Translating tDCS into the field of obesity: mechanism-driven approaches

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is emerging as a promising technique for neuromodulation in a variety of clinical conditions. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that modifying the activity of brain circuits involved in eating behavior could provide therapeutic benefits in obesity. One session of tDCS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex can induce an acute decrease in food craving, according to three small clinical trials, but the extension of these findings into the field of obesity remains unexplored. Importantly, there has been little/no interaction of our current understanding of tDCS and its mechanisms with obesity-related research. How can we start closing this gap and rationally guide the translation of tDCS into the field of obesity? In this mini-review I summarize some of the challenges and questions ahead, related to basic science and technical aspects, and suggest future directions

Visibility of Public Budget Burdens and Benefits in New European Union Member Countries

The size and pattern of any public budget depend, among other factors, on the visibility of both the burdens and benefits of public revenue and expenditure. Furthermore, such visibility is a necessary - not a sufficient - condition for an efficient allocation of resources between the private and public sectors of an economy. The aim of this contribution, based on a recent research, is to apply fiscal visibility indicators to territorial government levels of new European Union member countries by using data and new qualitative information provided by the International Monetary Fund to draw relevant policy conclusions. Results obtained are particularly important for present and future European Union member countries aiming to make their respective fiscal systems converge for a better integration process, since significant allocation improvements can be obtained by implementing economic policy changes (public accounting systems, tax systems, public deficit management techniques...) in the new European Union member countries to raise both multiplicative and additive visibility values of public budget burdens and benefits and to bring them near to their optimal values. The proposed methodology, applied to former and new European Union member countries, can also be extended to other OECD economies to check whether the European Union pattern is shared by all developed countries and to design future general economic policies.

A New Methodology for Fiscal Visibility of Territorial Government Levels

The size and pattern of any public budget depend, among other factors, on the visibility of both the burdens and benefits of public revenue and expenditure. Furthermore, such visibility is a necessary - not a sufficient - condition for an efficient allocation of resources between the private and public sectors of an economy. Although the importance of this visibility has been well known by academicians and practitioners for a long time, attemps to quantify it by taking the internal structure of every type of revenue or expenditure and its relative financial weight in a fiscal system into consideration are recent, and indicators used till now rest on several structural parameters, each of them ranging from 0 to 1, which are combined in a multiplicative way. For this reason, a 0 estimate will always result if one of such factors is, at least, also 0. Starting from the same parameters, factors, and initial values, an alternative and probably more fruitful way to measure visibility of burdens and benefits of a public budget can consist of combining them in an additive instead of a multiplicative way. Then a null parametric value will not result in a 0 estimate, and calculations can show higher final values which could be much more sensitive to the initial values of other parameters and factors. The aim of this contribution, based on a recent research, is to present and compare new additive indicators to be applied to the several - local, intermediate, central - territorial government levels in the European Union and OECD member countries by using data and qualitative information provided by the International Monetary Fund. Comparisons, conclusions, and comments are offered for general criticism and discussion.

Alternative fiscal visibility estimates for some OECD countries with three levels of territorial government levels

The size and pattern of any public budget depend, among other factors, on the visibility of both the burdens and benefits of public revenue and expenditure. Furthermore, such visibility is a necessary - not a sufficient - condition for an efficient allocation of resources between the private and public sector of an economy. Although the importance of this visibility has been well known by academicians and practitioners for a long time, attempts to quantify it by taking the internal structure of every type of revenue or expenditure and its relative financial weight in a fiscal system into consideration are recent, and indicators used till now rest on several structural parameters, each of them conventionally ranging from 0 to 1, which are combined in a multiplicative way. For this reason, a 0 estimate will always result as one of such factors is, at least, also 0. Starting from the same parameters, factors, and initial values, an alternative and probably more fruitful way to measure visibility of burdens and benefits of a public budget can consist of combining them in an additive instead of multiplicative way. Then a null parametric value will not result in a 0 estimate, and calculations can show higher final values which could be much more sensitive to the initial values of other parameters and factors. The aim of this contribution, based on a recent research, is to present and compare new additive indicators applied to local, intermediate, and central territorial government levels in Austria, Canada, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and USA by using data and qualitative information provided by the International Monetary Fund. Comparisons, conclusions, and comments are offered for general criticism, discussion, and development.

Fiscal Visibility in Spain: Two Types of Estimates.

The size and pattern of any public budget depend, among other factors, on the visibility of both the burdens and the benefits of public revenue and public expenditure. Furthermore, such visibility is a necessary - not a sufficient - condition for an efficient allocation of resources between the private and public sectors of an economy. The aim of this contribution, based on a recent research, is to simultaneously present additive and arithmetic indicators for local, intermediate and central territorial government levels and to initially apply them to Spain by using data and information provided by the International Monetary Fund. Conclusions and comments are offered for general criticism, discussion, theoretical development and future application to other OECD countries.

Elements for an economic assessment of intermediate territorial levels of government in European countries

Intermediate territorial levels of government in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Spain are quite different regarding their basic institutions, devolved powers, revenue and public expenditure systems, public revenue equalization mechanisms, accountability, public performance management, financial control bodies, etc. In spite of the complexity derived from these different characteristics, the economic operation of such intermediate territorial levels of government can be analyzed, evaluated and compared from both the efficiency and equity viewpoints. >From the theory of fiscal federalism and the analysis and comparisons of the institutional and organization aspects, constitutions and basic laws, budgets, public accounts, etc. of such countries, and taking the European Union integration process into account - with present and future repercussions on powers of central and sub-central territorial levels of government of member countries -, this paper aims: first, to identify the main inefficiency and equity problems posed by each of the different sub-systems for financing the intermediate territorial levels of territorial government in these four countries; second, to present some criteria and useful indicators for assessing the economic operation of such levels of government in a simple, significant and standardized way; third, to advance estimates concerning some economic indicators; fourth, to draw up some conclusions for improving economic efficiency in the allocation of public resources among levels of government and inter-territorial equity. The methodology, solutions and reforms proposed are of general interest for other European countries planning to create or develop their own intermediate territorial levels of government. Keywords: fiscal federalism, intermediate governments.

Visibility of Burdens and Benefits of Public Revenue and Expenditure in OECD Countries with Two and Three Levels of Territorial Government

The size and pattern of any public budget depend, among other factors, on the visibility of both the burdens and benefits of public revenue and expenditure. Furthermore, such visibility is a necessary - not a sufficient - condition for an efficient allocation of resources between the private and public sectors of an economy. Although the importance of this visibility has been well known by academicians and practitioners for a long time, attempts to quantify it by taking the internal structure of every type of revenue and expenditure and its relative financial weight in a fiscal system into consideration are recent, and indicators used till now rest on several structural parameters, each of them ranging from to 1, which are combined in a multiplicative way. For this reason a estimate has always resulted as anyone of such factors was also 0. Starting from the same parameters, factors, and initial values, an alternative and more fruitful way to measure visibility of burdens and benefits of a public budget can consist of combining them in an additive instead of a multiplicative way. Then a null parametric value does not result in a estimate, and calculations can show higher final values which could be much more sensitive to the initial values of other parameters and factors. After six years of research in the scientific speciality of Fiscal Federalism, the aim of this contribution is to present, for the first time, new additive indicators applied to local, intermediate, and central territorial government levels in Austria, Canada, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and USA, and to compare them with estimates for the local and central territorial government levels in the remaining OECD countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Island, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom), by using data and essential information provided by the International Monetary Fund. The concurrence of several factors (such as non-coerciveness, non-existence of specific requitals, lack of information on concepts and quantities, partial shifting of burden by tax-payers, intergovernmental grants, etc.) explain why burden visibility values are still lower than 100.00. On the other hand, burden visibility values for the consolidated central government are higher than those estimated for the intermediate and local levels of same countries, mainly owing to significant grants received by the subcentral public administrations from central public administrations. Policy implications of these new estimates are straightforward for OECD countries: as both present revenue and benefit visibility are not near to 100.00 en general, allocation improvements could be obtained by implementing changes and reforms to raise values in general and by approaching these two types of budget visibility to such an optimal value. Other general and significant conclusions are offered for re-organization of territorial levels of governmnent in every country, devolution of powers, accountability, and optimization of sizes and patterns of public budgets.