The purpose of the paper is to discuss the effects of WTO accession on policy-making and institutional reforms in transition countries. This is done by looking at the experience of those transition countries which are already Members of the WTO. We start by examining the effect of accession on trade policy and distinguish between the effects of accession negotiations and those of autonomous pol...

Background The rising burden of disease and weak health systems are being compounded by the persistent economic downturn, re-emerging diseases, and violent conflicts. There is a growing recognition that the global health agenda needs to shift from an emphasis on disease-specific approaches to strengthening of health systems, including dealing with social, environmental, and economic determinant...

Chile is amidst an unprecedented legal and institutional change since the restoration of democracy at end 80’s, which expected to affect fisheries governance. A global lead in marine resource landings, implemented significant management reforms past decade. Yet, Chilean still face sustainability challenges. In this paper we reflect on results a survey carried out 2019-2020 with key informants a...

Health reforms that emphasize public health and improvements in primary care can be cost-effective measures to achieve health improvements, especially in developing countries that face severe resource constraints. In their paper "Shanghai rising: health improvements as measured by avoidable mortality since 2000," Gusmano et al suggest that Shanghai's health policy-makers have been successful in...

A real options model of resource extraction is considered where management controls both the extraction rates as well as the quality of extracted material earmarked for processing into final product. The minimum quality of material acceptable for processing is called the cutoff grade. If the cutoff is too high, much of the extracted material will go to waste exacting an opportunity cost. If the...

The large environmental impacts associated with agro-industrial development in Indonesia are both striking and increasingly important, especially with increased demand for biofuels and the rapid extension of oil palm plantations. Recently, Indonesia has also seen a series of transformations in the regulatory regime for pollution control with decentralization and a shift towards new environmenta...

Purpose: Exploration of some major obstacles to integrated care in ‘countries in transition’ in central/eastern Europe. Context: ‘Integration’ is virtually a universal policy aim of European ‘transition’ countries. Seduced by the prospect of increased value from scarce resources, governments strive to transform traditional compartmentalised ‘curative’ health systems, into more integrated system...

While budgets for agri-environmental policy in OECD countries are rapidly increasing with current policy reforms, information about the locally varying demands for policies implemented at various levels of government remains scarce. In this study, a median voter framework is used to analyse the demand for landscape management services based on the expenditures of sub-federal governments for two...

Unemployment is at a low and stable level in Denmark. This achievement is often attributed to the so-called flexicurity model combining flexible hiring and firing rules for employers with income security for employees. Whatever virtues this model may have, a low and stable unemployment rate is not automatically among them since the basic flexicurity properties were also in place during the 1970...