Category: STP
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Principles of Economics: Public and Common Goods
To define Public Goods we need two concepts: Excludable goods and Rival goods. Excludable goods can be prevented from use (food) in contrast to non-excludable goods that can always be consumed (radio or air). Rival goods cannot be consumed without diminishing others’ use of it (food) in contrast to non-rival goods (mp3-files). Based on the…
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BSTP: Computing
The digital revolution was carried by the development of transistors. The first triode was created in 1907 (similar to the air plane in 1903). Followed by field-effect transistor (FET) in 1925 and finally followed by today’s standard a silicon transistor in 1954. Based on transistors a first digital computer (ENIAC) was built in 1947 and…
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Principles of Economics: Externalities
Externality An uncompensated impact of one person’s action on the well-being of a bystander. It is a type of market failure as it reduces the efficiency of the market. In general, it is caused by self-interested buyers and sellers neglecting the external costs or benefits of their actions. However, public policy can reduce externalities and…
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BSTP: Further Industrial Revolution
Technological development occurs in two forms: intensive growth (development of new methods) and extensive growth (improving current methods). At the time (1930) Keynes predicted 15-hour work weeks by 2030, based on the reduced work necessary to reach the same economic productivity. This was based on the intensive growth of the 19th and 20th century. The…
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BSTP: Of cars
In the context of Geel’s book – specifically cars – we discuss the following questions: How did niches emerge in the context of existing technology regime? A horse-based transport moved to electric-based transport in the 19th century, before the internal combustion engine took off. Electric batteries and plugs where not standardised and therefore it was…
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PIPP: Legal Families
The major legal families are civil law and common law. This is a short overview that ignores several details for a coherent view. Civil Law Civil Law is prevalent in Continental Europe. Central features are codification, parliaments make the law, judges interpret the law central figures (i.e scholars who argues doctrinally and creates abstract principles…
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QPAM: Investment Appraisal
To perform investment appraisal we need to analyse cost and revenues. First we need to find profitability indicators, then we need to assess the life cycle cost. Then we can perform a cost effectiveness analysis and last we need to also consider dynamics and sensitivities. Profitability Indicators On the cost side we have investment costs,…
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BSTP: Sailships to steamships and Limited Liability.
The move from sail ships to steamships was driven beyond the technological developments by mail delivery (communication) and transportation of people. Sail ships remained a useful resource in heavy cargo with no time limits on delivery and only phased out with increased efficiency of steamships. The opening of global trade looked the world into steamships.…
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BSTP: Industrial Revolution
The topic of today is industrial revolution. Summed up in a phrase the transformation from ” muscle to machine”. Any transformation requires work/energy. Before the industrial revolution people relied on biological matter for work. The rate of energy conversion many orders of magnitude lower than in machines. This limitation extended to human growth potential. Engines…
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PIPP: Hierarchies in the Law
In a national legal system there is usually public law (interaction between governments and citizens, e.g. a university awarding a degree to a student) and private law (interaction between citizens, companies in any combination, e.g. a university buying a computer). Private Law is divided into major families are Substantive Law and Commercial Law, whereas Public…