Browse by: "2013"
Index
Title Index
Year Index
France
Administrative Court of Appeal of Lyon, 19 June 2012, Judgements Nos. 12LY00233 and 12LY00290 regarding EDF’s permit to construct a waste conditioning and storage facility (ICEDA) in the town of Saint-Vulbas
Germany
Request for arbitration against Germany at the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) because of Germany’s legislation leading to the phase-out of nuclear energy
India
Cases related to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP)
Switzerland
Judgement of the Federal Administrative Court in the matter of Balmer-Schafroth a.o.v. BKW FMB Energy Inc. on the revocation of the operating licence for the Mühleberg nuclear power plant
United States
Judgement of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacating the NRC’s 2010 Waste Confidence Decision and Rule Update
Fiscal consolidation complicates the task of achieving other policy goals. In most cases, it weighs on demand in the short term. And, if too little attention is paid to the mix of instruments used to achieve consolidation, it can slow the process of global rebalancing, undermine long-term growth and exacerbate income inequality. It is therefore important for governments to adopt consolidation strategies that minimise these adverse side-effects. The analysis assesses the near and long-term consolidation needs for OECD countries and proposes consolidation strategies that take into account other policy goals as well as country-specific circumstances and preferences. To do so, increases in particular taxes and cuts in specific spending areas are assessed for their effects on short- and longterm growth, income distribution and external accounts. The results of detailed simulations indicate that a significant number of OECD countries may have to raise harmful taxes or cut valuable spending areas to deliver sufficient consolidation, underscoring the need for structural reforms to counteract these side-effects.
In spite of the active role Switzerland played during the negotiation process of the Paris Convention, it only recently ratified the Convention including all its amending Protocols. The whole Paris regime will become binding for Switzerland only upon entry into force of the Protocols of 2004. Concurrently, the Federal Council will put into force a revised Swiss Nuclear Liability Act and ratify the Joint Protocol. Being a party to the Paris regime and the Joint Protocol, Switzerland will be in treaty relationships with Paris states and with Vienna states which are party to the Joint Protocol.
This paper has three original contributions. The first is the reconstruction effort of the series of employment and income to allow the creation of a new coincident index for the Brazilian economic activity. The second is the construction of a coincident index of the economic activity for Brazil, and from it, (re) establish a chronology of recessions in the recent past of the Brazilian economy. The coincident index follows the methodology proposed by The Conference Board (TCB) and it covers the period 1980:1 to 2007:11. The third is the construction and evaluation of many leading indicators of economic activity for Brazil which fills an important gap in the Brazilian Business-Cycle literature.
Keywords: Coincident and Leading Indicators, Business Cycles, Common Features, Latent Factor Analysis
JEL codes: C32, E32
China has made huge strides in expanding access to higher education since the 1980s. The main approach to achieve mass higher education was cost-sharing reforms of tertiary education. This article examines the policy reforms that affected tuition, fees and subsidies for tertiary students since the end of the 1980s and looks at the effects in terms of equity and access. It also examines institutional responses to the various policy changes as they competed for state funds. Using relevant literature, officially published statistical data and results from the related surveys, it identifies the patterns of inequality among four disadvantaged groups. Finally, it analyses the major determinants/contributors to inequality of access to higher education including state and institutional policies and practices, and tuition-related and student-support related factors.
On average, nearly two-thirds of public investment in OECD countries occurs at the sub-national level. Clearly then, any discussion of improving returns to investment must address the capacities of sub-national governments to invest effectively. Unfortunately, the implementation of recovery packages across OECD countries revealed that both national and sub-national actors may lack the appropriate tools and governance arrangements to make the best use of investment funds. Taking this finding as its starting point, this paper seeks to 1) identify capacities that enable sub-national governments to design and implement sound public investment strategies for regional development, and 2) provide practical guidance for assessing and strengthening these capacities in a context of multi-level governance.
The aim of this study is to examine the validity of the day-of-the-week effect on both mean and volatility for changes in Consumer Confidence Index in Turkey. To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous study on this topic for an emerging market. Employing the E-GARCH method, we are able to validate day-of-the-week effect both in mean and volatility of the daily changes in the Consumer Confidence Index. In our findings, the mean equation exhibits only a Friday effect and the lowest volatility is also observed for Friday. Additionally, we use nonparametric stochastic dominance (SD) approach by employing several SD tests and verify the existence of Friday effects.