Public Sector Participation Research Articles

Risk Selection in Natural Disaster Insurance - the Case of France

It is widely recognized that market failure prevents efficient risk sharing in natural disaster insurance. As a consequence, many countries adopted institutional frameworks presenting public sector participation, often praised as public-private partnerships. We define risk selection as a situation where private companies pass insurance of high risk agents on to the public partner, arguing that this is a potentially important issue in such situations. In order to illustrate our concerns we look at the case of France. We build a simple model that incorporates the main features of the system, such as the uniform premium rate in both high and low risk regions and the existence of a state reinsurer. We show that in our model, risk selection is likely to be present at equilibrium and discuss the policy options available. When comparing with the actual situation in France we find that the stylized facts of the system correspond to our results. Additionally, the policies implemented by the government correspond to policies characterized to reduce the potential of risk selection.

Job Strain, Effort???Reward Imbalance, and Heavy Drinking: A Study in 40,851 Employees

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship of the job strain model and the effort-reward imbalance model with heavy drinking. Questionnaire survey data were obtained from 32,352 women and 8499 men employed in the Finnish public sector (participation 67%). Logistic regression analyses for all employees and for separate subgroups were undertaken by sex, adjusted for age, education, occupational position, marital status, job contract, smoking, and negative affectivity. Different cutoff points of heavy drinking were used for men and women. High job strain and high effort-reward imbalance as global constructs were not associated with heavy drinking. However, some components of these models were associated with heavy drinking but the relationships were not all in the expected direction and they varied by sex, age, and occupational position. Stressful work conditions are not consistently associated with heavy drinking.

Managing public–private partnerships: the enactment of a new business venture

Phoenix was established to encourage nascent entrepreneurs to set-up technology-based companies. The project developed as an informal partnership between a small number of staff from X Business School and the business contacts of a retired entrepreneur. Data are drawn from participant-observation and interviews with all main actors to illustrate the process of enactment over an 18-month period. It is concluded that the failure of Phoenix was due to difficulties in reconciling substantially different objectives between public and private sector participants. In addition, the micropolitical activities of key actors associated with the new organization contributed to the lack of trust between the two groups.

International Report: Stormwater management

An international survey of urban stormwater management (SWM) practice was conducted for IWA and produced contributions from 18 countries. The survey information was further expanded by a review of recent literature and summarised in this international report on SWM. The main findings of the survey include clear indications of a widespread interest in stormwater management and of the acceptance of a holistic approach to SWM promoting sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS). Specific implications of this philosophy include emphasis on source controls in SWM, transition from traditional "hard" infrastructures (drain pipes) to green infrastructures, needs for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation, formation of stormwater agencies (within larger integrated water agencies) with participation of both public and private sectors, and sustainable funding through drainage fees rather than general taxes. Further progress in this field requires targeted research and development, knowledge sharing, and above all, a high level of public participation in planning, implementing and operating stormwater management systems.

Developing and Managing Small Islands as Tourist Attractions

This paper considers tourism policy in Singapore with specific reference to the country's small offshore islands which are being developed for tourism. It explains the features of the three islands selected for inclusion in the case study and discusses them as tourist attractions within the context of management, planning and development issues. Attention is also given to questions of resource protection and the promotion of ecotourism. Although the circumstances of Singapore are highly distinctive, examination of the case illustrates the challenges facing those responsible for the management of such sites as tourist attractions, including securing an appropriate balance between public and private sector participation and between conservation of natural resources and their exploitation for tourism. Such a balance is critical in pursuit of sustainability, incorporating economic, environmental and social dimensions.

Strengthening biotech alliance for data sharing

The coalition of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and computer companies known as Interoperable Informatics Infrastructure Consortium (I3C) is attracting new members. The consortium was established earlier this year with the goal of developing an open platform to enable researchers to share data about genomics and proteomics using the Java programming language and the XML Internet standard for data exchange. Representatives from IBM, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Accenture were among the new members who recently joined founders Sun Microsystems, TimeLogic, Blackstone, Incogen, LabBook, Oracle and the National Cancer Institute. The new consortium, which includes, among its academic and public-sector participants, the European Bioinformatics Institute and Manchester University, was launched at the BIO 2001 conference in San Diego, USA (24–27 June). If the I3C address the challenge successfully, common standards will be set for manipulating data from several different sources over the Internet. This will particularly aid the efforts of smaller companies that have difficulty coping with the raging number of existing applications based on particular operating systems. Members of the coalition agreed that all standards coming out of the project will be fully public. AR(http://news.ft.com/home/uk)

A decision support framework for project sponsors in the planning stage of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects

Every decision-making problem is oriented towards the selection of the correct strategies for achieving objectives, and depends on the assumptions associated with different scenarios. Project planning in a buildoperate-transfer (BOT) project is a complicated decision-making problem because the model has a complex financial and organizational structure which is influenced also by the socio-economic environment in a country. A decision support framework is reported, as used in the planning stage of a hydropower plant project in Turkey, which helped the project company to check project viability against some predefined critical success factors, define the risk sharing scenarios under which a project becomes viable, incorporate risks into cash flow analysis and, finally, define effective risk mitigation strategies. Key challenges in the realization of BOT projects, particularly in developing countries, are discussed together with possible risk sharing principles between the private and public sector participants.

The logic and pathologies of local and regional economic development strategies

State and local economic development programs are often loaded with tax incentive and promises of deregulation designed to attract new businesses, encourage expansions, and cultivate new firms. There is little evidence that tax relief and deregulation are effective tools for economic development, however. This article examines the logic of public sector participation in economic development, questions the effectives of typical development policies, and suggests alternatives, including tax-base sharing, greater regional cooperation, and human capital development.

Economic issues regarding tertiary canal improvement programs, with an example from Egypt

Public investments in farmer-managed tertiary canals can promote an improved distribution of water among farmers, enabling them to improve water management practices, enhance crop yields, and select from a wider variety of cropping choices. This paper examines economic issues regarding public programs designed to improve or rehabilitate tertiary canals, particularly in developing countries. Key issues include defining property rights to irrigation water or delivery capacity, and to new or improved irrigation facilities; communicating the relative scarcity of agricultural inputs with appropriate prices or allocations; implementing cost recovery; and determining the best mix of public and private sector participation. The transaction costs of implementing market-oriented programs are also discussed. Economic issues are illustrated by describing Egypt's national Irrigation Improvement Project, for which a set of alternative cost recovery programs is presented.

The ongoing history of a Chilean metal products and machinery firm

Processes of adjustment and restructuring of the production sectors to a new system of macroeconomic incentives are slow, costly and more inefficient than conventional microeconomic theory would lead one to suppose. In this article, the authors explore the process of the restructuring of production of a Chilean metal products and machinery company and the way it gradually modified its operations from the 1970s onwards, adapting them to new macroeconomic and mesoeconomic signals. As is well known, in the last two decades the system off incentives and the regulatory framework for production activities in Chile have undergone profound changes, gradually moving --with advances but also setbacks-- towards an organizational model more open to external competition, more deregulated, and with less public sector participation in the field of production proper. In the case of the company studied here, in spite of the considerable length of time that the Chilean economy has been open to the exterior and the fact that the company has been notably successful in its global restructuring, the transition to international levels of productivity is still not complete and displays areas of fragmentation and weakness. Section I of the article describes the general background for the functioning of the Chilean economy in which the company's activities evolved; section II describes the evolution of the firm's manufacturing facilities, and the third and last section explores the links between microeconomic and macroeconomic aspects and sets forth some conclusions drawn from this study.

The status of municipal waste combustion in the United States

This paper examines changes in municipal waste combustion practices over a 10 yr period (1982–1992). It reviews the public policy environment surrounding solid waste disposal and its impact on municipal waste combustion (MWC). Based on a series of surveys of MWC projects in the United States conducted since 1982, the paper examines the status of projects, technologies employed, air pollution control methods, fuel products, project revenues, and the extent of public and private sector participation [1].

Competing Regulatory Agencies With Conflicting Agendas: Setting Standards For Cash Flow Reporting In Australia

Financial accounting regulatory arrangements adopted in most Western countries often involve the participation of (and interactions between) public-sector and private-sector regulatory agencies. The political process associated with the development of accounting rules not only involves the efforts of interested parties seeking to secure the content of rules favourable to their interests but also the behaviours of regulatory agencies as they compete to influence or control the regulatory ‘agenda’. Regulatory agencies develop their own agendas, in light of their own perceived priorities and the regulatory initiatives of other agencies. The placing of an accounting issue on the agenda of one agency may be warmly supported by other agencies or, alternatively, be viewed as a threat to the regulatory ambitions of those other agencies. This case study reviews the emergence and eventual resolution of an accounting issue that was initially promoted by a government agency in April 1984 but then ultimately developed as a professional accounting standard in December 1991. The study describes the activities of public and private-sector agencies during this eight-year period as they responded to proposals for the introduction of disclosure rules concerning cash flows. Evidence was obtained from public records, documents provided by interest groups, and structured and semi-structured interviews with key participants in the events described. The analysis is underscored by our understanding of competitive regulatory interactions and formal models for analysing agenda entrance (Cobb et al. 1976). This analysis shows how the profession's standard-setting body was unable to control the global agenda for accounting rule-making as a consequence of the intervention of another body, the Australian Stock Exchange.

An anatomy of a Hong Kong project — organization, environment and leadership

An analysis is presented of the organization structure of a large complex project in Hong Kong which involved both public and private sector participants. The project is the US$400 million Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The analysis identifies the novel contract strategy used and the resulting relationship which existed between contributors to the project. The analysis is based on the systems approach to organization structure and focuses on the structure of decisions, differentiation and integration of the operating system, the client and the managing system. Distinction is made between the macro- and micro-environments of the project with which the organization structure had to interact. Features of the leadership styles adopted at a high level on the project are discussed. Conclusions are drawn within the context of the interplay between project environment, organization structure and leadership.

Managing the Development Process: Community Strategies in Economic Revitalization

This paper considers community strategies in economic revitalization. Guidelines are proposed for local economic development practitioners and as a framework for further research. Findings are based on extensive analysis and comparative study of economic development efforts in four medium-sized industrialized cities in the northeastern United States. The role of motivating, organizing, and diagnostic agents, including crisis situations, community based planning, and local development agencies, are highlighted. The analysis presents economic revitalization as an on-going activity requiring strong local leadership, competent local development institutions, and broad-based public and private sector participation.

The determinants of off-budget activity of state and local governments

The primary finding of this paper is that the off-budget activity of the public sector is significantly and positively related to on-budget activity by state and local governments. We suggest the following policy implications. One, there appears to be evidence that the composition of total government activity is related to the relative costs of the alternative avenues of providing governmental activity. Future research into determining the nature of the relative cost differences may be one useful means of understanding both the composition of government activity as well as its total size. Two, our ability to measure the “true” size of public sector participation in the economy must go well beyond our attempt here. While we have presented information on one of the important “hidden” elements of public sector participation, we are still a long way from effectively incorporating similar data on legislation, regulations and so forth into our empirical tests. Further research into these issues is clearly warranted.

“Electronic information—public or private good?”

Private and public sector participants in the information systems business are struggling to define their appropriate roles. Two qualities of information goods can affect whether or not public goods characteristics dominate; the life span of the information and the analytic content of the material. Moreover, technological change can alter both qualities. Those goods with a short life span and high analytic content are more likely to be allocated efficiently by the private sector. However, the longer the life span of the information and the lower the analytic content, the more likely that public participation is appropriate. The case of AGNET, an on-line information system for farmers, is used to illustrate how technological change can facilitate the transition from public to private sector.

The Making of a Medical Generalist

Prologue: Regardless of what one thinks about the absolute number of physicians needed in the future, there is a clear consensus among experts that something should be done to increase the proportion of primary care physicians in relationship to the number of specialty physicians. In this essay, Steven Schroeder, a professor of medicine and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, makes the case for increasing the number of generalist physicians. Schroeder says there are four basic reasons why decreasing the relative supply of specialists makes sense: to increase the quality of care; to decrease the cost of care; to increase patient satisfaction; and to increase physician satisfaction. He brings to the subject of health manpower impeccable credentials as the driving force behind a highly successful department of general internal medicine that operates in an environment that places a premium on specialty care. Schroeder, educated at Stanford and Harvard Universities, also has earned a national reputation as a health policy analyst and active participant in a wide variety of issues. Indeed, over the years, Schroeder has demonstrated an uncanny ability to spot emerging issues, including the use of medical technology, physician payment, and high-cost illness, examine them and then write essays which are used as primers by private and public sector participants alike in the ensuing debates. Schroeder is a member of the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and of the Institute of Medicine. He also was recently elected president of the Society for Research and Education in Primary Care Internal Medicine.