Domestic Regulation and the WTO: The Case of Water Services in Developing Countries

Trade liberalisation of environmental services, and water services in particular, under the current WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), has been widely advocated as a means of increasing private sector participation in the water sector in developing countries. Recognising that effective regulation is needed to ensure that the potential gains from private sector involvement are fully realised, the paper considers the relationship between national regulatory autonomy and GATS liberalisation in water services. The empirical evidence on the impact of private sector involvement in the provision of water services in developing countries is reviewed, and a number of reasons why water privatisation has been problematic in lower‐income countries are identified, including transaction costs and regulatory weaknesses. The study concludes that developing countries with limited regulatory resources should adopt a cautious approach to services liberalisation, by sequencing market liberalisation measures to match the development of their regulatory institutional capacity.     

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.     

EMPLOYMENT-RELATED LEGAL OBLIGATIONS: A RISK MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE OF FEDERAL ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS

Abstract: The authors examine the statutes, protected classes and damages under federal antidiscrimination laws. Because of the limitations of insurance as a loss financing tool, the authors contend that loss control is a more prudent course of action for employers than loss financing.     

Authors’ Reply: Economic Valuation Models for Insurers - Discussion by Jacques F. Carriere

Abstract

This article employs a longitudinal form of the Grade of Membership (GoM) model to specify and estimate a multivariate model of the trajectories of morbidity, disability, and mortality among longitudinally followed elderly respondents to the National Long-Term Care Survey (NLTCS) of 1984, 1989, 1994, and 1999. A distinct trajectory was constructed for each individual respondent to the survey. The trajectories described the progressive declines over time in physical and cognitive functioning among a nationally representative sample of the U.S. elderly population.

The model was structured to represent simultaneously the essential features of the fixed frailty model of Vaupel, Manton, and Stallard and Strehler and Mildvan’s model of linearly declining vitality. Unlike those models, however, the longitudinal GoM model was designed for easy and direct application to existing longitudinal data sets.

The measurement space in the NLTCS application included from one to four sets of repeated measures for each survey respondent on 95 independent variables characterizing the nature and intensity of limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), physical functioning, and cognitive functioning, as well as indicators of behavioral characteristics, medical conditions, subjective health, age, race, sex, institutional status, and survival status.

The application showed that the model can be fitted to existing data and that the results were interpretable as generalizations of fixed frailty with linearly declining vitality.     

Rethinking a National Innovation System: The Small Country as 'SME'

Most debates and discussions regarding trends towards globalization and localization, occur in the over-arching context of the knowledge economy, and focus on the impact of these trends on innovation and competitiveness in the 'Triad' of Europe, Japan and the USA. However, in the knowledge economy, competitiveness is increasingly based upon access to knowledge, in the form of skills and capabilities, wherever it is located in the world including the smaller industrialized countries. This paper extends the discussion of the impacts of globalization and localization to encompass other nations and their 'national innovation systems'. Policy underpinning national systems to encourage innovation is increasingly being called into question by the general move towards globalization and localization. Multi-national enterprises (MNEs) and localized clusters in the emerging technologies determine and control technological paths beyond and through national borders. Small industrialized nations which have neither a broad technological base, extensive science and technology infrastructure or resources, nor MNEs based in the country, run the risk of being marginalized when competing globally, through an inability to become involved in these international economic networks. A traditional policy response by small countries to the impact of globalization is to metaphorically 'batten down the hatches' against the invasion of MNEs and the exploitation of local resources. However, an exploration of the drivers of both globalization and localization in the knowledge economy, and the observed impacts of globalization on New Zealand, suggests that a suitable strategy for small nations might be the reverse scenario. By using the analogy of the small country as a small and medium sized enterprise (SME) in the global economy dominated by large nations and MNEs, SME advantages and disadvantages are mapped onto potential small country advantages and disadvantages. The simile is extended to propose a small-country strategy based on exploiting the documented advantages of SMEs, such as flexibility and use of external networks, for an outward-looking, supplier-orientated innovation policy. Such a policy has to be designed for rapid communication and flexibility, and has to encourage committed technological accumulation and networking, to maximize national absorptive and transformative capacities.     

The Impact of Omitting Promotion Variables on Simulation Experiments

Using store-level scanner data, elasticity matrices are estimated using a twotiered demand system. Two basic models are estimated, one with promotion variables and one without. Differences between the estimates across the two models are statistically significant. However, when the elasticities are used as 'inputs' into several simulation exercises, there are only small differences in merger effects and patent damage estimates.The results suggest that the differences are not 'economically' significant.     

Dutch Economic Growth in Comparative-Historical Perspective, 1500–2000

Our knowledge of nineteenth century Dutch economic performance has been greatly improved by recent research. However, the interpretation of long-run Dutch economic development requires a reexamination of the concepts and generalizations used by economists, which derive mostly from the study of other nations, especially Britain. This article proposes both a reassessment of Dutch economic performance in the very long run, and a reconsideration of the concept of modern economic growth.