Academic literature on the topic 'Degree Discipline: Public Policy'

ABSTRACTThe politics of public policy is a vibrant research area increasingly at the forefront of intellectual innovations in the discipline. We argue that political scientists are best positioned to undertake research on the politics of public policy when they possess expertise in particular policy areas. Policy expertise positions scholars to conduct theoretically innovative work and to ensure that empirical research reflects the reality they aim to analyze. It also confers important practical advantages, such as access to a significant number of academic positions and major sources of research funding not otherwise available to political scientists. Perhaps most importantly, scholars with policy expertise are equipped to defend the value of political science degrees and research in the public sphere.

AbstractThe question ‘Can an archaeologist be a public intellectual?’ appears to express both an unfulfilled desire and a secret hope of an entire professional corps to count among them at least a few public intellectuals. I suggest that the state of the discipline of archaeology makes it harder, compared with other disciplines, for its professional representatives to address present-day issues and relate to public debates. I also suggest that maybe the most significant effect of the fact that society's public intellectuals generally do not have degrees in archaeology is that participants in public debates and policy makers are unaware of how various applications of archaeology and cultural heritage can benefit contemporary society. This potential will therefore have to be realized in different ways.

Externalities are a fundamental aspect of any modern interdependent economy. The fact that agents interact with one another makes it inevitable that their decisions will influence one another directly, in addition to any indirect impact that may occur through the market place. Ever since the earliest stages of the discipline, externalities have been of prime concern to economists, who have long argued that they provide an important motive for (economic) decision making. To cite one prominent example, in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith notes that “Though it is in order to supply the necessities and conveniences of the body that the advantages of external fortune are originally recommended to us, yet we cannot live long in the world without perceiving that the respect of our equals, our credit and rank in the society we live in, depend very much upon the degree in which we possess, or are supposed to possess those advantages. The desire of becoming the proper objects of this respect . . . is perhaps the strongest of all our desires” [Smith (1759, pp. 348–349)]. In modern terminology, Adam Smith is referring to a consumption externality.

The effectiveness of fiscal policy becomes particularly relevant in the case of the member countries of a monetary union facing a sovereign debt crisis. In that environment, fiscal policy is constrained by the need to carry out fiscal consolidation and reduce debt levels. For that reason and with the purpose of anchoring fiscal discipline, the adoption of fiscal rules has become a central issue. In this paper we will analyse the management of fiscal policies in monetary unions, when the central bank and the fiscal authorities follow policy rules. The results are related to the conservativeness of the central bank, the degree of austerity of the fiscal authorities and the initial level of public debt.

The influence of spatial aspects on people’s health is internationally proven by a wealth of empirical findings. Nevertheless, questions concerning public health still tend to be negotiated among social and health scientists. This was different in the elaboration of the Austrian Action Plan on Women’s Health (AAPWH). On the example of the target group of older women, it is shown whether and to what extent the inclusion of the spatial planning perspective in the discussion of impact goals and measures is reflected in the respective inter-ministerial policy paper. The retrospective analysis on the basis of a document analysis of the AAPWH and qualitative interviews with public health experts who were also invited to join, or rather were part of, the expert group, brings to light the following key reasons for the high degree of spatial-related abstraction of the content of this strategic health policy paper: the requirement for general formulations, the lack of public and political awareness for the different living situations in different spatial archetypes, and the lack of external perception of spatial planning as a key discipline with regard to the creation of equivalent living conditions. Nonetheless, this research has promoted the external perception of spatial planning as a relevant discipline in public health issues in Austria. Furthermore, first thematic starting points for an in-depth interdisciplinary dialogue were identified.

In the wider spectrum of Taiwanese public service spheres, the herculean services and dedication of its committed Police personnel have long been recognized, respected, and admired. However, regrettably, question marks concerning their conduct, discipline, and abuse of power have surfaced on intermittent occasions. A classic example that lingers in the public memory is the bribing of Taiwanese video game companies to some unscrupulous elements of the police department, in the closing decades of the 20th century that triggered public outrage and called for scrutiny concerning serious lapses in the discipline and conduct of Police personnel. This research paper endeavors to understand, analyze and address some of those issues based on empirical data on the police personnel of certain specific work zones/areas taking into account holistically both the sentenced police officers vis-à-vis the law-abiding police officers. This module looks into and sieves through available data for seven critical variables, including their degree of variation through the Identification and Analysis Method to develop a Predictive Model on Police Ethics and the important factors that affect Police Ethics. Concretely based on the integrated research, it is proposed that this Predictive Model has good applicability as well as accurate predictive ability in addressing the core issues that affect Police Ethics. It is hoped that through this Early Warning Predictive Model—all the stakeholders that are Policy and Decision-makers, Regulatory Police Agencies but more importantly the Police personnel themselves would effectively address the criticality of the issues that affect the Police Ethics so as to undertake competent and effective measures to erase/lessen the menace and provide an early rehabilitative care/assistance to build a strong, constructive and visionary Taiwanese Police Force to meet the challenges of 21st century and beyond.

The recent revival of the discipline of political economy challenges purely economic explanations of economic growth, technological innovation, and sectoral change. This approach recognizes that political actors, institutions, and strategies to organize the economic process together shape the economic development of industrial societies. Whereas economists have emphasized determinants of growth such as savings and investment rates, degrees of domestic and international competition in an industry, or the supply of labor, the new political economists view the political definition of property rights, the nature of state intervention in the economy, the resources of politically mobilized groups, and political actors' belief systems as critical determinants of economic transformations. Both economists and political economists, however, share the assumption that actors are rational; they pursue their interests in a calculated manner within a given system of institutional constraints.

Abstract The aim of the paper is to provide the first systematic review of instruction in public policy programmes (PPP) in the Czech Republic and examine the role and nature of policy analysis therein. First, the Czech higher education system is briefly described. Second, an overview of PPP in the Czech Republic is provided. This analysis is based upon a publicly available list of degree programmes accredited by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, an internet search, e-mail correspondence with public policy and policy analysis instructors, and syllabuses. It is shown that while a diverse set approaches is used, the classical “positivist” perspective is clearly dominant. Third, using survey data (N = 192) we analyse the views of Public and Social Policy graduates on the importance of competences in practice and the quality of actually learnt competences. Last, preliminary conclusions on public policy/policy analysis instruction in the Czech Republic are discussed. It is shown that public policy instruction is rather fragmented and is institutionalized under different disciplines. The respondents were most satisfied with gaining skills in the areas of policy analysis, ability to orient oneself and acquire new knowledge, and strategic and analytical thinking. In contrast, they were least satisfied with acquiring organizational skills, practical professional experience and skills, and computer literacy.

The anthropological perspective, defined in the broadest sense, provides both a theoretical basis for understanding human society and affords insights into the human condition. These are useful to any number of professions. As a public interest advocate with almost two decades of experience organizing around social justice and environmental issues, I am interested in the discipline not as a researcher, applied or otherwise, but as a tool for understanding and promoting progressive social change through grassroots organizing. My pursuit of a master's degree in applied anthropology, rather than the more conventional degree in public policy chosen by many advocates, was spurred by a desire to understand better how human culture is organized and reproduced. I wanted to glean a deeper understanding of the cultural preconditions for progressive movements that ultimately cause social change. To this end, over the past two years, I have integrated my professional work experiences with the anthropological perspective garnered from my graduate studies. The best example of this convergence is a statewide legislative campaign that I spearheaded in Nebraska. By wearing my "anthropological lenses" I have been able to view organizing from a new vantage point and to design more effectively a majority strategy for mobilizing citizens around environmental issues. The Nebraska campaign that I will discuss in this article is a compelling example of why anthropology should be viewed as a discipline that can provide an intellectual bedrock for other professions. By redefining and expanding the role for anthropology outside academia, the discipline is strengthened and its relevancy assured. This essay is a reflection on how anthropology has enriched and changed my work as an organizer and is a testimonial to its relevancy in our modern world.

The term, “bioethics” was coined in 1970 by American cancerologist V. R. Potter. In the few decades since, the field of bioethics has emerged as an important discipline. The field has attained a remarkable degree of public recognition in a relatively short period of time. The “right to die” cases such as In re Quinlan placed bioethical issues on the front pages. Although the discipline is of recent vintage, the past quarter century has witnessed a flurry of scholarly activity, creating a substantial body of bioethical literature. Moreover, the bioethics movement has manifested itself in institutional expressions. Universities and medical schools have added courses in bioethics to their curricula. In 1974, federal legislation and regulations mandated that federal grantees conducting human subjects research establish institutional review boards to safeguard subjects’ welfare, and even absent a legislative mandate numerous hospitals created ethics committees. Centers and institutes, devoted exclusively to the study of bioethical issues, have been founded.

This thesis addresses two key problems: that historical practice in the academy is largely disengaged from politics as a domain of public purpose and that policymaking remains fixed on a very narrow (and quantitative) definition of evidence, although the “policy-relevant” disciplines have not proved able to solve long-standing policy issues. It inspects both phenomena with the aim of describing the space in which the two problems can be brought into a workable accommodation. The argument is made that public policy should be regarded as an important concern of academic history, and policymakers themselves as people with legitimate interests that historians should take seriously. Public history provides a helpful framework and set of concerns to work with in this respect. Given that the social and natural sciences have not been able to solve the pressing policy problems with which governments are faced, a certain obligation may be claimed for historians to reconsider their stance. The re-connection of history and policy – the nineteenth-century discipline clearly discerned a public-political purpose for history – requires attention to be given to articulating and demonstrating the distinctive cognitive tools of the historian and their distinctive value to the policymaking process. The thesis addresses two primary fields, whose interests and professional practices appear divergent such that both the principles and the terms of collaboration are difficult to imagine: academic history and government policymaking. The primary material on which the research draws is accordingly the products of these constituencies: works of historiography and policy documents of various kinds. Also of relevance are commentaries and analyses that address these domains, whether from other disciplines with an interest in political decision-making, from the media or from other organisations with a professional stake, such as think tanks. The originality of the research lies in conceiving of the question of the uses of history for public policy as one of integration of “supply” and “demand” perspectives. It seeks clarity on the distinctive value of historical skills and approaches, but not as an end in itself. Rather, the case is assembled for the affinities between history and policy as processes and hence that the two can be brought into a productive alignment. So, instead of history providing pre-packaged accounts for policy, it can be embedded as a way of thinking and reasoning in policy.

Interaction with their students during classroom instruction is often a source of stress among many teachers. The academic setting of Disciplinary Alternative Educational Programs (DAEP) poses a risk factor for teachers to experience stress, given that student disruptive behavior has been associated with higher stress levels among teachers. The problem underlying this study was that most studies on DAEP have focused on the experiences of students, with limited information available about the experiences of teachers in this type of academic setting. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the role of job-related stress and coping on the job performance of DAEP teachers, from a transactional theory of stress and coping approach. This exploration was grounded in the theoretical lens of the transactional theory of stress and coping, which served as the link between the importance of the psychological health of teachers and the successful administration of public programs. The geographical setting of the study was a single DAEP campus. Data were collected using 20 individual, face-to-face semi structured interviews. Data were analyzed using the modified van Kaam method of phenomenological analysis, which involves the systematic analysis of data through the process of dividing large quantities of qualitative data into smaller units of meaning. The results produced significant thematic themes. The findings from this study could help scholars and practitioners gain important insight about job-related stressors in DAEP, which could facilitate the improvement of administration and development policies in order to promote a positive work environment in DAEP settings.

A free and appropriate public education is promised to every child in the United States. However, zero tolerance school discipline policies have broken that promise, pushing students out of the classroom and into the school-to-prison pipeline. Despite the growing body of research demonstrating negative social and economic impacts of exclusionary discipline, public school administrators have been slow to adopt innovative policies that provide rehabilitative alternatives. The purpose of this study was to compare, using the consequences of innovations application of Rogers's diffusion of innovations theory, the impact of various school district approaches to school discipline on suspension rates while controlling for race and socioeconomic status. This study used a quantitative, nonexperimental, nonequivalent groups, posttest-only research design using secondary analysis of data reported by 218 school districts in a New England state for the 2016-17 school year. Analysis of covariance indicated that there is a significant relationship between approaches to school discipline and suspension rates when controlling for racial and socioeconomic composition (p < .05). Race and economic disadvantage significantly influenced suspension rates (p < .001), and districts implementing alternatives differed significantly in their racial and socioeconomic compositions (p < .001). Policy implications include the promotion of alternative approaches to school discipline. Implications for social change include evidence to support the work of those addressing the needs underlying student behavior rather than crime and punishment models to produce safe and supportive schools and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.

A public health workforce must be trained to react quickly, especially in the case of terrorist attack. Political leaders and emergency management experts have often cited inadequate emergency training as a contributing factor in the public health system's failed preparations for a bioterrorist event. As a result of these failures, billions of dollars have been allocated towards correcting infrastructure deficiencies including training for public health nurses (PHNs), who are critical to a communitywide medical response. This quantitative study used Pearson's correlation and a multivariate regression analysis to evaluate the most effective modality of bioterrorism training (BTT) for PHNs working in rural communities in North Carolina. Using a conceptual framework created by Handler, Issel, and Turnock, this study compared 3 modalities of instruction (MOI) to seek the best predictor of success in retaining learned bioterrorism skills. The research question focused on whether MOI for BTT/all-hazards training courses significantly predicted the degree of retention of emergency knowledge/skills for PHNs working in public health agencies in North Carolina. A multiple choice survey was used to test 103 PHNs' level of knowledge retention on a bioterrorism quiz. The results of this study were ultimately inconclusive in that no MOI was found to be a statistically significant predictor of retention. Factors such as age were found to be successful predictors of knowledge retention. The readiness issues identified in this study have a potential for positive social change if community decision makers use this information to prioritize future funding for public health professionals or enhance communitywide emergency preparedness education programs.

The language and communication skills of foreign students have long been a concern in U.S. universities. The majority of U.S. universities require foreign students for whom English is not their native language to take English language proficiency tests such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) as part of admission requirements. Some universities have included interventions to increase the success of Chinese students against their struggle to understand English course content. One such program is the Gateway to Successful Tomorrow Bilingual Degree Program (GST). The gap to be addressed on this study was that the effectiveness of GST has not been formally evaluated among foreign students particularly overseas Chinese students studying at U.S. universities. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the GST among overseas Chinese students studying at U.S. universities as measured through students' grade point averages (GPA) and TOEFL scores. The theoretical framework that guided this study was the Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. The quantitative study used a causal comparative design to gather quantitative data from student achievement records and TOEFL scores. Pearson's correlation analysis and analysis of variance were conducted to predict if underlying relationships exist among variables. Key findings of the analyses showed that GST students had a significantly higher GPA than non-GST student. However, results also indicated that there was no evidence that the GST program significantly improved TOEFL scores. The GST program had an overall positive impact on the international Chinese students' academic performance and with continued research international students stand to gain even more from this program.

Exclusionary discipline in school contributes to gender and racial disproportionality in the juvenile justice system and marginalizes African American girls. Using the social justice and rational choice theories as the foundation, the purpose of this case study was to explore the relationship between the criminalization of behavior in schools, racial bias, and gender stereotypes contribute to the overrepresentation of the school to prison pipeline in Virginia. The central research question focused on the relationship between the criminalization of behavior in schools, racial bias, and gender stereotypes on the overrepresentation of African American girls in the school to prison pipeline. Employing a qualitative case study design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 8 African American women (ages 20-30) and surveys from 12 educators. Other data included school discipline and juvenile justice reports from the Virginia Department of Education and Office of Juvenile Justice. The interview data were coded and analyzed using matrix and thematic analysis. Three findings emerged from the thematic analysis from document data. First, participants perceive diversionary programs, community partnership and restorative justice programs create safe and positive learning environments. Second, there are opportunities for policymakers to use their influence to promote social equity. Finally, zero tolerance policies are ineffective. The positive social change implications from this study include recommendations to policymakers to implement restorative justice programs to ensure that all students learn in a positive environment. These actions will benefit all students in public schools and decrease racial disparities in schools and the juvenile justice system.

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360-degree feedback is a personal development and appraisal tool designed to quantify the competencies and skills of fellow employees by tapping the collective experience of their superiors, subordinates, and peers. Substantially better than the hierarchical, single-source assessments employees are familiar with, this multi-source system provides participants with a comprehensive interpretation of their performance from numerous perspectives within the organization. The objective of this thesis is to develop a 360-degree feedback system tailored specifically for the Dean position, Graduate School of Business and Public Policy, Naval Postgraduate School. This thesis presents a literature review, a case description involving the Dean position, and discusses a series of interviews conducted with key groups of organizational stakeholders. With the results of this research confirming the need for and potential content of a feedback system, this thesis culminates by presenting 360- degree feedback procedures and documents created specifically for the Dean position.

The purpose of this study was to determine the most significant factors that contributed to on-time undergraduate degree completion. On-time degree completion requires that a student complete all the requirements of their degree within 4.5 years or less. A grounded theory methodology was used to conduct the study. Narrative data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Thirty former students who completed their undergraduate degree at Virginia Commonwealth University were recruited for this study. To be eligible for the study, participants had to have completed their undergraduate degree in 4.5 years or less and graduated between 2004 and 2011. The analysis of the narrative data determined that preparation for on-time completion begins in high school and continues throughout a student’s college career. First, high school students who develop ‘academic self-esteem’ by participating in an honors courses or an early college credit program in high school enter college with the belief, or personal vision, that they can complete their degree in 4 years. However, in cases where the student matriculates without ‘academic self-esteem’ directed and intensive institutional support is an effective proxy. Next, a student must be self-motivated or determined to complete on-time. They must have an inherent reason for wanting to reach that goal post. However, since the findings indicated that motivation can be internal, external, or both, institutional support can be used as effective tool to develop these qualities where needed. Third, if students are to complete their undergraduate degrees on-time, they must develop a personal plan for accomplishing that goal at the very beginning of their college careers. This plan should be incorporated into the student’s academic advising sessions and updated as they acquire the credits required for the completion of their degree. And finally, students should be strongly encouraged to engage in campus life by participating student clubs, organizations, and/or athletics. Participation in campus life encourages persistence and therefore supports on-time completion.

Although a widely used practice, it was previously unknown whether disciplinary segregation is actually effective at modifying prison behavior. This quantitative, retrospective observational study tested deterrence theory and explored the effectiveness of disciplinary segregation in deterring subsequent prison inmate misconduct among those subjected to it (N = 228). It compared a cohort of male inmates incarcerated by the Oregon Department of Corrections who had spent time in disciplinary segregation in 2011 and/or 2012 with a comparison cohort who had not spent any time in disciplinary segregation. Three models were tested, each with the outcome variable operationalized in a different way: overall total rule violations in 2013-2014, total major rule violations in 2013-2014, and total minor rule violations in 2013-2014. Multiple regression analysis was used to control for the influence of age, time spent on current sentence, risk score, prior major and minor rule violations, and time spent in disciplinary segregation. These analyses revealed that for each model, disciplinary segregation was not a significant predictor of subsequent prison inmate misconduct. The findings suggest that deterrence theory does not explain the relation between the experience of disciplinary segregation and subsequent prison misconduct among those subjected to it. The findings further suggest that disciplinary segregation neither decreases nor increases subsequent prison misconduct. These results indicate that disciplinary segregation should undergo a critical evaluation by prison administrators, which could lead to the practice of disciplinary segregation being exercised in a more judicious and informed manner, thus limiting its potentially negative effects and contributing to positive social change.

AbstractIt will be argued that the dominant form of current academic science is based on ideas and concepts about science and research that date back to philosophy and sociology that was developed since the 1930s. It will be discussed how this philosophy and sociology of science has informed the ideas, myths and ideology about science held by the scientific community and still determines the popular view of science. It is even more amazing when we realize that these ideas are philosophically and sociologically untenable and since the 1970s were declared obsolete by major scholars in these same disciplines. To demonstrate this, I delve deep to discuss the distinct stages that scholars in philosophy, sociology and history of science since 1945 to 2000 have gone through to leave the analytical-positivistic philosophy behind. I will be focusing on developments of their thinking about major topics such as: how scientific knowledge is produced, the scientific method; the status of scientific knowledge and the development of our ideas about ‘truth’ and the relation of our claims to reality. It will appear that the positivistic ideas about science producing absolute truth, about ‘the unique scientific method’, its formal logical approach and its timeless foundation as a guarantee for our value-free, objective knowledge were not untenable. This is to show how thoroughly the myth has been demystified in philosophy and sociology of science. You think after these fifty pages I am kicking a dead horse? Not at all! This scientific demystification has unfortunately still not reached active scientists. In fact, the popular image of science and research is still largely based on a that Legend. This is not without consequence as will be shown in Chap. 10.1007/978-94-024-2115-6_3. These images of science have shaped and in fact distorted the organisational structures of academia and the interaction between its institutes and disciplines. It also affects the relationship of science with its stakeholders in society, its funders, the many publics private and public, and policy makers in government. In short, it determines to a large degree the growth of knowledge with major effects on society.

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the interdependency between military rivalries and the exchange of ideas across national borders, while the complex causal mechanism at play relates to the “able man mechanism” (Obinger et al., Introduction: Studying the Warfare-Welfare Nexus. In Warfare and Welfare: Military Conflict and Welfare State Development in Western Countries, ed. Herbert Obinger, Klaus Petersen, and Peter Starke, 1–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). At the centre is the strategic coalition between Chilean military and the medical profession and its effects on the field of public health. Both, the military and the medical profession, had realised that poor health of soldiers jeopardised military success and weakened national defence as well as national productivity. This insight, however, was the result of the rise of medicine as a discipline that led to a re-interpretation of health as a resource of the state and established state responsibility for the health of national citizens.

AbstractThe welfare state comprises—besides other parts of social policy—the social security systems which provide insurance cover for the five risks of illness, long-term care, occupational accidents, old age (pension) and unemployment. The social security budgets equate to 17.7% of GDP or some 45% of public budget expenditure. The social security systems have had a unique status in the German public sector since their foundation in the late nineteenth century. On the one hand, as legally independent institutions, they enjoy a certain degree of autonomy and therefore constitute the ‘indirect state administration’. On the other hand, the steering by federal legislation (direct state administration) is quite intensive. However, in implementing this legislation, the institutions are only subject to limited state supervision, which is restricted to legal supervision (Rechtsaufsicht). Moreover, the social security institutions can appeal to the social courts against the orders of the supervising state administration.

AbstractWhat is well-being? Well-being has become synonymous with the multi-billion-dollar wellness industry, whilst also being rooted in ancient philosophy and religious practices. It has no universal definition across time, place or scientific discipline, yet the very term ‘statistics’ was invented to measure human happiness.This chapter contextualises the history of well-being data and development as one which is tied to political and technological change, firstly, in the desire to monitor human welfare, and secondly, for policy. Public management strategies embraced economic approaches to auditing, as a means to define value and efficiency in social policy choices. The chapter considers how well-being data became co-opted into an ostensibly rational process of decision-making and evaluation, becoming a tool of policy—for good and bad.

The paper investigates the impact of fiscal policy on economic growth, foreign direct investment and employment in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The focus of research is fiscal policy, which as a lever of economic policy that affects economic growth and development. The aim of the research is to determine the impact of fiscal policy on the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina and propose solutions for higher growth and development, a higher degree of foreign direct investment and reducing the unemployment rate. The results of the research show that the fiscal policy for the years that are the subject of the research, has affected the public debt of the state. High taxes and contributions have contributed to the spread of the gray economy, fiscal discipline is at a low level due to the management in this way of this lever of economic policy. Public financial management should be one of the key macroeconomic goals, with special emphasis on fiscal policy. The research went in the direction of analyzing current trends and proposals for improving the situation. The research aims to show the current statistical impact of variables on gross domestic product, on growth and development and the impact after the application of expansionary fiscal policy on the same variables. It is recommended that economic policy be conducted in the direction of releasing additional funds through the redistribution of taxes in favor of workers, in the direction of capital investments that will repay themselves, to reduce the rate of taxes and contributions on wages and with incentives for investors, to go towards stimulating production and tax reliefs for export-oriented activities with an effort to try to produce products whose production is possible in our conditions, and all this is mostly possible with the implementation of an expansive fiscal policy.

Aim/Purpose This paper investigates the association between publishing during doctoral candidature and completion time. The effects of discipline and of gaining additional support through a doctoral cohort program are also explored. Background Candidates recognize the value of building a publication track record to improve their career prospects yet are cognizant of the time it takes to publish peer-reviewed articles. In some institutions or disciplines, there is a policy or the expectation that doctoral students will publish during their candidature. How-ever, doctoral candidates are also under increasing pressure to complete their studies within a designated timeframe. Thus, some candidates and faculty perceive the two requirements – to publish and to complete on time – as mutually exclusive. Furthermore, where candidates have a choice in the format that the PhD submission will take, be it by monograph, PhD-by-publication, or a hybrid thesis, there is little empirical evidence available to guide the decision. This pa-per provides a quantitative analysis of the association between publishing during candidature and time-to-degree and investigates other variables associated with doctoral candidate research productivity and efficiency. Methodology Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine the predictors (discipline [field of research], gender, age group, domestic or international student status, and belonging to a cohort program) of doctoral candidate research productivity and efficacy. Research productivity was quantified by the number of peer-reviewed journal articles that a candidate published as a primary author during and up to 24 months after thesis submission. Efficacy (time-to-degree) was quantified by the number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) years of candidature. Data on 1,143 doctoral graduates were obtained from a single Australian university for the period extending from 2000 to 2020. Complete publication data were available on 707 graduates, and time-to-degree data on 664 graduates. Data were drawn from eight fields of research, which were grouped into the disciplines of health, biological sciences, agricultural and environmental sciences, and chemical, earth, and physical sciences. Contribution This paper addresses a gap in empirical literature by providing evidence of the association between publishing during doctoral candidature and time-to-degree in the disciplines of health, biological sciences, agricultural and environmental sciences, and chemical, earth, and physical sciences. The paper also adds to the body of evidence that demonstrates the value of belonging to a cohort pro-gram for doctoral student outcomes. Findings There is a significant association between the number of articles published and median time-to-degree. Graduates with the highest research productivity (four or more articles) exhibited the shortest time-to-degree. There was also a significant association between discipline and the number of publications published during candidature. Gaining additional peer and research-focused support and training through a cohort program was also associated with higher research productivity and efficiency compared to candidates in the same discipline but not in receipt of the additional support. Recommendations for Practitioners While the encouragement of candidates to both publish and complete within the recommended doctorate timeframe is recommended, even within disciplines characterized by high levels of research productivity, i.e., where publishing during candidature is the “norm,” the desired levels of student research productivity and efficiency are only likely to be achieved where candidates are provided with consistent writing and publication-focused training, together with peer or mentor support. Recommendations for Researchers Publishing peer-reviewed articles during doctoral candidature is shown not to adversely affect candidates’ completion time. Researchers should seek writing and publication-focused support to enhance their research productivity and efficiency. Impact on Society Researchers have an obligation to disseminate their findings for the benefit of society, industry, or practice. Thus, doctoral candidates need to be encouraged and supported to publish as they progress through their candidature. Future Research The quantitative findings need to be followed up with a mixed-methods study aimed at identifying which elements of publication and research-focused sup-port are most effective in raising doctoral candidate productivity and efficacy.

This address considers relationships between professional and postdisciplinary practices as they relate to practice-led design research. When viewed through territorial lenses, the artefacts and systems that many designers in universities develop can be argued as hybrids because they draw into their composition and contexts, diverse disciplinary fields. Procedurally, the address moves outwards from a discussion of the manner in which disciplinary designations, that originated in the secularisation of German universities during the beginning of the nineteenth century, became the template for how much knowledge is currently processed inside the academy. The paper then examines how these demarcations of thought, that included non-classical languages and literatures, social and natural sciences and technology, were disrupted in the 1970s and 1980s, by identity-based disciplines that grew inside universities. These included women’s, lesbian and gay, and ethnic studies. However, of equal importance during this period was the arrival of professional disciplines like design, journalism, nursing, business management, and hospitality. Significantly, many of these professions brought with them values and processes associated with user-centred research. Shaped by the need to respond quickly and effectively to opportunity, practitioners were accustomed to drawing on and integrating knowledge unfettered by disciplinary or professional demarcation. For instance, if a design studio required the input of a government policymaker, a patent attorney and an engineer, it was accustomed to working flexibly with diverse realms of knowledge in the pursuit of an effective outcome. In addition, these professions also employed diverse forms of practice-led inquiry. Based on high levels of situated experimentation, active reflection, and applied professional knowing, these approaches challenged many research and disciplinary conventions within the academy. Although practice-led inquiry, argued as a form of postdisciplinarity practice, is a relatively new concept (Ings, 2019), it may be associated with Wright, Embrick and Henke’s (2015, p. 271) observation that “post-disciplinary studies emerge when scholars forget about disciplines and whether ideas can be identified with any particular one: they identify with learning rather than with disciplines”. Darbellay takes this further. He sees postdisciplinarity as an essential rethinking of the concept of a discipline. He suggests that when scholars position themselves outside of the idea of disciplines, they are able to “construct a new cognitive space, in which it is no longer merely a question of opening up disciplinary borders through degrees of interaction/integration, but of fundamentally challenging the obvious fact of disciplinarity” (2016, p. 367). These authors argue that, postdisciplinarity proposes a profound rethinking of not only knowledge, but also the structures that surround and support it in universities. In the field of design, such approaches are not unfamiliar. To illustrate how practice-led research in design may operate as a postdisciplinary inquiry, this paper employs a case study of the short film Sparrow (2017). In so doing, it unpacks the way in which knowledge from within and beyond conventionally demarcated disciplinary fields, was gathered, interpreted and creatively synthesised. Here, unconstrained by disciplinary demarcations, a designed artefact surfaced through a research fusion that integrated history, medicine, software development, public policy, poetry, typography, illustration, and film production.

James Buchanan and Richard Wagner in their famous book “Democracy in Deficit” note that democracy has not enough fiscal discipline because the citizens’ representatives are chosen in the election and they take the budgetary decisions seeking the re-election. Their theory of public choice may suggest the existence of a positive relationship between the democracy’s quality and the public debt level reflecting the long-lasting consequences of the budgetary decisions of policy-makers. Thus, we formulate the following research question: Is democratic system harmful for public finance? To operationalize the democratic system, we use five democracy indices (i.e., electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian), and the public debt to operationalize the threat for public finance. Conclusions put in a new light the theory, as first the study confirmed that there are statistically significant relationships between democracy’s quality and public debt and, however not in case of every democracy index and every European country.

The currency of the engineering profession is knowledge. The knowledge gained by an engineer immersed in public policy is commonly undervalued because it is seen as not being applicable to the technical discipline. However, knowledge of the policymaking process is exactly what is needed to understand and communicate technical data in a way that decision-makers can leverage in developing prudent policies. So exposure to policy in effect enables engineers to apply their knowledge for public benefit — the genesis of the engineering discipline. This is only one of the many compelling reasons why interaction between engineers and policymakers should be valued by industry and academia. It was a motivating factor for two faculty members who recently made a temporary transition away from their respective universities to pursue Science and Technology fellowships in Washington, DC. Both individuals had tremendous experiences, professionally and personally, and encourage other engineers to make a similar adventure in Washington, DC one of their career goals.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the status of the core curriculum in higher education doctoral programs from the perspective of program directors. We used online survey analytic techniques to query program directors about their EdD and PhD programs in higher education, credit hours, and curricular content. Our study confirms previous work finding that there is common agreement in the subject matter areas of organization, leadership, administration, and history. What our work adds is that there is a growing consensus among higher education doctoral programs about the position of higher education law and finance in the curricular core. In addition, we find there is a growing interest in public policy and community colleges over time, with a majority of EdD programs including instruction in these areas. Nevertheless, majoritarian agreement does not meet at a level wherein consensus can be inferred, especially within PhD programs where requirements are more varied across programs. In addition, while there is an increasing trend in the inclusion of multiculturalism in higher education doctoral programming, multiculturalism is not currently part of higher education’s core. We conclude with research and practice implications for doctoral programs in higher education as a field of study.

Although the government admit the benefit of construction of a nuclear facility for national electric source, related policy could be developed and carried out only if the public, especially who have some stake on it, recognize the benefit and accept the policy. For public participation, Korea has a system of public-hearing in accordance with the law. Because of the absence of the detailed way for public opinion aggregation and for the reflection of the aggregated opinion, Korean public-hearing system is only a conceptual model. Therefore, some specific system for Korean Public-Hearing should be developed and applied. In this study, to share the right of decision making, which is an ultimate concept for public participation, decision making components and the characteristics of each phase are analyzed. The criteria weight for assessment and comparison with alternatives are founded as a valuation factor of the decision making components, which should be based on the social consensus. On these foundations, a system for aggregation and reflection of the public opinion was proposed. The system named “CPDM” (Consensus based Participatory Decision Making) has three authority groups for decision making. At first, “advisory experts group” play a role for the technical assessment and the serve utility value on the criteria for each alternatives. Next, “participatory deliberation group” play a role for consensus building on the relative-importance (weight) between the criteria by feedback to promote degree of consensus. Lastly including gentlemen of the long robe, “expert group for decision making” paly a role to reflect the utility and weight and make a decision with agreement for performance of it. Also, in this study, a mathematical model for the quantification of the degree of consensus was conceptualized using Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) aggregation operator and fuzzy similarity theory, which is a comparison concept. Since this model enables influence of each criteria and each participant on collective consensus to be analyzed, a direction to promote consensus building can be derived. That is to say, this model can support consensus building and promote public acceptance for the nuclear industry and related policy.

This talk will reflect on the challenges of linking academic programmes and teaching, on the one hand, with the policy-makers and practitioners, on the other, with particular reference to the discipline of international relations (which focuses on relations between states, international organisations and global political and socio-economic dynamics). The talk will draw on experience from University College Cork’s Department of Government and Politics, which has an extensive, market-leading work placement programme, and from UCC’s MSc International Public Policy and Diplomacy, which is a new model of international relations masters seeking to bridge academia and the world of policy. Our experience shows that it is possible to link academia and the world of policy and practitioners, but that it is not easy, even in an apparently very policy-oriented discipline, and that it involves significant challenges. The talk will highlight a number of challenges involved in linking the academic study of international relations with the ‘real world’ of international politics: bridging academia and policy/practitioners is not easy in the disciplines of political science and international relations – the two have different needs and, often, different languages; the development and maintenance of work placements and other elements of engagement with policymakers and practitioners involves very significant workload and needs to be properly supported in terms of staffing and infrastructure; and in politics and international relations, the skill sets which policy-makers and practitioners need often differ from those that universities normally provide. Finding the ‘right’ balance between academic disciplinary requirements/standards and the needs of employers is a difficult task.

1.1 Macroeconomic summary Economic recovery has consistently outperformed the technical staff’s expectations following a steep decline in activity in the second quarter of 2020. At the same time, total and core inflation rates have fallen and remain at low levels, suggesting that a significant element of the reactivation of Colombia’s economy has been related to recovery in potential GDP. This would support the technical staff’s diagnosis of weak aggregate demand and ample excess capacity. The most recently available data on 2020 growth suggests a contraction in economic activity of 6.8%, lower than estimates from January’s Monetary Policy Report (-7.2%). High-frequency indicators suggest that economic performance was significantly more dynamic than expected in January, despite mobility restrictions and quarantine measures. This has also come amid declines in total and core inflation, the latter of which was below January projections if controlling for certain relative price changes. This suggests that the unexpected strength of recent growth contains elements of demand, and that excess capacity, while significant, could be lower than previously estimated. Nevertheless, uncertainty over the measurement of excess capacity continues to be unusually high and marked both by variations in the way different economic sectors and spending components have been affected by the pandemic, and by uneven price behavior. The size of excess capacity, and in particular the evolution of the pandemic in forthcoming quarters, constitute substantial risks to the macroeconomic forecast presented in this report. Despite the unexpected strength of the recovery, the technical staff continues to project ample excess capacity that is expected to remain on the forecast horizon, alongside core inflation that will likely remain below the target. Domestic demand remains below 2019 levels amid unusually significant uncertainty over the size of excess capacity in the economy. High national unemployment (14.6% for February 2021) reflects a loose labor market, while observed total and core inflation continue to be below 2%. Inflationary pressures from the exchange rate are expected to continue to be low, with relatively little pass-through on inflation. This would be compatible with a negative output gap. Excess productive capacity and the expectation of core inflation below the 3% target on the forecast horizon provide a basis for an expansive monetary policy posture. The technical staff’s assessment of certain shocks and their expected effects on the economy, as well as the presence of several sources of uncertainty and related assumptions about their potential macroeconomic impacts, remain a feature of this report. The coronavirus pandemic, in particular, continues to affect the public health environment, and the reopening of Colombia’s economy remains incomplete. The technical staff’s assessment is that the COVID-19 shock has affected both aggregate demand and supply, but that the impact on demand has been deeper and more persistent. Given this persistence, the central forecast accounts for a gradual tightening of the output gap in the absence of new waves of contagion, and as vaccination campaigns progress. The central forecast continues to include an expected increase of total and core inflation rates in the second quarter of 2021, alongside the lapse of the temporary price relief measures put in place in 2020. Additional COVID-19 outbreaks (of uncertain duration and intensity) represent a significant risk factor that could affect these projections. Additionally, the forecast continues to include an upward trend in sovereign risk premiums, reflected by higher levels of public debt that in the wake of the pandemic are likely to persist on the forecast horizon, even in the context of a fiscal adjustment. At the same time, the projection accounts for the shortterm effects on private domestic demand from a fiscal adjustment along the lines of the one currently being proposed by the national government. This would be compatible with a gradual recovery of private domestic demand in 2022. The size and characteristics of the fiscal adjustment that is ultimately implemented, as well as the corresponding market response, represent another source of forecast uncertainty. Newly available information offers evidence of the potential for significant changes to the macroeconomic scenario, though without altering the general diagnosis described above. The most recent data on inflation, growth, fiscal policy, and international financial conditions suggests a more dynamic economy than previously expected. However, a third wave of the pandemic has delayed the re-opening of Colombia’s economy and brought with it a deceleration in economic activity. Detailed descriptions of these considerations and subsequent changes to the macroeconomic forecast are presented below. The expected annual decline in GDP (-0.3%) in the first quarter of 2021 appears to have been less pronounced than projected in January (-4.8%). Partial closures in January to address a second wave of COVID-19 appear to have had a less significant negative impact on the economy than previously estimated. This is reflected in figures related to mobility, energy demand, industry and retail sales, foreign trade, commercial transactions from selected banks, and the national statistics agency’s (DANE) economic tracking indicator (ISE). Output is now expected to have declined annually in the first quarter by 0.3%. Private consumption likely continued to recover, registering levels somewhat above those from the previous year, while public consumption likely increased significantly. While a recovery in investment in both housing and in other buildings and structures is expected, overall investment levels in this case likely continued to be low, and gross fixed capital formation is expected to continue to show significant annual declines. Imports likely recovered to again outpace exports, though both are expected to register significant annual declines. Economic activity that outpaced projections, an increase in oil prices and other export products, and an expected increase in public spending this year account for the upward revision to the 2021 growth forecast (from 4.6% with a range between 2% and 6% in January, to 6.0% with a range between 3% and 7% in April). As a result, the output gap is expected to be smaller and to tighten more rapidly than projected in the previous report, though it is still expected to remain in negative territory on the forecast horizon. Wide forecast intervals reflect the fact that the future evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant source of uncertainty on these projections. The delay in the recovery of economic activity as a result of the resurgence of COVID-19 in the first quarter appears to have been less significant than projected in the January report. The central forecast scenario expects this improved performance to continue in 2021 alongside increased consumer and business confidence. Low real interest rates and an active credit supply would also support this dynamic, and the overall conditions would be expected to spur a recovery in consumption and investment. Increased growth in public spending and public works based on the national government’s spending plan (Plan Financiero del Gobierno) are other factors to consider. Additionally, an expected recovery in global demand and higher projected prices for oil and coffee would further contribute to improved external revenues and would favor investment, in particular in the oil sector. Given the above, the technical staff’s 2021 growth forecast has been revised upward from 4.6% in January (range from 2% to 6%) to 6.0% in April (range from 3% to 7%). These projections account for the potential for the third wave of COVID-19 to have a larger and more persistent effect on the economy than the previous wave, while also supposing that there will not be any additional significant waves of the pandemic and that mobility restrictions will be relaxed as a result. Economic growth in 2022 is expected to be 3%, with a range between 1% and 5%. This figure would be lower than projected in the January report (3.6% with a range between 2% and 6%), due to a higher base of comparison given the upward revision to expected GDP in 2021. This forecast also takes into account the likely effects on private demand of a fiscal adjustment of the size currently being proposed by the national government, and which would come into effect in 2022. Excess in productive capacity is now expected to be lower than estimated in January but continues to be significant and affected by high levels of uncertainty, as reflected in the wide forecast intervals. The possibility of new waves of the virus (of uncertain intensity and duration) represents a significant downward risk to projected GDP growth, and is signaled by the lower limits of the ranges provided in this report. Inflation (1.51%) and inflation excluding food and regulated items (0.94%) declined in March compared to December, continuing below the 3% target. The decline in inflation in this period was below projections, explained in large part by unanticipated increases in the costs of certain foods (3.92%) and regulated items (1.52%). An increase in international food and shipping prices, increased foreign demand for beef, and specific upward pressures on perishable food supplies appear to explain a lower-than-expected deceleration in the consumer price index (CPI) for foods. An unexpected increase in regulated items prices came amid unanticipated increases in international fuel prices, on some utilities rates, and for regulated education prices. The decline in annual inflation excluding food and regulated items between December and March was in line with projections from January, though this included downward pressure from a significant reduction in telecommunications rates due to the imminent entry of a new operator. When controlling for the effects of this relative price change, inflation excluding food and regulated items exceeds levels forecast in the previous report. Within this indicator of core inflation, the CPI for goods (1.05%) accelerated due to a reversion of the effects of the VAT-free day in November, which was largely accounted for in February, and possibly by the transmission of a recent depreciation of the peso on domestic prices for certain items (electric and household appliances). For their part, services prices decelerated and showed the lowest rate of annual growth (0.89%) among the large consumer baskets in the CPI. Within the services basket, the annual change in rental prices continued to decline, while those services that continue to experience the most significant restrictions on returning to normal operations (tourism, cinemas, nightlife, etc.) continued to register significant price declines. As previously mentioned, telephone rates also fell significantly due to increased competition in the market. Total inflation is expected to continue to be affected by ample excesses in productive capacity for the remainder of 2021 and 2022, though less so than projected in January. As a result, convergence to the inflation target is now expected to be somewhat faster than estimated in the previous report, assuming the absence of significant additional outbreaks of COVID-19. The technical staff’s year-end inflation projections for 2021 and 2022 have increased, suggesting figures around 3% due largely to variation in food and regulated items prices. The projection for inflation excluding food and regulated items also increased, but remains below 3%. Price relief measures on indirect taxes implemented in 2020 are expected to lapse in the second quarter of 2021, generating a one-off effect on prices and temporarily affecting inflation excluding food and regulated items. However, indexation to low levels of past inflation, weak demand, and ample excess productive capacity are expected to keep core inflation below the target, near 2.3% at the end of 2021 (previously 2.1%). The reversion in 2021 of the effects of some price relief measures on utility rates from 2020 should lead to an increase in the CPI for regulated items in the second half of this year. Annual price changes are now expected to be higher than estimated in the January report due to an increased expected path for fuel prices and unanticipated increases in regulated education prices. The projection for the CPI for foods has increased compared to the previous report, taking into account certain factors that were not anticipated in January (a less favorable agricultural cycle, increased pressure from international prices, and transport costs). Given the above, year-end annual inflation for 2021 and 2022 is now expected to be 3% and 2.8%, respectively, which would be above projections from January (2.3% and 2,7%). For its part, expected inflation based on analyst surveys suggests year-end inflation in 2021 and 2022 of 2.8% and 3.1%, respectively. There remains significant uncertainty surrounding the inflation forecasts included in this report due to several factors: 1) the evolution of the pandemic; 2) the difficulty in evaluating the size and persistence of excess productive capacity; 3) the timing and manner in which price relief measures will lapse; and 4) the future behavior of food prices. Projected 2021 growth in foreign demand (4.4% to 5.2%) and the supposed average oil price (USD 53 to USD 61 per Brent benchmark barrel) were both revised upward. An increase in long-term international interest rates has been reflected in a depreciation of the peso and could result in relatively tighter external financial conditions for emerging market economies, including Colombia. Average growth among Colombia’s trade partners was greater than expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. This, together with a sizable fiscal stimulus approved in the United States and the onset of a massive global vaccination campaign, largely explains the projected increase in foreign demand growth in 2021. The resilience of the goods market in the face of global crisis and an expected normalization in international trade are additional factors. These considerations and the expected continuation of a gradual reduction of mobility restrictions abroad suggest that Colombia’s trade partners could grow on average by 5.2% in 2021 and around 3.4% in 2022. The improved prospects for global economic growth have led to an increase in current and expected oil prices. Production interruptions due to a heavy winter, reduced inventories, and increased supply restrictions instituted by producing countries have also contributed to the increase. Meanwhile, market forecasts and recent Federal Reserve pronouncements suggest that the benchmark interest rate in the U.S. will remain stable for the next two years. Nevertheless, a significant increase in public spending in the country has fostered expectations for greater growth and inflation, as well as increased uncertainty over the moment in which a normalization of monetary policy might begin. This has been reflected in an increase in long-term interest rates. In this context, emerging market economies in the region, including Colombia, have registered increases in sovereign risk premiums and long-term domestic interest rates, and a depreciation of local currencies against the dollar. Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 in several of these economies; limits on vaccine supply and the slow pace of immunization campaigns in some countries; a significant increase in public debt; and tensions between the United States and China, among other factors, all add to a high level of uncertainty surrounding interest rate spreads, external financing conditions, and the future performance of risk premiums. The impact that this environment could have on the exchange rate and on domestic financing conditions represent risks to the macroeconomic and monetary policy forecasts. Domestic financial conditions continue to favor recovery in economic activity. The transmission of reductions to the policy interest rate on credit rates has been significant. The banking portfolio continues to recover amid circumstances that have affected both the supply and demand for loans, and in which some credit risks have materialized. Preferential and ordinary commercial interest rates have fallen to a similar degree as the benchmark interest rate. As is generally the case, this transmission has come at a slower pace for consumer credit rates, and has been further delayed in the case of mortgage rates. Commercial credit levels stabilized above pre-pandemic levels in March, following an increase resulting from significant liquidity requirements for businesses in the second quarter of 2020. The consumer credit portfolio continued to recover and has now surpassed February 2020 levels, though overall growth in the portfolio remains low. At the same time, portfolio projections and default indicators have increased, and credit establishment earnings have come down. Despite this, credit disbursements continue to recover and solvency indicators remain well above regulatory minimums. 1.2 Monetary policy decision In its meetings in March and April the BDBR left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.75%.

Decentralisation, or devolving authority to the third tier of government to prioritise specific policy reforms and manage their implementation, is argued to lead to pro-poor development for a number of reasons: local bureaucrats can better gauge the local needs, be responsive to community demands, and, due to physical proximity, can be more easily held accountable by community members. In the education sector, devolving authority to district government has thus been seen as critical to introducing reforms aimed at increasing access and improving learning outcomes. Based on fieldwork with district-level education bureaucracies, schools, and communities in two districts in the state of West Java in Indonesia, this article shows that decentralisation has indeed led to community-responsive policy-development in Indonesia. The district-level education bureaucracies in both districts did appear to prioritise community preferences when choosing to prioritise specific educational reforms from among many introduced by the national government. However, the optimality of these preferences could be questioned. The prioritised policies are reflective of cultural and religious values or immediate employment considerations of the communities in the two districts, rather than being explicitly focused on improving learning outcomes: the urban district prioritised degree completion, while the rural district prioritised moral education. These preferences might appear sub-optimal if the preference is for education bureaucracies to focus directly on improving literacy and numeracy outcomes. Yet, taking into account the socio-economic context of each district, it becomes easy to see the logic dictating these preferences: the communities and the district government officials are consciously prioritising those education policies for which they foresee direct payoffs. Since improving learning outcomes requires long-term commitment, it appears rational to focus on policies promising more immediate gains, especially when they aim, indirectly and implicitly, to improve actual learning outcomes. Thus, more effective community mobilisation campaigns can be developed if the donor agencies funding them recognise that it is not necessarily the lack of information but the nature of the local incentive structures that shapes communities’ expectations of education. Overall, decentralisation is leading to more context-specific educational policy prioritisation in Indonesia, resulting in the possibility of significant district-level variation in outcomes. Further, looking at the school-level variation in each district, the paper shows that public schools ranked as high performing had students from more privileged socio-economic backgrounds and were catering for communities that had more financial resources to support activities in the school, compared with schools ranked as low performing. Thus, there is a gap to bridge within public schools and not just between public and private schools.

In order to enhance fiscal sustainability and regain “investment grade” credit rating, in 2011 Colombia implemented a fiscal rule (FR) on the Central Government's structural balance. Investment grade was rapidly attained, and FR targets were complied with, until 2019. Using the Synthetic Control Method, we provide evidence that the FR promoted fiscal discipline. Nevertheless, public debt has increased continuously and is now expected to exceed 60 percent of GDP, in large part driven by the pandemic. We argue that the FR should be reformed so as to incorporate a debt anchor. Using a regime change model and the IMFs buffer risk methodology, we show that the prudent debt level should not exceed 48 percent of GDP and that in order to achieve this in the medium term, a policy mix increasing revenues to 17.8 percent of GDP (from 15.5 percent during 2016-2019) and reducing primary expenditure to 15 percent (from 16 percent during 2016-2019) is required. FR's performance would also benefit from changes in its institutional design.

In 2020, the University of Dundee initiated the development of an Open Research strategy. As part of this initiative, in February 2021 the University’s Library and Learning Centre together with Open Research Champions from the Schools of Health Sciences and Dentistry, formed an Open Research Working group. To build on the University’s open research policy and infrastructure, the purpose of the group was to facilitate ongoing research and development of best practice approaches for our interdisciplinary environment to make outputs, data and other products of our research publicly available, building on University of Dundee’s Open Research policy and infrastructure. Through informal consultations with academic staff and students, the Open Research Working Group found that: → access and reach of research findings can be amplified through effective knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder and patient and public involvement; and → there was a need for guidance and resources on how-to implement knowledge mobilisation activities with and for stakeholders throughout the entire research process – from proposal development to project completion. In June 2021, the Open Research working group, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub began the development of an Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit, with funding support from the University of Dundee’s Doctoral Academy and Organisational Professional Development. IKT is an approach to knowledge translation that emphasises working in an engaged and collaborative partnership with stakeholders throughout the research cycle in order to have positive impact. The aim was to co-produce evidence-informed, best practice learning materials on how-to: → maintain ongoing relationships between researchers, community stakeholders and decision-makers in research development and implementation; and → facilitate an integrated, participatory way of knowledge production whereby researchers, practitioners and other knowledge users can collaborate to co-generate new and accessible knowledge that can be utilised in contexts ranging from supporting community development to policy guidance for practice. The IKT Toolkit was informed by a focused evidence review and synthesis of published peer-reviewed and grey literature and consists of 8 knowledge briefs and a slide deck co-produced for use in any discipline or sector. Each knowledge brief provides practical guidance and resources to support an IKT process in each of eight key research stages: (i) Partnership Building; (ii) Generating Priorities and Ideas; (iii) Proposal development; (iv) Study Design; (v) Data Collection; (vi) Data Analysis; (vii) Reporting and (viii) Dissemination. The current knowledge brief provides IKT guidance on Research Stage 8: Dissemination.

In 2020, the University of Dundee initiated the development of an Open Research strategy. As part of this initiative, in February 2021 the University’s Library and Learning Centre together with Open Research Champions from the Schools of Health Sciences and Dentistry, formed an Open Research Working group. To build on the University’s open research policy and infrastructure, the purpose of the group was to facilitate ongoing research and development of best practice approaches for our interdisciplinary environment to make outputs, data and other products of our research publicly available, building on University of Dundee’s Open Research policy and infrastructure. Through informal consultations with academic staff and students, the Open Research Working Group found that: → access and reach of research findings can be amplified through effective knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder and patient and public involvement; and → there was a need for guidance and resources on how-to implement knowledge mobilisation activities with and for stakeholders throughout the entire research process – from proposal development to project completion. In June 2021, the Open Research working group, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub began the development of an Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit, with funding support from the University of Dundee’s Doctoral Academy and Organisational Professional Development. IKT is an approach to knowledge translation that emphasises working in an engaged and collaborative partnership with stakeholders throughout the research cycle in order to have positive impact. The aim was to co-produce evidence-informed, best practice learning materials on how-to: → maintain ongoing relationships between researchers, community stakeholders and decision-makers in research development and implementation; and → facilitate an integrated, participatory way of knowledge production whereby researchers, practitioners and other knowledge users can collaborate to co-generate new and accessible knowledge that can be utilised in contexts ranging from supporting community development to policy guidance for practice. The IKT Toolkit was informed by a focused evidence review and synthesis of published peerreviewed and grey literature and consists of 8 knowledge briefs and a slide deck co-produced for use in any discipline or sector. Each knowledge brief provides practical guidance and resources to support an IKT process in each of eight key research stages: (i) Partnership Building; (ii) Generating Priorities and Ideas; (iii) Proposal development; (iv) Study Design; (v) Data Collection; (vi) Data Analysis; (vii) Reporting and (viii) Dissemination. The current knowledge brief provides IKT guidance on Research Stage 3: Proposal Development.

In 2020, the University of Dundee initiated the development of an Open Research strategy. As part of this initiative, in February 2021 the University’s Library and Learning Centre together with Open Research Champions from the Schools of Health Sciences and Dentistry, formed an Open Research Working group. To build on the University’s open research policy and infrastructure, the purpose of the group was to facilitate ongoing research and development of best practice approaches for our interdisciplinary environment to make outputs, data and other products of our research publicly available, building on University of Dundee’s Open Research policy and infrastructure. Through informal consultations with academic staff and students, the Open Research Working Group found that: → access and reach of research findings can be amplified through effective knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder and patient and public involvement; and → there was a need for guidance and resources on how-to implement knowledge mobilisation activities with and for stakeholders throughout the entire research process – from proposal development to project completion. In June 2021, the Open Research working group, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub began the development of an Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit, with funding support from the University of Dundee’s Doctoral Academy and Organisational Professional Development. IKT is an approach to knowledge translation that emphasises working in an engaged and collaborative partnership with stakeholders throughout the research cycle in order to have positive impact. The aim was to co-produce evidence-informed, best practice learning materials on how-to: → maintain ongoing relationships between researchers, community stakeholders and decision-makers in research development and implementation; and → facilitate an integrated, participatory way of knowledge production whereby researchers, practitioners and other knowledge users can collaborate to co-generate new and accessible knowledge that can be utilised in contexts ranging from supporting community development to policy guidance for practice. The IKT Toolkit was informed by a focused evidence review and synthesis of published peerreviewed and grey literature and consists of 8 knowledge briefs and a slide deck co-produced for use in any discipline or sector. Each knowledge brief provides practical guidance and resources to support an IKT process in each of eight key research stages: (i) Partnership Building; (ii) Generating Priorities and Ideas; (iii) Proposal development; (iv) Study Design; (v) Data Collection; (vi) Data Analysis; (vii) Reporting and (viii) Dissemination. The current knowledge brief provides IKT guidance on Research Stage 5: Data Collection.

In 2020, the University of Dundee initiated the development of an Open Research strategy. As part of this initiative, in February 2021 the University’s Library and Learning Centre together with Open Research Champions from the Schools of Health Sciences and Dentistry, formed an Open Research Working group. To build on the University’s open research policy and infrastructure, the purpose of the group was to facilitate ongoing research and development of best practice approaches for our interdisciplinary environment to make outputs, data and other products of our research publicly available, building on University of Dundee’s Open Research policy and infrastructure. Through informal consultations with academic staff and students, the Open Research Working Group found that: → access and reach of research findings can be amplified through effective knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder and patient and public involvement; and → there was a need for guidance and resources on how-to implement knowledge mobilisation activities with and for stakeholders throughout the entire research process – from proposal development to project completion. In June 2021, the Open Research working group, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub began the development of an Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit, with funding support from the University of Dundee’s Doctoral Academy and Organisational Professional Development. IKT is an approach to knowledge translation that emphasises working in an engaged and collaborative partnership with stakeholders throughout the research cycle in order to have positive impact. The aim was to co-produce evidence-informed, best practice learning materials on how-to: → maintain ongoing relationships between researchers, community stakeholders and decision-makers in research development and implementation; and → facilitate an integrated, participatory way of knowledge production whereby researchers, practitioners and other knowledge users can collaborate to co-generate new and accessible knowledge that can be utilised in contexts ranging from supporting community development to policy guidance for practice. The IKT Toolkit was informed by a focused evidence review and synthesis of published peer-reviewed and grey literature and consists of 8 knowledge briefs and a slide deck co-produced for use in any discipline or sector. Each knowledge brief provides practical guidance and resources to support an IKT process in each of eight key research stages: (i) Partnership Building; (ii) Generating Priorities and Ideas; (iii) Proposal development; (iv) Study Design; (v) Data Collection; (vi) Data Analysis; (vii) Reporting and (viii) Dissemination. The current knowledge brief provides IKT guidance on Research Stage 6: Data Analysis.

In 2020, the University of Dundee initiated the development of an Open Research strategy. As part of this initiative, in February 2021 the University’s Library and Learning Centre together with Open Research Champions from the Schools of Health Sciences and Dentistry, formed an Open Research Working group. To build on the University’s open research policy and infrastructure, the purpose of the group was to facilitate ongoing research and development of best practice approaches for our interdisciplinary environment to make outputs, data and other products of our research publicly available, building on University of Dundee’s Open Research policy and infrastructure. Through informal consultations with academic staff and students, the Open Research Working Group found that: → access and reach of research findings can be amplified through effective knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder and patient and public involvement; and → there was a need for guidance and resources on how-to implement knowledge mobilisation activities with and for stakeholders throughout the entire research process – from proposal development to project completion. In June 2021, the Open Research working group, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub began the development of an Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit, with funding support from the University of Dundee’s Doctoral Academy and Organisational Professional Development. IKT is an approach to knowledge translation that emphasises working in an engaged and collaborative partnership with stakeholders throughout the research cycle in order to have positive impact. The aim was to co-produce evidence-informed, best practice learning materials on how-to: → maintain ongoing relationships between researchers, community stakeholders and decision-makers in research development and implementation; and → facilitate an integrated, participatory way of knowledge production whereby researchers, practitioners and other knowledge users can collaborate to co-generate new and accessible knowledge that can be utilised in contexts ranging from supporting community development to policy guidance for practice. The IKT Toolkit was informed by a focused evidence review and synthesis of published peer-reviewed and grey literature and consists of 8 knowledge briefs and a slide deck co-produced for use in any discipline or sector. Each knowledge brief provides practical guidance and resources to support an IKT process in each of eight key research stages: (i) Partnership Building; (ii) Generating Priorities and Ideas; (iii) Proposal development; (iv) Study Design; (v) Data Collection; (vi) Data Analysis; (vii) Reporting and (viii) Dissemination. The current knowledge brief provides IKT guidance on Research Stage 7: Reporting.

In 2020, the University of Dundee initiated the development of an Open Research strategy. As part of this initiative, in February 2021 the University’s Library and Learning Centre together with Open Research Champions from the Schools of Health Sciences and Dentistry, formed an Open Research Working group. To build on the University’s open research policy and infrastructure, the purpose of the group was to facilitate ongoing research and development of best practice approaches for our interdisciplinary environment to make outputs, data and other products of our research publicly available, building on University of Dundee’s Open Research policy and infrastructure. Through informal consultations with academic staff and students, the Open Research Working Group found that: → access and reach of research findings can be amplified through effective knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder and patient and public involvement; and → there was a need for guidance and resources on how-to implement knowledge mobilisation activities with and for stakeholders throughout the entire research process – from proposal development to project completion. In June 2021, the Open Research working group, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub began the development of an Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit, with funding support from the University of Dundee’s Doctoral Academy and Organisational Professional Development. IKT is an approach to knowledge translation that emphasises working in an engaged and collaborative partnership with stakeholders throughout the research cycle in order to have positive impact. The aim was to co-produce evidence-informed, best practice learning materials on how-to: → maintain ongoing relationships between researchers, community stakeholders and decision-makers in research development and implementation; and → facilitate an integrated, participatory way of knowledge production whereby researchers, practitioners and other knowledge users can collaborate to co-generate new and accessible knowledge that can be utilised in contexts ranging from supporting community development to policy guidance for practice. The IKT Toolkit was informed by a focused evidence review and synthesis of published peerreviewed and grey literature and consists of 8 knowledge briefs and a slide deck co-produced for use in any discipline or sector. Each knowledge brief provides practical guidance and resources to support an IKT process in each of eight key research stages: (i) Partnership Building; (ii) Generating Priorities and Ideas; (iii) Proposal development; (iv) Study Design; (v) Data Collection; (vi) Data Analysis; (vii) Reporting and (viii) Dissemination. The current knowledge brief provides IKT guidance on Research Stage 4: Study Design.

Despite the sharp drop in transit ridership throughout the USA that began in March 2020, two different uses of land near transit stations continue to be implemented in the United States to promote ridership. Since 2010, transit agencies have given priority to multi-family residential construction referred to as transit oriented development (TOD), with an emphasis on housing affordability. In second place for urban planners but popular with suburban commuters is free or inexpensive parking near rail or bus transit centers, known as park-and-ride (PnR). Sometimes, TOD and PnR are combined in the same development. Public policy seeks to gain high community value from both of these land uses, and there is public interest in understanding the circumstances and locations where one of these two uses should be emphasized over the other. Multiple justifications for each are offered in the professional literature and reviewed in this report. Fundamental to the strategic decision making necessary to allocate public resources toward one use or the other is a determination of the degree to which each approach generates transit ridership. In the research reported here, econometric analysis of GIS data for transit stops, PnR locations, and residential density was employed to measure their influence on transit boardings for samples of transit stops at the main transit agencies in Seattle, Los Angeles, and San José. Results from all three cities indicate that adding 100 parking spaces close to a transit stop has a larger marginal impact than adding 100 housing units. Previous academic research estimating the higher ridership generation per floor area of PnR compared to multi-family TOD housing makes this show of strength for parking an expected finding. At the same time, this report reviews several common public policy justifications for TOD as a preferred land development emphasis near transit stations, such as revenue generation for the transit agency and providing a location for below-market affordable housing where occupants do not need to have a car. If increasing ridership is important for a transit agency, then parking for customers who want to drive to a station is an important option. There may also be additional benefits for park-and-ride in responding to the ongoing pandemic.