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The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between fiscal consolidations and changes in income distribution.

Looking at a sample of 27 emerging market economies between 1980 and 2014, the authors resort to both static panel techniques as well as dynamic impulse response function analysis using local projection methods to uncover the direct impact of adjustments on inequality.

The authors find that fiscal consolidations tend to lead to an increase in income inequality and reduce the redistributive role of fiscal policy. Spending-based consolidations are more detrimental to income distribution than tax based ones and fiscal retrenchment during bad times raises inequality. In times of fiscal expansion inequality seems to rise in the medium term and this effect is larger if the economy is booming.

The distributional effects of consolidation, i.e. whether consolidation can confer benefits, must be balanced against the potential longer term benefits. It should be recognized that there is scope for improving the targeting and efficiency of public programs and that fiscal adjustments would not unavoidably run into such an efficiency vs equity trade-off.

The paper, applying a consistent methodology, documents the set of fiscal episodes emerging market economies experienced over time. The authors empirically examine both the static and dynamic links between fiscal consolidation and inequality. Since composition matters, the authors explore how spending and tax-based fiscal consolidations affect income distribution. The authors conduct several robustness checks including the use of alternative income distribution proxies and state-contingent estimations on the phase of the business cycle.

Departing from the expansionary austerity literature, this study aims at examining how fiscal consolidation affects the economic growth in Tunisia using annual data over the period 1970–2018.

To revisit the fiscal consolidation-economic growth nexus, the ambiguous empirical findings in previous literature make useful the adoption of alternative econometric techniques. The authors use an extended nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration approach developed by Shin et al. (2014) and the Diks and Panchenko's (2006) nonlinear Granger causality test. Furthermore, a traditional approach based on changes in cyclically-adjusted primary balance was applied to define the fiscal consolidation episodes in Tunisia.

The empirical evidence reveal that fiscal adjustment in Tunisia may hurt the economy, both in the short- and long-run, through its contractionary effect on economic growth. Another important finding concerns the unidirectional nonlinear Granger causality running from fiscal consolidation to economic growth.

Fiscal adjustment in Tunisia is found to play a prominent role in reducing public debt; but at the same time, it may be costly and not beneficial to the economy. This view corroborates with the fact that fiscal consolidation is more likely to end successfully only under specific conditions. This calls for a deeper reflection upon new insights regarding the design of fiscal adjustment in Tunisia. To reach this end, it is suggested to combine the defensive consolidation strategy with offensive components such as investment, infrastructure, education and health.

The existing economic analysis on fiscal policy-growth nexus in Tunisia has often identified fiscal consolidation through the use of the actual fiscal balance. With the goal of more accurate estimation, this study bridges the gap by using the cyclically-adjusted primary balance (CAPB) as a much suitable indicator to investigate the non-Keynesian effect of fiscal consolidation in Tunisia. This indicator eliminates the influence of cyclical fluctuations and many other fixed expenditures such as the interest paid on the public debt.

In recent years, Health Promotion Board (HPB) has made a strategic shift from a traditional health education approach to an eco-systemic approach in health promotion, where the Board engages and harnesses the collective power of the 3 Ps (People, Private, and Public). The procuring of core services is a key enabler to support HPB's focus areas in tobacco control, mental well-being, health screening, obesity prevention, nutrition, dietetic services, chronic disease education, etc. In tandem with the Board's strategic shift, the procurement function has taken on strategic importance and is now functioning as an independent department, reporting to HPB's CEO. Fundamentally, HPB Procurement Department has changed the way it interacts with the business as it stands by the belief that the real procurement value goes beyond compliance (Caldwell & Howard, 2010). “Proper”, “simpler”, “faster”, “closer” and “cheaper” are now its mantra for procurement excellence. The objective of this paper is to highlight the transformation journey that HPB's Procurement Department undertook to deliver the results, impact and value to the stakeholders.

The purpose of this article is to generate theory on how functional integration and conflict interrelate by studying the interface between production and purchasing.

An interpretive single case research methodology is adopted. The authors rely on in-depth interviewing of managers in the production and purchasing functions of a construction company, as well as by its suppliers.

Given low functional integration, antagonistic reasoning within each function and resultant conflicting behaviors are allowed to develop in a negative cycle, escalating the conflict between purchasing and production. This process leads to the creation of two opposing functional sourcing models that serve as blueprints for behavior.

The single case methodology was chosen to maximize depth and detail and form an ideal foundation for theory building. Future qualitative and quantitative studies should inquire further into the studied phenomenon to increase analytical and statistical generalizability of the proposed model.

The findings can help managers understand how poor integration between functions can develop into cross-functional conflict. Facing a conflicting functional relationship, managers must resort to conflict resolution methods, instead of attempting to integrate, as several integrative devices are not appropriate in conflicting interfaces.

The proposed model contributes by connecting the constructs of integration, group reasoning, and conflict, thereby generating knowledge on conflict development processes in cross-functional interfaces. Furthermore, the article contributes by uncovering the difficulties associated with implementing spend consolidation, a prevailing sourcing strategy.

Municipal amalgamation (or merger or consolidation) is commonly employed in countries around the world to improve efficiency in public service. While mergers occur among jurisdictions of all sizes, the municipal amalgamation discourse is typically limited to one national setting and a focus on mergers of larger local jurisdictions. The existing municipal amalgamation literature pays little attention to predicate conditions for successful mergers. This study seeks to address these deficiencies by examining the premerger conditions and effects of municipal amalgamations that recently took place in four small jurisdictions of similar size in Thailand and the United States.

A holistic multiple case study approach was employed. These two cases share a geographical attribute: one municipal jurisdiction encircled by another.

The evidence indicates that factors associated with what the researchers refer to as “familiarity” facilitated both successful approval of and outcomes resulting from the amalgamation actions. While the study's findings align with international research regarding the potential for reducing administrative support costs through consolidation, its findings diverge from existing international evidence in that the evidence indicates operating effectiveness and efficiency improvements. Economies of scope and marginal economies of scale are in evidence. Although findings from this study indicate that there might be problematic effects regarding political representation and participation, in that the consolidated jurisdictions remain small in size, negative citizen engagement and participation consequences may be less than that evidenced in larger consolidated jurisdictions.

The study introduces the “familiarity” theorem as a theoretical lens to assist in understanding the cases.

President Trump's tenure was accompanied by a series of protectionist measures that intended to reinvigorate US-based production and make manufacturing supply chains more “local”. Amidst these increasing institutional pressures to localise, and the business uncertainty that ensued, this study investigates the extent to which manufacturers reconfigured their supply bases.

Bloomberg's Supply Chain Function (SPLC) is used to manually extract data about the direct suppliers of 30 of the largest American manufacturers in terms of market capitalisation. Overall, the raw data comprise 20,100 quantified buyer–supplier relationships that span seven years (2014–2020). The supply base dimensions of spatial complexity, spend concentration and buyer dependence are operationalised by applying appropriate aggregation functions on the raw data. The final dataset is a firm-year panel that is analysed using a random effect (RE) modelling approach and the conditional means of the three dimensions are plotted over time.

Over the studied timeframe, American manufacturers progressively reduced the spatial complexity of their supply bases and concentrated their purchase spend to fewer suppliers. Contrary to the aims of governmental policies, American manufacturers increased their dependence on foreign suppliers and reduced their dependence on local ones.

The research provides insights into the dynamics of manufacturing supply chains as they adapt to shifting institutional demands.

The impact of event quality on expenditure and visitors’ loyalty has been an issue seldom analyzed by festival literature. These same incidental relations were not assessed from a temporary perspective in the case of recurrent cultural events. This paper aims to explore these causal relationships and to report on the moderation effect of the temporary inquiry on the editions of the festival.

Nine hypotheses were examined through squares SEM techniques, and the model validation was carried out by assessing the measurement and structural model. In addition, a multi-group analysis was performed to test the temporary moderation effect. Finally, a survey was applied during three successive editions (2013 = 164 cases, 2014 = 154 cases, 2015 = 128 cases).

The local and ephemeral nature of the festival favors immediate consumption, and the budget share increase among categories passes through diversification to stimulate purchases. In this particular context, the moderation induced by the sequence of editions had a conclusive impact on the analyzed relationships, generating the need to focus on the temporary variability to understand and operate the recurrent events.

The strengthening of the festival went through a stage where it opened to other segments of visitors despite the dominant opinion to preserve the local character of the event. In addition, this study clarifies that a retrospective analysis of previous editions, when compared to the stationarity perspective of the festival, allows a better understanding of the required upgrading to preserve visitor loyalty.

El impacto de la calidad del evento en el gasto y la lealtad de los visitantes ha sido un tema pocas veces analizado por la literatura de los festivales. Estas mismas relaciones incidentales no fueron valoradas desde una perspectiva temporal en el caso de eventos culturales recurrentes. El artículo explora estas relaciones causales e informa sobre el efecto moderador de la investigación longitudinal de las ediciones del festival.

Se examinaron nueve hipótesis a través de técnicas de cuadrados MES, y la validación se llevó a cabo mediante la evaluación del modelo estructural y de medición. Además, se realizó un análisis multigrupo para probar el efecto de moderación longitudinal. Los datos analizados provienen de encuestas aplicadas durante tres ediciones sucesivas (2013 = 164 casos, 2014 = 154 casos, 2015 = 128 casos).

El carácter local y efímero del evento favorece el consumo inmediato, y el aumento de la participación en el gasto entre categorías pasa por la diversificación que permite estimular la compra. En este contexto particular, la moderación inducida por la secuencia de ediciones incidió contundentemente en las relaciones analizadas, generando la necesidad de prestar atención a los cambios temporales para comprender y operar los eventos recurrentes.

El fortalecimiento del festival pasó por una etapa donde se abrió a otros segmentos de visitantes a pesar de la opinión dominante de preservar el carácter local del evento. Además, este estudio aclara que un análisis retrospectivo de ediciones anteriores, en comparación con la perspectiva de la estacionariedad del evento, permite gestionar la actualización necesaria que permite preservar la lealtad del visitante.

This paper demonstrates, using empirical cases from the National Health Services (NHS), how existing practices in demand specification, procurement and supply management fail to address the significant problems caused by the misalignment of demand and supply. When examining internal demand management a number of problems arise including: product overspecification, premature establishment of design and specification, frequent changes in specification, poor demand information, fragmentation of spend, maverick buying, inter-departmental power and politics, and the risk-averse nature and culture of the organisation. It is argued that unless these problems are addressed and eliminated the NHS will not be in a position to select the most appropriate reactive or proactive approach from the range of sourcing options available. An improvement path that NHS Trusts might follow to achieve more efficient and effective procurement and supply management is outlined.