Building the tools to speed up the policy design cycle: letting policy makers work with hydrologic models themselves through eWaterCycle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick van de Giesen ◽  
Rolf Hut ◽  
Niels Drost ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Web Applications ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Low Flow ◽  
Hydrologic Models ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Design Cycle ◽  
Research Platform ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Political Decisions

<p>Building the tools to speed up the policy design cycle: letting policy makers work with hydrologic models themselves through eWaterCycle</p><p> </p><p>Hydrologists are important experts that policy makers rely on when making water related decisions. Through policy briefs, often including scenario simulations, policy makers are informed about the consequences their (intended) policies (or lack thereof) will have.</p><p> </p><p>In drafting policy briefs, or choosing which scenario to run, scientists inevitably make political decisions, from obvious ones (how to weigh the importance of one land use type over another) to more hidden ones (using Kling-Gupta efficiency, which focuses more on low flow, to calibrate a model instead of Nash-sutcliffe efficiency, which focuses more on high flows). Ideally one wants to design the policymaker - scientist interaction such that most political decisions are made by the policymaker, without requiring her/him to become an expert hydrologist in the process. Any remaining (inevitable) decisions made by the hydrologist should be as transparent as possible.</p><p> </p><p>The eWaterCyle hydrologic research platform facilitates this type of policy maker - hydrologists interaction. Within the platform experiments such as scenario runs are Jupyter notebooks that a governmental data-scientist can construct without having to be an expert in the hydrological models used: these are stored in (OPEN and FAIR) containers. Interactive web applications  can be easily built on top of these notebooks using widgets, to allow the ultimate political decision maker to explore a broader range of policy options, instead of having to choose from a view of pre-run scenarios. </p><p> </p><p>We will present a few examples of how the eWaterCycle hydrological research platform can be used to support water-relevant policy decision making.</p>

Empirical Analysis of the Effect of Fiscal Policy Shocks in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Ji
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Policy ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Growth Stimulation ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Shocks ◽  
Tax Shocks

Abstract The central issues concerning fiscal policy makers include macroeconomic stability and growth stimulation. The policy decision process is facilitated by investigation on the effects of fiscal policy, such as a change in government spending or taxes on macroeconomic variables comprising inflation, aggregate output, and interest rates. Build on the Blanchard-Perotti identification approach, this paper empirically analyses the influence of fiscal policy to aggregate economic activities in China, and the estimated results are compared between China and the advanced economies. The findings demonstrate that the impulse responses incurred by tax shocks are generally stimulative, although government spending shocks tend to be neutral, revealing meaningful implications for the fiscal space and policy design.

scholarly journals Policy-relevant insights for regional renewable energy deployment

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla De Laurentis ◽  
Peter J. G. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Geographical Differences ◽  
Governance Capacity ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background The paper explores how regional actors engage with energy systems, flows and infrastructures in order to meet particular goals and offers a fine-tuned analysis of how differences arise, highlighting the policy-relevant insights that emerge. Methods Using a novel framework, the research performs a comparative case study analysis of three regions in Italy and two of the devolved territories of the UK, Wales and Scotland, drawing on interviews and documentary analysis. Results The paper shows that acknowledging the socio-materialities of renewable energy allows a fine-tuned analysis of how institutions, governance and infrastructure can enable/constrain energy transitions and policy effectiveness at local and regional levels. The heuristic adopted highlights (i) the institutions that matter for renewable energy and their varied effects on regional renewable energy deployment; (ii) the range of agencies involved in strategically establishing, contesting and reproducing institutions, expectations, visions and infrastructure as renewable energy deployment unfolds at the regional level and (iii) the nature and extent of infrastructure requirements for and constraints on renewable energy delivery and how they affect the regional capacity to shape infrastructure networks and facilitate renewable energy deployment. The paper shows how the regions investigated developed their institutional and governance capacity and made use of targets, energy visions and spatial planning to promote renewable energy deployment. It shows that several mediating factors emerge from examining the interactions between regional physical resource endowments and energy infrastructure renewal and expansion. The analysis leads to policy-relevant insights into what makes for renewable energy deployment. Conclusion The paper contributes to research that demonstrates the role of institutional variations and governance as foundations for geographical differences in the adoption of renewable energy, and carries significant implications for policy thinking and implementation. It shows why and how policy-makers need to be more effective in balancing the range of goals/interests for renewable energy deployment with the peculiarities and specificities of the regional contexts and their infrastructures. The insights presented help to explain how energy choices and outcomes are shaped in particular places, how differences arise and operate in practice, and how they need to be taken into account in policy design, policy-making and implementation.

'Maatschappelijk draagvlak' als alibi : macht en tegenmacht inzake milieubeleid op het middenveld

Res Publica ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-356
Author(s):  
Stefaan Walgrave
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
Privileged Access ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
Intermediary Organisations

Social, political and commercial organisations are stakeholders in the environmental policy decision making. Their mobilised power and counter power determine to a large extent the content of the decisions taken. Lately, the environmental movement in Flanders has grown stronger in members, professionals, financially,... but it remains relatively weak in comparison with the traditional, strong and aften pillarised intermediary organisations like unions, farmers and employers organisations. Especially its limited informal access tothe policy makers is incomparable with the exclusive and privileged access of those big organisations. Nevertheless the environmental movement is becoming a policy insider instead of an outsider, but this threatens the movements independence and its movement functions.

scholarly journals Administrative Background and the Process of Migrant Integration in Hungary

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-446
Author(s):  
István Temesi
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Political Decisions ◽  
The Eu

Some EU member states have been migrant destinations for a long time, while others have lost a considerable part of their population since their accession to the EU. Hungary belongs to the latter. Large numbers of immigrants have not been arriving here since the end of the war in former Yugoslavia. However, in 2015 Hungary was suddenly strongly affected by mass migration, mainly because of the country’s geographical location. Mass migration has strongly influenced politics as the decision-maker and public administration as the executor of political decisions. Both the decisions and the policy-makers have been strongly criticised for taking a different approach to the situation compared with many other European countries. The Hungarian government’s priority was to reduce or stop mass migration and it used political, legal, and physical instruments selected for this purpose. This study does not aim to judge whether they are right or wrong. Hungarian public administration has had to adapt to the situation and it has done so by way of implementing new and modified legal rules. However, due to the political decisions described above, it has developed and changed at the same time.

scholarly journals Addiction journals and the management of conflicts of interest

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Stenius
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Drug Research ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
New Research ◽  
Political Decisions

Stenius, K. (2016). Addiction journals and the management of conflicts of interest. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 5(1), 9-10. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v5i1.233Scientific journals are crucial for a critical and open exchange of new research findings and as guardians of the quality of science. Today, as policy makers increasingly justify decision-making with references to scientific evidence, and research articles form the basis for evidence for specific measures, journals also have an indirect responsibility for how political decisions will be shaped.

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.

scholarly journals The politics of health policy knowledge transfer: the evolution of the role of British health economics academic units

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 489-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor MacKillop ◽  
Sally Sheard
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Economics ◽  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Health Policy Decision ◽  
Academic Units ◽  
The University

Economics is now central to health policy decision making, within government departments and the National Health Service. We examine how and why a health economics academic unit ‐ the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) at the University of York, England ‐ was created in 1983, funded and commissioned to provide research evidence to the British government, specifically the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) and its successors. Building on the knowledge transfer literature, we document the origins of this relationship and the different strategies deployed by successive governments and researchers. This paper demonstrates the value of historical methodologies such as oral history and textual analysis that highlight the limitations of existing knowledge transfer theories, by foregrounding the role of politics via the construction of individual relationships between academics and policy-makers.

scholarly journals REDD+ as a Public Policy Dilemma: Understanding Conflict and Cooperation in the Design of Conservation Incentives

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugo Rosa da Conceição ◽  
Jan Börner ◽  
Sven Wunder
Keyword(s):  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Public Response ◽  
Conservation Policies ◽  
Conflict And Cooperation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Exerted Pressure ◽  
And Control

Command-and-control policies are often criticized as insufficient to tackle tropical deforestation. Over the past two decades, both academics and policy-makers have promoted incentive-based policies, notably REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), as attractive alternatives to curb forest loss, while also potentially contributing to the poverty reduction of forest-dwelling populations. Governments have been the driving force behind the largest incentive-based forest conservation programs in Latin America. Many science-based recommendations on how to design effective incentive-based policies have, however, not found much resonance within policy circles. To understand the gap between recommendations and practice, it is important to analyze how these schemes are designed towards achieving environmental and non-environmental outcomes. To this end, we analyzed the comprehensive history of governance dynamics behind two government-led incentive schemes in Ecuador and Peru. We found that electoral interests and bureaucratic politics exerted pressure on policy design teams, which eventually traded off long-term societal efficiency concerns against short-term administrative goals. Priority was often given to non-environmental concerns, due to perceptions of political feasibility, the influence of non-environmental government agencies, and beliefs in particular government roles or public response. These findings are especially relevant for scholars studying the design, implementation and impacts of incentive-based conservation policies, and for practitioners aiming to enhance policy efficiency.

scholarly journals Assessment of electricity distribution business model and market design alternatives: Evidence for policy design

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillermo Ivan Pereira ◽  
Patrícia Pereira da Silva ◽  
Deborah Soule
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Delphi Study ◽  
Distribution System ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Market Design ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Electricity Distribution ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Evidence For Policy

The transition toward smart electricity distribution grids is transforming the European electricity sector. This has contributed to increased attention by policy makers regarding the future role of electricity distribution system operators in a more flexible, digital, and renewables-based electricity system. A better understanding on how to support the adaptation of the electricity distribution industry can contribute to the introduction of an effective policy framework. Our research provides evidence for policy design by presenting the results of a Policy Delphi study focused on business model and market design adaptation alternatives. We highlight the importance of supporting innovation and a more proactive approach to adaptation from both distribution system operators and regulators. Our findings support the importance of electricity distribution for neutral market facilitation, contributing to market development and enabling new market players. The results obtained support policy makers working on electricity sector adaptation and can contribute to the ongoing market redesign efforts under the Energy Union.

Issue Salience and Political Decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Moniz ◽  
Christopher Wlezien
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Decisions

Salience refers to the extent to which people cognitively and behaviorally engage with a political issue (or other object), although it has meant different things to different scholars studying different phenomena. The word originally was used in the social sciences to refer to the importance of political issues to individuals’ vote choice. It also has been used to designate attention being paid to issues by policy makers and the news media, yet it can pertain to voters as well. Thus, salience sometimes refers to importance and other times to attention—two related but distinct concepts—and is applied to different actors. The large and growing body of research on the subject has produced real knowledge about policies and policy, but the understanding is limited in several ways. First, the conceptualization of salience is not always clear, which is of obvious relevance to theorizing and limits assessment of how (even whether) research builds on and extends existing literature. Second, the match between conceptualization and measurement is not always clear, which is of consequence for analysis and impacts the contribution research makes. Third, partly by implication, but also because the connections between research in different areas—the public, the media, and policy—are not always clear, the consequences of salience for representative democracy remain unsettled.

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