The new classical school's dominance of mainstream economic thought in recent years has brought with it the associated adoption of rational economic agents ( in the Muthian sense) by mainstream economists. This thesis challenges this underlying assumption of human behaviour in the context of the non-durable consumption expenditure decision making process. In doing so, our attention will be placed upon the weak or more general form of the hypothesis, which has come to be known as optimisation. We employ a behavioural methodology in an attempt to ascertain if individuals adhere to the optimising or satisficing model of human behaviour. In doing so time will be spent examining the bounded rationality hypothesis. We also employ a behavioural methodology in producing a non-durable consumption function that is econometrically comparable with an optimising model of non-durable consumption expenditure (namely the permanent income rational expectations hypothesis). The micro results produced in this thesis suggest that the respondents surveyed from non-durable consumption expenditure decisions that are sub-optimal in nature. The formation of these sub-tropical expenditure decisions appear to be a consequence of the cognitive constraints faced by our respondents, which in turn provides empirical support for the bounded rationality hypothesis. On a macro level, our behavioural consumption function generates results that are comparable with those produced by the optimising model employed in this thesis. Our results also question the rational expectations permanent income hypothesis (as it is usually applied), despite making adjustments to the model which remove the underlying assumption of known, constant real interest use / Master of Commerce (Hons)

In many schools hours of energy and effort are dedicated to making decisions and developing policy. At the school level issues of curriculum, faculty groupings and structure, strategy for staff allocations and resourcing of faculties, often results in debate before being decided upon. So often valuable time and resources are wasted in argument, disagreement and political activity. This study has been designed to determine what actually happens in the decision process, with the subject of the study a single committee. The aim of the study is to determine the style of policy development that took place and what influences affected the decisions made. The study is in two parts. The first section develops a Conceptual Framework and research questions to categorise, summarise and organise data collected from policy development processes. The Conceptual framework was designed to permit analysis of the major components of the stages of Problem Structuring, Generation of Alternatives and Recommending Policy Actions. The second section in includes further Research Questions to determine whether the process applied to developing policy was Rational, Nonrational (Incremental/Political) or a Mixed Model type. The research method used was naturalistic and qualitative in nature and in the context of a case study. The main findings were that a Mixed Model of policy development was used by the Committee with elements of both Rational and Nonrational process evident from the research data.

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本文主要是探討在股票單日漲跌幅限制下市場非恆久性失衡體系的一些經 濟現象，以及管制是否真正具有穩定價格之功能，將以實證之方式佐以稍 簡化之理論模型來驗證所要探討的命題。由於以往之研究有 (1) 以真實 資料而未以模型預測； 或 (2) 以模型預測而以電腦模擬資料。 所以本 文將以真實資料佐以理論與實證模型預測未限制下之股價分析比較， 希 望能提供一些較新的訊息，或給未來後續研究此命題的學者一些參考。另 外將與鄧鍇 ( 民國八十年 ) 之以電腦亂數模擬之研究結果比較，分析 單日漲跌幅度限制究竟有無短期穩定股價之功能。本文共分五章， 分別 為緒論、文獻回顧、理性預期基礎下之價格管制理論模型、理性預期基礎 下之價格管制模型之實證分析、結論。 第一章緒論中， 第一節研究背景 ，說明臺灣股票市場漲跌幅限制之由來，以及由此背景延伸出之研究動機 ， 第二節研究動機與目的，說明本研究與以往研究不同的部份，以及所 要驗證之主題。 第二章文獻回顧中，第一節國內相關文獻， 探討國內相 關文獻，依據文獻探討發展出本研究之命題，第二節國外相關文獻，敘述 本研究理論與實證模型之由來。 第三章理性預期基礎下之價格管制模型 中， 第一節理論模型架構，為理論模型之推導，說明漲跌幅限制幅度大 小對預期價格之影響， 第二節比較靜態分析，以經濟理論分析漲跌幅限 制與平均工資、 汽油價格、利率、貨幣供給對股票價格之影響，第三節 實證模型與估計方法，說明實證模型之架構與估計之步驟。 第四章理性 預期基礎下之價格管制模型之實證分析中， 第一節資料來源與限制， 說 明本研究資料來源，以及研究之時間區間，第二節估計參數分析，說明各 參數估計之結果， 並分析其與現實狀況之關係，第三節估計值變動差分 析，分析漲跌幅限制有無短期穩定股價之功能。 第五章結論中，第一節 經濟涵義及政策性建議， 將所得之結果歸納並做政策性建議，第二節本 文之限制、缺失及未來研究方向， 敘述本文因人力、時間之不足所遭遇 到之限制，產生之缺失，以及未來所要努力之方向。

<p>We are working on the development and design of an approach to agents that can reason, react to the environment and are able to update their own knowledge as a result of new incoming information. In the resulting framework, rational, reactive agents can dynamically change their own knowledge bases as well as their own goals. An agent can make observations, learn new facts and new rules from the environment, and then update its knowledge accordingly. The knowledge base of an agent and its updating mechanism has been implemented in Logic Programming. The agent’s framework is implemented in Java. </p><p>This aim of this thesis is to design and implement an architecture of a reactive, rational agent in both Java and Prolog and to test the interaction between the rational part and the reactive part of the agent. The agent architecture is called RR-agent and consists of six more or less components, four implemented in Java and the other two are implemented in XSB Prolog. </p><p>The result of this thesis is the ground for the paper “An architecture of a rational, reactive agent” by P. DellAcqua, M. Engberg, L.M. Pereira that has been submitted.</p>

<p>This 15 point level essay intends to carry out an ideological critic of the scientific humanism; the main question the essay asks is: do the Humanists practice a rational dialog. In able to find an answer to this question have I developed an analyze scheme that show what the skilful demagogue should avoid, if he have an interest in practicing a rational dialog. The essay shows that, when it comes to debating their most important issues, the Humanist does not practice a rational dialog. The Humanists deny that other forms of humanism than the one they practice exists, according to their beliefs´ humanism must contain an atheistic attitude to the world. When it comes to the Humanists debates concerning religion they accentuate those parts of the bible that they believe is destructive for mankind, these arguments have no rele-vance and are therefore not rational.</p>

<p>The globalization today has led to increased global competition. As companies seek out foreign markets in order to internationalize their operations, it is common that they encounter many cultural problems. Bribery and corruption is a common problem in international trade. Corruption is strongly linked to the national culture which means that corruption is accepted in differing degrees within different nations. This can be a problem when companies establish their operations in foreign markets.</p><p>The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyze how companies act in a corrupt market without participating in corrupt activities.</p><p>The authors have performed both a qualitative and a quantitative study. Seven companies have been interviewed and 23 companies participated in a questionnaire survey. All companies that participated in the study are Swedish companies that have established their operations in India. The questions that are used in the interviews as well as the questionnaire are based on theories and literature that were used in the theoretical part of the essay.</p><p>The results show that the companies that participated in the study do not work entirely in accordance with the theory "strategies for coping with corruption". Swedish companies in India are mainly influenced by the administrative and little corruption in India. The majority of companies that participated in the study are acting in accordance with the rational choice theory. This is likely because the companies constantly work to maximize their profits, which leads to participation in some corrupt activities. Corruption may benefit the individual company while it may disfavour society as a whole.</p> / <p>Den globalisering som präglar samhället idag har medfört att konkurrensen ökat globalt. Då företag söker sig till främmande marknader för att internationalisera sin verksamhet är det vanligt att det uppstår många kulturella problem. Ett vanligt problem inom internationella affärstransaktioner är mutor och korruption. Korruption är starkt kopplat till en nations kultur vilket gör att korruption accepteras olika på olika marknader. Därav kan det bli problem när företag etablerar sin verksamhet på främmande marknader.<p> </p><p><p>Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och analysera hur företag agerar på en korrupt marknad utan att själva delta i korrupt verksamhet.<p> </p><p>Studien utgår ifrån både en kvalitativ och kvantitativ undersökningens metod. Sju intervjuer och en enkätundersökning med 23 svenska företag som är verksamma i Indien har genomförts. Frågorna som undersökningarna är baserade på utgår ifrån studiens teorier och litteratur.<p> </p><p>Resultatet visar att företagen som deltog i studien inte arbetar helt i enlighet med teorin om strategier för hantering av korruption. Svenska företag i Indien påverkas främst av den administrativa och lilla korruptionen i Indien. En majoritet av företagen som deltog i studien agerar i enlighet med teorin rational choice då de strävar efter att hela tiden vinstmaximera, vilket innebär att de ibland deltar i korrupt verksamhet. Korruption kan gynna det enskilda företaget samtidigt som det kan missgynna samhället som helhet.<p> </p><p> </p><p> <p> </p></p></p></p></p></p></p>

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The globalization today has led to increased global competition. As companies seek out foreign markets in order to internationalize their operations, it is common that they encounter many cultural problems. Bribery and corruption is a common problem in international trade. Corruption is strongly linked to the national culture which means that corruption is accepted in differing degrees within different nations. This can be a problem when companies establish their operations in foreign markets. The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyze how companies act in a corrupt market without participating in corrupt activities. The authors have performed both a qualitative and a quantitative study. Seven companies have been interviewed and 23 companies participated in a questionnaire survey. All companies that participated in the study are Swedish companies that have established their operations in India. The questions that are used in the interviews as well as the questionnaire are based on theories and literature that were used in the theoretical part of the essay. The results show that the companies that participated in the study do not work entirely in accordance with the theory "strategies for coping with corruption". Swedish companies in India are mainly influenced by the administrative and little corruption in India. The majority of companies that participated in the study are acting in accordance with the rational choice theory. This is likely because the companies constantly work to maximize their profits, which leads to participation in some corrupt activities. Corruption may benefit the individual company while it may disfavour society as a whole. / Den globalisering som präglar samhället idag har medfört att konkurrensen ökat globalt. Då företag söker sig till främmande marknader för att internationalisera sin verksamhet är det vanligt att det uppstår många kulturella problem. Ett vanligt problem inom internationella affärstransaktioner är mutor och korruption. Korruption är starkt kopplat till en nations kultur vilket gör att korruption accepteras olika på olika marknader. Därav kan det bli problem när företag etablerar sin verksamhet på främmande marknader.  Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och analysera hur företag agerar på en korrupt marknad utan att själva delta i korrupt verksamhet.  Studien utgår ifrån både en kvalitativ och kvantitativ undersökningens metod. Sju intervjuer och en enkätundersökning med 23 svenska företag som är verksamma i Indien har genomförts. Frågorna som undersökningarna är baserade på utgår ifrån studiens teorier och litteratur.  Resultatet visar att företagen som deltog i studien inte arbetar helt i enlighet med teorin om strategier för hantering av korruption. Svenska företag i Indien påverkas främst av den administrativa och lilla korruptionen i Indien. En majoritet av företagen som deltog i studien agerar i enlighet med teorin rational choice då de strävar efter att hela tiden vinstmaximera, vilket innebär att de ibland deltar i korrupt verksamhet. Korruption kan gynna det enskilda företaget samtidigt som det kan missgynna samhället som helhet.

Religious fundamentalism is a confusing and not well understood phenomenon in present day Western societies. In order to obtain fresh insights into what social forces and conditions affect religious organizational development such that they become fundamentalist organizations, this study seeks to analyze a religious group that historically has been mandated to integrate and utilize alternative scientific and/or religious knowledge into their canon of teachings. A triangulation study consisting of a content analysis of its accepted history and a discourse analysis of its accredited membership are utilized to gather data on this religious organization to understand the historical, organizational, and external social circumstances that have allowed this religious community to engage and interact with alternative scientific and/or religious knowledge without interpretations of conflict becoming a source of social strife within their organization.