scholarly journals Electoral Incentives and the Allocation of Public Funds

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederico Finan ◽  
Maurizio Mazzocco
Keyword(s):  
Electoral System ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Term Limit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Politicians allocate public resources in ways that maximize political gains, and potentially at the cost of lower welfare. In this paper, we quantify these welfare costs in the context of Brazil’s federal legislature, which grants its members a budget to fund public projects within their states. Using data from the state of Roraima, we estimate a model of politicians’ allocation decisions and find that 26.8% of the public funds allocated by legislators are distorted relative to a social planner’s allocation. We then use the model to simulate three potential policy reforms to the electoral system: the adoption of approval voting, imposing a one-term limit, and redistricting. We find that a one-term limit and redistricting are both effective at reducing distortions. The one-term limit policy, however, increases corruption, which makes it a welfare-reducing policy.

scholarly journals Punishment Strategies across Societies: Conventional Wisdoms Reconsidered

Games ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Ramzi Suleiman ◽  
Yuval Samid
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Public Goods Game ◽  
The Public ◽  
Free Riders ◽  
The World ◽  
Emergence Of Cooperation ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Cost

Experiments using the public goods game have repeatedly shown that in cooperative social environments, punishment makes cooperation flourish, and withholding punishment makes cooperation collapse. In less cooperative social environments, where antisocial punishment has been detected, punishment was detrimental to cooperation. The success of punishment in enhancing cooperation was explained as deterrence of free riders by cooperative strong reciprocators, who were willing to pay the cost of punishing them, whereas in environments in which punishment diminished cooperation, antisocial punishment was explained as revenge by low cooperators against high cooperators suspected of punishing them in previous rounds. The present paper reconsiders the generality of both explanations. Using data from a public goods experiment with punishment, conducted by the authors on Israeli subjects (Study 1), and from a study published in Science using sixteen participant pools from cities around the world (Study 2), we found that: 1. The effect of punishment on the emergence of cooperation was mainly due to contributors increasing their cooperation, rather than from free riders being deterred. 2. Participants adhered to different contribution and punishment strategies. Some cooperated and did not punish (‘cooperators’); others cooperated and punished free riders (‘strong reciprocators’); a third subgroup punished upward and downward relative to their own contribution (‘norm-keepers’); and a small sub-group punished only cooperators (‘antisocial punishers’). 3. Clear societal differences emerged in the mix of the four participant types, with high-contributing pools characterized by higher ratios of ‘strong reciprocators’, and ‘cooperators’, and low-contributing pools characterized by a higher ratio of ‘norm keepers’. 4. The fraction of ‘strong reciprocators’ out of the total punishers emerged as a strong predictor of the groups’ level of cooperation and success in providing the public goods.

Perspectives for Planning Approaches in Promoting Underground Built Heritage - COST Action Underground4value

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Smaniotto Costa ◽  
Tatiana Ruchinskaya ◽  
Konstantinos Lalenis
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Cost Action ◽  
The Public ◽  
Built Heritage ◽  
Educational Paradigm ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Planning Approaches

<p>The COST Action 18110 Underground4value (http://underground4value.eu) aims to advance knowledge on how to guarantee continuity of use and significance of underground historic fabric. It is collecting information, experiences and knowhow to base the development of research and training. The Action focusses on underground regeneration, revitalisation of the public realm and skills development for people concerned with underground heritage.</p><p>This contribution centres the attention of the Working Group on Planning Approaches. It also looks at the role of local authorities, as enablers and facilitators, in coordination, use  and management of underground built heritage. In this framework underground built heritage is considered as a social resource with integrated programmes of physical, economic and social measures, backed by strategic stakeholder dialogue.</p><p>On the one hand, this contribution discusses the structure and goals of the WG, as it pays attention to the necessary complementarities between functional approaches – at the level of regions and city – and social and cultural approaches involving citizens’ engagement and empowerment – at the local level. This WG aims to provide a reflection on sustainable approaches to preserve the underground built heritage and, at the same time, to unfold the case by case approach for potential use of underground space. On the other hand, to achieve its objectives the WG on Planning Approaches is setting together potentials and constraints in the efforts to make better use of underground heritage. This contribution, therefore, sheds lights on the preliminary results of the WG. It is centred on the learned lessons, challenges and barriers - from a planning science perspective - that experts met in their efforts to tackle Underground Built Heritage. Achieving this goal makes the call for an educational paradigm shift - as the Action is not only interested in compiling the results, rather on experiences that can be analysed and learned. This requires a dynamic understanding of knowledge, abilities and skills, towards creating more effective coalitions of ‘actors’ within localities, by developing structures, which encourage long term collaborative relationships. Enabled by the gained knowledge, the WG will define the best tailored ways to forward this knowledge for planners and decision-makers.</p>

scholarly journals PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND ACHIEVEMENT OF ITS EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Zvarych ◽  
Olena Zvarych
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Administration System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency ◽  
Organizational Results ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Goals And Objectives

This article highlights current issues of effectiveness and efficiency of the public administration system. Using systemic and synergetic approaches, methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, comparative analysis it is established that the effectiveness of management is a result compared with the cost of achieving it (they include not only direct costs of management, but also implementation management decisions). At the same time, the tools of public administration can be divided into four types: organizational structures; belief; rules; financial resources, and their capabilities – two: external, which include the legal framework, leadership and resources, and internal in the composition of people, processes and strategies. At the same time, its effectiveness should be assessed in two ways: on the one hand, by assessing the available opportunities and the extent to which they are used to achieve organizational results (socalled internal efficiency), and on the other – by assessing the final achievements (external). The organizational results of public administration should be considered in two aspects. On the one hand, it is the implementation within the legal framework in accordance with the chosen strategy and under a certain guidance of such opportunities as resources, which means their allocation in accordance with the goals and objectives of the organization; processes and structures, which means their organization to achieve goals and objectives; and people, is the change of certain human factors, the emergence or resolution of existing conflicts, and so on. At the same time, the criteria for the effectiveness of public administration: the purposefulness of the organization and functioning of the public administration system; spending time on management issues and management operations; the state of functioning of the public administration system, its subsystems and other organizational structures; the complexity of the organization of the subject of public administration, its subsystems and units; the cost of maintaining and ensuring the proper functioning of such a management system. Therefore, based on the most common interpretation of the concept of efficiency, it is considered as a result compared with the cost of obtaining it. At the same time, the efficiency of management is a relative characteristic of a particular social governing system, reflected in various indicators that have both quantitative and qualitative features, the achievement of which is especially important in the development of modern civilized system market relations in modern Ukraine and its fustified relentless European integration aspirations.

Defining Dilemmas Down: The Case of 24

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-36
Author(s):  
John M. Parrish ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
Moral Conflicts ◽  
Public Mind ◽  
The Public ◽  
Moral Wrong ◽  
Philosophical Account ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost

One of the most important concepts in the field of political ethics is the idea of a moral dilemma – understood as a situation in which an agent’s public responsibilities and moral imperatives conflict in such a way that no matter what the agent does she will in some way be committing a moral wrong. In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, the notion of a moral dilemma has undergone a profound reconceptualization in American political discourse, and there has perhaps been no more important cultural forum for that conceptual revision than the quintessential post-9/11 melodrama, FOX Television’s 24. This paper first describes and then critically evaluates America’s new model moral dilemma as portrayed on 24. Focusing specifically on 24’s Season Five (the year the show won the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series), the paper shows how 24’s creators have substituted in the public mind almost a parody of the standard philosophical account of a moral dilemma in place of the traditional notion. Their methods for this conceptual revision have included both an extravagant, even baroque portrayal of the grand dilemmas which confront Jack Bauer and his fellow patriots, on the one hand, and on the other, a subtle de-valuing of the moral stakes in the more pedestrian variety of moral conflicts Bauer and company must overcome in their quest to keep America safe whatever the cost.

Scelte pubbliche, efficienza e giustizia distributiva intergenerazionale: ruolo ed effetti del tasso di sconto

2012 ◽  
pp. 35-63
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Clerico
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Discount Rate ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Public Project ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
A Value ◽  
Intergenerational Fairness ◽  
The Cost

Public projects (to be understood as the set of public choices that affect human behavior and the dynamics of the economic system) can result in an immediate and a future stream of benefits or an immediate flow of benefits with costs occurring in the future. The public choice, therefore, raises both the problem of intergenerational relations and the criterion of fairness (distributive justice) that governs them. The problem arises because, given the non-simultaneity of the costs and benefits of a project, discrepancies may arise in treatment between the generations. The time raises a twofold objective: the pursuit of distributive justice in intergenerational and the need to respect the criterion of intergenerational efficiency level. Closely connected to this dual aim is the problem of the discount rate. As a euro today has a value other than a euro available within a few years the monetary values that accrue in different times must be discounted. The opportunity to use the discount rate raises issues of both fairness and efficiency at both intra-and intergenerational level. Different levels of discount rate implies different burden for different generations. A level is appropriate to distinguish between the problems of fairness from the problems of efficiency. The opportunity of using the discount rate is based on two essential elements: the opportunity cost of capital, and the time preference of the subjects which in turn depends on factors such as impatience and uncertainty. The current evaluation of a public project depends on individual willingness to pay for that project. It follows that the discount of this assessment is similar to the discount of monetary values that ripen at different times. The cost-benefit assessment needs using the discount rate, but the use raises, in particular, the problem of intergenerational fairness.

scholarly journals A Pervasive Economic Fallacy in Assessing the Cost of Public Funds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Boyer
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Support Programs ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
The Public ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Cost

In the assessment of the cost of public funds, there is a pervasive economic fallacy that is frequently repeated in public policy circles: because the cost of borrowing is higher for a private-sector firm than it is for a public-sector firm, the cost of carrying out an activity (investment, production, distribution, provision of goods and services, and borrowing) will necessarily be lower ceteris paribus in the public sector than in the private sector. The statement is erroneous because part of the government’s cost of borrowing, namely the risk borne by citizens, customers, and taxpayers, is hidden from the casual observer of market interest rates or yields. The all-inclusive borrowing cost, more generally the all-inclusive cost of capital, is the same for both the public and the private sectors. I discuss four specific real cases in which the error is present: the Quebec Generations Fund, the Québec CDPQ Infra–Réseu express métropolitain project, the Infrastructure Ontario methodology to assess the riskiness of costs, and the BC Hydro Site C hydroelectric megaproject. I also discuss a general fifth case, namely government support programs for businesses (grants, loans, guarantees, subsidies, etc.), which are generally justified on the fallacious claim that the cost of financing is lower for the government than for the private sector. I propose an auction process by which the true cost of business support programs could be made transparent. I conclude with an appeal for a more rigorous use and management of public funds because miscalculation, misinformation, mismanagement, and fallacious analysis will eventually backfire.

Arbitration Costs

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan D. Franck
Keyword(s):  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Cost Shifting ◽  
Hard Data ◽  
Investment Treaty ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Investment Treaty Arbitration

Investment treaty arbitration (sometimes called ISDS or investor-state dispute settlement) has become a flashpoint in the backlash against globalization, with costs becoming an area of core scrutiny. Yet “conventional wisdom” about costs is not necessarily wise. To separate fact from fiction, this book reality tests claims about investment arbitration and fiscal costs against hard data so that policy reforms can be informed by scientific evidence, rather than intuition or cognitive illusions. The exercise is critical, as investment treaties grant international arbitrators the power to order states—both rich and poor—to pay potentially millions of dollars to foreign investors when states violate the international law commitments made in the treaties. Meanwhile, the cost to access and defend the arbitration can also be in the millions of dollars. This book uses cognitive psychology insights and hard data to explore the reality of investment treaty arbitration, identify core demographics and basic information on outcomes, and drill down on the costs of parties’ counsel and arbitral tribunals. It offers a nuanced analysis of how and when cost-shifting occurs, parses tribunals’ rationalization (or lack thereof) of cost assessments, and models the variables most likely to predict costs, using data to point the way toward evidence-based normative reform. With an intelligent interdisciplinary approach that speaks to ongoing reform at entities such as the World Bank’s ICSID and UNCITRAL, this book provides the most up-to-date study of investment treaty dispute resolution costs, offering new insights that will shape the direction of investment treaty and arbitration reform more broadly.

scholarly journals Attitudes towards science among Spanish citizens: The case of critical engagers

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 690-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montaña Cámara ◽  
Ana Muñoz van den Eynde ◽  
José A. López Cerezo
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The One ◽  
Political Value ◽  
The Relationship

Using data obtained from Spanish surveys on the public perception of science, this article presents a critical review of current practices of population profile segmentation, including the one-dimensional representation of perceived risks and benefits and of the systematic underestimation of critical attitudes to the social impact of science and technology. We use discriminant analysis to detect a somewhat hidden cluster in the Spanish population which we call ‘critical engagers’. These individuals are critically and socially responsible and are not reticent about expressing concern regarding scientific-technological change. While they hold an overall positive attitude towards change of this kind, they are at the same time well aware of the risks posed by particular fields of application. We highlight the academic interest and political value of these individuals, attributing to this population a mature and intelligent stance which may well be employed in enhancing the relationship between science and society.

scholarly journals Public Tendering Practices, Issues and Directions - A Case of Pakistan Construction Sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Raza Khoso ◽  
Md Aminah Yusof ◽  
Muhammad Aslam Leghari ◽  
Fida Siddiqui ◽  
Samiullah Sohu
Keyword(s):  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Data Compilation ◽  
Significant Obstacle ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys ◽  
The One ◽  
One Way Anova

Outdated tendering system is a significant obstacle in the momentum of public sector development in Pakistan. This study aims to examine various undiscovered part of public tendering through a detailed survey from key professionals, experts, and decision-makers of public projects. Furthermore, research covers the present status of public tendering in Pakistan and provides recommendations as per experts’ opinion. This paper exhaustively highlights how the classical customs of the public tendering in Pakistan could track the old-fashioned sector to an upright path. Intensive interviews and questionnaire surveys were carried out throughout the country for data compilation. The one-way ANOVA test was performed to verify the perception of various participants and to reject the null hypothesis. The study revealed various interesting facts of present-day situations of public tendering. Various pitfalls in public tendering were underlined in the speculation of experts. The study concluded that public tendering in Pakistan is crowded with severe threats that may be alarming for the future of the industry. Un-discovering of alarming facts about public tendering in Pakistan opens the directions for several researchers in terms of exploring project case studies further. The research is an eye-opener for policymakers, experts, decision-makers and governmental bodies to regulate the public tendering system accordingly.

scholarly journals Using the NIH Research, Condition and Disease Categorization Database for research advocacy: Schizophrenia research at NIMH as an example

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0241062
Author(s):  
E. Fuller Torrey ◽  
Michael B. Knable ◽  
A. John Rush ◽  
Wendy W. Simmons ◽  
John Snook ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Improvement ◽  
National Institutes Of Health ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Related Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Know How ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Cost

In 2008 the National Institutes of Health established the Research, Condition and Disease Categorization Database (RCDC) that reports the amount spent by NIH institutes for each disease. Its goal is to allow the public “to know how the NIH spends their tax dollars,” but it has been little used. The RCDC for 2018 was used to assess 428 schizophrenia-related research projects funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Three senior psychiatrists independently rated each on its likelihood (“likely”, “possible”, “very unlikely”) of improving the symptoms and/or quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia within 20 years. At least one reviewer rated 386 (90%), and all three reviewers rated 302 (71%), of the research projects as very unlikely to provide clinical improvement within 20 years. Reviewer agreement for the “very unlikely” category was good; for the “possible” category was intermediate; and for the “likely” category was poor. At least one reviewer rated 30 (7%) of the research projects as likely to provide clinical improvement within 20 years. The cost of the 30 projects was 5.5% of the total NIMH schizophrenia-related portfolio or 0.6% of the total NIMH budget. Study results confirm previous 2016 criticisms that the NIMH schizophrenia-related research portfolio disproportionately underfunds clinical research that might help people currently affected. Although the results are preliminary, since the RCDC database has not previously been used in this manner and because of the subjective nature of the assessment, the database would appear to be a useful tool for disease advocates who wish to ascertain how NIH spends its public funds.

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