Public Sector Involvement Research Articles

Who pays? Who gains? Central counterparty resource provision in the post-Pittsburgh world

At the Pittsburgh Summit in 2009, G20 leaders agreed to wide-reaching reforms to over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets. One of these reforms required the clearing of standardized OTC derivatives through central counterparties (CCPs). Since then, CCPs have become increasingly important. There has been an extensive programme of regulatory change affecting CCPs, OTC derivatives markets and their participants. As OTC clearing has grown, tension has increased between different classes of market participants over the traditional CCP model of resource provision through loss mutualization. We argue that most of this tension can be explained by a misalignment between the policy goal of enhancing financial stability and the delivery of that goal by mandating clearing through CCPs as they are currently organized. Specifically, the traditional model for resource provision makes most CCPs suitable for managing “club goods”, whereas financial stability is a “public good”. The key differences between these two types of goods, driven by the wedge between those who pay for them and those who derive the benefits, create the observed tensions. Based on this analysis, we propose a framework to analyze the functional elements of a CCP and examine whether an alternative clearing model might be more effective. We conclude that incentives would be better aligned if the functions of CCPs were unbundled and the ownership and funding structures that best suit their individual characteristics were selected. Functions that are critical for the provision of financial stability might suggest some form of public sector involvement, whereas other services might lend themselves to a for-profit or traditional club model.

Express coaches: An up-hill battle after liberalization?

Express coach services have thrived in Norway following the stepwise liberalization that started in the mid-1990s. However, recent years have witnessed consolidation, stagnation, and, sometimes, decline in the Norwegian express coach market.In this paper, we study this process of rapid growth which turned into gradual decline in Norway. Looking at factors contributing to this development, we investigate intermodal competition with local public transport, air, car and rail; and the effects of increased public-sector involvement - both as a passenger transport provider and as an infrastructure provider.This paper relies on three data sources and methods: 1) National travel survey data2) Historical market dataand 3) Case studies.Our main findings are that, following liberalization, express coach services were mainly established in markets underserved by other modes, where express coaches had lower operating costs as well as generalized costs than the available alternatives. These markets have gradually been provided with better alternative transport services: For the long-distance coach lines, competition from low-cost air carriers has been significant. For shorter lines, improved road infrastructure and rail services have increased competition by private cars and rail. Also, initiatives to increase and improve local public transport have impacted the express coach industry.

Federalism and Tax Reform

AbstractThe form and potential contributions of cooperative federalism and the additional skills and tasks required of the public service to turn well‐known and developed tax reforms into actual reforms are evaluated. Cooperative federalism seems necessary for reforms involving state taxes and changes in the mix of taxes. Additional public sector skills and involvement in developing details of tax reform packages and their implementation, and then monitoring the outcomes, are important to raise community understanding of, and confidence in, taxation reform.

PREREQUISITES FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF MODERN FORMS OF SELF-EMPLOYMENT OF THE POPULATION AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY

The article is devoted to the relevant issue of introduction of new forms of self-employment and labour in the national economy. The basic indicators of employment of the population are analysed. They testify that recently the number of employed people has decreased, and the number of people who have organized their activities has increased. Researches showed that during 2017, industry differences in nominal and real wages also deepened. The highest average monthly nominal wage in Ukraine remained in financial-insurance and information and telecommunication activities, and the smallest – in land transport, construction, industry, education, and healthcare. It is substantiated that such disagreements create serious socio-economic problems at the local and regional level. These problems have become the prerequisite for the study of new forms of employment and labour, such as outsourcing, outstaffing, freelance, e-lance, coworking. The described models of the business organization use the work of specialists for a certain period of time or volume of work. In this context, the significance of outsourcing as an instrument of enterprises’ access to the necessary resources, an increase of their competitiveness, and reduction of transaction costs is researched, as well as opportunities for development and strengthening of staffing through outstaffing. The advantages of these new forms are: reduced tax base; maintaining the status of a small business; avoiding labour risks and additional grounds for inspections; simplification of accounting. A special attention in the article is devoted to models of self-employment or labour activity of professionals for job search and earnings. Such professions as freelancer and e-lancer, as shown by the research, provide the opportunity to work remotely and carry out all activities through the Internet. Professional areas of e-lancers are as follows: design and graphics, website development and support, writing of advertising and informational texts, programming, advertising, marketing, photography, audio and video, consulting, engineering, and other business services. One of the first explored common platforms (freelance platforms) was hackerspaces, that is, places where gathered people with common interests, and there were such platforms at the expense of membership fees. A comparison of a hackerspace with coworking has shown both common and distinctive features. The main difference is that when building coworking platforms, most often there is cooperation with private business as the organizer of this platform. There is also a certain public sector involvement, but unlike more developed European countries, this sector in Ukraine is too small. Coworking, first of all, provides assistance in the form of premises and technical support, in order to increase its efficiency and economic activity. The article proposes a methodology for calculating self-employed population in Ukraine that will allow representatives of free trades to be attracted to official business activities.

An Assessment of Public Sector Involvement and Management Support in Tertiary Education Institutions of Namibia: Challenges and Prospects

This paper aims to assess the Public Sector involvement and management support in tertiary institutions of Africa. The paper discusses how poverty has a negative impact on those students who would want to further their education and are not able to do so; as a result of their parents being trapped in poverty. Some governments of Africa have their ways of reaching out to such needy students. The government decided to provide courses such as educational diploma or degree which become entry requirements for any teacher. In Namibia, a course in education at tertiary level is freely offered by the university. This government commitment is ensuring that all students who have enrolled for these two courses or disciplines have access to tertiary education on the financial ticket of government and that once they complete they will be offered educational appointments as teachers. As years progress, this government financial support would be trimmed if the private sector is not involved. It is discovered that some students have completed their tertiary diplomas and degrees qualifications, but have to this end not been able to secure the job in the market.

Agricultural and Food Policy Framework in Bangladesh: An Assessment

Since the liberation of Bangladesh, the government of Bangladesh introduced a series of policy measures in agriculture and food sectors to encourage pro-market distribution of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and diesel fuel for irrigation. The dominant feature of the policy reform had been the government’s liberalisation of the fertilizer and irrigation equipment markets. These reforms can be reasonably credited with the success in rice production during the 1984-1992 period. Reforms in the foodgrains market in the 1990s reduced the public sector involvement in these markets. Public procurement to stabilise prices and provide production incentives to farmers suffered from certain inefficiencies, although the overall impact of public procurement and price support programmes could be considered positive. The policy reforms were surprisingly smooth partly reflecting the absence of organised lobby by peasants and partly the fact that the policy reforms have benefitted, by and large, all groups of farmers.

Should the public sector play a greater role funding brownfield redevelopment projects? A transatlantic comparison

ABSTRACTIn the US and Germany, various public funding tools are available to make brownfield redevelopment projects financially feasible. The practices of private or public sector involvement differ from an international perspective. The following discussion will explore funding practices in the US and Germany. In Germany, there is a long tradition of public sector involvement while the US is predominately driven by private sector funding. A comparison will help identify long-standing practices in Germany and how they might be adapted to the US context. In a manner similar to the previous chapter on policies and programs, findings in this chapter are discussed at federal US, state of Michigan and local municipal levels, and European Union, Germany, and local-level funding.

Is American Pet Health Care (Also) Uniquely Inefficient?

We document four similarities between American human healthcare and American pet care: (i) rapid growth in spending as a share of GDP over the last two decades; (ii) strong income-spending gradient; (iii) rapid growth in the employment of healthcare providers; and (iv) similar propensity for high spending at the end of life. We speculate about possible implications of these similar patterns in two sectors that share many common features but differ markedly in institutional features, such as the prevalence of insurance and of public sector involvement.

Health Inequalities, Public Sector Involvement and Malaria Control in Cambodia

Health Inequalities, Public Sector Involvement and Malaria Control in Cambodia

Health Inequalities, Public Sector Involvement and Malaria Control in Cambodia

Cambodia is constructing a broad partnership to guide the delivery of public health services in a context of historical anarchy in the health sector and of contemporary political obstacles. Ironically, the conditions of this partnership undermine the sovereignty of the national programme and hinder the ability of the government to provide comprehensive services. National authorities have given in to the pressure of international funding agencies to adopt approaches characterized by verticalization, multicentred interventions, volunteerism and private partnership. The malaria eradication programme is an example of how the disjointed strategy of combining various interventions can lead to increasing spatial and social health inequalities. In addition, the Cambodian government is often overburdened in trying to manage a multitude of frequently incoherent external interventions. The criteria for efficient delivery reveal an unsustainable national public health vision. Local planners should reconsider the parameters under which they engage with external parties and shore up the autonomy of their decision-making.

Governance of Public–Private Partnerships and Infrastructure Delivery: Case of the Milan, Italy, Metro Line M4

This paper addresses issues in the governance of the public–private partnership (PPP) with a review of a recent case: Metro Line M4 in Milan, Italy. The paper discusses how to optimize the use of public grants by channeling some into the equity of the concessionaire. This approach creates a truly public–private special purpose vehicle (SPV) (i.e., concessionaire) that leaves efficiency incentives to the private party but results in greater public control of funding contributions as well as project costs. The paper demonstrates how public-sector involvement in the concessionaire can reduce the information asymmetry between the public and private sectors during project bidding and negotiation: greater public control of a project’s technical and financial information is a crucial factor in the reduction of project costs. Reduction in information asymmetry and the creation of a public–private SPV (concessionaire) establish a double layer of control over a project, which allows for a more efficient monitoring system during the construction and the operation of the project. The paper shows how the City of Milan developed and negotiated the Line M4 project and left little margin for increased costs, yet ensured an adequate return to the private party. This Milan experience provides lessons to improve effective project delivery in infrastructure development: the method used can create an efficient framework to reduce project costs and to discourage opportunistic behavior during project renegotiations. The potential applicability of the Line M4 governance structure to PPP projects elsewhere, including in the United States, is discussed.

Student Career Management – Private and Public Sector Involvement

Abstract The need of high level prepared students into the private sector is continuously increasing because of the raised innovation level requested by market. In this case study, experts were involved from the private sector in collaboration with the academic sector for a career management project initiated for students; the monitored KPIs had a positive trend. The purpose of the paper is to analyze and show the results of a project with big impact on the education of students from Romania and on the collaboration between the private and public sector. A model of career management is proposed, in which the knowledge is mobilized into a spiral of education levels with influence from the public sector, the private sector and the government. The positive influence of private sector it is highlighted and it is advised to introduce the management of career into student’s education.

Addressing governance challenges in the provision of animal health services: A review of the literature and empirical application transaction cost theory

Providing adequate animal health services to smallholder farmers in developing countries has remained a challenge, in spite of various reform efforts during the past decades. The focuses of the past reforms were on market failures to decide what the public sector, the private sector, and the “third sector” (the community-based sector) should do with regard to providing animal health services. However, such frameworks have paid limited attention to the governance challenges inherent in the provision of animal health services. This paper presents a framework for analyzing institutional arrangements for providing animal health services that focus not only on market failures, but also on governance challenges, such as elite capture, and absenteeism of staff. As an analytical basis, Williamson’s discriminating alignment hypothesis is applied to assess the cost-effectiveness of different institutional arrangements for animal health services in view of both market failures and governance challenges. This framework is used to generate testable hypotheses on the appropriateness of different institutional arrangements for providing animal health services, depending on context-specific circumstances. Data from Uganda and Kenya on clinical veterinary services is used to provide an empirical test of these hypotheses and to demonstrate application of Williamson's transaction cost theory to veterinary service delivery. The paper concludes that strong public sector involvement, especially in building and strengthening a synergistic relation-based referral arrangement between paraprofessionals and veterinarians is imperative in improving animal health service delivery in developing countries.

Healthcare system financing and profits: all that glitters is not gold.

The objective of this paper is an analysis of two main attributes of healthcare systems. First of the main attributes is the trend of ever growing expenditures of healthcare systems all across the world. Second attribute is the efficiency of chosen mixed healthcare systems, where mixed system is one which features involvement of both private and public sector. Countries chosen for analysis are USA as the country with high private sector influence on healthcare, France with its mediocre influence and Japan, where the private companies participate in health care but are very strictly regulated by a zero profit rule, and the Czech Republic, where public sector dominates the health care. The result is that the systems with higher influence of the private sector tend to have lesser occupancy, not significantly better performance and higher expenditures. This raise doubts whether the private sector brings anything of value for the patients within the healthcare system. However, more detailed analysis should be carried out to confirm or refuse this hypothesis.

Financing Ethiopia's Development: Confronting the Gap between Ambition and Means

Ethiopia set out – and in large measure achieved – a very ambitious program of economic and social development under its Growth and Transformation Plan I. The scale of public sector involvement was very large: for the five-year Plan period, it called for budgetary government spending and public enterprise off-budget spending of 41% of GDP, more than half of which was to come from budgetary resources. As Ethiopia prepares for version 2.0 of its GTP, it must confront a fiscal numbers problem: Ethiopia’s tax share of GDP under GTP I reached only the 12%-13% level, and revenue flows from official international assistance are shrinking. This paper dissects the financing challenge that Ethiopia must meet to achieve its goal of becoming a middle income country. It concludes that only export-led manufacturing in a context of a major expansion of the number of active formal enterprises coupled with best practice performance in all other areas related to revenue generation will square the circle of Ethiopia’s development financing challenge.

A systematic review of factors affecting children's right to health in cluster randomized trials in Kenya.

Following the South African case, Treatment Action Campaign and Others v Minister of Health and Others, the use of 'pilot’ studies to investigate interventions already proven efficacious, offered free of charge to government, but confined by the government to a small part of the population, may violate children’s right to health, and the negative duty on governments not to prevent access to treatment. The applicants challenged a government decision to offer Nevirapine in a few pilot sites when evidence showed Nevirapine significantly reduced HIV transmission rates and despite donor offers of a free supply. The government refused to expand access, arguing they needed to collect more information, and citing concerns about long-term hazards, side effects, resistance and inadequate infrastructure. The court ruled this violated children’s right to health and asked the government to immediately expand access. Cluster randomized trials involving children are increasingly popular, and are often used to reduce 'contamination’: the possibility that members of a cluster adopt behavior of other clusters. However, they raise unique issues insufficiently addressed in literature and ethical guidelines. This case provides additional crucial guidance, based on a common human rights framework, for the Kenyan government and other involved stakeholders. Children possess special rights, often represent a 'captive’ group, and so motivate extra consideration. In a systematic review, we therefore investigated whether cluster trial designs are used to prevent or delay children’s access to treatment in Kenya or otherwise inconsistently with children’s right to health as outlined in the above case. Although we did not find state sponsored cluster trials, most had significant public sector involvement. Core obligations under children’s right to health were inadequately addressed across trials. Few cluster trials reported rationale for cluster randomization, offered post- trial access or planned to implement successful interventions. A small number of trials may have unnecessarily evaluated proven interventions, offered their control arm trial conditions worse than local standards of care or evaluated interventions ostensibly worse than local standards of care. Further research is required to establish if children’s right to health in cluster trials is well understood and to explain why some obligations are unmet.

The role of properly structured public-private partnerships in promoting economic development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find the characteristics that determine the success of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in promoting economic development and specifically to determine the long- and short-term public involvement. Design/methodology/approach – A grounded theory approach is utilized, involving desk research and a review of the current literature, as well as examining case studies. This reduction in data collection was based on the availability of literature and case studies which can be assimilated to develop theoretically justifiable conclusions. Findings – In less-than-developed countries (LDC), the lack of private investment capital severely hinders economic development. In developed countries it is often high risk factors and very large capital investment that slows economic development. In both cases, an input from the public sector is needed. The findings suggest that government involvement should be time limited, so that to achieve long-term success, a public sector exit strategy should be formulated. The length of time for public sector involvement varies but is generally longer in the LDC. Research limitations/implications – While the current literature provides some conclusions regarding the effect of PPPs on economic development, there is a gap when examining the proper structure particularly for developing countries. Originality/value – While the current literature provides some conclusions regarding the effect of PPPs on economic development, there is a gap when examining the proper structure. This paper also provides some guidance for participants to determine the optimum length of time that public involvement is needed. Both academics and practitioners should find this to be valuable information.

Collateral composition, diversification risk, and systemically important merchant banks

The impact of collateral diversification by non-financial firms on systemic risk is studied in a general equilibrium model with standard production functions and mixed debt-equity financing. Systemic risk comes about as soon as firms diversify their collateral by holding claims on a big wholesale (merchant) bank whose asset side includes claims on the same producer set. The merchant bank sector proves to be fragile (has a short distance to default) regardless of competition. In this setting, the policy response, consisting in official guarantees for the merchant bank's liabilities, entails considerable government loss risk. An alternative without the need for public sector involvement is to encourage systemically important merchant banks to introduce a simple bail-in mechanism by restricting their liabilities to contingent convertible bonds. This line of regulatory policy is particularly relevant to the containment of systemic events in globally leveraged economies serviced by big international banks outside host country regulatory control.

Focus: From the streets of Seattle to the Back Rooms of Geneva

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 10 Volume 21 Issue 3 2014 TISA will create an environment conducive to privatisation FOCUS ❐ TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE LABOUR MOVEMENT N egotiated in secret in Geneva for almost two years, by the European Union, USA, Japan, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Australia, South Korea and others totalling over 50 countries, it has taken months of work from global researchers and a spectacular leak from Julianne Assange’s Wikileaks to expose anything about its contents. For governments who normally extoll the virtues of trade agreements to anybody who will listen, and who are responsible for more than two thirds of the world’s global trade in services, it is curious that we have heard so little. Leaked papers have been stamped classified for five years after the close of negotiations. Until recently a Google search for Trade in Services Agreement (‘TISA’) produced only a few hits. All that has changed in the last few months. Released in late April, Public Services International’s publication TISA vs Public Services pieces together what is being negotiated. The research by Scott Sinclair and Hadrianne MertinKirkwood of the Canadian Centre for Public Policy relied on interviews with services negotiators , press reports from governments and the very limited public statements by the parties. It shows that the TISA applies to every possible means of providing services internationally. TISA includes cross border services (GATS Mode 1), such as distance education and internet gambling; consumption abroad (GATS Mode 2) such as recreational and medical tourism; foreign direct investment (GATS Mode 3) such as multinational corporations providing water or energy services and temporary movement of persons (GATS Mode 4) such as nurses, house-keepers or executives temporarily travel abroad to provide services. Privatisation The research concludes that the TISA will create an environment conducive to privatisation. Like the General Agreement on Trade in Services (‘GATS’), the TISA doesn’t simply ensure non-discriminatory treatment for foreign providers, but goes further to restrict or prohibit some non-discriminatory government actions. The TISA would prohibit public monopolies and exclusive service providers in fully committed sectors. The research also identifies the proposed inclusion of ‘standstill’ and ‘ratchet’ clauses. The standstill clause will lock in current levels of services liberalisation, effectively banning moves from a market based to state based provision of services. The ratchet clause automatically locks in future actions to liberalise services. The combined effect of these clauses is to stop services being brought back into public hands. While this is a clear affront to the ability of governments to implement democratic mandates to pursue legitimate public policy objectives, the absurdity becomes clearer when considering the recent spate of failed privatisations in water, energy and transport. The TISA effectively stops failed privatisations being brought back into public hands, regardless of how disastrous the consequences of the privatisation are. The effects are even more worrying when considering the way public services evolve. If the TISA were previously in force it would have prohibited the establishment of public health systems , public transport systems, public education and public waste and sanitation in many countries . Future policy challenges such as climate change related energy and abatement measures, banking re-regulation or internet regulation are likely to require some form of public sector involvement. Financial Deregulation Astonishingly, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the TISA seeks to further deregulate the financial markets. This was confirmed when Wikileaks leaked the financial services chapter in May this year. Analysis by Professor Jane Kelsey from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland in New Zealand showed that governments signing onto TISA will be ‘expected to lock in and extend their current levels of financial deregulation, lose the right to require data be held onshore, face pressure to authorise potentially toxic insurance products and risk legal challenge if they adopt measures to prevent or respond to another crisis’1 . Restrictions on public interest regulation In September this year further research by Ellen Gould examined TISA’s effect on the sovereign right to regulate. It concludes that the ratchet provisions would ‘automatically make permanent any experiment made in deregulation – with no ability to reverse course if the experiment proved disastrous’2 . Governments elected with...

E-commerce trading activity and the SME sector: an FSB perspective

Purpose – This study aims to examine e-commerce within UK small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). More specifically, it seeks to explore associations between e-commerce and internal and external antecedents including trading behaviour, owner/manager characteristics, innovation, public sector involvement, business advice and finance sources. Design/methodology/approach – An 8,500+ sample derived from the 2008 UK Federation of Small Businesses survey was utilised. An OLS regression equation was generated where the percentage of sales made using e-commerce constituted the dependent variable. Independent variables were constructed for several sets of factors including innovation, business advice and sources of finance, as well as a range of owner and SME typology variables. Findings – The results suggest that e-commerce is more strongly apparent in SMEs started from scratch and where they were involved in basic or high knowledge services or the tourist trade. SMEs undertaking e-commerce were also associated with innovation in the form of copyright, as well as public procurement with local authorities and the university sector. Specific business advice in the form of capacity, family and suppliers was also associated with e-commerce trading. Research limitations/implications – These results have implications for SMEs and public sector stakeholders. SMEs must recognise the importance of several potential antecedents such as intellectual property rights, specific business advice and finance to encourage e-commerce. Moreover, it was apparent that certain SME characteristics, namely locality and trading behaviour, were associated with effective e-commerce. Originality/value – This study will be of value to academia, SMEs and key public sector stakeholders in the formulation of policy for ICT development.