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Managing Government Property Assets: International Experiences. Olga Kaganova and James McKellar, Editors. 438 pages. The Urban Institute Press, Washington, D.C., 2006
Managing Government Property Assets: International Experiences is a compilation of the work of seventeen authors who have focused their careers on helping central, regional, and local governments become better owners, managers, and users of their real estate assets. It is edited by two prominent researchers in the area of public sector property-Olga Kaganova from the Urban Institute and James McLellar from York University in Toronto, Canada.
The international context of the book provides the reader with a very rich, comparative approach that examines both the practices found in developed economies, as well as the more recent practices being developed in the emerging economies. In some cases, the latter group is more advanced because they have had the opportunity and expertise provided by some of the authors of this book to establish new systems and they are not ''bogged down'' in inherited systems passed down for generations.
The early chapters outline common problems associated with the management of government-owned property assets. The cases of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France are explored. All are countries in which central governments have reformed property asset management as part of an overall effort to improve public sector efficiency and address issues of sustained fiscal deficits and growing public debt.
At the municipal level, the book offers a strategic view...