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Government Regulators (government + regulator)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	75%

Selected Abstracts

Fuzzy Legality and National Styles of Regulation: Government Intervention in the Israel Downstream Oil Market

LAW & POLICY, Issue 1 2002
Margit Cohn
This article examines the role of statute law in regulation and government intervention through a detailed historical case study of a crucial retail market. The history of state intervention in the Israeli oil supply market is dominated by "fuzzy legality," a concept expounded in a former article. Legal fuzziness allowed the industry, acting in concert with the government regulator, to retain a lucrative, practically non,accountable arrangement in changing politico,economic climates. Three central forces encouraged continuing fuzziness: a "cloud" of state security, institutional stickiness that preserved colonial mandatory legal structures, and a prevalent national culture of nonlegalism. The article ends with a careful suggestion regarding the Israeli national style of regulation. Compared to American "adversarial legalism," and its opposite, "consensual nonlegalism" the Israeli style may be termed "adversarial nonlegalism," and holds less promise for balancing market and public interests. [source]

Is Privately-provided Electronic Money Next?

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2000
Catherine England
To survive, any new electronic money will need to provide some advantage to its users, such as lower transaction costs, increased privacy, a greater ability to avoid taxes, or a more stable value than its government-provided competitors. Any successful new money will have to overcome substantial barriers to entry, however. These barriers to entry occur primarily in the form of the costs of switching to a different means of payment and require an understanding of the role played by ,network economics.' Unless a substantial number of the individuals and businesses with whom a person trades use the same money, any new means of payment will have little value. A temptation facing government regulators will be to extend and expand regulations to apply to new means of payment and forms of money. A more productive role of governments is to attempt to protect their own money-creation franchises by minimising the advantages offered by privately-provided alternatives. Governments should enforce contracts and punish fraud while remaining vigilant with respect to inflation, keep tax rates low and protect the privacy of their citizens. [source]

AN EXAMINATION OF THE CONTENT OF COMMUNITY FINANCIAL REPORTS IN QUEENSLAND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2008
Trevor Stanley
Annual reports, including general purpose financial statements, have been adopted as a key mechanism by which public sector entities discharge their accountability. However, there is concern about the complexity of public sector general purpose financial statements and consequently their effectiveness as an accountability mechanism. In Australia, the Queensland government has moved to address this issue in local government authorities by introducing a Community Financial Report as a means of simplifying the financial statements. A feature of this initiative was the lack of prescription given to local government authorities in the preparation of this report. This paper examines the form and content included in Community Financial Reports and also uses a disclosure index to determine the level of disclosure in the reports. The results of this research show that the form and content of the Community Financial Reports varied considerably. There was no definitive style, with each report being unique. The disclosure index revealed low levels of disclosure by local government authorities in the first year of the report as well as a lack of analysis of the Statements of Financial Performance, Position and Cash Flows. As well, there was a significant difference in the disclosures made by rural local government authorities compared with urban local government authorities. The results of this research will be of interest to local government authorities and local government regulators as they aim to provide useful, understandable information for stakeholders. [source]

Life-insurance Efficiency in China: A Comparison of Foreign and Domestic Firms

CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 6 2009
Bingzheng Chen
F23; G22; C61 Abstract The Chinese life-insurance industry has experienced major structural changes in recent years, primarily because of increasing demand and the entry of foreign insurers. Although the market is clearly booming, the efficiency of its growth and development is unclear. In this paper, we evaluate the efficiency of life insurers operating in China and compare foreign firms with domestic firms. We find that foreign insurers have not brought efficiency into the Chinese market, and that the market is still dominated by domestic giants. However, the gap between foreign insurers and domestic insurers is narrowing. After testing hypotheses regarding scale economy, technical progress and potential improvements, we discuss several issues of importance to life insurers, market investors and government regulators. [source]