Greed and grievance: the role of economic agendas in the conflict in Solomon Islands

This article investigates the applicability of the influential economics of civil war literature to the case of the conflict which occurred in Solomon Islands between 1998 and 2003. It is argued that a modified version of the greed thesis resonates with particular aspects of the situation in Solomon Islands, particularly during the latter phases of the conflict when a variety of actors, including politicians, businessmen and ex-militants, were clearly benefiting from the instrumentalisation of violence and disorder. The underlying causes of the conflict have much to do with historical patterns of uneven development which have created overlapping boundaries of social-economic inequality and ethrticity. As is the case with other recent armed conflicts in Melanesia, issues of land, identity, ethnicity and socioeconomic justice were central to the conflict

VHEeP: A very high energy electron-proton collider based on proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration

Based on current CERN infrastructure, an electron-proton collider is proposed at a centre-of-mass energy of about 9 TeV. A 7 TeV LHC bunch is used as the proton driver to create a plasma wakefield which then accelerates electrons to 3 TeV, these then colliding with the other 7 TeV LHC proton beam. The basic parameters of the collider are presented, which although of very high energy, has integrated luminosities of the order of 1 pb$^{-1}$/year. For such a collider, with a centre-of-mass energy 30 times greater than HERA, parton momentum fractions, $x$, down to about $10^{-8}$ are accessible for $Q^2$ of 1 GeV$^2$ and could lead to effects of saturation or some other breakdown of DGLAP being observed. The total photon-proton cross section can be measured up to very high energies and also at different energies as the possibility of varying the electron beam energy is assumed; this could have synergy with cosmic-ray physics. Other physics which can be pursued at such a collider are contact interaction searches, such as quark and electron substructure, and measurements of the proton structure as well as other more conventional measurements of QCD at high energies and in a new kinematic regime. The events at very low $x$ will lead to electrons and the hadronic final state produced at very low angles and so a novel spectrometer device will be needed to measure these. First ideas of the physics programme of such a collider are given.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, presented at the DIS 2015 Workshop, Dalla

Research Report on Phase 4 of Cornell University/Gevity Institute Study Human Resource Management Practices and Firm Performance in Small Businesses: A Look at the Effects of HR Practices on Financial Performance and Turnover

In this study, we found evidence that groups of HR practices that represent different strategies for managing employees were significantly related to the financial performance of small companies. In particular, we found that an employee selection strategy based on person-organization fit, employee management strategy based on self-management, and employee motivation and retention strategy based on creating a family-like environment were all significantly related to firm performance in terms of revenue and profit growth. In addition, we found that the relationships between these HR strategies and firm performance were stronger in firms that face greater competition, are pursuing growth strategies, and are larger in size

A Simple Theory of Smart Growth and Sprawl

This paper considers the simultaneous determination of residential density and the supply of local versus remote retail services. Possible equilibrium development patterns either correspond closely to what anti-sprawl activists describe as smart growth, or to its opposite. Equilibrium and optimal patterns of development do not always coincide. When equilibrium and optimal patterns of development diverge, optimal density is always discretely (as opposed to marginally) higher than equilibrium density. This occurs in the absence of congestion externalities, and is due to a free-rider problem and a coordination problem. The analysis indicates that a tax on large lots or a subsidy for small lots may be welfare improving under certain conditions.urban sprawl, residential land use, lot size, retail location, urban economics

Undermining the Occupation: Women Coalminers in 1940s Japan

Using the case of women coal miners from a remote Kyushu district, this paper attempts to highlight some of the difficulties associated with an occupying power introducing major labour reforms. In this case I look at women’s employment in the mines during the 1930s-40s, and examine how and why women resisted the proscription against women’s mining labour, introduced by the Occupation in 1947, through the years of US control. The resistance to the edict by both small-medium sized coal mining management and women coalminers demonstrates that even when an occupation power appears in total control of a nation, the culture of the occupied is a significant factor that must not be overlooked. It is clear that many companies continued to operate in defiance of Occupation edicts for many years after 1945; the culture of the coalfields – the total Panopticon-like control of small mining towns and villages by mining companies – plays an important part in understanding how this situation came about. The removal of women from the mines did take place, but for reasons that were not within the ambit of the Occupation’s motivations

Quarterly Economic Commentary Winter 2019

No Abstract

A county-level perspective on housing affordability in Ireland. ESRI Research Notes 2019/4/2

The issue of housing affordability in Ireland has come to the fore in recent years as house prices have increased significantly following the recovery. In a recent survey, Corrigan et al. (2019a) find that 86.5 per cent of renters expressed a preference for homeownership. However, rising house prices have led to serious concerns about the ability of first time buyers (FTB) to enter the housing market. This group has been cited as one particular pressure point in recent assessments of market affordability (Housing Agency, 2017). Analysis published in the ESRI Quarterly Economic Commentary (McQuinn et al., 2018) finds that house price growth has been uneven across the distribution, with cheaper properties growing at faster rates than more expensive properties. This is likely to further exacerbate the affordability concerns of first time buyers, who typically enter the housing market at lower house price levels than second and subsequent borrowers

Surface-specific bone formation effects of osteoporosis pharmacological treatments

Current anti-osteoporotic pharmacological treatments reduce fracture risk in part by altering bone remodeling/modeling. These effects can manifest on any or all of the bone envelopes—periosteal, intracortical, and trabecular/endocortical—each of which has unique effects on the biomechanical properties of bone. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of how the most common FDA-approved anti-osteoporosis agents [bisphosphonates, estrogen/hormone replacement therapy, selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), and parathyroid hormone (PTH)] affect tissue-level remodeling/modeling on each of the bone surfaces. Iliac crest biopsy data, the only means of assessing surface-specific bone formation in humans, exist for all of these agents although they predominately focus on trabecular/endocortical surfaces. Data from pre-clinical animal models provide an essential complement to human studies, particuarily for changes on periosteal surfaces and within the intracortical envelope. Although all of the anti-catabolic agents (estrogen replacement therapy, SERMs, bisphosphonates) exert positive effects on the various bone surfaces, the bisphosphonates produce the unique biomechanical combination of allowing normal periosteal expansion while limiting remodeling-induced bone loss on intracortical and trabecular/endocortical surfaces. PTH, the only FDA-approved anabolic agent, exerts biomechanically favorable alterations though enhanced trabecular/endocortical surface activity while also stimulating periosteal expansion. Through understanding how current and future anti-osteoporotic agents influence surface-specific bone activity we will move one step closer to developing agents that could potentially target a particular bone surface

A Qualitative Investigation of the Human Resources Management Practices in Small Businesses

This report provides a summary of our findings from the first phase of our study on human resource practices in small businesses based on qualitative interviews with top managers and owners of small businesses. Below we include a brief description of the sample and an explanation of the hurdle that we experienced when using the terms human resource management practices. On the following pages, we report the main findings of the qualitative phase of our study. The findings are organized into three main sections around the areas of management philosophies, employee management practices, and key employee outcomes that link management practices to firm performance. The overall findings from this first report are summarized in a research model depicted in Figure 1. Funding for this research was provided by the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University and Gevity, is a provider of comprehensive human capital management solutions to small and medium-sized businesses