agricultural intensification irrigation and the environment in south asia issues and policy options high population pressure and the rapid pace of human activity including urbanization industrialization and other economic activities have led to a dwindling supply of arable land per capita and a process of agricultural intensification in south asia while this process has significantly increased food production to feed the growing population it has also entailed considerable damage to the physical environment including degradation and depletion of natural resources and unsustainable use of land and water resources this paper employs the analytical tools of economic theory environmental and ecological economics to model the impact of irrigation in south asia it underscores the need for an eclectic approach to policy responses stemming from private and common property rights theories externality theory and sustainability theory with a view to environmentalizing agricultural development

an analysis of feed in tariff remuneration models implications for renewable energy investment recent experience from around the world suggests that feed in tariffs fits are the most effective policy to encourage the rapid and sustained deployment of renewable energy there are several different ways to structure a fit policy each with its own strengths and weaknesses this paper presents an overview of seven different ways to structure the remuneration of a fit policy divided into two broad categories those in which remuneration is dependent on the electricity price and those that remain independent from it this paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of these different fit models and concludes with an analysis of these design options with a focus on their implications both for investors and for society

does size matter reassessing the relationship between aquaculture and poverty in bangladesh abstract aquaculture has long been promoted by development institutions in bangladesh on the understanding that it can alleviate poverty most of this attention has focused on forms of the activity commonly referred to as small scale this article draws on concepts from the literature on agricultural growth and elaborates a typology of aquaculture based on relations of production which suggests that in bangladesh quasi capitalist forms of aquaculture may possess greater potential to reduce poverty and enhance food security than the quasi peasant modes of production generally assumed to do so the implications of this conclusion are explored

using maimonides rule to estimate the effect of class size on scholastic achievement the twelfth century rabbinic scholar maimonides proposed a maximum class size of 40 this same maximum induces a nonlinear and nonmonotonic relationship between grade enrollment and class size in israeli public schools today maimonides rule of 40 is used here to construct instrumental variables estimates of effects of class size on test scores the resulting identiecation strategy can be viewed as an application of donald campbell s regression discontinuity design to the class size question the estimates show that reducing class size induces a signiecant and substantial increase in test scores for fourth and efth graders although not for third graders when asked about their views on class size in surveys parents and teachers generally report that they prefer smaller classes this may be because those involved with teaching believe that smaller classes promote student learning or simply because smaller classes offer a more pleasant environment for the pupils and teachers who are in them mueller chase and walden 1988 social scientists and school administrators also have a longstanding interest in the class size question class size is often thought to be easier to manipulate than other school inputs and it is a variable at the heart of policy debates on school quality and the allocation of school resources in many countries see e g robinson 1990 for the united states ofsted 1995 for the united kingdom and moshel ravid 1995 for israel this broad interest in the consequences of changing class size

the costs of distribution in the uk life insurance market the cost of direct and independent distribution in the uk life insurance sector over the period 1990 1997 is examined this is a novel contribution to the literature that until now has focused almost solely on distribution in the non life sector unlike the non life sector the distribution of life insurance is complicated by the existence of investor protection policies which in the uk are believed to have increased the use of independent agents using a pooled data set of 44 companies between 1990 and 1997 this study finds little evidence for such a view cost benefits are found for firms focusing in one mode of distribution from a modelling of the distribution decision this finding maybe attributed to firms choosing distribution systems which match the transactional problems associated with their product mix and or mode of corporate governance

environmentalizing economic development a south asian perspective south asia s pursuit of economic development has entailed considerable damage to and exposed the fragility of the physical environment of the region this paper provides an analytical overview of the of the environmental problem that manifest themselves in south asia in a comparative perspective with east and southeast asian countries as well as selected developed market economics to date south asian development process has been environment intensive and environment depleting it is argued that environmental problems are likely to set serious constraints to sustain growth in production to support a growing population by exploring the relationship between indices of human welfare and bio diversity conservation the paper exposes the dichotomy of the development process finally the study underscores the need for a range of policy options that rely both based and non market based instruments in an integrated setting to enviromnentalize south asian economic development c 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

urban bias revisited in his book why poor people stay poor the author has argued that urban bias is the moving force behind needlessly slow and inequitable growth in contemporary developing countries this claim is defended against three main criticisms that the methods chosen to test it are not appropriate that the evidence tendered is not relevant or sufficient and that the rural urban polarity is not clear cut or does not represent the prime conflict within contemporary developing countries

guaranteeing employment to the rural poor social functions and class interests in the employment guarantee scheme in western india abstract numerous observers rightly term the landless rural population the most intractable development problem in poor societies given the extraordinary political and administrative obstacles to redistrubution of rural assets in india the widely recognized failture land reforms attention and finances have recently been focused on public rural employment programmes to alleviate rural distribution within india the state of maharashtra with a size and population of a large european nation has instituted a striking departure from traditional rural works programmes a guarantee of employment to rural adults on demand the employment guarantee scheme in one state has since become a significant policy model and the experience in that state provides something like a laboratory for its analysis based on analysis of previous studies and original field work in rural maharashtra the article argues that the scheme is something of a rare bird a programme which seems to be in the objective and subjective interests of the rural poor as well as consistent with the interests of the rural landed elite despite their early political objections the fiscal structure of the scheme is a direct contradiction of lipton s 1977 model of urban bias in third world development strategies the employment guarantee scheme is rather more a manifestation of kulak power though promulgated as an alternative to policies entailing redistribution of rural assets and clearly superior to doing nothing about rural distribution the scheme is inferior to genuine redistribution in terms of altering the rural political economy the functions if not the motivations of the scheme are profoundly conservative in a structural sense politically and economically the philosophical underpinnings and perhaps potentially the consequences for mobilization of the rural poor are quite the opposite

towards a sustainable electrification in ghana a review of renewable energy deployment policies abstract ghana has been facing perennial power rationing over the years due to fuel supply challenges the country s energy system is likely to suffer additional strain from rising energy demand fueled by population growth rapid urbanization and economic development fortunately there are enormous renewable energy resources which can provide sustainable electrification as backbone to socioeconomic development while curbing global warming ghana s energy strategy targets 100 access to electricity and 10 share of sustainable power in national generation mix by 2020 despite the existence of numerous policies and a renewable energy act current contribution of non conventional renewable energy to electricity generation is less than 1 the right mix of policies to address the unique domestic conditions and achieve its specific development goals remains insufficient this study reviews the regulatory framework financing incentives and other provisions of ghana s renewable energy act it critically examines the policy s strengths weaknesses opportunities and treats based on comparative analysis and lessons drawn from failed and successful implementation of similar policies around the world the study also assesses the impact of policy on project development it was found that the performance of ghana s renewable energy policy on grid connected electricity has been poor compared to its target the fundamental reasons for this unsatisfactory performance may be attributed to partial implementation of policies lack of market driven support schemes lack of pricing policy framework weak grid network limited access to funds and inconsistencies in renewable energy development strategies this study proposes the following countermeasures i ghana should comprehensively harmonize renewable energy regulatory and fiscal policies with domestic electricity pricing regime ii market driven support schemes should be prioritized for cost effectiveness and minimum governmental influence these reforms can help eliminate some of the major barriers to sustainable electrification in ghana while the lessons provide a learning curve for other african countries

home versus school learning a new approach to estimating the effect of class size on achievement i estimate the effect of class size on scholastic achievement using that schools are only in session during the school year and out of session during the summer this seasonal feature of the schooling system makes it possible to control for unobservable pupil characteristics affecting both the level and change in achievement using swedish data i find that smaller classes generate higher achievement a comparison with the results from applying the same data to the widely used value added model is also made

election goals and the allocation of campaign resources this paper compares the equilibrium behavior and outcomes in a model of two party competition for legislative seats under two different assumptions about the parties goals 1 parties maximize the expected number of seats won and 2 parties maximize the probability of winning a majority of the seats the two goals may lead to qualitatively different behavior and studying the differences yields insights into the relationship between the goals and the role of assymetries between the parties

electricity planning and implementation in sub saharan africa a systematic review abstract universal electricity access is an important development objective and the focus of a number of key global un initiatives while robust electricity planning is widely believed to be a prerequisite for effective electrification to date no comprehensive overview of electricity planning research has been undertaken on sub saharan africa the world region with the lowest access rates this paper reviews quantitative and qualitative electricity planning and related implementation research considering each of the 49 sub saharan african countries the four regional power pools and the sub continent as a whole applying a broad understanding of electricity planning and a practical limit of 20 reviewed articles per country and region 306 relevant peer reviewed journal articles are included in this review a general classification scheme is introduced that classifies the planning literature along the addressed value chain depth number of different analysed criteria and number of evaluated decision alternatives the literature is found to be strongly clustered in a few countries with less than 5 identified relevant articles in 36 of the 49 countries the total amount of articles per year is clearly increasing over time addressing technology choice operation distribution and implementation analyses although including different high level criteria in analysing electricity systems is common the literature is only starting to use formalised multi criteria decision making mcdm tools the review indicates that 63 of relevant articles favour renewable energy technologies for their given problems frequently mentioned success factors for electrification in sub saharan africa include adequate policy design sufficient finance and favourable political conditions while considerable regional and methodological literature gaps are apparent the literature in this review identifies a rich and fruitful ground for future research to fill these gaps

measuring the impact of consumption linkages on the employment effects of mechanisation in philippine rice production a variant on the social accounting matrix method is used to measure consumption linkages of alternative rice production technologies the model is built for technology observed in the philippines consumption linkages are computed by incorporating consumption distribution and import substitution effects one essence of the input output framework is the recognition of multiple sub sectors for production of a single product rice simulations consider a one per cent change on consumer spending for rice met from one sub sector compared to another results indicate that the changes in employment that occur under different technological options depend importantly on the indirect effects arising from consumption linkages

granting votes exposing the political bias of intergovernmental grants using the within between specification for panel data instead of alleviating fiscal inequalities intergovernmental grants are often used to fulfill the grantors political goals this study uses a unique panel dataset on more than 500 croatian municipalities over a 12 year period to uncover the extent to which grant distribution is biased owing to grantors electoral concerns instead of the default fixed effects approach to modelling panel data we apply a novel within between specification aimed at uncovering the contextual source of variation focusing on the effects of electoral concerns on grant allocation within and between municipalities we find evidence of a substantial political bias in grant allocations both within and between municipalities particularly when it comes to local level electoral concerns the paper offers researchers a new perspective when tackling the issue of politically biased grant allocation using panel data particularly when they wish to uncover the simultaneous impact of time variant and time invariant factors or when they cannot apply a quasi experimental approach because of specific institutional contexts

the effects of partisan alignment on the allocation of intergovernmental transfers differences in differences estimates for spain abstract in this paper we test the hypothesis that municipalities aligned with upper tier grantor governments i e controlled by the same party will receive more grants than those that are unaligned we use a rich spanish database which provides information on grants received by nearly 900 municipalities during the period 1993 2003 from three different upper tier governments i e central regional and upper local since three elections were held at each tier during this period we have enough within municipality variation in partisan alignment to provide differences in differences estimates of the effects of alignment on the amount of grants coming from each source moreover the fact that a municipality may simultaneously receive grants from aligned and unaligned grantors allows us to use a triple differences estimator which consists of estimating the effects of changing alignment status on the change in grants coming from the aligned grantors relative to the change in grants coming from the unaligned ones the results suggest that partisan alignment has a sizeable positive effect on the amount of grants received by municipalities for example with majority governments at the two layers aligned municipalities receive over 40 more grants than unaligned ones

consumption savings and investment by social class in bangladesh does the rural sector support the urban sector this article employs input output analysis and information from a social accounting matrix and the concept of net savings to examine savings consumption and investment behaviour by various social classes in bangladesh in urban and rural areas considerable differences between social classes can be identified in all three respects a majority of the social classes in the rural sector does not appear to generate enough savings to sustain its consumption whereas the urban social classes do there seems to be little difference in consumption pattern of the rural rich and the urban rich there is considerable urban rural difference in the import intensities of consumption the findings of this study based on the hazari model do not establish the existence of urban bias but the problem seems to be one of rich bias rather than urban bias per se however the hazari model cannot capture all possible sources of urban bias and circumstantial evidence indicates concentration of advantages in the urban areas

the effect of schooling on cognitive skills how schooling a ects cognitive skills is a fundamental question forstudies of human capital and labor markets while scores on cognitive ability testsare positively associated with schooling it ha

technical change and labor absorption in asian agriculture some emerging trends abstract increased labor absorption in agriculture has been widely held to be the key to solving unemployment problems in developing asia following the historical experience of east asian countries the new seed fertilizer technology interacting with expansion of irrigation and cropping intensity initially increased labor absorption in wheat and rice production however evidence from recent village studies indicates that new labor saving chemical and mechanical innovations originating in the developed countries are being rapidly adopted by farmers of the developing countries owing to their private cost reducing characteristics this international transfer of technology contributes to increased productivity but results in net reductions of agricultural labor use recognition of the declining capacity of the agricultural sector for labor absorption indicates the need to seek solutions to unemployment problems in the off farm sector

on the vote purchasing behavior of incumbent governments a couple of months before the swedish election in 1998 the incumbent government distributed 2 3 billion sek to 42 out of 115 applying municipalities this was the first wave of a four year long grant program intended to support local investment programs aimed at an ecological sustainable development this temporary grant program differs from traditional intergovernmental grants in several aspects most importantly in the sovereign decision making power given to the incumbent central government in this paper we investigate whether there were any tactical motives behind the distribution of these grants we find support for the hypothesis that the incumbent government used the grant program under study in order to win votes in particular we find strong support for the lindbeck weibull dixit londregan model in which parties distribute transfers to regions where there are many swing voters this result is statistically as well as economically significant we do however not find any support for the model that predicts that the incumbent government transfer money to its own supporters

geographies of energy transition space place and the low carbon economy this paper makes a case for examining energy transition as a geographical process involving the reconfiguration of current patterns and scales of economic and social activity the paper draws on a seminar series on the geographies of energy transition security climate governance hosted by the authors between 2009 and 2011 which initiated a dialogue between energy studies and the discipline of human geography focussing on the uk government s policy for a low carbon transition the paper provides a conceptual language with which to describe and assess the geographical implications of a transition towards low carbon energy six concepts are introduced and explained location landscape territoriality spatial differentiation scaling and spatial embeddedness examples illustrate how the geographies of a future low carbon economy are not yet determined and that a range of divergent and contending potential geographical futures are in play more attention to the spaces and places that transition to a low carbon economy will produce can help better understand what living in a low carbon economy will be like it also provides a way to help evaluate the choices and pathways available

an economic analysis of voting in sweden using data from the swedish election studies between 1985 and 1994 supplemented with time series on inflation and unemployment i compare the impact of macro and microeconomic variables on the individual vote the principal finding is that macroeconomic variables influence the vote a bit more than microeconomic variables do in consequence both self interest and public interest appear to be important explanations of economic voting in sweden macroeconomic variables have however been much more influential in determining election outcomes since previous studies of economic voting have used cross sectional data only it is also worth noting that panel estimates indicate a much greater impact of macroeconomic variables on the individual vote than cross sectional estimates do

a model of political equilibrium in a representative democracy abstract this paper studies political equilibrium in a two party representative democracy in which the political parties are policy motivated and voters trade off their policy preferences against their party identity it is shown that the parties will in general adopt differing policy positions in equilibrium and that under certain qualifications the winning policy will lie between the more popular party s preferred policy and a certain utilitarian optimum the winning policy will be closer to this utilitarian optimum the less biased the electorate is in terms of party identification

solar energy applications and development in nigeria drivers and barriers abstract in this study current perspectives of solar energy utilization as a renewable energy option in nigeria are examined and discussed from the standpoint of sustainable development the country being a world crude oil and natural gas producer is over dependent on these energy sources for electricity generation and other energy applications this has currently put the country at a risk of impending energy crises in view of the fast diminishing fossil reserves inadequate refining capacity to meet domestic consumption and serious cases of energy insecurity in restive regions where exploitations exist in spite of the vast fossil based energy reserves a meager electricity production capacity that is put at 4517 6 mw as at december 2012 is generated to support the economy of a teeming population of approximately 170 million people nigeria is naturally endowed with abundant deposit of renewable energy resources of which solar energy from the sun being the world s most abundant and permanent energy source has for decades been enjoying very high level utilization by rural dwellers for agricultural processings in the country it is vastly deposited with an estimated 17 459 215 2 million mj day of solar energy falling on the country s 923 768 km2 land area approximate range of 12 6 mj m2 day in the coastal region to about 25 2 mj m2 day in the far north the different applications to which solar resources have been put and the extent of utilization including details of existing projects in the country were thoroughly investigated and discussed the possible motivations for extensive development of solar energy conversion systems in nigeria are also discussed and some of the barriers and challenges are presented steps and policy measures to overcome the barriers and facilitates the utilization of this resource are suggested

investment timing and optimal capacity choice for small hydropower projects this paper presents a method for assessing small hydropower projects that are subject to uncertain electricity prices we present a real options based method with continuous scaling and we find that there is a unique price limit for initiating the project if the current electricity price is below this limit it is never optimal to invest but above this limit investment is made according to the function for optimal size the connection between the real option and the physical properties of a small hydropower plant is dealt with using a spreadsheet model that performs a technical simulation of the production in a plant based on all the important choices for such a plant the main results of the spreadsheet are simulated production size and the investment costs which are in turn used for finding the value of the real option and the price limit the method is illustrated on three different norwegian small hydropower projects

drivers barriers and strategies for implementation of renewable energy technologies in rural areas in bangladesh an innovation system analysis abstract bangladesh has good potential for harnessing renewable energy sources such as solar biomass wind and mini hydropower the country has been experiencing a gradual shift towards exploring renewable energy resources as a driving force for rural development a few public sector and non government organizations have started to develop renewable energy technology ret projects in rural areas the lessons learnt from different demonstrations of ret projects reveal that with careful forward planning renewable energy can provide far reaching economic environmental and social benefits to people living in remote rural areas in bangladesh this paper identifies some of the barriers that need to be overcome for the successful development of renewable energy technology sector and betterment of rural livelihoods it does so through a critical review of policy and institutional settings as well as present status and lessons learnt from pilot demonstration of a number of ret projects undertaken by different organizations the study highlights policy implications of the review with the aim of supporting decision makers in formulating renewable energy policies and future plans for bangladesh

labor absorption and agricultural development bangladesh s experience and predicament significant employment gains have resulted from the green revolution technologies in bangladesh while the kharif wet season employment has remained more or less stagnant employment in the rabi dry season increased fourfold between the early 1960s and the late 1980s with overall crop sector employment increasing by 30 interseasonal differences in employment have declined steadily the employment generating effect of the green revolution is slowing down i e agricultural growth at the margin has become progressively less labor intensive in recent years changes in the occupational structure may merely reflect a relocation of surplus labor from the farm to the nonfarm sector where it is also largely surplus rather than heralding a real turning point in bangladesh there is little prospect of agriculture providing much greater employment and there is little sign that labor transfer in bangladesh will lead to a pattern of successful industrialization as in the contemporary developed countries of east asia or the western countries

rural urban disparities in india and china abstract this paper compares rural urban disparities in china and india in light of differences in the following indicators income and consumption deposit to credit ratios and agricultural and industrial productivity access to such public services as health are also considered reasons for disparities are sought in government policies affecting agricultural terms of trade credit and rural to urban migration the paper concludes that the chinese economy during the mao zedong period was much more egalitarian than the indian but the case is less clearcut for the deng xiaoping period

lobbying political competition and local land supply recent evidence from spain abstract we analyze whether local land supply is influenced by the degree of political competition and interpret the findings as indications of the influence wielded by land developer lobbies we use a new database including both political and land supply data for more than 2 000 spanish municipalities for the period 2003 2007 in spain land use policies are largely a local responsibility with municipalities needing periodically to pass comprehensive land use plans the main policy variable in these plans and the one analyzed here is the amount of land classified for potential development we measure local political competition as the margin of victory of the incumbent government this variable is however potentially endogenous since not only do votes affect policy but also policy is expected to affect votes to deal with this problem we instrument this variable using the votes at the first national legislative elections following the re establishment of democracy and votes actually obtained regionally at the same type of election the results indicate that stiffer political competition does indeed reduce the amount of new land designated for development this effect is found to be most marked in suburbs in towns with a high percentage of commuters and homeowners and in municipalities governed by the left

does delegation of fiscal policy to an independent agency make a difference evidence from intergovernmental transfers in india abstract one area of fiscal policy in which several countries have delegated responsibility to an independent agency is the distribution of national resource transfers across regional and local governments such delegation is expected to promote equity and efficiency and mitigate distortions created by political incentives this paper tests whether delegation to an independent agency indeed makes a difference by contrasting the impact of partisan politics on two types of fiscal transfers to states in the indian federation over a period of time 1972 1995 the pattern of evidence shows that while the transfers that are determined by the central political executive are indeed distributed to favor particular states that are politically important for the central ruling party the transfers that are delegated to an independent agency serve to constrain such partisan impact

balanced budget redistribution as the outcome of political competition this paper models balanced budget redistribution between socio economic groups as the outcome of electoral competition between two political parties equilibrium is unique in the present model and a sufficient condition for existence is given requiring that there be enough stochastic heterogeneity with respect to party preferences in the electorate the validity of hotelling s principle of minimum differentiation and of director s law are examined under alternative hypotheses concerning administrative costs of redistributions and voter s possibilities both of abstaining from voting and of becoming campaign activists for one of the parties the policy strategy of expected plurality maximization is contrasted with the strategy of maximizing the probability of gaining a plurality incomes are fixed and known so lump sum taxation is feasible however constraints on tax transfer differentiation between individuals are permitted in the analysis

free and slave labor in the antebellum south perfect substitutes or different inputs the substitutability between free and slave labor is examined and the permissibility of aggregating the two in to a single labor variab le is investigated using a translog production function slaves on large cotton farms worked in gangs free labor was not observed to do so despite this previous research has aggregated free and slave labor and employed functional forms imposing strong restrictions on substitution estimation of the translog function shows that simple additive aggregation is not acceptable on large farms slaves and free labor were complements while on small nongang farms they were substitutes copyright 1988 by mit press

availibility of renewable energy sources in turkey current situation potential government policies and the eu perspective abstract this study aims to explore the availability and potential of renewable energy sources in turkey as well as assessing related government policies financial and environmental aspects of renewable energy projects turkey is a country which has the highest hydropower wind and geothermal energy potential among european countries as a european union eu candidate several incentives were developed in turkey for electricity generation from renewable energy sources by the enactment of law no 5346 in 2005 which was later restructured by law no 6094 in 2010 the most important ones are ease of land acquisition and feed in tariffs which promise purchasing of electricity generated and domestic manufacturing of equipment by the private companies with a price of 5 30 9 69 and 0 3 2 55 c kwh respectively depending on the type of the renewable and the equipment however feed in tariff amounts take reservoir area into account instead of installed capacity for hydroelectric power plants moreover environmental impact assessment eia report is not mandatory for all renewable energy plants according to the multi criteria analysis tool developed in this study to evaluate the renewable energy source res technologies the most appropriate renewable energy alternative for turkey is biomass simply because of the highest social benefit among others

review of barriers to the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems abstract this paper reviews the available literature dealing with the barriers to the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems decentralized renewable energy systems may face a range of technical economic institutional socio cultural and environmental barrier to their dissemination in the paper barriers impeding the dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems have been identified and assessed in addition appropriate remedial measures and corresponding responsibility centers as reported in the literature have also been discussed inappropriateness of technology unavailability of skilled manpower for maintenance unavailability of spare parts high cost lack of access to credit poor purchasing power and other spending priorities unfair energy pricing lack of information or awareness and lack of adequate training on operation and maintenance of decentralized renewable energy systems are found to be the most critical barriers long term conducive policies appropriate regulatory framework financial incentives capital subsidies and soft loans to users technology and skill development internalization of externalities in the cost of energy withdrawal of subsidies presently being given to fossil fuels development of specialized institutions cooperation with international agencies participation of local community and awareness generation have been recommended for increased dissemination of decentralized renewable energy systems

explaining intergovernmental grants australian evidence the dodo suddenly called out the race is over and they all croded round it panting and asking but who has won lewis carroll alice s adventures in wonderland

the political determination of intergovernmental grants in australia intergovernmental grants have been conventionally explained on the basis of either equity efficiency and or institutional considerations this paper seeks to model australian intergovernmental grants by including both traditional public finance variables and public choice influences that is grants are used by federal government politicians to purchase political capital thereby enhancing their own chances of reelection the models employed in this paper are tested for six australian states for the period 1981 82 to 1991 92 using unsystematic grant transfers the results provide support for these public choice considerations and highlight the importance of incorporating institutional factors and controlling for misspecification in the error structure in estimates of this type

geographical redistribution with disproportional representation a politico economic model of norwegian road projects politicians bias public policies to favor particular election districts according to the traditional common pool model districts facing low tax shares should receive relatively large government projects we suggest a swing voter model where the number of voters on the ideological cut point lack of party identification and number of district representatives per voter determine project sizes we analyze the allocation of state road investments in norway from 1973 1997 exploiting unique data on characteristics of voters legislative representation and tax prices in 19 election districts geographical representation to parliament is biased mostly due to an ancient constitution shares of swing voters and legislative over representation lead to higher levels of road investments while high levels of party identification reduce investments

community based electric micro grids can contribute to rural development evidence from kenya summary in this paper we clarify the mechanisms through which rural electrification can contribute to rural development through a detailed case study analysis of a community based electric micro grid in rural kenya we demonstrate that access to electricity enables the use of electric equipment and tools by small and micro enterprises resulting in significant improvement in productivity per worker 100 200 depending on the task at hand and in a corresponding growth in income levels in the order of 20 70 depending on the product made access to electricity simultaneously enables and improves the delivery of social and business services from a wide range of village level infrastructure e g schools markets and water pumps while improving the productivity of agricultural activities we find that increased productivity and growth in revenues within the context of better delivery of social and business support services contribute to achieving higher social and economic benefits for rural communities we also demonstrate that when local electricity users have an ability to charge and enforce cost reflective tariffs and when electricity consumption is closely linked to productive uses that generate incomes cost recovery is feasible 2008 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

experimental estimates of education production functions this paper analyzes data on 11 600 students and their teachers who were randomly assigned to different size classes from kindergarten through third grade statistical methods are used to adjust for nonrandom attrition and transitions between classes the main conclusions are 1 on average performance on standardized tests increases by four percentile points the first year students attend small classes 2 the test score advantage of students in small classes expands by about one percentile point per year in subsequent years 3 teacher aides and measured teacher characteristics have little effect 4 class size has a larger effect for minority students and those on free lunch 5 hawthorne effects were unlikely

smart grids and the transformation of the electricity sector ict firms as potential catalysts for sectoral change abstract the sustainability challenges associated with increasing demand and generation of electricity require a far reaching transformation of the energy system smart grid technologies are expected to play a major role in such sectoral transformation while a growing body of literature is concerned with the dynamics and particularities of sectoral transformation most contributions have focused on exogenous shocks or new technological developments as drivers of change this paper complements the existing perspectives by exploring the role of actors as catalysts for transformation within the field of smart grid we study the transformative influence of ict firms on the energy sector in europe more specifically we analyze actor participation in 450 european smart grid projects between 2000 and 2011 as well as acquisitions in the field we find that incumbent firms from the ict sector have gained influence and drive transformation through the creation of variety in terms of technology business models and value chains as a strategic reaction electricity sector incumbents have recently acquired many start ups specialized in ict technology and thus expanded their competence base we conclude that entrants from another sector can be important catalysts for sectoral transformation and should be analyzed more systematically in transition studies

nigeria s energy poverty insights and implications for smart policies and framework towards a smart nigeria electricity network a thorough and exhaustive review of relevant literature and associated works is carried out to critically examine energy poverty in nigeria with respect to ownership and income using the desktop approach and empirical formulas the persistent failure of public infrastructure like healthcare education and security to the poor electricity generation transmission and distribution capacity in the country is examined alongside current government s contribution to buoying our generation capacity and electricity access through policies and investment the findings of the review reveal the urgent need for the smart roll out of distributed generation units in order to stimulate and encourage the ongoing diversification of the economy and also the need for a sustainable road map that incorporates the successes of countries faced with similar challenges this review paper also proposes the need for palliatives in form of subsidized solar home systems shss through a sustainable and economically viable means for off grid homes to assuage the effects of non availability of grid electricity

nigeria s electric power sector reform what should form the key objectives nigeria s electric power sector requires substantial reform if the country s economic development and poverty alleviation program is to be realised this understanding is behind the reform programme recently initiated by the nigerian government with the goal of privatising the national electric power monopoly nepa currently the country faces serious energy crisis due to declining electricity generation from domestic power plants which are basically dilapidated obsolete unreliable and in an appalling state of disrepair reflecting the poor maintenance culture in the country and gross inefficiency of the public utility provider building on an analysis of the major shortcomings of the current electric power company this paper presents the central issues that should form the key objectives of the proposed reform this include corporatization of the electric power industry increasing access and power delivery capacity constraining the costs of the power industry and increasing efficiency and share of renewables in energy generation as well as minimising environmental damage we conclude with the observation that efforts at reform will not yield the desired result if the current end user inefficiency is not constrained as nigeria implements its national utility privatisation programme it is hoped that this review will benefit policy makers and emerging managers and providers of electricity service in the country

election goals and income redistribution recent evidence from albania this paper examines the impact of political competition on block grants from federal to sub federal levels of government we model the extent and direction of income redistribution as determined proximately by the political agendas of central decision makers and at a deeper level by the institutions within which they nd themselves operating we contrast two political objective functions that yield di erent empirical predictions of the ways in which politics should a ect scal policy lessons learned here may prove important in understanding limits on the types of redistribution possible via block grants given the institutional framework in both developing and developed countries 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved jel classixcation h1 h7 o1

identification of key sectors in the bangladesh economy a linkage analysis approach this paper purports to identify key sectors in the bangladesh economy employing the concepts of forward and backward linkages an attempt is made to rank sectors according to their employment and output potentials the paper draws a distinction between gross and net linkages defined respectively on the inverses of the leontief technology matrix and the domestic matrix using data for bangladesh it is shown that the transition from gross to net linkages implies significant divergence in sectoral rankings this appears to be true for ranking of sectors in terms of output and employment suggesting a potential conflict between employment and output generation potentials particularly in the industrial sectors when net linkages are considered agricultural sectors appear to rank high on both counts

the specification of partial static equilibrium models in conducting an investigation into the specification of partial static equilibrium factor demand models this paper isolates 1 the endogeneity of output and quasi fixed factor levels 2 the choice of omitted share equation and 3 the presence of serial correlation when using time series data as the specification issues that most affect the existing empirical literature the impact of specification changes are studied via a series of experiments conducted on an illustrative data set and are found to have significant effects on parameter estimates and model diagnostics departures between observed and full equilibrium levels of quasi fixed factors and price elasticities as a consequence caveats must be attached to several previous studies and care must be taken by future researchers in addressing using such models copyright 1987 by mit press

political determinants of intergovernmental transfers in a regionally decentralized authoritarian regime evidence from china this article examines the political determinants of the allocation of intergovernmental transfers in the context of china in a regionally decentralized authoritarian regime a government marked by political centralization and fiscal decentralization intergovernmental transfers are employed by politicians as instruments to achieve political goals using china s provincial data from 1994 to 2009 we find that the officials political power is an important factor in the distribution process a party secretary s replacement facilitates an increase in transfers especially if the replacement comes from the central government if a party secretary is a member of the central politburo the province receives more conditional transfers than others the central government allocates the transfers in such a way that the province with a high proportion of the minority population receives more transfers than others

the political economy of intergovernmental grants evidence from a maturing democracy we evaluate the impact of political forces in the allocation of intergovernmental grants in portugal as it matured from a young to an established democracy using a large and unexplored dataset we show that political variables condition the granting system and that their importance changed over time while tactical manipulation in the distribution of grants among municipalities seems to exist only in the early years of democracy opportunistic effects are stronger in the latter years we argue that the latter effect is due to a change in the political environment and to the electorate s lack of information on intergovernmental grants

ideology tactics and efficiency in redistributive politics we model the electoral politics of redistribution when voters and parties care about inequality in addition to their private concerns for consumption and votes respectively ideological concerns about income redistribution lead each party to adopt a general proportional income tax adjusted to appeal to the ideological leanings of high clout groups with disproportionately many swing voters which the parties also ply with pork barrel projects our results relate to director s law which says that redistributive politics favors middle classes at the expense of both rich and poor

local government consolidations the impact of political transaction costs local government in norway comprises a large number of small municipalities cost efficiency can be improved by consolidating local authorities and central government has designed a framework to stimulate voluntary mergers existing theories suggest that political transaction costs will impede consolidations 1 generous grants compensate diseconomies of scale central government has promised small municipalities that grant levels will be maintained but policy promises may not be credible 2 property rights to local revenues are nullified when consolidations have been implemented high revenue municipalities will therefore go against merger with a poorer neighbor 3 a consolidated local council may be composed of different political parties and it may therefore pursue other policies than an existing council expected changes in party strength can lead municipalities to oppose a proposed consolidation 4 senior politicians are less likely to support mergers particularly if they come from small polities

market analysis technical change and income distribution in semi subsistence agriculture the case of bangladesh for the first time the model developed by hayami and herdt is applied to determine gains from modern varieties of rice in bangladesh and the distribution of these gains between consumers and producers the results suggest that consumers surplus is much greater than it would have been had the high yielding crop varieties hyvs not been introduced by keeping the real price lower than it would have been otherwise the modern varieties have tended to be income equalizing for urban consumers the hayami herdt partial model even suggests that given the relatively inelastic demand for rice in bangladesh the real cash income of producers has risen slightly as a result of these new technologies in reality however the impact of these changes on incomes of farmers and the distribution of income between those involved in production is more complex it is suggested that if a less partial view is taken and if account is taken of lower cost of obtaining home consumed produce the increase in income may be greater in any event there are dangers in using such a partial model to predict the developmental consequences of technological changes affecting a staple crop and attention needs also to be given to the possibility that the supply curve may not have the simple form and pivot in the way supposed by hayami and herdt while the hayami herdt model is simple to apply it is best used as a first approximation or starting point rather than a final solution it ignores a number of criteria that could be important in assessing new agricultural technologies such as their impact on the variability of benefits to producers and consumers and their consequences for sustainability of production furthermore the hayami herdt model does not deal specifically with changes in factor shares in farm production nor does it consider the impact on income distribution of the ownership and control of critical input like irrigation and imperfection in the rural credit market it is pointed out in our paper that the adoption of hyvs has been associated with important variations in factor shares in bangladeshi rice production analysis of available farm level data indicates that the relative share of labour has fallen suggesting an uneven distribution of gains from technological changes between the owners of non labour resources and those of labour resources however the absolute share of labour has increased and it seems that rural employment has risen as result of the new technologies

governing the transition to renewable energy a review of impacts and policy issues in the small hydropower boom abstract the transition to renewable energy technologies raises new and important governance questions with small hydropower shp expanding as part of renewable energy and climate mitigation strategies this review assesses its impacts and identifies escalating policy issues to provide a comprehensive literature review of small hydropower we evaluated over 3600 articles and policy documents this review identified four major concerns 1 confusion in small hydropower definitions is convoluting scholarship and policy making 2 there is a lack of knowledge and acknowledgement of small hydropower s social environmental and cumulative impacts 3 small hydropower s promotion as a climate mitigation strategy can negatively affect local communities posing contradictions for climate change policy and 4 institutional analysis is needed to facilitate renewable energy integration with existing environmental laws to ensure sustainable energy development for readers interested in small hydropower we clarify areas of confusion in definition and explain the corresponding impacts for distinct system designs for a broader readership we situate small hydropower implementation within international trends of renewable energy development the contradictory impacts of climate change policy emerging dynamics in energy finance and reliance on market mechanisms our paper provides a timely contribution to scholarship on small hydropower and the transition to renewable energy

divergency between average and frontier production technologies an empirical investigation for bangladesh applied economic analysis and policy formation often relies on esttimated porduction technologies primal representations of production technologies can be specified as the average production function or as the stochastic frontier this paper uses nested and non nested specification tests and assessment of economic variables including elasticities and marginal products to evaluate systematic differences between the average production function and three different specifications of the stochastic frontier bangladesh serves as an illustrative example the importance emerges of first beginning any analysis of production technologies with nested hypothesis testing of inefficiency and non nested hypothesis testing for systematic but unknown differrences between the average and stochastic frontier functions followed by nested testing of the final form of the production technology

intergovernmental grants as a tactical instrument empirical evidence from swedish municipalities are grants to swedish municipalities tactical in this essay i derive testable implications from a theoretical voting model and test these on a panel of 255 swedish municipalities 1981 1995 in order to decide which regions that are politically powerful both election results and survey data from the swedish election studies are used the results although somewhat ambiguous support the hypothesis that intergovernmental grants are used in order to win votes

rural electrification and household labor supply evidence from nigeria in nigeria the most populated african country rural electrification is a critical issue because of the low household electrification rate and the poor quality of the grid this energy poverty has harmful economic and social consequences in rural areas such as low productivity lack of income generating opportunities and poor housing conditions in this paper we consider electrification as a technical shock that may affect household time allocation using the 2010 2011 general household survey we investigate how electrification affects female and male labor supply decisions within rural households in nigeria focusing on husband wife data we consider potential dependence in spouses labor supply decisions and address the challenge of zero hours of work using a recent copula based bivariate hurdle model deb et al 2013 in addition an instrumental variable strategy helps identify the causal effect of elec trification our results underline that this dependence in spouses labor supply decisions is critical to consider when assessing the impact of electrification on these outcomes electrifi cation increases the working time of both spouses in the separate assessments but the joint analysis emphasizes only a positive effect of electrification on husbands working time in line with the household labor supply approach our findings highlight that within the household the labor supply decisions of one spouse significantly affect those of the other spouse thus if we neglect the effect of electrification on the spouse of the individual examined we may fail to assess how this individual has been actually affected by this common shock on both spouses our results suggest that these within household relationships promote husbands working time at the expense of wives working time

the governance of clean energy in india the clean development mechanism cdm and domestic energy politics this paper explores the ways in which clean energy is being governed in india it does so in order to improve our understanding of the potential and limitations of carbon finance in supporting lower carbon energy transitions and to strengthen our appreciation of the role of politics in enabling or frustrating such endeavors in particular we emphasize the importance of politics and the nature of india s political economy in understanding the development of energy sources and technologies defined as clean both by the united nations clean development mechanism cdm and leading international actors by considering the broad range of institutions that exert formal and informal political influence over how the benefits and costs of the cdm are distributed the paper highlights shortcomings in the narrow way in which cdm governance has been conceptualized to date this approach goes beyond analysis of technocratic aspects of governance often reduced to a set of institutional design issues in order to appreciate the political nature of the trade offs that characterize debates about india s energy future and the relations of power which will determine how and on whose terms they are resolved

electoral goals and center state transfers a theoretical model and empirical evidence from india we construct a model of redistributive politics where the central government is opportunistic and uses its discretion to make transfers to state governments on the basis of political considerations these considerations are the alignment between the incumbent parties at the central and state levels and whether a state is a swing state or not a testable prediction from the model is that a state that is both swing and aligned with the central government is especially likely to receive higher transfers we test this prediction using indian data for 14 states from 1974 75 to 1996 97 we find that a state which is both aligned and swing in the last state election is estimated to receive 16 higher transfers than a state which is unaligned and non swing

an analysis of the power sector performance in nigeria abstract rapid economic growth and sustainable development depends largely on the level of infrastructural development of a nation this reasonably suggests that a good knowledge of the performance of infrastructural services in an economy is vital and an essential requirement for policy directed at attaining sound and vibrant economic development drawing from above the study analyses the overall performance of the nigeria power electricity sector and presents some policy guidelines for achieving a world standard power market and sustainable development the study found that the nigeria power sector is underperforming and there is an urgent need for proper policy towards achieving a quality and continuous well functioning electricity market in the country the installed capacity of the power plants in nigeria currently stands at about 6000 mw with just about 40 of it is generated annually this greatly constrains the local industries from competing regionally and internationally and also undermines industrialisation and employment generation in the country

the use of input output analysis to determine the appropriateness of technology and industries evidence from bangladesh since the proportion of available capital to labor is low in ldcs compared to the developed countries the most appropriate techniques for ldcs from an economic point of view are likely to be the laborintensive ones if we suppose that there is a single most efficient technique for each industry and if it technologically requires labor and capital in fixed proportions the most appropriate industries for ldcs are likely to be the labor intensive ones this is because of the close correspondence between industries and their technological requirements on an international scale this appropriateness is given some support by the heckscher ohlin theorem of international specialization in production as is well known this theorem indicates subject to various assusmptions that countries should specialize in the production of goods that make use of their relatively abundant factors of production the aim of this paper is to identify appropriate industries for bangladesh in view of the relative availability of labor and capital and taking into account the amount of labor and capital needed both directly and indirectly to produce output for each industry unfortunately as specified below a number of previous studies of appropriate techniques and industries have ignored the indirect requirements for labor and capital needed to produce the various intermediate products used in these industries interindustry analysis based on the assumption that the adopted techniques require inputs to be combined in fixed

the food sector and economic growth abstract this paper analyses the contribution of the food sector disaggregated into raw and processed sectors to economic growth using the input output method and data from greece the interdependence between food and non food sectors is examined it is found that the food sector substantially influences economic output income and employment the processed food sector generates output for the non food sector whereas the non food sector provides inputs for the food sector it is concluded that policies that permit balanced sectoral growth can benefit both the food and non food sectors and lead to stable economic growth in the long run

a new approach to determining sectoral priorities in an economy input output elasticities this paper uses input output elasticities to identify important economic sectors elasticities of output employment and income are used to identify key sectors of the greek economy a comparison of the rankings of economic sectors based on input output elasticities with those based on net backward linkages indicates significant divergence in sectoral rankings obtained from the two approaches the elasticity approach yields more consistent estimates of sectoral output employment and income potentials than the net backward linkage approach measured in terms of the potential to generate output employment and income agriculture services and textiles are found to be the key sectors for the greek economy

towards understanding the benefits and challenges of smart micro grid for electricity supply system in nigeria the poor state of electricity supply system in nigeria is threatening the welfare and security of life and properties of millions of individuals with adverse economic consequences for the country the inadequacy of the national grid especially the inability of the electricity generation capacity to match increasing demand in the country has led to increasing agitation for increased penetration of renewable energy sources ress into the electricity supply mix while great attention has been focused on the potential of ress for electricity generation in the country little or no attention has been given to the application of smart micro grid sm g technologies to the ageing nigeria grid infrastructures and electrification of the rural areas the aim of this paper is to bring into focus the benefits and challenges of enabling sm g in the electricity supply system in nigeria sm g will bring benefits to the electricity stakeholders in form of improvements in reliability efficiency economics environment security and safety the paper gives an overview and reviews the current state of the electricity supply system in the country it discusses the sm g concepts and associated technologies and highlights how they can help address the electricity problems in the country the challenges of applying these concepts in nigeria context are also discussed enabling sm g in the country will not only lead to improvement in the quality efficiency and reliability of the electricity grid but also promote the provision of electricity supply to the remote rural areas using ress

production technology elasticity of substitution and technical efficiency of the handloom textile industry of bangladesh a number of translog and cobb douglas frontier production models were estimated for the bangladesh handloom textile industry to investigate its production technology and technical efficiency in production it was found that the technical efficiency of the industry in producing cloth was only 41 it was concluded that the industry might improve its technical efficiency by increasing its male female labour ratio and yarn capital ratio and decreasing its hired family labour ratio and labour capital ratio the production technology of the industry was found to be characterized by a linearly homogeneous cobb douglas function the elasticity of substitution between labour and capital for the industry was found to be unity

small hydropower shp development in nigeria an assessment this paper evaluates small hydropower shp development and examines the current situation in nigeria with respect to the established policies and energy power sector reform epsr act 2005 hydropower sector witnessed about 360 growth between 1971 and 2005 and yet only about 5 of the vast small hydropower shp potential is tapped by the few plants built between 1923 and 1964 operating and maintenance costs are in favor of shp development in the country being the lowest when compared with the situation in european countries the nigerian government has taken steps to diversify energy sources in order to promote renewable energy development by encouraging private investments in the energy sector through reforms but this may not be adequate as there remain barriers against shp development in the country it is concluded that government must incorporate subsidies feed in tariffs and framework for price purchase agreements ppa into the policies in order to further promote renewable energy and attract both indigenous and foreign investments for quick adoption and rapid expansion of shp technologies

schooling and labor market consequences of school construction in indonesia evidence from an unusual policy experiment between 1973 and 1978 the indonesian government engaged in one of the largest school construction programs on record combining differences across regions in the number of schools constructed with differences across cohorts induced by the timing of the program suggests that each primary school constructed per 1 000 children led to an average increase of 0 12 to 0 19 years of education as well as a 1 5 to 2 7 percent increase in wages this implies estimates of economic returns to education ranging from 6 8 to 10 6 percent

socio economic acceptability for smart grid development a comprehensive review abstract a deep transformation of the electrical grid system at the global level is expected in the near future with new economic relations between energy suppliers and consumers this is the smart grid framework which can integrate the behavior of all connected users who become prosumers to ensure a sustainable energy supply in an efficient economical and safe manner smart grid projects have a significant impact on electricity consumers through shifts in consumer behavior culture and lifestyle the aim of this paper is to explore the degree of investigation of the main socio economic features in terms of private and social costs which are relevant for smart grids development and public acceptance to this aim a literature review of 148 peer reviewed scientific journal articles on smart grids has been conducted developing an original taxonomy for the socio economic features in terms of private direct costs directly associated with the monetary costs paid by consumers and social indirect costs constituted by consumers perception privacy cyber security and regulation the importance of the analysis of social costs arising from externalities is that they may hinder the deployment of specific technologies even if these technologies appear to be useful based on private costs the results reveal that the explored literature mainly deals with private costs although an emerging literature starts to address the social costs that may hamper smart grids deployment the paper reviews new opportunities and challenges for further research bridging the gap between engineering and socio economic research areas including business organizational applications policy and security issues the resulting enrichment of interdisciplinary know how can be the basis for the sustainable development of current and future generations

is biomass power a good choice for governments in china abstract to fulfill the target of emissions reduction the chinese government has made many efforts to develop renewable energy biomass power can provide stable power supply avoid wasting straw resources and protect rural environment at the same time however the development of renewable power requires subsidies from the government but increased subsidies placed heavy burden on the governments whereas these governments want to develop renewable energy with minimum costs this paper attempts to answer the question that whether the development of biomass power is a good choice for local governments in china for this purpose the goal of emissions reduction and subsidies of renewable energy powers were discussed the main conclusion is that although the subsidies for biomass power were slightly higher than those for wind power biomass power is a good choice for governments considering other benefits especially for regions with rich agricultural and forest residues in the future regional and local conditions should be considered in the planning of biomass power development

green gold burley tobacco smallholder agriculture and poverty alleviation in malawi abstract the abolition in 1990 of the estate monopoly on cultivation of burley tobacco is expected to play an important role in reducing poverty among smallholders in malawi a nationwide survey in 1993 shows that smallholder households cultivating burley also grow more hybrid maize use more fertilizer and are more food secure but resource poor households particularly those headed by women face land and labor constraints on burley adoption burley and hybrid maize increase the demand for hired labor but not enough to absorb the growth in the rural labor force broad based poverty alleviation requires technology and programs targeted at the majority of smallholders with holdings of 0 5 hectares or less

resources and student achievement evidence from a swedish policy reform a policy change is used to estimate the effect of teacher density on student performance we find that an increase in teacher density has a positive effect on student achievement the baseline estimate obtained by using the grade point average as the outcome variable implies that resource increases corresponding to the class size reduction in the star experiment a reduction of seven students improves performance by 2 6 percentile ranks or 0 08 standard deviations when we used test score data for men potentially a more objective measure of student performance the effect of resources appears to be twice as large

distributive politics and spatial equity the allocation of public investment in chile abstractdistributive politics and spatial equity the allocation of public investment in chile regional studies this paper analyzes the influence of electoral concerns on investment distribution from the central government to chilean municipalities drawing upon panel data it shows that investment is mediated by pork barrel and political budget cycles as well as favouring the relatively better off areas estimations also reveal that resources are channelled to the municipalities where the vote margin in local elections is larger whereas national results are not relevant indicating that local governments lobbying capacity is prioritized over national electoral interests based on these results the implications for regional governance and for reducing the margin of arbitrary allocations are discussed

do formula based intergovernmental transfer mechanisms eliminate politically motivated targeting evidence from ghana abstract various countries have adopted formulas for determining intergovernmental transfers as a strategy to limit the role of political considerations in resource allocation in this paper we investigate a formula based system of allocating resources from a central government to local governments to determine whether the political characteristics of recipient areas have any bearing on their allocation specifically we study the sharing of resources of the district assemblies common fund dacf in ghana amongst the country s district governments over the period 1994 to 2005 we find evidence that the mechanism does not eliminate politically motivated targeting of the grants per capita dacf grants were higher in districts where vote margins in the previous presidential election were lower suggesting that swing districts were targeted we find evidence that dacf formula indicators and their weighting were chosen and amended to produce politically desired patterns of transfers

public employees as swing voters empirical evidence on opposition to public reform reform offers economic gains for society atlarge but can represent a threat to theinterests of public employees publicsector reform faces opposition from votersemployed in public sector norwegian dataallow for an analysis this interpretation survey data show that public employeesprefer less reform than the rest of thepopulation the voting behavior of publicemployees is more sensitive to reform thanis that of other voters the swing voterhypothesis and hence shares of publicemployees in a local jurisdiction have anegative impact on the probability ofreform

the timing of elections in federations a disciplining device against soft budget constraints we introduce political economics into the soft budget constraint problem by asking if the timing of elections has the potential to harden budget constraints specifically we ask under which circumstances the soft budget constraint problem is worse with synchronized elections i e simultaneous central and regional office terms or with staggered elections i e terms of office that do not coincide we find that staggered elections clearly improve fiscal discipline at the local level as well as welfare

the impact of federal spending on house election outcomes while it is widely believed by academics politicians and the popular press that incumbent members of congress are rewarded by the electorate for bringing federal dollars to their district the empirical evidence supporting that claim is extremely weak one explanation for the failure to uncover the expected relationship between federal spending and election outcomes is that incumbents who expect to have difficulty being reelected are likely to exert greater effort in obtaining federal outlays since it is generally impossible to adequately measure this effort the estimated impact of spending is biased downward because of an omitted variable bias we address this estimation problem using instrumental variables for each house district we use spending outside the district but inside the state containing the district as an instrument for spending in the district federal spending is affected by a large number of actors e g governors senators mayors and other house members in the state delegation