Government Influence on the Construction Industry during the Economic Recession 2007 - 2013

Due to the high degree of international and economic integration across the globe, the 2007 global financial crisis quickly spread, causing recessions and widespread credit restrictions in advanced nations. During recessions, economic fluctuations cause dramatic changes to the market structure of industries, in particular, that of the construction sector. These structural changes can be further influenced by government strategies and policies; which if used incorrectly, can serve to fuel and exacerbate downturns. In contrasting form, during an economic recession, government strategies and policies can also be used to aid in exiting such economic turbulence. From an extensive review of literature it became apparent that very little research offered a comprehensive and systematic overview of Irish and UK construction related government policies and strategies adopted during recessions; hence the emergence of this topic. As part of an ongoing research PhD, the purpose of this paper is to collate and group Irish and UK Government strategies and policies adopted for the construction sector during the recession period 2007-2013; resulting in the establishment of a construction industry development framework and a taxonomic framework. The results reveal serious problems with the national strategic plan for the Irish construction industry, given that there is no overseeing body or target dates for implementation of the proposed actions. Furthermore, both countries failed to prioritize the proposed key actions within their strategic plans. The findings of this paper can be applied in the context of the construction sector to address shortcomings in the respective sub-sectors, while also aiding policy makers and company executives in mapping out future strategic milestones.

Cases, Materials and Text on National, Supranational and International Non-Discrimination Law

This casebook, the result of the collaborative efforts of a panel of experts from various EU Member States, is the latest in the Ius Commune Casebook series developed at the Universities of Maastricht and Leuven. The book provides a comprehensive and skilfully designed resource for students, practitioners, researchers, public officials, NGOs, consumer organisations and the judiciary. In common with earlier books in the series, this casebook presents cases and other materials (legislative materials, international and European materials, excerpts from books or articles). As non-discrimination law is a comparatively new subject, the chapters search for and develop the concepts of discrimination law on the basis of a wide variety of young and often still emerging case law and legislation. The result is a comprehensive textbook with materials from a wide variety of EU Member States. The book is entirely in English (i.e. materials are translated where not available in English). At the end of each chapter a comparative overview ties the material together, with emphasis, where appropriate, on existing or emerging general principles in the legal systems within Europe.
The book illustrates the distinct relationship between international, European and national legislation in the field of non-discrimination law. It covers the grounds of discrimination addressed in the Racial Equality and Employment Equality Directives, as well as non-discrimination law relating to gender. In so doing, it covers the law of a large number of EU Member States, alongside some international comparisons.
The Ius Commune Casebook on Non-Discrimination Law
- provides practitioners with ready access to primary and secondary legal material needed to assist them in crafting test case strategies.
- provides the judiciary with the tools needed to respond sensitively to such cases.
- provides material for teaching non-discrimination law to law and other students.
- provides a basis for ongoing research on non-discrimination law.
- provides an up-to-date overview of the implementation of the Directives and of the state of the law.
This Casebook is the result of a project which has been supported by a grant from the European Commission's Anti-Discrimination Programme.

On convergence with hiccups: recent amendments to Poland's competition law

Discusses the amendments to the Polish Competition Act 2007 adopted in June 2014 which aim to enhance the effectiveness of antitrust enforcement, including the introduction of: (1) civil fines for individuals; (2) a "leniency plus" programme based on the US model; (3) a settlement procedure; and (4) extended inspection powers for the Competition Authority. Assesses the likely effectiveness of the reforms.

The role of English in international business: the case of China

Esta tese propõe-se examinar o papel e estatuto do Inglês nos negócios internacionais na China, tomando como enquadramento a transformação deste país desde 1978 até ao presente. No quadro actual da globalização e internacionalização sociais e económicas, apresenta-se uma perspectiva das tendências demográficas e padrões económicos bem como a situação social e cultural actual da China. A relação entre a língua inglesa e práticas e valores associados e a cultura dos negócios na China também foi investigada através de um trabalho de campo realizado em empresas nacionais e internacionais, localizadas em diferentes regiões da China, em 2007 e 2008. Através dos resultados deste estudo, reconhecemos a máxima importância atribuída tanto à língua inglesa como à comunicação intercultural pela população inquirida, sublinhando a necessidade de desenvolver as competências interculturais e linguísticas orientadas para a gestão eficiente dos negócios. Com base nos nossos resultados, pode ser extraída a conclusão de que o Inglês funciona como uma ferramenta principal e um abrir de caminhos para encurtar a lacuna linguística e cultural entre as diferentes comunidades empresariais. Ajuda a China a adaptar-se e interagir com outras culturas e chegar harmoniosamente ao principio “win-win”, ou seja, alcançar o sucesso esperado nos negócios internacionais de hoje. Por outro lado, torna-se claro que os papéis, a natureza e o estatuto do Inglês/”Englishes” evoluem a par de processos de mudança social, cultural e económica. Prevê-se que esta evolução continuará, ficando a paisagem linguística mais complexa. Espera-se que este trabalho contribua para a melhor compreensão das relações entre a China e o resto do mundo.

Old conflicts, new rivals? Airline competition in the European market

Christoph Franz of Lufthansa recently identified Ryanair, easyJet, Air Berlin and Emirates as the company’s main competitors – gone are the days when it could benchmark itself against BA or Air France-KLM! This paper probes behind the headlines to assess the extent to which different airlines are in competition, using evidence from the UK and mainland European markets. The issue of route versus network competition is addressed. Many regulators have put an emphasis on the former whereas the latter, although less obvious, can be more relevant. For example, BA and American will cease to compete between London and Dallas Fort Worth if their alliance obtains anti-trust immunity but 80% of the passengers on this route are connecting at one or both ends and hence arguably belong to different markets (e.g. London-San Francisco, Zurich-Dallas, Edinburgh-New Orleans) which may be highly contested. The remaining 20% of local traffic is actually insufficient to support a single point to point service in its own right. Estimates are made of the seat capacity major airlines are offering to the local market as distinct from feeding other routes. On a sector such as Manchester–Amsterdam, 60% of KLM’s passengers are transferring at Schiphol as against only 1% of bmibaby’s. Thus although KLM operates 5 flights and 630 seats per day against bmibaby’s 2 flights and 298 seats, in the point to point market bmibaby offers more seats than KLM. The growth of the Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) means that competition increasingly needs to be viewed on city pair markets (e.g. London-Rome) rather than airport pair markets (e.g. Heathrow-Fiumicino). As the stronger LCCs drive out weaker rivals and mainline carriers retrench to their major hubs, some markets now have fewer direct options than existed prior to the low cost boom. Timings and frequencies are considered, in particular the extent to which services are a true alternative especially for business travellers. LCCs typically offer lower frequencies and more unsociable timings (e.g. late evening arrivals at remote airports) as they are more focused on providing the cheapest service rather than the most convenient schedule. Interesting findings on ‘monopoly’ services are presented (including alliances) - certain airlines have many more of these than others. Lufthansa has a significant number of sectors to itself whereas at the other extreme British Airways has direct competition on almost every route in its network. Ryanair and flybe have a higher proportion of monopoly routes than easyJet or Air Berlin. In the domestic US market it has become apparent since deregulation that better financial returns can come from dominating a large number of smaller markets rather than being heavily exposed in the major markets - which are hotly fought over. Regional niches that appear too thin for Ryanair to serve (with its all 189 seat 737-800 fleet) are identified. Fare comparisons in contrasting markets provide some insights to marketing and pricing strategies. Data sources used include OAG (schedules and capacity), AEA (traditional European airlines traffic by region), the UK CAA (airport, airline and route traffic plus survey information of passenger types) and ICAO (international route traffic and capacity by carrier). It is concluded that airlines often have different competitors depending on the context but in surprisingly many cases there are actually few or no direct substitutes. The competitive process set in train by deregulation of European air services in the 1990s is leading back to one of natural monopolies and oblique alternatives. It is the names of the main participants that have changed however!

Desirable role in an international duopoly model with tariffs

In this paper, we study an international market model in which the home government imposes a tariff on the imported goods. The model has two stages. In the first stage, the home government chooses an import tariff to maximize a function that cares about the home firm’s profit and the total revenue. Then, the firms engage in a Cournot or in a Stackelberg competition. We compare the results obtained in the three different ways of moving on the decision make of the firms.

Asymmetric dynamic price competition with uncertainty

We consider a dynamic setting-price duopoly model in which a dominant (leader) firm moves first and a subordinate (follower) firm moves second. We suppose that each firm has two different technologies, and uses one of them according to a certain probability distribution. The use of either one or the other technology affects the unitary production cost. We analyse the effect of the production costs uncertainty on the profits of the firms, for different values of the intercept demand parameters.

Cournot duopoly with competition in the R&D expenditures

We present a new R&D investment in a Cournot Duopoly model and we analyze the different possible types of Nash R&D investments. We observe that the new production costs region can be decomposed in three economical regions, depending on the Nash R&D investment, showing the relevance of the use of patents in new technologies.

Fingermarks and Other Impressions Left by the Human Body - A Review (August 2007-July 2010)

The purpose of this paper is to review the scientific literature from August 2007 to July 2010. The review is focused on more than 420 published papers. The review will not cover information coming from international meetings available only in abstract form. Fingermarks constitute an important chapter with coverage of the identification process as well as detection techniques on various surfaces. We note that the research has been very dense both at exploring and understanding current detection methods as well as bringing groundbreaking techniques to increase the number of marks detected from various objects. The recent report from the US National Research Council (NRC) is a milestone that has promoted a critical discussion on the state of forensic science and its associated research. We can expect a surge of interest in research in relation to cognitive aspect of mark and print comparison, establishment of relevant forensic error rates and statistical modelling of the selectivity of marks' attributes. Other biometric means of forensic identification such as footmarks or earmarks are also covered in the report. Compared to previous years, we noted a decrease in the number of submission in these areas. No doubt that the NRC report has set the seed for further investigation of these fields as well.

Impact of international consensus guidelines on antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis C patients in Switzerland.

To assess the impact of international consensus conference guidelines on the attitude of Swiss specialists when facing the decision to treat chronic hepatitis C patients. Questionnaires focusing on the personal situation and treatment decisions were mailed to 165 patients who were newly diagnosed with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and enrolled into the Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort Study during the years 2002-2004. Survey respondents (n = 86, 52.1%) were comparable to non-respondents with respect to severity of liver disease, history of substance abuse and psychiatric co-morbidities. Seventy percent of survey respondents reported having been offered antiviral treatment. Patients deferred from treatment had less advanced liver fibrosis, were more frequently infected with HCV genotypes 1 or 4 and presented more often with a history of depression. There were no differences regarding age, socio-economic background, alcohol abuse, intravenous drug abuse or methadone treatment when compared with patients to whom treatment was proposed. Ninety percent of eligible patients agreed to undergo treatment. Overall, 54.6% of respondents and 78.3% of those considered eligible had actually received antiviral therapy by 2007. Ninety-five percent of patients reported high satisfaction with their own hepatitis C management. Consistent with latest international consensus guidelines, patients enrolled in the Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort with a history of substance abuse were not withheld antiviral treatment. A multidisciplinary approach is warranted to provide antiviral treatment to patients suffering from depression.