The improved management of small-scale cage culture in Asia: final technical report

The purpose of the project is to develop sustained small-scale cage fish culture in inland and coastal waters through improved understanding of the social, institutional and resource environment of resource poor groups. Two Asian countries, Bangladesh (inland systems) and Vietnam (marine), were studied with this workshop bringing together both sides of the project together with representatives of collaborative institutions, government departments and universities. Addressing the overall aim of producing guidelines for the planning and extension of cage aquaculture in Asia a combination of group work and plenary discussion was conducted producing the following outputs. 1) An assessment of cage aquaculture potential, 2) Development options for small-scale cage culture, 3) A review of tools and methodologies and 4) Policy initiatives for sustainable cage culture development. Key issues raised were the use of outputs as a guide to be adapted to regional circumstances to facilitate farmer and extension worker discussion and not as a rigid methodology. The degree of linkage between development, research and government institutions was also considered a crucial factor in benefiting the research and development of cage culture at the local, regional and national level and vital in affecting the future policies by both development and government institutions. [PDF contains 242 pages

Fostering innovation in a small open economy: The case of the New Zealand biotechnology sector

The New Zealand Biotechnology sector is worthy of study for several reasons. While there is a large and growing international literature on economic aspects of biotechnology innovation these studies concentrate on the United States and Europe. The New Zealand biotechnology sector may be expected to develop along a different trajectory as a consequence of a markedly different set of initial and framework conditions. Government has indicated a strong interest in fostering innovation and aims to concentrate on selected areas where New Zealand may be able to develop a new comparative advantage. One such area is biotechnology, which would build on New Zealand’s existing comparative advantage in the primary sector (dairy, forestry, meat, wool and horticulture). This paper describes the preliminary results of an ongoing study that aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of innovation processes in New Zealand while using the international literature as a benchmark. The paper focuses on the drivers of innovation in the biotechnology sector; the role of networks and other linkages; the role of government and industry, the role of human and venture capital, and data from patenting

Active Travel Co-Benefits of Travel Demand Management Policies that Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, MTI Report 12-12

There is increasing evidence that improved health outcomes may be significant co-benefits of land use plans and transport policies that increase active transport (or walking and biking for purposeful travel) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from vehicle miles traveled (VMT). A greater understanding of these benefits may broaden the constituency for regional planning that supports local and national GHG reduction goals. In this study, California’s activity-based travel demand model (ABM) is applied to (1) demonstrate how this new generation of travel models can be used to produce the active travel data (age and sex distributions) required by comparative risk assessment models to estimate health outcomes for alternative land use and transport plans and to (2) identify the magnitude of change in active travel that may be possible from land use, transit, and vehicle pricing policies for California and its five major regions for a future 2035 time horizon. The results of this study suggest that distance-based vehicle pricing may increase walking by about 10% and biking by about 17%, and concurrently GHG from VMT may be reduced by about 16%. Transit expansion and supportive development patterns may increase active travel by about 2% to 3% for both walk and bike modes while also reducing VMT by about 4% on average. The combination of all three policies may increase time spent walking by about 13% and biking by about 19%, and reduce VMT by about 19%

Size matters: entrepreneurial entry and government

We explore the country-specific institutional characteristics likely to influence an individual's decision to become an entrepreneur. We focus on the size of the government, on freedom from corruption, and on 'market freedom' defined as a cluster of variables related to protection of property rights and regulation. We test these relationships by combining country-level institutional indicators for 47 countries with working age population survey data taken from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Our results indicate that entrepreneurial entry is inversely related to the size of the government, and more weakly to the extent of corruption. A cluster of institutional indicators representing 'market freedom' is only significant in some specifications. Freedom from corruption is significantly related to entrepreneurial entry, especially when the richest countries are removed from the sample but unlike the size of government, the results on corruption are not confirmed by country-level fixed effects models

Measuring the Performance of Local Government Entities and Analysis of their Managers’ and Personnel’s Information Needs in the Context of New Public Management

This article fits into the scope of world research on the implementations of the NPM concept and uses New Institutional Economy to better understand the implementation of management accounting in the public sector.Badanie zostało przeprowadzone w formie wywiadu - ankiety audytoryjnej, skierowanej do 45 respondentów reprezentujących jednostki samorządu terytorialnego. Uzyskane rezultaty potwierdzają, iż system pomiaru dokonań stosowany przez jednostki samorządu terytorialnego w Polsce jest wynikiem silnego oddziaływania instytucjonalnego na system zarządzania tymi jednostkami i nie jest przydatny dla kierowników i pracowników tego sektora, a także nie spełnia wymagań stawianych przez założenia koncepcji NPM

The Role of Measuring and Evaluating Performance in Achieving Control Objectives- Case Study of "Islamic University"

The study aimed to identify the role of measuring and evaluating performance in achieving the objectives of control and the performance of the job at the Islamic University in Gaza Strip. To achieve the objectives of the research, the researchers used the descriptive analytical approach to collect information which is the questionnaire that consisted of (22) phrases were distributed to three categories of employees of the Islamic University (Faculty Members and Their Assistants, Members of the Administrative Board, Senior Management). A random sample of (314) employees was selected and 276 responses were retrieved with a recovery rate of 88.1%. The Statistical Analysis Program (SPSS) was used to enter process and analyze the data. The results of the research showed a positive role between measuring and evaluating the performance and achieving the objectives of the control of performance in the Islamic University from the point of view of the members (senior management, faculty and their assistants, and members of administrative board). The researchers also recommended a number of recommendations, most notably the provision of an appropriate level of the elements of the control systems today through the modernization and continuous development of performance measures and the need to provide the physical and financial resources necessary to continue the development and achievement within the university, to expand the development of technology in the various activities of the university through the construction of a complete and integrated system to support supervision systems in the university to suit the size of the university. The researchers also recommended following up and reviewing the performance measures and work to modify them in line with the mission and the goals of the university that it seeks to reach

The contextual database of the Generations and Gender Program: overview, conceptual framework and the link to the Generations and Gender Survey

This paper follows two aims. First it intends to give an overview of the contextual database of the Generations and Gender Program and how it is linked to the Generations and Gender Survey. Secondly, it provides a documentation of the approaches taken towards the conceptual definition and construction of the database. The document consists of two parts. The first gives a brief description of the underlying ideas of the database and the approach taken in order to develop its conceptual framework and construct the database. The second part is a note on the link between the Generations and Gender Survey and the contextual database. Starting from the GGS questionnaire, the main interfaces between micro data and contextual domains are investigated.data collection