Market-oriented Model Research Articles

Towards efficient and fair resource trading in community-based cloud computing

In this paper, we investigate the resource trading problem in a community-based cloud computing setting where multiple tenants communicate in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion. Enabling resource trading in a community cloud unleashes the untapped cloud resources, thus presents a flexible solution for managing resource allocation. However, finding an efficient and fair resource allocation is challenging mainly due to the heterogeneity of tenants. Our work first develops a market-oriented model to support resource negotiation and trading. Based on this model, we adopt a multiagent-based technique that allows a group of autonomous tenants to reach an efficient and fair resource allocation. Further, when budget constraint presents, we propose a directed hypergraph model to facilitate resource trading amongst heterogeneous tenants. We analyze the application of the directed hypergraph model to trading decision making, and design a series of heuristic-based resource trading protocols for both budget-unaware and budget-aware scenarios. The performances of the proposed protocols are validated through simulations. The results are in tune with the theoretical analysis and provide insights into practical application issues.

Europeanization in the “Wild East”? Analyzing higher education governance reform in Georgia and Armenia

The authors examine higher education developments in two peripheral post-communist countries—Georgia and Armenia, whose education systems have previously received little attention in the literature. They focus on how both countries’ models of higher education governance have evolved through the phase of political transformation and recent period of geopolitical tensions and more intense Europeanization and internationalization. Based on a series of empirical indicators for three ideal-types of higher governance derived from the previous literature, the authors assess the transformed relationship between the state and higher education institutions. Specifically, they focus on the extent to which both systems have converged on a market-oriented model of Anglo-American inspiration. The empirical analysis shows that following western practices has become a common leitmotiv of policy-makers in both countries and that new forms of “co-governance” between the state and university management have emerged. However, the authors argue that policy learning from the West has taken place in a very selective and tactical manner, as market-oriented steering instruments are only being adopted to the extent that they do not undermine the state’s means for political control over higher education.

Combining employment and family in Europe: the role of family policies in health

The objectives of this study were: (i) to analyse the relationship between health status and paid working hours and household composition in the EU-27, and (ii) to examine whether patterns of association differ as a function of family policy typologies and gender. Cross-sectional study based on data from the 5th European Working Conditions Survey of 2010. The sample included married or cohabiting employees aged 25-64 years from the EU-27 (10,482 men and 8,882 women). The dependent variables were self-perceived health status and psychological well-being. Irrespective of differences in family policy typologies between countries, working long hours was more common among men, and part-time work was more common among women. In Continental and Southern European countries, employment and family demands were associated with poor health status in both sexes, but more consistently among women. In Anglo-Saxon countries, the association was mainly limited to men. Finally, in Nordic and Eastern European countries, employment and family demands were largely unassociated with poor health outcomes in both sexes. The combination of employment and family demands is largely unassociated with health status in countries with dual-earner family policy models, but is associated with poorer health outcomes in countries with market-oriented models, mainly among men. This association is more consistent among women in countries with traditional models, where males are the breadwinners and females are responsible for domestic and care work.

Commissioning healthcare for people with long term conditions: the persistence of relational contracting in England’s NHS quasi-market

BackgroundSince 1991, there has been a series of reforms of the English National Health Service (NHS) entailing an increasing separation between the commissioners of services and a widening range of public and independent sector providers able to compete for contracts to provide services to NHS patients. We examine the extent to which local commissioners had adopted a market-oriented (transactional) model of commissioning of care for people with long term conditions several years into the latest period of market-oriented reform. The paper also considers the factors that may have inhibited or supported market-oriented behaviour, including the presence of conditions conducive to a health care quasi-market.MethodsWe studied the commissioning of services for people with three long term conditions - diabetes, stroke and dementia - in three English primary care trust (PCT) areas over two years (2010-12). We took a broadly ethnographic approach to understanding the day-to-day practice of commissioning. Data were collected through interviews, observation of meetings and from documents.ResultsIn contrast to a transactional, market-related approach organised around commissioner choice of provider and associated contracting, commissioning was largely relational, based on trust and collaboration with incumbent providers. There was limited sign of commissioners significantly challenging providers, changing providers, or decommissioning services.In none of the service areas were all the conditions for a well functioning quasi-market in health care in place. Choice of provider was generally absent or limited; information on demand and resource requirements was highly imperfect; motivations were complex; and transaction costs uncertain, but likely to be high. It was difficult to divide care into neat units for contracting purposes. As a result, it is scarcely surprising that commissioning practice in relation to all six commissioning developments was dominated by a relational approach.ConclusionsOur findings challenge the notion of a strict separation of commissioners and providers, and instead demonstrate the adaptive persistence of relational commissioning based on continuity of provision, trust and interdependence between commissioners and providers, at least for services for people with long-term conditions.

The Governance of Science and Technology in China: In Search of a Framework

The question of how science and technology (S & T) should be governed, or regulated, is an issue that has received considerable attention in advanced industrial societies. Interest in the subject rose rapidly in the aftermath of World War II and the development of nuclear weapons. As a result, the impacts of scientific and technological advances became a central focus of science governance. In addition, though, the ever-increasing importance of science and technology (S & T) for the well-being of modern societies, especially with regard to national defense and economic competitiveness, has also led to sustained concerns for ensuring that national policies and institutions are suitable for building and enhancing national scientific and technological capabilities. However, in spite of extensive public policy development, and the growth of an extensive academic literature on science policy and innovation, there is still no single, authoritative conceptual framework for considering the optimal form for regulation and governance of science and technology. As we discuss in this paper, enormous changes have occurred in the governance and regulation of science and technology, but the state-of-play in China also reflects its distinctive historical, development, and political path. By considering a series of factors affecting rewards and incentives, personal mobility, communications and project selection, control and evaluation, we suggest that three foundational governance models are discernible in contemporary China. We refer to these as the bureaucratic-professional, the professional, and the market-oriented models.

An analytical framework for the cross-country comparison of higher education governance

In this article we provide an integrated framework for the analysis of higher education governance which allows us to more systematically trace the changes that European higher education systems are currently undergoing. We argue that, despite highly insightful previous analyses, there is a need for more specific empirically observable indicators of policy change and inertia. We therefore propose a systematic classification of empirical indicators of higher education governance. To do so, we look at three historically entrenched and still highly relevant European models of higher education—academic self-governance, the state-centered model and the market-oriented model. Based on these broader overarching models which reflect the tensions between the state, market and academia, we develop three ideal-types that take internal university governance as well as the role of the state and external stakeholders into account. Against this background, we derive empirical indicators with regard to the institutional balance of power, financial governance, personnel autonomy and substantive matters. Our analytical contribution shall enable scholars, and in particular political and social scientists, to trace ongoing patterns of change and convergence as well as persistence and inertia in higher education governance arrangements.

Empowering Women through Fair Trade? Lessons from Asia

Fair Trade is promoted as a system of trade that empowers women producers. Yet there is little empirical evidence with which to evaluate this claim. To what extent are women empowered through Fair Trade? While some suggest that focusing on handicrafts would advance the goal of women's empowerment, an analysis of the Fair Trade craft industry from the perspective of Asian craft producer networks reveals two key obstacles: fair trade's ‘charity’ approach to the craft sector, which reinforces traditional gender hierarchies, and the absence of a policy framework and institutional mechanisms that promote women's empowerment as a rights-based rather than a culture-based issue. The paper identifies two solutions to these discrete problems: a market-oriented craft business model, of which there are several empirical examples; and a human rights-based policy framework and robust regulatory mechanisms to address gender inequality in Fair Trade. The implications of these findings for Fair Trade's approach to empowering women are discussed.

Telecom Regulatory and Policy Environment in India: Results and Analysis of the 2008 TRE Survey

In India, like in many other developing countries, the abysmal performance of the state-owned telecommunications service provider and the increasing requirement to attract capital for the upgrading the sector were the major drivers for liberalization. At the macro level after enshrining policy in a closed centralized economic model based on import substitution for almost four decades, India made a structural shift to a market-oriented model in the early 1980s. This shift in policy and the associated institutional arrangements also had an impact on the telecommunications industry. India faced many difficult challenges in liberalizing its telecommunications industry from a monopoly to a decentralized competitive model. During monopoly era, telephone was not considered as a necessity, and, as a result, telephone penetration levels were very low and the quality of service was poor. However, long-waiting lists, technological advancement and pressure from various domestic and international stakeholders pushed the government to initiate reforms in middle of 1980's to spread telephone infrastructure.Telecom reforms in India allowed for private entry but did not entail privatization of the incumbent erstwhile monopoly service providers. Market liberalization accompanied with the introduction of new laws and regulations was the cornerstone of reform. Regulatory agencies and regulation have become integral components of the telecom reform process, in order to protect consumers, reassure investors and, in theory, help advance competition.The results of liberalization have been impressive. Teledensity has increased from merely 2 percent or so in 1999 to around 26.22 percent in 2008 and almost 6 million mobile subscribers are added every month. Wireless has been the principal engine for telecom growth in the country. The wireless subscriber base has grown from 0.88 million in1999 to 261.07 million in 2008. Given the importance of the Telecom Regulatory Environment (TRE) on the outcomes of reforms, LIRNEasia has developed a TRE index, which summarizes stakeholders’ perception on certain TRE dimensions. The index is created with the help of a survey of the key stakeholders. The first survey was conducted in July 2006 in five Asian countries, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines on six dimensions: i) market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anti-competitive practices; and vi) universal services, for the fixed and mobile sectors. In the most recent survey carried out in July 2008, a seventh dimension dealing with the “quality of service” was added, and the survey was conducted for the broadband sector in addition to fixed and mobile sectors. The survey was carried out in eight countries, which are, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Embedding Local Places in Global Spaces: Geographical Indications as a Territorial Development Strategy

Geographical indications (GIs) are place-based names that convey the geographical origin, as well as the cultural and historical identity, of agricultural products. GIs are unique, in that they provide a means of ensuring that control over production and sales of a product stays within a local area, but at the same time they make use of extralocal markets. Although control over GIs largely rests with local actors, GIs are nested in wider regional, national, and international networks; and the passage from local to extralocal markets introduces new costs and benefits and new relations of power into the supply chain. The degree to which GI protection spurs development and protects local environmental and cultural resources depends on the structure of the GI legislation and on the territorial context in which protection is embedded. Using a commodity-chains approach, I compare two GI production systems, tequila in Mexico and Comte cheese in France, in order to develop a theory of the factors that contribute to more sustainable, equitable GI production systems. I argue that three key differences in the design of the GI schemes help to explain the varying effects of the two cases: (1) the manner in which supply-chain actors define quality, (2) the way that the GI valorizes the terroir of the region, and (3) the strength and cohesion that the collective organizing body exhibits. Moreover, the institutional and political context in which GI supply chains “touch down” plays a critical role. Contrary to a conceptualization of GIs as compatible with a purely market-oriented model, my comparison of these two cases indicates that some level of state involvement, in order to level the playing field and empower small farmers, is a necessary, although not sufficient, precondition for successful and sustainable GIs.

Farmers, Markets and Contracts: Chain Integration of Smallholder Producers in Costa Rica

The agrarian production structure of Costa Rica is characterized by a high diversity of farm types, with a predominance of family-based enterprises. This historical inheritance makes the country significantly different from its Central American neighbours (Hall 1985, Seligson 1980). 1 Large capital-intensive plantations that produce for the international markets coexist with extensive livestock haciendas and small and medium-sized, owner-operated farms. Within the latter category of family farms, two types of producers can be distinguished: (1) a traditional peasant sector 2 , comprised of low-income farmers living in former agrarian frontier zones and in rural settlements created by the Agrarian Development Institute (IDA), and (2) an important group of semi-commercial farmers that produce both traditional crops (such as coffee, bananas, sugar cane) and non-traditional crops (for example, tropical fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants) usually reaching competitive production performance. Both groups differ with respect to typical farm-household characteristics (age, education, family size, and dependency rate), production scale, resource endowments, spatial location (access to infrastructure) and market characteristics (access to inputs and information). Rural development policies in Costa Rica thus require rather differentiated incentive regimes to address the needs of the wide range of production units operating under different market and institutional conditions. During the period 1950-1980, a large number of state-funded programmes – with subsidized credits, price guarantees for staple crops, input subsidies, and public research and extension activities – supported the agricultural sector in general and the traditional peasant sector in particular. After 1980, agrarian policies in Costa Rica suddenly changed their former import substitution orientation towards the progressive incorporation of the agricultural sector into an open-market economy with limited state interventions (SEPSA 1999, Pomareda 1996). In fact, the share of non-traditional agricultural production in the agricultural gross product increased from 10 per cent in 1980, to 19 per cent in 1990, 30.8 per cent in 2001, and 57 per cent in 2006 (Umana 2002, SEPSA 2007). The change from import-substitution schemes to a more open market-oriented model brought both opportunities and threats to the agricultural sector of Costa Rica. Whereas the competitiveness of many new activities certainly increased, at the same time a lack of coordination between the government and the private sector became apparent, inhibiting many peasant producers from taking advantage of the new challenges (SEPSA 1999, Doryan-Garron 1990). Consequently, within the smallholder sector, both winners and losers are found. The former moved into agro-export activities, using new production technologies and achieving vertical integration, capital accumulation and economic diversification, while the latter

Discourses on Poverty: emerging perspectives on a caring economy

In The Real Wealth of Nations, Eisler proposes a holistic view of the economy, which would include the caring sectors—the household, unpaid community work and the environment—as an alternative to market-oriented economic models that have proven ineffective in dealing with the problems facing our local and global communities. Her inclusion of language change as part of a strategy for economic transformation implicitly recognises the socially constitutive function of discourse, a notion put forth by critical linguists. Based on these economic and linguistic perspectives, this article reports on a study that examined the social knowledge about poverty constructed through selected discourses to determine whether they communicate a narrow or holistic view of the economy. It proposes that economic planning for poverty reduction build upon the process of language change towards a caring economy as revealed by the study.

Corporate Governance in China: Current Practices, Economic Effects and Institutional Determinants

This article provides a preliminary survey of the burgeoning literature on the Chinese listed firms’ corporate governance. We structure the existing research around three themes: (1) What are the current corporate governance practices in China? (2) How do these corporate governance practices affect the Chinese listed firms’ valuation and various corporate decisions? (3) How does China’s unique institutional setting pre-determine the governance model adopted in China? The evidence indicates that the current governance practice adopted in China can be best described as a control-based model, which contrasts strikingly with the market-oriented model commonly used in the US and UK, and championed by most corporate governance advocates. The evidence also shows that Chinese firms, whose corporate governance practices deviate from the control-based model, demonstrate stronger performance, and tend to make decisions in line with the shareholders’ interest. The evidence from the literature also suggests that the control-based model is rooted in the ‘administrative governance’ approach adopted by the Chinese regulatory authorities, and is tailed to China’s specific institutional setting. (JEL classification: G3)

Deinstitutionalization and Institutional Replacement: State-Centered and Neo-liberal Models in the Global Electricity Supply Industry

We investigate the replacement of the traditional state-centered model of electricity industry organization with a market-oriented neo-liberal model in 83 countries. We argue and find that social actors' ascription of legitimacy to an institutional replacement is central to the replacement's survival during the period following its adoption. We provide empirical evidence on the role of multiple influences that affect the legitimacy of an institutional replacement, including the influence of foreign organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the behavior of peer countries.

Implementing and maintaining neoliberal agriculture in Australia. Part II. Strategies for securing neoliberalism.

Australia is the world’s leading advocate for neoliberal agriculture, and dominant opinion in the Australian Government interprets the adoption of neoliberalism as a triumph of rational ‘national interest’ considerations in policy. This is the second of a two-part critical review of how these policy frameworks have been implemented and maintained (the first part of the review is published in the previous issue of IJSAF - Vol. 13(1), July 2005). In this article, attention is focused on the legitimising discourses used to justify and defend these policies. It concludes that a culture of political correctness has emerged in Australian agricultural policy discourse, in which the benefits from neoliberal outcomes are systemically exaggerated, but other implications are silenced. The insights presented here have international significance, given the leadership role being played by the Australian Government in advancing a new, market-oriented model for the political relationship between food, agriculture and society.

Change of Governance in Historic Perspective: The German Experience

The shift from the liberal, laissez-faire attitude to the welfare state at the end of the 19th century was accompanied in Germany with an idealized notion of the state that has created a lasting and unfortunate legacy: the persistent and deeply ingrained present-day German belief in a perceived unlimited competence of the state, and a deeply ingrained skepticism against the market mechanism by the general public that has turned out to be the greatest single obstacle obstructing urgent reforms in 21st century Germany. Nevertheless, the financial overburdening of the modern welfare state has become increasingly visible, and it is confronted with the problem of a growing discrepancy between public expectations and its ability to act. Indicators of change are a large-scale privatization of public utilities and the beginning of a privatization of welfare arrangements. The political economy and corporate governance in Germany are characterized by a corporatist approach. This regime is generally classified as the standard example of an insider-controlled and stakeholder-oriented governance system as opposed to a modern capital-marked-based and outsider-controlled system. Various threads of this insider system have started to unravel, and certain elements typically associated with outsider systems seem to be increasing. The structural changes are accompanied by regulatory reforms that are inspired by a regulatory approach typical for a marketoriented governance model. The emphasis has been on the regulation of information: enhanced disclosure duties, stricter liability for insufficient or misleading information, and more efficient means of private enforcement of mandatory disclosure rules by damages suits.

DJnomics and the transformation of the developmental state

Since the Asian financial crisis, the Korean state under Kim Dae Jung has witnessed significant challenges from foreign capital as well as from organized labor. Regime transition has influenced the social and political relations between the state and big business (chaebol). The traditional developmental state has gradually eroded as the power and capacity of the state was increasingly affected by economic globalization. The Korean economy has been transformed from a traditional developmental state model characterized by a hierarchical and authoritative relationship between the government and conglomerates into the market-oriented economic model.

The search for the Holy Grail: combining decentralised planning and contracting mechanisms in the French health care system

France has recently adopted one of the least market-oriented models for reforming its health care system, where competition does not feature at all prominently in the overall policy design. This country has a strong tradition of top-down public administration, and health professionals, trade unions and the general public are all uneasy about the idea of introducing market forces and privatising public health provision. The main reforms discussed in this article were based on planning, rationalisation, cost-containment, efficiency and equity. However, some embryonic changes and emerging practices can be detected which might seem to relate to the 'new public management' approach, and which could also serve as a basis for future market initiatives.

Illegal Internet Networks in the Developing World

Enabled by falling costs associated with constructing international voice and data networks, and motivated by high fees charged by incumbents for international telecom services, illegal Internet network operators are proliferating in many developing countries. Unlicensed international data networks are commonly used by competitive local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who do not have the means to obtain an international gateway license, and by Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs) that deliver international calling services utilizing Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. Incumbent telecom operators and regulatory authorities in countries where unlicensed international networks are prevalent claim that these networks deprive local governments of badly needed revenue. However, unlicensed international network operators also offer a new, market-oriented model for bringing the developing world online. This model is not without political, economic, and legal risks. For example, illegal Internet networks pose a potential global security hazard as data transmitted over these networks can be difficult to monitor by intelligence agencies. Voice calls made using Internet telephony technology over these networks can be doubly difficult to track using existing legal intercept technology. As evinced by a recent WTO ruling, growing recognition of illegal telecom networks may lead the international community to push governments of developing countries to adopt more liberal pricing and licensing policies and to pressure governments of developed countries to crack down on companies in their jurisdiction that partner with illegal network operators.

Ways forward for the welfare state in the twenty-first century

Pressure from the internationalization of economies and the globalization of nationally defined and managed welfare states could be a reason for converging trends in welfare states. On the other hand, it could be a reason for developing a more uniform type of welfare state, since a more uniform type, it could be assumed, would be under less pressure than a number of differing types. This may apply in particular in the case of welfare state models with high emphasis on state.nancing, such as the Scandinavian welfare state model, which, it has been argued, has come under immense pressure from globalization.According to Geyer, this pressure would imply that: “the welfare states of the advanced industrial countries should become increasingly similar as the forces of globalization squeeze them into a market-oriented welfare-state model. In essence it does not matter whether the national institutional contexts are conservative or social democratic, if the welfare state is conservative, liberal or social democratic; or if a leftist or rightist party is in power, the constraints have become so extreme that only market-conforming welfare-state structures will be allowed.” But it also seems that “despite undeniable problems posed by economic internationalisation, social democratic welfare states and employment regimes have proven to be highly resilient.“ This article will discuss these contradictory viewpoints by way of analysing convergence, especially on the macro-level.

Markets versus Planning: An Assessment of the Swedish Housing Model in the Post-war Period

The purpose of this study is to present a comparative economic systems evaluation of the Swedish housing model. The evaluation examines success in achieving equity as well as efficiency goals and incorporates key comparisons with the market-oriented US housing model. From the late 1940s up to the major housing reforms of the early 1990s, a form of strong economic planning characterised the Swedish housing sector. By the early 1970s, the housing standard for all income-groups had been raised markedly and urban slums eliminated. Yet, Sweden's success came at huge resource cost while at the same time important equity goals were compromised. For example, Swedish building costs are among the highest in the world while in Sweden's major cities socioeconomic segregation is more pronounced than ever before in the post-war period.