The Influence of Interest Groups on Government

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-63
Author(s):  
Nicolás Cherny

Interest groups’ influence on government affects economic policy making and has an impact on economic crises. Under Argentina’s convertibility exchange-rate regime until its collapse in 2001, tradable-goods entrepreneurs’ preferences depended on the degree to which the government offered them trade-offs either to offset the loss of competitiveness stemming from the currency peg or to exempt them from the costs of devaluation. For the nontradable sector and investors the costs of maintaining the peg to the dollar were always less than those entailed in abandoning the regime. While the fiscal and external inconsistencies of convertibility reduced the preference of the International Monetary Fund for maintaining convertibility, the cost of changing it induced the Fund to continue financing the Argentine government. Moreover, the influence exerted on the IMF by the governments of countries whose businesses had been affected by the distribution of the cost of abandoning the convertibility discouraged financial collaboration by the foreign assistance organizations during the collapse. La influencia de los grupos de interés sobre el gobierno afecta la orientación de la política económica y tiene su impacto en las crisis económicas. Durante el régimen de convertibilidad en Argentina hasta su colapso en 2001, las preferencias de los empresarios de bienes transables dependían del grado en que el gobierno les ofrecía compensaciones, sea para moderar la pérdida de competitividad derivada de la fijación o para sustraerlos de los costos de la devaluación. Para los empresarios del sector no transable y los inversores financieros los costos de mantener la fijación con el dólar resultaron siempre inferiores que los de salir del régimen. Si las inconsistencias fiscales y externas de la convertibilidad desalentaban la preferencia del FMI por mantener la convertibilidad, los costos de cambiarla indujeron al Fondo a sostener el financiamiento al gobierno argentino. Asimismo, la influencia que ejercieron sobre el FMI los gobiernos de los países cuyas empresas habían sido afectadas en la distribución de los costos del cambio de régimen cambiario desalentó la colaboración financiera de los organismos proveedores de ayuda externa durante el colapso.

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 979-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Thesen

Support parties play a crucial, but under-exposed, role under minority rule. They secure the government’s place in office and exercise policy influence through legislative coalitions. This article examines whether support parties are unfettered by the liabilities of policy responsibility. Incumbents struggle with the cost of ruling in elections and in day-to-day party and issue competition. Support parties, lacking the formal responsibility of office, could arguably escape the negative consequences of policy influence. Two studies illustrate this mechanism. First, I find that Scandinavian support parties that exercise policy influence through participation in budget coalitions avoid electoral losses. However, unlike opposition parties from the government bloc that do not participate in budget coalitions, support parties are unable to increase their vote share. Second, by looking more closely at one support party and analysing its agenda-setting behaviour in response to media attention, I find that support parties, unlike incumbents and like opposition parties, are able to politicise ‘winning issues’ from the news. Despite occasional trade-offs due to their proximity to power, support parties are favourably positioned in party competition.


2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Didier G Laussel

We analyze endogenous lobby formation within a slightly modified version of the "special interest politics" model of Persson (1998). In our model the interest groups hold different fixed endowments of an "infrastructure good" which is a complement in consumption of the local public good. For any fixed set of organized groups the lobbying game is shown to have a unique equilibrium if the cost-elasticity of the supply of public good to the interest groups by the government is not too large. The groups which benefit from larger infrastructure endowments are then proved to be the ones which become organized while the others remain unorganized.


1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (4II) ◽  
pp. 1067-1078
Author(s):  
Saleem M. Khan

The Mobilisation of domestic resources and their efficient utilisation are two of the most crucial tasks in revitalising the economy of Pakistan. Historically, low saving fotmation and relatively higher targets of investment and economic growth made it imperative to depend on external resources. Despite heavy domestic borrowing from both private and public sectors, there still has remained an unmet resource gap that has necessitated dependence on foreign capital. I In recent years, the sources of foreign assistance have become scarce due to a growing shortage in world saving and growing domestic demand for budget appropriations in the western countries. If economic growth in Pakistan is to be sustained and selfgenerating, investment in physical and human development must be increased and mad more efficient. To meet this challenge, most of the capital will have to come from domestic sources. Hence, the focus of this paper is on harnessing domestic efforts to increase saving formation and to enhance efficiency of capital investments. Traditionally, the government of Pakistan has relied on conventional approaches to increasing domestic saving. First, the government has been encouraging greater saving by the private sector through a package of national saving schemes and by allowing financial institutions to introduce saving incentives. Saving-schemes and saving incentives have not produced satisfying results. Table 1 shows saving and investment in selected South Asian countries. Saving in Pakistan is very low and, indeed, among the lowest even when compared with neighbouring and other developing countries. Explanations of this failure include the low levels of income and high rate of inflation in the country.2 Moreover, the financial institutions have in general remained inefficient.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilberto Conde

The ideological struggle deployed between the Syrian opposition groups and the government during the first year of the Syrian popular uprising is examined in this paper. Force alone was not enough for the regime to crush the revolt, at least during its first twelve months, while protesters were unable to bring down the government. The battle for cultural hegemony had to be won by one of the two sides. Protesters and the regime alike had to deploy their discourses along frames that resonated with the values, hopes and fears of Syrians. The effectiveness of the regime in securing the support of large sections of urban dwellers and its systematic violent repression led to frustration on the part of demonstrators, who ended up supporting at least morally the armed struggle. A stalemate was reached. This led to divergent framing activity within the opposition, which in turn led to its division.Spanish El artículo examina la lucha ideológica que se dio entre los grupos sirios de oposición y el gobierno durante el primer año del levantamiento popular en Siria. Durante los primeros 12 meses a partir de marzo de 2011, al régimen no le bastó con la fuerza bruta para aplastar la revuelta, aunque los manifestantes tampoco lograron tumbar al gobierno. Se dio un combate por la hegemonía cultural y uno de los bandos necesitaba ganarla. Tanto los opositores como el régimen frasearon sus discursos alrededor de aristas conceptuales (frames) en armonía con los valores, esperanzas y temores de la población siria. La e ficacia del régimen en obtener el apoyo de amplios sectores de los habitantes de las principales ciudades y la represión violenta sistemática condujeron a un sentimiento de frustración entre los manifestantes, que terminaron ofreciendo un apoyo al menos moral a la lucha armada. Se llegó a un impasse. Esto a su vez llevó a que diferentes grupos de oposición reconstruyeran su discurso en torno de aristas distintas, lo que generó división.French L'article étudie la lu e idéologique menée entre les groupes d'opposition et le gouvernement pendant la première année du soulèvement populaire en Syrie. Pendant les douze premiers mois, à dater du mois de mars de 2011, la force brute n'a pas suffiau régime pour écraser le mouvement, bien que les manifestants à leur tour n'aient pas réussi à faire tomber le gouvernement. Une lu e pour l'hégémonie culturelle s'est développée et un des deux côtés devait la gagner. L'opposition ainsi que le régime ont encadré (frame) leurs discours de sorte à qu'ils parlent aux valeurs, espoirs et peurs des syriens. Le succès du régime à gagner l'appui (ou le recul) de grands secteurs de la population des villes principales et la répression violente systématique ont produit un sentiment de frustration parmi les manifestants, qui ont fini par soutenir la lu e armée au moins moralement. La situation est arrivée à une impasse. Dans cet état, différents groupes d'opposition ont reformulé leurs discours au tour d'encadrements divergents, ce qui a mené à leur division.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 323-331
Author(s):  
Mohsen pakdaman ◽  
Raheleh akbari ◽  
Hamid reza Dehghan ◽  
Asra Asgharzadeh ◽  
Mahdieh Namayandeh

PurposeFor years, traditional techniques have been used for diabetes treatment. There are two major types of insulin: insulin analogs and regular insulin. Insulin analogs are similar to regular insulin and lead to changes in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties. The purpose of the present research was to determine the cost-effectiveness of insulin analogs versus regular insulin for diabetes control in Yazd Diabetes Center in 2017.Design/methodology/approachIn this descriptive–analytical research, the cost-effectiveness index was used to compare insulin analogs and regular insulin (pen/vial) for treatment of diabetes. Data were analyzed in the TreeAge Software and a decision tree was constructed. A 10% discount rate was used for ICER sensitivity analysis. Cost-effectiveness was examined from a provider's perspective.FindingsQALY was calculated to be 0.2 for diabetic patients using insulin analogs and 0.05 for those using regular insulin. The average cost was $3.228 for analog users and $1.826 for regular insulin users. An ICER of $0.093506/QALY was obtained. The present findings suggest that insulin analogs are more cost-effective than regular insulin.Originality/valueThis study was conducted using a cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate insulin analogs versus regular insulin in controlling diabetes. The results of study are helpful to the government to allocate more resources to apply the cost-effective method of the treatment and to protect patients with diabetes from the high cost of treatment.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097639962097420
Author(s):  
Gaurav Bhattarai ◽  
Binita Subedi

The global economy has been severely paralysed, owing to the unprecedented crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and different studies have indicated that the crisis is relatively more maleficent to the lower-income and middle-income economies. Methodologically, this study relied on the review and analysis of the grey literature, media reporting and data published by the Asian Development Bank, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations (UN), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) among others. The article begins by describing the impact of the pandemic on low-income and middle-income countries, and it discusses how they have responded to the crisis. While discussions have surfaced regarding whether COVID-19 will reverse the process of globalization, what will be its impact on the low-income country like Nepal? The study also highlights that with foreign direct investments speculated to shrink and foreign assistance and remittance taking a hit, how is Nepal struggling to keep its economy afloat? Analysing the new budget that the government unveiled in 2020, this study concludes with a note that instead of effectively implementing the plans and policies directed by the budget, Nepal is unnecessarily engaged in political mess and is needlessly being dragged into the geopolitical complications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Jean-François Biasse ◽  
Benjamin Pring

AbstractIn this paper we provide a framework for applying classical search and preprocessing to quantum oracles for use with Grover’s quantum search algorithm in order to lower the quantum circuit-complexity of Grover’s algorithm for single-target search problems. This has the effect (for certain problems) of reducing a portion of the polynomial overhead contributed by the implementation cost of quantum oracles and can be used to provide either strict improvements or advantageous trade-offs in circuit-complexity. Our results indicate that it is possible for quantum oracles for certain single-target preimage search problems to reduce the quantum circuit-size from $O\left(2^{n/2}\cdot mC\right)$ (where C originates from the cost of implementing the quantum oracle) to $O(2^{n/2} \cdot m\sqrt{C})$ without the use of quantum ram, whilst also slightly reducing the number of required qubits.This framework captures a previous optimisation of Grover’s algorithm using preprocessing [21] applied to cryptanalysis, providing new asymptotic analysis. We additionally provide insights and asymptotic improvements on recent cryptanalysis [16] of SIKE [14] via Grover’s algorithm, demonstrating that the speedup applies to this attack and impacting upon quantum security estimates [16] incorporated into the SIKE specification [14].


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