The Budgetary Behavior of Local Governments and Intergovernmental Grant Policies: A Case Study for Japan

1985 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-415
Author(s):  
Hiromitsu Ishi

The basic aim in this paper is to clarify intergovernmental fiscal relations in Japan. Particular attention is paid to the impact of various types of central government grants on the local government budgets. This is an important issue in a nation like Japan, where the fiscal system is strongly centralized. First, a model is constructed to express the local fiscal behavior under the present grant policies, following the past attempts developed in the United States of America. Then, the estimates of this model are attempted using available data, and some policy questions are examined. The main empirical conclusions that are drawn from the Japanese experience are much more plausible than those in the US case. This implies that the control of central government via various grant policies is more dominant in Japan.

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Mourey ◽  
Philippe Eynaud ◽  
Carolyn Cordery

AbstractWorldwide, civil society organizations (CSOs) are an integral component in the complex network that comprises the public sphere improving the welfare of our communities. In the second half of the twentieth century French CSOs’ contributions to their citizens’ welfare have become increasingly valued. Nevertheless, radical changes to employment policies during the Sarkozy regime (2007–2012) impacted social services to unemployed migrants. In addition, central government constrained local governments’ ability to fund social services, pushing a shift from a culture of “granting subsidies” to one based on “public procurement contracting” (Langlais 2008). These environmental changes are likely to transform CSO-government relationships.This research asks two questions: what is the impact of such radical changes and what possible responses can organizations make, if they are to survive? To answer these, we utilize a case study of a French CSO (Association), which is highly dependent on public funding to deliver its urban-based migrant programs. We utilize the lens of resource dependency, focusing on the interrelationships and interactions that impact CSOs’ legitimacy and support. Effects of the reforms include a change from relatively cooperative relationships with government to adversarial exchanges. Moreover, this CSO’s activities are apprehended by public funders as short-term single projects considered in isolation from one another so that its overall outcomes are not quantitatively measured. As a result, the CSO’s overarching and long-term social and economic contribution to the territory’s public sphere is in jeopardy.


2013 ◽  
Vol 93 (5) ◽  
pp. 839-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercedes Borja-Bravo ◽  
José Alberto García-Salazar ◽  
Rhonda K. Skaggs

Borja-Bravo, M., García-Salazar, J. A. and Skaggs, R. K. 2013. Mexican fresh tomato exports in the North American market: A case study of the effects of productivity on competitiveness. Can. J. Plant Sci. 93: 839–850. The North American market for fresh tomatoes (Lycopersicon escolentum Mill.) involves a complicated web of bilateral trading relationships between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Trade in fresh tomatoes between the three countries has changed significantly in recent years. In particular, Mexico's share of total US fresh tomato imports from all countries decreased from 93 to 88%, while Canada's share of US fresh tomato imports increased from 3 to 11% between 1996 and 2009. Mexico's declining competitive position in the US fresh tomato market is also evidenced by the fact that the Mexican share of combined Mexico–Canada exports to the United States decreased from 97% to 89% between 1996 and 2009. A spatial and inter-temporal model was used to analyze the impact of increased Mexican tomato yields on the North American fresh tomato market. Results indicate that for the average year between 2005 and 2008, 20% higher yields would have resulted in a 15.1% increase in Mexico's tomato production and a 28.9% increase in fresh tomato exports from Mexico to the United States. As a result of higher Mexican tomato sector productivity, Canadian and US producers’ shares of the US fresh tomato market would decrease and Mexico's would increase from 35.0 to 41.9%. The model shows that Mexico's share of US fresh tomato imports from both Mexico and Canada would grow from 88.1 to 90.3% as a result of the increased productivity. These results lead to the recommendation that increasing yields of this important export crop are key to maintaining and increasing the North American market competitiveness of Mexican-produced fresh tomatoes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bekana Dejene Mamo

This paper examines the effect of intergovernmental fiscal transfers on the fiscal behaviour of local governments in Ethiopia for the period 2004-2018. The empirical findings suggest that central government grants bolster state-level employment and expenditure. However, grants from the central government to states do not crowd out state-level revenue collection. Hence, this paper argues that fiscal decentralisation in Ethiopia has mostly, at least in theory, taken the form of devolution of the power to tax and spend public money. However, on average state-level revenue can only finance up to 26 per cent of their annual expenditure. As a result, fiscal federalism in Ethiopia appears to be a form of delegation of spending responsibilities. It has to be considered in the context of a decentralised tax system, but with a transfer scheme and political hierarchy. The results are found to be robust to alternative econometric estimation techniques.


Asian Survey ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 978-1003
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Chen Chen ◽  
Jun Xiang

Existing studies of the impact of economic development on political trust in China have two major gaps: they fail to explain how economic development contributes to the hierarchical trust pattern, and they do not pay enough attention to the underlying mechanisms. In light of cultural theory and political control theory, we propose adapting performance theory into a theory of “asymmetrical attribution of performance” to better illuminate the case of China. This adapted theory leads to dual pathway theses: expectation fulfillment and local blaming. Using a multilevel mediation model, we show that expectation fulfillment mainly upholds trust in the central government, whereas local blaming undermines trust in local governments. We also uncover a rural–urban distinction in the dual pathway, revealing that both theses are more salient among rural Chinese.


Author(s):  
Aref Emamian

This study examines the impact of monetary and fiscal policies on the stock market in the United States (US), were used. By employing the method of Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) developed by Pesaran et al. (2001). Annual data from the Federal Reserve, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund, from 1986 to 2017 pertaining to the American economy, the results show that both policies play a significant role in the stock market. We find a significant positive effect of real Gross Domestic Product and the interest rate on the US stock market in the long run and significant negative relationship effect of Consumer Price Index (CPI) and broad money on the US stock market both in the short run and long run. On the other hand, this study only could support the significant positive impact of tax revenue and significant negative impact of real effective exchange rate on the US stock market in the short run while in the long run are insignificant. Keywords: ARDL, monetary policy, fiscal policy, stock market, United States


Horticulturae ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Amandeep Kaur ◽  
Louise Ferguson ◽  
Niels Maness ◽  
Becky Carroll ◽  
William Reid ◽  
...  

Pecan is native to the United States. The US is the world’s largest pecan producer with an average yearly production of 250 to 300 million pounds; 80 percent of the world’s supply. Georgia, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, California, Louisiana, and Florida are the major US pecan producing states. Pecan trees frequently suffer from spring freeze at bud break and bloom as the buds are quite sensitive to freeze damage. This leads to poor flower and nut production. This review focuses on the impact of spring freeze during bud differentiation and flower development. Spring freeze kills the primary terminal buds, the pecan tree has a second chance for growth and flowering through secondary buds. Unfortunately, secondary buds have less bloom potential than primary buds and nut yield is reduced. Spring freeze damage depends on severity of the freeze, bud growth stage, cultivar type and tree age, tree height and tree vigor. This review discusses the impact of temperature on structure and function of male and female reproductive organs. It also summarizes carbohydrate relations as another factor that may play an important role in spring growth and transition of primary and secondary buds to flowers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Cogswell

AbstractHistorians have not paid close attention to the activities of freebooters operating out of Dunkirk in the late 1620s. This essay corrects that omission by first studying the threat from Dunkirk to England's east coast and then addressing how the central government, counties, and coastal towns responded. A surprisingly rich vein of manuscript material from Great Yarmouth and particularly from the Suffolk fishing community of Aldeburgh informs this case study of the impact of this conflict around the North Sea.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Corentin Cot ◽  
Giacomo Cacciapaglia ◽  
Francesco Sannino

AbstractWe employ the Google and Apple mobility data to identify, quantify and classify different degrees of social distancing and characterise their imprint on the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and in the United States. We identify the period of enacted social distancing via Google and Apple data, independently from the political decisions. Our analysis allows us to classify different shades of social distancing measures for the first wave of the pandemic. We observe a strong decrease in the infection rate occurring two to five weeks after the onset of mobility reduction. A universal time scale emerges, after which social distancing shows its impact. We further provide an actual measure of the impact of social distancing for each region, showing that the effect amounts to a reduction by 20–40% in the infection rate in Europe and 30–70% in the US.


Author(s):  
Sergio Petralia

Abstract The pervasive diffusion of electricity-related technologies at the beginning of the twentieth century has been studied extensively to understand the transformative potential of general purpose technologies (GPTs). Most of what we know, however, has been investigated in relation to the diffusion of their use. This article provides evidence on the county-level economic impact of the technological adoption of electrical and electronic (E&E) technologies in the 1920s in the United States (US). It focuses on measuring the impact of a GPT on technological adopters, i.e., those who are able to develop, transform, and complement it. It is shown that places with patenting activity in E&E technologies grew faster and paid higher wages than others between 1920 and 1930. This analysis required constructing a novel database identifying detailed geographical information for historical patent documents in the US since 1836, as well as developing a text-mining algorithm to identify E&E patents based on patent descriptions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002085232198895
Author(s):  
Makoto Kuroki ◽  
Keiko Ishikawa ◽  
Kiyoshi Yamamoto

Accompanying the spread of “new public management” since the 1980s, accrual accounting and results-based management has become a global standard. However, whether accrual accounting results in successful outcomes and which drivers lead to the intended impacts of the reform have been contested. Given the mixed arguments in the literature, we set out two research questions: (1) “Have public sector organizations realized any positive impacts on management practices by adopting mandatory accrual accounting?”; and (2) “What are the primary drivers of such impacts?” To answer these questions, we examine the impact on management practices by analyzing a survey to ascertain how financial department officers in Japanese local governments perceive the benefits of adopting mandatory accrual accounting on management practices. The results indicate that they have so far not recognized the intended benefits, though they had expected higher benefits in internal control. Then, we use technical-rational, socio-political, and institutional isomorphic perspectives in a comprehensive approach to understand the impacts on management practices. The logistic analysis shows that financial managers in local governments that do not have a majority party in the assembly, but consist of several parties in power, as well as in those with greater financial dependence on the central government, perceive higher benefits. Further, we find that financial managers that imitate other local governments as a form of mimetic pressure perceive fewer benefits. The results show that some technical-rational tools, socio-political conditions, and institutional pressures change the perceived benefits for public managers of adopting mandatory accrual accounting. Points for practitioners We find that some technical-rational, socio-political, and institutional factors explain the intended internal benefits of the mandatory adoption of accrual accounting. In practice, financial managers in local government feel the merits of accrual accounting in less autonomy in not only politics, but also finance, and few mimetic conditions. It might be understood that difficult situations would drive practitioners to use mandatory information.


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