Public Good

The entry into force of the World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Agreement in 1995 transformed the international intellectual property system. The harmonization of basic intellectual property standards has operated to protect investment in innovation, limiting risks from unjustified ‘free riding’. Yet these same harmonized IP standards sharply curtailed the traditional capacity of suppliers of public goods, such as health care and nutrition, to address priority needs of less affluent members of society, particularly in (but not limited to) developing countries. In the Doha Declaration, the Waiver Decision of 30 August 2003 and the Article 31bis Protocol of Amendment, stakeholders concerned with re-opening policy space for the supply of newer pharmaceutical products pushed back against restrictive elements of the TRIPS Agreement.Governments around the world are in the process of deciding whether to ratify and accept the Article 31bis Amendment. Based on their Study for the Internatio...

In assessing the relationship between self-esteem and in-group/outgroup evaluations, this study examined whether self-esteem is better measured at a collective (collective self-esteem [CSE]) than a personal level (personal self-esteem [PSE]). It was expected that subjects high in CSE would engage in more in-group favoritism (measured by in-group evaluations), whereas those low in CSE would engage in more outgroup derogation (measured by outgroup evaluations). No effect for PSE was predicted. Furthermore, the study explored whether perceptions of collective efficacy may underlie this relationship. Subjects played a public goods task. The in-group's outcome was compared to the outcome of other relevant outgroups, enhancing pressures towards intergroup differentiation. Consistent with the predictions, subjects high in CSE evaluated in-group members more positively than those in low CSE (i.e., in-group favoritism), whereas subjects low in CSE evaluated outgroup members more negatively than those high in CSE (i.e., outgroup derogation). Also in line with our predictions, no effect for PSE was found. Perceptions of collective efficacy appeared to be a mediator of the effect of CSE.

There is a conflict between civil society's larger purpose and the self-interest of professionals who work in the sector. That conflict can only be resolved if developmental professionals strive to become irrelevant by enabling the dispossessed to take control of voicing their own interests and demanding their rights.This brief excerpt from a keynote address is intended as a cautionary note for civil society, which can develop a vested interest in the very miseries it seeks to abolish.

As a famous game in the domain of game theory, both pervasive empirical studies as well as intensive theoretical analysis have been conducted and performed worldwide to research different public goods game scenarios. At the same time, computer game simulators are utilized widely for better research of game theory by providing easy but powerful visualization and statistics functionalities. However, although solutions of public goods game have been widely discussed with empirical studies or theoretical approaches, no computational and automatic simulation approaches has been adopted. For this reason, we have implemented a computer simulator with reinforcement learning agents module for public goods game, and we have utilized this simulator to further study the characteristics of public goods game. Furthermore, in this article, we have also presented a bunch of interesting experimental results with respect to the strategies that agents used and the profits they earned.

Governments are charged with monitoring citizens ’ compliance with prescribed behavioral stan-dards and punishing noncompliance. Flaws in information available to enforcing agents, however, may lead to subsequent enforcement errors, eroding government authority and undermining incen-tives for compliance. We explore these concepts in a laboratory experiment. A “monitor ” makes punishment decisions after receiving noisy signals about individuals ’ choices to contribute to a pub-lic good. We find that the possibility of wrongly accusatory signals has a more deleterious effect on contribution levels than the possibility of wrongly exculpatory signals, contrary to a rational-choice benchmark model predicting equal effects. We trace this across-treatment difference to a “false pos-itives trap”: when members of a largely compliant population are sometimes incorrectly accused, some will be unjustly punished if enforcement power is employed, but non-compliant individuals will escape punishme...

The analysis of state failure and the policy debate have been driven by two very different underlying views of what the state does. The first, which we call the “servicedelivery” view says the role of the state is to provide law and order, stable property rights, key public goods and welfarist redistributions. In failing to provide these, state failure contributes to economic under-performance and poverty. State failure of this type is in turn related to an inter-dependent constellation of governance failures including corruption and rent-seeking, distortions in markets and the absence of democracy. All of these need to be addressed to focus the state on its core service-delivery tasks. The second locates the developing country state in the context of “social transformation”: the dramatic transition these countries are going through as traditional production systems collapse and a capitalist economy begins to emerge. Dynamic transformation states have heavily intervened in property ...

Agriculture provides the main support for Zambia’s rural economy, and because of this, growth in the agricultural sector is the clearest avenue through which poverty reduction can be achieved in Zambia. Yet despite widespread recognition of the strong connection between agricultural development and poverty reduction, there is continuing under-provision of public goods investments for over a decade. Zambia’s primary policy objective of achieving accelerated growth and competitiveness in the agricultural sector cannot be achieved unless adequate public resources are committed towards catalyzing the desired growth. Strong evidence from southern Africa as well as throughout the world indicates that long–term public investment in research and development, extension services, rural infrastructure, and food safety and quality systems have high pay-offs and are among the most important drivers of agricultural growth and competitiveness. Agricultural-led development has been identified by Af...

A dynamic general equilibrium model of a small open economy specialized in producing tourism services is presented. The tourism package is a bundle of attributes provided by firms, the government and the natural environment. Investment in accommodation increases the number of visitors but also congests public goods and reduces environmental quality. The model is used to determine the conditions for the existence of a long-term double dividend. These conditions depend on both the initial level of environmental quality and the responsiveness of the tourism price to marginal changes in environmental and accommodation quality and congestion of public goods.

We use a simple balanced budget contest to collect taxes on a private good in order to finance a pure public good. We show that—with an appropriately chosen structure of winning probabilities—this contest can provide the public good efficiently and without distorting private consumption. We provide extensions to multiple public goods and private taxation sources, asymmetric preferences, and show the mechanism's robustness across these settings. (JEL C7, D7.

Around 100years ago, when Crown land in the interior of northern Sweden was privatized, part of the forest land was set aside as forest commons. Today, there are 33 such forest commons jointly managed and owned in common mainly by private forest owners. The forest commons may be looked upon as a means by which the state controls the production

A Japanese General Social Survey is used to re-examine how voluntary giving is associated with inequality aversion, and how the relationship differs between high- and low-income groups. This paper also investigates how social capital influences that relationship. The key findings are that (1) the level of voluntary giving increases with inequality aversion for high-income groups, but not for low-income groups, and (2) social capital accumulated in the respondent’s residential area reinforces the positive influence of inequality aversion on voluntary giving for high-income groups only.

A specific risk of this period is liquidity risk arised from inexistence of adecquted management. A new risk arises from financial measures against the effects of economic worldwide crisis. These measures are dedicated to mitigate the crisis risks but, they may become a real challange for companies and individuals caused by new competence needed. As a conclusion, the topic of

This article argues that the neoliberal renaissance of the 1980s marketized education, with distinctly negative social consequences. We examine the emergence and promotion of a national-level discourse that positioned schools in the service of the economy. Based on ethnographic research conducted in North Carolina, we then show how local growth elite utilized this discourse to further their own race and class interests to the exclusion and detriment of poorer, African American parents and students. We suggest that ethnographic studies of policy formation help to socially and historically contextualize contemporary debates and denaturalize unwarranted assumptions about the public good.

It can be argued that apart from the bifurcation of ‘is’ (Sein) and ‘ought’ (Sollen), one of the most overstated and misleading dichotomies of modern political, legal and ethical thought is the opposition of common and private good. I must admit this is a large claim. In addition, in the present paper I shall give only a very short and sketchy explanation of it. In doing so I will rely mainly on Péter Takács’ classic study on the common good, and on the critique of ‘atomist’ ontology and methodological individualism formulated by such eminent communitarian political philosophers as Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre. Thirdly, with some reservations, I will also draw on the conceptual framework offered by Fred D. Miller’s analysis of Aristotle’s
Politics.

Political secularism takes many forms but a fundamental distinction is between radical and moderate kinds. The latter is a genuine secularism and not just a failure to take secularism to its logical conclusion. The failure to appreciate this obscures the secularism that exists in western Europe. Namely, an accommodation of organised religion which sees it as a potential public good or national resource (not just a private benefit), which the state can in some circumstances assist to realise—even through an ‘established’ church. I adumbrate five types of reasons the state might be interested in religion: truth, danger, utility, identity and respect. The challenge facing such secularism today is whether it can be pluralised or multiculturalised, in particular whether it can accommodate Muslims. A ground for optimism is the respect that some people, especially some Muslims, have for religions other than their own.

... They cannot be bargained or traded as can capital, votes, or official positions. ... But in practice such notions are often placed in their social contexts ... preeminent in a range of 'rights' movements in the twentieth century" (Capek 1993:8). Inclusion into full status within the political com ...

"Throughout the course of its history, Thailand has thrived on international commerce and interacting with global forces. During the past two centuries, Thailand has faced a progression of events threatening its self-definition requiring very conscious educational and cultural reform policies to offset the advances of globalized movements. The first series of reforms began to take place in the late 19th century and served as a defensive measure to fend off the onslaught of European colonial activity and to unify a disjointed society. This reform was used to primarily centralize the cultural and religious authority and power of the kingdom, while assimilating the local/regional/rural areas through education. The most recent reform in late 20th century was devised to fend off global market forces and to unify a disjointed society through a strategy of decentralization and educational reform. Both these reforms were countered with strong resistance movements that reflect a resistance heritage that aspires to civil society.

This chapter examines some of the similarities of the past two eras of globalization in Thailand, their reforms, and how assimilation and extensive revisions to the cultural and spiritual elements of Thai society have provoked resistance movements. This chapter also suggests that the current alternative education movement in Thailand belongs to this heritage of resistance to national and international hegemony and envisions an inclusive and moral society that is attempting to prepare its citizens for a future in the globalized world. In that Thailand has invaluable experience dealing with the global and maintaining its independence, its story may be instructive for other developing countries as globalization will surely continue its unfoldment as will humanity’s movement toward a civic world."

Land reclamation of derelict landscapes, until in recent times, was a rare experience, especially in developing countries. This has however changed with the adoption of environmental policies and legislative frameworks in most countries in the world. This drive was mainly inspired by the conservation strategies developed and promoted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). This article is a presentation of the findings and observations that led to successful land reclamation by the cement factory. Steps taken for this reclamation effort were of prime interest to the author and were retraced resulting in this position paper. A comparative approach is used, given the conventional methods that most projects of this nature employ. Most of the environmental and land degradation are caused by profit motivated industries who do nothing or very little to repair the damage caused in the course of their work. The Haller Park at the Bamburi cemen...