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__Abstract__ What ought government to do? This has been the guiding question of the research that resulted in this Dissertation. In it, the author makes a number of contributions to the field of public economics by challenging conventional wisdom on optimal taxation, optimal redistribution, and optimal minimum wages. Among other things, it is shown how government should use corrective taxation when people do not always act in their own interest, why a decrease of the minimum wage is part of a reform that would make everybody better off, and that income taxation and unemployment benefits should be higher in times of high involuntary unemployment. __In Dutch__ Verlaag het minimumloon en compenseer mensen met een laag inkomen via lastenverlichting. Dat advies geeft econoom Aart Gerritsen de overheid in zijn proefschrift 'Essays in Optimal Government Policy'. Volgens hem kan herverdeling van inkomens beter worden georganiseerd door middel van progressieve belastingen dan met het wettelijk minimumloon. Gerritsen verwerpt verder een aantal conventionele wijsheden over zowel het wettelijk minimumloon als optimaal belastingbeleid. Zo pleit hij voor hogere inkomstenbelasting en werkloosheidsuitkeringen ten tijde van economische tegenspoed. Gerritsen analyseerde voor zijn proefschrift de effecten van minimumloon en lastenverlichting op het netto-inkomen van laagbetaalden. Hij stelt dat discussies over het minimumloon doorgaans gebrekkig zijn omdat ze niet ingaan op alternatieve manieren van herverdeling. Volgens Gerritsen is er echter een andere manier om het netto-inkomen van laagbetaalden te verhogen: via de belastingen. Op basis van zijn analyse komt hij tot de conclusie dat een verlaging van het minimumloon, gecompenseerd door lastenverlichting voor lage inkomens, sociaal wenselijk is. Net als een hoger minimumloon kan ook een lastenverlichting leiden tot een hoger netto-inkomen voor laagbetaalden. Er zijn echter twee punten waarop een minimumloon cruciaal verschilt van een belastingverlaging voor deze groep. Aan de ene kant leidt een minimumloon tot hogere loonkosten en daardoor tot hogere werkloosheid onder laaggeschoolden. Dit is een welvaartsverlies. Aan de andere kant biedt deze hogere werkloosheid onder laaggeschoolden hen prikkels om meer te investeren in scholing om op die manier aan de hogere werkloosheid te ontkomen. Dit is een welvaartswinst, omdat hoger geschoolden doorgaans meer belasting betalen. Op basis van data van een groot aantal OESO-landen concludeert Gerritsen dat voor vrijwel ieder land de winst van het scholingseffect te klein is om de schade van het werkloosheidseffect te kunnen compenseren. Gerritsen adviseert dan ook een lager minimumloon met compensatie via lastenverlichting. Hogere uitkeringen Gerritsen ontwikkelde daarnaast nieuwe inzichten op het gebied van de inkomstenbelasting. Zowel belastingen als uitkeringen geven werknemers prikkels om minder te werken. Normaal leidt dit tot minder economische activiteit en zijn ze daarom schadelijk voor de economie. Gerritsen laat zien dat deze logica niet opgaat tijdens perioden van hoge werkloosheid. Er zijn dan immers al teveel mensen op zoek naar werk die het niet kunnen vinden. Het ontmoedigende effect van belastingen en uitkeringen leidt er in dat geval toe dat mensen die weinig belang hechten aan werk vrijwillig uittreden of minder gaan werken. Dit is sociaal wenselijk omdat zij hiermee ruimte creëren op de arbeidsmarkt voor mensen die meer belang hechten aan een baan. Om die reden zouden de inkomstenbelasting en werkloosheidsuitkeringen hoger moeten zijn ten tijde van economische tegenspoed, aldus Gerritsen. Tot slot breekt Gerritsen met de standaard economische welvaartsanalyse, die aanneemt dat mensen altijd in hun eigen belang handelen. Hij analyseert data over het subjectieve welzijn van Britten en komt tot de conclusie dat werknemers met een laag inkomen gemiddeld minder werken dan goed is voor henzelf. Werknemers met een hoog inkomen werken gemiddeld juist meer dan goed voor hen is. Om dit te corrigeren, zou de Britse overheid lagere marginale belastingtarieven voor de onderkant en hogere marginale belastingtarieven voor de bovenkant van de inkomensverdeling moeten doorvoeren.

Defence date: 20 November 2015 ; Examining Board: Professor Russell Cooper, Penn State University, Supervisor; Professor Elena Carletti, EUI & Bocconi University; Professor Yan Bai, University of Rochester; Professor Alexander Guembel, Toulouse School of Economics ; This thesis consists of two chapters exploring how even benevolent governments may struggle to convince their citizens that they will stick to the policies that ensure the best outcomes in equilibrium. If people believe that the government will optimally choose a different policy in the event of a crisis, their reaction to that belief may in fact bring about just such a crisis. This thesis investigates the circumstances in which these kinds of commitment problems can be overcome. The first chapter is on bank resolution, where the choice between resolving insolvent banks and bailing them out creates a time inconsistency problem. To deter banks from taking excessive risks, governments want to convince them that they will choose resolution. However, when facing the costs of liquidating banks, governments may be tempted to bail them out instead. By strengthening their bank resolution regimes, governments reduce these costs, thus credibly committing themselves to choosing resolution over bailouts. Governments with greater resources face a more severe commitment problem. When banks interact strategically, improving the resolution regime can eliminate equilibria in which they coordinate on risky investment strategies. In the second chapter, Antoine Camous and I present a theory linking the cyclicality of fiscal policy to inherited public debt. When debt is low, fiscal policy is countercyclical, in the sense that the government responds to reductions in output by cutting the tax rate. Above a threshold level of debt, however, optimal fiscal policy becomes procyclical. This creates the possibility of self-fulfilling crises, in which output is low because workers expect high taxes, and the government sets high taxes because output is low. Our model suggests why highly indebted governments might implement procyclical fiscal policy during recessions, even without facing high sovereign risk premia.

by Wong Hong Man Thomas. ; Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. ; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-69). ; Acknowledgements ; Abstracts ; Chapter Chapter1 --- Introduction ; Chapter 1.1 --- Appropriate Role of Government in Economic Development 1 - --- p.3 ; Chapter 1.2 --- Government and Infrastructure --- p.3-4 ; Chapter 1.3 --- "Division of Labor, Intermediate Inputs and Economic Development" --- p.4-6 ; Chapter 1.4 --- "Relationships Among Infrastructure, Intermediate Inputs and Final Goods" --- p.7-11 ; Chapter Chapter2 --- Literature Review ; Chapter 2.1 --- The related Work in Literature of Development Economics --- p.12-14 ; Chapter 2.2 --- The Related Work in Literature of Economics of Infrastructure --- p.14-15 ; Chapter 2.3 --- The Related Work in Literature of Increasing returns to Scale and Multiple Equilibria --- p.15-19 ; Chapter Chapter3 --- The Basic Model ; Chapter 3.1 --- Basic Assumption of the Model --- p.20-20 ; Chapter 3.2 --- Technology and Increasing Returns to Scale --- p.21-23 ; Chapter 3.3 --- Market Equilibrium Conditions --- p.23-25 ; Chapter 3.4 --- Relative Cost Function --- p.25-33 ; Chapter Chapter4 --- Government Policy and Production Cost ; Chapter 4.1 --- Relative Cost Function and the Selection of Equilibrium --- p.34-43 ; Chapter Chapter5 --- Government Policy and National Income ; Chapter 5.1 --- Optimal Level of Public Input --- p.44-50 ; Chapter 5.2 --- The Ranking of Equilibria --- p.50-54 ; Chapter 5.3 --- The Mismatch --- p.54-56 ; Chapter Chapter6 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.57-61 ; Figure 1 --- p.62-62 ; Appendix A --- p.63-63 ; Appendix B --- p.64-66 ; Reference --- p.67-69

This paper asks: What is the effect of government policy on output and inequality in an environment with education and labor-supply decisions? The answer is given in a general equilibrium model, consistent with the post 1960s facts on male wage inequality and labor supply in the U.S. In the model, education and labor-supply decisions depend on progressive income taxation, the education system, the social security system, and technology-driven wage differentials. Government policies affect output and inequality through two channels. First, a policy change leads to an asymmetric adjustment of working hours and savings of schooled and unschooled individuals. Second, there is a redistribution of the workforce between schooled and unschooled workers. Using a battery of proposed government policies, we demonstrate that skill redistribution dampens the response of wage inequality to a policy change and amplifies the response of output by an additional 1 to 2 percent.

This paper illustrates two reasonable political decision mechanisms by which fiscal policy generates endogenous growth under a constant returns to scale production technology, absent externalities. Based on the dynamics induced by various policy choices, we demonstrate that policies that maximize capital deepening generate balanced growth and are Pareto optimal. In contrast, policies chosen by the median voter produce balanced growth, but are suboptimal.

published_or_final_version ; Politics and Public Administration ; Master ; Master of Public Administration

Investment will create a multiplier effect for the economy, especially investments from abroad which may also encourage the technology spillover and innovation process. Political risk and government investment policy are two factors considered by investors in investing. This research aimed to determine the effect of these two factors on foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indonesia. This research used data of FDI in Indonesia in 2010-2017, during which there were three changes in foreign direct investment policies in Indonesia and one political year. Using panel data analysis, this research found that government policy in revising the negative investment list had no significant effect on FDI flows in Indonesia. It can be seen that the sector effect experiencing a tightening of foreign asset ownership limitation on FDI was greater than the sector effect experiencing loosening of asset ownership limitation by foreign parties. In addition, this research found that political risk had no significant effect on FDI in Indonesia.Keywords: FDI, Politics, Policy.

After nearly two decades of freedom from evaluation, teachers in Greece became the focus of a new evaluation system. In 1998, reformers sought to raise the level of student performance by the regulation of teacher performance through a top-down evaluation system administered by the Greek Ministry of Education and Religous Affairs. The probable effects of this evaluation system on teachers' professional roles and development are analyzed.

The wave of migration of Rohingya refugees has come unstoppably in the waters of Aceh since late 2015. The violence that engulfs the Rohingyas in Myanmar, such as homicide and arson, has forced some Rohingyas to flee. They are trying to survive by moving to areas they consider to be providing protection. With less decent boats, the Rohingyas migrated to the coast of Thailand, Malaysia, to Indonesia. The Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia have sought to close the refugee entry into the territory of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia in order to safeguard the security of foreign infiltration. Nevertheless, the Indonesian army continues to assist the refugees by providing food and water supplies to the boat. However, the urge of local and international community finally made the Indonesian government open the territory of Indonesia for Rohingya refugees. Why is the Indonesian government willing to accept Rohingya refugees? What is Indonesian policy towards Rohingya refugees? This article will describe the reasons and steps of the Indonesian government to handle the wave of migration of Rohingya refugees by the end of 2015 as a form of Government of Indonesia's policy towards Rohingya refugees.

In International Irrigation Management Institute, Participatory management in Sri Lanka's irrigation schemes (pp. 17-28). Digana Village via Kandy, Sri Lanka: IIMI

Governments can soften the impact of the business cycles on welfare caseloads introducing changes in benefit levels or in the proportion of claimants that enter in the program. This paper is motivated by this concern and takes as its starting point both the intensive literature on the determinants of welfare caseloads and the fundamentals of public choice theory applied to the design of welfare programs. The paper is based on data from the minimum income program of Catalonia's Government (PIRMI). We use time-series analysis to find that unemployment has strong and significant lagged effects on the caseload. Second, the generosity of the program is clearly predictive of receipt of benefit even in a context of high and growing unemployment rates. We also found, however, a fairly strong correlation between unemployment growth and the proportion of rejected applications. This later parameter might have been the chosen tool to moderate the increase in the number of recipients. ; España. Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología ECO2010- 21668-C03-01

Since 1997 until now, forest and land fires (Karhutla) in Indonesia occur almost every year. The 2015 Karhutla incident is believed to have burned 2.61 million hectares of forest and land. In 2016, even though Indonesia was hit by La Nina, forest and land fires continued to burn forest and land area of 14,604.84 hectares. Forest and land fires have a detrimental impact on the environment, social and economy. Even the problem of fires in Indonesia has caused smoke problems for neighboring countries, especially in the Southeast Asia region. The government has tried to deal with the forest and land fires both in the form of regulations and programs, but the forest fires still occur. Several studies have shown problems in handling forest and land fires, including difficulties. The government itself is aware that forest and land fire is a multidimensional problem that requires cross-sectoral coordination to deal with it. Keywords: forest fires, Indonesia, policy

OBJECTIVE--To assess the coverage of cervical cytology screening in one general practice surgery according to the criteria in the new Scottish general practitioner contract and to explore the difficulties of defining performance in such screening. DESIGN--Review of annual analysis of uptake of screening during 1984-8. SETTING--Suburban general practice surgery in Glasgow serving 3000 patients. PATIENTS--All women aged 35-64 registered in 1984 increasing in 1988 to all women aged 20-64. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--Assessment of uptake of smear tests and reasons for smear not being taken and of the effect of these outcomes on the new general practitioner contract. RESULTS--The numbers and percentages of women having a smear test in the previous five and three years were recorded, and the reasons why a smear was not taken were defined in the remainder (hysterectomy, test not offered, risk not known, test declined, patient moved away, and patient unaccounted for). In 1988, 85% (608/719) of the women aged 30-64 and 80% (693/870) of those aged 20-64 had had a smear test in the previous five years. An appropriate or irreducible reason for the lack of a smear test was defined in all the others. CONCLUSIONS--The population studied contained a substantial number of women in whom cervical smear was unnecessary, inappropriate, or refused. These factors and the likely demographic variation in the uptake of smear tests have important implications for the setting and achieving of the government's targets for cervical cytology screening.

"Prepared for Delivery at the Fifth National Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, San Francisco, November 14-16, 1974." ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Mode of access: Internet.

"Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform." ; "December 1,2012". ; At head of title: Committee print. ; Mode of access: Internet.