Public spending and economies of scale in partial fiscal decentralized governments: The case of Chile

This article evaluates economies of scale in local public spending in Chile, emphasizing the country's geographical features and high fiscal heterogeneity. We leverage balanced panel data for ten years and 307 municipalities in order to estimate the population level at which a reduction in the average cost of local public goods provision occurs and to differentiate between levels of market potential. We follow a theoretical model of cost efficiency that considers spatial interactions and spillover effects among neighboring jurisdictions. Our findings suggest that Chilean municipalities reach an optimum population level at around 700,000 inhabitants, which is high considering that only two cities qualify. When differentiating for levels of economies of scale according to levels of market potential, municipalities with a low potential reach their optimum at around 28,000 inhabitants, those with a medium potential reach it at approximately 124,000, and those with a high potential reach it at approximately 680,000.     

Local tax interaction and endogenous spatial weights based on quality of life

This paper studied the role of municipal quality of life as a driver of strategic tax interactions among local governments. A number of studies point out the existence of strategic interactions using spatial econometric models in which the spatial weights are mostly based on non-economic criteria or basic economic variables such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP). We propose the more sophisticated well-being indicator of municipal quality of life as the driver for these interactions. To deal with the potential endogeneity, we rely on instrumental variable estimators. The empirical analysis focuses on the main local tax in Spain (property) and on municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and it confirms the relevance of differentials in quality of life for the understanding of tax choices.     

城中村改造:政府、城市与村民利益的统一--以广州市文冲城中村为例

城中村是我国快速城市化背景下、城市向乡村蔓延过程中出现的普遍地理现象和城乡矛盾激化的一个缩影.城中村改造的过程是城市政府、城市发展要求和原村民三方利益主体对土地收益和城市功能的博弈过程,城中村的改造也只有在保证三方的利益得到合理保障的情况下才能顺利进行.以"广州市文冲城中村改造方案"为基础,探讨城中村改造的规划方案中如何体现政府管理、城市发展要求和原村民三方利益的共赢,提出一条切实可行的城中村改造思路.     

聚类分析在我国西部人口素质评价中的应用

基于我国西部地区人口素质特点,并结合西部社会经济发展状况,以西部12省(区、市)为基本研究单元,建立适合西部的人口素质综合评价指标,通过聚类分析西部12省(区、市)人口素质发展等方面存在的较大差异,为西部人口素质全面提高提供了对策建议。     

Space and Identity in Resistance against Neoliberal Urban Planning in Turkey

This article highlights the role of collective identity and space in the emergence of social resistance within a neoliberal context. It argues that the attempted eviction of residents from their established neighbourhoods through public planning projects generates resistance against the reappropriation of these spaces and has encouraged new forms of resistance among inhabitants in several neighbourhoods. I particularly emphasize that planning projects often displace particular populations by force, principally minority communities, in order to confine them to new resettlement areas far from their customary living places, which has a socioeconomic impact on people's identity, everyday life and social solidarity. The article is based on empirical research in two neighbourhoods in Istanbul — 1 May?s and Sulukule — to analyse practices of resistance of inhabitants in everyday life and examine how this resistance shapes their identity and daily life.     

张家港市在加快城市化进程中改善居住环境的举措

张家港市在加速城市化进程中 ,始终坚持“以人为本”和“环境优先”两大原则 ,全方位推进建设“绿色港城” ,强调城市化进程要与居住环境改善、强化环境管理以及培养市民保护环境意识相统一 ,经济社会结构调整要与维系人类定居生活及生存权统一 ,有效地提升了城市品位 ,推动了经济和社会的持续稳定发展     

Technical Efficiency of the Brazilian Municipalities: Correcting Nonparametric Frontier Measurements for Outliers

In this paper we estimate the DEA technical efficiency for 4796 Brazilian municipalities, by applying a recently proposed “Jackstrap” method, which combines Bootstrap and Jackknife resampling techniques, to reduce the effect of outliers and possible errors in the data set. We perform calculations to identify and eliminate high leverage municipalities, using different variants of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), as well as Free Disposal Hull (FDH). Corroborating previous results, efficiency results for the Brazilian municipalities show a clear relationship between the size of the municipality and its efficiency scores. Indeed, under both DEA variants, smaller cities tend to be less efficient than larger ones hence indicating that the quality of the frontier adjustment improves significantly as the size of the municipality increases. We present arguments that may explain to some extent these findings, such as economies of scale and the excess spending due to revenue from royalties. However, such effects require further, more careful examination.     

Municipal welfare functions

In this paper the concept of a municipal welfare function is defined. It reflects the evaluation by local authorities of several levels of local expenditures. On the basis of an extensive survey among all Dutch municipal authorities these functions are estimated for about 550 Dutch municipalities with respect to total expenditures and differentiated with respect to several portfolios, like public works, education, etc. The variation of the estimated municipal welfare parameters is explained by objectively measurable municipal characteristics like the number of the inhabitants, age distribution of inhabitants and houses, number of unemployed, regional situation.     

How Subordinate Financialization Shapes Urban Development: The Rise and Fall of Warsaw's Służewiec Business District

This article studies the development of Warsaw's S?u?ewiec neighbourhood, Poland's largest business district, as a case of real estate financialization. We argue that the neighbourhood's chaotic ‘de‐contextualized’ growth was shaped by Poland's semi‐peripheral position in the global economy on the one hand—enabling a process of subordinate financialization—and legacies of state socialism on the other. In so doing, we mobilize research on peripheral financialization and global economic hierarchies, and studies of post‐socialism to enhance debates about real estate financialization. Commercial real estate—and office development in particular—is a crucial domain in which contemporary core–periphery structures are produced and negotiated. A key function of subordinate financialization is to absorb globally mobile capital—the product of financialization in the core. The case of S?u?ewiec shows that only by considering the interplay of global hierarchies (Poland's position as capital absorbent), local dynamics (fragmented urban development, which was characterized by competition among these unequal municipalities, with local growth coalitions in some municipalities, but not in others) and specific historical legacies (Warsaw's socialist‐time functional organization and its transformation, which weakened the city) can we fully understand the specific dynamics that shape real estate financialization in different places.     

Design-based or Prediction-based Inference? Stratified Random vs Stratified Balanced Sampling

Early survey statisticians faced a puzzling choice between randomized sampling and purposive selection but, by the early 1950s, Neyman's design-based or randomization approach had become generally accepted as standard. It remained virtually unchallenged until the early 1970s, when Royall and his co-authors produced an alternative approach based on statistical modelling. This revived the old idea of purposive selection, under the new name of “balanced sampling”. Suppose that the sampling strategy to be used for a particular survey is required to involve both a stratified sampling design and the classical ratio estimator, but that, within each stratum, a choice is allowed between simple random sampling and simple balanced sampling; then which should the survey statistician choose? The balanced sampling strategy appears preferable in terms of robustness and efficiency, but the randomized design has certain countervailing advantages. These include the simplicity of the selection process and an established public acceptance that randomization is “fair”. It transpires that nearly all the advantages of both schemes can be secured if simple random samples are selected within each stratum and a generalized regression estimator is used instead of the classical ratio estimator.     

基于价值工程理念的心理教育模式研究

心理素质教育与心理健康教育简称为心理教育,是对人们心理生活进行关注的一种新理念,是一种新型教育。心理教育模式对人们心理教育的发展以及人对自身的不断认识有着积极的促进作用。本文通过深入研究价值工程理念和当前心理教育模式,找出二者之间的关系,阐述了价值工程理念应用于心理教育的可行性和必要性。     

Alternative Capitalism and Creative Economy: the Case of Christiania

The Free Town of Christiania is an autonomous community of about 1,000 inhabitants in the centre of Copenhagen. Built as a squat for a hippy community in the 1970s, it is today a central node in the geography of activism, anarchism and alternative social life. This article analyses Christiania from the specific perspective of creativity and within the context of the ‘creative city’ debate. The Free Town is a lively innovative milieu, nurturing the arts, social experimentation, ideas and original architectural solutions. As such, it is becoming a more and more relevant space from the point of view of the market economy and in the promotion of the idea of a ‘creative Copenhagen’. But I argue that much of its creative potential is connected to place‐specific socioeconomic factors. In this sense, the Christiania experience troubles mainstream conceptions of creativity by revealing that creativity is both fluid and situated.     

论统筹区域发展的制度基础建设

党的十六届三中全会提出了统筹区域发展的概念,并将其作为经济社会协调发展的5个统筹之一,进一步从体制和政策上为区域发展提供了强有力的保障。文章介绍了统筹区城发展的新理念,并提出完善我国统筹区域发展制度基础设施建设的建议。     

Local tax management in Spain: A study of the conditional efficiency of provincial tax agencies

This paper reports an efficiency analysis of local tax management by provincial tax agencies in Spain based on supramunicipal delegation. To conduct this study, we used the robust order-m conditional model that directly accounts for some socioeconomic environmental variables to estimate the efficiency scores. This is a key issue, as tax agencies do not have control over the context in which they operate, and this may have a severe impact on their performance. Our results suggest that several of the provincial contextual variables accounted for (the net property tax base, population density and inhabitants of the municipalities that have delegated management to the provincial tier of government) have a negative impact on efficiency, especially at higher variable value levels. Considering that the provincial tier of government can opt to set up specific self-governing agencies to perform these tasks, we also applied metafrontier analysis to assess their share in inefficiency. We concluded that the establishment of such self-governing agencies does not lead to higher efficiency levels.     

Productivity change in Brazilian water services: A benchmarking study of national and regional trends

Assessing the evolution of the performance of water supply and sanitation services is essential to monitor progress towards the universalization of water services, as specified by the Sustainable Development Goal 6 of Agenda 2030, adopted by United Nations member countries. Brazil, a developing country with a continental size and geographical diversity, will face significant challenges to achieve this goal. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the evolution of productivity of water supply and sanitation services in Brazilian municipalities in the period 2012–2019. The analysis also explores whether water services’ performance is balanced across the country, with a specific analysis of performance at the macroregion level. From a methodological perspective, this research evaluates productivity change over time using a Malmquist Productivity Index estimated with a metafrontier, satisfying the circularity property. It also develops a pseudo Malmquist index that compares productivity levels across macro-regions. The results revealed a productivity loss of approximately 4% at the national level, with an unequal profile across the macro-regions. The Southeast municipalities stand out for exhibiting, on average, higher productivity levels than the South and Northeast municipalities.     

论统筹区域发展的制度基础建设

党的十六届三中全会提出了＂统筹区域发展＂的概念,并将其作为经济社会协调发展的5个统筹之一,进一步从体制和政策上为区域发展提供了强有力的保障。文章介绍了统筹区城发展的新理念,并提出完善我国统筹区域发展制度基础设施建设的建议。     

The Neoliberalization of Municipal Land Policy in Sweden

In Sweden, local governments’ practice of the ‘municipal land instrument’—that is, the use of public land ownership as a tool for facilitating urban development—has a long tradition. In the post‐war era, public land ownership constituted an important component of state‐led housing production, which had both a productive and a redistributive purpose. Departing from a political economy perspective, this article demonstrates how the redistributive aspect of the municipal land instrument has been dissolved under neoliberalization, and discusses why the use of this instrument is problematic from both a democratic and ethical point of view. Based on a case study in Helsingborg, the article argues that, in using public land to leverage private investment in urban development, local decision makers adopt an interest in supporting rent extraction from tenants and housing owners, while subsidizing investment costs for developers. The dual role that municipalities assume as landowner‐developers and planning authorities enable them to facilitate urban development effectively, but it is also problematic because it transgresses the public–private law divide inherent to Swedish law. Assuming this dual role, municipalities place themselves in a biased position that risks undermining the legitimacy of governmental actions in general, and the planning system in particular.     

“十四五”时期生活性服务业发展的战略需求和基本思路

“十四五”时期中国生活性服务业的发展目标应该是有利于更好地满足人民日益增长的美好生活需要,增进人民群众的获得感、幸福感、安全感,有效应对经济下行压力和国内外风险挑战,更好地应对人口快速老龄化问题。因此,“十四五”时期推进生活性服务业发展的战略思路和目标任务及重点领域,需要科学处理四大关系,即坚持以人民为中心的发展思想与推进生活性服务业转型升级的关系,发挥政府、市场、社会作用的关系,坚持创新发展与普惠公平、赋能发展的关系,注重当前效果与长远影响的关系。发展生活性服务业的主要任务是引导增加有效供给,鼓励提升服务质量,优化空间布局,增强创新供给,引导需求能力,加强风险防控和可持续发展能力建设。     

浅谈平衡计分卡在高校食堂管理中的运用

平衡计分卡是绩效考核的一种有效工具,越来越多的营利性企业青睐于使用平衡计分卡提高企业管理水平。随着经济发展,高校后勤的社会化改革逐渐向经营性转变,食堂经营向企业模式转变,但依然保持服务性第一的特点,非财务指标显得尤为重要。文章引入平衡计分卡作为高校食堂绩效考核的新途径,建立综合评价指标体系,并分析在高校食堂管理中实施需要注意的问题,以达成高校食堂总愿景,即在保证优质服务的基础上完成营利目标。     

Waste management and recycling in Romania: a case study of technology transfer in an economy in transition

This paper describes a project which attempted to play some role in enabling the process of transferring knowledge between the UK and Romania. In partnership with a Romanian environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO), Powerful Information (an environmental information charity in the UK) worked towards searching out and evaluating the options available to local authorities wanting to develop more environmentally benign approaches to solid waste management, and in particular through recycling schemes. One key issue here is the role of standards as shaping technological trajectories, and the way inappropriate standards from another context can constrain local technological development. There has been a tendency for central and eastern European (CEE) countries to adopt laws and standards, resulting from an unquestioning adoption of standards from high income countries that may not be sustainable. The project described here was designed instead to identify choices and explore the process of evaluating and choosing appropriate technological systems for the particular situation that different Romanian municipalities were facing. It also examines emerging informal networks among waste management professionals and NGOs as a way of challenging this standards adopting approach to driving change in this area.