International benchmarking of Lesotho's infrastructure performance

The author provides a preliminary benchmarking of infrastructure performance in Lesotho in four major sectors--electricity, water and sanitation, information and communication technology, and road transportation--against the relevant group of comparator countries using a new World Bank international data base with objective and perception-based indicators of infrastructure performance from over 200 countries. The results of the benchmarking are revealing of several major, comparative deficiencies in infrastructure performance in Lesotho: (1) extremely low access to electricity and its affordability; (2) poor coverage, quality, and the cost of local (non-cellular) telephony; and (3) poor quality of roads. Infrastructure service delivery in electricity, telephony, and roads is well below what would be expected, on average, for a country in Lesotho's income group. In these sectors, Lesotho also compares unfavorably with many other geographical country groups. Unless addressed, such infrastructure shortfalls are likely to adversely affect the welfare of Lesotho's poor, and the cost competitiveness and growth prospects of a range of economic sectors (such as tourism and trade) that depend critically on a stable and competitive supply of basic infrastructure service. They could also affect the speed and quality of Lesotho's regional economic integration within the South Africa Customs Union (SACU) sub-region with attendant consequences for the long-term growth of regional trade and real output. By contrast, Lesotho's performance is solid in the access to improved water and sanitation, in the aggregate and in both rural and urban areas. Finally, this benchmarking, combined with more in-depth, sector analyses, could provide policymakers in Lesotho a useful guide to the areas of infrastructure performance requiring attention.Infrastructure Regulation,Urban Services to the Poor,Urban Slums Upgrading,Banks&Banking Reform,Roads&Highways

Seignirage Sharing and Dollarization, Central Banking (U.K.), Vol. X, No.4, 77-88.

Dollarization is becoming a viable option for a number of countries, but the loss of seigniorage is a major obstacle. The paper looks at the major seigniorage sharing arrangements available and issues that arise in the design of the new arrangements.dollarization, dollarisation, seigniorage, monetary unions

The Foreign Direct Investments Entrance and its Impact into Countries in Transition (Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina)

FDIs are very often the most glorified way of high and rapid economic development into transitional countries. Bosnia and Herzegovina has to catch up the significant higher level of real economic convergence before its entrance into European Union membership. So, in that way Bosnia and Herzegovina will be able to meet with a foreign competition on a huge common market of EU. The neoclassical concept of economic growth (famous as ''Washington Consensus'') which has been applying into Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasizes the FDIs entrance as the main actuator of B&H economic development. That concept supposes that FDIs entrance and comparative advantages could bring the optimal economic growth and development for all countries in the conditions of foreign trade and capital movement’s liberalization, monetary stability (without inflation and with stable exchange rate) and fiscal stability (balance of budget). The subject of this paper is the analysis of theoretical vindication of such macroeconomic policy and real role of FDIs in economic development concerning existing economic and political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and historical experiences of today developed economies.Bosnia and Herzegovina, Washington Consensus, Foreign Direct Investments, Keynesianism, real and nominal convergence, European Union.

Toeplitz operators on Bergman spaces of polyanalytic functions

We study algebraic properties of Toeplitz operators on Bergman spaces of polyanalytic functions on the unit disk. We obtain results on finite-rank commutators and semi-commutators of Toeplitz operators with harmonic symbols. We also raise and discuss some open questions.Comment: 15 page

Collateral, Access to Credit, and Investment in Bulgaria, chap. 8 in D. Jones and J. Miller (eds) THE BULGARIAN ECONOMY: LESSONS FROM REFORM DURING EARLY TRANSITION, Ashgate 97.

The paper measures economic loss from the problem of inadequate collateral in Bulgaria and proposes solutions consisting of creation of security interests, perfection, and enforcement.collateral, finance, access to credit, investment, Bulgaria

Infrared Imaging of Late-Type Stars

Infrared imaging properties of dusty winds around late-type stars are investigated in detail, employing a self-consistent model that couples the equations of motion and radiative transfer. Because of general scaling properties, the angular profiles of surface brightness are self-similar. In any given star, the profile shape is determined essentially by overall optical depth at each wavelength and it is self-similarly scaled by the size of the dust condensation zone. We find that the mid-IR is the best wavelength range to measure directly the angular size of this zone, and from {\it IRAS} data we identify the 15 best candidates for such future observations. We also show that the visibility function at short wavelengths (\la 2 \mic) directly determines the scattering optical depth, and produce theoretical visibility curves for various characteristic wavelengths and the entire parameter range relevant to late-type stars. The infrared emission should display time variability because of cyclical changes in overall optical depth, reflecting luminosity-induced movement of the dust condensation point. Calculations of the wavelength dependence of photometric amplitudes and time variability of envelope sizes are in agreement with observations; envelopes are bigger and bluer at maximum light.Comment: LaTeX with 2 figures, requires MNRAS mn.sty; figures and/or complete PS or PS.Z preprint (8 pages) available by anonymous ftp at ftp://asta.pa.uky.edu/ivezic/imaging/imaging.ps (or fig1.ps, fig2.ps

Dust Emission from IRC+10216

Infrared emission from the dust shell around IRC+10216 is analysed in detail, employing a self-consistent model for radiatively driven winds around late-type stars that couples the equations of motion and radiative transfer in the dust. The resulting model provides agreement with the wealth of available data, including the spectral energy distribution in the range 0.5--1000 \mic, and visibility and array observations. Previous conclusions about two dust shells, derived from modelling the data with a few single-temperature components of different radii, are not supported by our results. The extended, continuous temperature and density distributions derived from our model obviate the need for such discrete shells. The IR properties vary with the stellar phase, reflecting changes in both the dust condensation radius $r_1$ and the overall optical depth $\tau$ -- as the luminosity increases from minimum to maximum, $r_1$ increases while $\tau$ decreases. We find that the angular size of the dust condensation zone varies from 0.3 arcsec at minimum light to 0.5 arcsec at maximum. The shortage of flux at short wavelengths encountered in previous studies is resolved by employing a grain size distribution that includes grains larger than \about\ 0.1 \mic, required also for the visibility fits. This distribution is in agreement with the one recently proposed by Jura in a study that probed the outer regions of the envelope. Since our constraints on the size distribution mostly reflect the envelope's inner regions, the agreement of these independent studies is evidence against significant changes in grain sizes through effects like sputtering or grain growth after the initial formation at the dust condensation zone.Comment: LaTeX with 3 figures, requires MNRAS mn.sty; figures and/or complete PS or PS.Z preprint (7 pages) available by anonymous ftp at ftp://asta.pa.uky.edu/ivezic/irc10216/irc10216.ps (or fig1.ps, fig2.ps, fig3.ps

Self-similarity and scaling behavior of IR emission from radiatively heated dust: I. Theory

Dust infrared emission possesses scaling properties. Overall luminosity is never an input parameter of the radiative transfer problem, spectral shape is the only relevant property of the heating radiation when the inner boundary of the dusty region is controlled by dust sublimation. Similarly, the absolute scales of densities and distances are irrelevant; the geometry enters only through angles, relative thicknesses and aspect ratios, and the actual magnitudes of densities and distances enter only through one independent parameter, the overall optical depth. Dust properties enter only through dimensionless, normalized distributions that describe the spatial variation of density and the wavelength dependence of scattering and absorption efficiencies. Scaling enables a systematic approach to modeling and classification of IR spectra. We develop a new, fully scale-free method for solving radiative transfer, present exact numerical results, and derive approximate analytical solutions for spherical geometry, covering the entire range of parameter space relevant to observations. Scaling implies tight correlations among the SEDs of various members of the same class of sources such as young stellar objects, late-type stars, etc. In particular, all members of the same class occupy common, well defined regions in color-color diagrams. The observational data corroborate the existence of these correlations.Comment: 14 pages, 10 Postscript figures (included), uses mn.sty. To appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ