Administrative reform in Jamaica: A component of structural adjustment

Jamaica is currently undergoing a major innovative administrative reform programme (ARP). The impetus for the ARP stems from the realization that weak public administration (as prevailed in Jamaica) is a major obstacle to the implementation of economic reforms. The ARP thus became a significant plank of the World Bank's structural adjustment lending to Jamaica. The Jamaican programme is probably the leading and most ambitious attempt at administrative reform in the Third World, and the experiences and lessons learnt can be applied to the many developing countries which are contemplating or implementing similar programmes. The Jamaican experience indicates that the most important ingredients for success are political commitment at the highest level, a determined external agency, a carefully designed but flexible participatory programme which learns as it progresses, and good communication of the reform proposals. Administrative reform is a long-term process, and it would be dangerous to pitch expectations too high.     

Education finance reform: A dynamic perspective

We use a dynamic Tiebout model to analyze the consequences of moving from a pure local system of education finance to a pure state system of finance in which each student receives the same resources. While much of the education finance literature focuses on the static or immediate effects of such a change, our analysis also examines the dynamic effects. Numerical simulations for a calibrated version of our model indicate that these dynamic effects are very important. Comparing steady states, we find that aggregate welfare increases on the order of 10 percent following the switch to a state system. The key to this welfare gain is that a local system yields inefficiently low investment in human capital of children from low-income families.     

State health reform: Effects on labor markets and economic activity

Individual states are actively weighing health care reform proposals and their potential impacts on many levels, including states' own economies. This article considers the effects on state economies of two instruments of health reform: employer mandates and cost containment. The literature suggests that an employer mandate will reduce employees' wages in the long run. In the short run, however, to compensate for the costs associated with mandated health care insurance for their employees, firms may raise their prices to consumers, reduce the number of employees or allow a drop in profit margins. By increasing health care spending and the number of insured persons, mandates would also increase states' levels of economic activity. Though cost containment may dampen the stimulative effects of expanded coverage, resources not spent on health care as a result of effective cost containment might be redistributed to other sectors in a state's economy.     

Making economic adjustment work: The politics of policy implementation

This article identifies tentative lessons about successful political management of stabilization and structural adjustment policies in developing countries. It addresses three basic questions: 1) What is the purpose of stabilization and structural adjustment policies and what specific measures are usually undertaken? 2) Who, in theory, is supposed to benefit or lose from such policies and who, in actual practice, supports or opposes them? 3) How have governments in developing countries successfully managed the supporters and opponents of adjustment policies? The article concentrates in detail on how the governments of Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala managed the actual supporters and opponents of these policies between 1982 and 1987, based on interviews with policy makers, official documents and content analysis of media sources, with the aim of determining what measures were implemented, who protested or supported them, and what the government did to build support or minimize opposition. The lessons from these three experiences are tied to the more general literature on successful political management of stabilization and structural adjustment.     

Managing the development process: Community strategies in economic revitalization

This paper considers community strategies in economic revitalization. Guidelines are proposed for local economic development practitioners and as a framework for further research. Findings are based on extensive analysis and comparative study of economic development efforts in four medium-sized industrialized cities in the northeastern United States. The role of motivating, organizing, and diagnostic agents, including crisis situations, community based planning, and local development agencies, are highlighted. The analysis presents economic revitalization as an on-going activity requiring strong local leadership, competent local development institutions, and broad-based public and private sector participation.     

Public service reform: A comparative west European perspective

This article compares recent public service reforms in Britain, France and Germany in terms of reform origins, the trade‐off between managerial and administrative values in the overall reform orientation and the balance within managerial reform between public choice and business management strands. An explanation is advanced of variations in national reform profiles which draws on elements of both political economy and historical institutionalist approaches. Particular importance is attributed to the composition of French and German administrative reform policy communities, and to the resilience of collectivist ideals of public service within the respective memberships, as compared with Britain.     

Administrative reform in developing countries: A comparative perspective

This study investigates administrative reform in seven Arab states, delineates common problems and describes general tendencies via content analysis of official statements. The study deals with reform in three major phases: defining administrative problems and needs; developing strategies for reform; and developing instruments of action for implementation. Appraisal of reform efforts discloses mediocre results based on a poor implementation record attributable to incongruities of methods and objectives of reform. Among such incongruities are the conventional limitations of bureaucracy, the copying of Western administrative rationality in form if not in substance, and insufficient attention paid to traditional, cultural, religious, and political contexts of administration. Recognizing the difficulties involved in conceptualizing and implementing reform in any society, the analysis offers several recommendations to improve the outcome of reform efforts, among them: encouraging employee involvement in reform decisions; improving collected diagnostic data; providing special training for employees responsible for managing reform; soliciting unwavering political commitment; developing incentive systems; and replacing the piecemeal approach with reliance on a systems perspective.     

Controlling money during socialist economic reform: the Chinese experience

Contrary to the easy job that some conservative economists imagine, the task faced by the socialist monetary authority in controlling the money supply during economic reform is a daunting one, as recent experience in China indicates. It is difficult to estimate the demand for money in the mixed system that has emerged from the reform process, with all its structural disequilibria. Given prevailing economic and political interferences, keeping the money supply within targets is also beset with problems. Monetary issues have not received much attention in the conventional discourse about socialist economics, before or during reform. Hence the Chinese central bank often has to take uninformed action on events that it cannot effectively control. The results could be very serious, even tragic. In any case, it seems that the bank should not shoulder the main blame.     

论经济自由与政府调控的关系——由美国经济危机引发的思考

美国次贷危机引发了如何正确处理经济自由与政府调控的关系的深入讨论.相当长一个时期以来,大多数西方学者和政要过分地夸大市场这只.看不见的手在经济生活中的作用,抑或说强调极端的经济自由.19世纪中叶以后,由于西方国家过分推崇强调经济自由,完全依赖市场这只看不见的手的弊端开始暴露.20世纪初的凯恩斯主义和罗斯福新政引导西方资本主义国家度过了经济危机,为资本主义的重新发展奠定了基础.在现代市场经济中,金融及其衍生工具是刺激经济发展的重要因素之一,但是,证券、期货等金融衍生工具本身就带有强烈的投机性和风险性,如果缺乏必要的监管,任凭其随心所欲地自由泛滥,就不可避免地出现问题.西方资本主义制度建立以来的历史证明,什么时候把自由规范在一个合理的限度内,经济和社会发展就健康有序,什么时候自由离开了必要的限制,就会引发灾难.     

Income redistribution: An international perspective

Many view global income inequality as a problem. Income redistribution from the rich countries to poor countries is often offered as a solution. However, such redistribution would have to be politically acceptable to voters in rich countries to occur. Using a constructed distribution of world income we show that even modest income redistribution efforts would impose significant costs on taxpayer-voters in rich countries. We conclude such income redistribution is unlikely.     

Managing Chinese Bureaucrats: An Institutional Economics Perspective

Conventional analysis of government typically focuses on 'politics', that is, interests, conflicts or personalities. But governing a country is not only a task of successfully governing its people but also an administrative task of managing subordinate officials. This is a very relevant issue in a country such as China, with a massive bureaucracy. The top 'managers' of the country – some 30 national leaders – make policies but also manage a large number of bureaucratic personnel. As in business organizations, control problems occur when subordinates have different interests from those of the organization and when the behavior of subordinates is imperfectly monitored. Control mechanisms are designed to minimize such problems by either aligning interests or improving information. This article uses this framework to explain a wide variety of administrative phenomena in Chinese government organizations.     

Rents and economic development: the perspective of Why Nations Fail

Public Choice - We present the approach to comparative economic development of Why Nations Fail. Economic prosperity requires inclusive economic institutions—those which create broad based...     

The Zambian administrative reforms: An alternative view

In 1968 administrative reforms were announced in Zambia which have been interpreted as involving a commitment to decentralization. The announcement came against a background of moves to strengthen party control over the bureaucracy, and a feature of the reforms was the reinforcement of this control. Subsequent developments have been characterized by the establishment of greater control over governmental administration in provinces and districts by party political appointees and by closer control over local party officials by party appointees from the centre. These developments have not been accompanied by decentralization within ministries, and functional ministries retain control over their field agents.