The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on the Health and Labor Supply of Older Adults: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study

Older adults are at elevated risk of reducing labor supply due to poor health, partly because of high rates of symptoms that may be alleviated by medical marijuana. Yet, surprisingly little is known about how this group responds to medical marijuana laws (MMLs). We quantify the effects of state medical marijuana laws on the health and labor supply of adults age 51 and older, focusing on the 55 percent with one or more medical conditions with symptoms that may respond to medical marijuana. We use longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study to estimate event study and differences‐in‐differences regression models. Three principle findings emerge from our analysis. First, active state medical marijuana laws lead to lower pain and better self‐assessed health among older adults. Second, state medical marijuana laws lead to increases in older adult labor supply, with effects concentrated on the intensive margin. Third, the effects of MMLs are largest among older adults with a health condition that would qualify for legal medical marijuana use under current state laws. Findings highlight the role of health policy in supporting work among older adults and the importance of including older adults in assessments of state medical marijuana laws.     

Uneven institutional configurations and sectoral variation in China's socialist market economy: a comparative study of three pillar industries

By comparing three Chinese pillar industries, automobile, petroleum, and machinery, this paper analyzes how the development of uneven institutional configurations bred sectoral variation in transitional China. In 1994, at the dawn of the Chinese socialist market economy, the State Council issued guidelines for national industrial policy and proposed the enactment of similar growth-promoting policies for all pillar industries. The level of policy enactment and the resulting outcomes, however, vary significantly across the industries. Previous literature on China's rapid industrialization has sought to build a single model encompassing China as a whole, and has emphasized either the state's institutional capacity or China's unique governance mechanisms. This study investigates China's industrialization by taking account of the uneven development of institutional capacity amid macro institutional reforms. Every idea and institution evolved at a different pace in these reforms, and the incremental nature of the reforms further deepened the gaps between sectors. This paper argues that, due to this uneven development, the Chinese state was not strong enough to be considered a developmental state until at least the early 2000s.     

Climate change policy discontinuity and its effects on Australia's national electricity market

Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM) became unstable in 2016/2017 after 20 years of consistent performance. The South Australian grid collapsed on 28 September 2016 – Australia's first black system event since 1964. Wholesale prices in the region trebled to $120+/MWh; soon after Hazelwood power station announced its exit with just 5 months’ notice. The problem spread as prices elsewhere doubled to $89/MWh from a long‐run average of $42.50. The NEM is experiencing a supply‐side crisis. Consistent with the requirement to decarbonise the system, aged coal‐fired generators are exiting but decades of climate change policy discontinuity has frustrated the entry of new plant. Long‐dated capital‐intensive asset industries like electricity supply anticipate a conventional policy cycle. What they have experienced instead is consistent with garbage can theory. Policy clarity may be emerging for only the second time in two decades. As with the NEM, its durability will depend on cooperative federalism.     

International advocacy for contract-based public private partnerships through case studies: a re-interpretation of Southern Cross Station,Melbourne

In response to urban infrastructure deficits, international organisations, such as the United Nations, encourage governments to harness private finance. Contract-based Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) represent one policy option enabling infrastructure to be privately financed and constructed, and for service provision to occur. With PPPs also a contested policy option, private sector policy intermediaries advocate for their adoption, including through the selective promotion of case studies. In recognition that favourable case study narratives may leach out local context, a multi-dimensional analytical framework is introduced distinguishing between de-institutionalised, aspatial, non-historical, uncritical and non-futuristic perspectives. Recently the private sector-led World Economic Forum published ‘Harnessing Public-Private Cooperation to Deliver the New Urban Agenda’, which reported upon the PPP-led development of Spencer Street (or Southern Cross) Station in Melbourne, Australia. In deploying the framework, this paper concludes that case study narratives can be reductionist and locally detached in various ways. The role of policy intermediaries in the transfer of policy information therefore requires carefully interpretation, not least because of the malleable use of case studies to reveal desired conclusions.     

Population Generations and Economic Growth: An Analysis on Population Policy Choices under the New Normal

When the generation of post-80s entered the labor market during 2003—2013, the China economic growth presented an inverted U type track. When the generations of post-90s and post-00s enter the labor market, growth will have dramatically declined. With post-90s and post-00s entering into the labor market, population bonus begins to disappear after 2016. To prevent Chinese economic fastly falling into demographic cliff, the paper evaluate the delay retirement and fertility policy, and we found that, when post- 90s and post-00s are entering into the labor market, delaying retirement is better than not, maintaining fertility policy unchanged is better than a relaxed fertility policy, while adjusting the retirement system brings about great effect. Delayed retirement policies need to be performed immediately, fertility policy is important, but not urgent.     

Comparative Implementation Research: Directions and Dualities

Abstract

The study of policy implementation developed steadily and considerably in the 1970s and 1980s through two generations of research. Since then progress towards a more rigorous scientific “third generation research paradigm”, assumed to be crucial for further theoretical development, has been much slower and more uneven. Comparative studies figure prominently in this respect. On one hand they are strongly encouraged but on the other they are difficult to conduct according to best practice advice in the textbooks. Comparative implementation research is the theme of this special issue. In this Introduction the articles included are presented, focusing on how they deal with some of the issues posed by the norms of a rigorous “third generation” approach. Reasons for the state of affairs in implementation research are discussed. Some inherent dualities and tensions in contemporary comparative implementation research are identified as particular challenges.     

Crucial Factors in Implementing Radical Policy Change: A Comparative Longitudinal Study of Nordic Central Agency Relocation Programs

Abstract

Why do public policies succeed or fail? The aim of this article is to contribute to answering this enduring research question in policy research through a comparative study of the variable efforts by Nordic governments to relocate their central agencies from the capital regions over a period of several decades. This was a radical redistributive policy program premised on a policy instrument – coercion – which was very alien to political systems characterized as consensual democracies. Hence, it is no surprise that only two out of seven relocation programs of any substance were successful. The really intriguing research question here is how any relocation program was achievable at all in a policy context where this was very unlikely. A broadly based multi-theoretical analytical framework linking interest groups, institutions, human agency in the form of policy entrepreneurship/design and situational factors is employed to solve this research puzzle. Findings from this study offer important contributions to the following research fields: comparative public policy, radical policy change and most specifically the so-called third generation of public policy implementation research.     

Lived citizenship as the locus of political agency in participatory policy

Participatory policies seeking to foster active citizenship continue to be dominated by a territorial imagination. Yet, the world where people identify and perform as citizens is spatially multifarious. This article engages with the tension between territorially grounded perceptions and relational modes of practicing political agency. Studying empirically the Finnish child and youth policies, we address jointly the participatory obligations that municipalities strive to fulfill, and the spatial attachments that children and young people establish in their lived worlds. To this end, we introduce the concept of lived citizenship as an interface where the territorially-bound public administration and the plurality of spatial attachments characteristic to transnational living may meet. We conclude by proposing a re-grounding of lived citizenship in both topological and topographical terms as an improvement in theoretical understanding of mundane political agency and as a step towards more proficient participatory policies.     

新南非与津巴布韦的民族问题及民族政策的比较

内容提要南非和津巴布韦两国的民族问题和民族政策既有相同点,也存在较大差异。两国除历史条件等相同外,其民族问题与民族政策的不同点主要表现在以下方面:由于外部势力的干预程度不同导致政策制定过程不同;内部势力的分化与整合差异表明政策制定的国内政治环境差异;两国对白人种族主义政权遗产处理方式不同;族际分野与政治分化的敏感性使两国面临的政局和政策导致的政治后果差异。概言之,民族问题处理得当与否对政治稳定起着极重要的作用。虽然民族问题的重要性在下降,但激进的民族政策可能带来意想不到的后果,津巴布韦的教训为其他国家提出了警示。     

Post-Soviet universities as development in practice: local experience and global lessons

The university holds a privileged place as the site of knowledge production in social development. Simultaneously, traditions of pedagogy drawing from the liberal arts have evolved within Northern/Western post-secondary educational systems which claim to create citizens through developing the skills of freedom; this claim was central to interventions in post-Soviet university reform projects. The author's university development and reform experiences in the former Soviet Union show that a depoliticised liberal arts pedagogy in fact reinforced authoritarian practices, and the promise of a liberal arts pedagogy as an emancipatory project remains an ongoing global task of critical knowledge practices.

Universités post-soviétiques en tant que développement dans la pratique : expériences locales et leçons mondiales

L' université occupe une place privilégiée comme site de production de connaissances dans le développement social. Dans le même temps, des traditions pédagogiques s'inspirant des arts libéraux ont évolué dans le cadre des systèmes d'éducation post-secondaires du Nord et de l'Occident qui affirment créer des citoyens en développant les compétences de la liberté ; cette affirmation a été centrale dans les interventions dans les projets de réforme universitaire post-soviétiques. Les expériences de l'auteur du développement et de la réforme des universités dans l'ancienne Union soviétique montrent qu'une pédagogie dépolitisée des arts libéraux a en fait renforcé les pratiques autoritaires, et la promesse d'une pédagogie d'arts libéraux comme projet émancipatoire reste une tâche mondiale en cours constituée de pratiques critiques d'acquisition de connaissances.

Universidades na era pós-soviética enquanto desenvolvimento na prática: experiência local e lições globais

A universidade ocupa um lugar privilegiado como lugar de produção de conhecimento na área de desenvolvimento social. Simultaneamente, tradições de pedagogia extraídas das artes liberais têm evoluído dentro dos sistemas educacionais pós-ensino médio no hemisfério norte / ocidental, que afirmam criar cidadãos através do desenvolvimento de qualificações para liberdade; esta afirmação foi central para as intervenções nos projetos de reforma da universidade na era pós-soviética. As experiências da autora sobre desenvolvimento e reforma da universidade na antiga União Soviética mostram que uma pedagogia de artes liberais despolitizada, na verdade, reforçaram práticas autoritárias, e a promessa de uma pedagogia de artes liberais enquanto projeto emancipatório permanece uma tarefa global contínua de práticas importantes de conhecimento.

Las universidades postsoviéticas para el desarrollo en la práctica: experiencias locales y mundiales

La universidad desempeña un importante papel en la producción de conocimientos para el desarrollo social. Simultáneamente, se afirma que la pedagogía utilizada en las humanidades de los sistemas escolares universitarios del Norte o de Occidente fomenta la ciudadanía porque desarrolla herramientas dirigidas a la libertad; los proyectos de reforma de la universidad postsoviética se basaron en esta idea. Las experiencias de la autora en el desarrollo y la reforma universitaria de la antigua Unión Soviética muestran que la pedagogía despolitizada en las humanidades más bien fortaleció prácticas autoritarias; la esperanza de contar con una pedagogía emancipadora en las humanidades continúa construyéndose a nivel mundial mediante el ejercicio de prácticas de conocimiento crítico.