The role of local government bodies in European policy-making

Since the publication of the White Paper on European governance, COM (2001) 428, the Commission has stressed that ‘people increasingly distrust institutions and politics or are simply not interested in them’, registering the growing gap between the EU and European citizens. In this context, the European institutions have been promoting several initiatives with the aim of facilitating participation in the European decision-making process. The paper will focus on: (1) the relationship between local governance and participation in the European Union; in this frame, the European institutions tried to start a dialogue with local authorities (see the role of the CoR) and the actors of civil society (through both the European Economic and Social Committee and the Transparency Policy); (2) the consequences either in the theoretical field or in practice. On one hand, the initiatives carried out have created the basis for a new model of multi-level governance and ‘participative democracy’; on the other hand the demand for wider participation produces a continuous growth of lobbying by the actors of civil society, whose regulation appears rather difficult notwithstanding the important efforts made through the European Transparency Initiative.     

The compliance challenge: Implications for social security in the People's Republic of China

Abstract   Discussion of social security compliance in developing societies has mainly focused on systemic administrative and operational issues. The article argues that analysis of compliance calls also for frameworks which draw lessons from nation-specific policy circumstances and comparisons of social protection regime types. Using such an approach, it also examines social security compliance in the context of China. Four considerations are found to be central to improved compliance: the sustainability of economic growth; trust in social institutions and regulations; the differing social values inherent in regime types; and institutional inertia accumulated in China's existing policy path.     

FIRM HETEROGENEITY AND THE PATTERN OF R&D COLLABORATIONS

We consider an oligopoly setting in which firms form pairwise collaborative links in research and development with other firms. Each collaboration generates a value that depends on the identity of the firms that collaborate. First, we provide properties satisfied by pairwise equilibrium networks and efficient networks. Second, we use these properties in two types of situation: (1) there are two groups of firms, and the value of a collaboration is higher when firms belong to the same group; (2) some firms have more innovative capabilities than others. These two situations provide clear insights about how firms' heterogeneity affects both equilibrium and efficient networks. We also show that the most valuable collaborative links do not always appear in equilibrium, and a public policy that increases the value of the most valuable links may lead to a loss of social welfare. (JEL C70, L13, L20)     

RENT CREATION AND RENT SHARING: NEW MEASURES AND IMPACTS ON TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY

This analysis proposes new measures of rent creation and rent sharing and assesses their impact on productivity on cross‐country‐industry panel data. We find first that: (1) anticompetitive product market regulations positively affect rent creation and (2) employment protection legislation boosts hourly wages, particularly for low‐skill workers. However, we find no significant impact of this employment legislation on rent sharing, as the hourly wage increases are offset by a negative impact on hours worked. Second, using regulation indicators as instruments, we find that rent creation and rent sharing both have a substantial negative impact on total factor productivity. (JEL E22, E24, O30, L50, O43, O47, C23)     

Fundamentals for an International Typology of Social Enterprise Models

The quest for a widely accepted definition of social enterprise (SE) has been a central issue in the last two decades. However, it only seems feasible today to identify a few criteria that were most debated: the specific role of individual social entrepreneurs, the place of social innovation, the search for market income and the issue of governance. The arena of conceptualization efforts should now be fed with more contributions starting from bottom-up approaches built upon a hypothesis that could be termed “the impossibility of a unified definition”. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework combining principles of interest (mutual, general and capital interest) and resource mixes to identify institutional trajectories generating four major SE models. We then show that all four SE models may address the actual diversity of SE’s social missions. Finally, we suggest that such social missions may be enhanced differently depending on the respective governance mechanisms.     

Nest design in a changing world: Great tit <Emphasis Type="Italic">Parus major</Emphasis> nests from a Mediterranean city environment as a case study

Investigations of urbanization effects on birds have focused mainly on breeding traits expressed after the nest-building stage (e.g. first-egg date, clutch size, breeding success, and offspring characteristics). Urban studies largely ignored how and why the aspects of nest building might be associated with the degree of urbanization. As urban environments are expected to present novel environmental changes relative to rural environments, it is important to evaluate how nest-building behavior is impacted by vegetation modifications associated with urbanization. To examine nest design in a Mediterranean city environment, we allowed urban great tits (Parus major) to breed in nest boxes in areas that differed in local vegetation cover. We found that different measures of nest size or mass were not associated with vegetation cover. In particular, nests located adjacent to streets with lower vegetation cover were not smaller or lighter than nests in parks with higher vegetation cover. Nests adjacent to streets contained more pine needles than nests in parks. In addition, in nests adjacent to streets, nests from boxes attached to pine trees contained more pine needles than nests from boxes attached to other trees. We suggest that urban-related alterations in vegetation cover do not directly impose physical limits on nest size in species that are opportunistic in the selection of nesting material. However, nest composition as reflected in the use of pine needles was clearly affected by habitat type and the planted tree species present, which implies that rapid habitat change impacts nest composition. We do not exclude that urbanization might impact other aspects of nest building behaviour not covered in our study (e.g. costs of searching for nest material), and that the strengths of the associations between urbanization and nest structures might differ among study populations or species.     

Correlates of Interpersonal Ethnoracial Discrimination Among Latino Adults with Diabetes: Findings from the REACH Detroit Study

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to identify the social and economic correlates of reported experiences of interpersonal ethnoracial discrimination among Latino adults in Detroit. We examine whether the correlates of interpersonal ethnoracial discrimination vary according to the domain of discrimination and compare findings for individual domains of discrimination to a composite measure of experiences of discrimination. This study suggests that the frequency of reported discrimination is moderately high, and relatively common among Latinos with diabetes who live in Detroit. The findings demonstrate that immigration and ethnicity-related factors, such as greater comfort speaking Spanish and being born in the United States, were persistent correlates of more frequent encounters of interpersonal ethnoracial discrimination. Implications for social work research and practice are presented.     

Importance of fairness in humanitarian relief distribution

Abstract

This article is inspired by some of the challenges faced by non-governmental organizations in the distribution of humanitarian relief to vulnerable rural communities. A major concern of these organizations is to warrant that relief is distributed in an impartial and transparent way, which gives rise to the notion of fairness. This article thus discusses the importance of fairness in relief distribution and how it can be defined, especially in a context where delivery of vital items must be ensured periodically. We also propose some performance indicators to measure fairness, which can be useful to organizations that are held accountable for the impartiality of their decisions. Finally, an empirical study of an academic case, inspired by a rural aid distribution problem, is used to analyse how different mathematical formulations may contribute in helping crisis managers integrate fairness or equity in their decisions.     

Physical education and sport teachers' health: from expressed ill-being to hindrances of action

The researches that specifically analyse the working conditions of teachers are few in the ergonomic literature. Our research relates more specifically to teachers of physical education and sports in french context of college. The research project described here includes both a quantitative exploratory survey (218 respondents) and qualitative case studies (interviews and observation), using the general framework of Activity Ergonomics. The results of this exploratory work tend to emphasize the importance of collective and organizational dimensions in the experience of teachers' physical education and sports. Specifically, in a perceived context of degradation of working conditions and accumulation of constraints, the collective and local ability to negotiate the various constraints on the activity appears to be a protective factor. This power to act, these margin of manoeuvre could be a relevant topic for future research.