The Bretton Woods agencies and sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s : facing the tough questions

Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank recognize that sub - Saharan Africa (SSA) represents a difficult and complex development challenge. The author proposes that the Bank and the IMF take four institutional steps to deal effectively with the region's problems in the near term. First, the agencies should reconsider their planned net capital contribution to help overcome the region's severe foreign exchange constraints. Secondly, the Brady proposals represented a major conceptual step forward toward alleviating the private debt overhang that seriously burdens at least a dozen countries in the region. Additional efforts to reduce the private debts of the low-income countries will be needed to achieve the objectives of the proposals. Thirdly, the Bank's analysis of the problems facing the region argues for a faster and more comprehensive reform program. In the 1990s the Bretton Woods agencies will face increasing pressures to give more weight to issues of social equity and political variables. Lastly, the Bank and Fund will have to improve their ability to work together to maximize their effectiveness. The Bank and Fund should collaborate in long-term planning for SSA. Policy Framework Papers should go beyond the current three year horizon and plan some issues for five to ten years. The Bank should also take the lead in organizing external assistance efforts and policy reform programs.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Strategic Debt Management,Economic Theory&Research

E-tailers versus Retailers: Which Factors Determine Consumer Preferences

The growth of Internet technology and electronic commerce has not been matched by theoretically-guided social science research. Clear and well designed consumer research is needed to describe, explain, and predict what will happen to this changing landscape. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the structure for consumer preferences to make product purchases through three available retail formats - store, catalog, and the Internet. Conjoint analysis was used to assess the structure of the decision and the importance of the attributes in the decision-making process. The results from this study noticeably show that the structure of the consumer decision-making process was found to be primarily one of choosing the retail format (store, catalog, or Internet) and price of product (set at low, medium or high) desired. The strength of the retail store format suggests that fears that the Internet will take over the retail arena seem, at least at this point in time, overblown and exaggerated. However, there seems to be an identifiable segment of customers that has a preference for the Internet as a retail shopping alternative.Economics ;

Entropy and Thermodynamic Temperature in Nonequilibrium Classical Thermodynamics as Immediate Consequences of the Hahn-Banach Theorem: I. Existence

The Kelvin-Planck statement of the Second Law of Thermodynamics is a stricture on the nature of heat receipt by any body suffering a cyclic process. It makes no mention of temperature or of entropy. Beginning with a Kelvin-Planck statement of the Second Law, we show that entropy and temperature -- in particular, existence of functions that relate the local specific entropy and thermodynamic temperature to the local state in a material body -- emerge immediately and simultaneously as consequences of the Hahn-Banach Theorem. Existence of such functions of state requires no stipulation that their domains be restricted to equilibrium states. Further properties, including uniqueness, are addressed in a companion paper

Entropy and Thermodynamic Temperature in Nonequilibrium Classical Thermodynamics as Immediate Consequences of the Hahn-Banach Theorem: II. Properties

In a companion article it was shown in a certain precise sense that, for any thermodynamical theory that respects the Kelvin-Planck Second Law, the Hahn-Banach Theorem immediately ensures the existence of a pair of continuous functions of the local material state -- a specific entropy (entropy per mass) and a thermodynamic temperature -- that together satisfy the Clausius-Duhem inequality for every process. There was no requirement that the local states considered be states of equilibrium. This article addresses questions about properties of the entropy and thermodynamic temperature functions so obtained: To what extent do such temperature functions provide a faithful reflection of ``hotness"? In precisely which Kelvin-Planck theories is such a temperature function essentially unique, and, among those theories, for which is the entropy function also essentially unique? What is a thermometer for a Kelvin-Planck theory, and, for the theory, what properties does the existence of a thermometer confer? In all of these questions, the Hahn-Banach Theorem again plays a crucial role

Consumer Response to Outsourced 1-800 calls: It’s the Solution Not the Country

The growth of call center outsourcing and its emergence as a political and economic issue may have obscured some very important business and consumer issues. It is believed by many that consumers cannot be satisfied when calls are outsourced (offshored to India for example). The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between where a call is answered and what happened on that call. In this study call outsourcing is placed within the well understood area of country-oforigin effects. Two experiments were completed in which outsourced country was manipulated with call outcome (resolution or no resolution). The findings showed that with no other information presented consumers do have a negative bias (lower expectations of satisfaction) against calls answered offshore. Yet when offshore outsourcing is presented in the context of what we know is important to callers to call centers (speed of answer and resolution) there is no effect of offshore calls

Biola Hour Highlights, 1974 - 11

Thanksgiving by Lloyd Anderson 1 Peter by Richard McNeely Life\u27s Most Difficult Lesson by Al Sanders The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Lloyd Anderson Panel Discussions with Richard Chase, Charles Feinberg, and Samuel Sutherlandhttps://digitalcommons.biola.edu/bhhs/1010/thumbnail.jp