Positioning the World Bank

This article examines the rationale for the World Bank and explores whether its objective is best served by its current mix of activities. We are critical of the Bank's reliance on conditionality, and advocate evolution into a Knowledge Bank, which would lend with few conditions to countries with good policies and good institutions, and would concentrate on the provision of knowledge and technical assistance, rather than lending, in countries where the policy framework is poor. We also advocate an expansion in the Bank's role as a provider of global public goods; we critically examine the Banks role in relation to financial crises.     

The World Market for Labor and the World Market for Industrial Sites

At the center of the on-going debate about the U.S. Social Security system is the question of whether the way the system is financed can cope with the future challenges posed by the retiring Baby Boom generation. The "reformers" suggest changing the design of the system by moving to fully funded defined contribution retirement plans. Others argue that the so-called demographic problems are being used as an excuse to privatize the system. But both sides spend almost all of their energy and time figuring out the timing of insolvency of the system and the validity of the assumptions made in each forecast. In contrast, the present study closely examines the changing macroeconomic dynamics of the system since the 1960s. The analysis shows that undermining of the system is caused not by demographic changes or financing mechanisms but by low wages and medical inflation.     

On the World Distribution of Income

In this paper we demonstrate that the size distribution of the world income may be reasonably approximated by a log‐normal distribution rather then by a power law, as has previously been believed. This result has been shown to be quite persistent as we move from 1985 to 2011.     

天下

1．惜别奥运 2008年10月30日，2008北京国际新闻中心主任翟惠生（右）将“2008北京国际新闻中心记者手迹百米长卷”郑重捐赠给北京奥林匹克中心中国体育博物馆。2008北京奥运期间，共有来自包括中国在内的世界16个国家的媒体记者将1772个珍贵手迹留在了百米长卷上。     

天下

北极熊“雪花”；在伦敦看中国；救助白天鹅；就业之春；生于1888年。     

天下

1.舞蹈游行2008年5月17日,纽约举行第二届舞蹈大游行,数千名舞蹈者走上街头载歌载舞,爵士舞、探戈、非洲舞、拉丁舞、迪斯科、肚皮舞、西班牙斗牛舞、现代舞等等,无所不有,吸引了数万观众。     

天下

1．潜入深蓝 2008年7月24日，俄罗斯。“和平号”深海潜水器第二次尝试下潜到贝加尔湖深处，前一次尝试由于湖底强烈的漩涡而失败。国际科研探险队20日来到贝加尔湖，预计到今年10R中旬将会完成60次下潜行动，明年将会超过100次。     

天下

1.艺术奥运2008年8月,北京尤伦斯当代艺术中心正在举办我们的未来收藏展。北京奥运会期间,尤伦斯所在的798艺术区举办了形式多样的艺术活动,这里成为传播人文奥运的另一个舞台。     

天下

1.纳什团体2007年7月15日,俄罗斯莫斯科郊外的塞利格湖边,纳什青年团体组织正在进行为期两周的夏令营。该团体于2005年建立,目的是为了提升俄罗斯民族主义价值观,纳什团体的成员都是普京总统的拥戴者。     

天下

1.以环保的名义2009年6月24日,英国威尔特郡(Whiteparish),小酒馆老板JimGoodland给自己的爱车添了点看起来很环保的小装饰——一个茅草顶棚。他说,茅草顶棚不妨碍行驶,不过对减少燃油损耗可没什么帮助。     

天下

月球战车为了尽快重返月球,美国宇航局推出了首辆月球车样品,名为战车(Chariot)。战车从开始研发到完工只花了一年时间,有12个轮子,由2个电动马达驱动,可两级变速。其中超猛的推土机模式的月球车能提供4000磅推力;而巡洋舰模式的月球车能以24公里/小时的速度巡游。这个庞然大物比一般月球车大,可以载7到8人。