Alternative Policy Options Research Articles

Fostering Coordination to Bridge the UK's Regional Disparities: A Response to Rachel Reeves's Mais Lecture

AbstractThis article discusses different policy approaches to achieving one of the key goals that Rachel Reeves set out in her Mais lecture in 2024: bridging regional inequalities in the UK. If it is agreed that the unfettered free market economic model pursued by successive governments in recent decades has led to an intolerable regional concentration of high value‐added, innovative production, what alternative policy options are there? The article considers two answers to this question. The first option is to promote innovation through top‐down state intervention in key economic sectors. While this approach is becoming increasingly popular among proponents of industrial policy in advanced economies, its potential to reach a wide range of firms and sectors behind the technological frontier is limited. Instead, the article favours a second, comparatively under‐explored policy option: facilitating inter‐firm and public‐private coordination. Three key policy tools are presented for implementing this second approach in the UK context.

Tax Incentives for Economic Growth in the Russian Far East: Broad vs. Targeted Stimuli

The purpose of this study is to justify the choice of tax incentive policy instruments aimed at the economic development of the Russian Far East, which is facing acute demographic and environmental problems. To model the dynamics of the region’s real economic system, this study employed a mathematical model based on actual data from 2010 to 2021, covering economic, technological, and socio-ecological aspects. Using the versatile AnyLogic 8.0 platform for agent-based and system dynamics modeling, experiments on alternative tax incentive policy options involving both broad tax incentives and targeted economic development measures were conducted. Specifically, a 50% investment tax deduction for residents in special economic zones in the Russian Far East was implemented. The experimental results show that, despite comparable population dynamics, targeted stimulation of growth poles through public-private partnership programs outperforms broad tax incentives for economic entities in the Russian Far East. This is evident in higher economic growth rates in the region, particularly during the experimental period, except for 2040–2050, where adverse demographic trends constrain growth in both scenarios. The theoretical significance of the application of this method has shown that it allows us to obtain new significant results in the subject area of research due to the consideration of the complex interaction of factors of influence both at the micro- and macro-level, primarily behavioral factors that are fundamentally important for understanding the action of taxes. The practical implications of this study lie in defining the parameters of tax policy to target and stimulate growth poles in regions serving as hubs for generating and disseminating new technologies. The planned perspective is to encourage population growth and ensure sustained economic development in Russia’s Far East. It is advisable to explore comprehensive tax and budgetary regulations that simultaneously address economic, socio-demographic, and environmental issues in the region. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-08-03-021 Full Text: PDF

Reducing overdose deaths among persons with opioid use disorder in connecticut

BackgroundPeople in Connecticut are now more likely to die of a drug-related overdose than a traffic accident. While Connecticut has had some success in slowing the rise in overdose death rates, substantial additional progress is necessary.MethodsWe developed, verified, and calibrated a mechanistic simulation of alternative overdose prevention policy options, including scaling up naloxone (NLX) distribution in the community and medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) among people who are incarcerated (MOUD-INC) and in the community (MOUD-COM) in a simulated cohort of people with OUD in Connecticut. We estimated how maximally scaling up each option individually and in combinations would impact 5-year overdose deaths, life-years, and quality-adjusted life-years. All costs were assessed in 2021 USD, employing a health sector perspective in base-case analyses and a societal perspective in sensitivity analyses, using a 3% discount rate and 5-year and lifetime time horizons.ResultsMaximally scaling NLX alone reduces overdose deaths 20% in the next 5 years at a favorable incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER); if injectable rather than intranasal NLX was distributed, 240 additional overdose deaths could be prevented. Maximally scaling MOUD-COM and MOUD-INC alone reduce overdose deaths by 14% and 6% respectively at favorable ICERS. Considering all permutations of scaling up policies, scaling NLX and MOUD-COM together is the cost-effective choice, reducing overdose deaths 32% at ICER $19,000/QALY. In sensitivity analyses using a societal perspective, all policy options were cost saving and overdose deaths reduced 33% over 5 years while saving society $338,000 per capita over the simulated cohort lifetime.ConclusionsMaximally scaling access to naloxone and MOUD in the community can reduce 5-year overdose deaths by 32% among people with OUD in Connecticut under realistic budget scenarios. If societal cost savings due to increased productivity and reduced crime costs are considered, one-third of overdose deaths can be reduced by maximally scaling all three policy options, while saving money.

Agrarian Distress in Indian Punjab: A Public Policy Paralysis

The drift towards resource-intensive, high-yield crop-based cultivation in the early 1960s, widely called the Green Revolution, has led to ecologically unviable cropping patterns with adverse monetary fallouts in Punjab, which had once earned the sobriquet, the Granary of India. Since price and availability are the basis of competition, farmers are not sufficiently incentivised to address the vital issue of the decline in natural resources. As a result, securing food and nutrition while conserving the environment is challenging. So is mobilising diverse and apposite stakeholders whose perspective is vital to move ahead sustainably. The vital issue is considering the likely impact of input incentives, output support or restraints, technical backing, and financial aid on agricultural outcomes that vary across contexts and crops. This decision-based case introduces the participants to real-life socio-economic and ecological challenges, which they can relate with any other agriculture-based economy. The highlight of the case is the way the problem is anticipated to be viewed by different stakeholder groups and the conflicting policy options supporting conventional vis-à-vis organic farming. It is also interesting to review the conditions under which the proposed solution is most robust. Such a review would likely sensitise participants to how a change in perspectives can impact the suitability of alternative policy options.

Developing strategic foresight for drug policy: trends, scenarios, and implications

Background This study utilized foresight analysis to project drug policy trends and challenges in Finland up to 2030. It aimed to develop scenarios and strategies for addressing critical issues and to explore alternative policy options. Methods A comprehensive methodology was employed, including scope analysis, horizon scanning, trend analysis, and scenario building along with the expert panels. This approach facilitated the identification and categorization of trends into mega-trends, emerging trends, and weak signals, ensuring a robust and inclusive analysis. Results Key findings include mega-trends, such as changing drug policies and rising economic burdens. Emerging trends highlight the increase in synthetic, polydrug, and prescription drug use, vulnerability in certain subgroups, and growing drug-related mortality. Weak signals point to the advent of online drug marketplaces and new treatment methods. Past foresight studies agree on market growth and policy inertia but diverge on resource allocation and older generation targeting. Conclusion Developed scenarios and strategies address issues like increasing drug prevalence, service gaps, and market diversification, advocating for integrated approaches in demand reduction, governance, law enforcement, environmental protection, and harm reduction services. This research highlights the significance of participatory foresight methods in shaping Finnish drug policy, offering valuable insights for future trajectories and affirming the importance of foresight in this field.

Policy paradigm modes: explaining USA antitrust law changes in the 1970s

Abstract This article advances the theory of policy paradigms by investigating when paradigms are rigid, constraining alternative perspectives and policy options, and when instead they are more flexible, allowing actors to overcome paradigmatic restrictions and differences. Departing from the existing theories on policy paradigms, I conceptualize paradigm rigidity and flexibility as characteristics that develop endogenously within the policy-making process, shaped by the types of policy changes that are proposed and discussed and by the types of framing strategies policy actors employ to support their proposals. Policy paradigms can therefore have both rigid and flexible modes within the same policy area and in the same period. Conceiving paradigms in modes helps us better understand how policies change when there are competing paradigms and exogenous crises. I illustrate this empirically with an analysis of the debates surrounding four antitrust (competition) policy change proposals in the USA during the 1970s.

Accelerating electric vehicle charging investments: A real options approach to policy design

Replacing conventional cars and trucks with battery electric vehicles requires a rapid expansion of fast-charging infrastructure. However, private sector charging infrastructure investments are delayed by unfavorable project economics and uncertainty in future demand. Prior research has addressed the former using standard net present value (NPV) methods, but neglected the latter. To address this gap, this paper introduces a real options model of charging investments, which quantifies the option value of delaying investment under uncertainty. We use this model to assess the implications of optionality in a representative case. Our analysis provides indicative estimates of how investment timing is impacted by alternative policy options: grants, long-term contracts, demand charge re-design, and Zero Emission Vehicle standards. We estimate that if grant subsidies are informed by a traditional NPV analysis, firms would delay investing by more than 5 years. Perhaps surprisingly, even low levels of risk incentivize long delays. We find that policies targeting optionality are substantially more cost-effective than the traditionally used grants. Specifically, we calculate that long-term contracts for differences can trigger immediate investments at a cost 68% lower than grants. A simpler but relatively cost-effective alternative is to introduce a phase-out schedule for grants to discourage investment delays.

Unmaking capitalism through community empowerment: Findings from Italian agricultural experiences

Capitalism – in the theorizations of sustainability transformation – has been largely taken for granted for its misleadingly assumed stability and homogeneity, thus limiting the scope for defining alternative futures, policy options and strategies for transformative change. Theorizations regarding sustainable transformative pathways have often overshadowed a nuanced landscape of normative and ontological pluralism thus contributing to generating techno-centric and top-down responses to issues such as access to food, farmers' control over the food-chain and global environmental change. The expansion of capital, under a mechanism of production-reproduction, with a constant attempt to subsume different forms of production into the global market, generates manifold temporal frictions that, on the one hand, contribute to the consolidation of the capitalist model and, on the other hand, give rise to conflicting elements and re-orientation of modernity in a process of “unmaking” of capitalism. This article, drawing upon empirical work conducted in Northern Italy, presents two experiences emerging from the scenario of local food networks, namely the “C’è Campo” Participatory Guarantee System and the “Ortazzo” Community Supported Agriculture project. These show elements and mechanisms of local community empowerment for unmaking capitalism from the inside, as steps for a sustainable and bottom-up transformation which do not necessarily imply the generation of socio-economic novelties ex-nihilo. The “conventionalization” of organic agriculture has pushed those actors who participate in local food networks to reconfigure their self-regulation towards a “bottom-up” approach driven by the adoption of PGS or CSA instruments as an attempt to secure or reacquire control over the market and the construction of quality. Convivial tools, in particular, are crucial for understanding - and finding responses to - the social, economic, cultural and environmental crisis that contemporary society is now facing.

The future of space activities and preservation on Mars: A preliminary policy Delphi study

A ‘planetary park’ system has been suggested as a way for Mars to ‘preserve’ land for a multitude of purposes. These parks would represent a diverse portion of martian terrain and would be regulated to minimize human contamination and prevent excess human intervention. One suggestion is a two-part land-use policy for Mars, i.e. planetary parks and Lockean land for the use of non-park areas, in which non-park areas could be opened up for development and settlement. Others have proposed that this planetary parks concept could be extended to appeal to corporate interests as a compromise between protecting environmental interests and allowing private use of resources on Mars. This empirical study aims to help advance the core discussion of the interplay between future space activities and future preservation plans on Mars. Specifically, this work uses a particular strategic foresight method, the Policy Delphi, as a means to reveal positions on that issue and to explore alternative policy options in advance, through the collective judgment of a panel of experts. It should be noted that the goal was not strictly to promote consensus regarding the topic of interest, but to encourage structured dialogue. Consequently, the stable consensus achieved in specific areas indicated that the panel of experts foresees international cooperation on matters related to preservation plans for Mars, which, in turn, will enhance the overall international space governance. Furthermore, the panel foresees the inclusion of varying actors, both state and non-state ones, in the development of a preservation framework for Mars, especially on a national level. To this end, the panel endorses the inclusion of a diversity of values to be protected via the aforementioned framework, and suggests the advancement of broad global dialogue on this matter including academic, industrial, governmental, and public actors. The preliminary insights revealed in this work may inform relevant international discussions towards the formulation of proactive policies that will contribute to the environmental governance of future activities on Mars.

Prospects of Technology Adoption in Small Pump Schemes in the River Nile State, Sudan

Linear programming was used to simulate the farming systemsof small pump schemes in Shendi area, River Nile State, Sudan, to assessthe prospects for technology use in cool-season food legumes and wheat.Different production activities, with respect to target crops, wereidentified to reflect different technology levels. The model constraintswere the pump capacity, the scheme size and family labour. Alternativeversions of the model were developed to examine possible productionoptions that exist and to examine the effects of alternative resource levelsand policy options, which are likely to affect adoption. The model resultsrevealed that while farmers' traditional practices were not economicallyfeasible options, tendency is for adoption of medium rather than therecommended high technology levels. This reflects actual farmers'behaviour, particularly for irrigation water, and indicates that water is themain resource constraint. The results also showed that the technology isnot well supported by the traditional institutions of production relations,which create conflicting perception between resource owners towardstechnology use.

Summaries of Articles

Summaries of Articles

‘The area I’m from is very rough’: Drug users’ views on the role of social and economic factors in their experiences of drug-related harm

Over the last thirty-five years, academic researchers in Ireland have consistently demonstrated the relationship between social deprivation and the most severe instances of drug-related harm. More recently, researchers have begun to include the voices of drug users with lived experiences of harm in these discussions. However, these studies have more often tended to focus on drug users’ views on alternative drug policy options, rather than their views on the social and economic factors relevant to their experiences of drug-related harm. Therefore, the current study conducted 12 in-depth interviews with drug users experiencing harm in an Irish city, in order to elicit their views on the specific role they believe social and economic factors played in conditioning their later experiences of drug-­related harm. The study participants highlight harms experienced in the education system, the family home, and the local community as more relevant to their later experiences of drug-related harm than their social deficits in education, a lack of resources in the local community or in their families. Many participants also discuss meaningful relationships as the last defence against these harms and argue that the loss of such relationships coincided with their most severe incidences of drug-related harm. The study concludes with a discussion of the conceptual framework of structural violence in terms of its potential for interpreting the participants’ views and suggests several avenues for further research.

Sugar sweetened beverage restriction or fruit and vegetable purchase incentive in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): Participant’s voice and choice behavior

ABSTRACT This mixed methods study assessed the perceptions of food choices among SNAP participants and SNAP-eligible non-participants when exposed to two alternative SNAP policy options: restrictions on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and incentives for fruit and vegetable (FV) purchases. Twelve focus groups that included a randomized food choice experiment were conducted in seven counties in Georgia, involving 73 participants. Participants had a favorable view toward incentivizing FV; responses toward SSB restrictions were mixed. FV incentives were associated with greater spending on FV and lower spending on SSBs, and SSB restriction was associated with lower spending on SSBs.

Performance and macro-economic scenarios of rice market outlook in India

The study looks into past trends and volatility in the demand and supply components of the last 50 years (1970 to 2019) besides assessing the reliability of macro-economic scenarios of rice by 2020 to 2030 published by OECD and NITI Aayog. The study infers the growth in the area under rice cultivation is 0.30 per cent per annum but yield growth is 1.79 per cent per annum. Yield growth rather than area growth would drive future increases in rice production. Scanning of scenarios of reduced rice land revealed that India would need to boost its rice yield by a maximum of one tonne per hectare to maintain future output levels. The reliability of the projection of rice by OECD and NITI Aayog is very high since the mean absolute percentage error of demand is below 2 per cent and of supply is below 16 per cent. Discussion on future outlook suggests that India needs to either boost up its agri-infrastructure or free up some of its rice area in favour of resource conservation and crop diversification. The outlook for rice throws light on upcoming possibilities and challenges and suggests recommendations for alternative policy options to address the dynamics in the rice sector.

Vulnerable young women and frontline service providers identify options to improve the HIV-sensitivity of social protection programmes in Botswana: A modified Policy Delphi approach

ABSTRACT Poverty, lack of education and gender inequality make unemployed and out-of-school young women extremely vulnerable to HIV infection. Promotive social protection programmes aim to increase livelihood and capabilities and could empower this priority population to act on HIV prevention choices. In Botswana, they rarely benefit from such programmes. A modified Policy Delphi engaged a panel of 22 unemployed and out-of-school young women and eight frontline service providers to consider alternative policy and practice options, and tailor available programmes to their own needs and social situation. The panel assessed the desirability and feasibility of improvement proposals and, in a second round, ranked them for relative importance. Nearly all 40 improvement proposals were considered very desirable and definitely, or possibly, feasible, and panellists prioritised a wide range of proposals. Frontline service providers stressed foundational skills, like life skills and second chance education. Young women preferred options with more immediate benefits. Overall, panellists perceived positive role models for programme delivery, access to land and water, job skills training, and stipends as most important to empower HIV-vulnerable young women. Results suggest ample policy space to make existing social protection programmes in Botswana more inclusive of unemployed and out-of-school young women, hence more HIV-sensitive.

European Energy Crises, Climate Action and Emerging Market of Carbon-Neutral LNG

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) has received world-wide attention due to its growing market demands as pointed out by International Energy Agency (IEA), and McKinsey. This article aims to observe contemporary European developments in accordance with the Union’s energy strategy and the Paris Agreement. With the reduction in import of Russian gas, purchasing LNG became an alternative policy option to meet overall energy needs in Europe. European governments and companies are making large investments in land-based regasification terminals and floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs). These trends have fueled hopes that Europe may be able to avoid the worst-case scenario of massive gas shortages, rationing, and industrial shutdowns in the coming months. Nonetheless, such positive short-term developments should not obscure the challenges Europe’s energy-dependent industries are facing due to high gas and electricity prices, which will likely remain elevated for some time. Industries with gas-intensive production or with high absolute demand for gas could still see disruptions during this winter.
 Moreover, this article also evaluates the role of carbon-neutral LNG in European energy crises and its link with eco-friendly processes as set out by the EU and its consequences for the Asian market. The major findings include that the existing carbon measurement framework does not meet the global needs of the LNG industry. Moreover, the breadth of LNG usage is linked to viable GHG emission framework availability.

Do tax and subsidy on unhealthy food induce consumer consumption for healthy food? Evidence from experiment in Surabaya, Indonesia.

This study investigates the impact of price changes on decision to buy particular foods among adults in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. Tax and subsidy were introduced for influencing decision buy particular foods, especially unhealthy foods that are predicted have consequences on health outcome. Unhealthy foods such as fast foods or junk foods, sugar sweetened beverages (SSB), salty, and fatty foods are reported as one of main causes of obesity incidence in most countries, such as Indonesia. Computer laboratory experimental is designed for investigating the impacts of difference rates of taxes and subsidy on decision to buy foods. Taxes and subsidies rate are designed from low (5%), moderate (15%), and high rates (25%). The findings are as follows. Firstly, participants do not respond immediately to price changes, that is, higher prices due to taxes and lower prices due to subsidies. Economic theory suggests that consumers demand for basic need such as foods is sensitive with change in price, they respond inversely to the price changes. However, the finding in this experimental study do not support this theory prediction. Secondly, 15% and subsidies are the threshold and the larger taxes and rate for changing consumer's choices on targeted foods. This study concludes that low rates of taxes and subsidies for unhealthy and healthy foods make these targeted foods affordable for majority of consumers. Besides introducing higher rates of taxes and subsidies, promoting and encouraging healthy life style such as consuming fresh and healthy foods is another alternative policy option.

Wheat Self-sufficiency in Different Policy Scenarios and Their Likely Impacts on Producers, Consumers, and the Public Exchequer

Every government faces a challenge to select an optimum policy to provide food supplies to the consumers at a reasonable price and maintain a reasonable nutritional standard. The alternative policy options available are an uninterrupted market, imports, input subsidies, price support, combined policy developed by the combination of input subsidy and price support, and investment on research and infrastructure development. This paper analyses the impact of these options on consumers’ and producers’ welfare, tax revenue, and foreign exchange requirement. The import and input subsidy give net return to the society while price support generates net loss. The triple combined policy option generates the highest net return to the society when each import and input subsidy component is combined with price support in the ratio of 40 and 20 percent, respectively. The best policies to provide higher wheat supplies at lower prices and to improve the welfare of consumers and producers were investment on agricultural research and development of irrigation infrastructure in the long run, but for the short run, the first and the second best option were respectively the combined and the input subsidy policy.

Another Day, Another Currency: Self-interest, Experience, and Attitudes Toward Dollarization in Ecuador

AbstractHow, if at all, does self-interest bear on individuals’ economic policy preferences? Though conventional theories of preference formation usually assume a role for self-interest, the informational demands associated with understanding economic policies can prevent individuals from forming attitudes on an egocentric basis. Building on work showing that policy-specific information facilitates egocentrism, we argue that personal experience with alternative policy options is necessary for self-interested preferences to materialize. To test this argument, we leverage Ecuador’s adoption of the U.S. dollar (i.e., dollarization) and examine whether material-based preferences toward exchange rate policy are conditional on individuals experiencing the transition from the Ecuadorian sucre to the dollar. We find that lived experience with dollarization causes policy preferences to align more closely with citizens’ self-interest, as proxied by measures of capital ownership and skill level. In addition, personal experience with dollarization drives attitudes against a dollarized economy, but primarily among poor and low-skill workers—precisely the groups that benefit less from this policy shift. Rather than entirely discredit the role of economic self-interest, these findings suggest that scholars devote greater attention to how contextual factors can strengthen egocentric policy attitudes.

What is the ‘problem’ of gender inequality represented to be in the Swedish forest sector?

Gender equality in natural resource management is a matter of sustainability and democracy for Sweden’s government, however the country’s forest remains a highly gender-segregated sector. We examine how gender inequality is problematized within Swedish forest and rural policy documents using the What’s the problem represented to be? (WPR) approach. We build on previous efforts to investigate gender inequality in the forest sector by expanding the critical analysis to rural development policy. We conduct interviews with forest experts, owners, and practitioners to shed light on where there are gaps within the policy representations and uncover alternative policy options that are presented. Our findings corroborate that gender inequality is represented to be a technical problem, with policy measures aiming to increase the number of women within a forest sector that continues to maintain rigid conceptions about forestry production values. While there are claims of success in the increase of women within the sector in aggregate, there is little change in the numbers of women in decision-making positions. Forest policy relies upon women to bring growth and sustainability to the forest industry, while rural policy expects women to halt rural population decline. Our findings suggest that merely trying to fit more women into a mold that has been shaped for and by inflexible forestry and masculine values is an impediment not only to gender equality but also to the inclusion of other social groups and ideas in the changing rural landscapes of Sweden.