Choosing Scotland S Future Electronic Resource

The Scottish economy is at the heart of contemporary constitutional and public policy debates. This substantial new edited collection, the first comprehensive and authoritative analysis for more than 60 years, is a timely update on the classic volume of the same name edited by Sir Alec Cairncross in 1954. It is data rich, and offers links to updatable data and leading indicators of the Scottish economy including measures of public finances, distributional evidence and growth. Readers will find a series of easy to follow chapters covering the Scottish economy from every angle – oil and gas, health, education, finance, rural Scotland, inequality, climate change, gender and work, housing, infrastructure and cities. Each sector-based chapter explores the main issues, draws out key empirical facts and considers policy challenges that lie ahead. This book includes: an historical account of the development of the Scottish economy; the trajectory of economic policy in Scotland; reviews of the current fiscal position and the wider economic landscape; and also an intriguing insight into the emerging distinctive approach to Scottish public policy. This book brings together evidence and high quality research by experts on the Scottish economy in a politically neutral, accessible and non-technical way. The volume will assist readers in navigating their way through the many political debates about constitutional and economic futures that are underway in modern Scotland and the UK. A website also exists to accompany The Scottish Economy - www.scottisheconomy.scot. In today's inter-connected world, it makes sense to have a book on the Scottish economy supplemented by online access to important data, information and evidence as a means of keeping material current.

A critical engagement with the state of social policy a decade after Scotland's devolution in the UK, this book focuses on the successive Scottish administration's key vision of greater social justice as it pertains to the analysis of its social policy. Arguing that such analysis must be located in wider debates about social justice, it shows how the devolution process has affected the making, implementation, and impact of Scotland's social programs. Looking at a range of topics, including income inequality, work and welfare, criminal justice, housing, education, and health, the contributors to this volume offer a comprehensive look at the ways administrative vision has been translated--or not--into effective policy.

The universe of electronic resources is indeed diverse, expansive, intimidating, and unstructured compared to the finite, prepackaged print world upon which the information delivery infrastructure has been constructed. Electronic Resources: Selection and Bibliographic Control addresses the resultant concerns of information professionals as they struggle to define, select, and control electronic resources in libraries and information centers today. This book offers readers an overview of issues and provides a common ground for deliberations and decisionmaking. Librarians and students concerned with the Internet and related issues will appreciate the broad scope and in-depth discussions in Electronic Resources: Selection and Bibliographic Control. From both conceptual and pragmatic standpoints, this book enlightens the reader on such topics as: Internet resources the relationship between OPAC and Internet Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) versus USMARC Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Core Language and the Information Bus Dublin Core Metadata as a discovery/retrieval tool decision-making matrix model e-texts and e-theses digital materials and digital libraries This book also gives the reader an inside look at a number of specific emerging projects from around the world. Highlighted here are the CATRIONA project from the U.K.--designing an Internet discovery and retrieval system; the ALCUIN project--using traditional infrastructure to handle Internet resources; the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH) and the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia; the OCLC Internet Cataloging project; and the National Digital Library Program (NDLP), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and electronic CIP projects at the Library of Congress. Electronic Resources: Selection and Bibliographic Control clearly illustrates the evolving role of librarian fro

This book is a study of the increasing territorial variations in the development of sub-national welfare systems that have occurred as an effect of the decentralization of health care and social assistance policies in Italy, Spain and Great Britain. The author examines the political factors that underlie these variations by combining cross-regional and cross-country comparisons using mixed methods. Vampa’s main finding is that regionalist parties have played a key role in sub-national welfare building and have used social policy to strengthen their legitimacy in the political struggle against central authorities. In this context, functional political competition between Left and Right has been partly replaced by territorial competition between Centre and Periphery as the main determinant of social policy making. Additionally, mainstream left-wing parties have been torn between maintaining territorial uniformity in social protection and responding to demands for more extensive social services tailored to the needs and preferences of specific regional communities. This book will be of use to academics and policy makers interested in political economy, devolution/decentralisation, welfare, and party politics.

. . . a text detailing several recent, state-of-the-art choice experiment studies in European Union countries is valuable for illustrating the usefulness of the method for informing environmental policy. . . Birol and Koundouri have admirably compiled an array of case studies that provide relevant information for European environmental, agricultural, natural resource management and food policy, and that also offer a number of advances in the application and analysis of the CEM. The text is suitable for academics and graduate students with an interest in current applications of stated preference methods and for policy-makers interested in understanding people s preferences for environmental quality. . . Bethany Cooper, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management This volume provides an assessment of the literature on environmental valuation in Europe. It outlines some of the key environmental policy issues facing European Union countries and provides information on preferences and values associated with policy options. It also provides a set of state of the art examples of preference elicitation and analysis. This volume will be of interest to a variety of audiences. The book provides insights that will be useful to policy makers interested in understanding the public s preferences for environmental quality and it will be useful to academics and graduate students interested in cutting edge applications of stated preference methods. Wictor Adamowicz, University of Alberta, Canada This innovative book is a compilation of state-of-the-art choice experiment studies undertaken in several European Union (EU) countries, including Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The case studies presented concern a variety of environmental, agricultural and natural resource issues such as the management of water resources, forests and agricultural landscapes; conservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage; noise pollution reduction and food labeling. The book highlights how the choice experiment method can be employed to inform efficient and effective design and implementation of various EU level agricultural and environmental policies and directives, including the Common Agricultural Policy, Water Framework Directive, Forestry Strategy, Habitats Directive and food labeling systems. This book will be of great interest to researchers working in the fields of environmental, natural resource and agricultural economics. Academics and graduate students worldwide, as well as applied economists working in international and national organizations, would benefit from the cutting edge choice experiment applications presented in this book. International and national policy makers will also benefit from the information on the use and usefulness of the choice experiment method in informing efficient and effective environmental, agricultural and natural resource management policy making.

This paper is the first step in a wide-ranging national conversation about the future of Scotland, which will allow the people of Scotland to consider the concept of Scottish independence, by exploring areas in which Scotland could take on further responsibilities such as national finances and employment.

A collection of scholarly accounts and articles written by recognized experts in environmental economics, this book is the first of its kind and as a valuable reference and textual source for graduate students and active researchers. It draws together the pedagogical discussion of the key tools used to conduct theoretical and empirical research in natural resource and environmental economics. With contributions by prominent international researchers like Robert Ayres, Charles Perrings and Anastasios Xepapadeas, the book will be useful for researchers who wish to learn new techniques or change their area of research emphasis within natural resource and environmental economics or those who wish to familiarize themselves with these tools.