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This paper argues that the underprovision of public goods can be partly explained by lower demand from Indigenous groups with high preferences for Indigenous identity and a high capacity for coordination. Examining the post-Mexican Revolution period (1920s-1950s), when the state used the first road network for nation-building, our diff-in-diff analysis shows that pre-colonial political centralisation is associated with less road infrastructure. This is attributed to stronger capacity for collective action and stronger Indigenous identity preferences. Finally, we show that poor road infrastructure today is linked to lower economic performance.

Although three decades have passed since the fall of communism in Poland, the observed level of social activity in the country is relatively low. Participatory budget emerged as an idea to increase the involvement of citizens in decision-making processes concerning their immediate surroundings. In addition to their inclusion in the activity of local government, this form of citizen participation is expected to have a positive impact on residents’ involvement in activities for the benefit of the local community. The aim of this article is to indicate the conditions that influenced the implementation of the idea of the first participatory budget in Poland and emphasizing the importance of the civic budget in managing public administration through partial decentralization involving local communities in social dialogue for local investment initiatives, especially in large provincial cities in Poland. The following research question was adopted in the paper: has the introduction of a participatory budget in Poland increased social activity and has it been conducive to the development of civil society. In Poland, the initiative to create a civic budget met good political conditions in the relatively small city of Sopot, which had the resources to implement the project. After successful implementation, this initiative was relatively quickly adopted by other Polish local governments, which then on their own introduced social consultations called the civic budget. Not all poviats introduced the civic budget of their own volition. The government, seeing the possibility of political discounting of this new solution, decided to introduce a mandatory participatory budget in town counties and ordered the allocation of funds from their budgets, no less than 1 % of budget expenditure. The article relies on the case-study method, comparative analysis and trend analysis, qualitative and quantitative methods of description, document analysis and statistical data. The analysis focuses on the town of Sopot and provincial capitals. Local conditions are important for understanding the processes of shaping active civic attitudes in Poland, because cities are the poles of development of civil society and give impetus to innovative changes in the entire socio-economic system. The materials used in the article include reports, documents and legal acts regarding the functioning of the town of Sopot. The study showed that the participatory budget indeed activates the local community around various projects. At the same time, the question of directly translating this activity into an increase in the number of organizations, associations and foundations remains debatable. The introduction of the participatory budget to administrative management practice in local-government units in Poland should be considered in terms of the soft power impact of administration on the shaping and development of civil society, which is still in the development stage in Poland.

Women politicians face barriers that can undermine their performance relative to men. Using original micro-data from Uganda, we test for gender gaps in performance across different job duties in subnational legislatures. We hypothesize, and find, that performance gender gaps are greatest in job duties that require greater peer interaction (legislative duties), while no such gaps exist in more individually-performed duties (e.g., meeting with the electorate, facilitating constituency development). Fine-grained network data reveals women's informal exclusion in politician networks, and this exclusion holds explanatory power in explaining job duties requiring interaction with fellow politicians. Further, qualifications and previous experience also determine part of the gender performance gap in more intricate tasks. Moving forward, advocacy organizations may consider holding trainings and simulations with politicians on performing job duties in ways that encourage cross-gender professional network ties. Politikerinnen sind mit Hindernissen konfrontiert, die ihre Leistung im Vergleich zu Männern beeinträchtigen können. Anhand von Original-Mikrodaten aus Uganda untersuchen wir geschlechtsspezifische Leistungsunterschiede bei verschiedenen Aufgaben in subnationalen Parlamenten. Wir stellen die Hypothese auf und stellen fest, dass die Leistungsunterschiede zwischen Geschlechtern bei Aufgaben am größten sind, die eine stärkere Interaktion zwischen den Politikern erfordern (legislative Aufgaben), während bei Aufgaben, die eher individuell ausgeführt werden (z.B. Treffen mit der Wählerschaft, Erleichterung der Wahlkreisentwicklung), keine solchen Unterschiede bestehen. Detaillierte Netzwerkdaten zeigen, dass Frauen informell aus Politikernetzwerken ausgeschlossen werden, und dieser Ausschluss hat Erklärungskraft für berufliche Aufgaben die Interaktion mit anderen Politikern erfordern. Darüber hinaus bestimmen auch Qualifikationen und Vorerfahrungen einen Teil des geschlechtsspezifischen Leistungsunterschiede bei komplizierten Aufgaben. In Zukunft können Interessensvertretungen in Erwägung ziehen, Schulungen und Simulationen mit Politikern über die Ausführung von Aufgaben durchzuführen, die geschlechtsübergreifende berufliche Netzwerkverbindungen fördern.

We exploit the introduction of an open data online platform - part of a transparency program initiated by the Italian Government in late 2014 - as a natural experiment to analyse the effect of data disclosure on mayors' expenditure and public good provision. First, we analyse the effect of the program by comparing municipalities on the border between ordinary and special regions, exploiting the fact that the latter regions did not participate in the program. We find that mayors in ordinary regions immediately change their behaviour after data disclosure by improving the disclosed indicators, and that the reaction depends also on their initial relative performance, a yardstick competition effect. Second, we investigate the effect of mayors' attention to data disclosure within treated regions by tracking their daily accesses to the platform, which we instrument with the daily publication of newspaper articles mentioning the program. We find that mayors react to data disclosure by decreasing spending via a reduction of service provision, resulting in an aggregate decrease in efficiency. Overall, mayors seem to target variables that are disclosed on the website at the expense of variables that are less salient.

We propose and test empirically a theory describing the endogenous formation and persistence of mega-states, using China as an example. We suggest that the relative timing of the emergence of agricultural societies, and their distance from each other, set off a race between their autochthonous state-building projects, which determines their extent and persistence. Using a novel dataset describing the historical presence of Chinese states, prehistoric development, the diffusion of agriculture, and migratory distance across 1° × 1° grid cells in eastern Asia, we find that cells that adopted agriculture earlier and were close to Erlitou – the earliest political center in eastern Asia – remained under Chinese control for longer and continue to be a part of China today. By contrast, cells that adopted agriculture early and were located further from Erlitou developed into independent states, as agriculture provided the fertile ground for state-formation, while isolation provided time for them to develop and confront the expanding Chinese empire. Our study sheds important light on why eastern Asia kept reproducing a mega-state in the area that became China and on the determinants of its borders with other states.

The article aims at analyzing the possibility of including developers (private companies focused on profits) into the process of revitalizing tenement houses located in the center of Poznan. The consideration is located in the capital city of Wielkopolska and takes into account the analysis of both the local housing real estate market and developers’ enterprises in the city. The authors, supported by economic calculation and a case study, have researched the case of a free-market developer’s project of revitalizing a well-located, yet run-down tenement house, and, on the contrary, the case of a developer taking over a property being a municipal resource. Having researched the market in order to set the parameters of further research works, both scenarios where evaluated when it comes to their economic, social and spatial results. The main purpose of the article was to analyze possibilities and to point out the determinant factors of using the economic potential of developers in the process of revitalizing housing resources located in downtown areas. The work is to contribute to the discussion on making the actions of public administration more flexible when it comes to cooperation with private investors. By outlining the research concept, the authors aim to set the basis for further and deeper analysis. The paper is to test the scientific community when it comes to the appropriateness of the diagnosis and the direction of potential research.

In the 21st century in a globalized world the level of competitiveness depends on numerous factors. This article concentrates deliberations on several of them, including space, population and international exchange. For ages, the international position of a country depended on its geographical size or access to sea. The country’s size was also determined by its internal demographic potential. As civilization progressed, there was a reorientation of factors which influence the development of individual countries and their regions. The contemporary world has seen an emergence of countries with small surface area and minor human potential, which yet are global development leaders. In the literature, they are often referred to as small states. Analysis of research shows that small countries are more involved, for instance, in providing support for the society. International exchange is also important for the development of individual countries. In this aspect, small countries turn the apparent threat related to a small market into an advantage. In the conclusion of the deliberation, the authors of the study point out that despite significant economic, social and cultural evolution, space and population are still important elements of development, although, they note, the role of such elements of spatial policy as natural resources is smaller than in the past.

The main purpose of this article is analysis of the relationship between local tax and fee policies in Poland. We argue that local authorities have similar and significant discretion over tax and fee policy and, therefore, they can be analysed in a similar way. Links between these policies are analysed to find out whether they are of complementary or substitutive nature. Panel data on 578 Polish municipalities from 2012 to 2016 includes information on property tax rates and tariffs for water provision and sewage disposal for households and companies and is used to run panel regression analysis and to perform a quasi-experiment. The results indicate that there is a relationship between tax and fee policies as well as that taxes and fees are complements for local authorities. Only when a property tax rate has reached a “ceiling”, the municipalities increase fees at a faster rate than comparable municipalities below the ceiling – in this case a fee can be regarded as a substitute for a tax. The paper is based on results of the “Fees for local public services - financial and political importance” research project. The project is funded by Narodowe Centrum Nauki (National Science Centre) grant number UMO-2015/19/B/HS4/02898

Die Corona-Krise hat bei den Kommunen zu zusätzlichen Ausgaben und hohen Steuerausfällen geführt. Zur Stabilisierung der Kommunalfinanzen hat der Bund zwei Gesetzesinitiativen auf den Weg gebracht. Neben einer dauerhaft stärkeren Beteiligung des Bundes an den Kosten für Unterkunft und Heizung in der Grundsicherung für Arbeitssuchende sollen einmalig und in pauschaler Form die krisenbedingten Gewerbesteuermindereinnahmen der Kommunen kompensiert werden. Beide Maßnahmen führen jedoch zu einer unsachgerechten Vermischung von kurzfristigen Interventionen zur fiskalischen Bewältigung der Corona-Krise mit grundlegenden Reformnotwendigkeiten der Kommunalfinanzen. The Corona crisis has led to unforeseeable additional expenses as well as significant losses of tax income for local governments. In order to stabilise public finances at the local level, the German federal government has passed two new bills. One of the bills basically provides for a permanent expansion of the federal government's financial contribution towards the cost of housing and heating as part of the guaranteed minimum income for job seekers. The federal government also singularly compensates - in cooperation with the state governments - local governments for the significant crisis-related decline in local business tax revenue through a lump sum payment in 2020. However, these two measures will affect short-term intervention to cope with the fiscal problems of the Corona crisis as well as the fundamental need to reform public finances at local government level.

Dieses Policy Paper untersucht für die Europäische Union, die Bundesebene und die Bundesländer die institutionelle und inhaltliche Ausgestaltung der Regulierungskontrolle und der Maßnahmen zum Bürokratieabbau. Die Analyse der administrativen Belastungen für die Unternehmen in Deutschland und der Institutionen zu ihrer Reduzierung ist bislang überwiegend auf die gesamtstaatliche Ebene mit der Bundesgesetzgebung fokussiert, eine zusammenfassende Darstellung der Zuständigkeiten nach staatlichen Ebenen fehlt. Auf EU-Ebene wurde erst nach der Jahrtausendwende und damit relativ spät die bürokratische Belastung für Unternehmen durch europäische Rechtsakte und Vorgaben thematisiert. Ausgehend von der Kleinunternehmenscharta 2000 folgten 2007 die Einsetzung der Hochrangigen Gruppe im Bereich Verwaltungslasten, 2008 der Small Business Act und 2015 das REFIT-Programm. Auf gesamtstaatlicher Ebene in Deutschland wurde nach diversen Einzelmaßnahmen 2006 mit dem Standardkostenmodell und der Einsetzung des Nationalen Normenkontrollrats ein systematisches Vorgehen gegen administrative Belastungen für Unternehmen eingeleitet, dass eine Reduktion dieser eng abgegrenzten Bürokratie um ein Viertel bringen sollte. Seit 2010 wird auch der Erfüllungsaufwand von neuen Gesetzen gemessen. Die Bundesländer sind dem deutschen Föderalismus gemäß sehr unterschiedlich aufgestellt, was die Begrenzung von Bürokratie betrifft. Bis auf Berlin verfügen alle Länder über ein Mittelstandsgesetz oder eine entsprechende Richtlinie zur Berücksichtigung der Belange des Mittelstands, aber nur wenige Länder verfügen über eine eigene Standardkostenmessung nach Bundesvorbild. Das Policy Paper schließt mit Empfehlungen für die drei untersuchten Staatsebenen. This Policy Paper analyses the relevant institutions and administrative measures for curbing bureaucracy in the European Union, for the German federal administration and at German Laender level. While bureaucratic burdens and measures to control and reduce bureaucracy are well documented for the national level in Germany, a common approach to the EU, national and state level is still missing. In the EU, the burdens for the enterprise sector resulting from European bureaucracy and regulation became an important topic only after 2000, as European competitiveness seemed to be in danger. Starting with the 'European Charter for Small Enterprises' in 2000, the 'High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens' was established in 2007 and the 'Small Business Act' followed in 2008. In 2015, the REFIT-programme was introduced to strengthen the better regulation agenda. On the German national level, the introduction of the standard cost model and the establishment of the regulatory control council 'Normenkontrollrat' in 2006 can be viewed as milestones, because they were a prerequisite for a systematic measurement and reduction of bureaucracy-induced costs. In 2010, measurement was extended to total costs of regulation including compliance costs instead of costs of administrative procedures only. Nevertheless, a considerable discrepancy between bureaucracy felt by enterprises and measured by government agencies remains. At the administrative level of the 16 German Laender, institutions and measures to control and reduce bureaucracy vary widely. Only few Laender have introduced a measurement of state bureaucracy and a regulatory control council similar to the federal level. The paper concludes with recommendations to strengthen regulatory and bureaucracy control on the three governmental levels.

Across the globe, local governments have increasingly begun to rely on municipally owned corporations (MOCs) to provide public services, mounting to what scholars describe as a burgeoning corporatization in local government. Some studies have described this development as a rational response to financial stress and contemporary austerity challenges, and emphasise the cost-efficiency of MOCs (the optimistic view). However, several scholars have identified problems associated MOCs relating to weak steering and supervision, lack of accountability, and heightened corruption risks (the sceptical view). Hitherto, no studies have tested these diametrically opposing expectations on the effects MOCs in the one and same analysis. This paper addresses the competing views by studying Sweden, a country with a dramatic growth in the number of MOCs since the 1970s. We examine the association between the number of MOCs, citizen satisfaction with local government, local tax rates and a survey-based corruption measure for all 290 Swedish municipalities. Ultimately questioning the 'optimistic view', the results indicate that municipalities that rely heavily on MOCs in service delivery have higher taxes, not more satisfied citizens, and are associated with higher corruption levels.

Do crises erode trust in government? To answer this question, we leverage the quasi-experimental setting of the sharply increased military threat to the neutral county of Switzerland during the two world wars as an exogenous shock. In doing so, we exploit a unique feature of Swiss politics: government issuance of pre-referenda voting recommendations. We use constitu ent adherence to government recommendations as a behaviour al proxy for trus t in government, measured in real time prior to, duri ng, and after the crisis. Our difference-in- differences estimates provide strong evidence that constituents are significantly less likely to follow governmental voting recommendations during wartime.

Zusammenfassung: Im Forschungsprojekt WISIND (Ein Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Indikatorensystem zur Messung von Sicherheit und Sicherheitswirtschaft in Deutschland) wurden sowohl die vielfaltigen Bedrohungen durch willentlich verursachte, das Individuum direkt beeintrachtigende Kriminalitatsformen gemessen als auch die personliche Furcht vor solcher Kriminalitat erfasst. Hier gingen neben bereits bestehenden Datenquellen insbesondere umfangreiche eigene Erhebungen ein. Der vorliegende Beitrag skizziert zum einen die Zusammensetzung der WISIND-Indikatoren fur Kriminalitatsbedrohung und Kriminalitatsfurcht mit einer genauen Beschreibung, welche eigens fur das Forschungsprojekt erhobenen Daten und welche bereits in offiziellen Statistiken vorhanden Quellen wo eingingen. Zu letzteren gehoren unter anderem Kommunikations daten aus sozialen Netzwerken, eine Medienanalyse und individuelle Befragungsdaten uber die personliche Betroffenheit durch Kriminalitat, die Kriminalitatsfurcht und Einschatzungen zu Schweregraden von Kriminalitat. Zum anderen werden die methodischen Rahmeninformationen zu den diversen eigens erhobenen Daten uberblicksartig dargestellt um ihre Nutzung uber den Datenservice bei Gesis zu erleichtern. summary: The WISIND (The system of economic indicators to measure security and security provision in Germany) research project not only measures the multiple threats caused by crimes committed willfully and directly affecting the individual but also the personal fear of such crimes. Extensive (survey) data was collected and integrated in to existing data. This article outlines the composition of the WISIND indicators for crime and fear of crime, explicitly detailing how data were integrated, whether from newly collected data or existing official statistics. The newly collected data include, among others, communication data from digital social networks, a media analysis, and extensive survey data on the effect of crime on the individual, fear of crime and assessments of crime severity. A methodological overview of data collected during the WISIND project is also provided in order to facilitate data usage via the GESIS data service.

The most common method of measuring subjective fear of crime in the general population has traditionally been through surveys. With the spread of digital technologies, however, data from social media and search engines could now help researchers learn more about people's subjective perceptions of certain types of crime. The present article will show that although the analysis of data from social media and search engines is not suitable as an indicator of actual crime levels in Germany, it can certainly be a cost-effective supplement to traditional methods of collecting data on perceived crime levels.

In the Netherlands, electronic service delivery has become an important issue in many municipalities. Using the Internet for service delivery is seen as an important element of e-government. Based on 2014-2016 panel-data of ICT service delivery for all Dutch municipalities, we show that there is a large variety among the municipalities in the extent to which they offer their service delivery digitally. We explore the factors that may explain the differences among the municipalities. Some trends can be discerned, most notably the strong relationship of e-government adoption with demographic characteristics, such as population, population density and both older age and younger age groups. Remarkably, we did not find an influence of educa-tion and income. Finally, we did not observe a relation between municipal allocated costs and level of e-maturity, hereby leaving the question open if and how e-government can lead to cost reductions.

This paper analyzes whether Dutch municipalities became greener between 1999 and 2014 by investigating whether they implement different unit-based pricing systems. Based on their incentive, systems are ranged from green ('weight') to less green ('volume'), or not green ('flat rate'). In one-third of the municipalities, shifts took place, with 83 percent becoming greener and 17 percent less green. Political fragmentation (measured in three ways) plays a key role in explaining these shifts. There is less evidence for political motivation. Particularly, Conservative Liberals are not in favor of unit-based pricing, whereas Social Liberals are in favor. In addition, municipalities in rural and shrinking areas are more in favor of unit-based pricing.

Non-governmental organisations in recent years have gained new possibilities to realise their initiatives, thanks to the strong need among corporations to maintain their socially-desired image, which translates into their greater openness towards possible cooperation with the third sector. Several representatives of NGOs, utilising the latest technological solutions, are improving both the extent of their influence and its effectiveness. As multiple examples from Lubusz Voivodeship illustrate, the strategy of cooperation between business and non-governmental organisations can take on many forms, not necessarily based on financial support. Currently, a bargaining chip in the case of both sides is their knowledge capital. Corporations striving to maintain a positive image in the surroundings they function within are more eager to support social initiatives, recognising in it a possible path to gaining a competitive edge. In my article, I intend to reflect the specificity of the business/NGO relation and its determinants on the basis of selected examples from Lubusz Voivodeship. By analysing case studies, I will try to indicate the most common mutual expectations and construct a vision of a “perfect partner”. The context of analysing the quality of relations between business and NGO’s is social capital, which is an important value determining its shape. This arises from the belief that an organisation’s social capital has a meaningful impact on its attractiveness in the eyes of a potential partner. In my paper I will also present the most recent data, depicting the level of trust among the local community.

The purpose of the article is to present the appropriate ethical attitudes of local government employees which affect the efficiency of the administration. Local government employees who are exclusively competent and honest are able to properly execute their goals within strictly defined procedures and tasks. The article focuses on a brief analysis of the concept of ethics, employees of local government, as well as an analysis of ethics in terms of its impact on the quality of services.

If voters do not perceive meaningful differences between parties and candidates, they tend to stay at home or choose by other factors like style or likability. This study examines whether including different kinds of information about the candidates on the ballot affects the satisfaction and turnout of voters in low-profile elections in which most candidates are unknown and party-identification cannot be used to distinguish them. This case often appears in election systems with either intra-party primaries or open lists, in particular at lower institutional levels. The empirical analysis is based on an experimental exit-poll of voters at local elections in two German states in 2014 in which respondents faced a hypothetical election with different information treatments. The main results are: (1) More information on the ballot increases voter satisfaction, but the marginal effect is decreasing. (2) Profession information is particularly useful for voters. (3) This translates directly into a greater willingness to take part in the hypothetical election ('turnout'), especially for individuals unsatisfied with the real election system. (4) The last result can be confirmed with aggregate turnout data of German local elections after reunification.

Do intergovernmental transfers reduce revenues collected by local government authorities (LGAs)? There is already a well-established body of literature in public finance, which argues that intergovernmental grants 'crowd out' local revenues. Most existing studies, however, explore the fiscal implications of intergovernmental transfers in high-income countries where sound fiscal systems are taken for granted. In this paper, I explore the impact of intergovernmental transfers on local revenues in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where local fiscal capacity is limited and endogenously determined by financial support from international donors and the central government. I argue that in places where the existing capacity of LGAs to administer tax collection is weak and political costs of enforcing taxation are low - which are perennial features of many rural districts in Africa - intergovernmental transfers facilitate local revenue generation instead of undermining it. Analysing newly available quarterly fiscal data on local revenues in Tanzania, I show that intergovernmental grants improve the mobilization of local revenues, and also that the positive effect of fiscal transfers on local revenue collection is particularly pronounced in rural districts.

The most common method of measuring subjective fear of crime in the general population has traditionally been through surveys. With the spread of digital technologies, however, data from social media and search engines could now help researchers learn more about people's subjective perceptions of certain types of crime. The present article will show that although the analysis of data from social media and search engines is not suitable as an indicator of actual crime levels in Germany, it can certainly be a cost-effective supplement to traditional methods of collecting data on perceived crime levels. Um die subjektive Kriminalitätsfurcht der Bevölkerung zu messen, werden bislang vor allem Befragungen durchgeführt. In Zeiten der zunehmenden Digitalisierung könnten aber auch Daten aus sozialen Medien und Suchmaschinen dazu beitragen, mehr über die subjektiven Empfindungen der Bevölkerung zu bestimmten Deliktfeldern zu erfahren. Dieser Beitrag zeigt, dass die Auswertung von Daten aus sozialen Medien und Suchmaschinen zwar nicht geeignet ist, die tatsächliche Kriminalitätsbelastung in Deutschland widerzuspiegeln. Sie kann aber durchaus als kostengünstige Ergänzung der bisherigen Erhebungsmethoden dienen, um die empfundene Belastung abzubilden.

Internetkriminalität kann für die Betroffenen erhebliche Kosten zur Folge haben. Bisherige Ansätze der Quantifizierung konzentrierten sich meist auf Schäden für Unternehmen. Offizielle Angaben zu Schäden für Privatpersonen beruhen in erster Linie auf den polizeilich erfassten Fällen, dadurch wird die tatsächliche Belastung der Bürger aber nicht annähernd wiedergegeben. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung, die auf einer breit angelegten Befragung beruht, wird der finanzielle Schaden für Privatpersonen abgeschätzt. Er beläuft sich in vier wichtigen Bereichen der Internetkriminalität - Phishing, Identitätsbetrug, Waren- und Dienstleistungsbetrug und Schadsoftware - jährlich auf insgesamt 3,4 Milliarden Euro, dies entspricht 0,1 Prozent des deutschen Bruttoinlandsprodukts. Cybercrime can lead to considerable costs for those affected. Previous attempts to quantify the damage have focused mainly on businesses. Official information on damages incurredby individuals is based primarily on cases reported to the police, but these figures in no way accurately reflect the actual number of cybercrimes. This study, which is based on a broadly conceived survey, evaluates the financial harm to individuals. It covers four key areas of cybercrime - phishing, identity theft, consumer fraud, and malicious software. The damage in these areas together amounts to approximately 3.4 billion euros per year, equivalent to 0.1 percent of Germany's gross domestic product (GDP).

The present report analyzes crime reporting in newspapers and compares this to actual crime rates and fear of crime. One key finding is that crime-related issues play a comparativelyminor role in local editions of regional subscription newspapers. While this does not apply to the number of articles, it certainly does apply to the areas covered in these articles. It is often alleged that crime in the media is ubiquitous but this can only be confirmed to a limited degree in local reporting. A comparison of crime reporting with police crime statistics and the WISIND indicator on the fear of crime also shows a significant discrepancy, both geographically and in terms of specific offenses. First, there is clearly a disproportionately high focus in the print media on violent and sex offenses and, second, there is below-average reporting of more minor offenses. Consequently, cybercrime is relatively insignificant in the local media landscape even though it affects a broad cross-section of the population. The focus of crime reporting varies from one region to another and contradicts the official crime figures and fear of crime to some extent. Der vorliegende Bericht analysiert die Kriminalitätsberichterstattung in Zeitungen und vergleicht diese mit der tatsächlichen Kriminalitätsbelastung sowie der Furcht vor Kriminalität. Ein zentraler Befund ist, dass kriminalitätsbezogene Themen eine vergleichsweise geringe Rolle in den Lokalausgaben regionaler Abozeitungen spielen. Dies gilt zwar nicht in Bezug auf die Anzahl von Artikeln, aber sehr wohl für die Fläche, welche diese Artikel in der Gesamtberichterstattung einnehmen. Die häufig unterstellte Allgegenwart von Kriminalität in den Medien kann für die lokale Berichterstattung nur mit Einschränkungen bestätigt werden. Ein Abgleich von Kriminalitätsberichterstattung mit der Polizeilichen Kriminalstatistik und dem WISIND-Kriminalitätsfurchtindikator zeigt darüber hinaus eine erhebliche Diskrepanz sowohl in geographischer als auch deliktspezifischer Hinsicht: Deutlich wird einerseits eine in Printmedien auftretende überproportionale Fokussierung auf Gewalt-, Sexual- und Rohheitsdelikte und andererseits eine unterdurchschnittliche Berücksichtigung leichter Delikte. Die sich neu entwickelnde und die Bevölkerung in der großen Breite betreffende Internetkriminalität spielt in der lokalen Presselandschaft keine Rolle. Es lässt sich ein regional stark variierender Fokus auf Kriminalitätsberichterstattung belegen, der teilweise konträr zum offiziell bekannten Kriminalitätsgeschehen und zur Kriminalitätsfurcht steht.

Brahmaputra river basin is one of the most vulnerable areas in the world subject to combined effects of glacier melt, extreme monsoon rainfall and sea level rise. Water is emerging as a new possible irritant between China and India. For India, Water of Brahmaputra constitutes a major lifeline for people of Tibet and North Eastern states. The building of dams and diversion projects in Tibet by China is a matter of grave concern for lower riparian states. For China, it is having hidden inclination to create employment potentials for more than millions of people by making Brahmaputra diversion project forward. The requirement of fresh water as the pollution grows and population rise has forced China to have the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra River project. The objective of this paper is to focus the reaction of both people on the water diversion issue, disastrous ecological consequences and the urgent necessity for having a water treaty between Asian giants. It also examines the hegemonic tendencies of China on Brahmaputra River & exercise of power for economic gains and outcomes. The policies China takes on trans- Boundary Rivers are not symptom of peaceful nature of its rise. In addition, it establishes the fact that sharing of information, ecosystem-friendly policies, thought and mutual understanding will dispel the suspicion and develop trust between two countries, creating an enabling environment for better management of Brahmaputra River.

People?s quality of life in specific places is affected by their territories? characteristics and local agents? actions and interactions, as well as their responses to external influences. Formal and informal institutions contribute to shape those actions, interactions and responses. Following North (1990) and Storper (1995), the economic performance of places is influenced by their particular institutional setting; and, therefore, by the way a particular society is organised. Hence, the political and social dimensions acquire special importance. Relating those ideas to the bottom-up approach towards development, and its positive effect on the development of Mexican municipalities found by Rodriguez-Pose and Palavicini-Corona (2013), it is relevant and interesting to analyse if, in the Mexican context, formal and informal institutions have facilitated or not economic development at the local level. As the basis of the development from below approach stems from its proximity to local characteristics and agents, the lowest level of government jurisdiction is the focus of analysis. Two municipalities located in a Mexican state with a long presence of institutions and resulting mechanisms closer to citizens were selected in order to further assess the role of institutions. The hypothesis tested is that the general formal institutional context in Mexico has a relevant propitious role in LED. In relation to the case studies, the hypothesis is that a more favourable effect in one of the studied municipalities than the other is due to differences in the functioning of their formal institutions and the particularities of their informal ones. It was found that the national and sub-national formal institutional setting has allowed and, at some degree, stimulated municipalities to plan and execute local economic development actions during the period of analysis (1990-2015). However, abiding to the law and enforcing it are the main aspects to be addressed in this Latin American country. As far as the case studies are concerned, significant differences in their informal institutions affected the presence of the LED approach and their development performance from 1990 to 2010. Finally, in light of the concrete findings, I present a set of proposals to both introduce some adjustments to the legal framework and make the best of current formal and informal institutions prevailing in Mexico, in general, and the studied municipalities, in particular.

This paper presents an overview of the current Belgian accounting reform. This reform treats the transition from a cameralistic/cash accounting to a system that integrates both the cameralistic and the accrual accounting in Flemish municipalities. The focus is on actual empirical outcomes of implementation and disclosure based on a sample of annual accounts. An important issue is the lack of a conceptual disclosing framework, which leads to a number of problems and shortcomings in the disclosed annual accounts. The empirical examination reveals that certain important information items such as pension provisions are not disclosed nor commented and that the disclosure considering non-monetary assets is questionable., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Signature requirements are often used as hurdles to prevent overuse of public referenda. We evaluate the causal effect of lowering signature requirements on the number of observed citizen initiatives. Based on municipality-level data for Germany, we make use of legislative changes at specific population thresholds to build an identification strategy using a regression discontinuity design. We find that reducing the signature requirement by 1 percentage point increases the probability of observing an initiative by 8-10 percentage points. The results are robust to a variety of tests. Importantly, we go into great detail to rule out other potential confounders.

This paper surveys recent research on decentralization and natural disasters. The first part discusses results from theoretical models that have been used to study the issues that arise when natural disasters occur in a country with more than one level of government. The next section discusses the empirical results that have been found in the literature. A third section briefly touches upon practical problems that arise when decentralized governments are confronted with a natural disaster. The paper concludes by reflecting on what we know about whether policies to confront natural disasters should be centralized or decentralized.

Since the end of the 1990s, local governments in Japan have enacted Information Disclosure Ordinances, which require the disclosure of official government information. This paper uses Japanese prefecture-level data for the period 1998–2004 to examine how this enactment affected the rate of government construction expenditure. The Dynamic Panel model is used to control for unobserved prefecture-specific effects and endogenous bias. The major finding is that disclosure of government information reduces the rate of government construction expenditure. This implies that information disclosure reduces losses from rent-seeking activity, which is consistent with public choice theory.

Christie A. and Swales J. K. The Barnett allocation mechanism: formula plus influence?, Regional Studies. This paper seeks to explain why the operation of the Barnett formula has failed to generate convergence in the per capita public expenditure levels in the four countries of the United Kingdom. Using Scotland as an example, this paper argues that a ‘formula plus influence’ allocation mechanism has been in place. This offers improved flexibility, greater political integration, and increased information flows than would be available through either a straight bargaining or a formula process. While devolution has not changed the Barnett formula, it has altered the environment in which it operates and that this may well destabilize an otherwise secure system. Christie A. et Swales J. K. La methode d'affectation Barnett: formule plus influence?, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a expliquer pourquoi l'application de la formule Barnett n'a pas reussi la convergence des depenses publiques par tete dans les...

The research agenda of Europeanization is currently highly focused on issued related to what accounts for the 'horizontal' interaction between domestic actors and how these actors make use of stimuli originating from the EU. This paper aims to contribute to this line of inquiry through the case study of the implementation of the 1994 water reform in Italy in the period between 1994 and 2006. The analysis shows the role played by the use of monetary incentives provided by EU funding sources, by changes in the institutional context partially originating from EU factors, and by the rulings of the European Court of Justice.

The level of revenues pocketed by a government during the fiscal year often deviates from that projected by this government in its budget. Despite a flourishing literature on, for example, the technical or procedural determinants of such forecast errors, little is yet known about how political stratagems may affect forecast errors. In the present paper, we analyse whether differences in the level of government fragmentation are useful in explaining local government tax revenue forecast errors – controlling for various other factors. Using data on 242 Flemish municipalities for the period 1992-2002, we find that two-party governments are more optimistic than single-party governments. In contrast to our initial expectations, governments with at least three parties are significantly more careful (or less optimistic) in their revenue projections than single- or twoparty governments. Die Einnahmen einer Regierung während eines Steuerjahres weichen oft von den vorherigen Budgetkalkulationen dieser Regierung ab. Diese Prognosefehler sind zwar schon bezüglich ihres technischen und institutionellen Kontextes empirisch erforscht worden, allerdings fehlt es bisher an Kenntnissen, was den Effekt politischer Variablen betrifft. In der vorliegenden Veröffentlichung wird untersucht, ob die politische Fragmentierung der lokalen Regierungen einen wichtigen Faktor zur Erklärung von Prognosefehlern darstellt, dabei immer kontrollierend für verschiedene andere Elemente. Unsere empirische Analyse von 242 der 308 flämischen Gemeinden im Zeitraum 1992-2002 zeigt erstens, dass Regierungen mit zwei Parteien eher optimistisch ihr Budget planen. Sie setzen mehr Einnahmen voraus, als sie während des Steuerjahres bekommen. Im Gegensatz zu unserer Hypothese zeigt die Analyse aber auch, dass ab 3 Parteien in einer Regierung die Überschätzung der Einnahmen geringer wird.

Bolivia went through a very important territorial transformation following the approval of the Popular Participation Law in 1994, which led to generalised municipal opening. The benefits of this reform were accompanied by a number of negative effects, such as those regarding the system of State transfers to municipalities. This article proposes a new model of transfers to municipalities that would complement the current “system of per capita fiscal endowments to municipalities” with a model of “inter-municipal fiscal equalization by blocks”.

The aim of this paper is to quantify the relative importance of motivations based on warm-glow, social and moral norms and cost of time used recycling on household recycling efforts. We also test for crowding-out of intrinsic motivations when recycling is perceived as mandatory. We find that the most important variable increasing household recycling efforts is agreeing that recycling is a pleasant activity in itself, which may be interpreted as a warm-glow effect. The most important variable reducing household recycling is the opportunity cost of time spent recycling. We find no evidence of crowding-out of intrinsic motivation when recycling is perceived as mandatory. On the contrary, we find that governmental legislation increases household recycling efforts on most materials. Keywords: Contingent valuation method, cost of time, household recycling, moral and social norms, ordered probit, simultaneous estimation of discrete- and continuous choice, warm-glow, crowding out.

Der Aufsatz zeigt anhand zahlreicher Beispiele und quantitativer Analysen, dass internationale Organisationen – mehr als alle anderen staatlichen Institutionen – ein extremes Kontrolldefizit aufweisen. Umfragen belegen, dass sie andere Interessen als die Bürger haben. Sie können diese Interessen auch durchsetzen, weil die Informationskosten der Bürger hoch, ihre Kontrollanreize gering und ihre Ausweichmöglichkeiten eingeschränkt sind. Die Parlamente können ihrer Kontrollfunktion nicht gerecht werden, weil sie von den nationalen und internationalen Exekutivorganen entmachtet werden. Von den nationalen Regierungen werden die internationalen Organisationen nur sehr unvollkommen kontrolliert, weil sie Agenda-Setting Macht besitzen und weil die Kontrollkosten der zuständigen Minister und ihre Kontrollanreize zu gering sind. Die von den Regierungen eingesetzten Kontrollgremien (Exekutivdirektoren, Rechnungshöfe, internationale Gerichtshöfe) können diese Probleme nicht wesentlich entschärfen. Außerdem teilen sie häufig die Interessen der internationalen Bürokratie, die sie kontrollieren sollen. Der Mangel an demokratischer Kontrolle stärkt den Einfluss der Interessengruppen.

It is a standard prediction in the literature on tax competition that mobility of factors between jurisdictions causes local governments to choose too low tax rates and to underprovide public goods. This paper shows circumstances when the prediction may be false. The prediction may be false when workers live in one jurisdiction and commute to work in another. We show that in an urban setting land developers will make inefficient choices of both tax rates and public expenditures. Whether these are too high or too low from a social point of view is ambiguous. The only unambiguous prediction is that the non-cooperative payroll tax is inefficiently low. In our framework, the locational inefficiency is twofold, both residents and workers are inefficiently allocated across communities in equilibrium. We also show that tax harmonisation and/or voluntary inter-community transfers are not effective in restoring efficiency.

Contrary to widespread belief, voting machines of older types, such as lever and punchcard systems, are not used in counties with lower income - and newer machines, such as optical scanners and electronic machines, are not used in richer counties. We provide an economic explanation for this and other regularities of voting equipment usage in the U.S. We present a model in which, all other things being equal, a) the adoption of a new technology is more likely in richer and larger counties; b) the adoption of a new technology is less likely the more advanced is the technology already adopted in the county. We argue that the net benefits from adopting the more advanced optical or electronic machines after 1980 were not high enough to induce a technological upgrade in those (relatively richer and larger) counties that had adopted punchcard machines in previous decades. By contrast, net benefits from newer technologies were high enough to induce their adoption in relatively poorer and smaller counties that had not yet mechanized or computerized their voting system. Estimates of historical determinants of voting equipment choice support our hypothesis. In particular, the probability of using punchcard machines in the 1990s is positively related to a county's income in the 1960s, when punchcard machines were first introduced. When the effect of past income is controlled for, the effect of more recent levels of income on the probability of using punchcard machines becomes negative.

If people come to live in a country different from their nation state, due to border shifts, expulsion, or migration, they adopt some of the new country?s habits after some time. This paper investigates their (return) migration decision when they have been restricted to live in the foreign country for some time and suddenly become free to return to the country of their original nationality. In our model, the population is located in small communities on a Hotelling line. The two poles represent the two nationalities. Utility depends on distance to the pole and to the center of the community someone is living in. Looking at ethnic German migration in the 1990s, we compare basic features of the migration wave with assumptions of the model, compare actual and predicted migration waves and discuss the impact of immigration restrictions.

In the process of the German unification and especially after the formal unification in October 1990, Eastern Germany was supported by West Germany by a lot of measures. The main purposes were to improve the infrastructure, to stimulate private investment and to alleviate the adjustment process for the population by transfers to private households. The paper describes the measures in some detail. Many of these were decided upon in an ad hoc manner, in some cases experience (partly from the period of reconstruction in West Germany after World War II) was available. The methods of financing are described, too. Emphasis is laid on the policy in the field of social insurance. Finally, it is tried to draw some conclusions which might be helpful in case of a unification of South and North Korea.

Viele Bürger fürchten Opfer einer Straftat zu werden. Der Frage, inwieweit diese Furcht sich mit der regionalen Kriminalitätsbelastung deckt, versucht dieser Beitrag nachzugehen. Die Untersuchung basiert auf einer umfangreichen Datengrundlage zu Kriminalitätsfurcht und verbindet diese mit polizeilichen Daten zur Kriminalitätsbelastung (genauer: die um ihr Dunkelfeld korrigierte polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik). Die gelegentlich geäußerte Vermutung, die Furcht der Opferwerdung sei vielfach irrational und decke sich nicht mit der faktischen Sicherheit in einer Region lässt sich nicht bestätigen: In den Daten zeigt sich ein deutlicher statistischer Zusammenhang zwischen regionaler Kriminalitätsbelastung und Kriminalitätsfurcht. Beispielsweise sind beide im Norden Deutschlands höher als im Süden. Durch die Berücksichtigung von Delikten aus dem Bereich der Cyberkriminalität verschwindet jedoch tendenziell die früher oftmals dokumentierte höhere Kriminalitätsbelastung in städtischen gegenüber ländlichen Regionen., Many people are afraid of falling prey to crime. The present report investigates the extent to which this fear is in line with the actual regional crime rates. This analysis is based on data from a comprehensive database on the fear of crime, combined with police crime statistics (specifically, adjusted crime statistics which factor in the dark figure of unreported crime). No evidence was found to support the (occasionally voiced) contention that the fear of falling prey to crime is irrational in many cases and not representative of the actual level of safety within a given region. In fact, our data shows a clear statistical correlation between regional crime rates and the fear of crime, both of which are more pronounced in the north of Germany than in the south, for instance. The inclusion of cybercrime in crime statistics, however, has meant that the former, higher crime rates and greater fear of crime often recordedin urban areas as opposed to rural regions are no longer as pronounced.

Many people are afraid of falling prey to crime. The present report investigates the extent to which this fear is in line with the actual regional crime rates. This analysis is based on data from a comprehensive database on the fear of crime, combined with police crime statistics (specifically, adjusted crime statistics which factor in the "dark figure" of unreported crime). No evidence was found to support the (occasionally voiced) contention that the fear of falling prey to crime is irrational in many cases and not representative of the actual level of safety within a given region. In fact, our data shows a clear statistical correlation between regional crime rates and the fear of crime, both of which are more pronounced in the north of Germany than in the south, for instance. The inclusion of cybercrime in crime statistics, however, has meant that the former, higher crime rates and greater fear of crime often recordedin urban areas as opposed to rural regions are no longer as pronounced.