A Problem Shared? The Role of the Public in the Legitimation of Policy: A Case Study of Gendered Welfare Change in the United Kingdom

This article argues that shared problematizations—shared political and public ways of thinking—legitimize policies and their outcomes. To support this argument, it examines the legitimation of gendered welfare reform in the recent U.K. context. Drawing on focus groups with the public, it provides evidence that the public’s problematization of welfare, specifically that reform was necessary to “make work pay” and “restore fairness”, aligned with that of politicians. It argues that the assumptions and silences underpinning this shared problematization, especially silences relating to the value and necessity of care, have allowed for welfare policies that have disadvantaged women.

Workers or Consumers: Who Pays for Low-Carbon Transition – Theoretical Analysis of Welfare Change in General Equilibrium Setting

Policies that are introduced to mitigate adverse consequences of climate change involve economic costs. For some households, these costs will materialise in the form of an increase in prices of consumption goods, whereas for others they will materialise in the form of falling productivity and wages. Disentangling these two effects is important in the light of the design of funds that aim to support the households that are negatively affected by climate policy. In this article, we study the effect of carbon tax on welfare through changes of consumer prices and wages in a general equilibrium setting. In the first step, we review the literature on ‘top-down’ models, which are used to evaluate the macroeconomic cost of climate policy. We find that these models usually do not account for loss of productivity of workers who must change their sector due to climate policy. In the second step, we develop a theoretical, micro-founded, two-sector model that explicitly accounts for the loss of productivity of workers. The compensation of climate-change mitigation costs would require allocation of separate funds for the affected consumers and workers.

Techno-economics of Biochar and Biogas viability in Ghana

Biogas and voucher are technological solutions that deal with sanitation and other environmental problems. The technology for producing biogas from faeces is termed bio-toilet and production of biochar from the same human waste is by means of Sol-char toilet. The study evaluated economic benefits and costs of sol-char toilet and compared with empirical benefits and costs estimates of bio-toilet. Cost Benefit Analysis was used to judge welfare change attribution of investment into Sol Char Toilet and Bio Toilet. The pyrolysis plant was fed with 4000 tons of faeces for which Sol char toilet incurred Total capital cost of US$ 3,140,940.38, Net Present Value (NPV) of US$9,718,817.4788, Profitability Index (PI) of 4.0942381271 and 1.4 years payback period. Bio toilet values for a total of 4000 m3 (100 units of 40 m3 each) were; - Total capital cost of US$ 36,026.05, NPV of US$89,152.75, PI of 3.4746 and 3.46 years payback period. Sol char toilet is faced with high capital requirement challenges, compared with an advantage in smaller payback period and a marginal difference in PI. The study concluded that complementary roles of sol char toilet and bio toilet in the Ghanaian economy is preferred.Keywords: Biogas; Biochar; Cost Benefit Analysis; Profitability Index; Payback period.

Модели экономического влияния рекламы: три уровня эффектов

Настоящая работа представляет собой первую, вводную часть цикла статей, посвященных обзору существующих моделей, методов и взглядов на эффекты воздействия экономического института рекламы на рынок на всех возможных уровнях. В первой части цикла приводится общий обзор наиболее значимых подходов к изучению рекламной деятельности фирм, влияния рекламы на потребителей и на характеристики экономического равновесия. Построена классификация экономических эффектов рекламы, учитывающая все существующие аспекты ее воздействия и кратко описаны подходы к анализу ее первичных, вторичных и третичных эффектов. The present work is an introduction to a cycle of review articles dedicated to a comprehensive description and analysis of effects caused by advertising as an economic institution on the whole economy on different levels. A general review of most significant approaches to analyze the firms advertising activities is carried out as well as a diversified overview of methods and mathematical apparatus of modelling advertisement influence on consumers and on the characteristics of economic equilibrium. A classification of such influence effects is constructed, based on different characteristics of advertising, including its content, duration, intensity, as well as types of firms’ ad strategies and the level of economy affected by ad influence. From the latter point of view the economic effects of advertising may be divided into three levels. Primary effects involve only the consumers and describe the shift in their demand inspired by advertisement. The emergence of primary effects gives a new tool to operate the demand for the producing firms. For the latter it means that they may develop an optimal strategy, different from the one that fits the “non-ad” case, and this difference forms the essence of the secondary tier of the economic effects of the advertising (secondary effects). Finally, the tertiary effects of advertising deal with the shift in general market characteristics and structure induced by the existence of advertising as an institution such as social welfare change or emergence of new equilibriums or advertising markets as well as advertising-driven intersectoral linkages between production and media industries.

Dampak Perubahan Harga Pangan terhadap Tingkat Kesejahteraan Rumah Tangga di Indonesia

<strong>English</strong><br />The most important people's welfare related food problem is increasing food prices. Food price induced welfare change varies by household groups, either by location (urban/rural), poverty status (poor/non-poor), and souces of incomes (agriculture/non-agricultural). The sources of the welfare change may also vary by food categories. This study aims to evaluate changes in household welfare in Indonesia by household groups and the contribution of food categories. The household welfare was measured with the Compensating Variation which was computed by using the Hicksian compensated price elasticities obtained from the estimated Linear Approximation Almost Ideal Demand System using the National Socio-Economic Survey March 2016 data. The results showed that in March 2016, welfare losses in all household groups, in urban areas higher than in rural areas, in poorer households higher than non-poor, in agricultural households higher than non-agricultural and the contribution of each food group to the decline in welfare levels varies among individual household groups. The largest contributor is food prices. Rice is the largest contributor for the rural, the poor and the agricultural households. Animal products, fruit, prepared food and beverage and cigarettes categories are the main contributors for the urban, the not poor and the non-agricultural households.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Indonesian</strong><br />Permasalahan pangan utama yang berkaitan dengan tingkat kesejahteraan masyarakat adalah kenaikan harga pangan. Perubahan tingkat kesejahteraan akibat kenaikan harga pangan berbeda menurut kelompok seperti menurut tempat tinggal (perkotaan/perdesaan), status kemiskinan (miskin/tidak miskin), sumber utama penghasilan rumah tangga (pertanian/nonpertanian). Demikian pula kontribusi masing-masing kategori pangan terhadap perubahan tingkat kesejahteraan berbeda pada kelompok rumah tangga sama. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi perubahan tingkat kesejahteraan rumah tangga di Indonesia menurut kelompok rumah tangga dan kontribusi kategori pangan terhadap perubahan tingkat kesejahteraan tersebut. Perubahan kesejahteraan diukur dengan <em>Compensating Variation</em> berdasarkan<em> </em>elastisitas harga terkompensasi Hicksian yang diperoleh dari model permintaan <em>Linear Approximation Almost Ideal Demand System</em> dengan data Survei Sosial Ekonomi Nasional periode Maret 2016. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pada Maret 2016, terjadi penurunan kesejahteraan pada semua kelompok rumah tangga, di perkotaan lebih tinggi daripada di perdesaan, pada rumah tangga miskin lebih tinggi dari pada tidak miskin, pada rumah tangga pertanian lebih tinggi dari pada nonpertanian. Kelompok makanan berkontribusi tertinggi terhadap penurunan tingkat kesejahteraan rumah tangga secara umum. Beras berkontribusi tertinggi dalam penurunan tingkat kesejahteraan kelompok rumah tangga perdesaan, miskin, dan pertanian. Kategori pangan hewani, kelompok buah-buahan, makanan dan minuman jadi serta rokok berkontribusi tertinggi untuk kelompok rumah tangga di perkotaan, tidak miskin dan nonpertanian.

FDI and Global Economic Integration: A Welfare Analysis

This paper investigates the welfare impact on all member countries when nonmember countries invest in a member of an economic region, in which capital is allowed to move freely. It is shown that the nonmember investment will affects the welfare of all members despite that some members do not receive such investment directly. In general, the results depend on the relative magnitude of the tariff revenue effect, the tax revenue effect and the capital returns effect. Specific conditions for welfare change in each member country as well as the criterion for a common external tariff which ensures welfare improvement in all the member countries are derived.