bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Starting Over in Pensions: The Challenges Facing Central and Eastern Europe1
Authors: Holzmann Robert 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTAll countries in Central and Eastern Europe require rapid and drastic restructuring of their public pension schemes for macro- and microeconomic reasons. While initial considerations were geared towards streamlining the unfunded scheme, reducing many distortions and making it financially sound, some transition economies initiated reform plans for a move from unfunded to funded retirement income provision. The paper reviews the need for reform and surveys the discussion and current plans before addressing three central open questions: How to structure the first and unfunded tier? How to finance the transition toward the second and funded tier? What are the minimum financial sector requirements before funded provisions can be initiated? The success of the current pension reform efforts in Central Europe will have an important bearing on developments throughout Europe. A failure in one transition economy caused by bad design, unprojected deficits, or insufficient financial market preparation could discredit a funded pension system in the whole region; a successful move towards an unfunded-funded multi-tier pension scheme in Eastern Europe could positively stimulate the discussion of pension reform in the European Union.
British Indutrial Policy: Structural Change, Policy Inertia
Authors: Grant Wyn , Wilks Stephen 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe structural weaknesses of the UK industrial economy are discussed and it is argued that the policy response does not match the scale of the crisis. Whether there should be an industrial policy is politically contentious. Aid has been directed towards the declining sections of manufacturing industry. Policy adaptation has been ad hoc and decision-making on industrial policy and programme administration is fragmented. Reform is difficult because of genuine policy disagreements between the main political parties, the inherent tendency to return to cautious middle-ground policies defined by the bureaucracy and the persistence of a laissez-faire tradition that leads to an institutional isolation of business and government. The unsatisfactory nature of British industrial policy is related to factors deeply embedded in the political system and a pessimistic view is taken of the possibility of profound change.
Danish Industrial Policy: Persistent Liberalism
Authors: Sidenius Niels Chr. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTDanish industrial policy reflects a ‘liberalistic’ paradigm, with industrial subsidies being general rather than selective, and based on profitability. There was an increase in the number of industrial policy instruments introduced in the second half of the 1970s, and in particular there seems to have been an increase in subsidies for technological innovation. The amount of money allocated for industrial subsidies has increased, especially during the economic recession. However, Danish industrial policy can only be conceived of as a crisis response policy in a relatively diffuse way, with only a few arrangements directly targetted at firms in difficulties, whereas most aim at making the surviving firms expand, innovate and increase their exports. Similarly, with few exceptions Danish industrial policy can be seen as anticipatory only in a very general way. The administration of industrial policy is characterised by close cooperation between state, industry and labour in tripartite boards and committees that take decisions about the administration of industrial policy or advise the government. The widespread use of such tripartite bodies hampers changes in industrial policy because all partners have to acquiesce in the changes. Innovation in Danish industrial policy is likely to be a gradual process, with most existing arrangements surviving, and a desultory increase in the use of more selective measures.
Irish Industrial Policy: The Constraints and Opportunities of an Open Economy
Authors: Girvin Brian 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTIrish industrial policy is of recent origin. Free trade has replaced an earlier reliance on protection to generate industrial growth. For the past 25 years Irish industrial policy has been characterised by the attraction of foreign capital, export-led industrialisation, and state intervention. The Industrial Development Authority has been the major agency in orchestrating this policy of development. Multinational corporations have made a significant contribution to this process. The current recession has led to a deeper involvement by the state in industrial policy. Corporatist instruments have been devised which retain considerable influence. Industrial policy is experiencing further change. There is a new emphasis on the generation of an independent Irish industrial sector, while monetary constraints are imposing restrictions on the range of policy options open to the state.
Economic Success without an Industrial Strategy: Austria in the 1970s
Authors: Müller Wolfgang C. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTStarting from the relative success of the Austrian economy in the 1970s the problems of industrial policy and the position of industrial policy in the context of economic policy are examined. Policies directed towards improving the industrial structure have had a lower priority than policies aimed at producing sufficient total economic growth to avoid unemployment and disputes over the distribution of the GNP. The structure of Austria's foreign trade shows that Austria still has not achieved the industrial structure appropriate for a small industrial country in an exposed geographical position. In Austria the problems of industry are regarded as legitimate affairs of government and, although there is criticism of the details of government intervention, the economic responsibility which is conferred on the government is an extensive one. Austria's political culture exhibits both consociationalist traits, with most laws being passed with the support of the two big parties,, and ‘social partnership’ in the form of voluntary co-operation between the unions and employers' associations. The political consensus means that discussion tends to revolve round technical rather than fundamental issues of industrial policy. Since the early 1970s the preservation of full employment has become the dominating industrial policy goal of the Austrian government; as a result, policy is mainly reactive rather than proactive. Fiscal investment aids are by far the most important industrial policy instrument, though their use has been criticised. There are also direct expenditure schemes, aimed at particular sectors as well as the general stimulation of investment; these aids have also been criticised. The prospects for the introduction of industrial policies more focussed on qualitative changes in industrial structure are not considered good, but political stability seems assured.
Government and the Voluntary Sector in an Era of Retrenchment: The American Experience
Authors: Salmon Lester M. 
Published: November 2008

AbstractPrevailing conceptions of the welfare state in the United States have failed to acknowledge the widespread partnership that exists between government and private voluntary organizations in the provision of human services. Thanks in large part to this partnership, voluntary organizations have retained a significant role in the American welfare state, delivering a larger share of government-financed human services than government agencies. By cutting back on government spending, therefore, the Reagan administration has significantly reduced the revenues of the nonprofit sector while calling on this sector to do more. Although nonprofits as a group have overcome the resulting cutbacks, they have done so chiefly by increasing their income from service charges, rather than their private charitable support.
Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches to Implementation Research: a Critical Analysis and Suggested Synthesis
Authors: Sabatier Paul A. 
Published: November 2008

AbstractThis paper first reviews the implementation literature of the past fifteen years, with particular emphasis on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches. It also argues that the 4–6 year time-frame used in most implementation research misses many critical features of public policy-making. The paper then outlines a conceptual framework for examining policy change over a 10–20 year period which combines the best features of the ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches with insights from other literatures.
Impacts of Policy Actions on the Family and Household
Authors: Ermisch John 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe influence of demographic factors on public policy is well recognised, but the impact of policies other than population policy on demographic behaviour is generally ignored. The paper discusses the effects of various aspects of social policy on marriage, fertility, divorce and household formation behaviour. While the focus is on Great Britain, examples from other countries and cross-national comparisons are employed in the analysis. It measures the effects of particular policies in order to show that the impact of social policies on family formation and dissolution is not just a theoretical possibility. They have significant influences on important aspects of the way in which we live, and in most cases these demographic effects were not recognised by policy makers.
Good Blood, Bad Blood, and the Market: The Gift Relationship Revisited
Authors: McLean Iain , Poulton Jo 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe Gift Relationship (Titmuss, 1970) argued that the UK system of voluntary blood donation was economically, medically, and morally superior to the American system, in which many blood suppliers are paid. The argument was badly put and fiercely attacked, but substantially correct. Developments since Titmuss wrote, especially AIDS, have tragically reinforced his main point: more than half of the severe haemophiliacs in the UK have been infected with the AIDS virus, almost certainly through imported blood products. Titmuss's normative argument is reconstructed, and defended against neoclassical economists who have been his fiercest critics. Finally, policy implications are briefly discussed.
Market and Non-Market Failures: Comparison and Assessment
Authors: Wolf Charles 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to redress the asymmetry in the standard economic treatment of the shortcomings of markets and governments by developing and applying a theory of ‘nonmarket’ failure– that is, of government failure – so that the comparison between markets and governments can be made more systematically, and choices between them arrived at more intelligently. Several conclusions are drawn. First, the choice between markets and governments is not a pure one, actual systems inevitably involve combinations between markets and governments. Second, with respect to both static and dynamic efficiency criteria, markets generally do better than governments. Third, there are various ways in which government can contribute to improving the functioning of markets. Fourth, market forces can play a useful role in improving the functioning of government and reducing the incidence of nonmarket failures.
Capturing Quality?: The Quality Issue in British and American Health Policies
Authors: Pollitt Christopher 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThe quality of health care services has recently become a prominent political issue in both Britain and America. Everyone is in favour of quality. Yet closer inspection reveals that the term is being used with several different meanings, and that its fashionability seems intimately connected with the collision, in both countries, between rising health care costs and a desire on the part of the purchasers or paymasters of health services to restrict their expenditures. The different approaches to assessing quality are not neutral, technical matters. Each carries implications for the future relationships among health care providers, and between providers, payers and patients. Furthermore, changes in these institutional relationships may well lead the debate back to the larger, traditional and more obviously ‘political’ issues of resource allocation, equity and the role of the state.
A Society without a ‘State’? Political Organization, Social Conflict, and Welfare Provision in the United States
Authors: Skocpol Theda 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTAmericans lack a sense of the state for many understandable historical reasons. Yet the specific organizational forms that state activities have taken in the United States from the time of the Constitution to the present have profoundly affected the social cleavages that have gained political expression and influenced the sorts of public policies that governments have – and have not – implemented. As an alternative or supplement to theoretical perspectives emphasizing the causal primacy of industrialization, national values, or class politics, this state-society perspective can illuminate patterns of American social policy, from distributive social benefits in the nineteenth century to bifurcations between social insurance and public assistance since the New Deal. These American policy patterns are contrasted with the more comprehensive and nationally uniform policies characteristic of certain Western European welfare states.
The Growing Burden of an Ageing Population?
Authors: Thane Pat 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTIn most economically developed societies at present there is an active debate about the implications of the growing proportion of their populations who are elderly. In most such countries the changing age structure is seen in almost entirely negative terms. This paper argues for a less pessimistic approach. The transition to an older population will be gradual enough to allow time to plan. The importance of the shift in the so-called ‘dependency ratio’ is exaggerated because ‘dependency’ is unsatisfactorily defined. Nor is there clear evidence that as more people live to be older health and social service costs will rise accordingly: people are remaining fit to later ages and there is strong evidence that they can continue to make a positive contribution to the economy as workers and as consumers until relatively late ages. Social services can also be redesigned to maximize the independence of the elderly while minimizing costs. Since the ageing of society is unavoidable we should seek ways to treat the elderly as a resource rather than viewing them as a burden.
Government Supply and Government Production Failure: A Framework Based on Contestability
Authors: Vining Aidan R. , Weimer David L. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTA complete conceptual framework for policy analysis requires a theory of government supply and government production failure to complement the well-developed theory of market failure provided by welfare economics. Charles Wolf has made an important start by attempting to draw parallels between market failures and the manifestations of government supply failures. This article provides a more useful analytical framework for government supply failure in two important ways. First, it draws on several perspectives from the economics of organization to sketch both normative and positive theories of government supply. Second, it uses the positive theory of government supply behavior to make direct comparisons with the traditional market failures. It concludes with some implications of the framework for assessing the potential gains from privatization.
Institutionalizing a Stalemate: National Financial Policies and the International Debt Crisis
Authors: Pauly Louis W. 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis article explores the hypothesis that trends in the financial regulatory and supervisory policies of advanced industrialized countries encouraged the retreat of international banks from lending to developing countries during the 1980s. Drawing upon the illustrative cases of the United States, Japan, Canada, and the Federal Republic of Germany, it assesses the plausibility of the argument that convergent trends in regulatory policies reinforced that retreat, notwithstanding the efforts of top policymakers to promote adequate new lending in the context of a deepening crisis.
Explaining the Puzzles in Policy Change: Local Finance Reform in Britain
Authors: Bramley Glen 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper compares four different theoretical accounts of the reform of British local government finance at the end of the 1980s: public choice, marxian political economy, bureaucratic process, and party politics. Five key questions are identified as the most essential and puzzling features of the change: why reform; the timing of reform and implementation; the national non-domestic rate; the choice of a poll tax; and why the ‘final solution’ of direct central control has been eschewed. The ability of each theoretical approach in answering these five key questions is then assessed in the light of what we know about the history and logic of local government finance in Britain. The conclusion is that the reform can be explained, but that no single theoretical approach can give a completely satisfactory account. Overall, a competitive party politics model, complemented by public choice ideology and bureaucratic process, gives the fullest explanation.
Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Control of Public Expenditure: An Assessment of British Experience in the 1980s
Authors: Florio Massimo 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper examines approaches to public investment appraisal as theyare currently recommended in the British Treasury and implemented byevaluation units within the Department of Health, Department of Transport and the Home Office. The evidence suggests that spending departments have reacted to the pressure for increased selectivity in their expenditures by adopting a heterogeneous blend of appraisal techniques, including financial analysis, cost-effectiveness and option appraisal, withcost-benefit analysis eventually playing a minor role. The imposition of cash limits rations capital expenditures. When these constraints bite departments differently, either a unique social discount rate for projectappraisal is inappropriate or the rations themselves are giving wrong signals to the departments The departments do not have an incentive todevote time and effort to cost benefit analysis and other techniques of a more limited scope are implemented.
Cutbacks and Public Bureaucracy: Consequences in Australia
Authors: Hood Christopher , Roberts Paul , Chilvers Marilyn 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTDrawing on data for 60 Australian Commonwealth government bureaucracies 1976–86, this paper explores what measurable consequences for bureaucratic structure can be associated with staffing and spending cutbacks. It looks at cutbacks both at government-wide and at individual-bureaucracylevel, on the basis of a casualty list intended to portray the different dimensions of relative bureaucratic ‘suffering’ more systematically than has hitherto been done in the cutback management literature. It then explores associations between measures of cutbacks and indicators of structural consequences, both at government-wide and departmental level, relating that to the debate as to whether ‘leaner means weaker’ in government cutbacks. The ‘leaner means weaker’ view of bureaucratic cutbacks is hard to sustain from these data.
Policy Style and Issue Environment: The Electricity Supply Sector in West Germany
Authors: Padgett Stephen 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis work examines the relationship between policy style and issue environment. Empirical research in the electricity supply sector in West Germany suggests that even at the sectoral level the expectation of a monolithic and static policy style cannot confidently be sustained. This sector displays adual policy style, the source of which is located in the relationship between state and sector, the structure of interest representation, and ownership / market relations in the sector. Fluctuations in policy style are related to changes in the issue environment. Addressing the structural dimension of issues, the work abstracts the structure and form which issues assume from their substantive content to identifyissue anatomy. This concept is deployed in an explanation of changing policy style in the face of a complex of sectoral issues.
What is Lesson-Drawing?
Authors: Rose Richard 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTLesson-drawing addresses the question: Under what circumstances and to what extent can a programme that is effective in one place transfer to another. Searching for fresh knowledge is not normal; the second section describes the stimulus to search as dissatisfaction with the status quo. Lessons can be sought by searching across time and/or across space; the choice depends upon a subjective definition of proximity, epistemic communities linking experts together, functional interdependence between governments, and the authority of intergovernmental institutions. The process of lesson-drawing starts with scanning programmes in effect elsewhere, and ends with the prospective evaluation of what would happen if a programme already in effect elsewhere were transferred here in future. Lesson-drwaing is part of a contested political process; there is no assurance that a lesson drawn will be both desirable and practical. The conclusion considers the uncertainty and instability of judgements about the practicality and desirability of transferring programmes.
Cross-National Sources of Regulatory Policymaking in Europe and the United States
Authors: Majone Giandomenico 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTBecause events occur too fast and ideas mature too slowly for responses to be designed anew for each pressing problem, policy innovation often relies on pre-existing models, foreign or domestic. This seems to be especially true for regulatory policymaking, since public regulation is typically introduced in conditions of crisis. In this paper we examine several cases of policy innovation in the area of economic and social regulation where the influence of foreign models is quite clear: the development of competition policy in Europe in the 1950s, the growth of European Community regulation, and the impact of the American deregulation movement on the telecommunications policies of different European countries. The analysis shows that while utilization of preexisting models is a common feature of policy innovation, such models are not literally translated into current policy. More or less extensive adaptations to a particular political, institutional and economic context are usually required. We also identify two distinct ways – push or pull – in which foreign models can affect domestic policy.
From the Second to the Informal Economy
Authors: Sik Endre 
Published: November 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses two related questions: How has the transformation from a centrally planned to a market economy affected the second economy and how has the second economy influenced the transformation? The existence of a second economy compensating for some faults of the planned economy has been a contributing factor in the non-violent transformation of the Hungarian economy. Transformation is making the concepts of a first and second economy obsolete. The informal economy, which is replacing the second economy, differs from the latter in its degree of internalization, and in relying upon fulltime rather than part-time work. It is also increasing in size. The social impact of the informal economy is also different, increasing income inequality and regional disparities, thus replacing the gradations of social differences found in the multi-coloured activities of the second economy with sharper black and white differences. The analysis is illustrated with data from Hungary before and after the transformation.