Policy Package Research Articles

Navigating the Wicked Policy Problem: An In-Depth Analysis of Policy Dilemmas and Innovative Approaches for Effective Problem Solving

The UN established the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address a variety of social, economic, and environmental issues in order to ensure a more equitable future for all. These issues are to be addressed through policy and various relevant programs. However, some policy problems are hardly fixed despite the fact that many public policies are ostensibly being developed to address them. Wicked problems keep on piling up. Policy issues such as road safety, corruption, poverty and inequality, unemployment, land disputes, environmental degradation, gender equality, and so on have drawn a growing number of policies in an effort to address them, but these issues are recognized as being essentially amorphous and stubborn, hence creating policy dilemmas. This article offers a greater grasp of the alternatives for fixing wicked problems. It considers policy networks, policy entrepreneurship, collaborative governance, data-driven decision-making, policy diffusion, decentralization, and strategic placement of street-level bureaucrats as key strategies for tackling complex policy issues. This article makes the case that an integrated policy package is best suited to address wicked policy issues. This implies that addressing wicked problems requires a multifaceted and adaptive approach, as no single problem-solving technique can consistently and reliably provide a wide-ranging result.

QUANTIFYING THE ECONOMIC SURVIVE ACROSS THE EU USING MARKOV PROBABILITY CHAINS

The multiple global crisis has made the economies of the world’s countries, including EU’s economy, vulnerable through the downgrading of the pandemic and the subsequent outbreak of geo-political conflict. These two events had the effect of decelerating the European economy and increasing the poverty level of the population, even that these developments are weaker than in rest of the world. The main objective of the present scientific approach is to identify a risk function based on Markov probability chains and to assess the possibilities of economic recovery through a package of policies structured over different time horizons. The used methods consist of meta-analysis, statistical analysis and geo-spatial and temporal modelling. The results of the study capture the integrated developments of risk-generating macroeconomic elements such as inflation, unemployment, public debt growth in a regionally segregated manner. These elements are useful for supranational decision-makers to increase the economic survival rate after multiple shocks through our proposed policy package.

Cross-Border Impacts of Climate Policy Packages in North America

Cross-Border Impacts of Climate Policy Packages in North America

The impact of paid sick leave mandates on women's employment and economic security

ABSTRACTThe United States does not guarantee job‐protected paid leave to workers when they or a family member are ill or need to seek medical care. Prior research shows that women are less likely to have access to paid sick leave (PSL) through their employers. I examine the impacts of three recent state‐level paid sick leave policies in California, Massachusetts, and Oregon on women's employment and economic security using data from the American Community Survey. Using difference‐in‐differences and dynamic effects models, I find that PSL mandates increase women's employment by 1.2 percentage points (a 1.7% increase over the pre‐policy baseline mean) with an average increase in income from wages and salary of $2,347, accompanied by steady decreases in poverty in the years after policy implementation. Effects are strongest among mothers and women without college degrees. This study demonstrates that PSL improves women's employment and economic security and may play an essential role in the package of policies supporting women's employment and earnings.

Public Employment Services and Vulnerable Youth in the EU: The Case of Rural NEETs

The Covid-19 pandemic created unprecedented pressure to accelerate public employment services (PES) digitalisation across Europe. In fact, there is now a considerable amount of funding dedicated to that goal in broadband policy packages, such as the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism. This pressure for digitalizing PES presumes that its benefits outweigh the existing risks, regardless of citizens’ singularities, such as vulnerable young people going through the school-to-work transition. Bearing that in mind, and following a bioecological model framework, our article addresses two main goals. Firstly, based on a targeted literature review, we detail the challenges and possibilities posed by PES digitalisation for vulnerable young people in EU countries, which have been widely overlooked in the literature. We specifically argue that despite several practical advantages (e.g., releasing staff from time-consuming administrative tasks), PES digitalisation will only be beneficial for vulnerable young people if three interrelated challenges are taken into account: nurturing trust in institutions and digital tools, supporting digital transformation of PES institutional organization, and adopting a co-design lens for PES digitalisation. Secondly, using a knowledge integration approach, we describe a model for assessing PES capacity to digitally support rural young people not in employment, education, or training to enter the labour market. We conclude that the overemphasis on the expected advances of overall PES digitalisation must be followed by thoughtful consideration of PES digitalisation processes to ensure EU social inclusion targets for the younger generations.

The distributive politics of the green transition: a conjoint experiment on EU climate change mitigation policy

ABSTRACT In the fight against climate change, the European Union has developed a new growth strategy to transform Europe into the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To support EU member states in their transition towards greener economies, climate change mitigation policies are being implemented at the EU-level. However, such policies can be designed in different ways, and gaining citizens’ support is crucial for the political feasibility of the European green transition. Drawing on data from an original conjoint experiment conducted in Germany (N = 5,796), this article investigates how policy design shapes public support for EU climate change mitigation. To this end, the study theoretically and empirically distinguishes four policy dimensions that address the distributive politics of the European green transition: sectoral scope, social spending, financing structure and cross-country distribution. The results confirm that all four policy dimensions significantly impact public support. Specifically, the study reveals that support is greatest for EU policy packages that target financial support at the renewable energy sector, include social investment policies, are financed by increasing taxes on the rich, and distribute resources across EU member states based on population size. Furthermore, citizens’ sensitivity to the policy design varies slightly by income position, left-right ideology and climate attitudes.

Modelling six sustainable development transformations in Australia and their accelerators, impediments, enablers, and interlinkages

There is an urgent need to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and recent research has identified six critical transformations. It is important to demonstrate how these transformations could be practically accelerated in a national context and what their combined effects would be. Here we bridge national systems modelling with transformation storylines to provide an analysis of a Six Transformations Pathway for Australia. We explore important policies to accelerate progress, synergies and trade-offs, and conditions that determine policy success. We find that implementing policy packages to accelerate each transformation would boost performance on the SDGs by 2030 (+23% above the baseline). Policymakers can maximize transformation synergies through investments in energy decarbonization, resilience, social protection, and sustainable food systems, while managing trade-offs for income and employment. To overcome resistance to transformations, ambitious policy action will need to be underpinned by technological, social, and political enabling conditions.

Pushing low-carbon mobility: a survey experiment on the public acceptance of disruptive policy packages

ABSTRACT Disruptive policy packages that fundamentally change the current unsustainable passenger transport structures and enable low-carbon mobility transformation are inevitable. This implies the use of more stringent and multiple restrictive (i.e. push) measures. To enable successful implementation, public acceptance is critical, but what drives this acceptance? In this study, two main hypotheses were tested using survey methods that combined a two-group framing with a conjoint experiment: (1) The acceptance of push measures decreases as disruption increases; (2) disruptive push measures are less likely to be rejected when communicated as part of a policy package that included complementary pull measures (i.e. incentives). We conducted this survey with a quota-representative sample of 1,032 respondents from Austria. Two main findings emerge: First, we find low public acceptance of push measures, but observe differences based on the level of disruption (i.e. the measures’ intensity or rapidity of implementation). The more disruptive the measure (e.g. a registration ban for fossil fuel cars or a fuel price increase), the more negatively these measures were evaluated by survey respondents. Second, our results indicate the need to communicate and implement high-impact, more restrictive push measures (e.g. car bans) as part of policy packages that include acceptance-boosting pull measures.

The Long‐Term Economic Impact of Abenomics: Evidence from the Synthetic Control Method

This paper examines the long‐term causal impact of Abenomics, a comprehensive policy package aiming to revitalise the Japanese economy. Using the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), the study assesses the effects of Abenomics across a variety of economic indicators. The findings reveal mixed impacts, with no evidence of Abenomics reducing budget deficits or boosting exports, but a positive effect on real GDP per capita paired with a reduction in the unemployment rate. The evidence regarding the effect on labor force participation rates is weaker, with primarily statistically insignificant increases observed. These results offer insights into the effectiveness of comprehensive policy interventions and provide lessons for policymakers globally in the midst of a global economic slowdown.

The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism: Shaped and saved by shifting multi‐level reinforcement?

AbstractIn April 2023, the EU institutions finally adopted an innovative international climate policy instrument: the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). As the long and winding road to a CBAM has included significant EU‐internal and EU‐external opposition, a “shifting Multi‐Level Reinforcement” (MLR) perspective is helpful for understanding this development. When France assumed initial leadership from 2007, skepticism to the WTO, generous amounts of free allowances, combined with a low carbon price, provided a strong oppositional force. Then, influential elements in the European Parliament called for a carbon border tax, which was subsequently included as a central ingredient in the “Fit for 55” package launched by the Commission, In the decisionmaking process, leadership involving all the previous forces resulted in an institutional reinforcement dynamic strong enough to counter EU‐internal as well as EU‐external challenges and ‘turbulence’. This case shows the relevance of an updated MLR perspective for understanding also other EU processes, taking into account the growing role of both policy packages and trilogues as decisionmaking tools, indicating a possible strengthened role for the Commission also in the decisionmaking phase.

Analysis of structured and unstructured stakeholders’ motivational support of Ghanaian slum communities

PurposeThis study aims to examine the motivations and supports of stakeholders in the slum communities, Ghana.Design/methodology/approachTwo-stage methodologies were used for data collection. Published Google News articles about the phenomenon as well as exploratory qualitative in-depth interviews with 15 participants.FindingsThe evidence shows that structured and unstructured are the two main categories of stakeholders operating in the space of slums in Ghana. It shows that stakeholders are motivated by their objectives and ethical or moral obligations to provide support in the form of consumables, housing and finance to the slums.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the data collection regime used in this project, findings are specific to the Ghanaian context and not generalisable. However, the results could be beneficial in other contexts with similar slum phenomena.Practical implicationsThe conclusions drawn serve as a springboard for urban managers responsible for slum administration and management to develop policy packages to incentivise and enlist more non-slum stakeholders in the existing stakeholders.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few that expands the frontiers of the stakeholder model within context to discover specific slum stakeholders, their motivations and support for the slums in a consolidated manner.

On the Feasibility Analysis of Introducing Foreign Capital into Education, Medical and Other Industries

Because there are huge differences between Chinese and Western ideology and cultural development, but the current trend of economic globalization is irrecontradicable, so it is helpful to introduce foreign investment while insisting on domestic enterprises going global. However, when introducing foreign investment, it is inevitable to encounter many problems, such as not being controlled by the Chinese government or being too strong in foreign investment, which will drive our domestic enterprises to the brink. At the same time, these foreign investments can play their role in China's land and promote its economic development. This requires the rulers to formulate a package of fair and effective policies to promote its development. The two major fields of education and healthcare are related to the ideology and physical health of the people, and therefore are the foundation and foundation of the country. In order to ensure the long-term prosperity of the country and social stability, it is necessary to attach great importance to the guidance of these two aspects. It is necessary to consider the entry of foreign investment into China as a good thing. Meanwhile, it is a good way to allow foreign investment to play a positive role in promoting technological change and capital flow in these two fields. At the same time, it is necessary to control the power of capital and not let it control the foundation of our country, as this will shake national security.

IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT POLICIES ON REGIONAL ECONOMIC RESILIENCE UNDER THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

Using the policy package pilot implemented in Hubei Province, China, in April 2020 as a natural experiment, we use the synthetic control (SC) and synthetic difference in differences (SDID) methods to estimate the impact of the Chinese government’s support policy on the economic resilience and to analyze the mechanisms by which it impacts. This study finds that the policy package has contributed to the growth of economic resilience in the pilot provinces, with the policy package increasing the average economic resilience of the pilot provinces by 0.062 compared to their potential resilience. The validity and robustness of the above conclusions are objectively confirmed by multidimensional quantitative outcomes such as placebo tests, ranking tests, and replacements in calculating resilience. The mechanism analysis shows that the investment in real estate development, the stimulus for consumption, and the core industry development are virtual channels for the policy package to promote economic resilience growth in the pilot provinces. Moreover, traditional investment in transportation fixed assets plays a minor role. This paper quantitatively corroborates the academic idea that government governance capacity affects regional economic resilience (RER), and research can provide empirical support for regional economic recovery and policy support under a major crisis.

Participatory Policy Packaging for Transport Backcasting: A Pathway for Reducing CO2 Emissions from Transport in Malta

Significant emission reductions are needed in the transport sector to reach climate change mitigation objectives. Backcasting, a type of scenario-analysis approach, is a useful tool for the analysis of possible alternative transport futures and strategies to arrive at these futures when the business-as-usual projection is no longer sustainable. The backcasting approach consists of establishing desirable futures and examining the pathways by which those futures can be reached. This paper focuses on the policy packaging phase of a transport backcasting study carried out in the context of Malta as a case study. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature on transport and climate change using the case of Malta, which presents a context of high dependency on private cars and difficulty in transitioning to sustainable mobility. This paper tests the usefulness of a practice-based approach to transport backcasting. The results of this backcasting framework are a set of climate policies that target different elements of mobility practices and suggest that interventions for sustainable mobility should go beyond transport and target other spheres of social life. Collaboration between stakeholders and participation of citizens during the backcasting process was key to making the policy design process more participatory. Results of this study show how new approaches can open possibilities for a transition towards more sustainable mobility and contribute to widening the knowledge in the field of transport backcasting studies.

Designing an Effective Marketing Policy Package in Free Trade Zones

Objective: Corporate marketing policy is an important topic among policymakers and is considered a tool for achieving desirable economic growth and sustainable development. Accordingly, the purpose of this research was to design an effective marketing policy package in free trade zones. Methodology: The present study used a meta-synthesis approach and was applied in purpose. The sample consisted of 47 articles on marketing policies, and the same number of articles were selected as the sample size. The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire, and the Delphi method with 15 experts from academia and members of the Free Trade Zones Organization was used for data analysis. Findings: The findings indicated that the effective marketing policy package in free trade zones consists of 4 policies and 11 main components. The primary policies are as follows: foundational policies - main actions include (institutional framework and economic management aspects), supportive policies overcoming barriers and inhibitors include (political aspects and governmental policymaking), and facilitative-supportive policies include (social and cultural aspects and the creation of strategic marketing capabilities) and facilitative-supportive policies include (creation of practical marketing capabilities, internal capabilities, external capabilities, operational capabilities, and geographical aspects). Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be said that designing an effective marketing policy package in free trade zones, as it encompasses various policies and components, can assist economic system planners in devising the best strategies for these markets.

Repositioning fertilizer manufacturing subsidies for improving food security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in China

China removed fertilizer manufacturing subsidies from 2015 to 2018 to bolster market-oriented reforms and foster environmentally sustainable practices. However, the impact of this policy reform on food security and the environment remains inadequately evaluated. Moreover, although green and low-carbon technologies offer environmental advantages, their widespread adoption is hindered by prohibitively high costs. This study analyzes the impact of removing fertilizer manufacturing subsidies and explores the potential feasibility of redirecting fertilizer manufacturing subsidies to invest in the diffusion of these technologies. Utilizing the China Agricultural University Agri-food Systems model, we analyzed the potential for achieving mutually beneficial outcomes regarding food security and environmental sustainability. The findings indicate that removing fertilizer manufacturing subsidies has reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural activities by 3.88 million metric tons, with minimal impact on food production. Redirecting fertilizer manufacturing subsidies to invest in green and low-carbon technologies, including slow and controlled-release fertilizer, organic–inorganic compound fertilizers, and machine deep placement of fertilizer, emerges as a strategy to concurrently curtail GHG emissions, ensure food security, and secure robust economic returns. Finally, we propose a comprehensive set of government interventions, including subsidies, field guidance, and improved extension systems, to promote the widespread adoption of these technologies.

The broad-appeal strategy and policy representation

Political parties frequently appeal broadly to different groups of voters with diverse preferences. However, the policy implications of this strategy are not yet understood. On the one hand, governments that appeal broadly may overextend their policy program and be unable to deliver on their promises. On the other hand, broad-appealing governments may focus on presenting different groups of voters with policy packages that are deliverable in order not to be punished by them in future elections. This article tests between these possibilities with data on social policy outputs, comparative manifesto data, and four different measures of government broad-appeals. The empirical analysis demonstrates that there is clear correspondence between what governments say they will do and what they actually do, regardless of how broadly they appeal. This suggests that the broad-appeal strategy does not undermine the democratic mandate theory’s vision of how democracy should work.

Implementing NRRP policies and the interest groups perspective in the justice sector: the “Ufficio per il processo” reform

ABSTRACT In the justice sector, the main objective of NRRP policies is to enhance the performance of the judiciary through comprehensive actions that impact various areas, including the courts, organizational matters, civil and criminal proceedings, alternative dispute resolution, digitization, judicial and staff training, and judicial governance. This context presents an excellent opportunity for a new cycle of policy design and implementation. The article focuses specifically on the Ufficio per il processo (literally, ‘Office for the trial’), an organizational reform that introduces new staff to support court proceedings. This reform is expected to have a broad and cross-cutting impact for at least two reasons. Firstly, it is instrumental in implementing the entire package of NRRP policies, where the efficiency of court proceedings depends significantly on the resources available to judges and clerks. Secondly, it highlights the interconnections between the judicial function and court management. The article analyses the influence exerted by key interest groups (such as the National Association of Magistrates and the National Bar Council) during the implementation phase of the reform, considering the transition from the Draghi to the Meloni Government. In the conclusions, the article identifies the dynamics that concretely shaped the Ufficio per il processo reform through the interaction between political powers and interest groups.

Gender Equity in Land Distribution and Food Poverty: Evidence Using Cameroonian Data

ABSTRACT This article examines the food poverty impacts of gender equity in the distribution of land for productive activities using the most recent Cameroon household consumption survey data conducted in 2014. It employs the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition to investigate the existence of a gender-land inequality gap and the factual and counterfactual regression analyses and Foster, Greer, and Thorbecke class of poverty measures to tease out the food poverty impacts of gender equity options in land distribution. The article’s major contribution to literature is in disintegrating the food poverty impacts of two salient policy packages—the policy package which gives each woman without land at least one hectare of land to exploit for productive activities relative to that which gives women the same rights to own land as their male counterparts. The results indicated that policy efforts to ensure a female head without land has at least a piece of land for productive purposes (referred to as equity-within) are more potent in alleviating food poverty compared to those that promote gender equality in the distribution (referred to as equity-between) of land for productive purposes. These results have implications for policy measures to enhance women’s roles as agricultural producers, especially with respect to ownership of land for productive use.

Economic effects for citizens and the government of a country-level tobacco endgame strategy: a modelling study

BackgroundAotearoa-New Zealand (A/NZ) was the first country to pass a comprehensive commercial tobacco endgame strategy into law. Key components include the denicotinisation of smoked tobacco products and a major reduction...