Policy Reform Proposals Research Articles

Policy implications for the nexus of climate change and gender-based issues in Thailand: case study of waste management

This perspective engages in the complex connections between environmental challenges and gender-based issues in Thailand, revealing a critical intersection that demands immediate attention. This perspective unveils persistent disparities within the environmental realm, particularly in waste management. The perspective advocates for a comprehensive, sustainable strategy to effectively address these challenges. By dissecting the nexus of environmental and gender concerns, the perspective highlights the urgency of dismantling gender-related disparities within waste management and broader environmental conservation efforts. The proposed policy reforms and recommendations underpin the necessity of a holistic approach, integrating cultural shifts and community empowerment initiatives. This perspective envisions a more equitable future, emphasising the imperative of safeguarding both men’s and women’s active participation and benefit in environmental conservation endeavours.

Perspectives or Misperceptions? Why Better Land-Use Data Are Critical to Housing Policy Debates

Research correlating stringency in land-use regulation to low housing supply, high housing costs, and segregation relies on surveys of planners about land-use regulation. Housing policy reform proposals rely on much of this same research. We assess the reliability and validity of questions from three surveys using objective data on land-use regulation and its application. Response errors indicate that planners systematically underestimate the stringency effects of local regulation while overestimating the impact of state law. This signals potential bias that may skew some analysis. Scholars should account for this potential bias when analyzing survey data to inform land-use policy debates.

A critical discussion of youth Miranda waivers, racial inequity, and proposed policy reforms.

A critical discussion of youth Miranda waivers, racial inequity, and proposed policy reforms.

A post-mortem assessment of the #EndSARS protest and police brutality in Nigeria

In October 2020 many Nigerians took to the streets to protest against the illicit and inhumane activities and brazen brutality of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a special unit of the Nigerian police force renowned for the most unethical, illegal, corrupt and dehumanising practices. With significant global reach and support, the protesters demanded, among others, the disbandment of the police unit and justice for all deceased victims of police brutality. These and other demands, which were all geared towards ending police brutality, were well received by the federal government, with promises of full compliance. A first step was the actual disbandment of SARS. With successive demands tilting towards a silent revolution, the protest was truncated by military repression, leaving many in doubt as to whether or not the government would fulfil its promises in respect of the demands. This article undertakes an assessment of the protest in its context in a bid to ascertain whether or not the post-protest period has witnessed an end to or reduction in the level of police brutality. It examines the culture of police brutality, precursors to the protest, the demands by protesters as well as the responses and promises by government, and appraises the extent to which such promises and proposed policy reforms by the federal government have translated into significant and sustainable changes in policing.

Barred: Labor Market Dynamics and Human Capital Development among People on Probation and Parole

Obtaining employment is a major barrier to social reintegration for people on probation or parole. Research on the reentry process identifies several mechanisms that accentuate difficulties in locating work, including human capital development, structural changes in the labor market, and onerous probation and parole conditions. In this article, we review theories that explain low labor market participation rates among people reentering society, and we draw on multiple sources of data to identify the types of jobs that are available to people with low human capital. We find that nearly a quarter of people in America’s state and federal prisons had permanently removed themselves from the formal labor market before their most recent arrest; however, exclusionary hiring practices in the formal labor market often push those carrying the stigma of a criminal record into underground or informal labor markets, where wage rates are markedly higher than the federal minimum wage. Our findings demonstrate that severe and chronic employment struggles often predate and follow incarceration. We provide a detailed discussion of policy reform proposals that could help to remedy this harmful dynamic.

Reimagining Pretrial & Sentencing

In this article, we discuss the evolution of criminal justice reform efforts focused on pretrial and sentencing policies and practices that resulted in unprecedented rates of incarceration. There is an urgent need to identify a strategy of pretrial justice and sentencing that will reduce crime and victimization, ameliorate unwarranted disparities, and reclaim human capital currently lost to incarceration. A discussion of proposed policy reforms should begin by first identifying the costs incurred by pretrial decisions (and across further decision points in the justice system) on both the system and the collateral costs to the detained, their families and their communities. In the short-term, jurisdictions should reconsider probation and parole policies and practices that contribute to mass incarceration. Mid-term improvements require inter-agency approaches by law enforcement, prosecutors, and the courts to institute alternatives to incarceration and collaborate with health and community organizations to address underlying issues that lead to local justice system intervention. Importantly, what we highlight is the need for a long-term approach designed to slow the flow of individuals into jails and prisons and to reduce the lengths of sentences they are serving.

Hero or villain? The financial system in the 21st century

AbstractThe paper reviews the literature and data on the role of finance in socioeconomic development. The evidence suggests that a well‐developed financial system can certainly enhance people's prosperity, but an excessively large and poorly regulated financial system can do more harm than good. We start by making the important distinction between traditional finance (retail banking, insurance, etc.) and modern finance (financial “innovation” and asset trading). We then document that the financialization trend of the past four decades has largely transformed modern finance from “hero” into “villain.” We discuss the driving forces behind this, as well as some policy reform proposals that could in principle make modern finance a hero once again.

The Giant Shadow of Corporate Gadflies

Modern-day shareholders influence corporate America more than ever before. From demanding greater accountability of executives to lobbying for a variety of social and environmental policies, shareholders today have the power to alter how American companies are run. Amazingly, a small group of individual shareholders wields unprecedented power to set corporate agendas and stands at the epicenter of our contemporary corporate governance ecosystem. In fact, the power of these individuals, known as “corporate gadflies,” continues to rise. Corporate gadflies present a puzzling reality. Although public corporations in the United States are increasingly owned by large institutional investors, much of their corporate governance agenda has been and is still dominated by a handful of individuals who own tiny slivers of most large companies. How does an economy with corporate equity in the trillions of dollars cede so such governance power to corporate gadflies? More importantly, should it? Surprisingly, scholars have paid little attention to the role of corporate gadflies in this ever-changing governance landscape. This Article is the first to address the giant shadow that corporate gadflies cast on the corporate governance landscape in the United States. The Article makes three contributions to the literature. First, using a comprehensive dataset of all shareholder proposals submitted to the S&P 1500 companies from 2005 to 2018, it offers a detailed empirical account of both the growing power and influence that corporate gadflies wield over major corporate issues and of gadflies’ power to set governance agendas. Second, the Article uses the context of corporate gadflies to elucidate a key governance debate over the role of large institutional investors in corporate governance. Specifically, the Article underscores the potential concerns raised by the activity of corporate gadflies and questions the current deference of institutional investors to these gadflies regarding the submission of shareholder proposals. Finally, the Article proposes policy reforms aimed at reframing the current discourse on shareholder proposals and potentially sparking a new line of inquiry regarding the role of investors in corporate governance.

The Technological Utopia: Mimamori Care and Family Separation in Japan

Abstract Japan is undergoing a significant demographic upheaval, and the Japanese government is formulating policies for stimulating technological advances based on the assumption that they will solve issues such as labour shortages and elder care. The government argues through policy initiatives that technology will decrease the care burden on Japan’s workers, families, and itself. Although the domestic media show awareness of changing family patterns in Japan, newspapers are following a similar pattern of technological utopianism. However, this article posits that the proposed policy reforms rely on a conservative ideal of the extended family that ignores changing patterns in Japanese households. Moreover, it argues that, rather than facilitating a return to the ideal of an extended family, technology is exacerbating separation among families that have been growing apart for some time.

Adaptation and Adverse Selection in Markets for Natural Disaster Insurance

This paper studies social welfare in markets for natural disaster insurance. I quantify frictions in uptake, test for adverse selection, and estimate the welfare effects of proposed policy reforms by developing a model of natural disaster insurance markets and compiling new data. The paper has three main findings. First, willingness to pay for natural disaster insurance is remarkably low. In the high-risk flood zones throughout all U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coast states, fewer than 60% of homeowners purchase flood insurance even though subsidized premia are only two-thirds of their own expected payouts. Second, homeowners select into insurance based on observable differences in houses' defensive investments against natural disasters (i.e., adaptation), but not on private information about risk. Exploiting house-level variation in flood insurance prices and construction codes reveals that requirements to elevate newly constructed homes reduce insurer costs by 31% and insurance demand by 25%. Asymmetric information between homeowners and insurers, however, does not affect average payouts. Third, ignoring how frictions, such as risk misperception, distort demand understates the welfare cost of currently proposed price increases and changes the sign of the predicted welfare effect. In the presence of such frictions, enforcing a natural disaster insurance mandate increases social welfare.

Η πολιτική συνοχής της Ε.Ε. μετά το 2020: Περισσότεροι στόχοι, λιγότεροι πόροι

Drawing on historical institutionalism, the paper seeks to compare the imprint of existing EU cohesion policy with the imprint formed on the basis of the policy reform proposals for the 2021-2027 programming period. It is deduced that the proposed changes are incremental in nature, seek to perpetuate the subjection of the goal of cohesion to the “new economic governance” and burden cohesion policy with additional general objectives. In addition, the distributivedimension of the proposals is problematic, as drastic reductions of funds are envisaged for 10 out of the 12 Central and Eastern European member states. The final conclusion is that: a) the proposed distribution of funds is politicallyunfeasible and b) the proposed reforms, while designed to limit complexity at the level of policy means, do not suffi ciently address “goal congestion” and do not event attempt to resolve the compatibility problem between the goal of cohesion – i.e. the reduction of territorial disparities – and the EU’s strategic ambitions.

Chattel or Child: The Liminal Status of Companion Animals in Society and Law

Companion animals in the U.S. are increasingly regarded as members of the family with whom one may share a strong emotional bond. However, despite an evolving social construction that has elevated their status in the dominant culture, companion animals lack meaningful legal rights, and “family member” is a provisional status that can be dissolved at will based on the discretion of the sole rights-holder in the relationship: the human owner. Because they are still defined within the U.S. legal system as property, it is a common lament within the animal protection movement that the law has not kept pace with the emergent cultural perception of companion animals as family or best friends who may occupy a significant place in one’s constellation of interpersonal relationships. But how divergent are the laws that govern our treatment of companion animals from prevailing social norms? This article examines current trends in animal law and society to shed light on this question. I find that while a new family member cultural status is emerging for companion animals in the U.S., their legal status as property is a countervailing force, enabling contradictory practices and beliefs that construct animals as expendable. The fact that their cultural status is in flux in turn reinforces their status under the law. I conclude with proposed policy reforms that will facilitate the integration of companion animals into society as true rather than rhetorical family members.

The International Criminal Court and Reparations: Judicial Innovation or Judicialisation of a Political Process?

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court bestows reparative powers upon the court, a significant development in international criminal justice. However, the court still struggles to effectively discharge this mandate. This article proceeds on the assumption that reparations for mass atrocities are best handled through domestic political processes rather than international criminal justice processes. The article interrogates the effectiveness of the court’s reparative powers by testing them as against the court’s practice, specifically in the Lubanga, Katanga and Al-Mahdi cases. The article concludes that despite noble intentions, practical realities and difficulties make doubtful the court’s suitability as a reparative forum for mass atrocities. Nevertheless, in the absence of a more suitable alternative for effective and meaningful reparations, the article proposes policy reforms to achieve robust reparative complementarity between the court and transitional states, and complementarity between the court’s reparative mandate and the Trust Fund for Victims’ assistance mandate.

Results of Survey of Economics Professors on Immigration, Drug, and Pharmaceutical Policies

We conducted a survey by mail in 2013 of randomly selected economics professors in the United States about the welfare effects of three proposed policy reforms. We received back 574 completed surveys (a 19 percent response rate). A large majority supported a reform to increase immigration into the United States, a large majority supported liberalization of restrictions on the sale of marijuana or cannabis, and a plurality supported a liberalization of pharmaceutical regulation. This report simply details those topline results of the survey (the survey was designed for a different purpose, which we have written about elsewhere).

How much is the bill? Simulating selected proposals for income policy adjustments during the 2017 Bulgarian parliamentary election campaigns

The paper presents preliminary results from a sequence of microsimulation exercises implementing a selection of initiatives for income policy adjustments in Bulgaria.These initiatives originate from various income policy reform proposals that were publicly discussed during the 2017 parliamentary election campaigns. The paper provides empirical assessment of the possible budgetary effects of these proposals, assuming that these reforms are implemented in year 2017. The calculations are performed in EUROMOD - the tax-benefit microsimulation model for EU countries.

The EU at sixty: A watershed Or business as usual? (comparing Grexit to Brexit)

This essay is an attempt to put two major events in a broader perspective. Comparing the two dominant discourses, we attempt to address the meaning and thus the strategic options of European integration at a time of crisis. A political economy approach is adopted to explain the different dynamics of the two cases and to specify conditions for a more efficient integration in the years to come. Some proposals for policy reform conclude.

Analysis of the spatial mismatch of grain production and farmland resources in China based on the potential crop rotation system

At present, China’s grain production pattern runs counter to the distribution patterns of farmland resources and water-heat conditions. It is urgently important to conduct research on the spatial matching of grain production and farmland resources. Based on the Potential Crop Rotation data, with regards to the situations of irrigation and rain feeding, this paper builds a measuring model of potential farmland, and separately measures the spatial matching index of grain yield with actual and potential farmland resources, thus revealing China’s grain production pattern. The results indicate that serious spatial mismatch exists between grain production and farmland resources in China. Take the potential crop rotation system into consideration, the spatial mismatch of grain yield and potential farmland resources has been aggravated by the grain production barycenter’s shift to the north China, with low Crop Rotation Index. The function-promoting regions of grain production in China are going through two evolution patterns of “northward and southward expansion” and “westward movement and northward expansion,” respectively. Inefficient use of farmland mainly occurs in the fragile ecological environments, such as the farming-pastoral ecotone of Northern China, the northwest area of Xinjiang and the southwest karst landform areas. The inefficient use of and the decreasing amount of available farmland have become the main causes of the decline in grain production. The problems facing Chinese agriculture caused by the spatial mismatch include the imbalance in regional structures, ecological risks, agricultural production risks, and the risk of food price. In order to cope with these problems, this paper provides some advices on protecting farmland acreage, expanding farmland potential, ensuring the safety of water resources, and extending the industrial grain chain. Our paper additionally proposes policy reforms and innovations designed to ensure the implementation of the above measures, so as to commonly defuse China’s food security crisis.

The Parity Paradigm: Can Legislation Help Reduce the Cost Burden of Oral Anticancer Medications?

Over the last decade, there has been increased development and use of oral anticancer medications, which sometimes leads to high cost sharing for patients. Drug parity laws require insurance plans to cover oral anticancer medications with the same cost sharing as intravenous/injected chemotherapy or have a capped limit on out-of-pocket costs. There are currently 36 enacted state laws (plus the District of Columbia) addressing drug parity, but no federal laws. In this policy perspective piece, we discuss the history, opportunities, and limitations of drug parity laws in oncology. We also discuss the implications of provisions of the Affordable Care Act and other proposed policy reforms on financing oral chemotherapy.

Austerity in the European Union: Keynesian Stimulus versus Fiscal Consolidation

This paper summarizes current EU austerity programs and discusses various fiscal policy reform proposals under consideration. It points out political and theoretical problems with these proposals and makes the case for fiscal consolidation through spending reduction rather than tax cuts. The paper provides supply side evidence of non-Keynesian expansions from spending cuts and identifies austerity and fiscal consolidation concerns for policy makers. The paper concludes that while the timing of spending cuts is important and there are political risks to fiscal consolidations which may frighten politicians, the economic payoffs justify austerity programs based primarily on budget and spending cuts.

Hispanic American Opinions toward Immigration and Immigration Policy Reform Proposals

This study presents evidence from a survey and choice experiment on the preferences of Hispanic immigrants who entered the United States illegally for different immigration reform proposal attributes. Key components of the current competing US Senate and House immigration reform bills are considered including pathways to legal permanent residence, temporary work visas, family visitation rights, and access to medical care. The results quantify the value Hispanic immigrants place on different policy attributes and suggest that longer‐term work visas are highly valued. Ability to legally work in the United States and a pathway to citizenship are substantially more valued than social services such as medical care and social security benefits.