Military Expenditure and the Arms Trade in the Asian-Pacific Region

The trend towards further reductions in world military expenditure does not seem to be shared by most Asian-Pacific countries. Military expenditure in the region continues to expand, but the military burden (the proportion of military expenditure in GDP) and the military share (the share of military expenditure in central government expenditure) are declining in most Asian-Pacific countries. This is largely due to sustained high economic growth in the region. Thus far, the military burden has not had an adverse effect on the region's economic growth, but continued expansion of military expenditure is not sustainable in countries where the military share is high. Asian-Pacific countries are vigorously developing, modernizing and upgrading their indigenous arms production capabilities. This effort has been aided not only by the availability of financial resources but also by the changing nature of the international arms market that offers attractive package deals, including various licensing, co-production and offset manufacturing arrangements.     

Expert Judgments Regarding Risks Associated with Salmon Aquaculture Practices in British Columbia

Making sound decisions about managing ecological risks necessarily involves relying on judgments by technical specialists informed by the best available scientific evidence. Yet, organizing those judgments in ways to assess the relative risks of different components of a technology, and considering priorities in managing those risks, is a difficult and under‐explored aspect of environmental management. In this study, we elicited the judgments of scientists associated with the salmon aquaculture industry in British Columbia in order to learn their expert viewpoints of potential risks. This paper presents survey results regarding structured judgments provided by scientists engaged in studies associated with aquaculture or preserving wild stocks of Pacific salmon species. There were statistically significant differences regarding judgments of the risks of various current aquaculture practices on wild salmon stocks. It was possible to rank the means of scientific judgment scores to prioritize these risks. Differences in rankings were location and context specific.     

An assessment of the impact of watershed programmes on agricultural sustainability in Hamedan province,Iran

This paper assessed the effects of watershed programmes (WPs) on the sustainability of agro-ecosystems in Hamedan province, western Iran. This research was a causal–comparative study, and various techniques were used to collect data, such as survey data, archival data, observations, and face-to-face interviews with key informants. The causal–comparative method requires a comparison of agro-ecosystems with and without WPs. Therefore, a survey was conducted using a stratified random sampling to select 136 households in agro-ecosystems with and without WPs. Nine indicators were selected to evaluate sustainability. Significant differences were found between the two agro-ecosystems in biodiversity, soil quality management, hydrological processes, energy-use efficiency (EUE), access to public services, farm management practices, and social capital. No significant variation was found in the indicator of quality of life, even though that indicator was found to be slightly higher in the agro-ecosystem that had WPs. Results revealed that the agro-ecosystem with WPs, with the exception of the social capital, productivity, biodiversity, soil quality, EUE, farm management, and hydrological processes as well as access to public services had significantly higher values than the agro-ecosystem without WPs. Therefore, it can be concluded that despite WPs' positive impact on biodiversity, soil quality, hydrological processes, EUE, farm management, productivity, and access to public services, it had a negative impact on social capital. The findings suggest that WPs affected the agro-ecosystem by increasing the stability and economic viability of the agro-ecosystem and decreasing social dimensions. A new approach, including demand-driven WPs rather than supply-driven ones to cater to the specific needs of local people, was recommended for the promotion of the social acceptability of WPs.     

Regional Integration in East Asia: Achievements and Future Prospects

Economic integration in East Asia has been largely market driven. Attempts in the late 1980s to establish an East Asian regional economic grouping failed to materialize for a number of reasons. The financial crisis in 1997–1998 has strengthened the realization of regional countries that they need to have some self‐help mechanisms to overcome that crisis and to prevent future crises. This led to the development of several functional integration programs, including the network of bilateral swap arrangements known as the Chiang Mai Initiative. However, progress remains slow. The question that has arisen is how far these efforts need to be supported by institutional integration. Should the ASEAN Plus Three, the main regional cooperation process in East Asia involving the 10 South‐East Asian countries plus China, Japan, and South Korea, be deepened institutionally? Meanwhile, the region has seen the establishment of a new process, the East Asia Summit, involving the above 13 countries plus Australia, India, and New Zealand. How will these different arrangements contribute to East Asia's economic dynamism and prosperity as well as peace and political stability?     

The effects of reforming regulation in resolving insolvency towards EODB rank improvement: Evidence from Indonesia

This article examines the effectiveness of policy reform and implementation in resolving insolvency in Indonesia. The Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in Indonesia has significantly increased over the last 6 years, from ranking 129th in 2012 to 73rd in 2019. Among the 10 EODB indicators, resolving insolvency was identified to be the highest contributing indicator. In 2019, this indicator ranked 36th—far above the overall aforementioned Indonesian EODB score, a 73rd worldwide ranking. This article examines the factors leading to a high bankruptcy settlement score as well as the indicators that must be improved to raise Indonesia's EODB ranking.     

Residential grid storage technology battles: a multi-criteria analysis using BWM

This article focuses on the battle for dominance between various battery technologies in the residential grid storage market (< 10?KWh) in the context of residential energy systems and the related home energy management systems. We focus on five major battery technologies that are available in the market (lithium-based batteries, lead-based batteries, flow batteries, nickel-based batteries, and sodium-based batteries). Based on a literature review and expert interviews, we study the factors for technology success in the residential grid storage market. By applying the best worst method (BWM), we assign the relative importance to the factors and predict which technology will have the highest chance of achieving success. We compare this to the technology that now has the highest market share and conclude that BWM is a useful method to indicate technology dominance in this market.     

A multi-objective model for lot-sizing with supplier selection for an assembly system

Lot-sizing with supplier selection (LS-SS) is a fast-growing offspring of two major problem parents in logistics and supply chain management (‘lot-sizing’ and ‘supplier selection’). The model proposed in this paper is an attempt to extend it to an assembly system, by formulating a multi-objective model for an integrative problem of LS-SS for assembly items. The total costs of the system, consisting of purchasing, ordering, transportation, assembly, and holding, is considered the first objective function, while the total reliability of the finished products is considered the second objective function. The decision-maker aims to minimise the total costs while maximising the total reliability. Several constraints of the system (e.g. storage capacity, supplier production capacity) are taken into account. Given the complexity of the model, a heuristic evolutionary algorithm is proposed to solve the model. The results indicate which assembly items to order in which quantities, from which suppliers and in which time periods.     

Selling goods of unknown quality: forward versus spot auctions

We consider an environment where the sale can take place so early that both the seller and potential buyers have the same uncertainty about the quality of the good. We present a simple model that allows the seller to offer the good for sale before or after this uncertainty is resolved, namely via forward auction or spot auction, respectively. We solve for the equilibrium of these two auctions and then compare the resulting expected revenues. We also consider the revenue implications of insurance in forward auctions.     

Why and When Do Governments Initiate Public Enterprise Reform?

Initiating public enterprise reform is a complex decision influencedby economic factors as well as the ideological biases and personalitiesof political leaders. Nevertheless, the use of a contractingframework yields important generalizations about what drivesthe decision. This article argues that the decision dependsfundamentally on the potential efficiency gains from the reformand its associated transactions costs. Costs arise because ofasymmetries in information and opportunism, problems that usuallyplague contract negotiations. The article identifies observablevariables that may affect either the potential gains or thetransactions costs, uses them to construct a simple probit decision-makingmodel, and tests the model using data from fifteen developingcountries over a twenty-year period.