The changing face of a city government: A case study of Philly311

Nam, T.,Pardo, T.A. JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2014 Government information quarterly Vol.31 No.suppl1

This study explores the transformation of a city government led by a 311 program, which provides a consolidated channel for non-emergency services and information. The paper first discusses the concept of ''smart city'' as a foundation for the examination of the 311 non-emergency contact program as a practice of government innovation, and then presents the details of the 311 program as instantiated in the City of Philadelphia. In-depth interviews with Philadelphia City government officials and managers responsible for creating and operating the City's 311 non-emergency contact program (Philly311) offer practical insights into the contributions the program is making to a more efficient, effective, transparent, and collaborative city government.

The adoption of public smartphone applications in Korea: Empirical analysis on maturity level and influential factors

Eom, S.J.,Kim, J.H. JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2014 Government information quarterly Vol.31 No.suppl1

With the rapid proliferation of smartphones, public smartphone applications (hereafter public applications) have emerged as a new technology and innovation toward smarter government. To assess the current status of the adoption of public applications in Korea, the authors measure the maturity level of these public applications by applying a newly developed 'public application maturity model.' In addition, the factors influencing the differences in the maturity levels of public applications are analyzed. It was found that Korean governmental agencies have adopted diverse public applications actively in an effort to deliver public services. The overall maturity level of public applications, however, is accessed as relatively low at present. Moreover, the results of the analysis of the factors influencing the maturity of public applications can be interpreted as showing that the government agencies have only followed the trend of the rapid proliferation of public applications without considering how high-level citizen-centric services could be delivered through public applications.

Ex-ante versus ex-post privatization policies with foreign penetration in free-entry mixed markets

Xu, L.,Lee, S.H.,Matsumura, T. JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2017 International review of economics and finance Vol.50 No.-

This study investigates the impact of the timing of privatization and liberalization policies on the degree of privatization and number of entering firms in free-entry mixed markets. We formulate two models: ex-post privatization and ex-ante privatization. In the former, the government liberalizes the market and then privatizes the public firm, whereas the order of the policies is reversed in the latter. We find that ex-ante privatization yields a higher (lower) level of privatization and a larger (smaller) equilibrium number of entering private firms when foreign ownership in private firms is high (low). We also show that the optimal level of privatization is increasing (decreasing) in the share of foreign ownership in the ex-ante (ex-post) privatization case. Finally, we find that although both the ex-ante and the ex-post privatization cases yield the same consumer welfare, ex-ante privatization always yields higher social welfare than ex-post privatization.

A semantic (TRIZ) network analysis of South Korea's ''Open Public Data'' policy

Jung, K.,Park, H.W. JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2015 Government information quarterly Vol.32 No.3

This study provides an overview of the background and content of the Open Public Data Directive (OPDD), a long-term plan to implement South Korea's ''open public data'' policy from 2013 to 2017. The OPDD and the principles of social use are the main policy documents serving as a framework for comparing and evaluating policies on open public data of 34 government organizations in South Korea. That is, these 34 organizations have been directed to refer to the OPDD as official or authoritative guidelines for planning their own programs. To examine South Korea's open public data policy, a semantic (TRIZ) network analysis was conducted, and a preliminary descriptive analysis of the OPPD was implemented. For the OPPD, a total of 4162 keywords were identified based on the space between them. Among these, 118 were used at least 10 times (2.84%), and 49 occurred at least 20 times (1.12%). Therefore, the analysis focused on the most frequently occurring 100 keywords that further functioned as nodes in the semantic network analysis. The results for key problems and solutions expressed in the OPDD suggest that the open public data policy should explicitly incorporate the importance of a creative economy ecosystem to facilitate creative industries based on innovation and its diffusion through new types of products.

Do habits generate endogenous fluctuations in a growing economy?

JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2013 International review of economics and finance Vol.27 No.-

This article examines endogenous fluctuations under habit persistence in preferences using an otherwise standard one-sector endogenous growth model with fiscal government policies. I show that a continuum of competitive transitional equilibrium paths exists, in conjunction with a globally unique balanced growth path, when a household's preferences are characterized by habit persistence in a growing competitive economy with exogenous fiscal policies, namely, income taxes and productive public spending. Indeterminacy also emerges in the socially efficient second-best allocation even when the government intends to internalize habit externalities, including jealousy and admiration, by introducing optimal time-variant income taxes and public capital services. Therefore, in the presence of multiple competitive equilibria and socially efficient allocations and in the absence of continuous exogenous stochastic shocks, self-fulfilling beliefs drive endogenous business cycles in these growing economies.

The present status and analysis of Science & Technology Information (STI) service policy in Korea

Yun-Seok, L.,jae-sung, K. JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2009 Government information quarterly Vol.26 No.3

National Science & Technology Information (STI) infrastructure of Korea has been independently developed as a decentralized system within the government ministry. In order to effectively establish the national STI infrastructure, it is essential to create a networked and integrated system in the domestic and foreign information infrastructure. This study aims to analyze current national STI infrastructure and to suggest specific ways in which domestic and foreign STI infrastructure may be utilized.

Trends in online networking among South Korean politicians - A mixed-method approach

Park, H.W.,Kluver, R. JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2009 Government information quarterly Vol.26 No.3

In recent years, as information technologies have grown in sophistication and become more fully integrated into daily lifestyles, a general expectation has arisen that the internet has the potential to reconfigure social and political relationships, and to create new political configurations. Blogging, in particular, has been seen to have significant potential to merge the public and the personal in new ways, potentially altering the nature of politics, particularly in nations where political processes are formalistic and highly regulated. As an example, politicians who blog have developed a new approach to communicating with their constituencies, in that the private thoughts of the political actor are expressed in a relatively unmediated environment. This study, which examines trends in blog linkages among Assembly members in Korea, provides a longitudinal analysis of blog linkages in order to assess the long term implications of new media technologies in Korean society and politics. The data were gathered from the blogs of Korea's National Assembly members for 2005 and 2006. An analysis of these links indicates that, indeed, there is an increased use of blogs among National Assembly members. However, it seems that over time, the network becomes sparser, less integrated, and more decentralized. This study also suggests that offline imperatives for political organization figure prominently in the motives of establishing online linkages to other political blogs.

User centric cloud service model in public sectors: Policy implications of cloud services

JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2013 Government information quarterly Vol.30 No.2

This study examines the acceptance of cloud computing services in government agencies by focusing on the key characteristics that affect behavioral intent. The study expanded upon the technology acceptance model by incorporating contextual factors such as availability, access, security, and reliability. The research model was empirically verified by investigating the perception of users working in public institutions. Modeling results showed that user intentions and behaviors were largely influenced by the perceived features of cloud services. Also these features were found to be the significant antecedents of cloud computing usefulness and ease of use. The findings should guide governments' promotion of cloud public services to increase user awareness by enhancing usability and appeal and ensuring security.

Global financial crisis and spillover effects among the U.S. and BRICS stock markets

Mensi, W.,Hammoudeh, S.,Nguyen, D.K.,Kang, S.H. JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2016 International review of economics and finance Vol.42 No.-

This article examines the spillover effect between the U.S. market and five of the most important emerging stock markets namely those of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and draws implications for portfolio risk modeling and forecasting. It gives consideration to periods before and after the recent global financial crisis (GFC). To this end, the bivariate DCC-FIAPARCH model, the modified ICSS algorithm and the Value-at-Risk (VaR) are employed to capture volatility spillovers, detect potential structural breaks and assess the portfolio market risks. Using the U.S. and the BRICS daily spot market indices for the period from September 1997 to October 2013, our empirical results show strong evidence of asymmetry and long memory in the conditional volatility and significant dynamic correlations between the U.S. and the BRICS stock markets. Moreover, we find several sudden changes in these markets with a common break date centered on September 15, 2008 which corresponds to the Lehman Brothers collapse. The Brazil, India, China and South Africa markets are strongly affected by the GFC, supporting the hypothesis of recoupling (with increased linkages). In contrast, the hypothesis of decoupling is supported for the Russian stock markets only. Finally, the skewed Student-t FIAPARCH models outperform and provide more accurate in-sample estimates and out-of-sample forecasts of VaR than the normal and Student-t FIAPARCH models in almost all cases. These results provide helpful information to financial risk managers, regulators and portfolio investors to determine the diversification benefits among these markets.

Sudden stops, limited enforcement, and optimal reserves

JAI Press ; Elsevier Science Ltd 2017 International review of economics and finance Vol.51 No.-

Using a limited-enforcement model in which a sovereign government decides jointly on external debt and foreign reserves, we quantitatively determine the optimal levels of reserves and external debt. When reserves are effective in reducing the probability of a sudden stop, the model can generate the reserves-to-debt ratio observed recently in developing countries. The optimal level of reserves is increasing in the country's fundamental vulnerability to sudden stops, the effectiveness of reserves in reducing the probability of a sudden stop, the output costs of crises, and risk aversion.