Journal of Public Affairs

Publisher:: Wiley
Publication date:: 2021-02-01

ISBN:: 1472-3891

Issue Number

No. 23-4, November 2023

Latest documents

The roadmap to net‐zero emission: Do geopolitical risk and energy transition matter?
Global crises have heightened policy uncertainties and efforts to address global climate change. Limited evidence exists in the literature on geopolitical risk's direct and indirect roles in addressing global emissions. In this study, we examine whether geopolitical risk could impede or facilitate efforts to attain a net‐zero emissions target through energy transition using panel data for 42 countries from 1990 to 2020. Various econometric techniques were applied in this study to present robust findings and reliable conclusions. Estimates from the Driscoll‐Kraay, Lewbel two‐stage least squares and method of moment regression techniques consistently showed that countries' geopolitical risk directly increases emissions (total greenhouse gas, carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide). At the same time, energy transition, measured with renewable energy consumption, mitigates these emissions. In addition, evidence from the partial linear functional‐coefficient model technique indicates that renewable energy consumption consistently mitigates emissions when geopolitical is minimal (at a minimum and mean level). However, the role of renewable energy consumption in reducing emissions becomes weaker when geopolitical risk is heightened—thus, when geopolitical risk reaches its maximum level. We recommend that efforts to sustain renewable energy transition and maintain geopolitical stability are vital for achieving net‐zero emissions and climate change mitigation.
The violation of human security and identity of Uyghur Muslim community through social construction process
The security of the Uyghur ethnic community in Xinjiang became an international concern after media reports about the existence of re‐education camps. History has recorded that the Uyghur often experienced violation of their human security rights. This violation worsened when the Chinese Community Party (CCP) succeeded in controlling the entire mainland. The three pillars of human security that should be ensured by the state, freedom from fear, freedom from want and freedom to live in dignity were violated by the CCP. Using the theory of social construction process, the finding of the research was that the violations aimed to insert socialist and communist values into Uyghur's identity and to control their province, which rich in natural resources.
Corruption: Governance challenge towards reducing unemployment in Nigeria
The study examines the possibility of having a very low rate of unemployment in Nigeria, if there is a reduced rate of corruption in the long‐term. While using cointegration regressions and Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM) over the period 1996–2020, it is affirmed that corruption could increase unemployment rate in the long run. The two corruption indicators employed (control of corruption and corruption index) are found to have a substantial effect on unemployment rate. Further evidence confirms that corruption and unemployment are cyclically interdependent. Findings indeed stress that a high level of corruption is harmful to employment growth. On the other hand, in the absence of sufficient job opportunities, rent‐seeking government officials would be more interested in collecting bribes from job seekers, which results in sustained unlawful practices among the public officials. Thus, adopting effective corruption‐control measures is critical. It is therefore suggested that to effectively tackle corruption incidents, there should be incentives for citizens or public officials to report bribery and the process of reporting corruption incidents should be further simplified. Strengthening anti‐corruption agencies and developing a sound legal framework that promotes a culture of lawfulness and impeccable practices in the public sector are central.
Intergovernmental transfers and fiscal equalization across the north‐eastern states of India: Evidence from panel data
While numerous studies have tried to analyze the impact of intergovernmental transfers in fostering fiscal equalization in India, there need to be more studies in the context of north‐eastern (NE) states. Situating in a geographically isolated and economically backward region, the states of NE India depend heavily on central fiscal transfers to meet expenditures and to promote various economic activities in the region. One of the essential objectives of these transfers is to achieve fiscal equity. Hence, the study attempts to analyze the fiscal equalizing nature of the intergovernmental transfers across NE India during 1991–2019. The coefficient of variation (CV) analysis results indicates that although fiscal transfers reduced the magnitude of disparity in the own‐source revenue across the NE states, a significant amount of disparity still exists in the resource base across these states. The regression analysis findings suggest that the transfers across these states need to be more fiscal equalizing. The per capita gross state domestic product emerges as a positive and significant in predicting per capita transfers, and hence it questions the progressivity of central transfers. When assigning the interstate share of transfers, more weight should be placed on fiscal equalizing factors such as per capita income. The Finance Commission of India should emphasize fiscal equalizing criteria when allocating weights and recommending transfers to the NE States. Additionally, states with low incomes should be recognized in plan schemes.
Barriers and enablers of coordination across healthcare system levels
Coordination across healthcare system levels is a global imperative to ensure efficient resource utilization and provide high‐quality care. The substantial body of research on coordination in healthcare mainly concerns coordination across professional and organizational domains. Consequently, there is a dearth of empirical research aimed at delineating the determinants of coordination across healthcare system levels. This paper describes and analyses the barriers and enablers of healthcare coordination across national, regional, and local system levels in a populous Swedish region. Individual interviews and focus group discussions, encompassing a total of 63 individuals, were conducted with managers, administrators, and politicians. The findings of the paper underscore that the barriers identified were most often of a structural or institutional character, whereas the enablers of the studied cross‐level coordination were mostly relational. Therefore, we propose that future research should aim to further delineate the prerequisites for personal relationships to emerge, as well as how they may act as enablers of coordination across healthcare system levels.
Outreach of the programmatic components of National Health Mission in India: An inter‐ and intra‐state analysis using nationally representative data
In 2005, India launched the National Health Mission (NHM) to achieve equity in access to primary and secondary healthcare, with special focus on maternal and child healthcare (MCH). Studies have shown that NHM has increased access to MCH services; however, the access is still low among low socioeconomic population groups. Since outreach among target population is crucial to improve access to MCH, we analyzed the level and the inter‐ and intra‐state socioeconomic inequity in the outreach in two major NHM components: conditional cash‐transfer program‐JSY, and community health workers‐ASHAs and ANMs. We used administrative records and nationally representative cross‐sectional sample surveys in the early‐ and after the targeted full‐implementation phases of NHM, and employed descriptive and multivariate methods. We found that the NHM had covered only less than one‐half of the eligible women, with considerable inter‐state variations. For instance, in the high‐focus states in 2015–16, the receipt of JSY benefits, ASHAs services, and ANMs services among eligible women was 41.5%, 40.6%, and 48.8%, respectively, whereas the respective outreach among the bottom wealth quintile was 39.8%, 45.1%, and 44.4%. However, there was attenuation in inequity overtime, favoring the poor in the outreach of JSY benefits and ASHAs services. Furthermore, underscoring the importance of program outreach, we find that district with higher level of program outreach was associated with increased uptake of MCH services among target population. Our findings imply for implementing policy measures for wider program outreach so that the NHM could serve as pathway to attain universal health‐care coverage for India.
Issue Information
Data envelopment analysis to investigate the Italian legal system and its reform
This work investigates the Italian judicial system and discusses the designing of a policy reform to boost the efficiency of courts, considering the human resources available as well as the expenditure generated by the process to deliver justice. The authors present the benchmarks and shed light on how policy makers embarking on such a process of reform may be misled by inappropriate model definition. In detail, the authors propose a comparative analysis of technical efficiency (TE) scores computed using data envelopment analysis, adopting the same output (number of settled cases) and two alternative sets of inputs (judicial expenditure and human resources). According to the results, without considering the information extracted from the two complementary benchmark analyses, policy makers might be misled in the reform process. Regarding the elements that affect the performance of courts, it may be possible to improve the efficiency of judicial districts by working on judicial procedures. Hence, these are the domains where interventions by policy makers may prove successful. As for policy implications, the models and benchmarks presented here could be used to devise a reform of the judicial system aimed at enhancing its TE, while also keeping public expenditure under control.
Beyond the Z‐score: A novel measure of bank stability for effective policymaking
This article looks beyond Z‐score and proposes a novel methodological framework to build an all‐encompassing indicator of bank stability for individual banks using the optimisation‐based ‘benefit‐of‐the‐doubt (BoD)’ approach. Unlike other available approaches, this approach is totally data‐driven and generates endogenous weights to aggregate sub‐indicators of bank stability and dimensions. Further, the final outcomes are not limited to a scalar measure of bank stability. The unique optimal weights offer valuable policy‐relevant insights and highlight the most precarious areas of stability, which demand the immediate attention of the bank's management and the industry regulators for both micro‐and macro‐level policymaking. Using the data of Indian public sector banks operating in the year 2018, the study illustrates the proposed framework to obtain a holistic indicator of bank stability, defined on 14 ratio sub‐indicators and 5 broad dimensions (soundness, asset quality, profitability, management efficiency, and liquidity) of bank stability.
Mutual efforts for mutual trust: Impacts of citizens' knowledge and governmental communication channels on trust in participatory budgeting
Since participatory budgeting (PB) has been advocated by both theorists and practitioners of public administration, its adoption has become a global phenomenon. As of 2017, all local governments in South Korea are legally mandated to operate a PB system as a policy for inviting citizen participation in local budget decision‐making. Using an impact assessment tool completed by PB managers in local governments, this research tested two sets of independent variables—citizens' participatory capacity and the diversification of communication in the PB process—that could be associated with the dependent variables “citizens' trust in government (CTG)” and “government officials' trust in citizens (GTC).” The paper presents the three major findings on the common drivers behind CTG and GTC: (1) citizen participants' knowledge on budget and budgeting process; (2) local government's efforts in gathering citizens' inputs for PB; and (3) the mutual efforts to understand the needs and limitations of both citizens and the local government. The paper concludes by exploring the implications for the design and delivery of effective PB implementation.