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Welfare states are highly dependent on the economic growth paradigm. Especially in social democratic welfare states, growth dependence has historically been accompanied by the notion of a virtuous circle, which ensures that social policy measures do not conflict with economic growth. However, this policy idea ignores the environmental impacts that are now challenging human wellbeing and welfare goals. In this conceptual research article, I reframe the virtuous circle of the welfare state by revealing its unintended consequences and internal contradictions before introducing a more sustainable policy idea. I argue that this new concept&mdash ; a virtuous circle of sustainable welfare&mdash ; could have transformative potential in designing a planned and socially sustainable degrowth transformation. Drawing on historical institutionalism, degrowth, social policy and sustainable welfare state research, I advocate for the virtuous circle as a heuristic tool to provide an appealing and convincing narrative for sustainable welfare state beyond growth. The policy idea of virtuous circle addresses interrelated institutional reforms and positive feedbacks between different institutions and policy goals. It also emphasizes that a holistic approach is necessary to avoid trade-offs and contradictions between social, environmental, and economic policies.

Strong policy implementation under the Stand By-Arrangement (SBA) has contributed to Latvia's economic recovery and put attainment of Maastricht criteria for euro adoption within reach. The government has continued to achieve substantial fiscal savings and strengthened its active labor market policy. Executive Directors stressed the need to implement plans for reforming state-owned banks and to promote market-based debt restructuring. Directors advised to maintain strong budget implementation in 2011 and focus on reducing taxes in the 2012 budget. They encouraged to enhance efficiency of sta

This book examines the impact of Europeanization on the domestic politics of EU member states, focussing on agricultural policy, cohesion policy and employment policy with a detailed comparative case study on Italy.Though a founding member, Italy has often had an uneasy relationship with the EU and found it difficult to be influential in EU politics and to comply effectively with EU policies and institutional pressures. The main focus of this book is the analysis of Italy-EU relationship from a policy-based perspective, adopting the conceptual lenses developed by Europeanizati.

We study how industry-level agglomeration economies affect government policy. Using administrative data on firm subsidies in economically lagging regions of Great Britain, we contrast two alternative hypotheses. Economic geography models imply that firms at an industry's core can sustain higher tax burdens or require lower subsidies than firms in more remote locations. Conversely, political economy models predict firms at the industry's core to be more successful at lobbying government, particularly at the subnational level, thus obtaining more favourable fiscal treatment. Our evidence suggests that local government agencies structure subsidy offers to favour pre-existing employment in locally agglomerated industries, behaviour more in line with theories of policy capture than with economic geography models. Grants administered by central government agencies, however, conform more strongly with the predictions of economic geography models.

The accession of Hungary to the European Union is a complex procedure. The harmonisation of the environment protection is an important part of that. According to the dominant interpretation this aspect implies the adaptation to the EU directives and regulations, and the harmonisation of the environmental programmes. The environmental programme of the EU is well characterized by its title `Towards Sustainability´. The present study examined the situation of the Hungarian environmental regulation and the extent of the environmental policy harmonises with that of the EU.

The author, born in 1956, is currently professor of economics at Bocconi University, Milan (Italy). He previously taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (where he also got his Ph.D.), Stanford University, University of Cagliari and University of Brescia (both in Italy). He has acted as consultant to the World Bank and held visiting positions in several international research and policy institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Carnegie Mellon University, Tel Aviv University, and the University of Stockholm.

In some new political economic models, delays of stabilizations result from coordination problems caused by collective choice-making mechanisms. Although several previous studies have tested the effects of political instability & fragmentation on seigniorage, deficits, or inflation, no direct tests of the influence of these factors on the delays of stabilizations have previously been undertaken. This paper reports the results of such tests. The degree of fragmentation of the political system & the level of inflation are identified as important determinants of the timing of inflation stabilizations. 7 Tables, 42 References. Adapted from the source document.

In den Alpenregionen fielen in den letzten 60 Jahren demographische, sozioökonomische und agrarische Veränderungen sowie solche der Ressourcennutzung auf. Im östlichen Teil (Italien, Teile von Österreich und Slowenien) ließ sich kürzlich eine Gegenbewegung der Bevölkerungsströme feststellen, wobei die neuen Gebirgsbewohner (sog. New Highlander) ein besonderes Phänomen bilden. Erklärungsansätze dafür liegen in der De-Urbanisierung, dem Wandel in den Wirtschaftssektoren und dem Tourismus. Dabei ist vor allem die Amenity Migration hervorzuheben. Sie bezeichnet Wanderungsbewegungen in ländliche Regionen aufgrund von lokaler Lebensqualität und Traditionsbewusstsein und kann definiert werden als " the various ways in which individuals (today) are combining mobility and dwelling to create ways of living that strive to maintain a sense of security and tradition in a mobile world " (vgl. McIntyre, modifiziert). Daraus ergeben sich mehrere Fragenkreise: Welche Veränderungen haben sich in den sozioökonomischen Mustern ergeben? Welche Rolle spielen Politik und Maßnahmen verschiedener Regierungsebenen (von der lokalen bis zur internationalen Ebene als Europäische Union oder UNESCO)? Kommen stattdessen diejenigen, die die Entwicklung leiten oder die Investitionen? Die Anwesenheit verschiedener Bevölkerungsgruppen (Einwohner, Besucher, Touristen und Migranten) hat die Veränderungen eindeutig beeinflusst, und dies hat auch zur Bildung von mehrstöckigen Wohnungen (Multi-Level Dwelling) geführt. Diese Untersuchung, die durch statistische Analysen und Feldstudien an bestimmten Orten durchgeführt wurde, konzentriert sich auf die Politik und die Veränderungen der sozioökonomischen Muster (Altersklassen, Beschäftigungsquote, Wirtschaftssektor, Bildung, Grundstückspreis, Gebäude, Ökosystemdienstleistungen usw.), um nachzuweisen, welche Auswirkungen mehrstöckige Wohnungen haben. ; In the last 60 years Alpine regions experienced wide flows of population and changes within their socio-economic characteristics as well as on the texture of landscape and use of resources. In the Central-Eastern part of the Southern Alps (namely in Italy, Austria and Slovenia) recently a counter-tendence in the population flows has been reported and newcomers to the Alps (so called "New Highlanders") are a new phenomenon. The effect could be driven from process of de-urbanisation, change in the economic sectors, tourism and amenity migration. The last could be defined as "the various ways in which individuals (today) are combining mobility and dwelling to create ways of living that strive to maintain a sense of security and tradition in a mobile world" (adapted by McIntyre) lowering the needs of finding "expensive" adaptive solutions. What are the changes occurred into the socio-economic patterns? Which is the role of policy and actions taken by various level of government (from community until the International level as European Union or UNESCO). Are those guiding the development or investments are, instead, coming afterwards? The various presence of different set of population (residents, visitors, tourists and amenity migrants) has clearly affected the changes occurred and this is related to the emergence of a Multi-level Dwelling. This investigation, done by statistical analyses completed and revised by field studies in specific localities, will focus on the policies and the changes in socioeconomic patterns (age classes, employment rate, economic sector, education, price of land, building, ecosystem service, etc.) in order to put in evidence what the effects arising from Multi-Level Dwellings are. ; Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des Verfassers ; Arbeit an der Bibliothek noch nicht eingelangt - Daten nicht geprüft ; Innsbruck, Univ., Diss., 2020 ; (VLID)5202667

Taking the Chinese context seriously, this book provides critical reflections and policy-informed accounts of how and why old industrial cities generate uneven resilience in the face of crisis. It offers unconventional conceptualizations and on-the-ground empirical studies in the Chinese context when it comes to the literature on regional economic resilience. Theoretically, this book adopts multiple perspectives, including evolutionary, complex adaptive systems, and institutional and geographical political economy, to provide a more systematic understanding of regional economic resilience in Chinese old industrial cities. Empirically, this book adopts a comparative analysis approach to explore the in-depth nature of uneven regional economic resilience by focusing on two coal mining regions in China. The book also makes an additional and timely academic contribution to the literature on the conceptualization and empirics of regional economic resilience under the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. This book is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students and scholars interested in economic geography in general and regional economic resilience, regional industrial dynamics and old industrial cities in China in particular. It is also a useful reference for local and regional governments, as well as businesses, for policy-making and action in the face of crisis

This paper outlines the development EU policy discourse on 'the reconciliation of work and family life'. This imposes a policy disjuncture on New Labour, for, while the British government may be ideologically more attracted to the liberal US model of 'flexible' labour, it is bound by EU law to implement a more corporatist gender equality model. The paper notes how themes of economic competition, democratisation, and protecting gender contracts emerged at the foundation EU gender policy. It traces these themes into an 'equal opportunities at work' discourse during the 1970s and 1980s and, with the increasing importance of the 'demographic time bomb' discourse and of Scandinavian style gender equality, into discourses stressing the 'reconciliation of paid work with family life' and gender mainstreaming. The paper ends by addressing the 'half-empty or half-full' assessments of EU gender policy.

This open access book provides an in-depth examination of Japan's policy responses to the economic challenges of the 1980s and '90s. While MITI's earlier role in promoting rapid growth has been addressed in other studies, this volume, based on official records and exhaustive interviews, is the first to examine the aftermath of rapid growth and the evolution of MITI's interpretation of the economy's changing needs. Covering such topics as the oil shocks, trade conflict with the United States, and the rise and collapse of the so-called bubble economy, it presents a detailed analysis and evaluation of how these challenges were interpreted by government officials, the kinds of policies that were enacted, the extent to which policy aims were realized, and lessons for the longer term. This book is recommended especially to officials of countries concerned about the challenges that follow on high economic growth and to readers interested in Japan's contemporary economic history.

Esta tesis trata sobre cómo la autoridad fiscal debe fijar los impuestos distorsivos de manera óptima. El capítulo 1 analiza el problema de la política fiscal cuando el gobierno tiene un incentivo a hacer default con su deuda externa. El capítulo 2 trata sobre el problema de la política fiscal cuando los agentes no conocen cómo el gobierno fija las tasas impositivas. La principal conclusión que obtengo es que, en ambos contextos, el resultado de suavidad de las tasas, que es estándar en la literatura de imposición óptima, se rompe. Cuando los gobiernos no tienen una tecnología de compromiso, los impuestos responden a los incentivos de default; cuando los agentes poseen información parcial sobre el modelo subyacente de la economía, los impuestos dependen de sus expectativas sobre los mismos. ; This thesis is about how fiscal authority should optimally set dissorting taxes. Chapter 1 deals with the optimal fiscal policy problem when the government has an incentive to default on external debt. Chapter 2 deals with the optimal fiscal policy problem when households do not know how government sets taxes. The main conclusion I get is that, in each of these two contexts, the tax smoothing result, which is the standars result in the optimal taxation literature, is broken. When governments do not have a commitment technology taxes respond to the incentives to default; when agents have partial information about the underlying economic model, taxes depend on their beliefs about it.