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Policy PointsThe health care sector is increasingly investing in social conditions, including availability of safe, reliable, and adequate transportation, that contribute to improving health.In this paper, we suggest ways to advance the impact of transportation interventions and highlight the limitations of how health services researchers and practitioners currently conceptualize and use transportation.Incorporating a transportation justice framework offers an opportunity to address transportation and mobility needs more comprehensively and equitably within health care research, delivery, and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a modeling framework that enhances our ability to analyze the implications of policy for future sustainability of industrial systems. The framework quantifies the relationship between physical input and waste flows, capital vintage, and investment behavior in the U.S. pulp and paper industry. A regional vintage model is developed that simultaneously incorporates investment decisions, vintage structure of the capital stock, and physical material and energy flows, in addition to paper demand. Each capital vintage is specified by size, output structure, and age-specific retirement rates, as well as fiber use and energy intensities. Both embodied and disembodied technological change are incorporated, as well as greenhouse gas emissions from fuel use, and decomposition and incineration of waste. Estimated equations are used to simulate industrial futures until 2020, from a system of nonlinear differential equations. Our results demonstrate the economic and physical interdependence between material and energy flows and the central role energy prices have in decision-making. For instance, an increase in average energy prices, ceteris paribus, will on average discourage paper recycling, which has implications for greenhouse gas emissions as well as for changes in energy intensity. The analysis of the data reveals diminishing rates of energy self-generation, and the immense longevity of capital, which hampers rapid change in input and carbon intensity. This stresses the importance of investment-led strategies in facilitating faster capital turnover to enhance future sustainability of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portfolios are increasingly advocated in medical education. Qualitative studies have suggested their value in stimulating experiential learning, promoting deep learning and encouraging reflection. This study explored the use of educational portfolios in reflective learning by general practice (GP) registrars in Yorkshire, England. A postal questionnaire was sent to the 92 registrars of a deanery in November 2001, after a pilot study with registrars in a single district had been carried out. The questionnaire explored the registrars' use of the portfolio to collect information and for reflection, as well as registrars' attitudes towards the portfolio. It was returned by 71 registrars, representing a 77% response rate. Structured in-depth interviews were used to support the results obtained. Of the registrars who responded, 65% recorded information on a regular basis and 42% used the portfolio in reflective learning. Experienced registrars used the portfolio least. Those with supportive trainers used the portfolio more in reflection. The study suggests that the role of the trainer/supervisor is vital in portfolio-based learning. It raises questions about the acceptability of portfolio learning. It adds weight to the suggestion that careful introduction of portfolios and training of supervisors is vital. Further work to establish the role of portfolios in reflective learning is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have emerged as a niche source of entrepreneurial financing and a novel investment option that has appealed to investors. The present study aims to identify and prioritise factors that attract investors in the ICO selection process, thus providing valuable insights in improving their decision‐making process. To examine this objective, data were collected from respondents of four continents who had invested in ICO. The fuzzy analytical hierarchy process was applied to prioritise the factors inducing the decision‐making process of the respondents. Ideological factors, white paper, return expectations and behavioural factors emerged as the top four factors, respectively, that influenced the selection process. In contrast, technological factors appeared to be the least significant factor driving the selection process. This is the first kind of research that deals with the identification and prioritisation of factors and sub‐factors regarding the ICO selection decision‐making. The study will be of huge relevance to investors as it will offer them better clarity regarding the spectrum of factors and sub‐factors that impact their ICO selection process and simultaneously extend guidelines that will help them invest more rationally and strategically. The study will also ensure that issuers devise and design their ICO effectively to draw investors eventually leading to its success. Consequently, the study will serve the policymakers to establish a framework to enhance investors' protection from any unscrupulous practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate a year‐long mentorship program, pairing nurses from different regions across the world to support their global leadership capability, and identifying additional consequences of their participation. Background: Investment in developing nurse leaders continues as a strategic global imperative. Building on the first cohort's recommendations, this second program illustrates continued progress. Program evaluation: Using the logic model of program evaluation, this non‐empirical paper uses data collected from anonymized questionnaires and participants' stories to help improve the program, illustrating innovative practices to develop the confidence and competence of emerging and established nurse leaders globally. Discussion: The value of mentorship was recognized, and there were gains for both mentors and mentees in the development of leadership confidence and competence. Through engagement and collaboration with the whole community, participants were encouraged to understand their own and others' cultures avoiding assumptions and stereotypes. Conclusion: This evaluation illustrates that in addition to helping improve future programs, mentorship has enabled the growth of individuals' skill sets and the confidence to reach out to peers across the world to understand the meaning of global health and to make a meaningful contribution to the challenges they face. Implications for nursing practice: Nurse managers should be encouraged to develop and formalize a mentoring culture to benefit the leadership competence and well‐being of their workforce. Implications for nursing policy: Every nurse has a responsibility to invest in nursing leadership for themselves and others. Mentorship can assist nurse leaders to build workforce capability to lead and contribute to the policy agenda locally, nationally, and internationally. Starting early and at the individual level, global mentorship programs can develop leadership expertise to help nurses find their voice and strengthen their confidence and competence to lead and therefore build the strategic leaders of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investing in nursing and its leadership has been a key global priority in achieving world health. This paper aims to explore what it means to invest in nursing and its leadership and whether we are progressing in its endeavour. Consideration is given to whose responsibility it is to invest, the importance of education to support strategic nurse leaders and enable them to have a voice to lead as well as create a culture in which their staff wish to stay. Further, the paper explores the importance of each country accepting responsibility for developing and funding its strategic workforce plan and paying nurse professionals fairly and taking steps to reduce workforce shortages. Finally, the paper examines the progress the United Kingdom is making and concludes that investment in nursing is everyone's business, the government, healthcare organisations, society and above all nurses themselves. Collectively, we must step up to influence change and have nursing voices heard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Microenterprises are very small businesses requiring little capital and can be an employment pathway for people with intellectual disabilities. This systematic review aims to identify the facilitators, barriers and outcomes from microenterprise. Method: Web of Science, Scopus, EconLit, PsycINFO and ProQuest were searched to identify peer‐reviewed studies on microenterprises owned by people with intellectual disability published up to and including 1 October 2019. Results: A total of 1080 papers were independently screened by two reviewers. Six papers met the inclusion criteria. Barriers included lack of access to business expertise and resources, and the tension between growing microenterprises and maintaining eligibility for welfare payments. Formal and informal supports were key facilitators. Outcomes experienced included additional income, skills development, increased confidence and engagement in meaningful activities. Conclusion: Additional research is required to develop an evidence base which may support investment in this employment pathway, making microenterprise more accessible to people with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical geographic reflection on researcher subjectivity is inadequately practised by scholars studying workplaces, especially those involving emerging powers from the global south. In the context of growing Chinese investment in Africa, this paper reflects on the negotiation of my Chineseness during multi‐sited research on capital–labour and expatriate–local relations in three Chinese companies in Ethiopia. It examines the nexus of identity, power, and place to shape my fieldwork process at three stages: seeking access to the enclosed space of companies, building credibility in front of different groups of participants, and arranging interviews in the particular socio‐spatial contexts of the workplace. Specifically, I explain the enabling and problematic nature of my Chinese identity when intersectioned with my multiple subjective positions as a US‐based female student‐researcher. I elaborate how my engagements with expatriates and locals are influenced by the existing system of power relations in Chinese companies. I demonstrate that the place of interview can generate crucial insights into management practices and work relations, and facilitate researcher autonomy and employee agency to momentarily revert the power relations in the workplace. My field experiences highlight the importance of critical reflection to assist researchers to navigate the layered complexity and unexpectancy of doing fieldwork. This paper reflects on the negotiation of my Chineseness during multi‐sited research on capital–labour and expatriate–local relations in three Chinese companies in Ethiopia. By examining how the nexus of identity, power, and place shaped my fieldwork process, I highlight the importance of critical reflection to assist the researcher to navigate the layered complexity and unexpectancy of doing workplace research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically examines the key factors driving UK direct investment in the Spanish regions over the period 2000–2016 and, consequently, tries to unveil its main motivation. Applying a spatial Durbin panel model to capture spatial linkages, the results point to the existence of complementarity between the FDI received by a region and that of the remaining ones. This outcome, along with a positive and statistically significant spillover effect of market potential, reveals that complex‐vertical FDI motivation with agglomeration economies prevails among UK MNEs investing in Spain. Additionally, our findings unveil the role played by some other FDI drivers, such as wages and infrastructure. Furthermore, the paper is unique in decomposing the average direct and spillover effects by region and pairs of regions, so that remarkable differences can be identified. This breakdown has strong significance from a policy perspective since it can guide regional policy makers. In short, our findings point out to the fact that FDI policy should be jointly designed by those regions presenting strong bilateral spillover effects. Thus, greater cooperation among policy makers would be welcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knapsack problem is a problem in combinatorial optimization, and in many such problems, exhaustive search is not tractable. In this paper, we describe and analyze the randomized time‐varying knapsack problem (RTVKP) as a time‐varying integer linear programming (TV‐ILP) problem. In this way, we present the on‐line solution to the RTVKP combinatorial optimization problem and highlight the restrictions of static methods. In addition, the RTVKP is applied in the field of finance and converted into a portfolio insurance problem. Our methodology is confirmed by simulation tests in real‐world data sets, in order to explain being an excellent alternative to traditional approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although recent forms of neoliberalism have been associated with everyday forms of ‘investment’, this paper argues that the financial conduct of everyday populations has long been an intense site of intervention. Drawing on the history of nineteenth and twentieth‐century Canadian government savings, annuities and tax deferral programs, this paper argues that everyday financial conduct has long been a key site of experimentation and innovation in practices of the self. These programs experiment with a language and practice of investment which emphasizes everyday conduct as a space of individual responsibility attached to diverse political goals. This suggests that enterprise as a mode of self and citizenship has a diverse and longer trajectory that predates neoliberalism. By extension, this paper conclude with a case for more diversified, complicated and historically‐situated analyses of ‘neoliberalism’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the impact assessment of social programs allows to identify whether they fulfil the established objectives and evidencing the weaknesses to be strengthened in future actions, and modify or propose new intervention strategies. In Peru, the substantial economic progress since the 90s decade promoted dramatical investments in the social sector, especially on children well-being, as around 30% of the total Peru population are children under the age of 15, being the age group most affected by poverty in the country. This review was aimed to present an overview of the current situation of social programs in Peru in terms of food (and nutritional) security ( FS), emphasizing on the institutional framework and the impact of the social programs implemented by the Government, as well as some social programs implemented by nongovernmental organizations. To this end, information available on the world wide web, including peer-reviewed papers on databases (mainly Sci ELO and Li LACs for their relevance for the Latin American region) regarding FS in Peru from 1989 onwards, and information published by the Peruvian official organisms directly involved in FS, was used. Studies addressing at least four of the seven points of the food and nutritional security in Peru analyzed in this paper (access, availability, consumption, biological use, stability, current situation, and institutionality) were considered. It was concluded that investment and resources should be used to improve social programs strategies designed according to the reality of each focused area, as in Peru, the achievements show an enormous potential for replicability of the interventions. Children must be prioritized through child-sensitive programs, instead of considering them just as indicators and investments for the future-especially in rural areas whipped by the past internal conflicts-in order to contribute to the sustainable development of the country and assuring FS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The delivery of clean drinking water and the treatment of wastewater are critical public services, and in the United States, they are provided by a complex system of federal, state, and local governments. The process of water treatment and delivery requires significant investment in infrastructure both for initial capital requirements as well as the on‐going maintenance and operating costs. The quality of drinking water in the United States is, on average, relatively high, but according to the American Water Works Association, an estimated $1 trillion is necessary to maintain and expand service to meet demands over the next 25 years. The water infrastructure needs in the United States require both immediate attention and long‐term solutions, and the dollar cost is climbing rapidly. It remains unclear, however, where these funds will come from and how they will be allocated. The goal of this paper is to review the portfolio of financing options that exist for public entities responsible for the construction and maintenance of water infrastructure in the United States, including the municipal bond market, state revolving loan funds, federal grant and loan programs, public–private partnerships, and recent financing innovations. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Water, Health, and SanitationHuman Water > Value of WaterHuman Water > Water Governance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College‐level statistics courses emphasize the use of the coefficient of determination, R‐squared, in evaluating a linear regression model: higher R‐squared is better. This often gives students an impression that higher R‐squared implies better predictability since textbooks tend to use sample data to support the theory and students rarely have an opportunity to work on real data. In this paper, health care stocks are used as predictors and the result demonstrates that high R‐squared does not necessarily mean high predictability and that multiple linear regression can be used in the study of data behavior. In particular, by learning the pattern of the near and far out‐of‐sample‐prediction errors for different time periods throughout a dataset, the near out‐of‐sample prediction errors can be used to control the prediction errors and identify a subset of predictors that can well reflect the trend of S&P 500. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the possible crowding‐in or crowding‐out effect of public investment on private investment in sub‐Saharan Africa. While this relationship has been theoretically and empirically studied in the literature, most studies used traditional panel fixed effects or Generalized Method of Moments estimators which can potentially lead to biased and inconsistent estimates. We employ heterogeneous parameter models, including the Mean Group, the Common Correlated Effects Mean Group Model, and the Augmented Mean Group estimators, to incorporate the possibility of slope heterogeneity and the presence of cross‐sectional dependence. Using a large sample of 44 sub‐Saharan African countries over the period 1960–2015, we find that on average public investment crowds in private investment in sub‐Saharan Africa. We also find that the impact differs between countries and is higher in countries with a strong private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the advent of the knowledge economy it has become evident that the territorial footprint of investment in intangible assets is largely asymmetrical. First, these types of assets tend to be distributed unevenly across space. Second, intangible assets are an important source of productivity growth and competitiveness. Although significant advances have been made in measuring intangible assets and accounting for their effects in economic outcomes, their exact nature remains vague. Within the national accounts framework the majority of intangibles are, even now, still treated as intermediate expenditure. Consequently, intangibles are largely excluded from conventional measures of output and investment, making it difficult to account for their spatial effects. The present paper adjusts gross value added (GVA) data for NUTS 3 regions in Great Britain for intangibles. The adjusted series are then used to investigate trends in regional inequalities in GVA per employee in this country during the pre‐recession period 1995–2007. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the negotiations of foundation program officers who aim to challenge structural inequality across regional geographies of poverty. Beyond the limits to confronting capitalist relationships of production as discussed in critical philanthropy literature, this paper shows how the professional 'grantor-grantee' relationship reproduces institutional structures of power. Through the lens of Erving Goffman's 'presentation of self' and data from archival and ethnographic research on immigrant and farmworker funding in California's Central Valley and recent interviews with program staff at large foundations in New York City, the paper suggests that Goffman's concepts of performance, idealization, negative idealization, and disruption expand upon a Gramscian theorization of hegemony by highlighting a micro-sociology of power. Building consensus among greatly unequal actors and managing idealized stories about poverty and philanthropy, the foundation program officer brokers political opportunity for grassroots organizations and yet more commonly generates consent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper examines the effects of international remittances on regional economic development using spatial data from an original household survey carried out in the Republic of Moldova. I analyze remittance flows with a model that estimates regional (urban and rural) budget shares of consumption and investment expenditure categories for rural and urban households. An important contribution of the paper is that it analyzes the effect of remittances in the regions where spending takes place, which is not necessarily the same as the region where the households originating this spending reside. Using the multinomial logit approach, I control for potential selectivity and endogeneity biases of remittances. The results show that remittances lead to significantly increasing marginal productive investments in urban regions at the expense of rural regions. The fundamental finding of the study is that remittances influence the flight of productive capital out of rural areas into urban regions (a pattern similar to the crowding-out effect of the Dutch Disease). The analysis carried out in this paper can be applied to other temporary income transfers and exogenous spending injected in the region that affect households' regional expenditure patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper illustrates conflicting priorities in Japan's aid policy to Cambodia and how those policies appear in the implementation of the aid. Japan's aid is driven by a strategic policy to integrate Cambodia into the regional economy while the same aid focuses on assisting small-scale farmers in that country. On the Cambodian side, the government has employed a market-oriented approach of development in the context of local patron/client mode of governance, in which, the agricultural policy has also become oriented towards large-scale investment and export. By looking at the case of Japan's technical cooperation in Cambodia's rice sector, this paper examines how the conflicts within Japan's aid policy are internalised in the Cambodian context and appear as conflicts between Japanese and Cambodian approaches to agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses the impact of the EU funds, for the European region of Azores, as they affect GDP, employment, and the wellbeing of families in different income levels, using a dynamic, multi-sector, computable general equilibrium model ( CGE) - Azor Mod. Simulating the impact of a total cut in transfers and comparing with a base business as usual scenario, it is concluded that the elimination of the EU transfers could cause a sharp permanent fall on public demand and an immediate 2 per cent fall in GDP. The fall in public demand causes a fall in consumer and investment prices which will foster a sharp increase in investment demand that gradually causes GDP to grow back to its initial levels within a ten year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased investment in agricultural research could contribute to sustainable development goals and benefit farmers, consumers, the environment, and the economy. This paper provides recent evidence and a critical assessment of the evolving Canadian canola crop development and innovation policy and compares it to the wheat and pulse sectors that differ in degree of biotechnology adoption, seeded acreage, intellectual property rights, and private sector involvement. This study also assesses how crop characteristics and technological changes affect future optimal public policy. A number of innovation policies are discussed that could stimulate further growth within the crop sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies derive additional value from technological investments by repeatedly applying them across different product lines in their portfolios. Technology reuse strategies have helped to increase efficiency in leveraging research and development investments, but the attempts to explain how to duplicate such results for technology reuse at the engineering level are missing. While there are synergetic effects to the reuse of technologies, there are also transaction costs that limit the benefits in practice. This paper presents a model, along with three examples, of technology reuse to help account for these transaction costs and mitigate the fallacy of perceiving technologies as reusable "off‐the‐shelf" elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the economic impact of the $14 billion preparatory infrastructure investments for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. We use satellite data on night light luminosity at municipality and electoral district level as a proxy for economic activity, applying synthetic control methods for estimation. For the average World Cup municipality, we find significantly positive, short‐run effects before the tournament, corresponding to a reduction of unemployment by 1.3 percentage points. At the electoral district level, we reveal distinct effect heterogeneity, where especially investments in transport infrastructure are shown to have long‐lasting, positive effects, particularly in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forces of production in rural South Africa and the performance of the agricultural sector form the central theme of this paper. It shows that the long-term lack of dynamism of capitalist development in South Africa as a whole is reflected in and is responsible for failures of rural development. These failures have resulted in acute suffering, not least in Eastern Cape province, where barriers to dynamic capitalist growth remain very high. The paper concludes with proposals for promoting more rapid wage employment growth and capitalist development and for protecting vulnerable rural residents from the worst consequences of such development. The proposals are contrasted with the conventional wisdom in South Africa, especially the rural development strategies proposed by the current government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa provides unique opportunities for international oil and gas companies to spearhead oil exploration and production in emerging markets, and to acquire interests in fields with unexplored economic potentials. Despite these investment opportunities, entrants into oil and gas markets in Africa often face legal risks that pose monumental threats to the economic viability of oil and gas investments. These include resource nationalism; lopsided contractual provisions in oil production contracts that confer unfair advantages on national oil companies; arbitrary change in contract terms; delays in operational approvals, complex local content requirements and high corruption potentials, among others. If not properly considered and managed, these risks may reduce the positive economic prospects and gains in a hitherto profitable investment enterprise; they may also frustrate a first time investor. While these legal risks have been perceived as disincentives to oil and gas investments in Africa, this paper takes the view that these risks do not call for surrender, rather they could be efficiently managed at contract negotiation phases. This paper draws examples from key resource-based African countries to provide an overview of the commonly encountered legal risk points in African oil and gas investments. The paper provides suggestions on how to effectively deal with these risks as early as possible through extensive due diligence and diligent contract negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the impacts of exit strategy in existing fuzzy portfolio selection models. In the securities market, the term 'exit' means that the investor may sell his/her equity on account of some exogenous or endogenous incentives, especially when the security price becomes higher than his/her expectation or lower than his/her tolerance. It is a common problem that all investors need to face in the investment horizon. There have been various studies reported in the current literature employing fuzzy set theory to handle the uncertainty of portfolio selection. Nevertheless, none of these studies considers the influence caused by exit strategy which will be executed once a security price fluctuates out of the expected interval. In this paper, we first secure the future returns of each security by profit/loss exit points (prices) before rebuilding fuzzy portfolio selection models. Next, the properties of exit points are analyzed. Then a meta-heuristic method is proposed to analyze the differences between the new models' experimental results and those of previous methods. Finally, we discuss how to assign proper exit point values to different securities based on different risk attitudes, and apply our approach to a real application on the New York Stock Exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews interventions for preventing the occurrence and recurrence of major types of child maltreatment. We begin with an overview of the challenges of establishing evidence-based interventions to prevent child abuse and neglect in many countries, and underscore the importance of this need with child maltreatment incidence rates in the USA, and how much each type and subtype contribute to child out-of-home placement. Next, we identify the well-supported, supported and promising interventions for each child maltreatment type and subtype, according to their level of research evidence using an evidence-based clearing house. The paper closes with a discussion of the implications for practice, evaluation, policy and agency management, including intervention knowledge gaps that showcase areas that need additional practice research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we assess the impact of competition, investment, and regulation on prices of mobile services in France. We estimate hedonic price regressions using data on tariff plans offered by the main mobile telecommunications operator in France between May 2011 and December 2014. In this time period, the obtained quality‐adjusted price index decreased by about 42.8% as compared to a decline in weighted average prices without quality‐adjustment of 8.7%. In a second step, we relate the quality‐adjusted prices to a set of competition, investment, and regulation variables and find that the launch of 4G networks by mobile operators was the main driver of price reductions for classic tariffs with commitment. Low‐cost tariffs without commitment which were introduced to pre‐empt the entry of low‐cost competitor declined at the time of entry. Moreover, we find that regulation, which is approximated by the level of mobile termination charges and international roaming price caps for voice and data, has a joint significant impact on quality‐adjusted prices. In percentage terms, competition is responsible for about 23.4% of total price decline and investments in 4G for 56.1%. We conclude that the reduction in quality‐adjusted prices in the last years was largely caused by competition between operators for a new 4G technology and by entry of a fourth low‐cost operator. (JEL L13, L50, L96) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Agricultural research and development (R&D) investment has become an increasingly important policy issue as food prices increased and food security problems emerged over the last decade. An important source of agricultural R&D funding is the producer check‐off, which is increasingly being used to fund applied agricultural research. Existing studies of producer‐funded agricultural R&D indicate there are high private rates of return to agricultural R&D investment by farmers, and thus farmers are underinvesting in R&D. Since a farmer's time horizon is typically less than the period of time over which the benefits of agricultural R&D take place, the horizon problem has been identified as a possible factor in this underinvestment. This paper shows that the horizon problem is unlikely to be the only cause of the underinvestment when the internal rate of return is large. Instead, shortened producer horizons only emerge as the main source of underinvestment when the internal rate of return is low. As a result, other factors, including behavioral determinants, need to be looked at as contributors to the underfunding of agricultural R&D. Les investissements en recherche et développement agricoles sont devenus un important enjeu politique étant donné l'augmentation des prix des aliments et les problèmes de sécurité alimentaire de la dernière décennie. Une importante source de financement pour la recherche et le développement dans le domaine agricole sont les programmes de contribution des producteurs, ces derniers étant de plus en plus sollicités pour financer la recherche agricole appliquée. Certaines études portant sur la recherche et le développement agricoles financés par les producteurs indiquent un haut taux de rendement privé des investissements en recherche et développement agricoles par les producteurs. Ces derniers y investissent donc moins. Puisque l'échéancier de l'agriculteur est typiquement moins long que celui pendant lequel les avantages liés à la recherche et au développement dans le domaine agricole s'échelonnent, le problème de l'horizon a été identifié comme facteur potentiel au sous‐investissement. Il est probable, selon cet article, que le problème de l'horizon ne soit pas la seule cause du sous‐investissement lorsque le taux interne de rendement s'avère grand. Plutôt, les échéanciers réduits des agriculteurs apparaissent seulement comme les sources principales de sous‐investissement lorsque le taux de rendement interne est bas. Il en résulte que d'autres facteurs, incluant les déterminants comportementaux, doivent être examinés à titre de contributeurs au sous‐investissement de la recherche et du développement en agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue that (bilateral) auctions of production quotas induced a rapid convergence in dairy farm size within provinces in the early years of Canada's supply management policy and that this effect was stronger in provinces with a larger number of dairy farms. This contributed to the smallness and homogeneity of Quebec dairy farms relative to dairy farms in Western Canada. In Quebec, most dairy farms still rely on the tie-stall milking system, while dairy farms in Western provinces are larger and use larger-scale, lower-cost technologies. Regulations on Quebec's quota exchange have slowed down the pace at which a farm can acquire production quota, exacerbating the effects of input lumpiness, on dairy farm efficiency. Low trading on the production exchange severely constrains production adjustments, making, scale, allocative, and technical inefficiencies more persistent and investment in herd expansion unprofitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breakthrough of the Belchen Tunnel refurbishment project / Durchschlag des Sanierungstunnels Belchen Official ground breaking at the Spitzenberg Tunnel / Offizieller Tunnelanschlag Spitzenberg Breakthrough in the Filder Tunnel / Durchschlag im Fildertunnel Breakthrough of the second bore of the Perjen Tunnel / Durchschlag der 2. Röhre des Perjentunnels Semmering Base Tunnel: Grautschenhof Tunnel under construction / Semmering-Basistunnel: Tunnel Grautschenhof in Bau Last ground breaking on the Koralmbahn in Carinthia / Letzter Tunnelanschlag an der Koralmbahn in Kärnten Refurbishment of the Plabutsch Tunnel / Sanierung des Plabutschtunnels Investigation drilling for rail tunnel in Offenburg / Erkundungsbohrungen für Eisenbahntunnel in Offenburg 50 years ILF / 50 Jahre ILF Dieter Schwank takes over management from Renzo Simoni / Dieter Schwank übernimmt Leitung von Renzo Simoni Call for papers - Themes for the next issues of Geomechanics and Tunnelling / Themen für die nächsten Ausgaben der 'Geomechanics and Tunnelling' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent proliferation of transnational land deals has put the long-fraught relationship between international cooperation, national development and local dispossession back in the political spotlight. This article argues that transnational land access cannot be resolved as a political question without a better understanding of the material, legal and administrative geographies that accompany and enable it. Using evidence from Laos, the paper illustrates two tools for 'resolving' the global land grab geographically: first, a biographical or trajectory-based approach that connects specific land grabs to larger development landscapes (e.g. of urban infrastructuring); and second, genealogies of property formalization that interrogate and deconstruct the legal geographies of land access, both on and off the map. The paper concludes by suggesting that these tools have purchase elsewhere as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new method for measuring and decomposing input-specific productivity change in a dynamic context. The resulting input-specific dynamic Luenberger productivity change indicator is decomposed to identify the contributions of input-specific dynamic technical, technical inefficiency and scale inefficiency changes. The empirical application of the paper focuses on panel data of large firms in the European dairy processing industry over the period 2005-2012. The results show similar patterns for dynamic input-specific productivity change and its components for labour across European regions (Eastern, Western and Southern), while differences between regions are found regarding materials and investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed an increase in the interest for agricultural land in developing countries. While a great deal of attention has been paid to understanding the impacts of this increased interest for agricultural land, very little is known about how local smallholder communities are affected when agribusinesses decrease or cease their operations. A large number of agribusinesses that acquired agricultural land in many sub-Saharan African countries have reduced or ceased their operations in recent years. This paper introduces a new dimension to the literature by investigating how a decrease in the share of land held by an agribusiness in a village affects smallholder plot-level tenure security and investments in rural Tanzanian villages. Drawing on a panel of 5,101 plots, we find that a decrease in the share of land held by an agribusiness significantly increases the probability that a plot has tenure security. Moreover, our results reveal that a decrease in the share of land held by agribusinesses significantly raises the time spent on the plot. This result is primarily driven by the number of household members employed in the agricultural sector but not through changes in tenure security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politicians throughout the European Union support the extension of organic farming. Nevertheless, farmers are reluctant to invest in organic farming. Because nonmonetary aspects might be the reasons for this reluctance, this paper analyzes whether the farmers' investment behavior varies when given the option to invest in organic and conventional production methods. For this purpose, an incentivized experiment was conducted wherein conventional and organic hog farmers had the opportunity to consecutively invest in an organic and a conventional hog barn. Then, it was determined whether the farmers' investment timings differed between investments in the currently applied production method and the currently not-applied production method. These investment situations only differed in their description; the economic conditions were identical. The farmers' investment times in both production methods were compared to theoretically optimal investment times according to the real options approach (ROA). The results of the analysis show that a significant framing effect was associated with farmers' response to investment opportunities in organic and conventional hog barns. Farmers invested later if they invested in the currently not-applied production method. In these cases, the deviations between the ROA and the farmers' investment time were lower.Les politiciens de l'Union européenne appuient l'expansion de l'agriculture biologique. Pourtant, les éleveurs hésitent à s'y investir. Puisque des facteurs non économiques pourraient expliquer cette réticence, cet article analyse les variations des décisions d'investissement des producteurs à qui l'on offre un investissement dans les méthodes de production biologiques et classiques. À cette fin, une expérience incitative a été menée où les éleveurs de porcs se voyaient offrir l'occasion d'investir en succession dans une porcherie biologique et une classique. Ensuite, l'on a évalué si le calendrier d'investissements des producteurs différait en fonction de la méthode actuelle de production et celle qui n'est pas actuellement en usage. Ces situations d'investissement ne différaient que par leur description, les modalités économiques étant identiques. Les calendriers d'investissements des éleveurs utilisant les deux méthodes de production ont été comparés en fonction de l'approche des options réelles. Les résultats de l'analyse montrent qu'un effet significatif de formulation s'associe aux réactions des éleveurs vis-à-vis des occasions d'investissements dans des porcheries biologiques et classiques. Les producteurs de porcs ont investi plus tard s'ils investissaient dans la méthode de production dont il ne se servait actuellement pas. Dans ces cas, l′écart entre l'option réelle et le calendrier de l′éleveur s'avérait moins grand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent paper in this journal described the identification and integration of sources of risk in a systems engineering process model [Lambert, Jennings, and Joshi, Syst Eng 9(3) (2006), 187-198]. The earlier effort falls short in addressing sources of deep, nonprobabilistic uncertainty that should enter to strategic systems design and reengineering. Our new paper incorporates the earlier effort to a framework for evaluating which are the deep uncertainties that most influence a priority-setting among investments in large-scale systems with multiple stakeholders, and therefore warrant more investigation. The framework addresses that deep uncertainties are continuously discovered and reflective of diverse and unique stakeholder experiences, knowledge bases, and advocacy positions. Deep uncertainties are epistemic viewpoints across which the strategic priorities for investments will differ. The framework modifies existing tools of scenario analysis and multicriteria analysis to process and filter the deep uncertainties. The framework is demonstrated in an application to reengineering of an energy system for a defense installation where frequent outages are disruptive to scientific and other missions. The sources of deep uncertainty in the demonstration include regulatory, economic, environment, cyber-threat, and others. The investments include innovative microturbine and microgrid technologies. An example of a result is that international economic disruption is relatively more influential than cyber-threats to strategic priority-setting for investing in a microgrid at the particular installation. ©2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 15 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a systematic review of evidence of the impact of microfinance on the lives of poor women, men and children in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses specifically on longer-term non-financial outcomes related to health and nutrition and education. The paper contrasts microfinance's early days' initially refreshing and encouraging promises of a development initiative that empowers people to help themselves while 'paying for itself' with a more gloomy picture that derives from the synthesis results of our systematic review. It presents two simple models that show the pathways from microfinance to increased investment in improved health and education, contrasting theory with our synthesis results. Our discussion highlights that thinking through microfinance makes it necessary to thoroughly investigate both the theory behind interventions and the evidence for their impact. It raises the essential question: Is microfinance about providing banking services to the unbanked, or is microfinance a development intervention that concerns itself with the attainment of long-term sustainable responses to high levels of poverty? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between the stock market and the neurotic disorder doctor visits. We use aggregate data, partition the population by age and gender and examine the impact of changes in the stock market on neurotic disorders. Using doctor visits as a proxy measure of morbidity, we find evidence of some relationship between neurotic disorder morbidity and stock market variations. A stock market falling in a single day and the accumulation of daily stock market drops are both associated with more neurotic disorder doctor visits. We also observe more neurotic disorder doctor visits during periods of a low stock index for the elderly, regardless of gender. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of intermodal transport operations at freight villages in Italy. Quantitative data on public and private investment and ownership in each of the 25 Italian freight villages are analysed to identify relevant issues, which are then explored through five qualitative case studies. The research considers how intermodal transport stimulation links national modal shift policy with regional economic development strategies based on the promotion of logistics growth. The research identifies a misalignment between national and regional scales, as funding based on national policy does not align with port and freight village planning strategies developed at the regional level. From an operational perspective, this misalignment is exacerbated by the often adversarial relations between ports and intermodal terminals, in addition to the fragmented nature of the Italian freight sector. Even with a national policy to promote freight villages with intermodal terminals and a dedicated funding stream to support this network of approved sites, operational issues mean that establishing intermodal shuttles remains a difficult and marginal enterprise, particularly in the case of southern Italy due to its location on the periphery of intra- European freight flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an explicitly materialist analysis of the 'rentier chieftaincy' by drawing on Marx's theory of modern landed property. It argues that the colonial formation of 'tribal' land relations may be understood in relation to the subjugation of African labour to colonial capital, which in turn unintentionally created a potential barrier against investment on tribal land, and hence the conditions for the chiefly appropriation of ground rent. However, the extent to which chiefs could exercise an effective land monopoly in relation to capital was at the same time conditional upon the extent of their proprietorial control in relation to both the subject population and the central state. The politically conditional nature of this chiefly monopoly is captured in the formulation 'tribal-landed property', which is illustrated and developed through a case study of the changing economic relationship between the Bafokeng chieftaincy and mining capital on the South African platinum belt. It is concluded that this may have wider application in the context of accelerating investment over 'communal' land and intensifying struggles for its exclusive control, since these are potentially also struggles over the distribution of the surplus value produced by land-based capitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a method for reducing the economic risks associated with predictable natural hazards by enhancing the resilience of national infrastructure systems. The three-step generalised framework is described along with examples. Step one establishes economic baseline growth without the disaster impact. Step two characterises economic growth constrained by a disaster. Step three assesses the economy's resilience to the disaster event when it is buffered by alternative resiliency investments. The successful outcome of step three is a disaster-resistant core of infrastructure systems and social capacity more able to maintain the national economy and development post disaster. In addition, the paper considers ways to achieve this goal in data-limited environments. The method provides a methodology to address this challenge via the integration of physical and social data of different spatial scales into macroeconomic models. This supports the disaster risk reduction objectives of governments, donor agencies, and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper translates a qualitative theory of enterprise transformation into a quantitative, mathematical theory. This enables computational exploration of the phenomena outlined in the theory, as well as the sensitivity of these phenomena to a range of parameters intended to reflect the elements of the theory. The overall question addressed is, 'What should an enterprise do in response to perceptions of impending substantial change?' A mixture of three types of responses is considered-predict better, learn faster, and act faster. As these responses all require investments, it is not the case that an enterprise should always pursue all of them. Indeed, there are conditions under which an enterprise should not pursue any of them. This paper elaborates the nature of these conditions, explains why they arise, and discusses the implications for enterprises entertaining transformation. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's relationship with Africa has grown exponentially over the last decade with US$95 billion in bilateral trade in 2008 and US$5.4 billion of Chinese investment in Africa for the same year. The growth of Sino-African relations also has an impact on the role of traditional development partners in Africa in particular in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which has already led some traditional development partners to reduce their aid budgets and subsequently their Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to Africa. The objective of this paper is to analyse different development cooperation modalities in Africa of traditional development partners and China. This requires identifying trends in aid, debt relief, general budget support, trade, preferential trade access, and investment flows of both traditional development partners and China. The paper advocates that complementarities can be built between these development modalities on a national, regional and global level. This would enhance development effectiveness, increase efficiency and create win-win situations which would be beneficial to African countries, China and traditional development partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assumption of separate tax bases on which the literature of preferential tax regimes has been based is not necessarily the case. In this paper we assume a single type of capital, or money, invested in different industries as well as in different countries. Tax elasticities can differ across industries depending on production technologies and therefore governments have incentives to provide preferential tax treatment to certain industries. Then it is shown that preferential regimes may not be desirable in different senses from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new economic geography model with distortionary taxation and endogenized trade costs. Tax revenues finance a public good, infrastructure. We show that the introduction of costly public investment in infrastructure increases agglomerative tendencies. With respect to the regions' sizes, in the periphery, the price index for manufacturing goods decreases, whereas for the core, the price index is rather high since the distortionary effect of taxes dominates. ‘Free riding’– or, in terms of regional policy, externally funded infrastructure investment – is beneficial for the periphery, which can devote all its tax revenue to local demand support, generating a positive home market effect and driving the catch up process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to reconsider the contemporary relevance of the resource frontier, drawing on examples of nature's commodification and enclosure under way in the peripheral Southeast Asian country of Laos. Frontiers are conceived as relational zones of economy, nature and society; spaces of capitalist transition, where new forms of social property relations and systems of legality are rapidly established in response to market imperatives. Customary property rights on the resource frontier can be seized by powerful actors in crucial political moments, preparing the territorial stage for more intensive phases of resource commodity production and accumulation. Relational frontier space is understood through the work of geographers such as Doreen Massey, who views the production of space as ‘constituted though the practices of engagement and the power-geometries of relations’. In Laos, a twenty-first century resource frontier is being driven by new corporate investments in natural resources, and a supporting array of land reform programmes. The paper focuses on both the material and representational aspects of the production of the resource frontier, through policy and discourse analysis, and village level research in Laos’ Khammouane province. By rethinking a dualist and hierarchical-scaled imaginary of frontier places, both rural people and local ecologies are shown to be key actors, in a complex, relational reproduction of frontier zones. An emerging Lao spatial and political assemblage – a form of ‘frontier-neoliberalism’– is shown as producing dramatic changes in socio-natural landscapes, as well as new patterns of marginalisation and livelihood insecurity for a vulnerable rural population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agglomeration economies explain why productivity increases as the size of agglomeration increases, and thereby partly explain the importance of location and space in economic development. Agglomeration economies are based on the distance between firms, labour and the market. Infrastructure investment can be a tool used by governments to affect this distance, where, in doing so, they induce agglomeration economies and increase economic growth. In this paper, we will discuss the importance of considering types of networks when analysing agglomeration economies using multiregional new economic geography (NEG)-based spatial general equilibrium models. These models typically use abstract bi-regional origin-destination networks to describe the cost of transporting or commuting between regions. These abstract networks are like tunnels between regions and do not take into account the actual roads in real infrastructure networks used for transport and traffic between destinations. In other words, in real infrastructure networks, which we label full networks, people and goods move from one region to another via actual roads and possibly via third regions. In the empirical economic literature, there is a significant difference between the economic effect of changes in a bi-regional origin-destination network and the economic effect of changes in a full network. To date, no systematic explanation has been given for this difference in the size of the effects. Lack of an explanation for this difference may lead to confusion among policy-makers who have to decide on infrastructure investment. In this methodological paper, we discuss the reason for this difference. We do not discuss the absolute size of the agglomeration effects, only the relative difference that exists when using different types of networks. In order to explain the difference, we introduce a methodology that translates the effects in a bi-regional origin-destination network into similar effects in a full network, making it possible to systematically compare the economic importance of all links (roads) in such a network. This is highly relevant to policy-makers, who can now interpret the model results on a real full infrastructure network. We will also show the mathematical relationship between the importance of agglomeration economies on a link in a full network and the importance of agglomeration economies on a link in a bi-regional origin-destination network. Finally, the methodology is illustrated with a case study from the Netherlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents panel estimates for 18 Western Europe countries to ascertain the separate impacts of domestic and transnational terrorism on income per capita growth for 1971–2004. The paper merges domestic and transnational terrorist events in order to attribute growth impacts to the two broad categories of terrorism. Each additional transnational terrorist incident per million persons reduces economic growth by about 0.4 percentage points. Domestic terrorism has a much smaller effect on growth that is about half this size. Terrorism's negative impact on growth is related to the scale of terrorism in the sample countries in order to give a better idea of what is the average consequence in most sample countries. These negative impacts are shown to stem from domestic and transnational terrorism's adverse influence on investment shares. Counterterrorism efforts also augment government spending, which crowds out growth-promoting investment. We show that the pathway by which domestic and transnational terrorism influences growth differs. For example, transnational terrorism works more through the crowding out of investment, while domestic terrorism works more through the increase in government expenditure increases. A host of sensitivity tests are performed to support our empirical model. Policy recommendations conclude the paper – e.g., measures to curb transnational terrorist attacks have a higher economic payoff than similar measures to reduce domestic terrorist events. Since transnational terrorism has a larger impact on income per capita growth than does domestic terrorism, West European efforts to curb transnational terrorism will have a greater economic dividend than efforts to limit domestic terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the impact of structural funds on the convergence process between 145 European regions over 1989–1999. The presence of spillover effects is investigated with spatial econometric methods, which assess the impact of the funds on the targeted region and its neighbours. We also control the potential endogeneity problem in the estimation of their impact. Our estimation results indicate that significant convergence takes place, but that the funds have no impact on it. Simulation experiments show how investments targeted to the peripheral regions never spill over to their neighbours, which calls for a reconsideration of current regional policy tools. Resumen. Este artículo evalúa el impacto de los fondos estructurales en el proceso de convergencia entre 145 regiones europeas durante el periodo 1989–1999. La presencia de efectos derrame ( spill over) se investigó mediante métodos econométricos espaciales, que evalúan el impacto de los fondos en la región objetivo y sus vecinas. También controlamos el problema de endogeneidad potencial en la estimación del impacto. Los resultados de nuestra estimación indican la presencia significativa de una convergencia, pero que los fondos no tienen un impacto sobre la misma. Experimentos de simulación muestran que las inversiones dirigidas a las regiones periféricas nunca derraman ( spill over) sobre sus vecinas, lo cual pide reconsiderar las herramientas actuales de política regional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the large economic and social benefits fisheries can offer to address Africa’s development needs, investment in African fisheries and aquaculture has been remarkably low. However, if fisheries and aquaculture are to meet the challenges of technological change, institutional reforms and resource mobilization needed in support of the sector’s development potential, fisheries stakeholders must make the case for investment much more clearly within the context of wider socioeconomic development. In this paper, we argue that the global consensus around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) offers an important opportunity to pursue this agenda in Africa. In particular the MDGs’ human development focus provides a compelling framework for articulating the comprehensive value of fisheries for poverty reduction and long-term socioeconomic development. The paper has two objectives. The first is to examine the direct and indirect links between fisheries and the individual MDGs, drawing together findings and lessons learnt from recent African case studies with relevant examples from elsewhere. The second is to translate these findings into recommendations for action in support of improved investments in fisheries aimed at increasing the overall development value of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]