Health, Capabilities and Functionings: An Empirical Analysis for the UK

We analyse the relationship between socio-economic variables and health outcomes for adult participants in three waves of the British Household Panel Survey from 1999 to 2001. We adopt Sen’s capability approach and compute a capability index ranking individuals on the basis of their ability to transform health and economic resources into health functionings. The results show that, even when controlling for access to health resources, socio-economic variables affect significantly the health functionings in the UK. This suggests the need for more equalitarian access policies to health care facilities.Health; Capability Approach; Production Frontier

Australian agricultural resources: A national scale land capability map

Ongoing land clearing is a key driver of biodiversity loss and climate change. Effective action to halt land clearing and land degradation ultimately relies on understanding patterns of land capability for production uses, in particular agriculture, as a key driver of land use. Here we describe a national agricultural land capability map for Australia, based on harmonized state agricultural land capability datasets and modelled pastoral capability. State-level agricultural land capability datasets capture regional variations in crop selection and suitability. Hence, we reclassified these datasets to fit a nationally consistent land capability ranking scheme. For regions in which agricultural capability data was not available, we modelled agricultural and pastoral capability and mapped this to the same ranking scheme. The national land capability dataset fills an immediate knowledge need for Australia. This dataset has wide potential for utilization, such as for retrospective analysis of land use policies and prospective regional planning initiatives to ensure forward looking policies and land use plans optimize land allocation

Language learning strategies of graduates for future employment – An overview

English language fluency among graduates is becoming an important capability that graduates need for employment.The industry has noted the declining level of English among Malaysian graduates thus strategies and policies need to be implemented.This paper gives an overview on three areas of literature that is pertinent to this topic: competencies and future employment, language learning strategies and supplier learning.This paper suggest that a model for capability development from the area of supply chain management could be extrapolated as a framework for future research on analyzing the strategies that graduates employ on their own to improve their capability of English language fluency

Can the Discourse on ÒSoft PowerÓ Help the EU to Bridge its Capability-Expectations Gap?

Recently, a new buzz word has appeared in official speeches in the field of the European UnionÕs external relations: ÒSoft powerÓ. The notion was first coined for American foreign policy and is now at the heart of EU foreign policy discourses, especially the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The ENP launched in 2003 for the new EU neighbours draws heavily on the experience of the past enlargements by exporting internal norms, values and policies abroad. The article explores the hypothesis that the discourse on Òsoft powerÓ represents an attempt to go beyond a traditional understanding of foreign policy and of conditionality. By developing its own definition of Òsoft powerÓ, the EU tries to position itself on the international stage by preferring civilian over coercive means and thus seeks to increase the ENPÕs legitimacy through attraction instead of accession. Nevertheless, it will need to improve its internal consistency if it wants to avoid serious criticism of the ENP and bridge its famous capability-expectations gap.European Neighbourhood Policy, soft power, capability-expectations gap

Traceability for adaptive information security in the cloud

One of the key challenges in cloud computing is the security of the consumer data stored and processed by cloud machines. When the usage context of a cloud application changes, or when the context is unknown, there is a risk that security policies are violated. To minimize this risk, cloud applications need to be engineered to adapt their security policies to maintain satisfaction of security requirements despite changes in their usage context. We call such adaptation capability Adaptive Information Security. The paper argues that one of the prerequisites to adaptive information security is the use of traceability as a means to understanding the relationship between security requirements and security policies. Using an example, we motivate the need for improving traceability in the development of cloud applications

The Costs and Benefits of Regulation: Implications for Developing Countries

The literature on the benefits and costs of regulation demonstrates that this issue can be explored systematically using standard economic analysis. It also shows that regulation can have a significant adverse impact on economic growth. Specifically, regulation aimed at controlling prices and entry into markets that would otherwise be workably competitive is likely to reduce growth and adversely affect the average standard of living. In addition, process regulation can impose a significant cost on the economy. Nonetheless, social regulations may have significant net benefits for the average consumer if designed judiciously. There are several policies developing countries might consider adopting to improve their general approach to regulation. The appropriate regulatory tools and framework will depend on many factors, including bureaucratic expertise, resource availability, political constraints, and economic impacts. There is a general need to enhance the capability for evaluating regulation at the local and national levels.

Transportation Costs, Increasing Returns and Regional Growth: An Interregional CGE Analysis

The purpose of this paper was threefold. First, we presented a flexible analytical framework, based on sound and consistent economic theory and data, in order to assess the likely state/sectoral/income effects of policy changes in Brazil. This is the first fully operational interstate CGE model implemented for the Brazilian economy, based on previous work by the author and associates. Among the features embedded in this framework, modeling of scale economies and transportation costs provides an innovative way of dealing explicitly with theoretical issues related to integrated regional systems. Results seemed to reinforce the need to better specifying spatial interactions in interregional CGE models. Second, in order to illustrate the analytical capability of the CGE module, we presented a simulation, which evaluated the regional impacts of a decrease in transportation costs, in accordance with recent policy developments in Brazil. Rather than providing a critical evaluation of this debate, we intended to emphasize the likely structural impacts of such policies. Third, previous diagnostics suggested the need to make a more in-depth analysis of trade flows between the Brazilian states, potentially leading to generalizations regarding the type of trade involved, changes in its composition through time as the Brazilian economy develops, and the implications of these structural differences in the coordination and implementation of development policies. In order to address this issue we gave interregional trade its proper place by taking into account a fully specified interstate system of accounts specially developed for the purpose of calibrating the CGE model.

MENTORING PRACTICES IN PNU PARTNER SCHOOLS : TOWARDS POLICY CREATION IN CAPACITY BUILDING OF COOPERATING TEACHERS FOR EFFECTIVE MENTORING

The practice of mentoring student teachers seeks the much needed intervention and reform in the preparation of future teacher professionals who will eventually implement the K-12 Curriculum in the Philippines. The present study investigated on the perception of student teachers on the way they were mentored during their practice teaching in the selected partner schools. Additionally, this paper presents the beliefs and practices of cooperating teachers which student teachers perceive to be effective in the mentoring process. Data gathered from surveys and interviews with student teachers and cooperating teachers for this study pointed the strengths of the mentoring program as well as pitfalls that need to be addressed. The cooperating teachers in the different partner schools identified elements which are believed to be areas of concern that make them feel the need to undergo capability building. The findings presented here are intended to inform the development of policies in building cooperating teachers‟ capability for effective mentoring

Technological Capability, Employment Growth and Industrial Development: A Quantitative Anatomy of Indian Scenario

The recent spurt of economic growth in India has been described as ‘jobless growth’. In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the question of when industrial development provides required dynamism for generating desired employment opportunities for labour force and when it does not. An industrial technological capability based approach has been adopted to analyse the Indian Industrial development experience during the period 1980 to 2005, which is a quarter century time period. The main finding that emerged from the empirical evidence is that the medium-high-tech industries have shown dynamism in terms of generating employment growth. The labour market regulation view put forward by various scholars supporting the liberalisation policies could not stand the scrutiny of clear demarcation among job creating and job destroying industries under the same circumstances. The relationship between industrial technological capabilities and employment growth turns out to be ambiguous. This implies that weak technological capabilities adversely affect employment growth and heavy dependence on imported technological know-how from the developed countries is labour displacing. It is thus suggested that developing countries should invest both in institutions and industrial firms to develop technological development that suits to resource endowment, specificities of local conditions and suitable to the stage of industrial development. There is a dire need to explore alternative paths of industrial and technological capability development to sustain economic transformation process for achieving prosperity and reducing the time for catch-up development.Industrial development, jobless growth, technological capabilities, employment elasticities