Linkage between World and Domestic Prices of Rice under the regime of Agricultural Trade Liberalization in Bangladesh

The paper examines the relationship between the world market and domestic market prices of rice for Bangladesh in the regime of agricultural trade liberalization. The long run price relationship information is an important piece of information for the policy makers in formulating domestic polices and negotiating trade policies at the international level. The monthly data used for this study are taken from different sources, the Food outlook, FAO and Global Information and Early Warning System, FAO and the Bangladesh Bank for the period June 1998 to July 2007. Both Engle-Granger bi-variate and Johansen multivariate cointegration tests were used for the results sensitivity. We sequentially proceed to estimate the standard error correction model. The results showed that there is a long run equilibrium relationship between the world and the domestic prices and the relationship is uni-directional, meaning that, the domestic prices adjust to the world prices but not vice-versa. So the policy to ensure food security (via food price stability and price risk management) should be carefully designed as the movement of the world market price is higher and distorted and many consumers depend on the markets for their food, especially in the case of Bangladesh.Market integration, Domestic price, World price, Error correction model, Marketing,

Testing Asymmetric Price Transmission in the Vertical Supply Chain in De-regulated Rice Markets in Bangladesh

Market liberalization at the domestic level and at the boarder level has been a dominant feature of market reforms in most developing countries including Bangladesh during the last two decades. A pre-requisite for producers and consumers to benefit from this new and changing market environment is the ability of market to function efficiently at their spatial or through the value chain dimensions which are very often constrained by different factors. The vertical integration of grain markets plays a crucial role in improving the welfare of the producers and the consumers. Therefore, the better the market integration, the lesser the intervention required by the government. There was a widely-held belief about the domestic markets in Bangladesh on possible manipulation in the agricultural markets as well as concerns about the sources of asymmetry. In the domestic markets, a price increase passes very quickly though the supply chain compared to a price decrease. As a result, perception by consumers and the government exists that at least the market is being manipulated, raising food prices unfairly, at the expenses of the poor households who are net buyers and for whom food is a major expenditure share (about 40-50 percent). Examining, the market functioning at the vertical level in developing countries is of importance to evaluate how the private traders delivering to the market. That is why it is important to identify what kind of policy can be introduced and at what level of the marketing chain to correct the market inefficiency, if needed. The vertical price leadership at the wholesale level to the retail in the marketing literature is inferred but not empirically verified. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to fill up this gap. It first examines the price transmission between the wholesale and retail level of the rice market in Bangladesh in the regime of the changing market environment. Secondly, it examines whether the wholesale market dominates the retail one. Thirdly, it analyzes whether the price relationship is symmetric with respect to price increases and price decreases. The paper uses the average wholesale and retail price of rice for Bangladesh. The monthly price data used for this study are taken from FAO and different published series of Statistical Yearbook and the Economic Trend. The data period cover from February 2002 to June, 2007. From our unit root test, we find that the level data contain one unit root but are stationary at their first differences. Both Engel-Granger (1987) bi-variate and Johansen (1990)multivariate cointegration tests were applied to determine a linear combination which is stationary. Then the existence of long run causality was tested within the framework of Johansen cointegration by standard Wald test. To test the asymmetric transmission in the prices we used the asymmetric ECM-EG approach. The results show that the wholesale and retail prices are integrated, and in the line of the industrial organization theory, the wholesale price plays a leadership role to determine the retail prices. Results also confirm that the consumer and public concern about the asymmetric price transmission holds true.agricultural economics, agricultural marketing, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Long-term multidisciplinary follow-up programs in pediatric cardiac arrest survivors

Long-term outcome studies after pediatric cardiac arrest (CA) are few. They require a CA registry and dedicated outcome teams. Learning about the long-term outcomes is very important for developing prognostication guidelines, improving post-cardiac care, counseling caregivers about the future of their child, and creating opportunities for therapeutic intervention studies to improve outcomes. Few PICUs worldwide provide a multidisciplinary follow-up program as routine practice at an outpatient clinic with standardized measurements, using validated instruments including neuropsychological assessments by psychologists. The primary goal of such a follow-up program should be to provide excellent care to children and their caregivers, thereby resulting in a high attendance. Pediatric psychologists, neurologists and pediatricians/pediatric intensivists should ideally be involved to screen for delayed development and psychosocial problems and offer appropriate care at the same time. Preferably, outcomes should consist of evaluation of morbidity (physical and neuropsychological), functional health and Health Related Quality Of Life (QoL) of the patient and their caregivers.</p

Long-term multidisciplinary follow-up programs in pediatric cardiac arrest survivors

Long-term outcome studies after pediatric cardiac arrest (CA) are few. They require a CA registry and dedicated outcome teams. Learning about the long-term outcomes is very important for developing prognostication guidelines, improving post-cardiac care, counseling caregivers about the future of their child, and creating opportunities for therapeutic intervention studies to improve outcomes. Few PICUs worldwide provide a multidisciplinary follow-up program as routine practice at an outpatient clinic with standardized measurements, using validated instruments including neuropsychological assessments by psychologists. The primary goal of such a follow-up program should be to provide excellent care to children and their caregivers, thereby resulting in a high attendance. Pediatric psychologists, neurologists and pediatricians/pediatric intensivists should ideally be involved to screen for delayed development and psychosocial problems and offer appropriate care at the same time. Preferably, outcomes should consist of evaluation of morbidity (physical and neuropsychological), functional health and Health Related Quality Of Life (QoL) of the patient and their caregivers.</p

Energy efficiency considerations in integrated IT and optical network resilient infrastructures

The European Integrated Project GEYSERS - Generalised Architecture for Dynamic Infrastructure Services - is concentrating on infrastructures incorporating integrated optical network and IT resources in support of the Future Internet with special emphasis on cloud computing. More specifically GEYSERS proposes the concept of Virtual Infrastructures over one or more interconnected Physical Infrastructures comprising both network and IT resources. Taking into consideration the energy consumption levels associated with the ICT today and the expansion of the Internet in size and complexity, that incurring increased energy consumption of both IT and network resources, energy efficient infrastructure design becomes critical. To address this need, in the framework of GEYSERS, we propose energy efficient design of infrastructures incorporating integrated optical network and IT resources, supporting resilient end-to-end services. Our modeling results quantify significant energy savings of the proposed solution by jointly optimizing the allocation of both network and IT resources