Call Number:

179

URL:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=i_eXZxfObEAC&dq=the+political+economy+of+civil+society+and+human+rights&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=XK_G2a-vX8&sig=7qf5KpdKA6kUA0dH05dGyJAXnf0#PPP1,M1

Notes:

Has some interesting stuff in - also notes about Havel. Good on transition stuff.

Call Number:

164

Call Number:

163

Call Number:

161

Call Number:

160

Call Number:

155

Call Number:

151

URL:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2239989,00.html

Abstract:

A couple of years ago, during the recording of a food quiz on Radio 4, I listened to food writer and TV personality Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall declare that he thought nobody should eat meat unless it had been reared in a completely free-range manner. One of the other contestants - Stephen Fry, as it happens - pointed out that free-range meat is very expensive and that not everybody could afford it. 'Well,' Fearnley-Whittingstall said confidently, 'there are always the cheaper cuts.' I was appalled and immediately reminded of the great line attributed to Marie Antoinette. For 'let them eat cake', read 'let them eat braising steak'.

ISBN:

0165-1889

Call Number:

125

Keywords:

price dispersion; loyalty; adaptive behavior, FISH-MARKET; SWITCHING COSTS; COMPETITION; IMPERFECT; BEHAVIOR

Abstract:

We present an agent-based computational economics (ACE) model of the wholesale fish market in Marseille. Two of the stylized facts of that market are high loyalty of buyers to sellers, and persistent price dispersion, although it is every day the same population of sellers and buyers that meets in the same market hall. In our ACE model, sellers decide on quantities to supply, prices to ask, and how to treat loyal customers, while buyers decide which sellers to visit, and which prices to accept. Learning takes place through reinforcement. The model explains both stylized facts price dispersion and high loyalty. In a coevolutionary process, buyers learn to become loyal as sellers learn to offer higher utility to loyal buyers, while these sellers, in turn, learn to offer higher utility to loyal buyers as they happen to realize higher gross revenues from loyal buyers. The model also explains the effect of heterogeneity of the buyers. We analyze how this leads to subtle differences in the shopping patterns of the different types of buyers, and how this is related to the behavior of the sellers in the market. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: C70; D40; D80; L10; L70.

Notes:

MarArticleEvolving market structure: An ACE model of price dispersion and loyaltyISI:00016571910000746ELSEVIER SCIENCE BVEnglish

ISBN:

0308-518X

Call Number:

139

Keywords:

DYNAMICS

Abstract:

There are similarities of form between urban system models and models of ecosystems. These are systematically explored and a general model formulation which embraces both kinds of model is presented. Some insights are gained by using ideas from ecosystem modelling in urban modelling. The biggest gains, however, are for ecosystem modelling. It is demonstrated that urban techniques can be used for incorporating spatial competition effects into such models in novel ways, and that the complex dynamics can then be effectively interpreted. Urban systems have contributed significantly to complexity theory in the past-because they are complicated enough to be interesting but simple enough to be solvable. These insights can now be transferred to complex (spatial) ecosystems. The possibility of joint eco-urban models is explored.

Notes:

AprArticleEcological and urban systems models: some explorations of similarities in the context of complexity theoryISI:00023777080000417PION LTDEnglish

Call Number:

107

URL:

http://stuffedandstarved.org/drupal/frontpage