Institutional Characteristics Research Articles

Veto powers and access capabilities in the design of preferential trade agreements

Studies of domestic political actors’ influence on the design of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have focused on veto players as obstacles to policy change, assuming their roles as access points or channels for economic interests. Access point and veto player theories predict that multiple access points lead to a protectionist bias and that numerous veto players have a constraining influence over PTAs. This study argues that after the veto player and access point theories are combined, the effect of variation in the number of veto players and access points on the institutional features of PTAs depends on the types of exporters (endowment-based or intra-industry exporters) with whom said political actors interact. Quantitative tests show that as the value of intra-industry exports rises, veto players and access points have a less constraining effect on the scope and autonomy of PTAs. This study employed a novel dataset to approximate the values of intra-industry and endowment-based exports of 256 Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) products manufactured by 500 trading partners. The findings highlight the importance of considering the broader influence of political actors and economic interests on PTA design.

Vielgestaltigkeit von Uniformität: Zur Bedeutung von Kleidung in totalen Institutionen

The essential features of total institutions include complete closure to the outside world and almost total surveillance of inmates within. All activities are concentrated in one place and under one authority. Inmates are condemned to a meticulously planned daily routine and their activities are carried out in pursuit of the institution’s goal. Finally, the model distinguishes between staff and inmates. The former are responsible for supervising the latter. According to Goffman, five different types of institutions can be distinguished. In addition to welfare institutions and institutions for the rational performance of certain work-like tasks (barracks, ship, boarding school), he calls prisons, asylums and monasteries total institutions. They serve to protect or rehabilitate the community, are havens from the world or places of contemplation, and provide healing or care for people who are unable to care for themselves and pose an unintended threat to others. Entry into the total institution involves a permanent loss of role through separation from the rest of the world. In addition, the newcomer must undergo a series of procedures that are seen as a profound break from the previous life. These include undressing and dressing in (institutional) clothing, which is imbued with symbolic meaning. This is the point of departure for this article, which seeks to answer the following research question: How does the clothing of monastic inmates, prison inmates and psychiatric patients differ both in terms of design and in terms of their supportive functions in the context of achieving the institutional goal?

НСТИТУЦІОНАЛЬНІ ЗАСАДИ АНТИМОНОПОЛЬНОГО РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ ТА ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ПІДПРИЄМНИЦЬКОЇ КОНКУРЕНТОСПРОМОЖНОСТІ НА МІЖНАРОДНИХ ТА НАЦІОНАЛЬНИХ ТОВАРНИХ РИНКАХ

The formation and development of state antimonopoly policy and antimonopoly regulation takes place taking into account the peculiarities of the institutional environment in which this regulation takes place. The institutional environment of antimonopoly policy and antimonopoly regulation represented by mandatory and voluntary components. All institutional formations of antimonopoly policy and antimonopoly regulation play certain roles that differ in function. The article describes the institutional features of the state antimonopoly policy formation and development on national consumer markets. Among the peculiarities of the functioning and development of the state antimonopoly policy, mandatory and voluntary components highlighted. A mandatory component of the antimonopoly regulation institutional environment are state and international institutions subject to general, pre-documented regulatory acts, regulations, agreements, etc., it is a formal regulatory level. Institutions that have a clearly documented structure, rights, obligations, norms and rules of conduct. Antimonopoly regulation for these institutes is one of the mandatory elements of their functioning. The second component of the antimonopoly environment functions on a voluntary basis. These institutes can function based on legally registered agreements, on voluntary regulatory regulation, and without entering into documented agreements, on non-normative informal regulation. The voluntary component includes market participants, enterprises, organizations, associations, public unions, scientific research centers and institutes that are interested in antimonopoly regulation, purpose of promoting their interests and purpose of improving the general economic situation. Both components of antimonopoly regulation include institutions that are responsible for the role of institutional design. Within the framework of institutional design, each participant in antimonopoly regulation plays a certain role, while the same institutional formation can play several roles at the same time. The functions played by institutional formations vary from maximally aimed at promoting the formation and development of state antimonopoly policy and antimonopoly regulation to a lack of interest in changes and even active opposition to the introduction of new institutions, adaptation or improvement of already existing ones

The constitutional guarantees of the fundamental right to work

Legal labor relations, as social relations, are relations with a multidimensional institutional character, being regulated by not only the branch of labor law or by civil law and other branches, as important social relations for the socialization and sustenance of man, being part of the fundamental ones. Labor relations are also constitutional, being part of the Constitution and thus becoming supreme. The right to work, essential for the development of the rule of law, imposes constitutional guarantees of a public control of the protective regulations, the basis constituting the supremacy of the constitution. Constitutional protection was guaranteed by 33 decisions adopted by the Constitutional Court since the establishment of constitutionality control. The constitutional guarantees for the protection of the right to work have been ensured from simple employees, through the control of the constitutionality of the norms regarding the minimum and average salary in the economy, up to the working conditions of employees who hold the positions of deputies in the Parliament.

Bibliometric analysis of monoclonal antibodies for atherosclerosis

ABSTRACT Atherosclerosis (AS) is a prevalent cardiovascular disease that greatly increases mortality in the aging population and imposes a heavy burden on global healthcare systems. The purpose of this study is to examine the research structure and current trends of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against AS from a bibliometric perspective, since the development of these drugs is currently booming. This study collected articles and reviews on mAbs against AS from the Web of Science Core Collection, spanning from 2003 to 2022. Biblioshiny was utilized to analyze and visualize the characteristics of countries, regions, authors, institutions, and journals included in this collection. We used VOS viewer to illustrate the frequency of country co-occurrence, and CiteSpace to visualize co-cited reference, keywords co-occurrence, keywords citation bursts, keywords clustering and timeline plots. The study included 1325 publications, with the United States emerging as a leading contributor to the field. ATHEROSCLEROSIS, CIRCULATION and ARTERIOSCLEROSISTHROMBOSIS AND VASCULAR BIOLOGY are core journals that publish high-quality literature on the latest advances in the field. Noteworthy authors with numerous high-quality publications include Witztum JL and Tsimikas S. Currently, lipid metabolism and inflammation are the main research areas of interest in this field. The mAbs against AS is an evolving field, and ongoing research continues to advance our understanding. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in this area, highlighting two primary research directions: inflammation and lipid metabolism. Additionally, the paper identifies emerging research hotspots, which will provide researchers with useful insights to guide future investigations and anticipate research directions.

Information Technology and Credit: Evidence from Public Guarantees

This paper investigates whether banks’ information technology (IT) can substitute for local branch presence in the provision of small business credit. Our identification strategy relies on loan-level data and the unique institutional features of the Italian public guarantee scheme during COVID-19. Despite the availability of online applications and low screening incentives, small business lending remains local even for first-time borrowers. However, IT partly mitigates the impact of local branch presence: banks with better IT provide more, cheaper, and faster guaranteed loans and lend more in areas where they have no bank branches, especially to first-time borrowers. This paper was accepted by Victoria Ivashina, finance. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4957 .

Can Donors Encourage Authoritarian States to Go Green? Evidence From Vietnamese‒German Development Cooperation

Recent debates about “green” authoritarianism have focused on the institutional features of state-led coercive environmentalism. However, the role of various non-state actors in the greening of authoritarian states has remained largely unexplored. Carrying out a case study of Vietnamese‒German development cooperation in the environmental and climate spheres, this article examines the interaction between Vietnamese state institutions and international donors. The article argues that donors play an important role in greening the state policy agenda in Vietnam by funding environmental projects and facilitating knowledge sharing. Nonetheless, donors have very limited freedom to push the political process beyond policymaking and foster meaningful policy implementation. Development practitioners in Vietnam often find themselves caught in a policymaking vacuum, where policymaking is a never-ending process and implementation remains limited. These findings raise broader questions about the effectiveness of climate-related development finance for environmental governance under authoritarian regimes.

Flexibel fyrkantighet möter meningslös skötsamhet

AbstractEvery year, over 1,000 children and young people, between the ages of 8 and 20, are placed in special youth homes in Sweden due to criminality, substance abuse or ”other socially destructive behaviour”. This article is based on interviews with youth and staff about what happens at the institution and how they regard the purpose of the stay in a facility that has the character of a total institution, in Goffman’s understanding. With support in Adam’s theories about time rhythms and Abbott’s concepts of time/event, we analyze how staff and youth cooperate in creating institutional life where they share the space, while having distance from each other and avoid creating closeness as their interaction is limited in time. Due to several parallel time rhythms affecting their everyday life and time at the institution the young people develop an approach between resisting or developing what can be termed as ”meaningless diligence”. Everyday life becomes easier to manage if they follow what the staff say, but they cannot see that it leads to a better future. The staff describe an approach where they are careful both to follow rules and to make constant individual and situational exceptions, a ”flexible rigidity” to fixed rules and time-schedules, to deal with specific events and needs. Together they maintain institutional life and the young people are adapted to the situation here and now, not to the life outside or after the institution.

Lung cancer from suspicion to treatment: An indicator of healthcare access in Turkey

BackgroundLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Before beginning lung cancer treatment, it is necessary to complete procedures such as suspecting lung cancer, obtaining a pathologic diagnosis, and staging. This study aimed to investigate the processes from suspicion of lung cancer to diagnosis, staging, and treatment initiation. MethodsThe study was designed as a multicenter and cross-sectional study. Patients with lung cancer from various health institutions located in all geographic regions of Turkey were included in the study. The sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients, the characteristics of the health institutions and geographic regions, and other variables of the lung cancer process were recorded. The time from suspicion of lung cancer to pathologic diagnosis, radiologic staging, and treatment initiation, as well as influencing factors, were investigated. ResultsThe study included 1410 patients from 29 different medical centers. The mean time from the initial suspicion of lung cancer to the pathologic diagnosis was 48.0 ± 52.6 days, 39.0 ± 52.7 days for radiologic staging, and 74.9 ± 65.5 days for treatment initiation. The residential areas with the most suspected lung cancer cases were highly developed socioeconomic zones. Primary healthcare services accounted for only 0.4% of patients with suspected lung cancer. The time to pathologic diagnosis was longer in the Marmara region, and the wait time for staging and treatment initiation was longer in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia. Patients who presented to chest disease referral hospitals with peripheral lesions, those with early-stage disease, and those who were diagnosed surgically had significantly longer wait times. ConclusionThe time between pathologic diagnosis, staging, and treatment initiation in lung cancer was longer than expected. Increasing the role of primary healthcare services and distributing socioeconomic resources more equally will contribute to shortening the time to diagnosis and improve treatment processes for lung cancer.

Democratizing insights into hospital cost reports

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides annual reports of costs, charges, utilization, payment, penalty, payroll, and general institutional characteristics for thousands of Medicare-certified hospitals. However, beyond the small fraction of features offered in dated finalized public use files, the size and complexity of cost report data can make it difficult to use. To gain a greater breadth of up-to-date insights, hospitals and researchers must either pay for third party services or acquire the appropriate expertise. To democratize insights into cost report data, we first developed an open-source public repository of 6908 hospital-specific dataset, each containing 2843 labeled features and spanning years between 2010 and 2023. We then developed an open-source application for analyzing and downloading these data. Users can download and run the application locally or access it online (https://hcris-app.herokuapp.com/), and compare cost report features among hospitals and across time, explore relationships between features, and design new cost report variables. As examples of insights gained from our application, we present results from comparing Rush University Medical Center to 66 non-governmental acute care Illinois hospitals. We look forward to developing our open-source resources according to feedback from the healthcare community.

Is full reparation in the constitutional context a fundamental right: general analytical references?

The history of law has shown us that although there are certain institutions that have appeared throughout its development in certain branches of law, it is no less true that in the course of its development other areas have incorporated them to their field of action. This is what presents the current situation of integral reparation in the constitutional context, which has conditioned its most elementary needs in its fulfillment of concrete designs like any other sector of the Law. Due to the characteristics of this juridical institution that starts in Private Law, but that nevertheless the constitutional law also takes it and imposes its own functions on it, we do not hesitate to affirm that reparation is a constitutional right.

The Impact of the Concept of Continental (Romano-Germanic) Criminal Procedure on the Phenomenon of “Epistemic Injustice”

The present article concentrates on the systemic and institutional environment characteristic of the sphere of criminal trial as being a source of reality called “epistemic injustice”. The subject of this analysis is criminal procedure applicable in continental Europe. In this attempt to transpose the concept of “epistemic injustice” coined by Miranda Ficker to criminal procedure, certain specific systemic and institutional solutions were accentuated, which may contribute to injustice in relation to different aspects of the procedure. Three important institutions regulating criminal procedure were taken into account: the concept of prosecuting crimes, procedural consensualism, and the crime victim. The conclusions are not based on hard arguments that would directly prove the phenomena described by M. Fricker. It was concluded that “epistemic injustice” is more a matter of the facts than the law, although – as it was attempted to show – particular legal solutions may in a specific manner contribute to the state designated by that term. The presented threats are comprised mainly in the reality termed in literature as “epistemic agential injustice”.

Scientific views on the role of Starosta (Elder) in the local government system

The article is devoted to describing and analyzing the scientific views of national scientists on the role of starosta in the system of local self-government in Ukraine. The relevance and timeliness of the study is due to the fact that the practical implementation of the idea of decentralization proves to be effective every time, while the introduction of the starosta institute has become a new historical milestone in this process. It is determined that starosta as a form of participatory democracy is an integral part of the development of the modern Ukrainian model of local self-government. The researchers’ vision of who the starosta is for the residents of a particular territorial community is presented. The article reveals the commonality of researchers’ approaches to the role of starosta as the closest representative of local self-government, as well as a communicator between the residents of the respective starosta district and local authorities. He or she also acts as an intermediary between residents and the authorities. In addition, it is believed that the starosta can consult, advise and assist in solving problems arising in the community. The purpose of creating the institution of starostas in local self-government bodies in Ukraine is emphasized. The article presents the powers of starosta as defined by the Law of Ukraine «On Local Self-Government in Ukraine». The author offers one of the scientific approaches to the classification of starosta’s functions formulated on the basis of the analysis of his/her powers. These functions are: representative; budgetary; informational; control; constituent; organizational. The study analyzes the requirements that could be mandatory for a person who plans to be a starosta. For example, age, affiliation (certain connection) with the territorial community, special education, knowledge of the basics of local self-government, experience, etc. The author outlines the areas for further scientific research on the implementation of the starosta institute. These areas include: the definition and method of regulatory consolidation of starosta’s powers, their balance and the reality of their application. It is noted that prevention of corruption is another area of scientific research, without which the implementation of the institute is impossible. It is determined that it is necessary to strengthen the positive features of the modern starosta institution, to reveal its role, to increase productivity and efficiency.

Introduction: Lessons for Locally Driven Research Responses to Emergencies

This article summarises learning from Southern-led research designed to influence the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The case studies are drawn primarily from the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) programme, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The article examines: (1) the characteristics of local research institutions’ organisational readiness in times of crisis; (2) the form and function of knowledge that is fit for purpose in emergencies; and (3) knowledge processes and engagement strategies for rapid mobilisation. Organisational readiness hinged on the strength of research institutions’ networks, access to key decision makers or affected communities, and resources and capabilities that allowed them to mobilise quickly. Hyper-local knowledge, combined with inclusive research methodologies, facilitates the positioning of research for use in emergencies. The pandemic has demonstrated that local and national research organisations are well placed to deliver impactful research, as both critical friends of government or outsiders advocating for change.

A non-ideal aim of redressing epistemic injustices in corruptive educational environments: Toward restorative epistemic justice

The most important and general aim of the education system is to edify students, epistemically speaking. However, it is a sad reality that the education system is sometimes a corruptive epistemic environment in which a variety of epistemic injustices occur. In this article, I first argue that the special character of educational institutions means that children sometimes suffer testimonial, participant, and hermeneutical betrayals as specifically educational variants of epistemic injustices. Next, I ask what our response should be to such epistemic injustices. I draw a distinction between an ‘ideal’ and a ‘non-ideal’ solution to these problems. I hold that consideration of (a) environmental bad luck and (b) children’s lack of control over their epistemic environments should lead us to favor a non-ideal solution to the problem of epistemic injustice in education. I propose that the non-ideal approach to epistemic injustice in education should focus not on the reduction or neutralization of our implicit prejudices, as has commonly been proposed in the literature, but on providing for the epistemic needs of those who suffer epistemic injustices in corruptive environments in two ways. First, we should aim to care for children who are afflicted by injustice by having their epistemic needs legitimately recognized by caring educators. Second, we should aim systemically to offer an educational curriculum for any child and teacher to develop critical imagination to care about the epistemic needs of those who are vulnerable to epistemic injustices. I conclude by explaining the acts of epistemic caring and critical imagining as parts of restorative epistemic justice that affords vulnerable children due recognition of their epistemic needs beyond merely knowing the mechanisms of implicit prejudices and the epistemic injustices associated with them.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ АРХІТЕКТУРНОГО СЕРЕДОВИЩА СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ШКОЛИ

The quality of education in Ukraine is gradually decreasing. One of the main reasons for developing such a problem is the outdated organization of the educational environment. A properly designed architectural environment significantly affects the quality of education in the country. The article examines the question of rethinking the architectural qualities of the school building in the national discourse. Using examples of foreign experience, modern trends of high-quality and, most importantly, effective educational space are traced. It was found out that the current level of educational institutions of general secondary education in Ukraine does not meet standards everywhere. In this regard, an analysis of regulatory documents that entered into force in the last 7 years was carried out. As a result of the research, it was determined how exactly they influenced the design features of school institutions. In general, it was established that the national discourse in the field of education selectively meets modern requirements, but this is not enough to uniformly raise the level of education throughout the state.

The long-term welfare effects of colonial institutions: Evidence from Central India

In Central India, the Narmada River separates two regions that have been ruled by different types of government only during the colonial period, and for reasons independent of their initial economic development. I implement a spatial RDD on village population in the Nineteenth Century as well as in 1901, and I run the same model on proxies of welfare in 2015. My results highlight that divergence has realised where the river overlapped with the colonial border, but not in a neighbouring area where the same Narmada River separates two shores with the same type of former colonial institution. I discuss the following transmission mechanism. The treated group was directly administered by the British with more modern state tools - such as the enforcement of property rights and a transparent taxation system - that made it easier to develop private investment. The most prominent example is the mixed-capital enterprise in charge of the construction of the first trans-continental railway. Infrastructure endowment seems to be crucial for the long-term transmission of the colonial institutional characteristics to the outcomes measured in 2015, which show better average welfare outcomes, as well as higher wealth inequality in the treated group. My work provides an explanation of how the improvement in the quality of the institutions of an embryonic state may sustain the growth of the local markets it deems relevant.

Interorganizational triads for foreign-market entry: Partnerships among Western, bridge-economy, and local VCs in Mainland China

This study introduces the novel construct of bridge-economy partners, which can assist Western firms in learning how to collaborate with local partners when entering unfamiliar foreign countries that have substantially different socioeconomic characteristics. We offer initial empirical evidence regarding the relevance of establishing such interorganizational partnership triads among Western, bridge-economy, and local firms for the entries of Western venture capital firms (VCs) into Mainland China between 1997 and 2008. Venture age, regional legal maturity, and the Western VCs' accumulated local experience are identified as relevant contingency factors for the likelihood of adopting this type of collaboration, which involves partners from three different types of economies. We supplement our quantitative analyses with anecdotal qualitative evidence from interviews with VC executives and fund managers. Executive summaryThis study introduces the novel construct of bridge-economy partners and outlines their potentially beneficial roles in the context of foreign-market entry undertaken by Western firms. The established literature suggests that Western firms consider collaboration with a local firm as an accelerator for learning about and adapting to local conditions. However, the substantial socioeconomic differences that may exist between home and host country can create paramount challenges for collaborations between Western firms and their local partners. Adding a third type of partner from a country with substantial socioeconomic overlap to both firms' home countries can help “bridge the socioeconomic gap” between Western and local firms. The bridge-economy partners can assist Western firms in learning how to collaborate with their new local partners.This study offers initial empirical evidence for the relevance of such interorganizational partnership triads between Western, bridge-economy, and local firms by using the data of Western VC firms and their entries into Mainland China between 1997 and 2008. Venture age, regional legal maturity, and accumulated local experience of Western VCs are identified as relevant contingency factors for the likelihood of adopting this type of triadic interorganizational partnership. Quantitative hypothesis tests are supplemented with anecdotal qualitative evidence.Reported findings extend the emerging entrepreneurship literature that focuses on foreign-market entry and globalization. Our focus on triadic partnerships and the role of bridge-economy firms extends the previous research that has instead nearly exclusively focused on dyadic collaborations between Western firms and local partners. A triadic Western, bride-economy, and local firms (WBL) partnership offers an alternative strategy to use when entering foreign markets that have substantially different cultural, economic, and institutional characteristics. Our findings further highlight that even though such triadic WBL partnerships make intuitive sense, successfully implementing such complex collaborations requires minimum levels of accumulated host-country experiences and can benefit from mature legal environments. For policymakers in emerging economies that are interested in supporting foreign investment, the creation of legal environments conducive to forming such triadic WBL collaborations introduces a promising policy option. Beyond these initial key insights, this study also provides guidance for systematic future research into this promising type of collaboration for foreign market entry.

Exploring multilevel data with deep learning and XAI: The effect of personal-care advertising spending on subjective happiness

International business research often links the cultural and institutional characteristics of countries to the features of the individuals inhabiting these countries. A distinct approach to analyzing such multilevel problems with deep learning and explainable artificial intelligence methods is presented, using country characteristics as explicit spatial coordinates. Deep learning is tolerant of noise and faults and can approximate arbitrarily complex mathematical structures by developing multiple abstractions. An applied example demonstrates the applicability of this approach by exploring the effect of personal-care advertising spending in 27 countries on the subjective happiness of 376,442 individuals, indicating a statistically significant positive effect, albeit with a trivial effect size.

The operational experience of private owners of small-sized care homes in China: a qualitative study

BackgroundPrivate small-sized care homes (<50 beds) have proliferated across China, however, until recently little was known about the characteristics of such institutions, and the challenges and the problems faced by their owners. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of small-sized, privately-owned care homes in the People’s Republic of China; and to understand the motivation and challenges faced by their owners.MethodsThis study used an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach of qualitative research. Owners of eight small-sized private care homes located in two cities of Henan Province, China, were interviewed using semi-structured interviews.ResultsFour themes and eight subthemes were identified: 1. Motivation for establishing a care home business; 2. Certification and establishing a legal footing for the business; 3. Operational challenges; 4. Future business development. The study found that the development of privately owned small-sized care homes faced great challenges and critical survival problems due to policies, staffing, and management issues. There is a lack of regulations about the safety and quality of care provided for older people and a lack of legal protections for the owners of small-sized private care homes.ConclusionThe study suggests that formal regulations and provisions are needed to support these smaller-sized private care homes. Monitoring is also needed to ensure the quality of care. It also suggests that there needs more support by policymakers as well as provision monitoring services to improve quality of care in these care homes. Care regulations and standards are not unique to China so findings from this study can be applied to places where there are similar situations or if there are aged care services still developing.