Public Expenditure Cuts Research Articles

The Impact of Public Budget Distortion on the Defence Capabilities of the New European Nato Member States

Abstract Armies’ capabilities are determined by their endowments of resources. The economic crisis that began in 2008 has distorted public budgets, which forced states to start cost-cutting policies. If we focus on the policy of new NATO member states, we can observe that public expenditure cuts affect defense budgets in different states in various ways. If we compare the defense capabilities of countries at the beginning of the economic crisis and ten years after the outbreak of the crisis, the reduction in defense spending is reflected in the loss of some defense capabilities due to the limited possibilities of maintaining and modernizing existing military equipment. Countries that have reduced their defense spending over the long term show a more significant loss of defense capability than countries that reduced their defense spending only in the period immediately after the economic crisis. The different approach to defense spending confirms the previously described phenomenon of free-riding by some NATO member states, which rely on the defense capabilities of their alliance partners while they are slowly losing their defense capabilities.

The Community Asset Transfer of Leisure Facilities in the UK: A Review and Research Agenda

This paper reviews recent work on community asset transfers (CAT): a transfer of management of facilities from the public sector to the third sector, largely led by volunteers. The emergence of CATs is placed in the context of the development of community organisations and their relation to the state. Transfer has been stimulated by cuts in local government budgets since 2010. The review focusses on leisure facilities because these are non-statutory and so more vulnerable to cuts in public expenditure. The experience of CATs is reviewed, including: the motivations of local government and volunteers; the transfer process and management of CATs post-transfer; and the market position of facility types. The methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks used in research are contrasted; in particular, how these have balanced agency and structure in analysing a contested neoliberalist discourse. The practicalities of research in this area are considered before concluding with research questions.

State‐level austerity, education, and large urban labor markets: Evidence from fiscal policy experiments in Kansas and Wisconsin

AbstractIn 2011, Kansas and Wisconsin experimented with fiscal austerity policies. Proponents of the tax and public expenditure cuts argued that they would spur economic growth, while opponents claimed that it would harm vulnerable populations. I use the timing of these policies and the synthetic control method to examine how state‐level austerity affected earnings per worker for high and low education segments of the workforce in major urban areas. The results suggest that the Kansas and Wisconsin fiscal experiments hurt low education workers in some urban areas. The estimates also show heterogeneity in the treatment effect. Notably, Madison, WI, was the only urban area that experienced substantial positive growth in both education segments.

Solidarity against healthcare access restrictions on undocumented immigrants in Spain: the REDER case study

BackgroundIn the context of public expenditure reduction and cuts, in 2012, the Spanish government approved the RDL 16/2012, which significantly affected the core values of the national health system. The measure particularly affected undocumented immigrants over 18 years of age, excluding them from accessing the full range of healthcare services in Spain, except for emergency care. In 2014, Red de Denuncia y Resistencia al RDL 16/2012 (REDER) was created as a public awareness and resistance network to defend universal access to healthcare and to stop its infringement. This study aims to analyse the social impact of REDER as a solidarity movement in response to the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from their universal right to health.MethodsQualitative research methodologies were used for the research. Data were collected between November 2017 and December 2017, using eight semi-structured interviews with key informants from the main REDER stakeholders. Additionally, key publications, documents, and presentations of researchers and experts in the field were analysed. For data analysis, a framework extracted from the literature on exclusionary and transformative dimensions of solidarity was used to identify barriers and drivers in REDER’s intervention.ResultsFrom its creation to the present, REDER has been able to achieve many of its objectives to defend the right to medical care of groups in irregular situations, contributing to the identification of 4,755 cases of discrimination in healthcare access and helping solve over 90% of these cases by delivering either healthcare assistance or administrative support. REDER has also played an important role in: stimulating social activation and empowering citizens to claim their fundamental rights, organising actions against restrictions on accessibility and creating synergies to restore universal healthcare coverage.ConclusionsREDER has been shown to be effective in leading the defence of universal healthcare rights, and some achievements in the years following 2012 could be directly attributed to the work done by the network, such as the elimination of legal requirements to obtain health cards or the reduction of the minimum time required to access healthcare. Despite context particularities, the initiatives and main actions of this network may be implemented in other settings that are facing similar limitations to healthcare access, in order to address injustices and promote solidarity.

Sustainable Enjoyment of Economic and Social Rights in Times of Crisis

In 2008, the European Union was hit by the most severe financial downturn since the Great Recession of the 1930s. One of the major consequences of this phenomenon was the deterioration in the enjoyment of human rights, in particular economic and social rights. While it is indisputable that the crisis itself was directly correlated to the erosion of such rights, the conditions attached to the loan agreements between defaulting countries and the three lending institutions, namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank and the European Commission, have negatively affected the rights under consideration. Loans came with strict austerity measures, such as public expenditure cuts in the realm of, inter alia, public services, benefits and social security. This article considers the deterioration in the enjoyment of economic and social rights by Union inhabitants and particularly the anti-crisis strategy adopted by the European Union, which, as will be demonstrated, directly contributed to this deterioration. The stance of the three institutions was facilitated by the less than proactive, but improving, positioning of the Court of Justice of the European Union in case law, which will be assessed. It must be noted that it is not the three institutions acting alone in this process; the Member States are the ones who agree to the loans and their conditions and implement austerity measures on the ground. However, as will be reflected, the practical role and actual input of the countries themselves in this procedure is limited. The central theoretical tenet of the article is that the European Union is re-shifting its direction to the almost absolute adoption of an economic constitution, with little regard to its social counterpart. Within the aforementioned framework, this article seeks to assess the status of economic and social rights in a crisis-hit Union, provide a theoretical explanation for this occurrence and put forth possibilities for positive change, placing the protection and promotion of economic and social rights at the heart of any responses to crisis as a method to ensure their sustainable protection effectively.

PSY188 - USE OF MANAGED ENTRY AGREEMENTS IN INFLAMMATORY DISORDERS AMONG KEY HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT AGENCIES

Recession and cuts in public pharmaceutical expenditure have limited access to market of pharmaceutical innovations in last few years. As a solution, public health authorities and pharmaceutical companies have searched for alternative funding formulas, such as managed entry agreements (MEAs) to share the risks and uncertainties arising from public coverage of new products. This review aims to identify the use of MEAs in selected inflammatory disorders among key health technology assessment (HTA) agencies in Australia, Canada, and Europe. HTA decisions in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis (UC) published between 2013 and 2018 across seven HTA agencies were reviewed for use of MEAs. The number and type of MEAs by therapeutic area and agency were assessed. The review identified 295 HTA submissions, which assessed 39 interventions across five inflammatory conditions. Across all seven HTA agencies, 85% of submissions resulted in an intervention being recommended or recommended with restrictions, of which 19% of recommendations included an MEA. Use of MEAs was highest in UC (24%), followed by RA and PsA (22% each). The maximum use of MEAs was observed in the UK (National Institute of Clinical Excellence [NICE]: 86%, Scottish Medicines Consortium [SMC]: 41%). HTA agencies in Canada, France and Germany did not use MEAs for any of the reviewed indications. The application of MEA differed across different indications and agencies for the same intervention. All MEAs were financial based and the majority included a fixed discount to the drug cost. The use of MEAs was limited to biological drugs only. Currently, the use of MEAs for inflammatory disorders is limited and financial based. MEAs are likely to play a substantial role in market access negotiations in future for development and early access to novel biological therapies in these indications.

Bonner, A.Social Determinants of Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing. Bristol: Policy Press. 2018. xxii + 351 pp £80.00 (hbk) £28.99 (pbk) ISBN 978‐1447336853

Bonner, A.Social Determinants of Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing. Bristol: Policy Press. 2018. xxii + 351 pp £80.00 (hbk) £28.99 (pbk) ISBN 978‐1447336853

Impact of the recent economic crisis on tertiary education funding - a comparative study

We examined how the recent global economic crisis and the necessary cuts in public expenditure affected the funding for tertiary education in European countries. We clustered the countries into two groups with respect to the severity of the impact of the global crisis on their economies. Then, we comparatively studied the changes in the funding of tertiary education during the recent economic crisis. We found that tertiary education was less exposed to austerity measures than the education sector as a whole and, in the group of countries that were more affected by the crisis, several countries decreased the share of public expenditure on tertiary education. We also found that, on average, countries with high pre-crisis public spending on tertiary education increased the share of GDP for tertiary education more than those with low pre-crisis spending. Overall, the results of our research show how the governments of different countries adjusted public funding for tertiary education during the economic crisis.

Impact of the recent economic crisis on tertiary education funding - a comparative study

We examined how the recent global economic crisis and the necessary cuts in public expenditure affected the funding for tertiary education in European countries. We clustered the countries into two groups with respect to the severity of the impact of the global crisis on their economies. Then, we comparatively studied the changes in the funding of tertiary education during the recent economic crisis. We found that tertiary education was less exposed to austerity measures than the education sector as a whole and, in the group of countries that were more affected by the crisis, several countries decreased the share of public expenditure on tertiary education. We also found that, on average, countries with high pre-crisis public spending on tertiary education increased the share of GDP for tertiary education more than those with low pre-crisis spending. Overall, the results of our research show how the governments of different countries adjusted public funding for tertiary education during the economic crisis.

Assessing Fiscal Sustainability in Ukraine: TVP and VAR/VEC Approaches

Objective: The purpose of this article is to investigate fiscal sustainability in Ukraine, using quarterly data sample for the period between 2000 and 2016, in accordance with a recursive algorithm derived from the law of motion of the debt-to-GDP ratio developed by Croce and Juan-Ramon (2003). Research Design & Methods: An assessment of fiscal sustainability in Ukraine is provided according to a recursive algorithm derived from the law of motion of the debt-to-GDP ratio, developed by Croce and Juan-Ramon (2003). Both time-varying parameters (TVP) and vector error-correction autoregression (VAR/VEC) models are used. Findings: It is found that there is causality running from the budget surplus to the gap between real interest rate and GDP growth rate, however it is not sufficient to guarantee a sustainable debt to GDP ratio. Implications & Recommendations: Our findings argue in favour of fiscal policy actions aimed at an increase in the government revenues, combined with the public sector expenditure cuts, as current policies do not seem to be sufficient to achieve fiscal sustainability. A more detailed study is needed in order to identify most efficient approaches for a decrease in the budget deficit across a detailed ‘menu’ of expenditure and revenues. Any attempts to decrease interest rate and/or stimulate output growth by an expansionary monetary stance are likely to be counterproductive in the presence of substantial public external debt. Contribution & Value Added: This empirical study provides an indication of the possibility of default on foreign public debt liabilities in Ukraine.

Assessing Austerity: Monitoring the Human Rights Impacts of Fiscal Consolidation

In the decade since the 2008 global economic crisis, fiscal austerity has become the new normal. In the name of fiscal discipline, governments in more than two-thirds of countries throughout the world have enacted drastic austerity measures like severe public expenditure cuts, regressive tax changes, and labor market and pension reforms, effectively disinvesting in human rights. Draconian fiscal adjustments have undermined human rights of all types — from the rights to education, food, health and housing to the rights to decent work, fair wages and social security; and from freedom of expression to the rights to life and personal security. In the process, these unnecessary and unjustified policies have also aggravated disparities such as those of income, gender, race, age, disability and migration status. This paper argues that another lost decade for human rights is impermissible. Drawing on lessons learned from monitoring austerity over the past ten years, this paper outlines practical guidance for policymakers, oversight bodies, civil society actors and others seeking to assess and address the foreseeable human rights consequences of austerity. It offers an adaptable methodological framework to inform the content and process of conducting effective Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) of fiscal consolidation measures. Further, the briefing demonstrates why a human rights assessment of austerity is at once necessary, feasible and ultimately quite valuable in advancing a suite of alternative policies that would prevent harmful forms of fiscal consolidation in the future.

George Osborne’s machonomics

Feminist scholars have described the behavioural traits that have flourished within the global economy in terms of a hegemonic ‘I know best’ masculinity. Whilst this literature has typically focused on a small number of business leaders around whom popular myths of wealth creation have developed, the same way of thinking might also be applied to policy-makers. At the very least, this study of George Osborne’s time as UK Chancellor of the Exchequer reveals how consistently he adopted the mantle of an omniscient hegemonic masculine subject in his approach to deficit reduction. It was an attitude to the task at hand I label ‘machonomics’. This concept is designed to mean more than that the outcomes of his austerity programme disproportionately disadvantaged women. It also captures the type of policy-maker that Osborne tried so hard to convince others he was. His self-projection finds a parallel, I argue, in what the macroeconomic theory literature describes as the specifically ‘conservative policy-maker’, someone reputed for trusting his own judgement even in the face of widespread dissent against his anti-social policies. The conservative policy-maker exudes the hegemonic masculinity that Osborne embodied in his refusal to voice opinions in public suggesting that there were viable alternatives to painful public expenditure cuts.

Modelling the Impact of Fiscal Policy on Non-Oil Gdp in a Resource Rich Country: Evidence from Azerbaijan

This paper analyses the impact of public expenditures and tax revenues on non-oil economic growth in Azerbaijan for the period of 2000Q1-2015Q2 by employing OLS, ARDL, FMOLS, DOLS, CCR and Granger Causality techniques. Different cointegration methods result in consistent results. In this study, there is strong evidence of significant long-run positive contributions from public expenditures to non-oil sector output. Results also show that tax revenues significantly slow down non-oil economic growth in the long run. Granger Causality analysis finds the existence of a bidirectional short-run association between non-oil GDP and public expenditures, while tax revenues Granger Cause both variables. The research findings should be useful for Azerbaijan fiscal policy makers to consider now and in the future. Current plans in Azerbaijan for both public expenditure cuts and tax revenue increases are likely to cause contraction in the Azerbaijan's non-oil sector GDP.

Non-profits and the ‘hollowed out’ state: the transformation of working conditions through personalizing social care services during an era of austerity

This article explores the impact of state reforms to increase customer authority in social care at a time of public sector austerity in Scotland. The article focuses on the implications of these reforms for state–non-profit relations and the latter’s employment policies. The study proposes a theoretical framework to explore these themes using insights from the ‘hollowing out’ thesis and the customer-orientated bureaucracy concept. Non-profits respond to increased customer authority from personalization and public expenditure cuts by adopting more competitive relations with each other. They also introduce contradictory ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ Human Resource Management (HRM) reforms. Workers face multiple demands to be more flexible and exhibit commitment to ‘fit’ with customer needs. Despite some increases in skills, the increasing influence of customer authority and efficiency savings mean employees experience multiple degradations in employment conditions affecting pay, job security, skills and work intensification.

Spending Review e divari regionali in Italia

This paper deals with the asymmetric regional effects of austerity policies in Italy in the current crisis. We discuss how austerity has caused a substantial downsizing of interregional redistribution, thus amplifying the economic downturn in Southern regions. First, we look at the regional distribution of the cost of austerity in terms of both higher tax burden and cuts in public expenditure. Then, we focus on the declining pattern experienced by both public investment and industrial policy.

Good-bye to the Celtic Tiger?

Higher education in Ireland faces challenges. In order to be competitive with the world-class universities, Irish higher education needs a strategic approach at the system level, an increase of investment, and a consideration of performance-based funding for greater productivity. The Irish government has implemented two initiatives regarding reform and investments in 2008. After the global economic crisis, though many countries took stimulus measures, Ireland conducted massive cuts in public expenditure.

Longitudinal studies and housing with care in England: a review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the recent literature on housing with care in England where a longitudinal approach has been adopted and to identify possible new research projects that focus on gaps in the existing literature. Design/methodology/approach – The review of the relevant research literature draws in part on an earlier overview of the broader literature on housing with care, part of an NIHR School for Social Care Research project, Adult Social Services Environments and Settings (ASSET). Findings – The literature review suggests that the findings from longitudinal studies on housing with care in England have usually been based on administrative sources (such as assessments) rather than the primary focus being on the voice of residents and frontline staff. It is therefore suggested that further studies are required to reflect the views of everyday life in housing with care settings. Research limitations/implications – This literature review and the longitudinal qualitative framework for undertaking further inquiry forms the basis for a major bid for funds from the NIHR School for Social Care Research. This is a collaborative endeavour between the University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies, the Association for Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester, the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent and the Housing and Learning Improvement Network. The limitations of this paper reflect the paucity of past investigations on the contribution of social care to the quality of life of elderly residents in extra care housing. Practical implications – As noted above, the reviews of this draft paper have helped to determine the form of the bid for research funds. Informal discussions with commissioners and providers of extra care housing for older people indicate that access for fieldwork along the lines proposed should not prove to be a major barrier. One of the important implications is to add to the weight of evidence about the working conditions of care staff in extra care housing. The research is likely to highlight both good and poor practices, not least with consequences for the quality of life of elderly residents. Social implications – As indicated above, the paper draws attention to the need for a longitudinal qualitative study on the contribution of social care to the quality of life of older residents in extra care housing. Such a study would focus both on the details of everyday lives experienced by residents and the interaction in this setting between frontline staff and residents. In the context of major demographic change in the UK and planned further substantial cuts in public expenditure, this research is of high relevance for both policy and practice in this field of social care. Originality/value – The review indicated a reliance on administratively derived information about residents rather than focusing on the voice of residents and frontline staff. Future longitudinal research should pay attention to the latter.

Public Service Outsourcing and its Employment Implications in an Era of Austerity: The Case of British Social Care

Utilising an institutional, inter-organisational and inter-personal framework, longitudinal qualitative data are used to examine the changing nature of state–voluntary sector relationships in the area of social care outsourcing and its implications for the terms and conditions of those employed by Scottish voluntary organisations. Over the period 2002 to 2008/09, against the background of funders seeking to pass on efficiencies to voluntary organisations, these relationships have become increasingly cost-based and ‘arm's-length’. This has been accompanied by downward pressure on staff terms and conditions, which are intensifying because of more draconian public expenditure cuts. Consequently, voluntary sector employers are increasingly converging on an employment model based on low pay and more limited access to sickness, pension and other benefits that is informed strongly by narrow financial logics.

Devolution, state restructuring and policy divergence in the UK

Devolution has become a key ‘global trend’ over recent decades as many states have decentralised power to sub‐state governments. The UK resisted this trend until the late 1990s when devolution was enacted by the then Labour Government, taking a highly asymmetrical form in which different territories have been granted different powers and institutional arrangements. Devolution allows the devolved governments to develop policies that are tailored to the needs of their areas, encouraging policy divergence, although this is countered by pressures to ensure that devolved approaches do not contradict those of the central state, promoting convergence. This review paper aims to assess the unfolding dynamics of devolution and policy divergence in the UK, spanning different policy areas such as economic development, health and social policy. The paper emphasises that devolution has altered the institutional landscape of public policy in the UK, generating some high‐profile examples of policy divergence, whilst also providing evidence of policy convergence. In addition, the passage of time underlines the nature of UK devolution as an unfolding process. Its underlying asymmetries have become more pronounced as the tendency towards greater autonomy for Scotland and Wales clashes with a highly centralised mode of policymaking in Westminster, the consequences of which have spilt over into the devolved territories in the context of the post‐2007 economic crisis through public expenditure cuts.

False dawns, bleak sunset: the Coalition Government's policies on career guidance

ABSTRACT The Coalition Government's policies on career guidance are analysed. Its rhetorical concern for career guidance provision is based largely on its support for social mobility, and its recognition of the role of career guidance in moving towards a demand-led skills system. Initial policy statements affirmed its intention to establish an all-age careers service, to revitalise the professional status of career guidance and to safeguard the partnership between schools and external provision. But these policies have been undermined by its commitment to school autonomy and to public expenditure cuts, exacerbated by indecision and delays due to difficulties in resolving the tensions within its policies. The result is a significant erosion of the all-age vision, and a likely major reduction in the extent and quality of careers help for young people.