Journal of Public Affairs最新文献

The insurance sector has grown tremendously over the years and has a huge potential toward the workforce employed in the unorganized sector. India needs comprehensive social insurance schemes to benefit the workers in this sector. The present study is an attempt to examine the impact of risk aversion on support for social insurance schemes in India with the mediating effect of redistributive preferences. The current study is survey-based research. A non-probability sampling technique has been used to collect data from 417 respondents residing in the North-east region of the capital city, Delhi. The data was collected between October 2023 and February 2024. The present study employs structural equation modeling and Hayes' PROCESS Macro module. Results show that risk aversion positively influences redistributive preferences and support for social insurance schemes. The effect of redistributive preferences on support for social insurance is also found to be positive and significant. The moderated mediation effect of redistributive preferences on support for social insurance is also found to be significant. As social security programs are funded by redistributing income through higher taxation policies, individuals with higher risk preferences may opt for such insurance programs. The study will help social groups and policymakers design the schemes in a way that can benefit those working in the unorganized sector at large. The present study has been an attempt to empirically understand the importance of risk aversion and altruism in support of social insurance programs.

This study examines the relationship between trust in government and citizens' participation in democracy, utilizing data from the World Value Survey (WVS) dataset. The study focuses on six indicators of citizens' participation: voting in elections, signing petitions, participating in peaceful demonstrations, watching television media for news and information, using the internet, and engaging with social networks. Trust in government is measured by evaluating citizens' confidence in the functionality and performance of the legislature, executive, judiciary, and civil services. The study also considers the influence of individual factors such as gender, age, education, income, religion, and social class. Logistic regression models, including a combined model, are used for analysis. The results indicate that higher trust in government positively affects various aspects of democratic participation.

Urban platforms play an important role in supporting the delivery of smart city initiatives. However, the collaborative processes involving urban politics during the development of such platforms are often overlooked. The present study asks how a city government and a tech company collaborate to develop an urban platform through a smart city mobile application (app). The analysis focuses on Magelang Smart City (Magesty), a mobile app for urban services initiated by the Magelang City government. Employing a case study research design, a series of in-depth interviews involving representatives from the local government and the tech company who collaborated in developing Magesty between August 2020 and January 2021 revealed the significant influence of the tech company in shaping the platform. This finding highlights the recent fad of platformization in cities, driven by private sector involvement, which reflects technocratic, neoliberal, and de-political approaches. Consequently, adopting a more participatory and citizen-centered approach to urban platform development becomes increasingly urgent to better address the needs of city residents.

This study explores the development in governance for food security and offers a quantitative summary of the trends, contributors, knowledge gaps and suggests future research directions in the area. Using a bibliometric analysis, a sample of 1386 articles from the Scopus database were examined to identify global trends in governance for food security between 1988 and 2023. The bibliometric analysis reveals that governance for food security still needs to be explored from different methodological and contextual points (i.e., food governance and policy). Research is still underdeveloped in some deprived nations. It is also evident that collaborative works between scholars from different countries could address various food security issues that may arise in some concerned nations. The paper concludes by suggesting potential avenues for future research and outlining practical implications of the findings.

In this article, we have tried to improve our understanding of the third-level digital divide associated with online tax returns in Spain. To this end, we analyse the causes that may explain the online filing of tax returns through third parties (tax advisors, family or friends). To do so, we use the Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households 2022 conducted by the National Statistics Institute (INE). From the questionnaire we have extracted a total of 12 explanatory variables grouped into three categories related to experience and self-efficacy, available resources, and socio-demographic characteristics and a control variable that collects information related to the type of habitat based on population density. The information and study variables have been analysed through various descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of our research allow us to affirm that digital instruments linked to public administration, such as online tax returns, continue to present problems of access and use for citizens. The people who most frequently outsource their online tax returns are those who are less familiar with the Internet on a daily basis. This situation also affects older people, women, people with a lower level of education, households with a lower level of income, and people who live in areas with a lower level of population density. In this way, besides being regressive, it could be reducing the autonomy of these groups in their dealings with the public administration.

The present study is conceived with the objective of assessing gender equality measures in mid-cap corporations and analysing the influence on company's performance. Based on gender equality scores of top 50 companies from Equileap's 2022 gender equality list; financial performance data from annual reports; and corporate responsibility scores from Sustainalytics, this study reveals that mid-cap companies fared poorly on all gender equality metrics and does not completely embrace gender equality. Less than 50% of women directors are found on the boards of 70% of mid-cap corporations. Women represented only 42% of company board of directors' positions and 32% of the executive leadership positions. A mean pay gap of 13.54% is observed in 85% of the mid-cap companies. Gender equality accounted for 26% variation in the mid-cap firms' financial performance. Initiatives to promote gender equality though do not affect the responsible behaviour of the mid-cap firms. Novelty of the study lies in testing the gender equality claims of mid-cap companies labelled as ‘top gender equal’ organisations across different sectors and ascertaining the influence of board's gender equality on firm's financial performance and responsible behaviour. The study makes a unique contribution to gender equality literature by proving that financial indicators are not enough to motivate corporate to truly embrace gender equality. Neither aspect like flexible working, training and work–life balance can be projected as the only measures for solving the issue of gender inequality. Results also contribute to social justification theory's literature by highlighting the fact that the theory promotes the ‘social stability’ or ‘status quo’ more than advancing the ‘social change’ when applied in the context of gender equality.

This paper investigates how the geopolitical risk (GPRD), economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index, and Twitter economic uncertainty (TEU) related to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict can affect cryptocurrency returns (Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], Ripple [XRP], Dogecoin [DOGE], Litecoin [LTC], Cardano [ADA], BNB, and TRON [TRX]) over the period ranging from January 1, 2020, to April 24, 2023. Using the Spectral Breitung Candelon causality and wavelet coherence methods, interesting findings are reported. This study reports noteworthy findings. First, we observe that during the armed battle, ADA, BNB, DOGE, LTC, TRX, and XRP appear as hedges against GPRD. However, we found a negative impact on BTC and ETH. Second, the results show that EPU and TEU have no effect on cryptocurrency, respectively. These findings provide a comprehensive overview of cryptocurrency fluctuations during the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine. Finally, findings show that only ADA, BNB, DOGE, LTC, TRX, and XRP could be used as hedging tools during times of uncertainty. These results have practical implications for cryptocurrency investors and elements influencing its returns, especially during uncertain times.

Resource distribution in salient social programs, such as affordable housing, is often subject to a trade-off between technical response to housing demand and political interests at different government levels. While distribution of housing subsidies is formally expected to follow technical need-based criteria, political influence may also affect these allocations. Consequently, this research explores demand/need and political factors as explanations of resource allocation across Colombian municipalities through the national rural housing program. The study uses a panel dataset of the 1100 Colombian municipalities during 2009–2016. Municipal socio-demographic characteristics assess rural housing demand, while vote share for national, regional, and local leaders measures political interests. Findings suggest that the program favors core voters, as municipalities with higher support for the president receive greater rural housing allocations. This research contributes to the literature of housing and social policy implementation and its relationship with distributive politics by assessing the technical and political drivers of resource allocation in an emergent economy's multi-level setting.

A more contemporary approach to addressing developing nations' complicated governance challenges is collaborative governance (CG). In a Pakistani setting, the primary goal is to determine the potential function of public leadership (PL) in fostering CG and public service delivery. We looked at data from 413 Pakistani revenue department personnel. The SPSS, AMOS and PROCESS Macro were used to examine the hypotheses that were proposed in the study. The results, which were based on the social information processing (SIP) theory showed that PL improved the public service delivery and that CG played a mediating function. Finally, the model's theoretical and practical implications are demonstrated.