Importing into the EU - Council Regulation (EEC) No 1991/2006

Report on the presentation held at BioFach, 23.02.2008, by Herman Van Boxem (European Commission, Agriculture and rural development Directorate-General Unit F5 - Organic farming) compiled by Beate Huber, FiB

The Political Economy of Pension Reforms in Croatia 1991-2006

After the collapse of ex-Yugoslavia, Croatia inherited a ‘premature’ socialist pay-asyou-go pension system. During the early 1990s, it was used more extensively than elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe to ease the pains of the country’s transition to a market economy, thereby leaving Croatian pensions in dire need of reforms. This article will try to meticulously describe the reform process during the period 1991-2006, which was characterised by three relatively independent phases: the first, a retrenchment phase, which condemned a majority of pensioners to old-age poverty; the second, a restructuring phase, which led, under the aegis of international financial institutions, to the legislation of radical reforms; and the third, a populist phase, which undid most of the previous efforts. The article will conclude that this concoction of poverty, agency capture and crony capitalism had a common denominator, that is the struggle for power during the country’s democratic consolidation.Croatia, institutional change, multipillar pension systems, pension reforms, populist measures

THE ESTIMATION OF WESTWARD DRIFT IN MGF ON THE NORTH AMERICA AND THE EUROPE

In this paper, we have studied the westward drift in secular variation of MGF by the dynamo theory and the observatories’ data of intermagnet.org on the North America and the Europe (1991-2006). The longitudinal and latitudinal drifts exist on the North America. And longitudinal drift is also defined on the Europe in (1991-2006). These drifts are approximation with other investigation’s results

Business cycle causation relations for Mercosur countries

This paper aims at investigating business cycle interdependences among Mercosur countries over the period 1991-2006. In particular, it analyses the causation relationships among the aforementioned countries’ business cycles, and the impact of the EU and US shocks on them. The estimated VAR model points out that some causation relations are present among the former, and that, conversely, the latter do not play a relevant role in determining the fluctuations of their economies.

Sex and the Uni: How Assortative Matching Affects Graduate Earnings

This paper examines how assortative matching affects graduate earnings through the choice of attending university. We build up a model where individuals decide whether to attend university for increasing both their future income and the probability to marry an educated partner. The theoretical results suggest that, as assortative matching increases, the number of graduates increases and their earnings fall. The test using the British Household Panel Survey for years 1991-2006 supports the theoretical findings.

Party organisational change in Italy (1991-2006)

This article analyses the organisational change in Italian political parties since 1990 with the aim of finding evidence in favour or against the widespread view in the literature that organisational resources, and hence power, are becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of party and/or parliamentary leaders, and that there is a corresponding decline in the territorial presence of parties. 10 The account made here of the evolution of Italian parties follows quite closely Katz and Mair’s approach by analysing separately their three organisational faces and observing their characteristics and change over time face by face. Trends in membership, finances, staff and party statutes confirm to a large extent the overall research hypothesis.This article analyses the organisational change in Italian political parties since 1990 with the aim of finding evidence in favour or against the widespread view in the literature that organisational resources, and hence power, are becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of party and/or parliamentary leaders, and that there is a corresponding decline in the territorial presence of parties. 10 The account made here of the evolution of Italian parties follows quite closely Katz and Mair’s approach by analysing separately their three organisational faces and observing their characteristics and change over time face by face. Trends in membership, finances, staff and party statutes confirm to a large extent the overall research hypothesis

The Effects of Relative Food Prices on Obesity – Evidence from China: 1991-2006

This paper explores the effects of relative food prices on body weight and body fat over time in China. We study a cohort of 15,000 adults from over 200 communities in China, using the longitudinal China Health and Nutrition Survey (1991-2006). While we find that decreases in the price of energy-dense foods have consistently led to elevated body fat, this price effect does not always hold for body weight. These findings suggest that changes in food consumption patterns induced by varying food prices can increase percentage body fat to risky levels even without substantial weight gain. In addition, food prices and subsidies could be used to encourage healthier food consumption patterns and to curb obesity.Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

South Dakota Farmland Market Trends: 1991-2006

Agricultural land values and cash rental rates in South Dakota, by region and by state, are the primary topics of this report. Target audiences are farmers and ranchers, landowners, agricultural professionals (lenders, rural appraisers, professional farm managers), and policy makers interested in agricultural land market trends. This report contains the results of the 2006 SDSU South Dakota Farm Real Estate Market Survey, the 16th annual SDSU survey developed to estimate agricultural land values and cash rental rates by land use in different regions of South Dakota

Gender inequality in education: Political institutions or culture and religion?

We investigate empirically whether political institutions or culture and religion underlie gender inequality in education. The dataset contains up to 157 countries over the 1991-2006 period. The results indicate that political institutions do not significantly influence education of girls: autocratic regimes do not discriminate against girls in denying educational opportunities and democracies do not discriminate by gender when providing educational opportunities. The primary influences on gender inequality in education are culture and religion. Discrimination against girls is especially pronounced in Muslim dominated countries.Gender discrimination, education, democracy, religion

Trends and inequalities in laryngeal cancer survival in men and women: England and Wales 1991-2006.

Laryngeal cancer in men is a relatively common malignancy, with a marked socioeconomic gradient in survival between affluent and deprived patients. Cancer of the larynx in women is rare. Survival tends to lower than for men, and little is known about the association between deprivation and survival in women with laryngeal cancer. This paper explores the trends and socio-economic inequalities in laryngeal cancer survival in women, with comparison to men. We examined relative survival among men and women diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in England and Wales during 1991-2006, followed up to 31 December 2007. We estimated the difference in survival between the most deprived and most affluent groups (the 'deprivation gap') at one and five years after diagnosis, for each sex, anatomical subsite and calendar period. Five year survival for all laryngeal cancers combined was up to 8% lower in women than in men. This difference is only partially explained by the differential distribution of anatomical subsites in men and women. Disparities in survival between men and women were also present within specific subsites. In contrast to men, there was little evidence of a consistent deprivation gap in survival for women at any of the anatomical subsites. The stark socioeconomic inequalities in laryngeal cancer survival in men do not appear to be replicated in women. The origins of the socio-economic inequalities in survival among men, and the disparities in survival between men and women at specific tumour subsites remains unclear