RIGHTS REDISTRIBUTION AND COVID-19 LOCKDOWN POLICY

What is the tenet upon which the public policy of lockdown by fiat experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic is based on? The work approaches this question about the rationale of the mandatory shelter-in-place policy as an interpersonal exchange of rights, but where the exchange occurs coercively instead of voluntarily. It compares, in positive political economy terms, the normative principles of utilitarianism and Rawlsianism, and shows that lockdown by fiat is a policy that is closer to a maximin equity criterion rather than to a utilitarian one. The work moreover shows, also with the aid of a thought experiment in the spirit of Rawls and with factual applications, that the fiat redistribution of rights to liberty in favor of rights to health – from those least affected to those most affected by COVID-19 – is, in the main, a policy choice that is to be expected under certain constraints.

Ex Post Review and Expert Policymaking: When Does Oversight Reduce Accountability?

Ex post review is a common feature of policymaking institutions. We consider an environment in which an expert agent makes a policy recommendation, which can then be accepted or rejected by an overseer whose policy goals differ from those of the agent. The theory suggests that both behavior and optimal institutional design are sensitive to several factors, including actors' preference alignment, the importance of the policy decision, and the uncertainty about the correct policy choice. We characterize the types of situations in which ex post review creates incentives for the agent to make pathological policy choices. In these situations, ex post review can reduce accountability of the agent to overseer wishes and ultimately provide incentives to set aside review entirely. The theory also offers testable predictions about policy recommendations and the overseer's acceptance or rejection of these recommendations.

The Minimum Wage as Method of Alleviating Poverty: Current Practices versus Alternative Policy and Legal Resolutions

Poverty is a social issue that impacts much of the world, including the United States. Oftentimes, proponents of the minimum wage argue that a higher minimum wage would help alleviate poverty in the country. Whether or not there will be impacts, or how significant the impact will be, is a subject of debate. The paper first analyzes arguments in support of using the minimum wage to reduce poverty in the US. Then, arguments against the current minimum wage are presented. Discussion regarding alternatives or alterations to the current minimum wage is raised at the end of the paper that would provide a more sustainable and legally sound public policy choice. This includes an analysis of the current minimum wage policies in the city of Philadelphia as example.

Policy Choice in the Present Context of Vietnam

Faced with the impact of Covid-19, the Vietnam Government steadfastly carried out at the same time the goal of repelling epidemics and economic development. Economic stimulus is a topic often mentioned at recent scientific conferences and regular sessions. Many confused opinions about the concept of great economic indicators have been revealed. The article is based on the some indicators of System of National Accounts (SNA) to analyze and make judgments about appropriate policies in the current context.