Public and Private Welfare State Institutions: A Formal Theory of American Exceptionalism

I construct a model of public policy development, and use the model to explain why the United States has a comparatively small public sector, but instead a large "private welfare state" with employment-based benefits. The key factors are politically organized firms and labor unions. These interest groups can use campaign support to influence a political decision-maker who decides whether to implement a social benefit. In addition, the firms can influence the outcome indirectly by privately providing their own workers with the benefit. This setup leads to three possible outcomes. In the first, no one is provided the social benefit. In the second, all workers receive it through government provision. In the third, some workers receive the policy, through their employers. I argue that the features leading to the third equilibrium correspond closely to political institutions and industry characteristics of the US, while the features of the second equilibrium better describe European countries.Political Economy; Interest Groups; Institutions; Welfare States

Consumer surveys in Juva and Järna for identification of eco-local food baskets

In both Finland and Sweden a family member collected the receipts or filled in purchase diaries for all food entering the household for human consumption during 14 days period. Information on the amount, price, origin and environmental brand of all food products was recorded. After the recording period, the families were interviewed about their food choices, food consumption and food purchasing habits

Bargaining over a New Welfare State

The goal of this paper is twofold: First, to develop an estimable model of legislative politics in the US Congress, second, to provide a greater understanding of the objectives behind the New Deal. In the theoretical model, the distribution of federal funds across regions of the country is the outcome of bargaining game in which the President acts as the agenda-setter and Congress bargains over the final shape of the spending bill. For any given preferences (of the President) and distribution of seats in Congress, the model delivers a unique predicted allocation. Combined with data on New Deal programs, this is used to estimate the objectives of the Roosevelt administration. The results indicate that economic concerns for relief and recovery, though not necessarily for fundamental reform and development, largely drove New Deal spending. Political concerns also mattered, but more on the margin.Political Economy; LegislativeBargaining; New Deal; US Congress; Public Spending

Effective recycling agriculture around the Baltic Sea: background report

In this report the historical background and present situation of the plant nutrient balances and surplus of plant nutrients within the agricultural sector in the eight countries of the Baltic Sea catchments area (Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark, Germany and Russia) are presented and analysed. The Baltic Ecological Recycling Agriculture and Society (BERAS) project is evaluating the consequences of converting the whole agricultural sector according to recycling principles. This analysis is being based on data from selected ecological recycling farms within the Baltic drainage area and will be presented in a series of project reports of which this is the first for Work Package 2, Effects on environment, natural resources and health

Local and ecological food consumption - case studies in Finland and Sweden

Preliminary results show that in the Juva district amount of energy according to the purchase diary is 7.6 MJ/person/day and in Järna district the amount is 9.4 MJ/person/day. Our results are in a range that is reasonable

The potential of ecological recycling agriculture (ERA) for improved nature resource conservation and reduced environmental impacts in the Baltic Sea drainage area

By integrating crop and animal production on a farm or farms in closed cooperation combined with soil formation legume crops in balanced crop-rotations it will be possible to maximize the efficient use of nutrients in manure, minimize inputs of limited nutrient resources, minimize nutrient surpluses and reduce the input of nutrients to the Baltic Sea by more than 50 %. This will be the basis for recommendation to convert the agriculture in the Baltic drainage area

Systems analysis of small-scale systems for food supply and organic waste management

In this thesis, systems for recycling of household organic waste (easily degradable food waste and sewage water) and small-scale systems for food supply were evaluated to see if they could be environment and energy-conserving options. They were evaluated using simulation of static substance-flow models (SFA) combined with life cycle assessment methodology (LCA) for aggregation and interpretation of the results. Three systems were modelled and simulated: i) organic waste management (including transport, spreading on arable land and cropping of grain), ii) bread processing and distribution and finally iii) liquid milk processing and distribution. The results were found to be very dependent on factors such as choice of system boundaries, transport distances and type of technology. Thus, it was not possible to draw general conclusions regarding the organic waste management system and the scale of food supply system which were most beneficial. However, for the organic waste management system, it was concluded that toilet water-separating sewage systems are a means to increase the rate of nutrient recycling. Furthermore, it was found that urine-separating toilet systems increase nitrogen-recycling rate and decrease energy consumption. The results indicated that anaerobic digestion of organic wastes from society and animal manure could be a system for farmers (or communities) to become more energy self-supporting. With regard to the food supply system (the transport and processing chain of foodstuffs), it was concluded that energy optimised small-scale food processing and distribution systems could have lower environmental impacts and energy consumption than large-scale systems. However, this requires that the advantages of small-scale be utilised in the entire system, i.e. they should be combined with a nearby local market in order to minimise all transport. The results obtained indicate that the processing step and the private-car transport of food from shop to consumer's home are the most essential parts of the food supply system with respect to environmental impacts and energy consumption

Sustainable Food System – Targeting Production Methods, Distribution or Food Basket Content?

Agriculture is the single most important contributor to the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea. Itis responsible for 59% of the anthropogenic nitrogen and 56% of the phosphorous emissions(HELCOM, 2005). A second important source of nutrient emissions is at the other end of thefood system – emissions from municipal waste-water treatment plants and from privatehouseholds. Addressing different aspects of the food system is thus crucial for the Baltic Seaenvironment. To tackle eutrophication both nitrogen and phosphorous loads should bereduced (MVB, 2005). This can be achieved if emissions from the food system are reduced,e.g. by closing the nutrient cycle from soil to crop and back to agricultural soil (Diaz andRosenberg, 2008). Granstedt (2000) finds that the high surplus and emissions of nitrate andphosphorous in Swedish agriculture is a consequence of specialized agriculture with itsseparation of crop and animal production. Similar findings are reported from different partsof Europe (Brower et al., 1995). About 80% of cropland in Sweden is used for fodderproduction but the animal production is concentrated to a limited number of specializedanimal farms. Manure, with its contents of nutrients from the whole agriculture area, istoday concentrated on only 20% of the Swedish arable land (Statistics Sweden, 2011). Thisresults in high nutrient surplus and load of nitrogen and phosphorus from these areas.Granstedt (2000) concludes that the emissions can be limited by combining best availableagricultural technology with increased recycling of nutrients within the agricultural systemtrough integration of crop and animal production - ecological recycling agriculture (ERA).This facilitates an efficient use of the plant nutrients in farm yard manure. Other studies ofnutrient balances comparing farming systems and lifecycle assessment report similarobservations (Halberg, 1999; Myrbeck, 1999; Steinshamn et al., 2004; Uusitalo, 2007). Thepotential of reduced nutrient emissions trough ERA was confirmed in case studies on localorganic farms around the Baltic Sea (Granstedt et al., 2008; Larsson and Granstedt, 2010).Carlsson-Kanyama (1999) found that greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by localand organic food production due to shorter transportation. Similar results are reported in acompilation of studies (FiBL, 2006) and in studies of local production and processing inJärna, Sweden (Wallgren, 2008). According to Carlsson-Kanyama et al. (2004) the reductionsare not significant unless local distribution becomes more efficient.QC 20160524</p

Sow reproduction and piglet performance in multi-suckling pens

Production systems with group housing of sows at different stages of production are increasing in Europe, as an effect of public demand for more animal welfare-friendly pig production. Some niche certified piglet production systems keep lactating sows with piglets in groups in multi-suckling pens. However, three factors have been identified as affecting certified piglet production in systems with multi-suckling pens: The occurrence of lactational oestrus, piglet mortality and within-litter weight variation at weaning. This thesis investigated the possibility to affect these three factors by altering management routines. Three different management routines that differed in terms of time spent in an individual farrowing pen post-farrowing, before the lactating sows with piglets were group-housed in a multi-suckling pen, were created. Time spent in the individual farrowing pen was one (W1), two (W2) or three weeks (W3). Piglets in all management routines were weaned at six weeks post-farrowing. Only one of 43 sows ovulated during lactation. This was determined by post-mortem macroscopic examination of the ovaries and progesterone metabolite concentration in faeces. Interestingly, the weaning to standing oestrus interval was significantly shorter (p<0.001) for W2 (2.6 ±0.3 days) and W3 (2.7 ±0.2 days) than W1 (4.0 ±0.3 days). Piglet mortality in the multi-suckling pen was significantly lower (p<0.05) in W3 and W2 than W1. Within-litter weight variation did not differ between the management routines. Stress induced by reallocation and mixing of sows can affect ovarian activity and was therefore assessed during the group-housing period by measuring cortisol concentrations in saliva sampled during the first four days post-mixing. Analysis showed that W3 sows were less stressed in the multi-suckling pen than W1 sows. Overall, the results in this thesis on sow reproduction and piglet performance can be used for development of housing and management routines