The burden of road traffic injuries in Kermanshah Province,Iran, in 2010–2011: GBD 2010 method

Deaths, injuries and disabilities resulting from road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a public health major concern. This study aims to calculate the burden of RTIs in Kermanshah Province in Iran. In this study to determine the years of life lost (YLL) related to RTIs, the National Death Registration and Forensics Medicine census data were employed. We use forensic medicine data to calculate the incidence of non-fatal injuries and years lost due to disability (YLD). The cause of death and non-fatal injuries was classified using ICD-10 codes and 23 groupes of global burden of diseases (GBD) 2010. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) estimated on the guidelines of the GBD 2010 and age and sex structure was taken from the National Statistic Center for the year 2010. Overall, 70.8% of the subjects were males. The fatal and non-fatal injury rates of RTI were 51.3 and 283.6 per 100,000 persons, respectively. YLLs and YLDs were 46613 (24.5 per 1000) and 3405 (1.8 per 1000) in both sexes, respectively. The disability adjusted life years were 40711 in males, 9306 in females and 50018 in both sexes (42.5, 9.8 and 26.3 per 1000, respectively). More than 93% of DALY was from YLL (24.5 per 1000), with a small proportion for YLD (1.8 per 1000). Accounting for more than 50,000 DALY attributed to RTIs, traffic injuries is a major public health and socioeconomic problem in Kermanshah. Designing cost-effective interventions based on comprehensive and multi-sectoral programmes at the national and provincial levels can save many lives and resources that are lost every year. Undoubtedly, establishing a surveillance system at the sub-national level and measuring the burden of injuries, as in this study, can help policy-makers and planners in lessening the burden of RTIs.     

An empirical investigation of interregional production relations and comparative advantage in US manufacturing, 1960–70

Hypothesized differences in mean changes in shares of European Community (EC) import markets over the period 1976-84 are tested for each of 36 less-developed countries. Means are calculated for cases in which MFN tariffs are re-established and for cases in which duty-free treatment is restored under the EC generalized system of preferences. They are compared with means for cases in which tariffs remained constant. We attempt to control for both product-specific and cyclical influences on imports. In contrast to some previous results, our findings suggest that denial (restoration) of preferential treatment, i.e. a tariff increase (decrease), has its expected negative (positive) effect.     

The multi-market firm, transportation costs, and the separation of the output and allocation decisions

Despite the documented importance of transport costs for firmswith sales in geographically separated markets, theoreticalanalyses typically ignore such costs. This paper analyzes theeffects of transport costs for a risk averse, competitive firmselling a single good in a domestic (certain) and a foreign(uncertain) market, and shows that these effects are asymmetric.The effects on total output and the inter-market allocationof output depend on the behavior of marginal domestic transportcosts, but are largely independent of the form of the foreigntransport cost function. Moreover, regardless of the latter,if marginal transport costs in the domestic market are constant,the firm's total output is independent of its attitude towardsrisk and the parameters of the risky market. This suggests thatthe firm's activity can be insulated from foreign uncertaintiesby government policies that focus on the shape of the domestictransportation cost function.     

Global discourse on ICT and the shaping of ICT policy in developing countries

This paper provides a critique of information and communication technology (ICT) policies in developing countries. Based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Iranian government discourse in the case of electronic fund transfer at the point of sale (EFT-POS) system, we illustrate the influence of global discourse on the policies and their contributions to the outcomes. We also analyze how policy shaped the ways in which different actors were included and allowed to participate in the implementation process. We show that enhancing the mainstream criteria like the rate of ICT adoption and diffusion, do not necessarily mean that policy will reap the expected benefits. From this standpoint, we propose that the focus of debate in policy making and defining policy objectives should move beyond setting objectives exclusively adopted from global discourse to also considering local issues and concerns. In such conditions, there will be less resistance to the government plans and fewer social challenges.     

Domestic and Foreign Sales When Prices in Both Markets are Uncertain

This paper obtains comparative static results for a firm that sells a single output domestically and abroad when prices in both markets are uncertain. Results are obtained for both constant absolute risk aversion and for Ross decreasing absolute risk aversion, using a diagrammatic analysis which exploits the properties of expected marginal utility contours. The results depend crucially on whether foreign and domestic sales are net substitutes or complements. The model is more complex and yields fewer unambiguous results – particularly in the case of substitutes – than when there is price uncertainty in only one market.     

Regional growth and interstate migration

The current study examines a simultaneous equation model of interstate migration using income growth, employment growth, unemployment growth, population growth, gross migration, and employment in manufacturing as endogenous variables. The results show that neither the growth of employment nor the growth of income in the destination location has been directly important determinants of migration flow. However, an indirect effect through the population variable can be discerned for these variables, and this has important policy implications. A key feature of this migration model is that it incorporates most of the determinant factors as rates of change over time. The study sheds light on the joint and indirect effects of migration and other endogenous variables and draws some important policy implications pertaining to growth.     

The choice between multiplicative and additive production uncertainty

When modeling output uncertainty, the multiplicative specification is consistently chosen over the additive form, despite the latter being arguably intuitively more obvious. The rationale for this seems to be that when production risk is the only source of uncertainty, additive uncertainty does not reduce output below the certainty level, while multiplicative uncertainty does. We show that, in the absence of hedging, this result is drastically modified when there is simultaneous price and output uncertainty. In this situation the theoretical implications of the two specifications are sufficiently similar to preclude any a priori choice between the two. Thus the choice between the additive and multiplicative formulations may be dictated by how each performs in empirical analyses.     

A note on Mill's theory of international values

This note provides an algebraic formulation of the analysis contained in section 7 of John Stuart Mill's chapter on international values. It is shown that Mill's results can be obtained as the solution to a pair of nonlinear programming problems. In addition, an error in Mill's analysis regarding the post-trade terms of exchange is pointed out.