Suchergebnisse

An equalisation grant is intended to even out the differences in cost and income that occur between different local governments, and which are not due to differences in the scope of the services provided. Open-ended matching grants counteract this intention. Such grants provide local authorities with the opportunity of offering a higher level of service without imposing a correspondingly higher rate of tax. It is mainly authorities with a high-tax capacity that have the financial ability to take advantage of this opportunity. Open-ended grants neutralise in this way the income distributive effects of the tax equalisation grant. An evaluation of Swedish data confirms that this is indeed the case.

The following is a study of how the welfare taxi services in Sweden have been affected by the introduction of a ceiling to their specific grants. The municipalities that were studied were found to have expanded the services at a slower rate since the introduction of the ceiling, and from this time there has been a greater use of fees to finance the taxi service.

Security of supply of a number of raw materials is of concern for the European Union; foremost among these are the rare earth elements (REE), which are used in a range of modern technologies. A number of research projects, including the EURARE and ASTER projects, have been funded in Europe to investigate various steps along the REE supply chain. This paper addresses the initial part of that supply chain, namely the potential geological resources of the REE in Europe. Although the REE are not currently mined in Europe, potential resources are known to be widespread, and many are being explored. The most important European resources are associated with alkaline igneous rocks and carbonatites, although REE deposits are also known from a range of other settings. Within Europe, a number of REE metallogenetic belts can be identified on the basis of age, tectonic setting, lithological association and known REE enrichments. This paper reviews those metallogenetic belts and sets them in their geodynamic context. The most well-known of the REE belts are of Precambrian to Palaeozoic age and occur in Greenland and the Fennoscandian Shield. Of particular importance for their REE potential are the Gardar Province of SW Greenland, the Svecofennian Belt and subsequent Mesoproterozoic rifts in Sweden, and the carbonatites of the Central Iapetus Magmatic Province. However, several zones with significant potential for REE deposits are also identified in central, southern and eastern Europe, including examples in the Bohemian Massif, the Iberian Massif, and the Carpathians.

The objective of health technology assessment (HTA) is to support decision making in health care. HTA does not claim to provide a definite solution to a health care problem, but to assist decision makers with evidence-based information about the clinical, ethical, social, and economic implications of the development, diffusion, and use of health care technology.Although technology assessments are primarily based on evidence of effectiveness from clinical research findings, they also contain cost-effectiveness analyses, discussions of organizational and managerial issues related to adopting the assessment's recommendations, and policy analyses of the resources that are needed to implement the recommendations. Therefore, technology assessments contain information that will be interpreted differently depending on the context in which the assessment is implemented.Local circumstances, such as availability of personnel and financial resources, competition for limited resources, and the political situation, will influence the implementation of the findings of technology assessment. Cultural factors, such as the perceived importance of the subject of the technology assessment, attitudes toward technology, and acceptance of change, will also influence the adoption of recommendations from technology assessments.In this report of the EUR-ASSESS Subgroup on Dissemination and Impact, we strive to draw conclusions and make recommendations that will be useful to technology assessment programs in all European countries. However, organizations that attempt to implement the recommendations of this report must take the local and cultural circumstances of their regions into consideration.This report discusses several strategies for informing policy makers and communities of technology assessments:Diffusion is a passive process by which information is spread to an audience,Dissemination is an active process of spreading a message to defined target groups, andImplementation is a still more active process, including interventions to reduce or eliminate barriers to behavior change and/or activities to promote behavior change.In general, technology assessment organizations have given little attention to dissemination or implementation activities. However, as organizations have realized that the results of their assessments may have delayed or no impact on practice, dissemination has moved into the agenda.The goal of the report of the EUR-ASSESS Subgroup on Dissemination and Impact is to provide guidance to technology assessment programs in Europe on: a) the effective dissemination of the products of health care technology assessments programs; and b) the evaluation of the effects of such dissemination.The approach to this task was to: a) conduct a literature review to examine the evidence for the effectiveness of different methods of dissemination and implementation of research findings; b) conduct a survey to determine what technology assessment agencies are currently doing to disseminate and implement technology assessments; and c) describe a marketing strategy for disseminating technology assessments.This summary presents our methods and major conclusions. The overall conclusions of the report are rated according to the strength of the evidence on which they are based. The summary concludes with recommendations for technology assessment agencies that are derived from the major findings of the report as well as the practical experience of the committee members.