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Elsevier

Books in Social sciences and humanities

  • Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change

    • 1st Edition
    • Ben G. Blount + 1 more
    • English
    Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change focuses on the influence of sociocultural terms on the forms of languages. The selection first underscores the sociocultural dimensions of language change and language evolution and speech style. Discussions focus on the relation of speech style and language evolution, linguistic evidence of language evolution, autonomy of code and style, language contact phenomena, and extension of the concept of language. The book then takes a look at speech and social prestige in the Belizian speech community; Japanese numeral classifiers; and speculations on the growth of ethnobotanical nomenclature. Topics include appearance of varietal names, differentiation and formation of specific names, six universal categories of ethnobotanical nomenclature, salience of speech, and prestige, social success, and language. The publication elaborates on color categorization in West Futunese; creolization and syntactic change in New Guinea Tok Pisin; relexification processes in Philippine Creole Spanish; and the historical and sociocultural aspects of the distribution of linguistic variants in highland Chiapas, Mexico. The selection is a valuable source of data for language experts and researchers interested in the sociocultural dimensions of language change.

  • Portfolio Theory

    With Application to Bank Asset Management
    • 1st Edition
    • Giorgio P. Szegö
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Portfolio Theory: With Application to Bank Asset Management provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of the management of bank assets and liabilities. This book presents the mean-variance approach to obtain many analytical results and a complete insight into the portfolio selection problem. Organized into 16 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the formalization of decision-making under uncertainty. This text then presents the construction and complete analysis of a Markowitz-type portfolio selection model. Other chapters consider the problems of portfolio selection in an inflationary or multicurrency environment. This book discusses as well an approximate technique for constructing a diagonal model at the cost of increasing by one the number of investments and the number of constraints. The final chapter deals with the study of the portfolio selection problem and to the analysis of the properties of the efficient set of the mean variance criterion. This book is a valuable resource for economists.

  • Alpacas, Sheep, and Men

    The Wool Export Economy and Regional Society in Southern Peru
    • 1st Edition
    • Benjamin S. Orlove
    • E. A. Hammel
    • English
    Alpacas, Sheep, and Men: The Wool Export Economy and Regional Society in Southern Peru investigates the response of the Sicuani region in southern Peru to the wool export economy and its consequent integration into the nation-state in the late nineteenth century. The book traces the economic and political conflicts engendered by the export economy, such as those between landlords and peasants in the countryside and landlords versus traders in town. It also examines how these conflicts shaped the metamorphosis of a closed, isolated, localized society into an open one and its incorporation into national politics as well as global economics. Comprised of 11 chapters, this book begins with a review of the theories of modernization and dependency, followed by a discussion on the development of the world market for wool and the component elements of the wool economy of the entire southern Peru. Subsequent chapters focus on the regional society in more detail, with emphasis on the concept of region and the economic activities of different sectors; variation in forms of land tenure and labor relations in two provinces; the relations among herders, peasants, and artisans; and regional politics. The three major groups of artisans and workers in the region who use wool are considered, namely, urban furriers, textile mill workers, and rural weavers. The book concludes with an analysis of the fundamental importance of the wool export economy in the Sicuani region using the sectorial model. This monograph should be of interest to students and anthropologists.

  • Migration and Economic Growth in the United States

    National, Regional, and Metropolitan Perspectives
    • 1st Edition
    • Michael J. Greenwood
    • Edwin S. Mills
    • English
    Migration and Economic Growth in the United States: National, Regional, and Metropolitan Perspectives describes the post-World-War-II behavior of selected variables that explains the evolution of urban size and composition in the United States. This book is organized into nine chapters. Chapter 1 provides a brief historical overview of the urbanization process in the United States. In Chapters 2 and 3, certain national forces that shape the spatial distribution of population and economic activity during the postwar period are deliberated. Chapters 4 and 5 elaborate the behavior of the central cities and suburban rings of 62 major metropolitan areas. A model of metropolitan growth is dealt with in Chapter 6, followed by an evaluation of estimates of the model from 1950 to 1970 in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 covers a model of intrametropolitan location of employment, housing, and labor force. The last chapter elaborates the employment policy implications of population redistribution in the United States. This publication is beneficial to economists and specialists concerned with migration and economic growth in the United States.

  • The Unity of the Senses

    Interrelations Among the Modalities
    • 1st Edition
    • Lawrence E. Marks
    • Edward C. Carterette + 1 more
    • English
    Academic Press Series in Cognition and Perception: The Unity of the Senses: Interrelations Among the Modalities focuses on the perceptual processes, approaches, and methodologies involved in studies on the unity of the senses. The publication first elaborates on the doctrines of equivalent information, analogous sensory attributes and qualities, and common psychophysical properties. Discussions focus on discrimination, sensitivity, sound symbolism, intensity, brightness, and cross-modal perception of size, form, and space. The text then examines the doctrine of neural correspondences and sound symbolism in poetry, including sound and meaning, analogue and formal representation, vowel symbolism in poetry, coding perceptual information, coding sensory attributes, and evolution and development. The manuscript takes a look at synesthetic metaphor in poetry, as well as unity of the senses and synesthetic metaphor, warm and cool colors, synesthetic metaphors of odor and music, metaphorical imperative, and the music of Conrad Aiken. The publication is a valuable source of data for researchers interested in the unity of the senses.

  • Methodology of Economics and Other Social Sciences

    • 1st Edition
    • Fritz Machlup
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Methodology of Economics and Other Social Sciences covers the problems in the methodological aspects of economics and other social science disciplines. This book is organized into seven parts encompassing 26 chapters. The first parts review the nature and significance of methodology of economics, along with the models and theories in the field. The succeeding parts deal with the verification problems, operational concepts, and interpretation of reality in economics. Other parts explore the methodological aspects of other social sciences. The last parts discuss some aspects and applications of economic methodologies. This book will be of value to economists, social scientists, and researchers.

  • Distributional Consequences of Direct Foreign Investment

    • 1st Edition
    • Robert H. Frank + 1 more
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Distributional Consequences of Direct Foreign Investment examines the net effect of direct foreign investment (DFI) on both U.S. employment demand in the short run and on the level and distribution of domestic income in the long run. Topics covered range from measurement of home-foreign substitution to the employment impact of DFI and the long-run distributional consequences of overseas investment. Short-run labor market adjustments to unemployment resulting from overseas production transfers are also discussed. Comprised of nine chapters, this volume begins with a survey of existing studies of the DFI phenomenon that critically evaluates the question of what firms would or could have done in the absence of a DFI alternative. The reader is then introduced to an alternative framework within which to estimate the degree of substitutability of home for foreign production. This framework consists of a microeconomic model of the multinational firm as it operates under two alternative policy regimes, one of which places no restrictions on the firm's activities and the second denies it the option of establishing a foreign production subsidiary. Input-output techniques, together with information on substitutability, are used to obtain estimates of the net employment impact of DFI. A probabilistic model of an industry labor market is also presented. In addition, the book analyzes the effect of technology transfer through licensing on the size and composition of domestic income. This monograph will be useful to practitioners who employ econometrics and mathematical economics.

  • Recent Trends in Social Learning Theory

    • 1st Edition
    • Ross D. Parke
    • English
    Recent Trends in Social Learning Theory offers a convenient overview of the state of social learning theory. This book is organized into six chapters. Chapter 1 provides a detailed discussion of the social learning theory, followed by an analysis of the theoretical views on the social reinforcement issue in Chapter 2. The contiguity theory of modeling and important role played by symbolic coding processes in imitation are described in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 elaborates the developmental analysis of imitation, while Chapter 5 outlines an empirical and theoretical overview of the status of punishment and its role in the development of self-control in children. The last chapter summarizes the contributions compiled in this text. This publication is recommended for students and professionals in child development and social and clinical psychology.

  • Friends in School

    Patterns of Selection and Influence in Secondary Schools
    • 1st Edition
    • Joyce Levy Epstein + 1 more
    • English
    Friends in School: Patterns of Selection and Influence in Secondary Schools is a collection of research and commentaries that focuses on the connections between the social organization of schools and classrooms, the social processes of peer association, friendship selection, as well as the social development of students. The papers center around the topic on simultaneous influence of developmental and environmental factors on adolescent friendships. One paper examines the various theories of adolescent friendships: that differences exist between theories applied to, and theories generated from the experiences of different age groups. Another paper discusses the patterns of selection of friends and the characteristics of selected friends in high- and low-participatory schools. One paper explains the components of a contact theory and of cooperative learning methods in terms of their impact on intergroup relations. Another paper reviews sex differences in forming and maintaining friendships based on earlier studies made on the subject. The paper focuses on environmental and developmental points on how sex differences and school organization can interact on the student's adjustment to transition or growth. One paper notes that peer and friendship groups can be positive forces in the classroom to advance the goals of the teachers, students, and school, but the decision should depend on the teacher's knowledge of organizational structure, group processes, and on the desired outcome of the educational activity. The collection is suitable for teachers, child educators, school counselors, school administrators, psychologists and sociologists.

  • Microeconomics

    A Modern Treatment
    • 1st Edition
    • R. Shone
    • Karl Shell
    • English
    Microeconomics: A Modern Treatment focuses on modern approaches to microeconomics. Alternative systems are discussed including input-output analysis as against neoclassical production theory. The theory of choice and the preference and utility approaches to consumer theory are also considered, along with linear and nonlinear theories of production, the theory of market demand and supply, and welfare economics. Comprised of 11 chapters, this book begins with an introduction to economic science and its propositions, as well as the importance of establishing a clearly defined set of postulates on which the whole edifice of economic knowledge rests. The discussion then turns to the theory of choice and the preference and utility approaches to consumer theory; neoclassical as opposed to modern consumer choice; production theory and the production set of the economy; and the theory of market demand and supply. Subsequent chapters deal with the theory of exchange and general equilibrium; welfare economics; and stability and introductory dynamics. This monograph will be of value to economists and those interested in microeconomics.

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