Implementing the market approach to enterprise support - an evaluation of ten matching grant schemes

Developing viable new business is critical to recovery, and long-term growth, especially in transition economies. There has been a long history of public support of enterprise development, starting with centralized state agency initiatives, but moving more recently to decentralized instruments for development of the business services market. The window of time during which the benefits of intervention are likely to be greatest: when a market is in its infancy, and its development is constrained by uncertainty, and lack of information. Interventions for enterprise support should be demand-responsive, and flexibly organized. In some circumstances, centralized assistance may still be effective, but it is generally better to use competitive private service providers responding to enterprises'changing needs. The main task is to stimulate the private services sector, improving its capacity to respond to the demands of new, and expanding private enterprises. Support for enterprises has tended to be either free, or heavily subsidized. But such subsidies can be justified only if interventions efficiently supply goods. Providing technical, and management know-how can be a public good if it generates externalities- if, for example, know-how benefits can be disseminated at proportionately low additional cost. Any subsidy for an intervention should be temporary, and should be phased out when the main objective of intervention is achieved - that is, when the market takes off. Grants should generally be for know-how, not for equipment. There may be a case for unbundling the know-how component of loans (including feasibility studies, and follow-up expert services) for grant funding. A package combining loans and grants - through a single financial institution, or through separate institutions - may work provided safeguards can be put in place to prevent perverse use of grants. The matching grant model, which is used increasingly in the World Bank, and elsewhere, is one solution - but it must be justified, and carefully designed. After evaluating ten matching grant funds, the author concludes that performance is mixed. Best practice models are needed. Ensuring economic benefits requires proactive management, with clear objectives of market facilitation ("making a market"). And it requires a balance between rapid grant approval procedures, and careful selection of services for grants.Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Enterprise Development&Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,ICT Policy and Strategies

Modelling diffusion in crystals under high internal stress gradients

Diffusion of vacancies and impurities in metals is important in many processes occurring in structural materials. This diffusion often takes place in the presence of spatially rapidly varying stresses. Diffusion under stress is frequently modelled by local approximations to the vacancy formation and diffusion activation enthalpies which are linear in the stress, in order to account for its dependence on the local stress state and its gradient. Here, more accurate local approximations to the vacancy formation and diffusion activation enthalpies, and the simulation methods needed to implement them, are introduced. The accuracy of both these approximations and the linear approximations are assessed via comparison to full atomistic studies for the problem of vacancies around a Lomer dislocation in Aluminium. Results show that the local and linear approximations for the vacancy formation enthalpy and diffusion activation enthalpy are accurate to within 0.05 eV outside a radius of about 13 Å (local) and 17 Å (linear) from the centre of the dislocation core or, more generally, for a strain gradient of roughly up to 6 × 10^6 m^-1 and 3 × 10^6 m^-1, respectively. These results provide a basis for the development of multiscale models of diffusion under highly non-uniform stress

The Incentive Effects of No Fault Automobile Insurance

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of no fault automobile insurance on accident rates. As a mechanism for compensating the victims of automobile accidents, no fault has several important advantages over the tort system. However, by restricting access to tort, no fault may weaken incentives for careful driving, leading to higher accident rates. We conduct an empirical analysis of automobile accident fatality rates in all U.S. states over the period 1982-1994, controlling for the potential endogeneity of no fault laws. The results support the hypothesis that no fault is significantly associated with higher fatal accident rates than tort.

Identifying systems barriers that may prevent bereavement service access to bereaved carers: A report from an Australian specialist palliative care service

Background: Bereavement follow up is an integral element of palliative care. However, little is known about the systems that link bereavement services with bereaved carers. Aim: To map how effectively a specialist palliative care service linked bereavement service to bereaved carers. Methodology: A retrospective medical audit, using process mapping was undertaken within one Australian specialist palliative care service to identify the systems that linked bereavement services to a consecutive cohort of palliative care decedents (n=60) next of kin. Results: Bereavement records were located for 80% of decedents. Nearly all (98%) had a nominated next of kin, with just over half (54%) of those nominated contacted by bereavement services. Incomplete or missing contact details was the main reason (75%) that the bereavement service was unable to contact the decedents’ next of kin. Conclusion: Having access to a designated bereavement service can ensure that bereaved next of kin are contract routinely and in a timely way. However the effectiveness of this type of service is dependent upon the bereavement service having access to all relevant contact information. There are numerous opportunities to refine and strengthen the recording of palliative care next of kin details to optimize follow up

Between Philosophy and Art

Similarity and difference, patterns of variation, consistency and coherence: these are the reference points of the philosopher. Understanding experience, exploring ideas through particular instantiations, novel and innovative thinking: these are the reference points of the artist. However, at certain points in the proceedings of our Symposium titled, Next to Nothing: Art as Performance, this characterisation of philosopher and artist respectively might have been construed the other way around. The commentator/philosophers referenced their philosophical interests through the particular examples/instantiations created by the artist and in virtue of which they were then able to engage with novel and innovative thinking. From the artists’ presentations, on the other hand, emerged a series of contrasts within which philosophical and artistic ideas resonated. This interface of philosopher-artist bore witness to the fact that just as art approaches philosophy in providing its own analysis, philosophy approaches art in being a co-creator of art’s meaning. In what follows, we discuss the conception of philosophy-art that emerged from the Symposium, and the methodological minimalism which we employed in order to achieve it. We conclude by drawing out an implication of the Symposium’s achievement which is that a counterpoint to Institutional theories of art may well be the point from which future directions will take hold, if philosophy-art gains traction

Modification of Coulomb's law in closed spaces

We obtain a modified version of Coulomb's law in two- and three-dimensional closed spaces. We demonstrate that in a closed space the total electric charge must be zero. We also discuss the relation between total charge neutrality of a isotropic and homogenous universe to whether or not its spatial sector is closed.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Cyclic pyrrole-imidazole polyamides targeted to the androgen response element

Hairpin pyrrole−imidazole (Py-Im) polyamides are a class of cell-permeable DNA-binding small molecules that can disrupt transcription factor−DNA binding and regulate endogenous gene expression. The covalent linkage of antiparallel Py-Im ring pairs with an γ-amino acid turn unit affords the classical hairpin Py-Im polyamide structure. Closing the hairpin with a second turn unit yields a cyclic polyamide, a lesser-studied architecture mainly attributable to synthetic inaccessibility. We have applied our methodology for solution-phase polyamide synthesis to cyclic polyamides with an improved high-yield cyclization step. Cyclic 8-ring Py-Im polyamides 1−3 target the DNA sequence 5′-WGWWCW-3′, which corresponds to the androgen response element (ARE) bound by the androgen receptor transcription factor to modulate gene expression. We find that cyclic Py-Im polyamides 1−3 bind DNA with exceptionally high affinities and regulate the expression of AR target genes in cell culture studies, from which we infer that the cycle is cell permeable