Academic literature on the topic 'Production functions (Economic theory)'

В статье рассматривается эволюция взглядов видных представителей экономической науки разных поколений на роль, место и функции предпринимателя в процессе производства. Статья охватывает значительный временной период - с конца XVIII в. до середины XX в. Отправная точка проблемы это - «экономический человек», явленный А. Смитом как воплощение неуклонной силы рыночной экономики, двигающий экономику вперед и общество к процветанию. Однако признание в экономической науке тезис А. Смита получил далеко не сразу, выдержав серьезную конкуренцию альтернативных воззрений на проблему. И только в конце XX в., благодаря вкладу виднейших представителей экономической науки, великая догадка А. Смита заняла свое достойное место в экономических трактатах. We consider the evolution of the views of prominent economics researchers of different generations on the role, place and functions of an entrepreneur in the production process. The article covers a significant time period - from the end of the XVIII century to the middle of the XX century. The starting point of the problem is the "economic man" introduced by A. Smith as the embodiment of the steady power of the market economy, driving economic and social prosperity. However, A. Smith's thesis did not get immediate recognition in economics facing serious competition from alternative views of the problem. Only at the end of the XX century, due to the contribution of the most outstanding representatives of the economic science, A. Smith's great guess took its rightful place in economic treatises.

Subject. This article discusses the issues related to the safety of a business entity's activities. Objectives. The article aims to determine the position of the security service of a company in its business processes and the specifics of its implementation in the Russian business environment. Methods. For the study, we used a systems approach and comparison. Results. The article says that in the conditions of steady-increasing complexity of production processes, the security service functionality should be expanded not through an increase in the number of its employees only, but through involving specialists of the company's business units to perform certain functions that ensure the company's safety, as well. Conclusions. All employees of the company should be concerned about and deal with the issues of economic security in terms of their professional activities and the work they perform. They also should be able to act in crisis situations.

In the paper, we investigate two-criterion optimization problem: maximization of one target function and minimization of another target function. To solve the offered two-criterion problem, the method of the main criterion is applied. We consider the problem of production activity of the ecological-economic system with the maximization of the value of the final product as the first target function and the minimization of emissions of polluters into the environment as the second target function. We constructed of two production functions (economic and ecological). To construct the economic production function, we select maximal producing of the final products in a costing form as the most essential (main) criterion. Also, there is introduced the appropriate data of the criterion level total volume of emissions of polluters into the environment. After this two-criteria problem is reduced to one-criteria problem. For the construction of ecological production function, the main criterion in the problem of the minimal general volume of emissions of polluters into the environment is defined. We use a parameter of the criterion level of the second criterion and obtained one-criterion problem. Therefore, investigation of the appropriate dual problems explicitly provides economic and ecological production functions to the deduced one-criterion problems. These functions in input two-criterion problem give way to optimal manage of ecological-economic system.

Static neoclassical theory of a firm and its dynamization by dynamic optimization assume profit functions inconsistent with each other. As a solution to this, we present a dynamic theory of a firm which is consistent with the static neoclassical theory. We define the 'economic forces' which act upon the production of the firm and show that the adjustment of production in a profit-seeking way may be stable or unstable. Explosive unstable production dynamics may occur due to 'economies of scale' or due to the development of wealth or technology; in stable cases the adjustment leads to the profit maximizing situation. Our model provides a micro basis for the modeling of economic growth at macro-level.

This paper studies a key model in economic theory—the two-sector growth model—with an alternative utility function. We show that the system has a unique stable equilibrium when the production functions take on the Cobb-Douglas form. We also simulate the model and demonstrate effects of changes in some parameters.

The von Thünen model of agricultural land use is reformulated in this paper as an investment decision in which the objectives of farmers range from total risk-aversion to profit-maximization. By means of a variant of the mean-variance model of contemporary portfolio theory, it is demonstrated that individual bid-rent functions depend on the nature of a farmer's utility function. Because farmers' objectives affect their bid-rent functions, the spatial pattern of agricultural production is also affected. The conventional result of the von Thünen model is shown to be a special case of the more general portfolio model.

AbstractUnder some circumstances, the studies on economic growth theory can be translated into the researches on production function which will beneficial for the government to analyze the pattern of economic growth and then make reasonable policies. The commonly used production functions include C-D production function, CES production function, VES production function with different elasticity of substitution. This paper will put forward to a new class of production function which elasticity of substitutionσis a non-linear function ofK/L. With this new model, a calculation formula for accurately measure the influence rates of various factors to economic growth will be derived, which is significant for in-depth studies on functions and scientific measurement. The empirical analysis on the influence rates of China’s economic growth factors and its good results will be presented in the end of this paper.

Abstract Two traditional economic efficiency criteria, minimization of cost plus net value change versus profit maximization, are compared in terms of the insights provided into fire management decisions. The historic rationale for favoring minimization over maximization is examined and questioned. Advantages of formulating the problem in terms of profit maximization include explicit attention to production relations obscured by previous graphical representations of the minimization criterion. The maximization formulation also facilitates more explicit treatment of revenue and objective functions. For illustration, we show the correspondence between fire management decisions and the firm with two inputs (presuppression, suppression) and two outputs (reductions in fire intensity and area burned). For. Sci. 36(3):614-624.

The published article proposes new economic and mathematical models of the dynamics of development of multifactorial enterprises, the restoration of production resources of which is ensured by the capitalization of profits. The features of these models are that to calculate the profit of enterprises, multiplicative production functions with variable resource elasticities, functions describing proportional, progressive and digressive volumes of production costs, and functions describing proportional, progressive and digressive volumes of depreciation deductions are used. To predict the volume of production costs and the volume of depreciation deductions, systems of differential equations are established. It is shown that the effectiveness of the dynamics of the development of enterprises depends on the choice of values of capitalization coefficients. An unsuccessful choice of these coefficients does not allow the company to ensure its maximum profit. A system of equations has been obtained for calculating effective capitalization ratios, using which the enterprise is guaranteed to enter the operating mode with maximum profit. Variants of enterprise development dynamics for proportional, progressive and digressive costs and proportional, progressive and digressive depreciation charges are considered. Various modes of operation of enterprises are shown, which include stable output by enterprises, temporary suspension of work of enterprises during its technical re-equipment, and temporary partial curtailment of production.

In this paper, we extend the work by Sato devoted to the development of economic growth models within the framework of the Lie group theory. We propose a new growth model based on the assumption of logistic growth in factors and derive the corresponding production functions, as well as a compatible notion of wage share. In the process, it is shown that the new functions compare reasonably well against relevant economic data. The corresponding problem of maximisation of profit under conditions of perfect competition is solved with the aid of one of these functions. In addition, it is explained in reasonably rigorous mathematical terms why Bowley’s law no longer holds true in the post-1960 data.

Despite the expansion of the literature on the implications that different inputs have on the educational outcomes of students, empirical research has so far lacked the full capacity to provide unequivocal findings. Essentially, this deficiency is mainly attributed to two main factors; the lack of reliable data and the lack of full dimensionality in the theoretical model adopted to explain such data (Levaččićć and Vignoles, 2002; Knoeppel, Verstegen, and Rinehart, 2007). This dissertation aims to fill those gaps by first building a unique large dataset that covers all aspects of the educational process and second by adopting an integrated theoretical model and advanced quantitative methodological approaches to analyze it. With the fulfillment of such aim the dissertation manages to fill some of the gaps identified in the Education Economics literature related to the relationships between the cognitive and affective educational outcomes of English adolescents on one hand and three main inputs representing each of the three indentified factors in the theoretical model on the other hand controlling for other possible heterogeneities. Specifically, the thesis examines the effect of school process inputs in Chapter 2, family structure as a key family background input in Chapter 3 and finally religion and religiosity as a key adolescent’s personal input in Chapter 4.

Nonparametric linear programming tests for consistency with the hypotheses of technical efficiency and allocative efficiency for the general case of multiple output-multiple input technologies are developed in Part I. The tests are formulated relative to three kinds of technologies — convex, constant returns to scale and quasiconcave technologies. Violation indices as summary indicators of the distance of an inefficient observation from an efficient allocation are proposed. The consistent development of the violation indices across the technical efficiency and allocative efficiency tests allows us to obtain comparative measures of the degrees of technical inefficiency and pure allocative inefficiency. Constrained optimization tests applicable to cases where the producer is restricted to optimizing with respect to a subset of goods are also proposed. The latter tests yield the revealed preference-type inequalities commonly used as tests for consistency of observed data with profit maximizing or cost minimizing behavior as limiting cases. Computer programs for implementing the different tests and sample results are listed in the appendix. In part II, an empirical comparison of nonparametric and parametric measures of technical progress for constant returns to scale technologies is performed using the Canadian input-output data for the period 1961-1980. The original data base was aggregated into four sectors and ten goods and the comparison was done for each sector. If we assume optimizing behavior on the part of the producers, we can reinterpret the violation indices yielded by the efficiency tests in part I as indicators of the shift in the production frontier. More precisely, the violation indices can be considered nonparametric chained indices of technical progress. The parametric measures of technical progress were obtained through econometric profit function estimation using the generalized McFadden flexible functional form with a quadratic spline model for technical progress proposed by Diewert and Wales (1989). Under the assumption of constant returns, the index of technical change is defined in terms of the unit scale profit function which gives the per unit return to the normalizing good. The empirical results show that the parametric estimates of technical change display a much smoother behavior which can be attributed to the incorporation of stochastic disturbance terms in the estimation procedure and, more interestingly, track the long term trend in the nonparametric estimates. Part III builds on the theory of minimum wages in international trade and is a theoretical essay in the tradition of analyzing the effects of factor market imperfections on resource allocation. The comparative static responses of the endogenous variables — output levels, employment levels of fixed-price factors with elastic supply and flexible prices of domestic resources — to marginal changes in the economy's exogenous variables — output prices, fixed factor prices and endowments of flexibly-priced domestic resources -— are examined. The effect of a change in a fixed factor price on other flexible factor prices can be decomposed Slutsky-like into substitution and scale effects. A symmetry condition between fixed factor prices and flexible factor prices is obtained which clarifies the concepts of "substitutability" and "complementarity" between these two kinds of factors. As an illustration, the model is applied to the case of a devaluation in a two-sector small open economy with rigid wages and capital as specific factors. The empirical implementation of the general model for the Canadian economy is left to more able econometricians but a starting point can be the sectoral analysis performed in Part II.
Arts, Faculty of
Vancouver School of Economics
Graduate

This dissertation presents a theoretical framework to analyze and evaluate aggregation biases. These biases measure the information lost when macro relations evaluated in terms of aggregates do not capture all of the distributional properties of micro relations. The framework is developed in the context of producer theory, but it may be used to determine the biasedness of any representative agent model and to study general relationships between exact-aggregation macro parameters and their microfoundations. The model is based on a stochastic interpretation of the production characteristics which encompasses that of previous stochastic aggregation models (Houthakker, 1955; Hildenbrand, 1981; Stoker, 1984; Lewbel, 1986a). It admits the construction of "true" aggregate relations which can be compared to pre-specifed macro relations. Many of Theil's (1954, 1971) statistical results concerning the relations between micro and macro parameters then can be formalized at the population level and generalized to non-linear functions. A moments decomposition of the "true" aggregate relation makes it possible to identify the sources and causes of potential aggregation biases. Thus, the functional-form restrictions of exact-aggregation models (Gorman, 1968a; Blackorby and Schworm, 1984, 1988) are found to be neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for consistent aggregation, if the aggregates are taken to be the usual totals or averages. Traditionally, similarity among firms, either as a maintained hypothesis or as the long-run outcome of perfect competition, has proved to ensure exact aggregation. Here, economic diversification may also provide an alternative set of circumstances under which the aggregation biases may be minimized. In the case of an average-representative firm, the output aggregation bias is explicitly derived. Empirical analyses confirm that the magnitude of the bias increases as higher moment terms in the production characteristics increase in importance. Conditions under which exact-aggregation macro parameters possess stable microdefinitions are obtained; they explain Fisher's (1971) simulation results. Empirical results show that such macro parameters are relatively stable (within the estimated confidence intervals) when based on periods of relative economic stability. Finally, theoretical implications for macroeconometric modeling and policy evaluation are explored.
Arts, Faculty of
Vancouver School of Economics
Graduate

This thesis estimates the production, cost, and profit functions for North Dakota agriculture using state-level input-output quantity and price data for the period 1960-2004. A Cobb-Douglas functional form with Hick-neutral technology change is used to measure the contribution of capital, land, labor, materials, energy, and chemical inputs quantities and output quantity using the primal production function; contribution of capital quantity, land quantity, output quantity, labor price, materials price, energy price, and chemical price to cost using the dual restricted cost function; and the contribution of capital quantity, land quantity, labor price, materials price, energy price, chemical price, output price to profit using the dual restricted profit function. In contrast to previous studies, quantile regression is used to explore the linear or nonlinear relationship between the independent and dependent variable by estimating parameter coefficients at each quantile using time-series data. Empirical findings suggest the cost function is the best model to examine the relationship between input prices, output quantity and cost using quantile regression for North Dakota agriculture, Further, the quantile regression suggests a linear and non-linear relationship between cost and certain independent variables.

Thesis (MEcon)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.
Education production function analysis is widely recognised as one important area of research that needs to inform education policymaking, specifically policy relating to the mix of funded inputs in a schooling system. Arriving at production functions is a complex task, and is fraught with methodological pitfalls. This thesis sets out to establish a framework for undertaking education production function analysis, and in discussing its various elements, including its pitfalls, recommendations for good practice are arrived at. The material analysed is of four types: texts on econometric theory; existing production function analyses; documentation relating to three dataintensive school monitoring programmes, namely Brazil’s SAEB, South Africa’s Systemic Evaluation and the international SACMEQ programme; and lastly data, relating mainly to South Africa, from the 2000 run of SACMEQ. The thesis is organised according what can be regarded as seven key analysis steps. These steps include a focus on the importance of a ‘mental model’, the relative benefits of the one-level regression model and the hierarchical linear model (HLM), and the formulation of actual production functions for South Africa based on the SACMEQ data, using both one-level and HLM models. Key conclusions are, firstly, that the HLM, though still under-developed, offers great analysis potential and, secondly, that production function analyses ought to be translated into budgetary terms in order for them to become fully meaningful to the policymaker.

Innovation incentives are imperfectly provided in market settings: When deciding on their innovation activity, firms tend to focus on the maximization of their private benefits, poorly internalizing social benefits. This thesis analyzes how policy intervention could be designed in order to align private and social incentives.

In the three papers of this thesis, I will consider three environments where firms' choices in a laissez-faire situation may be socially inefficient. The inefficiencies arise because of learning externalities, free riding when the innovation decision is made by a group of participants, or because firms are not willing to invest in a new activity that has a higher social than private value.

In the first thesis paper, I deal with the strategies of firms in innovative consumer product markets characterized by demand uncertainty. I analyze the timing and location decision of firms in that context.

In the second thesis paper, I consider the investment incentives of financial market infrastructures (FMIs). FMIs comprise the set of institutions that allow financial market participants to engage with each other. I assess the innovation incentives for different forms of ownership (user-owned versus third-party owned) and identify infrastructure service provision equilibria.

In the third thesis paper, I address the question of how a government should allocate a subsidy budget over time in order to maximize the innovation activity in an industry.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Submitted by Raphael Martello (raphaelmartello@gmail.com) on 2013-09-11T13:35:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Política Monetária e Produto Potencial no Brasil - Raphael Martello.pdf: 965868 bytes, checksum: 8e55cf82c04520b3dc9b7f016ac7a005 (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2013-09-11T13:40:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Política Monetária e Produto Potencial no Brasil - Raphael Martello.pdf: 965868 bytes, checksum: 8e55cf82c04520b3dc9b7f016ac7a005 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-11T13:50:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Política Monetária e Produto Potencial no Brasil - Raphael Martello.pdf: 965868 bytes, checksum: 8e55cf82c04520b3dc9b7f016ac7a005 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-19
This work aims to analyze an alternative method for estimating the potential GDP in Brazil using a model with two sectors. This paper replicates a work by Basu & Fernald (2009) for the U.S. economy. Despite some strong assumptions, the results show gains in forecasting potential output in the long run by using a model with two sectors, investment and consumption. For the short term neither model replicate the data of the Brazilian economy.
Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar um método alternativo de estimação do PIB potencial brasileiro através do uso de um modelo com dois setores em trabalho feito por Basu & Fernald (2009) para a economia americana. Apesar de alguns pressupostos fortes, os resultados apontam para ganhos de previsão do produto potencial no longo prazo ao se utilizar um modelo com 2 setores, um de investimento e outro de consumo. Para o curto prazo nem o modelo com 2 setores nem com 1 setor parece replicar os dados da economia brasileira.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dept. of Economics. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2007.
"A dissertation in economics and social science consortium." Advisor: Frederic S. Lee. Typescript. Vita. Title from "catalog record" of the print edition Description based on contents viewed Dec. 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 216-240). Online version of the print edition.

AbstractThis chapter proposes a reformulation and rebalancing of the standard liberal economic growth and development model by integrating key institutional dimensions of the social contract into the heart of macroeconomic theory. Specifically, it defines an extensive ecosystem of policy and institutional features that have an important bearing on the rate and breadth of progress in household living standards, categorizing them in five principal policy domains. These are represented as an economy’s “factors of distribution” and modelled as a system—an aggregate distribution function analogous to the aggregate production function. This model of the main channels by which rising living standards propagate in an economy is accompanied by a map of related domains of enabling policy and institutional strength. This policy and institutional ecosystem is the practical manifestation of a country’s social contract—how it translates its values with respect to inclusion, sustainability and resilience into the rules of the game within its economy. The aggregate distribution function is the de facto income distribution system or “living standards diffusion mechanism” of modern market economies. It is the combination and indeed interaction of the aggregate distribution and production functions of an economy that determine its progress in median household living standards. Macroeconomic theory and policy should be refocused on the goal of increasing the aggregate social welfare, or living standards, of nations rather than solely their GDP, or wealth, by placing equal and parallel emphasis on strengthening the aggregate production and distribution functions of economies. This is the golden rule of human-centred economics.

AbstractIndustrial value creation today is characterised in many sectors by globally distributed processes for product manufacturing based on the division of labour in order to achieve advantages through specialisation, scale and location. However, the economic advantages of this form of value creation are being increasingly diminished by the current ecological and social challenges. Local manufacturing has the potential to be a piece of the puzzle in the complex transformation process towards a sustainable circular economy. However, suitable framework conditions are needed for the successful implementation of economically, ecologically and socially sustainable forms of local value creation. To be able to develop these in a targeted manner, knowledge regarding the areas influenceable by societal functional systems (e.g. politics, economy, production) and how they may affect the design dimensions of local manufacturing is necessary. A systems theory-based analysis is used to consider the influence of the operations of societal subsystems on local manufacturing, to identify decision spaces and to evaluate overarching couplings between the societal system operations.

AbstractCircular Economy is an emerging production-consumption paradigm showing the potential to recover and re-use functions and materials from post-use, end-of-life, products. Even if several barriers still exist at different levels, from legislation to customer acceptance, the transition to this sustainable industrial model has been demonstrated to potentially bring economic, environmental, and social benefits, at large scale. Composite materials, which usage is constantly increasing, are composed by a fiber reinforcement in a resin matrix. Among them, the most widely adopted are Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastics (GFRP) and Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP). Their applications range from wind blades to automotive, construction, sporting equipment and furniture. The post-use treatment of composite-made products is still an open challenge. Today, they are either sent to landfill, where not banned, or incinerated. The application of Circular Economy principles may lead to the creation of new circular value-chains aiming at re-using functions and materials from post-use composite-made products in high value-added applications, thus increasing the sustainability of the composite industry as a whole.

The article considers various options for determining the significance of the foreign economic activity of an enterprise, including the implementation of the main functions or development strategies of an enterprise, depending on the motives of foreign economic activity. Six levels of manifestation of the effect of the foreign economic activity of a single enterprise are identified: the level of the enterprise, regional, sectoral, national, supranational levels, the level of the world economy. Briefly characterized are the areas of manifestation of the effect of the foreign economic activity of the enterprise, such as budget, production, investment, social, other. The nature of the manifestation of the effect (direct, indirect) and its orientation (positive, negative) are indicated.

Evolution of agrarian systems in countries with fragmented agricultural area structure leads to a decrease in the number of farms and an increase in the area and effectiveness of entities developing their activity. It is necessary to find out the causes of disagrarization - a process that is manifested at the macroeconomic level in reduced significance of agriculture in the national economy, among other things, and reduced importance of agricultural incomes in the economy of the countryside and a part of farms at the microeconomic level - in order to effectively impact ongoing changes that often affect the whole regions. The paper is an attempt to identify the factors determining the intensity of the process of the production and economic disagrarization of farms in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Calculation procedures performed using the zero unitarization method and Data Mining tools enabled assessment of the intensity of the phenomenon analysed in the different territorial units (gminas), and identification of factors that have the biggest impact on its intensity. Using the process of modelling by the C&RT method it has been found out that the characteristics that describe the agrarian structure historically, i.e. intensity of the organisation of agriculture, fragmentation of the agrarian structure, had a big impact on differentiation of gminas in terms of the intensity of disagrarization. High intensity of the organisation of agriculture combined with good environmental conditions is conducive to the retention of production functions of agriculture in a given area. With low intensity of the organisation of agriculture and very large fragmentation of the agrarian structure, the intensity of disagrarization was very often determined by characteristics typical of periurban areas or tourist attractions, i.e. increase in population density and increase in the number of residential buildings. Urban development of a given territorial unit stimulated processes of exiting agriculture.

Recently, all industrial sectors have shown significantly increasing attention in reaching the sustainability goals regarding economic, environmental, social, and also technological aspects not only at the regional level but also nationwide and even global scale. Aside from being an economically popular concept, sustainability is strictly related to effective resource use and efficient waste disposal. Thus, it functions as a complementary issue to be considered in various production activities. The sustainable production approach includes reducing or (if possible) eliminating the negative impacts on the human health and environment, reducing the waste generated, increasing the recycling rate, and developing energy and material saving processes. The printing industry is one of the most important industries in reaching sustainable production goals. The need for the printed products, which is the focus of this study, is increasing in parallel with the changing consumer expectations and technological developments. However, from the point of the printing industry view, a solid sustainability consensus is not settled among the practitioners, yet. This study aims to evaluate the sustainability of the cardboard label production considering several combinations of raw materials such as paper, ink, and surface coating additives via appropriate Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods. The most frequently used paper and ink types are considered with three alternatives for each. To indicate the sustainability scores economic, environmental, and social evaluation criteria are selected. By applying the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT), the sustainability score of each label is calculated to determine the optimum alternative in terms of the production process and also the material used. This evaluation provides detailed information to the producer and also to the consumer about the alternative production routes to use less energy and raw material, and also to decrease the environmental impacts while sustaining the economic feasibility. Besides, alternative solutions are offered to reach sustainability goals by considering the economic and environmental life cycle impacts of these materials. Hence, an increase in awareness about the printing industry and service channels is expected. Moreover, this study is also important in presenting the applicability of sustainability assessments in the printing industry.

Predictive models are used in an attempt to anticipate future transitions, mitigate losses, and maximize economic gains. In today’s market, companies look for high reliability and quality of products due to great market competition. Hence warranty data is of considerable interest to companies. Warranty shows the ability of a system or component to perform its functions within a given customer usage. Many statistical and data mining methods are available to predict the warranty data. This study focuses on analyzing the predictive efficiency of the T-method and Cobb-Douglas production function on warranty data by comparing their prediction capability. The T-method, developed by Genichi Taguchi, is founded upon the fundamentals of the Taguchi System of Quality Engineering which is used to calculate an overall prediction based on signal-to-noise ratio. Using this method, the required parameters are calculated to obtain an overall estimate of the true value of the output for each signal member. The Cobb-Douglas production function is then applied on the same dataset. In economics, the Cobb-Douglas functional form of production function is widely used to represent the relationship of the output to inputs. The strength of the relationship is then assessed using the R-squared and adjusted R-squared values.

The material needs of the population are largely met by retail, and the degree of satisfaction of these needs expressed by the demand of buyers of material goods depends largely on the ability of buyers to choose and procure their favorite goods. This possibility depends on the degree of diversity and the structure of the supply of goods in the retail network, which must correspond to the structure of consumer needs and the solvent demand of buyers. This correspondence can only be achieved by ensuring the management of the commercial assortment of goods. Like any other, the management of the commercial assortment of goods is carried out by performing a series of functions, including specific ones, the nomenclature and the content of which are not yet determined in the specialized literature. The purpose of this work is to complete the nomenclature and specify the nominations of the specific functions of the management system of the commercial assortment of consumer goods, to formulate the definitions and to elaborate the contents of the specific functions of regulation - forecasting -normation of the optimal commercial assortment of consumer goods. The research is performed using scientific methods: observation, comparative analysis, co relational analysis, analogy, induction and deduction, prediction, extrapolation, generalization, expertise, didactic and practical experience, etc., orienting us to the standards regarding the management of the quality of the production in the spheres of production and circulation and to the specialized literature. In the work we present the specified or premiere nominations and the extended version of the nomenclature of the specific functions of the management of the commercial assortment of consumer goods in the retail trade network. For the first time, we present the definitions, contents (purposes, tasks and elements) and areas of application of the specific functions of regulation - forecasting - normation of the optimal commercial assortment of consumer goods of the management of the commercial assortment of consumer goods.

Human resources are carriers of the working force and reflect di­rectly the invested “live” labor in the activity of economic entities. The sub­ject of analysis in the present study are the economic categories «labor» and «workforce», including their meaning, characteristics, and specifics of their functions. Labor is a specific production factor and as such it is inherent in man as an indivisible part of him. Like a specific human activity, labor fulfills two main functions, namely economic and social. Another issue put under discussion is the state of the labor market and the dynamics of the employed workforce in the economy of the Republic of Bulgaria within the period 2018 – March 2023. The analysis focuses on the changes in the growth of employ­ment and the coefficient of economic activity of the population of the Repub­lic of Bulgaria, the structure of the workforce by age groups regarding the na­tional economy, its geographic distribution within the country, etc. At the end, conclusions and recommendations are summarized.

The article examines the relationship between structural shifts and the development of the national economy. Structural shifts in the national economy are one of the main factors of the state and dynamics of the country's economic system. They have a positive or negative impact and determine the effectiveness of its functioning. In this regard, the study of the relationship between structural shifts and the development of the economic system seems relevant both in theory and in practice. The purpose of the study is to use an econometric model based on the production function of variable elasticity. This is due to the fact that the model under consideration can be applied in the study of transitional processes in the main sectors of the economy of the Kyrgyz Republic. The main reasons for the transition processes are the impact on the economy of various factors leading to structural changes. The recommendations made will be quantitative rather than qualitative, i.e. they will indicate to what extent and in what proportions labor and investments should be invested in the development of a particular branch of the economy, i.e. at the macro level (industry level), and not at the micro level of the enterprise. a specific enterprise that is designed for a specific set of labor and investment resources.

Forests and forestry are the ecological and economic infrastruc­ture of every state. The EU strategy for the forest-based sector is particularly related to rural development, since, in such areas, forests are mostly spread, thus representing an opportunity for more balanced development, or in oth­er words - survival of rural areas. Croatia is no exemption. The goal of forest management in the Republic of Croatia is the sustainable and harmonious use of all forest functions and the permanent improvement of their condition, by promoting environmentally sustainable production practices in such a way that the local or rural environment has financial benefits. Looking at forests as perfect factories, ranging from the production of wood pulp as raw materials, oxygen and food, water purifiers, carbon tanks and all the way to the intan­gible and generally useful functions of forests, it is necessary to observe their all-encompassing importance. We are facing global climate change, which significantly influences the restoration and erection of new forest stands, that is one of the most important procedures for sustainable forest management in Croatia. Current techniques and knowledge that are being applied contribute to discouraging results, therefore it is crucial to introduce and promote new environmentally friendly practices, aiming to increase the productive function of forest land and forest as an ecosystem. In accordance with the sustaina­ble development of forest land, research was conducted in the lowland part of Sisak-Moslavina County in Croatia. The aim of the research is to study the cost-effectiveness and compare the adaptation of new methods and practices of reforestation, with the end result of the forested area as a production unit, and that was conducted working on two land sections. On the surface of the first section, which was previously chemically prepared, a classic renovation was performed by sowing acorns employing a spreader. The acorn was collect­ed by the local population. Processing of the second section included planting seedlings, while the section was previously mechanically prepared by grinding biomass and an integral method of soil preparation in rows with a spacing of 3 m. The internal planting distance between the plants was 0.80 - 1.0 m, and work was carried out with the help of external contractors, the local popula­tion. The use of new environmentally sustainable technologies has resulted in 29% higher financial costs of forestation. However, using new practices com­pared to the classical ones, the financial viability in terms of economic profit of the rural area was determined. The application of new silvicultural practices is initially more expensive, but results in a shorter period of time to achieve tar­geted results, while the increase in costs refers to the involvement of the local community that participated in the works.

Abstract. The objective assessment of rural multi-functionality is the key to formulating rural development strategies. This paper constructs a rural multi-functional evaluation index system to evaluate the multi-functional values of production, life and ecology of 101 towns in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province. Based on survey data, multi-source spatial data and statistical data, draw a radar map of the multi-functional development model of the town. The results show that: (1) There are significant differences in the multi-functional development of 101 towns in Liaocheng. According to the average value, the order is ecological function (0.3755)>life function (0.2418)>production function (0.1556). Rural areas generally lag behind in terms of production function. (2) Ecological high-value areas are relatively evenly distributed in all districts and counties. High-value production areas are mainly located around Dongchangfu District. High-value areas for living functions are mainly located around the central urban areas of Dong'e County, Chiping District and Dongchangfu District. (3) It can be divided into three types: balanced, compound and dominant. Among the subdivision models, there is still no high-equilibrium model with a higher degree of development. Low-equilibrium and traditional townships account for 52% of the total evaluation objects. According to the evaluation and classification results, the article analyzes the influence of central city radiation effect, economic foundation, cultural atmosphere, etc. on rural multi-functionality. Combining the practice of agricultural land reform and rural asset activation, the article discusses the multi-functional development path of different types of rural development, which provides scientific advice for promoting rural transformation and development and promoting rural revitalization.

While production and markets have been becoming more integrated since barriers to the international trade reduced, capital movements and the speed of spreading of technology increased with the progress of globalization, issues regarding to agriculture, environment, women, employment, and education became more critical. In this research, “by which functions and missions can agricultural cooperatives sustain their assets under globalized conditions” is the major research question. In the research, 19 cooperatives were chosen among 308 cooperatives, depending on their distance to Kastamonu, foundation year, and the amount of member. Subjects were determined by their traits and occupations. 164 subjects were interviewed via survey questions in 2014-2015. In research, “The situation-specific approach” model, developed by Hartmut Albrecht was applied. Because of the progress of change in organizational values, agriculture cooperatives have to undertake new functions in addition to maintaining agricultural production. The functions can be classified into 4 categories as socio-economic (taking local goods to international markets, recording incomes in the agriculture sector, and creating new employment positions to reduce migration to urban), international relations (developing new projects toward internationalizing to collaborate with other cooperatives), planning (making long-term strategic plans), and education (training women in rural areas, and obtaining their collaboration in cooperative campaigns, and educating future's cooperative managers).

Estimates of carbon sequestration for timber trees is well documented, while fruit trees are understudied. The few existing estimates indicate that fruit trees and fertiliser management on them, can substantially sequester carbon in coffee monocultures, albeit unlikely to the same extent as timber trees. A carbon investor may thus favour timber. In this light, as programs for planting billions and trillion trees are launched “to save the climate”, a wide range of gender, social, justice and environmental concerns are voiced. To challenge the mitigation perspective, we contrasted two hypothetical tree planting strategies: a mitigation (carbon finance) perspective and a livelihoods-centred (local) perspective and explored what a rapid, gender and social inclusion-oriented livelihoods perspective could bring to the process of tree selection. The survey documents indigenous knowledge of trees’ potential (dis)benefits in coffee agroforestry systems among 106 female and male arabica-growers in northwest Vietnam. The results display many similarities between women and men in term of perceived benefits from trees. Women and men prioritized trees based on their economic benefits, impacts on coffee production and improved soil fertility. However, in determining the preferred species, women considered more factors, including consequences for pest and disease (on host tree or coffee), microclimate regulation and shade provision. These findings resemble those by others from the same region and demonstrate that consulting both women and men can result in a more diverse shortlist of potential trees for agroforestry/afforestation that reflect both genders’ economic and labour contributions to the household. Furthermore, tree planting projects would benefit from seeking collaboration for bundled ecosystem services, rather than merely from carbon finance. Conversely, carbon investors can rely on farmers’ preferences and rest assured that they also contribute to sequestering carbon.

There is scant empirical economic research regarding the way that Latin American governments efficiently allocate their spending across different functions to achieve higher growth. While most papers restrict their analysis to the size of government, much less is known about the composition of spending and its implications for long-term growth. This paper sheds light on how allocating expenditures to investment in quality human and physical capital, and avoiding waste on inefficient expenditures, enhance growth in Latin America. This paper uses a novel dataset on physical and human capital and detailed public spending that includes -for the first time- Latin American countries, which is categorized by a cross-classification that provides the breakdown of government expenditure, both, by economic and by functional heads. The database covers 42 countries of the OECD and LAC between 1985 and 2017. There are five main results. First, the estimated growth equations show significant positive effects of the factors of production on growth and plausible convergence rates (about 2 percent). The estimated effect of the physical investment rate is positive and significant with a long-run elasticity of 1.2. Second, while the addition of years of education as a proxy for human capital tends to have no effect on growth, the addition of a new variable that measures quality-adjusted years of schooling as a proxy for human capital turns out to have a positive and significant effect across all specifications with a long-run elasticity of 1.1. However, if public spending on education (excluding infrastructure spending) is added to the factor specification, growth is not affected. This is mainly because, once quality is considered, spending more on teacher salaries has no effect on student outcomes. Therefore, the key is to increase quality, not just school performance or education spending. Third, both physical and human capital are equally important for growth: the effect of increasing one standard deviation of physical capital or human capital statistically has the same impact on economic growth. Fourth, increasing public investment spending (holding public spending constant) is positive and significant for growth (a 1% increase in public investment would increase the long-term GDP per capita by about 0.3 percent), in addition to the effect of the private investment rate. However, the effect of public spending on payroll, pensions and subsidies does not contribute to economic growth. Fifth, the overall effect of the size of public spending on economic growth is negative in most specifications. An increase in the size of government by about 1 percentage point would decrease 4.1 percent the long-run GDP per capita, but the more effective the government is, the less harmful the size of government is for long-term growth.

Central problems in sheep and dairy cattle production are reproductive failure due to embryonic/fetal mortality and low birth weights, especially in prolific breeds, and reduced milk yields which adversely affect neonatal survival and economy of production. The sheep placenta expresses lactogenic (ovine placental lactogen, oPL) and somatogenic (ovine placental growth hormone, oGH) hormones. Our research has focused on the biological roles of oPL and oGH in function of the uterine endometrium during gestation and the mammary gland during pregnancy and lactation. Major conclusions were that: ( 1 ) immunization of prepubertal ewes against oPL resulted in increased birth weights of their lambs and their milk production during lactation; (2) neither oPL nor oGH had an antiluteolytic effect on uterine endometrium to affect lifespan of the corpus luteum; (3) only sequential exposure of the progesterone stimulated uterus to oIFNt and oPL or oGH increased endometrial gland proliferation and secretory protein gene expression; (4) oPL signals through a homodimer of ovine prolactin receptor (PRL-R) and heterodimer of oPRL-R and growth hormone receptor (GH-R); (5) exogenous recombinant oPL and oGH stimulated mammogenesis and milk yield during lactation; and (6) mutation of oPL and oGH was used to define specific biological effects and a rational basis for design of a specific receptor agonists or antagonists. This project was very productive in elucidating basic biological effects of oPL and oGH on intracellular signal transduction pathways, uterine development and secretory function, as well as mammogenesis and lactogenesis. We determined that immunization of prepubertal ewes against roPL increased birth weights of their lambs, especially those born as twins and triplets, as well as enhanced lactational performance. These studies significantly extended our knowledge of uterine and fetal-placental physiology and provided a foundation for new strategies to enhance reproductive and lactation efficiency. Based on these results, the major achievements were: 1) creation of a practical and cost effective management tool for producers to increase reproductive performance, neonatal survival, and milk yield of ewes in commercial flocks; and 2) define, for the first time, biological effects of oPL on endometrial functions and gene expression by uterine gland epithelium.

The timing of dormancy induction and release is very important to the economic production of table grape. Advances in manipulation of dormancy induction and dormancy release are dependent on the establishment of a comprehensive understanding of biological mechanisms involved in bud dormancy. To gain insight into these mechanisms we initiated the research that had two main objectives: A. Analyzing the expression profiles of large subsets of genes, following controlled dormancy induction and dormancy release, and assessing the role of known metabolic pathways, known regulatory genes and novel sequences involved in these processes B. Comparing expression profiles following the perception of various artificial as well as natural signals known to induce dormancy release, and searching for gene showing similar expression patterns, as candidates for further study of pathways having potential to play a central role in dormancy release. We first created targeted EST collections from V. vinifera and V. riparia mature buds. Clones were randomly selected from cDNA libraries prepared following controlled dormancy release and controlled dormancy induction and from respective controls. The entire collection (7920 vinifera and 1194 riparia clones) was sequenced and subjected to bioinformatics analysis, including clustering, annotations and GO classifications. PCR products from the entire collection were used for printing of cDNA microarrays. Bud tissue in general, and the dormant bud in particular, are under-represented within the grape EST database. Accordingly, 59% of the our vinifera EST collection, composed of 5516 unigenes, are not included within the current Vitis TIGR collection and about 22% of these transcripts bear no resemblance to any known plant transcript, corroborating the current need for our targeted EST collection and the bud specific cDNA array. Analysis of the V. riparia sequences yielded 814 unigenes, of which 140 are unique (keilin et al., manuscript, Appendix B). Results from computational expression profiling of the vinifera collection suggest that oxidative stress, calcium signaling, intracellular vesicle trafficking and anaerobic mode of carbohydrate metabolism play a role in the regulation and execution of grape-bud dormancy release. A comprehensive analysis confirmed the induction of transcription from several calcium–signaling related genes following HC treatment, and detected an inhibiting effect of calcium channel blocker and calcium chelator on HC-induced and chilling-induced bud break. It also detected the existence of HC-induced and calcium dependent protein phosphorylation activity. These data suggest, for the first time, that calcium signaling is involved in the mechanism of dormancy release (Pang et al., in preparation). We compared the effects of heat shock (HS) to those detected in buds following HC application and found that HS lead to earlier and higher bud break. We also demonstrated similar temporary reduction in catalase expression and temporary induction of ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, thioredoxin and glutathione S transferase expression following both treatments. These findings further support the assumption that temporary oxidative stress is part of the mechanism leading to bud break. The temporary induction of sucrose syntase, pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase indicate that temporary respiratory stress is developed and suggest that mitochondrial function may be of central importance for that mechanism. These finding, suggesting triggering of identical mechanisms by HS and HC, justified the comparison of expression profiles of HC and HS treated buds, as a tool for the identification of pathways with a central role in dormancy release (Halaly et al., in preparation). RNA samples from buds treated with HS, HC and water were hybridized with the cDNA arrays in an interconnected loop design. Differentially expressed genes from the were selected using R-language package from Bioconductor project called LIMMA and clones showing a significant change following both HS and HC treatments, compared to control, were selected for further analysis. A total of 1541 clones show significant induction, of which 37% have no hit or unknown function and the rest represent 661 genes with identified function. Similarly, out of 1452 clones showing significant reduction, only 53% of the clones have identified function and they represent 573 genes. The 661 induced genes are involved in 445 different molecular functions. About 90% of those functions were classified to 20 categories based on careful survey of the literature. Among other things, it appears that carbohydrate metabolism and mitochondrial function may be of central importance in the mechanism of dormancy release and studies in this direction are ongoing. Analysis of the reduced function is ongoing (Appendix A). A second set of hybridizations was carried out with RNA samples from buds exposed to short photoperiod, leading to induction of bud dormancy, and long photoperiod treatment, as control. Analysis indicated that 42 genes were significant difference between LD and SD and 11 of these were unique.

Any analysis of a “National Educational System” reveals a highly complex social production system that is neither a hierarchical organization, nor a market, nor simply a misaligned system of principals and agents. It is, instead, a complex array of social actors bound together through various social structures and processes on one hand, and important functional relationships on the other. In approaching the challenge of moving that system towards sustained productivity gains, national governments naturally fall prey to the assumption that, in the principal/agent framework they are the principals of the system. But, as we have seen empirically, this idea overestimates the capacities of most central governments in developing countries (Pritchett 2013, Pritchett 2015, Moore and Spivack 2022). The world at large has learned that it is hard to centrally manage complex economies to produce economic prosperity and social equity. It is not obvious that the search for educational improvement is any less difficult. Of course, it is not wrong to imagine that the national government can become an important catalyst, motivator, and director of the system that will enhance its productivity – broadly understood. The important question, however, is how exactly it should practically do so? How can the central government develop a “strategic capacity” that can keep the widely distributed system as a whole moving towards improved performance with respect to both educational goals, and the wider economic, social, and political purposes that a polity hopes to advance through the provision of educational services. Answering that question for a broad class of national governments seeking to promoted sustained educational productivity relative to their goals is the task we will tackle in this essay (Moore and Spivack 2022).

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3

This paper considers the effects of trade unions on the education sector in Argentina and the channels of union influence on the performance of this crucial sector. The authors find that those provinces where teacher unionism is fragmented, where union density is higher and where political relations with the governor are more conflictual, have more strikes (fewer class days). Based on estimates of education production functions both in this paper and elsewhere, we expect this to translate into lower student performance. The authors then find a number of weak conclusions related to the impact that unions have on several variables that affect students' performance (i.e., teachers' tenure, job satisfaction, class size, education budget and teachers' salaries). Reviewing these results, we conclude that the impact of unions on students' performance depends on the channel and kind of political market where unions operate, but not on the existence of unions per se.

Abstract Mitochondria are the site of respiration and numerous other metabolic processes required for plant growth and development. Increased demands for metabolic energy are observed during different stages in the plants life cycle, but are particularly ample during germination and reproductive organ development. These activities are dependent upon the tight regulation of the expression and accumulation of various organellar proteins. Plant mitochondria contain their own genomes (mtDNA), which encode for rRNAs, tRNAs and some mitochondrial proteins. Although all mitochondria have probably evolved from a common alpha-proteobacterial ancestor, notable genomic reorganizations have occurred in the mtDNAs of different eukaryotic lineages. Plant mtDNAs are notably larger and more variable in size (ranging from 70~11,000 kbp in size) than the mrDNAs in higher animals (16~19 kbp). Another unique feature of plant mitochondria includes the presence of both circular and linear DNA fragments, which undergo intra- and intermolecular recombination. DNA-seq data indicate that such recombination events result with diverged mitochondrial genome configurations, even within a single plant species. One common plant phenotype that emerges as a consequence of altered mtDNA configuration is cytoplasmic male sterility CMS (i.e. reduced production of functional pollen). The maternally-inherited male sterility phenotype is highly valuable agriculturally. CMS forces the production of F1 hybrids, particularly in predominantly self-pollinating crops, resulting in enhanced crop growth and productivity through heterosis (i.e. hybrid vigor or outbreeding enhancement). CMS lines have been implemented in some cereal and vegetables, but most crops still lack a CMS system. This work focuses on the analysis of the molecular basis of CMS. We also aim to induce nuclear or organellar induced male-sterility in plants, and to develop a novel approach for fertility restoration. Our work focuses on Brassicaceae, a large family of flowering plants that includes Arabidopsis thaliana, a key model organism in plant sciences, as well as many crops of major economic importance (e.g., broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and various seeds for oil production). In spite of the genomic rearrangements in the mtDNAs of plants, the number of genes and the coding sequences are conserved among different mtDNAs in angiosperms (i.e. ~60 genes encoding different tRNAs, rRNAs, ribosomal proteins and subunits of the respiratory system). Yet, in addition to the known genes, plant mtDNAs also harbor numerous ORFs, most of which are not conserved among species and are currently of unknown function. Remarkably, and relevant to our study, CMS in plants is primarily associated with the expression of novel chimericORFs, which likely derive from recombination events within the mtDNAs. Whereas the CMS loci are localized to the mtDNAs, the factors that restore fertility (Rfs) are identified as nuclear-encoded RNA-binding proteins. Interestingly, nearly all of the Rf’s are identified as pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins, a large family of modular RNA-binding proteins that mediate several aspects of gene expression primarily in plant organelles. In this project we proposed to develop a system to test the ability of mtORFs in plants, which are closely related to known CMS factors. We will induce male fertility in various species of Brassicaceae, and test whether a down-relation in the expression of the recombinantCMS-genes restores fertility, using synthetically designed PPR proteins.

Background Most of Australian prawn aquaculture production is based on P. monodon. However, the Australian industry is under intense competition from lower priced overseas imports. The availability of all-female monosex populations, by virtue of their large size and associated premium prize, will offer competitive advantage to the industry which desperately needs to counteract competitors within this market. As for the redclaw production in Israel, although it is at its infancy, the growers realized that the production of males is extremely advantageous and that such management strategy will change the economic assumptions and performances of this aquaculture to attract many more growers. Original objectives (as in original proposal) Investigating the sex inheritance mechanism in the tiger prawn. Identification of genes expressed uniquely in the androgenic gland (AG) of prawns and crayfish. The above genes and/or their products will be used to localize the AG in the prawn and manipulate the AG activity in both species. Production of monosex populations through AG manipulation. In the prawn, production of all-female populations and in the crayfish, all-male populations. Achievements In the crayfish, the AG cDNA library was further screened and a third AG specific transcript, designated Cq-AG3, had been identified. Simultaneously the two AG specific genes, which were previously identified, were further characterized. Tissue specificity of one of those genes, termed Cq-AG2, was demonstrated by northern blot hybridization and RNA in-situ hybridization. Bioinformatics prediction, which suggested a 42 amino acid long signal anchor at the N-terminus of the deduced Cq-AG2, was confirmed by immunolocalization of a recombinant protein. Cq-IAG's functionality was demonstrated by dsRNA in-vivo injections to intersex crayfish. Cq-IAGsilencing induced dramatic sex-related alterations, including male feature feminization, reduced sperm production, extensive testicular apoptosis, induction of the vitellogeningene expression and accumulation of yolk proteins in the ovaries. In the prawn, the AG was identified and a cDNA library was created. The putative P. monodonAG hormone encoding gene (Pm-IAG) was identified, isolated and characterized for time of expression and histological localization. Implantation of the AG into prawn post larvae (PL) and juveniles resulted in phenotypic transformation which included the appearance of appendix masculina and enlarged petasma. The transformation however did not result in sex change or the creation of neo males thus the population genetics stage to be executed with Prof. Hulata did not materialized. Repeated AG implantation is currently being trialed. Major conclusions and Implications, both scientific and agricultural Cq-IAG's involvement in male sexual differentiation had been demonstrated and it is strongly suggested that this gene encodes an AG hormone in this crayfish. A thorough screening of the AG cDNA library shows Cq-IAG is the prominent transcript within the library. However, the identification of two additional transcripts hints that Cq-IAG is not the only gene mediating the AG effects. The successful gene silencing of Cq-IAG, if performed at earlier developmental stages, might accomplish full and functional sex reversal which will enable the production of all-male crayfish populations. Pm-IAG is likely to play a similar role in prawns. It is possible that repeated administration of the AG into prawn will lead to the desired full sex reversal, so that WZ neo males, crossed with WZ females can result in WW females, which will form the basis for monosex all-female population.