Governance And The Implementation Of Technology Policy In Less Developed Countries

This study discusses key issues of technology policy in less developed countries from a governance perspective. In particular, it analyzes critical problems of policy implementation and looks for general principles which may be suitable as guideposts in making the state more effective regardless of the particularities of its technology policy. The main argument is that governments need to assume a market-enhancing role and must enhance the state's capabilities and capacities for implementing public policies. Crafting public institutions which ensure accountability, transparency, and predictability of policy making and involve the private sector in political decision-making processes is critical for successful policy implementation. Besides institutional arrangements which help governments to credibly precommit to policies, the quality and institutional design of the public administration and the public-private interface are crucial ingredients of an effective governance structure.     

Public Policy and Innovative Capabilities: The Case of Philips' IT Activities

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of public policy on innovative capabilities of firms, focusing on, on the one hand, the measure of sheltering provided by the policies and, on the other hand, the effects of policies on industrial life cycles and on the life cycle related patterns of firms' behaviour. The paper deals with one sector, IT, and discusses EU and Dutch policies directed toward this sector. Furthermore, a case will be presented concerning Philips' ventures in the IT sector. The way in which public policy influenced the innovative capabilities of Philips helps to explain the relative success of the various projects.     

Public Policy and Innovative Capabilities: The Case of Philips' IT Activities

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of public policy on innovative capabilities of firms, focusing on, on the one hand, the measure of sheltering provided by the policies and, on the other hand, the effects of policies on industrial life cycles and on the life cycle related patterns of firms' behaviour. The paper deals with one sector, IT, and discusses EU and Dutch policies directed toward this sector. Furthermore, a case will be presented concerning Philips' ventures in the IT sector. The way in which public policy influenced the innovative capabilities of Philips helps to explain the relative success of the various projects.     

A Framework for Policy Oriented Innovation Studies in Industrialising Countries

This paper argues that there is increasing need for the integration of policy considerations in the formulation of research questions and in the development of analytical work in policy oriented innovation studies. Despite the fact that Evolutionary and Innovation Studies theories have offered new ways of incorporating policy, little explicitness in this regard has yet been achieved and there is a risk that academic research following the new perspectives will be of little relevance for policy. Rather than a ‘linear process’ starting with empirical research aimed at linking competitiveness and economic performance to technological capabilities (in a comparative perspective and aimed at identifying ‘best practice’) followed by very abstract and un-grounded ‘policy implications' - a new type of link between positive and normative economics in the field is required. Our approach suggests a new structure for policy-oriented and policy-relevant research, i.e. the integration of research on technological change and industrial transformation with research on policy and the development of a conceptual framework for the design and implementation of innovation policies.     

Obstacles to emergence of high/new technology parks, ventures and clusters in Japan

The feasibility of and obstacles to government policies to promote high/new technology (HNT) parks, ventures and clusters are examined mainly in regard to the value systems in the administration and businesses (AB) world and the science and technology (ST) world. Using the language analysis method developed in the philosophy of science, semantic gaps concerning science and research between the two worlds were analyzed and demonstrated as leading the Japanese ST policies into contradictions. Cultural factors such as value gaps between the two worlds are shown to be responsible for the unsuccessful outcome of the ST policies. It is advised to reverse the current ST policies as a short-range policy and to foster ST potential in local areas by renovating traditional fermentation and other techniques and starting up ST-promoting tourism enterprises as a long-range policy.     

制造业转型升级政策协调性分析

以制造业转型升级相关政策为研究对象，搜集粤苏鄂辽4地省级层面的政策文献，综合运用政策文献计量和政策内容分析方法，开展基于政策发文单位的政策外部属性分析，以及政策工具和产业价值链的政策内容挖掘，刻画地方政府政策在3个维度上的协调性及地区之间的差异，进而为政策改进提供建议。结果发现，目前制造业转型升级相关政策中，基础政策数量偏少；过于依赖供给型和环境型政策工具，对需求型政策工具有所忽视；政策作用集中在研发、投资、生产环节，缺乏针对消费环节的政策。构建的三维研究框架可为分析公共政策的协调性提供参考，研究结论对政府部门补齐政策短板、优化资源配置具有重要政策启示作用。     

A fuzzy goal programming approach to analyse sustainable development goals of India

Energy policy, environmental planning and economic development play a key role in sustainable development. Sustainable development requires suitable and strategic policies satisfying multiple and conflicting objectives. Fuzzy goal programming (FGP) is a well-known approach in multi-criteria decision-making for its practical application. In this article, a FGP approach is proposed to analyse environmental, energy and sustainability goals of India by the year 2030 with reference to the key economic sectors of India. The presented model analyses the improvement opportunities, requirement of efforts and implementation of the sustainable development plans. Numerical illustration is also provided for validation and application of the proposed model.     

Value of land as a pollutant sink for international waters

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and compare the values of a marginal change in the area of land as a pollutant sink under different decision-making contexts and objectives: international coordination versus national policies for pollutant reduction, and maximization of net benefits versus minimization of costs for pollutant reductions. The analytical results show that a coordinated policy between countries generates a higher value of a marginal change in the supply of land as a pollutant sink than an uncoordinated policy. It is also shown that the value is lower (higher) under the decision objective of maximizing net benefits when the efficient pollutant load is higher (lower) than the load target under the cost effectiveness approach. An application to the Baltic Sea drainage basin land as a nitrogen sink for the management of eutrophication reveals that the differences between values under different policy contexts and objectives can be quite large in magnitude.     

Targeting biomed cluster from a mature pharma industry: the Medicon Valley experience

This paper analyses the emergence and development of the Medicon Valley biomedicine cluster from an evolutionary perspective. We focus on the co-evolution and synergies among the drivers of the cluster's emergence. Targeting biomed involves some challenges and complexities, which are particularly strong in this case, owing to its specificities (bi-national nature, predominant context of horizontal policies, pre-existent pharma industry). The main aim is to analyse the role of the different institutional players in this policy process. The study suggests that targeting emerges from regional coordination bodies. It also reveals a smart specialisation strategy ‘avant la lettre’ and shows a number of critical insights for the implementation of this policy approach.     

Economic Competition,Policy Interdependence,and Labour Rights

Extant scholarship treats national policies concerning labour rights as a function of economic factors and yet neglects influences of policies among economically competing states. Relying on the policy interdependence theory, this study argues that labour rights policy in a state is dependent on its economic competitors’ labour policy decisions. It specifically maintains that the intensifying competition for foreign direct investment and exports as well as against imports channels negative externalities of deteriorating labour protection in competing states which drives expansive downward policy mimicking and leads to a global decline in labour rights – a race to the bottom. Utilising spatial econometric technique to analyse a new data on labour rights for the period 1994–2009, it finds that labour rights practices are interdependent among economic competitors and experience global deteriorations; whereas labour rights laws remain largely independent due to high policy and reputational costs of lowering them and show more fluctuations.     

Hydro-economic river basin modelling: The application of a holistic surface-groundwater model to assess opportunity costs of water use in Spain

Combined hydro-economic models of river basins are fundamental tools for assessing management and infrastructure strategies to improve the economic efficiency of water use in a context of competition over scarce water resources. Integrated hydro-economic models have to be capable to properly reproduce the physical behavior of the system, with a realistic representation of the different surface and groundwater resources, including their interaction, and the spatial and temporal variability of resource availability. On the other hand, such models must incorporate the value of water for different urban, agricultural and industrial uses and users. Economic values for water use are defined according to the marginal residual value of water for production (for agricultural and industrial uses) or the aggregated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for urban supply and other final water uses. In this paper, we present a systematic approach to estimate the marginal economic value of surface and groundwater resources at different locations within a complex water resources system. Based on a holistic conjunctive optimization model applied to the Adra river system in Spain we asses the total and marginal opportunity costs of capacity and operation constraints, including the opportunity cost of imposing environmental constraints on water use as foreseen in future Spanish water policy following the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. The resulting opportunity costs provide important information to water managers about economic inefficiencies of current water allocation policy or infrastructure design, and about the resource opportunity costs to be considered in the design of efficient pricing policies in regions with water scarcity issues.     

双重激励下地方政府发展新兴产业的动机与策略研究

本文建立了政策执行的双重激励模型,探索政治激励、经济激励与地方政府政策执行方式的相互关系。通过考察新能源汽车产业政策在地方层面的执行情况,笔者发现,地方政府执行中央政府产业政策的实质动机是经济激励。由于新兴产业的市场回报无法现时兑现,且其发展前景与本地的资源禀赋情况密切相关,因此对地方政府的经济激励呈现很大的不确定性和差异性。地方政府故而在平衡经济发展和政治晋升的情况下作出实动、暗动、伪动、缓动等不同选择。本文进一步提出了新兴产业政策制定和执行的启示。     

Distortions to agricultural incentives: Evidence from Nigerian value chains

Understanding how policies affect price transmission and incentives for producers and consumers along the complete value chain is a relevant research question due to the more globalized structure of agricultural value chains. In particular, Nigerian agricultural value chains have been targeted by a number of policy decisions. We analyze the import‐oriented palm oil value chain and the export‐oriented cacao value chain, estimating the price distortions from policies and their implications for production incentives at the regional level. For palm oil, due to protective trade policies and domestic initiatives, the nominal rate of protection (NRP) at the farmgate for palm oil producers shows that producers have been protected. NRPs at the border for cacao beans and cocoa products are negative, which may be due to a quality gap, the export market structure, and the concentration of buyers in global markets. Negative NRPs at the farmgate are seen for all regions, showing disincentives in the cacao beans export market reverberate through the domestic market despite domestic support policies. In both value chains, NRPs at farmgate vary across regions partially due to regional policy frameworks and partially due to local conditions impacting price transmission.     

Why we need a commitment approach to environmental policy

The principal reason why economists have advocated environmental policies based on incentives is that their conception of business behavior derives from the neoclassical model of the firm. Businesses certainly do respond to profit incentives, but firms' behavior is also greatly influenced by socio-political considerations and their organizational capabilities. In recent years, a significant group of businesses that are highly innovative, competitive and socially responsible has emerged. These are not the firms that policy makers envisioned when they formulated command and control and market incentive environmental policies, i.e., control-oriented policies. Because of this, there is a need for new types of environmental policies. Thus, the first purpose of this paper is to propose a new class of environmental policies. The second purpose is to explain why the neoclassical model is deficient as a basis for environmental policy and to explicate the nature of a more appropriate model.Control-oriented policies were designed for firms that behave like neoclassical firms. For high performance organizations (HPOs), what is needed is the opposite of control-oriented policy. What is needed is an environmental policy that takes advantage of HPOs commitment, responsibility, and trustworthiness. The appropriate policy should take into account that overall environmental performance is a product not just of firm behavior but of the whole environmental system of which firms are a part. What is needed is a commitment approach to environmental policy.A commitment approach (CA) to environmental policy is first of all not a control-oriented policy. A CA is a nonregulatory approach in which firms are self-regulated. The CA is only for firms that are able to 1) make a commitment to high environmental performance and 2) develop the capabilities to meet these commitments. The environmental protection (EP) agency that administers the CA would be charged with selecting the particular “high commitment” (HC) firms that would be subject to the policy. Low and intermediate commitment firms would presumably continue to be regulated under the usual control-oriented environmental policies. The selected HC firms would be eligible for government technical assistance and information. In addition, the EP agency could aid the functioning of the environmental systems (ES) in which HC firms are embedded by, for example, providing education and information to these businesses' stakeholders. Finally, it would be necessary for the EP agency to accomplish periodic assessments of how ESs performance departs from the ideal and how these systems' operations require rectification.     

多层级视角下京津冀科技创新政策府际关系研究

府际关系协调有利于实现创新资源、要素的有效汇聚与整合,进而提升政策有效性。以京津冀为例,构建中央-地方多层级府际关系模型,分析中央政策主体合作网络特征与政策扩散特征、地方政策主体合作网络特征与政策执行特征的相关性。研究发现,中央政府部门间形成了以科技部为核心的核心—边缘网络结构特征;北京市政府部门间呈现出以中关村科技管理委员会为核心的核心-边缘网络结构特征;天津市政府部门间呈现出以天津市科学技术委员会为核心的星型网络结构特征;河北省则没有形成稳定的网络关系。中央政策主体合作网络中的度中心性与政策扩散广度具有相关性;地方政策主体合作网络中介中心性、度中心性与政策执行强度具有相关性。     

区域综合性创新政策能够提升当地的创新能力吗——基于西部大开发的经验实证研究

本文把西部大开发看作是促进落后地区创新的政策组合,并以此为特定对象,利用双差分模型,以享有西部大开发政策的地区以及与这些地区在地理位置上相邻或者在创新能力上相邻的地区为样本,研究了综合性的区域创新政策对当地创新能力的影响,研究结果显示,类似西部大开发这种综合性创新政策显著地改进了当地的创新能力,这说明地方政府在区域创新体系中能够起到积极的作用。同时,对于落后地区来说,单纯注重FDI而忽视教育投入等都不利于当地的创新能力的提升。这些结论为未来区域经济政策的调整提供了科学的依据。     

地方财政政策逆周期调节：财政分权还是债务增发*

财政政策工具实际操作偏离最初设计将会降低政策工具的调控效果，导致宏观经济波动加剧。针对地方政府财政政策的逆周期性调控目标，本文关注财政分权深化和政府债务增发的逆周期性效应。研究发现：地方政府财政政策总体呈现顺周期特征。财政分权程度的提高放大了地方财政政策的顺周期性。地方政府债务增发使地方财政政策呈现逆周期特征。地方政府财政政策及其收入面、支出面均呈现顺周期性，由“顺”转“逆”的债务平衡点分别为0137，0113，0209。当前绝大部分地区的债务规模都在债务平衡点之下。驱动地方政府债务逆周期调控的内在因素是官员晋升激励。晋升激励的程度越高，地方债务逆周期调控的力度就越大。但外部市场融资环境的波动削弱了地方政府债务逆周期调控的力度。本文的政策主张是，不宜过度财政分权，应该扩大地方债发行规模，促使地方财政政策逆周期调节。     

中西部民营企业产业政策的特性分析

我国民营经济不断发展壮大 ,已经成为推动我国经济增长的主力军 ,但是民营经济的进一步发展却受到多方面因素的约束 ,其中政策的因素在某种程度上是制约民营经济发展的一个主要原因。相对全国范围而言 ,中西部地区的落后在一定程度上表现为政策落后 ,虽然政府制定了不少政策 ,但是在有效性上存在颇多问题 ,政策特性遭到忽略就是主要问题之一。政策的制定和实施应体现出以下几种特性 :公平性、管理性、竞争性、优惠性和保护性。产业政策是影响民营经济发展的最重要政策之一 ,中西部有必要认真研究产业政策的特性 ,发现现有政策的不足 ,为政策创新提供思路     

STATE OWNED ENTERPRISES AS INSTRUMENTS OF INNOVATION POLICY

This article expands the literature on the rationales and governance of state owned enterprises (SOEs). We show that SOEs could be seen as instruments of innovation policies and change agents within broader innovation systems that can overcome many of the conventional challenges of innovation policy and its implementation, from coordination and implementation of policies and innovation system actor networks to financing innovation. We review the existing literature on the rationales of SOEs and extend it to include innovation as a central rationale. Thereafter we provide a taxonomy that reveals the necessary policy and managerial conditions and constraints for using SOEs as instruments of innovation policy. We place some of the better‐known innovation‐oriented SOE successes and failures into this taxonomy and show that this approach will allow in future research to explore different SOE practices and potential for using SOEs as innovation policy instruments across countries.     

Innovation policy in China: nationally promulgated but locally implemented

In China, policies are often announced at the national level but implemented locally. Innovation policies are no exceptions. This article studies China’s 50% R&D tax deduction policy, a key innovation policy promulgated by the central government in 2006. We find that the degree to which the policy was implemented during the period of 2006–2009 varied across the provinces and industries, which in turn had significant impacts on local firms’ innovation output. The findings of the heterogeneity in local implementation of national innovation policies are of important implications for both policy makers and innovation scholars.