Strengths And Weaknesses Of The New Public Management (NPM)- Cross-Sectional And Longitudinal Analysis

The paradigm of NPM, like its forerunners, has been trying to answer the same question for almost twenty years: how to implement policies, strategies, programs and projects, using the market-type mechanisms, so that the institutions of the state could achieve the desired results. The praises and criticism that have accompanied this paradigm along its evolution are fully justified. Indeed, the NPM has strengths and weaknesses as well, and one purpose of this paper is to identify them and to find answers to the following questions. Which components of the mechanism named NPM generate negative results? Why? What can be done? It is not easy to answer these questions, taking into consideration the multitude of factors influencing the public management, and especially the tremendous impacts of the accelerated process of globalization. The global problems of nowadays make any unilateral action of a government unconceivable, and this brings us to the concept of global public management (GPM). Nevertheless, the way forward will be the subject of another paper. The paper is structured in two main sections, as follows: The first section provides a conceptual framework, examining the multifaceted structure of the NPM and its mechanisms (the “state-of-the-art” of the “art of the state”). The second section suggests a theoretical framework on “measuring” the aggregate attribute of the NPM – the QoG – illustrated by practical cases, in a twofold perspective: longitudinal (variation in time) and cross-sectional (variation among countries).New Public Management, Global Public Management, Governance, New Institutional Economics, Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Corruption Perceptions Index, e-Government Index, Global Competitiveness Index, Human Development Index, Index of Freedom in the World, Transition Indicators, Worldwide Governance Indicators

INTERRELATIONS BETWEEN ECONOMIC FREEDOM, KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY AND GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS – COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ROMANIA AND EU AVERAGE

Economic Freedom, Knowledge Economy and Global Competitiveness are three of the many and very different dimensions which characterize the level of a country’s performance. This paper tries to present these three important directions, the specific indicators that measure them – IEF, KEI, GCI – and the relationship between them. Also, it will try to demonstrate that countries with free economy can turn into knowledge and competitive economies. Furthermore, it will make a comparative analysis of Romania with the EU countries’ average in order to identify for Romania which pillar’s scores it has to improve.economic freedom, knowledge economy, global competitiveness, Romania, European Union

The Chinese position as a global player in international comparison with the WTO members: Efficiency analysis and 4IR

During the last quarter-century, globalisation processes affected changes in the world economy in the form of intensifying competition in the international and internal markets. The result is the creation of a global marketplace that is mostly indifferent to national borders and governmental influences. This development has generated widespread interest in competitiveness. Competitiveness affects international relations, especially nowadays, given the changing position of the global leaders and the growth of new economic powers such as China. China has come a long way and has the opportunity to be a global leader in several required fields that will be the cornerstones of global growth in the next decades. Led by China, emerging economies are increasing their share in the worldwide economy and intensifying competition in nearly all sectors. It creates new threats and challenges for players in the global economy, and growing competitiveness must be efficient. The article evaluates the Chinese competitiveness in comparison with the World Trade Organization members by the Data Envelopment Analysis in the pre-in-post crisis period and considering the Fourth Industrial Revolution shifting humanity into a new phase.Web of Science6148

Internal and external factors of competitiveness in the middle-income countries

The diverse group of middle-income countries (MIC) is composed by some economies with an active behavior in exports of technology-intensive goods that is strictly better than the group average. One of the factors explaining such a result is the improvement of their national technological capabilities that affects the dynamism of their productive and trade structure generating competitiveness gains. There are grounded reasons to think that this is also a consequence of external effects and the potential impacts that both trade and foreign direct investments (FDI) flows generate in those economies where foreign companies have contributed to the industrialization and modernization of their productive systems. In this paper, we analyze the possibilities of integration of the MIC economies into the dynamic high-tech markets as the interplay between the role of FDI and their ability for the absorption and creation of technology. We will observe based upon empirical analysis with panel data (1998-2005), what is the relative importance of internal and external factors for the improvement of the international competitiveness in these developing economies.competitiveness, FDI, high-tech, middle income countries, competitividad, IDE, alta tecnología, países de renta media

Sustaining Investment in Innovation in Oil Rich Gulf Countries Amidst Falling Oil Prices

Oil rich Gulf Countries have identified all forms of sustainability as key drivers of innovation. Therefore innovating for sustainability is critical for an economy’s political legitimacy, socio-economic reputation, and ecological performance. Sustaining investment in innovation requires an understanding of returns or payoffs accruing to an investment in innovation. Sustainable development is fraught with challenges particularly when an economy’s growth is linked to a single resource. Research and development together with productivity growth rates have become innovation indicators and continue to raise questions about their interpretation and implication. In resource-laden rich countries the challenge is further exacerbated by inflows accruing from benevolent government subsidies. This empirical study reviews the variables for policy formulation associated with innovation in the six resource-rich oil countries of the Gulf and considers its determinants. Negative relationships between resource abundance and poor economic performance have often been empirically established, providing support for the “resource curse” hypothesis. The culture of governance, norms, and values that pervade oil-rich countries become key determinants of their economic success. The primary purpose of this study is to determine the factors associated with sustainable innovation in the Gulf and to address the concerns related to the governance of resources that necessitate further innovation

Global Risks 2014, Ninth Edition.

The Global Risks 2014 report highlights how global risks are not only interconnected but also have systemic impacts. To manage global risks effectively and build resilience to their impacts, better efforts are needed to understand, measure and foresee the evolution of interdependencies between risks, supplementing traditional risk-management tools with new concepts designed for uncertain environments. If global risks are not effectively addressed, their social, economic and political fallouts could be far-reaching, as exemplified by the continuing impacts of the financial crisis of 2007-2008

Developing Countries in the New Economy: The Role of Demand-side Initiatives

ICT, developing countries

An International Perspective on the Determinants of Local Government Fragmentation

Subnational government fragmentation, associated with the small size of jurisdictions to take advantage of economies of scale in service delivery, is a commonly perceived problem in many decentralized systems around the globe. In this paper we use a large cross-section of countries to analyze the determinants of jurisdictional fragmentation along two dimensions: the number of tiers of government and the number and average size of all subnational government units. The main questions addressed in this paper are the identification of the main determinants of jurisdictional fragmentation as presently observed across countries and how well those findings line up with the predictions of the expanded standard model of optimal jurisdiction size. To our knowledge, to date, there does not exit a rigorous study analyzing the cross-country determinants of fragmentation in the way this issue has been previously analyzed for some particular countries. In our empirical analysis we find that the vertical structure of government—the number of tiers of government—is mostly related to “size” variables and not to other institutional or preference-related aspects. One main additional finding from our analysis is that, in line with the predictions of our theoretical framework, preferences for political accountability lead to smaller jurisdictional size and a larger number of governments. We also find strong evidence that a higher number of tiers of government leads to overall higher jurisdictional fragmentation

Assessing Canada's Ability to Compete for Foreign Direct Investment

The main purpose of this report is to assess Canada’s performance in attracting foreign direct investment inflows. The study reviews the literature on the benefits of FDI, analyses global and Canadian trends in FDI, identifies various factors affecting the inflow of FDI, and details how Canada ranks relative to other major OECD countries on the most influential factors. Canada’s share of world FDI has fallen markedly since 1980. The report finds that this development reflects the opening of other countries to FDI rather than a hostile climate for FDI in this country. Indeed, there is no one factor that can be identified as seriously impeding the flow of FDI to Canada. The report identifies a number of areas where Canada can potentially improve its attractiveness to FDI, including possible changes to FDI regulation, a more competitive tax regime, better infrastructure, and certain improvements in the human capital area.Foreign Direct Investment, Business climate, taxation, infrastructure, human capital