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1. Future Space Controls and the Invisible Hand

Author:
Nonproliferation Policy Education Center and American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security
Publication Date:
09-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Nonproliferation Policy Education Center
Abstract:
The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC) and the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security (SCOLNS) held a law and policy workshop on Thursday, June 20, 2019. The workshop was the second collaboration between NPEC and SCOLNS, and it concerned the legal and policy issues that are emergin as space becomes increasingly commercialized and accesible. As the emerging space domain presents new challenges and opportunities, it is the hope of SCOLNS and NPEC that this report will guide future legal and policy decisions. The workshop sought to address a series of questions regarding national security challenges in space: Commercial Space: What will be profitable and when? Future Undesirable Space Conjunctions: Who is and should be liable? Insuring Against Unwanted Space Conjunctions: What new norms, regulations, laws, and understanding might be desirable? The workshop was comprised of experts from NPEC, SCOLNS, the U.S. Air Force, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Commece, the Department of States, nonprofits, think tanks, academia, and private companies and individuals. The discussion was governed under Chatham House rules, and therefore ideas and group affiliations from the workshop were not attributed to specific individuals.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Law, Space, Public Sector, Norms, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Public and Private Pension Systems and Macroeconomic Volatility in OECD Countries

Author:
Mario Holzner, Stefan Jestl, and David Pichler
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Abstract:
This paper analyses the impact of public pension expenditures and pension funds’ assets as well as their benefits on economic volatility. To do so, we use panel data for 35 OECD countries for the period 1980-2018 and apply a set of state-of-the-art econometric estimators. Our results show weak evidence of a negative impact of public pension expenditures as well as weak evidence of a positive impact of pension funds’ benefits on volatility. Results were, however, found not to be very robust. In contrast, pension funds’ assets do not show any evidence of being associated with economic volatility. Unsystematic fiscal policy, banking crises and political (in)stability, however, are revealed to be somewhat more robust determinants of economic volatility.
Topic:
Economics, Public Sector, Econometrics, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Missing from the Mainstream: The Biophysical Basis of Production and the Public Economy

Author:
June Sekera
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
Just as mainstream economics neglects the biophysical basis of production and disregards energy as the most fundamental input, it likewise ignores the existence of the public economy. Both types of denialism threaten the ability of societies to develop energy solutions that can meet the needs of the polity. This article calls for a new theory of the public economy and it outlines elements of such a theory. Both a biophysical economics and a new public economics are needed to address the energy challenges confronting modern societies.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Economic Theory, and Public Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Industry and Policy: Partnerships in Disruptive Times

Author:
Leendert van Bochoven
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
The rate of (technological) change in today´s dynamic environment calls for new policies and collaboration models between governments and industry. Two key elements will underpin successful policies for dealing with innovation and the impact of technology: an innovation ecosystem and an innovation platform. Just like companies are involving customers in private sector innovation, governments are seeking to involve citizens. There is a growing trend to engage citizens more and more in the co-creation of public services. The citizen co-creation approach also has merits for the defense and security industry, and there are several successful examples showcasing new ways of collaboration, overcoming the traditional obstacles. Three key recommendations will enable governments to overcome innovation challenges. These recommendations depend on two essential enablers to deal with disruptive innovation in government organizations: an innovation ecosystem and an innovation platform. Without both, innovation is for sure going to fail. Given the rate of unprecedented technological change, governments, militaries and businesses have to find creative ways to work and innovate together.
Topic:
Privatization, Science and Technology, Public Sector, and Innovation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. Economics and the Near-Death Experience of Democratic Governance

Author:
June Sekera
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
Non-market public production makes up a quarter to a half or more of all economic activity in advanced democratic nation-states. Yet here in the United States the public economy’s ability to function productively on behalf of the citizenry is seriously imperiled. In this paper I trace the connection between mainstream, market-centric economics and what James Galbraith has called “the collapse of the public governing capacity.” Marketization and its confederate, privatization, have led, sometimes intentionally, to the evisceration of governmental capacity, the downsizing of democracy and the dismantling of traditions of responsible public administration that are grounded in law and the Constitution. Over the last decades, apostles of the market have intruded upon government a pseudo-market with outcomes ranging from the unfortunate to the disastrous. So-called “New Public Management” –“a child of neoclassical economics,” – has colonized and weakened every level of public administration. Hollowed out through the cathartic of a “competition prescription,” the public sector time and again seems to fail us, so systems of performance measurement transplanted from profit-driven business models are being imposed across government, ostensibly to improve results and better supply what the populace wants and needs, but instead often leaving harm in their wake. We find our most basic public services and rights in jeopardy: from clean air and water to unencumbered judicial due process. While government “reinventors” boast about shrinking government, in reality a “submerged state” mushrooms through an explosion of private profit- making contractors and behind the hidden hand of tax expenditures. Yet, as I argue in this paper, there is no viable explanatory theory of the public non-market economy or of production within it, nor any consensus about how to measure public purpose or assess results in the public domain. Instead, a market-centric economics prevails in textbooks, university teaching and public policy, while private, market-mimicking motivations and values displace public purpose in measurement schemes.
Topic:
Governance, Democracy, Public Sector, Private Sector, and Non-Market Economy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Public-Private Partnerships for Development: A Handbook for Business

Author:
Suezan C. Lee
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Conference Board
Abstract:
CED partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on this handbook, published in 2006, which is designed to help businesses operating in developing countries understand how to build public-private partnerships that will benefit their host country populations and the participating firms.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance, Partnerships, Business, Public Sector, Economic Development, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus and United States of America