Between Russia and China - Central Asia’s Transition Experience

The differences in chosen transition paths as well as the resulting outcomes between Russia and China are well-documented. Similarly, the Central Asian republics have followed different transition paths despite similar initial conditions. Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan opted for big bang reforms Russian-style while Uzbekistan chose a more gradual way in the Chinese style and Turkmenistan remained principally unreformed. However, the transition outcomes rather resemble the Russian experience. The positive picture of the Uzbek transition highly depended on its relatively modest decline in economic output and social indicators during transition. But with regard to the preservation of the pre-transition output level, Kazakhstan outpaced Uzbekistan in more recent years. With regard to other “stylized facts of transition”, the developments in the Central Asian republics even more clearly and consistently follow the Russian, not the Chinese, experience. Nevertheless, the slightly different transition experiences, especially between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, may be attributable to different institutional developments which are crucial for a smooth transition to a market economy. Uzbekistan avoided the high level of disorganization and disorder evolving in Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation after the demise of political dictatorship and the centrally planned economic system. In this respect, Uzbekistan comes closer to China which may be attributable to a firmer state and far lower rent-seeking opportunities in and around the resource-extracting industries. However, the less profound reform efforts prevented the reallocation of resources which is necessary to guard a successful transition to a market-based economy.

Ways Out of the European Sovereign Debt Crisis after the Decisions of the July 2011 Summit

Schulden; Finanzmarktkrise; Krisenmanagement; Schuldenkrise; Europäische Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion

Privatisation and Corporate Governance in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan : Insights from a Corporate Survey in Food and Light Industries

This paper presents the results from a private sector survey among companies of the food industry in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as well as of the light industry in Uzbekistan. It provides microeconomic evidence on the change in the companies’ ownership structure resulting from the privatisation programmes as well as the development in more recent years. The privatisation of companies was more profound in Kazakhstan than in Uzbekistan where the state still retained larger shares in its companies and even managed to re-increase its stakes due to strategic considerations. While the data confirm and prove the extent of the insider privatisation in Kazakhstan, Uzbek companies‘ ownership got more dispersed and company insiders play a very subordinate role. The use and design of manager contracts in these two countries does not turn out to feature basic incentive components on a broad scale as in the case of the Chinese management contracts contradicting the hypotheses of a similar application in Uzbekistan’s de facto state enterprises. Company control was highly transferred into the responsibility of corporate bodies in both countries though state interference in the companies’ affairs remains an important aspect of doing business, especially in Uzbekistan. The companies face further obstacles which hinder and retard the development of a sound private corporate sector, especially a high tax burden and bureaucratic red tape, macroeconomic instability, lack of finance and an inadequate provision of infrastructure. The state, especially in Uzbekistan, still intervenes in the private sector in favour of selected companies which improves these companies’ perception about the role of the state. On the other hand, this state behaviour prevents or at least delays the dissolution of the inherited structural and corporate distortions which would improve corporate efficiency and would be essential for a successful transition to a market economy.

High Frequency Conductivity in the Quantum Hall Regime

We have measured the complex conductivity $\sigma_{xx}$ of a two-dimensional electron system in the quantum Hall regime up to frequencies of 6 GHz at electron temperatures below 100 mK. Using both its imaginary and real part we show that $\sigma_{xx}$ can be scaled to a single function for different frequencies and for all investigated transitions between plateaus in the quantum Hall effect. Additionally, the conductivity in the variable-range hopping regime is used for a direct evaluation of the localization length $\xi$. Even for large filing factor distances $\delta \nu$ from the critical point we find $\xi \propto \delta \nu^{-\gamma}$ with a scaling exponent $\gamma=2.3$

Hopping conductivity in the quantum Hall effect -- revival of universal scaling

We have measured the temperature dependence of the conductivity $\sigma_{xx}$ of a two-dimensional electron system deep into the localized regime of the quantum Hall plateau transition. Using variable-range hopping theory we are able to extract directly the localization length $\xi$ from this experiment. We use our results to study the scaling behavior of $\xi$ as a function of the filling factor distance $|\delta \nu|$ to the critical point of the transition. We find for all samples a power-law behavior $\xi\propto|\delta\nu|^{-\gamma}$ with a universal scaling exponent $\gamma = 2.3$ as proposed theoretically

Phonon emission and absorption in the fractional quantum Hall effect

We investigate the time dependent thermal relaxation of a two-dimensional electron system in the fractional quantum Hall regime where ballistic phonons are used to heat up the system to a non-equilibrium temperature. The thermal relaxation of a 2DES at $\nu=1/2$ can be described in terms of a broad band emission of phonons, with a temperature dependence proportional to $T^4$. In contrast, the relaxation at fractional filling $\nu=2/3$ is characterized by phonon emission around a single energy, the magneto-roton gap. This leads to a strongly reduced energy relaxation rate compared to $\nu=1/2$ with only a weak temperature dependence for temperatures 150 mK $< T <$ 400 mK.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; 14th International Conference on High Magnetic Fields in Semiconductor Physics, September 24-29, 2000, Matsue, Japa

Conductance fluctuations at the quantum Hall plateau transition

We analyze the conductance fluctuations observed in the quantum Hall regime for a bulk two-dimensional electron system in a Corbino geometry. We find that characteristics like the power spectral density and the temperature dependence agree well with simple expectations for universal conductance fluctuations in metals, while the observed amplitude is reduced. In addition, the dephasing length $L_\Phi \propto T^{-1/2}$, which governs the temperature dependence of the fluctuations, is surprisingly different from the scaling length $L_{sc}\propto T^{-1}$ governing the width of the quantum Hall plateau transition

Do neutrons publish? A neutron publication survey 2005-2015

Publication in scientific journals is the main product of scientific research. The amount of papers published, their placement in high impact journals, and their citations are used as a measure of the productivity of individual scientists, institutes or fields of science. To give a profound basis on the publication record and the quality of the publication efforts in neutron scattering, a survey has been done following the approach to use bibliographic databases. Questions to be addressed by this survey are: Is the productivity of research with neutrons changing over the years? Which is the geographic distribution in this field of research? Which ones are leading facilities? Is the quality of publications changing? The main results found are presented

Specific Heat of a Fractional Quantum Hall System

Using a time-resolved phonon absorption technique, we have measured the specific heat of a two-dimensional electron system in the fractional quantum Hall effect regime. For filling factors $\nu = 5/3, 4/3, 2/3, 3/5, 4/7, 2/5$ and 1/3 the specific heat displays a strong exponential temperature dependence in agreement with excitations across a quasi-particle gap. At filling factor $\nu = 1/2$ we were able to measure the specific heat of a composite fermion system for the first time. The observed linear temperature dependence on temperature down to $T = 0.14$ K agrees well with early predictions for a Fermi liquid of composite fermions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures (version is 1. resubmission: Added a paragraph to include the problems which arise by the weak temperature dependence at \nu = 1/2, updated affiliation