Economic Difficulties (economic + difficulty)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The legal construction of the social security system of the Republic of Kosovo

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
Ma Lourdes Arastey Sahún
Abstract Following the international community's unsuccessful attempts to broker an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, the territory of Kosovo controversially declared independence on 17 February 2008. This article provides a description and analysis of the social protection system immediately after the declaration of independence. In the aftermath of conflict, and faced by enormous economic difficulties, Kosovo's society could not expect a complete restoration of the social security system. To date, the United Nations Mission has committed itself to building a minimum legal framework, seeking to give answers to main and essential challenges. But the core structure of the social security system is yet to be laid. Nonetheless, in a complex situation such as that of Kosovo, the realization of a social protection framework must be seen as an essential mechanism for reconstruction and peacekeeping. [source]


Preparation for Crisis Management: A Proposed Model and Empirical Evidence

JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2004
S. Elsubbaugh
This article explores the forces restricting effective crisis management in a crisis ridden industry. Models of crisis preparedness have typically been developed based upon research in US or Western business. This study is based upon the Egyptian industry which, until the 1990s was state owned and heavily state supported. Changes in government policy, combined with external forces, not in the least the loss of markets in the previous Soviet bloc, had plunged the industry into serious crisis. Crisis is a cultural embarrassment to most Egyptian managers and this, combined with the depth of economic difficulties faced by the industry, makes it extraordinarily difficult for any level of crisis preparedness to be achieved. Based on interview and questionnaire data, this article extends existing models of crisis preparedness to better accommodate conditions in crisis prone industries outside the West. New dimensions in the proposed model are the stress on national culture and how this limits the range of managerial responses. This in turn requires the active development of an organisational culture to counteract these limitations. [source]


INDONESIA'S ECONOMIC CRISIS: CONTAGION AND FUNDAMENTALS

THE DEVELOPING ECONOMIES, Issue 2 2002
Reiny IRIANA
The severe and unanticipated economic downturn in Indonesia mirrored the regional economic fallout following the 1997 financial crisis. Although it is likely that the crisis in neighboring countries had an adverse impact on Indonesia, the issue has so far received little attention. This paper examines whether contagion from the economic crisis in Thailand triggered the crisis in Indonesia. Evidence of such a contagion is revealed, and the contagion was possibly exacerbated by increasing imbalances in the Indonesian economy. The paper also examines the channels through which the economic difficulties of Thailand might have been transmitted to Indonesia. Investors'behavior, rather than real links, is identified as one important channel for the contagion. [source]


Birth Cohort Effects on Incidence of Lung Cancers: A Population-based Study in Nagasaki, Japan

CANCER SCIENCE, Issue 10 2000
Hiroshi Soda
Smoking prevalence remains high (around 60%) among Japanese males, but smoking initiation among males born in the 1930s decreased by approximately 10% due to economic difficulties following World War II. The present study was designed to examine whether this temporary decline in smoking initiation influenced the subsequent incidence of lung cancers, especially adenocarcinoma. Trends of lung cancer incidence by histological type in both sexes were investigated using data from the population-based cancer registry in Nagasaki, Japan, from 1986 through 1995. During this period, 5668 males and 2309 females were diagnosed as having lung cancer, and the overall incidence of lung cancers among both sexes remained stable. However, males aged 55,59 years showed a decrease in the age-specific incidence of adenocarcinoma and squamous-cell carcinoma (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively). In birth cohort analyses, the incidence of adenocarcinoma and squamous-cell carcinoma was lower in the 1935,1939 birth male cohort than in the successive cohorts. The incidence of lung cancers among females with low smoking prevalence did not change with birth cohort. The low smoking initiation among the 1935,1939 birth male cohort appeared to have resulted in a decreased incidence of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma among middle-aged Japanese males. The present study suggests that smoking prevention has an effect in reducing the incidence of lung adenocarcinoma, as well as squamous-cell carcinoma, among smokers. [source]