Suchergebnisse

European Union Member States are, by now, implementing the European Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) 2014/40(1). This directive marks a significant milestone in the fight against tobacco use in Europe. This success has been the result of a joint effort by many that include lobbyists, media, health professionals, lawyers and parliamentarians. Most of all it is European citizens who will benefit from TPD. All are mobilized through the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)(2), which gives relevant leverage on policies for signatory countries. It might appear that the battle has been won when we see that legislation has been implemented, the public is informed, research has provided results, smoking-quit lines are available and affordable, non-smoker are protected by public policies and taxation policies are implemented. During most of the past forty years all these measures have contributed to the decline in smoking prevalence in many countries. However, the rate of decline has become slower and hence it is clear that we have still not reached out to all the people suffering from the ravages of tobacco use. Should we therefore be satisfied, let down our guard and be contented with this slow decline in prevalence? What is the reality?

This article aims to present the issue of "Annexation of Crimea by Russian Federation in 2014" to the wider audience in a descriptive manner, providing recent historical background of the issue, selected international responses towards the developments of this crisis and to explain it using the theory of structural realism, with its close counterparts of geopolitics and geostrategy. To deepen the understanding of Russian foreign policy in this matter, a theory of "Landbridge & Watchtowers" have been coined and explained by the author as an attempt at analyzing Russian motivations for the annexation. Also, the author would like to argue that Russian Federation used political liberalism, another well-established theory in International Relations field, to further it's realpolitik agenda.

At the first glance Polish intolerance of Muslims—expressed in a variety of quantitative and qualitative studies—seems to be puzzling for two reasons. Firstly, Poland has a six century long tradition of peaceful coexistence with Tatars, indigenous Polish Muslims, thus Poles should be used to the Muslim Other. Secondly, the number of Muslims in Poland is marginal (approximately 0.1%), which makes them hardly visible in the public sphere. Based on four hypotheses constructed on two factors (the number of Muslims and the wider regional and European context) the article hopes to provide some preliminary explanations.

To progress from a broad, poorly understood and semicoherent domain to a recognized and successful field or profession, several observers have suggested that futures studies and applied foresight require appropriate professional standards. While the issue has been around for a while, published work on this subject is still relatively uncommon. This paper address that concern. It is derived from two sources: first, a research project on the "health" of futures studies from 2009 and, second, a content review of several recent volumes of the journal Foresight. The resulting analysis raises questions that need to be debated more widely. It also serves as a call for further work of this kind by different people, using different methods, to round out and further develop this account. A central question is as follows: what standards should be applied and by whom?

Using an unexplored panel data on 1388 Moroccan municipalities from 2005 to 2009, this paper tries to investigate if the Moroccan central government follows a formula based approach when it redistributes the Value Added Tax (VAT) to local municipalities. By identifying the most important factors behind the allocation of these resources, we find evidence that the allocation formula is not respected in the redistribution of the VAT. Socio-economic variables are significant, implying that there is an underlying system of equalization with an important bias toward urban municipalities; Political factors do also play an important role in this redistribution process, and this supports the hypothesis of a tactical redistribution rather than a targeted redistribution. Besides, "swing municipalities" receive more transfers than others and being a municipality ruled by supporters of the central government does not seem to determine the amount of transfers to be received. Further quantile analysis shows that there is a real heterogeneity in the conditional distribution of the VAT and the impact of socio-economic characteristics depends on the amount of VAT received. ; En utilisant une base données unique et inexplorée sur 1388 communes marocaines de 2005 à 2009 ; ce papier tente de vérifier si le gouvernement Marocain respecte la formule d'allocation annoncée lors de la redistribution d'une partie de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée (TVA) aux communes locales. En identifiant les facteurs les plus importants derrière la redistribution des transferts inconditionnels, nos résultats montrent que la formule d'allocation n'est pas respectée lors de la redistribution de la TVA. Les variables socio-économiques apparaissent comme étant importantes, suggérant qu'il y a un système de péréquation sous-jacent avec un biais important vers les communes urbaines. Les facteurs politiques jouent également un rôle important dans ce processus de redistribution et soutiennent l'hypothèse d'une redistribution tactique plutôt qu'une redistribution ...

Using an unexplored panel data on 1388 Moroccan municipalities from 2005 to 2009, this paper tries to investigate if the Moroccan central government follows a formula based approach when it redistributes the Value Added Tax (VAT) to local municipalities. By identifying the most important factors behind the allocation of these resources, we find evidence that the allocation formula is not respected in the redistribution of the VAT. Socio-economic variables are significant, implying that there is an underlying system of equalization with an important bias toward urban municipalities; Political factors do also play an important role in this redistribution process, and this supports the hypothesis of a tactical redistribution rather than a targeted redistribution. Besides, "swing municipalities" receive more transfers than others and being a municipality ruled by supporters of the central government does not seem to determine the amount of transfers to be received. Further quantile analysis shows that there is a real heterogeneity in the conditional distribution of the VAT and the impact of socio-economic characteristics depends on the amount of VAT received. ; En utilisant une base données unique et inexplorée sur 1388 communes marocaines de 2005 à 2009 ; ce papier tente de vérifier si le gouvernement Marocain respecte la formule d'allocation annoncée lors de la redistribution d'une partie de la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée (TVA) aux communes locales. En identifiant les facteurs les plus importants derrière la redistribution des transferts inconditionnels, nos résultats montrent que la formule d'allocation n'est pas respectée lors de la redistribution de la TVA. Les variables socio-économiques apparaissent comme étant importantes, suggérant qu'il y a un système de péréquation sous-jacent avec un biais important vers les communes urbaines. Les facteurs politiques jouent également un rôle important dans ce processus de redistribution et soutiennent l'hypothèse d'une redistribution tactique plutôt qu'une redistribution ciblée. En outre, les communes dites "swing" reçoivent plus de transferts que les autres. Une analyse plus poussée en quantiles a montré qu'il existe une réelle hétérogénéité dans la distribution conditionnelle de la TVA et que l'impact des caractéristiques socio-économiques dépend du niveau de la TVA reçue.

Economies are moving towards competitive stadiums based on knowledge and innovation. The changing environment and the level of globalization demand important efforts in order to sustain competitive advantages. Portugal has experienced a remarkable evolution since its adhesion to the European Union in several fields: economic development, Research & Development (R&D) consolidation, health parameters and social cohesion. As other developed economies, Portugal started its journey towards a knowledge-based economy and has been consolidating an innovation system during the last 35 years. The following report aims to analyze the evolution of a system since its creation to its last transformation within a globalized context. Challenges such as the lack of maturity of the system, the economic crisis, the European paradox, and closing the gap with other European countries are addressed in the next chapters. Likewise, recommendations on these points are provided by the end of the report as potential solutions.