Linkages and Industrial Policy for Eastern Europe

It is argued that insustrial policy for Eastern Europe is needed in order to reduce the social cost of transition. The industrial policy suggestes is based on unbalanced growth focused on key sectors that, according to linkage analysis, influence the economy more than other sector. An attempt should be made to increase efficency in key sectors, either by new investment or by closing down inefficient enterprises. This strategy could be adopted temporarily, gradually to move away from the existing structure of the economy rather than to reinforce it. In order to illustrate the potential of such an industrial policy, a sector-specific approach has been simulated for Poland using a compuable general equilibuium (CGE) model. The simulation results have shown that macroenonomic performance, measured by output, employment and funds available for invesment, is much better when industrial policy has been concentrated on a key sector.     

Performance Measurement in Government Service Provision: The Case of Police Services in New South Wales

The NSW Government is implementing a financial framework which is designed to encourage government service providers to become more efficient and effective. NSW Treasury is using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the efficiency of major government service providers, such as police, courts and hospitals. This paper outlines the progress in implementing the new financial framework and illustrates the way NSW Treasury will use DEA to help improve the efficiency of government service providers by describing an analysis of the NSW Police Service. The results suggest that NSW police patrols (local police districts) could, on average, reduce input usage by 13.5 percent through better management, and by 6 percent if the patrols could be restructured to achieve the optimal scale. Results also indicate that differences in operating environments, such as location and socioeconomic factors, do not have a significant influence upon the efficiency of police patrols.     

Pandemic risk disclosure in integrated reports: after COVID-19 is hindsight 2020?

We examine whether, and to what extent companies disclosed pandemic risk and likely impact as part of their key risks or material matters immediately prior to 2020. The integrated/annual reports of 489 companies from six global regions were examined, finding that despite clear warnings from multiple fronts that highlighted the inevitability and imminence of a global pandemic, only 15.5 percent of companies disclosed anything related to pandemic risk. Of these, 71.1 percent were boilerplate in nature, providing minimal useful information to stakeholders. This study contributes to our understanding of integrated reporting, specifically regarding the adequacy of the disclosure of material risks.     

Perspectives on demarketing during the energy crisis

This article has attempted to outline the antecedent conditions which produced a gasoline shortage in the United States and describe the demarketing strategies employed by Shell and Exxon. The effectiveness of their respective strategies and the oil industry, in general, in stimulating de-consumption was also examined.     

Consumer legislation: A proactive or reactive response to consumerism?

The number and rate of development of new consumer legislation necessitates the evaluation of existing legislation. This paper summarizes and categorizes, in detail, the impact of select pieces of consumer legislation on consumer decision making. It is an implied objective of the paper to provide a perspective for future public policy formulation. The pieces of legislation evaluated in the paper are: (1) unit pricing; (2) product labeling; and (3) disclosure of interest rate provisions for consumer credit. The impact of these pieces of legislation have been minimal, indicating the need for an educational program for consumers.     

Do we now collect any revenue from taxing capital income?

The U.S. income tax system has long been recognized as a hybrid of an income and consumption tax system, with elements that do not fit naturally into either pure system. What it actually is has important policy implications for, among other things, understanding the impact of moving closer to a pure consumption tax regime. In this paper, we examine the nature of the U.S. income tax system by calculating the revenue and distributional implications of switching from the current system to one form of consumption tax, a modified cash flow tax.     

Alfred Schütz and George Shackle: Two Views of Choice

Within the Austrian school of economics, Ludwig Lachmann identified Alfred Schütz and George Shackle as master subjectivists. Subjectivists trace aggregate economic phenomena back to the subjective thoughts and expectations of individuals. Schütz was a member of the Mises Circle of Austrian economists. Shackle was a student of the Austrian economist F.A. Hayek, but a follower of Hayek's great rival, John Maynard Keynes. Austrians respect both figures as important subjectivists who offered valuable accounts of the role of uncertainty in human action. The paper serves two purposes. First, it is a useful primer on the distinct theories of Schuts and Shackle. Second, it draws attention to the problem of change and novelty in the work of Schütz and Shackle. Schütz underemphasized the role of novelty in society. Shackle, by contrast, exaggerated the role of novelty in choice. A middle ground position is defended.     

Taxation and the stock market valuation of capital gains and dividends: Theory and emphirical results

Dividends seem to be more heavily taxed than capital gains. Why then do corporations pay dividends rather than repurchasing shares or retaining earnings? Either corporations are not acting in the interests of shareholders, or else shareholders desire dividends sufficiently for nontax reasons to offset the tax effect.In this paper, we measure the relative valuation of dividends and capital gains in the stock market, using a variant of the capital asset pricing model. We find that dividends are not valued differently systematically from capital gains. This finding is consistent with share price maximization by firms but inconsistent with the fact that most shareholderspay a heavier tax on dividends.We also show that the relative value of dividends provides an indirect measure of a marginal Tobin's q. The measured value of dividends relative to capital gains tends to be higher during prosperous periods, as is consistent with this interpretation. We hope that this time series on a marginal Tobin's q will prove to be useful in forecasting the rate of investment.