How City Lobbyists Bridge Representational Gaps

This chapter develops a simple theory of intergovernmental lobbying that emphasizes the relationship between cities and their elected delegations. Compared to most interest groups, cities are uniquely dependent on the state and federal officials who are elected to represent them by virtue of their political geography. The quality of this representation should therefore influence the demand for the lobbying. This chapter tests several observable implications of this theory using original panel data on annual city lobbying activity in all fifty states. A series of difference-in-differences designs reveal that municipal officials hire lobbyists in response to a wide array of representational challenges, such as hostile redistricting efforts and flips in the partisan composition of their delegations. The results are broadly consistent with a model of intergovernmental lobbying in which cities use lobbyists to compensate for the representational gaps that sometimes emerge in federal systems.

A Simple Theory of Argument Schemes

While there has been in depth discussion of many particular argumentation schemes, some lament that there is little to no theory underpinning the notion of an argumentation scheme. Here I shall argue against the utility of argument schemes, at least as a fundamental part of a complete theory of arguments. I shall also present and defend a minimalist theory of their nature—a scheme is just a set of proposition expressions and propositional functions. While simple, the theory contravenes several typical desiderata of argumentation schemes such as (i) aiding in the identification of enthymemes and (ii) keeping arguments constrained to a manageable taxonomy. So much the worse for the desiderata. Instead, I shall recommend focusing less on schemes and more on the component propositional functions.

Spillover Effects of Intellectual Property Protection in the Interwar Aircraft Industry

Can strengthening intellectual property (IP) protection for producers of one good affect innovation in other related goods? To answer this question, we exploit a unique policy experiment in the interwar military aircraft industry. Airframe designs had little IP protection before 1926, but changes passed by Congress in 1926 provided airframe manufacturers with enhanced property rights over new designs. We show that granting property rights to airframe producers increased innovation in airframes, but slowed innovation in aero-engines, a complementary good where there was no change in the availability of IP protection. We propose and test a simple theory that explains these patterns.

A Simple Theory and Performance Prediction for a Shrouded Wind Turbine with a Brimmed Diffuser

We developed a new wind turbine system that consists of a diffuser shroud with a broad-ring brim at the exit periphery and a wind turbine inside it. The shrouded wind turbine with a brimmed diffuser, which we called a “wind lens turbine” (WLT), has demonstrated power augmentation by a factor of about 2–5 compared with a bare wind turbine for a given turbine diameter and wind speed. The increase in power output depends on the diffuser shape and length and the brim height. However, a simple theory presented in this paper argues that only two performance coefficients are needed to predict the performance of WLT. The coefficients are the back pressure coefficient of the brim and the pressure recovery coefficient of the diffuser. We theoretically showed that the back pressure coefficient was particularly important for the performance of WLT. Finally, the simple theory was evaluated with experimental results. The results showed good agreement with each other.

Understanding dogwhistles politics

This paper aims to deepen our understanding of so-called covert dogwhistles. I discuss whether a covert dogwhistle is a specific sort of mechanism of manipulation or whether, on the contrary, it draws on other already familiar linguistic mechanisms such as implicatures or presuppositions. I put forward a series of arguments aimed at illustrating that implicatures and presuppositions, on the one hand, and covert dogwhistles, on the other, differ in their linguistic behaviour concerning plausible deniability, cancellability, calculability and mutual acceptance. I concluded this paper by outlining a simple theory for covert dogwhistles according to which they are attitude-foregrounders.

Complexity and Relative Complexity in Generative Grammar

The notions of “complexity” and its antonym “simplicity” have played an important role in the history of generative grammar. However, these terms have been used in different ways. There have been discussions about whether the raw data is complex (or not), about whether a particular theory is complex (or not), and about whether a particular analysis is complex (or not). This article both sorts out the various uses of these terms in the history of generative grammar and demonstrates that motivations have changed over time for whether a complex theory or a simple theory is more desirable. The article concludes with a discussion of the issue of relative complexity in generative grammar, that is, whether the theory embodies the possibility that a grammar of one language can be more or less complex than the grammar of another.

Modelling Activity and Durability of Electrocatalysts from a Statistical Perspective

<p>We develop a theory to investigate how energetic nonhomogeneity of active sites determines the overall activity of an electrocatalyst and how the evolution of the nonhomogeneity determines the overall durability. The simple theory is amenable to exact analytical solutions and thus fosters an in-depth transparent analysis. It is revealed that nonhomogeneity does not necessarily diminish the electrocatalytic activity; instead, the highest overall activity is obtained with a suitable level of nonhomogeneity that is commensurate with the mean property. The evolution kinetics of nonhomogeneity is described by using the Fokker-Planck theory. Exponential decay of the activity is predicted theoretically and confirmed experimentally. The present work represents a first step toward closing the gap between model and practical electrocatalysts using statistical considerations.</p>