Vertical and horizontal tax competition in the transport sector

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature dealing with horizontal and vertical tax competition in the transport sector, taking into account the role of transport externalities. Our emphasis throughout is on tax competition between governments, not between private suppliers. For the various different settings (horizontal and vertical competition, parallel and serial networks), we discuss the relevance of tax competition and describe the type of results typically obtained. We further point out the relevance of different types of tax competition for transport policy in a European setting. Finally, we discuss the losses of non-cooperative behaviour of governments.

The Bellagio Global Dialogues on Intellectual Property

Reviews Rockefeller's conference series on intellectual property and its efforts to promote policies and institutional capacities that better serve the poor, with a focus on food security and public health. Discusses global policy, development, and trade

Public-private partnerships: A multidimensional model for contracting

This paper considers the relationships between public and private organizations entering into public-private partnerships (PPPs) within the context of New Public Management (NPM). After offering a brief discussion of similarities and differences between public and private organizations and their relationships, it provides a short overview of how PPPs are organized in practice. Through elaborating on three dimensions of differentiation between public and private organizations -ownership, funding and control- it proposes a matrix model for identifying a suitable "dimensional mix" for PPP contracts.Public-private partnerships; hybrid organizations; contractual choices; qualitative comparative analysis;

Property rights, collective Action, and poverty: The role of institutions for poverty reduction

"This paper presents a conceptual framework on how institutions of property rights and collective action can contribute to poverty reduction, including through external interventions and action by poor people themselves. The first part of the paper examines the initial conditions of poverty, highlighting the role of assets, risks and vulnerability, legal structures and power relations. The latter part investigates the decision-making dynamics of actors—both poor and non-poor—and how they can use the tangible and intangible resources they have to shape their livelihoods and the institutions that govern their lives. The paper concludes with a discussion of how attention to property rights and collective action can improve the understanding of outcomes in terms of changes in wellbeing." authors' abstractCollective action, Property rights, Poverty reduction, Conceptual framework, Vulnerability, Power, Institutions, Wellbeing,

Settling for efficiency : a framework for the European securities transactions industry

Despite a lot of re-structuring and many innovations in recent years, the securities transaction industry in the European Union is still a highly inefficient and inconsistently configured system for cross-border transactions. This paper analyzes the functions performed, the institutions involved and the parameters concerned that shape market and ownership structure in the industry. Of particular interest are microeconomic incentives of the main players that can be in contradiction to social welfare. We develop a framework and analyze three consistent systems for the securities transaction industry in the EU that offer superior efficiency than the current, inefficient arrangement. Some policy advice is given to select the 'best' system for the Single European Financial Market

Water Service Delivery Reform in China: Safeguarding the Interests of the Poor

China faces a water scarcity problem that is severe by international standards. Many factors, including rapid urbanization and environmental degradation etc, have been challenging the water service delivery in China. Since water scarcity and quality have impact on the poor, reforms to the water service provision can produce substantial improvements in the living standard of the economically disadvantaged groups. The objective of this study is to critically evaluate the strengths and weakness of China¡¯s current water financing and delivering system, with a focus on safeguarding the interests of the poor, and to offer insight into possible solutions.water administration, water pricing, water financing

The effects of scales, flows and filters on property rights and collective action in watershed management:

Research and policy on property rights, collective action and watershed management requires good understanding of ecological and socio-political processes at different social-spatial scales. On-farm soil erosion is a plot or farm-level problem that can be mitigated through more secure property rights for individual farmers, while the sedimentation of streams and deterioration of water quality are larger-scale problems that may require more effective collective action and / or more secure property rights at the village or catchment scale. Differences in social-political contexts across nations and regions also shape property rights and collective action institutions. For example, circumstances in the Lake Victoria basin in East Africa require particular attention to collective action and property rights problems in specific “hot spot” areas where insecure tenure leads to overuse or under-investment. Circumstances in the uplands of Southeast Asia require analysis of the opportunities for negotiating more secure rights for farmers in exchange for stronger collective action by farmer groups for maintaining essential watershed functions.

Economy of LIfe: Charismatic Dynamics and the Spirit of Gift

The dominant mode of globalization has mostly reinforced the disembedding of states and markets from the social practices and civic virtues of civil society writ large. In this process, abstract economic values linked to instrumental reason and procedural fairness have supplanted civic virtues of courage, reasonableness and substantive justice. As such, the global ‘market-state’ reflects the centralization of power and the concentration of wealth that is undermining democratic politics and genuinely competitive economies. However, the growing economic interdependence around the world also offers new opportunities for reciprocity, mutuality and fraternity among communities and nations. To promote an ethos of responsible and virtuous action, what is required is the full breadth of political and economic reason. Christian social teaching offers conceptual and practical resources that are indispensable to the search for broader notions of rationality. Among these resources are non-instrumental conceptions of justice and the common good in the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and cognate traditions in Anglicanism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Closely connected to this is the idea of ‘civil economy’. As Pope Benedict XVI has suggested in his encyclical Caritas in veritate, ‘civil economy’ embeds state-guaranteed rights and market contracts in the social bonds and civic virtues that bind together the intermediary institutions of civil society. In this manner, it binds the ‘logic of contract’ to the ‘logic of gratuitous gift exchange’. The spirit of gift exchange translates into concrete practices of reciprocal trust and mutual assistance that underpin virtues such as reciprocal fraternity and the pursuit of the universal common good in which all can share. As such, ‘civil economy’ reconnects activities that are primarily for state-administrative or economic-commercial purposes to practices that pursue social purposes

Information Disclosure, Intertemporal Risk Sharing, and Asset Prices

Disclosure of information triggers immediate price movements, but it mitigates price movements at a later date, when the information would otherwise have become public. Consequently, disclosure shifts risk from later cohorts of investors to earlier cohorts. Hence, disclosure policy can be interpreted as a tool to “control” interim asset price movements, and to allocate risk intertemporally. This paper shows that a policy of partial disclosure (and, hence, of intertemporal risk sharing) can maximize, but surprisingly also minimize, the market value of the firm. Our model also applies to a setting where a central bank chooses the quality and frequency of the disclosure of macroeconomic information, or to the precision of disclosure by (distressed) banks.Financial reporting, disclosure, information policy, asset pricing, intertemporal risk sharing, general equilibrium

DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO: A CRITIQUE OF G-7 PROPOSALS ON REFORMING THE MULTILATERAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS

The paper addresses three key issues raised by the G-7 in its proposals in 2001 to reform the multilateral development banks: (i) the restructuring of the International Development Association (IDA), with a part of its lending in the form of grants rather than loans; (ii) the harmonization of procedures, policies and overlapping mandates among multilateral development banks (MDBs;) and (iii) the volume of support by MDBs for global public goods (GPGs) and the rankings and priorities among them. The paper argues that while in principle shifting a fraction of IDA´s resources to grants can address some of the problems associated with loans, these gains are limited. At the same time it poses long-term political risks for the World Bank. Moreover, the paper cautions that the more fundamental problem with IDA is the manner in which the IDA Deputies - the representatives of the donor countries - have been making policy decisions relating not just to IDA but also to the institution as a whole. The result has been a creeping constitutional coup that has fundamentally subverted the role of the Executive Board in the institution´s governance. The paper also questions whether developing countries in their quest for a larger IDA may not be sacrificing their larger interests in the global system. With regard to GPGs, the paper questions the degree to which the Bank´s research contributes to GPGs. It argues that there is little analytical and empirical evidence that the G-7´s priorities for GPGs would maximize the well-being of the poor relative to a host of notional alternatives. With regard to the harmonization of procedures and policies among the MDBs, the paper supports the harmonization of procedures, especially those related to procurement and financial reporting, while arguing that harmonization of policies and overlapping of jurisdictions should not be formalized. The paper further argues that increasingly stringent compliance standards of the international financial institutions are imposing high financial and opportunity costs on their borrowers. It is easy for the major shareholders to insist on standards whose costs they do not bear. The most inimical aspect of this pressure is that it has forced the Bank to shift lending towards sectors where it has little comparative advantage and away from the very sectors where it does have comparative advantage.