How to make social cohesion work. Bertelsmann Stiftung Speech 2019

The megatrends of globalization and digitalization pose challenges for social cohesion. Many people are concerned about their economic future, and right-wing populists are leveraging the internet to spread oversimplified messages and fuel fears. Thought leaders from around the world convened to discuss the future of social cohesion at the Bertelsmann Stiftung‘s international “Trying Times” conference addressing the issue “Rethinking Social Cohesion” that was held in Berlin from September 4–6, 2019. In his closing speech titled “How to make social cohesion work,” Canadian author and President Emeritus of PEN International John Ralston Saul demonstrated that empathy, respect for difference and the willingness to accept the complexity of society rather than exclusion and fear are the factors that pave the way toward a successful future. The social cohesion of the future needs both diversity and community. Read his speech in full here

Regulatory Barriers and Entry in Developing Economies

We model entry by entrepreneurs into new markets in developing economies with regulatory barriers in the form of licence fees and bureaucratic delay. Because laissez faire leads to ‘excessive’ entry, a licence fee can increase welfare by discouraging entry. However, in the presence of a licence fee, bureaucratic delay creates a strategic opportunity, which can result in both greater entry by first movers and a higher steady-state number of firms. Delay also leads to speculation, with entrepreneurs taking out licences to obtain the option of immediate entry if they later observe the industry to be profitable enough.

Informality as a Stepping Stone: Entrepreneurial Entry in a Developing Economy

We model decisions with respect to formality or informality for entrepreneurs in a new industry for a developing economy. We show that informality allows a leader to explore, without significant sunk costs, the potential profitability of the industry; that is, informality may be a stepping stone, enabling an entrepreneur to experiment cheaply in an uncertain environment. There are circumstances under which, without this option, the industry would not become established. We analyse the roles of parameters such as a minimum wage rate and we show that the existence of finance constraints can actually encourage entry in this context.

Regulatory Barriers & Entry in Developing Economies

We model entry by entrepreneurs into new markets in developing economies with regulatory barriers in the form of licence fees and bureaucratic delay. Because laissez faire leads to ‘excessive’ entry, a licence fee can increase welfare by discouraging entry. However, in the presence of a licence fee, bureaucratic delay creates a strategic opportunity, which can result in both greater entry by first movers and a higher steady-state number of firms. Delay also leads to speculation, with entrepreneurs taking out licences to obtain the option of immediate entry if they later observe the industry to be profitable enough.Entry, Entry Barriers, Developing Economy.

Corruption and Bureaucratic Structure in a Developing Economy

We address the impact of corruption in a developing economy in the context of an empirically relevant hold-up problem - when a foreign firm sinks an investment to provide infrastructure services. We focus on the structure of the economy’s bureaucracy, which can be centralized or decentralized, and characterize the ‘corruptibility’ of bureaucrats in each case. Results are explained in terms of the noninternalization, under decentralization, of the ‘bribe externality’ and the ‘price externality.’ In welfare terms, decentralization is favoured, relatively speaking, if the tax system is less inefficient, funding is less tight, bureaucrats are less venal, or compensation for expropriation is ungenerous.Corruption, Bureaucratic Structure, Developing Economy

Reforming Public School Systems Through Sustained Union-Management Collaboration

Presents case studies of sustained collaboration between teachers' unions and management in school reform; common elements in initiating events, strategic priorities, supportive system infrastructure, and sustaining factors; and lessons learned

'The dog that didn't bark in the night:' Namibia's missing TRC and the South African model

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: The TRC; Commissioning the Past, 11-14 June, 199

Liberation without democracy? Rethinking the experiences of the southern African liberation movements

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Democracy, Popular Precedents, Practice and Culture, 13-15 July, 1994

A mathematical model of the tetrapyrrole biosynthesis pathway

The tetrapyrrole biosynthesis pathway is a key part in chlorophyll production and is essential for plant survival. It involves numerous interacting compounds and, crucially, light. The understanding of the complex regulation processes involved has been the focus of extensive experimental research providing a large source of data. A particular set of data, concerned with the modelling described in this report, involves 24 hour timecourse data from seedlings exposed to constant light, following a three day period of growth from seed in darkness. This data includes the levels of key components such as chlorophyll, ATP, chlorophyllide and proto-chlorophyllide. Amongst the questions posed in the study-group were: i) Can the timecourse data be predicted by a model? ii) Can it predict the dierences in levels of various components in found mutant strains. To address these questions, we present in this report a model consisting of a coupled system of nonlinear ODEs that describes a simplied version of the tetrapyrrole pathway based on mass action laws. Model simulations produced results that agree qualitatively well with most, but not all, of the available timecourse data obtained from wild-type and mutant strains. Nearly all of the model's parameters are not known, so the values used in these simulations are based on estimates of the relative timescales of the reactions. An attempt at improving these estimates using data tting techniques is also discussed