Blockchain Papers

R. L. Wexelblat, N. Srinivasan

No abstract is available for this record.

Lev Freinkman, Plamen Yossifov

To shed light on decentralization in Russia, the authors examine intergovernmental fiscal relations within regions. To analyze trends, they review channels of fiscal allocation within regions - tax sharing and local transfer schemes. To evaluate the potential impact of various fiscal decentralization patterns on regional economic performance (including growth and the budget deficit), the authors study data on the structure of 89 Russian consolidated regional budgets for 1992-96. They find that local governments'relative share of Russia's consolidated budget, although substantive (roughly a quarter of the total budget), did not expand after 1994. The federal government's relative role in financing public goods and services declined as the relative role of local governments increased substantially. Local governments collected more revenues in 1996 (6.4 percent of GDP) and spent more than regional governments. They also substantially increased social financing (including health, education, and social protection). Russia made no progress toward a more transparent system for tax assignments. The average level of expenditure decentralization is similar for ethnically Russian regions and national republics and"okrugs"but revenue arrangements differ greatly."True"decentralization has taken place in"oblasts"and"krais"where local authorities are provided with a bigger share of sub-national tax revenues. A redistribution model applies in republics and autonomous okrugs, where greater local outlays have been financed through larger transfers from regional governments. Regions near each other tend to have similar budget arrangements - the result of intensive interactions between neighbors and probably supported by the activities of regional associations. The size of a region's territory does not influence decentralization outcomes. Fiscal decentralization seems positively related to the share of education spending in regional budgets. And regions with more decentralized finances tend to experience less economic decline. But budget control is weaker in more decentralized regions. Instability and lack of transparency in intergovernmental fiscal relations provide sub-national governments little incentive for responsible fiscal policy. Further decentralization without greater transparency could bring greater debt and deficits.

Robert A. Mundell

Is China a “transition country”? The answer is no, if by transition country is meant one that is converting from the rule of a communist party to a democracy. The answer is yes, however, if what is meant is the transformation of an economy from monopoly state socialism toward decentralized entrepreneurial capitalism. If China has traveled a smaller distance down the road to political transition than its counterparts in Eurasia, it has in many respects made an even greater transformation on the economic front. If it is incorrect therefore to call China a transition country, it is undeniable that it is a transition economy. China stands out as a special case among transition economies for several reasons. In the first place, not under the thumb of the Soviet Union, it was able to begin its economic transition more than a decade earlier than the Eurasian economies. A second difference is that it entered its economic transition as a primarily agricultural economy, starting from a much lower level of economic development than countries in Eurasia. A third difference lay in its transition strategy, which emphasized reform by sectors – sequential incrementalism – rather than gradualism or shock therapy. A fourth difference is that its growth strategy focused on the creation of free economic zones, the promotion of the international sector, and strong encouragement of foreign investment. A fifth difference is that it resisted the temptation to use the money-inflation tax as a source of finance and has instead made strong efforts through central bank policy and monetary reform to keep inflation under control.

Edward M. Grämlich

Fiscal decentralization has been an important topic among public finance economists for nearly 40 years now, but recently it has become important in the real world as well. The United States has, in effect, implemented a decentralization strategy as it has tried to cut its federal government budget deficit, largely by reducing state and local grants. For Canada, fiscal decentralization is tied up closely with the Quebec issue, and, for Germany, with the unification issue. The European Community is beginning to worry about fiscal decentralization issues in connection with policy harmonization—what policies and/or conventions should be harmonized and what need not be? Many developing countries are also groping with decentralization issues as they try to find a way to manage the public sector side of their growth process. Decentralization has always been understood to mean the proper location, by level of government, of various taxes, spending programs, grants, and regulations. What types of spending should be conducted by what levels of government, what types of taxes should be assessed by what levels of government, how should grants help fill in gaps, and how should regulations be harmonized? On the one hand, taste differences across jurisdictions argue for separate policies—governments in jurisdiction x should do what the voters in jurisdiction x want. On the other hand, the existence of benefit spillovers across jurisdictions and the potential migration of taxpayers and spending beneficiaries across jurisdictional lines make things complicated.

Helmuth Cremer, Pierre Pestieau

Introduction Public finance teaches that in a multijurisdiction setting, such as an economic union of nations, there is a strong case for assigning the responsibility for income redistribution to the central, supranational government. The rationale is twofold. First, this makes it possible to avoid the depressive effects of tax competition; in a decentralized setting, national jurisdictions may tend to lower their tax rates in order to attract, say, capital or high-income earners. Second, this is the only way to redistribute income across nations. Even though this argument sounds strong and rather general, it is not completely clear-cut. It has been argued that decentralized jurisdictions may not be engaging in less income redistribution than central authorities, but rather may be engaging in a different kind of redistribution. This is because they can exploit informational or organizational advantages relative to the central authorities. If indeed national governments do possess better information or more motivation to effect income redistribution, it does not necessarily follow that the central government ought to abandon all responsibility for income redistribution. Rather, the central government should take advantage of all such information and motivation in designing its optimal policy. That is the viewpoint adopted in this study. We assume that both supranational and national governments attempt to redistribute income within their respective boundaries. Both rich and poor nations join the confederation, and the rich ones know that they are going to lose in the process of redistribution across countries. However, the central government has only imperfect information on individual countries' ability to pay: It observes only the aggregate redistribution effort of each country.

Margaret H. Bingham

As many school districts approach a 20th-year anniversary of microcomputers in their classrooms, they are facing loud calls for proof of results from the investments of time and money made in technology during that period. Jane Oates, education advisor for Senator Edward Kennedy, stated in two different speeches this fall that what is needed (by Congress and the federal government) are not just and not just data, but stories with data and data with stories. In response to these local calls for proof and in reaction to statements such as those from Ms. Oates, educators are searching for tools and instruments to measure and document the impact of technology, particularly microcomputers, on teaching and learning. Measuring Sticks Exist Several groups have introduced within the last year measuring sticks of the impact of technology in education. The Milken Exchange has developed the Seven Dimensions for judging progress in implementing technology (www.milkenexchange.org). They continue to collaborate with state technology leaders and educational groups to further develop the dimensions and related tools. Currently, they are completing a Professional Development tool (www.milken exchange.org/pdc). Also, for the past two years they have documented in their annual report, Counts, the status of the efforts by states to implement technology. This report establishes the accomplishments of each state as well as provides comparisons of the states in various categories. The CEO Forum's School Technology and Readiness (STaR) chart (www.ceoforum.org) is another tool in use in schools and is a part of several state initiatives. The self-assessment quiz that guides respondents to label themselves as either a low tech, mid tech, high tech, or target tech school establishes a means of tracking progress in six categories. In other instruments, rubrics guide the user in pinpointing the current status in various areas from the use of technology by students and teachers to the involvement of the community in the technology program. One such instrument that has a strong set of rubrics addressing student engagement with technology is from the North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NCRTEC). Their online instrument, entitled Learning with Technology Profile Tool, is found at www.ncrtec.org. These tracking tools probably represent just the first set of offerings, as discussions at technology meetings increasingly call for means of documenting technology progress. One State's Effort In the late fall of 1997, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Instructional Technology Division adopted the CEO Forum's STaR Chart as a tool for school districts to use in tracking the implementation of their local instructional technology plans. With permission from the CEO Forum office, the state agency added a row to the bottom of the chart. This row consisted of the Target Tech School standards for North Carolina schools. These standards, from the North Carolina Instructional Technology Plan, were closely aligned to those in the Target Tech row of the STaR Chart. These modified charts were distributed to school districts as part of a package of tools for tracking technology implementation. School districts were encouraged to use the North Carolina version of the STaR chart with the accompanying self-assessment quiz as part of their efforts to revise their local instructional technology plans. When the revised plans were submitted to the state office in June 1998, approximately one-third of the 117 school districts had followed the recommendation and used the STaR Chart. Some had every school complete the self-assessment quiz in order to stake out where that school was at the end of the first two years of the local plan implementation. Most of those districts indicated their plans to continue collecting this data yearly. Other districts reported using the STaR chart to determine areas to focus on in the revised technology plan. …

David Collins, Grace Njoki Njeru, Julius S. Meme, William Newbrander

An increasing number of countries are exploring the introduction or expansion of autonomous hospitals as one of the numerous health reforms they are introducing to their health system. Hospital autonomy is one of the forms of decentralization that is focused on a specific institution rather than on a political unit. It has gained much interest because it is an attempt to amalgamate the best elements of the public and private sectors in how a hospital is governed, managed and financed. This paper reviews the key elements of the concept of hospital autonomy, the reasons for its expanded use in many countries and a specific example of making a major teaching hospital autonomous in Kenya. A review of the successful experience of Kenyatta National Hospital and its process of introducing autonomy, with regard to governance, operations and management, and finances, lead to several conclusions on replicability. The legal framework is a critical element for successfully structuring the autonomous hospital. Additionally, success is highly dependent on the extent to which there is adequate funding during the process of attaining autonomy due to the length of the transition period needed. Autonomy must be granted within the context of the national health system and national health objectives and be consistent with those aims and their underlying societal values. Finally, as with decentralization, success is dependent upon the preparation done with the systems and management necessary for the proper governance and operation of autonomous hospitals.

Kwo Ray Chu, Han-Ying Chen, Chien-Lung Hung, Tsun‐Hsu Chang · 8 authors

Physics and technology issues of importance to the high-gain gyrotron traveling wave amplifier (gyro-TWT) are investigated in theory and experiment. The gyro-TWT is known to be highly susceptible to spurious oscillations, especially in high gain operations. In the current study, oscillations of various origins are classified and characterized with detailed theoretical modeling. They are shown to be intricately connected to the interplay between the absolute/convective instabilities, circuit losses, and reflective feedback. Knowledge of these processes leads to the concept of an ultra high gain scheme which employs distributed wall losses for the suppression of spurious oscillations. A proof-of-principle Ka-band gyro-TWT experiment stable at zero drive has produced 93 kW saturated peak power at 26.5% efficiency and 70 dB gain, with a 3 dB saturated output power bandwidth of 3 GHz. The saturated gain is more than 30 dB beyond that previously achieved.

Marlon G. Boarnet

After years of debate, there is still much disagreement about the economic impacts of highway infrastructure. This article suggests that recent empirical evidence can help reconcile the divergent views on the role of highways in the economy. The resolution illuminates two ideas that should be more prominent in transportation policy. First, highways are associated with both local economic gains (often near a project) and economic losses (often distant from a project). In a system of centralized highway finance, this creates the possibility of a geographic mismatch between the areas that pay for highway projects and the areas that benefit from those projects. Second, efficiently using the available highway capital is potentially as effective as building additional highway stock in enhancing the local economic impacts of highways. Both ideas suggest the need for more decentralized, project-specific highway finance that includes a role for efficient pricing. The policy implications of a more decentralized highway finance system are discussed in the closing section of the article.

Paul Bernd Spahn

In many transition economies of Europe and Central Asia, responsibility for the provision and financing of services is being decentralized. Yet, the national policy dimensions of decentralization can have a crucial impact on local governments' spending decisions and on their ability to mobilize resources. Moreover, the expanded local government role in delivering services remains constrained by weak institutional capacity and limited financial resources and know-how. Within the increasingly decentralized environment, this strategy note reviews the broad range of issues/parameters relevant to building a sound local government finance framework and enhancing creditworthiness and access to private capital/credit markets in a way consistent with macroeconomic stability and policy objectives. This note covers the macroeconomic and public finance aspects of a sound decentralization strategy with improved intergovernmental fiscal relations and strengthened capacity for stable own-source revenue generation by local governments. It covers more specifically issues of expenditure and revenue assignment, intergovernmental transfers, stability of municipal budgets, municipal deficits and indebtedness and some macroeconomic indicators of municipal creditworthiness.

S. Covaci

The first question addressed in the paper is "Why and how agent technology supports the design and implementation of Autonomous Decentralised Systems?" Subsequently, based on the main characteristics of the intelligent and mobile agents we assess the specific support agent technology collectively can offer. Finally a glimpse into the future of this technology is given. A critical evaluation of the agent technology vs. the traditional distributed object technology and RPC is undertaken throughout the paper in order to foresee possible introduction and evolution scenarios. The paper merely focuses on the aspects relevant to the providers of infoware technology, frameworks and products.

Josef Pieprzyk, Reihanah Safavi-Naini, Jennifer Seberry

No abstract is available for this record.

Roy Bahl

In China's fiscal system, the distinction blurs as among tax policy reform, tax administration reform, and intergovernmental fiscal reform. So linked are they that changes in any one of the three legs of the public financing structure will automatically affect the other two: all tax rates and bases are centrally determined, so structural changes have direct impacts on local as well as central government revenues; revenues from these centrally determined taxes are shared between the central and local governments, partly on a derivation basis with the retention rates varying by tax, and partly in the form of an ad hoc grant; the tax administration system is decentralized enough that local governments have derived some fiscal autonomy from a creative implementation of the tax assessment and collection system. The comprehensive fiscal reform in China in 1994 altered the structure of the major taxes, changed the responsibilities for tax administration, and modified the revenue-sharing arrangements. It also curtailed the ability of local governments to use “back-door” approaches to revenue mobilization. As a result, the entire intergovernmental system was redefined. This chapter is an attempt to evaluate the impact of these changes. In the next sections, the Chinese intergovernmental fiscal system before and after the 1994 reform is described and the underlying revenue concerns that drove the reform are considered. Most of the remainder of the chapter is an evaluation of the impacts of the 1994 reform on the intergovernmental fiscal system. A concluding section presents a summary comparison of Chinese fiscal decentralization with the world practice.

Richard M. Bird, Ariel Fiszbein

As in a number of other countries in Latin America, prolonged and sometimes violent conflict between “centralists” and “federalists” occurred in Colombia during the latter part of the nineteenth century. As in most of the continent, the centralists won. Despite marked regional differences and persistent strong regional identities fostered by the difficulties of travel in a country broken up by mountainous terrain, Colombia's governing structure remained highly centralized until very recently. The central government (and its many “decentralized” agencies) not only controlled almost all public revenues and expenditures but also, outside of the largest cities, virtually supplanted the traditional territorially based governments, the departments and municipalities, in providing even the most local of services. Little scope and little reward existed for local initiative, and the most successful local politicians were those who could best exploit the labyrinthine central government system for the benefit of their constituents. By the late 1970s, however, this system had begun to break down, for two reasons. First, and most importantly, central government finances were increasingly strained by the task of financing the expansion of local public services to an increasingly urbanized population. This strain was perhaps felt earlier and more strongly in Colombia than in other Latin American countries owing to the country's long tradition of maintaining a relatively stable and conservative central government fiscal policy. Second, the highly centralized system was also contributing to political unrest, as such critical services as water, education, and health were failing to reach large segments of Colombian society.

Richard M. Bird, François Vaillancourt

Recent years have seen worldwide interest in fiscal decentralization. Developed countries are reshaping their intergovernmental fiscal structure to be more in tune with the realities of the “post-welfare state” (Bennett, 1990; Wildasin, 1997a). The countries in transition in eastern and central Europe are busily setting up new systems of local and intergovernmental finance (Bird, Ebel, and Wallich, 1995). Many developing countries are also turning to various forms of fiscal decentralization as one possible way of escaping from the traps of ineffective and inefficient governance, macroeconomic instability, and inadequate economic growth in which so many of them have become mired in recent years. Each country does what it does for its own peculiar reasons, but when so many countries in so many different circumstances do somewhat similar things, there is likely to be more at work than meets the local eye. The principal purpose of this book is to take stock of the progress, problems, and potentials of fiscal decentralization in developing countries by bringing together a set of studies from a variety of countries around the world. Decentralization in developing countries sometimes seems to be viewed as either a panacea or a plague – either a cure for all the ills of such countries or an addition to their already heavy burdens. Some argue for decentralization on grounds of improved economic efficiency, some on grounds of cost efficiency, some in terms of improved accountability, and some in terms of increased resource mobilization.

Chuji Sakamoto

The purpose of the paper is to revaluate the roles of the reformed local autonomy for promoting decentralization and local autonomy against new centralization. I consider the local autonomy and finance in Japan after World War II, focussing on the roles of so called 'Kakushin Jichitai', reformed local autonomy in the 1960's and 1970's. Firstly I review the developing and declining processes of 'reformed local autonomy' in the period of high economic growth in Japan. Then I discuss the roles of these reformed local government bodies through rising citizen movements. The local governments like Minobe-Tosei or Asukata-Yokohama-Shisei contributed to the tax reforms and some other financial reforms and promoting decentralization. The 1960's and 1970's in Japan are called 'The Period of New Centralization' in intergovernmental relations. However, the roles of these reformed local autonomy for promoting decentralization against new centralization should be revaluated.

William C. Banks, Jeffrey D. Straussman

One of the major government reform initiatives in the industrialized democracies in the 1990s has been the new public management. In the United States, the initiative gained considerable attention when a report issued by a commission chaired by Vice President Al Gore endorsed the development of performance-based measures in government. As prescribed by the National Performance Review (NPR, 1993), agencies should be freed from the red tape of detailed specifications and by Congress. Instead, agencies should be given goals and performance objectives (Thompson, 1991; Meyer and Khademian, 1996). Among the prescriptions of the National Performance Review are recommendations to implement mechanisms that would provide greater flexibility in budgeting processes, particularly in the area of national security. Ex post contingency budget execution in defense already provides considerable flexibility for defense spenders--as we illustrate by a case study of the financing of United States involvement in Bosnia. Yet, the spending discretion that has sustained U.S peace-keeping in Bosnia is quite different from, and in some respects antithetical to, the flexibility championed by advocates of the new public management. The message that this article conveys, based on our analysis of the Bosnia experience, is that neither the current system for funding defense contingencies nor the proposals of the new public management achieve the goals of providing accountable and effective mechanisms for funding these operations. Thus we offer modest proposals for reform that may make changes akin to those of the new public management compatible with traditional forms of budget execution. If implemented, the new mechanisms could permit the executive and legislative branches to focus on the policy questions inherent in post-cold-war military contingencies. At present the minutiae of the budget process serves as a lightning rod to prompt debate and diverts attention from a priori policy questions. The proposals outlined would reverse this situation. The New Public Management and Budgeting in Defense One of most provocative applications of the new public management to defense is by Thompson and Jones (1994). Instead of micromanagement of the defense budget through line items in appropriations, restrictive appropriations, and endless reporting, advocates of the new public management urge Congress to return to its classic role as the deliberator of important policy issues related to spending, programs, and strategy. Mission budgeting is central to the reforms suggested by Thompson and Jones. As part of the broader decentralization of the Pentagon, where performance measures replace detailed prescriptions and rigid compartmentalization of budgets and spending, mission budgeting would, they concede, require significant changes in the law and practice of national security appropriations. Under mission budgeting, when the Department of Defense appropriations are enacted by Congress, obligation authority would be given to mission centers, or joint operational commands, rather than to the military services. The accounts funded would thus be mission accounts rather than department accounts. To make this change more than merely cosmetic, however, Thompson and Jones advocate implementing the recommendations of the National Performance Review to increase the Pentagon's discretion to transfer funds between accounts and across fiscal years. Thus, congressional budgeting for defense should be, in their words, permissive, continuous, and selective [and] focus on all of the cash that ensue from Congress's programmatic choices ... new obligational authority should be expressed in terms of the discounted present values of those cash flows (Thopmson and Jones, 1994, 233). They would de-emphasize the annual budget resolution, do away with the president's budget, and focus attention on the decision to go ahead with a program or activity. …

Brian K. Hall

The story of the discovery of the platypus (Figure 1) teaches us much that is relevant to the nature of scientific evidence, orthodoxy, entrenched authority, the role of personalities in science, the slow overthrow of old mores, national rivalries, prejudices and priorities, the strictures of animal classification, what it takes to be described as a mammal, conservation, and extinction. A rivalry that pitted nation against nation, naturalist against naturalist, and professional against amateur endured for 85 years before the true nature of the platypus was revealed. Long after the evidence was wrested from Nature half a world away from where the debate raged, professional biologists continued to argue about this paradoxical creature. How did such a situation arise? The platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, whose combination of avian, reptilian, and mammalian features so puzzled nineteenth century naturalists and continues to fascinate people to this day. Modified from Augie (1992). Platypuses—duckbills, watermoles, or duckmoles, as the European settlers of New South Wales called them—are found only in Australian freshwater lakes and streams. David Collins, who arrived with the First Fleet as Deputy Judge-Advocate, provided an early description in the second edition of An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: The Kangaroo, the Dog, the Opossum, the Flying Squirrel, the common Rat, and the large Fox-Bat (if entitled to a place in this society), made up the whole catalogue of animals that were known at this time, with the exception which must now be made of an amphibious animal, of the mole species, one of which has been lately found on the banks of a lake near the Hawkesbury. In size it was considerably larger than the land mole. The eyes were very small. The forelegs, which were shorter than the hind, were observed at the feet, to be provided with four claws, and a membrane, or web, that spread considerably beyond them, while the feet of the hind legs were furnished, not only with this membrane or web, but with four long and sharp claws, that projected as much beyond the web, as the web projected beyond the claws of the fore feet. The tail of this animal was thick, short, and very fat; but the most extraordinary circumstance observed in its structure was, its having instead of the mouth of an animal [mammal], the upper and lower mandibles of a duck. By these it was enabled to supply itself with food, like that bird, in muddy places, or on the banks of the lakes, in which its webbed feet enabled it to swim, while on shore its long and sharp claws were employed in burrowing; nature thus providing for it in its double or amphibious character. These little animals have been frequently noticed rising to the surface of the water, and blowing like the turtle. (Collins 1802, p. 62) Captain John Hunter, the second governor of the new colony, watched an Aborigine spear a platypus in Yarramundi Lagoon near the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney in 1797. The Aborigine sat patiently at water's edge for more than an hour, observing the animal as it came to the surface to breathe, before he attempted to spear it with his short wooden spear. Hunter's fine drawing of this animal accompanied Collins's description of this “amphibious animal, of the mole species” (Figure 2). A keen naturalist and fellow of the Royal Society, Hunter supplied many animals and plants to naturalists in England. Many saw his sketch and read Collins' description before specimens became available. The incomparable English wood engraver, Thomas Bewick, published another early representation in 1800 in his justly renowned A General History of Quadrupeds (Bewick 1800; Figure 3). Governor John Hunter's drawing of the amphibious animal of the mole kind, which was drawn in 1797 and included as an engraving in the second edition of David Collins' An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (Collins 1802). Thomas Bewick's engraving of the amphibious animal, the last plate in the fourth edition of A General History of Quadrupeds (Bewick 1805). The platypus was given its scientific name, Platypus anatinus (flat-foot duck), in 1799 by George Shaw, a parson turned Keeper of the Department of Natural History of the Modern Curiosities of the British Museum. His description of the platypus was based on a single skin and accompanying sketch sent by Hunter to the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1798. The skin of this original (type) specimen is still preserved in the British Museum. Shaw's description (Shaw 1799) was published in the tenth volume of an important natural history journal of the time, Naturalist's Miscellany—or, to give it its full, descriptive title: The Naturalist's Miscellany: or Coloured Figures of Natural Objects Drawn and Described Immediately from Nature— produced by Shaw and the illustrator Frederick P. Nodder as an outlet for all manner of discoveries from the natural world. Over 1000 different animals were illustrated in its pages between 1798 and 1882, including the kangaroo, black swan, and echidna from the Great South Land, now known as Australia. Shaw's description was remarkably accurate, based as it was on a dried skin with a desiccated and hardened “bill” so unlike the soft, flexible bill of the living animal. Although he thought it was a mammal, its exotic, even bizarre appearance mystified Shaw: Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extra-ordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped. So accurate is the similitude, that, at first view, it naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means; the very epidermis, proportions, serratures, manner of opening, and other particulars is the beak of a shoveler, or other broad-billed species of duck, presenting themselves to the view; nor is it without the most minute and rigid examination that we can persuade ourselves of its being the real beak or snout of a quadruped. (Shaw 1799, p. 384) Three years later, the Göttingen anatomist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who is famous for his discoveries of mammoths and crinoids (an extinct class of echinoderms), described the platypus from a second skin sent by Hunter. Blumenbach named the animal Ornithorhynchus paradoxus (paradoxical bird-snout; Blumenbach 1803). The world now had two names for this exotic creature. Unknown to Shaw, however, the generic name Platypus had been used for a genus of beetles in 1793. Such are the strictures of the international rules of zoological nomenclature that Platypus had to be abandoned. However, Shaw's specific epithet stood. The platypus thus became Ornithorhynchus anatinus. It seems entirely appropriate that this animal, which so resembles a hybrid, should bear a hybrid name. Ornithorhynchus greatly puzzled and agitated naturalists of the day. Was it a mammal, as Shaw thought? Did it represent a new group of animals? Could it be a “missing link” between two well-known groups, especially between reptiles and mammals? Did it represent a new class of vertebrates, as the French anatomist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire maintained? Or was it a hoax, as many suspected and as Shaw himself wondered, even as he wrote the initial description? Did the females lay eggs, as birds and many reptiles do? Or did they give birth to live young, as mammals do? The creature, with its fur, duck bill, and webbed feet, would have appeared even more paradoxical had it been known that it laid eggs and suckled its young. No animal was known to do that. Furthermore, no animal was supposed to do that. In the taxonomy established for European species by European naturalists, it was axiomatic that all milk-producing animals give birth to live young, and so, by definition, are mammals. Warm-blooded egg-laying animals were birds. Cold-blooded egg-laying animals were reptiles. There was no place in this scheme for the platypus. A hoax—the bill of a duck attached to the skin of a mole—would have been in keeping with a number of other bizarre animals fabricated and displayed as genuine in Britain and America in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Robert Knox, the Edinburgh anatomist whose name we now associate with body snatching and grave robbing (and possibly even murder) to obtain human cadavers for dissection, provided a rationale for suspicions that the platypus was a hoax in his account of the animal's anatomy: It is well known that the specimens of this extraordinary animal first brought to Europe were considered by many as impositions. They reached England by vessels which had navigated the Indian seas, a circumstance in itself sufficient to rouse the suspicions of the scientific naturalist, aware of the monstrous impostures which the artful Chinese had so frequently practised on European adventurers; in short, the scientific felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art; but these conjectures were immediately dispelled by an appeal to anatomy. (Knox 1823, p. 27) If not a hoax, then Ornithorhynchus was truly paradoxical. New findings only added to the paradox. In 1802, the surgeon and anatomist Sir Everard Home reported that the males had internal testes—like reptiles and unlike mammals—and that both males and females had a cloaca, a common opening for the alimentary, excretory, and reproductive tracts (Home 1802). Possession of a cloaca is a reptilian characteristic, more particularly a characteristic of reptiles that retain their eggs within the body, where the young hatch. Such a mixture of structures quickly established the notion of the platypus as a missing link between reptiles and mammals. Other European anatomists then set to work in the “platypus industry.” The great German anatomist Johann F. Meckel published four influential accounts, the first (Meckel 1823) on the nature of the spur and poison gland in males. In the second (Meckel 1824) he mentioned the existence of mammary glands, but he did not describe them until his detailed papers of a few years later (Meckel 1826, 1827). The secretion of milk in a live animal was described for the first time 6 years later by Lieutenant the Honorable Lauderdale Maule of the 39th Regiment of the British Army, which was stationed in New South Wales. According to Maule's description (Maule 1832a, 1832b), the mammary glands were not typical; fur covered the nipples, and the glands themselves were quite small, except during lactation. However, the presence of mammary glands—no matter how unusual or atypical—satisfied many naturalists that these animals must be mammals. The absence of wings and feathers meant that they were not birds, and their warm bloodedness and the presence of a diaphragm meant that they were not reptiles. Anatomical features suggesting egg laying were, however, consistent with the platypus not being a mammal. Certain bones found in the pectoral girdles, otherwise known only from of reptiles the platypus at the between reptiles and that made it a missing was the platypus a Or a with a It paradoxical. now in the and However, in the years after their these animals were in an of and had especially for Shaw, the first to a live included them with and in a group that called now known as the (Shaw 1799, Home thought that they to a new of mammals (Home 1802). Geoffroy for a class for the platypus and which he named of the single opening for and but he was about their to other mammals. and in a new the the German anatomist the between reptiles and mammals. the French anatomist and in the of at the Natural History a of the to Although Meckel the mammary glands, he was not that they were true mammalian mammary that the platypus a class by A would have these early at It was not until late in the nineteenth century that specimens of what were described as species of platypus were The Ornithorhynchus was described from a and lower by the of the years later it was to be a specimen of the living platypus, anatinus. A second Ornithorhynchus by the is now known to be a now the platypus is not described by and and is only by upper a of the lower and an described by is an early The of both species are to the found in living Modern do not have the and are by on both the upper and lower The most of a new species, from the has but is otherwise an In the debate the and of the platypus, national and were at as much to the nation whose the scientific world. Britain was against against against Although they that the was a mammal, and that the eggs within the body as in even at up to in the eggs were much larger than mammalian the English Geoffroy and that the eggs were as in birds and but that a and other that were true mammals that produced live young. saw that the to the paradoxical platypus lay in its a time after the discovery of mammary glands and milk laid eggs was to the The that all milk-producing animals give birth to live young was so entrenched that of egg laying by were not There are of egg production and birth to one of which have is in the are a and the young are not in an animals and mammals are suckled at mammary with large of are takes place the body of the and the young from the eggs after they are animals birds and reptiles. are within the body, and are from in the egg and not a The young within the body of the animals some and and four species of Although and some of the early in New South Wales were that laid eggs, the European scientific are the of by the evidence of and were even to be by or by provided by The Sydney to of that laid eggs with the that evidence must be and reported on by in the world has then all the scientific world and where they have not in scientific they came from the surgeon Sir John wrote in the of the Society of on is and in in the years later, P. to or with a which live in the of the and which lay In a to a John of that he had found two eggs in a in which he had a platypus These eggs were the size of a and were soft, and being without or to a the eggs before their be they the first platypus eggs to be Or were they the eggs of a in the by a to the other published of eggs that were to be from the platypus. Geoffroy published a description of a egg in only to that the egg was much large to have the The Australian of this egg with the of that is at to an Australian that the egg is that of the common It was not unusual for the settlers or even the to eggs of other species to them as platypus two eggs by one a the other a much to his George the first and of the Australian who had the of and the of their egg production in New South Wales and who was an important in the of in supplied the specimens on which based his papers on the of and of these papers and in to the Royal Society in thought that the to the of lay eggs live young would be to and a platypus during what was thought to be the and this he to By however, was that such of (and and in the name of would to their extinction. In the to his of animal and of a in pages of which are to the Figure A of the platypus by for the Society, plate in by George used on the of the Many of the Australian and birds are not only to that but even of rare and such has been the of that they are in a of in time, have been and the of be from their the Ornithorhynchus and the the and the like the and only in the pages of the The that what he has been to with to this important not be without to p. by the of the century the platypus was to extinction. by however, are what all considered the last of evidence for platypus with a that the were in their that laid eggs, he himself from examination of that they did not eggs that be to the “platypus only to be at the by an young The the of lay from in and years later was in to was a of who had while in the only after being of In his established the which became the zoological of the the first used the a the and of the Royal Society, and of from to to in to the of lay His was to and The of specimens were, of had for without In set up on the banks of the River in and the to work for and platypus of and many in the water, for the eggs of the of the to and very had from the In the second of had in but it was not until the that the laid eggs from the of In the an Ornithorhynchus whose first egg had been second egg was in a of appearance larger that of was at a to a p. A has of of the and and the first of as the head to The presence of an of such an in the of a platypus that before the eggs were the sent in the to a where it would the to of the of of the Sydney to it to the British at p. which has few for in to the of the British for the of in It the by the of platypus egg production was The four in the a of do lay eggs large of the is not A egg is what birds the egg just like a By one of of so common in scientific on one after the platypus with the of the South Australian found an in the of an the very that was read in the echidna egg to the Royal Society of South in If is on the of of then and the for the discovery of in If is on the of of the then has published his findings in not until Ornithorhynchus eggs now second place to the A little after his was read in a from to was to the Royal Society of New South Wales. has with The Platypus eggs were and should have been in New England by but is much more Platypus are quite to how they have not been The the are is the of the for They that it is the of the eggs having a of that to years in to the of and His were of a naturalist, to the of for the of the and only by as he described them in a to on the other from of the of animals he and an of to work to his In of he females from a single in an to eggs or In and employed to was not that in the of a few had the of platypus egg laying and (and the An echidna found by and it an egg from its sent another this time to in to that he had all There was no of this of platypus egg continued for some In his on the in the edition of the the renowned evidence, that not to be evidence that the eggs in this genus are In their on the platypus, however, and they wrote that established the that Platypus as well as is of the platypus is that live for like years and for their is one of a who is at years after is no that has an egg being did it is that he found a with an egg that he had The platypus from to on one to eggs eggs, in of are laid in a at the of a two quite different the banks of or a short used by both and a used by the to young. as long as and with first described by Maule in The Platypus in the banks of a where the is and and the and covered with or by the of the surface is the to a which the away from the a to and rising its a of some few from the edge this two a to the and in the which is a with and and more than from the water, or than two feet the surface of the of their were, with and (Maule 1832a, and the platypus as a link between and were what had in he like the platypus it is like the it its is quite but it is important to that the is well the egg is The tail the eggs to an with a of even the is much are their in this important in the for while fur the young a of some the in late Of of the platypus, has the double of the first work on the platypus based on a of and the first to animals in was no 6 a to the of and eggs by a animal in a single day. is more than half the animal's so much time the to so much time water, it is that in his David in as and the the Sir in he a famous at in In and what was until very the only platypus birth in the Australian Natural History in he was described as single most and influential naturalist in had a long with In late while was at one of four naturalists, the for near by the the River in which the Platypus the as it is called or the the for one It was all to no was not to a living Platypus or even a in Australia. saw only the of the Platypus of a duck), which the to in a made by the animals from one to The that he was the Platypus did not lay eggs, and that he had the young and his description of them with what from on the years and after he was not to a living by then of and at in as of of the British for the of to read It was reported that that it the of from a reptilian of with such a to human the of the platypus would to be felt in yet another of that is another much that is relevant to the nature of scientific evidence, orthodoxy, entrenched authority, the role of personalities in for in the preparation of this from the Natural and of and the of is

Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner

Mathematical Bodies and Fuzzy Logic in the Couplings ofTroubadour Lyric An auraofredcats and suspect body mechanics inevitably lingers in the airwhen the Société Guillaume IX sponsors a session on "Bodies and Texts." Such is the horizon ofexpectation in which this study originated . And, while my discussion here will prove to be disappointingly unpornographic, I yet hope thatsome oftheplayfulness andgame-playing offacc-to-face performance, so characteristic ofthe first troubadour's poetic posturing, may inspire these mathematical fantasies on the body of troubadourpoetry.1 My topic concerns that old chestnut ofthe critical tradition on troubadour lyric: how to sort out real bodies and fictional constructs that appearin and around these poems. A briefand reductive summary ofthe logical possibilities staked out by the history ofscholarly tradition describes a kind ofHegelian dialectic: ( 1 ) Thesis: The songs are the expression ofreal bodies, according to the viewpoint taken by thirteenth- and fourteenth-century vidas and razos and the early stages ofmodern criticism operating underthe influence of Romanticism and its esthetic ofauthenticity and sincerity, from the 19th century to the early decades ofthe 20th. (2)Antithesis: With the workofscholars like Robert Guiette, Paul Zumthor, and Pierre Bee, in the 1960s and 70s, emphasis shifted to formal invention and fictional bodies orpersonae projected by the verbal fabric ofthe songs. In this view, "I" is a shifter, a universalizing subject pronoun taken on by any singerand unrelated to the vagaries ofpersonal embodied experience . (3)Synthesis: More recently apostmodernist swing toward reopening the dialogue between fiction and what lies outside it has been pursuedin multiple guises but especially in relation to issues like performance and performativity. Feminist approaches return, on the one hand, to real bod1 MATILDA TOMARYN BRUCKNER ies connected to the ideologies inscribed in poetry andtheirreflections of, as well as political effects on, contemporary society. On the otherhand, the notionofthe performative and itsconstructions ofgendercall attention to images, fictionsprojected, masculineandfeminineidentitiesconstructed in individual poems orthroughout the repertoire.2 Zumthor's own evolution after the Essai depoétique médiévale led him to continue earlier interests in voice and performance, theatricality and the body, text embodied in the voice of a performer. In his 1991 interview with Helen Solterer, published last year under the title "Performing Pasts," he declared that Medieval poets are profound bodily voices. And that is for a number of reasons. The principal one is that the voice represents the medium ofhumancommunication; it makes for social contact; it creates links. And the voice is intrinsically an emanation ofthebody. (p. 620) Ifthere is currently general agreement that we can neither read thesepoems simply as direct, organicexpressions ofthe poets' hearts and bodies noras totally disembodied lyric conventions, we still need to work out strategies and come to some understanding ofhow to handle the textual bodies before us. I take it as a given that these poems are indeed fictions but that they ask constantly to be read as fictions and nonfictions atthe same time—arequestwe need totake seriously without losing sight ofthe game-playing. They layclaimtothe fictionalbenefitsofplay, as well as the serious burden ofnonfictions that involve real bodies, whether those ofthe contemporary circle ofpoets and their audiences or those ofmodem readers who make an effort through imagination toenterintothe bodies ofthese fictions. In orderto turn this generalprise deposition into amodus operandi , I would like to explore the possibilities opened by fuzzy logic, as popularized by Bart Kosko in Fuzzy Thinking: The New Science of Fuzzy Logic. Since the rhetoric oftroubadour lyric aimed at persuasion, troubadours themselves frequently used the tools oflogic to build con- MATHEMATICAL BODIES vincingarguments,proofs andconclusions invariably slantedin theirfavor. They constructed complaints couched in thejuridical language ofargument and obligation; they articulatedrequests based on the application of general principles topersonal cases and claims. This process ofreasoning through the demands anddesires oflove not surprisingly takes full advantageoflogic , notonlyin itstraditionallyrecognized forms, butespecially in the guise ofwhat modern mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers have baptized fuzzy logic. Whereas traditional logic is basedon theprinciples ofnoncontradiction and exclusion—A and not A cannot both be true—fuzzy logic suggests that they may both be true ... to a certain degree. It graphs the space between these two poles and calibrates the percentages that link them. To take a simple example, considerthe issue ofheight...

Gilles Duranton, Stéphane Déo

No abstract is available for this record.

Steven Shavell

No abstract is available for this record.

Le-Yin Zhang

The Chinese central-provincial fiscal relationship of the reform era has been at the centre of academic attention in the last few years. It is rapidly becoming one of the most researched areas regarding China. Despite numerous publications, however, there are still some crucial issues that have not been sufficiently elucidated. First, the emphasis of discussions so far has been on formal budgetary relations, particularly the distributive pattern of revenue collection. In reality, the scope and impact of the Chinese budget are very much smaller than those elsewhere and the pattern of revenue collection is only one aspect of the multi-faceted central-provincial fiscal relationship. An appreciation of these aspects and their implications requires a better understanding of the full range of arenas in which the Chinese central government interacts with the provinces over public finance than is currently available. Secondly, it is generally accepted that the Chinese central-provincial fiscal relationship has been decentralized during the reform era, and that this change has underpinned the growing strength of the provinces and the decline in central power. However, the change in the relationship is actually more complex than one-dimensional decentralization would suggest, and the link between fiscal decentralization and political decentralization is less straightforward from a comparative perspective. Thirdly, it is widely accepted that there has been a fiscal decline in China and that the revenue-sharing system – implemented up to 1993 – was the cause of this decline. From this understanding, erroneous conclusions have been drawn. On the one hand, some scholars suggest that this decline signifies a limit on the Chinese state in its relation to the economy, and it is this factor that has underpinned the success of the Chinese economy during the reform. On the other, this decline is considered to epitomize the emergence of a “weak centre, strong localities” situation in China that may eventually lead to the disintegration of the Chinese political system. But it is far from established that there has indeed been a fiscal decline in the true sense of the term. The same can be said on the question of this decline, if it exists, representing the limiting of the Chinese state in relation to the economy or the decline of the central power relative to that of the provinces. Fourthly, in 1994 the Chinese government launched important reforms to the central-provincial fiscal relationship, aiming to replace the previous revenue-sharing system with a tax-sharing system (TSS, or fenshuizhi ), and ultimately to stem so-called fiscal decline. Despite earlier reported problems, recent official reports have claimed substantial success of this reform in terms of improvement in the so-called “two ratios” – the ratio of budgetary revenue to GDP, and the ratio of central budgetary revenue to total budgetary revenue. What do these two ratios signify? How should we interpret such success? Does the success on the one hand confirm the allegation that the revenue-sharing system was the cause of the Chinese fiscal decline? And does it on the other hand indicate a strengthening in the centre's power relative to the provinces'?

Alfredo De Santis, Giovanni Di Crescenzo, Oded Goldreich, Giuseppe Persiano

No abstract is available for this record.

Carrie L. Hull

This paper is centred around a debate taking place among environmental scientists. One camp argues that proof of a causal connection between a chemical and a biological anomaly must be demonstrated in the laboratory. The other contends that actual damage is underestimated in the lab, and that it is therefore necessary to conduct supplemental ecoepidemiological research in order to determine the full impact of toxic chemicals. Members of the former contingent – claiming to be defending scientific rigour – sometimes accuse their peers of practising an inferior science. This paper argues that this contention is supported by a philosophical tradition tending to favour abstract and formal analysis over the close examination of material detail. To the extent that this preference has been adopted by the media, industry, policy analysts, and regulatory bodies, more is at stake than an intellectual squabble. The paper provides a brief overview of the history of the formalist tendency in philosophy, followed by an illustration of the ways in which advocates of a strict laboratory methodology implicitly rely on this foundation. The work and ideas of contemporary ecoepidemiologists are then compared to this imposing edifice of traditional science.