Privatization Research Articles

Corporate structure, partial privatization, and wage inequality: Evidence from China's split share structure reform

This paper examines the effects of privatizing China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) on wage distribution and the welfare of the economy. Privatizing profitable SOEs can narrow wage inequality and improve welfare, and it is however accompanied by a business dynamism effect that can widen the skilled-unskilled wage gap. Using China's split share structure reform in 2005 as a quasi-natural experiment, we empirically demonstrate for profitable SOEs a positive relationship between partial privatization and wage gap. Our findings are consistent with the plan to wind down unprofitable SOEs that would not survive without government subsidies.

Employment in the equine industry in 2022: Insights into career types, salaries, and benefits

The equine industry contributes $74 billion and provides 1.3 million jobs annually to the United States economy. However, limited information is available on the current salaries and benefits of equine professionals. In 2022, an online survey was conducted to assess salaries, benefits, and education levels of equine professionals across several career types in the equine industry. The survey consisted of 38 questions with conditional branching and was distributed through social media and e-newsletters. Survey branching focused on grouping participants by career type into the following categories: farm management, government, industry, nonprofit, private practice, and university. The most prevalent career type represented was farm management (34%) followed by private practice (18%), academia (17%), industry (15%), nonprofit (12%), and government (4%). Associations between variables were examined with Chi-squared analysis. An association was observed between education level and salary (P = 0.001, X2 = 103.17) with salaries greater than $50,000 being more prevalent with advanced degrees. Similarly, job type and salary were associated (P = 0.001, X2 = 73.47), where salaries for academia and industry careers were often greater than $50,000 and nonprofit and farm management salaries were more often less or equal to $50,000. Compared to professionals in farm management or in private practice, those in academia and government received more benefits (P<0.05). Data collected from this survey creates a baseline for evaluating compensation across the equine industry and exposed opportunities for improvements in future surveys. Outside of industry salary comparisons, survey data can be used by educators to emphasize the benefit of further education to increase salary and benefits.

“The Human Must Remain the Central Focus”: Subjective Fairness Perceptions in Automated Decision-Making

The increasing use of algorithms in allocating resources and services in both private industry and public administration has sparked discussions about their consequences for inequality and fairness in contemporary societies. Previous research has shown that the use of automated decision-making (ADM) tools in high-stakes scenarios like the legal justice system might lead to adverse societal outcomes, such as systematic discrimination. Scholars have since proposed a variety of metrics to counteract and mitigate biases in ADM processes. While these metrics focus on technical fairness notions, they do not consider how members of the public, as most affected subjects by algorithmic decisions, perceive fairness in ADM. To shed light on subjective fairness perceptions of individuals, this study analyzes individuals’ answers to open-ended fairness questions about hypothetical ADM scenarios that were embedded in the German Internet Panel (Wave 54, July 2021), a probability-based longitudinal online survey. Respondents evaluated the fairness of vignettes describing the use of ADM tools across different contexts. Subsequently, they explained their fairness evaluation providing a textual answer. Using qualitative content analysis, we inductively coded those answers (N = 3697). Based on their individual understanding of fairness, respondents addressed a wide range of aspects related to fairness in ADM which is reflected in the 23 codes we identified. We subsumed those codes under four overarching themes: Human elements in decision-making, Shortcomings of the data, Social impact of AI, and Properties of AI. Our codes and themes provide a valuable resource for understanding which factors influence public fairness perceptions about ADM.

Partial privatisation and green innovation in China: The role of industrial context and regional development

AbstractThis study examines the relationship between partial privatisation (i.e., state ownership reduction) and green innovation in China. Employing a large dataset of 36,072 firm‐year observations between 2005 and 2022, we document a positively significant association between partial privatisation and green innovation, suggesting that privatisation promotes green innovation in Chinese firms. Further analyses shows that the relationship is stronger for firms in environmentally sensitive industries and those located in more developed regions. Our main finding is robust to the alternative measurement of variables and endogeneity concerns using the propensity score matching (PSM), firm‐fixed effects and the system generalised method of moments (GMM) approach. Finally, we document that green innovation in privatised firms yields superior performance. Our findings highlight the significant contribution of privatisation in the quest for low‐carbon emissions in China by promoting green innovation.

In-depth Correlation Power Analysis Attacks on a Hardware Implementation of CRYSTALS-Dilithium

During the standardisation process of post-quantum cryptography, NIST encourages research on side-channel analysis for candidate schemes. As the recommended lattice signature scheme, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, when implemented on hardware, has seen limited research on side-channel analysis, and current attacks are incomplete or requires a substantial quantity of traces. Therefore, we conducted a more complete analysis to investigate the leakage of an FPGA implementation of CRYSTALS-Dilithium using the Correlation Power Analysis (CPA) method, where with a minimum of 70,000 traces partial private key coefficients can be recovered. Furthermore, we optimise the attack by extracting Point-of-Interests using known information due to parallelism (named CPA-PoI) and by iteratively utilising parallel leakages (named CPA-ITR). Our experimental results show that CPA-PoI reduces the number of traces by up to 16.67%, CPA-ITR by up to 25%, and both increase the number of recovered key coefficients by up to 55.17% and 93.10% using the same number of traces. They outperfom the CPA method. As a result, it suggests that the FPGA implementation of CRYSTALS-Dilithium is more vulnerable than thought before to side-channel analysis.

Private Equity in India Fintech: A Lifecycle Analysis

Over the past two and a half decades, India's venture capital and private equity industry have undergone significant growth, driven by the liberalization of the Indian economy and the emergence of a dynamic start-up ecosystem. While the Fintech sector has been preferred for VCPE investments, research on private equity activity in this industry has been limited. This study aims to address this research gap by providing comprehensive insights into the lifecycle of private equity investments in the Fintech industry in India. The study examines private equity investment and exit activity in the Indian Fintech industry between 1998 and Q1 2023. Our research findings indicate that the Fintech industry in India has attracted considerable investments at notably higher entry valuation multiples. Moreover, a few sectors within the industry have garnered higher investments and valuation multiples. Private equity investors have generated significant returns from exits in the Fintech industry, with M&amp;As being the preferred exit route during the study period. However, our analysis indicates that exit valuation multiples were lower than entry multiples. This research provides valuable insights for investors and entrepreneurs seeking to understand the Indian Fintech industry and its potential for private equity investments.

A Case Study on Input–Output Analysis in the Defense Industry

Recently, the defense budget, which includes the cost of purchasing weapons, has continuously and significantly increased in South Korea. This increase, which is entirely financed by the government, has raised the issue of the socioeconomic impacts of spending on the defense industry in areas, such as production, added value and job creation. In this regard, it is necessary to more accurately measure the impact of spending on the defense industry on domestic industry, but the Bank of Korea’s industry inducement coefficient, which measures industrial spillovers, is quite limited in measuring the industry inducement impact caused by weapon production. Therefore, this study explores how to estimate the industry inducement coefficient of the production of a specific weapon by utilising the current Bank of Korea input–output table, which is focused on private industry, and applies this methodology to the estimation of the input–output coefficient of the production of a specific weapon. As a result of the analysis, the input–output coefficient of a specific weapon was estimated to be approximately 1.18 times higher than that of the products of similar industries in the private sector in terms of production, 1.03 times higher in terms of value-added and 1.03 times higher in terms of employment. This suggests that the effect of fostering domestic industry through weapon production is somewhat greater than that of private industry and proves the efficacy of government investment in this sector.

La teak: Painted animation as an educational media maintaining tree sustainability AR 3D filter-based

Forests which are often given the nickname the lungs of the world are starting to dwindle day by day. There are many cases of illegal logging for the benefit of private industry individuals without thinking about the impact that will be caused. The bad influence that appears is not only felt now but also in the future. Education regarding the existence of a tree is deemed necessary to be made. Taking into account these problems, this study aims to create a combined work of art that carries the idea of the tree itself. Artwork is made from two elements of art, namely painting, and animation. Many say that there is a wall between traditional art and digital art. This research also intends to prove that the two types of art can be united. The method of creating works is in the form of static paintings which are used as tracker/marker objects for making augmented reality (AR) animations. The results of the creation of works in this study show that they can provide knowledge to the wider community regarding the importance of trees and instill in them a sense of love for the environment, as well as provide more experience to the community regarding new media.

Collaborative approaches to greenhouse gas inventory in higher education: Insights from the Universities Denmark Group

The challenges faced by universities and private industry in estimating their emissions for decarbonisation are similar, but the task of linking emissions to university operations, namely procurement, is complex and time-consuming due to the wide range and types of purchases. Here, participatory action research is used to address these challenges, with a group of Danish universities to investigate the functions and improve the completeness of university GHG inventories. The research enabled knowledge sharing and collaboration, leading to a better understanding of the complexities and possibilities of GHG inventories. The main conclusions drawn from discussions are that the GHG inventory should serve multiple functions; an inward-facing decision support material, and an externally-facing communication tool. EXIOBASE, an environmentally extended input-output model, was identified as a useful tool for future inventories, particularly in procurement, due to its comprehensive spend-based assessment of purchases also relevant to universities. With more universities adopting spend-based practices, the presented conclusions shed light on potential risks of this method that have not yet been discussed in this context. A consensus on methodological trade-offs, relevant activities, and data considerations for a GHG inventory are reached and reflected on. As suppliers can increasingly deliver product specific climate related information, a data ontology is needed to appropriately incorporate supplier-specific data into consistent inventories without conflicting with methodological principles and upholding proprietary requirements of suppliers. Addressing challenges identified through this collaborative investigation will expand on the dialogue in the literature and help shape how universities conduct and use GHG inventories. Keywords: Sustainable university; Action Research; Consequential Attributional; GHG Protocol.

Development of Russia’s industry: Some regularities and prospects

Industry is the substratum of material production and the economy as a whole. Numerous discussions about the need for new industrialisation make us turn again to the analysis of the state of industrial potential and results of industrial development in Russia. The study aims to explain the performance of the Russian industry in terms of the most relevant and aggregated indicators characterising its functioning, and to formulate its long-term development tasks. The methodological basis of the study is the theory of industrial development. Methods of planning and industrial analysis are used. The evidence is the data for 2012–2022 retrieved from the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation and the Unified Interdepartmental Statistical Information System. The research concludes about the ‘contracted’ development of the Russian industry. The growth rate of the gross value added is more significantly impacted by the dynamics of fixed capital rather than that of labour. Yet the labour contributed greatly to the creation of the new value, which indicates the predominance of labour-intensive technologies, or obsolete capital-intensive technologies. The study empirically confirms that some periods saw a ‘paradox of rapid industrialisation’, that is, a substantially lower rate of economic growth against a higher growth of industry and modernisation of its fixed assets. The general conclusion is that when conducting industrial policy, it is necessary to influence the state of the labour and capital factors in the manufacturing sectors. The industrialisation of the Russian economy needs to be oriented towards the technological substitution through the creation of new fixed assets; in addition, the losses of greatly reduced labour potential should be compensated. A promising avenue is the organisation of analytical planning for the state-owned industry and indicative planning for private industries along with the adoption of a law on the state sector.

Earnings quality and national IPO: AEM practices of Central Asia

Once the key insights of corporate finance quality in Kazakhstani listed state SOEs are obtained, it is time to turn to separate strategies of corporate reporting manipulations. The purpose of this research is to look at accrual-based AEM strategies that adjust real activity REM practices at year-end. We follow Kasznik cash flow model for accrual-based earnings management as a best practice methodology and apply it to 572 unbalanced panel firm-year non-financial observations over 13-year time horizon. To strengthen our analysis, we compare main results with another popular measurement of accrual-based Earnings management based on the Shivakumar 1996 model. We also winsorised key investment indicators to reduce the impact of outliers on the main results. The results answer major questions: 1) what AEM strategies state SOEs prefer; 2) how accrual-based manipulations affect the choice of investment indicators; and 3) whether partially-privatized state SOEs under/over perform private POEs in Kazakhstan. In terms of theoretical and practical implications, our research findings could be useful to analysts of various strategies in the AEM/REM dimensions, academic scientists and advocates of partial privatization of state companies. We assure that theoretical gaps of corporate data manipulations in Central Asian context are to be reduced with increasing number of publications in the field of AEM practices.

EU의 표준화정책과 기준·인증제도에 관한 연구

Purpose: This paper presents implications determined by analyzing the process in which the EU standardization system has been formed, and by analyzing the characteristics and problems of the EU’s standards and certification system. Research design, data, and methodology: Preceding studies of the EU standardization policy and the standards and certification system were analyzed. Results: T he EU’s s tandardization r egulations s ubmitted t o t he W TO a re s tandards a nd certification rules that check whether environmental requirements are met in relation to the manufacture, use, and disposal of chemicals, automobiles, and electronic products, as well as for food safety and labeling, automobile safety and formal approval, and household goods. Conclusions: From Korea’s perspective, it is first necessary to clearly understand international standards, the EU’s standards, and its certification system for each item exported to the EU, and to have an overall support system in place to respond immediately to changes in the EU market by paying close attention to changes in related rules. Second, it is necessary to respond quickly to changes in the UK’s standardization policy. Third, government support should be strengthened to revitalize the private industry standardization system and to harmonize it with national standards. Finally, we need to develop high-tech, next-generation international standards to strengthen manufacturing industries that meet global standards, and to preemptively respond to new trade environments.

Exploring the dynamic capability of green technology innovation for achieving sustainable development: an empirical insight from China

ABSTRACT During the past several decades, the world has been putting strong emphasis on the role of environmental technology innovation which can reduce environmental degradation and promote sustainable development. This research sheds light on the impact of green technology or eco innovation on sustainable development for China. Additionally, the effects of other variables such as governance, information and communication technology, trade uncertainty and urban population are also analysed. The study employs Fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) as the long run tests and Breitung and Candelon Spectral Granger-Causality as the time varying granger causality test. The results suggest that green innovation promotes sustainable development in the long run. The roles of governance quality and urbanization are also found to be positive while the role of ICT is found to be insignificant yet negative. The role of trade uncertainty is positive yet insignificant. Based on these results, the study calls for the private and public organizations and industries to invest in eco innovation. Different incentives from the government can also encourage private industries to invest in green innovation technologies.

Conflict or coordination? An analysis of the Southern New England offshore wind - fisheries policy network

Offshore wind represents a growing part of coastal states’ energy portfolios. While it stands on the brink of rapid expansion in the United States, reaction from ocean users is mixed, with commercial fishers representing the most vocal opposition. Recent events suggest that fisheries conflict may represent a barrier to advancing the growth of U.S. offshore wind, yet little is known about the inner workings of this conflict nor how actors interact to try to influence policy outcomes. This research utilized policy networks and the advocacy coalition framework to assess the ways in which fishers, fisheries advocates, and others interacted with each other, government agencies, and wind developers within the context of offshore wind farm decision-making in southern New England, U.S. Data collected through a questionnaire were used to perform a social network analysis. Findings revealed one baseline communication network, and a similarly configured coordination network, rather than multiple advocacy coalitions. Degree and betweenness centrality measures revealed highly influential roles of one fisheries advocacy organization and two wind developers. Information/advice and trust networks were also analyzed; in-degree centrality measures revealed the influence of two federal fisheries offices, as well as the same fisheries organization, as credible and trustworthy. Overall, results reveal that while coordination was taking place, conflict was also fueled through the dominant influence of private industries and the lack of prominence of a neutral bridging organization. Recommendations for practice include integrating a bridging organization and facilitating a more influential role of respected government agencies to mitigate conflict.

Facilitating an ecosystem approach through open data and information packaging

Abstract Open data that can be easily incorporated into analyses are essential for developing ecosystem approaches to marine ecological management: a common goal in fisheries policy in many countries. Although it is not always clear what constitutes an ecosystem approach, it always involves scientists working with a large variety of data and information, including data from physical and oceanographic sampling, multispecies surveys, and other sources describing human pressures. This can be problematic for analysts because these data, even when available, are often held in disparate datasets that do not necessarily correspond at appropriate temporal and spatial scales. Data can often only be obtained by specific requests to individuals in governmental agencies who are delivering on an increasing number of data requests as interest grows in practical ecosystem approach implementation. This data access model is not sustainable and hinders the momentum for ecosystem approach development. We describe a data bundling R package that makes data and climate projections available at appropriate scales to facilitate development of an ecosystem approach for the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. This approach integrates closely with the present workflow of most government analysts, academics in fisheries, and scientists in private industry. The approach conforms with open data initiatives and makes data easily available globally while relieving some of the burden of data provision that can fall to some individuals in government laboratories. The structure and approach are generic, adaptable, and transferable to other regions and jurisdictions.

Zoonotic Diseases: A Changing Landscape Demands Global Action

During recent years, the globe-wide zoonotic disease landscape has evolved drastically posing significant challenges to the health of the individual and environmental sustainability. Zoonotic illnesses, which occur in animals and are transmission-capable to people, have been an ever-present risk throughout history. According to the “World Health Organization (WHO)”, an estimated 60% of known infectious diseases and around 75% of new or emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic in origin. These illnesses have the potential to inflict widespread morbidity and mortality, along with severe economic losses. However, today's dynamics of our changing environment, which include urbanization, climate change, and growing human-animal interaction, are increasing the probability of zoonotic spillover occurrences. (1) The worldwide spread of the consequences of zoonotic illnesses underscores the critical need for collective effort through international leadership frameworks integrating government, private industry, and civil society. “The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)” and the WHO are collaborating on projects to address these concerns and improve global health security. The WHO launched the "One Health Joint Plan of Action," which intends to inscribe health hazards to humans, animals, plants, and the environment. It emphasizes the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health. (2)

How Do Digital Capabilities Affect Organizational Performance in the Public Sector? The Mediating Role of the Organizational Agility

As public sector agencies face rising imperatives to digitally transform citizen services, data systems, and internal operations, questions persist as to whether investments in big data analytics and automation capabilities, evidenced to drive organizational performance in private industry, translate to bureaucratic government contexts. This research quantitatively investigates the link between digital capabilities and organizational performance in the Jordanian ministry of Justice. Survey data collected from 292 public officials assessed capabilities in data-driven decision making, flexible automation, and interactive constituent communications alongside organizational agility and performance indexes spanning efficiency, quality, and satisfaction metrics. Structural equation modeling analysis reveals that digital capabilities relate significantly to heightened agility and all targeted performance areas. Improved agility mediates over half the performance impact attributable to upgraded technical systems, highlighting the vital role of evolving digitally enabled flexibility in realizing returns on analytics and process modernization initiatives. Findings validate the applicability of conclusions on digitization returns formed in corporate environments to public sector contexts, contingent on bundled change management programming enabling both technical and adaptive capacity building across the workforce. As global regions expand e-governance programs premised on harnessing emerging technologies to enhance civic institutions, this research offers generalizable models guiding multifaceted preparations to amplify impact.

Pull me - push you? The disparate financing mechanisms of drug research in global health.

There is an inconsistency in the way pharmaceutical research is financed. While pull mechanisms are predominantly used to incentivize later-stage pharmaceutical research for products with demand in the Global North, so-called neglected diseases are chiefly financed by push funding. This discrepancy has so far been ignored in the academic debate, and any compelling explanation for why we draw the line between push and pull at poor people is lacking. Clinical development of new pharmaceuticals is chiefly financed by free market pull mechanisms. Even in cases where markets fail to deliver adequate incentives, demand enhancement mechanisms are used to replicate pull funding artificially, for example, with subscription models for antibiotics. Push funding in clinical research is almost always used when the poverty of patients means that markets fail to create sufficient demand. The general question of whether push or pull generally is the more efficient way to conduct pharmaceutical research arises. If the state is efficient in directing limited budgets for pharmaceutical research, push funding should be expanded to global diseases. If private industry is the more efficient actor, there would be enormous value in experimenting more aggressively with different approaches to enhance market demand artificially for neglected diseases.

Homo Novus in the Conquest of the Empire: The Playful Element in Fascist Propaganda and Pedagogy: A Case Study

The Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1936) represents, par excellence, the war of fascism for fascism. It is no coincidence that the extensive use of military resources was accompanied by an extraordinary propaganda campaign, which also had clear and evident pedagogical implications. The regime, at the peak of its consensus and in the full deployment of its totalitarian vocation, took on the objective of raising the young and very young generations “to the level of the Empire.” The pedagogical project of the homo novus experienced a qualitative leap. The combination of war and Africa, filled with heroic fascination and ancestral mystery, stroke the imagination of teachers, educators, textbook compilers, and, similarly, excited the imagination of the youth. The enthusiasm generated by propaganda, or the propaganda itself artificially returned to the public sphere, promoted the psychological dynamics of “celebration” and play. Although fascist pedagogy underestimated the relationship between learning and play, the playful element actually emerged as an important factor in political mobilization and, above all, imperialistic education. The didactic strategies of elementary school teachers, developed in preparation for and during the African conflict, are proof of this. However, even the private industry aligned itself with the pedagogical influences of the regime, introducing a wide variety of toys on the market that served to shape an imperialist, warlike, chauvinistic, and racist mentality. The province of Perugia is undoubtedly an interesting field of investigation: on the territory of the “capital of the fascist revolution,” starting from 1923, governing groups making loyalty to the Duce the driving force of their political rise took over the institutional and administrative structures. But that’s not all: unlike elsewhere, the Gentile reform enjoyed widespread consensus in Perugia from the beginning. Moreover, the majority of teachers joined Mussolini’s movement from the very beginning.

Effects of private health insurance on waiting time in public hospitals.

The Australian government pays $6.7 billion per year in rebates to encourage Australians to purchase private health insurance (PHI) and an additional $6.1 billion to cover services provided in private hospitals. What is the justification for large government subsidies to a private industry when all Australians already have free coverage under Medicare? The government argues that more people buying PHI will relieve the burden on the public system and may reduce waiting times. However, the evidence supporting this is sparse. We use an instrumental variable approach to study the causal effects of higher PHI coverage in the area on waiting times in public hospitals in the same area. The instrument used is area-level average house prices, which correlate with average income and wealth, thus influencing the purchase of PHI due to tax incentives, but not directly affecting waiting times in public hospitals. We use 2014-2018 hospital admission and elective surgery waiting list data linked at the patient level from the Victorian Center for Data Linkage. These data cover all inpatient admissions in all hospitals in Victoria (both public and private hospitals) and those registered on the waiting list for elective surgeries in public hospitals in Victoria. We find that one percentage point increase in PHI coverage leads to about 0.34days (or 0.5%) reduction in waiting times in public hospitals on average. The effects vary by surgical specialities and age groups. However, the practical significance of this effect is limited, if not negligible, despite its statistical significance. The small effect suggests that raising PHI coverage with the aim to taking the pressure off the public system is not an effective strategy in reducing waiting times in public hospitals. Alternative policies aiming at improving the efficiency of public hospitals and advancing equitable access to care should be a priority for policymakers.