Fiscal indicators - Proceedings of the the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs Workshop held on 22 September 2006 in Brussels

Fiscal indicators are the backbone of effective fiscal policy-making, including the coordination and surveillance of budgetary policy at the EU level. The quality and success of the EU surveillance framework, in particular the timeliness and appropriateness of any policy recommendation or decision taken in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), crucially depend on the quality of its diagnostic instruments. The right conclusions can only be drawn if the underlying analysis is comprehensive and accurate.fiscal indicators, government budget, EU fiscal surveillance, sustainability of fiscal policy, cyclically adjusted budget balance, Larch, Nogueira Martins

How reliable are the statistics for the Stability and Growth Pact?

The aim of this paper is to assess the reliability of the government deficit and debt figures reported to the European Commission by Member States. Reliability is one of the several dimensions of quality in statistics; it refers to the magnitudes of data revisions after the publication of the first outcomes. The measurement of the data reliability and inference about potential future revisions are particularly relevant for fiscal surveillance in the EU since statistical institutes take a long time - usually four years - to provide final data, while the decisions on the Stability and Growth Pact context are taken on the basis of the first estimates available shortly after the end of each year. The paper shows that there are very significant differences in reliability among Member States and indicates the margins of uncertainty in relation to the most recent years' data. It also compares the reliability of deficit and debt figures; checks that the shift from ESA79 to ESA95 did not generally harm the reliability of data and suggests that the size of deficits may have an impact on the way statistical offices revise data.reliability, quality of statistics, Stability and Growth Pact, government deficit, Gordo Mora, Nogueira Martins

Innovative board game design in an academic environment during the Covid-19 pandemic

Leisure or entertainment, like other everyday needs, are fundamental activities for human well-being. The creation of activities that lead to moments of satisfaction and relaxation are also a focus of attention and one of the areas of intervention where design can contribute solutions. This project challenged a group of students on a degree course in product design to develop modern, alternative board games, centred on users and on situations and environments of use, in order to exercise the practice of product design and seek to present innovative solutions. The challenge came through a local Cultural Association, with a tradition in promoting this type of game. The project followed a design project methodology that led students through a first phase of immersion in the theme, mechanics and strategies of games and their variety, going through the generation of ideas, models, evaluation tests, to the production of prototypes. The project was subject to the constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced students and teachers to work at home. To improve teaching and learning experiences, the project involved specialists and professionals who shared their knowledge and experience in developing this type of product. This gave rise to a great diversity of solutions, resulting from the use of an adequate methodology, making it possible to design new board games in which the mechanics, when articulated with a theme of interest to the target audience, can result in a proposal for an appealing and unique game.101E-1BBD-F278 | Jo?o Carlos Monteiro Martinsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human-centered design on the ways to Santiago de Compostela : new artefacts for their sustainability

This paper is concerned with how design can add value to the traditional and historical Way of Santiago, identifying design needs and problems that give rise to innovative solutions. The main objective of the research was to develop new products, environments or services that contribute to enhancing the Way of Santiago so that it can be followed with greater safety, comfort, efficiency and pleasure by pilgrims and tourists. The project encouraged master students and designers to build a critical reflection on the knowledge obtained, through a survey, fieldwork, interpersonal contacts and bibliographic review, in order to identify design problems or opportunities for the emergence of new solutions appropriate to the context and user needs. The teaching-learning dynamics was based on the Studio-Based Learning model. The project work resulted in a set of new solutions for the problems identified, to respond to users? functional needs and socio-cultural interactions, the use of artifacts, emotional aspects, habits and behaviors associated with the project context.101E-1BBD-F278 | Jo?o Carlos Monteiro Martinsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploration of new innovation scenarios through the reinterpretation of local material culture in the master in design

Our Master's Degree in Integrated Design is a teaching project designed to protect, predominantly, a series of professional specializations. It is a precursor to the mission of the educational institution where it works, namely in its search for the economic, social impact and cultural in the region where it is inserted. This cycle of studies leading to the master's degree lasts for three semesters and integrates a specialization course consisting of a set of curricular units taught in the first two school levels, which includes a curricular unit of the Integrated Project Laboratory. The theme of this year's project challenged the students to develop new perspectives on the local Tableware whose style that has contributed to the characterization of the city's identity. From the concept of contemporaneity, and the idea of the need for a "new filling" for a "new architecture", in keeping with the new aesthetic-functional and symbolic requirements of its inhabitants, the project aimed to contribute to the recovery of the image of the city as an important center of dynamization of an industrial sector with tradition in the region. In establishing partnerships with entities and companies, the teaching team intended to provide students with various contacts that enrich their knowledge about the subject. In this sense, the project work was supported by the City Museum, City Hall, Industries of the Region and professionals in various areas of Design and related (architecture, engineering, anthropology, etc.). The realization of the project in design implied a phased work process from the research on the problem, through the generation of ideas until its materialization. During this work, the use of supports, tools and techniques associated to the Design Process was made so as to obtain results in each of the phases that together directed the project to a solution based on reasoned argumentation. In the end, the project showed that the dishes drawn here may in the future achieve great notoriety as a result of the good interpretation of the material culture that preceded them, and the quality of their design. It is concluded that the recovery of the history of the city's ceramics can contribute to stimulate more innovation and creativity in the future.101E-1BBD-F278 | Jo?o Carlos Monteiro Martinsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Health Systems in Australia and Four Other Countries: choices and challenges

The purpose of health systems is the pursuit of healthy lives. The performance of the Australian health system over the last decade is compared with the United Kingdom and its three other offshoots: the United States, Canada and New Zealand. In the first instance, system performance is assessed in terms of threats to healthy lives from risk factors and changes that have taken place during the decade. In view of the emphasis of the five systems on the return to health after trauma and illness, and the human-resource intensity of health services, an appraisal is made of changes in the number of the major health professionals in relation to the growing populations. Then related changes in hospital, medical practitioner and dentist services are assessed. Changes in pharmaceutical drug prescriptions in Australian are also examined. The levels of national expenditures arising from the provision health services are then considered in the context of the costs of administration of the varied organisational modes, use of expensive medical technologies, pharmaceutical drug consumption and remuneration of health professionals. Finally, health outcomes in Australia and the other four countries are assessed in accordance with their human development level, life expectancy, potential years of life lost from different causes, as well as healthy life expectancies. Further, gaps in health and life expectancy of Indigenous people in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia are reviewed, as well as health and survival inequalities among people in different social strata in each country. Abbreviations: GDP – Gross Domestic Product; HDI – Human Development Index

The CXC chemokine cCAF stimulates precocious deposition of ECM molecules by wound fibroblasts, accelerating development of granulation tissue

BACKGROUND: During wound repair, fibroblasts orchestrate replacement of the provisional matrix formed during clotting with tenascin, cellular fibronectin and collagen III. These, in turn, are critical for migration of endothelial cells, keratinocytes and additional fibroblasts into the wound site. Fibroblasts are also important in the deposition of collagen I during scar formation. The CXC chemokine chicken Chemotactic and Angiogenic Factor (cCAF), is highly expressed by fibroblasts after wounding and during development of the granulation tissue, especially in areas where extracellular matrix (ECM) is abundant. We hypothesized that cCAF stimulates fibroblasts to produce these matrix molecules. RESULTS: Here we show that this chemokine can stimulate precocious deposition of tenascin, fibronectin and collagen I, but not collagen III. Studies in culture and in vivo show that tenascin stimulation can also be achieved by the N-terminal 15 aas of the protein and occurs at the level of gene expression. In contrast, stimulation of fibronectin and collagen I both require the entire molecule and do not involve changes in gene expression. Fibronectin accumulation appears to be linked to tenascin production, and collagen I to decreased MMP-1 levels. In addition, cCAF is chemotactic for fibroblasts and accelerates their migration. CONCLUSIONS: These previously unknown functions for chemokines suggest that cCAF, the chicken orthologue of human IL-8, enhances healing by rapidly chemoattracting fibroblasts into the wound site and stimulating them to produce ECM molecules, leading to precocious development of granulation tissue. This acceleration of the repair process may have important application to healing of impaired wounds

The Evolution of Economic Governance in EMU

This paper examines the benefits of co-ordination in EMU in a stylised manner and how these benefits have shaped the co-ordination framework in EMU. It then discusses in detail the co-ordination experience in four areas that are particularly important for the functioning of EMU: (i) fiscal policy co-ordination under the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP); (ii) the co-ordination of structural policies under the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs; (iii) the representation and co-ordination of euro-area positions in international financial fora; and (iv) the co-ordination of macroeconomic statistics. The thrust of the findings is that EMU's system of economic governance has, overall, proven fit for purpose. The current policy assignment to the institutions and instruments that govern the conduct of economic policy in EMU is sound, even though further progress is necessary in several areas, particularly as regards external representation.Governance, EMU, euro area, co-ordination, van den Noord, D�hring, Langedijk, Nogueira-Martins,Pench, Temprano-Arroyo, Thiel