ALBERT

Notizen: Legislation requires some Australian local governments to provide to a State government minister an annual assessment of the physical condition of infrastructure, together with estimates of the cost of restoring that infrastructure to a satisfactory condition. This 1993 legislation predates other accounting standards providing for disclosures or use of condition assessments, notably the USA's FASAB 6 (1996) and GASB 34 (1996), and the UK ASB's FRS 15 (1999). Utilising structured interviews, this study investigates the extent to which information from those reports has been disseminated within local councils. It also investigates whether accounting or engineering staff, or both, were involved in preparation of these reports, and explores the relative attitudes of staff and elected councillors, to the relevance of information in infrastructure reports. The study also reports comments volunteered by respondents about the relative merits of capitalising (and then depreciating) infrastructure assets, versus reporting on infrastructure condition. Findings suggest that those working in local government see merit in the compilation of reports on infrastructure condition and the cost of upgrading it, though opinion is divided as to the weight actually placed on those reports in decision-making. Both accounting and engineering staff perceive that engineers have far greater involvement in the preparation of these reports. The findings also suggest a failure on the part of technical specialists to share information, and collaborate in the compilation of management plans and budgets.

Notizen: Extant theory and practice suggest that there are no external users of a local authority's published accounts. Over the past thirty years, the major theme for such financial reporting has been increasingly to associate with company financial reporting. We rehearse the similarities but also the crucial differences between company and local authority financial reporting. Previous studies of the published accounts of local authorities, for 1977/78 and 1987/88, demonstrated that there was significant non-compliance with promulgated accounting policies. We report on how this conclusion has not changed for 1997/98 (despite changes in policy-making and in policies) and how the non-compliance has been accompanied by clean audit opinions. We then offer a theory, based on Ijiri's (1975) theory of accounting measurement, that the published audited accounts of local authorities are the means by which the preparers provide implicit assurance of the underlying accounting: they legitimate the internal accounting.

Notizen: Abstract:  We use the provisions of SFAS No. 109, Accounting for Income Taxes, to examine the extent to which stock prices of Internet firms were associated with expectations of future profitability before versus after the ‘market correction’ in early 2000. We find that the valuation of deferred tax assets of firms with business models reliant on the level of web site traffic was significantly greater after the market correction. In our view, this evidence is consistent with pre-correction mispricing.

Notizen: Abstract:  This paper examines investors’ anticipation and subsequent interpretations of asset write-downs accompanying segment divestitures. Examining long-window returns cumulated over the two years preceding the year of divestiture, we hypothesize and find that investors anticipate write-downs of segment operating assets before divestiture and recognition occurs, with anticipation conditional on the timeliness of the write-down and prior disclosure of the segments’ operating results under segment reporting rules. Short-window returns cumulated over the three days surrounding the announcement of the divestiture confirm that investor interpretations of asset write-downs are similarly contingent on write-down timeliness and prior disclosure.

Notizen: Abstract:  This comparison of solicited and independent bond rating agencies performance reveals that the ratings assigned by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are consistently lower than those assigned by Duff and Phelps and Fitch IBCA and are consistently higher than those assigned by MCM. While Moody’s and S&P generally downgrade bond ratings sooner than Duff and Phelps and Fitch IBCA, the four major agencies upgrade at the same time. Moody’s tends to have a higher upgrade magnitude than Duff and Phelps, but the downgrade magnitudes do not differ. MCM upgrades its ratings more quickly than either Moody’s or S&P. The results give support to the timeliness and accuracy of ratings provided by the independent agencies.

Notizen: Abstract:  This paper examines the relationship between returns and dividend yield in the UK stock market, and introduces earnings-related data to the asset pricing model in the form of payout ratio. The latter has a considerable effect upon the inferences which would otherwise be drawn from a study of the dividend yield-returns relationship in the absence of such earnings information. Payout ratio conveys additional signalling information and is an important adjunct to dividend yield in explaining returns.

Notizen: Abstract:  This paper examines the relationship between a non-financial measure of successful research and development (R&D) efforts in the pharmaceutical industry and R&D expenditures. I hypothesize that the R&D of successful producers will be valued more by the market than the R&D of non-successful producers. The regression results support the hypothesis. In the primary model, R&D is not associated with price; however, the coefficient on the interaction between R&D and successful developers is positively related to stock price. This implies that the market values the R&D expenditures of successful developers but not the expenditures of less-successful developers.

Notizen: Abstract:  We measure and evaluate the performance of a number of Value-at-Risk (VaR) methods using a portfolio based on the foreign exchange exposure of a small open economy (Ireland) among its trading partners. The sample period highlights the changing nature of Ireland’s exposure to risk over the past decade in the run-up to EMU. Our results offer an indication of the level of accuracy of the various approaches and discuss the issues of models ensuring statistical accuracy or more conservative leanings. Our findings suggest that the Orthogonal GARCH model is the most accurate methodology while the EWMA specification is the more conservative approach.

Notizen: Abstract:  Past research has revealed significant abnormal ex-date returns for stock dividends even though the ex-date is known in advance and the distribution contains no new information. Various researchers have suggested that the higher transaction cost of selling odd-lot share parcels compared to round-lot share parcels is a key driver in the abnormal returns. However, no study to date has directly compared the ex-date price reaction of stock dividends distributed when odd-lot transaction costs were charged to those issued when odd-lot costs were not evident. As odd-lot trade costs were eliminated from the New Zealand Stock Exchange on 1 October, 1991, the New Zealand market provides a unique opportunity to directly test the role, if any, that odd-lot transactions costs have in explaining stock dividend ex-date returns. We find that prior to October 1991 stock dividend ex-dates exhibit significantly positive returns, however, we do not find any significant ex-date return once the higher odd-lot transaction costs were removed. The New Zealand market also enables us to examine an imputation tax based argument of the ex-date price reaction and we find evidence that imputation tax credits have a value greater than zero.

Notizen: This paper examines the intraday patterns of IPOs in Hong Kong during the period 1995–1998. The results reveal that the well-known under-pricing phenomenon of IPOs occurs only at the opening trading of new issues and vanishes afterwards. The return volatility of IPOs is found to be high during the first trading session, and declines rapidly during the rest of the first trading day until the end of the trading day. The intraday return volatility of IPOs is found to follow a double U-shape pattern, which is similar to that of the general market. A great deal of trading activity was recorded during the first five minutes of the trading day. Consistent results are obtained for IPOs registered during the pre-crisis and post-crisis periods. This paper has practical implications for investors. Investors can benefit from the under-pricing only if they subscribe for new shares in the primary market. There is, however, no profit-making opportunity for day traders who buy shares on the first trading day. This shows that the Hong Kong market is efficient in adjusting for the IPO under-pricing. In addition, it is likely that, because of Hong Kong's share allotment method, only big investors who apply for large numbers of shares can benefit from this under-pricing phenomenon.

Notizen: Abstract.  This paper analyzes the impact of employment and population shifts in U.S. metropolitan areas from 1970 to 2000 on a spatial mismatch index to determine how metropolitan residents reacted to changes in metropolitan employment distributions. In particular, it seeks to determine whether suburban employment growth created new areas to which access is valued or whether it repelled metropolitan residents and sparked population growth in more distant suburban locations. The results show that residents tended to move away from areas gaining jobs. Black residents, on the other hand, appeared to be attracted to areas that are experiencing employment growth.

Notizen: Abstract.  Using German district data we estimate the structural parameters of a new economic geography model as developed by Helpman (1998) and Hanson (1998, 2001a). The advantage of the Helpman-Hanson model is that it incorporates the fact that agglomeration of economic activity increases the prices of local (nontradable) services, like housing. This model thereby provides an intuitively appealing spreading force that allows for less extreme agglomeration patterns than predicted by the bulk of new economic geography models. Generalizing the Helpman-Hanson model, we also analyze the implications for the spatial distribution of wages once the assumption of real wage equalization is dropped. If we no longer assume real wage equalization we find support for a spatial wage structure as well as for the relevance of the structural parameters of the theoretical model.

Notizen: Abstract.  This study explores the impact of plant-level labor market dynamics and housing markets on gross migration flows. The internal and the external reorganizations of regional labor markets are shown to be related. An increase in internal turnover of jobs and workers in regional labor markets is found to increase net-migration. This effect arises mainly from a reduction in out-migration. Housing markets constitute constraints for migration. In particular, an increase in regional housing prices and a large share of owner-occupancy housing discourages net-migration to a region by reducing in-migration. In contrast, the out-migration rate remains largely unaffected by housing markets.

Notizen: Books reviewed:Richard Baldwin, Rikard Forslid, Philippe Martin, Gianmarco Ottaviano, and Frederic Robert-Nicoud, Economic Geography and Public PolicyRichard K. Green and Stephen Malpezzi, A Primer on U.S. Housing Markets and Housing PolicyPeter King, A Social Philosophy of HousingDavid Harvey, Paris: Capital of ModernityHenri Lefebvre, translated by Robert Bononno, The Urban RevolutionBarry Boots, Atsuyuki Okabe, and Richard Thomas, Modelling Geographical Systems: Statistical and Computational ApplicationsJan Öhman and Kirsten Simonson, Voices from the North: New Trends in Nordic Human GeographyMichael Keating, John Loughlin, and Kris Deschouwer, Culture, Institutions and Economic Development: A Study of Eight European RegionsGertrude Tumpel-Gugerell and Peter Mooslechner, Economic Convergence and Divergence in Europe: Growth and Regional Development in an Enlarged European UnionAndreas Faludi, European Spatial PlanningRon Martin and Philip S. Morrison, Geographies of Labour Market InequalityBent Flyvbjerg, Nils Bruzelius, and Werner Rothengatter, Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of AmbitionAlan Altshuler and David Luberoff, Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public InvestmentNorman Walzer, The American Midwest: Managing Change in Rural TransitionWilliam M. Lewis Jr., Water and Climate in the Western United StatesNives Dolšak and Elinor Ostrom, The Commons in the New Millennium: Challenges and AdaptationOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development: Programme and Policy RecommendationsYeonwoo Lee, Schumpeterian Dynamics and Metropolitan-Scale ProductivityFiorenza Belussi, Giorgio Gottardi, and Enzo Rullani, The Technological Evolution of Industrial DistrictsDaniel Griffith, Spatial Autocorrelation and Spatial Filtering: Gaining Understanding through Theory and Scientific VisualizationClaire Freeman and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett, Living Space: Towards Sustainable Settlements in New Zealand

Notizen: This paper argues that the net economic impact of new firm locations or expansions is determined by a multitude of opposing forces. Using a unique database, I set out to evaluate the net effects of these opposing forces by looking at the net change in local employment and population arising from large (greater than 300 new jobs) firm locations or expansions in the State of Georgia. The analysis suggests that the employment multipliers associated with new firm locations are much less than one; that is, the net employment effect of a large firm opening is smaller than the gross employment impact. This result is consistent with other empirical economic impact studies, which find multipliers much smaller than those of typical input–output models, often less than unity, and a previous study showing little net effect of large plant openings. Expansions of existing establishments are shown to have substantial multiplicative effects, however, with an average employment multiplier of 2.0. I discuss possible reasons for differential impacts across new and expanding firms, focusing on the nature of the firms. Differences in net impact across industries and high-tech versus low-tech firms also is evaluated. I find that the impact of large firm locations or expansions on population in the resident county generally is negative, but positive for the broader region encompassing the county of location and its contiguous neighbors.

Notizen: The paper analyzes the role of central cities as engines of economic growth in their metropolitan area. We wonder if there are increasing returns to central city growth at the metropolitan level arising from the positive externalities associated with the unique features of central cities. To answer this question we analyze the causality between the economic growth of Spanish central cities and the growth of the other jurisdictions belonging to their metropolitan area (i.e., the suburbs). The analysis uses population and economic activity data for a sample of 28 Spanish metropolitan areas during 35 years. We use a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) framework to estimate long-run equilibrium relationships between the growth of central cities and their suburbs. The combination of panel data and a VECM is an innovative approach that is still being developed in econometrics. The results suggest that central city growth has a long-run positive effect on the growth of the suburbs. We also inquire as to whether or not this positive effect depends on the size of the central city. The results suggest that the effect is much higher in the case of the largest cities, but that it is also important in the case of the smaller ones.

Notizen: We analyse the role played by export credit guarantees (ECGs) in encouraging exports to developing countries. The existence of moral hazard on the side of the firm is introduced. We show that the inability of the exporter's government to verify the actual quality of the product will limit its ability to encourage trade through ECGs, once the coverage provided goes beyond a certain threshold. This result provides a rationale behind the limited coverage on ECGs.

Notizen: This paper shows that a price-capped firm under the threat of entry in some of the markets it serves can strategically manipulate its price structure to deter entry. In doing so, the regulated firm uses the price cap constraint as a commitment device to an aggressive pricing behaviour in case of entry. A (dynamic) price cap generally entails that the prices allowed today are a function of the previous-period prices and that the tighter is the constraint on each price, the larger is the quantity sold of this good in the previous period. Hence, the regulated firm may strategically choose its price structure before entry to place a tighter regulatory control on the prices set in the (potentially) competitive markets and to make it optimal to charge in these markets – in case of entry – prices so low that entry is unprofitable.

Notizen: This paper studies the effect of credit market imperfections, measured by the relative bargaining power of banks, on the agency costs of debt finance. The threshold of obtaining loan finance is shown to be independent of the relative bargaining power of the financier. However, lower relative bargaining power of banks leads to lower lending rates and investment return distributions with lower, but less risky returns. Thus, our analysis does not support the view, presented in a large existing literature, that there would be a trade-off between reduced credit market imperfections and higher agency costs of debt finance.

Notizen: This paper studies how schooling admission tests affect economic performance in an economy where individuals are endowed with both academic and non-academic abilities and both abilities matter for labour productivity. We develop a simple model with schools run by the goverment, where individuals signal their abilities by taking an admission test and sort into low quality and high quality schools. When abilities are poorly correlated in the population, as documented in the literature, a standard test based only on academic abilities can be less efficient than a balanced test, which considers both ability types. We show that a sequential testing strategy, with schools testing academic abilities and firms testing non-academic abilities on the sub-sample of graduates of high quality schools, does not necessarily replicate the outcome of a balanced test.

Notizen: Within the Barro (1990) model of productive public services, but with the inclusion of public debt, we derive and characterize on the balanced growth path, a set of welfare-maximizing fiscal rules under two budgetary regimes – one with only the standard dynamic government budget constraint, and the other involving the golden rule of public finance. We demonstrate analytically that the optimal fiscal policy differs in the two budgetary regimes considered. We also analyse two cases within the second regime: one, where the ratio of current spending to tax revenues is parametrically given, and another, where this ratio is optimally chosen by the government.

Notizen: We develop a simple model in which a firm considers a number of investment projects. Because of limited financial resources, the firm can undertake at most one project. In line with the literature on real options we stress features like irreversibility, uncertainty and the possibility of postponing the investment decision and show under which conditions limited availability of funds tends to increase the value of waiting.

Notizen: This paper investigates optimal emissions taxation under imperfect competition in a durable good industry where products are sold (instead of rented). As a benchmark, attention is paid to the special case of monopoly with exogenously given product durability. In line with previous literature, the optimal emission tax in this benchmark model falls short of marginal damage (underinternalization). Extending the benchmark model either to the case of an oligopolistic market structure and/or to the case of endogenous product durability then provides two cases in which the optimal emission tax overinternalizes marginal damage.

Notizen: From the expected-utility approach, relative risk aversion being smaller than one and relative prudence being smaller than two emerge as preference restrictions that fully determine the optimal responses of decisions under uncertainty to certain shifts in probability distributions. We characterize the magnitudes of relative risk aversion and relative prudence in terms of the two-parameter, mean-standard deviation approach. We demonstrate that this characterization is instrumental in obtaining comparative static results in the two-parameter setting. We further relate our findings to the results in the expected-utility framework.

Notizen: This paper studies a discrete-time utility maximization problem of an infinitely-lived quasi-geometric consumer whose labour income is subject to uninsurable idiosyncratic productivity shocks. We restrict attention to a first-order Markov recursive solution. We show that under the assumption of the exponential utility function, the problem of the quasi-geometric consumer admits a closed-form solution.

Notizen: Debates about the form and nature of changes in the management of public systems have for some time now been articulated under the theme of governance. All definitions of governance are related to the problems of securing convergence among a diversity of actors and organizations, of redistributing power in an organizational or social field characterized by a high level of heterogeneity and of gaining sufficient legitimacy to act in the name of the collectivity. This paper concentrates on the dynamics involved in the emergence of new governing capabilities in public systems. More precisely we study the implementation of regionalization policies in the health care field (in this case of Canada) conceived as one major attempt to renew the governance structures in a large public system.Our study draws on the comparative analysis of empirical regulation in three health regions as contrasted with three ideal type models of governance in regionalized systems. The first model is inspired by an economic approach to organizational behaviour and focuses on mandate-giving, execution and control. The second model is based on a political interpretation of behaviours and focuses on negotiation processes between actors. Finally, the third model is based on the theory of deliberation as well as the institutional school of policy analysis and focuses on direct public participation in public affairs. Evidence for this article is primarily derived from interviews with key informants and documentary analysis.Our analysis shows that none of the three models is sufficient in itself to grant regional structures the authority and legitimacy they need to create added value in terms of regulation that could ensure their survival. Regional Boards are thus forced by environmental constraints to conceive and implement original mixes of these models. The two predominant logics in regional action are inspired by the first two models although the last one also has an influence. Overall, our study also suggests that the implementation of new sources of governing authorities in a public system is rather fragile because of dependence on existing institutions. Clearly, the attempt to modify the dynamics of governance in a given system must be conceived as a political exercise and not just as a technical problem consisting of the rational adjustment of policy instruments.

Notizen: This paper uses an interpretative approach to analyse the relationship between ministers and officials. It argues that generally, the relationship between ministers and civil servants is harmonious. This can be explained by the fact that both sets of actors tend to draw from the same tradition, the Westminster model. The Westminster model can be understood as the building block from which both ministers and civil servants develop narratives that shape and condition their actions. In the case of ministers, the dominant narrative drawn from the Westminster model is what we refer to as that of ‘historical impact’. In the case of civil servants, their dominant narrative, again drawn from the Westminster model is conditioned by the need to provide an account that continually emphasizes how they have acted with ‘constitutional propriety’. Generally, these two contrasting narratives do not lead to conflict between ministers and civil servants. However, a serious breakdown in the relationship between ministers and civil servants can occur when either one or both sets of actors draw on a tradition other than the Westminster model, or when they appeal to a different narrative within the Westminster model which shapes their subsequent behaviour and actions.

Notizen: The study of administrations and ministers and their relationships with UK Parliaments has tended to focus on the issues of accountability and responsibility, levels of legislative dissent or broad performance indicators supported by anecdotal examples. This paper addresses the lack of systematic analysis of executive/legislative relations in the policy-making process by examining the dominance of different administrations and ministers in the Scottish Parliament. Two questions are addressed. First, is there any variance in the legislative dominance of different administrations in the parliamentary arena? Second, do individual ministers make a difference to the degree of policy dominance? Controlling for both initial authorship and quality of amendments to Executive policy, we analyse the nature and extent of Executive dominance during the legislative process of the First Session of the Scottish Parliament. We find some evidence to suggest that Executive dominance varies both by administration and by individual minister.

Notizen: The structure of the British state is growing increasingly complex. This trend raises a number of questions that focus on the forces stimulating this complexity and its implications both for society-state relationships and the design and implementation of public policy. This article focuses on one specific element or strand of these debates: the growth in the number and role of quasi-autonomous public bodies within Britain. It seeks to analyse and reflect upon the distinctive approach taken by the Labour government, since winning office in May 1997, in relation to the sphere of ‘distributed public governance’ in Britain. Moreover, the article seeks to locate this analysis within broader debates surrounding the future of the British state and the Labour government's approach to statecraft through a thematic framework based around: growth, co-ordination, accountability, depoliticization and power. The central argument of this article is that the Labour government has increased considerably the sphere of distributed public governance in Britain. This process has been largely devoid of an underpinning rationale and this may have significant implications for successful policy delivery, the public's trust in government and the future trajectory of the British state.

Notizen: One of the most important claims advanced by comparative public management reform studies is that these reforms have been more successfully implemented in majoritarian than in consensus democracies. The claim is built on the premise that the institutional structure of a majoritarian democracy enables a parliamentary majority to implement policies unilaterally and in a desired way whereas the institutional structure of a consensus democracy forces parliamentary majorities to negotiate compromises. This claim, we argue, lacks sufficient empirical backing, is biased by studies focusing on the initiation of reforms, and needs serious rethinking in the light of recent empirical studies that downplay the salience of institutions as an explanatory factor for variations in policy reform. With The Netherlands and New Zealand as cases, this article first shows that far-reaching reforms can be implemented in consensus systems too; secondly, it develops a model that centres on the interplay between institutions and politicians’ reform styles and applies this to these countries.

Notizen: This article seeks to highlight the conditions in which organizations with different levels of ‘publicness’ interact in the framework of policy-making. In France, decision making and implementation is shared among public, semi-public and private organizations. The specific responsibility and influence of public organizations within institutional collective action however is a source of ambiguity. It becomes therefore a matter of political authority for public organizations to invest in the structuring of public problems and policies. The case analysed here shows that the publicness of implemented policies is a construction which stakeholders may try to influence. Responses by public organizations show that publicness does not only relate to the plurality of organizational forms but also to the existence of a form of hierarchy within systems of governance themselves.

Notizen: This article gives a broad overview of Norwegian research on public administration over the past 40 years. The main picture that emerges is that a Norwegian public administration built primarily on Webernian principles has lost some but not all these original properties. It describes a research tradition based on organizational theory and democratic theory. It also paints a picture of public administration as integrated into a complex network of domestic political institutions, public agencies, organized interests and clients, as well as extensive European and international networks. It shows how a strong theoretical tradition, based on bounded rationality, is supplemented by different types of institutional theories and increased theoretical pluralism. Finally, the paper underlines the importance of considering public administration not simply from an internal technical viewpoint, but of placing the discipline in a wider political and democratic context.

Notizen: The aim of this article is to gain some understanding of the way the European Court of Auditors (ECA) assesses European Union (EU) member states’ performances in managing EU finances. To this end the ECA's annual reports for 1996–2001 have been analysed.We find that the information provided in the ECA annual reports is somewhat unsystematic, which is the result of the ECA's approach to auditing and its working methods. A review of the literature, as well as our own empirical analysis, allows us to conclude that the ECA does not in fact live up to its own mission of providing relevant, objective reports. Our analysis suggests, for instance, that there is some ambiguity within the ECA due to differences in audit traditions within the EU. Improvements could be made by reducing the number of ECA members to three or five, by (further) integrating the traditional ECA audit and the audit within the framework of the statement of assurance, and by further integrating internal and external budgetary control within the EU.

Notizen: John Stewart, Modernising British Local Government: an Assessment of Labour's Reform ProgrammeChristopher Pollitt and Colin Talbot (eds), Unbundled Government: a Critical Analysis of the Global Trend to Agencies, Quangos and ContractualisationPaul Maltby, In the Public Interest? Assessing the Potential for Public Interest CompaniesChristopher Hood and B. Guy Peters with Grace O.M. Lee (eds), Reward for High Public Office. Asian and Pacific-Rim StatesStephen B. Johnson, The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space ProgrammesMichael Hill and Peter Hupe, Implementing Public Policy: Governance in Theory and PracticePeter John, Local Governance in Western EuropeRobert Agranoff and Michael McGuire, Collaborative Public Management: New Strategies for Local GovernmentsMartin Lodge, On Different Tracks: Designing Railway Regulation in Britain and GermanyAnthony B.L. Cheung and Ian Scott (eds), Governance and Public Sector Reform in Asia: Paradigm Shifts or Business as Usual?

Notizen: This paper presents a review of three decades of implementation studies and is constructed in the form of a personal reflection. The paper begins with a reflection upon the context within which the book Policy and Action was written, a time when both governments and policy analysts were endeavouring to systematize and improve the public decision-making process and to place such decision-making within a more strategic framework. The review ends with a discussion about how public policy planning has changed in the light of public services reform strategies. It is suggested that as a result of such reforms, interest in the processes of implementation have perhaps been superseded by a focus upon change management and performance targets. It is further argued that this has resulted in the reassertion of normative, top-down processes of policy implementation. The paper raises points that are important ones and indeed are reflected throughout all four papers in the symposium issue. These are: (1) the very real analytical difficulties of understanding the role of bureaucratic discretion and motivation; (2) the problem of evaluating policy outcomes; and (3) the need to also focus upon micro political processes that occur in public services organizations. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the continued importance of implementation studies and the need for policy analysts to understand what actually happens at policy recipient level.

Notizen: This paper argues for the need to re-assess models of policy implementation in the ‘congested state’. This re-appraisal focuses on two main directions. The first involves locating implementation in the context of wider models of the policy process. We fuse three models, those of Kingdon, Wolman, and Challis et al., to form a new ‘policy streams’ approach. The second examines implementation in multi-level governance. In the UK and elsewhere, much of the focus of traditional implementation studies has been on the link between one central government department and a local agency. However, this vertical (central-local) dimension fails to give sufficient stress to the other horizontal dimensions of ‘central-central’ and ‘local-local’. Paraphrasing Kingdon's terms, implementation models also need to incorporate the ‘little windows’ at local level as well as the ‘big’ windows at national level. Using evidence relating to the implementation of UK policy towards health inequalities, this paper argues successful implementation is more likely when the three policy streams are linked across the three dimensions. The model is thought to be applicable to other areas of the public sectors and complex issues facing all governments.

Notizen: Applying implementation theory to practice has been rare. Reasons include the difficulty of the theoretical challenge, the varied needs of practitioners and the complicating normative issues at stake. Nonetheless, several approaches can contribute to the efficacy of implementation action. Building on points of theoretical consensus is one strategy. A second is the systematic probing of points in theoretical dispute, to sketch out practical implications. A third is the development of a contingency perspective to determine which theoretical strands may be appropriate in a given case. Finally, tapping the emerging ideas built on a synthesis of partial perspectives is ultimately likely to be the most useful approach. New methodological tools can help select out valid high-performing instances for systematic inspection and possible emulation. And some of the synthetic perspectives now available are amenable to heuristic application; these include approaches based upon reversible logic, game-theoretic notions and contextual interaction theory.

Notizen: Arguably, the government's aim of using the reward of ‘earned autonomy’ and Foundation Trust status as an incentive to improve performance in the NHS will only be effective if Trust managers view greater autonomy as both desirable and realistic. This article examines this issue by investigating the extent to which members of an NHS Trust's senior management team perceive themselves as autonomous, the factors most likely to hinder their ability to operate autonomously, and the extent to which managers want greater autonomy. In the event, autonomy was largely restricted by extensive centrally dictated targets. Entrenched professional interests and a lack of managerial skills on the part of clinician managers suggested limitations on the extent to which autonomy can be realistically devolved. Additionally, there was little belief among managers that greater autonomy would enable healthcare services to be delivered more effectively.

Notizen: The contemporary literature on governance notes the difficulties that core executives, central points for steering and co-ordinating public activity, have in undertaking this strategic function. The UK core executive, particularly the Treasury, has developed a regime of Public Service Agreements (PSAs) as a novel and ambitious tool of governance, particularly for public services. The tool incorporates improved priority setting, information about performance, and incentive effects for ministers and officials through a system of performance targets. However, systems for setting priorities are fragmented and include those focused on the Prime Minister's Office and Cabinet Office. Monitoring has been improved, although measures often provide a limited, or sometimes even potentially misleading, impression of progress towards valued goals. The direct incentive effects of PSAs appear to be weak. While the link between the system and the allocation of expenditure has engaged the interest of departments in discussing priorities, ministerial and other officials’ responsibility for performance has been limited. Targets have increasingly been seen as by ministers as minimum pledges of performance rather than tools for stretching and improving performance. Various forms of blame avoidance and blame shifting have occurred and the credibility of the PSA system is in danger of being undermined by frequent changes to targets and misrepresentation of performance in some areas.

Notizen: This paper explores the dynamics for changes to the machinery of government and public administration in the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. Although constitutionally Crown possessions and under the jurisdiction of the UK, both territories are self-governing and are neither part of the UK nor the EU. Their importance as major offshore tax havens means that questions should be asked about their ability to effectively police the money that is invested through them, an issue that has acquired increased significance in the wake of recent terrorist events. Questions of financial probity inevitably lead to questions about governance and governmental efficiency and effectiveness. This paper explores the Bailiwicks’ reactions to this within the theoretical context of the differentiated polity and the modernizing government and new public management agenda. The paper suggests the unique and entrenched political culture of the Bailiwicks is resistant to change but will embrace it if that change ensures the continuance of their autonomy, within the context of being Crown possessions.

Notizen: The resignations in 2002 of Stephen Byers and Estelle Morris (UK Secretaries of State for Transport and Education respectively) suggest the need to review the constitutional and political aspects of resignation. In both cases, ministers recognized that they had failed in the oversight or supervision of their departments and thus in the fulfilment of their ministerial role. Their resignations therefore provide evidence of a move away from ‘causal responsibility’, with its complication of the policy/operations and accountability/responsibility distinctions, towards ‘role responsibility’. In so doing, they raise the possibility that what are commonly understood as ‘departmental fault’ resignations may be more appropriately subsumed within an expanded category of personal fault. The resignations also challenge Finer's thesis on the conditions that need to be meet for a resignation to be forthcoming. In neither instance was the political party out for blood or the prime minister unbending. In both cases the press was relentless, suggesting that the media has become a prime actor in determining resignation, and the minister yielding, a recognition, perhaps, of constitutional principle over political pragmatism.

Notizen: Rational choice is intimately associated with positivism and naturalism, its appeal to scholars of public administration lying in its ability to offer a predictive science of politics that is parsimonious in its analytical assumptions, rigorous in its deductive reasoning and overarching in its apparent applicability. In this paper I re-examine the ontology and epistemology which underpins this distinctive approach to public administration, challenging the necessity of the generally unquestioned association between rational choice and both positivism and naturalism. Rational choice, I contend, can only defend its claim to offer a predictive science of politics on the basis of an ingenious, paradoxical, and seldom acknowledged structuralism and a series of analytical assumptions incapable of capturing the complexity and contingency of political systems. I argue that analytical parsimony, though itself a condition of naturalism, is in fact incompatible with the deduction of genuinely explanatory/causal inferences. This suggests that the status of rational choice as an explanatory/predictive theory needs to be reassessed. Yet this is no reason to reject rational choice out of hand. For, deployed not as a theory in its own right, but as a heuristic analytical strategy for exploring hypothetical scenarios, it is a potent and powerful resource in post-positivist public administration.

Notizen: Although there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating positive effects of ‘high commitment’ HRM practices on organizational performance, there is less evidence evaluating their effects on individual workers, especially within the public sector. Therefore the implications of applying ‘high commitment’ practices in the public sector needs to be considered. This paper seeks to address this gap by reporting the results of a staff survey and follow-up interviews conducted on a cross-section of  local government employees. The results showed that eight of the ten ‘high commitment’ practices had significant effects on worker attitudes. The results are discussed in light of HRM theory together with the implications for public sector managers.

Notizen: The need for inter-agency collaboration between managers of mental health services has long been recognized, as has the difficulty of achieving and maintaining such relationships. Hudson et al. (1999) have developed a model for collaboration in the public sector and the current research has tested the model against attempts to achieve and maintain inter-agency collaboration between mental health managers in Wales. We find Hudson's model a useful analytical framework but our evidence suggests that it needs to be amended by giving greater emphasis to the importance of ‘uninterrupted . . . opportunities for interaction’ between key managers. Forthcoming changes to NHS structures in Wales (for example, the abolition of Health Authorities and the conversion of Local Health Groups into Local Health Boards) will not necessarily facilitate collaboration if the Local Health Boards are given the role of planning and commissioning mental health services without having the necessary ‘critical mass’ of knowledge, expertise and dedicated staff capacity for planning and commissioning mental health services.

Notizen: The history of Danish political science is young, and public administration has from the beginning been part of the training of political scientists. This background reflects a double strategy: first, in order to ensure political scientists a position in the labour market, they were launched as a new kind of generalist, competing with lawyers and economists. Second, public administration has from the very beginning been seen as a subfield of political science. Even if the institutions engaging in PA research and training have varying profiles, the integration of the discipline in political science is still dominant. So far it has been a success, whether measured at the level of political science graduates in the civil service or the level of PA research. However, the paper argues that in a tougher labour market, generalists with a broad political science background face severe competition from lawyers and economists, and that this must have implications for the direction of research and training in public administration.

Notizen: Political and administrative analysis is today said to be taking a narrative turn: to learning by telling and listening to the different stories that constitute political life. However, this new approach to studying the decentring of politics and policy as multiple discursive practices carries a new grand narrative too. A new connection between political authority and political community is taking shape outside the spheres of modern government and representative democracy. Political authority is becoming increasingly both communicative and interactive in order for it to be able to meet complexity with complexity. It is employed for reforming institutions by opening them towards the culture and by tying them to the political attributes and capacities of self-reflexive individuals and to the transformation and self-transformation of their conduct. I call this development culture governance. Culture governance is about how political authority must increasingly operate through capacities for self-and co-governance and therefore needs to act upon, reform, and utilize individual and collective conduct so that it might be amenable to its rule (Bang 2003; Dean 2003). Culture governance represents a new kind of top-down steering; it is neither hierarchical nor bureaucratic but empowering and self-disciplining. It manifests itself as various forms of joined-up government and network governance and proclaims itself to be genuinely democratic and dialogical. This I shall show by a study of local Danish politics and policy in Copenhagen. Culture governance, I shall argue, constitutes a formidable challenge and threat to democracy, in attempting to colonize the whole field of public reason, everyday political engagement, democratic deliberation, and so on, by its own systems logic of success, effectiveness or influence. It seeks to take charge of the working of the more spontaneous, less programmed and more lowly organized politics of the ordinary in political communities, thus undermining the very idea of a non-strategic public reasoning as founding the practices of freedoms.

Notizen: Abstract.  This paper explores interrelations between pricing, capacity choice, and financing in transportation networks. We build on the Mohring-Harwitz result on self-financing of optimally designed and priced roads and investigate it in a network environment under various types of second-best regulation. A small network model with endogenous car ownership demonstrates that optimal congestion pricing and capacity choice over an entire network may cause user prices to increase more in initially mildly congested areas compared to heavily congested areas. Furthermore, a flat kilometer charge under optimal capacity choice may result in first-best efficiency gains.

Notizen: Abstract.  We investigate the (r∣Xp)-medianoid problem for networks. This is a competitive location problem that consists of determining the locations of r facilities belonging to a firm in order to maximize its market share in a space where a competitor is already operating with p facilities. We consider six scenarios resulting from the combination of three customer choice rules (binary, partially binary, and proportional) with two types of services (essential and unessential).Known discretization results about the existence of a solution for the set of nodes are extended. Some examples and computational experience using heuristic algorithms are presented.

Notizen: There are several hypotheses why urban scale affects wages. Most focus on agglomeration economies that increase labor demand, especially for high-skilled workers (e.g., dynamic externalities stress knowledge transfers, and imply the urban wage gap favors skilled workers). Others stress urban amenities that increase labor supply and decrease wages. Amenities should have a stronger influence on affluent households if they are normal goods. By examining whether urban-scale affects net returns to education, it can be determined whether skilled workers are influenced more by urban productivity or amenities. Empirical results suggest net returns to education decline with urban scale, implying a key role for urban amenities in affecting skilled workers.

Notizen: Public land designations are often primarily political decisions that may also have substantial local economic impacts. This paper econometrically estimates the visitation effect of the conversion of National Monuments to National Parks through the eight designation changes that have occurred between 1979 and 2000. The study finds robust and significant impacts of such conversions, yielding 11,642 additional visitors annually, even after controlling for likely site acreage expansion and other site visitation trends. Furthermore, these new visitors do not appear to occur at the expense of visitation at alternative sites. Using these findings, the paper explores the local economic impact of the Great Sand Dunes conversion on Colorado's San Luis Valley.

Notizen: The ability to use the amenities or other characteristics of a location may be a function of the length of time a household has resided in the location. We explore the implications of the hypothesis that the enjoyment of regional amenities depends on the accumulation of amenity-specific human capital. We establish that the interaction of this human capital with regional wage rates determines life-cycle locational trajectories. The model explains the timing of moves in the working and retirement periods of life as well as observed heterogeneity in household behavior. Small differences between households may result in dramatically different life-cycle behavior.

Notizen: This paper uses implied volatilities from foreign exchange option prices and the results of no-arbitrage theory to estimate foreign exchange risk premia. In particular, under the assumption of no-arbitrage, the foreign exchange risk premium is driven by the difference between investors’ market prices of risk in the two currencies. In an international economy with three currencies, sterling, US dollar and Deutschemark, we can use the information on implied volatilities of the three cross rates to derive estimates of implied or ex ante market prices of risk and of foreign exchange risk premia. The foreign exchange risk premia estimates are then compared to survey-based risk premia.

Notizen: We survey European managers to gain some insights into motivations of convertible issuance. Our analysis shows that a majority of firms issue convertibles as ‘delayed equity’ and as ‘debt sweetener’. Managers also use convertibles to avoid short-term equity dilution and to signal firm's future growth opportunities. We document a large cross-sectional variation across firms in rationales for issuing convertibles and find mixed support for most theoretical models. Our evidence suggests that the popularity of convertibles is driven primarily by their versatility in adjusting their design to fit the financing needs of individual firms, and by their increased demand among institutional investors.

Notizen: We study one-year post-listing prices and returns to equity issuing ADRs that listed in the US between January 1991 and October 2000. ADRs from countries that impose restrictions on capital flows are priced at a premium to their home market ordinaries. While the mean premium for the full sample is statistically indistinguishable from zero, after an adjustment for asynchronous trading, the magnitude of the premium to ADRs from restricted markets is 11.33% at the 300-day post listing interval, which is statistically significant. In the short run (30 days) following listing, the magnitude of the premium is larger for ADRs with larger excess demand from US investors. At the longer 300-day horizon, Nasdaq listed ADRs earn a larger premium than their NYSE/AMEX listed counterparts. Time-series regressions and two-stage cross-sectional regressions establish that the premium to foreign equity issuers is greater if the US listing attracts liquidity and if US returns have a lower correlation with the local country index.

Notizen: This paper analyses the cost of capital of firms with foreign equity listings. Our purpose is to shed light on the question whether international and domestic asset pricing models yield a different estimate of the cost of capital for cross-listed stocks. We distinguish between (i) the multifactor ICAPM of Solnik (1979) and Sercu (1980) including both the global market portfolio and exchange rate risk premia and (ii) the single factor domestic CAPM. We test for the significance of the cost of capital differential in a sample of 336 cross-listed stocks from nine countries in the period 1980–99. Our hypothesis is that the cost of capital differential is substantial for firms with international listings, as these are often large multinationals with a strong international orientation. We find that the asset pricing models yield a significantly different estimate of the cost of capital for only 12% of the cross-listed companies. The size of the cost of capital differential is around 50 basis points for the US, 80 basis points for the UK and 100 basis points for France.

Notizen: Book reviewed:Sudi Sudarsanam: Creating Value from Mergers and Acquisitions.

Notizen: Despite the fact that more than $200 billion of capital investment was financed through project companies in 2001, an amount that grew at a compound annual rate of almost 20% during the 1990s, there has been very little academic research on project finance. The purpose of this article is to explain why project finance in general and why large projects in particular merit separate academic research and instruction. In short, there are significant opportunities to study the relationship among structural attributes (i.e., high leverage, contractual details, and concentrated equity ownership), managerial incentives, and asset values, as well as improve current practice in this rapidly growing field of finance.

Notizen: Recent empirical work shows evidence for higher valuation of firms in countries with a better legal environment. We investigate whether differences in the quality of firm-level corporate governance also help to explain firm performance in a cross-section of companies within a single jurisdiction. Constructing a broad corporate governance rating (CGR) for German public firms, we document a positive relationship between governance practices and firm valuation. There is also evidence that expected stock returns are negatively correlated with firm-level corporate governance, if dividend yields are used as proxies for the cost of capital. An investment strategy that bought high-CGR firms and shorted low-CGR firms earned abnormal returns of around 12% on an annual basis during the sample period.

Notizen: This paper provides evidence of the inability of UK NHS trusts to stimulate attendance at their AGMs and that attendance is statistically unrelated to published measures of trusts’ financial results or performance ratings. Evidence is presented of attendance and procedures at trust AGMs and comparisons are made with the private sector. Concepts of power and ritual are applied to the discussion of the results. The findings suggest that the AGM is disconnected from other NHS governance mechanisms. This has implications for both the general concept of empowering stakeholders in the NHS and for specific local empowerment proposals such as the creation of NHS Foundation Trusts.

Notizen: This paper explores how far the expectations of and the practices and technologies used by academics in management roles in UK higher education at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first centuries appear to differ from those used in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The system of higher education in the UK is explained and then concepts of new managerialism and academic knowledge work are discussed. Next the changing policy context of UK higher education since the 1960s is examined. The paper then uses illustrations of perceptions of contemporary changes to changing expectations about the roles of academics in management roles in UK universities from a recent UK Economic and Social Research Council funded project on ‘New Managerialism and the Management of UK Universities’. Finally, using research and insider accounts of university management and governance from the 1960s onwards, the paper examines the extent to which so-called new forms of management of higher education may have predated the 1990s. It is suggested that whilst some elements of the management of universities remain intact (role titles, leadership of academics, oversight of teaching and research) from the 1960s and 1970s, radical policy changes from the 1980s onwards have meant that major shifts in what was expected of academics in management roles began in the early to mid-1980s.

Notizen: Abstract.  This article presents an analysis of location and pricing decisions of a monopolist about to open several stores in a compact geographical space. The number of stores is made endogenous by the introduction of fixed costs. A novel methodology is developed, by which the firm's location and price decisions are represented as continuous functions defined over the geographical space. This modeling artifact generates a negligible error but simplifies the solution considerably and allows the derivation of several intuitive results. Although the focus is on one-dimensional markets, it is shown that the method can easily be adapted to two-dimensional markets.

Notizen: Abstract.  A dynamic labor market model is used to motivate the inclusion of population characteristics and industrial structure as determinants of regional employment instability. We examine how these factors influence regional employment instability using data from both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan regions in the United States. We find that population characteristics are important determinants of employment volatility and that increased industrial specialization (reduced diversification) increases employment volatility, but the magnitude of that influence drops substantially once population characteristics are considered. We also find that the influence of population characteristics and industrial specialization varies significantly across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan regions.

Notizen: Employment density functions are estimated for 62 large metropolitan areas. Estimated gradients are statistically significant for distance from the nearest subcenter as well as for distance from the traditional central business district. Lagrange Multiplier (LM) tests imply significant spatial autocorrelation under highly restrictive ordinary least squares (OLS) specifications. The LM test statistics fall dramatically when the models are estimated using flexible parametric and nonparametric methods. The results serve as a warning that functional form misspecification causes spatial autocorrelation.

Notizen: Detailed industry-occupation employment forecasts are an important class of regional labor market information produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In theory, the forecasts should improve the national, interregional, and intertemporal matching efficiency of labor markets. But the efficiency argument is dependent on the quality of the forecasts. The methodology used to produce the projections is still fundamentally a demand-requirements approach that implicitly assumes that labor supply is infinitely elastic for every occupation. This paper examines the validity of that assumption and evaluates a demographically based labor supply module as an adjunct to the current methodology.

Notizen: Walter Isard, History of Regional Science and the Regional Science Association International: The Beginnings and Early HistoryRobert E. Lang, Edgeless Cities: Exploring the Elusive MetropolisLori G. Kletzer, Imports, Exports, and Jobs: What Does Trade Mean for Employment and Job Loss ?Wei-Bin Zhang, Theory of Interregional Dynamics: Models of Capital, Knowledge and Economic StructuresMatthew P. Drenna, The Information Economy and American CitiesZoltan J. Acs, Innovation and the Growth of CitiesZoltan Acs, Henri L. F. de Groot, and Peter Nijkamp, (eds.) The Emergence of the Knowledge Economy: A Regional PerspectiveRobert Mendelsohn, (ed) Global Warming and the American Economy: A Regional Assessment of Climate Change ImpactsLykke E. Andersen, Clive W.J. Granger, Eustáquio J. Reis, DianaWeinhold, and Sven Wunder, The Dynamics of Deforestation and Economic Growth in the Brazilian Amazon,Tim O’Riordan and Susanne Stoll-Kleemann, (eds) Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities: Protecting beyond the ProtectedBlair A. Ruble, Jodi Koehn, and Nancy E. Popson, (eds) Fragmented Space in the Russian FederationBörje Johansson, Charlie Karlsson, and Roger R. Stough, Regional Policies and Comparative AdvantageKarl Haglund, Inventing the Charles RiverJos van Ommeren, Commuting and Relocation of Jobs and ResidencesGregory D. Squires, (ed) Urban Sprawl: Causes, Consequences and Policy Responses

Notizen: This paper studies how the use of alternative valuation methodologies affects investment performance for a sample of 53 German venture capitalists. We measure investment performance by the amount of investments they need to write off and by the number of companies they take public. We find that a significant number of investment managers use discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques, but only a minority appears to use a discount rate related to the cost of capital. The majority applies DCF using subjective discount rates. We present evidence that the use of DCF is correlated with superior investment performance only if applied in conjunction with an objectifiable discount rate. Also, funds that invest with a longer horizon perform better. The use of multiples is not significantly correlated with investment performance. We conclude that a focus on fundamental values confers an advantage.

Notizen: A tremendous amount of research examines US mutual funds, but fund markets also thrive in other countries. However, research about these fast growing markets is lacking. This study addresses Finnish funds. Fast growth of the Finnish fund industry, strong bank dominance in the industry and recent EU membership make it an interesting market to examine. The Finnish fund market is also of particular interest since it had the fastest growth among the EU countries during 1996–2000. We find evidence that bank-managed and older funds charge higher expenses but investors are not compensated for paying higher expenses with higher risk-adjusted returns, suggesting a potential agency problem. Overall, Finnish fund expenses have decreased over time, consistent with EU membership reducing market segmentation and generating competition.

Notizen: We investigate the empirical relationship between accounting based measures of performance and the degree of multinational diversification for a set of European chemical industry firms. We find that for these firms, the degree of multinational diversification is strongly related to superior financial performance. The results hold for each of the three sample years. The findings suggest that multinational firms outperform purely domestic and exporting firms. The results provide strong support for gains from multinational diversification. The results indicate that while greater European unification may have eroded potential benefits of exploiting international capital and product market imperfections, the benefits of firm specific economies of scope and scale as well as managerial and financial synergies are still realised through exports.

Notizen: In this paper we examine the proposition that small investor sentiment, measured by the change in the discount/premium on closed-end funds, is an important factor in stock returns. We conduct an out-of-sample test of the investor sentiment hypothesis in a market environment that is more likely to be prone to investor sentiment than the USA. We fail to provide supporting evidence for the claim of Lee et al. (1991) that investor sentiment affects the risk of common stocks. Consistent with Elton et al. (1998), who show that investor sentiment does not enter the return generating process, our tests do not detect investor sentiment in a capital market that is more susceptible to small investor sentiment. Our results provide additional support against the claim that investor sentiment represents an independent and systematic asset pricing risk.

Notizen: Multinational companies face increasing risks arising from external risk factors, e.g. exchange rates, interest rates and commodity prices, which they have learned to hedge using derivatives. However, despite increasing disclosure requirements, a firm's net risk profile may not be transparent to shareholders. We develop the ‘Component Value-at-Risk (VaR)’ framework for companies to identify the multi-dimensional downside risk profile as perceived by shareholders. This framework allows for decomposing downside risk into components that are attributable to each of the underlying risk factors. The firm can compare this perceived VaR, including its composition and dynamics, to an internal VaR based on net exposures as it is known to the company. Any differences may lead to surprises at times of earnings announcements and thus constitute a litigation threat to the firm. It may reduce this information asymmetry through targeted communication efforts.

Notizen: What is the actual role of the local government annual report as an accountability medium in the context of Italian public sector reforms? The empirical analysis, conducted on a sample of Italian local governments, shows that annual reports do not seem to play the role of ‘general purpose’ reports. They are rather prepared to comply with very detailed legal requirements and mainly delivered to internal stakeholders, whereas voluntary disclosure is scant. Moreover, most local governments do not use alternative tools to communicate their results. This raises questions as to if and how Italian local governments give account for their performance to their stakeholders.

Notizen: Reforms in the public sector have traditionally been faced by resistance and problems. Pettigrew justifies this attitude on theoretical grounds as the exercise of power from individuals and groups threatened by a change in strategy. The paper analyses this case by referring to the attempts of introducing accrual and management accounting practices in Greek Public Universities. Via a detailed examination of the context within which this reform took place and the phases it went through, we endeavour to explain, by using Pettigrew's theory regarding strategy and decision-making, why it has not yet seriously progressed even though it was initiated in 1996.

Notizen: In the public sector, market-inspired organisation, control and accounting, along with business-like relationships between organisational units, usually goes under the name of New Public Management (NPM). One organisational form associated with NPM is the purchaser-provider split. The model was first used in Sweden by county councils at the end of the 1980s. It was considered to be an effective and democratic method for managing Swedish health care. Over the past few years, researchers in many countries have begun doubting the model's suitability and whether it has really been used in the way that was intended. However, the model is still popular in the Swedish health care sector. This article presents the effects of the purchaser-provider split found in Swedish studies. These effects are compared to the anticipated effects when the model was launched, and the effects of the purchaser-provider split in Britain. The aim of this article is to explore the effects of the purchaser-provider split in practice.

Notizen: This study explores the effects of governance structure and contracting out on municipal audit costs. There is economy of scale, asymmetric information and human asset specificity in municipal auditing. As a consequence, both unified governance and market contracting could result in high total audit costs for municipalities. According to Oliver Williamson, relational contracting has been a neglected issue in transaction costs analysis (TCA). We studied 47 municipalities in Finland and 298 municipalities in Norway using multivariate analysis. The municipal audit fees per capita were highest in Norway where the municipal audit market was regulated and had virtually no market contracting. The audit fees per capita increased most in Finland, possibly due to lowballing after the Finnish market was deregulated in 1997. The municipalities in both Finland and Norway predominantly used audit in relational contracting even though the audit fees per capita were relatively high. Relational contracting could be efficient when production, transaction and political costs are taken into account. The findings corroborated several core TCA propositions.

Notizen: Based on survey research, a picture is given of the sources which were used by 262 aldermen of Dutch municipalities to obtain information about developments in and performances of their organizations and aldermen's opinions on the available performance information in output-oriented planning and control documents. The aldermen, who were elected politicians, made much use of information which they obtained during verbal consultations with professional managers. Performance information in planning and control documents was not greatly used by aldermen. Their opinions on available performance information in planning and control documents and its use slightly differed, depending on the policy fields for which they are responsible. This might be related to differences between policy fields with respect to uncertainty, measurability of outputs, and knowledge of transformation processes, although this relationship is not unambiguous.

Notizen: This paper considers the impact of contemporary trends towards participative risk regulation on policy processes and outcomes. Using the example of reform of the UK food safety regime, the paper examines whether participative reforms are able to deliver their promised benefits and if not, why not. Empirically, the paper examines how in 2002 the UK's Food Standards Agency used a stakeholder decision-making process to manage the potential risks from BSE in sheep. The paper finds that the potential benefits of the stakeholder process were mitigated by a number of institutional factors, including: interpretative flexibility in representing consumer interests and the concept of precaution; restricted openness and exclusion of key stakeholders; and the supra-national regulatory context. The paper concludes that broadening participation per se does not necessarily produce more democratic or robust policy outcomes than closed processes, although it may have some limited value in improving public confidence in the regulatory regime.

Notizen: This paper uses the BSE (‘mad cow disease’) crisis as a case study of the workings of the British core executive during a crisis event. Using the evidence from the Philips Inquiry, which reported on the BSE/vCJD crisis in 2000, the study analyses the patterns of decision making and the structures of institutional and resource dependence. It concludes that the lack of co-ordination between and within institutions and what was acknowledged to be the mismanagement of expert advice raise serious questions about the executive's ability to manage serious crises. The findings concur with scholarship indicating executive fragmentation and lack of accountability. Consecutive British governments have sought to diminish the centre's responsibility for managing public policy without putting an effective alternative mechanism in place.

Notizen: This case study of Latvian local governments focuses on the qualitative aspects of reform legislation passed and implemented between 1990 and 2003 as the best available measures of changes made. Special attention is given to historical influences and inherited Soviet practices, the uncertain and conflicting value systems of reformers, and a gradual shift to concerns about the services provided. Power relationships are examined, together with the funding of local governments and minority relations. It is anticipated that in 2005 Latvia will adopt new elected regional development boards to work with the EU and other external institutions, leading to more democratic and cooperative modes of government. There is evidence that values of achievement and trust held by the younger generation are increasingly compatible with new needs and reform processes.

Notizen: Responsive evaluation offers an emerging vision and rationale for evaluation. In the version of responsive evaluation presented here, evaluation is reframed from the assessment of policy interventions on the basis of policy-makers’ questions to a dialogue among diverse stakeholder interests that moves towards reciprocal understanding and acceptance. This approach to evaluation is especially appropriate for the field of public administration, given the existing problems of complexity and the potential synergy with interactive and participatory policy approaches. Responsive evaluation and interactive approaches to public policy issues share the same democratic goals of participation and influence, and the alignment between these concepts make both sets of ideas and activities more effective and meaningful. The value and meaning of responsive evaluation and the synergy of this evaluation approach with the concept of public dialogue about important public issues is illustrated by a case study. This concerns a responsive evaluation of an organized policy dialogue about the future of the Dutch aviation infrastructure, known publicly as the Schiphol discussion.

Notizen: Lester Salamon, The Resilient Sector: The State of Nonprofit AmericaR.A.W. Rhodes, P. Carmichael, J. McMillan and A. Massey, Decentralising the Civil Service: from Unitary State to Differentiated Polity in the United KingdomBen Pimlott and Nirmola Rao, Governing LondonRoger W. Cobb and David M. Primo, Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media and Transportation PolicyHoward Glennerster, Understanding the Financing of Welfare: What Welfare Costs and How to Pay for itMartin Powell (ed.), Evaluating New Labour's Welfare ReformsLiesbet Hooghe, The European Commission and the Integration of Europe: Images of GovernanceColin J. Bennett and Charles D. Raab, The Governance of Privacy: Policy Instruments in Global PerspectiveRudy B. Andeweg and Galen A. Irwin, Governance and Politics of the NetherlandsJustin Greenwood (ed.), The Challenge of Change in EU Business Associations

Notizen: This paper explores the literature theorizing institutional crises by examining the policy problems faced by the UK's Child Support Agency and Prison Service Agency in the mid 1990s. In both these cases the ‘hardware’ (delivery through agencies), and the ‘software’ (policy saliency) were linked to their difficulties. However, these policy areas can be contrasted with the Benefits Agency, another highly salient policy area where no crisis occurred. This paper argues that it was neither the ‘hardware’ nor the ‘software’ but the way in which the bureaucratic networks surrounding these agencies operated that explains why the policy process was difficult. In concluding, the relevance of the network concept to the crisis literature is examined, illuminating the role that networks play in promoting or preventing institutional crisis as well as the research questions that arise if network relations are considered alongside a broader understanding of the dynamics of institutional crisis.

Notizen: In 1996 Tony Blair declared in a speech in Singapore that stakeholding would define New Labour's programme in office. This speech provoked much interest in the UK among a centre-left keen to forge a ‘third way’ alternative to state-centred social democracy and free markets. Conservative politicians, however, subjected New Labour to a barrage of criticisms. Startled by the scale of the negative reaction, Blair stopped referring to stakeholding. A common judgement is that stakeholding got no further than the starting block. This paper challenges this, contending that the progress of stakeholding has not in fact been halted under New Labour. Policies such as Network Rail, foundation hospitals and the Child Trust Fund indicate that stakeholding remains a part of New Labour's approach. Recognizing the stakeholder dimension to policy is important because it opens up a new front in the reform of public services in Britain.