Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

We remember Thomas Edison as the inventor of the incandescent light bulb, but he deserves credit for something much larger, an even more singular invention that profoundly changed the way the world works: the modern electric utility industry. Edison's light bulb was the first to work within a system where a utility generated electricity and distributed it to customers for lighting. The story of how electric utilities went within one generation from prototype to an indispensable part of most Americans' lives is a story about the relationships between political and technological change. John L. Neufeld offers a comprehensive historical treatment of the economics that shaped electric utilities. Compared with most industries, the organization of the electric utility industry is not-and cannot be-economically efficient. Most industries are kept by law in a state of fair competition, but the capital necessary to start an electric company-generators, transmission and distribution systems, and land and buildings-is so substantial that few companies can enter the market and compete. Therefore, the natural state of the electric utility industry since its inception has been a monopoly subject to government oversight. These characteristics of electric utilities-and electricity's importance-have created over time sharp political controversies, and changing public policies have dramatically changed the industry's structure to an extent matched by few other industries. Neufeld outlines the struggles that shaped the industry's development, and shows how the experience of electric utilities provides insight into the design of economic institutions, including today's new large-scale markets.

Electric utilities --- History. --- National Electric Light Association. --- business history. --- economic policy. --- electric utilities. --- government ownership. --- history. --- incentive alignment. --- industrial policy. --- industry structure. --- peak load. --- transaction-specific assets. --- unintended consequences.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This open access book focuses on a particular but significant topic in the social sciences: the concepts of “footprint” and “trace”. It associates these concepts with hotly debated topics such as surveillance capitalism and knowledge society. The editors and authors discuss the concept footprints and traces as unintended by-products of other (differently focused and oriented) actions that remain empirically imprinted in virtual and real spaces. The volume therefore opens new scenarios for social theory and applied social research in asking what the stakes, risks and potential of this approach are. It systematically raises and addresses these questions within a consistent framework, bringing together a heterogeneous group of international social scientists. Given the multifaceted objectives involved in exploring footprints and traces, the volume discusses heuristic aspects and ethical dimensions, scientific analyses and political considerations, empirical perspectives and theoretical foundations. At the same time, it brings together perspectives from cultural analysis and social theory, communication and Internet studies, big-data informed research and computational social science. This innovative volume is of interest to a broad interdisciplinary readership: sociologists, communication researchers, Internet scholars, anthropologists, cognitive and behavioral scientists, historians, and epistemologists, among others.

Knowledge, Sociology of. --- Internet—Social aspects. --- Social sciences—Philosophy. --- Ethnology. --- Communication. --- Knowledge, Theory of. --- Sociology of Knowledge and Discourse. --- Internet Studies. --- Social Theory. --- Sociocultural Anthropology. --- Media and Communication. --- Epistemology. --- Traces and Footprints --- Algorithms and Social Research --- Knowledge Capitalism --- Digital Traces --- Social Theory --- Trace-like Information --- Interactional Clues --- Data Exhaust --- Social Media Communication --- Unintended Consequences --- Internet --- Social sciences --- Social aspects. --- Philosophy.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This paper solves and estimates a stochastic model of optimal inter-temporal behavior to assess how changes in the design of the unemployment benefits and pension systems in Brazil could affect savings rates, the share of time that individuals spend outside of the formal sector, and retirement decisions. Dynamics depend on five main parameters: preferences regarding consumption and leisure, preferences regarding formal Vs. informal work, attitudes towards risks, the rate of time preference, and the distribution of an exogenous shock that affects movements in and out of the social security system (given individual decisions). The yearly household survey is used to create a pseudo panel by age-cohorts and estimate the joint distribution of model parameters based on a generalized version of the Gibbs sampler. The model does a good job in replicating the distribution of the members of a given cohort across states (in or out of the social security / active or retired). Because the parameters are related to individual preferences or exogenous shocks, the joint distribution is unlikely to change when the social insurance system changes. Thus, the model is used to explore how alternative policy interventions could affect behaviors and through this channel benefit levels and fiscal costs. The results from various simulations provide three main insights: (i) the Brazilian SI system today might generate distortions (lower savings rates and less formal employment) that increase the costs of the system and might generate regressive redistribution; (ii) there are important interactions between the unemployment benefits and pension systems, which calls for joint policy analysis when considering reforms; and (iii) current distortions could be reduced by creating an actuarial link between contributions and benefits and then combining matching contributions and anti-poverty targeted transfers to cover individuals with limited or no savings capacity.

Access to Finance --- Compensation and Benefits --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Employment levels --- Exogenous shock --- Exogenous shocks --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Gender --- Gender and Law --- Household survey --- Informal sector --- Jobs --- Labor demand --- Labor force --- Labor market --- Labor Markets --- Labor Policies --- Labor supply --- Law and Development --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Pensions and Retirement Systems --- Private sector --- Private Sector Development --- Private sector workers --- Program costs --- Retirement --- Social Protections and Labor --- Unemployment --- Unemployment benefits --- Unemployment insurance --- Unemployment insurance system --- Unemployment spell --- Unintended consequences --- Wages --- Youth and Government

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

"Plagues upon the Earth is a history of human civilization and the germs that have shaped its course. At every stage in our species' past, micro-organisms have had macro-effects on the development of human societies. Kyle Harper proposes the first history of human disease to make full use of a radical new source of evidence: pathogen genomes as a biological archive and window into prehistoric times. We can now begin to reconstruct the natural history of human disease at the molecular level, tracing the biographies of the viruses, bacteria, and protozoa that have haunted our species. The story reveals, Harper will show, the continuing importance of the deep past in determining the patterns of global divergence today. Plagues upon the Earth puts the dynamic two-way relationship between humanity and its germs in the foreground. The takeover and transformation of the planet by Homo sapiens has been the most powerful force shaping the evolution of microbial pathogens, and in turn, pathog en evolution has been a decisive influence on the destiny of human societies. From humanity's dispersal out of Africa to the rise of agriculture and complex civilizations, from the great pandemics of the medieval world to the age of global expansion and industrialization, from the modern increase in life expectancy to the ongoing threats of microbial resistance and emerging pathogens like HIV and Ebola, disease evolution has been and remains a primary, powerful, and unpredictable factor in human history. This will be the story of how we made our germs, and how our germs made the world as we know it. Harper aims to cover the entire timespan of Homo sapiens and to set the history of our species in deep perspective. The pathogens that exist today are the heirs of millions of years of evolution. Similarly, the patterns of economic development, and the roots of global inequality, have distant origins. Thus, Harper aims to bring together two bodies of literature: the history of disease and t he study of geography and social development. The book is global in coverage, insisting on the importance of understanding how the tropics and temperate zones, the Old World and the New World, differ and interact throughout the course of history. Viruses, bacteria, and protozoa - in all their peculiarity and specificity - have played an enormous part in shaping the different outcomes experienced by human societies. Plagues upon the Earth combines biology, geography, and economics to understand these differences but emphasizes the central importance of evolution as a source of constant change. The past is always present in the history of disease, and the future is always unpredictable. The story continues right up to our own world. The book closes with a reflection on antibiotic resistance as a form of evolution that continues the ancient molecular antagonism between pathogens and host immune systems, and the importance of seeing this struggle in a broader environmental framework. Freed om from infectious disease remains an unachieved goal for our species, which is more interconnected than ever. The biology of infectious disease has been one of the great forces shaping the patterns of global development, but only with a sense of history - of the interplay of change, conjunction, and chance - can we begin to understand the intertwined story of human societies and their germs"-- "How pathogenic microbes have been an intimate part of human history from the beginning-and how our deadliest germs and biggest pandemics are the product of our success as a speciesPlagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity's uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. He shows that the story of disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and reveals the enduring effects of historical plagues all around us, in patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. He also tells the story of humanity's escape from infectious disease-a triumph that makes life as we know it possible, yet destabilizes the environment and fosters new diseases.Panoramic in scope, Plagues upon the Earth traces role of disease in the transition to farming, the spread of cities, the advance of transportation, and the stupendous increase in human numbers. Harper offers a new interpretation of humanity's path to control over infectious disease-one where rising evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence between societies. The book reminds us that human health is globally interdependent-and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself.Putting the COVID-19 pandemic in perspective, Plagues upon the Earth tells the story of how we got here as a species, and it may help us decide where we want to go"--

Epidemics --- Plague --- Diseases --- HISTORY / Social History --- MEDICAL / Infectious Diseases --- History. --- Human ecology. Social biology --- Biological anthropology. Palaeoanthropology --- History of human medicine --- World history --- Epidemics. --- Disease outbreaks --- Outbreaks of disease --- Pandemics --- Pestilences --- Communicable diseases --- Outbreaks --- Disease and lhistory. --- Diseases. --- Diseases and history. --- History and diseases --- History --- Influence on history --- HISTORY / Social History. --- MEDICAL / Infectious Diseases. --- Plague. --- Bubonic plague --- Yersinia infections --- Agriculture (Chinese mythology). --- Agriculture. --- Ancient DNA. --- Angus Deaton. --- Annoyance. --- Bacteria. --- Balance of nature. --- Big History. --- Biological agent. --- Bioterrorism. --- Bubonic plague. --- Cause of death. --- Cellulose. --- Chimpanzee. --- Cholera. --- Chronic condition. --- Chronology. --- Climate change. --- Consilience (book). --- Consilience. --- Countermeasure. --- Demography. --- Diarrhea. --- Disease burden. --- Disease ecology. --- Disease. --- Disinfectant. --- Domestication of the horse. --- Domestication. --- Dysentery. --- E. O. Wilson. --- Ecological niche. --- Ecology. --- Emergence. --- Endemic (epidemiology). --- Environmental protection. --- Epidemic. --- Fossil fuel. --- Fungus. --- Genome, Viral. --- Geography. --- Global catastrophic risk. --- Global health. --- Globalization. --- Health. --- Host (biology). --- Human pathogen. --- Hunter-gatherer. --- Infection. --- Influenza. --- Insect. --- Insecticide. --- Iron Age. --- Louis Pasteur. --- Lymph node. --- Malaria. --- Measles. --- Meat. --- Microorganism. --- Microparasite. --- Mortality rate. --- Negative feedback. --- Neolithic Revolution. --- Organism. --- Origin story. --- Pathogen. --- Phylogenetics. --- Physical geography. --- Plagues and Peoples. --- Poliomyelitis. --- Prevalence. --- Protozoa. --- Public health. --- Pus. --- RNA. --- Refrigeration. --- Reproduction. --- Risk. --- Root cause. --- Slavery. --- Smallpox. --- Sore throat. --- State formation. --- Steamship. --- Taxon. --- Technology. --- Thucydides. --- Toxin. --- Tuberculosis. --- Typhoid fever. --- Typhus. --- Unintended consequences. --- Urbanization. --- Vaccination. --- Vaccine. --- Vegetable. --- Vulnerability (computing). --- Vulnerability. --- Whole genome sequencing. --- Yellow fever.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The first comprehensive political history of the communist partyVanguard of the Revolution is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world. The communist party was a revolutionary idea long before its supporters came to power. In this book, A. James McAdams argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking into account the origins and evolution of this compelling idea. He shows how the leaders of parties in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and North Korea adapted the original ideas of revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to profoundly different social and cultural settings.Taking readers from the drafting of The Communist Manifesto in the 1840s to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, McAdams describes the decisive role played by individual rulers in the success of their respective parties-men like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Fidel Castro. He demonstrates how these personalities drew on vying conceptions of the party's functions to mesmerize their followers, mobilize their populations, and transform their societies. He also shows how many of these figures abused these ideas to justify incomprehensible acts of inhumanity. McAdams explains why communist parties lasted as long as they did, and why they either disappeared or ceased to be meaningful institutions by the close of the twentieth century.The first comprehensive political history of the communist party, Vanguard of the Revolution is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand world communism and the captivating idea that gave it life.

Communism --- History. --- Activism. --- Bolsheviks. --- Bourgeoisie. --- Capitalism. --- Central Committee. --- Chairman. --- Chiang Kai-shek. --- China. --- Class conflict. --- Collective leadership. --- Cominform. --- Communism. --- Communist International. --- Communist Party USA. --- Communist Party of China. --- Communist Party of Germany. --- Communist Party of the Russian Federation. --- Communist Party of the Soviet Union. --- Communist party. --- Communist state. --- Comrade. --- Counter-revolutionary. --- Criticism. --- Cultural Revolution. --- Czechoslovakia. --- Democracy. --- Democratic centralism. --- Deng Xiaoping. --- Despotism. --- Dictatorship of the proletariat. --- Dictatorship. --- Employment. --- Erich Honecker. --- Failed state. --- French Communist Party. --- Governance. --- Government. --- Grigory Zinoviev. --- Ideology. --- Imperialism. --- Institution. --- Insurrectionary anarchism. --- Joseph Stalin. --- Josip Broz Tito. --- Kuomintang. --- Labor unrest. --- Left-wing politics. --- Leninism. --- Leon Trotsky. --- Leonid Brezhnev. --- Liu Shaoqi. --- Majority. --- Manifesto. --- Mao Zedong. --- Maoism. --- Marxism. --- Marxism–Leninism. --- Mass mobilization. --- Mikhail Gorbachev. --- Nationalization. --- New Course. --- New Economic Policy. --- Nikita Khrushchev. --- Nikolai Bukharin. --- Paris Commune. --- Party discipline. --- Party leader. --- Politburo. --- Political party. --- Politician. --- Politics. --- Populism. --- Pretext. --- Proclamation. --- Proletarian revolution. --- Protest. --- Rebellion. --- Reformism. --- Regime. --- Representative democracy. --- Revolution. --- Revolutionary movement. --- Self-determination. --- Social democracy. --- Socialist state. --- Sovereignty. --- Soviet Union. --- Soviet people. --- Stalinism. --- Strike action. --- Supporter. --- The Communist Manifesto. --- Trade union. --- Unintended consequences. --- Vanguardism. --- Voting. --- War. --- Working class. --- Yugoslavia. --- Zhou Enlai.