Distributional effects of direct payments in Switzerland

The switch from market-support to direct payments in Switzerland had impacts on the income distribution among farmers. In this paper, the distributional effect of the switch as a whole and of the different kinds of direct payments are elaborated through a presentation of different decomposed Gini coefficients. Although the income distribution in Swiss Agriculture is still more equal than in most other countries, the Gini coefficient has risen from 0.27 in 1990 to 0.38 in 2009 and is by now strongly dependent on the composition of direct payments. Off-farm income and direct payments decrease, while market income increases income inequality.income distribution, direct payments, Gini decomposition, agricultural policy, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q00, Q18, Q28.,

Evaluation of New Public Management Reforms in Switzerland

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the empirical results of NPM evaluations in Switzerland. A number of evaluation studies are available to perform this task. Second, we compare the results of NPM reforms in Switzerland with those from abroad. For the purposes of the comparison we use the Pollitt and Bouckaert (2000) overview of the results of NPM projects in ten countries. We devote the third part of the article to methodological considerations for evaluation of public management reform

6-Amino-1-benzyl-4-(4-chloro­phen­yl)-3-(4-pyrid­yl)-1,4-dihydro­pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole-5-carbonitrile

The crystal structure of the title compound, C25H18ClN5O, was determined in the course of our studies on the synthesis of 1,4-dihydro­pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole as an inhibitor of the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). The compound was prepared via a base-catalysed synthesis from 1-benzyl-3-(4-pyrid­yl)-1H-pyrazol-5(4H)-one with p-chloro­aldehyde and malononitrile. The crystal data obtained were used to generate a three-dimensional pharmacophore model for in silico database screening. The phenyl ring is disordered over two positions, with site occupancy factors of 0.55 and 0.45. The dihedral angles between the 1,4-dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole unit and the chloro­phenyl and pyridine rings are 83.7 (1) and 16.0 (1)°, respectively. The chloro­phenyl and pyridine rings make a dihedral angle of 86.8 (2)°

ShockHash: Towards Optimal-Space Minimal Perfect Hashing Beyond Brute-Force

A minimal perfect hash function (MPHF) maps a set $S$ of $n$ keys to the first $n$ integers without collisions. There is a lower bound of $n\log_2e-O(\log n)$ bits of space needed to represent an MPHF. A matching upper bound is obtained using the brute-force algorithm that tries random hash functions until stumbling on an MPHF and stores that function's seed. In expectation, $e^n\textrm{poly}(n)$ seeds need to be tested. The most space-efficient previous algorithms for constructing MPHFs all use such a brute-force approach as a basic building block. In this paper, we introduce ShockHash - Small, heavily overloaded cuckoo hash tables. ShockHash uses two hash functions $h_0$ and $h_1$, hoping for the existence of a function $f : S \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ such that $x \mapsto h_{f(x)}(x)$ is an MPHF on $S$. In graph terminology, ShockHash generates $n$-edge random graphs until stumbling on a pseudoforest - a graph where each component contains as many edges as nodes. Using cuckoo hashing, ShockHash then derives an MPHF from the pseudoforest in linear time. It uses a 1-bit retrieval data structure to store $f$ using $n + o(n)$ bits. By carefully analyzing the probability that a random graph is a pseudoforest, we show that ShockHash needs to try only $(e/2)^n\textrm{poly}(n)$ hash function seeds in expectation, reducing the space for storing the seed by roughly $n$ bits. This makes ShockHash almost a factor $2^n$ faster than brute-force, while maintaining the asymptotically optimal space consumption. An implementation within the RecSplit framework yields the currently most space efficient MPHFs, i.e., competing approaches need about two orders of magnitude more work to achieve the same space

SicHash -- Small Irregular Cuckoo Tables for Perfect Hashing

A Perfect Hash Function (PHF) is a hash function that has no collisions on a given input set. PHFs can be used for space efficient storage of data in an array, or for determining a compact representative of each object in the set. In this paper, we present the PHF construction algorithm SicHash - Small Irregular Cuckoo Tables for Perfect Hashing. At its core, SicHash uses a known technique: It places objects in a cuckoo hash table and then stores the final hash function choice of each object in a retrieval data structure. We combine the idea with irregular cuckoo hashing, where each object has a different number of hash functions. Additionally, we use many small tables that we overload beyond their asymptotic maximum load factor. The most space efficient competitors often use brute force methods to determine the PHFs. SicHash provides a more direct construction algorithm that only rarely needs to recompute parts. Our implementation improves the state of the art in terms of space usage versus construction time for a wide range of configurations. At the same time, it provides very fast queries

Sliding Block Hashing (Slick) -- Basic Algorithmic Ideas

We present {\bf Sli}ding Blo{\bf ck} Hashing (Slick), a simple hash table data structure that combines high performance with very good space efficiency. This preliminary report outlines avenues for analysis and implementation that we intend to pursue

Bipartite ShockHash: Pruning ShockHash Search for Efficient Perfect Hashing

A minimal perfect hash function (MPHF) maps a set of n keys to the first n integers without collisions. Representing this bijection needs at least $\log_2(e) \approx 1.443$ bits per key, and there is a wide range of practical implementations achieving about 2 bits per key. Minimal perfect hashing is a key ingredient in many compact data structures such as updatable retrieval data structures and approximate membership data structures. A simple implementation reaching the space lower bound is to sample random hash functions using brute-force, which needs about $e^n \approx 2.718^n$ tries in expectation. ShockHash recently reduced that to about $(e/2)^n \approx 1.359^n$ tries in expectation by sampling random graphs. With bipartite ShockHash, we now sample random bipartite graphs. In this paper, we describe the general algorithmic ideas of bipartite ShockHash and give an experimental evaluation. The key insight is that we can try all combinations of two hash functions, each mapping into one half of the output range. This reduces the number of sampled hash functions to only about $(\sqrt{e/2})^n \approx 1.166^n$ in expectation. In itself, this does not reduce the asymptotic running time much because all combinations still need to be tested. However, by filtering the candidates before combining them, we can reduce this to less than $1.175^n$ combinations in expectation. Our implementation of bipartite ShockHash is up to 3 orders of magnitude faster than original ShockHash. Inside the RecSplit framework, bipartite ShockHash-RS enables significantly larger base cases, leading to a construction that is, depending on the allotted space budget, up to 20 times faster. In our most extreme configuration, ShockHash-RS can build an MPHF for 10 million keys with 1.489 bits per key (within 3.3% of the lower bound) in about half an hour, pushing the limits of what is possible

Konjunkturprognose Ostdeutschland und Sachsen 2011/2012: Europäische Schuldenkrise lähmt gesamtwirtschaftliche Expansion

Das deutsche Bruttoinlandsprodukt ist nach ersten Angaben des Statistischen Bundesamtes im Jahr 2011 preisbereinigt um 3,0% gegenüber dem Vorjahr gestiegen. Die ostdeutschen Bundesländer partizipieren ebenfalls an diesem gesamtwirtschaftlichen Aufschwung. nach der jüngst vorgestellten Konjunkturprognose des ifo Instituts ist die gesamtwirtschaftliche Leistung in Ostdeutschland (inkl. Berlin) im Jahr 2011 um 2,5 % gewachsen; im laufenden Jahr dürfte das reale Bruttoinlandsprodukt um schätzungsweise 0,5 % expandieren. Im Freistaat Sachsen dürfte das Bruttoinlandsprodukt im abgelaufenen Jahr mit 2,7 % etwas stärker gestiegen sein als im Durchschnitt der ostdeutschen Länder insgesamt. Für 2012 wird jedoch infolge der stärkeren Konjunkturabhängigkeit der sächsischen Wirtschaft mit einem geringfügig schwächeren Wachstum (0,4 %) gerechnet. Ein Abgleiten in eine Rezession wird dabei aber nicht erwartet. Der Arbeitsmarkt in Sachsen und Ostdeutschland dürfte im vergangenen Jahr vom Aufschwung profitiert haben. Für das Jahr 2012 wird davon ausgegangen, dass sich die Zahl der Erwerbstätigen auf hohem Niveau stabilisiert.Konjunktur; Konjunkturprognose; Wirtschaftslage; Schulden; Schuldenkrise; Eurozone; Neue Bundesländer; Sachsen

Guide to Developing Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land-Use (AFOLU) Carbon Market Projects under Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP)

This report outlines the general steps required for development of a carbon project intended for sale of carbon credits via a carbon offset program, whether compliance or voluntary. While there are differences among the numerous offset programs, the major components are generally the same and any carbon project originating in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector will follow these steps. This report was written as a guide to development of carbon projects for Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), but the same process outlined here is equally applicable to any AFOLU carbon project.This work was supported by the PSNP Climate Smart Initiative. The PSNP is implemented by the Government of Ethiopia with support from the following development partners: Canadian International Development Agency, Irish Aid, European Commission, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, UK Department for International Development, United States Agency for International Development, World Food Program and World Bank