59 research outputs found
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
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
The impact of labor market regulations
No full textThe authors investigate the impact of labor market regulations in settings where compliance is incomplete. They review some stylized facts about labor market behavior, present an analytical model that may explain such behavior, and provide a checklist for assessing the distortionary impact of a regulation such as the minimum wage. They take as their starting point the limited evidence about the distortionary effects of such regulations and argue that there may be natural limits on the efficiency losses engendered by labor market regulations. First, the regulations may not be binding at market equilibrium. For example, minimum wages may be set so low that they are ineffective. Second, even if they are binding, the relevant elasticities of supply and demand may be so low that the regulations have little impact on efficiency. Third, even if the regulations are binding and elasticities are sizable, compliance may be low. The authors argue that the likelihood of compliance will be greatest when the regulations are binding and the relevant elasticities are sizable. That is, if the distortionary costs of regulations are not rendered insignificant by the first two reasons, then the returns to noncompliance will be high and, other things being equal, employers will evade or avoid the regulations, thereby minimizing the imact on efficiency. The argument rests on profit maximization subject to a hard budget constraint. Public enterprises, which are not concerned only with profit maximization and often have softer budget constraints than the private sector, may be more willing to conform to profit-reducing regulations, but in this case the authors argue that compliance may reduce already-existing efficiency losses.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Labor Policies,Public Health Promotion,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Poverty Assessment,Environmental Economics&Policies
Jih-kuan and the Ink Painting of Grapes
No full textThe ink painting of grapes is considered to have first appeared in the second half of the thirteenth century, Jih-kuan being the most talented painter in the earliest stage. Jih-kuan spent the life of a wanderer in a Buddhist temple near Lake Hsi, and is thought to have died during the last five or six years of the thirteenth century. Many of his words and deeds led one think him as a madman, but those who were well acquainted with him knew that he was a priest of high virtue who had attained deep enlightenment. Besides painting, Jih-kuan was talented in calligraphy, especially in the cursive script, and was skilled in poetry, thus was an artist who mastered the so-called three accomplishments of poetry, calligraphy and painting. His art of painting was highly evaluated by the literati, which was rare for a monk painter.
There are considerable works attributed to Jih-kuan, but those which can be authenticated are extremely rare, the only piece now known being the painting of grapes formerly in the INOUE family collection. Unlike usual grape painters, he likes to depict branches that extend horizontally. His work, rendered in an i-p’in-like rough brush, fingertips and palms, is non-realistic and the emphasis is put on spiritual expression. This is another factor that gives his work a substantially different quality from works by other grape painters.journal articl
Towards an East Asian Monetary Union: An Econometrics Analysis of Shocks
No full textThis paper examines the viability of regional monetary integration in East Asia by focusing on the symmetry of shocks, which is one of the preconditions for forming an optimum currency area (OCA). We extend the conventional 2-variable structural VAR model by incorporating foreign (namely, US) variables, as well as real effective exchange rates to capture country-specific shocks in estimation. We also obtain similar estimates for European countries to check for robustness. Impulse response function analysis is conducted to measure the size of shocks and the speed of adjustment to shocks. The empirical results reveal that it is less feasible for East Asian economies to form an OCA than is suggested in previous studies, but they do imply that some sub-groups of the economies, such as some Asian NIEs and ASEAN economies, are more appropriate candidates as their underlying shocks are correlated and symmetric, and the speed of their adjustment to shocks is faster. Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank Eiji Ogawa, Akira Kohsaka, Shin-ichi Fukuda, Yuko Hashimoto, Etsuro Shioji, Takatoshi Ito and Shujiro Urata for helpful comments. The first and second author thanks the JSPS for financial support through the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), 116330059. The third author is most grateful for the financial support of the Australian Research Council.Optimum currency area, monetary integration, structural vector autoregression, East Asia
筆跡鑑定と年代測定による古筆掛軸の筆者特定
No full text2015-03The author of an ancient hanging scroll called "Issiki Zenmon toubun" transmitted in the old temple JIUNJI in Okada, Chita-city is investigated. This is a memorial address sent to Norimitsu Isshiki who was a feudal lord of Chita Peninsula and also the famous military commanders of the Muromachi age, however the writer of this address is unknown. The elucidation of this mystery is an important subject as local cultural assets. We consider which the actual writer is Buddhist monk cum waka poet "Shoutetsu" or his pupil "Shouhan", and judge it with both ways of the handwriting comparison and the 14C dating method. That is an indirect judgment method with the substitute of an actual works, because this method is a destructive inspection. As the result of both measurements, "Shouhan" is identified as the writer of this hanging scroll. The treasure mystery of past 300 years has been cleared, and a way of recognition as a local cultural property has been opened.知多市岡田の慈雲寺に伝来する「一色禅門悼文」と呼ばれる掛軸について、この作者、筆者を探求している。この掛軸は室町期の有名な武将で知多半島の領主であった一色範光に送られた追悼文であるが筆者が謎であり地域の文化財としてもこの解明は重要な課題である。当研究では悼文筆者と目される歌僧「正徹」とその弟子「正般」の2人を候補とし、自筆作品の筆跡比較と14C炭素年代測定の両面から判定した。特に破壊検査による現品のダメージ回避のため別途筆者真筆作品で代用する間接鑑定方式とした。結果は筆跡、年代とも完全整合する「正般」が悼文掛軸筆者と特定できた。これにより300年来の寺宝の謎が氷解し地域文化財認知への道が開けた。名古屋大学年代測定総合研究センターシンポジウム報告departmental bulletin pape
Duration of Electrically Induced Atrial Fibrillation Is Augmented by High Voltage of Stimulus with Higher Blood Pressure in Hypertensive Rats
No full textObjective. Many previous clinical studies have suggested that atrial fibrillation (AF) is closely associated with hypertension. However, the benefits of antihypertensive therapy on AF are still inconsistent, and it is necessary to explore the factors augmenting AF in hypertensive rats. The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between arterial pressure or voltage stimulus and to the duration of electrically induced AF in normotensive or hypertensive rats. Methods. AF was reproducibly induced by transesophageal atrial burst pacing in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). We did the burst pacing at high (20 V) or low (5 V) voltage. Results. Duration of AF did not correlate with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and stimulus voltage in WKY. However, only in SHR, duration of AF with high stimulus voltage significantly correlated with SBP and was significantly longer in high than in low voltage stimulus. Discussion and Conclusion. Duration of AF is augmented by high voltage stimulus with higher blood pressure in SHR
Coronary aneurysm associated with coronary perforation after sirolimus-eluting stents implantation: Close follow-up exceeding 2 years by coronary 3-dimensional computed tomography
No full textSummaryBoth coronary perforation and aneurysms associated with sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantations are uncommon complications. We describe an unusual case of a coronary aneurysm associated with a coronary perforation after SES implantation. Although their pathogenesis has not yet been completely elucidated, some technical factors including the use of excessive pressure during the stent deployment, and sirolimus-induced vascular inflammatory reactions and poor healing response at the perforation site may be related to the shape of the aneurismal formation. Fortunately and interestingly, the size of the coronary aneurysm gradually decreased, and finally by 26 months a nearly complete resolution of the aneurysm had taken place. Furthermore, close follow-up by coronary 3-dimensional computed tomography (3DCT) could clearly demonstrate the natural course of this aneurysm. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports on the natural course of coronary aneurysm associated with a coronary perforation after SES(s) implantation for more than 2 years using coronary 3DCT as in this present case. The phenomenon of the spontaneous resolution of the coronary aneurysm after SES implantation may have clinical therapeutic implications
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