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An essay is presented that discusses the relation of postmodern philosophy to the academic organization Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP). Topics include the beginning of poststructuralism in philosophy, social aspects of philosophy in relation to feminist concerns, and the organizational decentralization of SPEP.

Connection between fiscal decentralization and regional disparities is usually explained in two different manners. Fiscal decentralization might enhance the economic growth and optimal public good provision (and by this way might reduce regional disparities) or it can contribute to the deepening of differences among poor and rich regions. However, there is a wide empirical research of this connection in the economic literature. Despite it, in Czech and Slovak related research, there is an absence of such a literature. This paper focuses on revealing the character of relationship between fiscal decentralization and regional disparities in Czechia and Slovakia on both NUTS2 and NUTS3 levels. Regional disparities increase within both countries. Additionally, estimations results are about supporting the undesirable effect of fiscal decentralization. Statistical significant positive relationship between expenditure and revenue decentralization and regional disparities is observed in both countries, while this relationship using the measurement of tax decentralization is significant and negative only in the case of Slovakia. Unfortunately, even if the inverse estimated relationship support the hypothesis about reduction of regional disparities by tax decentralization, analysis of input data shows the trend toward decreasing the tax decentralization. It contributes to higher regional disparities, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through analysis and systemization of data, particularly original sources such as official documents, epitaphs and archaeological evidence, this paper discusses and clarifies the following key issues: decentralization and administrative organization, names and numbers of administrative units, characteristics of their distribution as well as management methods for each population and geographical area in the administrative units under the Tran Dynasty. Consequently, this paper presents a more comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of the centralized institution and the scope and ability of territorial control of the Dai Viet government during the 13th and 14th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is no such thing as a truly centralized or decentralized management system. With regard to universities, most of the key areas in universities are centralized, e.g. finance, personnel, curriculum, management and quality. These key areas will exhibit a higher impact on learning and research by maintaining the appropriate balance between centralization and decentralization approaches. The purpose of this paper is to study the key features of balanced management implemented within the internal quality assurance system at the University of Bahrain. Areas of such balance will be explained while showing the pros and cons of each management approach. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, both quantitative and qualitative surveys were used to study this balanced approach. Findings: The centralization approach at the university maintained systematic compliance through the development of policies and procedures, quality structure and a clear framework for quality enhancement. Centralization ensured consistency in quality, programmes and activities. It also maintained diffusion of innovation, for example, sharing and transferring the knowledge of international accreditation practices to other colleges. The balance of the centralized with the decentralized management approach provided additional advantages. For example, the management shared the vision of decentralization to raise the level of responsibility and accountability. The management provided an acceptable level of authority to take on spot decisions; hence, building expertise at the decentralized levels. However, this would require support and capacity building to ensure directly responsible persons, who can take on spot decisions. The ownership of the self-improvement cycles was implemented at the level of the departments and colleges. Practical implications: This study showed that this balanced management had a great influence to maximize the benefits of the internal quality assurance (IQA) system, as it showed that 71.4 and 67.3 per cent of the academic and administrative staff, respectively, found that the IQA system was effective. Originality/value: This balanced approach would guide the universities to enhance its quality system by organizing its structure, processes and systems in a harmonized nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed description of the Eurace@Unibi model, which has been developed as a versatile tool for macroeconomic analysis and policy experiments. The model explicitly incorporates the decentralized interaction of heterogeneous agents across different sectors and regions. The modeling of individual behavior is based on heuristics with empirical microfoundations. Although Eurace@Unibi has been applied successfully to different policy domains, the complexity of the structure of the model, which is similar to other agent-based macroeconomic models, makes it hard to communicate to readers the exact working of the model and enable them to check the robustness of obtained results. This paper addresses these challenges by describing the details of all decision rules, interaction protocols and balance sheet structures used in the model. Furthermore, we discuss the use of a virtual appliance as a tool allowing third parties to reproduce the simulation results and to replicate the model. The paper illustrates the potential use of the virtual appliance by providing some sensitivity analyses of the simulation output carried out using this tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The square root law (SRL) is a popular model for assessing inventory levels when changing the number of warehouses. Previous empirical research, however, has shown that mostly its underlying assumptions do not hold in practice. This sparks the question how inaccurate the SRL's results are. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: In 26 company cases of reducing the number of warehouses, the estimation error of the SRL is analysed irrespective of its underlying assumptions. Findings: The analysis reveals an average estimation error for total inventory of 27.85 per cent (median=27.84 per cent), but a high variability across the cases. The SRL seems to mostly overestimate inventory savings from centralisation and inventory increases from decentralisation. Managers should only use the SRL if inventory depends on the number of warehouses in their situation, i.e. if they use the economic order or production quantity policy and safety factor approach. Suggestions for coping with the SRL's estimation error are given. Research limitations/implications: This paper is based on the 26 cases that could be found in a thorough literature review in the ten most widely spoken languages and that contained or allowed to deduce the necessary information. In order to enable wider generalisations, this sample could be extended. Originality/value: Most past research has been more theoretical in nature. This research is the first to investigate the SRL's estimation error using a variety of company cases and how to cope with this error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are decentralization reforms in dictatorial regimes mere window dressing or can they deliver longevity for dictators? Many scholars in political science have argued that seemingly democratic institutions established in dictatorships play a crucial role in increasing the survival potential of the authoritarian regime by providing a channel to the dictator to co-opt members of the opposition, identify their bases of support and recruit effective coalition members. While most of the existing analysis has focused on national elections and political parties, we use primary data and social network methodology to analyze the 2001 decentralization reforms established during General Musharraf's military regime in Pakistan. We show that seemingly democratically empowering decentralized governance structures can also be used to distribute rents to political supporters through ostensibly legitimate channels. Therefore, this paper adds to the literature on institutions in dictatorships on two fronts in addition to providing crucial information about the political landscape in a strategically important country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research scrutinizes the influence and impact of Romanticism in the development of Modern Chinese fiction through one of the novels of Gao Xingjian. The major area of this study aims to argue that Xingjian's novel Soul Mountain unveils the Romantic attributes through the Postmodern style; therefore stylistic diversity contributes to ventriloquize the depth of artist's Romantic quest. This explorative study ascertains the use of Postmodern fissured structure and disseminated rhetoric as the authorial subversive strategy to hit upon the schizoid self of the Confucianist. It delineates that the use of fragmented and dispersed plot is endemic for the Romantic revolutionist, who is in search of selfcenteredness and self-actualization. As against the Postmodern nonlyrical rhetoric, Xingjian asserts the Romantic supremacy by using a medium of Romantic language that is exhibited through natural imagery, rhythm and musicality in the lines. The paper further substantiates the Romantic adherence by laying stress upon the dethronement of the Postmodern themes by the author of the novella. Consequently, it argumentatively validates its stand point that the leitmotif of Soul Mountain is Romantic in essence, conveyed affectively through the Postmodern rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence for the association between fiscal decentralisation and income distribution for a panel of 11 economies from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) during 1992-2016. We focus on three research topics: the effect of decentralisation on income inequality; the effects of the structure of subnational government finance on income inequality; and the validity of the Kuznets hypothesis. The main findings from the empirical exercise are as follows: first, we provide firm evidence on the presumed favourable effects of fiscal decentralisation on income distribution in the CEE countries; second, our empirical model suggests that the effects of fiscal decentralisation on income inequality are dependent on the source of finance of subnational governments, i.e. intergovernmental transfers may have a role in income equalisation; third, we cannot confirm the validity of the Kuznets hypothesis in CEE countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have adopted similar approaches to tackle the challenges of rural water supply, including community-based management, community participation and the demand-responsive approach. These are often combined with nationwide programmes of capacity-building and decentralization. This paper first shows how Uganda has adopted these approaches in its rural water supply programme. Based on Government documents, we construct an organizational framework that illustrates the overall programme and outlines the roles and responsibilities which actors are expected to fulfil. Second, based on interviews with sector staff and a review of Government documents, the paper examines challenges to successfully 'walk the talk'; that is, it provides insight into challenges affecting programme implementation. Among numerous difficulties, two key issues are highlighted: local political interference and the weak capacity of local governments. Concerning local political interference, local planning processes need to be reformed so that local politicians commit more strongly to improving water supply. Regarding local government capacity, the Government department responsible for the programme has established eight regional units that provide support to local governments. This promising strategy, combined with more appropriate engagement and the commitment of local politicians, should help to improve the implementation of the rural water supply programme in Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Financial & Credit Activity: Problems of Theory & Practice is the property of University of Banking of the National Bank of Ukraine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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This paper addresses the centralization-decentralization debate in managerial accounting, specifically with respect to the capital investment decision. We determine conditions under which it is optimal to assign the firm's capital investment decision rights to the owner, to assign them to the manager responsible for implementing the funded project, or to share these rights between them. We relate these conditions to the manager's required level of investment in firm-specific human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous paper, the links between executive personality and the strategic and organizational orientations of troubled firms were examined. In the present paper, original typologies of neurotic styles and corporate pathology are used, but the two are related using the concept of organizational culture which provides a useful vehicle for linking personality with strategy. In the previous paper it was argued that the personality of the top executive could influence strategy only in centralized firms; now, it is believed that through culture this can happen even in decentralized organizations. Several sets of hypotheses are generated to formalize this position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the manufacturing production management system as an administrative structure intimately and interactively fitted into the context of the firm. Drawing on the literatures of organization theory and strategy, a contingent-theoretic view is posed, suggesting that the production administrative structure (PAS), along with its administrative context, must maintain a dynamic fit with the evolving strategy and environment of the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interorganizational partnerships can spur innovation, but their value may be diminished by friction in knowledge flows between firms. We consider how a partner's organizational structure may influence the knowledge that is accessible via partnerships. We focus on how a partner's structure trades off localized autonomy for its managers, which facilitates timelier decision making, and unified control, which facilitates integration. By shaping this balance, centralization of decision rights within the partner organization shapes access to its knowledge. Centralized structures generate wide-ranging internal knowledge pathways that enable access to a broader array of a partner's knowledge. However, the reduced managerial autonomy afforded by centralization makes decision making more cumbersome, which constricts the rate of access to a partner's knowledge. We find evidence of this tradeoff in the context of corporate venture capital relationships between incumbents and startups in the pharmaceutical industry. An increase in the incumbent's diversity of knowledge or in the knowledge required by the startup enhances the value of a greater breadth of access, whereas the degree to which the startup can leverage social ties (affinity) or hierarchical fiat (authority) alleviates the costs of a reduced access rate. Each of these features makes an incumbent organization's centralization more valuable to the startup. By highlighting this tension related to centralization, our findings suggest that new firms striving to maximize their partnership benefits may need to carefully consider their partners' internal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use city-level datasets of social assistance programmes over 280 cities between year 2003 and 2011 to verify the existence of the crowding out between social assistance programmes and unemployment insurance in China. In other words, the expansion of social assistance programmes is associated with a reduction in the enrolment of unemployment insurance. With verifying the existence of the crowding out, this article argues that the crowding out is a result of an ineffective coordination across government departments. In the process of 'dual decentralization,' in which the central government has delegated welfare provision responsibility to local governments, the misalignment of incentive and institutions between central and local governments explains the ineffective coordination. Different from many studies in the literature, this paper presents an adverse consequence of China's bureaucratic incentive system in social policy implementation. Also, while the conceptual framework 'fragmented authoritarianism' has highlighted the policy ineffectiveness in the economic policy area, this paper contributes to this literature by illustrating the policy ineffectiveness in the social policy areas. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper views the classical Chiu-Jain algorithm, originally proposed for congestion control of network links, as a decentralized algorithm for the fair allocation of a total of c units of a shared resource among n users. A new analysis is given of the general case of additive increase and multiplicative decrease (AIMD) dynamics, from the perspective of virtual equilibria and variable structure systems, leading to a better understanding of the Chiu-Jain algorithm, which is one example of AIMD dynamics. It is shown that the variable structure discrete dynamical system that describes the evolution of the share of each individual, starting from an arbitrary initial allocation, always attains a neighbourhood of the fair share ( c/ n) for each user, under the assumption that the latter is known. Subsequently, a new adaptive version of the algorithm, called adaptive AIMD, is described, with the same property of converging to the fair share, without assuming that it is known. Simulations that show the behaviour and advantages of the proposed adaptive AIMD adaptive algorithm are given. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the Swedish National Agency for Education’s launch of the nationwide Lgr11 curriculum reform and how local education authorities (LEAs) in one municipality translated and responded to the National Agency’s directives. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents empirical data from a qualitative study of documents and interviews using the analytical perspective from Scott (2001, 2008) to explore regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive aspects of the National Agency’s communications. To analyse the local translations made by LEAs at the central municipal level, analytical categories of assimilation, loose coupling and transformation were used. Findings – The overall results show that the National Agency primarily communicated its policy instructions to LEAs using normative and cultural-cognitive arguments and directives. The lack of sharper regulative directives, such as for division of labour, decision making, mandates and developmental roles, reduced the potential for LEAs to become influential actors in organising local implementation. An analysis using the assistance of assimilation categories, loose coupling and transformation of the paper also shows that LEAs need system support to accomplish more innovative middle-tier translations through elements of loose coupling and transformation – to become catalysts for school system improvement. Research limitations/implications – The research is designed to understand actions and interpretations within specific institutional, organisational and social settings. Originality/value – This paper contributes to former findings by offering a novel perspective for understanding policy translation and the role of middle-tier intermediaries in decentralised education systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, political control is centralized and economic management is decentralized. This gives rise to a serious principal-agent problem, in which the agents are often better informed than the principal. China also has a semi-marketized economy involving much state intervention. This intervention serves both a political and an economic function. It enables the Communist Party to remain in political command and generates formidable patronage resources. It also provides the policy instruments, including incentive structures for officialdom, to maintain a "developmental state." The combination of economic decentralization and a semi-marketized economy creates a problem of weak accountability and a breeding ground for rent-seeking and corruption. For a quarter of a century China's leadership gave overwhelming priority to the objective of achieving rapid economic growth. This policy was viewed as providing political legitimacy and securing the best protection against social instability. It is argued that the leadership was able to solve the principal-agent problem in its pursuit of economic growth. By contrast, the solution to the principal-agent problem failed in other respects, giving rise to societal costs. Little attention was paid to the dramatic socioeconomic changes--including rising inequality and economic insecurity, environmental degradation, mass migration, rent seeking, and corruption-- which accompanied economic growth and posed new challenges. It is argued that these changes help to explain the failure of life satisfaction scores to rise over the two decades from 1990-2010. They can also help to explain the rise in indicators of social instability over that period. It is to be hoped that the new leadership's current anti-corruption campaign, together with its declared policy intention to reduce state economic intervention and increase reliance on competitive markets, will strengthen deterrence and weaken opportunities for rent seeking and corruption. The paper carries the implication that China's economy cannot be well understood except through the lens of political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of European Union (EU) spending programmes has been the focus of sustained academic and practitioner criticism for many years. One of the fundamental problems has been with the centralist model of control prevalent within the European Commission's (EC) structures. With the demise of the Santer Commission in 1999, the impetus for change was given a fresh urgency through reports from the Committee of Independent Experts and the EC's 2000 reform White Paper. This article explores the nature and content of the reform agenda, focusing on its decentralizing consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the turbulent times facing trophy hunting in Tanzania, East Africa. It reviews the industry’s contentious history, and illustrates the ominous politics that are emerging out of the country’s recent neoliberal schemes, Wildlife Management Areas. Through the decentralisation that comprises WMAs, the rural communities who co-inhabit trophy hunting spaces are finding new ways to limit, resist, and sometimes, eliminate it. As argued in this paper, trophy hunting in Tanzania faces a momentous convergence of aggrieved histories, and neoliberal reforms that shift authority to rural communities. It amounts to turbulent times and what I call, fighting history today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of forthcoming exascale clusters requires frequent collection of run-time information about the nodes and the running applications. This paper presents a new paradigm for providing online information to the management system of scalable clusters, consisting of a large number of nodes and one or more masters that manage these nodes. We describe the details of resilient gossip algorithms for sharing local information within subsets of nodes and for sending global information to a master, which holds information on all the nodes. The presented algorithms are decentralized, scalable and resilient, working well even when some nodes fail, without needing any recovery protocol. The paper gives formal expressions for approximating the average ages of the local information at each node and the information collected by the master. It then shows that these results closely match the results of simulations and measurements on a real cluster. The paper also investigates the resilience of the algorithms and the impact on the average age when nodes or masters fail. The main outcome of this paper is that partitioning of large clusters can improve the quality of information available to the management system without increasing the number of messages per node. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kenyan economy is broadly characterized by two parallel sectors: the formal comprised of registered businesses and the informal defined by the economic activities of non-registered businesses. Despite the several advantages of registering a business, only a minority of businesses in Kenya are registered. This paper addresses the question of why a large number of small businesses in Kenya opt to operate informally. The findings show that firm age, size of business, owner's experience, business sector, gender of owner and type of business premise influence the choice to register a business. The paper recommends that the government simplify registration and link it to licensing, decentralize and automate registration, and enforce registration without directly linking it to tax obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding how decentralized clinical trial (DCT) solutions can mitigate existing challenges in clinical development, particularly participant burden and access, and the collection, management, and quality of clinical data. This paper examines DCT deployments, emphasizing how they are integrated and how they may impact clinical trial oversight, management, and execution. We propose a conceptual framework that employs systems thinking to evaluate the impact on key stakeholders through a reiterative assessment of pain points. We conclude that decentralized solutions should be customized to meet patient needs and preferences and the unique requirements of each clinical trial. We discuss how DCT elements introduce new demands and pressures within the existing system and reflect on enablers that can overcome DCT implementation challenges. As stakeholders look for ways to make clinical research more relevant and accessible to a larger and more diverse patient population, further robust and granular research is needed to quantify the impact of DCTs empirically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of public agency relocation on the growth of local employment. The South Korean government has recently relocated 154 public agencies from the Seoul Metropolitan Area to local cities, called "Innovation Cities." This policy was formulated to foster decentralization and regional development. However, only a few studies have examined the impact of this relocation. The innovation cities seem to be suffering from a lack of innovation, and the effects of decentralization. In this study, we evaluated the effects of relocation by using the synthetic control method and applying panel data gathered from 2006 to 2018. The unit of analysis is the small tier of local authority, and the outcome variable is the number of workers within each regional jurisdiction. To investigate counterfactuals, we determined control groups by selecting specific covariates of local employment. The results show that the increase in local employment was mostly caused by the migration of public agency employees to the destination areas. Spillovers are limited and influenced by regional characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Chihuum Piiuywmk Inach/A Gathering of Good Minds project, which explores the role of the data analysis phase in community-engaged research and emphasizes anti-oppressive methodologies aligned with indigenist approaches. The paper discusses the challenges of decolonizing research methodologies, particularly in the analysis phase, and contributes to the conversation on decentering colonial and institutional systems of oppression in research.

This paper examines the impacts of exogenous government subsidies on recycled material flows in decentralised reverse supply chains where players behave according to their own interests. We present a four-tiered network equilibrium model consisting of the sources of electronic scrap products and the collectors, processors and demand markets. We mathematically transform the players’ optimality conditions governing players’ behaviours into a variational inequality formulation. We investigate the impact of alternate schemes of government subsidies on the equilibrium amount, subsidy effectiveness and subsidy elasticity. The real-world case study shows that subsidising the tier of processors demonstrates the superiority of the investigated performance measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of centralized mining pools for risk sharing does not necessarily undermine the decentralization required for blockchains: because of miners' cross-pool diversification and pool managers' endogenous fee setting, larger pools better internalize their externality on global hash rates, charge higher fees, attract disproportionately fewer miners, and grow more slowly. Instead, mining pools as a financial innovation escalate miners' arms race and significantly increase the energy consumption of proof-of-work-based blockchains. Empirical evidence from Bitcoin mining supports our model's predictions. The economic insights inform other consensus protocols and the industrial organization of mainstream sectors with similar characteristics but ambiguous prior findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standard version of the second welfare theorem assumes that market operations produce Walrasian outcomes. Therefore, if there are individuals who can manipulate prices, the conclusion of the second welfare theorem is questionable. In this paper, we address the decentralization of a Pareto-optimal allocation, when markets are non-Walrasian. Our objective in this paper is to develop a game which can implement Pareto-optimal allocations as Nash equilibria of strategic exchange in markets. In this way, we develop a version of the second welfare theorem for economies where markets are strategic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization is among the most globally ubiquitous public sector reforms. In the past few decades, many countries have taken formal steps to empower local governments, typically with a mix of stated developmental and governance goals. Although decentralization receives much attention, our systematic practical knowledge about it remains limited, and it is fair to say that it often does not meet expectations. Even supporters have begun to express frustration, and references to stalled decentralization or even recentralization have emerged in both policy debates and in practice. This paper briefly recaps what decentralization was expected to achieve, broadly summarizes what we know about performance, and highlights factors that support and impede reform. It also discusses weaknesses and challenges in how decentralization has been conceived, analyzed, designed, and implemented. The core argument is that this type of reform is more diverse and complex than has conventionally been acknowledged and that more careful analysis and strategic action tailored to a specific country are needed to help to realize more effective and sustainable decentralization. The paper closes with thoughts about future directions for how we conceptualize and pragmatically approach this diverse and consequential reform. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to provide a critical theoretical comparative review of the effect upon democracy, constitutional reform could have on new smaller states. This paper posits that it is an untried, untested assumption that democratisation will follow, if nation states' populations choose constitutional reform. This paper also posits that social, economic, political, historical and cultural generic domains influence the drive for constitutional reform in very different ways globally. This paper intends to discuss the pressure for constitutional reform, from a globalisation perspective. This paper will demonstrate how globalisation itself is a significant causal factor, increasing the propensity towards constitutional reform of smaller states. This paper will also demonstrate that the EU anti-globalisation sentiment, asking for constitutional reform, is globally replicated elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore and assess the configuration, role and likely contribution of the new integrated care partnerships (ICPs) established in Northern Ireland. Design/methodology/approach: The approach is based on the assessment of policy background, strategy papers, implementation plans and initial activities of ICPs. Findings: ICPs have been created with limited powers and an unclear relationship with the existing system of structurally integrated health and social care. The initial priorities and activities of ICPs suggest a focus on integrating health which may impede the further integration of health and social care. Research limitations/implications: Paper concludes there is a need for robust evaluation including monitoring of progress, performance and outcomes. Originality/value: First published paper on implementation of ICPs in Northern Ireland. Contributing to comparative studies of structures of health and social care, with particular relevance to integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature that analyzes the coordination of environmental taxes by governments considers that firms produce a single good at a single plant. However, in practice firms tend to produce several goods at various production plants (multiproduct firms). These firms may organize themselves in a centralized or decentralized fashion for purposes of decision-making: This affects their output and pollution levels. This paper sets out to analyze the coordination of environmental taxes considering multiproduct firms. We find that the organizational structure chosen by the owners of the firms depends on whether or not governments coordinate with one another in setting taxes, and on whether the goods produced are substitutes or complements. Social welfare is greater if a supranational authority sets taxes in all countries. In this case, joint welfare is never lower if the authority is constrained to set the same tax in all countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promulgation of the South African Disaster Management Act No. 57 of 2002 and the National Disaster Management Policy Framework of 2005 placed South Africa at the international forefront by integrating disaster risk reduction into all spheres of government through a decentralised approach. Yet, good policy and legislation do not necessarily translate into good practice. This paper provides a critical analysis of the Act and Policy Framework. Using qualitative research methods, it analyses the attitudes and perceptions of senior public officials on all levels of government, the private sector and academia. The study finds that one of the weakest aspects of the Act and Framework is the absence of clear guidance to local municipalities. The placement of the disaster risk management function on all tiers of government remains problematic, funding is inadequate and overall knowledge and capacities for disaster risk reduction are insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of product substitutability on sales performance of integrated and decentralised supply chains. The authors model supply chain performance effects by applying a Cournot equation to a combination of different industry configurations. The study aims to extend existing equilibria models in different supply chains by including the effects of product substitutability on supply chain performance. By extending existing equilibria models, the authors explore the relationship between the degree of product substitutability, chain structure and chain performance when some actors of the supply chain behave as Stackelberg leaders in a duopoly. Design/methodology/approach – The paper models a supply chain performance by applying a Cournot equation to different supply chain structures in a duopoly. Findings – The findings indicate that, for each specific-supply chain structures in different market configurations, when product substitutability reaches a certain threshold decentralised supply chains outperform integrated chains, in disagreement with common belief in current existing literature. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the application of differential equations in a competitive market configured as a duopoly. Future studies might extend the same model to a competitive market characterised by more than two actors. The findings imply that current tendency of lean implementations through integrated supply chains does not always favour supply chain performance. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for the development of a stronger differentiation strategy based on consumer value when markets are characterised by high-product substitutability. Originality/value – These findings highlight the importance of differentiation and consumer-value generation in markets that follow Nash equilibria as opposed to the current focus on price competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between administrative reform in Portugal and the impacts on the dependence of local governments in the face of budgetary resources of state and local municipal revenue collection, which is understood as a form, among others, participation civil society in local public policies. Design/methodology/approach – The study opts for an exploratory analysis using the grounded theory approach, including the use of data relating to local government structures and partnerships with the private sector, based on the main lines of the public administration reform. The data were supplemented by documentary analysis, including legislative documents and papers in specialized area of administrative decentralization and civil society participation in local public policies. Findings – The paper provides empirical insights about how the increased participation of civil society in local public policies is associated with less reliance on state budgets and a greater number of local managerial structures. Research limitations/implications – Due to the chosen research approach, the results cannot be generalized. A comparative study between several countries could bring several interesting insights. Social implications – The paper includes implications for economic and social development of new public policies in the context of administrative reforms. Originality/value – This paper makes several theoretical and empirical contributions on this research field specially about local public manager's decisions for financial resources transfers within the active policy of sustainable local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, a range of reports and cross-sectional surveys of European workers have highlighted Denmark as scoring exceptionally, and consistently, well across several dimensions shaping working life, for example, job quality, work-life balance, discretion and learning, and job satisfaction. This is despite a trend of increasing psychosocial risks of work across Europe. Providing a retrospective interpretation of this exceptionalism, the paper draws on data from 40 expert interviews in Denmark to theoretically map the advantageous institutional components shaping working life in Denmark. Aligning the theories of Émile Durkheim with the capabilities framework, the analysis highlights the role of interdependent collective agreements, which link macro and microwork contexts and generate resources that augment the experience of balance and control within working life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Although decentralisation during crisis is more beneficial in the long run, still economic downturn increases the probability of centralisation. The purpose of this paper is to understand the sub-micro reasons of centralisation during recession.Design/methodology/approach To answer the research question, a qualitative methodology was applied based on interviews with senior managers of six English and seven Hungarian manufacturing companies.Findings In the time of crisis, companies centralise because they would like to gain efficiency. The short-term advantages of concentration of authority (such as whole company focus, easier communication and higher decision speed) override its longer term downsides such as less innovation and flexibility.Practical implications Cost cutting-driven centralisation can always generate faster results than a hazardous sales increase-driven decentralisation. A rapid centralisation can seem a safer and better choice than a stronger innovative capability of which results can be harvested only in the future. If companies centralise in the time of crisis and delegate during prosperity, adaptation to economic cycles can be crucial. This can gain competitive advantage if the companies can perceive economic situation and restructure their authority better than their competitors.Originality/value The paper would like to contribute to the quantitative-dominated literature with a descriptive, qualitative study analysing the root causes of change in concentration of authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural resources play a very important role in ensuring the livelihood of rural communities. Besides providing food, they can be a precursor to poverty reduction and economic growth. Decentralization of natural resources management is estimated to generate considerable benefits which are analyzed in three aspects, the economic, social and ensuring their sustainable development. Even in our country, in the context of achieving high levels of democratic governance and transition to a consolidated market economy, have been undertaken several decentralization reforms in different areas. One of the most important, is the transfer of a part of natural resources such are communal forests and pastures, in ownership of local governments units, in order to fulfill better the community needs, increase benefits from their use and at the same time protect them. In this paper, in addition to the analysis of secondary data available, it is intended to assess community perceptions of the importance of these resources in the creation of family income as well as, the possibility to increase the income generated after their transfer to local governments. Assessment is based on primary data collected by surveying members of rural communities affected by the decentralization process of these natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two main purposes: first, it measures the level and degree of decentralisation in contemporary Korea, and, second, it explains why decentralisation is slow or stagnant. To measure the level of decentralisation in Korea, this paper uses Page & Goldsmith's triple measures of function, discretion, and access, which were developed to examine the extent of centralisation and decentralisation in any given polity. The results suggest that Korea is both legally and politically centralised. In Korea, a centralised party system has combined with other factors to drive centralisation, overcoming the decentralising forces that focus mainly on local elected and appointed officials. Centralising forces include the bureaucratic elitism of national officials, cultural disdain for local governments, and local people's feeble affective attachment to local identities and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the supply-side reform objective, it is a great transformation of housing welfare measures in China to collect private unoccupied houses as public rental housing instead of building new ones. Through an empirical study of the Collecting Houses as Public Rental Housing Program in Changzhou, this paper finds that the collected houses is relatively scattered in the city, which is beneficial to avoiding over-centralization and marginalization of the poor families. However, it has resulted in poverty reconcentration in some old communities, probably further leading to spatial solidification of the poor as well as a further decline of old communities. Therefore it may not effectively solve the housing problems of the poor population by providing this alternative public rental housing, which is collected according to economic efficiency. Accordingly, the paper argues that it is necessary to reinforce community development and to renovate the declined communities in time, as an important supplement to housing welfare improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We live in a time when the number of regulatory bodies or independent agencies or so-called parastatal organs is continually growing and gaining momentum as a part of a country's system of governance. In particular, in the Republic of Macedonia, in the period from 2002, around 24 independent organs have been established with the legislation, which shows that this is not only an actual topic for research and writing but also that there is an actual need for an in-depth study for the purpose of establishing these organs. Simply put, is their establishment in the legal system a necessity or a trend. Hence, the subjects of research in this paper are the reasons or the factors that contribute to the formation of the independent organs, their position in the system of government organization and the distinction between the independent state organs, the regulatory bodies and the independent organs of the state administration. Taking into consideration the fact that through the formation of these organs a new model of exercising public authorization has been developed, a question whether these organs are a new model of organization of the public administration is being raised. A model that enables the decentralisation of certain competencies for which have been the state administration concern so far, and for which the state administration now becomes only an execution controller. All this in order to enable a more efficient, more qualified and depoliticised execution of the public interest services. To achieve the aim of the research in the paper we used historical method, comparative method and normative method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines an endogenous timing game in product differentiated duopolies under price competition when emission tax is imposed on environmental externality. We show that a simultaneous-move (sequential-move) outcome can be an equilibrium outcome in a private duopoly under significant (insignificant) environmental externality, but this result can be reversed in a mixed duopoly. We also show that when environmental externalities are significant, public leadership yields greater welfare than private leadership, and that public leadership is more robust than private leadership as an equilibrium outcome. Finally, we find that privatization can result in a public leader becoming a private leader, but this worsens welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose An attempt will be made to shed light on the course and pattern of the decentralization process by analyzing the historical development of local government and the territorial-administrative reform of 2015-2020 in Albania and the factors that have been shaping it. The scope is to understand the impact of the reform elements on the subnational governments and in general their overall impact on the government. The purpose of this paper is to fill the gap in the existing literature for Albania and at offering some insights on the administrative-territorial reform. Furthermore, it will contribute to the current debate on fiscal decentralization in South Eastern European (SEE) countries and the public management model implemented after the last reforms.Design/methodology/approach The first section analyzes the historical development of local government reforms from the 1990s to today and will help to identify if there is instrumentalism advocacy. The second section explains the determinants of the local government’s fiscal autonomy in Albania of the period from 2003 to 2016. Three indicators are used as proxies for fiscal decentralization: the proportion of subnational expenditure over national expenditure, of total subnational revenues over total revenues of central government and the indicator of own subnational revenues over total revenues of the central government. The data from the budget and the revised budgets are then compared.Findings Despite Albania’s commitment to decentralize its government functions, there is still work to do. The territorial and administrative reform has not generated the expected results. Almost 90 percent of the revenues still come from the central government’s unconditional transfers. Therefore, the Albanian Government should build capacities and skills, and train the employees of each level of government that currently benefit from international assistance.Research limitations/implications The analysis represents a single case study on the territorial-administrative reform in Albania. Its implementation started in 2015 and it is probably too early to discuss outcomes. However, it might be useful to analyze the first results after a two-and-a-half-year period of implementation of reforms. Despite contributing to the existing gap in the literature, additional research will be necessary to better understand the decentralization process not only in Albania, but in all SEE countries.Practical implications It is necessary to first understand the lack of initial output, as well as the various challenges faced, in order to take the corrective measures on time.Originality/value This paper discusses in detail the reform adopted and the progress made by the Albanian local government units. The reform attempts to develop better relationships between the central and local governments and hence improve their service delivery, transparency and accountability. This paper is the first one that is attempting to analyze the initial output of the territorial-administrative reform of 2015-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every day, the number of blockchains used in real world scenarios grows. From logistics to fine art, it's hard to find a sector that hasn't been touched by this transformative technology. We have reached a point where the technology has proven itself to be superior than the current modus operandi. The goal of this paper is a review of most recent important blockchain technology applications in fulfilling the right of everyone to recognition everywhere as a person before the law by introducing the concept of self-sovereign identity, and, how blockchain technology can manage the future electricity grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]