Global public spending efficiency in Tuscan municipalities

The paper presents a Data Envelopment Analysis aimed at studying the efficiency of Tuscan municipalities' public expenditure. Five strategic functions of Tuscan municipalities are first considered carrying out a non-aggregate analysis; then the overall expenditure composition of each municipality and the global spending efficiency are analysed by a proposed composite indicator. The main determinants affecting the municipalities' efficiency were further investigated. In particular, the obtained results may be consistently included in the long-standing debate on the municipal size, proving that the bigger the municipality, the greater its level of public expenditure efficiency.     

审计监督的财政治理效应研究——基于省以下地方审计机关人财物管理改革的准自然实验

审计监督是党和国家监督体系的重要组成,财政审计能对政府财政收支的真实性、合法性和效益性进行有效监督。以省以下地方审计机关人财物管理改革这一试点政策为准自然实验,从地方政府财政治理视角出发,运用双重差分法分析提升地市级审计机关独立性对地方政府财政支出效率的影响。研究发现,审计机关人财物管理改革能够有效提高地方政府财政支出效率,试点地区财政支出效率提高1.87个百分点。异质性分析结果发现,审计独立性的治理效应在财政透明度低、距离省会城市远和财政自主程度高的城市更大。通过进一步的机制分析,发现试点政策通过提高审计监督质量和优化财政支出结构两条路径提高地方政府财政支出效率。研究表明提高地方审计机关独立性可以对地方政府财政支出产生积极的治理效应。     

Property value maximization and public sector efficiency

This paper analyses the efficiency implications of property value maximization. Communities are open, so that utilities are parametric to housing producers and the local government. Each local government chooses its public good output to maximize aggregate property value in the community, ignoring feedback effects on the composition of the housing stock. It is shown that this type of government behavior generates an equilibrium in which all communities are internally Pareto-efficient.     

Property taxes and property values: evidence from Proposition

We examine the effect of Proposition  on revenues and housing prices in Massachusetts. Communities that were initially constrained by the law saw large increases in state aid and the use of fees. We use these initial constraints as instruments for changes in other components of revenue while treating the change in the property tax as exogenously determined by Proposition  . Our results strongly suggest that communities that were able to increase their property taxes more rapidly saw greater increases in their housing values in the period following passage of the law.     

Public Spending, Land Taxes and Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis of the Adequacy of Land as a Tax Base

Abstract . Site value taxation is often cited as desirable on efficiency grounds, but is all too often dismissed for alleged lack of revenue potential. This paper empirically tests the revenue adequacy of site value taxation. Revenue adequacy in this study is defined as the ability of the tax base to keep pace with community expenditure needs. The paper concludes that communities with higher than average rates of capital growth and with a relatively constrained land area will find land taxes when subsituted for present property taxes, quite adequate for future as well as present needs.     

Which school attributes matter? The influence of school district performance and demographic composition on property values

Increasing levels of segregation in American schools raises the question: do home buyers pay for test scores or demographic composition? This paper uses Connecticut panel data spanning eleven years from 1994 to 2004 to ascertain the relationship between property values and school district attributes, such as student test scores and the racial and ethnic composition of the student body. Town and census tract fixed effects are included to control for neighborhood unobservables. The effect of changes in school district attributes is also examined over a decade long time frame in order to focus on the effect of long-run changes, which are more likely to be capitalized into prices. The study finds strong evidence that increases in percent Hispanic have a negative effect on housing prices in Connecticut, but mixed evidence concerning the impact of test scores on property values. Student test scores also appear to have increased in importance for explaining housing prices in recent years, while the importance of percent Hispanic has declined. Finally, the study finds that estimates of property tax capitalization increase substantially when the analysis focuses on long run changes.     

开发支出资本化、内部控制与审计收费——基于企业异质性特征的实证检验

以2007—2018年沪深A股上市公司为样本,研究了开发支出资本化对审计收费的影响以及内部控制对开发支出资本化与审计收费关系的调节作用,并从产权性质和是否高新技术企业的企业异质性特征角度进行了分组检验。研究发现,存在开发支出资本化的公司会被收取更高的审计费用,高质量内部控制能够负向调节开发支出资本化对审计收费的影响,非国有控股公司和高新技术企业内部控制的负向调节作用更强。研究结果说明审计师在对上市公司进行审计时,充分考虑了开发支出资本化存在的风险以及内部控制的负向调节作用,并将其作为影响审计收费的重要因素。     

Investment Frictions and the Aggregate Output Loss in China

Investment frictions reduce, delay or protract investment expenditure that is necessary for firms to capture growth opportunities. Using a capital adjustment costs framework, this article estimates the gap between China's actual and frictionless aggregate output. It applies the method of simulated moments to a fully structural investment model on a panel of Chinese firms and takes into account potential unobserved heterogeneities and measurement error in the data. The estimated capital adjustment costs imply that if Chinese firms had faced a lower level of adjustment costs such as in the US, China's aggregate output would be 25% higher.     

The deterrence hypothesis revisited

This study explores the causes of crime and the differences in deterrent effects of policing on crimes among rural, suburban, and urban communities. We hypothesize that certain numbers of all crimes are unaffected by policing due to their high net return; policing deters only marginal crimes. That is, unlike other research efforts, we recognize that there is a level of crime indigenous to a given type of community about which little can be done, although a particular community can affect deviations from this level. By introducing this ‘natural rate' of crime we are able to empirically reveal the deterrence effect of police expenditures upon all types of property crimes except robberies. The study analyzes 230 communities in a system of six simultaneous equations, using police, crime, and other socio-economic variables. The model can be used by state and regional policy-makers to more effectively allocate resources to the different types of communities under their jurisdiction and among the various police functions designed to deter specific types of crime.     

The effect of zoning on land value

Two types of zoning are identified: externality zoning, which is designed to achieve a Pareto efficient pattern of land use, and fiscal zoning, which is designed to accomplish some other objective. (The latter, for instance, may be aimed at minimizing the tax rate in a community.) The paper shows that it is not in general possible using a priori theory to predict the sign (positive or negative) of the effect of either of these forms of zoning on aggregate land value in a community. It is shown, however, that under plausible assumption it can be argued that zoning as currently practiced in many U. S. communities probably has the effect of lowering aggregate land values in the communities doing the zoning.     

Incentive Effects in Higher Education: an Improved Funding Model for Universities

We examine the incentive effects of risk‐sharing between student and university in the English higher education system. The ‘graduate premium’ has been widely reported and has been used to justify rising higher education participation and increased individual or governmental expenditure. But this premium is simply the mean of a wide distribution, varying, inter alia, by subject, institution, year of graduation and individual. We assume that universities exist in a state of monopolistic competition and are subject to a budget constraint. Using US college data we find evidence suggesting that a funding model which incorporates risk‐sharing improves the efficiency of educational delivery while maintaining subject diversity and access.     

Expansionary effects of the welfare state in a small open economy

We examine the relationship between welfare state policies and economic performance in a small open economy with (i) free trade in final goods and international capital mobility, and (ii) aggregate increasing returns to scale. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, we find that a retrenchment of welfare programmes is not an inevitable consequence of economic integration. Instead, by improving the exploitation of aggregate scale economies, social expenditure policies and international openness complement each other in facilitating an improvement in economic performance that can sustain a more generous welfare protection.     

国家审计促进公共支出效率的路径与机理——基于中国省级面板数据的实证分析

提高公共支出效率是建立现代财政制度的题中之义。围绕国家审计提高公共支出效率这一主题,构建国家审计提高公共支出效率的理论框架,并基于投入导向的超效率 DEA 模型测算2008—2013年中国各省份的公共支出效率,运用Tobit模型进行数据检验,结果显示：国家审计通过审计揭示功能、审计处理处罚功能与审计建议功能之间的协同作用对公共支出效率产生积极影响,共同提升公共支出效率。因此,国家审计机关要在揭露违法违规问题、进行处理处罚的基础上,重点挖掘体制、机制和制度层面的原因,提出高质量的审计建议并推动其实施,共同促进公共支出的效率效果。     

Relative prices and electronic substitution: Changes in household-level demand for postal delivery services from 1986 to 2004

This paper quantifies the extent to which the shift in the aggregate household-level demand for postal delivery services can be attributed to the appearance of alternative modes of communication versus the concomitant rise in postal prices. We find that both recent postal price increases and the penetration of personal computer technology among US households led to similar reductions in postal expenditure. We further find that a 5% postal price increase, such as the one introduced in January 2006 reduces revenue collected from US households by $215 million and imposes an aggregate welfare loss on US households of $333 million.     

EFFICIENCY OF THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM: A SUB‐STATE LEVEL ANALYSIS FOR WEST BENGAL (INDIA)

This paper attempts a sub‐state level analysis of health system efficiency, focusing on West Bengal, a low income Indian state. Using a stochastic frontier model, it provides an idealized yardstick for evaluation. Our results suggest that overall efficiency of the public health delivery system remains low due to considerable disparities across districts. This is owing to differentials in availability and utilization of inputs such as the per capita availability of hospitals, beds, and manpower, and adversely affects life expectancy. Overcoming these factoral disparities may help the deficient districts to improve life expectancy. It may require a considerable increase in medical and public health expenditure in rural areas in the state and especially calls for resource mobilization to improve infrastructure facilities and maintain essential supplies at primary health centers. This could be attempted partly through funds from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and by improving rural sanitation in poorer districts.     

The impact of collective bargaining for teachers on resource allocation in public school districts

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical evaluation of the impact of teacher bargaining on the demand for school inputs, the compensation of school personnel, and the level of educational expenditure in public school districts. It is demonstrated that the major impact of bargaining for teachers has been on a regional rather than on a district by district level, and, contrary to the results of previous studies, bargaining does appear to have a substantial and significant effect on teachers' salaries. The empirical analysis is carried out on a sample of public school districts located in the state of California.     

Managerial Efficiency in Higher Education Using Individual Versus Aggregate Level Data. Does the choice of Decision Making Units Count?

This paper explores the use of a data envelopment analysis approach to decompose student's under‐attainment in a part attributable to the Faculties they are enrolled in and a part attributable to the students themselves. The mean measure of each Faculty's teaching efficiency is calculated using both individual and aggregate data. The results show that efficiency measures at aggregate level reflect both the student's effort and the characteristics of the institution to which they belong, suggesting that they might lead to ambiguous results. The estimates also reveal that Faculties need to stimulate their student's effort in order to perform better. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

二元经济结构视角下民生性财政支出与消费关系研究

习近平总书记指出目前中国正处于新发展阶段,我们要加快构建新发展格局,扩大内需,刺激消费。在此背景下,论文依托中国2013-2019年31个省相关的统计数据,利用个体固定效应模型分析民生性财政支出各组成部分对城乡居民消费水平的共性和差异化影响。研究表明,环境保护和住房保障支出对于城乡居民消费水平都没有显著的作用,而教育支出、社会保障和就业这两项支出对城镇居民消费水平的作用较为显著,医疗卫生支出对农村居民来说是正向的。     

Regional Competition for Domestic and Foreign Investment: Evidence from State Development Expenditures

We develop a model in which state governments spend funds on attracting capital with the intent of maximising the local net wage. Our results suggest that states are likely to spend less on economic development as the state wage level increases, and to spend more on industrial development as the state wage level increases, and to spend more on industrial development as the share of manufacturing in the state labor force increases. Empirical tests using state expenditure data confirm the predictions of the model.     

Measuring efficiency in education: The influence of imprecision and variability in data on DEA estimates

Many studies devoted to efficiency performance evaluation in the education sector are based on measures of central tendency at school level as, for example, the average values of students belonging to the same school. Although this is a common and accepted way of summarizing data from the original observations (students), it is not less true that this approach neglects the existing dispersion of data, which may become a serious problem if variability across schools is high. Additionally, imprecision may arise when experts on each evaluated subject select the battery of questions, with different levels of difficulty, which will be the base for the final questionnaires completed by students. This paper uses data from US students and schools participating in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2015 to illustrate that schools' efficiency measures based on aggregate data and imprecision may reflect an inaccurate picture of their performance if they are compared to measures estimated accounting for broader information provided by all students of the same school. In order to operationalize our approach, we resort to Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis. This methodology allows us to deal with the notion of fuzziness in some variables such as the socio-economic status of students or test scores. Our results indicate that the estimated measures of performance obtained with the fuzzy DEA approach are highly correlated with those calculated with traditional DEA models. However, we find some relevant divergences in the identification of efficient units when we account for data dispersion and vagueness.