Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Empirical IO »

Since the financial crisis of 2008–2009, nonfinancial-related shareholder activism increased, as public interest entities (PIEs) should strengthen their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. This study aims to determine whether institutional ownership (IO) impacts ESG performance and disclosure and vice versa. Moreover, IO’s moderating and mediating influence on the relationship between ESG and firms’ financial consequences is included. This is the first literature review focusing on IO and ESG, describing IO as independent, dependent, moderator, and mediator variable. A structured literature review with 81 empirical-quantitative (archival) studies on that topic is presented based on an agency theoretical framework. Regarding the main results, long-term IO leads to increased ESG performance. Moreover, ESG performance promotes the ratio of institutional investors. Other relationships are rather heterogeneous and too low in an amount yet, stressing major research gaps.

Research aims: This study investigates the role of firm characteristics explained by the investment opportunity (IO) on the ability of dividends to predict future earnings.Design/Methodology/Approach: This study performed an empirical study on firms listed in the consumer goods sub-sector on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, divided into companies with strong and weak IO categories to clearly see the role of IO by comparing the variable dividend coefficients of the two sample categories. Through purposive sampling, the researcher determined the research sample, totaling 42 firm samples for the weak IO category and 48 firm samples for the strong IO category. Then, the multiple regression analysis utilizing IBM SPSS Statistic Version 23 was employed to analyze the relationship between variables.Research findings: Surprisingly, companies with weak IO showed a more remarkable ability to predict future earnings than companies with strong IO because the dividend coefficient of companies with weak IO was higher than that of strong IO, denoting that the number could explain the strength of ability.Theoretical contribution/Originality: The result provides alternative explanations to the previous inconsistent results from the dividend's ability to predict future earnings. The result also supports the argument that the companies with weak IO may use dividends to convey information signals and compensate the investor for unsatisfied performance, which is called counter-signal when strong IO refrain from doing so and rely on additional information.Practitioner/Policy implication: Investors should notice companies' characteristics, such as investment opportunities, while considering dividends as a signal for future performance to make an investment decision. Research limitation/Implication: The research did not fully capture all companies in Indonesian Stock Exchange, but specifically for the companies’ sub-sector that aggressively paid the dividend. Thus, future research is hoped to provide empirical studies for other sector companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange to enrich alternative explanations.

Abstract. The first in situ point observations of iodine monoxide (IO) at a clean marine site were made using a laser-induced fluorescence instrument deployed at Mace Head, Ireland in August 2007. IO mixing ratios of up to 49.8 pptv (1 s) were observed at day-time low tide, well in excess of previous observed spatially-averaged maxima. A strong anti-correlation of IO with tide height was evident and the high time resolution of the observations showed IO peaked in the hour after low tide. The temporal delay in IO peak compared to low tide has not been observed previously but coincides with the time of peak aerosol number previously observed at Mace Head. A long path-differential optical absorption spectroscopy instrument (with a 2 × 6.8 km folded path across Roundstone Bay) was also based at the site for 3 days during the point measurement observation period. Both instruments show similar temporal trends but the point measurements of IO are a factor of ~6–10 times greater than the spatially averaged IO mixing ratios, providing empirical evidence of the presence of inhomogeneities in the IO mixing ratio near the intertidal region.

Abstract. The first in situ point observations of iodine monoxide (IO) at a clean marine site were made using a laser-induced fluorescence instrument deployed at Mace Head, Ireland in August 2007. IO mixing ratios of up to 49.8 pptv (equivalent to pmol mol−1; 1 s average) were observed at day-time low tide, well in excess of previous observed spatially-averaged maxima. A strong anti-correlation of IO mixing ratios with tide height was evident and the high time resolution of the observations showed IO peaked in the hour after low tide. The temporal delay in peak IO compared to low tide has not been observed previously but coincides with the time of peak aerosol number previously observed at Mace Head. A long path-differential optical absorption spectroscopy instrument (with a 2 × 6.8 km folded path across Roundstone Bay) was also based at the site for 3 days during the point measurement observation period. Both instruments show similar temporal trends but the point measurements of IO are a factor of ~6–10 times greater than the spatially averaged IO mixing ratios, providing direct empirical evidence of the presence of inhomogeneities in the IO mixing ratio near the intertidal region.

Institutional objection (IO) occurs when institutions providing health care claim objector status and refuse to provide legally permissible health services such as abortion. IO may be regulated by sources including law, ethical codes and policies (including State and local/institutional policies). We conducted a mixed-methods narrative review of the empirical evidence exploring IO to abortion provision globally, to inform areas for further research. MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), Global Health (CAB Abstracts), ScienceDirect and Scopus were searched in August 2021 using keywords including ‘conscientious objection’, ‘faith-based organizations’, ‘religious hospitals’ and ‘abortion’. Eligible research focused on clinicians’ attitudes and experiences of IO to abortion. The 28 studies included in the review were from nine countries: United States (19), Chile (2), Turkey (1), Argentina (1), Australia (1), Colombia (1), Ghana (1), Poland (1) and South Africa (1). The analysis demonstrated that IO was claimed in a range of countries, despite different legislative and policy frameworks. There was strong evidence from the United States that clinicians in religious healthcare institutions were less likely to provide abortions and abortion referrals, and that training of future abortion providers was negatively affected by IO. Qualitative evidence from other countries showed that IO was claimed by secular as well as religious institutions, and individual conscientious objection could be used as a mechanism for imposing IO. Further research is needed to explore whether IO is morally justified, how decisions are made to claim IO, and on what grounds. Finally, appropriate models for regulating IO are needed to ensure the protection of women’s access to abortion. Such models could be informed by those used to regulate IO in other contexts, such as voluntary assisted dying.

Abstract Introduction: Blood transfusions are required as supportive care in thalassaemia and sickle cell patients. Regular blood transfusions may result in iron overload (IO) and, left untreated, in morbidity and earlier morality. Current infusion chelation therapy (ICT) requires 8–12 hour infusions, 5–7 days per week, potentially limiting quality of life (QoL) and inhibiting adherence in patients already limited by thalassaemia and sickle cell disease. Methods: To assess the impact of ICT on the QoL of patients with thalassemia and sickle cell disease and adherence, a literature review in Medline (539 abstracts; 130 articles), analysis of IO patient transcripts (4 thalassaemia, 1 sickle cell disease) and five IO clinical expert interviews were conducted. Results: Few published studies (11) used validated QoL instruments and even fewer assessed IO in thalassaemia (4) and sickle cell patients (7). No IO-specific QoL instruments were found. ICT in sickle cell patients may cause additional needle-site pain/discomfort, and may impact on evening social life and sleep, recreational activities, as well as emotional and physical well-being, occupational capacity and feelings of independence. ICT in thalassaemia patients may impact on emotional wellbeing such as self-esteem and worry about the future, family relationships and development of intimate relationships. Published articles and patient and clinician input suggested that QoL impact inhibited prescription of and adherence to ICT and therefore there is a need for easier, efficacious and safe oral chelation therapy (OCT). Discussion: Limited empirical studies assessed ICT’s impact on QoL in patients with thalassaemia or sickle cell disease, though results indicated that ICT’s QoL impact is significant and prescription and adherence rates would likely improve with OCT. We recommend further qualitative and empirical studies to assess the impact of ICT and OCT in IO patients with thalassaemia and sickle cell patients, using validated instruments.

To evaluate the comprehensive impacts of tourism in Hainan, this paper proposes an approach integrating input-output (IO) model with multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods. Four steps are taken: (1) constructing an extended IO model that can separate out domestic and imported effects from the traditional IO system; (2) constituting a 3-level evaluation criteria hierarchy based on various tourism multipliers obtained from the extended IO model; (3) calculating the weights of criteria using the entropy theory; (4) giving an evaluation of comprehensive impacts of tourism based on four MCDM methods – WSM, TOPSIS, ELECTRE, and PROMETHEE. Using Hainan 2002, 2007, and 2012 IO tables as database, the proposed approach is implemented in the empirical study of Hainan. The results show economic dimension is the most important consideration and the overall performance of tourism in Hainan shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing from 2002 to 2012. Two types sensitivity analysis of weights show single criterion weight change has little influence on the results. But it is different when four dimensions weights change. Especially, when the environmental dimension is valued, the overall performance gets worse annually. These findings can offer insightful policies for the development of Hainan’s tourism.

In the face of escalating conflicts or atrocities, international organizations (IOs), alongside non-governmental organizations (NGOs), often vocalize public condemnation. Researchers have examined NGO shaming, but no extant literature has comparatively explored if, how and why IOs shame. This article fills this gap. We conceptualize IO shaming as condemnatory speech acts and distinguish between the agent, targets and actions of shaming. We theorize how compliance and socialization are motives that lead IOs to shame. Empirically, we use new data on more than 3000 instances of IO shaming, covering 27 organizations between 1980 and 2015 to examine empirical patterns across the three dimensions of agents, targets and actions. We find that the majority of IOs do employ shaming but to varying degrees. Global, general-purpose IOs shame the most and regional, task-specific IOs the least. IOs mainly shame states, but there is a rise in the targeting of non-state and unnamed actors. While many condemned acts relate to human rights and security issues, IOs shame actions across the policy spectrum. These findings indicate that IO shaming is driven by compliance and socialization motives and that it is a wider phenomenon than previously recognized, suggesting possible avenues for further inquiry.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of innovation orientation (IO) on both the implementation levels of soft and hard lean management (LM), as well as innovation performance. It also aims at exploring the effects of soft and hard LM on innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach The study analyzes survey data collected as a part of a high-performance manufacturing (HPM) project from 238 international manufacturing companies in eight countries and three industries. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied to assess construct validity. The study hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Findings The results demonstrated that innovation-oriented companies tend to adopt aspects of both soft and hard LM. However, the results revealed an insignificant effect of soft and hard LM on innovation performance. The study also showed that innovation performance is positively influenced by an IO. These results indicate that having an IO is vital for enhancing both LM as well as innovation performance. They also evidently suggest that LM is more related to continuous improvement (incremental innovation) rather than (radical) innovation and, as such, is not important for firm’s intent on enhancing their innovation performance. Practical implications The current study demonstrates that IO and LM are complementary and not contradicting strategies. The two strategies share many cultural aspects, similarities and commonalities. However, LM is not sufficient to predict innovation performance. Managers of the surveyed manufacturing firms are advised to focus on IO, as it has beneficial impacts on both LM (continuous improvement initiatives) as well as innovation performance. This clearly indicates that placing the emphasis upon radical (innovative) improvement rather than incremental improvement (LM practices) is believed to support continuous and innovative improvement alike. Originality/value The relationship between LM and innovation is debated in the existing literature, but the debate is characterized by a lack of empirical evidence. This is one of the first studies that empirically investigates the relationships between IO, LM and innovation performance. It identifies some new insights to direct future research, particularly regarding different innovation types as well as in service organizations.

Dans cette thèse, je développe de nouvelles méthodes économétriques pour tester et relaxer les restrictions statistiques ou d'équilibre couramment supposées dans des modèles populaires d'organisation industrielle, tels que le modèle logit à coefficients aléatoires, les jeux d'entrée et les contrats optimaux. J'applique ensuite ces méthodes pour étudier comment les hypothèses habituelles affectent les résultats obtenus dans plusieurs exemples empiriques pertinents. Cette thèse contient trois chapitres.Le premier chapitre de ma thèse s'intitule "Tester et relaxer les hypothèses de distribution sur les coefficients aléatoires dans le modèle de demande ". Ce chapitre est co-écrit avec deux autres doctorants, Hippolyte Boucher et Gökçe Gökkoca. Nous proposons une méthode pour tester et relaxer les hypothèses de distribution sur les coefficients aléatoires dans le modèle de demande de produits différenciés initié par Berry (1994) et Berry, Levinsohn et Pakes (1995). Il s'agit du modèle de référence pour l'estimation de la demande avec des données agrégées de marché. Les coefficients aléatoires modélisent l'hétérogénéité des préférences non observées. Dans ce chapitre, nous proposons un test de spécification sur la distribution des coefficients aléatoires, qui permet aux chercheurs de tester la spécification choisie (par exemple la normalité) sans ré-estimer le modèle sous une paramétrisation plus flexible. Les moments sont choisis pour maximiser la puissance du test lorsque la distribution des coefficients aléatoires est mal spécifiée. En exploitant la dualité entre l'estimation et le test, nous montrons que ces instruments peuvent également améliorer l'estimation du modèle BLP sous une paramétrisation flexible. Enfin, nous validons notre approche avec des simulations de Monte Carlo et une application empirique sur le marché des voitures en Allemagne.Le deuxième chapitre s'intitule "Inégalités de Moment pour les Jeux d'Entrée avec Types Hétérogènes". Ce chapitre a été co-écrit avec Christian Bontemps et Rohit Kumar. Nous développons de nouvelles méthodes pour simplifier l'estimation des jeux d'entrée lorsque le mécanisme de sélection d'équilibre est non restreint. En particulier, nous développons un algorithme qui nous permet de sélectionner de manière récursive un sous-ensemble d'inégalités qui caractérisent de manière minimale l'ensemble des paramètres admissibles. Ensuite, nous proposons une procédure inférentielle compétitive en lissant la fonction minimum. Cela nous permet d'obtenir une statistique de test pivotale qui élimine "numériquement" les moments non saturés. Nous montrons que nous récupérons une région de confiance convergente en laissant le paramètre de lissage augmenter avec la taille de l'échantillon. Aussi, notre procédure peut facilement être adaptée au cas avec covariables, y compris continues. Enfin, nous menons des simulations de Monte Carlo pour évaluer les performances de notre nouvelle procédure d'estimation.Le troisième chapitre s'intitule "Identification et Estimation des Contrats d'Incitation sous Information Asymétrique : une application au secteur de l'eau en France". Nous développons un modèle principal-agent pour représenter la sous-traitance de gestion pour la prestation de services publics. Une entreprise (l'agent) possède une connaissance privée de son coût marginal de production. L'autorité publique locale (le principal) se préoccupe du surplus net des consommateurs et du bénéfice de l'entreprise. La négociation contractuelle est modélisée comme le choix de l'entreprise informée de manière privée dans un menu d'options déterminant le prix unitaire facturé aux consommateurs et le montant fixe. Notre modèle théorique caractérise la sous-traitance optimale dans cet environnement. Nous étudions ensuite l'identification non paramétrique du modèle et effectuons une estimation semi-paramétrique sur des données provenant de l'enquête de l'Institut Français de l'Environnement de 2004
In this thesis, I develop new econometric methods to test and relax statistical or equilibrium restrictions that are commonly assumed in popular industrial organization models including the random coefficient logit model, entry games, and optimal contracts. I then apply these methods to investigate how the usual assumptions affect the results obtained in several pertinent empirical examples. This thesis is organized into three chapters.The first chapter of my thesis is entitled "Testing and Relaxing Distributional Assumptions on Random Coefficients in Demand Models''. This chapter is co-authored with two fellow graduate students Hippolyte Boucher and Gökçe Gökkoca. We provide a method to test and relax the distributional assumptions on random coefficients in the differentiated products demand model initiated by Berry (1994) and Berry, Levinsohn and Pakes (1995). This model is the workhorse model for demand estimation with market-level data and it uses random coefficients to account for unobserved preference heterogeneity. In this chapter, we provide a formal moment-based specification test on the distribution of random coefficients, which allows researchers to test the chosen specification (for instance normality) without re-estimating the model under a more flexible parametrization. The moment conditions (or equivalently the instruments) chosen for the test are designed to maximize the power of the test when the RC distribution is misspecified. By exploiting the duality between estimation and testing, we show that these instruments can also improve the estimation of the BLP model under a flexible parametrization (here, we consider the case of the Gaussian mixture). Finally, we validate our approach with Monte Carlo simulations and an empirical application using data on car purchases in Germany.The second chapter is entitled: "Moment Inequalities for Entry Games with HeterogeneousTypes". This chapter is coauthored with my advisor Christian Bontemps and Rohit Kumar.We develop new methods to simplify the estimation of entry games when the equilibrium selection mechanism is unrestricted. In particular, we develop an algorithm that allows us to recursively select a relevant subset of inequalities that sharply characterize the set of admissible set of parameters. Then, we propose a way to circumvent the problem of deriving an easy-to-compute and competitive critical value by smoothing the minimum function. In our case, it allows us to obtain a pivotal test statistic that eliminates ``numerically” the non-binding moments. We show that we recover a consistent confidence region by letting the smoothing parameter increase with the sample size. Interestingly, we show that our procedure can easily be adapted to the case with covariates including continuous ones. Finally, we conduct full-scale Monte Carlo simulations to assess the performance of our new estimation procedure.The third chapter is entitled "Identification and Estimation of Incentive Contracts under Asymmetric Information: an application to the French Water Sector". This chapter has its roots in a project Christian Bontemps and David Martimort started many years ago. We develop a Principal-Agent model to represent management contracting for public-service delivery. A firm (the Agent) has private knowledge of its marginal cost of production. The local public authority (the Principal) cares about the consumers' net surplus from consuming the services and the (weighted) firm's profit. Contractual negotiation is modeled as the choice by the privately informed firm within a menu of options determining both the unit-price charged to consumers and the fixed fee. Our theoretical model characterizes optimal contracting in this environment. We then explicitly study the nonparametric identification of the model and perform a semi-parametric estimation on a dataset coming from the 2004 wave of a survey from the French environment Institute

La thèse s’est développée comme suit. Chapitre 1 étudie la situation concurrentielle du marché de la télévision en clair. Nous avons construit un modèle de concurrence oligopolistique et identifié la nature et l’ampleur des externalités entre les téléspectateurs et les annonceurs publicitaires. Nous contribuons à la littérature en mettant en œuvre une procédure simple permettant de tester le type de comportement des entreprises sur un marché. Nous démontrons que la nature de la concurrence sur le marché publicitaire de la télévision est du type Cournot (i.e., une concurrence sur la capacité d’offre d’écrans publicitaires). Nos estimations nous permettent aussi de conclure que, sur un marché biface, des taux de marge élevés sur une des faces du marché ne signifient pas une absence de concurrence. Au chapitre 2, j'utilise un modèle théorique pour analyser le comportement concurrentiel des plateformes médias financées par la publicité. Les plateformes sont spécifiées pour être différenciées horizontalement et la structure du marché est un oligopole. Je démontre dans cet article que la «réaction stratégique» des chaînes de télévision sous une concurrence à la Cournot est complémentaire (i.e., si une chaîne augmente son offre de publicité, ses concurrents ont intérêt à augmenter leurs offres de publicité également). Par conséquent, la fusion des régies publicitaires permet à toutes les chaînes du marché d’augmenter leurs quantités de publicité. J’ai ensuite testé la prédiction théorique avec des données sur le marché de la télévision en France et le modèle utilisé dans le premier chapitre. La simulation contrefactuelle conclut les mêmes résultats que le modèle théorique. Au chapitre 3, j’analyse l’effet de la régulation par plafonnement des volumes publicitaires sur les chaînes de télévision en clair. J’exploite une nouvelle base de données par tranche horaire sur 12 chaînes de télévision en France pendant un an (2014). J'estime tout d'abord la demande des téléspectateurs et des annonceurs, ce qui me permet de tenir compte de la nature biface du marché dans la spécification de la décision stratégique des chaînes. J'identifie les «prix fictifs» de la régulation à partir des contraintes observées. Enfin, j’ai mené deux simulations contrefactuelles pour calibrer les effets de la régulation. Mes résultats suggèrent que la régulation protège le bien-être des téléspectateurs, alors que son impact sur le profit de l'industrie peut être positif ou négatif, en fonction du niveau de concentration du marché. Compte tenu de la structure du marché biface de cette industrie, la régulation par plafonnement n'est pas nécessaire si le marché reste concurrentiel. Cependant, quand le marché se concentre, la régulation peut augmenter jusqu'à 5,75% du surplus des consommateurs, mais diminuer jusqu'à 4,8% du profit de l'industrie. (...)
The first chapter of the thesis studies the advertising competition on the French broadcast TV market. We use a unique dataset on the French broadcast television market including audience, prices, and quantities of advertising of twenty-one TV channels from March 2008 to December 2013. We specify a structural model of oligopoly competition and identify the shape and magnitude of the feedback loop between TV viewers and advertisers. We also implement a simple procedure to identify the conduct of firms on the market. We find that the nature of competition in the French TV advertising market is of the Cournot type. Further, we provide empirical evidence that the price-cost margin is not a good indicator of the market power of firms operating on two-sided markets. In the second chapter, I use a theoretical model to analyze the competitive behavior of advertising financed media platforms. The platforms are specified to be horizontally differentiated and the market form is an oligopoly. The first major insight of the model is that the different platforms behave as strategic complements under Cournot competition. In particular, if a platform increases its quantity of advertising, it is optimal for its competitors to raise their respective advertising quantities as well. The model suggests that the merger of advertising sales houses of several platforms increases the advertising offers of all the competing platforms of the market (both the merged and unmerged), holding the quality of platforms unaffected. I further test the theoretical prediction with TV market data and model used in the first chapter, the empirical counterfactual simulation suggests same results as the theoretical model. Finally, in the last chapter, I investigate the welfare effect of the widespread policy of regulating advertising time on TV. The project exploits a novel dataset of per hour data on 12 broadcast TV channels in France during one year (2014). I first estimate the demand of TV viewers and of advertisers, which allows me to account for the two-sidedness of the market in the supply decision of TV stations. I show in this work how to identify the shadow prices of regulation when the regulatory constraints are observed. Finally, I conduct two counterfactual experiments to calibrate the welfare effects of the regulation. My results suggest that the regulation protects welfare of TV viewers, while its impact on the industry's profit can be either positive or negative, depending on the concentration level of the market. Given the two-sided market structure of the broadcast TV industry, regulating advertising time is unnecessary on a competitive market. However, when the market become concentrated, the regulation can improve up to 5.75% of consumer surplus, but decrease until 4.8% of the industry's profit. (...)

This book explores emergency politics of international organizations (IOs). It studies cases in which, based on justifications of exceptional necessity, IOs expand their authority, increase executive discretion, and interfere with the rights of their rule-addressees. This “IO exceptionalism” is observable in the crisis responses of a diverse set of institutions including the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the World Health Organization. Through six in-depth case studies, the book analyzes the institutional dynamics unfolding in the wake of the assumption of emergency powers by IOs. Sometimes, the exceptional competencies become normalized in the IOs’ authority structures (the “ratchet effect”). In other cases, IO emergency powers provoke a backlash that eventually reverses or contains the expansions of authority (the “rollback effect”). To explain these variable outcomes, the book draws on sociological institutionalism to develop a proportionality theory of IO emergency powers. It contends that ratchets and rollbacks are a function of actors’ ability to justify or contest emergency powers as (dis)proportionate. The claim that the distribution of rhetorical power is decisive for the institutional outcome is tested against alternative rational institutionalist explanations that focus on institutional design and the distribution of institutional power among states. The proportionality theory holds across the cases studied in this book and clearly outcompetes the alternative accounts. Against the background of the empirical analysis, the book moreover provides a critical normative reflection on the (anti) constitutional effects of IO exceptionalism and highlights a potential connection between authoritarian traits in global governance and the system’s current legitimacy crisis.

Before 9/11, the literature on terrorism and international organizations (IOs) was largely event driven. That is to say, the modest nature of the debate reflected a modest empirical record of IO engagement in responding to terrorism. Moreover, this period saw a correlation between the way states acted against terrorism through IOs and the nature of subsequent debates. Famously, states were (and remain) unable to agree on a definition of “terrorism,” precluding broad-based action through IOs. The findings presented in this literature were furthermore often quite bleak. The immediate post-9/11 period, however, was much more optimistic. This period saw an unprecedented increase in action against terrorism in IOs, primarily through the Security Council resolution 1373. Resolution 1373 elaborates a broad—and mandatory—agenda for counterterrorism cooperation. This resolution has had significant and ongoing consequences for the ways IOs are utilized in the effort to suppress terrorism. Furthermore, this and other IO engagements with terrorism brought about an increase in scholarly interest in the area, even giving rise to a sense of optimism in the literature. Thus, from the pre- to the post-9/11 period, there are elements of both continuity and change in the way scholars have discussed terrorism in the context of IOs.

How can international organizations (IOs) like the United Nations (UN) and their implementing partners be held accountable if their actions and policies violate fundamental human rights? Political scientists and legal scholars have shed a much-needed light on the limits of traditional accountability when it comes to complex global governance. However, conventional studies on IO accountability fail to systematically analyze a related, puzzling empirical trend: human rights violations that occur in the context of global governance do not go unnoticed altogether; they are investigated and sanctioned by independent third parties. This book puts forward the concept of pluralist accountability, whereby third parties hold IOs and their implementing partners accountable for human rights violations. We can expect pluralist accountability to evolve if a competitive environment stimulates third parties to enact accountability and if the implementing actors are vulnerable to human rights demands. Based on a comprehensive study of UN-mandated operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the European Union Troika’s austerity policy, and global public–private health partnerships in India, this book demonstrates how competition and human rights vulnerability shape the evolution of pluralist accountability in response to diverse human rights violations, such as human trafficking, the violation of the rights of detainees, economic rights, and the right to consent in clinical trials. While highlighting the importance of studying alternative accountability mechanisms, this book also argues that pluralist accountability should not be regarded as a panacea for IOs’ legitimacy problems, as it is often less legalized and might cause multiple accountability disorder.

AbstractThe concluding chapter resumes the arguments made in the introduction to this volume. It summarizes the empirical findings of the individual contributions and highlights prevailing cross-cutting issues and themes. It also depicts further and future avenues of research resulting from this volume. Overall, it becomes evident that International organizations (IOs) have been part of the architecture of arguments in global social governance for a long time. They have been populating diverse social fields in which they more often cooperate or coexist in issue-related or individual regional niches than contest each other. However, they often share a field with other actors, too. IOs have also proven strong in exercising soft governance as the broadcasters of new ideas. Thus, they have cognitive authority over their specific field. However, birth characteristics, such as membership rules or the design of decision-taking, as well as path-dependencies influence IO activities and discourses.

This chapter gives an empirically based account of leadership of teamwork in Integrated Operations settings, or “IO teamwork” as it is termed here. First, a brief presentation of the characteristics of IO teamwork and its leadership is provided. Then follows an overview of relevant theoretical perspectives to the study of team leadership in IO settings. Next, central challenges regarding leadership of IO teamwork are discussed, and empirical examples of how leaders of IO teams go about managing these challenges are provided. Finally, directions for future research in this area are given.

This chapter discusses information overload (IO) from a team level perspective. Organizational team research underlines the importance of emergent knowledge structures in work groups, so-called team cognition. Two types of team cognition are introduced that are closely related to IO, namely shared team mental models and transactive memory systems. After a brief introduction of the concepts, empirical evidence about the impact of team cognition on dysfunctional IO as well as functional information exchange are presented. In the second part of the chapter, strategies and tools for adapting team cognition in high IO situations are introduced. The focus on team level constructs in IO research complements individual, technical, and organizational approaches to IO by underlining the importance of team knowledge structures in social systems.

This chapter presents the core analysis of competition in the banking sector based on the industrial organization (IO) approach. It examines both theoretical and empirical aspects as well as at the special problems in analyzing the sector. This includes studying pricing, product differentiation, frictions, network externalities and two-sided markets, market structure, and mergers. The validity of the Structure–Conduct–Performance paradigm for banking is tested and the contributions of the new empirical IO is explained. The effects of asymmetric information and deregulation are also discussed. The chapter concludes with an assessment of behavioral biases of consumers and investors, along with their effects on the strategies of banks, competition, and welfare.

Abstract Chapter 5 asks whether structural control over the resources of international organizations’ (IOs) evaluation units—as observed in Chapter 4—yields observable consequences regarding their behavior. Drawing on principal–agent theory, the chapter theorizes how stakeholder control may affect evaluation units’ orientation to either member states or IO administrations. The empirical analysis, which is based on interviews with the heads of IO evaluation units, shows that these entities do have strong perceptions as to which stakeholders they prioritize as key evaluation users and sponsors. This varies systematically with stakeholder control, implying that evaluation units—despite their formal independence—informally lean toward that stakeholder which controls more evaluation system resources. These findings imply anticipatory obedience in the orientation of IO evaluation units and constitute an important part of the puzzle of evaluation politics.

This chapter develops the concept of intervention by IOs and situates the book’s contribution to the study of regime complexes and theories of IOs as actors. I provide an expanded definition of IO intervention and specify the conditions under which IOs are most likely to intervene at an overlapping organization. I explain each of the four intervention strategies (mobilizing states, public shaming, invoking alternative legal frameworks, and taking sides) that are subsequently analyzed in the empirical chapters. I detail how the impacts of intervention by IOs are evaluated in this study by assessing their influence on the discourse, agenda, and outcomes of decision-making at the targeted IO.

This introductory chapter highlights why pluralist accountability is an important empirical phenomenon in global governance that needs to be studied systematically. It demonstrates the limits of the existing literature on international organization (IO) accountability, which has focused on traditional, vertical accountability, whereby the implementing actors are held accountable directly by the mandating authority. The chapter introduces the concept of pluralist accountability as standard setting, monitoring, and sanctioning by independent third parties. It presents the argument that a competitive environment that stimulates third parties to act as accountability holders and the vulnerability of implementing actors regarding human rights demands shape the evolution of pluralist accountability. The chapter then outlines the implications of the book’s analysis for current International Relations and international law scholarship on IOs, in particular with regard to complex delegation, the role of nonstate actors and the study of IO legitimacy. It also contains an overview of the subsequent chapters.

Abstract This chapter summarizes the main findings of the book and introduces its conceptual framework, empirical strategy, and overall structure. It also discusses the implications of the book’s findings on evaluation research and practice as the book advances our knowledge about the evaluation’s role in international organizations’ (IOs’) policymaking. The book shows that evaluation is indeed used for political purposes in IOs, yet by changing the institutional architecture of evaluation systems, stakeholders can control the nature of such politics. Also, the chapter situates the book in the broader literature on IOs and global governance as its findings unveil how power dynamics between IO member states and their secretariats affect the functioning of IOs.

Chapter 10 is an outlook to the ongoing reform of United Nations budgeting introduced by the new Secretary General António Guterres, in light of the theoretical and conceptual discussions as well as the empirical findings presented throughout the book. It shows how the theoretical dynamics and main topics identified throughout this book, and in particular in Chapter 5, affect reform discussions and reform dynamics. Whereas some reform is taking place, principal and agency complexity prevent a major overhaul of the system as the fragmentation of the UN system is hard to overcome, and because key member states or groups of member states are bound to lose influence, even if only over a few elements of micromanagement that have become part of the pathological budgeting dynamics in New York—a pathology that is much less driven by IO bureaucracy and much more by states and their complex, historically shaped interests.

Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) has been a common package technology to achieve higher Input/Output (IO) count. In moving toward higher IO count without increasing the package size, FCBGA package with tighter pitch is required. Unfortunately, ball pitch reduction from 1.27mm to 1mm in FCBGA packages is not a transparent change. Instead, it provides an inside into the thermo-mechanical performance of FCBGA solder joint. Previous study indicated the importance of the package solder resist opening-to-board pad size ratio (AR) as the dominant factor in improving the thermo-mechanical performance of the solder joint at one solder system. An optimum range of AR had been defined as failure free zone with respect to the temperature cycling stress from −40degC to 85degC. This paper is a continued study, which focused on identifying the optimum range of AR for failure free zone. Key factors under the study are package solder resist opening (SRO), die size, population pattern, type of board pad, type of package design and thermal solution. This paper consolidates the modeling and empirical data on the relationship. The results of the study has brought towards an identification of process window for 1mm pitch FCBGA package and led to package and board design rules in terms of targeted SRO & board pad size, type of pad design and a tightening of SRO & board pad size specification. Besides, the learning has led towards a new look into the BGA package certification in which SRO and board pad size are key factors in the design consideration.

This paper compares and demonstrates the efficacy of implementing two practical Single Input Single Output (SISO) multi-loop control schemes on the dynamic performance of selected signals of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Gas Turbine (SOFC-GT) hybrid simulation facility. The hybrid plant, located at the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Morgantown WV, is capable of simulating the interaction between a 350kW SOFC and a 120kW GT using a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) configuration. Previous studies have shown that the thermal management of coal based SOFC-GT hybrid systems is accomplished by the careful control of the cathode air stream within the fuel cell (FC). A decoupled centralized and dynamic de-centralized control scheme is tested for one critical airflow bypass loop to regulate cathode FC airflow and modulation of turbine electric load to maintain synchronous turbine speed during system transients. Improvements to the studied multivariate architectures include: feed-forward (FF) control for disturbance rejection, anti-windup (AW) compensation for actuator saturation, gain scheduling for adaptive operation, bumpless transfer (BT) for manual to auto switching, and adequate filter design for the inclusion of derivative action. Controller gain tuning is accomplished by Skogestad’s Internal Model Control (SIMC) tuning rules derived from empirical First Order Plus Delay Time (FOPDT) Transfer Function {TF} models of the hybrid facility. Avoidance of strong Input-Output (IO) coupling interactions is achieved via Relative Gain Array (RGA), Niederlinski Index (NI), and Decomposed Relative Interaction Analysis (DRIA), following recent methodologies in PID control theory for multivariable processes.

Abstract Generally, in water injection systems, oxygen levels starting from around eight ppm are deoxygenated to below 50 ppm, following international standards' guidelines. This work aims to discuss the impact of such a magnitude value of oxygen contamination on steel corrosion in seawater injection systems by analysing theoretical polarisation curves and results from published works with different approaches. Corrosion models consider mass-transfer controlled diffusion of oxygen to predict the maximum steel corrosion rate, which depends on the oxygen limiting current, which in turn is strongly influenced by flow velocity. The effect of free chlorine on corrosion in seawater injection systems has also been considered and included in an oxygen equivalent parameter. In such systems, where oxygen reduction is the key cathodic reaction, the corrosion process may be under cathodic activation control, independent of flow at higher velocities or when erosion-corrosion begins. In this work, theoretical polarisation curves were constructed by using published oxygen and chlorine cathodic limiting currents (iLc) on carbon steel and a noble metal electrode, respectively. Aerated (200 ppb and 9000 ppb of oxygen) and deaerated conditions (50 ppb of oxygen) and the presence of 300 ppb of chlorine were applied to the assumed exchange current densities (io). Neutral (pH 7) and acid (pH 4) conditions (considering the presence of CO2) were also assumed to be at room temperature and pressure. Since the corrosion rate in lower oxygen concentrations (ppb order of magnitude) may result in corrosion rates of the same order of magnitude than in higher oxygen concentrations (ppm order of magnitude) when comparing and analysing results from experimental, semi-empirical or mechanistic approaches, it is necessary to weigh up the effects of both steel surface (bare or scaled/corrosion products) and flow. At oxygen concentrations below 200 ppb and under acid conditions, the contribution of H+ reduction on corrosion rate starts to be higher than oxygen reduction, mainly in the absence of chlorine.