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Scale Effects (scale + effects)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	52%
Life Sciences	16%
6 Other Domains	32%

Selected Abstracts

Effectiveness versus Efficiency: Growth-Accelerating Policies in a Model of Growth without Scale Effects

GERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2006
Bettina Büttner
Endogenous growth; scale effects; welfare Abstract. Recent R&D growth models without strong scale effects imply that long-run growth rates depend only on parameters that are usually taken to be exogenous. However, integrating human capital accumulation into models of this type, Arnold (2002) demonstrates that subsidizing education accelerates growth. The present paper addresses welfare issues in Arnold's model. The main theoretical finding of the paper is that a system of subsidies that implements the optimal balanced growth path as a decentralized equilibrium includes zero subsidies to education, while R&D activity should be either subsidized or taxed. To shed further light on the latter result, the model is calibrated and it turns out that along the balanced growth path, the decentralized economy underinvests in R&D, i.e. R&D activities should be subsidized. [source]

Discussion of Scale Effects in Capital Markets-Based Accounting Research

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING, Issue 3-4 2009
Wei Jiang
First page of article [source]

Scale Effects in Markets with Search,

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 508 2006
Barbara Petrongolo
Estimates of aggregate matching functions may miss important scale effects in frictional labour markets because of the reactions of job seekers to scale. We estimate a semi-structural model of search and matching on a British sample of unemployed people, testing for scale effects on the probability of receiving an offer and on the distribution of wage offers. We find them only in wage offers but we also find that reservation wages rise to deliver higher post-unemployment wages but not faster matches. So aggregate matching functions should be unaffected by scale but wage equations should be showing them. [source]

Scale effects and constraints for sound production in katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae): correlated evolution between morphology and signal parameters

JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
F. MONTEALEGRE-Z
Abstract Male katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) produce mating calls by rubbing the wings together, using specialized structures in their forewings (stridulatory file, scraper and mirror). A large proportion of species (ca. 66%) reported in the literature produces ultrasonic signals as principal output. Relationships among body size, generator structures and the acoustic parameters carrier frequency (fc) and pulse duration (pd), were studied in 58 tropical species that use pure-tone signals. A comparative analysis, based on the only available katydid phylogeny, shows how changes in sound generator form are related to changes in fc and pd. Anatomical changes of the sound generator that might have been selected via fc and pd are mirror size, file length and number of file teeth. Selection for structures of the stridulatory apparatus that enhance wing mechanics via file-teeth and scraper morphology was crucial in the evolution of ultrasonic signals in the family Tettigoniidae. [source]

The role of spatial scale and the perception of large-scale species-richness patterns

ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 2 2005
Carsten Rahbek
Abstract Despite two centuries of exploration, our understanding of factors determining the distribution of life on Earth is in many ways still in its infancy. Much of the disagreement about governing processes of variation in species richness may be the result of differences in our perception of species-richness patterns. Until recently, most studies of large-scale species-richness patterns assumed implicitly that patterns and mechanisms were scale invariant. Illustrated with examples and a quantitative analysis of published data on altitudinal gradients of species richness (n = 204), this review discusses how scale effects (extent and grain size) can influence our perception of patterns and processes. For example, a hump-shaped altitudinal species-richness pattern is the most typical (c. 50%), with a monotonic decreasing pattern (c. 25%) also frequently reported, but the relative distribution of patterns changes readily with spatial grain and extent. If we are to attribute relative impact to various factors influencing species richness and distribution and to decide at which point along a spatial and temporal continuum they act, we should not ask only how results vary as a function of scale but also search for consistent patterns in these scale effects. The review concludes with suggestions of potential routes for future analytical exploration of species-richness patterns. [source]

The effects of an underwater fish observation technique on stream macroinvertebrates at two spatial scales

ECOLOGY OF FRESHWATER FISH, Issue 3 2000
J. T. Petty
Abstract , We examined the effects of snorkeling, a commonly used fish observation technique, on the distribution and abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates at both the reach (i.e., 10 m) and patch scale (i.e.,< 1 m) within a southern Appalachian stream (North Carolina, USA). At the reach scale, we quantified increases in macroinvertebrate drift rates associated with snorkeling and used these values to calculate the percentage of the macrobenthos that drifted out of snorkeled reaches. We also used a simple decay model of macroinvertebrate drift to quantify patch scale effects of snorkeling. The model incorporated size specific macroinvertebrate settling rates to estimate the total number of benthic macroinvertebrates that entered the drift in response to snorkeling disturbance. We found that snorkeling consistently produced significant increases in the number of drifting macroinvertebrates. Nevertheless, these increases comprised a very small percentage (<1%) of the total number of organisms in the benthos, suggesting that snorkeling probably did not strongly affect macroinvertebrate assemblages at either the reach or patch scale. However, our analyses also indicated that snorkeling had a disproportionate effect on the drift of small ephemeropterans (4,5% entered the drift in response to snorkeling) relative to other macroinvertebrate taxa. Consequently, the microdistribution of early instar mayflies may have been altered within snorkeled reaches. We conclude that snorkeling related disturbance to the benthos should have a minimal effect on the behavior and distribution of most stream fishes at either the reach or patch scale. However, because snorkeling had a substantial effect on the drift of small mayflies, snorkeling may influence the behavior of fishes that depend on early instar mayflies as a primary food resource., [source]

Effectiveness versus Efficiency: Growth-Accelerating Policies in a Model of Growth without Scale Effects

Developing a Performance Measurement System for University Central Administrative Services

HIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2009
Marika Arena
Central administrative services have recently received increasing attention from practitioners and academics due to the challenging need to both manage scarce resources and provide high-quality services. In this context, performance measurement systems (PMSs) may assume a central role, although an unresolved debate remains on the claimed benefits of accountability and the difficulties that have emerged in defining and managing proper measures. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting the results of a study in which a PMS for central administrative services has been developed and tested through an action research approach drawing on actor network theory. The experiment was carried out in 15 Italian universities and five areas of services were dealt with: student support, research support, accounting, human resources, and logistics and procurement. The highly participative method resulted in a comparable system with a complete set of cost and quality indicators across the participating universities. These data proved to be useful at managerial and policy level, providing insights on the presence of scale effects and on the relative importance of quality dimensions for users of services. Participating in the project encouraged the university staff to use indicators in decision making. [source]

Is the forest conversion to pasture affecting the hydrological response of Amazonian catchments?

HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 10 2010
Signals in the Ji-Paraná Basin
Abstract It is well known that land use and land-cover changes (LUCC), particularly deforestation, have the potential to modify the hydrological response. Although those signals are relatively well documented in worldwide microcatchment studies, conflicting results reported in literature indicate that those signals can be sometimes difficult to detect and isolate in basins at larger scales. In order to detect signals in the hydrological response potentially, related to LUCC, streamflow records from Ji-Paraná Basin located in SW Amazonia are analysed in conjunction with deforestation maps derived from remote sensors. The basin has a drainage area greater than 30 000 km2 and has been through severe LUCC in the last decades. Statistical descriptors of daily streamflow series were correlated with landscape indices using non-parametric methodologies. To take into account scale effects, statistical analyses were repeated in different sub-basins. Results showed that the impact of LUCC on the hydrological response is time lagged at larger scales. The flow paths are clearly affected, depending on basin characteristics such as topography. In general, LUCC impacts lead to higher peak streamflows, the reduction of minimal values and the increment of stormflow. In agreement with previous studies, the detection of signals associated with LUCC was clearly detected at the smallest basin, but proved to be difficult at larger scales, suggesting the existence of non-linear effects, which aggregate across scale compensating small scale effects. Such behaviour indicates a challenge for mathematical models, which are usually developed to represent immediate hydrological response to basin wide LUCC. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

On morphometric properties of basins, scale effects and hydrological response

HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 1 2003
Roger Moussa
Abstract One of the important problems in hydrology is the quantitative description of river system structure and the identification of relationships between geomorphological properties and hydrological response. Digital elevation models (DEMs) generally are used to delineate the basin's limits and to extract the channel network considering pixels draining an area greater than a threshold area S. In this paper, new catchment shape descriptors, the geometric characteristics of an equivalent ellipse that has the same centre of gravity, the same principal inertia axes, the same area and the same ratio of minimal inertia moment to maximal inertia moment as the basin, are proposed. They are applied in order to compare and classify the structure of seven basins located in southern France. These descriptors were correlated to hydrological properties of the basins' responses such as the lag time and the maximum amplitude of a geomorphological unit hydrograph calculated at the basin outlet by routing an impulse function through the channel network using the diffusive wave model. Then, we analysed the effects of the threshold area S on the topological structure of the channel network and on the evolution of the source catchment's shape. Simple models based on empirical relationships between the threshold S and the morphometric properties were established and new catchment shape indexes, independent of the observation scale S, were defined. This methodology is useful for geomorphologists dealing with the shape of source basins and for hydrologists dealing with the problem of scale effects on basin topology and on relationships between the basin morphometric properties and the hydrological response. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

GUEST EDITORIAL: The interplay of pollinator diversity, pollination services and landscape change

JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2008
Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
Summary 1Pollinators are a functional group with high relevance for ensuring cross-pollination in wild plant populations and yields in major crops. Both pollinator declines and losses of pollination services have been identified in the context of habitat destruction and land use intensification. 2This editorial synthesizes and links the findings presented in seven papers in this Special Profile, focusing on pollinator diversity and plant,pollinator interactions in natural habitats and agricultural landscapes. 3The results contribute to our understanding of local and landscape scale effects of land use intensification on pollinator densities and diversity, and pollination functions in wild plant communities and crops. 4Synthesis and applications. We emphasize the exceptional coverage in pollination ecology ranging from basic ecological relationships to applied aspects of ecosystem services and ecosystem management, and conclude with identifying gaps in current knowledge and challenging research areas for the future. [source]

Scale and the Scale Effect in Market-based Accounting Research

JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING, Issue 1-2 2003
Peter D. Easton
The nature of the data we usually encounter in market-based accounting research is such that the results of the regressions of market capitalization on financial statement variables (referred to ,price-levels' regressions) are driven by a relatively small subset of the very largest firms in the sample. We refer to this overwhelming influence of the largest firms as the ,scale effect'. This effect is more than heteroscedasticity. It arises due to the non-linearity in the relation between market capitalization and the financial statement variables. We present the case that scale is market capitalization rather than a correlated omitted variable. Since scale is market capitalization, we advocate its use as a deflator in a regression estimated using weighted least squares. This regression overcomes the scale effect and the resultant regression residuals are more economically meaningful. Christie's (1987) depiction of scale is the same as ours but he advocates the use of the returns regression specification in order to avoid scale effects. We agree that returns regressions should be used unless the research question calls for a price-levels regression. [source]

Attorney Fees in Class Action Settlements: An Empirical Study

JOURNAL OF EMPIRICAL LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2004
Theodore Eisenberg
Study of two comprehensive class action case data sets covering 1993,2002 shows that the amount of client recovery is overwhelmingly the most important determinant of the attorney fee award. Even in cases in which the courts engage in the lodestar calculation (the product of reasonable hours and a reasonable hourly rate), the client's recovery generally explains the pattern of awards better than the lodestar. Thus, the time and expense of a lodestar calculation may be wasteful. We also find no robust evidence that either recoveries for plaintiffs or fees of their attorneys increased over time. The mean fee award in common fund cases is well below the widely quoted one-third figure, constituting 21.9 percent of the recovery across all cases for a comprehensive data set of published cases. A scaling effect exists: fees constitute a lower percent of the client's recovery as the client's recovery increases. Fees are also correlated with risk: the presence of high risk is associated with a higher fee, while low-risk cases generate lower fees. Fees as a percent of class recovery were found to be higher in federal than state court. The presence of "soft" relief (such as injunctive relief or coupons) has no material effect on the fee, regardless of whether the soft relief was included in the quantified benefit for the class used as the basis for computing the attorney fee. The study also addresses costs and expenses. Like fees, these display significant scale effects. The article proposes a simple methodology by which courts can evaluate the reasonableness of fee requests. [source]

Wood-feeding beetles and soil nutrient cycling in burned forests: implications of post-fire salvage logging

AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
Tyler P. Cobb
1Rising economic demands for boreal forest resources along with current and predicted increases in wildfire activity have increased salvage logging of burned forests. Currently, the ecological consequences of post-fire salvage logging are insufficiently understood to develop effective management guidelines or to adequately inform policy decision-makers. 2We used both field and laboratory studies to examine the effects of post-fire salvage logging on populations of the white-spotted sawyer Monochamus scutellatus scutellatus (Say) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and its ecological function in boreal forest. 3Monochamus s. scutellatus adults were relatively abundant in both burned and clear-cut logged sites but were absent from salvage logged sites. 4An in situ mesocosm experiment showed that the abundance of M. s. scutellatus larvae in burned white spruce bolts was linked to changes in total organic nitrogen and carbon in mineral soil. 5Organic nutrient inputs in the form of M. s. scutellatus frass increased mineral soil microbial respiration rates by more than three-fold and altered the availability of nitrogen. Changes in nitrogen availability corresponded with decreased germination and growth of Epilobium angustifolium and Populus spp. but not Calamagrostis canadensis. 6Although the present study focused on local scale effects, the reported findings suggest that continued economic emphasis on post-fire salvage logging may have implications beyond the local scale for biodiversity conservation, nutrient cycling and plant community composition in forest ecosystems recovering from wildfire. [source]

Exploring Relationships Between the Global and Regional Measures of Spatial Autocorrelation

JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2003
Daniel A. Griffith
We calculate 1990 population density by census block group, county, and state for the 48 coterminous states and the District of Columbia of the United States, calculations of interest to a wide variety of spatial scientists. We explore relations between these levels and their variation across the nation. The empirical findings generated by this work furnish implications concerning the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP), spatial autocorrelation statistics, scale effects, and resolution. [source]

Scale Effects in Markets with Search,

NON-SCALE EFFECTS OF INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL-KNOWLEDGE DIFFUSION ON SOUTHERN GROWTH AND WAGES

THE JAPANESE ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2010
OSCAR AFONSO
We develop a dynamic, general equilibrium non-scale endogenous growth model of North,South technological-knowledge diffusion by imitation. Countries differ in levels of exogenous productivity, human-capital levels and R&D capacity. Growth is driven by Northern innovative R&D and the South converges towards the North. Growth is also driven by human-capital accumulation, scale effects are removed, imitation is only feasible once a threshold distance to the frontier has been attained and is dependent on the South's relative level of employed human capital and on domestic policies promoting R&D. Imitation promotes partial convergence of inter-country wages and governs the path of intra-South wage inequality. [source]

SOURCES OF PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH IN AUSTRALIAN TEXTILE AND CLOTHING FIRMS,

AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC PAPERS, Issue 3 2007
I.K.M. MOKHTARUL WADUD
This paper estimates the sources of productivity growth in Australian textile and clothing firms based on the Business Longitudinal Survey (BLS) from 1995 to 1998. Productivity growth estimates have been obtained for each sub-category of textile and clothing firms. Sources of growth in multifactor productivity (MFP) are examined with growth in technical efficiency and scale effects based on estimates of stochastic frontier production functions. Separate estimates of output growth have been compared with the productivity growth estimates for each of the product categories. MFP improved in all clothing firms and declined in textile firms over 1997,1998 by four-digit level of Australia New Zealand Standard Industrial classification Scheme (ANZSIC). MFP declined in most major categories of both textile and clothing firms in 1995,1997. Changes in technical efficiency mostly dominated scale effects in the overall direction of MFPG in both textile and clothing firms. The findings of the study provide evidence for policies for improving the firms' operative performance in the ongoing liberalised regime. [source]

On the economics of agricultural production,

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & RESOURCE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2008
Jean-Paul Chavas
Agriculture is in the business of using ecosystem services to produce food. Examining how agro-ecosystems function provides useful insights into the economics of agriculture. Of special interest are the presence and nature of scale effects, complementarity effects and convexity effects in ecosystem functioning. Implications for agricultural productivity and the economics of agriculture are evaluated. At the farm level, this helps to better understand the current trend toward greater specialisation. Current challenges for agricultural contracts, markets and policy are explored. [source]

The CES--Translog Production Function, Returns to Scale and AES

BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 3 2001
Kern O. Kymn
The translog functional form imposes no a priori restrictions on the substitution possibilities between the factor inputs, by relaxing the assumption of strong separability, and the CES,translog cost function specification allows for testing homothetic technology with Hicks-neutral technical change. In this paper an n -factor CES,translog production function is presented which develops the parameters to directly assess scale effects from those due to technology in the production structure. In addition, by applying Shephard's lemma it was possible to derive the input demand functions, as well as the partial elasticities of substitution and the cross-partial price elasticities of demand for a generalized CES,translog production structure. [source]

Resource Utilization and Economies of Size in Secondary Schools

BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 2 2000
Jim Taylor
This paper identifies the determinants of costs per pupil in English secondary schools. A distinction is made between the short run and the long run in order to estimate the separate effects on costs per pupil of short-run variations in school output and school size. A school's capacity utilization rate is used to indicate short-run deviations in output from pupil capacity, and pupil capacity is used as an indicator of school size to capture scale effects on costs per pupil. The statistical analysis uses both published and unpublished data for secondary schools in England. Two separate analyses are undertaken, one for grant-maintained schools alone and the other for all schools. A separate analysis is undertaken for grant-maintained schools since cost data are available only for schools in this sector. Staff hours per pupil is used as a proxy for costs per pupil for schools as a whole. The main finding is that costs per pupil and staff hours per pupil are both highly significantly negatively related to both school size and the capacity utilization rate of schools. A range of other variables are also estimated to have a significant effect on costs per pupil in secondary schools. The main finding is that there is scope for reducing the costs of schooling in the secondary schools sector in England. [source]

CFD Modeling of a Bubble Column Reactor Carrying out a Consecutive A , B , C Reaction

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (CET), Issue 4 2004
J.M. van Baten
Abstract In this paper, we develop a CFD model for describing a bubble column reactor for carrying out a consecutive first-order reaction sequence A , B , C. Three reactor configurations, all operating in the homogeneous bubbly regime, were investigated: (I) column diameter DT = 0.1 m, column height HT = 1.1 m, (II) DT = 0.1 m, HT = 2 m, and (III) DT = 1 m, HT = 5 m. Eulerian simulations were carried out for superficial gas velocities UG in the range of 0.005,0.04 m/s, assuming cylindrical axisymmetry. Additionally, for configurations I and III fully three-dimensional transient simulations were carried out for checking the assumption of cylindrical axisymmetry. For the 0.1 m diameter column (configuration I), 2-D axisymmetric and 3-D transient simulations yield nearly the same results for gas holdup ,G, centerline liquid velocity VL(0), conversion of A, ,A, and selectivity to B, SB. In sharp contrast, for the 1 m diameter column (configuration III), there are significant differences in the CFD predictions of ,G, VL(0), ,A, and SB using 2-D and 3-D simulations; the 2-D strategies tend to exaggerate VL(0), and underpredict ,G, ,A, and SB. The transient 3-D simulation results appear to be more realistic. The CFD simulation results for ,A and SB are also compared with a simple analytic model, often employed in practice, in which the gas phase is assumed to be in plug flow and the liquid phase is well mixed. For the smaller diameter columns (configurations I and II) the CFD simulation results for ,A are in excellent agreement with the analytic model, but for the larger diameter column the analytic model is somewhat optimistic. There are two reasons for this deviation. Firstly, the gas phase is not in perfect plug flow and secondly, the liquid phase is not perfectly mixed. The computational results obtained in this paper demonstrate the power of CFD for predicting the performance of bubble column reactors. Of particular use is the ability of CFD to describe scale effects. [source]