Contract culture and target fetishism: The distortive effects of output measures in local regeneration programmes

Performance management in TECs¹ and urban initiatives has developed in the 1990s into a “contract culture” characterised by heavy reliance on quantitative indicators as the basis for funding arrangements. These indicators may have perverse effects. Firstly, they may distort the design of local policy at the level of strategic planning and SRB (Single Regeneration Budget) bid-writing. Secondly, their use in contracts between TECs, City Challenge companies, SRB partnerships and their delivery agencies may distort policy implementation. An instructive parallel may be drawn between this “indicator distortion” and the distortions induced by planning targets in the former Soviet Union.     

How U.S. Farm Programs and Crop Revenue Insurance Affect Returns to Farm Land

A simulation model incorporating price and yield variability is used to examine the impact of government farm program and crop revenue coverage (CRC) insurance payments on the probability distribution of returns to land. Results indicate that Marketing Loan Program payments have the greatest impact on both the mean and standard deviation of returns. Agricultural Market Transition Act payments shift the distribution of returns without changing the variability, creating a reduction in relative risk. Market loss assistance payments increase the mean, reduce variability, and increase skewness. When combined, farm programs substantially increase the value that risk-averse producers place on the residual returns to land and substantially reduce the certainty equivalent value of CRC.     

Bank-led restructuring in Poland: the conciliation process in action1

Poland's 1993 Enterprise and Bank Restructuring Programme (EBRP) tried to force state-owned commercial banks to build institutional capacity and resolve their problem loans. The outcome of its innovative bank-led workout (‘conciliation’) process, documented in this study of 62 firms, is decidedly mixed. The EBRP forced banks to confront their problems, helped them to build instituional capacity in their workout units, and furthered the difficult task of weeding out and closing clearly unviable firms. Yet it had limited power to promote needed restructuring or privatization in firms. The conciliation agreements were relatively unsophisticated and include few tangible requirements for operational or management change. The first two years of implementation saw a slowdown (over earlier years) in the rate of layoffs, a decline in average operating profitablility, and very little real privatization. The main impact of conciliation appears to have been to reduce debt service and thereby give firms ‘breathing room’.     

The development of company law in India: The case of the Companies Act 1956

The influence of social and cultural context, including imperial influences, and politics on the promulgation of the Companies Act 1956 in post independence India, focusing in particular on accounting regulations incorporated in the Act, is explored using a framework based on the work of McKinnon [McKinnon JL. The historical development of the operational form of corporate reporting regulation in Japan. New York: Garland; 1986]. Within the framework, the promulgation of the Companies Act 1956 is analysed into three phases: source, diffusion and reaction with all phases being influenced by the social and cultural context of India and political processes. In particular, the importance of the role of the government and the socio-economic and cultural context of India is indicated in both the need for, and in the process of, change to the Companies Act 1956.     

Public Research Policy for Today's Agricultural Biotech Research Industry

While the public sector has historically played a very significant role in the direct provision of agricultural research, the appropriate role of government in the future is no longer apparent in a world with intellectual property rights (IPRs) and a concentrated privatized biotech research industry. This study develops a search/imperfect competition framework to examine the public role. The analysis shows that private firms have inadequate incentives to invest in research for varietal improvement relative to the social optimum even with completely enforceable IPRs. A government subsidy on research output can efficiently increase the amount of applied research to the socially optimal point. Government subsidy of the research cost can have the same effect on research and development expenditure. Expanding direct applied public research increases social welfare but cannot achieve a social optimum, as it reduces the already limited incentives for private firms to invest. Finally, in situations where basic research is underprovided, government should address these market failures as part of an optimal research policy. Overall, the analysis suggests that there is a role for public support of applied research, but this role is no longer direct public involvement in applied research where IPRs are well established.     

The Local Economic Impacts of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan in Saskatchewan

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan seeks to improve wildlife habitat and increase waterfowl numbers through voluntary transactions with farmers to modify their land management practices. The impact of modified land use practices on the incomes of participating farmers and the regional economy are estimated. The compensation offered under the Plan for modification of land use is determined to adequately offset any loss in participants' income. Income losses to the community due to reduced farm input sales were more than offset by the increase in NAWMP direct expenditures (excluding compensation payments). Distributional effects and externalities must be recognized and monitored to ensure success of the program