Pro-cyclicality of capital regulation: is it a problem? How to fix it?

We use a macroeconomic euro area model with a bank sector to study the pro-cyclical effect of the capital regulation, focusing on the extra pro-cyclicality induced by Basel II over Basel I. Our results suggest that this incremental effect is modest. We also find that regulators could offset the extra pro-cyclicality by a countercyclical capital-requirements policy. Our results also suggest that banks may have incentives to accumulate countercyclical capital buffers, making this policy less relevant, but this finding is depends on the type of economic shock posited. We also survey different policy options for dealing with procyclicality and discuss the pros and cons of the measures available.Basel accord, pro-cyclicality

From Peace-building towards Development: Opportunities and challenges for Sierra Leone’s future

Simone Datzberger (LSE), Viviane Dittrich (LSE) and Luisa Enria (Oxford) review the recent Sierra Leone research workshop that took place at LSE

Recuperación del cuerpo de Mujeres Mayores a partir de la mediación de los Programas de Salud

Desde mediados del siglo XX se reconoce mundialmente el envejecimiento continuo y constante de la población. Este grupo muestra particularidades que son abordadas desde diferentes espacios sanitarios. El más reconocido de ellos, los Programas de salud tienen como una de sus principales metas 'controlar' las enfermedades; en este caso las asociadas con el proceso de envejecimiento. El trabajo aborda la emergencia del cuerpo a partir de la implementación de dichas políticas. El objetivo ha sido describir las implicancias que surgen en la recuperación del cuerpo de mujeres Mayores, cuyas prácticas culturales y roles sociales han ocultado a sus sensaciones y proyecciones cotidianas. Se implementó una metodología cualitativa a partir de relatos de experiencias de mujeres Mayores que participan de las actividades prescritas desde los Programas de Salud propuestos por el Instituto Nacional de Servicios Sociales para Jubilados y Pensionados, en los lugares donde dichas actividades se realizan. Los resultados obtenidos marcan la re-emergencia de un cuerpo que el contexto y la historia de esas mujeres se ocuparon de borrar de las prioridades cotidianas, y que las enfermedades ponen de manifiesto desde el lugar del dolor y la pérdida, habilitando a sensaciones, sentimientos, goces, que se creían perdido

Programas de Salud y Género. Mujeres con VIH/SIDA

La proliferación de trabajos biológicos sobre el proceso del VIH/Sida contrasta con el abordaje de la problemática desde la experiencia de los que lo viven. De entre los involucrados, la mujer se vio implicada desde el comienzo como una de las poblaciones de riesgo de contagiar y de enfermarse. La embarazada, objeto privilegiado de la salud pública, contó con programas especiales y normativas estrictas a través de los programas de salud, que dejaron fuera lo que pasaba con ellas en las relaciones con los compañeros y con ellas mismas; sus experiencias, sus perspectivas, sus nociones de futuro; así como su relación con el sistema de salud y con los médicos. En este trabajo se aplicó una metodología cualitativa basada en entrevistas abiertas a mujeres con VIH de la ciudad de Rosario, Argentina. Los hallazgos remiten a una serie de experiencias que relatan sus estrategias y contradicciones, abriendo puentes hacia la comprensión

Fair value accounting and financial stability

Accounting standard setters are considering the wider use of fair value accounting. This paper focuses on the financial stability implications of a move in the banking sector from the current accounting framework to full fair value accounting. A simulation exercise is performed on how various external shocks affect the balance sheet of an average European bank under the two frameworks. The paper further investigates the impact of the alternative framework on the main balance sheet items, and the interaction with banks’ risk management, supervisory tools and statistical requirements. It also examines how the application of fair value accounting to banks’ trading book has impacted their share price volatility. It is concluded that the introduction of full fair value accounting could have a significant effect in terms of income volatility, procyclicality of bank lending and more generally financial stability. Hence, any move towards this alternative accounting framework should be gradual.accounting, banks, fair value, financial regulation, financial reporting, financial stability, risk management.

Power, fairness and trust: understanding and engaging with vaccine trial participants and communities in the setting up the EBOVAC-Salone vaccine trial in Sierra Leone.

BACKGROUND: This paper discusses the establishment of a clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine candidate in Kambia District, Northern Sierra Leone during the epidemic, and analyses the role of social science research in ensuring that lessons from the socio-political context, the recent experience of the Ebola outbreak, and learning from previous clinical trials were incorporated in the development of community engagement strategies. The paper aims to provide a case study of an integrated social science and communications system in the start-up phase of the clinical trial. METHODS: The paper is based on qualitative research methods including ethnographic observation, interviews with trial participants and key stakeholder interviews. RESULTS: Through the case study of EBOVAC Salone, the paper suggests ways in which research can be used to inform communication strategies before and during the setting up of the trial. It explores notions of power, fairness and trust emerging from analysis of the Sierra Leonean context and through ethnographic research, to reflect on three situations in which social scientists and community liaison officers worked together to ensure successful community engagement. Firstly, a section on "power" considers the pitfalls of considering communities as homogeneous and shows the importance of understanding intra-community power dynamics when engaging communities. Secondly, a section on "fairness" shows how local understandings of what is fair can help inform the design of volunteer recruitment strategies. Finally, a section on "trust" highlights how historically rooted rumours can be effectively addressed through active dialogue rather than through an approach focused on correcting misinformation. CONCLUSION: The paper firstly emphasises the value of social science in the setting up of clinical trials, in terms of providing an in depth understanding of context and social dynamics. Secondly, the paper suggests the importance of a close collaboration between research and community engagement to effectively confront political and social dynamics, especially in the context of an epidemic

"An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop"? The politics of work amongst Freetown's youth

Youth unemployment has been presented as a security risk to countries emerging from civil war. These assessments often rely on the assumption of a direct relationship between labour market exclusion and political violence. This thesis challenges this assumption, not by denying that the connection exists, but by suggesting that we need a better understanding of how the two are related. Through qualitative research with young people engaged precariously on the margins of the informal economy in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, the thesis explores how labour market experiences influence different patterns of political mobilisation. It puts forward that violence is not inherent to unemployment, but that the impact of joblessness on mobilisation is mediated by social factors and the specific nature of the post-war political economy. For Freetown's youth, labour market exclusion has implications for social status, identities, norms and the nature of social relations. This in turn shapes their political subjectivities and claims on the state; it structures the opportunities and constraints to their collective action; and influences their trajectories towards political violence. These processes reflect a fraught articulation between tactics employed expediently to respond to structural circumstances and longer-term aspirations. Individual attempts to survive adverse economic and political terrains coexist with work-based political claims placed on the state and aspirations of social and political inclusion, even if the two are often at odds and the former undermine the latter

The Ebola Crisis in Sierra Leone: Mediating Containment and Engagement in Humanitarian Emergencies

This article explores how framings of the 2014�16 outbreak of Ebola as a crisis, its causes, nature and consequences gave rise to two seemingly contradictory types of interventions within affected communities in Sierra Leone: a militarized state of emergency on the one hand, and efforts to foster local engagement and ownership on the other. Teasing out explicitly the underlying logic of these two modes of response, we are able to discern the convergence between containment and engagement approaches that are at the heart of contemporary humanitarianism. Rather than being opposed or contradictory, the article shows how they were mutually constitutive, through negotiations between different ways of knowing and responding to the Ebola crisis. The resulting divisive practices, juxtaposing �Ebola heroes� and �dangerous bodies�, re-ordered the landscapes that individuals had to navigate in order to manage uncertainty. Tracing these logics through to the �subjects� of intervention, the article tells the story of one traditional healer's �epistemic navigations� in his efforts to survive both the epidemic and its response. Bringing these dynamics and their consequences to the fore in the Sierra Leonean case invites broader reflections on a humanitarian assemblage increasingly reliant on the mutual constitution of containment and engagement, security and resilience, in its approach to managing �at risk� populations

Fair value accounting and financial stability

Accounting standard setters are considering the wider use of fair value accounting. This paper focuses on the financial stability implications of a move in the banking sector from the current accounting framework to full fair value accounting. A simulation exercise is performed on how various external shocks affect the balance sheet of an average European bank under the two frameworks. The paper further investigates the impact of the alternative framework on the main balance sheet items, and the interaction with banks’ risk management, supervisory tools and statistical requirements. It also examines how the application of fair value accounting to banks’ trading book has impacted their share price volatility. It is concluded that the introduction of full fair value accounting could have a significant effect in terms of income volatility, procyclicality of bank lending and more generally financial stability. Hence, any move towards this alternative accounting framework should be gradual