Does agency competition improve the quality of policy analysis? Evidence from OMB and CBO fiscal projections

Public management scholars often claim that agency competition provides an effective institutional check on monopoly authority, and hence, leads to improvement of administrative performance in public sector agencies. This logic was central for creating the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in 1975 to challenge the policy information provided by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). We challenge this conventional wisdom by demonstrating that CBO has failed to enhance the quality of U.S. fiscal policy analysis on its own terms; nor has it spurred improvements in OMB's performance. Our empirical results indicate that the quality of OMB's fiscal projections has often deteriorated since the establishment of CBO as a rival bureau. We also show that both public and private information is being shared by these agencies to produce a similar caliber of task outputs. The broader implications of our study indicate that although politicians face incentives to employ agency competition in governmental settings, this type of bureaucratic strategy does not necessarily enhance the quality of administrative performance. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Economic Freedom,Government Policy and the Trade-Off Between Equity and Economic Growth

This study investigates the role that economicfreedom plays in economic growth and in the distribution in marketincome, the role of government policy in advancingeconomic progress and in promoting income equality, and the effectthat the rate of economic progress has on thedistribution of market income. Structural and reduced formmodels are estimated that reveal that economic freedompromotes both economic growth and equity, and that there is apositive but relatively small trade-off between growth andincome inequality.     

桑弘羊与亚里士多德的经济思想比较研究

桑弘羊和亚里士多德是中西方古典时期经济学家的突出代表。对桑弘羊和亚里士多德经济思想进行比较研究,不仅可以把握和印证中西方重商思想的某些异同,在某种程度上也能够揭示该思想所产生的特定文化传统和彰显的时代精神。     

欧美经济制度模式比较--以就业失业与收入分配两个具体问题为例

在西方资本主义世界,确实存在着欧洲与美国两种主要的经济制度模式.虽然欧洲目前还谈不上有一个纯正的、统一的"欧洲模式",但随着经济全球化、欧洲一体化的发展,一个相对共同的"欧洲模式"正在形成.本文选择20世纪90年代这个时段对欧美模式进行比较,着重讨论为什么欧洲的失业问题比美国严重,为什么美国人相对能够容忍较大的贫富悬殊,以及面对内外压力欧洲正在进行什么样的改革等问题.     

Civil Society Mappings by Government: A Comparison of Ecuadorian and Colombian Cases

Scholars argue that we cannot see civil society organizations (CSOs) as legitimate players in policy if we have no clear ways to define them and if we lack information explaining their functions. Thus, scholars and practitioners alike have encouraged the ‘mapping’ of civil society. Mapping civil society consists of gathering and collating information on CSOs and often making it publicly available. There is little scholarship about such mapping efforts implemented by government. This article compares new mapping efforts in two countries—i.e., registries of CSOs created by governments in Ecuador and Colombia. The article examines the intentions of civil society mapping by government, identifying three key goals: to collect data, to regulate, and to foster collaboration. It discusses the differences across civil society mappings by government and in comparison with other mapping projects. The article argues that registries are increasingly positioned as a link between government and civil society not only to collect data for transparency but also to implement regulatory measures and to foster various degrees of collaboration. Thus, greater research attention to civil society mappings by government and their possible implications on civil society development and civil society/state relations is needed.     

OMB and the Budget Examiner: Changes in the Reagan Era

This is the first of a two-part retrospective on the role of the OMB budget examiner during the Reagan administration. Changes in the federal budget process, historical federal deficits and the inability of Congress to meet appropriation deadlines have significantly altered the role of OMB and its budget examiners, undermining the examiner's traditional role as program analyst and controler. This part focuses on the preparation of the president's budget and budget execution, and the compressed time in which OMB must respond to "top-down" budget requirements. The summer of 1987 is presented as a case study of the demands now placed on OMB.
Part Two, in the next issue, will focus on the budget examiner in the congressional budget process and in advocacy roles for the president.     

Democracy,Government Spending,and Economic Growth: A Political-Economic Explanation of the Barro-Effect

The paper develops a political economicargument for the recently observed inverseu-shaped relation between the level ofdemocracy and economic performance. A modelis constructed that shows why and howpolitical participation influences thespending behavior of opportunisticgovernments that can choose an optimalcombination of rents and public goods toattract political support. If the level ofdemocracy remains comparably low,governments rationally choose rents as aninstrument to assure political support.With increasing democratic participation,however, rents become an increasinglyexpensive instrument while the provision ofpublic goods becomes more and moreefficient in ensuring the incumbentgovernment's survival in power. As a consequence, an increase in democracy tends toraise growth rates of per capita income.However, the beneficial impact of democracyon growth holds true only for moderatedegrees of political participation. If –in semi-democratic countries – politicalparticipation increases further,governments have an incentive toover-invest in the provision of publicgoods. This model allows to derive and testthree hypothesis: Firstly, based on asimple endogenous growth model, weempirically substantiate our hypothesis ofa non-linear, inverse u-shaped relationbetween the level of democracy and growthof per capita income. Secondly, we showthat the impact of government spending oneconomic growth is higher in moredemocratic countries. Thirdly, wedemonstrate that the level of democracy andgovernment share of GDP are correlated in au-shaped manner.     

从政府经济行为看地方保护主义

为什么地方保护主义屡禁不止？某些地区、部门、单位的地方保护主义愈演愈烈，原因何在？本文试图从政府经济学的角度出发，揭示出地方保护主义在地方政府经济行为中的基本特征，说明它的产生有其合乎理性的必然，这种必然性是与市场转型中的地方政府经济行为相联系的。本文分析其存在的根据后，探讨克服地方保护主义的政策措施。     

休谟与斯密同情理论之比较

休谟与斯密都把“同情”引入到了伦理学中,但他们对于“同情”内涵的解释,“同情”在道德评价与美德养成中作用的理解不尽相同。比较其同情理论的异同,可以发现他们各自对情感主义伦理学的贡献,但无论怎样,以情感作为道德判断的依据必然走向道德相对主义。     

Internally Displaced Persons Between Nonprofits and Government: Comparing Two Israeli Wars

Abstract

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) crises provide a dramatic backdrop to government–nonprofit relations, as they tend to engage variegated actors at local, national, and international levels. Such crises reveal the composition, forms of engagement, roles, and relationships of the actors involved. The comparison of two crises along Israeli history, separated by years of changing welfare systems and social and political contexts, is an exceptional opportunity to examine government–nonprofit relations over time, and assess the impact of this relationship on IDP crisis management. This article compares two separate studies of IDP response, one in the Israeli War of Independence and one in the Second Lebanon War. The differences are analysed using models of government–nonprofit relations, and reflect the dynamic nature and complexity of these relations in IDP crises. Some conclusions concerning IDP crisis management are suggested.     

市场机制与政府经济职能

完全竞争市场经济利用人类的自利本性,可以较好地实现效率,达到帕累托最优,但不能保证公平;现实市场经济不可能是完全竞争的,存在市场失灵,这为政府发挥经济职能提供了依据,但政府发挥经济职能也存在失效问题。所以,不管是理想状态的完全竞争市场经济,还是现实中的混合经济,都不能圆满地解决效率和公平问题。只有到了共产主义社会,人类得到自由全面的发展,既摆脱了自然奴役,又摆脱了社会关系的奴役,人类才能圆满地解决这一问题。     

Between Multitude and Pueblo: Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution and the Government of Un-governability

Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution uses officially sponsored commemorations, festivals, and publications to underscore its relation to and dependence on unrest and un-governability. In this way, it founds a basis and legitimacy not through a historical link to a people or territory, juridical recognition of sovereignty, nor to bureaucratic and institutional continuity, but rather to a direct link to constituent power. However, as opposed to other cases in the Republican tradition that celebrate the revolutionary origins of modern nation states, this article contends that this discursive practice highlights the way in which the Bolivarian Revolution shuttles between poles of un-governability and representation, reflected at a subjective level in the figures of the multitude and the pueblo. I suggest a reading of official discourses that celebrate the autonomous and collective subjects of the caracazo—an anti-neoliberal uprising and massacre in 1989—and the April 2002 coup and counter-coup as valorizations of un-governability. The article contends that these dynamics illustrate a desired and novel—but as yet not fully realized—democratic praxis that breaks with forms of constituted (state) power more familiar to the Western and North Atlantic political traditions.     

激励与约束：关于构建新型政事关系的思考

本文对构建我国新型的政府和事业单位关系进行了讨论,分析了政府与事业单位关系的历史和现状,认为只有从政府、社会、企业与市场等不同角度来全面认识事业单位改革,才能客观准确地把握我国事业单位改革的进程.     

State Government Targeting in Economic Development: The New York Experience

New York State has made extensive use of social, geographic,and sectoral targeting in economic development. It has targetedboth distressed industries, particularly manufacturing, andgrowth industries. When the initial assistance provided to manufacturingin the 1960s did not stem the decline of this sector, the stateresponded by providing larger subsidies. Even though manufacturingcontinued to decline, both absolutely and relatively, supportfor its preferred status has, nevertheless, remained strong,and few of the programs initially aimed at this sector haveseen any sign cant changes in their manufacturing focus. Effortsto target distressed areas and individuals, however, were notsustained over time. The state's two most significant effortsat geographic targeting were expanded statewide over relativelyshort periods of time.     

东西部开发的差异比较

西部大开发是关于我国跨世纪发展全局的重大问题。1999年6月,江泽民总书记指出,从现在起,要把加快发展中西部地区作为党和国家一项重大的战略任务。随着社会主义市场经济的建立,以及国内外经济环境的影响,西部大开发不能照抄照搬东部开发模式,因为西部地区无论从地理位置、发展潜力、政策背景、开发战略及人才、资金上都与东部地区有着很大的差异,所以西部开发必须走创新之路,制定符合西部特色的新的发展思路。     

How Voters Evaluate Economic Competence: A Comparison between Parties In and Out of Power

Accounts of general election outcomes increasingly talk about voters comparing parties in terms of their perceived competence to manage the economy and public services. This raises the question of how voters form evaluations of party competence. While it is assumed that voters form evaluations of the incumbent based on the signals provided by its current performance in office it is less clear how, in the absence of such a performance record, voters might evaluate the potential competence of the opposition. Using data from the British Election Panel Studies this article models the process by which voters form evaluations of parties' competence to manage the economy and compares results across incumbent and opposition parties. On the basis of evidence from general elections of 1992–2001 the article demonstrates that the process of evaluation formation does differ between parties in and out of power with retrospective evaluations of recent economic performance influencing evaluations of the former but not the latter. Nevertheless, the article also demonstrates that voters are capable of forming evaluations of the opposition which are more than a simple mirror image of their evaluations of the incumbent. In the absence of an up-to-date performance record these evaluations are based on long-term partisan and ideological predispositions and the cues provided by party leaders.