Seeking Sustainable and Inclusive Communities: A King County Case Study

Illustrates the connection between the efforts of King County, Washington, to ease the environmental strain of economic and land development and issues of equity and social justice, including public health, transportation, and educational opportunity

The data chase : what's out there on trade costs and nontariff barriers ?

Trade costs and nontariff barriers are at the forefront of discussions on competitiveness and expanding trade opportunities for developing countries. This paper provides a summary overview of data and indicators relevant to these issues and has been informed by work underway at the World Bank on trade facilitation over the past several years to catalogue data sets and indicators. Although there has been progress in expanding data sets and developing policy-relevant indicators on trade costs and barriers, much more is needed. In order to assess progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, evaluating the impact of development projects, and whether meeting Aid for Trade goals will be met, for example, a dedicated and expansive new effort to collect and assess data is needed. This paper attempts to highlight gaps in data on trade costs and provides insight into the type of new data that might be developed in the future.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Law,Free Trade,Trade Policy

Global Innovation Policy Index

Ranks fifty-five nations' strategies to boost innovation capacity: policies on trade, scientific research, information and communications technologies, tax, intellectual property, domestic competition, government procurement, and high-skill immigration

Options for Regional Decision Making in Metro Atlanta

Who loses if nothing is done? The city of Atlanta, with its central location, mature transit network, excess capacity in utilities, and reasonably aggressive public officials will probably thrive no matter what happens outside the I-285 perimeter. Communities outside the boundaries of the ten-county Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) area will enjoy the temporary fruits of being the next ring of new suburban development. Caught between the Atlanta magnet and the sprawling communities outside the ARC, ARC's suburban communities may bear the worst of the downside effects of the current regional decision-making structure. In the end, though, it is all of North Georgia that loses as congestion, pollution, rising taxes, and reduced quality of life diminish its attractiveness to economic development

Tentative first steps : an assessment of the Uruguay Round agreement on services

A major result of the Uruguay Round was the creation of a General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The GATS greatly extends coverage of the multilateral trading system, establishing rules and disciplines on policies affecting access to service markets. In this paper, the author asks: what does the GATS do to bind policies? And has it established a mechanism likely to induce significant liberalization through future rounds of negotiations? The GATS consists of two elements: 1) a set of general concepts, principles, and rules that apply across the board to measures affecting trade in services; and 2) specific commitments on national treatment and market access. These apply only to service activities listed in a member's schedule - reflecting the agreement's"positive-list"approach to determining coverage - and only to the extent that sector-specific or cross-sectoral qualifications or conditions are not maintained. The impact of the GATS depends largely on the specific commitments made by members, and sectoral coverage is far from universal. High-income countries scheduled about half of their service sectors; developing countries as a group (including Eastern European countries in transition) scheduled only 11 percent. And the sectors scheduled often continue to be subject to measures that violate national treatment or limit market access. High-income countries scheduled only 28 percent of the universe of services without exceptions to national treatment or market access obligations. For developing countries, that figure is only 6.5 percent. Much remains to be done. The GAT's weaknesses include: 1) a lack of transparency. No information is generated on sectors, subsectors, and activities in which no commitments are scheduled - most often the sensitive areas where restrictions and discriminatory practices abound; 2) the sector-specificity of liberalization commitments. Negotiations were driven by the concerns of major players of each industry, leading to an emphasis on"absolute"sectoral reciprocity, limiting the scope for incremental liberalization, tradeoffs across issues, and an economywide perspective; and 3) the limited number of generic rules. Rather than lock in liberal situations that exist, the GATS allows for the future imposition of restrictions (creating"negotiating chips"). To foster nondiscriminatory liberalization, sectoral agreeements should be firmly imbedded in a framework of general rules and disciplines. Many of the framework's general principles apply only if specific commitments have been made. Therefore they are not general. Proposals for improving the GATS should probably build on the existing structure as mush as possible. Possibilities include the following: 1) ultimately, apply the same rules to goods and services. Eliminate the artificial distinction between the two; 2) adopt a negative-list approach to scheduling commitments for the sake of transparency; 3) eliminate overlap between national treatment and market access; 4) develop generic,"horizontal"disciplines for the different modes of supply through which service markets may be contested; 5) explore the possibility of converting quota-like market access restrictions to price-based equivalent measures, thus ensuring that the most-favored-nation and national treatment principles are satisfied; 6) make framework disciplines general by eliminating all instances in which rules are conditional on the scheduling of specific commitments; and 7) agree to a formula-based approach for liberalizing and expanding the GAT's sectoral coverage in future negotiations.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Decentralization,Health Economics&Finance,Health Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Trade and Services,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,ICT Policy and Strategies

Publications on Chronic Disease in Coal Dependent Communities in Central Appalachia

CONTEXT: Agency and nonprofit reports have traditionally been the source of health information in Appalachia. Recently, publications have appeared in the literature associating coal mining, specifically mountain top mining, with numerous chronic health conditions spurring debate among environmental and industry interest groups. Publication quantity and quality were objectively assessed. This article reports on a literature review and analysis of publications on chronic disease in coal dependent communities in Appalachia. OBJECTIVE: To conduct a review and analysis of original, peer reviewed research publications on chronic health conditions in communities dependent on coal mining with a focus on central Appalachia and report on publication and research quantity and quality. DATA SOURCES: Thorough searches were conducted using PubMed, EBSCO, and CiNAHL computerized databases to identify original, peer-reviewed research articles addressing ‘Appalachia’, ‘health’ and ‘coal’. STUDY SELECTION: The computerized database search identified original research publications relevant to chronic health conditions (heart disease, lung disease, kidney disease, cancers, diabetes, obesity, etc.) and coal mining in central Appalachia. DATA EXTRACTION: Quantitative measures of the literature review provided information on author collaborations, year of publication, frequency of publication by contributing authors, etc. Journal impact factors were noted and other objective qualitative criteria were considered. DATA SYNTHESIS: Over 60 publications relevant to mining with 38 publications specific to Appalachia and health were identified. The publications were reviewed relative to relevance and article quality i.e., current, original research, application to central Appalachia and discussions of chronic human health and coal mining. Over the past five years most of the publications relevant to chronic disease and coal mining in central Appalachia resulted from a research group with a single common author. CONCLUSIONS: Science based evidence is needed and data must be provided by independent researchers from various disciplines of study to share different perspectives on how to alleviate the longstanding health disparities in central Appalachia. Studies will require the application of sound methodologies to validate the findings and support future interventions

A Worldwide State-of-the-Art Analysis for Bus Rapid Transit: Looking for the Success Formula

This paper’s intended contribution, in terms of providing an additional angle in the existing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) state-of-the-art knowledge spectrum, is a dual one. On the one hand, it provides a detailed description of the mode, re-defining BRT as an overall concept by identifying, discussing, and categorizing in a systematic way its strengths and its weaknesses in comparison with rail-based solutions and conventional bus services. On the other hand, it presents in detail a number of selected scheme-oriented applications from around the world, looking into some of the basic ingredients behind BRT’s success (or failure) stories. This is a scientific effort that could inform the reader about the current status of BRT internationally and about the challenges and opportunities that exist when trying to materialize BRT’s potential as an effective urban passenger solution that could challenge the merits of more conventional mass-transit options

Developing countries and the Uruguay Round : negotiations on services

In the late 1980s many developing countries experienced something of a pardigm shift: governments began to pursue more market-oriented domestic policies. There was an increasing perception that liberalizing access to service markets was a potentially low-cost, effective method for improving the quality and efficiency of domestic service sectors. These unilateral policy developments increased the incentives for developing countries as a group to participate in a multilateral agreement to liberalize trade in services. The author explores the extent to which the initial negotiating positions of developing countries are reflected in the draft General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) that has emerged from the Uruguay Round negotiations. He investigates whether the unilateral policy changes implemented by many developing countries in the late 1980s had a discernible impact on the draft GATS for developing countries. Many developing countries are pursuing regulatory reform and liberalization. To what extent will signing the GATS help governments trying to make their service sectors more efficient? Is the result of the defensive negotiating strategy that was pursued consistent with the shift toward a policy of liberalizing service markets? This issue is of particular relevance insofar as recent liberalization-plus-privatization programs in developing countries were driven by external forces rather than domestic pressure (industry) groups - which might reduce the credibility of liberalization policies. Membership in a binding multilateral agreement could help bolster reform efforts by increasing the costs of backsliding.Trade and Services,Poverty Assessment,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Governance Indicators,Rules of Origin

Health Status and Health Care Access of Farm and Rural Populations

Rural residents have higher rates of age-adjusted mortality, disability, and chronic disease than their urban counterparts, though mortality and disability rates vary more by region than by metro status. Contributing negatively to the health status of rural residents are their lower socioeconomic status, higher incidence of both smoking and obesity, and lower levels of physical activity. Contributing negatively to the health status of farmers are the high risks from workplace hazards, which also affect other members of farm families who live on the premises and often share in the work; contributing positively are farmers’ higher socioeconomic status, lower incidence of smoking, and more active lifestyle. Both farm and rural populations experience lower access to health care along the dimensions of affordability, proximity, and quality, compared with their nonfarm and urban counterparts.Health Economics and Policy, agriculture safety and health, electronic health records, farmer health, health, health care access, health care affordability, health care quality, health disparities, health IT, health status, mortality, rural health, telehealth, uninsured,

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN THE FTAA

Paper presented at the 24th West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference, Granada, July 19-12, 2002. Environmental issues have become important in trade agreement negotiations. NAFTA explicitly includes environmental provisions and they are affecting ongoing WTO and FTAA negotiations. The final role of the environment in the FTAA is uncertain, given opposition by most of the members. The draft FTAA agreement does not contain a separate section on the environment, but a U.S. position paper indicates that environmental provisions are important and that U.S. negotiators will seek to incorporate environmental concerns into specific chapters such those on investment and agriculture. The large number and varied economic and environmental conditions of the 34 countries in the FTAA, make it difficult to include meaningful environmental provisions in the agreement, but environmentalists are seeking them and the inclusion of such provisions in the NAFTA and WTO agreements will tend to make it difficult to get approval of future agreements that do not address environmental issues or at least that do not guard against creating pollution havens or that encourage laxness in environmental protection. This paper examines environmental and trade issues in the context of the FTAA negotiations including analyses of environmental conditions in the region and the pros and cons of their inclusion in the FTAA and other trade agreements.International trade, trade agreements, agricultural trade, environment, trade and environment, Environmental Economics and Policy, International Relations/Trade, F1, F13, F15, F18,