Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam each conducted a Ricardian analysis of crop net revenue (NR) in their country. The countries defined seasons slightly differently depending on their monsoon and dry periods. They also sometimes included slightly different variables in their regressions. The countries are small so that the climate results are often insignificant. However, the Ricardian model does predict near term damage in Bangladesh in the CanESM climate scenario and near and far term damage in Thailand in the CMCC climate scenario.

Based on requirements under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, most state vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) programs have, since 2002, replaced the tailpipe emission testing with the on-board diagnostic (OBD) II testing for 1996 model and newer vehicles. This test relies on the OBD II system to give the pass or fail result, depending on certain conditions that might cause the vehicle to emit pollution 1.5 times higher than the regulated standard. The OBD II system is a computer and sensors installed in the vehicle to monitor the emission control units and signal if there is any malfunction. As a vehicle ages, its engine, pollution control units, and OBD II system deteriorate. Because the OBD II system's durability directly influences the test outcome, it is important to examine the fleetwide trend in the OBD II test results in comparison with an alternative measure of identifying high emitting vehicles. This study investigates whether the validity and reliability of the OBD II test is related to the age of the OBD II system installed in the fleet. Using Atlanta's I/M testing records and remote sensing device (RSD) data collected during [2002][2003][2004][2005], this research establishes the convergent validity and interobserver reliability criteria for the OBD II test based on on-road emissions measured by RSDs. The study results show that older vehicles exhibit significantly lower RSD-OBD II outcome agreement than newer vehicles. This suggests that the validity and reliability of the OBD II test may decline in the older vehicle fleets. Explanations and possible confounding factors for these findings are discussed.

Even though the Schumpeterian hypotheses have II. R&D INVESTMENT AND FIRM SIZE been tested for several decades, there are very limited numbers of studies using data from developing countries. Existing literatures A. Overview on developing countries tend to concentrate on some particular The relationship between firm size and innovation countries. This study provides another test of Schumpeterian hypotheses using data of Thai firms. The results partly support (normally measured by R&D investment as an iput of the Schumpeterian hypotheses. The study shows that firm size innovation) is originally proposed by Schumpeter [1] -[2]. affects the decision to undertake R&D. However, upon firms For seven decades, his hypotheses have generated numerous undertaking R&D, R&D intensity does not increase studies, yet yielding inconclusive results. Selected major disproportionately with the size of the firms, all else constant. studies investigating these hypotheses include Scherer [3] -Moreover, the skilled workforces are relatively more important [5] Scmookler [6] -[7] Mansfield et al [8] Freeman [9]for firms undertaking R&D than the financial aspects. These C5]

Like democracy, development is an essentially contested concept, with too much tied up in its meaning to allow it ever to settle into one form. The word invokes process and direction, and invites the question: development toward what? For a peasant in India, development may mean steady food, the assurance of staying on the land, and fewer children dying young. For a World Bank official, the peasant's dream would appear in statistics on poverty alleviation and reduction in child mortality. To an industrialist, development may mean business survival and personal wealth; to an economist, growth in gross domestic product; and to a politician, jobs, popularity, and power.Amartya Sen (2000) defines development as freedom. Freedom is central to the process of development, he argues, both because "achievement of development is thoroughly dependent on the free agency of people" (freedom as means) and because it provides a yardstick for measuring progress (freedom as end). Development as freedom means human beings gaining the capability to achieve their own goals in their own contexts.The substantive freedoms include elementary capabilities like being able to avoid such deprivations as starvation, undernourishment, escapable morbidity, and premature mortality, as well as the freedoms that are associated with being literate and numerate, enjoying political participation and uncensored speech, and so on (Sen, 2000: 3).