Towards a Network Government? A critical analysis of current assessment methods for e-Government

Contemporary public administrations have become increasingly more complex, having to cordinate actions with emerging actors in the public and the private spheres. In this scenario the modern ICTs have begun to be seen as an ideal vehicle to resolve some of the problems of public administration. We argue that there is a clear need to explore the extent to which public administrations are undergoing a process of transformation towards a netowork government linked to the systematic incorporation of ICTs in their basic activities. Through critically analysing a selection of e-government evaluation reports, we conclude that research should be carried out if we are to build a solid government assessment framework based on network-like organisation characteristics.

Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product: Catalonia sacra

This article aims to provide an overview of the products Catalonia has to offer in terms of religious tourism. The growing interest in this kind of tourism worldwide, and in Catalonia itself, along with the region's wealth of religious heritage (particularly connected to the Christian Church) contrast with the lack of religion-based tourism products available, which results in its absence from the region's image as a tourism destination. In view of this, the Faculty of Tourism (University of Girona), the Vic Bishopric's Albergueria-Centre for Cultural Dissemination and the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference's Interdiocese Secretariat for the Custody and Promotion of Holy Art (SICPAS) decided to address the situation with the help of funding from the Autonomous Government of Catalonia. In order to re-position Christian religious heritage in the image of Catalonia as a tourist destination, the aforementioned parties embarked upon a project to set up a series of routes throughout the region, branded under the name Catalonia Sacra

Testing the FTPL across government tiers

Control on regional government budgets is important in a monetary union as lower tiers of government have fewer incentives to consolidate debt. According to the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level; unsustainable non-Ricardian fiscal policies eventually force monetary policy to adjust. Hence, uncoordinated and non-regulated regional fiscal policies would therefore threaten price stability for the monetary union as a whole. However, the union central bank is not without defense. A federal government that internalises the spillover effect of non-Ricardian fiscal policies on the price level can offset non-Ricardian regional fiscal policies. A federal government, which taxes and transfers resources between regions, may compensate for unsustainable regional fiscal policies so as to keep fiscal policy Ricardian on aggregate. Following Canzoneri et al. (2001), we test the validity of the Fiscal Theory of the Price Level for both federal and regional governments in Germany. We find evidence of a spillover effect of unsustainable policies on the price level for other Länder. However, the German federal government offsets this effect on the price level by running Ricardian policies. These results have implications for the regulation of fiscal policies in the EMU.

Fiscal sustainability across government tiers: an assessment of soft budget constraints

This paper analyses how fiscal adjustment comes about when both central and sub-national governments are involved in consolidation. We test sustainability of public debt with a fiscal rule for both the federal and regional government. Results for the German Länder show that lower tier governments bear a relatively smaller part of the burden of debt consolidation, if they consolidate at all. Most of the fiscal adjustment occurs via central government debt. In contrast, both the US federal and state levels contribute to consolidation of public finances.

Inovação & propriedade industrial & indústria química

ABSTRACT The main aim of this paper was to contribute to reflections in Brazil on the need to transfer knowledge held at universities and R&D institutions over to companies, i.e. to transfer scientific knowledge of chemistry to technology. It discusses how the competitiveness of countries is increasingly dependent on their technological capacity. The chemicals industry is a fundamental driver of social, environmental, economic and industrial indicators of sustainable development. In Brazil, the chemicals industry's deficit has grown over the last three decades. Patents are important sources of information because patent documents contain 75% of all technological information available. The National Institute of Industrial Property in Brazil has created a Technology Observatory with the purpose of identifying and analyzing technological information contained in patent documents within the ambit of partnerships with government entities or business associations, in order to support their technology-related decision-making processes. The paper gives examples of ethanol and biotechnology patent documents, including pharmaceuticals, of which there are very few in Brazil. However, a few of the patent applications identified are filed in Brazil, giving the country the opportunity to transform this scientific knowledge into technology by means of partnership agreements with companies. Finally, the paper presents information on the patent applications filed by the world's leading chemicals companies as measured by their revenues, and the respective numbers of patent applications in the last five years in organic chemistry and polymers, sectors in which Brazil is currently dependent on imports for over 50% of its needs. The patent assignees in these sectors in Brazil are also identified, and the paper concludes that Brazil needs to invest in the development of professionals, providing clearly-defined career paths in technology innovation teams at R&D institutions, and to foster more initiatives such as the creation of a new research and innovation entity, EMBRAPII, since investing in science and technology is a prerequisite for knowledge production, industrial property, economic development and, consequently, the competitiveness of the country.

Webometric network analysis : mapping cooperation and geopolitical connections between local government administration on the web

Webben är en enorm källa för information. Innehållet på webbsidorna är en synlig typ av information, men webben innehåller även information av en annan typ, en mera gömd typ i form av sambanden och nätverken som hyperlänkarna skapar mellan webbsajterna och –sidorna som de kopplar ihop. Forskningsområdet webometri ämnar, bland annat, att skapa ny kunskap ur denna gömda information som finns inbyggt i hyperlänkarna samt att skapa förståelse för hurudana fenomen och förhållanden utanför webben kan finnas representerade i hyperlänkarna. Målet med denna forskning var att öka förståelse för användningen av hyperlänkar på webben och speciellt kommunernas användning av hyperlänkar. Denna forskning undersökte hur kommunerna i Egentliga Finland skapade och mottog hyperlänkar samt hurudana nätverk formades av dessa hyperlänkar. Forskningen kartlade nätverk av direkta länkar mellan kommunerna och av samlänkar till och från kommunerna och undersökte ifall dessa nätverk kunde användas för att undersöka geopolitiska förhållanden och samarbete mellan kommunerna i Egentliga Finland. De övergripande forskningsfrågorna som har besvarats i denna forskning är: 1) Från ett webometriskt perspektiv, hur använder kommunerna i Egentliga Finland webben? 2) Kan hyperlänkar (direkta länkar och samlänkar) användas för att kartlägga geopolitiska förhållanden och samarbete mellan kommuner? 3) Vilka är de viktigaste motiveringarna för att skapa länkar mellan, till och från kommunernas webbsajter? Denna forskning kom till ovanligt tydliga resultat för en webometrisk forskning, både när det gäller upptäckta geografiska faktorer som påverkar hyperlänkningarna och de klassificerade motivationerna för att skapa länkarna. Resultaten visade att de direkta hyperlänkarna mellan kommunerna kan användas för att kartlägga geopolitiska förhållanden och samarbete mellan kommunerna för att de direkta länkarna var motiverade av officiella orsaker och de var klart påverkade av distansen mellan kommunerna och av de ekonomiska regionerna. Samlänkningarna in till kommunerna visade sig fungera som ett mått för geografisk likhet mellan kommunerna, medan samlänkningarna ut från kommunerna visade potential för att kunna användas till för att kartlägga kommunernas gemensamma intressen. Forskningen kontribuerade även till utvecklandet av forskningsområdet webometri. En del av de viktigaste kontributionerna av denna forskning var utvecklandet av nya metoder för webometrisk forskning samt att öka kunskap om hur existerande metoder från nätverksanalys kan användas effektivt för webometrisk forskning. Resultaten från denna forskning och de utvecklade metoderna kan användas för snabba kartläggningar av diverse förhållanden mellan olika organisationer och företag genom att använda information gratis tillgängligt på webben.