Consumer Participation and Pro-Poor Regulation in Latin America

utilities, privatization, public goods, regulation

Firm behavior and the labor market in the Hungarian transition

The authors describe the main changes in the Hungarian labor market since 1989. They focus especially on changes in behavior in state and privatized firms, since the shedding and restructuring of labor are at the heart of the transition. They describe five types of firms: 1) state firms (often in bad shape and/or natural monopolies); 2) firms privatized by insiders; 3) firms privatized by outside (but domestic) investors; 4) new small-scale ("de novo") private firms. The state and de novo firms are increasingly outside the tax system - the state firms by de facto tax exemptions, the de novo firms through tax evasion. As the de novo sector grows, the effective tax yield will tend to fall, shifting the tax burden to the other three types of firms. Subsidizing the growth of the private sector may have been desirable initially, but it is dynamically undesirable. It is important to change the distribution of the tax burden, while setting tax rates that enhance the growth of labor. Thetype of growth seen in the last four years is probably not sustainable. With tax evasion high, average payroll taxes in the taxable sector have until recently risen sharply. Social insurance spending and other labor taxes represented about 34 percent of hourly compensation costs in 1992 - significantly more proportionately than in OECD and most transition economies. And high contribution rates together with apparent real wage rigidity have depressed the rate of job creation in the taxed sectors. Wage levels are lower than in neighboring countries but higher than in other transition economies. Despite adverse shocks to output and employment, consumption wages have risen slightly and unit labor costs have clearly increased. The authors emphasize the continuing loss of employment and its changing distribution in terms of ownership, sector, and taxation - as well as associated changes in unemployment that have resulted from the asymmetric paths of the state and private sectors.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Municipal Financial Management,Economic Theory&Research,Private Participation in Infrastructure

The behavior of Russian firms in 1992 : evidence from a survey

The authors surveyed 41 firms in and around Moscow in the last two weeks of November 1992 to get an empirical handle on how firms are responding to the changing economic environment. They found the following conclusions. There were large negative (supply and demand) shocks to output for a significant number of firms and branches. Profitability was remarkably buoyant in real terms. There was clear evidence that firms with market power rapidly adjusted producer prices, trying to maintain or increase their markup. There was no evidence of a strategic change in pricing rules. Most firms experienced relative stability in earnings and in the distribution of revenues. There was no substantial evidence of decapitalization - at least through greater borrowing or predatory wage settlements. The upward shift in interfirm arrears was smaller than aggregate numbers might have led one to expect. Inertia in the wage system should not be ignored. Real wages were cut back sharply by the great price shock of January 1992, but real statistical wages then climbed back toward early 1991 levels. Benefits firms provided account for large shares of labor income and 40 to 45 percent of firms'costs. Firms may have tried to squeeze benefits particulary in housing, but allocations to the Social Fund have generally stayed constant. Employment adjustments were limited, despite the downward pressure on output and the lack of growth in firms surveyed. Net employment separations were relatively restricted. Firms continued to hire at significant rates in 1992, in part because of fixed factors technology, in part because of the reluctance of firms to discard workers. Consequently, firms have shed few workers - mostly ancillary and clerical staff, usually women; some firms chose to place workers on minimum wages, reducing labor costs significantly. The result is that unemployment benefits are provided de facto within the firms rather than through labor offices. In short the status of the so-called production worker, the core of the Russian industrial firm, remains untouched. Clearly there was a large"employment overhang"at the end of 1993. The next stage of the transition will be difficult.Markets and Market Access,Environmental Economics&Policies,Microfinance,Private Participation in Infrastructure,Small Scale Enterprise

Instantaneous physico-chemical analysis of suspension-based nanomaterials

High-throughput manufacturing of nanomaterial-based products demands robust online characterization and quality control tools capable of continuously probing the in-suspension state. But existing analytical techniques are challenging to deploy in production settings because they are primarily geared toward small-batch ex-situ operation in research laboratory environments. Here we introduce an approach that overcomes these limitations by exploiting surface complexation interactions that emerge when a micron-scale chemical discontinuity is established between suspended nanoparticles and a molecular tracer. The resulting fluorescence signature is easily detectable and embeds surprisingly rich information about composition, quantity, size, and morphology of nanoparticles in suspension independent of their agglomeration state. We show how this method can be straightforwardly applied to enable continuous sizing of commercial ZnO nanoparticles, and to instantaneously quantify the anatase and rutile composition of multicomponent TiO(2) nanoparticle mixtures pertinent to photocatalysis and solar energy conversion

Partnering across libraries and institutions to manage veterinary grey literature

A significant portion of the literature of veterinary medicine is grey literature. Each of three national libraries of the United States (National Library of Medicine, National Agricultural Library and Library of Congress) covers some portion of the veterinary literature. There is no comprehensive plan to collect, ensure access and preserve the veterinary grey literature. Objective: Conduct a needs assessment to use in developing an action plan to improve access and preserve the veterinary grey literature Population: All libraries serving veterinary schools accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Methodology: Focus Group: In September 2007, seven veterinary librarians from across the United States met at Texas A&M University for a 3-day session to discuss issues surrounding the veterinary grey literature, brainstorm ideas of potential remedies, and create the beginnings of an action plan. This group of librarians represented several different academic veterinary libraries and the AVMA. Survey: In March 2008 a survey on veterinary collection practices, emphasizing archives and grey literature handling, was sent to librarians at all AVMA accredited schools of veterinary medicines. Results: Response rate for survey completion was nearly 75%. Conclusion: Preservation/digitization projects which leverage institutional repositories of participant institutions. The current environment, with increasing opportunities for digitization of information resources and the growth of institutional repositories in universities, provides the foundation and potential solution for enhancing access and preservation of veterinary grey literature

Adaptive EWMA Control Charts with a Time Varying Smoothing Parameter

It is known that time-weighted charts like EWMA or CUSUM are designed to be optimal to detect a specific shift. If they are designed to detect, for instance, a very small shift, they can be inefficient to detect moderate or large shifts. In the literature, several alternatives have been proposed to circumvent this limitation, like the use of control charts with variable parameters or adaptive control charts. This paper has as main goal to propose some adaptive EWMA control charts (AEWMA) based on the assessment of a potential misadjustment, which is translated into a time-varying smoothing parameter. The resulting control charts can be seen as a smooth combination between Shewhart and EWMA control charts that can be efficient for a wide range of shifts. Markov chain procedures are established to analyze and design the proposed charts. Comparisons with other adaptive and traditional control charts show the advantages of the proposals.Acknowledgements: financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, research project ECO2012-38442

A preliminary design for a satellite power system

Outlined here is a preliminary design for a Solar Power Satellite (SPS) system. The SPS will provide a clean, reliable source of energy for mass consumption. The system will use satellites in geostationary orbits around the Earth to capture the sun's energy. The intercepted sunlight will be converted to laser beam energy which can be transmitted to the Earth's surface. Ground systems on the Earth will convert the transmissions from space into electric power. The preliminary design for the SPS consists of one satellite in orbit around the Earth transmitting to one ground station. The SPs technology uses multi-layer solar cell technology arranged on a 20 sq km planar array to intercept sunlight and convert it to an electric voltage. Power conditioning devices then send the electricity to a laser, which transmits the power to the surface of the Earth. A ground station will convert the beam into electricity. Construction will take place in low Earth orbit and array sections, 20 in total, will be sailed on the solar wind out to the GEO location in 150 days. These individual transportation sections are referred to as solar sailing panels (SSAPs). The primary truss elements used to support the arrays are composed on composite tubular members in a pentahedral arrangement. Smart segments consisting of passive and active damping devices will increase the control of dynamic SPS modes