Alternative Public Policies Research Articles

Desafios e Alternativas Para a Segurança Pública no Brasil Contemporâneo

This study analyzes the sociological issues influencing Brazil’s public security system, focusing on structural inequalities, racism, and gender discrimination. Through a qualitative bibliographic review, the research highlights how these dynamics perpetuate social exclusion and violence, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations. Structural racism manifests through racial profiling and police lethality, primarily affecting the Black population. Gender-related issues, such as femicide, domestic violence, and the marginalization of LGBTQIA+ individuals, also reveal the system’s shortcomings in addressing the specific needs of these groups. In contrast, the study presents alternative public security policies, such as community policing, conflict mediation, and restorative justice, which offer preventive and inclusive approaches. These initiatives have proven effective in reducing violence and strengthening social relations, although they face institutional and cultural barriers to implementation in Brazil. The results suggest that Brazil’s public security system needs to be restructured from an integrative perspective that acknowledges the intersections of race, gender, and class, promoting equity and social justice. The study concludes that policies based on inclusion and prevention can transform the public security system, making it more effective and sustainable. This work contributes to academic and social debates by proposing solutions that address the structural causes of violence and suggests future research to deepen the analysis of successful experiences and adapt strategies to local specificities.

Policy evaluation using model over-fitting: the Nordic case.

The interest of this article is to better understand the effects of different public policy alternatives to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. In this work we use the susceptible, infected, recovered (SIR) model to find which of these policies have an actual impact on the dynamic of the spread. Starting with raw data on the number of deceased people in a country, we over-fit our SIR model to find the times at which the main parameters, the number of daily contacts and the probability of contagion, require adjustments. For each , we go to historic records to find policies and social events that could explain these changes. This approach helps to evaluate events through the eyes of the popular epidemiological SIR model, and to find insights that are hard to recognize in a standard econometric model.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Health Ethics in Japan.

Public health ethics is a discipline dealing with ethical issues relating to public health. As a branch of medical ethics, it also deals with clinical and research ethics. The core issue of public health ethics is to balance the conflict between individual liberty and the public good. Because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, deliberation based on public health ethics is required to reduce social disparities and increase community cohesion. This study presents three public health ethics challenges. The first is to introduce an egalitarian liberal approach to public health concerning social and economic issues experienced by vulnerable populations both domestically and globally. I then propose alternative and compensatory public health policies that serve the principles of justice. Second, public health ethics must ensure procedural justice in all public health policy decisions. For example, when deciding to implement public health policies, including restrictions on individual liberties, the decision making process must be open to the public. Third, citizens and students must be educated on public health ethics. The public must be provided with an open forum to deliberate on ethical issues related to public health as well as the appropriate training to do so.

Public Policy Management and Good Governance: Challenges and the Way Forward

The world is facing extraordinary challenges. Policymakers are attempting to develop institutions that are able to cope with rapid changes in demographics, the environment, and the economy. Policymakers are part of the system in which governments operate. Numerous external and internal pressures continuously attack this structure. Exogenous changes or fresh knowledge caused policies to be reversed or revised more frequently than necessary. In India, policymakers are confronted with an increasing number of issues caused by various types of complexity. In this complex environment, the demand for good policy making is steadily increasing. The objective of this paper is to study various facets and dimensions of good governance from public policy perspective. The paper also explores the public policy alternatives and methods to address the issues and challenges of good governance in India. During the discussion, the authors found that corruption and poor capacity building are main impediments in establishing good governance which in turn hampers the efficiency and equity in the provision of public services, thereby weakening the enforcement mechanism of public policy management principles. The paper also revealed that for effective public policy management and administration, there is a dire need to formulate and implement stringent rules and regulations against the menaces like illegal use of force, corruption, bureaucratic bungling, criminalisation of politics and other constraints hampering good governance. Therefore, to create checks and balances across tiers of government and to correct the existing distortions, the paper suggests reform strategies such as decentralisation of public services through participation of private sector, involvement of poor people in state sponsored development programmes, outcome orientation and having women representation in democratic institutions for ensuring good governance. In order to accomplish these desired social changes, enacting strong legislation with severe penalties and its rigorous execution is the need of the hour.

Research report - Alternative public policies in providing integrated specialized services for children with autism spectrum disorders and for their families

Research report - Alternative public policies in providing integrated specialized services for children with autism spectrum disorders and for their families

The Crossfire Rhetoric. Success in Danger vs. Unsustainable Growth. Analysis of Tourism Stakeholders’ Narratives in the Spanish Press (2008–2019)

Tourism has always stood out in terms of economic opportunities and personal enjoyment. However, the problem of overtourism has emerged in recent years in urban contexts of cities with diversified economies. Overtourism has become—to a much greater extent than any other variable challenging the sustainability of the tourism model—an object of public debate and the media reflect this debate, which, in the case of Spain, is concentrated in the term “tourismphobia.” This paper aims to analyse the two main opposing narratives reflected in the Spanish media on the emergence of the problem of tourismphobia and that defined what was happening to influence both public opinion and public policymakers themselves. The methodological approach used is the narrative policy framework (NPF), which considers public policies as a social construct, shaped by particular ideologies, values, and worldviews that are structured in narratives. The conclusions point to the fact that even though the “success in danger” narrative was the winner, for the first time the sustainability of the country’s tourism model is being broadly questioned and by very diverse actors. It is also clear that in order to change the trajectory of consolidated tourism policies, it is necessary to build tangible public policy alternatives that can be articulated and implemented by public actors. Based on the findings of the paper, future lines of research could use the “Narrative Policy Framework” for the analysis of sustainable tourism policies or for the study of overtourism in different countries from a comparative perspective.

Albergue de jornaleros agrícolas en Morelos Un espacio de intercambio y reconocimiento

Based on the trajectory of the Shelter of Migrant Agricultural Laborers in Atlatlahucan, Morelos from 1996 to 2011, in the application of social programs, as well as the experiences of co-responsibility of actors involved, the limits and scope offered by this type of temporary housing are discussed as a space to implement social promotion strategies, and at the same time allowing exchange and recognition relationships between workers, producers and the local population. The shelter is far from constituting a representative case; however, it will try to show that the conditions that have allowed its modest but significant achievements can be recovered locally and set precedents for the design of alternative public policies in similar places.

Türkiye'de Kadınların Siyasal Temsili ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet

Bu çalışmanın ana amacı, Türkiye’de kadınların parlamento üyeliğine ilişkin seçim sürecinde, seçim sonrası milletvekilliği döneminde ve milletvekilliği dönemi sonrasında karşılaştıkları sorunları ortaya çıkarmak, tespit edilen sorunlara yönelik çözüm önerileri ve alternatif kamu politikaları geliştirmektir. Araştırma esnasında veriler yarı yapılandırılmış mülakat ile toplanmış, görüşme yapılacak vekiller ölçüt örneklem tekniği ile belirlenmiştir. Siyasi temsil sürecinin tüm aşamalarını tamamlamış olmaları bakımından yalnızca 23. Dönem’de (2007-2011) milletvekili olan ve sonraki dönemde seçilmemiş milletvekillerinden, görüşmeyi kabul eden beş milletvekili ile mülakat gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışmanın, Türkiye’deki kadın parlamenterlerin siyasal temsil sürecinin tüm aşamalarında yaşadıkları problemleri toplumsal cinsiyet çerçevesinde inceleyen nitel çalışmalardan birisi olarak akademik yazına katkı sağlayacağıdeğerlendirilmektedir.

Foreign Direct Investment in Pharmaceutical Sector: Role Analysis and Case Study

India’s economic reforms since 1990s and World Trade Organisation’s agreement on trade related aspect of Intellectual Property Rights have caused significant changes in the operational environment of Indian Pharmaceutical industry (IPI). This study examines the Foreign Direct Investment flows into the firm of IPI. Foreign companies dominates the Indian pharmacy industry due to availability of cheap labour. The basic opinion is that the Expenditure on Research & development is very low in India. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has an adverse impact on pricing of pharmaceutical products. The Indian pharmaceutical industry has developed through a range of governmental incentives and, foreign firms that have invested in the industry have additionally contributed to the growth. The firms with foreign ownership experience higher productivity levels. It is possible that under the new patent laws, MNCs will start to outsource even patented drugs in India; consequently Researcher recommends that the government must look at the option of alternative public policies like public procurement of generic drugs. The domestic industry should be encouraged to produce cheap medicines. The R&D from the foreign companies must be encouraged. Researcher’s limitation in this secondary research is that the quality of secondary research should be scrutinized closely since the origins of the information may be questionable.

Diversificación de exportaciones: ¿es Chile diferente a Australia y Nueva Zelanda?

Este trabajo analiza el grado de diversificación de la economía chilena en relación con Australia y Nueva Zelanda durante el período 1990-2018, utilizando datos de exportaciones desagregados y distintas medidas de concentración. Australia y Nueva Zelanda se desarrollaron en un período reciente, comparten características estructurales con la economía chilena y, cuando tenían el nivel de ingreso de Chile, tenían mayores similitudes con la economía chilena que otros países que podrían usarse como modelo de desarrollo. Nuestros principales resultados indican que (i) Chile tiene un grado de concentración de exportaciones equivalente o inferior al de Australia, de acuerdo con la medición que se considere, pero superior al de Nueva Zelanda; (ii) el grado de concentración actual en Chile es similar al que tenía en 1990, a pesar del aumento observado durante el ‘superciclo’ de las materias primas; (iii) Australia y Nueva Zelanda han aumentado la concentración de sus exportaciones a lo largo del tiempo, lo cual estuvo asociado a una mayor participación de sus productos ‘tradicionales’. La experiencia de Australia y Nueva Zelanda sugiere que la diversificación hacia bienes de mayor sofisticación económica no es una condición necesaria para el desarrollo de Chile, mientras que la evidencia económica sugiere enfocar la política comercial hacia potenciar el sector exportador y no tener la diversificación de exportaciones como un objetivo en sí mismo. Finalmente, se discuten políticas públicas alternativas, como potenciar la diversificación dentro del sector de recursos naturales e impulsar las exportaciones de servicios.

Redistribution, inequality, and efficiency with credit constraints: Implications for South Africa

Abstract We develop a model that jointly determines the distribution of income and the aggregate macrodynamics. We identify multiple channels through which alternative public policies such as transfers, consumption and income taxes, and public investment will affect the inequality-efficiency trade-off. Income tax and transfers have both a direct income and an indirect substitution effect; a consumption tax has only the latter. We present extensive numerical simulations motivated by the South African National Development Plan 2030, the objective of which is to reduce soaring inequality and increase per capita GDP. Our results illustrate how the judicious combination of social grants and a consumption tax may help achieve these targets. The simulations also suggest that the sharp decline in the private-public capital ratio, coupled with a high degree of complementarity between public and private capital may help explain the persistence of market inequality in South Africa during the last two decades.

GIRLS' SCHOOLING CHOICES AND HOME PRODUCTION: EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTAN

AbstractThe article develops and estimates a dynamic structural model of girls' school‐going decisions and mother's labor market participation. It seeks to determine the causes of low school participation and to evaluate alternative public policies. The model incorporates mother's education, school availability, the productivity of the girl when engaged in household production, and the potential trade‐off between mother's and daughter's housework decisions. Our findings suggest that school construction is the most cost‐effective program. When using monetary incentives, our results highlight the effectiveness of conditionality, as opposed to unconditional transfers, and the existence of a trade‐off between maternal employment and daughter's schooling.

Public spending on agricultural productivity and rural commercialization: A comparison of impacts using an economy‐wide approach

AbstractMotivationMany developing countries have identified a set of strategic objectives and a longlist of investment areas to promote agricultural production and ensure food security. However, most of these countries lack the financial and technical capacity to execute all of the strategic objectives and investment areas, calling for a robust comparison of their effects.PurposeTaking the case of Ethiopia as an example, this study employs an economy‐wide model and assesses the relative efficiency of alternative investment options on agricultural performance and household welfare. These agricultural investment policies are evaluated under three alternative funding modalities: budget reallocation, donor financing and tax revenue.Approach and methodsTo account for the linkage, and direct and indirect impacts of alternative public expenditure policies, this study adapts an economy‐wide general equilibrium model for Ethiopia calibrated to a well disaggregated social accounting matrix representing the economic structure in 2010.FindingsResults show that the public expenditure options examined could cause significantly different production and welfare responses. Productivity‐enhancing interventions such as input subsidy and irrigation development have superior output and welfare consequences, while policies aimed at smallholder commercialization such as infrastructural development aimed at cutting marketing margins have the least effect, suggesting a need to first prioritize relaxing supply constraints. This ranking of the agricultural policies is robust to the investment financing modalities considered. We, however, observe that financing these projects through income tax could be detrimental to the welfare of urban households.Policy implicationsResults show that in a supply‐constrained economy like that of Ethiopia, governments should focus on agricultural production and productivity‐enhancing interventions (at least in the short run). Reallocation of public funds towards the policies examined should be a principal funding source as this results in superior outcomes. On the other hand, governments should avoid using income tax as a source of finance since this can be highly detrimental to the welfare of urban households.

Government Debt Limits and Stabilization Policy

We evaluate alternative public debt management policies in light of constraints imposed by the effective lower bound on interest rates. Replacing the current limit on gross debt issued by the fiscal authority with a limit on consolidated debt of the government can ensure that output always reaches its potential, but it may permit excess government spending when the economy is away from the effective lower bound. The welfare-maximizing policy sets the gross debt limit to the level implied by Samuelson (1954), while the central bank finances government spending with money when the economy is at the effective lower bound.

Bridging the gap between HIV epidemiology and antiretroviral resistance evolution: Modelling the spread of resistance in South Africa.

The scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa substantially reduced AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections. However, its success is threatened by the emergence of resistance to non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI). The MARISA (Modelling Antiretroviral drug Resistance In South Africa) model presented here aims at investigating the time trends and factors driving NNRTI resistance in South Africa. MARISA is a compartmental model that includes the key aspects of the local HIV epidemic: continuum of care, disease progression, and gender. The dynamics of NNRTI resistance emergence and transmission are then added to this framework. Model parameters are informed using data from HIV cohorts participating in the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) and literature estimates, or fitted to UNAIDS estimates. Using this novel approach of triangulating clinical and resistance data from various sources, MARISA reproduces the time trends of HIV in South Africa in 2005–2016, with a decrease in new infections, undiagnosed individuals, and AIDS-related deaths. MARISA captures the dynamics of the spread of NNRTI resistance: high levels of acquired drug resistance (ADR, in 83% of first-line treatment failures in 2016), and increasing transmitted drug resistance (TDR, in 8.1% of ART initiators in 2016). Simulation of counter-factual scenarios reflecting alternative public health policies shows that increasing treatment coverage would have resulted in fewer new infections and deaths, at the cost of higher TDR (11.6% in 2016 for doubling the treatment rate). Conversely, improving switching to second-line treatment would have led to lower TDR (6.5% in 2016 for doubling the switching rate) and fewer new infections and deaths. Implementing drug resistance testing would have had little impact. The rapid ART scale-up and inadequate switching to second-line treatment were the key drivers of the spread of NNRTI resistance in South Africa. However, even though some interventions could have substantially reduced the level of NNRTI resistance, no policy including NNRTI-based first line regimens could have prevented this spread. Thus, by combining epidemiological data on HIV in South Africa with biological data on resistance evolution, our modelling approach identified key factors driving NNRTI resistance, highlighting the need of alternative first-line regimens.

Net Job Creation in an Increasingly Autonomous Economy: The Challenge of a Generation

One of the world’s most pressing concerns in the next few decades will be job creation. The biggest cause for concern may be the accelerating advances in technology radically reducing the human role in production of goods and services. In this increasingly “autonomous economy”, managers and policy makers must develop strategies and policies to ensure that the impending technological progress leads to “net job creation,” that is, a net positive effect on the overall employment level in the economy. In this effort, this article presents a new perspective and analysis of the net job creation process and the challenges to employment that technology poses. Also discussed are potential managerial and public policy alternatives that may slow the job loss and help cope with the potential consequence of permanent underemployment.

The Social Cost of Carbon, Greenhouse Gas Policies, and Politicized Benefit/Cost Analysis

Benefit/cost analysis can be a powerful tool for examination of proposed (or alternative) public policies, but, unsurprisingly, decisionmakers’ policy preferences can drive the analysis, rather than the reverse. That is the reality with respect to the Obama Administration computation of the social cost of carbon, a crucial parameter underlying the quantitative analysis of its proposed climate policies, now being reversed in substantial part by the Trump Administration. The Obama analysis of the social cost of carbon suffered from four central problems: the use of global benefits in the benefit/cost calculation, the failure to apply a 7% discount rate as required by Office of Management and Budget guidelines, the conflation of climate and GDP effects of climate policies, and the inclusion of non-climate effects of climate policies as co-benefits, as a tool with which to overcome the trivial temperature and other climate impacts of those policies. Moreover, the Obama analysis included in its “market failure” analysis the fuel price parameter that market forces are likely to incorporate fully. This Article suggests that policymakers and other interested parties would be wise to concentrate on the analytic minutia underlying policy proposals because policy analysis cannot be separated from politics.

Co-designing the solution space for rural regeneration in a new World Heritage site: A Choice Experiments approach

Abstract This study develops a participatory multi-methodology intervention designed and deployed to support planning and management of a new World Heritage site, the vineyard landscape of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato, in Northern Italy. The purpose of the study was to support community involvement in the design phase of urban regeneration alternatives. The ultimate objective was to propose practical recommendations for a sustainable regeneration strategy to the Municipal Authority of La Morra, one of the villages located within the core area of the World Heritage site. The analysis context represents a complex territorial system and a challenging decision-making environment due to the presence of: (i) conflicting needs co-existing in the same geographical area, i.e., preservation needs of the World Heritage on one side, and new development needs on the other, (ii) many stakeholders (i.e., residents, tourists, territorial authorities, tourism associations and environmental advocates), and (iii) presence of marginalized communities that are at risk due to the strong trend towards the abandonment of rural areas for big cities. Within this context, the authors propose the use of Stakeholders’ Analysis and Choice Experiments to co-design, together with stakeholders and the local community, feasible strategies for the regeneration of the abandoned rural buildings scattered across the core World Heritage Site. Indeed, the community issue of abandoned rural heritage emerged as both an important weakness of the territorial system under analysis and as an interesting opportunity for rural regeneration. The results obtained illustrate the importance of integrated approaches for the development of accountable public decision processes and consensus policy alternatives.

An evolutionary model of science policy: routines and the growth of knowledge in policy-making organisations

This paper proposes an evolutionary model of science policy. The paper draws upon evolutionary economics and associated applications to theory of the firm on routines and the role of knowledge in decision-making. This strand of literature is called the growth of knowledge perspective, because routines are assumed to embody useful knowledge about problems to be solved and potential solutions to them. This paper develops a conceptual model, based upon this literature and Campbell's evolutionary epistemology. The paper proposes that the equivalent of firm routines is, in the science policy context, public policy alternatives such as policy instruments. Moreover, the paper develops notions of science policy fields, and puts them in an evolutionary model in order to understand the creation of variety, retention and selection amongst policy alternatives.

Economic impact of ethanol promotion in Mexico: A general equilibrium analysis

Abstract In this paper we analyze the economic impact of a decision to produce ethanol in Mexico, comparing the effect of a subsidy to initiate ethanol production with that of alternative public policies. Public support of biofuels has been a public policy goal since 2008, and the promotion of ethanol remains an active part of the government agenda. The evidence used to encourage or alter the policy is (by necessity) chiefly based on international experience. In this study we use a computable general equilibrium model (CGE) to estimate the impact of ethanol production on the Mexican economy. Using cost data from Brazil we introduce ethanol into a Mexican social accounting matrix, and insert a latent sector into the model to analyze ethanol promotion. Our results show that subsidies to ethanol would increase agriculture production but at the expense of aggregate welfare. By contrast, alternative clean energy policies appear to advance economic growth to a greater extent.