Politics and Economic Reform in Malaysia

Malaysia’s admirable economic growth is often attributed to liberal, open economic policies. Aggregate measures of openness, however, often veil the way coalitional politics drove illiberal government intervention in the economy to correct ethnically based economic inequality, create national heavy industries, and favor politically well-connected entrepreneurs. A more nuanced analysis reveals a complex mix of liberal and illiberal economic policies designed to balance competing coalitional interests. These policies created a “dual economy” that successfully replaced growing political and social instability with rapid economic growth sufficient to support redistributive politics. Yet this same dual economy also slowed further reform and retarded technological development, leaving Malaysia mired in mediocrity: neither price competitive with China nor technologically competitive with Singapore, the East Asian NICs, or the OECD countries.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40041/3/wp655.pd

Politics and Economic Reform in Malaysia

Malaysia’s admirable economic growth is often attributed to liberal, open economic policies. Aggregate measures of openness, however, often veil the way coalitional politics drove illiberal government intervention in the economy to correct ethnically based economic inequality, create national heavy industries, and favor politically well-connected entrepreneurs. A more nuanced analysis reveals a complex mix of liberal and illiberal economic policies designed to balance competing coalitional interests. These policies created a “dual economy” that successfully replaced growing political and social instability with rapid economic growth sufficient to support redistributive politics. Yet this same dual economy also slowed further reform and retarded technological development, leaving Malaysia mired in mediocrity: neither price competitive with China nor technologically competitive with Singapore, the East Asian NICs, or the OECD countries.Malaysia, Economic Reform, Technological Upgrading, Coalitions, Dualism

The National Security Dividend of Global Carbon Mitigation

Energy and environmental security objectives are often conflated in political circles and in the popular press. Results from a well-established integrated assessment model suggest that policies designed to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at levels above ~500 ppm generally do not align with policies to curb global oil dependence, because these atmospheric objectives can be achieved largely through reductions in global coal consumption. Policies designed to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide at levels below ~500 ppm, on the other hand, directly facilitate the alignment of environmental and security objectives because atmospheric targets in this range demand significant reductions in both coal and oil use. Greater recognition that investment in carbon mitigation can yield significant security dividends may alter the political cost-benefit calculus of energy-importing nations and could increase the willingness of some key global actors to seek binding cooperative targets under any post-Kyoto climate treaty regime.

Initial Findings from the Archeological Investigations of the Hardin A Site (41GG69), Gregg County, Texas

The Hardin A site (41GG69) is a prehistoric Caddo Indian settlement located on a high terrace overlooking the Sabine River flood-plain in Gregg County, Texas. The modem channel of the river is about 650 m to the south, and there is a small, intermittent tributary ca. 180 m to the west. The senior author discovered the Hardin A site in 1997, after he was told about it by informants who were looting a midden and cemetery area, and he formally recorded it in February 2000. In an effort to better understand the temporal and archeological context of the prehistoric Caddo occupation at the Hardin A site, limited hand excavations (Unit 1, a l x 2 m unit) were completed in the midden area by the senior author, with the assistance of Mark Walters, Texas Archeological Steward, in the spring of 2000. That work exposed deep (+90 cm) archeological deposits in a sandy loam soil with some preserved midden, as well as part of a pit feature in the northern and eastern part of the unit. The pit feature extended to approximately 160 cm below surface (bs), and contained dark brown to very dark grayish-brown fill with large amounts of ceramics (including about 50 decorated sherds), animal bone, and charred plant remains (especially hickory nutshells). Analyses are ongoing on these remains. In this paper, we discuss the results of our radiocarbon and oxidizable carbon ratio (OCR) studies in the Hardin A midden

Solar array electrical performance assessment for Space Station Freedom

Electrical power for Space Station Freedom will be generated by large Photovoltaic arrays with a beginning of life power requirement of 30.8 kW per array. The solar arrays will operate in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) over a design life of fifteen years. This paper provides an analysis of the predicted solar array electrical performance over the design life and presents a summary of supporting analysis and test data for the assigned model parameters and performance loss factors. Each model parameter and loss factor is assessed based upon program requirements, component analysis, and test data to date. A description of the LMSC performance model, future test plans, and predicted performance ranges are also given