Two steps forward,one step back: Renewable energy transitions in Bulgaria and Romania

This article examines renewable energy policy in Bulgaria and Romania (2007–17) and the reasons behind the unexpected rapid growth in renewables followed by a policy reversal. While we find strong formal compliance with EU legislation regarding targets for renewable energy, an examination of institutional change and policy dismantling in both countries finds that this was not supported by a paradigmatic policy change or a transformation of the energy system. Veto players worked to dismantle renewable energy policy once targets were reached. We use insights from the intersection of socio‐technical systems and historical institutionalist literatures to explain policy dismantling in the energy sector. In doing so, we develop a socio‐technical account of renewable policy in Romania and Bulgaria. We show that this is related to the historically conditioned, path‐dependent processes of institutional change, where energy materiality shapes the parameters of political possibility and the costs of policy implementation.     

Collaboration,information, and preservation: The role of expertise in farmland preservation task forces

Collaboration between agencies, private groups, and citizens in the field of natural resource management is generally seen as a productive strategy in challenging management situations. Collaborative management is particularly appealing in efforts like farmland preservation, which depend for their success on local initiative and support. However, such partnerships may create new dilemmas about the appropriate use of information in management. This paper analyzes the use of information by 15 county-wide Farmland Preservation task forces in the state of Ohio, U.S.A.     

Local government and development in a regional city: The case of Iloilo City,Philippines

The development of urban hinterland centres, known as the Regional Cities Development Project (RCDP), is a key strategy applied by the Philippine government to rectify the country's grave regional imbalances. Yet RCDP has not markedly altered the distorted demographic, spatial and economic growth patterns of the Philippines. Unlike the sizeable body of literature which mainly explains failures of the ‘growth centre approach’ by economic factors emanating from the metropolis-periphery relationship, this study places greater emphasis on politico-administrative factors that affect regional city development. The article demonstrates that regional city development in Iloilo City–one of four Philippine secondary centres selected as RCDP sites–is impeded by an elitist, conservative local oligarchy, excessive patronage politics, severe financial constraints, limited managerial capabilities, a low degree of local autonomy, over-politicization and the impact of an adverse economic environment. Following an in-depth analysis of the politico-administrative culture of Iloilo City, the authors present suggestions that in the long run may positively affect the city's developmental path.     

What Do We Know and Need to Know about the Environmental Outcomes of Collaborative Management?

Many tout the benefits of collaborative environmental management as an alternative to centralized planning and command and control regulation, but the excitement over collaborative processes has not been matched by evidence that these processes actually improve the environment. The most crucial question in collaborative environmental management remains unanswered and often unasked: To what extent does collaboration lead to improved environmental outcomes? We know much about why collaboration is occurring and how collaborative processes and outputs vary. The primary goal of future research on collaborative environmental management should be to demonstrate whether collaboration improves environmental conditions more than traditional processes and newer market-based processes. Collaboration is not a panacea; it is a choice that policy makers and public managers should make based on evidence about expected outcomes.     

Estimating production gains from international cooperation: Evidence from countries along the Belt and Road

Economic Change and Restructuring - The pros and cons of economic cooperation and integration have often been debated in the literature. Trade theory suggests that national economies could benefit...     

A novel chitosan/tripolyphosphate/L‐lysine conjugates for latent fingerprints detection and enhancement

Most chemical and physical methods employed in visualizing latent marks have shown detrimental effects on human health and, therefore, some research groups have directed their attention to the utilization of various (bio)polymers with the aforementioned purpose. Although chitosan is widely used in medicine, pharmacy, food, and drug delivery systems, there are very few studies that address this biopolymer utilization in forensic applications, such as the detection of latent fingerprints. We used chitosan crosslinked with sodium tripolyphosphate and conjugated with L‐lysine to enhance the visualization of latent fingerprints, due to its ability to interact with fingerprint sweat residues. These conjugates were prepared using different (w/w) amounts of chitosan and tripolyphosphate (6/1; 4/1; 1/1; 1/4; and 1/6), and those with the most promising results (i.e., 6/1 formulation) were investigated in detail. Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy confirmed interactions between components of the systems. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis showed that prepared powder formulations were uniform in size and confirmed that chitosan/tripolyphosphate/lysine conjugates bind easily to the sweat and lipid residues present in the latent fingerprints. The testing of prepared conjugates demonstrated the potential of these systems as bio‐based powder substitution for commercially available powders.     

Applying cartosemiotics to rock art: an example from Aspeberget,Sweden

This study aims to shed new light on the petroglyphs found at the site of Aspeberget 12 at the World Heritage site of Tanum, Sweden, from a semiotic perspective. We demonstrate the semiotics of power inherent in the arrangement of the petroglyphs. We start by describing the site in an archaeological way, in order to give an overview of the empirical material used in this case study. Against the backdrop of the overview, we introduce our analytical tools with reference to cartosemiotics, cultural semiotics and, Charles Sanders Peirce’s theory of signs. We suggest, in a tentative conclusion, that Aspeberget 12, as a type of “map”, displays a clear “Ego-culture” and a possible journey. We also suggest that the visual narratives at Aspeberget 12 represent the authority of the Ego-culture and its development. Details of the figurative images such as ships, axes and spears might have been displayed as markers of the high technological standard of the Ego-culture, and thus of power.     

Start-ups among university employees: the influence of legitimacy,human capital and social capital

Using a sample of 7,260 university employees, we investigate how legitimacy, social and human capital influence the employees’ start-up propensity. We find that scientific legitimacy, as measured by the number of recently published peer reviewed scientific articles, and conference papers accepted had no significant effect. Scientific legitimacy measured as publications in non-peer review journals even had a negative effect. Popular legitimacy showed mixed results. Measured as number of articles in popular science publications showed positive correlations and other public media appearances had a non significant effect on start-up propensity. Individuals who are older and have higher level of human capital, measured as level of education are less likely to start firms. We also found that, people with more social capital, such as contact with external product development teams are more likely to start new firms. Taken together, the findings suggest that activities spanning the university-business divide increase the start-up propensity, while within university activities had no, or negative effects on the propensity. Consequently, universities interested in encouraging their employees to start firms should focus their attention on creating spanning activities rather than improving conditions for within university tenure.     

Comparative Study of Domestic and Foreign Bank Performance in Thailand: The Regression Analysis

This paper studies the performance of domestic and foreign banks in Thailand in terms of profitability and other characteristics after the East Asian financial crisis. The study is based on a micro bank-level panel data on financial statements by pooling cross-bank time-series data with the major balance sheet and income statement ratios for domestic and foreign banks in Thailand for 1995–2000. All banks were found to have reduced their credit exposure during the crisis years, and to have gradually improved their profitability during the post-crisis years. The results indicate that foreign bank profitability is higher than the average profitability of the domestic banks although importantly, in the post-crisis period, the gap between foreign and domestic profitability become closer. This shows some positive results of the financial restructuring program. Saovanee Chantapong (Ms) currently works as a senior economist at the Office of Macroeconomic Policy and Analysis. She received her ph.D. in Economics from the Faculty of Economics and Management at the University of Hannover (Germany) in 2005. Paper submitted to the International West-East Conference 2003: Accounting and Finance in Transition: European and Asian Experiences and Public Policy Considerations, London, 10–12 July 2003. This paper is a revised version of the Kiel Advanced Studies Working paper (May 2002) which was written when the author participated in Advanced Studies Programme (ASP) at the Kiel Institute for World Economics (IFW), Germany. The author is greatly indebted to Dr. Ralph Heinrich, her discussant and Dr. Claudia M. Buch for their valuable comments. The author would like to thank Bussaracum Petchclai and Augsupalee Watcharakiet, her colleagues at the Bank of Thailand for their great help. The paper has benefited from very helpful comments from Felix Hammermann, Om Prakash Mall and Paula Jaramillo. The author is also grateful to Prof. Dr. Lukas Menkhoff, Chair, the Institute of Monetary Economics, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Hannover. The views expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bank of Thailand. Remaining errors are under the author’s responsibilities.