Business Commons^™

From Data To Decisions In Local Government, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

In The Shadows Of The Government: Relationship Building During Political Turnovers, Hanming Fang, Zhe Li, Nianhang Xu, Hongjun Yan

Hongjun Yan

We document that following a turnover of the Party Secretary or mayor of a city in China, firms (especially private firms) headquartered in that city significantly increase their “perk spending.” Both the instrumental-variable-based results and heterogeneity analysis are consistent with the interpretation that the perk spending is used to build relations with local governments. Moreover, local political turnover in a city tends to be followed by changes of Chairmen or CEOs of state-owned firms that are controlled by the local government. However, the Chairmen or CEOs who have connections with local government officials are less likely to be replaced.

China's Regulatory Framework For Outward Foreign Direct Investment, Karl P. Sauvant, Victor Zitian Chen

Karl P. Sauvant

Governance Of The Governing: Accountability And Motivation At The Top Of Public Organizations, Donald Nordberg

Donald Nordberg

Developments in the governance practices in UK public organizations show how ideas from the governance of listed companies have translated into public sectors bodies, government departments and the governance of parliament itself. The use of independent, non-executives directors in public bodies encapsulates the tension in the private sector between the service role of directors and how they control the executives who manage the business. This paper gives a preliminary examination of three public bodies, comparing how reform of their governance mechanisms has affected tensions in accountability and director motivation. What is evident is that the changes involve greater emphasis on …

Evaluation Research And National Social Policy: An Academic Practitioner's Perspective, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Society has limited resources and many competing uses for them. I therefore take it as being an almost obvious proposition that at any point in time policy makers should strive to maximize the social benefits produced by the available funds they have to spend. This proposition implies that evaluation research should be undertaken either by or for government agencies. Policy makers need to know what benefits are being produced by each social program and the resource costs involved. They need to know which aspects of which programs are working and which programs need to be replaced.

Migrant Remittances, Financial Sector Development And The Government Ownership Of Banks, Arusha V. Cooray

Arusha Cooray

This study investigates the influence of migrant remittances on twodimensions of the financial sector, namely, size and efficiency. Evidence suggests thatmigrant remittances contribute to increasing the size and efficiency of the financialsector. The study, in addition, examines the impact of remittances on financial sectorsize and efficiency through the government ownership of banks channel. While theresults suggest that remittances lead to larger increases in financial sector size incountries in which the government ownership of banks is lower and increases inefficiency in countries in which the government ownership of banks is higher, thegovernment is found to play an important role in promoting …

The Impact Of Government Policies On Urban Employment In Small Economies, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] Most of the policies intended to affect urban employment are not specifically employment policies nor are they specifically urban. Rather, the amount of urban employment, the composition of that employment, and the returns from it are determined by a whole host of policies. To review them all in a short paper is an impossible undertaking. The criterion by which I decided which policies to consider is policy-relevance, asking which set of policies is apt to have the largest impact on employment.

Waldo In The Light Of Austerity And Federal Debt Crisis, Part 2, Jan Kallberg

Jan Kallberg

Waldo’s predictions about the future for public administration describe five areas that would be problematic in the future: legitimacy, authority, knowledge, control, and confidence. Legitimacy includes not only that the government is legally legitimized but capable and focused on an intention to deliver the “good society.” Authority, according to Waldo, is the ability to implement policy with the acceptance of the people based on rationalism, expectations of public good, ethics, superior knowledge, and institutional contexts. Knowledge is institutional knowledge, the ability to arrange and utilize knowledge within the bureaucracy since coordination is the major challenge in knowledge management. Government has …

Waldo In The Light Of Austerity And Federal Debt Crisis, Part 1, Jan Kallberg

Jan Kallberg

Dwight Waldo wrote The Enterprise of Public Administration in 1979 looking back on a long and fruitful academic career, but also as a reflection about the future for public administration. Can a 30 year old book still be relevant? You bet. Today, the public sector is increasingly facing fiscal challenges. Federal, state, and local governments throughout the country have major budget deficits followed by austerity measures that undermine the ability to deliver the good life of the future. In this day and age rereading Dwight Waldo’s The Enterprise of Public Administration is an intellectual exercise worth pursuing. Several of Dwight …

International Labor Standards, Soft Regulation, And National Government Roles, Sarosh C. Kuruvilla, Anil Verma

Sarosh Kuruvilla

[Excerpt] In this article, we briefly describe the different approaches to the regulation of international labor standards, and then argue for a new role for national governments based on soft rather than hard regulation approaches. We argue that this new role shows potential for significantly enhancing progress in international labor standards, since it enables governments to articulate a position without having to deal with the enforcement issues that hard regulation mandates. We justify this new role for governments based on the increasing use of soft regulation in the international arena. Of course, this approach is not without its own problems, …