What do drivers' licenses that function as national ID cards, nationwide standardized tests for third graders, the late unlamented 55 mile per hour speed limit, the outlawing of the eighteen-year-old beer drinker, and the disappearing mechanical lever voting machine have in common? Each is the product of an unfunded federal mandate: a concept that politicians of both parties profess to oppose in theory but which in practice they often find irresistible as a means of forcing state and local governments to do their bidding, while paying for the privilege.

Mandate Madness explores the history, debate, and political gamesmanship surrounding unfunded federal mandates, concentrating on several of the most controversial and colorful of these laws. The cases hold lessons for those who would challenge current or future unfunded federal mandates. James T. Bennett also examines legislative efforts to rein in or repeal unfunded federal mandates. Finally, he reviews the treatment of unfunded mandates by the federal courts. Those who find wisdom in America's traditional federalist political arrangement maintain--perhaps with more wishfulness than realism--that the unfunded federal mandate has not yet joined death and taxes as an immovable part of the modern political landscape.

First Published in 1983. This book is a contribution to the debate about Monetarism as an economic policy, and whether and how Monetarist policies can contribute to solving the current economic crisis. The diverse backgrounds and opinions of the distinguished economists writing in this volume, some supportive and some critical of Monetarism, ensure a variety of interpretations of the causes of, and responses to, the crisis. Overall, however, the book lays emphasis on two related factors which are frequently neglected in the current debates. Firstly, that the current economic crisis is a world crisis which is felt concomitantly, though in different forms and with different intensities, in the industrial countries, in the countries of the socialist bloc, and in the Third World. And although its manifestations in the industrial and in the developing countries have been quite different, the proposed policy answer has been fairly homogeneously Monetarist. Secondly, the message occurs throughout the book that in today's highly integrated world economy, national economic policies have lost much of their autonomy; Monetarist policies should therefore be assessed as to their consistency with external conditions and their effects on other countries. The contributors analyse the manifestations of the economic crisis in various parts of the world and give their individual views on Monetarist policies. Obviously there is no agreement, but that is not the purpose of this volume: its aim is to place the Monetarism discussion in the international context in which it should be conducted.

The election of the Clinton administration in the United States and the debate in the European Community about the consequences of the industrial policy clause in the Maastricht treaty have put industrial policy back on the academic and political agenda again. This volume brings together the key articles on industrial policy, ranging from general theoretical perspectives and overviews of the literature to studies of the experience of particular countries, including Japan and the newly industrialising countries of East Asia. Four articles are concerned with the industrial programmes of the European Community. This is a comprehensive and authoritative compilation of work on a theme of interest to economists and political scientists.

This innovative book proposes a new institutional arrangement for government to fulfil the needs of its citizens as well as possible. Existing aspects of federalism and direct democracy in Europe are strengthened, and as a result future developments arising in the region are coped with better. In this book Bruno Frey and Reiner Eichenberger propose a new model of federalism which includes new types of governmental units established by citizens from below. These units are called functional, overlapping and competing jurisdictions as they extend over task-specific areas and therefore overlap. They also provide competitive governance via direct and representative democratic institutions, and as jurisdictions they have independent power over taxation policy. This new model is more responsive to citizens' preferences and adjusts more dynamically to provide public services efficiently. The authors suggest that this new system should be allowed to develop in Europe to safeguard diversity and ensure that decentralization emerges effectively. It would also allow for the flexible integration of East European transition economies into the European Union and may also combine with traditional modes of government in developing countries. This book will be warmly welcomed by economists, political scientists and sociologists interested in the future of the European Union, by all those studying federal systems of government, and by those interested in the prospects for improving democratic institutions throughout the world.

Through her judicious selection of previously published material, Dr Konzelmann investigates the key social, political and financial developments that have shaped the evolution of austerity economics. These include the early classical debates, the politicization of austerity, the Keynesian challenge to existing thought and the revival of pre-Keynesian 'Neo-Liberal' ideas during the 1970s. Discussion of the radical changes to economic thought and policy in the decades before the 2007-8 financial crisis and the key dimensions of the post 2007-8 debate bring the account right up to the present day. The editor's insightful and lucid introduction provides an illuminating guide to this crucial topic. The volume will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars seeking a wider understanding of austerity economics.

Since the late 1800s psychologists have been interested in discerning the strategies subjects employ to solve psychological tests (Piaget, 1928, Werner, 1940, Gesell, 1941). Much of this work, however, has relied on qualitative observations. In the 1970s, Edith Kaplan adopted this approach to the analysis of standardized neuropsychological measures. Unlike her predecessors, Dr. Kaplan and her colleagues emphasized the application of modern behavioral neurology to the analysis of the test data. Her approach was later termed the Boston Process Approach to neuropsychological assessment. While Edith Kaplan's work generates a great deal of enthusiasm, the qualitative nature of her analyses did not allow for its adoption by mainstream neuropsychologists. However, in recent years this limitation has begun to be addressed. Clinicians and researchers have developed new methodologies for quantifying the Boston Process Approach, leading to the emergence of a new field, which is collectively termed the Quantified Process Approach. Quantified Process Approach to Neuropsychological Assessment outlines the rationale for the emergence of this new approach and reviews the state of the art research literature and up to date clinical applications as they pertain to the evaluation of neuropsychiatric, head injured, and learning disabled patients. When available, norms and scoring forms are included in the appendices.

The untold story of how FDR did the unthinkable to save the American economy The American economy is strong in large part because nobody believes that America would ever default on its debt. Yet in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt did just that, when in a bid to pull the country out of depression, he depreciated the U.S. dollar in relation to gold, effectively annulling all debt contracts. American Default is the story of this forgotten chapter in America's history. Sebastian Edwards provides a compelling account of the economic and legal drama that embroiled a nation already reeling from global financial collapse. It began on April 5, 1933, when FDR ordered Americans to sell all their gold holdings to the government. This was followed by the abandonment of the gold standard, the unilateral and retroactive rewriting of contracts, and the devaluation of the dollar. Anyone who held public and private debt suddenly saw its value reduced by nearly half, and debtors--including the U.S. government-suddenly owed their creditors far less. Revaluing the dollar imposed a hefty loss on investors and savers, many of them middle-class American families. The banks fought back, and a bitter battle for gold ensued. In early 1935, the case went to the Supreme Court. Edwards describes FDR's rancorous clashes with conservative Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, a confrontation that threatened to finish the New Deal for good-and that led to FDR's attempt to pack the court in 1937. At a time when several major economies never approached the brink of default or devaluing or recalling currencies, American Default is a timely account of a little-known yet drastic experiment with these policies, the inevitable backlash, and the ultimate result.

This title considers such issues as the effect of local government policies on migration, the optimal size of cities, tax and expenditure capitalization, the economics of intergovernmental transfers, tax exporting, and tax competition.

This three-volume set presents over 100 of the most influential articles in defence economics, which have been selected for their enduring value and importance and for their contribution to an understanding of the field.Topics covered in volume I include definitions of the field of defence economics, an examination of the demand side of defence economics, including the demand for military expenditures and the study of alliances, and an exploration of the impacts of defence spending on growth and development. Volume II examines the supply side of the subject, and covers the military production function, military personnel and weapon procurement. The supply side is further addressed in Volume III, which covers the defence industrial base, learning curves, costs, pricing and profits, industrial policies and the arms trade. This volume also discusses disarmament, conversion, peace and public policy and concludes with a section on non-conventional conflicts such as terrorism, insurrections and revolutions.

The Chinese Maritime Customs Service, which was led by British staff, is often seen as one of the key agents of Western imperialism in China, the customs revenue being one of the major sources of Chinese government income but a source much of which was pledged to Western banks as the collateral for, and interests payments on, massive loans. This book, however, based on extensive original research, considers the lower level staff of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and shows how the Chinese government, struggling to master Western expertise in many areas, pursued a deliberate policy of encouraging lower level staff to learn from their Western superiors with a view to eventually supplanting them, a policy which was successfully carried out. The book thereby demonstrates that Chinese engagement with Western imperialists was in fact an essential part of Chinese national state-building, and that what looked like a key branch of Chinese government delegated to foreigners was in fact very much under Chinese government control.

A comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the mortgage-securitization industry, which explains the complex roots of the 2008 financial crisis. More than a decade after the 2008 financial crisis plunged the world economy into recession, we still lack an adequate explanation for why it happened. Existing accounts identify a number of culprits-financial instruments, traders, regulators, capital flows-yet fail to grasp how the various puzzle pieces came together. The key, Neil Fligstein argues, is the convergence of major US banks on an identical business model: extracting money from the securitization of mortgages. But how, and why, did this convergence come about? The Banks Did It carefully takes the reader through the development of a banking industry dependent on mortgage securitization. Fligstein documents how banks, with help from the government, created the market for mortgage securities. The largest banks-Countrywide Financial, Bear Stearns, Citibank, and Washington Mutual-soon came to participate in every aspect of this market. Each firm originated mortgages, issued mortgage-backed securities, sold those securities, and, in many cases, acted as their own best customers by purchasing the same securities. Entirely reliant on the throughput of mortgages, these firms were unable to alter course even when it became clear that the market had turned on them in the mid-2000s. With the structural features of the banking industry in view, the rest of the story falls into place. Fligstein explains how the crisis was produced, where it spread, why regulators missed the warning signs, and how banks' dependence on mortgage securitization resulted in predatory lending and securities fraud. An illuminating account of the transformation of the American financial system, The Banks Did It offers important lessons for anyone with a stake in avoiding the next crisis.

Written during the Second World War against the background of the economic and political futility of the 1930s, this book deals with the changing role of government, and particularly fiscal policy as an instrument for regulating the national income and its distribution. Arguing that the war had an economic basis - the inability of the great industrial nations to provide full employment at rising standards of real income - the book discusses how the failure to achieve a world order in the political sphere must be sought in the facts of economic frustration.

For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios.

Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19. The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected.

A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.

Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.

In the past 10 years spirituality and spiritual care have been much debated in professional healthcare literature, highlighting the need for a recognised definition of spiritual care to enable appropriate assessment of, and response to, spiritual issues. This accessible and highly relevant book surveys the numerous statements, guidelines and standards highlighted by these discussions, and equips healthcare professionals with the knowledge, skills and competence to provide the essence of spiritual care within their professional practice. Practical and evidence-based, this manual proves that delivery of good, professional spiritual care can build on intuitive human skills, and can be taught, learned, assessed and quantified. It gives readers the opportunity to move on from uncertainties about their role in the delivery of spiritual care by allowing them to asses and improve their understanding, skills and clinical practice in this area of care. Spiritual Care for Healthcare Professionals clearly grounds spiritual care in clinical practice. It is highly recommended for supporting academic study and encouraging healthcare practitioners to reflect on their practice and develop skills in spiritual assessment and care. Aimed at all healthcare professionals, it can be used by individual practitioners for continuing professional development as well as by academic staff developing educational programmes.

In a dramatic and well-argued challenge to the prevailing wisdom, Prosperity and Public Spending, first published in 1988, contends that the failure of Keynesian economics has been due to its timidity. Far from contracting, the government must expand its powers and activities, in order to achieve and maintain economic prosperity. The need for such expansion arises from the fact that the system has developed from a craft-based economy to a mass-production network with sophisticated international finance. This "transformational growth" brings about irreversible and sometimes devastating changes, requiring government action. Professor Nell argues that a lack of government action in the decade prior to the book's initial publication was responsible for the stagnation of the economy and he asserts that this could only be overcome by a determined policy intervention and the political will to achieve dominance over private capital.

This important book is concerned with the evaluation of changes in income distribution and the analysis of tax and transfer systems. The book begins with an introduction to the measurement of inequality and poverty, stressing the role of value judgements. The following six chapters deal with cross- sectional comparisons, including the analysis of a labour market model of income distribution, the choice of transfer system, marginal indirect tax reform, and the distributional effects of inflation. The next seven chapters are concerned with dynamic aspects of income distribution. These examine the complex relationship between cross-sectional and lifetime distributions, relative income mobility, and the effects of income mobility on temporary and permanent poverty. The Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty will be essential reading for students and scholars of public sector economics, welfare economics and social economics, along with those directly concerned with policy formulation.

How does government taxing and spending affect an economy, and how can we determine whether government policies promote a society's economic objectives? What economic activities should governments undertake? Should they do less? How should an optimal tax system be designed? What information is required to determine the best possible distribution of income? And what are the advantages (or otherwise) of a federalist structure of government?

These are the kind of dizzying questions addressed by those working in public sector economics, and this new title in the Routledge series, Critical Concepts in Economics, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subdiscipline's vast literature and the continuing explosion in research output.

Edited by Richard W. Tresch, author of a leading graduate textbook in the field, and a proponent of the mainstream theory of the public sector, this new Routledge Major Work brings together in four volumes the foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship to provide comprehensive coverage of many of the subdiscipline's most important topics.

Volume I (?Public Expenditures?) assembles the key work on the responses of governments to markets for desired goods and services that operate inefficiently or not at all. The main questions addressed include: what markets should a government become involved in to restore efficiency to the economy? How should it proceed in each instance to promote efficiency? And what are the factors that impede its efforts to restore efficiency?

Volume II (?Taxation?) collects the most important research on taxation and the principal normative issue of how best to design good taxes from an economic perspective (i.e. taxes that are simple, equitable, and do the least harm to a government's pursuit of efficiency). Issues explored here include the two main positive economic questions associated with taxation: how do the main taxes that governments use affect economic behaviour, primarily the supply of labour, saving and investment, and the incentives to evade paying these taxes; and tax incidence?who bears the burden of these taxes?

Volume III (?Distribution?) brings together the best work on the pursuit of equity by governments through its taxes and transfer payments. Fundamental questions tackled include the optimal amount of redistribution a government should undertake through taxes and transfers, and how it should best design its transfer programmes to meet distributional goals.

The scholarship assembled in the final volume (?Federalism?) explores the special problems that arise from having a tiered system of (supra-)national, state or provincial, and local governments. Primary issues within federalism include questions about which levels of government should perform the various legitimate functions of government, and how the movement of people in response to state/provincial and local taxes and expenditures affect the quest for equitable and efficient government policies. This volume also covers the important subsidiary debate over the use and effects of grants-in-aid from higher-level to lower-level governments.

Fully indexed and with a useful introduction to the collection, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Public Sector Economics is an essential work of reference. It is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital research resource.

Despite the pressure for local councils to follow the lead of the private sector and develop shared service and partnership arrangements, the barriers in terms of culture, differences in priorities across councils and lack of experience are formidable - yet this is the most likely source of meeting government targets for reduced overheads and improved organizational effectiveness. By using extensive case studies drawn from across local councils in England, Ray Tomkinson explains the implications of sharing service delivery, addresses concerns about loss of control and accountability, and demonstrates the potential advantages. He shows how to set up collaborative ventures, formal partnerships, shared service centres or special purpose vehicles, while pointing out possible pitfalls, thus enabling senior managers to follow all the necessary project steps to create an appropriate shared service. It seeks to examine the evidence of the cost, effectiveness and quality improvements achieved from sharings. This ground-breaking book has been written for everyone in local government; it explores the political and cultural barriers, and legislative/legal framework for joint workings, explains how to find an appropriate governance vehicle, and how to gain the commitment of partners. It deals with political and managerial concerns, risk aversion and parochial issues, and the possible impact on the reputation and performance of both sharers. Shared Services in Local Government is the only comprehensive study for the UK and it will ensure any public sector organization pursuing this route is able to approach the task of creating a shared service with a real understanding of the issues involved.

This innovative book sheds new light on the various transfer processes of economic knowledge from the academic environment to the outside world. The internationally acclaimed group of authors considers the transfer of knowledge in the teaching of economics, through public policy advice, and the spread of ideas across disciplinary boundaries. The economics profession is mainly concerned with the production of economic knowledge rather than the transfer of this knowledge outside the academic economics environment. The process of the production of knowledge and its final use has not been thoroughly investigated, and so relatively little is known about how this knowledge benefits public policy, private sector decisionmaking and the transfer of ideas across the social sciences. The leading contributors, including James M. Buchanan, Bob Coates, Bruno S. Frey, Heinz Konig, Anne Krueger and Charles Wyplosz, examine the transfer of knowledge from an interdisciplinary perspective addressing psychological, sociological and cultural issues. They also look at the theoretical analysis of the transfer of economic knowledge, focusing on public choice and political economy interpretations of economic policy advice, as well as institutional and management issues of policy advice. Finally they consider the challenges of teaching economics and explore the possibility of applying the new media for transferring economic knowledge.

This book analyzes the various problems of growth, trade and public policy from the perspective of applied economics, based on research in areas such as public policies, trade and regulation, and development economics. Part 1 investigates the broad problems of growth and regional economy, focusing on economic developments in Japan and Korea. Part 2 discusses trade and foreign investment in Japan, mainly on an empirical basis. Part 3 then examines various public economic policies using applied analysis tools. The papers in this volume have been collected to commemorate ten years of academic exchange between the Japan Association for Applied Economics (JAAE) and the Korean Economics and Business Association (KEBA), and include an applied economic analysis of growth and trade in Korea and Japan.

On its 30th anniversary in 2004 responsibility for hosting the G8 Summit fell into the hands of an allegedly unilateralist America. An America still reeling from the shock of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the resulting economic recession, bitter divisions with its NATO allies and disappointment with the United Nations Institutions over the 2003 Iraq war. So why does America still need the G8? New Perspectives on Global Governance offers new insight into the role of the Group of Eight's major market democracies and challenges the assumption that the G8 is simply a forum for binding a unilateralist hegemonic America. In contrast to seeing the G8 as a means of imposing an American world order this unique collection of new writings suggests that a now vulnerable America must rely on the G8 as a central instrument of foreign policy. America needs the G8 to achieve its security, economic and political interests in the world and to shape the twenty-first central global order it so desperately wants.

Broad in scope and carefully balanced in emphasis, this book is a major treatise on the theory and practice of public finance. It is unique in its presentation of a worldwide perspective and in its treatment of both the instruments of public finance and the goals, effects, and criteria of public finance measures. The book is divided into three parts. Book One defines the field, specifies the possible meaning of the "effects" of a public finance measure, and describes the criteria by which these measures are commonly appraised. Book Two is concerned with micro public finance and opens with a discussion of the theory of public goods in general. Each of the major free government services and types of transfer payments as well as the taxes that government employs are then examined. This section concludes with a chapter on the relevant aspects of government borrowing and inflationary finance. Book Three considers the major goals of public finance policy and describes how the various instruments described in Book Two can be used in achieving these goals. Among the topics treated are the use of appropriate instruments to resolve conflict in goals, conceptual problems of measuring the public finance sector and its maximum and minimum economic limits, consensus goals of equity full employment and Pareto-optimism use of resources, and goals that evoke conflicts of interest within any community. "A very scholarly book of genuine value to its field by Shoup, one of the outstanding authorities in public finance in the world."--"Choice" "Carl S. Shoup" was McVikar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University. At General MacArthur's request he led the team creating modern Japan's tax system. He was described as "the dean of contemporary public finance experts." "Steven Medema" is professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Colorado at Denver. He is the author of "Economics and the Law" and "Historians of Economics and Economic Thought" and serves as editor of the Transaction "Classics in Economics" series.

This timely book offers bold new fiscal policy options that can complement current automatic stabilizers and counter-cyclical monetary policy to combat recessions. Dr. Seidman acknowledges that most economists are justifiably skeptical of Congress's ability to implement discretionary counter-cyclical fiscal policy in a timely and effective manner, as indicated by the government's heavy reliance on monetary policy to stabilize the economy in recent decades. He argues for an independent fiscal policy board or the Federal Reserve to decide changes in the magnitude of Congress's fiscal policy package of stimulus or restraint. Any recommendations would go into effect immediately without a congressional vote, subject only to congressional override. With thought provoking proposals like this, Dr. Seidman provides a fresh look at practical fiscal policy tools based on the most prominent research in the field.

This timely book offers bold new fiscal policy options that can complement current automatic stabilizers and counter-cyclical monetary policy to combat recessions. Dr. Seidman acknowledges that most economists are justifiably skeptical of Congress's ability to implement discretionary counter-cyclical fiscal policy in a timely and effective manner, as indicated by the government's heavy reliance on monetary policy to stabilize the economy in recent decades. He argues for an independent fiscal policy board or the Federal Reserve to decide changes in the magnitude of Congress's fiscal policy package of stimulus or restraint. Any recommendations would go into effect immediately without a congressional vote, subject only to congressional override. With thought provoking proposals like this, Dr. Seidman provides a fresh look at practical fiscal policy tools based on the most prominent research in the field.

Rich with data available in no other source, this is the first comprehensive study of the allocation of state and public financial resources in the Russian Federation. Working with the Russian Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Taxes and Duties, and the Russian Statistical Agency, the authors have compiled a dynamic analysis of financial flows between the center and the units of the federation, including both budgetary redistribution and off-budget outlays (e.g., for social insurance and pensions). Among the problems documented in the analysis are the very high differentiation of the regions in terms of levels of development, public welfare, and self-sufficiency; inefficiencies in the taxation system and the prevalence of barter; and the non-transparency of money flows and their role in corruption.