This version: March 3, 2004 This draft is very preliminary and incomplete. Please do not quote or circulate. Comments are welcome. Abstract Using the data from World Business Environment Survey (WBES) on over 10,000 firms across eighty one countries, this paper finds significant regulatory advantages—as perceived by the firms themselves—enjoyed by foreign firms over domestic firms. The findings...

The increase in government regulation during the 1960s and 1970s is examined, as well as showing the importance of understanding the benefit/cost ratio of regulation.

The quality of the air we breathe in many parts of the world has been improved dramatically by a series of clean air regulations dating back over fifty years, including the “clean air acts” passed by the UK government (1956) [1], the federal governments of USA (1963), and those passed by many other countries. As a result, the health of the human population and our surrounding aquatic and terres...

Firms in emerging economies exhibit dangerously low compliance with government regulations aimed at protecting society from the negative externalities of their operations. Weak government enforcement contributes to this lack of compliance, but we argue that the limited legitimacy of government and its regulations also plays a critical role, especially among firms without insider access to key p...

BACKGROUND The purpose of the article is to research and analyze the notion of sustainability criteria in their function of an emerging tool to promote and safeguard sustainable products and their sustainable production. The article addresses critical issues, which are important for deeper understanding of sustainability criteria and their practical use. In this, the article examines the existi...

In 1986 the federal government expanded its program of company inspections for enforcement of motor carrier safety regulations. We find that many parts of these inspections are unrelated to the safety performance of firms. Never the less, reinspection of firms found to be unsatisfactory in a previous inspection does appear to bring about a substantial improvement in their safety performance. Ho...

— This study is the first attempt to examine the determinants of expenditure decentralization at sub-provincial levels in China. The Chinese central government gives detailed guidelines to local governments on public finance, but, ironically, their expenditure assignment is far from being well-regulated. Differences in fiscal decentralization on the expenditure side are enormous among local gov...

OBJECTIVES A cross-sectional investigation was designed to assess the quality of local government plans for public health emergencies and to determine whether relevant regulations for emergency plans are in place. METHODS Sixty-six municipalities were selected randomly using stratified sampling, and a questionnaire investigation on emergency plans was conducted in these municipalities. RESU...

Ken Iverson, a technology entrepreneur, almost singlehandedly revived the moribund US steel industry. His success contains important lessons for health care. Nucor, the steel-focused factory Iverson managed, differed from the everything-for-everybody steel behemoths of yore, like Bethlehem Steel, with its specialty steel products and relatively small mini-mills, as did his egalitarian, producti...