So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Human biochemical genetics

世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

The reference human genome sequence set the stage for studies of genetic variation and its association with human disease, but epigenomic studies lack a similar reference. To address this need, the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Consortium generated the largest collection so far of human epigenomes for primary cells and tissues. Here we describe the integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes generated as part of the programme, profiled for histone modification patterns, DNA accessibility, DNA methylation and RNA expression. We establish global maps of regulatory elements, define regulatory modules of coordinated activity, and their likely activators and repressors. We show that disease- and trait-associated genetic variants are enriched in tissue-specific epigenomic marks, revealing biologically relevant cell types for diverse human traits, and providing a resource for interpreting the molecular basis of human disease. Our results demonstrate the central role of epigenomic information for understanding gene regulation, cellular differentiation and human disease.

Integrative analysis of 111 reference human epigenomes

Total factor productivity of twenty OECD countries for a recent period (1971-2002) is explained using six different models based on the established literature. Traditionally, entrepreneurship is not dealt with in these models. In the present paper it is shown that - when this variable is added - in all models there is a significant influence of entrepreneurship while the remaining effects mainly stay the same. Entrepreneurship is measured as the business ownership rate (number of business owners per workforce) corrected for the level of economic development (GDP per capita).

/pdf/total-factor-productivity-and-the-role-of-entrepreneurship-1j3wrqd9bs.pdf

Total Factor Productivity and the Role of Entrepreneurship

\n Business takeovers and new venture start-ups are two important and distinct entry modes of entrepreneurship. They differ from resource-based and organizational ecology perspectives. We compare firm survival patterns and determinants associated with the two entry modes. From two large French datasets, we find that business takeovers have a higher survival rate than new venture start-ups. However, these differences in survival probability reduce over the entrepreneurship life cycle and when controlling for different entrepreneur and firm characteristics. Moreover, we identify differences in determinants of survival for the two groups, highlighting a distinction between the two entrepreneurship entry modes. This work contributes to the literature on the relationship between entrepreneurship entry and firm survival, thereby contributing to both entrepreneurship and firm survival research.

/pdf/the-survival-of-business-takeovers-and-new-venture-start-ups-2b6b9typmi.pdf

The survival of business takeovers and new venture start-ups

The differences in the rate of self-employmentduring the period 1978 to 2000 across 15 European countries is explained, focusing on the influence of dissatisfaction and per capita income as determinants of aggregate self-employment.Measures of aggregated dissatisfaction are used in combination with economic, social, and demographic variables of members of the European Union.Motivational factors that influence the willingness to be self-employed are examined at the individual level and considered as to whether they can be aggregated at the national level. Data are drawn from an EIM database (called Compendia 2000.2) and other OECD sources.Two measures of dissatisfaction are used: (1) dissatisfaction with life, and (2) dissatisfaction with the way democracy works.Also measured were self-employment rates, labor income share, and GDP per capita.Findings indicate that, in addition to the significant, negative impact of per capita income, dissatisfaction with life at the level of societies has a significant, positive influence on self-employment levels. Dissatisfaction with life and self-employment are indicators of job dissatisfaction.Two factors for self-employment are identified: push (low wages and job dissatisfaction) and pull (possibility of high profits and tax evasion).Policy makers may want to scrutinize incentive structures in their economies and consider how the educational system contributes to developing entrepreneurial qualities. (TNM)

The Role of Dissatisfaction and Per Capita Income in Explaining Self-Employment Across 15 European Countries

Determinants from different streams of literature and spanning different disciplines are used to explain entrepreneurial decisions. A multinomial logit model and survey data from the old 15 EU member states, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and the US are used to establish the effect of demographic and other variables on various entrepreneurial engagement levels. These engagement levels range from "never thought about starting a business" to "thinking about it", "taking steps for starting up", "having a young business", "having an older business" and "no longer being an entrepreneur". Data of two Entrepreneurship Flash Eurobarometer surveys (2002 and 2003) containing over 20,000 observations are used. Other than demographic variables, the set of explanatory variables used includes the perception by respondents of ad-ministrative complexities, of availability of financial support and of risk tolerance, the respondents' prefer-ence for self-employment and country specific effects. The most striking result is that the perception of lack of financial support has no discriminative effect across the various levels of entrepreneurial engagement.

Determinants of entrepreneurial engagement levels in Europe and the US

Using a status quo bias perspective, this paper examines the relation between customers' inertia and continuance intention, identifying the moderating role of contractual subscription on this relationship The authors' model is validated using data collected from 457 mobile phone service customers and partial least squares Results show that customers continue with mobile service providers due to their inertia resulting from habit and switching costs The effect of customers' inertia on their continuance intention is stronger when they have a contractual subscription with the mobile service provider The authors' results show the importance of including inertia when studying customers' continuance intention and taking into account the specific moderating effect of contractual subscription

Roy Thurik

Papers

Total Factor Productivity and the Role of Entrepreneurship

The survival of business takeovers and new venture start-ups

The Role of Dissatisfaction and Per Capita Income in Explaining Self-Employment Across 15 European Countries

Determinants of entrepreneurial engagement levels in Europe and the US

Customers' Continuance Intention Regarding Mobile Service Providers: A Status Quo Bias Perspective