Dealing with Austerity: a case of local resilience in Southern Europe

Southern countries are undergoing a severe economic crisis that has renewed debates about the available strategies to economise their public resources. Political leaders have launched a wide range of different strategies aimed at reducing spending. According to generally accepted political discourse, drastic actions should be taken to guarantee economic and financial sustainability in times of austerity. We explore the main measures adopted by Spanish municipalities in order to examine their impact in budgetary terms. First of all, we identify the most frequently implemented mechanisms including organisational structure, public services and operational economic restructuration. After their quantification, we monitor the presence and impact of each set of policies to analyse the relationship between concrete measures and effective economic impact. The effective reduction of budgets is being implemented but data show that local governments are resilient to non-compulsory changes. The ‘government at a distance’ policy pursued by the central state administration has effectively reduced budgets but has not affected the institutional core of Spanish local governments.     

The determinants of value of incoming cross-border mergers & acquisitions in European transition countries

This research aims to determine variables that affect the aggregate value of incoming cross-border M&As in European transitional countries. Dynamic panel models have been estimated using Arellano and Bond GMM estimator for period between year 1994 and 2008. The ratio of the total value of cross-border M&A to GDP of the country is the dependent variable. Independent variables include following indicators: lagged value of cross-border M&A to GDP, lagged GDP per capita, lagged GDP growth, inflation, interest rate spread, lagged private credit to GDP ratio, market capitalization to GDP ratio, lagged rule of law and lagged control of corruption.     

The Bologna Process: Impact on Interdisciplinarity and Possibilities for Women's Studies

This article discusses the impact of the so‐called Bologna process on possibilities for interdisciplinary higher education and research, in particular in relation to Women's Studies. Based on findings from two European research projects, it argues that the spaces open to interdisciplinarity and Women's Studies in higher education under the Bologna process are strongly marked by national systems and their interpretations of the Bologna requirements. The opportunities in the educational field (whether at undergraduate or post‐graduate level) to innovate and flexibilize, key requisites for Women's Studies as a discipline, are impaired by institutional structures of administration, research, evaluation, accreditation and career development that rely on disciplinarity as their core categories. The Nordic countries seem to have moved more clearly than others, such as Hungary or Spain, towards an implementation of the Bologna agreement in a manner that facilitates both interdisciplinarity and Women's Studies.     

“Monetary” rules for a linked system of offset credits

Three dominant issues have historically plagued climate negotiations: How to bypass issues of sovereignty, generate sufficient climate finance, and establish an agreement that is inclusive of the current major polluters. These issues are prevalent within the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol, and the CDM has provided policy makers with a useful starting point to understanding how offset credits can be utilised within a post-Kyoto framework. The primary aim of this research is to investigate how project-based offset credits generated by states would interact within a linked framework using monetary rules and exchange rates. The examination of a linked system, specifically, was owing to the structure of the proposed agreement to be finalised in Paris at COP 21 where nationally determined contributions would be submitted by each state, allowing for the possibility of linked domestic carbon market mechanisms. The certified emission reduction credits of the CDM were used as a model to investigate the trade of offset credits within a linked system which act as a unique climate currency of each domestic offset credit mechanism. These offset credits could be earned through the implementation of domestic projects or projects hosted in other states. From this research, we conclude that fixed exchange rates are more stable than flexible exchange rates in a climate currency framework. Fixed exchange rates reduce losses of capital (owing to uncertainty in the markets) and the prominence of asymmetric spatial price transmission associated with fiat offset credit prices. To encourage co-operation between developing and developed countries, it is recommended that a combination of currency area theory and trade blocs be implemented as opposed to a currency union. Currency areas are the most viable option as they maintain that the domestic offset credit mechanism is under the control of the state and retains a level of stability as individual state offset credit prices are fixed to the same price. Even though this research forms the basis for a new climate policy architecture, the overall effectiveness of the policy will be determined by the selection of appropriate discount schemes, increased participation and agreement by states, and most significantly, political will.     

Youthful Familicidal Offenders: Targeted Victims,Planned Attacks

A nonrandom national sample of 16 familicides, which involved 19 offenders (ages 14 to 21 years) who either killed or made a serious attempt to kill their families, was studied. The majority of offenders were Caucasian (78.91 %) males (84.21 %) with interpersonal family conflicts due to parental control, substance use, or physical violence. Prior to the murders, 50 % of the offenders reported to others their intent to kill their families. All of the 42 reported victims were specifically targeted and most of the homicides were planned shooting attacks (75 %) rather than spontaneous eruptions. Immediately following the homicides, 75 % of the offenders stole money from their families, and in 50 % of the cases they either called their friends to report the murders or to plan leisure activities. All offenders were immediate suspects and 81.25 % confessed to the homicides. Implications for furthering our understanding of this group of young offenders are offered.     

The beginnings of a feminist consciousness: A review essay

Abstract

“Leaf abscission” is a term used by American military men to designate their chemical war in Viet Nam. The term like its sister word “defoliation,” is meant to suggest that the dumping of herbicides and other chemicals over a tiny piece of land that has also been the victim of the most intense bombing in world history has helped to thin out a few troublesome trees and shrubs while causing no significant damage to anything else at all. On the contrary, the use of herbicides and other chemicals sprayed by the American military in Viet Nam has already caused untold misery to thousands of innocent civilians.     

Impact of takeovers on profitability of target companies: Evidence from Croatian companies

It is possible to find scientific confirmation of positive, negative or neutral influence of takeovers on company's profitability. Therefore, this study aimed to highlight the sensitivity of research results on manipulation in terms of used methodology and indicators. Using t-test for paired samples and five selected profitability indicators for target and peer companies, it has been proven that it is possible to obtain significantly different results even when using the same sample and the same reference period. The research has been performed on the sample of Croatian companies, which were taken over in the period from year 2003–2008.     

Reforming campaign finance in the nineties: a case study of Spain

This paper analyzes the reforms of the Spanish electoral finance regulatory system during the nineties. We present a number of indexes to measure the impact of the reforms on parties and campaign spending. We also suggest a game theoretical model to explain why the two main parties agreed to support the legal changes in the nineties. A principal outcome of the reforms was to establish an effective limit to campaign expenses. In our view this would have not been feasible in the late seventies or eighties. Then the parties were trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma in which each party had to spend more in order to prevent other parties from gaining electoral advantage. But in the nineties the main parties, ridden with problems of soaring electoral debts and disgruntled voters, used the reform of political finance as a coordination device to achieve a Pareto efficient equilibrium.     

Substance Use as a Longitudinal Predictor of the Perpetration of Teen Dating Violence

The prevention of teen dating violence is a major public health priority. However, the dearth of longitudinal studies makes it difficult to develop programs that effectively target salient risk factors. Using a school-based sample of ethnically diverse adolescents, this longitudinal study examined whether substance use (alcohol, marijuana, and hard drugs) and exposure to parental violence predicted the perpetration of physical dating violence over time. 1,042 9th and 10th grade high schools students were recruited and assessed in the spring of 2010, and 93 % of the original sample completed the 1-year follow-up in the spring of 2011. Participants who had begun dating at the initial assessment and who self-identified as African American (n = 263; 32 %), Caucasian (n = 272; 33 %), or Hispanic (n = 293; 35 %) were included in the current analyses (n = 828; 55 % female). Slightly more than half of the adolescents who perpetrated dating violence at baseline reported past year dating violence at follow-up, relative to only 11 % of adolescents who did not report perpetrating dating violence at baseline. Structural equation modeling revealed that the use of alcohol and hard drugs at baseline predicted the future perpetration of physical dating violence, even after accounting for the effects of baseline dating violence and exposure to interparental violence. Despite differences in the prevalence of key variables between males and females, the longitudinal associations did not vary by gender. With respect to race, exposure to mother-to-father violence predicted the perpetration of dating violence among Caucasian adolescents. Findings from the current study indicate that targeting substance use, and potentially youth from violent households, may be viable approaches to preventing the perpetration of teen dating violence.