Issues of Price Definition in CBA: Imperfect Competition and Relative Prices Divergences

This text aims at coping with some issues of price definition in the current practice of cost benefit analysis (CBA) and at showing the importance of right choices in this matter. Taking as an example the case of transport infrastructure projects, it addresses two subjects of utmost relevance in the case of transition countries marked by a growing extent of liberalization and conflicts between environmental issues and growth requirements. First, it assesses the consequences of forgetting the strategic interactions between operators involved in the new infrastructure and their impacts on the prices of transport services; it is shown that the consequences on CBA results are rather limited but consequences on traffic volumes are not negligible and are one of the sources of the current traffic overestimations in transport project. Second, it explores the consequences of changes in relative prices, with an application to long run effects implied by the global warming; it appears that properly taking into account these relative changes may lead to conclusions very different from the usual results of current CBA practice where they are generally ignored.     

International Tax Competition: A Case for International Cooperation in Globalization

The liberalization of international financial flows and foreign direct investment has induced countries to use diverse measures to attract inflow of foreign capital and foreign direct investment, which is expected to have a positive effect on the growth of GDP and thus a positive effect on social welfare. Tax exemption, reduction of tax rate, tax holiday, or diverse subsidies are some of the most important measures used. In this paper we study international tax cooperation, i.e., countries change and especially reduce tax rate for corporate income or for asset revenues to attract inflow of foreign direct investment. Both theoretical and empirical studies have shown the sensibility of foreign direct investment decision with respect to tax rate differences between home countries and host countries. In general, more inflow of foreign direct investment can be expected if the tax rate of the home country is lower than that of foreign countries. This is the main reason for international tax cooperation. In this paper we propose a simple model to prove the sub-optimal Nash non cooperative solution in a two-country tax-competition game. The model shows that international tax cooperation can improve welfare of the participating countries. How to reach a cooperative solution for an international tax competition game (ITCG) is therefore an important issue for further discussions and studies. International institutions can play a crucial role to reach international tax cooperation or international tax harmonization.     

Unemployment in Families: The Case of Housework

Unemployment has consequences for individuals, but its impacts also reverberate through families. This paper examines how families adapt to unemployment in one area of life-time in housework. Using 74,881 observations from 10,390 couples in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we estimate fixed effects models and find that individuals spend between 3 and 7 hours more per week in housework when unemployed than when employed, with corresponding decreases of 1 to 2 hours per week in the housework hours of unemployed individuals' spouses. We are the first to show that unemployment is associated both with a reallocation of housework to the unemployed spouse and an increase in the family's total household production time. The results also provide evidence for gender differences in adjustments to the division of labor during unemployment, with wives' unemployment associated with an increase in housework hours that is double the increase for unemployed husbands.     

The Price of Rebellion: Gender Boundaries in the Death Metal Scene

This article examines women’s involvement in the male-dominated death metal scene and illustrates the boundaries to their participation in the scene as equals. Interviews with female fans of death metal reveal an awareness of the sexist practices of the scene, as well as a willingness to tolerate such practices. The author discusses the attitudes and behaviors of female fans in this context using social exchange theory and argues that while women derive empowerment from death metal, they do so at the cost of conformity to its androcentric culture.     

Group Work in Graduate Social Work Education: The Price of Neglect

Abstract

Although social work practice with groups is on the rise, social work education has neglected to prepare students for group work practice. The results of a 1991 survey show that graduate education has practically eliminated group work as a specialized area of study. Most schools offer group work only as an elective, and few students graduate with a course in this subject. Additionally, students in foundation courses learn little about group work theory and have limited or no group field work experience in which to develop practice skills. The authors discuss the consequences of this lack on student learning, faculty development, field education, and the social work curriculum. They make recommendations for schools and CSWE to revitalize group work in the curriculum.     

The Right Price of Food

Only a few years ago the widely shared view was that low food prices were a curse to developing countries and the poor. Their dramatic increase in 2006–8 appears to have altered this view fundamentally. High food prices are now judged to have a devastating effect on developing countries and the world's poor – a reversal of opinion that raises questions about the old and the new arguments and the proposed remedies, and also about the causes of this dramatic turnaround in analysis and policy conclusions. This article puts these changes in perspective and discusses their potential implications.     

The 'Pygmalion Syndrome': The Case of Mizrachi Lesbians in Israel

This article examines the mobilization of a lesbian identity in Israeli society by Mizrachi lesbians as a means to reach individual mobility through establishing social contacts with educated well-off professional Ashkenazi women. Based on interviews with ethnic lesbians living in steady relationships with educated professional women of the dominant group and with some of their partners, this study investigates how Mizrachi lesbians shoulder aside their distinctive features while mobilizing their lesbian identity as a means to establish connections, gain acceptance in the lesbian community, get better jobs, and succeed in schooling. Upon both professional and personal success, Mizrachi lesbians come to terms with their origins, redefine their identity components, and form a distinctive ethnic-lesbian identity to be supported with a strong ideology. While the obliteration of ethnic traits in favor of acceptance in the lesbian community allows mobility on a personal basis, it reinforces the invisibility of ethnic lesbians and reproduces the power relations between dominant and ethnic groups in Israel.     

大学生参与全球治理研究——以“青年全球治理创新设计大赛”为例

在当前的背景和治理框架下,参与问题责任化、参与主体多元化、参与过程制度化为大学生参与全球治理创造了可能。关注治理向度是大学生参与全球治理的基本取向,大学生参与全球治理的有效性离不开有效的过程机制的构建,且这种参与机制是与学生的国际化培养战略密切相关的。大学生参与全球治理过程表现出了一种参与机制的有限性与创新思想的无限性的双重特征。     

The Case for Needs Assessment:

No abstract available for this article.     

The Unintended Effects of Private School Competition

We examine whether competition from private schools improvespublic school performance and expenditure. It is difficult methodologicallyto isolate the effect of competition, but we use new measuresof competition in both the public and the private school sectorand a data set comprising detailed background information onmore than 35,000 public school students in the Danish vouchersystem. This design provides a relatively firm support for theconclusion that competition does not improve achievement ofpublic school students but that it increases public expenditureper student. Finally, we argue that there may be several goodreasons for this.     

Negotiating Compliance: The Case of Autonomous Hospitals in Vietnam

Maternal death is one of the highest causes of global mortality. Governments have long used regulation to improve maternal health but concurrent fiscal‐decentralisation reforms can undermine clinical performance. This article focuses on public Vietnamese hospitals to explore how regulatory compliance is pursued in decentralised health facilities, since Vietnam has seen increasing autonomisation of public hospitals in the last decade while simultaneously experiencing marked reductions in the maternal mortality ratio. Our analysis suggests that autonomisation has allowed regional regulatory regimes to emerge and that regulatory compliance must compete with other priorities. Compliance can therefore be rethought as a negotiation having implications for how government and maternal health advocates persuade self‐sufficient hospitals to take on wider health‐system goals.     

The "Law of One Price" in 1901

Price dispersion in 1901 is analyzed using a unique U.S. government survey yielding retail prices for four products at more than 1500 stores nationwide. Three of these products are still sold today, allowing comparisons based on modern survey data. Despite the introduction of significant search cost-reducing technology during the intervening century, dispersion appears to be lower in 1901.