In France, private firms manage the majority of water services but there is still a large part of water services under direct management. Such a diversity of governance forms allows for efficiency and quality benchmarking between direct and delegated management, and raises questions about the determinants of the choice of the local government to manage or delegate, and to switch from a governance model to the other. This paper reviews the literature on these issues in France. Moreover, the paper identifies several hot issues deserving further research such as scale and scope economics, and the implementation of social tariffs or increasing block tariffs.
Using a unique plant-level dataset we examine total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components, related to efficiency change and technical change. The data we use is from Sweden and for their pulp and paper industry, which is heavily regulated due to its historically large contribution to air and water pollution. Our paper contributes to the broader empirical literature on the Porter Hypothesis, which posits a positive relationship between environmental regulation and “green” TFP growth of firms. Our exercise is innovative as Sweden has a unique regulatory structure where the manufacturing plants have to comply with plant-specific regulatory standards stipulated at the national level, as well as decentralized local supervision and enforcement. Our key findings are: (1) prudential regulation limits expansion of plants with high initial pollution; (2) regulation, however, is not conducive to plants’ “green” technical change, which provides evidence against the recast version of the Porter Hypothesis; (3) decentralized command-and-control regulation is prone to regulatory bias, entailing politically motivated discriminatory treatment of plants with otherwise equal characteristics.
We bound the value of collaboration in a decentralized multi-supplier multi-retailer setting, where several suppliers ship to several retailers through a shared warehouse, and outbound trucks from the warehouse contain the products of multiple suppliers. Academic/Practical relevance: In an emerging trend in the grocery industry, multiple suppliers and retailers share a warehouse to facilitate horizontal collaboration, in order to lower transportation costs and increase delivery frequencies. Thus far, these so-called Mixing and Consolidation Centers are operated in a decentralized manner, with little effort to coordinate shipments from multiple suppliers with shipments to multiple retailers. Facilitating collaboration in this setting would be challenging (both technically, and in terms of the level of trust that would be necessary), so it is useful to understand the potential gains of collaboration. Methodology: We extend the classic one warehouse multi-retailer analysis of Roundy (1985) to incorporate multiple suppliers and per truck outbound transportation cost from the warehouse, and develop a cost lower bound on centralized operation as benchmark. We then analyze decentralized versions of the system, in which each retailer and each supplier maximizes his or her own utility in a variety of settings, and we analytically bound the ratio of the cost of decentralized to centralized operation, to bound the loss due to decentralization. Results: We find analytical bounds on the performance of several decentralized policies. The best, a decentralized zero-inventory ordering policy, has a cost ratio when compared to a lower bound on the centralized policy of no more than 3 ⁄ 2 . In computational studies, we find that cost of decentralized policies are even closer to those of centralized policies. Managerial implications: Easy-to-implement decentralized policies are efficient and effective in this setting, suggesting that centralization (and thus, a potentially complex and expensive coordination effort) is unlikely to result in significant benefits.
The administrative contract is above all a civil law concept. According to the Chinese contract law, the contract means an agreement on the establishment, alteration or termination of a civil right-obligation relationship between natural persons, legal persons or other organisations as subjects with equal status. However, the fact that one the party is a public organ and has state prerogative, the contract is under a specific regime called “administrative contract”. This article provides an overview of the application of this kind of contract in two countries: Madagascar and China.
A behavioural study was performed using adult internet users in the UK. Subjects answered questions about Contract For Difference products that tested their understanding of the risks associated with these products, and also their personal perceptions of the products. Subjects answered these questions before and after seeing and rating a fictional CFD product. This CFD product was presented in the form of a social media style advert, followed by a web page. The risk warnings presented with the tweet and the web page were either representative of the existing risk warnings, or were new, proposed versions. It was found that on 2 out of 3 measures of risk understanding the proposed web page warning significantly improved individuals’ accuracy, whilst on the third there was no difference between the effect of the existing and proposed risk warnings. For tweet risk warnings, there was no significant difference between the existing and proposed warnings on 2 out of 3 measures. On the third, the proposed warning increased accuracy, but the results suggest that it provides no benefit over only changing the webpage risk warning, with either the proposed tweet or proposed webpage warning being sufficient to provide increased understanding.
The consequences of climate change have rapidly become one of the most important issues of the global agenda. Along with the consequences of global warming, the current course of climate change is directly related to a series of environmental impacts such as: the rising of sea levels, increased frequency of extreme weather events, the shifting patterns of rainfall, increased risks for the wildlife, economic instability (especially in the agricultural sector), to name a few. The dimension of the expected impacts, combined with the speed of the climatic events, poses a significant challenge not only to countries, but to the international community as a whole, in designing a set of actions to adapt to and to mitigate those consequences.
With the development of the blockchain technology, and applications of blockchain technologies more and more widely, we can apply the Blockchains to Industrial Control System(ICS) for network security. The key technology of blockchain include: distributed ledge, asymmetric cryptography, consensus algorithm and smart contract. The goal of our works is to realize industrial control system network security and make that is reliable, safety, high efficiency and low cost. We will explain how to apply blockchain technology to industrial control system network for cybersecurity, and also explain how blockchains works and why blockchains technology can realize the cybersecurity of ICS, then describe how blockchains combine with IoT to realize IoT network security and build blockchain-based ICS cybersecurity architecture modal. We also point out a series of problems that should be considered before the deployment of a blockchains network in ICS and Jot Form data transfer to data storage and data management, blockchains technology can solve these problems well include data transfer insecurity, machine malfunction, data storage insecurity and so on. Our solution is that blockchains network replace Industrial Control systems Field network, our conclusion is that blockchains technology can resolve ICS network security and provide a solution for IoT security, Industrial control network security based on blockchain is very meaningful and feasible.
Healthcare data exists in silos. These siloed systems lack open standards surrounding how data is stored, labeled, and tagged. In turn, these data silos decrease data liquidity, or the ability of data to flow throughout the healthcare system. Undeniably, the healthcare industry sees the value in responsibly sharing health data to extract more value and new insights using predictive analytics, open science, and collaborative solutions. Effective collaboration requires collaborative data. Particularly with health-related data, “sending that data from one peer to another in a secure manner, in a compliant manner, and in a transparent manner” is vital. While organizations share this sentiment, a complex regulatory framework combined with data usage agreements and non-interoperable, proprietary databases add friction to this data exchange. Particularly in healthcare, blockchain enables greater transparency between healthcare professionals sharing data, and it empowers patients to have control over their data. First, this paper briefly discusses blockchain. Next, this paper outlines issues that plague the healthcare industry including the laws that serve as the framework. Finally, this paper discusses architecture considerations for a blockchain based healthcare data exchange that also respects the current regulatory environment.
Using the experience of the Educational Quality Inputs (EQI) Scheme in Sri Lanka, the paper examines the distributional aspects of formula-based funding and efficiency of decentralized management of education funds in a developing country setting. The study finds that the EQI fund distribution is largely pro-poor, with the exception of expenditure at the collegiate level. The study finds that allocating more funds to more disadvantaged schools alone is insufficient to reduce disparities as the inability of schools to fully utilize the funds holds back progress. The study findings support the hypothesis that qualified principals, adequate levels of human and physical resources, and state-level monitoring and support is needed for the success of education management at the school level. The study highlights the need to better use information collected from the schools on the EQI scheme to simplify and improve its implementation and effectiveness.
Nowadays the cryptocurrency industry is constantly growing and developing. Each year it attracts a big number of investors and businessmen from all over the world. Since the creation of Bitcoin in 2009, more than a thousand new cryptocurrencies with different features were created. Most countries are already working on an effective regulatory mechanism for the cryptocurrency industry. However, the question is whether the regulation will not contradict the essential features of digital currency, such as decentralization, independence and anonymity. This MA thesis analyzes the issue of cryptocurrency regulation as an important stage in their development and evolution. I compare the regulatory frameworks, developed by Canada, the USA, Great Britain and China, which are considered to be the world leaders in the cryptocurrency industry and the ICO sector. In this MA thesis I also try to explain how cryptocurrencies are perceived both by the cryptocurrency community and the regulators in order to give an answer to the question "What is a cryptocurrency?". Finally, this thesis also discusses the issue of cryptocurrency lobbying as an important part of the communication between the state and the third sector.
This thesis analyses the concept of private cryptocurrencies alongside the conduct of contemporary monetary policy. The technological development of blockchain and cryptocurrencies could imply a disruption in the global economic system and substitution of modern fiat money worldwide. This research aims to discuss whether the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies would lead to substitution of the fiat money system. The viability of such a proposition is analysed through the literature review and the discussion on the topic. \n \nLiterature review consists of a detailed examination of money history and its nature, the conduct of contemporary monetary policy and its critique, and the purpose of cryptocurrency as a solution to financial freedom. \n \nIt is then discussed, how much power over money people have and how it could be increased with the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. The problems of transcending network effects for mass adoption are addressed with the analysis of technical drawbacks. A regulatory approach is examined, and several proposals are presented. \n \nThough the libertarian approach to economies and financial management is virtuous, the contemporary implementation of cryptocurrencies is imperfect. In their pure form, cryptocurrencies are unlikely to gain widespread adoption and substitute fiat money under stable economies.
This study investigates the possible diversification benefits of multiple cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin) in a diversified portfolio from the perspective of a South African investor over the period 30 July 2015 to 20 December 2017. Cryptocurrencies are mostly still in their infancy, and reliable information regarding their usefulness as an asset class in a diversified portfolio is scarce to come by. This study adopts a quantitative research methodology which incorporates the following statistical methods: i) mean-semivariance optimisation; ii) Kendall Tau-b correlations; and, iii) autocorrelation function for serial correlations. The JSE All Bond Index is used as bond investment proxy, a combination of the JSE Top 40, Resources Index and Financial-Industrials Index is used as an equity investment proxy, and the LBMA Gold PM is used as a gold investment proxy. The study found that all three cryptocurrencies under investigation yielded risk-return benefits for a diversified portfolio. The alternative cryptocurrencies (Ethereum and Litecoin) exhibited higher levels of downside risk (semideviation) than Bitcoin, but proportionately greater returns. Hence, the addition of these two cryptocurrencies to a portfolio that includes Bitcoin and traditional assets resulted in an expansion of the efficient frontier. Ethereum exhibited slightly lower correlations to Bitcoin than Litecoin, which is most likely attributed to its greater technological differences, but performed worse as a diversifier. All three cryptocurrencies yielded similar low to very low correlations to all traditional assets, including gold - representative of the potential diversification benefits. The autocorrelation function resulted in high positive serial correlations for all three cryptocurrencies, indicative of strong trending behaviour and high volatility.
Lotteries are an excellent use case for Ethereum. Like pyramids, lotteries were among the first contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. Results are provably fair, enabling the lottery to be run without a central authority taking a cut of the winnings, and without anchoring its operation in any single legal jurisdiction. It is highly likely that the lotteries of the future will be conducted on a blockchain. This chapter covers the primary roadblock to running a good lottery—random-number generation—and develops a series of increasingly complex lottery contracts. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
It's a sunny March morning in 2023. 7:18 AM. You're buttering your bagel and gulping your coffee like always. You're looking forward to your commute - you'll do a conference call with your team and catch up on the news. You're thankful you don't have to actually drive, your car knows the way. As you get into your car you are presented with an urgent message. Your car has been immobilized and you need to pay 4 Bitcoin in ransom. You're not going anywhere right now. The world will have 50 billion connected devices by 2020. We've all heard this stat by now, but what does this really mean for individuals and society? What will be different? How fast will these shifts occur? Will we be ready? Learn from one of the foremost IoT thought leaders how a world of sensors, devices and machines everywhere, some we see, others we don't, sending vast quantities of data, will affect our daily lives, change our behaviors, and influence our thoughts about innovation, convenience, security and privacy. We'll examine a day in the life of a digital citizen in 2020 and identify the implications of a world where nearly everything is connected. 3 questions this session will answer: ; What does a world of 50 billion connected devices look like? What are all these devices, what are they doing and why? : What are some of the major ways society and interpersonal relations will change in a world where nearly everything is connected? : This world is coming - are we ready? What are some of the implications of this onslaught of connectivity on issues like privacy and security?