Reviving the Bank and Fund

The missions of both the Bank and the Fund have changed greatly since the early years. And the client base has changed greatly. It is time to change procedures to match the rhetoric about governance, corruption, and ownership to incentives that help to bring about these results. The paper offers some suggestions for shifting from the command and control arrangements to systems that encourage local officials to reform. JEL codes F1 · F34 · O19     

Do crises help remedy regulatory failure? A comparative study of the Walkerton water and Jerusalem banquet hall disasters

Abstract: This study explores whether and how policy changes in the aftermath of a crisis. The authors ask why pre‐existing regulatory regimes that are identified as contributory factors to “failure” are not necessarily reformed in the wake of a crisis. The investigation adds to the literature that addresses the classic tension between reformism and conservatism in post‐crisis periods. Regulatory failure is identified as being largely responsible for two crises – the tainted drinking‐water tragedy in Walkerton, Canada, and the collapse of a banquet hall in Jerusalem, Israel. Despite similarities in the nature of media coverage, institutional procedures for investigation and commission findings, these two tragedies differ dramatically in policy change outcomes. A policy streams prism is used to identify, characterize and analyse reasons for very different policy responses to crises associated with regulatory failure. Sommaire: Cette étude examine si et comment les politiques changent à la suite d'une crise. Les auteurs se posent la question de savoir pourquoi des régimes de réglementation préexistants qui sont identifiés comme étant des facteurs contribuant à l'«échec » ne sont pas nécessairement réformés à la suite d'une crise. L'enquête apporte des éléments à la documentation portant sur la tension classique qui existe entre le réformisme et le conservatisme au cours des périodes postérieures à une crise. L'échec de la réglementation est identifié comme étant largement responsable de deux crises : la tragédie de l'eau potable contaminée à Walkerton, au Canada, et l'effondrement d'une salle de réception à Jérusalem, en Israël. Malgré des similarités dans la nature de la couverture médiatique, dans les procédures institutionnelles de l'enquête et les résultats des commissions, ces deux tragédies diffèrent radicalement dans les résultats des modifications de politiques. Un prisme des courants de politiques est utilisé pour identifier, caractériser et analyser les raisons des réactions très différentes en matière de politiques à des crises associées à l'échec de la réglementation.     

Comparative Vigilance

A growing body of literature suggests that courts and juriesare inclined toward division of liability between two strictlynon-negligent or "vigilant" parties. In this paper, we explorethe economic efficiency of liability rules based on comparativevigilance. We devise rules that are efficient and that rewardvigilance. Commonly used liability rules have discontinuousliability shares. We develop a liability rule, which we callthe "super-symmetric rule," that is both efficient and continuous,that is based on comparative negligence when both parties arenegligent and on comparative vigilance when both parties arevigilant, and that is always responsive to increased care.