The privatization of the Russian coal industry: policies and processes in the transformation of a major industry

This paper provides an overview of the privatization of the Russian coal industry. It reviews the salient aspects of the Government's privatization policy as it evolved over the years, and looks at the reasons for the successes and the pitfalls encountered along the way. Specific procedures and methods of sale are described in detail. A profile of the new owners of the industry is given, with a look at the implications for competition in the industry and at first performance indicators. As the World Bank has been closely involved in the support of the Government's coal sector restructuring program through provision of financing and policy advice, throughout the paper aspects of World Bank advice are considered.Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Non Bank Financial Institutions,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water and Industry,Water and Industry,Non Bank Financial Institutions,Mining&Extractive Industry (Non-Energy),Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management

Qui Tam legal concept and practice: evolution of the legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States of America

Qui tam is the process whereby an individual sues or prosecutes in the name of the government and shares in the proceeds of any successful litigation or settlement. The Latin name points to the long history of the legislation, which was created in the ancient times. The qui tam authorises private citizens with non-public information relating to the fraud to bring suit on behalf of the government even without prosecutorial endorsement. Qui tam is generally a civil procedure, and the individual need not have been a victim of the misconduct. The aim of this research is to contribute to the original knowledge by providing an analysis of the qui tam legal concept in its historical evolution in a space of time through two millennia, with main focus on two primary common law jurisdictions – the United Kingdom and USA. The hypothesis underlying the research is that under certain conditions pursuing goal to better and more efficiently exercise some of its functions the state following qualitative changes in a socio-economic environment may delegate part of its authority to the citizens, and provide them with selectively adopted set of pecuniary and non-pecuniary incentives to accept this authority. The hypothesis is tried with analysis from the following perspectives: macro level - state regulatory practice, and socio-economic development; corporate level -- cost of compliance, and corporate response; basic level -- personal motives, and risks for actual and potential whistleblowers. The conceptual framework applied is based on the economic analysis of law, which focuses on the economic efficiency of legal rules. The starting point of the research is the assumptions that legal rules ought to be efficient, and that individuals respond to legal rules economically. However the analysis goes beyond the fundamentalist strong-form rationality assumption, which implies that economic agents always make choices that maximise their own welfare. For the purposes of this research, the people are viewed as weakly rational – rational, but subject to some consistent deviations. Methodologically the research borrows from the behavioural economic theory its attention to such factors as frame dependence and inefficient markets. The analysis shows that qui tam regulations have decentralised the problem of enforcement, which apart from tackling the inevitable bureaucratic inaptitude, significantly reduces its costs. With respect to more traditional forms of monitoring and regulatory control such a system has proven to offer solid advantages. First of all, it does not require setting up a costly structure. The financial sophistication, and organisational complexity, combined with technical ingenuity and elaboration of the contemporary big business present a cognitive challenge for the investigative and prosecutorial agencies. To investigate white-collar crime they have to spend increasingly huge resources, both financial and intellectual. The relative scarcity of these resources in the post-crisis developed economies has paved way for the qui tam legislation to give governments chance to catch up. From the narrow regulatory point of view, the bounty system imposes a downward shift in costs of compliance – from the regulator to a corporate level, – because it does not require significant increase in regulators’ staff and budgets. The macroeconomic approach, which focuses on the costs and benefits on a much wider scale, brings in a more complicated picture, when potential short-term increase in costs on a corporate level are offset on a longer-term time scale by rising economic efficiency as a result of reduced losses through corporate fraud and government imposed fines, increased public trust, and improved corporate governance. From the point of view of the lawmakers, by creating competition for enforcement, qui tam laws reduce the chances that the potential enforcer is bought off, thus providing some additional efficiency through the dual enforcement model. This leads the research to conclude on the motives and logic that stand behind the state, which in such way delegates part of its authority: the qui tam have always been popular with ruling classes for the same reason in the past as well as at present times – under public pressure to prosecute more effectively misdeeds and fraud the society decries as inacceptable, legislative bodies enhance qui tam, when they consider the enforcement of some law beyond the unaided capacity, or interest of law enforcement officials

QED treatment of electron correlation in Li-like ions

A systematic QED treatment of electron correlation is presented for ions along the lithium isoelectronic sequence. We start with the zeroth-order approximation that accounts for a part of the electron-electron interaction by a local model potential introduced into the Dirac equation. The residual electron correlation is treated by perturbation theory. Rigorous QED evaluation is presented for the first two terms of the perturbative expansion; the third-order contribution is calculated within the many-body perturbation theory. We report accurate numerical results for the electronic-structure part of the ionization potential for the n=2 states of all Li-like ions up to uranium

. Effect of the venous outflow ways from pancreatic transplant on carbohydrate metabolism after autotransplantation of pancreas in the experiment

The aims: to compare the state of carbohydrate metabolism in animals after pancreatectomy with autotransplantation of the pancreatic segment and with organization of the venous outflow in the inferior vena or portal vein. Material and methods. Proximal resection of the pancreas (group 1), pancreatectomy with autologous transplantation of the pancreas and with reconstruction of the venous outflow from the transplant into the inferior vena cava (group 2) and pancreatectomy with autologous transplantation of the pancreas and with reconstruction of the venous outflow from the transplant into the portal vein (group 3) were performed in 45 animals in the experiment. Examining the status of carbohydrate metabolism was performed by intravenous test for glucose tolerance. Results. Primary higher increase in glucose concentrations as compared to the values obtained at the intact animals and its slower decrease have been observed in animals after pancreatectomy with autotransplantation of the segment of the pancreas on iliac vessels (group 2), as well as on the mesenteric vessels (group 3). Higher blood glucose compared to animals subjected proximal pancreatectomy after 40 minutes after administration of glucose was detected in animals undergoing autotransplantation of the pancreas on iliac vessels (group 2) and in animals after autotransplantation of the pancreas on mesenteric vessels (group 3)— 11.82 (11,39-12,26) mmol/l and 10.65 (10,03-11,32) mmol/l, respectively. The glucose concentration in the blood plasma was lower in the animals of groups 2 and 3 below in comparison with the animals in group 1 to 120 minutes of the experiment. Significant differences in plasma glucose concentration between animals of groups 2 and 3 were not found. Conclusion. Significant effects of the ways of organization of the venous outflow from pancreatic transplant on the concentration of the glucose in the blood plasma by the carbohydrate load after pancreatectomy with autotransplantation of the pancreas were not found

Розробка методики оцінки екологічного ризику погіршення стану поверхневих вод

A procedure for estimation of the risk of violation of the water body status was presented. The procedure is based on defining environmental standards of surface water quality taking into account landscape and geographical features of river basins. A database of the systems of monitoring surface water was used to assess the risk of deterioration of the aquatic ecosystem. This enables automated calculation of the environmental risk. At the first stage, it is necessary to determine environmental standards (ES) on the basis of analysis and statistical processing of long-term monitoring data on the qualitative state and hydrological regime taking into account forecasting models. At the second stage, probability of violation of ecological standards is estimated by the ratio of the number of observations of the ecological state of the water body with violation of the ES to the total number of observations. Exceeding environmental standards makes it possible to assess the risk of well-being violation in aquatic ecosystems. Assessment of the environmental risk of deterioration of Udy River and Oskil River in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, has made it possible to make the list of priority pollutants and outline the main problems for which a complex of environmental measures should be worked out. Establishment of the risk of well-being violation in the aquatic ecosystem will contribute to the implementation of a flexible system for regulating water quality taking into account ever-changing socio-economic and environmental conditions. The proposed procedure for assessing the environmental risk of deterioration of the status of aquatic ecosystems is based on the normative basis, approaches and methods of environmental assessment of surface waters adopted in Ukraine and the EUПредлагается новый подход к определению экологического риска ухудшения состояния поверхностных вод. Новая методика основывается на определении экологических нормативов качества поверхностных вод с учетом ландшафтных и географических особенностей речных бассейнов. Применение предложенной методики даст возможность принять научно обоснованные управленческие решения в области водоохранной деятельности. Определение риска нарушения благополучия водной экосистемы даст возможность усовершенствовать водоохранную стратегиюПропонується новий підхід до визначення екологічного ризику погіршення стану поверхневих вод. Нова методика ґрунтується на визначенні екологічних нормативів якості поверхневих вод з урахуванням ландшафтних і географічних особливостей річкових басейнів. Застосування запропонованої методики дасть змогу прийняти науково обґрунтовані управлінські рішення в галузі водоохоронної діяльності. Визначення ризику порушення благополуччя водної екосистеми дасть змогу удосконалити водоохоронну стратегі