Differentiation of welfare regimes: The case of Italy

The different welfare system classifications mainly address systems on the national level, while the local levels have not been considered in any great detail. The welfare reform measures adopted in some countries have led to more autonomy on the local level. Consequently, local authorities have adopted different social policies and developed diverse welfare services. This article addresses the case of Italy and shows that classifying a welfare regime by considering only the national level can lead to important local features being missed that are indeed relevant for its classification. The units of analysis are the 20 administrative regions of Italy. The results demonstrate that the Italian welfare system is far from being a homogeneous system and that the resources available on the local level have a considerable effect on the level of the welfare services provided. These results show that more attention needs to be directed at the local level.     

Socio-economical analysis of Italy: The case of hagiotoponym cities

This paper considers joining the economical characteristics of Italian cities with a relevant sociological aspect of the Catholic saints. More than in other countries, a high percentage of Italian cities are toponyms coming from the name of specific saints (hagiotoponym). The link with Italian religious views is distinct. The statistical analysis of the economic contributions that each hagiotoponym city provides to the Italian GDP is considered. Such an analysis is also based on the comparison with Italian data and is considered with the Theil, Gini, and Herfindahl-Hirschman indices. It is obtained that hagiotoponym cities represent a proxy of the overall Italian reality of medium-sized cities in the case of outliers removal.     

浅析公共财政理论与财政改革

公共财政是市场经济发展到一定阶段的产物。随着发达国家公共产品理论的创立和福利经济学、新制度经济学的兴起,公共财政已经渐成共识并深入人心。伴随我国经济体制改革的深入发展和社会主义市场经济的建立,我国的财政改革也日益采纳公共财政的理论内涵和理论描述。     

伦理维度：公共政策研究中不可缺失的研究向度

公共政策目标是实现以人为本的全面、协调、可持续的社会发展,人的问题是公共政策的核心问题。从公共性出发,以公共利益为基本价值导向,立足于公平公正的伦理要求,制定合乎伦理要求的公共政策,这是和谐社会的必然性要求,也是党与政府提升执政能力的根本性要求。所以,伦理维度是公共政策研究不可缺失的研究向度。如果仅以工具理性为基础,忽视价值合理性,必定会导致公共政策异化。     

Social investments in the knowledge economy: The politics of inclusive,stratified, and targeted reforms across the globe

As countries transition from industrial to post-industrial knowledge economies, education and skills are crucial. Consequently, policy-makers around the globe have increasingly focused on social investment, that is, policies aiming to create, mobilize, or preserve skills. Yet, countries around the globe have developed social investments to different degrees and in highly different forms. Our goal is twofold: First, we introduce a new typology of social investment policies, distinguishing nine types along two dimensions: three distributive profiles (inclusive, stratified, targeted) and three functions (skill creation, preservation, mobilization). This differentiation allows fine-grained analyses of the causes and consequences of different kinds of social investments, thus offering a perspective to study the relationship between efficiency and inclusiveness in a way that goes beyond the mere discussion how social investment policies grosso modo affect inequalities (‘equalizing’ versus ‘Matthew Effects’). Second, we theorize on the politics of social investment. We argue that the interaction of policy legacies and socioeconomic factors is the main explanation for which functions of social investment policies are introduced, whereas their distributive profiles are crucially shaped by political coalitions. We illustrate with empirical material from democracies around the globe.     

Europeanisation and the Youth Guarantee: The case of France

In 2013, the European Council approved the Youth Guarantee (YG) to counteract youth unemployment. Because of its specific features, the YG is useful for understanding whether the EU has triggered policy change in national youth unemployment policies. Contrary to most of the literature on similar topics, we focused in this study on the effect of this specific European measure rather than on broader EU strategies or policies. The study contributes to the literature by qualifying the degree of fit/misfit and suggesting a counterfactual analysis, using the case of France. We first situate the article within the broader Europeanisation debate and present our research design. The second section introduces the policy structure of the YG and investigates youth unemployment policy in France, prior to and after the European initiative. The third section discusses whether the French youth unemployment policy would have been developed in the same way without the YG. A final section concludes.     

公共政策:可持续发展的基石

可持续发展的目的是发展 ,关键是可持续。公共政策是政府的行为规范 ,它具有合法性、强制性、系统性、稳定性等特征。因而要将可持续发展战略由思想变为现实 ,必须以公共政策为基石作保障。各国保障可持续发展战略顺利实施的公共政策 ,既有丰富的国际经验可以学习 ,也有沉痛的教训可供借鉴。中国在可持续发展的道路上既面临着沉重的人口压力 ,又面临着经济发展和环境保护的双重任务 ,因此必须重视对可持续发展公共政策的制定和实施。     

Family support as a working style in child protection in Italy: A comparative study on social workers' child welfare attitudes

Comparative studies on child protection decision-making highlight the implications and determinants of differences in child welfare systems internationally and reinforce discussions regarding child protection practices and family support when a child is exposed to inadequate parental care. To date, Italian child protection studies have highlighted a system characterised by a strong degree of variability related to the absence of practices shared nationally. Differently, this comparative study focuses more on similarities within the Italian context, seeking to understand how they influence practices. The opinions of 188 Italian social workers with respect to the substantiation of maltreatment, risk assessment and intervention recommendations were compared with the results of a recent study involving practitioners in Israel, Northern Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands. The main outcomes show that Italian social workers prefer a family support orientation, meaning that children are usually removed from their home only if necessary and generally with the aim of reunification with their families. The study also reveals that Italian professionals are more in favour of residential care than foster care.     

广西北部湾经济区企业政策的生态学分析

政策生态学是公共政策研究的有力工具。区域经济对我国经济社会发展影响显著,必须高度重视区域内各项制度安排。区域企业政策作为制度安排的重要方面,其生态环境复杂多变。因此,从生态学的基本观点出发,对区域企业政策的生态环境进行分析,深入研究影响区域企业政策运行的外部生态因素和内部生态因素,从而构建一个和谐的政策生态系统理论。     

Educational disparities across regions: A multilevel analysis for Italy and Spain

In this paper, a multilevel analysis is applied to the OECD-PISA2006 data with the aim to compare factors affecting students’ achievement across Italy and Spain. The findings show that both countries are affected by strong internal regional heterogeneity, where some regions have achievement scores well above the OECD mean and other are placed among the worst performers in the OECD area. Although regional governments are more autonomous about educational policy-making in Spain, regional indicators exert a higher influence on educational results in Italy where educational system is strictly regulated by the national government.     

The macroeconomic effects of basic income funded by a land-holding tax in Korea

We examine the macroeconomic effects of the introduction of a scheme to pay a basic income of approximately $900 per year to each citizen through a land-holding tax. Unlike other studies, we address the issue of whether a sharp increase in the land-holding tax rate intended to raise funds for a basic income scheme causes landowners to sell their land. We also use the relationship between holding assets and reservation wages to determine whether household members supply their labor in accordance with the payment of basic income. Our simulation results obtained using data for Korea show that the introduction of the basic income scheme decreases real gross domestic product, total labor demand, and social welfare by 1.3%, 0.3%, and 0.4%, respectively.     

Social Policy and the Politics of Hispanic Aging

Abstract

This study examines the contributing factors to job satisfaction and commitment among lower-income, older (age 55 and over), part-time employees (N = 164). Job satisfaction index (JSI) scores were relatively high for all subjects and did not differ significantly for age, gender, or Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) status. While not particularly low, white employees were significantly less satisfied with their employment experiences than Hispanic or African American workers. The scarcity of fringe benefits was the least satisfying aspect of employment. Older Hispanics, whites, and men reported less interference between job, family, and home life than African Americans and women. Multiple regression analysis revealed that race/ethnicity, skill utilization opportunities, perceived views of elders held by younger workers and supervisors, availability of fringe benefits, and suitable work days explained the majority of variance in JSI scores. Opportunities to interact with others and stay active were more important than financial supplementation in these elders' assessment of the benefits of part-time employment. Findings provide further understanding of those elders likely to be placed successfully in part-time employment.     

Financing urban growth in China: A case study of Guangzhou

Rapid urban growth has become a global phenomenon. As these city populations expand, urban governance is even more of a daunting challenge in many countries. China is not an exception. It is at once a transitional state still undergoing urbanization and economic development; it is also currently experiencing a slowing economy. China's cities must simultaneously continue to improve the quality of urban life while maintaining social stability. Using the city of Guangzhou as an example of China's mega-cities, this study explores the financing strategies used by Chinese cities to manage urban growth. While economic growth has always been the main priority, Guangzhou's strategy has not followed China's traditional approach of growth for growth's sake; instead, it is relying on investment in innovation and transportation to promote the local economy. Education is also being stressed as a means of fostering human resources. However, undisciplined infrastructure financing and ineffective intergovernmental fiscal relations are jeopardizing the city's fiscal sustainability. To correct this will require further reforms of China's fiscal system and a careful sequencing of reforms to maintain a sustainable growth in the urban area.     

国外农业发展的公共政策与启示

农业是关系国计民生的大问题,如何保障农业发展,公共政策系统起着至关重要的作用。正因为公共政策显得如此重要,世界各国尤的是大国其政治和经济体系已经发展了一种精细而复杂的公共政策,以推动农业发展。国外的许多经验对于我们解决农业问题有借鉴作用。     

Macroeconomic asymmetry in the Eurozone before and after the Global Financial Crisis: An appraisal of the role of the ECB

The launch of the euro in 1999 was assumed to enhance macroeconomic convergence among EMU economies. We test this hypothesis from a comparative perspective, by calculating different indices to measure the degree of macroeconomic dispersion within the Eurozone, the UK and the USA (1999–2019). We use common factor models to produce a single index for each monetary area out of different measures of dispersion. These indices can be used to inform on the degree of optimality of a monetary area. Our results show that macroeconomic dispersion in the Eurozone increased notably even before 2007 and it took significantly longer to return to pre-crisis levels, as compared to the UK and the USA. The paper shows the critical role played by the ECB’s asset purchases programmes in reducing macroeconomic divergences among EMU member states since 2015.     

Understanding media constructions of volunteering: an Australian perspective

This paper explores the Australian public's understanding of volunteering from a media perspective. A content analysis of 137 news articles published in The Australian newspaper revealed that volunteering in Australia is framed in terms of eight perspectives by nine claim makers. Since media-led images of volunteering tend to influence peoples' decision to volunteer, the findings have several implications for organizers of social development projects involving volunteers.     

Diffusion and policy transfer in armed UAV proliferation: the cases of Italy and Germany

In a 2015 policy change, the U.S. State Department released guidelines governing the sale of armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to other countries, and several export agreements were signed shortly later. While considerable scholarly effort has been devoted to the impact or consequences of UAV proliferation, few studies have analyzed the actual diffusion process. This article applies the insights from both diffusion theory and policy transfer to examine the various diffusion mechanisms while using the experiences from Italy and Germany to illustrate distinct cases policy convergence and divergence, respectively. While the competition mechanism is typically constrained to policy adopting jurisdictions, evidence on armed UAV diffusion suggests policy transfer decisions can also hinge on competition among exporting jurisdictions. Consequently, we seek to point attention to the interaction between diffusion mechanisms (such as competition) and various domestic conditions, demonstrating that diffusion is neither apolitical nor necessarily neutral in character.     

Dynamic decomposition of regional wage differentials in Korea

Using a Juhn–Murphy–Pierce (JMP) decomposition, this study analyses the dynamic changes in regional wage differentials between the Seoul Metropolitan Areas and other regions in South Korea. Data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study for three years (2000, 2004, and 2008) is used. JMP decomposition provides information about the components that explain changes in regional wage differentials over time. Between 2000 and 2004, the variations in observed and unobserved components are associated with counteracting effects on regional wage differentials. While changes in observed components contribute more to widen regional wage differentials, those in unobserved components narrow them. However, between 2004 and 2008, both observed and unobserved components move in the same direction to narrow regional wage differentials. Based on our empirical results, we discuss some policy implications.     

Western European welfare states in the 20th century: convergences and divergences in a long-run perspective

The study investigates the welfare systems in Western Europe in the course of the so-called 'short 20th century' (1918–1990) from a long-term comparative perspective and focusing on the convergent versus divergent features of development. Various indicators examined show that in terms of relative level of welfare expenditures, features of welfare institutions and social rights, there were significant differences between Western European countries in the first half of the 20th century, but diversity significantly decreased by the 1950s, and the tendency of convergence continued steadily in the next two decades. Subsequently, changes in variation between countries from the 1970s onwards displayed a somewhat less clear-cut pattern, but in several areas the convergence continued. As a result, in 1990 the differences between the Western European countries can be regarded as less significant in that respect than in the middle and especially at the beginning of the 20th century.