Opposite Policy Research Articles

Transgenic crops, EU precaution, and developing countries

Agricultural biotechnologies have the potential to offer higher incomes for farmers in developing countries and lower-priced and better-quality food, feed and fibre. That potential is being heavily compromised, however, because of strict regulatory systems in the European Union and elsewhere governing transgenically modified (GM) crops. This paper examines why the EU has taken the extreme opposite policy position on GM food to equally affluent North America, what has been the impact on developing country welfare of the limited adoption of GM crop varieties so far, and what impact GM adoption by developing countries themselves could have on their economic welfare.

Does Size Matter?

CANADIANS have reached consensus on two issues. Our weather should be better, and sizes should be smaller. Everyone takes comfort in restating obvious, it seems, and neither topic goes away for long. Class size isn't exactly a new-millennium issue. 1960 Chant Royal Commission on Education in British Columbia reported that the size of public school classes and pupil/teacher ratios were referred to in a number of briefs [that] invariably supported view that sizes should be However, in absence of absolute criteria upon which to judge an ideal ... ratio, a skeptical commission merely urged additional research into effects of size on student achievement. The Commission has no reason to assume that money is better spent for smaller classes than for better teachers. In fact, it would support opposite policy. (1) In 1960, it seems, it was still possible for commissions and politicians to ignore public opinion and pressures of so-called special interest groups. Perhaps commissioners were precocious advocates of evidence-based decision-making, although they probably called it sticking to facts. Fast-forward 40-odd years. Despite gradual declines in sizes stretching over at least two decades, smaller classes are still seen as solution to many problems, from declining graduation rates and teacher burnout to poor academic performance. In five consecutive public opinion polls conducted for Canadian Teachers' Federation between 1997 and 2004, class size reduction topped list of public's priorities. In 2004, more than 76% of those surveyed believed that sizes were too large. (2) Teachers couldn't agree more. A 2005 survey conducted for Ontario College of Teachers found that nine of 10 teachers and administrators believe that reducing sizes would have greatest impact on improving student achievement. (3) Thirty-two percent of profession identified large size as greatest problem confronting Ontario's schools, although some details are worth noting. Teachers 34 years of age or younger were more likely (at 43%) than teachers with 30 or more years of experience (at 17%) to identify large size as their greatest concern. Still, teachers registered more concern than principals, of whom only 13% named size as greatest problem facing Ontario schools. Teachers' organizations in every province have been lobbying intensely for reduced sizes, often expanding concept to include class composition, a phrase that recognizes that number of students in classroom isn't only variable in play. In British Columbia, where right to bargain sizes based in part on composition was stripped from teachers in 1999, lack of a government commitment to reduce size remains a stumbling block that may yet lead to a strike vote. (4) In May 2005, 30,000 Quebec teachers marched on legislature and threatened to strike unless sizes in both elementary and secondary schools were reduced. Alberta teachers would appear to be in best position to make a case for smaller sizes, since they work in province distinguished both by overflowing budget surpluses and overflowing classrooms. While Alberta government boasts that sizes are close to or below provincial targets, Alberta Teachers' Association counters that reporting only average hides fact that in 2003-04, 81% of K-3 classes exceeded provincial target of 17 students, and 62% of classes in grades 4 to 6 exceeded target of 23 students. In same year, there were 37 senior high school classes that enrolled more than 40 students. (5) A poll in which 90% of Albertans agreed that class size makes a big difference in quality of education helped push province to promise to hire 2,200 new teachers. …

Endogenous Protection and Trade Negotiations

Research on the political economy of trade policy shows that a country's level of protection responds to variation in macroeconomic conditions and partisan control of government. Research on trade negotiations poses a challenge to the market-for-protection account provided by endogenous protection theory. Negotiations motivate exporters to lobby for domestic tariff cuts as a means of gaining reciprocal access to foreign markets. Responding to identical forces in the macroeconomy, import-competing industries and exporters lobby for opposite policy changes. As a result, the causal processes identified in endogenous protection theory are weakened or even reversed. I demonstrate that the incentives of exporters to lobby for tariff cuts are sharper than the corresponding incentives facing protectionist interests and that elected officials have reason to abandon some protectionist constituencies in order to cater to exporters. In a set of empirical tests, I show that tariffs do not respond to macroeconomic and partisan conditions as predicted by endogenous protection theory; instead, tariffs in the major trading states respond to the tariffs of their main negotiating partners.

Neighborhood Resiliency

ABSTRACT This paper argues that a neighborhood's resiliency depends on the stability of its initial equilibrium state. A neighborhood that possesses a large stock of social and physical capital is not easily dislodged from its beneficial equilibrium, but if dislodged by adverse shocks, its reservoir of capital enables it to return to its initial equilibrium. In the opposite case, a neighborhood severely deprived of social and physical capital and which crosses a critical threshold is not easily dislodged from its harmful equilibrium. The paper first analyzes the properties of resilient neighborhoods, arguing that an increment in any one of them will increase resiliency. Then it argues that ceteris paribus, public and corporate policies that result in an increase in resources will strengthen these properties, while opposite policies will weaken them, and beyond a critical threshold, will result in a “lock-in” effect whereby the neighborhood loses its capacity to bounce back from adversity.

The Russian Way of Self-Determination of the Aboriginal Peoples of the North: Hypotheses for Development

Current Russian legislation contains a certain legal basis for securing the status of small-numbered aboriginal peoples, but does not meet the demands of aboriginals and their public organizations for the legal securing of their rights to land and self-government. The aboriginal community in Russia is diverse, and for many aborigines the issues of self-government are not vital. Their cultural rights and interests could be given effect within the framework of current law. This possibility is considered in relation to the small indigenous groups in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. The discussion considers the four draft federal laws to regulate aspects of the life of indigenous peoples in the North: On the Legal Status of Small-Numbered Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North, On Reindeer Farming, On General Principles of Organizing Communes of Small-Numbered Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and Far East, and On the Territories of Traditional Nature Use. In the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug the local self-government unit recognised by local legislation is the Commune. While some communes have been established, they are encountering difficulties because of local opposition and national policies. Insufficient research has been done to gain them sufficient attention.

Social Polarisation and Socioeconomic Segregation in a Welfare State: The Case of Oslo

This paper looks at the competing theses of polarising convergence and policy-related divergence in the study of socioeconomic segregation. Using data from Oslo, Norway, it is shown that the level of segregation has remained fairly stable, or has even declined, in spite of increasing income inequality. This spatial stabilisation is causally related to a more flexible design in city planning and policy. It is, however, not a development in accordance with the welfare state approach proposed by Chris Hamnett and some other scholars. Rather, we observe a 'perverse' effect where social democracy has been helped by opposition policies. In consequence, the paper suggests the use of models of action and the identification of 'closed' and 'open' processes of change.

Publication behaviour and international impact: Scandinavian clinical and social medicine, 1988–96

The paper presents the results of an empirical study of the Danish and Nordic publication behaviour and international impact in Clinical and Social Medicine covering the period 1988-96. As indicators are applied the international visibility of Scandinavian research output, the publication activity per capita in SCI journals, the development over time of the national citation impact in an OECD and World context, and the ratio of cited papers relative to the World. Compared to May's analysis (1997), covering 1981-94, the analysis shows that a certain reshuffle of national positions among the OECD countries in citation impact has occurred. UK and New Zealand as well as Denmark and Sweden have lost in ranking to Finland and Belgium, both countries coming up from behind. The most interesting results concern the opposite research policy strategies displayed by Finland and Denmark which result in similar impact patterns relative to the World impact. The implications are discussed.

Shifting the main purposes of drug control: from suppression to regulation of use: Reduction of risks as the new focus for drug policy

I believe that the original aims of (almost full) prohibition of substance use, as it is applied according to the NY Single Convention of 1961, are unattainable. Instead, I want to present some arguments and ways of looking at drug use that support a far reaching revision of the current aims of drug control. Drug policy goals should shift, from suppression of use to regulation of use. 1 In a recent article, Caulkins et al. (1997) choose the concepts of ‘use reduction’ and ‘harm reduction’ as a pair of opposite policy goals. They conclude their article by stating that use reduction is part of harm reduction, although not at any price. They thereby integrate both objectives. In my view, the concepts of suppression versus regulation of use generate a clearer debate about policy aims. 1 In this article I will present drug use data collected in Amsterdam that in my view support such a shift. Ten years of drug use data in the population of Amsterdam show a remarkable level of control and stability in drug use patterns in a policy environment that allows relatively easy access to drugs. Internal controls on drug use can be expected to play a much larger part in structuring these patterns than classic drug policy theory allows for.

Policy and policymaking in the unification of higher education

In 1992 the Further and Higher Education Act unified higher education in England and Wales, as did the corresponding Act in Scotland. These features of the Act were remarkably uncontroversial. Yet they marked the end of more than a quarter of a century during which the opposite policy had been pursued by governments of both parties. Since 1965, higher education in Britain had been distinguished by a ‘binary’ policy, sustaining two separate sectors with different ‘missions’, different arrangements for funding and control, and with different titles for their main institutions. What led to this apparent and dramatic U-turn in policy in 1992? What factors prompted the change? What was the new strategy? This article explores some of the factors in policy and policymaking that led to this outcome, and considers some of the consequences.

Seeking optimum project duration extensions

It is well-known that changes to a project's definition during the course of the project can cause significant disruption, and greatly extend a project's duration if no extra resources are committed to the project. However, it is also well-known that the opposite policy, of throwing as many resources as possible at the problem to try to keep to the original schedule, can be very expensive, and is often in fact counter-productive ($2000 hour). The underlying causes of the results for these two extreme policies are systemic, are often hard to quantify, and are often significantly under-estimated. This paper describes the system dynamics technique for modelling a project, using as a case-study a model drawn up for a delay and disruption claim; this model closely reflected the project both as budgetted and as actually occured. It then shows how this model could be used to find an optimum trade-off between the two extreme policies, giving an optimal project extension.

A Note on Environmental Federalism: Interpreting Some Contradictory Results

This paper reconciles some conflicting interpretations of recent literature on interjurisdictional environmental regulatory competition.6,7present a model in which competition to attract investment by lowering environmental standards leads to a Pareto-optimal equilibrium.3; and4describe a model in which such competition can result in a suboptimal Nash equilibrium. While it would be possible to draw opposite policy implications from the two models regarding the appropriate degree of environmental federalism, such a conclusion would be incorrect. This paper reconciles the different results by showing that they depend in large part on monopoly profits and tax exporting, not the nature of the pollution externality or environmental federalism.

Sectoral shocks and movement costs: Effects on employment and welfare

In this paper we provide a general equilibrium model of a two-sector economy which accounts for low employment due to the incomplete responses of workers to sectoral shocks. This model is used to reconcile the seemingly contradictory results of macro and micro evidence; namely that sectoral shocks explain fluctuations of employment even though we do not observe cyclical movements of labor across sectors. We further find that increasing the frequency of sectoral shocks, holding the magnitude of the shocks fixed, decreases total employment. This allows us to account for the phenomena that the unemployment rate itself has been higher since 1970, a period characterized by an increased frequency of sectoral shocks. We also study the theoretical implications of two opposite policies: one which subsidizes mobility and the other which eliminates the partial insurance provided in the model. The former increases employment and welfare while the latter increases employment but reduces welfare.

The Limits of Politics

MY POINT OF DEPARTURE IS ONE THAT HAPPENS TO BE RATHER appropriate for a lecture sponsored by the journal Government and Opposition. It is that the political choices open to governments these days have been so constricted by those forces of structural change often referred to as ‘globalization’ that the differences that used to distinguish government policies from opposition policies are in process of disappearing.

Political Opposition and Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective. By Joe D. Hagan. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993. 274p. $40.00.

Political Opposition and Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective. By Joe D. Hagan. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993. 274p. $40.00.

Political Opposition and Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective.Joe D. HaganThe Limits of Autonomy.David Skidmore , Valerie M. Hudson

<i>Political Opposition and Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective.</i>Joe D. Hagan<i>The Limits of Autonomy.</i>David Skidmore , Valerie M. Hudson

Political Opposition and Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective.

Political Opposition and Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective.

The Puzzles of Fairly Fast Growth and Rapid Collapse Under Socialism

The national statistics and international comparisons based on purchasing power parities suggest that the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in the years 1925-75 and Central and Eastern Europe in the years 1945-80 experienced economic growth comparable to that of many market-based economies of similar levels of development. This must be considered a puzzle given the incentive problems, the absence of proper prices, limited competition and resistance to innovation in economies dominated by a state sector. However, this fairly fast growth came suddenly to a halt in the 1980s. This phase of stagnation and limited reform is now followed not by a recovery, but by a phase of surprisingly deep collapse, indeed in some countries a near disintegration. The paper discusses the three phases with the intention of establishing relationships between them and, in this way, of providing a better understanding of each of the two puzzles.The analysis of development is conducted in terms of standard models of international technology transfer, capital accumulation and catching up. This analysis is informed by the consideration of the distinct characteristics of development under socialism. These characteristics relate in part to preferences of the central authorities, embodied in the so-called communist strategy of industrialization, and in part to the implications for innovation and development of the socialist economic system. The standard view of the socialist development was that the short-term interests were sacrificed for the benefit of future generations. The paper aruges that this was true only in the initial phase of development. In the later phase the authorities had switched to an opposite policy, one of sustaining a reasonable pace of improvement for the current generation under an inefficient system at the expense of future generations. The collapse phase came with the exhaustion of the growth reserves offered by the policy. The intergeneration terms of exchange have switched once more, again to work against the interests of the current generation. The paper also discusses the particular causes of the collapse and the prospects of a revival after the transition to a market-based system is advanced.

Pesticides and Worker Safety

AbstractA key problem in pesticide regulation is uncertainty about health risks. Trade‐offs between economic benefits and worker health safety are examined using an empirical illustration. Alternative decision rules for regulation under uncertainty are considered: a safety fixed rule, which protects individuals from excessive health risks, and uncertainty‐adjusted cost‐benefit analysis, which evaluates aggregate trade‐offs between health and economic welfare. These criteria may lead to opposite policy conclusions, suggesting that the most appropriate public policy is a safe minimum standard (SMS), which allows weighing of costs and benefits only after some minimum acceptable level of health safety has been assured.

U.S. Bites Greenhouse Bullet and Gags

Delegates from more than 100 countries gathered in Chantilly, VA for the first meeting of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Convention on Climate Change and reached an agreement on their organizational structure for negotiating how to reduce global warming. However, the commitment of the US to reduce the release of CO{sub 2} emission was very disappointing. The US attitude toward CO{sub 2} emission is totally unchanged, and US policy includes no provision other than those already in place to reduce the greenhouse gases. The plan of the administration to take action now to reduce climate changes really includes only the administrations already announced intentions to stabilize the greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2000. The administration is not yet fully convinced that there is substantial scientific evidence supporting greenhouse warming, and there is general concern that the economic costs of moderating the greenhouse effect might be excessive. There is a good measure of free market ideology involved in the US policy of opposition to reduction of CO{sub 2} emissions. In fact, CO{sub 2} emissions in the US are predicted to rise by 15% by the year 2000.

The Noncompetitive Theory of International Trade and Trade Policy

This paper reviews recent theoretical developments in the analysis of trade structure and policy. It emphasizes how understanding monopolistic (noncompetitiive) market structures and elements can help explain trade flows and the relation between trade and growth, and can be useful in evaluating tariffs, quotas, and research and development subsidies in noncompetitive markets. Noncompetitive trade theory identifies testable relations that have already received empirical support in various studies. Once their significance is recognized, it is important to take them into account in designing policy. Policies exist that raise welfare, but simple policy prescriptions do not. Theory helps to identify situations in which particular policies work, but under only slightly different circumstances opposite policies may have to be implemented. Recent studies have shown that long-run growth rates depend on an economy's structural features and the country's trading partners. So policy can affect long-run growth - but identifying useful policies requires an understanding of market structure and conduct, entry constraints, intersectoral links, and the like. More empirical studies are needed to elicit this information. Meanwhile, policy should be designed on a case-by-case basis and - because good policies improve welfare only slightly - no intervention (free trade) remains a good rule of thumb. All the more so when one takes into account the competitive pressure of a free trading world system, the probability of retaliation, and the political economy of protection.