The use of performance information in cutback budgeting

Not having access to mainstream financial services, such as a bank account or a credit card, can lead to a variety of social and economic exclusions. In a number of countries, particularly Ireland, Spain, Canada and the UK, credit unions— member-owned financial co-operatives—play a significant role in reaching under-served and excluded communities, as well as providing ‘safe’ avenues for savings and credit. Yet many credit unions are facing financial and operational problems. This article looks at the experience of Welsh credit unions. The research has implications for policy development and government–credit union relations in Wales and further research on credit unions and financial inclusion.     

How the German government responded to the financial,economic and fiscal crises

This paper explains the German government's response to the financial, economic and fiscal crises. It covers the financial crisis in 2008 when banks were supported (SoFFin), the economic crisis in 2009, and the fiscal crisis of increasing state debts and budget deficits which caused the German government to cut spending (Sparpaket) in 2010. The author looks at the contents of the government's responses, but also at the political and administrative aspects of the government's decision-making processes.     

Budgeting and governing for deficit reduction in the UK public sector: act three ‘accountability and audit arrangements’

This paper explains how the UK central government has changed accountability and audit arrangements for local government in England, while retaining its approach to setting annual budgets within the context of multi-year spending reviews. It highlights how dismantling the institutions and processes that monitored outputs and outcomes for spending, such as public service agreements and comprehensive area assessment, meant that top-down accountability became focused overwhelmingly on financial conformance rather than organizational performance for local government. Supplementary reforms to increase the transparency or ‘visibility’ of public administration, and thereby enable greater bottom-up accountability, have resulted in a performance assessment system that is neither rigorous nor standardized. The overall result is a weakening of local accountability arrangements.     

Internationalization and employability: the role of intercultural experiences in the development of transferable skills

Policy-makers are increasingly advocating market-based reforms to increase choices for service users and therefore to drive improvement through competition. This article assesses this approach in a hospital trust where there is plenty of scope for patients to choose providers and so for reforms based on a market logic to work. The market had very little impact on the hospital's activities, but demands from the Department of Health and the strategic health authority for the hospital to become more market-oriented were creating the potential for significant dysfunctional consequences.     

Utilization-focused performance reporting

How best to define performance measures is a much-debated issue. Mismatches between goals and indicators can lead to distortions that undermine impact-oriented steering. This article presents a model of goal and indicator development and explains its applicability, benefits and limitations.     

中国地方政府投资对城镇化的影响--基于动态面板模型的经验分析

以我国1994-2011年的省份面板数据为例,采用广义矩估计方法,实证考察了我国地方政府投资与城镇化发展的动态关系。结果显示,整体而言,我国地方政府投资显著地提升了城镇化水平;按照东、中、西三大区域分类估计后发现,地方政府投资对城镇化发展的促进效果具有区域差异效应--地方政府投资对东部地区的城镇化发展拉动最大,中部居中,西部最小。     

Convergence Rates to Output Growth in a Global World: The Roles of Openness and Government Size

In this article, we examine the effects of three openness measures on 54 industrial and emerging economies' output growth over the “globalization years” of 1986–2004. Controlling for standard determinants of the Solow growth model in panel data, we find positive effects of openness on real output growth. While we find support for higher convergence rates under the open economy, the convergence rates in this article for both samples are remarkably close to the 2% level documented in Mankiw et al. (1992) Mankiw, G., Romer, D. and Weil, D. 1992. A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107(2): 407–437. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. The inclusion of G/Y, however, reduces the speed of convergence more substantially in industrial economies.     

政府融资平台的经济效应与风险防范

近些年来我国地方政府融资平台发展迅速,平台数量和贷款规模均呈现较快增长态势,其在应对国际金融危机冲击、促进地方经济发展的过程中发挥了重要的积极作用。但是,由于外部体制不顺、内部运营不规范等综合原因,地方政府融资平台面临着法律风险、财政风险和金融风险等诸多挑战。在改革和完善融资平台建设的过程中需要各项政策多管齐下,积极探索和发展地方政府融资的替代渠道,加快现有平台企业的清理整顿和规范发展,尽快建立系统科学的风险预警机制和信用评级制度。     

捐赠行为、政府干预与代理效率

本文分析了公司捐赠行为对代理效率的作用机理,发现捐赠支出越多越能缓解现金流用于管理者利己效用支出,代理效率越高、政府干预越少则市场化进程更高、代理效率越高;比较而言,政府干预少的地区企业捐赠支出更能提高代理效率,衰退期行业中同样的捐赠支出提升代理效率的功效有限;规模较小组中捐赠行为更容易被市场识别,规模较大组中捐赠行为更多地被视为一种社会责任。因此,捐赠支出有助于缓解自由现金流代理成本,有助于公司代理效率的改善;现实中捐赠减少现金流的同时提高了公司的代理效率和声誉,利于当前或未来公司价值的提升。     

The elusive effect of bank size on profits

This study investigates the determinants of bank profit while paying particular attention to the influence of market share on profit, referred as the market share effect. The research seeks to answer the question whether the market share effect is conditional upon four country institutional factors including concentration ratio, bank regulations, the government's governance and country wealth, and is thus better in explaining the mixed results in the literature. This study employs comprehensive data of 44 countries from 1998 to 2004. The results show that market share positively influences profit when no country institutional factors are considered, but further strengthened in countries that are characterized by high concentration ratios, high restrictions on bank activities in insurance and real estate, good investor protection and a strong rule of law.