Economics - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 34
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    The Doha agenda and development prospects for intellectual property rights reform
    McCalman, P (Asian Development Bank, 2002)
    At the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Doha, a number of key declarations were made that will directly impact the operation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). These declarations perform a multidimensional function: clarifying and reiterating existing rights and obligations, as well as setting out a negotiating agenda. By providing clarity on a number of critical issues, the Doha Ministerial Conference attempted to clear the way for future work on TRIPS. Overall, the Doha Declarations with respect to the TRIPS Agreement are seen as a major step for developing (and particularly the least developed) countries towards securing flexibility in the use of intellectual property rights (IPRs), especially with respect to public health issues. Specifically, the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health helps to ensure that in situations where a national emergency has to be dealt with, the set of options is not limited by the architecture of international IPRs. More generally, it reiterates the ability of countries to interpret the TRIPS Agreement in a way that is beneficial to them or reflective of their needs. The right to exercise flexibility over IPRs has historically been available to countries during their industrializing phase. While the TRIPS Agreement does limit the flexibility a country has, much work has attempted to emphasize the scope for discretion a country has in the design of its IPR system. The results of the Doha Ministerial Conference can be seen as an attempt to further stress the flexibility within the TRIPS Agreement.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Heidegger and the transition to postmodernity
    KAMAL, MUHAMMAD (Department of Philosophy, University of Poona, 2002)
    This is an investigation into Heidegger’s influence on the development of some ideas of the post-modern thought. It explores the meaning and implications of Heidegger’s concepts of authenticity and difference and his existential analysis of the human existence and the way these concepts left a significant impact on the development of the post modern ideas.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Bounded rationality: static versus dynamic approach
    Basov, S. ( 2002-12)
    Two kinds of theories of the boundedly rational behavior are possible. Static theories focus on stationary behavior and do not include any explicit mechanism for temporal change. Dynamic theories, on the other hand, explicitly model the fine-grain adjustments made by the subjects in response to their recent experiences. The main contribution of this paper is to argue that the restrictions usually imposed on the distribution of choices in the static approach are generically not supported by an explicit adjustment mechanism
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A partial characterization of the solution of the multidimensional screening problem with nonlinear preferences
    Basov, S. ( 2002-11)
    In this paper I apply the Hamiltonian method to solve the relaxed multidimensional screening problem. I also illustrate by some examples that the Hamiltonian technique coupled with implementability criterion developed by Carlier [2002] sometimes allows us to arrive at a complete solution of a screening problem.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Rat races and glass ceilings: career paths in organizations
    BARDSLEY, P ; SHERSTYUK, K (Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne, 2001)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    A general class of risk models
    DUFRESNE, DANIEL ( 2002-01)
    We consider the actuarial risk model when the waiting times or claims have a Laplace transform which is a rational function. This generalizes the classical model, where the waiting times are expotenial, and give more flexibility in the modelling of a risk business. Ruin is seen as a random walk crossing a barrier; the summands of the random walk are expressed as the difference of the waiting time and the claim. The class R of distributions which have finite Laplace transforms includes the so-called phase-type distributions. For waiting times in R , the Laplace transform of the ruin probability is obtained explicitly; if the calims are in R , then the probability of ruin is a combination of exponentials times polynomials, which can be found in closed-form.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The Distribution of the time to Ruin in the Classical Risk Model
    Dickson, DCM ; Waters, HR (Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2002-01-01)
    Abstract We study the distribution of the time to ruin in the classical risk model. We consider some methods of calculating this distribution, in particular by using algorithms to calculate finite time ruin probabilities. We also discuss calculation of the moments of this distribution.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The Gerber-Shiu discounted penalty function in the stationary renewal risk model
    Willmot, Gordon E. ; Dickson, David C. M. ( 2002-08)
    The discounted penalty function introduced by Gerber and Shiu (1998) is considered in the stationary renewal risk model, where it is expressed in terms of the same discounted penalty function in the ordinary renewal risk model. This relationship unifies and generalizes known special cases. An invariance property between the stationary renewal risk model and the classical Poisson model with respect to the ruin probability is also generalized as a result.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The integrated square-root process
    DUFRESNE, DANIEL ( 2001-11)
    The square-root process has been used to model interest rates and stochastic volatility. This paper studies some of its properties, particularly those of the integral of the process over time. After summarizing the properties of the square-root process, the Laplace transform of the integral of the square-root process is derived. Three methods for the computation of the moments of this integral are given, as well as some properties of the density of the integral. The last section studies the relationship between the Laplace transforms of a variable and of its reciprocal, a topic which arises in the previous analysis and elsewhere. An application to the generalized inverse Gaussian distribution is given
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    On the expected discounted penalty function at ruin of a surplus process with interest
    Cai, Jun ; Dickson, David C.M. ( 2001-11)
    In this paper, we study the expected value of a discounted penalty function at ruin of the classical surplus process modified by the inclusion of interest of the surplus. The 'penalty' is simply a function of the surplus immediately prior to ruin and the deficit at ruin. An integral equation for the expected value is derived, while the exact solution is given when the initial surplus is zero. Dickson's (1992) formulae for the distribution of the surplus immediately prior to ruin in the classical surplus process are generalised to our modified surplus process.