Relative efficiency within a tax administration: The effects of result improvement

Neste trabalho, aborda-se a análise da administração tributária espanhola mediante a avaliação da eficiência relativa de cada um dos escritórios territoriais que a integram, empregando, para isso, a análise envolvente de dados de forma bietápica, com uma orientação output. Neste estudo, analisaram-se 47 escritórios territoriais considerando três inputs: 1) os gastos correntes em bens e serviços; 2) o número de declarações gerenciadas pelos dois principais impostos diretos e 3) o número de efetivos que presta seus serviços. Como output, os Ingressos por Atos de Liquidação. A análise demonstra que uma atuação eficiente dos escritórios territoriais poderia ter aumentado em 21,6% os resultados da gestão dessa Administração.This paper analyses the Spanish tax administration, evaluating the relative efficiency of each of the regional offices that are its constituent parts via output-oriented two-stage data envelopment analysis. In the study, a total of 47 regional offices were analysed, considering three inputs: 1) current expenditure in goods and services; 2) number of tax returns processed in terms of the two main direct taxes; and, 3) personnel numbers. Revenue resulting from tax assessments was considered as output. The analysis shows that the efficient action of regional offices might have increased by 21.6% the results of the management of this administration.A través de este trabajo se ha abordado el análisis de la administración tributaria española mediante la evaluación de la eficiencia relativa de cada una de las oficinas territoriales que la integran, empleando para ello el análisis envolvente de datos de forma bietápica, con una orientación output. En el estudio se han analizado 47 oficinas territoriales, considerando tres inputs: 1) los gastos corrientes en bienes y servicios; 2) el número de declaraciones gestionadas por los dos principales impuestos directos; y 3) el número de efectivos que presta sus servicios. Como output los Ingresos por Actos de Liquidación. El análisis pone de manifiesto que una actuación eficiente de las oficinas territoriales podría haber incrementado un 21.6% los resultados de la gestión de esta Administración

European Administration. Normative Fundaments and Systemic Models

Making use of the relevant literature in the area, this paper proposes a systemic approach to the European administration. The difficulty of the research design stems from the inconsistency of the regulations European treaties exhibit, as well as from the sectorial approaches, mostly of legal nature, on the conceptualization of the EU administration. To this we add the complexity of the analyzed process which, under the conditions set by the EU enlargement tends to overcome, both in sphere and content, many of the administrations of the federal states or international organizations. The systemic model we propose is a complex system, of a mixed architecture. It is there that the self-regulatory processes have a unique specificity and make use of both a legal foundation and of complementary processes such are those of Europeanization, convergence and administrative dynamicEuropean administration, European Administrative Space, Cybernetic system, Europeanization, Convergence, Administrative dynamics.

Political drivers of and barriers to Public-Private Partnerships: The role of political involvement

The application and design of public-private partnerships between the extremes of purely public or purely private task fulfilment in public services is, in practice, subject to political processes. Decisions about PPPs (realisation, arrangement) are taken in the political arena and are therefore not theoretical optimisation exercises. The interests and resources of the actors who participate in the political decision-making process as well as the rules of the political process have a powerful influence on whether, in what areas, and in what form PPPs are realised. The distance between this output and solutions that are theoretically desirable given certain ideal goals (e.g. efficiency) and conditions can be referred to as political bias. So what role does the political process play in the realisation of PPPs, in the actual design of PPPs, and in their performance? Using public choice and institutional economics theory this paper analyses what chances of success PPPs have given the existing decision-making structures and the inherent incentives for participating actors, and in what way political influence is brought to bear in the first place. Furthermore, aspects of political science in this field (legitimacy, democratic control) are considered as well. Using PPPs there might be a trade-off between reduced democratic control, but also reinforced market control. It turns out that political involvement might be both an important driver as well as an obstacle for (efficient) PPPs and that it is likely to decrease efficiency either way. A case study for userfinancing PPPs in the transport sector highlights the problems of political renitency. --public-private partnership,politics,bureaucracy,public choice,contract theory,agency,tax state,transaction cost,governance,legitimacy,transport infrastructure,user financing

Are Errors in Official U.S. Budget Receipts Forecasts Just Noise?

Existing evidence suggests that U.S. Government budget receipts forecasts are unbiased and efficient. Our study is an attempt to examine the veracity of these findings. The time series framework employed in this study is distinguished from previous work in three ways. First, we build a model that explicitly admits serial correlation in the residuals by allowing for autoregressive, moving-average, serial correlation. Second, we employ the nonparametric Monte-Carlo bootstrap to free ourselves from reliance on asymptotic distribution theory which is suspect given the short data series available for this study. Third, we control for errors in the macroeconomic and financial assumptions used to produce the U.S. Government's budget forecasts. We find that the U.S. Government's annual, one-year ahead, budget receipts forecasts for fiscal years 1963 through 2003 are biased and inefficient. In addition, we find that these forecasts exhibit serial correlation in their errors and thus do not efficiently exploit all available information. Finally, we find evidence that is consistent with strategic bias that may reflect the political goals of the Administration in power. Working Paper 07-2

Government and Social Media: A Case Study of 31 Informational World Cities

Social media platforms are increasingly being used by governments to foster user interaction. Particularly in cities with enhanced ICT infrastructures (i.e., Informational World Cities) and high internet penetration rates, social media platforms are valuable tools for reaching high numbers of citizens. This empirical investigation of 31 Informational World Cities will provide an overview of social media services used for governmental purposes, of their popularity among governments, and of their usage intensity in broadcasting information online.Comment: In Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 1715-1724). IEEE Computer Society, 201

Fair Value of Real Estate and Utility of Financial Statements of Construction Companies

Some international standards have proposed that the fair value approach should be used to evaluate real estate assets. The choice to use this method or another approach could influence the quality of the financial reports published in response to information demands by company stakeholders. In this study, we will examine whether fair value evaluation, in the real estate context, improves the utility of construction company financial reports. For this purpose, we have addressed a questionnaire to financial directors that concern the relevance, reliability and viability of this valuation criterion. Based on the opinion of the respondents, our results show that the fair value model would improve the usefulness of financial reports to evaluate company solvency, and would also improve the comparability, timeliness and understandability of such reports.

Input-Output in Europe: Trends in Research and Application

Indubitably born in the USA, input-output analysis has an important European history, from its very beginnings in the Soviet Union to the postwar huge development of I/O techniques in West and North Europe. This paper studies the European experience of input-output analysis by surveying and analyzing some of the national experiences and especially the works in Great Britain of Richard Stone and his team. We show in particular how European economists have taken leadership in I/O research since the 1950s and more recently with the creation in 1989 of the journal of the International Input-Output Association, Economic System Research. In the latter European influence tends to focus works on theoretical and methodological issues more than empirical issues and applicationsInput-Output Analysis, Leontief, Stone, Applied economics, SAM, Computable General Equilibriun Models

The role of voluntary disclosure in listed company: an alternative model

The aim of this paper is to propose a model of social reporting that allows improving the communication of sociability and quantify the sociability. The research approach follows a qualitative methodology, applying a single method approach. The observations are the result of an empirical analysis carried out on the Italian-Stock-Exchange listed companies that have an independent social or sustainability balance sheet. The findings of this research are based, first, on collection of data about the sample, in order to identify the strong and weak points in terms of its management and economic evaluation, and secondly on the introduction of an alternative method of social accounting, with the objective of measuring the sociability of company communication

Decision making process on the Antwerp Oosterweel link: lessons learnt

The Oosterweel link (completion of the Antwerp ring road, including a river Scheldt crossing) was planned to be the largest infrastructure project ever built in Belgium. It started as a noiseless process for more than fifteen years, the decision seemed to be taken in 2008: the reference design was approved and a DBFM consortium selected. Then the project became controversial. Action groups dominated the debate and could enforce a public referendum. The project was rejected by the Antwerp citizens. Can the rejection of the project be explained by opening the black box of the planning process? A research of the Antwerp University College Artesis reveals that the decision process of the Oosterweel link can be described within the three streams model (problems–policy alternatives–politics), developed by W. Kingdon. In each stream actors intervene with their own logic (e.g. experts use traffic models, politicians make political deals, and administrations refer to administrative rules...). The process streams were bundled by a policy maker (the governor of the province), creating for a certain period a 'window of opportunity'. But the research confirms that a project idea has its expiry date. From Kingdon's three project survival criteria the weak point of the Oosterweel project is its small problem definition (traffic congestion on the main road system). Major projects should refer to the mobility issue and not only to a traffic problem. Infrastructure planning should not be limited to the physical object to be built, but be embedded in the urban and regional environment (avoiding e.g. white backgrounds in project evaluations and design). Planning processes that only focus on control (of financial and technical issues) and omit interaction (with stakeholders and the general public) have a great risk to fail. This has huge consequences for project management

What factors influence the uptake of GPP (Green Public Procurement) practices? New evidence from an Italian survey

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is becoming a cornerstone of environmental policies both at European Union and Member State level. Drawing upon a database of public authorities located in three Italian Regions, this paper assesses the determinants and drawbacks of green procurement adoption. In particular, using an econometrical approach we tested the following propositions: i) the existing awareness on GPP practices, tools and regulations does support public authorities to develop GPP strategies; (ii) the support of external experts in purchasing function does support public authorities to develop GPP practices; (iii) the small dimension of public authority is an obstacle to adopting GPP practices; (iv) ISO 14001 certified public authorities are more likely to develop GPP practices. The econometric analysis shows that the dimension of public authorities and the level of awareness of the existing tools for supporting GPP have a positive and significant effect on the probability that they adopt GPP practices.green public procurement, local authorities, ISO 14001, environment.