The true political economy of Ireland, or, Rack-rent the one great cause of all her evils : with its remedy, being a speech delivered at a meeting of the farming and laboring classes, at Inch, in the Queen's County /

Goldsmiths'-Kress library of economic literature, no. 28981.

Evaluation of economic rent of hydropower: A case of Nepal

Like any other natural resources, hydro resources that are capable of generating electricity at cheaper cost give rise to economic rent. Nepal possesses huge amount of such cheaper hydro resources which is far in excess of the domestic demand. The existing rents levied by the governments are not found to address the potential value of resources. In this study hydro rent is calculated for two types of hydropower projects: (i) domestic demand oriented project and (ii) large and export oriented project. In doing so, the study uses the concept of hydro rent as a measure of cost savings achievable by the use of hydro resources over the least cost alternatives. The WASP-III+ optimisation software developed by IAEA has been used to derive two least cost generation expansion plans i.e. one with and the other without the nominated hydro resource. The difference in the costs of two plans gives the rent of the hydro resource.

Unions:rent creators or extractors?

This paper proposes a model of workplace-specific unions that integrates two views of what unions do. One view holds that unions mainly engage in rent extraction. Another view holds that unions mainly engage in rent creation by providing agency services that increase workplace productivity. We demonstrate that the choice between the two activities is systematically related to the economic and regulatory environment in which the union operates. Product market competition encourages rent creation, while labor market deregulation encourages rent extraction. Moreover, we provide a rationale for why firms may want to subsidize unions. © The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2005.

A framework for assessing business-incubation input, process and output performance:proceedings of the RENT XXVII Conference, 20-22 November 2013, Vilnius, Lithuania

With business incubators deemed as a potent infrastructural element for entrepreneurship development, business incubation management practice and performance have received widespread attention. However, despite this surge of interest, scholars have questioned the extent to which business incubation delivers added value. Thus, there is a growing awareness among researchers, practitioners and policy makers of the need for more rigorous evaluation of the business incubation output performance. Aligned to this is an increasing demand for benchmarking business incubation input/process performance and highlighting best practice. This paper offers a business incubation assessment framework, which considers input/process and output performance domains with relevant indicators. This tool adds value on different levels. It has been developed in collaboration with practitioners and industry experts and therefore it would be relevant and useful to business incubation managers. Once a large enough database of completed questionnaires has been populated on an online platform managed by a coordinating mechanism, such as a business incubation membership association, business incubator managers can reflect on their practices by using this assessment framework to learn their relative position vis-à-vis their peers against each domain. This will enable them to align with best practice in this field. Beyond implications for business incubation management practice, this performance assessment framework would also be useful to researchers and policy makers concerned with business incubation management practice and impact. Future large-scale research could test for construct validity and reliability. Also, discriminant analysis could help link input and process indicators with output measures.

Subsidies, rent seeking and performance:being young, small or private in China

Entrepreneurs in emerging market economies operate in weak institutional contexts, which can imply different types of government. In some countries (e.g., Russia), the government is predatory, and the main risk faced by (successful) entrepreneurs relates to expropriation. In other countries (like China) this kind of risk is lower; nevertheless the government is intrusive, and the rules of the game remain fluid. The implication of the latter for entrepreneurs is that they are more likely to spend time and resources on influence (rent seeking) activities rather than on productive activities.We illustrate this type of government by focusing on the distribution of subsidies in China.We present a simple formalmodel that explores not only the direct effects of rent seeking for a company but also externalities under a situation of policy-generated uncertainty in the distribution of subsidies.We explore how these effects differ for the entrepreneurial sector (young, private and small companies) compared with other sectors. We posit that while the performance of private companies is more affected than the performance of state firms, the impact of government-induced uncertainty on young and small companies is actually less pronounced. Our empirical analysis, based on a unique large dataset of 2.4 million observations on Chinese companies, takes advantage of the regional and sectoral heterogeneity of China for empirical tests.

Járadékteremtés és az áldemokráciák = Rent creation and pseudo-democracies

Tanulmányunkban egy olyan rendszerrel foglalkozunk, amely köztes helyet foglal el a demokrácia és az autokrácia között, mindkettő jegyeit magán viseli, és amelyet ezért áldemokráciának nevezünk. A rendszer működési sajátosságait a járadékok szemszögéből vizsgáljuk, és arra keressük a választ, hogy demokratikus országokban hogyan képes egy párt tartósan domináns pozícióban maradni. Modellünk segítségével összekapcsoljuk a járadékteremtést a szavazatok maximalizálásának céljával, és bemutatjuk, miért jelenthet racionális döntést a hatalmon lévők számára a rövid távú optimumon túlmutató járadékteremtés is. A modell rávilágít arra, hogy a többletjáradékok segítségével a kormányzat - klientúrája megerősítése, a demokratikus rendszer határainak feszegetése, valamint az ellenzék visszaszorítása révén - hosszú távú előnyökre tehet szert, áldemokráciát hozva létre. Történelmi példák jól mutatják, hogy a rendszer bukását végül általában a gyengébb gazdasági teljesítmény és a korrupció széles körűvé válása kényszeríti ki. _____ The paper focuses on a specific political system lying between democracy and autocracy, which has similarities to both. Called here a pseudo-democracy, it is examined from the point of view of rents. The paper enquires how a democracy can allow a single party to dominate the political landscape for a long period. The author constructs a model to link rent creation to vote maximization, arguing that it can be rational for incumbents to increase rents beyond the short-term optimum. The model also reveals that surplus rents may offer long-term gains to an elite by strengthening its clientčle, challenging the systemic political framework and holding back the opposition. Historical examples show that the end-result of a pseudo-democratic system will usually be to weaken economic performance and increase corruption.

Elderly demonstrate against rent increases

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Handicapped woman attends rent-increase housing demonstration

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Women demonstrate in front of City Hall against rent increases especially for single elderly women

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Indoor environments : design, productivity and health

In a typical large office block, by far the largest lifetime expense is the salaries of the workers - 84% for salaries compared with : office rent (14%), total energy (1%), and maintenance (1%). The key drive for business is therefore the maximisation of the productivity of the employees as this is the largest cost. Reducing total energy use by 50% will not produce the same financial return as 1% productivity improvement? The aim of the project which led to this review of the literature was to understand as far as possible the state of knowledge internationally about how the indoor environment of buildings does influence occupants and the impact this influence may have on the total cost of ownership of buildings. Therefore one of the main focus areas for the literature has been identifying whether there is a link between productivity and health of building occupants and the indoor environment. Productivity is both easy to define - the ratio of output to input - but at the same time very hard to measure in a relatively small environment where individual contributions can influence the results, in particular social interactions. Health impacts from a building environment are also difficult to measure well, as establishing casual links between the indoor environment and a particular health issue can be very difficult. All of those issues are canvassed in the literature reported here. Humans are surprisingly adaptive to different physical environments, but the workplace should not test the limits of human adaptability. Physiological models of stress, for example, accept that the body has a finite amount of adaptive energy available to cope with stress. The importance of, and this projects' focus on, the physical setting within the integrated system of high performance workplaces, means this literature survey explores research which has been undertaken on both physical and social aspects of the built environment. The literature has been largely classified in several different ways, according to the classification scheme shown below. There is still some inconsistency in the use of keywords, which is being addressed and greater uniformity will be developed for a CD version of this literature, enabling searching using this classification scheme.

Debate on statutory control of the surveying profession in Queensland : 1907 to 1975

This article was written in 1997. After a 2009 review the content was left mostly unchanged - apart from this re-written abstract, restructured headings and a table of contents. The article deals directly with professional registration of surveyors; but it also relates to government procurement of professional services. The issues include public service and professional ethics; setting of professional fees; quality assurance; official corruption; and professional recruitment, education and training. Debate on the Land Surveyors Act 1908 (Qld) and its amendments to 1916 occurred at a time when industrial unrest of the 1890s and common market principles of the new Commonwealth were fresh in peoples’ minds. Industrial issues led to a constitutional crisis in the Queensland’s then bicameral legislature and frustrated a first attempt to pass a Surveyors Bill in 1907. The Bill was re-introduced in 1908 after fresh elections and Kidston’s return as state premier. Co-ordinated immigration and land settlement polices of the colonies were discontinued when the Commonwealth gained power over immigration in 1901. Concerns shifted to protecting jobs from foreign competition. Debate on 1974 amendments to the Act reflected concerns about skill shortages and professional accreditation. However, in times of economic downturn, a so-called ‘chronic shortage of surveyors’ could rapidly degenerate into oversupply and unemployment. Theorists championed a naïve ‘capture theory’ where the professions captured governments to create legislative barriers to entry to the professions. Supposedly, this allowed rent-seeking and monopoly profits through lack of competition. However, historical evidence suggests that governments have been capable of capturing and exploiting surveyors. More enlightened institutional arrangements are needed if the community is to receive benefits commensurate with sizable co-investments of public and private resources in developing human capital.