Search

In many countries, complex environmental problems such as biodiversity decline are regulated at the national level by a disparate range of laws and nonstatutory policy instruments variously described by terms including plans, strategies, guidelines, statements of intent, and/or incentives. Such instruments are often grouped together by conservation policymakers and scientists under the umbrella term “policy.” However, from a legal perspective, there are critical differences between these so‐called policy instruments. In this paper, we focus on what we consider to be the critical difference: whether a policy instrument is binding, and therefore whether an administrative decision (e.g., about a development proposal) can be legally challenged due to noncompliance with that policy instrument. Drawing from international examples, the aim of this paper is to give conservation policymakers and scientists the guidance needed to critically differentiate between laws and nonstatutory policy, assess current or proposed policies, and determine whether a nonstatutory instrument gives rise to binding obligations, thus allowing for decisions to be challenged before a court. In doing so, we encourage conservation scientists, policymakers, activists, and practitioners to reflect critically on what is possible and not possible when nonstatutory “policy” instruments are designed and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In the past decade, the construction of ecological civilization has been a major national strategy in China. Since 2020, the Chinese government has officially proposed the goals of achieving peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. As one of the key issues, promoting a green lifestyle is the fundamental means of achieving ecological civilization construction. It is an inevitable path to achieve the "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" goals. The current status of China's efforts in this area is undoubtedly worth paying attention to. The purpose of this study is to analyze this issue. Method: This study uses text analysis methods. From 92 policy documents issued by the Chinese government, we extracted effective text totaling 100,122 characters for analysis. Perform three-level coding on the above text, and analyze the policy tools of the Chinese government to promote green lifestyles from three dimensions: the categories of policy tools, the target groups targeted by policy tools, and the implementing entities of policy tools. Conclusion: The study found that the current promotion of a green lifestyle in China primarily relies on information-based policy tools and market-based policy tools, with mandatory tools as a supplement. Information-based policy tools are mainly used for the public, while a combination of market-based policy tools, information-based policy tools, and mandatory policy tools is used for enterprises. Local governments' attention to this issue is insufficient, manifested in the limited number of policy tools adopted, the single composition of these tools, and the lack of necessary constraints on enterprises. Discussion: Overall, the current policy tool selection is reasonable, but there are also problems such as over-reliance on information-based policy tools, overly simplistic market-based policy tools, insufficient market-based policy tools for the public, and the underuse of voluntary policy tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature on policy design, the topic of citizen or policy-taker compliance, or the lack thereof, has been understood mainly in terms of economistic motivations responding to incentives and deterrents. That is, until recently. A pronounced turn toward behavioral public policy over the last two decades has diversified the set of possible propositions that are available for policy design scholars to study policy-takers. Consequently, how the diversity of policy-taker motivations and behavioral responses can be considered in the design of policy mixes and their implementation is an emerging area of study. Here, we contribute to this research effort by conceptualizing how the motivations of policy-takers affect their compliance response to the calibration of different types of policy instruments. We first elaborate on the inter-relationships between heterogenous policy-taker motivations, policy instrument calibrations, and heterogenous behavioral responses. Next, we use the example of Singapore’s approach to the management of a cyclical environmental disease (dengue) to illustrate the mix of motivations on the part of policy-takers. We then offer some thoughts on how policy instrument calibrations can be deployed to target heterogenous policy-taker motivations and induce greater policy participation.

The "Dual Carbon" policy is a strategic instrument for the realization of the "Dual Carbon" target. The quantitative analysis of the "Dual Carbon" policy can provide theoretical support and decision-making reference for the institutional design and adjustment of the policy, so as to further improve the "Dual Carbon" 1 + N policy system. By constructing a three-dimensional analysis framework of "instrument-goal-object", adopting the content analysis method, and combining the coding results of the "Dual Carbon" policy text to conduct multidimensional cross-analysis, we found that the overall design of the "Dual Carbon" policy is reasonable, but at the same time, there are problems such as unbalanced distribution of policy instruments, incomplete coverage of policy goals, insufficient synergy of policy objects, and low degree of matching between policy dimensions. In response to these problems, targeted mitigation measures are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin requires enhancing the water-energy-food nexus, with policy integration being an important governance tool. Using relevant data from 2010 to 2023, this study applied social network analysis and exponential random graph models to study the degree, patterns, and structure of water resource, energy, and agricultural management policy integration in nine provinces and five urban clusters in the Yellow River Basin. The study arrived at the following conclusions: ① The overall level of policy integration in the water-energy-food nexus of the Yellow River Basin during the sample period was not high. Water resource policy had the highest level of integration, and the Guanzhong Plain urban cluster had the widest range of policy integration. The Jiziwan bend metropolitan area exhibited a relatively high degree of policy integration. ② From the basin perspective, there are three types of relationships in the integration pattern of water-energy-food policies: core, to-be-disseminated, and innovative. Each type required different approaches to promote top-down and bottom-up policy integration. ③ In the Yellow River Basin, attention is mainly focused on the integration of water resources and food policies. Capacity-building tools are the most frequently used and the most effective instruments. However, there is a neglect of policy integration between energy and water as well as between energy and food subsystems, and a lack of utilization of learning-based policy instruments, leading to imbalances in the progress of policy integration across the entire basin. This indicates that elevating the water-energy-food nexus to a strategic position is essential for promoting ecological environmental protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin. Additionally, it is necessary to promote organizational reform, expand interdepartmental collaboration, and simultaneously enhance policy integration degree of water, food and energy, particularly the integration of energy and food policies, as well as between energy and water resource policies. Moreover, it is crucial to enrich the types of policy instruments used in subsystem integration and optimize their utilization structure, particularly focusing on incentive-based and learning-based instruments. Finally, for the coordinated promotion of policy integration throughout the basin, it is important to expand communication platforms between provinces and cities, and prioritize the widespread implementation of diffusion and innovation integration relationships across the entire basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reporting systems constitute an essential part of today's safe sport initiatives across the world. Informed by literature on reporting wrongdoings in organisational contexts and a political sociology approach to policy instrumentation, this article examines how abuse reporting systems are utilised in youth high-performance sport environments. Drawing from 51 interviews with both user and provider groups of South Korea's reporting facilities, the results offer three main uses of the country's safe sport reporting mechanisms: (1) 'good use' that relies on their communicative capacity to signal changing organisational culture; (2) 'non-use' that derives not only from the fear of reprisals, but from more subtle relational and situational concerns, such as teams' dissolution; and (3) 'misuse' of the systems as a tool to advance individual agendas as opposed to protecting victims. The findings of this study not only provide evidence for both positive and perverse effects of safe sport reporting facilities per se, but also illuminate the importance of social and institutional conditions that can both enable and constrain this newly implemented policy measure for athlete safeguarding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tourism Tribune / Lvyou Xuekan is the property of Tourism Institute of Beijing Union University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Statistical profiling algorithms claiming to predict which jobseekers are at risk of becoming long‐term unemployed are spread unevenly across countries. However, the pathways and histories of these tools are understudied. Because the profiling path in France is a winding one, it is fruitful to study the production of profiling acceptability within the Public Employment Service (PES), and upstream of its reception by frontline advisers. Using a mix of interviews and written sources, we show that the production of profiling acceptability sits at the crossroads of two processes: technical and political transformations of the instrument itself and broader institutional and managerial transformations of the PES. On the basis of this case study, the paper enriches our understanding of the slow and incremental rationalization of public services that we have termed "professional rationalization." We argue that, far from being a softened or moderated form of bureaucratic rationalization, it is powerful—perhaps even irreversible—precisely because it transforms its target (frontline advisers) before the rationalization instrument is even deployed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Cities around the world are trying to understand if and how to regulate urban mobility in a way that stimulates innovation and supports business while also promoting public values and accelerating a sustainability transition. Service providers are also attempting to understand how to grow and thrive as a business as they challenge existing urban mobility structures and practices via new mobility services, new uses of public space, etc. Thus, this article seeks to understand the interplay between business models and public policies and, ultimately, the implications policy instruments have on shaping conditions for sustainable urban mobility. To address these questions, a qualitative approach is utilized, comprising case studies of two ‘new mobility’ service providers (Bolt and Tier) operating in three Northern European cities (Oslo, Stockholm, and Berlin) including interviews with these companies and local public actors. Findings show that the business models are influenced by legitimization on the national level, the local authorities’ and service providers’ approaches, and policy instruments related to the right to operate, including caps, geographic coverage, parking, geofencing, and data sharing. Utilizing business models and multi-level perspectives, the findings are discussed in relation to actualizing sustainable transport, e.g. interdependencies, goal alignment, and temporal and spatial considerations. The authors emphasize the importance of learning by doing, policy mixes (versus instruments), and purpose-driven collaboration among stakeholders.

This research utilizes 554 policy texts relevant to the national health reform enacted from 2009 to 2023. It implements the bibliometric and content analysis methods by creating a two - dimensional analysis framework of health policy that encompasses the characteristics of policy structure and text content, to enhance the understanding of the reform, progress and governance of health undertakings. The study finds that the collaboration networks for multi-departmental collaboration in health policy are expanded with a distinct pattern of cooperation emerging. With the trend of healthcare being the central focus and integrating the three medical aspects (healthcare, insurance and pharmaceuticals), health policies have demonstrated the movement towards integrated control of medical insurance and medicine. The connection between the three medical services has shifted from their independent governance to mutually coordinated governance. Supply-oriented policy tools are typically invoked at the outset, while environment -oriented policy tools are employed more significantly in the process of advanced reform and high - quality development phases. Based on this, reflect on the macro, meso and micro level will provide reference for future policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, smart transportation has been more and more deeply integrated into urban governance, economic development and people’s life now. Current research on smart transportation lacks an examination from the perspective of public policy. And the analysis and experience summary of smart transportation policies are not enough. Therefore, on the basis of literature review on smart transportation policies, this paper selects smart transportation policies issued by Beijing and Shanghai as the research object, constructs a three-dimensional analytical framework containing policy objective, policy instrument and policy thematic characteristics, and makes a comparative analysis on smart transportation policies of Beijing and Shanghai based on text mining and content analysis. And the models of smart transportation development of Beijing and Shanghai are extracted. Finally, this paper puts forward some suggestions to optimize smart transportation policies so as to provide useful reference for the formulation and implementation of smart transportation policies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is an important way to achieve carbon emission reduction in China's commercial vehicle field. The development of the hydrogen automobile industry needs policy guidance. To determine the characteristics and effects of China's hydrogen automobile industrial policy, this paper first uses a text mining method to analyze policy characteristics from three aspects: potency rank, policy subject and policy objectives. Then, from the perspective of policy tools, a policy quantitative system and standards are constructed to quantify the policy. Then, the sales data of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from August 2018 to December 2022 were collected to empirically analyze the effect of the policy. The results showed that policy comprehensiveness significantly promoted the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, but the effects of the different policy tools differed. Finally, some policy suggestions are proposed for the development of the hydrogen automobile industry. • China's hydrogen vehicle industry policy focuses on technology upgrading and application demonstration. • The use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is the most concerned industrial chain link in the policy. • Policy comprehensiveness has a significant positive effect on the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China. • Different policy tools play different roles, with supply-based policy tools and demand-based playing a more prominent role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban conservation and (re)development can be conflicting or balanced. Governments’ dual role in conserving cultural heritage and promoting development makes balancing the urban conservation – (re)development relationship a dynamic process. After coding the policy documents issued by China’s governments from 1906 to 2023 with the conceptual framework of layering, the following conclusions are drawn: (1) core policies promote the development of the policy system; (2) policy evolution of heritage conservation is categorized into five phases and policy objects evolved from heritage conservation to institutional and capacity construction; (3) the layering of instruments and actors is analyzed in terms of changes to the layering approach, audience, and structure; (4) the dynamic relationship between urban conservation and development can be explained by the time-lag of heritage conservation policy-making in relation to the urban development stages and the gap between policy goals and implementation; (5) the evolution of heritage conservation policies with urban development stages is categorized as drift, stagnation, hysteresis, and adjustment connected with policy goal conversions. This research argues that the earlier friction between urban conservation and development shifted to a mutually beneficial convergence, but that balancing urban conservation and development is challenging in the context of power decentralization and pro-growth ideology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities around the world are trying to understand if and how to regulate urban mobility in a way that stimulates innovation and supports business while also promoting public values and accelerating a sustainability transition. Service providers are also attempting to understand how to grow and thrive as a business as they challenge existing urban mobility structures and practices via new mobility services, new uses of public space, etc. Thus, this article seeks to understand the interplay between business models and public policies and, ultimately, the implications policy instruments have on shaping conditions for sustainable urban mobility. To address these questions, a qualitative approach is utilized, comprising case studies of two 'new mobility' service providers (Bolt and Tier) operating in three Northern European cities (Oslo, Stockholm, and Berlin) including interviews with these companies and local public actors. Findings show that the business models are influenced by legitimization on the national level, the local authorities' and service providers' approaches, and policy instruments related to the right to operate, including caps, geographic coverage, parking, geofencing, and data sharing. Utilizing business models and multi-level perspectives, the findings are discussed in relation to actualizing sustainable transport, e.g. interdependencies, goal alignment, and temporal and spatial considerations. The authors emphasize the importance of learning by doing, policy mixes (versus instruments), and purpose-driven collaboration among stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The river chief governance system is a complex system project, and exploring the governance mechanisms of this system is an important part of developing water resource governance theory with Chinese characteristics. Therefore, from the perspective of system theory and based on social-ecological system theory, we constructed a systematic analysis framework for the governance of the river chief system, and utilized this analysis framework with the data related to water resources and the river chief system of 52 prefecturallevel cities and provinces in four provinces, namely, Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian, and Yunnan provinces, from 2011 to 2020, to empirically analyze the effects of policy instruments and hydro-engineering on the effectiveness of water resources governance. The study found that: ① The river chief system did have a certain system governance effect, and its system governance effect was realized with the help of policy instruments and two types of hydro-engineering governance tools ('soft' and 'hard'), through indirectly changing the behavior of water resource users to take, use, or discharge water, or directly changing the state of the water resource system. ② The sum of the policy instruments would lead to water conservation behaviors by all water users, the regulatory policy instruments would lead to farmers' choice of conservation irrigation behavior, and the hybrid policy instruments would lead to enterprises' choice of pollutant discharge behavior related to industrial structure upgrading. ③ The hybrid policy instruments would increase the scale of hydro-engineering construction. ④ Voluntary policy instruments could only be effective through participatory governance if there were fewer external pressures on the water system. ⑤ The scale of hydro-engineering construction showed an inverted U-shaped relationship with the effectiveness of system governance, and only when the scale of hydro-engineering construction was in the moderate range would hydro-engineering have the role of enhancing the effectiveness of system governance. With the improvement of hydraulic technology, the vertex of this inverted U-shaped curve would be lowered, and the moderate construction scale of hydro-engineering would also be decreased. Through the method of diagnosing the complex regional river chief governance system, this study believes that the river chief system can be optimized in terms of such aspects as adjusting the utilization ratio of voluntary policy instruments, understanding the behavioral patterns of resource users anywhere in taking, using, or discharging water, supporting the development of hydro-engineering technologies, and scientifically controlling the construction scale of hydro-engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a vignette‐based survey experiment for recycling programs in Korea to examine how different messages of a public information campaign as a policy instrument affect the attitudes and behaviors of citizens. It tests hypotheses based on construal‐level theory, which suggests that people tend to be more affected by abstract messages under distant psychological conditions and by concrete messages under proximal psychological conditions. In contrast to the conventional assumption of construal‐level theory, this study shows that people appear to be more affected by concrete and specific messages (mundane instructions for “how and what to recycle”) than by abstract messages (a noble vision and goal for “why to recycle”) under both distant and proximal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Senegal has long sought solutions to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). However, in a context dependent on international aid, the country faces multiple external pressures to choose policy instruments. In this commentary, we propose an analysis of this influence. The empirical material comes from our involvement in analysing health reforms for 20 years and from many interviews and observations. While studies have shown that community-based health insurance (CBHI) was not an appropriate solution for UHC, some international actors have influenced their continued application. Another global partner proposed an alternative (professional and departmental CBHI), which was counteracted and delayed. These issues of powers and influences of international and national consultants, established in a neo-liberal approach to health, have lost at least a decade from UHC in Senegal. The alternative now appears to be acquired and is scaling up at the country level, witnessing a change in the current policy paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, there is a growing global call for low carbon development. However, there is no adequate low‐carbon policies to address the trade‐off between rural logistics development and low‐carbon goals. Jiangsu is one of the pilot sites for most of China's policy reforms and has the potential to develop a low carbon transformation of rural logistics. Therefore, we provide an in‐depth analysis of the above trade‐offs from an industrial perspective by integrating the key features of rural logistics into a unified framework and modelling a rural logistics system dynamic model using rural logistics in Jiangsu as a case study. We compare the development trend of Jiangsu's rural logistics industry from 2021 to 2030 under the traditional development model, the green image policy, the fixed carbon policy and the fixed carbon tax rebate policy. The findings show that, first, in the absence of policy intervention, rural logistics in Jiangsu will not actively adopt any low‐carbon behaviour, which will lead to an inevitable rise in CO2. Second, the simulation results in fixed carbon policy show that the policies that impose excessive burdens on rural logistics are invalid rural logistics that need enough funds to develop their own supply capacity and carbon abatement capacity. Third, the green image policy is more advantageous in addressing the trade‐offs between rural logistics development and the low‐carbon transition, which not only avoids burdening rural logistics but also improves the supply capacity of rural logistics by increasing the demand for rural logistics. Finally, the government can implement the green image policy in the early stage and then introduce the carbon tax rebate policy in the middle stage to improve and increase the capacity of the rural logistics sector to embrace low carbon transition, which can help implement subsequently implement the carbon tax rebate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has focused on pre-warning risks in its national policies, under the pressure of increasing risks associated with urbanization. While developing restrictive indicators assists the government in risk management, tracking the risks associated with urbanization and identifying their critical points remains relatively rare. We addressed this gap by presenting a general framework to quantify the potential risks of urbanization. Within this framework, early warning indicators were selected from four risk dimensions associated with urbanization in China, which include population development, economic growth, resource sustainability, and environmental protection. We then analyzed the historical characteristics of these indicators from 1980 to 2020 using the Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter method and predicted the trend from 2021 to 2030 using the Auto-Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) model. The findings were as follows: (1) A complete cycle was observed for most indicators within 10 years, and cyclical fluctuations were sensitive to changes in national policies and the external environment, with tipping points after 1–2 years. (2) Certain indicators showed risk warning signals in the next cycle, including total fertility rate, urban unemployment rate, and urban water consumption. The prediction results of these indicators provided thresholds for policy intervention. (3) As indicated by the warning signals, negative population growth, rising unemployment, and the gap between supply and demand of water resources were the main risk factors for urbanization in China. Some policy suggestions were provided for risk response, including dealing with women's job security and work-life balance, ensuring employment opportunities for vulnerable groups, accelerating the upgrading of the tertiary industry to expand domestic market demand, and strictly controlling the consumption of limited resources. These results present contribute to the formulation of national urbanization policies and development plans.

Over the last ten years or so, Hamburg's public authorities have seen the emergence of new private operators in the mobility field: digital shared mobility platforms. In an attempt to regulate them, public authorities embraced the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) by creating the Switchh platform in 2013, backed up by “mobility stations” deployed in public spaces. This article looks at how the city of Hamburg is using MaaS as an instrument to i) organise this new ecosystem of mobility stakeholders and ii) transform public space to meet its sustainable mobility objectives. Our qualitative study, based on semi-structured interviews, documents analysis and observation, shows that the public authorities are taking advantage of MaaS as a tool for coordinating players, via the city's public transport operator. However, the public sector's lack of human and financial resources, coupled with the neo-liberal interests of private operators in a freely competitive market, has led to the privatisation of Hamburg's public space through MaaS, and calls into question its social effects.

The purpose of this study is to analyze individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) for energy policies. The type of energy policy was divided into facilitating and sanctioning instruments. We studied the factors that influence WTP for two types of intrument for energy policy by using four theoretical frameworks: the Economic Model, the Theory of Planned Behavior, Value Theory, and Psychometric Paradigm (so called risk perception model). The results, first, showed that the WTP for the sanctioning instruments was lower than that for the facilitating instruments. Second, the values, trust, and norms were significant predictors of the WTP for both types of policy instruments. Third, the economic factors only influenced the WTP for sanctioning instruments. This study recommends policy mix considering the WTP for different types of instruments for energy policy.

The formulation and implementation of infant and child care service policy is vital to addressing parental challenges in childbearing，upbringing，and education. This study demonstrates an intuitive portrayal of the practical development and current deficiencies of infant care service policies in China through three dimensions；the network configuration of the infant care service policy，the major components of the policy objectives，and the main types of policy tools. This paper analyzes 55 infant care service policies issued at the national level in China by using social network analysis and content analysis method. The results show that the main body network of infant care service policy in China presents a trend from center ⁃ marginal to the decentralized and coupled type. Although cooperation among various departments is increasing，current policy types still suffer from problems such as insufficient depth of coordination between policymakers，an unbalanced combination of policy instruments，and an unmatched internal structure and target needs of policy instruments. In the future，policy⁃making should strengthen the coordination among the subjects of policy⁃making，rationally allocate the types of policy tools，and reinforce the target and demand orientation of policy tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of land value capture (LVC) from collectively owned rural land is undergoing changes in rural land marketisation as local governments are constrained in their power to expropriate rural land. Previous studies have either overestimated short-term rural LVC losses or exaggerated long-term urban LVC increases, while generally neglecting long-term rural LVC changes. Here, we present an analytical framework via the prism of policy instruments to make sense of the evolving practice of rural LVC. Our empirical evidence from China considers disparities in practice and outcomes across scales of governance and between inland–coastal and urban–rural settings, based on 145 semi-structured interviews from 430 transaction cases. We offer insight into discussions concerning stakeholder relationships in rural LVC. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ambitions to fund excellent researchers and path-breaking research unite a whole family of funding instruments ranging from Centres of Excellence to individual grants. While instruments aimed at funding excellence share a number of commonalities, there are important subsidiary features which determine their overall efficacy. The paper uses a case study of the Swedish Distinguished Professor Grant (DPG) to investigate the role of subsidiary features in enabling conditions associated with path-breaking research. Interviews were conducted with DPG recipients, to develop an “affordance analysis” identifying how features of the instrument enabled certain researcher actions and opportunities. Results suggest that while long duration and large funds are central to research excellence, the way in which subsidiary features such as reporting, planning and content requirements are structured affect the level of risk-taking. In terms of policy, the paper offers specific and general suggestions for the design of excellence funding instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of health industry policies could be discovered more quickly and comprehensively through the automated identification of policy tools, which could provide references for the formulation, implementation, and optimization of subsequent policies in each province. This study applies the Bidirectional Encoder Representation from Transformer (BERT) model to identify policy tools automatically, utilizes Focal Loss to reduce the unbalance of a dataset, and analyzes the evolution of policy tools in each province, which contains time, space, and topic. The research demonstrates that the BERT model can improve the accuracy of classification, that supply and environment policy tools are more prevalent than demand tools, and that policy instruments are organized similarly in four major economic regions. Moreover, the policy’s attention to topics related to healthcare, medicine, and pollution has gradually shifted to other topics, and the extent of policy attention continues to be concentrated on the health service industry, with less attention paid to the manufacturing industry from the keywords of the various topics.

The variety of functions and tasks expected from the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (MSRT) to play a proper role in the innovation system requires the design of a mix of policy instruments. Although there are many policy documents and laws that have been approved especially in the last decade and the duties and powers of the MSRT are foreseen in them, previous studies show that the overall performance of Iran's innovation system is not favorable in many aspects. The design of any new policy mix should be done according to the gaps in the previous documents. This study was conducted with the method of content analysis of documents to investigate policy gaps and focused group interviews to have expert opinions about the policy mix for improving the innovation system in the field of science, research, and technology which, according to the identified gaps, consists of 7 macro policies, 25 policy goals and 60 instruments. From the viewpoint of the type of instruments, tools of the type of "regulation", "support for education, research, and human resources", "networking and infrastructure development", "information support and brokerage", "demand, market creation, and government procurement", "financial support, loans, grants" and "Tax incentives, customs exemption" had the largest share in the policy mix, respectively. In terms of the type of instruments, the number of supply-side instruments, direct support instruments, and non-financial instruments are dominant in the designed mix. The internal consistency analysis of the instruments also showed that the proposed policy mix is internally consistent.

Drawing on examples from the Nordic countries, this article aims to explore the practical application of strategic policy and planning instruments and approaches that facilitate the integration of land use and transport planning and promote sustainable policy measures through collaboration among stakeholders across various governance levels. This research applies a qualitative research design including literature research, interviews, and workshops involving practitioners from the five Nordic countries. In this paper, we present an overview of the planning structure in the Nordic countries, including institutions that govern land use and transport planning. We identify different approaches to bridge the gap between land use and transport planning, such as the Finger Plan in Denmark, MAL in Finland, Concept Studies in Norway, and Strategic Choice of Measures in Sweden. Many of the examples employ informal collaborative approaches among authorities to form a shared vision and seek consensus on a combination of policy measures and actions. The paper examines collaborative approaches in relation to regulatory planning and discusses the role of these processes in advancing integrated land use and transport planning and fostering sustainable urban development.

Value orientation and use of instruments are key elements of policy, and have been a permanent topic in the field of policy studies. The digital transformation of governance in China is an integrated, reshaped, and deep-rooted change under the strategy of " Digital China" and the idea of " City for People" . While practical innovations continue, there is also the possibility of conflict or disconnection between values and instruments. Although some studies have explored these issues, most of them tend to describe the role of technology in the optimization of government and capacity enhancement in the value analysis, ignoring the value significance of the social and service dimensions, and it is also hard to answer the question of how the policy instruments in the process of digital transformation of governance can be matched with the pursuit of value, and there is a lack of a " value-instrument" framework that integrates the spatial and temporal dimensions. This study focuses on the context of China, and uses textual analysis to conduct a metric analysis of governance digital transformation policies. First, a three-dimensional analytical framework for digital transformation of governance is constructed based on literature and practice, which includes values, instruments, and evolutionary stages or regions. Second, 150 provincial policy texts covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government were collected on the topics of" digital government" and" digital governance", which are closely related to the digital transformation of governance, spanning the period from2001 to 2022. Through coding and summarization, the study analyzes the general characteristics, vertical evolution, and horizontal differences of China’s digital governance transformation from a " value-instrument" perspective. It is found that China’s digital transformation of governance focuses more on administrative value, while it prefers to adopt capability-based instruments. In terms of temporal evolution, China’s governance digital transformation has gone through the egovernment stage emphasizing technology application and infrastructure construction, the Internet + government service stage focusing on digital public services, and the digital governance stage pursuing the development of emerging technologies and data resources, with differences in value and instrumental preferences in each period;and in terms of regional distribution, the differences between the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions are influenced by the governance tasks, economic foundations and technological conditions, thus forming a reality of value pursuit and instrument use adapted to regional characteristics. Compared with previous literature, this paper has two main theoretical contributions. First, it constructs the basic framework of digital transformation of governance based on the dimensions of public value and policy instruments, summarizes the value categories and instrumental modes in the policy of digital transformation of governance, expands the existing research pat h of digital transformation. It also provides a basis for the unification and integration of " value rationality" and " instrumental rationality" in the field of public administration from the perspective of policy science. Secondly, the basic framework is further enriched by combining the dimensions of time and space, and presents the spatial and temporal structure of the distribution and matching of" value-instrument" in the policies in the vertical and horizontal directions, which provides a more comprehensive understanding of the digital transformation of China’s governance. At the practical level, this study refines the value mechanism, matching mechanism, policy mechanism, and learning mechanism of governance digital transformation, which can provide insights for optimizing the path of governance digital transformation in China. Governance digital transformation should be value-oriented based on citizen’s demands, promote the matching level, systematization, and coordination between values and instruments, improve multidimensional and multi-field digitization-related policies, establish a policy learning mechanism between regions and cities, and promote the assessment and diffusion of policy experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation, blue carbon has been highlighted for realizing carbon neutrality in China. China's central and local governments have issued many policies to promote blue carbon protection and development. However, scaling up blue carbon restoration and protection is required for its substantial contribution to carbon neutrality. This study evaluates the characteristics of China's blue carbon policies using qualitative document analysis based on policy instrument theory. The distribution of different policy instruments among blue carbon policies and resources is analyzed. Suggestions for improving blue carbon policy supply are put forward combined with comparative experience from international organizations and other jurisdictions. The following policies should be strengthened to secure efficient blue carbon protection, restoration, and creation: blue carbon protection legislation, marine ecological compensation system, stable investment in blue carbon projects, integrated blue carbon verification system, and inclusion of blue carbon in regulated carbon markets.

When do environmental targets improve the environmental performance of local governments? Previous studies have reached inconsistent conclusions on the effectiveness of environmental targets. Drawing on the principal-agent theory, this article identifies goal divergence and information asymmetry as challenges that impede the achievement of environmental targets. We analyze two policy instruments put in place to steer implementation, namely the mandatory target system and key cities for emission reduction, as components of the national 11th Five-Year Plan. We apply the difference-in-differences (DID) method to a longitudinal dataset of Chinese cities from 2001 to 2010 to investigate the impact of the two policy instruments on air and water pollution. Combining time variations, inter-provincial differences, and inter-prefectural differences in policy intensity, we find that mandatory pollution reduction targets have a pollution-reducing impact on two targeted pollutants, and key environmental protection cities reduce emissions only for air pollutants. However, we find no evidence of a synergy between the two types of policies. Our findings contribute to the understanding of implementation problems for government agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy instruments, as the most important part of the policy-making process, have an important role in the designing and implementation of policy. In order to implement the meta policies of the administrative system, various instruments have been used, which in practice have not led to the implementation of these policies. present study seeks to analyze and pathology instruments for the implementation of meta policies of the administrative system. In the present study, based on Targeted Sampling, experts and Professors of the administrative system were identified. After conducting semi-structured deep interview with them, the data were coded using thematic analysis method and the web of themes was discovered with 4 Global Themes, 19 organizing themes and 184 basic themes. Findings showed that, firstly, unfortunately, the insights and policy contexts for tooling in the administrative system are not considered, and secondly, there are serious weaknesses and challenges in the design of structural and process instruments, functional instruments and capacity building instruments,That reason of the non-implementation of the meta policies of the administrative system

As implementers, public officials have historically enjoyed substantial influence in the public policy process, but little attention has been paid to the effect of psychological elements on their attitudes towards implementing policy instruments. The authors argue that from a behavioural public administration perspective, public officials' attitudes towards implementing certain policy instruments are not rational, but instead biased. Using two survey experiments on 1,024 Chinese public officials, this study examines the cognitive and motivational bias of public officials' attitudes towards implementing policy instruments. The findings indicate that when public officials are presented with risk information in a negative framing, they are more reluctant to implement indirect policy instruments than direct ones, and this phenomenon becomes more pronounced when their public interest orientation is activated, rather than their personal interest orientation. The findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of the effect of psychological biases on public officials' attitudes towards policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, China has launched an ambitious governmental initiative to promote the development of prefabricated construction (PC). As the target of PC development has been allocated to lower-level government, the responsibility for PC development rests at the provincial level. Therefore, provincial policies are extremely crucial for the development of PC. Despite this, few studies have been conducted to examine the role of provincial policies in promoting the development of PC. With the aim of filling this knowledge gap, a comprehensive analysis of provincial policies on the development of PC was conducted in this study. Firstly, 443 provincial policies for PC development issued by 31 regions were collected and divided into different types according to the policy instrument framework, including environment instruments, demand instruments and supply instruments. By using the approach of content analysis, the spatial and temporal distribution of provincial policies was explored, as well as the similarities and differences in different regions. The results indicate that China initially developed a policy system for PC development with the characteristics of multiple levels, multiple stakeholders and multiple instruments; meanwhile, provincial policy relies heavily on environmental instruments, and the use of supply and demand instruments is grossly inadequate. The existing problems of each policy instrument for PC development have been discussed, and corresponding countermeasures have been put forward. The research findings provide valuable information for policy adjustments in the future and shed light on the effective delivery of policies to promote the development of PC in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few studies explored the interaction effect between policy instruments and the policy environment on environmental governance. Based on policy instrument theory, this paper conducts fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the combined effect of policy instruments and the policy environment on the environmental governance efficiency of local governance. This study found four effective configurations of local government environmental governance, which can be summarized as the mandatory mode and the cooperative mode, and three inefficient configurations that can be summarized as the out-of-control mode. The results show that the regions adopting the mandatory mode are economically underdeveloped, while the regions using the cooperative mode are developed. Besides, local government competition leads to the softening of policy instruments, while government-enterprise collusion exacerbates the failure of environmental policy instruments. This paper summarizes the effective modes and reveals the reasons for the low efficiency of local government environmental governance in China. The conclusions provide not only empirical evidence for the study of policy instrument theory but also beneficial insights for the selection of environmental policy instruments and environmental governance practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate crisis demands a transition in transport policy. Eco-friendly mobility is rising as an alternative to combustion engine vehicles. This study has two critical novelties: First, hydrogen buses have rarely appeared in previous studies, despite their potential; this interdisciplinary research suggests a guideline for hydrogen driven transportation policy at a local level. Second, this study demonstrates priorities in actual policy implementation to promote public acceptance toward hydrogen buses Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for 35 policy practitioners in the local government, socio-political acceptance is deemed a priority, in order to implement the use of hydrogen buses. Additionally, supporting hydrogen infrastructure and facilitating and reinforcing greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation regulation was prioritized along with the bus fee reduction with hydrogen buses. Carrot and stick style policy instruments were perceived as effective for promoting public acceptance. The results offer practical transport policy guidelines for other local governments in foreign countries. [Display omitted] • Eco-friendly mobility is an alternative to combustion engine vehicles. • Socio-political acceptance is a priority to implement the use of hydrogen buses. • We suggest guidelines for hydrogen driven transportation policy at the local level. • Carrot and stick style policy instruments may be effective for public acceptance. • Practical transport policy guidelines for other local governments are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decarbonisation is a complex systemic issue that involves multiple market failures. Thus, the integrated application of multiple policy instruments is required. This study used the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to explore the causality relationship between decarbonisation policies with reference to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the decoupling elasticity of Tapio from a configuration perspective. We found that taxation and regulation are the critical drivers of decoupling, while information and public goods and services are ancillary. Three decoupled policy mixes were tabled, each focusing on a) taxation, b) taxation and economic instruments, and c) trading system and regulations. In contrast, the execution of information and voluntary instruments, as well as the non-implementation of the tax, are essential to non-decoupling. Three combinations that are negative for decoupling were also introduced: a) trade and economic incentives, b) trade, information and voluntary instruments, and c) information, public goods and services, and voluntary instruments. The most valuable policy mix for China is the implementation of taxes, trade, economic and regulations with the provision of auxiliary decarbonised information and public goods and services. The following processes are involved: a) integrate regulations with economic policies for more flexibility; b) introduce the carbon tax and a tax rebate policy to complement the carbon market policy based on research into the feasibility and cost-effectiveness; c) provide information and public services mainly on the consumption side; and d) recommend voluntary policies for innovative practices. On the basis of more cases and a configuration perspective, this study offers various policy mixes that are conducive or not to decoupling and suggestions for optimising China’s decarbonisation policy. We also offered a way to measure the intensity of the decarbonisation policy with respect to the carbon emission structure of sectors.

Abstract In recent years, the mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has attracted much global attention due to the simplicity and high profitability of this business, especially in countries with low electricity rates. The process of cryptocurrency mining using cryptocurrency mining devices requires a significant amount of computing power. This industry, which is increasingly growing in energy and carbon emissions, can cause environmental concerns. Common ways to reduce this amount of energy consumption are to prohibit mining and charge these loads at a higher electricity rate; however, these solution methods are not feasible and applicable in many countries. This paper presents an energy efficiency program to persuade the customers to mine cryptocurrency using high‐efficient cryptocurrency mining devices (CMDs), including informative, regulation, and financial policy instruments. This energy efficiency approach suggests a standard, if implemented, would ban the application of inefficient CMDs, and would encourage the cryptocurrency miners to improve the profitability of their business with high‐efficient CMDs through a penalty‐reward strategy. The performance of this energy efficiency program is studied through an analysis of data gathered from different CMDs used in Iran. The effectiveness of this suggested program is proved through its sufficient incentives for miners using high‐efficient CMDs.

The objective of the paper is to understand how Senegal formulated its policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The response was rapid, comprising conventional policy instruments used previously for containing Ebola. The policymaking process involved several agencies, which resulted in significant leadership and coordination problems. In addition, community participation and engagement with relevant scientific communities were limited, despite their recognized importance in fighting medical crises. Instead, international donors had a significant influence on the choice of policy tools. The paper contributes to contemporary thinking on the autonomy of policy instruments—the idea that preferences for policy instruments are stable, independent of the particular policy problems being addressed and goals being pursued—which has recently been applied to policies in Africa. The study calls for a review of how academics, civil society, and decision-makers must collaborate to design public policies and policy tools based on evidence and context, not only politics.

Prefabricated buildings (PBs) are vigorously promoted for their many advantages. However, obvious regional differences exist in the development of PBs in China, and underdeveloped areas significantly lag behind other areas. Regional "tactics" have a more direct effect on the development of PBs than national "strategies". A targeted analysis of PB policies in underdeveloped areas in China is lacking in current research. Therefore, the aim of this study was to construct a comprehensive policy framework to help underdeveloped areas improve PB policies to develop PBs. In this study, we constructed a three-dimensional policy framework based on the content analysis method and policy instrument theory. Through a comparative analysis of 137 PB policies in three representative regions, 547 policy content codes were obtained, and reliability and validity tests were completed. The results indicate that (1) underdeveloped areas should focus on improving the number of policies rather than the accuracy in the early stages of development of PBs; (2) underdeveloped areas should focus on mandatory policy instruments (MPIs) supplemented by incentive policy instruments (IPIs) and social policy instruments (SPIs) rather than a balanced use of various policy instruments; and (3) underdeveloped areas should adjust the policy layout of the whole life cycle, and stakeholders should pay attention to the construction willingness of developers and the demands of consumers and seek policy support in the operation and maintenance stages, as well as during the demolition and recovery stages. In this study, we systematically analyzed the focus of PB policies for different stages and stakeholders and proposed an application strategy of policy instruments, contributing to the improvement of the PB policy system and the narrowing of regional development gaps with respect to PBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest ecosystems provide various services that are crucial to human beings, in which carbon sequestration and storage is one of them with the most market potential and is usually governed by market-based instruments (MBIs). MBIs do not operate alone but in the hybrid governance arrangements. While the importance of public institutions has been identified, there is still a need to examine the specific role of public institutions in the market-oriented mechanism. Our work seeks answers to this question. This meta-study presents an up-to-date picture of MBIs targeted at forest carbon, in which 88 mechanisms are synthesized in a quantitative database. We analyze and discuss policy design features of these mechanisms and group them into nine types of MBIs. We find that many instruments coexist and/or interact with other instruments. In light of these results, we introduce the concept of policy mix and argue that the interplay among policy instruments can be complementary or interdependent. Using cluster analysis to identify underlying patterns, we reconfirm previous findings that there are distinct differences between public and private PES schemes, but also recognize a new cluster and label it as a 'legally binding mechanism'. We discover that the role of public institutions is pronounced in the forest carbon mechanisms, and they can be the buyer, seller, regulator, coordinator, intermediary, and facilitator. Besides, public institutions tend to play an increasing role in the future climate policy arena. We believe that public institutions should stand out and create enabling conditions for private governance and finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy instruments, as the most important part of the policy-making process, have an important role in the designing and implementation of policy. In order to implement the Meta policies of the administrative system, various instruments have been used, which in practice have not led to the implementation of these policies. Present study seeks to analyze and pathology instruments for the implementation of Meta policies of the administrative system. In the present study, based on Targeted Sampling, experts and Professors of the administrative system were identified. After conducting semi-structured deep interview with them, the data were coded using thematic analysis method and the web of themes was discovered with 4 Global Themes, 19 organizing themes and 184 basic themes. Findings showed that, firstly, unfortunately, the insights and policy contexts for tooling in the administrative system are not considered, and secondly, there are serious weaknesses and challenges in the design of structural and process instruments, functional instruments and capacity building instruments, that reason of the non-implementation of the Meta policies of the administrative system. Introduction The administrative system is the executive machine of the government and the tool for implementing government programs and policies. One of the reasons for the failure to implement the general policies of the administrative system has been the lack of appropriate policy tools for the implementation and enforcement of these policies. In the scientific literature, public policy-making has dealt with the issue of non-implementation of policies from different perspectives. One of the important approaches that has been considered in recent years is the approach of selecting policy tools. The instrumental approach seeks to diagnose the instrumental pathology of the non-implementation of approved programs and policies by arguing that the solution to problems arising from policy design depends largely on the type of tool and the choice of tools (Capano & Howlett, 2020). The present study aims to analyze the disadvantages and challenges of the tools for implementing and enforcing the general policies of the administrative system and using the instrumental approach, seeks to identify the weaknesses of current tools and their inability to implement the general policies of the administrative system. Case study The current research was carried out in the field of executive institutions and specifically the subject of study was "meta policies of the administrative system". In addition, among the country's executive bodies, the Administrative and Recruitment Affairs Organization was most related to the subject area of this research. Materials and Methods The present study is one of the qualitative exploratory researches that seeks to answer the main question of the research. In this research, using the content analysis method, an attempt is made to extract key concepts related to the research topic and present them in the form of a network of themes by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews (King & Horrocks 2010) with experts and specialists and analyzing them by the method of content analysis. 1998). The statistical population includes all policy makers, administrators, university professors, and think tanks related to the general policies of the administrative system in government institutions. Based on the mentioned criteria, 25 experts were purposefully selected. In the next stage, an interview session was held with the experts. The interviews were recorded by the researcher and then implemented and then entered into excel software. Discussion and Results by reviewing and reviewing the themes and performing various classifications, the researcher finally obtained a network of themes including 184 basic themes, 19 organizing themes and 4 global themes. The four global themes are: 1.Lack of proper insights and policy contexts for toolmaking: In designing and using tools to implement the general policies of the administrative system, no serious attention has been paid to policy areas, national policy style and policy regimes. 2.Weakness in the development of functional tools: Instrumentation for the proper realization of the functions of the administrative system is one of the cases that have been neglected to achieve the general policies of the administrative system. Such as weak tooling in the field of control, monitoring and evaluation, non-optimal tooling in the field of human resources and employment, weak and inefficient incentive and persuasive tools and weakness in developing coordination and integration tools in the administrative system 3.Weakness in developing capacity building tools: Capacity building to improve the administrative system is one of the issues that play a very important role in the implementation of general policies of the administrative system. In this area, too, unfortunately, in the field of governance and policy-making of the administrative system, capacity building tools have not been properly designed and have been neglected. 4.Weakness in the formulation of structural and process tools: Administrative structures and processes are important components of the administrative system, the incorrect formulation and design of which causes the size of the government and its inefficiency. Conclusion The instrumental approach to public policy on the subject of general policies of the administrative system is used for the first time in this study and was used as a basis for a general understanding of the non-implementation of these policies. The value-added and knowledge-adding research of the present study was to introduce the policy tool approach for analyzing the country's macro-policies with a focus on general policies of the administrative system. falls down. The most important limitation of the present study was the lack of development of instrumental approach among administrative system experts and their inconsistencies with the focus on tools. There were also restrictions on recording interviews and collecting data in the present study due to interviews with experts. The policy suggestions and recommendations resulting from the present study can be passed from legal and control tools and grammatical approach to cooperation and partnership approach and soft tools, putting on the agenda the design of a coherent, coherent policy toolkit in order to implement and implement the general policies of the system. Administrative agenda of macro-policy institutions such as the Expediency Council, the Supreme Administrative Council and the Administrative and Employment Organization of the country, instrumental approach and instrumental rationality in drafting policy documents and administrative reform programs in order to minimize idealism in formulating policies and programs, considering community capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the mining of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has attracted much global attention due to the simplicity and high profitability of this business, especially in countries with low electricity rates. The process of cryptocurrency mining using cryptocurrency mining devices requires a significant amount of computing power. This industry, which is increasingly growing in energy and carbon emissions, can cause environmental concerns. Common ways to reduce this amount of energy consumption are to prohibit mining and charge these loads at a higher electricity rate; however, these solution methods are not feasible and applicable in many countries. This paper presents an energy efficiency program to persuade the customers to mine cryptocurrency using high‐efficient cryptocurrency mining devices (CMDs), including informative, regulation, and financial policy instruments. This energy efficiency approach suggests a standard, if implemented, would ban the application of inefficient CMDs, and would encourage the cryptocurrency miners to improve the profitability of their business with high‐efficient CMDs through a penalty‐reward strategy. The performance of this energy efficiency program is studied through an analysis of data gathered from different CMDs used in Iran. The effectiveness of this suggested program is proved through its sufficient incentives for miners using high‐efficient CMDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrification of the transport sector is expanding in both developing and developed countries in response to air pollution and climate change. Indonesia, the world's 10th biggest CO 2 emitter having the world's third largest two-wheeler market, aims to deploy 2.1 million electric two-wheelers by 2025 and is developing electric vehicle policies. This study designs a consumers' choice model for buying a scooter in Jakarta, Indonesia, and simulates the effects of two supportive policies to expand electric two-wheelers (providing subsidies and building charging infrastructure) using a discrete choice experiment. We calculate the budget required for these subsidies. The results show that people in Jakarta highly prefer electric scooters and consider their environmental impacts. A 20% subsidy increases the estimated annual market share of new electric scooter sales to 10%. In addition to a 20% subsidy, building charging infrastructure for electric scooters to the same level as conventional gas stations leads to estimated new sales of electric scooters reaching 21%. This study suggests the need to develop comprehensive policy packages to successfully deploy electric two-wheelers in Jakarta and provides reference data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of related policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]