bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Dynamics of Incomes and Occupational Pensions after Retirement
Authors: JOHNSON PAUL , STEARS GARY , WEBB STEVEN 
Published: March 2005

AbstractThis paper uses two waves of the UK Retirement Survey to look at how incomes change during retirement. We concentrate on men aged 65–69 and women aged 60–69 in 1988–89 and look at how their incomes change over the following five years. Overall, we find a considerable degree of stability in real incomes. We use the panel data to look at the incomes of widows before and after they are widowed and find that, for this group of relatively young widows, their low incomes are in large part determined by the fact that it tends to be the relatively poorer husbands who die among this age‐group. Finally, we consider the most important component of private income — occupational pensions — separately. We find a strong relationship between pension level and the probability of indexation — pensions that start low are less likely than higher pensions to keep up with inflation. JEL classification: D31, H55
Global and Regional Public Goods: A Prognosis for Collective Action
Authors: SANDLER TODD 
Published: March 2005

AbstractThis paper applies modern concepts from the theory of public goods to indicate why progress has been made with respect to some global and regional public goods (for example, cutting sulphur emissions) but not with respect to others (for example, cutting greenhouse gases). Factors promoting collective action at the transnational level include the removal of uncertainty, a high share of nation‐specific benefits, a limited number of essential participants and the presence of an influential leader nation. The impact of public good aggregation technologies on the future provision of transnational public goods is related to the trend in world‐wide income inequality. Principles are presented for designing supranational structures for addressing transnational public good problems.JEL classification: H41, D70, Q20.
Distributional Effects of Liberalising UK Residential Utility Markets
Authors: PRICE CATHERINE WADDAMS , HANCOCK RUTH 
Published: March 2005

AbstractCompetition is being extended into residential utility markets world‐wide; the European directives on telecoms, electricity and gas will extend choice throughout the European Union by the turn of the century. In the UK, the Privatisation Acts not only changed the ownership of utilities, but imposed a duty on the regulators to encourage competition. It is the introduction of competition, actual and potential, that has been the main force behind changing the relative prices charged to different consumers, particularly in the residential market. We use household‐level data to identify the distributional impact, particularly on vulnerable households and those for whom regulators have special responsibilities. We find a mixed outcome, with some vulnerable households, especially pensioners, adversely affected: we suggest potential compensation mechanisms that could improve welfare by enabling the benefits of competition in these industries supplying essential services to be gained without harming the most vulnerable households. JEL classification: D40, 118.
Regulating Drug Prices: Where Do We Go from Here?
Authors: BLOOM NICHOLAS , VAN REENEN JOHN 
Published: March 2005

AbstractThis paper examines the arguments for changing the ways that UK drug prices are regulated. In the UK, NHS pharmaceutical expenditures on branded drugs, currently worth about £3 billion a year, have been regulated by the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) since 1978. We argue that, in publicly funded healthcare systems, pharmaceutical price regulation is necessitated by a tendency towards excessive government expenditure because of over‐prescription and the monopoly power of firms with on‐patent drugs. We briefly explain the operation of the PPRS. which is based on rate‐of‐return regulation, and discuss its merits and drawbacks. We then consider five alternative pricing systems: free pricing, therapeutic benefit pricing, international reference pricing, therapeutic reference pricing and RPI ‐ X price regulation. However, we reject all these alternatives in favour of a reformed PPRS. We suggest three potential reforms of the PPRS: an RPI ‐ X cost allowance if feasible or a widening of the rate‐of‐return bands otherwise; the introduction of a marketing innovation allowance; and greater regulatory transparency. JEL classification: L5, L6, D4.
Does It Pay to Work in the Public Sector?
Authors: DISNEY RICHARD , GOSLING AMANDA 
Published: March 2005

AbstractThis paper uses microeconomic data from the British Household Panel and General Household Surveys to describe how the distribution of pay differs between the public and private sectors in 1983 and in the early 1990s. Separate analyses by gender and education group reveal that it is women and those with intermediate‐level qualifications who do best in the public sector. The large differences between the shapes of the conditional (that is, holding age and education constant) distributions of wages in the public and private sectors are demonstrated using quantile regressions estimated separately for each education group. The paper also exploits the longitudinal structure of the data used to assess how much of these differences can be explained by the unobserved characteristics of individuals. JEL classifications: J31, J45.
Equity and Ecotax Reform in the EU: Achieving a 10 per cent Reduction in CO2Emissions Using Excise Duties
Authors: BARKER TERRY , KÖHLER JONATHAN 
Published: March 2005

AbstractThis paper considers the distributional effects of imposing additional excise duties on energy products according to carbon content. The assumed duties escalate from 1999 to 2010 and achieve levels reducing CO2emissions by 10 per cent below baseline by 2010 for 11 EU member states. By 2010, real personal disposable incomes are 1.6 per cent above baseline and employment is 1.2 per cent above, assuming that the change is tax‐revenue‐neutral. The study concludes that the changes will be weakly regressive for nearly all the member states in the study if revenues are used to reduce employers’ taxes and strongly progressive if they are given back lump‐sum to households.JEL classification: C53, D12, H22, Q48.
Tax Relief and Partnership Pensions
Authors: AGULNIK PHIL , GRAND JULIAN LE 
Published: March 2005

‘No‐one ever got rich by passing up golden opportunities and that's exactly what a personal pension offers you. Why?Because one of the beauties of saving for your retirement is that the government actually gives you money — and lots of it — to encourage you … you get back every penny of the income tax you pay on the money you invest.’ Small print: ‘the value of the tax benefit depends on how much tax you pay’.Virgin advertisement, The Guardian, 17 September 1997.
AbstractGovernment support of private (occupational and personal) pensions through tax relief is an important element in the UK's retirement income system. However, the current tax relief system is regressive, lacks transparency and is difficult to control. This paper argues that it should be replaced by a cost‐neutral matching‐grant or tax‐credit scheme. Such a scheme would embody the ‘partnership’ idea implicit in much government policy in this area, but would be much more progressive, more open and more accountable than existing arrangements. The argument is illustrated through a comparison of the cost and distributional impact of the current system with those of an alternative tax‐credit scheme. JEL classification: H55.
Measuring Compliance with the Golden Rule
Authors: ROBINSON MARC 
Published: March 2005

AbstractThe golden rule of public finance is based upon the notin that intergenerational equity requires that the cost of public expenditures be spread over time in a manner that reflects the intertemporal distribution of the benefits generated by those expenditures. This is often translated into a rule that the budget be structurally balanced in accrual accounting terms. This article considers the form of accrual accounting that is most suited to the task of measuring the consistency of fiscal policy with the golden rule. It recommends a combination of the real capital maintenance approach (also known as ‘current purchasing power accounting’) and annuity depreciation. Such an approach differs from ‘current cost accounting’, which has dominated public sector models of accrual accounting in recent years. The meaning of balance‐sheet measures is also considered, and it is concluded that the golden rule is more appropriately expressed as an accrual balanced budget requirement than as a requirement for the maintenance of constant net worth. JEL classification: H6, M40.
Ecological Restoration and Large‐Scale Ecological Disturbance: The Effects of Drought on the Response by Fish to a Habitat Restoration Experiment
Authors: Bond N. R. , Lake P. S. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract Human‐induced erosion regularly delivers massive quantities of fine sediments into streams and rivers forming large static bodies of sediment known as sand slugs, which smother in‐stream habitat, alter community structure, and decrease biodiversity. Sand slugs are widespread in parts of southeastern Australia as well as in many other parts of the world, and there is now considerable interest in restoring such affected streams. The reintroduction of large timber is widely suggested as a strategy for restoring habitat complexity, but this has rarely been tested in sand slug–affected streams. We examined the response of fish populations to wood addition to two streams in southeastern Australia that have been impacted by sand slugs. Manipulated sites (three per treatment) had either one or four timber structures added, and these sites were compared with (three) unmanipulated (control) sites before and after the manipulation occurred. Despite a supraseasonal drought during the study, we observed short‐term increases in the abundance of Mountain galaxias (Galaxias olidus) at the four‐structure sites, while both the four‐structure and the one‐structure treatments appeared to buffer against drought‐induced declines in two other species, River blackfish (Gadopsis marmoratus) and Southern pygmy perch (Nannoperca australis), relative to controls. However, drought eventually caused the complete loss of surface water from these streams and the loss of fish from both manipulated and unmanipulated sites. Thus, although the study supports the use of timber structures as a means of increasing local fish abundances, these beneficial effects were, in these streams, contingent upon permanency of flow. Because sedimentation has depleted the number of permanent refuge pools in these creeks, recovery rates of the fauna (i.e., resilience) are likely to be slow. We therefore conclude that in streams subjected to frequent disturbance, restoring refugia may be as, if not more, important as restoring what we term residential habitat.
Effect of Grazing on Restoration of Endemic Dwarf Pine (Pinus culminicola Andresen et Beaman) Populations in Northeastern Mexico
Authors: Jiménez J , Jurado E , Aguirre O , Estrada E 
Published: March 2005

Abstract A pilot experiment designed to test the effect of cattle, small mammals, and elevation on the success of reforestation of an endemic dwarf pine species in northeastern Mexico was implemented. Pinus culminicola (Andresen et Beaman) grows only in four high peaks in the Sierra Madre Oriental and is under pressure from grazing, wildfires, and human activities such as mining, road development for timber extraction, and telecommunication and aerial navigation devices. We planted and monitored 2‐year‐old seedlings at three elevations within the natural distribution range of this species at Cerro El Potosí in Nuevo León, Mexico. At each elevation three treatments were established: (1) seedlings protected from cattle plus small mammals, (2) seedlings protected from cattle, and (3) seedlings with free access to cattle and small mammals. Seedling survival was approximately 50% in (1) after 4 years, but there were no surviving seedlings with free access to cattle. Elevation in general did not account for variation in survival. Seedling growth was poor during the 4 years, which implies that seedlings remain susceptible to grazing and trampling by cattle and small mammals. The implications for a large‐scale restoration program are discussed.
Restoring Lepidopteran Communities to Oak Savannas: Contrasting Influences of Habitat Quantity and Quality
Authors: Summerville K.S. , R M. Steichen , Lewis M.N. 
Published: March 2005

Abstract Ecological restoration is deemed important for the long‐term conservation of biodiversity, but ecologists still lack an understanding of how habitat availability and habitat quality in a restored system interact to determine species diversity. This problem seems particularly apparent in Tallgrass Prairie and savanna ecoregions, where restored management units represent the majority of extant habitat. In this study, we tested three principal hypotheses, each stating that the diversity of Lepidoptera would be greater in (1) patches of savanna habitat that were larger; (2) patches that were of higher habitat quality; and (3) patches that had greater connectivity to management units of similar physiognomy. Lepidoptera were sampled in 2003 from 13 unmanaged woodland remnants within Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, a 2,292‐ha prairie and savanna reconstruction project. We also measured 11 environmental variables within each site to assess variation in habitat quantity and quality. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to identify major gradients of environmental variation among the 13 sites. Our PCA differentiated among woodlands along three environmental gradients, defined by (1) stand size, shape, topography, and oak dominance; (2) degree of disturbance; and (3) isolation. Total lepidopteran species richness, however, was only predicted by variation in the first principal component. Species richness of Lepidoptera known to be oak specialists was significantly affected by variation along all three PCA gradients. Surprisingly, more isolated woodland remnants contained a greater richness of oak feeders. Our results suggest that approaches to restoring oak savannas should emphasize aspects of both habitat quantity and quality. Beyond making individual management units larger, priority sites for restoration should possess a low importance of trees that are indicative of past habitat disturbance (e.g., Honey locust, White mulberry) even if canopy closure is substantial. Connectivity among restored habitats may benefit savanna moth communities only when habitat linkages contain a flora similar in composition to focal patches.
The Restoration of Degraded Mountain Woodlands: Effects of Seed Provenance and Microsite Characteristics onPolylepis australisSeedling Survival and Growth in Central Argentina
Authors: Renison D , Cingolani A.M. , Suarez R , Menoyo E , Coutsiers C , Sobral A , Hensen I 
Published: March 2005

AbstractSouth American high‐mountain ecosystems are greatly influenced by human disturbance. In the mountains of Córdoba, Argentina,Polylepis australis(Rosaceae) woodlands are currently highly fragmented and subject to extensive burning and livestock grazing, resulting in severe changes of habitat characteristics, which hamper natural regeneration. In order to find out how to achieve successful reforestation, we comparedP. australisseedling survival and growth and the development of a shrubby habit for two seed provenances and different planting microsites. Survival of planted seedlings after 5 years was 70%, with most deaths (19%) in the first year and declining mortality with ongoing establishment. Survival did not show any relationship with seed provenance or microsite characteristics. Height growth averaged 34.6 ± 1.2 cm in 5 years. Seedlings produced from seeds collected in a well‐preserved woodland grew taller and showed a higher tendency for development of shrubby habit than those produced from seeds collected in a degraded woodland. Seedlings planted in more degraded microsites with exposed soil or rock due to past grazing pressure grew less and developed a more shrubby habit than those planted in better preserved microsites. Our results show that restoration of degraded areas withP. australisis possible and that there is potential to improve restoration success with a careful selection of seed provenance and planting microsites.
Epilogue: Toward a Transdisciplinary Science of Ecological and Cultural Landscape Restoration
Authors: Naveh Z 
Published: March 2005

Abstract To bridge the gaps between restoration as a science and as a practice, restoration ecology has to broaden its scope toward transdisciplinarity in close cooperation with landscape ecologists and other holistic environmentally oriented scientists, professionals, practitioners, and stakeholders. For restoration, the ongoing transdisciplinary scientific revolution has opened new insights to cope with the complex bio‐hydro‐ and human‐ecological network relations. The Total Human Ecosystem (THE), integrating humans with all other organisms and their total environment at the highest level of the global hierarchy, should become the unifying holistic paradigm for all synthetic “eco‐disciplines.” These should link ecological knowledge, wisdom, and ethics with their scientific and professional expertise from the natural and social sciences and the humanities. As the tangible matrix for all organisms, including humans, our industrial Total Human Landscape is the concrete spatial and functional system of the THE. It forms a closely interlaced network of solar energy–powered natural and seminatural biosphere landscapes and fossil energy–powered urban and agro‐industrial technosphere landscapes. The self‐organizing and self‐creative restoration capacities of biosphere landscapes are driven by mutually amplifying auto‐ and cross‐catalytic feedback loops, but the rapidly expanding technosphere landscapes are driven by destabilizing “run‐away” feedback loops. To prevent a global breakdown and to ensure the sustainable future for both humankind and nature, these positive feedbacks have to be counteracted by restraining, cultural feedbacks of environmental planning and management, conservation, and restoration. As the theme of this special issue alludes to, this template should become an integral part of an urgently needed sustainability revolution, to which the transdisciplinary landscape restoration could contribute its important share.
Frequent microsatellite alterations of chromosome locus 4q13.1 in oral squamous cell carcinomas
Authors: Lin Shu‐Chun , Chang Mei‐Fong , Chung Ming‐Yi , Chang Che‐Shoa , Kao Shou‐Yen , Liu Chung‐Ji , Chang Kuo‐Wei 
Published: March 2005

Background:  Studies have revealed that losses of chromosome 4q24–25 regions are frequent in cancers including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Our previous comparative genomic hybridization analysis showed extensive losses of chromosome arm 4q in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).Methods:  To be more precise in mapping the potential regions of allelic losses and to understand the microsatellite instability (MSI) on 4q involving in oral pathogenesis, we performed allelotypings using eight polymorphic markers. Microsatellite analyses were first performed on 100 randomly selected controls to confirm the high informative rates of markers. Twenty OSCC tissues were microdissected from surgical specimens for microsatellite alterations (MA) analysis.Results:  MA was observed in 95% OSCC cases. The most eminently altered locus was 4q13.1 (75%), followed by 4q22.2 and 4q32.1 (55%). Allelic losses also occurred most frequently on these loci. Thirty‐five percent cases had MA spanning 4q13.1 to 4q21.1. MSI occurred in 35% OSCC, at a lesser extent compared with allelic losses. The most common locus for MSI was 4q21.2 (20%). In addition, 4q MSI was significantly associated with the lymph node metastasis of OSCC (P = 0.01). So far, most tumor suppressor genes on 4q have not been specified.Conclusion:  Our results were additive to previous findings and proposed novel scenario of suppressor loci located at 4q13.1–21.1 whose inactivation could be important for progression of OSCC.
Hepatitis C virus‐associated oral lichen planus: is the geographical heterogeneity related to HLA‐DR6?
Authors: Carrozzo M. , Brancatello F. , Dametto E. , Arduino P. , Pentenero M. , Rendine S. , Porter S. R. , Lodi G. , Scully C. , Gandolfo S. 
Published: March 2005

Background:  The association between hepatitis C virus (HCV) and oral lichen planus (OLP) is more common in the Mediterranean area and Japan, possibly because of immunogenetic factors.Methods:  Intermediate‐resolution HLA‐DRB typing by hybridization with oligonucleotide probes was performed in 31 Italian OLP patients with HCV infection, in 45 Italian OLP and in 48 British OLP patients without HCV infection. As healthy controls we included data from 145 unrelated Italian and 101 unrelated British bone marrow donors.Results:  Italian HCV+ve OLP patients possessed the HLA‐DR6 allele more frequently than Italian and British OLP patients without HCV infection (51.6% vs. 17.7% vs. 16.7%; P corrected = 0.028 and 0.017, respectively). There was no difference in the frequency of the HLA‐DR6 allele between Italian and British control subjects.Conclusions:  The present data suggest that HLA‐DR6 may be responsible for the peculiar geographic heterogeneity of the association between HCV and OLP.
The phenotype of in vitro reconstituted normal human oral epithelium is essentially determined by culture medium
Authors: Costea Daniela Elena , Dimba Anne Okumo Elizabeth , Loro Lado Lako , Vintermyr Olav Karsten , Johannessen Anne Christine 
Published: March 2005

Objective:  To evaluate the role of various culture media and serum supplement on growth of oral cells in monolayer, and on morphogenesis of in vitro reconstituted normal human oral epithelium.Methods:  Primary keratinocytes and fibroblasts were isolated from normal human buccal mucosa. The monolayers were assessed by growth curve analysis and morphology. The organotypic cultures were evaluated by morphometry, immunohistochemistry, and TUNEL.Results:
FAD medium (a 3:1 mixture of Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium and Ham's F12 medium) was able to support fibroblast growth in defined conditions, and to diminish the negative effect of physiological Ca concentration on keratinocytes in monolayers. Medium type had a profound influence on morphogenesis of in vitro reconstituted human oral epithelium. FAD medium was superior to other types of medium tested in supporting both epithelial growth and differentiation. Defined conditions supported epithelial morphogenesis equally well as serum‐containing medium.Conclusions:  This study points to an essential role of medium composition for optimized growth and differentiation of primary organotypic cultures.