Impediments to resolvability. What is the status quo? December 2019

The feasibility and credibility of bank resolutions depends, among others, on whether the impediments to resolvability are addressed or removed. Based on the limited public information available, this paper assesses the current state of the identification and removal of impediments to the resolvability of banks under the remit of the Single Resolution Board (SRB). The main findings suggest that the inclusion of the impediments assessment is taking the SRB more time than originally foreseen, there is a greater dependence on banks to address or remove impediments and that the non-resolvable banks are not notified to the EBA. This document was provided by the Economic Governance Support Unit at the request of the ECON Committee

Ergonomic standards for pedestrian areas for disabled people: literature review and consultations

As part of the project for the Transport and Road Research Laboratory concerned with the development of design guidance for pedestrian areas and footways to satisfy the needs of disabled and elderly people, a thorough examination of the literature was required. In addition the literature search was to be complemented by a wide-ranging series of discussions with local authorities, organisations representing the interests of elderly and disabled people, and other interested agencies. This Working Paper sets out the findings of this exercise. The objective of the literature review and the consultations was to identify the key impediments for elderly and disabled people when using pedestrian areas and footways. The current guidelines and standards relating to footways, pedestrianised areas and access to buildings were to be identified and their adequacy commented upon, as were the conflicts such recommendations raise between various groups of disabled people and with able-bodied people. The consultations were intended to provide greater insights into what the literature highlighted, and to suggest possible solutions. The literature review produced over 400 key references and a list of 35 impediments. A more detailed examination of the literature and the consultations reduced this list to six key impediments namely: parking; public transport waiting areas; movement distances; surface conditions; ramps, and information provision. The type and scale of problem created by the above impediments for various groups of disabled and elderly people are discussed, together with their measurement and assessment. The type and adequacy of existing design standards and guidance relating to these impediments are also outlined

Conservation impediments and incentives – progressing the understanding of linkages between the adoption of conservation practices and the motivational orientation of graziers in the tropical savannas

The adoption of conservation practices is a complex matter – rural landholders consider a wide variety of factors and characteristics when deciding whether to adopt a conservation practice. To confound the issue, recent research has suggested that the goals of landholders affect the adoption of conservation practices by creating a subjective consideration of the relative importance of impediments and effectiveness of incentives in the adoption decision. In this research we describe an empirical link between graziers’ goals and their perceptions of the relative importance of impediments and the effectiveness of incentives in the adoption of conservation practices. The research was carried out in the tropical savannas region of Australia where pastoral production dominates the landscape and where it is of prime importance to ensure that grazing land is included in the conservation estate. The results suggest that to increase the adoption of conservation practices, schemes will have to be developed with reference to graziers subjective views on impediments and on the effectiveness of incentives.Graziers, goals, conservation, tropical savannas, impediments, incentives, Crop Production/Industries,

South-South Trade: Geography Matters

Intra-subsaharan African trade appears to be very low, an outcome that is often attributed to the size of the exporting and the importing economies. If that were the explanation, there would be no untapped trade potential. We argue instead that the main determinants of this "missing trade" are geographical and infrastructure-related impediments. Being landlocked and poor translates into high trade costs. In this paper, we try to measure the impact of geographical impediments on South-South trade. We focus on the intra and extra-regional trade of the countries belonging to the West African Economic and Monetary Union. We use an Armington-based model in order to evaluate the impact of geographical and infrastructure-related impediments on bilateral trade flows within this region. We find two main results: paving all inter-state roads would increase trade by a factor of 3, and crossing a transit country reduces intra-bilateral trade flows by 6%, ceteris paribus.South-South trade; landlocked; transport infrastructure; border infrastructure

Impediments to mixing classical and quantum dynamics

The dynamics of systems composed of a classical sector plus a quantum sector is studied. We show that, even in the simplest cases, (i) the existence of a consistent canonical description for such mixed systems is incompatible with very basic requirements related to the time evolution of the two sectors when they are decoupled. (ii) The classical sector cannot inherit quantum fluctuations from the quantum sector. And, (iii) a coupling among the two sectors is incompatible with the requirement of physical positivity of the theory, i.e., there would be positive observables with a non positive expectation value.Comment: RevTex, 21 pages. Title slightly modified and summary section adde

Impediments to Social Development in Pakistan

The development of infrastructure and the provision of basic services in Pakistan lie in the public domain. The quality of the built infrastructure and the service offered reflect successive governments’ capability as a channel for public sector funds, their role in overall financial and macro-economic planning and management, and their administrative efficiency in implementation, operations and management—in essence the extent to which they are able to adhere to the principles of good and humane governance. Good governance is generally conceived of as the judicious exercise of economic, political and administrative authority in the public and private spheres to manage a country’s affairs at all levels to improve the quality of life of the people. It is a continuing process where divergent opinions and desires are satisfied through compromise and tolerance in a spirit of cooperative action for the mutual benefit of the larger whole. It has three dimensions: one, the political regime; two, the systems and procedures for exercising authority; and three, the capacity of governments [World Bank (1994); UNDP (1997); OECD (1995); Commission on Global Governance (1995)]. When Pakistan gained political freedom in August 1947, it inherited an economic and social infrastructure unable to meet the demands of the large influx of refugees from India. Five decades later, policies emphasising public investment, subsidised credit and regulated private sector development have generated strong economic growth, but failed to implement successful social development. Over the last 50 years and more Pakistan’s economy, measured through its GDP, has grown by more than 10 times, an average annual growth rate of 5.1 percent. Rapid population growth, estimated to have averaged just under 3 percent annually, has resulted in real per capita increases of only 2.1 percent per year.

Structural issues in the Kenyan financial system: improving competition and access

Although by regional standards, Kenya's financial system is relatively well developed and diversified, major structural impediments prevent it from reaching its full potential. Crosscountry comparisons, however, show the importance of a well-developed financial sector for long-term economic growth and poverty alleviation. Experience from other developing economies has shown the detrimental effect of government ownership and the positive impact that foreign bank ownership can have on the development of a market-based financial system. Analyzing and decomposing the high interest rate spreads and margins in Kenya helps identify structural impediments that drive the high cost of and low access to financial services. The limited information sharing on debtors, deficiencies in the legal and judicial system, the limited number of strong and reputable banks and non-transparency and uncertainty in the banking market are major impediments to the development of Kenya's financial system, to reducing spreads and to widening access.Financial Intermediation,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research

Evolutionary testing supported by slicing and transformation

Evolutionary testing is a search based approach to the automated generation of systematic test data, in which the search is guided by the test data adequacy criterion. Two problems for evolutionary testing are the large size of the search space and structural impediments in the implementation of the program which inhibit the formulation of a suitable fitness function to guide the search. In this paper we claim that slicing can be used to narrow the search space and transformation can be applied to the problem of structural impediments. The paper presents examples of how these two techniques have been successfully employed to make evolutionary testing both more efficient and more effective