Global economy knows no borders

Artykuł naukowy „Global economy knows no borders” jest podsumowaniem wystąpienia profesora Marka Belki podczas konferencji naukowej “2014 – New Opportunities for Japan – V-4 Cooperation” zorganizowanej przez Wydział Socjologiczno-Ekonomiczny Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. Głównym tematem niniejszego opracowania są rozważania nad stanem gospodarki światowej oraz perspektywami jej rozwoju. Autor rozpoczyna swój wywód od prezentacji prognoz Banku Światowego i Międzynarodowego Funduszu Walutowego dotyczących globalnego wzrostu, a następnie płynnie przechodzi do analizy czynników (zarówno ekonomicznych, jak i politycznych), które w ocenie wielu ekspertów mogą postawić te oczekiwania pod znakiem zapytania. Profesor Belka zwraca uwagę na brak strukturalnej równowagi w światowej ekonomii oraz występowanie zjawiska nierównomiernego rozłożenia wzrostu gospodarczego pomiędzy różnymi rejonami globu. W celu lepszego zobrazowania tego problemu podejmuje się oceny bieżącej sytuacji makroekonomicznej głównych światowych gospodarek. W części poświęconej USA odnosi się do nowych rozwiązań technologicznych w dziedzinie pozyskiwania energii, kwestii migracji siły roboczej oraz ekspansywnej polityki monetarnej stosowanej przez amerykański Bank Rezerw Federalnych. Omawia następnie skomplikowaną sytuację Chin, które odnotowały znaczący spadek dynamiki wzrostu, co nie pozostaje bez wpływu na narastające napięcia społeczne i nierówności ekonomiczne w „Państwie Środka”. W odniesieniu do Japonii autor przybliża starania rządu oraz banku centralnego do wyprowadzenia kraju z „deflacyjnej pułapki”, ograniczenia ogromnego długu publicznego oraz ponownego wprowadzenia gospodarki na ścieżkę wzrostu. Kolejną częścią pracy jest przedstawienie wyzwań stojących przed Europejskim Bankiem Centralnym, którego celem jest utrzymanie unii walutowej oraz pobudzenie wzrostu w deflacyjnym otoczeniu gospodarczym przy nadal nierozwiązanym problemie zadłużenia części członków Unii. W tym kontekście zostaje zaprezentowana polityka „luzowania ilościowego” (QE – Quantitative Easing), a także rozważania nad planem inwestycji infrastrukturalnych, które mogłyby dodatkowo pobudzić wzrost gospodarczy Unii Europejskiej. Autor zwraca jednak uwagę na brak myślenia wspólnotowego zarówno w kwestii planowania inwestycji, jak i dzielenia się odpowiedzialnością za zadłużenie. To z kolei prowadzi go do rozważań nad przyszłością integracji europejskiej i jej zasięgu, a także wskazania trudności w stosowaniu polityki reform strukturalnych. Ostatnia część pracy jest poświęcona rozważaniom nad wstąpieniem Polski do strefy euro. Problem ten jest omówiony z różnych perspektyw: roli, jaką Polska chce odgrywać w ramach Unii Europejskiej, naszej gotowości do spełnienia kryteriów ekonomicznych, polskiej polityki wewnętrznej oraz nierozwiązanych problemów, które trapią samą Eurostrefę. Praca została również rozszerzona o zapis sesji pytań i odpowiedzi, podczas której autor ustosunkował się do zagadnień wpływu potencjalnego przyjęcia przez Polskę waluty euro na wymianę handlową z Japonią oraz konsekwencji dla polskiej gospodarki w związku z pojawieniem się zjawiska deflacji.The organizers of the conference wish to acknowledge the National Bank of Poland’s generous funding of this publication

Microeconomics of transformation in Poland : a survey of state enterprise responses

State enterprise behavior and reform have emerged as key issues in the emerging market economies of Eastern Europe because of the size of the state manufacturing sector as measured by its share in GDP, exports, and tax revenues. The difficulties experienced by Polish state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in adjusting and responding to the new economic environment have led to fiscal imbalance, deteriorating portfolios of commercial banks, and burgeoning interfirm payment arrears. The authors examine the economic and behavioral reactions of a significant sample of Poland's largest SOEs to the macroeconomic reforms introduced as part of the"big bang"in January 1990. They track the evolution of output, costs, and profits, and examine wage setting behavior, enterprise debt dynamics, and enforcement of the"micro"hard budget constraint by banks. They conduct a firm-level analysis of the export boom and its causes and document the evolving tax burden on enterprises. Their findings are based on a survey of 75 large SOEs in manufacturing during June 1989 - March 1991 - six months prior to and 15 months following the big bang. Some of the main quantitative conclusions were: (1) The high nominal interest rate on working capital (from 50 to 72 percent of the month of January 1990 alone) inhibited borrowing and motivated firms to pay off zloty loans, leading to a squeeze on working capital. The huge decline in real wages led to a demand shock, witnessed by rising finished goods inventories. Consequently, the initial, unexpectedly large, decline in output could be explained by a combination of nominal interest rate shock and standard demand considerations. (2) High profits in 1990 were temporary, stemming from inflationary gains on once-off inventory sales, devaluation gains on enterprise dollar accounts, and implicit input subsidies from CMEA trade. (3) Banks were lax in enforcing creditworthiness, leading to an adverse selection problem marked by loans going mainly to"bad"firms. (4) State-owned enterprises tend to be myopic, with considerable short-run pressure on wages that works to the detriment of restructuring investments essential for reducing energy and material intensity and product redesign. (5) Nominal and real wages both displayed remarkable flexibility. Employment reduction has lagged output reduction partly because partial indexation of wages to inflation has kept real wages low and partly because of the natural reluctance of worker-controlled SOEs to shed labor. So, there is clear possibility of much higher transitional unemployment once privatization and commercialization get underway on large scale. (6) The hard-currency export boom in 1990 was motivated more by slack domestic demand than higher export profitability. The main qualitative change is a definite attitudinal shift in favor of profits and marketing in contrast to the old exclusive emphasis on production targets. But there is a serious principal-agent problem with managers serving at the pleasure of the workers'council and no obvious owner stressing long-term viability considerations in decision-making. The paper concludes by discussing the microeconomic transformation needed to complete the largely economic big bang. The importance of addressing firm-level managerial incentives and empowering managers is emphasized in the transition to eventual privatization.Markets and Market Access,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation

Transforming state enterprises in Poland : macroeconomic evidence on adjustment

Basing their report on repeat visits in late 1992 to 75 large state-owned manufacturing enterprises (which had been earlier surveyed in mid-1991), the authors present optimistic new evidence about the transformation of state-owned enterprises in Poland. This evidence shows state-owned enterprises in a much more favorable light than the stereotype of myopic, decapitalizing companies that dominates discussion of Poland's state manufacturing sector. Success stories are emerging, and the state sector is far from a write-off. Moreover, favorable evidence is drawn from all manufacturing sectors, attesting to thepotential for a diversified manufacturing base. The state-owned enterprises'operations are largely autonomous, so the positive adjustments indicate that decentralized approaches to transformation could work - if bolstered by appropriate managerial incentives. But several problems remain, and many issues have yet to be addressed. The authors examine various adjustment indicators (labor shedding, material and energy costs, bank borrowings, and export performance) and correlate these with firms classified by 1992 financial performance. (By 1992, presumably, the transitional measurement distortions of 1990 and 1991 had disappeared.) They show that significant differences exist between successful and unsuccessful firms. Managers in successful firms have tended to stress a change in product mix, have generally become more efficient in the use of materials and energy, have maintained labor productivity, and have shown restraint in setting wages and in borrowing from banks. The authors discuss key transformation issues: the disappearance of such safety valves as easy bank loans and interfirm credit, hardening of the microeconomic budget constraint, excess-wage tax reform, and, most important, managerial attitudes and incentives. To complete the picture, they correlate the results of manager interviews with the quantitative performance of firms. Essentially, firms have learned a good deal about operating in a market economy in the past three years, and managers have matured. The industrial revival showing up in economywide statistics can be regarded as a sustainable trend borne of genuine microeconomic adjustment.Small Scale Enterprise,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Municipal Financial Management

Transforming State Enterprises in Poland: Evidence on Adjustment by Manufacturing Firms

macroeconomics, state enterprises, Poland, manufacturing firms

Free Radical Activity, Lipid Peroxidation and Antioxidant Status in Diabetes Mellitus

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/749 on 06.02.2017 by CS (TIS)The role of free radicals and antioxidants in human disease, particularly cardiovascular disease is an area of intensive research. Diabetes mellitus is the most common condition associated with increased oxidative stress and accelerated atherosclerosis. Increased levels of lipid peroxides and diminished antioxidant vitamin status have been reported in diabetic patients and are also implicated in the chronic complications of diabetes. The autoxidation and glycoxidation reactions of glucose are sources of free radicals in vitro and a preliminary investigation that these reactions may be a source of free radicals in vivo was undertaken in patients admitted to hospital with severe hyperglycaemia or diabetic ketoacidosis. Plasma lipid peroxides were elevated 2-7 fold above the reference range, but decreased during the recovery period in these patients. Plasma urate and ascorbate levels decreased rapidly, whilst interestingly, α-tocopherol levels /lipid ratios were preserved. The study indicated the resilient nature of the antioxidant defences in plasma, although further studies are required in order to elucidate fully the role of autoxidation and glycoxidation reactions in vivo. Insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia are also tightly linked with atherogenesis in type II diabetes and weight loss in obese subjects plays an important part in the reversal of insulin resistance. The safety and efficacy of two weight loss interventions - very low calorie diet (VLCD) and intensive conventional dietetic (I CD) therapy - on cardiovascular risk factors and indices of oxidative stress were investigated in obese diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. The ICD therapy produced modest weight loss in patients with established diabetes with transient improvements in diastolic blood pressure and plasma ascorbate, but with a reduction in vitamin E / serum lipid ratios. The VLCD produced large and rapid weight loss in diabetic and non-diabetic patients with improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, lipid peroxides and vitamin E / serum lipid ratios, which were maintained after 12 months. Plasma ascorbate concentrations were significantly lower in diabetic patients than non-diabetic patients on the VLCD, indicating that formulated diets may require higher concentrations of vitamin C for diabetic patients and this requires further investigation. The VLCD successfully reversed type II diabetes and normalized plasma lipid peroxide levels in two newly diagnosed patients.South Devon Healthcare, Torbay Hospita

Enterprise Adjustment in Poland: Evidence from a Survey of 200 Private

This paper reports the main findings from a survey of some 200 Polish firms carried out at the end of 1993. The central focus is on the relationship between different emerging forms of ownership and the extent and nature of enterprise level adjustments taking place. Four broad categories of enterprises that distinguish the main ownership forms that characterize Polish industry were included in the survey: (a) traditional state-owned enterprises, (b) corporatized state-owned enterprises that have been converted into joint stock companies but whose shares are now owned by the State Treasury; (c) former state-owned firms that have been privatized; and (d) privately-owned firms which were established de novo. Some of the main findings from the survey are as follows. Growth and investment in 1993 were widely diffused through the economy, but rather more concentrated in the private sector and especially in de novo private firms, while financial distress as revealed by low profit margins was concentrated in the state-owned sector. The survey suggests that all firms in Poland have experienced a considerable increase in competition, and have faced the need radically to restructure their patterns of input purchases and marketing strategy. In general, de novo private firms have led the way, and changes have been fewer and less deep in the state-owned sector. Developments on the labor side in our sample are rather modest, and to be heavily oriented to satisfy the preferences of insiders, especially workers. Overmanning remains rife in both the state-owned and privatized sector, and differences between the two groups of firms in wage determination appear to stem more from the operation of the excess wage tax than from differences in motivation. Behavior in the de novo private firms is, however, clearly different, with a concern to hire not fire, and with lower employee influence. With respect to finance, we find that privatized and especially de novo private firms are financially relatively healthy, with higher profits and fewer bad debts than the state-owned firms. Although almost half of private sector firms hold no bank debt, bank credit is flowing fastest to these firms and in general they report the fewest problems in servicing it. Overdue trade credit is common among all ownership groups but more so among state firms; however, the flow problem is not serious, and volumes of total and overdue trade credit are comparable to West European levels. The main method by which severely financially-distressed firms, nearly all of which are state-owned, finance their losses is by running up tax arrears; financing by banks and by trade credit is much less significant.

Analisis Kemampuan Multirepresentasi Siswa pada Konsep-konsep Gaya di Kelas X SMA Negeri 3 Pontianak

Physics education literature recommends using multirepresentations to help students understand concepts and solve problems. This descriptive correlative research aims to describe student ability about represent similiar force concepts in many ways with essay test. One hundred students of 10thgrade in SMA Negeri 3 Pontianak were chosen by gender and student achievment using proportional sampling technique. Average percentage of multirepresentations ability was 41,3 % from the highest score. There were some mistakes in representation that most student made, especially in fisis and mathematical representation. There also was gap in analysis by gender and also analysis by student achievment showed by T-test independent result (P<0,05). We also found that high achieving students have higher multirepresentations score than low achieving students in all item, so that teaching with multirepresentations is needed to support physics achievement

Lessons from Polish Transition

This article provides a general account of the Polish transition from socialist central planning to a market economy and tries to explicate the main causes of the relative success of this transition. The second section offers an overview of the main steps in the reform process. It begins with a description of initial reform and analyzes public-policy measures and the subsequent reaction of enterprises and banks. The ?four reforms? (health service, education, social security, and administrative reform) that have begun at the end of the 1990's are discussed vis-?-vis state spending. The third section identifies the relative merits of the Polish economic transition. Five facets of success are cited: the ?shock therapy? of 1990, measured institution building, pragmatism, a social contract, and a pro-Europe orientation.transition; public policy

Why "Radiation Oncology"

Radiotherapy continues to be a major treatment for solid tumours and is a cornerstone of modern oncology. The term 'radiation oncology' describes the integration of radiation therapy into the complexity of multi-modal therapy. Over the last ten years the crucial role of radiation therapy as part of multi-modality protocols in cancer care has been documented in numerous Phase III trials. Advances in treatment technology as well as the underlying biology of tumour resistance mechanisms will further strengthen the role of radiation oncology. The scientific role of radiation oncology is reflected by the increase in the number of papers related to radiation oncology in resources like Medline. In order to reflect the growing scientific importance of radiation oncology, radiation physics and radiation biology, we have initiated Radiation Oncology as the first open access journal in the field. Open access allows for a rapid and transparent publication process together with an unequalled opportunity to reach the widest reader spectrum possible

Isobologram analysis of triple therapies

New concepts in radiation oncology are based on the concept that combinations of irradiation and molecular targeted drugs can yield synergistic or at least additive effects. Up to now the combination of two treatment modalities has been tested in almost all cases. Similar to conventional anti-cancer agents, the efficacy of targeted approaches is also subject to predefined resistance mechanisms. Therefore, it seems reasonable to speculate that a combination of more than two agents will ultimately increase the therapeutic gain. No tools for a bio-mathematical evaluation of a given degree of interaction for more than two anti-neoplastic agents are currently available. The present work introduces a new method for an evaluation of triple therapies and provides some graphical examples in order to visualize the results