Terrorist Financing and Money Laundering

Terrorism  causes  enormous  costs  to  society.  Since  the  9/11  attacks,  the  “war  on  terror”  has  therefore  been  an  important  challenge  to  all  civilized  countries.  In  the  present  contribution  we  analyze the root causes and costs of terrorist activity, thereby setting the stage for discussing the  need for measures against terrorist financing. We argue that running a terrorist organization requires  substantial financial resources which are transferred to the groups through clandestine and often  illegal channels. Anti-money laundering policies may appear useful measures to stop transfers to  terrorist groups; however, they are not sufficient means to deal with all facets of terrorist financing.  Compared  to  similar  activities  of  organized  crime,  terrorist  financing  involves  “reverse”  money  laundering. This is a consequence of some fundamental differences between terrorism and organized  crime, which also lead to different implications in terms of choosing appropriate counter-measures.terrorist financing, causes and costs of terrorism, money laundering, organized  crime vs. terrorism, anti-terrorist financing policies

The (Hidden) Financial Flows of Terrorist and Transnational Crime Organizations: A Literature Review and Some Preliminary Empirical Results

The financial means of international terror and transnational organized crime organizations are analyzed. First, some short remarks about the organization of international terror organizations are made. Second and in a much more detailed way a literature review is provided about the financing of terrorist and transnational organized crime organizations, their sources and the various methods they use. Third, an attempt is made to estimate the financial means of terror organizations with the help of a latent estimation approach (MIMIC procedure). The figures show that Al Qaeda and other terror organizations have sufficient financial means. Fourth, some remarks are made about the negative effects of terror on the economy in highly developed countries and some strategies are presented to combat (the financing) of terrorism.Financial flows of terrorist organizations, financial flows of transnational organized crime, Hawala banking, money laundering, transnational organized crime, terrorist organizations, kinds of terrorist financing

Human Trafficking in Europe: An Economic Perspective

Based on a document originally prepared for the Eleventh Economic Forum of the Organization for Economic Security and Cooperation in Europe, held in Prague between 20-23 May 2003. Attempts to comprehend and document human trafficking’s underlying economic dimensions, and places the concerns of trafficking within broader migration analysis (including the role of irregular migration). It also comments on the financial flows involved in trafficking, and on the different patterns of financing trafficking services. Further, it contains a brief review of the evidence, as to the extent to which organized crime is involved in human trafficking

Health Care System Reform in China: Issues, Challenges and Options

This paper examines health care reform in urban and rural China. Before health care reform, Chinese health service facilities were run entirely by the state and basically they performed a social welfare function. This health care system greatly improved the population health conditions but many problems started to emerge in 1980s when the economic reform started. Since then, the government has been struggling to maintain a balance between meeting people¡¯s health care needs and develop the health care "industry". Problems and their contribution factors in organization, financing and performance of the health care reform are examined and analyzed. In terms of organization, decentralization of the decision making power in health sector and marketization of the medical establishments constitutes the main organizational changes in the health care reform. This organizational reform of health sector as an imposed institution change, encounters lots of resistance in the process of implementation. A tremendous amount of conflictions arises because of the commercialization of health sector that used to perform social welfare function. In terms of financing, share of organized financing (government and social fund) in the total health expenditure declined dramatically since the reform. In urban China, Health care insurance faced tough going on universal access. In rural China, there are lots of problems in implementing new cooperative health system partly because of its imperfect design. In terms of performance, data shows that there is growing inequity in health status between rural and urban in the past 15 years. Inefficiencies also exists in both resource allocation and service delivery. Several options are analyzed for organizational reform and health care financing. The report recommends that the aims of the future reform policy that government would adopt should be to improve the population health status instead of generating profit for institutions or industry. The social welfare function of health care system should be reinforced and at the same time managed competition in the health care market should be encouraged. In health care financing in urban area, several directions of broadening risk pooling are discussed. In rural health care financing, the designing of new cooperative health care system is analyzed. Rural financing should be more flexible in order to attract more people to join the cooperative medical system. It is recommended that Chinese government should increase funding for public health programs and subsidize health services for the disadvantaged groups.

The (Hidden) Financial Flows of Terrorist and Transnational Crime Organizations: A Literature Review and Some Preliminary Empirical Results

The financial means of international terror and transnational organized crime organizations are analyzed. First, some short remarks about the organization of international terror organizations are made. Second and in a much more detailed way a literature review is provided about the financing of terrorist and transnational organized crime organizations, their sources and the various methods they use. Third, an attempt is made to estimate the financial means of terror organizations with the help of a latent estimation approach (MIMIC procedure). The figures show that Al Qaeda and other terror organizations have sufficient financial means. Fourth, some remarks are made about the negative effects of terror on the economy in highly developed countries and some strategies are presented to combat (the financing) of terrorism

Preventive youth health care in 11 European countries: an exploratory analysis

Objective: To systematically identify similarities and differences in the way preventive youth health care (YHC) is organized in 11 European countries. - \ud Method: Questionnaire survey to EUSUHM (European Union for School and University Health and Medicine) representatives. - \ud Results: The greatest similarities were found in the age range of the YHC target group and the separation of curative and preventive services. Croatia, Germany and Switzerland show the greatest differences when compared to other European countries, for example, in the access to medical records, YHC professional input and the number of examinations, immunizations and screenings. In eight countries YHC is financed by national insurances or taxation. In Germany, FYR Macedonia, the Netherlands, Russia and Switzerland, different forms of financing exist in parallel. - Conclusion The results should be interpreted as a preliminary step in mapping organizational features of YHC in Europe

Funding Alternative Education Pathways: A Review of the Literature

This review drew upon anecdotal and empirical research and reports from a variety of fields, including education and school finance theory, alternative education pathways, nonprofit management, and charter school finance. This does not pretend to be a comprehensive thesis on either alternative education pathways or education financing, but rather a point of departure for future discussions. The review is loosely organized according to three aspects of resource allocation presented by Brent, Roellke, & Monk (1997), including fund origination, access and allocation, and utilization

Managing the Exchange Rate Consequences of an MDG-Related Scale-up in HIV/AIDS Financing

This Conference Paper by John Serieux was presented at the ?Global Conference on Gearing Macroeconomic Policies to Reverse the HIV/AIDS Epidemic?, jointly organized by UNDP?s HIV/AIDS Group and IPC and held in Brasilia, November 2006. It is part of an IPC-supported Research Programme on ?Macroeconomic Policies to Combat HIV/AIDS?. The paper argues that any adverse macroeconomic effects of a large scaling up of HIV/AIDS financing can be prevented by proper exchange-rate management, including frontloading aid, building up a modest stock of foreign exchange reserves and refraining from over-reacting to initial moderate increases in inflation and the value of the exchange rate.Poverty, MDG, HIV/AIDS, EXCHANGE RATE

Unequal incomes, unequal outcomes? Economic inequality and measures of well-being: summary of observations and recommendations

This is a summary of the proceedings of the conference "Unequal incomes, unequal outcomes? Economic inequality and measures of well-being." The conference was held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on May 7, 1999. The conference was organized to focus on the evolution of more direct measures of the material well-being of Americans. Of particular concern was the impact of income inequality on trends in health, housing, and crime victimization. Conference participants also examined some of the changes in policymakers' responses to these trends, especially in the areas of education financing and local governance. Finally, the participants discussed efforts to evaluate the social consequences of policy reforms and offered some guidelines on the best direction for future research and policy initiatives.Income distribution ; Public policy

RURAL SMALL BUSINESS FINANCE: EVIDENCE FROM THE 1998 SURVEY OF SMALL BUSINESS FINANCES

The 1998 Survey of Small Business Finances provides robust information on the financing of small businesses including an overview of their firm's organization, financial characteristics, and credit use. Information from the survey is used in this study to compare the financial characteristics of urban and rural small businesses. Overall, rural small businesses have very similar financial characteristics, access to technology and financial services, sources of financial capital, and creditworthiness when compared to urban small businesses. Nonparametric rank order statistical methods were required when comparing dollar values of urban and rural small businesses because normality assumptions were violated due to the high concentration of small firms. On average, rural and urban small businesses were strong financially and profitable. Accounts receivable and inventory comprise nearly a third of total assets. Most were organized as either sole proprietorships or corporations. The majority of small businesses utilized computers, primarily for accounting/bookkeeping, administration, and email. Primary financial services are used for transactions and trade credit. Two-thirds of purchases involve trade credit from more than 20 trade credit suppliers, on average. Both urban and rural small businesses rely on a wide variety of sources for financing and use each to the same degree. Rural small businesses possess higher creditworthiness, but nearly one-fourth still report being delinquent on business obligations.rural, small, business, finances, survey, Community/Rural/Urban Development,