Consumers/Citizens and the National Competition Policy

NCP provides a framework for reform ranging from the introduction of competition in energy and water services to the dismantling of agricultural marketing boards. The effects on consumers will depend upon whether their interests are narrowly construed as preoccupations with price and choice of services or whether they extend to broad social justice and equity considerations. The 'marketisation' of government services is not concerned with distributional equity, and budget funding of CSOs is necessary to address distributional inequities. But domestic consumers will remain captive to monopoly franchises and competition objectives add pressure for the 'contracting out' of government services and the winding back of cross-subsidies which have traditionally operated in favour of household consumers.
NCP will transform the public from 'citizen' to 'consumer'. Consumer advocates have risen to these new challenges and grasped the opportunity presented by industry restructuring to propose a range of mechanisms for consumer empowerment. This article will briefly identify some of the key issues for consumers in the implementation of the NCP and demonstrate the complexity of any attempt to assess the threats and opportunities for consumers. Particular attention will be given to the reforms to the electricity industries in NSW and Victoria.     

Estimating and forecasting residential electricity demand in Odisha

The growing demand for electricity has put pressure on generation of electricity based on fossil fuel, resulting in emission of carbon dioxide. In order to design policy for demand side management, proper knowledge on determinants of electricity demand as well as prediction of future demand is required. However, study on estimation and forecasting of residential demand in developing countries like India has received less attention. This study is the first attempt to estimate and forecast residential electricity demand in the state of Odisha, which is the pioneer of electricity reform in India. It employs ARDL model to estimate residential electricity demand; while ARIMA, VAR and VEC models are employed to forecast future demand. The results show that income and price of electricity are significant determinants of residential electricity demand. The higher price elasticity compared to income elasticity reveals that price could be used as an effective instrument for demand side management. The forecast results show that VAR has the lowest error, which predicts per capita residential electricity demand to be double by 2030–31. This would help the policy makers to plan for demand side management and electricity generation so as to avoid shortage of electricity supply.     

Economic growth and income equality since the 1982 recession

This paper tests the “rising tide” and “trickle down” hypotheses of income growth by examining several measures of income inequality between 1983 and 1987. A close look at household incomes between those years shows that post-tax income growth has been concentrated among the 20 percent of American households with the highest incomes. The middle income classes have experienced only modest income growth over this period, and the 20 percent of American households with the lowest incomes have experienced a decline in income. These results hold whether the analysis is based on a summary measure of income equality such as the Gini coefficient, or on a less technical measure such as average income. Furthermore, income growth seems to be decreasing most rapidly for groups of households that historically have had the lowest incomes: female-headed households, blacks, and Hispanics. Finally, two standard explanations of the inequality trend—that the distributional changes are the result of either cohort effects or the movement of jobs to the lower wage areas of South—are tested by disaggregating the data. Neither hypothesis is confirmed by our research.     

Childcare Policies and the Politics of Choice

Governments have intervened in two basic ways on childcare: via the provision of leaves to care (usually taken by mothers) and the provision or (often only partial) financing of childcare services. These policy options reflect the fundamental debate on how young children should be cared for. Labour has developed both policy areas since 1997, but there is a question mark over how far mothers and fathers have a ‘real choice’ to work and/or to care. Parents' choice in this policy area is a sensitive political issue and, this article suggests, requires a careful balancing of policy instruments. Policy goals may conflict with preferences and there is also the difficult issue that parents' choices may prejudice their future welfare in a work/welfare system that is tending to assume that there will be increasing capacity for self‐provisioning.     

Health disparities: Using policies to rethink our strategies for eliminating the impact of food deserts by focusing on unhealthy dietary patterns

For years, we have been interested in understanding the relationship between dietary patterns and diseases, and most recently, we have put efforts toward analyzing the impact of food deserts as they relate to dietary patterns. Unhealthy eating has become an epidemic in low‐income neighborhoods that are considered to be food deserts due to the fact that people are not meeting their recommended daily intake of nutritionally dense foods. Adults should be consuming at least 20 to 35 g of fiber daily, however, many Americans only consume 12 to 17 g of fiber daily at best. Furthermore, as a society, we Americans consume way too much added sugar, saturated fat, and salt. Although there are a number of reasons that unhealthy dietary patterns exist in our society especially in low‐income communities, it is important that we pay particular attention to how food deserts have developed and how they are major contributors to the overall poor health of low‐income Americans. Therefore, the purpose of this is paper is to encourage its audience to rethink how we can implement policies to address the issue of unhealthy dietary patterns by reducing or eliminating food deserts. Specifically, we explore the effect of implementing evidence‐based policies such as nutrition initiatives, corner store initiatives, menu labeling, food assistance programs, and the punitive taxation of sugary beverages and unhealthy foods similar to the punitive taxes placed on tobacco.     

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.     

Comment on Bruce J. Katz and Margery Austin Turner's “Who should run the housing voucher program? A reform proposal”: Why public housing authorities remain the best solution for running the housing voucher program

Abstract

Katz and Turner propose that the Section 8 program be administered regionally at the metropolitan level by a single organization awarded the contract through a competitive bidding process. We disagree. Local public housing authorities have been successful in providing family housing choice and moving families from the worst neighborhoods through the Section 8 program. The factors that inhibit mixed‐income communities and family mobility, resulting in concentration of poverty, are beyond the control of these authorities and will be affected little by a change in administration. Moreover, the additional cost of these changes would decrease the number of families served and at the same time increase bureaucracy.

We welcome the discussion the proposal has caused. Misperceptions exist about the program, even among those close to it. True, effective program reform can be engendered only by an honest dialogue among housing advocates, administrators, and consumers, both tenants and owners.     

Commercialism in nonprofit hospitals

The private nonprofit hospital is the dominant organizational form in the U.S. hospital industry. Various reasons have been advanced for its high market share. As hospitals undergo massive changes due in large part to changes in payment practices, there is widespread concern that nonprofit hospitals may become less committed to noncommercial activities. This may even be more likely when such hospitals convert to for-profit status. The empirical evidence indicates that, on average, hospitals of nonprofit and for-profit ownership are similar in the provision of uncompensated care, the quality of care, and the adoption of technology. Conversion of a nonprofit to for-profit status does not adversely affect the provision of uncompensated care on average. However, for-profits are more likely to be located in areas where consumers have the ability to pay for care. As hospital markets become more competitive and the opportunity for cross-subsidizing more unprofitable, collective-good activities will become increasingly difficult. Support for such activities, if they are to exist, will have to come from explicit public subsidies.     

Social preferences and private provision of public goods: A ‘double critical mass’ model

We set up an evolutionary game-theoretic model aimed at addressing the issue of local public good provision via direct commitment of voluntary forces (private donors and nonprofit providers) only. Two classes of agents are assumed to strategically interact within a ‘double critical mass’ model and we investigate the critical factors affecting the dynamic outcomes of such interaction. Further, we explore the conditions under which (what we term) ‘evolutionary crowding-out/in’ occurs, depending on agents’ degree of opportunism, social comparison and positive selective incentives (such as subsidies given by the government to ‘virtuous’ citizens or nonprofits only).     

Why information and transparency about electricity matter: Fragmentation of governance and accountability under New Public Management

From 1995, Australian governments pursued efficiency benefits arising from significant structural reforms in the Electricity Supply Industry, including corporatisation and regulation of network monopolies, and introduction of competition for generators and for retailers. The restructure was motivated by the ideology of New Public Management and influenced by the field of neoliberal economics. More than two decades later, prices paid for electricity by residential and commercial customers have escalated sharply, resulting in sustained anger from all consumers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chair has admitted that ‘The National Electricity Market is largely broken’. This article documents the reduction in public access to information about electricity supply, the fragmentation in responsibility and accountability for consumer outcomes, and the consequences of these changes for transparency, industry operation, and retail electricity prices. New research enabled the creation of a database of Queensland energy production, consumption, and prices; this facilitated a fresh analysis of Queensland electricity sector performance since the restructure of electricity supply.     

Local government grants and income tax revenue: Redistributive politics in Norway 1900–1990

An important aspect of the welfare state is public provision of private goods, primarily education and health care. In Norway the provision of these services has been organized through the local public sector. The development of the welfare state has to a large extent been the development of welfare communes. The important revenue sources of the local and county governments, grants and income tax revenue, have been controlled nationally, and the paper addresses the determinants of these revenues during 1900–1990. The approach combines a demand model of local public services emphasizing price and income-elasticities with a political economy model of central government ideology and strength. The decision making is understood as bargaining between the government and interest groups, and the political structure consequently is of importance for the policy outcome. The analysis shows how politics matter, and the results indicate that a minority coalition government implies 30% more grant and income tax revenue to local and county governments than one party majority in the long run.     

Partnering and Parenting in Poverty: A Qualitative Analysis of a Relationship Skills Program for Low‐Income,Unmarried Families

Since the mid‐1990s, the federal government has funded numerous relationship skills programs, including some specifically targeting low‐income, unmarried parents, in an effort to strengthen couples’ relationships and increase family stability. The previous research on the effectiveness of these interventions has revealed mixed results about whether such programs can improve the relationships of lower income couples who tend to experience lower relationship quality, lower marriage rates, and higher rates of relationship dissolution. This article draws on in‐depth qualitative data collected during an 18‐month ethnographic study of one federally funded relationship skills program for unmarried, low‐income couples expecting a new baby. Overall, though parents found the financial management lessons included in the classes only minimally useful, if at all, they found other aspects of the program particularly useful for three main reasons: (1) classes allowed parents to focus exclusively on their couple relationships in ways they rarely did otherwise; (2) program incentives helped parents make financial ends meet that month; and (3) parents learned that the challenges they personally experienced were often endemic to the romantic and co‐parenting relationships of unmarried parents who have few resources and experience more challenges that tend to undermine relationship quality, such as financial stress and relational ambiguity. Engaging with other couples around shared challenges normalized couples’ relationship problems and lessened the resentment and animosity that typically characterized their partner interactions. These findings have important implications for healthy marriage and relationship policy. Program developers should avoid lessons that imply low‐income, unmarried parents’ spending habits and family‐formation decisions are deficient. Interventions should instead encourage couples to discuss their shared challenges and minimize their tendency to individualize relational and financial strain.     

Low-Income Issues in Electricity Restructuring

Lower prices. New technologies. More choices. These are benefits that competition through electric industry restructuring was supposed to bring customers. Thus far, results have been disappointing, and harmful to the most vulnerable–low‐income people. Restructuring is no longer under active consideration in any state that has not already enacted it. In several states, restructuring has been reversed. This article focuses on the few states that have retained electric industry restructuring, providing a menu of necessary protections, strategies for putting them into place, and supporting arguments to keep them there. However, low‐income protections are appropriate for anactment in all places because vulnerable low‐income families live in states with both restructured and traditional electricity regulation.     

Privatising electric power in Malaysia and Thailand: politics and infrastructure development policy

Electric power development in Asia until recently has been a monopoly of the state, with the power sector's planning, finance, construction and management being a part of government activity. The surge in demand for power, as well as external pressures, induced Asian governments to allow private sector participation in electric power. The Malaysian and Thailand cases represent different patterns of policy‐making regarding privatisation. In Malaysia, the government divested Tenaga Nacional Berhad in 1992 and awarded independent power producers (IPPs) licences to build and sell electricity to Tenaga for transmission and distribution. The IPPs were awarded without tender to friends of the government and the system has enabled the IPPs to make large profits at Tenaga's expense. In the Thai case, privatisation has been a very slow process as successive governments since 1989 have not had the power to initiate extensive divestment of IPP contracting. Privatisation in Thailand is a very contentious political issue and the employees union of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) is very powerful. Thus, while Malaysia has had extensive privatisation of the power sector, the system eliminates competition in power supply resulting in a higher price of electricity for consumers. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ELECTRICITY PLANNING IN TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND: POLITICAL PROCESSES AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE

Abstract: This paper considers but rejects a thesis that there is some sort of 'technological imperative' in operation in the process of electricity planning which requires the integration of electricity generating systems with large industrial consumers. It is argued that there is nothing about the technical features of electricity generation and supply that does not translate into costs and benefits (which can be subsequently paid, enjoyed or ignored by decision-makers). Instead a Galbraithian thesis of technocracy is examined, but this is found to be insufficient to explain fully the electricity planning process in Australia and New Zealand and the relationship of that process to electricity-intensive industry. After examining cases of forecasting and planning in New Zealand and Tasmania (both predominantly reliant on intensive hydro-electric systems), it is concluded that a full appreciation requires an understanding of the relationship between government and business, a relationship which is rooted long ago in the colonial origins of both countries.     

Boards of trustees,agency problems,and university output

The analysis and empirical evidence in this paper indicate that the structure of the boards of trustees of state universities influences the provision of higher education. The structure of the boards is important because it helps to define the constraints on the board members and on the internal agents of the universities. An implication of this study is that public universities can be made to function more like private ones by placing them under separate governing boards.These results are especially interesting when examining the trends regarding board structures. The trend over this century across the states has been toward increasing the number of universities under the jurisdiction of a single board. This analysis suggests that the trend is a response to political pressure from educators, not from taxpayers and consumers of higher education.     

Inequities in enforcement? Environmental justice and government performance

This paper examines whether state governments perform systematically less environmental enforcement of facilities in communities with higher minority and low‐income populations. Although this is an important claim made by environmental justice advocates, it has received little attention in the scholarly literature. Specifically, I analyze state regulatory enforcement of three U.S. pollution control laws—the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act—over the period 1985–2000. To test for disparities in enforcement, I estimate a series of count models and find strong evidence across each of the three environmental laws that states perform less enforcement in poor counties, but little evidence of race‐based inequities. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.