Issues in Macroeconomics

This is a study of the nature of internal diversity within liberal and collaborative market economies. Based on large scale comparative survey data, we assess the extent to which specific clusters of practices are associated with specific varieties of capitalism. Given that recent literature has pointed to internal diversity within specific national contexts, we explore the nature of internal diversity within both liberal and collaborative market economies, and what makes each variety of capitalism distinct. We find that more than one cluster of practices is indeed likely to be encountered in a particular national context, but that this diversity was bounded: only a limited number of alternative paradigms are likely to emerge and persist. The survey findings not only shed light on the nature of this internal diversity, but also reveal the fact that liberal and collaborative markets remain distinct, with the rights accruing to employees being more deeply embedded in a wide cross section of firms within the latter.     

Performance information use by politicians and public managers for internal control and external accountability purposes

Governance structures have changed fundamentally since the beginning of New Public Management inspired reforms. Particularly local public service delivery nowadays can be characterized as diversified and fragmented, leading to internal management and external accountability challenges for politicians as well as public managers. In this context the use of performance information is seen as a crucial element for effectively dealing with both issues. Nevertheless, empirical research considering different actors and contexts within one study is rare. The present paper fills this gap by applying a multi-theoretical perspective and testing hypotheses on the antecedents of performance information use by politicians and public managers for internal management as well as external accountability purposes in small- and medium sized local governments in Austria. The study results show that both groups use performance information to a greater extent within external accountability relationships than for internal management purposes. Results further illustrate that driving factors show similarities for both groups with reference to the latter mentioned purpose, while a more diverse picture is shown regarding factors impacting their use behavior toward citizens and supervisory authorities.     

A THEORY OF GOVERNING THE PUBLIC'S BUSINESS: Redesigning the jobs of boards,councils, and commissions

The job of the board of directors is the least developed element in enterprise, whether public, business, or nonprofit. Incorporating insights from Mill, Hume, and the social contract philosophy of Rousseau, as well as the servant-leadership concept of Greenleaf, the author's Policy Governance® model constitutes a theory of governance applicable to any governing body. The model enables public boards to govern by making public values explicit, crafting the expression of those values for practical managerial effect. The new governance model compels radical change in the way boards conduct their business. One effect is more authoritative boards and more empowered management simultaneously; another is greater integrity in the relationship between the public and its boards.     

DETERMINANTS OF PUBLIC PENSION PLAN INVESTMENT RETURN. The role of fund value maximization and public choice theory

Public pension plans are a major type of institutional owner during the new era of investor capitalism, yet little is known about them. Based upon fund value maximization (FVM) and public choice theory (PCT), we develop hypotheses on the determinants of plan performance as measured by plan annual investment return. FVM espouses that the plan's fund or investment portfolio will be invested to maximize return for a given level of risk, while PCT holds that agency costs are significant in the public sector, and will have a negative effect on plan return. Using biennial pension plan data for 1992–96 for several hundred plans, we found that fund value maximization has a much greater influence on plan performance, but that plan performance is also subject to agency costs associated with public choice theory.     

后危机时代我国政府治理模式的转型与定位——以政府与市场关系为观察视角

政府与市场之间的关系是国家治理所必须思考的首要问题,是治理模式选择的重要依据。政府和市场之间的权力边界的确定是双方力量均衡的结果,每一次市场的经济波动总会为二者关系的定位提出新的思考。2008年经济危机过程中,主张政府干预的凯恩斯主义登场并取得了一定成效。在后危机时代,面对低碳经济的发展要求,中国市场呈现出消费需求不足、城市化潜力释放缓慢、投资结构不合理等问题。所以面对各类市场需求,在后危机时代,政府应转变治理方式,权力触角逐渐淡出经济领域,让市场实现自我完善的同时进一步推进社会治理。     

Smart city networks' governance: The Spanish smart city network case study

The governance of smart city networks emerges as a new research area intersecting smart governance and public networks studies. This work aims to contribute to the literature on smart cities governance by studying councillor's governance in complex networks and on network performance. To carry out this analysis, the Spanish Network of Smart Cities (RECI), one of the first of its kind and an international reference for city networks, is reviewed as a case study, with the main objective of establishing a theory on its global innovation capacity and operations, together with the local level spurring influenced on its members. A PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) analysis was carried out in order to assess the impact of the smart city network both at local, national and international level. This research was completed with a consultation carried out among some of RECI's municipalities. The analysis of the results shows how RECI can be considered an example of a well organised network with quantifiable savings for its members, capable of configuring future policies in local administration, necessarily related to efficiency, digitalization and citizen-centricity and with key topics to build the future. The study also suggests recommendations oriented to potential improvements that smart city networks could undertake.     

县乡财政解困和政府改革:目标兼容与路径设计

本文在政府治理结构改革的框架下研究了县乡财政解困和政府改革的目标兼容性问题.首先,文章给出一个理论分析框架,用于说明政府级次安排与政府治理结构效率之间的关系.其次,在此框架下分析了精简政府级次改革方案的社会成本,指出该方案虽能够实现县乡财政解困,但却会扭曲政府改革目标,其所引致的社会成本已超出社会理性所能允许的边界.最后,文章又考察了旨在精简机构的横向政府改革与县乡财政解困的目标兼容性问题,指出基层政府辖区优化调整方案的实施能够带来政府改革和财政改革的"双赢".     

Foreign affiliates of the world largest financial groups: Locations and governance

This paper has two objectives. The first is the documentation of the relative importance of the largest financial groups in the world. The list of top 50 financial groups ranked by total assets in 2003 is compared to a similar list available for 1986. The second objective is to examine where financial firms are expanding their operations and to document some of the factors that may explain the most-favoured locations of these financial groups.The results of this study have two important implications. First, they indicate that location-specific advantages such as size, human capital and cultural distance, do provide an explication of the internationalization of financial firms. Second, they show that good governance has a strong impact on the choice of countries by firms.     

财务动态治理论纲

传统财务治理理论侧重于财务治理结构和权利分布状态等静态范畴的研究,而忽略了财务动态治理的专门研究.财务治理可分解为基于企业公平的财务静态治理和基于企业效率的财务动态治理,它在本质上是一个二元价值体系,在实践上表现为企业公平和效率的并行与平衡.财务动态治理是对传统财务治理的继承和超越,它是剩余公司治理的集中领域和公司动态治理的核心,其理论基础溯源于企业产权契约理论、公司治理理论、公允价值会计计量理论和财务治理理论.以不完全合同中的完备部分和不完备部分为标准,财权可划分为通用财权和剩余财权.剩余财权配置是财务动态治理的核心,财务动态治理的基本内容包括动态治理结构、治理机制和治理行为规范.     

On the governmental use of multi-criteria analysis

Public decision making, especially about our natural environment, is inherently exposed to a high conflict potential. The necessity to capture the complex context has led to an increasing request for decision analytic techniques as support for the decision process. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is deemed to overcome the shortcomings of traditional decision-support tools used in economics, such as cost-benefit (CBA) or cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). This is due, among other, to its ability of dealing with qualitative criteria (e.g. sensitive ecological factors), as well as with uncertainties about current or future impacts. Unlike CBA or CEA, MCA is rarely required by national laws or directives. Nonetheless, a number of recent MCA applications were supported by public authorities who either initiated or directly participated in such analyses. Given the theoretical assumptions about MCA's potential to support complex decision problems, as is often the case for environmental or sustainability policies, the key concern in our paper is to evaluate whether this potential has already been recognised in public decision making. For limitation purposes, the present work focuses on real-life case studies reported during the last decade with an insight in the initiation, the actors involved and the importance of the MCA results in the decision process. We argue that the significance and role played by MCA so far reaches beyond its current legal requirements.