Public and Private sectors: who’s learning from whom?

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s conventional wisdom increasingly had it that the ‘commanding heights’ should be controlled by the private sector. Privatisation flourished almost everywhere – and where it didn’t, ‘market driven’ solutions have been widely employed to deliver public services.

But what have we learnt from privatisation? Has it been a success – or were expectations overblown?
Is the public sector really lagging in … [ Read more ]

How to Sell Tech to the Feds

Uncle Sam runs the fastest-growing IT market today. Here’s the way for hungry vendors to set up shop.

Editor’s Note: there is also a good section for non-IT folks which explains how to sell your products through the GSA online catalog.

Putting citizens on-line, not in line

Electronic government can provide faster, more convenient, and more accurate services that will improve the lives of the people.

Full Disclosure: A Strategy for Performance

Americans expect results from their business, government, and nonprofit organizations. We also expect information about the performance of those institutions: Who’s in charge? How is money spent? And what have they accomplished? In the business world, the demands imposed by lenders and investors — and, of course, the Securities and Exchange Commission — force companies to disclose precise details of their operations — earnings, expenses, … [ Read more ]

The Role of Government When All Else Fails

A new book by Harvard Business School professor David A. Moss explores government’s under-appreciated role as risk manager in everything from disaster relief to Social Security. How did this role evolve into something today that touches on almost every aspect of economic life?

Federal Offenses

We the people of the United States have a hard time keeping our finances in order. Our corporations may practice the world’s most rigorous financial reporting (some recent debacles notwithstanding), but our government does not. Agencies with such lofty responsibilities as establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, and providing for the common defense have a hard time even producing a financial statement. Those that do produce … [ Read more ]

The New Growth Economics

Growth economics has emerged because of the growing recognition that the economic models created in the Industrial Age dominated by commodity goods production no longer adequately explain growth in an economy powered by knowledge and innovation.

While Keynesian and supply-side economics focused in an almost Newtonian way on adjusting the demand or supply of capital and labor to keep the economy in equilibrium, growth economics … [ Read more ]

Inside the Bank of Japan

Although focused on a time-sensitive issue, this article offers some insight into some serious and important issues regarding the role of a central bank in peculiar economic circumstances. Some of the proposed solutions are very thought-provoking. Also an interesting profile of Masaru Hayami, governor of the Bank of Japan and some of the history of the current troubles with Japan’s economy.

Does the Progressivity of Taxes Matter for Economic Growth?

ABSTRACT: A sizeable literature has argued that the growth effects of changes in flat rate taxes are small. In this paper, we investigate the relatively unexplored area of the growth effect of changes in the tax structure, in particular, in the progressivity of taxes. Considering such a tax reform seems empirically more relevant than considering changes in flat tax rates. We construct a general equilibrium … [ Read more ]

Undue Influence?

IT bristles as Washington tries to define its role in regulating the Internet and the technology industry

The Mythical Benefits of Debt Reduction

Interesting (and no doubt controversial depending on your political persuasion) analysis of effects on economy of government’s treatment of taxation and national debt. Essentially, article argues that government should spend any surpluses on tax reduction to stimulate growth (reduced revenues partially being offset by taxes from the higher base).