MEASURING PROTECTION OVER TIME. REVENUE AND PROTECTIVE PRODUCTS IN THE 19TH CENTURY EUROPEAN TARIFF GROWTH DEBATE

This paper shows the relevance of the strong and changing presence of the so-called fiscal products throughout European trade history, the bigger index number problems in periods and countries with higher levels and shares of manufacture tariffs in total imports and the different association between tariffs and growth according to development heterogeneity and the tariff average used. Evidence showed in this paper appear quite contrary to Bairoch traditional hypothesis on the positive role that protection played to foster Continental Europe industrialization before First War World. Conclusions suggests caution in the use of the conventional average tariffs and advises the estimation of alternative manufacture, agrarian and fiscal tariff average by countries as a necessary contribution for the better defined tariff growth debate.

Moral hazard in a mutual health-insurance system: German Knappschaften, 1867-1914

This paper studies moral hazard in a sickness-insurance fund that provided the model for social-insurance schemes around the world. The German Knappschaften were formed in the medieval period to provide sickness, accident, and death benefits for miners. By the mid-nineteenth century, participation in the Knappschaft was compulsory for workers in mines and related occupations, and the range and generosity of benefits had expanded considerably. Each Knappschaft was locally controlled and self-funded, and their admirers saw in them the ability to use local knowledge and good incentives to deliver benefits at low cost. The Knappschaft underlies Bismarck’s sickness and accident insurance legislation (1883 and 1884), which in turn forms the basis of the German social-insurance system today and, indirectly, many social-insurance systems around the world. This paper focuses on a problem central to any insurance system, and one that plagued the Knappschaften as they grew larger in the later nineteenth century: the problem of moral hazard. Replacement pay for sick miners made it attractive, on the margin, for miners to invent or exaggerate conditions that made it impossible for them to work. Here we outline the moral hazard problem the Knappschaften faced as well as the internal mechanisms they devised to control it. We then use econometric models to demonstrate that those mechanisms were at best imperfect.sickness insurance, moral hazard, Knappschaft, social insurance

Kinetic Analysis on Decomposition of Pentaerythrityl Tetranitrate under Influence of Thiols

Pentaerythrityl tetranitrate (PETN) is an organic nitrate compound used in the therapy asgeneral vasodilator in the treatment of angina pectoris. PETN acts as prodrug for nitric oxideas active component. However, in clinical association, it is known a decreased ability oforganic nitrate to do chemical reduction, which is metabolic tolerance, by upregulation inendogenic thiol system. It has been proved that supplementation of thiol is able to overcometolerance to nitrate, nevertheless there is no comprehensive reports on interaction betweenorganic nitrate and thiol compounds. The goal of this research is to study decompositionreaction kinetic of PETN under influence N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and thiosalicylic acid(TSA) as thiol compounds, in the physiological condition. PETN as tracing compound weremonitored by chromatographic system, with ratio of thiols used was equal, doubled, fivetimes, and ten times folds. Data were analyzed kinetically by using math equation for reactionorder 1, 2, and composite order 1 (equivalence). The result showed the linearity values onkinetic derivative, where correlation coefficient, r, is higher than 0.9 (r ≥ 0.9) for compositeorder 1. The result will give scientific contribution about tolerance phenomena in organicnitrate, particularly in the role of thiol compound to overcome nitrate tolerance

New sizes of complete arcs in PG(2,q)

New upper bounds on the smallest size t_{2}(2,q) of a complete arc in the projective plane PG(2,q) are obtained for 853<= q<= 2879 and q=3511,4096, 4523,5003,5347,5641,5843,6011. For q<= 2377 and q=2401,2417,2437, the relation t_{2}(2,q)<4.5\sqrt{q} holds. The bounds are obtained by finding of new small complete arcs with the help of computer search using randomized greedy algorithms. Also new sizes of complete arcs are presented.Comment: 10 page