This book, by Michael J. Brogan, examines government budgeting through the lens of public budget forecast errors. In examining this aspect of the budgetary process, Brogan helps readers understand levels of political and financial risk that policymakers are willing to accept in estimating the likelihood of accurate budget projections. This title is noteworthy in its innovative, accessible approach to examining the budget process through an analysis of forecast errors. Unlike most public budgeting books, which focus primarily on the technical aspects of budgeting or on the politics of the budget process, this book bridges the technical and political aspects of budgeting, thereby providing a more comprehensive analysis of contemporary issues and research in public budgetary matters. In light of the current financial crisis in the United States, this book is crucial for providing readers with a comprehensive review of the limits of budget projections and how political forces shape the forecasting process. Throughout the text, readers are presented with relevant state-specific mini cases. The mini cases highlight some of the difficulties in projecting future revenue and spending patterns, as well as the political conflict that can ensue. The empirical findings, mini cases, and arguments presented throughout this book are intended to empower readers, giving them the expertise needed to better understand how uncertainty in public budget forecasts affects the budget process. Ultimately, this knowledge can help citizens connect the financial management of a state with its governing patterns.

How should policy analysts assess 'benefit validity' when behavioral anomalies appear relevant? David L. Weimer provides thoughtful answers through practical guidelines. Behavioral economists have identified a number of situations in which people appear not to behave according to the neoclassical assumptions underpinning welfare economics and its application to the assessment of the efficiency of proposed public policies through cost-benefit analysis. This book introduces the concept of benefit validity as a criterion for estimating benefits from observed or stated preference studies, and provides practical guidelines to help analysts accommodate behavioral findings. It considers benefit validity in four areas: violations of expected utility theory, unexpectedly large differences between willingness to pay and willingness to accept, non-exponential discounting, and harmful addiction. In addition to its immediate value to practicing policy analysts, it helps behavioral economists identify issues where their research programs can make practical contributions to better policy analysis.

The European debt crisis has posed a challenge for many people to understand, both non-Europeans and Europeans alike. Even economists, finance specialists and market commentators are often uncertain of its causes or in the interpretation of events ongoing, or of past events that have taken place that then shaped the current situation. Typically this lack of understanding results from a lack of understanding of how European institutions work, the structure of European politics and the Eurozone, the economics of the financial system, or the relationship of debt markets to current government policies in the EU. The purpose of this book is to describe the causes and outcomes of the European debt crisis (to the date of publication) within the context of three questions most often asked about the debt crisis: What happened? Why did it happen? Why has the crisis been so difficult for policy-makers to address? The book attempts to answer these questions in a straightforward, scholarly and thoughtful fashion, thereby developing a wider understanding of the crisis in its entirety for the reader. The book is by no means meant to be an exhaustive treatment on any of the issues it discusses. But the approach taken should be useful for those people who wish to better understand the events of the European financial crisis over the past three years but who do not need to acquire an exhaustive background in European institutions, debt markets, history and economic policy-making. For that reason the proposed book would have appeal to undergraduate students in business, economics, politics or interdisciplinary studies looking for an approachable yet detailed overview of the crisis, for graduate classes seeking similar goals and lay-people or professionals interested generally in the topic and/or with a need to acquire a basic understanding of the topic. Further, the book could serve as an introduction in courses or settings that lead to deeper discussion of the economic, political and financial issues it presents.

As a part of the provisions governing the subject of the measurement of the income of business enterprises, the fifth paragraph, sub paragraph b), of article 53 of the Presidential Decree no. 597 of 29 September, 1973, provides, as it is well known, that "the difference between the normal value of goods and services, and the consideration for transfers made and for services rendered to companies, whose legal seat or administrative headquarters and whose main object are not in the Italian territory, and which either directly or indirectly control the enterprise, or are controlled by the same company that controls the enterprise," is tobe included in the proceeds. The second paragraph of the successive article 56 further states that the cost of acquisition of the goods transferred and of the services rendered by the same enterprises is to be curtailed of any surplus tn respect of the normal value. The same provision also applies to the goods transferred and the services rendered by companies not having in Italy their legal seat or their administrative office or the main object of their activity, for account of which the enterprise carries out an activity for the sale and placement of raw materials or goods, or for the manufacturing or processing of products."

This book contains selected peer-reviewed papers that were presented at the Fourth International Symposium on Transportation Network Reliability (INSTR) Conference held at the University of Minnesota July 22-23, 2010. International scholars, from a variety of disciplines--engineering, economics, geography, planning and transportation-offer varying perspectives on modeling and analysis of the reliability of transportation networks in order to illustrate both vulnerability to day-to-day and unpredictability variability and risk in travel, and demonstrates strategies for addressing those issues. The scope of the chapters includes all aspects of analysis and design to improve network reliability, specifically user perception of unreliability of public transport, public policy and reliability of travel times, the valuation and economics of reliability, network reliability modeling and estimation, travel behavior and vehicle routing under uncertainty, and risk evaluation and management for transportation networks. The book combines new methodologies and state of the art practice to model and address questions of network unreliability, making it of interest to both academics in transportation and engineering as well as policy-makers and practitioners.

Denmark and Switzerland are small and successful countries with exceptionally content populations. However, they have very different political institutions and economic models. They have followed the general tendency in the West toward economic convergence, but both countries have managed to stay on top. They both have a strong liberal tradition, but otherwise their economic strategies are a welfare state model for Denmark and a safe haven model for Switzerland. The Danish welfare state is tax-based, while the expenditures for social welfare are insurance-based in Switzerland. The political institutions are a multiparty unicameral system in Denmark, and a permanent coalition system with many referenda and strong local government in Switzerland. Both approaches have managed to ensure smoothly working political power-sharing and economic systems that allocate resources in a fairly efficient way. To date, they have also managed to adapt the economies to changes in the external environment with a combination of stability and flexibility.

"Public Finance" benefits from the combined efforts of Harvey Rosen's market-leading book and co-author Ted Gayer's research and government agency experience. This combination of experience is able to explain as clearly as possible how the tools of economics can be used to analyze government expenditure and tax policies. This new edition incorporates recent developments and along the way takes students to the frontiers of current research and policy. While the information presented is cutting edge and reflects the work of economists currently active in the field, the approach makes the text accessible to undergraduates whose only prior exposure to economics is at the introductory level.

All of the changes in the Tenth edition were made to further the authors' goal of providing students with a clear and coherent view of the role of government spending and taxation. The authors' years of policy experience have convinced themselves that modern public finance provides a practical and invaluable framework for thinking about policy issues. The goal is simple: to emphasize the links between sound economics and the analysis of real-world policy problems.

For a long time, it has been the declared aim in many countries to fight tax evasion in all its different manifestations, from undeclared work by cleaners and gardeners in private households to tax evasion in the international capital markets. This study focuses on the phenomenon of undeclared work and the case of Germany, presenting the most comprehensive analysis of tax non-compliance for Germany to date, based on surveys conducted by the Rockwool Foundation. Theoretically, the analysis starts from the standard model of tax evasion as being influenced by the subjectively perceived extent of deterrence, the perceived marginal tax burden and social norms. Evidence is provided on the impact of deterrence and other factors on tax non-compliance, and several descriptive statistics are presented to better illustrate the natrure of undeclared work with regard to industry, region, education and other socio-economic characteristics.

"Schedule-Based Modeling of Transportation Networks: Theory and Applications" follows the book Schedule-Based Dynamic Transit Modeling, published in this series in 2004, recognizing the critical role that schedules play in transportation systems.

Conceived for the simulation of transit systems, in the last few years the schedule-based approach has been expanded and applied to operational planning of other transportation schedule services besides mass transit, e.g. freight transport. This innovative approach allows forecasting the evolution over time of the on-board loads on the services and their time-varying performance, using credible user behavioral hypotheses. It opens new frontiers in transportation modeling to support network design, timetable setting, and investigation of congestion effects, as well as the assessment of such new technologies, such as users system information (ITS technologies).

The Handbook is a virtual encyclopedia of public financial management, written by topmost experts, many with a background in the IMF and World Bank. It provides the first comprehensive guide to the subject that has been published in more than ten years. The book is aimed at a broad audience of academics/students, government officials, development agencies and practitioners. It covers both bread-and-butter topics such as the macroeconomic and legal framework for budgeting, budget preparation and execution, procurement, accounting, reporting, audit and oversight, as well as specialist subjects such as government payroll systems, local government finance, fiscal transparency, the management of fiscal risks, sovereign wealth funds, the management of state-owned enterprises, and political economy aspects of budgeting. The book sets out numerous examples and case studies describing good practice in public financial management, and is highly relevant for use in both advanced and developing countries.

Topics in this comprehensive survey include bureaucracy, corruption and tax compliance; public finance in developing economies; taxation in several former Soviet republics, Eastern Europe and China; taxation in the enlarged European Union; tax harmonization vs. tax competition; and the philosophy of taxation and public finance. The editor has assembled a stellar group of authorities to write about their areas of expertise.

Recently, debates about the economics of debt have been dominated by issues related to the global financial crisis. In this edited volume, the relationships between this crisis and Eurozone sovereign debt, debt mechanics, the Greek economic decline, European budget rules, debt obligations, convertible bonds, household indebtedness, financial guarantees as well as proposed Basel III leverage and liquidity regulation is explored. The sovereign debt crisis and weak European economic growth has damaged the European and Monetary Union and the Euro itself. Among the causes of this crisis is rapid government debt level growth, trade imbalances, monetary policy inflexibility and loss of confidence. Moreover, the consequences involve disrupted bond markets and the banking sector, depreciation of the Euro, reduced economic growth, loss of confidence, reduced remittances, tight fiscal measures and politics. Initial crisis cures included the creation of the European Financial Stability Facility, the European, Financial Stabilization Mechanism and the Brussels Agreement. In particular, the book investigates which economic mechanisms of the currency union have managed to turn the European political and cultural heterogeneity into such severe external imbalances between the Northern and Southern Eurozone. Another problem addressed is the extent to which the external debt accumulation of Southern EMU countries can be attributed to Euro capital market integration. Also, we employ the most recent data on money, credit, industrial production and productivity to show that the Greek drama is an almost ideal application of the Austrian ideas. A reinforced budget rule, according to which structural budget balances must be virtually zero, has been adopted. In this edited volume, we argue that such a target can make fiscal and monetary policies pro-cyclical.

"A Guide to SME Finance" is a brief guide to designing and implementing an SME finance program within a commercial bank or other financial institution, such as an NGO. This work covers the rationale behind SME finance - why it makes sense for a bank to enter this market sector, followed by a step-by-step approach to designing and implementing the program. Munro highlights the need to automate the lending process, and offers a lengthy description of how this can be accomplished. Examples of loan application, analysis, and approval forms and templates are included along with instructions for use. Additional formats are provided for loan officer goals and periodic reviews, portfolio and relationship profitability management, as well as a model credit score card to use as a 'sift' for loan applicants.

Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards de struction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. No one can stand aside with unconcern: the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our 1 epoch has plunged us. his is the message of Ludwig von Mises. In the historical T battle of ideologies, Mises is a pivotal figure. With great courage and decisive effect he carried the banner of truth and freedom for others through a time of rising statism. Murray Rothbard is correct when he says, " . . . if the world is ever to get out of its miasma of statism, or, indeed, if the economics profession is ever to return to a sound and correct development of economic analysis, both will have to abandon their contemporary bog and move to that high ground that Mises developed for us. " 2 This collection of essays is both a restatement and extension of the major contributions of Mises in epistemology, history, econom ics, and political philosophy. Mises began constructing the high ground on the foundation provided by Carl Menger and Eugen von B6hm-Bawerk."

Grants are a form of federal assistance consisting of payments in cash or in kind for a specified purpose and they represent an important tool for achieving national objectives. They vary greatly, including in the types of programs they fund, the methods they use to allocate funds to recipients, and the amount of discretion they give to the grant recipient on how the funds are spent. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has previously estimated that grants to state and local governments represent roughly 80 percent of all federal grand funding, with the balance going to recipients such as non-profit organizations, research institutions, or individuals. This book provides an overview of federal funding levels in a time of fiscal constraint, with a focus on the challenge of continuing to support the current scope and breadth of federal grants to state and local governments.

Economic cooperation between the CMEA countries is implemented according to the monetary and financial regulations worked out collectively. The regulations cover the organizational structure of international settlements; the choice of currency for settlements; the principles of international credit transactions; the determination ofthe exchange rate of the currency used in international settlements to national currencies and to convertible currencies outside the CMEA; the principles and rules ofinternational exchange and transfers; mIes for the currency allotments of citizens (roles of international transfers for citizens). The regulations also contain provisions for international settlements and credit transactions which are concluded through an independent international bank or banks. These regulations, the instruments and institutions together, form the international payments and monetary system of the CMEA. * The financial and monetary regulations of the CMEA community were formed in several stages, depending on the prevailing. conditions and the targets to be attained. In the years between 1949 and 1963 the general form of economic cooperation and of international settlements was the bilateral clearing agreement. In the bilateral agreements which the Soviet Union concluded with the other CMEA countries the currency of settlements was the Soviet rouble. The prices applied in foreign trade were not the internal producer prices of the Soviet Union, but world market prices (main international market prices) expressed in roubles, with the he]p ofthe exchange rate ofthe Soviet rouble to the US dollar, as quoted in the Soviet Union."

This collection of thirteen essays on social ethics and normative economics honouring Serge-Christophe Kolm's seminal contributions to this field addresses the following questions: How should the public sector price its production and services? What are the normative foundations of criteria for comparing distributions of riches and advantages? How should intergenerational social immobility and inequality in circumstances be measured? What is a fair way to form partnerships? How vulnerable to manipulation is the Lindahl rule for allocating public goods? What are the properties of Kolm's ELIE tax proposal? Would the addition of EU-level income taxes enhance equity? How should we compare different scenarios for future societies with different population sizes? How can domain conditions in social choice theory be justified using Kolm's epistemic counterfactuals? How can Kolm's distributive liberal contract be implemented? What are the implications of norms of reciprocity for the organization of society? The answers to these questions give major insight into the state-of-the-art of social ethics and normative economics and are thus an indispensable source for researchers in both of these fields.

Economic development and social welfare depend on the existence of effective and efficient infrastructure systems, particularly in health, energy, transportation and water, many of which are developed and managed through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). However, empirical evidence suggests some pitfalls in the use of these PPP arrangements. This book addresses these issues, focusing on mostly three key questions: How to improve the robustness of the decision-making process leading to the option of PPP? How to improve contract management as the longest phase of the process? How can contracts be improved to accommodate uncertainty and avoid harmful renegotiations? The authors explore the concept of flexible contracts, the uncertainty modeling for improving the robustness of the decision-making process, and develop an overall framework for effective contract management, along with a comprehensive analysis of current renegotiation patterns. The ultimate goal is to improve the contractual performance, as well as the overall infrastructure management and social welfare.

Acknowledgements The work underlying this study was performed at the Econometric and Special Studies Department of the Nederlandsche Bank, where many contributed to it. I am indebted to all the statistical assistants of the department, especially to Anja Wouters and Rob Vet for their patient assistance in building up the data sets and analysing the survey data. Also Corina den Broeder rendered devoted and persistent research assistance with respect to the multicountry analysis during her stay at the Bank and I am grateful to Mike Clements of the Bank of England for his careful reading and commenting on that part. My collegues Peter van Els and Carlo Winder made some valuable suggestions. Liesbeth Klein and Coen Collee helped me avoid a number of errors in English, and thanks to the skilful efforts of Marietta Bakker, Gita Gajapersad and Carolien Verhoeven the text looks as it does. Above all, lowe a debt of gratitude to Martin Fase, one of the pioneers in this field of research, for his efforts and contribution to the improvement of this study. INTRODUCTION We seem to be well on the way to a cashless society. Paradoxically, however, the majority of the transactions are still paid in cash even in the most advanced economies. A second paradoxical observation is that, despite the primary and common character of currency, the economic theory on the use of and demand for cash is only rarely supported by empirical evidence.

This book provides an overview of select programs using federal funds with a focus on: the Global Security Contingency Fund (GSCF); the history, administration and common usage of the Judgement Fund; the Crime Victims Fund; the Housing Trust Fund; background and options for reform for the Universal Service Fund; the Reclamation Fund; an overview, funding history and issues of the Land and Water Conservation Fund; the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF); and the International Species Conservation Fund.

This book was written in response to the coming into force on the first of January 1981 of the Customs Valuation Code of the GATT, an agreement which has been applied unilaterally by the EEC and the US since the first of July 1980. As a result of the new agreement a uniform system for the valuation of goods for customs purposes will be used for the first time in history of international trade by the most important trading nations. This can be seen as an important step in the removal of trade barriers, as the use of a uniform system enables any one occupied with international trade to foresee with reasonable accuracy the treatment he will receive in other countries. This book provides a survey of the new system, together with the application and interpretation which to our opinion may be expected on the basis of the international discussions. Some attention is paid, moreover, to the remaining systems of valuation of goods which the exporter may encounter. In writing this book we have not only had the aim of providing a source of information for exporters, but we believe it will be of use to anyone who is, or has to be, interested in the customs valuation. March 1981, the authors. V Richard van Raan, after studying civil law at the university of Leiden, specialised himself in fiscal law. Henk de Pagter studied fiscal law in Rotterdam."

Dwindling innovation and deteriorating economic conditions are caused by a major force, a systemic shift in the American economy. In this gripping book, Dr. Samli makes the case that the US economy is shifting for the worse, tilting towards a finance-driven economy, and argues that investing in innovation will bring us out of the recession and back to a successful, market-driven economy. While the US is cost-cutting by sending jobs abroad, reducing education budgets, and redirecting government funds to military involvement, American innovation has been suffering and stifled. Dr. Samli explores the roots of the recession from this viewpoint and offers an 'innovative' solution for disciplining economic, political, and social activities to come out of the recession and restore the tilt towards the 99-percent.