Government Decision Research Articles

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.

Measuring community resilience inequality to inland flooding using location aware big data

Understanding community resilience is critical for effective resource allocation and planning. However, classical resilience measures often fall short in capturing the diverse characteristics of each stage: preparation, resistance, recovery, and adaptability. We propose a multi-stage resilience assessment framework integrating morphological indicators to measure community resilience. Applying this framework to evaluate disparities in community resilience after the inland flooding in Changsha, we find that morphological indicators provide a more accurate description of resilience priority and ability compared to speed indicators. The analysis reveals stronger complementarity and lower redundancy among resilience indicators. Moreover, we establish a strong connection between resilience, driving factors, and government actions. Neighborhoods with high flood risk and socioeconomic status encounter the severest impact and highest recovery priority, leading to substantial government engineering measures. Conversely, vulnerable communities facing high flood risk and low socioeconomic status display the lowest resistance and recovery ability, emphasizing the necessity for tailored initiatives like increasing green infrastructure and constructing flood buffer zones. Additionally, low river flood risk communities with high socioeconomic status experience minimal flood impact, underscoring the significance of prioritizing low-lying regions susceptible to surface water flooding. The study informs government decision-making, emphasizing differentiated strategies for enhancing community resilience across regions and stages.

Andexanet Alfa (Ondexxya)


 CADTH reimbursement reviews are comprehensive assessments of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, as well as patient and clinician perspectives, of a drug or drug class.
 The assessments inform non-binding recommendations that help guide the reimbursement decisions of Canada's federal, provincial, and territorial governments, with the exception of Quebec.
 This review assesses andexanet alfa (Ondexxya), 200 mg, powder for solution for infusion, IV infusion.
 Indication: For adult patients treated with FXa inhibitors (rivaroxaban or apixaban) when rapid reversal of anticoagulation is needed due to life-threatening or uncontrolled bleeding.

Stakeholder interactions of government intervention in construction and demolition waste recycling market: A game theory approach

To acquire an in-depth understanding on how government intervention affects C&DW recycling market, this study develops four game models consisting of three main categories of stakeholders, e.g., the government, contractors, and C&DW receivers (recycling enterprises and landfills) to reveal stakeholder interactions of government intervention. Taking China's C&DW recycling market as an example, four different scenarios are established to examine and compare the effects of government intervention policies on C&DW recycling, illegal dumping, and stakeholder profits. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to gain further insights into the impact of government intervention on stakeholders' behaviors with a case study from Shenzhen, China. Results indicate: (1) government intervention policies can always lead to an increased amount of C&DW recycled and a reduced amount of C&DW illegally dumped compared to no any measure; (2) government subsidy can improve the market competitiveness of recycling enterprises and weaken the competitiveness of landfills. Both subsidy-only and subsidy-plus-penalty policies help reduce economic burden on contractors compared to no interventions, but penalty policy increases contractors' expenditures. Finally, penalty policy can significantly reduce the amount of illegally dumped C&DW, while subsidy policy can significantly increase the amount of recycled C&DW. This study provides valuable theoretical support and practical guidance for decision-making of governments in developing economies to develop C&DW recycling by formulating targeted intervention policies.

Procurement for Empowerment: The Impact of Female Decision-Makers in Reproductive Health Supply Chains

Access to contraceptives empowers women to not only exercise their reproductive rights and avert unintended pregnancies, but also to prevent a spectrum of adverse societal and health outcomes (e.g., unfulfilled career aspirations, unsafe abortions, maternal deaths.) However, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where resources are limited and women are under-represented as decision-makers in national governments, reproductive health has not traditionally been prioritized. Motivated by past research showing that female decision-makers tend to prioritize issues in ways that align more closely with women's needs and preferences, we examine the relationship between female decision-makers in national governments and contraceptive procurement. Specifically, we focus on female decision-makers at two levels, as health ministers and parliamentarians, and examine their impact on the procurement quantity of contraceptives by LMICs. Our empirical analysis, based on a comprehensive compilation of data across six distinct sources, shows that a female (vs. male) health minister is associated with an average 66% increase in the procurement quantity of contraceptives. Notably, this relationship is strengthened with an increase in the proportion of female representatives in national parliaments. Together, these findings demonstrate that female (vs. male) decision-makers exhibit greater commitment to contraceptive procurement, an issue that has a disproportionate impact on women's health and well-being. As ensuring good health and well-being for all and increasing gender parity in leadership positions are two of the key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, our study on examining the relationship between female decision-makers and contraceptive procurement constitutes a timely and consequential line of inquiry.

Hungarian civil procedure law’s response to the Covid challenge

Abstract Civil procedural law had to react quickly to the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure that litigants had access to the court system despite the closure of court buildings. In Hungary, e-trials were made possible by special government decisions, which were interpreted by the Supreme Court (Kúria) to help lower courts to develop uniform case law. As a result of the Digital Courts Programme launched in 2018, the computerisation of courts and judges was in a good state at the time of the outbreak, which helped greatly to address the situation. The paper examines changes in Hungarian civil procedure law during the first three waves of the pandemic in a chronological manner. In its conclusions, it takes stock of the changes that can enhance access to the justice system and legal entities, even after the epidemic.

Green building progress assessment: analysis of registered and certified buildings for LEED rating system

Green buildings are of great importance to overcome climate change effects and the depletion of natural resources. This paper aims to provide a review of the progress in green building constructions that have used the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system for the last two decades. To do this the researchers have analyzed the data of around 61000 LEED-registered buildings (from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) website) Using Google data analysis module studying different factors affecting green building growth and trying to spot any possible correlation between LEED and each factor. The review will provide the researchers and the construction industry with the necessary information about the analysis of green building development. The results showed the trends in the green building progress and provided insight analysis for the reasons behind this progress which can help rating system developers, green building designers, and governmental decision-makers, to promote green building worldwide.

Machine learning prediction models for ground motion parameters and seismic damage assessment of buildings at a regional scale

This study examines the feasibility of using a machine learning approach for rapid damage assessment of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings after the earthquake. Since the real-world damaged datasets are lacking, have limited access, or are imbalanced, a simulation dataset is prepared by conducting a nonlinear time history analysis. Different machine learning (ML) models are trained considering the structural parameters and ground motion characteristics to predict the RC building damage into five categories: null, slight, moderate, heavy, and collapse. The random forest classifier (RFC) has achieved a higher prediction accuracy on testing and real-world damaged datasets. The structural parameters can be extracted using different means such as Google Earth, Open Street Map, unmanned aerial vehicles, etc. However, recording the ground motion at a closer distance requires the installation of a dense array of sensors which requires a higher cost. For places with no earthquake recording station/device, it is difficult to have ground motion characteristics. For that different ML-based regressor models are developed utilizing past-earthquake information to predict ground motion parameters such as peak ground acceleration and peak ground velocity. The random forest regressor (RFR) achieved better results than other regression models on testing and validation datasets. Furthermore, compared with the results of similar research works, a better result is obtained using RFC and RFR on validation datasets. In the end, these models are utilized to predict the damage categories of RC buildings at Saitama University and Okubo Danchi, Saitama, Japan after an earthquake. This damage information is crucial for government agencies or decision-makers to respond systematically in post-disaster situations.

Comparison of the Roles of the South Korean and Japanese Electric Power Sectors in Their National Economies

The growing demand for electricity, driven by factors such as the shift to carbon neutrality and economic growth, is a challenge shared by South Korea and Japan. South Korea, a peninsula nation, and Japan, an island country, which are both heavily dependent on foreign energy sources and have manufacturing-based industrial structures, are actively working to secure stable power supplies for their economic development. This article carries out a quantitative analysis of the roles of the South Korean and Japanese electric power sectors (EPSs) in their respective economies, seeking to identify differences and generate actionable insights for decision making and policy formulation. Utilizing the input–output (IO) technique with the latest available data, the analysis includes a demand-side model, a supply-side model, and a price-side model to examine various effects of the EPSs. The key findings reveal differences in the production-inducing, value-added creation, and job-creation effects between the two countries, highlighting operational disparities in their electricity sectors. Additionally, South Korea exhibits higher wage-inducing, supply shortage, and price-side effects than Japan, because of its public enterprise-oriented high-wage structure and a substantial manufacturing sector. These quantitative results provide valuable reference material for future government decisions and policy development in the EPS and emphasize the significant role and impact of the power sector in both countries.

Legal and regulatory instruments for NCD prevention: a scoping review and descriptive analysis of evaluations in OECD countries

ContextPublic health law is an important tool in non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention. There are different approaches available for achieving policy objectives, including government, co-, quasi- and self-regulation. However, it is often unclear what legal design features drive successes or failures in particular contexts. This scoping review undertakes a descriptive analysis, exploring the design characteristics of legal instruments that have been used for NCD prevention and implemented and evaluated in OECD countries.MethodsA scoping review was conducted across four health and legal databases (Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE, HeinOnline), identifying study characteristics, legal characteristics and regulatory approaches, and reported outcomes. Included studies focused on regulation of tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy foods and beverages, and environmental pollutants.FindingsWe identified 111 relevant studies evaluating 126 legal instruments. Evaluation measures most commonly assessed implementation, compliance and changes to the built and lived environment. Few studies evaluated health or economic outcomes. When examining the design and governance mechanisms of the included legal instruments, government regulation was most commonly evaluated (n = 90) and most likely to be reported effective (64%). Self-regulation (n = 27) and quasi-regulation (n = 5) were almost always reported to be ineffective (93% and 100% respectively). There were few co-regulated instruments evaluated (n = 4) with mixed effectiveness. When examining public health risks, food and beverages including alcohol were more likely to be self- or quasi-regulated and reported as ineffective more often. In comparison, tobacco and environmental pollutants were more likely to have government mandated regulation. Many evaluations lacked critical information on regulatory design. Monitoring and enforcement of regulations was inconsistently reported, making it difficult to draw linkages to outcomes and reported effectiveness.ConclusionsFood and alcohol regulation has tended to be less successful in part due to the strong reliance on self- and quasi-regulation. More work should be done in understanding how government regulation can be extended to these areas. Public health law evaluations are important for supporting government decision-making but must provide more detail of the design and implementation features of the instruments being evaluated – critical information for policy-makers.

The Perceived Role of Non-Elected Actors in Community Power Structure in Poland: Results of a Survey Experiment

Administrative decisions can be influenced not only by policies formulated by elected representatives but also by various external actors. From classic elitist and pluralist theories of community power to urban regime and network governance concepts, academic studies tell us that several institutional and individual actors with no electoral democratic legitimacy may have a significant impact on local government decision-making. In our paper, we ask the question who they are in contemporary Polish cities. Are there any systematic regularities in this respect concerning e.g. how they differ depending on the size of the local community? In this paper we look at the phenomenon through the lens of citizens’ perception of the influence on important administrative decisions made in local governments. In this research, we also check whether the style of local political leadership perceived by citizens is reflected in their expectations toward the propensity of local authorities to consider the opinions. Data is collected through a survey conducted on a representative sample of 2,000 Polish citizens who were asked about their perception of the impact of various business and societal actors. The study uses the survey experiment method in which various formulations of the question are randomly assigned to individual respondents, which allows us to measure the perceived influence of individual types of actors. Referring to the recent debate on the limitation of the applicability of regime theory to large cities only, we place a special attention to the impact of city size on the role of big and small businesses as well as various societal organizations.

Research on Intelligent Governance of Floating Population and Modernization of Municipal Social Governance Capability

The emergence of intelligent governance of the floating population in the new era has achieved scientific government decision-making, early warning of social risks and improved service effectiveness, and enhanced the capacity of municipal social governance. As a province with a large floating population in China, the local governments of Jiaxing, Wenzhou, and Hangzhou have actively explored and practised intelligent governance for the floating population, accumulating many rich experiences. In order to better promote intelligent governance of the floating population, it is necessary to innovate data sharing mechanisms, firmly establish a intelligent governance mindset, and grasp the balanced relationship between governance and services.

Sustainable development of environmental protection talents training: Research on the behavior decision of government, university and enterprise under the background of evolutionary game.

Environmental protection talents training (EPTT) is recognized as a key prerequisite for maintaining environmental sustainability, and in order to study the influence of each player on EPTT. This paper innovatively constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of government, university and enterprise. The equilibrium points and evolutionary stabilization strategies of each participant are solved by replicating the dynamic equations, and the behaviors of each subject in EPTT are analyzed so as to clarify the behavioral characteristics and optimal strategies of the government's participation in EPTT. The results show that enterprises occupy a more important position in influencing government decisions. The government should reduce the financial incentives for enterprises and replace them with greater policy support. Meanwhile, the government should actively promote the cultivation mechanism that integrates universities and enterprises. The results of the study can provide a decision-making basis for the government to promote the sustainable development of EPTT.

Spatial Correlation between the Changes in Supply and Demand for Water-Related Ecosystem Services

Clarifying the spatiotemporal changes in the supply and demand of water-related ecosystem services (WESs) can provide comprehensive support information for ecological governance decisions. However, the spatial mismatch between the supply and demand of WESs is often overlooked, resulting in a lack of targeted decision-making. At the grid scale, while preserving both natural and social attributes, this study quantitatively analyzed the spatiotemporal changes in the supply and demand of WESs in the Southern River Basin from 2000 to 2020. Ecological zoning was performed based on the temporal changes in WESs supply and demand. The OPGD model was used to investigate the impacts of socio-economic and natural factors on different WESs supply factors and further explore the spatial correlation of WESs supply and demand changes in different zones. The results show that there is significant spatial heterogeneity in the changes in WESs supply and demand. Economic belts and megacities have experienced remarkable changes, with WESs supply decreasing and WESs demand increasing. WESs demand changes significantly affect WESs supply changes. The supply of WESs in all zones is influenced by WESs demand. In the high supply–low demand zone, WY has the highest explanatory power for WESs demand changes. From the high supply–middle demand zone to the low supply–middle demand zone and then to the high supply–high demand zone, the explanatory power of PE for WESs demand changes gradually increases. As WESs demand starts from the middle level, HAI gradually dominates WESs demand changes. The increase in land use changes may promote the impact of WESs demand changes on WESs supply changes. This study contributes to incorporating the supply and demand changes of WESs and their correlations into the ecological protection and restoration system, providing a new perspective and method for regional sustainable management.

Corporate interest groups and their implications for global food governance: mapping and analysing the global corporate influence network of the transnational ultra-processed food industry.

A major challenge to transforming food systems to promote human health and sustainable development is the global rise in the manufacture and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs). A key driver of this dietary transition is the globalization of UPF corporations, and their organized corporate political activity (CPA) intended to counter opposition and block government regulation. UPF industry CPA and the corporate interest groups who lobby on their behalf have been well described at the national level, however, at the global level, this network has not been systematically characterized. This study aims to map, analyse, and describe this network, and discuss the implications for global food policy action on UPFs, global food governance (GFG), and food systems transformation. We conducted a network analysis of the declared interest group memberships of the world's leading UPF corporations, extracted from web sources, company reports, and relevant academic and grey literature. Data on the characteristics of these interest groups were further extracted for analysis, including year founded, level, type, and headquarter location. We identified 268 interest groups affiliated with the UPF industry. The UPF manufacturers Nestlé (n = 171), The Coca-Cola Company (n = 147), Unilever (n = 142), PepsiCo (n = 138), and Danone (n = 113) had the greatest number of memberships, indicating strong centrality in coordinating the network. We found that this network operates at all levels, yet key actors now predominantly coordinate globally through multistakeholder channels in GFG. The most common interest group types were sustainability/corporate social responsibility/multistakeholder initiatives, followed by branding and advertising, and food manufacturing and retail. Most corporate interest groups are headquartered where they can access powerful government and GFG decision-makers, nearly one-third in Washington DC and Brussels, and the rest in capital cities of major national markets for UPFs. The UPF industry, and especially its leading corporations, coordinate a global network of interest groups spanning multiple levels, jurisdictions, and governance spaces. This represents a major structural feature of global food and health governance systems, which arguably poses major challenges for actions to attenuate the harms of UPFs, and to realising of healthy and sustainable food systems.

The governance of irresponsible new energy vehicle members considering differentiated subsidies

Differentiated government subsidies are indispensable for the advancement of new energy vehicles (NEVs), while irresponsible behaviors always occur which may lead to resource misallocation and need to be supervised. Hence, a tripartite evolutionary game model is constructed, considering differentiated subsidies and irresponsible behaviors. The main results are as follows. (1) Government strategies are relative to subsidy expenditure and penalty revenue, and these factors exhibit a non-negligible influence on the speed of the government's decision progress, which implies the necessity of establishing a flexible and dynamic subsidy mechanism. (2) Governance intensity and penalty fines should be improved to effectively regulate irresponsible behaviors, but they need timely adjustment to avoid the slackness of irresponsible manufacturers and retailers. Moreover, restricting the expected revenue of irresponsible behaviors is another scheme to regulate their engagement. (3) Profit changes will influence the strategies of the NEV supply chain participants, and upstream participants' profits have a unilateral impact on downstream participants.

Energy Access in the Village of Gunung Arba, Jango Village from the Perspective of Environmental Justice in Central Lombok District Community

Environmental justice from the perspective of public participation in the development of natural resources is a national program where the government is starting to switch from fossil energy to green energy, which means that in the future the government will no longer hope for energy such as coal, oil and gas, etc. This is a very strategic step taken by the government. Centralized is the antithesis of the increasing pressure to decentralize regional government, including regarding the management of natural resources (SDA) policies in the mining and oil and gas sectors, To ensure that this program runs well, of course the community is involved in monitoring it. Community participation in sustainable development is indeed weak, including in terms of policy making, even though the laws and regulations also stipulate that the community has rights as explained in the Aarhus Convention, where parties have an obligation to guarantee the right of access to information, community participation in decision making, and access to justice in environmental matters in accordance with the provisions of the convention. Then in Law No. 32 of 2009 concerning Environmental Protection and Management, it is intended, among other things, 1) to provide information to the government, 2) to increase the public's willingness to accept government decisions. 3) Helps with legal protection. and 4) Democratize decision making. From the above basis, it further strengthens the community so that it can participate actively in the development of natural resources in this country.

Assessing effects of pandemic-related policies on individual public transit travel patterns: A Bayesian online changepoint detection based framework

During a pandemic or natural disaster, people may alter transit usage behavior due to perception of changes in the environment. To effectively respond to these crises, it is important for governments and public transit agencies to understand when these changes occurred and how they were affected by relevant policies and responsive strategies. In this study, we develop a methodological framework based on Bayesian online changepoint detection (BOCD) to identify the occurrence time, direction, and persistency of changes in individual-level transit usage. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this framework in informing government decision-making in the context of COVID-19. Using Jeju Island, South Korea as a case study, we apply the framework over a nearly two-year smart card dataset collected from the beginning of 2019 till nine months into the pandemic. By focusing on frequent transit users, we detect when these users significantly changed their transit usage frequency during the pandemic and identify several types of users who experienced different behavior change patterns. Besides demonstrating the great heterogeneity in individual-level behavior changes, we perform a regression analysis to further understand how these changes were affected by key government policies (e.g., Risk alert, Social distancing, Public transit policy, and Eased social distancing). Our results suggest that only certain sets of policies appear to have significant effects. In particular, introducing Risk alert would cause a 277% to 317% increase in the number of users who reduced transit usage frequency. Policies that eased social distancing, though, would cause a 134% to 155% increase in the number of users with travel frequency increase. The proposed BOCD framework enables a scalable solution to identifying and understanding changes of individual transit behavior. The methodology and findings are beneficial for developing targeted policies and interventions to facilitate daily travel and public transit operations during public health crises.

Governance and Public Health Decision-Making During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review.

Objective: We provide an in-depth understanding of how governance and decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic has been empirically characterized in the literature to identify gaps in research and highlight areas that require further inquiry. Methods: We searched peer-reviewed publications using empirical data published between Jan 1, 2020 and Jan 31, 2022 in three electronic databases to examine the process of governance and decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two authors independently screened the records and 24 publications were extracted for the review. Results: Governance is analyzed by its level at national, sub-national, community and by its aspects of process, determinants and performance. While different methodological approaches are used, governance is conceptualized in four ways 1) characteristics and elements, 2) leadership, 3) application of power and 4) models or arrangements of governance. Conclusion: For future pandemic preparedness, there is a need for more empirical research using a unified conceptual approach to governance, which integrates decision-making processes and can guide governance structures and mechanisms across different countries and contexts. We call for more inclusivity in who performs the research on governance and where.

Corporate governance and capital structure decision: insights from Oman

Corporate governance and capital structure decision: insights from Oman