Abstract This book is about the complex and changing relationship between levels of governance in the US and the European Union. On the basis of a transatlantic dialogue between scholars concerned about modes of governance on both sides, it is a collective attempt at analysing the ramifications of the legitimacy crisis in these multi‐layered democracies, and possible remedies to this. Starting from a focus on the current policy debates over ‘devolution’ and ‘subsidiarity’, the book engages the reader into the broader tension of comparative federalism. Its authors believe that in spite of the fundamental differences between them, both the EU and the USA are in the process of re‐defining a federal vision for the twenty‐first century. The book is a contribution to the study of federalism and European integration, and seeks to bridge the divide between the two. It also bridges the traditional divide between technical, legal or regulatory discussions of federal governance and philosophical debates over questions of belonging and multiple identities. It is a multi‐disciplinary project, bringing together historians, political scientists and theorists, legal scholars, sociologists and political economists (more than 20 authors are involved), and includes both innovative analysis and prescriptions on how to reshape the federal contract in the USA and the EU. Included are introductions to the history of federalism in the USA and the EU, the current debates over devolution and subsidiarity, the legal framework of federalism and theories of regulatory federalism, as well as innovative approaches to the application of network analysis, principal‐agent models, institutionalist analysis, and political theories of citizenship to the federal context. The introduction and conclusion by the editors draws out cross‐cutting themes and lessons from the thinking together of the EU and USA experiences, and suggest how a ‘federal vision’ could be freed from the hierarchical paradigm of the ‘federal state’ and articulated around concepts of mutual tolerance and empowerment. The seventeen chapters are arranged in five sections: I. Articulating the Federal Vision (two chapters)—views of federalism in its USA and EU versions; II. Levels of Governance in the USA and the European Union: Facts and Diagnosis (four chapters)—an overview of the history and current state of federalism in the USA and EU; III. Legal and Regulatory Instruments of Federal Governance (three chapters); IV. Federalism, Legitimacy, and Governance: Models for Understanding (four chapters); V. Federalism, Legitimacy, and Identity (four chapters)—a discussion of the deeper roots of legitimacy in federal systems; there is also an appendix, which discusses the basic principles for the allocation of competence in the USA and EU.
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While it is widely believed by academics, politicians, and the popular press that incumbent members of Congress are rewarded by the electorate for bringing federal dollars to their district, the empirical evidence supporting that claim is extremely weak. One explanation for the failure to uncover the expected relationship between federal spending and election outcomes is that incumbents who expect to have difficulty being reelected are likely to exert greater effort in obtaining federal outlays. Since it is generally impossible to adequately measure this effort, the estimated impact of spending is biased downward because of an omitted variable bias. We address this estimation problem using instrumental variables. For each House district, we use spending outside the district but inside the state containing the district as an instrument for spending in the district. Federal spending is affected by a large number of actors (e.g., governors, senators, mayors, and other House members in the state delegation), leading to positive correlations in federal spending across the House districts within states. However, federal spending outside of a district is unlikely to be strongly correlated with the strength of that district's electoral challenge. In contrast to previous studies, we find strong evidence that federal spending benefits congressional incumbents: an additional $100 per capita in spending is worth as much as 2 percent of the popular vote. The only category of federal spending that does not appear to yield electoral rewards is direct transfers to individuals.
FEMA is the Federal Government's emergency management agency employing highly skilled pre-event planners, emergency managers, and first responders. It coordinates the national response and is the primary federal agency responsible for preventing, mitigating, responding to, and recovering from disasters. FEMA was created in 1979. It consolidated under one agency the approximately one hundred disaster management functions that previously were scattered among several independent agencies. This chapter includes a great deal of information from the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate Preparation & Response to Hurricane Katrina because there is no better analysis of FEMA's, and ultimately DHS's failure during that catastrophe. The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA) addresses many of these problem areas.
Theory: Several models of distributive politics predict a role for parties in determining the allocation of federal outlays. Hypotheses: The number of Democratic voters will be positively correlated with federal outlays, even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables. The degree to which a program will be skewed to Democrats will be a function of the amount of variation in program benefits across districts, whether the program is administered by formula, and the extent of one-party control when the program is initiated. Methods: Regression analysis of district-level data on election outcomes and federal assistance programs for the period 1984-90. Results: The number of Democratic voters is an important predictor of the amount of federal dollars flowing to a district. Programs with a greater amount of variation across districts are more heavily skewed to Democrats, as are programs administered by formula. Programs initiated in the latter half of the 1970s, a time of solid Democratic control, exhibit the greatest bias towards Democrats; programs started in the Reagan era show no such bias. Our results are consistent with a model in which parties in the United States play an important, but limited role in determining the distribution of federal dollars: given enough time, parties can target types of voters, but they cannot easily target specific districts.
Federal policy regarding the protection of human subjects in research has led to the creation of institutional review boards (IRBs) at every institution that receives federal funds for research. The function of the IRB is to review research that involves human subjects to ensure that this research is completed in an ethical manner. Social work research undertaken by researchers at federally funded institutions using human subjects and aiming to build knowledge that is generalizable is subject to IRB review, as is any research that is not specifically exempted from IRB oversight by the law. Social work practitioners and researchers who use research designs to evaluate practice effectiveness should comply with the ethical standards of the profession and may be subject to the standards specified in federal policy The relationships among social work research, the IRB, and the evaluation of social work practice are examined in light of the federal policy for protecting human subjects. Guidelines are given as to the types of research and evaluation that fall under the purview of the IRB.
This paper tests for the existence of asymmetric information between the Federal Reserve and the public by examining Federal Reserve and commercial inflation forecasts. It demonstrates that the Federal Reserve has considerable information about inflation beyond what is known to commercial forecasters. It also shows that monetary-policy actions provide signals of the Federal Reserve's information and that commercial forecasters modify their forecasts in response to those signals. These findings may explain why long-term interest rates typically rise in response to shifts to tighter monetary policy. (JEL E52, E43, D82)
Scholarship on distributive politics focuses almost exclusively on the internal operations of Congress, paying particular attention to committees and majority parties. This article highlights the president, who has extensive opportunities, both ex ante and ex post , to influence the distribution of federal outlays. We analyze two databases that track the geographic spending of nearly every domestic program over a 24-year period—the largest and most comprehensive panels of federal spending patterns ever assembled. Using district and county fixed-effects estimation strategies, we find no evidence of committee influence and mixed evidence that majority party members receive larger shares of federal outlays. We find that districts and counties receive systematically more federal outlays when legislators in the president's party represent them.
Since December 2008, the Federal Reserve’s traditional policy instrument, the target federal funds rate, has been effectively at its lower bound of zero. In order to further ease the stance of monetary policy as the economic outlook deteriorated, the Federal Reserve purchased substantial quantities of assets with medium and long maturities. In this paper, we explain how these purchases were implemented and discuss the mechanisms through which they can affect the economy. We present evidence that the purchases led to economically meaningful and long-lasting reductions in longer-term interest rates on a range of securities, including securities that were not included in the purchase programs. These reductions in interest rates primarily reflect lower risk premiums, including term premiums, rather than lower expectations of future short-term interest rates.
Forest‐fire policy of U.S. federal agencies has evolved from the use of small patrols in newly created National Parks to diverse policy initiatives and institutional arrangements that affect millions of hectares of forests. Even with large expenditures and substantial infrastructure dedicated to fire suppression, the annual area burned by wildfire has increased over the last decade. Given the current and future challenges of fire management, and based on analytical research and review of existing policies and their implications, we believe several changes and re‐emphases in existing policy are warranted. Most importantly, the actual goal of fuels‐management projects should be the reduction of potential fire behavior and effects, not the simple reduction of fuels. To improve safety and economic efficiency, fire‐suppression policies should recognize differences in the characteristics of wildfires, and strategies should be tailored to better respond to the unique demands of each fire. Where forest fires are burning large areas, as in the western United States, reducing the trend of increased amounts of burned area may require a diversity of treatments, including prescribed burning, mechanical fuels treatment, and increased use of the Wildland Fire Use Policy. Assessment of how fire is affecting forests would be enhanced if land‐management agencies reported the area burned by low‐, mixed‐, and high‐severity fire and what proportion is outside the desired trend or range of conditions for each forest type. Congress should provide an improved budgetary process for fire and fuels management, with a larger annual federal fire‐suppression budget. Additionally, reducing annual area burned will require long‐term coordinated efforts by federal and state governments, with robust partnerships between land‐management agencies and the public in collaborative planning and stewardship. Research and adaptive management are essential in allowing fire‐hazard‐reduction projects to move forward where proposed projects are met with uncertainty and mistrust. While legislative reform may be desirable, a strategy that is not entirely dependent on new legislation is needed. Building on existing programs that are consistent with a science‐based strategy will enable land‐management agencies to better utilize information in pursuit of the overall objective of reducing uncharacteristically severe wildfires.
This publication has been developed by NIST to further its statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Public Law (P.L.) 107-347. NIST is responsible for developing information security standards and guidelines, including minimum requirements for Federal information systems, but such standards and guidelines shall not apply to national security systems without the express approval of appropriate Federal officials exercising policy authority over such systems. This guideline is consistent with the requirements
Justice Scalia's engaging essay, “Common-Law Courts in a Civil-Law System: The Role of United States Federal Courts in Interpreting the Constitution and Laws,” and the four comments it provokes, should provide lawyers, judges, and other lawmakers with an interesting evening. Instead of presenting a theoretical view of the role of the federal courts in interpretation, Justice Scalia sketches out a case for “textualism.” “Textualism” is one of several currently contending methods of interpreting statutes and the United States Constitution, and is currently popular among federal judges who see their role as restricting government's powers to those expressly stated in the written text.
Unique transaction‐level data for nearly every federal funds transaction made during the first quarter of 1998 forms the foundation for this in‐depth exploration of the federal funds market. Unlike previous studies that have relied on aggregate and typically infrequent measures of federal funds market participation, the transaction‐level data exploited here allows a closer look at the microstructure of the market. The paper explores the relationship between bank size and participation in the funds market and discovers that even the largest banks are frequently net sellers of funds. A time‐of‐day pattern is uncovered, as is significant market concentration. Preliminary exploration into trading patterns, or networks, is conducted, and the existence of relationship lending in the interbank market is investigated.
There is a strong undercurrent in the literature of public administration that suggests the existence—and importance—of service-related motives linked to the public interest. Publicservice motivation (PSM) is a fledgling theory that predicts that many individuals predisposed to public norms and emotions act in the public interest, even when doing so runs counter to their selfinterest. This study represents the first attempt to link public service motivation to prosocial behaviors. Specifically, we draw a conceptual linkage between PSM and whistle blowing and we test hypotheses derived from these concepts with archival data collected by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Our findings reveal that federal whistle blowers act in ways that are consistent with the theory of PSM. That is, they are motivated by concern for the public interest, they are high performers, and they report high levels of achievement, job commitment, and job satisfaction. Moreover, federal whistle blowers are likely to work in high performing work groups and organizations. Overall, this study provides strong empirical support for the nascent theory of PSM.
Countries studied include the United States, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, and Germany as examples of developed industrial societies; India and Malaysia as examples of multilingual and multicultural federations; Belgium and Spain as examples of emerging federal systems that illustrate bicommunal and asymmetrical approaches; and Czechoslovakia and Pakistan as examples of bicommunal federations that have failed. Watts compares the interaction of social diversity and political institutions, distribution of powers and finances, processes contributing to flexibility or rigidity in adjustment, extent of internal symmetry or asymmetry, degree of centralization and decentralization, character of representation in federal institutions, role of constitutions and courts, provisions for constitutional rights and secession, and pathology in federations.
A large output gap accompanied by stable inflation close to its target calls for further monetary accommodation, but the zero lower bound on interest rates has robbed the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the usual tool for its provision. We examine how public statements of FOMC intentions—forward guidance—can substitute for lower rates at the zero bound. We distinguish between Odyssean forward guidance, which publicly commits the FOMC to a future action, and Delphic forward guidance, which merely forecasts macroeconomic performance and likely monetary policy actions. Others have shown how forward guidance that commits the central bank to keeping rates at zero for longer than conditions would otherwise warrant can provide monetary easing, if the public trusts it. We empirically characterize the responses of asset prices and private macroeconomic forecasts to FOMC forward guidance, both before and since the recent financial crisis. Our results show that the FOMC has extensive experience successfully telegraphing its intended adjustments to evolving conditions, so communication difficulties do not present an insurmountable barrier to Odyssean forward guidance. Using an estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, we investigate how pairing such guidance with bright-line rules for launching rate increases can mitigate risks to the Federal Reserve’s price stability mandate.
Bond yields respond to policy decisions by the Federal Reserve and vice versa. To learn about these responses, I model a high‐frequency policy rule based on yield curve information and an arbitrage‐free bond market. In continuous time, the Fed's target is a pure jump process. Jump intensities depend on the state of the economy and the meeting calendar of the Federal Open Market Committee. The model has closed‐form solutions for yields as functions of a few state variables. Introducing monetary policy helps to match the whole yield curve, because the target is an observable state variable that pins down its short end and introduces important seasonalities around FOMC meetings. The volatility of yields is "snake shaped," which the model explains with policy inertia. The policy rule crucially depends on the two‐year yield and describes Fed policy better than Taylor rules.
Monetary policy; Federal funds market (United States)
ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the impact of changes in monetary policy on equity prices, with the objectives of both measuring the average reaction of the stock market and understanding the economic sources of that reaction. We find that, on average, a hypothetical unanticipated 25‐basis‐point cut in the Federal funds rate target is associated with about a 1% increase in broad stock indexes. Adapting a methodology due to Campbell and Ammer, we find that the effects of unanticipated monetary policy actions on expected excess returns account for the largest part of the response of stock prices.
This paper estimates a New Keynesian model to draw inferences about the behavior of the Federal Reserve's unobserved inflation target. The results indicate that the target rose from 1 1/4% in 1959 to over 8% in the mid to late 1970s before falling back below 2 1/2% in 2004. The results also provide some support for the hypothesis that over the entire post‐war period, Federal Reserve policy has systematically translated short‐run price pressures set off by supply‐side shocks into more persistent movements in inflation itself, although considerable uncertainty remains about the true source of shifts in the inflation target.