Diverse Policy Research Articles

Universal Design and DEI

Universal Design has been used in learning, physical environments, and digital resources to ensure that students and others are able to use the resources and environments to their greatest possible degree. The principles inherent in Universal Design are almost entirely compatible with the principles of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility policies. This paper aims to draw the connections between the parallel processes and practices, and to demonstrate how enacting policies in one area can also ensure that policies in the other are implemented.

P2P credit auction vs. net metering: Benefit analysis for prosumers under incremental block rate electricity tariff

In order to increase the economic benefits of residential photovoltaic (PV), many countries have considered diverse compensation policies for surplus energy, such as fixed feed-in tariff, time-varying feed-in tariff, and net metering, where the surplus energy is offset against consumption. More recently, there has been a growing interest in schemes that allow end-users to trade surplus energy via peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading, rather than relying on government incentives. This study conducts a quantitative analysis of on how the introduction of P2P trading affects the benefits of each stakeholder, offering a guide for policy adoption. Firstly, this study devises a P2P trading mechanism based on credit auctions tailored for residential, while considering the application of the increasing block rate tariff often applied to residential customers in the real world, and assesses its benefits in comparison to the current net metering scheme. Multiple case studies were undertaken, encompassing various scenarios, including the level of purchase price of utility for uncleared auction offers, the proportion of prosumers participating in the trading network, and the level of capacity of PV. This study shows that the P2P trading does not always yield positive benefits for prosumers compared to the prior policy. Nevertheless, this study identifies specific conditions under which the P2P trading can stimulate residential PV installations.

Study on the Influencing Factors of Chinese Students Attending Private High Schools

After the official implementation of China's ‘General Employment Diversion’ policy on high school entrance examination, only about 50 percent of students will win the competition for senior high school education while the rest will enter vocational schools. This policy has led to the trend of parents choosing private high schools in China. Based on a detailed explanation of the general employment diversion policy, this paper analyzes the factors that affect Chinese parents' choice of private high schools and vocational schools by integrating three representative cases through interview analysis, and analyzes the family and social conflicts caused by the general employment diversion policy from a multi-dimensional perspective, as well as possible solutions. Through the reference of the existing research results of the general employment diversion policy and the interview of three cases, Chinese parents with different economic conditions are more inclined to choose high school education, which leads to the competition of educational resources in private high schools, as well as family conflicts and economic burdens. To standardize and improve the teaching and management of private high schools and vocational schools, and to change the cognitive limitations of public opinion on vocational education are crucial to realizing the equity of high school education.

WAYS TO INCREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF STATE REGULATION OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF UKRAINE AND ARTISTIC ACTIVITY, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULATION OF SOCIETY DURING THE WAR

This paper explores the effectiveness of state regulatory strategies in fostering socio-economic development and enhancing artistic activity in Ukraine during ongoing military conflict and environmental pressures. It delves into the crucial balance between state control and market autonomy, utilizing both historical insights and modern global practices to suggest improvements in regulatory frameworks. The focus is on a cohesive governance approach that integrates economic stabilization measures, cultural enrichment, and environmental sustainability initiatives to enhance societal resilience and well-being. This paper aims to explore strategic approaches that can enhance the effectiveness of such regulations, specifically focusing on socio-economic growth and the flourishing of artistic activities, while simultaneously considering the vital role of environmental stimulation as a catalyst for societal endurance and morale. The methodology of the conducted research involves the use of methods of comparative analysis, historical and strategic analysis, forecasting. The used methods made it possible to propose directions for solving the tasks and strategic directions. The study demonstrates that specific economic policies, such as tax breaks for key sectors and increased financial support for the arts, have significantly strengthened economic stability and continuity. State-sponsored artistic endeavors have rejuvenated Ukraine's cultural landscape, boosting both national spirit and international cultural engagement. Additionally, environmental measures, like establishing urban green zones and promoting community farming, have been shown to improve mental health and social unity, showcasing the benefits of incorporating environmental aspects into governance during times of war. The paper addresses the complexities of integrating diverse policy areas, managing resources efficiently, and sustaining public involvement under conflict conditions. It proposes an adaptable, dynamic regulatory framework to tackle these challenges. Recommendations include adopting a comprehensive policy approach, enhancing governance flexibility, and seeking international collaboration to optimize state regulation. The findings emphasize the critical role of state intervention in aligning socio-economic and cultural development, offering valuable guidance for policymakers dealing with the intricacies of governance in conflict-impacted regions.

How do climate risks impact the contagion in China's energy market?

Energy security is a critical facet of national security, especially in energy-importing countries, and significant fluctuations in the energy market can profoundly influence the real economy. With the intensification of global climate change, extreme weather events and diverse energy transition policies emerge as prominent risk factors driving energy market volatility. In this study, we employed a time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) model and the spillover index method of generalized variance decomposition to assess the endogenous contagion and exogenous shock risk of China's energy prices and the systematic risk in the broader energy market. Our analysis included the coal, oil, and natural gas prices in both Chinese and international markets. The results indicate that the international oil market plays a dominant role in the energy risk spillover network, with the exogenous shock risk in China's energy market surpassing the endogenous contagion risk. Further, quantile models were used to investigate the impact of climate risks, namely climate disasters, climate policy uncertainty, and climate risk concern. We found that in high-risk environments, all climatic factors exert pronounced impacts on China's energy market risks, with climate risk concern being especially influential. Overall, this study has important policy implications for energy security and adaptation to climate change.

Foreign Financial Flows on Financial Efficiency in Sub-Sahara African Countries

The level of financial efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remained low and incomparable to that of industrialized nations of the world, despite the supposed advantages of foreign capital inflows. This study examined the relationship between foreign financial inflows and financial efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa against this backdrop (SSA). This study's specific goals are to look into how remittance inflows affected financial efficiency in SSA and how FDI inflows affected it as well. Out of 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, 42 were chosen for the study using a purposive sampling technique and an ex-post facto research design. The study used pooled mean group, mean group, and dynamic fixed effects techniques to estimate the model parameters using panel autoregressive distributed lag (PARDL) methods of estimation. The findings revealed that remittance inflows have significant positive impact on the financial efficiency, while FDI inflows have insignificant influence on the financial efficiency. In addition, the combination of economic growth with remittance inflows yielded negative impact on the financial efficiency while the combination of economic growth with FDI inflows yielded a positive impact on financial efficiency. The study concluded that remittance and FDI inflows play vital roles in guaranteeing improvement in financial efficiency of Sub-Sahara African countries directly and indirectly through inclusive economic growth. The study recommended that financial openness policies, like removing restrictions and encouraging free flow of financial resources between entities in domestic economy and foreign economies to promote further foreign financial inflows and enhance further financial efficiency. It is also recommended that financial openness policy should be pursued alongside inclusive economic growth measures such as economic diversification policies.

Women Directors: An Empirical Test of Critical Mass Hypothesis

This paper offers integrated theoretical-based empirical evidence regarding the role of female directors in promoting corporate common good using resource dependency model built on critical mass hypothesis. Using panel regression involving 220 firm-year observations from 2011 to 2021, the paper empirically assesses the moderating impacts of diversity and social inclusion policy, and gender-based power separation in determining the direction of causality between composition of female directors and foreign capital importation by the top 20 commercial banks in Nigeria. With approximately 30 per cent female director representation in the sampled banks (i.e., optimal gender threshold), the paper offers support to critical mass hypothesis and validates intrinsic benefits of women in corporate boardroom. The empirical result shows that female director representation in boards with strong diversity and social inclusion policy and greater independent non-executive directors, is positively linked to resource dependency role of foreign capital importation. Diversity of power separation is found to be detrimental to such board tasks due to overwhelming tokenism effect that surrounds gender-based power delineation. These key findings are statistically significant and robust to a series of iterated sensitivity tests. In addition to offering emerging market contributions to the growing literature on critical mass theory application, findings from this study demonstrate the inherent value of combining multiple governance theories (such as resource dependency and critical mass models) and the dynamic research framework opportunities it offers for robust empirical testing.

Rh immune globulin immunoprophylaxis after RhD-positive red cell exposure in RhD-negative patients via transfusion: A survey of practices.

Current Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB) standards require transfusion services to have a policy on Rh immune globulin (RhIG) immunoprophylaxis for when RhD-negative patients are exposed to RhD-positive red cells. This is a survey of AABB-accredited transfusion services in the United States (US) regarding institutional policies and practices on RhIG immunoprophylaxis after RhD-negative patients receive RhD-positive (i.e., RhD-incompatible) packed red blood cell (pRBC) and platelet transfusions. Approximately half of the respondents (50.4%, 116/230) have policies on RhIG administration after RhD-incompatible pRBC and platelet transfusions, while others had policies for only pRBC (13.5%, 31/230) or only platelet (17.8%, 41/230) transfusions, but not both. In contrast, 18.3% (42/230) report that their institution has no written policies on RhIG immunoprophylaxis after RhD-incompatible transfusions. Most institutions (70.2%, 99/141) do not have policies addressing safety parameters to mitigate the risk of hemolysis associated with the high dose of RhIG required to prevent RhD alloimmunization after RhD-incompatible pRBC transfusions. With approximately half of US AABB-accredited institutions report having policies on RhIG immunoprophylaxis after both RhD-incompatible pRBC and platelet transfusions, some institutions may not be in compliance with AABB standards. Further, most with policies on RhIG immunoprophylaxis after RhD-incompatible pRBC transfusion do not have written safeguards to mitigate the risk of hemolysis associated with the high dose of RhIG required. This survey underscores the diverse and inadequate institutional policies on RhIG immunoprophylaxis after RhD exposure in Rh-negative patients via transfusion. This observation identifies an opportunity to improve transfusion safety.

Social network centrality and the corporate environment: The case of sexual diversity policies

AbstractWe study the external influence of social capital, measured by Facebook's (now Meta) Social Connectedness Index, on a firm's decision to adopt policies that promote a more diverse corporate environment. Recent studies find corporate policies that embrace sexual diversity are beneficial to firms and their stakeholders, thereby contributing to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business sustainability. We find that firms with a high social network centrality are more likely to adopt policies and business strategies that support sexual diversity. Moreover, firms that adopt good CSR practices are more likely to implement more inclusive policies such as sexual diversity policies. This provides for a more comfortable work environment for the LGBT+ community. However, we also find that firms reduce their adoption of inclusive policies during times of economic uncertainty, supporting the pessimistic view that firms decrease window dressing activities during economic downturns when governance is tightened, and resources are scarce. We attribute this phenomenon to the exploitation of agency benefits by managers.

How do gender diversity and CEO profile impact dividend policy in banking? Evidence from Islamic and conventional banks

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the determinants of the dividend distribution policy in a banking setting.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 48 Islamic banks and 94 conventional banks from 15 Islamic countries over a period spanning from 2012 to 2019, we document the effect of board gender diversity, executive director profile and governance mechanisms on dividend payment decisions. We also analyze the moderating effect of Islamic banks on the relationship between gender diversity and dividend policy.FindingsWe find new evidence on the role of women directors in determining dividend distribution policy and confirm the risk aversion hypothesis, hence contributing to the ongoing debate on gender diversity literature. Our results show that the moderating role of Islamic banks is effective only for small banks.Practical implicationsOur findings have practical implications for shareholders, managers and financial analysts as they suggest rationalizing dividend distribution strategies.Originality/valueOur study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on dividend policy, gender diversity and Islamic banks.

Primary Care Physicians’ Satisfaction With Interoperable Health Information Technology

Enabling widespread interoperability-the ability of health information technology systems to exchange information and to use that information without special effort-is a primary focus of public policy on health information technology. More information on clinicians' experience using that technology can serve as one measure of the impact of that policy. To assess primary care physician perspectives on the state of interoperability. A cross-sectional survey of family medicine physicians in the US was conducted from December 12, 2021, to October 12, 2022. A sample of family medicine physicians who completed the Continuous Certification Questionnaire (CCQ), a required part of the American Board of Family Medicine certification process, which has a 100% response rate, were invited to participate. Eighteen items on the CCQ assessed experience accessing and using various information from outside organizations, including medications, immunizations, and allergies. A total of 2088 physicians (1053 women [50%]; age reported categorically as either ≥50 years or <50 years) completed the CCQ interoperability questions in 2022. Of these respondents, 35% practiced in hospital or health system-owned practices, while 27% practiced in independently owned practices. Eleven percent were very satisfied with their ability to electronically access all 10 types of information from outside organizations included on the questionnaire, and a mean of 70% were at least somewhat satisfied. A total of 23% of family medicine physicians reported information from outside organizations was very easy to use, and an additional 65% reported that information was somewhat easy to use. Only 8% reported that information from different electronic health record (EHR) developers' products was very easy to use compared with 38% who reported information from the same EHR developer's product was very easy to use. This survey study of family medicine physicians found modest and uneven improvement in physicians' experience with interoperability. These findings suggest that substantial heterogeneity in satisfaction by information type, source of information, EHR, practice type, ownership, and patient population necessitates diverse policy and strategies to improve interoperability.

Implementation of water energy food-health nexus in a climate constrained world: a review for South Africa

In recent years, the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has gained significant attention in global research. Spatial inequality in water-energy-food security (WEF) and its impact on public health and how this is affected by climate change remains a grand adaptation challenge. South Africa is extremely vulnerable and exposed to the impacts of climate change due to its socio-economic and environmental context. While alternative nexus types have garnered interest, this paper pioneers an extension of the conventional WEF framework to encompass health, giving rise to the Water-Energy-Food-Health (WEF-H) nexus. Despite a plethora of WEF nexus studies focused on South Africa, a substantial knowledge gap persists due to the lack of a comprehensive overview of the enablers and barriers to realizing the WEF-H nexus. South Africa boasts diverse policies related to water, energy, food, and health; however, their alignment remains an ongoing challenge. This study seeks to bridge this critical gap by conducting an exhaustive review of existing literature. Its primary aim is to delve into the intricate mechanisms that either facilitate or impede the actualization of the WEF-H nexus in South Africa. By synthesizing insights from a wide array of literature sources, this research strives to illuminate the challenges and opportunities stemming from the integration of health considerations into the established WEF nexus framework. This exploration holds immense significance, not only for unraveling the multifaceted interactions between these pivotal sectors but also for guiding policy development and decision-making processes in South Africa towards a more holistic and sustainable approach to resource management.

The Impact Of Diversity and Inclusion Policies In Human Resource Management On Organizational Performance

Diversity and inclusion policies in human resource (HR) management have become an important topic in the context of modern organizational management. This research aims to investigate the impact of diversity and inclusion policies in HR management on organizational performance. The research method used is a qualitative approach by conducting a literature review to collect information about the concepts of diversity, inclusion, HR management and organizational performance. The results of the analysis show that diversity and inclusion policies in HR management have a positive impact on organizational performance. This happens because the policy encourages the creation of an inclusive work environment, where every individual feels valued and recognized, thereby increasing employee motivation, creativity and productivity. Apart from that, this policy can also improve the company's reputation and attractiveness in the eyes of prospective employees, as well as increase employee satisfaction and loyalty. This research contributes to the understanding of the importance of diversity and inclusion policies in HR management as a strategy to improve organizational performance. Provide recommendations for future research, such as areas that need further research or methodological approaches that can be used to gain a deeper understanding of this topic. By making contributions as mentioned above, your research can provide a better understanding of the importance of diversity and inclusion policies in HR management to improve organizational performance

FaceCoresetNet: Differentiable Coresets for Face Set Recognition

In set-based face recognition, we aim to compute the most discriminative descriptor from an unbounded set of images and videos showing a single person. A discriminative descriptor balances two policies when aggregating information from a given set. The first is a quality-based policy: emphasizing high-quality and down-weighting low-quality images. The second is a diversity-based policy: emphasizing unique images in the set and down-weighting multiple occurrences of similar images as found in video clips which can overwhelm the set representation. This work frames face-set representation as a differentiable coreset selection problem. Our model learns how to select a small coreset of the input set that balances quality and diversity policies using a learned metric parameterized by the face quality, optimized end-to-end. The selection process is a differentiable farthest-point sampling (FPS) realized by approximating the non-differentiable Argmax operation with differentiable sampling from the Gumbel-Softmax distribution of distances. The small coreset is later used as queries in a self and cross-attention architecture to enrich the descriptor with information from the whole set. Our model is order-invariant and linear in the input set size. We set a new SOTA to set face verification on the IJB-B and IJB-C datasets. Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/ligaripash/FaceCoresetNet.

Minimum Coverage Sets for Training Robust Ad Hoc Teamwork Agents

Robustly cooperating with unseen agents and human partners presents significant challenges due to the diverse cooperative conventions these partners may adopt. Existing Ad Hoc Teamwork (AHT) methods address this challenge by training an agent with a population of diverse teammate policies obtained through maximizing specific diversity metrics. However, prior heuristic-based diversity metrics do not always maximize the agent's robustness in all cooperative problems. In this work, we first propose that maximizing an AHT agent's robustness requires it to emulate policies in the minimum coverage set (MCS), the set of best-response policies to any partner policies in the environment. We then introduce the L-BRDiv algorithm that generates a set of teammate policies that, when used for AHT training, encourage agents to emulate policies from the MCS. L-BRDiv works by solving a constrained optimization problem to jointly train teammate policies for AHT training and approximating AHT agent policies that are members of the MCS. We empirically demonstrate that L-BRDiv produces more robust AHT agents than state-of-the-art methods in a broader range of two-player cooperative problems without the need for extensive hyperparameter tuning for its objectives. Our study shows that L-BRDiv outperforms the baseline methods by prioritizing discovering distinct members of the MCS instead of repeatedly finding redundant policies.

The 2-month lockdown and commuting behavior transformation in Shanghai: A phone signal data-based analysis

Research on COVID-19's influence on urban mobility often compares pre-pandemic patterns with those during or post-pandemic, emphasizing the decline due to lockdowns and recovery after vaccinations. However, the pandemic's impact on urban mobility and commuting trends, extending beyond the virus's immediate presence, is multifaceted, particularly considering its three-year span and diverse lockdown policies. Our study delves deeper into the effects of Shanghai's 2-month lockdown in 2022, from early April to end of May. Leveraging granular phone signal data, we meticulously compared and analyzed the geospatial dynamics of commuting between May 2021 and July 2022. Our findings revealed a notable contraction in commuting distances. Regions previously characterized by extensive long-distance commuting lost their allure post-lockdown. Intriguingly, administrative boundaries emerged as new impediments to commuting, an outcome that cannot be solely attributed to COVID-19 apprehensions. The empirical evidence suggests the possibility of a structural change in the commuting behavior of people in Shanghai, which is unlikely to be a consequence of the virus itself and more a result of stringent and arguably excessive lockdown protocols.

Vietnam's Response to the US Indo-Pacific Strategy in the Context of a Rising China

As a less-powerful state threatened by a rising China in both security and economic domains irrespective of increasing economic cooperation and sharing a border and political affinity with China, Vietnam is expected to warmly welcome the United States (US) -led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) The country, nonetheless, has remained low-key in responding to the IPS. The article argues that Hanoi is truly interested in a regional rules-based order promoted in the IPS, but it has proposed a hedging response to this strategy through cautious statements and limited engagement in into this strategy. Vietnam's hedging response to the IPS is framed by its post-Doi Moi foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation, and diversification. The year 2023 marks a milestone in bilateral relations between the US and Vietnam as both states upgraded their diplomatic relations to comprehensive strategic partnership which is the highest level in Vietnamese diplomatic ranking. This may become a favourable catalyst for further cooperation between Washington and Hanoi under the IPS within the context of a rising China.

Putting wage growth back on the table: Labour incorporation, political exchange, and wage-boosting policies in advanced peripheral economies

Growth model scholarship posits that wage-led growth has become increasingly difficult to achieve in advanced capitalist economies since the demise of Fordism. The constraints to the pursuit of policies compatible with wage-led growth strategies could be expected to be particularly stringent in peripheral economies, which often rely on price-sensitive exports, suppression of domestic demand, and labour disempowerment to compete in global markets. Yet, empirical experience shows that even advanced peripheral economies that adopted export-led growth strategies have successfully implemented policies intended to raise wages and expand social transfers. How to explain the emergence of such wage-boosting policies in the context of advanced peripheral, export-oriented economies? Drawing on the cases of Israel, Poland, and Spain since the Great Recession, we identify one common mechanism accounting for this unexpected outcome: the contingent political incorporation of organized labour through a cross-class political exchange in the coalition supporting a country’s growth strategy. We identify two scope conditions that enable the implementation of such policies in unlikely contexts. Domestic political instability, coupled with a contingent relaxation of prior economic constraints, leads governing parties of both left and right orientation to activate political exchange with unions, resulting in the implementation of diverse policies boosting household income. These policies also increase the role of domestic consumption as a key growth driver. Nonetheless, the depth and durability of such changes remain conditioned. The findings develop our understanding of the role of, and structural limits to, organized labour’s agency to promote wage growth in advanced peripheral economies.

Incentive policy for rail-water multimodal transport: Subsidizing price or constructing dry port?

The environmental issues within the transport industry need to be given priority attention. Optimizing the transport structure and promoting low-carbon transport are essential measures for achieving carbon emission reduction. However, the rail-water multimodal transport scale is currently limited. The government has to intervene in the market through incentive policies, so how to expand the revenue of carriers and enhance the volume has become a major dilemma. Our paper constructs a transport system that includes road, water, and railway, and examines the impact of incentive policies on separate stakeholders. It is discovered that incentive policies can increase the revenue of carriers and simultaneously attract more shippers to elect rail-water multimodal transport. Subsidy policy can hasten the structural transformation of inland transport, making railway transport volume rise. Unfortunately, although the dry port policy may enhance the revenue of railway carriers, it leads to an apparent decline in the revenue of road-water multimodal transport participants. However, the subsidy policy can create a win-win scenario for multiple carriers while achieving carbon emission reduction, but to the detriment of social welfare. Additionally, the paper compares the interactions between diverse incentive policies and pivotal factors such as transport time. The conclusions of our research serve strategic recommendations for maximizing carriers revenues and provide support for government decision-making.

Artificial Intelligence Technologies and Practical Normativity/Normality:Investigating Practices beyond the Public Space.

This essay examines how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies may shape international norms. Following a brief discussion of the ways in which AI technologies pose new governance questions, we reflect on the extent to which norm research in the discipline of International Relations (IR) is equipped to understand how AI technologies shape normative substance. Norm research has typically focused on the impact and failure of norms, offering increasingly diversified models of norm contestation, for instance. But present research has two shortcomings: a near-exclusive focus on modes and contexts of norm emergence and constitution that happen in the public space; and a focus on the workings of a pre-set normativity (ideas of oughtness and justice) that stands in an unclear relationship with normality (ideas of the standard, the average) emerging from practices. Responding to this, we put forward a research programme on AI and practical normativity/normality based on two pillars: first, we argue that operational practices of designing and using AI technologies typically performed outside of the public eye make norms; and second, we emphasise the interplay of normality and normativity as analytically influential in this process. With this, we also reflect on how increasingly relying on AI technologies across diverse policy domains has an under-examined effect on the exercise of human agency. This is important because the normality shaped by AI technologies can lead to forms of non-human generated normativity that risks replacing conventional models about how norms matter in AI-affected policy domains. We close with sketching three future research streams. We conclude that AI technologies are a major, yet still under-researched, challenge for understanding and studying norms. We should therefore reflect on new theoretical perspectives leading to insights that are also relevant for the struggle about top-down forms of AI regulation.