Public Policy Commons^™

Payments As A Tool For Policy, Aaron Klein

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

What are the implications of using payment systems to enforce foreign policy (against Russia, Iran, Cuba, etc...) and domestic policy (on-line poker, cannabis, etc..)? What are the long-term ramifications for the United States, with its dominant status as a global financial system and home to the world reserve currency, using payment systems to achieve its political objectives? In this lecture, Brookings Institution scholar and former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Department of Treasury, Aaron Klein discusses the pros, cons, and intended and unintended consequences of our current system. He proposes a path forward to maximize economic growth …

The Financialization Of Recession Response, Aaron Klein

Journal of Financial Crises

This paper analyzes economic policy responses to the COVID-19-induced recession, focusing on the American policy response. Despite widespread political distrust between the two parties sharing control of the government and the timing of the upcoming presidential election, America’s political system was able to enact a massive policy response that reduced the severity of the recession. This political response happened faster than any automatic policy response would have, based on the delays in data reporting. The economic policies enacted continued America’s trend toward financialization of fiscal policy. The Federal Reserve and America’s private banking and financial systems were heavily relied upon …

Using Foundation Capital For Good: Opportunities In The Balance Sheet, John Sherman, Veronica Olazabal

The Foundation Review

Foundations increasingly use their full balance sheets to unlock more of their capital for good. They look beyond conventional grantmaking to pursue their charitable purposes in many ways that exemplify innovative, full-balance sheet approaches: investing in nonprofit and for-profit companies that offer clear social and financial returns; investing their corpus in companies whose products and services align with their missions; using social bonds to inject new resources into their programs; offering guarantees to help grantees manage risk; and avoiding companies whose practices run counter to their grantees’ efforts.

This article looks at the structures, pathways, and tools for foundations wanting …

Affordable Housing: A National Crisis Fueled By The Coronavirus • A New Jersey Perspective, Latino Action Network Foundation

Center for Urban Policy Research

The Latino Action Network Foundation [LANF], its sister organization the Latino Action Network [LAN] and longtime ally, the Fair Share Housing Center [FSHC], have collaboratively monitored affordable housing issues in New Jersey for more than a decade. As part of its ongoing work, LANF sponsored a housing roundtable on September 10, 2021, to assess the affordable housing situation in the state and offer policy recommendations. At that time, a coalition of advocates, including the three organizations named above, were fresh from a legislative victory that safeguarded tenants unable to pay their rents during the pandemic and gave them a degree …

Public Actors In Private Markets: Toward A Developmental Finance State, Robert Hockett, Saule Omarova

Saule T. Omarova

The recent financial crisis brought into sharp relief fundamental questions about the social function and purpose of the financial system, including its relation to the “real” economy. This Article argues that, to answer these questions, we must recapture a distinctively American view of the proper relations among state, financial market, and development. This programmatic vision – captured in what we call a “developmental finance state” – is based on three key propositions: (1) that economic and social development is not an “end-state” but a continuing national policy priority; (2) that the modalities of finance are the most potent means of …

Financing Asean Connectivity, Fauziah Zen, Michael Regan

Michael Regan

In line with the globalisation trend, it becomes inevitable for the South East Asian economies to prepare themselves to move towards the path of a more border-less and well-connected world. Evidence has shown that countries can gain a lot from internationalisation, especially from trade, knowledge and information exchanges, and flows of people and goods. One of the key targets of ASEAN in achieving a dynamic, vibrant, globally connected and strong region is to fully realise ASEAN Connectivity which consists of three pillars, namely, physical connectivity, people-to-people connectivity, and institutional connectivity. Physical connectivity is especially important because it is not only …

State Funding Decision-Making For Higher Education Institutions During Capital Campaigns, Everrett Alexander Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Public higher education has experienced a decline in state funding in real dollars. This has created financial challenges for many students and their families, as well as institutions.

Tax revenue has decreased as a result of the economic recession, causing state leaders to reprioritize their fiscal responsibilities. Higher education has been viewed as a discretionary expense in competition with other state programs, so funding can, and often, does vary. Colleges and universities use alternative financial resources, most notably private fundraising, to meet their goals. The study was conducted to identify college leaders' perceptions of state funding during their institution's mega-capital …

The Role Of Brazilian Civil Society In The Tax Reform Debate: Inesc’S Tax Campaign For Social Justice, Evilasio Salvador, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

When the Brazilian government sent a new tax reform proposal to Congress in 2008 that would exacerbate the already high level of economic inequality, the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (INESC) came together with other leading civil society organizations to form the Movement to Defend Social Rights under Threat by Tax Reform (MSDR). The coalition was united in advocating for fairer taxes on incomes and assets and protecting funding for social programs for the poor. INESC and MSDR worked with the government and parliament, participated in public hearings, and produced several technical analyses which, in combination with a number of external …

Freeing Funds To Meet Priorities And Needs: Sikika’S Campaign To Curb Unnecessary Expenditure In Tanzania, Peter Bofin, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In 2008 the Tanzanian Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, ordered government ministries to reduce unnecessary expenditure on workshops, allowances, seminars, and luxury vehicles. While populist commitments by leaders are not unusual in Tanzania, this particular one seemed to be a direct response to Sikika’s media and advocacy campaign. This case study shows that a focus on media outreach and raising public awareness may not be enough to bring about changes in contexts where budget allocation processes are closed and there are strong internal pressures to maintain the widespread patronage and rents that can be drawn from recurrent expenditures in the budget. …

Ghana: Budget Monitoring By Send-Ghana And Its Partners Helps Improve Nutrition For Children And Support Local Farmers, Tony Dogbe, Joana Kwabena-Adade, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

Between 2007 and 2010, the Social Enterprise Development (SEND-Ghana) Foundation, one of the IBP’s partners, monitored the performance of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP, a government program that integrates social protection interventions), engaging with 50 district assemblies, 50 focal civil society organizations (CSOs), and 50 District Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)/Citizens Monitoring Committees (DCMC) in seven regions across the country. SEND-Ghana used information from this monitoring exercise to promote improvements in the program with district assemblies and officials from collaborating ministries, departments, and agencies directly at the national, regional, and district levels, but also indirectly through the media.

The …

Evidence For Change: The Case Of Subsidios Al Campo In Mexico, Guillermo M. Cejudo, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

The Subsidios al Campo campaign used Mexico’s freedom of information laws to obtain official data on the recipients of agricultural subsidies, and then published the data online. Its analysis brought a large amount of new information into the public domain, and managed to shift the debate about agricultural subsidies from a focus on their overall size to a discussion of how equitably they were being distributed, challenging a powerful agricultural industry in the process. The Mexican Ministry of Agriculture reacted by reforming the system to ensure that subsidies were flowing only to those that needed them.

The full version, short …

State Juvenile Justice Spending Decisions: The Effects Of Federal Aid, Race, Politics, And Other Socioeconomic Factors, Willie B. Coleman Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Historically, juvenile justice in the United States has been the responsibility of state governments with limited federal support. There is a notable gap in the empirical literature on factors that affect funding policies for state juvenile justice programs. In this dissertation research, I used two theoretical perspectives to examine determinants of juvenile justice spending: economic theory on intergovernmental aid and tenets of the Politics of Social Order Framework, developed by Stucky, Heimer, and Lang (2007) to investigate corrections spending. Two research questions were considered: 1) What impact does federal aid have on state spending on juvenile justice programs? and 2) …

Samarthan’S Campaign To Improve Access To The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme In India, Ramesh Awasthi, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In India the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees a minimum of 100 days of unskilled work per year to every poor rural family that needs employment, has been ridden with bureaucratic glitches and widespread corruption. This case study examines a civil society campaign to address problems in the NREGA’s administration and mobilize people to demand work under the scheme.

The full version, short summary, and one page summary of this case study are available in English. Summaries are also available in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.

LINK: http://internationalbudget.org/publications/samarthan%E2%80%99s-campaign-to-improve-access-to-the-national-rural-employment-guarantee-scheme-in-india/

Children’S Right To Early Education In The City Of Buenos Aires: A Case Study On Acij’S Class Action, Fernando Basch, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

Through a complex litigation strategy that involved “freedom of information” requests, budget analysis, and media dissemination, the Civil Association for Equality and Justice (Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia, or ACIJ) pressured the formerly reluctant government of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to acknowledge a legitimate unsatisfied claim related to school vacancies for initial-level education and commit to making significant policy changes. This case study examines the ACIJ campaign and draws lessons for civil society engagement in public finance processes.

The full version, short summary, and one page summary of this case study are available in English. …

Show Me The Money: Budget Advocacy In Indonesia, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In "Show Me the Money: Budget Advocacy in Indonesia," authors from five civil society organizations – IDEA, the Inisiatif Association, Lakpesdam NU, the Centre for Information and Regional Studies (PATTIRO), and the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) – present five case studies on their budget work to fight against corruption and improve the allocation of government resources, and five case studies from smaller organizations based in various local districts in the country.

In addition, check out the related two-page summaries that explore the impact of civil society budget work in Indonesia to improve policies and outcomes in school funding, …

Structurally Unbalanced: Cyclical And Structural Deficits In Arizona, Matthew Murray, Kristin Borns, Susan Clark-Johnson, Mark Muro, Jennifer Vey, Brookings Mountain West, Morrison Institute For Public Policy

Brookings Mountain West Publications

Though the Great Recession may be officially over, all is not well in Arizona. Three years after the collapse of a massive real estate “bubble,” the deepest economic downturn in memory exposed and exacerbated one of the nation’s most profound state fiscal crises, with disturbing implications for Arizona citizens and the state’s long-term economic health. This brief takes a careful look at the Grand Canyon State’s fiscal situation, examining both Arizona’s serious cyclical budget shortfall—the one resulting from a temporary collapse of revenue due to the recession—as well as the chronic, longer-term, and massive structural imbalances that have developed largely …

Earthquake Reconstruction In Pakistan: The Case Of The Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation’S Campaign, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

The devastating earthquake that shook the Hazara region and the Azad Kashmir province in Northwest Pakistan on October 2005 led to a flood of donor money for reconstruction and rehabilitation in the affected areas. Three years later many people were still without adequate housing or critical public infrastructure. This is partly the result of unfulfilled government promises and the slow pace of reconstruction projects. This case study describes how a large coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs) and citizens embarked on a campaign to jump-start Pakistan’s efforts to rebuild. The campaign was led by the Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation, …

South Africa: Civil Society Uses Budget Analysis And Advocacy To Improve The Lives Of Poor Children, Neil Overy, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In South Africa a range of civil society organizations and coalitions have been central to post-Apartheid efforts to protect vulnerable children through social security grants. This case study describes how the persistent campaigning of these organizations has contributed to significant budget and policy changes over the last decade such as the expanded eligibility for the Child Support Grant.

The full version, short summary, and one page summary of this case study are available in English. Summaries are also available in Spanish and French.

LINK: http://internationalbudget.org/publications/south-africa-civil-society-uses-budget-analysis-and-advocacy-to-improve-the-lives-of-poor-children/

Fiscal Decentralization In Taiwan : A Case Study Of The Centrally-Allotted Tax Revenue Program And Local Financial Accountability, Nai-Ling Kuo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Fiscal decentralization has generated enormous interest in the past two decades. Despite some remaining skepticism regarding fiscal decentralization, many countries have adopted various forms in an effort to improve public service quality. The primary objectives of this dissertation are to understand fiscal decentralization in unitary countries, to gain information about the role of the equalization program in local finances, and to investigate local financial accountability issues in a unitary country. Three independent but linked studies were conducted to achieve the above objectives. They employ case studies on Taiwan's equalization transfer program, the Centrally-Allotted Tax Revenue (CATR) program, and local financial …

Policy Issues Facing Boston: 1984, A Summary, Robert A. Corrigan, Edmund Beard, John W. Mccormack Institute Of Public Affairs, University Of Massachusetts Boston

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

In the Fall of 1983 the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs asked a number of experts in various fields from within and outside the University to prepare an analysis of the major policy issues facing the City of Boston in 1984.

In December 1983, the Boston School Committee and City Council, in separate half-day seminars, came to the University for discussions on the issues identified. At the same time, the papers prepared were delivered to the transition teams of the Flynn Administration. This report briefly summarizes the major findings of the effort.

Reallocation Of Responsibilities And/Or Financing For Selected Municipal Services To The State: A Municipal Finance Alternative, Joseph S. Slavet, Katharine L. Bradbury, Philip I. Moss, Boston Urban Observatory, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Boston Urban Observatory Publications

This report recommends that the administration and/or financing of a selected group of public services be shifted from municipalities to the state government in Massachusetts.

Several criteria are used to identify local functions and local fiscal responsibilities which are more suitable for state than local financing. The first criterion is the efficiency of delivery of the service: for some functions, such as solid waste disposal, technology makes it more costly per capita to provide the service separately through individual municipalities than to operate regionally-based waste disposal facilities. The second criterion is the degree to which residents of the service area …