Public Goods

What causes stark differences in living standards between subnational units? What can countries do to lessen such variations? This article argues that there is an aspect of national policy frameworks that impacts subnational provision of social services: the sensitivity of policy to the particularities of place. Place-sensitive policies make adaptations to the way social services are organized and provided across a country so that they are better equipped to deal with the different characteristics of places and better support their wellbeing. When policies are place-sensitive, subnational provision is facilitated in poor, rural, and marginal locations of a country. In contrast, place-blind policies employ a one-size-fits-all approach that excludes people in vulnerable areas and aggravates inequalities in social service provision and social outcomes.  By studying the Colombian case, this article demonstrates that a key place-blind feature of its healthcare model disproportionately affects small localities.

are two of a long series of studies conducted over the past decade on the status of cybersecurity. From year to year, data about cyber attacks and their impact continue to increase indicating that cyber attacks pose an ever-growing threat for information societies. There are two lessons to be learned from these data. The first lesson is not controversial , digital infrastructures are porous. We should think of them as agile, flexible, but brittle systems. This brittleness, as I argued elsewhere (Taddeo 2016, 2017a), favours offence over defence, explaining in part the continue growth of cyber threats and the escalation of their impact. The more digital technologies become pervasive, the wider becomes the surface of attacks, and with it also number of successful attacks grows. Think for example about the distribution of Internet of Things (IoT). In 2018, a Symantec study reported an average of 5200 attacks per month on IoT devices, the figure almost double the 3650 attacks counted in 2016. The second lesson may be harder to learn, for it is about the inadequacy of the ways in which we have framed and governed cybersecurity. This is clear when considering that data on the escalation of number and impact of cyber attacks, despite the growing value of the cybersecurity market and the increasing efforts of companies and state actors to improve the security of information systems and infrastructures (Technavio 2018). The lack of effective cybersecurity measures has a potential knock-on effect on the information revolution, and on the development of information societies around An early version of this letter has been published here https ://www.wefor um.org/agend a/2019/08/ we-must-treat-cyber secur ity-like-publi c-good/ * Mariarosaria Taddeo

This policy brief focuses on key findings from a larger scale qualitative grounded theory study of public good- and market-driven strategies
shaping internationalization strategies at a public and a private research university. The purpose of the study is to better understand institutional considerations and rationales for internationalization, examine the impact of market-orientation on strategic effectiveness, and consider the impact of internationalization initiatives on the public good.  This research guide aims to inform practitioners, leaders, and policy-makers engaged in global engagement in US higher education.

While there may be a substantial potential for media and entertainment products in new electronic market channels, content producers and owners remain sceptical and are cautious to utilize these new market opportunities. Piracy and the fear of losing control over their property in the new channels constitute the basis for their scepticism. Applying a public good approach to the economic analysis of this problem reveals that there is no easy way of cir- cumventing the problem, but that it may be most successfully solved by increasing the degree of excludability for media and entertainment content also in these new channels. Excludability is a non- intrinsic economic product characteristic, which may be adjusted through a com- bination of property rights and technology. Further institutional and technological efforts towards establishing excludability will thus encourage e-commerce with media and entertainment products. While alternative solutions such as first release strategies and claiming payments from related markets may exist for certain con- tent categories, the excludability solution will enable the new electronic market channels to tap into vast libraries of recorded media and entertainment products and thus utilize the channels’ full potential.

International development and humanitarian organizations are  increasingly calling for digital data to be treated as a public good because of its value in supplementing scarce national statistics and informing interventions, including in emergencies. In response to this claim, a ‘responsible data’ movement has evolved to discuss guidelines and frameworks that will establish ethical principles for data sharing. However, this movement is not gaining traction with those who hold the highest-value data, particularly mobile network operators who are proving reluctant to make data collected in low- and middle-income
countries accessible through intermediaries. This paper evaluates how the argument for ‘data as a public good’ fits with the corporate reality of big data, exploring existing models for data sharing. I draw on the idea of corporate data as an ecosystem involving often conflicting rights, duties and claims, in comparison to the utilitarian claim that data’s humanitarian value makes it imperative to share them. I assess the power dynamics implied by the idea of data as a public good, and how differing incentives lead actors to adopt particular ethical positions with regard to the use of data.

The aim of this research paper is to present a critical analysis of territorial organizational design (TOD), as partnership between the private and public sectors within a territory. To share resources and to manage restraints conjointly are the key words of TOD. Based on external economies in links with local public goods, TOD take into partnership a multitude of heterogeneous and non-hierarchical networks, within the problematic of governance.

Résumé
Acteurs publics et privés s'engagent de plus en plus dans des démarches de design organisationnel territorial (DOT), qui ont pour objet l'utilisation partenariale de ressources communes ou la gestion collective de contraintes. Fondé sur des économies externes liées à la disponibilité locale de biens collectifs, le DOT repose sur des réseaux hétérogènes et non hié-rarchisés et s'inscrit dans les procédures de gouvernance territoriale.

Political secularism takes many forms but a fundamental distinction is between radical and moderate kinds. The latter is a genuine secularism and not just a failure to take secularism to its logical conclusion. The failure to appreciate this obscures the secularism that exists in western Europe. Namely, an accommodation of organised religion which sees it as a potential public good or national resource (not just a private benefit), which the state can in some circumstances assist to realise—even through an ‘established’ church. I adumbrate five types of reasons the state might be interested in religion: truth, danger, utility, identity and respect. The challenge facing such secularism today is whether it can be pluralised or multiculturalised, in particular whether it can accommodate Muslims. A ground for optimism is the respect that some people, especially some Muslims, have for religions other than their own.

The failure of ‘progressivism’ to gain traction in the current political landscape can be diagnosed in many ways. The diagnosis pursued here, partly in response to a set of recent debates, is that social democracy and neoliberalism have been artificially divided by the spectre of Marxism. But now that Marxism is no longer a serious geopolitical force (though it remains quite potent in academia), the time is ripe for the two ‘centre-left’ movements to come together by recovering their common Fabian heritage, which stresses the value of social experimentation.

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Hafeez Jamali, "Ludwig von Mieses." October 19, 2012.
For anthropologists, the term neoliberal often becomes a shorthand for indicating all that is wrong with the present. But such usage of the term can foreclose our ability to imagine different futures. In this article, I go back to a time before neoliberalism, when economists and philosophers were engaged in debates about the rationality of economic planning within market economies, and in which the concept of “tacit knowledge” was pivotal. These 1920s and 1930s thinkers, especially Hayek and von Mises, were convinced that collectivism and planning would not work, and their work is cited still today as having established the basis for laissez-faire (neoliberal) capitalism. I critically juxtapose their findings with a historical analysis of the public sector in Egypt, with a short excursis into management theory (and research on tacit knowledge), and with my own ethnography. Looking at the case of a successful public sector banker I worked with in Cairo, I show how he relied on tacit knowledge as a collective inheritance that was embodied in collective subjects and “secrets of the trade.” My findings thus call into question Hayek's argument about the irrationality of collectivism and economic planning. They also point to the importance of tacit knowledge practices as collective and public goods in our economic imaginary of the future.

Public procurement is the acquisition of public goods and services from private sector. The main goal of public procurement is to achieving best value for money. In general, an efficient public procurement system enhances a government’s public welfare role. Competition is the key to ensuring governments and citizens get the maximum value of money in the process of public procurement. Public procurement requires a regulatory framework based on the principle of competition and that submits public spending to  the  adherence  of  competitive  procurement  methods’ and to  increase  the  efficiency  of  public  spending. This research establishes the effect of competition in the regulation of public procurement. The study recommends that Government, in order to optimize the value of money, should adopt draft principles of competition procurement policies that are compatible with procurement regulations.

As technological innovations continue to proliferate, new modes of shared
decision-making and inclusive empowering public engagement have not.
Too many put their faith in new apps, algorithms and the internet of things,
and talk excitedly about a green transition, but where is the enthusiasm and
curiosity for new mechanisms of accountable democratic governance and
creative multi-stakeholder collaborations?

In this essay, we argue that democratizing public services, especially water
and electricity, is essential for a just, sustainable and resilient production and
allocation of the public goods needed to promote human flourishing and
a healthy planet. We believe that democratizing public utilities can help to
address our political institutions’ legitimacy crisis by showing that democracy  can be innovative and empowering, and a trust-enhancing alternative to an increasingly oligopolistic economy and political authoritarianism.

This essay is premised on the supposition that many of the foundational disagreements on the role of higher education in American society can be synthesized into three major themes: whether college education is a privilege or right, whether college education is a predominantly public or private good, and who or what benefits the most from the traditional college education. This essay attempts to outline a coherent conception of education that encompasses three themes and ultimately concludes that education is most effectively and fully to be understood as a largely private privilege for the individual with potentially positive public externalities if of a particular type and distribution. Potential counterarguments and insight into the theoretical shortcomings of considering higher education a public right in its diversity are presented and expounded upon.

Income inequality has become one of the more widely debated social issues today. The current article explores the role of progressive taxation in income inequality and happiness. Using historical data in the United States from 1962 to 2014, we found that income inequality was substantially smaller in years when the income tax was more progressive (i.e., a higher tax rate for higher income brackets), even when controlling for variables like stock market performance and unemployment rate. Time lag analyses further showed that higher progres- sive taxation predicted increasingly lower income inequality up to 5 years later. Data from the General Social Survey (1972–2014; N  59,599) with U.S. residents (hereafter referred to as “Americans”) showed that during years with higher progressive taxation rates, less wealthy Americans—those in the lowest 40% of the income distribution—tended to be happier, whereas the richest 20% were not significantly less happy. Mediational analyses confirmed that the association of progressive taxation with the happiness of less wealthy Americans can be explained by lower income inequality in years with higher progressive taxation. A separate sample of Americans polled online (N  373) correctly predicted the positive association between progres- sive taxation and the happiness of poorer Americans but incorrectly expected a strong negative association between progressive taxation and the happiness of richer Americans.

Contents
1. Marek M. Kaminski – Introduction: The seductive power of Mancur Olson” . . . . . . . 7
2. Jongseok An – Remembering Professor Mancur Olson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3. Keith L. Dougherty – Memories of Mancur: A student reminisces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4. Jac C. Heckelman – My remembrances of Mancur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5. Martin C. McGuire – Remembering Mancur Olson: And Auld Lang Syne . . . . . . . . 29
6. Peter Murrell – Mancur Olson: Personal recollections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7. Billin Neyapti – Mancur Olson: A memorable Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8. Thomas C. Schelling – In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
9. Piotr Swistak – The deeds of Mancur Olson: A ride from Palmer House
and a meeting in LeFrak Hall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Articles on “Collective Action”
10. Leszek Balcerowicz – On the economics and the political economy of reforms . . . 67
11. Marek M. Kaminski – Schelling games, Kuran dominos and electoral coalitions.
Non-standard game-theoretic models of collective action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
12. Marianna Klochko – The endogeneity of time preference and analysis
of collective behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
13. Martin C. McGuire – Investment in public capital, distribution,
and governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
14. Peter Ordeshook – Mancur Olson, collective action and the design
of a federal state: The case of Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
15. Carole J. Uhlaner – Relational goods and overcoming barriers
to collective action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
16. Richard J. Zeckhauser – Mancur Olson and the tragedy
of the unbalanced commons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Author Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Taxation: Philosophical Perspectives is the first edited collection devoted to addressing philosophical issues relating to tax. The tax system is central to the operation of states and to the ways in which states interact with individual citizens. Taxes are used by states to fund the provision of public goods and public services, to engage in direct or indirect forms of redistribution, and to mould the behaviour of individual citizens. As the chapters in this volume show, there are a number of pressing and significant philosophical issues relating to the tax system, and these issues often connect in fascinating ways with foundational questions regarding property rights, democracy, public justification, state neutrality, stability, political psychology, and a range of other issues. Many of these deep and challenging philosophical questions about tax have not always received as much sustained attention as they clearly merit. Our hope is that this book will advance the debate along a number of these philosophical fronts, and be a welcome spur to further work. The book’s aim of advancing the debate about tax in political philosophy has both general and more specific aspects, involving both overarching issues regarding the tax system as a whole and more specific issues relating to particular forms of tax policy. Serious philosophical work on the tax system requires an interdisciplinary approach—the discussion in this volume therefore includes contributions from a number of scholars whose expertise spans neighbouring disciplines, including political science, economics, public policy, and law.

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Before the total cutoff of a household for unpaid electrical bills, and in anticipation of the violence it might precipitate, national power utility inspectors in Dar es Salaam have recourse to a gradient of ‘soft’ disconnections designed to signal good faith and encourage repayment. Drawing on a mixture of semiotics and exchange theory, this article argues that such soft disconnections may be understood as moments when the shared grounds of the household-utility relation—both the physical power network and social commitments it embodies—become figured, modified, and ultimately preserved in the face of urban postcolonial strain. Whereas semiosis is often thought of as a kind of infrastructural bridge that links sign to interpretant (or object to sign), the inspectors’ reflexively phatic signaling of common grounds highlights the thoroughly semiotic nature of infrastructure itself. More generally, the very presumption and preservation of shared grounds is a salutary alternative to the anti-relational violence and extinction that characterizes much of the contemporary world.

The author argues that the concept of the public good carries largely the politico-ethical sense which subsumes the politico-economic sense. The public good is public in the sense that the beneficiaries are the general public. The government or state pursues it with a service orientation while private corporations pursue it with a profit orientation.The author also discusses mixed public goods which are pursued by private organizations with a service motivation. Government corporations are basically motivated by service though having profit is not precluded. Finally, the author talks about public bads such as corruption, pollution, and crimes.

Agricultural Land Redistribution: Toward Greater Consensus addresses a major policy dilemma: how to benefit from the development gains agricultural land redistribution is expected to generate while avoiding the losses caused by the highly imperfect ways redistribution is generally implemented. The authors address this issue through a broad historical perspective and a world tour of case studies. They conclude that flexibility is needed when selecting transfer mechanisms, in particular seeking a balance between subsidized market transactions, land taxation, and expropriation; when introducing effective conflict resolution mechanisms during redistribution; when establishing secure property rights for beneficiaries; and when giving support to the new farmers so that they rapidly become competitive. The assessment is sobering; it points to actual gains as well as to numerous unresolved difficulties. The authors rightly note that the lack of solid impact evaluations complicates the task of identifying the best process for successful implementation. This book provides valuable information on a subject that remains incompletely understood, yet central to development.

How do politicians with influence over public works programs balance their incentives to gain electoral support with their proclivities for rent-seeking? This research argues that government elites in parliamentary systems manage this trade-off by concentrating rent-seeking opportunities in their own hands while facilitating efficient public goods provision in the constituencies of their more junior partisan colleagues. Analyses using fine-grained data on road construction in India based on a variety of causal inference strategies support the argument. While ruling party legislators showed higher levels of road provision in their constituencies regardless of ministerial status, road projects in ministers' constituencies showed higher levels of rent-seeking than those in the constituencies of other ruling party legislators. Moreover, consistent with the mechanism, ruling party legislators' diminished access to rent-seeking opportunities appears to be largely driven by the influence of co-partisan ministers. The findings illuminate how politicized distribution can sometimes mitigate inefficiencies in infrastructure provision.

This white paper examines the current state of debate about – and evidence for – the links between cash, crime, and terrorism. Drawing from IMTFI’s accumulated expertise on monetary technologies, from cash to digital, it examines a range of institutional, legal, scholarly, policy, news media, and other sources to situate and understand this claim. What studies and data underlie the critical policy move of proposing to eliminate cash to address crime? Key findings include the importance of the interplay between multiple payment tools and jurisdictions. People use diverse payment methods together, and the movement of value across jurisdictions is subject to different regulatory environments and payment cultures. Targeting cash in isolation does not take into account this interplay, and risks displacing criminal activities involving cash to other tools and jurisdictions. Multiple methods of interdiction are therefore needed to address money laundering and terrorist financing.

I problemi posti dal finanziamento dei governi regionali e locali in Italia, all'iniziodegli anni '80, hanno acquisito una rilevanza crescente. Questo volume avanza alcune proposte per una riforma della finanza locale che tenga conto dei costi, in termini di equità ed efficienza, associati alla finanza di trasferimento. L'autore indica i presupposti per l'estensione dell'autonomia fiscale locale nelle forme di un'imposta provinciale sugli immobili e di una imposta comunale selettiva sui consumi. Delinea, inoltre, alcuni elementi di orientamento per una impostazione alternativa delle relazioni finanziarie intergovernative prendendo spunto sia dall'analisi teorica della triade musgraviana delle funzioni economiche del governo che dalle esperienze statunitense e canadese.