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Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to attempt an empirical examination of government budgeting and expenditure processes in Nigeria, a developing country. It examines the current state of budgeting and public funds management (PFM) in Nigeria. It also examines the extent to which the government has used the budgetary mechanism to effectively manage the nation's economy. Design/methodology/approach - The paper employed simple regression estimation technique for data analysis. Time series data set of budgetary information was constructed from different archival sources over a 16-years period (2000-2015), majorly the national Appropriation Acts, press releases, regulatory and governmental reports, reports of Transparency International, World Bank and Central Intelligence Agency. Findings - The findings confirm that the nation's annual budgeting approach is defective and lags in achieving its fiscal objectives. The budget indicates a state of poor accountability and transparency in PFM. Findings also suggest that the level of economic development in Nigeria is not commensurate with the size of government expenditure. Practical implications - The paper draws the attention of the government to the need to restructure its approach to budgeting and adopt a more resilient approach that suits its environment and economic peculiarities in effort to ensure efficient management and accountability of public funds. The paper also offers value to other developing countries. It provides empirical evidence that explains an aspect why the African continent remains underdeveloped hitherto. Originality/value - This paper lends a voice to the call for a restructuring of the Nigerian budgetary system and its implementation strategy. It advocates for the adoption of an alternative budgeting approach that matches Nigeria economic realities. The paper demonstrated that the traditional budgetary approach being used by many developing countries is limited in certain ways and could hinder sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the pass-through rate of changes in public funding to tuition and fees paid by students. Using an instrumental variable-fixed effects identification strategy, I estimate that a $1000 per student decrease in funding leads to the typical student paying $257 more each year in costs, with. However, both the pass-through rate and the proportion of tuition increases which can be explained by state divestment have increased over time. The pass-through rate increased from 10.3% prior to the year 2000 to 31.8% post-2000. I outline several avenues of future research which should be pursued in order to more fully understand which students shoulder the burden of reductions in public support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the issue of efficiency of public passenger transport through financial support from public funds from the perspective of improving road safety. The aim is to verify the hypothesis that financing public passenger transport from public funds is a significant tool to influence the number of passengers carried by individual automobile transport, and thus it can be used a tool for influencing road safety in a particular territory. The first part of the paper analyses the sources for financial support of public passenger transport. The next part describes the assumptions for improving road safety through increasing the support of public passenger transport. The last part analyses possible impacts of financing public passenger transport on the road safety in relation to the specified hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores new mechanisms to ensure grants are additional to private research and development investment with no displacing or crowding-out effect. Our results indicate that by studying the flexibility embedded in these type of projects, using the real options framework, it is possible to reduce the size of grants given by financing bodies while remaining equally attractive to companies. This result is reached due to the higher flexibility provided in potential new grant schemes. In addition to the obvious consequence of less expensive public R&D funding, there are other side benefits to this new scheme, such as avoiding the crowding-out effect while also allowing more honest and sincere research and development investment by companies because they are sharing the risk with the funding body. This paper presents a case study - an R&D project carried out in the Concentrated Solar Power sector - in which we propose and calculate the effect of providing the grant 2 years earlier with a sensitivity analysis performed over the discount rate, volatility and first commercial revenue. This paper may encourage funding bodies to consider implementing alternative grant schemes valuing the flexibility embedded in R&D projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By means of a new financial instrument denominated «Social Impact Bond», private sector is financing, structuring and implementing programs to improve performance of public services, such as wealth and education. It is a new device that is starting to be developed worldwide that could have a positive impact over the most vulnerable communities or sectors without public funds being disbursed in advance. Indeed, even though there is a repayment made by the State, the same is subject to verification of the improvement of metrics for the performance of the public service in place. Participation of private sector in state activities have been successful for most of the cases; having it involved in finance and design of social programs should have equal results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mechanism to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD +), which is being implemented by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is considered essential to provide economic incentives for the adoption of forest-based mitigation measures against global climate change. This article analyses the key characteristics of REDD + pilot initiatives in Brazil from different perspectives concerning the concept of payment for environmental services, while exploring how these characteristics relate to the funding models adopted, regardless of whether they are sourced from public funds or via the carbon market. Data collected from publicly available databases are analysed using hypothesis tests. Ten variables from 89 pilot initiatives approved by the Voluntary Carbon Market or the Fundo Amazônia (Amazon Fund) are examined. Findings show that initiatives under each funding model have distinct characteristics in terms of stakeholders, criteria for incentive concession, time frames, geographical reach, as well as Measurement, Report and Verification (MRV) practices. Differences are consistent with distinct theoretical conceptions on incentive-based economic instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the transparency and accountability of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and the growth of foreign exchange reserves and factor and establishment of more SWFs and expansion of those that already existed. It mentions efforts of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) which encourage adherence to the Santiago Principles. It also mentions funds publish a substantial amount of information about the categories of their investments.

This paper seeks to conceptualize the processes of de-privatization in higher education. Trends of de-privatization (and contraction in enrolments) are highly interesting because they go against global trends of privatization (and educational expansion). De-privatization means a decreasing role for the private component in the changing public-private dynamics. The paper studies its two dimensions (funding and provision) and distinguishes between seven potential empirical organizational/geographical levels of analysis. Empirically, the paper draws from data from Central Europe. The traditional dichotomous pairing of the public and the private is shown to still be useful in specific empirical contexts, despite it becoming blurred globally. Major approaches to privatization in higher education over the last two decades are rethought and redirected toward de-privatization. An empirically informed notion of de-privatization is being developed and its usefulness is briefly tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to contextualise the study of Sovereign Wealth Funds within constitutionalism, which is construed as a limit to the exercise of power, whatever its source of inspiration. Sovereign Wealth Funds are investment funds that are owned by a sovereign government (this is the main difference from ordinary private investment funds). These funds are today major players on the global financial market and their role has increased since the start of the financial and economic crisis in 2008. This article analyses the influence of Sovereign Wealth Funds on several categories of constitutional law, such as sovereignty or the protection of fundamental rights, and suggests several remedies to improve the weak accountability and the responsibility of these funds. The final aim of this article is to prove that there can be no power without responsibility, which also applies to the power of the most powerful actors within the globalized world, such as Sovereign Wealth Funds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public expenses are often evaluated in terms of their effectiveness. This is caused by the character of financial resources and by the fact that public activities are dependent on those resources. This paper addresses the evaluation of financial subsidies within the Operational Programme Environment 2007-2013. From the perspective of financial subsidies, the Operational Programme Environment was the second largest programme in the Czech Republic offering almost 4.92 billion EUR. Verifying the effectiveness of the management of these public funds is highly desirable, as the use of public funds is associated with a risk of over-exploitation. The main aim of the paper is to evaluate the supported projects and to offer new indicators. The assessment was based on the 3E survey. The results of the research confirmed that among the evaluated projects the desired outcomes are achieved at greater efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to evaluate the state of the literature on public procurement through examination of the works published in the Journal of Public Procurement from 2001 to 2014. 231 research outputs were collected and analyzed (with regard to, e.g., the background theory used, research method, and content of the papers), providing a structured overview of prior research topics and findings and identifying main gaps in the existing literature. This type of study is unique, as a broad literature review related to public procurement does not currently exist; therefore, the work has been designed with the intention to a) synthetize the prior research on public procurement; b) provide researchers with a structural framework in which future research on public procurement topics may be oriented; c) identify promising and active areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited research has been done to date on the extent of public funding of Open Educational Resources (OER) within basic education (K-12 equivalent) in South Africa. As claims have been made about the potential cost reductions that come with using OER, this study aimed to establish a benchmark of public spending on educational resources, uncover how much is being spent on OER and assess cost-savings of OER adoption. A desk review and document analysis of official information sources on South African basic education was conducted to develop a conceptual understanding of funding allocations the South African government uses for educational resources. A review of publicly available government reports and budgets showed that there is insufficient information at this time to determine how much is being spent on OER specifically or to act as a benchmark for potential cost savings of OER. This study highlights the information gaps which would need to be filled in order to make claims about OER and their potential as cost savers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Created in 2010 and made operational in 2015, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is expected to become the main mechanism for transferring public and some private funds to non-Annex I countries to address climate change. It aims to achieve a 50:50 balance between adaptation and mitigation financing over time. While there is a diplomatic history leading to this arrangement, we argue the GCF's allocation strategy requires further refinement if it is to adequately address climate change. We advocate prioritizing climate mitigation over adaptation in funding while not ignoring climate justice concerns all together. We recommend a more targeted approach to its funding allocations based upon the GHGs abatement potential for mitigation or climate vulnerability for adaptation of very specific non-Annex I countries. We believe these refinements will help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of scarce climate change financing resources required to achieve the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) central objective of no more than 1.5 °C by 2100, which requires emissions reductions between 70 and 95% (2010 levels) by 2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption distorts access to education and affects the quality of education and the reliability of academic research findings. The risk of corruption in education is magnified by the sheer scale of educational expenditures, both public and private. In most countries, education is the largest or second largest recipient of public funds, and employs the greatest number of public servants. Salary top-ups are a way to increase salaries in various sectors, including in the education sector. They can be used by governments to compensate for hardship jobs or increased workloads. Salary top-ups could be provided in the form of cash payments or in-kind benefits that a person receives over and above what colleagues and pay scale receive. The extent to which salary top-ups can be used as an anti-corruption strategy has to be seen in the context of how salaries can reduce or increase incentives for corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments depend on nonprofit, voluntary sector organisations to deliver social and community services, and public funding is the sector's most important income source. However, in many countries, public funding for social services is becoming more limited, conditional and precarious, and governments are encouraging nonprofits to diversify their funding base, and shift their reliance to income from market activity and private donations. This article is concerned with access to philanthropic and commercial funding among nonprofits, and the factors affecting it. It firstly discusses an emerging policy agenda to promote private funding among nonprofit community service providers. Then, multivariate analysis of survey data from 521 Australian nonprofits shows which organisations access income from client fees, business activities, community fundraising, and philanthropic foundations. By exploring inequalities in the distribution of these main sources of private funding, the article helps identify the types of organisations that face challenges in establishing and sustaining streams of private income, and which are likely to require ongoing public support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how strategic responses of bidders and efficiency properties are impacted in auctions for the procurement of environmental services when a threat of regulation is levied. Laboratory experiments reveal characteristics of bidder behavior in different regulatory environments. Experimental results provide insight into efficiency and equity tradeoffs inherent in regulatory policy applications with respect to environmental services auctions. While it is possible to reduce the amount of public funds necessary to purchase a given level of environmental services, adverse selection costs and equity considerations may outstrip the benefits gained from threat implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2007-13 planning period saw a new and significant emphasis on the use of so-called 'financial instruments' asmeasures to implement Cohesion policy. This was justified by the Commission on the basis that such instruments are more sustainable than grants, that they can generate better quality projects and that they are a more efficient use of public funds. However, for many Member States financial instruments were a new approach to delivering Cohesion policy in 2007-13, and their increased use created significant challenges. In considering this experience, this article draws on the findings of the ex post evaluation of financial instruments for enterprise support under the ERDF and Cohesion Fund. It assesses the scale of support provided through co-financed financial instruments in 2007-13, considers the rationales of managing authorities opting to use financial instruments, outlines howfinancial instruments were implemented in practice and provides some initial indications of their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment of the seismic damage and usability of the building stock started a few days after the L'Aquila earthquake in order to evaluate the safety conditions of the buildings concerned. Several ordinances of the Prime Minister were issued to regulate the reconstruction process. In particular, based also on damage level, the procedures for repair, strengthening or demolition/reconstruction of residential buildings were established with the definition of relevant state funding. For each damaged building, practitioners engaged by property owners designed repair and strengthening interventions and then computed the corresponding costs. These projects were the technical basis for funding applications that owners submitted to the government. Technical and financial information collected during the approval procedure of such applications allowed compilation of a database regarding 5775 residential buildings damaged by the L'Aquila earthquake. The present study examines the restoration policy and the procedures regulating the reconstruction process of residential property outside city centres. In particular, the data related to the first phase of the reconstruction process (the so-called 'light damage' reconstruction) to recover the usability of slightly damaged buildings are illustrated. The discussion focuses on the time-to-approval of funding applications and on the public contributions granted for repair and local strengthening works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an extensive review of two streams of literature: the first part of the review focuses on policy tools and their interrelationships and the second part focuses on the literature on the state renewable energy policy tools. Based on the reviews, this paper investigates how policymakers choose a set of interrelated renewable energy policy instruments and identify under what conditions policy instruments complement or substitute. We extend the political market framework by examining the influences of: (1) administrative agencies on the supply side; (2) interest groups on the demand side; and (3) the policy-induced problem situation changes on the adoption of state renewable energy policy tools, building upon reviews of both policy tools and policy diffusion theories. A set of hypotheses are advanced for state renewable energy policy interactions among public benefit fund (PBF), renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and corporate tax incentive (CTI). The hypotheses are tested by three Event History models, in which RPS, PBF and CTI serve as dependent variables separately. The complementary effects between previous use of RPS and adoption of PBF, between previous use of PBF and adoption of RPS, and between previous use of CTI and adoption of RPS are confirmed. We also find support for the policy substitutability between previous use of CTI and adoption of PBF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From very soon the forced execution of tax debts followed a different path to the rest of debts. Although we have no news about the details of the application of the manus iniectio, the legis actio per pignoris capionem marks the origin of the executive privilege of the tax credit, which does not seem to have been subjected to the actio iudicati proper of the process per formulas. The sources, on the other hand, provide detailed information on the application of the singular execution (pignus in causa iudicati captum) to the levying of tax debts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A generic issue when attempting to justify the use of public funds for Knowledge Transfer (KT) and the provision of advice is the demonstration of their impact on policy goals. Both conceptual and practical difficulties are encountered. Experience gained in evaluating Farming Connect in Wales, the programme delivering KT and advice to Welsh farmers using a wide range of activities, is drawn on to illustrate issues faced in detecting economic impacts at farm and sector levels, in particular in establishing the counterfactual. Two methodological tools are compared; the common but 'naïve' approach of asking farmers about impacts on their business, and the 'quasi-experimental' one of comparing samples of beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. Rather different results are obtained (farmer responses suggesting a far greater level of impact) and reasons for these are sought. Lessons have been learned, in particular raising questions on the reliability of the ‘naïve’ approach, that need to be taken into account in the future design of monitoring and evaluation not just in agriculture but more generally, and that carry implications for the selection of the types of activities that receive public support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian government implemented 24x7 water supply projects in few selected cities. These projects were implemented either under Public Private Partnership (PPP) or direct funding by government. However, many projects witnessed failure during later stage of project life cycle. The paper aimed to carry out performance evaluation of implementation of continuous water supply projects against the various risks. The case study research methodology was adopted for the study. Initially, various risks in water supply projects were identified through literature review. Two polar cases were selected for the study, one was implemented under Public Private Partnership (PPP) and other was implemented under direct funding from government budget. The cross case analysis of both cases against the identified risks is presented in the paper. The project under PPP mode could not perform well against risks like consumer risk, revenue risk, financial risk and socio political risk. The result showed that both the projects could not achieve the desired success as planned initially still it can be concluded that continuous water supply projects under government funding performed better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is intended to investigate the importance of preventive financial control in Romanian public institutions. This paper looks (in particular) at the efficiency of the preventive financial control in public entities and at the risks involved if the preventive financial control does not work properly. The article shows that if the financial control does not respect regulations, the public funds will be affected. Understanding normative acts, training the employees involved in the process and management support are the main factors that contributes to an efficient preventive financial control process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, the EU heavily invested in Research Infrastructures (RI). What are the expected returns of such investments? In the present article we address the question of returns on public funds/public infrastructures. We consider the role of RI and universities from an economic, social, and entrepreneurial perspective from various Territorial Innovation Models (TIMs): (1) Italian industrial districts, (2) innovative milieus, (3) regional innovation systems, (4) new industrial spaces, and (5) regional clusters. We conducted our empirical study on Grenoble Isère Alpes Nanotechnologies (GIANT), which is composed of large scientific instruments, universities, and engineering and management schools. Our microeconomic methodology measured the socioeconomic and entrepreneurial effects of GIANT with respect to budget, employment, and spin-off generation. We contribute to the existing body of knowledge on TIMs by (1) comparing the long-term investments to the generation of wealth, the creation of employment, and the development of start-ups; (2) adding new insights to the debate opposing positive and negative impacts empirical studies; and (3) offering recommendations for the use of public resources. In our discussion, we compare the GIANT model as a very localized RI-university club to the Grenoble model as localized cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant academic and policy attention has focused on identifying the causes and consequences of the growth of traditional sovereign wealth funds ( SWFs). This paper, in contrast, highlights a new type of sovereign investment vehicle - sovereign patents funds ( SPFs) - that have emerged primarily in advanced industrialized economies, including France, South Korea and Japan. As defined here, SPFs are investment funds that seek to acquire intellectual property resources deemed strategically valuable in the pursuit of national economic objectives. This brief survey article considers the implications of SPFs in comparison to more traditional sovereign wealth funds. In doing so, it asks what emerging discourses on sovereign patent funds can learn from the sovereign wealth fund debate, and points to both similarities and important differences between these entities. While highlighting similarities between SPFs and traditional SWFs, the paper notes that patent funds are more explicitly political than their SWF counterparts. Following an overview of both SPFs and SWFs, the paper compares elements of the structure, behaviour, and response to these funds. Finally, while a full assessment of the activities and merits of SPFs lies beyond the scope of this article, the conclusion offers key lessons drawn from the SWF comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous studies have extensively explored the impacts of rail transit on economic development after its opening, few have examined its impact on real estate development before its opening. Using the building permit data of the city of St. Paul, this study investigates the effects of key announcements of the Green Line light rail transit (LRT) by employing location quotient analysis and difference-in-difference models to compare building activity in the LRT corridor and control corridors. We found that the announcement of preliminary engineering had no positive impacts on the count and value of building permits whereas the announcement of Full Funding Grant Agreement tended to increase the number of building permit by about 24% and the value by 80%. We concluded that LRT investment, in conjunction with proactive land use planning policies, public subsidies and public funded projects, increases building activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Negative environmental externalities typically emerge in rural areas due to urban centers' privileged access to the rural hinterland for economic activities related to the extraction and processing of natural resources. Less attention has been given to those cases when both the promotion of economic activities and their consequential inequalities are driven from within rural communities themselves. Privileged accounts within communities naturalize environmental concerns and divert attention from the inequalities associated with the costs and risks of economic development. Within this context, it is important to examine local perceptions, framings, and power structures that create and perpetuate asymmetries in access to natural resources for economic development and the local vulnerabilities they create. Drawing on Freudenberg's theory of privileged access and privileged accounts, this paper examines the promotion and development of biofuels plants in the rural American Midwest. Here, proponents of biofuels development argued that biofuel facilities were ideally suited to local conditions, where large-scale corn production, the main biomass input, is extensive. Drawing on data from surveys of six case study communities in rural Kansas and Iowa, augmented by in-depth stakeholder interviews, we discuss the local support towards biofuels production in the context of environmental concerns. The results indicate significant rural community support despite evidence that the contribution of biofuels production to local livelihoods was minimal. We show how these privileged accounts create largely unified support locally for biofuels production and quiescence concerning the disproportionality of benefits, potential environmental harms and long term development challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International differences in fuel taxation are huge, and may be justified by different local negative externalities that taxes must correct, as well as by different preferences for public spending. In this context, should a worldwide uniform carbon tax be added to these local taxes to correct the global warming externality? We address this question in a second best framework à la Ramsey, where public goods have to be financed through distortionary taxation and the cost of public funds has to be weighted against the utility of public goods. We show that when lump-sum transfers between countries are allowed for, the second best tax on the polluting good may be decomposed into three parts: one, country-specific, dealing with the local negative externality, a second one, country-specific, dealing with the cost of levying public funds, and a third one, global, dealing with the global externality and which can be interpreted as the carbon price. Our main contribution is to show that the uniformity of the carbon price should still hold in this second best framework. Nevertheless, if lump-sum transfers between governments are impossible to implement, international differentiation of the carbon price is the only way to take care of equity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]