The economic slow-down of several States in India including Gujarat during the later half of 90s has caused considerable disturbance in the State's fiscal equilibrium. The fiscal deficit has more than doubled during last five years and government's debt has jumped up from 17 percent of GSDP to...

This commentary, which presents an expanded version of the keynote address at the 2012 Conference on ‘Global Climate Change Without the United States’, outlines Palau’s role in attempting to motivate international action on climate change. It explains two initiatives: the passage of a...

This study examines varying levels of Europeanization of regulation across policy areas in the same national setting, drawing on the case of Turkey. It analyses institutional adaptation at both de jure and de facto levels regarding regulatory institutions and practices, focusing on two distinct...

Recent studies have claimed that states with initiative systems of legislation use this more direct form of democracy to improve productive resource allocation. This paper compares the economic performance of states with initiatives to states that do not have initiatives. We first construct a...

Corruption has challenged the legitimacy of political institutions that exist today and has led to political unrest in Kenya over the years. Bad governance and a lack of transparency in the public sector is one of the main contributors of corruption in Kenya. This paper delves into corruption...

Though decentralization for past one and half decade or so has become the most favoured policy priority among the policy makers yet the countries around the world differ dramatically in the degree of decentralization that is accommodated. While diversity in degree of decentralization across the...

Chanchal Kumar Sharma,in his paper demonstrates that in order for fiscal decentralisation to be effective, it must be approached federally. A federal approach is not a decentralised approach but a dynamically balanced approach; one that constantly keeps on adjusting the contrasting forces of...

The paper looks into various questions associated with the dilemma of designing decentralization instruments for the success of fiscal decentralization These include the question of designing the right mix of policies, the questions of sequencing and synchronization, the question of pace and...

This is the first study that assesses the economic effects of direct democratic institutions on a cross country basis. Most of the results of the former intra-country studies could be confirmed. On the basis of some 30 countries, a higher degree of direct democracy leads to lower total...

Legal liability for accidents determines the circumstances under which injurers must compensate injurers for harm. The effects of liability on incentives to reduce risk, on risk-bearing and insurance (both direct coverage for victims and liability coverage for injurers), and on administrative...