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Begin New Search Topic International Affairs Content Type Commentary and Analysis

71. Your Uber Ambulance Has Arrived

Author:
Institute Cato
Publication Date:
08-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Ambulances are notoriously expensive—one ride may cost more than $1,000, and insurance companies frequently refuse to cover them. In the past, patients had few alternatives to get themselves to the hospital—but in “Does Ride-Sharing Substitute for Ambulances?” (Research Briefs in Economic Policy no. 114), Leon S. Moskatel of Scripps Mercy Hospital and David J. G. Slusky of the University of Kansas demonstrate how the age of Uber and Lyft is changing that and is reducing expensive and unnecessary ambulance trips.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
America

72. Japan-Russia relations: The Kremlin has the upper hand

Author:
Bart Gaens and Marcin Kaczmarski
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Even though bilateral relations have warmed somewhat, Japan has failed to convince Russia to make concessions with regard to the territorial issue of the Northern Territories/South Kuril Islands, or to cut back its cooperation with China
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Japan

73. The United States braces itself for the midterm elections: Is there a foreign-policy dimension?

Author:
Ville Sinkkonen
Publication Date:
08-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Foreign policy rarely plays a decisive role in congressional elections in the US. However, President Trump’s tendency to mix foreign policy into the domestic debate might increase its salience. Electoral success for the Democrats could both constrain and embolden the president’s international conduct.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
America

74. Does Pattern Bargaining Explain Wage Restraint in the German Public Sector?

Author:
Donato Di Carlo
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
German public sector wage restraint has been explained through the presence of a specific type of inter-sectoral wage coordination in the industrial relations system – i.e., export sector-led pattern bargaining. This paper has a twofold ambition. First, as a literature assessing exercise, I review the literature in industrial relations and comparative political economy (CPE) and find that (1) the origins and mechanics of inter-sectoral wage coordination through pattern bargaining have never been laid out clearly; (2) the mechanisms of the pattern bargaining thesis have never been tested empirically; and (3) the CPE literature reveals a limiting export-sector bias. Second, as a theory-testing exercise, I perform hoop tests to verify whether the pattern bargaining hypothesis can really account for wage restraint in the German public sector. I find that Germany cannot be considered a case of export sector-driven pattern bargaining. These findings challenge core tenets of a longstanding scholarship in both CPE and industrial relations. Most importantly, they open a new research agenda for the study of public sector wage-setting that should shift its focus to public sector employment relations, public finance, public administrations, and the politics of fiscal policy
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Germany

75. International Monetary Regimes and the German Model

Author:
Fritz W Scharpf
Publication Date:
02-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
The end of the Bretton Woods regime and the fall of the Iron Curtain deepened the export orientation of the German model of the economy. Only after entry into the Monetary Union, however, did rising exports turn into a persistent export–import gap that became a problem for other eurozone economies. This Discussion Paper shows why the present asymmetric euro regime will not be able to enforce their structural transformation on the German model. Neither will German governments be able to respond to demands that would bring the performance of the German economy closer to eurozone averages. Instead, it is more likely that present initiatives for financial and fiscal risk sharing will transform the Monetary Union into a transfer union.
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Germany

76. Joint Humanitarian Operations

Author:
Jeremy Konyndyk
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
The Government Reform and Reorganization Plan released earlier this year by the White House calls for substantial reform of US humanitarian institutions. The plan mandates that the State Department and USAID produce a “specific reorganization proposal” to “optimize” humanitarian assistance and “eliminate duplication of efforts and fragmentation of decision-making.” This policy note lays out guidance for how an ambitious but feasible optimization could be achieved. It is informed by two high-level private roundtables convened by the Center for Global Development to solicit expert input, as well as a desk review of documents, expert interviews, and the author’s own experiences serving in the humanitarian arms of both USAID and the State Department. While numerous experts contributed thoughts and feedback, the author takes sole responsibility for the views represented herein.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

77. It’s Like That and That’s the Way It Is? Evaluating Education Policy

Author:
Susannah Hares
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
It’s tricky to evaluate government education policies. They’re not implemented in NGO-like laboratory conditions, and political motivation and public sector capacity constraints play as much of a role in their success or failure as policy design. Using the examples of three rigorous studies of three different education policies, this note aims to shed some light from the perspective of someone on the policy side on how, why, and when to evaluate government-led reforms. A government education policy is not an abstract theory that can easily be replicated in a different place. In each new context, it is effectively a brand-new programme and needs to be evaluated as that. None of the three examples presented was “new” as a policy: school inspections, school vouchers, and charter schools have all been tried and evaluated elsewhere. But the evaluations of these policies—when implemented in new contexts—illuminated a new set of challenges and lessons and generated a different set of results.
Topic:
Education and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

78. SVP for Clean Energy, on the Union Organizing Drive at Buffalo Solar Factory

Author:
Josh Freed
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Third Way
Abstract:
Third Way Senior Vice President for Clean Energy Josh Freed released the following statement on the United Steelworkers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers drive to organize production and maintenance workers at Tesla’s solar factory in Buffalo, New York:
Topic:
Climate Change and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

79. DC Can Show True Climate Leadership by Cutting Carbon Even Faster and More Efficiently

Author:
Josh Freed
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Third Way
Abstract:
I am not only the Vice President for Clean Energy at Third Way, a center left think tank based in Washington dedicated to getting the United States to zero carbon pollution by 2050. I am also a native of the DC area and almost twenty-year District resident. My father was born here, as were my children.
Topic:
Climate Change and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

80. DC’s Climate Policy Should Be Even More Ambitious: Testimony Before the Council of the District of Columbia

Author:
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Third Way
Abstract:
My name is Ryan Fitzpatrick, and I am a resident of Ward 5 in the District of Columbia and Deputy Director of Clean Energy for Third Way, a policy think tank here in DC. As we saw yesterday with the release of the new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world is facing an enormous challenge in the fight against climate change. We at Third Way believe that this demands urgent, aggressive action now to reduce and eliminate carbon pollution as cost-effectively, and from as many sectors of the economy, as possible
Topic:
Climate Change, Globalization, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus