Historic Cities Project Task 4 – The Business Surveys: Questionnaire Design, Implementation and Initial Analysis.

The Historic Cities project examined the potential impacts of transport demand management strategies on three case study ‘historic’ cities in England. These cities are York, Cambridge and Norwich, all of which have the following characteristics: - they are cities which pre-date motorised transport, and thus tend to have city centres dominated by narrow streets; - they are all members of the Historic Towns Forum; - they have a high architectural and historic heritage, and attract many tourists each year; - they have severe congestion, and congestion related problems; - the city authorities are faced with the problems of maintaining the environmental quality of the city, while allowing the most efficient use of the transport infrastructure. The focus of the project was how transport demand management policies, particularly parking, pricing and road-space re-allocation, can contribute to the last bullet above. Task 4 in the Historic Cities project examined the predicted effects on the urban economy from a work place parking levy and road user charging. It is thought that a major barrier to the implementation of these instruments is the perception that they will have detrimental impacts on the local economy. This task examines whether this hypothesis is correct by examining the impacts on, and attitudes of, businesses in the case study cities. This working paper describes the survey work that was undertaken and presents the initial analysis of the results. It has the following sections: Section 1: introduces the research; Section 2: describes the policies to be studied; Section 3: describes the development and rationale for the questionnaire; Section 4: describes the sampling process; Section 5: presents the initial analysis of the results; Section 6: gives a summary and conclusions. This is the second Working paper that summaries the Task 4 study. The first working paper (537) outlined the business sector profile for each city. A third working paper (552) will present multi-variate analysis of the dataset

East Asia and the global/transatlantic/Western crisis

This paper introduces the special collection on East Asia and the Global Crisis. After justifying why a focus on East Asia is appropriate, it draws out the main themes that run through the individual contributions. These are the extent to which the region is decoupling from the global economy (or the West), the increasing legitimacy of statist alternatives to neoliberal development strategies, and the impact of crises on the definition of ―region‖ and the functioning of regional institutions and governance mechanisms

Nothing New in the (North) East? Interpreting the Rhetoric and Reality of Japanese Corporate Governance

Japan finally seems to be pulling itself out of its lost decade (and a half) of economic stagnation. Some grudgingly or triumphantly attribute this to micro-economic reforms, freeing up arthritic markets, although there is also evidence that macro-economic policy failures have been a major cause of poor performance since the 1990s. Many point to overlapping transformations in corporate governance, broadly defined to cover relationships among managers and employees as well as between firms and outside shareholders, creditors, and other stakeholders. These relationships are in flux, with moves arguably favouring shareholders and more market-driven control mechanisms. It has certainly been a found decade for law reform in Japan, particularly in corporate law, with a plethora of legislative amendments commencing around 1993 and culminating in the enactment of a consolidated Company Law in 2005. This modernisation project, particularly since 2001, is reportedly aimed at (i) securing better corporate governance, (ii) bringing the law into line with a highly-developed information society, (iii) liberalising fundraising measures, (iv) bringing corporate law into line with the internationalization of corporate activity, and (v) modernizing terms and consolidating corporate law. Because the suite of revisions has moved away from strict mandatory rules set out originally in Japan\u27s Commercial Code of 1899, modeled primarily on German law, another growing perception is that Japanese corporate law and practice is or will soon be converging significantly on US models. However, assessments remain divided as to whether these moves in corporate governance and capitalism more generally in Japan amount to a new paradigm or regime shift . Focusing primarily on quite influential commentary in English, Part I of this paper outlines two pairs of views. It concludes that the most plausible assessment is of significant but gradual transformation towards a more market-driven approach, evident also in other advanced political economies. Drawing more generally from these often virulently divided views, Part II sets out five ways forward through the proliferating literature and source material on corporate governance in Japan. Particular care must be taken in: (i) selecting the temporal timeframe, (ii) selecting countries to compare, (iii) balancing black-letter law and broader socio-economic context, (iv) reflecting on and disclosing normative preferences, and (v) giving weight to processes as well as outcomes, when assessing change in Japan - and any other country\u27s governance system. Part III ends with a call for further research particularly on law- and policy-producing processes, rather than mainly outcomes. It also outlines the usefulness of this analytical framework for analysing the broader field of Corporate Social Responsibility, now emerging as the next major area of debate and transformation in Japan - as elsewhere

A study of bone resorption at a subcutaneous site in red deer stage (Cervus elaphus) : a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) at Lincoln College

Eight red deer stags had antler and femur bone sections implanted subcutaneously on the neck so that resorption of bone tissue at this site could be measured during periods of differing testosterone secretion status. Three bone sources were compared; namely femur and antler bone ('other') from an unrelated stag, and antler bone ('own') from the implanted stag. Four stags were implanted with a femur bone section plus one 'own' antler section and three 'other' antler bone sections and four stags received one femur and four 'other' antler bone sections. Resorption of antler bone sections was significantly higher during winter/spring (Period 2) than in autumn (the rutting season, Period 1); mean resorption 33.1% and 16.2% respectively. In the case of femur bone sections, resorption during the two periods was not different; means 3.0% and 1.8% respectively. Resorption of 'own' and 'other' antler bone did not differ significantly, but the limited number of observations and high variability for the 'own' antler may account for the lack of a difference between these bone sections. Serum testosterone levels were higher in period 1 than in period 2. Mean serum testosterone concentration was >18.08 ng/ml on 30 March (start of period 1), fell to 1.41 ng/ml by 11 May (end of period 1) and remained around that level for the remainder of the trial (Period 2). These results indicate that antler bone, but not femur bone, is resorbed from a subcutaneous site, but the resorption is impaired when blood testosterone levels are elevated

Assessing the Impact of Local Transport Policy Instruments.

This working paper brings together some relevant material to assist the process of assessing local transport policy instruments. The paper was written with the support of the DETR, but is unofficial. It is intended to be a helpful resource document for local authorities who have indicated in the past a need for guidance in where to look for evidence on the diverse range of transport policy instruments referred to in the White Paper (CM3950). The authors would be grateful for feedback and comments. This document is not intended to be a complete description of the local transport plan process (for that, see the Local Transport Plan Guidance). Nor does this note aim to give a comprehensive review of the appraisal requirements for Local Transport Plans (for that, see Annex E of the Local Transport Plan Guidance and, where relevant, the Guidance on Methodology for Multi-Modal Studies). Important elements in the LTP process including the combination of a set of individual policy elements into a strategy, and the activity of public consultation are not considered. Nor do we consider the specification of problems or the set of objectives within which local transport planning is currently taking place – for these, see for example DETR, 2000. The focus of this piece of work is on assessment of the impact of individual instruments within an urban context. Specifically it considers their effects in terms of:- their impact on transport supply their impact on transport demand their final outcome in terms of their transport, environmental and other impacts When considering policy instruments which impact on urban transport systems, there comes a point at which the impacts and interactions of policies become extremely complicated. At some point, modelling becomes an important part of the assessment process, depending on:- − the capital and recurrent costs at stake − the size of the impact on users and other affected parties, which can be large without the capital costs being large − data availability and the costs of obtaining data for modelling − the ability of a model to represent the policy tool under consideration and the cost of model development. Policy initiatives such as major infrastructure investment, road user charging schemes, or significant roadspace reallocation schemes will require model-based approaches. This note may therefore be useful in one of two contexts firstly, where the intervention is not sufficiently large or significant to warrant a model-based approach, and secondly, to aid a rough calculation at an early stage so as to enable an initial assessment to be made which can then be investigated further. In the next section, we provide a brief generic review of the supply and demand issues so as to give some background to the general analysis and show how second round effects (supply/demand interactions) can be significant in determining the final equilibrium. We also comment on generic appraisal issues. In section three we provide a short review of eleven of the most important policy investments and their supply and/or demand effects. Where possible we have provided approximate indications of their impact, but these should not be interpreted as accurate and applicable to all situations. Finally, in Appendices we provide a reference list of some sixty policy instruments which we have identified in literature and other surveys, a note on elasticity methods for demand estimation, and a note on appraisal practice