Estonian authorities have made remarkable progress in a relatively short period of time by putting into place the elements of a modern budget process and fiscal management system. This progress is especially notable given the difficult circumstances the country has gone through in the transition period of the last five years. The most significant changes in budgetary policy took place with the adoption of the Law on State Budget in June 1993. Several other pieces of legislation have come to complement the Budget Law including laws on local budgets, state external audit and the department of treasury. Other reforms have helped establish the basis of a modern fiscal management system. These include a monetary board assuring the independence of monetary policy from fiscal management and eliminating all possibilities of inflationary deficit financing, a well designed and impressively simple tax code, an overall well designed system of decentralized government, and the privatization of many state enterprises.However, there are still significant steps that need to be taken for making the government budget and the budget process itself effective instruments of fiscal management in Estonia. In some cases, the new budget institutions are at the early stages of development and appear fragile because of lack of resources or trained personnel and lack of tradition. In other cases, the proper institutions for fiscal management have not been developed or are lacking. Addressing these reform issues should significantly enhance the ability of the Government of Estonia to accomplish its objectives of macroeconomic stability, a more efficient allocation of public funds, and growth of the economy’s private sector.This report takes stock and evaluates the reforms in fiscal management already introduced, those scheduled for introduction, and those that the Government still should consider putting in place to accomplish an effective fiscal management system. Because they have been reviewed recently, this report does not discuss in depth existing budget institutions but instead puts emphasis on recent reform and highlights those problem areas where additional reforms will be necessary. The first section of the report provides a brief overview of the main accomplishments and failings of Estonia’s budget process and fiscal management system. The next three sections of the report review in more depth the three stages of the budget process: policy formulation, forecasting and budget preparation; budget execution and the ongoing effort to introduce a modern treasury function in the Ministry of Finance; and the institutions for budget compliance, namely internal and external ex-post audits and budget evaluation.
This paper investigates theoretically a factor that impacts the institutional and structural environment of initiating small investments in Taiwan, namely personal relationship networks. A potential investor needs market opportunities in order to earn profit, business organization to exploit the opportunity, and capital to initiate the business. In Taiwan's network economy, the solidarity provided by family networks makes small initial business organizations possible. Subcontracting systems, both horizontal and vertical, make the entry-level investment low, and the decentralized production/marketing processes provide numerous market opportunities for small investments. Taiwanese entrepreneurs opt to start their business ventures primarily through the use of network financing, since bank loans fall under the dominion of government policies.
About the Internet, there have been a number of indications recently, that the use of electronic methods not only for expanding business or creating new business, but also for making payments, may introduce a new " industrial and monetary " order. This idea, (millenarianism ?) implies a large adoption of new technologies, of e-business opportunities and usages and finally, the resolution of e-payment problems, especially taking into account the Internet's characteristics (decentralization and aperture). These problems do not depend only on implementation of information's technologies, cryptography or network management. Because payments concern the core of the market's economy, the e-payment systems involve i) the monetary regime - i.e. forms and nature of money creation - and ii) agents qualified to create money. On these points, the emergence of e-payment systems is not anodyne, because it participates in the evolution of the actual monetary regime in the direction of a weakening between money supply, quantity of money and economy financing by bank's credit. It participates also in the evolution of the " banking industry " in the direction of a real disintermediation.
The paper reviews the theoretical basis for the application of user fees in the public health sector in low-income countries with particular reference to the special characteristics of medical care as a commodity. The general equilibrium efficiency result of the market mechanism is shown to be the theoretical justification for the financing of health services via a system of user charges. If markets for all goods and services exist, and are perfect in a very strict sense, the welfare outcome of the price mechanism cannot be improved upon by any other resource allocation device. Furthermore, the decentralized and impersonal nature of this mechanism renders it more convenient to use in the allocation of commodities, health care included, than its alternatives such as a system of centrally administered prices or a system of administrative controls and directives. However, since many of the assumptions of the price system are rarely met in actual situations, especially in the health sector, it should be applied with caution. In particular, problems of information asymmetry and consumption externalities in health care markets necessitate a simultaneous use of fees with government interventions in order for fees to achieve their often intended aim of efficiency and equity improvement in health care provision. The most important intervention of the government here is the enactment and enforcement of institutions that reduce costs of transacting in health care markets and that in addition facilitate the emergence of new markets such as the markets for medical insurance. A striking finding of the paper is that health services in low-income countries are best financed primarily by revenue from general taxation, supplemented by a system of moderate user fees. Since medical insurance markets are generally non-existent in low-income areas, it is argued that financing health services primarily through user fees in such areas would be inefficient and inequitable. However, to mitigate the moral hazard problem as well as the problem of the commons, both of which characterize publicly financed health care, imposition of modest user fees is required. The importance of fees in this proposal increases with economic growth and with evolution of institutions that facilitate market transactions. Strategic interaction among economic agents is shown to affect the structure and implementation of user fees. A game-theoretic analysis of the general problem of health care financing shows that this problem is best tackled by harnessing the efforts of households, private health care providers, the government and civil society. These entities form what might be called a winning coalition in health care financing game of society. It is argued that the government is better placed to provide an institutional framework for coordinating the efforts of the various players to the desired end.
The stormy years which Salisbury underwent immediately after World War II present a singular contrast to the politically tranquil pre-1945 era. Yet, looked upon as a people's history, the postwar urban protest had long historical roots: it was very much the consummation of the urban traditions and organizations which the people had created in the prewar years.Before the early 1930s Salisbury's African community was a segmented and decentralized one. Urban institutions and associations did exist, but the town's ‘preindustrial’ topography and other circumstances hardly encouraged the interlocking of workers' institutions and the growth of a ‘self-conscious’ community. But after the Depression the community was considerably structured and centralized. Instrumental in this development was the Mashonaland Native Welfare Society, which promoted sports and recreation among urban Africans for the social control purposes. Many sport and social clubs, old and new, came under the Society's umbrella, with their daily activities coordinated by the Sports and Games Committee.After 1942 the people were outgrowing the Welfare Society's basic tenets. Location residents took a greater interest in improving living conditions, seeking a more autonomous power. Clubs and societies in the meantime distanced themselves from the Welfare Society. A few community activists even espoused political radicalism, when they joined the Labour Party's African Branch, and had C. Mzingeli, the Branch chairman and a former ICU activist, as their leader.The postwar years witnessed a groundswell of labour and community protest, and the ascendency of the re-constructed ICU to the apex of urban politics. The situation, though it might appear totally novel, was in many ways the product of prewar urban traditions: the Reformed ICU was launched by African Labourites, who were also long-established community leaders. Behind the grassroots mobilization by the Union, moreover, lay the growing structuring and centralization of the urban community.
Israel's ongoing health reform provides lessons regarding attempts to combine universal coverage under national health insurance with a version of managed competition. Based on principles of 'justice, equality and mutual aid," Israel's National Health Insurance Law, 1994 guarantees access to a broad basket of basic services to be provided by four competing sick funds, and the availability of resources adequate to finance the basket. The new rights of citizens to universal coverage and to move freely among sick funds constituted a major policy breakthrough. However, successive amendments to the Law reflect continuing controversy over the amount of resources required to finance the basic basket. Despite the intention to base the system on decentralization and competition, successive amendments have placed more control over health system finance and sick fund management in the hands of the Ministries of Finance and Health. Updating the basic basket to take account of new technologies and drugs has raised unresolved dilemmas. In the Israeli case the dialectic of management vs. competition and of government vs. market, obscures fundamental issues related to the right of citizens to health services. The process set in motion by adoption of The National Health Insurance Law, 1994 calls on public managers and politicians to design institutions which can set priorities within a limited budget and effectively regulate the health care system.
This study addresses the interprofessional training of professionals necessary to function in an integrated service delivery system for children and youth at risk. Information was collected in seven OECD member countries on current multidisciplinary training capabilities, including country information and exemplary program descriptions. A number of significant findings were identified from the study regarding national policies, effects of decentralization, organizing mechanisms, training components, implementation strategies and financing. Clear policy implications emerged from the study, including the need to incorporate national policies on training in the policy framework for serving children and youth at risk, encouraging universities to develop curricula relevant to coordinated systems of care for their children and youth, and establishing national mechanisms for supporting and linking local training initiatives.
We are concerned with different properties of backward stochastic differential equations and their applications to finance. These equations, first introduced by Pardoux and Peng (1990), are useful for the theory of contingent claim valuation, especially cases with constraints and for the theory of recursive utilities, introduced by Duffie and Epstein (1992a, 1992b).
Richard Graham Halliday, A.L. Drasdo, Cynthia E. Lumley, Stuart Walker
A survey of 45 leading pharmaceutical companies has been used to investigate aspects of their Research and Development (R&D) strategies, the allocation of resources including the financing and staffing of R&D functions, and the numbers of New Chemical Entities (NCEs) in the development process. The companies included the top ten by R&D expenditure in 1992 (top 10 companies). The study identified characteristics of leading companies and provided comparative data. The principal findings are that: top ten companies had the highest R&D to sales ratios, progressed more NCEs after the drug candidate selection stage in 1992 and had achieved a greater geographical decentralization of staff than any other company. Japanese companies differed in some respects from western companies, even those of a similar size. They operated with smaller clinical and regulatory affairs functions and made detailed plans for R&D expenditure further ahead than western companies, on average, more than 5 years compared with 3 years. an increase in aggregated R&D staffing had occurred between 1990 and 1992 in 33 companies for which data for both years were available and staff numbers had decreased in only five of those companies. top ten companies differed from others in their apparent productivity measured in terms of staff or R&D expenditure per NCE after the drug candidate selection stage, utilizing more staff and having greater R&D expenditure per NCE. The results also appear to indicate early signs of a change in the structure of the industry according to R&D expenditure, which has since become more apparent. There was a distinct polarization by R&D budget size among the respondent companies: five companies were spending $900m or more on R&D in 1992 while the majority of the rest were spending less than a third of that amount.
A model of a central government and two local governments is used to study the role of fiscal federation in reducing the effect of revenue externalities between local jurisdictions. Immobile consumers buy goods in both their own and the other local community and pay sales taxes in each community. Depending on demand parameters, the fiscal externality may be positive or negative. In the former case, the local governments set tax rates below those a central government would choose. With a positive revenue externality, the central government can use the same tax bases as local governments to finance revenue sharing grants, stimulating local public expenditure, and thus raising welfare. If communities are heterogeneous, this revenue sharing system will not be fully optimal, but it can dominate a system of exclusive central revenue collection.
The discussion of the zero-knowledge proof protocol of the nonisomorphism of graphs (GNI) has appeared in many papers, but they are not complete zero-knowledge proof protocols at all. This paper proposed a complete zero-knowledge proof protocol on the problem.
Drawing from the public finance literature on expenditure assignment, this paper analyzes how devolution in the health sector is being operationalized in the Philippines. A central issue is how the central government can ensure that national and local objectives coincide. The pattern of health spending after devolution is described, and the financing of national health priorities at the local level through the Comprehensive Health Care Agreements is examined. The paper concludes by suggesting some guidelines for a financing mechanism for locally implemented health projects.
Manju Ahuja, Kathleen M. Carley, Dennis F. Galletta
Today’s organizations face a dynamic and turbulent environment which imposes a requirement for flexible and fast responses to changing business needs. Many organizations have responded by becoming decentralized, team-based and distributed (DeSanctis and Jackson, 1994; Drucker, 1988). These distributed organizations have also been described in recent literature as virtual, network, or cluster organizations, employing selfmanaging teams and autonomous business units (Goldman, 1995; Beyerlein and Johnson, 1994; Camillus, 1993; Mills, 1991; Drucker, 1988). Advances in communication technologies have enabled organizations to acquire and retain such distributed structure by supporting interaction among people coordinating their efforts from different locations.