On the cost of rent-seeking by government bureaucrats in a Real-Business-Cycle framework

This paper studies the wasteful e ffect of bureaucracy on the economy by addressing the link between rent-seeking behavior of government bureaucrats and the public sector wage bill, which is taken to represent the rent component. In particular, public o fficials are modeled as individuals competing for a larger share of those public funds. The rent-seeking extraction technology in the government administration is modeled as in Murphy et al. (1991) and incorporated in an otherwise standard Real-Business-Cycle (RBC) framework with public sector. The model is calibrated to German data for the period 1970-2007. The main fi ndings are: (i) Due to the existence of a signi ficant public sector wage premium and the high public sector employment, a substantial amount of working time is spent rent-seeking, which in turn leads to signifi cant losses in terms of output; (ii) The measures for the rent-seeking cost obtained from the model for the major EU countries are highly-correlated to indices of bureaucratic ineffi ciency; (iii) Under the optimal scal policy regime,steady-state rent-seeking is smaller relative to the exogenous policy case, as the government chooses a higher public wage premium, but sets a much lower public employment, thus achieving a decrease in rent-seeking.

Government information transparency

This paper studies a model of announcements by a privately informed government about the future state of the economic activity in an economy subject to recurrent shocks and with distortions due to income taxation. Although transparent communication would ex ante be desirable, we find that even a benevolent government may ex-post be non-informative, in an attempt to countervail the tax distortion with a "second best" compensating distortion in information. This result provides a rationale for independent national statistical offices, committed to truthful communication. We also find that whether inequality in income distribution favors or harms government transparency depends on labor supply elasticity.

International Aid to Tanzania – with some comparisons from Ghana and Uganda

This paper has three principal objectives. First, to review the level of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Tanzania over the last two to three decades, and to place this into an economic context. This review includes some comparisons with the experience of Ghana and Uganda. Second, to discuss three major issues for the Tanzanian aid: the position of ODA as budget support, corruption, and alignment with the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Third, to review the literature on the Tanzanian aid experience, including a range of official evaluation reports produced by the Tanzanian government and by the donor community. The conclusions, broadly, are that ODA has been at a sustained high level for most of the period reviewed, funding a significant amount of government development expenditure, and that economic growth has been strong, with poverty reduction ‘flat-lining’ in Tanzania but being significant in Ghana and Uganda. Experience with budget support in Tanzania has been mixed, corruption continues as a major concern, and improvements to public finance management have been difficult to achieve. In this context governance adjustments come slowly, requiring patience on the part of both recipient governments and the ODA donor community.

Agency cost of government ownership: a study of voluntary audit comitte formation in China

In this paper, we investigate the agency costs of government ownership and their impact on corporate governance and firm value. China is used as a laboratory because of the prevalent state shareholdings in exchange-listed firms. In this context, we specifically consider the trade-offs involved in the voluntary formation of an audit committee when the controlling shareholder is the state. The decision to improve corporate governance (in this case, introduce an audit committee) is shown to be value relevant and a function of existing agency relationships and non-trivial implementation costs. Our findings are robust to the level of pyramid groups, the ownership-control wedge, and financial leverage. The research adds to the debate regarding the effect of government shareholdings on corporate culture and performance - a topic that hastaken on renewed importance in recent times.

Devolution dynamics of Spanish local government

Over the last few years, ther has been a devolutionary tendency in many developed and developing countries. In this article we propose a methodology to decompose whether the benefits in terms of effciency derived from transfers of powers from higher to municipal levels of government "the "economic dividend" of devolution) might increase over time. This methodology is based on linear programming approaches for effciency measurement. We provide anapplication to Spanish municipalities, which have had to adapt to both the European Stability and Growth Pact as well as to domestic regulation seeking local governments balanced budget. Results indicate that efficiency gains from enhaced decentralization have increased over time. However, the way through which these gains accrue differs across municipalities -in some cases technical change is the main component, whereas in others catching up dominates.

Schistosomiasis research funding: the TDR contribution

In spite of the recent decline in financial support on the part of some major donors, the overall international support for schistosomiasis research in current US dollars has been holding steady. However, when adjusted for inflation, a clear decline during the last decade appears and only in a few countries has this decline been balanced by increased national or bilateral funding. The prevailing level of support for schistosomiasis research is barely sufficient to maintain estabilished laboratories and researchers, and highlights the need to attract young investigators. The important goal of brunging a new generation of scientists into the field of schistosomiaisis can only be achieved by a considerable long-term increase in funding, both at the national and the international levels. A break-through in current research emphasizing improved techniques for control is needed to encourage donors and governments to improve the situation.

Biblioteca Digital de Catalunya: 10 anys d'activitats

El Consorci de Biblioteques Universitàries de Catalunya (CBUC) va ser creat el 1996 amb l'objectiu de fer i mantenir el catàleg col·lectiu de les universitats de Catalunya (CCUC) però aviat va ampliar les seves activitats amb el préstec interbibliotecari i les compres conjuntes d'informació electrònica. Aquesta darrera activitat va iniciar-se a finals de 1997 quan el CBUC va presentar als vicerectors de recerca de les universitats públiques de Catalunya el projecte de comprar bases de dades de manera consorciada. Aquests van estar-hi d'acord i van manifestar el seu interès de que en les compres conjuntes també s'incloguessin revistes electròniques. El CBUC va decidir englobar aquestes activitats sota el nom Biblioteca Digital de Catalunya (BDC) la qual naixia amb la "finalitat de proporcionar un conjunt nuclear comú d'informació electrònica per a la totalitat dels usuaris de les biblioteques del CBUC". A finals de 1998 el projecte de la BDC es va presentar a la Generalitat de Catalunya i es va obtenir un finançament per al projecte que cobria el període 1999-2001. Des de llavors la BDC ha passat per almenys tres fases: Una de formació, 1999-2001, que es va iniciar amb un ajut del llavors Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació (DURSI) de la Generalitat de Catalunya, ajut que es va traduir en una inversió de 180.000€/any i que va permetre l'inici de subscripcions conjuntes, principalment bases de dades. Una de creixement, 2002-2004, realitzada a partir d'un increment de l'ajut del DURSI, ajut que s'usa com a "capital llavor" per subscriure de forma especial revistes. En aquest moment la BDC s'amplia a universitats no membres del CBUC. Una d'estabilització, 2005-2009, en la que s'han fet algunes compres per a una part de les universitats (i no per a totes com fins llavors) i s'han iniciat alguns intents d'estendre la BDC a altres institucions de recerca. L'article caracteritza les diferents fases i mostra les causes de la seva evolució. Finalment, s'exposen els principals assoliments de la BDC així com els reptes de futur més immediats.

Is it redistribution or centralization? On the determinants of government investment in infrastructure

The dilemma efficiency versus equity, together with political partisan interests, has received increasing attention to explain the territorial allocation of investments. However, centralization intended to introduce or reinforce hierarchization in the political system has not been object as of now of empirical analysis. Our main contribution to the literature is providing evidence that meta-political objectives related to the ordering of political power and administration influence regional investment. In this way, we find evidence that network mode’s (roads and railways) investment programs are influenced by the centralization strategy of investing near to the political capital, while investment effort in no-network modes (airports and ports) appears to be positively related to distance. Since investment in surface transportation infrastructures is much higher than that in airports and ports, and taken into account that regions surrounding the political capital are poorer than the average, we suggest that centralization rather than redistribution has been the driver for the concentration of public investment on these regions.

Clínica jurídica ambiental

La “Clínica Jurídica Ambiental” constitueix una experiència d’innovació docent desenvolupada en el marc del Màster Oficial en Dret Ambiental i de la Llicenciatura en Dret de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili des del curs 2005-2006. El mètode clínic, que parteix dels principis de la contextualització de l’aprenentatge en escenaris reals, el model de learning by doing i la redefinició dels rols de l’alumne i del professor en el procés d’ensenyament-aprenentatge, és una estratègia que permet a l’alumne una formació integral orientada a la capacitació professional, d’acord amb el canvi de paradigma educatiu que suposa la creació de l’EEES. Es pretén així assolir una millor qualitat dels titulats a partir d’una formació en competències genèriques i específiques assolibles només amb estratègies d’aprenentatge actiu que facilitin l’autonomia i la responsabilització en la construcció del propi aprenentatge. Paral·lelament, la metodologia obliga a establir mecanismes de coordinació entre el professorat de diverses àrees de coneixement jurídiques. Els alumnes treballen en petits grups, durant el curs acadèmic, sobre un cas real subministrat per un client extern (administracions públiques, fiscalia, ONG,s). Els alumnes tenen un tutor intern, professor, i un tutor extern, que pertany a la institució que ha subministrat el cas. El tutor intern avalua de manera contínua i individual el procés d’aprenentatge de l’alumne (60% de la qualificació final); l'extern avalua el resultat final (40 % de la qualificació final), que s’ha de presentar com a treball de grup quan finalitza el curs acadèmic. El finançament atorgat per l’AGAUR, en el marc de la convocatòria MQD 2006, ha permès introduir millores significatives en aquest projecte: la introducció de la figura dels practitioners (advocats en exercici) en l’equip docent; l’organització d’un Seminari Internacional sobre Clinical Legal Education, i la realització de sessions plenàries formatives pels professors i els alumnes de la Clínica.

Fiscal foresight and the effects of government spending

We study the effects of government spending by using a structural, large dimensional, dynamic factor model. We find that the government spending shock is non-fundamental for the variables commonly used in the structural VAR literature, so that its impulse response functions cannot be consistently estimated by means of a VAR. Government spending raises both consumption and investment, with no evidence of crowding out. The impact multiplier is 1.7 and the long run multiplier is 0.6.

Tax evasion, technology shocks, and the cyclicality of government revenues

This paper analyzes the behavior of the tax revenue to output ratio over the business cycle. In order to replicate the empirical evidence, we develop a simple model combining the standard Ak growth model with the tax evasion phenomenon. When individuals conceal part of their true income from the tax authority, they face the risk of being audited and hence of paying the corresponding fine. Under the empirically plausible assumptions that the intertemporal elasticity of substitution exhibits a sufficiently small value and that productivity shocks are serially correlated, we show that the elasticity of government revenue with respect to output is larger than one, which agrees with the empirical evidence. This result holds even if the tax system displays flat tax rates. We extend the previous setup to generate larger fiscal deficits when the economy experiences a recession.

Briefing Paper on Health Inequalities for Elected Members of Local Government (ROI)

The social and economic circumstances in which people live strongly influence their chances to be healthy.  Factors such as housing, transport, environment, education and employment are just some of the functions of local government that influence health. IPH, in partnership with CAN and Nexus developed a briefing paper to support elected members of local government to ensure that the decision in which they are involved have a positive impact on health, especially the health of vulnerable groups.  It provides councillors with information to assist in contributing to a better quality of life for constituents with healthier decision making in areas such as safer environments, increased education opportunities, better housing stock and improved public transport availability.