Dividing the spoils - pensions, privatization, and reform in Russia's transition

The authors present a political economy model in which policy is the outcome of an interaction between three actors: government (G), managers and workers (W), and transfer recipients (P). The government's objective is to stay in power, for which it needs the support of either P or W. It can choose slow privatization with little asset stripping and significant taxation, thus protecting the fiscal base out of which it pays pensioners relatively well (as in Poland). Or it can give away assets and tax exemptions to managers and workers, who then bankroll it and deliver the vote, but it thereby loses taxes and pays little to pensioners (as in Russia). The authors apply this model to Russia for the period 1992-96. An empirical analysis of electoral behavior in the 1996 presidential election shows that the likelihood of someone voting for Yeltsin did not depend on that person's socioeconomic group per se. Those who tended to vote for Yeltsin were richer, younger, and better educated and had more favorable expectations for the future. Entrepreneurs, who had more of these characteristics, tended to vote for Yeltsin as a result, while pensioners, who had almost none, tended to vote against Yeltsin. Unlike Poland, Russia failed to create pluralist politics in the early years of the transition, so no effective counterbalance emerged to offset managerial rent-seeking and the state was easily captured by well-organized industrial interests. The political elite were reelected because industrial interests bankrolled their campaign in return for promises that government largesse would continue to flow. Russia shows vividly how political economy affects policymaking, because of how openly and flagrantly government granted favors in return for electoral support. Bur special interests, venal bureaucrats, and the exchange of favors tend to be the rule, not the exemption, elsewhere as well.Public Health Promotion,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,National Governance,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Social Policy in Emerging Market Economies

The authors study the connection between economic reform and social policy, and why such reforms failed to produce the tide needed to lift all boats in the transition economies of eastern and central Europe and of Asia.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1048/thumbnail.jp

Income and Influence: Social Policy in Emerging Market Economies

The authors study the connection between economic reform and social policy, and why such reforms failed to produce the tide needed to lift all boats in the transition economies of eastern and central Europe and of Asia.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1048/thumbnail.jp

Highly Inclined Jets in Cross Flow

Results from an experimental investigation of flow field generated by pitched and yawed jets discharging from a flat plate into a cross-flow are presented. The circular jet was pitched at alpha = 20deg and 45deg and yawed between Beta = 0deg and 90deg in increments of 15deg. The measurements were performed with two -wires providing all three components of velocity and turbulent stresses. These data were obtained at downstream locations of x = 3, 5, 10 and 20, where the distance x, normalized by the jet diameter, is measured from the center of the orifice. Data for all configurations were acquired at a momentum-flux ratio J = 8. Additionally, for selected angles and locations, surveys were conducted for J = 1.5, 4, and 20. As expected, the jet penetration is found to be higher at larger alpha. With increasing beta the jet spreads more. The rate of reduction of peak streamwise vorticity, max, with the downstream distance is significantly less at higher Beta but is found to be practically independent of alpha. Thus, at the farthest measurement station x = 20, xmax is about five times larger for Beta = 75deg compared to the levels at Beta = 0deg. Streamwise velocity within the jet-vortex structure is found to depend on the parameter J. At J = 1.5 and 4, 'wake-like' velocity profiles are observed. In comparison, a 'jet-like' overshoot is present at higher J. Distributions of turbulent stresses for various cases are documented. Peak normal stresses are found to occur within the core of the streamwise vortices. With yaw, at lower values of J, high turbulence is also observed in the boundary layer underneath the jet-vortex structur

Resonance and Tones in Dual-Stream Nozzle Flows

A dual-stream nozzle configuration was studied numerically with the objective of predicting the appearance of tones and study their sources. It was found that some of the tones traced to a coupling between Strouhal shedding from the struts, which held different pieces of the nozzle together, and various duct acoustic modes. A focus of the work was on exploring the nature of the duct modes. First, elements of the numerical procedure were studied for a 4-strut nozzle, validating the results with existing experimental data. The approach was then applied to a 3-strut geometry and four different excitation methods. The predicted tones and associated duct modes are analyzed in detail

Globalization and inequality

© The Author(s) 2017. This review essay discusses works of a leading sociologist and a leading economist on the subject of inequality and globalization. The books raise fresh ideas of inequality in the context of globalization by raising questions on the relationship between globalization and inequality throughout history. Although Therborn raises some fundamental questions about inequality, problematizes the concept, and broadens the discussion by adding multiple dimensions to it, Bourguignon’s study deepens our understanding of the problem of inequality by presenting the paradox of its linkage with globalization, which in the last century reduced international inequality while it widened intranational inequality, and the two processes are interrelated. Bourguignon suggests that the growing intranational inequality that threatens economic, political, and social stability can be overcome by concerted efforts of the states. Therborn pins his hope in the rising middle class across the world and their solidarity, which could create a more egalitarian society

Exceptional orthogonal polynomials and exactly solvable potentials in position dependent mass Schroedinger Hamiltonians

Some exactly solvable potentials in the position dependent mass background are generated whose bound states are given in terms of Laguerre- or Jacobi-type $X_1$ exceptional orthogonal polynomials. These potentials are shown to be shape invariant and isospectral to the potentials whose bound state solutions involve classical Laguerre or Jacobi polynomials.Comment: To appear in Physics Letters