Forest fires: Evaluation of government intervention measures

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between government measures, volunteer participation, climate variables and forest fires. A number of studies have related forest fires to causes of ignition, to fire history in one area, to the type of vegetation and weathercharacteristics or to community institutions, but there is little research on the relation between fire production and government prevention and extinction measures from a policy evaluation perspective.An observational approach is first applied to select forest fires in the north east of Spain. Taking a selection of fires with a certain size, a multiple regression analysis is conducted to find significant relations between policy instruments under the control of the government and the number of hectares burn in each case, controlling at the same time the effect of weather conditions and other context variables. The paper brings evidence on the effects of simultaneity and the relevance of recurring to army soldiers in specific days with extraordinary high simultaneity. The analysis also brings light on the effectiveness of twopreventive policies and of helicopters for extinction tasks.

Conflict-induced poverty: Evidence from Colombia

En Colombia, la pobreza y el conflicto están estrechamente relacionados. Este estudio usa medidas de disuasión del gobierno como instrumentos de varias variables específicas de conflicto para estimar el impacto del conflicto sobre la pobreza en Colombia. Usando datos del censo a nivel municipal para el año 2005, evalúo el efecto sobre la incidencia urbana y rural del recientemente-desarrollado Índice de Pobreza Multidimensional. Los resultados sugieren que el conflicto aumenta significativamente la pobreza rural. Esto es consistente con el hecho que la mayor parte del conflicto en Colombia ocurre en las áreas rurales. También evalúo el efecto rezagado del conflicto en la pobreza para concluir que éste dura por al menos tres años pero que decae en el tiempo. Finalmente, pruebo que mis resultados son robustos a una batería de especificaciones adicionales, incluyendo una versión modificada de mi variable dependiente y el uso de una base alternativa de conflicto.

China´s Economic Security Police Towards ASEAN From

After the economic reforms of 1978, China started rising very fast and started engaging other countries in the region which has served to increase its confidence in the region. In the post cold war period, China was seen as a big threat for the region because of its claims on the South China Sea. Nevertheless, this image was eliminated when China engaged ASEAN and other multilateral and regional organizations. This paper is studying China’s economic and security policies towards ASEAN. Globalization Theory is the theory being used to explain the nature of China-ASEAN relations. This research paper argues that China’s rise is promoting peace in the region. With the engagement policy, China started promoting trade and security co operations based on mutual benefits and dialogues for the peaceful resolutions of the disputes in the region. This contributed greatly to improve China’s image in the region. Additionally, China’s posture during the economic crises of 1997 also greatly contributed to improve its image. Thus, the rise of China is providing opportunity to the other countries in East Asia. Chapter One: Background On China-ASEAN Relations The use of Soft Power and engagement policy by the Chinese government has helped to change China’s image in the region. By using these policies China has been able to clear the feeling of suspicion and mistrust among the Asian states. China has increased its participation in multilateral and regional organizations, such as ASEAN. Due to this China has been able to promote economic and security co-operation among countries in the region. Thus, from being a potential threat China became a potential co-operative partner. Chapter Two: A Look into ASEAN ASEAN was originally formed on 8th August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand, by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Nevertheless, ASEAN was not the first regional group created to act as forum for dialogue between the leaders of different countries. Thought, it is the only one which could work in the region. The aim of the foundation of ASEAN was to promote peace and stability in the Abstract 2 region and also contain the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. For this reason, China did not engage ASEAN until 1990. However, in 1978 with the establishment of the open up policy China started engaging other countries. It started building trust among its neighboring countries by using soft power. By 1992, China formalized its diplomatic ties with ASEAN as a group. The diplomatic ties between China and ASEAN focus on multilateralism and co-operation as the best way for a more peaceful Asia and the search for common security. Thus, security in the region is promoted through economic co-operation among the states. Therefore the relation between China – ASEAN emphasizes the five principles of peaceful coexistence, mutual benefits in economic co-operation, dialogue promoting trust and the peaceful settlement of disputes. Chapter Three: China-ASEAN Economic Relations Since 1978 The economic reform of 1978 has greatly contributed to the economic development of China. After the adoption of the open up policy, China has been able to establish economic and trade relations with the outside world. The realist school of thought had predicted that Asia will not be stable in the post cold war period. Nevertheless, this has not been the case in Asia. China is growing peacefully with the co-operation of countries in the region. China is establishing strong ties with its neighboring countries. China and ASEAN relations focus on mutual benefit instead of being a zero sum game. Thus these relations are aimed at encouraging trust and economic co-operation in the region. China and ASEAN have agreed on Free Trade to assure that the two parties benefit from the co-operation. The ACFTA will have a great impact on economic, political and security issues. This will enable China to increase its influence in Asia and counterbalance the influences that Japan and U.S have in the region. Chapter Four: China ASEAN Relations in the Security Perspective This Chapter is about China and ASEAN relations on security issue. The new security issues of the post cold war period need to be solved in multilateral way. China as a major power in the region, through its engagement policy has solved most Abstract 3 of the disputes in the region using multilateral means. China has also found ways to solve the dispute over Spratly Islands peacefully, through dialogue using ASEAN. Additionally, China signed the Treaty of Amity in 2003, promoted security initiatives through ARF, Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and documents covering non-traditional security threats, economic co-operation and agricultural co-operation in November 2002, and the Joint Declaration on Strategic. Chapter Five: Finding and Analysis This chapter provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the date collected throughout this research. It provides an analysis of how the rise of China is promoting peace in the region. China has been promoting mutual beneficial trade and security co-operation which has increased its influence in the region. China has also been able to solve most of the territorial and border dispute in the region through ASEAN. Thus, ASEAN has amended China’s relations with other countries in the region. Therefore, China’s foreign policy in the region has a big impact in shaping the dynamic relations in East Asia. Conclusion and Recommendations This paper concluded that the relationships between China and ASEAN are contributing to peace in the region. After China engaged ASEAN, it has been able to promote multilateral trade based on mutual benefit. This is clearly emphasized by the CAFTA. Additionally, China has solved most of the dispute in the region. It has also found way for a peaceful resolution of the dispute over Spratly Island. Nowadays, the ASEAN countries don’t see China as a threat to the region. Nevertheless, they’ve adopted deterrence measures such as establishing diplomatic relations with other big powers in the region to assure that the region continues to grow peacefully. Concerning this deterrence measures, I recommend as another way for a continued peaceful growth, the resolution of the outstanding dispute.

Transparency and trust in government (2007-2014): a comparative study

In a 2000 report entitled "Trust in government. Ethics measures in OECD countries," OECD Secretary-General Donald J. Johnston emphasized the fact that public ethics are considered as a keystone of good governance. Moreover, public ethics are a prerequisite to public trust, which is in turn vital not only to any public service, but also to any society in general. At the same time, transparency reforms have flourished over the last few years and have several times been designed as a response to public distrust. Therefore, ethics, transparency and trust are closely linked together in a supposed virtuous circle where transparency works as a factor of better public ethics and leads to more trust in government on the citizens' side. This article explores the links between transparency and levels of trust in 10 countries between 2007 and 2014, using open data indexes and access to information requests as proxies for transparency. A national ranking of transparency, based on requests submitted by citizens to the administration and open data indexes, is then proposed. Key findings show that there is no sharp decline of trust in government in all countries considered in this article, and that transparency and trust in government are not systematically positively associated. Therefore, this article challenges the common assumption, mostly found in the normative literature, about a positive interrelation between the two, where trust in government is conceived as a beneficial effect of administrative transparency.

Conflict and child labor: evidence from poor households in Colombia

Colombia suffers from one of the longest civil conflicts in the world, which is believed to have had several consequences on the country’s economic and development performance. This study uses measures of central government deterrence effort as instruments of conflict to estimate the impact of conflict on children’s time allocation to two different types of work: housework and work performed outside the household for poor families living in small municipalities in Colombia. I find that conflict significantly increases the amount of time children allocate to work. Both housework, for girls, and work outside the household, for boys, increase with Guerrilla attacks. However, the later effect is the opposite for Paramilitary attacks.

Higher Standards Lead to Better Results, Data Download, Iowa Department of Corrections, February 2010

Like many businesses and government agencies, the Iowa Department of Corrections has been measuring our results for some years now. Certain performance measures are collected and reported to the Governor as part of the Director’s Flexible Performance Agreement used to evaluate the DOC Director. Updates of these measures are forwarded to DOC staff on a quarterly basis. In addition, the Iowa Department of Management requires each state agency to report on certain performance measures as part of Iowa’s effort to ensure accountability in state government. These measures and their progress are posted to www.ResultsIowa.org

Crise financeira: o caso japonês

This paper aims to analyze the experience of Japan after the collapse of speculative bubbles in assets and the banking crisis in the 1990s. An analysis about the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policy is conducted and the measures taken with respect to the banking sector are also discussed in this paper. The Japanese financial crisis experience suggests that the nature, speed and order in which the government implements measures determine, in large part, the magnitude and cost of the crisis. Therefore, in hindsight, it can be said that the following tasks were necessary: 1) recapitalize the banking sector; 2) restore credit; and 3) reinvigorate the economic activity through appropriate fiscal measures.

Influence of the Common Agricultural Policy and Heterogeneous Land Quality on Land Rent and Land Allocation. Factor Markets Working Paper No. 38, March 2013

Against the background of the current discussion about the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) after 2013, the question of the impact of government support on land prices is crucially important. Validation of the CAP’s success also hinges on a proper assessment of a choice of policy instruments. This study therefore has the objective of investigating on a theoretical basis the effects of different government support measures on land rental prices and land allocation. The different measures under consideration are the price support, area payments and decoupled single farm payments (SFPs) of the CAP. Our approach evaluates the potential impact of each measure based on a Ricardian land rent model with heterogeneous land quality and multiple land uses. We start with a simple model of one output and two inputs, where a Cobb-Douglas production technology is assumed between the two factors of land and non-land inputs. In a second step, an outside option is introduced. This outside option, as opposed to land use of the Ricardian type, is independent of land quality. The results show that area payments and SFPs become fully capitalised into land rents, whereas in a price support scheme the capitalisation depends on per-acreage productivity. Moreover, in a price support scheme and a historical model, the capitalisation is positively influenced by land quality. Both area payments and price supports influence land allocation across different uses compared with no subsidies, where the shift tends to be larger in an area payment scheme than in a price support scheme. By contrast, SFPs do not influence land allocation.

Towards a Bourdieusian analysis of the disabled body and practice: embodying negative symbolic capitals and the uneasy experience of hysteresis

Within the last few years, disabled people have become the target of government austerity measures through drastic cuts to welfare justified through the portrayal of benefit claimants as inactive, problem citizens who are wilfully unemployed. For all that is wrong with these cuts, they are one of many aspects of exclusion that disabled people face. Attitudes towards disability are deteriorating (Scope, 2011) and disabled people are devalued and negatively positioned in a myriad of ways, meaning that an understanding of the perceptions and positioning of disability and the power of disabling practices is critical. This thesis will examine how Bourdieu’s theoretical repertoire may be applied to the area of Disability Studies in order to discern how society produces oppressive and exclusionary systems of classification which structures the social position and perceptions of disability. The composite nature of disability and multiple forms of exclusion and inequality associated with it benefits from a multipronged approach which acknowledges personal, embodied and psychological aspects of disability alongside socio-political and cultural conceptualisations. Bourdieu’s approach is one in which the micro and macro aspects of social life are brought together through their meso interplay and provides a thorough analysis of the many aspects of disability.

The Cornerstones of Modern Government Maps, Weights and Measures and Census in Liberal Portugal (19th century)

Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor in History and Civilisation from the European University Institute

Government actions to support coffee producers - an investigation of possible measures from the European Union

We outline possible actions to be adopted by the European Union to ensure a better share of total coffee revenues to producers in developing countries. The way to this translates, ultimately, in producers receiving a fair price for the commodity they supply, i.e., a market price that results from fair market conditions in the whole coffee producing chain. We plead for proposals to take place in the consuming countries, as market conditions in the consuming-countries side of the coffee producing chain are not fair; market failures and ingenious distortions are responsible for the enormous asymmetry of gains in the two sides. The first of three proposals for consumer government supported actions is to help in the creation of domestic trading companies for achieving higher export volumes. These tradings would be associated to roasters that, depending on the final product envisaged, could perform the roasting in the country and export the roasted – and sometimes ground – coffee, breaking the increasing importers-exporters verticalisation. Another measure would be the systematic provision of basic intelligence on the consuming markets. Statistics of the quantities sold according to mode of consumption, by broad “categories of coffee” and point of sale, could be produced for each country. They should be matched to the exports/imports data and complemented by (aggregate) country statistics on the roasting sector. This would extremely help producing countries design their own market and producing strategies. Finally, a fund, backed by a common EU tax on roasted coffee – created within the single market tax harmonisation programme, is suggested. This European Coffee Fund would have two main projects. Together with the ICO, it would launch an advertising campaign on coffee in general, aimed at counterbalancing the increasing “brandification” of coffee. Basic information on the characteristics of the plant and the drink would be passed, and the effort could be extended to the future Eastern European members of the Union, as a further assurance that EU processors would not have a too privileged access to these new markets. A quality label for every coffee sold in the Union could complement this initiative, helping to create a level playing field for products from outside the EU. A second project would consist in a careful diversification effort, to take place in selected producing countries.