Search

Health inequalities research has a long history in the United Kingdom, and the development of government policies that are intended to explicitly address the existing health inequalities has been gathering pace since the Labour Party returned to power in 1997. In this paper, using the influential Acheson Report as a reference point, one of us (D.N.) describes how health inequalities policies have been developed, and the other (A.O.) assesses how, ideally, such policies ought to be developed. Although progress in the development of health inequalities policies has been made, the policies, and the evidence that has informed them, have been less than ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Major projects are high-value (£100 million+) investments across sectors such as transport, energy, health, defence, or IT systems. Globally, a significant proportion of government policy initiatives are delivered through major projects. There is, however, a paradox at the heart of the major project phenomenon. Although major projects are indispensable tools for turning policy ideals into reality, their track record is strikingly poor. Cost and time overruns, financial engineering, under-supply, poor service, environmental detriment, and social dissatisfaction blight major projects. Poor outcomes have been a feature of the wide array of delivery mechanisms deployed over the past 150 years, including direct public provision, regulated private provision, public–private partnerships, and concessions, agreements, and franchises. The papers in this issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy explore the nature of this paradox and offer strategies designed to get major projects right, including repeatable platform strategies; mission-orientated investments; and deliberative and collaborative incentive schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The English Public Health White Paper proposes introducing smoke-free workplaces except in pubs and bars that do not prepare and serve food. The bar area will be non-smoking in exempted pubs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Shows how the policy proposals contained in the government's Green Paper on pensions (DSS, 1998) affect the long term sustainability of Great Britain's public finances and redistribution. Description of the main proposals contained in the Green Paper; Assessment of the effect of the Green Paper on the sustainability of the public finances.

Background Suicide is a significant cause of death worldwide. Various purposes can explain why people choose to attempt or commit suicide such as mental-health disorders, income-related-factors, quality of life or issues related to social context. This study aims to identify an updated association between 'isolation' and suicides. Methods In this regard, we had made a systematic review of the most recent papers, published from January 2016 to March 2022, thought the most acknowledged databases. This review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines for systematic reviews. To the best of our knowledge, this issue is very important due to the indirect relationship between COVID-19 and suicides. Results Our analysis demonstrates that suicide and -social isolation and loneliness- have a positive and direct relationship although these findings varied slightly by areas. Moreover, most of the attention is focused on the youth during the most recent period and this is a real problem because economies cannot afford losing (young) population. Conclusions In order to prevent suicides, public policies should prevent suicidal thoughts that it could induce to terminate the lives of individuals in their most productive years and harmful outcomes to their families and friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confusion concerning a child's genetic identity is a common objection to the application of novel technologies to human embryos. Unsurprisingly then, concern for genetic identity has been used to justify successive waves of regulatory activity and is again appearing in debates about regulatory responses to emerging reproductive technologies. By examining the history of Australian law's understanding and responses to so-called genetic identity in the context of past and current scientific developments in reproductive technology, this paper investigates regulatory reform needed for still emerging reproductive technologies. While this paper presents and analyzes in some detail Australian regulation and the policy deliberations and scientific developments that led to them, the identified inconsistencies in the regulatory responses, and recommended reforms to address emerging reproductive technologies offered, address issues relevant to many countries responding to the same technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between policy compliance, the emergence of alternate epistemes and authorities in online spaces, and the decline of trust and legitimacy in democratic institutions. Drawing on insights from public policy, regulation theory, and political theory, the paper critically engages with scholarship on "policy-takers" to illuminate the tensions of compliance and legitimacy in liberal states. It proposes a compliance--legitimacy matrix that identifies the features of policy compliance--including consent, legitimacy, expertise, and trust--and their relationship to the disaggregation of policy knowledge. The article applies this framework to a case study of social media posts that respond to policy information during the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia. Through analysis of these posts, the study reveals the distrust in "the science" and experts advocated by government and the calls from skeptic groups for noncompliance with public health measures. The paper argues that public policy faces an epistemic crisis of public confidence, with significant downstream consequences for compliance with public policy initiatives that has been brought on both by the failures of states to cultivate trust in science and the government. The compliance--legitimacy matrix offers a useful tool for policymakers to anticipate and address objections from policy-takers and to preempt and diffuse their fears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal of our article was to systematise studies that investigated the impact of living conditions in large national regions on individual alcohol consumption. Methods: The objectives of the scoping review, the criteria and methods for selecting articles were defined in advance and recorded in the protocol PROSPERO CRD42021234874. We sought publications on the research topic in PubMed, Google Scholar, OpenGrey, Crossref and eLibrary databases from the moment they were created until December 31, 2021. The final sample included 81 publications. Results: The majority of ultimately selected papers were published after 2010 (62 articles), represented the USA (68 articles), and considered samples of children and youths, either the younger population or the general adult population (65 articles). High quality was characteristic for 19 studies, whereas satisfactory quality was exhibited by 46 publications. The most consistent associations with individual alcohol consumption were revealed for the legislative environment (especially for integral scales and indices), alcohol pricing policy, the prevalence of alcohol consumption and binge drinking in the population, and unemployment rate. Conclusion: The review made it possible to systematise the results of studies on the impact of the characteristics of large national regions on alcohol consumption, including a description of these characteristics and results, samples and designs of studies, their quality, as well as to summarise the results of these studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the significance of the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. The Act of Union between the two countries which come into force on January 1, 1800 was the outcome of immediate military necessity. It was also the outcome of decades of spasmodic thought by politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea concerning the relationship between the two islands. But while the overall intention was undoubtedly an integrative one, a failure to understand the nature of Irish politics and society together with the pressing imperatives of war with France generated a casual and shallow attitude towards administrative detail and undermined those master plans.

Subnational disparities in most health systems often defy 'one-size-fits-all' approach in policy implementation. When local authorities implement a national policy in a decentralized context, they behave as a strategic policy actor in specifying the central mandates, selecting appropriate tools and setting key implementation parameters. Local policy discretion leads to diverse policy mixes across regions, thus complicating evidence-based evaluations of policy impacts. When measuring complex policy reforms, mainstream policy evaluation methodologies have tended to adopt simplified policy proxies that often disguise distinct policy choices across localities, leaving the heterogeneous effects of the same generic policy largely unknown. Using the emerging 'text-as-data' methodology and drawing from subnational policy documents, this study developed a novel approach to policy measurement through analysing policy big data. We applied this approach to examine the impacts of China's Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) on individuals' out-of-pocket (OOP) spending. We found substantial disparities in policy choices across prefectures when categorizing the UEBMI policy framework into benefit-expansion and cost-containment reforms. Overall, the UEBMI policies lowered enrollees' OOP spending in prefectures that embraced both benefit-expansion and cost-containment reforms. In contrast, the policies produced ill effects on OOP spending of UEBMI enrollees and uninsured workers in prefectures that carried out only benefit-expansion or cost-containment reforms. The micro-level impacts of UEBMI enrolment on OOP spending were conditional on whether prefectural benefit-expansion and cost-containment reforms were undertaken in concert. Only in prefectures that promulgated both types of reforms did UEBMI enrolment reduce OOP spending. These findings contribute to a comprehensive text-mining measurement approach to locally diverse policy efforts and an integration of macro-level policy analysis and micro-level individual analysis. Contextualizing policy measurements would improve the methodological rigour of health policy evaluations. This paper concludes with implications for health policymakers in China and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marks the 10th anniversary of China's comprehensive health system While health financing in China continues to reform and de- Papers in this collection demonstrate that health reform in China China: China's reform of public hospitals and trends from industrialized Lated competition in the health care system: what can China learn from. [Extracted from the article]

This Special Issue and its seven contributions seek to shift the gaze of public policy scholarship toward the authorities, legitimacies, and influences of transnational actors on the creation and implementation of global policy and its transnational administration. It is, in large part, both a demonstration of the analytical and explanatory value of accounting for the influence of non-state actors on global issues as well as a normative reflection on what this means for already tenuous connections between publics and those that make decisions on their behalf in global forums. This Issue breaks with heterodox public policy approaches that center on the capabilities of states and international organizations to determine and to deliver global public policy and outcomes. Instead, we widen our gaze to capture the influence of transnational actors such as global commissions, transnational public–private partnerships, philanthropic foundations, non-government organization networks, domestic associations with global influence, quasi-judicial authorities, and global citizen activists. The articles discuss the impact of transnational actors on the policy and administrative spaces of global actors and states alike. By dispensing with the notion that the state and state-created international organizations are the primary locus for public policy and public administration scholarship, the included papers conclude with the implications for scholarship on transnational actor authorities and legitimacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author discusses the study by S. Moore on the unknown impact of alcohol policy with substance use. He mentions that Moore should take into consideration the systematic approach on the evidence of the study as well as addressing the questions clearly such as getting the evidence into the existing polydrug users. He states relevant studies which support the studies of Moore in terms of alcohol substitution with marijuana and complement of alcohol with other drug use.

Governing by indicators has emerged as the predominant mode of global public policy. Consequently, global governance has become a field in which different indicators compete for policymakers' and public attention. This begs a question--what makes some indicators successful when others become irrelevant? This paper explores this problem through the inquiry into the measurement of multidimensional poverty in Sustainable Development Goal 1 ("End poverty in all its forms everywhere"). In the field historically dominated by the World Bank's dollar-per-day metric (currently 1.9$), multidimensional poverty measurement gained prominence, becoming one of the key measures of global poverty. By tracking the pathways to success of multidimensional poverty measurement--through qualitative interviews with actors in International Organisations this paper argues that the key quality of successful indicators is their ability to become parts of the broader epistemic infrastructure, linking political institutions, actors (including experts and policymakers), and data and statistics. The paper brings the focus on a specific set of actors--statistical entrepreneurs--who advocate for innovations in measurement and work toward creating such infrastructures, thus indirectly promoting new policy ideas reflected in the metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco is already the world’s leading cause of preventable death, claiming over 5 million lives annually, and this toll is rising. Even though effective tobacco control policies are well researched and widely disseminated, they remain largely unimplemented in most low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). For the most part, control attempts by advocates and government regulators have been frustrated by transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) and their supporters. One reason tobacco is so difficult to control is that its political economy has yet to be adequately understood and addressed. We conducted a review of the literature on tobacco control in LMICs using the databases PubMed, EconLit, PsychInfo and AGRICOLA. Among the over 2500 papers and reports we identified, very few explicitly applied political economy analysis to tobacco control in an LMIC setting. The vast majority of papers characterized important aspects of the tobacco epidemic, including who smokes, the effects of smoking on health, the effectiveness of advertising bans, and the activities of TTCs and their allies. But the political and economic dynamics of policy adoption and implementation were not discussed in any but a handful of papers. To help control advocates better understand and manage the process of policy implementation, we identify how political economy analysis would differ from the traditional public health approaches that dominate the literature. We focus on five important problem areas: information problems and the risks of smoking; the roles of domestic producers; multinational corporations and trade disputes in consumption; smuggling; the barriers to raising taxes and establishing spatial restrictions on smoking; and incentive conflicts between government branches. We conclude by discussing the political economy of tobacco and its implications for control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many of the academic papers that discussed the COVID-19 pandemic sought to present a reasonable analysis of the crisis and its underlying implications in government policies (for social and environmental reformations) and individual actions either in the present context or future. This paper attempted to contextualize the COVID-19 crisis through the lens of the Darwinian struggle for life and the philosophical notion of suffering while stressing the importance of defects admission. Generally, the author argues that these concepts are the primary roots of other dimensions of COVID-19-related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the recent efforts by the corporate world and public policy to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the workplace. We review and empirically evaluate the 'business case' for gender equality, showing some evidence in favour of it. Despite the evidence and growing support, progress towards more diversity in leadership positions has been slow. We study the importance of supply-side constraints, as well as the main diversity policies (gender quotas, mentoring and network programmes, diversity training to change firm culture, and family friendly policies) that have been implemented. We focus on the effectiveness of these policies, their shortcomings, as well as potential future steps that could help guide policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2014, Mexico introduced a soda tax of 1 Mexican Peso (MXP) per litre. The aim of this paper is to examine the political context out of which this policy emerged, the main drivers for the policy change, and the role of stakeholders in setting the policy agenda and shaping the policy design and outcomes. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, and 145 documents, including peer-reviewed papers, policy briefs, press releases, industry, government, and CSO reports, were analysed. An iterative thematic analysis was conducted based on relevant theories of the policy process using a complementary approach, including Stages Heuristic Model, Policy Triangle Framework, and Multiple Streams Model. Results showed that a major motivation was the new administration seeking funds as they entered government. The soda tax was supported by a key group of legislators, civil society actors and by academics promoting evidence on health effects. However, the policy measure was challenged by the food and beverage industries (F&BI). Non-state actors were both formally and informally involved in setting the agenda, regardless of some of them having opposing interests on the soda tax policy. Approaches used by non-state actors to influence the agenda included: calls for action, marketing strategies, coalition building, challenging evidence, and engaging in public-private partnerships (PPPs). The effectiveness of the soda tax was highly debated and resulted in public polarization, although the framing of the outcomes was instrumental in influencing fiscal policies elsewhere. This study contributes to the debate around implementing fiscal policies for health and how power is exercised and framed in the agenda-setting phase of policy development. The article examines how the F&BI sought to influence the national strategy for obesity prevention. It argues that the experience of the soda tax campaign empowered policy advocates, strengthening national and international civil society networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market design seeks to translate economic theory and analysis into practical solutions to real-world problems. By redesigning both the rules that guide market transactions and the infrastructure that enables those transactions to take place, market designers can address a broad range of market failures. In this paper, we illustrate the process and power of market design through three examples: the design of medical residency matching programmes; a scrip system to allocate food donations to food banks; and the recent ‘Incentive Auction' that reallocated wireless spectrum from television broadcasters to telecoms. Our lead examples show how effective market design can encourage participation, reduce gaming, and aggregate information, in order to improve liquidity, efficiency, and equity in markets. We also discuss a number of fruitful applications of market design in other areas of economic and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prisons offer policymakers an opportunity to address the pre-existing high prevalence of physical and mental health issues among prisoners. This notion has been widely integrated into international and national prison health policies, including the Healthy Prisons Agenda, which calls for governments to address the health needs of prisoners and safeguard their health entitlement during imprisonment, and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 concerning reducing inequality among disadvantaged populations. However, the implementation of the austerity policy in the United Kingdom since the re-emergence of the global financial crisis in 2008 has impeded this aspiration. This interdisciplinary paper critically evaluates the impact of austerity on prison health. The aforementioned policy has obstructed prisoners' access to healthcare, exacerbated the degradation of their living conditions, impeded their purposeful activities and subjected them to an increasing level of violence. This paper calls for alternatives to imprisonment, initiating a more informed economic recovery policy, and relying on transnational and national organizations to scrutinize prisoners' entitlement to health. These systemic solutions could act as a springboard for political and policy discussions at national and international forums with regard to improving prisoners' health and simultaneously meeting the aspirations of the Healthy Prisons Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United States, striking racial disparities in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates were one of the core patterns of the virus. These racial disproportionalities were a result of structural factors--laws, rules, and practices embedded in economic, social, and political systems. Public policy is central among such structural features. Policies distribute advantages, disadvantages, benefits, and burdens in ways that generate, reinforce, or redress racial inequities. Crucially, public policy is a function of power relations, so understanding policy decisions requires attentiveness to power. This paper asseses statistical associations between racial power and state anti-eviction policies. Charting the timing of state policy responses between March 2020 and June 2021, I examine correlations between response times and racial power as reflected in state populations, voting constituencies, legislatures, and social movement activities. Ultimately, I do not find any significant associations. The null results underscore the complexities and difficulties of studying race, power, and public policy with theoretical nuance and empirical care. While the findings leave us with much to learn about how racial power operates, the conceptualization and theorizing offered in the paper, instructively underscore the value of centering racial power in analyses of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity rates in the United Kingdom, and around the world, are high and rising. They are higher, and rising faster, amongst people growing up and living in deprivation. These patterns raise potential concerns about both market failures and equity. There is much that policy can do to address these concerns. However, policy can also do harm if it is poorly targeted or has unintended consequences. In order to design effective policies we need an understanding of who we are trying to target, and for what reasons. This paper provides an overview of some of the evidence, and some recent policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that appropriate domestic policies—more particularly, the real wage policy that is stressed here—can reduce the extent of foreign dependence of a country. It shows that foreign aid sufficient to achieve a given level of per capita domestic income is positively related to the real wages in an LDC with unemployment. The paper also links the level of real wages and the rate of technical change to the possibilities for self-sufficiency (from foreign aid) in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Health Policy & Planning is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper we exploit the introduction of an early retirement reform in Norway to provide new evidence on interactions in public policies across programs and household members. The analysis generates four results. First, the reform decreased the employment of the directly affected individuals. Second, the introduction of the early retirement option caused program substitution away from alternative welfare programs. Third, it reduced employment among spouses of directly affected individuals. Finally, the reduction in spousal employment was driven by take-up of disability insurance. These results demonstrate that interactions in public policies can have a substantial impact on the effect of welfare reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite political efforts, balancing work and family life is still challenging. This paper provides novel evidence on the effect of firm level interventions that seek to reduce the work–life conflict. The focus is on how childcare support affects the well-being, working time, and caring behaviour of mothers with young children. Since the mid-2000s and pushed by public policies, in Germany an increasing number of employers have become proactive and implemented more family-friendly workplaces. These changes over time allow us to suggest causal effects using a difference-in-differences-matching approach. Based on a large panel data set, we find evidence pointing to welfare enhancing effects of childcare support. Mothers who are likely to be constrained in their allocation of time especially increase their working time and use formal care more intensively. The rise in satisfaction levels is more pronounced if mothers are more career-orientated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We define public-sector entrepreneurship as having three distinct components: actions that are innovative, that transform a status quo social and economic environment, and that are characterized by uncertainty. While the literature on public-sector entrepreneurship dates to the mid-1960s, the scholarly foundations on which public-sector entrepreneurship is based date to the writings of Cantillon and Baudeau in the mid- and late-1700s and to Schumpeter in the late-1930s and early-1940s. After summarizing the academic and policy literatures on public-sector entrepreneurship, we illustrate the concept using examples of public-sector initiatives. We conclude the paper with an emphasis on the dynamic nature of public-sector entrepreneurship, and we offer insight into additional areas to which the concept applies as well as policy suggestions for incentivizing further public-sector entrepreneurial actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in the area of public policy towards entrepreneurial finance has traditionally been focused on financing gaps, and whether or not government programmes successfully address or mitigate those financing gaps. More recently, a growing literature has identified externalities across different forms of entrepreneurial finance. These externalities include but are not limited to spillovers from one form of finance to another (such as from crowdfunding to venture capital, etc.), spillovers from domestic to international investment, and spillovers from early stage to late stage investment. Sometimes these externalities are positive and at other times they are negative. In this paper, we review what is known about these spillovers and highlight a need to better understand these spillovers for the optimal design of a government's portfolio of policy towards entrepreneurial finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from a study of children looked after by 24 local authorities. It combines analysis of statistical data with analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from a questionnaire survey of a targeted sub-sample of children who had been looked after for 4 years or more. The paper highlights a complex picture of continuity and discontinuity in attempts to achieve stability and permanence in a range of birth family, foster care, adoption, residential and leaving care placements for long-stay children. Some long-stay children are moving smoothly and in a planned way towards a family for life, while some experience long periods in stable but temporary placements or have a number of moves prior to finding stability and a sense of belonging. A further group of children experience stability or moves while looked after, without having a family to belong to when they move into adult life. The paper discusses the difficulty with the Government's current long-stay performance measure in capturing the difference between stability in placement and planned permanence for children and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalisation, the ever increasing economic and socio-political international interactions, poses challenges to public policy theory and practice. This paper aims to (a) draw an outline of a discussion and research agenda for theorizing the policy process under globalisation, by (b) identifying some theoretical consensus across disciplines and epistemological paradigms. The literature shows a consensus on 'constrained' state thesis and that globalisation affects all states through structural pressures as well as the neoliberal discourse. However, policy outcomes vary across states depending on their position in the international power structure and domestic adjustment costs. The paper concludes that policy studies shall focus on the changing functions and organisational forms of the state and explicitly incorporate domestic–international interactions into the theories of the policy process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to a symposium of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy on 'Capitalism: What has Gone Wrong, What Needs to Change, and How can it be Fixed?'. The analysis starts from the observation that, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and continental Europe, widespread discontent has become an important political force. I attribute this discontent to a sense of unfairness in developments of the past few decades. I relate this sense of unfairness to: (i) negative effects of structural change, including joblessness and regional decline, (ii) the observation of extraordinary growth in executive remuneration and financial-sector remuneration, coupled with government bailouts in the global financial crisis, and (iii) changes in public policy and public discourse, with a retrenchment of public services and public investment, except for bailouts and a focus on 'efficiency', the meaning of which is driven by the perceptions of corporate executives rather than standard welfare economics. To capture these developments, one needs to think about 'capitalism' in the sense of French capitalisme or German Kapitalismus , with a focus on the symbiosis of wealth and power, including the elimination of competition, rather than merely another term for the market economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper sets out the credibility problem in carbon policy, provides a number of examples of non-credibility in recent energy policy, and identifies the costs of failing to address it. The time inconsistency of carbon policy—arising because of multiple objectives, the irreversibility of energy investments, and the scope for ex-post reneging on ex-ante commitments to set policy instruments, such as carbon taxes or emission permits, at appropriate levels—is set in a conceptual framework. Analogies with monetary policy are drawn, and a solution to the time-inconsistency problem is proposed through the establishment of an energy/carbon agency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent research on policy-making under uncertainty in the water sector has contributed to our understanding of types and sources of uncertainty as well as to the development of tools and approaches to manage uncertainty. This paper reviews the literature and identifies several strands of systematic bias, notably an emphasis on natural sources of uncertainty over human sources; a tendency to treat sources of uncertainty as independent and a corresponding neglect of interaction between sources; and a focus on tools to reduce or contain uncertainty rather than to accommodate it. The papers in this issue contribute to overcoming these biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As local governments have limited formal powers and less substantive policy instruments at their disposal, they are a particularly rich area for the study of procedural policy tools. This paper examines the role played by procedural policy tools deployed by local governments in Australia around the policy formation for, and approval of, major projects. This research analyses two Australian case studies: the East West Link tunnel in Melbourne, and the Coal Seam Gas projects of Northern New South Wales. Both are examples of major turnarounds in the public policy position of state governments, due to the persistent opposition of potentially impacted communities and their local governments. This paper investigates what local governments did in these two high-profile cases to facilitate advocacy against the proposed projects. It found a rich mixture of procedural policy tools were deployed; from providing information and expertise and supporting community campaigns, to launching their own campaign, staging regular physical protests and forming an advocacy committee. Critical procedural tools that escalated the campaigns against the projects in Northern NSW included a community poll revealing the extent of community opposition to the industry, while in Melbourne, a joint legal action launched by impacted local governments proved decisive. These actions drew into question the legitimacy of the state government's position in support of the projects, highlighting the power of procedural tools at this level of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of new energy vehicles (NEVs), the recycling and reuse of retired power batteries has attracted extensive attention from the society and scholars. In this paper, we establish a closed-loop supply chain model composed of the government, one power battery supplier and one NEV manufacturer. Based on game theory, considering whether the battery supplier encroaches on the power battery recycling channel, we study the optimal decisions of the government and supply chain members under different government subsidy policies (no subsidy, subsidy for the NEV manufacturer and subsidy for consumers) and their impact on profits and social welfare. The results show that, whether the battery supplier encroaches on the recycling channel or not, compared with the no subsidy policy, subsidy for the NEV manufacturer is more conducive to the improvement of enterprise profits and social welfare. In addition, whether the battery collection quantity is constrained by the NEV sales quantity, when the recycling channel cost is lower than a certain threshold, the encroachment is always beneficial to the battery supplier. When the recycling channel cost is within a certain threshold range, the encroachment will achieve a win–win situation; otherwise, win–lose. When the recycling channel cost is higher than a certain threshold, the encroachment behavior has no impact on the NEV manufacturer and the battery supplier. Finally, we investigate the impact of key parameters on the enterprise profits and social welfare through numerical experiments. We also find that the environmental awareness of consumers have significant impacts on social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses how varied policy analytical capacity can be evaluated at the systemic level through observed gaps in environmental data monitoring and reporting among countries. Such analytical capacity at the knowledge system level facilitates transparency and credibility needed for nation-states to cooperate on issues requiring global coordination, including “super-wicked” environmental issues like climate change. So far there has been relatively sparse attention paid to whether countries will have the ability – or policy analytical capacity – to report the necessary data and indicators required for the next round of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) being proposed. In this paper, I argue that the varied policy analytical capacity within the global environmental knowledge system necessitates the participation of new institutions and actors. Identifying gaps in data availability at a global, systemic scale, this paper presents a proxy measure of policy analytical capacity based on publicly-reported national statistics of air and water quality performance. Such discrepancies evaluated at a systemic level make a case for channels by which citizen scientists, independent watchdogs, private sector companies and third-party organizations can participate to enhance the policy analytical capacity of governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how differences in management 'best practices' affect organizational outcomes has been a focus of both theoretical and empirical work in the fields of management, sociology, economics, and public policy. The World Management Survey (WMS) project was born almost two decades ago with the main goal of developing a new systematic measure of management practices being used in organizations. The WMS has contributed to a body of knowledge around how managerial structures, not just managerial talent, relate to organizational performance. Over 18 years of research, a set of consistent patterns have emerged and spurred new questions. We present a brief overview of what we have learned in terms of measuring and understanding management practices and condense the implications of these findings for policy. We end with an outline of what we see as the path forward for both research and policy implications of this research programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nathan suspected that Costa Rican officials did not initially request his firm's services, but rather that USAID officials had encouraged them to oversee the implementation of foreign assistance.[86] In these situations, Nathan acted as a diplomat and contractor, offering the U.S. government insights on recipient governments and providing advice to foreign governments about what they could expect from Washington. Nathan presented his company as valuable because of its ability to generate new economic knowledge, but also because it was especially well-positioned to understand (and thus profit from) the contractor state I and i to persuade other governments and organizations that the contractor state was an idealized form of public-private partnership worthy of universal application. The company was an early and influential component of what scholars have referred to as the "contractor state" or the "contract state", wherein governments privatized many core functions.[3] The contract state spanned the twentieth century, linking mid-century liberalism with late twentieth-century neoliberalism. For the employees, Nathan Associates offered the opportunity to earn income that exceeded their government salary and more freedom to choose work locations.[33] The result of this was that former government officials joined consulting firms such as Nathan Associates, which meant that the employees of government contractors had also worked for the very government agencies from which their companies received funding. [Extracted from the article]

The authors announce that beginning in January 22, the journal "European Journal of Public Health" will be published fully open access. They talk about the changes in the publishing landscape as of February 2021, the strong international momentum to increase the transition to open access, and concern on the cost of publishing.

The paper sets out a pragmatic case for preserving the aggregate level of natural capital, in the face of the declines in biodiversity and the rising population, and major increases in consumption that economic growth will bring in this century. The accounting framework to achieving this objective is considered, focused on the role of asset registers. Particular attention is paid to renewable assets at risk of falling below critical thresholds. These assets are key components of the balance sheet. Capital maintenance expenditures are required to maintain the value of assets intact, since renewable natural assets should not be depreciated, but rather treated as assets in perpetuity. Within the aggregate, substitutions with other forms of capital are permitted, but only if there is compensation for any detriment to natural capital. Offsetting is one mechanism for achieving this compensation. The case for enhancing the aggregate is considered, and the paper shows how a broader national plan over a generation could contribute to the policy objective of leaving the next generation with a richer endowment of natural capital. The policy instruments for embedding natural capital into public policy are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

March 2021 marks the 75th anniversary of the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), a society that remains vibrant, with an expanding international membership. I hope to highlight how the leaders of the SSE - the elected Council and committee members - have put in place several successful initiatives that have energized and diversified the membership, supported early-career researchers, and strengthened the role of the SSE in public understanding of evolution. When the SSE was formed in 1946, the Council differed from its current makeup, consisting of the President (see Table 1 for a list of the SSE Presidents), three Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, and six Councilors. The SSE Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC), established in 2014 (with a full GSAC beginning in 2016), has two votes on the Council, and as mentioned in the Handbook, is " I charged with representing the interests of SSE's graduate student membership to the SSE Council and vice versa i .". [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses role of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Health Cooperation in addressing COVID-19 pandemic response. Topics discussed include measures taken by ASEAN for Health Development and Enhancing Cooperation on COVID-19, ASEAN centrality towards sustainable relief response to vulnerable people in the region, and ASEAN's participation on G7 Foreign and Development Ministers' Meeting.

Africa is rapidly urbanizing: it is the most important structural transformation under way in the region. By 2050, almost regardless of government policies, its urban population will have tripled. But the consequences are critically dependent upon policy choices: successful urbanization requires active and far-sighted government. At its best, urbanization can be the essential motor of economic development, rapidly lifting societies out of mass poverty. At its worst, it results in concentrations of squalor and disaffection which ferment political fragility. To date, African urbanization has been dysfunctional, the key indication being that cities have not generated enough productive jobs. If urban policies remain unchanged, future urbanization is likely to result in similar outcomes. This paper sets out how changed policies can unlock the potential of urbanization for prosperity. Primarily, it sets out the economic forces underlying this potential, and the specific policy actions they require. But policy actions do not just happen: they are generated by political processes that confer authority and capacity on public institutions. The paper concludes with a discussion of how politically urban policy-making might be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a critical assessment of Oliver Williamson's work on the choice between public and private governance by focusing on his central proposition that public governance should be considered as an organisation of last resort when all else fails. Our primary argument is that Williamson's work on public governance reflects an underdeveloped framework, mostly focusing on sovereign administration, and is not suitable for application to a host of other public services. It has the potential to corroborate any governance form that limits the usefulness of transaction cost theory (TCT) as an instrument of analysis and prediction. Although Williamson characterises TCT as an empirical success story, our application of it to the public-private dilemma for the water and sanitation sector finds very little historical and contemporary validity in this view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the progress of initiatives promoting open access publishing of scientific research papers, noting that although the numbers of available open-access articles and journals have increased between 1993 and 2012, they represent a very small percentage of the total scientific literature. Open access policies have been adopted by institutions such as the European Union Horizon 2020 research program, the Australian Research Council, and the World Bank. The open access journal PLOS ONE has also been successful in publishing notable peer-reviewed research. Other topics include U.S. government agency policies regarding open access, the launch of online open-access journals such as "eLife," and efforts to commercialize open access publishing.

The policy capacity framework offers relevant analytical ideas that can be mobilized for health system strengthening. However, the employment of this framework in the health field constitutes a relevant interdisciplinary gap in knowledge. This themed issue explores the relationships between the policy capacity framework and health system strengthening, in a multidimensional and interdisciplinary way, in high-income and low-middle-income countries. This introduction unpacks the dynamic interrelationships between the policy capacity framework and health system strengthening, bringing together common and distinct elements from both fields and summarizing possible relationships between them. The analysis shows that both fields together can increase our knowledge on health policies and system's critical themes and reforms. This challenge could be followed by exploring the convergences between them, as far as concepts/themes (types of capacities and other themes) and levels of analysis are concerned. Although in varied ways, papers in this issue (based on European countries, China, Canada, New Zealand, India, Australia, and Brazil) advance the use of the policy capacity framework for health policy or system strengthening. They give two main interdisciplinary contributions. Critical capacities can be incorporated into the policy capacity framework for the analysis of system strengthening--capacity to adapt, contexts of mixed and complex systems, dynamic view of policy capacity, and policy capacity as a relational power. Policy capacity is contextually interpreted (relative to the problem frame) and dynamic and adaptive (processual and relational), in relation to the properties of a health system, particularly with regard to the existing and developing mixed and complex systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central question this paper addresses is whether internationalization of the RMB would be sufficient for the international monetary system (IMS) to provide greater stability and flexibility than today’s IMS. Whether Chinese efforts to internationalize the RMB culminate in the currency achieving reserve status will be for China to realize. The path to reserve currency status, however, is not one that the Chinese can pursue unilaterally. Internationalization entails an interaction between private and public decision-making, and is a function of private-sector confidence as much as public policy. The outcome will be the result of strategic interplay involving public policies across systemically important countries and confidence-building among global savers and investors. The paper argues that international cooperation, especially among reserve currency countries on policy frameworks to achieve the common objectives of economic growth, full employment, price stability, and sustainable fiscal positions will define a coherent and well-functioning IMS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The lack of real progress at the Durban climate change conference in 2011—postponing effective action until at least 2020—has many causes, one of which is the failure to address trade issues and, in particular, carbon leakage. This paper advances two arguments. First, it argues that the conventional view of Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) as a ‘dirty’ trade barrier should be turned on its head. Rather, the absence of a carbon price comprises an implicit subsidy to dirtier production in non-regulated markets. Second, BCAs could act as a game-changer when climate policy negotiations move at a glacial pace, if at all. Materially stronger progress could be achieved indirectly from the threat of unilateral trade policies. The paper shows how this could come about, using a simple political game theory model. The appropriate game form is one in which parties move unilaterally and sequentially, given the failure to agree on a common course of action, and are fully aware of the impacts of their actions. The paper shows that properly crafted BCAs could help reduce trade distortions, limit the competiveness effects, and help build a broader coalition of interests for more global actions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The relative importance, and specific role, of academic entrepreneurship in society has long focused upon productivity in terms of the commercialisation of research. Public policy is an instrument used in different countries to stimulate start-up companies, including attempts to influence national institutions, university structures and the incentives for individual researchers. This paper contributes with an analysis of Sweden, which has retained the ‘professor’s privilege’, whereby the individual retains inventor rights and can choose to allocate ownership rights. The descriptive results of the survey revealed that academics have positive attitudes to commercialisation and relatively satisfactory commercialisation output. This paper examines the complementarities of research performance, networks and support structure in explaining commercialisation amongst university researchers in science and engineering in Sweden. The results show that publishing is positively correlated with commercialisation and that support structures play an important role through technology transfer offices, courses and incubators. The paper ends by using these results in order to discuss the implications for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]