SIMULATION OF THE GROWTH RESPONSE OF DRYLAND AND IRRIGATED CORN*

This paper studies the complex relationship between plant growth and the variables affecting that growth. The author has developed several growth models, with soil moisture being a primary explanatory variable in the models. The relationship of plant growth to moisture is demonstrated by the sensitivity of a corn plant to moisture at different periods in its growth. Ce papier fail une études des relations complexes entre la croissance des plantes et les variables qui influent cette croissance. ?auteur a construit plusieurs modèles de croissance en se servant de ?humidité du sol comme variable primaire explicalif La connexité entre la croissance des plantes el ?humidilé est démonstée en utilisant une plante de blé d;inde ei en montrant comment sensible à?humidité est cette plante à differentes étapes de sa maturation.     

Job guarantees, employability training and partnerships in the retail sector

This paper discusses the potential value of local, partnership-based employability training and job guarantee programmes, focusing on one example—the 'Alloa Initiative'. The Initiative involved an employability training and job guarantee scheme developed in partnership with Tesco, a major retailer, in preparation for the opening of one of the company's new stores. This paper reports on the outputs from this project, which placed 109 disadvantaged job seekers into positions at the store, and proved particularly effective at targeting the long-term unemployed and those with limited experience of the retail sector. The analysis is based on the findings of survey research undertaken with 86 of the 109 training course completers (a 79 per cent response rate) and all the main partners involved in the Initiative. Innovative elements of the training programme that contributed to its positive outcomes are discussed, and a model for 'managing successful partnerships' is applied, in order to identify critical factors explaining the apparent success of the Initiative. In particular, the importance of employers providing job guarantees is noted.     

使平衡计分卡符合实务要求

管理会计信息系统不能只依赖财务指标,它需要的是混合指标.该混合指标既能对公司的整体业绩给出更平衡的观点,又能提供可预测公司未来财务业绩的当前非财务指标.虽然许多方法被认为可以实现此目的,但平衡计分卡却是管理会计师们使用最多的一种方法.平衡计分卡先后出现了多种版本,但值得深思的是在21世纪它能多大程度满足企业发展的需要.     

Allocative and X-efficiency in state-owned mining enterprises: Comparisons between Bolivia and Indonesia

This paper deals with “efficiency” issues in state-owned enterprises mining minerals in Indonesia and Bolivia. In the enterprises under comparison, welfare losses from Alocative inefficiency appear to be decidedly nontrivial. Cases of behavior consistent with X-efficiency theory are also presented, but no determination of the relative quantitative importance of allocative and X-inefficiencies is attempted. Nevertheless, many of the insights offered by X-efficiency theory may be promising complementary tools for understanding and evaluating the performance of state-owned enterprises in mixed economies.     

Drug selection: Mozambique

Whereas a few hundred generic drugs are essential for health care, the international and many national markets are flooded with tens of thousands of brand-name preparations. This numerical difference is because of the many imitative products, drug combinations, brandname duplications, and drugs with low therapeutic value and/or unacceptable adverse effects. Since independence Mozambique has reduced the number of registered products, including those for retail pharmacy sale, from some 26,000 to about 1200. An effective national formulary has been introduced for health service use and now contains only 343 distinct therapeutic substances. The formulary uses only international non-proprietary names, and has been used to rationalize state pharmaceutical procurement with cost savings and to improve drug information and use.     

Approximating the Effective Protection Coefficient without Reference to Technological Data

When proposals for reform of tariff or subsidy policies aremade, attempts to predict the effect on incentives are frequentlyhampered by the need for input-output technical data. This articledevelops and illustrates the use of a methodology for approximatingeffective protection coefficients (EPCs) when such data areunavailable or outdated. It derives the equations which approximatethe EPC from statistical analysis of a cross section of existingEPC studies for four agricultural commodities: corn, cotton,rice, and wheat. Informational requirements for computing approximationsinclude the nominal protection coefficients on output and tradableinputs and readily available macroeconomic data. These approximationequations perform well in an out-of-sample test.