The Effects of a Calamity on Income and Wellbeing of Poor Microfinance Borrowers: The Case of the 2004 Tsunami Shock

We investigate the effects of the 2004 Tsunami on a sample of microfinance borrowers. Our findings show that the severe loss of income of damaged borrowers only partially explains the dip in wellbeing. This is because the latter is also related to economic losses not measured by current income (that is, loss in wealth or in permanent income) and by psychological or emotional effects. Finally, we find that the role of risk on the Tsunami impact is partially captured by the interaction of the damage dummy with borrowers' productive activity.     

Bono's Product (RED) Initiative: corporate social responsibility that solves the problems of ‘distant others’

The Product (RED) initiative was launched by Bono at Davos in 2006. Product RED is ‘a brand created to raise awareness and money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by teaming up with iconic brands to produce RED-branded products’. With the engagement of American Express, Apple, Converse, Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark and Motorola, consumers can help HIV/AIDS patients in Africa. They can do so simply by shopping, as a percentage of profits from Product (RED) lines goes to support the Global Fund. In this article we examine how the corporations that are part of this initiative use RED to build up their brand profiles, sell products and/or portray themselves as both ‘caring’ and ‘cool’. We also show that, more than simply being another example of cause-related marketing (like the pink ribbon campaign or the ubiquitous plastic armbands), RED engages corporations in profitable ‘helping’ while simultaneously pushing the agenda of corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards solving the problems of ‘distant others’.     

Political scenario and cooperation for development

L'autonomia della banca centrale : verso una nuova costituzione in Italia e in Europa / a cura di Dario Velo. ‐ Bari, Cacucci Editore, c1995. ‐ 133 p.

Identità, partiti ed elezioni nell'Unione Europea / Fulvio Attinà, Francesca Longo, Stefania Panebianco. ‐ Bari Cacucci Editore, c1995. ‐ 128 p. ‐ (Annali ‘90 / Università degli studi di Catania. Dipartimento di studi politici; 1)

La politica estera dell'Unione Europea tra interdipendenza e Nazionalismo / Francesca Longo. ‐ Bari : Cacucci Editore, c1995. ‐ 173 p.

Breve storia del Consiglio dei Comuni e delle Regioni d'Europa, nel quadro di due secoli di lotta federalista / AICCRE. ‐ Roma : Salemi Pro. Edit., 1995. ‐ 203 p.

La cooperazione allo sviluppo / Pierangelo Isernia. ‐ Bologna : il Mulino, c1995. ‐ 420 p. ‐ (Organizzazione e funzionamento della pubblica amministrazione ; 71). ‐ ISBN 88–15–05175–9

Europa unita e didattica integrata : storiografie e bibliografie a confronto = A united Europe and integrated didactics : historiographies and bibliographies compared = Europe unie et didactique intégrée : historiograpbies et bibliographies comparées / edited by Ariane Landuyt. ‐ Siena : Protagon Editori Toscani, 1995. ‐ 284 p.

Geoeconomia : il dominio dello spazio economico / a cura di Paolo Savona e Carlo Jean. ‐ Milano : Franco Angeli, c1995. ‐ 192 p. ‐ ISBN 88–204–9512–0

Letteratura pro e contro Maastricht in vari paesi europei, con particolare riferi‐mento a Francia e Germania / Andrea Chiti‐Batelli. ‐ Roma : Dimensione europea, 1995. ‐L, 270 p. ‐ (Quaderni, ISSN 1121–3760 ; 3)

La nuova geoeconomia mondiale : alla ricerca di una risposta italiana / a cura della Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐ VI, 97 p.

Le organizzazioni economiche regionali africane : commenti, documenti, bibliografía, 1 : le organizzazioni dell'Africa australe (SACU e SADC) / a cura di Piero Pennetta e Angela di Stasi. ‐ Napoli : Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, c1995. ‐ 328 p. ‐ (Pubblicazioni dell'Università degli studi di Salerno. Sezione studi giuridici ; 18). ‐ ISBN 88–8114–121–3

Rapporto Cina : il successo del “socialismo di mercato” e il futuro di Hong Kong / Maria Weber; collaborazione di Sergio A. Sarica; contributi di Francesca Ag‐nello, Marco Fiorese e Giorgio Starace. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, C1995. ‐ X, 135 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–113–6

Rapporto Vietnam : quali forze emergenti? / Giovanni Capannelli. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐ VIII, 83 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–114–4

Rapporto India : le riforme economiche e il difficile rapporto fra centro e periferia / Luigi Marcuccio; collaborazione di Maria Weber e Daniele Finocchiaro. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐XII, 124 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–115–2

Rapporto Corea del Sud : un modello di industrializzazione tardiva / Roberta Rabellotti. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐ X, 71 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–116–0

Regionalism and the global economy : the case of Latin America and the Caribbean / edited by Jan Joost Teunissen. ‐ The Hague : FONDAD, c1995. ‐ 163 p. ‐ ISBN 90–74208–06–1

Syria and Israel : from war to peacemaking / Moshe Ma'oz. ‐ Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1995. ‐ xii, 280 p. ‐ ISBN 0–19–828018–1     

Looking for Coherence within the European Community*

Abstract: This paper discusses the relationship between the idea of coherence and the legal order set up by the European Community. It focuses on a specific dimension of this relationship and shows how the appeals to coherence made by the European Court of Justice have shaped a particular branch of the European legal order, namely, the judicial review of Community acts. The analysis of the Court of Justice's case law in this field shows that in its extensive use of coherence the Court of Justice explored and brought into play different types of coherence and, while it failed to distinguish between them, it made use of sorts of coherence that thus far legal theorists have disregarded. The article concludes that a closer collaboration between legal theory and legal practice would be profitable for both legal theorists and Community law specialists.     

Crossing the boundary: Peasants, shepherds, and servants in a western Alpine community

In the historical and anthropological literature, western Alps servants were widely assumed to be few in number, and the importance of the institution of service therefore negligible. This study combines historical-demographic and ethnographic methods to investigate whether this was true of a community in the Italian western Alps with a mixed population of peasants and transhumant shepherds. Surprisingly, a valuable 1951 census reveals that seemingly small numbers hide what was actually a normal phase in the life course of peasant sons whom shepherds recruited to work as servants. Distinct patterns of life-cycle and lifetime service seem to have coexisted in the same community. The evidence also confirms that in southern Europe, as some recent studies have pointed out, the institution of service often was not just the circulation of young men and women between households but an asymmetrical exchange between different socioeconomic groups. Otherwise rigid social and cultural boundaries were thereby crossed.     

Post-mortal lesions in freshwater environment

Postmortem animal feeding activity may cause considerable damage to bodies resulting in the modification of wounds, loss of identifying features and injury. Certain postmortem lesions may appear inflicted or non-inflicted antemortem injuries. At present, apart from cases in sea water, no data are available about post mortal lesions performed by aquatic organisms. This note that represents the first report concerning colonisation of a dead body by crustaceans a few hours after death, describes injuries caused by the amphipod Niphargus elegans on the face, and in particular on the eye region, of a young man dead by drowning. The lesions recorded in this case are comparable with the lesions caused by ants. The high plasticity in the food choice can allow Amphipoda to colonise drowning bodies in every moment after dead, however the benthonic behaviour of these animals suggests a more important role in the colonisation during post-mortem submersion periods.