Using civil society as an authoritarian legitimation strategy: Algeria and Mozambique in comparative perspective

Recent research on civil society in authoritarian regimes shows that civil society can contribute to legitimating authoritarian rule. This finding has not, however, been connected with the nascent literature on authoritarian regime legitimation. This article seeks to bridge this gap by synthesizing the relevant theoretical literature and presenting an in-depth comparative analysis of Algeria and Mozambique. We argue that in both cases the ruling authoritarian regime has used civil society as a legitimation tool. The article identifies five patterns according to which authoritarian regimes can use civil society for legitimation purposes.     

Public vs. Private in Hospital Efficiency: Exploring Determinants in a Competitive Environment

This study investigates the determinants of efficiency in an Italian regional health system and estimates the effect exerted by ownership on hospitals’ performance. To achieve this aim, the Veneto region was considered as a case study and a full dataset (2011–2012) containing nonpublicly available technical data and cost and income items was analyzed. Efficiencies are measured applying a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA). Our results suggest that private hospitals perform better than public hospitals in productivity and cost saving, not considering the effect of other environmental and operational variables such as length of stay and beds per capita.     

Das Übereinkommen zum Schutz des Kultur- und Naturerbes der Welt aus völkerrechtlicher und innerstaatlicher Sicht

Durch den Beitritt zur Welterbekonvention verpflichtete sich ?sterreich, alles zu tun, um Kulturerbe und Naturerbe auf seinem Territorium zu schützen. Die Konvention wurde als gesetzes?ndernder bzw gesetzeserg?nzender Staatsvertrag genehmigt. Durch die Aufnahme von Welterbest?tten in die Welterbeliste wird die Verpflichtung ?sterreichs jeweils konkretisiert. Kulturgütern, die auf die Welterbeliste aufgenommen wurden, sind daher verpflichtend unter Schutz zu stellen (insbesondere Denkmalschutz, Ortsbildschutz, Naturschutz).     

Bitter pill for the pharmaceutical industry

In Case C-431/04 of 4 May 2006 the European Court of Justiceruled that a combination of an active ingredient and an excipientcannot be understood as ‘combination of active substances’in the sense of Article 1(b) of Council Regulation 1768/92 andthus is not entitled to SPC protection.     

Persistence of innovation: stylised facts and panel data evidence

This paper investigates whether firms innovate persistently or discontinuously over time using an innovation panel data set on German manufacturing and service firms for the period 1994–2002. It turns out that innovation behaviour is permanent at the firm level to a very large extent. Using a dynamic random effects discrete choice model and a new estimator recently proposed by Wooldridge (2005), I further shed some light on the driving forces for this phenomenon. The econometric results show that past innovation experience is an important determinant for manufacturing as well as for service sector firms, and hence confirm the hypothesis of true state dependence. In addition, the results highlight the important role of knowledge provided by skilled employees and unobserved individual heterogeneity in explaining the persistence of innovation.

Aromatic content in medium range distillate products--Part I: an examination of various liquids

Classification of ignitable liquids in accordance with voluntary consensus-based standards published by ASTM International has become increasingly specific, relying upon both the chemical composition and the boiling point range of submitted ignitable liquids. This classification system includes among others, specific classes for distillates and dearomatized distillates. In this study, a variety of medium-range ignitable liquids were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Several methods of data analysis were utilized to examine the relative aliphatic and aromatic contents in these liquids. Results show that commercially available products in the medium range exhibit a broad range of compositions with respect to the relative proportion of aliphatic and aromatic compounds and that some liquids may not be easily classified. This study demonstrates the importance of examining the proportion of aliphatics:aromatics for classifying such liquids and suggests guidelines for differentiating medium range distillates, dearomatized distillates, and blended products.     

Chinese migration: still the major focus of Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations?

Abstract

In contrast to Sino-Russian relations at the state-level, regional cooperation between the contiguous Russian Far East and Chinese North East has been difficult to achieve, despite the existence of seemingly natural economic complementarities. This article asks why this is the case and argues that one important stumbling block, i.e. negative reactions to Chinese labour migration, has become less problematic. Situating Russian Far East/Chinese North East relations in a regionalist framework the article compares the salience and framing of major issues in regional relations in Chinese and Russian media at the national and regional levels. Contrary to earlier research, the findings suggest that economic and regional development issues, and not Chinese migration into the Russian Far East, are by far the most salient sets of issues on both sides. However, significant differences in the framing of these issues suggest that a convergence of opinion on the desirability of regional cooperation masks contradictory expectations for the direction of regional development.     

Do R&D strategies in high-tech sectors differ from those in low-tech sectors? An alternative approach to testing the pooling assumption

Most studies investigating the determinants of R&D investment consider pooled estimates. However, if the parameters are heterogeneous, pooled coefficients may not provide reliable estimates of individual industry effects. Hence pooled parameters may conceal valuable information that may help target government tools more efficiently across heterogeneous industries. There is little evidence to date on the decomposition of the determinants of R&D investment by industry. Moreover, the existing work does not distinguish between those R&D determinants for which pooling may be valid and those for which it is not. In this paper, we test the pooling assumption for a panel of manufacturing industries and find that pooling is valid only for output fluctuations, adjustment costs and interest rates. Implementing the test results into our model, we find government funding is significant only for low-tech R&D. Foreign R&D and skilled labour matter only in high-tech sectors. These results suggest important implications for R&D policy.