The Board of Directors and The Adoption of Quality Management Tools

Abstract

The article examines the role of the board of directors in Local Public Utilities (LPUs). It aims at verifying empirically if a correlation exists between specific characteristics of the board of directors and the adoption of innovative arrangements addressing emerging needs of users and citizens (i.e. quality). By means of applying multivariate statistical methods to a random sample of sixty Italian LPUs, this study finds the relational capital of the boards affecting the take up of quality-oriented actions by LPUs. These results support the resource-dependence theory, neglected by mainstream literature.     

URBANIZATION,HEALTH AND HUMAN STATURE

Economic growth has not always generated improvements in a population's health. Biological indicators of human well‐being, including stature, suggest the march to prosperity was not a steady one, and these biological indicators offer estimates of the health costs associated with modern economic growth. We employ an international data set to study the socioeconomic benefits and health costs associated with the transition to modern economic growth during the nineteenth century. We find that while the growth of GDP per capita had a positive impact on the stature of Western populations, prior to the mastery of the germ theory of disease, urbanization had a strong negative impact.     

从宁夏突发公共卫生事件看宁夏疾控机构图书馆(室)信息服务工作

针对宁夏突发公共卫生事件,探讨宁夏各级疾控机构图书馆(室)如何有效加强图书馆信息资源管理,转变服务模式,以促进宁夏图书馆(室)信息服务水平的进一步提升。     

Public Service Leaders as ‘Change Agents’ – for Whom?

Abstract

This article examines how far senior staff in English educational and health service organizations view themselves as leaders who are ‘change agents’ for government-driven reform and independent change agendas. The contribution of external leadership development provision to shaping these self-perceptions is explored. Special attention is paid to national leadership development bodies with different degrees of formal association with government. Whatever this relationship, such provision and other development support apparently reinforced a strong sense of personal agency (choice of action) associated with being a leader, empowering senior staff to adopt a modestly mediatory stance towards both reform and leadership development provision.     

新形势下公共财政管理应提高纳税人意识

随着公共财政管理范围的不断扩大,增强公共财政管理者的纳税人意识,履行好公共财政管理和服务职能已成为新形势下财政管理者的新课题。本文从纳税人的内涵出发,对新形势下如何加强纳税人意识进行了探讨。     

Urban informal sector and poverty

Many studies have explored the connection between trade and poverty theoretically and empirically for the developing world. We offer another look at the possible implications of trade liberalization on urban poverty by using the urban informal sector as a catalyst. The theory shows that trade liberalization in the import competing sector raises informal wage across occupational types, and expands production and employment in the informal industrial segment. Further, using Indian provincial data on wage, capital stock and value added in the informal sector we show that real informal wage increased with trade reform and transmitted favorable impact on urban poverty reduction.     

我国基本公共服务均等化的标准设计

基本公共服务均等化标准是实现均等化的基本途径。制定基本公共服务均等化标准必须坚持城乡一体化原则、平等与均衡相统一原则、机会均等优先原则、防止平均化陷阱原则和防止福利化陷阱原则;必须从多维度视角出发,明确基本公共服务均等化标准种类上的民生性、数量上的最低性、阶段上的动态性、形式上的多样性以及构成上的多元性。     

城市公交成品油价格补助政策浅析

为消化油价调整给公交行业带来的成本负担,国家于2006年开始出台了一系列成品油价格补助政策,给予城市公交企业成品油价格补助。本文根据成品油价格补助政策产生的原因及现状,分析目前成品油价格补助政策存在的问题,并为成品油价格补助政策的有效实施提出建议。     

中国特色社会主义经济理论的基石——关于公有制与市场经济的结合问题

公有制与市场经济的结合，是中国市场化改革的核心；改革近30年来始终存在一种公有制与市场经济不能结合的观点，有其理论与实践的原因；我国改革理论的探索，即从公有制与市场经济认识的双重深化上，解开了公有制与市场经济相结合的理论难题；现在的问题在于实践，特别是有待于国有企业改革的深化与发展。     

论美国"公共新闻运动"

20世纪最后10年,美国开展了声势浩大的"公共新闻"运动。尽管它至今没有形成确定的概念与清晰的理论框架,但围绕"为人民"这一理念,力图挽救日益堕落的公共生活以及媒体与公众之间的联系,从各个方面做出了努力和尝试,学术界和实业界共同推动了"美国新闻史上最有组织的内部社会运动"。但这一运动也有不可避免的局限性,无法摆脱媒体专业主义、企业形态、合作分工的影响,无法真正实现公众为表达自己的声音而要求的近用权,势必被更为民主的"市民新闻"所替代。