scholarly journals Economies of Scope and Local Government Expenditure: Evidence from Creation of Specially Authorized Cities in Japan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2684
Author(s):  
Takeshi Miyazaki
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
Economies Of Scope ◽  
Capita Expenditure ◽  
Event Study Method ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Special Case

There is little evidence of either the existence or absence of economies of scope in public services provided by general-purpose local governments. This study uses difference-in-differences (DID) analysis and the event study method to estimate the impact on expenditure of the designation of cities as either core cities or special case cities, thereby giving them the authority to undertake a wider range of activities, and identify the magnitude of the economies of scope in local governments using panel data for Japanese municipalities during the period 1996–2015. The findings of this research are summarized as follows. First, in the provision of public services by general-local governments, economies of scope do not occur in the short term (2–3 years), but do appear in the mid to long term (more than 5 years for core city status). After the delegation of duties, per capita expenditure for core cities increases by 2.8% immediately after the designation, but then decreases by 0.6% annually. Second, the wider the range of extra activities delegated, the greater the economies of scope.

scholarly journals Impact of rating and praise campaigns on local government environmental governance efficiency: Evidence from the campaign of establishment of national sanitary cities in China

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253703
Author(s):  
Genli Tang ◽  
Minghai Lin ◽  
Yilan Xu ◽  
Jinlin Li ◽  
Litai Chen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Public Transportation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
The Impact

Background Ecological and environmental protection is essential to achieving sustainable and high-quality development, which highlights the important role of environmental governance. In terms of the practical actions of environmental governance, the central government in China has carried out continuous rating and praise campaigns, and local governments have actively promoted this effort. However, the related performance consequences have not been empirically investigated. We aimed to verify whether this incentive policy can improve the efficiency of environmental governance and whether this governance method has long-term effects. In addition, we sought to identify mechanisms through which the policy can improve environmental governance. Method We take the rating and praise campaign of the Establishment of National Sanitary Cities (EONSCs) as a quasi-natural experiment and use the panel data for 174 cities from 2004 to 2016 and the propensity score matching-difference in differences (PSM-DID) method to test the impact of rating and praise campaigns on environmental governance efficiency. Results EONSCs campaign can improve the efficiency of environmental governance by 0.7595 (p<0.01), which is significant at the 1% level; the effects are clearly significant during the evaluation process and the year in which cities are named National Sanitary Cities (NSCs) but decrease annually thereafter. The EONSCs campaign has a significant promoting effect on public services provision, such as public infrastructure investment, public transportation and education. Conclusions (1) The rating and praise campaigns can effectively improve the efficiency of environmental governance; (2) the incentive effect is distorted and is not a long-term effect; (3) the impact of the rating and praise campaign of EONSCs on the efficiency of environmental governance is mainly realized through the provision of corresponding public services that are closely related to environmental protection. The findings of this paper provide empirical support for the effectiveness of the central government’s rating and praise campaigns and could motivate local governments to actively participate in environmental governance. Moreover, the findings provide an important reference for further improving the rating and praise campaigns and the level of environmental governance.

scholarly journals Queensland Family Cohort: a study protocol

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e044463
Author(s):  
Danielle Borg ◽  
Kym Rae ◽  
Corrine Fiveash ◽  
Johanna Schagen ◽  
Janelle James-McAlpine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Family Environment ◽  
Biological Samples ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Future Health ◽  
The Impact

IntroductionThe perinatal–postnatal family environment is associated with childhood outcomes including impacts on physical and mental health and educational attainment. Family longitudinal cohort studies collect in-depth data that can capture the influence of an era on family lifestyle, mental health, chronic disease, education and financial stability to enable identification of gaps in society and provide the evidence for changes in government in policy and practice.Methods and analysisThe Queensland Family Cohort (QFC) is a prospective, observational, longitudinal study that will recruit 12 500 pregnant families across the state of Queensland (QLD), Australia and intends to follow-up families and children for three decades. To identify the immediate and future health requirements of the QLD population; pregnant participants and their partners will be enrolled by 24 weeks of gestation and followed up at 24, 28 and 36 weeks of gestation, during delivery, on-ward, 6 weeks postpartum and then every 12 months where questionnaires, biological samples and physical measures will be collected from parents and children. To examine the impact of environmental exposures on families, data related to environmental pollution, household pollution and employment exposures will be linked to pregnancy and health outcomes. Where feasible, data linkage of state and federal government databases will be used to follow the participants long term. Biological samples will be stored long term for future discoveries of biomarkers of health and disease.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval has been obtained from the Mater Research Ethics (HREC/16/MHS/113). Findings will be reported to (1) QFC participating families; (2) funding bodies, institutes and hospitals supporting the QFC; (3) federal, state and local governments to inform policy; (4) presented at local, national and international conferences and (5) disseminated by peer-review publications.

scholarly journals Using Place-Based Jobs Policies to Help Distressed Communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-127
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Bartik
Keyword(s):  
Labor Markets ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Job Training ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Local Labor Markets ◽  
Equity And Efficiency ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
State And Local

Place-based jobs policies seek to create jobs in particular local labor markets. Such policies include business incentives provided by state and local governments, which cost almost $50 billion annually. The most persuasive rationale for these policies is that they can advance equity and efficiency by increasing long-term employment rates in distressed local labor markets. However, current incentives are not targeted at distressed areas. Furthermore, incentives have high costs per job created. Lower costs can be achieved by public services to business, such as manufacturing extension, customized job training, and infrastructure. Reforms to place-based jobs policies should focus on greater targeting of distressed areas and using more cost-effective policies. Such reforms could be achieved by state and local governments acting in their residents’ interests or could be encouraged by federal interventions to cap incentives and provide aid to distressed areas.

scholarly journals Consumers' Response to State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Programs

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Houde ◽  
Joseph E. Aldy
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Efficient ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
State Energy ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Term Energy ◽  
The Impact

Through an evaluation of the 2009 Recovery Act's State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, this paper examines consumers' response to energy efficiency rebates. The analysis shows that 70 percent of consumers claiming a rebate were inframarginal and an additional 15 percent–20 percent of consumers simply delayed their purchases by a few weeks. Consumers responded to rebates by upgrading to higher quality, but less energy-efficient models. Overall the impact of the program on long-term energy demand is likely to be small. Measures of government expenditure per unit of energy saved are an order of magnitude higher than estimates for other energy efficiency programs. (JEL D12, H31, H71, Q48)

scholarly journals FDI and long-term economic growth in Egypt

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
Saif Alhakimi
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Wage Structure ◽  
Series Data ◽  
The Impact

This research paper aims to empirically analyze the impact of FDI on the long-term economic growth of Egypt. An empirical model was developed to explain the aggregate output, including total labor force, capital stock, foreign direct investment, government expenditure, and the real exchange rate. Annual time-series data from 1990–2013 were then used to estimate the model. Prior to calculating this estimation, the properties of the time series were diagnosed, and an error-correction model was developed and assessed. The overall results suggest that foreign direct investment makes a positive, yet weak and insignificant, contribution to the long-term economic growth of Egypt. This finding warrants further investigation to explore the possible reasons behind it, such as the degree of spillover that FDI has on economic growth and its impact on employment in areas like job creation, wage structure, research, and development.

Glocalizing cures for China’s brain drain ills

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Kim ◽  
Ryan Michael Allen
Keyword(s):  
Brain Drain ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Development Theory ◽  
Geographic Proximity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Capital Development ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Chinese Central Government’s plan to alleviate brain drain, called the Thousand Talents Plan, has been glocalized by three major local governments: Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangdong. Design/methodology/approach The lens of glocalization pays special attention to the impact of local reactions to global forces. Materials from the Recruitment Program of Global Experts for three major cases were examined for glocal characteristics. An analysis of each case was carried out to compare the strategies and implementations to explore the individual glocalizations and larger national similarities. Findings The findings show that each of the localities has distinct regional variations in their strategies: Shanghai utilized its economic prowess, Tianjin focused on clustering experts, and Guangdong maximized its geographic proximity to Hong Kong. At the same time, all three policies were still rooted in human capital development theory, with a keen emphasis to attracting migrants with greater propensity for staying long term in China. Originality/value The study of brain drain is important because it is a problem that plagues communities around the world, especially non-western societies. While China’s tactics to combat brain drain have been examined, the consideration of glocalization in the cases of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangdong have not been carried out.

scholarly journals Financial resilience of municipal civil servants’ pension funds

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (81) ◽  
pp. 425-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Vaz de Lima ◽  
André Carlos Busanelli de Aquino
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Fund Managers ◽  
Lock In Effect ◽  
Lock In ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to analyze the responses and the repetitive pattern of financial resilience which emerge within the civil servants’ pension funds (RPPS, in Portuguese) of local governments in Brazil. The analysis extends the traditional financial resilience approach discussing the emergence of vulnerability from the sponsor and RPPS interaction, often stimulated by the lock-in effect from the federal regulation, which constrains the space for transformative responses. Financial resilience is a concern usually applied to governments’ response to crises, but not for pension funds. However, the long-term objective of such funds when juxtaposed to short-term pressures conduce a paradoxical standpoint for fund’s managers absorbing the pressures. The impact of this article to the pension funds and the regulatory field is the proposition that the growing vulnerability of RPPS regimes comes from the insufficient governance belt protecting them, which would be a necessary and applicable remedy to any pension funds reform the country decides to take . It was applied a sequential mixed-method approach, starting by interviews with fund managers, actuarial consultants and representatives of the Ministry of Finance's Pension Secretariat (SPREV), to identify the usual responses to emerging financial pressures which affect the funds’ financial performance. Secondly, four from the identified typical responses were selected and analyzed through financial and accounting data to detect the response for about 1,8 thousand funds from 2014 to 2016. Based on the frequency of the adopted responses by each fund, it was proposed a recurrent financial resilience pattern, and how the managers’ responses vary according to the vulnerability provoked by the City Hall’s decisions. It was observed that the City Halls accommodate budgetary pressures failing to transfer or downsizing the contributions to the fund, increasing the fund’s vulnerability. The managers consequently respond subjoining the reserves to pay pensioners, reinforcing the fund’s vulnerability. Such response is a weak resilience pattern, which reinforces the funds’ vulnerability due to governance gaps and the lock-in effect proposed by Pike, Dawley & Tomaney (2010), which constrains the local agents’ capacity to perceive and find solutions more transformative and actives looking for financial sustainability.

Assessment of Financial Capabilities of Local Governments in EU Countries for the Development of Local Public Services

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Halásková ◽  
Renata Halásková
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Government Expenditures ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Local Public Services ◽  
Local Government Expenditure ◽  
Local Government Expenditures

Local financing in advanced countries enables local governments to assess real local priorities as well as limitations. The present paper deals with financial capabilities of local governments for the development of public services, local government expenditure and fiscal expenditure decentralization in the EU28. By use of cluster analysis, local public expenditures are assessed by selected COFOG functions, as % of total local government expenditures in years 2010-2013. The results proved the largest differences in the set of countries in local government expenditures on social protection and the smallest differences in local expenditures on recreation and cultures, housing and community amenities.

Modeling Fiscal Stress and Contracting Out in Local Government: The Influence of Time, Financial Condition, and the Great Recession

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 565-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio M. López-Hernández ◽  
José L. Zafra-Gómez ◽  
Ana M. Plata-Díaz ◽  
Emilio J. de la Higuera-Molina
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Fiscal Stress ◽  
Contracting Out ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Financial Condition ◽  
Precise Understanding ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Various studies have analyzed the relationship between fiscal stress and contracting out, but have failed to achieve conclusive results. In this article, we take a broad view of fiscal stress, addressed in terms of financial condition and studied over a lengthy period (2000-2010). The relationship between fiscal stress and contracting out is studied using a dynamic model, based on survival analysis, a methodology that enables us to take into account the effect of time on this relationship. As this study period includes the years of the Great Recession (2008-2010), we also highlight the impact of this event on the fiscal stress–contracting out relation. The results obtained suggest that taking into account the passage of time and conducting a long-term assessment of financial condition enable a more precise understanding of this relation. We also find that the Great Recession reduced the probability of local governments’ contracting out public services.

scholarly journals Local open government: opportunities and challenges in terms of impact and participation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Renato Manuel Berrino Malaccorto ◽  
Maricel Lonati
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Services ◽  
The State ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Open Government ◽  
Local Dimension ◽  
The Impact

Through this reflection we propose to investigate and explore the possibilities offered by the implementation of open government policies in the local dimension, focusing particularly on: 1) the impact generated by open government initiatives in the improvement of processes, delivery of public services and quality of life of citizens; 2) the potential of these tools to advance in opening policies that involve the different branches of the State; 3) the possibilities offered by closeness in local governments to encourage and diversify citizen participation, and to empower the community as a driver of innovation; 4) the lessons and challenges that the implementation of these tools leave in subnational governments.

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