Short Term Prospects for the European Economy : evaluating the current slowdown and the aftermath of the September 11th attack on the USA. report produced by the EUROFRAME group of Research Institutes.

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Untouchability And Public Infrastructure

Caste rules prohibit the sharing of water between castes as a contact made by an untouchable with water ritually taints the source. Despite untouchability practices being outlawed by the Constitution of India, they are still vigorous and violently enforced. This is what is investigated in this article. The aim is to evidence a relationship between the number of acts of violence against untouchables and the way water is distributed. Our results show that, the more individual the source, the less scope there is for potential ritual pollution and hence, the lower the number of violent acts against untouchables. This is the first analysis, to the best of our knowledge, that quantifies and evidences the enforcement of untouchability rules with regard to water distribution. This paper underlines that water improvement programs have the nice side effect of alleviating caste based violence on top of improving sanitation.Castes, India, water distribution, infrastructures, violence.

Annex A9 : Disparities in the euro area: a problem for European economic policy.

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Appendix 6 : The New Member States and the Stability and Growth Pact : Needs for adapting in the prospect of euro area membership.

The New Member States (NMS) have to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) rules: public deficits below 3% of GDP and public debts below 60% of GDP, although they cannot be subject to fines as long as they are not members of the euro area. Most of the NMS currently run higher than 3% of GDP deficits but lower than 60% of GDP debts. The implementation of the surveillance procedures had led 6 of the 12 NMS to be under an excessive deficit procedure (EDP) soon after they joined the EU. Are the SGP rules adequate for the NMS? The SGP rules were not designed for catching-up countries, but for ‘old member States’. In particular, the initial rules of the SGP did not account for investment needs. A Golden rule for public finances would be especially appropriate for the NMS, since it would allow them to borrow to finance investment needs that will benefit not only current but also future generations. We argue that SGP rules are not adapted for the NMS and that better rules should be introduced in the prospect of euro area enlargement. Section 1 provides a brief assessment of the current situation of public finance criteria in the NMS. Section 2 considers the rationale of SGP framework for the NMS. Section 3 advocates for a better fiscal rule: the golden rule. Section 4 concludes.

Appendix 5 : International relocation and deindustrialisation: some French perspectives.

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