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In the past two decades, the public sector both in Australia and overseas has undergone a period of intense change. The focus has been on efficiency, effectiveness and value for money of public sector operations. The methods by which governments account and report on their operations has received scrutiny. While Treasuries and Departments of Finance in each Australian jurisdiction have traditionally formulated the reporting and accounting rules used in the public sector, since 1983, with the formation of the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (PSASB), the accounting profession has become involved in the setting of accounting standards for the public sector. Several researchers have suggested that a “contest” exists between the accounting profession and the government regulators for control over the public sector accounting standards process. This paper explores the processes whereby the public sector in Australia formulates its financial reporting policies by examining the interactions between the PSASB and the government regulators in each of the Australian jurisdictions. Policy community and policy network theory are used to argue that policy is formulated by a “cooperative” grouping of accounting professionals from the central agencies of Treasuries and Departments of Finance and the PSASB. The paper concludes that this method of policy formulation has implications for the content of policy and for the access of stakeholders to the formulation of that policy.

The study aims to identify the dynamic complexities and development points of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) in the agricultural sector of Iran to improve production factors' productivity, including arable land, water resources and human capital.

First, the EE of the agricultural sector in Iran was designed following Isenberg's framework. Then, the main variables and interrelationships of the variables in each context of the ecosystem, called subsystems, were formulated using the system dynamics (SD) approach. Next, the model was simulated and validated. Afterward, different policy options were identified, embedded into the model structure and simulated. Finally, the best policy group was selected.

According to Isenberg's EE model, three groups of policies were identified and evaluated, including “entrepreneurship development financing and investment policy,” “agricultural ecosystem's supportive services development policy” and “production factors productivity development policy.” According to the simulation results, the best combination of the solution strategies was recognized. The presented SD-EE model has a generic nature in the agricultural sector and could be modified to be applied in different regions for policy-making purposes.

The main contribution of the study is twofold. First, Isenberg's EE framework is applied to structure the main subsystems and interrelationships of the subsystems in the agricultural sector that has previously received limited attention. Second, the research is the first to operationalize the basic theory of Isenberg's EE in practice applying a robust systemic modeling methodology like SD.

The farm sector is crucial for rural poverty alleviation, alongside the non-farm sector, which contributes to mitigating risks associated with crop failures. This paper investigates the effects of public policies on productive employment within both the farm and non-farm sectors in sub-Saharan Africa.

A meta-analysis is conducted exclusively on the results of the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP)-funded studies under the Policy Analysis on Growth and Employment (PAGE II) initiative. Selected studies focused on the impact of public policies on productive employment in rural farm and non-farm sectors, encompassing a total of nine sub-Saharan Africa countries in: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

The results indicate that public investments in rural areas and public policies that facilitate access to productive resources are likely to enhance productive employment. The overall effect size is positive and significant, ranging from 2% to 10% increases in productive employment. Sources of variation include the sector of activity and the policy instrument. In addition, the policy effects are gender-sensitive and seem more consistent in the non-farm sector.

Although the selected working papers addressed several aspects of productive employment, other aspects warrant further investigation. Policies involving restrictions or regulations have received little attention in the impact analysis. Researches to fill this gap would be important. Another suggestion for further research is the analysis of the relative importance of non-farm employment in rural areas in developing countries. It is always assumed that rural households depend heavily on agriculture for their subsistence.

The contribution of the paper lies in the comparative analysis of numerous public policies implemented in nine distinct countries. By consolidating data from fourteen 14 different experiences into a single study, the paper offers valuable insights on factors that determine policy effectiveness and contribute to understanding what worked for whom and why.

The context conditions for third sector organizations (TSOs) in Europe have significantly changed as a result of the global economic crisis, including decreasing levels of public funding and changing modes of relations with the state. The effect of economic recession, however, varies across Europe. The purpose of this paper is to understand why this is the case. It analyses the impact of economic recession and related policy changes on third sector development in Europe. The economic effects on TSOs are thereby placed into a broader context of changing third sector policies and welfare state restructuring.

The paper focusses on two research questions: how has the changing policy environment affected the development of the third sector? And what kind of strategies have TSOs adopted to respond to these changes? The paper first investigates general trends in Europe, based on a conceptual model that focusses on economic recession and austerity policies with regard to the third sector. In a second step of analysis, the paper provides five country case studies that exemplify policy changes and responses from the third sector in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.

The paper argues that three different development paths can be identified across Europe. In some countries (France and Spain), TSOs face a strong effect of economic recession. In other countries (Germany and Poland) the development of the third sector remains largely stable, albeit at different levels, whereas in the Netherlands, TSOs rather experience changes in the policy environment than a direct impact of economic decline. The paper also shows that response strategies of the third sector in Europe depend on the context conditions. The paper is based on the European project “Third Sector Impact.” It combines an analysis of statistical information with qualitative data from interviews with third sector representatives.

The paper contributes to our understanding of the interrelation between economic recession, long-term policy changes and third sector development in Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the case of selective industrial policies for the automotive industry in Thailand.

Founding on previous literature and official government documents, the authors describe the implemented policies, dividing them into four phases according to the main trend they followed. The authors suggest results the policies have or have not reached by analyzing the current state of the sector.

The main point is that selective policies implemented in the country were successful in helping the development of the sector as a whole, contributing to the role of Thailand as main actor in the international market. However, such policy initiatives were not able to solve some of the main issues of the automotive sector in the country related to local development, such as the technology dependence on foreign (mainly Japanese) firms and the weakness of local suppliers.

The authors frame the development of the automotive sector in a twofold perspective: on one hand, the international/exogenous factors and, on the other hand, the role of policy. The authors interpret the effects of selective industrial policy under the lens on both evolution and growth of the sector per se and on the enhancement of local capabilities. The work shows that the results do not go in the same direction.

Governments in Australia are in the process of implementing accrual reporting for their departments and governments as a whole. The central issue of this paper is to provide an explanation as to how general purpose financial reporting became a significant issue for governments in Australia. Agenda‐setting literature provides the framework within which to analyse the specific events and strategies used by public sector accountants to promote accrual technologies. The main finding of the research is that accrual technologies have been promoted by public sector accountants working from within government institutions, and often aligned with the organised accounting profession. Prior to the late 1980s the Auditors‐General were the main actors involved, however, more recently, accounting technologies have been promoted by accounting policy units within Treasuries and Departments of Finance. The paper concludes with a call for future research on the implications of such accounting changes for organisational and social functioning.

Presents 35 abstracts from the 2001 Employment Research Unit Annual conference held at Cardiff Business School in September 2001. Attempts to explore the theme of changing politics of employment relations beyond and within the nation state, against a background of concern in the developed economies at the erosion of relatively advanced conditions of work and social welfare through increasing competition and international agitation for more effective global labour standards. Divides this concept into two areas, addressing the erosion of employment standards through processes of restructuring and examining attempts by governments, trade unions and agencies to re‐create effective systems of regulation. Gives case examples from areas such as India, Wales, London, Ireland, South Africa, Europe and Japan. Covers subjects such as the Disability Discrimination Act, minimum wage, training, contract workers and managing change.

This study aims to introduce an education sector which transforms a part of unskilled labour into new skilled labour, and then show how the level of output of educational service is determined in the short-run equilibrium along with the level of output of two production sectors. This study also introduces intertemporal dynamics into the model assuming that all factor endowments grow over time, and then show how a strong anti-immigration policy in the destination country affects the long-run equilibrium of the source country.

This study considers a three sector open economy model to analyse the long-run economic effects of the anti-immigration policy adopted in the destination country on the general equilibrium of the source country.

If the education sector in the source country is more skilled labour intensive than the advanced production sector, then this anti-immigration policy would raise the capital unskilled labour ratio, skilled labour–unskilled labour ratio and the balanced endogenous growth rate in the new long-run equilibrium but would lower the gross rate of creation of new skilled labour there.

The authors want to analyse the effect of anti-immigration policy adopted in the destination country on the long-run balanced growth rate in the source country. The dynamic growth effect of anti-immigration policy cannot be studied in a static short-run equilibrium model, the authors also introduce intertemporal dynamics into the model assuming that all factor endowments grow over time and then show how a strong anti-immigration policy in the destination country affects the long-run equilibrium of the source country.

Software and software‐based services (SSBS) are a major domain of the European ICT industry and are recognised as a key element in developing the information society. This article aims to shed light on the various strategies, policies and activities pursued by the EU and its member states.

The article is based on a survey of national programmes that are aimed specifically or in substantial part at the software sector. This analysis and assessment usually faces two challenges: unlike other technologies that have the same significance and/or the same attractiveness, the SSBS industry is a very dynamic one, due to several specific characteristics; and there are increasing inter‐dependencies between the European and national levels as well as between supply‐side and demand‐side policies, which require a more detailed analysis of the different national policies for the EU member states. Therefore a comparative analytical framework is used that takes account of the different composition and structure of the SSBS industries in EU member states.

The analysis shows that there are still great differences among the EU member states, but in general there is relatively little activity in European member state governments targeted specifically at fostering SSBS producers. However, as a result of the EU activities virtually all member states have implemented policies to foster the development towards an information society.

The paper highlights that normally these overall policies address and integrate both the supply side as well as the demand side. This is at least an improvement compared to recent years, when adaption, diffusion and application were taken for granted.