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This paper documents the growing dependence of Australian governments on the use of private funding to provide infrastructure and related services to the public. Using a Habermasian framework proposed by Broadbent and Laughlin in 1999 the paper examines their second research question: “what is the nature of PFI and who is regulating its application?” to frame an analysis of the complex relationships between steering media and steering mechanisms in determining the operation of privately financed projects (PFP) in Australia. A secondary, but related concern is to explore the linkages between the macro‐economic policy debates that gave rise to PFP and their implications for the micro‐organisational control issues. The debate about whether or not PFP are a response by governments to macro economic pressures remains unresolved. Similarly, there is evidence that governments are not as successful as private‐sector consortia at identifying and shifting risk and, therefore, at achieving value‐for‐money. Ultimate PFP outcomes depend on two factors: broad policy parameters established by governments (steering mechanisms) either discreetly, or through other appointed steering media; and execution at the micro or organisational level, that is, on the decisions and actions taken by a variety of actors interfacing with PFP.

This study aims to determine how sustainable development (SD) demands (according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) SD themes from 2005) are connected to the contents of education, research, development and innovation (RDI) in higher education institutions (HEI). Education and the RDI nexus may affect HEI’s capability to handle SD-related wicked problems and enhance their societal impact.

This paper examined SD-oriented curricula contents of two universities (Brazil and Finland) and counted the number of SD-related research outcomes. In addition, conceptual modelling was used to analyse the mechanisms that may be directing HEIs’ SD work in local innovation.

The data showed a convergence deviation in the RDI of SD-related subjects between the two HEIs. There was no correlation between SD-oriented education and RDI-work in either HEI. Education and RDI processes have different UNECE SD themes at the focal point, and the education-research nexus is lacking. This difference indicates that new SD-related knowledge produced through RDI was not effectively used in education. Modelling revealed that the convergence in RDI outcomes arose from the same kind of local business, industry and societal challenges, implementing effective stakeholder pressures into HEIs. The results may indicate that stakeholder SD needs were not directly transferred into the competence qualification of the curriculum.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first quantitative study to reveal the independence of universities’ SD-related RDI subjects on educational curricula.

This study aims to fill the research gap regarding the usability of group reporting information in the central government. It answers the question of how the consolidated information should be formed to benefit the real needs of governmental information users.

The empirical research is based on a survey and interviews among key internal preparers and users in the central government sector in the case country, Finland.

Results show that the private sector approach regarding consolidation is not appropriately transferable to the central government sector. The key stakeholders identified several economic and financial reporting needs that exceed what formal Consolidated Financial Statement (CFS) can offer. Consolidation is needed but not according to the extensive full control approach, but rather following the budgetary approach consolidating units of the legal person of the government, and further using the partial control approach for consolidating by discretion essential special purpose SOEs.

Respondents and interviewees represented governmental internal organisations, free experts, auditors and financial managers from the group entities. Politicians and citizens were not directly represented.

Research gives applicable insights into central governments planning and developing group reporting for information needs in a favourable cost-benefit ratio. Findings benefit the development of EU's EPSAS (European Public Sector Accounting Standards) project which is still incomplete.

Research recommends governments to make a thorough analysis before deciding on a new financial reporting system. A critical analysis prevents governments to waste money and resources on a reporting system not fulfilling the real needs of information users.

The value of this research is that the private sector approach in consolidation was not taken as granted. This study investigated critically and empirically the real need for consolidated information serving steering and overseeing purposes of the government's group entities.

The purpose of this article is to examine the governance of activation in relation to the decentralization and centralization of activation for social assistance recipients in Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK.

This paper outlines broad trends in the governance of activation policies in Europe, focusing on processes of decentralization and centralization in Sweden (characterized by a context of shifting national and local level governance of policies, cultivated within a strong tradition of active labour market policies); The Netherlands (where there has been a deliberate shift in governance towards the local level); and the UK (typified by highly centralized decision making in policy design but local variation in delivery).

The comparison identified different paths of decentralization and examines how these processes interact and overlap with modes of centralization/coordination of policies. Finally, the paper demonstrates the interface between the modes of decentralization and centralization.

The investigation of vertical changes in the governance of activation in three country case studies provides an original in‐depth analysis of types and paths of decentralization and centralization.

As with previous transport innovations, the transition to ‘smart mobility’ will occur in different ways and at different speeds in different places. Innovations such as Uber and trials of autonomous vehicles are already being welcomed in some places but resisted in others or left to the market. While the technologies may have the potential to be deployed globally, how this happens is, in part, down to the institutional settings and approach to governance amongst all of the actors (public and private) involved. Deciding who should act, how, when and at what spatial scale is, we argue, critical in setting the conditions in which new mobility systems can flourish but in a way which promotes the goals of local, state and federal governments and meets the needs of citizens as well as the industries that promote them.

This chapter reports on an international scenarios exercise conducted in 2017 across nine countries. Key dimensions of uncertainty were the degree of governmental involvement in steering policy and the degree of social desirability for smart mobility innovation. Reflecting on the period up to 2035, the scenarios considered the implications for smart mobility transitions by asking which innovations are more likely to flourish and which falter. Strong state involvement is reported as a necessary condition for the most integrated and sustainable visions of smart mobility. Other pathways were suggested to favour some innovations over others but typically offer a smaller market and more atomized and less sustainable set of mobility options.

The 2001 reform of the France basic law on financial legislation defines a new framework for the monitoring of public policies based on the evaluation of outputs and outcomes rather than resources allocations through a classical budgeting process. A new monitoring process is under design, based on the balanced scorecard method, aiming at achieving consistency between three levels. The reliability of these processes depends on the management of flows of strategic information. According to the double‐loop organizational learning theory, the single loop learning deals with the management of the policy by the agency and answers the question “Are things getting done right and delivering the expected outputs?”. Double loop learning deals with the gap between outputs and outcomes and answers the question “Are we doing the right things?”, implying the revision of the governing variables themselves. Informations flows and measurement systems are in those cases very different. The paper is based on a survey carried out within the French administration in 2001 on the management of public policies by agencies. Comparing the current perspectives with the state of the art, analyzing case studies, the paper draws the future directions for the management of information in the strategic management of public policies and agencies.

Educational intelligence can be considered a prized asset in political actors’ careful calculations in setting policy agendas for radical educational transformations in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution characterized by Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT). As an agent of globalization, the European Union (EU) is uniquely positioned to steer the direction of this new wave of digital technologies for two cardinal objectives in the EU’s rhetorical discourse: social cohesion and economic prosperity. Conversely, its complex governance architecture, which restricts its role in educational policy, tempers its ability to drive policy reforms in education for the strategic and coordinated deployment of Big Data in educational systems to support those twin objectives. This chapter examines this burgeoning policy arena in the European Union by interrogating the most recent policies on the “data economy” enacted at the EU-level and the positionality of education in this newest wave of policy formulation. A content and discourse analysis of policy documents on Big Data reveals that the EU is launching multiple initiatives to regulate these novel technologies across its socio-economic sectors. However, the amorphous nature and unpredictable impact of these technologies, along with the jurisdictional barriers in the education sector stemming from the delimitation of governance layers in the EU, pose difficulties in generating a coordinated approach to policy implementation to engender tangible results. Hence, the contours of an educational intelligent economy in the EU needs considerable policy attention and technical resources in its transition from the current ideational stage to its concrete manifestation.

The aim of the chapter is to examine whether the challenges to administering the EU outlined by Les Metcalfe in his famous article, ‘After 1992, can the Commission manage Europe?’ have now been met. Metcalfe not only identified a ‘management deficit’ in the implementation of the single market programme arising from an oversight among policy makers, but highlighted a neglect of the administrative dimension of European integration among scholars.

The chapter draws on primary and secondary literature to track developments in respect of the three elements identified by Metcalfe: the small size of the European Commission, its poor internal coordination and weak leadership; the responsiveness of administrative bodies in the member states to the need for inter-organizational coordination; and the network-building and management capacity of the Commission.

Despite changes, such as further enlargement, agencification at national and EU levels, and the expansion of EU competencies that have exacerbated the management challenge confronting the EU, there have been significant developments that have closed the deficit. First, the Commission has become far better integrated, coordination upgraded, and leadership strengthened. Second, through networking, cooptation and other strategies the Commission has sought to assure the effective implementation and enforcement of the single market rules. Third, member state governments, ministries and agencies have sought to cultivate networked relations that have increased the manageability of EU administration.

To the knowledge of this author, this is the first attempt to revisit Metcalfe’s diagnosis and to review the extent to which the management deficit he identified has been addressed subsequently.

The chapter has implications for how inter-organizational coordination within the EU administrative system could be improved.

The chapter bears on the administrative capacity of the EU to deliver the policies decided by EU policy makers.

As well as offering an assessment of the extent to which progress has been made in addressing the management deficit identified by Les Metcalfe in his classic article, this chapter conceptualizes the EU administration as an entity that encompasses both EU institutions and administrative bodies in the member states. It advances the concept of the EU as a multi-level administration.

The politically unstable economies have high and volatile sovereign spread. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of geopolitical uncertainty on sovereign bond yields.

The sovereign yields at various maturities were decomposed into three factors, namely, level, slope and curvature, using the Dynamic Nelson Siegel model. The relationship between geopolitical uncertainty and the yield curve factors was examined using a quantile causality test.

The study found that at the extreme high-rate regime, geopolitical uncertainty causes the yield curve factors positively, indicating bond investors demand a higher return for geopolitical uncertainty. On the other hand, during extreme low-rate regime geopolitical causes the short- and medium-term factors negatively. The extreme low-rate regime indicates the period of economic slowdown. During this regime, the central banks try to reduce the short-term rates to stimulate growth.

This is one of the few papers that investigates the relationship between the geopolitical risk and sovereign bond yields at the various maturities and interest rate regimes. Understanding the relationship between the geopolitical risk and short-term rates would help the central banks the efficacy of their policy actions. The long-term rates are influenced by the global investor preferences; examining the relationship with the long-term rates would help the investors frame the trading strategies.