Challenging assumptions of the enlargement literature : the impact of the EU on human and minority rights in Macedonia

This article argues that from the very start of the transition process in Macedonia, a fusion of concerns about security and democratisation locked local nationalist elites and international organisations intoa political dynamic that prioritised security over democratisation. This dynamic resulted in little progress in the implementation of human and minority rights until 2009, despite heavy EU involvement in Macedonia after the internal warfare of 2001. The effects of this informally institutionalised relationship have been overlooked by scholarship on EU enlargement towards Eastern Europe, which has made generalisations based on assumptions relevant to the democratisation of countries in Eastern Europe, but not the Western Balkans

You Don‘t Know What You‘ve Got Till It‘s Gone! Unemployment and Intertemporal Changes in Self-Reported Life Satisfaction

This paper uses concurrently and - for the first time - retrospectively reported life satisfaction from the 1984 to 1987 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel to study the importance of different comparison standards for the empirical correlation of unemployment and subjective life satisfaction. It is found that unemployed individuals do not only report significantly lower concurrent satisfaction, but also recall reduced satisfaction from past unemployment well, and retrospectively upgrade their past satisfaction scores. Therefore, the short-term negative effects of unemployment on individual life satisfaction reported in the literature so far are likely underestimated. At the same time, the empirical findings cast doubts on the usefulness of subjective life satisfaction for the precise quantification of welfare effects because of changing comparison standards which greatly limit the intertemporal comparability of the data. For this reason, such data also appear to be of limited use for monitoring long-term economic or social development.Diese Studie untersucht den Einfluss verschiedener Vergleichsstandards auf die empirische Korrelation von Arbeitslosigkeit und individueller Lebenszufriedenheit. Dafür werden sowohl longitudinale als auch retrospektive Daten zur subjektiven Lebenszufriedenheit des Deutschen Sozio-ökonomischen Panels aus den Jahren 1984 bis 1987 ausgewertet. Es wird gezeigt, dass Arbeitslose nicht nur zum Zeitpunkt ihrer Arbeitslosigkeit eine geringere Lebenszufriedenheit angeben, sondern sich später auch gut an diese geringere Zufriedenheit erinnern und retrospektiv frühere Angaben zur Lebenszufriedenheit nach oben korrigieren. Die bisher in der Literatur genannten kurzfristigen negativen Effekte von Arbeitslosigkeit auf das individuelle Wohlergehen sind daher wahrscheinlich unterschätzt worden. Allerdings deuten die empirischen Ergebnisse dieser Studie auch darauf hin, dass Daten zur subjektiven Lebenszufriedenheit nur sehr bedingt dazu geeignet sind, Wohlfahrtseffekte zu quantifizieren, da sich die individuellen Evaluationsstandards im Zeitablauf ändern. Aus diesem Grund erscheinen solche Daten auch ungeeignet, um längerfristige sozio-ökonomische Entwicklungen zu beobachten oder zu analysieren

Composition and age of ores and bottom sediments accumulated within and near the Rainbow hydrothermal field

Results of direct geological and geochemical observations of the modern Rainbow hydrothermal field (Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 36°14'N; 33°54'W) carried out from the deep-sea manned Mir submersibles during Cruises 41 and 42 of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in 1998-1999 and data of laboratory studies of collected samples are under consideration in the paper. The field lacks neovolcanic rocks and the axial part of the rift is filled in with a serpentinite protrusion. In this field there occur metalliferous sediments, as well as active and relict sulfide edifices composed of sulfide minerals; pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, isocubanite, sphalerite, marcasite, pyrite, bornite, chalcosine, digenite, magnetite, anhydrite, rare troilite, wurtzite, millerite, and pentlandite have been determined. Sulfide ores are characterized by concentric-zoned textures. During in situ measurements during 35 minutes temperature of hydrothermal fluids was varying within a range from 250 to 350°C. Calculated chemical and isotopic composition of hydrothermal fluid shows elevated concentrations of Cl, Ni, Co, CH4, and H2. Values of d34S of H2S range from +2.4 to +3.1 per mil, of d13C of CH4 from -15.2 to -11.2 per mil, and d13C of CO2 from +1.0 to -4.0 per mil. Fluid inclusions are homogenized at temperatures from 140 to 360°C, whereas salinity of the fluid varies from 4.2 to 8.5 wt %. d34S values of sulfides range from +1.3 to +12.5 per mil. 3He/4He ratio in mineral-forming fluid contained in the fluid inclusions from sulfides of the Rainbow field varies from 0.00000374 to 0.0000101. It is shown that hydrothermal activity in the area continues approximately during 100 ka. It is assumed that the fluid and sulfide edifices contain components from the upper mantle. A hypothesis of phase separation of a supercritical fluid that results in formation of brines is proposed. Hydrothermal activity is related to the tectonic, not volcanic, phase of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge evolution