Paper presented on a congress in 1997 on fesival management. It gives a description of my very first econometric model on economic impacts of festivals.
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The scientific approach is full of paradoxes. Our need for (more) certainty (knowledge) and control is also greatest where our lack of insight is also greatest. And that is precisely in economics, education, and the social sciences. Usually it isn 't in natural science. Pointing out the unscientific nature of econometrics (models only work if nothing really changes, which of course is never the case) is too easy, certainly from the ivory tower of the natural sciences. In the meantime, physics has proven that more insight certainly does not always lead to wiser action and a better world...
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Purpose: Whereas investments in new attractions continue to rise within the theme park industry, knowledge regarding the effects of new attractions on theme park performance and attendance remains scarce. In order to isolate these effects, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of an econometric study explaining the variance in theme park visitor numbers and quantifying the effects of new attractions on theme park attendance. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on an econometric study, in which models were produced for four European theme parks. No pooled modelling was used, meaning that four different models were created; one for each participating theme park. Various variables affecting theme park attendance were identified and quantified, and subsequently the effects of new attractions on visitor numbers were isolated. Findings: Findings indicate that all new attractions opened at Park D during the research period have had a positive long-term influence on attendance. This positive influence lasted for no more than two years. No significant short-term influence was found. There were significant differences in effect between new attractions which could not yet be explained. Research limitations/implications: The research by design only takes into account the economic effects of new attractions and disregards all environmental and socio-cultural effects. Even though the research provides an accurate approximation of the effects of new attractions on attendance, this effect should, according to the author, not be perceived as a stand-alone effect yet as a part of a complex system. A situational approach taking into account several other situational as well as qualitative factors would do the complex reality more justice than a, even though effective, simplified and general approach. Practical implications: Industry operators can now use the econometric model presented in this paper to determine the effects of new attractions on their theme park's attendance and use this knowledge to further fine-tune their investment policy. Originality/value: The paper presents the first econometric model successful at isolating and quantifying a new attraction's effect on theme park attendance and can thus be a valuable tool in perfecting one's investment policy. The paper furthermore includes a brief introduction to a situational approach of determining a new attraction's effects on theme park performance.
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Preprint submitted to Information Processing & Management Tags are a convenient way to label resources on the web. An interesting question is whether one can determine the semantic meaning of tags in the absence of some predefined formal structure like a thesaurus. Many authors have used the usage data for tags to find their emergent semantics. Here, we argue that the semantics of tags can be captured by comparing the contexts in which tags appear. We give an approach to operationalizing this idea by defining what we call paradigmatic similarity: computing co-occurrence distributions of tags with tags in the same context, and comparing tags using information theoretic similarity measures of these distributions, mostly the Jensen-Shannon divergence. In experiments with three different tagged data collections we study its behavior and compare it to other distance measures. For some tasks, like terminology mapping or clustering, the paradigmatic similarity seems to give better results than similarity measures based on the co-occurrence of the documents or other resources that the tags are associated to. We argue that paradigmatic similarity, is superior to other distance measures, if agreement on topics (as opposed to style, register or language etc.), is the most important criterion, and the main differences between the tagged elements in the data set correspond to different topics
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Sinds 1 januari 2013 moeten bedrijven — of hun accountants, administratiekantoren of belastingadviseurs — de aangifte VPB en IB-winst indienen via een nieuwe elektronische standaard: Standard Business Reporting (SBR).In deze bijdrage wordt het belang van deze procesinnovatie besproken in het licht van het gebruik van gegevens uit SBR-berichten, zoals die voor de aangifte VPB en IB-winst, voor benchmarking en het beoordelen van MKB-kredietwaardigheid.
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80 procent van de Nederlandse midden- en kleinbedrijven heeft nog nooit gehoord van Standard Business Reporting (SBR). Slechts 4 procent van de bedrijven die wel weten wat SBR is, is hierover geïnformeerd door hun leverancier van administratiesoftware. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam onder ruim duizend midden- en kleinbedrijven (mkb). Bedrijven die SBR willen implementeren hebben veel behoefte aan de koppeling van hun informatiesystemen, aan benchmarking en aan actuele financiële cijfers. Dit biedt kansen voor softwareleveranciers.
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Tachtig procent van de ondervraagde mkb-bedrijven heeft nog nooit van SBR gehoord, blijkt uit onderzoek van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA). Slechts 34 procent van de bedrijven die wel weten wat SBR is, hoorde hierover van hun accountant: het informeren van ondernemers staat kennelijk nog niet hoog op de agenda bij accountants.
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Vanaf 2013 kunnen bedrijven – of hun financiële intermediair – voor het indienen van belastingaangiften, jaarrekeningen en financiële rapportages gebruik maken van een nieuwe elektronische standaard: Standard Business Reporting (SBR). Voortaan kunnen bedrijven rechtstreeks via hun administratiesoftware gegevens uitwisselen met overheidsinstanties, banken en intermediairs. De Rijksoverheid beoogt met SBR de administratieve lastendruk voor het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven te verlichten. Nu SBR een feit is, rijst de vraag op in hoeverre ondernemers op de hoogte zijn van de mogelijkheden en gevolgen die de invoering ervan met zich meebrengt. Het expertisecentrum Instant Reporting en het lectoraat Online Ondernemen van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam hebben dit onderzocht in samenwerking met zeven brancheorganisaties. De Hogeschool van Amsterdam wil hiermee nadrukkelijk de discussie bevorderen tussen brancheverenigingen, de Rijksoverheid, banken, intermediairs en leveranciers van administratiesoftware over wat SBR het MKB te bieden heeft. Deze publicatie is uitgegeven door het Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management (CAREM) en het expertisecentrum Instant Reportingvan het domein Economie en Management van de Hogeschool van Amsterdam. CAREM is een centrum voor praktijkgericht economisch onderzoek gericht op kennisontwikkeling. Het expertisecentrum Instant Reporting bundelt de aanwezige kennis op het gebied van SBR en stelt studenten in staat na hun afstuderen de arbeidsmarkt te betreden met de vereiste actuele kennis over SBR.
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Vast empirical evidence underscores that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. As governments accordingly pursue export-promoting policies we are interested in the firmness of these conclusions with respect to African small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the influence of the destination of export trade. Using a micro-panel dataset from five African countries we confirm the self-selection. We apply propensity scores to match exporters and use a difference-in-difference methodology to test if African SMEs experience productivity gains because of export participation. Results indicate that African firms significantly learn-by-exporting. Manufacturers obtain significant performance improvements due to internationalization although this effect is moderated by export destination. Firms that export outside Africa become more capital intensive and at the same time hire more workers. In contrast we find evidence that exporters within the African region significantly downsize in capital intensity. Results regarding skill-bias of internationally active firms are mixed, where exporters within the region expand in size and hire more relatively unskilled workers.
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