MANAGING LOCAL PUBLIC DEBT IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES: AN ISSUE OF SELF-CONTROL

One and a half decades after the end of a centralised regime in Central and Eastern Europe, the policy literature on local debt management in transition economies reveals that there is a general confusion about the appropriate use of debt finance at the municipal level. The literature is mainly concerned with institutional borrowing restrictions and sanctions against excessive debt. Both emphasise the responsibility of the centre and consider local government unable to pursue a sound financial management without central patronage. Breaking with the traditional focus on budget  discipline , this study advocates budget  responsibility . Favourable credit ratings and compliance with legal norms are necessary but not sufficient conditions for municipalities to borrow. Successful financial management requires a more proactive attitude in which local governments adjust their investment policy to their financial capacity, assessing the costs and benefits of each investment project.     

ANIMAL HEALTH SERVICES: FINDING THE BALANCE BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DELIVERY

Growing fiscal deficits and greater awareness of the huge economiccost of often-inefficient government activities have renewedinterest in transferring the delivery of important servicesfrom the public to the private sector in developing countries.This article, drawn from a longer study, offers a frameworkfor determining the appropriate roles of the public and privatesectors in delivering animal health services, such as veterinarysurveillance, disease vector control, vaccination, clinicaltreatment of sick animals, inspection of livestock products,and veterinary research and extension. The profitability and therefore the supply of private veterinaryservices is governed by several factors arising from economiesof scale, such as the size of the livestock enterprises in thelocality, the nature of potential or actual diseases, and thetypes of animals raised in the production systems. Thus, inareas where private veterinary work is unprofitable or whereother types of market failure occur, economic or social concernsmay make some type of public intervention necessary. The transferof animal health services from the public to the private sectormust be done selectively, and government support may be neededto ensure the success of such transfers.      

THE SURVIVAL OF INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS IN THE AFTERMARKET

We estimate an accelerated failure time (AFT) model to investigate the effects of several characteristics suggested as indicators of firm survival for initial public offerings (IPOs). The results indicate that the survival time for IPOs increases with size, age of the firm at the offering, the initial return, IPO activity level in the market, and the percentage of insider ownership, while the survival time decreases with increases in the general market level at the time of the offering and the number of risk characteristics. Additionally, the survival time is negatively affected if the IPO is in the computer and data, wholesale, restaurant, or airline industries and positively affected if the IPO is in the optical or drug industries.     

积极主动做好扶贫开发金融服务工作

推进扶贫开发,缓解和消除贫困,是深入贯彻落实科学发展观,坚持以人为本,实现全面、协调、可持续发展的根本体现,是全面建设小康社会、构建和谐社会,最终实现共同富裕的本质要求,     

THE ROLES OF INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS IN THE FAILURE OF NEWLY PUBLIC STOCKS

In this article, we study two negative events that can happen to newly public stocks: (1) the price drops at least 50% from the closing price on the first trading date within one year after the initial public offering (IPO) (initial failure) and (2) the firm is delisted for negative reasons within three years after the IPO (final failure). We find that high investor sentiment at the time of IPO can lead to both initial failure and final failure of IPO firms, whereas monitoring by external professionals plays a more important role in averting final failure than initial failure. Exploring the roles of different types of institutional investors, we find that transient (i.e., short‐term trading) institutions sell before initial failure. In contrast, dedicated (i.e., monitoring) institutions focus on long‐term performance and may stay with stocks suffering temporary initial failure, but their selling typically signals the imminent final failure of newly public firms.     

DIFFERENTIATING FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND MANAGEMENT IN GOVERNMENTS, PUBLIC SERVICES AND CHARITIES

This paper illustrates many types of not-for-profit organisations (NFPOs) whose characteristics of financial accountability and management differentiate them as suitable for study in this journal. It also more briefly introduces some of the distinctive characteristics of the environment of financial accountability and management in NFPOs. Its purpose is to give readers the flavour of the intended future coverage of FAM , which should include a wider range of disciplinary insights than appear in this first paper. The editor hopes that academics, practitioners and others will be stimulated to submit authoritative papers relating to any of the relevant organisations, characteristics or problems.     

THE ROLES OF THE PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTORS IN ENHANCING THE PERFORMANCE OF SEED SYSTEMS

Seeds are crop-based agriculture's most important input, yetfew developing countries have succeeded in establishing efficientseed production and supply systems. In many developing countriesthe large-scale, centralized state farms and public seed corporationsestablished to multiply and disseminate improved seeds of selectedcrops have proved ineffectual, failing to meet the diverse cropand varietal requirements of farmers. Governments and assistingagencies are currently reassessing their strategies, payinggreater attention to the potential contributions of privatefirms, cooperatives, other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),and farmers themselves. This article contributes to that reassessment. It defines thescope for involving the private sector in an array of seed-relatedactivities, identifies critical and complementary roles forthe public sector, and reviews seed system development in industrialand developing countries, with a primary focus on institutionaldimensions. The article advocates a phased withdrawal of thepublic sector from the commercial side of seed production andmarketing, while recognizing a continued important role forthe public sector in plant breeding research, germplasm andvarietal maintenance, training, quality control, and consumerprotection.