{"title":"Fairness, Flexibility and the Far Right: Understanding the Relationship between Populism, Social Spending and Labor Markets","authors":"Andreas Bergh, Anders Kärnä","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3915491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3915491","url":null,"abstract":"The large increase in economic inequality and the dismantling of the welfare state in Western democracies has been connected to the rise of populist parties. If populist voting is explained by fear and labor market insecurity and if people care more about procedural fairness than inequality of economic outcomes, national income inequality should be less important than other factors in explaining vote shares of populist parties. Using election results from 33 European countries over the 1980-2018 period, two different classifications of populist parties and three different measures of government/welfare state size, we find no relationship between country-level economic inequality, as measured by the disposable income Gini, and either right-wing or left-wing populism. An alternative hypothesis that right-wing populism is dampened by labor market flexibility and social spending is developed and shown to have empirical support.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114458112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Public Finances of Internal Security in India","authors":"Nirvikar Singh","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3800582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3800582","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides an overview and analysis of India’s public spending on internal security, especially in the category of police services. It describes and evaluates the central government’s spending on internal security, its levels, patterns and, where possible, its outcomes. It then performs a similar analysis for the states, focusing especially on variation across the states, and trying to understand possible sources of inter-state differences in spending on internal security. It goes on to offer some broader discussion and analysis of the public finances of internal security in India, also relating it to spending on external security and to private sector provision of internal security.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116950050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Review of Reports on the Cost and Funding of Medicare-for-All","authors":"G. Mosser, J. Nyman","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3554115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3554115","url":null,"abstract":"In the US, 30 million people have no health insurance, and the per capita cost of health care is far higher than it is in other countries. To address these problems, many have advocated establishing Medicare-for-All (M4A). This paper reviews seven reports on the costs of M4A that were written by scholars of health economics in universities or private foundations that study health care. Two of these reports also describe in detail how the program might be funded. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have also made suggestions for funding. \u0000 \u0000Judged from the conclusions of the seven reports, it appears that M4A would result in a net decrease in overall US healthcare costs of 5.7% on average. Under M4A, US health care would cost approximately $46,000 billion over 10 years. Over the same period, approximately $23,500 billion in new federal revenue would be needed in place of present-day payments from other sources. \u0000 \u0000This revenue could be raised in many different ways. In this review, 11 possible taxes and fees are highlighted in an example of how the necessary revenue could be raised. Under this example, it would not be necessary to impose a federal sales tax or any new taxes directly on low or middle income households, but high income households and wealthy Americans would likely pay higher taxes.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134119128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Brinca, Miguel Faria-e-Castro, Miguel H. Ferreira, Hans A. Holter
{"title":"The Nonlinear Effects of Fiscal Policy","authors":"P. Brinca, Miguel Faria-e-Castro, Miguel H. Ferreira, Hans A. Holter","doi":"10.20955/wp.2019.015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2019.015","url":null,"abstract":"We argue that the fiscal multiplier of government purchases is increasing in the shock, in contrast to what is assumed in most of the literature: the fiscal multiplier is largest for large positive government spending shocks and smallest for large contractions in government spending. We empirically document this fact by analyzing two independent datasets and using two different empirical approaches. We find that a neoclassical, life-cycle, incomplete markets model calibrated to match key features of the US economy, including the distribution of wealth, can well explain this empirical finding. The mechanism works through the relationship between fiscal shocks, the distribution of wealth and the aggregate labor supply elasticity: liquidity constrained agents have less elastic labor supply responses to changes in future income. An increase (decrease) in government spending today acts as a negative (positive) shock to future income, as future wages will be lower (higher). A large increase (decrease) in government spending today will induce saving (borrowing) and move a larger fraction of the agents in the economy away from (towards) the borrowing limit. Analysis of micro-data confirms the mechanism.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126993997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political Connections, Government Subsidies, and Capital Misallocation: Evidence from China","authors":"Shuang Jin, Zilong Zhang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3045703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3045703","url":null,"abstract":"We show that the political connections of Chinese firms have a substantial influence on the allocation of government subsidies, which exacerbates the economy’s capital misallocation. Our identification strategy exploits a regulation that forces politically connected independent directors – independent directors who are current and former government officials or members of the Communist Party in China – to resign from the company. Treated firms experience a substantial decline in subsidies after the regulation, especially so for low-efficiency firms. Further, treated firms’ investment efficiency improves after the regulation. Finally, we find that the degree of capital misallocation in industries that are most affected by the regulation declines. Our findings provide supporting evidence for the effectiveness of China’s anti-corruption campaign.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133127040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fiscal Federalism: Powers to Tax, Spending, and Equalization","authors":"A. Tamayo","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3159917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3159917","url":null,"abstract":"In support of the growing need to understand federalism in the Philippines, sustainability framework and distribution of powers need be given as much attention along the inception of the political benefits of federalism.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"412 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116677245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Taming Leviathan: Mitigating Political Interference in Sovereign Wealth Funds’ Public Equity Investments","authors":"Bernardo Bortolotti, Veljko Fotak, Giacomo Loss","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3088430","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3088430","url":null,"abstract":"Extant research finds that announcement-period abnormal returns of sovereign wealth fund (SWF) equity investments in publicly traded firms are positive but lower than those of comparable private investments. We investigate the determinants of this “SWF discount” and mitigating mechanisms. We find that the discount is deeper for domestic investments and for SWFs from non-democratic countries, suggesting it is caused by the threat of political interference. While SWFs from non-democratic countries experience larger discounts, lower profitability, and lower valuation when signaling an active stance (buying large stakes, acquiring control, and investing directly), the opposite is true for SWFs from democratic countries.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"112 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126078798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Allocation of Public Resources for Scientific Research: The Role of Governments and the Law","authors":"Shinto Teramoto, Paulius Jurčys","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3066202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3066202","url":null,"abstract":"Over centuries, efficient allocation of limited resources has been one main concerns of governments and social scientists. The emergence of the Internet fuelled the proliferation of online matching platforms that facilitate the redistribution of omnipresent surplus resources. This article examines the role of governments in the law in facilitating the most efficient allocation of public resources to academic researchers. Assuming that diversity of funded research projects is one of the primary goals, we developed a hypothetical social network model that helps compare two major policies employed by governments in allocating public funds (“selection and concentration” and “diverse allocation”). Our findings highlight the potential advantages of both funding approaches and illustrate that larger and more selective models could potentially lead to more diverse allocation of public resources. Accordingly, we offer some policy recommendations, one of which is that governments (and legal frameworks) should utilize multiple resource allocation approaches because this could lead to more efficiency and diversity.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131210974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mandatory Spending, Political Polarization, and Macroeconomic Volatility","authors":"D. Grechyna","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3044294","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3044294","url":null,"abstract":"Political polarization combined with political turnover have been shown to amplify economic fluctuations (Azzimonti and Talbert, 2014). This paper analyzes a fiscal policy institution capable of reducing the volatility caused by these political frictions. We introduce the distinction between mandatory and discretionary public spending in a political model of optimal fiscal policy. We show that different legislative nature of these components of government spending leads to a divergent impact of mandatory and discretionary spending on politically-driven macroeconomic volatility. Increasing the fraction of mandatory spending in total government spending reduces the volatility; increasing the fraction of discretionary spending has the opposite effect. The presence of the legislative requirements behind the changes in mandatory public spending can explain simultaneous rise in political polarization and decline in the U.S output volatility after the 1980s.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126050051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
F. Thompson, Kawika Pierson, M. L. Hand, Michael U. Dothan
{"title":"Is a Good Normative Model of Public Spending Run Backward a Good Positive Model?","authors":"F. Thompson, Kawika Pierson, M. L. Hand, Michael U. Dothan","doi":"10.1111/pbaf.12121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/pbaf.12121","url":null,"abstract":"We test a positive model of government spending and savings, where jurisdictions seek to stabilize spending growth and where revenue growth and savings are assumed to be continuous-time stochastic processes, the Dothan–Thompson optimal budget model. Our empirical tests address two reduced-form specifications derived from this model, each applied to two different subsets of municipalities. For each of the two specifications, we first estimated models using data for all available municipalities (more than 20,000) covered by the U.S. Census government finance data, and then tested them again on a much smaller balanced subset of the full panel. We find that municipalities do not, on average, optimally stabilize spending in the face of revenue volatility, nor do they consistently use savings to do so. There is, however, at least modest statistical evidence that savings reflect revenue volatility at typical levels of volatility. For all model specifications tested, the single greatest determinant of savings at the municipal level is the state in which the municipality is located. The next challenge is to identify and measure the impact of the underlying factors that explain the dramatic state-to-state differences observed in municipal savings patterns.","PeriodicalId":379216,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Public Spending (Comparative) (Topic)","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117185697","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}