Public Incentives Research Articles

Time matters: changes in the time horizon in social services for vulnerable children and their families in Denmark in an era of productivity and competition

ABSTRACT This article is concerned with the development of social work in advanced capitalist welfare states, where gaining competitive advantages has become the primary goal of public governance and management expressed in a strong focus on competition and productivity. The aim of the article is to contribute to filling out a gap in knowledge about how this affect social services and social work. More specifically, the article present findings from a qualitative study of social services and social work with vulnerable families in Denmark. The study shows how a focus on productivity and competition expressed in public reforms and incentives to promote short-term services fosters a subtle and almost invisible reorganisation of social services changing the time horizon of social work. Time becomes both expanded and compressed demanding social workers to include more potentialities for facilitating future change in the present, without getting more actual time, and consequently they must think and act differently regarding how they perceive and spend time. Certain forms of knowledge and practices regarding the families’ life world risk becoming ‘a waste of time’ if social workers do not compensate, either by ‘keeping the families a little longer’ or by being ‘a little disobedient’. Thus, time matters!

Promoting the energy refurbishment of social housing: the KlimaKit model

Despite the well-known need of retrofitting the existing building stock and the availability of a wide range of energy efficient technologies, financial products and public incentives, the private as well as the public sector are struggling to invest in energy efficient solutions for buildings. Designers, companies, financers, and energy suppliers follow their own profit, instead of creating synergies to fulfil what should be the final goal of a retrofitting project: the client’s satisfaction. The aim of this paper is to present the methodology developed, within the KlimaKit project [1], to support both the refurbishment process of the buildings belonging to the social housing association of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano and the energy refurbishment market of South Tyrol. The results presented in this paper are part of the ongoing research project “KlimaKit”, founded by operational programme European Fund for Regional Development of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano EFRD 2014-2020 – Investments in Growth and Employment.

Judicial Independence and Human Rights in Autocracies

Why do some autocracies empower their judiciaries to uphold human rights even though independent judiciaries can prevent the repression of opposition? We develop a theoretical framework to explain why dictatorships benefit from judiciaries that restrict the government's use of coercion, thereby addressing the contradiction between the function of independent judiciaries and their institutional origins. By granting a degree of judicial independence, the regime shapes how the public views the state's use of coercion. When the judiciary is more effective in preventing state repression, the public will have more confidence in the legitimacy of coercive acts that are not blocked by the judiciary. This shifts public opinion against the opposition in favor of the regime, reducing the public's incentive to support the opposition. Unlike propaganda and censorship that directly control the information that citizens receive, partially independent judiciaries enable autocracies to control how the public processes the informational content of coercion.

The research output from medical institutions in South Asia between 2012 and 2017: An analysis of their quantity and quality

IntroductionThe eight countries of South Asia share similar backgrounds, together with similar health care related problems and a lack of medical facilities. They also have a total of 828 medical institutions both in the public and private sectors but sadly, their research output is generally thought to be poor both in quality and quantity. MethodsWe analyzed the research output from this region in terms of the number of publications in indexed journals, their citations and the h-index of the institutions using the Scopus database between 201217. These were compared with ten randomly selected leading institutes of the world. ResultsOnly 353 (42.7%) had produced a single indexed research article in the six years of the study period. The cumulative research output of all the countries during this period was 97,170, the biggest contributor being India (86.3%) followed by Pakistan (9.9%) and Bangladesh (1.4%). In terms of the mean number of the citations and h-index, India led with 1775 citations per institute with a mean h-index of 12.1. ConclusionDespite the immense health problems facing the countries, the overall research output from the South Asian countries is poor as evidenced by the cumulative number of publications or a comparison on a global scale. This needs urgent and serious attention. We suggest that intercountry research collaborations, student exchanges, compulsory research projects in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, adequate funding, and incentives for research publication may be some of the ways forward.

Local content in extractive industries: Evidence and lessons from Chile’s copper sector and Malaysia’s petroleum sector

This paper examines the role of industrial policy in providing incentives for resource-based industrialization and overcoming market obstacles in the development of local suppliers in extractive sectors. More particularly, this study examines and compares local content outcomes and strategies in Malaysia’s petroleum sector and in Chile’s copper sectorThe Malaysian experience shows that several market barriers can be overcome by targeted policies and infant industry protection to increase R&D, accumulate skills and capabilities. In contrast, in Chile, the development of internationally competitive local suppliers has been slowed down by market bottlenecks and the lack of public incentives for innovation, skilled human capital accumulation, and learning by doingBeyond unsustainable protectionist approaches focused on short-term goals such as local content quotas, this study reveals that sustainable local content policies require capacity building programme (through intra-industry dialogue to share key information on quality requirements, R&D and specialized human capital accumulation) in order to gradually build long-term competitiveness. The gradual accumulation of technology and skills through learning by doing enables to develop the scale and capacity of local firms to meet the demand for increasingly sophisticated inputs and services in extractive activities, as well as develop transversal capabilities that can serve other sectors.

Characterizing Producer Organizations: The case of organic versus conventional vegetables in Uruguay

Producer organizations (POs) are considered important for rural development in developing and transition countries. Scientific studies on POs mostly focus on their impact, but do not distinguish among different types. However, POs are a heterogeneous group. This paper explores the organizational characteristics that distinguish POs in the vegetables sector of Uruguay. In comparing organic and conventional vegetables chains, we have identified five types of POs and we have investigated their distinct organizational characteristics. We found, first, that POs in the organic value chain are responding to market incentives, whereas POs in the conventional value chain are responding to public incentives. Second, contrary to POs with a focus on social and political activities, POs with economic activities are small, they have a product focus, they require member investment, and they have a high formalization status. Third, POs with output-driven objectives have higher levels of horizontal and vertical coordination than POs with value-driven objectives. Our study contributes to the increasing body of literature on the internal and external conditions that explain the diversity of POs in developing and transition countries.

The Funding Structure of Turkish Tourism Sector and a Model Proposal for Tourism Revenue

For decades Turkey has strived for increasing tourism revenues with the ultimate aim to reduce the current account deficit. Turkish governments have offered several incentives such as reduced utility prices, funding alternatives for tourism investments and reduced tax rates, while pursuing policies aimed at eliminating any bureaucratic barriers that may hinder growth in the tourism sector. An official document which incorporates an ambitious and extremely detailed plan to achieve 50 million tourist arrivals and revenues of USD 50 billion by 2023 is on the agenda. This paper is prepared for contributing to the literature on tourism economics based on Turkey which is rare. The aim of this study is twofold; firstly the debut analysis of the funding structure of Turkish tourism sector is realized by using the aggregate balance sheet of 555 tourism companies. Then, a model is proposed by using the linear regression by which the effects of the variables of public incentive disbursements, terrorism index, Real Effective Foreign Exchange Rate, Share of Loans to Tourism Sector in Total Loans provided by financial system, average expenditure incurred by tourist and the tourism receipt level of major and geographically more substitute competitor of Greece on Tourism revenue level is examined.

Who cares about a label? The effect of pediatric labeling changes on prescription drug utilization.

Off-label drug use is common, particularly in pediatric populations. In response, legislation requires and/or provides financial incentives for drug manufacturers to perform pediatric clinical trials. Using New Hampshire's all-payer claims database, we examine the impact of subsequent changes to drug labeling on pediatric drug utilization. To separate changes in utilization induced by labeling changes from other temporal factors, we estimate difference-in-differences models that compare utilization trends for pediatric patients to those of adults. We estimate that establishing safety and efficacy increases a drug's market share by (a statistically significant) 2.8 percentage points, whereas failure to do so decreases a drug's market share by (a statistically insignificant) 0.9 percentage points. We then interpret these estimates within the context of public and market incentives to conduct pediatric clinical trials.

L’innovazione nelle imprese familiari: la propensione a brevettare nelle sussidiarie estere

Purpose of the paper: The main objective is to understand, through the socioemotional wealth lens, whether innovative family firms tend to use patents as a tool for protecting intellectual property in foreign subsidiaries. Methodology: The sample is composed of 2.760 foreign subsidiaries of Italian multinational companies. We decided to adopt two Probit regression models and two multiple linear regression models chosen as a function of the dependent variable. Findings: The involvement of the family in the ownership is negatively associated with the propensity to patent in foreign subsidiaries. In contrast, the presence of successors favors the company to use patents as an intellectual-property protection tool abroad. Research limitations: The sample is composed only by Italian subsidiaries. Implications: Both managerial and policy implication emerge. Family firms should consider to accept external equity shareholders and should involve successors in the business. Public incentive should be implemented to develop a patent strategy that protects industrial property and promotes the economic exploitation of patents in foreign subsidiaries. Originality of the paper: To the best of our knowledge, no paper analyzed the family firms’ propensity to patent in foreign subsidiaries compared to the parent company.

Electric vehicles in the last mile of urban freight transportation: A sustainability assessment of postal deliveries in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil

The growth of urban population and the rise of e-commerce activities increase the complexity of the last-mile of parcel deliveries and its impacts to the environment and quality of life. Despite the relevance, emerging countries have difficult to establish and implement alternatives to the conventional scope of fossil-based operations. This paper proposes a method to assess alternative strategies for the last-mile of parcel deliveries, in terms of social, environmental, and economic impacts and presents an application to assess the distribution strategy of a postal company located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Moreover, we developed a systematic literature review to develop realistic alternatives to the baseline scenario, which operates with diesel propelled light duty vehicles. Literature points to the reduction of the dimensions of vehicles, as well as to the migration of the propulsion source to electric energy, as sustainable alternatives for last mile deliveries in urban areas. For that reason, we opted to evaluate the use of electric vehicles of smaller dimensions, tricycle and LDV, in the last mile of parcel deliveries, assessing two alternative scenarios: one with the use of electric LDV type BEV; and the other with electric tricycles. Results indicated that the use electric tricycle is a more feasible alternative regarding the economic, environmental and social aspects, demanding no public incentives.

Exploring Why Global Health Needs Are Unmet by Public Research Efforts: The Potential Influences of Geography, Industry, and Publication Incentives

Background It has been well established that research is not addressing health needs in a balanced way: much more research is conducted on diseases with more burden in high-income countries than on those with more burden in lower-income countries. In this study, we explore whether these imbalances persist and inquire about the possible influence of three factors: geography, industry, and publication incentives. Methods We use WHO data on the Global Burden of Disease as a proxy measure of health needs and bibliometric information as a proxy for research efforts. Scientific publications on diseases were collected from MEDLINE using MeSH terms to identify relevant publications. We used Web of Science to collect author affiliations and citation data. We developed a correspondence table between WHO ICD-10 and MeSH descriptors to compare global health needs and research efforts. This correspondence table is available as supplementary material. Results Research output is heavily concentrated in high-income countries and is mainly focused on their health needs, resulting in a relative lack of attention to diseases in lower income countries. A new finding is that diseases with a similar burden in high-and middle-income countries are also under-researched, both globally and in relation to disease burden in high-and middle-income countries. Global industrial R&D is found to be very similar to the focus of public research. Diseases more prevalent in high income countries generate ten-fold more research attention than those in low income countries. We find no discernable preference towards disease of high-income countries versus those of low income countries in the top 25% most prestigious journals. However, in middle-income countries, citation rates are substantially lower for diseases most prevalent in low and middle-income countries. Conclusions From a global perspective, the imbalance between research needs and research efforts persists, as most of the research effort concentrates on diseases affecting high-income countries. Both pharmaceutical companies and the public sector also tend to focus on diseases with more burden in high-income countries. Our findings indicate that researchers in middle-income countries receive more citations when researching diseases more prevalent in high-income countries, and this may divert the attention of researchers in these countries from diseases more prevalent in their contexts.

A framework for the technical evaluation of residential buildings’ energy retrofit

Despite a wide range of energy-efficient technologies, financial products and public incentives are already available, the private as well as the public sector are struggling to invest in energy efficient solutions for buildings. The primary barriers are the high initial cost and the uncertain payback period of the energy refurbishment. Allowing for different scenario testing and considering interactions among different building energy systems, building energy simulation tools can help investors overcoming such barriers by offering support to the technical planning of energy refurbishment kits through quantitative information rather than qualitative. The energy performance and comfort of three reference multifamily residential buildings typologies were evaluated considering three envelope retrofitting performance levels (high-medium-low insulated and airtight) and different heating and domestic hot water systems (heat pump, boiler, district heating). The tested envelope retrofitting performance levels allow for heating need reduction between 50% and 90% compared to the reference case. The active cooling system is not accounted for and building energy simulations outputs include thermal comfort evaluation and overheating risk assessment during the summer season. The potential of photovoltaic system combined with heat pump is evaluated in the three reference cases leading to up to 30% of load coverage.

A Novel Algorithm for Estimating Purchase Incentive of the Public Based on Mobile Cloud Computing

Mobile cloud computing provides applications of cloud computing technology on mobile Internet. In the era of the 5G networks, mobile cloud computing offers the possibility of heavy computational in parallel through different mobile terminals. This also offers us to use mobile cloud computing to analyze fluctuations in user buying incentives over the course of a year. In various business scenarios, the purchase incentive of the public is often considered as being controlled by multiple factors and changes dramatically during holiday seasons. This paper proposed an evolutionary algorithm for monitoring purchase incentive of the public which can be distributed in mobile cloud computing. In this paper, we demonstrate that the public's shopping behavior of a commodity is a consequence of a collective behavior propagating through a social network and can be modeled as a simple ODEs model. Then, based on this new model, we develop an extended differential evolution algorithm that is deployed on mobile terminals and combined with the 5G network computing to estimate public incentives from historical sales datasets. The results suggest that this method can successfully monitor the public's purchase incentive. In addition, the overall purchase incentive changes dramatically during holiday seasons but fluctuates with similar patterns every year.

Intended and Unintended Effects of Public Incentives for Innovation. Quasi-Experimental Evidence From Italy

This paper provides an extensive empirical evaluation of a policy introduced in Italy at the end of 2012 to incentivize young innovative start-up firms. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) we estimate the causal effects of the policy on the firms’ share of intangible assets, turnover, number of employees, and number of partners. Our results indicate that two years after its implementation the policy was effective only in increasing the number of partners, thus attracting private investments, but failed, at least in the short run, in boosting innovation or increasing employment. It follows that the new investors generated by the policy might have been attracted only by the tax benefit and had little interest in innovation.

Reflexiones sobre la pertinencia de modelos multimodales en las áreas rurales: análisis de los principales apoyos públicos para el sector palmicultor colombiano (2000-2017)

Los diagnósticos en torno a la ruralidad en Colombia y los conflictos que en su interior se han venido configurando han privilegiado los análisis sobre la desigual distribución de la tierra y su incidencia en los escenarios de pobreza estructural allí presentes. Si bien acertados, estos acercamientos abordan tangencialmente el componente institucional, circunscribiéndolo al estudio de los actores y entidades involucradas directa o indirectamente con la distribución de la tierra. En virtud de lo anterior, en el presente documento se analiza el papel que viene jugando la agenda pública diseñada para el sector agropecuario colombiano, la cual pareciera ser funcional a la estructura de la tenencia de la tierra prevaleciente. Para estos fines se toma como referente al subsector palmicultor y la estructura de apoyos públicos que ha impulsado su desempeño, a partir del analisis de datos oficiales que incluyeron informes sectoriales y balances operacionales durante el período 2000-2017, lapso en el que se observa cómo las políticas de apoyo estatal, traducidas en subsidios, créditos y marcos normativos favorables, contribuyeron al crecimiento y competitividad del subsector palmero en Colombia. Los resultados de este análisis ponen en evidencia el papel central del Estado como soporte del sector agroindustrial y –en este caso específico– del subsector palmicultor, así como la importancia de que adecúe sus actuaciones de manera complementaria, apostando por la creación de condiciones que permitan avanzar en la conformación de un esquema multimodal en el agro colombiano, como apuesta para reducir sus desigualdades.

Strengthening the contribution of macroecological models to conservation practice

AbstractIssueOwing to their large‐scale scope and emphasis on prediction, macroecological models have the potential to provide key contributions to evidence‐based conservation practice. However, examples of macroecological modelling outputs directly influencing conservation practice and decision‐making remain rare. The general barriers to implementation of ecological research into conservation practice have been discussed at length, whereas much less attention has been given to the specific barriers faced by macroecological modelling research.EvidenceHere, I start to address this gap by discussing how two important barriers could be overcome in a practical manner, because their burden falls primarily on the researcher. The first barrier is the potential perception of macroecological models as “black boxes” by potential end‐users, who may have little time and/or quantitative training to inspect the underlying methods fully. The second barrier is the difficulty in effective translation of the uncertainty inherent to most macroecological models, given the high threshold for weight of evidence required to support most decisions. To overcome these barriers, I put forward a number of solutions, most of which rely on researchers agreeing to and adopting model documentation and communication standards already in existence.ConclusionI conclude by introducing the bigger challenges ahead for the macroecology–conservation practice interface: transformation of publication incentives and establishment of a two‐way flow of knowledge between macroecologists and conservation practitioners. Macroecologists can contribute much‐needed evidence to support conservation decisions. However, fundamental changes to their research communication standards, their publication incentives and their understanding of regulatory settings will be needed to ensure that macroecological contributions are considered in practice.

PHP162 - LICENCED ORPHAN MEDICINES EXPENDITURE IN TURKEY

Orphan medicines (OM) are medicinal products for human use that are used in the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of rare diseases that threaten life or cause disability. They are medications that are often neglected in terms of their development and their production, even if their benefits are definitely determined, their use is so minimal that they are not economically viable. It has seen that OM's expenditure increasing for few years. We aimed to find out number of licenced orphan medicines and show total orphan medicines expenditure in Turkey for the year 2017. We used IQVIA Turkey database for sales numbers. We divided orphan medicines based on therapeutic area and reimbursement status in order to define public expenditure for licenced orphan medicines. June 2017 OrphaNet database considered to select products. Licence and unlicenced medicines list obtained from Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency web site. We found out that 29 molecules licenced while 34 of them bringing from abroad with direct import method and 35 of them are unlicenced and currently not available in the market. Total cost of licenced orphan products were 228 million € in 2017 while reimbursed direct import orphan products expenditure reached to 240 million € with low amount of box sales. On the other hand expenditure for licenced orphan products 108% increased since 2013. Orphan products expenditure has been increasing. Orphan products has higher price comparing with medicines due low amount of patient population. Licenced orphan products take 5% of total pharmaceutical expenditure in Turkey. There is no specific pricing regulation for orphan products in Turkey. Rare disease treatments are valuable and to have sustainable system, countries should implement special pricing and reimbursement process for orphan products. Public incentives for investors will support orphan products development which will meet with public health needs.

Publication incentives based on journal rankings disadvantage local publications

CITATION: Lee, A. T. K. & Simon, C. A. 2018. Publication incentives based on journal rankings disadvantage local publications. South African Journal of Science, 114(9/10), Art. #a0289, doi:10.17159/sajs.2018/a0289.

Reverse osmosis desalination plants in Brazil: A cost analysis using three different energy sources

Brazil is a country with a vast amount of water resources. However the country’s population is largely concentrated in areas where water access and availability is unfavorable. Water supply issues have grown more evident amongst recent shortages by generating grave consequences for public health, impacts on quality of life and hurdles to the country’s overall development. Desalination stands out as an alternative for diversification of the country’s water matrix to aid in solving these problems, given that this type of technology is capable of supplying water in the quantity and quality needed for human, industrial and agricultural consumption. However the costs and feasibility related to this technology within the Brazilian scenario are not known. The current study carried out cost analyses related to the implementation of Reverse Osmosis desalination for four scenarios, all with different importation rates, considering three energy sources. The study’s results demonstrated more viability in reverse osmosis implementation when using natural gas to generate electrical energy, given that the flow rate production costs for this technology was between 0.88 and 1.97 USD/m3. However, the importation scenario analysis indicated a great need for public incentives to create national desalination technology.

Ethical Concerns in the Rise of Co-Authorship and Its Role as a Proxy of Research Collaborations

Increasing specialization, changes in the institutional incentives for publication, and a host of other reasons have brought about a marked trend towards co-authored articles among researchers. These changes have impacted Science and Technology (S&T) policies worldwide. Co-authorship is often considered to be a reliable proxy for assessing research collaborations at micro, meso, and macro levels. Although co-authorship in a scholarly publication brings numerous benefits to the participating authors, it has also given rise to issues of publication integrity, such as ghost authorships and honorary authorships. The code of conduct of bodies such as the American Psychological Association (APA) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) make it clear that only those who have significantly contributed to the study should be on the authorship list. Those who have contributed little have to be appropriately “acknowledged” in footnotes or in the acknowledgement section. However, these principles are sometimes transgressed, and a complete solution still remains elusive.