ANFA — National Money Creation as an Existential Threat to the Currency Union?

The recent publication of the previously secret Agreement on Net Financial Assets (ANFA) directed the public’s attention to the possibility that national central banks could create money through purchases of securities on their own account. This paper provides an overview of the legal foundations for ANFA and shows the varying extent to which the member countries use these regulations. What are the interests, risks and consequences for the countries in crisis and the currency union as a whole? Is the ECB properly monitoring ANFA purchases? Could money creation via ANFA act as an explosive device for the currency union?     

The changing nature of artisanal work and occupations: Important for understanding labour markets

ABSTRACT

The social and political conditions within which artisans are required to work have shifted globally. The South African policy concern is to train bigger quantities and improve artisanal skills quality, while simultaneously providing more opportunities for young, black and women artisans. A concern for academia is how this shifting milieu will impact on our understanding of artisanal work and occupations and what implications should this have for further research. Using the concept of occupational boundaries, we investigate, at a micro level, real and perceived change to work in three artisanal trades. The study shows that while some elements have changed, the division of labour reinforces the traditional scope of artisanal work in relation to other occupational groups. The findings reconfirm the complex relationship between changes to work and the demand for skills, and importantly highlight the sociology of work as a critical but undervalued dimension in labour market analysis.     

Scaling the volatility of GDP growth rates

The distribution of shocks to GDP growth rates is found to be exponential rather than normal. Their standard deviation scales with GDP^β where β=−0.15±0.03. These macroeconomic results place restrictions on the microeconomic structure of interactions between agents.     

Environmentally Important Inter sectoral Flows: Insights from Main Contributions Identification and Minimal Flow Analysis

For the analysis of economic interdependences form an environmental perspective, a condensation of the information contained in input–output (IO) tables is desirable, but without much loss of the quantitative dimension. For the case of total energy requirements, main contributions identification is presented as an approach that allows a partitioning of total energy requirements by production layers and (final) energy-consuming sectors. For this purpose, a mixed monetary-energy IO model and a partitioning procedure are used. In addition, minimal flow analysis as a graphical method is used to detect importnant energetic interconnections. Environmentally Important Intersectoral Flows     

Combining Sources of Preference Data for Modeling Complex Decision Processes

We review current state-of-the-art practices for combining preference data from multiple sources and discuss future research possibilities. A central theme is that any one data source (e.g., a scanner panel source) is often insufficient to support tests of complex theories of choice and decision making. Hence, analysts may need to embrace a wider variety of data types and measurement tools than traditionally have been considered in applied decision making and choice research. We discuss the viability of preference-stationarity assumptions usually made when pooling data, as well as random-utility theory-based approaches for combining data sources. We also discuss types of models and data sources likely to be required to make inferences about and estimate models that describe choice dynamics. The latter discussion is speculative insofar as the body of literature on this topic is small.     

大额现金收费制度对遏制利用现金洗钱犯罪行为的作用初探

利用现金洗钱是洗钱活动主要方式之一,而在我国目前现金结算率较高的情况下,现行大额现金管理制度难以满足反洗钱的需要.本文从分析大额现金存取收费制度建立的必要性和可行性着手,本着既能有效服务于反洗钱又不影响民众正常生活的原则,初步设计了对大额现金交易合理限制、合理收费、监测、分析和报告等制度,对大额现金收费制度遏制利用现金洗钱犯罪行为作用进行了初步探索.     

Managing knowledge in foreign entry strategies: a resource‐based analysis

International strategies vary in their potential to exploit and augment a firm's resources, especially its knowledge base. Resource‐based analysis suggests clustering the diverse entry modes in terms of their exploitation and augmentation characteristics. We thus introduce a new categorization of entry modes based on their potential to augment the resources of an entrant. We then explore the antecedents of these modes, and advance testable propositions delimiting for which firms and in which circumstances each mode maximizes long‐term value creation. Finally, we outline how our resource‐based framework complements transaction‐cost‐based frameworks. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Schuldenerleichterungen für Griechenland — ein Überblick

The article provides an overview of debt waivers by private and public debt holders during the Greek financial crisis and the three assistance programmes. Greece’s advantages add up to around 280 to 298 billion euros. The burden, in the form of reduced annual payments, is carried by the debt-holding countries and amounts to about 206 to 224 billion euros, the private sector’s share being roughly 70 %. Nevertheless, liability shifted from the private sector to rescue funds. Therefore, the aforementioned additional debt relief will primarily strain the countries that pay for the bail out and the ECB.