建立社保基金投资管理体系的战略思考

我国社保基金的投资管理一直处于十分混乱状态:沉淀于地方省市的1600多亿缴费余额统账混用,没有统一的投资管理策略,回报率低下,存在巨大的金融风险;“全国社保基金”投资策略不尽合理;中央政府不得不额外每年财政转移予以专项补助。将上述三块资源统筹考虑,提出将账户基金、统筹基金、储备基金分离出来,为其设计了不同的投资策略与制度:账户基金应实施完全的资本市场的投资;储备基金应完全走向国际资本市场;统筹基金增值保值问题是个世界性难题,提出应首先完成省级统筹,实行“三离开”的投资原则,并首次提出须避免和谨防“东亚化”的投资倾向,吸取东亚的教训,应为其设立三个投资管理体系。为配合上述投资体系的建立,提出了调整社保缴费比例的设想,认为这个基本框架既符合国际惯例,又符合具体国情,具有中国特色;既有制度创新,又为未来诸如地方开放地方债市等发展留下了空间;既保持了职工收入替代率没有降低,又增强了社保制度的财政可持续性;同时还减轻了国家的财政负担。     

中国地方政府绩效外部民主评议模式——对南京市“万人评议机关”再研究

通过绩效评估可以提高政府效率，促使政府更好地承担社会管理、公共服务等各项职能。对于地方政府，外部民主评议模式比传统的上级政府外部监督模式更具针对性和可操作性。中国现阶段通过民主评议的方式可以扩大民泉有序地参与政治，推动地方政府更积极地承担地方建设发展责任，而不是一味靠上级政府的压力与刺激进行地方治理。     

The Effects of Political and Fiscal Incentives on Local Government Behavior: An Analysis of Fiscal Slack in China

This study examines the determinants of fiscal slack from the perspective of Chinese local government officials. Given China's rapid economic growth over the past 30-plus years, Chinese local governments reportedly hold huge slack resources that attract public scrutiny. In an effort to improve their fiscal performance, some localities recently established budget stabilization funds, following a top-down initiative. However, it remains unclear to what extent fiscal slack has accumulated and which factors affect slack resource levels of Chinese local governments. By employing a panel dataset (249 prefecture-level cities, 1999–2009), this study finds that political and fiscal factors exert significant influence over local officials’ decisions about slack resource levels. The findings of the study bear implications for establishing fiscal rules and improving the performance of sub-national governments in China and other countries.     

Coping With the Loss of General Revenue Sharing in Ohio

The authors examine the impact of the loss of general revenue sharing on Ohio local governments. A study of seven large cities and surrounding counties found that the loss of the federal funds did not trigger any fiscal crises: it came as no surprise. Localities engaged in a number of coping strategies including cuts in spending and replacement of lost federal funds from local surpluses, increased debt, and some tax increases.     

Community Development Block Grant Spending Revisited: Patterns of Benefit and Program Institutionalization

This article analyzes Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)spending by local governments between 1988–1992. We addressfour issues examining actual expenditure patterns in a smallcentral city and five satellite cities in Michigan: changesin CDBG expenditure patterns; levels of social targeting; theextent of institutionalization of expenditure patterns; andthe level of privatization of CDBG spending. We conclude thatwhile spending for housing and public works is related to thefiscal health of cities, expenditures for economic developmentand social services are related to political characteristics.Further, local governments exceed federal social targeting guidelines.Finally, while there is little privatization, the communitiesstudied evidence modest levels of program innovation in thelater years of the CDBG program.     

Patterns of Local Policy Disruption: Regulatory Responses to Uber in Ten North American Cities

Since its inception in 2009, Uber has grown into a technology behemoth, with operations in over 70 countries and 500 cities around the world. Along the way, it has successfully forced regulatory upheaval in hundreds of local taxi markets controlled by municipal authorities. In this sense, Uber is not only a market disruptor, but also a policy disruptor. This paper examines the nature of such policy disruption at the local level by reviewing regulatory responses to Uber in ten North American cities. We find that regulatory outcomes are a function of two factors: Uber’s government relations strategy, either cooperative or confrontational, and the degree to which local governments perceive Uber as complementary or harmful to the existing marketplace. We conclude by proposing a typology of regulatory responses to Uber as a basis to identify patterns in the behavior of municipal regulatory authorities and political leaders.     

Isolated counties,administrative monitoring,and the misuse of public funds in China

This article empirically investigates the effects of administrative monitoring on the misuse of funds by local governments and provides a representative model of fiscal decentralization with political centralization, where administrative monitoring relies on the top‐down hierarchy of the bureaucratic system in China based on a unique data set from audit programs. We show a double effect between distance and monitoring in local China. The incentive for misusing public funds can be strengthened if the county (a) is governed by a leader whose tenure is longer than 3 years, (b) is governed by a politician from outside the county, or (c) receives more transfer payments. These findings suggest that the administrative monitoring of local governments can be vital to remedying the misuse of public funds.     

An evaluation of EU regional policy. Do structural actions crowd out public spending?

Motivated by the lack of success of previous studies trying to estimate the impact of the European Cohesion Policy, this paper brings an unexplored issue to light: transfers that are intended to finance public investment in key areas for growth might be crowded-out by subsidized governments to alternative uses. In fact, using annual data from fifteen member countries (1993–2005), we conclude that public investment in the member countries makes up around 60% of the increase in EU funds. The limited role of the European Commission in the allocation of the Funds could partially explain this result.     

Public Wi‐Fi provision by Australian local government authorities

Investment by Australian local government authorities (LGAs) in public Wi‐Fi (PWF) provision has grown substantially in recent years. PWF represents the first significant venture of LGAs into telecommunications, a field of national jurisdiction, and thus is a precursor of wider local investment in digital communication technologies, particularly the Internet of Things and other ‘smart city’ infrastructure. However, there has been little published analysis of PWF provision and use in Australia. This knowledge gap limits understanding of the rationales, business models, and uses and impact of investment in these networks and offers little guidance for local authorities and communities contemplating wider ventures in the field of digital networks. This article draws on a national survey of PWF provision by LGAs, together with interview data and critical analysis of policy and institutional settings, to present an overview of local PWF provision in Australia. The analysis highlights some familiar problems associated with LGA infrastructure investment and service delivery, as well as some novel challenges posed for local managers by digital communication networks. Following an empirical mapping of PWF provision in Australia, we explore three significant themes that our research in this field highlights: accountability and transparency, competence in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) and evaluation.     

Policy Decentralization and the Endogenous Effects of State Traditions: Devolution of Water Management in Ghana and Senegal

Abstract

The widely held belief that decentralization of public services would reduce the fiscal burden of deeply indebted states led a large number of developing countries throughout the 1980s and 1990s to embark on devolution and public sector reform. Among the responsibilities that have generally been devolved are the provision and support of drinking water facilities. There is, however, a substantial cross-national difference in implementation records of public service devolution. This paper argues that state-building legacies, which shaped the capacity of local governments and the opportunity structure of local governments to cooperate with indigenous communities, explain this variation. This argument is analyzed in the context of devolution of water supply in Ghana and Senegal. The analysis shows that the weak capacity of local governments is compensated in Ghana, but not in Senegal, through co-optation of historically strong traditional authorities into local governance structures.     

Fiscal Slack and Counter‐Cyclical Expenditure Stabilization: A First Look at the Local Level

There is a rich literature on how state governments use slack fiscal resources—most often in the form of rainy day funds and budget stabilization funds—to minimize the effect of economic downturns. This paper presents the first known examination of whether slack resources have the same counter‐cyclical effects at the local level. It uses a panel data set to determine whether one particular form of local fiscal slack, general fund balance, stabilizes current annual expenditures among a sample of 103 Minnesota cities from 1990 to 2000. The findings suggest different fund balance portions have marginal but nonetheless important effects on expenditures.     

SUB‐NATIONAL GOVERNMENT CAPITAL SPENDING IN INDONESIA: LEVEL,STRUCTURE, AND FINANCING

Sub‐national government capital spending is important for both public service delivery and economic development. Currently, Indonesian sub‐national public capital spending appears barely sufficient to cover the annual depreciation of its fixed assets. A substantial proportion of local government investment spending goes to create relatively unproductive assets, such as administrative office buildings. Sub‐national governments finance their capital acquisitions out of gross operating budgets and have thus far not used, to any great extent, either borrowed funds or their significant cash reserves for such purposes. Indonesian sub‐nationals need to spend more on capital than they do now and also need to focus that spending on more useful types of infrastructure. The major constraints to increasing capital spending at the sub‐national level are not related to a dearth of finance, but regulatory rigidities in budget preparation and implementation and, most importantly, a lack of capacity to plan, design and implement investment projects. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public spending interactions and local politics. Empirical evidence from French municipalities

This paper aims at testing whether there exist spending interactions between French municipalities by estimating a dynamic panel data model. Our results suggest that there are some interactions between neighbouring municipalities as regards primary and investment expenditures. A positive relationship between municipalities’ wage bill and unemployment rates is likely to stress a rise of temporary employment in those municipalities that suffer from social troubles. Further, the estimation results show that these interdependences also exist between cities whose mayors have the same partisan affiliation. Finally, our results confirm the opportunistic behaviour of local governments, which increase all categories of public spending in pre-electoral periods     

Cleanest cities in India 2017: Indore's meteoric rise to no. 1 spot

The Indian government initiated “Cleanliness Survey” of Indian cities in 2014 to promote clean cities. Under this initiative cities are ranked based on certain parameters. Indore city was ranked poorly at 149 in 2014 survey. The newly appointed Indore Municipal Corporation commissioner was confronted with the task of turning around the situation. The task was huge, required meticulous planning and flawless execution to achieve the mission. To the surprise of many including the citizens of the city, Indore achieved no. 1 rank in the cleanliness survey, 2017. We discuss the challenges faced by the Indore Municipal Corporation authorities, the response to these challenges, and critical success factors and make recommendations to sustain the top rank. Indore's success was a result of several activities that constitute a part of public affairs. The study identifies change management, corporate social responsibility, employee communications, external communication, and stakeholder management as important organizational activities that contributed in Indore's success. Learning from the study may be useful for urban local bodies and governments in other developing countries.     

Spain: Local Democracy and Citizen Participation

This article focuses its attention on the democratic practice of local governments, taking the Spanish experience within its European context as the main point of reference. The analysis of democratic practice in local governments takes into consideration not only the collective decision-making processes, but also the real possibilities of citizen participation, assessing the urban model they lead to in the medium to long term. Such an analysis could help to determine if cities are moving towards more democratic and egalitarian forms of social organisation. Large urban projects in Spain have not been debated and agreed upon previously despite the fact that such works have a transcendental impact of the lives of millions of citizens. Simultaneously, different local authorities have put into place new experiences of participative government since the late 1990s, arising from a shared diagnosis indicating the existence of a democratic deficit that should be overcome.     

Territorial government reforms at the time of financial crisis: the dawn of metropolitan cities in Italy

On 1 January 2015 a new institution, the metropolitan city, took its place among the Italian territorial authorities. Despite its incorporation in the Italian Constitution since 2001, the metropolitan city become a reality only when the national government carried out a process of reform and transformation of Italian territorial government by transforming 10 large cities into metropolitan cities and depriving other intermediate governments (regions and provinces) of their fundamental competences. This article critically reviews the activation of metropolitan cities and the reshuffle of Italian territorial authorities. It stresses the way in which this reform marks the shift towards a new phase of Italian regionalism, which is dominated both by a dynamic of recentralizing intergovernmental relations and by the resulting loss for provincial and regional governments.     

The Development of Local Discretionary Authority in New York

Central control of cities was established policy during thecolonial period. The policy was continued after independence.By 1839, all cities were allowed to elect their mayors, anda movement commenced to limit the powers of the legislatureover local governments. An 1874 constitutional amendment forbadethe legislature to enact a special or local bill in seven areas,and the 1894 constitution allowed a city to veto a special cityact, subject to repassage by the legislature. Although constitutionalamendments in 1923, 1935, 1938, and 1963 broadened local powers,the Court of Appeals in the 1920s and 1930s tended to restrictthe powers of local governments. The most important changesin the powers of local governments have occurred since 1980as the result of advisory opinions, issued by the attorney generaland state comptroller, broadening the powers of local governments.Nevertheless, the legislature retains the authority to enactgeneral laws imposing mandates and restraints upon local governments.Such mandates and restraints are responsible for New York beingranked thirty-fifth in terms of discretionary authority grantedto local governments.     

政府整体绩效评价:理论假说及其实证检验——以2008年度广东省为例

政府绩效评价是公共管理及政府管理创新的前沿课题。作为一个全新的范畴,政府整体绩效评价具有典型的本土特色。社会主义历史条件下,我国地方政府整体绩效评价构成了民意表达的基本路径,具有民主导向与技术完善的双重功能。本文提出了政府整体绩效评价结果导向的理论假设,并依据既定的技术方案,基于独立第三方立场和公众满意度导向,利用2008年度针对广东省地方政府整体绩效评价及公众满意度调查的系统数据,检验理论假设的科学性与合理性。研究表明,我国地方政府整体绩效评价是公民对政府表现的综合评价,其过程承担民意表达的功能,其结果将成为民主政治发展和行政体制改革的内在动力。     

The incidence of local government allocations in Tanzania

Since 1999, Tanzania has been actively pursuing reforms of the way in which the central government finances local government activities. This article looks at the potential problems with the mechanism that the central government currently uses to distribute budget resources among the 114 local government authorities and sets out to reveal the incidence of central government allocations to local authorities in Tanzania. Two strands of economics literature—the public choice literature and the political economy literature—consider the distribution of central government resources across local governments. Using regression analysis, this study specifies an incidence model that reveals the determinants of variations in local government allocations in Tanzania. The empirical analysis only finds weak evidence supporting the presumed pro‐poor allocation of some local government resources by the central government in Tanzania. Instead, the study finds more convincing support for substantial pro‐wealthy and pro‐urban tendencies in the way in which central government officials divide public resources across local government units. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Fiscal Consequences of Changing Federal and State Revenue Policies: The Case of Small Oregon Cities

This article examines the fiscal consequences for twelve, smallOregon cities of recent changes in federal and state intergovernmentalrevenue policies. Many small local governments have experienceddouble revenue reverses in recent years—reductions inown-source revenues because of economic decline as well as decreasesin intergovernmental revenues, especially federal aid. The twelvesmall cities are compared with all 241 cities in Oregon andthe 136 Oregon cities in the 1,000 to 49,999 population range.Using aggregate and interview data, a major finding is thatalthough stabilization and/or decline in federal-state revenuesharing and entitlement program funds have accentuated difficultlocal revenue situations, economic decline has been the moreimportant contributor to the fiscal stress of the twelve smallmunicipalities. Most of the twelve cities had limited fiscalcapacity—as indicated by low assessed property valuations—makingit difficult to produce sufficient revenue to meet basic publicservice needs. These cities were also unable to get citizenapproval of increases in property taxes.