Will urban farming survive the growth of African cities: A case-study in Kampala (Uganda)?

Despite the fact that urban farming is widespread in many African cities there is not yet a clearly defined view on how to deal with these activities in urban planning and management. On the basis of field interviews in the rapidly expanding metropolitan area of Kampala (Uganda) three different urban farming types were identified: subsistence farming, garden farming and commercial farming. These three urban farming types have their own spatial organisation logic and each interact in a specific way with urban expansion. In this paper the possible outcome of three alternative urban management strategies for Kampala (urban sprawl, urban infilling and a combination of both) were translated into spatially explicit land use scenarios for the years 2020 and 2030. This allowed to evaluate the spatial impact of each scenario on the future viability of the different urban farming practices. Urban sprawl fragments large open spaces thereby reducing the space for subsistence farming with 80% by 2030. Urban infilling, on the other hand, decreases the opportunities for small to medium scale garden and commercial farming by a possible reduction of 62% of the available farming land by 2030. The results of the analysis are useful for urban planners as they give insight in the potential future effects of proposed planning strategies on urban farming.     

Seasonal Trading and Lifestyle Motivation

ABSTRACT

This article explores relationships between tourism sea-sonality and the lifestyle motivations of small tourism businesses, fundamentally a supply-side perspective of seasonality. Seasonal trading decisions are subject to a number of influences, not all of which are in the operator's control. Drawing from exploratory research undertaken in Scotland, the article argues that for some operators, especially located in rural and peripheral destination areas, lifestyle enterprise can confer a range of benefits, some of which are afforded by operating the business on a seasonal basis. Moreover, seasonal trading was seen to assume a number of distinct roles, reflecting various characteristics of lifestyle operators. Accordingly, public policies that seek to promote seasonal extension based on the premise of local economic development or destination objectives are not necessarily destined to work. This is particularly pertinent if such policies do not recognise the wider supply-side dynamics of seasonal trading and fail to engage with the lifestyle aspirations of the operators themselves.     

财政农业支出对二元经济结构转化效果研究

根据1978—2006年的数据对我国财政支农支出与二元经济结构转化之间关系进行实证分析,结果表明,二者之间缺乏明显的因果关系。原因在于:我国财政支农制度安排还停留在农业支持工业、农村支持城市的模式下,服务于统筹城乡发展的财政体制建设滞后,以及地方政府在不完善的政绩考核制度下的理性行为等。要强化财政支农对二元经济结构转化的作用,应该尽快实现工业反哺农业,城市带动农村的发展战略,改革财政体制,优化地方政府政绩考核制度。     

中国改革开放三十年的四点反思

纪念改革开放三十年,我们最需要做的是反思。值得反思的地方很多,本文试从改革的过程与成就、改革的形势与问题、改革的任务与重点及深化改革的动力与阻力来自何方等方面进行初步的反思。     

Customer Satisfaction in Retail Banking

Professional services firms (PSFs) engaged in international operations present a unique challenge for governments. They directly and indirectly affect governmental policies and the agencies that enforce these policies through policy development, problem solving, and implementation. Yet, governments that seek to advance rational, forward thinking public policy have little, if any, regulatory control over the input and influence of these professional experts. International professional service firms face an increasingly competitive marketplace and complex challenges that demand skill sets that are markedly different from those characteristically required of consumer service companies. This study identifies the qualities of the best performing PSFs that engage clients worldwide. Implications are discussed for governments to ensure the greater public good.     

Excess Liquidity,Housing Price Booms and Policy Challenges in China

Incorporating asymmetric cost and benefit of supplying excess liquidity into an otherwise standard time inconsistency model, this paper offers an explanation of the excess liquidity and housing price booms recently experienced in China. We find that the central bank's incentive to stimulate economic growth with excess liquidity fuels real estate prices and accelerates inflation bias. Therefore, the central bank should free itself from the pressure to achieve an economic growth rate higher than the potential level, and assign an appropriate weight to the real estate price fluctuations in the central bank's objective function, so that the central bank's policy of stimulating economic growth with excess liquidity can be constrained.     

Fiscal transfers for biodiversity conservation: The Portuguese Local Finances Law

Biodiversity loss is a serious and ongoing global environmental problem. Economic instruments in biodiversity policies can contribute towards reconciling the conservation costs encountered at local level with the benefits of biodiversity conservation at higher levels of governance, from regional and national levels up to the global level. This paper outlines the theoretical foundations of fiscal transfers in conservation policies and also offers a concise account of existing international experience and future prospects. The recently amended Portuguese Local Finances Law (LFL) of 2007, with its groundbreaking new article on the promotion of local sustainability, is analysed in terms of the significance of fiscal transfers for municipal budgets. It is compared with its predecessor law, highlighting changes in fiscal revenues for selected municipalities in the country in relation to their designated conservation areas. The analysis shows that these ecological fiscal transfers can be significant for those municipalities with a large proportion of land under protected status. However, because it also introduces a considerable number of changes to the Portuguese fiscal transfer scheme, the ecological impact of the new LFL is difficult to grasp due to the presence of several crossover effects. The results obtained offer significant insights both for improving the Portuguese LFL and for designing new ecological fiscal transfer schemes.     

住房调控政策问题：质疑、解读与建议

在“住房是商品”的片面认识导引下，“一次房改”后住房体制陷入“商保失调”的另一个极端状态，导致房困问题难以破解并影响宏观经济可持续发展。针对于此，“国字号”住房调控政策密集出台，但由于未从“住房两板块”结构出发分类加以调控，某些层面的调控效果不尽人意，也由此受到质疑。本文对此进行解读并给出有关政策建议。     

2014年上半年中国货币市场运行报告

2014年上半年，中国人民银行继续执行稳健货币政策，适时主动地进行预调微调，有效稳定市场预期。货币市场平稳运行，成交规模稳步扩大，市场利率震荡下行，波动幅度逐步收窄，各子市场发展速度出现分化。银行业金融机构融出意愿有所增强，非银行市场主体参与度不断提升，货币市场流动性管理功能进一步发挥。     

The involvement of utilities in the development of broadband infrastructure: A comparison of EU case studies

Energy companies and other utility providers have been often involved in the provision of telecommunications services. Nevertheless, their contribution to broadband development has varied significantly over time. In the late 1990s, both local and national utilities in the European Union (EU) engaged in the provision of broadband networks, but only few of them managed to establish themselves as major broadband providers. More recently, new projects involving national utilities have been announced in several EU countries, opening new scenarios for utilities’ contribution to Next Generation Access (NGA) development. This paper identifies and explores the factors affecting the entry and the success of utilities in the EU broadband market, through the comparison of four case studies from four EU countries (Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK). The evolution of utility involvement in the EU broadband markets is assessed against the interaction of market, technology and policy factors, focusing on the impact of policy and regulatory measures. As a result, this paper provides fruitful insights into the relevance and effectiveness of public interventions in broadband markets. Across the four case studies, public support and public ownership emerged as the main drivers for the involvement of utilities in EU broadband markets, with regulatory measures and economies of scope exerting a limited and decreasing influence. However, the contribution of utilities has varied significantly across the cases studied, reflecting the different approaches taken at national and local level to support broadband development, in spite of the common regulatory framework.