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This article examines the foreign and Russian experience in the arrangement of the adjacent territories of residential complexes. The strengths of residential complexes in European countries, their features and the infrastructure that should be used in Russia are analyzed. The purpose of this article is to identify shortcomings in housing complexes being built on the territory of the Russian Federation, and to identify ways to increase their social significance, demand and image. В данной статье рассматривается зарубежный и российский опыт обустройства придомовых территорий жилых комплексов. Проанализированы сильные стороны жилых комплексов европейских стран, их особенности и инфраструктура, которую следует использовать в России. Целью данной статьи является выявление недостатков в жилищных комплексах, возводимых на территории Российской Федерации, и определение способов повышения их социальной значимости, востребованности и имиджа.

The subject of this paper is the analysis and evaluation of the reasons for construction costs increases in urban regeneration projects. The analysis considers major refurbishments of real estates’, as well as heavy repair and modernization of the road system. For the period mentioned, the costs from works and expenditure schedules were compared with the costs of additional works, which shows the percentage cost increase in relation to initial project budget assumptions of the case study. The analysis revealed that due to difficulties in assessing technical state of inhabited buildings, the investor and potential contractor should pay special attention to the character of issues presented in this paper, taking into account an increased risk of their occurrence.

Measuring poverty requires adjusting nominal consumption (or income) into a real value of consumption, across geographic areas and over time. To this end, data on consumer prices are used to construct a price index. There are a range of approaches to do this, from using the consumer price index, to survey-based unit values, which differ in the underlying sources of price data and methodologies for indexing. These different approaches can have large impacts on poverty measures and trends. Surprisingly little attention has been focused on this topic. This study reviews a range of issues and the evidence on how prices matter for measuring poverty, particularly in Africa. It draws on a wide literature, much from developed countries, and offers suggestions for future work in this area.

The aims of this article are to clarify the relationship between the costs and prices of apples produced with 50% fewer agrichemicals and regularly cultivated apples, and to review the relevant studies on this subject. Of two earlier evaluations of the price differential between reduced-agrichemical products and regularly cultivated ones, the authors of one study indicated the existence of a price differential and the authors of the other study denied the differential. We studied the farmers, agricultural co-op and related organizations in Shiwa town (Iwate Prefecture) from 2006 to 2009, and a comparison of the reduced-agrichemical apples and regularly cultivated apples showed that the pesticide costs for the former increased from 52 to 69 yen per cardboard box (10 kg). Analysis of sales documents from JA Iwate Chuou indicated that reduced-agrichemical apples were sold for prices that more than compensated for the increased costs. The analysis supports the former studies that indicated the price differential due to the agrichemical reduction ; however, the analysis also indicated that higher graded apples have a higher price differential due to the agrichemical reduction and lowest graded apples do not show any price differential, so the price differential might depend on the characteristics of the retailer and the brackets of consumer. The analysis also suggests that there are differences among crops on the price differential due to the agrichemicals reduction., 本稿は農薬削減の努力に対する市場の評価の実態把握の一環として, 特別栽培リンゴの価格と費用との関係を明らかにすることを第一の課題, その分析結果をもとに, 対立した見解が示されている先行研究の議論を検討することを第二の課題とする. JAいわて中央を事例とし, 2006〜2009年に実施した調査結果の分析から費用に関し, 慣行栽培と比較して農薬削減防除体系は10kg段ボール1箱当たり52〜69円の費用増加が生じていることが明かとなった. 次に, JAいわて中央のリンゴの等階級別の販売実績の分析から, 最も低い等級を除いて, 農薬削減リンゴは管内の慣行栽培のリンゴと比較して費用増加分より高い単価となっていることが明かとなった. また, 慣行栽培品を基準として価格を比較すると, 農薬の削減率に応じる形で増加していた. 先行研究では, 農薬の削減率に応じた価格が形成されるとする見解と, 形成されない, あるいはその価格差は縮小するとする見解があった. 本稿の分析結果は, 農薬削減率に応じた価格が形成されるとする見解を支持しているが, 同時に農薬削減率と価格の関係は作物や購買層によっても異なる可能性が示唆された.

Subsidies and cross-subsidies in the energy sector are common throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In Belarus, revenues from an industrial tariff on electricity are used to cross-subsidize heating for households. Input-output (IO) data and a household consumption survey are used to analyze the distributional impacts of this cross-subsidization. This paper illustrates cost shares and electricity-intensity of different sectors and consumption categories and uses the IO data to obtain first-order estimates of the distributional incidence of policy reform. The paper then analyzes distributional impacts of subsidy reform with a Computable General Equilibrium model. Although poorer households benefit from reduced heating costs, the increase in prices of other consumer goods due to higher electricity prices more than offsets the benefits they receive from the subsidies. The analysis finds that the current cross-subsidies are regressive, and policy reform would be highly progressive.

We study the effect of a shock on firms’ costs in a general setting by considering both perfect and imperfect competition and a general cost function. We show that, counterintuitively, firms’ profits may increase with cost increases. We generalize Seade’s (1985) results by considering the adaptation of firms’ technological process. We find an additional effect that we call "technology effect," and which is determined by the extent to which firms’ marginal and average costs differ as a result of a shock. This effect is broken down into two components: the "indirect technology effect," which is related to the elasticity of the demand slope, and the"direct technology effect," which is solely related to technology. We apply this framework to environmental regulations, which provide a good context in which to examine technological process adaptation because they push firms to use abatement technologies and to modify their production processes. We introduce an explicit abatement cost function that is sufficiently flexible to represent the various types of abatement technologies that are found in the literature: end-of-pipe technology, process-integrated technology, and cleaner production (or fuel switching). We show that end-of-pipe abatement technologies induce a positive direct technology effect, that process integrated abatement technologies induce a negative technology effect, and that cleaner production induces a nulltechnology effect., Economics Working Paper Series, 14/191

Das vorliegende Paper baut auf den jährlichen Umfragen bzw. Studien des Immobilien und Facility Management (IFM) der Technischen Universität Wien (TU Wien) und der Dissertation von Susanne Hauk aus dem Jahr 2007 auf. Neben der Darstellung allgemeiner Daten konzentriert sich die Arbeit im Wesentlichen auf folgende Forschungsfragen:  In welchen Bereichen können Einsparungen generiert werden?  In welchen Bereichen können Produktivitätssteigerungen lukriert werden?  Mit welchen Problemen/Kostentreibern sind Facility Manager bzw. FM-Abteilungen konfrontiert?  Welche (statistisch signifikanten) Zusammenhänge bestehen zwischen verschiedenen Merkmalen/Variablen? Seit dem Jahr 2005 wurden jährlich FM-Verantwortliche von den 500 größten Unternehmen Österreichs befragt. Im Rahmen der Umfrage sollen wissenschaftlich fundiert die obigen Forschungsfragen geklärt werden. Als Werkzeuge für die Datenerhebung wurden das Telefon und/oder elektronische Wege gewählt. Die Umfrage wurde anhand eines standardisierten Fragebogens mit 36 Fragen zu den verschiedensten FM-Bereichen durchgeführt. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit sollen die Ergebnisse der aktuellen Umfrage dargestellt und mit den Ergebnissen der Studien der letzten Jahre verglichen werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich vor allem mit jenem Teil der Umfrage, der die oben genannten Forschungsfragen behandelt. Ziel ist dabei, die wichtigsten Parameter und Einflussfaktoren in den Bereichen Einsparungen, Produktivitätssteigerungen und Kostentreiber zu identifizieren und die Entwicklungen und Trends näher darzustellen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass effizientes FM große Potentiale in den Bereichen Einsparungen und Produktivitätssteigerungen lukrieren kann. Auch wenn die Einführung von FM zu Beginn mit Kosten/Problemen verbunden ist, so kann dies durch spätere Einsparungen und Produktivitätssteigerungen kompensiert werden.

Das vorliegende Paper baut auf der Dissertation von Susanne Hauk. (Hauk, S.) auf und konzentriert sich im Wesentlichen auf folgende Forschungsfragen:  In welchen Bereichen können Einsparungen generiert werden?  In welchen Bereichen können Produktivitätssteigerungen festgestellt werden?  Mit welchen Problemen/Kostentreibern sind Facility Manager konfrontiert? Seit 2005 führt das Zentrum für Informations- und Facility Management (IFM) der Technischen Universität Wien (TU Wien) jährlich Umfragen im Bereich FM durch. Jedes Jahr wurden circa 100 FM-Verantwortliche von den 500 größten Unternehmen Österreichs befragt. Im Rahmen der Umfrage sollen wissenschaftlich fundiert die obigen Forschungsfragen geklärt werden. Als Werkzeug für die Datenerhebung wurde das Telefon benutzt. Insgesamt enthielt der Fragebogen 40 Fragen zu den verschiedensten FM-Bereichen. Die Zusammenstellung der Fragen wurde so gewählt, dass auch eine Validierung der Aussagen möglich ist. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich vor allem mit jenem Teil der Umfrage, der die oben genannten Forschungsfragen behandelt.

Pharmaceuticals are essential to achieve health outcomes, but are at the same time a major cost factor in every health system. From a patient perspective, access to pharmaceuticals is a proxy for the functioning of the health system. With increasing economic strength, patients become more demanding with regard to access to modern, sophisticated drugs and providers become more aggressive in marketing those drugs. This paper reflects the situation in the pharmaceutical sector in Turkey, identifies critical issues, and discusses policy options based on current trends and the overall policy objectives of the Turkish government. This paper is structured as follows: chapter one gives introduction; chapter two gives overall policy objectives in the pharmaceutical sector in Turkey; chapter three presents institutional and regulatory framework; chapter four presents reimbursement rules; chapter five focuses on governance issues in the pharmaceutical sector; chapter six gives market overview; chapter seven gives payment for pharmaceuticals in Turkey; chapter eight presents prescribing practices - rational use of medicines; and chapter nine gives conclusions and way forward.

After decades of high trade restrictions, fiscal distortions, and currency overvaluation, Cameroon implemented important commercial and fiscal policy reforms in 1994. Almost simultaneously, a major devaluation cut the international price of Cameroon's currency in half. This article examines the effects of those reforms on the incentive structure faced by manufacturing firms. Did the reforms create a coherent new set of signals? Did they reduce dispersion in tax burdens? Was the net effect to stimulate the production of tradable goods? The results of applying a cost function decomposition to detailed firm-level panel data suggest that the reforms created clear new signals for manufacturers, as effective protection rates fell by 80 to 120 percentage points. In contrast, neither the tax reforms nor the devaluation had a major systematic effect on profit margins. The devaluation did shift relative prices dramatically in favor of exportable goods, causing exporters to grow relatively rapidly.