Precautionary Policies Research Articles

The value of social distancing: A discrete choice experiment to examine golf tourists’ preferences for COVID-19 Safety protocols

This study investigates golf tourists’ preferences for diverse social distancing measures implemented by golf courses during the COVID-19 pandemic using a discrete choice experiment. With a sample of 430 South Korean golfers, this study provides a better understanding of how gender affects their trade-offs among several precautionary policies. Results suggest the maximum occupancy of each restaurant table is considered a critical factor in reducing infection risk, while golfers are willing to pay KR₩10,747 for a one-person reduction in table occupancy. Gender groups reveal different preference patterns regarding several safety measures. Female golfers show a higher willingness to pay for several preventive measures, particularly restaurant occupancy limits and locker spacing. These findings provide insights for golf course managers to develop targeted strategies that enhance customer safety and satisfaction during future health crises.

Does knowledge matter? How a target's knowledge of their COVID‐19 infection during a violation of preventive policies affects perceived immorality and dehumanization

AbstractDuring the COVID‐19 pandemic, behaviours that violated various precautionary policies were recurring. The present research examined how Chinese participants' perception of targets in terms of immorality and dehumanization depends on the target's knowledge of their COVID‐19 infection. In Study 1 (N = 223), we manipulated the presentation of the target's knowledge of their COVID‐19 infection before violating policies and observed that a target who knew they were infected was perceived as more immoral and less human than a target who knew they were not infected. In Study 2 (N = 267), we replicated this effect and further observed that a target was perceived as less moral and human even when they did not acquire knowledge of their COVID‐19 infection until after having violated the policies. Moreover, perceived immorality played a mediating role between the target's knowledge of their COVID‐19 infection and dehumanization, which was moderated by risk perception of COVID‐19 in Study 2, but not by fear of COVID‐19 in Study 1. These findings increase our understanding of the phenomenon of moralization in the context of a pandemic.

Unsustainabilities: A study on SUVs and Space Tourism and a research agenda for transition studies

While transitions research has pursued a successful research agenda around how to improve established socio-technical systems in terms of sustainability, it has missed out, among other things, on innovations that make, or keep, societies less sustainable. In our paper, we explore two innovations in different stages of development: Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and space tourism. SUVs entrench an existing socio-technical system and reproduce problematic practices, while space tourism might create a whole new, unsustainable system. We make three contributions. First, we introduce ‘unsustainabilities’ as a new term for technologies, institutions and practices that make, or keep, societies less sustainable. With this we direct attention to developments and structures that undermine ongoing sustainability transitions. Second, we distinguish unsustainabilities associated with socio-technical configurations, socio-technical systems, and meta-structures (spanning multiple systems). Third, we argue that precautionary policies will be needed in early stages of innovation, when there is still room to avoid unsustainable transitions.

Sea-lice regulation in salmon-farming countries: how science shape policies for protecting wild salmon

The proliferation of sea lice from aquaculture may substantially aggravate the decline in marine survival of wild salmons. In some countries, this risk has motivated regulators to adopt more precautionary policies; in other countries, however, regulators have disputed the need for stricter regulation. This article compares the sea-lice regulations of Norway, Scotland, Ireland, and Canada (British Columbia), showing how varying interpretations of the science on farm–wild interactions have shaped efforts to scale up regulatory measures for mitigating health hazards and mortality risks for wild salmon. In Norway and Scotland, scientific consensus has expedited cooperation between research and governing institutions and facilitated ambitious policy reforms. In Ireland and Canada, by contrast, scientific controversy around the scale of farm-lice impacts on wild salmon populations has led to conflict and disagreement between researchers and policymakers, and to failure of reform attempts desired by wild salmon stakeholders.

THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) ON THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF ASEAN-5 COUNTRIES

ESG program has become crucial for long-term value and business resiliency through efficient use of natural resources and effective policies on social and economic aspects. A country which has a good ESG performance would achieve higher economic growth. This study examines the ESG country-level performance across the ASEAN-5 by assessing the impact of ESG on economic growth. The study utilized annual data from 1990 to 2020 for five countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. This study constructs the ESG index at the country level by employing frequency statistics of text mining and factor analysis for each country over time. Establishing an ESG country index would better reflect the ASEAN-5 nation's progress in ESG practices. Besides that, the ARDL method was employed to establish the relationship between ESG and economic growth. The results revealed mixed impacts of ESG on economic growth, which can be attributed to the variations in ESG practices and policies across the countries. Some results showed a significant positive impact of ESG practices on economic growth, while others showed no significant or negative impact. This study emphasizes the importance of a suitable ecosystem that supports the effectiveness of ESG adoption. This study recommends several precautionary policies, such as low-interest loans, grants, and tax relief, to support a firm's resilience during pandemics.

Bubble behaviors in nickel price: What roles do geopolitical risk and speculation play?

The stable operation of nickel market provides essential safeguard for the realization of global sustainable energy transition. In the context of prominent geopolitical risks and financial market instability, the explosive dynamics of nickel market price have not been thoroughly investigated. From a boom-bust cycle perspective, this study examines the existence of periodically bubble behaviors in nickel price utilizing the Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller method. The method delivers an innovative consistent date-stamping assessment for the exuberance and collapse of bubble episodes. This paper further probes into the effects of geopolitical risk, speculations, demand, supply and dollar on bubbles through logistic technique. The results find that four boom-bust cycles in nickel price are detected during 1990–2022, which are basically accompanied by extreme market volatility. This finding is in line with the asset pricing model which implies both expected and invisible components exist in asset price. In terms of macroeconomic determinants, nickel demand positively affects the boom-bust behaviors, while nickel supply and dollar dynamics have a negative impact on bubble occurrence. Particularly, geopolitical risk and speculations are proven to be important drivers in boosting the explosiveness of bubbles. To counter the hazardous economic consequences of bubble collapse, policymakers should formulate precautionary policies in the face of complicated geopolitical landscape and volatile capital market environment.

Usutu virus: An emerging flavivirus with potential threat to public health in Africa: Nigeria as a case study.

Usutu virus (USUV) is an arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) of the flaviviridae family (genus Flavivirus) which belong to the Japanese encephalitis virus complex. Culex mosquitoes have been implicated in the transmission of this pathogen. The major susceptible hosts of USUV are migratory birds, thereby potentiating its ability to spread from one region to another globally. Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa with a significant percentage of the gross domestic product relying on the agricultural and animal production industry. This review explores the zoonotic potentials of the virus in Africa, especially Nigeria, with special focus on the devastating sequelae this might lead to in the future if necessary precautionary policies are not enacted and adopted to bolster the surveillance system for mosquito-borne viruses.

Understanding individual-level travel behavior changes due to COVID-19: Trip frequency, trip regularity, and trip distance

Understanding different mechanisms in trip changes depending on transportation modes due to COVID-19 pandemic is the key to providing practical insights for healthy communities. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual-level travel behavior in Daejeon Metropolitan City, South Korea. Using smart card and private vehicle records, we explored different travel behaviors exhibited while using buses and private vehicles. An individual's travel behavior was represented in trip frequency, trip regularity, and trip distance and was compared weekly for about three months, including the initial period of pandemic. A significant decrease in trip frequency during non-peak hours on weekdays and during weekends indicates that people reduced non-mandatory trips more than commuter trips. This was also verified in that, as the number of infection cases increased, trip regularity with 24-hour intervals intensified. People maintained the size of their activity boundaries but reduced their daily trip distances. The interesting point is that private vehicle usage increased for shorter trip distances while bus usage dropped regardless of the ranges of trip distances under the pandemic. The findings provide evidence of possible inequality issues in transportation during the pandemic and can help make precautionary policies for future pandemics.

Will climate change degrade the efficacy of marine resource management policies?

Climate change is expected to create numerous and significant impacts to the marine environment, with serious implications for marine species, ecosystems, and those who depend on them. In this review we argue that in addition to the biophysical, economic, social, and cultural impacts commonly identified by marine climate research, climate change likely also creates policy impacts — i.e., tangible impacts on the efficacy of resource policy. We use the precautionary approach to fisheries management as a case in point to describe two pathways by which climate change could impact policy efficacy: climate change (i) creates challenges for efforts to assess and contextualize resource statuses, and (ii) complicates the implementation of precautionary policies. We argue that by pursuing anticipatory governance, fisheries management institutions could more fully engage with climate-driven uncertainty and the broad range of scenarios possible in a rapidly changing marine environment.

The Policy Blame Game: How Polarization Distorts Democratic Accountability across the Local, State, and Federal Level

AbstractDemocratic accountability relies on voters to punish their representatives for policies they dislike. Yet, a separation-of-powers system can make it hard to know who is to blame, and partisan biases further distort voters’ evaluations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, precautionary policies were put into place sometimes by governors, sometimes by mayors, and sometimes by no one at all, allowing us to identify when voters hold out-party versus in-party politicians responsible for policies. With a survey spanning 48 states, we test our theory that attitudes toward policies and parties intersect to determine when selective attribution takes place. We find that as individuals increasingly oppose a policy, they are more likely to blame whichever level of government is led by the out-party. This is most pronounced among partisans with strong in-party biases. We provide important insight into the mechanisms that drive selective attribution and the conditions under which democratic accountability is at risk.

Is Nepal on the Verge of Economic Crisis? A Comparative Study of Sri Lanka and Nepal

This paper attempts to analyze the economic condition of Sri Lanka and compare it with that of Nepal especially based on external sector indicators. The main objective of this study is to identify the level of risk that economic crisis looming in Nepal by examining and comparing indicators using secondary data collected from various publications of the government of Nepal and Sri Lanka, central banks of both countries, World Bank, IMF and others across six years starting from 2016 to 2021. This Study follows the comparative and descriptive research design and analysis has gone through the same. The data and calculated indicators suggest that Sri Lankan economy had gone through bad phases after year 2019 and that led to acute crisis. The external sector indicators of Nepal show that Nepal was also facing some sort of issues after COVID-19 pandemic followed by Russia-Ukraine war in 2020 and 2021 however, there are encouraging signs of recovery in recent times. The study came with the conclusion that the economic crisis caused by drained of foreign exchange reserve has given a wakeup call to small growing economies and Nepal is not an exception. However, as a result of the precautionary policies and measures that Nepal has taken so far, the external sector’s indicators not showing worrying syndrome for severe economic crisis. To avoid the crisis in medium and long term Nepal should take initiatives for policy and structural reforms to enhance its productive capacity to induce export, tourism and other industries.

Willingness to Change Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Population of Rawalpindi City, Pakistan

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the Pakistan government’s precautionary policies, people are not practicing the standard preventive measures. People need to change their health behaviors to control the transmission of the disease. The purpose of this study is to assess the willingness of people in Rawalpindi city to change/adapt their health behaviors during the pandemic and to associate this willingness with their various demographic variables during the pandemic. Willingness was determined through respondents’ knowledge, risk perceptions, attitudes, and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective The main objectives of this study are to assess the general population’s willingness to change their health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in Rawalpindi city, Pakistan, and to determine the association between demographic variables and the willingness to change health behaviors. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in Rawalpindi city, Pakistan. A community household survey was conducted in 4 randomly selected union councils of Rawalpindi city. The survey was done via the systemic sampling of the households. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection, and it was made based on the guidelines of the National Institute of Health, Pakistan. It comprises 66 questions consisting of 5 sections. A Cronbach α of .92 was calculated with SPSS (IBM Corporation). Results The results of the study showed that 89.2% of the respondents showed a willingness to change their health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A chi-square test of association revealed that 7 demographic characteristics were statistically significant, including age, gender, marital status, income, occupation, number of children, and the diagnosed comorbidities of respondents. A regression analysis showed that the monthly income of the respondents was the true predictor, with an odds ratio of 8.69. Conclusions The respondents with higher scores for knowledge, risk perceptions, attitudes, and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic showed a high willingness to change their health behaviors in Rawalpindi city, Pakistan.

Neglected developments undermining sustainability transitions

Sustainability transitions are key to addressing grand challenges confronting humanity, yet there are many developments that undermine this endeavor. For example, new products and industries emerge that exacerbate existing challenges, instead of mitigating them. Context systems such as policy making, finance, education or independent journalism, which provide critical resources for transitions, transform in ways that hamper their ability to support sustainability transitions. We argue that transitions research needs explicitly to confront unfavorable developments in order to create a broader repertoire of strategies, including precautionary policies, to better orchestrate sustainability transitions.

Covid-19 Sonrası Konaklama Tesislerinde Yeni Uygulama: Güvenli Turizm Sertifikasyon Programı

Covid-19 pandemic, as in many countries in social and economic activities in Turkey has affected in a negative way. One of the sectors that felt the most consequences of this effect is the tourism sector. Crisis management and precautionary policies are implemented in order to prevent possible problems that may arise in the tourism sector as in other sectors. The measures taken by both the state and the society in order to control the pandemic have been named as "New normal" and a new era has begun. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has implemented the 'Safe Tourism Certification Program', which extends from tourism workers to visitors in Turkey, by taking a series of measures to ensure that all visitors have a holiday within this scope.The purpose of this study is to examine the Safe Tourism Certification Program, which includes the practices taken in the accommodation facilities with the circulars containing the sector-specific measures issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In the light of the evaluations, at the end of the study, it is revealed that consumers prioritize health and hygiene factors apart from their previous habits in the travel decision and purchasing process and make travel decisions according to the precautions taken.

Monetary spillovers and real exchange rate misalignments in emerging markets

PurposeAfter the adoption of unconventional monetary policies (UMPs) in advanced economies (AEs) there were many studies of monetary spillovers to asset prices in emerging market economies (EMEs) but the extent of contribution of EMEs and AEs, respectively, in real exchange rate (RER) misalignments has not been addressed. This paper addresses the gap in a cross-country panel set-up with country specific controls.Design/methodology/approachFixed effects, pooled mean group (Pesaran et al., 1999) and common correlated effects (Pesaran, 2006) estimations are used to examine the relationship. Multiway clustering is taken into account to ensure robust statistical inferences.FindingsRobust evidence is found for significant monetary spillovers over 1998–2017 in the form of RER overvaluation of EMEs against AEs, especially through the portfolio rebalancing channel. EME RER against the US saw significantly more overvaluation in UMP years indicating greater role of the US in monetary spillovers. However, in the long-run monetary neutrality holds. EMEs did pursue mercantilist and precautionary policies that undervalued their RERs. Precautionary undervaluation is more evident with bilateral EME US RER.Research limitations/implicationsIt may be useful for large EMEs to monitor the impact of foreign portfolio flows on short-run deviations in RER. Export diversification reduces EME mercantilist motives against the US. That AE monetary policy significantly appreciates EME RER has implications for future policy cooperation between EMEs and AEs.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge such a comparative analysis between AE and EME policy variables on RER misalignment has not been done previously.

Lagging and Flagging: Air Pollution, Shale Gas Exploration and the Interaction of Policy, Science, Ethics and Environmental Justice in England.

The science on the effects of global climate change and air pollution on morbidity and mortality is clear and debate now centres around the scale and precise contributions of particular pollutants. Sufficient data existed in recent decades to support the adoption of precautionary public health policies relating to fossil fuels including shale exploration. Yet air quality and related public health impacts linked to ethical and environmental justice elements are often marginalized or missing in planning and associated decision making. Industry and government policies and practices, laws and planning regulations lagged well behind the science in the United Kingdom. This paper explores the reasons for this and what shaped some of those policies. Why did shale gas policies in England fail to fully address public health priorities and neglect ethical and environmental justice concerns. To answer this question, an interdisciplinary analysis is needed informed by a theoretical framework of how air pollution and climate change are largely discounted in the complex realpolitik of policy and regulation for shale gas development in England. Sources, including official government, regulatory and planning documents, as well as industry and scientific publications are examined and benchmarked against the science and ethical and environmental justice criteria. Further, our typology illustrates how the process works drawing on an analysis of official policy documents and statements on planning and regulatory oversight of shale exploration in England, and material from industry and their consultants relating to proposed shale oil and gas development. Currently the oil, gas and chemical industries in England continue to dominate and influence energy and feedstock-related policy making to the detriment of ethical and environmental justice decision making with significant consequences for public health.

Chemical Characterization of Harmattan Dust across Oyo and Minna, Nigeria

Harmattan dust haze in Nigeria is due to annual deposition of very fine dust particles as a result of both natural and human activities. There are scanty reports on the mineralogical, elemental and heavy metal composition in the Harmattan dust blowing across the country to support the presence of minerals and elements in the Harmattan dust. The aim of this study is to assess minerals and elemental compositions of Harmattan dust variations across Oyo (7032'N, 3025'E) and Minna (9035'N, 6032'E), Nigeria. Harmattan dust samples were collected using clean plastic bowls of 10 cm diameter and analysis was conducted on the samples collected at the two stations using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Fluoresence (XRF), Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). It was observed that elements, such as K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, As, Zr, Pb, V, Sr, Cr and Ce, were present in different concentrations in the samples collected. Minerals, such as Quartz [SiO2], Rutile [TiO2], Periclase [MgO], Corundum [Al2O3], Hematite [Fe2O3], Cuprite [Cu2O], Baddeleyite [ZrO2], Litharge [PbO], Monazite [P2O5], Zincite [ZnO], Montroydite [HgO] and Lime [CaO], were present in the samples collected at each station in different proportions. The soil mass concentration of the elements was calculated and observed to be 3.5179μg m3 at Oyo and 3.4745μg m3 at Minna. It was observed that the Harmattan dusts moving across Nigeria have almost all the elements present in Harmattan dust varying from station to station as the dust is moving towards the south of the country. The study concluded that the elemental composition of the dust samples analyzed revealed that the percentage compositions of some elements are higher than the acceptable WHO standard values, which may affect human health. It is therefore recommended that adequate precautionary measures and policies should be made to help mitigate the effects of high elemental concentrations observed.

Low detectability of alien reptiles can lead to biosecurity management failure: a case study from Christmas Island (Australia)

When we assume that contemporary management actions will be effective against the global rise of emerging alien species, we can develop management complacency, which leads to potentially disastrous outcomes for native biodiversity. Here, we propose the use of the probability of detection as a metric to assess the feasibility of management actions for alien species. We explore how detectability can influence the management of alien reptiles, a group of emergent alien vertebrates globally. We use a Rapid Biological Assessment method (time-limited transects) to estimate the probability of detection for alien reptiles present on Christmas Island (Australia). Across the five species studied, we found low probabilities of detection and poor explanatory capacity of the individual covariates included in our models. These findings indicate that management options to deal with alien reptiles are limited due to the potential high cost and low efficacy associated with low probabilities of detection. Strict preventive strategies, firmly espousing the principles of adaptiveness and precautionary policies, combined with early detection and biosecurity response activities are needed to address the emergence of alien reptiles. Our research was focussed on alien reptiles on islands, but the rise of new pools of alien species from all taxonomic realms across the world suggests that our conclusions may be applicable more generally. Further research is called for to explore the applicability of our conclusions and recommendations to other taxonomic groups and regions of the world.

Physical violence in young Chilean couples: Association with the relationship quality

Objective: In Chile, between 7 and 24% of young people claim to be victims of physical violence in their romantic relationships, but there is a lack of validated questionnaires to measure these behaviors and research in this area is still limited. Due to this fact, adapting and validating the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979; Straus et al., 1996) with multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in this paper; afterword, it aims to analyze the violence involvement within the young couples (dating violence) in Chile, and its association with the perceived quality of the relationship. Method: 1283 university students participated (69.1% women; 30.9% men; mean age = 21.94; s.d. = 1.871). Results: A bi-factorial model of the CTS (moderate vs severe behaviors) with sex invariance among the youth population in Chile was confirmed. Between 15 and 25% of involvement in moderate violence was pointed out; these behaviors have high percentages of reciprocity and are occasional. The negative quality variables such as imbalance of power or conflicts are related to higher rates of involvement in violence, but not the positive quality variables such as communication. Conclusions: this paper represents a novel contribution for Dating Violence analysis in the Latin American context; it establishes a validated and invariance measure for analyzing Dating Violence with Chilean youth population, and pointed out high rates of involvement on this violent behaviors. Its value for the development of precautionary policies and suitable intervention has to be considered.

The impact of uncertainty on optimal emission policies

Abstract. We apply a computational framework for specifying and solving sequential decision problems to study the impact of three kinds of uncertainties on optimal emission policies in a stylized sequential emission problem.We find that uncertainties about the implementability of decisions on emission reductions (or increases) have a greater impact on optimal policies than uncertainties about the availability of effective emission reduction technologies and uncertainties about the implications of trespassing critical cumulated emission thresholds. The results show that uncertainties about the implementability of decisions on emission reductions (or increases) call for more precautionary policies. In other words, delaying emission reductions to the point in time when effective technologies will become available is suboptimal when these uncertainties are accounted for rigorously. By contrast, uncertainties about the implications of exceeding critical cumulated emission thresholds tend to make early emission reductions less rewarding.