Governance Choices Research Articles

Rischio e vulnerabilità nel modello europeo di intelligenza artificiale

The contribution explores how the European model on artificial intelligence addresses the relationship between risk analysis and management of automated systems and its impact on the vulnerability factors that the use of certain deceptive techniques determines or increases. The article draws some reflections on the European model that illustrates how risk assessment and management are logically related to data governance choices. Some data governance choices can lead to mitigation of the risk by combining market needs with an anthropocentric approach. As a result of general considerations on the European approach to artificial intelligence systems, the contribution offers the analysis of a case related to the interoperability of European information systems for purposes of security, migration and European border control, focusing on the impact that these systems have on the real life of third country nationals.

Renewable power generation policies in China: Policy instrument choices and influencing factors from the central and local government perspectives

Renewable power generation, which is the main driver of power decarbonization, is strongly supported by government policies. However, there are deficiencies in policy design, e.g., a lack of time consistency, incoordination among policies, and local protectionism. Policy-makers need to understand the evolution of renewable power generation policy instrument choices and the inherent influencing factors. This study uses textual content analysis to analyse the historical evolutionary trends, policy categories, dominant government departments, and the distribution along industrial segments of renewable power policy instruments from the perspectives of both the central and local governments. The factors influencing the policy instrument choice of local governments, especially the influence of CO2 emissions and thermal power generation on the choice of policy instruments for renewable power generation, are further analysed. The results show that China has formed a multi-sectoral and collaborative renewable power generation policy framework from the central government to local governments. Direct provision instruments and fiscal expenditure instruments are extensively employed, leading to over-dependence on such policy instruments. Empirical analysis shows that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the frequency of use of renewable power generation policy instruments and CO2 emissions, as well as a positive relationship with thermal power generation. More specifically, in provinces with high CO2 emissions, local governments are more likely to choose direct provision and fiscal expenditure. Provinces with a high installed thermal power capacity have a more frequent use of both regulatory and fiscal expenditure policy instruments by local governments.

The Multi-Player Evolutionary Game Analysis for the Development of Vocational Education

The local government of China serves as a supervisor of vocational education. The vocational education governance is actually a dynamic game process involving local governments, vocational schools and enterprises. This study attempts to construct a multi-player evolutionary game and show the results that the external benefits of developing vocational education positively influence the probability of local governments choosing cooperative strategies. The choice of local government has a key impact on the strategic choice of vocational schools and enterprises. The vocational education policy would not only affect the calculation of benefit-cost, but also the strategic choice of local governments, vocational schools and enterprises. The research results can help local governments to formulate policies for vocational education development.

Fiscal Policy, Economic Integration and Unemployment

In this paper fiscal policy is examined for an open economy characterised by unemployment due to efficiency wages. We allow for capital and firm mobility in a model where the government chooses the level of wage, source-based capital and profit taxation. The taxing choices of governments are analyzed in scenarios which differ with respect to the constraints imposed on the set of available taxes and on the mobility of firms. As a general result, the welfare loss from labour market imperfections increases when tax bases become internationally mobile, which suggests an increasing relevance of domestic labour-market reforms when tax bases become global.

The Cooperative Game Study of Chinese Overseas Direct Investment in the Construction of Green Ports

With the development of Chinese overseas direct investment (ODI) in green ports, a series of conflicts and contradictions among the participating parties have emerged, which in turn affect and hinder the process of project construction. This paper analyzes the current situation of Chinese ODI in green ports, constructs a cooperative game model between Chinese port investment enterprises and the host government with introduces the effort level, and selects three actual green port projects for calculation and analysis to show that Chinese ODI in green ports can bring economic and environmental benefits to both parties. It is found that the expected revenues and effort levels of both the Chinese port enterprises and the host government are positively correlated with each other’s effort levels, and there exists an optimal effort level and an optimal investment amount of the Chinese port enterprises to maximize the benefits obtained by both parties in the green port project. At the same time, the cases studied find that the benefits obtained by the host government are higher; Therefore, Chinese port investment enterprises can promote green ports projects by finding their own optimal effort level. Additionally, active cooperation is the optimal choice of the host government.

Power Relation and Cooperation between Actors: Issue of Nickel Mining Business Licenses in Konawe Regency

Natural resource management (SDA) such as nickel has become a logical choice for local governments to achieve results for regional development achievement. This is because nickel is one of the trade and business commodities between countries. However, a permit is required for the management of these natural resources. Meanwhile, the government cannot be separated from the cooperation between actors in the context of social situations regarding decisions about issuing permits for mining companies (IUP). Therefore, this paper aims to interpret the context of the social situation in nickel mining permit decision-making. In this paper, the data were obtained based on interviews with 26 informants, observations, and a review of documents. The study's results, in a review of the theory of manifestation of power relations, show that there is cooperation among regional heads, businesses, brokers, and village government officials. On the other hand, in the examination of the three-dimensional theory of power, the context of the social situation is that there is no latent conflict between the actors. The finding in this paper is the neglect of the role of local NGOs in the nickel IUD issuance process, particularly in defending the interests of local communities in the pre-mining phase.

Weathering a demand shock: The impact of prior vertical scope on post‐shock firm response

AbstractResearch SummaryWe examine how and why pre‐existing vertical scope may cause differences in product market exit rates after sudden and exogenous decreases in demand. Our empirical context is the U.S. medical diagnostic imaging industry (2004–2009), wherein a major Medicare reform created a derived demand shock to equipment manufacturers. Using a difference‐in‐difference‐in‐difference design, we find integrated firms were more likely to exit than nonintegrated firms. Building on the literature conceptualizing firms' pre‐shock vertical scope as a representation of existing resources and governance choices, we explain that integrated and nonintegrated firms responded differently by leveraging their own distinctive capabilities. Our qualitative insights suggest that higher market exit of integrated firms was driven by their higher adjustment costs due to frictions across strategies for demand management versus cost reduction.Managerial SummaryThis study investigates whether having a dedicated sales force or utilizing third‐party distributors can help mitigate the adverse effect of an abrupt demand decrease on manufacturers. In the context of the US medical imaging equipment industry affected by the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act, we show that all firms implemented strategies for demand management, cost reduction, and product portfolio reconfiguration in response. Manufacturers using external distributors experienced fewer frictions across these strategies than those with an internal sales force and were less likely to exit. Thus, a firms' vertical scope can impact how they cope with environmental changes.

Local Policy Choice: Theory and Empirics

This paper critically surveys the growing literature on the policy choices of local governments. First, we identify various reasons for local government policy interactions, including fiscal competition, bidding for firms, yardstick competition, expenditure spillovers, and Tiebout sorting. We discuss theoretically what parameters should be estimated to determine the reason for competition among local governments. We emphasize how the policy outcomes emerging from this competition are affected by the presence of constraints imposed by higher-level governments. Second, we integrate theoretical and empirical analyses on the effects of fiscal decentralization on mobility, spillovers, fiscal externalities, economic outcomes, and distributional issues. Third, we identify key issues that arise in the empirical estimation of strategic interactions among local governments and highlight recent quasi-experimental evidence that has attempted to identify the mechanism at work. Finally, a synthesis model, containing multiple mechanisms and fiscal instruments, resolves some puzzles and provides guidance for future research. (JEL D72,H20, H71, H72, H73, H77, R51)

Influence of the Government Department on the Production Capacity Reserve of Emergency Enterprises Based on Multi-Scenario Evolutionary Game

With the frequent occurrence of world emergency events, the emergency management of government departments in various countries is facing great challenges. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shortage of various emergency resources is prominent, and the emergency supplies reserve combined by governments and enterprises is an important guarantee for dealing with emergency management problems. This paper mainly studies the impact of a government sustainability-oriented innovation policy on the production capacity reserve of security emergency enterprises (SEEs), and constructs an evolutionary game model between the local government and SEEs. Then, it focuses on the impact of a reputation mechanism on the government enterprise cooperative reserve. According to the condition of a country, the central government’s punishment mechanism is introduced, and the evolutionary and stable strategies of the behavior choices of the local government and SEEs are compared and analyzed. Combined with the evolution degree of emergency events, the numerical simulation analysis is used to deduce and simulate the multi scenario of the example model. The results show that the reputation mechanism can effectively promote the evolution of government and enterprises to the ideal state under various scenarios. When the punishment intensity of the central government is higher than the total benefit of the implementation of the mere formality policy by the local government, it can effectively prevent the omission of the local government. This study provides a new idea for the government to formulate reasonable policies to promote SEEs to reserve production capacity, which is more conducive to government enterprise cooperation to deal with emergency events.

The tiered transaction system for sea use rights in China: Theoretical basis and market construction

The sea use rights (SUR) transaction system is the core of the marine property rights system. This study proposes three theoretical bases for tiered SUR transactions: (1) The allocation result of the initial SUR is led by the government; (2) Free SUR transactions under government supervision can significantly improve sea use efficiency; (3) SUR transaction among local governments is a rational choice of local governments. Based on these theoretical bases, this study shows that the SUR transaction system is a tiered structure under the constraints of state ownership and paid use of the sea. The operation of the SUR transaction system relies on government and market mechanisms. It corresponds to different levels of the SUR transaction market according to the various transaction subjects and dominant mechanisms. That is, the primary transaction market that resolves the allocation of initial SUR from the central to local governments and then to sea-using enterprises (individuals) is under the guidance of government mechanisms. Then, the secondary transaction market for the settlement of SUR transactions among local governments is under the direction of a quasi-market mechanism. Finally, the tertiary transaction market for SUR transactions among sea-using enterprises (individuals) is led by the market mechanism.

Interest, Power, and Attitudes Toward International Communication

This study investigated the language choices of provincial governments in China by employing the concepts of interest, norm, and power within the Language Management Theory (LMT) framework. We approached this issue by examining which language options were presented on the websites of 31 provincial governments in China (Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan not included), and found that 11 offered Chinese versions only, 16 offered both Chinese and English versions, and only four offered Chinese and multiple foreign language versions. For both the governments and international visitors, subsequent analysis suggested that additional language versions facilitated the fulfillment of communicative and symbolic interests. However, this entailed a higher loss of pecuniary interest from a government-based perspective. Here, the voluntary abandonment of pecuniary interest indicated both a lower power position and a more open attitude toward international communication. In summary, the data showed that not all provincial governments in China were ready to embrace globalization in the context of cyberspace.

Evolutionary game analysis of enterprise carbon emission regulation based on prospect theory

With the continuous development of a low-carbon economy, the issue of carbon emission regulation has attracted extensive attention. Considering the characteristics of bounded rationality and difference of risk perception in government and enterprises in the carbon emission regulation process, we construct an evolutionary game model based on prospect theory. Using this model, we analyze the evolutionary stability strategies of government and enterprises under the low, medium, and high risk of air quality deterioration. The results show that the cost-benefit ratio of government and enterprise is the threshold to distinguish the grade of air quality deterioration risk. When the risk of air quality deterioration is low, the government tends to be passive regulation and enterprises tend to traditional production. In the situation of medium risk, the strategy choice of government and enterprise is in a circular state. In the situation of high risk, the government tends to be passive supervision, while enterprises tend to choose low-carbon production. At the same time, there is an incentive paradox in the process of regulation of carbon emissions, but in the long run, it is more effective to strengthen the punishment of local governments’ passive regulation than to increase the punishment of enterprises.

Water governance diversity across Europe: Does legacy generate sticking points in implementing multi-level governance?

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) aims to protect and improve water quality across Europe through an integrative and multi-level water governance approach. The goal is to ensure that water quality in Europe meets good ecological status by 2027. Whilst the WFD has been hailed as a cornerstone for governance innovation in water management, most EU member states (MS) still struggle to achieve good ecological status of their waters. The realignment to a multi-level governance structure under the WFD is discretionary, and has generated diversity in WFD multi-level governance implementation approaches and final governance arrangements across MS. This diversity may contribute to low goal achievement and weak compliance. This paper investigates how visual impressions of legislative structure across nine MS can illustrate and contribute to understanding the differences in multi-level implementation of WFD and associated water protection directives. We explore, in-depth, the drivers of visual differences in Portugal, Germany (Lower Saxony) and France. We hypothesise that many of the challenges of WFD implementation, and resulting governance arrangements can be explained in terms of the legacy effects of previous water governance choices. With this conceptual framework of investigating the history and legacy, we found the three in depth studies have had different starting points, paths, and end points in their water governance, with sticking points influencing the decision-making processes and compliance required by the WFD. Sticking points include the complexity of existing water governance structures, lobbying by different sectors, and the mandatory WFD timeline for implementation. Portugal had to resolve its focus on water infrastructure and engineering to enable a re-focus on water quality. France and Portugal experienced 'top down' governance at different points in time, slowing the shift to a multi-level governance system. Lower Saxony, representing just one of 16 federal state systems in Germany, highlighted the complex historic governance structures which cannot easily be restructured, generating a layering effect where new governance systems are fitted to old governance systems. We conclude that there is a need to implement a hybrid approach to water governance and WFD implementation including decentralisation (discretionary) to ensure collaboration and engagement of stakeholders at the local level. This hybrid governance system should run in parallel with a centralised (mandatory) governance and regulatory system to enable national environmental standards to be set and enforced. Such systems may provide the best of both worlds (bottom-up involvement of stakeholders meeting top-down goal achievements) and is worthy of further research.

Contracting out social care services to for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in Italy: Social categorization and governance choices

IMPACT This article explains the socio-psychological factors that influence public administrators’ governance choices when dealing with not-for-profit (NFP) and for-profit (FP) providers. In particular, it highlights the use of stereotypes in public administrators’ categorization of NFP and FP motives and expected behaviours, and whether they then prioritize the use of trust or control in the governance of the contractual arrangements. The main implication for public sector managers is that the tendency to social categorization and bias can be an issue in creating the proper mechanisms to ensure the delivery of effective services. In contracting out, the use of categorization by public administrators can reduce their propensity to trust those who are perceived as an outgroup, and hence result in them adopting more formal control mechanisms, while for those perceived as an ingroup their inclination to trust will result in the use of less formal control mechanisms.

Managing the problem of too much capital: Coal power overcapacity, migrant labor sacrifice, and structural problems in contemporary Chinese political economy

China's electricity sector suffers from significant overcapacity in coalfired generation. Between 2000 and 2020, China built more than 970 gigawatts of new coal power capacity, accounting for more than 70% of all new coal capacity worldwide. Building large amounts of coal and other generation capacity has continued despite clear indicators of overcapacity before the mid-2010s. This article uses a Marxian political economy theoretical framework to assert that generation overcapacity is a symptom of China's broader problem of capital overaccumulation. More specifically, it is the result of governance choices to deal with the overaccumulation problem. In so doing, this article presents a new conceptual pathway to understanding overcapacity in the electricity sector, which mainstream discourse attributes to bad planning and mistaken economic assumptions. Through the case of Chinese coal generation overcapacity, this article advocates for examining contemporary political economy issues through the conceptual lens of overaccumulation and devaluation management—in China and beyond. It proceeds by highlighting three central features of structural problems in contemporary Chinese political economy. The first is the expression of capital overaccumulation as massive coal generation overcapacity. The second is the structural bias toward overbuilding generation infrastructure; this is due both to the bulky and long-lived nature of electricity sector fixed capital and the sector's key role in circulating capital throughout the economy. The third feature is how—given insufficient consumption demand—capital is offloaded spatially, temporally, and biophysically onto migrant contract workers. Together, these features trace governance decisions made by state entities at different scales and times to deal with the imperatives of capital while maintaining economic, social, and political legitimacy. This framework highlights the ongoing management of overaccumulation and devaluation as a core governance imperative. This imperative undergirds current class warfare, and in this case of fossil fuel capital expansion, carries grim implications for climate change.

Enterprise location choice and regional sustainable development based on the theory of stable matching

As an important path of industrial structure adjustment and upgrading, industrial transfer is of great significance to narrow the regional economic development gap in China and promoting the sustainable development of regional economies. The locational choice of firms is one of the main reasons for the transfer of industries. The aim of this study was to obtain an optimal and stable match between firms and local governments. By constructing an evaluation index system for enterprise location selection and an evaluation index system for local government investment attraction, and based on the relevant linguistic evaluation information, this study calculates the satisfaction of enterprises with the location and the satisfaction of local governments with the target investment enterprises and then obtains the optimal stable match between enterprises and local governments based on the constructed stable match model. Most of the previous studies only consider the location choice of enterprises and government’s investment attraction as their respective unilateral choice of location, ignoring the relationship between the two as mutual stakeholders. This study, however, examines firms’ choice of location and the government’s investment promotion from a bilateral matching perspective. The study also studies the mechanism by which the stable matching between enterprises and the government’s inducements to invest is realized. The results show that, based on the stable matching mechanism, a bilateral matching scheme between enterprises and the government can give full play to the decisive role of the markets in resource allocation, maintain long-term stable investment and cooperation between the two sides, and help China’s industries transfer and upgrade their quality in an orderly fashion.

Understanding the governance of high-performing international buyer-supplier relationships in China using complexity-based contingencies

• Analyses controversy surrounding governance of Western buyer-Chinese supplier relationships. • Investigates the role of complexity-based contingencies in driving governance choices. • High sourcing process complexity drives the combination of governance forms. • Structural complexity determines the appropriateness of a particular transactional mechanism.

The grid access of energy communities a comparison of power grid governance in France and Germany

Energy communities may play a significant role in the transition towards a more participatory and low-carbon energy system. However, their development varies across European countries, depending on national contexts and policies. Overall, European energy communities face many barriers: access to the grid and lack of funding are often cited. The transformation of the electricity network to integrate new distributed energy resources opens opportunities and entails trade-offs for all the actors involved, from technical, social and economic perspectives. While the question of financial incentives for renewable energy communities is widely addressed in the literature, that of access to the grid is still fragmented and scattered. This study explores the conditions under which energy communities access the electricity grid in two countries with contrasting governance settings: France and Germany. We explore the governance choices and narratives, determining the technical and economic conditions for grid access. Priority of connection for renewable energy and affordable connection prices are identified as the main opportunities, together with a strong agency of local authorities. The connection issues are also intertwined with national regulations for renewable energy, especially financial incentives, with the way the grid is financed, and with the European rules of the common electricity market.

Research on Cognition and Behavior Choice of Haze Control based on Questionnaire

The problem of haze control is a complex system problem, which requires a lot of human, material and capital investment from all walks of life, and improving the broad participation of the public is an important entry point for haze pollution control. Through questionnaire survey, chi square test and other research methods, this study carried out research on Residents' cognition and behavior choice of haze governance, explored its relevance, emphasized the necessity of multi-body participation in haze governance, and improved the public's awareness of the importance of participation in haze governance.

Supply chain design for industrial additive manufacturing

PurposeThis study extends and refines the current knowledge on emerging supply chain designs (SCDs) for industrial additive manufacturing (AM) and manufacturing firms' rationales in selecting them.Design/methodology/approachFollowing an exploratory research design, a multiple-case study is conducted in the context of industrial AM. It focuses on two key dimensions of SCD, the geographic dispersion and governance structure. Four cohesive AM SCD configurations are characterized and form the basis for exploring the rationales for the SCD decision of manufacturing firms.FindingsThe findings indicate that manufacturing firms' SCD for industrial AM depends on the trade-off between economies of scale in a centralized setting and the market potential from customer proximity realized by decentral AM. Furthermore, the control of suppliers and the reevaluation of manufacturing firms' core competencies guide the governance choice. Many of the identified rationales currently drive manufacturing firms toward in-house AM at a centralized location or distributed AM in a secure, firm-owned network.Practical implicationsThe arguments for the AM SCD choices are illustrated. They provide guidance for managers of manufacturing firms when implementing industrial AM.Originality/valueThe study reveals and enhances the understanding of why the extant academic expectation of decentralized and outsourced AM is not sufficiently reflected in current industry practice. Thereby, the study provides a basis for elaborative decision-support research on AM SCDs.