CAN INDONESIA DECENTRALISE SUCCESSFULLY? PLANS,PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

Indonesia is engaged in an unprecedented social and economic experiment. Responsibility for much government expenditure is being decentralised, largely to local (district) rather than to provincial governments. If this process is successful, the world's most centralised large country could become one of its most decentralised. This paper considers the issues arising as preparations for decentralisation are finalised, and as the socialisation of its plans and practices is considered by the central government, the People's Representative Council, the decentralised units of government, and the public. These issues were identified partly through interviews with local government officials. They include policy and administrative matters yet to be resolved, such as local budgeting, financial management and auditing practices, personnel decentralisation, local taxation, borrowing by local governments, and the match between revenues and expenditures. A major theme is the importance of a continuing national and local discussion on the goals and processes of decentralisation.     

Rapid growth and changing economic structure: The expenditure side story and its implications for China

The purpose of this essay has not been to provide China with a detailed list of all of the things that the country must do to maintain a high growth rate. The purpose of this essay instead has been to analyze some of the most basic choices that China must make going forward, choices that are not yet fully understood either by government or private analysts. China has a very unusual economic structure at least on the aggregate demand side and that creates special challenges that other countries have not had to face to the same degree. How well China handles these challenges will determine whether it will continue to progress rapidly to middle income status and beyond.     

Local and Global Competition in Information Technology

We examine the implications of changing competitive dynamics in global information and communications technology (ICT) markets for government demand-steering policies whose goal is local rents. Both computing and telephony are undergoing changes in global industry structure and changes in the nature of competition. The convergence of computing and telephony and the rapid technological change (and accompanying technological uncertainty) driving this convergence reinforce trends toward vertical competition. The emergence of global ICT markets lowers entry barriers, likely encouraging government-supported local entrants into global ICT markets. There are, however, strongly offsetting disadvantages. The underlying economics of ICT markets under vertical competition will work to reinforce the dominant position of U.S.-based incumbents in many segments. The prospects for exports, command of rent-related standards, and large rents from exports are not very bright. We expect to see far more demand-steering attempts than successes. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 1999, 13(4), pp. 336–371. Landau Economics Building, Department of Economics-6072, Stanford, California 94305-6072; and International Computer Services Research, Stanford Computer Industry Project, Landau Economics Building, SIEPR 144, Stanford, California 94305-6016. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: L5, F110.     

William graham sumner: Monetary theorist

Conclusion Sumner was the product of an indigenous American hard-money tradition that embraced free markets, free trade, and sound banking—a tradition that has much in common with the Austrian School in its theoretical and political orientation. His understanding of economic theory came from his reading of classical economists and the works of American theorist Condy Raguet, and his political convictions from his study of the American monetary experience, particularly the errors of the Hamiltonians. With these influences and his own hard-money views, Sumner arrived at positions on money, banking, and business cycles, economic policy that can be described as proto-Austrian in many ways. In particular, he saw credit-fueled booms as inherently unsustainable because they give rise to “fictitious capital” as versus real wealth.