nep-sog New Economics Papers
on Sociology of Economics
Issue of 2005‒07‒25
four papers chosen by
Jonas Holmström
Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration

  1. University Funding Systems and their Impact on Research and Teaching: A General Framework By John Beath; Joanna Poyago-Theotoky; David Ulph
  2. The Dissemination Of Accounting Research And Performance Reviews: The Role Of Publication Forms By SALVADOR CARMONA
  3. From Zero To Infinity: The Use Of Impact Factors In The Evaluation Of Economic Research In Spain By SALVADOR CARMONA
  4. The role of networks in collective action with costly communication. By Christian R. Jaramillo H.

  1. By: John Beath (University of St Andrews); Joanna Poyago-Theotoky (University of Loughborough); David Ulph (Inland Revenue)
    Abstract: This paper addresses the following question: how does a higher education funding system influence the trade-off that universities make between research and teaching? We do so by constructing a general model that allows universities to choose actively the quality of their teaching and research when faced with different funding systems. In particular, we derive the feasible sets that face universities under such systems and show how, as the parameters of the system are varied, the nature of the university system itself changes. The “culture” of the university system thus becomes endogenous. This makes the model useful for the analysis of reforms in funding and also for international comparisons.
    Keywords: University funding system, higher education, teaching quality, research quality, research elite.
    JEL: I21 I22
    Date: 2005–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2005_2&r=sog
  2. By: SALVADOR CARMONA (Instituto de Empresa)
    Abstract: This project is supported financially by the CICYT research grants # 01-0657 and SEJ-2004-08176-C02-01. I would like to thank Jose Carlos Molina for assisting with the management of the database. Previous versions of this paper were presented at the Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association (Seville, 2003); the Accounting, Business and Financial History Conference (Cardiff, 2003); and the World Congress of Accounting Historians (Oxford, Mississippi, 2004). I am grateful to the participants at these conferences and to Garry Carnegie, Mahmoud Ezzamel, Kari Lukka, and Steve Walker for their helpful suggestions.
    Date: 2005–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-20&r=sog
  3. By: SALVADOR CARMONA (Instituto de Empresa)
    Abstract: In the present study, we examine the use of short lists of journals in order to assess research performance in Spain - a country that features a rare combination of a thin and incomplete academic market along with an elite of eminent economists. Our analysis reveals that the implementation of bibliometric tools to produce short lists of journals for assessment purposes entail problems with the statistical significance of cutoff rates, neglect of the interdisciplinary nature of economics, and an inability to track progress in academic markets that move towards internationalization and publications in top-tier, premier outlets.
    Date: 2005–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp05-22&r=sog
  4. By: Christian R. Jaramillo H.
    Abstract: Individuals frequently contribute their resources voluntarily to provide public goods. This paper models the manner in which the linkage between members in a community influences the likelihood of such actions through spontaneous activism in networks. The model I use abstracts from the issue of free-riding behavior by means of small deviations from standard preferences. Instead, it concentrates on the communication aspect of provision through collective action. The solution concept is Nash equilibrium. I find that the likelihood of efficient provision of a discrete public good in random social networks increases very rapidly for parameter values where the network experiences a phase transition and large-scale decentralized activism becomes feasible. As a result, the model shows that successful coordination may be more readily achieved the larger the population is, provided its members are sufficiently connected. In contrast with previous results in the literature, this results holds even as the size of the population increases without bound, and it is consistent with the existence of largescale activism in large populations.
    Keywords: Collective Action
    JEL: D70
    Date: 2005–06–25
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000138:001121&r=sog

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