Fiscal risks and the quality of fiscal adjustment in Hungary

The government of Hungary has contained the main fiscal risks of the transition to a market economy. It has paid off and resolved most problems in the banking and enterprise sectors. Since 1995 it has implemented fiscal adjustment with the objective of long-term fiscal stability rather than an immediate deficit target. The main result has been pension reform, which has raised temporary deficits but reduced the long-term public liability. Only the health sector awaits the reform needed for long-term fiscal stability. Levels of government spending, budget deficits, and public service remain high, but the government has made great progress toward rationalizing public spending and improving the management of budget and off-budget fiscal risks. In the transition, the government has taken on new fiscal risks--mainly state guarantees and growing programs of credit and guarantee agencies (operating on behalf of the government) organized after privatization to support, first, industries and, later, exporters. The government has dealt with these new programs of contingent government support prudently and transparently, with reasonable ceilings on (and reporting of) risks. Hungary is likely to face pressure for additional spending. Priorities in fiscal policy should include reforming health financing, establishing checks on hidden subsidies in guarantee programs, and determining the government's optimal exposure to risk. In terms of institutions, the government should aim to create a more flexible, responsive budget process and greater capacity to analyze medium-term fiscal risks, to build a more results-oriented budget management system, and to improve mechanisms for sharing risk between the public and private sectors under government programs.Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Banks&Banking Reform,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform,National Governance,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Municipal Financial Management,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring

Explanation of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 -- Public Law 99-177 (The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act)

The report explains briefly the major features of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-177), commonly referred to as the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. Following a short overview of the deficit reduction process, the report outlines the deficit control timetable for each of fiscal years 1987-1991, and the accelerated timetable for fiscal year 1986, describes the procedures for eliminating excess deficits, discusses how to compute the required spending reductions, and summarizes the sequestration of funds for fiscal year 1986. The report also identifies the programs exempted from emergency deficit reduction procedures and those that have special rules for making reductions

Organizational downsizing: Constraining, cloning, learning

While downsizing rages through the U.S. economy, there is a great deal of uncertainty about its bottom-line effects. This uncertainty raises questions about why corporations have been so eager to engage in downsizing. In this article, we propose an answer to these questions. Three social forces, which we call constraining, cloning and learning, frequently provide a major impetus for downsizing. We describe these forces, and point out conditions that lead to the adoption of downsizing without due regard for its mixed consequences. We suggest methods to improve executives\u27 downsizing decision routines ... methods that should enhance the chances of achieving intended benefits

Introduction to the Federal Budget Process

This report provides an overview of the introduction to the federal budget process

97th Congress

Expenditures and revenue limitation proposals link Federal spending and taxation to some measure of economic performance, such as the rate of economic growth or percentage levels of GNP or national income. The report presents this issue brief reviews, the various approaches to balance the budget and to impose spending limitations offered as constitutional amendments’ in the 97 congress

Experimental simulation of gestational changes in the vagina of the mouse

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50244/1/1050730108_ftp.pd

Effects of Diabetes and Insulin on α-amylase Messenger RNA Levels in Rat Parotid Glands

Previous studies have shown that amylase levels are reduced significantly in the pancreas and parotid gland of diabetic rats and that insulin reverses this effect and increases the secretory protein levels. In the pancreas, these changes in amylase protein levels are accompanied by parallel changes in amylase mRNA levels. In the present study, the effects of diabetes and subsequent insulin treatments on contents (per cell) of amylase protein and its mRNA in parotid glands were compared in rats rendered diabetic with an injection of a beta-cell toxin, streptozotocin (STZ). Both amylase protein and its mRNA contents were reduced significantly in diabetic rats, compared with control rats, and this reduction was reversed following insulin injections of diabetic rats. In insulin-injected diabetic rats, amylase protein contents increased before a detectable increase in amylase mRNA levels was seen. The mRNA contents of a non-secretory protein, actin, did not change during diabetogenesis or subsequent insulin treatments. The reductions in parotid contents of amylase and its mRNA in diabetic rats and the reversal of these changes by insulin are similar to those changes that occur in the pancreas under the same conditions. However, the magnitude of these changes in parotid glands was much smaller than in the pancreas, and the effect of insulin on amylase mRNA synthesis was not as immediate as in the latter gland.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67977/2/10.1177_00220345900690081001.pd