A Clash of Ideologies

SUMMARY UNCTAD has some real achievements to its credit in two interrelated fields. It has initiated new ideas, new concepts and new approaches to the problems of trade and development and it has negotiated international agreements and conventions on a number of issues. But its effectiveness has been constrained by the opposing ideologies and interests of the two main parties to the discussions — the Western industrial economies on the one hand and developing countries on the other. The positions taken by the two sides in the main areas of UNCTAD's work are explained in these terms. RESUMEN Enfrentamiento ideológico UNCTAD ha logrado avances importantes en dos campos relacionados. Ha iniciado nuevas ideas, nuevos conceptos y nuevos enfoques para los problemas del comercio y del desarrollo y ha negociado acuerdos y convenios en una variedad de temas. Pero su eficacia se ha visto restringida por las ideologías e intereses opuestos de los dos principales participantes en las discusiones — las economías industriales de Occidente por un lado y los países en vías de desarrollo por el otro. Aquí se explican las posiciones adoptadas por ambas partes en los terrenos más importantes de trabajo de la UNCTAD. RESUMES Un conflit d'idées CNUCED a atteint de véritables réalisations dans deux domaines complémentaires. Il a donné de nouvelles idées, conceptions et approches aux problèmes du commerce et du développement et il a négocié des accords et des conventions internationaux sur un certain nombre de questions. Mais son efficacité a été restreinte par les idéologies opposantes et les intérêts des deux partis principaux aux discussions d'une part les économies industrielles de l'Ouest et de l'autre les pays en voie de développement. Les positions prises par les deux partis dans les travaux principaux de CNUCED sont expliqués dans cette optique

Aid Allocation of the Emerging Central and Eastern European Donors

The paper examines the main characteristics of the (re)emerging foreign aid policies of the Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), concentrating on the allocation of their aid resources. We adopt an econometric approach, similar to the ones used in the literature for analyzing the aid allocation of the OECD DAC donors. Using this approach, we examine the various factors that influence aid allocation of the Visegrád countries, using data for the years between 2001 and 2008. Our most important conclusion is that the amount of aid a partner county gets from the four emerging donors is not influenced by the level of poverty or the previous performance (measured by the level of economic growth or the quality of institutions) of the recipients. The main determining factor seems to be geographic proximity, as countries in the Western-Balkans and the Post-Soviet region receive much more aid from the Visegrád countries than other recipients. Historical ties (pre-1989 development relations) and international obligations in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq are also found to be significant explanatory factors. This allocation is in line with the foreign political and economic interests of these new donors. While there are clear similarities between the four donors, the paper also identifies some individual country characteristics

Translational rodent models for research on parasitic protozoa – a review of confounders and possibilities

Rodents, in particular Mus musculus, have a long and invaluable history as models for human diseases in biomedical research, although their translational value has been challenged in a number of cases. We provide some examples in which rodents have been suboptimal as models for human biology and discuss confounders which influence experiments and may explain some of the misleading results. Infections of rodents with protozoan parasites are no exception in requiring close consideration upon model choice. We focus on the significant differences between inbred, outbred and wild animals, and the importance of factors such as microbiota, which are gaining attention as crucial variables in infection experiments. Frequently, mouse or rat models are chosen for convenience, e.g., availability in the institution rather than on an unbiased evaluation of whether they provide the answer to a given question. Apart from a general discussion on translational success or failure, we provide examples where infections with single-celled parasites in a chosen lab rodent gave contradictory or misleading results, and when possible discuss the reason for this. We present emerging alternatives to traditional rodent models, such as humanized mice and organoid primary cell cultures. So-called recombinant inbred strains such as the Collaborative Cross collection are also a potential solution for certain challenges. In addition, we emphasize the advantages of using wild rodents for certain immunological, ecological, and/or behavioral questions. The experimental challenges (e.g., availability of species-specific reagents) that come with the use of such non-model systems are also discussed. Our intention is to foster critical judgment of both traditional and newly available translational rodent models for research on parasitic protozoa that can complement the existing mouse and rat models

Commodity Instability and Developing Countries

The significance of commodity price instability for the economic development of commodity-exporting countries has been perhaps the dominant theme in the postwar literature on the "commodity problem". One of the contending postwar views of the significance of excessive commodity price fluctuations on the economies of producing countries can be traced back to Keynes. In a now famous memorandum, written in 1942, Keynes argued that commodity price fluctuations led to unnecessary waste of resources and, by resulting in fluctuations in export earnings, had a detrimental effect on investment in new productive capacity and perpetuated a cycle in commodity output and thus in commodity prices. His solution to the problem was to propose the establishment of a series of international buffer stocks for the main primary commodities entering international trade, with finance to be provided by his proposed Clearing Union (which later came into existence, in modified form, as the International Monetary Fund), and with a General Council to oversee and guide the operations of the individual buffer stocks. Keynes' analysis of the problem of excessive instability in commodity prices was not, however, accepted by the postwar school of neoclassical economists, who argued that intervention by governments in the working of commodity markets was not in the interests of producing countries or of the world economy in general. Several distinct arguments have been advanced by neoclassical economists to support the view that market intervention would be harmful to the economies of commodity-exporting developing countries or to world economic growth, or that such intervention is unnecessary since its objective of reducing fluctuations in export earnings could be achieved more efficiently by other means. The purpose of this Working Paper is to show that these arguments, which underlie the perceptions of the 'commodity problem' of developed country negotiators, are based on untenable assumptions or are otherwise invalid or of limited applicability

Commodity Price Fluctuations and Macro-economic Adjustments in the Developed Countries

Commodity price fluctuations have been troublesome in their destabilising effects on the foreign exchange earnings of developing countries. Recently, however, attention has been drawn to their role in transmitting inflation and in inducing macroeconomic and financial adjustments in the developed countries. These adjustments range from changes in employment and output (including the business cycle) to changes in money supply, interest rates and exchange rates. While questions of the direction of causality arise in this context, there is no doubt of the importance of assessing the impact of commodity price fluctuations on the economies of the developed countries. Of the different research issues raised, past studies have often suffered in two respects. First, the various linkages suggested have not been evaluated using common theoretical and econometric approaches. Second, the empirical tests employed have dealt for the most part with only one country and feature short, non-overlapping, time periods. The purpose of this paper is to report on results which stem from attempts to overcome these problems by employing a common theoretical approach and by examining the experience of six major developed countries over the period 1957 to 1986. The method of analysis followed involves Granger-causality tests based on Hsiao optimal lag selection