Public Sector Decision Research Articles

Regulating mobility-on-demand services: Tri-level model and Bayesian optimization solution approach

The goal of this paper is to develop a modeling framework that captures the inter-decision dynamics between mobility service providers (MSPs) and travelers that can be used to optimize and analyze policies/regulations related to MSPs. To meet this goal, the paper proposes a tri-level mathematical programming model with a public-sector decision maker (i.e. a policymaker/regulator) at the highest level, the MSP in the middle level, and travelers at the lowest level. The public-sector decision maker aims to maximize social welfare via implementing regulations, policies, plans, transit service designs, etc. The MSP aims to maximize profit by adjusting its service designs. Travelers aim to maximize utility by changing their modes and routes. The travelers’ decisions depend on the regulator and MSP’s decisions while the MSP decisions themselves depend on the regulator’s decisions. To solve the tri-level mathematical program, the study employs Bayesian optimization (BO) within a simulation–optimization solution approach. At the lowest level, the solution approach includes an agent-based transportation system simulation model to capture travelers’ behavior subject to specific decisions made by the regulator and MSP. At the middle and highest levels, the solution approach employs BO for the MSP to maximize profit and for the regulator to maximize social welfare. The agent-based transportation simulation model includes a mode choice model, a road network, a transit network, and an MSP providing automated mobility-on-demand (AMOD) service with shared rides. The modeling and solution approaches are applied to Munich, Germany in order to validate the model. The case study investigates the tolls and parking costs the city administration should set, as well as changes in the public transport budget and a limitation of the AMOD fleet size. Best policy settings are derived for two social welfare definitions, in both of which the AMOD fleet size is not regulated as the shared-ride AMOD service provides significant value to travelers in Munich.

Working towards universal health coverage: a qualitative study to identify strategies for improving student enrolment for the pre-service training of nurses, midwives and community health workers in Nigerian health training institutions

BackgroundStudent enrolment processes and practices can affect the quality of pre-service training programmes. These processes and practices may have serious implications for the quality and quantity of students within health training institutions, the quality of education for prospective health workers and consequently health workforce performance. This study assessed current student enrolment processes and practices for nurses, midwives and community health workers within health training institutions in two Nigerian states, so as to identify strategies for improving student enrolment for these key cadres of frontline health workers.MethodsThis study was carried out in Bauchi and Cross-River States, which are the two Human Resources for Health (HRH) project focal states in Nigeria. Utilizing a qualitative research design, 55 in-depth interviews and 13 focus group discussions were conducted with key stakeholders including students and tutors from pre-service health training institutions as well as policy-makers and public sector decision-makers from Ministries of Health, Government Agencies and Regulatory Bodies. Study participants were purposively sampled and the qualitative data were audio-recorded, transcribed and then thematically analysed.ResultsStudy participants broadly described the application process to include the purchase, completion and submission of application forms by prospective students prior to participation in entrance examinations and oral interviews. The use of ‘weeding examinations’ during the student enrolment process, especially in Bauchi state, was identified as a useful quality assurance mechanism for the pre-service training programmes of frontline health workers. Other strategies identified by stakeholders to address challenges with student enrolment include sustained advocacy to counter-cultural norms and gender stereotypes vis-à-vis certain professions, provision of scholarships for trainee frontline health workers and ultimately the development as well as effective implementation of national and state-specific policy and implementation guidelines for the student enrolment of key frontline health workers.ConclusionWhile there are challenges which currently affect student enrolment for nurses, midwives and community health workers in Nigeria, this study has proposed key strategies which if carefully considered and implemented can substantially improve the status quo. These will probably have far-reaching implications for improving health workforce performance, population health outcomes and efforts to achieve universal health coverage.

Policy labs, partners and policy effectiveness in Canada

Upon election in 2015, the Justin Trudeau Liberal government announced its intention to transform government operations by bringing nonprofit and private sector partners into the center of public sector decision making through new structures such as Policy Hubs and Innovation labs. These collaborative arrangements were intended to yield the benefits of Michael Barber’s theory of deliverology by breaking through the public sector aversion to risk and change and by creating new spaces for devising effective solutions to the increasingly complex social and economic challenges facing government. A preliminary examination of the use of policy hubs and innovation labs in Canada between 2015 and 2020 indicates that the results have been mixed for the nonprofit sector partners. Collaborative relations have offered nonprofit sector partners new opportunities and access to influence policy decisions. However, this influence also poses risks to their independence, legitimacy and effectiveness as policy advocates. Both public and nonprofit sector partners in PILs should heed certain cautions in choosing future partnerships or they may find their ability to achieve meaningful policy change is limited.

A social cost–benefit framework for COVID-19 policy decisions

Important public sector decisions should be informed by cost–benefit analysis (CBA), according to the New Zealand Treasury. This paper explores whether policy decisions about COVID-19 responses are tractable and amenable to ex ante CBA. It does so with a worked example: a CBA of the decision to extend alert level 4 restrictions by a further 5 days on 20 April 2020, using the information that was known at the time. The paper concludes that such analysis is both tractable and a worthwhile input into COVID-19 decision making.

Aid Management, Trust, and Development Policy Influence: New Evidence from a Survey of Public Sector Officials in Low-Income and Middle-Income Countries

Bilateral and multilateral development agencies spend a great deal of time, money, and effort trying to shape the reform priorities and processes of their counterpart countries. However, the means by which development agencies can achieve these ends are poorly understood. This article draws upon the first-hand experiences and observations of more than 1000 public sector officials from 70 low- and middle-income countries to better understand which external sources of reform advice and assistance are most and least useful to public sector decision-makers—and why. We find that donors more effectively shape reform priorities when they choose to deliver their funding through the public financial management systems of counterpart countries, rather than using channels of aid delivery—in particular, technical assistance programs—that bypass host governments and signal a lack of trust in the motivations and capabilities of the local authorities. This finding holds true even after controlling for institutional quality, or the trustworthiness of public sector institutions, in aid-receiving countries. As such, our results call attention to the fact that development agencies can amplify their policy influence by entrusting their counterpart governments with aid management responsibilities.

Mobile futures knowledge: From research policy to research and public policy?

Futures knowledge is critical for developing knowledge-based policies that can guide societies in turbulent and uncertain times. Knowlede mobilisation and cocreation processes ensure that research-based futures knowledge is applicable to public sector decision-making; however, this mobilisation is challenging and empirical research regarding futures knowledge mobilisation is lacking. This article describes how futures knowledge was cocreated and mobilised in three projects that were part of a new Finnish Strategic Research Council (SRC) funding instrument. The SRC aims to cocreate and mobilise futures knowledge between three groups: research policy actors, researchers, and public sector stakeholders. We interviewed 23 actors from these groups. The results demonstrate three types of mobilisations/immobilisations: (1) mobilisations from themes (established by research policy actors) to projects (realised by researchers and stakeholders), (2) successful mobilisations of futures knowledge through researcher–stakeholder cocreation processes, and (3) immobilisations due to the unrealistic expectations of stakeholders who believed that researchers could transfer knowledge ‘as is’ and at the right time to stakeholders. Such expectations could cause a ‘catch-up paradox’ relating to the reactive use of futures knowledge in decision-making processes.

Towards an objective decision-making framework for regional airport site selection

Airport site selection requires consideration of several criteria constrained by complicated trade-offs. Airport literature and practice provide valuable insights in terms of influencing factors and multicriteria assessment methods, at the pace that reported siting processes follow non uniform decision-making structures. Current developments in geoinformation unveil a valuable opportunity of development of a structured methodology in the field of airport siting. Brazilian public sector decision-makers recognize that such methodology has the potential to improve the allocation of federal budget for new regional airports, in terms of implementation time and political friction. This research proposes a methodology termed MESA - Metodologia de Escolha de Sítios Aeroportuários (in Portuguese, Airport Site Selection Methodology). The purpose of MESA is to be sound under technical grounds and at the same time provide a more objective decision-making process. The proposed methodology consists of 4 phases: i) literature review of airport site selection criteria; ii) criteria systematization; iii) setting up of eliminatory criteria and their thresholds; and iv) setting up of scoring criteria and of an approach for their quantification. Eliminatory criteria reduce the original screening area, while scoring criteria are used for ranking purposes. MESA combines GIS (Geographic Information System) and classic AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) with direct assessment of alternatives through specific techniques. So far, the methodology has been applied to two real cases in the Brazilian context. In addition to effectively reducing subjectivity in airport site location decision, MESA has been demonstrating to be a powerful tool for mitigating environmental and social impacts associated to airport site selection. MESA is designed in such a way that simplifies improvements and adaptations, making it widely applicable.

Medication Apps - A Systematic Search and Classification.

The landscape of mobile health applications is evolving rapidly. This includes a growing set of medication-related health apps. Keeping track of the functional diversity in medication apps is a challenge for both practitioners and regulators, limiting the scope of innovative use of digital technologies in healthcare service delivery. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic search and functional classification of medication apps. We combine this with a discussion of the current and future landscape of regulation and reimbursement decision-making. We show that a majority of apps offers a cluster of functions including medication information, interaction checks and/or medication plans. The number of apps in the functional categories most affected by the Medical Device Regulation (identification, dosage, monitoring) is still low. This suggests that there is a window of opportunity for public sector decision-making on quality criteria.

Making Rights Real: The Promise and Potential Pitfalls of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld)

The commencement of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) on 1 January 2020 heralded a new era in public sector decision-making in Queensland, and the community has high expectations of a regime that obliges the three arms of government to consider people’s human rights when performing their functions. How do we achieve the Act’s objective of building a genuine human rights culture within the public sector? How can the Act make a real difference to the lives of those people most in need of human rights protection? This article, written by the Queensland Human Rights Commissioner, addresses these questions and provides an overview of the Queensland Human Rights Commission’s plan for the successful implementation of the Act in Queensland. The article is an edited version of a Twilight Seminar presented to the Faculty of Law at Bond University on 6 February 2020.

Accounting for natural capital has cross-cutting relevance for UK public sector decision-making

Countries have made a range of international commitments to compile and use natural capital accounts. While processes and methods for compiling natural capital accounts are now well defined, mainstreaming natural capital accounting (NCA) across public sector decision-making remains a practical challenge. This raises the question: which domains of public sector decision-making are important for a phased introduction of NCA? Here, we address a subset of this evidence gap through systematic analysis of the policy-relevance of natural capital accounts in the United Kingdom (UK). We identify 85 UK public sector bodies whose activities can affect the extent or condition of natural capital assets, and 60 bodies whose policy objectives are qualitatively contingent on natural capital stocks or services. For each of these 60 public sector bodies natural capital management (1) is a core policy priority, (2) impacts on policy objectives by regulating natural hazards, or (3) provides ecosystem goods and services that support policy objectives concerning health and well-being. Our findings highlight the considerable cross-cutting relevance of natural capital for public sector decision-making, and the need to account for natural capital in policy domains beyond those focused narrowly on environmental policy and management, e.g. through coordination structures that feature cross-departmental representation.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems and the public sector: A bibliographic analysis

Entrepreneurial ecosystems represent an active and growing area of research. Recognized as a contributor to foster regional competitiveness by stimulating economic growth and promoting innovativeness, interest in the concept spans across disciplines. Despite evolving and inter-disciplinary discussions on entrepreneurial ecosystems, a comprehensive understanding of the research directions and latest developments in the field is elusive. At the same time, a clear understanding of the current lay of the land is necessary to assist in public sector decision-making and policy development. To address this gap, this bibliometric study presents a bibliographic analysis of extant literature in the field, as referenced as the focal topic of concern in academic journal articles spanning 1995–2019. The aim is to provide an overview of the origins of the entrepreneurial ecosystems concept in literature, to offer insight into key concepts that have emerged in research over the past twenty-five-years. The paper employs bibliographic techniques to track knowledge, identify trends, and highlight the primary emerging patterns and conceptual clusters. The analysis offers a map of the covered territory and facilitates the identification of gaps and under-researched areas in the field, with a particular focus on public sector interaction. Using the visualization of similarities, VOSviewer, software tool, citation, co-citation, co-authorship, as well as the co-occurrence of keywords are presented to offer a comparative overview of the diverse representation of entrepreneurial ecosystems developments across disciplines, countries, institutional clusters, networks and teams.

Social return on investment in the public sector

PurposeSocial return on investment (SROI) is a systematic way of incorporating social values of different stakeholders into public sector decision-making on sustainability. This study aims to identify salient factors that influence SROI implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe interactions of four Dutch municipalities and their social enterprises were examined, by analyzing relevant documents and interviewing key actors.FindingsExternal forces appear to have little influence on SROI implementation. Management systems, legal restrictions in relation to privacy and the administrative burden appear to hinder SROI implementation. Findings suggest that trust among the parties involved and their representatives is a major driver for SROI development. SROI is not measured well enough, which complicates analyzing and reporting its development.Research limitations/implicationsAchieving collaboration through trust is a characteristic of stewardship theory, and therefore useful for studying social sustainability. Combining agency and stewardship theory provides useful insights concerning the application of control mechanisms versus empowerment.Practical implicationsBarriers can be overcome by informing and engaging suppliers in SROI initiatives. Furthermore, findings of this study suggest that it is easier for municipalities to incorporate SROI when social firm activities are insourced. An independent procurement function stimulates SROI development. Engaged professionals can make the difference in SROI policy implementation, more so than written policies.Social implicationsSROI enables social sustainability. SROI can be used by public agencies to provide meaningful activities for the long-term unemployed and underprivileged adolescents.Originality/valueThe study is the first empirical work that relates public procurement to SROI implementation and its effect on suppliers. The findings provide valuable insights into government influence on social enterprises.

Towards a Multi-Channel Service Delivery model in the data-driven public sector

The goal of e-government is to provide public services to end users - be it citizens or residents - of a given nation. Research has shown that there is the susceptibility of governments to check all the boxes so as to present an image of having e-government implementations, yet end users eventually do not benefit from these electronic services. Quality public service delivery is an issue of priority today and, with the increasing availability of modern technological tools and techniques, it is attainable. Data-driven e-government is a necessary ingredient in the modern day public sector due to the widespread availability and rapid production of data (i.e. big data) and it aims at value creation. This study proposes a novel research concept, using the Multi-Channel Service Delivery model as a catalyst to attain the data-driven ecosystem in the public sector. The model was developed based on recommendations from works of previous research to address the changing landscape of the public sector. By integrating the Multi-Channel Service Delivery model into e-government and public sector decision making, governments will be able to bridge the divide and offer services to end users with access to e-services, as well as those who do not. In doing so, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are aimed at leaving none behind will be arrived at.

Can Employee Training Influence Local Fiscal Outcomes?

Employee training is often viewed as essential for incorporating performance management practices into public organizations, but few studies directly link training programs to subsequent changes in organizational outcomes. Typically, evaluations of the impact of training and management innovations more broadly focuses narrowly on improvements at the mean of the distribution, ignoring isomorphic pressures that may spur divergent responses at opposite tails of the distribution. We examine these notions by testing whether training local government personnel on the use of financial performance information in decision-making influences fiscal outcomes. Specifically, we compare the outcomes of North Carolina local governments whose employees participated in training on a new fiscal benchmarking tool at the University of North Carolina School of Government to peer governments that did not participate. Municipal governments with at least one trained employee experienced modest changes, on average, across most of the financial ratios reported in the benchmarking tool. By comparison, the dispersion of the reported outcomes declined considerably among municipal governments whose employees participated in training in comparison to control governments. The strength of this response increased with the number of public officials trained. The results indicate that employee training can facilitate the use of performance benchmarking systems in public sector decision-making. They also suggest that benchmarking without explicit performance targets may encourage convergence toward the average outcome.

Designing information ecosystems to process citizen input and improve public sector decision making

Recent advances in technology and social media have enabled average, individual citizens to forcefully voice their opinions on various public-sector issues. To fully harvest this new tide of technology-enabled activism, information ecosystems must be proactively designed and scientifically managed to receive and process citizen input. In this paper, an activist is a term broadly used to connote any citizen interested in engaging in participative government, usually mediated by the use of technology. The collective set of measures that need to be rigorously undertaken to bring citizen activism to fruition is referred to as activism science in this paper. This position paper examines five case studies wherein citizen activism has already proved successful. The learning's from these case studies leads to a synthetic proposal for managing activism scientifically, incorporating citizen inputs, management science models, technology and data architectures and suitable participative process design. The proposed activism science framework (ASF) is applied to envision improvements in the delivery of online education and urban services.

Feminism, Masculinity, and Active Representation: A Gender Analysis of Representative Bureaucracy

Representative bureaucracy examines how identity impacts bureaucratic decision-making. Under certain circumstances, identity congruence between government officials and citizens will result in positive outcomes. This article explores how representative bureaucracy literature studies the effects of gender identity and matching. Although studies demonstrate that context and organizational environment impact identity, scholars don’t systematically analyze how outcomes are affected by gender, rely predominantly on binary gender variables, seldom acknowledge organizations as masculine spaces, and don’t problematize masculinity. Using critical gender theory, we offer new proposals for how to expand our understanding of institutionalized gender norms as they relate to public sector decisions.

Proving Public Law Error in Automated Decision-Making Systems

Due to recent advancements in government technology practices, public lawyers are now compelled to grapple with the diverse implications of the rise of the digital administrative state. This paper considers the question of how the growth of opaque automated administrative decision-making (ADM) systems will impact on the use of evidence in judicial review proceedings. In doing so, it examines a pressing issue of law and practice at the intersection of two under-developed and important sub-fields of public law: the role of evidence in judicial review and the role of judicial review vis-a-vis automated public sector decision-making. The development of understanding in this seemingly niche area is essential to ensuring that wider public law norms maintain traction in an era of automated government systems. The discussion is in two parts. The first part of the paper examines the current understanding of the role of evidence in judicial review and finds it to be in an unsatisfactory condition. In the second part of the paper, we present the reasons for opacity in ADM systems, a framework for understanding different types of evidential complexities, and an analysis of the likely impacts on judicial review evidence. We come to two broad conclusions. First, proving public law errors in ADM systems presents a myriad of challenges which will require not only innovation by claimants but potentially necessitate wide reconsideration of legal principle and procedure. Second, on evidence more generally, examining judicial review evidence in the context of ADM exposes the need for a much wider conversation about evidence in judicial review. The conventional account of evidence in judicial review found in literature is no longer credible and it is now necessary — much like that widely recognised by those concerned with criminal law and other areas of significant litigation activity — to develop a general field concerned with the law, practice, and principles of evidence in judicial review.

CO2 Efficiency Break Points for Processes Associated to Wood and Coal Transport and Heating

This paper aims to deal with CO2 emissions in energy production process in an original way, based on calculations of total specific CO2 emissions, depending on the type of fuel and the transport distance. This paper has ambition to set a break point from where it is not worthwhile to use wood as an energy carrier as the alternative to coal. The reason for our study is the social urgency of selected problem. For example, in the area of public sector decision-making, wood heating is promoted regardless of the availability within the reasonable distance. From the current state of the research, it is also clear that none of the studies compare coal and biomass fuel transportation from the point of view of CO2 production. For this purpose, an original methodology has been proposed. It is based on a modified life cycle assessment (LCA), supplemented with a system of equations. The proposed methodology has a generalizable nature, and therefore, it can be applied to different regions. However, calculation inputs and modelling are based on specific site data. Based on the presented numerical analysis, the key finding is the break point for associated processes at a distance of 1779.64 km, since when that it is better to burn brown coal than wood in terms of total CO2 emissions. We can conclude that, in some cases, it is more efficient to use coal instead of wood as fuel in terms of CO2 emissions, particularly in regard to transport distance and type of transport.

THE SIGNIFICANT ROLE OF THE TOURISM IN ACHIEVING THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

As the United Nations General Assembly affirmed when announcing the adoption of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, tourism can contribute to all the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – and each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Not only does the sector spearhead growth, it also improves the quality of people’s lives. It can bolster environmental protection, champion diverse cultural heritage, and strengthen peace in the world. In this spirit, World Tourism Day 2017 presents a unique opportunity to raise awareness on the contribution of sustainable tourism for development among public and private sector decision-makers and the international community, while mobilizing all stakeholders to work together in making tourism a catalyst for positive change. Accounting for 7% of worldwide exports, one in eleven jobs and 10% of the world’s GDP, the tourism sector if well managed can foster inclusive economic growth, social inclusiveness and the protection of cultural and natural assets. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, is plan of action for the people, planet and prosperity. In accordance with paragraph 84 of the 2030 Agenda, Member States have decided that the High Level Political Forum shall carry out regular voluntary reviews of the 2030 Agenda which will include developed and developing countries as well as relevant UN entities and other stakeholders. The reviews were state-led, involving ministerial and other relevant high-level participants, and provide a platform for partnerships, including through the participation of major groups and other relevant stakeholders. Since the first United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 - known as the Earth Summit, it was recognized that achieving sustainable development would require the active participation of all sectors of society and all types of people. Agenda 21, adopted at the Earth Summit, drew upon this sentiment and formalized nine sectors of society as the main channels through which broad participation would be facilitated in UN activities related to sustainable development. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom, in the same time recognising that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. All countries and all stakeholders, has committed that acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan.

Applying community resilience theory to engagement with residents facing cumulative environmental exposure risks: lessons from Louisiana’s industrial corridor

The presence of legacy pollutants, on-going chemical manufacturing activities, and population shifts have introduced complex, cumulative exposure risks to residents of many highly industrialized communities. These "industrial corridors" present unique challenges to environmental health science professionals, public and private sector decision makers, and residents seeking to make their communities safer and healthier. Social-ecological resilience theory offers a useful framework for the design and implementation of community engagement efforts to help stakeholders take action to reduce their exposure risks. A resilience framework views the human community as a coupled social-ecological system, wherein disturbances to the equilibrium of the system - acute and/or chronic - are common rather than rare events. It recognizes three key capacities of more resilient communities. These are the abilities of community members to self-organize to address changing threat levels, to hold scientifically sound understandings of the risks, and to learn from past experiences and take action - individually or collectively - to adapt to or mitigate the hazards in their local environment. We apply this resilience theory framework to a case study from Camp Minden, Louisiana, conducted through the Louisiana State University (LSU) Superfund Research Center's Community Engagement program and supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The case illuminates a critical path by which resilience theory can be applied to guide bi-directional communication and information-gathering, and co-development of risk-reducing strategies at the community level. These are central elements of community engagement within a contentious, real-world setting. The three components of the resilience framework were supported by specific program mechanisms and activities. The capacity for self-organization among community stakeholders was furthered through the convening of a Dialogue Committee which brought together representatives of concerned residents, regulatory agencies, research scientists, and others. This collaborative problem-solving approach supported a more holistic and scientifically sound understanding of the problem through a series of interactive meetings in which members discussed site-remediation options with thermal-treatment experts and regulators, and shared how recent explosions and concerns about air quality affected them. The members co-developed selection criteria and reached consensus on two types of disposal methods that would best reduce the significant threats to public health and the local environment. We also include a brief summary of our recent randomized survey of over 550 residents of Louisiana's industrialized communities to determine the influences on household-level adaptive behaviors to reduce acute and chronic environmental exposure risks. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that residents with more concern and knowledge about environmental hazards, along with confidence in their ability to implement risk-reduction measures - such as checking air-quality forecasts and then limiting outside activities - were much more likely to adopt the exposure-reducing behaviors, even when controlling for socioeconomic and demographic differences among respondents. These findings shed light on the conditions under which residents of these types of communities may be more likely to take action to reduce potential environmental exposure risks, and may help in the design of public education efforts. These "lessons learned" from Louisiana communities facing cumulative environmental exposure risks suggest that application of resilience theory to the design and implementation of community engagement programs may support the longer-term effectiveness of the efforts and enhance overall environmental health resilience. In addition, they provide practical insights about how to operationalize and apply these theoretical concepts to real-world environmental health challenges faced by residents of industrialized communities throughout the world.