DPJ Government and Climate Change Policy

The monograph provides knowledge on the complex nature of both external and internal determinants influencing foreign policies of East Asian countries. Through a range of case studies on Japan, China, Taiwan and North Korea, the authors analyze international relations in East Asia as a mosaic of intertwining processes of globalization and regionalization, interests of global and regional powers, local social and economic conditions, national institutional arrangements, and even personal factors. They argue that sometimes a sudden change of one small element in this mosaic suffices to influence the whole system. Instead of providing a simplified interpretation of the analyzed processes, the monograph tries to illustrate them in their entire complexity.In 2009 election manifesto Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leaders voiced their decisive support for stronger engagement in international climate negotiations. The promises were realized by an ambitious climate mitigation proposal presented by Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio at COP 15 in Copenhagen. 25% CO2 levels reduction commitment was heavily criticized by Japanese opposition, METI bureaucrats and business circles. Despite strong domestic opposition Prime Minister Hatoyama decided to place climate mitigation among priorities of his foreign policy. Next DPJ administration quickly backtracked from the position of climate leader. The head of the Japanese delegation at COP 16 in Mexico stated that Japan would not be a part of new Kyoto Protocol commitment period. The aim of the article is to identify changing factors in decision–making process that led to quick change in DPJ’s approach to international climate mitigation efforts.This article is a result of research conducted as a part of a project financed by the Polish National Science Centre based on decision No. DEC– 2013/11/B/HS5/04005

Government policy in monetary economies

I study how the general and specific details of a micro founded monetary framework affect the determination of policy when the government has limited commitment. The conduct of policy depends on the interaction between the incentive to smooth distortions intertemporally and a time-consistency problem. In equilibrium, fiscal and monetary policies are distortionary, but long-run policy is not afflicted by time-consistency problems. Policy variables in specific applications of the general framework react similarly to variations in fundamentals. Nevertheless, resolving certain environment frictions affect long-run policy significantly. The response of government policy to aggregate shocks is qualitatively similar across the studied model variants. However, there are significant quantitative differences in the response of government policy to productivity shocks, mainly due to the idiosyncratic behavior of the money demand. Environments with no trading frictions display the best fit to post-war U.S. data.Economic policy

ROLE OF REGIONAL HEAD OF STATE’S ATTITUDES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF FINANCE POLICY ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTING STANDARDS IN INDONESIA

ndonesian state financial policies have undergone major changes since the release the Law on State Finance package in 2003 and 2004 as well as the Law on Local Government Package of 2004. The legislation has been set up clearly financial management with a transparent and accountable as well as the financial management in the region from President to the Regional Head. This implies a stronger role of the Regional Head in implementing the financial policy in the local government. The financial policy communication to local governments are often disruption whereby the policy is not communicated clearly and consistently. This study is a single case study for examining the phenomenon in which the object of research is the Semarang City Government as the only one that has been implemented government accounting standards accrual-based policy. In adequately of the financial policy’s communication about implementation of government accounting standards accrual-based policy from the central government to the local government can be overcome by the attitude of the Regional Head avoiding uncertainty (uncertainty avoidance) and has a vision for the future (confucian dynamism) so to encourage the attitude of the staff at the local government and also encourage the emergence of support from external parties to support the implementation of the financial policy of the country

Endogenous Growth Through Government Policy

This paper illustrates two reasonable political decision mechanisms by which fiscal policy generates endogenous growth under a constant returns to scale production technology, absent externalities. Based on the dynamics induced by various policy choices, we demonstrate that policies that maximize capital deepening generate balanced growth and are Pareto optimal. In contrast, policies chosen by the median voter produce balanced growth, but are suboptimal.public investment; positive political economy; median voter theorem; endogenous growth

Vagueness, credibility, and government policy

A discussion of the reasons why it may be in a government agency's--and society's--best interest to be vague about policy objectives. Using the concept of "cheap talk," the author explains that when an agency faces a trade-off between precise and credible announcements, its best move may be to provide truthful but limited information.Information theory

Short-run policy commitment when investment timing is endogenous: "More harm than good?"

We introduce endogenous leadership in a game between government and firms, in which the government has short-run commitment power only and firms choose when to invest. We show that firms that delay investment in the absence of government intervention have an incentive to invest early and strategically under policy activism. Then, even though a policy scheme succeeds in correcting an existing distortion targeted by the government, it can create a new and potentially more harmful one. We investigate when the government may do better by adhering to laissez-faire than by engaging in active policy intervention.Short-run government commitment, Microeconomic policy,Endogenous policy leadership, Investment timing,Uncertainty, Laissez faire

Externalities, markets, and government policy

Before the work of Ronald Coase, economists argued that externalities-unpriced benefits or costs-constituted the main exception to the rule that Adam Smith's invisible hand will efficiently allocate resources. Coase showed that externalities may or may not require a government solution, depending on the institutional setting of the problems and the size of transaction costs. Moreover, even in the absence of externalities, market transactions require low transaction costs. Firms exist to economize on those costs. In shifting the terms of the debate, Coase single-handedly moved economics from presuming specific roles for government action to a more neutral position requiring detailed analysis. In this article, Roy Ruffin explains Coase's contribution to understanding the role of government.Expenditures, Public

Government Policy in Monetary Economies

I study how the specific details of a micro founded monetary economy affect the determination of government policy. I consider three variants of the Lagos-Wright monetary framework: a benchmark were all markets are competitive; a case which allows for financial intermediaries; and a case with trading frictions. Although intitutions/frictions are shown to have a significant structural impact in the determination of policy, the calibrated artificial economies are observationally equivalent in steady state. The policy response to aggregate shocks is qualitatively similar in the variants considered. However, there are significant quantitative differences in the response of government policy to productivity shocks, mainly due to the idiosyncratic behavior of money demand. The variants with no trading frictions display the best fit to U.S. post-war data.government policy; lack of commitment; financial intermediation; trading frictions; micro founded models of money