Cooperation In Provision Research Articles

Cooperative provision of indivisible public goods

A community faces the obligation of providing an indivisible public good that each of its members is able to provide at a certain cost. The solution is to rely on the member who can provide the public good at the lowest cost, with a due compensation from the other members. This problem has been studied in a non-cooperative setting by Kleindorfer and Sertel (J Econ Theory 64:20–34, 1994). They propose an auction mechanism that results in an interval of possible individual contributions whose lower bound is the equal division. Here, instead we take a cooperative stand point by modelling this problem as a cost sharing game that turns out to be a ‘reverse’ airport game whose core is shown to have a regular structure. This enables an easy calculation of the nucleolus that happens to define the upper bound of the Kleindorfer–Sertel interval. The Shapley value instead is not an appropriate solution in this context because it may imply compensations to non-providers.

General Framework for Real-time Implementation of Balancing Services Market Outcome

Load frequency control (LFC) is widely used for real-time balancing connected power systems. With the deregulation of power system markets, there is a necessity for adapting the current LFC to support market-based operation. In this paper we propose a general balancing tool which covers both, regulated, and deregulated load frequency control. The proposed approach enables implementation of conventional, two-sided markets possible as well as implementation of the integrated markets for balancing reserves, i.e. cooperation in provision of reserves among different control areas.

Recent Progress in the Development of a Protocol on the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

This article reviews the development to date of the draft Protocol on the Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products currently under negotiation as a supplement to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It suggests that diversion from the licit trade into the illicit trade is the main target of the draft Protocol. It examines the process of development of the draft Protocol from the Expert’s Template through the various drafts produced by the International Negotiating Body in Geneva in the first three rounds of negotiations held in 2008 and 2009. The article suggests that the European Community’s agreement with the Tobacco Company Phillip Morris International has served as a model for many of the regulatory provisions in the Draft Protocol. The article identifies tracking and tracing, licensing and due diligence as the three main tools to be used to prevent diversion, and sets out the problems and progress of negotiations in regard to each. The article also sets out the main criminal justice provisions, modelled on existing provisions in crime control conventions, and examines the difficulties around criminalisation of tobacco related offences and the inclusion of a set of complex provisions for international procedural cooperation. Finally, the article speculates on the prospects for successful adoption of a protocol in the final stages of the negotiating process.

Lessons from Conditionality Provisions for South-North Cooperation on Climate Change

This article examines what may be taken into account, when designing a mechanism of international public finance to support south-north cooperation on domestic climate policies in developing countries. We draw lessons from existing mechanisms of conditional transfers. Experience with conditionality provisions that the World Bank, the IMF, and bilateral donors apply to development assistance is varied. Conditionality provisions applied during the EU enlargement process are generally evaluated more positively, as the shared objective is increased credibility and participation. Clearly defining global emissions reductions as a shared objective could offer similar opportunities for cooperation. We discuss lessons that might be of relevance to the design of cooperative climate policy.

A Survey of Web Services Provision

Web services technologies promise to create new business applications by composing existing services and to publish these applications as services for further composition. The business logic of applications is described by abstract processes consisting of tasks which specify the required functionality. Web services provision refers to assigning concrete Web services to perform the constituent tasks of abstract processes. It describes a promising scenario where Web services are dynamically chosen and invoked according to their up-to-date functional and non-functional capabilities. It introduces many challenging problems and has therefore received much attention. In this article, the authors provide a comprehensive overview of current research efforts. The authors divide the lifecycle of Web services provision into three steps: service discovery, service selection, and service contracting. They also distinguish three types of Web services provision according to the functional relationship between services and tasks: independent provision, cooperative provision and multiple provision. Following this taxonomy, we investigate existing works in Web services provision, discuss open problems, and shed some light on potential research directions.

Cooperative provisioning dynamics: fathers and unrelated helpers show similar responses to manipulations of begging

Cooperative provisioning dynamics between members of a pair in biparental systems has received a lot of attention, both empirically and theoretically. The dynamics of provisioning in cooperatively breeding groups, however, remains poorly understood. Such groups often include unrelated helpers that may have very different provisioning rules from related helpers and parents, since they accrue different types of fitness benefits from helping. The bell miner, Manorina melanophrys, provides an ideal system in which to investigate cooperative provisioning, because substantial levels of care are provided by a number of unrelated helpers per nest. We experimentally increased brood demand via targeted begging playbacks during nest visits of either breeding males or unrelated male helpers. Both types of males used similar behavioural investment rules, significantly increasing food delivery rate during playback relative to control periods. Surprisingly, all other provisioners also increased their visit rates during playbacks, although to a lesser extent. This could only have been in response to the increase in visits by the target individuals, suggesting an additional indirect mechanism by which individuals in this cooperative setting assess brood demand. The resultant overall increase in food delivery during the playback periods caused nestlings to show the expected reduction in their own begging and an increase in body mass gain. It is therefore interesting how similar the evolved provisioning responses are for all types of group member, irrespective of whether such benefits of investment in the brood are derived via kin selection (fathers) or some future direct increase in fitness (helpers).

Assessment of factors influencing the performance of solid waste recycling programs

Municipal solid waste management (SWM) problems present a serious challenge to local government authorities (LGAs) in developing countries. The effective way to reduce this tremendous issue is to integreate waste recycling systems into existing and future SWM. Understanding factors influencing recycling performance is the key to achieving sustainable waste management. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the performance of SWM relating to solid waste recycling covering a total of 120 solid waste recycling programs located in different urban areas of Thailand. The indicators involving efficiency, effectiveness and service ratio were used for the assessment of recycling performance using statistical analysis methods. Influencing factors encompassing technical, economic and financial, and institutional aspects were identified for three types of recycling programs (school garbage bank, community garbage bank, and composting facility). The results suggest that common significant factors are perception of administrator awareness of SWM problems, and source separation. In terms of school garbage banks, the provision of monetary incentive including interest and compensatory goods for recycling members, transportation cost, and low investment costs significantly affect the performance. Provision of loans, managing the program as a cooperative organization, and provision of door-to-door service correlate with better performance by community garbage banks. For composting facilities, provision of free organic waste bins and cooperation with NGOs correlate with a higher rate of waste diversion. The findings also propose implications for enhancing the performance of recycling systems through a number of measures including provision of monetary incentive, tax incentives, subsidizations, information dissemination, awareness campaigns, training, technical assistance, staff exchanges, and networking with voluntary organizations—which should be formulated with respect to building capacity of development partners, responding to poor recycling performance, and focusing on significant influencing factors.

Crossborder jurisdiction and assistance in insolvency: The position in Malaysia and Singapore

Malaysia and Singapore are members of the common law family and have \'inherited\' their company and insolvency law from models in use in the United Kingdom with influences from Australia. It is the purpose of this article to outline the law in relation to cross-border insolvency, particularly the winding up of foreign companies, the co-operation provisions in bankruptcy and insolvency as well as more recent moves to redevelop insolvency through UNCITRAL and Asian Development Bank initiatives.PER/PELJ Vol. 1 2008: pp. 1-54

Breeding Behavior of the Chihuahuan Raven

Abstract The Chihuahuan Raven (Corvus cryptoleucus) is abundant and conspicuous throughout its range, but much remains unknown about its breeding biology and social system. We studied the breeding biology of this species in southern New Mexico in 2000 and 2001, and hypothesized that environmental variability of desert habitats represents a major selective force. We predicted that variable food supplies and limited nest sites might select for cooperative provisioning of young similar to behavior in several other members of the genus Corvus. We examined nesting behavior and social relationships of nesting groups. Nest observations revealed that both males and females incubate eggs, brood nestlings, and feed young. Nesting pairs were primarily territorial in the immediate vicinity of the nest, but occasionally tolerated intruders, and at other times were joined by the intruders in communal mobbing of potential predators. Average group size near the nest was 1.7 birds and we did not detect auxiliary birds at ...

Spontaneous Structural Reform in Australian Local Government: the case of the Gilgandra Co-operative Model in New South Wales

Dire financial constraints and the threats of forced structural reform have had the unforeseen effect of forcing municipal councils across Australia to reconsider their operational activities and organisational arrangements. With considerable ingenuity, numerous municipalities have proposed and sometimes adopted new structural formations that embody various forms of co-operative service provision. This remarkable development has unfortunately been largely ignored in the scholarly literature on Australian local government. In a modest effort aimed at remedying this neglect, the present paper seeks to outline the small, rural New South Wales Gilgandra Shire Council's (2004) ‘Co-operative/Local Government Service Company’ model, place it in the broader context of alternative models of local governance suitable for Australian conditions, and evaluate its characteristics.

Transport of radioactive material in Ireland

AbstractThe Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (the Institute) functions as the competent authority for the control of sources of ionising radiation in Ireland, including the transport of radioactive material. The regulatory and licensing requirements, including inspection and enforcement activities as well as details of practical experience of the transport of radioactive material by road, rail, air and sea into and out of Ireland are presented. The Institute's role in the management of transport related incidents, provision of information and international cooperation is also discussed. The Institute has undertaken a review of Irish legislation that relates to the transport of dangerous goods by road and rail. An overview of the findings is presented. To address the issues arising from the legislation review and the multitude of tasks generally associated with transport matters, the Institute compiled a series of suggested actions to be addressed in the period 2005–2007. These actions are outl...

Financial Cooperation, Rio Conventions and Common Concerns

A common feature of the three Rio conventions is the introduction of financial cooperation as a means of engaging developing countries and enabling their participation. The rationale for including such financial cooperation clauses is largely based on the pronouncement that biological diversity, climate change and combating desertification are a common concern of humankind – an alternative expression of the concept ‘global public goods’. All three treaties have advanced from an initial round of institutional establishment, policy elaboration and a moderate degree of implementation, to a principal focus on implementation. Their provisions on financial cooperation are thus becoming all the more prominent. The success of implementing the three treaties will be greatly dependent on the extent and effectiveness of implementing their financial cooperation provisions. Recent international negotiations have demonstrated that any or all stakeholders – donors, recipients, intermediaries and even the convention secretariats – could become the targets of blame for any failure in these implementation phases.

The Convention's Draft Constitutional Treaty: A 'Tidying-Up Exercise' that Needs Some Tidying-Up of its Own

This paper offers a critical overview of several issues arising from the Convention's draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, relevant to readers with a general interest in EU legal developments: rationalisation of the Union's constitutional architecture; the protection of fundamental rights; Union competences; reform of legal instruments; changes to the enhanced cooperation provisions; and ratification/amendment of the future Constitution. It is argued that the draft Constitution, despite its many successes, suffers from several legal shortcomings, for example: the unhelpful provisions on the legal effects of rights and principles within the Charter; an early warning system on subsidiarity which suffers from serious operational flaws; the inaccurate provisions on exclusive competence, particularly as regards competition law and external relations; the messy dividing line between shared and supporting competences; and a new hierarchy of norms which appears confused in its basic concepts, and confusing in the arrangements for supervising non-legislative acts. Despite M. Giscard d'Estaing's pleas for the Member States to respect the integrity of the text agreed by the Convention, one hopes that the IGC will revisit at least these provisions - since they might otherwise undermine the workability of the final Constitution by creating new and unnecessary problems for the future.

Strengthening the BTWC: The role of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in combating natural and deliberate disease outbreaks

Strengthening the BTWC: The role of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in combating natural and deliberate disease outbreaks

Flexibility in a 'Reorganised' and 'Simplified' Treaty

This paper contemplates some key aspects of the overall flexibility question in a simplified and reorganised New Constitutional Treaty (NCT). It is limited to discussion on the location of the enhanced co-operation provisions, on whether and what type of opt-out or derogation arrangements should survive under the new constitutional regime, and finally, on whether or not the NCT should prohibit the conclusion of international agreements between the Member States (some or all of them) outside the institutional framework of the EU. The paper accepts a positive synergy between the principles of flexibility and constitutionalism, viewing flexibility as a normative principle of governance. It concludes that the enhanced co-operation, mainstreamed with the Union system, should be included in the Part One of the NCT among the provisions on constitutional structure. It would be useful to explain to the citizens what this concept means (definitional clause) together with references to the nature of the enhanced co-operation (enabling clause). As for the opt-out arrangements and derogation, it seems unnecessary to include them in the NCT itself. It should suffice to provide for these either in Part Two or in a set of protocols.

Leadership and the aggregation of international collective action

Political entrepreneurs, or leaders, play an important role in overcoming under-provision and coordination problems inherent in international public goods. Recent examples include the Montreal Protocol on ozone depletion and NATO peacekeeping. We demonstrate that the Prisoner's Dilemma need not be a fait accompli of international collective action, owing to the various means for aggregating contributions (summation, best shot, better shot, weakest link and weaker link). Using evolutionary game theory, we examine 'leading by example', whereby a leader unilaterally provides an intermediate contribution, and matching behavior there beyond. It is shown to be a noncooperative means for achieving cooperative provision.

Parents and helpers compensate for experimental changes in the provisioning effort of others in the Arabian babbler

Biparental investment in birds is implemented through parents making adaptive compensatory adjustments according to the work rate of their collaborator. Predictions for such evolutionarily stable cooperation in parental nestling feeding, and the behavioural mechanisms involved, can also be applied to systems with helpers-at-the-nest. Using the cooperatively breeding Arabian babbler, Turdoides squamiceps, we experimentally increased the provisioning rate of one or two subordinate birds in each group by giving these individuals extra food. Compared with control days before and after, the experimental treatment caused ‘fed’ birds to increase and ‘unfed’ birds to decrease their nest visit rates significantly, with no significant changes in load size. Thus, both parents and helpers in this system showed individual compensatory adjustments in their nestling-feeding effort according to the work rates of collaborators. There were no significant increases in total group visits during experimental treatments; therefore this study did not provide evidence for the predicted incomplete compensatory response. These results for helping-at-the-nest are consistent with empirical studies on parental care, and further suggest a central role for nestling begging in any cooperative provisioning of young in the nest.

Colaboración entre organizaciones no gubernamentales y los gobiernos en la reforma del sector de la salud

One of the most prominent current trends is the vital and increasingly visible role played by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the world in general and in the activities and conferences sponsored by the United Nations (UN). Given these circumstances, part of the mission of PAHO is to strengthen the ties between governments and NGOs through provision of technical cooperation and support in priority program areas, such as health care, and facilitation of the exchange of information and experiences. This report examines different lines of action designed to improve collaboration between NGOs and governments in the area of health sector reform.

Women and the Cooperative Provision of Care: The Example of the 'Fukushi Club' in Japan

The provision of personal care has become a critical problem for industrial countries. The care crisis particularly affects women as the main providers of care and the main receivers of care among the elderly. This paper looks at a model of cooperative care provided by the Fukushi Club, set up by the Seikatsu Club Consumers' Cooperative in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It asks whether the Fukushi Club is successful in its aims of empowering both care receiver and care provider; recognizing the 'shadow work' of women in the provision of care; and establishing a sustainable model of cooperative care.

Coopération transfrontalière : la clé du combat contre la fraude internationale sur les valeurs mobilières

Cross-border cooperation : the key to combatting international securities fraud A key responsibility of every securities regulator is to ensure the integrity of its markets. To accomplish this, one needs fair laws and regulations as well as the ability to enforce those laws and regulations. Given the internationalization of the world's securities markets, information relevant to enforcing the securities laws is now oftentimes located outside any one regulator's national borders. Based on its extensive experience with international evidence-gathering, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relies upon cooperation with the relevant regulators - rather than unilateral action - as the means for gaining access to evidence located abroad. The SEC has formalized many of its cooperative relationships with foreign securities regulators in the form of memoranda of understanding (MOUs). The article discusses the SEC's development of MOUs as a means for developing cooperative relationships between securities regulators in different countries, the legislation that has facilitated the provision of meaningful international cooperation, and the international response to this approach. The article concludes with a discussion of the environment for international cooperation that now exists among regulators.