地方财政部门内部控制体系构建

文章依据地方财政部门的实践经验,界定了财政部门内部控制的概念,提出了地方财政部门内部控制层次结构,创新性地构建了“结构合理、运转高效、制衡有力”的地方财政部门内部控制体系。这将有利于公共需要的满足和社会公众利益的实现,有利于全面推进财政科学化精细化管理,有利于财政风险的防范,有利于依法理财和“阳光财政”的创建。     

Investment appraisal in the public sector

Recent developments, such as privatization and the private financeinitiative, have raised the issue of which assets should beowned by the public sector and whether assets have differentvalues in the public and private sectors. In order to answerthe questions, we first note that the allocative considerationsthat usually motivate government intervention need not requirethe direct provision of services by the government using government-ownedassets. We then argue that the government should own the assetsused to provide the services where the private sector fearsexpropriation by the government, or where ownership conferson the private sector such power as to preclude efficient allocations.Finally, we argue that the discount rate for governments' projectsequals the expected return on comparable investments in thecapital markets. The government should, however, discount pre-taxcash flows at the pre-tax discount rate, for it receives alltax revenues.     

Accessing Modern Science: Policy and Institutional Options for Agricultural Biotechnology in Developing Countries

The private sector dominates biotechnology research in industrialized countries, but there are major market failures in developing countries in accessing the new tools and technologies. The public sector, national and international, will have to play a major role in filling this gap. This paper provides an overview of options that countries of different sizes and capacities can employ to gain access to the research tools and technologies that they need to address issues of relevance to poor producers and consumers. Particular attention is given to how public–private partnerships and market segmentation are being employed to access proprietary tools and technologies.     

The effect of public sector employment on the earnings of white and African American males: A sample selectivity approach

This research note uses a sample selection model to measure the earnings premium (or penalty) to public sector employment. A model correcting for both labor force participation and sectoral choice is estimated for both white and African American males. Results indicate that African American males are no better off in the public than in the private sector. Moreover, white males employed in the public sector earn significantly less than their private sector counterparts.     

Corruption as an Occupational Choice: Endogenous Corruption and Tax Policy

Corruption is endemic in many countries, and empirical studies have demonstrated how it impacts on macroeconomic indicators. Theoretical studies have generally assumed an exogenously given proportion of the population are corrupt or that the public sector is fixed in size; far fewer explore how corruption emerges endogenously. We endogenize corruption as an occupational choice. Workers choose private or public employment; public employees can be honest or corrupt. Corruption is subject to a social sanction that results in a loss of self-esteem. Those who care little about the social sanction choose to be corrupt. When a firm meets a corrupt public employee it pays a bribe to secure a reduction in the tax rate. The economy has two self-sustaining equilibria with different levels of corruption. Corruption reduces tax revenue and the tax rate that maximizes revenue. An increase in the social sanction reduces corruption but also reduces tax revenues if the economy is in a high-corruption equilibrium. Paying a wage premium to public sector workers can result in all public sector workers being corrupt. Public sector audits to detect corrupt workers always reduce corruption but can only increase welfare when they are cheap to conduct and the economy is in a low-corruption equilibrium.     

Residential renovation in the low income public housing sector: A case study in Merebank

Housing, an important research theme in development studies in recent years, is currently a central focus of concern in South Africa. Largely as a result of the inadequate supply of suitable housing the present trend among Indian households in the public sector in the Durban region is to renovate existing dwellings to suit their residential preferences and aspirations. This paper examines the nature of residential renovation in the public housing sector in order to identify and explain the processes that produce its occurrence, and to determine those factors which can be considered in policy formulation. The study was conducted in Merebank, a low income public housing scheme inhabited by Indians, and situated 15 km south of Durban. Changes in family size and composition, and a shortage of suitable housing, influenced the decision to renovate. The main concern was the addition of more space, especially bedrooms. Most of the renovations were undertaken on a self‐help basis, and financed from personal savings. Some of the problems experienced by renovators included: features of the original dwelling; building regulations; lack of loans; high interest rates; and shortage of materials. Access to finance, encouragement of self‐help improvement efforts, and flexibility in the design of low cost dwellings will help facilitate the residential renovation process.     

公共部门收入分配机制问题研究

公平与效率并重是公共部门收入分配机制构建的基本价值理念。构建公共部门收入分配机制的目标是缩小收入差距,实现收入分配的社会公平。有效的公共部门收入分配协调机制、完善的公共部门收入分配政策扶持机制和规范的公共部门收入分配制度实施机制共同构成公共部门收入分配机制的基本框架。建构完善的公共部门收入分配机制,需要从理念、制度和法制化等方面作为切入点。     

Aid Dependence and the Quality of Governance: Cross-Country Empirical Tests

Aid dependence can potentially undermine the quality of governance and public sector institutions by weakening accountability, encouraging rent-seeking and corruption, fomenting conflict over control of aid funds, siphoning off scarce talent from the bureaucracy, and alleviating pressures to reform inefficient policies and institutions. Analyses of cross-country data in this paper provide evidence that higher aid levels erode the quality of governance, as measured by indices of bureaucratic quality, corruption, and the rule of law. These findings support the need for donors to develop less costly and less intrusive ways of disseminating state-of-the-art knowledge on public sector reform in developing countries.     

Regional infrastructure problems as a source of social and economic threats

Using the Chernobyl nuclear disaster as an example the author analyzes the government’s clean-up efforts to show that the complexity of infrastructure systems challenges existing institutional entities, which increasingly often prove unable to secure their accident-free and reliable operation. Various infrastructural problems are illustrated to validate the need for developing service-producing industries within the public sector relying on public investment.     

Public sector wage settlement and the threat of outsourcing

This paper investigates the impact of outsourcing on wage settlement in the public sector. The study characterizes the equilibrium wage offered by the public sector union to a government bureau competing against private sector firms. It is predicted that the union will offer a concession wage in an attempt to block outsourcing when its members' outside employment options are sufficiently unattractive and will offer a non-concession wage otherwise. The study contributes to the literature on outsourcing and wage determination in the public sector.     

A comparison of the wage structure between the public and private sectors in Japan

This study compares the wages in the public and private sectors in Japan. In addition to comparing overall wage levels, we examine the differences in the wage structures, specifically, the relative wages by gender, age, education, and region. The size of the public sector wage premium depends crucially on the size of the private companies chosen as the comparison group. Wage gaps by gender and educational attainment are smaller in the public sector than they are in private companies. The public sector's age–wage profile is steeper than that of the private sector. Public sector wages are more compressed. In other words, the wages are relatively higher at the lower end of the wage distribution and relatively lower at the higher end. The regional wage differentials are smaller in the public sector. Here, the wage levels of public sector workers are relatively higher in rural regions and relatively lower in large metropolitan regions. To ensure the efficient provision of public services, it is inappropriate to compare only mean wages.     

The Discount Rate for Public Sector Conservation Projects in South Africa

Abstract: South Africa, in an attempt to reduce unemployment and alleviate poverty, has implemented a number of public sector conservation projects: the largest one being the Working for Water Programme (WfWP). Sound economic decision‐making regarding the economic feasibility of these public sector conservation projects require that they be subjected to economic assessment in the form of cost‐benefit analysis. One aspect of cost‐benefit analysis, which is often neglected, is the choice of the social discount rate. This paper addresses the issue of what the social discount rate for public sector conservation projects should be and provides an example of how to derive a social discount rate for a public sector conservation project, namely the WfWP.     

The Assessment: Financing and Managing Public Services

Public services can be, and are, delivered according to a varietyof different arrangements. The public sector can finance andprovide a service itself, or contract with the private sectorto participate in provision, or its role may be limited to regulatinga private provider. In this paper we examine the features determiningthe effectiveness of public-service delivery, including incentivesfor employees and teams within organizations providing publicservices, the structure of the organization and the competitiveframework that it faces, and the role of the private sector.We assess the reform programme in the UK, which has involvedsubstantial reorganization of public services and increasinginvolvement of the private sector. Reforms focus on the improvementof incentives; but while incentives are critical, the specialcharacteristics of public services (and the people who providethem) must be recognized in the implementation of new structuresand incentive schemes.     

Caste and Religion-Based Wage Discrimination in the Indian Private Sector: Evidence from the Indian Human Development Survey

Using data from the Indian Human Development Survey, we examine evidence of caste and religion-based discrimination in the Indian private and public sector. Both Dalits and Adivasis show significant results of discrimination in the private sector, and benefit disproportionately from working in the public sector. This is strong evidence that at least some of the affirmative action policies in the public sector are proving effective. The policy implications are relevant: should similar affirmative action policies be implemented in the private sector? Further, this research suggests a path for further research to understand why protected castes do not benefit from affirmative action programs to the same extent as Dalits and Adivasis.     

城市供水民营化的思考

当前,各国政府在公用事业领域普遍采取了民营化的改革措施。民营化倡导非公共部门替代公共部门承担社会公共产品和服务的供给功能,借以提升公共产品和服务的品质和质量。民营化背景下,政府对城市供水的管制手段和方式发生了明显变化,而供水事业管制的价值内核是公共利益的维护和保障。本文着眼于城市供水民营化改革在我国方兴未艾的现实情况,从城市供水现状入手,分析了城市供水民营化的意义和问题,提出了我国城市供水民营化的思路。     

加拿大医疗保险中的混合供给制度及其启示

医疗保险服务通常由第三方（政府或保险公司）付费，在社会医疗保险中第三方主要是指政府。针对“第三方付费”问题，加拿大全民医疗保险实行“公共融资、私人提供”的混合供给制度，即公共部门承担起融资的责任，但具体提供的任务则交给私人部门来负责。‘这种混合方案可以较好地解决“第三方付费”问题，对我国具有借鉴意义。     

The Role of Incentives in the Public Sector: Issues and Evidence

Using incentive pay to improve public-sector efficiency is animportant component of the UK government's public-service modernizationagenda. In this paper, we review the important issues in performancepay in the public sector, and summarize the evidence on itseffects. We consider how optimal incentives for public-sectorworkers may differ from those in the private sector and, ifthey do, what types of incentives are more appropriate for thepublic sector. We investigate the reasons for the infrequentuse of explicit incentives in the public sector. We summarizeevidence of particular relevance to the public sector, on issuessuch as the impact on output of incentive pay schemes, gamingand dysfunctional behaviour, multiple principals, intrinsicmotivation, and teamwork. Finally, we comment on the designof new policies being introduced in the UK public sector inthe light of the theoretical arguments and the evidence.     

Public–private sector segmentation in the Pakistani labour market

This study investigates public–private sector wage differentials for male and female waged employees in Pakistan. This is done using latest nationally representative data from the Pakistan Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) 2005. We adopt three methodologies to obtain robust estimates of the wage differential and the results reveal that public sector workers enjoy large wage premia. The gross pro-public wage differential is much larger for women than for men. Our findings also show that while private and public sector workers’ differing characteristics ‘explain’ a larger proportion of the private–public wage gap for men, this is not the case for women.     

Indonesian universities in transition: catching up and opening up

Indonesia's higher education system is changing rapidly: in 2010 there were about 5 million students, up from 2,000 in 1945. Effectively the tertiary system has four tiers, three of which are within the public sector. However, the system is increasingly private sector driven. The key themes of this paper on universities are rapid growth; overcoming the historical backlog; and the need for further fundamental reform. The quality of Indonesia's tertiary institutions is highly variable. Governance structures and incentives regimes within the state universities are complex and obscure. The government both over-regulates and under-regulates. Major reforms are under way and increasing financial resources are available.     

Fiscal deficits, public debt, and government solvency: Evidence from OECD countries

This paper discusses different empirical tests of public sector solvency and applies them to a sample of 18 OECD countries. Under the maintained hypothesis that the government solvency constraint needs to be imposed, these tests develop from the idea of verifying whether the intertemporal budget constraint of the public sector would be satisfied (a) if the fiscal and financial policy in the sample had been pursued indefinitely and (b) if the relevant macro and structural features of the economy were stable over time. If solvency is not supported by the empirical evidence, a change either in the policy or in the relevant macro and structural variables (growth, inflation, interest rates, demographic factors) must occur at some point in the future. Among the G-7 countries, public sector solvency seems a serious issue in Italy, whereas it does not appear to be a problem in Germany and Japan. The evidence for the United States is mixed. Problems of sustainability of the current path of fiscal policies are also present in Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands, and Greece.