Role Of Policy Measures Research Articles

The Impact of the Resource-Exhausted City Program on Manufacturing Enterprises’ Performance: A Policy Measures Perspective

The transformation of resource-based cities has a crucial impact on the development of local manufacturing enterprises. This study aims to assess the impact of the Resource-Exhausted City Program (RECP) on the performance of manufacturing enterprises, with a particular focus on the role of policy measures. Using data on manufacturing enterprises from 2004 to 2014, this study employs multiple difference-in-difference methods to investigate the impact of the RECP on corporate performance and its potential mechanisms. The results show that (1) the RECP can significantly improve the performance of firms in the pilot areas; (2) the implementation of RECP contributes to the improvement of manufacturing enterprises’ performance by using policy measures, mainly including subsidies, tax incentives and access to low-interest loans; and (3) the supportive effects of the RECP are more pronounced in outward-oriented, state-owned and larger manufacturing enterprises. This study provides new insights into the relationship between resource-exhausted city policies and corporate performance.

Relationship between mortality and health care expenditure: Sustainable assessment of health care system.

Infant and maternal mortality are important indicators for assessing the quality of healthcare systems. The World Health Organization underscores the importance of proper health care system in reducing preventable mortality through early intervention. Early intervention includes availability, accessibility and affordability of health care systems for children and mothers. While there are several studies that assess the immediate and underlying drivers of child mortality, literature on the role of policy measures are limited and inconsistent. Thus, robust empirical analysis of the determinants of maternal and infant mortality remains inconclusive in the era of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Here, we examined the influence of health expenditure on infant and maternal deaths for the period 2000–2015 across 177 countries. Using panel Quantile Regression with bootstrapping, this study accounted for the 2007–2008 financial crisis in an empirical relationship between health outcome and health expenditure. We found a negative effect of health expenditure on mortality across all percentiles. Infant mortality rate declines between 0.19% - 1.45% while maternal mortality rate declines ranging from 0.09% - 1.91%. To attain the goal of ensuring healthy lives and wellbeing of all people (SDG 3), this study infers that health expenditure potentially reduces maternal and infant mortality across lower and middle income countries. We highlight the need for an enhanced health care expenditure, especially in developing countries to curb the levels of infant and maternal deaths.

Resolving failures in recycling markets: the role of technological innovation

In addition to environmental externalities, markets for recyclable materials are affected by other market barriers and failures. These include imperfect and asymmetric information and technological and consumption externalities. In this paper we review the nature of such failures and how they may affect markets for certain recyclable materials. We then discuss how such failures can be overcome (in part) by technological innovation, and present evidence on trends in patented inventions drawing upon a rich database of patent applications. And finally, we provide an econometric investigation on the role of policy measures in inducing innovation in two areas—plastic packaging and end-of-life-vehicle waste.