Public versus private ownership : the current state of the debate

At the heart of the debate about public versus private ownership lie three questions: 1) Does competition matter more than ownership? 2) Are state enterprises more subject to welfare-reducing interventions by government than private firms are? 3) Do state enterprises suffer more from governance problems than private firms do? Even if the answers to these questions favor private ownership, the question must still be asked: Do distortions in the process of privatization mean that privatized firms perform worse than state enterprises? The author's review found greater ambiguity about the merits of privatization and private ownership in the theoretical literature than in the empirical literature. In most cases, empirical research strongly favors private ownership in competitive markets over a state-owned counterfactual (although construction of the counterfactual is itself a problem). Theory's ambiguity about ownership in monopoly markets seems better justified. Since the choice confronting governments is between state ownership and privatization rather than between privatization and optimality, theory has left a gap that empirical work has tried to fill. Further research is needed.Health Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access

Tight Limits on Nonlocality from Nontrivial Communication Complexity; a.k.a. Reliable Computation with Asymmetric Gate Noise

It has long been known that the existence of certain superquantum nonlocal correlations would cause communication complexity to collapse. The absurdity of a world in which any nonlocal binary function could be evaluated with a constant amount of communication in turn provides a tantalizing way to distinguish quantum mechanics from incorrect theories of physics; the statement "communication complexity is nontrivial" has even been conjectured to be a concise information-theoretic axiom for characterizing quantum mechanics. We directly address the viability of that perspective with two results. First, we exhibit a nonlocal game such that communication complexity collapses in any physical theory whose maximal winning probability exceeds the quantum value. Second, we consider the venerable CHSH game that initiated this line of inquiry. In that case, the quantum value is about 0.85 but it is known that a winning probability of approximately 0.91 would collapse communication complexity. We show that the 0.91 result is the best possible using a large class of proof strategies, suggesting that the communication complexity axiom is insufficient for characterizing CHSH correlations. Both results build on new insights about reliable classical computation. The first exploits our formalization of an equivalence between amplification and reliable computation, while the second follows from a rigorous determination of the threshold for reliable computation with formulas of noise-free XOR gates and $\varepsilon$-noisy AND gates.Comment: 64 pages, 6 figure

Problematising Civil Society- on What Terrain Does Xenophobia Flourish

Is there a need to reconceptualise civil society organisations (CSOs) given the fragmented, uneven, varied and sometimes contradictory responses of CSOs to the May 2008 violence

Sectoral and welfare effects of the global economic crisis on Uganda: a recursive dynamic CGE analysis

This paper analyses the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on Uganda notably on macro-economic aggregates, sectoral output and household welfare, and the potential role of fiscal policy and reform in mitigating the impacts. We find that second round effects from a reduction in financial inflows such as remittances, foreign direct investments and overseas development assistance, as well as reduction in international demand from cash crops such as cotton, tea and coffee, could lead to a reduction in economic growth by 0.6 percentage points on average annually over the period 2008- 2010 compared to a baseline reflecting pre-crisis conditions. A surge in regional exports and early counter-cyclical policies in particular are found to dampen the most adverse impacts of the crisis. The paper also shows that the impact of the government’s expansionary 2009/2010 budget could return growth to pre-crisis levels and illustrates how a re-prioritization of government expenditure away from expenditure on administration to more productive sectors of the economy, combined with reforms to improve the efficiency of public spending, could lift long-term growth and reduce poverty, especially in rural areas, even more.Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda, global economic and financial crisis, computable general equilibrium (CGE), Consumer/Household Economics, Financial Economics, Industrial Organization, International Development, Production Economics, Public Economics, C68, D58, E62, F15, H62, I32,

Risk Adjustment and Reinsurance: A Work Plan for State Officials

Outlines the decisions and actions states need to take to implement the risk adjustment and reinsurance provisions of the 2010 health reform law, including risk adjustment model, reinsurance parameters, stakeholder engagement, and program administration

Impact of a Dialogic Reading Intervention on the Effectiveness of an Adaptive Magnitude Comparison eBook for Improving Young Children’s Magnitude Comparison Skills

Dialogic reading interventions have been used successfully to increase reading skills. This study aims to investigate whether a dialogic reading intervention will also assist children with spatial and numerical magnitude comparison skills learned through a novel adaptive number e-book designed to be read together by parents and children. This study proposes that a dialogic reading intervention will improve spatial and numerical magnitude comparison skills that will transfer to general math skills following the reading of an adaptive number e-book more so than reading without dialogic reading instructions. Additionally, there are predicted benefits for executive functioning skills and for improving parental attitudes toward math.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/roesch_symposium_content/1045/thumbnail.jp

Metal organic frameworks supported with emiraldine modified graphite electrode for amperometry detection of herbicide

The use of herbicide to destroy unwanted weeds by famers have created harmful environment for humans due to incomplete degradation of herbicides in the soil. The residue is washed into rivers during surface runoffs and consumed by humans. This requires the chemist to develop a sensor for detecting herbicides in there smallest availability in drinking water. In this work, a Polymer and Metal Organic Frameworks Graphite Electrode was developed for the detection of herbicide. These was achieved by homogenizing Emiraldine, Hkust and Graphite in a ratio 1:1:4 respectively in a mortar and pestle and then packed tightly into a 3 mL syringe using a copper wire as contact medium between chemical composite and the electrical setup to achieve and electrochemical reaction at the electrode interface. The interfaces serve as the redox mediator for electron transfer. Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to study the morphology of the electrodes. The modification of the surface of developed carbon paste sensor with Emiraldine and Hkust-1 greatly improved the detection of the atrazine on the sensor with a working linear range of 0.4 – 1.0 μM and low detection limit of 0.09 ± 0.67 μM at pH 5 and scan rate of 50 mV/s. The modified electrode turned out to be highly stable and selective its amperometric behavior. Importantly, this method provided a promising electrochemical sensing platform for atrazine analysis and its detection for human safety

Use of Studio Methods in the Introductory Engineering Design Curriculum

A number of themes, including interest in first year design courses, commitment to active learning approaches, and desires for changes in course structures and costs have come together in a variety of teaching approaches. Some of these approaches have been referred to as using “studio” methods, although the particular pedagogy appears to vary greatly. In this paper, some of these experiments are briefly reviewed and placed in a larger context of studio education in other disciplines. The paper seeks to differentiate studio education from other active learning approaches. An introductory engineering design course was taught using an architecture studio model for two semesters. The experiment demonstrated that the studio method can be very effective in teaching design concepts, but because students are likely to be unfamiliar with this approach, care must be taken to reassure students regarding grades and expectations