Does recent growth of darknet markets signify a slow reorganisation of the illicit drug trade? Where are darknet markets situated in the global drug supply chain? In principle, these platforms allow producers to sell directly to end users, bypassing traditional trafficking routes. And yet, there is evidence that many offerings originate from a small number of highly active consumer countries, r...

This paper uses a simplified version of classical information theory to improve understanding of the dynamic potential of innovation systems in developing countries with a special focus on issues of agricultural poverty. Using examples drawn from emergent knowledge markets in industrialised countries, the paper suggests that such an analytical approach focuses attention directly on the types of...

Bidirectional transformation (bx) approaches provide a systematic way of specifying, restoring, and maintaining the consistency of related models. The current diversity of bx approaches is certainly beneficial, but it also poses challenges, especially when it comes to comparing the different approaches and corresponding bx tools that implement them. Although a benchmark for bx (referred to as a...

In liberalized electricity markets strategic firms compete in an environment characterized by fluctuating demand and non-storability of electricity. While spot market design under those conditions by now is well understood1, a rigorous analysis of investment incentives is still missing. Existing models, as the peak-load-pricing approach, analyze welfare optimal investment and find that optimal ...

Museum exhibits offer particular challenges for the design of interactive installations, as visitors usually cannot directly interact with artefacts. This paper presents a depth-sensor based system for interaction via pointing gestures that we developed for an interactive museum installation (IMI), permanently installed in a showcase of the grave of a Germanic princess. Users interact by walkin...

Enterprises continuously seek decision support tools that can help automate and codify business decisions. This is particularly true in the business of consumer electronics manufacturing where components are often interchangeable and several manufacturers can supply the same component over the life of a product. In this kind of dynamic environment, businesses are faced with the choice of signin...

This paper studies asymmetric price responses of individual firms, via daily retail prices of almost all gasoline stations in the Netherlands and suggested prices of the five largest oil companies over more than two years. I find that 38% of the stations respond asymmetrically to changes in the spot market price. Hence, asymmetric pricing is not a feature of the market as a whole, but of indivi...

In this paper we consider several parametric assumptions for the instantaneous covariance structure of the Libor market model. We examine the impact of each different parameterization on the evolution of the term structure of volatilities in time, on terminal correlations and on the joint calibration to the caps and swaptions markets. We present a number of cases of calibration in the Euro mark...

This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. This paper develops a simple methodology to test for asset in...

Chapter 1 introduced the foundations for the neoliberal interpretation of international institutions’ advocacy of liberalized trade. A critical assumption behind the neoliberal perspective is that free markets are in the collective interest – that is, that liberalized trade maximizes the gains to world as a whole, without regard to how those gains might be distributed. The economic theory under...