Is it time to withdraw from china?

This research cross-employs the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and three major labor theories comprised of Maslow’s theory, Alderfer’s theory and Herzberg’s theory with Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) consisting of Factor Analysis (FA), Analytical Network Process (“ANP”), Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP) and Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) to evaluate the four types of innovative investment strategies in China after the Domino Effect of the China’s Labor Revolution. The most contributed conclusion is that the “change of original business at the raising compensation policy” (CBRCP) is the best choice for Taiwanese manufacturers operating in China because it is the highest scores of three assessed measurements in the CBRCP. This conclusion further indicates that manufacturing enterprises have little leverage, in the interim, but to increase employment compensation and benefits to satisfy the demands from the ongoing Chinese labor revolution even though it brings about an incremental expenditure in their manufacturing costs. Therefore, the next step beyond this research is to collect additional empirical macroeconomic data to develop a more comprehensive evaluation model that takes into consideration a more in-depth vertical measurement and horizontal assessment methodologies for developing added comprehensive and effective managerial strategies for surviving in this momentous, dynamically-changing and lower-profit Chinese manufacturing market.China labor revolution; Maslow theory; Alderfer theory and Herzberg theory; Multiple criteria decision making

Devolution as a means to adequate social safety nets?

Decentralisation is invariably among the recommendations that international organisations such as the World Bank make for an enhancement of social provisions, and particularly a better targeting of social assistance regimes, in Eastern and Central Europe. However, theoretical literature as wel as empirical research suggests that decentralisation is not by defintion a panacea, especially when it concerns the transfers of competencies in the matter of social protection systems. It is true that there are arguments to promote redistributive activity at lower levels of government but whith regard to policies aimed at redistribution and reducing poverty (and welfare generosity) the assumption that redistribution is best organised at the central level is rather dominant. Fundamental constraints on redistribution by lower level governments would -according to this line of reasoning- facilitate a 'race to the bottom'. This paper investigates the relationship between the generosity of social assistance benefits and several dimensions of decentralisation (the administration, decision-making and funding of social assistance schemes) at two levels of government (the substate and the local level) in 21 OECD countries by means of a fuzzy set analysis. The results indicate that social asssitance benefits are more adequate in countries where the decision-making, funding and administration of social assistance schemes is controlled by the central government and in countries where central or substate governments set the basic social assistance rates and housing benefits while sharing funding liabilities with the local government level. When Central and Eastern European countries opt for decentralisation as an instrument of poverty alleviation – through a better targeting of benefits -, prudence is called for the fact that there might be a trade-off between the transfer of competencies to lowel levels of government and the generosity of welfare programmes.decentralization; devolution; social policy; social assistance; Europe; OECD; Fuzzy Set; social welfare; race to the bottom; federalism

A problem-structuring model for analyzing transportation–environment relationships

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in European Journal of Operational Research. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.This study discusses a decision support framework that guides policy makers in their strategic transportation related decisions by using multi-methodology. For this purpose, a methodology for analyzing the effects of transportation policies on environment, society, economy, and energy is proposed. In the proposed methodology, a three-stage problem structuring model is developed. Initially, experts’ opinions are structured by using a cognitive map to determine the relationships between transportation and environmental concepts. Then a structural equation model (SEM) is constructed, based on the cognitive map, to quantify the relations among external transportation and environmental factors. Finally the results of the SEM model are used to evaluate the consequences of possible policies via scenario analysis. In this paper a pilot study that covers only one module of the whole framework, namely transportation–environment interaction module, is conducted to present the applicability and usefulness of the methodology. This pilot study also reveals the impacts of transportation policies on the environment. To achieve a sustainable transportation system, the extent of the relationships between transportation and the environment must be considered. The World Development Indicators developed by the World Bank are used for this purpose

Understanding location decisions of energy multinational enterprises within the European smart cities’ context: An integrated AHP and extended fuzzy linguistic TOPSIS method

Becoming a smart city is one of the top priorities in the urban agenda of many European cities. Among the various strategies in the transition path, local governments seek to bring innovation to their cities by encouraging multinational enterprises to deploy their green energy services and products in their municipalities. Knowing how to attract these enterprises implies that political leaders understand the multi-criteria decision problem that the energy sector enterprises face when deciding whether to expand to one city or another. To this end, the purpose of this study is to design a new manageable and controllable framework oriented to European cities’ public managers, based on the assessment of criteria and sub-criteria governing the strategic location decision made by these enterprises. A decision support framework is developed based on the AHP technique combined with an extended version of the hesitant fuzzy linguistic TOPSIS method. The main results indicate the higher relative importance of government policies, such as degree of transparency or bureaucracy level, as compared to market conditions or economic aspects of the city’s host country. These results can be great assets to current European leaders, they show the feasibility of the method and open up the possibility to replicate the proposed framework to other sectors or geographical areas.The authors acknowledge the support from the European Union “Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme” under the grant agreements No 731297. Also, this research has been partially supported by the INVITE Research Project (TIN2016-80049-C2-1-R and TIN2016-80049-C2-2-R (AEI/FEDER, UE)), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Information Technology.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

TACIS and EU's security of energy supply: the Commission as a strategic actor in external relations

This article seeks to explain why EC Members in 1990 delegated competences in the coordination of TACIS - a technical assistance programme with energy related aspects for the former Soviet Union - to the Commission, and to determine whether this institution succeeded in exerting an independent influence on the course of the EU's external energy policy in the following years. Four mechanisms will be used to explain the institutional independence: Path Dependence and Unintended Consequences; Formal and Informal Agenda Setting; and Fuzzy Legal Boundaries. It can be demonstrated that the Commission has considerably increased its competences in energy politics since the instigation of TACIS. The Commission has exploited institutional rules to take the initiative, redefined the energy sector in relation to foreign and security policy, and thereby has managed to shape EU's external energy policy over time. Ultimately, we can observe the establishment and subsequent interlocking of functions beyond the nation-state together with those still within governmental confines. --

What Choices Do Democracies Have in Globalizing Economies? Technochratic Policy Making and Democratization

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.UNRISD_DemocraciesGlobalizingEconomies.pdf: 39 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Multidisciplinary studies in management and development programs in the public sector Semiannual report, 1 Jan. - 30 Jun. 1970

Multidisciplinary studies in programs in the public sector, including project management, NASA technology transfer, national decision making, and space regulation

A coordination game model for risk allocation of a PPP project with the weakened hedged probabilistic linguistic term information

Risk allocation is a considerable part of public-private partnership (PPP) projects’ achievement during risk management. Regarding the complication of PPP projects, the difficulty of risk management, and the incomplete information of the project, it may be complicated to allocate risk factors with numbers, which may cause players’ hesitations, the poor performance of strategies, and the complexity of risk allocation process. To display the dynamic and the objective of risk allocation strategies, players prefer to take linguistic variables to depict their strategies. In this paper, we take the linguistic expression, the probabilistic linguistic terms with weakened hedges (P-LTWHs) to express players’ strategies. The P-LTWHs not only take the hedges of linguistic variables but also consider the probabilities of choosing the corresponding linguistic variables. With the perspective of viewpoints dynamics, we developed risk allocation models of the market risk with coordination game under the P-LTWHs environment. Finally, we give some suggestions of risk allocation models with P-LTWHs information

Stimulating Local Public Employment: Do General Grants Work?

The effectiveness of public funds in increasing public employment has long been a question on public and labor economists’ minds. In most federal countries local governments employ large fractions of the working population, meaning that a tool for stimulating local public employment can substantially affect the overall unemployment level. This paper asks whether general grants to lower-level governments have the potential of doing so. Applying the regression kink design to the Swedish grant system, we are able to estimate causal effects of intergovernmental grants on personnel in different local government sectors. Our robust conclusion is that personnel in the central administration increased substantially after a marginal increase in grants, but that such an effect was lacking both for total personnel and personnel in child care, schools, elderly care, social welfare and in technical services. We suggest several potential reasons for these results, such as heterogeneous treatment effects and bureaucratic influence in the local decision-making process.Fiscal federalism; intergovernmental grants; public employment; regression kink design; instrumental variables