Public Management as a University Discipline in New European Union Member States

Abstract

Many market-type mechanisms were introduced in the public administration reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Therefore public administration higher education in CEE should prepare not only classical public administrators but also public managers to operate in this new environment. This paper summarizes our research results on three new Central European members. The focus is on the scale of public management (PM) programmes, on the proportion of PM courses in the curricula of accredited PM programmes and on the dominant teaching approaches.     

Mundane heroines: Conflict,Ethnicity, Gender,and Female Headship in Eastern Sri Lanka

For the last twenty years, eastern Sri Lanka has witnessed a bitter and bloody civil conflict. This paper explores the experience of female-headed households in the region. Only partially the product of war, such households cannot be bundled together as a social problem with a single solution. Our study endorses the feminist suspicion of falsely homogenizing accounts of women's lives and suggests instead an alternative emphasis on the many ways in which gendered relations of dominance and subordination are maintained. With its co-existing Muslim, Tamil, and Sinhala groups, eastern Sri Lanka facilitates the exploration of ethnicity as a source of variation. The households included in this study share a common structure and face the same economic problems, yet ethnic differences divide them. The paper charts the problems, strategies, and partial triumphs of these lone mothers and proposes policies to help them in their mundane but heroic struggle.     

FDI in Bulgaria

ABSTRACT

This article examines aspects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria. The article considers propositions relating to the location and own-company motives for engaging in FDI in Bulgaria, the performance of the foreign ventures, and challenges in the management of the ventures. The article also reviews the lessons for potential investors in Bulgaria. The article is based on the analysis of in-depth interviews with senior expatriate managers of nine foreign ventures in Bulgaria. This analysis serves to better understand the nature of FDI in Bulgaria and highlights the issues facing potential investors. Relatively few studies have been conducted on FDI in Bulgaria which is one of the least researched transition economies. This article therefore sheds new light on some important issues concerning FDI in Bulgaria and serves as a case study of a transition economy that is little reported on and little known in the West.     

The role of implicit contracts: Building public works in the 1840s in Portugal

This article studies financial schemes for building public works in the 1840s. The study of the Portuguese case clearly illustrates the importance of implicit contracts with governments in peripheral Europe, shedding light on solutions for financing the provision of public goods. Building roads and railways seems to have been the fruit of an implicit contract behind the tobacco monopoly in a country involved in social turmoil and civil wars. Reputation effects are called to explain the relevant range of the partners' negotiations, to reject the traditional historiography based on wrong management and speculation in a period of savage capitalism.     

The Underground Economy in the Late 1990s: Evading Taxes,or Evading Competition?

This paper studies the driving forces behind the considerable expansion of the underground economy during the late 1990s. I propose a novel explanation for this phenomenon: the sharp increase in market competition worldwide, which reduces prices and profits and drives firms into the shadow economy. Empirical evidence from a panel covering 45 countries from 1995 to 2000 shows that increased competition is indeed correlated with an expansion of the underground economy. The effect is strongest in low-tax, high-corruption countries that do not provide the public services which make it worthwhile for firms to remain official despite growing competitive pressure.     

Motives and Modes of FDI,Firm Characteristics and Performance

Abstract

In this exploratory study, die autfiors attempt to determine and interpret die interdependencies between die motives and modes of setting up subsidiaries by foreign investors in Poland, and the main characteristics and performance of these subsidiaries. Two modes of setting up a subsidiary are examined: green-field and acquisition. The audiors use data collected from seven foreign subsidiaries operating in Poland and apply within-case and cross-case analytical approach to identify and interpret relationships between die variables under consideration. The results of the study lead to a formulation of eight hypotheses requiring further testing and research.     

The law of promotion with prize fund --The most successful strategy in the current worldwide economic crisis

Each company has to reopen different new methods and means in order to maintain high degree of competitive power on the market in the period of economic crisis today. The described and developed method and procedure by the author give every company concrete decisions to reach a better competitive power on the market in the globalization and mostly in the economic worldwide crisis today. The described method sand procedures below was developed by the author 1993 as a president of consulting company ＂D ＆ M Dobrev Consulting House＂ for analysis, trading.     

European Viking Themed Festivals: An Expression of Identity

Viking themed festivals are now widespread throughout Europe and are a popular expression of heritage identity. The Anglo-American stereotypical representation of Viking heritage is of sea-faring, sexist and bloodthirsty men raping and pillaging. In contrast to this image, in Scandinavia the dominant image of Vikings in popular culture finds fewer references to war and warriors. Here the Viking representation is very much concerned with the people who ‘abroad were known as pirates, but at home lived in a well-ordered society’. European Viking themed festivals have largely attempted to give greater credence to the latter representation. However, it is often the more bloodthirsty image that initially inspires Anglo-American tourists to visit sites. Based upon qualitative research, in this paper we examine the geographical and organisational depth of Viking themed festivals in Europe. Furthermore, we argue that at Viking themed festivals the past is constructed and idealised by participants as an authentic way of life and that this is used as an expression of identity.     

Economic Exchange Rate Exposure of U.S.-Based MNCs Operating in Europe

This study focuses on the economic exchange rate exposure of 168 U.S.-based multinational corporations (MNCs) with foreign operations primarily in Europe. The sampling plan and other refinements may improve the estimation of exposure and detection of relevant determinants. Operating characteristics that represent economic exposure are evaluated for their ability, to explain cross-sectional differences in exposure. More specifically, the degree of imbalance, which is a proxy for matching cash inflows and outflows, and proportion of export sales are able to explain differential exposure. Furthermore, shifts in the degree of imbalance and proportion of export sales are found to significantly explain shifts in exposure.     

Continued decline for ethnic minorities in the transition?

Using three Bulgarian cross‐sectional household surveys from 1986, 1993 and 1997, this essay shows that the mean log wage differential between ethnic Bulgarians and Turks increased from 0.1615 in 1986 to 0.2874 in 1993 and again to 0.4075 by 1997. Bulgarian gains over ethnic Turks in the early transition are related to both changes in the relative returns to skill and changes in the composition of demand for goods and services as the country moved toward a market economy. The Turks began the transition with fewer years of education than the Bulgarians, and began to close the education gap over this time. The Bulgarians, however, were more likely to have obtained more general secondary and university degrees than the ethnic Turks – degrees that, in contrast to technical or vocational degrees, are experiencing increased remuneration in the transition. With more of an asset that has become more valuable, the ethnic Bulgarians improved their relative position.