How do domestic policies affect the integration of Ethiopian fertiliser markets with world markets?

Frequent shifts in policy on fertiliser markets have occurred in Ethiopia with the aim of facilitating both physical and economic access of farmers to fertiliser. The last shift was the introduction of a monopoly on each stage of the supply chain in 2008. Furthermore, government control of prices and margins as well as stockholding programmes are also present on the markets. This paper evaluates the effect of these policies on the integration of domestic with world markets of fertiliser, using cointegration methods. Time series data of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea prices on world, import and retail markets between 1971 and 2012 are used. The findings show high transmission of price signals from world markets to import prices for both DAP and urea. However, between import and retail prices there is no evidence of cointegration for urea, while for DAP full price transmission is concluded. In the retail market, domestic transaction costs associated with storing large volumes of fertiliser act as a buffer between import and retail prices, especially for urea. Therefore, economic benefits could be achieved by reducing the size of stocks and revising the demand estimation process.

Personnel Practices in Japanese Government

This paper examines key aspects of Japanese Government personnel practices, and draws comparisons with the practices in the U.S. civil service and, as appropriate, with other U.S. models. Particular reference is made to the practices of two major agencies in Japan, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). As appropriate, selected government businesses practices other than personnel practices are noted.

Estado del arte acerca de las discusiones teóricas sobre soberanía del estado y la unión monetaria europea entre 2002 - 2010. Caso: El Reino Unido

El siguiente trabajo tiene como objetivo el Estado del arte acerca de la discusión teórica de la repercusión de la unión monetaria en el principio de soberanía nacional, específicamente el caso de Gran Bretaña, ya que éste es el único país que expresa abiertamente su incertidumbre referente a algún tipo de amenaza a su soberanía. Se pretende precisar si existen criterios concluyentes, o por el contrario determinar si no hay claridad con respecto al futuro de Gran Bretaña como miembro de la unión monetaria.A partir de lo anterior, se plantean como sus propósitos particulares construir un marco conceptual acerca de la soberanía. Este estado del arte se inicia con citas de los principales autores de finales de siglo XVII y XVIII y finaliza con las posiciones conceptuales aportadas por los teóricos modernos motivados por el nacimiento de la Unión Europea como un nuevo orden político. Entre las que se citan: modelo centrico o intergubernamentalista, modelo de gobernabilidad multi-nivel, modelo neo-funcionalista y modelo federalista. Igualmente, el trabajo, busca desarrollar un marco conceptual sobre Unión Monetaria y su evolución hasta el logro de una unión fiscal europea en el periodo de 1950-2010, establecer las relaciones teóricas entre Soberanía del Estado y Unión Monetaria y por último realizar un análisis histórico hermenéutico de la Unión Europea y el caso del Reino Unido de acuerdo a las relaciones evidenciadas en los apartados teóricos entre soberanía del Estado y Unión Monetaria.

The causes of illegal drug industry growth in the Andes, Anti-Drug Policies and their effectiveness

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Objetivos de desarrollo del milenio y políticas de género en Marruecos (2008-2012)

El objetivo principal del presente trabajo es explicar de qué forma el Fondo para el Logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio (F-ODM) contribuyó al establecimiento de políticas de género en Marruecos. Como consecuencia de las dinámicas de interdependencia de los años 70, se hizo evidente que algunos estados no tenían la capacidad para proteger los Derechos Humanos, especialmente los derechos de las mujeres, por ésta razón las organizaciones supranacionales iniciaron lazos de cooperación con los estados para contribuir a la difusión y cumplimiento de los DD.HH. Tal es el caso de Marruecos, donde, entre el año 2008 y 2012, el F-ODM implementó un programa para promover el establecimiento de políticas de género a partir del empoderamiento de las mujeres, lo cual, contribuyó al proceso iniciado por el gobierno marroquí para fortalecer el marco normativo y mejorar la situación de las mujeres y niñas en el país.

Caracterización del comportamiento emprendedor para los estudiantes de administración de la universidad del rosario proyecto de investigación

El emprendimiento como campo de estudio ha cobrado una creciente relevancia en las agendas académicas y gubernamentales del último quinquenio por su capacidad para empujar el desarrollo económico y los procesos de innovación en los países. Un ejemplo de ello es Colombia, donde el nivel de impacto ha sido tan elevado que se han formalizado desde marcos regulatorios como la ley 1014 del 2006 para el fomento a la cultura empresarial, hasta instituciones de todo tipo para el fomento al emprendimiento empresarial. No obstante, los esfuerzos por estructurar espacios para estimular el emprendimiento deben trascender más allá del simple asistencialismo, para centrarse en la definición de planes estratégicos que permitan la formación de emprendedores de una manera articula y congruente con objetivos y políticas claramente identificadas. Por tal razón, desde el centro de emprendimiento de la Universidad de Rosario se impulsó el desarrollo de un estudio que permitiese la caracterización del perfil emprendedor de los estudiantes, a fin de identificar sus fortalezas y debilidades. Este estudio toma como base la metodología de características del comportamiento emprendedor o CCE para estudiar los alumnos de pregrado de la Facultad de Administración en cada uno de sus tres programas. Al final con estos resultados el Centro Emprendimiento podrá formular cada uno de sus planes, programas y proyectos, así como también políticas asociadas al desarrollo de las cualidades necesarias para formar mejores emprendedores (Pulgarín, S. 2011).

Poverty impacts of increased openness and fiscal policies in a dollarized economy: a CGE-micro approach for Ecuador

We quantify the effects on poverty and income distribution in Ecuador of bilateral trade liberalization with the US and a budget-neutral value added tax increase which seeks to compensate tariff revenue losses. We stress the study of fiscal policies that the government could tap in order to compensate for tariff revenue loss. This is a very important issue for Ecuador because this country adopted the US dollar as its currency in 2000, forgiving the use of important policy instruments. To study these issues we combine a reduced-form micro household income and occupational choice model (using 2005/6 data from the Ecuadorian LSMS) with a standard single-country computable general equilibrium model (employing a 2004 SAM). We follow a sequential approach that simulates the full distributional impact of trade and tax policies. We find that the impact of these policy changes on extreme poverty and income distribution is small but positive.

Regulatory governance in the latinamerican telecommunications sector

Empezando con Chile a comienzos de 1980, los países de América Latina han profundizado la reforma a las telecomunicaciones para crear un entorno regulatorio que incentive la inversión privada, en particular la inversión extranjera. En este artículo, trabajo las tendencias regulatorias en el sector telecomunicaciones de 24 países latinoamericanos y del caribe durante el período 1980-1997 y construyo un índice basado en : autonomía, rendición de cuentas, claridad de las funciones y objetivos, transparencia y participación, y el tipo de mandato legal que crea el ente regulador. El índice muestra que, en promedio, la mayoría de los países llevaron a cabo fuertes reformas regulatorias en la dirección sugerida por expertos e investigadores. El índice también se correlación bien con varias variables políticas, de riesgo, económicas y de telecomunicaciones.

State Policies, Territories and Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador (1983-2012)

This work seeks to reconstruct the dynamics of the agreements and disagreements between the State and the indigenous peoples in Ecuador, emphasising particularly on two key elements: first, the indigenous peoples participation and exercise of their political rights, in particular the right to self-government and autonomy within their jurisdictions; and secondly, indigenous peoples’ degree of direct influence on public policies’ formulation and implementation, specially those directly affecting their territories, including the exploitation of natural resources. In Ecuador, during this historical period, the state has gone through three major moments in its relationship with indigenous peoples: neo - indigenism associated to developmentalism (1980-1984); multiculturalism associated to neoliberalism (1984- 2006) as one of the dominant trends over the period; and the crisis of neoliberalism and the search for national diversity and interculturalism associated to post- neoliberalism (2007-2013). Each has had a particular connotation, as to the scope and methods to respond to indigenous demands. In this context, this research aims to answer the central question: how has the Ecuadorian State met the demands of the indigenous movement in the last three decades, and how has it ensured the validity of their gradually recognized rights? And how and to what extent by doing so, it contradicts and alters the existing economic model based on the extraction of primary resources?

Analysis of Pan-European attitudes to the eradication and control of bovine viral diarrhoea

At present, national-level policies concerning the eradication and control of bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) differ widely across Europe. Some Scandinavian countries have enacted strong regulatory frameworks to eradicate the disease, whereas other countries have few formal policies. To examine these differences, the attitudes of stakeholders and policy makers in 17 European countries were investigated. A web-based questionnaire was sent to policy makers, government and private sector veterinarians, and representatives of farmers' organisations. On total, 131 individuals responded to the questionnaire and their responses were analysed by applying a method used in sociolinguistics: frame analysis. The results showed that the different attitudes of countries that applied compulsory or voluntary frameworks were associated with different views about the attribution or blame for BVD and the roles ascribed to farmers and other stakeholders in its eradication and control.

Saving the planet but losing the landscape: the impact of renewable energy policies on rural Britain

The main instrument of the Government's renewable energy policy is to promote wind power through regulation and subsidy. This gives rise to anomalies in rural planning when turbines are erected in sensitve areas in which other forms of development are strictly controlled. The situation is reviewed in the context of economic viability and considered also against the alternative of growing fuel crops. The latter are currently hampered by lack of Government support but could fulfil a useful secondary role of sustaining the agricultural sector and with it the management of lowland landscapes.

Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe: a structured review of policies and their effectiveness

This review provides a classification of public policies to promote healthier eating as well as a structured mapping of existing measures in Europe. Complete coverage of alternative policy types was ensured by complementing the review with a selection of major interventions from outside Europe. Under the auspices of the Seventh Framework Programme's Eatwell Project, funded by the European Commission, researchers from five countries reviewed a representative selection of policy actions based on scientific papers, policy documents, grey literature, government websites, other policy reviews, and interviews with policy-makers. This work resulted in a list of 129 policy interventions, 121 of which were in Europe. For each type of policy, a critical review of its effectiveness was conducted, based on the evidence currently available. The results of this review indicate a need exists for a more systematic and accurate evaluation of government-level interventions as well as for a stronger focus on actual behavioral change rather than changes in attitude or intentions alone. The currently available evidence is very heterogeneous across policy types and is often incomplete.

Western Containment Policies in the Cold War; The Yugoslav Case, 1948-1953

Containment, as conceived by the US government official George Kennan, was an aggressive attempt to cause the Soviet Cold War empire to disintegrate. This can is demonstrated by the case study of how the USA, Britain, and France tried to instrumentalise renegade Tito's Yugoslavia as a wedge to break up the cohesion of the Communist regimes within the Soviet sphere. They supported Tito against subversion and planned Soviet-orchestrated military attack from its neighbouring states; Western plans for the support of Yugoslavia included plans for a selective use of nuclear weapons.

Government policy under price uncertainty: a source of volatility in illegal immigration

In this paper we provide an alternative explanation for why illegal immigration can exhibit substantial fluctuation. We develop a model economy in which migrants make decisions in the face of uncertain border enforcement and lump-sum transfers from the host country. The uncertainty is extrinsic in nature, a sunspot, and arises as a result of ambiguity regarding the commodity price of money. Migrants are restricted from participating in state-contingent insurance markets in the host country, whereas host country natives are not. Volatility in migration flows stems from two distinct sources: the tension between transfers inducing migration and enforcement discouraging it and secondly the existence of a sunspot. Finally, we examine the impact of a change in tax/transfer policies by the government on migration.

Executive project management structure and the challenges acing its adoption in the Nigerian construction industry

Project management (PM) is a globally recognized discipline and has been widely adopted within the construction industry. Despite advancements in the PM discipline, the ineffective traditional management system, typical of the non-executive PM structure, is still widely used in the Nigerian construction industry. The aim of this paper is thus to explore the challenges facing the adoption of the executive PM structure in Nigeria. The paper first assesses the level of growth of PM in Nigeria using UK best practices as a benchmark and identifies the key PM characteristics in the two countries. Focus group interviews were used to collect the primary data for the study and content analysis was used to present the results in a thematic format. The study revealed the key barriers to the adoption of an executive PM structure in Nigeria as a lack of proper awareness, unfavorable policies, skill shortages, the traditional culture of stakeholders and the absence of a regulatory body. It is recommended that the government, as a major player/client in the Nigerian construction industry, should lead the campaign to change the traditional industry approach to project management. This is necessary if construction stakeholders in Nigeria are to be educated and encouraged towards adopting and putting into practice effective PM.