WHO GETS FORMAL HOUSING FINANCE IN JORDAN?

The role of housing finance in actualizing housing demand is widely appreciated. Many developing nations have established special institutions in an attempt to assure that adequate volumes of financing are made available. Jordan offers an especially interesting case because the Jordan Housing Bank has the resources to serve almost any number of applicants at highly competitive rates. In addition, several other formal lenders make mortgage loans as do some government programs. This paper analyzes the determinants of the likelihood of recent home purchasers actually obtaining a loan from a formal finance institution. We find that purchasers in rural areas are much less likely to obtain such loans. In urban areas, the probability of using formal finance rises steadily with income. Also in urban areas, a household that purchases a unit that is an addition to an existing structure is much more likely to obtain formal financing than an otherwise similar household.     

Do Termination Provisions Truncate the Takeover Bidding Process?

We provide new evidence on termination provisions and the takeoverbidding process. Our central contribution is a novel databasefrom Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents thataccurately measures the incidence of termination provisionsand the depth of competition in takeover deals. We show thatbiased data in prior research produced incorrect conclusionson the relation between termination provisions and judicialdecisions, bidder toeholds, and deal size. Our comprehensivedata also show that termination provisions are positively relatedto takeover competition. Our evidence is consistent with theinformation/commitment hypothesis in which termination provisionsdo not truncate bidding but instead culminate the takeover process.(JEL G34; K22; D44).     

Local Community Involvement in Tourism around National Parks: Opportunities and Constraints

National Parks are often major tourist attractions located in relatively remote and marginalised rural areas. The potential role of tourism in contributing to the costs of conservation and providing economic opportunities for communities living adjacent to natural heritage has long been recognised. Issues of access to tourists and capital, enclaves and bypasses and employment need to be addressed. The opportunities for local economic development through tourism at Komodo (Indonesia), Keoladeo (India), Gonarezhou (Zimbabwe) and Puerto Princesa (Palawan, Philippines) National Parks are explored, and the paper concludes with an agenda for action.     

The DIERS users group: A forum for development/dissemination of emergency relief system design technology

DIERS was formed in 1976 to develop methods for the design of emergency relief systems capable of handling runaway reactions [1, 2]. Of particular interest at the time were when tow-phase flow venting would occur and the applicability of different methods for sizing emergency relief systems for two-phase, vapor-liquid flashing flow. Approximately $1.6MM was devoted to investigations of two-phase, vapor-liquid onset/disengagement dynamics and the hydrodynamics of emergency relief systems.