Transcript
  • 00:01    |    
    Initial credits
  • 00:21    |    
    Fritz Thomas's dissertation: A summary
    • What society gets from investing in government
    • Government spending and governance
    • Quality of governance vs government spending: a scatter diagram
  • 08:58    |    
    Questions by the examinators
    • Wayne Leighton
      • First set of questions
        • A comment on incidental institutions
        • Is an occasional crisis a good thing for a country? Can it lead to an improvement in institutional quality?
        • A comment on the hypothesis that wealth leads to better institutions
        • Did you look at tax efficiency?
        • What problems may occur by the averaging of the indicators that you made?
      • Answers to the first set of questions
        • The effect of crises
        • The efficiency of the tax strcture
        • Problems with the averaging of the indicators
      • Second set of questions
        • Why did you choose to compare the high-45 ranked countries with the low-40, and the high-31 with the low-31?
        • What advice would you give to George W. Bush or Kofi Annan, based on your work?
      • Answers to the second set of questions
        • The choosing of the high-45 vs low-40 and the high-31 vs low-31 comparisons
        • The advice
    • Pierre Garello
      • Questions
        • Could you explain the study you mentioned in your work, where they look at the proportion of people that speak English?
        • Could you explain the study you mentioned in your work, where they look at the ethinc heterogeneity of the governing class?
        • Could you explain what you mean by the "purity of the public good"?
        • Shouldn't you include economic growth in your definition of the quality of governance?
        • Why didn't you look at a longer period of time? Don't you think there might be a lag effect?
        • What is the difference between terms of trade and causality?
        • Why didn't you focus on the flat part of the curve?
        • Your study implies that better governance is caused by more wealth, not more spending. Could you comment on that?
        • What problems may be caused by the aggregating of the indicators?
        • Is it possible for countries to import institutions?
        • Do you think that, at some point, increasing public spending might even decrease the quality of government?
        • What if freedom is not associated with growth?
      • Answers
        • The purity of public goods
        • The definition of quality of governance
        • The time period chosen
        • Terms of trade and causality
        • Institutional transmission
        • The shape of the curve
        • A comment on goverment and economic growth
    • Oswaldo Salazar
      • Questions
        • Have the values of the indicators you used changed?
        • Could a graduate student use your work in the future? How could he use new data for inclusion in your model?
        • Is the spontanous character of the market a main ingredient of cultural change?
      • Answers
        • Changes in the values of the indicators
        • On the use of the model
        • Culture and spontanous markets
    • Antonio Yan
      • Questions
        • Is the equation you chose robust?
        • Why did you not use a control variable?
        • Minor points on the readability of your work
        • Comment on the categories of government spending
      • Answers
        • The equation
        • Comments by Pierre Garello
        • The control variable
        • Yan: On causality
        • On comparing countries
    • Robert Higgs
      • Would increases in transfers affect the level of governance?
      • Answer
      • How do you justify your use of the statistical tests of significance, on the basis of classical sampling theory? Can they be applied in this case?
      • Answer
      • In the curve-fitting that you used to arrive at EGRI, what criteria did you use for the arbitrary selection of the elements of the regression?
      • Response
      • A suggestion for checking your findings
      • Are countries that are similar in the EGRI array also similar in reality? Is it reasonable to compare them?
      • Response
  • 02:19:51    |    
    Announcement of the examinating panel's decision: Fritz Thomas is awarded the degree of PhD
  • 02:21:04    |    
    Final credits


The Cost of Governance: A Cross-Country Study

New Media  | 14 de noviembre de 2005  | Vistas: 3187

About this video

Throughout modern history there has been a constant debate of what the role of the government should be. A large part of the population, especially in the western hemisphere, has the mentality that one should work for his or her country by investing in the State through taxes and government fees; however, nobody is sure of what society eventually gets back from such an investment. During his doctoral dissertation, Fritz Thomas briefly lectures on this dilemma and explains that there is no specific method to measure the performance of the public sector. He talks about the research he carried out and comments on how a large portion of the literature he found connects governance to economic growth, a correlation that he doesn’t agree with. Finally, Thomas defends his theory and shares his findings in relationship with the association between government spending and the quality of governance



Credits

The Cost of Governance: A Cross-Country Study
Doctoral Dissertation
Fritz Thomas

Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Auditorium
Universidad Francisco Marroquín
Guatemala, November 14, 2005

A New Media - UFM production. Guatemala, November 2005
Camera: Sergio Miranda, Rodrigo Escalante; digital editing: Alexander Arauz; index: Joseph Cole; synopsis: Sebastian del Buey; synopsis reviser: Daphne Ortiz; publication: Pedro David España




Conferencista
Fritz Thomas

Doctor en Economía y profesor de la Universidad Francisco Marroquín

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