The influence of governance on public sector efficiency: A cross-country analysis

This paper examines whether governance quality affects public sector efficiency in the policy areas of administration, education, infrastructure, and stability. Using cross-country evidence, we find that a country's measures of governance quality are positively and significantly associated with public sector efficiency in the policy areas of administration, infrastructure, and stability. However, regression results suggest that a country's governance quality cannot affect efficiency in the policy area of education, even after controlling for some explanatory variables.     

北京的现代城市交通与古都风貌

北京旧城交通拥堵现象突出。要解决这一现实问题 ,就要在保护古都风貌的基础上 ,完成城市总体规划确定的城市路网建设的目标 ,大力发展地铁、轻轨 ,坚持公交优先的交通战略 ,适度控制交通需求的增长 ,加快道路建设和公共交通投融资体制的改革 ,加快城市交通管理体系的现代化建设 ,不断提高整个交通系统的通达性和便捷性     

Framing public policy: The impacts of political sophistication and nature of public policy

This empirical research investigates how political sophistication moderates framing effects on public opinion and attitudes. It explores when framing effects occur and who could be immune to such framing. Experimental results with multivariate analyses indicate that political sophistication enhances or reduces framing effects in shaping public views and stances, subject to the nature of public policy. When a public policy is promoted that is perceived as an easy issue, framing effects are significant for individuals who are less politically sophisticated. Alternatively, when a hard issue is presented, opposite results are observed. Framing effects are insignificant in promoting an ideological issue regardless of a person's political sophistication.     

The value of a name: Estimating the economic impact of public land designation

Public land designations have been shown to have significant impact on their contextual regional economies. This paper reviews the existing literature on how public lands impact the proximate regional economies in which they are situated. Based on this collected wisdom the paper synthesizes past lessons into a comprehensive impact methodology. This methodology distinguishes quality effects in terms of visitors’ willingness to pay for sites of higher quality and quantity effects in terms of additional visitation to such sites to give a more comprehensive methodology for characterizing visitation and economic impact of protected area designation. We focus on National Monuments and National Parks, given that these two types of public lands have the broadest popular exposure and feature the most reliable data. A case study is then presented for a hypothetical protected area in Ferry County, Washington, USA, applying this new methodology to assess the likely economic effects of different types of protected areas.     

Mixed accountability within new public governance: The case of a personalized welfare scheme in early implementation

We explore personalized funding schemes and associated changes for accountability within new welfare governance reforms. Using the case of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme as hybrid institution, requiring mixed accountability arrangements, we examine the implications for broader discussions of accountability in personalized welfare arrangements. Methods used were semistructured interviews with government actors and disability service providers in Australia. In describing how accountability structures emerge, we argue that the way that layers fit together during implementation are often imperfect because of the conditions under which they arise. As a result, critical gaps can emerge in layered systems, which can put end users at risk. We demonstrate that theories on accountability in new public governance welfare reforms must also be informed by context and history informed qualitative analysis of case studies.     

Belief formation in a signaling game without common prior: an experiment

Using belief elicitation, the paper investigates the process of belief formation and evolution in a signaling game in which a common prior is not induced. Both prior and posterior beliefs of Receivers about Senders’ types are elicited, as well as beliefs of Senders about Receivers’ strategies. In the experiment, subjects often start with diffuse uniform beliefs and update them in view of observations. However, the speed of updating is influenced by the strength of initial beliefs. An interesting result is that beliefs about the prior distribution of types are updated slower than posterior beliefs, which incorporate Senders’ strategies. In the medium run, for some specifications of game parameters, this leads to outcomes being significantly different from the outcomes of the game in which a common prior is induced. It is also shown that elicitation of beliefs does not considerably change the pattern of play in this game.     

研究型政府:公共管理的新愿景

近年来,在“学习型组织”的话语背景下,学习型政府成为流行的新概念。相对于“长官意志”和“论资排辈”而言,学习型政府无疑具有进步意义。但学习型政府存在着被动学习、目标不明、学用脱离、成本高昂等局限性。为了提高各级政府的政策驾驭(掌舵)能力,为了更好地推进我国的公共管理创新,政府管理在理念上需要从学习型政府走向研究型政府,并通过推进政府信息公开、完善决策咨询机制、建立政府与学者互动机制,建构具有前瞻性思维和追求卓越境界的公共治理新体制。     

The responsibility of public welfare in family planning

The primary objective of the paper is the implementation of family planning programs in and by the public sector. Providing health service is the category that family planning falls into within public welfare. Only 700,000 patients are now receiving family planning services from all public and private agencies combined. This is only 13% of the target population. All too many policy statments have been made with little done to implement them. The estimation is that in 1966 and 1967 HEW spent about three million dollars on family planning. Public programs have progressed farther through Office of Economic Opportunity than through HEW. Religious sources are the strongest opposition to welfare involvement in family planning. Social work as a profession has a role in family planning to the extent that it considers its role helping people and enhancing family functioning.     

Risk aversion and equilibrium selection in a vertical contracting setting: an experiment

Theory and Decision - The theoretical literature on vertical relationships usually assumes that beliefs about secret contracts take specific forms. In a recent paper, Eguia et al. (Games Econ Behav...     

Private and public pension schemes: Elements of a comparative approach

The comparative approach offers improved understanding of what is at stake for enterprises, workers and States in developing private pension schemes to fill the gap left by public schemes. The features that distinguish private schemes result from the freedom with which they were designed — by enterprises themselves or through collective bargaining — and the limits imposed by growing state intervention in granting fiscal concessions or stipulating social guarantees. Depending on how these various components are combined, private schemes may offers workers added protection or form a source of insecurity.     

Pre-commitment and flexibility in a time decision experiment

An agent with dynamically inconsistent preferences may deviate from her plan of action as the future draws near. An exponential discounter may do exactly the same when facing an uncertain future. Through an experiment we compare preference-based vs. uncertainty-based explanations for choice reversal over time by eliciting choices for pre-commitment and flexibility. Evidence of widespread commitment favors a preference-based explanation.

Outsourcing with identical suppliers and shortest-first policy: a laboratory experiment

We study experimentally in the laboratory two 2-player games that mimic a decentralized decision-making situation in which firms repeatedly outsource production orders to multiple identical suppliers. The first game has a unique (inefficient) equilibrium in mixed strategies, while the second game has two (efficient) equilibria in pure strategies and an infinite number of (inefficient) equilibria in mixed strategies. In both games, the optimal social costs can also be obtained via dominated strategies. We find that only in the second game subjects manage to reach an efficient outcome more often when matched in fixed pairs than when randomly rematched each round. Surprisingly, this is because subjects coordinate on dominated strategies (and not an efficient pure strategy equilibrium). We show theoretically that preferences for efficiency cannot explain our experimental results. Inequality aversion, on the other hand, cannot be rejected.     

The public pension system in Taiwan: Equity issues within and between systems

This article analyses the challenges facing the New Public Service Pension Fund System in Taiwan, China. After less than two decades of operation, this young system is facing financial imbalance and is embroiled in controversy regarding the generosity of its benefits provisions. The article first introduces Taiwan's different systems for old‐age security, with a focus on that for general public‐sector employees. It then addresses the financial challenges facing the general public‐sector pension system, including the rising cost of its benefits for all taxpayers. Finally, a number of possible reform directions are suggested, including lowering benefit levels, making qualifying criteria more stringent, or establishing a new system. With regards to the latter, any proposed new system must seek to satisfy the goal of longer‐term financial soundness while realizing optimal fairness among all stakeholders including taxpayers.     

The government's role in public trust of biomedical science

Public trust in biomedical research depends in large part upon public attitudes toward science, the behavior of institutions involved in conducting and supporting biomedical research, and how mass media report on biomedical research. This paper explores those aspects of public trust, particularly the responsibilities of government as the major source of support for research using public funds.     

Flexible public policy: The case of the United States wheat sector

This paper tests the proposition that flexible policy rules that tie program instrument settings to changes in market conditions can improve economic welfare compared to the prevailing practice in the United States of setting agricultural policy instruments at fixed levels once every 4 years. Flexible policy rules are obtained for the U.S. wheat sector using stochastic control methods. A constraint structure representing producer and consumer behavior and a policy criterion function representing society's weighting of various groups are estimated. It is shown that the flexible policy rules developed in this paper outperform historic policy instrument settings across a wide spectrum of economic conditions.     

The impact of international migration on the public pension system: The case of Portugal

This article analyses the impact of replacement migration on the financial sustainability of the old‐age pension system in Portugal, a country with one of the largest ageing populations in Europe. We do this using demographic forecasts and prospective exercises for the evolution of the Portuguese economy. During the 2015–2060 period, our results evidence the positive impacts of international migration on old‐age pension system financial balances, reaching over 3 per cent of GDP after 2045. Moreover, even when taking into considering the low dynamics for the Portuguese economy, replacement migration is an important input to improve pension system financial sustainability.     

The Brazilian public pension system: Policy changes, political effects

This article discusses the reciprocal relationship between public pension policy and age-based politics in Brazil, a nation with a public pension system that has the potential for influencing policy developments in other developing nations faced with the problem of how to extend social security coverage to the entire population. Our goal is to extend a line of analysis used in previous studies of industrial nations to the case of Brazil. Pension policy changes made during the 1960s and 1970s had a number of unintended consequences. One was the role these policy changes played with respect to the emergence of rural unions and age-based interest groups: both are becoming increasingly important actors with respect to pension policy. We discuss the implications of the Brazilian case for policy options and outcomes in other newly democratic nations, particularly those in Latin America.     

Educational success for children in public care: advice from a group of high achievers

ABSTRACT Research over the past 20 years has consistently shown that children in public care fall behind at school, seldom achieve good qualifications, and are much less likely than their peers to go on to further or higher education. However, a small minority of looked‐after children do well academically. This paper examines the opinions of 38 high‐achieving young people who spent at least a year in residential or foster care on what they think are the best ways to enhance the educational experience of looked‐after children. An evaluation of four key questions from a semistructured interview highlighted the importance of foster carers, residential workers, social workers and teachers in providing support and encouragement for academic achievement. On the other hand, many of these individuals emphasized their dislike of being ‘singled out’ by the teacher. A third of the participants believed that negative stereotypes and low expectations of children in care among professionals and care providers were major obstacles to their educational success. Over half the sample reported that in many children’s homes basic necessities such as books, a desk and a quiet place to do homework were lacking. In addition their opportunity to engage in outside interests and hobbies was severely limited. By contrast, for these individuals foster care had provided better opportunities. On entering higher education the majority of the participants had faced severe problems. They stressed the need for continuing financial support and adequate year‐round accommodation, because, unlike most students, these care leavers usually have no parental home to return to during university vacations. A third of participants also felt a strong desire for a ‘guardian angel’ to support and encourage them during their time at university. The paper concludes that the views of these thoughtful and resilient individuals should be taken very seriously and translated into improvements in policy and practice. Official guidance now highlights the importance of education for looked‐after children, but changing attitudes and priorities at ground level presents a major challenge.     

Indexation of public pension benefits on a legal basis: Some experiences in European countries

Legal provisions concerning indexation of social benefits to wage or price movements are a common feature of social security systems in European countries. At the moment, there is a lively debate in some countries whether such mechanisms should be continued in a modern, flexible Welfare State. This paper analyses whether indexation provisions are effective, i.e. whether they limit the range of political decision-making on benefit adjustments. Evidence from Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands shows that trends in benefit adjustment are quite pronounced in time and comparable between countries, indicating that changing economic circumstances may be of more importance to changes in benefit levels than the precise contents of indexation clauses. Also, indexation clauses have frequently been adjusted to changing circumstances. Nevertheless, it appears that the incorporation of indexation provisions in the law still has a strong symbolic meaning.     

Risk and time preferences of entrepreneurs: evidence from a Danish field experiment

To understand how small business entrepreneurs respond to government policy one has to know their risk and time preferences. Are they risk averse, or have high discount rates, such that they are hard to motivate? We have conducted a set of field experiments in Denmark that will allow a direct characterization of small business entrepreneurs in terms of these traits. We build on experimental tasks that are well established in the literature. The results do not suggest that small business entrepreneurs are more or less risk averse than the general population under the assumption of Expected Utility Theory. However, we generally find an S-shaped probability weighting function for both small business entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, with entrepreneurs being more optimistic about the chance of occurrence for the best outcome in lotteries with real monetary outcomes. The results also point to a significant difference in individual discount rates between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs: entrepreneurs are willing to wait longer for certain rewards than the general population.