Set Of Policies Research Articles

Промышленная политика и инновационный процесс в современной российской экономике

The article is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between effective industrial policy and the innovation process in the modern economic system. The industrial policy determines the specifics of the industries development, the competitiveness of individual industrial enterprises and is based on a set of economic policies implemented by the state; however, it also has its own features. Innovation and investment processes are the basis of effective industrial policy. The purpose of the study is to consider various approaches to determining the interdependence of effective industrial policy and the innovation process of foreign and Russian scientists, as well as to analyze the factors and conditions that ensure the effectiveness of the state industrial policy implementation. As part of the analysis of factors and conditions that ensure the effectiveness of the state’s industrial policy, the article assesses the advantages and disadvantages of the industrial policy implementation and its impact on the state’s to form and regulate the innovation process. The author uses methods of scientific analysis and synthesis. The positive and negative features of the industrial policy implementation in modern Russian economy in the context of globalization are identified, the underestimation of the business sector’s role in the innovation process implementation is revealed. The factors that reduce the effectiveness of the industrial policy innovative model implementation due to the inconsistency of the tools and methods are identified. The conditions for ensuring the long-term economic development effectiveness are revealed. Modern industrial policy requires consideration of the factors influencing its efficiency, as well as the specifics of the investment and innovation process implementation in the national economy’s industrial development in the context of globalization. The improvement of the existing scientific research and education systems will ensure the long-term advanced development of domestic industry, provide an opportunity to develop import substitution and occupy new niches in the global economic system. Industrial policy is determined by the peculiarities of the innovation process implementation in the economic system. An innovative model of industrial policy implementation can ensure the long-term development of the national economic system and increase its competitiveness.

Discretionary Accrual Earnings Management in a Sub-Saharan African Economy

This paper investigates the existence of discretionary total accrual earnings management and working capital accrual earnings management in Nigeria which is Sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy. Unlike previous studies that use the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) technique that does not control for endogeneity that can invalidate results, our empirical methodology implements the maximum likelihood estimation that controls for endogeneity to estimate economically plausible levels of discretionary accrual earnings management. Our results find that discretionary accrual earnings management in Nigeria is characterized by statistically significant, tax-induced income-reducing discretionary accruals. This study contributes to the literature as it is the first emerging market, African and Sub-Saharan African economy study to the best of the researchers’ knowledge that estimates discretionary accrual earnings management for listed non-financial firms using various models based on the maximum likelihood estimation technique to control for endogeneity. The findings inform the political economy of economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly as it relates to how firms, especially multinationals, are motivated to extract rents from African economies. The results have policy implications for accounting regulatory interventions by policy and standard setting bodies that mitigate and/or eliminate capital flight, tax evasion, aggressive tax avoidance and financial corruption practices in Sub-Saharan African economies.

Climate change transformation in built environments – A policy instrument framework

Built environments are key spaces for social and economic activities. They are critical sources of greenhouse gas emissions and will be important locations for adaptation to climate change impacts. To transform built environments to adequately address climate change, necessary policy instruments must be identified and activated. However, the application of ‘policy instrument’ typologies to empirical research and analysis of the built environment holistically is limited. We present a ‘built environment policy framework’ consisting of a policy instrument typology (strategies, laws, regulations, guidelines, voluntary instruments and programs) and a built environment policy setting (governance level, sector, property type, life stage, timeframe). The framework was tested in an Australian context, and used to map and visually represent built environment policy instruments. The results highlight the suitability of the framework for understanding the policy portfolio of a built environment context. The mapping identified that strategies were the dominant policy instrument. Fewer policy instruments were found to directly address the built environment's later life stages, and there were fewer at federal and international levels of governance. This new framework makes a theoretical contribution to policy instrument development for built environments – by applying a holistic and complex approach. It also makes a practical contribution, to assist built environment professionals and governments assess their current policy instrument portfolio to inform policy development that progresses climate change transformation.

Optimal dynamic strategy for emission reduction and operation considering hybrid carbon policy with carbon tax and cap-and-trade

Global warming has always been a constant concern for various countries, and carbon emissions are one of the main causes. Accordingly, how to reduce emissions is a problem that enterprises need to pay attention to. The enterprise’s emission reduction activities are closely influenced by government policies. This paper analyzes the effect of a hybrid carbon policy, which means a combination of carbon tax and cap-and-trade policies, on the manufacturer’s carbon abatement activities and supply chain operations in such a condition that the government operates free and paid carbon emission quotas. The study adopts a differential game approach to examine the optimal decision of the supply chain members. We compare the optimal strategies in centralized and decentralized scenarios and put forward a coordinated contract to achieve the Pareto improvement. Our study shows that the carbon tax rate, carbon trade price and the proportion of paid quota all positively affect the emission reduction activities of enterprises over time, but negatively impact the corporate profit and social welfare. However, the set of above policies is advantageous to consumer surplus within a certain range. As for the revenue sharing-transfer payment hybrid contract, when its sharing rate increases within a certain range, the enterprise’s carbon abatement and supply chain members’ profits will improve at the same time. The adjustment of the above policies depends on which aspect the government focuses on.

Science and innovation policy for New Zealand

The ‘Science of Science Policy’ is an interdisciplinary field of scholarly study that seeks to model, measure, and evaluate the interaction of public policies (including funding) and the performance of the science and innovation system. Such study offers insights and findings that can increase the effectiveness of science and innovation policy for New Zealand.
 New Zealand’s rate of public investment in research is only about two-thirds, and that of business investment in research about one-third of the OECD average. Our low business R&D intensity is not unexpected given our market size, firm size, and industrial composition. Nevertheless, public policy should aim to mitigate barriers to firms’ ability to undertake high-return research investments.
 As we undertake only 0.2% of the world’s research, most of the knowledge used in New Zealand is created elsewhere, so positioning ourselves to derive maximum benefit from others’ research is likely to have high payoff. The spillover phenomenon should be considered in making decisions about public research support. A re-balancing from competition towards cooperation, and encouraging linkages between research entities and organisations with a commercial orientation will increase the likelihood of spillover benefits.
 Research output could be increased relatively quickly by increasing the currently low expenditure per researcher, but any sustained increase will require more skilled scientists and engineers. Therefore public financing of research should include a monitored programme of training grants, and immigration policy settings that do not inhibit attracting skilled scientists and engineers. Attraction and retention of research ‘stars’ should be an explicit objective of New Zealand science policy.
 A culture of innovation requires an attitude that defines success in terms of the global market, not the local market. It requires a social, economic and cultural environment that rewards risktaking and does not see failure as a barrier to undertaking further investment. Policy makers, too, should be willing to take risks, and systematic

Does Trade Openness and Human Capital abate Unemployment? Empirical Evidence from India

This study comprehensively investigates the impact of trade openness and human capital on India’s unemployment rate using time-series data from 1990 to 2019. The ARDL bound testing approach was used to determine the long and short-run relationship among the variables. The empirical findings indicate that trade openness and human capital have a negative impact on the unemployment rate in both the long and short run, suggesting that trade openness and human capital have reduced the unemployment rate in India. These results have significant implications for policymakers in crafting policies that promote continuous trade openness and help reduce unemployment in India. To succeed, trade liberalisation must be integrated into a reasonable set of structural and macroeconomic policies, supplemented by complementary policies such as maintaining an adequate inflation rate and macroeconomic stability and nurturing human capital. The study recommends that India should prioritise improving and enhancing efficient schooling and training programs, with a particular focus on career skills for young people. Policymakers can use the study’s findings to guide policy decisions to reduce unemployment and promote trade openness. JEL Codes: E24, F14, F63, C32

Profit vs. Equality? The Case of Financial Risk Assessment and A New Perspective on Alternative Data

The importance of pursuing financial inclusion to accelerate economic growth and enhance financial sustainability has been well noted. However, studies have provided few actionable insights into how financial institutions can balance the potential socioeconomic trade-off between profitability and equality. One major challenge arises from a lack of understanding of the impacts of various types of market information available on financial equality beyond economic profitability. Another challenge lies in how the socioeconomic trade-off under a large set of counterfactual policies in a real-world setting can be evaluated. Our motivation for the present study was the emerging sources of digitized user-behavior data (i.e., “alternative data”) stemming from the high penetration of mobile devices and internet access. Accordingly, we investigated how alternative data from smartphones and social media can help mitigate potential financial inequality while preserving business profitability in the context of financial credit risk assessment. We partnered with a leading microloan website to design a novel “meta” experiment that allowed us to simulate various real-world field experiments under an exhaustive set of counterfactual policies. Interestingly, we found that profiling user financial risk using smartphone activities is 1.3 times more effective in improving financial inclusion than using online social media information (23.05% better vs. 18.11%), and nearly 1.3 times more effective in improving business profitability (42% better vs. 33%). Surprisingly, we found that using consumers’ online shopping activities for credit risk profiling can hurt financial inclusion. Furthermore, we investigated potential explanations for financial inclusion improvements. Our findings suggest that alternative data, especially users’ smartphone activities, not only demonstrate higher ubiquity but also appear to be more orthogonal to conventional sensitive demographic attributes. This, in turn, can help mitigate statistical bias driven by the unobserved factors or underrepresentative training samples in machine-based risk assessment processes.

A reflection on Springer Nature’s current editorial policies related to “predatory” journals and references

Despite its prominent position as one of the leading for-profit scholarly publishers of subscription and open access (OA) journals, and its membership of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), Springer Nature can be criticized for taking a vague approach in its editorial policies pertaining to “predatory” publishing. While cautioning authors and/or editors about the citation of papers that are published in “predatory” journals, the advice presented in the policies itself is flawed due its limitation to OA journals – thus apparently excluding the possibility that subscription journals might also be “predatory” and failing to specify precisely which journals authors and editors should be careful of, i.e., no source for the “predatory” definition of OA journals is indicated. Moreover, this vague set of policies does not have a publication date, nor is any authorship specified. The opacity of these aspects of these editorial policies limits their usefulness and weakens their objectives, namely in ostensibly offering scholarly advice to protect editors and authors. I argue that the Springer Nature policies pertaining to “predatory” publishing as they currently stand are not useful, and if left unchanged, can be a source of confusion or error for authors and editors of Springer Nature journals. In this connection, the identified risk is that if the poor advice indicated in those policies is heeded, it may encourage abuse, insults and/or indiscriminate profiling of academics, including those associated with Springer Nature journals. While assuming Springer Nature’s genuine intention to alert editors and authors against citing papers published in suspect scholarly venues, I argue that this editorial set of policies should either be rewritten to rely on clearer parameters, including a definitive list of journals for which “predatory” criteria have been defined, or abandoned as they are overly broad. The criticism is aimed at stimulating a discussion among other editors and publishers, especially COPE members.

Generating Diverse Optimal Road Management Plans in Post-Disaster by Applying Envelope Multi-Objective Deep Reinforcement Learning

The authors used a data-driven reinforcement learning model for the post-disaster rapid recovery of human mobility, considering human-mobility recovery rate, road connectivity, and travel cost as the recovery components, to generate the reward framework. Each component has relative importance with respect to the others. However, if the preference is different from the original one, the optimal policy may not always be identified. This limitation must be addressed to enhance the robustness and generalizability of the proposed deep Q-network model. Therefore, a set of optimal policies were identified over a predetermined preference space, and the underlying importance was evaluated by applying envelope multi-objective reinforcement learning. The agent used in this study could distinguish the importance of each damaged road based on a given relative preference and derive a road-recovery policy suitable for each criterion. Furthermore, the authors provided the guidelines for constructing the optimal road-management plan. Based on the generalized policy network, the government can access diverse restoration strategies and select the most appropriate one depending on the disaster situation.

Conflict and social control among cannabis growers

AimsIllegal drug markets are often assumed to be violent and predatory due to the absence of third-party enforcement. While cannabis markets are generally considered to be relatively more peaceful, there has been little investigation of the levels of conflict and victimization among small-scale cannabis growers, particularly under different cannabis policy and enforcement settings. This paper explores prevalence and predictors of conflict and social control among small-scale cannabis growers. MethodsThe data were obtained from an online convenience survey of small-scale cannabis growers from 13 countries (Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, and Uruguay) from August 2020 to September 2021 (N = 5667). Key measures collected included the types of victimization due to cannabis growing, the perpetrators of these predatory actions, reasons for the conflict, and the grower's response to being victimized. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify predictors of different types of victimization and social control responses among cannabis cultivators. ResultsMost growers (76 %) never directly experienced violence or other victimization related to their cannabis cultivation. However, about one-quarter of growers had been victimized at some point, mostly involving theft, with physical violence rare. Growing outdoors, growing with others, growing more plants, and being a more seasoned grower increased the risk of victimization. Growers who were motivated by profit were more susceptible to theft. Surprisingly, growers in legal recreational jurisdictions experienced greater levels of theft and violent victimization than growers in illegal jurisdictions. Nonviolent social control responses predominated among the growers, mostly characterized by toleration but also avoidance and negotiation. ConclusionWhile most growers reported no victimization, a substantial minority did so, largely theft rather than violence, and typically did not report employing retaliatory violence. Social control responses were mostly nonviolent. These findings varied under different cannabis policy and enforcement environments. Cannabis legalization does not eliminate opportunities for theft and violence related to cannabis cultivation.

Memory-Augmented Lyapunov-Based Safe Reinforcement Learning: End-to-End Safety Under Uncertainty

Despite recent advances in safe reinforcement learning (RL), safety constraints are often violated at deployment; especially under extreme uncertainty in memory-based partially observable environments. To address these limitations, we propose a memory-augmented Lyapunov-based safe RL model. The primary contributions of our method include (i) an explicit memory module based on Transformers to process long time horizons of information feedback from the environment; (ii) a memory-augmented Lyapunov function to determine a safe set of policies, and (iii) an exploration module that identifies highly rewarding safe actions by characterizing the uncertainty in the environment. We evaluate the proposed model in reactive OpenAI Safety Gym and memory-based partially observable DMLab-30 environments. The results of these experiments show that the proposed method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. Specifically, our proposed method achieves the lowest constraint costs among the tested benchmarks, while delivering high returns. Moreover, we perform ablation studies that show significant contributions of the introduced Transformer-based encoder, memory-augmented Lyapunov functions, and the uncertainty-aware exploration module.

The impact of liquidity conditions on the time-varying link between U.S. municipal green bonds and major risky markets during the COVID-19 crisis: A machine learning approach

In this study, we aim to investigate the role of the liquidity risk channel in affecting the dynamic conditional correlations (DCCs) between the U.S. municipal green bonds and risky assets (energy commodities and stocks) by accounting for other macroeconomic risks and uncertainties during the COVID-19 crisis period. To explore the underlying mechanism behind the DCCs, we first derive the DCCs and then use novel machine learning techniques, such as CatBoost, Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) models and select the most effective one based on its performance metrics. We also employ the Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) method to gain a greater understanding of machine learning predictions. The baseline findings suggest the critical role of the rising term spread in increasing the DCCs between the U.S. municipal green bonds and risky assets during the COVID-19 crisis. Equally important, we observe that this role is more pronounced at high levels of the term spread and that the term spread frequently interacts with funding liquidity conditions (TED spread). Our analysis holds valuable implications for the implementation of informed policy sets and the development of optimal portfolio diversification strategies in global markets.

Myth of the near future? Assessing the European Green Deal’s potential to become a political myth for the European Union

ABSTRACT Questions have long revolved around the European Union’s (EU) capacity to develop ‘post-national’ political myths – sacred narratives that provide a basis for long-term political legitimacy. The need for new EU political myths has become particularly severe with the declining power of the Union’s foundational myths of peace and prosperity, and as the EU has entered an era of almost permanent crisis. This article critically assesses whether one contemporary EU policy innovation – the European Green Deal (EGD) – has the potential to transform from a set of policies and an accompanying narrative into a sacred narrative for the Union. The analysis is conducted by applying a novel framework that assesses a myth’s features, including significance, development, and impact, to draw conclusions about the EGD’s mythic capacity. Drawing on key speeches, texts, and Eurobarometer findings, the conclusion is drawn that the EGD does have mythic capacity in terms of its significance and development. However, its impact has been limited by critical voices on both sides of the climate action debate. This conclusion has important implications for the possibilities of post-national mythmaking.

Controlling Raw Material Inventory using the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) Method at PT. ICI Paints Indonesia

The inventory control system comprises a set of control policies to determine the level of inventory to be maintained, when orders to replenish inventory should be placed, and how large orders should be. This system determines and ensures the availability of inventory in the right quantity and at the right time. The aim of inventory is in the right quantity and at the right time. Inventory management aims to provide the necessary raw materials for the production process to run smoothly without shortages or excess inventory, thus minimizing inventory control of raw materials, specifically Titanium Dioxide and Calcium Carbonate. The company often faces shortages and excess inventory of these raw materials. The company must estimate the future demand for Titanium Dioxide and Calcium Carbonate raw materials. This prompts the research question of how to analyze the implementation of the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) method for inventory control of these specific raw materials at PT. ICI Paints Indonesia. This research employs qualitative techniques and analyzes data using the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) method, Lead Time, Re-Order Point, and Total Inventory Cost Order. The results of this study indicate that inventory control of raw materials using the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) method is more efficient for managing Titanium Dioxide and Calcium Carbonate raw materials at PT. ICI Paints Indonesia. The company can optimize the inventory of Titanium Dioxide and Calcium Carbonate raw materials and reduce purchasing costs. By establishing a reorder point, the company can anticipate excess or shortage of Titanium Dioxide and Calcium Carbonate raw materials, thus minimizing inventory-purchasing costs.

Coherence and fragmentation: Global influences on Nordic and East Asian teacher policies

We investigated patterns of teacher policy reforms in eight countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in the Nordic group and Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan in East Asia. Using the Reforms Finder of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Education Reform Database (WERD) to identify teacher-related reforms, we found all nations focused on the improvement of teacher quality as a common vision for education, but no nation implemented a “coherent” set of policies that addressed all phases of teacher professional trajectories. Some regional effects in policy emphasis with regard to education, certification, working conditions and long-term professional development were noted.

Policy Impacts on Comparative Advantage and Production Protection to Cotton and Its Competing Crops in Pakistan

Agriculture, particularly cotton cultivation, holds paramount significance for the economy of Pakistan. The cotton crop shares 0.6 percent of the gross domestic product and contributes 70 percent to the country’s export earnings. Nonetheless, during the last two decades, cotton area and production in the country have declined. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the economic benefits and competitiveness of cotton and its competitive crops under the current set of relevant policies. We have employed a Policy Analysis Matrix to assess the impact of agricultural policies on cotton and its competing crops. The results show that cotton producers across Pakistan are implicitly taxed, while sugarcane and rice producers are protected under the current policy measures. It has also become evident that large cotton growers are more likely to get a comparative advantage of prevailing policy incentives than medium and small growers. Thus, crop-specific and scale-specific policy interventions are suggested to enhance cotton production. Similarly, exploring and converging on new potential areas for cotton production, especially in Balochistan, can improve the country’s overall cotton production.
 1. INTRODUCTION
 State institutions worldwide protect and support the agricultural sector through various policy measures. This support keeps the agriculture sector productive and competitive to ensure food security for the masses, livelihoods for farming entities, and to meet the requirements of agro-based industries (GOP, 2019). These policies broadly deal with farm inputs and outputs, trade facilitation/restrictions, mechanisation of cropping systems, and investment in rural and agricultural infrastructure, including R&D and irrigation. Government interventions have resulted in various advantages for specific crops while creating social and economic externalities for others. Pakistan has also adopted several policy measures to cater to the needs of farming communities in the changing global scenario. These policies are sometimes crop-specific but, most of the time, are designed to increase total crop productivity (MPDS, 2013).
 Agriculture contributes around 22.9 percent of the GDP and almost 34.7 percent of employment in Pakistan (GOP, 2023a). The share of major crops in GDP is nearly 4.32 percent, of which cotton accounts for 0.6 percent of GDP and 3.1 percent of total value addition in agriculture. In the case of cotton, Pakistan is the fifth largest producer globally. Its share is around 0.6 percent of GDP and contributes 2.4 percent of the value added in agriculture (GOP, 2023a). Similarly, cotton has the longest value chain among all crops, contributing significantly to Pakistan’s foreign exchange earnings. Pakistan exports $836 million (4.7 percent) of raw cotton and yarn, while cotton-based exports account for $9.5 billion, comprising more than half of the country’s total exports (GOP, 2021b). Though cotton is considered the main cash crop in the country with its strong backward and forward linkages, the past couple of decades have observed a dismal cotton performance in many instances. At the same time, the last five years can be considered devastating in terms of cotton area, production, and profitability. Table 1 below reflects the reduction in the cotton area in Punjab (which contributes around 70 percent of the total cotton acreage) and the decline in cotton production and yield. It has been observed that since 2000, cotton has lost 12 percent of its area, while its competing crops have gained the area under cultivation, mainly sugarcane, which followed a 17 percent increase in its area.
 The area replacement of cotton crop with its competitive Kharif crops, i.e., sugarcane, maize, and rice, has many interesting insights from a policy perspective. There are diverging opinions at the policy level, whether the downfall of the cotton crop is due to adverse climatic conditions, the development of pest pressure in cotton growing areas, or the frequent distortions in output and input markets. It has been observed that output prices, among all other factors, remain the primary cause of reducing the profitability of the cotton crop.

The impact of technical efficiency on firms' value: The case of the halal food and beverage industry in selected countries.

The market for the halal food and beverage industry sector has experienced rapid growth in recent years, which indicate excellent investment opportunities. This paper examine the effect of Technical Efficiency (TE) on firm value in 5 selected influential countries in halal food and beverage sector based on Global Islamic Economy Report 2020. Two steps estimation was used to run the data, using the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) model to determine the company's TE and panel data to test the effect of TE through firm value. The results show that Indonesia has the highest score for TE (62%), followed by Pakistan (59%), South Africa (57%), Malaysia (55%), and Singapore (52%), which means, in general, there is inefficiency in allocating resources over 38% up to 48% and needs to be improved by halal food and beverage companies in. Regarding panel data, all countries sample except Pakistan highlight that TE significantly affect company value. It indicates that the crucial part of managing efficiency can be a sign in stock market performance. The result shows that company managers should set efficiency strategies to their business process for creating sustainability and increase their value in the capital market. As for investors, this TE can be used as an indicator before choosing company stocks; if the company is efficient, then it is worthy of being one of the portfolio assets. Form the government side, the finding can help them to set appropriate policy setting to boost halal food and beverages industry such as giving subsidy or incentive to increase the efficiency ability of halal food and beverage companies and identify the industry's strength by comparing the result of TE between 5 countries.

The Transition to a Circular Built Environment in Australia: An Analysis of the Jurisdictional Policy Framework

The construction industry significantly impacts the built environment throughout its lifecycle from design, construction, operation to end-of-life considerations and decisions. In Australia, the industry generates almost 3 tonnes of waste per-capita, and this is expected to increase in the near future based on past trends. This paper focuses on understanding and analysing the various jurisdictional policy frameworks across Australia to support circular transitions in the built environment. Policy and regulatory leadership can enable and support grounding circular economy practices at national and state levels. The analysis found that circular economy frameworks rely heavily on recovery and recycling of construction waste, while there is minimal focus on designing out waste. This highlights that waste elimination within the policy setting is viewed as an end-of-pipe solution of minimising waste to landfill rather than a design led strategy. The focus on recycling within circular economy policies can led to public misconceptions about circularity, which can be a major barrier if systemic transitions are to be achieved.

Improving mental health following multiple disasters in Australia: a randomized controlled trial of the Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) programme

ABSTRACT Background: The mental health impacts of climate change-related disasters are significant. However, access to mental health services is often limited by the availability of trained clinicians. Although building local community capability for the mental health response is often prioritised in policy settings, the lack of evidence-based programs is problematic. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of the Skills for Life Adjustment and Resilience programme (SOLAR) delivered by trained local community members following compound disasters (drought, wildfires, pandemic-related lockdowns) in Australia. Method: Thirty-six community members were trained to deliver the SOLAR programme, a skills-based, trauma informed, psychosocial programme. Sixty-six people with anxiety, depression and/or posttraumatic stress symptoms, and impairment were randomised into the SOLAR programme or a Self-Help condition. They were assessed pre, post and two months following the interventions. The SOLAR programme was delivered across five 1-hourly sessions (either face to face or virtually). Those in the Self-Help condition received weekly emails with self-help information including links to online educational videos. Results: Multigroup analyses indicated that participants in the SOLAR condition experienced significantly lower levels of anxiety and depression, and PTSD symptom severity between pre – and post-intervention (T1 to T2), relative to the Self-Help condition, while controlling for scores at intake. These differences were not statistically different at follow-up. The SOLAR programme was associated with large effect size improvements in posttraumatic stress symptoms over time. Conclusion: The SOLAR programme was effective in improving anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms over time. However, by follow-up the size of the effect was similar to an active self-help condition. Given the ongoing stressors in the community associated with compounding disasters it may be that booster sessions would have been useful to sustain programme impact. Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry identifier: ACTRN12621000283875..

From mines to consumption via global supply chains: A viewpoint on assessing modern slavery and disease interactions

Globalisation has narrowed the gap between producers and consumers, with complex global supply chain networks forming the basis of many of the products we consume today. Modern slavery risk is known to be an ‘invisible’ problem, as modern slavery impacts are embodied in products consumed in geographically distant regions. In this viewpoint, we highlight that modern slavery and disease risk interactions have not been explored in global supply chains. We explore the value of multi-region input-output (MRIO) analysis in exploring the effects of consumption activities on modern slavery and disease risk. Using the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a region where modern slavery and disease risks are known, as a case study, we explore the potential for an integrated framework based on MRIO analysis to identify modern slavery-disease risk hotspots in supply chains. We discuss the significance of this framework in global policy setting and explore avenues for future research.