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Background: In the context of rising noncommunicable diseases, Chinese authorities emphasize the need for local governments to provide public sports services to support physical activity (PA). Methods: Employing a socioecological theoretical framework, and drawing on a hierarchical data set synthesized from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database, and Wind Financial Terminal from 2015, a multilevel analysis of the association between provincial government expenditure on culture, sports, and media from 12 provinces, the recreation facilities provided by 287 communities, and PA of n = 10,305 individuals is performed. The number of, and time allocated to, PAs undertaken as well as their METs equivalent in relation to World Health Organization guidelines are investigated. Results: Controlling for a large set of individual confounders, the results show that community recreation facilities and provincial government expenditure have a significant positive association with PA participation that exceeds health guidelines. Conclusions: The results confirm the importance of government support for sport and the provision of community sport and PA facilities in China. This has implications for public health policy generally including the Western context. It remains, however, that the cultural context of engagement also needs further consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to assess the macroeconomic impacts of government investment in Research and Development (R&D) and more generic fiscal policies by quantifying the Gross domestic product (GDP) and business R&D investment multipliers. Following the recent literature on fiscal policy, we combine the Local Projection approach with fiscal shocks estimated using Structural Vector Autoregressive modeling by focusing on a panel of 15 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for the 1981–2017 period. Our findings support the idea that expansionary fiscal policies can positively and persistently affect the GDP level and crowd in business R&D investment. Additionally, our results show that public investment in R&D generates the largest multiplicative effect both on GDP and business R&D than the one associated with more generic public expenditures, even when fiscal expectations are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploiting demand shocks from changes in federal government spending, we examine how the organizational structure of a firm affects its investment behavior. Government spending shocks affect the investment of government-dependent conglomerate segments less than matched stand-alone firms. Investment also increases in lower government-dependent segments when other segments within the same firm experience positive demand shocks, indicating cross-subsidization between segments. We further show that this cross-subsidization leads to worse operating performance and increases the diversification discount. Our findings are robust after addressing the endogeneity of government spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed overview of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the income of charitable organisations – an under-researched theme within social policy, which thus far has largely focused on the impact of the pandemic on individuals' and households' wellbeing. It analyses a unique longitudinal dataset that follows through time c.90,000 charities in England and Wales. The results, for the first time, illustrate the scale of the pandemic's financial impact on the charitable sector: the median charity experienced a 13% real decline in annual income, while a charity at the 25th percentile of the annual relative growth distribution experienced an income decline of 43%. Importantly these annual declines are much more sizeable than those associated with the Great Recession and subsequent period of public spending austerity. Smaller charities, particularly those with an income under £100k, have been most significantly affected. The declines have been pervasive, extending across most fields of charitable activity, though certain charitable fields have seen particularly acute declines. While there has rightly been considerable emphasis on the important role of voluntary action in responding to the pandemic, this new empirical evidence helps to communicate the extent of the recent challenges faced by the charitable sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like their urban counterparts, rural local governments' relationships with their states have become varied and complex, particularly as rural America has become increasingly prominent in state and national politics, and the challenges facing rural communities have increased. However, a focus on this subset of local governments has been limited in scholarship on American federalism. Using survey data of rural local governments in Wisconsin, this article examines the degree to which rural governments perceive state assistance as helpful in addressing community challenges. Results indicate significant support for additional state assistance but also concerns about current levels of state financial support and state-imposed revenue limitations. Rural local governments with greater expenditures, worse financial conditions, lower levels of existing state aid, a more agriculture-dependent economy, and an older population are more likely to perceive additional state assistance as beneficial. Overall, these results provide additional clarity on rural local governments' perceptions of—and interactions with—their states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Our purpose is the examination of the effects of fiscal policy on private lending for the Eurozone countries. The emphasis is on the identification of the time path of government spending and bank lending. Design/methodology/approach: Fiscal policy is a main factor of macroeconomic stability for the euro area economy. This paper, investigates the impact of government spending on bank lending. For this reason, we present a dynamic theoretical model with a perfectly competitive banking sector, estimated using panel cointegration for the Eurozone countries from 2000Q1 to 2022Q2. Findings: Our findings highlight that, in the long run, consistent management of government spending can have a beneficial multiplicative impact on bank lending for housing and business reasons. This finding is stronger in magnitude for business versus housing lending. The high level of homogeneity of our results across Eurozone countries has positive implications for a common fiscal policy in the future. Finally, authorities should know that policy adjustments are quicker in housing lending when compared to business lending. Originality/value: In this paper, we contribute to the existing literature, concentrating on the investigation of any existence of long-run and short-run relationships between government spending and bank lending. Additionally, our analysis allows one to investigate the contribution of each Eurozone member state in the short-run and long-run model's dynamics, providing significant outcomes for the implementation of economic policy and the need for fiscal discipline in the Eurozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal consolidation literature often neglects that there are economies characterized by sizable underground sectors, with their mechanisms of response to fiscal policy shocks. Therefore, reliable analyses of fiscal consolidation plans call for the decomposition of Gross Domestic Product in its regular and hidden components. We investigate fiscal consolidation effects in the context of tax evasion for the Italian economy. Results show that a temporary cut in public spending associated with a permanent drop in tax rate yet entails tax evasion reduction. The main underlying mechanism is the strong responsiveness of the underground sector, implying a reallocation of resources toward the regular sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 crisis, the European Parliament (EP) had an opportunity to shape Europe's economic recovery and strengthen its institutional prerogatives through the establishment of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Despite influencing policies and securing soft account-holding powers, the EP failed to assert itself as a budgetary authority in the RRF implementation process. Budgetary authority is a fundamental element in democratic governance as it allows elected representatives to supervise the allocation of public funds and enforce accountability for government spending choices. This article explains the EP's failure to maximise its budgetary powers and argues that the urgency of the crisis and the strategic use of norm-based arguments inadvertently undermined its bargaining position. The EP's entrapment in its own rhetorical action is proposed as the main explanation for this outcome. The EP had long emphasised key aspects of the RRF, such as financing through common European debt issuance. As even the most hesitant member states eventually agreed on many of these issues, the EP could not obstruct or delay negotiations without being publicly exposed for inconsistencies between its past rhetoric and present actions. Consequently, it risked being shamed for prioritising its institutional ego over the common European interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey's Community Development Program (CDP), implemented in the 1960s and 1970s, has remained a largely underexplored subject in the global history of rural community development schemes. Based on detailed archival research, this article shows that the programme's central goal was to mobilize the labour and financial resources of the villagers to carry out rapid infrastructure construction. Turkish policymakers hoped that such mobilization could help achieve a high level of rural development far beyond what could be achieved by relying solely on government spending and might also allow the allocation of more resources to urban industrialization. Despite its initial promise, the CDP was unable to effectively mobilize the countryside due to a combination of structural, political, and bureaucratic challenges, including unequal land distribution, intense electoral competition, and inadequate administrative coordination. However, the CDP was not entirely inconsequential. It played a modest role in the commercialization and capitalist transformation of Turkish agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that a careful design of a program of direct employment and public provision by the state can have permanent effects and promote the structural and environmental transformation of the economy. Starting from this point, we develop a multisectoral stock-flow consistent model to study the long-run effects of the implementation of a job guarantee program, both in the original formulation of Minsky and in its recent version put forward as part of the 'Green New Deal' (GND) policy package. We also assess the impact of both 'green' and 'brown' standard fiscal expenditures, as well as a policy mix including industrial, environmental and employment measures. Results from our simulations point out that, in order to pursue the twin targets of full employment and environmental sustainability, the government should invest in gross fixed capital formation while both reducing energy consumption and acting as an employer of last resort in order to absorb the workforce expelled from the energy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expenditures on police departments account for significant portions of local government budgets in the United States. Yet activism on police reform and changing views on the causes of violence have called into question law enforcement's role in public safety. While intergovernmental transfers have historically supported traditional policing, the American Rescue Plan Act's Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSLFRF) affords cities the opportunity to disrupt the status quo by providing them with the federal funds and flexibility to reshape their public safety policies around Community Violence Interventions (CVIs). This article examines how 13 cities that participated in a White House convened collaborative used CSLFRF aid to support CVIs. Our analysis reveals significant variation in how these cities in allocated CSLFRF dollars to CVI programs, suggesting that the combination of federal aid and White House encouragement has thus far led to incremental policy changes, whose durability remains an open question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review explores how the provision and experience of public toilets in urban spaces are gendered in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. A search of 4 bibliographic databases resulted in 19 articles for inclusion. Data were analyzed using a feminist critical perspective and the United Nations (UN) framework on standards to assess the provision of sanitation in public spaces. The framework criteria include availability; accessibility; affordability; quality and safety; and acceptability, privacy, and dignity. This review demonstrates that more public toilets that consider the needs of all genders are needed, and it offers guidance to policymakers, planners, and funders on what to consider when planning and building them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between public spending on Energy innovations (R&D of renewable and non-renewable energy, and energy efficiency) and CO2 intensity at constant purchasing power are investigated in this study. A Panel-NARDL model was used for the first time in 10 OECD countries (1990–2020) to evaluate the asymmetric relationship between energy innovative variables and CO2 impacts in the long and short run. In other words, this study aims to monitor how changes in public spending on R&D for renewable and non-renewable influence CO2 emissions. The results show that while an increase in the public budget for R&D of renewable energy will decrease the CO2 intensity in the long run, a positive relationship exists between these variables in the short run. Likewise, the result demonstrates that a cut in public spending on Fossil fuel R&D leads to an increase in the short horizon and a decrease in the long-run CO2 emissions per unit of GDP. The finding implies the substantial impact of R&D in both renewable and non-renewable energy on reducing CO2 emissions over time. In addition, CO2 emissions per unit of GDP respond positively to R&D public spending on energy efficiency. An increase in public expenditure on R&D of energy efficiency can induce economic activity and enhance CO2 emissions. All in all, the 30 years’ analysis of data from the selected OECD countries substantiates the right strategy of reducing the CO2 emissions of these countries by applying the public budget to promote R&D in energy sectors. This study results in contrast with those studies that found no relationship between R&D on renewable energy and CO2 impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased terrorist propaganda has caused greater violence worldwide. Communities are efficient channels through which terrorist organizations can access target audiences; thus, communities are playing larger roles in terrorist propaganda distribution. However, no previous studies have examined the interactions between terrorists and governments regarding terrorist propaganda in communities from a game-theoretic lens. This article aims to fill this research gap. We first classify the relationships between the communities as independent or interactive. For both cases, we describe the process of terrorist propaganda distribution in communities, highlighting the dependence of the degree of terrorist ideology within a community on the terrorist-organization and government resource allocations; based on this, we build novel sequential game models of the terrorist and the government and obtain the equilibrium solutions. Furthermore, we conduct a comparative study to elucidate the differences in the expected government losses for independent and interactive communities. The outcomes are as follows: (i) the higher the community propagation centrality, the greater the resource expenditure of the government and terrorist organization, and (ii) introducing an interaction network among communities decreases the expected government loss when the network directly destroys the distribution uniformity of the community propagation centralities. Finally, we present a case study to illustrate the usability of the proposed models. This study provides novel insights for governments targeting optimal allocation of intervention resources to communities so as to counter terrorist propaganda distributed by a strategic terrorist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of public childcare provision on the incidence of severe child maltreatment. For identification, we exploit a reform that expanded early childcare in Germany, generating large temporal and spatial variation in childcare coverage at the county level. Using high-quality administrative data covering all reported cases of child maltreatment in Germany by county and year, we find that an increase in childcare slots by one percentage point in a county reduced child maltreatment cases leading to out-of-home placement by about 1%. Our results suggest that the provision of universal public childcare may be more cost effective than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of an empirical investigation into the relationships between public social spending, government effectiveness, and economic growth. Using panel data covering 132 developed and developing countries over the 2008 to 2019 period, we find significant and complementary relationships among the variables through fixed effects, system GMM, and instrumental variable estimation. All three components of public social spending, including social security benefits, education expenditure, and health expenditure, have a significant and positive impact on subsequent economic growth. Government effectiveness has a direct growth-enhancing effect as well as a mediating and positive effect on the association between public social expenditures and economic growth. Thus, governments accelerate the positive impact of public social spending on economic growth. These relationships hold for countries at all income levels, while the channels predicting a positive social spending – growth relationship are stronger in high-income countries than lower-income countries. To stimulate inclusive growth, governments must actively design and implement social spending policies. These, however, should be complemented by concomitant efforts to strengthen the quality of public institutions, which exerts a substantial impact on the social spending – growth relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IMPACT: Presenting an in-depth review of Advice, Money, Results: Rethinking International Support for Managing Public Finance (AMR), the author warns practitioners and policy-makers that the report presents a flawed critique of the current state of public financial management (PFM). In addition it is overly negative about PEFA, and the alternative PFM approach it presents is vague—lacking in operational specificity. AMR, the author explains, has, if unchallenged, the potential to have a negative impact on PFM practice internationally. This article reviews the influential recent report Advice, Money, Results: Rethinking International Support for Managing Public Finance (AMR). The author finds that the critique of current public financial management (PFM) practice and thought presented in the report is misconceived, and the alternative approach recommended is ill-defined. As well, AMR is wrong in asserting that the standard 'trinity' formulation of public financial management (PFM) objectives (fiscal discipline; prioritization; efficiency and effectiveness) is too narrow and neo-liberal. In fact, this is a formulation of objectives which is rigorous and has stood the test of time. While not disputing that the design and implementation of technical assistance in PFM for developing countries is imperfect, this article rejects the 'roots and branch' critique of PFM presented in AMR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the actions taken to mitigate the climate change is research, development and demonstration (RD&D) investments in renewable energy (RE) technology. In addition to domestic RD&D spending, the import of foreign technologies, as a main channel of technology transfer, is another option to obtain higher share of renewable energies in order to achieve climate objectives. In this study, a panel dataset of 28 OECD member countries from 2011 to 2020 is analyzed, using the OLS, fixed-effects, and two-step system GMM methods, to assess the impacts of public spending on renewable energy RD&D (RERD) and the import of renewable energy technologies on the energy-related CO2 emissions. To fully capture the significant regional differences, the 28 countries are re-divided into four regions in accordance with their renewable energy RD&D investment level and total CO2 emissions. This study uniquely investigates the impact of RERD and importation–as an alternative channel for obtaining renewable energy technologies–on energy-related CO2 emissions in OECD countries, while also analyzing regional differences to inform targeted local policies. The findings reveal that CO2 emission is significantly and negatively affected by renewable energy imports, for the full panel as well as for Low-RERD and Low-Emission regions. Furthermore, only in High-RERD and High-Emission regions can renewable energy RD&D decrease CO2 emissions. Accordingly, some policy implications are recommended concerning investments in renewable energy RD&D and renewables import. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In this paper, we study the relationship between organized crime, corruption, and economic growth on a data set from Italian regions for the period 1996–2013. Our working hypothesis is that organized crime can embezzle part of the public expenditure aimed at productive uses by threatening and bribing public officers. To assess the consequences for regional growth we estimate a finite mixture covariate measurement model and find that the relationship between public expenditure and per capita GDP is characterized by parameter heterogeneity. Specifically, regions are partitioned in clusters identified by the initial level of organized crime. The effect of public expenditure on per capita GDP differs across clusters of regions: in the regions with the higher levels of organized crime public expenditure has a negative effect on per capita GDP, and the estimated share of embezzled public expenditure is higher, amounting to approximately 10% of its book value. Differently, in the regions with lower levels of organized crime the effect of public expenditure on per capita GDP is positive and the estimated share of embezzled public expenditure is lower. The empirical analysis is shown to be consistent with a theoretical growth model à la Barro (1990) augmented by corruption orchestrated by organized crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation of the evolutionary characteristics and internal driving mechanisms of territorial space since the reform and opening up is essential. The study will guide the orderly development and rational layout of territorial space, as well as achievement transformation and high-quality development in Shanxi Province. We used land use data from 1980 to 2020, which was divided into four periods, to examine the changes in production-living-ecological spatial pattern in Shanxi Province. Various methods, including the territorial spatial transfer matrix, standard deviation ellipse and spatial autocorrelation, were employed to analyse the evolution of the territorial spatial pattern. Applying GeoDetector as the primary tool, we conduct research on the mechanisms underlying the evolution of this spatial pattern. The results indicated that Shanxi Province exhibits distinct differentiation characteristics in both the horizontal and vertical spatial dimensions. Over the 40-year period from 1980 to 2020, the territorial spatial pattern of Shanxi Province transitioned from gradual change to drastic change to moderate change. The production space (PS) and ecological space (ES) decreased, while the living space (LS) significantly increased. The territorial spatial pattern of Shanxi Province exhibited a northeast‒southwest distribution pattern, and the changes in the centre of gravity of the production-living-ecological spaces varied in direction. The spatial distribution of land in Shanxi Province is influenced by both natural factors and human activities, leading to changes in its territorial pattern over time. The primary catalyst for the development of production space (PS) is grain production, while the major determinants of the development of living space (LS) are the overall gross domestic product (GDP) and public financial expenditure. Thus, topography greatly influences ecological space (ES). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of public spending effectiveness (performance) and efficiency across the European Union over a decade (2007–2019) using a composite indicator. The results show an improvement of public spending effectiveness over time and a deterioration of the efficiency for most countries. Policies should be geared towards increasing the efficiency of government spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has implemented unprecedented fiscal policies, prompting crucial questions: are tax cuts effective in stimulating output and is the output effect from tax cuts greater than government spending in developing countries? This article addresses this ambiguity by providing a novel method to identify China's tax and government spending shocks in a SVAR framework. The results show that both tax cuts and increased government spending positively impact output. The estimated tax multiplier is 2.4 (3.6) after 8 (20) quarters while the government spending multipliers are 0.3 (0.8), suggesting that tax cuts have a greater impact on output than government spending. The results above survive after a set of robustness checks. The findings contribute to the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of fiscal policy tools in developing economies and suggest that targeted tax measures could be a potent instrument for stimulating economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although considerable research has examined the causal rapport between crude oil prices and macroeconomic performance, the interplay between energy import dependence and macroeconomic fluctuations remains unexplored. By employing the pooled mean group autoregressive lag (PMG-ARDL) model, this study is motivated to examine the interplay between energy import dependency and macroeconomic instability in 12 net energy-importing emerging nations from 1996-2019. This study also includes governance quality, bank credit and government spending as important control variables in macroeconomic instability function. The study’s findings demonstrate that reliance on overseas energy hampers macroeconomic resilience. This study further found the positive impact of governance quality and government spending on macroeconomic stability while bank credit adversely influences it. These results were also verified by using the feasible generalized least square (FGLS) method. In terms of policies, this study suggests that increasing energy import dependency should be gradually minimized to enhance emerging economies’ macroeconomic resilience. However, raising energy import tariffs and building energy self-sufficiency could be the key to reducing energy import dependency. This study further suggests that policymakers should consider governance quality and government spending as important determinants of macroeconomic stability. Besides, monetary policy needs to understand bank credit’s adverse impact on macroeconomic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of increased intergenerational inequality, why do working-age adults continue to support government spending on the retired? Previous explanations for the popularity of such programs include calculations of expected reciprocity and evaluations of deservingness. We introduce an additional consideration: perceived vulnerability to ‘care risks’. That is, the fear of having to provide substantial financial or practical assistance to a close older family member. We argue this leads voters to insure themselves by supporting government assistance to the old as a substitute. Combining novel evidence from a specially-commissioned national survey and survey experiment conducted in Great Britain, we show that prime working-age adults’ (aged 18–59) concerns about having to personally provide for older relatives helps explain their enthusiasm for greater state investment in the retired. Familial concerns are an understudied constraint on age-based political polarisation. Our study provides important insights into how elderly-oriented public policy proposals might be justified to younger voters, and how family ties and expectations can explain public spending preferences in other generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environment policies have evolved over the years around the world, in part due to growing awareness among the population of the challenges posed by climate change. The decentralization of policymaking, administrative and political responsibilities to the subnational levels of administration may also have played a part to the extent that it creates room for bottom-up policy experimentation and citizen participation in policy design, including in areas related to the environment, that may influence people's preferences and attitudes and ultimately government policy. To shed light on these linkages, this paper provides cross-country empirical evidence based on national accounts data that decentralization is associated with higher government spending on environment-related programmes, as well as higher collection of environmental taxes in the advanced economies, controlling for conventional public finance covariates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the extent to which practices considered developmentally appropriate and inappropriate varied by preschool program auspice (private, public school, and Head Start). Survey data from a 2010 national sample of 2,664 teachers of 4-year-olds provided teacher reports on the frequency of seven practices (e.g., offering children choices of play activities, using flashcards and math worksheets), approach to teaching subject matter, and time spent in whole group activities. More than 90 percent of teachers in all auspices reported high frequencies of some developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). Yet, private program teachers reported less DAP, more use of flashcards and worksheets, and more whole group time per day than teachers in the two public sectors. Some but not all differences by auspice could be explained by differences in teacher and classroom characteristics by auspice. In the context of other studies indicating little change in practice since 2010, our results suggest that increased public provision of preschool education does not lead to "academization." We identify several other issues related to curriculum and "instruction" in preschool education requiring increased attention from researchers and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada has long been a leader in conducting episodic spending reviews to check public spending. However, it has fallen behind many other countries that have taken a more consistent approach relying to a much larger extent on strategic reviews that not only check spending, but also examine the links between spending and policy priorities. To bring greater coherence to review processes, we argue that an embedded system would greatly enhance decision‐makers' ability to make more informed budgetary choices that draw on reliable longitudinal data. There are many ways to organize reviews, and this article provides comparative international experience that could inform discussion on the rationale and benefits of an embedded review system that could be led by the Treasury Board Secretariat. We suggest that there may be a pathway to such implementation that must take into certain preconditions for success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of macroeconomic volatility on terrorism in 38 African economies spanning the period from 1980 to 2012, using available data. It examines four categories of terrorism markers: domestic, transnational, uncertain, and total, and their correlation with the volatility of four macroeconomic indicators—inflation, output growth, domestic credit to the private sector, and government expenditures. The study employs the negative binomial regression estimator on both the conditional variance structures of the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and exponential GARCH (EGARCH) and the unconditional measure of a 3‐year interval time varying of measuring macroeconomic variables' volatilities on other regressors. I find, first, that inflation volatility is a significant predictor of all terrorism markers, except for transnational terrorism. This implies that high inflation volatility is linked to increased domestic terrorism. Second, the role of domestic credit to the private sector in mitigating transnational terrorist activities highlights the importance of stable private sector access to credit in reducing such incidents. Third, government consumption expenditure volatility has a dual effect on terrorism: it amplifies domestic terrorism but serves as a mitigating factor for total terrorism. This indicates that stable government expenditure can reduce overall terrorism, but might increase domestic terrorism. Last, other variables—such as population, ethnicity, conflicts, surface areas, and lagged terrorism values—are also found to influence the examined terrorism measures. For robustness, I employ alternative statistical techniques, including Poisson Pseudo‐maximum likelihood (PPML) estimation with multiple high‐dimensional fixed effects (HDFE). In summary, this study emphasizes the critical role of addressing inflation volatility in macroeconomic policies as a primary measure to counter terrorism. Stable economic conditions, particularly in relation to inflation, can significantly contribute to reducing terrorism in African economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I argue that increasing inequality should have an impact on public opinion which balances the impact of military spending in the United States. Using the so‐called "guns versus butter trade‐off" argument, I show that, as inequality increases between those at a lower income level and those at the upper end of income, the public may view social spending as too small and military spending as too large. In response, the public should act less favorably to expenditure on the military. An empirical test of the effect of inequality on public support (since the 1980s) of military spending, in which I employ public opinion data, confirms my expectations: widening inequality engenders a negative impact on public support for defense expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effect of leader longevity in power on world happiness. To make the assessment, a sample composed of 135 countries observed over the period 2006 to 2018 was constituted. The results obtained from OLS estimates show that longevity in power reduces individual happiness. Furthermore, the negative effect is more amplified in democratic countries. Quantile regression reveals variability in the effect over the different intervals. These results are robust to the use of alternative estimation techniques. We also identify the quality of institutions and public spending as two potential transmission channels through which longevity in power influences well‐being. These results invite political authorities to respect constitutional limits or implement constitutional reforms with the aim of limiting the duration of the mandate of the executive in order to reduce the harmful effect of an extension of the latter on individuals' well‐being. Related Articles: Flavin, Patrick, Alexander C. Pacek, and Benjamin Radcliff. 2011. "State Intervention and Subjective Well‐Being in Advanced Industrial Democracies." Politics & Policy 39(2): 251–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00290.x. Jakubow, Alexander. 2014. "State Intervention and Life Satisfaction Reconsidered: The Role of Governance Quality and Resource Misallocation." Politics & Policy 42(1): 3–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12057. Kim, Hae S. 2017. "Patterns of Economic Development: Correlations Affecting Economic Growth and Quality of Life in 222 Countries." Politics & Policy 45(1): 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12190. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 25 September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, which includes seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, among them the 10th Goal aims to reduce inequalities. Convinced of the importance of this goal, in this paper we propose to study the socio-economic determinants which affect the inequalities among the 20 Italian regions by applying a suitable regression model. The socio-economic literature suggests that the most important determinants of inequalities are government spending, income, employment and educational attainment, so we focus our attention on the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals related to these determinant factors. Given that the number of indicators is extremely high, while the number of observations is low, we consider the partial least squares regression as the most suitable statistical methodology to deal with this dependence modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES: A previous study reported that increased state and local government expenditures abstract were associated with decreased infant mortality rates (IMRs). However, reported estimates of the association between expenditures and IMR represented the degree to which the association changed each year, not the main effect. We reproduced the original results, reporting this main effect and replicated the analysis using improved methodology and updated data. METHODS: For the reproduction analysis, we used methods and data identical to the original study: A publicly-posted, state-level data set of expenditures from 2000 to 2014 US Census Bureau survey data linked to 2-year lagged IMR data with a random intercept model including an interaction between time and expenditures. For the replication analysis, we added 5 years of data and adjusted for fixed state differences and inflation. RESULTS: In the reproduction, the main effects of total, environmental, and educational expenditures on IMR were much larger than the interaction effects previously reported as the main effects. For example, a 1-SD increase in per-capita total expenditures was associated with a reduction of 0.35 infant deaths per 1000 live births instead of 0.02 deaths per 1000 live births originally reported. In the updated replication, the main effects were generally even larger (eg, -0.51 deaths per 1000 per SD increase in total expenditures). Increased total expenditures were associated with absolute but not relative reductions in Black-white IMR gaps. CONCLUSIONS: State and local government expenditures are associated with greater reductions in IMR than previously reported, underscoring the importance of continued public investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the influence of government expenditure and institutions on public debt accumulation and economic growth in Ghana between 1990 and 2019. The paper examines how public debt is utilized for government spending on capital and recurrent expenditure, and the role bureaucratic quality plays in improving economic growth. The employed estimation technique is structural equation modelling because it effectively assesses complex situations and allows the modelling of complex systems by utilizing simultaneous equations, mediator analysis and modification indices to improve the goodness of fit of a model. The study indicates that public debt negatively affects GDP growth, whereas trade openness positively influences GDP growth and public debt accumulation. Bureaucratic quality impacts GDP growth positively and capital expenditure negatively. Recurrent expenditure positively predicts GDP growth and capital expenditure. Capital expenditure's effect on GDP growth is negative but statistically insignificant. The right checks and balances should be implemented to mitigate rent‐seeking and corrupt activities associated with bureaucracy. Tax revenue mobilization should be improved to reduce budget deficits and borrowing, whereas exports should be promoted through improving local industries. Finally, all infrastructural projects must be completed to serve their purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines different real-monetary dynamics and policy responses during the COVID-19 pandemic (C19P) and the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in the United States through the lens of the Sraffian Supermultiplier model and the endogenous money approach. On the one hand, the C19P triggered a relatively deeper contraction in GDP, but its recovery was relatively faster and more robust. The 'V' shaped recovery from the C19P significantly contrasted the 'L' shaped trajectory of the post-GFC period. On the other hand, the money supply (M2) grew relatively more, and the monetary base expanded relatively less during the C19P. To explain these different real-monetary dynamics, a theoretical framework is developed and analyzed empirically for the United States. The theoretical model and the empirical analysis suggest that money supply is endogenously determined by creditworthy demand derived from the multiplier-accelerator effect of non-capacity generating autonomous demand, in which government spending plays a key role. Therefore, the absence of full hysteresis after the C19P shock had nothing to do with a traditional neoclassical trend reversal mechanism but with the fiscal supermultiplier effect of the extraordinary pandemic-related government spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a simple closed-economy model that is driven by the growth of two autonomous components of demand, namely government spending and rentiers' consumption out of interest income. Using this model, it seeks to make two contributions. First, by focusing on the financial dynamics that arise from debt-financed government spending, we show that an underlying stock-flow interaction provides an endogenous mechanism which, under certain conditions, aligns the two autonomous growth rates in the long run. Hence, an economy can be driven by two autonomous components of demand, without one dominating the other in the long-run nor without policy changes being required to align the two growth drivers. Second, we prove that if two autonomous demand components are dynamically interdependent, then the relative size of their growth contributions may be misleading as a guide to classify growth regimes, both in the long-run equilibrium as well as during the traverse towards this equilibrium. Furthermore, we show that the relative growth contributions are economic policy contingent. We thus argue that interdependencies between autonomous growth components arising from financial stock-flow interactions should not be ignored in Sraffian supermultiplier growth decomposition exercises that aim to identify underlying growth drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, a group of economists launched a proposal asking for the write-off of the public debt built-up in the ECB's balance sheet and an increase in public spending for a similar amount. This proposal generated strong criticism, which can be organized into three blocks: (i) debt relief occurs when a central bank purchases public debt, and its cancellation does not improve the situation faced by governments; (ii) the proposal is grounded in an erroneous concept of 'fiscal space', and there are better alternatives for the financing of public spending; (iii) the proposal would be counterproductive or illegal. This article rebuts those criticisms, finding the plan helpful to avoid a return to fiscal austerity. More specifically, debt cancellation makes quantitative easing, the unconventional monetary policy that justified the purchase of public debt, irreversible whilst simultaneously increasing the fiscal space of Eurozone Member States. Finally, and most relevant, the proposal includes a specific commitment to an increase in public spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been longstanding international fascination with the British National Health Service since it was established in 1948. The British population itself has offered enduring support for the principles and institutions of public provision. However, coverage of the NHS has typically been uneven in academic and policy debates. There is limited understanding of some darker corners of NHS provision resulting in a partial picture of public service provision. Public dentistry has been a Cinderella service in broader debates about the NHS and a check‐up is overdue. We offer a long‐term view of dentistry that assesses the current state of dental health policy, including its gradual decay. We examine the purpose of dentistry and the challenge of injecting fundamental National Health Service values (weighted capitation and a focus on need) into services and which necessitates redistribution and tackling shibboleths of NHS provision. Alongside political values and public attitudes, we examine the interests of professional stakeholders and how the combination of values, attitudes, and interests does not currently cohere into a sustainable policy. We explore how dentistry might recover purpose and respond to need. Discussion is prescient considering an acknowledged crisis in British dental care, including widespread public and media coverage, and with 2024 being a general election year with NHS provision a familiar battleground. Key Points: Dentistry remains an overlooked and neglected corner in academic understanding and analysis of contemporary British healthcare and the NHS.Our succinct analysis of dentistry assesses the current state of dental health policy. It examines the purpose of dentistry and the challenge of injecting fundamental NHS values into services.It asks how dentistry might recover purpose and respond to need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We estimate government consumption and investment multipliers for 20 Italian regions. • We provide region-specific multipliers using Bayesian heterogeneous threshold PVAR. • We find considerable multiplier heterogeneity across regions and cycle states. • We conduct an analysis on a set of potential multipliers' determinants. This paper estimates the multipliers of two types of government spending in the 20 Italian administrative regions throughout 1960–2017, distinguishing between phases of expansion and recession. We derive regime- and region-specific multipliers through a nonlinear Bayesian heterogeneous panel threshold VAR model and provide a wide-ranging sensitivity analysis. We find that both government consumption and government investment multipliers are higher in recession than in expansion. In almost every region, government investment multipliers exceed unity in recession phases and are generally higher than their government consumption counterparts regardless of the business cycle. An exploratory analysis of the region-specific multipliers suggests that the difference between the region-specific multipliers in recession and expansion is positively associated with structural labour slack and negatively associated with trade openness. Factors related to the quality of local institutions, such as corruption and the relative size of the informal economy, also have a negative impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and regional development are mutually interwoven phenomena. This paper introduces an analytical framework to investigate the interaction mechanism between FDI and regional industrial structure. This framework posits first that FDI generally has a significant influence on the industrial structure in the region concerned, specifically through intervening mechanisms such as capital supply, active selection, passive competition, product linkage, imitation and demonstration and employee flows. Secondly, the industrial structure, in turn, also affects FDI flows through mechanisms including market demand, factor supply and policy or institutional factors. Finally, there are bi-directional interactions; using a spatial interaction framework, the present study applies and tests a simultaneous equation model and a spatial Durbin model to analyse empirical data from 15 urban regions in the Pearl River Delta mega-city region (PRD) in China spanning the period 2005–2018. The key findings from this multi-scalar analysis are: (i) there are substantial interactive effects between FDI and industrial structure, with the rationalisation and upgrading of the industrial structure significantly promoting FDI inflows into the PRD; (ii) FDI inflows, in turn, contribute to the reinforcement and upgrading of the industrial structure in the PRD; and (iii) the interactions between FDI and industrial structure exhibit significant spatial-economic growth effects. We also find that moderator factors, including independent R&D level, market size, marketisation level, labour cost, infrastructure and government expenditure, have discernible impacts on FDI inflows and the rationalisation and upscaling of the industrial-economic structure in the area concerned. Finally, we note that, in our study, significant spatial dependence effects among urban areas inside the PRD area are observed and modelled. The discussion of the empirical findings leads to the identification of several important policy implications and lessons for regional development strategies from an FDI perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do foreign policies and transnational projects become resistant to critique? This article seeks to better understand the legitimation of policies by studying the work involved in justifying public funding of migration and development initiatives. Government expenditures on migration and development have been increasing in recent years, despite widely shared concerns regarding the merits of such initiatives. In this article, we focus our attention on the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF). The EUTF has been assessed by EU agencies as a successful intervention, while never hiding its inability to achieve demonstrable progress toward its goals of addressing the "root causes" of the 2015–2016 migration "crisis" in the Mediterranean. We argue that this fund was legitimized as a valuable policy intervention through the efforts of European officials and Monitoring and Evaluation experts to, borrowing from Bourdieu, "convert capital": translate one form of power resource into another form. Based on document analysis and 25 key informant interviews, we trace how EUTF officials successfully converted capital by, first, mobilizing political resources to generate economic capital for migration-related projects in Africa; and second, transforming some of this economic capital into more lasting symbolic capital which justifies long-term migration and development initiatives. In short, money becomes legitimacy. We argue that this "conversion work" helps us to better understand the continued growth and upholding of migration and development financing which consists not only of raw funds but also involves continuous efforts to legitimize these expenditures as inherently valuable policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores to what extent strategic planning is important for the implementation of co-creation, the process through which public authorities solve problems with partners outside their organization. The article explores local government in Croatia and Slovenia, where structural conditions – problems with administrative capacity, low strategic planning capacities, a weakly embedded civil society and the private sector in the provision of public services – are unfavourable for the implementation of co-creation. Results show that strategic planning has a positive effect on the uptake of co-creation. How comprehensively co-creation is implemented also depends on the motivation and preparedness of professionals. Even in an environment where dialogue and collaboration between different partners and levels of government are not well-embedded, co-creation is on the rise and most frequently used for agenda setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on policy responsiveness to public opinion highlights differences owing to political institutions—both electoral and governmental. Electoral institutions that produce coalition governments tend to reduce responsiveness in between elections. Government institutions that divide powers horizontally, by contrast, appear to increase that responsiveness. These findings point to the role of institutional "friction" in shaping what governments do, though the two sources appear to produce different effects—one harmful and the other helpful. This paper explores this apparent contradiction. We revisit and clarify theoretical assumptions and outline alternative models of the effects of friction. Extending previous tests, now in 18 countries, we find clearer evidence supporting that earlier research and more firmly establish friction as the mechanism, particularly as regards the influence of electoral systems. The two institutional sources of friction appear to influence responsiveness in different ways, which has implications for politics and policy that we consider in the concluding section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political scientists agree that most Americans are "operationally liberal." However, economic preferences have traditionally been measured as opinions on public spending, independent from the "costs" of public policies. In reality, redistributive economic policies often impose costs on some actors while delivering benefits to others. When a policy's costs and benefits are both apparent, what types of redistribution do Americans prefer? This paper's novel survey evidence shows that preferences for policy benefits are indeed sensitive to which subgroups would bear the policy's costs (and vice versa). American majorities do support a wide range of redistributive economic policy packages—as long as the wealthy are footing the bill or the costs are hidden. When the size of the group facing the policy cost (e.g., tax) increases, overall support declines. Preference differences between Republicans of varying economic statuses are large, while divisions within the Democratic coalition are subtler but still clear on certain policies. Overall, this paper shows that measuring preferences for a policy's costs (e.g., taxation) are crucial to truly understanding voters' holistic economic policy demands. Further, the lack of enactment by political elites of the forms of redistribution consistently supported by the public casts research on democratic representation in new light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, fiscal crises have notably impacted capitalist nations, a situation that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although theories of capital accumulation and economic crises often serve to explain these events, this study advocates for a broader perspective by viewing fiscal crises as a primary manifestation of the contradiction between socialized production and capitalist private ownership. This study examines the evolution of this contradiction through various stages of capitalism and highlights the potential pitfalls of common strategies adopted by capitalist nations, such as neoliberal policies that cut social welfare and public spending. The study then shifts its focus to China, exploring its unique dual fiscal system, which supports China's rapid economic growth, offering a novel perspective on addressing the global fiscal crisis. JEL Classification : P16, F63, E62 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]