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Although the development of intercultural citizenship among university students has now been included as a key policy in international universities, pedagogical practices for promoting the awarenes...

The law schools legal aid activities conducted through its clinics has come a long way in India especially since its inception in the early 1970’s. Its evolution has been gradual, intermittent and varied. Although The Bar Council of India (BCI) has mandated, establishing legal aid clinics as a pre-requisite for granting the necessary permissions before law schools start functioning, there are limited ideas of its purpose and objectives. An inherent lack of understanding its importance in terms of teaching, learning and research, the legal aid practices are largely left to the discretion of the individual law schools and interpretations of the individual faculty members. Combined with ideas heavily borrowed from the law schools in the US and individual experiences of the faculty members, legal aid practices in India are diversified. In the backdrop of this, the author intends to explore and map the aspiration of legal aid through an analysis of the key policy documents of legal education since India’s independence through an ontological framework. The ontology maps the aspirations of the legal aid clinics that was intended through these documents. Additionally, a case study of two important institutions have been taken as the case in point in order to verify whether the practices match such aspirations. Thereby, putting forth arguments that are critical for understanding the gaps between the aspiration and the state of reality. Key words: Legal aid Clinics, Law schools, Clinical, Legal education, Social justice

University–industry collaboration (UIC) is an important source of knowledge and innovation for firms but is often challenging due to the partners’ different goals. Thus, formal research centers have become a key policy instrument to foster stronger UIC whereby strong mutual relationships are created. This study investigates the establishment of a university–industry research center to gain insights into the coordination activities the focal firms used to achieve their goals with UIC. We find that the firms with goals related to specific innovations and technology development took a more active role by using structured coordination activities in the preformation phase of the research center, whereas the firms with goals related to general knowledge development mainly coordinated through unstructured activities when the center began operations. We map the specific coordination activities used in UIC and theorize on how the partners’ different organizational goals influenced their use of these activities. Our findings have important implications for how activities in UIC, particularly in research centers, can be designed to strengthen the collaboration between universities and their firm partners to enhance knowledge development and innovation.

This paper provides an overview of the policies of school autonomy in Australian public education from the Karmel report in 1973 to the present day. The key focus is on the social justice implications of this reform. It tracks the tensions between policy moves to both grant schools greater autonomy and rein in this autonomy with the increasing instatement of external forms of regulation. Utilising Nancy Fraser’s concepts of dis-embedding and re-embedding markets, we track key policy moments in three Australian states (Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales) along with federal interventions. We draw attention to the redistributive and representative justice implications arising from these policy moments as occurring within a consistent trajectory towards a market agenda and argue that future policy needs to consider the effect of past policy.

Safe haven laws allow one to safely and legally relinquish an infant at a designated location. In this paper, we examine one key policy implementer of safe haven laws, calls to a national hotline. Using 2018–2019 call data from the National Safe Haven Alliance hotline, we present information about the callers, why they call, what actions are taken, and the outcomes. Of the 388 callers and 453 reasons that they called, we found that 56.5% wanted general information about safe havens, 13.7% want information about adoption, and 9.3% want instructions on how to relinquish an infant. Callers are connected to other resources 69.2% of the time and 18.1% are given instructions on how to relinquish an infant. Helpline staff are expected to have a broad array of knowledge regarding pregnancy, parenting, and other options. Findings are compared with research on other crisis hotlines. The discussion includes considerations for policy practice.

In light of the unexpectedly high turnout in the 2019 European Parliament election, we explore how major transnational policy issues mobilize voters in European electoral contests. Based on the analysis of two data sets, the Eurobarometer post-election survey and the RECONNECT panel survey, we make three important observations. First, European citizens show a higher tendency to participate in European Parliament elections when they attribute greater importance to the issues ‘climate change and environment’, ‘economy and growth’, and ‘immigration’. Second, having a more extreme opinion on the issue of ‘European integration’ increases people's likelihood to vote in European elections. Third, the mobilizing effect of personal issue importance is enhanced by the systemic salience that the respective policy issue has during the election campaign. These findings show the relevance of issue mobilization in European Parliament elections as well as its context-dependent nature.

Given the increased popularity of macroprudential measures in the aftermath of the great financial crisis (GFC), a key policy question to arise in certain mortgage markets is whether a significant access to credit issue exists amongst prospective homeowners because of these new policies. In this paper we assess whether such a problem arises in the context of the Irish mortgage market – a market particularly adversely impacted by the GFC. We use a microsimulation model to estimate the level of latent credit demand that could be serviced by the market given prudent credit risk assessment and the current macroprudential regulations. We then compare this demand to current market provision to explore whether a credit gap exists. Finally, we simulate how a public mortgage credit scheme or equity “help-to-buy” type instrument may help credit access. We find both instruments to be effective but would lead to somewhat higher house prices.

The success of a policy depends on whether policy tool is appropriately chosen and how they work well to effective policy implementation in complex policy environments. However, only a handful of empirical studies attempt to test the effects of policy tools. This study uses a hierarchical regression analysis with data from both administrative data and survey data gathered from 167 lower secondary school teachers in Korea to examine the effect of key policy tools. The results are as followings: for grant, subject classroom facility grant has statistically significant positive relationships with CE, whereas CE Model School grant does not; for regulation, textbook regulation has statistically significant positive relationships with CE, whereas fewer subjects per a semester regulation does not.

This paper responds to a multi-decade decline in the rate of U.S. economic growth by proposing a four-element technology-based growth policy, emphasizing productivity as the key policy target. Mult...

The compact city concept remains a key policy response to multiple societal challenges. Based on theoretical and empirical research, this article seeks to a) develop a systemic understanding of compact city qualities; b) map alleged compact city qualities from the literature onto this framework; c) map qualities mentioned by stakeholders in two European cities onto the same framework; and d) apply the developed framework to analyse how compounded compact city qualities relate to policy challenges, such as carbon neutrality, poverty alleviation, neighbourhood revitalization, or community engagement. It is based on literature reviews and interviews with stakeholders in Barcelona and Rotterdam.

Women representation in public institutions has been a key policy shift in Nepal in the recent decade. Despite such policy intervention as affirmative action measures to encourage women participation in public institutions and likewise increased presence of women in politics and public institutions, women’s participation at local level school decision-making processes remains limited. Through a lens of representation and theory of participation and an examination of women’s experiences, this study critically examines the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in the School Management Committee. Drawing on original ethnographic research in a secondary school in rural Kaski, Gandaki Province, Nepal, this study draws that predominant female gender images were reproduced in the initial stage of women participation which made them feel ‘othered’ and ‘excluded’; however, gradually, with the passage of time and learning, such images receded and they felt more ‘included’ and were thereby likely to demonstrate more substantive participation.

Purpose: 2020 is the concluding year of the basic preschool education popularization policy in China and marks the beginning of China’s Education Modernization 2035. This study focuses on the top-level design and the prospect of the development plan of China’s preschool education toward 2035. Design/Approach/Methods: The research method adopted is expert interview. We interviewed 11 experts, including policymakers, educational administrators, scholars, and practitioners in the education. Findings: To develop China’s preschool education, we need to integrate macro-level, meso-level, and micro-level contents: focusing on public welfare as the development concept, furthering the reform of the educational system and mechanism, making quality improvement the plan’s key goal, and forming a new preschool education development mode with Chinese characteristics. Originality/Value: This study hopes to clarify the focus to have an impact on China’s preschool education toward 2035. It also aims to provide suggestions about preschool education development for other countries.

We can analyze the new Biden administration, its personnel, and the policies it is likely to follow, especially on the all-important questions of the climate crisis and U.S. grand strategy toward China, by looking at the Council on Foreign Relations.

We apply a four-stage methodology (i.e., cluster analysis, data mining, partial least square path modeling, and importance-performance analysis) to identify the critical paths to multi-dimensional prosperity of nations. Using the Legatum Prosperity Index across 142 countries as a proxy for prosperity, we find strong evidence of the positive causal mechanisms among dimensions of prosperity. This implies that individual dimensions of prosperity should not be weighted equally in designing policies that support prosperity of nations. In line with human capital theory, we find that education and the pupil to teacher ratio are the key policy drivers of prosperity enhancement.

In Northeast Asia, the debate among key policy actors regarding air pollution attribution is influenced by the issue’s political sensitivity, but it could also be the result of variance in the scientific research. For example, we know that the springtime winds carry desert-originating dust laden with contaminants from industry and energy production out of China eastward to the Korean peninsula and Japan, but domestic contribution from South Korea and Japan must also be recognized. Science would be politicized when scientific findings are handpicked and argued over by politicians, advocacy groups, and pundits, leading key actors, including the general public, to prioritize particular results over others. In this paper we examine whether the atmospheric science literature produces research that varies depending upon funding source and international research collaboration. We survey 174 published atmospheric science studies and use scientometric methods to show that researchers based in both Japan and South Korea focus significantly more on China as the source of transboundary air pollution. China’s researchers neither highlight China’s air pollution contributions nor minimize them.

The European Union has faced many crises, such as populism, xenophobia, economic and political challenges, to name a few. This has resulted in some questioning whether the EU will survive. Herein, the neo-institutionalist perspective on crises in EU integration frames an original and timely inquiry into the role of a new EU initiative – the European Education Area – in supporting EU integration in these challenging times. This inquiry relies on a thematic analysis of relevant key policy materials. The findings highlight that while it is not surprising that the EEA is an example of an education convergence project in the EU, the novelty of other findings is striking. It appears that the crises in the EU inspired the authors of the EEA to utilize its education as a tool for EU deepening, which is an aspect of EU integration related to the strengthening of the relationships amongst its Member States. Specifically, the EEA has been a driver in the development of a common European identity and European economy, the EU as a socially-just society and the continent of progress. These findings address important gaps of our knowledge about the role of education in driving EU integration.

The desire to be more responsive to the demands of citizens complicates the relationship between Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary and has an impact on policy delivery capacity. This article considers four separate contributions to effective policy delivery in a context of increasing and increasingly variegated demands: those provided by the Secretary of State, Permanent Secretary, special political adviser (SpAd) and chair of the departmental board. Drawing on insights garnered through a series of interviews with key policy actors, we draw attention to the SpAd bridging function between Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary, which eases the tension between ministerial urgency for outcomes versus the officials’ realistic appraisal of ‘smoothing out’ the challenges to policy delivery. The departmental board’s stewardship of policy delivery, meanwhile, is minimal due to the lack of chairmanship by the Secretary of State, requiring professional chairs to be appointed to this role.

Young people in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries are rarely recognized as a resource in decision-making processes and are systemically excluded from key policy areas on development. Th...

Background Many countries consistently fail to achieve the target influenza vaccine coverage rate (VCR) of 75% for populations at risk of complications, recommended by the World Health Organization and European Council. We aimed to identify factors for achieving a high VCR in the scope of four benchmark countries with high influenza VCRs: Australia, Canada, UK and USA. Methods Publicly available evidence was first reviewed at a global level and then for each of the four countries. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with stakeholders meeting predefined criteria. Descriptive cluster analyses were performed to identify key factors and pillars for establishing and maintaining high VCRs. Results No single factor led to a high VCR, and each benchmark country used a different combination of tailored approaches to achieve a high vaccine coverage. In each country, specific triggers were important to stimulate changes that led to improved vaccine coverage. A total of 42 key factors for a successful influenza vaccination programme were identified and clustered into five pillars: (1) Health Authority accountability and strengths of the influenza programme, (2) facilitated access to vaccination, (3) healthcare professional accountability and engagement, (4) awareness of the burden and severity of disease and (5) belief in influenza vaccination benefit. Each benchmark country has implemented multiple factors from each pillar. Conclusion A wide range of factors were identified from an evaluation of four high-performing benchmark countries, classified into five pillars, thus providing a basis for countries with lower VCRs to tailor their own particular solutions to improve their influenza VCR.

The advert of cryptocurrency era is signified by the luanch of Bitcoin, which has been considered as a milestone event. Ever since its emergence, Bitcoin has experienced rapid price increase along with great price fluctuations. This paper aims to explore the beginning and the culmination of possible speculative bubbles the Bitcoin market. Based on the daily closing price of Bitstamp, a major Bitcoin exchange platform, from September 13, 2011 to October 12, 2020, this paper adopts GSADF (generalized sup augmented Dickey–Fuller) to explore the existence of the bubble in the Bitcoin market, estimate the time of emergence and collapse of the bubble, investigate the causes of the bubbles based on its time order, and attempts to put forward some policy suggestions. Through this study, we have found that: (1) There are a lot of speculative bubbles. During the research period, there were a total of four long bubbles (i.e. 2013.01.25–2013.04.05; 2013.11.05–2013.12.10; 2017.04.27–2017.07.05; 2017.07.15 –2018.01.09) and four short bubbles (2016.06.08–2016.06.18; 2016.12.30–2017.01.15; 2017.02.22 –2017.03.07; 2019.06.19 –2019.06.25). (2) The emergence and burst of bubbles were mostly related to the occurrence of relevant events and policies. (3) Bitcoin market is far from mature. A key policy risk triggering the speculative behavior is policy announcement. The prominent innovation of this paper is that the latest developed bubble detection method GSADF has been employed in the Bitcoin market. This method can detect the existence of multiple Bitcoin bubbles and their durations.

This article provides a personal reflection 30 years after we created the concept of automobile dependence. The paper entitled “Gasoline Consumption and Cities: A Comparison of US Cities with a Global Survey and Its Implications” and an associated book “Cities and Automobile Dependence” stirred up transport planning, especially in the US. We examine the criticisms, this evoked at the time within the perspective of what has happened in cities since then. Key policy prescriptions of re-urbanizing cities and prioritizing transit, walking and cycling, have been largely mainstreamed, though not without some painful changes in professional practice such as road capacity increases being seen as the only solution to traffic. Urban planning and transport policies adopted in innumerable cities worldwide have moved to reduce automobile dependence, though academic and policy debate continues. The future is likely to continue this debate, especially over autonomous cars where there will remain a fundamental need to keep cities on a path of reduced automobile dependence by ensuring that hard-won principles of reurbanization of corridors, integrated with new transit alternatives and walkability at precincts/stations, are given the highest priority.

Britain, like many other societies within the OECD, has been facing cumulative and interdependent social, political, and economic crises which came to a head shortly before COVID. The shock of COVID has accentuated these crises, creating a state of policy flux in which all long-established intellectual frameworks have proved inadequate: across the OECD, public policy has largely abandoned them. Fortunately, across the social sciences, history and philosophy there have been important new advances by major scholars which cohere and provide a more sophisticated account of society. While they will ultimately prove inadequate as new complexities emerge, for the present that offer the best guide available for policy. This essay provides an integrated review of this recent literature and relates it to some of the key policy problems.

Understanding the effect of increasing the key policy rate on the exchange rate of the national currency remains one of the most critical issues for central banks. The goal of this study is to infer about the signs and the magnitude of this impact using existing studies conducted for 30 countries and aggregating estimates applying the meta-analysis procedure. Results indicate that the short-term impact of interest rate changes on the exchange rate is positive and statistically significant, although the economic significance is weak, while the longterm relationship is found to be insignificant. The analyzed studies do not reveal any evidence of publication bias, which contributes to the validity of empirical findings. The received results conclude that there might be a short-term appreciation of the hryvnia in response to an increase in the key policy rate in Ukraine.

The concept of ‘inclusive growth’ (IG) is discussed in a political economy framework. The article reports comparative analysis of economic and planning policy documents from Scotland, England and the UK and findings from expert workshops held in Scotland, which identify four key policy areas for ‘inclusive growth’: skills, transport and housing for young people; city-regional governance; childcare; and place-making. These policies share with the ‘Foundational Economy’ an emphasis on everyday infrastructure and services, but add an emphasis on inter-generational justice and stress the importance of community empowerment as much as re-municipalisation. Factors enabling IG policy development include: the necessary political powers; a unifying political discourse and civic institutions; and inclusive governance and participatory democracy.

Political scientists and policy scholars have traditionally looked at the role of welfare and tax policies in shaping income inequality. Less attention has been paid to the key policy area of economic development. But states spend billions on economic development incentives each year to encourage firms to locate in their state. The few studies that have examined the impact of economic development policy on inequality have found mixed results, and have not considered who shapes and benefits from economic development policy when identifying possible causal mechanisms. I argue that increased incentive spending leads to increased inequality through either a market conditioning effect (incentives disproportionately boost the incomes of top earners prior to taxes) or a redistributive effect (incentives allow wealthy firms, investors, and employees to keep income that would otherwise be taxed and transferred). These mechanisms are tested using data on incentive spending and inequality across the 50 states from 1999 to 2014. The findings demonstrate that incentives increase income inequality via a redistributive effect only. This effect, though, is relatively large, long-lasting, and robust to different measures of incentive spending. Despite using economic development incentives to try to generate greater prosperity, state governments may be inadvertently exacerbating inequality.

The purpose of the current paper is to present an overview of key policy measures undertaken by the Romanian authorities in order to first, prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and second, to counteract the adjacent economic slowdown registered so far in 2020. A qualitative analysis was carried out using publicly available data from the National Institute of Statistics. Main findings suggest that the policy measures managed to stabilize unemployment in the short run but also significantly affect the manufacturing and services sectors of the Romanian economy.

This article examines the nature of neoliberal influences upon educational policy making in the Finnish education system in recent times. The article draws upon key policy documents, government reports, journal articles and media articles about reforms in the early childhood, basic/compulsory school and vocational education and training sectors to evidence these processes. Analytically, these reforms are understood as instances of what has been referred to as ‘fast policy’. Methodologically, we draw upon principles of zeitgeist analysis to reveal the features and effects of these fast policy influences as they relate to educational provision in Finland. These features and effects include intensification and fragmentation of educational reform processes, increased individualisation and decontextualization of the educational reform agenda, and a trend towards increased instability, privatisation and reduction in funding for educational provision. The article foregrounds the features and effects as reflective of the ‘spirit of the times’ in which such reforms are undertaken, and cautions against these fast policy effects for the problematic consequences they appear to be having upon policy making processes, educational outcomes in Finland and the ‘spirits’ of Finnish educators.

This article offers a Japanese perspective on the debate about the international financial system immediately after the first oil shock of 1973–4. Using archival records from the OECD and Bank of Japan, I analyze the three key policy issues discussed at the meetings of Working Party 3 (WP3) of the OECD: petrodollar recycling, balance-of-payments adjustments, and the management of global growth. Documents show that the Japanese approach to capital controls, exchange rate management, state-led growth orientation and international banking strategies was rather strengthened by the impact of the oil shock. By 1975 the OECD viewed Japan, together with Germany and the United States, as one of the ‘locomotives’ that would trigger a revival of economic growth in the industrialized West.

Promoting teacher professionalisation has become a key policy agenda in Australia and internationally. Professional learning is often invoked as a means to achieve this goal. In this paper, drawing...

Following the crisis of 2015-2016, the European Union and its member states have increasingly prioritised the external dimension of their migration policies. The impact of such key policy development on non-European polities, especially African ones, has so far been neglected by research. Building upon the work of Jean Francois Bayart, the authors analyse this emerging configuration through the concept of “extraversion”, by expanding its original focus on the intermediation role of post-colonial African leaderships in the exploitation of natural resources by foreign actors. In what the authors call “threat-based extraversion”, governments of non-European migration-sending (and/or transit) states capitalise on securitised international perceptions of migration by positioning themselves as proxy implementers of restrictive migration policies dictated by potential destination states in Europe. The article identifies some potential perverse effects of threat-based extraversion and sketches an agenda for future research.

Objective - This research study examines the benefits and advantages associated with Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in Nigeria's ecosystem. It scrutinises the contributions of safety or security of heroic inventions and innovations to economic growth. Methodology/Technique – With the adoption of institutional theory, this study examines the pertinent legal instruments, administration and challenges of IPRs in Nigeria. The paper is specifically built on content analysis, key informant interviews, and expert insights which are used to unearth the institutional framework for transforming IPRs into sustainable economic or financial assets. Finding – Based on content validity of the research, it is concluded that IPRs can be transformed into sustainable economic wealth or tangible financial resources with the creation of institutional apparatus for mitigating theft, piracy, or illegal transfer of IPRs in Nigeria as well as other developing nations. Consequently, some key policy suggestions necessary to secure IPRs for economic growth or optimal performance are espoused in this study. Novelty - The paper makes findings relevant to how institutional weaknesses actually spearhead the growth of theft, piracy, and illegal exchange or utilisation of intellectual resources of Nigeria. Type of Paper: Review. JEL Classification: O31, O43, K21, O1, O17 Keywords: Institution; Rights; Economy; Property; Security; Administration. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: OLAGUNJU, O.O. 2020. A Precís on Intellectual Property Rights: Challenges and Prospects for Nigeria's Economy, Global J. Bus. Soc. Sci. Review 8(3): 153 – 161. https://doi.org/10.35609/gjbssr.2020.8.3(2)

Integration has become an increasingly topical and important issue both in terms of a key policy objective relating to the resettlement of refugees and migrants, and in popular public debate – with...

This article discusses the conditions for making policy change, and, more precisely, factors explaining why policy change is often hard to achieve even when key policy actors explicitly throw their weight behind it. It draws on a comparative analysis of two specific review processes in Britain and Norway, addressing the future remits of the public service broadcasters BBC and NRK. In both cases, the processes were initiated by governments explicitly stressing the need for radical change, but ambitions were not met although some changes took place. The article combines theories of advocacy coalitions and multiple streams to discuss how key stakeholders within the two processes operated to promote and inhibit change by defining–and re-defining–problems and solutions.

The recasting of accountability in teaching and teacher education as a problem of impact across many countries has seen a proliferation of policies and strategies that datify the work of students and teachers. The enactment of such policies can be interrogated from the perspectives of multiple policy actors to understand the effects of the ‘impact agenda’. We use the conceptual framing of policy enactment along with discourse analysis to investigate the interpretations and negotiations of the impact agenda by twenty teachers, principals, teacher educators, regulators and policymakers from across Australia. Ten discourses were evident across interpretive, material and discursive aspects of policy enactment. Key findings include a real tension between holistic views of impact and reductive views that rely on data analytics, as well as standardisation versus the importance of accounting for the contextual conditions that influence learning and teaching. We argue that educators must be positioned as key policy actors in driving the way impact is understood and measured.

In traditional public key searchable encryption (PKSE), a data owner (writer) utilizes data user’s (reader) public key to build ciphertexts. Thus, to share D data items (W keywords per item) with R readers, a writer suffers from $$O(R \cdot D \cdot W)$$ computational overhead. Researchers then offer numerous schemes supporting multiple readers with optimal overhead, i.e., $$O(D \cdot W)$$ . However, these schemes support either a single-keyword search or multi-keyword search in single-writer multi-reader (SWMR) setting where a writer could share data with the known set of readers. On the other hand, the existing multi-writer multi-reader (MWMR) PKSE offers Boolean search but suffers from $$O(R \cdot D \cdot W)$$ computational overhead for each writer. We observe applications desiring PKSE where writers could share data with the unknown set of readers and readers could perform search across data for Boolean query. Since the existing literature lacks such schemes, we propose a multi-writer multi-reader Boolean keyword searchable encryption (MWMR-BKSE) where the separate sets of registered readers and writers are prepared. Once registered, the writer could compute ciphertexts without knowing the potential readers and the readers could search across data at any time. The computational overhead on each writer is optimal $$O(D \cdot W)$$ . Additionally, a deregistered client would not be able to further write or read data. With MWMR-BKSE, we offer a Boolean keyword search utilizing key policy attribute-based encryption. The security of ciphertext against chosen keyword attack is proved using full security model. With the detailed theoretical analysis and extensive simulations on real-world datasets, we demonstrate the effectiveness of MWMR-BKSE.

To address social inequality, many western governments have sought to pursue principles of ‘widening participation’ as a key policy response in higher education. Though originally intended to compl...

PurposeThis article examines whether increasing the income of the poor – measured as the income of the lowest quintile – is more beneficial in reducing infant and child mortality rates compared with increases in average income. Given the global importance in reducing infant mortality, the value of this research is important to academics, policymakers and practitioners alike.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 86 countries from 1995–2014 inclusive, our preferred estimation strategy uses an instrumental variable fixed-effects estimator.FindingsOur results propose that the elasticity of the income of the lowest quintile never exceeds that of average income. Therefore, if reducing infant and child mortality is a key policy goal, then boosting average income may be preferable to raising incomes at the lower end of the distribution.Originality/valueGiven these findings, we open a gateway for new literature to add to this unexplored area of research in the income and health relationship.

The introduction of “soft” compulsion in the form of Auto‐enrolment into non‐state pensions has been seen as a key policy response to the challenges presented by an ageing population and concerns about under‐saving for retirement in the UK. Since its introduction in 2012, amongst eligible employees in the private sector, pension participation had risen by over 31 percentage points to 73% of eligible employees in 2016. Despite these trends, Auto‐enrolment in the UK has not been without criticism, particularly in terms of its exclusion of certain groups, including carers, amongst whom females are over‐represented. The Republic of Ireland (ROI) has recently announced its intention to implement an Auto‐enrolment pension scheme. As such, this article examines the UK's experience of rolling out Auto‐enrolment policy and considers lessons that could be learned by the ROI from the UK in its pursuit of Auto‐enrolment, with a particular focus on women's pensions. Initially it outlines the current Irish pension system, the gendered nature of pensions, and the proposed Auto‐enrolment system in ROI. Then it discusses the UK's experience of Auto‐enrolment, with a particular focus on gender, before examining the lessons the ROI can learn from the UK's Auto‐enrolment policy in relation to women and pensions. Finally, it concludes that Auto‐enrolment alone will not resolve the gendered nature of pensions in the ROI and calls for a gender‐based assessment of the proposed policy of Auto‐enrolment in the ROI. peer-reviewed

We review the literature on financial constraints and the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We consider the important role that SMEs play in the economies of Australia and the OECD. We examine the role of financial constraints in SME growth, with emphasis on business cycles and credit access. We discuss issues that SMEs face in accessing financial resources for expansion. We look at the literature that evaluates the impact of financial constraints on key outcomes: employment, productivity and wages. We review key policy debates and consider where government involvement might be appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the history of pesantren as an educational institution in the changing Indonesian context, and provides a snapshot on their current development and enrolment trends. It aims to provide an updated comprehension on Indonesian pesantren, which is an important aspect in understanding the contemporary development of Islam in Indonesia. The data presented here is based on systematic review of existing literature and policy documents, interviews with key policy makers, and observation in some pesantren. I argue that Indonesian pesantren have continued to grow over different historical periods due to their adaptability in the changing contexts. Such adaptability is seen in their adoption of modern schooling system, their incorporation of non-religious subjects into their curricula, as well as their dynamic integration into the national education system.

Purpose Accurately forecasting the occurrence of future covid-19-related cases across relaxed (Sweden) and stringent (USA and Canada) policy contexts has a renewed sense of urgency. Moreover, there is a need for a multidimensional county-level approach to monitor the second wave of covid-19 in the USA. Method We use an artificial intelligence framework based on timeline of policy interventions that triangulated results based on the three approaches—Bayesian susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR), Kalman filter, and machine learning. Results Our findings suggest three important insights. First, the effective growth rate of covid-19 infections dropped in response to the approximate dates of key policy interventions. We find that the change points for spreading rates approximately coincide with the timelines of policy interventions across respective countries. Second, forecasted trend until mid-June in the USA was downward trending, stable, and linear. Sweden is likely to be heading in the other direction. That is, Sweden’s forecasted trend until mid-June appears to be non-linear and upward trending. Canada appears to fall somewhere in the middle—the trend for the same period is flat. Third, a Kalman filter based robustness check indicates that by mid-June the USA will likely have close to two million virus cases, while Sweden will likely have over 44,000 covid-19 cases. Conclusion We show that drop in effective growth rate of covid-19 infections was sharper in the case of stringent policies (USA and Canada) but was more gradual in the case of relaxed policy (Sweden). Our study exhorts policy makers to take these results into account as they consider the implications of relaxing lockdown measures.

Carbon pricing is widely considered a key policy instrument for achieving substantial climate change mitigation. However, implementation remains patchy and price levels vary significantly across countries and regions. In this article, we analyze the structural social, political, and economic conditions under which carbon prices have been implemented so far. We estimate a Tobit regression model to investigate variations in explicit carbon prices over 262 national and subnational jurisdictions. Our results highlight well-governed institutions and public attitudes as the most important conditions for carbon pricing and characterize fossil fuel consumption as a barrier to the implementation of carbon prices. The results suggest that governance and public attitude need to be integrated into political economy analysis. Policy makers should take regulatory capacities and public attitudes seriously when designing carbon pricing policies.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze various key policy approaches to extending social security to migrant workers. This paper reviews the social security system for migrant workers. It then attempts to policy approach for analysis. Finding this paper is to explore the impact of national and international policy and also social security agreements. The potential impact of the ratification of ILO and UN conventions on migrant workers, which ensure basic social and labor protection. The paper offers insight into the issue of some key policy challenges for the future, including for improved a fits design of social security.