Public Administration Sector Research Articles

Personality Traits’ Predictors of Outstanding Performance in the Public Sector

This research provides Human Resources Managements with a tool to identify outstanding performers according to personality traits. The model has been empirically tested in the Israeli Public Administration sector. The innovative paired sample is composed of a variety of elite performers from 14 different government offices. Questionnaires were administered to a total of 742 participants, which comprised 189 pairs of outstanding employees and their supervisors, and 182 pairs of normative employees and their supervisors. Whereas the supervisors rated the job performances of their employees, these self-reported on their personality traits. The results show that two out of five personality traits, extraversion, and emotional stability, are positive predictors of outstanding performance, while openness to experience is a negative one. In addition, agreeableness emerges as a positive predictor of normative employees’ performance. As to its practical outcomes, this research assists public administrations in locating outstanding employees for successful planning.

IMPLEMENTATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SMART CITY SYSTEM

Today, more than 3.9 billion people live in urban areas, that is, more than 54% of the world population. According to scientists from New York State University, urbanization will continue in the coming years, increasing the urban population to 6.0 billion. people by 2045 A significant increase in the urban population increases the demand for energy, mobility, water and other urban services in cities. Therefore, cities should become smarter in providing urban services. In addition, cities are the largest environmental pollutants responsible for more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, 75% of waste generation and 70% of global energy consumption. Due to global awareness of the negative impacts of such pollution on the environment, cities are under greater pressure to improve environmental performance while improving the level of services. All these trends converge at the moment when a new trend is being formed: digitalization. The growing demand for sustainable, comprehensive, reliable and efficient urban service puts enormous pressure on our urban infrastructure, but digitalization provides a powerful tool for solving these issues and creates a paradigm shift in our concept of cities – creating the Smart City concept. The use of information technologies in the management of a modern city has long been relevant. Since the 2000s, progressive companies have mentioned Smart City as an effective way to manage urban resources and recommended it for use by officials. However, then it is only possible to talk about it, and today every city that considers itself modern wants to be Smart City. It is also worth introducing smart technologies in the public administration sector, and not only in the field of infrastructure, security and tourism. This is due to both the globalization processes, the increase in the population in cities and the growing role of the cities themselves and the systematic growth of urbanization, and the change in the role of the city itself – their transformation into modern information centres using information and communication technologies in many spheres of life of residents. Modern cities face constant contradictions every day: the combination of social attractiveness of the city and the comfort of residents' living, the rapid growth of production and environmental norms and the growth of industrial waste, transport and production infrastructure and modern information technologies. At the same time, it is worth noting that cities are the driving engines of the economy, platforms for creating and implementing social innovations, technological innovations, centres of education and culture. Smart cities today become the basis of social progress and economic growth, as information technologies help transform traditional functions in the classical sense through the use of smart technologies. These technologies make it possible to solve the problems that arise and qualitatively change the system of the city administration. As a result, conditions for the development of each resident of the community and the city as a whole are ensured. Smart decisions of the city authorities produce an increase in the value of the city itself due to additional emerging opportunities, as well as increasing the investment attractiveness of the city itself. The growth of modern solutions using the latest technologies, primarily in the field of municipal management, increases the efficiency of resource use, ensures the development of economic potential, the launch of new individual business areas, and also improves the quality and comfort of citizens' living in the city. At the same time, modern city development and management systems should include smart technologies and information systems for the transformation of life in urban processes, better management and improvement of life in the city. It is also worth noting that today with the spread of infections, such as covid-19 infection, which has become a global pandemic, the role of Smart City smart technologies is not so much in demand in the world and Ukraine in particular. The role of such technologies will increase from year to year. Also, taking into account globalization and integration processes in the world, the Smart City system has long begun to gain popularity among leading countries with developed economies and the European Union. Smart City affects both everyday life in the city and the sphere of state and local administration, public safety, industry, transport, ecology, medicine, energy, mobility and other spheres of life of citizens, both at the national and local levels. Keywords: globalization, smart technologies, digitalization, digitalization, development, Smart City.

The Impact of Public Administration Digitalization on the Decarbonization of the Economy

According to wikinomics, the decarbonization of the economy it is not possible without the involvement of people’s creativity and ingenuity under the form of prosumption channeled into the public administration. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to transform the existing websites of municipal offices into participation platforms that would become the local growth poles concentrating the economic forces operating in a given area. As Adam Smith, the father of economics, noted, synchronization between the economic goals of people and the preferences of local authorities are the main factors of development and the lack of them can create the highest degree of chaos in the economy. Consequently, the research began with defining prosumption and determining the degree of cooperation between society and the public administration sector in the digital sphere. Correspondence analysis was used to analyze the data collected from a survey. The issue of the quality of websites of municipal public administration offices, which in the digital economy function as growth poles and development axes, was also discussed. It was observed that society is prepared to perform the role of prosumers in the public administration sector; however, the low quality of websites constrains full disclosure of society’s prosumer potential. Under these conditions, the best ways to decarbonize the local economy are: (1) acceleration of the digitization of municipal public administration; and (2) use of the already existing infrastructural growth poles and development axes. The first postulate is related to the improvement of the existing, and the construction of new, computer networks. The second point mainly concerns the achievements of molinology, which studies the existing and partially functional infrastructure of former watermills and the location of former windmills. It is a valuable clue that facilitates the location and construction of modern renewable energy sources. The subject of the research is the Warmia and Mazury Province, which includes 116 municipalities and is the fourth largest province in Poland.

Metropolitan air pollution abatement and industrial growth: Global urban panel analysis of PM10, PM2.5, NO2 and SO2

ABSTRACT This study re-scales analysis of global environmental change down to the city-level, where it is becoming increasingly significant, to examine the relationship between air pollution abatement and industrial growth. Treadmill of Production theorists argue that economic growth leads to increased pollution, while Environmental Kuznets Curve research suggests that income increases initially lead to pollution increases, but begins to result in reductions after an economy transitions from manufacturing to services-based industries. We investigate whether growth in specific services industries is associated with pollution abatement in the presence of increasing income. For 96 of the world’s largest metropolitan areas, we test the effects of panel data on income, growth across several services industry sectors and other controls on levels of course particulate matter (PM10), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Sulfur dioxide (SO2) during 2005–2017. We find that reductions of all four air pollutants are associated with local growth in public administration, environmental and health services industry sectors linked specifically to government spending, while pollution increases are associated with growth in manufacturing and mining industries. This affords important nuance to the debate on the reconcilability of economic growth and environmental protection, and on a more spatially granular scale.

TOTAL AND DISTRIBUTIVE IMPACT OF FINAL SECTORAL DEMAND ON CARBON DIOXIDE EQUIVALENT IN NIGERIA

This paper analyzed the percentage rise in final (sectoral) demand undergone by the whole economy in reaction to a 1% rise of the corresponding sector and the percentage rise corresponding to the apportionment of direct sectoral demand and its resultant effect on CO2-eq emissions in Nigeria. The study adopted a longitudinal design, and the most recent input-output (I-O) table was obtained from secondary sources (Eurostat database). Results revealed increases in CO2-eq emissions from the fishing, post and telecommunication, wood and paper, petroleum, chemical and non-metallic mineral products, metal products, electricity, gas and water, wholesale trade, and public administration sectors with a total contribution of 0.04095, 0.04095, 0.04089, 0.04088, 0.04086, 0.04089, 0.04088 and 0.04087 percent respectively, while sectors that contributed the highest in terms of the distribution of direct sectoral emissions were fishing, mining/quarrying and textile/wearing apparel accounting for about 0.04101, 0.04109 and 0.04111 percent respectively. That implies a 1% increase in final demand was increasing in the corresponding sector. Based on these results, the study identified sectors that contribute the highest in terms of the distribution of direct sectoral emission and sectors that account for the highest total increase in energy consumed in the country, thus contributing to the current debate in the literature. However, emission mitigation options proposed by the IPCC report should be considered an important option in curbing these emissions in Nigeria.

Implementation of preventive mechanisms to prevent corruption in state authorities of Ukraine

The aim of the article is to identify new trends, patterns of corruption in the system of government and develop approaches to improving mechanisms to prevent and combat corruption in Ukraine. In the context of reforming modern Ukrainian society, the study of the development of mechanisms to prevent corruption is very relevant. In addition, given the deepening socio-political and financial-economic crisis in Ukraine, corruption is a serious threat to national security. According to international experience, a mechanism should be clearly established for the selection of specialists to work in the public administration sector. An effective set of tools to combat corruption in the state are, first of all, prohibitions and restrictions. The focus on overcoming the factors of corruption that are inherent in the sphere of state structures is the improvement of mechanisms. One of the effective mechanisms for preventing corruption is preventive measures in public bodies with a number of restrictions and prohibitions.

Disrupting the Welfare State? Digitalisation and the Retrenchment of Public Sector Capacity

ABSTRACT Welfare state bureaucracies the world over have adopted far-reaching digitalisation reforms in recent years. From the deployment of AI in service management, to the ‘opening up’ of administrative datasets, digitalisation initiatives have uprooted established modes of public sector organisation and administration. And, as this paper suggests, they have also fundamentally transformed the political economy of the welfare state. Through a case study of Danish reforms between 2002 and 2019, the analysis finds that public sector digitalisation has entailed the transfer of responsibility for key infrastructure to private actors. Reforms in Denmark have not only been pursued in the name of public sector improvement and efficiency. A principal objective of public sector digitalisation has rather been the growth of Denmark’s nascent digital technology industries as part of the state’s wider export-led growth strategy, adopted in response to functional pressures on the welfare state model. The attempt to deliver fiscal stability in this way has, paradoxically, produced retrenchment of critical assets and capabilities. The paper’s findings hold important implications for states embarking on public sector digitalisation reforms, as well as possibilities for future research on how states can harness technological progress in the interests of citizens – without hollowing out in the process.

Backlash against affirmative action: Evidence from the South Tyrolean package

We examine whether affirmative action produces backlash effects for the most privileged ethnic group by exploiting a unique historical setting originating from a forced assimilation program, the Italianization of South Tyrol. The program, implemented by the fascist regime, imposed entry barriers for non-Italian speakers in the public administration sector of the labor market. The specialization of Italians persisted until hard quotas were announced in 1966. We document that the announcement induced a marked increase in the support for a nationalist and openly anti-German party in municipalities where such specialization was more pronounced. A text analysis of the speeches of 196 members of the Italian parliament (MPs) recorded in 3,820 verbatim reports further shows that, during the announcement period, MPs of the nationalist party reinforced Germans’ negative traits that characterized the historical tensions between the two groups (“Nazis” or “terrorists”). Our results suggest that the expectation of affirmative action can rapidly activate the salience of ethnic boundaries and, in turn, promote ethnic hatred.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY IN THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

The article shows the main aspects of the formation and development of the digital economy in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Such concepts as digital economy, digitalization, digital technologies are considered. The promising directions of development of the national economy in the field of ICT are investigated, the urgent tasks of digital development in the republic are considered. The main achievements in the implementation and use of information technologies in public administration and various sectors of the economy are presented.

Lockdown, employment adjustment, and financial frictions.

We examine firms’ employment adjustments immediately after the imposition of stringent lockdown in March 2020. In doing so, we use monthly administrative data, and take value-added tax payment changes as a proxy for the demand shock. We merge data with COVID-19 tests, classified by economic activity, and employ a fixed effects instrumental variable regression. We find that all sized firms in the manufacturing sector reduced employment more if they had uncovered tax liabilities before the lockdown. Among small firms, real estate and service sector firms downsized more rapidly. While employment changes are rather modest, this very early evidence points to the need to address liquidity needs and firm pre-conditions among capital-intensive and services firms and, in particular, small businesses, to avoid employment losses.Plain English Summary The administrative data from the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 point to the need to address liquidity requirements among manufacturers, capital-intensive and service firms, and, in particular, small businesses to avoid subsequent employment losses.While there is a vast literature on firms’ adaptation and adjustments in the face of adverse shocks, firms’ reactions and the macroeconomic implications of stringent, government-imposed lockdowns are much less understood due to their novelty. We analyze businesses’ responses to the first and very stringent lockdown in March 2020 by making use of monthly administrative data and taking value-added tax payment changes as a proxy for the demand shock. We exploit variation in the sectoral differences across small, medium, and large firms. A simple average employment adjustment was non-negative in agriculture, construction, information and communication, and public administration sectors in our sample. By merging data with COVID-19 tests, classified by economic activity, and employing a fixed-effects instrumental variable regression, we find that all sized firms in the manufacturing sector reduced employment more if they had uncovered tax liabilities before the lockdown. Among small firms, real estate and service sector firms downsized more rapidly. While employment changes are rather modest, this very early evidence about businesses’ reactions to COVID-19-induced uncertainty and activity restrictions points to the need to address business liquidity needs early on. Another policy message concerns the importance of firm pre-conditions among capital-intensive and services firms and, in particular, small businesses to avoid subsequent employment losses.

Characterization of Municipal Water Uses in the Contiguous United States

AbstractThis study investigates municipal water use patterns across the Contiguous United States (CONUS). The objectives of this study are to explore temporal trends in water use, improve characterization of indoor and outdoor uses, and improve characterization of commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) water use in cities across the CONUS. A comprehensive survey was conducted to compile monthly water use data from 126 municipalities for the period 2005–2017 with specific information about residential and CII water use categories. Changes in liters per capita per day and the CII to Residential water use ratio were related to climatic, urban‐geologic and socio‐economic variables. Results indicate an overall decreasing trend in municipal water uses with higher reductions achieved in residential sector. Both residential and CII water use exhibit high seasonality over an average year. The CII to Residential ratio increases with city population and is highest in cities in the Northeast Census region. Cities in South and West Census regions have high municipal water uses and highest reductions in annual per capita‐day water use. Cities in arid climate regions have the highest water uses, compared to other cities, due to landscape irrigation. April precipitation, annual vapor pressure deficit, number of employees in the manufacturing (or, other services except public administration) sector, total percentage of houses built before 1950 and total percentage of single‐family houses explain much of the variation in CII to Residential water use ratio across the CONUS. This study guides improved characterization of municipal water uses and water demand management strategies.

A Data Scope Management Service to Support Privacy by Design and GDPR Compliance

In order to empower user data protection and user rights, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been enforced. On the positive side, the user is obtaining advantages from GDPR. However, organisations are facing many difficulties in interpreting GDPR, and to properly applying it, and, in the meanwhile, due to their lack of compliance, many organisations are receiving huge fines from authorities. An important challenge is compliance with the Privacy by Design and by default (PbD) principles, which require that data protection is integrated into processing activities and business practices from the design stage. Recently, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) released an official document with PbD guidelines, and there are various efforts to provide approaches to support these. However, organizations are still facing difficulties in identifying a flow for executing, in a coherent, linear and effective way, these activities, and a complete toolkit for supporting this. In this paper, we propose the design of such flow, and our comprehensive supporting toolkit, as part of the DEFeND EU Project platform. Within DEFeND, we identified candidate tools, fulfilling specific GDPR aspects, and integrated them in a comprehensive toolkit: the DEFeND Data Scope Management service (DSM). The aim of DSM is to support organizations for continuous GDPR compliance through model-based Privacy by Design analysis. Here, we present DSM, its design, flow, and a preliminary case study and evaluation performed with pilots from the healthcare, banking, public administration and energy sectors.

Government Big Data Ecosystem: Definitions, Types of Data, Actors, and Roles and the Impact in Public Administrations

The public sector, private firms, business community, and civil society are generating data that are high in volume, veracity, and velocity and come from a diversity of sources. This type of data is today known as big data. Public administrations pursue big data as “new oil” and implement data-centric policies to collect, generate, process, share, exploit, and protect data for promoting good governance, transparency, innovative digital services, and citizens’ engagement in public policy. All of the above constitute the Government Big Data Ecosystem (GBDE). Despite the great interest in this ecosystem, there is a lack of clear definitions, the various important types of government data remain vague, the different actors and their roles are not well defined, while the impact in key public administration sectors is not yet deeply understood and assessed. Such research and literature gaps impose a crucial obstacle for a better understanding of the prospects and nascent issues in exploiting GBDE. With this study, we aim to start filling the above-mentioned gaps by organizing our findings from an extended Systematic Literature Review into a framework to organise and address the above-mentioned challenges. Our goal is to contribute in this fast-evolving area by bringing some clarity and establishing common understanding around key elements of the emerging GBDE.

Science Diplomacy in Emerging Economies: A Phenomenological Analysis of the Colombian Case.

Little has been investigated about Science Diplomacy (SD) in emerging economies, more specifically on governance schemes useful for organizing intersecting actors, practices, conceptions and suggestions of the future in foreign affairs and Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in public administration sectors. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the “texture and nature” of SD initiatives in emerging economies through the eyes of relevant actors involved or reflecting about them in Colombia. The aim of this paper is to propose a general governance scheme for SD in emerging economies and its potential instrumentation for a policy-mix. In Colombia, SD initiatives are very fragmented, and are not part of the priorities of the Colombian state, however the increasing interest of an embryonic practitioner and scholar community working in the topic make necessary this work. A phenomenological perspective combined with a single case study research methodology is used to gain a very accurate description of the state of the situation of SD in Colombia. Policy document review and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 relevant actors to understand the conceptions, practices, and suggestions for the future of SD in Colombia. The study results show that SD actors in Colombia are scattered, practices strongly related to traditional cooperation diplomatic activities and the need to give a function to SD for capacity building, better global intermediation and the development of new knowledge, in particular promoting SD abilities in the scientific community. In addition, data expresses the need to cultivate a multi-stakeholder working group for such a purpose. The study reflects on the need of a policy mix for SD in emerging economies. It proposes a general governance scheme for it, a potential instrumentation founded on research participant future suggestions, and a set of practical recommendations and policy implications. Conclusions and further research questions are set, pointing out the importance of including non-conventional diplomacy actors and knowledge, and the need to inquire rationales behind possible SD policy mixes in the southern world.

Influence of digitalization on the public policy forming in Ukraine

Problem setting. The COVID-19 pandemic, global quarantine, quarantine restrictions created the conditions for society to react quickly. Digital technologies are now being used more intensively, and the public administration sector is no exception. At the same time, the country's development requires systematic strategic and tactical decisions that will accelerate the introduction of modern digital technologies in all spheres of Ukrainian society, also forming and implementation of public policy at various levels of government.
 The analysis of recent researches and publications. Problems of digital society are studied by such Ukrainian scientists as O. Klepanchuk, O. Petryk, S. Lisovsky, S. Romanyuk, L. Rudenko (the emphasis – achieving by Ukraine the goals of sustainable development, where the development of the digital society is considered as one of the tools); issues of implementation of e-government and e-democracy are studied by A. Emelyanova, S. Loboyko, O. Maevska, A. Semenchenko, V. Dreshpak; research on the implementation of public policy in a particular area, including in the field of justice and the provision of administrative services, are among the research interests of Y. Starylov, J. Sobko, I. Markvych and others. Among foreign researchers, these issues are being investigated by C. Emmanuelli, N. Jain, N. Maechler, D. Malfara etc.
 Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem: the main contradictions, trends, problems and prospects for the provision of digital public services, based on the conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, namely – the application of quarantine restrictions; influence of digitalization on the public policy forming in Ukraine.
 Paper main body. The article analyzes the problems inherent in modern Ukrainian society in connection with the rapid digitalization processes, that have taken place over the past year. The influence of digitalization on the forming and implementation of public policy is considered on the example of the activity of the Ministry of justice of Ukraine. Based on the results of a survey of civil servants and local government officials conducted by the author, the main trends, problems and prospects for providing public services online are identified.
 2020 turned out to be the crisis year for all mankind on the one hand, and on the other hand – it encouraged the rapid development of certain industries, including the field of digital transformation. In public administration, this has been embodied in promoting the use of digital services and governance platforms. In the direction of forming and implementation of justice state policy main efforts are aimed at building online interaction between citizens and the state, reducing the number of paper documents, more efficient administration of open state registers, ensuring control at each step of citizens' appeals, reducing corruption risks. minimization of the human factor in the processes of providing administrative services.
 The author conducted the survey among students of the Lviv Regional Institute for Public Administration of the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine on the provision of administrative services online. 66 applicants from eight regions of Ukraine were involved in the survey. The question was asked: what hinders the development of administrative services online? Among the answers, the most common are (in order from most popular to least): low technical literacy of service consumers; technical unpreparedness of networks; unpreparedness of the citizens; unpreparedness of officials; insecurity of the information processed; lack of habit to use online; distrust to the state.
 Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. Contradictions of the digital society development in Ukraine include: the digital divide (the gap in the level of digital equipment); technological unemployment; digital dependence and digital control; digital opportunities for crime; unlimited digital space and its content; the need for large-scale efforts and resources to address the digital space, and needs will only increase; unavailability of information created by bodies-not information managers; form of obtaining information, information is created or obtained in a form unsuitable for machine processing; method of information processing – non-interoperability of data sets from different managers.
 Among the factors that will determine digitalization processes on the public policy forming in Ukraine, we consider: increasing the technical literacy of service consumers; improving the technical readiness of networks; work with the population to promote the tools of consumption of administrative services online; training of officials to work in the digital space; taking measures to protect information held by the authorities; forming the habit of using online in the field of forming and implementation the public policy; increasing the level of trust to the state.

Macro- and meso-level contextual influences on health care inequities among American Indian elders

BackgroundAmerican Indian elders, aged 55 years and older, represent a neglected segment of the United States (U.S.) health care system. This group is more likely to be uninsured and to suffer from greater morbidities, poorer health outcomes and quality of life, and lower life expectancies compared to all other aging populations in the country. Despite the U.S. government’s federal trust responsibility to meet American Indians’ health-related needs through the Indian Health Service (IHS), elders are negatively affected by provider shortages, limited availability of health care services, and gaps in insurance. This qualitative study examines the perspectives of professional stakeholders involved in planning, delivery of, and advocating for services for this population to identify and analyze macro- and meso-level factors affecting access to and use of health care and insurance among American Indian elders at the micro level.MethodsBetween June 2016 and March 2017, we undertook in-depth qualitative interviews with 47 professional stakeholders in two states in the Southwest U.S., including health care providers, outreach workers, public-sector administrators, and tribal leaders. The interviews focused on perceptions of both policy- and practice-related factors that bear upon health care inequities impacting elders. We analyzed iteratively the interview transcripts, using both open and focused coding techniques, followed by a critical review of the findings by a Community Action Board comprising American Indian elders.ResultsFindings illuminated complex and multilevel contextual influences on health care inequities for elders, centering on (1) gaps in elder-oriented services; (2) benefits and limits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); (2) invisibility of elders in national, state, and tribal policymaking; and (4) perceived threats to the IHS system and the federal trust responsibility.ConclusionsFindings point to recommendations to improve the prevention and treatment of illness among American Indian elders by meeting their unique health care and insurance needs. Policies and practices must target meso and macro levels of contextual influence. Although Medicaid expansion under the ACA enables providers of essential services to elders, including the IHS, to enhance care through increased reimbursements, future policy efforts must improve upon this funding situation and fulfill the federal trust responsibility.

Влияние «ядра» доходов региональных бюджетов на стрессоустойчивость социально-экономических подсистем

Objective: estimation of the risks of forming the budget incomes of the Russian subjects as a tool for determining the resilience of the regional subsystem.Methods: abstract-logical method, economic-mathematical analysis, coefficient analysis. Results: it was found that for less economically developed regions, the most stable income is gratuitous revenues. It is proved that in accordance with theoretical concepts, risks are determined by the income stability, while in fact, for regions with low and intermediate levels of economic development, the priority role is played by the possibilities of mobilization, which are most obvious for gratuitous revenues. Based on the calculation and evaluation of the income structure indicators, variations of budgets by income and growth rates of the key types of budget income, and using the Federal Treasury data on execution of budgets of the Volga Federal district subjects, it was found that the lowest level of variation is shown by the tax on physical persons incomes; to a lesser extent - the tax levied within the simplified system of taxation, and the tax on property of organizations.Scientific novelty: the authors formulated a hypothesis of a “core” of the subject’s budget revenues, formed with the revenues with a low probability of deviations and high stability, reflected in a single and consistent information base and reflecting the resilience of the region’s economy. It is found that the composition of the “core” income of such regions does not meet the criteria of economic feasibility in the interests of social development and should be altered.Practical significance: the study results can be used in the development of budget and tax policy areas that provide for the decentralization of budget system revenues and the introduction of risk management in the public administration sector.

Macroeconomic Accounting of Water Resources: An Input-Output Approach to Linkage Analysis and Impact Indicators Applied to the State of Ceará, Brazil

This work aims to identify the key sectors of the economic structure, considering their water flows, and estimate each sector’s impact. The goal is to highlight systemic characteristics in the regional economy, establish water use priorities, and assess water security. Based on a regional input-output matrix, we use the following methodologies: the Rasmussen and Hirschman indices for the ‘forward and backward linkages’; simple multipliers of production, job, and income; and the elasticity of water consumption to final water demand. Thirty-two economic sectors and household consumption are analysed. From the elasticity of final water demand, we find that both trade and household consumption put more pressure on water consumption. Furthermore, a joint analysis of the applied methodologies shows that: (a) the trade sector is more relevant for the linkage of water flows, (b) the agriculture sector has the highest direct water consumption, and (c) the public administration sector has the highest intermediate water consumption.

Analysis of Aid Absorption in Burkina Faso: Could Donors’ Coordination Play an Effective Role?

This study assesses absorption level of aid in Burkina Faso and analyzes the factors that determine this level. The analysis postulates that the level in absorbing aid is low and assumes that this level is determined by the multiplicity of donors and by mechanisms used to coordinate aid. To test this assumption, the study uses secondary data collected from 10 sectors of public administration over the period 2000-2019. Aid allocated to these sectors represented at least 75% of total aid received by the country during this period. The assessment indicate that about 58.46% of aid allocated to these sectors was effectively spent. Factors determining this absorption level were estimated using a Tobit model. The results conclude that the limiting factors lie both in donors’ behavior and in aid coordination mechanisms. Thus, better donors’ coordination could be an effective mechanism to improve aid absorption in these sectors.

Water Management in Agricultural Production, the Economy, and Venezuelan Society

The availability of water resources has a direct impact on the economy of a country and the development of the main production processes, from agriculture, irrigation, and food production, to energy generation and water supply. The regional economic and social development is influenced by an adequate management of water resources because it stimulates the economy by expanding and ability to provide water for multiple uses, directly impacting on the generation of employment the improving the quality of life of the population. Venezuela has abundant surface water resources in the large basins. The northern part of Venezuela, where the highest percentage of the population and the main economic activities are based, face a severe water scarcity. Irrigation systems under public sector administration are characterized by large budgetary restrictions, with works for rehabilitation, operation, and maintenance generally carried out with inefficient results, due to lack of adequate technical supervision. There is a gap of official information that allows highlight the crisis that the agricultural sector has faced in the last decade. Another, very important aspect is Venezuela's severe energy crisis which began to present a deficit of electric power generation that has been alarmingly evident since 2009, which has worsened for more than a decade, causing the lack of electricity supply in large regions of the country for periods of time exceeding 100 h, contributing to aggravate the country's economic crisis. Due to the situation described, Venezuelan food systems have been seriously affected mainly by the advanced deterioration of irrigation infrastructure and the water availability on production processes. This paper explores and analyses the influence of water management on production Venezuelan economics and society, focus in three pillars representing the qualitative and quantitative relationships of water management and its impact on the system considering the aspects related to the sustainability of Venezuelan agri-food systems, analyzing the fundamental aspects for food production, main indicators related to the national economy, addressing the challenges to ensure food security.