{"title":"The press and government, influencers of citizens’ political opinions: A quasi-experiment on Brexit","authors":"Maria-Magdalena Roşu , Andrada Fiscutean , Mihaela Paun","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In a highly interconnected world, it is important to determine how local events happening somewhere can influence the course of action in a different place. The current study approaches Brexit' spillover effect across Europe regarding Euroscepticism and Europeans' attitudes towards the EU. Through a quasi-experimental methodology, we employed the data from the eighth and the ninth edition of the European Social Survey (ESS). After March 29, 2017, when Theresa May triggered the formal mechanism for the Brexit process, in distant UK places, public opinion shifted towards believing the EU unification had gone too far. The political placement (left/right leaning) predicted the shift, while the use of the internet and the self-reported happiness level significantly and positively impacted the support for remaining in the EU. Subjectively experiencing unemployment did not contribute to Euroscepticism, but it was positively correlated with unfavourable opinions about immigration. Conversely, the affection toward Europe increased for politically right-leaning respondents who considered that immigration harms the local state and should be reduced. Self-reported quality of life (health and happiness), greater internet use, and news media consumption lead to more favourable views toward immigration and the idea that immigrants enrich the local state. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed with public policy recommendations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 2","pages":"Pages 272-288"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138530681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovation policy and corporate finance: The Italian automotive supply chain and its transition to Industry 4.0","authors":"G.G. Calabrese , G. Falavigna , R. Ippoliti","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This work investigates the SMEs of the Italian automotive supply chain, testing the impact of an innovation policy created with the target of supporting investments in Industry 4.0. In detail, the authors examine the impact of this policy on SMEs’ access to the capital market (i) and their financial performance (ii). The former is an appropriate proxy to measure the effectiveness of such policy; while the latter is a good candidate to evaluate the sustainability of this program after its conclusion. According to our results, SMEs with access to the incentives of this innovation policy are those observations with higher rates of admission to external financial resources (i.e., 0.3 higher debt ratio) and higher financial performance (i.e., 2 times the odds of having a positive profit, and 0.01 higher financial indexes). Hence, evidence suggests a positive evaluation of this public intervention, as well as positive expectations on its sustainability. In view of these insights, several policy implications are formulated to lead governments into the fourth industrial revolution.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 2","pages":"Pages 336-353"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161893824000097/pdfft?md5=505f062f5041cb43fb8319b7c40ec50f&pid=1-s2.0-S0161893824000097-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139516563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eric Evans Osei Opoku , Alex O. Acheampong , Olufemi Adewale Aluko
{"title":"Impact of rural-urban energy equality on environmental sustainability and the role of governance","authors":"Eric Evans Osei Opoku , Alex O. Acheampong , Olufemi Adewale Aluko","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Globally, rural areas suffer from less infrastructure relative to urban areas. Political and development economists have mainly attributed this disparity in infrastructure distribution to governance. The literature has sufficiently discussed the role that rural-urban infrastructure inequality plays in development outcomes such as poverty. However, not much is known about the effect of the rural-urban infrastructure gap on the environment. To contribute to knowledge and policy discussions, we investigate the impact of rural-urban energy access (in)equality on environmental degradation and the role governance plays using data from 47 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000–2020. Evidence from the heteroskedasticity-based instrumental variable regression consistent with Driscoll and Kraay's estimation revealed that bridging rural-urban energy access inequality is associated with reduction in environmental degradation. We also documented that the direct effect of the governance-related variables used is mixed. The moderation and marginal effect estimates showed that improving governance quality conditions equality in rural-urban energy access to reduce environmental degradation. From a policy perspective, these findings suggest that the implementation of rural electrification policies supported by a good governance system would play a crucial role in mitigating environmental degradation in developing countries.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 2","pages":"Pages 304-335"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161893824000048/pdfft?md5=15808443b5b3387c1122225ffbe088f6&pid=1-s2.0-S0161893824000048-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139638939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Space launches and the environment: As the earth orbit level matters, what can be done?","authors":"Ficawoyi Donou-Adonsou","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We investigate the impact of U.S. space activity on the environment by Earth orbit level. We exploit the environmental Kuznets framework and apply the two-stage least squares method to time series data collected between 1981 and 2021. The results demonstrate that, while the orbit level does not matter for the launch, the impact on the environment, however, seems to be more notable the higher the orbit level. The results suggest that payloads and rocket bodies degrade the quality of the environment and therefore increase demand for natural resources, contribute to climate change, and increase pollution at all Earth orbit levels.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 2","pages":"Pages 369-390"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161893824000127/pdfft?md5=10caba541f5feacc89d419f429493640&pid=1-s2.0-S0161893824000127-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139677872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fiscal decentralization for the delivery of health and education in Indian states: An ongoing process is more desirable than a policy shift","authors":"Richa Singh , Sankalpa Bhattacharjee , Amarendu Nandy","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2024.01.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>We examine the impact of fiscal decentralization reforms on two central components of public </span>service delivery outcomes, viz., health and education using feasible generalized least squares on a balanced panel of 18 non-special category states of India for the period 2002–2020. Given India’s complex decentralization framework, intertwined with dynamic political and socioeconomic dimensions and weak institutional processes, our analysis is critical to examining the efficacy of decentralization as a policy instrument to augment the provision of public services. The novelty of our study stems not only from its longitudinal and multidimensional approach towards analyzing the effectiveness of decentralization reforms but also from its unique construction of an ‘institutional quality’ index that is critical for ensuring accountability in the decentralization process. Our findings underscore the positive impact of fiscal decentralization as a reformative intervention on public service delivery outcomes, highlighting the role of Indian polity and socioeconomic channels of accountability in shaping those outcomes. The study emphasizes the imperative to augment institutional quality, safeguard press freedom, enhance local government capacity, and delineate distinct functions within key policy domains for successful decentralization reforms.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 2","pages":"Pages 254-271"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139516339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How do industrialization and agricultural land use affect urban population in Turkey? Policy implications in the context of SDGs","authors":"Volkan Göçoğlu , Serkan Göksu","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.08.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.08.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Urban population growth in Turkey has been increasing rapidly since the middle of the 20th century. The escalating population, particularly in urban regions, has emerged as a critical challenge in achieving sustainable urban management. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2, 9, and 11 present various avenues for governments to adress this predicament. This study employs the framework of multiple stream model, offering a valuable lens through which policies can identify opportune moments for policy implementation. The study examines the impact of industrialization and agricultural land use on the country's urban population while identifying potential opportunities for enhancing sustainable urban management in alignment with the SDGs. Subsequently, it critically examines the asymmetrical effects of these two significant factors on the urban population, formulating policy recommendations based on the empirical findings. The study concludes by stressing the significance of prioritizing sustainable, long-term agricultural and industrialization policies outlined in national policy documents rather than relying on short-term and temporary solutions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 1","pages":"Pages 198-211"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42502020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Olajide O. Oyadeyi , Olayode W. Agboola , Solomon O. Okunade , Tolulope T. Osinubi
{"title":"The debt-growth nexus and debt sustainability in Nigeria: Are there reasons to be concerned?","authors":"Olajide O. Oyadeyi , Olayode W. Agboola , Solomon O. Okunade , Tolulope T. Osinubi","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study examined the threshold effect of debt on economic growth in Nigeria, with a view to investigating debt sustainability levels in the country. The analysis included yearly data from 1981 to 2021. To achieve its objectives, the study used two-regime threshold ARDL regression approaches. Findings reveal that the optimal thresholds for total debt as a ratio of GDP (TDB/GDP), GNI (TDB/GNI), total revenue (TDB/REV), and exports of goods and services (TDB/EXP) are 46.1%, 54.5%, 355.3%, and 24.9%, respectively. Findings also indicate that debt ratios below the threshold levels have a significant positive impact on economic growth. This is true for all the debt ratios, except debt-to-export ratio. However, debt ratios above the threshold levels have a negative and significant effect on Nigeria’s economic growth. Furthermore, findings reveal that only the level of domestic debt is sustainable over the long and short run, whereas external debt and total debt are only sustainable over the long run. When expressed as ratios of GDP and GNI, evidence indicates that Nigeria’s debt is not sustainable by all the five measures of debt adopted in the study, both in the short run and in the long run while total debt to revenue ratio is only sustainable only in the long run. The paper adequately explores the implications of these findings and offers relevant policy recommendations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 1","pages":"Pages 129-152"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135411811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"China's foreign direct investments: Do they promote domestic green technology?","authors":"Xiang Cai , Xiaohui Zhao , Cuiting Jiang , Liguo Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.08.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.08.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study systematically analyses the nonlinear relationship between China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and reverse green technological progress (RGTP) using fixed effects (FE) model based on panel data for 31 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2020. We find that the link between China's OFDI and RGTP is an inverted U-shaped curve. In addition, environmental regulation and technology gaps all reduce the height of the inverted U-shaped inflection point. Environmental regulation prolongs the \"climb\" stage while technology gaps compress the \"climb\" stage of the inverted U-curve relationship significantly. This result is verified in further robustness tests. The four transmission mechanisms of China's OFDI on RGTP play a positive role: these findings may help policymakers to design more flexible and effective OFDI policies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 1","pages":"Pages 60-74"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44900062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Concetta Castiglione , Davide Infante , Marta Zieba
{"title":"Is it worth subsidising the cultural sector? New insights from Italian theatre companies","authors":"Concetta Castiglione , Davide Infante , Marta Zieba","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We study the impact of public subsidies on the efficiency of performing arts through an empirical analysis of Italian theatres (including opera houses, permanent theatres, and theatre production companies), using an output-oriented approach. Firstly, we discuss the previous works on efficiency and its determinants in the presence of public subsidies. Secondly, the stochastic frontier analysis true random-effects model and the IV GMM second stage regressions are used together with a procedure to measure the marginal effects of subsidies. Our findings suggest that the impact of public funds on technical efficiency of the Italian theatrical firms is positive and significant. The elasticity of public subsidy on efficiency is smaller than one. However, the return on subsidies amounts to 87 on average. These returns vary between Italian performing arts sub-sectors, and are very high for theatre production companies, low for permanent theatres, and very low for opera houses. We also find that the technological progress is negative for the theatrical Italian sector and it leads to the decline in total factor productivity over time, providing empirical support to the presence of Baumol’s disease in the sector. Overall, since Italian theatres technical efficiency could be increased at least by 25–27%, policy makers could work on public incentives in such a way as to avoid that, due to asymmetric information between government and theatrical firms, subsidies are provided (and criticised) indiscriminately.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 1","pages":"Pages 20-38"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138530678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Growth gains from offshore outsourcing","authors":"Anwesha Basu , Sugata Marjit , C. Veeramani","doi":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jpolmod.2023.11.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We contribute theoretically and empirically to the policy debate on the domestic impact of offshore outsourcing. First, within a simple Ricardian structure, we put forward a growth model where sourcing of foreign inputs by itself, without any transplanted channels, leads to higher growth of domestic industries<span>. Second, by combining country-sector level panel data on production with data on sector level use of imported inputs and input tariffs, we estimate the impact of foreign outsourcing on productivity and output growth. In line with our theoretical model, our analysis confirms that foreign sourcing of inputs exerts a positive effect on growth whereas imported final goods turn out to be insignificant. This has important policy ramifications: removal of trade barriers on intermediate inputs is necessary to boost growth.</span></p></div>","PeriodicalId":48015,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Policy Modeling","volume":"46 1","pages":"Pages 90-112"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138530757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}