The state as entrepreneur: from CDC to CDIC

Abstract: Focusing upon the case of the Canada Development Corporation, this paper provides a critique of the joint stock company as an instrument of public policy. The corporation's performance is evaluated against three criteria which emerge from a review of the circumstances leading to the creation of the CDC, namely: contributing to diversified industrial development in Canada; establishing the joint stock company as an accepted medium of private/public cooperation in economic activity; and providing income returns to the government. The CDC'S failure as a governing instrument is attributed to the fact that, in resolving its anomolous status as neither clearly state enterprise nor clearly private enterprise, the corporation was forced to distance itself from its major shareholder (i.e., the state) in order to retain the support of the investment community. The analysis in the second part of the paper proceeds through three stages: a review of the circumstances in the creation of the Canada Development Investment Corporation (cdic); identification of its probable rble; and a comparison with two alternative models of the state holding company. While the CDIC is a more tractable governing instrument than was the CDC, the early pattern of the CDIC'S commercial activities suggests a dismal financial future. Sommaire: Cet article, qui étudie le cas de la Corporation de développement du Canada, présente une critique de la société en commandite en tant qu'instrument dapplication de la politique gouvernementale. Le rendement de la Corporation est évalué a partir des trois critères suivants, qui découlent de l'examen des circonstances ayant conduit à la création de la CDC: contribuer à la diversification du développement industriel au Canada; faire de la sociétA en commandite un moyen reconu de favoriser la coopération entre les entreprises publiques et privées dans l'activitééconomique; et fournir des revenus au gouvernement. L'échec de la CDC en tant qu'instrument de gouvernement est attribué au fait que, compte tenu de son statut ambigu dentreprise mi-publique mi-privée, la Corporation a été contrainte à prendre ses distances vis-à-vis de son principal actionnaire (à savoir l'Etat), afin de conserver l'appui des investisseurs. L'analyse presentee dans la seconde partie de l'article se déroule en trois étapes: étude des circonstances ayant amené la création de la CDIC, ou Corporation de développement et d'investissement du Canada; identification de son rôle probable; et comparaison avec deux autres modèles possibles de société H portefeuille contrôlée par I'Etat. Bien que la CDIC soit un instrument de gouvernement plus souple que ne l'etait la CDC, les premières conclusions que I'on peut tirer au sujet de ses activités commerciales tont envisager I'avenir financier avec un profond pessimisme. (The) form of public organization significantly affects the policies they adopt and the kind of management they conduct. Any structure for making decisions encourages certain types of choice and discourages others (emphasis added). Annmarie Hauck Walsh, 1978.     

Trophy Hunting of Black Rhino Diceros bicornis: Proposals to Ensure Its Future Sustainability

Proposing the use of charismatic species of large mammals as a conservation tool is often controversial, even though the Conservation of Biological Diversity promotes sustainable use as one of its three pillars. Indeed, sustainable use has been important in helping to recover southern white rhinos, the South African population of which was downlisted in 1994 to Appendix II of CITES for trophy hunting and live sales only. The Appendix I listed black rhino is now also beginning to recover, particularly in South Africa and Namibia, where how best to deal with surplus males arising from successful biological management is an increasing problem. Furthermore, black rhinos are now being increasingly moved to private land, where incentives from use may help help promote metapopulation management goals. As a result, the African Rhino Specialist Group anticipated proposals to trophy hunt black rhinos, and were concerned to recommend criteria that proponent countries would need to meet for such proposals to succeed. These recommendations address four guiding principles:

• ensuring that any offtakes are biologically sustainable and based on good monitoring;

• ensuring that incentives from any hunting opportunities are maximized, without discriminating between state agencies and the private sector;

• rewarding good biological management and long-term commitment to black rhino conservation; and

• ensuring that appropriate internal and external controls are in place.

     

Income tax policy and charitable giving

Many studies over the past 20 years have looked at the response of charitable donations to tax incentives—the tax price elasticity of giving. Generally, authors have assumed this elasticity is constant across all types of giving. Using the 2001 Panel Study of Income Dynamics data on charitable giving, this paper estimates the tax price elasticity across six nonprofit subsectors, finding substantial variation. These results suggest that the fiscal effectiveness of tax deductibility depends on the type of donation involved. This has implications for both public policy and nonprofit management. © 2007 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Can Nonprofit Management Help Answer Public Management’s “Big Questions”?

Are the fields of nonprofit management and public management naturally complementary, or are they substitutes? Briefly surveying the nonprofit literature on board governance, volunteer management, and performance measurement, the author shows that study of the third sector can help inform public management’s “big questions”. As such, nonprofit studies and scholarship should represent an improvement to public administration curricula and a fertile source of ideas for public managers.     

Two-man and two-sibling paternity cases.

Traditional genetic marker systems rarely fail to resolve paternity disputes when two or more men are accused, except when men are brothers. A sibling of the biologic father may not be excluded by these laboratory tests and sometimes yields calculated odds of paternity that are equal to or higher than the true male parent. Resolved two-brother cases were compared with resolved cases involving two unrelated men. In each case, the residual odds of paternity were determined for each man and the greater was divided by the lesser to produce a paternity fraction. The paternity fraction is a useful indicator of biologic parentage when it exceeds a value of 10 (log10 of-the-odds score greater than or equal to 1). Tests for alleles at highly heterozygous loci are indicated in initial laboratory evaluations of cases involving brothers. Human leukocyte antigen and variable number of tandem repeat polymorphisms appear suitable.     

In Search of True Public Arts Support

Most of the debate over government arts support focuses on direct subsidies to nonprofit arts organizations. In this article, however, I show that a much larger amount of public sector money comes from indirect aid, in the form of tax revenues forgone on tax-deductible contributions by individuals. Specifically, every dollar in direct federal arts funding is accompanied by about $14 in indirect aid. Analysis of the 1996 General Social Survey shows that private givers and supporters of direct government aid fit different demographic profiles, meaning that direct and indirect funding owe to distinct constituencies. These findings lead to a number of implications for nonprofit and public arts managers.

It is sometime proper for the state to encourage and protect dishonorable but useful professions, without those who exercise them being more highly considered for that.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau ¹

     

Lowering the Cost of Pollution Control Versus Controlling Pollution: A Comment

Dwight Lee (1999) shows that thecollectivity may be better, not worse off,when a technically ``inefficient'' pollutionabatement technology is adopted. Thepurpose of this note is twofold. First, toshow that once rent-seeking is incorporatedinto the analysis, Lee's qualified supportfor a technically inefficient pollutionabatement technology is at bestproblematic, and at worst flawed. Second,to demonstrate that it is possible to makea less problematic normative case in favourof the adoption of the technicallyinefficient abatement policy.