Business and Public Administration Studies (E-Journal, Washington Institute of China Studies - WICS)
Not a member yet
289 research outputs found
Sort by
Achieving Greater Homeland Security: Who Should Pay, and How?
Get PDFThe terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States have broadened the public sector’s role in providing “protective goods and services” to include homeland security in addition to national security and public safety (e.g. police and fire protection). Although it is acknowledged that the federal government has a clear responsibility for taking the lead in shaping homeland security policies, the provision of greater homeland security involves significant participation by state and local governments, and the private sector, in addition to the national government.This paper briefly summarizes why private markets are likely to under-invest in homeland security, leading to a need for public action. It provides an overview of both the range of budgetary and non-budgetary tools used by the United States (U.S.) federal government to “finance” the provision of homeland security, and the budgetary and non-budgetary cost of these federal actions. The paper also identifies and discusses some of the principle challenges faced in ensuring federal homeland security dollars are “well-spent.” While the analysis focuses on the United States, the tools of government employed are applicable to all sovereign nations
Does WTO financial negotiation promote foreign banks’ expansion in developing countries?
Get PDFAfter the end of WTO financial services negotiations in 1997, only a minority of literatures made its assessment and analysis on the outcome of such negotiations. Dobson and Jacquet pointed out that although many countries had improved their offers over the course of the negotiations, it told little about the degree of market access thus achieved. “There is no single indicator of market access that could help to rank countries on a single scale according to existing barriers so that the corresponding contribution of the Financial Service Agreement in removing partly or totally some of these barriers could be judged.” They compared a part of commitments with the corresponding actual regulatory policies of financial sectors in 11 countries, and concluded that only two countries were more open in their commitments than their actual policies, and eight countries remained unchanged. Thus they concluded "the actual liberalization in the banking sector does not seem to have happened.
Measuring the Commitments on Financial Services Trade Liberalization: Core Business of Commercial Bank in Developing Economies
Get PDFThis paper is the basis of studying the impact of financial service trade negotiation under the General agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) on the banking sector in developing countries. To test the impact, the first step is measuring the commitments in financial service trade negotiation. This paper measured members’ commitments in the FIFTH PROTOCOL TO GATS. The focus of this paper is the core business of commercial banks, including deposit and credit services, whose definition is specified in section III
Tax Regressivity and the Choice of Tax Base
Get PDFIn 1995, Paul Peterson, a professor of government at Harvard University, concluded that the greatest price of the United States (U.S.) federalist system was inter-jurisdictional inequity, but that the federal government’s role in redistributive policy could potentially minimize this cost. While Peterson’s work focused on the expenditure side of the budget, federal governments also facilitate the redistribution of income through the tax code, but some tax bases tend to be inherently more progressive than others. Given the range of tax bases available to policy makers, the role of a tax base in income distribution is fundamental to evaluating the distributional effects of different tax structures. Using the regressivity of state and local tax systems in the U.S., this study finds that consumption taxes may impose significant equity costs when designed as sales taxes. More specifically, for each one percent increase in sales tax revenue as a share of the tax base, the system becomes 12 to 17 percent more regressive. For each one percent increase in income tax revenue as a percent of the revenue base, the system becomes 12 to 13 percent less regressive- despite the fact that United States’ state governments tend to have either flat or only moderately graduated income tax rates. While this study finds that the choice of tax base can only explain about half the variation in regressivity rates, it does high light the difficulty in designing a consumption tax that achieves redistributive policy goals
The Chinese Government: Central Control Vs. Decentralization
Get PDFGeneral reform of the economy of the People’s Republic of China began in the mid 1980s as a reluctant retreat from the old style command and control economy toward a market based economy. Reform was driven by the growing recognition that state socialist economic policy was a failed experience, and would never produce the high levels of economic growth and development that would even keep up with population growth, much less permit any extensive improvement in China’s economic strength or citizen quality of life. Nor was the Communist China Party, (CCP) making a success of the “allocation of scarcity” which is all that their economy provided. Inherent in the centrist state system was the widespread use of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) which were instruments of the government, but supposedly free to operate much like independent organizations capable of operating profitably in the realistic world. But SOEs too had proved failed experiences. Instead of generating revenue for government use, most had proved inefficient, and many operated at deficits that had to be underwritten by the government, using funds that could be utilized elsewhere. SOEs carried larger overhead costs because they provided many social services to their employees such as housing, health care, pensions and elementary/secondary education, and these direct costs drained much of their profitability
Editor\u27s Statement
No full textWe begin on a quarterly basis for the Journal of WICS for 2008. We hope to receive interesting manuscripts from our readers that will enable us to continue to publish articles on diverse topics that reflect issues of importance to the US and PRC
The Program Assessment Rating Tool and its Role in Evaluating the Effectiveness of U.S. Government Programs
Get PDFOver the past 50 years, the United States government has engaged in a number of efforts designed to focus on the results of federal agencies and programs. Starting in the 1950s with “performance budgeting” and continuing through the 1960s and 1970s program budgeting and zero-based budgeting efforts, the goal of these has been a closer linkage between resources provided and results achieved. In 1993, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) was signed into law. This act required federal agencies to engage in strategic planning, performance planning, and performance reporting
Fostering Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in China: A Policy Review
Get PDFEntrepreneurship has become vital to the success of a company and economic growth. There is increasing evidence to show significant correlation between entrepreneurship and economic growth. Countries in the world are experiencing a surge of interest in the formation of new businesses especially in the developing world. This escalating interest of entrepreneurship has become a focal strategy of regional and national economic development in many regions and countries. Strong emphasis on enterprise development as a platform for economic development is thus an important dimension in development policy