Municipal Debt Issues in Foreign Markets: Managing Currency and Interest Rate Risk

Since the mid-1980s, there has been an acceleration of state and local government interest in the taxable bond market as a source of capital. This has resulted from, among other factors, restrictions imposed on economic and industrial development loan programs resulting from the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Increased state and local government involvement in the taxable bond markets has increased competition for such capital between the public and the private sectors. In turn, the developing capital competition has expanded into overseas securities markets. Private sector corporations have frequently accessed foreign capital markets to take advantage of lower interest rates and reduced financing costs. By contrast, state and local governments have accessed such markets only recently. This article discusses the policy issues considered by a state or local government entity when it decides to borrow funds in foreign markets and discusses the issues involved in managing currency and interest rate risk when issuing municipal bonds in foreign markets. It includes a review of the hedging techniques used by the Kentucky Development Finance Authority (KDFA) to protect against changes in the Yen/Dollar exchange relationship on a recent Samurai bond issue sold by KDFA as an example of such a transaction.     

Municipal Bond New Issue Transaction Costs

As with any market, there are transaction costs associated with the sale of municipal bonds. Only a small number of studies have examined this topic, and therefore we have only a limited understanding of the magnitude and determinants of new issue municipal bond transaction costs. We use data on California municipal bond transaction costs from 2007 to 2009 to test whether scale economies exist. We find that there are considerable transaction cost scale economies for California municipal bonds and that pooling bond sales would likely save substantial amounts of money.     

股票公开发行的监管合约选择——交易费用视角下中国股票公开发行审核制度的变迁

随着股权分置改革的顺利进行,我国股票公开发行审核制度改革已被提上议程。但与实践的迫切需求不相适应的是,我国学界对于股票公开发行审核制度的研究尚处于一个不成熟的阶段,现有研究文献未能对我国股票公开发行审核制度的变迁予以有说服力的解释,因此,无法为决策者提供可资借鉴的改革方案或思路。运用交易费用理论框架,对中国股票公开发行审核制度的变迁过程进行梳理,识别出在审批制和核准制下政府为降低交易费用而选择的监管合约,剖析了这些监管合约的内容和选择的原因,并在此基础上对我国股票公开发行审核制度的改革方向及可行性予以分析。     

Transaction costs and inter‐jurisdictional cooperation: an application to land use collaboration

• The costs and benefits of inter‐jurisdictional cooperation and how these impede strategic alliances among jurisdictions is an issue of growing importance worldwide. The reason is the potential cost savings, efficiency increase and economic development benefits that can be realized through cooperation. The literature has increasingly mentioned transaction costs as obstacles that mitigate cooperation and as a key component of cooperation costs, which must be outweighed by cooperation benefits in order for communities to perceive advantageous strategic alliances. However, a framework is lacking in the literature for evaluating the implications of transaction costs for inter‐jurisdictional cooperation. This paper develops a framework for evaluating the nature and dynamics of transaction costs and their implications for inter‐jurisdictional cooperation, with an application to land use. A simple cost function model is used to explain the costs and challenges associated with managing coordinated, cooperative or consolidated relationships, and the dynamics of such costs. The analysis highlights the importance of such things as degree of complexity, inter‐party diversity and the relative sizes of collaborating partners. An application to land use cooperation in Michigan suggests that policies to eliminate transaction costs could help reduce the barriers to cooperation of various types.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Literacy and State–Society Interactions in Nineteenth-Century France

Modern states are distinguished by the breadth and depth of public regulation over private affairs. This aspect of state capacity and state power is predicated on frequent and dense encounters between the state and the population it seeks to control. We argue that literacy in the language of state administration facilitates state–society interaction by lowering the transaction costs of those encounters. We support this claim with evidence drawing upon detailed historical data from nineteenth-century France during a crucial period of state and nation building. Focusing on the specific domain of French marriage regulations, we find that increasing literacy predicts greater popular involvement with local authorities across French regions over time. These results demonstrate that literacy plays an important role in political development not solely by enhancing loyalty to the state, as the literature has recognized, but also by lowering linguistic and human capital barriers to state–society interaction.     

马克思与诺奇克国家理论之比较研究

马克思和诺奇克国家观的异同表现在三个方面:在国家起源问题上,二者均反对思辨的契约论传统,马克思从市民社会寻找国家的基础,诺奇克提出“反契约论”的国家起源图景;在国家职能问题上,诺奇克提出“守夜人式”国家的观点,与马克思思想有相通之处;在国家的未来发展问题上,诺奇克描绘的理想模型实际上是马克思“市民社会决定国家”这一思想的再发展。文章还回应了诺奇克对马克思国家理论的批判,并总结了二者间的分歧。     

Political Culture and State Development Policy

Economic development has become a prominent issue for stategovernments. Nevertheless, states vary in the economic policiesthey choose. Two general approaches to the issue are discussed:the maintenance/attraction strategy and the creation strategy.Factor analysis allows us to gauge state effort on these twocriteria. Regression analysis shows that political culture isan important factor in predicting which approach a state chooses,with traditionalistic states favoring the maintenance/attractionstrategy, and moralistic states favoring the creation alternative.Other predictors of state policy choices include the conditionof the economy and the diffusion of innovations. Also discussedis the interaction of political culture with other relevantvariables in shaping state policies.     

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE POWER THEORY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STATE DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES*

The ability of state leaders to influence economic growth and diversity within their states is a disputed issue within the literature on state economic development policy-making. This research contributes to this debate by developing comparative measures of state development agency power drawn from the emerging theory on organizational power. If state policy leaders have independent control over the economic performance of their states and if that influence is exercised through the administrative unit responsible for that activity, states which have supplied their agencies more resources and freedom in using those resources should outperform those states which have not.     

Social Policy by Other Means: Theorizing Unconventional Forms of Welfare Production

Abstract

The goal of this special issue is to highlight the importance of unconventional social policies, theorize their development in comparison with traditional welfare state accounts and outline a new research agenda. In this introduction to the special issue, the editors present the concept of social policy by other means as encompassing two kinds of unconventional social policy (from the point of view of mainstream comparative research): First, functional equivalents to formal systems of social protection and, second, non-state provision of benefits. The concept builds upon a sizeable, but fragmented literature in comparative welfare state research. While numerous examples demonstrate that social policy by other means is more pervasive in both OECD and non-OECD countries than often acknowledged, a brief survey of the top 20 articles in the field reveals that this fact is not sufficiently reflected in the academic literature. With reference to both existing studies and the contributions to this special issue, the editors go on to explore (1) the different forms of social policy by other means, (2) explanatory theories and (3) their effectiveness in terms of social outcomes. They close by outlining a research agenda.     

公共物品供给的交易费用多维度分析

制度分析学派通过不同制度的交易费用状况的比较,对各种制度的特征进行了较充分的分析.但是,对于公共物品的供给制度来说,由于公共物品的公共性价值特征导致的交易费用的复杂性,不能在单一维度的视角下笼统地仅考虑费用的数量大小,由此来评判制度安排和公共决策的好坏.因为除了信息不对称因素所产生的交易费用以外,有相当一部分被视为诱发交易费用的行为实际上是在体现和保证物品的公共性,这些费用表现为公共协商的成本和对损失方补偿的费用.试图从多种维度对公共物品供给中的交易费用进行分析,不仅对信息不对称如何产生交易费用进行了描述,还对公共协商和对损失方补偿产生的费用所表现出的公共性价值进行了解析;并借用了公共选择学派的广义宪政经济学理论,探讨了交易费用的最优解;最后倡导建立具有公共性特征的公共物品供给的交易费用现.     

Water and Federalism in the 1990s

Federalism has always been an issue in water management. Thephasing out of grants for the construction of sewage treatmentplants, the reduction of the federal contribution for constructionof water development projects, the decrease in federal expendituresfor basic water data collection, and the lack of federal fundsfor state dam-safety programs have all had an impact on watermanagement and intergovernmental relations. This article summarizescontemporary issues in intergovernmental relations and waterpolicy. First, the relationship between water, environmentalprotection, and federalism is examined. Then, the shifting financialresponsibility for water pollution control from the federalto state and local governments is reviewed.     

Where Science Comes to Life: University Bioscience, Commercial Spin-offs, and Regional Economic Development

Biotechnology, rather than being defined as a distinct industry like steelmaking or shipbuilding, is instead a scientific knowledge base—a rapidly evolving technology—that has economically valuable applications in such diverse industries as pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, agriculture, bioenvironmental remediation, and chemical processing. Biotechnology has captured the imagination of ambitious scientific investigators and investors seeking high rates of return, as well as state economic development officials who hope to anchor the industry in their locality and reap the industry's economic and employment rewards. Biotech is still at an early stage of its development, and there are many competing hypotheses about its future development. Most importantly, biotechnology involves the commercialization of science resources in which the federal and state governments have made substantial investment. One key question is how to leverage this investment for future economic growth. This article explores the policy issue related to the commercialization of biotechnology, its role as an engine of economic development, and the appropriate public policy response.     

States on Steroids: The Intergovernmental Odyssey of American Climate Policy

Climate change has conventionally been framed as an issue that would be addressed by an international regime established through negotiation among nation‐states. The experience of policy development in the decade following the signing of the Kyoto Protocol indicates that climate change also needs to be examined as a challenge of multilevel governance. The increasingly central role of state governments in American climate policy formation squares with recent experience in other Western democracies that share authority across governmental levels. This paper examines the American experience, considering factors that have contributed to a state‐centric policy process and using that body of experience to assess competing strategic choices faced by individual states based on their mix of emission trends and policy adoption rates. In turn, the collective state experience allows for consideration of the varied political feasibility of competing climate policy tools that remain under active review in subnational, national, and international contexts. The paper concludes with a set of scenarios that explore different ways in which a state‐centric system may be integrated with expanding involvement at the national level.     

Debt Issued Through Others: Conduits,Joint Powers Authorities,and Borrowing Costs in California Local Governments

The issuance of debt is a complicated and time‐consuming task requiring governments to pay substantial fixed transaction costs. Conduit financings, where one entity issues debt on behalf of a government, including bond pools, where multiple governments issue debt together, are methods that offer the potential to reduce the burdens of participating governments, ideally lowering their costs. But conduit hosts have costs of their own to cover and may not be able to offer a cost advantage to their participants. In this paper we examine debt issued under the Marks Roos Act of 1985, a law created to facilitate pooling but actually used for conduit financing. We seek to determine how issuers fare using this mechanism rather than issuing by themselves. We examine issuance costs and borrowing costs (true interest cost) and find both to be significantly lower for those governments that issued by themselves.     

政治学中的民族议题

突破中国民族话语中以“民族”概念专指少数民族的思维的限制就会发现,人类历史上的“民族”概念最早形成于欧洲,指的是具有国家形式的人群共同体。这样一种与国家结合在一起的民族,具体表现为国民的共同体,是在一个长期的历史过程中形成的。民族形成后便将形成过程中经历的人口国民化、国民整体化等蕴涵于自身,使其成为蕴涵一系列社会政治机制的人口组织形式,并为欧洲现代社会、现代国家和现代政治的形成奠定基础。在“民族”概念的使用范围拓展以后,不具国家形式的各种历史文化共同体也被以“民族”概念来指称和描述,从而使民族的种类迅速增加。这样的民族共同体又对民族国家的统一、稳定和治理产生着深刻的影响,在国内和国际政治关系中发挥着重要的作用。对如此形态多样和影响深远的民族现象,政治学者不能漠然视之,而必须积极主动地关注和研究。由此形成的民族议题,既是政治学理论和知识体系构建不可或缺的重要方面,也是解释中国现代国家的构建和发展及政治学知识体系完备和创新的重要渠道。     

Globalization and the future of the nation state

This article addresses the issue of whether the nation state has a future as a major locus of governance in an increasingly ‘globalized’ economic and social system. It begins by considering the development of the sovereign state and argues that international agreements between states were important in establishing the power of the state over society. It goes on to consider the changing capacities of the state in the modern world. Extreme versions of the 'globalization' thesis are then challenged, and it is argued that national-level economic processes remain central and that the international economy is far from ungovernable. Major nation states have a pivotal role to play in creating and sustaining such governance. However, their role is less than as autonomous national macro-economic managers, than as agencies that are representative of their populations and sources of legitimacy for new forms of governance. The central function of the nation state is that of distributing and rendering accountable powers of governance, upwards towards international agencies and trade blocs like the European Union, and downwards towards regional and other sub-national agencies of economic co-ordination and regulation.     

COMPARABLE WORTH IN STATE GOVERNMENT; TRENDS AND ISSUES

Comparable worth continues to be a controversial issue both in the private and public sector, but particularly in state government. Between 1981 and 1985, a t least 38 states entertained the comparable worth issue at some level. Based on three surveys conducted in 1984 and 1985, this study found that the extent o f states' comparable worth activities, when measured by the introduction of comparable worth bills, tends to vary depending upon the states' geographical location, party line-ups in the legislatures, unionization of state employees, and the states' votes on the Equal Rights Amendment. The study also identifies a few issues in implementing comparable worth in state government–such as job evaluation, and costs of comparable worth.     

Using Local Government Corporate Plans in Victoria

The Victorian state government has required local governments to publish their corporate plans and this paper explores the information provided by their corporate plans. These plans demonstrate diversity in the form and content, but several themes emerge. First, despite the purpose of corporate plans being to demonstrate accountability to the local community, the lack of performance targets reduces the usefulness of these plans for accountability purposes. It also explores objectives which are of major importance to the sector, such as local economic development, which is an issue difficult to control in the local area, being largely determined by federal and state policy. Other important objectives include financial and asset management together with emphases on the local community and accountability, issues which were the drivers of the state government's reform agenda. This article assists those who want to enhance the practice of corporate (strategic) planning in local government.     

Introduction: Issue Ownership

Although issue ownership theory – the idea that voters consider specific parties to be better able to deal with some issues – had already emerged in the 1980s, it is only in the past 10 years that the theory has gained prominence in the study of voter and party behaviour. Despite the steep increase in scholarly attention, there is still no consensus regarding the impact of issue ownership on parties and voters. This special issue makes two key contributions: firstly, it provides state of the art contemporary issue ownership research, by focusing on the historical roots as well on recent conceptual, theoretical and methodological developments in the field. Secondly, by focusing on new aspects and effects of issue ownership, the special issue offers a look forward and outlines a research agenda for future work on issue ownership.     

Understanding State Rulemaking Processes: Developing Fracking Rules in Colorado,New York,and Ohio

Rulemaking is an integral component of environmental policy at both the federal and state level; however, rulemaking at the state level is understudied. With this research, we begin to fill that gap by focusing on rulemaking regarding the issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in three states: Colorado, New York, and Ohio. This policy issue is well suited to begin exploring state‐level rulemaking processes because the federal government has left fracking regulation to the states. Through semistructured interviews with a range of actors in the rulemaking process across these states, we establish a foundation from which future research in this area may build. This exploratory research yields some valuable insights into the roles different stakeholders are playing in regulating fracking in these three states, and our findings may be useful for explaining state‐level rulemaking more generally.