270 research outputs found
Monetary policy stabilization in a new Keynesian model under climate change
No full textWe address the question of whether monetary policy is affected by the detrimental impact of
climate change on an economy’s productivity and, if so, whether policymakers should take it into
account when designing policies to stabilize the business cycle. To do this, we develop a new
Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of a closed economy which incorporates
a climate module that interacts with the economy. In this framework, monetary authorities choose
the nominal interest rate on government bonds. The model is solved numerically using parameter
values calibrated to the US economy. Our results, which are robust to both extensions and a large
number of sensitivity checks, suggest non-trivial implications for the design of optimal monetary
policy irrespectively of whether the shocks hitting the economy are standard economic shocks,
climate shocks, or shocks to the price of energy
Competition Policy in Network Industries: An Introduction
No full textThe author discusses issues of the application of antitrust law and regulatory rules to network industries. In assessing the application of antitrust in network industries, we analyze a number of relevant features of network industries and the way in which antitrust law and regulatory rules can affect them. These relevant features include (among others) network effects, market structure, market share and profits inequality, choice of technical standards, relationship between the number of active firms and social benefits, existence of market power, leveraging of market power in complementary markets, and innovation races. The author finds that there are often significant differences on the effects of application of antitrust law in network and non-network industries.
Temporal learning analytics visualizations for increasing awareness during assessment
No full textLes representacions visuals de dades de traces generades per l’alumnat durant les activitats d’aprenentatge ajuden tant els estudiants com els professors a interpretar-les intuïtivament i a percebre’n amb rapidesa aspectes amagats. En aquest treball descrivim la visualització de dades de traces temporals durant el procés d’avaluació. L’estudi tenia un doble objectiu: a) descriure la implicació dels estudiants en el procés d’avaluació pel que fa a temps esmerçat i factors temporals associats amb característiques concretes de l’aprenentatge, i b) explorar els factors que influeixen en la intenció comportamental del professorat quant a emprar el sistema proposat com a sistema d’informació i les seves percepcions de l’efectivitat i l’acceptació del nostre enfocament. Les visualitzacions proposades s’han examinat en un estudi amb 32 professors d’ensenyament secundari. Vàrem adoptar una metodologia de recerca basada en el disseny i vàrem utilitzar un instrument d’enquesta –basada en el model d’acceptació de l’anàlisi de l’aprenentatge– per mesurar l’impacte esperat de les visualitzacions proposades. L’anàlisi de les troballes indica que a) els factors temporals es poden utilitzar per visualitzar el comportament dels estudiants durant l’avaluació, i b) la visualització de la dimensió temporal del comportament dels estudiants augmenta el coneixement del professor pel que fa al progrés dels alumnes, a possibles conceptes erronis (per exemple, endevinar la resposta correcta) i a les dificultats de la tasca.Visual representations of student-generated trace data during learning activities help both students and instructors interpret them intuitively and perceive hidden aspects of these data quickly. In this paper, we elaborate on the visualization of temporal trace data during assessment. The goals of the study were twofold: a) to depict students’ engagement in the assessment procedure in terms of time spent and temporal factors associated with learning-specific characteristics, and b) to explore the factors that influence the teachers’ Behavioural Intention to use the proposed system as an information system and their perceptions of the effectiveness and acceptance of our approach. The proposed visualizations have been explored in a study with 32 Secondary Education teachers. We adopted a design-based research methodology and employed a survey instrument – based on the Learning Analytics Acceptance Model (LAAM) – in order to measure the expected impact of the proposed visualizations. The analysis of the findings indicates that a) temporal factors can be used for visualizing students’ behaviour during assessment, and b) the visualization of the temporal dimension of students’ behaviour increases teachers’ awareness of students’ progress, possible misconceptions (e.g., guessing the correct answer) and task difficulty. Las representaciones visuales de datos de trazas generados por el alumnado durante las actividades de aprendizaje ayudan tanto a los estudiantes como a los profesores a interpretarlos intuitivamente y a percibir con rapidez aspectos ocultos. En este trabajo, describimos la visualización de datos de trazas temporales durante la evaluación. El estudio tenía un doble objetivo: a) describir la implicación de los estudiantes en el proceso de evaluación en cuanto a tiempo invertido y factores temporales asociados con características concretas del aprendizaje, y b) explorar los factores que influyen en la intención comportamental del profesorado en cuanto a emplear el sistema propuesto como sistema de información y sus percepciones de la efectividad y la aceptación de nuestro enfoque. Las visualizaciones propuestas se han examinado en un estudio con 32 profesores de educación secundaria. Adoptamos una metodología de investigación basada en el diseño y utilizamos un instrumento de encuesta –basada en el modelo de aceptación del análisis del aprendizaje– para medir el impacto esperado de las visualizaciones propuestas. El análisis de los hallazgos indica que a) los factores temporales se pueden utilizar para visualizar el comportamiento de los estudiantes durante la evaluación, y b) la visualización de la dimensión temporal del comportamiento de los estudiantes aumenta el conocimiento del profesor respecto al progreso de los alumnos, posibles conceptos erróneos (por ejemplo, adivinar la respuesta correcta) y dificultad de la tarea.
The Economics of the Internet Backbone
No full textThis paper discusses the economics of the Internet backbone. The author discusses competition on the Internet backbone as well as relevant competition policy issues. In particular, he shows how public protocols, ease of entry, very fast network expansion, connections by the same Internet Service Provider ('ISP') to multiple backbones (ISP multi-homing), and connections by the same large web site to multiple ISPs (customer multi-homing) enhance price competition and make it very unlikely that any firm providing Internet backbone connectivity would find it profitable to degrade or sever interconnection with other backbones in an attempt to monopolize the Internet backbone.Technology and Industry, Regulatory Reform
What's the fracking fuss all about?
No full textThis public forum, held by the Brisbane Institute, examined the energy and fuel options for Queensland.
What’s the most accurate picture available for peak oil? What are the alternatives? What are the risks and costs for Queensland in NOT developing alternative fuel resources? And what opportunities and rewards are waiting for us – economically, socially and environmentally – if we’re clever enough to grasp them?
Leading this public forum was one of the most instantly recognisable names in the petroleum and chemical engineering professions and the energy industry, Dr Michael Economides, co-author of bestselling book, The Colour of Oil and editor-in-chief of Energy Tribune, along with Wally Wight from the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, Adam Stone from the Queensland Greens, AgForce’s Drew Wagner, Pearce Bowman from QER, and Sustainable Minerals Institute director Dr Chris Moran.
Image: Erland Howden / flick
Enhanced Retention of Historical Information with Empathetic Pedagogical Conversational Agents (PCAs)
No full textEmbodied learning using extended reality (XR) technology can enhance learning and satisfaction during field trips to historical sites. This study evaluates the impact of Empathetic Pedagogical Conversational Agents (PCAs) on historical information retention within a simulated XR environment. PCAs employ verbal and nonverbal behaviors to attract attention, with variations in humorous versus serious tones. These behaviors can evoke emotions that motivate learning and influence cognitive processes. The study used facial expressions and eye tracking to measure the impact on the retention of historical information, comparing attention-grabbing PCAs (AG-PCA) with non-attention-grabbing PCAs (NAG-PCA). Results show that AG-PCAs triggered curiosity and positive emotions, but also some dislike, leading to better retention of historical information among NAG-PCAs, particularly among female participants. The study concludes with recommendations for designing PCAs and multimodal content to enhance historical information retention and learner satisfaction
How consumers are affected by TikTok Influencers’ perceived traits, and how these traits are linked to consumers’ purchase intentions
No full textΠτυχιακή εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2025.Η βιβλιοθήκη διαθέτει αντίτυπο της πτυχιακής μόνο σε ηλεκτρονική μορφή.Social media influencers have increasingly become a focal point of investigation in digital marketing
research, as they are recognized as influential tools for shaping consumer behaviors. This paper sought
to address how TikTok, a rapidly growing social media platform, that academic research has not explored
thoroughly, has impacted the perceived traits and image of these influencers. More precisely, this study
investigates how influencer’s characteristics and psychological-related influential factors impact
purchase intentions of consumers. This study seeks to investigate how attitude homophily along the
perceived fit quality between a product and influencer, foster parasocial interactions and shape
perceived source credibility. In turn, it investigates how these factors impact consumer purchasing
intentions. The research was conducted in June 2024 and involves 318 participants that reside in Greece.
Data were collected through the distributions of a self-administered questionnaire. The analysis was
conducted in SPSS, for demographic data analysis, and R for Partial Least Squares Structural Equation
Modeling (PLS-SEM).
Results indicated that attitude homophily and product-influencer fit positively affected both perceived
credibility and parasocial relationship. Moreover, credibility and PSR both translated into a positive
consumer purchase intention. Attitude homophily and product-influencer fit had indirect effects on
purchase intention only when mediated by parasocial relationship. Understanding the dynamics the
findings revealed, are beneficial for content creators, marketers and brands to enhance their digital
marketing strategies and comprehend consumer behavior in TikTok
Game Theoretic Path Selection to Support Security in Device-to-Device Communications
No full textDevice-to-Device (D2D) communication is expected to be a key feature supported by 5G networks, especially due to the proliferation of Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), which has a prominent role in reducing network stress by shifting computational tasks from the Internet to the mobile edge. Apart from being part of MEC, D2D can extend cellular coverage allowing users to communicate directly when telecommunication infrastructure is highly congested or absent. This significant departure from the typical cellular paradigm imposes the need for decentralised network routing protocols. Moreover, enhanced capabilities of mobile devices and D2D networking will likely result in proliferation of new malware types and epidemics. Although the literature is rich in terms of D2D routing protocols that enhance quality-of-service and energy consumption, they provide only basic security support, e.g., in the form of encryption. Routing decisions can, however, contribute to collaborative detection of mobile malware by leveraging different kinds of anti-malware software installed on mobile devices. Benefiting from the cooperative nature of D2D communications, devices can rely on each others’ contributions to detect malware. The impact of our work is geared towards having more malware-free D2D networks. To achieve this, we designed and implemented a novel routing protocol for D2D communications that optimises routing decisions for explicitly improving malware detection. The protocol identifies optimal network paths, in terms of malware mitigation and energy spent for malware detection, based on agame theoretic model. Diverse capabilities of network devices running different types of anti-malware software and their potential for inspecting messages relayed towards an intended destination device are leveraged using game theoretic tools. An optimality analysis of both Nash and Stackelberg security games is undertaken, including both zero and non-zero sum variants, and the Defender’s equilibrium strategies. By undertaking network simulations, theoretical results obtained are illustrated through randomly generated network scenarios showing how our protocol outperforms conventional routing protocols, in terms of expected payoff, which consists of:security damage inflicted by malwareandmalware detection cost
Creative teams: an educational intervention to develop creativity with the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs)
No full textΔιπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2017.Over the past decades, many researchers have proposed various methods for creativity enhancement. However, most of these methods focused on children and adolescents. In the present study an original creativity enhancement intervention was constructed and implemented in an Information Systems course with participants students. The game-like, challenging, web-based and team-structured intervention suggests generation of open essay questions by students as main creativity enhancement method. Also, we investigated how personality traits and tendencies of the members and the leader, combined and incorporated into the ‘team personality’, influence teamwork and the creative product. Creativity was measured with pre-post Divergent Thinking tests and evaluation of products with the Consensual Assessment Technique. Personality was assessed with the International Personality Item Pool questionnaire. Additional data were collected with demographic and evaluation questionnaires. Results show that the intervention was effective in stimulating creativity. Also, statistical analysis indicates a negative link between neuroticism and elaboration, and a positive correlation between originality measured by tests and creativity dimensions of the product. Findings also revealed a negative link between extraversion and the creative product, and teams with more sociable, risky and independent members to exhibit less creative productivity. Leaders scored higher on openness to experience and lower on neuroticism, compared to other team members. Also, leaders’ extraversion was positively linked to agreeableness and negatively to the team’s creative outcome. Team personality elevation of extraversion and diversity of agreeableness predicted significantly the value of the creative product. We discuss implications and offer suggestions for future research
The role of augmented reality in tourism sector: Mobile AR app for cultural heritage monuments
No full textΠτυχιακή εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2023.Η βιβλιοθήκη διαθέτει αντίτυπο της πτυχιακής μόνο σε ηλεκτρονική μορφή.The increased usage of mobile phones and continuous access to internet has influenced, among other things, the travel habits of the modern human, increasing his knowledge and demand. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, it is imperative that tourism sector businesses and organizations incorporate new technologies. One such technology is that of augmented reality (AR). This research intends to investigate the impact of AR applications on the visitor experience of cultural heritage sites and the willingness to pay for such a service. This is sought to be achieved through the research strategy of Case Study for Culture App, an augmented and virtual reality travel app for tour guides and cultural travelers. Specifically, the research is based on the showcase of Culture App for Olympieia monument in Greece and people’s observations after watching related material. Data collection was achieved through questionnaires and a total of 236 observations was gathered. The study finds out that the more familiar with technology a user is, the more useful he finds an AR app and the more important interest he develops for the monument. This leads to him being also more encouraged to visit a monument that has such an app available, compared to a monument that has not. Willingness to pay was not found correlated with any of the variables leading to doubts about the accuracy of the answers in this field or even thoughts about the use of the app as a way to attract more visitors and not a direct source of revenue. By analyzing participants’ answers to open-ended questions, a positive impression of the app was indicated, while the disadvantages and suggestions about further functionalities that participants suggested, unfold new opportunities for further improved designs of AR applications in tourism sector
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