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From the start of 2021, the vaccination campaign against SARS- CoV-2 was high on the agenda of governments everywhere and the Italian Government was no exception. In this article, we shall describe the progress of the anti-Covid vaccination campaign in Italy with a particular focus on the policy tools adopted by the Government to encourage citizens’ compliance and to combat reluctance. After considering the problem of engaging with the vaccination campaign using the analytic framework provided by studies of compliance, focus will be first on how the targets of the vaccination campaign came to be defined and the infrastructural facilities for administering the doses established, and then on the measures the Government took to overcome popular resistance to the vaccines and to maximize compliance, considering them in terms of their degree of ‘intrusiveness’. In the final section, we conclude by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign and by offering an assessment of the coherence and the timing of the Government’s measures.

This paper investigates the evolution of China’s technology standardization policy system in the period from 1978 to 2021. The standardization policy system comprising the supply, demand, and environment policy tool types has evolved during standardization development process, which includes three sequential stages: 1) the following-up stage, 2) the catch-up stage, and 3) theupgrading stage. In responding to changes in institutional, economic and technological contexts, the policy orientation has transformed from supporting the government-controlled adoption and standardization of foreign technologies in the following-up stage of standardization development process to developing indigenous standards owning independent intellectual property rights (IPRs) through the government-led standardization system in the catch-up stage, and to international standardization adopting both government-led and market mechanisms in the upgrading stage. In this process, the Chinese Government continued to offer policy support to but tended to relax its control over standardization. Of the three policy tool types, the supply type have remained the dominant ones; the weight of the environment-type of tools tended to decrease, and that of the demand-type of tools tended to increase. Further, the government rationalized the mix of each type of policy tools as the standardization contexts changed. From the Chinese experience, theoretical prescriptions for how standardization policy systems evolve in latecomers are developed. Practical implications for latecomer countries to transform standardization policy system and design their standardization policies are discussed.

The state is considered critical in volunteerism, especially in authoritarian states like China. However, few studies have examined state mobilization schemes or tested the effects of soft policy tools, such as publicity campaigns. This article reports on a survey experiment with a 2 x 2 factorial design focusing on the effect of the soft policy tool of a state-initiated publicity campaign on Chinese citizens’ intentions to volunteer.

The development of differentiated emission reduction strategies plays an important role in achieving carbon compliance targets. Each city should adopt carbon reduction strategies according to its carbon emission characteristics. China is a vast country, and there are significant differences between cities. Therefore, this study classifies 340 Chinese cities according to their carbon emission characteristics since 2020 and proposes differentiated emission reduction strategies accordingly. The results of the research show that Chinese cities can be divided into four categories, and they can strive to achieve their carbon peak targets by adopting differentiated emission reduction strategies. In the baseline scenario, Chinese cities will not be able to meet the peak carbon target by 2030. In the differentiated scenario, eco-agricultural cities, industry-led cities, and high-resource-availability cities will be able to achieve peak carbon by 2030. Unfortunately, resource-poor cities will not reach their peak. However, the extent to which their total carbon emissions contribute to the achievement of national goals is low, and their carbon emissions can be traded off for economic development by appropriately relaxing the constraints on carbon emissions. Therefore, in order to achieve China’s peak carbon goal, this study proposes emission reduction recommendations that should be adopted by different types of cities to form differentiated emission reduction strategies.

Background The data on vaccination coverage for the year 2016 were a cause of concern for the Italian government. For some years, in fact, there has been a growing mistrust of vaccines in the Italy, and consequently vaccination coverage rates have been decreasing. The number of cases of measles has been particularly high. Aim The purpose of this article is to examine the content and the preliminary outcomes of the Lorenzin Decree, which was passed in 2017. This reform embodies a ‘hard’ approach to the issue of childhood vaccinations, based on their mandatory nature and on the intensification of the sanctions against non-compliant subjects. Results The Lorenzin decree provides for an increase in mandatory infant vaccines from four to ten. Following the reform, unvaccinated children are denied access to nurseries and kindergartens. Parents who do not have their children vaccinated are liable to pay a financial penalty. Data on the preliminary outcomes of the reform show an increase in vaccination coverage. Conclusion The Italian experience provides some policy recommendations, and could be a source of inspiration for European countries that are tackling vaccine hesitancy and declining vaccination coverage rates. At least for the short term, the 'hard' approach adopted by the Italian government is, in fact, bearing fruit, having reversed the negative trend in vaccination coverage rates.

The environmental certification acts as a sustainable practice for firms to improve their competitive advantage and its motivation has been widely discussed. However, existing researches ignore the important market driving force of green public procurement (GPP) as a policy tool. To fill this gap, this study, focusing on manufacturing firms in China and three typical environmental certifications, explores the relationship between GPP market pressure and firm's environmental certification practice based on institutional theory. Additionally, from a strategic perspective of green human resource management, this study unveils the influence mechanism of top management support in this relationship by using upper echelons theory. According to the empirical results, we find that GPP market pressure is positively associated with environmental certification practice, and top management support partially mediates this relationship. This study provides new insights into the explanation of firm's environmental certification practice, and provides practical implications for firm managers and government administrator.

Getting the incentives (and disincentives) right in order to ensure proper levels of compliance with government initiatives is a vital assumption of much of the writings on policy design. The assumption, however, overlooks or underestimates other critical factors that affect compliance. This includes policy-makers’ behaviour in the social and political construction of policy targets and it also minimizes the complex objective and subjective conditions that affect the target population’s attitudes and behaviours in relation to policy-maker aims and goals. The notion of policy-takers as static targets who passively receive policies without trying to evade or even profit from them is as misguided as the assumption that policy-makers only consider evidence on policy tools’ effectiveness before selecting them. This article highlights the critical issue surrounding the choice and workings of policy tools and introduces the papers in this special issue. It indicates how they contribute to filling the gaps in our existing understanding of policy tools and advance our understanding of both policy-maker and policy-taker behaviour.

This chapter addresses two identified weaknesses in entrepreneurial ecosystem studies: there is a lack of focus on the relationships between the components of entrepreneurial ecosystems, and little understanding of the underlying processes that determine how entrepreneurial ecosystems change over time. Both entrepreneurial ecosystems, and solutions ecosystems from social entrepreneurship studies, are place-based complex adaptive systems that are emergent in nature. While neither of these ecosystem types can be controlled, they can be influenced and guided to follow a direction by designing conditions for emergence and transitions. In this chapter the proposition that an online tool, that is used to strengthen solution ecosystems and support their emergence and transition, could also be used to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems and guide their emergence and transition is examined.Two cases are used to investigate this proposition: a food security solution ecosystem case study that demonstrates how the online tool is used for solution ecosystems, and an impact economy entrepreneurial ecosystem case study that highlights how the online tool could be used for an entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is demonstrated in this chapter that the online tool can be used to address the current weaknesses of entrepreneurial ecosystem studies. In addition, it is suggested that by combining solution ecosystems with an impact economy entrepreneurial ecosystem, the online tool can be used to support the creation of conditions for social entrepreneurial places to emerge that are capable of addressing the most pressing problems that places face including the sustainable development goals.

Personal assistance (PA) is stated in Article 19 of the UNCRPD as an internationally recognised disability right and is operationalised as a measure in the Swedish Act concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (the LSS Act). The Act’s overall policy goal is to promote good living conditions for the eligible persons by enabling participation in society on equal terms with others. The governance of PA is a divided responsibility between the municipality and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (SSIA), which assesses and grants PA-allowance if the PA applicant exceed 20 hours of certain needs per week. The overall aim of the thesis was to explore how the governance of PA-allowance enables to fulfil the LSS Act policy goals. The main findings of the thesis demonstrate a tilt in PA towards a medical model of disability, marked by a domination and an increase of healthcare activities over time. Less activities representing participation in society were found and unequal access to PA activities across age, gender and groups of persons with disabilities. The findings imply an increased risk to social and financial exclusion of PA users. Further, the LSS Act’s rationale and policy goals were shown to have a weakened impact on the SSIA instruction, the refined policy tool which outlines the PA-allowance granting process. A development towards a medicalised application of PA-allowance was found, characterised by healthcare measures to support medical conditions and a shift towards PA users with less ability to partake in the PA-allowance granting process. Factors shown to have influenced the governance of PA-allowance include: case law, changed policy priorities, weakened PA collaboration structures, inadequate monitoring of PA outcomes, strained working conditions at the SSIA and extensive complexities of the PA-allowance application. This thesis illustrates that the SSIA regime logic has thoroughly influenced the LSS policy outcome with time and emphasises the need for social reform policy tools to be continuously calibrated towards the original policy goals to uphold policy compliance. The regression of PA, by gradually resigning to a medical model of disability, demonstrates weakened conditions for Swedish disability policy through the LSS Act to fulfil Article 19 of the UNCRPD.

The rational choice framework is commonly used in many energy demand models and energy economic policy models. However, the notion of reasoned decision-making underpinning the rational actor models is less useful to explain the dynamics of routine household activities (e.g., cooking, showering, heating, etc.) which result in energy use. An alternative body of work collectively referred to as social practice theories offers a more practical explanation of routines. It is also argued that practices, i.e. the routine activities that people do in the service of normal everyday living, is at the centre of social change, and hence should be the focus of interventions concerned with demand reduction. One of the main criticisms of social practice theories, however, is that the concepts proposed are high-level and abstract and hence difficult to apply to real-world problems. Most existing practice-centric models are also abstract implementations. To address this gap, in this paper, we present a concrete, empirically-based practice-centric agent-based model to simulate the dynamics of household heating practices. We also use the model to explore consumer response to a simulated price-based demand response scheme. We show how a practice-centric approach leads to a more realistic understanding of the energy use patterns of households by revealing the underlying contexts of consumption. The overall motivation is that by gaining insight into the trajectories of unsustainable energy consuming practices, it might be possible to propose alternative pathways that allow more sustainable practices to take hold.

Climate change is the consequence of market and governance failures. The World Bank Group’s climate change strategy, laid out in its 2025 Climate Targets and Actions, recognizes that governance will play a critical role in addressing climate change. The strategy commits the World Bank to support clients’ efforts to mainstream climate action and fully integrate climate change into their planning, budgeting and fiscal policies. The Governance Practice plays a leading role in the implementation of this strategy, through its work with center of government, planning and finance agencies, inter-governmental relations, governance of State-Owned Enterprises, and open government initiatives. This Note provides an overview of the Bank’s corporate climate change commitments and the application of these commitments in the Governance Practice. Annex 1 provides an illustrative list of climate change governance activities by business lines and identifies example projects. Annex 2 presents an illustrative list of Governance Climate Change indicators. Annex 3 provides additional information on climate co-benefits in projects with ICT and Gov-Tech activities.

In the process of promoting the development of a low-carbon economy, green services lag behind the green manufacturing industry. This paper applies the textual analysis method and systematically analyses the evolutionary trends and structural characteristics of green service policies to further optimise the service policy system and strengthen the quality of the green service supply. This paper identifies 859 policies introduced since 1986 and uses the content analysis method to analyse changes in the number of policies, the relationships between policy subjects, the formal types of texts and the composition of policy instruments. The results show that (1) the number and overall effectiveness of green service industry policies promulgated by the central government are increasing, such that the formulation of green service industry policies has passed the exploratory phase and has entered the stage of high-quality development; (2) there is a wide range of obvious interministerial cooperative phenomena, the modes of cooperation are relatively fixed, and the overall intersuperior cooperation has been strengthened but is characterised by phased development; (3) the distribution of policy forms is uneven, with many documents characterised by low effectiveness and a lack of high-efficiency documents; (4) the policy object structure is relatively complete, but the industrial distribution is unbalanced; (5) there is an imbalance among the three policy tools of supply, environment and demand. Those tools that are embodied in the environment are deemed more important than those of supply and demand.

L’article considère les rapports officiels comme des instruments d’action publique déterminant certaines représentations d’un problème public. En comparant la production de rapports en France et au Québec sur le gaz de schiste, il y est démontré que le processus rédactionnel est d’abord contraint par des choix initiaux en termes de mandat et d’organisation, puis que les pratiques consultatives et référentielles des commissions contribuent à définir les significations de la controverse. Ces rapports diffusent ensuite certaines représentations du problème public qui suivent des trajectoires variées en fonction des acteurs susceptibles de porter ces arguments dans le débat public. Le rapport est un instrument de l’action publique grâce à sa capacité à légitimer certaines significations, mais il possède aussi des effets non maîtrisés, telle sa réutilisation hors du cadre du mandat., The article demonstrates that official reports are policy tools that propagate meanings related to a public problem. Comparing the production of official reports in France and in Quebec about shale gas, it shows that the initial choices in terms of mandate and the organization in charge first constrained the editorial process, then that the committees’ consultation and reference practices contribute to shape the meanings of the controversy. These reports disseminate those meanings, which follow different trajectories depending on the actors able to support them in the public debate. An official report is a policy tool because of its ability to legitimize specific meanings, but it also generates unplanned outcomes such as its reuse outside the scope of its mandate.

The number of species reliant on consistent human intervention is rising. These species are labeled conservation‐reliant, which affords them unique resources to propagate them. A conservation reliance designation has important implications for recovery of large carnivores, particularly where private lands encompass historical ranges. As a policy tool, a conservation reliance designation may be used in conjunction with other popular instruments such as financial incentives or co‐governance to promote coexistence between carnivores and key cohorts such as landowners and hunters, who are often vocal dissidents of carnivore recovery, especially wolf recovery projects. Yet, the nascent literature on conservation reliance has yet to address the influence of conservation reliance on landowner or hunter support for carnivore conservation. This paper fills this gap with an analysis of responses from 639 landowners to explore the influence of a conservation reliance designation on intention to coexist with wild red wolves (Canis rufus) in northeast North Carolina. Findings suggest that respondents living in the red wolf recovery zone generally oppose a conservation reliance designation, a critical means to red wolf recovery. Hence, a conservation reliance designation may actually erode the value of some species they intend to preserve. Disapproval of conservation reliance poses new confronts to restoration politics and its diversity of strands, which must be woven into new ways of thinking about the ethical and political aspects of carnivore policy and management.

The aim of this work is to investigate which policy tools are used in the governance of the healthcare sector. In particular, we compare the healthcare systems of five OECD countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, England and the Netherlands. The analysis intends to reconstruct the healthcare governance methods implemented in these countries, and understand how they have evolved over the last thirty years. Throughout this work, policy tools are subdivided into four categories: direct provision, regulation, financing and information. Direct provision remains the prevailing mode of governance in the English healthcare system. All of the five countries studied in this work make extensive use of regulation. Insurer regulation is particularly stringent in Germany, the Netherlands and Australia. Of the countries examined, those that make the greatest use of financial leverage seem to be Australia and Canada. England and the Netherlands are the two countries that focus most on informative policy tools.

Transitioning agri-food systems towards increased sustainability and resilience requires that attention be paid to sustainable food consumption policies. Policy-making processes often require the engagement and acceptance of key stakeholders. This study analyses stakeholders&rsquo, solutions for creating sustainable agri-food systems, through interviews with a broad range of stakeholders including food value chain actors, non-governmental organizations, governmental institutions, research institutions and academic experts. The study draws on 38 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in four European countries: France, Iceland, Italy and the UK, as well as three interviews with high-level EU experts. The interviewees&rsquo, solutions were analysed according to a five-category typology of policy tools, encompassing direct activity regulations, and market-based, knowledge-based, governance and strategic policy tools. Most of the identified solutions were located in the strategic tools category, reflecting shared recognition of the need to integrate food policy to achieve long-term goals. Emerging solutions&mdash, those which were most commonly identified among the different national contexts&mdash, were then used to derive empirically-grounded and more universally applicable recommendations for the advancement of sustainable food consumption policies.

Cities are among the largest and most complex artifacts created by humans. Yet the advancements in computing capabilities combined with ubiquitous data streams allow for complex socio-technical systems of cities to be abstracted and modeled. This paper discusses the technology of Smart City Digital Twin as a policy tool. Following the ideas of flat ontology, the paper argues that intelligent machines exhibit their own agency, which has to be investigated through the behavioural lens. As making policy decisions based on counterfactual simulations is becoming more widespread, it is crucial not only to simulate how certain policy interventions will affect the life of a city, but also to investigate how such models and simulations are designed and behave. Adding a social layer in the form of behavioural data of population will allow Smart City Digital Twins to be used for a wider spectrum of policy modelling purposes. Such behavioural data can be generated through task-based approach, where individuals will be asked to conduct certain activities in order to generate synthetic data for situations which require data that does not yet exist. This will not only allow to avoid certain privacy-related concerns, but also can be used as a tool for labor provision. &nbsp

Environmental pollution damages public health and affects economic development. Environmental regulation is the main way for the government to solve environmental pollution. So what type of environmental regulation works better for public health and economic development? Can environmental regulation have an influence on economic development through public health? To solve these problems, this research uses China’s provincial panel data from 2013 to 2017 to divide environmental regulation into command-control policy tools and economic incentive policy tools and uses the mediating effect model to examine the relationship among environmental regulation, public health and economic development. The results show that: (1) There is a positive correlation between economic incentive policy tools and economic development; while no significant relationship between command-control policy tools and economic development is founded; (2) The relationship between command-control policy tools and public health is not significant, while the relationship between economic incentive policy tools and public health is positive; (3) Public health does not play a mediating role between command-control policy tools and economic development but plays a partial mediating role between economic incentive policy tools and economic development. Therefore, the government should strengthen the use of economic incentive policy tools to promote public health and sustainable economic development.

Politics and educational policy have been increasingly projectified, and projects as an organisational form have become a symbol for solving complex educational problems and interventions. The present article is a policy ethnographic case study in the field of education in Sweden, concerning the use of projects as a policy tool in the Mountain School. The analytical focus is on using projects as a policy tool within a multi-project organisation, where the projects are aimed at promoting integration of pupils with immigrant backgrounds and improving their school achievements. Through the analysis I identified four distinct themes: Outward leadership and teacher teams, The projects have never belonged to the teachers, The lack of a common educational policy and Project as vision and reality. These four themes demonstrate the complexities and difficulties in relation to organisation, management, definition and implementation. These complexities and difficulties in the policy process are not unique to either regular or temporary organisations. However, what becomes apparent in the case of the Mountain School is that the number of projects was very high, which puts considerable pressure on the headmasters and the teachers in their decoding, interpreting, negotiating and enactment of project as a policy tool.

Il presente caso studio, posizionandosi all’interno del più ampio progetto “JASMINN” coordinato da INRAE, prende in esame le cascine e i territori agricoli del periurbano milanese. In queste aree, infatti, un particolare aspetto degli impatti delle politiche per la salvaguardia del patrimonio rurale può essere ricondotto all’evoluzione dei contratti di affittanza agraria messi in atto dai maggiori proprietari di terreni pubblici: in questo caso Comune di Milano e Fondazione Sviluppo Ca’ Granda (ospedale maggiore di Milano). L’aspetto centrale di questi nuovi contratti è la presa in carico dei conduttori della manutenzione straordinaria - oltre che ordinaria - degli edifici rurali storici. Ciò che questa ricerca intende indagare è dunque come il cambiamento del modello di contratto agrario, inserito nel contesto più ampio delle attuali politiche di salvaguardia territoriale (avvento di Expo, la nascita dell’assessorato all’agricoltura etc) ha avuto ripercussioni sulla figura dell’agricoltore: quali strategie sono state messe in atto a fronte di questi mutamenti, quali leve di innovazione si possono individuare e quali invece sono emersi come fattori di ostacolo nella messa in opera di tali strumenti, con un occhio di riguardo verso i meccanismi di giustizia sociale. Per fare questo è stata predisposta una metodologia di ricerca composta da 30 interviste in profondità, semistrutturate, rivolte a 20 agricoltori del periurbano(10 affittuari di Ospedale Maggiore e 10 del Comune) e a 10 funzionari rappresentativi degli enti pubblici di proprietà fondiaria ed enti paesaggistici quali i parchi agricoli del periurbano. Les politiques de préservation de l'agriculture périurbaine peuvent avoir un impact sur l'équité sociale. Dans le cas de Milan, le problème réside dans le coût élevé d’entretien du patrimoine bâti, qui a amené les principaux propriétaires publics (Municipalité de Milan et Hôpital Majeur) à mettre en œuvre de nouveaux contrats pour transférer les coûts d’entretien aux locataires. Ce chapitre compare la mise en œuvre de ces nouveaux contrats, du point de vue des propriétaires et des locataires. A partir d’une enquête sociologique par entretiens auprès de 30 acteurs locaux, il identifie les éléments qui permettent ou empêchent les agriculteurs de s’adapter à ces changements de contrat et il propose des pistes d’amélioration des politiques publiques, afin de contribuer à une préservation équitable du patrimoine rural sur le long terme. Les nouveaux contrats expérimentés à Milan soulèvent des enjeux de justice et présentent une série d’innovations : investissements déduits du loyer, possibilité de sous-louer les bâtiments sous-utilisés et nouvelles formes de négociation avec les propriétaires fonciers. Notre analyse montre que les réactions des agriculteurs dépendent des caractéristiques personnelles et du contexte (conditions familiales, réseaux sociaux, rapport avec la ville…) autant que de de la stratégie adoptée par le propriétaire (processus de prise de décision et conditions du contrat).

A central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) could solve the volatility of a privately-issued cryptocurrency as well as keep intact its potential benefits. This research intended to analyze the possibilities for implementing a CBDC in a viable format that is also Shariah-compliant which may have the capacity to tackle issues plaguing the current financial system. We discuss possible scenarios and the resulting impact and consequences of CBDC implementation, through a deep examination of the benefits, opportunities, costs and issues of several conceptual formats. Methodologically, we used qualitative, comparative and analytical assessments on the critical impact on crucial levers like dilution to monetary policy, and the stability of the financial system. Finally, we found that the best format was a non-interest bearing CBDC for the interbank settlement and wholesale payment systems which would have the least disruption to the economy but strongest monetary policy transmission.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to ascertain and identify the effectiveness of area-based initiatives as a policy tool mediated by societal and individual factors in the five World Health Organization (WHO)-designated Safe Communities of Korea and the Health Action Zones of the United Kingdom (UK). METHODS: The Korean National Hospital discharge in-depth injury survey from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and causes of death statistics by the Statistics Korea were used for all analyses. The trend and changes in injury rate and mortality by external causes were compared among the five WHO-designated Safe Communities in Korea. RESULTS: The injury incident rates decreased at a greater level in the Safe Communities compared with the national average. Similar results were shown for the changes in unintentional injury incident rates. In comparison of changes in mortality rate by external causes between 2005 and 2011, the rate increase in Safe Communities was higher than the national average except for Jeju, where the mortality rate by external causes decreased. CONCLUSION: When the Healthy Action Zones of the UK and the WHO Safe Communities of Korea were examined, the outcomes were interpreted differently among the compared index, regions, and time periods. Therefore, qualitative outcomes, such as bringing the residents' attention to the safety of the communities and promoting participation and coordination of stakeholders, should also be considered as important impacts of the community-based initiatives. Language: en

Based on the need for balance between autonomy and accountability in the management model of public institutions, an active discussion is needed for improvement of the evaluation system. A comprehensive control structure for better performance needs a smart evaluation system. However, from the perspective of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s guidelines for reforming the governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), comprehensive approval of the specific interference and influence of government concerning the operation of individual SOEs has many problems. Therefore, it is important to look for the balance point between standardization and customization. Ruminating on the Republic of Korea's SOE evaluation system with its 35-year history gives us many insights. Through historical institutionalism, we have learned that proper harmonization between structural reform on the hardware side and improvement of the program on the software side is extremely important, and it can be stably integrated into a systematic monitoring system. In accordance with that, it is necessary to design reform that takes into consideration the characteristics of individual institutions such as ownership structure, marketability, public interest, the size of the institution, etc., and to enhance the evaluation system for effective implementation. Every time a new administration emerges, privatization, structural reform, and the coordination of functions are essential processes to adapt to changes in the environment, and such improvement in the evaluation system of SOEs in the Republic of Korea so far shows moderate results. The fact that one system survived 35 years in the dynamic Republic of Korea proves it.

The new design orientation in the policy sciences has placed renewed emphasis on problem-solving and developing effective public policies. In this paper, we contribute to this scholarship by presenting a policy framework on anticipating effective policies. We argue that anticipation – that is, foreseeing the future and preparing for it – must be central to how a policy is designed, executed and assessed. Anticipating policy effectiveness requires a careful understanding of the problem and its root causes, as well as selection and utilization of the most ‘appropriate’ policy instrument(s) to solve it. We consider ‘appropriateness’ along three dimensions – analytical, political and operational – in two different respects: choice of policy tools and the capacity of the implementing agency.

Multifunctional Farms, as a practical implementation of Multifunctional Agriculture, offer services and products enhancing Sustainable Development. Current policy lacks a practical tool to assess impact of activities in Multifunctional Farms. In our research we propose and test an assessment tool able to reveal main environmental and non-formal learning indicators in tourism-education-recreation activities, regarding visitors��� opinions. This tool can be used by practitioners, farm managers and other stakeholders, to assess their activities. Also, the tool can help Multifunctional Farms, to find their niche market, profiles of future visitors. This tool covers a huge gap between theory and practice of Multifunctional Agriculture, the tourism-recreation-education activities.

Dette er en model som simulerer sosiale, økologiske og økonomiske konsekvenser av vannkraft utbygging i Mekong regionen i Kambodsja. Modellen er basert på Systemdynamikk og er bygget i programvaren Vensim fra Ventana Systems. Oppgave teksten som følger ved beskriver modellen, metoden og simuleringsresulteter, og drøfting av forskjellige policy alternativ. Across the entire globe energy demand is rising, and more specifically demand for electricity, as more and more developing countries are going through a process of modernization and industrialization. This is placing an increased pressure on our ecosystems and natural resources. If this development is not managed properly it can cause ecological collapse and inflict severe costs on both nature and society. In the case of Cambodia, it is a country that is currently undergoing such a development. With regards to hydropower the Mekong-river still represents a largely untapped resource. Currently there are several hydropower dams under construction or undergoing plans for construction in Cambodia (Open Development 2016). With the construction of new electricity generating capacity comes both opportunities and challenges. The Mekong-river basin is home to the largest inland fishery in the world and it supports about 10 million people in the region living of subsistence. The building of hydropower dams along the river represents a threat to the fish stock since it blocks fish migration. Dams along the river also slows down the sediment flow and contributes to land erosion. Crop yield will also be effected by the trapping of sediments since less nutrients will be carried to fields down-stream. However, increased supply of affordable electricity can also promote welfare and economic growth within the country. Access to electricity is beneficial to health and education, by providing a substitute to firewood, coal and kerosene for cocking and lighting. It also helps to improve the information flow, further supporting educational purposes. There are several tradeoffs that must be considered. First is the tradeoff between the natural capital that is already there in force of the ecosystem, represented through the fish-stock, transportation along rivers and the forest, and the building up of physical capital such as dams and roads. Another tradeoff to consider is the tradeoff between different technologies for electricity generation, as they all come with different costs and benefits. Given this context I will build a model using system dynamics methodology to give a better understanding of the tradeoffs and how we can achieve sustainable growth and prevent ecological collapse. Masteroppgave i systemdynamikk GEO-SD350

This paper surveys empirically the broad features of trade policy in goods for 31 major economies that collectively represented 83 percent of the world's population and 91 percent of the world's GDP in 2013. It addresses the following five questions: Do some countries have more liberal trading regimes than others? Within countries, which industries receive the most import protection? How do trade policies change over time? Do countries discriminate among their trading partners when setting trade policy? Finally, how liberalized is world trade? The analysis documents the extent of cross-sectional heterogeneity in applied commercial policy across countries, their economic sectors, and their trading partners, over time. It concludes that substantial trade policy barriers remain as an important feature of the world economy.

Best Newcomer Article The design of policy tools reveals underlying biases that are not easily identified in policy documents. A review of two early childhood education and care subsidies in Ireland aimed at different target populations exposes differential treatment of children, parents and service providers. It also demonstrates how in a split system ‘early education’ is prioritised over ‘childcare’. The designs serve to reinforce stereotypes that enable the powerful and advantaged to accrue benefits while those perceived to be less deserving are burdened through the maldistribution of resources.

Decision making through a web-based tool is a complex challenge. Research projects are generally not designed to meet the information needs of specific stakeholder groups. Furthermore, tools developed in these projects are usually intended to disseminate research data on a wide scale, not to provide answers to specific questions of these stakeholders. User-centered design techniques can guide the development process of such tools, to enhance their usefulness and thus the applicability of the research outcomes for the intended audience. We applied techniques for user requirements analysis of the Impacts Explorer tool in the AgMIP research project, which models the impacts of climate change on agricultural systems with a focus on farmers’ income and food security. The objective of the Impacts Explorer is to support users in different continents, with different requirements and levels of knowledge, in developing adaptation plans in agricultural management.This paper discusses the approach we followed for the user requirements analysis and evaluates the effectiveness of the techniques and lessons learnt. We conclude with recommendations for implementing this approach in the development of similar tools.

Farming in Europe is constantly changing as environmental concerns have increasingly been taken into account since the mid 1980s and emphasis has been put on agri-environmental matters throughout all European countries. For instance, in Wallonia (Belgium), as a result of the provisions of the Government Decree on agri-environmental measures, farmers are increasingly encouraged to adopt environmentally friendly practices such as the creation of grassy headlands in their fields. As European agriculture is changing, tools are needed to monitor the evolution of agricultural practices, to control policy application and to advise farmers. In this framework, we present a new approach to optimise the establishment of grassy headlands in cultivated fields. Using a Geographic Information System (GIS), we identify exact locations where farmers can introduce grassy headlands in accordance with legal specifications and environmental concerns and calculate the total length of grassy headland that farmers can establish considering the features of their farm and parcels and for which they can receive subsidies. It indicates a potential, which could serve as a calculation baseline for an indicator. Wallonia was chosen as study area because a digitised parcel plan has been available from the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) since 1997. The methodological approach proposes a new valorisation of this spatial information layer and can be considered as an example of application providing relevant information for several intervention levels: national or regional decision-makers, advisors and individual farmers. Since all EU Member States had to set up their own GIS-based land parcel system starting in 2005, our approach may be useful as is or in similar applications in other countries. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The paper addresses the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) as a public policy instrument, whose worldwide circulation is mediated by processes of reinterpretation, negotiation, and re-contextualization, where national, local, and international agencies intertwine. It is focused on the active reception of PISA in six European spaces (Francophone Belgium, France, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, and Scotland) along its first three cycles. The paper identifies two contrasting developments: the Program’s divergent uses and its attractiveness in different social worlds. The paper gives particular attention to what is called the ‘update of reference societies’ in the context of national receptions of PISA. These ‘updates’ are analyzed as part of a composite process that involves domestic reasons, either related to current agendas for education or to deep historical factors, and injunctions related to PISA’s rationale and PISA objects.

The notion of social innovation is particularly appealing in light of the difficulties facing traditional welfare systems and, more broadly, a development model essentially based on only two actors (the market and the state) that is finding it increasingly difficult to meet the growing and diversified needs of society. We will present findings and conclusions of the EU FP7 project WILCO - Welfare Innovations at Local Levels in Favour of Cohesion which have looked into the missing link between innovations at the local level and their successful transfer and implementation to other settings. In conclusion, we will discuss the potential contribution of social innovations as a new policy tool to strengthening social cohesion in Europe

Blog conférence : http://blogs.sciences-po.fr/recherche-recomposition-etat/2010/12/13/colloque-les-instruments-daction-publique-mise-en-discussion-theorique-6-8-janvier-2011/; This article explores the link between policy instrumentation and policy change at the EU level. It is based upon a comparative analysis of policy instruments, and their evolution, in the European urban and environmental policies. The analysis derives from on original dataset, it examines the evolution of European policy instruments in both policy domains, over the past three decades, and considers how and by whom they were chosen and combined. Challenging the existing literature on new policy instruments and EU new forms of governance, our longitudinal analysis argues that the attention traditionally devoted to new or innovative policy instruments only offers a limited explanatory capacity. This approach suggests that the politics of choice and combination of policy instruments reveals how and the extent to which policy instruments have structured EU policy and policy-making.; Dans quelle mesure l'analyse des formes d'instrumentation, c'est-à-dire du choix et de la combinaison d'instruments, explique-t-elle l'émergence et le développement d'une action publique autonome ? L'entrée par les instruments apporte-elle un éclairage fécond sur l'évolution des formes de pilotage de l'action publique privilégiées au sein de l'Union européenne ? A partir d'une analyse comparée et systématique des instruments des politiques européennes environnementales et urbaines entre 1972 et 2006, cet article s'interroge sur la relation entre les formes d'instrumentation de l'action publique européenne et la gouvernance de l'Union européenne. A travers l'analyse de deux cas contrastés, ce papier montre dans quelle mesure, à travers quels mécanismes et avec quels effets, les instruments ont structuré les transformations de l'action publique européenne sur la moyenne durée.

This article explores the link between policy instrumentation and policy change at the EU level. It is based upon a comparative analysis of policy instruments, and their evolution, in the European urban and environmental policies. The analysis derives from on original dataset, it examines the evolution of European policy instruments in both policy domains, over the past three decades, and considers how and by whom they were chosen and combined. Challenging the existing literature on new policy instruments and EU new forms of governance, our longitudinal analysis argues that the attention traditionally devoted to new or innovative policy instruments only offers a limited explanatory capacity. This approach suggests that the politics of choice and combination of policy instruments reveals how and the extent to which policy instruments have structured EU policy and policy-making., Dans quelle mesure l'analyse des formes d'instrumentation, c'est-à-dire du choix et de la combinaison d'instruments, explique-t-elle l'émergence et le développement d'une action publique autonome ? L'entrée par les instruments apporte-elle un éclairage fécond sur l'évolution des formes de pilotage de l'action publique privilégiées au sein de l'Union européenne ? A partir d'une analyse comparée et systématique des instruments des politiques européennes environnementales et urbaines entre 1972 et 2006, cet article s'interroge sur la relation entre les formes d'instrumentation de l'action publique européenne et la gouvernance de l'Union européenne. A travers l'analyse de deux cas contrastés, ce papier montre dans quelle mesure, à travers quels mécanismes et avec quels effets, les instruments ont structuré les transformations de l'action publique européenne sur la moyenne durée.

- The focus of this paper is a new and applicable environmental rating tool, called Ecoscore. This environmental impact methodology was developed for the Flemish government (Belgium) as a policy tool and to stimulate the use of cleaner road vehicles. The Ecoscore is based on a well-to-wheel approach and integrates different aspects of the environmental impact of cars into a single indicator. This methodology allows comparing vehicles with different fuels (petrol, diesel, LPG, CNG etc.) or vehicles with different drive trains (internal combustion, battery or hybrid electric etc.). The Ecoscore methodology combines various damage categories like: global warming, human health impairing effects and harmful effects on ecosystems and is based on the level of emissions into the air of several harmful pollutants. Further, this methodology is not only applicable on passenger but also on heavy duty vehicles (trucks, buses etc.), alternative vehicles and even on two-wheelers. The applicability of the Ecoscore methodology is demonstrated by comparing and ranking a selection of old and new passenger vehicles (both conventional cars and alternative cars) and a set of urban buses as well. Also, conventional and alternative vehicles are compared. Finally, the evolution in time of the environmental performance of vehicles due to the more stringent directives concerning type-approval is evaluated. It can be concluded that the Ecoscore enables a transparent assessment of the impact on the environment of individual road vehicles and allows a ranking of different vehicles and technologies.

Since the nineteenth century, food toxicology has evolved in several ways. The analytical power of the food toxicologist has been increased. The concept of adulterated food was modified significantly. Most commodities are now processed and addition of numerous non-nutrient additives is legalised. Other "alien" compounds get introduced in the food chain from background contamination or during processing and distribution. This makes the task of the food toxicologist more complex. From forensic science food toxicology developed to a policy aid., Od 19. stoljeća do današnjih dana toksikologija hrane razvijala se u nekoliko pravaca. Osobe koje raspolažu znanjima o analitičkim postupcima za određivanje toksičnih sastojaka u hrani dobivaju veliko značenje, čime je znatno umanjena mogućnost dodavanja nepoželjnih i nedeklariranih sastojaka u hranu. Većina artikala proizvodi se posebnim procesiranjem uz dodavanje brojnih ne-nutritivnih dodataka, koji imaju dozvolu uporabe. Mnogi "strani" spojevi ušli su u hranidbene lance iz onečišćenog okoliša ili pak za vrijeme prerade i distribucije. Nova saznanja dovode do znatno veće odgovornosti toksikologa pri određivanju zdravstvene ispravnosti hrane. Toksikologija hrane obuhvaća područje od sudske medicine do novih zakonskih propisa.

Decision making through a web-based tool is a complex challenge. Research projects are generally not designed to meet the information needs of specific stakeholder groups. Furthermore, tools developed in these projects are usually intended to disseminate research data on a wide scale, not to provide answers to specific questions of these stakeholders. User-centered design techniques can guide the development process of such tools, to enhance their usefulness and thus the applicability of the research outcomes for the intended audience. We applied techniques for user requirements analysis of the Impacts Explorer tool in the AgMIP research project, which models the impacts of climate change on agricultural systems with a focus on farmers’ income and food security. The objective of the Impacts Explorer is to support users in different continents, with different requirements and levels of knowledge, in developing adaptation plans in agricultural management.This paper discusses the approach we followed for the user requirements analysis and evaluates the effectiveness of the techniques and lessons learnt. We conclude with recommendations for implementing this approach in the development of similar tools.