The Natural Resource Curse and Economic Transition

Using cross-country regressions, we examine the relationship between “point-source” resource abundance and economic growth, quality of institutions, investment in human and physical capital, and social welfare (life expectancy and infant mortality). Contrary to most literature, we find little evidence of natural resource curse outside of the economies in transition. In the economies in transition, there is some evidence that natural resource wealth is associated with higher infant mortality. This negative effect, however, exists only relative to other resource rich countries. Compared to other economies in transition, natural resource abundant transitional economies are not worse off with respect to our indicators..

A framework for the analysis of mineral tax policy in sub-Saharan Africa

Given the dual role played by the Government as resource owner and tax collector in many sub - Saharan economies, it is important to separate"resource factor payments"from taxes through the use of different instruments. The instruments to be considered are: (1) a factor payment system that includes"ad rem"or"ad valorem"royalties. Production sharing, resource rent schemes, and fixed fees could also be used, but some form of unit payment is necessary and justified, because natural resources in the ground are inputs into the production process; (2) a cash flow and withholding tax system initially for the mineral sectors and eventually for other sectors of the economy. The cash flow tax would capture a share of the"economic rent"from each sector and be neutral across sectors; and (3) a depletion account to preserve the nations capital stock. Natural resources are part of an economy's capital stock, which will fall unless"replacement investment"is made as the resource is depleted.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Health Economics&Finance

Issues in evaluating tax and payment arrangements for publicly owned minerals

Many developing countries are still heavily dependent on mineral extraction to generate fiscal revenue and to earn foreign exchange. When minerals form a significant proportion of the country's asset base it is particularly important to have a framework to evaluate the adequacy of compensation schemes. Are these countries collecting enough in return for depleting their reserves? Are these countries carrying too much of the risk? This paper describes work in progress in developing such a framework. In many mineral dependent countries, the government holds the mineral rights and enters into compensation agreements with public or private firms that will extract the resources. Given the high degree of risk and uncertainty associated with mineral development, determining tax/payment arrangements is further complicated by the need to develop risk-sharing schemes between government and the resource extractors. This paper reviews these issues briefly and concludes that when objectives are not perfectly correlated it is preferable to use multiple instruments and to match each instrument to an objectives.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Insurance&Risk Mitigation

The Living ROMP of trans-Cyclooctene

The living ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of trans-cyclooctene (tCO) was investigated. ROMP of tCO in the presence of PPh_3 in THF leads to the formation of narrowly dispersed polycyclooctene (PCO). The presence of PPh3 as an additive and the use of THF as a solvent were demonstrated to be necessary to suppress competing secondary metathesis processes in the ROMP of tCO. Under optimal conditions, narrowly dispersed PCO was achieved without high molecular weight contaminates. The PCO was then hydrogenated to form linear, narrowly dispersed polyethylene with a melting temperature of 139 °C. Protected, hydroxy-functionalized tCO was polymerized by this method to afford narrowly dispersed, hydroxylated PCO. Block copolymers containing polynorbornene and PCO or containing differentially functionalized PCO were also synthesized and hydrogenated to form block copolymers containing blocks of linear, narrowly dispersed polyethylene

Principles for the Development of Adult Premembership Instruction

The responsibility of preparing interested persons for membership in the congregation is a task that faces every parish pastor. In carrying out that responsibility, he needs to make decisions as to what his goals for such instruction shall be and how those goals shall be attained. There is nothing in writing in The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod that will help a pastor think through what the goals of the premembership process should be and what is the best way of attaining those goals. There are manuals available for the instruction of adults but there are no studies which investigate the underlying educational and theological principles involved in such instruction. The investigation and discussion ·of such principles is the intention of the author of this thesis

Compiling knowledge-based systems from KEE to Ada

The dominant technology for developing AI applications is to work in a multi-mechanism, integrated, knowledge-based system (KBS) development environment. Unfortunately, systems developed in such environments are inappropriate for delivering many applications - most importantly, they carry the baggage of the entire Lisp environment and are not written in conventional languages. One resolution of this problem would be to compile applications from complex environments to conventional languages. Here the first efforts to develop a system for compiling KBS developed in KEE to Ada (trademark). This system is called KATYDID, for KEE/Ada Translation Yields Development Into Delivery. KATYDID includes early prototypes of a run-time KEE core (object-structure) library module for Ada, and translation mechanisms for knowledge structures, rules, and Lisp code to Ada. Using these tools, part of a simple expert system was compiled (not quite automatically) to run in a purely Ada environment. This experience has given us various insights on Ada as an artificial intelligence programming language, potential solutions of some of the engineering difficulties encountered in early work, and inspiration on future system development

Effects of Wrist Tendon Vibration on Targeted Upper-Arm Movements in Poststroke Hemiparesis

Background. Impaired motor control of the upper extremity after stroke may be related to lost sensory, motor, and integrative functions of the brain. Artificial activation of sensory afferents might improve control of movement by adding excitatory drive to sensorimotor control structures. The authors evaluated the effect of wrist tendon vibration (TV) on paretic upper-arm stability during point-to-point planar movements. Methods. TV (70 Hz) was applied to the forearm wrist musculature of 10 hemiparetic stroke patients as they made center-out planar arm movements. End-point stability, muscle activity, and grip pressure were compared as patients stabilized at the target position for trials completed before, during, and after the application of the vibratory stimulus. Results. Prior to vibration, hand position fluctuated as participants attempted to maintain the hand at the target after movement termination. TV improved arm stability, as evidenced by decreased magnitude of hand tangential velocity at the target. Improved stability was accompanied by a decrease in muscle activity throughout the arm as well as a mean decrease in grip pressure. Conclusions. These results suggest that vibratory stimulation of the distal wrist musculature enhances stability of the proximal arm and can be studied further as a mode for improving end-point stability during reaching in hemiparetic patients