scholarly journals Designing Effective and Acceptable Road Pricing Schemes: Evidence from the Geneva Congestion Charge

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Baranzini ◽  
Stefano Carattini ◽  
Linda Tesauro
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Pricing ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Congestion Charge ◽  
Marked Preference ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Zone Pricing ◽  
Surrounding Areas ◽  
Design Options

AbstractWhile instruments to price congestion exist since the 1970s, less than a dozen cities around the world have a cordon or zone pricing scheme. Geneva, Switzerland, may be soon joining them. This paper builds on a detailed review of the existing schemes to identify a set of plausible design options for the Geneva congestion charge. In turn, it analyzes their acceptability, leveraging a large survey of residents of both Geneva and the surrounding areas of Switzerland and France. Our original approach combines a discrete choice experiment with randomized informational treatments. We consider an extensive set of attributes, such as perimeter, price and price modulation, use of revenues, and exemption levels and beneficiaries. The informational treatments address potential biased beliefs concerning the charge’s expected effects on congestion and pollution. We find that public support depends crucially on the policy design. We identify an important demand for exemptions, which, albeit frequently used in the design of environmental taxation, is underexplored in the analysis of public support. This demand for exemptions is not motivated by efficiency reasons. It comes mostly by local residents, for local residents. Further, people show a marked preference for constant prices, even if efficiency would point to dynamic pricing based on external costs. Hence, we highlight a clear trade-off between efficiency and acceptability. However, we also show, causally, that this gap can in part be closed, with information provision. Analyzing heterogeneity, we show that preferences vary substantially with where people live and how they commute. Even so, we identify several designs that reach majority support.

scholarly journals Political ideology and vaccination willingness: implications for policy design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Debus ◽  
Jale Tosun
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Short Time Period ◽  
Successful Development ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Short Time

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to impose major restrictions on individual freedom in order to stop the spread of the virus. With the successful development of a vaccine, these restrictions are likely to become obsolete—on the condition that people get vaccinated. However, parts of the population have reservations against vaccination. While this is not a recent phenomenon, it might prove a critical one in the context of current attempts to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the task of designing policies suitable for attaining high levels of vaccination deserves enhanced attention. In this study, we use data from the Eurobarometer survey fielded in March 2019. They show that 39% of Europeans consider vaccines to cause the diseases which they should protect against, that 50% believe vaccines have serious side effects, that 32% think that vaccines weaken the immune system, and that 10% do not believe vaccines are tested rigorously before authorization. We find that—even when controlling for important individual-level factors—ideological extremism on both ends of the spectrum explains skepticism of vaccination. We conclude that policymakers must either politicize the issue or form broad alliances among parties and societal groups in order to increase trust in and public support for the vaccines in general and for vaccines against COVID-19 in particular, since the latter were developed in a very short time period and resulted—in particular in case of the AstraZeneca vaccine—in reservations because of the effectiveness and side effects of the new vaccines.

Policy design and public support for carbon tax: Evidence from a 2018 US national online survey experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 905-921
Author(s):  
Nives Dolšak ◽  
Christopher Adolph ◽  
Aseem Prakash
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Survey Experiment

scholarly journals Citizens support ambitious but costly food waste governance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Paul Fesenfeld ◽  
Lukas Rudolph ◽  
Thomas Bernauer
Keyword(s):  
Food Waste ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Food Prices ◽  
High Income ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Policy Feedback ◽  
Policy Framing ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Vignette Experiment

About one-third of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is wasted, particularly in high-income countries. Reducing this waste is key to decreasing negative environmental impacts from the food sector and increasing food security in developing countries. Yet, achieving food waste reduction is challenging. It is widely presumed that efforts at stronger food waste governance may increase food prices, and hence consumer and citizen opposition that renders effective governance politically unfeasible. Here, we assess this critical presumption and argue that policy framing and design can ensure public support for ambitious but costly food waste governance, while policy feedbacks from voluntary firm actions are unlikely to diminish public support. Our empirical analysis uses survey experiments with a population-representative sample (N=3’329) from a typical high-income country with a unique direct democratic tradition, Switzerland. First, in a combined framing and conjoint experiment, we show that messages emphasizing national or international social norms in favor of reducing food waste (policy framing) can increase public support for more ambitious reduction targets. We also show that a majority of citizens support food waste governance that leads to substantial increases in food prices, but only if such policies set stringent reduction targets and are transparently monitored (policy design). Finally, in a vignette experiment, we show that voluntary industry initiatives do not crowd out individuals’ intentions to reduce their food waste nor support for stronger governmental regulation, but even crowd public support in if industry initiatives are unambitious (policy feedback). Our research offers an analytical template for studying public support for food waste governance and shows that there is more political room for adopting ambitious policies than hitherto presumed.

scholarly journals Social protection as a strategy to address climate-induced migration

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Schwan ◽  
Xiaohua Yu
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Loss And Damage ◽  
Permanent Migration

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the roles of social protection in reducing and facilitating climate-induced migration. Social protection gained attention in the international climate negotiations with the establishment of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. Yet, its potential to address migration, considered as a key issue in the loss and damage debate, has not been sufficiently explored. This paper aims at identifying key characteristics of social protection schemes which could effectively address climate-induced migration and attempts to derive recommendations for policy design. Design/methodology/approach Based on the existing literature, the paper links empirical evidence on the effects of social protection to climate-related drivers of migration and the needs of vulnerable populations. This approach allows conceptually identifying characteristics of effective social protection policies. Findings Findings indicate that social protection can be part of a proactive approach to managing climate-induced migration both in rural and urban areas. In particular, public work programmes offer solutions to different migration outcomes, from no to permanent migration. Benefits are achieved when programmes explicitly integrate climate change impacts into their design. Social protection can provide temporary support to facilitate migration, in situ adaptation or integration and adaptation in destination areas. It is no substitution for but can help trigger sustainable adaptation solutions. Originality/value The paper helps close research gaps regarding the potential roles and channels of social protection for addressing and facilitating climate-induced migration and providing public support in destination, mostly in urban areas.

Evaluating governance processes in the sharing of revenues from wildlife tourism and hunting in Ethiopia

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. W. YITBAREK ◽  
DEGU TADIE ◽  
GIRMA TIMER ◽  
ANKE FISCHER
Keyword(s):  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Revenue Sharing ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Southern Ethiopia ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Wildlife Tourism ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Governance Processes

SUMMARYSharing of benefits from nature conservation is widely regarded as a way to enhance local residents’ support for protected areas. While in past years, the effectiveness of such approaches has been investigated in detail, governance processes underpinning benefit sharing have received less attention. This study examines the legislation and implementation practice of a revenue sharing scheme in southern Ethiopia, an area that is currently undergoing substantial social and environmental changes that threaten livelihoods and ecosystems. Based on qualitative data from interviews, group discussions and workshops, four main areas of shortcomings in the current legislation and implementation practice were identified: information provision; imbalanced roles and responsibilities; compromised accountability; and the lack of connection between revenue and wildlife tourism in the minds of the recipients. While some of these factors fostered misunderstandings and misuse of the monies, others meant that even where revenue was disbursed it was not connected with wildlife conservation, and thus did not have the intended effect. A comparison between these factors and those in the literature on the evaluation of comanagement arrangements revealed substantial overlap. Revenue sharing may be regarded as part of the comanagement of wildlife areas, but to be successful the management of these areas needs to be shared, and not just the financial benefits.

scholarly journals Brexit and trade policy: an analysis of the governance of UK trade policy and what it means for health and social justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
May C. I. van Schalkwyk ◽  
Pepita Barlow ◽  
Gabriel Siles-Brügge ◽  
Holly Jarman ◽  
Tamara Hervey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background There is an extensive body of research demonstrating that trade and globalisation can have wide-ranging implications for health. Robust governance is key to ensuring that health, social justice and sustainability are key considerations within trade policy, and that health risks from trade are effectively mitigated and benefits are maximised. The UK’s departure from the EU provides a rare opportunity to examine a context where trade governance arrangements are being created anew, and to explore the consequences of governance choices and structures for health and social justice. Despite its importance to public health, there has been no systematic analysis of the implications of UK trade policy governance. We therefore conducted an analysis of the governance of the UK’s trade policy from a public health and social justice perspective. Results Several arrangements required for good governance appear to have been implemented – information provision, public consultation, accountability to Parliament, and strengthening of civil service capacity. However, our detailed analyses of these pillars of governance identified significant weaknesses in each of these areas. Conclusion The establishment of a new trade policy agenda calls for robust systems of governance. However, our analysis demonstrates that, despite decades of mounting evidence on the health and equity impacts of trade and the importance of strong systems of governance, the UK government has largely ignored this evidence and failed to galvanise the opportunity to include public health and equity considerations and strengthen democratic involvement in trade policy. This underscores the point that the evidence alone will not guarantee that health and justice are prioritised. Rather, we need strong systems of governance everywhere that can help seize the health benefits of international trade and minimise its detrimental impacts. A failure to strengthen governance risks poor policy design and implementation, with unintended and inequitable distribution of harms, and ‘on-paper’ commitments to health, social justice, and democracy unfulfilled in practice. Although the detailed findings relate to the situation in the UK, the issues raised are, we believe, of wider relevance for those with an interest of governing for health in the area of international trade.

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