The Recent Impact of Government Transfers on Poverty in Honduras and Alternatives to Enhance their Effects

This paper characterises income poverty in Honduras during the first half of 2007, and assesses the impact that some government transfers have had on it. The characterisation of income poverty shows that it is possible to eradicate poverty in Honduras solely through redistribution, despite its being a low-income country. The analysis of the incidence and impact of government transfers reveals that they do reach the poor, but that they are not very effective in reducing the poverty headcount ratio or in alleviating poverty by reducing its intensity and severity. Nonetheless, the counterfactual simulations presented here show that improvements in targeting and increases in the amount transferred could significantly enhance the impact of government transfers on poverty in Honduras. (...)The Recent Impact of Government Transfers on Poverty in Honduras and Alternatives to Enhance their Effects

The goals of sustainable development and the reform of the EU banana trade regime: a discussion of different trade instruments

Ideally a new reform of the EU trade regime for bananas (COMB) should be equipped in a way that it makes a long-term contribution to the realisation of sustainable goals, or at least does not prevent them. From a point of view of sustainable development, a trade restriction measure has to fulfill at least the following requirements: it should support those producers/market operators by preferential market access who internalise the real costs of production in their price structure and make sure that the specific trade measures do not contradict efforts on sustainability in exporting countries. Against this background we introduce an innovative model – auctioning producers? offers in the EU. Issues concerning the auction design and its GATT/WTO compatibility are also discussed. In sum, the auctioning of direct producers' offers seems to be a practicable solution for fair trade with agricultural produce from developing countries. However, to enforce the position of sustainable banana production, the EU should also introduce - in addition to an auction of producers? offers - social and ecological labels in the banana market. --

Alternatives for Projecting MDG Indicators

Although the Millennium Development Goals are global, in the sense that they are to be reached by the whole world, not necessarily by countries individually, in many countries the true commitment to them has led many to ask the question: will my country reach all or some of the MDGs by 2015? Are we on or off track? If off track, how far are we? To answer this question it is mandatory to perform some kind of projecting exercise. We talk of projections, not of forecasts, for there are many variables that can intervene to determine the performance of a country in its pursuit of the goals. Furthermore we have to deal with the fact that we cannot really predict what is going to happen up to 2015, but just make assumptions. However, projections can indeed be so accurate as to resemble forecasts. This is the case when there is plenty of data available, as well as technical expertise in projecting, and time. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case, particularly in developing countries. The common situation faced by those who ask the question on whether the MDGs will be reached by a certain country by 2015 is that of scarcity of data and/or of technical skills. (...)Alternatives for Projecting MDG Indicators

Is all Socioeconomic Inequality among Racial Groups in Brazil Caused by Racial Discrimination?

This Working Paper addresses the issue of whether current racial discrimination is the decisive determinant of the wide and persistent inequalities in socioeconomic conditions between Whites and Blacks in Brazil. The paper highlights three main conclusions. The first is that factors, such as region of residence, parental education and household income, together, are responsible for the major proportion of the racial gaps that are observed today, but that racial discrimination remains a major source of inequalities among racial groups. The second conclusion is that whenever educational outcomes, such as literacy, can be easily attained, the ceteris paribus effect of race on the probability of attainment is small and diminishes as household income increases; but when outcomes are more difficult to attain, such as for secondary or higher education, the racial gap is large and increases with income. In other words, the effects of racial discrimination tend to be amplified when Black Brazilians are competing with White Brazilians for highly valued but low-supply social resources, such as higher levels of education. The third conclusion is that although younger age cohorts of Black Brazilians are advancing relative to their parents and to the Brazilian population as a whole, they are not advancing relative to their own age cohort. Thus, although younger age cohorts might be advancing relative to older age cohorts, young Black Brazilians remain in the same relative position vis-à-vis young White Brazilians as older generations of Blacks did vis-à-vis Whites. Thus, in a relative sense, there has been virtually no social mobility for Black Brazilians in the last three decades.Racial Discrimination, Educational Attainment, Intergenerational Mobility.

Externalities of the Microsoft^Rs Network Goods

This paper aims to make a public statement about the strategy implemented by Microsoft in order to reinforce its market power across the networked users of Windows Operative System, and Xbox Games Console. It is presented an economic view that supports the anticipating (not predatory) position assumed by Microsoft against its direct competitors.Externalities, Microsoft, Software Industry, Regulation Policies.

Frequent Monitoring in Repeated Games under Brownian Uncertainty

This paper studies frequent monitoring in a simple infinitely repeated game with imperfect public information and discounting, where players observe the state of a continuous time Brownian process at moments in time of length Δ. It shows that efficient strongly symmetric perfect public equilibrium payoffs can be achieved with imperfect public monitoring when players monitor each other at the highest frequency, i.e. Δ→0. The approach proposed places distinct initial conditions on the process, which depend on the unknown action profile simultaneously and privately decided by the players at the beginning of each period of the game. The strong decreasing effect on the expected immediate gains from deviation when the interval between actions shrinks, and the associated increase precision of the public signals, make the result possible in the limit. The existence of a positive monotonic relation between payoffs and monitoring intensity is also found.Repeated Games; Frequent Monitoring; Imperfect Public Monitoring; Brownian Motion; Moral Hazard

Externalities of the Microsoft’s Network Goods

This paper aims to make a public statement about the strategy implemented by Microsoft in order to reinforce its market power across the networked users of Windows Operative System, and Xbox Games Console. It is presented an economic view that supports the anticipating (not predatory) position assumed by Microsoft against its direct competitors.Externalities, Microsoft, Software Industry, Regulation Policies

An inspection on the Borel masses relation used in QCD sum rules

In this work, we studied the Borel masses relation used in QCDSR calculations. These masses are the parameters of the Borel transform used when the three point function is calculated. We analised an usual and a more general linear relations. We concluded that a general linear relation between these masses provides the best results regarding the standard deviation.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, Prepared for 11th Hadron Physic