European Company Information Database

During its last meeting in Porto, the ECCBSO 3rd Working Group revealed the latest update on the project, reaching a new milestone in the creation of a company information database (ERICA - European Records of IFRS Consolidated Accounts).

Build in co-operation with central banks across Europe, ERICA is a database and a filing and storage solution for company balance sheets that are created with a standardised common digital reporting format based on XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) and on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

As European companies have to submit financial information (for consolidated amounts) based on the same accounting standards (IFRSs) and in the event that they use the same electronic format (XBRL), ERICA will give users instant access to companies’ financial information and make it possible to compare them easily. In the initial stage ERICA, as a proof of test (with anonymous references), contains data from about 200 non-public companies throughout Europe. In line with the European Commission Transparency Directive, ERICA is publicly available.

IMF Updates

The IMF recently added the following working papers and surveys:

• Banking Structure and Credit Growth in Central and Eastern European Countries Working Paper No. 08/215. Author/Editor: Aydin, Burcu
  Summary: Recent developments have increased questions about vulnerabilities in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) that are experiencing credit booms. This paper analyzes the role of foreign-owned banks in these credit booms. The results show that the CEE countries depend on foreign banks, and these foreign banks depend on interbank funding. Lending by foreign banks seems driven by economic growth and interest rate margins. This lending appears independent of economic but not financial conditions in the foreign bank's home country.


• Trade Elasticities in the Middle East and Central Asia: What is the Role of Oil? Working Paper No. 08/216. Author/Editor: Hakura, Dalia ; Billmeier, Andreas
  Summary: The analysis in this paper suggests that import and export volume elasticities are markedly lower in oil-exporting Middle East and Central Asian countries than in non-oil countries in the region. A key implication of this finding is that a real appreciation of the exchange rate in oil-exporting countries would achieve little in terms of expenditure switching: an appreciation does not boost imports and non-oil exports constitute only a small share of GDP and total trade in these countries. Therefore, while a real appreciation lowers the current account surplus of oil-exporting countries through valuation effects, the contribution to lowering global imbalances may be more limited.


• Public Financial Management and Fiscal Outcomes in sub-Saharan African Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries. Working Paper No. 08/217. Author/Editor: Prakash, Tej ; Cabezon, Ezequiel
  Summary: This paper examines, in a formal econometric framework, the linkages between public financial management and fiscal outcomes in sub-Saharan African countries. Similar analyses have been done for Latin America, Europe, and the United States, but none in the context of low-income countries. Using public financial management indicators, as measured in two recent assessments related to the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, this study shows that improving public financial management leads to better fiscal outcomes, as measured by the overall fiscal balance and external debt levels, after controlling for other characteristics that might alter fiscal outcomes.


• The Impact of Public Capital, Human Capital, and Knowledge on Aggregate Output. Working Paper No. 08/218. Author/Editor: Abdih, Yasser ; Joutz, Frederick L.
  Summary: This paper investigates the impact of public capital on private sector output by testing and estimating an aggregate production function for the U.S. economy over the postwar period augmented to include the stock of public capital as an additional factor input. We use patent applications to proxy for knowledge/technology stocks and adjust labor hours for changes in human capital or skill. Using Johansen's (1988 and 1991) multivariate co-integration analysis, we find a positive and significant long run effect of public capital, private capital, skill adjusted labor, and technology/ knowledge on private sector output. We find that public capital accounts for about half of the post-1973 productivity slowdown, but only plays a minor role in the partial recovery of labor productivity growth since the mid 1980s. The largest contribution to that (partial) recovery comes from the knowledge stock and human capital.


• An Analysis of So-Called Export-led Growth. Working Paper No. 08/220. Author/Editor: Yang, Jie
  Summary: The stylized fact that strong economic growth is usually accompanied with strong export growth leads many people to conclude that the export sector is the main driving force behind those episodes. The model in this paper, however, shows that the non-tradable sector may also generate high economic growth together with high export growth. Evidence shows that out of 71 "so-called" export-led growth episodes, only 37 of them are consistent with the "exports driving growth" hypothesis. Most of the remaining episodes (24 cases) experienced significant real exchange rate depreciation and are more likely to be characterized by "growth driving exports".


• Are Weak Banks Leading Credit Booms? Evidence from Emerging Europe. Working Paper No. 08/219. Author/Editor: Tamirisa, Natalia T. ; Igan, Deniz
  Summary: This paper examines the behavior of bank soundness indicators during episodes of brisk loan growth, using bank-level data for central and eastern Europe and controlling for the feedback effect of credit growth on bank soundness. No evidence is found that rapid loan expansion has weakened banks during the last decade, but over time weaker banks seem to have started to expand at least as fast as, and in some markets faster than, stronger banks. These findings suggest that during credit booms supervisors need to carefully monitor the soundness of rapidly expanding banks and stand ready to take action to limit the expansion of weak banks.


• IMF Policy Paper: Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) - Status of Implementation
  Summary: This report provides an update on the status of implementation, impact and costs of the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). With a view to the upcoming Financing for Development meetings in Doha, the report not only reports on recent progress since mid-2007, but also on developments since the Monterrey Consensus recommendations on external debt relief.


• Commodities and the Market Price of Risk. Working Paper No. 08/221. Author/Editor: Roache, Shaun K.
  Summary: Commodities are back following a stellar run of price performance, attracting financial investor attention. What are the fundamental reasons to hold commodities? One reason is the exposure offered to underlying risk factors. In this paper, I assess the macro risk exposure offered by commodity futures and test whether these risks are priced, using Merton's (1973) inter temporal capital asset pricing model for a sample of commodity prices covering the period January 1973 - February 2008. I find that commodity futures offer a hedge against lower interest rates and that investors are willing to accept lower expected returns for this position. Although some commodities are also a hedge against U.S. dollar depreciation, this risk is not priced.


• IMF Policy Paper: Implementation of the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision - Experience with Assessments and Implications for Future Work
  Summary: This paper reviews the experience to date in assessing countries' compliance with the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision (BCP). This review is based on 136 assessments conducted under the FSAP/OFC programs, using the methodology associated with the 1997 version of the BCP. It follows earlier reviews presented to the Board in 2000, 2002, and 2004. The Fund has developed a strong collaborative relationship with the Basel Committee in promoting financial stability, in particular, in its work through the FSAP program in assessing (together with the Word Bank) the quality of countries' supervisory structures. Experience gained from these assessments are also being reported back to the Committee through the Fund's participation in Basel working groups, and staff has also been actively involved in the update of the BCP in 2006, with the objective of maintaining the BCP's relevance as a global standard of good practice.


• IMF Survey: Financial Crisis Weighs on Global Economy
  The crisis in U.S. financial markets is raising uncertainty and dampening growth prospects around the world, but the IMF still expects a gradual economic recovery during 2009, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn says.


• Macroeconomic Effects of EU Transfers in New Member States. Working Paper No. 08/223. Author/Editor: Allard, Céline ; Choueiri, Nada ; Schadler, Susan ; van Elkan, Rachel
  Summary: Large inflows from the European Union to the New Member States are likely to significantly impact macroeconomic outcomes. In this paper, we use the IMF's Global Integrated Monetary and Fiscal model (GIMF) to analyze the impact of the transfers and show the conditions under which they would help speed up convergence. We find that the EU funds need to be directed predominantly to investment rather than to income support and that to best accompany the EU fund inflows, the policy-mix would need to combine counter-cyclical policy with a strong commitment to the existing monetary regime.
  

Financial Management of Parliament Bill

The National Treasury and SARS recently presented to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance the Draft Financial Management of Parliament Bill: finalisation and the Double Tax Agreement with Netherlands: for approval for Ratification by the Treasury and by SARS (both bodies had separate presentations prepared).

Double Tax Convention and Protocol with The Netherlands: National Treasury (NT) And South African Revenue Services (SARS) briefings and requests to ratify
Ms Yanga Mputa, Director: Tax Policy Unit, National Treasury, briefed the Committee on the request for ratification of the tax treaty with the Netherlands.

She took the Committee through the treaty ratification process. She explained that before any tax treaty could come into force, it had to be ratified by Parliament. This particular Treaty was the renegotiation of an existing tax treaty.

The first treaty between South Africa and the Netherlands came into force on 20 January 1972. The revised tax treaty signed on October 2005 would terminate that previous tax treaty. It had been ratified already by the Netherlands, but South Africa delayed ratification pending renegotiation of the article dealing with the taxation of dividends, due to the proposed changes to South African domestic tax legislation, particularly the conversion of Secondary Tax on Companies (STC) to a dividend tax at shareholder level. The revised tax treaty also addressed certain aspects that were not present in the old treaty.

She also reported the figures for the investment flows and trade flows between South Africa and the Netherlands.Mr Ron van der Merwe, Senior Manager: International Treaties, South African Revenue Services (SARS) discussed the technical provisions of the tax treaty.

The purpose of these agreements was to remove barriers to cross border trade and investment. This was done by eliminating the possibility of double taxation, creating certainty of tax treatment, reducing withholding tax rates, dealing with exchange of information between authorities, assisting in tax collection, the resolving of disputes and ensuring consistent interpretation.

As background, he outlined the ways in which treaties removed tax barriers.
His presentation consisted of two parts:

• The Ratification of the South Africa – Netherlands Double Taxation Convention and
• the Ratification of the South Africa – Netherlands Protocol amending the Double Taxation Convention.

The Ratification of the South Africa – Netherlands Double Taxation Convention
This part referred to the original agreement signed in 2005. The treaty closely followed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Convention, which formed the foundation for the vast majority of Double Taxation Agreements (DTAs) worldwide. A number of the articles were different from the normal South African approach .

Manual staying on

According to Bloomberg's Nasreen Seria and Mike CohenMinister Trevor Manual is not planning on resigning:

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel won't resign after President Thabo Mbeki was told to quit by the ruling African National Congress.
"The minister is not resigning," his spokeswoman Thoraya Pandy said by phone from Johannesburg yesterday (SUBS SUNDAY). "I spoke to him this morning, and there was no resignation.''

The leadership of the ANC ordered Mbeki to quit, eight days after a High Court judge suggested he pressured prosecutors to pursue corruption charges against ANC leader Jacob Zuma, whom Mbeki fired in 2005. Manuel, 52, has been finance minister since 1996, overseeing the economy's longest expansion on record.

"He's a member of the ANC and will abide by their decisions," Pandy said.
"We assume all employees will remain where they are,'' ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg. "We want markets to be sure about where we going. We want to ensure that there's certainty, that's why we've taken this decision.''

Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin will announce any decision he makes on whether he stays through the ANC, his spokeswoman Vimla Maistry said. Erwin, who was first appointed Trade Minister in former president Nelson Mandela's cabinet in 1994, backed Mbeki in his failed bid to be re-elected leader of the ANC in December.

"The critical question for the economy is whether there will be policy continuity," Goolam Ballim, chief economist at Standard Bank, said in an interview from Johannesburg late on Saturday. "The day-to-day governing of South Africa could enter a stage of inertia which would have an immediate impact on financial markets.''

"The rand may come under pressure because of the increased uncertainty," Garth Mackenzie, the head of derivatives trading at BoE Stockbrokers, said. "The currency and bond markets will react the strongest."

Moneyweb

A taxonomy of instruments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their interactions

Copyright: xymonau

The Economics Department of the OECD has released a paper reviewing alternative (national and international) climate change mitigation policy instruments and interactions across them. Carbon taxes, cap-and-trade schemes, standards and technology-support policies (R&D and clean technology deployment) in particular are assessed according to three broad cost-effectiveness criteria.

Here is the abstract:

A taxonomy of instruments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their interactions
This paper reviews alternative (national and international) climate change mitigation policy instruments and interactions across them. Carbon taxes, cap-and-trade schemes, standards and technology-support policies (R&D and clean technology deployment) in particular are assessed according to three broad costeffectiveness criteria, their:

i) static efficiency, defined to cover not just whether the instrument is costeffective
per se but also whether it provides sufficient political incentives for wide adoption;

ii) dynamic
efficiency, which implies an efficient level of innovation and diffusion of clean technologies in order to lower future abatement costs;

iii) ability to cope effectively with climate and economic uncertainties.

Multiple market failures and political economy obstacles need to be addressed in order to meet these criteria. In this regard, carbon taxes or cap-and-trade schemes appear to perform better than alternatives. However, their cost-effectivenes can be enhanced through targeted use of other instruments. There is therefore room for climate policy packages.

Full Document

Joint Statement on Zimbabwe by the African Development Bank and the World Bank

"The African Development Bank and the World Bank Group welcome the power-sharing agreement signed on Monday in Harare as a potential opportunity for Zimbabwe to begin to deal with its mounting economic, social and governance problems.

We look forward to the completion of work on other details of the agreement. We also look forward to a demonstration that it can form the basis for tackling some of the most urgent human needs, especially of vulnerable women, youth and children, such as those arising from hyperinflation, and the food and fuel crisis.

As concrete progress is made on the ground, we would be ready to join other development partners in exploring a program of technical and, as appropriate, financial assistance."

More

University news from the West

Golden opportunities
As the Olympic flame departs Beijing 2008 and the world's attention shifts to London 2012, UK universities are looking forward to sharing the spotlight. Hannah Fearn reports
Judgment calls
Amid worries about examining practices, Times Higher Education asked ten academics to mark a first-year paper. Verdicts ranged from zero to a 2:1, but the markers identified an inherent consensus, says Rebecca Attwood
Reform unfair financial aid system, says Hepi
Report calls for national pool of fee income to end ‘market’ in bursaries
Staff may get a zero salary offer to avoid redundancies
Reports from the Universities UK conference

Graduate Enrollments Are Up, but Uneven
Gains are greater for foreign students than those from the U.S., for blacks than for whites, and for those studying in the health sciences than in other disciplines.
Graduate Enrollments Are Up, but Uneven
Gains are greater for foreign students than those from the U.S., for blacks than for whites, and for those studying in the health sciences than in other disciplines.
Sharing Your Notes Online -- and Getting Paid for It
A new Web site brings social networking and ad revenues to the traditional note-taking service, but the model could raise copyright issues. Knetwit, as it’s called, is a Web site that combines some familiar Web 2.0 features — user profiles, file sharing, online communities — with the goals of campus note-taking services. Students — or, potentially, professors — join the site for free and can post their notes, papers and other assignments that might be helpful to others. Depending on one’s point of view, that could be equivalent to study sessions or tantamount to cheating.


GLOBAL: OECD calls for greater internationalisation Karen MacGregor
Governments should position their higher education systems in the global arena, develop a strategy and framework for internationalisation and encourage institutions to be more proactive internationally, says an OECD report published last week. Tertiary Education for the Knowledge Society offers this and other policy advice to countries striving to build tertiary education in ways that stimulate innovation, competitiveness and economic growth.

GLOBAL: What are universities for?
The enduring elements of the success of universities explain why, in a global economy, they are now regarded as crucial national assets. But a discussion paper released last Thursday says this has also resulted in a certain amount of "loose thinking" about the roles that universities can play in society, while obscuring their most important contributions to it.

US: Foreign students better at completing PhDs Philip Fine
International students in the US finish their PhDs at a higher rate than domestic students, according to the Council of Graduate Schools which has released results from the largest analysis to date of data on doctoral students.

NEW ZEALAND: New category of university rejected John Gerritsen
A parliamentary committee has advised against creation of a new category of tertiary institution aimed at bridging the gap between New Zealand's universities and polytechnics. The Education and Science Select committee delivered its report on a controversial Bill proposing creation of the 'university of technology' as a separate category of institution.

EUROPE: Radical new ICT approach needed Alan Osborn
The European Commission has launched a major consultation about the development of information and communications technology in the EU following indications that Europe is slipping further behind in the global technology race. The consultation runs until 7 November and is part of Brussels' far-reaching response to the so-called Ahu report issued this summer, which identified a number of key failings in European ICT research and innovation.



Higher Education Will Feel The Impact of Baby Boom Retirements steven bell
Higher education in particular will be faced with a significant number of faculty members and administrative staff retiring, and that number is only projected to rise over the years. To gain a firsthand perspective on how the baby boomer retirement phenomenon is projected to affect higher education, we spoke with two key decision makers at prominent Southern California institutions. When they do leave, the administrative staff and faculty members walking out the university door are veritable vessels of institution-specific knowledge. "You're losing the institutional history and continuity of teaching content that you've had over the years," Rushforth said.
Remedial Education Is Costly For IHEs steven bell
It's a tough lesson for millions of students just now arriving on campus: even if you have a high school diploma, you may not be ready for college. In fact, a new study calculates, one-third of American college students have to enroll in remedial classes. The bill to colleges and taxpayers for trying to bring them up to speed on material they were supposed to learn in high school comes to between $2.3 billion and $2.9 billion annually.