The Welfare State as Employer

This chapter introduces the concept of public employment regimes to understand why reform trajectories aligning public to private employment take on different pathways and reflect differences in welfare regimes and political economy types referring to OECD countries. After mapping the state of the art on the relevance and development of public employment in Western welfare states, the chapter presents a comparative evaluation of the distinct features of public employment regimes. Specifically, we compare the costs and size of government employment (capturing the fiscal side of public employment regimes), the extent to which females and migrants are represented in the public workforce (referring to the societal integration function of the state as an employer), and public–private-sector wage differentials (referring to the role of the state as employer for the private sector). The chapter concludes by outlining future trends and the need for further research from a global perspective.

Determination of Optimal Size of Government in Relation to Output Growth in Nigeria: A Monte Carlo Simulation Evidence

This paper attempted to estimate optimal size of public sector that prompts positive output growth in Nigeria based on Monte Carlo simulation of estimated parameters of an error correction model having controlled for regime effect. Our motivation derives from economic theory that absence of government could be injurious to output growth culminating in unavailability of contracts and public goods. Using different policy scenarios of public sector share in GDP, the study validates and supports the tenets of Rahn Curve that economy shrinks when government grows enormous as we found 40% public sector spending as proportion of GDP as optimal public sector size that stimulates positive growth rate of about 0.095% having controlled for regime effect. By implication, our original contribution in this study is amplified on our empirics that public sector role in Nigerian economy is less than or equal to 40%. Consequently, any size of public sector beyond forty percent is economically destructive as it capable of stimulating negative spill overs on the economy due to growing taxes and public debt repayment. Hence, public sector spending should be significantly less than forty percent or at most forty percent for purpose of economic growth. This indeed translates to enforcing responsible fiscal policy centred on forty percent public sector size.

Domination of Regional Wealth as a Determining Factor of Financial Statement Disclosure

Using Stewardship theory, this study examines the factors that influence the level of mandatory disclosure within financial statements of provincial governments in Indonesia, including size of government, regional wealth, number of Regional Working Units (SKPD), administrative age of government and audit findings. By applying the purposive sampling method, this study uses a sample of financial statements from 27 provinces in Indonesia during 2016 to 2018, therefore the total sample is 81 financial statements. The findings reveal that there is a moderate level of compliance with key mandatory disclosures (61,33%). In addition, the regression analysis shows that from the five potential predictor variables, regional wealth is the only predictor that is significantly positive towards the level of mandatory disclosure within financial statements of Indonesian provincial governments. Given overall non-compliance rate of over 38% there is a clear need for the Indonesian government especially the Supreme Audit Board (BPK) to better enforce provincial government's compliance combined with important financial reforms and regulations.

Environmental sustainability, trade and economic growth in India: implications for public policy

PurposeBased on the hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between environmental pollutants (as measured by CO2 emissions) and GDP for India, over the period 1980–2012. The presence of an inverted “U” shape relationship is examined while controlling for factors such as the degree of trade openness, foreign direct investment, oil prices, the legal system and industrialization.Design/methodology/approachTo verify whether the EKC follows a linear, quadratic or polynomial form, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach for cointegration with structural breaks is adopted. The annual time series data for carbon emissions (CO2), economic growth (GDP), industrial development (industrialization), foreign direct investment and trade openness have been obtained from World Development Indicators online database. Crude oil price (international price index) for the period is collected from the International Monetary Fund. Data for total petroleum consumption are collected from the US Energy Information Agency. Data for economic freedom variables are from the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom Index's online database.FindingsThe findings support the existence of inverted U-shaped EKC in the short-run, but not in the long-run. A linear monotonic relationship has also been estimated in select model specifications. Additionally, trade openness has been estimated to reduce emissions in models, which incorporate FDI. Else, where significant, its impact on carbon emissions is adverse. A rise in fuel price leads to reduction in carbon emissions across model specifications. Further, the lower size of government degrades the environment both in the long-run and short-run.Practical implicationsGiven the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis, wherein more trade and foreign direct investments cause environmental degradation, the paper proposes formulation of appropriate regulatory mechanisms that are environmentally friendly. Additionally, India's new economic policies, favoring liberalization, privatization and globalization, reinforces the need to strengthen environmental regulations.Originality/valueIncorporation of economic freedom as measured by the “Size of Government” in the EKC model is unique. “Size of Government” deserves a special mention. The rationale for including this explanatory variable is to understand whether countries with lower government size are more polluting. After all, theory does suggest that goods and services, which have higher social cost vis-à-vis private cost, shall be overproduced in economies that adopt more market-friendly policies, necessitating government intervention. In the study, size of government is measured as per the definition and methodology adopted by Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World Index.