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The Netherlands has provided $1.57 billion in capital subscription to ADB as of 31 December 2020. It has also contributed and committed $805.53 million to Special Funds since joining the bank in 1966. Companies and consultants from the Netherlands have since been awarded $674.5 million in procurement contracts on ADB-financed projects.

Brunei Darussalam has provided $538.46 million in capital subscription to ADB as of 31 December 2020. It has also contributed and committed $21.84 million to Special Funds since joining the bank in 2006.

The US Justice Department's arrest of several affiliates of the Russian-speaking REvil ransomware group comes a month after Washington hosted a virtual international summit on ransomware attacks. The decision to leave Russia out of the summit will inevitably limit the effectiveness of the operation.

With the country still managing the COVID-19 pandemic, the election of national and local officials next year, and an increase in resources available to local governments units (LGUs) with the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petition, major shifts in Philippine governance can be expected in 2022. Increased resources for LGUs reduce the fiscal space for national government efforts to jumpstart the economy from the pandemic-induced slump. How then does the President's budget for 2022 plan to address the many urgent needs, such as providing social safety nets to minimize economic and human capital scarring and sustaining strategic infrastructure investments to spur economic growth? This study provides an overall perspective of the budget and examines how the 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP), also called the President's budget, embodies the priorities identified by the national government. In terms of the continued COVID-19 management and human capital investment and consistent with declared priorities in the National Budget Call, spending on health and social protection is prioritized. With the implementation of the Supreme ruling, the national tax allotment (formerly known as the internal revenue allotment) is 38 percent higher in 2022, almost 20 percent of the proposed budget. Despite greater devolution, the budget still includes some LGU assistance programs, such as the new growth equity fund (GEF) targeted at poorer LGUs. Institutional reforms, such as the Medium-Term Information and Communications Technology Harmonization Initiative (MITHI) and convergence programs, are also present to help reshape and improve the delivery of public goods and services through investments in information and communications technology. However, the 2022 NEP is projected to increase the debt-to-GDP ratio to 60.8 percent, the highest since 2006. To benefit from increased borrowing, fiscal authorities need to be both strategic and prudent in spending.

This ADBI newsletter is published periodically throughout the year to provide information on current events, seminars and summits, Job opportunities, blogs and news and current publications concerning growth and development in Asia and the Pacific.

The Philippine government plays an increasingly significant role in the provision of drugs and medicines. Over the last half decade, direct public procurement more than doubled from PhP7.8 billion in 2014 to PhP20.1 billion in 2019. In this study, we document government procurement practices as applied to drugs and medicines, with emphasis on instituted information revelation mechanisms to promote transparency. Among the almost 50,000 records in 2019 that we analyzed, we find that about a third of posted procurement opportunities for drugs and medicines had insufficient descriptions available to allow purchase. Further, we find that mandated price caps are associated with longer posting period and greater propensity for failed procurement, but not necessarily with cheaper procurement prices.

Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits explores how to enhance peoples' chances to live a good life in a world of ecological and social limits. Rejecting familiar recitations of problems of ecological decline and planetary boundaries, this compact book instead offers a spirited explication of what everyone desires: a good life. Fundamental concepts of the good life are explained and explored, as are forces that threaten the good life for all. The remedy, says the book's seven international authors, lies with the concept of consumption corridors, enabled by mechanisms of citizen engagement and deliberative democracy. Across five concise chapters, readers are invited into conversation about how wellbeing can be enriched by social change that joins "needs satisfaction" with consumerist restraint, social justice, and environmental sustainability. In this endeavour, lower limits of consumption that ensure minimal needs satisfaction for all are important, and enjoy ample precedent. But upper limits to consumption, argue the authors, are equally essential, and attainable, especially in those domains where limits enhance rather than undermine essential freedoms. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the social sciences and humanities, and environmental and sustainability studies, as well as to community activists and the general public.

The vitamin and supplement industry has increased exponentially in profits as well as potential products on the market since the turn of the century. However, these products are not regulated, nor do they undergo any premarket clinical research or testing. Public health is compromised by vitamins and supplements that are available for American consumption that is disproportionately unregulated to their chemically similar counterparts. This wicked problem is facilitated through the combination of historical legislative definitions that has since been distorted for corrupt administrative gain through the allotment of corporate expenditures. Company disbursements are made to the same policymakers that create the guidelines that would restrict them, which is stimulated by the decision that corporations should have unrestricted limits of free speech.

International audience ; We aim to propose a typological analysis of the regulation of scientific creative commons from the linguistic codification activity. We analyze the commons since the point of view of the communities' work. We point the apparent homogeneity of the epistemic communities that support these commons. This leads to a questioning about the homogeneity of the "community". We proceed, on the one hand, by means of a comparison between different research programs developed in the sociology of science and politics, on the other hand, by conducting a sociolinguistic analysis of the lexical statements resulting from the self-presentations of 23 creative commons. This critical analysis leads to segmenting all the groups that develop these commons into two families: communities with a stable and regular profile and scientific aims, and collectives with an abundant and unstable profile and with a view to social transformation. ; Notre article propose une analyse typologique de la régulation des communs scientifiques à partir de leur activité de codification linguistique. Nous analysons les communs sous l'angle du fonctionnement affiché des communautés animées par leurs membres. Nous interrogeons l'apparente homogénéité des communautés épistémiques qui soutiennent ces communs en opérant une analyse fondée sur les imaginaires linguistiques. Cette interrogation aboutit à une remise en cause de l'homogénéité de la forme « communauté ». Nous procédons, d'une part, au moyen d'une large revue de littérature en sciences sociales, d'autre part, en conduisant une analyse sociolinguistique des énoncés lexicaux issus des autoprésentations de 23 communs. Cette analyse critique aboutit à segmenter l'ensemble des groupes qui élaborent ces communs en deux familles : les communautés au profil stable et régulier et à visée scientifique ou technique, et les collectifs au profil foisonnant et instable et à visée de transformation sociale.

This article outlines how the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbates economic and social gender inequalities in Aotearoa ǀ New Zealand. While this crisis highlights the central part played by women in the economy, the gender impacts of the pandemic are visible in connection to a decrease in job security and financial safety for female workers; to a rise in the duplication of paid and unpaid work; to an increase violence in and outside of homes; a heightened risk exposure to the virus and worse health outcomes. Not all women are equally positioned in this crisis, women of Māori and Pacific descent are disproportionately feeling the effects of the pandemic. The two-prong, government's recovery plan, which only partially ensures a fair and equal economic rebuild, is critically assessed. While the economic response fails to take a systematic gender approach, scope for challenging traditional gender assumptions is met head-on in relation to policy on violence against women. The article considers flexible working options and focuses on options for reframing employment law in a post-pandemic environment with a view to achieve and deliver equality between men and women through an intersectional lens.

Target summary: Identify the factors involved for consumers to use the digital social networks of restaurants in the Tijuana gastronomic area, enabling organisations to improve their communication with the target market. Methodology: In-depth interviews were conducted at three marketing agencies providing the social media marketing service in the area's organisations. 378 surveys of customers of five restaurants in the gastronomic area were applied, in order to select the units where the tool was applied, a digital social media activity observation and verification work was carried out. Results: Facebook is the platform most often used by people to search for information from restaurants; the factors that favour the use of digital social media are the maintenance of content; the administration of customer relations; publication of prices and promotions; links to official websites and description of services. Limitations: Companies in the gastronomic area of Tijuana, active in digital media and with active social networks, were included in the sample, leaving companies that do not use digital media for future research to carry out the comparison. Conclusions: Digital media have been an important component of access to information and review of gastronomic choices available to consumers. ; Resumen Objetivo: Identificar los factores que intervienen para que los consumidores utilicen las redes sociales digitales de los restaurantes de la zona gastronómica de Tijuana, que permita a las organizaciones mejorar su comunicación con el mercado meta. Metodología: Se realizaron entrevistas en profundidad en tres agencias de mercadotecnia que brindan el servicio de marketing con redes sociales en las organizaciones de la zona. Se aplicaron 378 encuestas a clientes de cinco restaurantes de la zona gastronómica, para seleccionar las unidades en donde se aplicó el instrumento, se efectuó un trabajo de observación y comprobación de actividad en redes sociales digitales. Resultados: La plataforma que más utilizan las personas ...

The purpose of this work is to examine the impact of external shocks on economic activity in DR Congo. Using a dynamic and stochastic general equilibrium model, the author simulates four main types of external shocks, namely: (i) the shock on the risk premium; (i) the shock on world inflation; (iii) the global productivity shock; (iv) the global monetary policy shock. Quarterly frequency data was used for the period from January 2005 to December 2017. The results suggest that external shocks leading to a slowdown in global demand have a significant impact on economic activity at the local level. Furthermore, the shock to the world interest rate does not seem to influence domestic economic activity, at least directly. This could be justified by the country's limited financial openness, international trade being the main channel for transmitting external shocks. ; Le présent travail a pour objectif d'examiner l'impact des chocs externes sur l'activité économique en RD Congo. En utilisant un modèle d'équilibre général dynamique et stochastique, l'auteur simule quatre principaux types de chocs externes à savoir : (i) le choc sur la prime de risque ;(i) le choc sur l'inflation mondiale ;(iii) le choc de productivité mondiale ; (iv) le choc de politique monétaire au niveau mondial. Les données de fréquence trimestrielle ont été utilisées pour la période allant de janvier 2005 à décembre 2017. Les résultats suggèrent que les chocs externes amenant à un ralentissement de la demande mondiale ont un impact sensible sur l'activité économique au niveau local. Par ailleurs, le choc sur le taux d'intérêt au niveau mondial ne semble pas influencer, au moins directement, l'activité économique intérieure. Ceci pourrait se justifier par une faible ouverture financière du pays, le commerce international étant le principal canal de transmission des chocs externes.

International audience ; We aim to propose a typological analysis of the regulation of scientific creative commons from the linguistic codification activity. We analyze the commons since the point of view of the communities' work. We point the apparent homogeneity of the epistemic communities that support these commons. This leads to a questioning about the homogeneity of the "community". We proceed, on the one hand, by means of a comparison between different research programs developed in the sociology of science and politics, on the other hand, by conducting a sociolinguistic analysis of the lexical statements resulting from the self-presentations of 23 creative commons. This critical analysis leads to segmenting all the groups that develop these commons into two families: communities with a stable and regular profile and scientific aims, and collectives with an abundant and unstable profile and with a view to social transformation. ; Notre article propose une analyse typologique de la régulation des communs scientifiques à partir de leur activité de codification linguistique. Nous analysons les communs sous l'angle du fonctionnement affiché des communautés animées par leurs membres. Nous interrogeons l'apparente homogénéité des communautés épistémiques qui soutiennent ces communs en opérant une analyse fondée sur les imaginaires linguistiques. Cette interrogation aboutit à une remise en cause de l'homogénéité de la forme « communauté ». Nous procédons, d'une part, au moyen d'une large revue de littérature en sciences sociales, d'autre part, en conduisant une analyse sociolinguistique des énoncés lexicaux issus des autoprésentations de 23 communs. Cette analyse critique aboutit à segmenter l'ensemble des groupes qui élaborent ces communs en deux familles : les communautés au profil stable et régulier et à visée scientifique ou technique, et les collectifs au profil foisonnant et instable et à visée de transformation sociale.

Peer reviewed ; This paper contributes to explain the persistence of differences in levels of entrepreneurship within and across countries. We provide an explanation based on the dynamic interplay between purposeful intergenerational transmission of preferences for entrepreneurship and public administration efficiency. Individuals vote on taxes, and the collected taxes fund the civil servants' wages. The performance of the administration generating an efficient normative and regulatory environment, affects the success of entrepreneurship. We show that an economy can reach two different long-run equilibria: a traditional equilibrium, with a low proportion of entrepreneurs, high taxes and an inefficient administration and, an entrepreneurial equilibrium with a high proportion of entrepreneurs and, lower taxes but enough to implement an efficient administration. The equilibrium achieved depends on the tax policy followed by the different generations. If decisions are made by majority voting in a myopic way, then the initial conditions of the society become crucial. This result explains persistence: an economy evolves around similar levels of entrepreneurship unless some reforms are implemented. G. Olcina and L. Escriche acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness project, ECO-2014-58297-R, ECO-2017-87245-R and the ERC project-TECTACOM. E.M. Tur thanks the Broman Foundation for financial support.

Proponemos nuevos modelos para el efecto de "El Niño Southern Oscillation", ENSO, sobre los precios de los alimentos en Colombia. Estudiamos el efecto del "Oceanic Niño Index", ONI, la medida de ENSO preferida, y de las precipitaciones locales sobre los precios de los alimentos perecederos. Estos modelos surgen de hechos estilizados conocidos, los cuales resumimos en este escrito, y admiten representaciones tiempo-variantes espacio-estado, de las que derivamos las reglas óptimas de pronóstico. Encontramos que una función de transferencia simple, condicional a la intensidad de ENSO, es suficiente para explicar estas relaciones. En adición al bien conocido hecho que la Niña tiene un efecto distinto al del Niño sobre los precios de los alimentos, también hallamos que el efecto de ENSO cambia con su intensidad. Reconocer que el ONI es un indicador imperfecto de las condiciones climáticas locales mejora el ajuste de nuestro modelo, lo cual se refleja en sus pronósticos. El modelo para la precipitación, sin embargo, no necesita de este recurso. También surgen ganancias en eficiencia debido al modelamiento de la heterocedasticidad. Finalmente, estos modelos pueden servir para entender el efecto de ENSO en otras variables como el PIB. ; We propose models for the effect of El Niño Southern Oscillation, ENSO, on food prices. We study the effect of the Oceanic Niño Index, ONI, the preferred ENSO measurement, and rainfall on fresh food prices. These models arise from well known stylized facts, which we summarize in this paper, and have time-varying state space forms from which we derive optimal forecasts. We found that a simple transfer function, conditional on ENSO intensity, suffices to model these relationships. In addition to the well known fact that Niñas' effect on food prices differs from Niños' effect, we also found that ENSO's effect varies with its intensity. Furthermore, acknowledging that ONI is an imperfect measure of local climatic conditions improves the model fit, which yields sensible forecasts. The rainfall-based model, however, does not employ this methodology. We also report efficiency gains from heteroskedasticity modelling. Finally, these models may also serve to study ENSO effect on other variables such as the GDP. ; Entendiendo, modelando y pronosticando el efecto de 'El Niño' sobre los precios de los alimentos: el caso colombiano Enfoque En este trabajo proponemos modelos para la relación entre el ENSO (El Niño-Oscilación del Sur, por su sigla en inglés) y la pluviosidad local, sobre la inflación de alimentos perecederos en Colombia. Estos modelos explican la inflación de alimentos perecederos en función Índice Oceánico el Niño (ONI, por su sigla en inglés) y de la pluviosidad local. El modelo tiene las siguientes características. Primero, modelamos los cambios de los precios relativos de los alimentos perecederos en vez de sus inflaciones. Segundo, suponemos que tanto el ONI como la pluviosidad local miden erróneamente las características climáticas locales de producción. Así, cada una de estas variables se descompone en una señal y un error de medición no observados, las cuales se obtienen de modelos con componentes no observados. A manera de contraste estimamos también modelos no lineales sin error de medición. Tercero, en los modelos de componentes no observados suponemos adicionalmente que la dinámica de la señal tiene una representación espacio-estado muy general, en la cual la señal es más suave que el ONI o la pluviosidad local. Cuarto, dependiendo de los valores del ONI, definimos un proceso que denominamos "intensidad", el cual se comporta como una cadena de Markov homogénea. Quinto, los cambios de los precios relativos responden a las condiciones climáticas locales no observadas, la señal, dependiendo de la intensidad observada. Sexto, suponemos que la función de transferencia de las condiciones climáticas no observadas a los cambios de los precios relativos es simple. Séptimo, también suponemos la existencia de heterocedasticidad condicional determinística que depende de la intensidad realizada en cada periodo de tiempo. Contribución Este trabajo le aporta a la literatura local e internacional porque incorpora, al estudio de la relación entre el ENSO y la inflación de alimentos, modelos novedosos que producen pronósticos condicionales sensatos. Adicionalmente, porque se modela los cambios de los precios relativos en lugar de la inflación de los perecederos. Segundo, basamos nuestro modelo en los hechos estilizados establecidos en (Caicedo-García, 2007) y en un reciente estudio de los autores, por publicarse, sobre la caracterización de los choques climáticos en Colombia, lo cual conlleva a especificar la no linealidad de manera natural. Frase destacada: Con base en estos dos modelos estamos en capacidad de producir pronósticos condicionales a escenarios sobre los valores futuros del ONI o de la precipitación Resultados Se encontraron modelos que producen pronósticos sensatos. El modelo con base en el ONI requiere la utilización de un esquema de error de medición debido a que el ONI es una medida de alcance global de los choques climáticos. El modelo con base en la precipitación no requiere de la utilización de esta formulación. Con base en estos dos modelos estamos en capacidad de producir pronósticos condicionales a escenarios sobre los valores futuros del ONI o de la precipitación. Para el modelo con base en ONI se obtuvo la regla óptima de pronóstico condicional a través del filtro de Kalman para escenarios dados. Estos escenarios se pueden obtener de la Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica de Estados Unidos (NOOA, por sus siglas en inglés), por ejemplo. Más específicamente, encontramos efectos no lineales muy significativos cuando se presenta un evento El Niño o La Niña, así como también para diferentes intensidades del ENSO. De hecho, las pruebas de comparación múltiple del efecto entre pares de intensidades del ONI nos llevaron agrupar estas en pocos subgrupos con efecto significantemente diferente entre, pero no dentro de ellos. Además, encontramos que a pesar de que la filtración de las condiciones climáticas locales es cercana al ONI/pluviosidad, surgen errores de medición considerables, especialmente en el modelo basado en ONI.