Semi-public Goods Research Articles

Still sticky after all those years? The resurgence of Marshallian districts in a world of global production networks

ABSTRACT The rise of globally fragmented production since the 1980s encouraged economic regions to specialise in narrow slices of the value chain, making the benefits from local agglomeration no longer certain. Nonetheless, locally integrated production districts continue to thrive. Locally integrated industrial districts have proven sustainable in times of both increasing and decreasing fragmentation of production. Drawing upon insights from three schools – the Markusian logic of multiple district models, strategic coupling and the production of semi-public goods – this article uses a two-staged case-study design to explore the conditions under which locally integrated production districts continue to thrive in the global economy.

The Fiscal Commons

This article challenges the seemingly inseparable conceptual link between tax and the state by drawing on fieldwork carried out with an anti-capitalist cooperative in Barcelona, where tax evasion went hand in hand with the pooling of common monetary resources used for the creation of semi-public goods managed by non-state actors. Drawing on theoretical insights from the commons, I will put forward the concept of the ‘fiscal commons’ in order to decenter tax as an analytic for making sense of the relation between the state and civil society. In so doing, I will argue that taxes are part of a broader repertoire of financial contributions that people draw on to actively create different fiscal commons that operate alongside and in relation to the state’s tax regime.

On “Strong Irreversibility” from Information Occupancy to Information Sharing and the Characteristics as “Semi-Public Goods”

On “Strong Irreversibility” from Information Occupancy to Information Sharing and the Characteristics as “Semi-Public Goods”

Public Intervention and Open Market System in Health Services

In many economies, a significant proportion of service production is organized within market system. In the market system, the units in this organization base their economic activities on profit and benefit maximization. However, in most parts of service sector, pure competition conditions may not be valid. Health services are different from the goods which are produced and distributed by the open market. While some activities which are within the scope of health services are close to the definition of public, most of them have the characteristics of semipublic goods and services. Considering the importance which the mentioned services have regarding the society with their social benefits and the social costs which they will cause unless they are produced sufficiently, it could be argued that besides the open market, the public should also produce these services. The aim of this study is to present the insufficiency of market system in producing health services and analyze the intervention methods of public in order to compensate the insufficiency.

Assessment of the use value of public spaces in urban areas

The construction of hedonimetric curves is proposed as an approach to assess public or semi-public goods in urban areas. These resources are not considered in the appraisal theory based on “Serpieri paradigm” and addressed to value private properties. Using a plurality of hedonic prices it is possible to attribute a use value to piazza Mercato in Naples derived from its attractiveness. The value judgment employs a monetary component and other components generally expressed in non-monetary units. The first one is taken from prices and characteristics of habitations around this historical space solving linear multiple regression models. The other ones depend on environmental, social and economic qualities of its surrounding area in rela- tion to the city and to the port.

Pornography, Religion, and the Happiness Gap: Does Pornography Impact the Actively Religious Differently?

Club good models developed by economists suggest that the club provides a benefit to members by fostering the provision of semi-public goods. In the case of religion, churches create enforcement mechanisms to reduce free riding. Consequently, the psychic costs of deviant activity should be higher for individuals who belong to religious groups with strong social norms. Data from the General Social Survey are used to examine whether the cost of using pornography is greater for the more religiously involved. We measure the cost of using pornography as the happiness gap or the gap between the average happiness reported by individuals who do and individuals who do not report using pornography. The happiness gap is larger for individuals who regularly attend church and who belong to religious groups with strong attitudes against pornography.

Ökosystemleistungen des Waldes im politischen Kontext: Bedeutung und Argumenttypen

Ecosystem services of forests in the political context: importance and types of arguments The majority of ecosystem services can be described as public or semi-public goods, whose utilisation does not follow market principles. From the viewpoint of political science it is interesting to analyse how these services are taken into account in political programmes and processes. The present article investigates which ecosystem goods and services of forests have been considered in the Swiss forest policy, and why and in which form some services have been included in political programmes, while others have not. The analysis is based on a theoretical approach that assigns the arguments in the political decision process to specific types. The study shows that of all forest ecosystem services protection services play the most important role in the Swiss forest legislation. Biodiversity and nature conservation are important, too, while services related to recreation and landscape conservation are of minor importance. Concerning political arguments, those related to the long-term role of forestry as part of the overall economy are more important than arguments in favour of a short-term profit maximisation.

Creative Discovery: Reconsidering the Relationship Between Entrepreneurship and Innovation

The severe recession of 2008–09 has brought to the fore deep concerns regarding the U.S. economy’s ability to continue to grow, let alone to keep pace with emerging nations such as India and China. The scale of job losses and the woes of sectors that are emblematic of the recession—particularly finance and automakers— have left many worrying about a bleak American economic future. Even those who expect a return to growth worry about the United States’ capacity to supply two essential ingredients: innovation and entrepreneurship. Such concerns have spurred increasing investment in broadband Internet connections, additional funding for research and development (R&D), and the largest-ever federal investment in public education—all steps meant to help build a new foundation for economic growth. Public-sector efforts of this type are nothing new in U.S. history. They date back at least to the Morrill and Hatch acts in the late 1800s and continue through the massive expansion of federal investment in R&D after World War II. 1 Such actions are generally credited with helping to ignite bursts of innovation and maintain steady rates of economic growth. In its renewed efforts today, the United States joins Singapore, the European Union, and others in forming deliberate strategies to provide what are considered semipublic goods: the knowledge and the people necessary for productive firms to innovate, create jobs, and boost economic growth. 2 It’s far from clear, however, whether the phenomena of innovation and entrepreneurship are adequately understood for these entities to be making such large commitments. Over the past several years, the work of the Kauffman Foundation has focused on understanding these phenomena and thereby seeking to create more successful entrepreneurs in the United States. During that time, the Foundation has conducted extensive research and developed mechanisms, such as the iBridge Network, to increase the pace of entrepreneurship. 3 Now, with lingering questions about the U.S. economy’s capacity to grow, concerns over the one to two billion people who remain in poverty around the world, and increasing interest in different types of entrepreneurship and innovation, the Foundation has embarked on a newly ambi

Supervisory Framework of China Electric Power Universal Service

The industry of electric power possesses obvious character of semi-public goods, which may induce market failure. In order to ensure basic living uses needed by residents especially for those residents living in rural poor, remote and border areas, the industry of electric power can not completely depend on market mechanism to resolve, and as the necessary in modern society, the electric power possesses the nature of universal service, and the government should actualize the aim of electric power universal service and implement the responsibilities as a supervisor. It is the necessary premise to confirm the aim and tasks of supervision for the implementation of governmental supervisory responsibilities, and this article mainly analyzes the basic supervisory framework of electric power universal service.

Viewpoint: “Customized competitiveness” strategies for horticultural exporters – Central America focus with lessons from and for other regions

This paper presents the idea of “customized competitiveness” as a strategy necessary for overall competitiveness in particular in globalized horticulture markets and in the “second round” of globalization that started in the mid/late 1990s. Customized competitiveness is additional and complementary to basic “structural competitiveness” that is the focus of competitiveness debates today and for the past decade. The paper illustrates the need for this new strategy, using the example of Central America, highlighting the severe challenges (similar to those facing other developing regions) it faces in the second round of globalization of horticulture markets, magnified by market liberalization culminating recently in implementation of CAFTA. The paper then illustrates “solutions” by providing examples of cutting-edge programs in various developing countries of de facto “customized competitiveness” in the form of public–private partnerships and the provision of public and semi-public goods, to help their exporters access and succeed in the new markets. We conclude with policy implications for Central America and other developing regions.

An overview of the impacts of changes in common property resources management in the context of globalisation: A case study of India

Socio-economic development of mankind and well-being depend on the environment and the way in which development influences the environment. Thus, environment and development are interdependent. In fact, economic development is closely linked with the development of resources. These resources can be classified into three categories: public goods, semi-public goods (also known as common property resources) and private goods. In poor countries common property resources make a valuable contribution to the sustainable livelihoods of rural populations. The impact of globalisation on the commons shows various patterns of ownership, control, use and misuse. The commons were subjected to degradation as well as conservation in the process of centralized management in India. After the reform period, the administration of natural resources was given significant attention by specialized departments such as the Forest Department and the Revenue Department. All the land, apart from private land, was regarded as state property and controlled by the state. This paper highlights the need to examine the common property resources sector in the context of wider economic policy reform processes in the Indian economy.

Lindahl equilibrium and Schweizer's open club model with semipublic goods

In this paper, we extend Schweizer's open club model to clubs with goods that have a semipublic nature rather than a pure public nature. We study limit core allocations, which are those allocations that remain in the core of a replicated economy. An equivalent notion for open clubs with pure public goods was Schweizer's concept of club efficiency under a variable number of economic agents. We show that given certain conditions, the equivalence of limit core allocations and Lindahl equilibria holds for a wide range of open club economies with semipublic club goods. We also show that extension to a more general class of open club economies seems implausible.

Public spending on health care: how are different criteria related?

At least nine different criteria are relevant for decisions about public spending for health care. These include economic efficiency criteria (public goods, externalities, catastrophic cost, and cost-effectiveness), ethical reasons (poverty, horizontal and vertical equity, and the rule of rescue), and political considerations (especially demands by the populace). Sometimes one criterion should be examined before another one is considered; that is, they are hierarchically related. Sometimes two criteria will not be compatible but will conflict, forcing difficult choices—particularly between efficiency and equity. Properly thought-out choices of which health care interventions to finance with public funds therefore depend not only on looking at all these criteria, but also on treating them in the appropriate sequence and taking account of their possible inconsistencies. Public funds should finance public and semi-public goods that are cost-effective and for which demand is inadequate; cost-effective interventions that preferentially benefit the poor; and catastrophically costly care, when contributory insurance will not work or there are good reasons to finance insurance publicly.

Immiserizing growth with semi-public goods under consistent conjectures

Population growth allows society to afford more public goods and, in this respect, improves per capita welfare possibilities. However, this note shows that with private provision of public goods, under consistent conjectures, population growth also exacerbates free-riding behavior. This ultimately reduces public good provision, when it should be increased, and population growth proves to be immiserizing. This striking result constrasts with the Nash model, where the improved welfare possibilities are at least partially exploited.

The provision and use of general practitioner services in Adelaide, Australia: Application of tools of locational analysis and theories of provider and user spatial behaviour

In cities where a mixed free-enterprise and public supply system operates, the spatial distribution of health care services and access opportunities of potential consumers to services typically fails to satisfy equity criteria. The pattern of distribution and consumer use of general practitioner (GP) services in metropolitan Adelaide, Australia, are examined. Various theories and models are discussed aimed at furnishing explanations of the spatial behaviour of both facility providers and users. These include traditional location theories, theory of demand for semi-public goods, and behavioural models of user choice. A method of spatial analysis at a disaggregated level of scale to investigate the degree of congruence between potential demand for GP services and likely levels of satisfaction from the available supply of GP services in Adelaide is presented and its planning implications discussed.

Budget Size in a Democracy Revisited: The Public Supply of Private, Public and Semi-Public Goods

Budget Size in a Democracy Revisited: The Public Supply of Private, Public and Semi-Public Goods