Retail prices of major drugs like cocaine and heroin have declined dramatically during the last two decades. This price decline has tended to offset the effects of drug policies aimed at reducing drug use in major industrial countries. The main finding of this paper is that the decline in the retail prices of drugs is related to the strong decline in the intermediation margin (the difference between the retail and producer prices) in the drug business. We develop the hypothesis, and give some evidence, that globalization has been an important factor behind the decline of the intermediation margin. We conclude with some thoughts about the effects of globalization on the effectiveness of drug policies and argue that globalization may have increased the relative effectiveness of policies aiming at reducing the demand of drugs.
The evolution of Public Policy, in general, and tools approach, in particular, has recognized a wide range of policy tools, beyond the traditional direct provision. In fact, such development has enabled the design of several public policy typologies, in specific the Weimer and Vining's typology, which is one of the most important and comprehensive in classifying governments interventions to solve market failures. Based on market failures theory and the tools approach, this research extends their analysis to the context of tourism providing a broader typology of policy tools specifically aimed at tourism policy at the local level. In this sense, the design a typology of tourism policy tools represents the main goal and the original contribution of this research. Given this goal, we defined a multi-methods research plan, using questionnaires and interviews as data collection techniques. Particularly, based on information gathered from interviews, we created and apply a questionnaire to the 308 Portuguese municipalities. This empirical analysis uses a representative sample of 214 Portuguese municipalities and the cluster analysis technique to classify the tourism policy tools used by Portuguese municipalities. The main results suggest a strong alignment with Weimer and Vining's typology but at the same time the existence of particular situations in Portuguese municipalities demanding the extension of this typology. Besides the many policy options, the intervention by Portuguese municipalities in tourism relies predominantly in the use of direct provision. For many municipalities, the direct provision cluster represents the main set of policy tools employed to solve tourism market failures. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Tourism activity is intensely subject to market failures and, naturally, requires government intervention (Dimitris, Aimilia and George, 2005; Fayos-Sola, 1996; Fleischer and Felsenstein, 2000; Hartley and Hooper, 1993; Michael, 2001; Monge-González, River and Tijerino, 2010; Scott, 2011; Sinclair, 1998; Smeral, 1998; Wanhill, 2005). However, government intervention is itself a source of policy failure. With this in mind, the research aims at analyzing the importance of public policy tools as an approach to solving public problems related with market failures, while considering possible negative impacts of the intervention itself. These public policy tools have been applied to several policy areas. This work extends these analyses to the context of tourism and applies the instrument typology presented by Weimer and Vining (2005) to fill an important gap in the literature and provide a broader typology of tourism policy tools. In addition, it is evaluated the impact of tourism policy tools in tourism management at the Portuguese municipal level
Is quite acceptable that tourism activity is intensely subject to market failures and, naturally, requires government intervention. At the same time, it's points out that government intervention is another source of policy failure. Attending this situation, we investigate the importance of public policy instruments in Public Administration field, as a new approach to solving public problems related with market failures, while considering possible negative impacts of the intervention itself. These public policy instruments have been applied to several issues, including tourism policy. In this sense, we intend with this work to examine the tourism policy instruments applied to the Portuguese municipalities context. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
The crisis of the sovereign debt forced Portuguese government to reach out for joint financial help form the IMF (International Monetary Fund), EU (European Union) and ECB (European Central Bank). In the financial agreement terms, IMF/EU/ECB stressed the need of a major redefinition of the local government organization. Nowadays, Portuguese local government is structured in 308 municipalities and 4259 parishes both with elected officials and administrative, financial and patrimonial autonomy. So, Portuguese government was asked to present a consolidation plan to reorganize local entities enhancing service delivery, improve efficiency and reduce cost. The main argument used is that excessive territorial and fiscal fragmentation undermines efficiency. This research seeks to measure the impact of territorial and fiscal fragmentation in local government spending. We begin by looking into Tiebout's (1956) argument that an optimal level of local expenditures can be defined based on a consumer-voter preference towards public goods and taxation. Then we counterpoin with the opposite argument, used by international agencies, that, bought territorial and fiscal, centralization can produce economies of scale, reduce overlaps, control free riders and promote better accountability (Hendrick et al. 2011) The main objective of the paper is to test the competitive hypothesis that fragmentation/centralization induces higher spending in local government. To test this hypothesis we use a quantitative approach collecting primary financial data assembled from all Portuguese local government. We defined as a dependent variable, the amount of money transferred to parishes in each local government. Then, we use administrative fragmentation index in local government as indicators to measure territorial and population level of fragmentation. With the results of the paper, we hope to contribute to some clarification in the literature about fragmentation and federalist strategies to improve financial sustainability.
The analysis of fiscal performance is a hot topic either to policy makers or researchers and fiscal discipline is a key value in public finance management at the national and local levels. This growing attention to discipline may be explained with fiscal crisis and strict resource limitations, since in the three last decades a large part of those governments had high and persistent deficits and public debt. Fiscal performance may also be an instrument that voters considered at the ballots. Elections are the main accountability instrument, used by voters to evaluate the incumbent's performance. Voters elected the incumbents if they consider satisfactory their performance; or otherwise they elect opponent candidates. The objective of this paper is to analyze relationship between several dimensions of fiscal performance and the probability of incumbent re-election, focusing on 2005 municipal elections. Based on public finance and public choice literatures we test some well-known hypothesis such as fiscal illusion and fiscal conservatism of voters.
The most recently challenges in Public Management are felt in several countries, which lead to the appearance of a set of innovative initiatives in the field of the Public Administration. This concept, more or less global (kellt, 2001), of administrative reform is known as the New Public Management and appears with the goal to improve the efficiency, the effectiveness and citizen satisfaction in public services. Is mainly based in the introduction of market type mechanism and the adoption of private management tools. It promotes the competition between public and private agents in order to succeed an improvement in service quality, at the same time that it reduces production costs (Hartley, Butler e Benington, 2002, p. 388). According to NPM models presented by Ferlie, Ashburner, Fitzgerald e Pettigrew (1996) that takes into account that there isn't a clear definition of what it's the NPN, the agenda of administrative reform in Portugal, is base on the two first's models. It's settled in politic of budgetary restriction, decentralization and atomization of Public Administration. Although it's autonomy, the local governance also is affected by theses options of Central Administration. If in the countries of Anglo-Saxon origin, the model of reform of local power, it's based in the adoptions of specific programs of management as the Compulsory Competitive Tendering, o Best Value, in Portugal the reality is different. The administrative modernization was made mainly by changes in the administrative organization and in the transfer of power between the different levels of Portuguese Public Administration, rather than by the implementation of specific management programs of modernization. This is due to the classic/continental administrative model which still is the Portuguese administrative mainframe. Reforms nowadays are still being implemented through financial legislation as a way of Central Administration spread reforms ideology to Local Governments. The local administration stars to win relative importance after 24 of April of 1974. This level of administration is characterized by autonomy and decentralization principles. Actually, this local power is guide by a new law of local financial. It's relevant to analyse and debate the consequence of this new law and understand it's proposed in a NPM reform context. This paper is based on a Master project and it seeks this objectives. This constitutes a challenge to analyse in comparison with the others the degree of bigger centrality and/or autonomy that the same ones reflected.
Based on market failures theory and the tools approach, this research extends the analysis of local governments intervention in tourism activity, exploring the relationship between tourism policy tools and the development of local tourism (Duncan, 1995; Cooper & Flehr, 2006; Blake & Sinclair, 2007). The engagement of the public sector in the development of tourist destinations is seen as understandable, in particular, the case of local initiatives aiming at the mitigation of tourism market failures (Elliott, 2002; Pearce, 2011). The goal of this research is to identify which tourism policy tools provide the greatest contribution to the development of local tourism in Portuguese municipalities. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
The design a typology of policy tools specifically aimed at tourism policy at the local level represents the main goal and the original contribution of this paper. Based on market failures theory and the tools approach, we analyze the Weimer and Vining's original typology supplemented by an empirical analysis of tourism policy tools adopted by local governments in Portugal. This empirical analysis uses a representative sample of 214 Portuguese local governments. The results suggest an alignment with Weimer and Vining's original typology but also the existence of specific situations in Portuguese local governments requiring the expansion of this typology. Besides that, the intervention by Portuguese local governments in tourism relies primarily in the use of direct provision. For most municipalities, direct provision is still the main, sometimes the only, set of policy tools employed when addressing tourism market failures. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
As international trade has expanded dramatically in the postwar period--an expansion accelerated by the opening of China, Russia, India, and Eastern Europe--illicit international trade has grown in tandem with it. This volume uses the economist's toolkit to examine the economic, political, and social problems resulting from such illicit activities as illegal drug trade, smuggling, and organized crime. - The contributors consider several aspects of the illegal drug market, including the sometimes puzzling relationships among purity, price, and risk; the effect of globalization on the heroin and cocaine markets, examined both through mathematical models and with empirical data from the U.K; the spread of khat, a psychoactive drug imported legally to the U.K. as a vegetable; and the economic effect of the "war on drugs" on producer and consumer countries. Other chapters examine the hidden financial flows of organized crime, patterns of smuggling in international trade, Iran's illicit trading activity, and the impact of mafia-like crime on foreign direct investment in Italy.
The application of the hedonic price model to private attributes in several markets is relatively common (Monty & Skidmore, 2003). However, this technique's use to evaluate willingness to pay for (pure) public goods is rather limited, particularly in the tourism market. In fact, most of the beaches are important tourism resources and considered public goods. In other words, they are non-rivalry in consumption, specifically "the cost of additional users enjoying public attributes is zero". And also non-excludability in access, i.e., "after public attributes have been provided, it is not possible to exclude those users who have not purchased the product from enjoying/suffering them" (Rigall-I-Torrent & Fluvià, 2011, p.244). In this context, the growing number of beaches' visitors requires the engagement of governments to develop public policies capable of mitigating the adverse effects generated on these tourism resources, preserving them from the human/tourists activities (Rigall-I-Torrente & Fluvià, 2011; Alves, Rigall-I-Torrent, Ballester, Benavente, & Ferreira, 2015). In this sense, this research explores the use of hedonic price model assessing willingness to pay of visitors and evaluating the non-use value of Albufeira do Azibo, riverside beach, located in the Northeast of Portugal. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Purpose: The aim of this article is to explore the barriers imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic to Participatory Budgeting (PB), considering the perspective of Brazilian and Portuguese Local Public Administration. Theoretical framework: Recent literature points out that the barriers imposed on PB processes arising from the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic are justified by many leaders due to social distancing measures and the expansion of financial constraints. Design/methodology/approach: An online questionnaire was applied using a Likert-type scale to assess the perception of public officials, in Paraná and Portugal, about the barriers imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic to PB. Through a quantitative approach, data were presented and analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Chi-square test of adherence. Findings: The survey contributors from the Portuguese municipalities indicated that the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the conduct of PB processes. The possible restrictive consequences caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the realization of PB in the future are not clear, according to the responses obtained in the two contexts analyzed. Research, Practical & Social implications: Future studies may include the perspective of the participants in the process and the possible reduction in the amounts available for the execution of the PB due to the pandemic of COVID-19. Originality/value: COVID-19 alone cannot bring citizens to the periphery of public policy decisions. Difficulties prior to the pandemic, such as the absence of an online platform contributed to limiting the participatory space. ; Propósito: El objetivo de este artículo es explorar las barreras impuestas por la pandemia del COVID-19 a los Presupuestos Participativos (PP), considerando la perspectiva de la Administración Pública Local brasileña y portuguesa. Metodología: Se aplicó un cuestionario en línea utilizando una escala tipo Likert para evaluar la percepción de los funcionarios públicos, en Paraná y Portugal, ...
