Examples Of Such Policies Research Articles

Information-communication policy of the state in crisis conditions. Current state, problems, prospects

Effective democracy requires effective mechanisms for society to influence public authorities. Interaction between government and citizens, active public participation in decision-making is the key to sustainable development, prosperity, and stability of state institutions, social programs, and economic growth. Political leadership and effective communication of the action plan to the public promote public order and security. In this paper, we explore the current state of information policy in a crisis. We used general scientific and special methods such as historical and philosophical, systemic, comparative. In the first part, we consider philosophical approaches to the concept of communication and the role of the state in shaping information policy. The second and third parts are devoted to specific examples of such policies within two countries: Ukraine and Azerbaijan. In conclusion, we argue that there are currently complex challenges for the information policy of both countries. This is especially true of health problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic and armed conflict. Differences in the prospects of regulating the information field of the two countries are caused by economic factors and political conditions. The ways of information society development on the example of each of the countries are considered.

Differentially Private Set Union

We study the basic operation of set union in the global model of differential privacy. In this problem, we are given a universe $U$ of items, possibly of infinite size, and a database $D$ of users. Each user $i$ contributes a subset $W_i \subseteq U$ of items. We want an ($\epsilon$,$\delta$)-differentially private algorithm which outputs a subset $S \subset \cup_i W_i$ such that the size of $S$ is as large as possible. The problem arises in countless real world applications; it is particularly ubiquitous in natural language processing (NLP) applications as vocabulary extraction. For example, discovering words, sentences, $n$-grams etc., from private text data belonging to users is an instance of the set union problem.Known algorithms for this problem proceed by collecting a subset of items from each user, taking the union of such subsets, and disclosing the items whose noisy counts fall above a certain threshold. Crucially, in the above process, the contribution of each individual user is always independent of the items held by other users, resulting in a wasteful aggregation process, where some item counts happen to be way above the threshold. We deviate from the above paradigm by allowing users to contribute their items in a {\em dependent fashion}, guided by a {\em policy}. In this new setting ensuring privacy is significantly delicate. We prove that any policy which has certain {\em contractive} properties would result in a differentially private algorithm. We design two new algorithms for differentially private set union, one using Laplace noise and other Gaussian noise, which use $\ell_1$-contractive and $\ell_2$-contractive policies respectively and provide concrete examples of such policies. Our experiments show that the new algorithms in combination with our policies significantly outperform previously known mechanisms for the problem.

دراسة مقارنة سیاسة إعادة الاعمار لمراکز المدن التاریخیة ما بعد الحروب بالتطبیق على مرکز مدینة صنعاء القدیمة A Comparative Study Focusing on The Reconstruction Policies of Old Cities That Are Affected by Wars Application: The Old City of Sana'a

تعتبر الحروب والصراعات المسلحة من أهم الأخطار تهديدا لمراکز المدن التاريخية، فهي تلحق دمارا ماديا ومعنويا يهدد بمحو ذاکرة الإنسانية بأکملها، فحرب واحدة کفيلة بهدم ما أنجزته البشرية في سنوات طويلة من إبداع إنساني على کافة المستويات الحضارية وينتج عنها أثار وأضرار جسيمة في کافة المجالات (الاقتصادية والاجتماعية والعمرانية). وانطلاقا من هنا تأتي أهمية البحث حيث يتناول سياسة إعادة الإعمار لمراکز المدن التاريخية ما بعد الحروب ويبين أهم المجالات (الاقتصادي الاجتماعي، العمراني) بالترکيز على مرکز مدينة صنعاء القديمة الذي تضررت من حرب 2015م، کما يناقش البحث الدروس المستفادة من تحليل التجارب العالمية (الأوروبية، العربية) السابقة، للاستفادة منها في تفعيل سياسة إعادة الإعمار بالمشروعات المستقبلية. اتخذ البحث منهجية لتحقيق الأهداف من خلال مراجعة الأدبيات والنظريات التي تتناول سياسة إعادة الإعمار وعلاقتها بمراکز المدن التاريخية، ودراسة وتحليل أمثلة لنماذج سياسة إعادة الإعمار لمراکز المدن التاريخية واعتمد البحث على المنهج التحليلي المقارن للتجارب العالمية، للوصول إلى نتائج يمکن تطبيقها على الحالة الدراسية (مرکز مدينة صنعاء القديمة). تتلخص نتائج البحث في تحديد مجالات (الاقتصادية، الاجتماعية، العمرانية) التي تساهم في تفعيل سياسة إعادة الإعمار لمراکز المدن التاريخية بشکل عام ومرکز مدينة صنعاء القديمة بشکل خاص. As known, wars and armed conflicts are among the main threats to historical cities; they inflict damage, both economic and historic, that wipe out human history and the memory of whole nations. One war is capable of destroying historic human accomplishments and the creative ways to survive and build civilizations. The result of one war has severe impacts on social, urban, and economic developments. This research aims to deal with the reconstruction of historical city centers and their policies. The focus of this study is going to be the old city of Sana’a that was partially damaged by the ongoing war since 2015. The research also delves into the results of other global experiences such as European and Middle Eastern affected sites. Besides, it analyzes these studies to manifest activating future reconstruction policies. The research took an effective approach by reviewing past studies, papers, and theories that deal with the reconstruction policies and their relation to historic city centers; as well as, study and investigate examples of such policies. The research relied heavily on the analytical and comparative methods of international experiences to develop results that can be applied to the case study; the old city of Sana’a. The results of the research are to identify economic, social, and urban areas that will contribute to activating the reconstruction policies of historic city centers in general, and the old city of Sana'a in particular.

COVID-19 and Public Policy Imperatives: A Trainee Call to Action.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the flaws in the U.S. employer-based health insurance system, magnified racial disparities in health and health care, and overwhelmed the country's underfunded public health infrastructure. These are the same systematic failures that have always harmed and killed the nation's most vulnerable. While everyone wishes for an end to this national tragedy, the authors believe a new normal must be defined for the postpandemic period.In the postpandemic period, policies that were once labeled radical and impossible will be urgent and necessary. Examples of such policies include providing universal health care, dismantling the structures that propagate racism and injustice, and reinvesting in public health. Previous research by the authors has shown that their medical student colleagues recognize that it is their responsibility to address policies that harm patients and to support reforms at the scale the authors propose. This commitment to a better future is reflected in the widespread mobilization of medical students seen across the United States. Recognizing that the old normal is unsustainable, the authors call on those who previously benefited from the status quo to instead seek a new postpandemic normal that works for all.

Globalization versus redistribution? Egalitarian policies in a competitive world economy

A reduction of impediments to international flows of goods, capital and professional labor is thought to raise the economic costs of programs by the nation state (and labor unions) to redistribute income to the poor and to provide economic security. But some of the more politically and economically successful examples of such policies—for example, Nordic social democracy and East Asian land reform—have occurred in small open economies which would, on the above account, provide a prohibitive environment for egalitarian interventions. I present a model of globalization and redistribution to answer the following question: in a liberalized world economy, what programs of egalitarian redistribution and social insurance are implementable by democratic nation states acting independently? While in the absence of international coordination, globalization indeed makes it difficult for nation states to affect the relative (after tax) prices of mobile goods and factors of production and for this and other reasons may limit the effectiveness of some conventional strategies of redistribution, a large class of state and trade union interventions leading to substantial improvements in the wages, employment prospects, and economic security of workers is not ruled out by globalization. Included are redistributions of assets which provide efficient solutions to incentive problems arising in principal agent relationships such as wage employment, farm and residential tenancy.

Care provision: An experimental investigation

In many principal-agent settings, the effort provided by the agent benefits a third party. In these settings, the quality of the work is determined, at least in part, by pro-social motivations. We present lab experiments that utilize a new three-player trust game to examine one such setting, care provision. Players include a principal, an agent, and a needy recipient. The principal can transfer resources to an agent, who then can transfer resources to the needy recipient; the latter transfers are tripled. As in the two-player version, we find high, but variable, levels of trust and reciprocity (agent transfers to target) in the baseline game. Two treatments allow us to gauge the impact of potential policy interventions to enhance care of the target recipient. The first provides a budget subsidy to the principle, and the second alters the effectiveness (multiplier) of the agent's transfers. Results show that the behavior of the agent does not vary by treatment, and is determined primarily by the amount received from the principal. Principals, on the other hand, do respond to the policy changes. While budget subsidies increase the expenditure of the principal only slightly, policies impacting the agent's efficiency increase the amount entrusted to them by principals and significantly impact the wellbeing of the recipient. Results suggest that policies that increase the effectiveness of care workers (the agents) may significantly impact the quality of work provided. Examples of such policies include increased worker training and reductions in red tape.

The G20’s Promise to Create More and Better Jobs: Missed Opportunities and a Way Forward

The Group of 20 (G20) was launched as a leaders’ forum in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis and quickly agreed to undertake coordinated economic stimulus efforts. While those early measures helped stabilize the global economy, the negative impacts of the crisis on employment continued to mount through 2009. The leaders turned their attention to labour market issues; labour and employment ministers met in 2010 and thereafter. However, the G20 and a number of other countries erroneously reversed the stimulus approach beginning in Toronto in 2010, leading to weak recovery, entrenchment of unemployment and stagnation of wages. Labour ministers increasingly advocated more robust labour market policies, but were resisted by finance ministers. The leaders themselves agreed to increasingly strong statements on wages, inequality and social issues but most G20 countries did not implement them. When the political backlash against globalization emerged in 2016 the G20 was seen by many as part of the out-of-touch elite that failed to address the difficulties and economic anxiety suffered by many G20 member households. The G20 should adjust course by implementing, in a coordinated manner, policies that can increase employment and incomes and reverse growing inequality. This paper lays out two practical examples of such policies. The first is a coordinated increase in minimum wages across the G20 to provide direct support to low-wage workers, restart overall wage growth and increase demand. If implemented by the entire G20 this would provide a serious stimulus to global demand, which still remains weak, and avoid competitive undercutting among G20 members. The second is a coordinated increase in financing for programmes to help those who have lost as a result of globalization. Losers often suffer very harsh economic effects and few G20 countries compensate them adequately. A well-advertised, coordinated effort including policies such as these could demonstrate the relevance of the G20 to populations that have benefited little from the group’s efforts to date.

The Impact of Emissions-Based Taxes on the Retirement of Used and Inefficient Vehicles: The Case of Switzerland

Many countries have adopted policies designed to reduce CO2 emissions from road vehicles. Taxes linked to the CO2 emissions rate or the fuel economy of a vehicle (which is inversely related to its CO2 emissions rate) are examples of such policies. These taxes are usually imposed on new vehicles, and previous evaluations have estimated the increases in the shares or sales of new and fuel-efficient vehicles associated with such taxes. In contrast, we ask whether taxes on new cars that penalize high emitters induce changes in the retirement of used and inefficient vehicles. We exploit natural experiment conditions in Switzerland to analyze the impact of two different “bonus”/“malus” schemes implemented at the cantonal level. In both schemes, the bonus rewards new efficient vehicles. The malus is retroactive in canton Obwalden, in the sense that it is charged on both new and existing high-emitting cars, but it is only applied prospectively to new cars in Geneva. We use a difference-in-difference design within a survival analysis setting. We find that a bonus/malus accelerates the retirement of existing high-emitting vehicles in Obwalden, shortening the expected lifetime of the three most popular make-models by 7 to 11 months. The effect is the opposite in Geneva, where we estimate that the expected lifetime of these three popular models is extended by 5 to 8 months. These findings have important implications about the desirability of bonus/malus schemes and on their design, as well as on old car scrappage programs.

Creative destruction or mere niche support? Innovation policy mixes for sustainability transitions

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in policy mixes in innovation studies. While it has long been acknowledged that the stimulation of innovation and technological change involves different types of policy instruments, how such instruments form policy mixes has only recently become of interest. We argue that an area in which policy mixes are particularly important is the field of sustainability transitions. Transitions imply not only the development of disruptive innovations but also of policies aiming for wider change in socio-technical systems. We propose that ideally policy mixes for transitions include elements of ‘creative destruction’, involving both policies aiming for the ‘creation’ of new and for ‘destabilising’ the old. We develop a novel analytical framework including the two policy mix dimensions (‘creation’ and ‘destruction’) by broadening the technological innovation system functions approach, and specifically by expanding the concept of ‘motors of innovation’ to ‘motors of creative destruction’. We test this framework by analysing ‘low energy’ policy mixes in Finland and the UK. We find that both countries have diverse policy mixes to support energy efficiency and reduce energy demand with instruments to cover all functions on the creation side. Despite the demonstrated need for such policies, unsurprisingly, destabilising functions are addressed by fewer policies, but there are empirical examples of such policies in both countries. The concept of ‘motors of creative destruction’ is introduced to expand innovation and technology policy debates to go beyond policy mixes consisting of technology push and demand pull instruments, and to consider a wider range of policy instruments combined in a suitable mix which may contribute to sustainability transitions.

Analyzing the Publish-or-Perish Paradigm with Game Theory: The Prisoner's Dilemma and a Possible Escape.

The publish-or-perish paradigm is a prevailing facet of science. We apply game theory to show that, under rather weak assumptions, this publication scenario takes the form of a prisoner's dilemma, which constitutes a substantial obstacle to beneficial delayed publication of more complete results. One way of avoiding this obstacle while allowing researchers to establish priority of discoveries would be an updated "pli cacheté", a sealed envelope concept from the 1700s. We describe institutional rules that could additionally favour high-quality work and publications and provide examples of such policies that are already in place. Our analysis should be extended to other publication scenarios and the role of other stakeholders such as scientific journals or sponsors.

Is there no alternative? Conscientious objection by medical students

Recent survey data gathered from British medical students reveal widespread acceptance of conscientious objection in medicine, despite the existence of strict policies in the UK that discourage conscientious refusals by...

Universal Service in China and India: Legitimating the State?

Universal Service in China and India: Legitimating the State?

Abortion Policy and Vulnerable Women in the United States: A Call for Social Work Policy Practice

Repressive abortion policy in the United States creates undue burdens for groups of vulnerable women, including adolescents, women of color, women living in rural areas, and women with economic disadvantages. Repressive abortion policy creates a two-tiered system of access to reproductive health care that is a particular disadvantage to vulnerable women. In this study, current policy is discussed with examples of such policies outlined in three areas: insurance coverage and Medicaid restrictions, mandatory waiting periods, and mandated state counseling. Social workers' role in policy practice is emphasized in regard to advocacy and abortion policy.

Globalization and Redistribution: Feasible Egalitarianism in a Competitive World

A reduction of impediments to international flows of goods, capital and professional labor is thought to raise the economic costs of programs by the nation state (and labor unions) to redistribute income to the poor and to provide economic security. But some of the more politically and economically successful examples of such policies - for example Nordic social democracy and East Asian land reform - have occurred in small open economies which would, on the above account, provide a prohibitive environment for egalitarian interventions. I present a model of globalization and redistribution to answer the following question: In a liberalized world economy, what programs of egalitarian redistribution and social insurance are implementable by democratic nation states acting independently? While in the absence of international coordination, globalization indeed makes it difficult for nation states to affect the relative (after tax) prices of mobile goods and factors of production and for this and other reasons may limit the effectiveness of some conventional strategies of redistribution, a large class of state and trade union interventions leading to substantial improvements in the wages, employment prospects, and economic security of workers is not ruled out by globalization. Included are redistributions of assets which provide efficient solutions to incentive problems arising in principal agent relationships such as wage employment, farm and residential tenancy.

Lifelong Learning on Either Side of the Border: the effects of government policy on adult education in The Netherlands and Belgium

Although there is a tendency to develop policy plans on adult education at a European level, there are still large differences between the various EU countries. These national policy contexts depend on historical, cultural, economic and political factors and can have a profound impact on the way adult education is shaped and developed within a country. Two examples of such policies are presented to clarify this point. In the Netherlands, there is a strong emphasis on the vocational side of adult education. This is for a large part the result of the introduction of the Law on Adult and Vocational Education (Wet Educatie en Beroepsonderwijs) in 1996. The non vocational branch of the sector was rather marginalised by this new law. In Belgium, there has been a great effort to support, develop and streamline non vocational adult education. The special Flemish government decree (Decreet betreffende het sociaal‐cultureel volwassenenwerk) of 2003 was very important in that regard. This decree regulates all aspects of non vocational education or socio‐cultural work, including funding and quality assurance. Although the Flemish decree could be seen as a good practice of upgrading non‐formal adult education through legislation, it could also be considered a typical Flemish case, rooted in the traditions of adult education in Flanders.

Policies for a sustainable use of soil resources

Abstract Soil protection policies have been developed at National level in a number of countries. The US Soil Conservation Act, the German Federal Soil Protection Act, and the Soil Action Plan for England are just some examples of such policies. International policies for a sustainable use of soil resources have been developed both at regional level and at global level. The Alpine Convention and the upcoming EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection are two examples of regional policies addressing soil protection. No specific binding global policy exists for soil protection. Nevertheless, a number of environmental protection policies address soil-protection aspects, like the climate-change convention, the biodiversity convention and the desertification convention. Further development of the EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection will make it possible to explore new methods of international cooperation in this field.

A model of intra-brand competition and related pricing policies for manufacturers

Casual observation suggests that retail price distributions develop for products sold by retail outlets that are not restricted in their pricing by the manufacturer. Manufacturers, however, often restrict retailers so as to promote a uniform retail price — manufacturer's suggested retail prices and minimum resale prices are examples of such policies. This paper examines retail competition under assumptions that imply, in the absence of manufacturer-imposed restrictions, the development of an equilibrium retail price distribution. It is then shown that, depending on the distribution of consumer search costs and on the dispersion of marginal retailing costs, the manufacturer may find certain vertical pricing restrictions (either uniform, minimum, or maximum prices) to be more profitable than simply choosing an optimal wholesale price schedule and allowing retailers to price as they wish.