The Nature of a Public Service

Public services have been misunderstood. They are not simply services in the public sector, they are not necessarily there because of “market failure”, and they cannot be analysed by the same criteria as market-based provision. They have four defining characteristics. They exist for reasons of policy; they provide services to the public; they are redistributive; and they act as a trust. They consequently operate differently from production for profit, in their priorities, costs, capacity and outputs.     

Good to share? The pecuniary implications of moving to shared service production for local government services

Shared services are often lauded as an efficacious means of reducing municipal expenditure and thereby improving waning financial sustainability. However, most of the extant theoretical and empirical work only considers costs and benefits at the level of the specific service in question and, hence, fails to capture many of the wider benefits and costs that might accrue to local governments. In this article we first build a schema to illustrate the benefits and costs of moving from separate to collaborative production at the level of individual local authorities. We then test two hypotheses drawn from the schema against a five‐year panel of expenditure data. We find evidence of increased expenditure in the order of 8 per cent that prima facie runs counter to the objectives of many municipal managers engaged with shared services. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for cooperative ventures between local authorities.     

The Impact of Daycare Attendance on Math Test Scores for a Cohort of Fourth Graders in Brazil

We estimate the impact of having attended centre-based daycare institutions during early childhood on math test scores at the fourth grade level of elementary school. We find evidence that daycare attendance has a net impact on math proficiency, and that the effects are heterogeneous. The effect of daycare and kindergarten attendance on proficiency varies according to mother’s education. The effects of the impact of daycare vary from ?0.28 standard deviation for mothers with no education to 0.42 standard deviation for mother’s with college or more.     

Schooling Costs and Child Work in Rural Pakistan

A conventional argument in the child–labour debate is that improvements in access to schools are an effective way to reduce the labour force participation of children. It is argued that schooling competes with economic activity in the use of children's time, and enhanced access to schools, interpretable as reduction in schooling costs, may raise school attendance at the expense of child labour. In this article, we draw a distinction between child labour within the household (intra-household) and child work in the labour market (extra-household), and examine the separate effects of schooling costs upon these two types of child labour in rural Pakistan. Consistent, at least in part, with our theoretical framework, we find that extra-household child labour and schooling costs are positively related whereas intra-household child labour is insensitive to changes in the costs of schooling. Our results suggest that reduction in schooling costs will have limited success in the abatement of child labour in rural Pakistan.     

The role of perfectionism and autobiographical memory in a sample of parasuicide patients: an exploratory study

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between social perfectionism, overgeneral autobiographical memory recall, and psychological distress (hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation) in a sample of parasuicide patients. Forty patients who had been admitted to a Scottish hospital following an episode of deliberate self-harm participated in the study. The participants completed the autobiographical memory task and a battery of self-report measures (multidimensional perfectionism, hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation). The results showed that repetitive self-harmers were more overgeneral in their recall of positive autobiographical memories than were first-time self-harmers. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that socially prescribed perfectionism interacted with overgeneral recall of both positive and negative memories to predict suicidal ideation/depression. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research.     

Deliberate self-harm patients who discharge themselves from the general hospital without adequate psychosocial assessment

Deliberate self-harm patients who leave the acute hospital environment before the completion of psychiatric assessment have an increased risk of subsequent self-harm. We considered the available data on 50 premature self-discharges identified prospectively in a general hospital with a well-developed integrated-care pathway for self-harm patients, and compared them to a control group. The self-discharge group was found to be more likely to have attempted self-poisoning without alcohol intoxication or other forms or combinations of self-harm, and an absence of identifiable previous self-harm or prior contact with local specialist psychiatric services. The two groups showed no difference in age, sex, or area of residence based on community mental health team sectors. It is proposed that these findings indicate hypotheses for further studies of why people leave the hospital without adequate assessment, and how service design could be improved in order to help them.     

Funding Supported Accommodation: Financial and Administrative Implications of Reforming Housing Benefit

Government proposals to reform the funding of support services in Britain require local authorities to take stock of support schemes in their areas before a new single support budget will replace existing arrangements in April 2003. In the course of the transition, local authorities will also need to scrutinize supported accommodation charges in order to remove charges for services that are unlawfully paid for by Housing Benefit. This paper highlights likely problems in the identification of support schemes and in the estimation of the costs of services. The proposed tightening of the calculation of Housing Benefit will reduce entitlements to the majority of claimants in supported accommodation, many of whom are amongst the poorest people in the country. Efforts must be made to ensure that claimants facing a reduction in their payments are not faced by steady, or even rising, housing costs. In particular, tenants in schemes, which receive no funding under the new single budget, must be protected. The paper discusses the proposals' contribution to bringing housing and community care policies closer together.     

Funding Supported Accommodation: Financial and Administrative Implications of Reforming Housing Benefit

Government proposals to reform the funding of support services in Britain require local authorities to take stock of support schemes in their areas before a new single support budget will replace existing arrangements in April 2003. In the course of the transition, local authorities will also need to scrutinize supported accommodation charges in order to remove charges for services that are unlawfully paid for by Housing Benefit. This paper highlights likely problems in the identification of support schemes and in the estimation of the costs of services. The proposed tightening of the calculation of Housing Benefit will reduce entitlements to the majority of claimants in supported accommodation, many of whom are amongst the poorest people in the country. Efforts must be made to ensure that claimants facing a reduction in their payments are not faced by steady, or even rising, housing costs. In particular, tenants in schemes, which receive no funding under the new single budget, must be protected. The paper discusses the proposals' contribution to bringing housing and community care policies closer together.     

Deliberate self-harm patients with alcohol disorders: characteristics, treatment, and outcome

Deliberate self-harm (DSH) patients with alcohol problems present a considerable challenge for clinical services. In a study of a sample of 150 DSH patients who were representative of all such patients seen at a general hospital during the study period, 40 patients with an ICD-10 diagnosis of alcohol dependence or harmful use of alcohol were compared with the remainder of the sample. The treatment of the patients with alcohol disorders before and after the episode of DSH and the outcome 12-20 months later were also investigated. Compared with other DSH patients, those with an alcohol diagnosis were older and more often male, living alone, unemployed, sick, disabled, or with a past history of DSH. They also had higher scores on measures of anger, aggression, and impulsivity. Comorbid psychiatric disorder was present in 37 (92.5%) patients, this being depression in three-quarters of those cases. Fourteen (35.0%) patients were receiving treatment from the psychiatric services prior to DSH, and 33 (82.5%) were subsequently offered treatment. Of the patients who were followed up, 37.9% remained in contact with psychiatric services, 55.2% showed poor compliance with treatment and 44.8% reported a further episode of DSH. All patients presenting after DSH need to be carefully screened for alcohol disorders and for comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. Treatment of DSH patients with alcohol disorders should include the treatment of any comorbid depressive illness.     

Level of services,spatial dependence and allocative efficiency in local governments

In the public economics literature expenditure needs, allocative efficiency and spatial dependence of local governments costs have been widely analysed separately implying bias estimations of the expenditure needs at local level. An original procedure that simultaneously takes into account the standard level of services, the allocative efficiency and the spatial proximity among Municipalities, has been proposed. The estimation strategy has been applied on a very detailed database of more than 4,000 Italian Municipalities for the year 2013.     

A TALE OF TWO CITIES: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL PROVISION OF HEALTH CARE BEFORE THE NHS

This article critically examines the state of knowledge with respect to the geographical provision of health care before the national health Service (MIS). Most accounts claim that health care was geographically unequal and/or inequitable. On closer examination, however, the claims of these studies appear roblematic. This is due to problems of the sources of data, intretation of the data, anz one writefs assertion becoming a subsequent writer's 'fact'. The xarges of inequality and inequity are critically examined. Then, for the hospital services, the situation is explored using data from a well respected but underutilized national wartime survey. Finally, an attempt is made to comare the degree of geographical inequality before the NHS with that of today. It is conclugd that the degree of inequality before the NHS is not as great as some conventional wisdom would suggest. Therefore, if the charges against the pre-NHs system are to stand, more evidence will be needed.     

Socioeconomic impacts of the proposed federal gaming tax

We review the history of gaming and its taxation in the U.S., particularly in regard to the idea of “sin taxes” which were often presented as policy instruments intended to control problem gamblers. The review suggests that raising taxes neither encourages moderation nor replaces negative external costs. We follow the review with a socioeconomic impact analysis of a proposed four percent Federal Gaming Tax by simulating its impact on Clark County, Nevada for the period 1995-2004 using a large scale econometric multi-regional model. Clark County is of interest because it is where Las Vegas is located. The analysis reveals that the proposed tax would lead to a measurable decline in Clark County's jobs, population, disposable income, and total industrial during the forecast period. By 2004, total industrial output would be 1.3 percent lower under the proposed tax and Clark County would experience a loss of $1.39 in real disposable income for every gaming tax dollar collected by Federal Government. These reductions, coupled particularly with the loss of thousands of jobs in Las Vegas area hotels/casinos predicted by the analysis suggest that increased demands on social services in Clark County would result. These findings, together with the lack of evidence that raising taxes would promote moderation or reduce external negative costs, lead us to argue that excise taxes represent an unattractive option.     

Organizational Versus Individual Attribution: A Case Study of Jemaah Islamiyah and the Anthrax Plot

Recent studies have taken an important first step in examining which terrorist groups, based on their organizational characteristics and the characteristics of the environment in which they operate, are more likely to pursue chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. This approach, however, assumes that individuals who perpetrate events act on behalf of the organization to which they primarily belong. Using the case of Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged attempt to develop the pathogenic bacterium Bacillus anthracis, or anthrax, the authors demonstrate the importance of including individual-level variables to the analysis. In particular, the attendance by several key Jemaah Islamiyah members at an Al Qaeda-affiliated training camp is argued to set a chain of events into motion that ended in their involvement in the anthrax cultivation program.     

Suicide and changing values and beliefs in Ireland

This paper addresses some of the generalized theories explaining rising suicide rates in Ireland. The conclusion here is that linking suicide patterns to changing beliefs and values is problematic. Church attendance as well as adherence to traditional values remain high in this country compared to European levels, and variations in beliefs and values, especially rural/urban differences, do not fit with general explanations. Moreover, attitudes to value areas fluctuate in that justification for suicide--which showed an upward trend in the 1980s--was reversed in the 1990s, and this may have resulted from increased public focus and debate. Generalized explanations are unlikely to decipher complex phenomena such as suicidal behavior. Religious belief, if protective in relation to suicide, is unlikely to act alone. Social transformations have a differential impact depending on one's socio-economic positioning, which translates ideas of a general male vulnerability to suicide into focused areas of male distress.     

Health care for the poor.

In the 1980s the convergence of a number of factors is causing government at all levels, industry, and labor to plan or initiate major reductions in health spending. Important among these are rising health care costs, a troubled national economy, mounting federal deficits and state revenue shortfalls, and the philosophical course and domestic policy of the Reagan administration. In this context government has been rethinking its capacity to finance health services for the poor, and new and sometimes controversial arrangements for delivering these services are being developed. The dilemma government officials face now is how to cut costs while still assuring that quality medical services are available. This article focuses on what these new policy developments and arrangements are and whether the significant gains in access and in health achieved over the past 20 years will be sustained. Because truly sweeping reforms are unlikely, whether government will maintain earlier commitments and established arrangements for financing and delivering health services to the poor will be worked out piecemeal over the next several years.     

Politics,sport mega events and grassroots mobilization. Anticipated triumph and unexpected failure of political elite in Poland

Sport mega events are the most prominent manifestations of the multidimensional and global interrelation between sport and politics. The purpose of the paper is to present the contrasting cases of two Polish SMEs: UEFA European Championships in football (Euro, 2012) and the bid for Winter Olympic Games Cracow 2022. This article pays special attention to the role of Polish political elite in promoting both events and to the grassroots movement that effectively ended the bidding for the latter event. It also discusses how the allegedly successful Euro 2012 tournament was presented in the public discourse in order to avoid conflicts and debates about the very idea of hosting the games. This proved unsuccessful in the latter case. This case deserves scrutiny as it is an unusual example of effective bottom up mobilization of civil society against the whole political elite.     

The main factors of repetition: review of some results of the Pecs Center in the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Suicidal Behaviour

The authors obtained more information about the characteristics of suicide attempters in order to examine the most important differences between those who attempted suicide for the first time (first-evers) and those who had a previous attempt (repeaters). Within the framework of the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Suicidal Behaviour in Pecs Center, 1158 cases of parasuicide were collected over 4 years (July 1, 1997-June 30, 2001). In the monitoring sample, 728 (62.9%) parasuicide acts were committed by women and 430 (37.1%) by men, and more than half of the attempters had made a previous attempt In the logistic regression model a higher risk of repetition was found to be related to being divorced (OR 1.84), unemployed or economically inactive (OR 1.45), and without higher education (OR 2.54). In the sample, mental disorders were the most significant risk factor for repeated attempts. The odds ratio was highest (OR 5) for personality disorders. The results may reflect (besides some factors of social destabilization) a higher importance of major mental health problems among repeaters. For this reason, more effective recognition and treatment of the underlying psychiatric and social conditions of suicide attempters has special importance to prevent future suicidal behaviour.     

Government contracting and procurement: a critical process for both the public and private sectors

The costs and benefits of government purchases of goods and services from businesses are examined from the perspective of both public and private sector officials. Generally, governments see more benefits than costs, often because of fiscal stress. Businesses, especially newer, smaller firms are more likely to see more costs than benefits. The article concludes with ten projections for changes in public procurement systems by the year 2000. These are: (1) expansion of current vendor pools; (2) intergovernmental adoption of standardized forms and procedures for getting and staying on government vendor lists; (3) mainstreaming of purchasing into the government financial management decision-making loop; (4) more rigorous training requirements for government purchasing personnel; (5) greater use of public-private task forces to reform procurement policies and practices; (6) greater use of surveys inside and outside government to identify specific problem areas and structure reforms; (7) expansion of the auditing and contract monitoring section of purchasing departments; (8) extension of bidding/contract monitoring and evaluation requirements and procedures to subcontractors of prime government contractors; (9) greater efforts to include quality dimensions in cost estimates; and (10) more tension and litigation over “protectionism” in public procurement.     

Municipal Service Delivery: The Role of Transaction Costs in the Choice between Alternative Governance Mechanisms

Service provision by local governments can be delivered using in-house bureaucracies, private firms, and partnerships with other governments or the not-for-profit sector. This production decision has been a major focus of discussion among scholars, practitioners and political agents for the last quarter of a century. The transaction costs framework is an important tool to analyse decisions regarding the production of local services. In this paper, the authors employ this framework to analyse service delivery in Portugal and find that service characteristics and the local political environment play a key role in local officials' choice among the three governance mechanisms to deliver public services.