We show that municipalities’ credit constraints can have important effects on local economies through a ratings channel. We identify these effects by exploiting exogenous variation on U.S. municipal bond ratings due to Moody’s recalibration of its ratings scale in 2010. We find that local governments increase expenditures and employment due to an expansion of their debt capacity following a rat...

Please ogies in Summary. — This paper examines public–private partnerships (PPPs) for development through the example of telecenters in two Indian states. How might a developmental state position itself with respect to civil society under a PPP model of service delivery? We find that each state’s political economy is reflected in its PPP strategy, but that in both states the emerging middle cla...

Auctions are supposed to procure the best deal money can buy. Yet, practitioners who procure complex contracts by auction are well aware of some basic pitfalls. One concern is that winning bids may not reflect the quality of the bidder but strategic behavior like low-balling bids or underestimating costs. Such behavior may then lead to demands for contract renegotiation by the winning bidder th...

I am very pleased to attend the International Conference on “Public Policy for Credit Reporting System: Strengthening Dialogue and Cooperation between the Government and the Private Sector”. Credit reporting system is essential to the modern financial system and plays a significant role in financial and economic development. In the recent 20 years, credit reporting system has received increased...

............................................................................................................................ i Declaration of Originality.............................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv

This paper goes over some of the recent discussions on the effects on growth and poverty of institutions and policies, especially those that relate to the functioning of the private sector. It examines the empirical relationship between various measures of institutional quality and regulatory policies, and economic growth and poverty. The results suggest that good governance, as measured by a s...

As the global population grows there is a clear challenge to address the needs of consumers, without depleting natural resources and whilst helping to improve nutrition and hygiene to reduce the growth of noncommunicable diseases. For fast-moving consumer goods companies, like Unilever, this challenge provides a clear opportunity to reshape its business to a model that decouples growth from a n...

Chronic diseases — such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes — are the leading causes of death in the United States; they account for 70% of all deaths annually. Chronic diseases also limit daily activities for nearly 10% of Americans. Although these diseases are among the most common and expensive health problems, they are also among the most preventable (1). This growing health care crisis ...

The goal of this article is to provide a balanced assessment of what has happened to the welfare state in advanced capitalist societies since 1980. What is one to make of recent spending cuts and welfare reforms? Do they represent a fundamental rollback of the welfare activities of the state and thus a belated victory for Thatcherite-Reaganite ideas? Or should these changes rather be seen as in...