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This systematic review and meta-synthesis assesses the effectiveness of Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) and Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCTs) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Analyzing 27 studies (2014–2024) using PRISMA guidelines, the research examines impacts on financial stability, education, and health. CCTs generally outperform UCTs in achieving specific education and health targets by incentivizing behaviors, while UCTs offer greater flexibility, improving mental health and economic resilience in fragile settings. The findings stress the context-dependent nature of cash transfer programs and the need for tailored, integrated approaches. Policy recommendations emphasize designing programs based on local conditions and desired outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which rules in a governing arrangement addresses its local conditions is usually defined in the environmental governance literature as the problem of fit. Actors in governing arrangements with decision‐making authority are capable of choosing and designing specific policy tools in order to address specific policy problems. In this manuscript, we combine insights from the literature on policy design and the literature on common‐pool resource governance to assess the extent to which Nebraska's Natural Resources Districts (NRDs), which were created to provide context‐specific solutions to local water problems, design plans, and programs that fit their social‐ecological contexts. Using semi‐automated text analysis approaches and Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we assess how the design of plans and programs created by NRDs vary, to fit their social‐ecological contexts. Results indicate that the biophysical context plays a role in shaping the content of plans and programs, but that broader top‐down institutional mandates may play an even stronger role in shaping the outputs produced by NRDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze how the policy design of the Determination of Electoral Areas of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia with the Policy Design Theory initiated by Anne Larasson and Helen Ingram. This study seeks to analyze how the Regional Policy Design of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia in the 2024 Election affects democracy in Indonesia. The research method used in this study is qualitative research that is descriptive and interpretive to explain how the policy-making system of the Electoral Region of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia affects democracy by using a critical approach. The results of this study are that the policy design of the constituency of the House of Representatives of the Republic consists of the context of the community that occurs before the 2024 general election, the dynamics of framing carried out by the group through the events that occur, the context of problems influenced by political forces and institutional culture, and finally the dynamics of the design which is influenced by the calculation of opportunities and risks. From a series of processes that occurred, it was obtained that the design of the constituency policy of the House of Representatives itself was a design that damaged democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twin challenge of increasing capacity to accommodate growing travel demand while simultaneously decarbonizing the transport sector places enormous pressure on public transport (PT) systems globally. Arguably the most fundamental policy choice and trade-off in designing and operating PT systems in the coming years will be service levels versus cost implications. On the presumption that public (citizen and consumer) opinion is crucial to making such choices, we study this question with a focus on Switzerland by using a factorial experiment (n = 1′634) that considers the frequency and geographic coverage of PT services as well as the cost implications for PT users and taxpayers. We find that support for increased frequency of connections and more services to peripheral regions is high as long as such service expansion is funded mainly by the government, rather than PT users. Preferences are generally consistent across subgroups, except in the case of government funding, where preferences differ by political orientation. This suggests that there is substantial demand across the board for PT services expansion funded primarily by the government, but that the question of funding is also potentially politically the most controversial. While our findings are specific to a country with a highly developed PT system, our research provides a template for similar research in other countries that struggle with a similar challenge. • Public supports expanding public transport (PT) services, favoring increased connections and reduced personal costs. • Increasing public funding is key for public support. • Personal affectedness and political orientation have minimal impact on preferences with the exception of government funding. • Findings reveal nuanced support for demand-based PT service provision – as long as ticket prices are reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many policies in higher education are intended to improve college access and degree completion, yet often those policies fall short of their aims by making it difficult for prospective or current college students to access benefits for which they are eligible. Barriers that inhibit access to policy benefits, such as cumbersome paperwork, can weigh more heavily on members of marginalized communities, including racially minoritized students. Such administrative burdens can thus reinforce patterns of inequity. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework for examining administrative burdens embedded in higher education policies that can negatively affect prospective and current college students, especially those who are racially minoritized. With the use of our proposed framework for addressing racialized administrative burdens, researchers can improve the understanding of ethnoracial disparities in higher education, inform policymakers' design of racially equitable policies for higher education, and enable practitioners to implement those policies to promote racial equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution adds a design approach to our understanding of emancipatory epistemologies within new municipalism. So far, the extant research has rarely discussed its specific opportunities and limitations, regarding their context‐bound formulation and real‐world implementation as a policy process. In contrast, the following article situates their emancipatory potential within the place‐specific ways in which multiple stakeholders define problems, set objectives, choose instruments and convert them into actions, intersecting with significant capacity constraints of the municipal scale. The case of participatory budgeting in Vienna illustrates our approach and theoretical reflection. It shows how and to what extent the design of the relational process influences new municipalism in practice and its outcome with respect to agenda‐setting, formulation and implementation. It concludes by highlighting the contribution of a design approach to the production of emancipatory knowledge and practices in democratic transformation and its analytical value added for comparative research on new municipalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of public policy literature examines how welfare retrenchment reform produces attitudinal and behavioral feedback effects. This study adds to the literature on welfare reforms by exploring how different policy designs, combined with individual proximity to reform, produce heterogeneous feedback effects. Bridging the theories of policy feedback and policy design, we theorize how different policy designs shape individuals' self‐interest or sociotropic considerations when they form opinions on welfare reform. The feedback effects of these different policy designs are channeled by individual proximity to the reform, resulting in heterogeneous responses to proposed policy change. Seizing an opportune time window when the Chinese government undertook a public consultation program in 2020 regarding the proposed reform reallocating financial resources in individuals' medical savings accounts, we conducted a survey experiment to examine if two different policy designs led to varying feedback effects. We find that the moderate de facto retrenchment reform indeed triggered public opposition. Unlike previous research that emphasizes partisanship as a major source of heterogeneous feedback effects, our study reveals different sources of heterogeneity—public opposition to the proposed reform varies by the specific policy designs and individuals' past experiences with the existing health insurance policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the reality that advocates frequently expend significant resources to pass symbolic policies, this policy design has often been neglected by policy studies scholarship. We combine policy design and policy feedback theory to examine this oft overlooked policy design in practice using the case of California's human right to water law (Assembly Bill 685, or AB 685). Through semi‐structured interviews, archival research, and document analysis, we reveal how grassroots advocates deliberately and effectively pursued AB 685 to build power across the water justice movement and catalyze narrative change about drinking water access, while also building state responsiveness on the topic. These interpretive policy feedback effects then accelerated the policy's resource effects through formal policy changes in funding allocations, administrative structures, and regulatory systems. Collectively, feedbacks from AB 685 have transformed the sociopolitics of drinking water access. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, the policy's ambiguity proved key to building the broad coalition necessary to accomplish these changes, and it facilitated work across policy venues and governance scales through time, which is critical to enacting transformational change. Based on these findings, we argue that symbolic policies merit attention as a potentially advantageous policy design for social movements seeking social change and transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy poverty has impressive negative effects on people's health. Alleviating energy poverty is crucial for a just and equitable transition. However, policies and attempts to reduce energy poverty present a challenge to researchers and policymakers due to its complexity. The lack of a clear definition, of a common set of metrics to assess its multiple dimensions, and of spatially explicit assessments represent serious shortcomings that hinder effective policy design. This paper aims to explore the relevance and spatial distribution of the determinants of vulnerability to energy poverty to support the design of effective responses at different scales. To this end, a principal component (PCA) and a geographically weighted principal component analysis (GWPCA) are conducted on more than 1300 municipalities in 15 Italian metropolitan areas, to identify the spatial patterns of vulnerability to energy poverty and its causes. The PCA highlights three main components of vulnerability to energy poverty in the study areas, respectively, related to the job condition and to individual and households' socioeconomic factors, which provide relevant insights for policies at the national level, The GWPCA provides more detailed information to effectively support policies at the local level. The novelty of this work is the comparison of results from a PCA and a GWPCA of their different contributions to policy design at different scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social learning is the main policy-design mechanism that involves interactions between agents. This study provides an overview of the research on policy design using social learning. Descriptive and co-citation analyses were used to identify emerging research lines and thematic similarities between scientific publications. The database used for the bibliometric analysis contained 271 articles published between 1979 and 2022 in 152 journals indexed by the SSCI. We propose a study based on the origins and the future research agenda of social learning for policy design. The results reveal that "environment", "governance", and "social" represent the knowledge base. These topics have evolved over time and have become established as a consolidated intellectual structure. In addition, a new topic called "media and news" has emerged, focusing on the challenges of spreading fake news and learning manipulation in a post-truth world. The cluster "Media and news" is gaining significance due to its impact on the dissemination of information and the shaping of opinions in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice is a fundamental value in public policy, but empirically examining this intricate concept remains a persistent challenge. Recent studies have made early attempts to examine how policy design choices consider distributive justice but have overlooked how procedural justice considerations have been integrated into policy designs. Drawing on policy design and participatory governance literature, this study develops a procedural justice score to empirically measure and compare policy design features of renewable energy siting policies across U.S. states. We focus on policy goals, settings, and calibrations of policy instruments, and the congruence between policy goals and instruments. We do not find consistent policy congruence, which implies that policymakers can view procedural justice as both a normative goal associated with democratic ideals and an instrumental goal facilitating a successful and sustainable energy transition. While most states fall short in designing a fair, inclusive, and participatory process, there is a growing trend toward adopting participatory approaches in renewable siting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the conduct of optimal fiscal and monetary policy in Nigeria under the assumption of a rent‐seeking government. To answer this question, a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model featuring a rent‐seeking fiscal authority is calibrated. The study also conducted a sensitivity analysis to compare the welfare effect of optimal simple policy rules under a corrupt versus benevolent regime. The results from the study showed that optimal monetary policy should target the double mandate of price and output stabilization when the government is a rent‐seeker. The study also found that it is optimal for the Central Bank to commit to an active monetary stance. The optimal fiscal policy rule in a rent‐seeking economy is passive and pro‐cyclical. Furthermore, welfare is negligibly better off in the benevolent economy. From a policy perspective, rent‐seeking activities are triggered by the proportion of rent‐seeking agents. This induces inefficiencies in government spending, which constrains growth in a developing economy. Furthermore, rent‐seeking can "coerce" the Central Bank of Nigeria to focus on a double mandate to stabilize both prices and output. Therefore, it is desirable for the monetary authority to possess due independence in controlling prices without interference from the fiscal authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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For over two decades, scientists have documented the alarming decline of global Peatland ecosystems, regarded as the planet's most crucial carbon sinks. The deterioration of these unique wetlands alongside their policy attention presents a puzzle for policy scientists and for students of anticipatory policy design. Two contrasting explanations have emerged. Some argue that pressures from economic globalization compel governments to relax environmental standards, while others point to deficiencies in policy design and implementation. Our paper applies Cashore's Four Problem Types framework to assess a more nuanced explanation: that failure of global and local policies to curb ecosystem degradation is owing to a misalignment between how the problem is currently conceived of, and what conception is required for, effective environmental management. We find overwhelming evidence that reversing Peatland degradation necessitates a fundamental shift in applied policy analysis—from treating the crisis as a Type 3 (Compromise), Type 2 (Optimization), or even Type 1 (Commons) problem, to conceiving it as a Type 4 (Prioritization) challenge. Achieving this requires undertaking four essential policy design tasks: engaging sequentialist/lexical ordering processes; identifying key features of the problem that any solution would need to incorporate to effectively overcome; applying path dependency analysis to uncover policy mix innovations capable of "locking-in" sustainability trajectories that can fend off pressures for policy conception drift; and organizing multistakeholder "policy design learning" exercises that integrate complex sources of knowledge produced within, and across, the ecological and policy sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, policymakers in the U.S. have leveraged accountability policy as a governing tool to lift school performance and close the achievement gap. Accountability become so widespread that it arguably became a "policy paradigm" with the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2002. Yet after just 13 years of implementation, policymakers replaced NCLB with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which gave states more control over the policy tools and mechanisms to regulate school improvement. This qualitative project captured the evolution of the accountability paradigm by studying the policy ideas and moral narratives of policy elites in California and Tennessee during the transition period between NCLB and ESSA. The study finds that interview participants legitimized the core design features of ESSA, but attached their underlying worldviews and beliefs to the flexible design features, which created unique accountability models with different institutional arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by collaborative governance theory, this study analyzes the process dynamics, outputs, and perceived impacts of a collaborative initiative launched by the Swedish government in 2014. It draws on extensive empirical sources related to the Swedish government's efforts to develop and implement a National Forest Programme (NFP) from 2014 to 2021. These sources include semistructured interviews, observations, public consultation comments, records of meetings and public hearings, reports from dialogues, and enacted policy documents. The results show that the collaboration initially provided a space for joint deliberation and capacity building on complex and contentious issues related to current land use. However, the final programme endorsed by the government in 2018 failed to initiate ambitious proposals on several key issues raised by participating actors, offering little indication of priorities and policy instruments to address fundamental gaps in current policy goals and their implementation. Consequently, the case reveals that it was not sufficient, and perhaps not even desirable, to address existing conflicts and policy problems in a comprehensive collaborative setting run by the Government Offices. The paper concludes with key insights for research on collaboration and suggests ways to move forward with policy designs that integrate multiple and competing policy goals in contested areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the reporting response to an ambitiously targeted government support scheme for Norwegian businesses at the very start of the Coronavirus crisis in 2020. Our empirical design is based on cross-checking self-reported data in the applications for support with administratively reported data used for VAT. We find strong evidence that strategic misreporting was present but conclude that its remaining quantitative extent after enforcement actions already taken by the tax authorities was relatively small. Firms tend to misreport 4% more often than expected, and the actual support paid out was 5% higher than it should have been. We discuss possible reasons for the relatively limited extent of non-compliance and more general lessons for the design of transfer programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is considered as a future key technology to provide baseload electricity, heat, pulp, paper, and biofuels, while also enabling atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Sweden seeks to lead the way in bringing this technology up to scale, introducing a EUR 3.6 billion reverse auction scheme to facilitate market entry of companies producing BECCS. We explore instrument design preferences among politicians, regulators, and prospective BECCS operators to identify trade-offs and explore feasible policy design. Based on 35 interviews with experts in the latent BECCS sector in Sweden, we identify under which circumstances prospective operators would be willing to place bids and discuss how actor preferences both align with and challenge auction theory. The analysis concludes that at least four dilemmas need attention. These concerns how to: (1) balance the state’s demand for BECCS to be implemented already in 2030 against the prospective BECCS operators’ fear of the winner’s curse, i.e., a fear of bidding for a contract that turns out to be too costly to implement; (2) allocate contracts at the margin of the auctioneer’s demand for BECCS without driving up costs; (3) design compliance mechanism to achieve effectiveness without undermining efficiency, and; 4) integrate the auction with the voluntary carbon market—if at all—in a manner that safeguards the environmental integrity of the auctions.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is considered as a future key technology to provide baseload electricity, heat, pulp, paper, and biofuels, while also enabling atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Sweden seeks to lead the way in bringing this technology up to scale, introducing a EUR 3.6 billion reverse auction scheme to facilitate market entry of companies producing BECCS. We explore instrument design preferences among politicians, regulators, and prospective BECCS operators to identify trade-offs and explore feasible policy design. Based on 35 interviews with experts in the latent BECCS sector in Sweden, we identify under which circumstances prospective operators would be willing to place bids and discuss how actor preferences both align with and challenge auction theory. The analysis concludes that at least four dilemmas need attention. These concerns how to: (1) balance the state's demand for BECCS to be implemented already in 2030 against the prospective BECCS operators' fear of the winner's curse, i.e., a fear of bidding for a contract that turns out to be too costly to implement; (2) allocate contracts at the margin of the auctioneer's demand for BECCS without driving up costs; (3) design compliance mechanism to achieve effectiveness without undermining efficiency, and; 4) integrate the auction with the voluntary carbon market—if at all—in a manner that safeguards the environmental integrity of the auctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the minimal role of statutory city-regional planning in Finland, the Finnish state promotes inter-municipal, integrated planning of land-use, housing and transportation in the biggest city regions by a strategic planning instrument and a contractual policy tool called MAL procedure. MAL procedure includes MAL agreements, where the central government agrees to fund transportation infrastructure, while the municipalities in the city-regions commit to certain planning principles. MAL policy has advanced sustainability goals in planning, but it has also been argued to be prone to legitimacy problems as MAL negotiations take place behind the backs of citizens. The article discusses the structure of the MAL policy, assessing the ways in which this structure supports the legitimacy of the policy. It focuses on the interplay of strategic and communicative rationalities in the MAL procedure, starting from the observation that the theorists of strategic planning have focused predominately on communicative rationality as the legitimacy basis of planning. This paper aims to show that from a broader, structural perspective, both rationalities – and the way in which they interact – have a role in maintaining the legitimacy of planning. The article builds on theoretical studies and interviews with actors engaged in the MAL procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review focuses on cultural-related studies and game theory. First of all, it analyzes how social dynamics and strategic interactions can be shaped by different cultural environments. Secondly, it examines how cultural norms can affect strategic decision making and how game theory could predict cooperations and conflicts. Overall, this study aims to highlight the applicability of game theory in the modeling of cultural transformation and its interaction with behavioral economics. Moreover, this study also attempts to underscore the significance of game theory and cultural diversity in communication methods, plus the process of policy formulation. In addition to the above topics, the robustness of cross-cultural social norms, the economic study of different cultural heritage, and the cultural effects of tourism under game theory are also focal points of this study. Finally, this review delves into how game theory can represent social interactions, emphasizing the need to incorporate extensive cultural knowledge in order to enhance the efficacy of game-theoretic model's applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents and explores the history of the e-scooter ban in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as a pathway to examining broader issues concerning the eradication of accessibility barriers in public spaces for pedestrians with disabilities and respectful uses of consultation to develop disability-inclusive regulations. The use of e-scooters poses a particular dilemma to accessibility for persons with disabilities. On the one hand, the concept of disability contemplates attitudinal and environmental barriers, as noted, for example, in the Preamble of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Attitudinal and environmental barriers have traditionally stemmed from interests that are inherently opposed to the collective interests of disabled persons. Examples include attitudes that project stigma against persons with disabilities or a focus on seeking to preserve historical features of the built environment for their aesthetics, without consideration for their accessibility or functionality for disabled persons. They have also generally originated in periods of historical marginalization or exclusion of persons with disabilities. By contrast, e-scooter debates and connected debates regarding the regulation of micromobility vehicles, contain at least one dimension that could very well be shared with persons with disabilities—that is, the preservation of the environment. E-scooters are also a phenomenon of contemporary disability exclusion: policies concerning environmental sustainability, including those promoting e-scooters, are being developed contemporaneously with growing international and national legal recognition of disability rights. These factors render arguments over appropriate regulation of the use of public spaces more complex as, within those arguments, one sees two competing positive policy directions that need to be addressed: the rights of pedestrians with disabilities and environmental sustainability. This article concludes with theoretical and practical suggestions for strengthening regulatory policymaking to address these and other complex intersectional issues of accessibility policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers face inherent vices in the policy-making process that can affect the outcomes of the policy process. While it is widely recognized in the literature that these vices lead to policy volatility, to date, virtually no attention has been paid to how these vices can be controlled. In the Netherlands, policy control was introduced as a mechanism to increase the likelihood of implementing effective policy by involving policy controllers at all stages of the policy process. This study shows that policy control can be an mechanism to control inherent vices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the call to take the analytical and theoretical values of historical institutionalism seriously, planning history research has emphasized the enduring legacies of critical moments that structure the developmental pathways of urban institutions, whose changes tend to appear incremental in the long run. Yet, most of this work is less conscious about deliberate – although not always successful – considerations by policy actors in formulating policies and conflates changes in institutional arrangements with changes in policy effects. This article fills these gaps from a policy design perspective, explaining the changing policy effects of the same institutional arrangements over time through design processes such as layering. To this end, it introduces Vienna's participatory urban renewal model, Soft Urban Renewal, highlighting its context-bound design space in which policy actors choose and rearrange existing instruments according to shifting policy objectives and circumstances. Two cases of Soft Urban Renewal from two different points in time are chosen to cross-compare their varying capacities to influence its real-world effect under different contextual constraints. It concludes with some final remarks on the ways in which a policy design perspective can contribute to the current debate on planning history research and comparative-historical analysis of cities and their institutions and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing climate change demands a varied policy toolkit, ranging from supportive measures to more assertive interventions. However, the latter, especially when impacting consumers' daily lives, often face public opposition. Current research mainly investigates personal or country-level characteristics and personal perceptions that are beyond the direct influence of policymakers, offering limited insight into enhancing the acceptability of specific policy instruments within a given societal context. Acceptability factors that policy-makers can directly influence have received less attention and mostly in single-case or single-factor studies. This perspective article critiques the current state of knowledge and calls for a surge in research on 'governable acceptability factors'. It introduces them as a key category for future research, proposes a definition, and outlines research needs and questions concerning four sub-categories of such factors: policy instrument characteristics, temporal aspects, actor involvement, and communication. Stringent climate policy measures can gain wider public support through a carefully designed policy bundle, combining highly intervening with supportive measures and consumption- with production-related measures. Inclusive participation in the policy-making process and carefully considered communication can also enhance public support. Strategic timing and coalition building as well as temporally limited policy trials or a phased policy implementation with increasing stringency also have potential for positive acceptability effects – but more research is needed on these factors. More comparative and mixed-methods research is necessary to investigate the context dependence and the interaction between acceptability factors. The results would empower policymakers to design and implement more acceptable climate policy measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings a systems engineering approach to policymaking in the context of violent radicalization. We test strategies to combat terrorism under the premise that violent radicalization is a complex system of social contagion resulting in terrorism. We built a simulation using DIME‐PMESII military standards to replicate a terror contagion occurring over 10 years in both physical and online environments under optimal, realistic, and worst‐case scenarios. We then tested antiterrorism, counterterrorism, and counter radicalization strategies as policy experiments in this simulation. These experiments identified four key dynamics relevant for developing policies to reduce terrorism. First, most well‐known policies are ineffective in containing terrorism driven by social contagion. Second, strategies generating backlash can become worse than doing nothing at all. Third, perceived grievance determines the carrying capacity of terrorism in a system, allowing disrupted networks to regenerate. Fourth, variable public support may result in sharp secondary waves of violence under certain contingencies. Experimenting with our model, we explore effective ways to address the violent radicalization problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working with U.S. policymakers to redesign national organ allocation The Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN), which manages transplantation activities in the United States, recently partnered with the MIT Operations Research Center to design and implement novel organ allocation policies that are more equitable, efficient, and inclusive. National organ allocation policies need to strike a delicate balance between efficiency and fairness in multiple objectives, reconciling often disparate value judgments and priorities from many different stakeholders. In "Reshaping National Organ Allocation Policy," T. Papalexopoulos, J. Alcorn, and D. Bertsimas et al. introduced a novel optimization- and machine learning-based framework to aid policy design and navigate challenging fairness-efficiency tradeoffs. The authors collaborated with the OPTN to apply the framework to the design of a new national allocation policy for lungs, which was implemented in March 2023 and is anticipated to reduce waitlist mortality by approximately 20%. Based on this success, the authors are now working toward the redesign of the entire U.S. organ allocation system, including kidneys, pancreata, hearts, and livers. The Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN) initiated in 2018 a major overhaul of all U.S. deceased-donor organ allocation policies, aiming to gradually migrate them to a so-called continuous distribution model, with the goal of creating an allocation system that is more efficient, more equitable, and more inclusive. Development of policies within this model, however, represents a major challenge because multiple efficiency and fairness objectives need to be delicately balanced. We introduce a novel analytical framework that leverages machine learning, simulation, and optimization to illuminate policy tradeoffs and enable dynamic exploration of the efficient frontier of policy options. In collaboration with the OPTN, we applied the framework to design a new national allocation policy for lungs. Since March 9, 2023, all deceased-donor lungs in the United States have been allocated according to this policy that we helped design, projected to reduce waitlist mortality by approximately 20% compared with current policy based on simulations. We discuss how we extended our collaboration with the OPTN to the redesign of kidney, pancreas, heart, and liver allocation and how our framework can be applied to other application domains, such as school choice or public housing allocation systems. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2022.0035. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Termed here as Street-Level Policy Innovation, this study shifts attention to public managers' role in policy change processes during which local street-level implementation adaptations are later formally adopted as a new policy instrument. The study develops an analytical framework drawing on the case of the Free Sidewalk program in Mexico. In summary three processes emerge such as the re-design of implementation arrangements, the accumulation of evidence, and the adoption of the experimented instrument as a formal policy change. The article contributes to understanding the role of frontline organizations as settings where managers explore, experience, and experiment with new policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, there has been increased interest in understanding the design (i.e., content) of regulation as a basis for studying regulation formation, implementation, and outcomes. Within this line of research, scholars have been particularly interested in investigating regulatory dynamics relating to features and patterns of regulatory text and have engaged a variety of methodological approaches to support their assessments. One approach featured in this research is the Institutional Grammar (IG). The IG supports syntactic and semantic analyses of institutional statements (e.g., regulatory provisions) that embed within regulatory text. A recently revised version—called the IG 2.0—further supports robust analyses of regulatory text by offering an expanded feature set particularly well‐suited to extracting and classifying content relevant for the study of regulation. This paper (i) provides a brief introduction to the IG 2.0 and (ii) discusses theoretical and analytical advantages of using the IG 2.0 to study regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitization is becoming the key to achieving rural revitalization, and there is a complex inter-active relationship with farmer enrichment, and agriculture development, making it highly valued by governments around the world. Quantitatively evaluating the symbiotic relationship between rural digitization, farmer enrichment, and agricultural development, and reveal the driving mechanism behind them, which can provide evidence for the rural government, agricultural enterprises, and relevant stakeholders. This paper conducts an empirical study of 84 digital village national pilots in China based on coupling coordination model and geographically weighted regression, with focus on the spatial characteristics, symbiotic relationship and driving mechanisms of the pilots. The symbiotic relationship between rural digitization, farmer enrichment, and agriculture development has significant heterogeneity, with most of the pilots in coordination state. The driving mechanism of rural digitization, farmer enrichment, agriculture development, and symbiotic relationship were complicated, with significant heterogeneity and synergy in the driving forces of different factors, and special attention should be paid to spatial effects (the nature and intensity of regression coefficients in local regions) in the policy design and implementation. It is worth noting that population aging mainly plays a negative role, while industrialization, government support, resident capacity plays a positive role. The other factors play both positive and negative roles. Income gap between urban and rural residents, population aged 65 and above, financial self-sufficiency are the most critical factors. We suggest developing differentiated management policy, accurate management policy, and integrated management policy, which can provide a basis for digital village and smart village planning, construction and management in China. In view of the significant differences in rural digitalization and its driving mechanisms in different pilots as shown in the study, it is necessary to design differentiated spatial policies according to local conditions, to design accurate management policies based on the driving effects of key single factors, and to design integrated development policies by taking into account the interactive effects of multiple factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholders of dryland ecosystems continue to live below the poverty line while facing significant economic and social deprivation with decreasing landholding. Most dryland farmers perform conventional disintegrated farming practices due to a lack of knowledge and resource inefficiency. This study investigates the possibility of an Integrated Farming System (IFS) to address the current dryland farming issues and explore various factors affecting its adoption among the farming community. This study aims to apply and compare supervised learning techniques to assess the primary drivers affecting the adoption of the IFS in rural southern India. The study shows that organic fertilizer production, farmers' age, and involvement in the extension activity are the major factors affecting the adoption of IFS among dryland farmers. The study supports that small and marginal farmers have a high possibility of realizing the higher benefit from IFS. The study recommends that these components be given proper policy consideration in designing and implementing an effective farming system in dryland areas to improve farmers' income levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the special issue's collection of articles, the following commentary examines the racial biases in K-12 and higher education policies and products revealing their seemingly neutral and objective facades to be inherently racialized and, at times, explicitly racist. The article also highlights the damaging effects of race-evasive language in K-12 and higher education, advocating for the prioritization of the most vulnerable students in policy and product design. Rooted in prior research and the author's experiences as a Latina, a first-generation college student, and a former K -12 educator, the article argues for the abolition of harmful practices like corporal punishment and school resource officers. The author suggests that effective policy design for racial justice may require both mainstream and alternative approaches and highlights successful programs like Freedom Schools and ethnic studies programs. Lastly, the article emphasizes the need for educational policies to reflect a deep understanding of systemic racial inequities and for the research community to directly influence policy design towards equity and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of mathematical economics is typically understood as a fundamental shift in the language and technique of economic theorizing. This article argues that an examination of Tinbergen's work demonstrates that a similar "mathematical" turn occurred in economic policy. This article contextualizes Tinbergen's professional career at the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics and his early policy-oriented contributions as exemplified by the applied policy reports that he wrote between 1931 and 1936. His econometric work, including his seminal 1936 model of the Dutch economy and the closely related League of Nations model of the US economy, was rooted in his vision that business cycle research functioned in the service of the state. His work was aimed not at uncovering fundamental or structural relationships in the economy but at practical interventions in the economy by a state that developed control over new instruments of macroeconomic management. As such it can be and has been analyzed as an important contribution to economics as an engineering science. But this article demonstrates that Tinbergen also explicitly depicted the economy from the perspective of the policymaker and that he was attentive to the changing institutional order of the national and international economy. Tinbergen's work in this respect owed a great deal to the more political-economic tradition of German Staatswissenschaften than is typically acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Policymaking is quickly gaining focus in the field of implementation science as a potential opportunity for aligning cross-sector systems and introducing incentives to promote population health, including substance use disorders (SUD) and their prevention in adolescents. Policymakers are seen as holding the necessary levers for realigning service infrastructure to more rapidly and effectively address adolescent behavioral health across the continuum of need (prevention through crisis care, mental health, and SUD) and in multiple locations (schools, primary care, community settings). The difficulty of aligning policy intent, policy design, and successful policy implementation is a well-known challenge in the broader public policy and public administration literature that also affects local behavioral health policymaking. This study will examine a blended approach of coproduction and codesign (i.e., Policy Codesign), iteratively developed over multiple years to address problems in policy formation that often lead to poor implementation outcomes. The current study evaluates this scalable approach using reproducible measures to grow the knowledge base in this field of study. Methods This is a single-arm, longitudinal, staggered implementation study to examine the acceptability and short-term impacts of Policy Codesign in resolving critical challenges in behavioral health policy formation. The aims are to (1) examine the acceptability, feasibility, and reach of Policy Codesign within two geographically distinct counties in Washington state, USA; (2) examine the impact of Policy Codesign on multisector policy development within these counties using social network analysis; and (3) assess the perceived replicability of Policy Codesign among leaders and other staff of policy-oriented state behavioral health intermediary organizations across the USA. Discussion This study will assess the feasibility of a specific approach to collaborative policy development, Policy Codesign, in two diverse regions. Results will inform a subsequent multi-state study measuring the impact and effectiveness of this approach for achieving multi-sector and evidence informed policy development in adolescent SUD prevention and treatment.

Policy design studies typically focus on broad policy goals and the types of tools that governments use to realize them. There is however limited scholarly understanding of how these goals and tools are operationalized “on-the-ground.” In this paper, we apply Capano and Howlett’s 2024 Framework on the Micro-Dimensions of Policy Design to understand how universal health coverage goals in the United States, Singapore, and Thailand are operationalized. The framework unpacks the “nuts and bolts” of policy design particularly the specification of policy targets and tools. A comparative analysis of three programs (Obamacare in the US, Medisave in Singapore, and Universal Coverage Scheme in Thailand) demonstrates how similar high-level policy goals are pursued through different tools and settings. Studying these micro dimensions provides insights into the actual operational ways in which high-level objectives are translated into impacts at the ground level. From an applied point of view, a comparative focus on the dimensions of the micro level of policy design is useful for generating evidence and informing health policy debates about what works or does not work on-the-ground.

Recent empirical research in policy design has shown the relevance of micro-level components, particularly specification and calibration, in shaping policy outcomes. Additionally, research highlights the importance that understanding the mechanisms underlying the policy process has for effective policy design. Yet, a gap persists in how to effectively calibrate and specify policies for specific cases, with a theoretical grounding and guidance for practitioners. This paper addresses this need by applying a process theory of change to delineate the key episodes that constitute the mechanisms of a plausible pathway for an effective Program for Ecosystem Services (PES), an incentives-based instrument focused on conserving forests producing carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection, and water infiltration, among other services. Specifically, the paper uses the well-documented Mexican PES to illustrate how to derive the mechanisms and use them for calibration and specification. The paper provides valuable theoretical insights drawn from the case study, contributing to the field of micro-policy design with a mechanistic approach.

This study investigates the dynamics and challenges in the specification of policy design at the micro level, when broad policy issues are translated into specific interventions. By conducting an in-depth case study of urban initiative dealing with food waste in Warsaw, we unravel the complex process of translating policy objectives into action. Our findings have three points. First, the dynamics of micro-level design provide a broad space for policy designers to make decisions that reshape both the understanding of the policy problem and the change strategies used to address it. Second, policy design can be both engineering and bricolage. It results from changes in context, political considerations, research evidence, and institutional actors’ pragmatic decisions. Third, the Theory of Change can be used as canvas to guide designers through this dynamic process. Future research is recommended to generalize our findings across different contexts and explore the roles of diverse stakeholders in the policy design process.

Strokosch and Osborne and others have recently argued the essence of effective service delivery in and by government increasingly involves the re-orientation of top-down service delivery toward enhanced co-design and co-creation. This new emphasis on what Strokosch and Osborne term designing and managing “for” services is seen to be increasingly replacing or augmenting an older emphasis on these tasks in the design “of” services. Analyzing and managing service design and delivery in this way, however, requires a steady eye to be maintained on the different ways in which “public value” is generated through each service process and upon the different kinds of policy tools useful in each activity. This paper expands and develops this thinking and the research and practice agenda around this emergent “designing for service” paradigm. It does so by focusing on the nature and types of substantive and procedural policy tools used in these efforts and especially upon a shift in emphasis toward the better understanding of the micro-level specifications of the procedural instruments used in management and design “for” services.

Background: Policymaking is quickly gaining focus in the field of implementation science as a potential opportunity for aligning cross-sector systems and introducing incentives to promote population health, including substance use disorders (SUD) and their prevention in adolescents. Policymakers are seen as holding the necessary levers for realigning service infrastructure to more rapidly and effectively address adolescent behavioral health across the continuum of need (prevention through crisis care, mental health, and SUD) and in multiple locations (schools, primary care, community settings). The difficulty of aligning policy intent, policy design, and successful policy implementation is a well-known challenge in the broader public policy and public administration literature that also affects local behavioral health policymaking. This study will examine a blended approach of coproduction and codesign (i.e., Policy Codesign), iteratively developed over multiple years to address problems in policy formation that often lead to poor implementation outcomes. The current study evaluates this scalable approach using reproducible measures to grow the knowledge base in this field of study. Methods: This is a single-arm, longitudinal, staggered implementation study to examine the acceptability and short-term impacts of Policy Codesign in resolving critical challenges in behavioral health policy formation. The aims are to (1) examine the acceptability, feasibility, and reach of Policy Codesign within two geographically distinct counties in Washington state, USA; (2) examine the impact of Policy Codesign on multisector policy development within these counties using social network analysis; and (3) assess the perceived replicability of Policy Codesign among leaders and other staff of policy-oriented state behavioral health intermediary organizations across the USA. Discussion: This study will assess the feasibility of a specific approach to collaborative policy development, Policy Codesign, in two diverse regions. Results will inform a subsequent multi-state study measuring the impact and effectiveness of this approach for achieving multi-sector and evidence informed policy development in adolescent SUD prevention and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon tax is widely regarded as an effective and efficient method to reduce carbon emissions. However, the introduction of carbon tax has faced resistance from the public and interest groups. In this article, we examine the determinants of public support for carbon taxation in South Korea. While the expected cost of the carbon tax on individual citizens appears to be the most important determinant of preferences towards carbon tax, we also find that the public support changes depending on the design of the revenue recycling system. The public is more likely to support a carbon tax scheme that is earmarked to support the energy‐poor population compared to one that uses tax revenues for general government expenditures. The use of carbon tax revenues to create green sector jobs appears to significantly increase the support for carbon tax compared to the use of revenue for the general environment budget. Our findings suggest that while opposition towards carbon tax exists, certain design features such as universal carbon dividends can alleviate some resistance from the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public‐elite policy feedback mechanism of the Social Construction Framework (SCF) postulates that the public rewards policymakers for the appropriate distribution of benefits and burdens to target populations. In this article we test a key part of this dynamic by examining public receptivity to policy design features as a function of target population choice. We conduct a national survey experiment of approximately 3350 Americans. Our instrument asks respondents to indicate support or opposition to a range of policy tools in a suite of six climate change policies, but varies who would be responsible for options based upon Schneider and Ingram's idealized types. Our research design tests the independent effects of deservingness and power foundational to the construction of target populations in the SCF. We find, in general, deservingness to be a stronger predictor of support for policy tools than notions of power. We also identify situations where deservingness acts independently of power in ways not anticipated by the SCF—notably public favor for burdens on powerful groups. Our findings offer implications for theoretical and empirical development of the SCF regarding the influence of policymakers' perceptions of public acceptance of policy design in crafting public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new policy is needed to manage Switzerland's increasing urbanization and growing population. The second stage of the revision of the Swiss Spatial Planning Law, which has been ongoing since 2014, aims to create the legal framework to reduce or prevent the negative consequences of soil sealing, such as loss of biodiversity or urban sprawl. The revision process is characterized by substantial opposition among the actors involved; an acceptable draft revision is not conceivable. Using a structuring qualitative discourse analysis, we coded the consultation responses from the three consultation processes to date. We based our code system on acceptance factors existing in the literature and analyzed the content of the consultation responses over time and by actor. The results show that while a consensus on the instruments of the policy is emerging, there is great disagreement about the exact design and the resulting effects on the actors involved. The relative advantage of the policy and its compatibility with existing regulations are not sufficiently elaborated and presented in a comprehensible way. Ultimately, we identify several patterns of argumentation that should be considered by the policy-makers involved in the further revision, especially to address the critical arguments of the cantons and municipalities. Points of conflict and consensus during policy design were identified using QDA. Structuring the content of the policy discourse can support consensus-building. Typical argumentation patterns for opposing or accepting a policy were identified. Growing consensus entails shifts of actor conflicts from mid- to low-level topics. Relative advantage of a policy solution is key to increasing its acceptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy design is one of the latest theoretical frameworks for understanding the formation process of policy alternatives which has been formed as a separate field of study in public policy in recent years. Despite little attention to this field of study, various theories and frameworks have been presented in the heart of this policy field to understand the policy-making process, and each of these theories and theoretical frameworks will bring useful insights for policy researchers and policy analysts. In this article, through literature review method, the main approaches, concepts and theoretical assumptions of policy design have been presented. Our study suggests that instrumentation and policy design and social constructs are two dominant approaches. We can mention other approaches such as the relation between design and governance model, Wicked problems, behavioral insights in design, policy advisory systems, Digital transformations and agile design in our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]