Institutional Aspects of Regional Policy: The Impact of Centralized vs. Decentralized Responsibilities in the Field of Regional Policy on Economic Efficiency and Interregional Cohesion

Regional policy has – in general – the intention to supporting the efforts of regions with development problems to overcome their current problems and to stimulate an increase in regional economic growth. If the regional policy measures by a jurisdiction are successful, there will be a tendency towards more economic convergence between the various regions within that jurisdiction, with the result of a higher degree of cohesion between these regions, than in a state without regional policy. There are many studies on evaluating the impact of different instruments of regional policy on cohesion. But there are only few investigations so far into the institutional framework of these instruments. One institutional aspect has become more and more relevant in public discussions during the last few years: In federations (e. g. in the EU), there is in general not only one jurisdiction responsible for regional policy, but two, three or even more levels of government; the responsibilities (or: competences) are fragmentated between these levels. The paper presents a theoretical analysis of the impact of the allocation of competences in the field of regional policy on the outcome (interregional cohesion) and on the costs (economic efficiency) of regional policy. The analysis is based on the Theory of Fiscal Federalism, including the Economic Theory of Intergovernmental Grants. All the possible more central or more decentral arrangements of regional policy are located between two polar cases: At one pole, we have an arrangement where only the central level of government (e. g. the EU level) is responsible for regional policy; neither any subcentral unit of government (e. g. at the member state level in the EU), nor the regions which are to be supported (the less developed regions) have any influence for deciding on the implementation of regional policy instruments, and only the central government has to finance regional policy with its own resources. At the other pole, we find an arrangement where only the subcentral units of government and the less developed regions themselves are deciding on regional policy and are responsible for financing. In connection with financing, different categories of grants in aid may be applied. In addition, the arrangements may differ from each other because of different institutions for controlling the activities of the lower levels. The main hypothesis is, that a more decentralized institutional arrangement is not in general more efficient and effective than a more centralized arrangement; but – as compared to the status quo in Europe – a more decentralized arrangement for some public responsibilities would lead to better results in the field of regional policy. Central questions to be answered are: Have subcentral governments (as compared to central units of government) a tendency for neglecting their subregions with development problems? What is the impact of information costs and asymmetrical information on the choice of the level of government for certain (sub-) responsibilities? To which degree is the central influence stimulating – or: paralyzing – the initiative of the regions which are to be supported?

Is There a Way for Old Industrial Districts to Become Attractive for Cultural Industry? The Case of Media Businesses in Halle (Saale), Germany

manufacturing have collapsed are trying to stimulate entrepreneurial activities of businesses in the cultural industry. The question is whether this strategy could be successful. This article examines the strategy of supporting the sector of Media Industry (´MI´) by policy makers in the region of Halle in East Germany, where a strong de-industrialization has taken place after the German reunification. Stimulated by the policy makers’ support measures, there actually was a remarkable development of MI. However, the number of MI firms and their employees did not further increase in recent years, after having reached a certain level. This illustrates the limits of political measures for turning a city’s path of industrial development voluntarily.media industry, cultural industry, business development, urban development, location factors

The Changing Narratives of Death, Dying, and HIV in the United Kingdom

Death and infection were closely linked from the start of the HIV epidemic, until successful treatments became available. The initial impact of mostly young, gay men dying from HIV was powerful in shaping UK responses. Neoliberal discourses developed at the same time, particularly focusing on how citizens (rather than the state) should take responsibility to improve health. Subsequently “successful ageing” became an allied discourse, further marginalising death discussions. Our study reflected on a broad range of meanings around death within the historical UK epidemic, to examine how dying narratives shape contemporary HIV experiences. Fifty-one participants including people living with HIV, professionals, and activists were recruited for semistructured interviews. Assuming a symbolic interactionist framework, analysis highlighted how HIV deaths were initially experienced as not only traumatic but also energizing, leading to creativity. With effective antiretrovirals, dying changed shape (e.g., loss of death literacy), and better integration of palliative care was recommended

Observations of shallow convective clouds generated by solar heating of dark smoke plumes

The SEVIRI instrument on the Meteosat Second Generation satellite with both fine spatial and temporal resolution allows to detect and follow the dynamics of fast developing meteorological events like spreading smoke plumes and the lifecycles of convective clouds. Smoke plumes have the ability to change the atmospheric heat content due to absorption and reduced reflection of solar radiation. By these means they can trigger formation of shallow convective clouds at their edge. A heavy smoke plume emerging from burning Lebanese oil tanks and spreading over adjacent deserts on 17 July 2006 has been observed as an example of such an effect. This study suggests a physical explanation of the observed convection along the edge of the smoke plume, namely the strong thermal contrast resulting from solar heating of the smoke layer

How Government Cares for Urban Economic Growth: the Impact of Different Fiscal Grant Schedules in the German Federal States on the Development of Urban Areas

In recent years, in the public discussion on (regional) economic policy, the importance of urban districts or cities for regional and for national economic growth has been strongly emphasized. It is an usual assumption that agglomeration economies may be found inside urban areas. For making best use of agglomeration economies, there have been proposals for changing the traditional scheme of regional policy from an orientation on "interregional equalization“ and "aid" for the regions lagging behind“ towards support for the strongest“ and "stimulating economic growth conditions in urban areas“. The paper has the intention to bring more light into the question how a country’s government could efficiently support the economic conditions in larger cities or urban areas. There are of course several instruments for this. One quite common instrument in most countries are the Systems for Local Fiscal Equalization (LFE), by which the national (federal) government or the states (within federations) are allocating different categories of grants in aid to the local level of government. As the LFE-systems differ strongly not only between different countries, but also between the states within a country, it seems necessary to focus on some countries or even on some states within a country. As a first approach to analyse the existing LFE-rules, this paper is concentrating on the conditions in six selected German states. For this sample, the paper is analyzing the current fiscal position of urban areas within the federal states (or Lander) of Germany and is trying to give some first answers to the following questions: Do some states care more than other states for urban areas? What is the institutional setting for spending state money for urban areas: Are the grants per capita higher for the more agglomerated urban areas? Have the grants the potential to stimulate ur¬ban growth – or are they supporting public functions without positive impacts on the economy? How are the urban centres compensated for their function as central places? The analysis is done on the basis of the states‘ rules on LFE, in the sense of an ex-ante evaluation of these rules, by classifying the rules according to their incidence (in favor or against urban centers). It is shown that there are quite different ways for a state to allocate grants in favour of the cities. There is an enormous lack of transparency in the LFE-systems of all states in the sample. The impression is that the LFE-rules are not trying, so far, to support the cities and their eco¬no¬mic performance consistently. In some states, shrinking cities and cities with special problems (e. g. with a high number of welfare recipients) could be to some extent even in a better fiscal position than cities with economic growth and growth potentials.

Discovery limits for Techni-Omega production in eγe\gamma Collisions

In a strongly-interacting electroweak sector with an isosinglet vector state, such as the techni-omega, $\omega_T$, the direct $\omega_T Z \gamma$ coupling implies that an $\omega_T$ can be produced by $Z \gamma$ fusion in $e \gamma$ collisions. This is a unique feature for high energy $e^+e^-$ or $e^-e^-$ colliders operating in an $e\gamma$ mode. We consider the processes $e^- \gamma \to e^- Z\gamma$ and $e^- \gamma \to e^- W^+ W^- Z$, both of which proceed via an intermediate $\omega_T$. We find that at a 1.5 TeV $e^+e^-$ linear collider operating in an $e\gamma$ mode with an integrated luminosity of 200 fb$^{-1}$, we can discover an $\omega_T$ for a broad range of masses and widths.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on High Energy Physics, Vancouver, July 1998, 5 pages, Latex, 7 postscript figure

Phase behaviour of additive binary mixtures in the limit of infinite asymmetry

We provide an exact mapping between the density functional of a binary mixture and that of the effective one-component fluid in the limit of infinite asymmetry. The fluid of parallel hard cubes is thus mapped onto that of parallel adhesive hard cubes. Its phase behaviour reveals that demixing of a very asymmetric mixture can only occur between a solvent-rich fluid and a permeated large particle solid or between two large particle solids with different packing fractions. Comparing with hard spheres mixtures we conclude that the phase behaviour of very asymmetric hard-particle mixtures can be determined from that of the large component interacting via an adhesive-like potential.Comment: Full rewriting of the paper (also new title). 4 pages, LaTeX, uses revtex, multicol, epsfig, and amstex style files, to appear in Phys. Rev. E (Rapid Comm.

Ageing with HIV

Applying Fraser’s inequalities framework to our UK-based HIV and Later Life (HALL) study, we show that, for the growing population of older people living with HIV (PLWH), HIV intersects with ethnicity, sex, sexuality, stigma, and ageism to produce bivalent identities. These shape their experience of ageing with HIV and intersect with economic factors, the social status order, and statutory policy to subject them to socioeconomic and cultural injustices only roughly captured by Fraser’s three domains of inequality. Under recognition, the stigmatization of HIV and its exacerbation by normative ageist expectations threaten social relationships. Under resources, older PLWH’s disproportionate financial disadvantage, linked to interrupted work histories, uncertain migration status, and recent changes to benefits on which PLWH are disproportionately reliant and whose new criteria disadvantage them, make access to support from others living with HIV and from HIV organizations even more essential for mental health and wellbeing. Finally, under representation, stigma and homophobia in care settings may undermine the quality of long-term care, and defunding of HIV organizations and welfare benefit changes via neo-liberal policies and austerity measures create political disenfranchisement and barriers to social participation. Thus, Fraser’s clear-cut domains imperfectly capture factors undermining underlying causes of older PLWH’s disadvantage: HIV-specific supports (resources) established to compensate for difficulties emanating from Fraser’s recognition and resources domains are increasingly threatened by agents operating within Fraser’s representation domain. Our conclusion considers other sources of older PLWH’s underrepresentation: their waning participation in activism and advocacy on their own behalf, and inadequate attention by non-HIV organizations