Industrial Relations in Local Government

David Green, for six years a Labour Councillor in the North East and a university economist, analyses the self-interested obstruction to reform that some Labour and other councillors urged in the interest of the local public. If his analysis applies elsewhere in local government, the urgency of reform by Patricklenkin becomes apparent and insistent.     

地方政府债务与地方经济发展研究

中国改革开放30多年来,随着经济的快速发展,各级地方政府的资产负债表和损益表也发生了重大变化,地方政府债务平台逐渐从一个新生事物变为了社会关注的焦点。学术界关于地方政府债务还存在很大的分歧,政府干预学派认为政府债务可以促进社会经济发展,而自由竞争学派并不欢迎政府对国家经济的干预。本文立足于中国国情详细分析了地方政府债务与当前中国经济发展之间的相互关系。     

Local Government Management

In the United Kingdom (UK), the Labour Government is seeking to achieve fundamental change in the way local authorities are led and managed. To this end, it has introduced political and managerial reforms, central to which is the concept of ‘best value’. This new agenda, to which local authorities must respond, builds upon the changes which resulted from the Conservative era 1979–1997. Although Labour has abolished the centrepiece of Conservative policy towards local government, i.e. compulsory competitive tendering (CCT), Labour shares the belief of successive Conservative governments that local authorities must radically improve the way services are delivered. This article considers the nature of the changed local government environment in the UK, including the role, policy and service provision debates which have occurred in local government. It provides a conceptual framework within which to consider the degree of change which has occurred in local authority management. A typology of responses to change and a model by which past and future change may be gauged are suggested.     

Local Democracy Ltd

Abstract

A number of European countries have witnessed a proliferation of local government enterprises in recent years. Norwegian local councillors are seemingly particularly exposed to this ‘enterprise fever’. Our article explores local governments' approaches to the political control of such companies. We observe a reluctance to intervene directly in the affairs of an enterprise, but there is a last-resort preparedness to take more resolute action. Lastly, in contrast to what the prototypical agency model postulates, we find that those who attach strong aspirations of increased capacity to the establishment of companies appear to lack trust in the same companies' performance capability.     

Local Government Imperialism

Local government has attracted increasing criticism in recent years. It has been investigated by committees of enquiry. Central government has tried, but failed, to control its expenditures. Its trade unions can disrupt everyday life by strikes. What is wrong? This Open Letter diagnoses the crucial cause as the failure to subject local services to the measurement and discipline of price.     

Divergence in HR Functional Roles in Local Government

Abstract

In spite of a growing body of research on the position and role of HRM and the HR function in organizations, local government HRM has not received the attention it deserves. This article contributes to research on the role of the HR function by deploying a discursive perspective on how HR managers construct their function's role in the context of Finnish local government. Five discourses are located in the talk of HR managers, which show emerging discursive tensions and contradictions in the roles of the HR function in local government.     

美国地方政府破产制度探析

本文从历史沿革、基本程序、破产成因、局限性角度研究了美国地方政府破产制度,对底特律破产事件进行了典型案例分析,并就中国建立地方政府破产制度的必要性和可行性进行了初步探讨。本文认为,建立中国地方政府破产制度有其必要性和紧迫性,但盲目和简单引入国外地方政府破产制度存在风险,需在相关制度完善之后再考虑建立和推行。     

Robustness and Local Linearisation in Economic Models

This paper discusses the importance of nonlinear dynamics from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. It stresses the need for global as opposed to local analysis and develops the important concept of robustness. Using this concept, the paper argues that much modern macroeconomics can be dismissed on methodological grounds alone. The paper also deals with the empirics of hyperinflation and with the detection of chaos in financial markets.     

Local Housing Markets and Segregation in England

In this article, Geoff Meen discusses patterns of economic segregation in England. Despite the emphasis that the government places on reducing segregation, patterns have, in fact, remained remarkably constant over, at least, the last twenty years. Dynamic changes in housing markets and migration over time help to explain these patterns, and evidence is presented on the extent to which house prices in certain local authorities have been under- or over-valued. The analysis also shows that, at the local level, housing markets exhibit non-linear behaviour, which hinders the effectiveness of housing policy in the most deprived areas and adds to economic segregation.     

Local income taxation in an urban area

This paper indicates the response of a metropolitan area to the levying of a local income tax. The analysis is focused on a central city and its surrounding suburbs but allows for migration to and from the metropolitan area. Of primary interest are the spatial effects of local income taxation and the associated welfare costs derived from additional transportation expenditures. The analysis indicates the forms of compensation to central city high-income households for the fiscal deficit they bear. Changes in wage rates and land rentals are derived and the question of full capitalization is considered.     

Local Hospital Competition in Large Metropolitan Areas

This paper uses origin-destination data to define geographic local hospital markets in large metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). Results support past findings of service rather than price competition, with negative-cost Herfandahl-Hirschman indexes relationships at the market level (and sub-MSA level) and with profit margins negatively related to hospital market competition. The effects of total (direct plus indirect) market competition are unchanged between 1983 and 1988, precisely estimated, robust to estimation techniques, and unaffected by whether the number of direct competitors is included as an explanatory variable.     

Measuring Local Government Transparency

Despite the importance of government transparency to promote accountability and prevent maladministration, empirical research has failed to produce proper tools to assess and compare government transparency practices. Most contributions to the topic do not address it from a stakeholder’s perspective, particularly in selecting the indicators to include in transparency indexes. This paper contributes to the debate by developing a municipal transparency index based on information available on local government official websites. The methodological approach borrows insights from the decision analysis literature to structure the index through a participatory process. An application to the Portuguese local government setting is briefly discussed.     

Local Government Shirks Charging

The scope for charging for local government services is much wider than commonly supposed. Michael Spungin of Nottingham County Council argues that councils are reluctant to introduce charging more because of organised opposition from interest groups for technical reasons of inefficiency or inapplicability.     

地方债管理模式与构建地方政府资产负债管理能力的探析

为应对经济危机,中国政府从2009年发行地方政府公债,先后采用转贷、中央财政代发和地方财政自主发行三种模式,但这些都是在中央政府监管和控制之下的地方债,是中央债的变形。虽然地方政府公债的出现是中国财政管理体制改革的内在要求和必然趋势,但在这些模式下发行的地方政府公债并不是真正意义上的地方债。要实现地方政府公债长期化、正规化,必须加强地方政府资产负债能力建设,编制地方政府资产负债表,只有这样才符合财政体制发展的内在要求。     

柯达公司当地化战略分析

一、跨国公司经营战略的演变 跨国公司作为一种与现代化大生产相适应的企业组织形式,一直在世界经济舞台上十分活跃.据联合国统计,全世界跨国公司1997年达到5.3万家.它们拥有的国外子公司达到45万家,遍及160多个国家和地区.控制着国内生产总值的40%,国际贸易总量的50%～60%,国际技术转让的60%～70%和国际直接投资的90%,其涉及范围之广、影响力之大可想而知.跨国公司自19世纪60年代初见端倪,至今日的飞速发展,其经营战略也经历了一系列重大调整和演变,简要阐述如下:     

狙击跨国巨头的“本土杀手”

波士顿对全球范围的本土杀手进行了一个研究和解析,他们制作了BCG本土50强巨擎企业榜单,杀手们大多来自于中国、印度、巴西等,杀手们是由新一代雄心勃勃的管理层领导的富有活力的私营企业。最关键的是,这些本土巨擘更擅长赢得复杂市场,从劣势中创造机遇     

Local Government Charge!

Professor C. D. Foster, with two co-authors, Richard Jackman and Maurice Perlman of the London School of Economics, concluded a massive tome in 1980 on local government financing with the estimate that only 10% or less of local government expenditure was on public goods (cf article by Erank van Dun, p. 28). Yet Whitehall politicians and local Councillors have acted for years as though the only way to confine cuts in (or raise) local expenditure was by raising rates. Simon Mabey, Westminster City Councillor, argues that charging is the long-neglected instrument of local financing.     

人工神经网络中的样本对输出精度影响分析

影响人工神经网络模型输出结果精度的技术引起广泛重视,样本质量对神经网络输出精度影响的研究不多,研究多数是针对神经网络结构(层数及节点数),本文分析样本对人工神经网络输出的影响,对提高神经网络的输出结果精度有重要的意义。