New roles of NPOS and partnership with government and/or business in China

In order to cater to the globalization trend, a general governmental institution reform has taken place in the world, and the aim of the reform is to limit governmental power and promote governmental efficiency. The force of the reform comes from both the domestic press and oversea press. On a national level, the request for legality of governmental power and controllability of governmental decision‐making is becoming more urgent on a daily basis. On an international level, globalization has urged cooperation and rapid response from every countries in the world. Most countries focus on limiting governmental power and power dispersion.     

借势奥运 体育经济商机现

随着北京奥运会的临近,人们对这项全球体育盛事的热情也越来越高。由于这届奥运会开在了家门口,我们对“奥林匹克”这四个字也有了更深的了解和认知——奥林匹克是一种竞技精神,一种生活态度,一种人生哲学,一种和谐、自由、健康、积极的现代伦理。奥运会给我们带来的已不仅仅是享受比赛这样简单,她有太多的内涵。     

Client and contractor roles in a changing local government environment

The advent of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) exposes large swathes of local authority services to private sector competition. The challenge facing those in local government who wish to protect in-house services is how to adjust to a new commercial contracting culture without losing the values of public service.

The Audit Commission argues that such a culture requires a hard split between the Council as a client, who sets service standards and ensures value for money and its contractor side that concerns itself with performing to standard and price.

This article looks at both the legal and operational impetus for such a client-contractor split, from a DSO (Direct Service Organisation) perspective, and examines the strategic issues raised for local authority reorganisation.     

基于区块链的新型政务业务协同模式研究

南京市自2016年开始尝试使用区块链技术推进政务数据全面归集,在实践过程中笔者发现区块链除了可以解决数据归集问题外,在支撑跨部门业务协同办理方面也具有天然优势,并利用其智能合约特性进行了业务场景实践,取得了显著成效。文章首先简述了目前"互联网+政务服务"在推进中遇到的难点问题,介绍了南京市利用区块链技术在实现政务数据全面归集中的建设成果,然后对区块链支撑政务业务协同新模式的优势进行了归纳分析,阐述了智能合约技术在跨部门业务协同中发挥的作用,并在此基础上总结南京市应用研究成果,对"区块链+政务服务"未来发展进行了规划和展望。     

Nigerian commercial farmers versus government commodity marketing boards: revisiting the cost of a partnership gone sour

The abolition of the Nigerian government-instituted commodity marketing boards (CMBs) in 1986 is considered a positive step in view of the boards' method of market intervention, which is criticised as having brought disincentives to producers of agricultural exports. This study argues that, apart from the intervention activities of the CMBs, the lack of proper agricultural reforms in Nigeria would eventually have been equally unfavourable to the agricultural production. It therefore recommends that the authorities revisit three key policy issues, namely education, capital assistance and land reform, to revive production in the agricultural sector.     

Local government and old-age support in the New Deal

A key question in the design of public assistance to the needy is how allocation of responsibility for funding and decision-making across different levels of government influences the level and type of assistance provided. The New Deal era was a period in which this allocation changed significantly in the United States, as provision of public assistance shifted from local governments to states and the federal government, accompanied by a large increase in government transfer payments. Focusing on assistance to the elderly and using variation in state laws governing the division of funding between local and state governments for the Old Age Assistance (OAA) Program, this paper investigates the responsiveness of OAA payments and recipiency to local government funding shares. Payments per elderly resident were significantly lower in states with higher local funding shares, driven largely by reductions in recipiency. The baseline results suggest that had local governments needed to fund half of OAA payments in 1939, on the lower end of local funding shares prior to the New Deal, the share of the elderly receiving OAA would have been 5 percent rather than 22 percent, and perhaps even lower. More speculative results suggest that greater local funding led to lower representation of blacks among OAA recipients relative to their share of the population, particularly in the South.     

Inventories and real rigidities in New Keynesian business cycle models

Kryvtsov and Midrigan (2008) study the behavior of inventories in an economy with menu costs, fixed ordering costs and the possibility of stockouts. This paper extends their analysis to a richer setting that is capable of more closely accounting for the dynamics of the US business cycle. We find that the original conclusion survives in this setting: namely, the model requires an elasticity of real marginal cost to output approximately equal to the inverse intertemporal elasticity of substitution in consumption in order to account for the countercyclicality of the aggregate inventory-to-sales ratio in the data.     

新公共管理理论对政府再造的影响及其反思

20世纪70年代,西方发达国家在社会、经济、政治等问题接踵而至的情况下,掀起了规模宏大的公共行政改革;"新公共管理"理论在此背景下产生和发展,并深刻影响着西方政府的改革。本文在阐述其产生的背景及理论基础上,分析了新公共管理理论对政府职能再造的具体指导,并对"新公共管理"理论进行了理性反思和质疑,从而用辩证的眼光看待"新公共管理"理论的真正内涵。     

Competitiveness, partnership — and democracy? Putting the “local” back into London government

The division of the powers and responsibilities of government in London has been a constant source of friction and debate between central and local government. In the wake of the abolition of the Greater London Council, the Conservative government waited for the corporate sector to take the lead. When this failed to materialise, a complicated array of unelected agencies and partnerships were constructed to promote London, deliver services and allocate expenditure. This paper reviews the nature and function of these organisations and examines proposals for regional development agencies and an elected strategic authority for the capital arising from the election of a Labour government in May 1997. While pointing to considerable organisational innovation, for instance in the setting up of the Government Office for London, it is argued that, during 18 years of Conservative government, the emphasis on policy delivery through a variety of discrete partnership agencies deliberately overlooked issues of subsidiarity and local accountability. Thus the debate about the relationship between central and local government in London reflects substantial philosophical differences between the two parties. The Labour government's proposals for a strategic authority and regional development agency will require a substantial reallocation of powers and functions between a number of overlapping and competing agencies and a redefinition of what are legitimately local and central functions.     

新徽商生长环境存在的问题及对策

本文分析新徽商面临挑战和机遇,探讨营造良好的新徽商生长环境。文章认为新徽商生长环境建设包括:打造诚信市场环境、健全法制环境、改革经营管理制度、创设良好学习环境和沟通环境、激发内生性力量、营造创新的文化氛围等。     

Foreign aid,government behaviour,and fiscal policy in Papua New Guinea

The paper explores a number of long standing questions surrounding how foreign aid has influenced the fiscal behaviour of the PNG Government. This includes whether grant aid has encouraged the PNG government to be less fiscally responsible and accumulate higher levels of foreign debt; whether grant aid has tended to lower the PNG government's domestic revenue raising efforts; whether grant aid has drawn government expenditures away from key service delivery sectors; and whether budget support and project and program aid have had differential effects with respect to any of the foregoing questions. The analysis reveals several important insights regarding the interplay between foreign aid and public sector fiscal behaviour including evidence that grant aid has been an important source of debt reduction during this period. However, grant aid has tended to erode the domestic tax base, which has limited the government's ability to increase aggregate expenditure levels. Evidence is also found that suggests a significant portion of budget support was spent on key development sectors, although it also undermined domestic revenue collection. A number of policy implications follow.     

New classical and austrian business cycle theory: Is there a difference?

Conclusions To compare new classical and Austrian theory seems legitimate only with respect to a particular aspect of economic reality, namely business cycles. In the past century, Austrians have covered so many fields of economic theory that the achievements of new classicals are comparatively small. The discussions of both approaches showed that it would not be appropriate to claim that Austrians have developed theonly theory of business cycles which refers to individual behavior and choice. New classicals have rediscovered this approach and used many of the tenets for their explanation. This is not to say that new classical theory completely follows Austrian traditions. But many of the differences appear to be small or are only semantic in character.     

Experiential learning/social-problem-solving programs in graduate schools of business

Conclusion Almost without exception, schools do not anticipate any major developments of new trends emerging in experiential learning. Only two of the schools interviewed had definite plans to develop social-problem-solving type programs.     

新型农村社会养老保险政府补贴存在的问题及其机制的完善

目前我国新农保政府补贴还存在比例较低,"补富不补穷"补贴机制不完善,地方政府事权和财权不统一等问题。针对这些问题,应该加大政府对新农保的财政投入力度;分阶段、分地区分类完善补贴机制,其发展趋势应该从定额补贴为主、浮动补贴为辅转为两者并重再转为浮动补贴为主、定额补贴为辅,并且补贴水平逐步提高;根据不同地区的经济发展水平和财政收入状况,各级政府可以采取"三三制"、"高中低"或"高低低"、"低中高"等不同模式分担财政补贴责任。     

关于滨海新区开办离岸金融业务的几个重要问题

随着国务院批准天津滨海新区为全国综合配套改革试验区,鼓励天津滨海新区进行金融改革和创新,并可在离岸金融业务方面进行改革试验,多年来有关天津市能否开办离岸金融业务的问题研究已画上了一个句号.     

How should civil society (and the government) respond to 'corporate social responsibility'? A critique of business motivations and the potential for partnerships

In theory, corporate social responsibility (CSR) considers private companies as potentially important development agents, particularly in partnership with the government and civil society groups. Following on the first article by Hamann in this issue, which considered the business perspective, this article considers how civil society should respond to the CSR and partnership concepts, with reference to the South African context. Firstly, a critical view of CSR emphasises the need to consider underlying motivations for business to embrace and perpetuate the CSR concept. These may relate to accommodation - the implementation of cosmetic changes to business practice in order to preclude bigger changes - and legitimisation - the influence by business over popular and policy-related discourse in order to define what questions may be asked and what answers are feasible. The second part of the article describes important benefits of the CSR concept for civil society groups, in terms of increased power and rights and hence better negotiating positions. This, however, requires that non-governmental organisations and others proactively engage in shaping the CSR debates, by insisting, inter alia, that CSR be underpinned by corporate accountability. Finally, the article argues that partnerships with business can indeed be beneficial to civil society groups, but that a critical position needs to be maintained within this cooperative approach, namely 'critical cooperation'. Such partnerships will require the strategic use of power-, rights- and interest-based negotiation. Following a brief overview of some recent South African experiences in the mining and chemicals sectors, the article concludes by pointing out the important role of the government in facilitating fair and effective partnerships.