How to improve public sector finances in Honduras

The objectives of a public sector management program should be to use resources more efficiently rationalize public sector operations and reduce financial disequilibrium. This report presents a comprehensive policy program to improve public finances in Honduras. It recommends that Honduran authorities prepare an action plan for improving public sector management. The plan should include the following measures: (a) increase savings; (b) introduce efficiency-saving measures; (c) improve budgeting, debt management and tax collection; (d) standardize accounting practices and properly account for debt service obligations; (e) start external management audits of enterprises; and (f) establish financial targets for, and reduce government transfers to, public enterprises. It also recommends measures to: (g) improve service delivery; (h) implement a well-defined privatization program; (i) prepare and implement a growth oriented and financially feasible public investment program; (j) improve decisionmaking and increase accountability and autonomy in public enterprises; (k) improve coordination of the sector; (l) target subsidies; and (m) improve better financial information on the public sector.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,National Governance,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Stabilization

Harmonizing tax policies in Central America

This report proposes an action plan for the rationalization of tax structures for Central America. To harmonize tax policies among Central American nations, the report recommends the following: (a) continuing trade liberalization, by reducing thelevel and dispersion of effective trade protection; (b) shifting the tax system from reliance on trade to reliance on domestic transactions and income; (c) making the value added tax the backbone of the tax system; and (d) improving tax administration. It also recommends; (e) harmonizing taxes on inputs and exempting nontraditional exporters from paying import duties; (f) moving toward coordinating factor incomes to avoid double taxation; (g) eliminating all quantitative import restrictions, prior imports deposits, non-common import tariffs and other restrictions on imports from other Central American Common Market (CACM) members; (h) applying similar principles in designing export taxes on coffee and bananas; and (i) not using differential exchange rates to discriminate against regional trade. If implemented, it is hoped that these reforms, along with other structural reforms, would help spark the latent growth potential in Central American economies.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Trade and Regional Integration,Public Sector Economics&Finance

The Day-of-the-Week Effect on Stock-Market Volatility and Return: Evidence from Emerging Markets (in English)

This study investigates day-of-the-week (DOW) anomalies in the stock markets of twenty emerging economies. The authors use a modified exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity in-mean (EGARCH-M) modeling strategy that allows for the simultaneous examination of DOW effects on market return and variability. The effects on both are limited in the authors´ sample. To summarize, DOW effects are present in market returns for only three countries, in market volatility for only five countries, and they are present in both for only one country, when the estimates are evaluated at the 1 percent significance level. Despite this, at lower levels of significance the common qualitative patterns in the estimates are extracted such that the higher returns are concentrated around Fridays, whereas volatility is highest on Mondays and lowest on Tuesdays and Fridays.day-of-the-week effect, EGARCH-M, emerging-market economies, volatility

How does the Exchange Rate Movement Affect Macroeconomic Performance? A VAR Analysis with Sign Restriction Approach– Evidence from Turkey

In this paper, we assess the effect of exchange rate movement on macroeconomic performance by differentiating the source of exchange rate movement as either an expansionary monetary policy or a portfolio preference shock using quarterly data from Turkish economy for the period 1987:Q1 to 2008:Q3. Empirical evidence suggest that if the depreciation of the exchange rate stems from an expansionary monetary policy shock, then the effect of currency depreciation on the economy is expansionary. On the other hand, if currency depreciation comes from a portfolio choice allocation, then the effect of exchange rate deprecation on the economy is contractionary.Exchange Rates, Monetary Policy, Vector Autoregression and Sign Restrictions.

Distribution of some elements in Veronica scutellata L. from Bolu,Turkey: soil-plant interactions

Veronica scutellata L. occurs in moist and wet habitats, such as ponds, marshes and other wetlands. This study was conducted on this species to examine its mineral element uptake status in terms of interactions between soil and plant. Experimental materials were taken from the Southern coast of Black Sea at coordinates 40º36’N and 31º16’E at an altitude of 1400 m above sea level from Bolu – Turkey; using standard methods and plant (root, stem and leaf parts) and soil mineral element measurements (Al, B, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni and Zn) were done. During the study, ICP-OES was employed for the measurement of mineral elements. It was observed that considerable amounts of B, Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Zn are accumulated by the plant

Interferometric detection and enumeration of viral particles using Si-based microfluidics

Single-particle interferometric reflectance imaging sensor enables optical visualization and characterization of individual nanoparticles without any labels. Using this technique, we have shown end-point and real-time detection of viral particles using laminate-based active and passive cartridge configurations. Here, we present a new concept for low-cost microfluidic integration of the sensor chips into compact cartridges through utilization of readily available silicon fabrication technologies. This new cartridge configuration will allow simultaneous detection of individual virus binding events on a 9-spot microarray, and provide the needed simplicity and robustness for routine real-time operation for discrete detection of viral particles in a multiplex format.This work was supported in part by a research contract with the ASELSAN Research Center, Ankara, Turkey, and in part by the European Union's Horizon 2020 FET Open program under Grant 766466-INDEX. (ASELSAN Research Center, Ankara, Turkey; 766466-INDEX - European Union's Horizon 2020 FET Open program)First author draf

Internet access for disabled people: Understanding socio-relational factors in Europe

Access to the Internet has become a sine qua non-of everyday life. It also offers new routes to economic and social inclusion for disabled people. Research on the digital divide shows that social factors affect Internet access but disability status is often overlooked. This paper assesses the extent to which disability makes a difference and how it interacts with other social effects to produce distinctive forms of digital exclusion. The analysis uses survey data from 27 European countries to explore and model, statistically, the interactions between Internet access, disability status, age, gender, education, household financial situation and household composition. Multilevel analysis confirms that socio-demographic factors can explain much variance in outcomes but there is a distinctive disability effect. In particular, the adverse effects of financial constraint, aging and living alone are exacerbated among disabled people. New policies to strengthen e-accessibility, arising from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and from the European Union, are important but cannot ignore those who are still excluded from the online revolution. Disabled people are over-represented in this group. The evidence suggests that both accessible technologies and appropriate supportive relationships are needed to address this

Constraining recent lead pollution sources in the North Pacific using ice core stable lead isotopes

Trends and sources of lead (Pb) aerosol pollution in the North Pacific rim of North America from 1850 to 2001 are investigated using a high-resolution (subannual to annual) ice core record recovered from Eclipse Icefield (3017 masl; St. Elias Mountains, Canada). Beginning in the early 1940s, increasing Pb concentration at Eclipse Icefield occurs coevally with anthropogenic Pb deposition in central Greenland, suggesting that North American Pb pollution may have been in part or wholly responsible in both regions. Isotopic ratios (208Pb/207Pb and 206Pb/207Pb) from 1970 to 2001 confirm that a portion of the Pb deposited at Eclipse Icefield is anthropogenic, and that it represents a variable mixture of East Asian (Chinese and Japanese) emissions transported eastward across the Pacific Ocean and a North American component resulting from transient meridional atmospheric flow. Based on comparison with source material Pb isotope ratios, Chinese and North American coal combustion have likely been the primary sources of Eclipse Icefield Pb over the 1970–2001 time period. The Eclipse Icefield Pb isotope composition also implies that the North Pacific mid-troposphere is not directly impacted by transpolar atmospheric flow from Europe. Annually averaged Pb concentrations in the Eclipse Icefield ice core record show no long-term trend during 1970–2001; however, increasing 208Pb/207Pb and decreasing 206Pb/207Pb ratios reflect the progressive East Asian industrialization and increase in Asian pollutant outflow. The post-1970 decrease in North American Pb emissions is likely necessary to explain the Eclipse Icefield Pb concentration time series. When compared with low (lichen) and high (Mt. Logan ice core) elevation Pb data, the Eclipse ice core record suggests a gradual increase in pollutant deposition and stronger trans-Pacific Asian contribution with rising elevation in the mountains of the North Pacific rim