The relevance of institutions and people’s preferences in the PSNP and IN-SCT programmes in Ethiopia

The effective implementation of social protection interventions is key for achieving positive change. The existing literature mainly focuses on issues related to programme design and impact, rather than the factors that influence the emergence, expansion and provision of these programmes. This article builds on the recent literature that indicates that the quality of institutions and people’s preferences play an important role in the implementation of social protection. It does so by using Ethiopia and its Productive Safety Net Programme – one of the largest social protection programmes in sub-Saharan Africa – as a case study, thereby contributing to debates on how to implement social protection more effectively, particularly in settings of widespread poverty and relatively low levels of institutional capacity. Based on primary qualitative data, the article finds that greater institutional quality at the local level is associated with the more effective provision of social protection. The ability of community members and social protection clients to voice preferences can lead to adaptations in implementation, although the extent to which this occurs is highly gendered.     

论留置权制度的历史发展——罗马法、意大利法与中国法之比较

中国2007年颁布的《物权法》将留置权置于第四编“担保物权”之下,继“抵押权”、“质权”之后设专章加以规定.留置权在罗马法中虽经历了从程序性制度到实体法制度的发展,但始终未曾被赋予对债的“物的担保”的性质.《意大利民法典》采用优先权性质的留置权制度,中国《物权法》采用的则是担保物权性质的留置权制度.前者产生于交易快捷性和安全性的需要,威慑相对人履行义务,其通过司法程序执行仅是偶然;后者具有迟延抗辩和物的担保的双重功能,在不履行时允许权利人从留置物获得满足.但《物权法》把债务人迟延设为行使留置权的条件,其有关条文在执行主体和债权人延迟“接受”的效果上令人疑惑,进而使留置权失去了其应有的威慑功能.可行的解决办法是取消留置权的担保物权性质,重构该制度内部的有机性.     

Social Increasing Returns and the Effects of Immigration on the Host Country Economy

In this paper we analyse the impact of both the number of immigrants and their human capital on the welfare of the host economy. We will show that in the presence of ‘social increasing returns’ in human and physical capital accumulation, arising from a labour market characterized by a costly search and by randomness of the matching technology, immigrants’ skill level may influence the investments in human capital of natives as well as the investments in physical capital. We will find that the immigrants’ human capital interacts with social increasing returns making them stronger or weaker according to the level of immigrants’ human capital relative to that of natives. If immigrants have a higher level of human capital, increasing returns are accelerated, while if immigrants’ human capital is lower, increasing returns are weakened if not reversed. The consequence of this behaviour is that in the first case immigration has a positive impact on native welfare and there is a positive interrelation between the skills of natives, the skills of immigrants and the firms’ level of physical capital. In the second case immigration may have a negative impact on the welfare of natives, on the skills of native workers and on the physical capital of firms.     

The role of exercise on the innate immunity of the elderly

The increased life span in human population has shown that some diseases, as infections, cancer and autoimmune phenomena, occur more frequently in the elderly than in the younger. We describe the ageing process involving the innate immune system and the improvement given by moderate physical activity. In addition, we discuss the altered neutrophil granulocytes function, the role of macrophages and natural killer cells, besides the influence of cytokines and secretory IgA. The acquired information help us to explain how these changes could favor the onset of diseases in the elderly and how they may boost their immune function.