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Book part
Publication date: 17 July 2006

Daniele Besomi

Kalecki's theory of the business cycle is rightly renowned for various reasons: in particular, besides itself providing an original contribution, it set the framework for…

Abstract

Kalecki's theory of the business cycle is rightly renowned for various reasons: in particular, besides itself providing an original contribution, it set the framework for Kalecki's ideas on effective demand, for his anticipation of a number of Keynesian elements, and for the development of Kalecki's related themes such as income determination and distribution. Although the secondary literature (both technical and descriptive) on this subject is immense, a specific aspect seems to deserve further reflection.

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Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-349-5

Book part
Publication date: 8 August 2022

David Thompson and Giacomo Squicciarini

The public’s awareness of noise and vibration forms a significant barrier to further development of railways. This chapter begins with a short introduction to the main fundamental

Abstract

The public’s awareness of noise and vibration forms a significant barrier to further development of railways. This chapter begins with a short introduction to the main fundamental aspects of acoustics, including decibels, frequency analysis, the propagation of sound with distance and common measurement quantities. The main sources of railway noise are discussed, including rolling noise, impact noise, curve squeal and aerodynamic noise. Simple calculation procedures are described that can be used to assess the impact of railway noise and to compare it with legal limits. The final section is devoted to ground vibration, which is a related form of environmental disturbance.

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Sustainable Railway Engineering and Operations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-589-4

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Book part
Publication date: 6 September 2021

Kristin Lee Sotak and Barry A. Friedman

Addressing occupational stress and fostering employee wellness helps meet a host of organizational stakeholder expectations including high quality of work life (employees)…

Abstract

Addressing occupational stress and fostering employee wellness helps meet a host of organizational stakeholder expectations including high quality of work life (employees), reasonable return on investment (investors), increased productivity (management), and competitiveness (owners). Despite being dynamic in nature, stress and wellness are often studied using a static perspective. One reason for the scarcity of dynamic empirical research is the limited knowledge and use of the tools available to assess change over time. To address this limitation, four tools used to assess change and dynamics of occupational stress and well-being are described: growth models, latent change score models, spectral analysis, and computational modeling. First, we begin by discussing growth curve models and then transition to latent change score models. We then expand into spectral analysis, a tool used to determine cycles of ups and downs that repeat regularly. Last, computational modeling is discussed, where computers and simulations are used to understand a dynamic process. For each tool, we give examples of how they have been used, make recommendations for future use, and provide readers with suggestions and references for how to complete analyses in software and programs, most of which are freely available (i.e., R, Vensim).

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Examining and Exploring the Shifting Nature of Occupational Stress and Well-Being
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-422-0

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Book part
Publication date: 8 August 2022

David Thompson and Giacomo Squicciarini

The vehicle–track interaction and the resulting dynamic response of the vehicle involve a number of complex nonlinear problems. Large vertical loads act through a small contact

Abstract

The vehicle–track interaction and the resulting dynamic response of the vehicle involve a number of complex nonlinear problems. Large vertical loads act through a small contact patch leading to very high contact pressures. Transverse loads acting through this contact induce a relative velocity between wheel and rail expressed in non-dimensional form as a creepage. The wheel and rail profiles determine the contact patch shape and affect the ability of the vehicle to run stably. If the yaw stiffness of the axles is too low, the vehicle will become unstable at a relatively low speed; conversely, if the yaw stiffness is too high, the curving behaviour will be adversely affected. The vehicle suspension, especially the secondary suspension, also affects the ride comfort of passengers. Finally, it is shown how the speed profiles of accelerating and decelerating trains can be calculated from basic assumptions about the train power, adhesion and rolling resistance.

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Sustainable Railway Engineering and Operations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-589-4

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Nonlinear Time Series Analysis of Business Cycles
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-44451-838-5

Book part
Publication date: 18 February 2004

Daniele Besomi

The scientific correspondence between Harrod and Robertson was initiated by Harrod’s criticism of Robertson’s Banking Policy and the Price Level (1926).7 Harrod first wrote on 18…

Abstract

The scientific correspondence between Harrod and Robertson was initiated by Harrod’s criticism of Robertson’s Banking Policy and the Price Level (1926).7 Harrod first wrote on 18 May 1926 (letter 2) raising at once the following “salient point”: Much of your argument depends on the view that justifiable expansions and contractions as defined by you are desirable. Why are they desirable? You give reasons on p. 22 why you think some instability in output desirable. But the reasons mentioned there (and I can’t find any others) don’t seem particularly directed to show that the special form of instability constituted by the so-called “justifiable” expansions and contractions is desirable. They seem to me to show that perhaps some instability, that, presumably, of less degree than we have been accustomed to in the past, is good, but by no means precisely how much is good. Thus, suppose the “hypothetical group member” or “the actual workman” of p. 19 were able to govern output according to their own self interest, there would still, according to the arguments of ch. 2, be some instability. Would not that be enough? Or if you want more, why stop at the “justifiable”? Why not have some of that due to “secondary” causes? It seems to me that you have been led away by purely aesthetic interests to identify that more moderate amount of instability which we really need (as shown on p. 22.) with that which we would get: (i) if secondary causes were removed; and (ii) if control of output stayed where it is now – in the hands of the entrepreneur. I don’t see how you can say to the banks more than “damp down fluctuation a bit, but leave some fluctuation, as that is healthful for the body economic”.He added two notes to his letter, in the first of which he commented upon the four proposed courses of policy outlined by Robertson on pp. 25–26 of his book. In the second note Harrod suggested that Robertson’s calculations in Appendix I to Ch. 5 of Banking Policy assumed the following behaviour of the public: (i) People do not allow for the effect of their withholding on the price level (this is reasonable). (ii) They are ignorant as the future course of inflation (or do nothing to meet it). (iii) On this basis they decide what withholding is necessary to restore H, decide that it would be too much effort to restore it at once, and…spread the restoration over K – 1 days. It so happens that by choosing K – 1 their 2 errors (or failures to take everything into account) cancel each other out, and they do effect the restoration in that time. If K or K – 2 had been chosen, this would not have been so.Harrod further argued that Robertson’s “so-called reasonable assumption of a restoration in K – 1 days is purely arbitrary,” and that “all this reasoning is rendered of doubtful value by the fact that we must suppose an alteration in view as to ‘the appropriate proportion between Real Hoarding and Real Income’ during the process of inflation. Not only will people not replenish H at once, but they may well voluntarily reduce it.”

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A Research Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-089-0

Book part
Publication date: 7 June 2010

Yukiko Takeuchi, Noralene Uy and Rajib Shaw

The Japanese culture has many meanings and proverbs associated with the word “water.” “Water” could mean “clear,” “clean,” “beautiful,” and “life.” Water is valuable to people in…

Abstract

The Japanese culture has many meanings and proverbs associated with the word “water.” “Water” could mean “clear,” “clean,” “beautiful,” and “life.” Water is valuable to people in that it is used for drinking, cooking, washing, and fishing. On the flip side, water is a cause of disaster. Thus, people use water for survival, as well as fight with water during disasters. Because of the many uses of water, people developed a rule for water utilization. This rule cultivated trust in the community. However, infrastructure development (e.g., water supply system, dikes, and road networks), the promotion of washing machines, and social advancement changed the role of the water area from just a flowing stream, which can be simply likened to a sewer, to an important component of infrastructure.

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Water Communities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-699-1

Book part
Publication date: 31 December 2003

Bill McKelvey

Organizational researchers live in two worlds. The first demands and rewards speculations about how to improve performance. The second demands and rewards adherence to rigorous…

Abstract

Organizational researchers live in two worlds. The first demands and rewards speculations about how to improve performance. The second demands and rewards adherence to rigorous standards of scholarship (March & Sutton, 1997, p. 698).Those of us who study organizations and are professors of management work on the front lines, so to speak, where the beliefs we have about how to improve managerial performance get passed directly on to practitioners. The question is, What right do we have to put our beliefs in a privileged position? Beliefs, by definition, are supposed to be true. According to Webster’s (1996) a belief is a conviction about the truth of some statement and/or reality of some phenomenon, especially when based on examination of evidence. Are all of our lectures based on consensually agreed upon evidentiary standards? What are these standards and who should maintain them?

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Post Modernism and Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-573-4

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A Circular Argument
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-385-7

Book part
Publication date: 25 June 2010

Kevin D. Hoover

Three themes dominate Hunting Causes. The first is that cause is a plural concept. The methods and metaphysics of causation, Cartwright believes, are context dependent. Different…

Abstract

Three themes dominate Hunting Causes. The first is that cause is a plural concept. The methods and metaphysics of causation, Cartwright believes, are context dependent. Different causal accounts seem to be at odds with one another only because the same word means different things in different contexts. Every formal approach to causality uses a conceptual framework that is “thinner” than causal reality. She lists a bewildering variety of approaches to causation: probabilistic and Bayes-net accounts (of, for example, Patrick Suppes, Clive Granger, Wolfgang Spohn, Judea Pearl, and Clark Glymour), modularity accounts (Pearl, James Woodward, and Stephen LeRoy), invariance accounts (Woodward, David Hendry, and Kevin Hoover), natural experiments (Herbert Simon, James Hamilton, and Cartwright), causal process accounts (Wesley Salmon and Philip Dowe), efficacy accounts (Hoover), counterfactual accounts (David Lewis, Hendry, Paul Holland, and Donald Rubin), manipulationist accounts (Peter Menzies and Huw Price), and others. The lists of advocates of various accounts overlap. Nevertheless, she sometimes treats these accounts as if they were so different that it is not clear why they should be the subject of a single book. And she fails to explain what they have in common. If, as she apparently believes, they do not have a common essence, do they have a Wittgensteinian family resemblance? She fails to explore in any systematic way the complementarities among the different approaches – for example, between invariance accounts, Bayes-nets, and natural experiments – that frequently make their advocates allies rather than opponents.

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A Research Annual
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-060-6

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