Group size and the free-rider hypothesis: A re-examination of old evidence from churches: Comment

Public Choice - This paper comments on a recent study by Lipford (1995) which rejects the hypothesis of free ridership. This paper contends that Lipford's analysis suffers from two serious...     

Group size and the free-rider hypothesis: A re-examination of old evidence from churches: Reply to Zaleski and Zech

Public Choice - This paper replies to the comment by Zaleski and Zech on my Lipford (1995) paper, in which I examined the relationship between free riding and group size. In this reply, I...     

Group size and the free-rider hypothesis: An examination of new evidence from churches

Conventional economic wisdom maintains that expansion of group size exacerbates group members' free riding tendencies. Nevertheless, experimental studies attempting to account for the effects of group size on free riding have failed to support a pure “numbers effect.” This study corroborates these experimental findings by examining contributions of church members from congregations of three prominent U.S. Protestant denominations. As a whole, these results show that, for congregations ranging from 7 members to 3,294 members, per member contributions do not decline with increased membership. The free-rider problem does not appear to be exacerbated by increases in group size.     

Democracy and the demand for government redistribution: A survey analysis

This article uses survey data to study the impact of democracy on the demand by poor citizens for government redistribution. Taking the well‐known Meltzer‐Richard theory as the point of departure, three arguments are presented as to why such a demand should be stronger in democracies than in autocracies: in democracies low‐income groups are: (1) exposed to elections that can make a policy difference: (2) better informed about the income distribution; and (3) better equipped to process such information. The argument receives empirical support in a Bayesian multilevel analysis which combines 188 World Values Surveys with cross‐sectional and longitudinal macro data from 80 countries.     

论公诉权运行中存在的问题和出路

公诉权是人民检察院的一项重要职权,而我国的公诉权能具有追诉犯罪、监督法律的功能,所以,要保证公诉权的正确行使,有必要厘清时下公诉权在刑事侦查、审查起诉、审判各阶段存在的问题,通过改革公诉引导侦查、强化外部监督和程序内监督等几方面着手,不断完善公诉权运行机制和操作规程。     

On “Group size and the free-rider hypothesis: Another hypothesis.” by Jody W. Lipford: Comment

This paper develops a positive approach to grant design when the central government and a lobby of local governments are the main agents. It develops the hypothesis that the regressivity or progressivity of per capita grants regarding community size is,ceteris paribus, related to the structure of the lobbying activities of local governments and is independent of hypothetical economies or diseconomies of scale in the production of local public goods. An encompassing lobby organisation using a “one mayor one vote” system of representation supports the regressivity of per capita grants while under “proportional” representation the lobby will support a design of per capita grants which is progressive towards community size. An empirical analysis of lump-sum grants in Portugal supports the politico-economic hypothesis and rejects the hypothesis that economies of scale is the main explanatory cause for the observed regressivity of per capita grants.     

Educational offer,education demand and institutional capacity

The present world is subject to some structural and institutional transformations unprecedented. The education-a public goods, a product and a process at the same time, is not different especially, since late modernization and modernity make education an essential vector of development. The present study insists on the triad educational offer, education demand and institutional capacity. It starts from the imperatives of knowledge society in globalization era and re-defines the educational market in the context of late modernity. Although the approach of the educational supply, the demand of education and competition on the educational market aims at a factorial analysis initially related to the realities in Romania, the issue is extended globally. The demonstration is simple enough, though the potential capacity （and the real one） of any institution of higher education management must be mediated on educational market. To this effect, the study insists on the objectives and aims of educational management. The premise to fundamentally define this type of management is that the intelligent models, the creative models and the strategic models of thought may contribute to the development of institutional （organizational） culture with axiological appliance, giving both identity and openness to diverse education. The study poses the problem of a new type of educational order, an educational order of a society based on knowledge.