Affective continuities across Muslim and Christian settings in Berlin

This article, a reflection on collaborative fieldwork involving a Sufi Muslim and a Pentecostal Christian setting in Berlin, examines whether distinct and diverse religious groups can be brought into a meaningful relation with one another. It considers the methodological possibilities that might become possible or foreclose when two researchers, working in different prayer settings in the same city, use affect as a common frame of reference while seeking to establish shared affective relations and terrains that would otherwise be implausible. With two separately observed accounts of prayer gatherings in a shared urban context, we describe locally specific workings of affect and sensation. We argue that sense-aesthetic forms and patterns in our field sites are supralocal affective forms that help constitute an analytic relationality between the two religious settings

Quantization of the Algebra of Chord Diagrams

In this paper we define an algebra structure on the vector space $L(\Sigma)$ generated by links in the manifold $\Sigma \times [0,1]$ where $\Sigma$ is an oriented surface. This algebra has a filtration and the associated graded algebra $L_{Gr}(\Sigma)$ is naturally a Poisson algebra. There is a Poisson algebra homomorphism from the algebra of chord diagrams $ch(\Sigma)$ on $\Sigma$ to $L_{Gr}(\Sigma)$. We show that multiplication in $L(\Sigma)$ provides a geometric way to define a deformation quantization of the algebra of chord diagrams, provided there is a universal Vassiliev invariant for links in $\Sigma\times [0,1]$. The quantization descends to a quantization of the moduli space of flat connections on $\Sigma$ and it is universal with respect to group homomorphisms. If $\Sigma$ is compact with free fundamental group we construct a universal Vassiliev invariant.Comment: Latex2e, 19 pages (US letter format), 8 eps-Figure

International M&A: Evidence on Effects of Foreign Takeovers

In this empirical paper I address the effects of international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on the acquired firms. International direct investments in the home country are usually welcomed and considered to be beneficial for growth, employment, productivity and technological progress. This is mostly unquestioned for greenfield investments, i.e. the case when a foreign multinational firm sets up a new affiliate. But a majority of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects takes the form of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This kind of inward FDI is much more critically debated. The focal point of this paper is the development of domestic German firms that are subject to a foreign takeover regarding employment and productivity. For this purpose, I use a comprehensive German micro-level dataset which includes all industries as well as firms from all size categories and all German regions. The sample covers the years from 2000 to 2007. A propensity score matching approach combined with a difference-indifference estimator is applied. Contrary to a naive comparison between foreign-owned firms and domestic firms or a comparison between firm characteristics before and after a foreign takeover, this econometric approach ensures that the causal effects are isolated. The main results are the following: Foreign owned firms are larger and more productive than domestic ones. Mostly firms with below average productivity (lemons) as well as rms with a relatively high productivity (cherries) are acquired. Market development motives seem to play an important role for foreign acquisitions. Concerning the effects of foreign takeovers, a descriptive analysis cannot find unambiguous effects of foreign takeovers. The propensity score matching estimator confirms this finding and detects neither positive nor negative significant effects of foreign takeovers.M&A, inward FDI, foreign takeover, employment, productivtity

Goods Follow Bytes: The Impact of ICT on EU Trade

This paper empirically assesses whether the deployment and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure at the national level affects trade flows within the European Union (EU) and between the EU and its main trading partners. The analysis tests the hypothesis that availability and use of ICT enhances trade by reducing transaction costs and through network effects that materialize when both trading partners are advanced users of ICT. The empirical analysis is based on the application of gravity equations in various robust specifications. The results suggest that ICT does have a significant impact on EU trade. In particular, we find trade to be enhanced if both trading partners reveal advanced ICT endowments, which supports the expected network effects. Additionally, we observe trade diversion effects from less to highly ICT developed countries.Exports, ICT, gravity model, international trade, network effects