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Showing papers by "Paris West University Nanterre La Défense published in 2002"


Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: A review of studies on the cross-cultural generalizability of the Big Five and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality describes the convergent and divergent results of two main research traditions (i.e., emic and psycho-lexical) on this topic.
Abstract: A review of studies on the cross-cultural generalizability of the Big Five and the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality describes the convergent and divergent results of two main research traditions (“emic” and “etic”) on this topic. The main divergent results relate to the Intellect-Openness dimension. The cross-cultural generalizability of the Intellect-Openness dimension is clearly problematic in the emic and psycho-lexical stream of research but firmly established by the etic stream using imported inventories. After this review of previous research, results of cross-cultural geralizability research on the FFM as assessed by the NEO-PI-R are presented and discussed. Comparisons of Varimax structures in 16 different cultures clearly show the cross-cultural generalizability of Neuroticism, Openness and Conscientiousness. Extraversion and Agreeableness, described as components of the interpersonal circumplex, appear to be more sensitive to cultural context. For some cultures—in Varimax structure—the factorial location of some facets of Extraversion and Agreeableness shift onto the other dimension. All these results are in line with previous research and suggest that the anthropological traditional that emphasizes cultural diversity and the impact of culture on individual psychology probably tends to underestimate the role of cross-cultural invariance in individual differences.

193 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider whether generic advertising lowers the differentiation among competing brands of the same good and show that if the benefits from generic advertising from increased demand are outweighed by the costs from lower product differentiation then high-quality producers will not benefit from generic promotion.
Abstract: This article considers whether generic advertising lowers the differentiation among competing brands of the same good. Analytical results show that if the benefits from generic advertising from increased demand are outweighed by the costs from lower product differentiation then high-quality producers will not benefit from generic promotion. Hypotheses are tested empirically under a conditional-logit approach using retail-market sales and advertising data for the U.S. prune industry. Results from this study provide evidence that generic advertising has a slight differential effect on the perceived qualities of different brands.

67 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the role of neoliberalism in the history of capitalism, the social significance of the new rules that it imposes, its social costs and associated risks, its future, and its resilience.
Abstract: This essay concerns neoliberalism, neoliberalism under US hegemony: its place in the history of capitalism, the social significance of the new rules that it imposes, its social costs and associated risks, its future. We have already discussed elsewhere the costs and benefits of neoliberalism. Its resilience is certainly the most difficult issue to tackle. Can we detect within neoliberalism internal contradictions that cast doubt on its ability to survive, both economically and politically? In other words, what is the nature of the new order of capitalism: a mere transition made possible by the crisis and the defeat of the labour movement, or a new era? These questions raise the issue of the interpretation of Keynesianism. Were the Keynesian years an exception following the Great Depression, or did they suggest the possible contours of another capitalism, or even a first step of capitalism beyond its own rules? Thus the definitions of capitalism, of Keynesianism and of neoliberalism are all at stake in this discussion.

44 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a two-sector endogenous growth model with elastic labor supply is presented, where pollution is modeled as a side product of production and the consequences of an environmental tax on the economic dynamics are analyzed.

39 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The gravitation des taux de profit autour d'une valeur commune procede de la mobilite du capital, a recherche d'un taux of profit maximal, was studied in this article.

30 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results provide the first electrophysiological evidence for an alteration of the neuronal network of HVc across sexes and seasons in songbirds.
Abstract: In songbirds, anatomical attributes of song nuclei exhibit sexual and seasonal differences. To extend these data to physiological correlates, neurons (n = 374) were recorded in the HVc of male and female canaries during and outside the breeding period. Surprisingly, a particular type of action potential waveforms was observed more frequently in breeding than in non-breeding birds and in males than in females.These neurons showed both a shorter action potential duration ( < 0.4 ms) and a higher firing rate (2.5 vs 1.4 spikes/s) than the other neurons. Such characteristics are usually associated with interneurons in the songbird HVc as well as in the mammalian neocortex. Thus, these results provide the first electrophysiological evidence for an alteration of the neuronal network of HVc across sexes and seasons.

30 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a theoretical framework and an empirical assessment of payment schemes implemented in technology licensing agreements and highlight the need to include the impact of the institutional environment in the analysis of contract ual choices as a factor that greatly influences the level of ex post enforcement costs.
Abstract: This article provides a theoretical framework and an empirical assessment of payment schemes implemented in technology licensing agreements. Using a new source of data (a French governmental database designed to observe international technology transfers) we show that results obtained by previous studies focusing on incentive constraints are no longer valid when crucial ex post enforcement problems are taken into account. The choice of royalties vs. lump sum payments depends upon the quality of the protection provided to the licensor by the institutional environment. These results highlight the need to include the impact of the institutional environment in the analysis of contract ual choices as a factor that greatly influences the level of ex post enforcement costs.

23 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
13 Oct 2002
TL;DR: It is shown that the well known step complexity model is not appropriate to study time complexity of time-adaptive protocols (i.e. protocols that recover from memory corruption in a time that depends only on the number of faults and not on the network size).
Abstract: It is desirable that the smaller the number of faults hitting a network, the faster a network protocol recovers. We study the scenario where up to k (for a given k) faults hit processors of a synchronous distributed system by corrupting their state undetectably. In this context, we show that the well known step complexity model is not appropriate to study time complexity of time-adaptive protocols (i.e. protocols that recover from memory corruption in a time that depends only on the number of faults and not on the network size). In more detail, we prove that for nontrivial dynamic problems (such as token passing), there exists a lower bound of /spl Omega/(D) (where D is the network diameter) steps on the stabilization time even when as few as 1 corruption can hit the system. This implies that there exists no time adaptive protocol for those problems in the asynchronous step model, even if we assume that the number of faults is bounded by 1 and that the scheduling of the processors is almost synchronous (between two actions of an enabled processor any other processor may execute at most one action).

20 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a physical basis for this phenomenological law based on a slider-block model using a state and velocity dependent friction law established in the laboratory and used to model earthquake friction is provided.
Abstract: Accelerating displacements preceding some catastrophic landslides have been found empirically to follow a time-to-failure power law, corresponding to a finite-time singularity of the velocity $v \sim 1/(t_c-t)$ [{\it Voight}, 1988]. Here, we provide a physical basis for this phenomenological law based on a slider-block model using a state and velocity dependent friction law established in the laboratory and used to model earthquake friction. This physical model accounts for and generalizes Voight's observation: depending on the ratio $B/A$ of two parameters of the rate and state friction law and on the initial frictional state of the sliding surfaces characterized by a reduced parameter $x_i$, four possible regimes are found. Two regimes can account for an acceleration of the displacement. We use the slider-block friction model to analyze quantitatively the displacement and velocity data preceding two landslides, Vaiont and La Clapi\`ere. The Vaiont landslide was the catastrophic culmination of an accelerated slope velocity. La Clapi\`ere landslide was characterized by a peak of slope acceleration that followed decades of ongoing accelerating displacements, succeeded by a restabilizing phase. Our inversion of the slider-block model on these data sets shows good fits and suggest to classify the Vaiont (respectively La Clapi\`ere) landslide as belonging to the velocity weakening unstable (respectively strengthening stable) sliding regime.

13 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
09 Sep 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, the tourisme sexuel qui se developpe en Thailande depuis les annees 1960 dans le contexte plus general de la prostitution telle qu’elle est concue et pratiquee din le pays.
Abstract: Cet article situe le tourisme sexuel qui se developpe en Thailande depuis les annees 1960 dans le contexte plus general de la prostitution telle qu’elle est concue et pratiquee dans le pays. Divers facteurs, conjoncturels et culturels sont examines pour expliquer l’etendue du phenomene. Les images stereotypees auxquelles se pretent les prostituees et leurs clients mâles occidentaux sont degagees en croisant les points de vue divergents des elites urbaines et de la petite paysannerie. Inscrite dans la mobilite et procedant presque toujours d’un rapport a l’etranger, du proche ou du lointain, la prostitution est placee sous le signe d’une profonde ambiguite que l’etude rapporte aux enjeux identitaires dont elle est le lieu et a des tensions larvees entre classes sociales ou composantes ethniques de la nation.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of public information on the French capital market has been studied and it is shown that earnings announcements, rumors and mergers and acquisitions operations have a great importance on stock prices.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of public information on the French capital market. Analysis is conducted on intraday data concerning firms which belong both to CAC 40 (important capitalization) and MIDCAC (weak capitalization). Data cover the period January 1995 to December 1999. In order to put forward the impact of public information on stock prices, we apply two non-parametric tests: the threshold test and the run test. Our results show that earnings announcements, rumors and mergers and acquisitions operations have a great importance on stock prices. These various announcements have not been correctly anticipated since they have an important impact on stock prices. These conclusions question the efficient capital French market hypothesis in its semi-strong form. J.E.L. Classification : G14.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between social identification and ethnocentrism in a competitive sports context with the help of the dogmatism scale and found a positive effect of Outgroup Authoritarian Intolerance, measured in the neutral condition, on Belief and Activism Toward One Cause (BOW) measure.
Abstract: In the framework of intergroup relationships, Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Real Conflict Theory (RCT) both hypothesize a positive relationship between social identification and ethnocentrism in threatening en-vironments. The RCT proposes that conflict for scarce resources between groups determines ingroup identification while the SIT predicts that intensity of social identification leads to outgroup hostility in threatening contexts. An examination of these relationships is undertaken in a competitive sports context with the help of the dogmatism scale. Relationships between Belief and Activism Toward One Cause, as a social identification measure, and Out-group Authoritarian Intolerance, as an ethnocentrism measure were studied across two experimental conditions (neutral vs. competitive). The results describe a positive effect of Out-group Authoritarian Intolerance, measured in the neutral condition, on Belief and Activism Toward One Cause, measured in the competitive condition, validating RCT. The results are discussed based on complementary individual and collective analyses (i.e., dogmatism and intergroup relationship theories) of ethnocentrism.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a sociologie pragmatique en prenant pour objet d'etude les facons dont les acteurs apprehendent la realite du dopage.
Abstract: Le but de cet article est d’interroger les methodes des sociolo~gues cherchant a decrire le dopage sportif. Comme tous les acteurs s’exprimant sur cette question, il nous faut clarifier ce que l’on considere comme «dopage ». Plutot que de se focaliser sur des definitions statiques, nous preferons mobiliser la sociologie pragmatique en prenant pour objet d’etude les facons dont les acteurs apprehendent la realite du dopage. Il s’agit alors de questionner les notions de perceptions, de vigilance et de duree, a partir de deux extraits de confessions de sportifs. On s’apercoit alors, que la qualification de «dope », meme chez l’interesse, renvoie a des dimensions sociales complexes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the role of managers' non-pecuniary private benefits in an incomplete contract approach to the regulation of utilities and showed that the superiority of private or public ownership depends simultaneously on the respective bargaining power of the manager and of the government, the degree of specificity of investments and the relative weight of quantity and flexibility concerns in the social welfare.
Abstract: This paper analyses the role of the managers' non-pecuniary private benefits in an incomplete contract approach to the regulation of utilities. Private benefits may take various forms: excessive job security, perks, overstaffing, feeling of power. The model describes the relationship between a government and the manager of a firm which produces a pure public good, under private or public ownership. The firm's production is characterized by its quantity and its flexibility, the latter corresponding to adaptability to changes in consumers' tastes or to new technologies. A larger output quantity entails larger private benefits to the manager, while increasing flexibility runs counter to the managers' private benefits. The manager decides upon non-verifiable investment in human and non-human capital so as to facilitate an increase in the output quantity (capacity investment) or to improve the firm's flexibility (investment in organizational adaptability). We compare the effects of the ownership regime on the manager's incentives to invest and on the aggregate welfare. The private firm under-invests in capacity and organizational flexibility. This is because the government holds up a part of the gains through ex post renegotiation of the initial (incomplete) contract. Our analysis also highlights a fundamental bias in the investment behavior of the state-owned firm: the manager of the public firm only invests in capacity (he may even invest more than under private ownership) but he never invests in organizational adaptability. The model shows that an increase in the government's bargaining power exacerbates the hold up problem when the firm is privately owned, but that this result may be reversed for capacity investment under public ownership. Finally, we show that the superiority of private or public ownership depends simultaneously on three factors: the respective bargaining power of the manager and of the government, the degree of specificity of investments and the relative weight of quantity and flexibility concerns in the social welfare.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, auteur fait le point sur linceste a l'egard des enfants and sur l'evolution des connaissances sur ce sujet de 1850 a nos jours, and la pauvrete de la recherche, qui laisse de nombreuses questions without reponses, est soulignee.
Abstract: RESUME L’auteur fait le point sur l’inceste a l’egard des enfants et sur l’evolution des connaissances sur ce sujet de 1850 a nos jours. Elle montre ce qui singularise l’inceste et l’agression sexuelle a l’egard des mineurs au sein des comportements criminels. Finalement la pauvrete de la recherche, qui laisse de nombreuses questions sans reponses, est soulignee.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, certains symptomes de la crise agricole puis analyse les effets des politiques de liberalisation de filieres avant de degager les perspectives notamment des rendements et de la productivite, and les risques environnementaux compte tenu des defis internes et mondiaux auxquels l’Afrique sera confrontee dans les prochaines annees.
Abstract: L’agriculture africaine a connu en longue periode un developpement limite. La faible productivite de l’agriculture est un facteur essentiel de blocage de l’economie. L’Afrique sub-saharienne (ASS) est toutefois contrastee. Cet article presente certains symptomes de la crise agricole puis analyse les effets des politiques de liberalisation de filieres avant de degager les perspectives notamment des rendements et de la productivite, et les risques environnementaux compte tenu des defis internes et mondiaux auxquels l’Afrique sera confrontee dans les prochaines annees.

01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define the financial convention as the idea that the corporate governance principles (defined by pension funds) are interpreted by managers as the short-term constraint of an important stock's output in exchange of pension funds financing.
Abstract: The importance of financial markets in firm management has grown bigger since the 80’s. Meanwhile, unemployment, due to firms’ layoffs and downsizing policies, started to become a great social and economical issue. We define the financial convention as the idea that the corporate governance principles (defined by pension funds) are interpreted by managers as the short-term constraint of an important stock’s output in exchange of pension funds financing. The first part of this paper focuses on the concept of financial convention that leans on an interpretation of Keynes’ notion of convention. In the second part, we study the accuracy of this translation in perspective with event studies concerning North American and French stock exchanges. These studies establish that the link between layoffs and stock prices is mostly negative, that layoffs are the sign of economic, social, and financial problems but are not the solution of these (both from the economic and the stock market point of view), and that the idea that layoffs could be the cause of an automatic increase in stock price, is contradicted by the analysis of the way institutional investors take their decisions and evaluate firms. In conclusion, we consider that the financial convention is a mistranslation of the stock exchange expectations, which leads to a dysfunctional coordination of the firm (both internally and externally) and a lack of legitimacy of this convention.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 2002-Diogenes
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the current reconstruction of identities, religions and politics in the global space as it relates the economic and social identities of particular contexts, and consider what remains in place, as well as those aspects which are reconstructed; these traces, both old and not so old, become superimposed, combining in a peculiar alchemy.
Abstract: the phenomena of reconstructed identities in general, in the context of their relationship to the period of globalisation in which we now find ourselves. The notion of space is complementary to the historical perspective of the analysis proposed here, which conceptualises the interaction between spatial groups (nations, states, ’natural groups’) and social groups (classes) in terms of paradigms. It also has the advantage of postulating the existence of a ’substratum’ capable of accepting different forms of identity. The emphasis is on the current reconstruction of identities, religions and politics in the global space as it relates the economic and social identities of particular contexts. We shall consider what remains in place, as well as those aspects which are reconstructed ; we shall look at the interaction or possible interference between the various cultural and political traces in each society; these traces, both old and not so old, become superimposed, combining in a peculiar alchemy. Beneath the surface, between what was there before and what has now been reconstructed, is a process we can identify in terms of the prefixes ’de’, ’dis’ or ’un’: de-construction, dis-integration, the un-writing of the reference points built up under communism, which had itself disintegrated and reconstructed what was there before.


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this article, a contribution cherche a comprendre les manifestations d'un tel phenomene and le role qui est confere dans ce cadre a une association telle que SOS Racisme, l'objectif a ete de saisir les motivations qui pouvaient etre avancees par les employeurs mis en cause ainsi que les reponses apportees par les membres de lassociation.
Abstract: Le marche du travail semble marque par un recours accru aux pratiques discriminatoires. Dans le cadre des procedures de recrutement, les discriminations etudiees vont prendre des formes extremes impliquant l’exclusion de l’emploi de certaines categories de la population. La presente contribution cherche a comprendre les manifestations d’un tel phenomene et le role qui est confere dans ce cadre a une association telle que SOS Racisme. En particulier, du recueil de temoignages a l’intervention des membres de l’association, l’objectif a ete de saisir les motivations qui pouvaient etre avancees par les employeurs mis en cause ainsi que les reponses apportees par les membres de l’association. Mais, que ce soit dans les argumentaires des individus ou dans la capacite du droit a condamner reellement ce type de comportement, l’existence et les manifestations de la discrimination demeurent difficiles a apprehender, l’intervention d’un tiers pouvant alors apparaitre comme indispensable.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors analyzes the trade-offs between fiscal policy reform and public expenses structures within a two-sector endogenous growth model with an environmental externality, and shows that taxes structure change leads to a lower welfare cost.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the trade-offs between fiscal policy reform and public expenses structures within a two-sector endogenous growth model with an environmental externality. Transitional dynamics, balanced growth path and welfare cost of alternative policy are computed. We show that taxes structure change leads to a lower welfare cost.


Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors generalize the concept of industry, which stems from the analysis of single-product economies, to that of sector, which is an economy characterized by the super-adjus tment property: any strictly viable subset of methods can adapt itself to an arbitrary final demand.
Abstract: We generalize the concept of industry, whic h stems from the analysis of single-product economies, to that of sector. The sector con cept can be applied to economies with or without joint-product processes and pure capital goods. A ‘sectoral economy’ is an economy characterized by the ‘super-adjus tment’ property: any strictly viable subset of methods can adapt itself to an arbitrary final demand. Give n a few additional assumptions, the competitive prices are minimal in a sectoral economy, so that the subset of competitive methods is uniquely defined and the non-substitution property holds.

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors test whether long-term dependent processes are appropriated for modeling European term premia volatility series, through the estimation of FIGARCH in mean processes, and show that the longterm component of volatility has an impact on term premias series.
Abstract: our object is to test whether long-term dependent processes are appropriated for modeling European term premia volatility series. Through the estimation of FIGARCH in mean processes, we show that the long-term component of volatility has an impact on term premia series. JEL Classification: C22, E43.