Journal of Public Affairs最新文献

This paper benefits from strong versus weak government governance for prioritizing the progress of sustainable development projects via optimization algorithms. This paper constructs two indices, namely, the sustainable development index (SDI) score, which uses worldwide sustainable development goals, and the world governance index (WGII), which uses the six pillars of world governance indicators. The data include 193 countries over the period 2000–2022. The number of common projects among all countries is 49 projects. The paper further examines the duration effect, which is the span of time improvement in institutional quality has an impact on the progress of sustainable development projects. The general results show that (a) the impacts of government governance take a minimum of 5–6 years to have an impact on the progress of sustainable development projects, (b) corruption “greases the wheel” significantly, and (c) in terms of the priorities of sustainable projects, strong-governance countries have rules and regulations that endorse a range of sustainable development projects wider (11 projects) than those offered by weak-governance countries (six projects). The paper contributes to current related studies in terms of quantifying institutional quality to monitor, prioritize and progress sustainable development projects in every country. The constructed WGII scores offer a new approach for “quantifying Institutional Risks,” which further helps understand the impacts of institutional change on sustainable development projects.

This study assesses the performance of two competing local institutions like community forest management (CFM) and joint forest management (JFM) on the ecological outcome (forest growth) in the Keonjhar district of the Indian state of Odisha. Specifically, the present study attempts to undertake a comparative analysis of the performance of JFM and CFM and assess their effects on forest conservation outcomes. Primary and secondary data have been used to analyze the determinants of differences in forest conservation outcomes. The primary data from 40 randomly selected sampled forest community institutions (20 each from CFM and JFM communities) are analyzed using an ordered logit model. The results indicate that the CFM communities seem to be performing well compared to their counterpart JFM communities concerning forest growth. In addition, local communities are more effectively managing forests as their size is larger and the resources available are scarce. The construction of roads to improve transport and communication has a detrimental impact on forest growth. The presence of temple land and community located far away from the forest department office are also likely to promote better forest growth. Forest protection committees formed by the local communities are more likely to manage forests effectively than those formed by the forest department. Hence, the more degraded reserved forest may be allotted to well-organized self-initiated CFM communities to achieve both forest conservation objectives and promote local livelihoods.

Rising crime rates in Ecuador pose a significant challenge for the design of effective public policies. This study examines the socio-economic determinants of two key offenses, homicides and vehicle thefts, using national time-series data from 1990 to 2022. Applying an instrumental variables (IV) approach and the two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimator, the analysis considers factors such as illiteracy, income inequality, urban growth, and public security expenditure. The results show that income inequality and urban growth are positively associated with homicides, while poverty is strongly linked to vehicle thefts. In contrast, access to employment and public security expenditure demonstrate significant deterrent effects. This study provides new empirical insights and policy recommendations tailored to crime determinants in Ecuador.

This study examines how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance influences green financing within India's financial sector, using cross-sectional data from 99 financial institutions for FY2023–24. Employing probit regression to estimate the likelihood of green bond issuance and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to analyze the volume of green financing (bond proceeds and loans), the study addresses a key gap in emerging-market evidence. Results indicate that higher ESG scores significantly increase the probability of green bond issuance, with governance exerting the strongest effect. Profitability moderates this relationship, reducing the ESG impact for highly profitable firms. Institutions with superior ESG performance also exhibit larger green loan portfolios. Situated within India's evolving regulatory context including SEBI's 2016 green bond guidelines, the Reserve Bank of India's 2023 sustainable finance framework, and India's sovereign green bond issuance, the findings underscore the country's growing sustainable finance ecosystem. This paper makes a novel contribution by providing the first empirical evidence linking ESG performance and green bond activity among Indian financial institutions, enriching stakeholder and signaling theory applications, and offering practical insights for policymakers and banking leaders to strengthen ESG integration and support national climate finance objectives.

This paper investigates how financial development and institutional quality influence the negative impact of economic uncertainty on economic growth. Using a panel dataset of 32 countries covering the period 2004–2017, the study examines whether the institutional context can mitigate the adverse effects of uncertainty, and through which channels this effect is transmitted. To address potential endogeneity issues, we employ the system-GMM estimation method and margin plot techniques. The overall level of financial development is measured using principal component analysis (PCA). The results show that financial development reduces the negative impact of uncertainty on economic growth through both the investment and consumption channels. Further analysis reveals that access to finance, financial depth, financial stability, and stock market depth all play significant roles in moderating this relationship. In contrast, financial efficiency shows no mitigating effect. Regarding institutional quality, government stability helps to lessen the adverse effects of uncertainty, while bureaucratic quality does not appear to have a significant influence. The findings highlight the importance of institutional context in shaping how uncertainty affects economic growth and contribute to the limited literature on the role of financial development in this relationship. This study also pioneers the analysis of how institutional quality interacts with financial development to influence the uncertainty–growth nexus. From a policy perspective, governments should promote financial system development to cushion the economy against uncertainty, and policymakers should consider the state of financial markets when designing strategies to sustain growth under uncertain conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how authentic beneficiary accountability mediates the relationship between existing beneficiaries' engagement and their perceptions of humanitarian organizations' (HOs) performance in Yemen. The research analyzes data drawn on the perspectives of 380 beneficiaries through a questionnaire survey, and the study assesses the hypothesized relationships under a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Analysis revealed no significant direct relationship between beneficiary engagement and their perceptions of HOs' performance. However, there exists significant positive indirect association of existing beneficiaries' engagement with their perceptions of HO performance through authentic beneficiary accountability. For HOs to successfully engage beneficiaries and realize positive performance outcomes, our findings suggest a strong sense of beneficiary accountability.

In recent years, the rapid development of the digital economy has brought issues of taxation and tax residency in the European Union (EU) into sharp focus. Digital competition and globalization have changed traditional approaches to taxation, requiring legislative responses and new policies to be adapted to ensure fair and efficient tax systems. The EU actively addresses aggressive tax planning by developing new regulatory instruments such as the ATAD (Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive), which require the adaptation of national tax systems. However, implementing these directives in the digital economy faces many challenges. This study intends to identify, analyze, and systematize the problems of implementing the EU anti-tax avoidance regulation in the context of expanding digital competition among business entities. The achievement of the research objectives is based on the analysis and synthesis of political and legal initiatives in the field of EU tax regulation. The study suggests that currently the implementation of the anti-tax avoidance initiatives in the context of digital competition faces a number of specific challenges for both residents and non-residents. The main ones are issues related to the legal definition of tax residence and the issue of permanent establishment (presence). One of the most problematic areas of practice was the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC6), aimed at preventing aggressive tax planning. Although it formally serves as an instrument of transparency, the uncertainty of its key categories (including “hallmarks,” “intermediaries”) has created significant difficulties in law enforcement. In general, it can be argued that the problems of indeterminacy of the nexus, blurring of DAC6 criteria, and differences in the implementation of EC directives reflect a general trend—a transition from codified norms to flexible, interpretation-dependent constructions. This creates risks for legal predictability and uniform application of tax legislation. The solution could be the formalization of key concepts (nexus, hallmarks, substance) in the form of supranational criteria.

Morocco is committed to a policy of decarbonization in the various sectors whose production is intensive in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as transportation. The impact of this policy on this sector is very significant, given its cross-cutting nature in relation to all other sectors. This article assesses the socio-economic and environmental impact of a carbon tax on the Moroccan transport sector, using a computable general equilibrium model (CGEM) and considering two scenarios. The first earmarks all additional tax revenues for the state budget. The second earmarks 25% of these revenues to support carriers' production costs. Carbon taxation would negatively affect the transport sector, which is strongly connected to other sectors of the economy. But the support measure would transform the environmental challenge into an economic opportunity. In fact, GHG emissions will be significantly reduced, and the volume of transport service consumption will fall in the first scenario, fading out until it becomes slightly positive thanks to the reallocation of resources. The sector's value added would deteriorate without support, but would improve with reallocation, and employment would fall, although reallocation would boost it. Lastly, the impact on GDP would be positive in both scenarios and would be slightly greater thanks to the support measure.

This study aims to examine the association between work ethics and employee performance among public servants, with intrinsic motivation as a potential mediator. A total of 366 responses were collected from public servants in Uganda. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in SPSS, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) using AMOS version 23. The results indicate a significant positive association between work ethics and employee performance. Work ethics and intrinsic motivation are positively correlated, as well as intrinsic motivation and employee performance. Lastly, intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship between work ethics and employee performance, demonstrating its crucial role in enhancing performance outcomes. The study highlights the importance of fostering strong work ethics and promoting intrinsic motivation within public service institutions to enhance employee performance. Public service managers should focus on creating environments that encourage integrity, accountability, and punctuality while also nurturing employees' intrinsic motivation through autonomy, job satisfaction, and a sense of purpose. These findings not only inform policy and managerial practices in Uganda but also offer valuable insights for other developing countries facing similar human resource and performance challenges in their public sectors.