The Uncertainty of Government Debt Projections

Since 1998, fiscal policy in the UK has been guided by two rules: the golden rule to borrow over the economic cycle only to invest, such that the average annual surplus on the public sector current budget as a share of GDP is greater or equal to zero; and the sustainable investment rule that public sector net debt should not exceed 40 per cent of GDP over the economic cycle.

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The UK Public Finances: Past Experience and Future Prospects

National Institute Economic Review ◽

10.1177/002795019615800104 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 158 ◽

pp. 27-35 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Nigel Pain ◽

Garry Young

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Economic Performance ◽

Government Debt ◽

Maastricht Treaty ◽

Reference Level ◽

Future Prospects ◽

Net Worth ◽

The Public ◽

General Government ◽

The Uk

One of the more troubling aspects of economic performance in the UK since the recession has been the persistence of high levels of public sector borrowing. Borrowing reached a peak of 7.1 per cent of GDP in 1993–94 and has since fallen to 4.5 per cent in 1995–96, with a further fall to 3½ per cent in prospect for this year. Continued borrowing at high levels has raised public sector indebtedness. On the Maastricht treaty definition, general government debt has risen from 41.9 per cent of GDP in 1992 to an estimated 54.2 per cent of GDP in 1995 so that much of the leeway below the 60 per cent reference level has been used up. The overall net worth of the public sector has declined from 28 per cent of GDP to 14 per cent over the same period.

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Economic cost of congenital CMV in the UK

Archives of Disease in Childhood ◽

10.1136/archdischild-2018-316010 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 104 (6) ◽

pp. 559-563 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jenny Retzler ◽

Nick Hex ◽

Chris Bartlett ◽

Anne Webb ◽

Sharon Wood ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Vaccine Development ◽

Cost Model ◽

Financial Burden ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Economic Cost ◽

Future Research ◽

The Public ◽

The Uk

ObjectiveCongenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is the most common infectious cause of congenital disability. It can disrupt neurodevelopment, causing lifelong impairments including sensorineural hearing loss and developmental delay. This study aimed, for the first time, to estimate the annual economic burden of managing cCMV and its sequelae in the UK.DesignThe study collated available secondary data to develop a static cost model.SettingThe model aimed to estimate costs of cCMV in the UK for the year 2016.PatientsIndividuals of all ages with cCMV.Main outcome measuresDirect (incurred by the public sector) and indirect (incurred personally or by society) costs associated with management of cCMV and its sequelae.ResultsThe model estimated that the total cost of cCMV to the UK in 2016 was £732 million (lower and upper estimates were between £495 and £942 million). Approximately 40% of the costs were directly incurred by the public sector, with the remaining 60% being indirect costs, including lost productivity. Long-term impairments caused by the virus had a higher financial burden than the acute management of cCMV.ConclusionsThe cost of cCMV is substantial, predominantly stemming from long-term impairments. Costs should be compared against investment in educational strategies and vaccine development programmes that aim to prevent virus transmission, as well as the value of introducing universal screening for cCMV to both increase detection of children who would benefit from treatment, and to build a more robust evidence base for future research.

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The Living Wage: An Economic Geography Based Explanation for a Policy for Equality

Social Policy and Society ◽

10.1017/s1474746415000482 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. 589-605 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Carlo J. Morelli ◽

Paul T. Seaman

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Labour Force ◽

Living Wage ◽

Labour Force Survey ◽

The Public ◽

Household Inequality ◽

The Uk ◽

Wage Demand ◽

The Impact ◽

Low Pay

This article examines the theoretical underpinning of living wage campaigns. The article uses evidence, derived from the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey from 2005 to 2008, to examine the extent to which a living wage will address low pay within the labour force. We highlight the greater incidence of low pay within the private sector and then focus upon the public sector where the living wage demand has had most impact. The article builds upon the results from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey with analysis of the British Household Panel Survey in 2007 in order to examine the impact that the introduction of a living wage, within the public sector, would have in reducing household inequality.

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Between government unilateralism and corporatist bargaining: public sector pension reforms in the UK and Ireland, 2000s–2010s

Japanese Journal of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s1468109919000033 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 107-124

Author(s):

Sung Ho Park

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Welfare Reform ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Welfare States ◽

Reform Process ◽

Pension Reforms ◽

The Public ◽

Public Sector Unions ◽

The Common ◽

The Uk

AbstractStudies on welfare reform in advanced European countries have identified two established paths to welfare retrenchment: government unilateralism and corporatist bargaining. This study explores a more complicated path to welfare reform, wherein governments pursue ‘non-corporatist’ bargaining by actively combining features of unilateralism and negotiation. Such a hybrid case is explained by employing an ‘insider-outsider’ framework for public policy reform. The key argument is that the presence of exclusive insiders complicates the reform process, disqualifying both unilateralism and corporatist bargaining as feasible options for benefit cuts. The author demonstrates the validity of this claim by examining three cases of public sector pension retrenchment in the UK and Ireland during the 2000s and 2010s. Defying the common expectation that benefit cuts in residual welfare states would be promoted with government unilateralism, the public sector pension reforms in the UK and Ireland exhibited more complicated features which combined governments' unilateral initiatives andad hocnegotiations with public sector unions. Future studies may build on this finding to examine hybrid reform cases in a general European context.

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The purposes, promises and compromises of extinction accounting in the UK public sector

Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal ◽

10.1108/aaaj-03-2016-2494 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 875-899 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Kenneth Weir

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Environmental Accounting ◽

Species Loss ◽

Content Type ◽

The Public ◽

Corporate Context ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Ecological Criteria ◽

The Uk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the state of extinction accounting, and the motivations for its use in the UK public sector. Prior studies are mostly concerned with corporate attempts to account for species, despite studies in related areas calling for examinations of the public sector context. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses the use of extinction accounting in three separate case organisations, conducting a total of 21 interviews across the three cases. Interviews were conducted with a range of organisational participants each having experience with extinction accounting. Findings Interviews reveal a number of common uses and applications of extinction accounting across the three councils. Practices are used to generate reports on species loss and recovery within each region, and to facilitate planning for species protection and recovery. However, in attempting to use this information, key trade-offs emerge between satisfying economic and ecological criteria, and even trade-offs are created regarding development of protection schemes. This leads to a subversion of extinction accounting. Research limitations/implications Commensurate with prior studies in the corporate context, the study finds the presence of an economic logic impinging upon ecological decision making, suggesting that practices of extinction accounting may be affected by the same acknowledged economic motivations that reside in corporate attempts to account for nature. Originality/value The paper makes an important contribution by evaluating the public sector context of extinction accounting, which is lacking in existing research. The findings relating to the public sector use of species and extinction information also provide a useful context to understand how relatively new social and environmental accounting practices are deployed in organisations, as well as some indication of their effectiveness and limitations.

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Metrics, Targets and Performance

National Institute Economic Review ◽

10.1177/0027950106070037 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 197 ◽

pp. 80-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Philip Andrew Stevens ◽

Lucy Stokes ◽

Mary O'Mahony

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Performance Management ◽

Performance Indicators ◽

Acute Hospital ◽

Performance Management System ◽

The Public ◽

Productivity Measure ◽

And Performance ◽

The Uk

The setting and use of targets in the public sector has generated a growing amount of interest in the UK. This has occurred at a time when more analysts and policymakers are grasping the nettle of measuring performance in and of the public sector. We outline a typology of performance indicators and a set of desiderata. We compare the outcome of a performance management system — star ratings for acute hospital trusts in England — with a productivity measure analogous to those used in the analysis of the private sector. We find that the two are almost entirely unrelated. Although this may be the case for entirely proper reasons, it does raise questions as to the appropriateness of such indicators of performance, particularly over the long term.

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Fiscal report

National Institute Economic Review ◽

10.1177/002795019916900105 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 169 ◽

pp. 31-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Garry Young

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Golden Rule ◽

Fiscal Year ◽

The Public

The public sector finances have been transformed in recent years as tight expenditure control has been combined with buoyant revenue. In the last fiscal year, the overall budget was in surplus by almost £6 billion. Official estimates indicate that the current balance was in surplus by £10 billion, thus comfortably meeting the Golden Rule.(1)

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The compassionate organisation

International Journal of Public Sector Management ◽

10.1108/ijpsm-09-2013-0132 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 72-83 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Poul Erik Flyvholm Jørgensen ◽

Maria Isaksson

Keyword(s):

Public Sector ◽

Web Sites ◽

Public Management ◽

New Public Management ◽

Critical Time ◽

Complex Nature ◽

Public And Private ◽

Content Type ◽

The Public ◽

The Uk

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether organisations in the public domain have embraced a corporate type of discourse, mirroring the private sector’s preferred orientation towards expertise, or whether they maintain their traditional discourse of goodwill towards the publics they serve. At a critical time for the public sector with inadequate funding and dominance of New Public Management approaches, will it be more motivated to portray itself as expert and efficient rather than altruistic? Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies a rhetorical framework to provide a detailed analysis of organisational value statements posted on the web sites of public and private organisations. The research considers the value priorities of 50 organisations in the UK and Scandinavia in order to gauge the extent of convergence between the two sectors’ preferred discourses. Findings – The research shows that the public sector sticks to its guns in maintaining a web-transmitted values discourse which forefronts goodwill towards its clients. It also shows that the public and private sectors take different approaches to goodwill. Originality/value – Strategists and communication specialists are encouraged to contemplate the extent to which their organisation’s projected web image equates their desired image to avoid alienating important public audiences and reinforce levels of trust. The current framework brings attention to the complex nature of goodwill and may be employed to better balance a discourse of organisational expertise against a discourse of goodwill in planning authentic value statements.

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Crowding Out in the UK within an Optimal Control Framework

Journal of Public Policy ◽

10.1017/s0143814x00001781 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 31-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

P. Arestis ◽

E. Karakitsos

Keyword(s):

Optimal Control ◽

Fiscal Policy ◽

Public Expenditure ◽

Social Research ◽

Government Expenditure ◽

Crowding Out ◽

Macroeconomic Model ◽

The Public ◽

Control Framework ◽

The Uk

ABSTRACTAn important issue in the discussion of fiscal policy is the contention that the public sector could expand only at the expense of the private sector, which must contract to provide the necessary room. This paper is concerned with ‘financial’ crowding out, which relates to the financing of public expenditure, rather than resource crowding out, which relates to the size of public expenditure. The paper attempts to determine empirically, using the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) macroeconomic model of the UK economy, whether fiscal actions under different modes of finance affect some strategic economic variables. The paper utilises techniques of optimal control, which are considered superior to simulation. The main conclusion of the paper is that there is no significant crowding out in the NIESR model; it is, nevertheless, important to distinguish between money-financed and bond-financed increases in government expenditure.

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