The Provision of a Public Good with a direct Provision Technology and a Large Number of Agents

This paper provides a limit result for the provision of a public good in a mechanism design framework as the number of agents gets large. What distinguishes the public good investigated in this analysis is its direct provision technology which is commonplace in modern information technologies.Public Goods, Direct Provision, Asymmetric Information, Mechanism Design, Open Source Software

Alternatives to PPPs: positive action for in-house services

The paper reviews empirical examples of policies and approaches for developing public services through public sector provision and direct employment, in the context of EU law

The Impact of Referendums on the Centralisation of Public Goods Provision: A Political Economy Approach

The paper compares decision-making on the centralisation of public goods provision in the presence of regional externalities under representative and direct democratic institutions. A model with two regions, two public goods and regional spillovers is developed in which uncertainty over the true preferences of candidates makes strategic delegation impossible. Instead, it is shown that the existence of rent extraction by delegates alone suffices to make cooperative centralisation more likely through representative democracy. In the non-cooperative case, the more extensive possibilities for institutional design under representative democracy increase the likelihood of centralisation. Direct democracy may thus be interpreted as a federalism-preserving institution.centralisation, direct democracy, representative democracy, public good provision

A handbook from the Eduba'a: an Old Babylonian collection of model contracts

The Old Babylonian prism here published is a compendium of model contracts (and one legal provision) written in Sumerian and it is a direct expression of the scholastic legal tradition in Southern Mesopotamia

Individualised funding, social inclusion and the politics of mental health

This paper explores how the changing nature of welfare provision can open up, or close down, opportunities for people with mental health needs to organise their own lives and develop their own communities. In particular it focuses on the rise of individualised funding or direct payments, where individuals can receive money instead of services in order to plan, purchase and direct their own support arrangements

Externalities and Bailouts: Hard and Soft Budget Constraints in Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations

Central government matching grants can, in principle, induce socially- efficient provision of local public goods that produce spillover benefits. Local underprovision of public goods may however elicit direct central-government provision and finance (a ``bailout") that makes local residents better off than under grant-subsidized local provision; local underprovision that induces bailouts reveals the local budget constraint to be ``soft." Simulations suggest that the ability of a locality to extract a welfare-improving bailout depends positively on its size: budget constraints are more likely to be ``hard" for small localities.fiscal federalism intergovernmental transfers

FDI versus cross-border financial services: The globalisation of German banks

The choice between foreign direct investment (FDI) and exports has been a recurrent theme in the literature on international trade, yet few studies have analysed this choice at the level of the individual firm. This paper uses a new dataset to study the FDI-versus-exports decision for banks. We use data on the foreign direct investment stocks and the cross-border provision of financial services of German banks for the period 1997-2000 to describe the regional pattern of banks' international activities. We find that country- and bank-specific variables capturing size have a major impact on banks' foreign activities. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the realisation of economies of scale and the provision of trade-related finance shape globalisation patterns. Greater cultural and geographical distance, by contrast, potentially limit the international expansion of banks. Our results also suggest that FDI and cross-border services are complements rather than substitutes. --international banking,gravity equations,foreign direct investment,cross-border financial services

How Does the Limited Base Acre Provision in the 2008 Farm Act Affect Small Farms?

Under the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Farm Act), U.S. farms with 10 or fewer base acres became ineligible to receive Direct and Countercyclical Payment (DCP) or Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program payments(Section 1101(d) and 1302(d)) from USDA. Limited resource and socially disadvantaged owners are exempt from this “base 10” provision. Eliminating payments on farms with 10 or fewer base acres reduces payments made by USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the cost of administering the DCP and ACRE programs. We examine the characteristics of the farms affected by the limited base acre provision and answer the question: How does the provision affect small farms?US Farm Policy, Limited Base Acres Provision, 2008 Farm Act, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Amending the Treatment of Defense Production Enterprises Under the U.S. Exon-Florio Provision: A Move Toward Protectionism or Globalism

Discusses the Exon-Florio Provision of the Omnibus Trade & Competitiveness Act. It gives the President of the United States the power to prohibit or to prevent on a temporary basis a non-U.S. corporation from merging with or acquiring a U.S. corporation when the transaction could potentially impair U.S. national security. The Note examines U.S. legislation that regulates direct investment and argues that the U.S. Congress should amend Exon-Florio in order to focus and strengthen the Provision\u27s application to transactions involving U.S. defense production companies. Part I of this Note sets forth the existing procedural and administrative requirements of Exon-Florio and explains several modifications to the Provision that Congress has recently enacted. Part II outlines additional proposed modifications to Exon-Florio that have been presented before Congress and considers such proposals with respect to a recent case involving the Provision. Part III argues that Congress should amend Exon-Florio in order to focus and confine the Provision\u27s application to national defense. This Note concludes that such modifications would be justifiable because they would define national defense as a narrow exception to the traditional U.S. globalist trade policy and, consequently, benefit all those involved in international mergers, acquisitions and takeovers in the United States

Self-Insurance and Self-Protection as Public Goods

Many public goods like lighthouses and fire departments do not provide direct utility but act as insurance devices against shipwreck and destruction. They either diminish the size and/or the probability of the loss. We extend the public good model with this insurance aspect and generalize Samuelson?s efficient allocation rule when self-insurance and self-protection expenditures are pure public goods. Some comparative static results with respect to changes in income and risk behavior are derived. We analyze the interaction of private market insurance with the public good level, both for efficient provision and for private provision equilibria. The privately provided levels of self- insurance and self-protection decrease when market insurance is available, which suggests that the state should invest more in preventing not insurable risks like wars. Additionally, the state should focus on self-protection expenditures if those are better observable than private self-protection effort. --Self-insurance,self-protection,efficient provision of public goods,private provision of public goods,market insurance