A norm for a stabilizing budget policy in less developed export economies

The stabilization problem of an export economy is defined as smoothing the fluctuations in real income resulting from sharp changes in the value of exports. A stabilizing fiscal policy should be contractionary in good export years and expansionary in bad export years. A norm is developed to measure whether fiscal policy achieves this aim. The revenue impact of the budget is hypothesized to be generally stabilizing and the sample results bear out this hypothesis. However, the total fiscal impact is less clearly stabilizing, as expenditure policy may offset the revenue effect and tend to accentuate rather than smooth out fluctuations in real income.     

The economic impact of the denver broncos football club on the denver metropolitan economy

The purpose of the study was to assess the economic impact of the Denver Broncos Football Club on the Denver Metropolitan Area economy. Primary data required to determine the economic impact was collected from three main sources. First, a two page survey questionnaire was mailed to 9,519 randomly selected season ticket holders with 4,810 returned questionnaires. The City and County of Denver provided financial management information reports for all home games as the second source of primary data. Finally, the Denver Broncos administration provided financial information pertaining to operational expenditures. The total industrial output or economic impact was calculated at $ll7,80l,500 for the economic activity associated with the Denver Broncos Football Club for the 1989-1990 season. Direct economic impact was shown to be $64,282,200 and indirect and induced effects corresponding to the multipliers generated by the model was an additional $53,519,300. Employee compensation was $47,213,300 and property income provided $16,732,000 to the Denver metropolitan economy. Indirect business taxes totaling $7,118,300 went to local, county, state and federal government. The economic activity produced 1,828 jobs directly and indirectly resulting from Broncos activity in the metropolitan area.     

Fiscal Transparency: Concepts, Measurement and UK Practice

Greater fiscal transparency is seen by its advocates as a means of improving economic governance arrangements in ways which, by promoting fiscal stability, will in turn improve the functioning of the government sector and facilitate improvements in the economic environment for the private sector. 'Fiscal transparency' is much acclaimed by policy-makers, not only in the UK Treasury but also by the IMF and OECD. Fiscal transparency can have substance or can just be voguish incantation. This article explores the meaning of fiscal transparency, by examining its structure and evaluating criteria for assessing the degree of fiscal transparency attached to particular sets of circumstances. It explores the link between transparency and accountability, developing the distinction between event and process transparency. Consideration is given to the trade-off between the value of sunlight (to employ an analogy) and the danger of over-exposure. The performance of the United Kingdom against emerging international best practice is examined, with regard to both public expenditure and taxation. By international standards, UK fiscal transparency is high. Nevertheless, there is a major gap between UK rhetoric and practice, indicating a  divergence between nominal and effective transparency. This is evidenced by: frequent changes in public expenditure definitions; the non-publication of important analyses; the location of certain liabilities 'off-balance sheet'; and a lack of candour about tax policy.     

The Effect of Fiscal Decentralization on the Financial Condition of Municipal Government

This study examines the effect of fiscal decentralization between states and their local governments on the financial condition of municipal governments. There are strong theoretical arguments on both sides of the federalism debate about the benefits for and against decentralization. Most of the research in this area investigates economic and social welfare consequences of fiscal decentralization. There is limited research, however, on the effects of fiscal decentralization on the financial health of local governments. Using data from the nation’s 150 largest cities, this study finds that intrastate fiscal decentralization results in weaker financial condition for municipalities in those states.     

Intra-provincial fiscal decentralization,relative wealth,and healthcare efficiency: Empirical evidence from China

Decentralizing fiscal power to locally elected governments is often regarded as beneficial for public service efficiency. However, questions remain about whether decentralizing fiscal responsibilities work well in countries lacking political decentralization. In China, fiscal decentralization has significantly strengthened the role of local governments in the provision of healthcare services, but evidence of its efficiency effects is scarce. To cast light on this issue, this study investigates the relationship between intra-provincial fiscal decentralization and the productive efficiency of healthcare services in China. Analysis of panel data for 2006–2017 suggests that expenditure and revenue decentralization from provincial to sub-provincial governments significantly improves healthcare efficiency. Further analysis suggests that the positive impact of healthcare expenditure decentralization on healthcare efficiency may be stronger in wealthier provinces. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications.     

Dependency,the state and class in the neoliberal transition of Taiwan

The remarkable economic growth in Taiwan has served as a model of the developmental state as well as a source of scepticism about neoliberal policy for many less developed countries. However, since the mid-1980s Taiwan has gravitated from its previous statist model to the universally embraced 'market-orientated' restructuring. This study seeks to explain this neoliberal transition. A disaggregated approach is employed to break neoliberalism down into three distinct dimensions: market openness, fiscal austerity, and privatisation of public sector enterprises. The analysis results confirm that: (1) Taiwan's trade dependency on the USA constituted a decisive factor in the state opening its domestic market; (2) distributional politics was forged in a new but weak democracy to incorporate more interest groups in the fiscal expansion of the post-authoritarian era; and (3) the slow but increasingly steady progress of privatisation plans was influenced not by a 'back-to-the-market' idea but by the statist legacy with which bureaucrats attempted to manage public sector enterprises even after they became de jure private firms. The theoretical implications of this transition are discussed in the conclusion.     

The European Union: A Shield Against the Downside of Globalization

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.     

A Survival Analysis of U.S. Municipalities in Fiscal Distress

This article uses survival analysis to investigate fiscal distress in U.S. municipalities. We hypothesize that fiscal distress is positively correlated with revenue concentration and debt usage, and negatively correlated with administrative costs and entity resources. We develop a model that can predict the likelihood of fiscal distress and correctly classify up to 86 percent of the sampled governments. The model enables users to analyze the impact of a change in the risk factors. Fiscal distress can be reduced most effectively by increasing tax revenues as a percent of total revenues or decreasing total debt as a percent of total revenues.     

This Time Europe Really is on the Brink

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.     

U.S. treasury department studies of federal- state-local fiscal relations: the context,the major themes,and the outcome

This article provides an assessment of the condition of the literature on several major issues of Federal-State-local fiscal relations. The assessment is provided in the context of a three-volume report on Federal-State-local fiscal relations recently published by the U.S. Treasury Department. The author was a major participant in the studies who generally views them favorably, but who also raises his real concerns about a number of matters.

This article summarizes and evaluates certain aspects of the economic theory of federalism, the intellectual underpinnings of the report. This article addresses the institutional context in which the report was written, which helped shape its approach, content, and conclusions. The report itself generally lacks detailed recom-mendations.

Three main themes of the report are addressed in detail in this article. These are: (a) issues relevant to programs of general-purpose fiscal assistance, which include the adequacy of any potential improvements that might be made in measures of the fiscal capacity of State and local governments; (b) the role, if any, for tax subsidies to State and local governments through the deductibility of State and local taxes in the computation of individual Federal income taxes, and the exemption from Federal income taxes of interest paid on bonds and notes issued by State and local governments; and (c) the projection of the long-term outlook for the fiscal condition of the State-local sector on a current services basis, compared with projections of the long term outlook for the Federal government.     

When Does Aid Conditionality Work?

Does aid conditionality—the setting of policy goals in exchange for access to aid—promote reform? Many studies on the impact of aid and reform suggest not. However, few explicitly examine whether the impact of aid on reform is mediated by recipient regime type. I argue that conditional aid is effective but its efficacy depends on recipient countries’ level of democracy because the value of aid to governments depends on the degree to which it helps them maintain power, and recent work shows that the marginal impact of aid on political survival increases with level of democracy. I test this argument on data from 68 countries over the period from 1980 to 1999. I focus on the impact of IMF and World Bank aid on fiscal reform, one of the most commonly stipulated conditions in aid-for-policy arrangements. I find that aid from the Bretton Woods institutions promotes fiscal reform, but only in more democratic countries.     

Introduction

An important component of local decision making involves determining what probably will happen when a policy change is implemented. Local decisions, after all, are not made without an idea of what to expect. Decisions simply are not made without regard to future consequences. If organizations can ascertain the future effects of policy changes, they can act accordingly. Since many policy decisions at the local level involve fiscal matters, an increasingly predominant method used to measure these future effects of policy changes is economic modeling, especially the simulation and forecasting components of economic modeling.     

Effects of Budgetary Constraints on HR Reforms in Central Public Administrations and the Importance of Institutional Context

A standard criticism toward New Public Management has been its focus on efficiency and cost saving. As a consequence, other important reform objective aspects and administrative values such as quality, fairness, engagement, trust, and sustainability would be neglected. In the field of HRM, this again would result in many (un-)intentional reform effects, such as more demotivation, less engagement, and less trust of the workforce in leadership. Unfortunately, many of these claims have not been tested empirically.Especially in the field of HRM, there is very little comparative evidence on how costs are being cut on a grand scale in different institutional contexts, Human Resource Management policies, with regard to different HR instruments and how these cuts impact on Human Resource Management.This study investigates the current HR reforms in central public administration in 32 OECD countries. Using recent OECD data (OECD Data Set, 2015), the study analyses the impact of budgetary constraints with regard to 40 HR issues and HR instruments. These issues were grouped into different HR bundles. The analysis reveals a strong correlation between budgetary constraints and cost-cutting measures. As a consequence, HRM as such is changing dramatically in some countries. Whereas the past reform trends in most OECD countries were characterized by a move away from the classical bureaucratic model, the present focus is on the implementation of ad hoc reforms in order to save resources. Neither is there a common trend toward one alternative high-work performance model nor a reformed universal “bureaucracy-lite mode.” Overall, data show that HR management is not seen as a strategic factor in the reform process in many countries. In fact, most countries have focused on cost reductions and downsizing and not on responsible restructuring.     

An empirical approach to the grouping of small communities in the state of new jersey: Opportunities and challenges for comparative study

Despite the fundamental social, political and economic importance of America's small towns, academic research activity concerning these communities has been sparse. Instead, scholarly interest has historically focused on larger urban settings. This circumscribed perspective has often led to an image of small towns as a largely homogeneous residual of metropolitan areas. In fact, small towns are highly diverse in character, and this quality offers intriguing opportunities and challenges to scholars and policy makers in regard to comparative analysis and evaluation. Since it is plausible to assume that dissimilar communities will present a greater variation of needs and problems than will towns with similar characteristics, an enhanced ability to understand, appraise and predict small town variation can provide the basis for improved policy-making, capacity building and service delivery.

The purposes of this study are to empirically demonstrate the wealth of diversity among one state's population of small towns, and to illustrate a set of useful and objective techniques which can be used as an extension of the more familiar deductive approach to dealing with the problem of classifying local government community systems.     

The effects of fiscal decentralisation on the strength of political budget cycles in local expenditure

In this article we analyse the effects of political business cycles and fiscal decentralisation on the expenditure categories of Polish municipalities. We find convincing evidence demonstrating the impact of strong political business cycles in almost all expenditure categories, particularly for the categories of expenditure relevant to electoral success, such as infrastructure and social programmes. We find evidence that transfers to municipalities increase the strength of the electoral cycle.     

Globalisation and climate change in Asia: the urban health impact

Asia's economic development successes will create new policy areas to address, as the advances made through globalisation create greater climate change challenges, particularly the impact on urban health. Poverty eradication and higher standards of living both increase demand on resources. Globalisation increases inequalities and those who are currently the losers will carry the greatest burden of the costs in the form of the negative effects of climate change and the humanitarian crises that will ensue. Of four major climate change challenges affecting the environment and health, two—urban air pollution and waste management—can be mitigated by policy change and technological innovation if sufficient resources are allocated. Because of the urban bias in the development process, these challenges will probably register on policy makers' agenda. The second two major challenges—floods and drought—are less amenable to policy and technological solutions: many humanitarian emergency challenges lie ahead. This article describes the widely varying impact of both globalisation and climate change across Asia. The greatest losers are those who flee one marginal location, the arid inland areas, only to settle in another marginal location in the flood prone coastal slums. Effective preparation is required, and an effective response when subsequent humanitarian crises occur.     

‘Faulty’ fiscal illusion: examining the relationship between revenue diversification and tax burden in major US cities across the economic cycle

We investigate how revenue diversification affects tax burden in major U.S cities as it interacts with fiscal balance reported in the general fund over the economic cycle. We find that more diversified cities have higher tax burdens, and that this effect is strengthened when cities maintain a large surplus in the general fund. We also test models of revenue diversification's impact on tax burden using data from 1995 to 2010, separated into good fiscal years (1995-2001, 2004-2007, 2010) and bad fiscal years (2002-2003, 2008-2009). Model estimates show that greater revenue diversification leads to higher tax burden in bad fiscal years but this outcome is not found in good fiscal years. Cities seek greater revenue diversification when they are experiencing economic recessions. This study contains important implications for local financial management and contributes to the literature on revenue diversification and tax burden.     

New horizons in pharmaceutical technology.

The benefits they provide have contributed toward making drugs the most commonly used treatment modality. Although drugs account for less than 10 percent of all health care expenditures, their total costs can be substantial when one considers the impact of adverse effects as well as the problems resulting from misprescribing and misuse. The 1980s will see the introduction of a large number and variety of new drugs and new ways of delivering drugs to the body. The goals of these developments include increased effectiveness, decreased seriousness and frequency of adverse effects, and less complicated dosing regimes. This new technology raises questions regarding the optimal prescribing, distribution, financing, and use of these new drugs. It is also important to consider what actions should be taken to assure that continued growth in drug technology will occur and that this growth be directed toward the development of drugs that offer significant advantages over existing therapies. Rational policy must consider not only the costs of drugs themselves but also the potential for drugs to reduce the overall cost of health care.     

Austerity is Strangling Europe

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.     

A Global Rescue for Europe

Because they have failed to address the fundamental economic imbalances within Europe obscured by the single currency, each effort by European leaders so far to resolve the euro crisis has only deepened it. Without a decisive move toward fiscal and political union, accompanied by policies that push productivity and competitiveness toward convergence while closing the democratic deficit, the Eurozone will disintegrate. To discuss the way forward, the Nicolas Berggruen Institute's Council on the Future of Europe met in Rome on May 28 with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. In this section we publish the contributions from that meeting by the former European leaders, scholars and Nobel laureates who are members of the Council.