Public enterprise reform : a challenge for the World Bank

Public enterprises (PEs) earn an average 10 percent of GDP in developing countries. Many governments are reexamining the role of the state, so questions about whether to divest PEs or make them more efficient are likely to intensify. The Bank will increasingly be called upon for advice and financial support in managing the transition period. The Bank should maintain its focus on rationalizing the size of PEs, by liquidating nonviable PEs, and transfering their ownership or control to the private sector, if that will make them more efficient. In helping countries improve the efficiency of PEs that remain public, the Bank should emphasize both policy framework and institutional set-up, and restructuring of individual enterprises. It should also extend its analysis of PEs to the socialist economies, explore the relationship between PEs and the private sector, and study how best to phase and sequence PE reforms. The Bank should refine PE reform components and tools, especially in terms of the phasing and sequencing of price liberalization and competition: the budgetary impact of PEs; and the valuation of PEs for divestiture. Lastly, it should learn more systematically from experience by analyzing the outcomes of PE reforms; the performance of divested PEs; the effects on efficiency of staff reductions; and the effectiveness of program contracts on enterprise efficiency.Enterprise Development&Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Challenges for reducing inequities in health and healthcare for the 21st Century

Human life expectancy during the time of the Roman Empire was approximately 28 years. In 1990, global life expectancy had increased to 65 years. The advances in life expectancy in the 20th century were remarkable by any standard. Although many factors contributed to this enhanced life expectancy, including medical technologies, by far the largest proportion of the increase occurred as a consequence of economic growth, rising living standards and nutrition. Despite the large improvements in terms of life expectancy, significant health variations still remain between countries and across different socioeconomic classes with in countries. As the 20th century proceeded, a growing dichotomy existed between those who are healthy and have access to medical care and those who are not healthy and do not have access to such services. Moreover, evidence shows that such inequities in health and healthcare are increasing. The present paper will analyze the dynamics of shifts in health profile during the early period of the last century and describe the major determinants of inequities in health and healthcare at the international level. Challenges facing the reduction in inequalities in health and healthcare will be discussed

Discrete Breather and Soliton-Mode Collective Excitations in Bose-Einstein Condensates in a Deep Optical Lattice with Tunable Three-body Interactions

We have studied the dynamic evolution of the collective excitations in Bose-Einstein condensates in a deep optical lattice with tunable three-body interactions. Their dynamics is governed by a high order discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equation (DNLSE). The dynamical phase diagram of the system is obtained using the variational method. The dynamical evolution shows very interesting features. The discrete breather phase totally disappears in the regime where the three-body interaction completely dominates over the two-body interaction. The soliton phase in this particular regime exists only when the soliton line approaches the critical line in the phase diagram. When weak two-body interactions are reintroduced into this regime, the discrete breather solutions reappear, but occupies a very small domain in the phase space. Likewise, in this regime, the soliton as well as the discrete breather phases completely disappear if the signs of the two-and three-body interactions are opposite. We have analysed the causes of this unusual dynamical evolution of the collective excitations of the Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable interactions. We have also performed direct numerical simulations of the governing DNLS equation to show the existence of the discrete soliton solution as predicted by the variational calculations, and also to check the long term stability of the soliton solution.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures , Accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J. D (EPJ D

Regulating telecommunications in developing countries : outcomes, incentives, and commitment

In response to the recent wave ofprivatizing and regulating monopolies in developing countries, the authors evaluate the impact of different regulatory schemes on private sector behavior in the telecommunications sector in seven countries. They find that regulation is most effective - meaning, it results in substantial investment by the private sector, reasonable returns on this investment, and greater productivity - where the government/regulators reduce the firm's information advantage, induce the firm (through pricing) to operate efficiently, and institute safeguarding mechanisms to protect the firm against expropriation of assets or quasi-rents. Conversely, where the government/regulators fail to resolve information, incentive, and commitment problems, private sector returns are relatively high, and investment and productivity are relatively low.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Decentralization,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Knowledge Economy,Education for the Knowledge Economy

From the Perspective to the Analytic: A New Direction for Information Systems Engineering Methodology

Information systems engineering (ISE) methodology has been so far predominated by an overly normative/ prescriptive view of what methodology should be. This has been to the detriment of both the contextual fit and dynamic evolvement of an information system. This paper argues for the analytic emphasis to supplant the prescriptive one, so as to enable the concept of continuous design needed for the dynamic evolvement of information systems

Systems Architectonics

In Architecture, a particular model of learning buildings was proposed that comprises six constructional layers that change at different rates. The more these layers can evolve without requiring changes to other layers, the more adaptable the building is. By analogy, organising the constructional components in an information system into layers that share similar likelihood of change may lead to systems that are easier to adapt in the face of change. If this view is accepted, then the act of analysing and designing information systems should have as a central aim the identification of layers or categories of domain elements that have similar rates of change within any one layer