Privatization Policy Research Articles

Interseccionalidades da escravidão contemporânea da mulher negra à luz do pensamento decolonial: trabalho, determinantes e desigualdades sociais

Abstract This article problematizes the invisibility of the enslaved black woman from a decolonial theoretical approach to confronting contemporary slave labor, methodologically adopting a qualitative approach and bibliographic review research focusing on belonging-social recognition and black feminism and equity. We discuss the position of black women in Brazilian patriarchal society, their invisibility, and the decolonial feminist methodology as an institutional strategy for a political, legal, and economic reaction against contemporary enslavement, adopting the contributions of Ibarra-Colado and Maria Lugones as references. We found that the black woman is doubly vulnerable due to her color and gender, making her condition in the social relations of work essentially based on an asymmetry of power between her, a working black woman, and her employers. This consequentially naturalizes the practices of invisibility through the choices of public and private policies to combat exploitation. It is concluded that there is a need to redesign organizational strategies to combat contemporary slave labor from a decolonial perspective that values Brazilian particularities and diversities, ensuring effective recognition and confrontation of the invisibility of black women, providing them with a more dignified, more equal, and less peripheral life.

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE’S AWARENESS TOWARDS GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN INDIA

Environmentalism and sustainability issues have been widely explored in recent decades. Green supply chain management helps to ensure that public and private policies aimed at improving the environment, increasing market share, enhancing a company's image and reputation, and boosting profits are actually effective. GSCM practises are well-known, but there is a lack of implementation due to a variety of factors. More research is needed to find a solution to these discrepancies.

Port Competition and Cooperation Under Emission and Privatization

The study considers the competition and cooperation between mixed duopoly ports with service differentiation when both emission tax and partial privatization policies are implemented together. By developing three-game models between government and port enterprises, this paper first studies and compares, under different game scenarios, the optimal emission tax for mixed duopoly ports and privatization level for a semipublic port, as well as the optimal output (or pricing) and emission reduction of semipublic and private ports. Moreover, the profit and utility of the two ports, environment damage, consumer surplus, and social welfare are also compared, and the impacts of technology spillover for emission reduction and service differentiation on the decision-making of the government and port enterprises are discussed. We find that the optimal emission tax under a strategic cooperation scenario can reach a higher level, then the government needs more efforts to protect the environment. In addition, although port cooperation is conducive to maximizing social welfare and increasing port throughput, it harms the profitability of the two ports.

Privatisation Policy and the Ghanaian Gold Mining Industry

Abstract The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) help ailing developing economies to address their debts and economic crises. To receive this help, however, these international financial institutions (IFI s) have in the past demanded reforms, termed Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP). One of the SAP policies has been the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOE s), which Ghana embraced and implemented from 1983. This article evaluates Ghana’s privatisation of the Ghanaian gold mining industry (the second-largest foreign-exchange earner and major beneficiary of the policy). Using predominantly academic and popular literature, data from the Ghana Chamber of Mines and insider accounts, this study reveals that the policy has resulted in benefits (organisational and national gains) and costs (social and national costs). The article calls on the World Bank/IMF and the gold mining industry to renew their commitment to the recognition of the social and environmental benefits to the citizens.

The Present Policy of the National Health Care System in Sudan

The strategy of price liberalisation and privatisation had been implemented in Sudan over the last decade and has had a positive result on government deficit. The investment law approved recently has good statements and rules on the above strategy in particular to pharmacy regulations. Under the pressure of the new privatisation policy, the government introduced radical changes in the pharmacy regulations. To improve the effectiveness of the public pharmacy, resources should be switched towards areas of need, reducing inequalities and promoting better health conditions. Medicines are financed either through cost sharing or full private. The role of the private services is significant. A review of reform of financing medicines in Sudan is given in this study. Also, it highlights the current drug supply system in the public sector, which is currently responsibility of the Central Medical Supplies Public Corporation (CMS). In Sudan, the researchers did not identify any rigorous evaluations or quantitative studies about the impact of drug regulations on the quality of medicines and how to protect public health against counterfeit or low-quality medicines, although it is practically possible. However, the regulations must be continually evaluated to ensure the public health is protected against by marketing high quality medicines rather than commercial interests, and the drug companies are held accountable for their conduct.

Implementation of medicines pricing policies in sub-Saharan Africa: systematic review

BackgroundHigh medicine prices contribute to increasing cost of healthcare worldwide. Many patients with limited resources in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are confronted with out-of-pocket charges, constraining their access to medicines. Different medicine pricing policies are implemented to improve affordability and availability; however, evidence on the experiences of implementations of these policies in SSA settings appears limited. Therefore, to bridge this knowledge gap, we reviewed published evidence and answered the question: what are the key determinants of implementation of medicines pricing policies in SSA countries?MethodsWe identified policies and examined implementation processes, key actors involved, contextual influences on and impact of these policies. We searched five databases and grey literature; screening was done in two stages following clear inclusion criteria. A structured template guided the data extraction, and data analysis followed thematic narrative synthesis. The review followed best practices and reported using PRISMA guidelines.ResultsOf the 5595 studies identified, 31 met the inclusion criteria. The results showed thirteen pricing policies were implemented across SSA between 2003 and 2020. These were in four domains: targeted public subsides, regulatory frameworks and direct price control, generic medicine policies and purchasing policies. Main actors involved were government, wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers, professional bodies, community members and private and public health facilities. Key contextual barriers to implementation were limited awareness about policies, lack of regulatory capacity and lack of price transparency in external reference pricing process. Key facilitators were favourable policy environment on essential medicines, strong political will and international support. Evidence on effectiveness of these policies on reducing prices of, and improving access to, medicines was mixed. Reductions in prices were reported occasionally, and implementation of medicine pricing policy sometimes led to improved availability and affordability to essential medicines.ConclusionsImplementation of medicine pricing policies in SSA shows some mixed evidence of improved availability and affordability to essential medicines. It is important to understand country-specific experiences, diversity of policy actors and contextual barriers and facilitators to policy implementation. Our study suggests three policy implications, for SSA and potentially other low-resource settings: avoiding a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, engaging both private and public sector policy actors in policy implementation and continuously monitoring implementation and effects of policies.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42020178166

The ASEAN blockchain roadmap

Although blockchain technology is disruptive, revolutionary, and foundational, its application across different countries with varying levels of socio/economic development is uneven. Accordingly, this paper examines blockchain technology in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). With its sizeable populations and economic diversity, ASEAN provides a suitable staging ground for examining the factors that facilitate or impede blockchain technology. This paper discusses the preconditions for blockchain adoption, enabling factors relating to regulatory policies, and illustrative cases depicting new blockchain solutions or improvements over current practices. Based on these narratives, a six-step roadmap delineates the need for regulatory clarity, the balance between public versus private policies, and pathways for securing competitive strategies and organizational advantages.

Lessons for Coastal Applications of IMTA as a Way towards Sustainable Development: A Review

Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems integrate the cultivation of species from different trophic levels. Uneaten feed, solid wastes, and dissolved nutrients are turned into harvestable and healthy food, making IMTA a driver for ecologically sustainable aquaculture. Its wider sustainability potentials arise from social, environmental, and economic sustainability enhancement options. Biological and economic outcomes are promising, while social equity and acceptance remain to be further investigated in the context of the long-term viability of aquaculture. Sustainable coastal and marine aquaculture development requires a holistic approach that involves social/cultural, economic, as well as environmental sustainability. This article examines IMTA as a pathway to socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable development. We collate evidence that shows that IMTA can minimize the negative environmental effects of aquaculture, assist local economies, and boost competitiveness and long-term economic viability. Available analyses of socio-economic and cost-effectiveness reveal positive prospects for IMTA systems, through product diversification, faster production cycles, and IMTA product prices and show a divergence between financial returns at the level of the entrepreneurial unit and economic returns at the macro level, which inhibits the uptake of IMTA. We conclude that the lack of governance analysis or inappropriateness of institutional development, in terms of aquaculture governance and management laws and regulations, is at the core of the hitherto weak engagement with IMTA. Unsuitable policies, regulations, and public and private sector decision policies and implementation, underlined by the scarcity of analyses of aquaculture governance institutions, are part of the reason for this. The evidence we have aggregated indicates that the relative scarcity of commercially successful coastal IMTA undertakings is not so much an intrinsic feature of the IMTA approach but is likely to have been generated by missing or inappropriate governance structures and procedures in the coastal realm.

Privatization in extractive industry under foreign penetration

This paper analyzes optimal privatization policy in exhaustible resource industry where a public domestic firm is less cost efficient than a private multinational firm. It is shown that the impact of foreign penetration on optimal privatization depends on the cost asymmetry between the public and private firm. If the cost efficiency gap is small, then the optimal rate of privatization is a decreasing function of foreign ownership of multinational firm. However, if the cost efficiency gap is large, then, contrasting to existing studies, the result is quite different: full nationalization is optimal if the foreign ownership of multinational firm is low but full privatization becomes optimal if this share is high. Under moderate cost asymmetry foreign penetration does not have any impact on privatization. It is also demonstrated that an increase in foreign penetration results in faster resource extraction by the public firm while an increase in the state share accelerates public firm extraction if it was initially too slow in comparison with the socially efficient path and slows down if it was initially too fast.

Coffee production in Limmu Awraja, southwest Ethiopia: From the early twentieth century to the introduction of privatization policy

This article discusses the role of awrajas in the development and expansion of coffee production. To reconstruct the history of coffee production, various sources such as archival documents, oral interviews, and secondary literature have been consulted. The coffee farming industry in Ethiopia is young, but Limmu Awraja has been remarkably successful, supplying a huge amount of coffee to domestic and international markets. When the area was incorporated into the central government by Emperor Menelik II, the newly assigned governors developed semi-forest coffee production from forest coffee. The increasing commercialization of coffee led to the mechanization of farming. There had been obstacles in the way of peasants producing coffee on large areas of land due to the feudal and exploitative land tenure system, limited access to fertile and vast lands, and minimal knowledge of coffee productivity and production. However, coffee plantations continued to grow rapidly after the 1950s. The government issued a land reform that granted lands to peasants. This helped peasants to get access to land and could grow coffee and other crops without being subjected to exploitation but could not be able to maintain productivity. Derg nationalized most coffee plantations, which were owned by landlords and former government officials, and subsequently became Limmu Coffee Plantation Corporation under the Ministry of Coffee and Tea Development. Due to the expansion of mechanized coffee farms, a prominent level of seasonal labour migration from other parts of the country towards Limmu awraja had been increased. This adversely contributed to food shortages and high population densities in the Awraja.

Spatial imagery in extractive capitalism: form and strength in corporate social responsibility diagrams

In the contemporary capitalism of flows, companies that strongly depend on territorial resources adopt social private policies so as to ensure the spatial insertion of their projects. In order to preserve their reputation, they also take part in a dispute for the legitimate representation of social space through the growing use of the visual instrument of diagrams. From among the corporate uses of diagrams, two types will be discussed herein. Whereas “corporate social responsibility” diagrams presuppose a harmonic space of partnership and cooperation, social risk mapping reveals the presence of dissensus and threats to the business climate. The text makes a critical reading of the business management literature and the diagrammatic material that composes it, and discusses diagrams published in the sustainability and corporate social responsibility reports of large corporations in the mineral extractive sector.

Partial privatization with endogenous choice of strategic variable

AbstractThis paper analyzes the optimal privatization policy when firms endogenously choose their strategic variable. The level of privatization is shown to determine: (i) the choice of strategic variable, whereby an asymmetric equilibrium could emerge (either Cournot–Bertrand or Bertrand–Cournot); (ii) the stability of equilibrium when the partially privatized firm and the private firm choose quantity and price respectively as the strategic variable; and (iii) the level of welfare, whereby Cournot–Cournot and Bertrand–Cournot games could lead to a greater welfare than the Bertrand–Bertrand model.

민간경비조직의 리더-구성원 교환관계(LMX)와 고객지향성의 관계에서 직무열의의 매개효과

The role of the private security industry as a co-producer of public security is becoming more important than ever due to the government's privatization policy and the implementation of the local self-government system. However, excessive competition, high small size, vertical organizational structure, and emotional labor from the customer service process are acting as factors hindering the security guards' enthusiasm for the job and customer orientation. Therefore, this study aimed to find a way for private security personnel to voluntarily increase customer orientation, based on the results of previous studies, to examine the effect of the leader-member exchange relationship (LMX) of private security organizations on customer orientation as a mediator of job enthusiasm. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the causal relationship focusing on the effect. In this study, private security guards working in private security companies(55 places) located across the country were set as the population, and then a questionnaire survey(2021.6.21.~7.28) for the collected data(762 copies), frequency analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and mediating effect analysis were performed using the statistical program SPSS 22.0. As a result of the study, first, in the relationship between LMX and job enthusiasm, emotional bonding and contribution of LMX had a positive (+) effect on the vitality of job enthusiasm, and LMX's contribution had a positive (+) effect on commitment of job enthusiasm. Second, in the relationship between LMX and customer orientation, LMX's emotional bond and contribution have a positive (+) effect on customer-oriented service satisfaction, and LMX's emotional bond and contribution have a positive (+) effect on customer-oriented satisfaction of customer needs. LMX's emotional bond and contribution have a positive (+) effect on customer-oriented understanding of customer needs. Third, in the relationship between job enthusiasm and customer orientation, the vitality and dedication of job enthusiasm have a positive (+) effect on customer-oriented service satisfaction, and the vitality and dedication of job enthusiasm have a positive (+) effect on customer-oriented customer needs satisfaction, and the vitality and dedication of job enthusiasm have a positive (+) effect on customer-oriented understanding of customer needs. Fourth, in the relationship between LMX and customer orientation, the vitality and dedication of job enthusiasm plays a mediating role in the relationship between service satisfaction, customer needs satisfaction, and understanding customer needs, which constitute customer orientation only in the contribution of LMX. Reflecting these research results, first, private security organizations need to improve their vertical organizational structure. Leaders need to improve the environment so that security guards can voluntarily participate in their duties and do their best for customers by expressing and accepting individual opinions through continuous communication with security guards. Second, it is necessary to rethink the motivation so that the security guards themselves can participate in customer orientation with dedication and vitality to the organization by configuring an autonomous work environment to form a mutual trusting relationship between the leader and members.

Economic Potentials and Use Dynamics of Sorghum Food System in Ethiopia: Its Implications to Resolve Food Deficit

Agriculture continues to be vital to Africa’s future in both spatial and temporal contexts. Nonetheless, the sector keeps on confronting production challenges as a result of frequent and extended droughts, and these necessitate the use of drought-resistant crops such as sorghum. This review initiates one of the most common food grains grown in the poorest countries and the most food-insecure regions of the nation. We used deductive logical reasoning to develop a comprehensive scientific understanding of the crop that can be used to inform future research and policies. Various exclusion and inclusion criteria were used to filter the most prominent findings. Sorghum has the highest utility for its climatic adaptability and has grown for multiple purposes: From staple to industrial outcomes, its economic, social value, and health outcomes, and for animal silage. It is a gluten-free crop, has high nutritive value, and is preferred by healthy consumers. It is among the top five cereal crops worldwide in both production and acreage. This has necessitated the development of coping measures, such as the cultivation of drought-tolerant crops suitable for the affected areas. Therefore, this crop is used to ensure productivity, food security, and availability of food when other crops fail and food deficit and famine are affected in the region. This will contribute to the ongoing discussion on how to better inform private and public sector policy and investments in Ethiopia to increase sorghum and other drought-tolerant crop production, transform agriculture, improve nutrition, and food systems, and end hunger, food insecurity, and poverty.

Cropland expansion, intensification, and reduction in Mato Grosso state, Brazil, between the crop years 2000/01 to 2017/18

Growing populations require increased food production through increasing yields and expanding land use. Thus, agricultural production has a dialectical relationship with natural resource conservation. South America has been the recent site of both intensification and areal expansion of crop production. The presented study investigates the dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) in Mato Grosso state at two-year intervals for an 18-year period consisting of the 2000/01 and 2017/18 crop years. We used a stratified sampling approach and visual interpretation of satellite image time series data to obtain estimates of LULC extent and dynamics, including area of cropland expansion, intensification, and reduction. Cropland dynamics exhibited an overall increase in both extent and intensification. The cropland use area in Mato Grosso increased from 38,324 km2 (±5618 km2) in 2000/01 to 97,394 km2 (±9938 km2) in 2017/2018. For the Cerrado tropical woodland biome portion of Mato Grosso, the expansion of cropland areas was related to soy and corn prices. For the humid tropical forest biome of Amazonia, soy production and deforestation were found to not be directly correlated. The intensification in Mato Grosso was increased from 8142 km2 (±1.39%) in the period from 2008/09 to 2010/11, to 30,487 km2 (±2.56%) in the period from 2010/11 to 2012/13. Overall dynamics reflect public and private conservation policies, soy market, climate and technology factors that spur or inhibit increased production of commodity crops. The end result reflects Brazil's increasing role as a global commodity crop producer.

Green Finance and Sustainable Development Goals in post covid era – With special reference to India.

The paper addresses and delves into the importance of green finance in achieving the sustainable development goal (SDGs) in this decade of action. This paper focuses on the concerns of green finance post Covid-19 and the challenges which India faces in accomplishing its 2030 agenda. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have already highlighted the importance of green finance in realizing SDGs. Research has recognised the role of finance in achieving the SDGs is indisputable, but few studies analyse the role of green finance in addressing this issue. This paper is an attempt to fill the research gap by examining the link between the green finance and SDGs considering the impact of the pandemic. The paper examines the initiatives in green finance in India and also the challenges faced. The paper identifies the role of both public and private sector in the advancement of green finance. This paper holds a great deal of practical implications and policy recommendations to public and private sector, banks, government, green investors and policy makers

The role of the global financial system in financing the transition to net zero

AbstractThere is no net‐zero world without a sustainable trading system, and trade finance is estimated to contribute to between 80–90 per cent of all world trade. The first steps toward green ECAs have been taken, with the agreement announced at COP26 to end export credit support of unabated coal‐fired power plants and the first net zero commitments to be made by leading ECAs. In the coming months, there is an opportunity for the broader ECA community to step into the net zero‐fold and work with private finance, policy makers, scientists, and civil society to accelerate an orderly and just transition to a net zero global economy. Our world depends on it.

The Impact of South Africa’s Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity Rate on Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Behavior

Given that entrepreneurship scholars use various approaches to measure entrepreneurial success, which leads to inconsistent findings, in this study we investigate the impact that South Africa’s total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TESEA) rate has on the entrepreneurial attitudes and behavior of South Africans and their reactions to different macroeconomic factors. Secondary datasets were elicited from the World Bank’s world development indicators and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database from 2003–2014. Using a generalized linear model (GLM) poisson regression, we affirmed the statistical significance of these relationships, as well as enhanced the validity and reliability of the quantitative estimation procedure. We found that the TESEA rate is positively associated with a higher ease of doing business and entrepreneurial intention level. Furthermore, we found that when entrepreneurship is viewed as a good career choice, and given media visibility, the TESEA rate increases, and vice versa. It was also observed that the GDP per capita (which relies on efficiency, innovation and optimal utilization of market knowledge), as well as the level of economic freedom in South Africa, positively impacts the nation’s TESEA rate. Likewise, we found that the unemployment rate is positively associated with the TESEA rate of South Africa. South Africa’s TESEA rate is influenced by a combination of factors due to the dynamic nature of individual traits. However, the TESEA rate has a remarkable impact on South Africa’s entrepreneurial decision making. This implies that a targeted approach is more relevant when implementing both private and government policy initiatives.

Economics of Sesame and Its Use Dynamics in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia's oilseed industry makes a major contribution to foreign exchange revenues. Ethiopia's three main oilseed crops (sesame, soybean, and Niger seed) account for about 20% of the country's total agricultural export profits, second only to coffee. Even though Ethiopia is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of sesame seeds, the country is facing increasing supply and demand restrictions. This paper begins with an examination of one of the most prominent oil crops in the country. It is a highly adaptable crop that may be used for anything from subsistence to commercial output. We established a comprehensive scientific understanding of the crop using a systematic review of the current literature and deductive logical reasoning that can be used to inform future research and policies. Various exclusion and inclusion criteria were used to filter the most notable findings. Millions of growers and other market participants are employed throughout the oilseed value chain. Reduced sesame productivity, pests and diseases, and limited access to modern technologies are all severe supply-side constraints. On the demand side, traders and market distortion, as well as an artificially higher home price and the ease with which unskilled labor can enter the market, are all factors. Other demand-side constraints include worldwide price volatility, a highly concentrated export market, and intense global competition. Ethiopia's sesame seed development potential is being severely hampered by these restrictions. If farmers, dealers, and the government do not address these issues strategically, the country may soon lose its competitiveness in the global sesame seed market. This will contribute to Ethiopia's ongoing discussion about how to better inform private and public sector policies and investments to increase sesame production, transform agriculture, improve nutrition and food systems, and be able to ease supply- and demand-side restrictions. In a nutshell, an increased area under cultivation combined with best agronomic practices could boost sesame production. Farmers, policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholders must thus intervene to enhance sesame production. Future studies should concentrate on how to boost sesame output in farmers' fields while following appropriate sesame production technology and agronomic principles.

Footwear cluster’s decline in the South of Brazil: the transformation of a supercluster

PurposeThis paper presents an empirical contribution to the literature on cluster evolution, highlighting the decline phase. The analysis focuses on the footwear sector in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) state, in southern Brazil, where an important footwear cluster is located, which was once considered one of the world's largest footwear clusters. The purpose of this study is to analyse the transformation of this footwear industrial sector since the beginning of the 2000s using several sectoral statistics.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents an empirical and longitudinal study that comprises the sourcing of 20 years of secondary data, based on official sources. The main data analysed were production, price, industrial structure, labour market and foreign market.FindingsThe main results indicated a significant reduction in production, export and employment. In addition, a precarization of the labour market was observed, with lower wage levels, even with an increase in the formal qualification of labour over time. The finding is that the RS footwear sector underwent a huge structural change and lost the status of a worldwide supercluster. This decline occurred due to two central factors: an external shock related to China's entry into the international and Brazilian domestic markets, accompanied by a slowdown in the Brazilian economy since 2015; and the difficulty of local firms responding to the new challenges.Research limitations/implicationsSynthesizing the findings, it is understood that this paper contributes to registering the trajectory of decline over time of the footwear sector in RS. In this sector, the Sinos Valley cluster is located, historically known as a footwear producing and exporting supercluster. This cluster loses the characteristic of a “supercluster”, but it still remains an important footwear cluster in Brazil. Therefore, this study reinforces the existence of fragilities already pointed out by the literature in Schimtz (1999) and, more recently, in Schmidt (2020). The need to address a set of fragilities remains current, both at the micro- and meso-levels. This is key to reversing the decline trajectory of the cluster and the sector. Moreover, as recent studies on clusters point out, one still must think about the impact of another ongoing paradigmatic transformation concerning the use and development of Industry 4.0 technologies. Thus, the central challenge is to think about and implement new public and private policies. The historical, economic and social relevance of the sector and the cluster demand efforts to reverse the decline.Originality/valueThis study focuses to contribute to the discussion about the decline of the footwear production in the region by analysing secondary data regarding the industrial sector. This is an analysis at the meso-level (industry). The authors understand that the originality of the research lies in the longitudinal analysis for a recent period (past 20 years) that captures the greatest current crisis experienced by the region.