Ending Child Trafficking in West Africa: Lessons from the Ivorian cocoa sector

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ASI_2010_CL_Mali_Ending_Child.pdf: 280 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Intensity of Interaction in Suppy of Business Advice and Client Impact: A Comparison of Consultancy, Business Associations and Government Support Initiatives for SMEs

This paper assesses the supply of business advice using new empirical evidence from a large scale survey of SMEs. The chief focus of the paper is on a comparison of suppliers that operate in different environments of regulation, contract and reputation. The paper argues that interaction intensity varies with the level of information asymmetry of these different environments, between different types of service supplier and their clients. Interaction intensity between suppliers also varies as a result of the level of trust they enjoy: for example, the low trust enjoyed by consultants appears to encourage higher intensity of interaction which improves the tailoring of the service to the client's needs and enhances impact. The paper assesses interaction intensity using the existence of site visits and/or a written brief/contract as indicators. Although these measures have limitations, the paper demonstrates clear and significant differences between suppliers in terms of interaction intensity, use of contracts and impact in three broad categories: private sector consultancy (low trust, high intensity, high impact), business associations (high trust, low intensity, moderate impact) and government support agencies (moderate trust, moderate to high intensity, moderate or low impact). Multivariate estimation methods demonstrate that significant differences in interaction intensity, use of contracts and impact by client type are much less important than differences in supplier type. This indicates that suppliers generally develop more into niche service fields or groups of services rather than niches related to types of firm.Business Services, Contracts, Business Link, Trust, Reputation

The Use and Impact of Business Advice by SMEs in Britain: An Empirical Assessment Using Logit and Ordered Logit Models

This paper assesses the effect of differences in types of client on the use and impact of business advice by SMEs in Britain using new survey evidence from the Cambridge ESRC Centre for Business Research Survey of 1997. The survey, covering over 2500 respondents, is the largest and most definitive assessment available in Britain. Moreover, the survey allows an assessment of the full range of the providers of external advice, the private sector, business associations and various public sector bodies, as well as the fields of advice. Using multivariate logit models we find that size of firm, rate of growth and innovation appear to be the main variables influencing the likelihood of firms seeking external advice, both from different sources and from different fields. Other variables which are investigated include, age, profitability, skill levels, manufacturer/services, and exporter/non-exporter. Ordered logit models of the impact of the advice demonstrate that there are significant differences between clients' perceived impact of advice and the sources of advice they use, chiefly as a result of firm size, and to a lesser extent for growth, innovation and export levels.Business Advice, Business Link, consultancy, logit, ordered logit

Affordable housing definitions and Section 106 contributions in England

This paper examines whether Local Planning Authority definitions of affordable housing provide adequate clarity with which to negotiate affordable housing contributions with private sector house builders. The paper updates Government research, Delivering Affordable Housing through Planning Policy (ODPM, 2002), by systematically interrogating the affordable housing definitions of 51 Local Planning Authorities in England. LPA housing and planning documents were scrutinised in respect of the local definition of affordable housing, whether it conformed to the Governments ‘new’ PPS3 definition, the thresholds set at which the requirement for affordable housing is triggered and the target level at which Section 106 contributions are set. The findings indicate that although Local Planning Authority definitions of affordable housing have improved in terms of their quality, precision and clarity, one in five LPAs still did not provide a concise definition of affordable housing

Asset Prices, Credit Growth, Monetary and Other Policies: An Australian Case Study

The long-running debate about the role of monetary policy in responding to rising asset prices has received renewed attention in the wake of the global financial crisis.This paper contributes to this debate by describing the Australian experience of a cycle in house prices and credit from 2002 to 2004, and discussing the role played by various policies during this episode. In particular, it focuses on the efforts by the Reserve Bank of Australia to draw attention to the risks associated with large, ongoing increases in housing prices and household borrowing.asset prices; credit growth; lending standards; monetary policy; regulatory policy

Look Into My Eyes

Freddie Yauner, a lecturer in Design for Industry, believes that design can engage, inform and make complex concepts accessible. Through thought provoking projects and installations which have exhibited in New York, Paris and London, Freddie uses critical design to challenge convention and encourage debate. Utilising this approach, Freddie, teamed up with typographer and graphic designer Paul Robson, also from our school and Cathy John, a freelance writer to create their unique publication - Look into my Eyes. Through combined expertise Look into my Eyes was created, a book that explores the labyrinth of decisions facing MS patients from day one of their diagnosis and examines the impact each of these decisions could have on their day to day lives. Look into my Eyes was created as part of a wider programme of initiatives that use real life experiences and interaction design to place audiences firmly in the shoes of an MSer, with the aim of increasing understanding and acceptance of MS for patients, carers and health professionals alike

Early Upper Cambrian (Marjuman) linguliformean brachiopods from the Deadwood Formation

The Deadwood Formation is an Upper Cambrian to Lower Ordovician succession of sandstones, shales, siltstones and limestones that blanketed central western North America during the initial Phanerozoic transgression. This transgression led to a broad, shallow epeiric sea which onlapped the Transcontinental Arch to the east and was protected on its western—seaward—side by a system of carbonate platforms now exposed in the Rocky Mountains. The Deadwood Formation is mostly a subsurface unit, but several exposures exist in the northern Great Plains due to uplift by Eocene igneous intrusions. Linguliformean brachiopods were recovered from two areas: the Black Hills of South Dakota, and two subsurface cores from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Forty-five species of linguliformean brachiopods assigned to twenty-eight genera were recovered from these localities and described. Giving provisional names, one new family, Holmerellidae, one new subfamily, Neotretinae, five new genera, Amplitreta, Dianabella, Ganotoglossa, Holmerellus, and Vangaporosa, are erected and seventeen new species are described: Amplitreta cyclopis, Amplitreta elongata, aff. Anabolatreta tora, Canthylotreta parislata, Curticia pustulosa, Dianabella artemesia, Ganotoglossa leptotropis, Holmerellus convexus, Holmerellus, acuminatus, Holmerellus limbatus, Kotylotreta nupera, Linnarssonella tubicula, Opisthotreta nuda, Rhondellina albertensis, Tropidoglossa costata, Quadrisonia? sigmoidea, and Vangaporosa dakotaensis. The family Holmerellidae is distinguished by pitted larval shells and smooth postlarval shells, a feature that is unique in the Linguloidea. The composition of the new subfamily Neotretinae recognizes the evolutionary relationship of the genera Neotreta and Rhondellina, which are more closely related to each other than to any other acrotretid genera. Based on a comparison of the brachiopod assemblages with similar faunas from Australia and elsewhere in Laurentia, the sections studied are determined to be late Marjuman (early Late Cambrian) to early Sunwaptan (middle Late Cambrian) in age. The subsurface faunas provide the first biostratigraphic dates for any part of the Deadwood Formation in Canada. Faunas from South Dakota come from strata near the base of the formation and below the first trilobite occurrences, this giving a more refined age for the transgression in South Dakota. A large number of shells with perforations assumed to have been caused by predators were recovered from two localities in South Dakota, and represent the first evidence of predation of fossil lingulids. Two types of perforations were identified: round holes with sharp, non-beveled edges, and irregularly shaped holes with chipped edges. The former hole type is attributed to either steady pressure applied over time (e.g. boring) or to a swift, piercing percussive strike. The latter hole type is attributed to a smashing percussive strike with a blunt appendage. Based on criteria established by the proposed attack-mode models, various hypothetical animals are discussed as potential linguliformean predators. While the evidence for these predators is circumstantial, it indicates a more complex benthic paleoecology that had hitherto been envisaged for the Upper Cambrian