Public-private Program Research Articles

Poverty Governance in the Delegated Welfare State: Privatization, Commodification, and the U.S. Health Care Safety Net

Abstract Due to forces of retrenchment and fiscal austerity in the contemporary U.S. welfare state, the federal government has increasingly delegated the funding of public programs to private entities. How does privatization influence the way marginalized populations experience the social safety net? To develop insights on delegated poverty governance, this study examines a longstanding public-private program—Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)—which comprise a nationwide network of clinics serving over thirty million predominantly low-income patients in medically underserved areas. I conducted a case study drawing on in-depth interviews with patients and staff in a small-town FQHC in the Rust Belt. Unlike other social welfare programs, I found a pronounced absence of stigma associated with the FQHC, largely due to features of the delegated policy design, the blended institutional setting, and strategic organizational decisions. However, low-income patients were also unaware of their rights to treatment when encountering paternalistic enforcement of overdue billing rules, which resulted in delayed or foregone health care. Due to underlying tensions surrounding commodification, I argue that privatization of the safety net may quell the stigma of government programs among the poor while simultaneously disentitling individuals from their rights of social citizenship.

Navigating Governance Tensions to Enhance the Impact of Partnerships with the Private Sector for the SDGs

Partnering with the private sector is a key modality in development cooperation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite their increasing importance, such Public-Private Partnerships for Development (PPPD) experience major challenges in defining, assessing and reporting on their actual impact. This paper explores why, and how this can be improved. We engage in a qualitative synthesis review of academic, gray literature and evaluation reports of public-private programs of development agencies. We identify challenges, tensions and contradictions that affect a proper understanding and assessment of the impacts of such partnerships. The analysis shows that the main challenge in understanding and assessing impacts is the double governance logic that emerges in PPPD monitoring and evaluation (M&E). While M&E functions as an accountability and risk mitigation approach, it should also support collaborative characteristics of PPPDs such as trust and power-sharing, in order to enhance impactful PPPDs. Enhancing the impact of PPPDs for the SDGs requires bridging the divide between (a) result-based, upward accountability monitoring and evaluation approaches and (b) emerging learning, participatory and complexity-based approaches. The paper provides suggestions on how to navigate these governance tensions by using a paradoxical lens.

FINANCING OF LABOR RESOURCES IN CONDITIONS OF CRISIS CYCLICITY

Introduction. The philosophy of state policy of Ukraine should be aimed at developing the economic potential of the nation and its well-being, the ability of the economy to effectively use and restore labor resources. Therefore, further modernization of labor finance requires the harmonization of economic interests of its participants and the development of society in the context of promoting job creation, business growth and improving the level and quality of life. Purpose. Disclosure of conceptual bases of financing of labor resources in the conditions of crisis cyclicity and delineation of expediency of application of public-private programs for formation of the proper level of economic stimulation and social support of workers. Results. The essence of labor resources financing within the institutional, dialectical, reproductive and systemic approaches is substantiated, taking into account the peculiarities of the labor market development. The economic and social principles of increasing responsibility and trust between the state and citizens in crisis conditions are analyzed, in particular, the intensification of state incentives for employment by fully or partially subsidizing the creation of new jobs in enterprises. There was a significant reduction in the number of economically active population, including employed and unemployed. It was emphasized that this situation was influenced by negative trends in demographic development: population aging, rising mortality, depopulation, deformation of gender and age, migration outflow of able-bodied citizens outside the region. Conclusions. In a market economy, the financing of labor resources should be studied in terms of a set of interconnected elements and subsystems (organizational, technical, managerial, technological, regulatory), which aim to increase the efficiency of the financing process for systemic changes in the environment, including crisis cyclicality. The main components of the state program of labor resources development are determined. To restore labor resources, it is proposed to use public-private programs that provide an opportunity to form an appropriate level of financial incentives and social support for workers. Public-private programs should be structured depending on the level of the subject and the chosen means and tools of material incentives and intangible incentives for employees, improving their professional competencies and professional abilities.

Collaborative community development in mining regions: The Calama Plus and Creo Antofagasta programs in Chile

The mining industry is widely criticized for its corporate community development strategies, which led to accusations of greenwash and low social legitimacy. This problem identified led to the following research question: What model of community relations allows companies to generate shared value, in a broad sense, and create long-term relationships with communities? In order to answer the question posed, this paper explores the innovative experiences of the Calama Plus and Creo Antofagasta programs in the Antofagasta region of Chile. Calama Plus is an ongoing public-private program (2012–2025) established to combat declining standards of living in the city. Creo Antofagasta is also an ongoing public-private program (2013–2035), which is designed to confront the challenges of rapid growth in the city. Based on these two case studies, their underlying model (i.e., the collaborative community development model) was systematized for this study. The main innovative aspects of the model are its focus on the long-term, its concentration on territory- oriented projects, and its multi-stakeholder governance structure. The latter characteristic implies a collaboration between several companies and even between competitors. Drawing on a collaborative governance framework, the aim of this paper is to extensively describe the companies’ perspective on the following: the innovative aspects of the model, the drivers required for companies to participate, how companies can specifically contribute to these programs, and its critical management issues. New drivers and critical management issues are identified and discussed in this research, which represent a contribution to the collaborative governance framework.Since the Calama Plus and Creo Antofagasta programs’ focus is long-term, ending in 2025 and 2035 respectively, their impact has not been evaluated. For this reason, we include a discussion on the cumulative impact assessment perspective needed for these collaborative community development programs, placing particular attention on the controversial relationship between mining and local development. This approach is based on the assessment of cross-sector partnership results, its impact on the balance of social, environmental and economic capitals, and on the creation of broadly shared value in terms of long-term socio-economic capability building. Finally, policy implications and the potential for applying this model to other contexts are also discussed.

Nanotechnology for the Brain

This article explores various nanotechnology-based programs conducted by different teams to study the brain. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health is leading the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a public–private program that will spend millions on research. The European Union has also proposed a similar effort that will focus on simulating the entire brain on supercomputers. Hongkun Park is developing nanowire arrays that can inject neurons with chemicals or measure electrical activity as it develops in the cell. Weiss and Anne Andrews, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, have developed sensors that detect the important neurotransmitter, serotonin, by engineering surfaces that bond with it exclusively and not with related molecules. The next step is to create transducers that signal when sensors capture a serotonin molecule. Nanotechnology will play a vital role in that advance.

Assessing Patient Experiences of Providers' Cultural Competence and Health Literacy Practices

The supplement to the September 2012 issue of Medical Care [1] focuses on the development and evaluation of new questions, or "item sets," for use with the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys. The supplement is dedicated to the late Chuck Darby, who was a founding father of CAHPS. All 12 articles are freely available at: http://journals.lww.com/lww-medicalcare/toc/2012/09002 [1].

Behavioral Pragmatism: President Obama's Approach to Unemployment

However wide the ideological distance between positive and negative prognosticators of employment growth, the pragmatic center is where the White House preferences are likely to fall. Obama's pragmatic center may be far from the ideological center between public-private program alternatives. Instead, it is closer to the pressure center of partisan and interest-group forces that normally participate in fiscal policy-making. As a behavioral pragmatist the moderate position for Obama is found at the center of ideologically separated political competitors whatever the content of their beliefs, since content is relatively uncritical in this perspective. Pressure groups’ numbers and organizational strength define the value of their diversity more than the substance of their beliefs. For the strong believers on both political left and right the outcomes will rarely look pragmatic because they will rarely fit the traditional standards for moderation

Mechanisms for Transportation Infrastructure Investment in Developing Countries

In this paper, the writers examine different investment mechanisms for transportation infrastructure projects involving the private enterprise in developing countries. Roles identified vary from those of a financier to an operator for successful public-private ventures. A case study involving such a joint venture in India, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway/National Highway 4 is presented, and fiscal implications of the program, both from the perspective of the public and the private enterprise, are examined. The study concludes that if properly planned, joint ventures can be mutually beneficial. A joint public-private program may enable the public agency to use the resources saved for other public projects. It also provides the private agency an opportunity to invest funds in a profitable enterprise that yields social benefits, (e.g., improving mobility, promoting economic development, etc.). Careful analysis must be conducted before the project is undertaken to assess the financial and economic implications of the project from each participant’s viewpoint, with due regard to risks and uncertainties associated with such long-term investments.

Come Rain or Shine: Evidence on Flood Insurance Purchases in Florida

In the U.S., flood insurance is provided essentially through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a public-private program established in 1968. In the past 10 years, the program has radically expanded to cover $1.1 trillion in assets today. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the largest flood insurance sample ever studied by focusing on the state of Florida, which accounts for 40 percent of the entire NFIP portfolio. We study the demand for flood insurance with a database of more than 7.5 million flood policies-in-force for the years 2000-2005, and all the claims filed in Florida during that period. We answer four questions: What are the characteristics of the buyers of flood insurance? What types of contracts (deductibles and coverage levels) are purchased? Where and when are claims paid and to what extent does mitigation work? How are prices determined and how much does NFIP insurance cost? Given the recent significant increase in the cost of catastrophes worldwide and the debate about the role that insurance can play to enhance adaptation to climate change, the responses to these questions shall be of interest to other countries too.

Public-Private Programs for Covering Extreme Events: The Impact of Information Distribution on Risk-Sharing

Recent extreme events have significantly raised the question of the role of public and private sectors in providing adequate financial protection to victims. Developing publicprivate insurance programs could constitute one of the most appealing ways to solve the problem of financing the consequences of those large-scale catastrophes. However, catastrophic risks present very specific characteristics which challenge any traditional economic approaches to analyzing them. Further, the government may have better information about the risk than insurers (e.g., national security). Currently, little has been done in the economic literature to better understand how this assumption impacts on how risks are shared between all stakeholders in such partnerships.This paper analyzes policy issues related to risk/information sharing between insurers and a dedicated State-backed governmental reinsurer, who are part of a national partnership program. The government develops a mandatory coverage against catastrophic risks and decides the level of premiums levied against the insureds. Using a game-theoretical approach, we show that a government can act to induce private insurers in the country to participate in the partnership instead of leaving the market. By modulating its premium policy, the government can also led them to adopt two different strategies: (1) behave as a simple financial intermediary between the insured and the public reinsurer so that the latter supports the largest portion of the risks or (2) conserve the largest part of risks to benefit from market conditions created by the government seeking to avoid its intervention ex post to bail out the public reinsurer. The paper also discusses the impacts of government information-sharing strategies on the game equilibrium. Illustrations are provided for natural hazards and terrorism risk.

Public-Private Programs for Covering Extreme Events: The Impact of Information Distribution on Risk-Sharing

Recent extreme events have significantly raised the question of the role of public and private sectors in providing adequate financial protection to victims. Developing publicprivate insurance programs could constitute one of the most appealing ways to solve the problem of financing the consequences of those large-scale catastrophes. However, catastrophic risks present very specific characteristics which challenge any traditional economic approaches to analyzing them. Further, the government may have better information about the risk than insurers (e.g., national security). Currently, little has been done in the economic literature to better understand how this assumption impacts on how risks are shared between all stakeholders in such partnerships.This paper analyzes policy issues related to risk/information sharing between insurers and a dedicated State-backed governmental reinsurer, who are part of a national partnership program. The government develops a mandatory coverage against catastrophic risks and decides the level of premiums levied against the insureds. Using a game-theoretical approach, we show that a government can act to induce private insurers in the country to participate in the partnership instead of leaving the market. By modulating its premium policy, the government can also led them to adopt two different strategies: (1) behave as a simple financial intermediary between the insured and the public reinsurer so that the latter supports the largest portion of the risks or (2) conserve the largest part of risks to benefit from market conditions created by the government seeking to avoid its intervention ex post to bail out the public reinsurer. The paper also discusses the impacts of government information-sharing strategies on the game equilibrium. Illustrations are provided for natural hazards and terrorism risk.

Steam Challenge: Using Marketplace Partnerships to Help Industry Be Steam Smart

ABSTRACT Last year, the Alliance to Save Energy, the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies, and a cadre of private companies and associations formed an innovative “Steam Partnership” with the goal of developing a new DOE technical assistance program on steam efficiency. In 1997, the Steam Partnership began to define the appropriate activities, tools, and services of a public-private program on steam. Modeled after the successful Motor Challenge program and the newly launched Compressed Air Challenge program, “Steam Challenge” will highlight the importance of steam system efficiency and provide information and technical assistance to industry. This article highlights the potential savings available through steam efficiency, introduces the Steam Challenge program, summarizes the program's accomplishments, and describes the program's future goals and activities.

Aligning the Ethics of Public-Private Partnership: The Issue of Local Economic Development

Aligning the Ethics of Public-Private Partnership: The Issue of Local Economic Development

Publishing at the library of congress: A brief history

With generous support from Congress and the American people, the Library of Congress has become the largest library in the world. Its extensive and varied publishing programs reflect the growing demands of its many and diverse consituencies; the innovative uses of new technologies; and the institution’s efforts, especially in the last decade, to reach broader and more general audiences. Recent projects include the first steps in digitizing and making available selected portions of the Library’s historical collections; the first sustained effort to develop cooperative endeavors with trade publishers; and the launching ofCivilization: The Magazine of the Library of Congress. This brief history outlines the evolution of publishing at the Library of Congress, from an eight-page booklist published in 1801 to the cooperative public-private programs and electronic products of the 1990s.