Efficient Policymaking Research Articles

A comparative study of the nexus of natural resource investment in national economies: Effects on cultural communication and economic growth

This article provides a comparative analysis of the complex interplay between cultural exchange, national economic development, and investments in natural resources. This research aims to examine how rising Asian countries' economies have grown as a result of a green economic rebound from 2000 to 2020. The study makes use of the D-H causality test methodology as well as the CCE-MG It assesses the varied impacts of resource investment on employment, GDP growth, and income distribution by looking at case studies and empirical data. It examines how investments in natural resources impact economic pathways and cultural communication dynamics. It sheds light on the complex effects of resource investment on cross-cultural understanding and economic development via case studies and empirical data. It also delves into how resource investments impact economic development plans and how cultural communication patterns interact. The results highlight the need to comprehend these relationships for efficient policymaking and sustainable development.

Non-Oil Export Promotion and Manufacturing Capacity Utilization in Nigeria and South Africa: A Tale of Two Countries in Africa

This paper studies the dynamics between non-oil export promotion and manufacturing capacity utilization in Nigeria and South Africa. The empirical analysis applies the asymmetric ARDL cointegration technique proposed by Shin et al. (2011) from 1986 to 2022. The evidence suggests that ignoring the intrinsic nonlinearities may lead to misleading inference. In particular, the results reveal significant differences in the response of manufacturing capacity utilization to positive or negative changes in non-oil export and other explanatory variables in both the long- and short-run time horizons. The evidence of asymmetry could be of major importance for more efficient policymaking and forecasting in the Nigerian and South African manufacturing sectors to grow.

Inequality snowballing

It has long been argued that efficient policies tend to provide larger legal entitlements to the rich than to the poor. This article shows how efficient legal rules can become even more skewed against the poor over time by sowing the seeds of their own vicious cycles. Repeated application over time of these rules can lead to increasingly adverse outcomes for the poor, which the article calls “policy snowballing”.Consider a set of polluters choosing between locating in places with rich versus poor people and facing a strict liability rule for harm to earnings. Polluters will disproportionately locate in the poor area, where they face lower damages. That disproportionate share of polluters in the poor area can make it cheaper to harm the poor in the next period, making subsequent polluters locate yet more disproportionately in poor neighborhoods, driving down the poor’s earnings further. And so on.We identify the conditions for snowballing and explore its dynamics. When compensation for the harm is incomplete, policy snowballing can lead to spiraling income inequality. As a result, government transfers to the poor to compensate for the change in legal regime would be inadequate if calculated in a way that ignores the snowballing. The article raises the intriguing prospect that legal rules could generate state dependence in the legal costs of harm, and that efficient policymaking could be a contributing factor to increasing inequality over time.

The relationship between climate risk, climate policy uncertainty, and CO2 emissions: Empirical evidence from the US

This paper examines the relationship between climate risk and climate policy uncertainty, and CO2 emissions in the US over the 2000–2022 period using a structural Factor- Augmented Vector AutoRegression (FAVAR) model with a two-step principal component analysis based on monthly observations. We employ a very recent measure to proxy for uncertainty regarding climate policy based on the Climate Policy Uncertainty Index (CPU) of Gavriilidis (2021), while Climate Risk is proxied by financial cost of natural disasters and number of deaths. We use different variables for CO2 emissions, based on total and sectoral emission (commercial, electric power, residential sector, transportation, and industrial sector). The results indicate that a significant percentage of the variance of CO2 emissions in the US, is explained by Natural Disasters Cost, which also seem to account for a significant percentage of the US Total Renewable Energy Consumption variance. Shocks to disaster costs seem to decrease all type of emissions significantly and also increase renewable energy use significantly. Natural disasters increase political disagreement among U.S. politicians, as well as, the climate policy uncertainty, highlighting the need for efficient policymaking and regulations. In further results, we find that an increase in Partisan Conflict decreases emissions and explains a significant amount of renewable energy variance.

A Process Model for Sustainable Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Highly Entrepreneurial European Region

Sustainable entrepreneurship creates social and environmental wealth and offers solutions to pressing sustainability issues. However, there remain major gaps in knowledge on how sustainable entrepreneurship actually unfolds. As a response, this study proposed a unique theoretical process model for sustainable entrepreneurship by conducting a multiple case study with evidence from the highly entrepreneurial region of Catalonia in Spain. Theoretical propositions suggest that the entrepreneurial process for sustainable entrepreneurship unfolds in the three phases of opportunity recognition, development, and persistence. The results of this study give evidence that sustainable entrepreneurs recognise opportunities in social or ecological problems, that they intend to achieve a hybrid nature of social/environmental and economic goals in the development phase, and that they manage to persist in the long-term through a participatory governance model and strong social networks. This study lays an important foundation for future theory building by specifying how the sustainable entrepreneurial process differs from the one of traditional entrepreneurship. For efficient policymaking, sustainability education, encouraging future entrepreneurs in their opportunity creation is needed, just as facilitated access to financing and support through adequate networking infrastructures.

Survival in a Competitive Market: A Study on Mobile Telecom Operators in India

The Indian telecom market is the second-largest telecommunication market in the world. The market is fiercely competitive due to the rising subscriber base and increasing demand for network connectivity. The present study tries to analyze the strategies and policies that determine the survival of the mobile telecom operators of India. The focus is also on the benefits and drawbacks of various factors that eventually lead to the success or failure of these companies. The study is based on an exploratory research method where 30 doctoral theses have been reviewed, and secondary sources, namely valuable reports, and websites, have been referred to. Gleaned from the literature review, it is found that with efficient policy-making, the Indian telecom industry deliberated on infrastructural support, technological advancement, and industrial development. The success of an organization depends not only on effective telecom policy structure but also on customer loyalty, customer retention, marketing mix, service quality, and corporate image of the telecom operators. All these factors positively influenced customer perception and satisfaction and motivated customers’ buying decision to have a competitive edge in the telecom market.

A multi-variable constrained ensemble of regional climate projections under multi-scenarios for Portugal – Part II: Sectoral climate indices

Climate indices are developed to determine climate impacts on different socioeconomic sectors, providing a comprehensive communication of complex information arising from climate change assessments. These may be used by decision-makers to properly and timely implement climate change adaptation measures in different sectors of human activity, such as agriculture and crop selection, forest, and coastal management, among others. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of climate indices estimated for Portugal, known to be in a climate change hotspot. A multi-variable 13-member ensemble of EURO-CORDEX Regional Climate Model simulations is used to assess future climate change projections of climate indices, exploring three future scenarios until 2100, and considering three different emission scenarios, namely the RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. Aligned with warming and drying projected conditions, an increase in the number of summer days to very hot days is expected to become more frequent and intense, with more impact over interior regions. Tropical nights are projected to become more common, affecting the thermal comfort conditions and threatening future human health. Although the future projections show an overall reduction in the number of wet days, the amount of precipitation during short-time wet periods will increase leading to an intensification of moderate/heavy rainfall. These results corroborate that Portugal is in a climate change hotspot, calling for efficient policymaking by the relevant authorities. Indeed, such projections call for an urgent planning and development of adaptation measures to safeguard critical sectors of the Portuguese society, such as agriculture, forests, coastal management, among others.

Incorporating social mechanisms in energy decarbonisation modelling

The achievement of national pledges that are compatible with the Paris Agreements warming limit of 1.5C is a massive challenge, as it requires not only an acceleration of technological innovation, but also a socio-economic and cultural transformation. Reducing uncertainties demands a better integration of behavioural evolutions in models exploring future energy pathways, including non-monetary barriers and drivers to technology diffusion. This study provides suggestions on incorporating social mechanisms of change such as resistance to change and the diffusion of environmental values into a UK-focused probabilistic energy system model, with a focus on people's attitudes towards residential heating technologies. We also offer a comprehensive literature review on interdisciplinary energy transitions modelling and exploratory scenarios embedding climate risks perceptions. We argue that efficient policy-making to meeting net-zero emissions targets must fully embrace whole-system approaches, support the more constrained segments of society, and account for interconnected socio-political factors.

Urban decarbonization policy as assembling process: heterogeneous elements, networks and (un)making of target groups in a Swedish municipality between serendipity and design

ABSTRACT In this paper, I approach urban decarbonization policy as an assembling process. Based on interview material in the municipality of Umeå, Sweden, the article highlights three important aspects of how planners, strategists and project managers produce decarbonization policies, initiatives or experimental projects. The first shows how an important part of the policymaking is to contend with and bring together heterogeneous elements (e.g. low-carbon mobility initiatives, private companies, municipal transport system) to work for one goal (e.g. some families experimenting with car-free life). The second shows how cultivating relations within and outside the municipality offices allows project managers to form trusted networks that are instrumental towards more efficient policymaking and implementation. The last shows how planners unmake and remake target groups to produce coherent and effective policies. While each of these aspects, respectively, highlight typical tropes of assemblage thinking (i.e. heterogeneity, relationality and coherence) together they share a concern with the labour and work required by policy as an assembling process. Making policy on cross-sectional issues such as decarbonization, reveals labour as a relevant category to attend to the necessary tension between mission-oriented design and an openness and ability to capitalize on more serendipitous moments and opportunities.

Temporal Source Apportionment of PM2.5 Over the Pearl River Delta Region in Southern China

AbstractThe key problems in addressing air pollution include determining the source of the pollutants and developing a means to control them. In addition to the source area and source category of pollutants, the contributions of pollutants emitted during various periods is an important factor that must be better understood for effective and efficient policymaking. A temporal source apportionment module in the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions was developed and applied to analyze the temporal contributions of emissions to the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. The results showed that in addition to cross‐boundary transport, the PM2.5 concentration in the PRD region was generally influenced by emissions on the current day and previous day. Local emissions from 06:00–17:59 on the current day accounted for approximately 30% of the PM2.5 concentration, whereas regional sources (cross‐city transport) had greater contributions during earlier emission periods. During the periods of episodic pollution, a weak wind situation hindered the transportation and diffusion of pollutants; thus, pollutants from 2 days earlier were trapped within the PRD region. When only the emissions from the PRD region were considered, particulate nitrate was more affected by regional emissions from the previous day, whereas the main contributors of other major components of PM2.5 were emissions from the current day. Our results suggest that emission control measures should be implemented 2 days in advance when adverse meteorological conditions are predicted.

"The Effect of Unemployment and Institutional Quality on Poverty in the Philippines: A New Perspective Using Nonlinear ARDL 1"

This work aims to give new insight into the nonlinear correlation between unemployment, institutional quality, and poverty in the Philippines. To this end, we analyze data from 2001 to 2019 using a nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model. The results provide insight that poverty moves asymmetrically due to positive or negative shocks in unemployment and institutional quality. Moreover, the results reveal that applying linear models in poverty modeling may be misleading. The findings of the study imply that policymakers should consider the nonlinear behavior of poverty for more efficient policymaking.

Assessing the relative significance of benefits of clean development mechanism: an evidence from India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify critical Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) benefits and assess their relative significance in the context of developing economies (e.g. India).Design/methodology/approachThis study has conducted face-to-face (offline/online) discussions with experts in order to identify appropriate criteria and related CDM benefits. Further, this study has used subsequently, using the analytic hierarchy process, a multi-criteria decision-making method and assess the relative significance of benefits of CDM projects.FindingsThe results reveal that knowledge and capacity building, technology transfer and social benefits are the most significant CDM benefits, respectively. It is because the knowledge and capacity building tends to disseminate the awareness on CDM benefits among policymakers and stakeholders, thereby, lead to efficient policy-making and encourage effective technology transfer in a way to achieve sustainable economic growth in the host country.Originality/valueThe literature is dominated by studies of CDM projects in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Africa and China. Within the thousands of CDM projects globally, India only has 1,376 registered CDM projects. To the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first studies that highlight the relative significance of CDM benefits in the context of India. This study will enhance the implementation in the Indian scenario.

Public transit travel choice in the post COVID-19 pandemic era: An application of the extended Theory of Planned behavior

It is widely reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced ridership and brought severe challenges to urban public transit systems in many countries. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual people’s choice of public transit may continue for a while after the peak of the crisis. However, there is insufficient detailed knowledge of how individuals respond in the post-pandemic context and make choices on public transit travel. This paper contributes fresh evidence for this by looking at Beijing as a case. The theoretical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior is used to model individuals’ public transit travel choice-making processes along with three additional constructs representing the impact of the pandemic and the nature of urban mobility behaviors, namely perceived knowledge of COVID-19, the psychological risks of COVID-19, and travel habits. Structural equation modeling is used in model estimation. We point out that there may be potential differences between the effects and meanings of model constructs in the post-pandemic context and in normal daily context. Interestingly, despite the higher psychological risk’s negative effects, higher perceived knowledge of COVID-19 has significantly positive effects on people’s decision-making processes. A strong pre-pandemic personal habit of traveling by public transit has significant and positive effects on post-pandemic intention and perceived behavioral control. Group comparisons show that “captive” transit users have higher psychological risk of COVID-19 than “choice” transit users, yet their transit use decisions are less influenced by it. Based on the modeling results, more behavioral experiments are needed to further inform efficient policy-making.

An Analysis of the Indonesian Government’s Political Capacity to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic

AbstractTo tackle the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the globe today, a quick, effective, and efficient policymaking method is essential. In many cases, the government’s political skill has been proven to have a considerable impact on the success of the government’s response to the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to determine the political capabilities of the Indonesian government to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak. This study focuses on the government’s ability to make policies, legitimacy, and public communication during the epidemic. This study uses a descriptive approach with mixed analysis methods. As a result, in Indonesia’s instance, the government’s limited political competence is influenced by inconsistent policies, unequal law enforcement, and poor public communication, all of which impair the government’s legitimacy in the eyes of the public. According to this research, the Indonesian government should seek the assistance of specialists in developing, executing, and evaluating strategies to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic. Furthermore, the Indonesian government must have a long-term, medium-term, and short-term strategic policy approach for responding to crises that is consistent and ongoing. Finally, the Indonesian government must enhance its current communication patterns and increase data transparency.

Theorizing Russian model of the digital divide

The paper approaches digital divide as a complex multi-dimensional and multi-level problem, not being limited to the Internet access only. We argue that regardless of some universal trends previously identified by scholars, every country retains its national specifics in ICT access, skills and benefits people can get from using ICTs. In this vein, we theorize Russian model of the digital divide, approaching it through three main angles: state regulation of digitalization processes in Russia on federal and regional levels; different modes of the digital technology use in a cross-regional comparative perspective; and specific mechanisms for the analysis and further overcoming digital divide in Russia. For the latter point, we propose a ‘digital passport’ of the Russian regions that allows for better understanding of the digitalization progress in particular regions of the country and for more efficient policy-making on site. Lastly, we test a ‘digital passport’ model on eight federal subjects of Russia to show its applicability of the study of the digital divide in different regional contexts.

Judicial Interpretation of Legislative Silence Gone Too Far: The Case for a Separation of Powers Amendment

While the philosophies of originalism and textualism are concerned, respectively, with the Constitution’s original public meaning and a statute’s ordinary meaning, deriving that meaning where the Constitution or Congress passing a statute have remained silent on a particular matter is exceptionally difficult. This difficulty in interpreting constitutional and congressional silence, combined with the J.W. Hampton decision of 1928, the Administrative Procedures Act of 1946, and the doctrine of Chevron deference, have collectively functioned to significantly weaken the doctrine of separation of powers in American government, in particular by weakening the powers of the legislative branch. This paper argues in favor of a constitutional amendment James Madison proposed in the first Congress to spell out the terms by which each branch of government relates to the others. It proceeds to argue that placing regulatory authority back under the legislative umbrella in this way would not be at odds with the goal of promoting efficient policy-making, which facilitated the legislative branch’s delegation of power to regulatory authorities in the first place.

China Pakistan Economic Corridor Energy Projects in Light of Sustainable Development

Energy sector of Pakistan has never been up to the demand of the country due to inappropriate energy management policies. The shortfall has been reaching to a nominal level of 4500 MW for more than 10 years. The economy of Pakistan has been dramatically affected and resulted in the shutdown of many industrial units. To manage this shortfall, electric supply companies had solely concerned the consumer end. Energy domain of Pakistan has confronted a rapid change by the mega-investment of more than 60 billion USD under the game-changing project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This project will boost the energy sector as half of the total capital of this project has been disbursed for the mitigation of shortfall and power crisis. The project has been started for the interests of both economies of both countries China and Pakistan. This research focused on the causes of the power crisis in Pakistan and how CPEC will boost of the energy sector and how our environment will be affected by these energy projects. And policies have been discussed for efficient policy-making in generation with the lowest environmental impacts and contributing towards making this Development more sustainable and acceptable.

Inclusive and sustainable community development and poverty reduction: An empirical study of Sindh, Pakistan

The underdeveloped communities and multi-dimensional poverty are the most common dilemmas of developing countries. The study aimed to determine the inclusive and sustainable community development and poverty reduction, empirical evidence of the selected districts of the Sindh, Pakistan. The research has surveyed in five districts of Sindh and collected data from 230 respondents. The research is based on quantitative investigation through primary data collection from five selected districts of Sindh province of Pakistan, followed by descriptive and inferential analysis on SPSS. A total of three research questions representing different aspects of integrated and sustainable community development and poverty reduction are answered from the results. The study has explored that inclusive and sustainable community development and multi-dimensional poverty has significant positive relationship. The research also points to the significance of the livelihood creation on community development and poverty reduction. A set of recommendations is outlined from the results for effective and efficient policymaking in poverty reduction and community development.

A transdisciplinary modeling framework for the participatory design of dynamic adaptive policy pathways

Efficient policymaking is crucial towards climate change mitigation. However, policies’ successful implementation depends largely on the context where they are applied. Classic decision-making used to be based on a static plan that was considered optimal for the “most likely” future contextual outcome. However, predicting the most probable evolution of this context has been proved unsuccessful, since it is vulnerable to unanticipated parameter change. Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways can address this problem focusing on the design of short-term policies, with simultaneous definition of adaptive interventions to be chosen on the long-term. This article presents a transdisciplinary modeling framework, which builds on the original Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways methodology. To demonstrate the applicability of this framework the authors used it to explore the evolution of the small-scale solar photovoltaics share in Greece, towards the achievement of the national capacity targets of 2025 and 2030. Model outcomes facilitated the identification of several pathways achieving the capacity targets, while reducing the risk for retroactive policy changes. Overall, the presented study demonstrates potential to support the design of adaptive policies over contextual evolutions so that social, economic and technological aspects of integrative planning are balanced towards the achievement of climate targets.

Bridging the rural efficiency gap: expanding access to energy efficiency upgrades in remote and high energy cost communities

Islands and remote rural communities throughout the USA pay some of the highest costs for electricity and heating fuel in the nation. For areas with such high energy costs, the benefits of energy efficiency can be significant but rural residents face several geographic, financial, and awareness barriers that make it difficult to invest in home energy upgrades. These barriers combine to create a market failure that we call the “rural energy efficiency gap.” The existence of the rural efficiency gap is supported by data collected from Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont which indicate that the “energy burden,” or percentage of household income spent on energy bills, is 33% higher in rural areas and that participation in residential energy efficiency financing and rebate programs can be significantly lower. The combination of higher energy burdens and greater barriers to participation can lead to inequitable distribution of available resources for energy efficiency, meaning that those who could benefit most from efficiency upgrades are often least able to access them. This work is designed to be a resource for energy efficiency program administrators but may also be of interest to energy efficiency program implementers, policymakers, and regulators. It provides data about the rural energy efficiency gap and identifies barriers to energy efficiency in rural communities. It also highlights strategies that are helping to bridge the gap by making it easier for residents in cold climate, petroleum-dependent states—those with high thermal energy burdens—to increase comfort and safety in their homes while also reducing energy bills. The barriers to rural energy efficiency identified in this paper have been grouped into three categories: geographic barriers, financial barriers, and awareness and access barriers. There are many differences between rural areas across the country, e.g., demographics, utility model and rate structures, energy sources, and consumption patterns. This paper is not intended to suggest that the strategies documented here will necessarily be applicable to all rural areas in the USA