Improvements in product design are conventionally made after the start of massproduction, followed by reductions in cost and lead-time. However, in light of the shorter product life-cycles and high-mix/low-volume production of recent years, it is increasingly important to carefully optimize productivity from the initial stages of massproduction. It is generally considered that design determines...

This article tests the subset of public choice models for social security that have empirical implications. The data, collected from OECD countries for the years 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990, provide some support for each of the theories. Higher median voter age, more income heterogeneity, greater similarity in family size, and variables that make a public pension program more profitable are all ...

Why has physical piracy of music grown globally in recent years despite international efforts to reduce the problem? This research employs cross-country time series data analysis to examine physical music piracy rates across developed and developing economies. We provide 1999-2004 cross-country evidence from 70 countries that mean global music piracy rates grew over this period, and observe dif...

Financial intermediation in Iran's banking system is negatively affected at least in two ways. First, there are many similarities between financial intermediation and usurious activities in the common interpretation of interest-free banking law. This encourages the banks to participate in various commercial activities. Second, the price setting policies of the central bank makes investment more...

With the advent of online education services such as iTunes U and SlideShare, students are able to access various presentation files from many universities for study purposes. However, self-learners retrieving such files still need support to decide which files in candidate presentations are worth learning because most of the candidates are similar; it can be difficult to identify differences i...

This paper explores the relationship between wages and the scientific orientation of R&D organizations. Firms who adopt a science-oriented research approach (i.e., “Science”) allow their researchers to pursue and publish an individual research agenda.. The adoption of Science may be associated with a “taste” for Science on the part of researchers (a Preference effect) and/or as a “ticket of adm...

Restricted Maximum Likelihood algorithm estimates of (co)variance components due to maternal effects as well as a regression on maternal phenotype were obtained for seven weaning weight data sets of Australian and New Zealand beef cattle. Fitting such regression, analyses accounted for environmental covariances between dams and their offspring. Results show a substantial, negative regression on...

Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: A Simultaneous Approach* In this paper we investigate how telecommunications infrastructure affects economic growth. This issue is important and has received considerable attention in the popular press concerning the creation of the "information superhighway" and its potential impacts on the economy. We use evidence from 21 OECD countr...

considering the importance of the agriculture sector in iran, this study investigated factors affecting economic growth and development of the agriculture sector in iran over the period of 1967-2009 for short term and long term, using ardl model. the results showed that the ratios of public investment expenditure to the gdp for short-term and long term have positive impacts on the economic grow...