Government-Created Nonprofit Organizations and Public Service Turnaround: Evidence from a Synthetic Control Approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
José M Alonso ◽  
Rhys Andrews
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Performance Effects ◽  
Education Authority ◽  
Collaborative Capabilities

Abstract Theories of sectoral advantage and failure suggest that collaborations between public and nonprofit organizations can create new collaborative capabilities that compensate for sector-specific weaknesses. Drawing on these perspectives, we investigate whether government-created nonprofit organizations (GCNPOs) can turn around public services regarded as “failing” by government agencies. In doing so, we analyze the transfer of all of the functions of a “failing” inner London local education authority (Hackney) to a specially created not-for-profit organization (the Learning Trust) responsible for all the primary and high schools within its jurisdiction (circa 60 schools, with about 25,000 pupils). Using a synthetic control method approach to investigate the performance effects of this intervention, we find that educational outcomes improved in Hackney during the years following the creation of the Learning Trust. Documentary evidence suggests that the nonprofit form of the Learning Trust may have enabled it to develop better relations with the local community and access new revenue streams, which helped to improve outcomes. Our findings highlight the breadth and depth of the contribution that GCNPOs can make to the delivery of public services and to their potential effectiveness in helping to turnaround those that are failing.

scholarly journals The effect of reduced unemployment duration on the unemployment rate: a Synthetic Control Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-73
Author(s):  
Luzius Stricker ◽  
Moreno Baruffini
Keyword(s):  
Unemployment Rate ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Control Unit ◽  
Unemployment Duration ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Donor Pool ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines the impact of the fourth partial revision of the law of unemployment insurance (AVIG) on unemployment dynamics in Switzerland at a cantonal level. The authors apply the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), a matching method for comparative case studies. A counterfactual analysis of the cases studied is performed by combining a control group of several untreated units, which provides a better comparison to the treatment group than a single unit. The control unit is designed as a weighted average of the available cantons in the donor pool, taking into account the similarities between the chosen controls and the treated unit. Once policy changes are controlled, the results suggest a significant effect on the unemployment rate at a cantonal level: the reform had a discernible impact on lowering the unemployment rate in the Italian- and French-speaking cantons in Switzerland.

scholarly journals Does city lockdown prevent the spread of COVID-19? New evidence from the synthetic control method

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxuan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Control Method ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Sample Selection ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Population Mobility ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Suppression Effect

Abstract Background At 10 a.m. on January 23, 2020 Wuhan, China imposed a 76-day travel lockdown on its 11 million residents in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. This lockdown represented the largest quarantine in the history of public health and provides us with an opportunity to critically examine the relationship between a city lockdown on human mobility and controlling the spread of a viral epidemic, in this case COVID-19. This study aims to assess the causal impact of the Wuhan lockdown on population movement and the increase of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases. Methods Based on the daily panel data from 279 Chinese cities, our research is the first to apply the synthetic control approach to empirically analyze the causal relationship between the Wuhan lockdown of its population mobility and the progression of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases. By using a weighted average of available control cities to reproduce the counterfactual outcome trajectory that the treated city would have experienced in the absence of the lockdown, the synthetic control approach overcomes the sample selection bias and policy endogeneity problems that can arise from previous empirical methods in selecting control units. Results In our example, the lockdown of Wuhan reduced mobility inflow by approximately 60 % and outflow by about 50 %. A significant reduction of new cases was observed within four days of the lockdown. The increase in new cases declined by around 50% during this period. However, the suppression effect became less discernible after this initial period of time. A 2.25-fold surge was found for the increase in new cases on the fifth day following the lockdown, after which it died down rapidly. Conclusions Our study provided urgently needed and reliable causal evidence that city lockdown can be an effective short-term tool in containing and delaying the spread of a viral epidemic. Further, the city lockdown strategy can buy time during which countries can mobilize an effective response in order to better prepare. Therefore, in spite of initial widespread skepticism, lockdowns are likely to be added to the response toolkit used for any future pandemic outbreak.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Effect of Homicide Prevention Strategies in São Paulo, Brazil: A Synthetic Control Approach

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Freire
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
The State ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Homicide Rates ◽  
Synthetic Control Method ◽  
Control Approach

Although Brazil remains severely affected by civil violence, the state of São Paulo has made significant inroads into fighting criminality. In the last decade, São Paulo has witnessed a 70% decline in homicide rates, a result that policy-makers attribute to a series of crime-reducing measures implemented by the state government. While recent academic studies seem to confirm this downward trend, no estimation of the total impact of state policies on homicide rates currently exists. The present article fills this gap by employing the Synthetic Control Method to compare these measures against an artificial São Paulo. The results indicate a large drop in homicide rates in actual São Paulo when contrasted with the synthetic counterfactual, with about 20,000 lives saved during the period. The theoretical usefulness of the Synthetic Control Method for public policy analysis, the role of the Primeiro Comando da Capital as a causal mediator, and the practical implications of the security measures taken by the São Paulo state government are also discussed.Keywords: Brazil, homicides, PCC, synthetic control, urban violenceReplication files: https://github.com/danilofreire/homicides-sp-synthCitation: Freire, Danilo. 2016. “Evaluating the Effect of Homicide Prevention Strategies in São Paulo, Brazil: A Synthetic Control Approach.” http://osf.io/8tmhe/@misc{freire2016evaluating, title={{Evaluating the Effect of Homicide Prevention Strategies in São Paulo, Brazil: A Synthetic Control Approach}}, howpublished = {\url{https://osf.io/vxe56}}, publisher={Open Science Framework}, author={Freire, Danilo}, year={2016}, month={Dec}}

Brazil, BITs and FDI: A Synthetic Control Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-97
Author(s):  
Paulo Cavallo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Synthetic Control Method ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Fdi Inflows ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Peculiar Case

Abstract The explosion in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) signed between countries in the 1990s and the concurrent surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows draw substantial attention in the literature. This article tackles the controversial relationship between BITs and FDI inflows using an innovative technique: the synthetic control method. Brazil is a peculiar case because it is one of the few cases where FDI inflows had a significant surge even in the complete absence of BITs. Did foreign investors really not need BITs in order to invest in Brazil? I find evidence that, although Brazil received substantial amounts of FDI even in the absence of BITs, had they enacted any BIT, the inflow in the period would have been greater. The method builds a synthetic Brazil from a pool of other countries providing this way a better comparative analysis. The findings are robust to both in-space and in-time placebo experiments.

Effect of Shanxi pilot emission trading scheme on industrial soot and dust emissions: A synthetic control method

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-478
Author(s):  
Xiao Cheng ◽  
Yanping Pu ◽  
Ran Gu
Keyword(s):  
Control Method ◽  
Emission Trading ◽  
Shanxi Province ◽  
Emission Trading Scheme ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Synthetic Control Method ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Pilot Work ◽  
Trading Scheme

To launch the nationwide emission trading scheme, some provinces in China were approved to design their pilot work for emission trading scheme according to local circumstances. Shanxi Province is the only pilot area with provincial trading market for industrial soot and dust emissions. This paper investigates the effect of Shanxi Pilot emission trading scheme on industrial soot and dust emissions by using the synthetic control method. The idea behind the synthetic control approach is to construct a combination of comparison cities to approximate the emission paths that the cities in Shanxi would have experienced in the absence of the pilot emission trading scheme. We demonstrate that, following Shanxi Pilot emission trading scheme, industrial soot and dust emissions fell markedly in Taiyuan, Datong, and Linfen relative to the synthetic counterparts. The finding that emission trading scheme can help achieve emission reduction targets is shown to be robust to the reduction in the number of control units, placebo tests, and difference-in-differences estimation.

Twitter Usage Using Common Reference to Tinnitus

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-217
Author(s):  
Jianyuan Ni ◽  
Monica L. Bellon-Harn ◽  
Jiang Zhang ◽  
Yueqing Li ◽  
Vinaya Manchaiah
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Common Reference ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Sectional Analysis ◽  
Share Information

Objective The objective of the study was to examine specific patterns of Twitter usage using common reference to tinnitus. Method The study used cross-sectional analysis of data generated from Twitter data. Twitter content, language, reach, users, accounts, temporal trends, and social networks were examined. Results Around 70,000 tweets were identified and analyzed from May to October 2018. Of the 100 most active Twitter accounts, organizations owned 52%, individuals owned 44%, and 4% of the accounts were unknown. Commercial/for-profit and nonprofit organizations were the most common organization account owners (i.e., 26% and 16%, respectively). Seven unique tweets were identified with a reach of over 400 Twitter users. The greatest reach exceeded 2,000 users. Temporal analysis identified retweet outliers (> 200 retweets per hour) that corresponded to a widely publicized event involving the response of a Twitter user to another user's joke. Content analysis indicated that Twitter is a platform that primarily functions to advocate, share personal experiences, or share information about management of tinnitus rather than to provide social support and build relationships. Conclusions Twitter accounts owned by organizations outnumbered individual accounts, and commercial/for-profit user accounts were the most frequently active organization account type. Analyses of social media use can be helpful in discovering issues of interest to the tinnitus community as well as determining which users and organizations are dominating social network conversations.

ICMA: AN EFFICIENT INTEGRATED CONGESTION CONTROL APPROACH

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tayyab Khan ◽  
Karan Singh ◽  
Kamlesh C. Purohit
Keyword(s):  
Congestion Control ◽  
Packet Loss ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Multicast Communication ◽  
Bandwidth Utilization ◽  
File Transfer ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Communication Technique ◽  
Control Scheme ◽  
Multiparty Video Conferencing

Background: With the growing popularity of various group communication applications such as file transfer, multimedia events, distance learning, email distribution, multiparty video conferencing and teleconferencing, multicasting seems to be a useful tool for efficient multipoint data distribution. An efficient communication technique depends on the various parameters like processing speed, buffer storage, and amount of data flow between the nodes. If data exceeds beyond the capacity of a link or node, then it introduces congestion in the network. A series of multicast congestion control algorithms have been developed, but due to the heterogeneous network environment, these approaches do not respond nor reduce congestion quickly whenever network behavior changes. Objective: Multicasting is a robust and efficient one-to-many (1: M) group transmission (communication) technique to reduced communication cost, bandwidth consumption, processing time and delays with similar reliability (dependability) as of regular unicast. This patent presents a novel and comprehensive congestion control method known as integrated multicast congestion control approach (ICMA) to reduce packet loss. Methods: The proposed mechanism is based on leave-join and flow control mechanism along with proportional integrated and derivate (PID) controller to reduce packet loss, depending on the congestion status. In the proposed approach, Proportional integrated and derivate controller computes expected incoming rate at each router and feedback this rate to upstream routers of the multicast network to stabilize their local buffer occupancy. Results: Simulation results on NS-2 exhibit the immense performance of the proposed approach in terms of delay, throughput, bandwidth utilization, and packet loss than other existing methods. Conclusion: The proposed congestion control scheme provides better bandwidth utilization and throughput than other existing approaches. Moreover, we have discussed existing congestion control schemes with their research gaps. In the future, we are planning to explore the fairness and quality of service issue in multicast communication.

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