scholarly journals Discursive Deficits: A Feminist Perspective on the Power of Technical Knowledge in Fiscal Law and Policy

1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Philipps
Keyword(s):  
Government Spending ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Sex Equality ◽  
Fiscal Law ◽  
Distribution Of Income ◽  
Normative Content

AbstractDecisions about taxation and government spending have great political significance: they affect the distribution of income and wealth and the nature and degree of class, gender and other social inequalities. However, tax and budgetary issues are frequently constructed as technical matters that can be resolved rationally according to economic, mathematical or other ostensibly neutral principles. The author examines the debate around budget deficits and recent sex equality challenges to the income tax system, and argues that both illustrate how technical discourses tend to deny the normative content of fiscal law and policy and to disqualify political opposition to the prevailing fiscal order as irrational, ideological and inexpert. The paper concludes by examining the discursive strategies of feminists and others interested in fiscal change. The author considers how feminists might respond to, and even harness, the power of technical knowledges in struggling for tax and expenditure reforms while also challenging the oppressive features and depoliticizing tendencies of such discourses.

scholarly journals Internal Migration and Public Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele G. Giuranno ◽  
Rongili Biswas
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Internal Migration ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Size Of Government ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Distribution Of Income ◽  
Actual Size

Abstract This paper studies the relation between internal migration and public spending on public goods. We describe centralized public policy when a central government is comprised of elected representatives from local electoral districts. Internal migration determines the median voter in the districts. The median voters decide the equilibrium policy through bargaining. We find the conditions under which voters’ mobility results in larger or smaller public spending. Furthermore, the distance between the actual size and the efficient size of government spending depends on the way internal migration changes the distribution of income within and between districts.

scholarly journals REGIONAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING EFFICIENCY ON HEALTH AND EDUCATION IN DECENTRALIZATION ERA : EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

INFO ARTHA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Azwar Iskandar ◽  
Rahmaluddin Saragih
Keyword(s):  
Government Spending ◽  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
The Other ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Equal Distribution ◽  
Efficient Score ◽  
Education Services ◽  
Distribution Of Income

The purpose of this paper is to assess spending efficiency of regional governments in Indonesia on health and education during the fiscal decentralization period year of 2010-2017. Relying on a sample of 33 provinces as regional government, this paper compute efficiency scores adopting nonparametric frontier that estimated by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to study spending inefficiency. Results of the paper show that in west regions, Bali, Bangka Belitung, DI Yogyakarta, Jawa Tengah, and Kep. Riau relatively most efficient in public spending both on health and education in period of study. DKI Jakarta and Jawa Barat have efficient score on health, and Bengkulu has efficient score on education. On the other hand, in east regions, Gorontalo, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Timur and Sulawesi Utara were also most efficient in public spending on health and education services. Maluku and Sulawesi Tenggara have efficient score on health, and Kalimantan Selatan, Maluku Utara, Nusa Tenggara Barat, and Sulawesi Barat have efficient score on education. The results show that provinces in east regions of Indonesia were relatively more efficient in public spending both on health and education for promoting equal distribution of income

scholarly journals Fiscal management and political budget cycles in transition economies: Data panel analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-220
Author(s):  
Ljubivoje Radonjić ◽  
Danijela Despotović ◽  
Slobodan Cvetanović
Keyword(s):  
Government Spending ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Political Budget Cycles ◽  
Fiscal Management ◽  
Relevant Evidence ◽  
Election Process ◽  
General Government ◽  
Policy Mechanisms

In this paper, on the basis of relevant statistical tests, the influence of the electoral process on the trajectory of fiscal indicators in the transition countries is analyzed. The aim of the research is to identify the political manipulation of certain fiscal policy mechanisms in transition countries.The focus of the survey is on the growth of general government spending, the reduction of general government revenues and the creation of budget deficits as the coherent consequences of fiscal expansion in the pre-election period. By testing, there is no relevant evidence of the use of tax incentives as a form of political action on the economic sphere. On the other hand, the results of the survey indicate that in the observed countries, there really is a rise in government spending in the period before the election process and, consequently, the growth of budget deficits. However, according to the same findings, in the post-election period there is no reduction in consumption. Growth in general governments consumption continues, but to a lesser degree, which in turn leads to the correction of the budgetary balance.

A Note on the Relation between Government Expenditure and Receipts in Italy: A Quarterly Analysis

2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Giovanna Tagliabue
Keyword(s):  
Government Spending ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Budget Deficits ◽  
Quarterly Data ◽  
Tax Revenues ◽  
Precise Knowledge ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Automatic Stabiliser

Abstract A precise knowledge of the relation between government expenditure and revenues may be useful to control budget deficits because, if there is interdependence, raising taxes to reduce deficits may lead directly to more spending. An effective manipulation of central government spending and tax revenues requires information on the direction of causality between these economic variables.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between government expenditure and receipts based on quarterly data, using the structural cointegration approach of Pesaran and Pesaran [1997]. In the results presented below, the structural cointegration approach provides evidence of a long and short-run equilibrium between government spending and receipts, supporting the assumption that the Italian Government’s expenditure is a sort of automatic stabiliser as opposed to Wagner’s Law.

scholarly journals Talk like an expert: The construction of expertise in news comments concerning climate change

2020 ◽  
pp. 096366252098172
Author(s):  
Sharon Coen ◽  
Joanne Meredith ◽  
Ruth Woods ◽  
Ana Fernandez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Discursive Psychology ◽  
Daily Mail ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
International Panel ◽  
Climate Change Science ◽  
The Guardian

This article explores how readers of UK newspapers construct expertise around climate change. It draws on 300 online readers’ comments on news items in The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Telegraph, concerning the release of the International Panel on Climate Change report calling for immediate action on climate change. Comments were analysed using discursive psychology. We identified a series of discursive strategies that commenters adopted to present themselves as experts in their commentary. The (mostly indirect) use of category entitlements (implicitly claiming themselves as expert) and the presentation of one’s argument as factual (based on direct or indirect technical knowledge or common sense) emerged as common ways in which readers made claims to expertise, both among the supporters and among the sceptics of climate change science. Our findings indicate that expertise is a fluid concept, constructed in diverse ways, with important implications for public engagement with climate change science.

scholarly journals Income Inequality, Redistribution of Income and Trade Openness

2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (4I-II) ◽  
pp. 865-874
Author(s):  
Adeel Ali ◽  
Syed Faizan Iftikhar ◽  
Ambreen Fatima ◽  
Lubna Naz
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Trade Openness ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Distribution Of Income

Literature on nexus between trade openness and government spending is impressive [Atif, et al. (2012), Rudra (2004), Dani (1997) and McGuire (1999)]. The literature is growing rapidly. Analysts have documented the positive effects of government social spending [see for example Mesa-Lago (1994); Huber (1996); Weyland (1996); McGuire (1999)]. Unfortunately, Pakistan lacks empirical evidences on the impact of government social spending. Although Government of Pakistan has taken number of initiatives to have some form of redistribution policies, however, inequality in Pakistan is higher as compared to other Least Developed Countries that are open to trade. This situation is alarming. This paper therefore tries to identify the nexus between trade openness and social spending for the period 1975–2012. International evidence suggests that government social spending influences poverty and distribution of income. Pakistan‘s low level achievement in terms of reducing inequality, given the likely adverse economic impact of trade openness, point towards the fact that government has to design the policy in such a way that it affects the distribution of income. Thus, exploring the effect of social spending on income inequality is necessary for the concerned policy makers.

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