Changes in food provision in Russian households experiencing perestroika

The purpose of this article is to describe how households in Novgorod the Great, Russia, deal with food provision in everyday life. The study focuses on changes experienced in food provision and consumption in Russian society, in order to illustrate how households respond to the transformation towards a market economy. The study reflects women's perspective on food provision. Students from Novgorod the Great visited 105 households and asked the women in the household to answer a questionnaire. Results from the study show that in order to cope with changes in society related to economic reforms, Russian households had changed both their food consumption and food production patterns. There was no big difference between urban and rural households. Nearly all of the households were self‐sufficient in the provision of vegetables and potatoes. Many households had a ‘dacha’ (plot), where they produced most of what they needed. Among the changes experienced during recent years (i.e. during the end of the 1990s), a decade after perestroika was initiated, households mentioned the rise in food prices and the decrease of income. Households reported that they consumed less fruit and/or meat. Some households also mentioned that the quality of nourishment had decreased, thereby indicating lower general quality, lower nutrition value, or less healthy foodstuffs.     

Planning food services for a campus setting

Providing appropriate food services in a campus setting is increasingly important due to more demanding customers and because clients have less time to go off-campus when they need to eat. Using a university campus as an example, this research looks at customer satisfaction with existing food services and explores various methods for determining where to locate new facilities. This campus currently has great needs for additional food services, and it is shown clearly where additional food services are required. Also, the methods used are compared in terms of their effectiveness in finding the solution.     

Competition as a track for preventing illegal immigration

Rich countries often face sizeable illegal migration. This paper suggests that these countries would use the financial aid which they give to the source countries as an instrument to prevent illegal immigration. The core of this policy is to allow the source countries to compete for the pre-determined aid, which would be distributed according to the cross-proportion of the apprehended illegal aliens. Moreover, we show that it may be beneficial for the rich country to split the source countries into competing pairs rather than allowing all of them to compete jointly. The rich country has basically two policy means: funds allocated to strengthening its border control; and the foreign aid given to the source countries. The multi-country general equilibrium model presented shows how the rich country, by choosing an appropriate mix of these two policy means, can minimize the number of illegal immigrants subject to its budget constrain.Received: 15 August 2002, Accepted: 21 January 2004, JEL Classification: F22Nava Kahana, Tikva Lecker: The authors are grateful to two anonymous referees for their valuable comments.     

高校贫困生资助体系存在的问题及对策

高校贫困生越来越为社会各界所关注,从中央到地方都做出了不让一个贫困大学生因家庭贫困而辍学的承诺,高校通过多种方式努力解决贫困生的问题.目前,在贫困生资助工作中存在缺乏协调统一的资助措施和足够的资金支持,社会参与资助力量薄弱,忽视贫困生群体的思想状况、文化心态、心理状况等问题,提出应确立政府在资助高校贫困生工作中的主体地位,建立多渠道的社会资助网络及多元化的资助制度,建立经济救助与人文精神关怀相结合的高校贫困生资助体系.     

从收容遣送制度到社会救助制度的优化分析

本文对收容遣送制度、流浪救助制度建立的价值目标及手段进行比较分析，指出流浪救助制度在立法目的、救助手段、权利倾向、政府责任承担上的优化，进一步指出现行流浪救助制度的新问题，并指出流浪救助制度发展的方向。期待流浪救助制度能不断优化。从而使流浪救助制度价值目标实现逐步走向完善。     

转基因标签的消费者维度思考

本文从消费者角度分析了现行转基因标签政策实施过程中存在的成本转移、道德风险等等被忽视的问题．并以我国包装大豆色拉油市场为例，利用垂直差别化模型对加贴转基因标签前后消费者经济福利进行了比较。     

中国转基因食品安全管理的现状及对策

转基因食品是当今世界各国基因研究的重点。我国的转基因技术发展迅速,但科学界在转基因食品对人类健康和生态风险方面的认识存在局限性,政府应制定相应的政策、措施对其进行安全管理。本文介绍了转基因食品的概念及在我国的发展情况,分析了我国转基因食品安全管理的现状,阐述了转基因食品安全管理的重要性,并针对其中存在的问题,提出相应的对策。     

我国国家助学制度的问题分析与财政对策选择

国家助学制度是解决大学生入学机会公平的一种有效的手段,在我国已有50多年的历史,目前已形成了多元混合的制度体系,为我国教育改革和发展提供了前提条件,但也存在不足和缺陷。本文从我国国家助学制度现行状况入手,对存在的问题进行了剖析,提出了若干可行的解决建议。     

商业银行拓展助学贷款的现实条件与策略

本文在介绍开展教育助学贷款现实条件的基础上,着重就商业银行拓展教育助学贷款活动中的经营策略问题,作了一些初步探讨。     

Cross-national adoption of private food quality standards

Retailer initiated food quality standards are important elements to market food and agricultural products. However, farmers’ certification proceeds at an unequal speed worldwide with some countries representing a large number of certified producers and others representing very few, if any. This study aims at analysing the adoption of two private food standards, BRC Food Technical Standard and GlobalGAP, at an aggregated cross-country level using data of 2007. Negative binomial models are applied to quantify the determinants of standards’ spread at an aggregated level. The results of the econometric analysis reveal some (potential) barriers for farms and firms in developing countries to access this type of organisational innovation. Certificates of both standards seem to be issued more likely in countries with established trade relations with Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, home countries of the standards. Furthermore, larger countries and countries with better institutional quality host more certified firms. Finally, a country’s level of economic development displays a clear non-monotonic relationship to the number of certified enterprises. Although no evidence for a general exclusion of developing countries can be found, the main implication of this paper is that third-party certification for export purposes seems to reinforce already existing trade relations, potentially hampering new entrants.