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Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal 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.)

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal 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.)

International organisations assert that political corruption is a major global problem. However, it is still unclear how to combat corruption. Previous research has studied corruption in central or local governments, rarely in regional ones. In this paper, we aim to identify factors influencing political corruption in regional governments. Using panel data, we analyse the statistical association between 29 economic, financial, political and socioeconomic variables and the corruption perceived by citizens, from January 2006 to September 2019. The results reveal that perceived political corruption is affected by government spending and ideological distance, among other factors. We propose several measures to reduce political corruption. Points for practitioners: The study has found that political corruption needs to be combatted through different measures for each administrative level. Our results support the idea that the following variables influence the perceived level of corruption within the regional governments: the volume of government borrowing, the ideological distance between the voter and the government, the percentage electoral participation and the volume of dependent and immigrant population of the region. Likewise, we also confirm that regional governments with higher values on the Quality of Government Index are perceived as less corrupt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista del CLAD Reforma y Democracia is the property of Centro Latinoamericano de Administracion para el Desarrollo (CLAD) 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.)

Based on the content analysis of the websites of 102 Spanish municipalities related to actions aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the X-STATIS technique was applied to analyze the status and dynamic evolution of commitment to the SDGs in regional and local governments over the period of 2016–2021. The results show a low but increasing level of SDG commitment, which also varies significantly across municipalities and regions, as well as by SDGs, which can be attributed to the influence of several sociodemographic factors, such as the number of inhabitants, dependent population and population density. SDG8 and SDG11 stand out as the main priorities of the municipalities, while initiatives related to SDG5, SDG6 and SDG 17 are the least prioritized. The COVID-19 pandemic has marked a turning point in this regard, with greater importance being given to the SDGs more related to people and prosperity. Our findings help citizens and public authorities to understand sustainable regions and municipalities, assess their performance in relation to different dimensions of sustainability and identify key challenges for future improvements. Specifically, the results suggest that public policies should promote actions related to gender equality, drinking water and sanitation and partnerships, as well as favor investment in the regions and municipalities that are lagging behind, in order to improve their level of commitment to the 2030 Agenda and reduce inequalities. From an academic point of view, our results open a door for the analysis of possible trajectories in the implementation of the SDGs at regional and local levels and the study of their determinants.

This paper provides an analysis of the determinants of regional government debt in the Russian Federation using data from 2005–2017. We document that total indebtedness of Russian regions has grown substantially since 2010 and find significant changes in the structure of regional debt, primarily the increased use of budget credits offered by the federal government. Market debt instruments are determined by a different set of factors than non-market instruments. In fact, poorer and less fiscally independent regions have lower access to budget credits and are forced to rely on more expensive market debt instruments, particularly commercial loans. Budget credits and commercial loans are shown to be substitutes, although the nature of this substitution is contrary to declared redistributive goals of public policy. Finally, we find the presence of horizontal strategic interactions in debt issuance across Russian regions: regions react positively to increased debt issuance in the same federal district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the content analysis of the websites of 102 Spanish municipalities related to actions aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the X-STATIS technique was applied to analyze the status and dynamic evolution of commitment to the SDGs in regional and local governments over the period of 2016-2021. The results show a low but increasing level of SDG commitment, which also varies significantly across municipalities and regions, as well as by SDGs, which can be attributed to the influence of several sociodemographic factors, such as the number of inhabitants, dependent population and population density. SDG8 and SDG11 stand out as the main priorities of the municipalities, while initiatives related to SDG5, SDG6 and SDG 17 are the least prioritized. The COVID-19 pandemic has marked a turning point in this regard, with greater importance being given to the SDGs more related to people and prosperity. Our findings help citizens and public authorities to understand sustainable regions and municipalities, assess their performance in relation to different dimensions of sustainability and identify key challenges for future improvements. Specifically, the results suggest that public policies should promote actions related to gender equality, drinking water and sanitation and partnerships, as well as favor investment in the regions and municipalities that are lagging behind, in order to improve their level of commitment to the 2030 Agenda and reduce inequalities. From an academic point of view, our results open a door for the analysis of possible trajectories in the implementation of the SDGs at regional and local levels and the study of their determinants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the special issue on the rise of substate regional governments within and beyond Europe. Drawing on the Regioznal Authority Index (RAI) and the Measure of International Authority (MIA), we trace the increase in authority 'above and below' the state and argue that it is important to study the differential impacts – as well as the interconnectedness – of the main sub-dimensions of regional (i.e. self-rule and shared rule) and international authority (i.e. delegation and pooling). Turning from the empirical to the conceptual, we also critically examine Multilevel Governance (MLG) as a framework that can be applied to the global south. While MLG helps to illuminate the often non-formal and non-hierarchical nature of territorial politics and the key role of supranational actors in the global south, other factors may limit its applicability including capacity deficits, institutional instability, and conflictual dynamics between levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Historia y Comunicación Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)

The two past decades have seen changes in communication between regional government and the public. Namely, the new Y and Z generations are skilled in ICT use and accustomed to immediate access to information using Internet. They also expect not only information but also interactive communication using ICT to be personal and tailored to their specific needs. Governments, including regional governments, have to improve the way they communicate with the public and also include social media in integral marketing communication. Some regional governments put a great deal of emphasis on their social media strategies. On the contrary, some regional governments are not yet able to use social media to communicate with the public. The results of this study show how regional governments from the Czech Republic and Slovakia use social media in 2019. The study is focused on specific aspects of Public Relations and provides ideas for how regional governments can better communicate with their target groups using social media such as Facebook and Youtube.

Most quantitative, comparative welfare state research assumes that subnational welfare regimes are irrelevant or identical to their national counterparts. Many qualitative case studies, on the other hand, have underlined the differences between subnational and national regimes. In this article, we attempt to build bridges between these two strands of literature by examining the case for a Quebec model, that is, a subnational welfare state regime that is distinct from its Canadian counterpart(s). We reviewed seven publications from which we extracted 188 quantitative results relevant to the distinct subnational regime hypothesis. Although not all these results are independent nor based on conclusive evidence, they generally agree that a distinct welfare regime exists in Quebec. We conclude this article by discussing the implications of the Quebec case for the study of welfare regimes at the subnational and regional levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Española de Documentación Científica is the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas 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.)

Law No. 12 of 2017 concerning the Guidance and Oversight of the Administration of Regional Governments apparently has not provided sufficient power for the implementation of regional autonomy in Indonesia. In fact, a number of cases that undermine the implementation of regional autonomy still occur frequently. There are many contributing factors, including the current regional autonomy oversight system. The Regional Autonomy Implementation Monitoring Committee (KPPOD), for example, noted implementing regulations related to sanctions for regional governments that commit violations or disobey, such as delays in preparing regional budgets, negligence in national programs, or noticeless overseas travels, were not firm yet. On the other hand, guidance and oversight were still considered weak. Therefore, this study intended to provide an overview of regional autonomy oversight models in Denmark and Zimbabwe while trying to provide a solution for the regional autonomy oversight model in Indonesia. To achieve this goal, this study used a literature study method to gather various relevant information with a qualitative approach. This approach was considered appropriate because regional autonomy oversight was multidimensional. The results showed that such a regional autonomy oversight model as applied in Denmark was needed to control regional governments from implementing policies that could harm public interest. Furthermore, the oversight must be carried out by looking at the problems and the actual conditions in the regions in more detail. This study also offered a regional autonomy oversight model, which has dimensions of human resources, acceptance, development, and innovation.

Copyright of Politica y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)

This study centers on the phenomenon of 'paradiplomacy' that has become prominent in Western industrialized liberal-democracies. It begins by distinguishing three layers of paradiplomacy, arguing that paradiplomacy can be a multifunctional vehicle for reinforcing interests and protecting identity. It then discusses the various choices that are made when developing a paradiplomacy, including designing new structures and selecting partners. Next, the study addresses the issue of intergovernmental relations in the context of paradiplomacy and, more specifically, the attitude of central government towards a sub-state units developing activities that could be classified as constituting paradiplomacy, when these last nourish nationalist aspirations. Finally, the last section offers a brief discussion of the implications of paradiplomacy for democracy, democratic consultation and representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once open data initiatives are consolidated worldwide, it is important to find out if the Spanish regional open data portals are useful for active transparency. To this end, we developed an indicator to assess the existence of information and its reusable quality in three periods of time (2013, 2015 and 2018). Then, we inquired about the existence of differentiated groups of regional governments using, when necessary, cluster analysis. We found indications that there are two conglomerates of governments: advanced and lagged. These findings are in line with those offered by two opposing views on the dissemination of information from the public sector: agency and neo-institutional theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Americanía. Revista de Estudios Latinoamericanos is the property of Revista Americania - Universidad Pablo de Olavide 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.)

This article analyses the communication model for accountability based on open data portals used by Spanish regional governments. Based on the theories of agency, new institutionalism and legitimacy, two behaviour patterns are proposed, referred to as “sincere transparency” and “apparent transparency”. Although the data sets available have increased significantly over the period analysed, the results in relation to transparency and accountability remain poor. According to the behavioural analysis, four Autonomous Communities implement policies that evidently strive for sincere transparency, while seven clearly display behaviour of apparent transparency with respect to their open data portals.

Objectives The main purpose of this research is to analyse the evolution of budgetary transparency in the Spanish Autonomous Communities (ACs) (also known as regions) and determine which socio-economic and political factors favor such evolution. To this aim, we will use the Transparency Index of the Autonomous Communities (INCAU), elaborated by Transparency International Spain, that is based fundamentally on contrasting whether these entities publish information relating to a set of 80 indicators, which try to cover the most important areas of information that the government of an Autonomous Community (AC) should make publicly available to society. In the selection of these 80 indicators, specialists and technicians from numerous institutions have been collaborating (Transparency International Spain, 2018). Specifically, INCAU has a twofold objective: (i) to evaluate the level of transparency of the governments of the different ACs and (ii) to encourage and promote the increase in the information that these institutions provide to citizens and to society as a whole. This index has been produced every two years since 2010. It only assesses whether the required information is available or not, but it does not evaluate the quality of the information published, nor that of the management of the governments of different ACs. Each AC obtains a score, the INCAU, giving rise to a classification of the level of transparency of the seventeen autonomous governments. INCAU is made up of several transparency sub-indexes: a) Information on the Autonomous Community; b) Relations with citizens and society; c) Economic-financial transparency; d) Transparency in contracts for services, works and supplies; e) Transparency in matters of land use planning, urban planning and public works; f) Indicators of the Transparency Law. In this research we will focus on the area of economic-financial transparency. Taking into account the previous literature, it has been considered that the socioeconomic factors that can explain the level of transparency are the population, the economic level (unemployment), the educational levels of citizenship, the use of the Internet by citizens, the budget deficit or surplus and the indebtedness. Political factors include the ideology of the ruling political party, the gender of the president, electoral participation and political competition. Methodology In order to measure the degree of budgetary transparency of the Spanish ACs, we use the index of economic-financial transparency published by Transparency International Spain. Therefore, the dependent variable of our model is this index, and the data have been obtained for the years 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016. There are two possible scoring levels in each of the 80 indicators that make up the INCAU: a) 1 point: the information on the indicator is published on the AC website; b) 0 points: the information on the indicator is not published on the AC website. Based on the total score obtained by each of the ACs evaluated (the sum of their scores in the 80 indicators), Transparency International Spain prepares the final transparency ranking of the ACs (with a score ranging from 1 to 100, with 100 being the most transparent) both at an overall level and in each of the six areas of transparency that have been evaluated. For the last year considered (2016), the most transparent AC is the Basque Country, followed by the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Madrid. On the other hand, on the less transparent side we find ACs such as Navarre, Extremadura or Aragon. In relation to the average of all the years analysed, the ACs with the best data are Catalonia, Castilla-Leon and La Rioja, with the three being above 80 points on average in the assessment of their levels of economic-financial transparency. In addition, those with the lowest levels of transparency on average in the period analysed are Castilla-la Mancha and the Comunidad Valenciana, which scarcely reach a score of 60 points. In order to analyse the explanatory factors of the levels of budgetary transparency, a linear multiple regression model has been proposed, which is estimated by means of the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method. Results The following table shows a summary of the hypotheses initially put forward and whether they have finally been accepted or rejected after comparing them in the model proposed in our methodology. Conclusions/Limitations/Implications Analysis of the evolution of the ACs' economic-financial transparency index has enabled us to observe that its own publication has been one of the greatest stimuli for governments to increase their level of public information. This is a fact that undoubtedly implies a limitation to the dependent variable used in our model, since the range of variation of this is reduced over time, and many ACs are approaching to the transparency indexes of 100% in 2016. Therefore, it is possible that, over time and with the publication of new transparency indexes, the model proposed in this study will no longer be significant to the extent that the dependent variable (the transparency index) will tend to be uniform (the value of the index of all the ACs will be or will become 100%). In addition, it should not be forgotten that another of the limitations of these indicators is that the quality of the information issued by governments is not included in their analysis, but only the publication of this information itself. It should also be noted that any dissemination involves several costs, mainly in terms of staff time dedicated to the preparation of the information. However, much of the information is prepared periodically for compliance with obligations to other administrative bodies. That is why we believe that the advance of transparency in the field of autonomy is a question of predisposition, will and know-how, rather than of significant technological investments. In this sense, we also believe that regional governments should opt to continue improving their levels of transparency, especially those ACs of smaller size, as we have concluded in the study that they are the ones with lower levels of transparency. This can be achieved through improvements in the means by which they communicate information. Thus, as we have concluded, the population's access to the Internet is a factor that very positively affects the levels of transparency. Therefore, ACs must put emphasis on this type of means in order to provide quality information with sufficient clarity to the citizens. Normally, institutions tend to make data public, but not understandable to a large part of the citizenry. For this reason, the role of citizens is to continue asking for exhaustive, clear and complete information about the management of public administrations. As future areas of research that allow us to complement and deepen the study of the levels of transparency, the creation of new indexes would be positive in order to check the similarities and differences between them, including in the calculation of these indexes the quality and clarity of the information published by the public administrations. It would also be positive to analyse the evolution of the transparency index through panel data when there is a longer period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research provides new theoretical and empirical insights into the gender politics of the springboards to chief executive office. The extremely masculinised composition of the relatively few top national executive positions has posed a serious impediment to empirically assessing the conditions that may facilitate women's under‐representation and men's over‐representation. To overcome this constraint, this study looks at the top regional executive office across four West European countries that present a multilevel state structure – namely Austria, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. Using two original datasets, the article examines the ways in which the selection and reselection of regional prime ministerial candidates is shaped by individual, organisational and institutional factors that produce heterogeneous experiences and career opportunities across sex. The results show that women have not shattered the glass ceiling at the regional level and pinpoint the fact that they are held to higher standards, benefit less from the political resources they possess and are more dependent on the decision environment in which parties select executive candidates. The conclusion is that the rules of the game guiding selection and reselection processes are strongly biased towards men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent history has shown the inherent instability of the Spanish Regional Financing System. This system is key to the design of a fiscal framework aimed at ensuring budgetary stability, debt sustainability and transparency. In this paper we examine issues related to moral hazard and deficit bias from a game theory perspective. We combine classical concepts from game theory (Nash equilibrium, subgame perfection) with concepts derived from refinements (theory of moves) aimed at introducing dynamic elements in the normal-form game, rendering it more suitable for the study of repeated, recurrent interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IDP: Revista de Internet, Derecho y Politica is the property of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya 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.)

The paper describes the further development of an agent-based multiregional input-output model of the Russian economy. We consider the idea of incorporating the government into the model and analyze the results of experimental calculations for the conditional example of spatial economy. New agents are included into the model such as the federal and regional governments, pension fund and also the state enterprises producing public goods at the federal and regional levels. The government sets four types of taxes (personal and business income taxes, VAT and payroll taxes), ensures the provision of public goods and provides social, investment and interbudgetary transfers to households, firms and budgets. Social transfers consist of social assistance and unemployment benefits. The utility functions of households are expanded by the terms associated with national and regional public goods. The budget policy is designed in accordance with the maximization of isoelastic function of social welfare that formalizes the choice between the different concepts of social justice. The Gini index is used for the monitoring the inequality of income distribution. The results of experimental calculations present the convergence of the new version of the model to the state of quasi-equilibrium. The special attention is paid an optimal level of the taxation maximizing the social welfare function. Four variants of the optimal tax rates are defined: for three major taxes at a fixed proportion of rates and for each of the tax separately at zero rates of two other taxes. The further directions of modelling are identified, they allow to investigate the spatial development of the Russian economy taking into account the decision-making by private agents in responding to government policies.

This article analyses the “Europe of the Regions” as a project that aims at building up regions as (new) political subjects within the European Union (EU) system. Regions have attempted to become not only political actors with capacity to have an influence but subjects with decision-making power. The article, after describing the evolution of the regional agenda from Maastricht to the Lisbon Intergovernmental Conference (1992-2007), turns to assess first of all the multi-level governance (MLG), the political science dominant approach on the analysis of EU-sub-state relations, and secondly the Intergovernmental Relations approach (IR). The article argues that the IR approach can cast new light over the issue. The conclusions show that the IR approach has an explanatory capacity, and clarify the obstacles that the EU regions have to face in their strategy for a structural and legal recognition of their role within the EU. Similarly and given that the governments of the member-state do not provide for domestic mechanisms that project the regional interests into the EU spheres, it seems appropriate to examine some of the regional activities towards the EU as subnational foreign policies.

Cloud computing is gaining increasing interest as an enabling technology for improved productivity, efficiency and cost reduction. It also has the potential to add value to reliability and scalability of organisation’s systems, which would allow organisations to better focus on their core business and strategies. This research paper aimed at exploring the perceived potential for value creation from cloud computing in Australian Regional Governments. Using the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Desires Framework (DF), a conceptual research model is devised. The key identified factors that are likely to influence adoption of cloud computing are identified along with the implications to current policies, anticipated benefits and challenges of adoption of cloud computing. The research employed a qualitative approach involving 21 in-depth interviews with Australian local councils’ IT managers. The findings of this research are mapped to the research model factors, thereby presenting and validating a number of value-adding concepts that are expected to contribute to investment decisions on cloud computing adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent of data disclosure related to transparency and accountability in Spanish regional governments is analyzed for the period 2013-2017. For that purpose, an index with weighting of the quality for data reutilization is used. The index is first calculated for open data portals, and then transparency portals and institutional websites are added to the assessment. Findings show that just five regional governments clearly opt for open data based transparency and accountability. Nevertheless, there is a general improvement when transparency portals and institutional websites are added to the index, mainly because of data disclosed in transparency portals. Findings show that fourteen regional governments show sincere transparency and accountability policies, five of them with open data and the remainders with transparency portals. On the contrary, four regional governments perform a sheer apparent transparency behavior, without disclosing significant data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the influential partisan alignment hypothesis, which posits that subnational governments aligned with central governments exhibit higher expenditures. To promote their own and their party’s re-election chances, central government politicians allocate more resources to ideologically aligned co-partisans at the subnational level. Consequently, aligned subnational governments exhibit higher expenditures than non-aligned ones. This article examines alignment effects in subnational education spending. Education is a crucial test case because, unlike other expenditures, the allocation of education spending is discretionary and often does not follow precise formulas. Using a novel dataset covering 266 subnational regions in 14 countries over 20 years, we offer the first cross-country analysis of alignment effects. Controlling for rival explanations, the findings reveal alignment effects on subnational education expenditures. Furthermore, political institutions matter, as alignment effects are stronger in countries where subnational governments have more discretion over education policy while lacking their own revenue sources (vertical fiscal imbalance). These findings imply that decentralisation might increase educational and socio-economic inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article is based on empirical research and presents a typology of five narratives in which the 'smart city' label is showed as metaphors: "smartphone", "startup", "laboratory", "organism" and "agora". The research covers the examples of three Polish cities: Gdansk, Warsaw and Wroclaw. We checked how this concept is explained and narrowed down to the framework of the city's strategy and legitimized by city makers. Each of the stories expounds the vision of the city, ways of achieving goals and the approach to residents as users. That might give weight to the nuanced idea and translate into the real urban policy. The conclusions of the study suggest that the smart city concept does not fundamentally change urban policies, but is rather inscribed in the adopted directions and vision, e.g. the city which was wanted to be perceived as academic, identifies "smart" with cooperation with the science sector etc. The results also show that smaller cities that use new technologies more modestly must look for other ways to refer to smart cities for strategic purposes. The empirical basis was the implementation of individual in-depth interviews with city officials, which was supplemented by an analysis of planning, strategic and reporting documents. • The smart city narrarives are narrowed down to the framework of the city's strategy and are legitimized by city makers. • Smart city narratives express the metaphors: smartphone, start-up, organism, laboratory, agora. • Each of the stories expounds the vision of the city, ways of achieving goals and the approach to residents as users • Among the topics covered by the smart city concept, some are explored more and others less by city representatives. • Smaller cities that use new technologies more modestly must look for other ways to refer to smart cities in the strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-established political economic literature has shown as multi-level governance affects the inefficiency of public expenditures. Yet, this expectation has not been empirically tested on health expenditures. We provide a political economy interpretation of the variation in the prices of 6 obstetric DRGs using Italy as a case study. Italy offers a unique institutional setting since its 21 regional governments can decide whether to adopt the national DRG system or to adjust/waive it. We investigate whether the composition and characteristics of regional governments do matter for the average DRG level and, if so, why. To address both questions, we first use a panel fixed effects model exploiting the results of 66 elections between 2000 and 2013 ( i.e. , 294 obs) to estimate the link between DRGs and the composition and characteristics of regional governments. Second, we investigate these results exploiting the implementation of a budget constraint policy through a difference-in-differences framework. The incidence of physicians in the regional government explains the variation of DRGs with low technological intensity, such as normal newborn, but not of those with high technological intensity, as severely premature newborn. We also observe a decrease in the average levels of DRGs after the budget constraint implementation, but the magnitude of this decrease depends primarily on the presence of physicians among politicians and the political alignment between the regional and the national government. To understand which kind of role the relevance of the political components plays ( i.e. , waste vs. better defined DRGs), we check whether any of the considered political economy variables have a positive impact on the quality of regional obstetric systems finding no effect. These results are a first evidence that a system of standardized prices, such as the DRGs, is not immune to political pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current crisis, citizens are demanding greater public sector transparency and accountability. In this paper, we advance the understanding of sustainability practices in public administration. We propose to compare the dissemination of sustainability of various regional governments, analyzing the websites of these regional governments through a content analysis, using for this purpose a list of items obtained from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Our results show that Spanish regional governments, spread two-thirds of the information in the GRI guidelines, being the social information which presents a higher level of response and corresponding general aspects which has a lower level of dissemination. In addition, those regional governments with greater environmental commitment are those who publish more information about sustainability. From our conclusions, we emphasize that the poor financial situation of the Spanish regional governments does not seem to promote them to disseminate information about sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article in the Basque language has as its main purpose to introduce the issues around so-called Public Private Partnerships, a form of governance for the financing, managing and control of projects related to goods or services of public interest where private actors assume a role that goes beyond the classical forms of procurement. This form of governance for a policy related objective is analysed in the context of the economic, financial, social and political transformations that are taking place in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, where the regional government (2007-2011) set up Gipuzkoa Aurrera, an innovative platform for the collaboration of private and public actors in the strategic economic and social decisions that the territory was facing in the near future. This initiative was later discontinued by the subsequent regional government (2011-) who has been very critical of the mode of governance and the ideology it detects behind these forms of collaboration between Public and Private institutions. The article finally draws some theoretical conclusions in a Law & Society line of analysis. Ekarpen honek arlo publikoaren eta arlo pribatuaren arteko harreman eta bereizketak jorratzea du asmo; bereziki pribatuaren eta publikoaren arteko partenariadu edo lankidetza gaiaren testuinguruan. Lankidetza mota hauek gobernantza berezi bat suposatzen dute. Ikuspegi zabalago batetik zerbitzu publikoa edo interes publikoa duten zerbitzuak antolatu, kudeatu eta kontrolazeko gobernantza berezi bat ere garatzen doa. Honek zentzu politikoa du baina ulermen ekonomiko, finantzari eta soziala baztertu gabe, danak konbinatzen baitira partenariaduak aztertzerakoan. Ideia eta diskurtso zabalago hauek esperientzia jakin eta zehatz baten inguruan aztertzen dira, alegia 2007-2011 legegintzaldiko Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundiaren ekimenetik sortutako plataforma bat Gipuzkoa Aurrera izenekoa. Berau publiko/pribatu lankidetza bat izan da, lurraldearentzako hainbat gako estrategikoetza hausnartzeko asmotan. 2011-2015 legegintzaldiko Gipuzkoako Foru Aldundi eta Batzar Orokor berriek aldi asmoa eta plataforma bertan behera utzi dute, suposaten dituen alderdi ideologikoak gaitzetsiz. El principal objetivo de este artículo es presentar los Partenariados Público Privados, una forma de gobernanza para financiar, gestionar y supervisar proyectos relacionados con bienes o servicios de interés público, donde los actores privados asumen un papel que va más allá de las formas clásicas de contratación y adjudicación. Esta forma de gobernanza, que tiene también un sentido político, se analiza en el contexto de las transformaciones económicas, financieras, sociales y políticas que se están produciendo en la provincia vasca de Gipuzkoa, donde el gobierno regional (2007-2011) creó Gipuzkoa Aurrera, una innovadora plataforma para la colaboración de actores públicos y privados en las decisiones económicas y sociales estratégicas que el territorio afrontaba en un futuro próximo. Esta iniciativa se interrumpió con la llegada del reciente gobierno regional de la legislatura 2011-2015, que ha sido muy crítico con el modo de gobernanza y la ideología detectada tras estas formas de colaboración y partenariados entre instituciones públicas y privadas. Finalmente, el artículo presenta algunas conclusiones teóricas en una línea de análisis de la sociología jurídica. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2060927

State aid to increase air traffic at airports has been wide-spread in Spain since the 1990s Its monetary value and distribution among the various airports and carriers are little known aspects, as different formulas have been used for the transfer of funds and little research has been conducted. The use of a wide range of secondary sources has led to the creation of a database that permits an accurate description to be made of the true circumstances of state aid over these years. This paper estimates, for the first time, the amount of subsidies paid from 1996 to 2014, analysing their design and objectives and assessing their level of compliance with current EU legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examine the Law 15/2015, October 17th, that reforms the one that regulates the Spanish Constitutional Court, and tries to ensure the efficiency in the enforceability of the Spanish Constitutional Court decisions. The paper deeply analyze paragraph 5 of article 92 of the Law that regulates the Constitutional Court, focusing on the aspects in which, under article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, a State control over the Autonomous Communities can be developed. This paper covers a gap: the doctrine has not sufficiently studied article 155 of the Spanish Constitution although it is the one most mentioned in any independence attempt that has hit Spain over 37 years: from the «Ibarretxe Plan» (2004) to the Catalonian independence roadmap (2012) and so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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En los últimos años se ha incrementado el interés por estudiar el endeudamiento de las Administraciones Públicas, ya que existe el convencimiento generalizado de que el nivel que ha alcanzado dicho endeudamiento es excesivo. En este contexto, el presente trabajo pretende analizar las variables que mejor explican el endeudamiento en uno de los tres niveles en que se divide el sector público en España: el sector autonómico. Para ello hemos utilizado variables de tipo económico, fundamentalmente presupuestarias, así como otras variables de tipo institucional. Entre los resultados obtenidos destaca que las Comunidades Autónomas con mayores competencias tienen mayores niveles de endeudamiento. También el PIB generado y el gasto total destinado a transferencias parecen variables que originan diferencias en el nivel de endeudamiento. En contra de lo que cabría esperar, los gastos de capital tienen escasa incidencia en el stock de deuda de las diferentes Comunidades Autónomas. During the last few years, interest in public sector debt research has increased, since widespread opinion exists that the level reached by this debt is excessive. In this context, this paper hopes to analyse the variables that best explain the indebtedness of one of the three levels in which the public sector is divided in Spain: the autonomous regions. To achieve this aim we have used economic variables, fundamentally budgetary ones, as well as other institutional variables. One result that stands out from the rest, is that the Autonomous Regions which have more power have greater levels of indebtedness. The generated GDP and the total expenditure allocated to transfers also appear to be variables that cause differences in the level of indebtedness. Contrary to what would be expected, the capital expenditure has limited effect on the stock of debt of the different Autonomous Regions.