Role Of Public Interventions Research Articles

Unmet needs of tourists with disability: The role of public intervention

Since leisure tourism is both a social need as well as a human right, its accessibility is essential for full social integration, especially for people with disabilities who often struggle against exclusion. Accessibility, in the sense considered here, refers to the design of products, amenities, services in a tourism destination that meet the access needs of individuals with disabilities so as to make tourism not risky and usable by them. These individuals, however, are often not adequately served by tourism suppliers, with their unmet needs constituting a crucial issue that deserve special attention by policy makers. As suggested by UNWTO, accessibility should be a central part of any responsible and sustainable tourist policy. The aim of the study is evaluate (both conceptually and empirically) the role of public intervention in enhancing accessibility in the tourism context.

The European Economic Community's regional policy during the ‘age of disorder'. From ‘harmonious development' to market-oriented policies (1972-1987)

This article examines the transformation of the European Economic Community's (EEC) regional policy paradigms from the early 1970s, when negotiations for the creation of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) began, until the approval of the Single European Act. The article identifies this period as the beginning of a deep transition from demand-side "interventionist" and "neo-mercantilist" models — typical of certain regional policies used up to that time by member states (primarily by Italy) — towards more openly neoliberal models. My analysis of the harsh conflicts within the Regional Policy Committee (the national technocracies' representative body in charge of managing the ERDF) and between the committee and the European Commission demonstrate that this outcome was not at all taken for granted. It was determined, above all, by the overload of objectives of EEC regional policy in a context of scarce resources, and by the progressive lack of trust in the role of public intervention.

The Role of public interventions in inducing private climate finance: An empirical analysis of the solar energy sector

This paper analyses the factors explaining the recent boost in solar energy private investments, focusing on the role of public finance and public policy tools - feed-in-tariffs and renewable energy quotas. Drawing on a micro-level database of financial transactions in solar energy projects in 23 OECD countries over the period 2004–2015, we perform a panel data analysis to study the relationship between public finance and public policies and private investments in solar energy, controlling for composition of the energy industry and market characteristics by country. We find that the provision of public finance is positively associated with private finance flows. Furthermore, we show that public policy stimulates private investments, but the effect of renewable energy quotas on private finance is larger than that of feed-in tariffs. Finally, the availability of fossil fuels constitutes an important barrier to solar energy investments, while the presence of alternative sources of clean energy does not hinder private climate finance.

What do adoption patterns of solar panels observed so far tell about governments’ incentive? Insights from diffusion models

The fast worldwide spread of renewable energies is one of the key aspects of the international response to the threats of global warming. However, the diffusion of solar photovoltaic panels (SPPs) shows strict dependence on public incentive support. We apply diffusion models to SPP adoptions (26 countries between 1992 and 2016) to identify the temporal profile of the major domestic shocks in SPP markets whilst focusing on the role of public interventions in influencing the scale and shape of SPP adoption curves. The results show that the SPP market started in all countries considered without the assistance of a strong innovation component so that its initial lifecycle was essentially sustained by imitation. The largest part of its market growth, however, resulted from massive positive shocks that occurred between 2007 and 2016, possibly attributed to incentive measures. These public incentives were often poorly designed, resulting in late, short-term responses to external stimuli, such as the cogent pressure of international deadlines, in the absence of a well-established long-term plan. The limited temporal persistency of public actions, causing the market to be dominated by incentive-forced waves followed by negligible post-incentive adoptions, indicate the emergence of an addiction to incentive phenomenon and, therefore, a deleterious role of expectations.

The Race for Innovation in the Media and Content Industries: Legacy Players and Newcomers: Lessons for Policy Makers from the Video Game and Cinema Industries

ABSTRACTHow do media industries innovate? How can they compete with powerful competitors from the information technology world? The article focuses on the video game and cinema industries. The findings reveal their contrasting specific forms of innovation and provide a fresh understanding of its twofold nature in these industries. It does not boil down to simply creating new content but is increasingly open to the investment and integration of technologies. The evolution of the development models and the changes brought by technology raise questions about how to (re)consider the role of public intervention in these industries.

Connectivity Models for Developing Economies

This paper examines six case studies of broadband deployment in developing economies, highlighting the conditions for wireline last mile and the role of public intervention.

Properties of knowledge base and firm survival: Evidence from a sample of French manufacturing firms

The paper analyzes the effects of the properties of firms' knowledge base on the survival likelihood of firms. Drawing upon the analysis of the patterns of co-occurrence of technological classes in patent applications, we derive the coherence, variety and cognitive distance indexes, accounting respectively for technological complementarity, differentiation and dissimilarity in the firms' patent portfolios. The results of our analysis are in line with the previous literature, showing that innovation enhances the survival likelihood of firms. In addition, we show that the search strategies at work in the development of firms' knowledge base matter in reducing the likelihood of a failure event. Knowledge coherence and variety appear to be positively related to firms' survival, while cognitive distance exerts a negative effect. We conclude that firms able to exploit the accumulated technological competences have more chances to be successful in competing durably in the market arena, and derive some policy implications concerning the role of public intervention in the orientation of search efforts in local contexts.

The Duties of the Sovereign: A Brief Guide to the Literature

In this paper we address the following four questions: is it reasonably correct to assume that the government is benevolent and competent? Has state intervention through taxation and transfers negative effects on individual incentives? In a context of limited information, are political failures or market failures more relevant? Which macroeconomic model is more useful for policy analysis? We tackle the above issues by surveying and discussing the main contributions in the literature on the above topics and we draw some lessons on the appropriate role of public intervention in the economy.

The Ongoing Transformation of Social Housing Finance in France: Towards a Self-financing System?

This paper reviews social housing policy transformations in France since 2000. These changes have come to represent a new context characterised by conflict between government budget constraints and intensive demand for social housing due to growing job insecurity and soaring housing prices. The paper begins by outlining the mayor debates on the role of public interventions in the provision of social housing in France. It then focuses on the consequences for the sustainability of new social rental housing which has proved to be more and more oriented toward a self-financing system. Our review argues that although the current annual provision of social housing has not yet declined, self-financing is probably a feature of a transition stage between sustainable growth and the stagnation of the social housing stock. This change poses anew the key question for the French social housing model: whether or not to reproduce the ‘residual’ position being taken by most European countries.

The Asymmetric Effect of Diffusion Processes: Risk Sharing and Contagion

In this paper we provide a general characterization of diffusion processes, allowing us to analyze both risk-sharing and contagion effects at the same time. We illustrate the relevance of our theory with reference to the subprime mortgage crisis and more in general to the processes of securitization and interbank linkages. We show that interdependencies in real and financial assets are beneficial from a social point of view when the economic environment is favorable and detrimental when the economic environment deteriorates. In the latter case, private incentives are such that too many linkages are formed, with respect to what is socially desirable. The risk of contagion increases the volatility of the outcome and thus reduces the ability of the financial networks to provide risk-sharing. Our analysis suggests that a likely major explanation of the subprime mortgage crisis is the process of securitization itself, in addition to the absence of transparency about the characteristics of the underlying assets that the multiple layers of financial intermediation fostered, as commonly claimed. This may call for a different emphasis on the role of public intervention. While a goal to stabilize the economy in good times should be to disrupt the channels that bring contagion, that is a positive correlation in the returns, in a period of worsening economic conditions our analysis suggests regulatory intervention aimed at disconnecting the economy at crucial nodes. Moreover, we show that policy interventions should be aimed at rescuing institutions, but not their managers. Diminishing the cost of default actually increases the inefficiency due to the divergence between the social and the individual optimum.

Converting the Military-Industrial-Toxic Economy—Lessons from the U.S., Part I

This article draws lessons from the military conversion organizing since the end of the Cold War for how communities and workers can influence conversion decisions of corporations and government. National conversion policy has favored corporate over community interests because it has been ideologically committed to liberal reforms. Part 1 of this article outlines the need for national policy to guide the conversion of large corporations to preserve jobs and community stability. Part 2 draws lessons from local and national conversion efforts which have had impacts on smaller firms, communities, and regions and could create a shift in public understanding about the role of public intervention in the economy.

The market for offences and the public enforcement of laws: an equilibrium analysis.

The general proposition developed in this paper is that the frequency of offences of specific types is determined, by and large, not as the capricious outcome of biological or social idiosyncracies, but as the result of the equilibrating interplay of systematic 'supply and demand' forces. The role of public intervention via police, courts, correctional institutions, and economic policy in general, is then viewed in terms of its impact on the equilibrium level of activity in illegitimate markets, rather than in terms of its effect on either the supply or the demand sides of these markets separately. From a policy perspective the implication is that the efficacy of public intervention in the 'business of crime' must be assessed through the relevant comparative statics or dynamics of market equilibrium, rather than by reference to partial settings. For example, one would seek to know not just whether a rehabilitative project can enhance the likelihood that a group of known offenders will be successfully absorbed in legitimate or socially desirable pursuits, but whether the rehabilitative project, even if successful, would lead to a corresponding reduction in the overall volume of crime. Recognition of the existence and role of the 'market for offences' is shown to lead to important modifications in previous economic analyses of illegitimate activities concerning not only the efficacy of rehabilitation and other means of direct control of individual offenders, but of means of general deterrence as well. The paper states conditions under which individual control is efficacious and shows that it will be ineffective precisely whereas general deterrence is effective. Generally, the relatively efficacy of all means of public enforcement of laws is shown to be a function of both supply and demand elasticities rather than a function of supply elasticities alone. The analysis includes a brief discussion of what is meant by the supply and demand notions is crime, and, indeed, by the more provocative concept of the 'market for offences'.