Government Policy Interventions Research Articles

Availability of agricultural credit: determinants, marginal effect, and predicted probability

Purpose. This paper aims to identify the major determinants of agricultural credit and their marginal effects, along with describing the pattern of the predicted probability of getting credit from the agricultural credit cooperatives.
 Methodology / approach. We used a multi-stage stratified random sampling method to collect data from the paddy farmers of Kerala, India. Descriptive statistics are used to describe the profile of the farmers. Ordered logistic and probit regression models are used to model the credit categories. The authors analyzed the determinants of credit and their marginal effect, while the pattern of the predicted probability is described using tables and graphs.
 Results. Results show that age, household size, farming experience, and farm size significantly influence the probability of a farmer falling into a particular credit category. However, the estimated coefficients of other factors, like gender and occupation, are not statistically significant. The results from the study clearly show that relatively large paddy farms are not getting enough credit from the cooperatives, contrary to the common perception. An evaluation of the predicted probabilities shows that the very high and shallow categories are much more dispersed than the middle categories.
 Originality / scientific novelty. This is the first study that describes the predicted probability of credit availability pattern from the agricultural credit cooperatives to the paddy farmers. Moreover, this study describes the determinants and their marginal effects by credit category. 
 Practical value / implications. The results indicate the probability of a farmer falling into a specific credit category based on his/her characteristics or background. The results can help them frame a strategy while approaching a credit cooperative for a loan. The inverse relationship between age and the likelihood of getting higher credit amounts requires government policy intervention. It will be hard for farmers to continue farming while aging if they do not get sufficient credit. The government must develop policies to counteract the influence of age on credit availability, like special schemes for older age groups.

Analyzing the Differences of Government Intervention Policies for the Public Housing Systems of Hong Kong and Singapore

Government intervention has different effects on different economies. This paper will introduce the background and development process of government intervention in housing policies in Hong Kong and Singapore. Since the public housing policies in both places are implemented with government intervention, this study mainly analyzes the differences in the development of public housing systems and the role of government intervention in them from the perspective of social development. The conclusion of this paper makes it clear that the market intervention led by the government of Singapore makes the establishment and implementation of the public housing system in Singapore more seamless than that in Hong Kong, but this does not mean that Hong Kong should adopt the implementation strategy of Singapore, and the housing system should be viewed from the broad social development background. The Hong Kong government "positive non-intervention" created by the development of market economy. Which is unable to support the implementation of a public housing program with the same level of coverage as Singapore, resulting in different government interventions and vastly different housing policies.

Comparative Advantage and the Impact of Government Intervention Policy in Dairy Production in Iraq

Food industry is a major element of the economy because of its ability and effectiveness to revive and stimulate the overall economic processes in the country to produce milk and enhance the value surplus. Food industries are characterized by their capacity, multiplicity of patterns, and techniques and complexity of the various processes. The dairy industry is one of the branches of the important food industry, as it works to improve the health status of the population and give rural people wide opportunities for work and reduce unemployment rates. The aim of the research is to shed light on dairy industry to investigate comparative advantage in Iraq and its local efficiency as well as to know impact of the policy of government intervention. Policy analysis matrix (PAM) has shown that the value of the cost factor of the local supplier (DRC) is (0.54) which is less than one. This means that dairy production has a comparative advantage of utilizing local resources and that this production is socially profitable. The also study conducted sensitivity analysis by imposing a 10% increase in costs for traded inputs as well as reducing revenue by border prices for one ton of production. After calculating the transactions for both cases, the interpretation of coefficients did not change. The study concluded that dairy projects in Iraq for the sample in the period of study was profitable in terms of both private and social prices and there is a comparative advantage according to the domestic resource cost which was less than one.

Living Long and Well: Cross-Temporal Meta-Analytic Evidence on Elderly Chinese Health-Related Quality of Life

China has been successful in getting her people to live longer. But, merely adding years to life and not life to years poses immense socio-economic challenges. However, not much is known about the effects of government policy and program interventions on changes in how well the elderly live over the years. Accordingly, we cross-temporally meta-analyzed 45 research reports (N = 36,352) that utilized the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scale (SF-36) from 2000 to 2020. We found that: (1) the bodily pain, general health, vitality, and mental health of the elderly deteriorated over time; however, their physical and emotional roles, as well as their social functioning, improved with time; (2) the rising dependency ratio impoverished the HRQoL of the elderly; (3) the HRQoL indicators of the elderly revealed positive gains under the home-based care model whilst they showed a downward trend under the institutional pension model; (4) the HRQoL indicators of the elderly in economically developed areas produced mixed results; but, they all worsened over the years in economically underdeveloped areas. Thus, more investment efforts from the government and private entities are needed to reduce the dependency ratio and to improve the lives of the elderly under institutional care and/or in economically underdeveloped areas.

Using institutional ethnography and students’ voices to explore capacity to learn

As a response to declining student results on certain academic measures, a great deal of government policy intervention in Australia and internationally has been directed towards correcting a perceived deficit in teachers. Such interventions deliberately ignore the possibility that other factors might also be impacting student learning. The study reported here employed Institutional ethnography (IE) to begin from the standpoint of students, across all secondary year groups, and trace the factors that students perceive influence their capacity to learn. The voices of these students provided new and surprising insights to teachers and to the school executive. Surprising in the sense that other large scale, institutionalised data collection methods had not revealed the factors considered important by students. The study demonstrated the efficacy of an IE approach to student voice in uncovering a broad range of student views.

Under the ecological label policy: Supply chain Heterogeneous product innovation strategies for green marketing

Under the trend of low-carbon development in global scale, manufacturing enterprises that seek low-carbon transition are looking for innovations in green supply chain system. To explore how the green products innovation type, retailers green marketing and government intervention policy collaboratively impact environmental performance, a differentiated game model combining decision optimization and comparative analysis methods has been constructed in this study. The impact of retailer green marketing on supply chain profits and environmental performance as well as the impact of government ecological label policy on retailers green marketing are also extensively evaluated. The results of the model simulations show that green marketing and ecological labeling policies have a synergistic effect in boosting product greenness for development intensive green products (DIGP) innovation, but may not necessarily improve manufacturers' profits and overall social welfare. For marginal cost intensive green products (MIGP) innovation, green marketing alone has no sensible impact on product greenness, but together with implementation of ecological labeling policies, they may motivate retailers to invest in higher marketing efforts, which results in greater economic profits and product greenness, as well as better social welfare. If ecological labeling policy is combined with government subsidy and market price transfer mechanism, for both MIGP and DIGP innovation, corporate green marketing leads to higher economical and environmental value of product chain. However, overall social welfare may diminish, and this negative correlation becomes more significant with further implementation of government eco-label policy.

Coordinating settlement (im)mobilities: exploring secondary migration patterns and settlement geographies among refugee-humanitarian migrants in regional Australia

ABSTRACT International migrants play an important role in addressing the social and economic challenges associated with population ageing and fertility decline that are keenly felt in regional Australia. In a policy arena where the attraction and retention of migrants remains a challenge, large numbers of refugee-humanitarian migrants have, without any direct government policy intervention, independently gravitated towards unplanned regional settlement locations. However, these secondary migration patterns, often regarded as ‘organic’ or informal, are not well understood. We present new insights into their mobility in regional Australia using secondary datasets and primary research. Using Institutional Ethnographic methods, we highlight how their movements are not as ‘organic’ as imagined. Simultaneously, through the 'new mobilities' paradigm, we highlight the link between international and internal migration of refugee-humanitarian migrants. We tease out the relational element by drawing attention to how immobility of family members, structured by immigration policies that delay and deny family reunification, is intertwined with secondary migration patterns in Australia. As regional communities embrace the benefits of the secondary migration of refugee-humanitarian migrants, we show that these benefits are perversely supported by punitive family reunification policies that can have implications for the successful integration of refugee-humanitarian migrants.

Understanding Tourism Resilience amid COVID-19 in China from An Agency Perspective The Case of Hainan

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most influential challenges of the 21st century. It has led to a great concern about the security of human mobility. Unlike other crises or disasters in the past, COVID-19 has generated profound social and economic impacts. The tourism industry, in particular, whose development and prosperity are strongly contingent on human mobility, has been significantly hit by the COVID-19 shock. It is thus particularly important to take a closer look at the resilience of tourism. This study takes the case of Hainan a well-known tourism region to analyze how tourism economies respond and cope with the COVID-19 crisis. In China, it is well documented that strong top-down government measures and intervention policies are crucial and irreplaceable, which can timely enable the resilience of the whole tourism industry during the pandemic. Besides the presence of multi-scalar strong government agencies, this paper, therefore, takes a step further to scrutinize how other actors (e.g tourism firms) work with state actors to respond and adapt to COVID-19. This study could be useful or serves as a reference for further researchers to explore the regional economic resilience issue under COVID-19 in China and also in other developing economies. It will also offer possible directions for future research agendas in the area.

Gentrification and the Changing Urban Form

The effects of gentrification on displacement are widespread in the United States today. Since 1960, the United States has provided low-income people with opportunities to live in cities and find better jobs. As a result, a large number of low-income people have flooded into cities, resulting in high-income groups being dissatisfied with the changes in the surrounding community environment and moving to the suburbs, forming a wave of counter-urbanization. Today, however, the United States is reversing this trend and reurbanizing. High-income people with knowledge and expertise are moving into big cities, while low-income people are being driven out of their original homes. This paper will analyze the causes of gentrification and its impact, and divide into four parts to answer these questions. Gentrification is a development trend, which should not be ignored but should be faced and better helped by government intervention, community assistance and welfare policies.

The Consequences of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Ghanaian Financial Markets and the Effectiveness of Government Policy Responses

This study analysed the consequences of COVID-19 on Ghanaian financial markets and further profiled and assessed the effectiveness of government policy interventions to contain its incidence. Using a qualitative documentary analytic approach combined with available time series data from financial market regulators between 2015 and 2021, empirical evidence shows that key profitability (ROA and ROE) measures of banks, gross insurance premium and capital market indicators were negatively affected. The containment and stringency of government policies in the wake of the pandemic do not match in equal potency with the rise in occurrences. Policy recommendations were provided.

Seasonal variation in pesticide residue occurrences in surface waters found in Narok and Bomet Counties, Kenya.

Narok and Bomet are agricultural counties in Kenya which depend on flowing surface waters for farming activities. Agrochemicals have frequently been used to increase agricultural produce in this region. Occasionally, appropriate pesticide utilization measures are not followed. These surface waters are also consumed domestically by humans, livestock, and wild animals thus posing safety concerns to them. The current study sought to evaluate the levels and nature of pesticide residues found in surface waters in the dry and wet seasons of these counties. Eight water samples were collected in July (dry season) and October (wet season) at four different river sites in each of the two counties predetermined by the agricultural activity of its proximate environs. Pesticides extracted by solid phase extraction were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. At least 38 different pesticides were detected in the two counties with the highest concentration being recorded for chlorpyrifos and piperidine in Narok and Bomet counties, respectively. The pesticides chlorpyrifos, cypermethrin, cyfluthrin, and cyhalothrin were more prevalent in Narok County while triazine, semicarbazone, and epinephrine were more prevalent in Bomet County. There were significantly more pesticides detected during the wet season (P ≤ 0.05). Out of the nine prevalent pesticides detected, four of them posed serious ecotoxicology concerns with risk quotients above 1.0 (high risk); thus, there is a need for more government policy interventions in deterring farming near riparian lands and in training of famers regarding best practice for pesticide applications.

Government policy interventions during COVID-19 pandemic and economic performance

This paper examines the impacts of government policy interventions during COVID-19 pandemic on economic performance. The study pooled daily data from 108 countries across 5 regions based on World Bank classification from March 22, 2020 to July 31, 2020. These regions are East Asia and Pacific; Europe and Central Asia; Latin America and the Caribbean; Middle East and North Africa as well as sub-Saharan Africa. The study employs Autoregressive Distributed Lagged (ARDL) model. This study uses STATA 15.0 to estimate error correction-based Pooled Mean Group (PMG), Mean Group (MG) and Dynamic Fixed Effect (DFE) model for analyzing dynamic heterogeneous panel data. The empirical result from each region of the World is as follows: (1) Result from PMG on East Asia and Pacific region reveals that government policy of debt/contract relief towards cushioning the effects of COVID-19 pandemic has positive impact on economic performance in the short run while none of the government policy measure is statistically significant in the long run. (2) Result from MG on Europe and Central Asia shows that in both the long run and the short run, number of confirmed cases and school closure policy have negative impacts on economic performance and statistically significant at 1 percent level while in the long run, international travel control and public information campaign have negative and positive impacts on economic performance in the region respectively. Both International travel control and public information campaign are statistically significant at 1 percent and 10 percent levels respectively. (3) Result from PMG on Latin America and the Caribbean shows that the number of confirmed cases and debt/contract relief are statistically significant and have negative and positive impacts on economic performance respectively in the short run. The former is statistically significant at 5 percent level while the latter is statistically significant at 10 percent level. In the long run however, only international travel control imposed by government is significant at 5 percent level and has negative impact on economic performance in the region. (4) Result from PMG on Middle East and North Africa shows that only number of confirmed cases is significant and has positive impact on economic performance at 10 percent level in the short run. No robust impacts is found in the long run. (5) Result from PMG on sub-Saharan African region shows that number of confirmed cases has positive impact, which is statistically significant at 10 percent level on economic performance while in the long run, income support package has negative impact on economic performance at 5 percent level of significance. The study therefore, concludes that, the relative economic potency and effectiveness of government interventionist policy measures towards putting COVID-19 pandemic under control vary across regions of the world. Economically, Europe and Central Asia is the region that is worst hit by the pandemic when compared with other regions.

Perceptions of Young Adults on the Critical Success Factors of the Build-to-Rent Housing Model in Sydney, Australia

Amid Australia’s surging house prices, rental housing has become the safety net for young adults experiencing housing stress. The attention of policymakers is drawn towards the build-to-rent (BTR) housing model, a growing housing option for many young Australian adults. Although BTR’s integration into Australia’s housing and planning landscape is unfolding, the perception of young adults is lacking in policy reforms for this growing industry. This study examines the perspectives of young adults aged 18 to 34 years on the critical success factors (CSFs) of the BTR housing provision in Australia. The responses are analysed using an explanatory factor analysis, relative importance index, and ANOVA. Our findings show a critically low awareness of BTR among young adults in Australia. Respondents, between 18 and 24 years, are most concerned with public awareness, an indication of their desire for transparency and engagement in decision making at the policy level. Young adults rank regulation and government policy interventions as the most important CSF of BTR housing. This shows that they are more concerned about the affordability of BTR houses. This study concludes that young adults’ viewpoints on BTR are important in ongoing policy reforms. There is a need to ensure that this asset class is accessible and affordable to this target group.

Development Expenditure Allocation and District Wise Social Development: A Case Study of Punjab Pakistan

In the wake of achieving Sustainable Development Goals, this study sets to investigate the allocation of development expenditures as government policy intervention and its role in the uplifting the social condition in districts of Punjab. The constriction of a comprehensive social development is indexed using principal factor analysis. This study considered panel data for 36 districts of Punjab ranging from 2008 to 2017. Estimates from the panel Random Effect model advocated that the rise in the development expenditures by the Government of Punjab follows U shape relationship with the social condition of the province. This quadratic model helps to estimate district-wise effects of government development intervention on social development and its components via which resource mobilization optimization can be done.

Technical formulation for estimating the economic loss impact of the smallholder oil palm replanting program in Indonesia

In Indonesia, the smallholder oil palm plantations constitute 42% of the national oil palm plantation area. Therefore, the success of increasing the productivity of smallholder palm oil will have a major impact on the sustainability of the national palm oil industry. Replanting aging oil palm trees is a priority in Indonesia. Old trees become less productive, and to maintain or even increase yields to meet the demand for palm oil without increasing land used, replanting is necessary. For large agribusinesses, replanting is done regularly, however, for smallholders, this can be a challenge for various reasons mainly related to loss of income, lack of labor, and uncertainty about the process. It is important to determine the impact of the smallholder palm oil replanting program (SPR Program) in stages as a material for consideration in formulating more anticipatory and responsive policies so that they are right on target.The indicator of temporary loss of income is generated through a gradual calculation at three economic levels, namely household (micro), sectoral (agriculture) and regional (macro) economy. The calculated indicator value is in the form of a relative value that can be used as a reference in decision making, using the approach of the proportion of affected households and the level of temporary income loss, but in general the two approaches have a unidirectional relationship. The method developed in stages in this paper is recommended to be used in making decisions in government intervention policies in the context of handling the negative impact of the SPR Program as well as programming and community empowerment activities. A priority policy to prepare households and regions to face temporary loss of income sources due to the SPR. Empowerment policies that contain a priority scale both from the target group, implementation time, and period as well as the form of activities and programs according to their potential and needs. Key words: palm oil, replanting, temporary loss of income, empowerment, policy

TURBULENCE IN DISGUISE IN THE BANKING SECTOR CREATE PANIC WITHDRAWAL OF MONEY IN BANGLADESH

Bankers may find it difficult to get deposits from households as a result of financial market turmoil. Negative returns on bank assets cause creditors to worry about financial stability, causing them to exaggerate the possibility of a bank failure in the future and withdraw money from banks in a panic. This article provides a simplified alternative for building beliefs about panic withdrawal. By lowering asset prices and raising the cost of bank borrowing, banks’ balance sheet positions deteriorated, which caused worries for the depositors, who became panicked. This article discusses potential bank panic scenarios in Bangladesh due to several internal causes that vary countercyclically. Although the major issue confronting the banks was not illiquidity but rather insolvency due to a high percentage of nonperforming loans, bank supervisory authorities may respond to this panic situation by offering liquidity support, government policy intervention, ensuring good governance, limiting the number of withdrawals, and so on.

Dynamic capabilities and employment during COVID-19: The moderating effect of government support

Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were particularly hard hit by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, some performed relatively well, maintaining or increasing employment growth. We study these differences in performance through the lens of dynamic capabilities (DCs) theory, which we extend by incorporating the moderating effect of government support during COVID-19. We analyse responses from 1421 UK SMEs and find that government support and DCs positively impact employment. We also show that government support moderates the link between DCs and employment with a negative effect after the first COVID-19 lockdown. The findings highlight the role of government policy intervention in discouraging SMEs from effectively exercising DCs during a crisis and the general importance of DCs and government support in enabling SMEs to cope with shocks.

Restricting access to antibiotics: The effectiveness of a 'no repeats' government policy intervention.

Australia has a high rate of antibiotic use. Government policy interventions are one strategy to optimise the use of antibiotics. On 1 April 2020, the Australian Government Department of Health introduced a policy intervention to increase the quality use of four antibiotics. To assess if the government policy intervention improved the appropriate supply of the four antibiotics amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cefalexin and roxithromycin. This study employed a retrospective cohort study design comparing a 10% sample (n=345,018) of four antibiotics prescribed and dispensed in Australia during a three-month period (May, June, July) in 2019, and again in 2020 (after the policy intervention). The 10% sample of PBS data was obtained from the Australian Government Department of Health. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis were carried out. The results suggest the policy change improved the appropriate supply of original prescriptions in 2020 compared to 2019 OR=1.75 (95% CI=1.68-1.82, p<0.001), and appropriate supply of repeat prescriptions OR=1.56 (95% CI=1.25-1.96, p<0.001). In 2020, the proportion of appropriate supply of original prescriptions increased by an absolute difference of 1.8% (95% CI=1.6-1.9%; P<0.001), and appropriate supply of repeat prescriptions increased by 3.9% (95% CI=2.2-5.5%; P<0.001). The total number of antibiotic prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in 2019 (N=219,960) reduced in 2020 (N=125,058) after the policy intervention. The study provides evidence for the impact of a government policy intervention to improve the appropriate supply of antibiotics, although some of the reduction in antibiotic use was likely due to the concomitant COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is required to assess the impact of the intervention outside a pandemic.

Workplace Discrimination and Risk of Hypertension: Findings From a Prospective Cohort Study in the United States.

Background Mounting evidence has demonstrated a role of psychosocial stressors such as discrimination in hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. The objective of this study was to provide the first instance of research evidence examining prospective associations of workplace discrimination with onset of hypertension. Methods and Results Data were from MIDUS (Midlife in the United States), a prospective cohort study of adults in the United States. Baseline data were collected in 2004 to 2006, with an average 8-year follow-up period. Workers with self-reported hypertension at baseline were excluded, yielding a sample size of 1246 participants for the main analysis. Workplace discrimination was assessed using a validated 6-item instrument. During follow-up with 9923.17 person-years, 319 workers reported onset of hypertension, and incidence rates of hypertension were 25.90, 30.84, and 39.33 per 1000 person-years among participants with low, intermediate, and high levels of workplace discrimination, respectively. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses demonstrated that workers who experienced high exposure to workplace discrimination, compared with workers with low exposure, had a higher hazard of hypertension (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.54 [95% CI, 1.11-2.13]). Sensitivity analysis excluding more baseline hypertension cases based on additional information on blood pressure plus antihypertensive medication use (N=975) showed slightly stronger associations. A trend analysis showed an exposure-response association. Conclusions Workplace discrimination was prospectively associated with elevated risk of hypertension among US workers. The adverse impacts of discrimination on cardiovascular disease have major implications for workers' health and indicate a need for government and employer policy interventions addressing discrimination.

An interpretable system for predicting the impact of COVID-19 government interventions on stock market sectors.

Evaluating and understanding the financial impacts of COVID-19 has emerged as an urgent research agenda. Nevertheless, the impacts of government interventions on stock markets remain poorly understood. This study explores, for the first time, the impact of COVID-19 related government intervention policies on different stock market sectors using explainable machine learning-based prediction models. The empirical findings suggest that the LightGBM model provides excellent prediction accuracy while preserving computationally efficient and easy explainability of the model. We also find that COVID-19 government interventions are better predictors of stock market volatility than stock market returns. We further show that the observed effects of government intervention on the volatility and returns of ten stock market sectors are heterogeneous and asymmetrical. Our findings have important implications for policymakers and investors in terms of promoting balance and sustaining prosperity across industry sectors through government interventions.