The Manufactures Terms of Trade of Developing Countries with the United States, 1981-97

There is an ongoing debate on whether or not developing countries suffer a trend deterioration in their terms of trade in their exchange of manufactures with developed countries. In a contribution to this debate, this paper analyses trends in the prices of US imports and exports of manufactures in trade with developing countries, and - for comparative purposes - with other developed countries. The results show a significant terms of trade deterioration for developing countries over the first half of the 1980s, with no significant change since then, while for other developed countries their manufactures terms of trade vis-`-vis the US was trendless in the 1981-85 period, with significant improvement since. Over the whole period studied, the manufactures terms of trade of developing countries with the US thus showed a relative deterioration compared with the corresponding terms of trade of other developed countries. The paper also considers probable causes of this relative deterioration.

Energy Counselling and Modern IT. Drawing on Web 2.0 for a Greener World

The aim of this article is to explore how modern IT solutions for collaborative knowledge evolution could lead to more effective energy counselling and increased energy knowledge among the public. Comparative studies have been performed where the focus has been on the prerequisites for effective use of web 2.0 type collaboration and wikis. The research is primarily aimed at actors within the energy sector, although similar developments also take place in other sectors. Targeted investments employing collaborative IT to involve the public in energy counselling could lead to lower energy consumption and an increased consciousness of environmental issues in the society. A conclusion is that web 2.0-like initiatives could play a valuable role in the knowledge development and exchange between energy counsellors, and further the knowledge exchange between the counsellors, the regional energy agencies and the public. They could also help channel an energy interest among the public into a collaborative knowledge production, and contribute to a good quality factual basis for the conceptions that develop in society. This would strengthen both the energy counselling and the energy counsellor corps.communities, sustainability, sector transcendence, energy counselling, web 2.0.