Suchergebnisse

Auf dem Höhepunkt steigender Preise für Energie und Nahrungsmittel wurde die Kritik an Subventionen als Mittel zur Armutsbekämpfung wieder lauter. Zum einen belasten sie die Staatshaushalte. Zum anderen verfehlen sie häufig ihr Ziel aufgrund von Korruption und/oder Preisverzerrungen. Eine mögliche Alternative bestünde in Direktzahlungen an Arme. Ob solche Cash-Transfers eine effizientere Finanzierungsmethode sind, hängt jedoch von verschiedenen Faktoren ab. Zum einen sind Cash- Transfers am ehesten geeignet strukturelle Armut zu bekämpfen, die auf einen Mangel an kaufkräftiger Nachfrage zurückzuführen ist. Zweitens benötigt ein Land die administrative Kapazität und Ausstattung sowohl für eine angemessene Erreichung der richtigen Zielgruppe als auch für eine akkurate Überwachung der Einhaltung von Konditionalitäten. Drittens sollte es eine Exit-Strategie geben, die verhindert, dass Familien nach Beendigung des Programms zurück in die Armut fallen. Und nicht zuletzt bedarf es eines starken politischen Willens und öffentlicher Akzeptanz, um ein Programm erfolgreich zu implementieren.

As rising energy and food prices reached their peak, subsidies have come under increased scrutiny as a means of supporting the poor. Not only do they put a severe strain on government budgets, more often than not they miss their target owing to leakages, corruption and price distortions. An alternative to subsidies may consist in conditional cash transfers to the poor. Whether they are a more efficient option for financing development goals depends, however, on a number of factors. First, conditional cash transfers are appropriate when structural poverty is, at least in part, due to a lack of demand. Second, a country needs to have both the administrative capacity for proper targeting and the means to monitor conditionalities accurately and to enforce them. Third, a viable exit strategy must be established to prevent families from falling back into extreme poverty once they become ineligible to participate. Finally, political will and public acceptance are essential for successful implementation.

When India initiated economic reforms in July 1991 to deal with the consequences of the balance of payments crisis the country also started to open its economy to international trade - if only gradually. Over the years, this policy has been criticized by NGOs as harming the poor through increased competition by multinational companies and through declining prices of agricultural products. Consequently, this paper analyses India's performance with regard to its two different trade regimes over the past four decades and assesses their respective impacts on poverty alleviation.

According to UNHCR, the number of refugees and people of the UNHCR's concern exceeds 20 million. This number, though very large, is still understated as it accounts only for those individuals who actually fulfil UNHCR's definition of a refugee. The true number of people in adversity, in need of another state's help, in search for a better life, is much higher than this officially announced figure. Next to legal and political implications, this poses a moral problem to the rest of the world population - how are we to treat refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in general; what possible duties or obligations do foreign states have towards this group of outsiders? This paper undertakes to explore the moral claims outsiders might have towards a foreign nation-state. Accordingly, the following questions will be addressed: First, is a state obliged to assist and help refugees and on what grounds can these obligations be based? Second, do migrants possess any rights towards a given nation-state and, if so, from what reasoning might those rights be derived? By analyzing these questions applying competing moral theories, the paper arrives at the conclusion that there cause for a thorough rethinking of the concepts of statehood and citizenship.

AbstractDespite the rising importance of fair trade (FT), a relatively small amount of academic research has been done in this area so far. Advocates of FT claim that it will ultimately improve the living conditions of the poor. Opponents hold that it will worsen their situation. More often than not, public discussion is affected by dogmatic views, prejudices and emotional charges. This paper aims to contribute to an objective discussion of the topic. We present a matching model to analyse the welfare effects of FT in an agricultural market. Our results show that producers obtaining FT certification are better off. All others will lose if incentives for importers to enter the market decline. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Der Seeverkehr verursacht etwa 3,3 Prozent der globalen Treibhausgasemissionen. Da langfristig mit einem deutlichen Wachstum des globalen Seefrachttransports zu rechnen ist, ist auch ein Anstieg der Treibhausgasemissionen in diesem Sektor wahrscheinlich. Trotz langjähriger multilateraler Verhandlungen unterliegt der internationale Seeverkehr bislang keinen verbindlichen Begrenzungen, sodass die Wahrscheinlichkeit hoch ist, dass die EU ebenso wie bereits beim internationalen Luftverkehr unilaterale Schritte unternehmen wird. Hier ist eine Einbindung der Seeschifffahrt in das Europäische Emissionshandelssystem in der Diskussion. Dies wirft Fragen nach dem Grad der Integration und der Reichweite des Regimes, einer geeigneten Bemessungsgrundlage, einer angemessenen Emissionsobergrenze sowie dem Allokationsverfahren auf. Grundsätzlich könnten mittels einer Integration in den Europäischen Emissionshandel über 30 Prozent der seeverkehrsbedingten CO2-Emissionen abgedeckt werden. Ein schlecht ausgestaltetes System birgt jedoch die Gefahr, dass Emissionsziele beständig verfehlt werden und dass die europäische Seeschifffahrt Wettbewerbsnachteile erleidet. Vor einem Inkrafttreten besteht somit weiterer Forschungs- und Diskussionsbedarf. ; Ocean shipping causes about 3.3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. As global sea freight transport is expected to grow markedly in the long term, a corresponding increase in Greenhouse gas emissions is likely. Despite many years of multilateral negotiations no agreement has been achieved on binding regulations. Therefore, similar to international aviation, there is a high probability for a unilateral approach by the EU. A possible solution is to include maritime shipping into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. To follow through with this, though, some important points such as the scope of integration, the coverage of the system, the allocation method and the setting of the cap need clarification. In principle, such an approach could cover more than 30 Prozent of maritime CO2 emissions. On the other hand, a badly embellished system runs the risk of continuously missing the emission target and might harm the competitiveness of the European maritime sector. Hence, further research and discussions are required before such a system can come into effect.