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Kinds of Officials Terms modified by Officials Selected AbstractsMean and Variance Causality between Official and Parallel Currency Markets: Evidence from Four Latin American CountriesFINANCIAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Angelos Kanas This paper examines the issue of mean and variance causality across four Latin American official and black markets for foreign currency using monthly data for the period 1976,1993. We apply a recent test developed by Cheung and Ng (1996) in order to test for mean and variance spillovers. The main findings are: (1) In contrast to the findings of previous studies, EGARCH-M processes characterize each bilateral exchange rate series in both markets; (2) There is substantial evidence of causality in both mean and variance with the causality in mean largely being driven by the causality in variance; and (3) The results indicate that the major exporter of causality is the Mexican black market with the black market of Argentina and the black and official markets of Brazil being the smallest contributors. [source] Supporting Pupils with Dyspraxia in the Visual Arts Does Drawing from Observation Function as an Official and Discriminatory Discourse?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2007Claire Penketh This article examines the demands that pupils with dyspraxia may face when engaging with the secondary art and design curriculum in a mainstream secondary school. It explores the possibility that there is an exclusive approach to art and design, prioritising a formalist approach to the teaching of specific skills and mastery of techniques, and considers the implications that this may have for such pupils. Specific attention is paid to the role of observational drawing and the demands that this may make for pupils with dyspraxia. The article will explore existing guidance offered for subject-based practitioners and aims to contextualise this within the current debates on art and design education and the recollections of individual experiences of art and design. It will outline the hypothesis that pupils with dyspraxia may be one group of pupils amongst many for whom their art and design experience does not offer an inclusive experience, and it seeks to question the existence of a hierarchy of practice and its subsequent relevance. [source] The Measure of Mercy: Islamic Justice, Sovereign Power, and Human Rights in IranCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 4 2006Arzoo Osanloo In January 2000, Iranian government agents hailed a last-minute death sentence reprieve as an expression of Islamic human rights. Officials mobilized a native source of human rights in the invocation of mercy. For some, the proliferation of human rights norms situates a state in the fold of modernity, whereas the "spectacle of the scaffold" suggests a premodern demonstration of sovereign power. Through a study of sovereign power and human rights, this article questions the seemingly clear-cut divide between premodern and modern forms of justice and suggests that contemporary appeals to mercy as human rights should not be dismissed as being outside modern forms of state sovereignty. [source] Orality in environmental planningENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 3 2002Cees van Woerkum An often-neglected aspect of interactive policy making is the symbolic interaction between professionals and citizens, specifically the way they speak, the kind of orality that is involved. The orality of officials is text bound and texts on the environmental attain a firm position in the discourse of these officials, quite different from the orality of citizens. The characteristics of orality and literacy, from a communicative viewpoint, vary considerably. In literacy details and figures matter; in orality it is the intention of the speaker and the gist of the story that counts most. By bringing in a large amount of literacy in oral presentations, officials spoil the functions of orality, its effects on learning, its creative potential, the way how, via stories, many people can get involved or how trust is developed. Officials can conquer the orality of the people, they can cope with it in a strategic way or they can deal with it as a valuable asset in policy making. For this officials have to rethink the way they speak. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source] Public Health Emergency Preparedness at the Local Level: Results of a National SurveyHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5p2 2009Elena Savoia Objective. To study the relationship between elements of public health infrastructure and local public health emergency preparedness (PHEP). Data Sources/Study Setting. National Association of County and City Health Officials 2005 National Profile of Local Health Departments (LHDs). Study Design. Cross-sectional. Principal Findings. LHDs serving larger populations are more likely to have staff, capacities, and activities in place for an emergency. Adjusting for population size, the presence of a local board of health and the LHDs' experience in organizing PHEP coalitions were associated with better outcomes. Conclusions. The results of this study suggest that more research should be conducted to investigate the benefit of merging small health departments into coalitions to overcome the inverse relationship between preparedness and population size of the jurisdiction served by the LHD. [source] Communication and Contention: The Role of Literacy in Conflicts with ,Abb,sid OfficialsHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2007Maaike Van Berkel ,Abb,sid officials of the late ninth and early tenth centuries operated in a highly bureaucratized and literate environment and they expressed their identity in terms of expertise in writing. However, in their daily business they had to communicate with all kinds of social groups, some of which had not , or only to a certain level , been introduced to writing. During the last three decades a series of groundbreaking studies appeared on the introduction and dissemination of writing in Medieval Europe. The role of literacy in Arab and Islamic societies in this period have as yet received very little, and mainly rather specialized, attention. The communication between ,Abb,sid officials and other social groups will be studied in cases of conflict and their settlements. Conflict settlement is also a field of research that recently witnessed important new insights. Studying the use of written documents in dispute settlements , a situation in which communication is of vital importance to all parties involved , forms therefore an excellent opportunity to analyse familiarity with, and confidence in, writing among the various groups within the ,Abb,sid caliphate. [source] Tourism and national identity in UgandaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 6 2008Andrew Lepp Abstract Over the last decade, international tourism has grown rapidly in Uganda. This has been planned by a small consortium of tourism officials working with the central government. Through data obtained from interviews with Ugandan tourism officials, this paper critically assesses their understandings of tourism's role in Uganda's development. Officials conceptualise tourism as a means of constructing a positive national identity for foreign consumption, and hope that a positive national identity abroad will increase foreign investment and spark development. This research considers (re)presentations of the nation and the way(s) in which Uganda is being developed as a tourist destination. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Responsibilities of Criminal Justice OfficialsJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2010KIMBERLEY BROWNLEE abstract In recent years, political philosophers have hotly debated whether ordinary citizens have a general pro tanto moral obligation to follow the law. Contemporary philosophers have had less to say about the same question when applied to public officials. In this paper, I consider the latter question in the morally complex context of criminal justice. I argue that criminal justice officials have no general pro tanto moral obligation to adhere to the legal dictates and lawful rules of their offices. My claim diverges not only from the commonsense view about such officials, but also from the positions standardly taken in legal theory and political science debates, which presume there is some general obligation that must arise from legal norms and be reconciled with political realities. I defend my claim by highlighting the conceptual gap between the rigid, generalised, codified rules that define a criminal justice office and the special moral responsibilities of the various moral roles that may underpin that office (such as guard, guardian, healer, educator, mediator, counsellor, advocate, and carer). After addressing four objections to my view, I consider specific contexts in which criminal justice officials are obligated not to adhere to the demands of their offices. Amongst other things, the arguments advanced in this paper raise questions about both the distribution of formal discretion in the criminal justice system and the normative validity of some of the offices that presently exist in criminal justice systems. [source] Managing cash if hyperinflation hitsJOURNAL OF CORPORATE ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 1 2009Fran Wolf In an effort to prevent further widespread economic collapse, the U.S. government began an ultra-aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus. Officials have pumped trillions of dollars into the financial sector, creating a skyrocketing national debt. Many fear the result will be runaway inflation, with the cost of goods and services soaring out of control If this happens, how can companies manage cash to compensate? © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] How Race, Sex, and Age Frame the Use of Authority by Local Government OfficialsLAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 3 2010Shannon Portillo Thanks to the civil rights movement, women and racial and ethnic minorities increasingly hold positions of public authority,but they experience and exercise this authority differently from white men. Based on 162 narratives collected from 49 US local government officials (city administrators and police), I find that women, minorities, and younger officials in positions of authority face a paradox of rules. Because they have lower social status with the public and within their organizations, they must rely on formal and explicit rules as a key basis for their authority, but such reliance causes their very authority to be questioned. Social status based on implicit assumptions about social identities, including race or ethnicity, sex, and age, originates outside of organizations and has effects society wide. This study shows that social status continues to permeate US local government organizations in both subtle and explicit ways, even in bureaucratic settings that are formally committed to merit and professional norms. [source] A public sector HPT maturity modelPERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, Issue 4 2007William Pullen CPT Officials of public organizations with responsibility for embedding Human Performance Technology (HPT) can use the maturity concept as a way to plan implementation and gauge evolution so that it supports broader policy, program, or organizational goals. This article describes such a model, which can help managers decide where to concentrate their efforts and in what priority. Over time, the model may help them make better decisions in using public resources to return the greatest value to taxpayers. [source] Challenges Confronting Contemporary Public Budgeting: Retrospectives/Prospectives from Allen SchickPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Naomi Caiden For nearly half a century, Allen Schick's works have explored and analyzed central issues in the role of budgets in modern government. In 2009, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published Evolutions in Budgetary Practice: Allen Schick and the OECD Senior Budget Officials, a selection of his work, together with new chapters. The book traces developments in budget practices and reforms since the 1980s, relating them to changes in the role of government, and discusses challenges to contemporary budgeting and how they might be met. This collection provides an invaluable insight into Schick's thinking about public budgeting: a perspective on the past, a practical resource for the present, and a guide to the future. [source] Moral Reasoning in the Context of Reform: A Study of Russian OfficialsPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2002Debra W. Stewart This article reports on an exploratory study of ethical reasoning among public administrators in Russia. Survey interviews and focus group follow-ups with civil servants participating in graduate training programs at the Russian Academy of Public Service provide information about their preferred mode of ethical reasoning; the demographic, attitudinal, organizational, and professional factors associated with that reasoning; and the behavioral choices implied. Using a sample of 113 public officials who represent a broad spectrum of regions in Russia, this study assesses moral reasoning, examines variables associated with alternative models, and compares these responses with findings from studies conducted in Poland and the United States. Based on this exploratory study, we suggest implications for theory, research, and practice. [source] Spending Preferences of Public Sector Officials: Survey Evidence from FinlandPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2006TAKIS VENETOKLIS We examine the determinants that shape the spending preferences of public sector officials on several budgetary appropriations. Following Niskanen's budget-maximizing theory, we test whether these officials prefer larger budgetary appropriations rather than less. We measure their preferences to increase their own bureau's appropriations and compare those against their preferences for other bureaus' appropriations. The empirical evidence is gathered via a mail survey targeting high-level officials from different ministries in Finland. The analysis of the responses suggests that Niskanen's theory is in part supported. [source] A Portrait of Australian Trade Union OfficialsBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 4 2001Tom Bramble Details are given of the chief characteristics of Australia's trade union officials, using data drawn from the 1986 and 1996 Australian Censuses of Population and Housing. This research note provides an update on research published by a number of authors. Unlike previous work, however, use of Census data allows for direct comparisons of the characteristics of union officials with those of union members or, where such data are not available, with the employed work-force. [source] Constructing a Christian PolydoxyDIALOG, Issue 4 2001Gary Pence In another article in this issue of Dialogmy colleague Stephen Ellingson usefully summarizes social science findings about the character of spirituality and religious belief and practice among young adults in the United States today. Especially characteristic of their emerging consciousness, he notes, is the separation between personal spirituality and organized, official, institutionalized religion, on the one hand, and their "re,grounding of religious authority in experience and practice instead of in belief and doctrine," on the other. Although Ellingson sees both "problems and possibilities" in the new forms of spirituality that he describes, he focuses on "the theological and ecclesiological challenges posed by the new religious context." In this article I will explore their positive possibilities. [source] Anatomy of an Ambush: Security Risks Facing International Humanitarian AssistanceDISASTERS, Issue 1 2005Frederick M. Burkle Jr. MD The 2003 war with Iraq has generated security concerns that present unique challenges to the practice of providing international humanitarian assistance during war and conflict. Objective research studies on security management are lacking. However, case studies have proven to be an important education and training tool to advance situational awareness of security risks. These challenges are illustrated by an analysis of the events surrounding the first ambush of, and assassination attempt on, a senior US aid official in Baghdad. Before deployment to conflict areas, especially those characterised by insurgent activity, humanitarian providers must realistically assess the threats to life and to the mission. They must obtain pre-deployment situational awareness education, security training and optimal protective equipment and vehicles. [source] Folcwin of Rankweil: the world of a Carolingian local officialEARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 1 2005Katherine Bullimore This article examines charters from the St Gall archive which are valuable for the light they throw on the secular society of the settlement of Rankweil in Rhaetia and the surrounding area. The centrepiece is the rare collection of early ninth-century grants and sales made to the centenarius Folcwin and the article uses these and other related documents to examine the workings of Carolingian local society, the activities of local officials, and the patterns of landholding and transfer amongst secular individuals of relatively modest standing. [source] What is the Chance of Yuan Revaluation?ECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 1 2003Vanessa Rossi From a Chinese perspective, chances of any change in the Yuan exchange rate look pretty slim. If you were an official in Beijing, would you stick your neck out even recommending this idea? If the status quo looks fairly acceptable, and it is ,stability oriented' (a very Chinese preference), why go rocking the boat? You certainly do not make any changes just because Japan or the US tell you to. And financial markets are not that persuasive , after all they wanted a devaluation only a short while ago. In this article, Vanessa Rossi and Simon Knapp assess the likelihood of a Yuan revaluation and its implications for the economic outlook. [source] A survey of tobacco dependence treatment services in 36 countriesADDICTION, Issue 2 2009Martin Raw ABSTRACT Aims This paper reports the results of a survey of national tobacco dependence treatment services in 36 countries. The objective was to describe the services and discuss the results in the context of Article 14 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which asks countries to promote adequate treatment for tobacco dependence. Design, setting and participants A questionnaire on tobacco dependence treatment services was e-mailed to a convenience sample of contacts in 2007. Completed questionnaires were received from contacts in 36 countries. Measurements The survey instrument was a 10-item questionnaire asking about treatment policy and practice, including medications. Findings According to our informants, fewer than half the countries in our survey had an official written policy on (44%), or a government official responsible for (49%), treatment. Only 19% had a specialized national treatment system and only 24% said help was easily available in general practice. Most countries (94%) allowed the sale of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion (75%) and varenicline (69%) but only 40% permitted NRT on ,general sale'. Very few countries responding to the question fully reimbursed any of the medications. Fewer than half (45%) fully reimbursed brief advice and only 29% fully reimbursed intensive specialist support. Only 31% of countries said that their official treatment policy included the mandatory recording of patients' smoking status in medical notes. Conclusion Taken together, our findings show that few countries have well-developed tobacco dependence treatment services and that, at a national level, treatment is not yet a priority in most countries. [source] Narratives as Cultural Tools in Sociocultural Analysis: Official History in Soviet and Post-Soviet RussiaETHOS, Issue 4 2000Professor James V. Wertsch An approach to sociocultural analysis based on the ideas of Vygotsky, Bakhtin, and others is used to provide the foundation for discussing narratives as "cultural tools." The production of official, state sponsored historical narratives is examined from this perspective, and it is argued that this production process may be shaped as much by dialogic encounters with other narratives as by archival information. These claims are harnessed to examine the production of post-Soviet Russian history textbooks, especially their presentation of the events surrounding the Russian Civil War of 1918,20. [source] THE SECOND ANNUAL MEYER ELKIN ADDRESSFAMILY COURT REVIEW, Issue 1 2000The Changing Family in the New Millennium A year ago, our journal had the opportunity to publish the inaugural Meyer Elkin Address by Jonah, Peter, and Marian Wright Edelman. This past summer, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts was honored to have George Thomson speak at its conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Thomson was presented with this honor for his hard work and dedication to family law in Canada and throughout the world. The Family and Conciliation Courts Review is honored to publish this speech by Thomson. Described by his colleagues as a "miracle worker" and "superman", Thomson has led a fascinating career that has followed several different paths. As an undergraduate student, Thomson attained a B.A. in philosophy and English from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He remained at Queen's University and received an LL.B., then completed his formal education with an LL.M. from the University of California. Thomson has had a diverse background in the legal field, serving as an educator, a judge, and a government official. From 1968 until 1971, he worked as both an associate professor and assistant dean at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. After his brief stint with the university, he was appointed judge of the Provincial Court for the Province of Ontario. Thomson held this position for five years before becoming an associate deputy minister of Community and Social Services, where he served as the head of the Children's Services Division. In the 1980s, Thomson returned to the bench in the provincial court. Additionally, he was the director of education for the Law Society of Upper Canada. Most notably, however, Thomson chaired a provincial committee on social welfare reform. By 1989, Thomson had moved from the bench into governmental work. He briefly served as the deputy minister of citizenship for Ontario. He was then appointed the deputy minister of labor until 1992. From 1992 until 1994, Thomson served as Ontario's deputy attorney general. He then became the deputy minister of justice and deputy attorney general of Canada. Most recently, Thomson has been a special advisor to the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada. The following Meyer Elkin address was presented at the annual Convention of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts in Vancouver, Canada, in June 1999. [source] Mean and Variance Causality between Official and Parallel Currency Markets: Evidence from Four Latin American CountriesFINANCIAL REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Angelos Kanas This paper examines the issue of mean and variance causality across four Latin American official and black markets for foreign currency using monthly data for the period 1976,1993. We apply a recent test developed by Cheung and Ng (1996) in order to test for mean and variance spillovers. The main findings are: (1) In contrast to the findings of previous studies, EGARCH-M processes characterize each bilateral exchange rate series in both markets; (2) There is substantial evidence of causality in both mean and variance with the causality in mean largely being driven by the causality in variance; and (3) The results indicate that the major exporter of causality is the Mexican black market with the black market of Argentina and the black and official markets of Brazil being the smallest contributors. [source] Obsolescence and the Cityscape of the Former GDRGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 4 2010Simon Ward ABSTRACT Paul Ricoeur claims that it is on the scale of urbanism that we best catch sight of the work of time in space. This article establishes two paradigmatic ways of seeing time in the city, the synchronic urban gaze and the urban memorial gaze, in order to explore how visualisations of the cityscape of the former GDR negotiate the significance of obsolescence, both ideological and physical. These paradigmatic forms can be associated with the ,official vision' of the cityscape, and ,alternative' visions respectively. While the state vision is evident in its urban planning, and the visual discourses at its disposal, the alternative visions are expressed in forms of visual culture (film and photography) that also explicitly engage with the visual discourses of urbanism. The article thus begins with an analysis of the official vision, through a consideration of the demolition of the Berlin Stadtschloss in 1950 as an act that may have been underpinned by both the ideological and physical obsolescence of the Schloss, but was ultimately justified by the need to create urban space for ideologically-motivated circulation. It then charts the changing relationship to obsolescence on the part of the regime's urban planners in the late 1960s, showing how this ostensibly dovetails with alternative ,subjective' visions of the cityscape in the 1970s in films such as,Die Legende von Paul und Paula,and,Solo Sunny, and in the photography of Ulrich Wüst. Such visions are widespread and largely permissible by the 1980s (with the notable exception of Helga Paris's study of Halle); and Peter Kahane's 1990s film,,Die Architekten, is read as offering a summary of these positions, as well as of the tensions between official and alternative ways of framing the manifestation of time in the cityscape. The article concludes by considering the afterlife of the obsolescent cityscapes of the former capital of the GDR within the new ,official' regime of representation that dominates in the ,new' Berlin. Paul Ricoeur behauptet, dass wir im Kontext des urbanen Raumes am besten betrachten können, wie sich die Zeit im Raum manifestiert. Diesem Aufsatz liegen zwei paradigmatische Sichtweisen auf die Stadt zugrunde, und zwar der synchronische Stadtblick (,synchronic urban gaze') einerseits und der zeitbezogene Stadtblick (,urban memorial gaze') andererseits, durch die Bedeutung und Rolle des physischen und moralischen Verschleißes in Darstellungen der Stadtlandschaft von Ostberlin, der Hauptstadt der DDR, untersucht werden können. Diese Sichtweisen lassen sich mit der ,offiziellen' Sichtweise, bzw. mit ,alternativen' Sichtweisen in Verbindung bringen. Die staatliche Sichtweise drückt sich in der Stadtplanung, aber auch in den visuellen Medien, die dem Staat zur Verfügung stehen, aus. Die alternativen Sichtweisen drücken sich auch in Formen der visuellen Vermittlung (Film, Fotografie) aus, die sich auch mit dem Urbanismus auseinandersetzen. Der Aufsatz beginnt daher mit der Analyse der offiziellen Sichtweise, und betrachtet den Abriss des Berliner Stadtschlosses im Jahre 1950 als einen Vorgang, der sowohl vom physischen wie auch ideologisch verschlissenen Zustand des Gebäudes ausging, aber letztendlich seine Legitimation aus dem Bedürfnis, urbanen Raum als Verfügungsmasse für ideologisch fundierte Tätigkeiten zu schaffen bezog. Diese Position des Regimes zum Verschleiß veränderte sich in den späten 1960er-Jahren, und diese neue Position hat scheinbare Ähnlichkeiten mit alternativen ,subjektiven' Vorstellungen der Stadtlandschaft in Filmen wie,Die Legende von Paul und Paula,und,Solo Sunny, und in der Fotografie von Ulrich Wüst. Solch alternative Visionen der Stadtlandschaft setzten sich mit weitgehender offizieller Duldung in den 1980er-Jahren fort (mit der berühmten Ausnahme der Halle-Arbeiten von Helga Paris); Peter Kahanes Film,,Die Architekten,(1990), bietet eine Zusammenfassung dieser Perspektiven und der Spannung zwischen der ,offiziellen' Sichtweise und dem alternativen Blick auf die verschlissene Stadt. Im Schlussteil untersucht der Aufsatz das Nach- oder Weiterleben der scheinbar obsoleten Stadtlandschaften der Hauptstadt der DDR in den offiziellen Formen der Stadtlandschaft, die im ,neuen Berlin' herrschen. [source] ,I Saw a Nightmare . . .': Violence and the Construction of Memory (Soweto, June 16, 1976)HISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2000Helena Pohlandt-McCormick The protests on June 16, 1976 of black schoolchildren in Soweto against the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in their schools precipitated one of the most pro-found challenges to the South African apartheid state. These events were experienced in a context of violent social and political conflict. They were almost immediately drawn into a discourse that discredited and silenced them, manipulating meaning for ideological and political reasons with little regard for how language and its absence,silences,further violated those who had experienced the events. Violence, in its physical and discursive shape, forged individual memories that remain torn with pain, anger, distrust, and open questions; collective memories that left few spaces for ambiguity; and official or public histories tarnished by their political agendas or the very structures,and sources,that produced them. Based on oral histories and historical documents, this article discusses the collusion of violence and silence and its consequences. It argues that,while the collusion between violence and silence might appear to disrupt or, worse, destroy the ability of individuals to think historically,the individual historical actor can and does have the will to contest and engage with collective memory and official history. [source] In Search of the Audit Society: Some Evidence from Health Care, Police and SchoolsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 1 2000Mary Bowerman Claims that we are moving towards an ,audit society' (Power 1994, 1997) are fuelled by the emergence of a wealth of audit and other performance monitoring initiatives. To date, however, very little empirical evidence has been gathered on the precise nature, role and scope of this ,society'. This paper draws on academic literature, official and unofficial reports and interviews with auditors, inspectors and auditees across three major public service organisations. The paper argues that audit is just one aspect of a broader, but rapidly evolving, ,performance measurement society'; other important elements of which include the growth of inspection and self-assessment. Public sector audit emerges as an increasingly questionable function. The remainder of the paper dismantles some of the myths associated with its practice, particularly regarding its public visibility and contribution in terms of enhancing processes of public service delivery, management and accountability. [source] Interest rate transmission in the UK: a comparative analysis across financial firms and productsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2009Ana-Maria Fuertes Abstract This paper differentiates itself from the existing literature by testing for heterogeneities in the interest rate transmission mechanism using a large sample of 662 monthly retail rate histories (1993,2004) on seven key deposit and loan products. Error correction models are estimated to analyse the long-run pass-through, the long-run mark-up and the short-run speed of adjustment. The prediction that the official and retail rates move together in the long run is supported by the data. The evidence suggests weak between-product heterogeneity but notable differences were found between financial firms in the way they adjust their rates, which could hinder the achievement of monetary policy objectives. Consumer responses to official rate changes could therefore be more phased and intricate than hitherto believed. Heterogeneity in adjustment is found to be linked to menu costs and key financial ratios under managerial control. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Black and official exchange rate volatility and foreign exchange controls: evidence from GreeceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2001Angelos Kanas F31; F32; C22; C52 Abstract This paper examines the issue of volatility and capital controls to the official and black market exchange rates of the Greek Drachma using the monthly exchange rate against the US dollar for the period 1975,1993. Specifically, we apply a GARCH(1,,1) model to study the behaviour of the official and black market drachma/dollar exhange rate. The main findings of the analysis are: (i) in contrast to the findings of previous studies using monthly rates, GARCH processes characterize the drachma/dollar exchange rate series in both markets; (ii) the relaxation of foreign exchange controls increased the volatility of the exchange rate in the official market as implied by theory; (iii) the persistence of volatility is reduced when account is taken of the liberalization process of capital movements; and (iv) The forecasts of volatility are improved when the GARCH forecasts are used against traditional measures. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Role of Immigrants in the Italian Labour MarketINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 3 2001Murizio Ambrosini In little more than a decade, Italy has become a country characterized by immigration from abroad. This pattern is far removed from what central-northern European countries experienced during the 1950s and the 1960s. Immigration has not been explicitly demanded by employers, nor has it been ruled by agreements with the immigrants' countries of origin, nor perceived as necessary for the economic system. For all these reasons, immigration has been chaotic and managed in an emergency and approximate way, even though it is deemed useful and is requested by the "informal" as well as the "official" economy. Following presentations of statistics on trends in the phenomenon, three issues are analysed: - how immigrants are integrated into a labour market that has not called them and into circumstances characterized by the absence of public policies to help them in their job search. - whether it is possible to separate regular immigration involved in the "official" market from irregular immigration in the hidden economy, considering advantages of the first and harmful effects of the second for the Italian socio-economic system. - whether it is appropriate to address complementarity between immigrant labour and the national labour force in a country with 2,500,000 unemployed workers and heavy territorial unbalances. [source] Stepping from Illegality to Legality and Advancing towards Integration: The Case of Immigrants in Greece,INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 4 2005Nicholas P. Glytsos This paper highlights how the social and economic situation of immigrants changes after their formal legalization and discusses what they nave to go through for their complete integration. Legalization can hardly solve the problem of immigrant employment, nor can it pull all immigrants out of the underground labor market and integrate them into the Greek economy ana society. The process towards complete integration is painful and involves a series of successive phases of various durations. During this period, apart from economic conditions, various institutional and cultural factors can hinder or delay integration. With respect to economic integration, immigrants seem to fare rather well. Their official unemployment rate is only slightly higher than the Greek unemployment rate, the two rates converging over time. This suggests increasing relative opportunities for immigrant employment, precarious or stable as it might be. Immigrant jobs come as a result of their flexible adjustment to the needs of the labor market - official or underground - compared to the inflexibility in the supply of Greek workers, due to labor mismatches and relatively high reservation wages. Wages of immigrants are generally lower, but are approaching the wages of their Greek counterparts. Educated immigrants much more than educated Greeks are forced by the circumstances to exercise jobs not measuring up to their qualifications. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||