Games borrower governments play: the implementation of economic adjustment programmes in Cyprus and Portugal

Research on the Economic Adjustment Programmes (EAPs) for Eurozone crisis countries has so far acknowledged the role of creditor countries and Troika institutions or has examined the economic effects or structural determinants of domestic implementation processes. The role of borrower governments as strategic actors within the ‘Troika complex’ has been neglected. Taking Cyprus and Portugal as cases in point, the article shows how reform-oriented borrower governments used the interaction with the Troika to overcome veto player opposition to programme implementation. Drawing on the two-level game and on negotiation theory, the study discusses borrower strategies in response to opposition from the court or parliament, and the costs of no agreement. Reform-oriented governments mostly used commitments to the international level or Troika pressure to pursue coercive strategies vis-à-vis domestic opponents. High costs of no agreement seem to be a necessary means to pass on political and market pressure through coercion.     

The devil is in the shadow. Do institutions affect income and productivity or only official income and official productivity?

This paper assesses the relationship between institutions, output, and productivity when official output is corrected for the size of the shadow economy. Our results confirm the usual positive impact of institutional quality on official output and total factor productivity, and its negative impact on the size of the underground economy. However, once output is corrected for the shadow economy, the relationship between institutions and output becomes weaker. The impact of institutions on total (“corrected”) factor productivity becomes insignificant. Differences in corrected output must then be attributed to differences in factor endowments. These results survive several tests for robustness.     

Detection of drugs in clothing]

The presence of drugs excreted from the body with the perspiration (without stimulation of the sweat glands) and deposed in the linens, was investigated. Linens were obtained from addicts and from smokers. The investigations demonstrated that cocaine, nicotine, cotinine and methadone excreted with the sweat are deposed in the linens. The drugs measurements were performed by radioimmunoassay and revealed by GC/MS.     

Use of polymerase chain reaction of the HLA-DQ alpha system in forensic trace analysis]

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be used for genetic typing of minute amounts of biological stains. This is achieved by in vitro amplification of a well-defined and genetically polymorphic human genomic DNA sequence. Using the HLA-DQ alpha system, a population study was carried out among 212 unrelated individuals of German origin. The usefulness of this system is discussed by presenting examples of its application in forensic casework, i.e. the analysis of mixed (male/female) body fluids as well as segregation studies on embryonic and paraffin-embedded tissue samples.     

Same Menu, Seperate Tables: The Institutionalist Turn in Political Science and the Study of European Integration

Recent research on European integration has largely profited from the institutionalist turn in political science. Theoretical progress has, however, been hampered by the diverse understandings of this new research tradition. This paper tries to tackle the conceptual diversity in a positive way. We first analyze the neo–institutionalist turn in political science and European studies and then move on to a detailed analysis and comparison of the three competing approaches — sociological, historical, and rational choice institutionalism. Next, we will show that the main differences are as much epistemological as theoretical. A convergence towards a unifying institutionalist approach can thus only be possible if some sort of a methodological convergence takes place. We sketch how a synthesis between the competing schools might appear.     

Presence of methadone in apocrine sweat of the human

The presence of methadone was investigated in 24-h perspiration samples obtained from patients receiving daily maintenance doses of the drug. The samples were collected from the axillary region. The concentrations measured by radioimmunoassay ranged from 8.3 ng/cm2 per 24 h up to 25.3 ng/cm2 per 24 h. The concentrations determined by RIA are the sum of methadone and its metabolites. The presence of the drug in the perspiration samples were also revealed by GC/MS.