One-tier System Research Articles

Two-tier public provision: Comparing public systems

The paper considers a two-tier institution in which government provides public services, but individuals can opt out of public provision (but not taxes). Funding for the public service is chosen endogenously by majority vote, and we first provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a majority vote equilibrium. In line with existing results, the equilibrium tax rate usually falls below the one found in a one-tier system (opting out of public consumption is prohibited) as the public system loses the political support of the rich who exit. We prove that when the two-tier system majority dominates a purely private system, a majority in society always welcomes a transition from a one-tier public system to a two-tier system, it is the only system that is stable in an evolutionary sense. Otherwise, a majority consisting of the middle class may be in favor of staying in a one-tier system (prohibiting exit) because of a slippery slope argument.

Busy Boards in a Two-Tier System: Old-Boys Network or Efficient Monitoring Technology?

With respect to monitoring of a firms management there are two competing systems known: the one-tier system grounded in the Anglo-Saxon tradition or the two-tier system stemming from the German tradition. Due to the recent series of corporate scandals a heated discussion emerged about whether one system dominates the other. We contribute to this discussion by examining the effect of busy boards in Germany, a paradigm of the two-tier system. The fundamental difference between the one-tier and two-tier system is the strict separation of management (executive board) and control (supervisory board) in the two-tier system. Accordingly, one might assume that the time load for a member of the supervisory board is much lower than the one of its one-tier equivalent, the outside director. Thus, one would expect a lower impact of the busyness of supervisory board member on firm performance in the German case. We examine this hypothesis based on a hand-collected panel data-set consisting of some 1,110 firm year observations between 2004 and 2007 containing more than 5,600 supervisory board members with characteristics like their number of additional directorships and their background. However, using pooled-OLS, random effect and firm fixed effects models we find - similar to the one-tier evidence - a strong negative relation between busyness of the supervisory board members and firm performance. In challenging our findings we observe that it is neither board members' background nor the appointment policy of firms that drives this result. We conclude that the negative performance relation is not only caused by the timely overloading of the board member, but also by the negative network effects, the Deutschland AG (Germany's Inc.), that Germany is famous for.

Prediction of the Asian-Australian monsoon interannual variations with the Grid-Point atmospheric model of IAP LASG (GAMIL)

Seasonal prediction of Asian-Australian monsoon (A-AM) precipitation is one of the most important and challenging tasks in climate prediction. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of Grid Atmospheric Model of IAP LASG (GAMIL) on retrospective prediction of the A-AM interannual variation (IAV), and determine to what extent GAMIL can capture the two major observed modes of A-AM rainfall IAV for the period 1979{2003. The flrst mode is associated with the turnabout of warming (cooling) in the Ni~no 3.4 region, whereas the second mode leads the warming/cooling by about one year, signaling precursory conditions for ENSO. We show that the GAMIL one-month lead prediction of the seasonal precipitation anomalies is primarily able to capture major features of the two observed leading modes of the IAV, with the flrst mode better predicted than the second. It also depicts the relationship between the flrst mode and ENSO rather well. On the other hand, the GAMIL has deflciencies in capturing the relationship between the second mode and ENSO. We conclude: (1) successful reproduction of the El Ni~no-excited monsoon-ocean interaction and El Ni~no forcing may be critical for the seasonal prediction of the A-AM rainfall IAV with the GAMIL; (2) more efiorts are needed to improve the simulation not only in the Ni~no 3.4 region but also in the joining area of Asia and the Indian-Paciflc Ocean; (3) the selection of a one-tier system may improve the ultimate prediction of the A-AM rainfall IAV. These results ofier some references for improvement of the GAMIL and associated seasonal prediction skill.

The Two-Tier Model and the One-Tier Model of Corporate Governance in the Italian Reform of Corporate Law

This article explores the Italian reform of corporate law of 2003, which, for the first time, allowed corporations to choose among three different models of corporate governance. In addition to the traditional model, which has been significantly modernized by the reform, two other “alternative” systems of governance were introduced: the two-tier system, which owes its basic structure to the German tradition, and the one-tier system which derives from the Anglo-American tradition. Taking into account the initial goals of the Italian legislature in designing the reform, we describe how the alternative board structures have been implemented in Italian practice, and provide an overview of the initial predictions about their advantages and disadvantages. We argue that Italy has taken an innovative approach to corporate governance that may be useful for other European countries interested in granting corporations the power to choose between board structures. However, analyzing some empirical evidence on the first effects of the reform, we also recognize that, even if courageous, the reform so far was not particularly successful in attracting corporations to the new models.

Corporate Law Reforms in Europe: The Two-Tier Model and the One-Tier Model of Corporate Governance in the Italian Reform of Corporate Law

This paper explores the Italian reform of corporate governance of 2003, which, for the first time, allowed corporations to choose among three different models of governance in part inspired by foreign legal systems. Italian corporations have three governance options. First, corporations may adopt the Italian traditional system of governance which has been modernized by the reform of corporate law. This model of governance is still the most influential and most commonly used in Italy. Besides the traditional model two other alternative systems of governance were created by the 2003 reform: the two-tier system and the one-tier system. The first model owes its basic structure to the German tradition, where the shareholders' meeting appoints a supervisory board, which then appoints a management board. In contrast, the one-tier model derives from the Anglo-American tradition. In this system the shareholders' meeting appoints the board of directors, which then appoints a number of directors to an audit committee entrusted with monitoring functions. Taking into account the initial goals of the Italian legislator in designing the 2003 reform, we illustrate how the models have been implemented in Italian practice, and describe the initial predictions of their benefits and disadvantages. Then, we provide some empirical evidence of the practical consequences of the Italian reform of corporate governance three years after its enactment, and we investigate whether the predictions mentioned above were accurate.

Corporate governance and firm performance: Evidence from Ghanaian listed companies

Well governed firms have been noted to have higher firm performance. The main characteristic of corporate governance identified include board size, board composition, and whether the CEO is also the board chairman. This study examines the role corporate governance structures play in firm performance amongst listed firms on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Results reveal a likely optimal board size range where mean ROA levels associated with board size 8 to 11 are higher than overall mean ROA for the sample. Significantly, firm performance is found to be better in firms with the twotier board structure. Results show further that having more outside board members is positively related to firm performance. It is clear that corporate governance structures influence firm performance in Ghana, indeed within the governance structures the two-tier board structure in Ghana is seen to be more effective in view of the higher firm level mean values obtained compared to the one-tier system.

The Effectiveness of Corporate Governance in One-Tier and Two-Tier Board Systems – Evidence from the UK and Germany –

Abstract Germany and the UK are paradigms of systems in which the control of managing directors of companies either lies in the hand of a separate supervisory board (two-tier system) or is an additional task of the board itself (one-tier system). This paper provides for an empirical test of the effectiveness of both systems of corporate governance. The analysis of the financial performance and board turnover of the largest companies listed on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt and London over a total of 400 financial years establishes that both systems are effective means of control. Yet the analysis also demonstrates that it is not possible to assign superiority to either of them. Therefore, the often raised question as to whether one of the two systems will finally prevail and whether there will be ultimate convergence of both systems, has to be answered in the negative. As the discussion of the strengths and weaknesses will show, however, there is still scope for improvements in each of the two board models.

Bankers on Boards, Banks Shareholders and Conflicts of Interest: Evidence from the French Market

We investigate the determinants of the presence of bankers on French firms' boards over the period 200 0 to 2004 and the impact of a close bank-relationship , formalized through board representation or equity ownership, on firm's leverage. After controlling for fixed effect s and after the resolution of endogeneity issues, o ur findings stress the importance of banks equity holdings in reducing the creditors-shareholders conflicts of interests. Ind eed, we show that when they are shareholders, the banks are less relu ctant to serve on the boards of the firms that are more prone to information asymmetry problems (smaller board size firms, more heavily indebted firms, less profitable firms, firms with higher growth opportunities, more volatile fir ms). In addition, our findings suggest that a close bank-relationship allows the mitigation of financing constraints. Fir ms with a banker on board or a bank shareholder have a lower sensitivity of leverage to the level of tangible as sets, suggesting that when they are better informed , banks require a lower potential level of collateralized assets to f inance the firm. However, when they are not shareho lders, the banker directors seem to act so as to maximize their debt value, by hindering the access to debt of firms wit h high growth opportunities: the group of firms with a bank-relat ionship formalized only through board representatio n have the highest sensitivity of leverage to growth opportunities (in absolute value). We finally emphasize the discipli nary role of the banker directors: they are more likely to be presen t on the boards of the firms where the monitoring r ole of the shareholders is reduced, namely in widely held firm s and firms with a one-tier board system.

Mobility management and signaling traffic analysis for multi-tier wireless mobile networks

A multi-tier wireless system integrates the high-tier wireless systems and the low-tier wireless systems into a single system to provide the advantages of both tiers. Such a system is expected to provide better service (more service availability and more cost effectiveness to the users) at the expense of the extra tier-switching management. Examples of multi-tier systems include the interconnection network of a satellite communication network and a terrestrial cellular network, the integration of low-power systems such as wireless personal area networks and cellular systems, and the integration of higher mobility of cellular systems with low-mobility wireless local area networks. In such a system, mobility management is critical, because only when the location of a mobile user is known or tracked can the service quality for the user be guaranteed. In this paper, we study a few mobility management schemes for multi-tier wireless mobile networks under more realistic assumptions. Performance evaluation in terms of registration signaling traffic is carried out, and easy-to-use analytical results are obtained. It is also clear that for service availability, the two-tier system is better than the single one-tier system; we therefore study the probability that a call is forced to terminate in the single low-tier system because the low tier becomes unavailable during the call (such a call can be continued in the two-tier system).

Corporate management: Ownership, control and shareholders' rights

In spite of extent of economy development in one country, every corporation faces up with same problems connected with corporate governance. Problems are ownership, shareholders rights and control. The way to acquire ownership is by buying shares of company. Ownership is connected with making essential decisions in corporation like changing statute of firm, allowing new stock market flotation, etc. There are two types of ownership: widespread or dispersed ownership and concentrated ownership. Dispersed ownership is characteristic of Anglo-Saxon countries (United Kingdom and United States) where one-tier system is representative model of corporate governance. Dispersed ownership means that every single packet of shares is smaller than 20% of total shares in corporation. On the other hand concentrated ownership characterizes presence of ultimate owner(s) in company. Ultimate owner is person who holds more than 20% of shares in firm. If shareholder holds more than 50% of shares he is major shareholder what means that he has control over company. Concentrated ownership is characteristic of continental Europe and Japan where is presented two-tier model of corporate governance. Law and other institutional rules, like rules for listed companies of stock market, must guarantee the shareholder rights. Today, every country accepts Principles of Corporate Governance published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Further more, the transitional countries, as Russia, must pass and respect laws, which protect shareholders rights. Control of management is one of the ways to protect shareholder rights. Control could be internal and external. Audit or Supervisory board is main part of internal control. Independent external auditor who is in relation with company does external control by contract of giving services. It is important that all auditors (internal of external) be independent of management of corporations. In this paper, we try to adduce main problems of modern corporate governance as ownership control and shareholders rights.

Austrian Universities Under Pressure From Bologna

Implementing the Bologna process makes high demands on all the Europeanhigher education systems. The challenges differ in each country. One can assumethat the reform effort to harmonise the study architecture is greatest for countrieswith the traditional one-tier system. Austria belongs to this group. Some of thetraditional features of Austrian higher education are indeed incompatible with theBologna process, which means that the reform pressure in Austria is quite high.Austria has rapidly adapted the legal framework for the implementation of theBologna Declaration. With the amendments of the University Studies Act in 1999

Corporate management: Genesis, models and problems

Corporate governance refers to the way a company is run and includes laws, rules and principles on which it is based. Corporate governance has poor history. Models of corporate governance have been developed from different cultural, historical and legal environments in which corporations do their business. There are two basic types of corporate governance in developed economies: the one-tier system, which is practiced in the United Kingdom and the United States and the two-tier system, which evolved in Germany and Japan. On the other hand, the transitional countries started developing their corporate governance under very different circumstances due to their socialism-oriented market and public property. Investments are among the main prerequisites for economic growth. The most important investment is greenfield investment, which means that foreign investors invest their money in another country to start a new business. The last, but not least important issue, is agency problem, which arises when management runs a company in the way that maximizes their own interests, while the ownership of shareholders is depreciated. This paper describes the genesis of corporate governance, its models in developed countries, its state in transitional economies and some of the main ways of controlling management and dealing with agency problems.

The Status of the Law on Stock Companies in Central and Eastern-Europe: Facing the Challenge to Enter the European Union and Implement European Company Law

Most of the countries that are candidates for EU membership are from Central and Eastern Europe. Although their company laws are generally rooted in the Western (and Central) European legal tradition, the influence of Communism has also left a mark on their corporate law regimes. These regimes have recently undergone major changes, and the European Commission has declared that they are now largely in conformity with EU standards. As to rules concerning corporate governance in stock companies, European company law still leaves ample scope for national particularities. Central and Eastern European laws concerning stock companies allow for a great variety of different organisational structures, including pure two-tier systems, mixed systems and systems that provide a choice between one-tier and two-tier systems.

Ein Bibliothekssystem im Umbruch: Die Einführung der funktionalen Einschichtigkeit an der Justus-Liebig-Universität in Gießen

The Hessisches Hochschulgesetz (Hesse's University Reform) of July 2000 defines the functional one-tier system as the organisational norm for university library systems. However, the autonomy of the individual universities is simultaneously strengthened, thus providing greater scope for organisation. The pace by which the various universities proceed in the extent and speed of realisation of the statutory issues is nevertheless different. The most advanced reorganisation of a library system so far can be seen at the Justus Liebig University Library. Since the introduction of the library rules in May 2002, numerous structural changes could be made.

Editorial

Welcome to the second issue of Volume 2 of Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing/ (WCMC). We have been receiving a large number of great articles and we would like to assure you that we are grateful for your contributions. Our fast review process and publication turnaround has caught the attention of our authors and readers. We are working hard with the John Wiley staff to make the review process more efficient by introducing a new system soon. Once that is implemented, we will be able to process more manuscripts in a short span of time. In the meantime, we appreciate receiving your quality manuscripts and would like to invite you to sit back and enjoy reading the articles in this issue. As always, we welcome your contributions, whether by submitting manuscripts and/or special issues. We also appreciate any comments/feedback you have regarding WCMC. Send your comments to any of the editors and/or to the Wiley office. Multicast protocols in mobile ad-hoc networks have been an area of active research for the past couple of years. In the first paper, Papavassiliou and An discuss the issues, challenges, and protocols related to multicasting in mobile ad-hoc wireless networks. They survey several existing multicasting protocols in mobile ad-hoc networks and summarize the activities of recent advances in the field. A qualitative comparison of these protocol characteristics according to several distinct features and performance parameters is presented. Finally, they present an overview of research and development efforts in the area of group mobility modeling in mobile ad-hoc networks. Next, Cui and Bassiouni present an analysis of hierarchical cellular networks with mobile base stations, termed as totally mobile wireless networks (TMWNs). Their performance evaluation concentrated on comparing the results of a two-tier system's throughput, handoff blocking rate and new call success rate with those obtained by a one-tier model. Under all load conditions, their results show that the two-tier system outperforms the one-tier system if the number of channels is kept the same. Other conditions have been studied and results have been presented. An analytical model to compute the new call and handoff blocking probabilities in TMWN is given and evaluated. Extensive results are presented. In the third article, a software architecture for GPRS session management (SM) is presented by Haung and Lin. This software architecture is designed to accommodate 3G wireless networks. It is compatible, modular, and flexible. The aim of the architecture is to support a GPRS support node. In a situation where single-band and dual-band PCS handsets co-exist, the channel assignment becomes a concern. In the fourth article, Chang and Li propose load-balancing channel assignment schemes to improve the system performance. To further improve the system capacity, a channel reassignment scheme is also presented. Modeling and simulation results are carried out. The results indicate that both load-balancing and channel re-assignment techniques significantly increase the system capacity as the percentage of dual-band handsets increases. Furthermore, the load-balancing with channel re-assignment scheme that combines both techniques achieves the best system performance, even when the percentage of dual-band handsets is as low as 25%. To reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, a set of fixed permutations are used by Jayalath and Tellambura. This set of permutations is applied on K − 1 interleavers are used to produce K − 1 permuted sequences from the same information sequence. To reduce the technique's complexity, an adaptive approach is adapted. Simulation results show that random interleavers and odd-even symmetric interleavers are performing equally well in reducing the PAR. Other results for the out-of-band radiation and the bit error rate performance of interleaved OFDM (IOFDM) and conventional OFDM are also presented and discussed. In the sixth paper, Liu and Li propose a new modulation scheme to improve the performance of DS-CDMA systems in fast time-dispersive fading channels called differential space–time modulation for DS-CDMA (DST-CDMA). They study three different types of receivers using this new scheme. Then, they compare the three types under different design combinations. Finally, Sheikh and Shah present an application of LMS algorithm with optimum step size (µopt-LMS) for fading channel estimation. The expression for optimum step size of the LMS algorithm is modified for use in the fading channel estimation problem. The robustness of the proposed µopt-LMS algorithm is demonstrated via simulation in different channel conditions. Thanks to all the authors and the reviewers. We appreciate your support and hope that you continue your dedication to WCMC.

Effectiveness of Emergency Medical Services for Victims of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Metaanalysis

To determine the relative effectiveness of differences in response time interval, proportion of bystander CPR, and type and tier of emergency medical services (EMS) system on survival after out of hospital cardiac arrest. We performed a comprehensive literature search, excluding EMS systems other than those of interest (systems of interest were those comprising one tier with providers of basic life support [BLS] or advanced life support [ALS] and those comprising two tiers with providers of BLS or BLS-defibrillation followed by ALS), patient population of fewer than 100 cardiac arrests, studies in which we could not determine the total number of arrests of presumed cardiac origin, and studies lacking data on survival to hospital discharge. Metaanalysis using generalized linear model with dispersion estimation for random effects was then performed. Increased survival to hospital discharge was significantly associated with tier (P < .01), response time interval (P < .01), and bystander CPR (P = .04). A significant interaction was detected between response time interval and bystander CPR (P = .02). For the studies analyzed, survival was 5.2% in a one-tier EMS system or 10.5% in a two-tier EMS system. A 1-minute decrease in mean response time interval was associated with absolute increases in survival rates of .4% and .7% in a one-tier and two-tier EMS systems, respectively. Increased survival to hospital discharge may be associated with decreased response time interval and with the use of a two-tier EMS system as opposed to a one-tier system. The data available for this analysis were suboptimal. Policymakers need more methodologically rigorous research to have more reliable and valid estimates of the effectiveness of different EMS systems.

Characteristics of midsized urban EMS systems

Emergency medical services (EMS) systems in 25 midsized cities (population, 400,000 to 900,000) are described. Information describing EMS system configuration and performance was collected by written and telephone surveys with follow-ups. Responding cities provide either one- or two-tier systems. In a one-tier system, an advanced life support (ALS) unit responds to and transports all patients who use 911 to activate the system. Three types of two-tier systems are identified. In system A, ALS units respond to all calls. Once on scene, an ALS unit can turn a patient over to a basic life support (BLS) unit for transport. In system B, ALS units do not respond to all calls; BLS units may be sent for noncritical calls. In system C, a nontransport ALS unit is dispatched with a transporting BLS unit. For ALS calls, ALS personnel join BLS personnel for transport. Overall, cities staff an average of one ambulance per 51,223 population. One-tier systems average one ambulance per 53,291 compared with two-tier systems, which average one ambulance per 47,546. In the two-tiered system B, the average ALS unit serves 118,956 population. In the 60% of cities that use a one-tier system, one ALS unit serves 58,336 (P less than .0005). Overall, the code 3 response time for all cities is an average of 6.6 minutes. The average response time of two-tier systems is 5.9 minutes versus 7.0 minutes for one-tier systems (.05 less than P less than .1). These data suggest that the two-tiered system B allows for a given number of ALS units to serve a much larger population while maintaining a rapid code 3 response time.

A One-Tier System: the Tilonia approach to handpump maintenance

A One-Tier System: the Tilonia approach to handpump maintenance

Pharmaceutical education in perspective

Several contemporary issues in pharmaceutical education in the United States are explored. Topics discussed include evolutionary growth and reform in pharmaceutical education, distinction among pharmacists related to practice site, the effects of a pluralistic health-care system on pharmaceutical education, the need for a contemporary philosophy of pharmaceutical education, the place for "training" in pharmaceutical education, and relationships between AACP and ASHP. In the 1980s, pharmaceutical education has three goals to accomplish. First, the relationship between academicians and practitioners must be improved. Second, an active program of recruitment for undergraduate and graduate students needs to be established. Finally, an agreement must be reached on a one- or two-tier structure for education. The author advocates the one-tier (single-entry-degree) system of pharmaceutical education, and he argues that pharmacy will become seriously divided if it does not commit itself to this course.