macroeconomic Instability on Economic Growth in Iran

Analyzing Determinants of Tax Morale based on Social Psychology Theory: Case study of Iran

Inquiry Into Income Convergence in MENA Countries: A Neural Network Approach

Determinants Of R&D Investment: A Study Of OECD Countries