Modes of biotechnology assessment in the USA, Japan and Denmark

Since the 1970s technology assessment by public bodies has become generally accepted as necessary. Modes of technology assessment differ from country to country, in terms of degree of institutionalization, acceptance by policy makers and level of public involvement, and these in turn depend on the goals, methods and organizational framework of the particular technology assessment. The varying social and political roles of technology assessment arise out of national political traditions and differing cultural views of technology. This article compares modes of biotechnology assessment in the USA, Japan and Denmark, focusing on the role of public discussion in the policy-making process. By analysing these three different contexts, the article seeks to uncover ways in which the cultural conditioning of technology policy takes place.     

Epistemological issues of technology assessment

The most important function of a technology assessment is to reduce the level of ignorance about the costs and benefits of technological changes. The distinction between technique and technology serves to focus on technology assessment as an analytical process for the study of the relations of technology, society, and public policies. Some of the epistemological issues that threaten the claim to legitimacy of this process are traced to competing theories of social and political changes. It is suggested that phronesis rather than value-free rational analysis is an appropriate model for technology assessment. The proper role of technological forecasting and public participation, two problematic activities, is discussed. It is concluded that technology assessment makes an important contribution to the political process in providing information from a broad perspective.     

欧洲卫生技术评估网络发展概况

面对医疗技术更新、民众医疗服务需求提升和医疗投入有限等多重卫生系统压力,欧洲国家力图在其卫生政策制定、管理、报销或监管过程中利用卫生技术评估（Health Technology Assessment,HTA）方法,在充分进行医疗组织、经济、社会和伦理等方面论证的基础上,综合透明、科学和可靠的证据,确定卫生政策优先领域,推动卫生体系的健康可持续发展。欧洲在卫生技术评估方面的有益经验,对我国强化卫生技术评估理念和做法,支持卫生政策制定,具有积极的借鉴意义。     

Public ownership of banks and economic growth

In an influential article, La Porta et al. (2002) argue that public ownership of banks is associated with lower GDP growth. We show that this relationship does not hold for all countries, but depends on a country's initial conditions, in particular its financial development and political institutions. Public ownership is harmful only if a country has low financial development and low institutional quality. The negative impact of public ownership on growth fades quickly as the financial and political system develops. In highly developed countries, we find no or even positive effects. Policy conclusions for individual countries are likely to be misleading if such heterogeneity is ignored.     

The political economy of public health expenditure and wait times in a public‐private mixed health care system

Abstract This paper investigates the determinants of public health expenditure in a public‐private mixed health care system, where a longer wait time for public care is the major difference between public and private sectors. Voter preferences for health care vary according to their age and by income, and public policy choices are part of a multi‐dimensional, competitive political equilibrium. We show how equilibrium public health expenditure and wait times depend on demographics and explain why they are independent of the distributions of income and political influence. We also show that population aging may not always lead to more public health expenditure.     

Does democracy affect taxation and government spending? Evidence from developing countries

Focusing on developing countries in three geographical areas (South-East Asia, Latin America and European Union), we explore the relation between political variables and tax revenue, public spending and their structure. We build a new dataset for the 1990–2005 period with fiscal, political and socio-economic variables. Since democracy is a complex and multidimensional concept, we measure it using two variables, the political strength of democratic institutions, and the protection of civil liberties. We perform three sets of estimates: (i) cross-country pooled OLS regressions with region fixed effects, (ii) country fixed effects regressions and (iii) region specific regressions with country fixed effects. While the first model delivers some significant correlations between political variables and tax items, when controlling for country fixed effects we find that tax revenue and tax composition are in general not significantly correlated with the strength of democratic institutions and the protection of civil liberties. The only exceptions are indirect, trade and property taxes. A similar result applies to public spending, with the exception of defense expenditure. Overall, our findings cast some doubt on the exact public policy channels through which political institutions affect economic development.     

Female political representation and substantive effects on policies: A literature review

The share of women in political offices has increased considerably over the past few decades in almost every country in the world. Does this matter for policy outcomes? This is the first paper to provide a literature review on the substantive effects of female representation on policies. In developing countries, the increase in female political representation has caused a better provision of public goods, especially with regard to education and health. In developed countries, higher female representation has not affected public policies as measured by spending patterns. However, more recent evidence shows that female representation has induced changes in parliamentary deliberations and specific policy choices (e.g. more public child care) that may not be reflected in the observable composition of public spending. Finally, higher female representation has improved institutional quality by reducing corruption and rent-extraction by those in power.     

中国古代农业赋税减免政策初探

中国古代赋税政策发生了八次重大的改革,其中不乏有减免农业赋税的政策,这些政策有长期减免赋税以劝农和临时减免赋税以救荒为主,表现出赋税减免政策的周期性、单一性、偏重性和阶级性。这些政策的出台,与中国古代一直奉行的＂重农思想＂、历史条件下的土地制度和政治人士的推动作用是分不开的,它们在一定程度上缓和了阶级矛盾,促进了社会的发展。     

Productivity and Policy in Higher Education

Understanding and improving the performance of public higher education institutions is a matter of growing interest to university and government leaders. To this end, this article surveys dimensions of recent approaches to productivity measurement in higher education, illustrating trends, limitations and developments, and exemplifies these with reference to Australian universities. The article closes by discussing policy considerations that would help augment the design of policy, making comment on the implications for performance‐incentivised funding of higher education.     

An interdisciplinary approach to applied policy analysis

Applied policy analysis has become an acceptable research activity for professional political scientists to the benefit of both the discipline of political science and society. Despite its long history as a social science research activity and the current popularity and widespread interest in this kind of research, there is no commonly agreed to theory of and/or approach to applied policy analysis. This article describes an interdisciplinary team approach developed and applied by the Science and Public Policy Program at the University of Oklahoma during the past 8 years. The approach consists of four principal components or conceptual elements: a general conceptual framework for technology assessment (a particular kind of applied policy study), an interdisciplinary team, the active involvement of numerous outside experts and stakeholders, and an issue–systems policy analysis framework. The conclusion reached is that, while the pitfalls identified by critics of applied policy analysis should be treated seriously, applied policy analysis can contribute to the development of the discipline while benefiting society.     

Political frictions and public policy outcomes

We study the role of political frictions in public policy outcomes. We propose a simple model of fiscal policy that combines a lack of commitment by the government, political turnover, and another political friction that can be interpreted either as political polarization or as public rent-seeking. We show that political turnover increases public debt levels, while political polarization or public rent-seeking leads to higher public spending. We evaluate the importance of different political frictions for fiscal policy outcomes using a sample of twenty developed countries. We find that the data on political instability combined with the data on public rent-seeking explain 25% of the variation in public debt levels.     

产业共性技术政府支持性研究

基于产业共性技术的公共品特性,政府理应在推动产业共性技术发展中发挥积极作用,这对于加速产业结构升级及创新型国家建设具有重要意义。为了加强政府对产业共性技术发展的支持力度,更好地推动共性技术的创新发展,我国应强化顶层设计,加强产业共性技术创新发展战略规划;完善产业共性技术平台建设,优化共性技术的扩散机制;健全技术经济政策;支持产业共性技术的研发;扩散和应用     

ON THE IMPACT OF PUBLIC DEBT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: DOES COUNTRY RISK MATTER?

This study examines the nonlinear impacts of four country risk indices on the debt‐growth nexus for 61 countries in a panel data framework. Our results show evidence of the different debt‐growth nexus under the different degrees of country risk. Under a high‐risk environment, a country's economic growth is harmed by raising its public debt. The negative effects public debt has on economic growth become weak under low political and financial‐risk environments, while an increase in public debt could help to stimulate economic growth under low composite and economic risk environments. In addition, the differences of countries' income and debt levels also lead country risks to have different effects on the debt‐growth nexus, suggesting that a country should borrow appropriately based on its current risk environments while improving economic performance. (JEL C33, E02, H63, O43)     

The choice of innovation policy instruments

The purpose of this article is to discuss the different types of instruments of innovation policy, to examine how governments and public agencies in different countries and different times have used these instruments differently, to explore the political nature of instrument choice and design (and associated issues), and to elaborate a set of criteria for the selection and design of the instruments in relation to the formulation of innovation policy. The article argues that innovation policy instruments must be designed and combined into mixes in ways that address the problems of the innovation system. These mixes are often called “policy mix”. The problem-oriented nature of the design of instrument mixes is what makes innovation policy instruments ‘systemic’.     

政策缝隙、风险源与社会稳定风险评估

公共政策在中国发展进程中成为经济增长、体制改革和国家转型的依赖工具、手段和路径。政策的后果也是社会不稳定的一个来源。在推进公共政策的社会稳定风险评估过程中,关键的问题是如何识别风险源。文章在案例研究的基础上,提炼出"政策缝隙"概念,用来理解社会不稳定的来源。政策缝隙体现在对实质性利益调整或再分配的过程中,政策文本出现了时间、空间和不同社会群体之间的不一致现象,而政策不一致即成为风险源。在评估出风险源基础上,实现源头治理的关键是以科学和民主的方式来制定精细化方案弥补政策缝隙。     

Governance–Based Analysis Of Regulation

This article surveys current literature on the developing nature of regulatory systems and regulatory reforms, attempts to place such arrangements in the pervasive context provided by public policy processes and institutions, and argues that an explanation of the 'governance of regulation' is crucial to an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of regulatory practice. The article begins by defining the range of meanings of regulation, then goes on to emphasize the importance of the framework of governance within which regulatory policy and practice proceed. The location of regulatory reform in contemporary debates on state–market relations and related managerial reforms is examined. Reference to this framework highlights the significance of the public policy process through which regulatory policies must be delivered, and the key role within that framework of political categories of analysis. The article ends by considering the issue of 'policy transfer' between developed and developing economies, and the need for policy–relevant research into regulatory systems and policies in developing countries.     

Toward effective international technology assessments

A cross-national understanding of technology policy decision processes and basic premises underlying technology assessment must be established before an effective technology assessment methodology can be developed to conduct substantive technology assessments on an international scale.     

Multiple-objective methods in regulatory decision making: A conceptual framework applied to U.S. automobile safety standards

Public policy making is a complex matter. Policy makers are charged with balancing a broad spectrum of competing objectives, reflecting in varying degrees the interests and aspirations of a diverse range of constituencies and stakeholders. Policy decisions have differential impacts on differing constituencies and the contributions of these impacts to objectives are frequently uncertain, difficult to quantify, and hotly disputed. Formal methods of decision analysis have been advanced as aids for coping with complexity and have been applied to some public policy issues, most notably the management of water resources. While formal methods have the apparent benefit of rationalizing the policy process and improving the efficacy and equity of policy decisions, serious questions remain concerning the acceptability and ultimate usefulness of formal analyses in the public arena. In this article we examine these questions in the context of policy making relating to government regulation of automobile designs for safety. We consider what would be involved in attempting to use a relatively modern, multiple-objective approach in this context. The key questions are how and, more importantly, why multiple-objective methods might be used. The article begins with an illustrative case study, describes the current policymaking process, identifies the parties involved in and affected by this process, elicits key objectives, looks briefly at some scalar-objective approaches, and then outlines a multiple-objective approach. The framework developed arguably is useful in assisting policy making, at least at a qualitative level. Issues which impede a more quantitative resolution of this framework are discussed. This article is intended as a pilot study which may promote research toward the achievement of a useable multiple-objective procedure applicable in the public domain.     

Continuity and Change: Labour Market Programs and Education Expenditure

Since 1971 Australian governments have varied expenditure on labour market programs and education. This article attempts to explain these changes in the context of several straightforward hypotheses concerned with political processes. In both policy areas the evidence is generally consistent with four views: that ALP governments spend relatively more than coalition governments; that ALP expenditure is more likely to be directed to the public sector, and coalition expenditure to the private sector; that governments of both political persuasions tend to move towards their opponents' position in budgets immediately preceding elections; and that, after the marked changes initiated in the 1972 to 1974 period, the parties have become increasingly similar in expenditure terms. Apparently there have been important differences between the political parties in government, but these distinctions have become less clear–cut over recent years.     

Technology assessment and political decision-making

Often technology assessments (TA) performed in the public sector serve two very different masters. As a policy assessment tool employed in a political environment, TA must make allowance for the norms, values and sources of legitimacy for bureaucratic policy-making. At the same time, TA is evaluated and legitimated according to many of the same logical and methodological criteria as the sciences and other modes of systematic inquiry. This essay considers the sometimes conflicting values of rationality, political interests, and organizational routines that come into play in public sector TA. Allison's decision-making typology is employed to facilitate analysis of the conflicting values.