Public Regulation Research Articles

Blockchain adoption in sustainable supply chains for Industry 5.0: A multistakeholder perspective

Industry 5.0 has introduced a novel interpretation of sustainable supply chains (SSCs) that emphasizes the importance of building a transparent and trustworthy network that can be continuously monitored and controlled through stakeholder collaboration as well as the use of advanced, intelligent machinery. The ultimate goal of SSCs is to meet specific economic, social, and environmental standards. The implementation of blockchain technology can significantly improve the reliability, efficiency, and security of the information exchanged among stakeholders in SSCs. However, these stakeholders inevitably possess varying informational advantages and exhibit divergent perspectives regarding the adoption of blockchain technology. This paper thus aims to examine the impediments to the adoption of blockchain technology in the context of SSCs with the goal of promoting blockchain adoption. To achieve this objective, this study analyzes the barriers to blockchain adoption from the perspectives of various stakeholders in SSCs and constructs a barrier severity assessment model that utilizes group decision-making methods to integrate all stakeholders’ attitudes. This study employs the PEEST (political, economic, environmental, social, and technological) framework to identify 27 barriers to the adoption of blockchain technology. Subsequently, an expertise-based group decision-making approach is used to quantify the prominence of various barriers according to various types of stakeholders. The results indicate that the five most intense barriers are storage constraints, insufficient economic incentives, high integration costs, a lack of functional appeal, and ambiguity regarding data disclosure and public data management regulations. This research makes novel theoretical and practical contributions, as it takes an empirical and all-encompassing approach to identifying obstacles to the adoption of blockchain technology and provides valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners to reference in overcoming these obstacles.

Semiotics of a Covid landscape

Abstract This paper brings together urban planning and linguistic perspectives to examine the semiotic landscape of a Washington, DC ‘streatery’ in the context of the intersecting public health- and place-based economic crises unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing from Garay-Huamán and Irazábal-Zurita’s (2021) work on neoliberal Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA), we examine how different layers of Adams Morgan’s emergent Covid landscape are rooted in the dynamics of capitalist accumulation through urban placemaking strategies. We focus on signs put up by the Business Improvement District (BID) that explain the public health regulations applicable to the area through discourse that playfully encourages people to social distance and wear masks. These signs utilize three linguistic or semiotic discourses: hygiene, humor and play, and anti-Trump politics. The signs serve as a bona fide effort to both halt the spread of the coronavirus and take a political stance. At the same time as the signs promote public health, their commodified aestheticization of hygiene and politics also serves commercial interests.

OpenBIM-based assessment for social cost of carbon through building life cycle

Buildings produce many carbon emissions in their life cycle, which leads to global warming, human disease, ecosystem destruction, and food shortages. These harms are translated and revealed into the social cost of carbon (SCC), but assessing the building SCC considering protection objects is still difficult due to the lack of adequate and rapid tools. Therefore, this paper proposes a method based on OpenBIM to calculate the SCC through the building life cycle. This method reflects the cause-effect chains of carbon emissions on human health, ecosystem quality, and social assets under LIME, EPS, and ReCiPe approaches. An original tool, NMBIM, is developed based on this proposed method, which calculates the SCC of a case building by directly importing industry foundation classes (IFC) files. The case results show that the maximum life cycle SCC reaches 5872.4 RMB/m2, which exceeds the construction cost. Although SCC results obtained by different LCIA models vary widely, the ones of human health are the most concerned protection objects. This paper provides an effective method for standardly storing and optimizing SCC at the project design stage, which contributes to construction industry planning, construction company decision-making, and public regulation.

Assessing sustainability focus across global banks

Global banks play intermediary and even direct roles in achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, developmental progress is complex to measure due to siloed, varied and even non-transparent, ambiguous, non-standardized ways of calibration and reporting. This research explores public disclosures (sustainability, CSR, and annual reports, press releases, website, and others) of fifty banks across nine geo-segments over five calendar years (2018–2023). Inductive methods, co-word assessments, content analysis are deployed to develop qualitative commentaries indicating geo-specific performances of the banks. The research findings indicate goal-specific attribution and discovery of motives and initiatives. This validates how motives in embracing the SDGs vary and relate to achievement of – (A) core business objectives; (B) support and financing of other industries, organizations, and governments in sustainable initiatives; and (C) corporate citizenship, altruistic and ethical considerations. Methodological approaches to calibrate findings across seventeen SDGs help identify benchmark practices, understand complementary actions, and required focus for banks and other industries. This is relevant to geo-specific sustainability challenges, trade-offs, and requirements. The findings can guide public policies and regulations, empower banks and other institutions to accelerate awareness and evaluate effectiveness towards sustainable developments.

The Feasibility of Spiritual Counseling for Child Victims in the Turkish Legal Support System

In judicial processes, giving value to and providing support for the victim is a new understanding. With the acceptance of child protection laws and the implementation of the judicial support system in our country, the protection and rehabilitation of children are ensured by laws. The measures to be applied for children and the procedures for adjudication are determined by laws. Cases involving children can be categorized into two main groups: civil and criminal proceedings, which can vary significantly from divorce to guardianship, from ordinary crimes to severe offenses like abuse. Additionally, children can be involved in judicial processes as victims, plaintiffs, witnesses, or offenders. To support children in these processes, judicial support specialists are assigned to accompany and assist them. This is because the judicial process can be traumatic and cause secondary trauma for children. This paper will question the feasibility of providing spiritual counseling within the scope of help activities designed and envisaged for children in the victim position during the judicial process, rather than focusing on child adjudication procedures. Spirituality is a concept that individuals may need at any time and is known to be an internal resource that provides strength during difficult times. The attitudes and competencies of judicial support specialists are important regarding spiritual counseling, but the feasibility of spiritual counseling within the legal framework points to a structural issue. Indeed, this subject has academic, public, and practical dimensions. In the academic dimension, field research and theoretical and practical aspects highlight scientific knowledge, while in the public dimension, legal and institutional regulations ensure the implementation and effectiveness of services for victimized children. In practice, there are both public and academic practices. In this study, by using the documentation method, laws, regulations, and legislation related to the judicial support system were examined, and the feasibility of spiritual counseling for victimized children within the judicial support system was analyzed. As a result, even though there is no explicit provision in the legislation, spiritual counseling can be implemented within the scope of preventive measures and activities. However, it was found that this implementation may encounter difficulties and that the institutions and specialists involved may need to take individual initiatives and responsibilities. Therefore, it is evaluated that specialized laws, institutions, and academic studies are necessary for the implementation of spiritual counseling for victimized children.

Improved social force model considering the influence of COVID-19 pandemic: Pedestrian evacuation under regulation

Collective behavior has been frequently studied in previous works. However, during pandemics, the method in which system dynamics control the collective behavior of pedestrians has rarely been studied. To further understand this issue, an improved social force model is proposed in this paper to explore the potential constraints caused by pandemics during pedestrian evacuations. During COVID-19, Regulatory authorities usually require pedestrians to keep a certain social distance from each other to avoid virus infection. Our model can characterize the feature that pedestrians are sensitive to surrounding pedestrians within this prescriptive social distance. Based on the simulated results in an ordinary room, the effects of prescriptive social distance, behavioral response times and other potential factors on evacuation efficiency are compared to reflect the changes caused by COVID-19. The main findings are as follows. (1) Trying to maintain a social distance of 1.5 m will not delay evacuations but instead promote overall process of evacuations. Under the appropriate desired speed, a win‒win situation between epidemic safety and evacuation efficiency can be achieved. (2) The increase in prescriptive social distance under a high desired speed will slightly promote evacuations. When the desired speed is too low, however, it may substantially reduce evacuation efficiency. (3) The response time reflects the epidemic sensitivity of pedestrians. For pedestrians in congestion, a high response time value indicates a longer social distance adjustment, which will have a certain inhibitory effect on evacuation efficiency. (4) The presence of epidemic-sensitive pedestrians can effectively inhibit the “faster-is-slower effect”. This work will help managers formulate relevant evacuation plans by taking advantage of the balance between personal purpose of fast evacuation and the public regulations, thereby inhibiting the spread of COVID-19 without lowing evacuation efficiency.

“I do not consent”: political legitimacy, misinformation, and the compliance challenge in Australia’s Covid-19 policy response

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between policy compliance, the emergence of alternate epistemes and authorities in online spaces, and the decline of trust and legitimacy in democratic institutions. Drawing on insights from public policy, regulation theory, and political theory, the paper critically engages with scholarship on “policy-takers” to illuminate the tensions of compliance and legitimacy in liberal states. It proposes a compliance–legitimacy matrix that identifies the features of policy compliance—including consent, legitimacy, expertise, and trust—and their relationship to the disaggregation of policy knowledge. The article applies this framework to a case study of social media posts that respond to policy information during the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in Australia. Through analysis of these posts, the study reveals the distrust in “the science” and experts advocated by government and the calls from skeptic groups for noncompliance with public health measures. The paper argues that public policy faces an epistemic crisis of public confidence, with significant downstream consequences for compliance with public policy initiatives that has been brought on both by the failures of states to cultivate trust in science and the government. The compliance–legitimacy matrix offers a useful tool for policymakers to anticipate and address objections from policy-takers and to preempt and diffuse their fears.

The role and importance of social norms in the field of public relations regulation

The role and importance of social norms in the field of public relations regulation

Analyzing jogging activity patterns and adaptation to public health regulation

Outdoor running is one of the most popular physical activities, with numerous health benefits and minimal cost. Despite such importance, limited scientific understanding of collective behavioral patterns of running activity constraints more evidence-based spatial planning and urban design for promoting an active lifestyle. This study investigates the underlying spatial, temporal, and typological patterns of running activities within a university campus by analyzing a large number of running trajectory data ( n = 11088) at high spatial-temporal resolution. Based on classification and pattern identification, the results reveal three major running activity types on streets, tracks, and mixed spatial conditions. This study further investigates data during a specific period when the campus experienced public space regulation as a part of the COVID-19 prevention protocol. Results reveal the disruption, change, and recovery of running activity, revealing local behavioral adaptation and resilience towards spatial intervention. Overall, our findings resonate with classic urban design theory and existing literature, and the proposed analytical workflow can further support more evidence-based and data-informed planning decisions and design actions for promoting physical activity and active living.

Effect of supplier appraisal on firm performance in Ghana: Views of employees of selected manufacturing firms

In Ghana, recent financial sector clean-ups and reforms have impacted the operations of several corporations in the business-to-business market. Coupled with this, several issues have been reported concerning procurement practises in the past few years. Regardless of corporate governance practises and public procurement regulations, institutions in Ghana are yet to fully realise the relevance of supplier appraisal. Grounded by the resource base theory, the study examines the effect of appraisal of suppliers’ financial stability, technical capacity to produce, adherence to systems and procedures, conformance to legislation, and suppliers’ supply chain on the performance of industrial firms in Ghana. A sample of 171 employees was drawn from a total of 250 employees. Data processing and analysis were undertaken through the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) estimator. The results clearly suggest that firms’ technical capacity does not constitute firm resources that translate to firm performance. However, firms’ financial stability, adherence to systems, conformance to legislation, and supply chains are regarded as firm resources that contribute to the overall performance of the firm. We conclude that supplier evaluation is a significant predictor of manufacturing firms’ performance.

Did pandemic responses trigger corruption in public procurement? Comparing Italy and Germany

ABSTRACT Public procurement is crucial for effective crisis responses, but is also prone to corruption. To ensure a swift provision of medical supplies in the COVID-19 pandemic, the public procurement regulations were dramatically relaxed. However, the implications for corruption require attention. This paper analyses how the regulatory responses to the crisis affected the risks and perceptions of corruption, by changing public-private interactions and the regulatory environment for public procurement. We compare the contrasting cases of Italy and Germany and triangulate legal analyses, secondary contract and survey data, and an online survey of public administrations (N = 445) and businesses (N = 175). Unexpectedly, in both countries, objective risks of corruption increased similarly. Sector-specific corruption perceptions stem from a low competitiveness of procedures, rule ambiguity, and a politicised bureaucracy. To avoid wasting resources and losing trust, regulatory responses to the crisis should include clear rules that safeguard competitive public procurement procedures and preserve bureaucratic independence.

The comprehensive implementation of the registration-based system of IPO regulation in China: practice, progress, problems and prospects

ABSTRACT In June 2019, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Sci-tech Innovation Board was established with the deployment of the registration-based system as a pilot test, opening the chapter of China’s initial public offering regulatory reform. Implemented for nearly four years under gradualism, the registration-based system was expanded to the whole Chinese stock market in February 2023, further catching the spotlight on its functioning and effectiveness in accommodating issuers while safeguarding investors to promote market development. This article conducts a close examination of the registration-based system, exploring its functioning in practice, canvassing its progress and problems in accommodating issuers and looking into the landscape and prospects of investor protection. This article argues that although the registration-based system does not eliminate regulatory uncertainty, it improves regulatory efficiency to attract issuers while relying on the close engagement of public regulators in the transition era and supporting mechanisms in the long run to ensure investor protection.

Novelty and the demand for private regulation: Evidence from data privacy governance

AbstractPrivate regulations are often presented as low-cost and flexible institutions that can act as policy incubators. In this article, I question under which conditions they go beyond legal compliance and experiment with new rules. Based on a content analysis of 126 data privacy regulations adopted between 1995 and 2016 in the European Union and the United States and thirty-five semistructured interviews, I show that most private regulations include no regulatory novelties. By disaggregating the temporal and spatial distribution of the few novelties, I add nuance to this overall finding and show that private regulations adopted in the United States before 2000 experimented more than others. I argue that this variation reflects the different demands for private regulation in the two jurisdictions and their evolution over time. In the European Union, the early adoption of privacy laws led public regulators and businesses to look for private regulations to reduce transaction costs and thus limited their interest in experimenting with new requirements. In the United States, businesses hoped to gain a first-mover advantage by including new data privacy rules in their private regulations. However, the growing use of private regulations to ease transnational data flows also led to their use as tools to reduce transaction costs.

The social discount rate and the cost of public funds: a search for more consistency and better practice

ABSTRACT Three, mutually inconsistent approaches to social discounting and the cost of public funds have persisted for fifty years. All have distinguished academic support. All present problems of concept and/or application. This leads to a global loss of cost effectiveness in public spending and regulation. This essay reviews the issues and offers a practitioner’s view on what limited but realistic potential there may be for more consistency and better practice.

The Association of the Publication of a Proposed Public Charge Rule with Preterm Births among Uninsured Foreign-Born Latinx Birthing People in the United States.

Following the inauguration, the Trump administration authorized a series of anti-immigrant policies, including modifications to the public charge regulation. This study analyzed the effect of the publication of a proposed public charge rule in 2018 on the risk of preterm birth between uninsured and privately insured Latinx birthing people in the United States by using natality files from the National Center for Health Statistics. In total, 1,375,580 Latinx birthing people reported private insurance as their primary source of delivery from 2014 to 2019, while 317,056 Latinx birthing people reported self-pay as their primary source of delivery during the same period. After the publication of the proposed public charge rule in 2018, the odds of preterm birth among uninsured foreign-born Latinx birthing people increased by 6.2% compared with privately insured foreign-born Latinx birthing people (OR: 1.062; 95% CI: 1.016, 1.110). On the other hand, the odds of preterm births among uninsured US-born Latinx birthing people did not significantly increase after the publication of the proposed rule compared with privately insured US-born Latinx birthing people. These findings suggest the publication of the public charge rule proposed in 2018 may be associated with adverse birth outcomes among uninsured foreign-born Latinx birthing people in the United States.

Features of the implementation of legal instructions providing collective-agreement regulation in the sphere of labor

The article deals with the concepts of social partnership and social dialogue, reflecting the forms of legal relations of subjects of collective legal regulation. There are tendencies of further combination of private and public legal regulation of individual, collective and state interests of subjects of labor law. The normative-legal acts of international law and national legislation regulating relations in the social and labor sphere are analyzed. The point of view about the need for the existence of collective labor relations and their interaction with individual labor relations is investigated. The collective agreement should take a fundamentally important place in local labor regulation.

Phenolic Compounds in Salicornia spp. and Their Potential Therapeutic Effects on H1N1, HBV, HCV, and HIV: A Review.

Despite public health risk mitigation measures and regulation efforts by many countries, regions, and sectors, viral outbreaks remind the world of our vulnerability to biological hazards and the importance of mitigation actions. The saltwater-tolerant plants in the Salicornia genus belonging to the Amaranthaceae family are widely recognized and researched as producers of clinically applicable phytochemicals. The plants in the Salicornia genus contain flavonoids, flavonoid glycosides, and hydroxycinnamic acids, including caffeic acid, ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid, apigenin, kaempferol, quercetin, isorhamnetin, myricetin, isoquercitrin, and myricitrin, which have all been shown to support the antiviral, virucidal, and symptom-suppressing activities. Their potential pharmacological usefulness as therapeutic medicine against viral infections has been suggested in many studies, where recent studies suggest these phenolic compounds may have pharmacological potential as therapeutic medicine against viral infections. This study reviews the antiviral effects, the mechanisms of action, and the potential as antiviral agents of the aforementioned phenolic compounds found in Salicornia spp. against an influenza A strain (H1N1), hepatitis B and C (HBV/HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), as no other literature has described these effects from the Salicornia genus at the time of publication. This review has the potential to have a significant societal impact by proposing the development of new antiviral nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals derived from phenolic-rich formulations found in the edible Salicornia spp. These formulations could be utilized as a novel strategy by which to combat viral pandemics caused by H1N1, HBV, HCV, and HIV-1. The findings of this review indicate that isoquercitrin, myricetin, and myricitrin from Salicornia spp. have the potential to exhibit high efficiency in inhibiting viral infections. Myricetin exhibits inhibition of H1N1 plaque formation and reverse transcriptase, as well as integrase integration and cleavage. Isoquercitrin shows excellent neuraminidase inhibition. Myricitrin inhibits HIV-1 in infected cells. Extracts of biomass in the Salicornia genus could contribute to the development of more effective and efficient measures against viral infections and, ultimately, improve public health.

Strengthening of Public Service Regulations to Overcome the Challenges of the Sandwich Generation in the Indonesian Economy

The purpose of this research is to dig deeper about the sandwich generation who are faced with a double responsibility in caring for children and elderly parents. Effective and appropriate public services are necessary in supporting the needs of the sandwich generation. This article provides an overview of the current regulation of public services and outlines strategies to strengthen regulation. Best practice case studies from other countries are also included. The method used in this research is literature review by analyzing various books and journal articles. The results of this study provide an overview of strengthening regulations that have positive implications and benefits for the sandwich generation and the general public, the importance of strengthening public service regulations in overcoming the challenges of the sandwich generation in Indonesia. Strengthening public service regulations has a deep role in overcoming various problems faced by the sandwich generation in the context of the Indonesian economy. Robust and effective regulations will ensure a fair and honest trajectory of public services. In this case, the regulation must organize the special needs and views of the sandwich generation, such as services that are flexible, and can be accessed easily. Realizing the optimization of public services for the sandwich generation requires full collaboration between the government and the community. It is also important to evaluate the required public service regulations in this discussion to inform deficiencies and necessary improvements. That way, strengthening public service regulations will turn into effective instruments in overcoming the challenges of the sandwich generation in the Indonesian economy, then they can contribute optimally to the state.

Regulating online search in the EU: From the android case to the digital markets act and digital services act

This paper offers an analysis of the impacts of public regulations of internet search. Through a theoretical model, we consider three regulations adopted by the EU. The first is the Android choice screen implemented in the European Economic Area in 2020. The other two are the recently adopted Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA). We find that interventions involving user choice, like the Android choice screen, can be strengthened by other interventions focused on search engine quality and data portability. Since the regulations in the DMA target these multiple dimensions simultaneously, we expect it to deliver the strongest and most effective impacts on the online search market. We also argue that the impacts of the regulations may vary over different time horizons: when first implemented, the DSA may simply direct users to search engines with better privacy protection, but over time it has the potential to change user tastes for privacy and, hence, drive search engines to invest more in privacy protection.

Public Policy Challenges and the Lodging Shared Economy

The Lodging Shared Economy (LSE) is made up of a complex web of parties which enables guests to stay at a host’s home either with the host at home or away from the property. Many hosts utilize an LSE Online Platform (LSEOP) company such as Airbnb or Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO) to rent out a host’s property to a guest and receive payments from the guest including sales and lodging taxes, and they also remit payments to hosts and government agencies. Governmental agencies receive taxes from LSEOPs and distribute taxes to appropriate government accounts. The governmental agencies also enact laws and legislation to govern the activities of guests, hosts, and LSEOPs. This complex process serves the interests of each party involved but at times these diverse interests interfere with another party’s concerns resulting in conflicts, lawsuits, and public policy. This article addresses only regulations within the United States. Using a content analysis design, it provides a summary of LSE regulations for each state, thus allowing comparisons in determining highly taxed versus lesser taxed properties and highly regulated environments versus laissez-faire destinations. Although LSE companies typically transact the financial aspects of the stay, hosts are ultimately responsible for complying with other public policy regulations such as parking, noise, trash, and traffic laws. This study analyzed the most recent court cases among LSEOPs and government entities that illustrate some of the push and pull of public policy decisions on short-term rentals across the United States.