bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Factors associated with the Provision of Uncompensated Care in Pennsylvania Hospitals
Authors: Rosko Michael D.
Published: May 2024

Data from 190 Pennsylvania hospitals in 1995 were used in regression analysis of the determinants of uncompensated care and profitability. Uncompensated care as a percentage of operating expenses was negatively related with hospital size and positively associated with obstetrical services emphasis, emergency visit mix, area unemployment rate, and sole community hospital status. Hospital profitability was not associated with uncompensated care; it was negatively associated with HMO penetration. Medicare and Medicaid share of admissions and religious ownership; and it was positively associated with medium size. Pennsylvania hospitals may have been shielded from the financial burdens of uncompensated care by the availability of funds from other sources that may not be available in the future. Consequently, unless new sources of funding are developed or insurance coverage expanded, financial pressures from providing uncompensated care may cause hospitals to face the dilemma of abandoning uninsured patients or risk ing financial insolvency.
Enhancing Causal Pursuits in Organizational Science: Targeting the Effect of Treatment on the Treated in Research on Vulnerable Populations
Authors: Loh Wen Wei , Ren Dongning
Published: May 2024

Understanding the experiences of vulnerable workers is an important scientific pursuit. For example, research interest is often in quantifying the impacts of adverse exposures such as discrimination, exclusion, harassment, or job insecurity, among others. However, routine approaches have only focused on the average treatment effect, which encapsulates the impact of an exposure (e.g., discrimination) applied to the entire study population—including those who were not exposed. In this paper, we propose using a more refined causal quantity uniquely suited to address such causal queries: The effect of treatment on the treated (ETT) from the causal inference literature. We explain why the ETT is a more pertinent causal estimand for investigating the experiences of vulnerable workers by highlighting three appealing features: Better interpretability, greater accuracy, and enhanced robustness to violations of empirically untestable causal assumptions. We further describe how to estimate the ETT by introducing and comparing two estimators. Both estimators are conferred with a so-called doubly robust property. We hope the current proposal empowers organizational scholars in their crucial endeavors dedicated to understanding the vulnerable workforce.
The role of tourism in European regions’ economic recovery: A spatial perspective
Authors: De Siano Rita , Canale Rosaria Rita
Published: May 2024

The study searches for the presence of a tourism-led growth path after a negative shock. Both the presence of a tourism role in the recovery process and the existence of a spatial interdependence across regions are investigated. The purpose of the study is to look at insights, provided in particular by the experience of the 2007–2008 crisis in European regions, that can be useful to build a recovery after any future shocks, as for example the COVID-19 pandemic resulted to be. The findings show the presence of a strong spatial dependence in the recovery process and, furthermore, the positive potential that tourism activities exert on the ability to recover favouring positive spillovers across regions.
“Age of traumatic experience as a predictor of distorted body image in patients with eating disorders”
Authors: Idini Ester , Paredes-Carreño Pamela , Navarro-Gil Mayte , Barceló-Soler Alberto , Valera-Ceamanos David , Garcia-Campayo Javier
Published: May 2024

The timing of trauma exposure is a risk factor for the development of psychopathology in adulthood. We aim to assess the presence of adverse life events (ALEs) before age 13 in patients with eating disorders (ED). Specifically, we examined the relationship between exposure to interpersonal trauma before the age of 13 and body image distortion (BID), impulsivity, and perfectionism. We conducted a cross-sectional, retrospective study in which 79 outpatients with ED were consecutively enrolled. Assessment was performed using the Traumatic Life Event Questionnaire, Contour Drawing Rating Scale, and Eating Disorder Inventory. Linear regression models were used to analyze the predictive role of interpersonal trauma before age 13 on BID perfectionism and impulsivity. Seventy-two patients (91.1%) reported ALEs throughout their lives. Patients with trauma before age 13 (55.6%) overestimated their shape. Patients with ED and bulimic symptoms had significantly higher BID levels. Interpersonal trauma predicted higher levels of impulsivity and perfectionism. Experiencing interpersonal ALEs before age 13 may be a risk factor for the development of BID, impulsivity, and perfectionism in adulthood. Body image can be modified during childhood through interventions focused on identifying stressful relationships.
Assessing the benefits of repeated esophagogastroduodenoscopy at a specialized center before gastric and esophageal cancer surgery
Authors: Christensen Astrid Kolind , Egeland Charlotte , Bjoern Heje Jens , Asaad Sofia Kamakh , Loprete Roberto , Solstad Trygve Ulvund , Kjaer Daniel , Dikinis Sarunas , Achiam Michael P.
Published: May 2024

Background:

The surgical treatment of gastric and esophageal cancer in Denmark is centralized in four specialized esophagogastric cancer (EGC) centers. Patients are referred after an esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) at a secondary healthcare facility. The EGD is repeated at the specialized EGC center before determining a surgical treatment strategy. This multicenter retrospective study aimed to investigate the quality of EGDs performed at a secondary healthcare facility and evaluate the clinical value of repeated EGD at a specialized center when determining the surgical treatment strategy.

Methods:

Patients from three of the four centers, who underwent esophagectomy or gastrectomy with curative intent from 1 June 2016 to 1 May 2021, were included. EGD reports from the referral facilities and EGC centers were compared based on a predefined checklist. Furthermore, endoscopist experience, the time between examinations, and histology were registered. Finally, it was assessed whether the specialized EGD led to any substantial changes in surgical treatment. Baseline characteristics and differences in EGD reports were described and McNemar’s chi-square test was performed. A logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify risk factors for a change in surgical strategy.

Results:

The study included 953 patients who underwent both an initial EGD and EGD at referral to a specialized center. In 644 cases (68%), the information from the initial EGD was considered insufficient concerning preoperative tumor information. In 113 (12%) cases, the findings in the specialized EGD would lead to a significant alteration in the surgical strategy compared with the primary EGD.

Conclusion:

The findings suggest that repeated EGD at a specialized center is of clinical value and helps ensure proper surgical treatment for patients undergoing curative surgery for gastroesophageal cancer.
Diasporic citizen journalism: Exploring the discussion on the 2022 blank paper protests in the Chinese twitter community
Authors: Zeng Jing , Cheng Calvin Yixiang
Published: May 2024

Departing from the conventional nation-state framework, this paper explores citizen journalism from a translocal and transnational perspective. Focusing on Chinese diasporic communities on Twitter, the study presents an explorative inquiry into the phenomenon of diasporic citizen journalism. Through an empirical case study of the 2022 Blank Paper Protests (BPP) in China, the research reveals the pivotal role the Chinese Twitter-sphere played as a vital platform for cross-border news production and sense-making during a critical event. The study also illuminates the diversity, networked dynamics, and internal conflicts within the Chinese digital diaspora concerning the BPP. Theoretically, this paper underscores the imperative need to expand the horizons of citizen journalism research, suggesting diasporic citizen journalism as a new avenue for future exploration. Methodologically, the study showcases the potential of state-of-the-art computational methods, including Large Language Models (LLMs), in advancing journalism research. The methodology employed in this study exemplifies the integration of LLMs to enhance automated topic and sentiment analysis.
A time-saving fault diagnosis using simplified fast GAN and triple-type data transfer learning
Authors: Zhong Hongyu , Yu Samson , Trinh Hieu , Yuan Rui , Lv Yong , Wang Yanan
Published: May 2024

Existing intelligent fault diagnosis approaches demand substantial data for training diagnostic models. However, factors such as the inherent characteristics of bearings, operating conditions, and privacy security make collecting comprehensive fault-bearing data very difficult. Although generating synthetic data through generative adversarial networks (GANs) is feasible, the data generation of GANs is a time-consuming process. To address these challenges, a fault diagnosis framework based on GAN and deep transfer learning (DTL) is proposed, termed the simplified fast GAN triple-type data transfer learning (SFGAN-TDTL) method. Initially, an SFGAN is proposed as a replacement for traditional GANs. The time-frequency image data generated by SFGAN serve to augment the training dataset, offering faster and higher-quality data generation compared to traditional GANs. To further reduce time consumption for GAN-based methods, the TDTL method is proposed. Differing from DTL, which utilizes synthetic data to construct a pre-trained model and conducts targeted fine-tuning with real data, TDTL employs open-source data, synthetic data, and real data to fill the weights of the task-insensitive layer, task-sensitive layer, and fully connected layer, respectively. Numerical results demonstrate that SFGAN-TDTL maintains higher diagnostic accuracy while significantly reducing time consumption.
Output and Employment Effects of Public Capital
Authors: Aschauer David Alan
Published: May 2024

This paper develops a two-equation model linking public capital to employment and output growth. the basic innovation is that the relationship between public capital and economic growth is non-linear, which allows an estimate of the growth-maximizing level of public capital (relative to private capital). the model is empirically implemented using a variety of estimation procedures with data for the 48 contiguous United States over the period from 1970 to 1990. Some of the more significant findings of the paper include: generally positive effects of public capital on economic growth (both in terms of output and employment); an estimated value of the growth-maximizing public capital stock between 50 and 70 percent of the private capital stock; negative effects of public debt and taxes on economic growth; somewhat higher growth effects from public capital in the 1980s than the 1970s; and somewhat larger growth effects from public capital in the Snowbelt than in the Sunbelt.
The Efficiency of Disaggregate Public Capital Provision in Japan
Authors: Ihori Toshihiro , Kondo Hiroki
Published: May 2024

We investigate the efficiency of disaggregated public capital provision for the Japanese economy. We estimate the optimality conditions based on simultaneous Euler equations by using GMM. Our results suggest that public capital productivities have been relatively high and divergent among several public capital goods. the allocation of public works is not optimal yet in Japan.
The Impact of Public Infrastructure Capital on the Private Sector of the Netherlands: An Application of the Symmetric Generalized Mcfadden Cost Function
Authors: Sturm Jan-Egbert
Published: May 2024

This paper extends the symmetric generalized McFadden cost function by incorporating public infrastructure capital as an unpaid fixed input, and estimates the new function using Dutch data for the post-World War II period. Several elasticities concerning public infrastructure are estimated in order to uncover the productivity effects of public infrastructure. We conclude that the sheltered sector of the Dutch economy has benefited from infrastructure investment. Experimenting with several variations of the model reveals that this outcome is robust. However, despite these unambiguous results, the relationship between private inputs and public infrastructure is unclear because the private input elasticities of infrastructure change sign during the estimation period.
New Subjectivist Economic Theory and Public Finance
Authors: Gunning J. Patrick
Published: May 2024

The professional field of public finance has developed partly as a branch of economics and partly as an extension of government. as a branch of economics it has enjoyed the benefits of advances in that field. It has also suffered from the errors – some of them momentous – in this root field. as an extension of government, public finance has often embraced politically advantageous ideas in spite of their contradiction of sound economic thinking. Finally, developments in the field of public finance itself have sometimes aided in the development of economic theory. the relationship between economic theory, public finance, and government is quite complex.

The purpose of this paper is to appraise the developments in the history of public finance in light of the influence of economic theory and politics. for the purpose of the paper, economic theory refers to the what the author has “new subjectivism. the new subjectivism is the method of economics discovered by economists who are now called “neoclassical.” From the viewpoint of the new subjectivism, public finance is the study of how various forms of government action effect entrepreneurship.
Dissolving the Problem of Public Goods: Financing Government without Coercive Methods
Authors: Machan Tibor R.
Published: May 2024

In this article, the author discusses the problem of public goods and free riders and addresses the question of whether it is possible to provide government with financial support adequate for its tasks without relying on any institutional coercive measures such as taxation.
Some Ethical Problems with Using Public Finance as a Tool for Social Engineering
Authors: McGee Robert W.
Published: May 2024

Governments raise funds so that they can pay for the services they provide to their constituents. But sometimes the public finance function goes beyond mere revenue raising and into the realm of social engineering. Excise taxes, for example, can go beyond mere user fees if the intent is to punish certain forms of behavior. Income taxes can be imposed not only to raise revenue but also to redistribute income. Tax subsidies can be used to subsidize certain forms of behavior. This article explores some of the ethical problems that can result when the public finance function goes beyond mere revenue raising and into the realm of social engineering.
Prior Financial Performance as A Predictor of Perceived Organizational Reputation: An Empirical Examination among Local Authorities in Israel
Authors: Carmeli Abraham
Published: May 2024

This study explores the relationship between prior financial performance and perceived organizational reputation of local authorities in Israel. in the business sector, studies have indicated that prior financial performance, such as ROA, is found to be a good predictor of corporate reputation (McGuire, Sundgren and Schneeweiss, 1988; Hammond and Slocum, Jr., 1996). the local government in Israel has been experiencing an ongoing financial crisis. However, while some local authorities have inferior financial performance, others have managed to attain a superior financial position. Unfortunately, the established argument that the influence of past financial performance yields the core nature of the reputation construct has not been tested in the public sector, particularly among local authorities.

The results of testing this construct among 112 Israeli local authorities (42.6% of the target population) for 1997 and 1998 showed that only two financial measures remained in the equation for each year. in 1997, the financial measures were the collecting efficiency ratio and the income-to-expenses ratio in the regular budget. These two measures explained 11.6 percent of a local authority's perceived organizational reputation in the year 2000. in 1998, the financial measures were the collecting efficiency ratio and the per-resident surplus (deficit) ratio. These measures explained 15.5 percent of a local authority's perceived organizational reputation in 2000. the results may lead local authorities to acknowledge the importance of being in a superior financial position in order to have a favorable organizational reputation.
Transformation and Future of Public Enterprises in Continental Western Europe
Authors: Lane Jan-Erik
Published: May 2024

This article recognizes that in Continental Western Europe public enterprises have recently gone through a quick revolution which has made them regional and even global players, particularly in infrastructure development and management. This is the outcome of institutional changes both within the enterprises and outside in the European Union framework of laws and regulations, on the one hand, and the rapid integration of the economies of the EU states, on the other. the response of public enterprises—the new public firms—to their incorporation as joint-stock companies and to deregulation has been to engage in oligopoly and related strategies in order to acquire market power and to stabilize their business environments. the outcome of these strategies is that the public firms have strengthened their market positions, increasing their discretion in relation to government and their capacity to cooperate in share alliances with private sector players across national borders. These changes have occurred with such a pace that they call for debate about the privatization of some of these giant firms. This debate must take serious account of the public mission of such firms.
Turn-Of-The-Century Change in New Zealand's Public Enterprises
Authors: McKinlay Peter
Published: May 2024

The New Zealand reform agenda of 1984–99 included a significant redefinition of the role of the state. Many public sector activities were restructured into corporate form; policy formulation and operations were largely separated; and privatization was extensive. the change of government at the end of 1999, to a center/left coalition, has seen a major reappraisal. Privatization is out of favor; state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are to be managed to enhance shareholder value, with authority to grow their businesses; and the social objectives of crown-owned companies in areas such as health, housing and public broadcasting are being reasserted. This article explores the implications of these shifts and indicates that New Zealand's SOE model, as well as the rationale for using the company form more generally in the public sector, are now under challenge. Reasons include an apparent lack of understanding of the nature of the corporate model and renewed political risk because of the difficulty of separating out social, political and commercial interests in the management of public affairs.
Improving Helth Care by Linking Risk Adjustment and Condition-Specific Quality Measurement
Authors:   Improving Quality of Care by Restructuring Provider Payments Project Team, Luft Harold S. , Dudley R. Adams
Published: May 2024

When paid a fixed amount per capita, even if adjusted by demographic risk factors, health plans have financial incentives to avoid providing expensive services, especially those needed on a chronic basis. Since routine measurement of quality of care is limited primarily to preventive service utilization, the potential for patients with serious chronic disease to receive poor quality care is significant. We argue that both adjustment of payments to health plans based on the illness burden among their enrollees and measurement of quality of care will be necessary to ensure health plans provide high quality care. for some costly chronic diseases, condition-specific risk adjustment and quality measurement using data already collected for clinical management purposes may be necessary. We provide two examples (HIV and CF) and discuss the implications for information systems.
Does the Dropout Age Matter? How Mandatory Schooling Laws Impact High School Completion and School Choice
Authors: Wenger Jennie W.
Published: May 2024

This paper examines the role of states’ mandatory schooling ages using the High School and Beyond data set merged with various state-level data sources. After controlling for potential endogeneity of the state mandatory schooling age, I find that a higher mandatory schooling age significantly increases the probability that a public school student will complete high school, as well as the probability the student will choose to attend a public school rather than a private school. Thus, a state's mandatory schooling age affects educational attainment. Additionally, by influencing the public - private school decision, a change in a state's mandatory schooling laws will affect the results of any school choice experiment.
Taxes and Transport Externalities
Authors: Mayeres Inge
Published: May 2024

The paper reviews the role of taxation in controlling transport externalities. It argues that the design of transport taxes should take into account pre-existing tax distortions in the economy and looks at the implications of restrictions on the transport instruments at the disposal of the policy maker. the relevance of equity considerations for transport pricing is also explored.
Presidential Resource Support for Ircs and Dras: A Principal-Agent Explanation
Authors: Reddick Christopher G.
Published: May 2024

This article examines whether Independent Regulatory Commissions (IRCs) received less presidential resource support (employment and outlays) than Dependent Regulatory Agencies (DRAs). the principal-agent theory was used to explain why DRAs fare better in the hands of presidents than IRCs in terms of resource allocation. It also examines whether there were differences in spending priorities between social and economic regulation. the database for this study was composed of 31 federal regulatory agencies, during the period between 1980 and 2000, broken down into social regulation and economic regulation. This study has used Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) pool time series cross sectional analysis on agency budget outlays and employment, along with several political and economic control variables. the findings indicated that IRCs received less resource support than DRAs, due to the uncertainty presidents face monitoring the performance of these agencies.
Professional Sports Facilities, Franchises and Urban Economic Development
Authors: Coates Dennis , Humphreys Brad R.
Published: May 2024

Local political and community leaders and the owners of professional sports teams frequently claim that professional sports facilities and franchises are important engines of economic development in urban areas. These structures and teams allegedly contribute millions of dollars of net new spending annually and create hundreds of new jobs, and provide justification for hundreds of millions of dollars of public subsidies for the construction of many new professional sports facilities in the United Sates over the past decade. Despite these claims, economists have found no evidence of positive economic impact of professional sports teams and facilities on urban economies. We critically review the debate on the economic effects of professional sports and their role as an engine of urban economic redevelopment, with an emphasis on recent economic research.
Enterprise Zones, Firm Attraction and Retention: A Study of the California Enterprise Zone Program
Authors: Moore William S.
Published: May 2024

In the following paper the impact on the number of firms is estimated for the California Enterprise Zone Program from 1987 to 1991, the years of operation for the first series of enterprise zones in the state. Data for the estimates for the change in the number of firms derived from the County Business Pattern data of the U.S. Census Bureau. the relative change in the number of firms is estimated using a Two-Way Fixed Effects Model. the results indicate that some types of firms in terms of their size as measured by their number of employees and industry type may indeed have produced some positive employment effects for those enterprise zones considered in the study. Caution should be taken however in placing too much weight on the results of the study given the number of theoretical and empirical issues that can create doubt with respect to the efficacy of enterprise zone programs in their ability to provide net changes in social welfare for economic distressed areas.
Editor's Introduction
Authors: Conrad Robert F.
Published: May 2024

Developing market orientation tax systems has been a significant component of the economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Some challenges faced by policy makers in tax policy design for transition countries are studied in this volume. in particular, taxation and corruption, fiscal decentralization, revenue adequacy at the national level and the taxation of natural resources are examined in the papers that follow. the authors of the papers are well qualified to examine these issues. Each author has extensive practical experience in advising transition economies in addition to their individual academic and scholarly achievements. These papers reflect that experience and expertise.
Fiscal Federalism in Russia: A Canadian Perspective
Authors: Bird Richard M.
Published: May 2024

This paper does not provide a detailed examination of the complex and evolving characteristics of the Russian Federation. Its aim is rather simply to consider some of the key instrumental components of intergovernmental fiscal relations that arise in the Russian Federation – expenditures, revenues, transfers, borrowing, and institutional arrangements – in comparison both to Canada's lengthy experience with federalism and to a framework developed on the basis of previous work on fiscal federalism in a variety of transitional and developing countries. Unsurprisingly, from either of these perspectives fiscal federalism in Russia seems clearly to be a work still in progress.
Post-Crisis Fiscal Revenue Developments in Russia: From An Oil Perspective
Authors: Kwon Goohoon
Published: May 2024

This paper examines the level and trend of fiscal revenues in Russia in the post-crisis period, focusing on the oil sector's contribution to higher tax revenues and the role of tax reforms. We estimate that about 80 percent of the total post-crisis gains (about 5 percentage points of GDP) in the revenue of the general government came from the oil sector. Although effects of tax reforms and oil prices are difficult to disentangle empirically, our detailed tax-by-tax study indicates that high oil prices accounted for most of the revenue gains; tax reforms played a secondary role by making the tax regime more elastic to oil prices. This assessment is corroborated by our cross-country comparison, which shows that the Russian revenue performance in the post-crisis period does not differ from other oil exporting countries. Similarly, our counterfactual analysis illustrates that lower oil prices are likely to cause far more revenue losses to Russia than they did in the pre-crisis period. These findings challenge the notion that the post-crisis revenue gains are largely irreversible due to successful tax reforms, political stability, and economic growth, and highlight the need for measures to help shield the budget against oil price volatility. [JEL: E62, H20, P27, Q43]
Culture and Public Finance
Authors: Rushton Michael
Published: May 2024

This paper serves as a guide to the current literature on culture and public finance, and as an introduction to the papers contained in this symposium. Justifications for public funding of the arts have been given on the traditional economists’ grounds of the correction of market failure in the allocation of resources and in achieving a more equitable distribution of resources, as well as by the communitarian ideal of the state's using its resources to shape the character of individuals and society. Whatever the merits of these arguments for public support, there are difficult public management and organization issues that arise in the cultural sector that are different from those encountered with other publicly-financed goods and services. for the effective public finance of cultural goods the devil is in the details, and it is in those details that we find new and promising research programs.
Cultural Policies and Fiscal Federalism
Authors: Getzner Michael
Published: May 2024

Fiscal federalism and public choice theories offer a number of approaches to explaining differences in public expenditure on cultural affairs. This paper empirically explores cultural expenditure in the nine federal provinces of Austria. the methodological set-up is a time-series panel data analysis for cultural expenditure from 1976 to 2002. A number of papers have shown that the main driving forces behind cultural expenditure are Baumol's cost disease and economic growth, and these results are also corroborated by the current study. Moreover, differences between the federal provinces do exist, implying that cultural policies are determined partly by local and regional circumstances. Arguments from recent public choice theories, such as the form of government (e.g. coalition governments) and economic business cycles, do not offer much explanation. However, variables capturing the ideology of policy makers and the sustainability of budgetary policies can explain some of the differences in cultural policies between Austrian provinces.
Government Investment in Cultural Capital: A Methodology for Comparing Direct Government Support for the Arts in the U.S. and the U.K.
Authors: Shockley Gordon E.
Published: May 2024

In this paper I attempt to redress the lack of comparative cultural policy research between the United States and the United Kingdom. Specifically, I seek to develop and test a methodology of direct government investment in cultural capital. the new methodology will be presented in three parts. in the first part, the relevant literature in comparative cultural policy research is comprehensively reviewed for the strengths and weaknesses of currently available methodologies. in the second part, Throsby's (1995; 1999; 2001) concept of cultural capital is augmented by Austrian capital theory and analogized to the realm of natural capital in order to articulate the policy dimensions of sustainable development in cultural capital. in the third part, three quantitative metrics are then derived from the theoretical work and are empirically applied to assess and compare direct national government support for the arts in the U.S. and the U.K. Preliminary observations are offered in the conclusion.
Progress and Pitfalls of E-Budget Information
Authors: Robbins Donijo
Published: May 2024

This paper describes state government web sites and their postings of budgeting information. Some questions are addressed, for example: What types of information are provided? How accessible is this information? How many links does it take to find state budgeting information? How detailed is this information? By researching all 50 states’ official web pages, we find that only two states, Alaska and California, posted a direct link on their home pages to the budget document. If the Internet is going to be a medium used to enhance citizen access to services, enhance knowledge, and increase participation, much work is necessary on behalf of the states as well as its citizens to achieve this goal.
Performance Management of U.S. Job Training Programs: Lessons from the Job Training Partnership Act
Authors: Barnow Burt S. , Smith Jeffrey A.
Published: May 2024

Performance management systems that provide (relatively) quick feedback to program operators play an important role in employment and training programs around the world. This paper brings together evidence on the effects of such systems, drawn primarily from the widely studied U.S. Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program. the questions addressed include the effects of performance standards systems on who gets served, on what services they receive, on the technical efficiency of program operation, on the economic efficiency of program operation, and on strategic behavior by program managers to “game” the system. Though incomplete on important dimensions, the available evidence makes it clear that the JTPA standards did little to enhance the impact of the program on employment and earnings, while at the same time inducing attempts to “game” the system by actions such as terminating participants at a time that would maximize measured performance rather than when services are no longer provided. We conclude by drawing policy conclusions from the available evidence and making suggests for future research.
Does Administrative Reform Improve Bureaucratic Performance? A Crosscountry Empirical Analysis
Authors: Brewer Gene A.
Published: May 2024

This study examines the purported relationship between administrative reform and bureaucratic performance. From an international perspective, it asks if there are any types of administrative reform being implemented by democratic governments that improve bureaucratic performance. to answer this question, data on reform experiences in twenty-five Western democracies are analyzed. the results suggest that some types of administrative reform seem to improve bureaucratic performance, some seem to undercut it, and some seem to have very little effect. as might be expected, contextual factors appear to affect bureaucratic performance more than the reforms studied here. These contextual factors include national security threats, ethnic/religious tensions, divided government, and economic instability. Thus, this study concludes that although certain types of administrative reform are potentially powerful policy instruments, the relationship between administrative reform and bureaucratic performance is weaker and more complex than national reform agendas suggest.
Book Review: J. Patrick Gunning, “Understanding Democracy”
Authors: de Sarralde Miguez Santiago Díaz
Published: May 2024

As an introduction to Public Choice, this book deserves a very good assessment. It gives the student an easy to understand panorama of the topic and a good background for further studies. However, it is more difficult to consider it as a comprehensive guide to understand Democracy. in any case, it is a good incentive to keep on thinking on such an important topic.
The Effect of Flexibility in Working Hours on Fertility: A Comparative Analysis of Selected European Countries
Authors: Ariza Alfredo , de la Rica Sara , Ugidos Arantza
Published: May 2024

The main aim of this paper is to measure the extent to which part-time work enhances fertility for married or cohabiting women of fertile age. the study covers eleven European countries. the data used are a pool sample of five waves of the European Community Household Panel. Given that we believe that the decisions concerning fertility and labor market status are taken jointly, we carry out a simultaneous estimation approach.

Results suggest that policy makers wishing to implement adequate part-time schedules so as to enhance fertility should look at the part-time schedules available in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands, which enhance fertility for women who take advantage of this flexibility measure so as to reconcile family and work.
Resources for Social Development
Authors: Clunies-Ross Anthony
Published: May 2024

Considerable additional funds at globally coordinated disposal are recognized as needed to fulfil the social objectives that the world has officially adopted. There are potential routes to obtaining these funds that avoid the political difficulties that ‘donor’ countries commonly experience in attempts to increase their budgeted Overseas Development Assistance. International tax cooperation can also put large additional fiscal resources at the disposal of developing-country governments — at no cost, and indeed positive fiscal advantage, to most of the OECD countries. Some efficient and equitable devices for enhancing local-government finance have yet to be fully exploited in many countries. Community mobilization, appropriately structured, can greatly enhance the amenities and earning power of poor rural and urban people, while also potentially promoting social harmony. Private fortunes constitute a large potential source of development finance, until recently largely untapped, that may be attracted through the new institutions that are coming into being. By means of appropriate incentives, commercial enterprise may have its research and development capacities harnessed to the needs of the world's poor. Non-governmental organizations have shown their capacity for acting as intermediaries in channelling finance effectively and efficiently, from official and unofficial donors and potentially the financial markets, for the development of the small household enterprises of very poor people.
Coverage: The Real ‘Old-Age Crisis’
Authors: Charlton Roger , McKinnon Roddy
Published: May 2024

This introductory essay discusses the six substantive papers in this symposium, situating the findings and the proposals of the individual contributions within a global context that is characterized by the pressing need to respond to the real ‘old-age crisis'; namely the limited extent to which existing social security and social welfare programmes provide for the income security of older people, particularly poor older people, world-wide. This is due to the on-going failure of existing provision to cover even the most basic needs of the vast majority of the older people in the South as well as their increasing failure to address the needs of significant segments of the North's populations in low paid occupations or with discontinuous work histories. This coverage crisis is further defined as presenting significant challenges to those organizations designing, planning and managing social security and social welfare programmes, specifically requiring careful handling if a new, inclusive, global consensus on appropriate policies to address the coverage crisis is to emerge.
Migrants in the European Union: Welfare in Old Age
Authors: Messkoub Mahmood
Published: May 2024

The first generation of post-World War Two (WWII) migrants to Western Europe have joined the ranks of the European elderly. Typically, they have accumulated limited assets because of lower paid employment and earned limited rights within public pension schemes that in most European countries relate pensions to years of residence or contribution. in some respect they share the problems of those of the European-born population, mainly women, who started work late, have interrupted work histories, or have low life-time earnings. This paper argues that changing the rules for those sections of the European Union (EU) population who are reliant on public pensions will help to reduce the risk of poverty in old age among some of the most underprivileged sections of the EU elderly population. Among these policies are: delinking length of residency from pension rights or giving credit for the years that a person lived outside the country, financial support to those who are short of contribution years, allowing people to take their pension abroad without a penalty, and improving the rights and entitlement of the surviving spouse (usually women).
Post-Socialist Pension Reform: Contributory and Non-Contributory Approaches
Authors: Müller Katharina
Published: May 2024

The pension reforms that were enacted in Central-Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in the past decade reflect considerable diversity, but share one common feature: a move from a universalist-redistributive heritage to strongly differentiated, earnings-related benefits, with an emphasis on contributory financing. the differences in level and scope of old-age protection are widening, however, as plummeting formal employment translates into sharply decreasing coverage ratios. Thus, the importance of the existing non-contributory benefits for the elderly, that currently play a relatively marginal role in the post-socialist world, may soon be increasing.
Globalization and Taxation in the Oecd: Evidence from A New Indicator of Integration
Authors: Dreher Axel
Published: May 2024

The paper presents an index of globalization covering its three main dimensions: economic integration, social integration, and political integration. Using panel regression for the period 1970–2000 the paper analyzes whether globalization has influenced OECD countries’ implicit tax rates on labor, consumption and capital. the results show that globalization did not decrease the leeway for independent economic policy. Globalization even increased implicit tax rates on capital, while tax rates on consumption and labor are unaffected.
Deregulation of the Electric Utility Industry: An Empirical Study
Authors: Mitra Amlan , Stoler Dorothy , Lin Tin-Chun
Published: May 2024

The recent energy crisis in California has raised several concerns with respect to deregulation. Some of these concerns relate to the high price and the cost of electricity. the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Orders of 1996 on the price of electricity and cost of fuel. Two empirical models are developed to estimate the price of electricity and cost of fuel. Results do not support that these two acts of deregulation led to production or cost efficiency in the electric utility industry.
Globalisation and Healthcare Financing in India: Some Emerging Issues
Authors: Arora Guljit K. , Gumber Anil
Published: May 2024

The paper highlights the changing scenario of the healthcare financing in India in the wake of globalisation process initiated during early 1990s and the structural changes taking place in the health sector. It attempts a status report of the health sector in India and raises issues related to accessibility, efficiency, and quality of the health delivery in the face of glaring inter-state variations and discouraging healthcare financing situation. the rising health needs particularly in the backward and low income states, sluggish health outcomes, dwindling budgetary allocations and heavy household out-of-pocket expenditure on health pose serious challenges to healthcare financing in India. the paper also discusses the issues likely to be further compounded as global institutions (such as the WTO) are supposed to ensure compliance to Intellectual Property Rights; but, unfortunately, can not provide for the healthcare needs of the poor in India in the face of rising health risks.
Social Housing Investment without Public Finance: The Dutch Case
Authors: Gruis Vincent , Nieboer Nico
Published: May 2024

During the 1990s the Dutch government has reduced its financial support of social housing. the abolition of ‘brick-and-mortar’ subsidies and government loans has left housing associations with the challenge to fully finance their investments with capital-market loans and own resources. This paper discusses how housing associations respond to the diminished government support, focusing in particular on the problems related to the financial ‘mismatch’ of tasks and means between housing associations. Evidence from recent years shows that this problem cannot easily be solved.
Wealth Effects and Price Volatility – How Vulnerable are the Households?
Authors: Turner Bengt
Published: May 2024

High and increasing house prices generally constitute an affordability problem to many homebuyers. This paper questions the conventional view of a close link between price appreciation and affordability problem by arguing that many homebuyers in the market are also home sellers. as different submarkets in the owner-occupied sector tend to move in the same pace – price wise, a substantial part of the homebuyers are less sensitive to price movements as the price increase for a new home is paralleled by an increase in equity from the old house. This phenomenon may then even contribute to a further price increase, as these households are less likely to be constrained by a stringent LTV. From this hypothesis follows that house price inflation, not fully supported by fundamentals, is characterised by an increasing share of existing homeowners among the house-buyers. Econometric work, applied to the Swedish house market for single family houses, indicates an increasing share of existing homeowners among recent buyers at the latter years of the Swedish house price boom. This is basically measured by increasing real disposable income over time.
Using Financial Market Information to Enhance Canadian Fiscal Policy
Authors: Lloyd-Ellis Huw , Zhu Xiaodong
Published: May 2024

In this article we argue that the evaluation and implementation of Canadian fiscal policy could be significantly improved through the systematic use of information provided by global financial markets. in particular, we show how the information contained in internationally traded asset returns can be used to (1) provide a more meaningful cyclical-adjustment of the budget deficit, (2) assess the sustainability of the public debt, and (3) reduce the risk of the debt becoming unsustainable without having to run excessively large surpluses.
Borrowing Short- or Long-Term: Does the Government Really Face A Trade-Off?
Authors: Georges Patrick
Published: May 2024

This paper considers public debt management as a component of a more general problem involving fiscal planning under uncertainty. This approach has the potential to result in a new optimal debt maturity structure. Using a stochastic simulation macro-econometric model, we show that a shorter debt maturity structure is generally less expensive and may also contribute to stabilize the budget balance as interest rates tend to decline when the economy is weak.
Symposium on Public Debt Management Editor's Introduction
Authors: Coe Patrick J.
Published: May 2024

While the OECD's (2001) Guidelines for Public Debt Management argue that the main concern of public debt management is managing the costs and risks of the public debt, they also argue that debt managers should be aware of the interdependencies between debt management and other areas of macroeconomic policy, as well as overall issues of debt sustainability. This symposium consists of four papers that are concerned with the interaction of debt management with monetary or fiscal policy in some way.
Introducing the Patient's Friend? The Early Implementation of Pals in the Nhs in England
Authors: Baggott Rob , Buchanan David
Published: May 2024

This article explores the introduction of a new service to handle patients’ concerns in the NHS in England. the Patient Advice and Liaison Service, heralded by the NHS Plan in 2000, has been given a number of roles, which are discussed. the article examines how the service came to be introduced into the NHS. It then reviews the latest research evidence in an attempt to assess the early impact of the new service. in conclusion, the article discusses what has been learned from the introduction of this new service and speculates on its future.
The Changing Context of Primary Care
Authors: Peckham Stephen
Published: May 2024

This paper considers the changing role of primary care both within the NHS, but also in health care in a broader sense. Introducing the reforms made by the Labour government, it also considers other mechanisms through which primary care has been broadened, including the introduction of NHS Direct, as well as the growth of complementary and alternative therapies, and considers the implications of these changes for healthcare financing. It suggests that changes in primary care have considerable potential to transform health services, and make governments rethink their health reforms.