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Where contemporary developments have significantly altered the implementation methods of, and relationship between, human rights law and international humanitarian law, this timely book looks at the future challenges of protecting human rights during and after armed conflicts. Leading scholars use critical case studies to shed light on new approaches used by international courts and experts to balance these two bodies of law. Divided into four thematic parts, chapters explore the protection of specific groups and actors during conflicts, including organised armed groups, armed non-state actors, and refugees, as well as using divergent methodological approaches to analyse the extra-territorial application of human rights treaties. Shifting to post-conflict, the book further examines the tools and practices involved in building lasting peace and sustainable post-conflict order while avoiding future resurrection of armed conflict. It concludes by considering whether the traditional interpretation of international law is still apt for the twenty-first century. Underlining the necessity of a more coherent application of international humanitarian law and human rights law, this incisive book will be invaluable to students and scholars from the two areas of law. Global in scope, it will also prove useful for humanitarian workers, and practitioners and policy makers involved in human rights law.
Reconstructing democracy
(2020)
Across the world, democracies are suffering from a disconnect between the people and political elites. In communities where jobs and industry are scarce, many feel the government is incapable of understanding their needs or addressing their problems. The resulting frustration has fueled the success of destabilizing demagogues. To reverse this pattern and restore responsible government, we need to reinvigorate democracy at the local level. But what does that mean? Drawing on examples of successful community building in cities large and small, from a shrinking village in rural Austria to a neglected section of San Diego, Reconstructing Democracy makes a powerful case for re-engaging citizens. It highlights innovative grassroots projects and shows how local activists can form alliances and discover their own power to solve problems.
This edited collection assesses governance in forestry programmes and projects, including REDD+ governance. It examines political representation, participation and decentralisation in forest governance, providing insight as to how forest governance arrangements can be responsive to the socio-economic interests of local people and communities who live adjacent to and depend on forests.
Global Forest Governance and Climate Change argues that inclusive complementary representation of local communities is required for strong participatory processes and democratic decentralisation of forest governance. Responsiveness to local people's socio-economic interests in forestry initiatives require paying attention to not just the hosting of participatory meetings and activities, but also to the full cast of appointed, self-authorized, and elected representative agents that stand, speak, and act for local people.
This book will be of interest to students and academics across the fields of climate change governance, forestry, development studies, and political economy. It will also be a useful resource for policy makers and practitioners responsible for forestry and climate change initiatives.
Political Narrations
(2018)
This book analyzes narrations embedded in political disputes, allowing readers to gain a deeper understanding of modern political reality. The author explores this theme in readings of the Sophocles tragedy Antigone, the Melian Dialogue of Thucydides, Heinrich von Kleist’s novella Michael Kohlhaas, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor and E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime novel, taking into account the relevant interdisciplinary aspects of the narratives. His study of these four narrations focuses on key political concepts, such as might and right, self-interest, legality and justice, the nation-state and democracy, and relates them compellingly to current actuality. Since narrations can exert comprehensive and lasting influence on individuals’ political discernment, this systematic analysis allows for a better comprehension of politics in education and civics.
Since spring 2014 the relations between the EU and Russia are stuck in an Ice Age. From a Western point of view, especially the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the intervention in the conflict in Ukraine are responsible. The EU has frozen their relations to Russia and applied sanctions against it. Russia reacted in the same way. Can this vicious circle be broken without betraying the values of the EU? This book presents the analysis and ideas of social scientists from Germany, Poland and Russia. The reasons for this crisis are seen quite differently but all try to find a way out of the current confrontation.
Reworking postcolonialism
(2015)
An interdisciplinary collection of essays, Reworking Postcolonialism explores questions of work, precarity, migration, minority and indigenous rights in relation to contemporary globalization. It focuses on the impact of global market forces on the formation of new subject positions among urban dwellers, exiles, and other disenfranchised communities. Bringing together political, economic and literary approaches to texts and events from across the postcolonial world, the essays collected here investigate the transformative effects of the global dissemination of capital and goods and the movements of people. They call for a revision of existing discourses on rights, entitlements and citizenship.
Failed state Südsudan?
(2014)
A vector error correction model for the relationship between public debt and inflation in Germany
(2014)
In the paper, the interaction between public debt and inflation including mutual impulse response will be analysed. The European sovereign debt crisis brought once again the focus on the consequences of public debt in combination with an expansive monetary policy for the development of consumer prices. Public deficits can lead to inflation if the money supply is expansive. The high level of national debt, not only in the Euro-crisis countries, and the strong increase in total assets of the European Central Bank, as a result of the unconventional monetary policy, caused fears on inflating national debt. The transmission from public debt to inflation through money supply and long-term interest rate will be shown in the paper. Based on these theoretical thoughts, the variables public debt, consumer price index, money supply m3 and long-term interest rate will be analysed within a vector error correction model estimated by Johansen approach. In the empirical part of the article, quarterly data for Germany from 1991 by 2010 are to be examined.
Critics argue that there has been a trend among Microfinance Institutions (MFI) to focus on profitability in order to stay financially sustainable. This made some institutions neglect the social mission of microfinancing. In this paper I intend to examine if empirical evidence supports this so called mission drift hypothesis as well as other claims in this context. Using the global panel data set of the MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange), which gathers from 1995 to 2010 and contains up to 1400 institutions with a high variety of organizational forms, I was able to identify a world-wide mission drift effect in their social goal of reaching out the poorest part of the population. Furthermore, I find that, on average, the outreach of an MFI has a significant negative influence on its short and long term financial performance. Despite that, I eventually proved that the probability that an MFI worsens its social performance substantially increases if its profitability has decreased in the previous years.
This book deals with the inner life of the capitalist firm. There we find numerous conflicts, the most important of which concerns the individual employment relationship which is understood as a principal-agent problem between the manager, the principal, who issues orders that are to be followed by the employee, the agent. Whereas economic theory traditionally analyses this relationship from a (normative) perspective of the firm in order to support the manager in finding ways to influence the behavior of the employees, such that the latter – ideally – act on behalf of their superior, this book takes a neutral stance. It focusses on explaining individual behavioral patterns and the resulting interactions between the actors in the firm by taking sociological, institutional, and above all, psychological research into consideration. In doing so, insights are gained which challenge many assertions economists take for granted.
Public debate about energy relations between the EU and Russia is distorted. These distortions present considerable obstacles to the development of true partnership. At the core of the conflict is a struggle for resource rents between energy producing, energy consuming and transit countries. Supposed secondary aspects, however, are also of great importance. They comprise of geopolitics, market access, economic development and state sovereignty. The European Union, having engaged in energy market liberalisation, faces a widening gap between declining domestic resources and continuously growing energy demand. Diverse interests inside the EU prevent the definition of a coherent and respected energy policy. Russia, for its part, is no longer willing to subsidise its neighbouring economies by cheap energy exports. The Russian government engages in assertive policies pursuing Russian interests. In so far, it opts for a different globalisation approach, refusing the role of mere energy exporter. In view of the intensifying struggle for global resources, Russia, with its large energy potential, appears to be a very favourable option for European energy supplies, if not the best one. However, several outcomes of the strategic game between the two partners can be imagined. Engaging in non-cooperative strategies will in the end leave all stakeholders worse-off. The European Union should therefore concentrate on securing its partnership with Russia instead of damaging it. Stable cooperation would need the acceptance that the partner may pursue his own goals, which might be different from one’s own interests. The question is, how can a sustainable compromise be found? This thesis finds that a mix of continued dialogue, a tit for tat approach bolstered by an international institutional framework and increased integration efforts appears as a preferable solution.
The Eu Timescape
(2012)
Persistence of stock returns is an extensively studied and discussed theme in the analysis of financial markets. Antipersistence is usually attributed to volatilities. However, not only volatilities but also stock returns can exhibit antipersistence. Antipersistent noise has a somewhat rougher appearance than Gaussian noise. Heuristically spoken, price movements are more likely followed by movements in the opposite direction than in the same direction. The pertaining integrated process exhibits a smaller range – prices seem to stay in the vicinity of the initial value. We apply a widely used test based upon the modified R/S-Method by Lo [1991] to daily returns of 21 German stocks from 1960 to 2008. Combining this test with the concept of moving windows by Carbone et al. [2004], we are able to determine periods of antipersistence for some of the series under examination. Our results suggest that antipersistence can be found for stocks and periods where extraordinary corporate actions such as mergers & acquisitions or financial distress are present. These effects should be properly accounted for when choosing and designing models for inference.
This paper studies the persistence of daily returns of 21 German stocks from 1960 to 2008. We apply a widely used test based upon the modified R/S-Method by Lo [1991]. As an extension to Lux [1996] and Carbone et al. [2004] and in analogy to moving average or moving volatility, the statistics is calculated for moving windows of length 4, 8, and 16 years for every time series. Periods of persistence or long memory in returns can be found in some but not all time series. Robustness of results is verified by investigating stationarity and short memory effects.
This paper reviews theoretical and empirical evidence of asset price movements impact on the real economic activity. A key channel is the wealth effect on consumption. Fluctuations in stock prices and housing prices influence the households wealth and could have important impacts on households consumption. In addition, stock prices may affect corporate sector investments and property prices may affect building activity. Here, the method of cointegration is used to estimate the wealth effect and the investment effect in aggregate time series for Germany after the Reunification in 1990. Moreover, we discuss the role of asset prices in the monetary policy strategy of the ECB.
Fiscal federalism has been an important topic among public finance theorists in the last four decades. There is a series of arguments that decentralization of governments enhances growth by improving allocation efficiency. However, the empirical studies have shown mixed results for industrialized and developing countries and some of them have demonstrated that there might be a threshold level of economic development below which decentralization is not effective. Developing and transition countries have developed a variety of forms of fiscal decentralization as a possible strategy to achieve effective and efficient governmental structures. A generalized principle of decentralization due to the country specific circumstances does not exist. Therefore, decentralization has taken place in different forms in various countries at different times, and even exactly the same extent of decentralization may have had different impacts under different conditions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of the fiscal decentralization in Mongolia and to develop policy recommendations for the efficient and effective intergovernmental fiscal relations system for Mongolia. Within this perspective the analysis concentrates on the scope and structure of the public sector, the expenditure and revenue assignment as well as on the design of the intergovernmental transfer and sub-national borrowing. The study is based on data for twenty-one provinces and the capital city of Mongolia for the period from 2000 to 2009. As a former socialist country Mongolia has had a highly centralized governmental sector. The result of the analysis below revealed that the Mongolia has introduced a number of decentralization measures, which followed a top down approach and were slowly implemented without any integrated decentralization strategy in the last decade. As a result Mongolia became de-concentrated state with fiscal centralization. The revenue assignment is lacking a very important element, for instance significant revenue autonomy given to sub-national governments, which is vital for the efficient service delivery at the local level. According to the current assignments of the expenditure and revenue responsibilities most of the provinces are unable to provide a certain national standard of public goods supply. Hence, intergovernmental transfers from the central jurisdiction to the sub-national jurisdictions play an important role for the equalization of the vertical and horizontal imbalances in Mongolia. The critical problem associated with intergovernmental transfers is that there is not a stable, predictable and transparent system of transfer allocation. The amount of transfers to sub-national governments is determined largely by political decisions on ad hoc basis and disregards local differences in needs and fiscal capacity. Thus a fiscal equalization system based on the fiscal needs of the provinces should be implemented. The equalization transfers will at least partly offset the regional disparities in revenues and enable the sub-national governments to provide a national minimum standard of local public goods.
Final Reflections
(2009)
Introduction
(2009)
The paper studies the regional integration as the unique process which depends on the degree of cooperation and interchange among regions. The generalisation of existing approaches for regional integration has been classified by the criterions. The data of the main economic indicators have been analysed. The economic analysis proves the differences in production endowments, the asymmetry in fixed capital investment, the disproportional income, and foreign direct investment distribution in 2001 – 2005 in Ukrainian regions. Econometric modelling depicts the existence of the division for the industrial regions with high urbanisation and backward agrarian regions in the Ukraine, the industrial development disparities among regions; the insufficient infrastructure (telecommunications, roads, hotels, services and etc.), the low labour productivity in industrial sector, and insufficient regional trade.
This paper describes the administrative powers of local jurisdictions in Georgia, emphasizing on the tax competences and the abilities to mobilize other sources of income. Having listed and explained the types of revenues and incomes, the articles continues to show their distribution among administrative levels according to the current tax code. Following a brief overview of the main laws underlying tax regulation, the existing problems of the status quo before 2007 and some perspectives for the immediate future are outlined.
Experiences and Visions
(2007)
n an international context, public management arrangements differ significantly from country to country, but also regionally and locally. One reason for these differences may be differences in culture resulting in differing views of the state and its institutions. This may sound trivial, but it becomes highly important when public management reform models are proposed and transferred from one country to others such as was (and still is) the case with, for example, the new public management. Scholars in public management as well as internationally acting practitioners should be aware of the impact culture has on the possibilities and limits of concept transfers between different jurisdictions. Having said this, one precondition for a better consideration of cultural elements in public management reforms is a better understanding of culture itself. Among the public management community, cultural theory has gained considerable attention. There are, however, other concepts for the analysis of cultural facts that may be of interest to the subject, too. In the book, cultural (including organizational culture of public organizations) influences on public management and its reform are explored. Articles address definitions and conceptualizations of culture in the context of public management, cultural artifacts in public management and gives examples of cultural elements in public management from various countries. The volume helps to structure the discussion of cultural elements and points out approaches to study and incorporate cultural aspects in public management research and debate.
This paper tries to apply common methods to estimate unbiased coefficients for the return to schooling in Germany for the year 2004. Based on the simple Mincer-type wage equation, the return to schooling is around 9.5% per year. There is no sheepskin effect. As expected the return in the private sector is higher than in the public sector. Females have a higher return than males, but there are no differences between East and West Germans. An Instrumental Variables and a 3-Stage-Least-Squares approach give very high returns. For correcting the sample selection, the Heckman Two Step Procedure and the Heckman Maximum Likelihood Approach are used. For both methods, the coefficients are very similar, but higher than without correcting for it.
This paper investigates the formation of the ownership structure and the corporate governance system of the Ukraine as a country in transition. Numerous studies consider that privatization results in the establishment of a proprietors’ motivation mechanism. On the other hand it causes ownership concentration in the hands of a few shareholders and managers. The goal of economic reform in transition and, largely, its pace, is measured by the degree to which shareholders participate in short- and long-term corporate value creation. Shareholder access to such created value depends on the ability of corporate “insiders”, especially executives and management, to claim a disproportionate share of corporate value (the “insider effect”). An econometric analysis of the correlation between privatization and macroeconomic factors studies the degree of effectiveness of economic reforming in Ukrainian regions.
Application of knowledge management methods for the improvement of education and training needs
(2006)
The effect of worker representation on employment bebaviour in Germany: another case of -2.5%
(2004)
Contents: Targets, Means and Benefits of Social Protection Standard Risks and Possible Institutional Settings for Social Protection -Market Structure for Pension and Health Insurance -Systems of Social Protection and Security -Replacement Ratios and Income Taxation Social Protection in Selected European Countries: Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, United Kingdom -Pension System -Health System -Unemployment Insurance -Accident Insurance -Basic Security System -Taxation of Wages and Profits The Overall Burden of Taxes and Social Protection Expenses Necessary Reforms, Lessons for Russia and a Basic Approach for a Blueprint -Basic Features of the Reform Process -Reforms within the Branches of Social Protection -Integrated Tax and Transfer Reform -Empirical Evaluation of Tax and Transfer Reforms
Time series analysis
(2004)