The effect of sub-national borrowing control on fiscal sustainability: how to regulate?

This article examines effectiveness of sub-national borrowing control regimes in maintaining overall fiscal sustainability. The results suggest that regulating sub-national borrowing based on fiscal rules performs most efficiently in maintaining fiscal consolidation. Furthermore, sole reliance on financial markets seems to lead to faster end of fiscal consolidation episodes, which may be explained by not fully developed financial markets in many countries that dominantly apply this approach, Finally, strong central government control, as in case of administrative and cooperative regimes, in presence of high fiscal dependence on central government financing seem to increase the probability of ending consolidation episodes

Performing Statehood in Northern Kosovo : Discursive Struggle over Contested Space

Since Serbia and Kosovo began their political and technical dialogue mediated by the European Union in 2011, numerous agreements were signed, but few of them implemented. In addition, since 2018 the idea of partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines has entered public debates. This article asks why that is the case and argues that Northern Kosovo - specifically, who has the right to claim statehood over this area - lies at the heart of why partition was suggested as a viable option and why so few agreements have been implemented. In order to demonstrate this, the article adopts a performative view of statehood, particularly suitable for states 'in-becoming', such as Kosovo. As only externally performed statehood has been examined so far, that is, efforts for international recognition, this article extends performativity to internally negotiated statehood, against the background of two political systems competing for legitimacy in the long run. This is the case with Northern Kosovo, conceptualized as an area of overlapping limited statehood. The developed analytical framework can be extended to other cases of territorial disputes, such as Crimea or Palestine. The framework can also be expanded to explore performativity of statehood in areas where statehood is not institutionally disputed, but rather symbolically.Peer reviewe

Sub-National Borrowing, Is It Really a Danger?

Due to widespread decentralization of spending responsibilities, increasing revenue power and borrowing capacity of sub-national governments, sub-national borrowing has become an increasingly important source of sub-national finance. While there are arguments for and against giving sub-national authorities room for raising their own financial resources, appropriate sub-national borrowing regulatory framework can reduce chances of defaults and fiscal crises. This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of sub-national borrowing regulations in maintaining fiscal sustainability. More precisely, it tests the hypothesis that is sub-national borrowing is restricted to financing capital investments (the “golden rule”), and if the sub-national governments are provided with some measure of revenue autonomy, then the sub-national borrowing should not endanger fiscal sustainability. Based on the sub-national government panel data for 57 countries between 1990 and 2008 and applying the system GMM estimator and the survival analysis, this dissertation provides support for this hypothesis. The results suggest that the “golden rule” is effective in maintaining fiscal sustainability at both general and sub-national government level. Sub-national tax autonomy, however, seems to have positive but very small marginal effect on fiscal sustainability. The obtained results also emphasize the risk of the soft budget constraint and the moral hazard. Significant central government financing may give encouraging signs to the sub-national governments to over-borrow and to expect being bailed out by the central government. The results obtained in this dissertation imply following policy recommendations. First, sub-national government borrowing does not have to endanger fiscal sustainability if the borrowing regulation framework is well designed and according to specific country circumstances. Second, reducing fiscal dependence on central government financing reduces the risk of moral hazard and improves the effectiveness of borrowing control in maintaining fiscal balance at the sustainable level

Evaluation of the patients with Grave's ophthalmopathy after the corticosteroids treatment

Background/Aim. Graves' ophthalmopthy is one of the most common causes of exophthalmos as well as the most common manifestation of Graves' disease. The treatment of Graves' ophthalmopathy includes ophthalmological and endocrinological therapy. The aim of this study was to clinically evaluate the patients with Graves' ophthalmopathy treated with corticosteroids. Methods. Evaluation of 21 patients was performed in the Ophthalmology Clinic and Endocrinology Clinic, Clinical Centre Kragujevac, in the period from 2009 to 2010. They were treated with pulse doses of intravenous corticosteroids. They were referred to ophthalmologist by endocrinologist in euthyroid condition in the active phase of Graves' ophthalmopathy (ultrasonography of orbit findings and positive findings of antithyroid stimulating hormone receptor antibody - anti-TSH R Ab). The clinical activity score (CAS) and NO SPECS classification for evaluation of disease severity were used. Ophthalmological examination includes: best corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp exam, Hertels' test, direct ophthalmoscopy and ultrasonography of the orbit. Results. According to our results 76.19% of the patients were female; mean age of the patients was 35.2 ± 5.6 years. According to CAS classification after 6 months of the treatment recovery was shown in 23.81% of the patients, partial amelioration in 47.62% and no clinical amelioration in 28.57% of the patients. We achieved better results with male, young patients with high clinical activity score. Good results were observed after the first dose of corticosteroids, much better CAS after the third dose, which maintained until 6 months after the first treatment. Conclusion. Our results signify that intravenous pulse dose of corticosteroids treatment of the patients with Graves' ophthalmopthy is safe, comfortable, clinically justified and accessible for the clinicians and patients. Positive results are achieved after the first dose with increasing trend up to the third dose, which was maintained for the next three months

Government Fiscal Policies and Redistribution in Asian Countries

This paper assesses the impact of government fiscal policies on income inequality in Asia. It discusses the role and effectiveness of redistributive fiscal policies and quantifies the effects of taxation and government expenditure on income distributions. Panel estimation for 150 countries with data between 1970 and 2009 confirms international empirical findings for Asia. Tax systems tend to be progressive but government expenditures are a more effective tool for redistributing income. Moreover, the results suggest some distinctive differential distributive effect for government expenditure on social protection in Asia. Social protection spending appears to increase income inequality, whereas it reduces it in the rest of the world. Also, adversely affecting the distribution of income in Asia is government expenditure on housing. Some options for improving the effectiveness of fiscal policies in Asia are discussed. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.

Measuring tax effort: Does the estimation approach matter and should effort be linked to expenditure goals?

In this paper we attempt to take a fresh look at the classical question of the determinants of tax effort. Our goal is to better understand the fundamental economic logic of the different approaches that have been used in the previous literature, consider alternative measurements which may provide a more direct intuition of what the concept of tax effort attempts to measure, and to compare quantitatively the rankings of tax effort produced by all these different approaches. As we see it, the fundamental issue is how to move forward toward a definition of tax effort that has a higher relevance to the developmental needs and budgetary ambitions of a country and as an indicator of potential tax reform needs. Fundamentally, all tax effort indicators are calculated by comparing actual collection performance against a measure of potential collections. This definitional choice lays out several dimensions for the conduct of tax policy in a country. These include the need for reform to raise revenues with reference to some potential, the desirable timing and urgency of those reforms, and the extent of the gains in national welfare that are achievable with these reforms. While the first two dimensions have been examined in different ways in the previous literature, in this paper, for the first time in this literature, we will examine how much the two different approaches to estimation of tax effort matter as compared to those conventionally used. In addition, and also for the first time in this literature, in this paper we argue for the need to explicitly link the adequacy of tax effort with the specific expenditure goals of government and their associated gains in national welfare

PRIMARY OPEN-ANGLE GLAUCOMA AND FARMACOECONOMICS - REVIEW

Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is defined as a chronic and progressive disease. Date suggested that it is the second most common cause of the blindness in the world. Blindness, as global problem, is partially consequences of poor health insurance, low medical education, etc. The only modifiable risk factor for glaucoma is intraocular pressure. Cost of the antiglaucomatous treatment increased by prescribing and using wide spectrum of antiglaucomatous drugs. If an ophthalmologist is not satisfied with glaucomatous disease control, need for the laser or surgical treatment is appeared. Disease stadium also determines the cost of the treatment. The social and economic burden of glaucoma can be changed by increased life expectancy, older population age and higher per capita GDP. Unique opinion about cost effectiveness cannot be reached, due to nonconforming findings of many studies. Treatment approach must be individualized to every patient, according to the disease's stadium, availability of therapeutic modalities and approaches, life expectancy and the level of GDP. Efficacy, compliance and potential side-effects of prescribed medication also determine the proper treatment choice

Losing and Gaining Kosovo : How the Serbian Government Re-articulated its Claim to Kosovo within the Brussels Dialogue (2012–2018)

This thesis examines Serbia’s changing approach to dealing with the Kosovo question since 2012. The claim of Serbia that Kosovo is an indivisible part of its territory has been anchored in the institutional framework of the country ever since the Kosovo war (1998-1999). Serbia’s attachment to Kosovo is not only an institutional matter, but is also woven into the cultural fabric of the Serbian political collective. It resonates with the Kosovo myth, the main element of which is the physical and symbolic claim to Kosovo. Since Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, countering Serbia’s claim to Kosovo, the Serbian Government has struggled to accommodate this state of affairs with its EU integration process guided by the incentive of the Brussels dialogue for normalizing relations between the two entities. I study the Brussels dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo as a dynamic process of contestation of meaning. It is conceptualized as a contact zone that both enables and constrains the re-articulations of the constitutive Other, either as an enemy (through antagonism) or as an adversary (through agonism). The thesis particularly inquires how the Serbian Government led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) since 2012 has re-articulated Kosovo within the Brussels dialogue. It locates two central moments in this process: adopting the Brussels agreement in 2013, and re-introducing the idea of partitioning Kosovo along ethnic lines as a solution to the Kosovo-Serbia dispute in 2018, both of which are understood as myths. The theoretical and methodological contribution of the thesis lies in the re-conceptualization of “myth”. While existing studies of myth in the context of Kosovo-Serbia relations have been focusing on the Kosovo myth, this thesis considers the Kosovo myth as a sedimented discourse, guided by a discourse theoretical lens. This discourse has turned into a social imaginary in Serbia, a horizon of meaning that defines and constrains what is said, felt, and otherwise practiced concerning Kosovo. The social imaginary structures the “Kosovo is Serbia” discourse based on Serbia’s physical and symbolic claim to Kosovo, which is deeply rooted in the political and cultural life in Serbia. In 2018, it was re-articulated into the idea of partition for Serbia to retain its claim to Kosovo. Making a claim to only a portion of the territory, Northern Kosovo, the partition leaves outside of contestation the “mythologically” laden central and Southern Kosovo where the sites that embody the Kosovo myth, the Serbian medieval monasteries, are located. A deconstructive reading of the Kosovo myth developed in this thesis reveals that the main discursive element that connects the Kosovo myth, the Kosovo social imaginary, and the idea of partition is territoriality. The thesis argues for a distinction between an ontological and empirical dimension of myths. As an ontological concept, myth specifically relates to an attempt to repair a dislocated discourse and potentially embodies an alternative political project that promises to fix what is broken. As such, myths do not only relate to past events, such as most of the scholarship on national myths would conceptualize it, but also to anchoring future but not yet realized political projects. Hence, the category of myth in this thesis is reserved for the Brussels agreement, and the idea of partition, since both emerged from dislocations as means to repair them. Developing a novel approach, the thesis highlights specifically temporal, material and affective dimensions of myth for discourse-theoretically inspired scholarly discussions to stress the necessity of myths for meaning-making. Myths are generated whenever we attempt to escape the constraints of a dislocated discourse by imagining alternative orders. Empirically, the thesis examines how the “Kosovo is Serbia” discourse becomes dislocated through Kosovo’s declaration of independence and is “repaired” by the two myths that resulted from the Brussels dialogue. Hence, this thesis also makes an empirical contribution to the field of Southeast European studies, by introducing a discourse-theoretical, performative/material, and affective dimension in mythmaking. Apart from operationalizing the elaborate theoretical framework I developed, the empirical aim of the thesis was to demonstrate that even the most entrenched discourses, such as the “Kosovo is Serbia” discourse, are not resistant to change under the right circumstances. In the empirical analysis, the thesis focuses on the various representations of Kosovo in Serbian political discourse and draws attention to the re-articulation of political frontiers. It argues that the main transformation relates to the question of who constitutes the political “us” and “them”, recognizing a clear shift from the agonistic discourse in 2013 (which emphasizes the “sharing” of Kosovo with Kosovo Albanians) to an antagonistic discourse in 2018 (which emphasizes a total separation between the two ethnic groups as the only solution). In this analysis, two central nodal points emerge: “territory” and “the people”. The thesis demonstrates how these elements have been reconstituted over time and how this process enabled the deepening of the divide between Serbia and Kosovo, which could have implications for the Brussels dialogue and for Serbia-Kosovo relations more broadly..Väitöskirja tutkii Serbian muuttuvaa suhtautumista Kosovon kysymykseen vuoden 2012 jälkeen. Väite Kosovosta erottamattomana osana Serbiaa on kiinnittynyt maan institutionaaliseen kehykseen Kosovon sodan (1998-99) loppumisesta alkaen. Kiinnittyminen Kosovoon on kudottu Serbian poliittisen yhteisön kulttuuriin, jossa Kosovon myytti – konkreettinen ja symbolinen vaatimus Kosovosta – on keskeinen. Kosovon itsenäisyysjulistuksen (2008) jälkeen Serbian hallitus on kamppaillut tilanteen suhteen EU-integraatioprosessissa, jonka johtolankana on Brysselin dialogin kautta Serbian ja Kosovon suhteiden normalisoiminen. Väitöskirja tutkii kuinka Serbian Progressiivisen Puolueen (SNS) vuodesta 2012 johtama Serbian hallitus on uudelleenartikuloinut Kosovon Brysselin dialogissa ja kuinka se on onnistunut nostamaan dialogin ”poliittiselle” tasolle. Se tunnistaa kaksi tärkeää hetkeä: Brysselin sopimuksen solmimisessa vuonna 2013 ja Kosovon etnisen jaon ajatuksen nostamisessa uudelleen ratkaisuksi vuonna 2018. Diskurssiteoreettisesta näkökulmasta nämä näyttäytyivät myyteiksi, joilla pyrittiin kiinnittämään siirtynyt diskurssi. Sen sijaan laajasti tutkittua Kosovon myyttiä on väitöskirjassa tutkittu sedimentoituneena diskurssina, joka on muodostunut Serbiassa yhteiskunnalliseksi (tai sosiaaliseksi) imaginaariksi. Tämä merkityshorisontti määrittää ja rajaa, kuinka politiikkaa Kosovon suhteen voidaan tehdä Serbiassa. Laclaulaisen diskurssiteorian avulla voi tunnistaa seuraavan merkityksenannon prosessin: yhteiskunnallinen imaginaari antaa rakenteen ”Kosovo on Serbia”-diskurssille, joka kattaa konkreettiset ja symboliset vaatimukset Kosovosta. Jakamisessa Serbia ei näin kokonaan luopuisi Kosovo-vaatimuksestaan vaan vaatimus uudelleenmääritellään käsittämään vain osan alueesta, Pohjois-Kosovon, jättäen kiistan ulkopuolelle myyttisesti ladatun keski-Kosovon, jossa Kosovo-myyttiä ruumiillistavat Serbian keskiaikaiset luostarit sijaitsevat. Väitöskirjassa myyttiä käsitellään ontologisena ja empiirisenä käsitteenä. Myytti toimii siirtymän eli dislokaation yhteennivomisen apuna kriisihetkinä ja fantasioiden kannattelemien poliittisten projektien taustavoimana järjestyksen uudelleenkiinnittämisessä. Myytit eivät ainoastaan viittaa menneisiin tapahtumiin kuten suurin osa kansallisten myyttien tutkijoista sen hahmottaisi, vaan myös tulevien ei vielä toteutuneiden poliittisien projektien ankkurina. Nojautuen erityisesti laclaulaiseen diskurssiteoriaan, diskursiiviseen materiaalisuuteen, psykoanalyysiin ja affektiiviseen kulttuuriteoriaan väitöskirja tuo mukaan erityisesti ajallisen, materiaalisen ja affektiivisen ulottuvuuden myytistä. Tutkimus tarkastelee, kuinka ”Kosovo on Serbia”-diskurssi koki siirtymän Kosovon itsenäisyysjulistuksen kautta ja sitä kiinnitti kaksi myyttiä, jotka olivat syntyneet Brysselin dialogista: vuoden 2014 Brysselin sopimus ja idea osittamisesta vuonna 2018. Analyysi näyttää, kuinka keskeiset kiinnekohdat alue ja kansa on uudelleentuotettu eri aikoina tuottaen siirtymän agonismista vahvemmin konflitkihakuiseen antagonismiin Serbian suhteessa Kosovoon. Väitöskirja tuo panoksen Kaakkois-Euroopan tutkimukseen, erityisesti Serbiaan ja Kosovoon mutta synnyttää myös teoreettisen kontribuution nostamalla uudelleen esiin diskurssiteoreettisen myytin käsitteen dialogissa psykoanalyyttisen ajattelun kanssa