49 research outputs found
Voucher funds in transitional economies : the Czech and Slovak experience
No full textVoucher funds have arisen in the transitional economies of Eastern and Central Europe that have used voucher privatization. These funds collect vouchers from citizens and use them to buy shares in enterprises. In the Czech and Slovak Republics, voucher funds are typically organized as corporations owned by the citizens who contributed their vouchers. Recently, they have also been organized as unit trusts (either open-ended or closed). A management company manages the funds under a contract that specifies the management fee. The management company is typically owned by the initial sponsor of the fund - for example, a bank. Voucher funds can give owners a diversified and professionally managed portfolio. More important, the funds select who sits on an enterprise's governance boards (which oversee management and profitability). Although experience is limited, the funds in these two countries have probably stopped most fraud and self-serving by enterprise mangers and are beginning to encourage the restructuring needed for profitability. A few funds have replaced poorly performing or dishonest managers; more often, because qualified replacements are few, they encourage managers to improve performance. There have been complaints about funds'performance. Some have made unrealistic promises to voucher holders and have appointed poorly qualified members to management boards. There is concern about conflicts of interest in the bank-sponsored funds and excessive control of enterprises. Funds typically lack capital or expertise to undertake restructuring - but few other potential owners are likely to be better qualified. The author examines 27 regulations that have been proposed for funds. Regulations in transitional economies, unlike regulations in most western countries, should encourage funds to play a strong role in corporate governance, he contends, as few potential owners have this ability. Most important, regulations should require that funds disclose information about their operations so their owners can monitor and control fund managers. The regulatory regime, the author says, should discourage monopolies and anticompetitive behavior; create incentives for fund managers to improve fund performance; discourage self-serving or fraudulent behavior by fund managers, and conflicts of interest; and eliminate high-risk investments unacceptable to fund owners. Because there is so little experience with these funds, the regulatory regime should not be unduly restrictive. As problems arise, regulations to deal with them can be added.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Payment Systems&Infrastructure
Tras la huella de "Tersites". Apuntes sobre el papel de la ética y la crítica en la autobiografía de Raimundo Cuesta
No full textRaimundo Cuesta assumes in these pages the double challenge of reconstructing the steps of his own lifespan and the understanding and explanation of the time he has lived in, that is, the recent history of Spain: the Franco regime, the transition to democracy and the current regime. The book, therefore, has an equally double and compatible interest. Read from the c o n v e n t i o n a l p a r a m e t e r s o f t h e a u t o b i o g r a p h i c a l g e n re h a s t h e particularity that the author "reveals" the fierce impossibility of escaping the " b i o g r a p h i c a l i l l u s i o n " , e n t e r i n g unexplored territories of great value for this type of literature. But he does so without first submitting his personal image to the set of social tensions that have produced it. And it is there, when trying to understand the social constraints with or against which it has been forged, when the story reveals itself to us as a valuable source to illuminate the path of formation of a critical intellectual, in spite of the fierce institutionalized repression of the Francoism; but its greatest strength lies in glimpsing how it is possible to maintain a critical attitude in the present when so many of his generation have given up and showed repentance.; Raimundo Cuesta asume en estas páginas el doble reto de reconstruir los pasos de su propia vida y la comprensión y explicación del tiempo que le ha tocado vivir, es decir, la historia reciente de España: el franquismo, la transición y el régimen político actual. El libro tiene, por esto, un interés igualmente doble y compatible. Leído desde los parámetros convencionales del género autobiográfico, tiene la particularidad de que el autor “desvela” la imposibilidad feroz de escapar a la “ilusión biográfica”, a d e n t r á n d o s e a s í e n t e r r i t o r i o s inexplorados de gran valor para este tipo de literatura. Además lo hace no sin antes someter su imagen personal al conjunto de tensores sociales que la han producido. Y es ahí, al tratar de comprender las constricciones sociales con o contra las que se ha ido forjando, cuando el relato se nos revela como una fuente valiosa para iluminar el camino de formación de un intelectual crítico, a pesar de la feroz represión institucionalizada del franquismo; mas su mayor fuerza radica en vislumbrar cómo es posible mantener una actitud crítica en el presente cuando tantos de su generación han claudicado y hecho gala de arrepentimiento
Pro-growth, pro-poor : is there a tradeoff?
No full textIs a pro-growth strategy always the best pro-poor strategy? To address this issue, the author provides an empirical evaluation of the impact of a series of pro-growth policies on inequality and headcount poverty. He relies on a large macroeconomic data set and estimate dynamic panel models that allows him to differentiate between the short- and long-run impacts of the policies under consideration on growth, inequality, and poverty. The author's findings indicate that regardless of their impact on inequality, pro-growth policies lead to lower poverty levels in the long run. However, he also finds evidence indicating that some of these policies may lead tohigher inequality and, under plausible assumptions for the distribution of income, to higher poverty levels in the short run. These findings would justify the adoption of a pro-growth policy package as the center of any poverty reduction strategy, together with pro-poor measures that complement such a package by offsetting potential short-run increases in poverty.Services&Transfers to Poor,Public Health Promotion,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Economic Conditions and Volatility,Environmental Economics&Policies,Rural Poverty Reduction,Achieving Shared Growth,Inequality,Governance Indicators,Safety Nets and Transfers
Informal regulation of industrial pollution in developing countries : evidence from Indonesia
No full textThe authors test a model of supply-demand relations in an implicit market for environmental services when formal regulation is absent. They use plant-level data from Indonesia for 1989-90, before the advent of nationwide environmental regulation. Treating pollution as a derived demand for environmental services, their model relates emissions of biological oxygen demand to the price (expected cost) of pollution; to prices of other inputs (labor,energy, materials); and to enterprise characteristics that may affect pollution demand, including scale, vintage ownership, and efficiency. The price of pollution is determined by the intersection of plant-level demand and a local environmental supply function, enforced by community pressure or informal regulation. Environmental supply is affected by community income, education, the size of the exposed population, the local economic importance of the plant, and its visibility as a polluter. Their results are strongly consistent with the existence of an informal"pollution equilibrium."Pollution intensity declines with increase in plant size, efficiency, and local materials prices. Older plants and publicly owned facilities are more pollution intensive; multinational ownership has no independent effect. The results also suggest that the price of pollution is higher when plants are particularly visible and is far lower in poorer, less-educated communities. Thus the intensity of pollution is far higher in such communities. While it would be premature to generalize from these results, they suggest that the model of optimal pollution control in environmental economics is more relevant for developing countries than many have believed. Community-factory interactions seem to reflect environmental supply-demand considerations even when formal regulation does not exist. In addition, the apparent power of informal regulation implies that cost-effective formal systems should be designed to complement, not supplant, community control. In particular: 1) Local communities should not be forced to rely so heavily on visibility when judging environmental performance. Formal regulation should include publication of audited emissions reports from factories; 2) Environmental injustice may be real and important. Many poor, uneducated communities may need extra support from national regulators.; and 3) However, appropriate regulation should strike the right balance between equity and efficiency. Uniform national standards go too far because they eliminate all the natural and legitimate regional diversity that is also reflected in informal arrangements.Public Health Promotion,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Sanitation and Sewerage,Water Conservation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,TF030632-DANISH CTF - FY05 (DAC PART COUNTRIES GNP PER CAPITA BELOW USD 2,500/AL,Sanitation and Sewerage,Urban Services to the Poor
Industry structure and regulation
No full textAs private firms become increasingly involved in the development of key infrastructure, redefining the role of government from that of serviceprovider to regulator presents both challenges and opportunities. The factors that give rise to sector reforms color how much policymakers invest in regulatory design during the reform process. Nevertheless, two factors are essential to sustainable sector and regulatory reform. First, the right structure must be established for the industry concerned, a structure that allows competition appropriate for that industry. Second, the objectives of regulation must be well defined, with a clear distinction between policymaking, policy implementation, and operations. The extent to which competition can be harnessed to help make regulation efficient, effective, and sustainable depends on the intrinsic technical characteristics of the sector. Each decision affects the sustainability of the regulatory regime in the face of the threat of regulatory capture (both political and commercial). Careful regulatory design is crucial not only for successful sectoral reform but also to balance the interests of various actors (government, consumers, developers, investors, and financiers). One model that has been relatively successful combines new entry, unbundled services, and the unambiguous spelling out of the legal rights and duties for both public and private service providers, administered by an autonomous regulatory authority. Problems with regulation often result as much from inadequate attention to sector structure and fostering competition as from weaknesses in the regulatory authority's institutional capacity. As for the tools of regulation, despite differences in some details between licenses and concessions (and their many contractual variations), these are basically instruments that establish the rights and obligations of contracting parties. Choices about where these rights and obligations are located in the legal hierarchy are shaped by a country's institutional capacity and legal traditions. But the existence of instruments to establish those rights and obligations does not eliminate the need for institutionsto administer them, and thus carry out the regulatory function. Establishing effective sectorwide regulation can be difficult in a developing country, but it is necessary. Policymakers will be able to create effective regulatory regimes where adequate attention is given to sector structure, competition, and institution-building.Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade Finance and Investment,Knowledge Economy,ICT Policy and Strategies,Decentralization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Administrative&Regulatory Law,ICT Policy and Strategies,Water and Industry,Knowledge Economy
Fitotecnia de las salicáceas en el centro nacional de investigaciones agropecuarias Castelar - (INTA)
No full textEn el presente trabajo se reseñan los métodos de mejoramiento utilizados para Salicáceas en el mundo, y principalmente álamos mejorados obtenidos en algunos países (2), como así también la labor realizada y los logros más importantes alcanzados en el Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias de Castelar (INTA) (3).Academia Nacional de Agronomía y Veterinari
Tras la huella de "Tersites". Apuntes sobre el papel de la ética y la crítica en la autobiografía de Raimundo Cuesta
No full textRaimundo Cuesta assumes in these
p a g e s t h e d o u b l e c h a l l e n g e o f
reconstructing the steps of his own
lifespan and the understanding and
explanation of the time he has lived in,
that is, the recent history of Spain: the
Franco regime, the transition to
democracy and the current regime. The
book, therefore, has an equally double
and compatible interest. Read from the
c o n v e n t i o n a l p a r a m e t e r s o f t h e
a u t o b i o g r a p h i c a l g e n re h a s t h e
particularity that the author "reveals" the
fierce impossibility of escaping the
" b i o g r a p h i c a l i l l u s i o n " , e n t e r i n g
unexplored territories of great value for
this type of literature. But he does so
without first submitting his personal image
to the set of social tensions that have
produced it. And it is there, when trying to
understand the social constraints with or
against which it has been forged, when
the story reveals itself to us as a valuable
source to illuminate the path of formation
of a critical intellectual, in spite of the
fierce institutionalized repression of the
Francoism; but its greatest strength lies in
glimpsing how it is possible to maintain a
critical attitude in the present when so
many of his generation have given up and
showed repentance.Raimundo Cuesta asume en estas
páginas el doble reto de reconstruir los
pasos de su propia vida y la comprensión
y explicación del tiempo que le ha tocado
vivir, es decir, la historia reciente de
España: el franquismo, la transición y el
régimen político actual. El libro tiene, por
esto, un interés igualmente doble y
compatible. Leído desde los parámetros
convencionales del género autobiográfico,
tiene la particularidad de que el autor
“desvela” la imposibilidad feroz de
escapar a la “ilusión biográfica”,
a d e n t r á n d o s e a s í e n t e r r i t o r i o s
inexplorados de gran valor para este tipo
de literatura. Además lo hace no sin antes
someter su imagen personal al conjunto
de tensores sociales que la han
producido. Y es ahí, al tratar de
comprender las constricciones sociales
con o contra las que se ha ido forjando,
cuando el relato se nos revela como una
fuente valiosa para iluminar el camino de
formación de un intelectual crítico, a pesar
de la feroz represión institucionalizada del
franquismo; mas su mayor fuerza radica
en vislumbrar cómo es posible mantener
una actitud crítica en el presente cuando
tantos de su generación han claudicado y
hecho gala de arrepentimiento
The significance of the"Europe agreements"for Central European industrial exports
No full textIn 1991 and 1992, the European Union (EU) and the economies in transition of Central and Southern Europe - the CEE-5 (Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania) - signed the European Association Agreements. The Agreements established a new framework for their mutual economic relationship, including the transition to a free trade regime for industrial products. The importance of the"Europe Agreements"has been underscored by the rapidly shifting trade patterns between the CEE-5 countries and OECD markets, and by the emergence of the EU as their major trading partner. The author examines the significance of the trade concessions granted by the EU to the CEE-5 countries (1) by analyzing the incidence of EU trade barriers on imports from the CEE-5 before and after implementation of the Agreements and (2) by identifying trade flows of groups of industrial products subject to different concessions.He focuses on trade liberalizing measures for industrial products for which a free trade regime should be in place no later than five years after the Agreements are in force. (Excluded are textiles and clothing, discussed in the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations.) Overall, the industrial product trade provisions of the Agreements, which affect about 80 percent of CEE-5 exports to the EU, significantly improve those countries'access to EU markets. In 1992, the first year they were in force in Hungary, Poland, and the former Czechoslovakia, the Agreements freed slightly less than 50 percent of total exports to the EU from import duties and nontariff barriers (NTB's). In terms of the 1992 composition of exports, this"free trade"share in total exports increases over five years to about 80 percent for the former Czechoslovakia, 60 percent for Hungary, and 70 percent for Poland. Although there are significant differences in the composition of exports from CEE-5 economies affected by EU trade liberalizing measures, these are the result of varying shares of sensitive (especially agricultural) products across countries, not dissimilar of concessions from the EU. The EU's negotiation approach, as revealed in the Agreements, was to minimize the adverse effects of opening up"sensitive"sectors: the time and the pace of transition tends to be longer and slower for groups of products with higher NTB-coverage ratios and higher average tariffs. Whether by design or not, the variation in products identified in various provisions assures a more equitable treatment of CEE-5 countries, judging from their industrial export patterns in 1990-92.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agribusiness&Markets,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade Policy
El Códice de la Cruz-Badiano y su extensa familia herbaria. Historias. Revista de la Dirección de Estudios Históricos. Num. 68 (2007) septiembre-diciembre
No full textGermán Somolinos d’ Ardois, “Estudio histórico”, en Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis, México, IMSS., 1964, p. 321.Javier Valdés Gutiérrez, Hilda Flores Olvera y Helga Ochoterena-Booth, “La botánica en el Códice de la Cruz”, en Jesús Kumate et. al., Estudios actuales sobre el Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis, México, Secretaría de Salud, 1992, p. 130.Raimundo Largo, Medicina natural. Las hierbas curativas, vol. 1, Madrid, Libsa, 1992, p. 5.A. G. Morton, History of Botanical Science, Londres/Nueva York, Academic Press, 1981, p. 66.José María Díaz Regañón López, “Introducción” a Teofrasto, Historia de las plantas, Madrid, Gredos, 1988, pp. 14 y 20Manuel García Valdés, “Introducción” a Dioscórides, Plantas y remedios medicinales (De materia medica), Libros I-III, Madrid, Gredos, 1998, p. 58-59.Teófilo Hernando y Ortega, “Introducción” a Pedacio Dioscórides Anazarbeo, edición de Andrés Laguna [1555], Madrid, Instituto de España, 1968, t. I p. 98.Frank J. Anderson, An Illustrated History of the Herbals, Nueva York, Columbia University Press, 1977, p. 15.Germán Somolinos d’ Ardois (ed.), Obras completas de Francisco Hernández, México, UNAM, 1966, t. iv, pp. x (nota 2) y xi, respectivamente.Juan Somolinos Palencia, “La medicina galeno-hipocrática y el Renacimiento español” en Historia general de la Medicina en México, México, UNAM/Academia Nacional de Medicina, 1990, t. I, p. 125, nota 14.José Ma. López Piñero, Medicina moderna y sociedad española: siglos xvi-xix, Valencia, Cátedra e Instituto de Historia de la Medicina, 1976, p.122.Lynn Thomdike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, Nueva York, Columbia University Press, 1924, vol. II, p. 473.Milagro Laín y Doris Ruiz Otín, “Estudio introductorio” a Bernardino de Laredo, Modus faciendi cum ordine medicandi, s/lugar, Fundación de Ciencias de la Salud, 2001, p. 14.J. Worth Estes, “The Reception of American Drugs in Europe, 1500-1650”, en Simon Varey (ed.), Searching for the Secrets of Nature. The Life and Work of Dr. Francisco Hernández, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2000, p. 117.Fernando de Rojas, La Celestina (edición y notas de Julio Cejador y Frauca), Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1955, p. 78.José Ma. López Piñero y María Luz López Terrada, La traducción por Juan de Jarava de Leonhart Fuchs y la terminología botánica castellana del siglo XVI, Valencia, Instituto de Estudios Documentales e Históricos sobre la Ciencia- Universitat de Valencia/CSIC, 1994, p. 18.Juan Comas, “Un caso de aculturación farmacológica en la Nueva España del siglo XVI: El ‘Tesoro de Medicinas’ de Gregario López”, en Anales de Antropología, vol. 1, México, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas-UNAM, 1964, pp. 145- 173.Xavier Lozoya, La herbolaria en México, México, Conaculta, 1999, p. 24.Vicente Cervantes, Ensayo á la materia vegetal de México, México, Of. Tip. de la Secretaría de Fomento [1792], 1889.Xavier Lozoya, “Estudio introductorio” a Juan Navarro, Historia natural o Jardín americano, México, UNAM/IMSS/ISSSTE [1801], 1992, p. 36.En este breve texto mi intención es sólo remitirme a algunos casos de la amplia tradición de herbarios, de la que de alguna manera este códice forma parte. Comenzaré mencionando algunos aspectos generales de dicha obra. Como se sabe, el Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis, más conocido como Códice de la Cruz-Badiano, fue escrito en 1552 por el médico náhua Martín de la Cruz y traducido al latín por el indio Juan Badiano. Es, pues, una de las fuentes más antiguas de la medicina mesoamericana escrito después de la conquista española
The use of New York cotton futures contracts to hedge cotton price risk in developing countries
No full textCotton exports account for a significant share of commodity exports for some developing countries, especially in West Africa and Central Asia. In these countries, dependency on cotton for export revenues has increased in the past 20 years. These countries therefore have a high exposure to cotton price volatility. Cotton-producing developing countries and economies in transition make little use of hedging mechanisms to reduce risk from the volatility of cotton export revenues. Countries in Francophone West Africa use forward sales to hedge but only for a small share of the crop. These countries could use cotton futures and options contracts to hedge against short- to medium-term price volatility, making cotton export revenues more predictable. Cotton futures and options contracts could also make cotton-related commercial transactions more flexible. (Futures could be sold when there are no buyers in the physical market, for example.) In West Africa, futures and options could complement the existing system of forward sales. The authors examine the feasibility of using New York cotton futures and options contracts as hedging instruments. They base their analysis on a portfolio selection problem in which the hedger selects the optimal proportions of unhedged and hedged output to minimize risk. The results suggest that despite the existence of relatively high basis risk (that is, a relatively low correlation between spot and future prices), hedging reduces cotton price volatility by 30 to 70 percent. Moreover, for all varieties of cotton examined, the hedge ratio (the percentage of exports hedged) was below one. Using a hedge ratio of one (naive hedge), at times, increases rather than decreases risk. The results also show that hedging, while reducing risk, also reduces expected returns. Attitudes toward risk that is, the degree of risk aversion - determine how much of this risk-return tradeoff is acceptable. For a risk-averse agent, the main benefit of hedging lies in risk reduction rather than in the potential for increased returns.Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Non Bank Financial Institutions,Financial Intermediation,Insurance Law
