EU countries’ progress towards ‘Europe 2020 strategy targets’

This paper describes and analyzes EU Member States’ progress towards the national EU2020 targets. To do so, this paper constructs a geometric composite index with Benefit-of-the-Doubt weights as a measure of a Member State’s overall performance on the EU2020 headline indicators. A tripartite decomposition of Member State performance change is presented to explain and analyze performance change of the EU-region and the individual EU Member States during the period 2008–2014. The results reveal that all Member States are in general making progress towards their national targets. Member States generally moved forward in the areas of R&D, environmental and educational policy and moved backwards in terms of employment and poverty and social inclusion. As to the realization of the national targets, the majority of the Member States are still mostly lagging on R&D and social inclusion and poverty reduction.     

The Sustainable Use of Resources on a Global Scale

The need to reconcile social and environmental goals for sustainable development still poses problems for policy makers in the richer parts of the world. Using the examples of domestic water and energy, this paper argues that the problems are reflected, and often magnifed, in developing countries. They arise largely from conflicts between the short-term need to alleviate poverty and longer-term objectives for environmental sustainability. The dual nature of water and energy as both social and economic goods raises questions about the most appropriate forms of provision and allocation of the utilities. It is in no one's long-term interest for developing countries to repeat the environmentally damaging mistakes of the industrialized world. But an equitable distribution of the short-term costs attached to a more environmentally responsible use of resources demands new ways of thinking about global social justice.     

R&D in a post centrally-planned economy: The macroeconomic effects in Poland

Half a century of centrally planned policy in the Central and Eastern European countries resulted in outdated technologies, inefficient allocation of resources and low productivity. Following the end of communism there was a fifteen year process of transition which ended in 2004 with eight post-communist countries joining the European Union (EU) of which Poland was the largest. As part of the EU these countries now face the challenge of the common EU strategy Europe 2020, which has set the target of achieving R&D expenditure to GDP ratio (called the R&D intensity) of 3% by 2020 for the Union as a whole in an effort to increase the competitiveness of the region. Poland, like the other post-communist countries, faces a lower target of R&D intensity, set at 1.7%. Nevertheless, the challenge is immense, since the country is still at only half that level and has little experience in developing policies to help achieve it. In this paper we tested two possible policy options to achieve the target: (1) to increase government expenditures on R&D and; (2) to provide tax relief on R&D to businesses. The method applied to assess the options is a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for Poland with an explicit link between productivity and R&D stock. The results show that achieving the R&D intensity target via the use of tax relief is 2.5 times more costly to the government budget, but it has a greater impact on the economy in terms of a higher GDP growth. Tax relief proved efficient in the short run while in the long run the government expenditure policy provides better value for money.     

Social investment agenda setting: A personal note

This article reconstructs how, under the umbrella of the Europea Union (EU), discreet opportunities for EU social policy agenda setting opened for academic expertise from the late 1990s to the 2020s. This began with the Dutch presidency of the EU in the first half of 1997, endorsing the notion of ‘social policy as a productive factor’, followed by the 2000 Lisbon strategy for Growth and Social Cohesion in the open economy. The social investment landmark publication was Why We Need a New Welfare State, written by Gøsta Esping-Andersen et al., for the Belgian presidency of 2001. Ultimately, cumulative academic insights and feedback from country-specific reform experiences found their synthesis in the Social Investment Package in 2013. EU political codification of social investment took effect with the adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights in December 2017. The paper concludes on the future for social investment with some personal reflections as an engaged scholar.     

Exploring a blind spot in comparative pension reform research: Long‐term trends in non‐contributory pensions in Europe

Over the past two decades, pension reforms have been high on the agenda of social policy makers in Europe. In many countries, these reforms have resulted in less generous public pensions. At the same time, minimum income protection for older adults has received attention from policy makers, but much less so from social policy researchers. Therefore, this study explored how benefit levels of non‐contributory minimum income schemes for older adults evolved from 1992 to 2012 in 13 ‘old’ EU member states. Building on two cross‐national longitudinal datasets with comparative data on minimum income protection in Europe, the study shows that over the past 20 years, the erosion of the principal safety net of last resort for older persons has been limited. Moreover, a substantial number of European countries have pursued a deliberate policy of considerably increasing minimum income benefits.     

Institutional reforms for economic growth in the Western Balkan countries

The paper presents an empirical analysis of the impact of institutional reform policies and institutional quality on the economic growth of five Western Balkan countries (WB countries: Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia and Albania) in the period 2006-2016. It was developed its own model of quantification concerning the impact of the most important indicators of the quality of institutions on the economic growth of these countries, which are in a delayed phase of transition and at some stage in the EU accession process. Achieving high and stable rates of economic growth for WB countries becomes the ultimate prerequisite for completing the EU transition and accession process. In order to improve growth dynamics, among other things, it is necessary to identify key drivers of growth and to model appropriate growth and development policies based on the results obtained. In the paper, WB countries were viewed as a whole. By empirically testing the impact of individual quality indicators of institutions on economic growth, according to the World Bank Governance Indicators methodology by using panel data multiple linear regression analysis, the largest statistically significant and positive impact came from the Government Effectiveness and Regulatory Quality variable. The intensity of the impact of the Control of Corruption and Rule of Law variable on GDP per capita is slightly weaker, but it is also very pronounced. In this respect, the empirical results obtained can be a useful framework for modeling the development policies of WB countries. They represent an important guide for policy makers to implement measures aimed at improving the quality of institutions and at the same time modeling economic growth policies.     

Active Ageing Index in Korea – Comparison with China and EU countries

The evidence‐based policymaking relies on the use and robustness of the available data. Many conceptual and operational difficulties restrict this process, not least in making use of evidence to identify policy priorities. The Active Ageing Index (AAI), developed originally for the 28 European Union countries, offers a strong motivation in this respect. This paper reports on the development of the AAI for Korea, a country where speed and level of population aging is among the highest in the world. Drawing on the comparative analysis of the AAI results for Korea, China, and European countries, we find that Korea's AAI (35.3) is higher than the average of the AAI for all EU countries (33.9) but lower than China (37.3). Fitting Korea into the overall ranking with the EU countries and China (ranked 7), Korea is ranked 11, just behind Germany (10). The AAI results in Korea show that the employment domain performs extremely well compared with the EU countries, but other domains, especially “Social participation” and “Independent, healthy and secure living,” are achieving less favorable outcomes. High employment among the current cohorts of older workers in Korea can be attributed largely to the constraints of low pension income status.     

Policy Targets and Ethical Tensions: UK Nurse Recruitment

In July 2000 Britain's New Labour government set a target of 20,000 extra nurses for the NHS by 2004. In February 2002, two years ahead of schedule, the target was achieved. The government is to be congratulated on meeting its target but ethical questions over recruitment practices remain. Nurse registrations to the UK from the (then) fifteen EU countries remain flat despite government guidance making this the first priority for international recruitment. Registrations from developing countries with nursing shortages continue despite repeated guidance discouraging this. The government appears to have been caught in a policy bind. On the one hand it needed to be seen to be acting to prevent “poaching” while waiting for fresh intakes of trainees to come through; on the other, if it had succeeded it would have struggled to meet a key policy pledge and certainly not ahead of schedule. New Labour's stated commitment to an ethical foreign policy seems more apparent than real. The paper reports a clear dissonance between the thrust of national policy on nurse recruitment and current employment practices within the UK.     

Zakat as a Poverty Reduction Mechanism Among the Muslim Community: Case Study of Bangladesh,Malaysia, and Indonesia

Poverty reduction remains the most important challenge for policy makers in Islamic communities. The World Bank (2010: Poverty profile in Muslim world, from http://www.worldbank.org ) estimates that approximately 3 billion people are living in poverty and 46 million more people will come under the income level of US$1.25 a day due to the recent global economic meltdown and slow economic growth rates. Thirty‐five percent of these people are Muslims from Islamic countries. The global Muslim community has an essential role to play in addressing the injustice of global poverty through zakat. Zakat is an Islamic faith‐based institution and is being underutilized for poverty reduction in many of these poor Muslim countries. Since zakat constitutes one of the pillars of Islam, it is logical to assume that policy makers among Muslims should pay serious attention to it. However, that is not the case for many Muslim countries and this paper will show that not all Muslim countries are seriously applying zakat in its strategy of combating poverty. This paper will specifically examine the role and effect of zakat in three Muslim countries (Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia) providing the facts of countries that practise zakat in comparison with those that do not.     

Children and Poverty Why their experience of their lives matter for policy

Children's poverty has long been a central concern for policy makers and policy researchers. The body of extant research conducted and the range of programmatic interventions undertaken by successive governments in this and other countries is extraordinary. Nevertheless, children remain in poverty. Clearly there are many reasons for this, not least of which is the maintenance and intensification of market capitalism with its attendant blatant inequalities. Even so, the moral, political, social and economic imperatives for developing workable responses to children's poverty remain. This paper argues that we, in Australia, should adopt an approach increasingly taken in the UK. Drawing on, among other things, the new sociology of childhood, this approach begins not with the expertise of adult researchers and policy makers, but with that of children. In doing so, the case is made for why children's perceptions and experiences of poverty are key concerns for policy. The paper outlines in theoretical terms why children's voices matter. Invoking the new sociology of childhood and the sociology of identity, a conceptual framework for understanding why policy scholars and makers should carefully attend to the voices of their subjects is sketched – in this case, the subjects are children. Finally, some methodological implications of this for undertaking policy research informed by this approach are outlined.     

Models of economic planning under uncertainty: A selective survey and appraisal

Uncertainty and risk have played significant roles in policy making, at the micro and macro levels, from formulation of policy models to their actual implementation in several countries. The impact of risk aversion on policy making has differedm however, both in magnitude and intensity. Thus, for less developed countries with large commodity exports, stabilization policies have played a role as important as those for income growth and employment; for centrally planned economies, the investment cycles leading to large-scale divergences of actual from planned targets in strategic sectors have led policy makers to consider the need for building adequate safety margins in the planning process. Finally, for developed economies, the applied theory of indicative planning and decentralization has stressed the various informational gaps and competing risks that may impede an efficient and cooperative solution between private and public sectors. A selective survey and appraisal of the planning methods as they relate to risk and uncertainty is attempted here for less developed, centrally planned, and developed market economies.     

Causal dynamics of poverty reproduction in EU countries

This study investigated causal mechanisms of poverty reproduction in EU countries by placing emphasis on the parental background effect on sons’ poverty risk after having controlled for endogeneity among observable and non‐observable effects of the involved mechanisms. The countries under investigation were old EU member states representing the four welfare regimes in the EU. Having employed path models and utilised EU‐SILC 2005 data, the analysis yielded no statistically significant direct effect of parental background on sons’ poverty risk in Denmark. Greece, however, exhibited a statistically significant and quite strong direct effect. Germany and the United Kingdom stood in‐between. Moreover, the analysis found indirect channels through which the parental background affects sons’ poverty risk. These findings are expected to enrich the academic discourse and inform the policy‐making process on poverty reproduction and social protection in the EU.     

Using Remote Sensing to Evaluate Environmental Institutional Designs: A Habitat Conservation Planning Example

Objective. Satellite-based remote-sensing analysis is a beneficial, yet underused, tool for environmental policy, planning, and evaluation. We identify its benefits and costs to encourage social scientists to consider the use of remote sensing as a tool for planning and evaluating environmental institutions. Methods. We analyze two multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images to evaluate a habitat conservation plan (HCP) implemented pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Results. Image analysis provides useful broad spatial scale information on HCP performance that is not discernible to the naked eye or through other methodologies. Conclusions. Satellite image analysis should be considered as a tool for planning and evaluating environmental institutional designs—despite the financial costs and requisite technical training. These images provide ecological and land cover change information that may not be available elsewhere. We provide lessons learned to help make analysts cognizant of some important issues surrounding the use of satellite-based imagery for environmental institutional analysis.     

Hitting the target without missing the point: New Zealand’s immunisation health target for two year olds

ABSTRACT

The use of health targets as a form of performance measurement has become more prominent internationally as governments have sought to control public expenditure, produce greater efficiency and improve accountability. However, health targets have faced criticism for their potential to produce negative outcomes within a health system. This paper examines how a health target was used as a policy instrument within the New Zealand health system to improve immunisation coverage at two years of age. It explores how the immunisation health target was implemented within four case study sites and discusses the effectiveness of the health target as a policy instrument for improving immunisation coverage and addressing persistent immunisation inequities. Measuring and monitoring performance towards the immunisation health target improved accountability for immunisation coverage within the New Zealand health system and focused attention on improving immunisation coverage in a way that previous policy attempts had failed to do. Health targets may be an effective policy instrument for creating change within specific areas of a health system if their potential for dysfunctional consequences are taken into consideration at the outset.     

中国—东盟合作框架下广西的语言发展战略探讨

东盟区域经济一体化的推进,加快了广西与东盟在各领域的交流,小语种人才的庞大需求及东盟国家的＂汉语热＂等新形势呼唤全新的语言教育政策。广西区域语言战略的制定应着眼于发挥区位优势和整合本地语言资源,从东盟语种教学及面向东盟汉语传播两个层面加以着力。     

Pollutant emissions,energy use and real output in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries

Industrialisation is pivotal to growth sustainability and this requires intense energy use that may invariably trigger pollutant emissions thereby necessitating some evidence-based policy concerns. This study therefore examines the dynamic connection among pollutant emission, energy use and real output per capita in SSA. Owing to cross-sectional dependence, the Prais-Winsten model with panel-corrected standard error (PCSE) alongside the panel spatial correlation consistent (PSCC) approach is applied and key findings are established. First, the EKC hypothesis holds and this is striking for both oil-rich and oil-poor SSA countries. Second, energy use induces pollutant emissions in oil-rich SSA countries but not in oil-poor SSA countries. Third, pollutant emissions and energy use are real output per capita-enhancing in SSA generally and in oil-poor countries. Thus, policy measures to safeguard efficient optimisation of energy use in ensuring a balance as well as developing SSA’s rich renewable energy sources is imperative for long-run growth.     

Convergence of ecological footprint and sustainable policy options

Human activities impact on environment and resources needs policy actions. We provide a new multivariate model which helps to assess how to shape and quantify appropriate policy responses taking into account equity and sustainability. The model analyzes the joint dynamic growth rate of three relevant components of ecological footprint: cropland factor; water resources usage; CO2 emissions, estimating their joint rate of convergence, explicitly including conditioning variables, in the period 1971–2018. This model provides a quantitative assessment of the determinants of convergence across countries, that might help policy makers to take measures to enhance the success of achieving the target. Results show that countries with lowest levels of the ecological footprint components are growing faster than those countries with the highest level of these components. In addition, a higher participation to the international trade (openness of the economy) and a higher investment share is beneficial to accelerate the countries’ dynamics toward a converging path characterized by a more sustainable ecological footprint.     

我国自然资源环境保护的财政政策评价与选择

自然环境是一种公共产品,具有很强的经济外部性特征。市场自身无法对环境资源进行充分有效的配置,这为政府干预环境保护提供了机会和理由。行政与法律的单一强制性手段难以完成环境保护的任务,且执行成本很高,需要与财政政策配合使用。与发达国家相比,我国环境保护的财政政策存在一定差距,只有进一步地调整与改进,才能更好地为环境保护服务。     

Swimming against the tide: why Sweden supports increased labour mobility within and from outside the EU

While the free movement of labour in the EU is generally depicted as a positive feature of the single market, it was also controversial in the debate on EU enlargement. Actors opposing enlargement argued that large waves of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) would ‘swamp’ Western labour markets, leading to so-called social tourism and increasing xenophobia. Contrary to the developments in other countries, Sweden was one of the only three Member States to immediately open its doors to citizens from the EU accession countries of 2004 and 2007. Sweden has also been one of the few EU countries to actively promote greater liberalisation of labour migration policy for third-country nationals (TCNs) within the EU, and the new Swedish Immigration Law of 2008 dramatically liberalised the TCN labour migration policy and made it more employer-driven. We argue that in order to understand why Sweden has supported increased labour mobility within and from outside of the EU, we need to complement existing explanations by analysing the preferences of the political parties. A two-dimensional analysis focusing on economy and culture provides an understanding of why so-called unholy coalitions of parties in support of liberal labour policies have emerged in Sweden during the 2000s. The article ends with a discussion of lessons learned from the Swedish case and wider implications for rights-based mobility in the EU.     

政策实施成本与上下级政府讨价还价的发生机制——基于四东县休禁牧案例的分析

讨价还价是中国上下级政府互动关系中很重要的一种形式。本文详细记述了四东县草原休禁牧政策实施过程中上下级政府的多轮讨价还价，县政府制定政策，政策严格落实导致政府与民众的冲突频发，乡镇政府以冲突为策略与县政府讨价还价，最终获得了相对宽松的执行空间。本文使用实施成本分析框架解释了讨价还价行为的发生机制，执行过程成本、上级施加成本、民众施加成本高昂，致使乡镇政府只能选择与上级讨价还价。随着社会冲突的加剧，乡镇政府的讨价还价能力相对提高，使得双方的协议点从严格执行端向宽松执行端移动。执行无僵局、协议点左右摆动、短期均衡与讨价还价的交替发生是政策执行中上下级政府讨价还价的基本特征。