Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany

The Great Depression spurred State ownership in Western capitalist countries. Germany was no exception; the last governments of the Weimar Republic took over firms in diverse sectors. Later, the Nazi regime transferred public ownership and public services to the private sector. In doing so, they went against the mainstream trends in the Western capitalist countries, none of which systematically reprivatized firms during the 1930s. Privatization in Nazi Germany was also unique in transferring to private hands the delivery f public services previously provided by government. The firms and the services transferred to private ownership belonged to diverse sectors. Privatization was part of an intentional policy with multiple objectives and was not ideologically driven. As in many recent privatizations, particularly within the European Union, strong financial restrictions were a central motivation. In addition, privatization was used as a political tool to enhance support for the government and for the Nazi Party.

Ownership structure and innovation: Is there a real link?

This work focuses on the study of the relationship between ownership and control structure of the company and its innovative activity. Its aim consists of analysing the role that may be played by determinants within the company related to ownership structure when the decision to incur research and development activities is taken as well as on the output of this innovate process. Among these determinants we may think of issues such as who owns the firm and how the control of decision-making is distributed, the nature of this control and the level of concentration of ownership, among others. The study is carried out for the year 2001 using a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing industries.

Willigness to pay for long-term care coverage: the role of private information and self-insurance

Both public and private insurance for long-term care is undeveloped in some European countries such as in Spain and empirical evidence is still limited. This paper aims at exmining the determinants of the demand for Long Term Care (LTC) coverage in Spain using contingent valuation techniques. Our findings indicate that only one-fifth of the population is willing to pay to assure coverage decisions are significantly affected by private information asymmetry and housing tenure in giving rise to self-insurance reduces the probability of insurance being hypothetically purchased.

Consumer Advisory Bulletin, How to Avoid Buying a Salvage, Damaged or Flood Vehicle, August 2011

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: How to Avoid Buying a Salvage, Damaged or Flood Vehicle

Modelling non-industrial private forest landowners' strategic decision making by using logistic regression and neural networks: case of predicting the choice of forest taxation basis

Summary

Equipment and Vehicle Purchase Report for Fiscal Year 2011, January 13,2 012

Attached is the Equipment and Vehicle Purchase Report for Fiscal Year 2011 as required by Iowa Code section 307.47. The report is sorted by accounting object codes. The object codes help sort the equipment into general categories.

Vehicle Traffic Map, 2010

Vehicle Traffic Map produced by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

Registered Flex Fuel Vehicle Report, January 30, 2012

Iowa Code section 452A.33(3) requires by Feb. 1 of each year the Iowa Department of Transportation shall deliver a report to the governor and legislative services agency regarding flexible fuels vehicles registered in Iowa.

Statewide Economic Impacts of Disaster-Related Payments to Support Household and Private and Public Sector Recovery in Iowa, January 2010

There have been a multitude of programs providing assistance to the state of Iowa in the past 18 months. Springtime 2008 disasters resulted in tornado damage and widespread flood damage to large fractions of the state. In consequence, there was a very large flow of federal and state resources dedicated to assisting community and statewide recovery efforts. The nation was in recession as well and continued to be in recession through much of 2009. A sizeable amount of assistance found its way to Iowa under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in the forms of infrastructure stimulus spending, income supports and other safety net spending for households, and stabilization assistance for essential public services like education. On top of that, the state of Iowa authorized the I Jobs program as an additional infrastructure development program, and as a jobs stimulus program. The total amount of spending for all types of programs, disaster or economic recovery related, is perhaps as high as $7.5 billion over the next few years.

Iowa Private Sector Prison Employment Works, Data Download, Iowa Department of Corrections, November 2006

This issue of the ICON Data Download describes highlights from the findings for the Iowa sample, which tracked 1,091 inmates who worked in private sector prison industries jobs and were released from prison between 1999 and 2001, and compared their results with similar offenders who had worked in either traditional prison industries, or other institutional jobs. All offenders were tracked through mid-2003. This results in a follow-up period of slightly less than two years up to four and one-half years.

Law Enforcement Careers with Motor Vehicle Enforcement, October 17, 2008

A motor vehicle officer is peace officer whose primary duty it is to enforce all state and federal regulation that apply to commercial vehicles travels Iowa's roadways.

Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle, June 2002

This report documents Phase IV of the Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle (HMCV) project, a pooled fund study sponsored by the Departments of Transportation of Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. This report provides the background, including a brief history of the earlier phases of the project, a systems overview, and descriptions of the research conducted in Phase IV. Finally, the report provides conclusions and recommendations for future research. Background The goal of the Highway Maintenance Concept Vehicle Pooled Fund Study is to provide travelers with the level of service defined by policy during the winter season at the least cost to taxpayers. This goal is to be accomplished by using information regarding actual road conditions to facilitate and adjust snow and ice control activities. The approach used in this study was to bring technology applications from other industries to the highway maintenance vehicle. This approach is evolutionary in that as emerging technologies and applications are found to be acceptable to the pooled fund states and as they appear that to have potential for supporting the study goals they become candidates for our research. The objective of Phase IV is to: Conduct limited deployment of selected technologies from Phase III by equipping a vehicle with proven advanced technologies and creating a mobile test laboratory for collecting road weather data. The research quickly pointed out that investments in winter storm maintenance assets must be based on benefit/cost analysis and related to improving level of service. For example, Iowa has estimated the average cost of fighting a winter storm to be about $60,000 to $70,000 per hour typically. The maintenance concept vehicle will have advanced technology equipment capable of applying precisely the correct amount of material, accurately tailored to the existing and predicted pavement conditions. Hence, a state using advanced technology could expect to have a noticeable impact on the average time taken to establish the winter driving service level. If the concept vehicle and data produced by the vehicle are used to support decision-making leading to reducing material usage and the average time by one hour, a reasonable benefit/cost will result. Data from the friction meter can be used to monitor and adjust snow and ice control activities and inform travelers of pavement surface conditions. Therefore, final selection of successfully performing technologies will be based on the foundation statements and criteria developed by the study team.

Resuming motor vehicle driving following orthopaedic surgery or limb trauma.

Following elective orthopaedic surgery or the treatment of a fracture, patients are temporarily unable to drive. This loss of independence may have serious social and economic consequences for the patient. It is therefore essential to know when it is safe to permit such patients to return to driving. This article, based upon a review of the current literature, proposes recommendations of the time period after which patients may safely return to driving. Practical decisions are made based upon the type of surgical intervention or fracture. Swiss legislation is equally approached so as to better define the decision.