scholarly journals Productivity and Deregulation in the Canadian For-Hire Trucking Industry, 1985-1996

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Nolan ◽  
Pamela Richie ◽  
John Rowcraft

Many policy makers today take for granted that economic deregulation yields net benefits to industry, particularly with respect to helping improve productivity and efficiency. Certain structural issues about industrial deregulation are not well understood, including the impact of technical change or innovation. In this paper, we measure the extent to which innovation affected productivity within the Canadian for-hire trucking industry during deregulation. Using a unique data set spanning the trucking deregulation era in Canada, non-parametric Malmquist productivity indices are computed and de-composed. Results of the analysis indicate that the industry was affected by deregulation in a manner consistent with public policy goals.

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Moshe Schwartz

This article explores the evolution of social and economic public policy goals and programs embedded in the defense procurement process and explores the impact of these policies on acquisition.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
JON ORD ◽  
MARC CARLETTI ◽  
DANIELE MORCIANO ◽  
LASSE SIURALA ◽  
CHRISTOPHE DANSAC ◽  
...  

Abstract This article examines young people’s experiences of open access youth work in settings in the UK, Finland, Estonia, Italy and France. It analyses 844 individual narratives from young people, which communicate the impact of youthwork on their lives. These accounts are then analysed in the light of the European youth work policy goals. It concludes that it is encouraging that what young people identify as the positive impact of youth work are broadly consistent with many of these goals. There are however some disparities which require attention. These include the importance young people place on the social context of youth work, such as friendship, which is largely absent in EU youth work policy; as well as the importance placed on experiential learning. The paper also highlights a tension between ‘top down’ policy formulation and the ‘youth centric’ practices of youth work. It concludes with a reminder to policy makers that for youth work to remain successful the spaces and places for young people must remain meaningful to them ‘on their terms’.


1981 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Wolman

ABSTRACTRecent social science research – particularly evaluation research and cost-benefit analysis – has produced a substantial and very useful literature on the impact of public policy and on the relationship of program inputs to outputs and outcomes. However, the explicit focus of these analytic techniques on impacts and outcomes does not systematically yield useful information on why programs have been successes or failures. Policy-makers faced with an evaluation of program success or failure obviously need to know something about the why question if they are to make needed adjustments in the program or carry the lessons of one program to other areas. This article attempts to present a comprehensive framework for explaining and understanding program performance. It is meant to have two uses and to serve two clienteles. First, it presents for social scientists a set of research questions to guide research into the determinants of program performance. Second, it provides public policy-makers with a set of action questions which should be asked and answered appropriately in the actual formulating and carrying out of public policy, as a means of enhancing the chances of program success. The framework is divided into two parts, the formulating process and the carrying out process, although these two processes may overlap considerably, both in time and in terms of substantive concerns. Program success may be impeded by problems or inadequacies in one or more of the components in either the formulating stage or the carrying out stage or in both.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-56
Author(s):  
Hoa Thi Nguyen ◽  
Dung Thi Nguyet Nguyen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of mutual funds’ performance at both a country level and a fund level in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach The different types of funds with more than three-year operation are selected to remove outliers of the stock market boom from 2015 to 2018. The data set includes 54 mutual funds operating during the period from 2008 until November 2018. Findings The research finds that there is a positive relationship between macroeconomics and mutual funds’ performance. Furthermore, country-level governance such as regulation effectiveness, political stability, economic growth and financial development has a positive correlation with mutual funds’ performance. However, the impact of fund-level factors is diverse with the no significant impact of board size on mutual fund’s performance, while passive funds perform better than active funds in Vietnam. Practical implications The research results suggest that investors should pay attention to the types of funds and operating expense when making an investment decision in mutual funds. There are some recommendations for both government policy-makers and the mutual fund industry that are likely to facilitate the development of this field in Vietnam. Originality/value The research contributes to the understanding of what are the factors that should be considered when investing in mutual funds.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria Sraha

Purpose – Although there is great deal of research on export assistance programmes in developed countries, studies on developing countries in Africa has received scant attention in the literature. Lack of detailed information in many developing African countries makes it difficult to assess the effect of export promotion programmes (EPPs) on the firm’s export performance in foreign markets. The purpose of this paper is to explore entrepreneurial development in the value-added export sector of Ghana and screen EPPs provided by public policy makers to examine the impact of these programmes on export performance of Ghanaian firms in foreign markets. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual/exploratory paper is developed with discussion. Findings – The paper suggests that the ability of exporters to enhance their performance is driven by the usage of outside market access, export development/training and information related export assistance programmes offered by public policy makers. Utilisation of EPPs builds experiential knowledge which serves as a source of competitive advantage for exporters to implement effective marketing mix strategies to enhance performance. Practical implications – The study underscores the specific EPPs export managers can utilise to enhance performance and improve their international marketing strategy in foreign markets. Public policy makers need to work together with exporters to incorporate and develop programmes to suit the idiosyncrasies of foreign markets and boost the growth of value-added exports. Originality/value – The study explores past literature to screen and evaluate the effect of EPPs and entrepreneurial development to boost export growth in Ghana – Sub-Sahara Africa.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey M. Stonecash

Party battles for control of government are seen as efforts to reshape public policy. In prior decades, the impact of parties was limited by divided control of branches of government. The impact of party control was also limited because neither party had a distinctive constituency with clear and different policy goals. Over time, realignment has produced parties with very different electoral bases. Republicans now are more unified and willing to cut government while Democrats are more supportive of government programs. This chapter reviews our expectations of the impact of parties, the changes that have made party control mean more, and how these changes affect policy areas like economic policy, welfare, and health care.


2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Malmberg ◽  
Bo Malmberg ◽  
Per Lundequist

In the 1990s, there has been an increase in interest in the spatial agglomeration of similar and related firms and industries. The recent literature is, however, marked by a lack of balance between theoretical development and empirical validation of the importance of agglomeration economies. Our aim in this paper is to redress the balance by assessing empirically the impact of various types of agglomeration economies on export performance. Our study is based on a unique data set including all Swedish export firms. We find that localisation economies are not as important as recent theoretical contributions on industrial districts, new industrial spaces, and innovative milieus have led us to believe. Instead, traditional scale economies, together with urbanisation economies, have a larger effect on export performance.


2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 269 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. HANSSON ◽  
R. FERGUSON ◽  
C. OLOFSSON

This paper addresses the development of farm businesses in Sweden, 2000–2007, with regard to their specialization in single farm enterprises, diversified agricultural production and diversification with new income-generating ventures. Furthermore, regression analysis is used to study the impact of farm characteristics on the observed specialization and diversification. The study is based a panel data set of about 900 farms participating in the Swedish Agricultural Economics Survey. Results show that farms are increasingly engaging in diversified activities, though in most firms these activities make only minor contributions to total revenue. Results also show that the degrees of specialization and diversification are influenced by characteristics of firms’ business structure, financial and demographic conditions. These results contribute to the understanding of farm business development, as well as show the need for policy makers and farm advisors to consider the differences between farms pursuing different development strategies in their efforts to influence behavior.;


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Una O. Osili ◽  
Jacqueline Ackerman ◽  
Yannan Li

This study investigates the impact of economic conditions on the number of charitable gifts of 1 million dollars or more within the United States using the Million Dollar List (MDL) data set. We investigate key donor types—individuals, corporations, and foundations—using quarterly data. Results indicate that individual donors are significantly responsive to underlying economic conditions, foundation giving tends to be countercyclical, and corporate giving is less closely linked with aggregate macroeconomic conditions. We also find that economic conditions vary in their influence on million dollar giving to subsectors, and gifts to public benefit and human services organizations increase significantly during periods of recession, holding other factors constant. In contrast, million dollar giving to arts and education organizations is significantly associated with favorable economic conditions, holding other factors constant. Findings have direct implications for philanthropists, fundraisers, and policy makers as they seek to understand how economic conditions affect large gifts.


Author(s):  
Gary W. Anderson ◽  
Anthony Breitzman

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST’s) mission is to “promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness.” To meet this mission, NIST scientists produce a great variety of scientific and technical outputs. This paper presents results from a novel effort to measure usage and impact of a more complete set of outputs, including patents, publications, research data, software, reference materials, and a variety of additional formal and informal scientific outputs. This effort captures a significantly broader set of scientific outputs than traditional citation analysis which typically examines patent-to-patent citations or more recently patent-to-(peer-reviewed) paper citations. This may be of significant importance to NIST as NIST scientists produce a wide variety of scientific and technical outputs beyond patents and papers. Our results indicate that metrics that solely rely on patents issued to NIST inventors understate NIST’s true impact on invention and do not capture usage of much of NIST’s scientific output by other inventors. Thus, identifying the magnitude and varied usage of different types of NIST outputs represents a significant improvement in NIST impact metrics. The results clearly indicate that different companies, industries and technologies rely on different types of NIST outputs. Therefore, reliance on a limited set of technology transfer tools by either researchers or policy makers creates a risk that NIST knowledge and capabilities will not be transferred to and adopted by businesses and other organizations. Finally, the data developed here suggest a number of new technology transfer metrics that promote shared technology transfer responsibilities and may focus attention on activities that increase the impact of current research without fundamentally altering the infrastructural character of this research.


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