Blockchain Papers

Theo Horstmann

No abstract is available for this record.

C R McConnell

This paper focuses on the impacts of oil revenues on government fiscal policy when we have externality of human capital in economic. Therefore, we devised a fiscal policy capable to make the decentralized economy to achieve the first-best equilibrium in the Uzawa-Lucas model. The results of this paper show that optimal policy requires making use of a subsidy to investment in human and physical capital. Human capital can be financed by oil revenues and tax on labor income and physical capital can be financed by oil revenues. Government size dependent to oil revenues: When share of oil revenue in GDP or ratio of oil revenue in physical capital increase, government size increases and conversely. The results show the return on the physical capital must be free of taxes, but tax on labor income needed to balance the government budget in the steady state or in the transitional phase.

Luke Rd, James W. Begun

The health care industry is characterized at its core by the requirement that the organization and financing of services recognize the concept of need for health care. This requirement is reflected in industry characteristics of market failure, professional dominance of physicians, and public concern with equal access to care. While market failure is decreasing as a result of the emergence of insurance companies as the "new consumers" of health services, physician dominance and concerns for access continue to be strong. These characteristics mean that successful health care organizations will be local-market focused, decentralized, and tied to community cultures. With regard to training of health services administrators, education should be strengthened in the area of strategy development, with appropriate recognition given to the distinctiveness of the health care industry.

Authors unavailable

To Party Core Groups of Branch Offices of the People's Bank of China in Provinces, Centrally Administered Municipalities, and Autonomous Regions (except Tibet): Herewith is transmitted (84) Central Organization Department Document No. 13. Based on this document, we hereby notify you of the examination and approval procedure for cadre appointments and removals in the current endeavor to decentralize the bank's establishment.

Mark Winokur

History as Ghetto. One crucial question posed by contemporary cultural theoreticians from Louis Althusser to Fredric Jameson has to do with the specific relation of cultural artifact to historical truth. How is one to account for the disparity between history and its representation, or between history and its lack of representation by hegemonic groups that have a stake in maintaining an official story? More pertinent for film scholars, how do the events on the film screen explicate-how are they explicated by-events on the larger, cultural stage, when both arenas are as much defined in the gap as in the praxis? Jameson states the problem and its necessity in its most accessible form: It is in detecting the traces of that uninterrupted narrative, in restoring to the surface of the text the repressed and buried reality of this fundamental history, that the doctrine of a political unconscious finds its function and its necessity.' When speaking about the cultural role of the ethnic, historians derive a number of possible, practical consequences of the problematics of political nonrepresentability. For some, the absence of ethnic or subculture representation in history and criticism is lamentable, but correctable (Lary May's Screening Out the Past). For others, the absence of overt subculture representation is proof of either the sterility of the mainstream culture (Michel Foucault), or the impotence and final incommensurability of ethnic cultures (John Cuddihy's Ordeal of Civility), depending on the critic's allegiance or particular neurosis. When addressing American film, it is possible to make a different kind of assertion: the absence of direct, proportional representation of the immigrant as complex character and lead player, and the substitution instead of ethnic stereotypes, is interesting when one takes into account that the medium is to a great extent dominated by immigrants and children of immigrants. The consensus among most historians of American film, from Louis Jacobs to Lary May, is that the number of immigrants-and their children, America's new ethnics-who worked in Hollywood in creative, technical, and economic capacities has been and continues to be extremely disproportionate.2 Of the thirteen founders of the Big Eight studios, for example, eleven were born outside the United States. The last two, Harry Cohn and Jesse Lasky, were the son and grandson, respectively, of immigrants.3 Add to this the fact that by

Lawrence K. Kanyike

No abstract is available for this record.

Lucy Gilson

A Health Sector Financing and Expenditure (HSFE) survey was conducted in Swaziland against a background of growing concern about resource constraints on policy implementation. It sought to provide basic financial information which could be used when discussing policy options for addressing these constraints. Under a wide definition of the health sector, expenditure in 1984/85 was found to be equivalent to 9.8% of GDP and E73 ($US35) per capita. Recurrent expenditure dominated sectoral expenditure, at 86.7% of the total; 57% of recurrent expenditure was for primary health care (PHC) activities, but only 17.9% for the core preventive programmes which the policy emphasizes. Moreover, the Ministry of Health's own expenditure was biased in favour of curative care. Out-of-pocket payments largely supported general PHC activities and the core programmes were predominantly funded by foreign aid. Policy calls for increased PHC funding, therefore, are justified on the grounds of existing inappropriate allocations. If this is to be achieved there must be improved efficiency of resource use within services and improved coordination with other sources of finance in the sector. It is especially important to address efficiency issues within the Ministry. Particular attention should be paid to strengthening the role and effectiveness of decentralized management structures in resource allocation. The Ministry should also address concerns about the quality of care provided by its services, especially the poor availability of drugs. Increased PHC funding may, further, be made possible through the recruitment of additional finance. More discussion of alternative financing arrangements is necessary, but their efficacy may be dependent on improving the quality of care provided within public facilities.

Kinji Mori

No abstract is available for this record.

Samuel S. Wagstaff, Kenneth Rosen

P. What is Number Theory? 1. The Integers. Numbers and Sequences. Sums and Products. Mathematical Induction. The Fibonacci Numbers. 2. Integer Representations and Operations. Representations of Integers. Computer Operations with Integers. Complexity of Integer Operations. 3. Primes and Greatest Common Divisors. Prime Numbers. The Distribution of Primes. Greatest Common Divisors. The Euclidean Algorithm. The Fundemental Theorem of Arithmetic. Factorization Methods and Fermat Numbers. Linear Diophantine Equations. 4. Congruences. Introduction to Congruences. Linear Congrences. The Chinese Remainder Theorem. Solving Polynomial Congruences. Systems of Linear Congruences. Factoring Using the Pollard Rho Method. 5. Applications of Congruences. Divisibility Tests. The perpetual Calendar. Round Robin Tournaments. Hashing Functions. Check Digits. 6. Some Special Congruences. Wilson's Theorem and Fermat's Little Theorem. Pseudoprimes. Euler's Theorem. 7. Multiplicative Functions. The Euler Phi-Function. The Sum and Number of Divisors. Perfect Numbers and Mersenne Primes. Mobius Inversion. 8. Cryptology. Character Ciphers. Block and Stream Ciphers. Exponentiation Ciphers. Knapsack Ciphers. Cryptographic Protocols and Applications. 9. Primitive Roots. The Order of an Integer and Primitive Roots. Primitive Roots for Primes. The Existence of Primitive Roots. Index Arithmetic. Primality Tests Using Orders of Integers and Primitive Roots. Universal Exponents. 10. Applications of Primitive Roots and the Order of an Integer. Pseudorandom Numbers. The EIGamal Cryptosystem. An Application to the Splicing of Telephone Cables. 11. Quadratic Residues. Quadratic Residues and nonresidues. The Law of Quadratic Reciprocity. The Jacobi Symbol. Euler Pseudoprimes. Zero-Knowledge Proofs. 12. Decimal Fractions and Continued. Decimal Fractions. Finite Continued Fractions. Infinite Continued Fractions. Periodic Continued Fractions. Factoring Using Continued Fractions. 13. Some Nonlinear Diophantine Equations. Pythagorean Triples. Fermat's Last Theorem. Sums of Squares. Pell's Equation. 14. The Gaussian Integers. Gaussian Primes. Unique Factorization of Gaussian Integers. Gaussian Integers and Sums of Squares.

Lance Fortnow

A Perfect Zero-Knowledge interactive proof system convinces a verifier that a string is in a language without revealing any additional knowledge in an information-theoretic sense. We show that for any language that has a perfect zero-knowledge proof system, its complement has a short interactive protocol. This result implies that there are not any perfect zero-knowledge protocols for NP-complete languages unless the polynomial time hierarchy collapses. This paper demonstrates that knowledge complexity can be used to show that a language is easy to prove.

Yair Oren

No abstract is available for this record.

Richard S. Bell

In its 1987 decision in Martin v. Ohio,' the United States Supreme Court again engaged in lawmaking for burdens of proof. Although the Court ratified the state's rule in this case,2 the Court has, in the past, prescribed different rules as requirements of due process.3 The Court has justified its lawmaking by asserting that the burden of proof should apportion the risks of error in a way that favors the more important interests at stake in the trial.4 If an erroneous finding of fact F would harm one set of interests more than an erroneous finding of not-F would harm the other, the burden of proof should lie with the party who alleges F, and the standard of proof for F should be high enough to reduce the risk of an erroneous finding proportionately. This idea is founded in Bayesian decision theory,5 in which it is formalized as a rule for choice in conditions of uncertainty. It is a cornerstone of the Court's

Uriel Feige, Amos Fiat, Adi Shamir

No abstract is available for this record.

Gleason Sc, Sullivan Pc

Establishing a system of family practice clinics with physicians from its medical staff enabled Mercy Hospital Medical Center, Des Moines, IA, not only to meet consumers' changing needs and wants but also to develop a long-term strategy for survival. The joint venture, which has grown to 9 clinics and 30 physicians since its inception in 1983, does not restrict the hospital from entering into similar relationships with other physician groups. Neither does it restrict physicians from entering new arrangements or using other hospitals. Each clinic operates quasi-autonomously in serving its own patients, and issues such as hiring, firing, hours of operation, and local public relations are handled in a decentralized manner. Other matters--insurance coverage, marketing programs, accounting and data processing systems--are standardized throughout the organization. Challenges involved in undertaking such a project include overcoming resistance from employees, building public awareness of the project, and creating an open, trusting relationship between physicians and administrators. It is particularly important to foster the support of physicians "outside" the partnership and to include those who remain in private practice in marketing efforts.

David Peleg, Eli Upfal

A solution to the following fundamental communication problem is presented. Suppose that n tokens are arbitrarily distributed among n processors with no processor having more than K tokens. The problem is to specify a bounded-degree network topology and an algorithm that can distribute the tokens uniformly among the processors. The first result is a tight $\Theta (K + \log n)$ bound on the complexity of this problem. It is also shown that an approximate version of this problem can be solved deterministically in $O(K + \log n)$ on any expander graph with sufficiently large expansion factor. In the second part of this work, it is shown how to extend the solution for the approximate distribution problem to an optimal probabilistic algorithm for the exact distribution problem on a similar class of expander graphs. Note that communication through an expander graph is a necessary condition for an $O(K + \log n)$ solution of the problem. These results have direct applications to the efficient implementation of many-to-one and one-to-many communication requests, as well as to the solution of load-balancing problems in distributed systems.

Gilles Brassard, Claude Crépeau

A perfect zero-knowledge interactive proof is a protocol by which Alice can convince Bob of the truth of some theorem in a way that yields no information as to how the proof might proceed (in the sense of Shannon's information theory). We give a general technique for achieving this goal for any problem in NP (and beyond). The fact that our protocol is perfect zero-knowledge does not depend on unproved cryptographic assumptions. Furthermore, our protocol is powerful enough to allow Alice to convince Bob of theorems for which she does not even have a proof. Whenever Alice can convince herself probabilistically of a theorem, perhaps thanks to her knowledge of some trap-door information, she can convince Bob as well without compromising the trap-door in any way. This results in a non-transitive transfer of confidence from Alice to Bob, because Bob will not be able to subsequently convince someone else that the theorem is true. Our protocol is dual to those of [GMW1, BC].

Oded Goldreich, Silvio Micali, Avi Wigderson

In this paper we demonstrate the generality and wide applicability of zero-knowledge proofs, a notion introduced by Goldwasser, Micali and Rackoff. These are probabilistic and interactive proofs that, for the members x of a language L, efficiently demonstrate membership in the language without conveying any additional knowledge. So far, zero-knowledge proofs were known only for some number theoretic languages in NP ∩ Co-NP.

Richard B. Miller

RECENT STUDIES Christian ethics have uncovered a of convergence between pacifist convictions and just-war tenets. Although it is easy to assume that just-war ideas and pacifism are wholly incompatible approaches to the morality of warfare, James Childress argues that pacifists and just-war theorists actually share a common starting point: a presumption against the use of force. Childress uses W. D. Ross's language of prima-facie duties to show how pacifism and just-war thought converge. The duty not to kill or injure others (nonmaleficence) is a duty within each approach. For the pacifist, nonmaleficence is an absolute duty admitting of no exceptions. For just-war theorists, nonmaleficence is a prima-facie duty, that is, a duty that is usually binding but may be overridden exceptional circumstances— particularly when innocent life and human rights are at stake. Primafacie duties are not absolute, but place the burden of proof on those who wish to override them when they conflict with other duties, in virtue of the totality of... ethically relevant circumstances. War poses just those exceptional circumstances which the duty of nonmaleficence may be overridden. In this way Childress both highlights the point of contact between pacifism and just-war tenets and reconstructs the essential logic of the jus ad bellum. To override a prima-facie duty, however, is not to abandon it. Such duties continue to function the situation or the subsequent course of action. That is, a prima-facie duty leaves residual effects or moral traces; after overriding such a duty, our conduct must be affected by it. In the context of war, this means that the duty of nonmaleficence exerts a pressure upon the conditions and methods of war. War must be a last resort, pursued for the ends of peace, declared by a competent authority, carried out by limited means, etc. In other words, Childress reconstructs the logic of the jus bello without departing from his

M F Mitchell, P C Curtayne, J L Botha

The paper investigates the structure and development of planning procedures suitable for matching the needs of the road infrastructure, in relation to other transport facility requirements, with available resources. A hierarchial framework involving all parties involved in financing and providing transport facilities in which planning procedures should be developed is suggested. This involves the investigation of alternative national options through the collation and interpretation of needs derived from decentralized road management systems and from information concerning other modes of transport.

Annabel Beerel

No abstract is available for this record.

Donald J. Calista

This article argues that (1) the clarity of a policy intention depends upon the appropriateness of the organizational form to implement it, and (2) the assumptions held by policymakers regarding organization form, in practice, often lead to offsetting or contradictory implementations. The study examines a major recent policy reorganization-Florida's transformation of eight autonomous human services agencies into a single department. Its avowed purposes were to integrate and decentralize services. Elmore's (1978) fourfold model is employed to assess those intentions. The findings indicated that implementation became troubled as policymakers adopted inappropriate organizational assumptions to support their intentions. The conclusions suggest that implementation had to accommodate opposing dimensions of organizational strategy and managerial structure.

George Jee-Peng Tan Jimenez Psacharopoulos

Although education in Latin America is a highly profitable investment, the present financial puts constraints on the amount of resources available for investment in the sector. Also, resources already devoted to education may not be used as efficiently as they could, and they may be inequitably distributed among different groups in the population. This paper presents a number of facts and issues related to the financing of education in Latin America and discusses some possible solutions. It is argued that cost-recovery in higher education, combined with the increased availability of educational credit and decentralization through private schools, may be the best policy package for addressing many crisis issues in education. Such a package would lead to a higher level of efficiency, in the sense that existing resources devoted to education will be better utilized. It will also attract more resources to a sector in which investments exhibit a high social profitability. Beyond the efficiency effect, charging for higher education would paradoxically be socially more equitable relative to the present situation of indiscriminate subsidies. THE FINANCING OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA: ISSUES AND LINES OF ACTION As in other parts of the world, education in Latin America is a highly profitable investment. However, the present financial puts constraints on the amount of resources available for investment in the sector. Also, resources already devoted to education may not be used as efficiently as they could, and they may be inequitably distributed among different groups in the population. The purpose of this paper is, first, to present a number of facts and issues related to the financing of education in Latin America and, second, to discuss some possible solutions. While the focus of the paper is higher education in Latin America, other levels of education and world regions are incorporated in the analysis for comparative purposes. 1j I. Some General Trends As shown in Table 1, the social returns to investment in education in Latin America are substantial and, as in other parts of the / One caveat is in order at the outset. The paper heavily relies on a set of statistics that although are the relatively best and the only available, they leave much to be desired in terms of comprehensiveness and comparability across countries. For example, the 1985 Unesco Statistical Yearbook cites a 120 percent gross primary enrollment ratio for Colombia, although observers suggest that only one third of a given age group actually complete the primary cycle. world they are highest at the primary level. Nevertheless, university education exhibits a 16 percent rate of return which is well above any criterion discount rate (say, 10 percent). This means that expansion of any level of education in the region would be a good social investment. (Appendix Table A-1 gives estimates of the returns to education in individual Latin American countries). Table 1: The Returns to Investment in Education by Country Type and Level (Percent) Region Social Private Primary Secondary Higher Primary Secondary Higher Latin America 26 18 16 32 23 23 Developing countries 24 15 13 31 19 22 Developed countries 11 9 12 12 Source: Psacharopoulos (1985), Table 1. Note: Private returns take into account only the cost of education to the individual. In contrast, social returns are based on the full cost of education to society, so they are comparatively lower. Data were not available because no control group of illiterates was available. These magnitudes are likely to be under-estimates of the true social rates since they do not reflect non-market effects, which are expected to be substantial. Society as a whole gains from having a literate and numerate population, and there are indirect benefits, affecting health and fertility, which are not easily measured in monetary terms (but see Haveman and Wolfe, 1984).

Tarsicio Castañeda

The purpose of this paper is to document recent reforms in the administration and financing of education in Chile and to describe how they have been implemented. In primary and secondary education, the reforms consisted of decentralizing public schools by transferring them to municipalities and by encouraging the private sector to operate subsidized tuition-free schools. In higher education, the reforms consisted of allowing the private sector to create higher education institutions, raising tuition fees in public and private subsidized universities, introduction of student loans to needy students and a per-student payment for transferring public funds to universities. Although it is too early to say whether or not the reforms have succeeded, the paper makes several conclusions. Firstly, these well conceived and planned reforms have faced several implementation problems. Secondly, although the per-student payment system has worked well in primary and secondary schools, it has not done so well at the university level. Lastly, the private sector has responded rapidly to subsidized tuition-free schools and higher education institutions; tuition in public and private subsidized universities has increased; and student loans now constitute a large part of university financing.

J.A.A. Sillince

Key Settlement Policy divides rural settlements into two types?those in which expansion is allowed and those in which it is not. Although suitability for residential expansion is not completely synonymous with suitability for infrastructure investment (nor vice versa) the designation of Key Settlement or non-Key Settlement status does not have a significant impact on infrastructure and service provision. In the light of central and local public expenditure economies and of the 1985 Transport Act, therefore, key Settlement Policy takes on a renewed political importance. In 1982 the Warwickshire policy was changed, involving some changes in designation, and also a beginning of decentralization of designation decisions away from the county to the constituent districts. The change was justified by the argument that the policy had previously been ineffective. However, analysis of the 17 key settlements and 17 control non-key settlements from 1966 to 1981, with respect to population change, refusal rates, Planning Inspectors' decision letters, and appeal decisions, shows that the policy was effective. It is argued that the reason for the policy change in 1982 stems from central government and County Council political objectives, and that decentralization of designation powers to districts constitutes a loss of accountability for rural policy in Warwickshire. PRESENT GOVERNMENT POLICIES toward rural areas emphasize efficiency, rationalization, and cost-cutting of rural services. Many village schools are closing as school rolls fall nationally, and as local authorities search for economies. The national bill for subsidizing the bus companies is threatening to reach ?1 billion annually, and legislation now before Parliament seeks radically to reduce this vast sum by means of privatization, a measure which will cut unprofitable bus routes considerably, mainly in rural areas. Also, as the Post Office looks for greater efficiency, an acceleration of closures of rural post offices may occur. It is in this context that we investigate Warwickshire County Council's rural settlement policy. Rural settlement policies, because of the trend towards cutbacks in services, are increasingly coming to the forefront of politics in rural areas. Such policies are, and will increasingly become, the main instrument for deciding which settlements should suffer from loss of rural services, since they indicate settlement hierarchies, and therefore serve as a means of discriminating between those settlements which should be favoured ('key settlements') and those which should suffer from cutbacks. Although many of the threatened services are being privatized and thus are moving ostensibly out of the local political arena, any decision on specific cutbacks in specific areas will necessarily implicate local government. Local politicians will be unable to avoid the political storms and subsequent unpopularity thus created. The government has repeatedly made clear that any loss of services resulting from privatization should occur only after consultation with the relevant local authority. Other services, such as education and social services, obviously implicate local politicians more directly, in their continuing search for economies. Moreover, changes in government thinking on the financing of local government continually emphasize the need to make local politicians more accountable for the costs of local services to the local voters. The present Conservative Government has, since 1979, carried an election pledge to implement this change?by reforming the rating system. Furthermore, suggestions currently being considered emphasize a