Labour standards and capacity in global subcontracting chains: evidence from a construction MNC

This article investigates how fundamental labour rights specified in international framework agreements are implemented and monitored in subcontracting chains. It shows how labour's capacity for workplace‐based monitoring is influenced by factors such as ownership structures, the societal context, and, most importantly, the institutions and dynamics of local labour control.     

Interorganizational relationships and hospital financial performance: a resource-based perspective

This study follows a resource-based theory perspective and aims to analyze the interorganizational relationships between hospitals and outpatient physicians, and hospital financial performance. In the light of increasing interdependence among healthcare providers which has made the coordination of service provision more complex, such relationships could be considered a resource for hospitals that lead to higher performance. In this study, the results from a survey of medical directors were combined with financial performance indicators of their hospitals. The results show that having effective interorganizational relationships is positively associated with the hospital's profitability. This finding emphasizes the importance of an investment in interorganizational relationships from the hospital's point of view.     

Managing conflicting goals in pig farming: farmers' strategies and perspectives on sustainable pig farming in Sweden

Industrial meat production has several negative environmental effects. Governments’ agricultural policies aim for cost efficiency combined with high environmental and animal welfare, which puts farmers in a difficult situation trying to navigate between sometimes contradictory requirements. This paper studies how Swedish pig farmers resolve or cope with conflicting goals in pig farming. We have analysed the regulations governing EU and Swedish pig farming. We have also interviewed five Swedish pig farmers about their views of the different goals of pig farming and strategies for resolving conflicts between the goals of low environmental impact, high animal welfare and enough profitability to continue farming. The greatest divide was between the conventional farmers, who emphasized natural resource efficiency, and the organic farmers who stressed animal welfare, multifunctionality and ecosystem service delivery. We suggest four strategies to contribute to resolving some of the conflicting goals: improve communication about different types of pig farming; use public procurement as a driver towards more sustainable pork production; work towards improving the Common Agricultural Policy, perhaps by implementing payments for ecosystem services or multifunctionality; and finally, decrease the total production of pork to lower the emissions per land unit.     

Training für den Beckenboden

Zusammenfassung  Vorsorge und konservative Therapie bei Harninkontinenz — Harninkontinenz ist mit circa 8 Millionen betroffenen Frauen in Deutschland ein gesellschaftlich relevantes Thema. Heute gibt es viele M?glichkeiten, die Inkontinenz erfolgreich zu verringern oder zu beseitigen. Eckpfleiler der konservativen Therapie ist das Beckenbodentraining, das physiotherapeutisch angeleitet wird und in den t?glichen Pflegeprozess integriert werden sollte.     

A world trade model with bilateral trade based on comparative advantage

This paper describes an extension of Duchin's world trade model to include the explicit representation of transportation costs, permitting the endogenous determination of bilateral trade flows and region-specific prices. The original model is a linear program that, based on comparative advantage and the minimization of factor use, determines regional production and trade flows as well as world prices and scarcity rents for m regions, n good, and k factors. The new world trade model with bilateral trade achieves its objectives by introducing transportation services and geographically dependent transportation requirements for each traded good and each pair of potential trade partners. The formulation of this model and its major properties are presented, and results from a preliminary analysis with 11 regions, eight goods, four transportation sectors, and six factors of production are reported and compared with corresponding results from the world trade model. On the basis of this comparison, we conclude that transportation costs have little impact on a region's total imports or exports of a given commodity.     

Return Guarantees with Delayed Payment

Abstract. A unit-linked insurance contract can be formulated in terms of a guaranteed amount together with a fraction of a positive excess return of a benchmark portfolio. Normally, the excess return is determined annually and accumulated until the maturity of the contract. The accumulation factor that is granted with respect to the delayed payments can either be deterministic or equal to the (stochastic) bank account. It turns out that the common choice of a deterministic accumulation factor gives rise to problems concerning the pricing and the risk management of the insurance contract.     

A MULTI-OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF INPUT–OUTPUT MATRIX UPDATING METHODS

This paper shows that important insights can be lost when assessing the relative performance of balancing methods solely based on individual optima. This is demonstrated through a multi-objective assessment. A trade-off curve between RAS and sign-preserving absolute differences (SPAD) is obtained based on the 60×60 Norwegian 2001 input–output table. The trade-off curve takes on a form that is close to a step function. This demonstrates that the solution surface around the RAS and SPAD optimums are very flat. Solutions can be identified that improve on the other objective or measure with little or marginal cost to the original objective function. Motivation for the assessment is provided, the technique applied is presented and the implications of the findings are discussed in an input–output and industrial ecology context.     

International Tax Issues Surrounding Cross-Border Security Investments, Including Implications of Recent Revisions of the U.S. Tax Code

This article demonstrates how international tax considerations can affect international security investments. The investor who ignores international tax factors puts himself at a disadvantage relative to those who are atuned to international tax developments. Similarly, financial managers interested in successfully raising funds in foreign capital markets would do well to examine the tax implications of their international security offerings from the target investor's viewpoint.     

Multimarket Analysis of Agricultural Price Policies in an Operational Context: The Case of Cyprus

This article presents a method of analysis of agricultural pricepolicies. Its basic features are (1) the incorporation of importantsupply and demand substitution possibilities; (2) a flexiblestructure which can account for institutional features of theagricultural sector and its relationships with the rest of theeconomy; and (3) a focused, policy-oriented approach. An applicationto Cyprus is presented which highlights the differences betweenthis approach and analyses of single markets. The method incorporatessupporting software on personal computers, with the longer-termobjective of developing this type of approach as a standardtool in pricing policy analysis.