AGRICULTURAL POLICY ANALYSIS: DISCUSSION

Agricultural economists are appropriately concerned about their profession's contributions to policy decisions. An examination of alternative approaches to transforming policy analyses is in order. There are opportunities to (a) focus on income and wealth distribution, (b) give attention to the public as a primary client, (c) avoid advocacy, and (d) adjust institutions in ways that encourage participation in policy analyses including the development of data systems.Equity, Income and wealth distribution, Policy analysis, Public as a primary client, Agricultural and Food Policy,

WP7 Regional/local Case Studies

This report provides an in depth and transversal analysis of the policy Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) in Glasgow City Region and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshrie Region. It analyses the correspondence of meanings attributed to the policy by national policymakers, regional managers, practitioners and young adults’ beneficiaries of the DYW policy, as well as identifying governance issues and (un)intended consequences on young peoples’ lives

“Policy scepticism” and the impact of Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) on their host region: accounting for regional budget constraints under devolution

A “policy scepticism” has emerged that challenges the results of conventional regional HEI impact analyses. Its denial of the importance of the expenditure impacts of HEIs appears to be based on a belief in either a binding regional resource constraint or a regional public sector budget constraint. In this paper we provide a systematic critique of this policy scepticism. However, while rejecting the extreme form of policy scepticism, we argue that it is crucial to recognise the importance of the public-sector expenditure constraints that are binding under devolution. We show how conventional impact analyses can be augmented to accommodate regional public sector budget constraints. While our results suggest that conventional impact studies overestimate the expenditure impacts of HEIs, they also demonstrate that the policy scepticism that treats these expenditure effects as irrelevant neglects some key aspects of HEIs, in particular their export intensity

An interactive approach to policy impact assessment for organic farms in Europe

Organic farming has increasingly become an integral part of the European Common Agricultural Policy. This book analyses the impact of possible future EU policy options on typical organic dairy and arable farms in the EU. A novel methodological approach is tested in terms of applicability and feasibility of using it for international comparative policy impact analysis for organic farms. This approach links focus groups, consisting of farmers and advisors, with a policy impact assessment simulation model in an interactive manner

Telling the whole story: using mulitple lenses for policy analysis

The poster outlines three critical lenses with potential to more explicitly inform social policy analyses. They are represented here as policy historiography, policy genealogy and policy archaeology. Without claiming absolute distinctions between their interests, the poster couples policy historiography with substantive issues of policy at particular hegemonic moments, policy genealogy with social actors’ engagement with policy, and policy archaeology with conditions that regulate policy formations. Essentially, this is a heuristic framework to reveal historical rules and regularities of policy that are peculiar to certain times and political governments or new leaderships; to position policy formulation process as a dynamic interplay of policy actors across local, national and international boundaries; and finally to synthesise findings generated from multiple perspectives to displace complexities and contradictions and arrive at a deeper understanding of policy at all its levels including fact-finding, formulation, implementation and evaluation

Divergence or convergence? Health inequalities and policy in a devolved Britain

Since the advent of political devolution in the UK, it has been widely reported that markedly different health policies have emerged. However, most of these analyses are based on a comparison of health care policies and, as such, only tell part of a complex and evolving story. This paper considers official responses to a shared public health policy aim, the reduction of health inequalities, through an examination of national policy statements produced in England, Scotland and Wales respectively since 1997. The analysis suggests that the relatively consistent manner in which the ‘policy problem’ of health inequalities has been framed combined with the dominance of a medical model of health have constrained policy responses. Our findings differ from existing analyses, raising some important questions about the actuality of, and scope for, policy divergence since devolution

Finance and Growth: New Evidence and Policy Analyses for Chile

Given conflicting theoretical predictions about the impact of stock markets and banks on economic growth, this paper empirically evaluates this debate. The results emphasize the growth-enhancing role of stock markets and banks. Chile is clearly an outlier; it has less liquid stock markets and lower levels of banking development than other rapidly growing countries. The paper then compares Chile’s commercial bank regulatory and supervisory system with other countries and highlights some areas worthy of further study.

Are gender equality institutions the policy allies of the feminist movement? A contingent "yes" in the Spanish central state

This article studies the extent to which gender equality institutions are the policy allies of the feminist movement in Spain. A policy ally of the feminist movement is defined as one that adopts the demands of the movement and includes them in the policy process. This article analyses the role played by the Women’s Institute (WI) between 1983 and 2003 in 12 policy debates, in a third of which the WI was an ally of the movement. Two circumstances are identified as necessary for the WI to act as an ally of the feminist movement, whilst other are not strictly necessary but have facilitated the WI acting as a policy ally of the movement.Publicad

LSE centre for economic performance: bankers’ bonuses

A new series of Election Analyses is now available from the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance (CEP). The series will discuss the research evidence on some of the key policy battlegrounds of the 2010 General Election, including macroeconomic policy, immigration, health, education, crime, poverty and inequality, labour market policy, regional policy, energy and the environment, financial regulation and bankers’ bonuses, and foreign aid. The latest CEP Election Analysis, by Brian Bell, gives an overview of bankers’ bonuses and extreme wage inequality, one of the key battlegrounds of the 2010 General Election. The publication is summarised below and can be found in full on the CEP Election Analysis Site

“Policy scepticism” and the impact of London based higher edication institutions (HEIS) on the economy of England : accounting for alternative uses of public expenditure

This paper replicates the analysis of Scottish HEIs in Hermannsson et al (2010a) for the case of London-based HEIs’ impact on the English economy in order to provide a self-contained analysis that is readily accessible by those whose primary concern is with the regional impacts of London HEIs. A “policy scepticism” has emerged that challenges the results of conventional regional HEI impact analyses. This denial of the importance of the expenditure impacts of HEIs appears to be based on a belief in either a binding regional resource constraint or a regional public sector budget constraint. In this paper we provide a systematic critique of this policy scepticism. However, while rejecting the extreme form of policy scepticism, we argue that it is crucial to recognise the importance of alternative uses of public expenditure, and show how conventional impact analyses can be augmented to accommodate this. While our results suggest that conventional impact studies overestimate the expenditure impacts of HEIs, they also demonstrate that the policy scepticism that treats these expenditure effects as irrelevant neglects some key aspects of HEIs, in particular their export intensity