U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform

The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform was created by Congress to assess U.S. immigration policy and make recommendations regarding its implementation and effects. Mandated in the Immigration Act of 1990 to submit an interim report in 1994 and a final report in 1997, the Commission has undertaken public hearings, fact-finding missions, and expert consultations to identify the major immigration-related issues facing the United States today.LBJ School of Public Affair

Focusing on the future: a summary and critique of the 2013 retirement income report

Every three years, under the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income is required to conduct a review of retirement incomes, to be submitted to the government. This article presents a summary and discussion of their 2013 report, entitled Focusing on the Future. The commission is funded by the government, but operates and comments as an independent organisation. However, the terms for the triennial review are determined by agreement between the government of the day and the commission. Between reviews the commission’s work focuses on improving New Zealanders’ financial literacy, ensuring that there is free and independent financial information available, and monitoring retirement villages legislation, with the overall objective of improving the financial well-being of New Zealanders throughout their lifetimes. • Robert Stephens is a Senior Associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies. He was formerly Associate Professor in Public Policy at Victoria University. His research has been largely in the areas of social and public policy and tax reform

Ecology, Environment and Sustainable Development in Indian Fiscal Federalism

This paper argues that the incorporation of new references in the Thirteenth Finance Commission mandate relating to ecology, environment and climate change and quality of public expenditure pose new challenges. The challenges arise because the operationalization of these items require various reforms-legal, administrative, costing, valuation, institutional, and monitoring which require political will as well as reorientation in public expenditure management techniques. In this regard, there is a need for the Commission to look at the issues in a holistic manner, integrate environment considerations in public policy making and initiate ecological fiscal reforms, thereby achieving the sustainable development. The paper also suggests that for sustainable management of shared environmental resources like river basin, forest etc. the regional governance structures need to be established. The Commission should provide financial incentives for regional cooperation. This paper also reviews the UNs environmental policy and Indias pollution prevention and control policy and discusses various ecotaxes on polluting inputs and outputs and provides rationale for such taxes.Environment, sustainable development, Federalism

What role for public goods in the future of CAP?

The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy continues to evolve. The public debate about its future post 2013 was launched in April 2010 and a formal Commission Communication on the future of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) was published in November 2010 (European Commission, 2010). The Commission’s detailed legislative proposals are now expected in October 2011. We focus here on one of the most important parts of the debate – public goods and the ‘greening of the CAP’. A major rationale for the large sums spent under the CAP each year appears now to be centred on the provision of public goods. We review the Commission’s proposals for the provision of public goods and raise questions about the apparent justification for the general approach. We question whether this logic properly appreciates the nature of public good problems and whether the apparently obvious solution – provision of compensatory payments from the public purse – actually solves any of the underlying public good problemsPublic Economics,

Persistent punishment : users views of short prison sentences

Semi-structured interviews were conducted of 22 prisoners to gather information about the characteristic features of short prison sentences. Themes raised in comments included: the frequency and quality of sentences, addiction, family, and penal legitimacy. Most of the participants had extensive experience of prison, and the effects of this played out across sentences and years, accumulating and amplifying impacts. And, despite expressions of guilt and remorse, most participants saw their sentence as unjust, and mainly a reaction to offending history. We conclude by suggesting the need for research to shift focus from evaluating individual penal interventions towards more holistic and narrative accounts that cut across sentences

Beyond the Juncker and Schäuble visions of euro-area governance. Bruegel Policy Brief ISSUE 6 | NOVEMBER 2017

Two diametrically opposed visions of the euro-area architecture have been put forward. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker favours a model that puts the Commission at the centre of fiscal policy decision-making. The former German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble argues that fiscal surveillance should be centred on a reformed European Stability Mechanism. Juncker’s proposal would over-emphasise the Commission when fiscal policy making is national and would unduly mix the roles of Commission and Council. Schäuble, by contrast, neglects the fact that national fiscal policy matters for the euro area not only for sustainability reasons but also because of the provisioning of public goods, stabilisation policy and effects on inflation and growth. This Policy Brief does Two diametrically opposed visions of the euro-area architecture have been put forward. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker favours a model that puts the Commission at the centre of fiscal policy decision-making. The former German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble argues that fiscal surveillance should be centred on a reformed European Stability Mechanism. Juncker’s proposal would over-emphasise the Commission when fiscal policy making is national and would unduly mix the roles of Commission and Council. Schäuble, by contrast, neglects the fact that national fiscal policy matters for the euro area not only for sustainability reasons but also because of the provisioning of public goods, stabilisation policy and effects on inflation and growth. This Policy Brief does not discuss the completion of banking union, which is essential for a stable euro area

Public inquiries, public policy and the public interest

Professor Gary Banks AO, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Dean of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), and prior to that, head of the Productivity Commission for nearly 15 years, speaks about the role of public inquiries in developing public policy. Based on theory and evidence, including insights gained at first hand, Professor Gary Banks addressed two key questions: Why might public inquiries contribute to better policy outcomes? And what determines their ‘success’? Professor Banks\u27 talk was the inaugural Peter Karmel Lecture in Public Policy for the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.Both the video of the lecture and the report are on the Academy\u27s website.&nbsp

EU membership strongly benefits the UK, but pro-Europeans should push for a credible reform agenda to regain the confidence of the British public

Today the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) releases a report on the UK’s relationship with the EU: ‘Staying in: a reform plan for Britain and Europe’. Glenn Gottfried, summarising the report, writes that while the UK receives a number of benefits from EU membership, the case for ‘staying in’ has not been made effectively to the British public. IPPR also propose an EU reform agenda, including a reduction in the size of the Common Agricultural Policy and strengthening the legitimacy of the European Commission – reforms which will have a much greater chance of success if the British government takes a more constructive approach to EU negotiations

Macroeconomic and Monetary Thought at the European Commission in the 1960s

This paper discusses macroeconomic and monetary thought at the European Commission in the 1960s. It is based on an analysis of public documents, archival research, as well as a large scale programme of interviews. The paper starts with an overview of the economic philosophy of the Rome Treaties and developments in the 1960s, followed by a presentation of senior macroeconomic policy-makers at the Commission. Thereafter, the focus is on three crucial macroeconomic policy documents of the period: the project of a European Reserve Fund in 1958, the Commission's Action Programme for the Second Stage of 1962 and the Barre Memorandum of October 1969. The objectives of the Commission were both more defensive, preserving the 'acquis communautaire', especially avoiding the recourse to the safeguard clauses, as pro-active, stimulating the process of European integration. From an analytical point of view, the Commission focussed on the linkages and interdependencies between the Member States and the compatibility of policies. Gradually, a typical Commission analysis developed, based on a blending of German convergence ideas with the French medium-term approach. The paper also illustrates the ascension of the Commission as an actor in the monetary area, notwithstanding the rather limited provisions of the Rome Treaty.European Commission; treaty reform

Early Settlement in European Merger Control

We analyse the determinants of early settlement between merging parties and the European Commission over remedies that remove concerns of anticompetitive effects. This extends the previously narrow range of econometric literature on early settlement. Consistent with the theory of early settlement, our results confirm the importance of delay costs and of uncertainty, measured by the complexity of the economic analysis required for each merger. We also find a non-monotonic effect of agency resourcing, which raises questions about the Commission's efficiency in times of high case load. Econometrically, we select a sample of merger decisions in which the European Commission intervened due to concerns of anticompetitive effects, and our selection model provides estimates of the factors determining intervention by the Commission. Conclusions are drawn for public policy