Writing Public Policy


Book Description

Public policy making -- Communication in the process -- Definition : frame the problem -- Legislative history : know the record -- Position paper : know the arguments -- Petitions and proposals : request action or propose policy -- Briefing memo or opinion statement : inform policy makers -- Testimony : witness in a public hearing -- Written public comment : influence administration -- Continuity and change.




Urban Health and Wellbeing Programme


Book Description

This book is a collection of policy briefs produced from research presented at the 16th Conference on Urban Health in Xiamen, China, November 4–8, 2019, under the theme “People Oriented Urbanisation: Transforming Cities for Health and Well-Being”, co-organized by the Urban Health and Wellbeing (UHWB) programme of the International Science Council (ISC). The UHWB programme takes an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral and systemic view on issues of health and wellbeing in cities which include the urban economy and finance systems, education, employment, mobility and transport, food, energy and water resources, access to public services, urban planning, public spaces and urban green, as well as social inclusion. Contributions to this book have been made by scientists from multidisciplinary research fields. The policy briefs in this book present the background and context of an urban health issue, research findings and recommendations for policy/decision-makers and action-takers. In some cases, they inform about relevant events and developments from the science community or important opinion pieces which address health emergencies, like the current COVID-19 pandemic. The book is intended for citizens and political decision-makers, who are interested in systems perspectives on urban health and wellbeing, examples of how to deal with the increasing complexity of cities and the accompanying environmental and social impacts of increasing urbanization. Furthermore, it hopes to inspire decision-makers to facilitate finding solutions, in order to reach the goal of advancing global urban health and wellbeing.




Foreign Policy Briefs


Book Description




Model Rules of Professional Conduct


Book Description

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.




Health System Efficiency


Book Description

In this book the authors explore the state of the art on efficiency measurement in health systems and international experts offer insights into the pitfalls and potential associated with various measurement techniques. The authors show that: - The core idea of efficiency is easy to understand in principle - maximizing valued outputs relative to inputs, but is often difficult to make operational in real-life situations - There have been numerous advances in data collection and availability, as well as innovative methodological approaches that give valuable insights into how efficiently health care is delivered - Our simple analytical framework can facilitate the development and interpretation of efficiency indicators.




Confronting the Climate Challenge


Book Description

Without significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, climate change will cause substantial damage to the environment and the economy. The scope of the threat demands a close look at the policies capable of reducing the harm. Confronting the Climate Challenge presents a unique framework for evaluating the impacts of a range of U.S. climate-policy options, both for the economy overall and for particular household groups, industries, and regions. Lawrence Goulder and Marc Hafstead focus on four alternative approaches for reducing carbon dioxide emissions: a revenue-neutral carbon tax, a cap-and-trade program, a clean energy standard, and an increase in the federal gasoline tax. They demonstrate that these policies—if designed correctly—not only can achieve emissions reductions at low cost but also can avoid placing undesirable burdens on low-income household groups or especially vulnerable industries. Goulder and Hafstead apply a multiperiod, economy-wide general equilibrium model that is distinct in its attention to investment dynamics and to interactions between climate policy and the tax system. Exploiting the unique features of the model, they contrast the shorter- and longer-term policy impacts and focus on alternative ways of feeding back—or “recycling”—policy-generated revenues to the private sector. Their work shows how careful policy design, including the judicious use of policy-generated revenues, can achieve desired reductions in carbon dioxide emissions at low cost, avoid uneven impacts across household income groups, and prevent losses of profit in the most vulnerable U.S. industries. The urgency of the climate problem demands comprehensive action, and Confronting the Climate Challenge offers important insights that can help elevate policy discussions and spur needed efforts on the climate front.




Contemporary Peace Research


Book Description




Facilities Management and Corporate Real Estate Management as Value Drivers


Book Description

Facilities Management (FM) and Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) are two closely related and relatively new management disciplines with developing international professions and increasing academic attention. Both disciplines have from the outset a strong focus on controlling and reducing cost for real estate, facilities and related services. In recent years there has been a change towards putting more focus on how FM/CREM can add value to the organisation. This book is driven by the need to develop a widely accepted and easily applicable conceptual framework of adding value by FM and CREM. It presents the state of the art of theoretical knowledge and empirical evidence about the impact of buildings and facilities on 12 value parameters and how to manage and measure these values. The findings are connected to a new Value Adding Management model. The book is research based with a focus on guidance to practice. It offers a transdisciplinary approach, integrating academic knowledge from a variety of different fields with practical experience. It also includes 12 interviews with practitioners, shedding light as to how they manage adding value in practice. This is a much needed resource for practitioners, researchers and teachers from the field of FM and CREM, as well as students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.




Climate change and agricultural policy options


Book Description

Climate change is a significant and growing threat to food security—already affecting vulnerable populations in many developing countries, and expected to affect ever more people in more places, unless action is taken beginning today. Current scenarios for business-as-usual farming under climate change project growing food security challenges by 2050. Worst hit will be underdeveloped regions of the world where food insecurity is already a problem and populations are vulnerable to shocks (Rosegrant et al. 2014). Improvements in agricultural technology and management are expected to increase food security, but if we do not address climate change, climate-related losses in crop and livestock productivity will reduce those gains (Lobell and Gourdji 2012). In this challenging environment, countries will need to contend with shifts in which crops they can best produce, significant changes in global prices, and change in countries’ comparative advantages. New analytical tools that allow policy makers and decision makers to integrate data from the global to the local level offer an important opportunity for countries to identify the most effective ways to address climate change. As the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) gets underway and the role of agriculture as a key element in reducing emissions is widely recognized, countries can use these tools to identify locally appropriate policies that will reduce the impact of climate change on food security over the long term.




Inequality, Growth, and Poverty in an Era of Liberalization and Globalization


Book Description

Within-country income inequality has risen since the early 1980s in most of the OECD, all transitional, and many developing countries. More recently, inequality has risen also in India and nations affected by the Asian crisis. Altogether, over the last twenty years, inequality worsened in 70per cent of the 73 countries analysed in this volume, with the Gini index rising by over five points in half of them. In several cases, the Gini index follows a U-shaped pattern, with the turn-around point located between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Where the shift towards liberalization andglobalization was concluded, the right arm of the U stabilized at the 'steady state level of inequality' typical of the new policy regime, as observed in the UK after 1990. Mainstream theory focusing on rises in wage differentials by skill caused by either North-South trade, migration, or technological change poorly explains the recent rise in income inequality. Likewise, while the traditional causes of income polarization-high land concentration, unequal access toeducation, the urban bias, the 'curse of natural resources'-still account for much of cross-country variation in income inequality, they cannot explain its recent rise. This volume suggests that the recent rise in income inequality was caused to a considerable extent by a policy-driven worsening in factorial income distribution, wage spread and spatial inequality. In this regard, the volume discusses the distributive impact of reforms in trade and financialliberalization, taxation, public expenditure, safety nets, and labour markets. The volume thus represents one of the first attempts to analyse systematically the relation between policy changes inspired by liberalization and globalization and income inequality. It suggests that capital accountliberalization appears to have had-on average-the strongest disequalizing effect, followed by domestic financial liberalization, labour market deregulation, and tax reform. Trade liberalization had unclear effects, while public expenditure reform often had positive effects.