The State of American Federalism, 2001-2002: Resilience in Response to Crisis

The past year has been one of repeated shocks to governmentand the larger society. Terrorist attacks in New York City andWashington, D. C., the burst of the dot.com bubble in the stockmarket, a wave of corporate scandals, and a slowdown in theeconomy posed severe problems for officials of all governmentsin the federal system. The combined effects of the war on terrorismand the economic turmoil forced federal policymakers to createnew agencies and to enact new policies. State and local governmentsalso responded to the multiple shocks with a variety of initiatives,often independent of Washington. Instead of a move toward centralizationthat might have been predicted as a consequence of the seriousshocks, all elements of the American federal system demonstrateda capacity and energy to marshal resources in a time of urgency.     

Who Wants to Work for the Government?

In an era when everyone wants to be a millionaire, governments struggle to attract and retain highly qualified employees, making it more important than ever to understand what attracts people to the public service. Using contingency table analysis and logistic regression on the 1989 and 1998 General Social Surveys, we explore how individuals' demographic characteristics and the importance they place on various job qualities influence their preference for and employment in the public sector. Job security may still be the strongest attraction of government jobs, but high income and the opportunity to be useful to society also attract some Americans to the public service. Minorities, veterans, Democrats, and older Americans preferred public-sector jobs more than whites, nonveterans, Republicans, and younger Americans, who were otherwise similar. Women and college graduates were more likely than comparable men and less-educated respondents to have government jobs, but no more likely to prefer them. Overall, desire for government jobs declined markedly between 1989 and 1998.     

Introduction — Building Local Government

In this and the last issue, the Australian Journal of Public Administration has profiled issues of current importance to Australian local/regional government. Contributors to Building Local Government looked at organisational change, performance measurement, leadership and social–capital–building roles in local government. Future of Regionalism now focuses on local and subnational government generally, in the financial, administrative and constitutional context. A major trigger for this focus is the present inquiry of the Commonwealth House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration into the financial position of local government.     

BANKING ON THE PERIPHERY: Bolivia's Financial Reforms, 1985–1996

This article examines the sequencing of financial reform in LDCs in Bolivia. Bolivia undertook a dramatic stabilization program in 1985 and, over the next decade, steadily improved the oversight and regulation of domestic banks. I explain how these reforms proceed under three democratically elected administrations who each used political pacts to ensure legislative support for their agenda. At the international level, external shocks twice precipitated deeper banking reforms, but Bolivia's underdeveloped capital markets prevented the speculative attacks observed in other cases. The Bolivian experience demonstrates the potential for financial reform in the poorest of LDCs and the need for further research in similar cases.     

Municipal Capital Spending during the "Boom"

This article analyzes municipal governments, capital spending, and revenue-raising decisions between 1993 and 2000, an era of unprecedented economic growth. It finds that, as anticipated, greater-than-expected revenues allowed many cities to advance projects from their capital improvement plans to their capital budgets. Moreover, the article concludes that growth in cities' own-source-revenue-generating capacity and transfers from carryover or ending balances from earlier years, rather than debt issuances and intergovernmental aid, seem to be the most important fuel for the remarkable growth rate in capital spending.     

论重构国有企业的激励约束机制

国有企业激励约束机制的重建关系到国有企业的生存与发展 ,重建国有企业激励约束机制是一项复杂的系统工程 ,只有从所有权、委托代理及会计人和经营人员等方面去进行改革 ,进行公司治理 ,才能建立起有效的国有企业激励约束机制     

The Impact of Competition and Labor Remuneration on Profitability in China's Industrial State-owned Enterprises

China's industrial state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have seen a secular decline in profitability throughout the reform period. Barry Naughton argues that this decline was in large part due to a decline in monopoly rents as competition with enterprises in other ownership forms increased. Fan Gang and Woo Wing-Thye, on the other hand, contend that profitability declined across all sectors independent of the degree of competition, and that excessive labor remuneration accounts for the broad decline in SOE profitability. Testing the two hypotheses with aggregate sectoral and provincial data from the mid-1980s to the late-1990s, neither appears convincing. Yet at closer inspection these are not competing hypotheses. The two causes affect overall profitability through different channels. Competition and labor remuneration have a highly significant impact on intermediate profitability measures that take the two channels into account separately. Together they explain most of the variation in overall profitability.