Scrutinizing local public service provision

Set in the context of an expansion of scrutiny by local authorities of local service provision, this article explores the key challenges ahead for managers and politicians in this area of local governance. Drawing on an evaluation of the development of health scrutiny, it outlines the different types of activities health scrutiny committees are engaging in to fulfil their legislative commitments and suggests lessons for the expansion of external scrutiny.     

The value of waivers from the affordable care act

The Affordable Care Act requires health insurance plans to offer coverage without annual limits. This requirement began to be enforced in September of 2010, but some employers received special waivers that delayed the start of enforcement for them. Using data from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), we conduct an event study of the stock prices of these companies as their waivers were announced. We find that waivers do not lead to a statistically significant increase in the stock prices of waiver recipients.     

An Economic Analysis of the Effects on the World Dairy Sector of Extending Uruguay Round Agreement to 2005

A spatial equilibrium model of the world dairy sector is used to simulate the regional impacts of extending the 1995 Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture (URAA) dairy commitments to 2005. In particular, the import quota, within- and over-quota import tariff and export subsidy components of the URAA dairy commitments are analyzed both separately and jointly. This analysis provides insight into the tradeoffs among the various components of the URAA dairy trade liberalization. Extending the URAA to 2005 more than doubles the producer and consumer welfare impacts of the GATT 2000 relative to the BASE scenario for most regions. Aggregate producer and consumer welfare changes are estimated to be in the $2–5 billion range. Results suggest that western Europe remains heavily protected even after the URAA extension to 2005, and its dairy producers will lose the most with further, post-URAA dairy trade liberalization. In contrast, dairy producers in low-cost exporting regions (New Zealand, Australia and South America/South) will gain the most. Impacts of GATT 2005 on Japan, the U.S. and Canada are found to be relatively small. Un modèle àéquilibre spatial du secteur laitier mondial est utilisé pour simuler les impacts régionaux d'une reconduction des engagements laitiers de l'Accord sur l'agriculture de l'Uruguay Round (AAUR) de 1995 jusqu'à 2005. En particulier, nous analysons séparément et en interaction les contingents d'importation, les tarifs sur les importations faites à l'intérieur et au-delà des contingents et la section des engagements laitiers relative aux subventions des exportations. L'analyse jette un éclairage sur les compromis possibles parmi les divers éléments de la libéralisation préconisée par l'AAUR. Une reconduction de l'AAUR jusqu'en 2005 ferait plus que doubler les impacts sociaux du GATT 2000 sur les producteurs et sur les consommateurs dans la plupart des régions, par comparaison au scénario de base. Ces impacts pourraient se chiffrer entre 2 et 5 milliards de dollars. Des calculs modélisés, il ressort que l'Union Européenne resterait lourdement protégée, même après l'extension de l'AAUR jusqu'en 2005 et que ses producteurs laitiers seront ceux qui auront le plus à perdre d'une libéralisation plus radicale du commerce àl'expiration de l'Accord. En revanche, les producteurs laitiers des régions exportatrices à faibles coûts de production, comme la Nouvelle-Zélande, l'Australie et la partie méridionale de l'Amérique du Sud sont ceux qui auront le plus à gagner. Les impacts de GATT 2005 sur le Japan, sur les États-Unis et sur le Canada seraient relativement peu importants.     

Narratives in managers’ corporate finance decisions

This article uses the extended case method to explore senior executives’ corporate finance decisions. We quantified firm’s finance practices using a mail survey, and then – to resolve puzzles in managers’ decision processes – conducted face‐to‐face interviews with chief finance officers of large listed firms. The interviews identified six themes as consistent influences on finance decisions: pressures imposed by clienteles; constraints on resources; risk management; heuristics; real options; and sustainability. We conclude that managers are logical and rational in their decisions, but employ a wider range of criteria than assumed in conventional finance theories.     

Natural persons,corporate actors,and constitutions

Extending the concept of efficiency beyond economic markets to social transactions generally, this paper asks the question whether social efficiency might not be better realized by removing the barriers to transactions between political and economic resources. With political rights (i.e. resources) held by natural persons, and economic resources held by corporate actors, such transactions could in principle replace taxation for redistribution, as a more efficient method of redistribution, intrinsic to the socio-political system. Such politico-economic transactions would supplement the primary means of distribution of the social product in an economic system, that is wages for productive labor. In the paper it is argued that this primary means of distribution is increasingly ineffective as the economy becomes increasingly interdependent. This change places an increasing burden on the “second round” of distribution through taxation, and forces consideration of a less defective and more theoretically sound means of supplementary income distribution. Paper was presented at the Organizations, Constitutions, and Liberty conference sponsored by the Liberty Fund, June 21–24, 1990 at the Sheraton Hotel in Crystal City, Virginia.     

Demographic Trends in the Industrial World: Europe's Declining Population?

What will be the effects of a decline in population? David Coleman, of Oxford University, shows that Europe is faced by a population decline between now and 2020 and reviews some of the consequences.     

Urban housing and social malaise

The author notes the failures of post-war development of the inner cities in the UK and the serious social consequences these have had on the quality of life. A previous study on housing design in New York is outlined and the author explains the findings of very recent work by the Land Use Research Unit at King's College, London. This study was based in Oxford and London and took six types of social malaise (all related to the activities of children) as test measures for analysing the effects of 18 design variables. The findings for the blocks of flats were compared with a sample of 350 houses. A list of recommendations is given and the author finally calls for independent research in this field and a new approach to the subject of land use.     

Rent control: The British experience and policy response

Rent Control in Britain began in the First World War and has lasted, on and off, most of this century. There has been almost no new building for private rent since 1939. The private rented sector is small (8%), marginalized, delapidated, and unattractive.The British Government is enacting new legislation to reform all areas of rented housing. Rents of new lettings will be freely agreed (i.e., at market levels) between landlord and tenant. But the tenant has security of tenure, subject to renegotiating a new rent. The absence of any important tax incentives or other subsidy was an obstacle to revival even with market rents. But the Business Expansion Scheme proposal in the March 1988 budget has created considerable interest among investors.Paper for conference on Rent Control: The International Experience, John Deutsch Institute Roundtable, Kingston, Ontario, 2 September 1987