Interrelation among Economic Growth, Income Inequality, and Fiscal Performance: Evidence from Anglo-Saxon Countries

The interrelation among economic growth, income inequality, and fiscal performance is very complex. The paper provides the analysis of the interrelations among these variables jointly by the structural VAR methodology, examining also transmission channels among them. This approach allows exploring dynamic interactions among them and feedback effects on each other. The empirical analysis is implemented for the Anglo-Saxon countries, the UK, the USA, and Canada. We find that income inequality has negative effect on economic growth in the case of the UK. The effect is positive in the cases of the USA and Canada. The increase in income inequality worsens fiscal performance for all the countries

Gestão fiscal responsável e qualidade de vida da sociedade: uma análise do desempenho dos estados brasileiros

Muitos trabalhos têm analisado o sucesso da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal a partir do desempenho dos indicadores fiscais. A evolução destes índices nos últimos anos mostra um sucesso incontestável. Por outro lado, a evolução dos indicadores sociais, embora permaneça em constante debate, acaba subordinada aos limites impostos ao poder discricionário do gestor público. A busca pelo cumprimento das metas de superávit e dos limites de gastos definidos a partir da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal é favorável até o ponto em que não se sobreponham ao papel principal do Estado de provedor de bens públicos. Desta forma, na medida em que o controle das contas públicas é objetivo importante das políticas públicas, mas não pode ser o único, este trabalho constrói uma visão mais ampla de avaliação da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, levando-se em conta a dimensão qualitativa do gasto público e não apenas a quantitativa, medida pelos resultados fiscais. A fim de colaborar com o debate acerca do aprimoramento da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, estudou-se a existência de impactos de bons resultados fiscais na qualidade do gasto público das unidades da federação. Para isso, elaborou-se um Índice Fiscal, bem como um Indicador de Observância aos limites da LRF e avaliaram-se as correlações entre estes e os Índices também elaborados, de Educação, Saúde, Saneamento e Habitação e Riqueza. Além disso, também foram analisadas, de forma comparativa entre as vinte seis unidades da federação e mais o Distrito Federal, o desempenho relativo de cada uma e a sua evolução ao longo dos anos. Este problema de pesquisa é alinhado à premissa do New Public Management, que busca imbuir na esfera pública a gestão baseada em resultado (outcome oriented) e a otimização da eficiência alocativa dos recursos (value for money). 4 Os resultados encontrados indicam que uma gestão fiscal de acordo com os parâmetros estabelecidos pela LRF não garante que os serviços públicos serão prestados com qualidade e eficiência.

Summary of Caribbean economic performance, 1996

Includes bibliography

Evolution of fiscal policy in the Caribbean: based on data for the period 1987-1996

Includes bibliography

The Latin American experience in pension system reform: coverage, fiscal issues and possible implications for China

Includes bibliography

Responsabilização política nos estados brasileiros: o voto econômico nas eleições para governador

O intuito desta dissertação é investigar a capacidade dos eleitores brasileiros em atribuir responsabilidade aos governadores dos estados e a seus partidos pelas políticas públicas estaduais no período após redemocratização, mais especificamente de 1990 em diante. De maneira breve, se tratou de verificar se a probabilidade de reeleição de um governador ou de perpetuação de seu partido no governo é influenciada pela performance econômica de seu estado, pela performance da economia nacional ou não é influenciada pela economia. Utilizando-se dos pressupostos das teorias do voto econômico, se pretendeu auferir a existência de algum dos dois padrões de responsabilização política de governadores apontados pela literatura: o voto econômico subnacional e o voto de referendo. Além disso, foi explorada a relação entre o desempenho fiscal do governador e probabilidade de reeleição. Também foi testada a possibilidade de que as diferenças entre os estados no contexto federativo contemporâneo sejam um fator mediador da relação entre economia e voto. De maneira geral, os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a existência de voto econômico subnacional mediado pelo grau de autonomia dos estados em relação ao governo federal e para a rejeição da tese do voto de referendo. Em estados mais dependentes os eleitores tendem a penalizar seus governadores por altos níveis de desemprego. Também o desempenho fiscal apareceu como uma variável importante para explicar a reeleição nos estados. Governadores que apresentam superávits correntes em anos eleitorais foram beneficiados eleitoralmente, contrariando a noção de que em democracias novas os políticos são capazes de melhorar seu desempenho eleitoral através de aumento do gasto público.

The Role of Tax Policy in the Context of the Global Crisis: consequences and prospects

Includes bibliography

Everyone is; should healthcare? Outsourcing: Issues in strategic planning, organizational culture, and organizational ethics

Expenditures for personal health services in the United States have doubled over the last decade. They continue to outpace the growth rate of the gross national product. Costs for medical care have steadily increased at an annual rate well above the rate of inflation and have gradually outstripped payers' ability to meet their premiums. This limitation of resources justifies the ongoing healthcare reform strategies to maximize utilization and minimize costs. The majority of the cost-containment effort has focused on hospitals, as they account for about 40 percent of total health expenditures. Although good patient outcomes have long been identified as healthcare's central concern, continuing cost pressures from both regulatory reforms and the restructuring of healthcare financing have recently made improving fiscal performance an essential goal for healthcare organizations. ^ The search for financial performance, quality improvement, and fiscal accountability has led to outsourcing, which is the hiring of a third party to perform a task previously and traditionally done in-house. The incomparable nature and overwhelming dissimilarities between health and other commodities raise numerous administrative, organizational, policy and ethical issues for administrators who contemplate outsourcing. This evaluation of the outsourcing phenomenon, how it has developed and is currently practiced in healthcare, will explore the reasons that healthcare organizations gravitate toward outsourcing as a strategic management tool to cut costs in an environment of continuing escalating spending. ^ This dissertation has four major findings. First, it suggests that U.S. hospitals in FY2000 spent an estimated $61 billion in outsourcing. Second, it finds that the proportion of healthcare outsourcing highly correlates with several types of hospital controlling authorities and specialties. Third, it argues that healthcare outsourcing has implications in strategic organizational issues, professionalism, and organizational ethics that warrant further public policy discussions before expanding its limited use beyond hospital “hotel functions” and back office business processes. Finally, it devises an outsourcing suitability scale that organizations can utilize to ensure the most strategic option for outsourcing and concludes with some public policy implications and recommendations for its limited use. ^

Proposal on debt for climate adaptation swaps: a strategy for growth and economic transformation of Caribbean economies

ECLAC advocates that the Caribbean’s high debt dilemma was not principally driven by policy missteps, or the international financial crisis. Rather, it finds its roots in external shocks, compounded by the inherent structural weaknesses and vulnerabilities confronting Caribbean SIDS and their limited capacity to respond. A major factor has been the underperformance of the export sector, partly due to a decline in competitiveness and a slowdown in economic activity especially among the tourism-dependent economies. Caribbean countries have also accumulated debt as a consequence of increased expenditures to address the impact of extreme events and climate change attendant difficulties. Most Caribbean countries are located in the hurricane belt and are also prone to earthquakes and other hazards. Indeed, a disaster resulting in damage and losses in excess of 5 per cent of GDP can be expected to hit any Caribbean country every few years. Moreover, over the period 2000-2014, it is estimated that the economic cost of natural disasters in Caribbean countries was in excess of US$30.7 billion. The English Speaking Caribbean countries are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters.

Economic transition in Central Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Fifteen years ago, twenty-seven countries in Europe and Central Asia embarked on their economic transition paths. For some, the outcome was a considerable success. Several others are still struggling to shed the inheritance of the past and to correct more recent policy mistakes. Why were post-Communist recessions so long in some countries and growth disappointing? Why was fiscal performance so different? Was democracy a factor, which facilitated reforms or rather slowed them down? This book discusses these questions in the context of new empirical evidence, including a critical examination of the main themes in the economics of transition.

Do Fiscal and Political Decentralization Raise Students’ Performance? A Cross-Country Analysis

The low quality of education is a persistent problem in many developed countries. Parallel to in the last decades exists a tendency towards decentralization in many developed and developing countries. Using micro data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) referred to 22 countries, we test whether there exists an impact of fiscal and political decentralization on student performance in the areas of mathematics, reading skills and science. We observe that fiscal decentralization exerts an unequivocal positive effect on students’ outcomes in all areas, while the effect of political decentralization is more ambiguous. On the one hand, the capacity of the subnational governments to rule on its region has a positive effect on students’ performance in mathematics. On the other hand, the capacity to influence the country as a whole has a negative impact on mathematics achievement. As a general result, we observe that students’ performance in Mathematics is more sensible to these exogenous variations than in Sciences and reading skills. Keywords: School outcomes, PISA, fiscal decentralization, political decentralization JEL codes: H11, H77, I21

Department of Commerce - Iowa Utilities Board, Performance Report, Performance Results Achieved for Fiscal Year 2004, December 2004

The FY04 Performance Report for the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) highlights the services the IUB provided to Iowans, along with results achieved to ensure utility service reliability and to improve and expand utility service infrastructure in Iowa. This information is provided in accordance with the State of Iowa Accountable Government Act, Iowa Code chapter 8E. The two basic business functions of the IUB are utility regulation and compliance, and resource management. This report covers performance information for both of these areas.

Department of Commerce Iowa Utilities Board Performance Report Performance Results Achieved for Fiscal Year 2005, December 2005

The report highlights the services the IUB provided to Iowans, along with results achieved to ensure reliability, and to improve and expand utility service infrastructure in Iowa. This information is provided in accordance with the State of Iowa Accountable Government Act, Iowa Code chapter 8E. The two basic business functions of the IUB are utility regulation and compliance, and resource management. This report covers performance information for both of these areas.