Promoting customer engagement: A new trend in utility regulation

This paper traces a new development in regulation that encourages utilities to engage more directly with their customers. We make four contributions: First, we perform a comprehensive analysis of how regulators are using customer engagement, and offer a simple model for understanding different customer engagement initiatives. Second, we review assessments of customer engagement. We find that there are no quantitative, empirically robust assessments of the effectiveness of customer engagement as a regulatory tool. Third, we develop two detailed case studies of an energy regulator and a water regulator that are in the forefront of customer engagement efforts. We find that there is no direct link between the engagement strategy used and the economic incentives received by a firm. Finally, we propose a framework for improving the customer engagement process. The new framework relies on microeconomics, modern tools of program evaluation, and supplying the regulated firm with direct incentives to engage with the customer.     

后疫情时代共享用工的可持续发展及法律规制

共享用工是疫情冲击下企业的跨界自救之举,但因我国人力资源供求的不平衡、企业用工成本的增加、劳动人口数量减少及劳动态度转变、共享用工第三方平台的崛起等原因,其在后疫情时代依然存在常态化的可持续发展空间。共享用工实现了输出方企业劳动力闲置与输入方企业用工荒的对接,提高了人力资源配置的灵活性及使用效率,但也存在着界定及表现形式不确定、法律关系模糊化的问题,同时劳动者、劳动力输出方、输入方甚至第三方亦面临潜在法律风险。因此,要促进共享用工的规范化发展,必须从政策和法律层面双管齐下,完善其制度建设,并建立包括监管部门、行业协会、共享用工平台在内的一体化规制体系。     

乡村振兴制度建设的内涵及路径探讨

乡村振兴要以制度建设为基础,以完善农地"三权分置"制度为契机,以城乡融合体制机制创新为支撑,以"活业、活人、活村"为路径。土地制度是实现乡村振兴的根本制度,三权分置是搞活乡村经济的制度设计,乡村治理是实现乡村振兴战略的总抓手。乡村振兴制度建设存在的主要问题是:"城乡二元结构"是农民获取城市权利的障碍,土地"二元制度"是导致乡村失去发展权的根源,农村"宅基地制度"是制约农民发展权的瓶颈。乡村振兴制度建设的基本路径是:为乡村振兴建设提供规划安排,为乡村振兴用地提供制度支撑,为乡村振兴资金提供政府投入保障,为乡村振兴社会稳定提供安全秩序。     

小农经济的特质及我国农地关系法制化的基本方向

在我国农地制度的变迁中,中国共产党始终把农地关系法制化放在调整社会经济关系、促进中国社会进步的重要地位.我国现行农地集体所有,家庭经营的农地制度仍具备小农经济的特质.通观世界,小农经济在欧美较早得到改造,在西方社会改造小农经济的现代化过程中,法制化成为农地制度变迁的最直接最明显的推动力量.我国农地法制化的基本方向是落实科学发展观,进一步完善现行农地法规;保障农地资源与农民的安全,明确界定农地的权利主体.     

对土地私有化之批判——兼论农村土地的社会保障功能

土地是我国农民赖以生存的物质基础,但工业化、城市化进程的加快和土地市场的国家垄断,必然蚕食大批的土地,使广大农民的生存与发展受到严重威胁,而农民的生存与发展关系到国家长治久安.如何解决土地锐减和农民生存的矛盾,如何发挥农村土地的社会保障功能,已成为迫在眉睫的严峻问题.有人提出了土地私有化的观点.认为坚持土地承包责任制,坚持最严格的土地管理制度,在此基础上实现土地流转的法律创新,是唯一符合现实需要的理性选择.     

‘Policies that Fail – Words that Succeed’: The Politics of Accessible Housing in Australia

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate over the efficacy of voluntary agreements versus regulation, and uses a study of the Livable Housing Design initiative to deliver voluntarily new‐built accessible housing in Australia. We first probe why regulation has become such a significant component of government policy making, and then ask why political campaigns focus on this issue as a strategy for reform. We refer to research by disability activists, which claims that the voluntary approach has failed and regulation is necessary. Amongst our conclusions are: (1) that the disjuncture between policy rhetoric and outcome can be attributed to the power of lobbyists, reliance on the private market to address inequality, and antipathy to regulatory enforcement; and (2) that there is a need for greater interrogation of the language deployed in policy texts to identify whether they are crafted to maintain the government's legitimacy or to deliver purposeful change.     

The End of Sprawl? Not so Fast

This article takes a careful look at the recent state of sprawl among America’s 178 largest metropolitan areas through the lens of four sets of questions: (a) Measured at the metropolitan level, is sprawl really declining? Is it declining everywhere, or just in selected metropolitan areas? (b) If sprawl is indeed declining, are more compact growth forms on the rise? (c) If sprawl is indeed declining, is it the result of antisprawl land use and development policies? (d) Which metropolitan-level land market, demographic, and economic factors are most associated with changes in sprawl? It concludes that sprawl is indeed declining when measured by average population densities, but that the decline has been much less widespread if measured in terms of population growth in core-area neighborhoods, changing density gradient intercept and slope estimates, and increased employment clustering. In terms of policy, it finds no evidence that local regulatory regimes or growth management programs have had any effect on sprawl, but finds that the consistent administration of local regulatory programs in ways that incentivize infill development and send consistent signals to developers does contribute to reduced sprawl.     

A Concurrent Analysis of Three Institutions that Transform Health Technology‐Based Ventures: Economic Policy,Capital Investment,and Market Approval

Drawing on institutional theory, this article articulates qualitative insights from a program of research on Canadian health technology‐based ventures to examine the rules that characterize economic policy, capital investment, and regulatory approval as well as the way these institutions enable and constrain the development of ventures at an early stage. Our findings clarify how economic policy integrates these ventures into the entrepreneurial domain, how capital investment configures them for economic value extraction, and how regulatory approval fully releases their market value. These findings help to revisit current policy modernization initiatives by calling attention to the convergence among the three institutions. Rather than operating solely as a source of constraints, these institutions provide a highly integrated market‐oriented space for health technology‐based entrepreneurial activities to unfold.     

Competition and switching in public service markets: Can they reduce inequalities?

Regulatory reforms to public infrastructure services across European Union (EU) countries were aimed at increasing consumer welfare by introducing competition and choice into service markets. However, empirical evaluations have questioned whether these reforms have benefitted all consumers, suggesting that vulnerable groups of service users (especially those with lower levels of formal education), might be locked into poorly performing services. We assess the relationship between the level of competition in electricity and fixed telephony markets in EU countries and evaluate the affordability of these services for different socio‐educational layers. Our findings show that – although in countries where there is a relatively high frequency of switching, inequalities between socio‐educational groups are smaller and eventually disappear – competition as such does not play a part. These results suggest that demand‐side regulation that successfully enables consumer switching has the potential to equalize social welfare, thereby reflecting a possible convergence of regulatory instruments and the central aims of the welfare state in this context.     

探索征地制度改革 确保农民合法权益

征地工作事关国家经济建设和农民切身利益。随着工业化和城市化进程的加快,大量土地被征用。目前土地还是农民生存保障之本,征地过程中如何确保农民合法权益已成为迫在眉睫的问题题。该文通过分析中国征地制度存住的问题,从保护失地农民权益的角度,提出了要严格规范土地征用、完善补偿机制及规范土地交易市场等建议。