Suchergebnisse

Includes bibliography (p. 214-231). ; Number of sources in the bibliography: 245 ; Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Cyprus, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Department of Social and Political Sciences, 2008 ; The University of Cyprus Library holds the printed form of the thesis. ; Η μεγάλη ροή των μεταναστών, νόμιμων και παράνομων, που φθάνουν στην Κύπρο ψάχνοντας για εργασία και καλύτερες συνθήκες διαβίωσης, έχει προκαλέσει συγκεκριμένα κοινωνικά προβλήματα. Τα μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης που επισημαίνουν την ραγδαία αύξηση των παράνομων μεταναστών, τη συμμετοχή τους στο οργανωμένο έγκλημα καθώς επίσης και τον ρυθμό αύξησης της εγκληματικότητας, έχουν προκαλέσει την εχθρότητα μεταξύ του πληθυσμού έναντι των μειονοτήτων που θεωρούν ότι ανταγωνίζονται για τις θέσεις εργασίας, κατηγορώντας τους για τα εγκλήματα που διαπράττονται. Υπάρχει ανάγκη διερεύνησης εάν οι αντιλήψεις για την εγκληματικότητα των μεταναστών ανταποκρίνονται με τα πραγματικά ποσοστά φυλάκισης, διότι εάν οι αντιλήψεις είναι αρνητικές, δεν συμπίπτουν με την πραγματικότητα, αυτό θα συνιστούσε την ύπαρξη αρνητικών αισθημάτων κατά των μεταναστών. Ο κύριος στόχος της παρούσας διατριβής είναι να διευρυνθεί η δημόσια αντίληψη των σημαντικών θεμάτων που άπτονται των μεταναστών και το Κυπριακό ποινικό σύστημα. Δεν έχει διενεργηθεί καμία προηγούμενη έρευνα αναφορικά στο θέμα των μεταναστών και του εγκλήματος στην Κύπρο. Βάσει της βιβλιογραφικής επισκόπησης, οι ακόλουθες τρεις υποθέσεις έχουν εξεταστεί σχετικά με τις τοποθετήσεις των Ελληνοκυπρίων και των αλλοδαπών: α. Οι μετανάστες αυξάνουν τα ποσοστά εγκλήματος και προκαλούν επιπρόσθετα προβλήματα στην κοινωνία. β. Τα ποσοστά εγκλήματος των αλλοδαπών είναι υψηλότερα από τους Κύπριους. γ. Οι υποθέσεις (α) και (β) συνδέονται με το ρατσισμό και την ξενοφοβία. Με άλλα λόγια, η ρατσιστική/ξενόφοβη υπόθεση είναι ότι η πεποίθηση του κοινού ότι οι μετανάστες διαπράττουν εγκλήματα λειτουργεί ανεξάρτητα από την πραγματικότητα και εκφράζει στερεότυπα των μεταναστών (William, 2003:8). Έχουν συλλεχθεί τόσο ποσοτικά όσο και ποιοτικά στοιχεία σε μία προσπάθεια να απαντηθούν οι ερωτήσεις που τίθενται και για να αντιμετωπισθούν τα πρόσθετα κοινωνικο-νομικά ζητήματα. Η έρευνα περιέλαβε δύο ερωτηματολόγια. Το πρώτο χρησιμοποιήθηκε για να ερευνήσει 500 Κύπριους αναφορικά για τις αντιλήψεις και τη στάση τους απέναντι στους αλλοδαπούς και το έγκλημα. Το δεύτερο ερωτηματολόγιο χρησιμοποιήθηκε για να διερευνηθούν 100 αλλοδαποί για να εξετάσει τις αντιλήψεις σχετικά για το έγκλημα, και τη στάση τους απέναντι στους Ελληνοκυπρίους. Για την ανάλυση των στοιχείων που συλλέχθηκαν από δύο ποσοτικές έρευνες χρησιμοποιήθηκε το αναλυτικό πρόγραμμα SPSS. Επιπλέον για να ληφθούν τα ποιοτικά στοιχεία, έχουν διενεργηθεί 30 συνεντεύξεις με αλλοδαπούς (πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο) που πραγματοποιήθηκαν κυρίως στη Λευκωσία. Αυτή η διατριβή τεκμηριώνει ότι η κοινή αντίληψη για την ύπαρξη σχέσης μεταξύ των μεταναστών και του εγκλήματος, δεν είναι υπερβολή. Με άλλα λόγια, οι αλλοδαποί διαπράττουν αναλογικά περισσότερο σοβαρά αδικήματα σε σχέση με τους Κύπριους. Τα κύρια σημεία που θίγονται σε σχέση με τους μετανάστες υποδυκνείουν ότι οι άνθρωποι αισθάνονται ανασφαλείς στις κοινότητές τους. Οι περισσότεροι από αυτούς είναι προκατειλημμένοι ενάντια στους Ρωσσο-Πόντιους, καθώς επίσης και οι αλλοδαποί είναι προκατελλημένοι προς αυτούς, όπως και προς τους Κυπρίους. Η πλειοψηφία των Ελληνοκυπρίων αναγνωρίζει ότι υπάρχει ρατσισμός στην Κύπρο, λόγω της ξενοφοβίας και παραπληροφόρησης των Μέσων Ενημέρωσης. Όλοι οι ερωτηθέντες στις συνεντεύξεις (πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο), δήλωσαν ότι δεν τείνουν να κοινωνικοποιούνται με Κυπρίους και δεν έχουν στενούς Κύπριους φίλους. Μερικοί από αυτούς ανέφεραν ότι υπάρχει ένα αόρατο εμπόδιο στην κοινωνική αλληλεπίδραση με τους Κυπρίους που τους καθιστά αδύνατο να έχουν στενές επαφές με τους αλλοδαπούς. Επίσης, είναι της άποψης ότι οι Κύπριοι, για τον ένα ή τον άλλο λόγο, είναι ρατσιστές. Αυτή η εύρεση δείχνει ότι η ένταξη των μεταναστών στο σώμα της Κυπριακής κοινωνίας προχωρά αργά. Η Κυπριακή κοινωνία έχει γίνει πολυπολιτισμική και θα πρέπει να ληφθούν τα κατάλληλα μέτρα, με προσοχή, για να αντιμετωπιστούν τα κοινωνικά προβλήματα, όπως το έγκλημα, αποφεύγοντας την περαιτέρω θυματοποίηση των μεταναστών, με την επένδυση περισσότερο στις φυλετικές σχέσεις. ; The recent influx of migrants, legal and illegal, arriving in Cyprus in search of work and better living conditions is perceived to have caused a variety of social problems. Media attention on the escalating numbers of undocumented migrants and their involvement in organized crime as well as the increase in crime rates, has provoked hostility among the population towards visible minorities who are perceived as competing for jobs, and the reason for the increase in crime. There is a need to see if perceptions of immigrant criminality are consistent with official criminal statistics because if perceptions are more negative than the reality, this would suggest anti-immigrant feeling. The main aim of the present thesis is to broaden public understanding of important issues in relation to migrants and the criminal justice system in the Republic of Cyprus. No previous research is available on the topic of migrants and crime in Cyprus. The literature review, led to the formulation and testing of three hypotheses regarding race-related attitudes of both Greek-Cypriots and foreigners: a. Immigrants increase crime rates and cause additional problems to society. b. The crime rates of foreigners are higher than locals. c. Hypotheses (a) and (b) are closely associated with racism and xenophobia. In other words, the racist/xenophobic hypothesis is that the public's belief that immigrants commit crimes functions independently of the actuality involved and it expresses a degrading stereotype of migrants (William, 2003:8). Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to test the above hypotheses and to address additional socio-legal issues. The survey included two structured questionnaires. The first was used to investigate the opinions of a representative sample of 500 Greek-Cypriots, their perceptions and attitudes towards foreigners and crime. The second questionnaire was used to survey 100 foreigners regarding their opinions, crime perceptions, and attitudes towards Greek-Cypriots. Data from the two surveys was then analyzed using the SPSS package. In addition, qualitative data was also systematically collected by means of 30 face-to-face interviews with foreigners carried out mainly in Nicosia, which were transcribed and analyzed. This thesis documents that, on the basis of official criminal statistics, popular perceptions about a relationship between migrants and crime are not over-exaggerated. In other words, foreigners are found to commit proportionately more serious offences than Cypriots. The main points raised in relation to migrants suggest that people do feel unsafe in their communities. Most Greek-Cypriots are prejudiced against Russian-Pontiacs, but foreigners are also prejudiced against them, as well as against Cypriots. The majority of Greek-Cypriots recognize that there is racism in Cyprus, due to xenophobia and as a consequence of media misinformation. All the respondents in the face-to-face interviews declared that they do not tend to socialize with Cypriots and do not have close Cypriot friends. Some mentioned that there is an invisible barrier in the social interaction with Cypriots that makes it impossible for Cypriots to have close contacts with foreigners. Also, they are of the opinion that Cypriots for one reason or another are racists. This finding indicates that integration of immigrants into the body of the Cypriot society is proceeding slowly. Cypriot society has become multi-cultural and care should be taken to tackle social problems like crime, carefully avoiding further victimization of immigrants by investing more in race relations.

Includes bibliography (p. 214-231). ; Number of sources in the bibliography: 245 ; Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Cyprus, Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Department of Social and Political Sciences, 2008 ; The University of Cyprus Library holds the printed form of the thesis. ; Η μεγάλη ροή των μεταναστών, νόμιμων και παράνομων, που φθάνουν στην Κύπρο ψάχνοντας για εργασία και καλύτερες συνθήκες διαβίωσης, έχει προκαλέσει συγκεκριμένα κοινωνικά προβλήματα. Τα μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης που επισημαίνουν την ραγδαία αύξηση των παράνομων μεταναστών, τη συμμετοχή τους στο οργανωμένο έγκλημα καθώς επίσης και τον ρυθμό αύξησης της εγκληματικότητας, έχουν προκαλέσει την εχθρότητα μεταξύ του πληθυσμού έναντι των μειονοτήτων που θεωρούν ότι ανταγωνίζονται για τις θέσεις εργασίας, κατηγορώντας τους για τα εγκλήματα που διαπράττονται. Υπάρχει ανάγκη διερεύνησης εάν οι αντιλήψεις για την εγκληματικότητα των μεταναστών ανταποκρίνονται με τα πραγματικά ποσοστά φυλάκισης, διότι εάν οι αντιλήψεις είναι αρνητικές, δεν συμπίπτουν με την πραγματικότητα, αυτό θα συνιστούσε την ύπαρξη αρνητικών αισθημάτων κατά των μεταναστών. Ο κύριος στόχος της παρούσας διατριβής είναι να διευρυνθεί η δημόσια αντίληψη των σημαντικών θεμάτων που άπτονται των μεταναστών και το Κυπριακό ποινικό σύστημα. Δεν έχει διενεργηθεί καμία προηγούμενη έρευνα αναφορικά στο θέμα των μεταναστών και του εγκλήματος στην Κύπρο. Βάσει της βιβλιογραφικής επισκόπησης, οι ακόλουθες τρεις υποθέσεις έχουν εξεταστεί σχετικά με τις τοποθετήσεις των Ελληνοκυπρίων και των αλλοδαπών: α. Οι μετανάστες αυξάνουν τα ποσοστά εγκλήματος και προκαλούν επιπρόσθετα προβλήματα στην κοινωνία. β. Τα ποσοστά εγκλήματος των αλλοδαπών είναι υψηλότερα από τους Κύπριους. γ. Οι υποθέσεις (α) και (β) συνδέονται με το ρατσισμό και την ξενοφοβία. Με άλλα λόγια, η ρατσιστική/ξενόφοβη υπόθεση είναι ότι η πεποίθηση του κοινού ότι οι μετανάστες διαπράττουν εγκλήματα λειτουργεί ανεξάρτητα από την πραγματικότητα και εκφράζει στερεότυπα των μεταναστών (William, 2003:8). Έχουν συλλεχθεί τόσο ποσοτικά όσο και ποιοτικά στοιχεία σε μία προσπάθεια να απαντηθούν οι ερωτήσεις που τίθενται και για να αντιμετωπισθούν τα πρόσθετα κοινωνικο-νομικά ζητήματα. Η έρευνα περιέλαβε δύο ερωτηματολόγια. Το πρώτο χρησιμοποιήθηκε για να ερευνήσει 500 Κύπριους αναφορικά για τις αντιλήψεις και τη στάση τους απέναντι στους αλλοδαπούς και το έγκλημα. Το δεύτερο ερωτηματολόγιο χρησιμοποιήθηκε για να διερευνηθούν 100 αλλοδαποί για να εξετάσει τις αντιλήψεις σχετικά για το έγκλημα, και τη στάση τους απέναντι στους Ελληνοκυπρίους. Για την ανάλυση των στοιχείων που συλλέχθηκαν από δύο ποσοτικές έρευνες χρησιμοποιήθηκε το αναλυτικό πρόγραμμα SPSS. Επιπλέον για να ληφθούν τα ποιοτικά στοιχεία, έχουν διενεργηθεί 30 συνεντεύξεις με αλλοδαπούς (πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο) που πραγματοποιήθηκαν κυρίως στη Λευκωσία. Αυτή η διατριβή τεκμηριώνει ότι η κοινή αντίληψη για την ύπαρξη σχέσης μεταξύ των μεταναστών και του εγκλήματος, δεν είναι υπερβολή. Με άλλα λόγια, οι αλλοδαποί διαπράττουν αναλογικά περισσότερο σοβαρά αδικήματα σε σχέση με τους Κύπριους. Τα κύρια σημεία που θίγονται σε σχέση με τους μετανάστες υποδυκνείουν ότι οι άνθρωποι αισθάνονται ανασφαλείς στις κοινότητές τους. Οι περισσότεροι από αυτούς είναι προκατειλημμένοι ενάντια στους Ρωσσο-Πόντιους, καθώς επίσης και οι αλλοδαποί είναι προκατελλημένοι προς αυτούς, όπως και προς τους Κυπρίους. Η πλειοψηφία των Ελληνοκυπρίων αναγνωρίζει ότι υπάρχει ρατσισμός στην Κύπρο, λόγω της ξενοφοβίας και παραπληροφόρησης των Μέσων Ενημέρωσης. Όλοι οι ερωτηθέντες στις συνεντεύξεις (πρόσωπο με πρόσωπο), δήλωσαν ότι δεν τείνουν να κοινωνικοποιούνται με Κυπρίους και δεν έχουν στενούς Κύπριους φίλους. Μερικοί από αυτούς ανέφεραν ότι υπάρχει ένα αόρατο εμπόδιο στην κοινωνική αλληλεπίδραση με τους Κυπρίους που τους καθιστά αδύνατο να έχουν στενές επαφές με τους αλλοδαπούς. Επίσης, είναι της άποψης ότι οι Κύπριοι, για τον ένα ή τον άλλο λόγο, είναι ρατσιστές. Αυτή η εύρεση δείχνει ότι η ένταξη των μεταναστών στο σώμα της Κυπριακής κοινωνίας προχωρά αργά. Η Κυπριακή κοινωνία έχει γίνει πολυπολιτισμική και θα πρέπει να ληφθούν τα κατάλληλα μέτρα, με προσοχή, για να αντιμετωπιστούν τα κοινωνικά προβλήματα, όπως το έγκλημα, αποφεύγοντας την περαιτέρω θυματοποίηση των μεταναστών, με την επένδυση περισσότερο στις φυλετικές σχέσεις. ; The recent influx of migrants, legal and illegal, arriving in Cyprus in search of work and better living conditions is perceived to have caused a variety of social problems. Media attention on the escalating numbers of undocumented migrants and their involvement in organized crime as well as the increase in crime rates, has provoked hostility among the population towards visible minorities who are perceived as competing for jobs, and the reason for the increase in crime. There is a need to see if perceptions of immigrant criminality are consistent with official criminal statistics because if perceptions are more negative than the reality, this would suggest anti-immigrant feeling. The main aim of the present thesis is to broaden public understanding of important issues in relation to migrants and the criminal justice system in the Republic of Cyprus. No previous research is available on the topic of migrants and crime in Cyprus. The literature review, led to the formulation and testing of three hypotheses regarding race-related attitudes of both Greek-Cypriots and foreigners: a. Immigrants increase crime rates and cause additional problems to society. b. The crime rates of foreigners are higher than locals. c. Hypotheses (a) and (b) are closely associated with racism and xenophobia. In other words, the racist/xenophobic hypothesis is that the public's belief that immigrants commit crimes functions independently of the actuality involved and it expresses a degrading stereotype of migrants (William, 2003:8). Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to test the above hypotheses and to address additional socio-legal issues. The survey included two structured questionnaires. The first was used to investigate the opinions of a representative sample of 500 Greek-Cypriots, their perceptions and attitudes towards foreigners and crime. The second questionnaire was used to survey 100 foreigners regarding their opinions, crime perceptions, and attitudes towards Greek-Cypriots. Data from the two surveys was then analyzed using the SPSS package. In addition, qualitative data was also systematically collected by means of 30 face-to-face interviews with foreigners carried out mainly in Nicosia, which were transcribed and analyzed. This thesis documents that, on the basis of official criminal statistics, popular perceptions about a relationship between migrants and crime are not over-exaggerated. In other words, foreigners are found to commit proportionately more serious offences than Cypriots. The main points raised in relation to migrants suggest that people do feel unsafe in their communities. Most Greek-Cypriots are prejudiced against Russian-Pontiacs, but foreigners are also prejudiced against them, as well as against Cypriots. The majority of Greek-Cypriots recognize that there is racism in Cyprus, due to xenophobia and as a consequence of media misinformation. All the respondents in the face-to-face interviews declared that they do not tend to socialize with Cypriots and do not have close Cypriot friends. Some mentioned that there is an invisible barrier in the social interaction with Cypriots that makes it impossible for Cypriots to have close contacts with foreigners. Also, they are of the opinion that Cypriots for one reason or another are racists. This finding indicates that integration of immigrants into the body of the Cypriot society is proceeding slowly. Cypriot society has become multi-cultural and care should be taken to tackle social problems like crime, carefully avoiding further victimization of immigrants by investing more in race relations.

Starting from the pioneering papers by Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR model) and Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC model), a large number of papers concerning Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with outputs uncertainty appeared in the literature. In particular, chance-constrained programming is the most used technique to include noise variations in data and to solve data envelopment analysis problems with uncertainty in data. Chance-constrained programming admits random data variations and permits constraint violations up to specified probability limits, allowing linear deterministic equivalent formulations in case a normal distribution of the data uncertainty is assumed. The standard DEA models rely on the assumption that inputs are minimized and outputs are maximized. However, both desirable and undesirable (e.g., pollutants or wastes) output factors may be present. The undesirable and desirable outputs should be treated differently when we evaluate the production performance: if inefficiency exists in the production, the undesirable pollutants should be reduced to improve efficiency. In order to include undesirable factors in DEA models, according to the literature, two different approaches can be used to model undesirable factors: one group of DEA models treats them as inputs, whereas a second group considers them as undesirable outputs. DEA models with undesirable factors are particularly suitable for models where several production inputs and desirable and undesirable outputs are taken into account, in order to provide an eco-efficiency measure. In this Ph.D thesis alternative DEA models, which consider both uncertain and undesirable outputs, are proposed and studied. In particular, in the first part of this thesis two different models with uncertain outputs and deterministic inputs are proposed with the aim to move away the classical chance-constrained method and to obtain a more accurate DMU ranking whatever situation occurs. Specifically speaking, the proposed models remove the hypothesis of normal data distribution and use a scenario generation approach to include data perturbations. For the sake of completeness, these models are compared with two further ones based on an expected value approach, where uncertainty is managed by means of the expected values of random factors both in the objective function and in the constraints. Deeply speaking, the main difference between the two proposed models and the expected value approaches lies in their mathematical formulation. In the new models, based on the scenario generation approach, the constraints concerning efficiency level are expressed for each scenario. On the other hand, in the expected value models the constraints are satisfied in expected value. As a consequence, the models proposed in the thesis result to be more selective in finding a ranking of efficiency, thus becoming useful strategic management tools aimed to determine a restrictive efficiency score ranking. In the second part of this study, we focus on environmental policy and eco-efficiency. Nowadays, one of the most intensively discussed concepts in the international political debate is, in fact, the concept of sustainability and the need for eco-efficient solutions that enable the production of goods and services with less energy and resources and with less waste and emissions (eco-efficiency). In particular, we consider the environmental impact of CO2 in cement and clinker production processes. Cement industry is, in fact, responsible for approximately 5% of the current worldwide CO2 emissions. DEA models can provide an appropriate methodological approach for developing eco-efficiency indicators. A cross-country comparison of the eco-efficiency level of the worldwide cement industry is presented by applying both a data envelopment analysis and a directional distance function approach. These tools result to be particularly suitable for models where several production inputs and desirable and undesirable outputs are taken into account. Strong and weak disposability assumptions are analyzed in order to evaluate the impact of environmental regulations interpreted as the cost of regulation. The few papers appeared in the literature of eco-efficiency in cement production analyze the emission performance trends only from an interstate point of view. In this thesis a worldwide study has been carried on, covering 90% of the world's cement production by means of 21 countries, European (EU) and non-European (non-EU) ones. The obtained results show that the efficiency level mainly depends on decisions to invest in alternative raw materials and alternative fuels, both in the case of regulated countries and in the case of voluntary emission-trading schemes. This study highlights, both at national and international levels, the possibility of reducing CO2 emissions and expanding cement production. The use of alternative raw materials, alternative fuels and the possibility of producing blended cements, which require less energy consumption and reduce pollutant emissions, seem to be appropriate means. Environmental regulations can provide incentives in terms of tax exemption benefits or more restrictive pollutant limits. Finally, we try to answer to the following questions: do undesirable factors modify the efficiency levels of cement industry? Is it reasonable to omit CO2 emissions in evaluating the performances of the cement sector in different countries? In order to answer to these questions, alternative formulations of standard data envelopment analysis model and directional distance function are compared both in presence and in absence of undesirable factors. This analysis shows that the presence of undesirable factors greatly affects efficiency levels. Efficiency levels are influenced by investments in best available technologies and by the utilization of alternative fuels and raw materials in cement and clinker production processes. The original results of this Ph.D. thesis have been collected in the following research papers: • Riccardi R. and R. Toninelli. Data Envelopment Analysis with outputs uncertainty. Journal of Information & Optimization Sciences, to appear. • Riccardi R., Oggioni G. and R. Toninelli. The cement industry: eco-efficiency country comparison using Data Envelopment Analysis. Journal of Statistics & Management Systems, accepted for publication. • Riccardi R., Oggioni G. and R. Toninelli. Eco-efficiency of the world cement industry: A Data Envelopment Analysis. Energy Policy, Vol. 39, Issue 5, p. 2842-2854, 2011, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.02.057 • Riccardi R., Oggioni G. and R. Toninelli. Evaluating the efficiency of the cement sector in presence of undesirable output: a world based Data Envelopment Analysis. Technical Report n. 344, Department of Statistics and Applied Mathematics, University of Pisa, 2011, submitted to Resource and Energy Economics. The research topic considered in this thesis shows many different lines for future developments. In particular, from a theoretical point of view, starting from the models proposed in Riccardi and Toninelli (2011), we are studying for a bi-objective like DEA formulation where both uncertainty desirable and undesirable factor are taken into account. As regards the applicative aspects, we are also studying and applying bootstrap techniques to manage uncertainty and generate empirical distributions of efficiency scores, in order to capture and analyze the sensitivity of samples with respect to changes in the estimated frontier.

Acknowledgements -- List of Figures -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1The Evolution of the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs and their Catalogues, 1564-1700 -- 1Law and Politics: Frankfurt, Leipzig, the Imperial Court and the Electorate of Saxony -- 2Procedures and Practices -- 3Unofficial Versions of Frankfurt Fair Catalogues -- 4The Evolving Intellectual Environment and the Disciplines -- 5Foreign Visitors and the Evolution of the Fairs -- 6Interpreting Schwetschke's Statistics -- 7Concluding Remarks -- Appendix 1.1: The British Entries in Schwetschke and the Frankfurt and Leipzig Catalogues 1684-6, with their reviews in the Acta Eruditorum -- Appendix 1.2: The Woyd entry in 'Libri medici et chymici', A1704, D2v -- 2Italy and the heyday of the Frankfurt Fair, c. 1580-1620 -- 1Sources -- 2Ciotti at the Frankfurt Fair in 1587 -- 3The Emergence of the Printed Catalogue of Ultramontane Books -- 4Italy and the Frankfurt Fair in the Last Decades of the Sixteenth Century: the Role of Consortia -- 5Some Major Clients and Their Desiderata -- 6An Interloper in the Export-import Market: Gaspare Bindoni il Giovane -- 7The Three Trade Catalogues of 1602: their Sources and Contents -- 8Postscript: the Decline of the Societas Veneta and Venetian Imports and Exports -- 9Concluding Remarks -- Appendix 2.1: Transcription of MPM Archief 964, ff. 49v-50r -- Appendix 2.2: Bindoni's Catalogue of 1601 -- Appendix 2.3: Titles Marked "novo" the 1602 Catalogus eorum librorum omnium, qui in ultramontanis Regionibus impressi apud Robertum Meiettum prost[r]ant 203 -- Appendix 2.4: Items Marked as novi in the 1602 Catalogus eorum librorum omnium, qui in ultramontanis Regionibus impressi apud Io. Baptistam Ciottum prostant 204 -- 3Publishers, Book Fairs, Academies, Journals: the Dissemination of English Medicine and Natural Philosophy in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century -- 1The Status Quo Ante -- 2After the Thirty Years War -- 3The Advent of the Journals in Northern Europe -- 4The Journals in Latin Translation -- 5The English Latin Trade, at Home and Abroad -- 6English Medicine -- 7English Natural Philosophy -- 8Concluding Remarks -- 4Publishing Italian Natural Philosophy and Medicine, 1661-1710 -- 1The de' Medici of Mid-seventeenth-century Florence and Their Scientific Clients -- 2Alessandro Marchetti (1633-1714) -- 3Francesco Redi (1626-97) -- 4Lorenzo Bellini (1643-1704) -- 5Marcello Malpighi (1628-94) -- 6Giorgio Baglivi (1668-1707) -- 7Concluding Remarks -- 5Andreas Fries (Frisius) of Amsterdam and the Search for a niche Market, 1664-75 -- 1Andreas and the Reader -- 2Andreas's Family Connections: Joan de la Noue and the Combi -- 3Andreas Frisius before His Publishing Career -- 4Bookseller-publishers, Their Financial Environment, and Their Networks -- 5The Frankfurt Fair in Andreas's Time -- 6Andreas as Bookseller -- 7Andreas as Publisher and His Purchasers -- 8The Material History of Andreas's Publications -- 9Antiquarianism -- 10Natural Philosophy and Medicine -- 11Three Anomalies -- 12The Aftermath -- 13Concluding Remarks -- Appendix 5.1: A Catalogue Raisonné of Andreas's Involvement in Publishing -- 6The Thesauruses of Otto and Meerman as Publishing Enterprises: Legal Humanism in its Last Phase, 1725-1780 -- 1Legal Humanism -- 2Law in the Book Market before the Thirty Years War -- 3The Latin Trade after 1650 and the Role of the Netherlands -- 4 Historia Literaria , the Republic of Letters, and Legal Humanist Authors -- 4.1The Thesaurus Juris Romani (1725-44) -- 5The Novus Thesaurus and Its Supplement (1751-1780) -- 6Concluding Remarks -- Appendix 6.1: The Contents of the Thesaurus Juris Romani (1725-6, 1735), the Novus Thesaurus Juris Civilis et Canonico (1751-3) and the Supplementum Novi Thesauri (1780) -- Bibliography of Secondary Sources -- Index.

Recommended readings (Machine generated): 1. James E. Meade (1958), 'Is the National Debt a Burden?', Oxford Economic Papers, 10 (2), June, 163-83 -- 2. Franco Modigliani (1961), 'Long-Run Implications of Alternative Fiscal Policies and the Burden of the National Debt', Economic Journal, 71 (284), December, 730-55 -- 3. Peter A. Diamond (1965), 'National Debt in a Neoclassical Growth Model', American Economic Review, 55 (5), December, 1126-50 -- 4. Olivier J. Blanchard (1985), 'Debt, Deficits and Finite Horizons,' Journal of Political Economy, 93 (2), April, 223-47 -- 5. Gilles Saint-Paul (1992), 'Fiscal Policy in an Endogenous Growth Model', Quartely Journal of Economics, 107 (4), November, 1243-59 -- 6. Cristina Checherita-Westphal, Andrew Hughes Hallet and Philipp Rother (2014), 'Fiscal Sustainability using Growth-Maximising Debt Targets', Applied Economics, 46 (6), February, 638-47 -- 7. Carmen M. Reinhart, Vincent R. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff (2012), 'Public Debt Overhangs: Advanced-Economy Episodes Since 1800', Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26 (3), August, 69-86 -- 8. Cristina Checherita-Westphal and Philipp Rother (2012), 'The Impact of High Government Debt on Economic Growth and its Channels: An Empirical Investigation for the Euro Area', European Economic Review, 56 (7), October, 1392-405 -- 9. Anja Baum, Cristina Checherita-Westphal and Philipp Rother (2013), 'Debt and Growth: New Evidence for the Euro Area ', Journal of International Money and Finance, 32, February, 809-21 -- 10. Jaejoon Woo and Manmohan S. Kumar (2015), 'Public Debt and Growth', Economica, 82 (328), October, 705-39 -- 11. Ugo Panizza and Andrea F. Presbitero (2013), 'Public Debt and Economic Growth in Advanced Economies: A Survey', Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 149 (2), January, 175-204 -- 12. Alberto F. Alesina, Mark De Broeck, Alessandro Prati and Guido Tabellini (1992), 'Default Risk on Government Debt in OECD Countries', Economic Policy, 7 (15), October, 428-63 -- 13. Lorenzo Codogno, Carlo Favero and Alessandro Missale (2003), 'Yield Spreads on EMU Government Bonds', Economic Policy, 18 (37), October, 503-32 -- 14. Thomas Laubach (2009), 'New Evidence on the Interest Rate Effects of Budget Deficits and Debt', Journal of the European Economic Association, 7 (4), June, 858-85 -- 15. Maria-Grazia Attinasi, Cristina Checherita-Westphal and Christiane Nickel (2010), 'What Explains the Surge in Euro Area Sovereign Spreads During the Financial Crisis of 2007-09?', Public Finance and Management, 10 (4), 595-645 -- 16. Nigel Chalk and Vito Tanzi (2002), 'Impact of Large Public Debt on Growth in the EU: A Discussion of Potential Channels', in Marco Buti, Jürgen Von Hagen and Carlos Martinez-Mongay (eds), The Behaviour of Fiscal Authorities: Stabilisation, Growth and Institutions, Part II, Chapter 11, London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 186-211 -- 17. Riccardo De Bonis and Massimiliano Stacchini (2013), 'Does Government Debt Affect Bank Credit?', International Finance, 16, December, 289-310 -- 18. Óscar Jordà, Moritz Schularick and Alan M. Taylor (2016), 'Sovereigns versus Banks: Credit, Crises, and Consequences', Journal of the European Economic Association, 14 (1), February, 45-79 -- 19. Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff (2009), 'A Digression on the Theoretical Underpinnings of Debt Crisis', in This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly', Part II, Chapter 4, Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press, 51-67

?The book presents a peer-reviewed collection of papers presented during the 10th issue of the Artificial Economics conference, addressing a variety of issues related to macroeconomics, industrial organization, networks, management and finance, as well as purely methodological issues. The field of artificial economics covers a broad range of methodologies relying on computer simulations in order to model and study the complexity of economic and social phenomena. The grounding principle of artificial economics is the analysis of aggregate properties of simulated systems populated by interacting adaptive agents that are equipped with heterogeneous individual behavioral rules. These macroscopic properties are neither foreseen nor intended by the artificial agents but generated collectively by them. They are emerging characteristics of such artificially simulated systems. Fre?de?ric Amblardwas awarded a PhD degree (agent-based social simulation) in 2003 from the University Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand. He then spend one year as a post-doc at the ENS-Ulm. In 2004, he became associate professor in Computer Science at the University Toulouse 1 Capitole and joined the IRIT-SMAC team. He has been implied in several European projects (FP6 IMAGES, FP7 COSIN, FP7 QLectives) and ANR projects (MAGeo, COSMAGEMS) and currently participates in the coordination of the MAELIA project, dedicated to the multi-agent simulation for the management of water resources. He coordinated several industrial projects with major actors (EDF RD, France Te?le?com RD). In 2013 he received an award for scientific excellence (PES). Francesc Josep Miguel holds a PhD in Sociology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a University Specialist Degree in Sociology of Consumption from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Miguel Quesada is an Associate Professor at UAB responsible for courses in Methodology for the Social Sciences, Sociology of Consumption and Applied Statistics for Marketing Analysis. He has conducted research in the fields of sociology of consumption, social indicators in relation to the situation of women in contemporary society, and the analysis of school-to-work transitions. At present he mainly works in the domain of 'computational sociology' - an applied branch of artificial intelligence that merges social science and computer simulation techniques to model complex policy issues and societal dynamics - and, as GSADI member and as Director of the 'Laboratory for Socio-Historical Dynamics Simulation' (LSDS) he is involved in several projects about the use of agent-based social simulation for the modelling of social networks dynamics and evolution of social behavior. Adrien Blanchetbecame Associate Professor at the GREMAQ in 2008. He earned a PhD degree in 2005 from the University Paris Dauphine. With a background in mathematical physics, Adrien focused at the end of his PhD degree on models coming from Biology. From his recruitment at the GREMAQ in 2008, he worked on the applications of partial differential equations in Economics. In 2009 he received an award for scientific excellence (PES) as well as an Outstanding Viae Award of the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) in 2010. Benoit Gaudouwas awarded a PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence in 2008 from the Toulouse University. In 2010, he became Associate Professor at the University Toulouse 1 Capitole and joined the IRIT-SMAC research team. His research topics are the agent-based modeling and simulation of social environmental systems including complex agents.

1. History and scholarship regarding United States education finance and policy / Matthew G. Springer, Eric A. Houck, and James W. Guthrie -- 2. The role of economics in education policy research / Dominic J. Brewer. [et al.] -- 3. The past, present and possible futures of educational finance reform litigation / William S. Koski and Jesse Hahnel -- 4. Education finance from the perspective of politics, political cultures and government / James W. Guthrie and Kenneth K. Wong -- 5. Educational goals : a public perspective / Richard Rothstein and Rebecca Jacobsen -- 6. Quantitative research methods in education finance and policy / Patrick J. McEwan -- 7. The evolution of comparative and international education statistics / Stephen P. Heyneman and Chad R. Lykins -- 8. Toward an understanding of productivity in education / Jennifer King Rice and Amy Ellen Schwartz -- 9. Teachers matter, but effective teacher quality policies are elusive / Dan Goldhaber -- 10. School accountability and student achievement / David N. Figlio and Helen F. Ladd -- 11. School competition and student outcomes / Brian Gill and Kevin Booker -- 12. Conceptions of equity and adequacy in school finance / Bruce D. Baker and Preston C. Green -- 13. Measuring equity and adequacy in school finance / Thomas A. Downes and Leanna Stiefel -- 14. Measurement of cost differentials / William D. Duncombe and John Yinger -- 15. Intergovernmental aid formulas and case studies / Lawrence O. Picus, Margaret Goertz and Allan Odden -- 16. Education equity in an international context / Edward B. Fiske and Helen F. Ladd -- 17. The changing federal role in education finance and governance / Nora E. Gordon -- 18. The role of nongovernmental organizations in financing public schools / Janet S. Hansen -- 19. Equity, adequacy and the evolving state role in education finance / Sean P. Corcoran and William N. Evans -- 20. Local funding of schools : the property tax and its alternatives / Therese J. McGuire and Leslie E. Papke -- 21. Tax and expenditure limits, school finance and school quality / Thomas A. Downes and David N. Figlio -- 22. Issues in educational privatization / Henry M. Levin -- 23. Autonomous schools : theory, evidence and policy / David N. Plank and BetsAnn Smith -- 24. Charter schools / Robert Bifulco and Katrina Bulkley -- 25. Beyond the rhetoric : surveying the evidence on vouchers and tax credits / Ron Zimmer and Eric P. Bettinger -- 26. Home schooling / Clive Belfield -- 27. Educational management organizations / Gary Miron -- 28. Patterns and trends in racial/ethnic and socioeconomic academic achievement gaps / Sean F. Reardon and Joseph P. Robinson -- 29. Early childhood and the achievement gap / Susanna Loeb and Daphna Bassok -- 30. Increasing the effectiveness of teachers in low-performing schools / Donald Boyd, Hamilton Lankford, and James Wyckoff -- 31. Educational outcomes of disadvantaged students : from desegregation to accountability / Douglas N. Harris -- 32. Special education / Jenifer J. Harr, Tom Parrish, and Jay G. Chambers -- 33. Resource needs for educating linguistic minority students / Russell W. Rumberger and Patricia Gandara -- 34. Challenges and strategies associated with rural school settings / John W. Sipple and Brian O. Brent -- 35. The organizational and fiscal implications of transient student populations / Kieran M. Killeen and Kai A. Schafft -- 36. The financing of public colleges and universities in the United States / Paul E. Lingenfelter -- 37. Cost and pricing in higher education / William F. Massy -- 38. The effects of education on labor market outcomes / Jessica Goldberg and Jeffrey Smith -- 39. The student aid system : an overview / Sandy Baum -- 40. Bridging the high school-college divide / Thomas R. Bailey

The subject of the article is the Russian specifics of the nature of employment against the background of highly developed countries. The aim is to analyze the evolution of the nature of employment as a result of demographic and socio-economic transformations in Russia. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the consideration of the forms of employment as a result of the combined influence of demographic, sectoral and professional-labor transformations (existing works either did not analyze the reasons for the transformation of the nature of employment or limited to its individual aspects). The research method is a descriptive identification of the main theoretical approaches to the essential aspects of the nature of employment and their practical verification through statistical analysis on the basis of ILO, OECD and WB world statistics in correlation with the main stages of the socio-economic development of Russia after 1991. The analysis was carried out over a long period of time, starting from 1992, taking into account Russia's economic cycles, which made it possible to trace the evolution of the nature of employment taking into account the transformation of socio-economic conditions. The simultaneous analysis of changes in all forms of employment was carried out, which made it possible to identify the Russian specifics of combining elements of standard and non-standard employment. It is concluded that with a certain lag in the sphere of demographic ageing and sectoral transformation in the form of shifting employment from the productive sector to the service sector, Russia, compared to highly developed countries, is characterized by a stronger differentiation of jobs by skill level and nature of labor operations (employment is more concentrated in two opposite sectors of mental highly skilled labor and manual physical low-skilled labor). The opinion of a number of authors about the strengthening of non-standard forms of employment in Russia has been verified and refuted. After the transition to capitalism, the basis of employment remains wage labor, and forms of non-wage labor (except for employers) during recessions are more of a transitional forced nature. At the same time, the share of informal employment has increased in Russia, but the basis of the labor force functioning regime is still full-time permanent employment (this observation refutes the opinion of a number of authors about the close connection between informal employment and other forms of non-standard employment). The conclusion is made that in the future the Russian labor market will see a strengthening of standard employment in the form of permanent wage labor, which will be beneficial to both employees (whose influence will increase due to the shift of the age structure towards older ages) and employers (due to increased requirements to the level of personnel qualification). At the same time, a certain increase in the share of temporary employment is possible in case of economic growth. Given that non-standard forms of employment in Russia mean a deterioration in the quality of jobs, the strengthening of standard forms of employment should be seen as a positive phenomenon. The results of this article can be used by Russian government agencies when planning the state employment policy, as well as by employers when taking into account the Russian specifics of the labor force in the preferred nature of employment.

The government, and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) in particular, is concerned with health inequalities and it believes women in particular are unfairly treated. Women, worldwide live longer than men so why is that unfair to women? The August 2022 DHSC policy paper claimed "this country's health and care system belongs to us all, and it must serve us all. However, sadly, 51% of the population faces obstacles when it comes to getting the care they need." The DHSC policy paper was, naturally, wholly unbiased. As the paper puts it "It's brilliant that we have received almost 100,000 responses from women [sic] across the country."According to the DHSC: "Although women in the UK on average live longer than men, women spend a significantly greater proportion of their lives in ill health and disability when compared with men." Strangely the Office for National Statistics figures, which it cites, do not support this claim: "Female HLE [healthy life expectancy] increased for those aged 10 years and over between 2011 to 2013 and 2018 to 2020, with the increases being statistically significant in those aged 20 years and over (Figure 2)." Disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) remained the same for men vs. women throughout the five years 2015 to 2020 (Figure 4). Shame the figures are not what the DHSC would like them to be.On 25th September 2023, the DHSC ministers wrote to the chief executives of integrated care boards (ICBs). By then the Minister for Women's Health had been joined by the Women's Health Ambassador and her deputy and the Chief Nursing Officer. The letter said that £25M was being made available for "Women's Health Hubs" (at least one per ICB): "Hubs bring together healthcare professionals and existing services to provide integrated women's health services in the community, focusing on improving access to care and reducing health inequalities." Each hub would cost £595,000, but see below, the DHSC cannot know how the money should be spent of why a hub in Darlington should cost the same as one in Mayfair.Equalling the treatment (health cost) given to women and men means they have to be treated for the same health problems.  The flaw in this equality idea is that they don't actually have the same problems.  The male menopause is joked about but, of course, there is no such thing.  One might think assessing the value for money or performance of these hubs would require quite a bit of discussion and serious contemplation so it was hardly generous of DHSC to require 16 questions on the template plus 11 questions on the data sources page to be answered within a week, i.e. issued 22nd September response by 29th September. Template question 16 for example: "Q16. What is the best way for DHSC to access data from your hub to measure or evaluate the implementation and performance of hubs models? If you think a combination of the approaches listed is best then select multiple responses."The interesting thing about Q16 is that the DHSC clearly has no idea what these hubs, or removing the non-existent health inequalities, are supposed to achieve. Shocking.  

Taking into account the different goals of the AH and Fantasy novel plus AH subgenre writing, we can try and develop one definition of both. AH writing reconstructs the national or world history and the changed facts, conclusions draw our attention to specific facts, key moments of well-known stories that are invisible for us, since of everyday life's obvious reality prevents us from analyzing processes, we turn on the automatic mode instead. While Fantasy novel plus AH subgenre writing is rather monumental work, because it turns to the world history or historiography model making. Fantasy novel plus AH subgenre works use the historyographical method, but they exist in unreal time dealing with well-known constructions of the action world history of civilization. For example, one of the first uchronic stories by George Richard Raymond Martin "The Hedge Knight" (Martin) uses the space of Middle Ages in Europe for fiction story modeling. Also, it is an abstract of the world of the latest "Game of Thrones" – the greatest fiction saga of the new age literature in the 2000s. There is no doubt that "A Song of Ice and Fire" is constructed based on the matrix of such myth as "The Elder Edda" and "The Lord of the Rings" by John R. R. Tolkien. Legendary fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien spent much of his life studying, translating, and teaching ancient tales of northern Europe at Oxford and drew on them for his own writing. These epic stories, with their wizards and knights, dragons and trolls, cursed rings and magic swords, are as fascinating today as they were thousands of years ago. Reading them brings us as close as we will ever get to the magical worlds of the Vikings and the origins of their twentieth-century counterpart: Tolkien's Middle Earth gave G. R. R. Martin, according to his own confession, the idea of the fantasy world of Westeros. The article deals with the specifics of the Fantasy novel plus AH subgenre in comparison to the Alternate history itself. The aim of the study is to emphasize the main features of the Fantasy novel plus AH subgenre and its common and different characteristics. The study uses such a method as comparative, descriptive, analysis and statistics counting. The novelty of the current research is realized by the essence of the first-time study of the AH subgenres on the world literature sources. The sources of the study are novels written by G. R. R. Martin "A Song of Ice and Flame", "Kaiser and the War" by Simon J. Ortiz and V. Neff "Queens Don't Have Legs". Conclusions. As well as "A Song of Ice and Flame" by G. R. R. Martin, V. Neff's trilogy exhibits a gallery of kings, queens, dukes, wizards, captains, people. Some of them are real, some are prototypes of actual statesmen; some characters come from Greek myths, while some – from the author's fantasy. Although the objective of the alternative history method in the both works is quite different, it plays a similar role in the plot construction. Alternative history builds the walls of fantasy world from the bricks of actual historical elements, making the novel interesting for readers and involving them as betrayers.

Youth unemployment is a subject of great concern in the developing world, particularly in developing nations, and among them is Kenya. These countries are characterized by the high population of youths who make up the majority of the unemployed in the nation. Governments and non-profit organizations are partnering to eradicate poverty and unemployment among the youth. To achieve this, novel ways, such as promoting digital skills training programs such as WFP's EMPACT and the Ajira. This research sought to address these shortages by analyzing the management practices and sustainability of training programs on WFP's EMPACT and the Ajira Digital skills training project in Kibera. It used a systematic sampling method of data collection accompanied by questionnaires. The results from this research will give a starting point for understanding the project's potential in Kenya and not just in Kibera. It will also provide insights and recommendations for the project's second phase by the Ministry of Planning in its efforts to use digital skills to end youth unemployment in the country. This study aimed to assess management practices and the sustainability of training programs. It was a case study that involved two training programs i.e. Ajira Digital training program and WFP's EMPACT. Data was collected in Kibera slums in Nairobi City County. Its main objectives were to investigate how stakeholder participation affects the viability of digital skills development programs in Kibera slums, to ascertain how risk management strategies affect the viability of programs for teaching digital skills in Kibera slums, to establish the impact of evaluation and monitoring on the sustainability of the programs for teaching digital skills in Kibera and to examine how budgeting affects the viability of initiatives for teaching digital skills in Kibera slums. Questionnaires were used for data collection. The questions were close-ended. Data collected was examined systematically and then carefully analysed using EXCEL and SPSS. From the descriptive statistics results it was found out most of the respondents agreed to a great extent that leadership skills, project communications, resource allocation and cost management skills have an influence on the sustainability of the digital training programs a case of digital skills training projects in Kibera slums, Nairobi city county, Kenya. From the regression analysis it was revealed that leadership skills have a positive (B=.283), project communication has a negative (B=-112), resource allocation has a positive (B=0.496) and finally cost management skills have a positive (B=0.449) influence on the sustainability of the digital training programs a case of digital skills training projects in Kibera slums, Nairobi city county, Kenya. The overall model was considered first to explain the sustainability of digital training programs. The study therefore concluded that leadership skills have a significant and positive influence on the sustainability of digital training programs project communication has a negative but insignificant influence on the sustainability of digital training programs resource allocation has a positive and significant influence on the sustainability of the digital training programs that cost management skills positively and significantly influence sustainability of the digital training programs. The study recommends that management skills (leadership skills, project communication, resource and allocation and cost management skills ought to be considered as significantly influencing the sustainability of digital training programs.

The United Nations has a target for developed countries to spend 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance (ODA). The UK had previously set this target, then reduced it to 0.5%, but now targets returning to 0.7% in 2024-2025.Some commentators criticize the UK, and indeed the USA, for contributing too little to the development of poorer countries, but the amount the two countries give is much higher than the figures show. The statistics only show what governments contribute (£15.2bn), but data from the World Bank shows that £23.6bn is paid in remittances from the UK, with £10.6bn in charitable donations. People who came here as immigrants send money to their families back home, and thereby make a significant impact on their domestic economy. The same is true in the United States.Furthermore, this direct person to person aid does more economic good than government to government aid. As Professor Peter Bauer pointed out, government aid signals to ambitious people in poor countries that they must turn to the government to improve their lot. People who might otherwise go into business or start businesses themselves, turn instead to seek contracts from government or positions within government. There are also fewer opportunities for corruption and waste in person to person transfers of wealth, although some smaller fraud has occurred. The money goes straight into the local economy and helps to fund things such as education, as well as raising living standards.There is something else that works. It is the low tax, light regulation model that boosted Hong Kong from abject poverty into first world affluence. It did the same in Singapore, in Taiwan, and in South Korea. It was behind the West German "Economic Miracle" of Ludwig Erhard, and of Japan's rapid post-war recovery.The UK should boost development in poorer countries by the two things that we have ascertained work in practice. It should encourage person to person aid transfers from UK people to their relatives in poorer countries. This could be done by giving such contributions the same kind of tax relief that goes to those who make donations to registered charities through Gift Aid. An allowance would be set at such a level as to avoid this generous tax relief being used for tax avoidance or overly advantaging those whose families live abroad.The UK could also collaborate with poorer countries to have an area, preferably including a port, assigned on a lease of perhaps 30 or 50 years to a consortium, solely at the invitation of the host. It would be a freeport and much more. The governing consortium would set the levels of taxation, and run the area's policing and judicial administration. They would determine its property laws and its regulatory structure. The aim would be to recreate what Hong Kong and the others did. With the right conditions, property rights and rule of law, international investment would pour in, creating both businesses and jobs locally. Local people would rush to work or live there because of the opportunities.There is little doubt that untrammelled enterprise would achieve far more than development aid has managed to attain after decades of effort. Combined with incentives to augment person to person transfers, this could set poorer countries on that upward path to affluence and increased prosperity.

The article analyzes the stages development of the Swedish economic model from the mid-nineteenth century to the crisis in period 20082010. Sweden is the richest Scandinavian country and one of the most industrialized countries in the world. Sweden is an economically highly developed and efficiently organized country. For the last few years, the economy has been in a phase of economic growth. In the period 20182021, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a rate of almost 2.0% in the conditions of low inflation (approx. 3% annually) and a relatively high unemployment rate (7.0% in 2019 and 8.8% in 2021). The economic results achieved by Sweden are not accidental. This is the result of the harmonized economic policy pursued continuously by the Swedish government, which actively affects the material course of economic growth processes in this country. The development of economic policy in Sweden can be divided into two periods: the first (1970s and 1980s) was characterized by the decline of traditionally understood industrialization. The change in the political arena in the period 1976-1982, which resulted in the removal of the Social Democrats from power, did not stop the subsequent fiscalism and the increase in public and social spending. The rate of economic growth in the long-term horizon was declining. Between 1961 and 1970, the average annual growth of Swedish GDP was 8.9%, 5.6% in the 1970s and 6.9% in the 1980s, respectively.The process of internationalization of Swedish enterprises, liberal approaches to economic cooperation with foreign countries and the recovery of public finances, whose dynamic development took place in the 1990s, are the second characteristic period in Swedens economic policy. For more than two decades, Swedish governments have maintained strong fiscal discipline. After theeconomic reset in the early 1990s, the general downward trend in the share of public spending in Swedish GDP seems to have come to a halt. In the last 3 years (20192021), public spending did not exceed 50% of GDP. Moreover, Sweden has maintained a low level of public debt for years. The ratio of public debt to GDP decreased from 78% (1994) to 35.2% (2019), 39.6% in 2020 and in 2021 36.7%. One of the important factors enabling the rapid economic growth of Sweden was high expenditure on research and development (R&D). For several years, Sweden has been at the forefront of countries investing the most in the development of new technologies. An important factor in Swedens economic growth has also been the high level of foreign investment. According to UN statistics, Sweden is one of the most attractive places to invest foreign capital. The impulse of the Swedish economy over many years was the development of exports, which in 2021 reached the level of approx. PLN 176 billion. Euro, which puts Sweden at the forefront of the world. The share of exports in creating the Swedish GDP in 2021 was as much as 45.5%.The EU membership also had a positive impact on Swedens economic development.Swedens social and economic success has also been achieved on the basis of the lessons learned from the financial crisis of the early 1990s. The unchanging strategy and economic policy, together with competitiveness, innovation and a flexible approach to trade, have made Sweden today a highly competitive country with an economy that achieves measurable successes.

В статье рассматриваются вопросы эколого-экономического развития арктических территорий России. Цель работы - выявление ключевых проблем и особенностей эколого-экономического развития территорий Архангельской области и Республики Коми, входящих в состав Арктической зоны РФ. Особенностью исследовательского подхода является сопоставление данных специализированного социологического исследования и официальной ведомственной и корпоративной информации. Обработка данных осуществлялась с использованием SPSS, применялся комплекс социологических методов и статистического анализа. Итоговые аналитические результаты опирались на синтез методов пространственной экономики, экономической социологии, концепции устойчивого развития и диалектический подход. По результатам исследования выявлено, как население арктических территорий Архангельской области и Республики Коми оценивает состояние окружающей среды в месте непосредственного проживания, а также в масштабах региона, Арктики, России и мира. Определены территориальные особенности восприятия динамики состояния природной среды. Выявлены и сопоставлены с официальными данными представление жителей об источниках основных угроз для экологического благополучия территорий, а также получена оценка удовлетворенности состоянием основных компонентов среды. Научная значимость работы определяется полнотой и системным охватом результатов, полученных с применением комплексного инструментария. Исследование призвано внести вклад в изучение эколого-экономических вопросов развития Арктической зоны РФ. Оно также имеет значимость как фундамент для дальнейших научных изысканий, в том числе в рамках применения теории обоснованного действия, теории «ценности - убеждения - нормы» и др. Практическое значение работы определяется важностью формирования аналитических основ регулирования эколого-экономических аспектов развития Российской Арктики в условиях возрастания экологических рисков и появления новых экономических вызовов.
This article examines the environmental and economic development issues in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation, specifically in areas of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic. The goal is to identify the challenges and unique characteristics of Arctic territories within these two regions. The study utilizes a comparative approach, analyzing data from a focused sociological survey of the environmental, economic, and social well-being of the area against official departmental statistics and enterprise data. The data were processed using SPSS software, as well as sociological and statistical methods. The conclusive analytical findings were derived from a synthesis of various academic disciplines encompassing spatial economics, economic sociology, the sustainable development concept, and the dialectical approach. The results provide insights from the population of the Arctic territories within Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic, specifically, the public's assessment of the state of the environment in their direct places of residence, and at the regional, national, and global levels. We identify the specific ways in which the dynamics of the environment are perceived within each territory, as well as determine and compare with official data the sources of major perceived threats to the environmental well-being of these areas. Additionally, the study evaluates the level of satisfaction with the state of key environmental components. This research is scientifically important due to the comprehensive and inclusive nature of the results, which were achieved through the application of a wide range of tools. It contributes to the scientific study of environmental and economic issues related to the development of Russia's Arctic Zone. Moreover, the study is relevant as a foundation for further scientific research, including those utilizing theories of reasoned action, "values-beliefs-norm, " and other similar approaches. Its practical significance lies in the need to establish an analytical framework for addressing environmental and economic considerations in the development of the Russian Arctic, which is crucial due to the growing ecological risks and new economic challenges.

Research background: Bankruptcy in court proceedings has been of interest to researchers for many years. Researchers look for internal and external factors which influence the effectiveness and efficiency of bankruptcy proceedings; for example, the impact of the country's level of development on the efficiency of bankruptcy proceedings, a system of incentives for the active participation of creditors in bankruptcy proceedings to increase their recovery rate, and mechanisms which encourage the early filing of an application for bankruptcy. Against the background of the research to date, a research gap was identified in the scope of the impact of the bankruptcy (pro-debtor/pro-creditor) law model on the effectiveness of the calculated recovery rate for creditors. The research fills a cognitive gap in New Institutional Economics by examining formal institutions in action, i.e. whether bankruptcy law meets its objectives in practice.Purpose of the article: The aim of the article is to answer the question of which model answers the expectations of stakeholders – creditors who expect the highest possible rate of return. Poland is an example of a country where since 2016 there has been a change in the model of bankruptcy law from pro-creditor to pro-debtor.Methods: The authors of the article conducted constant monitoring of the effectiveness of bankruptcy law in Poland through the examination of bankruptcy proceedings filed in bankruptcy and restructuring courts. The research on the efficiency of bankruptcyproceedings was based on the analysis of files from bankruptcy proceedings conducted at the District Court in Warsaw. The analysis covered the period i) from 01.01.2004 to 31.12.2015 n=150 files of the pro-creditor model of bankruptcy proceedings and ii) from 01.01.2016 to 31.12.2019 n=66 files of the pro-debtor model of bankruptcy proceedings. The statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics Program Version 26. The Kruskal–Wallis H non-parametric test was employed.Findings & Value added: The results of the research show that the new pro-debtor model of bankruptcy proceedings implemented in Poland after 31 December 2015 is less effective than the previous pro-creditor model of bankruptcy proceedings. In the pro-creditor model, creditors' interests are managed more effectively. Practice shows that frequent changes in the law and model of bankruptcy law do not contribute to its effectiveness and efficiency. It seems that the stabilization of legal solutions is an important factor. The legal activity should be aimed at improving the solutions in force and their consolidation in the case law. Unfortunately, in Poland, entrepreneurs as well as citizens, due to its communist past, do not trust the legal system, formal institutions or other people (ESS 2020). For this reason, the pro-debtor model of bankruptcy proceedings may also have a negative impact on the development of Polish entrepreneurship in the future. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have made a comparison of the effectiveness of the pro-creditor and pro-debtor models of bankruptcy proceedings in a transition country such as Poland. Research data encompassing 16 years over the period of 2004–2019 used in the analysis is unprecedented in bankruptcy procedure studies in the post‑transition economies. Also, a set of indicators showing the effectiveness of bankruptcy proceedings employed in the research is unique.