Why Do Bio-Carbonates Exist?

Why Do Firms Exist

The traditional explanation for the existence of firms in terms of transaction costs conceptualizes the firm as a problem in the context of neoclassical theory. The purpose of this paper is to consider the firm as a problem in the context of evolutionary theory. An evolutionary perspective calls for an explanation of the existence of firms in historical, rather than market, terms. The paper sho...

Do blackout baby booms exist and why?

Determining whether power outages have significant fertility effects is an important policy question in developing countries, where blackouts are common and modern forms of family planning scarce. Using birth records from Zanzibar, this paper shows that a 2008 month-long blackout caused a significant, 20% increase in the number of births eight to ten months later. The increase is similar across...

Explanatory Relevance , or Why Do the Special Sciences Exist ?

Abstract Non-reductive physicalists have long held that the special sciences offer explanations of some phenomena that are objectively superior to physical explanations. This explanatory “autonomy” has largely been based on the multiple realizability argument. Recently, in the face of the local reduction and disjunctive property responses to multiple realizability, some defenders of non-reducti...

Do Black Holes Exist?

Proof that black holes exist will likely require confirmation of the existence of event horizons. The common assumption that the mere existence of large compact masses proves the case for black holes is an unwarranted extrapolation of General Relativity into a strong-field regime where it has not been adequately tested. Neither the large compact masses of galactic nuclei nor the massive compact...

Do discrete emotions exist?