Policy Dilemmas Research Articles

How Financial Development Is Driving the Growth and Environmental Dimensions of Sustainable Development in Africa: Heterogeneous Analyses

Globally, we face a policy dilemma between desiring more economic growth and safeguarding the deteriorating ecosystem, which have an apparent trade-off. Consequently, financing growth often comes with strong concerns for the ecological implications, which is yet to be empirically resolved. Hence, the current study examined the growth and environmental effects of financial development from three angles, each with a robust indicator, comprising financial development index, financial institution index, and financial market index. The scope of this study was financial development in 30 selected African countries from 1996 to 2021. This study extends the frontier of knowledge by estimating the moderating roles of regulatory quality and digitalization coupled with other control variables: renewable and nonrenewable energy, government expenditure, trade openness, and foreign direct investment. The empirical evidence relies on estimators such as common correlated effects (mean group), the system-generalized method of moment, and method of moment quantile regression. The findings from this study reveal that financial development propels economic growth but to the detriment of the ecosystem. However, when the interactive effects of regulatory quality and digitalization are considered, the negative externalities of growth-induced financial development are reduced. Furthermore, control variables such as renewable energy and foreign direct investment promote growth without escalating ecological damage. This is in contrast to nonrenewable energy, government expenditure, and trade openness, which propel economic growth at the expense of the ecological system. Policy recommendations that balance the trade-off between the two measures are put forward based on the research outcomes.

Decentering governance models: education policy and school accountability in Post-Devolution Wales

ABSTRACT This paper investigates education policy reform in post-Devolution Wales with a focus on school accountability. Specifically, it provides a historicist analysis of Wales’ decision to abandon publicly mandated school league tables and subsequent accountability reforms. The paper uses the literature on four governance models to investigate successive accountability regimes in Wales through time. These have changed from a Trust and Altruism model, via a Transparent Public Rankings model, to a new, emerging model that relies on self-assessment and collaborative accountability standards. Notably, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has played an increasingly important role in shaping this process. Central to our analysis is Mark Bevir and Roderick Rhodes’ decentered theory. The paper argues that governance models need to be understood with reference to the dynamic interplay of historical constraints, power struggles and new belief systems that respond to policy dilemmas. As Wales has embarked on several substantial education policy reform initiatives, the paper demonstrates the importance of a historically informed approach to policy design and implementation which is responsive to competing traditions and beliefs.

The production and utility of evidence synthesis during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: perspectives of evidence synthesis producers

Background: COVID-19 accentuated an evergreen dilemma in evidence-informed policy making: the imperative to synthesise the best available evidence with limited time to produce high quality synthesis. The pandemic prompted the adaptation of evidence synthesis practices to match the urgency of the crisis, and heightened demand by policy makers, while maintaining a focus on quality. This study documents the response to these challenges from the perspectives of those who produced evidence syntheses in Canada. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted between October 2022 and January 2023. Data collection included interviews with 22 participants within 19 organisations across seven provinces. A thematic analysis was performed and reported narratively. Results: Evidence synthesis producers in Canada adapted in response to the demands of different types of requests during the pandemic. Participants described several key challenges in responding to end-users, in which a lack of knowledge of evidence synthesis processes and products prompted difficult questions and unrealistic expectations. They responded to the needs of evidence synthesis requestors by creating custom syntheses, utilising rapid review methodologies, emphasising limitations and incorporating recommendations into syntheses. Discussion and conclusion: The evidence synthesis field was able to adapt to pandemic challenges in valuable ways. Still, this experience accentuates disconnects between producers and users, including differing views on the purpose, methods, limitations and implementation of synthesis findings.

SooSim, a landscape model for assessing mire habitat degradation and restoration

Open mires constitute a characteristic part of boreal natural landscapes, which is under various cumulative anthropogenic pressures. As a response, remaining mires are increasingly protected, and their degradation is addressed by ecological restoration (mostly drainage closure). To evaluate alternative environmental policies, there is a necessity for high-resolution landscape simulation models to assess future dynamics of mires under different management scenarios. We present such a model, SooSim, its R-script, and derivation and validation of its key parameters. SooSim iterates mire types and woody encroachment dynamics within 25 × 25 m grid at 1-year intervals. Management interventions (restoration; ditch renovation) are sequentially introduced based on priority rules in locations delineated prior to simulation. We applied SooSim to three management scenarios, compared with natural succession, until 2050 in Estonia. The ‘current’ (2022) database comprised >3.8 M mire pixels and > 7 M peatland-forest pixels (sparse-cover ones considered for mire restoration). The model parameterization, based on Lidar data, revealed rapid ongoing woody encroachment across all mire types, with significant positive feedback. The simulations revealed that, even in scenarios with intensive restoration (2500 ha annually), open mire conditions are reduced by >10 % until 2050, while few mire types lose >1 % in area. Ditch renovations mostly reduced restoration perspectives in currently forested peatlands. Thus, SooSim explicitly depicts a decision-making dilemma where mire restoration is time-sensitive but also uncertain. To address this and related land-use dilemmas in the environmental policy, landscape models such as SooSim have further importance as visualization tools to explain complex processes to a wide range of stakeholders.

Modeling fisheries and carbon sequestration ecosystem services under deep uncertainty in the ocean twilight zone

Mesopelagic fishes are a vital component of the biological carbon pump and are, to date, largely unexploited. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in harvesting the mesopelagic zone to produce fish feed for aquaculture. However, great uncertainties exist in how the mesopelagic zone interacts with the climate and food webs, presenting a dilemma for policy. Here, we investigate the consequences of potential policies relating to mesopelagic harvest quotas with a dynamic social-ecological modeling approach, combining system dynamics and global sensitivity analyses informed by participatory modeling. Our analyses reveal that, in simulations of mesopelagic fishing scenarios, uncertainties about mesopelagic fish population dynamics have the most pronounced influence on potential outcomes. The analysis also shows that prioritizing the development of the fishing industry over environmental protection would lead to a significantly higher social cost of climate change to society. Given the large uncertainties and the potential large impacts on oceanic carbon sequestration, a precautionary approach to developing mesopelagic fisheries is warranted.

Αn integrated framework to monitor progress of sustainable urban development strategies, addressing societal, ecological and innovation dilemmas

This paper presents an integrated Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework, an all-encompassing approach suitable for European cities and regions aiming to monitor and evaluate the implementation and results of sustainable urban development strategies or projects related to urban planning, transport planning, or urban energy management. The framework features a co-created and co-implemented reflexive and adaptive method tailored specifically for strategies or projects that introduce innovative elements from contemporary research and innovation in science and technology, such as net-zero development, systemic solutions for cities, or integrated urban mobility and planning. The approach to designing and implementing the M&E framework was realized through a six-phase process: (i) development of the M&E framework, (ii) tailoring indicators to each region’s specificities, (iii) developing data collection questionnaires and a reporting database, (iv) collecting the data, (v) populating the database, and (vi) writing the final report. The framework was tested and enhanced with four European regional authorities over a 19-month period, enabling them to address their so-called 'policy dilemmas,' defined as the challenges they face in balancing societal and inclusivity objectives with economic and innovation goals. This framework is designed for replication in future sustainable urban development strategies or projects with similar societal, ecological, and innovation objectives.

Navigating the innovation policy dilemma: How subnational governments balance expenditure competition pressures and long-term innovation goals

In the pursuit of economic growth, the role of innovation has become increasingly important, posing dilemmas for subnational governments as they navigate the balance between expenditure competition and long-term investments in innovation. This study aimed to investigate the intricate relationship between fiscal pressures and the pursuit of innovation goals faced by regional authorities. To achieve this, a systematic literature review was conducted, synthesizing more than 150 studies published within the past 15 years. Keyword searches were conducted across multiple databases, and additional scholarly articles were incorporated through citation tracking. Rigorous qualitative analysis techniques, including inductive coding and thematic analysis, were employed to distill conceptual insights from the literature. The analysis performed in this review reveals extensive discussions regarding the influence of competition on innovation outcomes, encompassing a wide range of perspectives. The potential advantages of localization are emphasized by some viewpoints, while others caution against the risks of inadequate investment. The effective coordination of policies across multiple levels of governance to maximize synergies between national and subnational innovation systems emerges as a complex yet crucial challenge. It is observed that collaborative networks, which facilitate knowledge exchange through industrial clustering and public-private linkages, play a significant role in leveraging regional innovation assets. Strategic approaches that successfully balance competition with long-term capacity development have been demonstrated by leading jurisdictions. These findings highlight the significance of tailored policy frameworks that account for the unique contexts of each region, providing opportunities to harness competitive motivations while sustaining investments in innovation. Ongoing coordination is essential to strike a balance between responsiveness and coherence across diverse territories. This study offers practical guidance and academic insights on strategies to align decentralized imperatives, aiming to optimize prosperity through knowledge creation within evolving multi-level innovation systems. By shedding light on these strategies, the research contributes to both practical and academic understandings of how to effectively navigate and capitalize on the dynamics of such systems.

Differentiated secularism: discourse shaping of immigrants from different religious backgrounds in the French media

This paper examines the mechanisms of differentiated discursive disciplining for immigrants of different religious backgrounds in the French media. Based on a sample of 120 articles on immigration in the French mainstream media, textual analyses and comparisons were conducted. Results show that influenced by religious factors, the French media use secularism as a tool to portray completely different images of immigrants through different discursive logics. Muslim immigrants present a paradoxically biased negative image in the French media discourse as a collection of invaders and the disciplined. In contrast, the media image of Ukrainian immigrants of Orthodox Christian background is positive on the whole, with a certain degree of deliberateness in the details of its construction. The difference in the symbolic characterization between Catholicism and Islam enables the exclusionary media discourse against Muslim immigrants. The paper also discusses French media discourse flaws and policy dilemmas. The logic of French media discourse is paradoxical in its inability to maintain an intact secularist identification and to effectively influence political issues to the detriment of promoting immigrant integration.

RENT POLICY DILEMMAS. REVIEW AND ATTEMPTED EVALUATION

This article aims to present (1) the mechanism of the establishment and consequences of maintaining a policy of low rents in the housing sector, (2) the complex process of transition to market rents, and (3) the risks associated with maintaining these market rents. Two main research hypotheses are proposed: (1) that government intervention in setting low rents leads to a so-called 'rent stabilization trap', with detrimental long-term effects on the housing economy, and (2) that the adoption of market rents in areas with unmet housing demand – which is politically and socially sensitive, especially in the context of high inflation - leads to a 'high rent trap', exacerbating housing availability problems. As the experience of several countries shows, such dynamics often force further legislative action on rent regulation. The study uses three research methods: document review, literature analysis and critique, and a case study approach.

Post-COVID inflation and the monetary policy dilemma: an agent-based scenario analysis

AbstractThe economic shocks that followed the COVID-19 pandemic have brought to light the difficulty, both for academics and policy makers, of describing and predicting the dynamics of inflation. This paper offers an alternative modelling approach. We study the 2020–2023 period within the well-studied Mark-0 Agent-Based Model, in which economic agents act and react according to plausible behavioural rules. We include a mechanism through which trust of economic agents in the Central Bank can de-anchor. We investigate the influence of regulatory policies on inflationary dynamics resulting from three exogenous shocks, calibrated on those that followed the COVID-19 pandemic: a production/consumption shock due to COVID-related lockdowns, a supply chain shock, and an energy price shock exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By exploring the impact of these shocks under different assumptions about monetary policy efficacy and transmission channels, we review various explanations for the resurgence of inflation in the USA, including demand-pull, cost-push, and profit-driven factors. Our main results are fourfold: (i) without appropriate fiscal policy, the shocked economy can take years to recover, or even tip over into a deep recession; (ii) the success of monetary policy in curbing inflation is primarily due to expectation anchoring, rather than to the direct economic impact of interest rate hikes; (iii) however, perhaps paradoxically, strong inflation anchoring is detrimental to consumption and unemployment, leading to a narrow window of “optimal” policy responses due to the trade-off between inflation and unemployment; (iv) the two most sensitive model parameters are those describing wage and price indexation. The results of our study have implications for Central Bank decision-making, and offer an easy-to-use tool that may help anticipate the consequences of different monetary and fiscal policies.

Reframing Resilience Narratives for (Rural) Communities Using the Actantial Model

As polities of all kinds are under pressure to achieve socio-environmental sustainability and resilience, existing assessment tools diagnosing communities’ vitality assets and vulnerabilities face challenges. These include grappling with incomplete data, incongruent models, and diverse indicator schemes from various scientific and professional domains. Moreover, these assessments draw upon multiple, sometimes unclear, and occasionally overlapping conceptualisations of ‘sustainability’ and ‘resilience’. This complexity makes monitoring system dynamics difficult, particularly in smaller rural communities with limited resources. This essay addresses this science policy and epistemic dilemma by proposing Greimas’s actantial model as a solution. The model, initially designed for understanding language and stories, is adapted to connect and integrate diverse data and indicator narratives across disciplines to inform policies at various levels of governance. This essay discusses recent debates on the conceptualisation of sustainability/resilience and its associated challenges, exploring how Greimas’s model may allow more constructive dialogue about conflicting views on resilience and sustainability. The model is presented as a planning template to foster communication across disciplines, social actors, and polities. The conclusion emphasises the model’s simplicity as a tool to overcome jargon, bridge communication gaps, and provide guidance for smaller rural communities facing resource constraints in assessing and implementing initiatives for sustainability and resilience.

The Development of Tajikistan’s Apparel Firms in the Global Value Chains: Upgrading and Challenges

This study examines the development of apparel firms in Tajikistan. Since Tajikistan is the lowest-income country in Central Asia, its innovation system is rather limited. Instead, international donors play a complementary role in the knowledge sourcing of the apparel industry. Moreover, the technological capabilities of individual firms are critically important for industrial upgrading. Based on a survey of 25 apparel firms, this study identifies three trajectories for the upgrading of Tajikistan’s apparel firms and examines the government’s policy dilemma between the creation of export competitiveness and the need for indirect protection for the domestic apparel industry.

Climate‐resilient water infrastructure: A call to action

AbstractThe effects of climate change have put tremendous stress on our existing water infrastructure and necessitate rethinking of how we govern and manage these systems. This commentary is a call to action for placing a holistic understanding of climate resilience at the center of water governance, understanding and approaching the issues as contextual and interdisciplinary in nature. Drawing from experiences from the Netherlands and the United States, this commentary outlines climate adaptation as policy dilemma and the role and characteristics of engineering, nature‐based, and community‐focused approaches. It concludes with some thoughts on pathways forward and an invitation for future research and dialog.

Financial crises, bailouts and monetary policy in open economies

I jointly study the optimal bailout policy and monetary policy in open economies that borrow in foreign currency from international lenders. A policy dilemma emerges during financial crises. Policymakers trade off the benefit of more bailouts alleviating firms’ financial constraints against the cost of larger currency devaluation, which tightens firms’ financial constraints. I embed the optimal bailout in an otherwise standard “sudden stop” model with nominal rigidities. The model sheds light on the role of bailouts and currency mismatch in driving the exchange rate dynamics, firms’ balance sheets and economic recovery. Quantitatively, the model matches key business cycle moments. A welfare evaluation shows that there are in general welfare gains from the systemic bailout policy despite ex ante moral hazard problems of firms.

Dilemma of Local Health Service Policy in the Era of National Health Insurance: A Political Perspective Analysis

The strengthening of political priorities in terms of developing health policies for various parties needs to be carried out both for the doctor and for the recipients of health services. Various health policies are influenced by various things based on certain contextual factors. In the Minister of Health Number 59 of 2014, it is stated that the amount of capitation funds is for first-level dental health services in independent practices, but it is not stated how much the capitation rate is for dental health services at community health centers. This research uses quantitative descriptive methods. The calculation method used is the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method. The results of this study show that the average unit cost of dental health services at the Community Health Center is IDR. 104714. The largest unit cost is the GIC patching action. By using the activity-based cost calculation method, it can be seen that the largest costs for dental health services at the Community Health Center come from employee costs. And this shows that the situation is not fair for various parties. This raises a dilemma that is important to be discussed. The capitation rates set by the government are considered inappropriate for dentists in first-level health facilities. This can cause a decrease in the quality of health services provided by dentists at community health centers.

In the Labyrinth of Remembrance: Historical Thinking and the Pluralism of past-interpretation

The study explores the issues of European remembrance politics and common culture of remembrance, analysing the relationship between collective memory and historiography. It points out that history is a constructed narrative that serves political ends and that national identity is closely intertwined with the national image of history. The study takes stock of the dilemmas of a common remembrance policy at the European level: the divergence of national narratives and the question of a single European identity. Finally, presents the issues of European memory culture, from the Holocaust to EU integration and migration, and makes proposals for an unbiased, diverse and common European memory policy.

International climate policy dilemmas: Examining effective carbon tariff and cap-and-trade regulation from a sustainable insurance perspective

This paper introduces a contingent claim model, offering a financial perspective on the global climate policy challenge. The model prioritizes the use of carbon tariffs to prevent carbon leakage and cap-and-trade initiatives to incentivize carbon emission reductions. In this model, manufacturers in an exporting country's supply chain collaborate with a life insurance company to acquire carbon allowances through the cap-and-trade mechanism. The importing country enforces carbon tariffs to protect its import-substitution industries and to prevent carbon leakage, assessed by the effective carbon tariff rate. Our findings show that increasing carbon tariffs on final products and intermediate goods reduces equity for both the life insurance company and the importer but strengthens carbon tariff protection. Conversely, a stricter regulatory cap within the exporting country's cap-and-trade system bolsters equity for the life insurance company and the importer but weakens carbon tariff effectiveness in the importing country. This dilemma underscores the urgent need for global collaboration in managing carbon emissions. Our research highlights the complex challenges of global climate policies. It is suggested to foster efficient and sustainable international cooperation in shaping climate policies to address these challenges.

Russia in the Council of Europe: A Difficult Relationship

Abstract This short introduction presents some background facts and policy dilemmas concerning the admission, membership, and expulsion of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe, with a special emphasis on the European Convention on Human Rights. It then introduces the six articles that compose this special issue of Russian Politics. Finally, it summarizes the process by which these articles came to be gathered together – a two-day workshop funded by PluriCourts and organized by Geir Flikke and Jeffrey Kahn.

Navigating the Wicked Policy Problem: An In-Depth Analysis of Policy Dilemmas and Innovative Approaches for Effective Problem Solving

The UN established the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address a variety of social, economic, and environmental issues in order to ensure a more equitable future for all. These issues are to be addressed through policy and various relevant programs. However, some policy problems are hardly fixed despite the fact that many public policies are ostensibly being developed to address them. Wicked problems keep on piling up. Policy issues such as road safety, corruption, poverty and inequality, unemployment, land disputes, environmental degradation, gender equality, and so on have drawn a growing number of policies in an effort to address them, but these issues are recognized as being essentially amorphous and stubborn, hence creating policy dilemmas. This article offers a greater grasp of the alternatives for fixing wicked problems. It considers policy networks, policy entrepreneurship, collaborative governance, data-driven decision-making, policy diffusion, decentralization, and strategic placement of street-level bureaucrats as key strategies for tackling complex policy issues. This article makes the case that an integrated policy package is best suited to address wicked policy issues. This implies that addressing wicked problems requires a multifaceted and adaptive approach, as no single problem-solving technique can consistently and reliably provide a wide-ranging result.

Creating more equitable school-to-work transitions for young people not taking the university route: an ‘equalities-ecologies’ framework

ABSTRACT This article proposes and illustrates a framework for thinking about how the school-to-work transitions of young people not intending to go to university can be made more equitable. This framework seeks to enrich sociological readings of VET by building on the considerable strengths of existing research on ecologies of VET provision and the life-worlds of young people navigating transitions, and bringing them together with concerns about the theoretical and practical complexity of equality that have tended to be relatively neglected in VET research to date. Its organising principle is that, in order to make young people’s transitions more equitable, we need to systematically combine analytic attention to: the multidimensional and intersectional nature of inequality; how local learning ecologies are produced at different system-levels; and how these ecologies interact with young people’s life-worlds, values and agency. We argue that identifying which aspects of local learning ecologies underpin or undermine which kinds of equality for differently resourced young people represents an important first step towards formulating a strategy for how local learning ecologies can be stimulated to become both more opportunity-rich and more equitable, and for understanding the policy and practice challenges and dilemmas that have to be negotiated in the process.