Intertemporal and interspatial comparisons of income : the meaning of relative prices

The conceptual issues confronting compilers of price indices have not changed much over the years. They include the intractability of basic index-number problems, the practical difficulties of sampling and matching prices, and the uncertainties about the appropriate weighting scheme for comparing events in specific locales over time and across locales. The author considers inconsistencies in some measures of time-to-time and place-to-place comparisons of income. He argues for a method that harmonizes price work across generally recognized national price compilations, such as consumer price indices (CPSs), the International Comparison Programme (ICP), and national accounting. Modern economies tend to be more open, so relative prices should be more similar, but it is increasingly apparent that price levels and trends can differ considerably even within a nation - particularly those encompassing economically heterogeneous areas. The global ICP exercise has provided useful insights into the issues involved. At the same time, international comparisons of the type ICP aims to facilitate are now seen as being more sensitive than expected to changes in relative prices. ICP has given little attention to this issue, but there is a rich literature on the subject with respect to CPS. The common ground for the two logics is essentially national accounts, broadly defined. Through conceptual and practical work done by the World Bank on the topic, the author suggests that harmonizing the various methods is essential to a proper interpretation of the market signals that prices send to economic agents. He also explains how a better synthesis reduces the overall cost of collecting relevant information and disseminating it to users.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Information Technology,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets

Particle orientation from distribution of explosion fragments in XFEL experiment

In many XFEL experiments small objects with unknown orientations are introduced into the x-ray beam. However, understanding the measured quantities it would be desirable to know their orientations. This is the situation in the case of single-molecule imaging one of the main target areas of X-ray free-electron lasers. Here, the solution to the orientation problem is based on the possibility of orienting the large number of low-counting-statistics 2D diffraction patterns taken at random orientations of identical replicas of the sample. This is a difficult process and the low statistics limits the usability of these methods and ultimately it could prevent single-molecule imaging. We suggest a new approach, which avoids the use of the diffraction patterns. We propose to determine the sample orientation through identifying the direction of ejection fragments. The orientation of the sample is measured together with the diffraction pattern by detecting some fragments of the Coulomb explosion. We show by molecular-dynamics simulations that from the angular distribution of the fragments one can obtain the orientation of the samples [1].The figure shows the distribution of heavy atoms coming from different depth of the sample ( upper panel homogeneous, lower panel inhomogeneous model samples, and left to right is heavy atom at the outer boundary, halfway to center and at the center).</jats:p

Egy lépés a fenntartható infrastruktúra felé - napelemekkel kombinált földgázellátó rendszer háztartási fogyasztóknál = One step towards the sustainable infrastructure - combined solar energy and natural gas systems at domestic customers

A kutatás első fázisában összegyűjtöttük és feldolgoztuk a témára vonatkozó szakirodalmat és műszaki ? gazdasági információkat. A kombinált földgáz ? szolár termikus energiaellátó rendszerek elterjesztése környezetterhelési és gazdasági oldalról egyaránt fontos cél mind az Európai Unióban, mind pedig Magyarországon. Saját adatfelvételek birtokában elemeztük a tipikus magyar háztartási fogyasztók gázfelhasználásának mennyiségi és minőségi jellegzetességeit, és meghatároztuk a földgázfelhasználással összefüggő környezeti terheléseket. A következő lépésben részletesen feldolgoztuk a termikus szolár rendszereket, és kimutattuk az alkalmazásukkal összefüggő műszaki ? jogi szabályozási problémákat. Végül kialakítottuk a kombinált földgáz ? szolár termikus energiaellátó rendszer modelljét, és értékeltük az elterjesztésével járó gazdasági és környezetvédelmi előnyöket. A projekt eredményeit beépítettük a graduális és posztgraduális gázmérnök-képzés tananyagába. | In the first phase of the project the technical and economic publication and information were gathered and elaborated. The dissemination of the hybrid natural gas and solar thermal supplying systems is an essential goal in the European Union and Hungary too, because of their advantages in the aspects of environmental protection and economic as well. The characteristic signs of the gas consumption of Hungarian gas customers have been analysed in the basis of own data- and information-collection. The flue gas emission of the natural gas utilization also has been determined. In the next step of this project several details of the solar systems were worked out and revealed the barriers of the technical regulation and legislation. Finally the model of the hybrid system has been developed and examined from economic and environmental respects. The results of the project were built into the curriculum of graduate and post graduate levels of natural gas engineering education

Fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental relations in transition economics : toward a systematic framework of analysis

The decentralization of government in Eastern Europe represents a reaction both from below (to tight central political control) and from above (to privatize the economy and relieve the central government's fiscal stress). In all transitional economies, the developing structure of intergovernmental relations is intimately related to such critical policy issues as privatization, stabilization, and the social safety net. In the fiscal sphere, tax reform, deficit control, and intergovernmental finance are a tripod. Unless each leg is set up properly, the whole structure could collapse. The present strategy of devolving expenditures downward while holding back on revenue flows and transfers to balance the central budget is unlikely to succeed for more than a year or two at best. Net spending reductions at the subnational level may be difficult to achieve. From 10 to 40 percent of outlays go to the subnational sector, and in many countries local governments provide much of the social safety that makes the pain of the economic transition politically tolerable. And, most housing and many enterprises have been shifted to local ownership, with the maintenance and subsidy cost this implies. Since the revenue sources assigned to local governments cannot finance expected levels of local activity, the result of shifting spending downward is likely to be strong demands for increased, rather than decreased, transfers. Alternatively, subnational government may look to coping mechanisms such as holding on to their enterprises (which provide vital social services), developing extrabudgetary revenues, or borrowing. These coping mechanisms threaten privatization, reduce budgetary transparency, and impede stabilization policies. The authors describe the risks to privatization, to macroeconomic stability, and to an adequate social safety net that present policies toward local government may imply. Its themes are that the subnational sector needs to be more realistically factored into national plans - and that subnational expenditures be more clearly assigned and revenue needs more realistically assessed. Such assessments are likely to acknowledge a larger sphere for subnational governments and the need for access to more robust revenue sources. Giving local government a share in the personal income tax is one possible and perhaps desirable approach to meeting these revenues needs. Careful attention needs to be paid to the design and implementation of the intergovernmental fiscal transfers likely to remain prominent features of the intergovernmental landscape for years to come. Caution is also needed on borrowing by subnational government. Consolidating and integrating extrabudgetary funds at the subnational (and national) levels is crucial to enhanced budgetary transparency and macrostability.Banks&Banking Reform,National Governance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Economics

Mesozoic–Tertiary exhumation history of the Altai Mountains, northern Xinjiang, China: New constraints from apatite fission track data

This study uses apatite fission track (FT) analysis to constrain the exhumation history of bedrock samples collected from the Altai Mountains in northern Xinjiang, China. Samples were collected as transects across the main structures related to Palaeozoic crustal accretion events. FT results and modeling identify three stages in sample cooling history spanning the Mesozoic and Tertiary. Stage one records rapid cooling to the low temperature part of the fission track partial annealing zone circa 70 ± 10 °C. Stage two, records a period of relative stability with little if any cooling taking place between 75 and 25–20 Ma suggesting the Altai region had been reduced to an area of low relief. Support for this can be found in the adjacent Junngar Basin that received little if any sediment during this interval. Final stage cooling took place in the Miocene at an accelerated rate bringing the sampled rocks to the Earth's surface. This last stage, linked to the far field effects of the Himalayan collision, most likely generated the surface uplift and relief that define the present-day Altai Mountains

Mass Transfer in High Performance Liquid Chromatography

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Enterprise restructuring in Eastern Europe : how much? how fast? where? - preliminary evidence from trade data

What kind of privatization program is best suited to stimulate enterprise restructuring in former centrally planned economies? One view, expressed by most Western business and political leaders, is that privatization is best pursued case by case, with emphasis on sales to new owners, including foreign investors. Another view, espoused by a minority of"radical"economists and economists-turned-politicians, was that restructuring is best pursued through economic incentives, combined with"mass privatization of state enterprises so that they become widely held (public) joint stock corporations. The ultimate test, of course, is future productivity growth and rising welfare standards. We cannot yet measure these. The disaggregated data on production and employment by industry required for such a measure either are not available or are unreliable. The only objective measure available - comparable across countries - is export performance. Trade data reveal to what extent firms have been able to reorient themselves to create and exploit competitive advantages. We now have four years of data, enough to get an idea of what is going on, and to compare one Central or Eastern European country's performance against another's. The data suggest that the Czech Republic, the country that has pursued mass privatization most actively and credibly, has also done best in restructuring its industries and reorienting them toward world markets. Those that pursued a gradualist approach - Hungary being the main example - have changed their export structure less, but export growth has also been above average.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Agribusiness&Markets,Trade Policy,Water and Industry,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Agribusiness&Markets,Trade Policy,Water and Industry