Decentralization and Local Governments’ Performance: How Does Fiscal Autonomy Affect Spending Efficiency?

In Italy, as in other countries around the world, recent reforms share the goal of increasing the fiscal autonomy of lower tiers of governments, from Regions to Municipalities, in order to align spending with funding responsibilities and increase the efficiency in the provision of essential public services. The purpose of this paper is to assess spending efficiency of local governments and to investigate the effects of tax decentralization, focusing on the role played by incumbent politicians’ accountability. The analysis relies on a sample of Italian municipalities and exploits both parametric (SFA) and nonparametric (DEA) techniques to study spending inefficiency and its main determinants. Consistently with modern fiscal federalism theories, our results show that more fiscally autonomous municipalities exhibit less inefficient behaviours. We also find that the shorter is the distance from new elections, the higher is excess spending, thus giving further support to the traditional “electoral budget cycle” agument. Other political features of governing coalition, such as age and gender of the mayor, do not seem to exert any significant impact on inefficiency levels.Local governments, Fiscal autonomy, Political accountability, Spending efficiency, Parametric and nonparametric frontiers

Total order in opportunistic networks

Opportunistic network applications are usually assumed to work only with unordered immutable messages, like photos, videos, or music files, while applications that depend on ordered or mutable messages, like chat or shared contents editing applications, are ignored. In this paper, we examine how total ordering can be achieved in an opportunistic network. By leveraging on existing dissemination and causal order algorithms, we propose a commutative replicated data type algorithm on the basis of Logoot for achieving total order without using tombstones in opportunistic networks where message delivery is not guaranteed by the routing layer. Our algorithm is designed to use the nature of the opportunistic network to reduce the metadata size compared to the original Logoot, and even to achieve in some cases higher hit rates compared to the dissemination algorithms when no order is enforced. Finally, we present the results of the experiments for the new algorithm by using an opportunistic network emulator, mobility traces, and Wikipedia pages.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures for IDDE and Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping

In April 2003, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s). A total of 45 New Hampshire communities (six fully regulated and 39 partially regulated) became subject to Stormwater Phase II regulations based on their designation as Urbanized Areas according to the 2000 US Census

Recycling bins, garbage cans or think tanks? Three myths regarding policy analysis institutes

The phrase 'think tank' has become ubiquitous – overworked and underspecified – in the political lexicon. It is entrenched in scholarly discussions of public policy as well as in the 'policy wonk' of journalists, lobbyists and spin-doctors. This does not mean that there is an agreed definition of think tank or consensual understanding of their roles and functions. Nevertheless, the majority of organizations with this label undertake policy research of some kind. The idea of think tanks as a research communication 'bridge' presupposes that there are discernible boundaries between (social) science and policy. This paper will investigate some of these boundaries. The frontiers are not only organizational and legal; they also exist in how the 'public interest' is conceived by these bodies and their financiers. Moreover, the social interactions and exchanges involved in 'bridging', themselves muddy the conception of 'boundary', allowing for analysis to go beyond the dualism imposed in seeing science on one side of the bridge, and the state on the other, to address the complex relations between experts and public policy

Evaluation of network coding techniques for a sniper detection application

This paper experimentally studies the reliability and delay of flooding based multicast protocols for a sniper detection application. In particular using an emulator it studies under which conditions protocols based on network coding deliver performance improvements compared to classic flooding. It then presents an implementation of such protocols on mobile phones

Intercolony Comparison of Diets of Western Gulls in Central California

As human populations expand, they force free-ranging animals to adapt to an increasingly urban environment, resulting in changes in diets, reproductive success, and mortality. The diets of two western gull (Larus occidentalis) breeding populations in central California were compared. One colony, Año Nuevo Island (ANI), is 1 km from shore and within 30 km of a municipal landfill. The other colony, Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), is located 45 km off the shore of San Francisco, CA. Given the proximity of ANI to the shore and the landfill, I predicted that gulls from ANI would have more garbage in their diets. Indeed, gulls from ANI consumed over three times more garbage. Twenty-three percent of wet diets from gulls at ANI contained garbage, whereas garbage made up only 6% of wet diets from gulls at SEFI. Despite the appearance of garbage in gull diets, birds from both colonies consumed a range of marine prey, and Clupeiformes, Euphausiacea, and Gadiformes were important to both colonies. Isotopic values (15N and 13C) measured in gull feathers were similar between colonies, suggesting that gulls from both populations consume similar prey from the marine environment during the non-breeding phase. The reliance on stable, easily accessible food from landfills during the breeding season may be an important adaptation for western gulls to cope with urbanization and declines in prey species in the California Current during the energy-intensive chick-rearing perio

Foxes and food subsidies: anthropogenic food use by red and Arctic foxes, and effects on Arctic fox survival, on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2013Food subsidies have the potential to impact wildlife on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes (L., 1758)) expanded their range into Arctic regions during the 20th century, and the availability of anthropogenic foods may have contributed to their success and persistence in the Arctic. Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus (L., 1758)) are also known to forage on anthropogenic foods in Prudhoe Bay and to forage on marine mammals on the sea ice, but it is unknown whether these strategies benefit survival of Arctic foxes. This thesis examined: 1) the importance of anthropogenic foods to the diets of red and Arctic foxes in Prudhoe Bay, and 2) the factors with the greatest effect on Arctic fox survival, including access to food subsidies in Prudhoe Bay and on the sea ice. For the first study, stable isotopes of red and Arctic fox tissues were used to infer late summer, late winter, and lifetime (for red fox only) diets. The contribution of anthropogenic foods to the diets of both species was low in late summer (~10%) but high in late winter (49%, 95% credible interval = 38-57%, of red fox diets and 37%, 95% credible interval = 29-44%, of Arctic fox diets). Estimates of lifetime diet in red foxes revealed high levels of anthropogenic food use, similar to the winter diet. To characterize the extent of competition for food resources, dietary niche overlap was examined between both species by comparing isotopic niche space. Both fox species had little isotopic niche overlap but may have greater overlap between their ecological dietary niches. Availability and consumption of anthropogenic foods by red foxes, particularly in winter, may partially explain their year-round presence in Prudhoe Bay. For the second study, nest survival models and satellite collar data were used to evaluate whether multiple factors affected survival of adult and juvenile foxes. Site and sea ice use had two times more support than the other factors. Three groups of foxes were identified based on capture location and sea ice use, which corresponded to different survival rates: Prudhoe Bay foxes, NPR-A foxes that used sea ice during more than eight 2-week periods during the winter (seven 2-week periods for juveniles), and NPR-A foxes that did not use sea ice. Both adult and juvenile foxes at Prudhoe Bay had modestly higher annual survival rates, 0.50 (90% CI 0.31-0.69) and 0.04 (90% CI 0.0-0.08) respectively, than foxes at NPR-A that did not use sea ice, 0.40 (90% CI 0.18-0.62) and 0.01 (90% CI 0.0-0.04) respectively. NPR-A foxes that used sea ice extensively had the highest survival rates. Food subsidies may have far-reaching effects on red and arctic foxes on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska

Effects of kelp canopy removal on young-of-the-year rockfish abundance, using two census methods

In 1976 an experimental research project was initiated to examine the possible effects of the removal of a giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, canopy in a central California kelp bed on Young-of-the-Year (YOY) fish populations. A total of 7823 fishes was captured and marked using freeze branding. Pre-canopy removal population estimates were made using the Schnabel method and post-canopy removal population estimates were made using the Petersen method (Lincoln Index). A significant (p < .0004) reduction of fish occurred immediately after the canopy was removed and the population remained at a reduced level for at least 60 days. This information warranted the creation of a second expanded project. In 1977 we established three study areas consisting of a kelp bed to be harvested (C), a kelp bed not to be harvested (NC) and a control kelp bed. We captured and marked over 82,000 YOY fish in Areas C and NC. Using the same statistical methods from the 1976 study, a significant reduction was found to occur in fish populations within harvested Area C and unharvested area NC: however, the reductions were not significantly different between the two areas. The large reduction in the fish population in the harvested area occurred when fish moved into the unharvested area. The large, unexpected reduction in fish numbers in the unharvested area (NC) occurred when larger predatory YOY bocaccio moved into the control area (X) as the experimental area (C) was being harvested. The bocaccio removed in excess of 20% of the biomass of YOY blue rockfish, which was composed of resident fish and recently migrated fish from the harvested kelp bed. Predation on YOY blue rockfish was also evident in the harvested area. Population estimates using visible fish transects by divers correlated well with population estimates from the capture/recapture studies in 1976, but correlation was poorer the following year when many more fish were present. (32pp.