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Abstract: Using data on 48 contiguous U.S. states and a spatial econometric approach, this paper examines short‐ and long‐run effects of productive higher education and highway infrastructure spending financed by different revenue sources on state economic growth. Following the Lagrange Multiplier, Wald, and Likelihood Ratio tests, the data are found to be characterized by both spatial lag and spatial error processes, leading to the estimation of a dynamic spatial Durbin model. By decomposing results of the dynamic spatial Durbin model into short‐ and long‐run direct as well as indirect (spillover) effects, we show that accounting for spillover effects provides a more comprehensive approach to uncovering the effects of productive government spending on growth. We find that, regardless of the financing source, productive higher education and highway spending have statistically significant short‐ and long‐run direct as well as spillover effects on state income growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses change in oil and gas policies pushed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) during the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Administrative policy changes occurred not only because of election outcomes and the emergence of new governing coalitions but BLM's selective utilization of policy tools such as rulemaking, planning, environmental impact analyses, and the use of discretionary authority to increase or relax enforcement decisions. The data reveal that BLM put more emphasis on the use of discretionary authority to limit environmental inspections and to limit environmental reviews of proposed drilling projects under Bush while agency officials gave priority to adopting new planning procedures to allow greater stakeholder input under Obama as well as increasing the number of environmental inspections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies of state assumption of the CDBG-Small Cities program have been limited by two factors. First, they have been single-state case studies or confined to a small number of states. Second, they have adopted a narrow context for examining the likely impacts of community development following state assumption. This paper attempts to expand policy information based upon earlier work by studying a larger cross-section of states and considering the issues of redistribution and decentralization from a broader context. We find some significant policy changes from previous HUD program management but suggest that such may be due to the CDBG economic development amendment and an increase in multipurpose projects in the states. Unlike Morgan and England's (1984) recent article in PAR, we suggest that decentralization may not necessarily lead to decreasing redistributive community development policies in the states. Rather, redistribution may be incorporated within the enlarging proportion of multipurpose projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the economic analysis of the regulation of agriculture in the U.S. It is stated that regulation for agriculture can help foster competition by intervening to increase the number of firms or to dictate certain courses of action. It implies that promoting competitive market pricing and dealing with externalities such as fertilizer run-off and by-products of feedlots are the most prominent general regulatory fields of actions for agricultural development. It suggests the need for understanding the supply function to analyze the producer benefits or cost from regulatory measures.

This chapter discusses an innovative state public policy which has incentivized Iowa's community colleges to become the economic drivers of their region. Created in the 1983 legislation, it continues to this day to affect Iowa's rural communities and their colleges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the policy acceptance in the U.S. of reliance on automatic fiscal stabilizers. The author provides a history of previous fiscal stabilizer studies. The author states that it is necessary to illustrate the potential incompatibility of an annually balanced budget that has economic stability. The article also discusses institutional changes which made automatic fiscal stabilizers more important and the acceptance of automatic fiscal stabilizers as part of government policy. An analysis of how the U.S. executive and legislative branch is involved is also provided.

This article draws on Kingdon's Multiple Streams Approach ( MSA) to consider international, not just domestic, flows of policy. It is argued that using the MSA in conjunction with international policy transfer and mobility theories allows for a fuller explanation of the development of smart electricity metering policy in Australia. The MSA is based originally on empirical research within a single country - the USA - in the late 1970s, and all three of the 'streams' identified as important to policy change - problems, politics and policy - are conceptualized as domestic. While recent scholarship has broadened the application of the MSA beyond nation state boundaries, it is argued that there is scope to further develop such ideas. In particular, the notion of policy mobility is introduced to capture issues about the globalization of policy, the role of non-state actors and the material substance of policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the impact of regulatory legislation, specifically the Nunn- McCurdy Act, by the United States Congress on major military acquisition programmes. Nunn- McCurdy's stated objective is to curtail cost growth in weapon system acquisitions. To achieve this end, the legislation threatens cancellation of military acquisition programmes that breach specified cost growth thresholds. This effort collects and analyses a unique data set spanning the lifetime of the Nunn- McCurdy legislation to reveal the threat of termination is rarely enforced. Secondary effects, in the form of programme restructuring are found to be prevalent, but not in those areas that most adversely affect the programme. Thus, Nunn- McCurdy does not provide a strong incentive for acquisition programmes to change processes or procedures. As a result, the legislation is ineffectual in achieving its objective, and cost growth in major US military acquisition programmes remains problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accountability movement in public policy hails a new programme for US foreign assistance - the Millennium Challenge Account established in 2004 with the aim of 'picking winners' for grants among developing countries based on their demonstrated quality of governance. This article uses the MCA's own rating system to dispute its claim to know in advance which countries are best positioned to meet major development goals. High governance scores alone bear little or no relationship to growth in national income or decline in poverty. Attempting to measure public-policy performance limits the range of choice available to policy-makers, and may inadvertently limit true performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free trade agreements have become a central feature of many developing countries' growth strategies, encouraged by an evaluation literature that quantifies their positive impact on trade. However, trade gains come at the cost of policy space, particularly when the partner is a developed country, and though this cost has been acknowledged, its impact has not been explored. This article seeks to address this oversight by detailing changes to the domestic policy environment from the participation of a developing country in a US-anchored FTA and evaluating whether the resulting policy regime is flexible enough to enable a developmental government to pursue activities associated with industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses on the measure used to gauge poverty in the U.S., Europe and other developing countries. It discusses that the present official measure of poverty in the U.S. is flawed and both, the poverty threshold and measurement of available resources should be improved. It reports that European countries provided with sufficient social aid but they face a technical problem of relative poverty threshold. Also mentioned are the levels of economic development in developing and underdeveloped countries.

Economic development has long been a central pillar of American foreign policy, but often coexists uneasily with the more self-interested tenets of U.S. diplomacy. Richard Nixon's development strategy for Latin America is an excellent example of this problem. Upon taking office, Nixon and his advisers elaborated a plan to accelerate Latin American economic development and thereby head off the threat of social unrest and revolution in the Western Hemisphere. The plan came to naught, however, as it was compromised by the administration's economic unilateralism, insistence on maximizing American power and diplomatic leverage, and unwillingness to tailor U.S. policies to Latin American realities. In the end, the administration was unable to implement a successful development policy or reconcile development with other U.S. objectives. By the mid-1970s, the White House had therefore turned away from development as a means of protecting U.S. interests in Latin America, and fully embraced more repressive expedients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to present a conceptual framework for the analysis of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the U.S. It will also discuss some of the data and modeling issues that arise in predicting farmers' participation in ES contracts and the supply of ES resulting from them. To frame the discussion, the researchers outline a model of the supply of ES that illustrates the ways that spatial and system complexity can affect it. This model is used to discuss the data and modeling issues that arise in empirical implementation.

Government policy has long linked resource production with economic development in surrounding rural communities. The purpose of this article is to examine how the 's (USFS) resource-based, rural development policies have shifted due to economic restructuring and environmental challenges to the “management” of nature. Historical data was gathered on USFS timber harvests and policies toward forest-dependent communities. Data was also gathered through interviews and participant-observation on a USFS-supported, locally planned ecotourism project. USFS rural development policies have shifted from predominantly providing federally determined, sustained timber harvests in the industrial era to increasingly emphasizing local, amenity-based entrepreneurship and economic diversification in the post-industrial era. USFS rural development policies and resource production have been de-coupled. However, amenity-based development may depend both on amenity migrants and sustained commitment from external sources to support local initiative, given limited entrepreneurship in rural areas long dependent on high-wage extraction and manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development policy has a long history in the U.S. cities. Nevertheless, the scope and pace of local government economic development activity has increased greatly in recent years. One of the explanations for the adoption of economic development policies by local government is a response to economic need. A second set of explanations link the adoption of economic development policies to the activity of a pro-growth coalition of city elites and business interests. Finally, a third set of explanations suggest that particular institutional arrangements may make a difference in determining whether cities will be likely to adopt particular economic development policies.

From the mid-1970s forward, the industrial heartland of the U.S. experienced economic decline. First one industry and then another has gone into a pattern of decline either as a result of the industrial life cycle or international competition. These processes have eroded the traditional Midwestern base of heavy and durable goods manufacture until regional unemployment levels have climbed well above national averages. Not surprisingly, this decline has stimulated state and local governments to seek means of reversing economic decline. In short, the purpose of this article is to assess the impact of a set of incentives in a manner different from the traditional approaches and to test whether previous conclusions might be methodologically bound.

The article focuses on the development of the policy analysis related to food and agricultural industry in the U.S. It is stated that policy analysis and science are in a symbiotic relationship as economics and politics attempt to define questions for study and for alternative solutions. It implies the relevance of educational institutions in producing the analysts of tomorrow and officials who attempt to demonstrate to their fellow citizens that government can be a competent, creative and even exciting place to work.

The article explores the role of the economist in the process of establishing public policy that regulates the food and agricultural industry in the U.S. According to Jim Shaffer, the economic regulation results from the attempt of citizens to articulate preferences about the physical and social environment they share. It is stated that economists must look for specific issues that will lead to useful and effective regulation policy research and education through identifying the production and marketing processes. The economists are advised to be active in developing and refining the public policy of regulation that needs careful empirical analysis of defined issues.

The article reflects on the timeliness of the topic of ecosystem services (ES) in the arena of agricultural policy in the U.S. According to the author, policies and programs founded in ES science and economics can provide genuine alternatives to decades of commodity-based federal farm policy. The evolution of agricultural policy as it transforms to incorporate ES measures and transactions is uncertain. It will be marked by analytic challenges and policy retreats to old ways. ES assessments will enable budget allocation, planning and priority setting on the part of public agencies.

Presents an overview of articles on economic policy agenda for the 21st century. Definition of the U.S. economic policy agenda; Analysis of the challenges of stimulating economic growth in Europe; Examination of the changes in European competition policy.