The community of ten after the Athens summit

Twenty-five years after its foundation, the European Community is in a blind alley. Not one of the urgent problems facing it was brought closer to solution at the summit conference held in Athens at the end of last year. Professor Rudolf Hrbek takes stock.     

A flow mechanism for layering in a heterogeneous porous medium

The flow of a particle fluid mixture through a heterogeneous permeable material is studied with a view to obtaining characteristic fingerprints for the structures that such flows may exhibit. This flow has a variable density and behaves as a compressible fluid, with the compressibility derived from the variations of the local field variables. Both pressure-sensitive or speed-fluctuation-dependent rheologies are studied in the steady state and a speed-fluctuation-dependent material is studied in a time-dependent analysis. The salient findings are that for a pressure-sensitive material structures normal to the mean flow direction are obtained. For the speed-fluctuation-dependent rheology, the pressure structures are normal to the mean flow, whereas the density structures are aligned with the flow (fingering).     

Liberalising Services Trade in the EU

The internal market for services, which are estimated to account for 60 to 70 per cent of economic activity in the European Union, is still rife with legal and administrative barriers to cross-border trade. The problems involved in integrating national services markets into one large internal market are highlighted by the ongoing fierce controversy over the Commission’s proposed services directive. The following contributions discuss some pertinent issues.

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*The article is based in part on a paper prepared for the World Trade Forum 2004 in Berne (“The Single Undertaking After Cancun: Diversity and Variable Geometry in the World Trading System”). All references in the following are to the European Communities, reflecting its membership status in the WTO, rather than to the European Union. The views expressed are those of the author and cannot be attributed to the WTO Secretariat.     

Changing production patterns,poverty, and the role of consumer unions: Some conceptual notes with reference to Latin America

The purpose of this paper, first presented in the seminar on poverty of the Thirteenth World Conference of The International Organization of Consumers Unions, is to introduce the work of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean containing a proposal for changes in the development strategy of Latin America in the 1990's (ECLAC, 1990a). A centerpiece in this proposal concerns the possibility to combine economic growth with social equity. In the first part of the paper, the main concepts in ECLAC's outline of a new development strategy are presented. The second part focuses specifically on the relationship between growth and poverty reduction. In the last part some ideas are launched to discuss what this might imply for the role of Consumer Unions in the context of development.

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Sich ändernde Produktionsstrukturen, Armut und die Rolle von Verbrauchervereinigungen: einige Überlegungen im Hinblick auf Lateinamerika

Zusammenfassung Ziel des Beitrages, der erstmals anläßlich eines Seminars über Armut der 13. Weltkonferenz der Verbrauchervereinigungen vorgestellt wurde, ist es, über die Arbeit der wirtschaftlichen Kommission der Vereinten Nationen für Lateinamerika und die Karibik und ihre Vorschläge zur Veränderung der Entwicklungsstrategie für diese Region für die 90er Jahre zu informieren. Kernstück dieser Vorschläge ist die Verbindung von ökonomischem Wachstum mit sozialer Gleichheit.Im ersten Abschnitt des Beitrages werden die Hauptkonzepte, die die Kommission bei der Analyse der Gründe für die Entwicklungsprobleme in Lateinamerika verwendet, und die politischen Vorschläge an die Regierungen der Region behandelt. Der zweite Abschnitt untersucht die Beziehung zwischen wirtschaftlichem Wachstum und Armutsbekämpfung und stellt dabei die Fähigkeit des Einzelnen, sozial sinnvoll zu handeln, und deren Förderung in den Vordegrund. Der dritte Abschnitt äußert einige Vorstellungen dazu, welche Rolle den Verbrauchervereinigungen in dieser Entwicklung zukommt.

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Rudolf M. Buitelaar is Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Casilla 179 D, Santiago, Chile.     

Wage curve, unemployment duration and compensating differentials

In this study unemployment effects on individual pay are investigated following the study on ‘wage curves’ by Blanchflower and Oswald (1990). In bargaining models, higher unemployment should lower wage pressure; due to compensating wage differential arguments, on the other hand, workers who take jobs with higher layoff risks should be rewarded. In a cross-sectional study on Austrian data, a negative wage curve is confirmed. Contrary to the results by Blanchflower and Oswald no U-shape is found, also long-term unemployment seems to be important. No conclusive evidence of compensating differentials has been determined.     

Analyzing the Multiple Dimensions of Negotiation Processes

Negotiation processes involve a substantive, a communication, and an emotional dimension. These dimensions have been analyzed mainly in isolation of each other. We introduce an approach to consider all three dimensions and present an empirical study on the relations between these dimensions. Results indicate a strong linkage between communication behavior and emotions, while connections to the substantive dimension of the negotiation process are weaker.     

Liberalizing trade in services: from Marrakech to Seattle

WTO Members are currently preparing the ground for a new services round to be launched in Seattle, in December 1999. This article reviews recent developments in services trade, the underlying economic factors and the political response given hitherto by WTO Members. Critical issues in the preparation of the new round, including the choice of the basic negotiating approach, are discussed. All views expressed are those of the author.     

Information Revelation via Takeovers in Correlated Environments

This paper studies the informational content of takeover bids in correlated environments and provides an explanation for the empirical result that industry rivals of takeover targets exhibit positive share-price reactions on the announcement of a bid. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.