Policy Instruments Research Articles

Government green procurement and corporate ESG performance

This study utilizes data from China's A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2022 and manually collects government green procurement lists published on the Chinese government procurement website. By matching this data with listed companies, we employ a multi-period Difference-in-Differences (DID) model to examine the impact of a firm's inclusion in government green procurement lists on its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. We find that government green procurement significantly improves firms' ESG performance. In the mechanism analysis, we find that executive green perceptions and media and analyst attention amplify the positive impact of government green procurement on firms' ESG performance. Through the heterogeneity analysis, we find that government green procurement promotes ESG performance more significantly when the listed company is a state-owned enterprise, and this promotion is more obvious in central state-owned enterprises. In addition, we find that government green procurement enhances ESG performance more significantly when the company is located in a region with higher levels of market integration. Further research find that government green procurement effectively inhibit “greenwashing” behavior and reduce the probability of negative events. Our findings provide important micro-empirical evidence for understanding the effects of market-based policy instruments on corporate ESG performance and contribute positively to the practice of improving corporate governance capabilities.

The development of a roadmap for Health Technology Assessment implementation in Moldova.

Moldova strives for universal health coverage (UHC) and considers health technology assessment (HTA) an important policy instrument to inform the choice of services that should be covered to progressively realize UHC. It plays a key role in determining which technologies are coved, considering various dimensions often including cost-effectiveness, budget impact, and feasibility. This paper reports on work undertaken to develop a roadmap for HTA implementation, using evidence-informed deliberative processes (EDPs) as the guiding framework. Between 2020 and 2022, we undertook several activities that informed the roadmap. We conducted a needs assessment and an assessment of European HTA best practices using a combination of desk research, interviews and surveys. We then conducted a document review of six selected HTA systems, complimented by expert interviews from three neighbouring countries. The roadmap provided a suggested HTA process, which included instructions on how to execute the different steps of the EDP framework to enhance the legitimacy of HTA-informed decision-making. The roadmap encompasses several aspects such as how to organize stakeholder involvement, how to identify and operationalize decision criteria, and how to make the decision process transparent. Guidance was given to the country on establishing a legal framework for HTA; a communication strategy; strengthening capacity and leveraging HTA expertise. The country was also given tailored advice on the positioning of the HTA-agency, first as an entity within the Ministry of Health or the National Agency of Public Health but with the long-term vision for it to be independent of any state institution. Despite several challenges, including a partial disruption because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the development of the roadmap for HTA implementation was completed and agreed upon by the Ministry of Health in Moldova. This work has helped motivate and support the country in HTA institutionalization.

The Clash of the Policies: The Joint Effect of EU Cohesion Policy and Common Agricultural Policy on the Public Support for European Integration

AbstractA vital element of the European Union (EU) political system is the idea of further European integration. Whilst most existing works investigate the effects of the Cohesion Policy (CP), only a handful of studies consider the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on citizens' support for European integration. In this contribution, I argue that these two largest EU redistribution policies neutralise each other in their effects on the citizens' support for European integration: the CP improves public support due to its positively perceived redistributive nature and positive externalities, whilst the CAP decreases public support due to due to a limited target audience, somewhat elitarian distribution of resources and bureaucratic complexities. Using regional‐level CP and CAP data for 2017 and Eurobarometer surveys for 2018 and 2019, the empirical findings of multilevel regressions show that the CAP counteracts the positive effects of the CP on citizens' support for further European integration. The findings are robust to including a wide range of control variables, sample size change and alternative specifications of key independent variables. These findings also hint that policy evaluations should not disregard the differences between various policy instruments.

Macroprudential policy and systemic risk in G20 nations

Using a panel of 496 banks from the G20 nations, the study assesses the role of macroprudential policies in reducing systemic risk. The study further assesses the utility of these policies in conjunction with monetary policy instruments and bank and country-specific characteristics and finds the significant impact of macroprudential policies in curbing systemic risk and promoting economic stability. The study finds this relationship to hold regardless of economic conditions like inflationary pressure and financial distress. The result highlights that easing macroprudential policies during financial distress can help banks cope with systemic losses. We split the macroprudential policies into policies targeting the demand and supply of loans and find complementarity among the policies to reduce systemic risk. Our results demonstrate the heterogenous effect of macroprudential policies in limiting systemic risk, with the effect varying with bank size, leverage, liquidity, and concentration of loans. Finally, we find a moderating role of these policies in limiting the impact of uncertainties on systemic risk.

Breaking down purchasing intentions: selecting policy instruments for sustainable consumption

ABSTRACT Despite the breadth of sustainability issues, research on sustainable consumption mostly concentrates on environmental-orientated consumption and values. Alongside environmentally oriented approaches, policies mixes encouraging sustainable consumption need to account for socially responsible purchasing behaviour, such as ensuring inclusivity, as well as for the cognitive biases and heuristics underpinning such practices. This study investigates consumer motivations in Hong Kong through analysing a territory-wide survey to inform knowledge regarding the social aspect of sustainable consumption behaviour. We find a correlation between sense of belonging and social consumption intent, and empathy and social consumption intent, which is not the case for sustainable consumption intent. There is no significant correlation between moral obligation and sustainable consumption intent or between sense of belonging and sustainable consumption intent. Finally, knowledge is positively correlated to social and sustainability consumption intention. This provides insights into how policy tool mixes can be more impactful in motivating sustainable purchasing practices while identifying gaps in the conceptualization and understandings of sustainability that need addressing.

URBANISMO, DIGNIDADE E DIREITO À CIDADE, NA ERA DAS PPPs DOS GRANDES PROJETOS URBANOS

This work is the result of a research for the theoretical framework of a doctoral thesis, developed in the Graduate Program in Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal University of Bahia, in order to promote a discussion on the Right to the City. An exploratory research is carried out based on a bibliographic survey, which includes scientific articles and books that deal with the theme under discussion here. The discussion has been taking place for decades, since the period of struggle for Urban Reform in Brazil. The objective is to discuss the instruments of urban policy, relating the issue of the Right to the City and the role of the State as a mediator of a process where there are several actors, but which, together with the private sector, social movements and civil society organizations, constitutes one of the main agents of (re)production of urban space. It seeks to discuss the role of the State, through such instruments of urban policy, as well as their effectiveness and the processes of urban planning and management, in the sense of the social function of urban property, in the face of large urban projects, often gestated with PPPs.

A legal-economic framework of wholesale electricity markets: Assessing Australia's transition

Recent years have seen a surge in renewable generation investment in many countries, displacing traditional fossil-fuel generation at scale. Clean energy transitions have amplified existing problems of wholesale market designs and introduced new ones, including, but not limited to maintaining system resilience and reliability and ensuring adequate future investment levels. We develop an integrated legal-economic framework of wholesale electricity markets under transition conditions. The framework explains the dynamic interplay between different levels of electricity market regulation, regulatory objectives, policy instruments, market outcomes and electricity system objectives. The novelty arises from our separation and definition of the two main levels of (energy) law and regulation shaping electricity market design and their unique impact on market and system outcomes. We show that understanding and targeting the different levels of regulation matters for successfully addressing transition problems. We demonstrate the framework on the example of Australia's National Electricity Market.

The attributions of public policies in the educational system for the prevention of sexual violence against children and adolescents

Sexual violence against children and adolescents is a problem whose scars can last a lifetime. In this sense, the general objective of the research is to analyze the attributions of public policies in the educational system for the prevention of sexual violence against children and adolescents based on the existing guidelines in the BNCC regarding sexuality in schools. With this overall purpose, specific objectives were developed in the subdivisions of the research work: to verify the right to education for children and adolescents in Brazil; to contextualize how the BNCC addresses the theme of sexuality in schools and to demonstrate the role of the educational system in promoting rights to confront sexual violence against children and adolescents. The research question guiding the study is: given the existing guidelines in the BNCC (National Common Curricular Base) regarding sexuality in schools, what are the attributions of public policies in the educational system for the prevention of sexual violence against children and adolescents? The deductive approach is used as the method of analysis, with the monographic procedure as the method of investigation, while the bibliographic technique is employed for research. It is evident that the educational system, through schools, acts as an important instrument for public policies to confront various violations of rights occurring during childhood.

The distributional characteristics of Interreg Transnational Programmes and their role in promoting regional cohesion

Interreg is an instrument of Cohesion Policy promoting cooperation among different organizations of Europe to tackle common challenges. Project funding within Interreg could become competitive, given the strong interest from numerous institutions in participating. This, in turn, may lead to disparities in the number of projects implemented across European regions. If participation is driven by factors such as the economic development level of regions, then the fundamental aim of Cohesion Policy—to reduce the gaps between developed and lagging regions—may not be well served by Interreg, as existing gaps may be exacerbated. Given this issue, the paper focuses on the 12 Interreg transnational programmes, which bring together regions from many different countries. The paper examines the distributional characteristics of these programmes using conventional statistical and network measures with data from the 2014–2020 programming period. It then develops a novel indicator of regional participation levels and constructs and empirically tests a framework for measuring the effect of various socioeconomic, geographical, and demographic factors on the participation levels of EU regions. The analysis reveals differences in the allocation patterns of projects among the programmes and shows that different types of networks are formed. Additionally, the instrument appears to benefit smaller and wealthier regions, which results in counteracting demographic inequalities but simultaneously augmenting economic ones. To address this challenge, the paper provides recommendations for management authorities to make the formation of partnerships more equitable.

Mapping municipal land policies: applications of flexible zoning for densification

Municipalities develop individual land policies and can choose not to apply available planning instruments or to apply them differently than intended. While this strategic action can endanger the effectiveness of public policies, it is rarely considered in large-scale analyses. A new geospatial method is presented that captures such strategic action. Empirical evidence from the Canton of Bern, Switzerland, reveals municipalities’ application of planned unit development (PUD), an instrument potentially allowing for flexible zoning negotiations to promote densification. Detailed zoning and building data from the period 2002–23 are used to examine the variation in PUD application by municipalities and whether they apply it to enable densification. Distinguishing by municipality type (i.e. urban core, small town, suburban, rural or touristic) reveals that PUD application is connected to projects with higher building density, more complex parcel changes and, for urban and suburban municipalities, higher density gains in low-density neighbourhoods. However, rural municipalities seldom apply PUD. New indicators of planning complexity provide an insight into whether municipalities apply instruments to enable densification under difficult circumstances. Practice relevance Many policy instruments are provided for in the law, but it is unclear whether and how they are used in practice by municipalities. Following urban densification objectives, municipalities often struggle to implement planning or housing policy instruments, which target private landowners and developers. Therefore, evaluating how different municipalities apply policy instruments and how this application contributes to reaching stated policy goals is crucial. Therefore, this research explores new ways to capture the effect of policy instruments with spatial analysis. Furthermore, by examining the real-world implementation of PUDs, this research sheds light on possible barriers to PUD application for densification, thereby helping policymakers and urban planners improve the effectiveness of public policies.

Russian counter-sanctions and smuggling: Forensics with structural gravity estimation

Trade and other economic sanctions are a common foreign policy instrument, but their imposition may induce smuggling. We develop and implement procedures to study smuggling after the food embargo imposed by Russia on Western countries after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. We construct predicted trade flows for the post-sanctions period using an estimated structural general equilibrium gravity model with many industry sectors and compare those predictions with actual trade flows. We identify a substantial value of suspicious trade flows which we associate with smuggling; especially importing banned goods through third countries such as Belarus. The structural gravity model systematically under-predicts trade volumes for country–product combinations used as channels for smuggling of the banned goods. We identify a quantity of smuggling equivalent to approximately 11 to 17 percent of the pre-embargo trade flows.

Do green policies achieve the carbon neutrality target? Revealing the effectiveness of environmental innovation

AbstractIn recent decades, the Environmental policy and environmental innovation are becoming the central policy instruments aimed at carbon neutrality. This empirical study scrutinizes the role of environmental policy and eco‐innovation on CO2 emissions for G7 countries. The study employs second‐generation panel data econometric methods along with panel quantile regression spanning from 1990 to 2019. The empirical findings infer that environmental policy and eco‐innovation significantly mitigate CO2 emissions in the long run. While, panel quantile regression also infers that environmental policy is negatively significant in all quantiles, but eco‐innovation is negatively significant from the 40th to 70th quantiles and insignificant in all other quantiles. The estimated results may further reinforce the policymakers in G7 countries on the promotion of green policy and eco‐innovation in carbon neutrality targets.

Protecting the environment at home or abroad?

Abstract By importing goods whose production affects the environment abroad, wealthy countries are ”offshoring” a large share of their total environmental footprint of consumption to less affluent societies. We argue that current efforts to mitigate this problem, which focus largely on informational policy instruments for global supply chains, could result in unintended side effects. The reason pertains to a potential tradeoff between a home bias in consumption and the geographic allocation of environmental impacts. We develop a theoretical argument on how consumers may respond when they prefer a domestically produced good but are made aware that this results in more environmental damage at home, compared to importing the same product from abroad. Based on choice experiments in Germany, Japan, and the United States, we observe that information provision can reduce consumer demand for environmentally harmful products, but also find some support for environmental NIMBYism when environmental and provenance information are combined. The key implication of this finding is that policymakers should address potentially unintended side-effects of more stringent informational requirements for global supply chains.

Successes and Failures of the Implementation of the Rural Development Programme 2014–2020 Measure “Agri-Environment and Climate” in Lithuania

The focus on environment and climate-friendly farming is increasingly important in the European Union (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Activities of the Measure M10 “Agri-environment and Climate” of the Rural Development Programme (RDP) 2014–2020 were those policy instruments that pursued environmental and climate goals over large areas under agricultural activities, but their effectiveness is still being questioned. After evaluating implementation successes and failures of the activities of the Measure M10 “Agri-environment and Climate” of the Lithuanian RDP 2014–2020, we aim to contribute to policy instruments that are better designed, more effective, and more attractive for farmers to achieve environmental and climate goals. This research was conducted in several stages: (1) a thorough analysis of the Measure M10 and its implementation; (2) analysis of the Measure M10 activities’ contribution to the policy target areas; (3) multi-criteria evaluation of the activities; (4) survey of beneficiaries and discussions in the focus groups. The data available from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania, Agricultural Data Center, and National Paying Agency under Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania was used for the analysis. Analysis of the strategic documents and data on the implementation of Measure M10 was supplemented with results from studies focused on the environmental impact of the implementation of Measure M10 in Lithuania. Multi-criteria evaluation methods were used to arrange the activities of the Measure with respect to the selected indicators. The results from the survey of beneficiaries and discussions in the focus groups let us better clarify the motives, experiences, and preferences of farmers’ participation in the activities of Measure M10. The questionnaire was distributed to 2455 beneficiaries through the National Paying Agency and 342 answers were received back, i.e., 13.9%. Five discussions in focus groups, formed from farmers participating and not participating in the activities, representatives of implementing institutions, and employees of consulting and scientific institutions, were organized. The research has revealed areas for improvement in Measure M10, and suggestions for improvement were prepared to better achieve environmental and climate objectives.

National introduction of no net land take: a comparative study of five pioneering countries seeking to limit their land consumption

The ambitious European objective of achieving no net land take (NNLT) by 2050 calls for a radical change in the strategies and instruments of national planning policies. Based on a comparative case study of five pioneering countries, this article analyses the different approaches taken to implement the NNLT goal, drawing on policy cycle theory. It demonstrates that the transfer of the NNLT target is a top-down process that conflicts with land use plans and planning practices at the local level. This research shows that the support and involvement of the local planning level is crucial to effectively reduce land use.

Exploring Business Indicator Benefits in Andalusia: Engaging in European Funded Environmental Projects for Regions in Transition

Business innovation policies in the field of environmental technology in Andalusia are evaluated through the implementation of the ERDF-Innterconecta Programme, which was a unique instrument of innovation policies financed by the Structural Funds of the European Union aimed mainly at the Spanish autonomous communities with Convergence Objective. The proposed analysis seeks to identify the impact of this multiannual programme on the main business indicators of growth, performance and innovation. To this end, we have differentiated between projects aimed at improving the environment and sustainability, and those which have not introduced this objective. The Propensity Score Matching methodology has been selected to contrast the impact of the policy analysed in the selected business indicators. The conclusions offer disparate results for the indicators analysed.

Decades of Land and Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe: a Review of Transformative Social Policy Lessons for Other African Countries

Abstract Land is an enabler and guarantor of people’s socioeconomic wellbeing. As Africa grapples with enduring multiple human development challenges, though not the sole pathway nor a panacea, reforming land tenure, agrarian structures, and agrarian relations has immense capacity to address the structural causes of poverty, inequality and marginalisation. Yet, the corpus of scholarly literature that consciously centres the transformative social policy lessons of land and agrarian reform is paltry. The article uses Zimbabwe and Transformative Social Policy as the evaluative case study and lens respectively, to navigate the lessons of transformative social policy that are pertinent to other African countries. If appropriately designed and supported, land and agrarian reforms are core social policy instruments with multiple transformative functions – redistributive, productive, protective, reproductive and social compact. Nevertheless, these reforms are not the sole approach for transforming and guaranteeing people’s socioeconomic wellbeing in Africa.

Pathway for attaining SDG3: The role of ICT infrastructure, natural resources, and environmental sustainability

This study is a baseline attempt to explore socioeconomic and environmental determinants of SDG3 attainment in a sample of 11 post-Soviet economies from 2000 to 2021. The estimated result of the panel quantile via moments reveals that an increase in domestic private health spending, domestic government health expenditure, improvement of ICT infrastructure, financial development, the rule of law, and control of corruption are vital policy instruments to enhance SDG3 attainment in all quantiles. Whereas environmental degradation and natural resources reduce SDG3 attainment. The finding urges for improving selected socio-economic and environmental indicators along with reducing dependence on natural resources.

Environmental protection tax reform and corporate Climate Risk Disclosure

The reform of the environmental protection tax (EPT), a crucial policy instrument for combating climate change, significantly influences corporate climate risk. Hence, a thorough examination of the connection between EPT and corporate climate risk disclosure (CRD) is essential for companies to better evaluate the risks and challenges they encounter. The findings of the research indicate: (1) EPT reform substantially boosts corporate CRD. (2) Mechanism tests demonstrate that EPT enhances corporate CRD via three pathways: increasing public environmental awareness, fostering green innovation, and improving total factor productivity. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that various factors such as micro-level corporate characteristics (ownership and corporate life cycle), industry features (high-tech industries and factor intensity), and macro-level aspects (urban location, size, and resource attributes) differentially affect the impact of EPT. (4) Additional analysis from the perspective of institutional investors indicates that a higher proportion of institutional investor holdings amplifies the positive effect of EPT on corporate CRD. These research conclusions aid in accurately assessing the CRD impact of EPT and provide empirical support for policy development and modification.

The Governance of Renewable Energy Auctions: A Multidimensional Comparative Policy Analysis

Auctions have become the most important policy instrument for promoting renewable energy (RE). This article offers a conceptual and methodological framework to grasp the variety of national RE auctions’ governance arrangements. It presents indices to systematically measure and compare key dimensions of RE auctions and electricity governance: scope of regulation, private operators’ influence, coordination, and the concentration of authority. The framework’s usefulness is demonstrated via its application to three contrasted cases – the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Morocco, showing the disruption in electricity governance patterns induced by RE auctions and the relevance of the multidimensional approach to understand policy outcomes.