scholarly journals The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Social Policy in Interwar Poland

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-387
Author(s):  
Paweł Grata

Abstract The aim of this paper is to determine how the economic crisis, and the ad hoc attempts made by the authorities to counteract it, affected the Polish society and, above all, to prepare a multidimensional analysis of how the crisis impacted systemic changes in the Polish social policy. The author will examine both positive changes that followed the relevant global trends and also negative changes that resulted from the developmental lag, the country’s economic situation and especially the generally low involvement of the state via public funding in activities that were part of the state’s social policy. Assessment of Polish social policy during the crisis must be ambiguous. On the one hand, systemic changes in social policy introduced as a result of the economic collapse can be clearly distinguished, on the other hand, however, the severity of the crisis visibly affected many activities of state and local governments in the social sphere. These activities posed unsuccessful attempts to rescue the situation in the labour market. Additionally, an effective response to deepening poverty was missing, amendments adopted to labour legislation were disadvantageous to employees, and finally fundamental sacrifices in terms of social policy were made as the lawmakers passed the Unification Act during the crisis. Polish social policy was unable, for a number of reasons, to essentially redefine its approach to addressing the numerous social issues it had to face.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2645 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junseo Bae ◽  
Kunhee Choi ◽  
Jeong Ho Oh

Impact assessments of highway construction work zones (CWZs) are mandated for all federally funded highway infrastructure improvement projects. However, most existing approaches are ad hoc or project specific, so they are incapable of being benchmarked for any particular spatial region. A novel multicontextual approach to modeling the traffic impact of urban highway CWZs is proposed and tested in this paper. The proposed approach is unique because it models the impact of CWZ operations through a multicontextual quantitative method using big data for improved accuracy. In this study, a machine-learning technique was adopted to predict long-term traffic flow rates and the corresponding truck percentages. With the use of these predicted values, stereotypical patterns of traffic volume-to-capacity ratios were created for typical urban nighttime closures. Third-order curve-fitting models to achieve potential work zone travel time delays in heavily trafficked large urban cores were then developed and validated. This study will greatly help state and local governments and the general traveling public in major cities know the potential traffic flow resulting from construction and thereby facilitate progress on highway improvement projects with the better-informed work zone traffic flow and thus improve safety and mobility in and between CWZs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-547
Author(s):  
Yusun Kim

In 2005, New York (NY) state capped the growth of county-level Medicaid spending, which abruptly decreased counties’ Medicaid outlay in both relative and absolute terms. This study exploits this discontinuity in county Medicaid outlay to estimate the impact of the relief mandate policy on county budgets and property tax levies. It bridges a gap in the public finance literature by addressing local government responses to a sudden decrease in the outlay of a large mandatory spending category. We find a compositional change but no income effect on non-Medicaid spending. However, the policy reduced the effective property tax rate significantly by 6.6 to 8.1 percent on average among affected NY counties after the enactment of the policy relative to control counties. This study advances our understanding of local fiscal responses to an intergovernmental fiscal policy that changes how state and local governments share the costs of a large public social insurance program.


2019 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 1060-1070
Author(s):  
Bruno Eustaquio de Carvalho ◽  
Samuel Alves Barbi Costa ◽  
Rui Cunha Marques ◽  
Oscar Cordeiro Netto

Abstract Brazil faces a severe lack of wastewater coverage. Even in urban areas, wastewater is directly disposed of in watercourses without any treatment for a large part of the population. Although the federal, state, and local governments have invested in water and wastewater services (WWS), the expected results have not been achieved. To overcome this problem, the present paper provides an opportunity to observe an ex-ante regulatory impact assessment (RIA) as a policy tool in Brazil. The regulatory policy options will be appraised through the multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) according to the following objectives: (i) protect the customers with respect to social aspects; (ii) safeguard the economic, operational and infrastructure sustainability; and (iii) protect the environment. The results show that by making decisions based on evidence, policy makers should reduce the households not connected to wastewater services by 75% and for that they should incur BRL 33 million to the year 2023. Hence, the extra revenues to be obtained with these new connections are capable of making a surplus estimated as BRL 42 million for the same period. This study promotes the use of RIA as a rational, robust and transparent decision framework by the regulatory agencies worldwide.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanghee Park

AbstractThis research explores the impact of gender representation at the state and local levels on redistributive choices. This research also examines whether female officeholders moderate the impact of the local economy and institution on welfare spending. Hypotheses are tested across 58 counties in California over ten years, between 2001 and 2010. According to the fixed effect models, women in state legislature had a positive effect on local welfare spending, while women on county boards had no significant effect. However, a positive moderating effect of women on county boards during economic hardship was found. Three categories of control variables include institutional factors, such as the introduction of Proposition 1A and county home rule; political factors, such as the political preference of each county’s residents and strength of non-profit organisations; and socio-economic factors, such as intergovernmental revenue, unemployment rate and demographics. Counties with more intergovernmental revenue and supporters of Democratic presidential candidates are likely to spend more on welfare services.


Author(s):  
Ayman Halabya ◽  
Khaled El-Rayes

People with disabilities form 18.7% of the United States population, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2012. To avoid discrimination against this significant portion of the population, state and local governments are required by federal and state laws to provide and maintain accessibility for people with disabilities on their sidewalks and pedestrian facilities. To achieve compliance with these laws, state and local governments need to conduct self-evaluations to identify inaccessible pedestrian facilities and develop transition plans to schedule upgrade projects for these inaccessible pedestrian facilities. The federally-mandated transition plan requirements include the development of a schedule that displays, in detail, deadlines for all upgrade projects needed to achieve full compliance with accessibility requirements. To prepare this schedule, public entities are required to rank and prioritize pedestrian facilities upgrade projects. This paper presents the development of a novel methodology to quantify the impact of upgrading inaccessible pedestrian facilities on people with disabilities. The developed methodology considers several factors related to pedestrian facilities’ conditions and location to estimate the number of expected pedestrians with disabilities impacted by upgrading each inaccessible pedestrian facility. This methodology is designed to assist decision makers in state and local governments in the process of ranking and prioritizing inaccessible pedestrian facilities upgrade projects.


Author(s):  
Леонид Басовский ◽  
Leonid Basovskiy ◽  
В. Бабанов ◽  
V. Babanov ◽  
Елена Басовская ◽  
...  

In order to assess the extent to which the institutions of government in the current conditions in recent years in Russia — the activity of government officials and local governments affected economic growth, the correlation of the number of this category of workers with the growth rates of the economy was evaluated. The results show that by 2002 the positive correlation between the number of employees of state bodies and local self-government and the rate of economic growth was a negative one. The activities of employees of state and local governments began to slow down economic growth in the country. In order to assess how the change in the level of inequality of income distribution in modern Russia is due to the activities of employees of state-shock authorities and local self-government, its relation to the number of employees in this category of funds, which reflects the degree of income inequality, was evaluated. The results show that by 2011 the negative relationship between the number of employees of state bodies and local governments and the level of inequality of income distribution of growth replaced by a positive relationship. The activities of employees of state and local governments began to contribute to reducing the level of inequality of income distribution in the country.


2019 ◽  
pp. 354-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataliya Tyukhtenko ◽  
Serhii Makarenko ◽  
Nataliia Oliinyk ◽  
Krzysztof Gluc ◽  
Edwin Portugal ◽  
...  

In the conditions of limited sources of financing for the introduction of advanced innovative technologies and equipment modernization, to retain the existing positions and increase the overall level of competitiveness can only the company that establishes a close relationship with government bodies, local governments and trade union organizations with the aim of obtaining possible preferences for development within the existing regulatory right field. The purpose of the article is to analyze the main socio-economic indicators of the development of Ukraine and its regions, the definition and justification of possible areas of establishing interaction between private enterprises and government agencies. The methodological basis of the study consisted of scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists and leading specialists, statistical and analytical materials of state authorities. The results are obtained through the use of such methods as expert – to identify the impact of qualitative and quantitative indicators on the socio-economic development of the Kherson region; economics and mathematics – to study the influence of a defined group of indicators on the index of the physical volume of the gross regional product; abstract-logical – for a theoretical synthesis and formulation of conclusions. It is revealed that among the key areas of interaction is the promotion of the state and local authorities in the creation of industrial parks. The conducted research on identifying the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the economy of the Kherson region indicates the need to develop measures to ensure the economic security of the region. To solve these problems at the regional level, it is proposed to implement a state policy that would be carried out in the following areas: ensuring a solid institutional protection of investor's property rights; improvement of the legislative framework; establishing an effective mechanism for combating corruption in Ukraine, developing an effective state policy on amnesty and unshadowing of incomes of individuals and legal entities. Keywords: socio-economic development, management, innovation, industrial park, competitiveness, foreign investment, amnesty of capital.


1974 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-134
Author(s):  
Harry P. Mapp

Over the past decade, a fundamental transformation has occurred in the attitudes of our citizens regarding the range, quantity and quality of services desired of all levels of government. One result has been a dramatic rise in public expenditures to provide the diverse set of services desired. For example, between 1960 and 1972, expenditures of federal, state and local governments increased from $151.3 billion to $410.3 billion, about 171 percent. Local government expenditures, which were pushed upward by expanding school enrollments and welfare caseloads, maintained their relative importance by growing from $29.0 billion to $75.4 billion, about 169 percent.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 1545-1562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Repetti ◽  
Susan Roe

Purpose State and local governments are considering large increases to the minimum wage. As restaurants employ many individuals paid at or below minimum wage, these changes may affect their businesses. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the anticipated effects of minimum wage growth on employment and pricing in US food and beverage operations. Design/methodology/approach The study utilizes an experimental design where restaurant owners and managers are presented with scenarios of differing levels of potential minimum wage increases and are asked to anticipate changes to employment and pricing. Findings Restaurant owners and managers involved in the study indicate the level of the minimum wage increase will significantly affect changes in pricing and employment levels. Results also show that restaurant demographics such as type of restaurant and average check do not significantly affect the relative change operators anticipate implementing. Specific ways participants plan to make adjustments are also presented. Originality/value The anticipated impact of minimum wage increases at the restaurant level is examined, which differs from previous studies that determine the impact at the industry level. This study evaluates large minimum wage increases of up to 100 per cent, which have previously not been studied.


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