Benefit incidence analysis in developing countries

As interesting and difficult as it is to allocate tax burdens to individuals, the profession knows even less about allocating benefits. The authors survey the literature on benefit incidence since DeWulf's (1975) review, focusing on the methodology and results of benefit incidence analysis in developing countries. Research in this area faces all the general-equilibrium difficulties faced by tax incidence analysis as well as the difficult task of measuring benefits from publicly provided goods and services. Despite the inherent pitfalls of this methodology, the authors believe that benefit incidence analysis can provide an important perspective on the budget by combining data on household use with data on project costs. In particular, benefit incidence analyses can help illuminate the distributional impacts of proposed reallocations of government resources among projects. The value of such research is especially high considering the scarcity of recent research in this area. The authors review the existing methodology, survey the available results, and point out areas in which further research might have large payoffs. They also make specific methodological suggestions that might help ensure that future research is as useful for policymakers as possible. For example: Aggregate results based on the zero-government counterfactual rely on strong assumptions about fixed relative prices and incomes, government efficiency, and the relationship between marginal and total benefits. And those studies are often not designed to identify which types of public services benefit the poor. Researchers should focus more on providing benefit incidence studies on specific government functions or programs that can help policymakers reach conclusions about proposed reallocations of resources among government programs. Benefit incidence should be assigned to households based on household survey information on usage rather than on ad hoc assumptions that assign benefits based on income or the number of members in the household. Improved annual cost measures for services need to be developed, particulary for capital inputs. Researchers should group households by deciles and whenever possible should consider other groupings based on household income adjusted for household composition, age, location, and other relevant socioeconomic variables. Careful attention to life-cycle benefits, benefit shifting, rent-seeking, out-of-pocket costs, displacement of private sector efforts, average versus marginal incidence, and several other issues can significantly increase the value of benefit incidence analysis to policymakers.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Poverty Assessment,Health Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform

Oh, You Kid!

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3687/thumbnail.jp

Oh, You Kid!

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3686/thumbnail.jp

Pay-for-Performance Systems in State Government: Perceptions of State Agency Personnel Managers*

Pay for performance has been a widely used method of compensation in the public sector since the early 1980s, but a growing body of research has indicated that numerous problems can be associated with the application of performance-based compensation systems In late 1993, the federal government, after years of difficulty experienced with its merit pay program, took a significant step back from pay for performance through passage of the Performance Management and Recognition System Termination Act This research seeks to determine whether state governments are becoming similarly disenchanted with pay for performance To gain insight into this question, a survey was administered to a nationwide random sample of state agency personnel management executives Results indicate that pay for performance remains as popular as ever in state government, and that nearly all of the systems in the states utilize merit pay despite difficulties often associated with that approach to pay for performance.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Report on a collecting trip of the British Myriapod Group to Hungary in 1994

During a collecting trip participated jointly by the members of the British Myriapod Group and by Hungarian experts in 1994, 34 species of millipedes, 14 of centipedes, 8 of woodlice and 73 of spiders were recorded from Hungary. Two records of the millipede species Boreoiulus tenuis (Bigler, 1913) and Styrioiulus styricus (Verhoeff, 1896) were new to the fauna of Hungary

Cave Winch: When a Looter\u27s Tool Becomes an Artifact

As an archaeologist, it is often difficult to empathize with looters and collectors, but we would like to ask that you put aside any pre-conceived notions of judgment as we consider the question: when does a looter’s tool become an artifact? For the two of us, this particular dialogue began in the summer of 2013 on an excavation at Sierra Diablo Cave in western Texas. In that cave was a winch that we assume was constructed on or near the site as a tool for excavating deposits near the rear of the cave

Rose of Italy

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6135/thumbnail.jp

Processing Matters: 3D Mesh Morphology

Substantive advancements have been made toward automating the application of landmarks and semilandmarks. These approaches can aid in expediting the landmarking process, while simultaneously reducing landmarking errors and investigator bias. This study enlists a template-based approach to quantify deviations in mesh processing outputs using a Pontchartrain dart point from the collections of the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas, which was scanned and processed at multiple resolutions using microCT and laser scanners. Following data collection and output, meshes were processed using an automated and replicable workflow. A batch processing protocol was developed in Geomagic Design X and Control X to facilitate exploratory comparisons of the processed meshes, which indicated that the greatest changes to the meshes occurred along the lateral margins of the dart point. Results of the geometric morphometric study evince implications for processed meshes curated in digital repositories. Investigators that endeavour to incorporate curated meshes should begin with the unprocessed data, enlist uniform processing protocols across the sample, and comprehend the many vagaries of 3D data collection and processing across different modalities

Lithic Morphological Organization: Gahagan Bifaces from Texas and Louisiana

This study is focused upon an analysis of Gahagan biface morphology and enlists the three largest samples of these bifaces, to include that of the type site (Gahagan Mound) as well as the Mounds Plantation and George C. Davis sites. Results indicate a significant difference in Gahagan biface morphology at the Mounds Plantation site when compared with Gahagan bifaces from the Gahagan Mound and George C. Davis sites. A test of morphological integration indicates that the bifaces are significantly integrated, meaning that those traits used to characterize their shape (blade and base) vary in a coordinated manner. Tests for allometry and asymmetry were not significant. Results confirm that Gahagan biface production at Mounds Plantation differs significantly when compared with industries at Gahagan Mound and George C. Davis. Results augment previous inquiries, and provide additional evidence for a north-south divide based upon the morphology associated with communities of practice for Gahagan bifaces. When viewed in concert with similar shifts in Hickory Fine Engraved and Smithport Plain bottle morphology, multiple lines of evidence lend support to an increasingly robust argument for two previously unrecognized and morphologically-unique Caddo communities of practice

Toward a Morphometric Phylogeny of Caddo Ceramics: A Test of 3D Geometric Morphometrics

In this poster we use 3D geometric morphometrics as an exploratory tool for examining diversity in vessel form (or shape) among 27 whole or reconstructed Caddo vessels from the Vanderpool site in Smith County, Texas. Forty-one landmarks from each vessel were exported to version 2.5 of Morphologika for generalized Procrustes analysis and principal components analysis and were then exported to R for cluster analysis (depending on sample size). Despite the small sample size, results indicate that 3D geometric morphometric analysis is an avenue of ceramic research where substantive analytical gains can be realized