Main Beneficiary Research Articles

The European Union after the Crisis: Risks and Opportunities—The Problem of “Uncomfortable Knowledge” and “Institutionalised Forgetfulness”

The crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes the most serious challenge for Europe since World War II. The crisis threatens Europe’s security and economy to an unprecedented level. No prediction on when and how the crisis will end is possible. However, irrespective of its end, there is no doubt that for Europe, it will generate costs amounting to several hundreds of billions if not even some trillions of Euros, i.e. seriously harm and weaken the European economy and endanger Europe’s position as a global economic power. It will also result in fundamental changes of international economic and political relations. Searching for, working on and designing rational and effective solutions to successfully master the aftermath of the crisis politically and economically should have a priority for the European Union, coming next only to the incredibly challenging efforts to master the ongoing crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine caught the EU by surprise and unprepared. Europe should avoid such an experience in the future. Regardless of how this crisis will end, mastering its aftermath and identifying the respective risks and opportunities of the EU will have to start with identifying the main beneficiary(ies) of the crisis and analysing its (their) treatment of the EU and its Member States before and during the crisis. This will not be possible by limiting the actions to the day-to-day business, such as finding new suppliers for raw materials and energy, harmonising fiscal rules, providing the necessary funds to master the financial crisis, etc. A much broader visionary approach will be necessary to find solutions for sustainable peace in Europe. An outcome such as that of the Treaty of Versailles should be avoided. One should prevent the “sleepwalkers” of today, i.e. those ignoring the “uncomfortable knowledge”, letting Europe slide into World War III. The EU should make it clear to all of its Members, for Europe, the “European Solidarity’, with all of its attributes, constitutes the core of the EU’s genuine interests, including those of security and defence. This will require also amendments of the TEU and TFEU discussed in this paper. Otherwise, the EU and its Members will never acquire the status of an equal animal—in the global context—i.e. become truly sovereign and independent.

Who benefits from the retrospective vote? Bringing in new parties

Democracies across the world have experienced the rise of new political parties. The dominant view of the model of (retrospective) economic voting implicitly assumes that the main beneficiary of electoral change is the established opposition. However, the rise of new political parties affects how we think of retrospective (economic) voting. This article presents a more nuanced picture of electoral change and considers when electoral turnover benefits established opposition parties, and when new political parties. The theoretical model introduces different macro-economic and macro-political motives for electoral turnover. Using a novel dataset on electoral change, covering 59 democracies worldwide, it is found that high levels of corruption discredit the entire political establishment, and promote the rise of new parties. The effect of economic hardship is more nuanced. Low economic growth mainly benefits the established opposition because voters look for an established alternative within the political system. Rising unemployment, by contrast, promotes the rise of new parties.

Coordinative Discourse of Strategic Sovereignty Tilting the European Union’s Institutional Balance

The article studies how a discursive contestation among the EU institutions (the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union) of the concept of "strategic sovereignty" ("strategic autonomy") affects the institutional balance among them. Institutional balance is a dynamic process in which institutions challenge each other's authority. This process is conceptualized in the article in terms of discursive neo-institutionalism as a coordinative discourse, which forms, challenges and justifies the idea of “strategic sovereignty”. The article uses the cases of the EU industrial, trade policy, and the common security and defense policy to demonstrate the changing institutional balance.The results of the study show that the main institutional beneficiary of "strategic sovereignty" is the European Commission. Most likely, there will be a strengthening of the Council, which reserves broad powers in crisis management and foreign policy. The position of the Parliament is ambivalent: although the growth of its institutional weight is possible, it will depend both on the Parliament’s own initiatives and on whether the European Commission will succeed at communitarizing new issues and spheres. The findings demonstrate that under crisis, the institutional balance of the EU will continue to tilt in favor of the supranational level of regulation.

Entre el cielo y el suelo: Las identidades elásticas de las clases medias (Santiago de Chile, 1932–1962)

This is a cultural history of middle-class identity in Santiago de Chile, particularly in the suburb of Ñuñoa, during the period that Claudia Stern sees as the apogee of state-led modernization. Based on an analysis of middle-class practices, representations, and discourses, Stern argues that while the Chilean middle class was the main beneficiary of national developmentalist policies, competing middle-class identities were more in tension with one another than in harmony. She claims that by the end of her period, these tensions increased as members of the middle class became more individualistic and less committed to the social good.The book is organized in five parts that allow Stern to interrogate the urban middle class in different ways. The first part presents her theoretical approach, with her emphasis on the dynamic relations between the middle class and other segments of society as well as between different sectors of the middle class. The second part presents depictions of the middle class in the press and uses a range of sources, from comic books to intellectually high-minded articles, to argue that the Chilean middle-class identity was “weak,” and men were especially likely to reject a middle-class identity, but the middle class was nevertheless increasingly visible (p. 102). The third part focuses on a single secondary school in Ñuñoa, the Liceo Manuel de Salas, to examine the fraught relation between the institutional goal of instilling a social sensibility among the pupils and parental assumptions about education as the road to economic and social advancement. Part 4 recounts how central government policies helped make Ñuñoa into a middle-class community and how home life in Ñuñoa reveals the central role of women in managing the gradual transformation of the domestic space. Finally, part 5 recounts the preparations for the 1962 World Cup and then the enthusiasm as much of the tournament was played at the Estadio Nacional (again, located in Ñuñoa); Stern argues that the middle-class evolution toward individualism reached a high point at this time. In an epilogue, Stern tries to connect present events in Chile to the history recounted in the book by contending that the embrace of individualism contributed to neoliberalism and an era of consumerism that is now being rejected.The book's strength lies in its eclectic range of sources. Stern supplements standard published sources with others like comics, advertisements, and oral histories to paint a broader portrait of the culture of the time. The book is most effective when it offers a close reading of a particular source—like an episode from the comics or a short story published in a local paper—to illustrate a given middle-class value or a form of middle-class representation. Oral histories are frequently deployed to offer more detail about middle-class practices evident in published sources. For example, she uses oral histories alongside other sources to offer an especially interesting discussion of attitudes toward female appearance and the use of beauty salons as protected feminine spaces.In terms of its general analysis of middle-class culture and identity, the book is most convincing in its early discussions concerning the priority placed on maintaining “decency,” the aspirations of social mobility for the next generation through education, and the disdain expressed by certain segments of the middle class for others—such as the disdain voiced by middle-class entrepreneurs for white-collar government employees. The book is also reasonably convincing in its occasional observations about how state policies for the middle class frequently undercut one another, as when the state tried to push middle-class women to hew to traditional domestic roles in the home while simultaneously recruiting an increasing number of such women to staff government services. At other times, however, the text does not clearly connect evidence to assertion, as, for example, with regard to the larger claims made about the basic features of middle-class character and the trends toward ever-greater individualism.

Soviet-Algerian Relations in 1962-1971 in the Context of the Rivalry Between Moscow and Paris. Based on the Materials of the RGANI and the Archive of the French Foreign Ministry

Based on documents from the archives of the French Foreign Ministry and the Russian State Archive of Modern History, the article analyzes Soviet-Algerian relations through the prism of the rivalry between Moscow and Paris in the period from Algeria's independence in 1962 to the nationalization in 1971 by the Algerian leadership of oil transportation facilities and 51% of the shares of French oil companies operating in the Arab state. In the first years after the signing of the Evian Agreements of 1962, loans provided by the USSR, supplies of Soviet equipment, the start of a program to train national personnel, as well as assistance from other socialist countries helped Algeria to stabilize the socio-economic situation in the country. Up until 1968, Moscow's actions in Algeria did not affect strategically important areas for France. However, the aggravation of French-Algerian relations due to Paris' non-compliance with the Algerian wine purchase agreement and, more importantly, the Algerian leadership's desire for independence from France in the oil sector and, at the same time, the beginning of supplies of Algerian wine to the USSR in 1968 and Moscow's assistance in the exploration and exploitation of oil fields in Algeria led to the beginning of the Soviet-French rivalry for the Algerian market. As a result, France and other Western countries were able to impose serious competition on the USSR, significantly reducing Moscow's capabilities in the Algerian direction. The USSR promoted Algeria's independence from France in the oil sector, but failed to make Algeria part of the socialist bloc. The main beneficiary of the Soviet-French rivalry was Algeria itself, which received significant support from the USSR in creating modern industry, agriculture and in the field of training qualified personnel, while retaining ample opportunities to enter Western markets.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sustainable development of pharmaceutical companies: Evidence from Russia

Nowadays there are two perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic: it has become a threat to sustainable economic development and the pharmaceutical industry has turned out to be its main beneficiary. The purpose of this article is to empirically verify the correctness of these statements. The data sample consists of 1771 enterprises of Russian pharmaceutical industry over a 14-year period. The methods used consisted of positioning maps and pairwise comparison of the financial indicators for 2020 with the two most severe crises in the Russian economy (2009 and 2015), as well as with the period of the most sustainable development (2007) and the legacy year (2019). In order to assess the uniformity of the pandemic impact on the industry, we identified analytical groups based on the scale of enterprises and life cycle stages. The main result is to reveal the uneven pandemic impact on the sustainable development of pharmaceutical industry producers. Small young companies were the main beneficiaries of the pandemic. The micro-enterprises in the pharmaceutical industry were the most severely affected. However, the analysis has shown that the pandemic was not the main cause of their instability. In addition, the study as a whole proves the presence of a certain stress resistance of domestic pharmaceutical producers to crises of various nature.

A good reason to buy: Justification drives the effect of advertising frames on impulsive socially responsible buying

AbstractToday, consumers expect companies to be socially responsible. However, the literature is undecided about the effects of communicating one's corporate social responsibility activities to consumers. This raises the question of how sustainability‐driven companies can best advertise their products to stimulate ethical consumption: using self‐benefit frames, where the main beneficiary is the consumer, or using other‐benefit frames, where the main beneficiary is a third party. Using three experiments, this study examines the effect of other‐benefit (vs. self‐benefit) advertising frames on consumers' impulse purchases from sustainability‐driven companies. Increasing impulse purchases can help such companies to strengthen their competitive positions. Additionally, it is studied to what extent two types of justification (moral versus deservingness) explain the proposed effect of advertising frames. The results show that only other‐benefit frames affect impulse buying behavior, both directly, as mediated by moral justification. This study's insights may help sustainability‐driven companies to decide on their advertising strategies by providing evidence that other‐benefit‐framed advertisements are more effective in enhancing impulse purchases than self‐benefit‐framed advertisements.

King in the North: evaluating the status recognition and performance of the Scandinavian countries

The Scandinavian states’ pursuit of status in world politics is well documented. However, little is known about whether these endeavors have resulted in higher status for these states. In this article, we suggest that the Scandinavian countries represent a useful case to explore whether similar foreign policy profiles and common club membership equalizes or exacerbates the unequal distribution of status recognition in world politics. To measure the status recognition of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, we use a network centrality measure of diplomatic representation and exchange from 1970 to 2010. We also measure how well the states have performed to increase their status recognition given their available status resources (measured by military capabilities and wealth) and their status-seeking effort (measured by relative diplomatic outreach). Our results show that Sweden has received significantly more recognition and performed much better than both Denmark and Norway in the measured period. We offer three explanations for these developments. First, the spoils of seeking status using the Scandinavian brand is akin to a regional zero-sum game in which Sweden, as the most visible state of the three, is the main beneficiary of the status recognition in the direction of the club. Second, status recognition often lags achievements or increases in status resources because the beliefs of foreign policy practitioners are only updated sporadically. This status lag is especially visible when states struggle to convert their resources into status (Norway), or when they succeed in maintaining their status despite experiencing a drop in status resources (Sweden). Third, an increase in status resources will only influence status recognition if it plays into a corresponding narrative. Sweden, in contrast to the nouveau riche Norwegians, has managed to rearticulate its foreign policy in a way that has attracted recognition in world politics.

Supervision of Drug Circulation and Protection of Health Rights for Consumers

: Medicine is an essential product for health because it can affect the degree of someone’s health consuming it. Therefore, supervision to medicine distribution is needed as an effort to ensure that the medicine is safe, qualified, and efficacious. This is to provide protection for the consumers’ health rights. This study aimed to find out a description of medicine distribution regulation, implementation of medicine distribution supervision, protection to consumers’ health rights and the factors influncing the implementation of the medicine distribution supervision and the protection to the consumers’ health rights. This study applied a socio-legal approach having a descriptive analytic specification. The research data consists of primary and secondary and the data gathering technique was through field and literature studies. The samples taken were based on non random sampling technique by applying purposive sampling. The data presentation was in the forms of narration, images and tables whereas the data were qualitatively analyzed. The results and discussion showed that the regulation medicine distribution supervision has already existed for in general, specifically and the form of supervision arrangements. Medicine distribution supervision in fulfilling the protection to consumers’ rights had not been optimally carried out although the supervision of the medicine distribution was already based on statutory provisions covering the general and special types of medicine distribution arrangements. This was caused by several factors covering juridical, social, and technical factors. The juridical factor influencing was is the provision of the Minister of Health and BPOM that still allowed Puskesmas (Health Center) not to have a pharmacist as the main beneficiary in the pharmaceutical unit. The social factors were about less understanding on health rights and unappropriate checking of the medicine condition beside to TTK directly submit the medicine to the drug consumer. The technical factors were about the limited number of supervisors at the Semarang City’s Health Office and Semarang’s BB POM beside lack of pharmacists in pharmaceutical facilities. Keywords: supervision, medicine distribution, protection of health rights, consumer

Climate change and modernization drive structural realignments in European grain production.

Charting the long-term trends in European wheat and maize yields and harvested areas and the relation of yields to climatic and economic drivers, two profound spatial processes become apparent. One consequence of the relatively late modernization of Eastern Europe has been to shift the focus of grain production from West to East. The warming trend prevailing over the past decades in the summer and winter seasons has been accompanied by a South to North shift in the harvested areas. The combination of these two processes has meant that the north-eastern sector of the European grain chessboard has emerged as the main beneficiary. There, the relatively low sensitivity of cereals to climatic change plus high economic growth rates have been accompanied by the most dynamic increases in cereal yields on the continent. As a result, a modern version of the 3000 year-old grain distribution system of the Ancient World is being restored before our eyes. One noteworthy finding is that increasing January–March temperatures have had a significant positive impact on wheat yields from Northern to South-Eastern Europe, and this is, at least in part, compensating for the negative impact of summer warming.

Sectoral employment effects of state fiscal relief: evidence from the Great Recession

AbstractWe document that the employment effects of financial aid to US states during the Great Recession were strongly unevenly distributed across sectors, the construction sector being the main beneficiary. State fiscal relief not only preserved a substantial number of jobs but it also fostered employment most strongly in the sectors hit hardest by the recession. Exploiting across-state differences, we conclude that the sectoral employment effects of state fiscal relief reflect the typical spending patterns of state and local governments, who usually spend large shares of their discretionary expenditures on construction.

Agrarian modernization through "ideal agricultural subjects": a lost cause for smallholders in Rwanda?

With an example from Rwanda, we ask how the State's policy strategy and attempts to construct "ideal agricultural subjects" resonate with the actual changes experienced by farmers themselves. We present three different empirical examples to show that a) when opportunities from agricultural transformation initially arise, only the wealthiest can capture them, and even then the government is seen as the main beneficiary; b) some priority crop growers experience an increase in income and savings due to higher productivity and better prices, while those who do not grow priority crops face land scarcity and lack of employment opportunities; c) requirements to upscale livestock production do not align with the strategies or capacities of many smallholders. We show that only endowed farmers with sufficient land and ability to engage in priority crops or livestock production can take advantage of the opportunities presented by agricultural transformation, while smallholders with constraints to their adoption of promoted changes face vulnerability to dispossession and poverty. We relate these findings to our broader conceptual frame, and encourage further research to explore the integration, modification, resistance to and impacts of idealized policies in Rwanda and across sub-Saharan Africa.

PERSONALITY AS THE MAIN BENEFICIARY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The article examines the features of the status of a person as the main beneficiary of local self-government. It was revealed that based on the essence of the term "beneficiary", it refers to those persons who receive certain benefits, income or dividends not due to the active exercise of their rights, but to some extent "passively" due to their status or activities of others. It is has established that the very understanding of a person as a beneficiary of local self-government demonstrates a new emphasis in understanding how the municipal government should act and in whose interests. The center of such activity should be a person as a member of the territorial community, and his interests should be satisfied through the adequate activities of local governments determined by such interests.
 Person as the main beneficiary of local self-government appears: a citizen of Ukraine, a foreign citizen or a stateless person (stateless person) or a refugee; member of the territorial community; a resident of a village, settlement, city or association of villages, settlements, cities it is determined.
 A new approach to understanding the status of a person – a beneficiary of local self- government in a broad and narrow sense (in a broad sense – in the exercise of local self- government of all its powers, in the narrow – the exercise of local authorities in relation to vulnerable groups). It is determined that the legislation of Ukraine through the prism of the powers of local governments provides clear recipients (beneficiaries), which are mainly those categories of the local population who need various financial, material or other support and assistance – including socially vulnerable or vulnerable members of the territorial community. Thus, a person is a member of a territorial community, and his interests must be satisfied through the adequate activities of local self-government bodies determined by such interests.

Social Performance Incentives in Mission-Driven Firms

We examine the effect of introducing an incentive plan based on social performance in a sample of 186 social mission–oriented firms in Korea. We find that the social performance of social enterprises (SEs) significantly improves over time after adoption of an incentive plan based on social performance, and that the incentive effect increases with managers’ perceived measurability of social performance. Moreover, we document that social bonuses do not harm SEs’ financial performance and that they have a positive spillover effect on financial performance in SEs that have a higher level of task complementarity between social and financial goals. Our results also show that when the main beneficiary of social bonuses is expected to be a firm’s employees, the incentive effect of social bonuses decreases (increases) with a firm’s focus on social controls (formal controls). In contrast, when the main beneficiary is expected to be a firm’s social mission, the incentive effect increases with a firm’s reliance on social controls. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting.

The Indonesia-Australia partnership to counter radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia

Indonesia and Australia have always been helpful partners since Indonesian Independence in 1945. However, the relationship was worsened after Bali Bombings in 2002 and 2005 as well as Australian embassy bombing in 2004 that killed many Australians. Thus, using Australian perspective, this article attempts to examine the response of Australian government in dealing with terrorism problems in Indonesia as well as the feedback from Indonesia. The research reveals that given the fact that Australia has many interests in Indonesia added with the geographical proximity, it is naturally urged to resolve the terrorism issues in Indonesia. The study found out that Australia proposed some programs to Indonesia due to its domestic interest and international factors. At the same time, Indonesia was also the main beneficiary of Australian counter terrorism policy.

New understanding of power generation structure transformation, based on a machine learning predictive model

How to promote the transformation of the power generation structure from a high proportion of thermal power to a high proportion of renewable energy power has always been the focus of scholars and the Chinese government. Accurately predicting the trend of the power generation structure and analyzing its influence mechanism have important theoretical and practical significance for the government to promote the low-carbon transformation. We first analyze the seasonal and periodic characteristics of China's power generation structure, and then apply a machine learning algorithm to make a monthly forecast for the next 5 years. More importantly, we use single-factor sensitivity analysis and multi-factor scenario analysis to explore the influence mechanism of power generation structure. The main results include: thermal, hydro, nuclear, and non-hydro renewable power will account for 60.46%, 20.43%, 6.43%, and 12.68% respectively under the standard scenario by 2025; compared with non-hydro renewable energy power, hydropower is the main beneficiary of EHV (extra-high voltage) and UHV (ultra-high voltage) projects, while it has no obvious effect on promoting the consumption of non-hydro renewable energy power; rapid urbanization and industrial upgrading are still supported by a more stable power structure, which will increase the proportion of thermal power.

The General Equilibrium Effects of the Shale Revolution

The shale revolution is gradually transforming the industrial structure of the United States. This paper quantifies these changes in a model in which industries are linked by productivity linkages. In this framework, productivity gains in one industry may spill over to other industries. For 2015 (the most recent data available), we find that the shale revolution raised US relative wages by around 0.84 percent, whereas Mexican and Canadian wages declined by 1.12 and 1.43 percent, respectively. Judging by countries’ ability to sell goods to the US, China is the main beneficiary of the shale revolution with increased US exports of more than $14 billion (7 percent) in 2015. At the same time, the US automobile industry lost sales of more than $65 billion (almost 10 percent) because of the shale revolution.

Политика “Восточного партнерства” Европейского союза: экономика versus политика

The Eastern Partnership as one the European Union’s external activities is rarely analyzed through the prism of financing. At the same time, the analysis of instruments, volumes, dynamics and structure of financing allows not only to assess the efficiency of the funds spent in partner countries, but also to identify the real place of the Eastern Partnership in the structure of the EU foreign policy priorities. The aim of the study is to define the true role of partnership in the foreign policy of the Union. Analyzing the main directions and instruments of financing has resulted in a number of conclusions. Firstly, in terms of funding, the Eastern Partnership is inferior in importance not only to other countries and regions, which receive financial aid within the framework of the EU official development assistance, but also to the Southern Neighborhood. Secondly, the evolution of instruments has led to a further decrease in this role and the actual dissolution of financing the Eastern Partnership in the system of the EU official development assistance. Hence, we can conclude that the political component prevails over the economic one in case of the Eastern Partnership. Thirdly, the recipient countries within the framework of the program are clearly divided into two groups, based on the intensity of funding, and a larger amount of funds correlates not so much with the fulfillment of economic conditions, but with political loyalty and a demonstration of a pro-European foreign policy vector. Fourthly, even in the main beneficiary countries, the effectiveness of financing is very limited, since it does not lead to implementation of the stated goals. All this allows us to draw the key conclusion that the EU, within the framework of the Eastern Partnership, continues to build global regimes, the neighborhood being one of them. That is why the financing is aimed rather at stabilizing this neighborhood than at its active development.

Associação Brasileira de Hematologia, Hemoterapia e Terapia Celular Consensus on genetically modified cells. Special article: compassionate use and clinical trial on CAR-T cells

There are only two ways for a patient to gain access to treatment with an experimental product, such as CAR-T cells: participate in a clinical trial or receive a product in a compassionate basis. In the first case, the main beneficiary is society itself, which may in turn obtain a new treatment paradigm for a specific disease. In the second case, the use of a medicinal product has the objective of care in benefit of patients in grave clinical condition, for which no approved medicinal products exist, or for which all the possibilities for benefit from standard therapies have been exhausted. The CAR-T cell therapy may be included in one or the other types of access. The compassionate use is not a specific type of clinical research and should therefore not have its use appreciated by a research ethics committee, but rather by the medical ethics committee at the institution where the treatment will take place and by the regulatory agency.

Concepts of parent and early stage pupil according to the teacher in the context of online learning

School concepts of pupil and parent that arose during online learning forced by a pandemic are the main problem discussed in this article. An attempt was made to reconstruct them on the basis of the analysis of the statements of teachers in an early stage education. The teaching concepts present in the statements and the resulting concepts of pupil are illustrated with a didactic metaphor: for a report, without procedures, incomplete, interrupted or missed cognitive opportunities. From this image emerges a pupil as a robot, confused loner, apparent researcher or blindfolded researcher. The concepts of parent metaphorically presented in the text are: ghost, playmate, transmission teacher, actor, controller, postman , lector. The concept of pupil, parent and online learning turns out to be resistant to new contexts resulting from the reorganization of the didactic process. Parents in online learning were forced to act for the school benefit (curriculum implementation). According to the teacher's statements, pupils and parents were to carry out learning activities in the same way as the school did before the lockdown; through the realization of the transmission model of teaching, monocentrically understood cooperation with parents and school: the main beneficiary of learning activities carried out at home. Online learning was not used to change, on the contrary, it has consolidated traditional school concepts of teaching, pupil and parent.