Risk Misallocation in Public–Private Partnership Projects in China

ABSTRACT

This article attempts to compare the preferred and actual risk allocation and then to evaluate the impact of risk misallocation (if any) on project performance. The results show a significantly negative relationship between project performance and risk misallocation. The smaller the degree of risk misallocation was, the more successful the project would be. One group of three risks (including “Corruption,” “Government's intervention,” and “Government's reliability”) and the other group of three risks (including “Approval and permit,” “Immature juristic system,” and “Land acquisition”) were found to contribute considerably to the prediction of project performance. This article provides information on the impact of risk misallocation on project performance in China's public–private partnership (PPP) projects. To enter and perform well in China's PPP market, private firms should pay particular attention to the identified risks.     

Pesticide poisoning in domestic animals and livestock in Austria: a 6 years retrospective study

A 6 years retrospective study of pesticide poisonings in domestic animals and livestock from 1999 to 2004 submitted to the Institute for Medical Chemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna in Austria was compiled and analysed. Totally 380 pesticide analysis requests were referred by veterinary practitioners, from the Institute for Pathology of the above university, by regional and central governments as well as local police departments and district administrations, animal protectionist groups, public health authorities and private clients. Among the total number of suspected samples for pesticides, 175 (46.1%) cases were found positive to contain pesticides of various kinds. Among the pesticides found, carbamate insecticides were most prominent, representing 50.3% of the total positive cases. These compounds were followed by rodenticides-anticoagulants with 18.9% of the positive results, by organophosphate insecticides 5.1%, and by the rodenticides-nonanticoagulant 3.4%, the other 22.3% included molluscicides, herbicides, etc. In totally 225 animals, 123 animals were found positive for pesticide intoxication, among them 47.2% were dogs, 34.1% were cats 9.8% of other species and 8.9% of unspecified animal samples. The pesticides were characterized by HPLC-techniques using commercially available standards. The aim of this Austrian survey was to determine the incidence and frequency of confirmed pesticide intoxications in animals in Austria and to emphasize its relevance in veterinary practice for livestock and domestic animals.     

A review of the literature on the aging adult skull and face: Implications for forensic science research and applications

This paper is a summary of findings of adult age-related craniofacial morphological changes. Our aims are two-fold: (1) through a review of the literature we address the factors influencing craniofacial aging, and (2) the general ways in which a head and face age in adulthood. We present findings on environmental and innate influences on face aging, facial soft tissue age changes, and bony changes in the craniofacial and dentoalveolar skeleton. We then briefly address the relevance of this information to forensic science research and applications, such as the development of computer facial age-progression and face recognition technologies, and contributions to forensic sketch artistry.     

Diluted regulations—a need to review the theoretical classification of the different lobbying regulatory environments

Regulation has been claimed to be acquired by the industry, yet while the economic regulation was often established with the approval and encouragement of the regulated industry, social regulation has usually been thrust upon industry following demands by public interest groups. Why would the social regulation still fail to produce behaviour, or results in accordance with the public interest, if the public interest groups initiated it? The failure to define clearly the concept of ‘public interest’ and the absence of adequately clear regulatory objectives would not provide all the convincing answers. The wish of the politicians to respond to a mischief before public concern dies down, seems to point towards the symbolic politics claims. Although lobbying is integral to democratic politics, it challenges the policy making process as the risks and opportunities associated with policy change are large. Lobbying regulations, belonging to the social regulations fold, have been observed as symbolic in Israel and are diluted by tricky loopholes. Recent research has used data from Centre of Public Integrity (CPI) in order to theoretically classify different regulatory environments. The CPI measures only what the law says, but it does not measure the outcome—the application of the law. This paper points out that the possible interaction of symbolic politics with social regulation may lead to the reoccurring legislative void, resulting in the dilution effect of the lobbying regulations, and it highlights the need to review the theoretical classification, and thereby, also the actual strength of the different regulatory environments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does Twitter Increase Perceived Police Legitimacy?

Social media use has become increasingly popular among police forces. The literature suggests that social media use can increase perceived police legitimacy by enabling transparency and participation. Employing data from a large and representative survey of Dutch citizens (N = 4,492), this article tests whether and how social media use affects perceived legitimacy for a major social media platform, Twitter. A negligible number of citizens engage online with the police, and thus the findings reveal no positive relationship between participation and perceived legitimacy. The article shows that by enhancing transparency, Twitter does increase perceived police legitimacy, albeit to a limited extent. Subsequent analysis of the mechanism shows both an affective and a cognitive path from social media use to legitimacy. Overall, the findings suggest that establishing a direct channel with citizens and using it to communicate successes does help the police strengthen their legitimacy, but only slightly and for a small group of interested citizens.     

Influence of the Code Civil in the Netherlands

The subject of this paper is the influence of the Code Civil in the Netherlands. First, the history of the codification in the Netherlands is examined. Then, attention is paid to the Burgerlijk Wetboek (BW) of 1838, the predecessor of the Dutch civil code of the present day. It is investigated whether this BW is a copy of the Code Civil or a work on its own. Within this framework, the reasons why the Code Civil had an extraordinary influence are shortly mentioned. Finally it is explained how this BW has developed to our BW of 1992. The Code Civil was the model for the BW of 1838. This does not mean that the BW is a copy of the Code. It was not simply a translation. The BW is influenced by the Code Civil, but this does not justify the view that the Netherlands adopted French law. On the contrary: some French rules were removed. Former Dutch law was inserted instead of the French rules or as a supplement to the BW. A large part of the Code is based on joint roots, and the most important common background is Roman law. Those rules cannot be qualified as French law. Besides this there are also typical French provisions, some originated by the French Revolution. With regard to this rules the question is whether these are French rules or universal rights. It can be argued that the BW of 1838 is an improved version of the Code Civil.