The IMF's Stand-by Arrangements and the Economic Downturn in Eastern Europe: The Cases of Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine

This paper looks at three countries that have been hard-hit by the world economic recession, and have turned to the IMF for assistance: Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine. In all of these countries, it would appear that there were more sensible responses to the crisis that would reduce the loss of employment and output, cuts in social services, and political instability that have resulted from the downturn. Instead, the governments' responses to the downturn as well as IMF conditions for assistance have caused additional harm

Honduras: Recent Economic Performance

This paper looks at the Honduran economy, including longer-term trends, the pre-crisis years, and recent developments since the June 28th coup. It finds that poverty and inequality decreased significantly during the Zelaya administration, with rapid growth of more than 6 percent during the first two years. The government also increased school enrollment significantly by abolishing school fees, expanded school lunch programs, and raised the minimum wage by 60 percent. Some expansionary monetary policy was used to counter-act the global downturn in 2008.The paper finds that more recently, the Honduran economy has become especially vulnerable to the combined impacts of the world recession and the political crisis that has followed the military coup of June 28, 2009

Costa Rica During the Global Recession: Fiscal Stimulus with Tight Monetary Policy

This paper shows that, in spite of a reasonably sized fiscal stimulus package, Costa Rica’s economy continues on a downward path, partly because fiscal policy is being offset by a tightening of monetary policy. The paper notes that the International Monetary Fund has insisted that Costa Rica’s monetary policy remain tight due to worries over inflation targets and a perceived risk of a balance of payments crisis. However, the author notes that the IMF could help prevent a balance of payments crisis through the provision of a credit line of foreign currency, as it has done, for example, in Mexico – a vastly larger economy. The paper also examines the government’s macroeconomic policies in recent years, prior to the world recession, to see what alternative policies might have done better.Costa Rica, IMF, stimulus

The IMF’s Stand-by Arrangements and the Economic Downturn in Eastern Europe: The Cases of Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine

This paper looks at three countries that have been hard-hit by the world economic recession, and have turned to the IMF for assistance: Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine. In all of these countries, it would appear that there were more sensible responses to the crisis that would reduce the loss of employment and output, cuts in social services, and political instability that have resulted from the downturn. Instead, the governments’ responses to the downturn as well as IMF conditions for assistance have caused additional harm.IMF, Hungary, Latvia, Ukraine, fiscal policy, monetary policy

Honduras: Recent Economic Performance

This paper looks at the Honduran economy, including longer-term trends, the pre-crisis years, and recent developments since the June 28th coup. It finds that poverty and inequality decreased significantly during the Zelaya administration, with rapid growth of more than 6 percent during the first two years. The government also increased school enrollment significantly by abolishing school fees, expanded school lunch programs, and raised the minimum wage by 60 percent. Some expansionary monetary policy was used to counter-act the global downturn in 2008. The paper finds that more recently, the Honduran economy has become especially vulnerable to the combined impacts of the world recession and the political crisis that has followed the military coup of June 28, 2009.Honduras, Zelaya, Latin America, Central America

Capital Controls and Monetary Policy in Developing Countries

This paper looks at both the theoretical and empirical literature on capital controls and finds that capital controls can play an important role in developing countries by helping to insulate them from some of the harmful effects of volatile and short-term capital flows. The authors look at controls on capitalinflows in Malaysia (1989-1995); Colombia (1993-1998); Chile (1989-1998); and Brazil (1992-1998), and also consider the case of Malaysia’s controls on outflows in 1998-2001. They conclude that there is sufficient backing in both economic theory and empirical evidence to consider more widespread adoption of capital controls in order to address some of the macroeconomic problems associated with short-term capital flows, to enable certain development strategies, and to allow policy makers more flexibility with regard to crucial monetary and exchange rate policies.capital controls, capital flows

Analysis of biopharma raw materials by electrophoresis microchips with contactless conductivity detection

Detailed information concerning the composition of the raw materials employed in the production of biologics is important for the efficient control and optimization of bioprocesses. We demonstrate the application of electrophoresis microchips with capacitively-coupled contactless conductivity detection (C4D) to the analysis of wa-ter-soluble vitamins and metal cations in raw material solutions that are subse-quently fed into bioreactors for the production of biologics

Liquid recirculation in microfluidic channels by the interplay of capillary and centrifugal forces

We demonstrate a technique to recirculate liquids in a microfluidic device, maintaining a thin fluid layer such that typical diffusion times for analytes to reach the device surface are < 1 min. Fluids can be recirculated at least 1000 times across the same surface region, with no change other than slight evaporation, by alternating the predominance of centrifugal and capillary forces. Mounted on a rotational platform, the device consists of two hydrophilic layers separated by a thin pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) layer that defines the microfluidic structure. We demonstrate rapid, effective fluid mixing with this device

Monolithic centrifugal microfluidic platform for bacteria capture and concentration, lysis, nucleic-acid amplification, and real-time detection

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of a polymer centrifugal microfluidic system for the specific detection of bacterial pathogens. This single-cartridge platform integrates bacteria capture and concentration, supernatant solution removal, lysis, and nucleic-acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) in a single unit. The unit is fabricated using multilayer lamination and consists of five different polymer layers. Bacteria capture and concentration are accomplished by sedimentation in five minutes. Centrifugation forces also drive the subsequent steps. A wax valve is integrated in the cartridge to enable high-speed centrifugation. Oil is used to prevent evaporation during reactions requiring thermal cycling. Device functionality was demonstrated by real-time detection of E. coli from a 200-muL sample

Carbon materials as template for the preparation of mixed oxides with controlled morphology

Resumen del libro de actas del Congreso: 5th Czech-Italian-Spanish Conference on Molecular Sieves and Catalysis, celebrado en Segovia del 16 al 19 de junio de 2013Bulk mixed oxide catalysts are widely used for many applications, such as catalysts for selective oxidation processes, electrocatalysts for fuel cells, gas sensors, and solid oxide electrolysers for the production of hydrogen. VPO (vanadium and phosphorous oxides) are one of the bulk mixed oxide materials which are of interest nowadays since they are active catalysts for saturated hydrocarbon activation. With the conventional synthesis procedures for preparing bulk mixed oxides is really difficult to control the morphology and the porous structure of these materials. In practice, there are just a few works about the synthesis of mixed oxide materials with controlled morphology. The aim of this work was to describe new approaches for the preparation of VPO mixed oxides materials with spherical morphology. A carbon material was prepared using cellulose as starting material by hydrothermal treatment with phosphoric acid at 200ºC and carbonized at 500ºC. SEM analysis showed that carbon spheres with diameter up to 0.5 m were prepared by this procedure. These phosphorous containing carbon material was impregnated with the appropriate amount of vanadium oxide species in order to obtain a monolayer of VOx species on the surface of the carbon materials following a procedure described previously (1). By this manner, a carbon supported VOx material with spherical morphology was obtained (VPO/Csph). The calcination of this material was optimized in order to obtain VPO spheres with diameter up to 1-2 m and with BET area values close to 100 m2/g. Figure 1 shows a SEM image of this sample (VPOsph). The presence of vanadium pyrophosphate phase, which has been described as the active phase of this catalytic system, was identified by XRD and Raman spectroscopy. Thus, the chemical composition as well as the morphology and porous structure of these new spherical materials makes them quite promising as catalysts