Place Management at the City of Swan – A Whole‐of‐City Approach

Local government often consists of a diverse array of local communities, but remains ideally placed to work with communities in responding to challenges at a local ‘place’ level, as well as broader regional issues. The City of Swan, Western Australian (WA) recognised that it required a more adaptable and place focussed approach to the planning and delivery of services to its large and diverse communities. This has led to the adoption of a place management approach at the City, including the division of the City into five smaller place management areas, based around communities of shared interest. This article highlights the application of place management as it has been applied across the City of Swan, including lessons learnt to date.     

Made in China at a crossroads: a recourse‐based view

• The brand ‘Made in China’ has long stood for low cost and good value. But recent revelations about the quality of some Chinese products exported overseas have begun to put this brand at risk. In the end, much of what constitutes this country brand depends on the strategies Chinese firms pursue, which in turn subject to the firm resources. Drawing from the resource‐base theory, this paper investigates the sources of the competitive advantage of the brand ‘Made in China’ and discusses the choices to be made by the Chinese firms and government in order to maintain a stable and better country brand.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A study on loan approval and non‐performing asset—Segment identification

Nonperforming assets (NPAs) are a huge challenge infront of the Indian economy. Accumulating NPA is forming a burden and obstacle for economic growth. Financial institutions are struggling with nonperforming loans, and their efficiency is getting tremendously impacted. The aims of this study are to find out the critical factors for granting mortgage loan and to develop a formula that can help financial institutions in identifying and differentiating a possible loan defaulter from a non‐defaulter. The formula developed and the identification of defaulters could help in reducing NPA of financial institutions. Managers and loan approvers can use this model to grant loans to verified borrowers and can also keep an eye on their existing customers.     

A Principles‐based Approach to the Barnett Formula1

This essay argues that the Barnett formula—which determines the block grant paid annually by the UK government to each of the Devolved Administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—be reformulated, guided by the following principles: fiscal equity, accountability, transparency, and flexibility. The rationale for change is that the current fiscal arrangements make little policy sense and may not be sustainable in a changing political and economic context. The formation of a grants commission to help develop data, calculate disparities, and provide public advice to the Chancellor of the Exchequer is also advocated.     

A critical commentary on the proposals to reform India's financial system in its 2019–20 union budget

The 2019–20 Union budget aims to signal that the economic gains from cleaning of the financial system are likely to be recognizable in the future. The non‐performing assets in commercial banks have dropped substantively in last year subsequent to unprecedented recoveries over the past 4 years due to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and other legal measures, provision coverage ratio is now at its highest in 7 years, and domestic credit growth has risen to 13.8%. The government has smoothly carried out the consolidation of public sector banks. However, the drop in banks' NPAs appears to be reflected by a liquidity squeeze and mirrored by mounting NPAs confronting the non‐banking finance company (NBFC). In addition, the problems are acute for the analyzed sub‐group of Housing Finance Corporations. While the government has announced its decision to streamline the regulatory processes within this sub‐sector, it has mandated the banks, the chief source of funds to mobilize capital for the NBFCs that appear vital to revive India's economic growth. The government has raised tax rates for the uber‐rich and import duties on a few articles such as Gold while offering tax credits on affordable housing and electric vehicles. It has attempted to improve the microstructure of the capital markets, mitigate inefficiencies in the pension space and enhance market penetration of insurance and incentivize foreign investment through budgetary proposals. This article offers a critical commentary on the proposed policy actions.     

When risk‐based regulation aims low: A strategic framework

This article develops a strategic framework for regulators to employ when choosing intervention strategies for dealing with low risks and reviewing performance, building on the analysis by the same authors in the previous edition of this journal. The framework occupies the operational “middle ground” between risk analysis and formal enforcement action. At its core is a matrix, the Good Regulatory Intervention Design (GRID), which provides a framework to categorize sites or activities on the basis of two factors: the nature of the risk and the nature of the regulatee. Using GRID, regulators can select which intervention tools to use, and determine the overall level of regulatory intensity that should apply. GRID is accompanied by the Good Regulatory Assessment Framework (GRAF) for agencies to use in reviewing their performance and provides a step‐by‐step process for enabling “double loop learning.” The article also argues that the process of developing such a framework highlighted the extent to which “low risk” and “high risk” regulation are distinct. “Low risk” means “low priority.” Justifying why certain risks should not receive much regulatory attention requires a particular type of engagement, and has a bearing on the regulatory strategies that are adopted.     

From Multiculturalism to Cultural Voluntarism: A Family‐based Approach

In the context of the current debate on multiculturalism, this article draws on three models of state policies towards families to propose a reframing of multiculturalist policies. They are the ‘authorisation’ model, wherein the state authorises families to define and enforce family obligations as law; the ‘delegation’ model, wherein the state prescribes the norms families are to follow and delegates to families the role of enforcing them; and the ‘purposive abstention’ model, wherein the state uses the voluntary performance family norms as a tool of policy, giving them limited legal recognition within the continued application of the general law. The article considers how these models might guide policy towards communities, which can be seen, substantially, as collections of families. It favours the ‘purposive abstention’ model, which, in the context of cultural groups, could be termed ‘cultural voluntarism’.     

An effectiveness‐based evaluation of five state pre‐kindergarten programs

Since 1980, the number of state pre‐kindergarten (pre‐K) programs has more than doubled, with 38 states enrolling more than one million children in 2006 alone. This study evaluates how five state pre‐K programs affected children's receptive vocabulary, math, and print awareness skills. Taking advantage of states' strict enrollment policies determined by a child's date of birth, a regression‐discontinuity design was used to estimate effects in Michigan, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia. For receptive vocabulary, only New Jersey and Oklahoma yielded significant standardized impacts, though two of the three other coefficients were in a direction indicating positive effects. For math, all the coefficients were positive but only Michigan and New Jersey yielded reliable results. The largest impacts were for print awareness, where all five coefficients were positive and four were reliable in Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, and West Virginia. The five states were not randomly selected and, on average, have higher quality program standards than non‐studied states, precluding formal extrapolation to the nation at large. However, our sample of states differed in many other ways, permitting the conclusion that state pre‐K programs can have positive effects on children's cognitive skills, though the magnitude of these effects varies by state and outcome. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

NSW Workers’ Compensation Reform: A Parody of Evidence‐based Policy Making

The characteristics and evolution of evidence‐based policy making in Australia and other mature democracies have been mapped extensively in this journal. This article advances research on the use of evidence in policy making, examining changes in the New South Wales workers’ compensation system from 2012 to 2014. This analysis of two phases of policy change, legislative implementation and statutory review, highlights the limitations of building integrated, coherent evidence‐based policy in a contentious policy area. The article finds that the collection of wide and detailed evidence will not satisfy requirements of evidence‐based policy without political will, transparency, and accountability.     

The Cost‐Effectiveness of Welfare‐to‐Work Programs: A Meta‐Analysis

This article uses the tools of meta‐analysis to assess cost–benefit studies of 50 mandatory welfare‐to‐work programs that were targeted at Aid for Families with Dependent Children recipients and evaluated by random assignment. The findings suggest that the costs of a typical evaluated welfare‐to‐work program probably exceeded its benefits from the perspective of the government, but those assigned to the program, and possibly society as a whole, may reap small positive net benefits. However, there are individual programs that are very cost‐beneficial. Further analyses of the determinants of the cost‐benefits of welfare‐to‐work programs to government and society as a whole show that some services are cost‐neutral, but others entail net costs, which are sometimes substantial. The findings suggest that less successful programs might be made more cost‐beneficial by dropping vocational training and basic education as program components, leaving mainly lower cost components, such as mandated job search and sanctions, but also possibly the more costly financial incentives.     

A Lib Dem Perspective on Centre‐Left Politics Post‐2015

This article analyses the political crisis faced by the centre‐left, not just in the UK but throughout the Western world, with few exceptions (Canada). The Liberal Democrat party has been a victim of that crisis, though there are encouraging signs of recovery and there is scope for a wider realignment on the centre‐left.     

The effects of an employer subsidy on employment outcomes: A study of the work opportunity and welfare‐to‐work tax credits

Employer subsidies such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and the Welfare‐to‐Work Tax Credit (WtW) are designed to encourage employment by partially reimbursing employers for wages paid to certain welfare recipients and other disadvantaged workers. In this paper, I examine the effects of these subsidies on employment, wages, and job tenure using unique administrative data from Wisconsin. My ability to precisely identify the subsidy‐certified workers allows me to distinguish the effects of program participation from mere eligibility. Using propensity score matching estimation, I find some evidence of short‐term improvements in labor market outcomes, but little evidence of sustained benefits. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

A psycho‐political profile of party activists and left‐wing and right‐wing extremists

Previous studies comparing ideological groups have been restricted to tests of between‐group differences in the means of relevant political psychological variables, thereby neglecting group differences in the variances, meanings and nomological networks of the tested variables. A first exploratory study used data from the European Social Survey (N = 7,314) comparing groups of political party members on the basis of their scores on a self‐placement left–right scale. The second study (N = 69) constituted an in‐depth test for the presence of differences between samples of political activists of moderate parties, communists, anarchists and right‐wing extremists. The results revealed that there is a fair amount of heterogeneity within left‐wing and right‐wing extremists, indicating a substantial amount of within‐group variance of social attitudes, values and prejudice. Moreover, the extremist ideologies are best approached as distinct ideologies that cannot be reduced to extreme versions of moderate ideology, and differences in the meanings and nomological networks of the various extremist ideologies were also obtained. It is erroneous to consider members of extremist groups as being ‘all alike’. The findings obtained from samples of political moderates are not a particularly solid basis for theories about extremism.     

A pluralistic perspective on the intractability of the International Joint Commission's Lake Ontario‐St. Lawrence River study

As environmental public participation has become increasingly mandated worldwide, its advantages and disadvantages have been widely documented. This article uses qualitative analysis of documentation and interviews with 40 participants in a US–Canadian International Joint Commission water management controversy. It demonstrates how ambiguity and diffuse power—that is, two characteristics of organizational pluralism—revealed in communication and governance contribute to the challenges of resolving the 13‐year controversy. The article adds to the literature that has largely focused on power disparities between governing or managing organizations and stakeholders and makes recommendations for addressing situations involving organizational and scientific ambiguity as well as relatively equal distribution of power. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patterns of internationalization of Chinese firms—empirical study based on strategic approach

• In this study, firstly we provide an analytical framework for international activities, which are of theoretically significant importance to research and understand the patterns of internationalization. Then, we take 500 top Chinese enterprises as study objects and analyse deeply the behaviour of their FDI (foreign direct investment) scenario from three aspects, namely motivations, entry modes and location choices. The results reveal that: (1) Chinese companies' internationalization is still at the early stage and has not reached the upstream value chain of internationalization; (2) the internationalization business of Chinese companies is diversified in destinations; (3). Chinese companies' modes of entering overseas markets are flexible and most companies have actively tried diverse entry modes with more adaptability; (4) the rapid increase of the FDI by the transnational strategic assets‐seeking companies shows that Chinese companies are inclined to protect and improve competitive advantages through obtaining new assets rather than making use of existing competitive advantages as before. Some implications of findings are also discussed finally.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Paying for grades: Impact of merit‐based financial aid on educational quality

In contrast to education reform efforts that target teachers and schools, merit‐based financial aid for college increases the incentives for high school students and their families to directly affect the quality of education by investing more time and effort in schoolwork. Large‐scale merit‐based aid programs, such as Georgia's HOPE Scholarship, seek to improve education by encouraging students to meet higher standards, in this case by obtaining a 3.0 grade point average in high school and college. Since the HOPE program began in 1993, the number of high school graduates qualifying for the aid has steadily increased to more than 38,000 graduates in the class of 1998, or 59.5 percent of the graduating class. At the same time, the relationship between grades and achievement has remained consistent or, in some cases, improved since HOPE began. In fact, African–American males and females with a 3.1 high school core course grade point average have increased their average Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores by more than 20 points. This indicates that merit‐based aid has improved the quality of K–12 education in Georgia and reduced racial performance disparities by motivating students and their families to commit greater effort to schooling. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.