Structural Transformation in Africa: Static Gains,Dynamic Losses

Abstract

This paper places recent growth and structural transformation in 11 Sub-Saharan African countries in historical and international perspective. During the early post-independence period, resources were reallocated to manufacturing activities with high productivity growth. Structural change stalled in the mid-1970s. When it resumed in the 1990s, workers mainly relocated to distributive trade services. Productivity levels in these activities were higher than in agriculture, enhancing overall economy performance. But services productivity growth was sluggish and increasingly falling behind the world frontier. These patterns are also observed in Latin America, but not in Asia.     

When Managerialism Meets Internationalism: Administrative Reform in the United Nations in the 1970s

This article examines whether reform ideas that gained influence in national-level bureaucracies in the 1970s were also on the United Nations’ internal agenda. The Joint Inspection Unit (Bertrand) Report of 1971 is the focus of this analysis, as it addressed personnel problems in the UN Secretariat and identified structural shortcomings. Our analysis shows that New Public Management ideas were in circulation in the UN at this time. It also demonstrates the different pressures that international bureaucracies face in regard to their personnel. This is likely to make their responses to reform pressures, such as those experienced in the 1970s, unique.     

Anti-doping researchers should conform to certain statistical standards from forensic science

Anti-doping is currently viewed as a forensic science. However, close examination shows that the statistical treatment of evidence is inconsistent with that view. Here it is insisted that anti-doping researchers should conform to certain statistical standards from forensic science.     

Incentives for separation and incentives for public good provision

In this paper, I examine how the incentives of regions to unite and to separate are related to the incentives to provide public goods. Separation allows for greater influence over the nature of political decision making while unification allows regions to exploit economies of scale in the provision of public goods. From a social welfare perspective, there are excessive incentives for separation and for the provision of public goods. When incentives for public good provision are not taken into account, however, these incentives can be misinterpreted as incentives for separation.     

Lipitor battle in the Netherlands--District Court invalidates Warner-Lambert's EP '281 and holds EP '633 infringed

In the continuing Lipitor (atorvastatin) battle between theIndian company Ranbaxy and Pfizer/Warner-Lambert, the DistrictCourt of The Hague held that Ranbaxy's generic atorvastatinfalls within the scope of protection of EP '633, the main patentcovering atorvastatin, and invalidated another atorvastatinpatent, EP '281.     

How organizational structure can reduce rent-seeking

In multi-tiered organizations, individuals can engage in unproductive rent-seeking activities both within and between the divisions of the organization. Nevertheless, a multi-tiered organizational structure can induce efficiency gains by decreasing rent-seeking. We present a model of production and simultaneous internal and external rent-seeking, assuming a logistic contest success function. In equilibrium, there is generically either internal or external rent-seeking, but not both. A multi-tiered organization leads to less rent-seeking and higher welfare, even though the production technology gives no reason for any specific organizational structure. Our findings constitute a new efficiency rationale for multi-tiered organizations.     

A plea for thresholds, i.e., maximal allowed levels for prohibited substances, to prevent questionable doping convictions

With the development of highly sensitive drug testing technologies that can detect a minute quantity of a prohibited substance in an athlete's body, accidental contamination through contact with publicly circulated materials can more readily result in a "positive" reading. To discharge the burden of a positive finding, the athlete must show the "factual circumstances" in which the prohibited substance entered his/her system. In cases of accidental contamination, the athlete generally cannot even know how it occurred, as there are many known and unknown possible sources of contamination. When an athlete does give an account, it cannot generally be proven or disproven. Outside the realm of sports anti-doping, the use of scientifically established thresholds for drug testing is standard practice. Basic logic dictates that thresholds would enable one to differentiate between relevant and irrelevant amounts in the context of a possible sports doping offence. Such a threshold should be functionally motivated, i.e., enable the differentiation between relevant and irrelevant quantities in the context of a possible doping offence, rather than based on instrument performance limits.     

Cooperation between criminal investigators and forensic medicine. A complementary system and its peculiarities, illustrated by a case from general practice

Usually criminal investigations involving issues of medical misconduct require comprehensive inquiries which normally include the confiscation of medical files and the determination of certain events in their chronological order. This information is then submitted to the relevant experts as a basis for preparing their opinions. Where the subject of the investigations is complex, however, or where no suitable patient documentations are available, cooperation with the medical experts should start at an earlier stage already and be more comprehensive. On the basis of the relevant legal principles an already concluded investigation ("dietary capsule case") is critically discussed.