Building financial institutions in developing countries

Financial development and financial institution building are important prerequisites for economic growth. However, both the potential and the problems of institution building are still vastly underestimated by those who design and fund institution building projects. The paper first underlines the importance of financial development for economic growth, then describes the main elements of “serious” institution building: the lending technology, the methodological approaches, and the question of internal structure and corporate governance. Finally, it discusses three problems which institution building efforts have to cope with: inappropriate expectations on the part of donor and partner institutions regarding the problems and effects of institution building efforts, the lack of awareness of the importance of governance and ownership issues, and financial regulation that is too restrictive for microfinance operations. All three problems together explain why there are so few successful micro and small business institutions operating worldwide

Further Baire results on the distribution of subsequences

This paper presents results about the distribution of subsequences which are typical in the sense of Baire. The first part is concerned with sequences of the type x_k = n_k*alpha, n_1 < n_2 < n_3 < ..., mod 1. Improving a result of Salat we show that, if the quotients q_k = n_{k+1}/n_k satisfy q_k > 1+ epsilon, then the set of alpha such that (x_k) is uniformly distributed is of first Baire category, i.e. for generic alpha we do not have uniform distribution. Under the stronger assumption lim q_k = infinity one even has maldistribution for generic alpha, the strongest possible contrast to uniform distribution. The second part reverses the point of view by considering appropriately defined Baire spaces S of subsequences. For a fixed well distributed sequence (x_n) we show that there is a set M of measures such that for generic (n_k) in S the set of limit measures of the subsequence (x_{n_k}) is exactly M.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX2e. Final version. (Somewhat expanded proofs and clarifications, more examples

Sequences and filters of characters characterizing subgroups of compact abelian groups

Let H be a countable subgroup of the metrizable compact abelian group G and f:H -> T=R/Z a (not necessarily continuous) character of H. Then there exists a sequence (chi_n)_n of (continuous) characters of G such that lim_n chi_n(alpha) = f(alpha) for all alpha in H and (chi_n(alpha))_n does not converge whenever alpha in G\H. If one drops the countability and metrizability requirement one can obtain similar results by using filters of characters instead of sequences. Furthermore the introduced methods allow to answer questions of Dikranjan et al.Comment: laTex2e, 10 page

Renewable energy sources to secure the base load in electricity supply. Summary

The share of renewable energies in Germany\u27s electricity supply has been increasing at an impressive rate in recent years: it already amounts to over 20 %, about half of which comes from fluctuating sources - mainly wind power and photovoltaics. In the long term (by 2050), the goal is to achieve almost full supply with renewable energies. This makes it clear that the system of electricity supply will be subject to an upheaval of historic proportions in the coming decades. The TAB report addresses the question of how the base load in the electricity supply can continue to be secured under these conditions. This question can only be addressed in a system perspective that encompasses all levels: from generation to transport and distribution to the consumption of electricity. Therefore, the question expands to how a secure supply can be organised as a whole. It is becoming apparent that the electricity system must be able to react much more flexibly than before to different feed-in and demand situations. Options for increasing flexibility exist in many areas: > Increasing the efficiency of the grids > Increasing the flexibility of the conventional power plant fleet and its mode of operation > Greater orientation of electricity production from renewable energies to demand > load management, and not least the construction of additional storage facilities. In all of these fields of action, the TAB report identifies options for action in which the public sector and the energy policy actors in the executive and legislative branches can contribute to the success of the upcoming transformation of the electricity supply by shaping the framework conditions

Typical dimension of the graph of certain functions.

Most functions from the unit interval to itself have a graph with. Hausdorff and lower entropy dimension 1 and upper entropy dimension 2. The same holds for several other Baire spaces of functions. In this paper it will be proved that this is the case also in the spaces of all mappings that are Lebesque measurable, Borel measurable, integrable in the Riemann sense, continuous, uniform distribution preserving (and continuous)