scholarly journals Being more certain about Random Assignment in Social Policy Evaluations

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-284
Author(s):  
Bruce Stafford
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Evaluation Methodology ◽  
Social Policies ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
What Works ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk

Social experiments have been widely utilised in evaluations of social programmes in the US to identify ‘what works’, whilst in the UK their use is more controversial. This paper explores the paradigmatic, technical and practical issues evaluators confront in using randomised experiments to evaluate social policies. Possible remedies to some of these problems are outlined. It is argued that although no evaluation methodology is problem-free, policy makers and researchers should be more confident about the merits of using random assignment, provided it is used in conjunction with other methodologies more suited to understanding why and how interventions work.

Foreign States in Domestic Markets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Thatcher ◽  
Tim Vlandas
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Sovereign Wealth Funds ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Domestic Markets ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Domestic Economies

Political economy debates have focused on the internationalization of private capital. But foreign states increasingly enter domestic markets as financial investors. How do policy makers in recipient countries react? Do they treat purchases as a threat and impose restrictions or see them as beneficial and welcome them? What are the wider implications for debates about state capacities to govern domestic economies in the face of internationalization of financial markets? In response, the book develops the concept of ‘internationalized statism’—governments welcoming and using foreign state investments to govern their domestic economies—and applies it to the most prominent overseas state investors: Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). Many SWFs are from Asia and the Middle East and their number and size have greatly expanded, reaching $9 trillion by 2020. The book examines policies towards non-Western SWFs buying company shares in four countries: the US, the UK, France, and Germany. Although the US has imposed significant legal restrictions, the others have pursued internationalized statism in ways that are surprising given both popular and political economy classifications. The book argues that the policy patterns found are related to domestic politics, notably the preferences and capacities of the political executive and legislature, rather than solely economic needs or national security risks. The phenomenon of internationalized statism underlines that overseas state investment provides policy makers in recipient states with new allies and resources. The study of SWFs shows how and why internationalization and liberalization of financial markets offer national policy makers opportunities to govern their domestic economies.

Factors for Global Diffusion of the Internet

2011 ◽  
pp. 1522-1526
Author(s):  
Ravi Nath ◽  
Vasudeva N.R. Murthy
Keyword(s):  
The Internet ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Internet Diffusion ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Diffusion Rates ◽  
The Uk

There is overwhelming evidence that the use of the Internetenabled applications and solutions provide unprecedented economic growth opportunities. However, the Internet diffusion rates remain low in many countries. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in 2004, less than 3% of the Africans used the Internet, whereas the average Internet subscription rate for G8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the US) is about 50%. Also, in nearly 30 countries the Internet penetration rates still remain below 1% (ITU, 2006). So, what are the key factors that explain this wide variation in Internet subscription rates in countries around the world? An understanding of these factors will be highly useful for policy makers, economic developmental agencies and political leaders in establishing and implementing suitable national developmental strategies and policies.

The Legacy of the Financial Crisis

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Andrew Smithers
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Asset Prices ◽  
Central Banks ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Weak Growth ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Post Hoc

The reputation of liberal democracy has fallen not only internationally but even within the UK and the US, which on current policies risk a decline in living standards and an even worse outcome should more to populist policies be implemented. Weak growth followed the financial crisis but was not caused by it. Holding otherwise is an example of the ‘post hoc fallacy’. Weak growth was caused solely by adverse changes in demography and poor productivity. Addressing both economists and the wider audience of those concerned with our economic and political future, this chapter shows that the adverse changes in demography and productivity have causes which predate the financial crisis by many years. The financial crisis was due to poor theory which led central banks to ignore the risks of high asset prices and excess debt. Poor theory today inhibits policy makers from recognizing that bonus culture policy has stifled growth.

scholarly journals The Evolution of Choice Policies in UK Housing, Education and Health Policy

2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN GREENER ◽  
MARTIN POWELL
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
Healthcare It ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Welfare State ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Comparative Examination

AbstractScholarship in social policy in recent years has examined how policy positions users in a range of roles, particularly most recently in terms of their roles as ‘choosers’ through the increased use of markets in welfare. This article considers how choice policies have positioned users since the creation of the modern welfare state, presenting a history of choice policies, but also a comparative examination of how they have differed in the UK between housing, education and healthcare. It concludes by suggesting that although approaches to choice vary considerably between the three public services examined, policy-makers often appear unaware of these differences, leading to mistaken assumptions that policies can be transferred or transplanted unproblematically.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and people's health-wealth preferences: Information effects and policy implications

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Hargreaves Heap ◽  
Christel Koop ◽  
Konstantinos Matakos ◽  
Asli Unan ◽  
Nina Sophie Weber
Keyword(s):  
Information Provision ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Health Costs ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Relative Valuation

Policy makers responding to COVID-19 need to know people’s relative valuation of health over wealth. Loosening and tightening lockdowns moves a society along a (perceived) health-wealth trade-off and the associated changes have to accord with the public’s relative valuation of health and wealth for maximum compliance. In our survey experiment (N=4,618), we randomize information provision on economic and health costs to assess public preferences over this trade-off in the UK and the US. People strongly prioritize health over wealth, but the treatment effects suggest these priorities will change as experience of COVID-19 deaths and income losses evolves. Information also has heterogeneous/polarizing effects. These results encourage policy caution. Individual differences in health-wealth valuation highlight this study’s importance because they map onto compliance with current lockdown measures.

Americanised and Europeanised: UK Social Policy since 1997

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Annesley
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
New Deal ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The New Deal

A number of recent accounts of UK social policy under New Labour have emphasised the continuing Americanisation of the British welfare state. This article does not deny the influence of the US but rather seeks to balance it with an account of the growing Europeanisation of UK social policy. It argues that Americanisation and Europeanisation are distinct in terms of both content and process. Since these are not mutually exclusive, the UK is currently influenced by both. This situation is illustrated by looking at three social policy issues under New Labour: social exclusion, the New Deal and the treatment of lone parents.

The Fiscalization of Social Policy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua T. McCabe
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Strategic Adaptation ◽  
Tax Relief ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Family Allowances

This book challenges the conventional wisdom on American exceptionalism, offering the first and only comparative analysis of the politics of child and in-work tax credits. This comparative approach, analyzing the US, Canada, and the UK, upends everything we thought we knew about the politics of tax credits, accounting for both the timing of their development and the distribution of their benefits among families across liberal welfare regimes. Rather than attributing these changes to antiwelfare attitudes, mobilization of conservative forces, shifts toward workfare, or racial antagonism, the book argues that the growing use of tax credits for social policy was a strategic adaptation to austerity in all three countries but that the historical absence of family allowances in the US left the country with a policy legacy that institutionalized a distinct “logic of tax relief,” ensuring that the poorest American families would be ineligible for tax credits. Focusing on the twin puzzles of the growth and distribution of new tax credits across the three countries, the book explains both their convergence on the use of these tax credits and the US’ divergence from the UK and Canada on the distribution of these tax credits’ benefits.

Bank Resolution and Crisis Management

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gleeson Simon ◽  
Guynn Randall
Keyword(s):  
Deposit Insurance ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Bank Resolution ◽  
The Us ◽  
Bankruptcy Code ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Federal Deposit Insurance ◽  
Financial Transactions

The 2008 global financial crisis ushered in the biggest explosion in new bank regulation around the world since the Great Depression. Governments and regulators have sought to put measures in place to prevent the failure of banks, but have acknowledged the need for measures to address what happens when banks fail or are threatened with failure. This book deals with the measures which European, US, and international law and policy-makers have sought to put in place to manage failure of financial institutions. Measures such as ‘bail-out’ (protecting private shareholders and creditors against losses) and ‘bail-in’ (imposing losses on shareholders and long-term creditors without causing contagion among short-term creditors) are discussed. The work includes summaries and commentary on the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, the UK resolution laws including the Banking Act 2009 and amendments to that Act, the Orderly Liquidation Authority under Title II of the US Dodd‒Frank Act, resolution under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, the proposed new Chapter 14 to the US Bankruptcy Code, and the bank resolution provisions of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Act. Special emphasis is given to the practical effect of such measures on financial transactions and their impact on arrangements, such as netting and set-off. There is also commentary on the role of depositor protection schemes and their role in returning money to the depositors in a failing bank.

Evaluation Using Random Assignment Experiments: Demonstrating the Effectiveness of Earnings Supplements

2003 ◽  
Vol 186 ◽  
pp. 73-84
Author(s):  
Doug Tattrie ◽  
Reuben Ford
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Random Assignment ◽  
Welfare Receipt ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Time Work ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Quality Of Research

The UK is preparing to start one of the largest random assignment evaluations of a new social policy that has ever been undertaken in Europe or North America. This juncture is a useful time to examine the merits of random assignment evaluation using new results from one-of the most widely cited experimental evaluations the Self-Sufficiency Project in Canada. Random assignment experiments are the most reliable approach to measure the impacts of changes in social policy. However, they are often expensive and cannot answer all relevant research questions. The Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project demonstrates these qualities. It showed that the provision of earnings supplements to lone parents who leave welfare for full-time work can increase employment and earnings and decrease welfare receipt. The high quality of research provides credible evidence that the large, initial programme expenditure can mostly be recovered through reduced welfare payments and higher taxes.

Introduction: Hiding in plain sight or Disappearing in the rear view mirror?: Whatever happened to the revolution in information for Health and Social Care – Learning from England and Australia

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-568
Author(s):  
Rob Wilson ◽  
Susan Baines ◽  
Ian McLoughlin
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Social Care ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Rear View Mirror ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
The Uk

This themed section has at its heart reflections on the development of policy of, and for, information in health and social care over the last ten years in both the UK and Australia. It addresses a set of concerns often overlooked within social policy, namely the use of information and information systems as tools by organisations, policy makers and practitioners in the modernisation or transformation of public services, including in this case health and social care. Not long ago, in both countries, information was perceived as a panacea for the problems of integrating care services between health and social care organisations and these organisations and the patient, client or user of services. The authors focus upon England and Australia and contrast them briefly with other countries in Europe where the state plays a range of roles in the provision of health and social care.

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