Earmarked federal grants are ubiquitous and significant. Traditional fiscal federalism is unable to explain the widespread utilization of such grants. Recent arguments focusing on the potential benefits of centralized earmarking in reducing incentives for the creation of soft budgets at sub-central government levels merit formalization. This is the main motivation for the paper. The fruits of the analysis provide a clear normative prescription: the central government should earmark its grants in order to redistribute private consumption and public expenditures incurred in the provision of all public goods that are prone to be determined strategically under decentralized fiscal commitments.
Almost all P2P crypto-currencies prevent double spending and similar such attacks with a bulky “blockchain” scheme, and the ones which do not typically use some sort of pseudo-centralized solution to manage the transactions. Here I propose a purely P2P crypto-currency scheme with a finite blockchain, dubbed the “mini-blockchain”. Each time a new block is solved the oldest block is trimmed from the end of the miniblockchain so that it always has the same number of blocks. It is argued that the loss of security this trimming process incurs can be solved with a small “proof chain” and the loss of coin ownership data is solved with a database which holds the balance of all non-empty addresses, dubbed the “account tree”. The proof chain secures the miniblockchain and the mini-blockchain secures the account tree. This paper will describe the way in which these three mechanisms can work together to form a system which provides a high level of integrity and security, yet is much slimmer than all other purely P2P currencies. It also offers other potential benefits such as faster transactions and lower fees, quicker network synchronization, support for high levels of traffic, more block space for custom messages, and increased anonymity.
We examine a kernel regression smoother for time series that takes account of the error correlation structure as proposed by Xiao et al. (2008). We show that this method continues to improve estimation in the case where the regressor is a unit root or near unit root process.
An existence theorem for a bias of the mean in the presence of data dispersion is proved. The aims are to use this theorem in experiments interpretation, probability theory, statistics, economics and management. The ultimate aims are to explain the well-known problems of utility and decision theories, such as risk aversion, the underweighting of high and the overweighting of low probabilities, the Allais paradox, etc. The results may be used to estimate preferences, choices, decisions, (ir)rational behavior at data uncertainty, noises, experimental errors in management, investment, insurance, etc.
Common Law distinguishes two standards of proof applicable in civil and criminal matters, respectively. The criminal standard of "beyond reasonable doubt" is much higher than the "preponderance of the evidence" standard used in civil cases. Continental European Civil Law, on the other hand, recognizes just one standard of "full conviction" applicable in both criminal and civil cases. This study is the first to look at the standard of proof actually used by judges and judicial clerks in a Civil Law country (Switzerland). It is shown that, when asked directly, the members of court express a high decision threshold in line with legal doctrine and case law. But when Swiss judges are asked to estimate the error costs associated with each outcome and the error-cost-minimizing decision threshold is calculated based on the responses, the resulting standard is no different from the Common Law’s "preponderance of the evidence" standard. When using the stated degree of belief in the truth of the plaintiff’s allegations as a predictor for the grant of the plaintiff’s request in a civil action, the probability of grant is 50% at a stated conviction of only 63%. It is further shown that the decision threshold is influenced by the individual’s loss aversion, with individuals with a higher loss aversion having a higher decision threshold. No difference between the estimated decision threshold for members of the courts and members of the general population is found. The results suggest that the standard of proof actually employed by Swiss judges is not much different from the Common Law’s "preponderance of the evidence" standard, despite the doctrinal insistence to the contrary.
Starting in the late 1990s, traditional opposition parties in Latin America started to capture presidencies. Some of these parties have dramatically shifted resources to core voters as promised, while others have been slower to realize their campaign agendas. I argue this difference depends on presidents' incentives which differ between centralized and decentralized systems. All presidents want their parties to be re-elected, but when local officials are powerful and often opposed to the president, presidents worry that local rivals will steal credit for the provision of goods. This mechanism deters presidents from targeting their voters directly. Instead, presidents in decentralized systems compensate by delivering more goods where local officials are co-partisans, even if the plurality of voters did not support the president there. Resource allocation should thus depend on partisan control of local office in decentralized systems. In centralized systems it should depend on voters' support for the president, even if the local mayor opposed the president. I demonstrate this pattern across 12 years and 100,000 municipalities in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela. My analysis draws on observational data, as well as on in-depth interviews with current or former presidents, governors, and several mayors.
We consider a model of licensing with an insider innovator. The innovator has private information about the quality of its technology and has to signal its quality by choosing a licensing contract. The licensing contract that is considered is a two-part tariff. We compare the royalty rates under complete and incomplete information.
This paper presents evidence of the effect of labor unrest on labor production in the policing context using data from New York City. When contract negotiations last for an extended period, old contracts can expire before new ones are approved. Working under an expired contract, or being "out of contract," can be costly for police officers both monetarily and psychologically. This paper studies the effect of time spent out of contract on police misconduct using new data and a research design that exploits the fact that different ranks of officers are out of contract at different points in time and for different lengths of time. I find evidence that incidents of police misconduct increase with the amount of time spent out of contract. Threats to identification arising from the possibility that police misconduct could also affect police time out of contract are addressed with an instrumental variables specification that instruments police contract status with firefighter contract status. The finding that police labor unrest affects police misconduct has implications both for the economics literature on the effect of labor frustration on labor production and for the criminology literature on the determinants of police misconduct.
Multi-player online games have own virtual currencies. These game currencies are similar to other virtual currencies like Bitcoin, in that both of the currencies are created and managed by non-government entities. Competitions in multi-player online games naturally formed markets that exchanges game currency with real currency. These markets have liquidity and efficiency comparable to that of US major stock exchanges and the markets tightly connects virtual economies with real economies. With the markets, game currencies have a larger potential than other virtual currencies to substitute some of real currencies’ role as a method of transaction.
We use the GARCH group models to test whether margin trading can reduce the volatility of Chinese stock market,in both vertical and horizontal angles.The vertical analysis of GARCH model shows that,statistically speaking,the volatility of Chinese stock market significantly is reduced after margin trading has kicked in.Horizontal comparison reveals that compared to the Shanghai Composite Index,the SSE 50 Index,which contains a higher proportion of underlying stock,performs better in terms of reducing the volatility of the stock market with margin trading.Finally,based on results of our analysis,we suggest that credit should be conferred in a decentralized manner,that development and growth in financing and securities lending should proceed in a balanced fashion,and that a correct understanding of return matching risk should be cultivated among investors.
The paper empirically investigates into the relationship between financial development which intervened by government to the urban-rural income gap from a macro perspective. We find that, under the circumstances of fiscal decentralization,financial development was suppressed and had to make the second-rate choice in a limit space of development. But,the inhibition of financial development by the government slowed down its pace of expansion on the urban-rural income gap. The theoretical mechanism is that China's financial development is market-oriented as well as policy-oriented. As marketoriented development highlighted the characteristics of profit-seeking, urban-rural income gap was expanded. On the contrary,the mandatoryPro-pooreffect of policy-oriented was tended to improve the urban-rural income gap,but hinder the development of finance at the same time.
Different stages of development of African higher education,former colonial,colonial,independent and globalization period,displays a prominent character of dependence on Occident.Economic globalization and internationalization of higher education have a far-reaching effect on higher education in Africa.On the one hand, the wave of globalization led by neo-liberalism promotes the development of higher education in Africa,which also leads to the privatization and decentralization of it;on the other hand,the insufficiency of educational finance makes the its dependency on international aid increases,which challenges the dominions and independence of higher education.Therefore,neo-liberalism hinders the localization of higher education in Africa.In the context of globalization,Africa nations try to interact between globalization and localization of higher education,and build the system of outcome-based higher education.
Ivan Krešimir Lukić, Branka Martic, Berislav Bolfek
Republic of Croatia belongs in group of signifi cantly centralized countries. That means authority to make public decisions including financing system of local self government units (LSGU) is in the hands of the central government. Decentralization process began in year 2001 but central government still procures majority of state revenue and spends the most of the public expenditure. Various aspect research and analysis of fiscal capacities produces data pointing out the problem of inadequate fiscal capacity for providing equal level of public services in all of the local communities as lay down by law. Planning process in LSGU is hampered by absence of legal acts regulating practical role of the local government and administration. Unstable affl uence of finance resources presents significant bottleneck in successful management while uncertainty of financial assets availability prevents many of local governments in detailed planning and execution of any of development measures, within medium-term plan. Within many local units basis of local revenue is too weak for local government to independently carry out development measures.
Selvi Joy Isaac, Angela Kharninwa, Maria Concepcion J. Cruz, Syed Haider
In countries ravaged by a history of civil war and genocide, the overarching goal for local government and international donors alike is to promote social cohesion, stability and community reconstruction. In Sierra Leone, reconstruction programs emphasize a decentralized approach to: (i) rapidly build market institutions; (ii) enhance community decision making; and (iii) strengthen intra and inter-community tolerance and benefit sharing. This study addresses a program to provide small grants to some of the poorest communities in Sierra Leone. The program builds on the success of relevant micro financing initiatives. However, compared to traditional loans to small enterprises, which are generally available in urban and peri-urban areas where micro financing institutions are accessible, socially motivated grants to reach the poorest households are used. This report presents the findings of financial assessments funded by the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) of the World Bank. The assessments cover two of the poorest districts in northern Sierra Leone under the Habope project. The project, which means ‘to give hope’ in the local language Krio, is implemented by the government's National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) and financed by the Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF). One of its components provides grants to group enterprises which are comprised of vulnerable households who are at risk for hunger and deprivation.
This paper summarizes the results of a Global Development Network study, carried on by sixteen multidisciplinary research teams and covering thirty developing countries, under the authors general direction, on the effects of different governance structures on the quality and equity of access in three public services: basic education, drinking water supply and roads. Governance reforms analyzed referred mostly to decentralization, formal processes of citizen’s participation and alternative modes of delivery and, within each of them, emphasis was placed on the effects of accountability systems, informational flows and incentive structures. Case studies used both econometric techniques and qualitative analysis based on surveys and structured interviews of policy makers, service providers and users. The impact of governance reforms and alternatives was found to vary significantly with country context, but three major conclusions emerged: 1) Political culture and legacy are the deeper determinants of effective accountability and results. Thus, countries with a history of highly centralized and authoritarian regimes find it harder to make decentralization, participation and competitive modes of delivery work effectively. However, a culture of accountability can be built overtime when adequate institutions and incentives are introduced and maintained overtime; 2) Adequate information flows are not only a necessary condition, but they often promote effective accountability and better results, as they lead citizens and clients to demand accountability and agents to be more responsive to user needs; 3) Self-financing schemes also promote more accountability and better results, as users demand better services when they pay for them and citizens are more demanding (and local authorities are more responsive to their needs) when local taxes finance local services.
This essay wants to show a perspective about the adoption of Plan Contracts as planning and coordination tool between institutions to implement and finance projects. In this way the following paper will analyze its possible economic and social impacts over the thirteen Norte del Cauca municipalities during 2010-2013. This analysis will be elaborated according the National Development Plans and the new territorial organization based in the responsibilities distribution between the Nation, local authorities, and another ones associative local systems as a general purpose of the decentralization. To determine the incidence over the region, the INB and the investment will be analyzed in order to work the strategic development items.
El termino privacidad engloba un amplio campo de investigacion compuesto por diferentes areas. Esta tesis doctoral se centra en dos de ellas. La primera son las comunicaciones privadas en grupos restringidos, o secure multicast. Un grupo de participantes desea mantener comunicaciones de forma que ningun oyente externo al grupo sea capaz de interpretar la informacion transmitida. Este problema tiene diferentes aplicaciones como servicios pay-per-view en plataformas de streaming multimedia o multiconferencias privadas en el ambito empresarial e incluso militar.
La solucion estandar al problema consiste en establecer una clave de cifrado simetrico comun al grupo, llamada session key o clave de sesion, con la cual todos los participantes cifran o descifran la informacion transmitida. Sin embargo, las implicaciones practicas de esta solucion no son triviales por dos motivos: el uso de una misma clave de cifrado durante largo tiempo la hace vulnerable a ataques, y los cambios en la composicion del grupo (un fenomeno conocido como churn), de ocurrir, fuerzan a cambiar la clave despues de cada entrada o salida de participantes. Por ello es necesario refrescar la clave de sesion periodicamente, y en especial despues de cada cambio en la composicion del grupo. El capitulo 1 introduce mas formalmente estos conceptos y da al lector una vision mas amplia del problema.
Las propuestas de secure multicast existentes pueden clasificarse en tres categorias dependiendo de como realicen la renovacion de la clave de sesion: centralizadas, descentralizadas y distribuidas. En las primeras, una entidad central, el Key Server o Servidor de Claves, esta a cargo del establecimiento de nuevas claves de sesion y la distribucion a toda la red. Esta es la forma mas sencilla y popular de resolver el problema a cambio de soportar tamanos de grupo limitados. La segunda categoria, las propuestas descentralizadas, es una extension natural de la primera: para conseguir mayores tamanos de grupo los participantes se distribuyen en subgrupos disjuntos, cada uno gestionado por un Servidor de Claves secundario mediante secure multicast centralizado. Finalmente, en las propuestas distribuidas no existe una unica entidad a cargo del proceso de renovacion de claves. En su lugar, todos los participantes colaboran en la generacion del material criptografico cada vez que sea necesario. Los esquemas distribuidos ofrecen por tanto mas fiabilidad al evitar un unico punto de fallo a cambio de una escalabilidad muy limitada.
Esta tesis se enfoca hacia la categoria centralizada debido a su importancia como solucion en si misma y como pilar de construcciones descentralizadas. El capitulo 2 realiza una amplia revision del estado del arte, y el capitulo 3 presenta (i) un nuevo esquema centralizado, discute sus propiedades y pone a prueba su rendimiento. Los fundamentos matematicos del esquema se basan principalmente en el Algoritmo Extendido de Euclides, gracias al cual tambien hemos desarrollado (ii) una solucion de autenticacion para los mensajes de renovacion provenientes del Servidor de Claves, y (iii) una prueba de conocimiento cero (zero-knowledge proof) que permite a miembros legales del grupo verificar la legalidad de otros.
Los tres esquemas han sido ya objeto de criptoanalisis por parte de otros investigadores, los cuales han hallado algunas vulnerabilidades en el segundo y tercero (autenticacion de mensajes y prueba de conocimiento cero). Sin embargo, el esquema principal de secure multicast sigue siendo seguro a dia de hoy. Mencionaremos las vulnerabilidades encontradas por el criptoanalisis, asi como soluciones propuestas por otro conjunto de investigadores. Dichas soluciones no son merito del autor de esta tesis y se muestran aqui con el unico proposito de dar al lector una perspectiva completa.
La segunda parte de esta tesis se centra en computaciones distribuidas con preservacion de privacidad. En este caso, los nodos que conforman una red desean seguir la evolucion de una variable global a la que todo el mundo contribuye. Sin embargo, las contribuciones individuales hechas por cada nodo no deberian ser conocidas por los demas. Un ejemplo tipico, muy ilustrativo, es el Problema de los millonarios: dos millonarios quieren saber quien es mas rico sin revelar la cuantia de sus fortunas. Situaciones similares, especialmente aquellas que involucran un numero indeterminado de participantes y el computo de otras funciones, son utiles a la hora realizar agregacion de datos, calculo de confianza y mineria de datos, operaciones todas de creciente interes.
El problema de la preservacion de privacidad en computacion distribuida no es nuevo: existen ya un amplio numero de soluciones. Sin embargo, la mayoria de ellas es aplicable solo a un grupo reducido de participantes y no suelen ser tolerantes a fallos. El autor de esta tesis cree que esas dos caracteristicas van a cobrar mucha importancia con el tiempo debido a la popularizacion de diferentes tipos de redes. Por ejemplo, en redes peer-to-peer los nodos pueden entrar y salir de la red de forma inesperada (tal y como hemos comentado previamente para los escenarios de secure multicast), y los calculos no deberian detenerse o reiniciarse por ello. En redes de sensores (wireless sensor networks) el medio de transmision es propenso a fallos, y tambien los participantes pueden aparecer y desaparecer sin previo aviso. El capitulo 4 repasa de la literatura disponible en este campo.
En vista de la importancia de la tolerancia a fallos y al dinamismo de las redes, en el capitulo 5 hemos desarrollado un algoritmo de computo distribuido iterativo con preservacion de privacidad enfocado a redes peer-to-peer que se adapta a ese tipo de situaciones practicas. Nuestro algoritmo sigue un modelo de paso de mensajes asincrono que tolera churn y perdida o retraso de mensajes de forma natural, en oposicion a los algoritmos sincronos. Para demostrarlo, lo comparamos con una propuesta sincrona parecida tomada de la literatura. Creemos que nuestro algoritmo es el primero de este tipo.
La literatura en este campo considera dos modelos de adversario a tener en cuenta: semi-honestos y maliciosos. Los primeros analizan cualquier dato a su disposicion para obtener informacion privada de otros participantes, pero se asume que ejecutan el protocolo de forma correcta. De los segundos se espera que lleven a cabo acciones arbitrarias para obtener la informacion privada deseada, tales como enviar mensajes falsos. Nuestro algoritmo tolera adversarios semi-honestos.
A modo de resumen de lo anterior, la presente tesis (i) analiza el estado del arte en algoritmos de secure multicast centralizado, (ii) presenta una solucion de secure multicast centralizada con bajos requerimientos computacionales asi como algoritmos complementarios para la autenticacion de los mensajes de refresco y los miembros, (iii) repasa el estado del arte en computacion distribuida con preservacion de privacidad y (iv) presenta un algoritmo iterativo asincrono para computacion distribuida con preservacion de privacidad que tolera churn y fallos en el envio de mensajes.
This research is the case study on Tarakan City Government with the title Analysis of Financial Management Performance On Revenue.
Purpose of this study is to analyze the performance of financial management on Tarakan City Revenue. And to determine the performance of the financial management of the City of Tarakan.
The analysis tools are Financial Performance Ratios comprising: Effectiveness Ratio, Growth Rate, Ratio of Independence, and the Contribution Ratio, Degree of Fiscal Decentralization Ratio.
From the calculation in the study, showed that the ratio of the effectiveness of the Government of Tarakan can be said very effective because its effectiveness ratios showed more than 100% with average annual Tarakan City Government of 139.93%. The growth ratio of Tarakan City Government PAD can be quite good when viewed on average by 34.04% per year. This demonstrates the ability to maintain and increase the majority in the success that has been achieved from one period to the next is pretty good. The independence ratio fluctuation of Tarakan City Government with the annual average of 12.89%. This means that the independence of Tarakan City Government is still low in self-financing government activities and service to the community and is still dependent on external parties for 87.11%. The ratio of contribution which includes contribution of local taxes, levies and contributions of the company's profit is still quite low areas from year to year. This is because the amount of Tarakan City revenue is lower than the amount of local taxes, levies and profit of the company's area. Ratio Degree of Fiscal Decentralization in the City of Tarakan still classified extremely low. This is showed that the City of Tarakan still dependent on the central government to finance the construction.
Game models and optimization models analysis showed that low educational level and decentralized management of farmers result in the low income and high cost of farmers' innovation.Besides,the difficulties in gaining access to technical innovation loans also restrict farmers' technological innovation.Technological innovation lift the threshold of farmers on capital input,yet farmers' difficulties in financing limit farmers to adopt new technologies,which in turn lead to greater volatility of the agricultural income,and further restrict the enthusiasm of farmers to adopt new technologies.Finally,the countermeasures for promoting agricultural technological innovation were discussed.
The article discusses the impact of the railway reform on the organization and financing of the regional railway traffic in Germany from the 1990s until today. The examples of Bavaria and Saxony show two possible ways – a complete centralization in the first and a complete decentralization in the second case. Further is introduced a pilot Project of the Deutsche Bahn, so called RegioNetz. This project aims to create an effective, flexible and low-cost structure within a holding company, which enables keeping the traffic thank to reduced costs on local lines.
The paper has analyzed the relation between the intra-provincial fiscal system arrangements and the growth of countylevel government human size,based on the county-level time series data of Hunan province from 1995 to 2008,using the grey correlation analysis taking the index of the decentralization of fiscal expenditure and revenue、 financial degree of self-sufficiency and average per person net fiscal transfer from the perspective of fiscal decentralization and transfer payment.In this paper,it gets conclusions that there is significant positive correlativity between fiscal decentralization,transfer measured by different indexes and government human size at county level of Hunan province,and the most powerful factor which can explain the growth of county-level government human size is intra-provincial government expenditure division decided by various provinces voluntarily,the second is intra-provincial revenue division system arrangements and finance self-sufficiency degree at county level,the last is transfer payment.It shows that intra-provincial fiscal division system possibly has some kind of gene which encourages county-level government human size to expand.Such phenomenon indicates that establishing sub-national intergovernmental fiscal decentralization and moderate scale of transfer are important approaches to control sudden inflation of county-level government human size.