This book critically analyses the role of the United Arab Emirates Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in the Suspicious Activities Reports regime. The author pays particular attention to its functions and powers in dealing with Suspicious Activities Reports and relevant requirements imposed upon the reporting entities. In the analysis, the author also compares the United Arab Emirates FIU model to the United Kingdom FIU model. In addition, the book investigates whether the current United Arab Emirates FIU model complies with the relevant international recommendations developed by the Financial Action Task Force in relation to the establishment of the unit, as well as its powers and functions. This book suggests that more can be done to improve the current functions and powers of the United Arab Emirates FIU in an international context. Furthermore, the author suggests that the functions and powers of the United FIU model both comply with the international requirements and beneficially extend beyond their directives.

This book gathers selected papers from the 28th Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, held in Coventry, United Kingdom. While the theoretical and empirical papers presented cover diverse areas of economics and finance in various geographic regions, the main focus is on the latest research concerning the economics of innovation, finance and macroeconomics. The book also includes regional studies.

The book examines the status of public service in developing countries, in the sectors of health, infrastructure, labour and marginalized populations, rural economy and public administration. The last decade has witnessed significant government focus on service delivery in developing nations like South Africa, Philippines, India and Malaysia. At the forefront of this movement has been the public sector reforms significantly driven by two broad factors: public sector inefficiencies and liberal economic ideology. This move towards efficient public service delivery in developing nations (versus developed nations) has required a significant shift in institutional thinking and institutional capacity for the governments. It is therefore no surprise that while economic liberalization has been relatively easy to implement, governance reforms towards public service delivery has been significantly more challenging. In this background, the chapters of the book, with sector themes, examine the three basic foundations of public policy-courses of action, regulatory measures and issues, and funding structures and priorities-in public service delivery. The book is a multi country, multi sector, perspective since it includes studies from Russian Federation, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Fiji, South Africa, Columbia, Philippines, Macedonia and India. This perspective lends itself to the investigation for a comprehensive overall development model.

The politics of cutting public spending or raising taxes (or both) has dominated politics in many democracies in recent years. A new era of conflict has developed, with old political alignments being tested and new battles emerging over whose expectations are to be disappointed and who should be blamed for fiscal squeeze. Do parties who cut spending always go down to defeat in elections? Are there 'best practice' cases that every government should follow when it has to cut spending or raise taxes to balance its public finances? Such issues have mainly been analysed from an economic or financial perspective and in the context of recent cases. By contrast, this book focuses on the politics of fiscal squeeze and takes a longer view. It combines quantitative and qualitative analysis to examine cases ranging from the fiscal squeeze in the United States in the 1830s/40s (when half of the states then in the Union defaulted) to the squeeze following the 2001 Argentinian default. It assesses who were the winners and losers, who got the blame and what were the longer-term effects on politics and government. It argues that 'how to do it' approaches to fiscal squeeze in democracies, based on apparently successful cases, often fail to take into account profound differences in circumstances.

This book integrates corporate governance, corporate finance and accounting to formulate sound financial management strategies. It offers practical steps for managers using an integrated optimisation financial model to achieve good corporate governance practices which lead to lower risks and higher firm value.

From its origins in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the diffusion of participatory budgeting to other parts of the world has been met with varying degrees of success despite its label as a product of democratic innovation. Drawing on in-depth empirical and theoretical analysis, this book sheds light on the diffusion dynamics of participatory budgeting and the processes of its framing and adaptation in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It explores the question of participatory budgeting's national characteristics and potential for realising a more democratic society. Thus, the volume engages in a theoretically innovative and empirically grounded overview and critical assessment of participatory budgeting initiatives in three European countries. The double focus on frames in the diffusion and implementation of single cases and the systematic evaluation of their results offers a deeper understanding of "success factors" and results of participatory budgeting and other institutional processes of citizen participation.

This book describes the institutions and process through which the Georgia General Assembly adopts a budget, the executive-legislative branch politics that transpire during the process and the tax and spending policies that the process produces. It argues that the state's budget is developed by fiscal conservatives within a culture of fiscal conservatism that is conducive to low taxes and low spending. It identifies the patterns and trends of taxing and spending over several decades and during the administrations of nine governors. Its chapter on the line-item veto illustrates the nature of executive-legislative budget relationships in the state. It concludes with an examination of the important milestones in the evolution of Georgia budgeting and a comparison of Georgia with other states on several dimensions. The book offers insights and assessments that will be of interest to budgeting scholars, students of state government, and citizens who want to know more about how government taxing and spending decisions are made.

A qualified expert provides leaders in government and business a much-needed primer for accomplishing their most vital task: transforming a purpose into policy through the appropriate acquisition and use of power. At a time when corporations are reeling from mismanagement, a large proportion of homeowners are being forced to default on mortgages and the federal government is rapidly extending its formidable reach into the private sector, it is understandable that many Americans no longer trust big business and government institutions. To get the United States back on track and to preclude the same kinds of disasters in the future, it is imperative for corporate and government leaders as well as private citizens to understand the commonality in all of these events-the use and abuse of power. This text examines these critical events within a framework of power to explain what motivated our leaders in business and government to make the policies that resulted in these outcomes, providing valuable insights on the nature and use of power. It then draws lessons today's leaders can use to improve their use of power. Examples from current affairs and modern business are discussed in a lively, compelling way. Cites examples and case studies from current affairs, modern business, and recent history Explains how and why some corporate leaders abused their power and erased the wealth of their companies and the savings of private individuals Provides tables, charts, and other figures for supporting documentation

This volume deals with both a new theoretical framework and the application of new economics in a number of issues that test the capability of new economics to tackle a number of economic problems. It offers detailed analysis and informed comment on the type of new economics in the aftermath of the financial crisis and the '"great recession."

This important volume tackles the potential problems of international military disarmament. Distinguished scholars across several disciplines discuss possible negative economic and social consequences, including unemployment, conversion costs, and the related hampered growth of research and development, associated with the conversion from a military industrial economy to a civilian complex. The authors present techniques for managing sectoral and regional economic imbalances and conclude that disarmament would ultimately release resources for foreign aid to close the gap between the world's haves and have-nots.

Divided into three parts (Models of Disarmament and Conflict Analysis, Economic Conversion, and Management of Peace), this volume addresses specific topics such as techniques of management conflict, factors affecting military expenditures, new prospects for an East-West relationship, American strategic policy and NATO, defense expenditure and economic conversion, Third World arms production, and regional conflict in the wake of superpower convergence. These analyses and discussions will be of particular interest to scholars of Peace Studies, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, and Military Studies.

Legislative initiative, in response to public demands for more accountability, require public agencies at all levels of government to measure organizational performance and to report on service efforts and accomplishments (SEA). What considerations should managers use in developing performance measurement protocols? What is the experience to date in the U.S. and abroad? This collection of original articles does not represent a consensus about the one best way for developing an SEA reporting system. Rather, it aims to put performance measurement in perspective by relating it to the budgeting, auditing, and policy making processes. Towards that end, the issues managers need to consider are examined in a critical way and from various points of view.

This book addresses the issues involved in developing Service Effort and Accomplishment (SEA) reports from various points of view. It addresses the context of SEA reporting and relates performance measurement to the budgeting process, auditing process, and policy making. It provides examples of successful performance measurement protocols from the U.S. and abroad.

In an era of unprecedented budget problems, can Congress establish legislative procedures to facilitate making politically difficult budget decisions? If we keep fixing the process, why are the policies and politics so fouled up? This book provides an extensive answer to these questions. Focusing exclusively on the House of Representatives, the author assesses whether current congressional budget procedures, namely the 302 process and reconciliation, have been created, designed, and maintained to achieve greater budget restraint. He defines the critical concept of procedural budget restraint as a procedural outcome in which spending decisions are less than what would have occurred in the absence of the procedure.

Lotteries and state-sponsored gambling is big business. This is the first study that evaluates the business strategies of state lotteries on two fronts. First, it examines which of the lottery strategies produces the most consistent source of revenue for the state. Second, it analyzes possible overall gambling strategies that states will need to utilize as they seek to expand gambling revenue. This is must reading for those operating lotteries, state legislators, vendors to state lottery commissions, taxpayers, and scholars in public policy and government.

The whole question of state-sponsored gambling is explored, integrating both the business and policy strategies of operating a state lottery. Initially, gambling and lotteries were introduced into the public policy process in times of social unrest, brought on by the outbreak of war. Since regular sources of governmental revenue were diverted to the war effort, proceeds from gambling activites were used to finance the building of roads, canals, and schools. An Ethics of Tolerance also had to evolve in order to engender the public's acceptance of lotteries and gambling. Today, states are using gambling revenues to support education, public transportation, and aid to local towns and cities. Hence, gambling revenues must be maintained or increased. States now must decide whether they should introduce other gambling initiatives, possibly cannibalizing their existing activities in the process. The basic question, of whether it is actually possible for a state to establish an overall gambling strategy, is explored by an analysis of the gambling policies of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The future of gambling in the United States, as states move beyond lotteries to sanctioning casino gambling by private entrepreneurs, concludes this most relevant and provocative book.

This book demonstrates how the reliable measurement of growth in tax revenues, both for a tax system and for its component taxes, is important for the design of tax policy. The need for discretionary changes in tax parameters (such as tax rates, income thresholds and allowances) is conditional on the expected automatic revenue growth generated by the tax system. The properties that generate these automatic revenue changes are referred to as the built-in flexibility, or revenue responsiveness, of the tax. This concept is the central focus of the analyses in this book, which provides an invaluable review and synthesis of analytical results and demonstrates how this concept can be applied in practice to yield estimates of revenue responsiveness in various countries. John Creedy and Norman Gemmell highlight how an understanding of the principal determinants of a tax system's responsiveness, and a knowledge of the relevant magnitudes, are important for the design and reform of tax policy where both revenue and redistributional considerations are typically central to the policy agenda.Providing extensions of analysis to cover indirect taxes, and direct and indirect taxes combined, as well as empirical applications for several countries, Modelling Tax Revenue Growth will be warmly welcomed by researchers and graduate students interested in public finance and government officials and those in international organisations interested in tax revenue growth.

This book explores the formation and evolution of Scandinavian central banks. It begins by defining the nature of "central banking" in general, before moving on to investigate how and when it became meaningful to regard today's Scandinavian central banks as such. It also explores how Scandinavian central banks have conformed to the defined ideals of "central banks" over the last 100 years, clarifying the distinctions between commercial banks and central banks, and between central banks and departments of governments. The author shows how the outbreak of the Great War was the catalyst which fundamentally transformed the originally purely commercial banks into "central banks". The book also analyses how different the three Scandinavian central banks are, how these differences can be explained by the different political and economic circumstances surrounding their original formation, and the differences in the political environments in which they later developed.

The major industrialized countries are undergoing a significant demographic transition associated with low fertility rates combined with reduced mortality rates. A major consequence of the current transition is that populations are expected to age substantially over the next forty years. This innovative book studies the effects of population ageing with the associated factor of immigration, on social expenditure and public finance. The authors begin by providing an introduction to some of the main issues concerning population ageing and migration. This is followed by a discussion of the demographic and economic aspects of the transition towards an older population which is taking place in the major industrialized countries. Within this framework the impacts of ageing on government budgets and the labour market are analysed. The book then turns to a discussion of some of the economic, social and demographic issues related to immigration. Particular emphasis is placed on the Australian economy, which provides an interesting case study in view of its high immigration levels, particularly over the last fifty years. The authors project population structure and social expenditure patterns under a variety of assumptions concerning the number and composition of immigrants. The quantitative techniques developed to produce these projections can be applied without modification to any other country. Population Ageing, Migration and Social Expenditure will be of use to academics and students with an interest in public finance, public policy and population studies.

This book firstly analyzes the status and characteristics of rural long tail public service and its unbalance in detail. In all, based on the long tail theory, mechanism design theory and resource dependence theory, this book makes an empirical study and basic judgment on the matching of supply and demand of rural long tail public services in China and explores the mechanism of the efficiency of supply and demand affecting the imbalance. This book presents a correction mechanism of rural long tail public demand based on the division of different response subjects and puts forward corresponding policy suggestions. By putting the rural public demand in the "embedded" economic and social system and the development process, this book analyzes its future trend and response path. Then, based on the difference of governance efficiency, this book analyzes the general causes of the unbalance of supply and demand of rural long tail public service. Especially for the representative field of rural public service (e.g., special education, old-age caring, medical care), this book carries out empirical studies (seemingly unrelated regression) to analyze the factors, internal mechanism and basic path of the imbalance of rural long tail public service. Thirdly, through the construction of the imbalance index of rural long tail public service, this book makes an empirical calculation of the severity of this imbalance. This book further puts forward the design of the correction mechanism for the imbalance of rural long tail public service and carries on the reasonable and orderly division for different supply subjects. In the end, this book puts forward the balanced "Internet + NGO" model for rural long tail public service and takes JD.com as an example to expound the operation of the network platform of the correction mechanism.

An examination of an early version of the debate over money, debt, and taxes sheds light on current debates regarding public finance, a balanced budget, and paying off the public debt. Stabile shows that while special interest lobbying during the constitutional convention produced tax loopholes as part of the Constitution, determined leaders were able to get a reluctant population used to paying taxes and were capable of putting together plans of public finance that attained their goals. Such historical evidence challenges the view that political leaders are incapable of passing the unpopular taxes needed to balance the federal government's budget and pay off the public debt. Taking a political economy approach that describes how political leaders took economic ideas and made them work, this book combines intellectual history with economic history. Previous books on public finance history have focused on economic issues regarding taxes. Exploring the intellectual history of the debates over money, debt, and taxes as the three potential forms of public finance, Stabile provides insight into the constitutional debate alive at the end of the 20th century.

The book presents arguments against the taxpayers'-funded bailing out of failed financial institutions, and puts forward suggestions to circumvent the TBTF problem, including some preventive measures. It ultimately argues that a failing financial institution should be allowed to fail without fearing an apocalyptic outcome.

This book studies the sustainability and optimality of public debt under different scenarios: the closed economy, the small open economy, and a two-country setting. Sustainability refers to the existence and the stability of the long-run equilibrium. Optimality relates to the path of public debt that maximizes discounted utility. The analysis is conducted within the framework of the Solow model, the overlapping generations model and the infinite horizon model. The government can follow different strategies, it either fixes the deficit ratio or the tax rate. As a result, a fixed deficit ratio generally can be sustained. By contrast, a fixed tax rate generally cannot be sustained. Depending on the chosen fiscal strategy, there exists either an optimal deficit ratio or an optimal tax rate that maximizes the sum of consumption and government purchases per capita.

This book offers an in-depth analysis of China's contemporary securities markets regulatory system, with a focus on regulation in practice. Examining the roles of both the China Securities Regulatory Commission and local governments, He argues that the government has built and developed markets from scratch to address the needs of the state and the economy at large. This book describes the workings of national and sub-national securities markets, and such a comprehensive approach gives insight into the ability of state regulation to guide a financial system. This book also provides a unique practical perspective, explaining of the dynamics of regulation in relation to the operation of the Chinese political system. Finally, it incorporates original empirical studies, including semi-structured interviews of professionals and a survey of retail investors. This book is an unparalleled resource for anyone interested in the regulation of securities markets, as well as finance in China in general.

This book examines the objectives of public debt management and the re-emerging issue of separating monetary policy formulation from fiscal and debt management. The recent Great Recession has resulted in a rethink of the objectives and working of macroeconomics, and in many countries, including India, has led to the scope of fiscal operations being expanded and debt-to-GDP ratios increasing significantly. Consequently, debt management has encountered considerable difficulties, and the need for coordination between monetary and debt management has assumed greater significance. The book discusses the important issue of the independence of central banks and the need for coordination between debt managers, monetary authorities and finance ministries if debt operations are separated from monetary management.

This book revisits an important chapter of financial history in the Middle East and the Balkans from 1870 1914. During this period, capital flows in the form of sovereign debt increased rapidly throughout the region. The spiral of heavy government borrowing eventually culminated in defaults on foreign obligations in the Ottoman Empire (1875), Egypt (1876), Greece (1893) and Serbia (1895). In all four cases, introducing international financial control over the finances of the debtor states became the prevalent form of dealing with defaults. The different cases of international financial control became increasingly refined and they marked important milestones in the evolution of the global governance of sovereign debt before 1914. For the defaulting states however, the immediate impact of international financial control was infringement of sovereignty. The extent of international financial control and the borrowing capacity of debtor states varied in each case as well as the degree of resistance towards it. This book documents the characteristics of international financial control in a comparative perspective. It relates sovereign debt, default and international financial control to political and fiscal systems, and raises questions about the tension between national sovereignty and global capital. It sheds light on the impact of international financial control on the long-term credibility and fiscal capacity of the debtor states in question. The author demonstrates that the governments' decisions to borrow internationally, and their attitudes towards international financial control, were heavily influenced by domestic political and fiscal factors.

The last half of the 20th-century has seen a phenomenal increase in the volume and complexity of international business. Global economy allows multinationals to design their operations in a manner that may significantly reduce their taxes, particularly by taking advantage of tax incentives offered by many countries to attract geographically-mobile capital and activities. Since 1962, 19 countries have enacted specific statutory regimes to counteract the perceived abuse of controlled foreign companies located in tax havens. In three cases to date, controlled foreign company (CFC) legislation has been challenged in legal proceedings on the basis that it contravened a tax treaty. The author presents an in-depth analysis of the potential conflict between CFC legislation and tax treaties. The author also evaluates the potential conflict between the CFC legislation found in European Union countries and the EC Treaty. This comprehensive work should be of interest to international tax advisers.

An authoritative but accessible reference, this book enables anyone to truly understand both the background and operation of the U.S. tax system and current tax reform proposals. Dissatisfaction with high taxes is literally an American tradition; indeed, the American Revolution that led to the founding of the United States started as a tax revolt. Today, widespread displeasure with our tax system continues, as demonstrated by the strong anti-tax position of the recent Tea Party movement. Tax Reform: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition introduces lay readers to taxes in general, the U.S. tax system in particular, and the issues involved in reforming the system. Details regarding past tax reform measures are provided to lend relevance and perspective to recent tax reform proposals, such as replacing the income tax (and the IRS) with a federal sales tax. The author stresses political rather than technical issues, and presents all viewpoints on this hotly debated topic fairly. Includes government source documents discussing tax reform proposals Provides an insightful historical overview of tax revolts and tax reform proposals A bibliography provides numerous references to text, web-based, and other types of sources A glossary explains technical terms in easy-to-understand language