Agencies and directions of Japanese policy

A major objective of Japanese telecommunications policy over the past thirty years has been to modify the traditional government monopoly and create a new communications environment. Although the country's internal conflicts and arguments are rooted in its historical and cultural background, a policy consensus is now emerging. In connection with this development, the author describes relevant government agencies and then outlines the major topics of debate relating to the development of Japan into an information-oriented society.     

Telecommunications and the UK government

The first article in this series reviewed the nature of the UK Post Office's monopoly, its relations with government and a number of forces for change. Since then (September 1977), the UK government has published: the government's response to the Carter Committee's proposals; an appendix to the Carter Report; and a ‘White Paper’ concerning all nationalized industries. This article reviews the government's response to the Carter Committee against the background of the evidence submitted to the Committee, the government's overall policy towards nationalized industries and the political debate concerning that policy. Finally, subsequent political and union responses to the government's telecommunications policy are reported which may result in considerable change.     

Nutrition research policy : US progress in the past decade

Human nutrition research is receiving a great deal of attention from the media, consumers and the US government. This article focuses on policy problems facing the government in the development and implementation of the federal human nutrition research programme: establishment of priorities, organization and funding. The background leading up to the present situation is developed, and the political bodies and federal agencies participating in the debate are described. The authors identify the policy issues, and discuss progress towards their resolution.     

Bundling communications policy for the new US administration

The USA does not have a coherent framework for communications policy. The author sets out what should be the prime concerns of a communications policy aimed at serving a pluralistic society in an ‘electronic age’. She describes the current situation, in which responsibilities for communications are divided over a wide range of government organisations. The Communications Act of 1934 is under review, and the author focuses on major aspects of the debate, and lists suitable areas for government involvement. She concludes by stressing the need for the new US administration to provide a coherent structure for communications policy making to encourage the essential free flow of information.     

Toward a national food policy for the USA

This special report discusses the need for a national food policy in the USA. Based on a speech¹ made by Carol Tucker Foreman, Assistant Secretary, Food and Consumer Services, of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), it is part of an ongoing debate in that country. Assistant Secretary Foreman made the speech at the Food and Agricultural Outlook Conference sponsored by the USDA in Washington DC, 14–17 November 1977. The views presented here are not an official US government statement, but rather one part of an important policy making process. FOOD POLICY welcomes submission of other opinions on the question of a food policy for the USA, or for any other nation.     

Imperfect competition law enforcement

Competition policy is a subject of often heated debate. Competition authorities, seeking to prevent or battle anticompetitive acts in complex cases to the best of their abilities, regularly find themselves advised by rival economic theories and disputed empirical analyses. As a consequence, there is a real possibility that they may occasionally err, missing true violations of competition law or finding firms liable that actually had no other intentions than good competition. In this paper, possible consequences of such imperfect competition law enforcement on firm strategies are considered. In a simple model of collusion, it is found that the incidence of anti-competitive behavior increases in both types of enforcement errors: Type II errors decrease expected fines, while Type I errors encourage industries to collude precautionary when they face the risk of a false conviction. Hence, fallible antitrust enforcement may stifle genuine competition, thus stimulating the very behavior competition policy is meant to deter. When enforcement errors are non-negligible, competition authorities run the risk of being over-zealous, in the sense that welfare is best served by an authority that is selective and conscientious in its targeting of alleged anticompetitive acts.     

Flexible specialisation, work organisation and skills: approaching the 'second industrial divide'

Piore and Sabel's concept of flexible specialisation (FS) has initiated a lively debate between'optimists','pessimists'and 'sceptics'. The potential impact of FS on work organisation and skills is examined through a review of industry case studies with discussion of the implications for management, government and unions with respect to training policy.     

DOES DUAL SOURCING LOWER PROCUREMENT COSTS?*

U.S. defense policy encourages the use of dual sourcing to reduce government procurement costs, but recent theoretical work raises doubts about the benefits of this policy. I study the determinants of dual sourcing and its effects on government procurement costs using a panel dataset of tactical missiles. I find dual sourcing is not driven by failures to reduce costs; instead, it is used more often after incumbent suppliers demonstrate quality control problems, and in settings where tacit collusion is likely to be difficult. After correcting for selection bias, dual sourcing is found to reduce government procurement costs significantly.     

Spectrum auctions: Distortionary input tax or efficient revenue instrument?

Spectrum license auctions are widely recognized by economists as more efficient than lotteries or administrative approaches to allocate exclusive rights to spectrum. But whether spectrum auctions are the most efficient spectrum policy still generates debate, in part because the answer may vary depending on exactly what is being optimized, what else is assumed or held constant, and the policies to which one is comparing spectrum auctions. This paper examines the complex confluence of US spectrum policy and fiscal policy. It concludes that economically efficient spectrum policy requires several distinct optimizations, including devolvement of an efficient set spectrum rights and the optimal approach to raising and recycling government revenue in that devolvement process. It also requires allocation policies that take into account possible distortions of the secondary market for spectrum via the capital gains tax. The paper argues that there is no compelling theoretical case or empirical evidence that spectrum auctions are distortionary, and examines cases in which the most efficient policy is to auction spectrum and “recycle” the revenue to offset more distortionary revenue instruments. This paper also examines cases in which it is most efficient to allocate spectrum rights without raising revenue, for example when transactions costs are high or distributional concerns can prevent or delay efficiency-enhancing reforms.     

Global discourse on ICT and the shaping of ICT policy in developing countries

This paper provides a critique of information and communication technology (ICT) policies in developing countries. Based on critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Iranian government discourse in the case of electronic fund transfer at the point of sale (EFT-POS) system, we illustrate the influence of global discourse on the policies and their contributions to the outcomes. We also analyze how policy shaped the ways in which different actors were included and allowed to participate in the implementation process. We show that enhancing the mainstream criteria like the rate of ICT adoption and diffusion, do not necessarily mean that policy will reap the expected benefits. From this standpoint, we propose that the focus of debate in policy making and defining policy objectives should move beyond setting objectives exclusively adopted from global discourse to also considering local issues and concerns. In such conditions, there will be less resistance to the government plans and fewer social challenges.     

Political capabilities,policy risk,and international investment strategy: evidence from the global electric power generation industry

Whereas conventional wisdom holds that multinational enterprises (MNEs) invest less in host countries that pose greater policy risk—the risk that a government will opportunistically alter policies to expropriate an investing firm's profits or assets—we argue that MNEs vary in their response to host‐country policy risk as a result of differences in organizational capabilities for assessing such risk and managing the policy‐making process. We hypothesize that firms from home countries characterized by weaker institutional constraints on policy makers or greater redistributive pressures associated with political rent seeking will be less sensitive to host‐country policy risk in their international expansion strategies. Moreover, firms from home countries characterized by sufficiently weak institutional constraints or sufficiently strong redistributive pressures will seek out riskier host countries for their international investments to leverage their political capabilities, which permit them to attain and defend attractive positions or industry structures. We find support for our hypotheses in a statistical analysis of the foreign direct investment location choices of MNEs in the electric power generation industry during the period 1990–1999, the industry's first decade of internationalization. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spectrum auctions in a thin market: The Korean case

In 2010, the Korean government adopted spectrum auctions and introduced a market mechanism into spectrum management. However, the government has often been confronted with conflicts between diverse policy goals of spectrum auctions. A thin spectrum market, where only three incumbent MNOs bid for spectrum, has led to concerns that the government may fail to maximize revenues.Based on the past experiences in Korea, this paper examines the Korean government's choice of auction rules in the face of conflicting policy goals. This paper also recommends that the government implement the following regulatory reforms and consider the auction related measures to deepen its spectrum market or increase the number of bidders: (i) relaxation of foreign ownership restrictions, (ii) introduction of regional or site-specific spectrum licenses, and (iii) modification of auction formats. Spectrum markets tend to be thin in many countries, and the Korean experience may offer implications for those countries when they implement spectrum auctions.     

基于农户视角的农业风险管理策略研究

市场经济在促进中国农村经济快速发展的同时也加剧了农业风险,自然风险和市场风险困扰着农业经济的发展。文章分析了农户的风险管理原则和策略,剖析了农户对政府提供的政策性农业保险等风险管理工具的行为反应模式。研究表明,政府的风险管理策略要有农户的良性互动才能产生预期的政策效果,否则会事与愿违。其基本结论为．政府不仅要了解缺乏正规制度安排时农户的策略行为,还要考虑农户对政府的风险管理策略的认可和接受程度。政府的风险管理应建立在不同农户的内在需求上,把供给驱动型的风险管理策略转变为需求导向型的风险管理策略。     

Ambiguous workarounds in policy piloting in the NHS: Tensions,trade‐offs and legacies of organisational change projects

Pilot projects are increasingly used as a mechanism to enact organisational change, particularly government policy. Information technology's centrality to organisations often makes it key to the introduction of new processes. However, it can give rise to workarounds as employees circumvent impediments it presents by rejecting its prescribed use. Workarounds tend to be conceptualised dichotomously, as either ‘good’ problem solving, or ‘bad’ subversion of the technology. In pilot projects, workarounds are more ambiguous because those that support projects' successful completion in the short‐term may undermine day to day operations longer term. We draw on interview data from a policy pilot in general practice in the National Health Service in England aimed at extending access to care. We problematise the dichotomous conceptualisation of workarounds, finding they can be simultaneously supportive and undermining of policy pilots. Workarounds thereby become political, as employees are required to trade‐off consequences for themselves and the wider organisation.     

Sensitivity of new industrial product risk to R&D incentives

Incentives for research and development have frequently been a feature of government policy to increase the level or alter the direction of new product development activity in industrial product companies. Conceptually, these incentives may be viewed as "risk-modifiers they may encourage managers to undertake innovation projects where the potential payoffs may be attractive, but where some dimensions of risk are perceived as too high to proceed. This research explores the sensitivity of different dimensions of risk faced by managers to incentives of different kinds, at different levels. Implications are cited for different types of R&D incentives aimed at these different dimensionsof risk.     

Technology and policy in cable TV development in the UK

Although cable TV is often viewed in an entertainment context, its importance for technology policy rests with its relation to future national broadband network development. The authors argue that it could provide a means of assessing the benefits and technical direction of this greater project and government support for early cable ventures is advised for this purpose. Government policy should stress incremental technical advance and address the development problems likely to be encountered by cable TV as an infant technology.     

地方政府预算信息披露研究——基于委托代理理论视角

近年来欧洲各国都经受着主权债务危机的考验,而中国在2008年实行经济刺激政策后地方政府形成了大规模的负债,违约风险也较高。在政府预算信息披露公开程度不够高的情况下,地方债务的真实数据仍不够清晰。政府机构是社会公民管理国家的代理人,在编制和执行预算的过程中应该公开透明才能避免机会主义行为和提高资金使用效率。从理论上论证地方政府预算信息披露的必要性和重要性,并就如何完善现阶段地方政府预算信息披露提出相应对策及建议。     

The (low) power elite : Deregulated licensing criteria for low-power television in the USA

This article examines the policy context within which Low Power Television (LPTV) has developed in the USA, analysing the political, legal, aesthetic and technical considerations used to determine station ownership preferences among competing applicants. Although only a few LPTV stations are in commercial operation, the FCC has received over 32 000 applications from community, minority and commercial interest groups from every state. Unfortunately, this impressive growth potential has been stalled amidst debates concerning the constitutionality of various policy models governing station licensing and operation. At stake in the debate over who should own these outlets are myriad political, social and economic interests among public and private concerns vying for airspace. If the government allows corporate interests to compete against or challenge minority applicants, LPTV may follow the lead of VHF TV with respect to ownership concentration and programme content. Conversely, policies favouring community and minority applicants should promote innovative programme ideas featuring local talent, and address local issues.