Currency Board Arrangement and Transition: The Issues, Controversies and the Experience of Bosnia

In the last decade there has been considerable discussion on what exchange rate policies shall be pursued by developing countries as well as countries in transition as mean of successful transformation and effective mechanism to spur private sector growth and promote stability. the central to this, rather broad and growing debate, has been the role of fixed exchange rates, and the currency board arrangements (cba) in particular.this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the attractions and disadvantages of such arrangements principally drawing on the experience of bosnia and herzegovina (bih). it assesses merits and costs related to this arrangement, primarily looking at the rigidities and constraints the regime imposes on macroeconomic policies, and the subsequent impact on growth and development. finally, the paper elaborates if and under which conditions, the weaknesses associated with the regime are off set with its repeatedly assigned advantages of i.e. macroeconomic stability, low inflation, increased confidence and established credibility as well as reduced “costs” to business transactions and investments. the paper concludes that bosnian currency board was viable temporary solution and that serious consideration shall be given to exiting the regime. the paper is thought to provide useful insights to policy makers and contribute to the overall monetary and exchange rate debate.currency board arrangement, policy misalignments, transition

Assessing the bias due to non-coverage of residential movers in the German microcensus panel: an evaluation using data from the socio-economic panel

The German Microcensus (MC) is a large scale rotating panel survey over three years. The MC is attractive for longitudinal analysis over the entire participation duration because of the mandatory participation and the very high case numbers (about 200 thousand respondents). However, as a consequence of the area sampling that is used for the MC , residential mobility is not covered and consequently statistical information at the new residence is lacking in theMCsample. This raises the question whether longitudinal analyses, like transitions between labour market states, are biased and how different methods perform that promise to reduce such a bias. Based on data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which covers residential mobility, we analysed the effects of missing data of residential movers by the estimation of labour force flows. By comparing the results from the complete SOEP sample and the results from the SOEP, restricted to the non-movers, we concluded that the non-coverage of the residential movers can not be ignored in Rubins sense. With respect to correction methods we analysed weighting by inverse mobility scores and loglinear models for partially observed contingency tables. Our results indicate that weighting by inverse mobility scores reduces the bias to about 60 percent whereas the official longitudinal weights obtained by calibration result in a bias reduction of about 80 percent. The estimation of loglinear models for nonignorable nonresponse leads to very unstable results. --Panel survey,labour market analysis,residential mobility,non-coverage bias,log-linear modelling,inverse probability weighting

Euler-Lagrange models with complex currents of three-phase electrical machines and observability issues

A new Lagrangian formulation with complex currents is developed and yields a direct and simple method for modeling three-phase permanent-magnet and induction machines. The Lagrangian is the sum a mechanical one and of a magnetic one. This magnetic Lagrangian is expressed in terms of rotor angle, complex stator and rotor currents. A complexification procedure widely used in quantum electrodynamic is applied here in order to derive the Euler-Lagrange equations with complex stator and rotor currents. Such complexification process avoids the usual separation into real and imaginary parts and simplifies notably the calculations. Via simple modifications of such magnetic Lagrangians we derive new dynamical models describing permanent-magnet machines with both saturation and saliency, and induction machines with both magnetic saturation and space harmonics. For each model we also provide its Hamiltonian thus its magnetic energy. This energy is also expressed with complex currents and can be directly used in Lyapunov and/or passivity based control. Further, we briefly investigate the observability of this class of Euler-Lagrange models, in the so-called sensorless case when the measured output is the stator current and the load torque is constant but unknown. For all the dynamical models obtained via such variational principles, we prove that their linear tangent systems are unobservable around a one-dimensional family of steady-states attached to the same constant stator voltage and current. This negative result explains why sensorless control of three-phase electrical machines around zero stator frequency remains yet a difficult control problem.Comment: Revised version. Submitted for publicatio

Phosphorous uptake rate in two low phosphorous updated species, Aspalathus linearis and Podalyria calyptrata

Due to the low P nature of soils within the fynbos biome of the Cape Floristic Region, plants have developed numerous mechanisms which enable them to better acquire phosphorous. A number of species have been reported to have specialised root morphologies (root clusters, mycorrhizae) that enhance P uptake. Plants may also down-regulate the uptake of P by decreasing the expression of genes that encode P transporters. Two Fabaceae species, Podalyria calyptrata and Aspa/athus linearis, were grown in hydroponics for 5 months at a low P supply of 4μM and P-depletion studies were conducted thereafter at 5 levels of external P (4, 10, 20, 50 and lOOμM). Growth rates (biomass accumulation) were also calculated as were root to shoot ratios for both species. A. linearis had a higher uptake rate than P. calyptrata. While the fresh biomass growth rate was similar in both species, P. calyptrata had a higher dry weight root to shoot ratio than A. linearis. The results showed that both species exhibited a lack of response to increasing P concentrations and had similar RGRs. Their uptake rates differed significantly (p<0.05) and this was likely due to their different root:shoot ratios. This indicates that both species would effectively grow in low P soils and in the case of P. calyptrata, in high P soils as well

Observed Coherent Triads in Swedish Social Work Practice. : Analysis of Observed Successful Collaboration Beneficial for Clients in Swedish Juvenile Care

Previous research on collaboration in social work practice shows that conflicts among collaborating authorities and organizations and that include cooperating actors are common. In this study, I have analyzed a successful dimension of the phenomenon “cooperation.” The purpose of the study is to analyze examples of successful cooperation in Swedish social work practice. This study presents an analysis of factors of “successful collaboration” as described in the field notes of the study and that can be interpreted as beneficial for the youth in question. A total of 119 field observations of organized and informal meetings form the empirical basis for this study. The observations took place before and after these meetings and during visits to youth care institutions in Sweden, social services offices, and the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. The factors used in the empirical material of this study serve to define successful cooperation that makes visible actors belonging to at least three different categories (coherent triad in the collaborative act). Constructing and reconstructing a collaboration success is a dynamic, interactive process. Coherent triads and success points of interest that are beneficial for the young person in the situation also create the image of a positive development for the young person. In this way, common identities of interplay that are useful for the young person are being created and elucidated. The physical presence of the young person in these situations is especially important factor for the “successful collaboration.

Religion, Violence and Genocide: in Narratives of Survivors from the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The starting point of this study is the war that took place in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. Serbian soldiers and police targeted their use of violent force directly against the civilian populations in northwestern Bosnia. In their quest to expel Bosniacs and Croats from this area, Serbian soldiers and police used mass executions, forced flight, systematic rape, and concentration camps. The aim of this study is analyzing the narratives of survivors of the war in northwestern Bosnia. The focus lies on analyzing interviewees’ description of war-time violence and also analyzing discursive patterns that contribute in constructing the phenomenon “war violence”. Analysis shows that the interpersonal interactions that caused the violence continue even after the violent situation is over. Recollections from perpetrators and those subjected to violence of the war do not exist only as verbal constructions in Bosnia of today. Stories about violent situations live their own lives after the war and continue being important to individuals and social life. The crimes committed in northwestern Bosnia are qualified as genocide according to indictments against former Serbian leaders Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. All interviewees in this study experienced and survived the war in northwestern Bosnia. These individuals have a present, ongoing relation with these communities: Some live there permanently, and some spend their summers in northwestern Bosnia. Institutions in the administrative entity Republika Srpska (to which northwestern Bosnia now belong administratively) deny genocide, and this approach to war-time events becomes a central theme in future, post-war analysis of the phenomena “war violence”, and “reconciliation”. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the political elite’s denial of the systematic acts of violence during the war that have been conveyed by the Hague Tribunal, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on War Crime, and Bosnian media. The narratives in my empirical material seem to be influenced by (or coherent with) the rhetoric mediated in these fora. When informants emphasize extermination and the systematization of violence during the war, they produce and reproduce the image of a mutual struggle on a collective level. The aim of this struggle seems to be that the described acts of violence be recognized as genocide

International Law and Security Dilemmas in Multiethnic States

This paper considers how the international legal system may be reconstructed through the introduction of new legal relationships among these principles of international law to encourage different ethnic and religious communities, which rely on the principle of self-determination, and central governments, which invokes the principle of territorial integrity of its state, to make rational choices that will reduce the likelihood of minority/government conflict in the future. Sub-national groups understand self-determination of peoples to include the right of secession which threatens the territorial integrity of a state, while the territorial integrity of a state prohibits self-determination to be understood as statehood. Since the principles of international law, self-determination of peoples and integrity of states have equal international status, this creates legal confusion in political relations, and constrains participants, ethnic groups, and central governments from focusing on primary goals: secession and protection of states\u27 territorial integrity