scholarly journals Evaluating the policy of closing bars and restaurants in Cataluña and its effects on mobility and COVID19 incidence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Smith ◽  
Miguel Ponce-de-Leon ◽  
Alfonso Valencia
Keyword(s):  
Time Lag ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Causal Impact ◽  
Impact Models

ABSTRACTThe world has gone through unprecedented changes since the global pandemic hit. During the early phase of the pandemic, the absence of known drugs or pharmaceutical treatments forced governments to introduce different policies in order to help reduce contagion rates and manage the economic consequences of the pandemic. This paper analyses the causal impact on mobility and COVID19 incidence from policy makers in Cataluña, Spain. We use annonimized phone-based mobility data together with reported incidence and apply a series of causal impact models frequently used in econometrics and policy evaluation in order to measure the policies impact.. We analyse the case of Cataluña and the public policy decision of closing all bars and restaurants down for a 5 week period between the 2020-16-10 to 2020-23-11. We find that this decision led to a significant reduction in mobility. It not only led to reductions in mobility but from a behavioural economics standpoint we highlight how people responded to the policy decision. Moreover, the policy of closing bars and restaurants slowed the incidence rate of COVID19 after a time lag has been taken into account. These finding are significant since governments worldwide want to restrict movements of people in order to slow down COVID19 incidence without infringing on their rights directly.

Private Agricultural R&D: Do the Poor Benefit?

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jock R. Anderson ◽  
Regina Birner ◽  
Latha Najarajan ◽  
Anwar Naseem ◽  
Carl E. Pray
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Agricultural Technologies ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
Agricultural Research And Development ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Private agricultural research and development can foster the growth of agricultural productivity in the diverse farming systems of the developing world comparable to the public sector. We examine the extent to which technologies developed by private entities reach smallholder and resource-poor farmers, and the impact they have on poverty reduction. We critically review cases of successfully deployed improved agricultural technologies delivered by the private sector in both large and small developing countries for instructive lessons for policy makers around the world.

scholarly journals Coming up for Air: On Reading in a Global Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-21
Author(s):  
Aparna Tarc
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Teaching Of Reading ◽  
Racial Injustice ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Public Sphere

The thought of breath grips the world as climate change, racial injustice and a global pandemic converge to suck oxygen, the lifeforce, out of the earth. The visibility of breath, its critical significance to existence, I argue, is made evident by poets. To speak of breath is to lodge ourselves between birth and death and requires sustained, meditative, attentive study to an everyday yet taken for granted practice. Like breathing, reading is also a practice that many took for granted until the pandemic. My paper will engage the affective and/or poetic dimensions of reading left out of theories of literacy that render it instrumental and divorced from the life of the reader (Freire, 1978). I will suggest that scholars of literacy, in every language, begin to engage a poetics of literacy as attending to the existential significance of language in carrying our personhood and lives. I will also argue that our diminishing capacities to read imaginatively and creatively have led to the rise of populist ideologies that infect public discourse and an increasingly anti-intellectual and depressed social sphere. Despite this decline in the practice and teaching of reading, it is reported that more than any other activity, reading sustained the lives of individuals and communities’ during a global pandemic. Teachers and scholars might take advantage of the renewed interested in reading to redeliver poetry and literary language to the public sphere to teach affective reading. Poetry harkens back to ancient practices of reading inherent in all traditions of reading. It enacts a pedagogy of breath, I argue, one that observes its significance in our capacity to exist through the exchange of air in words, an exchange of vital textual meanings we have taken for granted as we continue to infect our social and political world and earth with social hatred, toxins, and death. In this paper I engage fragments of poetry by poets of our time (last century onward) that teaches us to breathe and relearn the divine and primal stance that reading poetry attends to and demands. More than any other form, “poetry,” Ada Limon claims, “has breath built into it”. As such, reading poetry helps us to breathe when the world bears down and makes it hard for us to come up for air.

Effectiveness of a Lockdown Policy During a Global Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung Chin Shih
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modeling ◽  
Input Data ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
Simultaneous Loss ◽  
Health Organization

Background: In 2019, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 (Coronavirus 2019) a pandemic, many of the public managers faced tough situations in their cities due to the simultaneous loss of lives and jobs. In this regard, this study aims to propose a concise model that considers variables like the number of deaths, lethality of the virus, number of jobs and taxes collected by city halls, among others. Our study considers these issues in providing a relevant response and consistent answer to deliberations on the way forward. Method: Mathematical modeling was used to analyze the interaction between the agents involved and computer simulation was chosen to collect results. Results: - Changing the lockdown level (fixed and variable), the results of number of death per week, total number of unemployed, cost of companies and so on are shown. - The results show that for the input data considered, the 0% lockdown (LD) policy is more effective for the economy and tax collection and also succeeds in repressing the effects on the number of deaths. Because of it, the comparison between with pandemic and without pandemic is provided (in percentage). Conclusion: This study shows that implementing the lockdown did not bring expected benefits, because instead of reducing the number of deaths due to the COVID-19, individuals tend to die more from other causes.

Papers please: Predictive factors for national and international COVID-19 immunity and vaccination passport uptake as determined by representative surveys (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Michael Garrett ◽  
Joshua Paul White ◽  
Simon Dennis ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Cheng-Ta Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Factors ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Generalized Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
The Uk

BACKGROUND In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision makers must know whether immunity and vaccination passports will be widely accepted by the public, and under what conditions? This study focuses attention on immunity passports, as these may prove useful in countries both with and without an existing COVID-19 vaccination program, however, our general findings also extend to vaccination passports. OBJECTIVE We aimed to assess attitudes towards the introduction of immunity passports in six countries, and determine what social, personal, and contextual factors predicted their support. METHODS We collected online representative samples across six countries – Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – from April to May of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed attitudes and support for the introduction of immunity passports. RESULTS Immunity passport support was moderate-to-low, ranging from 51% in the UK and Germany, 47% in Australia and Spain, 46% in Taiwan, and 22% in Japan. Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modelling controlling assessed predictive factors for immunity passport support across countries. International results showed neoliberal world views, personal concern and perceived virus severity, the fairness of immunity passports, and willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport, were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman), immunity passport concern, and risk of harm to society predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries and results were modelled separately to provide national accounts of these data. CONCLUSIONS Our research suggests that support for immunity passports is predicted by the personal benefits and social risks they confer. These findings generalized across six countries and may also prove informative for the introduction of vaccination passports, helping policy makers to introduce effective COVID-19 passport policies in these six countries and around the world.

Public Health Risk Environment for Bulgarian SMEs (Guest Houses and Family Hotels) in the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-102
Author(s):  
Teodora Kiryakova-Dineva ◽  
Ruska Bozhkova
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
The South ◽  
Public Health Risk ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World

At a time of the global health pandemic, the most affected areas are economy and social life. Along with the practical limitations of travel, regarding personal security reasons and the objective risks for the environment, the world of tourism has changed. However, under the circumstances, some small accommodation units have managed to survive, like the Seamen between Scylla and Charybdis – the mythical situation. The purpose of this chapter is to delve into the public health risk environment for Bulgarian SMEs in tourism (guest houses and family hotels) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The extent of the analysis includes hotels and guest houses in the south-western part of Bulgaria that managed to keep operating despite the global pandemic situation.

Buy Bribes or Bye-Bye Bribes: The Future Status of Bribery in International Commerce

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Weber ◽  
Kathleen Getz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Business ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
International Commerce ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Ethical Justification ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
Future Status

Abstract:Bribery in international business has become a priority concern among business, government, and community leaders. While discussions among philosophers often emphasize the ethical justification for banning bribery, policy-makers around the world are challenging it on the basis of its effects for economic development. In this paper we define bribery, trace recent efforts by the public, private, and civil society sectors to curb it, and attempt to answer the question: Will bribery become less common?

scholarly journals Decision Making at the State and Local Level: Does Science Matter?

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (01) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan G. Mason
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
State And Local

ABSTRACTScience is believed to be an important part of public policy decision making because of its inherent characteristics of measurability, rigor, objectivity, replication, and peer review. The purpose of this research was to explore the linkage of science to public policy decision making. The research explores what state and local public officials know about science and how much they actually use science in their decision making. Interview results with public officials in the State of Idaho demonstrate that policy makers ultimately see science as only one element in the mix. Findings suggest that equal attention and debate should be given to how science interacts with all of the other factors that affect the public policy making process.

scholarly journals Peran komunikasi publik dalam menanggapi gelombang disinformasi Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-175
Author(s):  
Dody Setyawan ◽  
Dekki Umamur Ra'is ◽  
Abd. Rohman
Keyword(s):  
Public Information ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Communication Campaign ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Government ◽  
Object Of Study

Disinformation has reduced public confidence in the government and scientists in handling Covid-19. These conditions hamper the overall handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the context of responding to a global pandemic, disinformation greatly affects the country's response to a global pandemic by undermining trust, creating fear, and sometimes leading to harmful behavior. It is important for policy makers to understand disinformation and how to respond to it. This study uses a literature review approach with data sources coming from several documents that have been verified and have a relationship with the object of study. The stages of the study start from choosing a review topic, finding and selecting appropriate articles, analyzing and synthesizing the literature, and finally presenting a review of the study. the results show that the government should have official information channels with verified, transparent, sustainable and fast sources of information. The government must also provide clear and definite information through official channels and trusted media. The government must also ensure the consistency of information. In addition, the government must maintain a transparent pattern of communication about the situation, actions and risks it takes. The aim is to restore public trust in public institutions, in information that has been conveyed by the government to the public as well as guidelines that have been provided by the government to the public, such as health protocol guidelines and the last is "Pre-bunk", or be aware of the potential for disinformation before occurred, as part of a public information and communication campaign. 

scholarly journals Prediction of COVID-19 Pandemic of Top Ten Countries in the World Establishing a Hybrid AARNN LTM Model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padmabati Gahan ◽  
Monalisha Pattnaik ◽  
Agnibrata Nayak ◽  
Monee Kieran Roul
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Warning System ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Corporate Leaders ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Out Of Sample

AbstractThe novel COVID-19 global pandemic has become a public health emergency of international concern affecting 215 countries and territories around the globe. As of 28 November 2020, it has caused a pandemic outbreak with a total of more than 6,171,5119 confirmed infections and more than 1,44,4235 confirmed deaths reported worldwide. The main focus of this paper is to generate LTM real-time out of sample forecasts of the future COVID-19 confirmed and death cases respectively for the top ten profoundly affected countries including for the world. To solve this problem we introduced a novel hybrid approach AARNN model based on ARIMA and ARNN forecasting model that can generate LTM (fifty days ahead) out of sample forecasts of the number of daily confirmed and death COVID-19 cases for the ten countries namely USA, India, Brazil, Russia, France, Spain, UK, Italy, Argentina, Colombia and also for the world respectively. The predictions of the future outbreak for different countries will be useful for the effective allocation of health care resources and will act as early-warning system for health warriors, corporate leaders, economists, government/public-policy makers, and scientific experts.

scholarly journals Papers please: Predictive factors for the uptake of national and international COVID-19 immunity and vaccination passports

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Michael Garrett ◽  
Joshua Paul White ◽  
Simon Dennis ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Cheng-Ta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Factors ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Generalized Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Representative Samples

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are introducing digital passports that allow citizens to return to normal activities if they were previously infected with (immunity passport) or vaccinated against (vaccination passport) SARS-CoV-2. To be effective, policy decision makers must know whether immunity and vaccination passports will be widely accepted by the public, and under what conditions? We collected representative samples across six countries – Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom – during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to assess attitudes towards the introduction of immunity passports. Immunity passport support was moderate-to-low, ranging from 51% in the UK and Germany, down to 22% in Japan. Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects modelling controlling for each country showed neoliberal world views, personal concern and perceived virus severity, the fairness of immunity passports, and willingness to become infected to gain an immunity passport, were all predictive factors of immunity passport support. By contrast, gender (woman), immunity passport concern, and risk of harm to society predicted a decrease in support for immunity passports. Minor differences in predictive factors were found between countries. These findings will help policy makers introduce effective immunity passport policies in these six countries and around the world.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document