107159 research outputs found
Sort by
Concise introduction to employment relations
No full textThis Concise Introduction illuminates the conflict, cooperation and complex issues surrounding employment relations. Richard Hyman, a leading expert in the field, clearly explains how the reality of employment interactions and the academic understanding of the subject have been transformed by globalisation, neoliberalism and financialisation
Climate policy and politics in the Middle East: environmental, economic and political challenges
No full textThe Middle East region is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This book assesses the extent to which there is political and economic space for Middle Eastern states to transition into a sustainable, just and climate resilient future. The book offers a regional political economy perspective, comparing the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf States with those Arab states in the Mashreq (Levant) and Maghreb (North Africa) lacking matching resources to undertake investments in low-carbon growth and societal-wide climate change adaptation. While recent scholarship has focused on the impact of the energy sector on climate policy, this book covers other key issues including climate finance, food security, water security, Arab 'climate urbanism', and more immediate threats to human security such as conflict and political instability. It concludes that uneven economic development and major variations in governing capacity are more important determinants of climate mitigation and adaptation policy than exposure to the biophysical impacts of climate change. Through a comprehensive analysis of the Middle East, authors in the volume explore the challenges and opportunities to advance alternative development pathways in a post-oil era. The wide-ranging and perceptive chapters are written by leading scholars, featuring mostly researchers from the region
Cosmopolitan imaginaries and international disorder
No full textWhile the idea of a cosmopolitan order embracing all humankind is ancient, after the Cold War it was widely believed to be an emerging future. As global interdependence and interaction through new technologies increased, literature of cosmopolitan globalization argued that these changes were setting the stage for a structural transformation of world politics. Yet, a revolt against globalism and increasingly divisive and unstable international order has dramatically contradicted this idea. This presents a puzzle for International Relations theory: Why have attempts to construct cosmopolitan order struggled to emerge in the modern global world? Cosmopolitan Imaginaries and International Disorder argues that advocacy for cosmopolitan order reform in the modern world has struggled to recognize the political identities of states and populations and to legitimize its proposed political hierarchies. As a result, these efforts have been overwhelmed by states shoring up their power and remobilizing exclusionary nationalist identities, especially when struggles are intensified in contexts of international instability and economic turmoil. In developing a theory to explain these patterns of cosmopolitan politics, this book offers insight into the limits and role of cosmopolitanism in a dividing international order after liberal globalism
The Cartagena Consensus: redefining repayment capacity as a political economy issue, not a technocratic one
No full textThis article uses a historical case study – the so-called Cartagena Consensus during the eighties in Latin America and the Caribbean – to document the historical experience of coordination among debtor countries. Using primary and secondary sources, this piece shows how historical attempts to fight the creditors have also focused on re-defining debt repayment capacity. In doing so, the article shows how much of a political project the definition of repayment capacity is, rather than a technical one. This bears relevance for the urgent need to redefine current practice of and consensus building strategies around debt sustainability analysis
Spatial analysis of metabolic equivalents of task among females in urban and rural Ghana
No full text(1) Background: Spatial energy expenditure patterns, driven by physical activity, particularly among females, remain underexplored in Ghana. This study, therefore, investigates spatial energy expenditure clustering or dispersion patterns using metabolic equivalents of task (METs) values among Ghanaian females across rural and urban areas. (2) Methods: Using 13,799 data from the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, METs values were assigned to self-reported occupation categories as proxies for physical activity. Global and local spatial autocorrelation metrics (Queen contiguity and Moran’s I) were employed to assess spatial clustering or dispersion of METs values across the 16 administrative regions. (3) Results: Rural females reported higher METs (mean = 3.35 ± 1.627) and lower BMI (23.476 ± 3.888) than urban females (METs: mean = 2.42 ± 1.208, BMI: 25.313 ± 4.854). There was a significant but weak global spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s I = 0.003, p-value = 0.001), with stronger clustering observed in rural (Moran’s I = 0.004, p-value = 0.001) than in urban areas (Moran’s I = 0.002, p-value = 0.002). Also, High–High clusters were prevalent in the Northern, Savannah and Northeast regions particularly due to the lingering labour-intensive occupations as compared to Low–Low clusters in the Eastern and Greater Accra regions where jobs are often desk-based and sedentary. (4) Conclusions: Given the revealed geographic heterogeneity (High–High and Low–Low clustering) of female energy expenditure in Ghana, there is a need for regionally tailored health policies targeting physical inactivity and its associated risks
The consequences of pharmaceutical tariffs in the United States
No full textThe Trump Administration has threatened to impose tariffs on imported branded, generic, and biosimilar pharmaceutical products. Although specific details regarding the exact rates and implementation timeline remain unclear, the administration has indicated that these tariffs will be substantial. Tariffs can create supply chain disruptions, increase costs, limit patient access to essential medications, and negatively impact research and innovation. Rather than punitive tariffs, industrial policy options and collaborative international treaties may better serve US economic and public health interests and lead to a more secure and consistent domestic supply of critical medicines
How the Trump tariffs affect UK firms
No full textHow should UK exporters react to the tariffs imposed by President Trump? Some manufacturers may decide to increase production in the US, but those with loyal US consumers who are relatively insensitive to price changes may prefer to stay in the UK. In any case, Catherine Thomas writes that firms’ first step to managing the damage to their bottom line is finding the right initial price response
AI for good – impact through ethical technology
No full textArtificial Intelligence is set to change our lives, but there are many doubts about whether this will be for the better. By looking at a case of non-surveillance application of AI used to help with crowd management, Tom Kirchmaier makes the case for “AI for Good”, using the technology to have a positive impact on people’s lives
Our debt to Pope Francis
No full textDirector of the LSE Faith Centre James Walters reflects on the life and legacy of Pope Francis
Demystifying the paradox of importance sampling with an estimated history-dependent behavior policy in off-policy evaluation
No full textThis paper studies off-policy evaluation (OPE) in reinforcement learning with a focus on behavior policy estimation for importance sampling. Prior work has shown empirically that estimating a history-dependent behavior policy can lead to lower mean squared error (MSE) even when the true behavior policy is Markovian. However, the question of why the use of history should lower MSE remains open. In this paper, we theoretically demystify this paradox by deriving a biasvariance decomposition of the MSE of ordinary importance sampling (IS) estimators, demonstrating that history-dependent behavior policy estimation decreases their asymptotic variances while increasing their finite-sample biases. Additionally, as the estimated behavior policy conditions on a longer history, we show a consistent decrease in variance. We extend these findings to a range of other OPE estimators, including the sequential IS estimator, the doubly robust estimator and the marginalized IS estimator, with the behavior policy estimated either parametrically or nonparametrically