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Sector Restructuring (sector + restructuring)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

INFLATION TARGETING AND THE ECONOMY: LESSONS FROM CANADA'S FIRST DECADE

CONTEMPORARY ECONOMIC POLICY, Issue 1 2001
C Freedman
Inflation targeting has become the centerpiece of the monetary policy framework in a number of industrial countries and emerging economies. The first part of this article examines the Canadian experience with inflation targeting since its introduction in early 1991 and various issues that require resolution in establishing such a framework. It also examines the way inflation targets deal with demand, price, and productivity shocks. The second part focuses on Canada's economic performance during the 1990s. Factors other than monetary policy - most notably private sector restructuring and the fiscal situation in the first half of the decade - played an important role in the sluggishness of the recovery from the recession of 1990,91. Trend growth in Canada during the 1990s was lower than in earlier periods and than U.S. trend growth over the same period. The article examines the role of such factors as productivity growth and participation rates in explaining the differences. I conclude that a good monetary policy is necessary but not sufficient for good economic outcomes. [source]

Temporary Work in the Public Services: Implications for Equal Opportunities

GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2003
Hazel M. Conley
This article examines the impact of the growing number of temporary employment contracts in the public sector on equal opportunity theory, policy and practice. Quantitative and qualitative data from two case study local authorities are utilized to examine the mechanisms by which temporary work becomes an equal opportunities issue. A strong association between part-time work and temporary employment status is demonstrated as an important aspect of the gendered nature of temporary work. Links between ethnicity and temporary work are less clear but are based upon the insecurity of targeted funding for teachers and the under-valuation of the skills of the workers concerned. The data indicate that temporary workers are largely excluded from equal opportunity policy and practice, bringing into question a concept of equality that can permit less favourable treatment for certain groups of workers. It is argued that public sector restructuring, particularly concerning decentralization and the quest for flexibility, has facilitated the differential treatment of employees, thereby fundamentally eroding the basis of equal opportunity policy and practice. [source]

The perspectives of energy production from coal-fired power plants in an enlarged EU

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, Issue 9 2004
P. Grammelis
Abstract The aim of this paper is to present the current status of the coal-fired power sector in an enlarged EU (EU-15 plus EU member candidate states) in relation with the main topics of the European Strategy for the energy production and supply. It is estimated that 731 thermoelectric units, larger than 100 MWe, are operating nowadays, and their total installed capacity equals to 200.7 GWe. Coal contribution to the total electricity generation with reference to other fuel sources, is by far more intensive in the non-EU part (EU member candidate states), compared to the EU member states. It is expected that even after the enlargement, the European Union will strongly being related to coal. Enlargement will bring additional factors into play in order to meet the requirements of rising consumption, growing demand for conventional fuels and increasing dependence on imports. Besides the technology, boiler size, efficiency, age and environmental performance will determine the necessities of the coal-fired power sector in each country. Depending on the case, lifetime extension measures in operating coal-fired power plants or clean coal technologies can play an important role towards the energy sector restructuring. Low efficiency values in the non-EU coal-fired units and heavily aged power plants in EU countries will certainly affect decisions in favour of upgrading or reconstruction. The overall increase of efficiency, the reduction of harmful emissions from generating processes and the co-combustion of coal with biomass and wastes for generating purposes indicate that coal can be cleaner and more efficient. Additionally, plenty of rehabilitation projects based on CCT applications, have already been carried out or are under progress in the EU energy sector. The proclamations of the countries' energy policies in the coming decades, includes integrated renovation concepts of the coal-fired power sector. Further to the natural gas penetration in the electricity generation and CO2 sequestration and underground storage, the implementation of CCT projects will strongly contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions in the European Union, according to the targets set in the Kyoto protocol. In consequence, clean coal technologies can open up new markets not only in the EU member candidate states, but also in other parts of the world. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

,Economic rationalism' in Canberra and Canada: Public sector reorganisation, politics, and power

AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, Issue 1 2003
Herman Schwartz
Australian public sector institutions and public sector labour relations experienced intense change during the 1980s and 1990s. Proponents of restructuring sought to insert market-like pressures into areas formerly governed by bureaucratic mechanisms. This reversed a trend towards continual growth in state provision of non-market based social protection and social welfare, and continual growth in the public sector's share of the economy. The politics and content of Australian public sector restructuring under Labor and then the Liberals substantially resembled restructuring efforts in two Canadian provinces. In all three examples, political pacts between unions in the exposed and non-exposed sectors, and between organised labour and capital, determined the direction of change. But the level of institutional robustness of these various actors determined both the pace and effectiveness of change. Weak employer organisations and unions incapable of sustaining pacts in Canada produced wider oscillations in policy content that attained less substantive success than in Australia. [source]