Limits of regulatory responsiveness: Democratic credentials of responsive regulation

Responsiveness and accountability constitute the process of democratic representation, reinforcing each other. Responsiveness asks elected representatives to adopt policies ex ante preferred by citizens, while accountability consists of the people's ex post sanctioning of the representatives based on policy outcomes. However, the regulatory literature tends to interpret responsiveness narrowly between a regulator and regulatees: the regulator is responsive to regulatees’ compliance without considering broader public needs and preferences. Democratic regulatory responsiveness requires that the regulator should be responsive to the people, not just regulatees. We address this theoretical gap by pointing out the perils of regulatory capture and advancing John Braithwaite's idea of tripartism as a remedy. We draw out two conditions of democratic regulatory responsiveness from Philip Selznick – comprehensiveness and proactiveness. We then propose overlapping networked responsiveness based on indirect reciprocity among various stakeholders. This mechanism is the key to connecting regulatory responsiveness with accountability.     

Genetic analysis of 18 X-linked short tandem repeat markers in Korean population

The population genetic data of 18 X-chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) markers DXS6807, DXS8378, DXS9895, DXS9902, DXS6810, DXS7132, DXS981, DXS6800, DXS9898, DXS6789, DXS101, DXS6797, GATA172D05, GATA165B12, HPRTB, GATA31E08, DXS8377, and DXS7423 were analyzed in samples of unrelated 220 males and 181 females from Korean population. The exact test for genotype distribution of the markers showed no significant deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Allele frequencies between male and female samples were not significantly different in all examined markers. All examined males and females showed different hemizygotic haplotype and combined genotypes, respectively. Four cases of mutation were found in GATA172D05, GATA31E08, DXS7132, and HPRTB from the analysis of 95 father-child-mother trios. Details of X chromosomal STRs in Koreans would be useful in paternity tests and forensic purposes as well as whole X-chromosomal mapping studies.     

A culture of rent seeking

Public Choice - Tullock [J Dev Econ 67(2):455–470, 1967] introduced the concept of rent seeking and highlighted the social costs associated with collecting and lobbying for or against...     

The iteration deficit in responsive regulation: Are regulatory ambassadors an answer?

One reason that regulation is difficult is that repeated encounters between regulator and regulatee are rare. We suggest diplomacy as a model for reconfiguring regulatory institutions in response. Ambassadors for Regulatory Affairs who would be agents for all state regulatory agencies could be based in most large firms and small and medium enterprises that pose unusual regulatory risks. In rural towns, police would be trained as regulatory ambassadors. Just as a US Secretary of State can launch a “diplomatic surge” in Myanmar from 2009, so regulatory surges are possible in market sectors of high risk or high opportunity. We propose strategies of indirect reciprocity as a way in which reciprocity that is only episodic in these strategic ways can promote more general responsiveness. Indirect reciprocity is reciprocity that we do not personally experience, but learn from the experience of a culture. This means that so long as we sustain regulation as a relational as opposed to a purely technocratic process, indirect reciprocity might civilize regulatory compliance in an historical process informed by the theories of Elias and Putnam.     

Forensic genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA hypervariable region I/II sequences: an expanded Korean population database

We have analyzed variation of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable segments I and II (HVS-I and HVS-II) in 185 randomly chosen individuals from Korea to provide an expanded and reliable Korean database. Combined sequence comparison of HVS-I and HVS-II led to the identification of 167 different haplotypes characterized by 154 variable sites. One hundred and fifty-one of the haplotypes were individual-specific, 14 were found in two individuals and 2 were found in three individuals. A pairwise comparison of the 185 HVS-I/II sequences found an average of 10.11 +/- 4.63 differences between individuals. The random match probability and gene diversity for the combined hypervariable regions were estimated at 0.66% and 0.9988, respectively. Analyzing the expanded database including three previously reported data sets and the present data using haplogroup-based comparisons and comparison with closely related sequences allowed errors to be detected and eliminated, thus considerably improving data quality. Sample division comparisons based on PhiST genetic distance measures revealed no significant population differentiation in the distribution of mtDNA sequence variations between the present data set and a database in The Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM), but did indicate differences from other sets of data. Based on the results of mtDNA profiles, almost all of the mtDNA types studied here could be classified into subsets of haplogroups common in east Asia, and show that the Koreans possess lineages from both the southern and the northern haplogroup complexes of east Asian populations. The new data, combined with other mtDNA sequences, demonstrate how useful comparison with closely related mtDNA sequences can be for improving database quality, as well as providing haplotype information for forensic and population genetic analyses in the Korean population.     

Effort,Technology and the Efficiency of Agricultural Cooperatives

The inefficiency of cooperative agriculture relative to private farms is often attributed to difficulties in monitoring or poor incentives. We develop a model to show that, in technologies with numerous sequential steps, even small shortfalls in worker effort can result in large output declines. Using data on cooperative and private farms in El Salvador, we find greater shortfalls in efficiency between cooperatives and private farms, as well as among cooperatives, for coffee, a crop requiring numerous steps in its cultivation, than for maize and sugar, which require fewer steps. Thus the undersupply of effort in cooperatives may be less than differences in productivity suggest, and cooperative agriculture is most likely to be successful where production does not involve many sequential steps.     

High‐Throughput STR Analysis for DNA Database Using Direct PCR,

Since the Korean criminal DNA database was launched in 2010, we have focused on establishing an automated DNA database profiling system that analyzes short tandem repeat loci in a high‐throughput and cost‐effective manner. We established a DNA database profiling system without DNA purification using a direct PCR buffer system. The quality of direct PCR procedures was compared with that of conventional PCR system under their respective optimized conditions. The results revealed not only perfect concordance but also an excellent PCR success rate, good electropherogram quality, and an optimal intra/inter‐loci peak height ratio. In particular, the proportion of DNA extraction required due to direct PCR failure could be minimized to <3%. In conclusion, the newly developed direct PCR system can be adopted for automated DNA database profiling systems to replace or supplement conventional PCR system in a time‐ and cost‐saving manner.     

Social Desirability Bias in Measuring Public Service Motivation

ABSTRACT

Public service motivation (PSM) is usually measured using self-report data, which suggests that PSM measures can be influenced by social desirability bias. This study investigates whether respondents tend to report an inflated view of their attitudes and orientations during surveys on PSM. Experimental survey research (list experiment) is conducted to analyze the magnitude of social desirability bias in PSM measurements and to examine the relationship between socio-demographic factors and social desirability bias in Korea. The results show evidence of social desirability responding bias, although the pattern of bias varies across socio-demographic subgroups. Respondents in their forties or fifties, conservatives, Protestants, and those without a religious affiliation show more bias than other subgroups. This finding implies that correlational analysis in PSM research may be prone to the moderating effect of social desirability bias. Research that does not recognize and compensate for this bias may produce unwarranted theoretical or practical conclusions.