Capital Gains and Spatial Inequalities: Developing Fairer Suburbs

One of the longest‐running debates in urban development, enshrined within the evolution of the British planning system, is how best to capture the increased value of land arising from development. This article outlines the historic and contemporary context before proposing an approach towards ‘land value capture’, based on practice in continental Europe but adapted to Britain's specific circumstances. In doing so, it also sets out why new approaches are needed as part of the search for better ways of funding local infrastructure, developing mixed communities and improving Britain's suburbs for the benefit of all.     

Connecting to regional markets? Transport,logistics services and international transit challenges for Central Asian food-processing firms

Central Asian food processors face a number of constraints when they attempt to export to the region and beyond. The Central Asian economies in focus here are landlocked, and thus lack easy access to sea transport. In addition, the region's transport network was built to reinforce the interdependence of the then Soviet republics, while conflicting economic interests make cross-border cooperation difficult. Based on extensive fieldwork on infrastructure systems and firm export strategies, this paper identifies contemporary infrastructure and transportation issues within the Central Asian region, and makes a novel attempt to examine how these factors lead to challenges for local food processing producers trying to sell their products in the region and beyond.     

Contracting with Whom? The Differential Effects of Investment Treaties on FDI

Under what conditions can governments use international commitments such as Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) to attract foreign direct investment (FDI)? Although numerous studies have attempted to answer this question, none considers how investment treaties may have heterogeneous affects across industry. I argue BIT effect is strongest when the obsolescing bargaining problem between firms and governments is most protracted, namely, when FDI relies on strong contracts between firms and states. Using a time series cross-sectional data set of 114 developing countries from 1985 to 2011, I find BITs are associated with increases in infrastructure investment, an industry particularly reliant on the sanctity of government contracts, but not with total FDI inflows. Moreover, BITs with strong arbitration provisions display the strongest statistical effect on infrastructure investment, while BITs that do not provide investors with such protections are not associated with increased investment. My results have implications for both scholarship on the relationship between governments and multinational firms as well as for the study of international institutions more broadly. To properly ascertain the effects of international treaties and institutions, scholars should consider not just whether institutions constrain or inform—or matter at all—but also the extent to which the targets of institutions have heterogeneous responses to them.     

Administrative burden in digital public service delivery: The social infrastructure of library programs for e-inclusion

In their efforts to digitize public service delivery, countries increasingly use algorithms based on mathematical models, data and/or a combination of different administrative datasets to issue decisions, but recent studies point towards challenges around citizens' understanding, accessing, and filing objections to such automated decisions. This paper focuses on the social infrastructure supporting citizens that struggle with accessing such services. To address this, we ask: How does the social infrastructure affect administrative burdens associated with digital government services? This is studied in the Dutch context through expert interviews and observations of support programs in libraries. We find that although libraries as primary sites for these services may pose the disadvantage of being more difficult to reach for low-literate citizens, advantages are their organizational structure at the local level as well as their currently changing role to include a growing range of services, including (digital) skills courses.     

Electric Shock: The 2012 India Blackout and Public Confidence in Politicians

How do disruptions in basic public service delivery shape people’s perceptions of politicians? We offer evidence from the July 2012 blackout in India, the largest in human history. Using data from the India Human Development Survey, we compare confidence in politicians between households that were surveyed during the outage and affected by it (treatment) and only days before it (control). Balance statistics show that the treatment and control groups are statistically indistinguishable, and further tests indicate that there was no disturbance to the pattern of surveying. Far from undermining public confidence in politicians, the outage increased it, as citizens reacted to the anxiety created by the crisis. The implications are normatively troubling, as politicians seem to have reaped benefits from disruptions in public service delivery.     

以新型基础设施建设推进产业转型升级

新型基础设施建设具有新战略高度、新投资领域、新投资主体、新区域重点的丰富内涵.基于我国短期内进行经济逆周期调节,实现有效需求扩大、稳投资、稳增长,中长期通过传统产业赋能,提升全要素生产率的现实发展需求,以新基建助力我国经济高质量发展是必要之举.通过新基建助力供给侧改革、推动制造业升级、促进能源效率提升、加速市场环境改善...     

少数民族贫困地区新农村建设的重点难点及对策——基于宁夏四县（区）364位农民的调查分析

加大农村基础设施建设投资,改善农村教育、提高农民文化水平,加大农村社会保障事业支出,提高农民建设社会主义新农村的主体意识,发挥党员应有的带头示范作用是我国新农村建设的关键。     

Fifty years of creativity,crisis, and cancer in Uganda

Abstract

This article tells the story of the Uganda Cancer Institute over the past 50 years. I discuss the fundamental dynamism of research collaborations and the ways in which they bring vital yet partial investments in improving the capacity of medical facilities in sub-Saharan Africa. I explore the ways in which patient populations and the needs of caretakers themselves shape research collaborations. I also show how extreme oscillations in the capacity to conduct oncology research and provide care were (and are) tied not only to shifting international research priorities, but also to broader upheaval and periods of stability in Uganda since independence in 1962. Rather than dwelling on the debris, ruins, or an emptying of capacity in the health sector in Africa, this article highlights how this experimental infrastructure in East Africa not only survived, but also fundamentally shaped a culture of care and oncology practice that lived on.     

浅论城市重要基础设施安全防范

城市基础设施是为物质生产和人民生活提供服务的行业总体,是城市赖以生存和发展的一般条件。进入社会转型期以来,各种自然灾害、卫生事件、生产安全及公共安全事件不断发生,城市公共安全已经成为世界关注的热点问题。分析城市重要基础设施面临的情况,特别是对其安全有重大影响的恐怖袭击、火灾、爆炸等治安灾害事故和严重刑事犯罪等案件,发现安全管理方面存在的漏洞,如构建基础设施、反恐、防爆的工作体系、运行机制、管理模式和基本框架等方面需要进一步完善。     

我国国家金融安全的审查机构和范围

金融开放是提高我国金融业水平的前提,但金融业开放也会给我国带来潜在的金融安全风险和危机。国家金融安全审查制度是应对金融开放风险和危机的"安全阀"。维护金融安全的首要任务是防范和化解金融风险尤其是系统性金融风险,然而目前我国外商投资的金融安全审查制度却迟迟未有效落实。我国应当借鉴主要发达经济体经验设立金融安全审查机构,并确定金融安全审查的范围,将金融关键基础设施、金融关键技术和金融数据安全作为审查重点。