Outsourcing can be defi ned as the delivery of public services by the private sector. The sign of the effect of outsourcing on public spending is ambiguous ex-ante. While outsourcing may reduce public spending through higher competition in the private sector, it may also increase public spending...

Summary of Banco de España Working Paper no. 1939

Drug consumption is a voluntary decision based on preexisting situational contexts, social events, personal traits and cultural circumstances. Because of this, drug consumption is not pathological but rather normal and ubiquitous. It is only as a result of persecution by the authorities of...

Several studies have measured the effects of regulation on a particular industry. These studies range widely in sophistication, from simple observation (comparison) of pre-transformation and post-transformation actual industry performance to econometric analysis that attempt to separate the...

The concept of measurement quality assurance (MQA) as embodied in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) programs is not generally used within European programs for testing or accreditation. Although the essential elements of quality control and quality assurance are in the...

Extract: This paper explores strategies for improving the value for money to Government in the financing component of public private partnership (PPP) procurement for social infrastructure projects, drawing on the experience of methods trialled over the past five years in the United Kingdom and...

The oil industry is the richest and most influential industry in the world. The industry has moved the fates of nations. Oil is required to fight wars and exert power, and the restriction of this energy source is paramount to the restriction of movement, control, and in the end, power....

The institutional governance approach sees national economies embedded in a bundle of non-market types of coordination (e.g. corporate hierarchies, networks, associations and the state). Governance oriented research explores configurations of governance types in sectoral, regional and national...

Presented at a workshop at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, this document explores the logistical solutions deployed within contemporary Hawala-style value transmission systems. It suggests that those frustrated by the lack of an effective global payments system for retial...