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Behavioral insights for policy design in Central Asia
Get PDFIn mainstream economics, there is an assumption that individuals are rational actors whose decision-making is based on incentives, regulations and available information. When such an assumption is translated into designing public policies, authorities designing policies consider individual citizens as rational decision-makers. However, human choices are commonly influenced by various biases, emotional responses and social influences. The biases in human decision-making processes make traditional policy tools like tax incentives, mandatory requirements, and public awareness campaigns ineffective. This paper reviews and argues that behavioral insights can strengthen traditional policy instruments by better aligning interventions and human behavior. The countries in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, can achieve better policy outcomes through evidence-based, behaviorally informed design, complementing assumption-driven approaches. The paper explains the fundamentals of behavioral insights through worldwide examples and provides specific recommendations for implementing BI in policy development with implications for Uzbekistan
The Pharmaceutical Industry in Nigeria: Drug Accessibility, Affordability and Competitiveness in the Economy.
Get PDFThe study focuses on reviewing factors that influence accessibility, affordability, efficiency in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry and its impact on healthcare delivery. Despite the Nigeria’s increasing population coupled with a high disease burden, it imports most of its drugs from India and China since its own pharmaceutical sector is not self-sufficient. The study noted certain difficulties such as poor infrastructure, inflation, exchange rate volatility, poverty and weak regulatory structure in the health sector made it tough for people to get access and afford basic medicines. The study deployed a semi-log regression to see how accessibility and affordability of medicines interact with the capacity of pharmaceutical sector in the Nigerian economy. Findings from the study revealed significant interrelatedness between level of access to essential medicines and the pharmaceutical industry contribution to GDP; other variables, such as costs of Malaria treatments, minimum wage, and inflation, showed weak or no statistical impact on the response variable. In conclusion, the study suggests that the federal government should discontinue the NHIS program to allow the private sector takeover this programme, this can free up resource and strengthen local pharmaceutical production, it also recommends applying regulatory measures to ensure medications are accessible and affordable for better health outcomes and a stronger economy
When Green Turns Costly: The Fiscal Fallout of EU Waste Management Funds in Italian Municipalities
Get PDFThis paper investigates the fiscal consequences of EU-funded waste management
projects on local taxation in Italian municipalities. Using a difference-in-differences
approach on panel data from 2007 to 2023, we find that municipalities receiving EU
cohesion funds experienced a significant increase in per-capita waste taxes, driven
by rising service costs. A decomposition of these costs reveals that while separate
waste collection expanded — in line with sustainability goals — the associated
logistical and operational expenses increased sharply. Conversely, although the vol-
ume of unsorted waste declined, disposal costs rose, likely due to lower quality and
more complex treatment requirements. To assess whether cost increases reflected
inefficiency or technological progress, we estimate total factor productivity changes
via a non-parametric Malmquist index. The results indicate substantial productivity gains in sorted waste management, mostly from technological advancement,
but also suggest transitional inefficiencies. Our findings highlight the need for more
integrated investment strategies to balance environmental goals with fiscal sustainability
Innovative Approaches To People Management - Practical Guide To Good Practices
Get PDFThe project "Impact of Digitalization on Innovative Approaches in Human Resource Management" has an interdisciplinary nature and is based on scientific knowledge in the field of management science, economics, computer science and psychology. Relevance and significance of the project: Its relevance stems from the rapid changes generated by globalization and the convergence of the world through information technologies. The significance of the project is based on the need to prove the logical connection "digitalization - innovative approaches to human resource management" in modern organizations. Project objective: The objective set by the scientific team is to study the impact of digitalization on innovative approaches to human resource management in various sectors, including to analyse the digital accessibility of people with disabilities to the workplace. Scientific approaches: To achieve the research goal, a set of scientific approaches are used, allowing for a holistic view of the research problem, as well as its individual elements. The scientific team, with its different and specific expertise, relies on the application of the interdisciplinary approach, which, together with the systematic one, will contribute to the development of the author's research methodology, as well as specific conceptual models and new knowledge
Collective Sanction Enforcement: New Experimental Evidence from Two Societies
Get PDFThis paper presents the first experimental study on how higher-order punishment affects third-party sanction enforcement in the presence of multiple third parties. The design varies across treatments the number of third parties witnessing a norm violation and the opportunities available for third parties to costly punish each other after observing their peers’ enforcement actions. To test generalizability of higher-order enforcement effects, the experiment is conducted across two contrasting societies – India and the United Kingdom – using a prisoner’s dilemma game. These societies are selected for their positions at opposite ends of the tight-loose ancestral kinship spectrum. In both societies, third parties punish defectors who exploit their paired cooperators more strongly than any other person, consistent with prior research. However, punitive patterns differ. In the UK, third parties punish defectors less frequently and less strongly when other third parties are present. However, when higher-order punishments are available among third parties, their failure to punish defectors and acts of anti-social punishment invite strong higher-order punishment from their peers, which encourages their pro-social first-order punishments and makes mutual cooperation a Nash equilibrium outcome in the primary cooperation dilemma. However, in India, overall punishment levels are lower, group size and incentive structure changes have no discernible effects, and higher-order punishments are not better disciplined. These findings support a model of norm conformity for the UK and do not contradict such a model for India
Probabilistic Shift-Share Analysis of World Industrial Patterns, 1995-2019
Get PDFThis paper revisits Shift-Share and Constant Market Share Analysis by introducing a maximum entropy prior to replace ad hoc weighting schemes, assuming a uniform distribution of sectors. The resulting decomposition is additive and exact over discrete time periods, eliminating the need for a residual term. Both composition and competitiveness effects are derived from deviations relative to neutral expected growth.
Applying the method to global manufacturing data (1995–2019) for 76 countries at current and constant prices, the analysis distinguishes developed and developing countries trajectories. Ad-justments for home bias and demand structure deepen the insight. Compared with traditional approaches, this probabilistic SSA confirms competitiveness as the main driver of industrial growth, with methodological implications for structural analysis and policy
Demand and Supply Dynamics in the Indian Maritime Industry: A Study of the Impact of Economic Factors on Shipping Demand
Get PDFThis research paper explores the intricate demand and supply dynamics within the Indian maritime industry, with a particular focus on the impact of various economic factors on shipping demand. The global economy, commodity trades, average haul distances, and local economic indicators significantly influence the volume and nature of cargo transported by sea. India, with its extensive coastline and burgeoning economy, relies heavily on its maritime sector for international trade and domestic logistics. This study will analyze how macroeconomic trends, government policies, infrastructure development, and technological advancements shape the demand for shipping services in India. It will also examine the current state of supply, including fleet capacity, port infrastructure, and shipbuilding capabilities, and identify the mismatches that exist. Through a comprehensive literature review, explanation of key terminologies, and a case study, this paper aims to provide actionable insights and recommendations for stakeholders to foster sustainable growth and enhance the competitiveness of the Indian maritime industry
Governing of labor supply in Bulgarian farms - modes, factors, post-transition evolution
Get PDFThe goal of this article is to identify contemporary modes and factors of labor supply in Bulgarian farms. Interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics methodology is incorporated, and an analysis is made of new representative micro data collected from the managers of farms of different types and locations. There has been enormous development in labor supply governance in Bulgarian farms during the last two decades. Permanent employment is a major form of labor supply in farms, followed by seasonal and part-time employment. Owners and family members account for the largest share of the total workforce. Different forms are used (high recurrence of contracts with the same person, output-based compensation, use of service supply or input contracts, etc.) to reduce transaction costs of labor and overall governance of farms. The reasons for using employment contracts and the importance of different labor supply and governance modes, intensity of transactions, types of partners, and kinds of remuneration vary considerably depending on juridical type, size, specialization, and locations of holdings. The most important problems in hiring labor are the lack of labor in the labor market, the high price of hired labor, requirement to pay social payments, pay-holidays, etc., big turnover of workers, high costs for adapting official labor standards, high costs for controlling of hired labor (cheating, stealing, etc.), high costs for negotiating conditions of employment, high costs to find good workers, low qualification of hired labor, advance age of hired labor, requirement for signing a written contract, and insufficient initiatives of workers. For a significant number of Bulgarian farms, the costs for finding needed labor, and the amount of costs for managing the hired labor and workers in the farm are factors strongly restricting the development of their enterprise. The latter is particularly important for a good proportion of major commercial farms like cooperatives, physical persons, and corporations, to a lesser extent for sole traders. Other critical factors strongly restricting development of Bulgarian farms at present stage of development are: legislation and regulation environment in the country and sector, the amount of costs for finding needed lands and natural resources, amount of costs for finding needed short-term and long-term assets, amount of costs for finding needed finance for the farms, amount of costs for finding needed innovations, amount of costs for marketing of output, amount of costs for registration, certification, etc., existence of informal and gray sector in agriculture, and socio-economic situation in the region and in the country
An Australian Resources Sovereign Fund: A Strategic Reform Proposal to Boost Productivity, Resilience, and Fiscal Sustainability
Get PDFThis submission proposes a national economic reform package, designed to mitigate the structural distortions arising from the "Dutch disease" in Australia. While resource booms have boosted national income, they have also weakened tradable sectors, entrenched regional inequalities, and exposed the economy to external commodity price shocks. The centrepiece of this submission is a proposal to establish an Australian Sovereign Resource Fund, inspired by the Norwegian experience, which would improve productivity, build economic resilience, and strengthen fiscal sustainability. The proposed reform package would explicitly address the exchange rate dynamics of commodity supercycles and reduce distortions to the Australian dollar, which are typical of a resource-rich small open economy
Impact of Extreme Climate Change on Inflationary expectations and its Influence on SARB Macroeconomic Policy in South Africa
Get PDFThis study investigated the impact of extreme climate change on inflationary expectations and its implications for macroeconomic policy in South Africa over the period 1970 to 2023. Using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, the analysis explores both the short run and long run relationships between inflation and key climate and macroeconomic indicators, including temperature anomalies, agricultural output, food production, broad money supply, real interest rates, and carbon dioxide (C02) emissions. The ARDL bounds test confirmed the existence of a long run cointegration relationship among the variables. Empirical findings revealed that rising temperatures and C02 emissions exert significant inflationary pressures in both the short run and long run. Conversely, increases in agricultural output and money supply are associated with disinflationary effects. The error correction term is negative and statistically significant, indicating a rapid adjustment towards equilibrium following short-term shocks. Diagnostic tests confirmed the stability and robustness of the model. These findings underscored the macroeconomic significance of climate change and highlighted the need for the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) to incorporate climate-related risks into its inflation-targeting framework and broader policy formulation