The authors describe why and how different types of simulations can be used to understand and support the challenges of utility deregulation. They present an overview of liberalization and deregulation efforts in three utility markets - electricity, natural gas, and drinking water - and describe the main challenges and opportunities for regulators and business managers. A general classification of seven different types of simulation is presented, including market simulations, policy simulations, dynamic business simulations, capability simulations, day-in-a-life simulations, performance simulations, and gaming simulations. The authors reflect on the role of these simulations for utility deregulation and give examples.
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Full text via link One of the most important drivers of change in the health care sector is the desire of elderly people to age in place. The growing use of internet applications and communication technology together with innovations in buildings have created new commercial opportunities to cater the demands of elderly to grow old in their home environment. Many of these opportunities are facilitated by institutional changes like deregulation and privatization, and benefit from globalization, for example trough stronger incentives for innovation and domestic implementation of ideas that arise in foreign markets
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The authors used the INFRASTRATEGO simulation game to examine strategic behavior in a liberalizing electricity market and the effectiveness of different regulatory regimes in dealing with this strategic behavior. The game simulates the Dutch electricity market in the years 2002 to 2006. The game was played eight times with about 400 players, both professionals and students. Two regulatory regimes defined by (a) the policy-making model and (b) the regulation by negotiation model were evaluated. The authors found several patterns of strategic behavior such as regulatory capture, sometimes with rather disturbing effects with regard to the settlement of rates and long-term capacity planning.
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Maatschappelijke uitdagingen In toenemende mate vertrouwen we een deel van ethische besluitvorming aan smart-technology toe. Technologie heeft vaker dan ooit een ethische lading. Dit kan soms verregaande consequenties hebben voor consumenten, burgers of organisaties. Hoe zeker moet een algoritme zijn van haar zaak om een burger van fraude te beschuldigen? Hoeveel risico mag een chat-bot die financieel advies geeft een klant laten lopen? Wie mag bepalen hoe een algoritme op een sociaal media platform omgaat met desinformatie? Dergelijke vragen leiden tot belangrijke uitdagingen op het gebied van morele autoriteit, ethische besluitvorming, en morele strategievorming. Strategievorming in snel veranderend speelveld In zijn rede zal Bart pleiten om niet zozeer dé oplossing bij ethisch technologische vraagstukken te vinden, maar vooral een manier te zoeken om op een bestendige manier om te gaan met een snel veranderend speelveld. In veel gevallen lijken oplossingen in zowel de private als publieke sector voor techno-ethische vraagstukken korte-termijn gericht. En zijn het vaak maatregelen die snel en vooral zichtbaar een negatief effect van technologie proberen in te dammen. In zijn lectorale rede zal Bart ingaan op hoe belangrijk het erkennen en herkennen van ethische vraagstukken bij het programmeren van nieuwe technologie is. Maar ook hoe men de menselijke maat kan vangen én gebruiken als input in het ontwerp van nieuwe technologie. Er is volgens hem vooral een bestendige strategie nodig.
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This past summer, three Belgian intellectuals held a conversation for Open about the renewed attention to the 'makeability' of city and society. Moderated by sociologist Pascal Gielen, philosopher Lieven de Cauter, urban designer Michiel Dehaene and sociologist Rudi Laermans discuss such topics as the limits of the manufacturable society and the role of creativity and science in this.
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This book is a journey through coexisting, emerging or speculated about, types of digital value transfer infrastructures. Using digital value transfer infrastructures as a central case study, this thesis is concerned with unpacking the negotiation processes that shape the governance, design and political purposes of digital infrastructures that are closely linked to the public interest and state sovereignty. In particular, the papers that are assembled in this manuscript identify and inspect three main socio-technical developments occurring in the domain of value transfer technologies: a) the privatization and platformization of digital payment infrastructures; b) the spread of blockchain-based digital value transfer infrastructures; c) the construction of digital value transfer infrastructures as public utilities, from the part of public institutions or organizations. Concerned with the relationship between law, discourse and technological development, the thesis explores four transversal issues that strike differences and peculiarities of these three scenarios: i) privacy; ii) the synergy and mutual influence of legal change and technological development in the construction of digital infrastructures; iii) the role of socio-technical imaginaries in policy-making concerned with digital infrastructures; iv) the geography and scale of digital infrastructures. The analyses lead to the argument that, in the co-development of legal systems and digital infrastructures that are core to public life, conflicts are productive. Negotiations, ruptures and exceptions are constitutive of the unending process of mutual reinforcement, and mutual containment, in which a plurality of agencies – expressed through legal institutions, symbolic systems, as well as information and media structures – are entangled.
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Transcript of a lecture during the conference 'Is contemporary art history', Institute of Fine Arts, New York, 28th february 2014.
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In discussies en onderzoeken over woningcorporaties ligt de nadruk sterk op de 'institutionele vraagstukken'. Binnen welk regulerend kader moeten corporaties opereren? Welke wettelijke status moeten of mogen zij hebben? Wat moeten zij, mogen zij wel en mogen zij niet? Er is relatief weinig onderzoek gedaan naar de invulling van het ondernemen zelf: welke missie heeft een maatschappelijk ondernemende woningcorporatie en hoe kan zij haar organisatie zo inrichten dat zij die missie kan vervullen? Binnen de onderzoeksgroep MOVe van de TU Delft is daarom een studie verricht met als doel te komen tot richtinggevende uitspraken over de rol van corporaties als maatschappelijke onderneming en daarvan afgeleide uitdagingen voor hun organisatie. Dit essay is gebaseerd op deze studie.
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It is well-documented that international enterprises are more productive. Only few studies have explored the effect of internationalization on productivity and innovation at the firm-level. Using propensity score matching we analyze the causal effects of internationalization on innovation in 10 transition economies. We distinguish between three types of internationalization: exporting, FDI, and international outsourcing. We find that internationalization causes higher levels of innovation. More specifically, we show that (i) exporting results in more R&D, higher sales from product innovation, and an increase in the number of international patents (ii) outward FDI increases R&D and international patents (iii) international outsourcing leads to higher sales from product innovation. The paper provides empirical support to the theoretical literature on heterogeneous firms in international trade that argues that middle income countries gain from trade liberalization through increases in firm productivity and innovative capabilities.
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The article engages with the recent studies on multilevel regulation. The starting point for the argument is that contemporary multilevel regulation—as most other studies of (postnational) rulemaking—is limited in its analysis. The limitation concerns its monocentric approach that, in turn, deepens the social illegitimacy of contemporary multilevel regulation. The monocentric approach means that the study of multilevel regulation originates in the discussions on the foundation of modern States instead of returning to the origins of rules before the nation State was even created, which is where the actual social capital underlying (contemporary) rules can be found, or so I wish to argue. My aim in this article is to reframe the debate. I argue that we have an enormous reservoir of history, practices, and ideas ready to help us think through contemporary (social) legitimacy problems in multilevel regulation: namely all those practices which preceded the capture of law by the modern State system, such as historical alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practices.
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