Bureaucracy Intermediaries, Corruption and Red Tape

Intermediaries helping individuals and rms with the government bureaucracy are common in developing countries. Although such bureaucracy intermediaries are, anecdotally,linked with corruption and welfare losses, few formal analyses exist. In our model, a government license can benet individuals. We study individuals net gain when acquiring the license through the regular procedure, through bribing or through intermediaries. For a given procedure, individuals using intermediaries are better offthan if intermediaries and corruption had not existed. Intermediaries grease the wheels. We then study incentives of corrupt bureaucrats to create red tape. When free to choose levels of red tape, bureaucrats implement more red tape and individuals are unambiguously worse off in a setting with intermediaries than with direct corruption only. Intermediaries can thus improve access to the bureaucracy, but also strengthen incentives to create red tape - a potential explanation ! why license procedures tend to be long in developing countries.Bureaucracy, Corruption, Intermediaries, Red tape

Bureaucracy intermediaries, corruption and red tape

Intermediaries helping individuals and firms with the government bureaucracy are common in developing countries. Although such bureaucracy intermediaries are, anecdotally, linked with corruption and welfare losses, few formal analyses exist. In our model, a government license can benefit individuals. We study individuals' net gain when acquiring the license through the regular bureaucratic procedure, through bribing or through intermediaries. For a given procedure, individuals using intermediaries are better off than if intermediaries and corruption had not existed. Intermediaries "grease the wheels". We then study incentives of corrupt bureaucrats to create red tape. When free to choose levels of red tape, bureaucrats implement more red tape and individuals are unambiguously worse off in a setting with intermediaries than with "direct" corruption only. Intermediaries can thus improve access to the bureaucracy, but also strengthen incentives to create red tape - a potential explanation why license procedures tend to be long in developing countries.Bureaucracy; Corruption; Intermediaries; Red tape

Compositional and dynamic Laffer effects in models with constant returns to scale

There is a renewed interest in the dynamic effects of tax cuts on government revenue. The possibility of tax cuts paying for themselves over time definitely seems like an attractive option for policy makers. This paper looks at what conditions are required for reductions in capital taxes to be fully self-financing. This is done in a model with constant returns to scale in broad capital. Such a framework exhibits growth; the scope for self-financing tax cuts is therefore different than in the neoclassical growth model, most recently studied by Mankiw and Weinzierl (2006). Compared to previous literature, I make a methodological contribution in the definition of "Laffer effects" and clarify the role of compositional and dynamic effects in making tax cuts self-financing. I also provide simple analytical expressions for what tax rates are required for tax cuts to be fully self-financing. The results show that large distortions are required to get Laffer effects. Introducing a labor/leisure choice into the model opens up a new avenue for such effects, however.Human capital; compositional effects from taxation; dynamic effects from taxation; Laffer effect; dynamic scoring

A Freshman Takes Charge: Judge John J. Parker of the United States Court of Appeals, 1925-1930

Syftet med denna studie har varit tvådelat. För det första var syftet att beskriva och förstå sex gymnasielärares uppfattningar om störande beteende hos elever i den gymnasiala klassrumsmiljön. För det andra handlade det om att beskriva och förstå gymnasielärarnas åtgärder och korrigeringar gentemot störande beteende. Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer har tillämpats som metod för inhämtande av data. Resultatet visar att gymnasielärarna som deltog i studien uppfattar störande elevbeteenden som något som förskjuter fokus från det som är avsett att göras. Elevbeteenden uppfattas störande först när de påverkar andra elever alternativt läraren själv. Då beteendet påverkar andra elever uppfattas det störande från en lärare med elevperspektiv. När beteendet påverkar läraren uppfattas det störande ur ett lärarperspektiv. Resultatet visar även att det finns ett samband mellan mest störande och mest förekommande störande beteenden. I denna studie uppfattar de deltagande lärarna Otillåtet prat samt Otillåten mobiltelefon-/datoranvändning som mest störande och mest förekommande störande elevbeteenden. Åtgärder och korrigeringar av störande elevbeteenden förekommer på tre olika nivåer: Organisations-, Grupp- och Individnivå. Exempel på åtgärder och korrigeringar som gymnasielärarna använder sig av är Ordningsregler, Elevavtal, Relationer, Tillsägelser, Samtal samt Avvisning. En slutsats som kan dras är att Relationer är en faktor som flera av lärarna betonar som den viktigaste delen för att förebygga störande elevbeteenden. Lärarna menar att goda Relationer på lång sikt ger en bättre effekt vid korrigeringar av störande elevbeteende. En annan slutsats är att Otillåten mobiltelefon-/datoranvändning är ett störande elevbeteende som i tidigare forskning inte har uppmärksammats, en ny kunskap inom området

In search of a new identity:Shiga Shigetaka's recommendations for Japanese in Hawaii

The demand for on-demand video streaming has seen an enormous increased usage and is today the main contributor to Internet traffic. Technological developments combined with the accessibility of sufficiently powerful end-user hardware, large bandwidth capacities and significantly reduced storage cost are major contributors to this trend. We have built a simulation environment where multiple clients stream linear and branched video while competing over a shared bottleneck network. We examine how rate caps can be implemented to increase the overall Quality of Experience (QoE). First we present simulation results demonstrating the impact that rate caps have on clients playing linear video and compare and relate the results with prior work. Second we simulate the performance implementation of branched video and consider how its performance is affected by rate caps. Here, we highlight and discuss the trade-off patterns between playback quality and stability observed when a cap is implemented. To derive our conclusions we consider a range of scenarios, in which we vary different variables when a rate cap is set or not and measure the (i) requested encodings, (ii) buffer occupancy, and (iii) the amounts of switches between encodings made by the clients during the playback sequence. The rate cap implementation is shown to generate less switches between encodings, providing an enhanced stability and thus contributing to a better QoE in both the linear and branched environment