Currency Board Arrangement and Transition: The Issues, Controversies and the Experience of Bosnia

In the last decade there has been considerable discussion on what exchange rate policies shall be pursued by developing countries as well as countries in transition as mean of successful transformation and effective mechanism to spur private sector growth and promote stability. the central to this, rather broad and growing debate, has been the role of fixed exchange rates, and the currency board arrangements (cba) in particular.this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the attractions and disadvantages of such arrangements principally drawing on the experience of bosnia and herzegovina (bih). it assesses merits and costs related to this arrangement, primarily looking at the rigidities and constraints the regime imposes on macroeconomic policies, and the subsequent impact on growth and development. finally, the paper elaborates if and under which conditions, the weaknesses associated with the regime are off set with its repeatedly assigned advantages of i.e. macroeconomic stability, low inflation, increased confidence and established credibility as well as reduced “costs” to business transactions and investments. the paper concludes that bosnian currency board was viable temporary solution and that serious consideration shall be given to exiting the regime. the paper is thought to provide useful insights to policy makers and contribute to the overall monetary and exchange rate debate.currency board arrangement, policy misalignments, transition

Euler-Lagrange models with complex currents of three-phase electrical machines and observability issues

A new Lagrangian formulation with complex currents is developed and yields a direct and simple method for modeling three-phase permanent-magnet and induction machines. The Lagrangian is the sum a mechanical one and of a magnetic one. This magnetic Lagrangian is expressed in terms of rotor angle, complex stator and rotor currents. A complexification procedure widely used in quantum electrodynamic is applied here in order to derive the Euler-Lagrange equations with complex stator and rotor currents. Such complexification process avoids the usual separation into real and imaginary parts and simplifies notably the calculations. Via simple modifications of such magnetic Lagrangians we derive new dynamical models describing permanent-magnet machines with both saturation and saliency, and induction machines with both magnetic saturation and space harmonics. For each model we also provide its Hamiltonian thus its magnetic energy. This energy is also expressed with complex currents and can be directly used in Lyapunov and/or passivity based control. Further, we briefly investigate the observability of this class of Euler-Lagrange models, in the so-called sensorless case when the measured output is the stator current and the load torque is constant but unknown. For all the dynamical models obtained via such variational principles, we prove that their linear tangent systems are unobservable around a one-dimensional family of steady-states attached to the same constant stator voltage and current. This negative result explains why sensorless control of three-phase electrical machines around zero stator frequency remains yet a difficult control problem.Comment: Revised version. Submitted for publicatio

Assessing the bias due to non-coverage of residential movers in the German microcensus panel: an evaluation using data from the socio-economic panel

The German Microcensus (MC) is a large scale rotating panel survey over three years. The MC is attractive for longitudinal analysis over the entire participation duration because of the mandatory participation and the very high case numbers (about 200 thousand respondents). However, as a consequence of the area sampling that is used for the MC , residential mobility is not covered and consequently statistical information at the new residence is lacking in theMCsample. This raises the question whether longitudinal analyses, like transitions between labour market states, are biased and how different methods perform that promise to reduce such a bias. Based on data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which covers residential mobility, we analysed the effects of missing data of residential movers by the estimation of labour force flows. By comparing the results from the complete SOEP sample and the results from the SOEP, restricted to the non-movers, we concluded that the non-coverage of the residential movers can not be ignored in Rubins sense. With respect to correction methods we analysed weighting by inverse mobility scores and loglinear models for partially observed contingency tables. Our results indicate that weighting by inverse mobility scores reduces the bias to about 60 percent whereas the official longitudinal weights obtained by calibration result in a bias reduction of about 80 percent. The estimation of loglinear models for nonignorable nonresponse leads to very unstable results. --Panel survey,labour market analysis,residential mobility,non-coverage bias,log-linear modelling,inverse probability weighting

Characterising the trophic niches of stocked and resident cyprinid fishes: consistency in partitioning over time, space and body sizes.

Hatchery-reared fish are commonly stocked into freshwaters to enhance recreational angling. As these fishes are often of high trophic position and attain relatively large sizes, they potentially interact with functionally similar resident fishes and modify food web structure. Hatchery-reared barbel Barbus barbus are frequently stocked to enhance riverine cyprinid fish communities in Europe; these fish can survive for over 20 years and exceed 8 kg. Here, their trophic consequences for resident fish communities were tested using co-habitation studies, mainly involving chub Squalius cephalus, a similarly large-bodied, omnivorous and long-lived species. These studies were completed over three spatial scales: pond mesocosms, two streams and three lowland rivers, and used stable isotope analysis. Experiments in mesocosms over 100 days revealed rapid formation of dietary specialisations and discrete trophic niches in juvenile B. barbus and S. cephalus. This niche partitioning between the species was also apparent in the streams over two years. In the lowland rivers, where fish were mature individuals within established populations, this pattern was also generally apparent in fishes of much larger body sizes. Thus, the stocking of these hatchery-reared fish only incurred minor consequences for the trophic ecology of resident fish, with strong patterns of trophic niche partitioning and diet specialisation. Application of these results to decision-making frameworks should enable managers to make objective decisions on whether cyprinid fish should be stocked into lowland rivers according to ecological risk

Gene polymorphisms for elucidating the genetic structure of the heavy-metal hyperaccumulating trait in Thlaspi caerulescens and their cross-genera amplification in Brassicaceae.

Genetic polymorphism was investigated in Thlaspi caerulescens J. & C. Presl at 15 gene regions, of which seven have been identified to putatively play a role in heavy-metal tolerance or hyperaccumulation. Single nucleotide and length polymorphisms were assessed at four cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences (CAPS) and 11 simple sequence repeat (microsatellite) loci, respectively. The utility of these loci for genetic studies in T. caerulescens was measured among seven natural populations (135 individuals). Fourteen loci rendered polymorphism, and the number of alleles per locus varied from 2 to 5 and 1 to 27 for CAPS and microsatellites, respectively. Up to 12 alleles per locus were detected in a population. The global observed heterozygosity per population varied between 0.01 and 0.31. Additionally, cross-species/genera amplification of loci was investigated on eight other Brassicaceae (five individuals per population). Overall, 70% of the cross-species/genera amplifications were successful, and among them, more than 40% provided intraspecific polymorphisms within a single population. This indicates that such markers may, as well, allow comparative population genetic or mapping studies between and within several Brassicaceae, particularly for genes involved in traits such as heavy-metal tolerance and/or hyperaccumulation

an evaluation using data from the socio-economic panel

The German Microcensus (MC) is a large scale rotating panel survey over three years. The MC is attractive for longitudinal analysis over the entire participation duration because of the mandatory participation and the very high case numbers (about 200 thousand respondents). However, as a consequence of the area sampling that is used for the MC , residential mobility is not covered and consequently statistical information at the new residence is lacking in theMCsample. This raises the question whether longitudinal analyses, like transitions between labour market states, are biased and how different methods perform that promise to reduce such a bias. Based on data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), which covers residential mobility, we analysed the effects of missing data of residential movers by the estimation of labour force flows. By comparing the results from the complete SOEP sample and the results from the SOEP, restricted to the non-movers, we concluded that the non-coverage of the residential movers can not be ignored in Rubin’s sense. With respect to correction methods we analysed weighting by inverse mobility scores and loglinear models for partially observed contingency tables. Our results indicate that weighting by inverse mobility scores reduces the bias to about 60 percent whereas the official longitudinal weights obtained by calibration result in a bias reduction of about 80 percent. The estimation of loglinear models for nonignorable nonresponse leads to very unstable results

Planejamento Estratégico em Universidades Públicas: Diferenças e Recomendações

Este artigo reforça a oportunidade de se fazer planejamento estratégico nas universidades e aponta as principais diferenças entre o processo desenvolvido nas universidades quando comparado ao do mundo dos negócios, destacando algumas recomendações para aumentar as chances de sucesso do planejamento estratégico nas universidades públicas

Uma Análise Do Processo de Planejamento Estratégico na Administração Central da Unicamp

Este artigo apresenta uma análise do processo de planejamento estratégico em implantação na administração central da Unicamp, examinando a experiência vivida por um dos autores junto ao corpo gerencial da Pró-Reitoria de Desenvolvimento Universitário (PRDU). Esta análise terá como referência os fundamentos das seguintes abordagens teóricas: Planejamento Estratégico em universidades, Avaliação Institucional de universidades, Critérios de Excelência como preconizados pelo Prêmio da Qualidade no Serviço Público (PQSP), e, Medição do Desempenho Global como estudada pela Fundação Prêmio Nacional da Qualidade (FPNQ). Em função dessas abordagens serão apresentados os aspectos positivos e as oportunidades de melhoria do processo em análise