Good Policy Research Articles

A theory of policy advisory system quality: Hirschman 2.0 or what makes for good policy advice?

Not everyone’s ideas count equally in terms of influencing and informing policy design and instrument choices. As the literature on policy advice has shown, such advice arises from many different actors interacting with each other often over relatively long timeframes. Actors within these ‘policy advisory systems’ operate within the confines of an existing set of political and economic institutions and governing norms, and each actor brings with them different interests, ideas and resources. Studying who these actors are, how they act and how their actions affect the overall nature of the advice system and its contents are critical aspects of current public policy research. But not all these elements have been equally well conceptualised or studied, especially those concerning their impact on the quality of policy advice emerging from a system. In this article, the general nature of policy advisory systems is set out, their major components described and a model of individual and organisational behaviour within them outlined inspired by a modification of the ‘exit, voice, loyalty’ rubric of Albert Hirschman. Our findings show how aggregated individual organisational behaviour along the lines suggested by Hirschman can over time result in very different kinds of advice being provided by an advisory system, with predictable consequences for its nature and quality.

Family business sustainability: the impact of governance and women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia

Due to their strong emotional interest and ownership control, family firm owners significantly influence their firm’s strategies and governance, which has consequences for their business sustainability practices. The failure to establish or maintain formal organizational structures, and adopt good governance principles, may hinder family firms in their pursuit of long-term sustainability. This study empirically investigated the impact of corporate governance on family firms’ sustainability, with women’s empowerment and culture as moderating and mediating factors, respectively. Data for the study were obtained from a sample of 126 family firms from Saudi Arabia. The study adopted the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method. The study results empirically confirmed that corporate governance is positively associated with women’s empowerment, which also assists in achieving business sustainability in family-controlled firms. The adoption of good corporate governance policies, and empowerment of women through their appointment on corporate boards operating in a supportive culture, can reinforce an organization’s mission, purpose and strategies, which can create an enabling environment for family business sustainability.

Foreign Investments and Energy Transition in the Netherlands

Affordability, competitiveness, security of supply, and sustainability are among the goals set for the field of the energy transition for 2030 through 2050. In order to meet these goals, the energy sector of the European Union (EU) will require a continuous inflow of capital, particularly Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Unfortunately, FDI has raised severe national security concerns in EU Member States, leading to the need to adopt and subsequently revisit the FDI screening framework on the EU level. On a domestic level, several EU Member States, such as the Netherlands, have either strengthened or are considering strengthening their screening mechanisms. States have been screening FDI on national security grounds for decades, but the scope of new mechanisms has dramatically expanded to cover more sectors, transactions, and types of investors. In particular, FDIs that affect energy infrastructure, supply of energy, raw materials, dual-use items, and critical technologies necessary for the energy transition should be subjected to more rigid scrutiny. These regulatory and policy developments might hinder the flow of investments into the energy sector and the advancement of new technologies and thus have implications for the prospects and speed of the energy transition in Europe. This Article will discuss the overarching question of how states can organize their investment screening mechanisms in a way that balances their national security interests against the need for free flow of FDI to stimulate development of technologies that accelerate the energy transition. This includes a case study of the FDI policy of the Netherlands, one of the major destinations of global FDI. This Article initially distills the principles necessary to balancing competing security and economic interests of host states in the investment law context. Based on such principles, it further examines the extent to which existing regulatory mechanisms in the Netherlands are adequate in addressing security concerns posed by FDI while continuing to attract investments in the energy sector and related technologies. Specifically, this Article aims to identify trends in investment screening in the Netherlands, reflect on their coherence with overarching EU investment policy objectives and the multilateral guidance on a good policy design, and discuss the potential implications of recent regulatory developments for the future of the energy transition in Europe. More broadly, this Article contextualizes the case of the Netherlands within the global movement of tightening control over FDI and explores the relationship between the investment policy of a State, on the one hand, and its objectives to combat climate change and safeguard energy security, on the other.

Can Sovereign Green Bonds Accelerate the Transition to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

This paper focuses on sovereign green bonds issued in Europe. By issuing green bonds, European governments commit themselves to realizing environmentally friendly projects and encourage other entities, including private-sector ones, to do the same, thus increasing further domestic investments in addressing climate change. However, considering that governments could pursue their sustainable goals by also issuing conventional bonds, this begs the question of why governments should prefer green bonds. A dataset of European sovereign green bonds was retrieved from the Bloomberg Fixed Income database to answer this question. The data cover all European sovereign green bonds issued until the end of 2023. Quantitative analysis confirms the existence of a small green premium for the issuers, representing an incentive to increase the issuances of sovereign green bonds. Furthermore, the government's carbon emissions reduction, the power sector decarbonization, and good climate policies, measured by the Government Climate Risk Score, contribute to further reducing a country's climate risk and consequently the costs of the issuance, thus triggering a virtuous circle which could, in turn, accelerate the transition to net-zero emissions. Despite these benefits, hurdles still exist, and have curbed the development of the market. Examples include divergence between the use of funds raised through green bonds, which should be earmarked exclusively for climate and environmental projects, and the fungibility requirements for proceeds from sovereign debt and fiscal revenues.

Policy and law: the case of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer

Agriculture occupies more than a third of the world’s land with many, large-scale impacts on the environment and human health. This article investigates the failure of policy to manage these impacts, asks whether private law can fill the gap, and what this means for policymakers. The investigation takes the form of a case study of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer (SNF) in English policy and law. The SNF industry has been chosen because, by its own account, it underpins the modern food system, which is recognized as needing urgent transformation. The article first assesses the damage caused by SNF to health and the environment and the potential legal remedies. It then assesses industry claims that SNF (a) provides food security, (b) is beneficial to soil and water, and (c) reduces greenhouse gas emissions. If misleading, these representations could amount to unlawful ‘greenwashing’. While private law can never replace good policy and regulation, the article concludes that there is evidence to enable private law to supplement policy, and that this role is made possible as well as necessary by the absence of effective regulation and enforcement. Private litigation could catalyze policymakers to implement the robust regulatory regime that agriculture demands. As the law must focus on scientific evidence and causation, it can also help elucidate and publicize the science on which policy is based. Finally, because of the strict constraints within which private litigation must operate, it can direct policymakers towards strategic interventions (or tipping points) that could catalyze systemic change.

SPAC IPO의 장기 영업성과

As SPAC IPOs increase in Korea, market interest is growing, but related research is lacking. In this study, we track the performance of SPAC IPOs, especially changes in operating performance before and after listing. For this purpose, we use a sample of 62 SPAC IPOs conducted between January 2010 and December 2022 to compare the operating performance of the year immediately before listing and the third year after listing. As a result, efficiency indicators tend to worsen, but the operating performance of SPAC IPOs as measured by profitability indicators does not worsen. These results are significantly different from the widely known phenomenon that stock performance in the IPO market, not only in the United States but also around the world, shows significant long-term underperformance and, consistent with this phenomena, operating performance of SPAC IPOs also shows significant long-term underperformance. Therefore, unlike the USA, SPAC investors in Korea are not continuous losers, and the SPAC IPO system is likely to be a good policy alternative to traditional IPOs.

Survey on Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities of Honey Production and its Marketing System in Hawa Gelan District Kellam Wollega Zone Western Ethiopia

The study was conducted in Hawa Gelan District, Kellem Wollega of Western Oromia national regional state, Ethiopia to assess trends, challenges and opportunities of honeybee production and marketing systems. Structured questionnaire was employed for the study. The cross-sectional study design were carried out by using desk research, interviews, surveys and visual observation as methods in seeking answer to research questions. Purposive (district), simple random (Peasant Associations) and Census (beekeepers) sampling techniques were employed to select 96 beekeepers from two Peasant Associations. The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS version 20. In the study area, three types of honeybee production practices were identified, namely: Traditional, Intermediate and Movable frame hive honeybee production practices. The result shows most 69.79 % of beekeepers in the study area have owned only traditional bee hives. As a result the average annual honey produced per households was very low which estimated 93 kg in 2015. The average amount of honey harvested /hive/year from traditional hive, transitional hive and modern hive were 4.32±0.042kg, 9.83±1.05kg and 14.2±2.52kg respectively. The mean yields obtained from the three hives were statistically significant at (p < 0.05). From the beekeepers (64.6%) and (59.3%) have declared that deceasing trend of honey production and colony number from time to time respectively. Honey marketing participants were consumers (35%), retailers and consumers (31%), retailers (24%) and collectors (7.5%). The most important constraints, as beekeepers responded in their order of sequence were pests and predators (41.30%), poisoning of agro-chemicals (23.60%), high cost of modern hives and accessories (11.20%), shortage of bee forages (9.40%), low quality of honey products (7.20%), Poor infrastructure development (5.30%) and other factors (2.0%) were identified respectively. Despite of these, there are also future opportunities like presence of huge number of bee colonies (32.5%), availability of diverse vegetation plants and ample sources of water (21.70%), increasing demand of local honey (17.65%), presence of good government policy (9.0%) and others factors (19.15%). Further study is required to characterize honey bees of the area, quality of honey, major pests, predators and disease of economic importance. However, improving honey bee production techniques is important.

The Challenge of Challenging Tax Laws as Unconstitutionally Vague

ABSTRACT Many laypersons (and CPAs and attorneys, for that matter) argue that federal tax statutes and regulations are complex, ambiguous, and vague. However, successfully challenging tax law as unconstitutionally vague has generally not been a successful strategy for taxpayers. In this article, we discuss the void for vagueness doctrine as it has been developed and applied in other areas of the law and review over 40 federal tax cases litigated over the last 20-plus years, in which taxpayers claim that a provision is unconstitutionally vague. Although taxpayer wins are rare, some tax cases find that a statute can be declared overly vague before clarifying regulations or other administrative guidance are issued. Regardless, vague tax laws run afoul of principles of good tax policy. We also provide suggestions for taxpayers and their advisors, who may argue in the future that a federal tax provision is unconstitutionally vague.

A Critical Analysis of the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax

ABSTRACT The corporate alternative minimum tax, enacted as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, intends to impose a minimum level of taxation on profitable large corporations using financial statement income as a tax base. Although both alternative tax bases and the usage of financial statement income in taxes have a long history in the United States, the tax represents a substantial change in the current corporate tax law. Although the corporate alternative minimum tax is predicted to raise billions of dollars from a small subset of the largest corporations, its design raises concerns about long-term efficacy. In this article, we summarize the development of the corporate alternative minimum tax in light of its historical predecessors and compare its design against accepted standards of good tax policy, ultimately identifying multiple inadequacies in its construction and implementation. We conclude by making policy recommendations. JEL Classifications: H21; H25; K34.

Understanding Water Governance in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia: Governance Framework, Coherence and Practices.

Water governance demands multi-sector participation beyond the state; and, appropriate laws, policies, regulations, and institutions need to be developed and put in place for sustainable use of water resources. A good water policy, a critical and integral instrument of water governance, guides water use schemes and ensures equitable water distribution among users. The Ethiopian Central Rift Valley (CRV) is rich in water resources, but these water resources are currently under severe strain owing to an imbalance in human-water interactions. This study examined the state of water resources governance framework, policy coherence, actors' engagement and transparency, accountability, and participation in irrigation water supply in the CRV of Ethiopia. Key informant interviews (KII), focused group discussions, and document reviews were used to gather data for the study. The NVivo 11 program was used to organize, code, and analyze the data. The results revealed that water resources governance practices such as water allocation and apportionment, water resources protection, and conservation activities were inappropriately exercised. Water resources management policy mechanisms were not fully put in place. Lack of coherence in water policy implementation, absence of clear roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, absence of transparency and accountability in irrigation water service delivery, and lack of meaningful participation of key actors in water governance decision-making were observed. As a result, over-abstraction, deterioration of buffer zone areas, and chemical erosion from surrounding farming are attributed to the reduction in water volume and quality in the CRV. These challenges have influenced aquatic ecosystem services and threaten the livelihoods of the surrounding communities. Hence, reforms relating to policy coherence and enforcement, stakeholder engagement, water distribution strategies, and the implementation of water governance principles must be given adequate emphasis.

The effect of good corporate governance policies on welfare employee

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of Good Corporate Governance based on Social Welfare Theory. The reason researchers choose Good Corporate Governance which is measured using Fairness, Disclosure/Transparency, Accountability and Responsibility Formulations is because this Formulation is very easy to apply at a practical level, and can more accurately measure the level of welfare received by Crew in the field, compared to other GCG formulations. This type of research is quantitative, with the main data source in the form of questionnaires, which will be analyzed using SEM PLS. Practically the application of GCG principles can help improve the welfare of the crew. The results showed that, Fairness, Transparency, Acoountability and Responsibility have a positive effect on the welfare of the crew. The recommendation in this study is, preferably between the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Transportation, must carry out their functions and duties in accordance with the articles of association and laws and regulations, not dominate each other and throw responsibility on each other. This needs to be done, so that the goals and desires of the Crew in realizing their welfare get support and are well realized through the preparation of appropriate regulations.

Challenges facing local government authorities in the use of electronic record keeping for human resource management

This study determines the challenges faced by Local Government Authorities in the use of e-record keeping for Human Resource Management (HRM). The study was conducted at Morogoro Municipal Council (MMC) as among the Local Government Authorities (LGAs) which continue to use paper-based record keeping in Tanzania. A case study design was employed to ensure an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon. A questionnaire and interviews were used in collecting data from 107 respondents. Data from the questionnaire were analysed descriptively through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) whereby means and standard deviatons were calculated. On the other hand, data from interviews were analysed through content analysis. The study was guided by two models, which are Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model, as the guiding model, and ADKAR Change Management Model, as the supporting model. The study revealed lack of reliable internet service, lack of top management support, inadequate IT experts, staff resistance, and inadequate funds as the main challenges facing MMC in the use of electronic record (e-record) keeping for HRM. This implies that, in some cases, the government formulates good policies without ensuring a conducive environment for their implementation. In the light of the revealed challenges, the study recommends that LGAs especially MMC should take initiatives to develop and implement a comprehensive e-governance programme that, among other things, will address the revealed challenges. In addition, the government should creation environments that support implementation of its policies particularly those related to ICT and e-governance.

Academic Misconduct Among Undergraduates Across Aotearoa: Insights and Implications for Policy and Practice

As elsewhere in the world, academic misconduct is a serious problem in Aotearoa. Yet, beyond the occasional newspaper headline, we know relatively little about the extent of the problem here or the factors associated with it. Consequently, our educational leaders and practitioners are left under-informed as they seek to address the problem and promote academic integrity. To help provide the knowledge and insights needed to craft good policy and best practice, the Research on Academic Integrity in New Zealand (RAINZ) Project—a research collaboration involving eight tertiary institutions—was founded in 2021. In the second semester of 2022, the RAINZ Project launched the first-ever nationwide survey of undergraduate students’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours related to academic integrity. Results from this survey, which was completed by undergraduates (N = 4493), indicate that most students (approximately two-thirds) reported engaging in at least one form of academic misconduct in the past year. As hypothesised, students’ perceptions (of the institutional climate and peer norms) and moral attitudes (related to cheating) were significantly associated with their engagement in academic misconduct. Details of these results as well as their implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Cautiously-Optimistic Knowledge Sharing for Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

While decentralized training is attractive in multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) for its excellent scalability and robustness, its inherent coordination challenges in collaborative tasks result in numerous interactions for agents to learn good policies. To alleviate this problem, action advising methods make experienced agents share their knowledge about what to do, while less experienced agents strictly follow the received advice. However, this method of sharing and utilizing knowledge may hinder the team's exploration of better states, as agents can be unduly influenced by suboptimal or even adverse advice, especially in the early stages of learning. Inspired by the fact that humans can learn not only from the success but also from the failure of others, this paper proposes a novel knowledge sharing framework called Cautiously-Optimistic kNowledge Sharing (CONS). CONS enables each agent to share both positive and negative knowledge and cautiously assimilate knowledge from others, thereby enhancing the efficiency of early-stage exploration and the agents' robustness to adverse advice. Moreover, considering the continuous improvement of policies, agents value negative knowledge more in the early stages of learning and shift their focus to positive knowledge in the later stages. Our framework can be easily integrated into existing Q-learning based methods without introducing additional training costs. We evaluate CONS in several challenging multi-agent tasks and find it excels in environments where optimal behavioral patterns are difficult to discover, surpassing the baselines in terms of convergence rate and final performance.

PORTAL: Automatic Curricula Generation for Multiagent Reinforcement Learning

Despite many breakthroughs in recent years, it is still hard for MultiAgent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) algorithms to directly solve complex tasks in MultiAgent Systems (MASs) from scratch. In this work, we study how to use Automatic Curriculum Learning (ACL) to reduce the number of environmental interactions required to learn a good policy. In order to solve a difficult task, ACL methods automatically select a sequence of tasks (i.e., curricula). The idea is to obtain maximum learning progress towards the final task by continuously learning on tasks that match the current capabilities of the learners. The key question is how to measure the learning progress of the learner for better curriculum selection. We propose a novel ACL framework, PrOgRessive mulTiagent Automatic curricuLum (PORTAL), for MASs. PORTAL selects curricula according to two critera: 1) How difficult is a task, relative to the learners’ current abilities? 2) How similar is a task, relative to the final task? By learning a shared feature space between tasks, PORTAL is able to characterize different tasks based on the distribution of features and select those that are similar to the final task. Also, the shared feature space can effectively facilitate the policy transfer between curricula. Experimental results show that PORTAL can train agents to master extremely hard cooperative tasks, which can not be achieved with previous state-of-the-art MARL algorithms.

Labour Market Preferences of Retrenched Australian Auto Industry Workers for Job Quality and Meaningful Work*

This study uses stated preference experiments to examine labour market preferences of 309 workers retrenched by the Australian automotive industry for non‐pecuniary job attributes denoting job quality and meaningfulness. We find that autonomy and employer reputation for good work policies and practices are the two most important non‐pecuniary job attributes, with compensating wage differentials of roughly $5 per hour for greater autonomy and better employer reputation. Job security and skill utilisation are also important, but less so, with compensating wage differentials between $1 and $3 per hour for greater security and fewer training requirements. Workers' strongest preference is not for a particular type of work, but rather for a particular type of employer, suggesting that labour market policy might pay more attention to regulating the quality of workplaces.

Price Prediction System of Basic Commodities Using Long Short-Term Memory Method: Analysis and Implementation for Future Projections

The uncontrollable prices of basic commodities, especially food commodities, have resulted in losses for producers and consumers in the city of Cirebon. To be able to bridge these problems, it is necessary to make the right decisions. A prediction system is one of the elements that can be used to support the right decision-making. Predictions in decision-making are based on existing data at present and in the past so that they can be used to describe conditions in accordance with the objectives achieved. With an accurate price prediction system for staple food commodities, it is hoped that decision-making will be able to decide on good policies from the Cooperative, Small and Medium Enterprises Service for Trade and Industry (DKUKMPP) for the people of Cirebon City. The method used is Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). The data used for the basic prices of food commodities, namely the last 3 years in 2020 - 2022, are sourced from the official website of the Ministry of Trade's Market Monitoring System and Basic Needs using Google Colab tools.

Public Administration Policy Innovation Towards the Realization of Good Public Policy Governance

The use of public policy to balance the interests of the public and government has not always worked well. The government's tendency to change or cancel some policies points to overlapping policies, a lack of innovation among public officers, and a low motivation to innovate. Consequently, a novel strategy that might offer significant support in resolving societal issues is needed. Describe and analyze policy innovation in public administration approach and policy innovation toward effective public policy governance was the aim of the research. The first qualitative approach was the methodology used. An academic literature review on public policy science was the method used to gather ideas pertinent to the study of public policy innovation. The collection of data was conducted by means of an examination of many sources and literature, including government records, printed and electronic media, journals, and publications pertaining to public administration and policy innovation. Policy innovation application is modeled by the use of NPS to apply innovative concepts. A method that allows the public the room to cooperate and be focused on performance development views the public in a holistic, compassionate, and humanist manner. 1) Support type; 2) Innovation management; and 3) Qualities in value application will lead to the realization of good public policy governance.

Do anticipated government environmental audits promote corporate social responsibility? Evidence from China

AbstractWe examine the impact of China's announcements of upcoming government environmental audits (GEAs) on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR). We hypothesize that firms, especially heavily polluting firms, engage in more CSR to proactively burnish their public image to weather forthcoming adverse outcomes from a GEA. Our baseline findings confirm that firms respond to the government's GEA announcement by engaging in more CSR. Additional analysis suggests that reputation concerns and environmental fines mediate the impact of GEA announcements on CSR. Cross‐sectional analyses show that the effect of GEA announcements on CSR is more salient for firms: (1) in a business environment in which GEAs are more effective, (2) that CSR engagement is critically important, or (3) that CSR can serve some special function. Overall, our findings imply that it is generally a good government policy to implement GEAs.

A Critical Analysis of the Rights of an Accused Person During Trial in Somalia

This study focuses on critical analysis of the rights of an accused person during trial in Somalia. The rights of accused person in Somalia have become a contentious and serious issue owing to the on-going civil war in Somalia which has now lasted for two decades. The doctrinal research methodoly was used to collect and analyse the data used in the study. The relevant secondary data were collected through documetary review where relevant data was collected from different books, national and international legal statutues and scholarly publications of scholars in relation to the rights of an accused person during trial in Somalia. The study employed a systematic procedure to analyse documentary evidence and answer specific research questions in the study through repeated review, examination and interpretation of the data in order to gain meaning and empirical knowledge of the construct being studied. The study analysed the rights of an accused person under the various national laws of Somalia, the various forms of violation of the rights of an accused person in Somalia and the causes of the violation of the rights of an accused person in Somalia. The main findings of the study revealed that the various and sufficient rights of an accused person during train in Somalia, as provided by the Provisional Constitution of Somalia, 2012, and the Criminal Code Act of Somalia, 1963, include: right to liberty and security, right to be informed promptly of the offence charged, right to fair and speedy trial, right to humane treatment, the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, right to a fair hearing, right to defend himself or herself, right to counsel, right to be informed of the nature offense an accused person has committed, the right to an interpreter, the right to be present at the trial, right to be brought promptly before a capable court, the right to habeas corpus, the right to apply for bail, the right not to be compelled to testify against himself or herself, right to examine evidence or witnesses and the right to appeal. However, these rights are neither being promoted nor protected in Somalia; instead they are being violated in various ways which they encompass: violation of arrest procedures and unfair and cruel treatment of accused person, arbitrary arrest, denial of fair public trial, violation of trial procedures, unlawful treatment and detention of political prisoners and accused persons being caused by structural and legal ambiguity, the continuous practise of legal pluralism, the existence of broken chain in the justice system, high level of corruption and mismanagement, military interference. The study recommended that the Federal Government of Somalia through its three organs should enact new law, promote fair and procedural arrest of accused train and sensitise the people about their rights as an accused and should initiate good policies and project that can foster the promotion and protection of human rights in the sphere of accused person’s protection during and after trial in Somalia.