Country survey XI: Defence and the Israeli economy

The literature on economic aspects of defence in Israel is critically reviewed by subject: measuring the defence burden, the determinants of defence spending, the effects of defence spending on the economy, and the military‐industrial complex. An overview of the Israeli economy is provided, and some new econometric findings on the determinants of defence spending are presented. The paper concludes by addressing policy issues in the context of Israel's jubilee.     

THE CASE FOR DEFENCE

What is the case for defence and is it a worthwhile investment? This question is addressed for two contrasting nations, namely, the UK and New Zealand. Economists have a set of standard analytical tools for addressing the question but they are difficult to operationalise. This paper provides policy‐relevant answers.     

A critique of Paul Collier's ‘greed and grievance’ thesis of civil war

Paul Collier has produced a well-written and apparently plausible thesis on ‘greed and grievance’, evidenced in several published texts, which concludes unambiguously that greed, not grievance, is overwhelmingly the cause of conflict. However, Collier has based these findings upon narrowly defined quantitative measures–three defined indices of greed and four indices of grievance. Collier consciously omitted indices which he found difficult to measure, such as suppliers of armaments and opportunities for bureaucratic corruption. However, he appears to have unwittingly omitted some further factors, including governance, management mechanisms for natural resources and the influence that charismatic leadership can have on rebel groups. These omissions can be viewed as a major flaw in Collier's work. They also explain why Collier has diagnosed that civil wars are more likely to occur in some countries in the developing world without offering adequate explanation of why this may be so.     

Democracy and peace: Reply to oneal and russett

The criticism of James, Solberg and Wolfson (JSW) (1999) by Oneal and Russett (OR) is not responsive to the methodologica] issues at stake. JSW argued that war is an endogenous feature of the world political and economic system. If its causes are to be measured, it must be as a structural equation in a simultaneous system. Wedded to the idea that “democracies never fight each other,” OR rely on a single equation to justify their view. JSW claim that such an equation may be an ad hoc reduced form with no causal implications unless the equation is explicitly identified as a structural equation. JSW expand the model to explain democracy and conflict as two endogenous variables. JSW do not claim to have discovered the true relationships between these variables by their minimal expansion of the structural relation. They do show that unless these (and other) variables are treated as part of a system, the results are unstable, contradictory, of minimal size and not a reliable guide to public policy.     

模同态广义逆的一些结果

设(U)为结合环(含单位元1),M为左(U)-模.本文考察模同态的广义逆,并用模同态的正则逆对模进行了分类,我们分别给出了直内射模,不可分解模及强不可分解模的充分必要条件.     

基于差分法的二阶微分方程的模糊边值问题

本文讨论二阶微分方程的两点边值具有模糊不确定性时 ,运用模糊仿真原理和差分方法 ,求其边值问题的数值解法。     

最大避障圆问题的提出与初探

提出了一个在有界区域内求对已知各障碍物的最大避障圆问题。首先给出此问题的数学描述,然后分析了当有界区域为圆域,并将各障碍物看成一个有限点集时,避障圆的基本性质,从而得到一种求最大避障圆的有效算法。     

快速解命中的一种有效方法

基于对命中函数的考察,提出了一种新的命中解解算方法,实际应用及仿真计算结果表明,该方法能明显提高解算精度和缩短迭代时间。     

两种选址问题的算法及有关结论

本文提出两种选址问题,对其局部最优性建立了充要条件,并在此基础上提出了该类问题的有效算法。     

互补问题中无SLC限制的内点算法

针对互补问题提出了一种无SLC限制的内点算法,仅要求线性函数F(x)=Hx q中的F是一个P*(τ)函数,不需要满足范数Lipschitz条件.并对该算法的全局收敛性做了证明。