Social Policy Tool Research Articles

Urban Pressures and Innovations: Sustainability Commitment in the Face of Fragmentation and Inequality

AbstractLocal government innovations occur within environments characterized by high service‐need complexity and risk. The question of how broader environmental conditions influence governmental willingness or ability to innovate has been a long‐standing concern within organizational, management, and policy scholarship. Although wealth and education are robust predictors of the propensity to engage in a wide range of local sustainability activities, the linkages among governmental fragmentation, social inequality, and sustainability policies are not well understood. This study focuses on the conditions both within and across city boundaries in urban regions which inhibit adoption of sustainable development innovations. We utilize a Bayesian item response theory approach to create a new scale measuring sustainability commitment by local governments in the United States. The analysis finds service‐need complexity and capacity within local governments' organizational task environments have nonlinear influences on innovation in terms of both green building and social inclusion policy tools.

Lietuvos socialinės įtraukties politika: kodėl ji būtent tokia?

Straipsnyje siekiama galima atsakyti į klausimą, kodėl Lietuvos socialinės įtraukties politikos profilis yra būtent toks, koks jis yra. Kritiškai aptariamas socialinės įtraukties politikos konvergenciją turėjęs ir vis dar turintis skatinti atviro koordinavimo metodas bei naujas Europos Sąjungos politikų ir biurokratų rengiamas instrumentas Europos socialinių teisių piliorius (European Pillar for Social Rights). Apibūdinant socialinės įtraukties politikos profilį ir iliustruojant jį konkrečiais socialinės politikos pavyzdžiais, formuluojama socialinės politikos konvergencijos ir divergencijos dichotomija. Ieškant paaiškinimo, kodėl socialinės įtraukties politika, užuot konvergavusi, diverguoja, pasitelkiamos priklausomybės nuo tako teorija, kuri pabrėžia transakcinius institucinių konsteliacijų kaitos kaštus, ir socialinio žinojimo tipologijos teorija, kuri suteikia įrankių aiškintis, kaip institucinės konsteliacijos įsitvirtina skirtingose socialinio žinojimo struktūrose. Straipsnyje aptariami Lietuvoje atliktų tyrimų duomenys, kurie galėtų būti priskiriami ekspertų ir gerai informuotų piliečių socialinio žinojimo tipams. Lietuvos socialinės įtraukties politikos ekspertai ir šioje srityje dirbantys specialistai, kurie atitinka gerai informuoto piliečio apibrėžimą, yra linkę sureikšminti griežtas taupymo priemones ir socialinės kontrolės didinimą.

Расходы на социальную политику российских регионов в координатах

The purpose of the research was to conduct a comparative assessment of social expenditures effectiveness in different regions of Russia. The method developed and tested by the authors with the use of the data for 2015 is based on DEA (data envelopment analysis method). The authors view relative poverty of the population as the main result of social expenditures, while social expenditures per capita are used as resource costs. A significant difference in effectiveness of social policy tools is also identified, as well as its extensive nature in the Russian regions. We come to a conclusion that there is a considerable potential in the field of optimization of social expenses. The lowest indices of «input-output» ratio in the sphere of social protection are the case in the least and in the most developed regions, which can be explained, in the first place, by the lack of sufficient resources, and in the second place, by the lack of incentives. The results of the research can be used for measuring comparative effectiveness of social expenses in different regions and for identifying the best examples of the practical realization of social programs. Analysis of the leaders’ and outsiders’ experiences will promote an increase of social programs efficiency in the Russian regions. In conclusion, the authors underline the expediency of allocating part of transfers from the federal budget to the regional ones depending on the effectiveness of social expenditures.

Minimum Wage Impacts on Inequality, Job Formality and the Ethnic Wage Gap in Urban China

This paper examines the effects of a minimum wage on wage inequality and employment outcomes in China’s urban minority regions and whether those effects vary for Han and ethnic minorities. Minimum wage data is combined with a proprietary datasource obtained from China’s Household Ethnic Survey (CHES) project. Results reveal that a higher minimum wage reduces wage inequality and leads to larger positive effects for lower-wage minority workers compared to their Han counterparts. In terms of employment, a higher minimum wage promotes formalization of the labour market without any evidence of adverse effects on the likelihood of being unemployed in the formal sector, although some adjustments are made at the intensive margin. The results are robust to alternate estimations that take into account censoring and endogeneity. The findings’ policy implications indicate that the minimum wage is an effective social policy tool that reduces the Han-minority wage gap, as well as induces non-wage benefits, which in turn, should promote social cohesion in China’s urban minority regions.

The hierarchical model of life quality measures

The study presents the concept of the hierarchical model of quality of life investigation in the context of social policy objectives and tools for the life quality measurement. Quality of life in the context of social policy is defined on the ground of the theory of needs, which is identified with the level of satisfaction of social needs. Moreover, the links of the concept of quality of life with social integration and sustainable development were presented.

Universal Design and Sustainable Spatial Development

The article focuses on document research at the international level in the field of universal design, comparing the situation in Europe, the USA, and Latvia. Research summarizes the results and makes proposals for improvement of the situation in Latvia. Considering the problem, it has been concluded that universal design can be considered a tool of social policy that will allow anyone to incorporate himself in any environment.

Social enterprises as a tool of social and economic policy, Lithuanian case

social enterprise is a quite new phenomenon which derives from the development of the social economy aiming to combine social, economic and political targets. Nowadays the social economy is considered as effective way to create and manage a human capital with the recognition of the importance of personal and community interests. In the most countries of the European Union the social enterprises are significant element of development of the non-governmental sector. implementation of the principles of social economy in Lithuania is characterized by certain peculiarities. creation of the modern, West-type social enterprises in Lithuania was highly welcomed in regard to the social and economical changes in society, such as social exclusion of vulnerable groups, growing pressure on the social system, the need to vitalise local communities, etc. In 2004 the Law on Social Enterprises came in force and more than 100 enterprises were established in the country till now. It worth mention that the businesses aimed to employment of disabled people existed also in soviet period; some of them gained the status of social enterprises later. concept of social enterprises is still under consideration though. obstacles to involve other vulnerable groups than disabled are strong. elaboration of the vision, clarification of the aims and targets of social enterprises as the tool of social and economic development require thorough analysis of the past trends, present conditions, and future developments. Paper aims to identify the main differences between mainstream European concept of social enterprise and the Lithuanian situation in social enterprises. phenomenon of social enterprises presented in the context of the changing social and employment policy in West and East European countries. situation in Lithuanian social enterprises is described on the basis of extensive information selected from representatives of social enterprises, the experts, and the institutionalised data. methods of literature analysis, statistical data analysis, qualitative interview, and content analysis were employed during the research. paper is prepared under the research project The impact of labour market policies into employment situation during the different economic cycles (No. Sin- 04/2010) that is implemented within the frame of national science program The social challenges to national security which is carried out by the Research Council of Lithuania.

The minimum pension as an instrument of poverty protection in the defined contribution pension system – an example of Poland*

AbstractPension systems' reforms are often related to a shift towards (fully or partially) defined contribution (DC) systems, in which the pension distribution reflects to a larger extent the wage distribution. In addition, relatively shorter working lives of those who have lower earnings increase the risk of receiving lower benefits. The aim of the paper is to present the changing role of a minimum pension as a tool of redistribution in the country that replaced a defined benefit (DB) pension system with a DC pension system. The old system in Poland had a significant income redistribution in the pension formula and the minimum pension was only a tool supporting this redistribution. After the introduction of the new mandatory pension system the main mechanism of redistribution (and a tool of social policy preventing poverty) is the minimum pension, financed from general taxes. According to the current rule of indexation, the minimum pension is expected to fall relative to the average wage in the economy. According to our simulations, the lack of changes of the current indexation method means that the minimum pension will fall below the International Labour Organisation (ILO) standard of the poverty protection of elderly by mid 2020s and in practice the last instrument of the poverty protection of elderly is going to disappear. However, the sole decision to change the indexation mechanism to the one based on full wage can create a significant pressure on public finance and distort incentives for prolonging work as 45% of women would be probably covered by the minimum pension guarantee (MPG). Results of simulations show that a raise and equalization of the retirement age for men and women combined with keeping a constant ratio of the minimum pension to the average (and also minimum) wage in the economy can be considered as a balanced solution that assures no further reduction of poverty protection and effective maintaining of this redistribution instrument.

Social dimensions of market-based instruments: Introduction

This themed issue of Land Use Policy builds on the papers presented at an international symposium entitled Social Dimensions of Market-based Instruments, convened by the Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia, in November 2010. The symposium set out to review the extent to which market-based instruments were being employed as social policy tools in various contexts, what challenges achieving relevant social policy objectives posed, what trade-offs arose between environmental, social and economic objectives, and whether and how tensions could be resolved. The contributions to this themed issue provide conceptual-theoretical and empirical takes on the topic. They consider poverty, property rights and equality perspectives of participation and quantify social implications at the program, regional and national levels. They reveal converging messages, e.g. in relation to treatment of poverty, common property rights and nesting across scales. In combination, the papers make a compelling case that social implications of MBIs cannot be ignored and ought to be considered in design and evaluation even if programs do no pursue social objectives, as social dimensions can enhance or affect program effectiveness and efficiency. In doing so, the contributions expand the role that MBIs can play in ensuring sustainable resource use and offer considerations for policy design.

Blacks, Whites, or Grays? Conditional Transfers and Gender Equality in Latin America

Can poverty and gender relations be disentangled? Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have spread throughout Latin America and beyond based on the claim that they are an effective social policy tool to combat poverty. While changing gender relations is not among CCTs' explicit objectives, gender relations are nonetheless shaped by these policies. Unfortunately, the debate concerning how CCTs shape gender relations has treated gender inequality as a one-dimensional matter. In this paper, we seek to overcome this limitation by offering a multidimensional analysis of programs in Chile, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. On the basis of empirical evidence provided, we argue that patriarchal materialism is still at the core of Latin America's new social policies. At the same time, we recognize the potential for CCTs to transform gender relations should mechanisms allowing childcare facilities and encouraging male participation in domestic labor become an integral part of these programs.

A vida infantil e sua intimidade pública: o trabalho social como novidade na atenção à infância na América Latina, 1928-1948

The professionalization of attention to the needs of children, which has taken place during the course of the twentieth century in areas such as health, education, law and social assistance, underwent an important conceptual development in the first decades of the twentieth century. In the field of social assistance, the structuring of the area of social services marked the introduction of a new variable in formulating policies and practices towards children. This article examines how the subject of social services was discussed, in the context of the American continent, at the Pan American Child Congresses which took place between 1928 and 1948, when its development was proposed as a new tool for social policies, especially for those directed towards children.

Link between the King’s Health Questionnaire and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, for the evaluation of patients with urinary incontinence after gynecological oncology surgery

Uterine cervix tumors are the second most common type of tumor among women in the world. In Brazil, 18,680 new cases were estimated for 2008. The treatment of choice for this type of cancer involves surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy that encourage healing but, on the down side, impairments develop such as urinary incontinence. This incontinence appears as an early and common complication of the surgical treatment and involves deterioration in the quality of life, generating levels of morbidity, affecting psychological, occupational, domestic, physical, and sexual areas. To asses the quality of life in patients with incontinence there are several questionnaires in the scientific literature. Among them, the King’s Health Questionnaire (KHQ) is the most widely used as a research tool. In addition to accessing quality of life, the World Health Organization is advocating the use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a tool for statistics, research, clinical and social policies, to provide a common language for the conditions related to health. The objective of this study is to establish a correlation between the KHQ and the ICF. The KHQ was correlated by two separate professionals, and followed by a discussion and conclusion of the coded domains. Twelve categories were found for body functions (b), 22 for activities and participation (d), and 4 for environmental factors (e), however, 7 significant concepts of the questionnaire could not be linked to the ICF. The KHQ has focused predominantly on issues related to activity and participation. This is a pilot study that needs more evidence to conclude its findings.

The Financial Tsunami: Economic insecurity and social protection in Hong Kong

Lee Kim-ming and Law Kam-yee examine the consequences of the financial crisis and the social measures package adopted by the Hong Kong government. They illustrate how the government lacked long-term strategies and commitments for protecting the people of Hong Kong against increasingly risky globalization and economic insecurity. They suggest that active labour market policies are the social policy tools the government can use to reform the social protection system.

AVALIAÇÕES SISTÊMICAS DA EDUCAÇÃO BÁSICA: INSTRUMENTO DE GESTÃO PÚBLICA DA QUALIDADE DO ENSINO E MECANISMO DE CONTROLE SOCIAL

This essay focuses on the ramifications and implications of the formalization and enhancement of the national and state assessment of basic education that occurred in the first decade of this century. Aims to examine issues of a theoretical-practical logic underlying the conformation of systemic educational evaluations as a tool for public management and social control mechanism implemented policies and educational outcomes publicly measured in all federal spheres. In this exploratory study, the information analyzed was captured by the selection of concepts and data provided on government web sites, newsletters focused teaching evaluations, periodic publications of government agencies and research conducted by renowned researchers. The questioning is not enough evidence to evaluate. It is necessary to invest in effective strategies of appropriation and use of these results for the entire school community and other social sectors, seeing that we redefine the management of educational processes inside the school, in favor of a real improvement in the quality of education provided in public institutions. Key-Words: Systemic Educational Assessments; Public Policy; Management of the Quality of Education.

Linking Social Capital and Indirect Policy Tools

Governance perspectives suggest the boundaries between public and private sectors are blurred, and recognize the involvement of third party actors in carrying out public objectives. Traditional policy models neglect to consider the involvement of third part actors and limit our understanding of the effectiveness of these approaches. By adopting a policy tools perspective, the potential and limitations of governance approaches can be better understood. Indirect policy tools can foster collective action around public problems by incorporating third party actors; however, it is necessary to understand the interaction between indirect tools and structural social capital. The actors involved in carrying out public objectives may depend upon the linkages between top-down and bottom-up social capital. A qualitative analysis of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 suggests indirect policy tools can foster collective reinvestment responses, but the effectiveness of indirect policy tools is contingent upon the existence of linking social capital.

FINANCIAL TSUNAMI, ECONOMIC INSECURITY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION: THE CASE OF HONG KONG

Rising economic inequality becomes an important concern for both advanced and developing countries. Nonetheless, political and business elites around the world never question the neoliberal agenda, despite economic crises happening every now and then. The year 2007 may mark the turning point of neoliberal globalisation. As the global financial tsunami kicked off from the burst of the subprime mortgage bubble in the United States in 2007, the global economy is facing an economic hardship never heard of since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Hong Kong as a highly open economy is also severely hurt by the financial tsunami. In every economic recession, all Hong Kong people suffer, but lower classes suffer most. This raises a serious question about whether the current social protection system adequately protects people against an increasingly risky global economic environment. By examining the social policy package adopted by the HK government in fighting against the financial tsunami, we show the lack of long-term strategies and commitments of the government in protecting HK people against globalisation risks and economic insecurity. By drawing experiences from other countries, we suggest that active labour market policies (ALMPs) may be the social policy tools the government can use to reform the social protection system.

The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy and Welfare Discipline: Discourse, Governance, and Globalization

The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy. By Christopher Howard. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. 260p. $21.95 paper.These two books on the American welfare state seek to challenge conventional understandings of redistributive policy and politics in the United States. Christopher Howard does so by looking at the many tools of social policy that, he argues, have been downplayed or ignored in most academic research. In addition to the well-known social insurance and transfer programs such as Social Security and public assistance, he argues, tax expenditures subsidizing private welfare provision (e.g., child tax credit), regulatory policies, minimum wage laws, tort laws, housing loan guarantees, and entities such as the Pension Benefits Guarantee Corporation should all be included within the definition of the welfare state. Doing so reveals that the American welfare state is not a “chronic underachiever” but, in fact, “large and far-reaching” (p. 1). Howard cautions, however, that this heterogeneous mix of social policy tools does not make the American welfare state particularly effective. On the contrary, given enduringly high rates of poverty and widening income inequality in this country, the welfare state is paradoxically both extensive and limited in its ability to address some of the greatest social problems in the United States.

Reaching the 'hard to reach': engagement, relationship building and social control in sport based social inclusion work

Alongside the mediated increases in the popularity and commercial appeal of contemporary sport, in recent years there has been growing interest in the use of sport as a social policy tool. However, the capacity of sport to address the needs of disadvantaged groups and tackle wider social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour remains contested. In this paper a case is made for the centering of 'approach' and 'style' of delivery, rather than sport, in the engagement of disadvantaged and 'hard to reach' young people. The paper also acknowledges the limitations of the transformative potential of sport-based interventions in the context of a consumer society and extant functionalist perspectives, which emphasise sports normalising role.

Encouraging Charity in a Time of Crisis: The Poor Laws and the Statute of Charitable Uses of 1601

September 11th resulted in an unprecedented outpouring of charitable largess supported by the government. A massive philanthropic effort in a time of crisis accompanied by supportive governmental actions is not unprecedented. This paper examines an earlier period of crisis, Tudor England (1485-1603) and the state's response. Then too, philanthropy became a tool of social and political policy, where new charitable beneficiaries were defined and favored and others disadvantaged, and charity was categorized and given legal protection to spur private sector resources to resolve public problems. The article concentrates on two areas: 1) the evolution of the poor law culminating in the Poor Law Act of 1601, a process that developed attitudes toward the poor and concepts of need and relief that remain with us today, and 2) the Statute of Charitable Uses, which was a part of the poor law package of legislation that attempted to solve the poverty problem. The Statute's primary purpose was to provide a mechanism to make trustees accountable for the appropriate administration of charitable assets. Its subsequent prominence is puzzling. The Statute's posthumously far more famous Preamble, which created parameters for the definition of charitable, reflects the law of unintended consequences. A number of questions concerning the Statute are explored: why were some things included and others equally charitable, such as hospitals, not? Why does the wording of the Preamble paraphrase a part of a fourteenth century epic poem, The Vision of Piers Plowman? How did the statute fit within the broader state effort to control the poor? What was the impact of the statute on improving charitable accountability? Did the Statute encourage increased giving? Most importantly for contemporary purposes, the paper inquires whether there is anything we can glean from the Tudor experience of dealing with an economic and social crisis to apply to disaster relief assistance and philanthropic giving today?

The Many Faces of Mandates: Beyond Traditional Accommodation Mandates and Other Classic Cases

The paper compares the two main social policy tools used by society to enhance the welfare of its workers: mandated benefits and tax financed programs. It shows that mandated benefits could involve economic inefficiency (excess burden) identical to that of taxes; and that they often have perverse redistribution effects. According to the literature that followed Lawrence Summers' seminal paper on mandated benefits, mandates are assumed to produce less distortion than tax financed programs. In this paper I stress the fact that a critical assumption behind this idea is that tax-financed programs have a particular design, namely, that participation in them is not limited to employees. The Article goes beyond what is considered to be the classic case in terms of the distortions discussion (mandated health insurance vs. tax financed government provided health care) to situations in which exclusion of non-employees seems plausible and sensible. This Article also goes beyond traditional accommodation mandates by looking at several thought provoking cases such as overtime and pension vesting (which turn out to be just like accommodation mandates, but with distributive effects running in the opposite direction potentially). Interestingly, a number of real-world mandates disproportionately target or benefit a particular group (e.g., men) that is a discrete demographic group that could be identified in advance. Nevertheless this type of accommodation mandates differs from those discussed by Christine Jolls's seminal work on Accommodation Mandates in that they are unintended by the policymaker and might redistribute wealth in the opposite direction of what society usually views as desirable. Unlike the mandates that Jolls discussed that could hurt their intended beneficiaries, if restrictions on wage and employment differentials were not binding, these mandates are ones in which, precisely if restrictions on wage and employment differentials bind, groups to whom we would normally want to redistribute (women, lower compensated employees) will be made worse off.