Search results for "austerity"
showing 10 items of 30 documents
Implementing Performance Reporting in Local Government: A Cross-Countries Comparison
2016
ABSTRACTProviding information on economy, efficiency, and effectiveness is one of the most important innovations in local government management, with performance reporting emerging as a new component for accountability and decision-making. This article compares 17 countries to ascertain whether there is convergence between them, studying key issues in the implementation of performance reporting by local governments. It also identifies some lessons that can be of use to countries that want to implement or improve performance reporting systems. Findings show that there is no convergence in practice or results, and that institutional factors influence the implementation of performance reportin…
Hidden costs of cuts: austerity, civil service management and the motivation of public officials in Central and Eastern Europe after the crisis
2016
The implementation of austerity measures presents a dilemma for governments. While austerity measures such as cutbacks aim to reduce costs and enhance public sector efficiency, the same measures might undermine the motivation of employees and, consequently, the prospects of effectively implementing austerity programmes. Based on a survey of ministerial officials in Poland and Latvia, this article finds that the scale of cutbacks explains a larger decline of staff motivation in Latvia than in Poland. The article further shows that motivation was more likely to decrease after the crisis if austerity measures involved cutbacks such as staff reductions, recruitment freezes, and a reduction of t…
Being positive, being hopeful, being happy : young adults reflecting on their future in times of austerity
2020
The aim of this article is to analyse the ways in which young adults reflect on their futures. We are particularly interested in how they expect to organize their lives in conditions that seem to offer pessimistic rather than hopeful prospects. How does this happen under social conditions where the major public and individual concerns are with how young adults organize their material lives and how they earn sufficient livelihoods to become good citizens? What are the grounds for their future visions? In our analysis we use 40 interviews with young Finnish adults aged between 18 and 30. The respondents are students, as well as employed and unemployed young adults. Our findings show that the…
La insuficiencia de las actuales políticas de fomento de cooperativas y sociedades laborales frente a la crisis en España
2014
El objeto del presente artículo es analizar las políticas de fomento de cooperativas y sociedades laborales durante este periodo de crisis, identificando los principales dispositivos existentes y los de nueva implantación, evaluando su alcance y valorando su nivel de eficacia. Se han distinguido tres grupos de políticas de fomento, las políticas tradicionales de fomento, las políticas de nuevo cuño, incluyendo en estas últimas las medidas urdidas por los gobiernos regionales y la nueva ley de economía social y finalmente las políticas de austeridad. Se concluye, en primer lugar, que las cooperativas y sociedades laborales no constituyen un sector muy subvencionado dado que el alcance de est…
Is fiscal fatigue a threat to consolidation programmes?
2015
Building on a narrative approach to identify episodes of fiscal consolidation, data for a group of 17 industrial countries over the period 1978-2009 and continuous-time duration models, we find evidence suggesting that the likelihood of a fiscal consolidation ending increases over time, but only for programs that last less than six years. Additionally, fiscal consolidations tend to last longer in non-European than in European countries. Our results emphasize that chronic fiscal imbalances might lead to a vicious austerity cycle, while discipline in the behaviour of fiscal authorities is a means of achieving credible and shorter adjustment measures. Therefore, fiscal fatigue is likely to com…
Growing Like Germany: Local Public Debt, Local Banks, Low Private Investment
2021
The paper uses a panel of more than 1m German firms over 2010-2016, to provide the first firm-bank level evidence of local crowding out for a developed economy characterized by low interest rates and fiscal austerity. Our mechanism relies on two structural features of Germany's banking landscape: the local segmentation of credit markets for small and medium-sized firms (SME) and the role of local public banks in local public finance. Local public banks dominate lending to small and medium firms in Germany and also have an explicit mandate to lend to the local public sector. With spreads on local government debt at all-time lows, local public banks tried to break even, using their market pow…
Análisis sociojurídico de las transformaciones en la provisión de seguridad. Austeridad y aporofobia como racionalidades estructurantes de los derech…
2021
Desde la perspectiva sociojurídica de los estudios de la gobernabilidad, se analiza la evolución de las estrategias de provisión de seguridad, desde su orientación neoliberal hasta el predominio de la austeridad desde la crisis de 2008. Se delimita así un escenario en el que la desigualdad y la aporofobia son elementos fundamentales del marco axiológico hegemónico. Esto es relevante para la configuración y efectividad de los derechos sociales de distintos grupos vulnerables. El artículo se aproxima finalmente a la situación de las empleadas de hogar y de quienes acceden a una vivienda mediante la ocupación de inmuebles vacíos en España.
Opera houses: from democratization to plutocratic control? Lyric production, economic management, and elite control in the main Spanish opera houses …
2021
For 20 years, the main cultural institutions in Europe have faced new challenges such as increasing their efficiency in terms of the use of public resources. However, while operas found themselves ...
Fiscal consolidation and financial reforms
2015
We use data for a panel of 17 countries over the period 1980-2005 to investigate the impact of fiscal consolidation on the likelihood of financial reforms. We show that fiscal adjustments do not boost the implementation of financial reforms. However, tax-driven fiscal consolidation programs raise the likelihood of banking sector reforms. Moreover, we find that: (i) an increase in the degree of trade openness makes countries less likely to implement financial reforms; (ii) an increase in the interest rate spreads accelerates the path of financial reforms, especially, external capital account reforms; and (iii) an improvement in the quality of political institutions strongly enhances the prob…
Will austerity cuts dismantle the Spanish healthcare system?
2013
In the face of austerity, a series of disconnected “reforms” could, without corrective measures, lead to the effective dismantling of large parts of the Spanish healthcare system, with potentially detrimental effects on health. Helena Legido-Quigley and colleagues explain.