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UNDERSTANDING THE STAGNATION OF DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN MYANMAR POLICE FORCE: A BEHAVIORAL AND INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH
Get PDFInternational University of Japan博士（公共経営学）/ Ph.D. in Public Management2020The ongoing administrative reform in the Myanmar Police Force (MPF) has included adoption of community-based policing as the main philosophy of the police department since 2012; that is, the MPF has been pushed to change with a new objective-be consistent with the newly-democratic political order in the country. However, the democratic values inherent in the community-oriented concept has stagnated under the military influences caused by political instability and armed conflicts among the ethnicities of the country. Subsequently, many studies reveal that the success of the MPF democratic reform is highly dependent on reducing military influences and establishing the police department as an independent organization. However, with the current unstable conditions of the country, the problem of democratic reform with community-based policing in the MPF has become unsolvable if the problem recognition is all related to the military influence. Unlike prior studies on this topic that attribute the failure of the MPF reform to explicit military influence, this study argues that internal factors within MPF explain why the attempted reform stagnated. Specifically, I focus on two factors. The first, which builds upon Simon's (1997) decision-making study, is MPF leaders' interests about the organization's goals, interests, and constraints through the decisional premises. Simon (1997) points out the importance of decisional premises to understand the actual interests of decision-makers in the organization. In the context of MPF, many of the leaders are trained in the military and, accordingly, they perceived community-based policing as something similar to how the military interacts with and mobilizes people (i.e. People's War strategy). As a result, MPF's specific decisions with respect to community-based policing - such as the content of the training program, values priority, and administrative procedures - have led to stagnation of the reform. And, the second is the impact of instructional context to determine the underlying source of organizational interests and, in turn, provide the factors to consider for the potential solutions. Study about the institutional context intends to understand how the institutional context in Myanmar has affected on the organizational changes, the analysis looks at the inherited and instilled values of the MPF as well as the shared belief system in the (armed) organizational field related to the organizational belief. The study concludes that the uncertainty situations of reform process provided the significant of the impact of institutional context on the organizational interests.thesi
Up(and down)-skilling and directed technical change
Get PDFIn this paper we develop a dynamic general equilibrium analog to the Roy model. Specifically, the economy is populated by heterogeneous agents who differ in ability and sort into skilled and unskilled jobs. Because skilled jobs use ability with greater intensity, high (low) ability workers sort into skilled (unskilled) jobs. As in other frameworks, this endogenous cutoff ability depends on the economy's technology and distribution of workers. In contrast to existing' assignment' models, we incorporate endogenous skill— or, more aptly, ability — biased technical change. We use our framework to engage in a number of comparative statics. Our model’s tractability allows us to contrast the short and long-run effects of changes to the economy's fundamentals. We show that, for commonly used distributions, a first order stochastic dominance (FOSD) increase in the ability distribution raises the ability requirement to work in skilled jobs in the short run. In contrast, the long-run cutoff ability may actually decline. More generally, the technological response always dampens the increase in ability requirements.departmental bulletin pape
Fiscal Disparities in Indonesia under Decentralization: To What Extent Has General Allocation Grant(DAU) Equalized Fiscal Revenues?
Get PDFThis study analyzes the level and trend of fiscal disparity across districts and explores the determinants of fiscal disparity by two inequality decomposition methods. Disparity in per capita shared revenue (DBH) has been the highest since 2003 due to the very unevenspatial distribution of natural resources and tax bases. DBH is unambiguously aninequality-increasing fiscal transfer. While general allocation grant (DAU) has served toequalize fiscal revenue, fiscal disparity is still very high. To further reduce the disparity,it may be necessary to modify the DAU allocation formula. This study proposes a newallocation formula. Though the reduction in fiscal disparity is not substantial under thenew formula, it would encourage resource-poorer districts to raise own source revenue(PAD). This could create a virtuous cycle, since the rise in PAD would enable districtgovernments to promote their economy through further development of human resources and infrastructure and this would in turn raise PAD. Another option to reduce fiscal disparity would be the further expansion of special allocation grant (DAK). If the government allocates the DAK funds effectively across districts, then it could make DAKan inequality-decreasing fiscal transfer.departmental bulletin pape
Japan's Leadership at the G8 Toyako Summit on Climate Change
Get PDFJapan has a very strong attachment to the G7/8 economic summit as a founding member. Especially when the Japanese leaders served as the host in 1979-2000, they spent much energy to ensure a successful conclusion of each summit. In order to serve as an effective host, Japanese leaders tried to establish personal ties with other country participants. At the 2008 Toyako Summit, the Japanese government successfully produced an agreement on climate change by coordinating the conflicting interests of the European members and the United States. Although the heated discussions were exchanged at the sherpa meetings, it required personal involvement and strong determination of Prime Minister Fukuda. Fukuda's relationship with the American and Chinese leaders significantly contributed to concluding an agreement.departmental bulletin pape
Why Does Economic Performance Differ between Domestic and Foreign-Owned Establishments? Evidence from Nigeria
Get PDFDiversifying its economy away from the oil industry and developing competitive nonagricultural industries are two of Nigeria's most important policy targets. However, the Nigerian economy faces significant challenges, such as educational attainment among workers, soundness of infrastructure, and access to finance. This study investigates how and to what extent these factors affect the output and productivity of domestic establishments (DEs) and foreignowned establishments (FOEs) in Nigeria. Further, it compares the economic performance of these two groups of establishments and analyzes the determinants of ownership differentials.First, the results show that FOEs significantly outperform DEs. Second, access to finance plays a key role, both in improving the economic performance of establishments (regardless of their ownership) and in explaining ownership differentials in economic performance. Third, it is implied that increasing educational attainment amongst workers could improve the performance of DEs by making it easier for them to employ skilled employees. In Nigeria, many reforms are under way under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, and they aim to develop infrastructure, strengthen the financial system, and improve human capital, to name but a few objectives; however, their rapid and complete implementation are urgently needed.departmental bulletin pape
Determinants of School Dropout in Lao PDR: A Survival Analysis
Get PDFUsing the most recent round of a nationally representative survey series, this study examines determinants of dropout from primary to higher levels of education in Lao PDR. The existing studies show that, unlike in other developing countries, the effects of household income and gender are limited. Our analysis confirms the former, that is, net household income has a negligible effect but not the latter—gender inequality remains an issue to be resolved at relatively higher levels of education. Further, despite the government's significant emphasis on early childhood education, the earlier studies report only insignificant effects. In contrast, we find that preschool attendance helps reduce dropout rates, implying that the government policy has been gaining effectiveness in recent years. As in other countries, mothers' schooling and school construction have positive effects on school enrollment in Lao PDR as well.departmental bulletin pape
Bad Performance-Low Trust Link and Local Government: A Quasi-Experimental Study
Get PDFTrust is easier to destroy than to create. While psychology literature has empirically supported this asymmetry principle, public administrators have largely assumed that the causal mechanisms of citizen trust in government with bad performance are symmetrical to those with good performance. The asymmetry principle implies that low trust is more likely to appear as a result of bad performance. To examine this bad performance-low trust link, this study conducts a quasi-experiment that contrasts a Japanese town in fiscal crisis to a control village not in fiscal crisis. Using a difference-in-differences analysis with a retrospective pretest, it finds that satisfaction with overall service quality was unaffected by tax increases and service cuts during the fiscal crisis, while the perceived appropriateness of process significantly declined. It also finds the positive associations of trust with civic engagement. The study first sheds light on distinctive features of the bad performance-low trust link.departmental bulletin pape
VIETNAMESE FOREIGN POLICY: MEMORY AND LEARNING IN THE DOI MOI ERA
Get PDFInternational University of Japan博士（国際関係学）/ Ph.D. in International Relations2018Ever since 1988, Vietnam has successfully diversified and multilateralised its relationships, whilst placing a strong degree of focus on integration into the international political economy. This multidirectional foreign policy is designed to contribute to a peaceful international environment and a stable domestic one in order to promote economic growth and build up the aggregate strength of the country. At the same time, it is designed to boost the country's autonomy, protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as hedge against potential threats. This multidirectional foreign policy has contributed significantly to the economic reformist agenda, formally initiated at the 1986 Sixth Party Congress, otherwise known as Doi Moi. Additionally, it has boosted Vietnam's international profile and reversed the diplomatic isolation it faced as the Cold War came to a close. As such, multidirectionalism has become a fundamental aspect of the Doi Moi process. This thesis traces the learning process since multidirectionalism’s inception and argues that this learning process, along with the economic benefits reaped, have evolved into positive memories for the Vietnamese Communist Party. This means multidirectionalism continues to be reinforced and as a result, these memories shape Vietnam's continued expansion of that policy. Additionally, this thesis also offers a conceptual definition to the term multidirectionalism as well as explores the mechanisms through which Vietnam implements this policy.thesi
Does health insurance matter in the hospital? New evidence from patient-level medical records in Vietnam
Get PDFVietnam has achieved several Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations including child mortality reduction and maternal health improvement. The government of Vietnam aims to further improve health in Vietnam by expanding its public health insurance system originally introduced in 1993. Since health insurance is an essential tool to prepare for unexpected health shocks, the government plans to provide a public insurance system to cover eighty percent of its population by 2020. However, whether having health insurance is beneficial remains unclear and controversial. Some recent studies find positive impact of health insurance, while others argue that the quality of its services has been low due to limited coverage. In contrast to previous papers on Vietnam's health policy that use data from nationwide Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey, this research uses more detailed, randomly-selected, patient-level medical records from Viet Duc University Hospital, the largest public surgical hospital in Vietnam. Using precise information on each patient's treatment history and usage of health insurance, this paper provides new empirical evidence on the effect of health insurance. Regression analysis shows that insurance helps patients stay 1.6 days longer in hospital and pay 48.6 percent less for their treatments than uninsured counterparts. This study also finds that financial burden between the insured and uninsured patients is larger in rural provinces than in the capital-city Hanoi, suggesting the significant advantages of health insurance for people in under-developed areas with fewer public hospitals. These new findings from patient-level information in Vietnam contribute to the growing literature on health insurance policies in developing countries and are particularly informative when governments plan to introduce nationwide public health-insurance systems.departmental bulletin pape
レベル差のあるクラスでの動画教材「Lesson for Useful Expressions in Japanese」の活用授業実践報告
Get PDF本稿は、レベル差があるクラスにおいて本校作成の動画教材を用いた授業を行なった実践の報告である。まず、レベル差への対応を先行研究から探り、本学で作成した動画教材を使用する講座を計画し、全5回の授業を行なった。授業後に振り返りとして学生が書いた表現・語句とアンケートの結果をもとにレベル差に対応できたかを検討した。書かれた内容をレベルの異なる学生間で比較した結果とアンケートの回答から動画活用の可能性と改善点を述べた。departmental bulletin pape