Suchergebnisse

Der Verfasser gibt einen Überblick über die Entwicklung des russischen Außenhandels mit den Staaten der asiatisch-pazifischen Region in den Jahren 1991 bis 1995. Er arbeitet die starke Position Chinas heraus, das führender asiatischer Handelspartner Rußlands ist und neben Rohstoffen auch Produkte der Maschinenbauindustrie, vor allem Waffen, aus Rußland importiert. Ein Einbruch in den asiatischen Handelsverbindungen Rußlands ergab sich mit der Dezentralisierung des russischen Außenhandels, der seit 1994 in der Form direkter Auslandskontakte der Unternehmen möglich ist. Das volle Potential des Ostasienhandels wird Rußland erst nach einer politischen und wirtschaftlichen Stabilisierung realisieren können. Dies gilt vor allem für Auslandsinvestitionen in den fernöstlichen Regionen Rußlands. (BIOst-Wpt)

Many large (medium) polluted areas involve agricultural activities. Because it is accepted only to grow high‐value crops for human consumption on clean soils, the clean soil yields a higher income after remediation than before. This higher income should not be ignored when calculating the net present value of the labor income originating from the use of the soil. This is why a sufficiently long period of time has to be taken into consideration. The social acceptance of phytoremediation then suffers from a dilemma. A choice has to be made between: (i) a faster remediation using hyper accumulator crops, with no (or only a very small) income during this period because the harvested biomass is very low, but on the other hand realizing an earlier re‐establishing of the clean soil with corresponding higher revenue opportunities; and (ii) a slower remediation using crops with higher biomass which can be valorised e.g. as a base for renewable energy, but reaching the clean soil situation with much more delay. An economic optimum will involve a mixture of (i) and (ii). The case study considered applies to a large area in the eastern part of Belgium in which diffuse heavy metal pollution is a heritage from the historical zinc smelters in the region. As a reference to evaluate the income effects of phytoremediation we use the net present value (NPV) of the actual labour income of the average farm (36 ha) earned by cultivating roughage (grassland and fodder maize for dairy cattle rearing). We assume that roughage, previously own produced, but now partially substituted with other crops, will be bought externally. To find the economic optimal land use we develop a 'blueprint' model involving the most important strategic variables which take numerical values according to probability ranges. We investigate the influence of the initial distribution of the land coverage between (i) the accumulating crop, willow (salix spp.) in 'short rotation forestry' (SRF) versus (ii) the renewable energy 'cash' crops: rapeseed (brassica nappus) and energy maize, and (iii) roughage, to continue ‐ but in a deceasing degree ‐ the traditional dairy cattle rearing. A parameter in the model takes into account the decrease in income (base value 30%) every 5 years from the current activity because the government is urging to cut back the production of milk in this polluted area. Other parameters represent the metal uptaking capacities of the different crops, the price for biodiesel (actual and projected) produced with rapeseed oil, the price of energy maize and the future income on the reclaimed land (with the conservative assumption to be 50% higher). An initial cultivation scheme (on the 36 ha) then looks as follows: 10 ha of SRF willow (with harvest every 4th year), 6 ha of rape (in 4 year rotation); 10 ha of energy maize; and 10 ha of roughage. The reclamation activity aims at removing on average (we distinguish the area according to 3 pollution intensities) 2,5 kg Cd/ha. The NPV over this period of the gross labour income resulting from the mentioned phytoremediation cultivation scheme is 11% higher than the NPV of continuing the actual land occupation (the reference). If we take into account a possible decrease in income from the current activity of 30% every five years, because of the increasing awareness of the influence of the contamination on the safety of the milk from the traditional dairy cattle rearing, the same phytoremediation scheme results in a 65% higher NPV than the adjusted reference. Increasing the surface of SRF willow to 15 ha shortens the calculated remediation period from 40 to 32 years; the NPV is now 76% higher than the reference. Comparing the NPV results from changing (from 0% to 30%), the size of the expected decrease in income from the current activity (ΔI) in combination with 3 different intensities of SRC (the 'phytoremediation crop') at the start, leads to the following conclusions. The larger ΔI – reflecting the government's awareness about the health risks emanating from the pollution: The larger the relative financial advantage of phytoremediation compared to the continuation (be it in a digressive way) of the current dairy cattle rearing. The more important it is to start with land coverage characterized by a large share for the strongest accumulating crop (SRC) so that the area reaches the 'clean' status sooner, giving opportunity to cultivate higher value added crops which actually is not possible just because of the contamination. Using realistic values for strategic variables, Monte Carlo simulations calculate the probability of the labour income results. The variation in the NPV of the labour income is mostly accounted for (% based on the 10 ha SRC scenario): (i) the decrease in income (ΔI) from continuing rearing dairy cattle fed with the own grown fodder maize on the polluted soil (46%); (ii) the uptaking capacity of the SRC willow (17%); (iii) the labour income from energy maize (11%) and maize (10%); (iv) the future increase in income from the land after reclamation (9%)

How do economic opportunities abroad affect citizens' ability to exit an authoritarian regime? This article theorizes the conditions under which authoritarian leaders will perceive emigration as a threat and use imprisonment instead of other types of anti-emigration measures to prevent mass emigration. Using data from communist East Germany's secret prisoner database that we reassembled based on archival material, the authors show that as economic opportunities in West Germany increased, the number of East German exit prisoners – political prisoners arrested for attempting to cross the border illegally – also rose. The study's causal identification strategy exploits occupation-specific differences in the changing economic opportunities between East and West Germany. Using differential access to West German television, it also sheds light on the informational mechanism underlying the main finding; cross-national data are leveraged to present evidence of the external validity of the estimates. The results highlight how global economic disparities affect politics within authoritarian regimes.

After more than a decade of progress in building an institutional infrastructure for gender equality, the overall economic opportunities among women in Serbia still lag those among men. Women, on average, earn 86 percent of the wages of their coworkers who are men after one controls for differences in educational and job characteristics. In the labor market, women who have the same work profiles as men have similar chances to be employed; however, there are many obstacles confronting women in joining the labor market in the first place. Gender inequalities are pronounced in rural areas, where a high number of women serving as unpaid family members are deprived of the right to social security. Furthermore, the recently published Gender Equality Index ranks Serbia 12 percentage points below European Union average. The Index highlights areas where particular efforts are needed such as the domain of work, access to financial resources, and social activities (domain of time). This report focuses on better understanding the factors that influence women's economic opportunities in particular, an area in which significant inequalities remain. Women's economic opportunity is defined as a set of laws, regulations, and practices that allow women to participate in the workforce under conditions roughly equal to those of men, whether as wage-earning employees or as owners of businesses. As such, the report looks into the ability of women to accumulate and build-up critical endowments - education and health – and to participate in the labor market and have access to jobs. By reviewing the institutions and policies relevant to gender equality in access to economic opportunities in Serbia, the intention is also to point out necessary improvements in policies and programs that will encourage women's participation in the workplace and thus create a more productive economy overall. The analysis mostly relies on exploiting a new dataset for Serbia, the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), together with Labor Force Survey (LFS) data. Findings show that gender equality exists in Serbia in terms of both participation in and attainment of education. Women in the prime age group have better educational characteristics than men of the same age, while the opposite holds for the older population of women. Gender educational gaps among the poor and the bottom 40 percentof the income distribution (the bottom 40) are similar in size relative to the corresponding gaps in the general population. Nevertheless, individuals living in rural areas and the Roma population are disadvantaged and tend to have larger gender educational gaps. According to our findings,in rural areas, women have lower average educational attainment. Early school leavers among women are also more likely to live in rural areas. Number of indicators, such as,the enrolment rates in secondary education, average number of years spent in education and percentage of population that can expect to complete postsecondary education, have significantly lower values among Roma than nonRoma population.

RAND researchers present a detailed assessment of the economic development and workforce potential for sustainable sectors in the Pittsburgh region to assist stakeholders in making impactful decisions and investments.

This article examines interstate migration and labor force participation among White, American Indian and intermarried Indian/White couples. The results show that endogamous American Indian couples are much less likely to change states of residence than are the other two groups of couples. The effect of interstate migration on labor force participation does not vary across the three groups of couples. The implications of these results for the assimilation and internal colonial models of race relations and for federal Indian policy are discussed.

Front Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- About the Editors -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1 Demographic Change and Social Policies in Uruguay -- Introduction -- Uruguay's Demography: 1950-2100 -- Income and Consumption Profiles and Their Impact on Social Spending -- The Impacts on Macroeconomics: The Challenge of Productivity -- Conclusions and Policy Challenges -- Structure of the Book -- Notes -- Reference -- Chapter 2 Current and Future Uruguayan Demographics -- Introduction -- Demographics: Past and Present -- Projections under Different Scenarios -- Dependency Ratios and the Demographic Dividend -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 3 National Transfer Accounts -- Introduction -- The Economic Life Cycle -- Public Transfers by Age Group -- The Effects of Demographic Change on the Support Ratio and the Public Accounts -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 4 Social Protection in a Demographic Transition -- Introduction -- Social Protection in Uruguay -- Income Transfers and Poverty -- Profile of Social Protection Beneficiaries in 2013 -- The Future of Social Protection -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 5 Population Aging and Challenges for Health Care -- Introduction -- A Brief Description of Uruguay's Health Care System -- Health Care Sector Expenditure and Financing -- Health Care Spending Forecasts, 2013-2100 -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 6 Demographic Change and the Education System -- Introduction -- Coverage and Completion -- Education Spending -- The Uruguayan Demographic Transition: Implications for Education Policy -- Final Considerations -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 7 Labor Market and Productivity -- Introduction -- Labor Participation and Productivity: Recent Evolution (1981-2013) -- What Can We Expect from the Evolution of Labor Force Participation?.

The Soviet leadership has announced changes in policy objectives which have opened the USSR economy to foreign trade and investment at the enterprise level. These changes in national policy objectives could create new opportunities for foreign involvement in the Soviet Far East. The authors discuss investment opportunities in this region, stronger resistance to reform in the Soviet economy, investment in infrastructure in the Soviet Far East, joint venture rules for this region etc. (DÜI-Sen)