Benchmarking North Korean Economic Policies; The Lessons from Russia and China

This study attempts to provide benchmarks of North Korean institutional changes that signal the increased role of markets, looking at macroeconomic management, introduction of market-supporting policies, and provision of market-supporting infrastructure. The weight of the evidence indicates that North Korea today is an unraveling command system, which shares many features with China in 1978 or the former Soviet Union in 1985. A rising share of household purchases of food and consumer goods in informal markets at market-determined prices raises the question of whether a legal, market-oriented consumer sector is emerging. The answer depends on whether there is a legal, decentralized population of non-state producers, not merely black-market traders. Alternatively, the appearance of market-based trade may simply signal the ability of decision-makers within the state apparatus to convert their access to rationed goods at low prices into hard-currency, black-market revenues. A much more worrisome indicator for the planners is the indirect evidence that the DPRK is experiencing, not just a one-time adjustment from controlled to market prices, but a destabilizing approach to hyperinflation.

Fiscal Centralization and Decentralization in Russia and China

In this paper we review the fiscal evolution of China and Russia, asking how the process of creating a separate, tax-financed public sector in the two countries differed. We observe that the size of China's budget sector was consistently smaller than in Russia and that budget decentralization was consistently greater. We see both pros and cons in China's decentralization. Local governments that were allowed to keep marginal increases in local tax revenue had incentives to pursue growth-supporting policies, including support for foreign investment and export-oriented production. However, in the absence of financial markets, there were barriers to investment outside the local region, resulting in inefficient use of capital and protectionism. Fiscal deficits and rapid expansion of credit have threatened stability in both countries, but China has proved more successful than Russia in managing macroeconomic policies. Finally, we argue that Russia's status as a petro-state makes management of the public sector particularly difficult. In Russia, recentralization has been associated with expansion of state ownership of enterprises and production by territorial governments, state ministries, state banks, and the natural monopolies.Fiscal decentralization, Russia, China, regional growth

The Response of Federal Transfers to Measures of Social Need in Russia's Regions

Do Russian federal expenditures serve to reduce regional inequality, to insure against exogenous shocks, or to compensate regions for low tax capacity? Do sub-national governments appear to engage in strategic behavior in attempting to influence central governmental transfers? Using a panel data base coving Russia’s regions during the period after the Russian financial crisis, we find that federal administrative employment in a region has a strong positive effect on federal transfers to the region, but that there is little evidence that federal expenditures serve to reduce levels of regional inequality and no evidence that changes in federal transfers respond to changes in “social needs” during the period studied.

Pollution prevention in the New Jersey chemical industry : motivations and barriers to commitment

This study of the New Jersey Chemical Industry identifies the primary elements that lead to or inhibit company commitments to pollution prevention. A direct measure of facility pollution prevention commitment is developed that takes into account: organizational support attributes, past reductions achievements, current methods implementation, process reduction goals, and special environmental initiatives. The P2 Commitment Index allows for categorization of facilities so that the needs and interests of varying groups may be differentiated. Higher level commitments are associated with: establishment of company pollution prevention policy, setting of prioritized facility goals, and measurement and reporting on pollution prevention progress. Facilities at above average commitment levels are motivated by a drive for improved quality, market competitiveness, and consumer demand for green products and investment opportunities. Firms of below average commitment are driven primarily by regulatory requirements and often lack the awareness of pollution prevention opportunities and techniques, needed to fully participate

Development, validation, and testing of a physiotherapist initiated checklist of items for implementing pulmonary rehabilitation in Nigeria

Objectives: Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program is beneficial to patients with chronic respiratory diseases. However, PR services are limited or non-existent in many resource limited settings of the world, including Nigeria. Equally important, is lack of local guidelines or checklists to support the implementation of these programs. This study was aimed at developing, validating, and testing a physiotherapist initiated checklist of items for implementing of PR in Nigeria.Materials and Methods: A panel of experienced cardiopulmonary physiotherapists was constituted to draw-up and agree on a list of items that they consider necessary for implementing of PR. The resulting items were collated as a checklist of items. The checklist was then locally validated by presenting it to a wider group of respiratory health-care professionals including chest physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, dieticians, and clinical psychologists, practicing within the study area. Each item was rated from strongly agree to strongly disagree on 5-point Likert scale. Thereafter, the performance of the items of the checklist was subjected to testing by assessing whether each item was addressed in the British Thoracic Society (BTS) PR guideline. This was done by rating each item with either a “yes,” “no,” or “not fully” to whether our checklists are included and described in the BTS guideline. Supporting evidence profile was also stated for some items, if applicable.Results: A consensus was reached by the panel of physiotherapists to arrive at a 16-item checklist. Each item was further provided with specific details and/or examples that are relevant for instituting PR in a Nigerian setting. All items on the checklist were considered valid by other respiratory health-care professionals, with a rating consensus agreement of between 80% and 100%. Furthermore, the testing of checklists based on inclusion and description in the BTS guideline showed that six items were addressed fully in the BTS guideline (rated “yes”), six were partially addressed (rated “not fully”), while four were not addressed (rated “no”).Conclusion: A checklist of items for the implementation of PR in Nigeria was successfully developed, validated, and tested. Nevertheless, there may be a need to develop a full guideline before instituting PR in view of the potential disparities with existing/established guidelines

Running a successful network to support methodologists and guideline developers: sharing experiences from UK evidence synthesis networks

Running a successful network to support methodologists and guideline developers: sharing experiences from UK evidence synthesis networks Facilitators: Judith Thornton (NICE); Ruaraidh Hill (University of Liverpool), Emma McFarlane (NICE), Li Chia Chen (University of Manchester) BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION We established the ‘North West Evidence Synthesis Network’ (NWESN) to bring together guideline developers, health researchers and policy makers from across our region in order to share knowledge and expertise and raise awareness of methodological developments. Several other UK networks have been initiated including the ‘Liverpool Evidence Synthesis Network’ (LivEN). Feedback from members has been positive with both personal and institutional benefits. Other networks include: • Health Research Methodology and Implementation (HeRMI) • Bangor Evidence Synthesis Hub (BESH) • Peninsula Systematic Review discussion group (PenSR) OBJECTIVES • To advocate the role of networks • To discuss the practicalities to establishing/running networks • To explore what guideline developers needs from networks DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKSHOP Short presentations to compare and contrast the remit, structure and function of different networks. Group discussions to explore: • What guideline developers want from networks • Challenges to establishing/running networks and strategies to overcome these. • Future directions for networking • How networks can be better connected Group feedback and conclusions TARGET GROUPS All staff involved in evidence synthesis and guideline development. IMPLICATIONS FOR GUIDELINE DEVELOPERS Our presentation at the Global Evidence Summit 2017 demonstrated the benefits of membership of the NWESN. Implications for guideline developers included general education and updating on new methods; a key benefit is the opportunity to share skills, information and support across researchers and institutions. CONCLUSIONS The workshop intends to raise awareness of the benefits of networks and what they can offer methodologists and guideline developers. We hope to encourage more people to connect with and establish methodological networks

Patient and public attitudes to and awareness of clinical practice guidelines : a systematic review with thematic and narrative syntheses

Article Accepted Date: 15 July 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Acknowledgements The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 258583 (DECIDE project). The Health Services Research Unit, Aberdeen University, is funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health Directorates. The authors accept full responsibility for this paper and the views expressed in it are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chief Scientist Office. NS receives funding through a Knowledge Translation Fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. No funding bodies had a role in the manuscript. We would like to thank Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the University of Dundee for support, including access to literature. We would also like to thank Lorna Thompson (Healthcare Improvement Scotland), for her help with the protocol for this review.Peer reviewedPublisher PD