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Public Policy Evaluation and Sustainable Economic Development: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 July 2021) | Viewed by 24210

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Rector, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania
Interests: agriculture policy, environment, sustainable development
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Guest Editor
Bucharest University of Economic Studies, director of the Advanced Research Institute, Romania
Interests: research and development, management of public administration

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Guest Editor
Institute of Economics and Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences WULS—SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: spatial economy; agricultural economics; price analysis; economics and market organization; logistics; transport
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the last few decades, sustainable economic development has become an overarching framework for issues related to agriculture and land use, environment, human resources, or research and innovation. This has created an unprecedented response in public policies in various fields, which are also expected to include a long term sustainable component. Evaluation is regarded as a crucial step in the cycle of public policies, taken ex-ante, during the interventions, or ex-post. It is meant to assess the impacts of the interventions, to provide knowledge on how the interventions can be improved, and how to maximize the benefits. Therefore, public policy evaluation should consider the specificities of various fields, such as agriculture, human capital, or research and development, because they require adapted evaluation methods and measures for properly capturing the intended or unintended effects.

One key issue in the design of the public policies is to ensure sustainable effects. This Special Issue is open for papers dealing with public policy evaluation in the context of sustainable development. Authors are encouraged to submit papers that examine the various dimensions of the evaluation of projects, programmes, or policies in fields such as the following: Agriculture and land use, environment, human resources, infrastructure, research and development. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods are included within the scope. Also, we expect to capture the interest of researchers looking at public policy evaluation in developing or developed countries. The existing literature on policy evaluation is growing; however, the cases of transition and former communist countries (as well as specific sectors such as agriculture and R&D) are underrepresented.  It would be of high interest for decision makers, academia, or for the final beneficiaries of public interventions to understand the role of the evaluation, its limits and strengths, and how it captures the effects of public policies.

Prof. Nicolae Istudor
Prof. Margareta Stela Florescu
Prof. Monica Roman
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • public policy evaluation
  • impact evaluation
  • counterfactual evaluation methods
  • qualitative methods for evaluation
  • agriculture policy
  • environmental policies
  • sustainable development
  • human resources
  • labor markets policies
  • evaluation of the R&D projects

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 1051 KiB  
Article
Regional Development in Romania: Empirical Evidence Regarding the Factors for Measuring a Prosperous and Sustainable Economy
by Ibinceanu Onica Mihaela Cristina, Cristache Nicoleta, Dobrea Răzvan Cătălin and Florescu Margareta
Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 3942; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073942 - 2 Apr 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4044
Abstract
The present study aims to present, evaluate and identify the factors required to measure the prosperity and sustainability of Romania’s economy over the specific period 2000–2020 in light of sustainable regional development assessments, and examines how the main factors—as considered by the authors—may [...] Read more.
The present study aims to present, evaluate and identify the factors required to measure the prosperity and sustainability of Romania’s economy over the specific period 2000–2020 in light of sustainable regional development assessments, and examines how the main factors—as considered by the authors—may be integrated into regional development policies. The focus throughout the study is on the need to permanently support the development of Romanian regions in direct relation to the sustainable indicators presented within the model—through the use of data from empirical analysis—which are measures of Romania’s economic prosperity and long-term economic growth. Therefore, the study intends to assess the progress of each region of the country, showing the evolution and selection of factors that are related to sustainability, namely, child survival, poverty and education, with implications for regional development strategies and local initiatives that must promote wider sustainable regional development. Furthermore, the aim of the study is to analyse the influence of sustainable inflows on economic prosperity, reflected in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for each region in Romania, considering factors related to sustainability and the major differences between the regions, depending on the effectiveness of these public policy applications. With this approach, our goal—considering all the macroregions of the country—is to emphasize the significance of two main aims in sustainable regional development: a better allocation of the means which actively aim to decrease the unemployment rate and a better infrastructure for public services. National, regional and local administrations play important roles in promoting coherent sustainability in economic, social and environmental activities. Regardless of the level at which development policies are devised—local, county or regional—they must take into consideration and monitor the determinants of sustainable development in cases where development is the ultimate goal. Full article
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19 pages, 286 KiB  
Article
Factors Affecting the Sustainable Development of HRS in Transforming Economies: A fsQCA Approach
by Wen Chen, Xiao-Jiao Song and Yanping Li
Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1727; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041727 - 5 Feb 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2706
Abstract
Human resources services (HRS) are kinds of services concerning human resources acquisition, development, and allocation provided to employers and workers. The services promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the human resources market. Recently, the services have been regarded as crucial for the sustainable [...] Read more.
Human resources services (HRS) are kinds of services concerning human resources acquisition, development, and allocation provided to employers and workers. The services promote the efficiency and effectiveness of the human resources market. Recently, the services have been regarded as crucial for the sustainable development of the national economy, attracting policymakers in transforming economies to promote the expansions of the services. This paper presents a systematic study of factors that affect the development of the services. In this text, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was used to explore the configurations of the factors that drive the growth of the services. The data was from province governments’ statistics and influential research reports in China, and each province observation was considered as a case (in fsQCA terms). In this article, the marketization of human resources (MOHR) referring to allocating human resources through the labor market rather than government bureaucracy, is a possible necessary condition for the boom of the HRS. Moreover, we identified seven paths to explain both the high and low development level of HRS. Among the paths, the configuration of general development of regional economy, social legitimacy of the services, and marketization of human resources are the basic conditions that lead to a high growth rate of the HRS. These research findings enriched our understanding of the valid strategies for cultivating the services industry in China and other transforming countries. To cultivate and upgrade the services, we suggested that transforming economies should pay more attention to economic internationalization and speed up the marketization of human resources. Full article
20 pages, 1094 KiB  
Article
Rurbanization—Making the City Greener: Young Citizen Implication and Future Actions
by Andreea Orîndaru, Mihaela Constantinescu, Claudia-Elena Țuclea, Ștefan-Claudiu Căescu, Margareta Stela Florescu and Ionel Dumitru
Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 7175; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177175 - 2 Sep 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3549
Abstract
City life has become the norm for most of the global population and building sustainable cities is a growing trend, together with an increased focus on healthier lifestyles in urban settings. Given this framework, the concept of ‘rurbanization’ is gaining momentum as more [...] Read more.
City life has become the norm for most of the global population and building sustainable cities is a growing trend, together with an increased focus on healthier lifestyles in urban settings. Given this framework, the concept of ‘rurbanization’ is gaining momentum as more and more people are interested in bringing natural green spaces within the urban setting. For this purpose, a research (online survey on a sample of 500 respondents) was developed to discover youths’ perceptions on what a sustainable city means, their perspectives on the urbanization problems, and willingness to take action towards improving the green aspects of their urban life. Results revealed that sustainable life perception vary a lot across the young generation, but opinions on what are the city life issues tend to converge to similar points, such as air quality, disconnection with nature, greenhouse effect, urban heat islands, and water quality. When it comes to rurbanization solutions for a greener urban life, young people lean more towards individual solutions, be it an easy and short-term one, such as endowing their home with more green plants, or a more drastic one, such as moving altogether from the city area towards greener locations. Results were also used in designing a conceptual model for actions towards rurbanization. Full article
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20 pages, 7515 KiB  
Article
Climate Change and Public Policies in the Brazilian Amazon State of Mato Grosso: Perceptions and Challenges
by Neli Aparecida de Mello-Théry, Eduardo de Lima Caldas, Beatriz M. Funatsu, Damien Arvor and Vincent Dubreuil
Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 5093; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125093 - 23 Jun 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4392
Abstract
This study examines how key stakeholders in agriculture in a number of municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso are incorporating and adapting to public policies on climate change. Fieldwork and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2014 and 2018 with key stakeholders [...] Read more.
This study examines how key stakeholders in agriculture in a number of municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon state of Mato Grosso are incorporating and adapting to public policies on climate change. Fieldwork and semi-structured interviews conducted in 2014 and 2018 with key stakeholders in the region were analyzed to assess the effectiveness of public policies incorporating climate change factors. Data obtained from documents from national institutions complemented these interviews. The results show that although local government claims that its mission is economic, social and sustainable development, and although public institutions and stakeholders repeat internationally recognized protocols and agreements in their communications, in actual fact, these are not reflected by any change in institutional behavior. Full article
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23 pages, 1520 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Interest Rate, Exchange Rate and European Business Climate on Economic Growth in Romania: An ARDL Approach with Structural Breaks
by Mariana Hatmanu, Cristina Cautisanu and Mihaela Ifrim
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2798; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072798 - 1 Apr 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 8266
Abstract
The role of the interest and exchange rates in sustaining economic growth has been a highly researched subject. Therefore, this study examines the influence of the monetary policy interest rate, the real exchange rate and the business climate in the Euro area on [...] Read more.
The role of the interest and exchange rates in sustaining economic growth has been a highly researched subject. Therefore, this study examines the influence of the monetary policy interest rate, the real exchange rate and the business climate in the Euro area on the economic growth in Romania. For this purpose, we have applied a pre-test for structural breaks to identify the existence of structural breaks, followed by the traditional unit root tests and the unit root tests with structural breaks to verify the stationarity of the variables. The results of the Bound cointegration test led to the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) short-run model that measures the short-run impact of the interest rate, exchange rate and the business climate in the Euro area on the economic growth of Romania. Our findings show that in the short run, the economic growth is negatively influenced by the interest rate, and positively by the exchange rate. We also indicate that the business climate in the Euro area has mixed effects on the economic growth. Finally, considering the growing interdependence between the internal and external (European) business environment, the results are highly significant for handling the interest and exchange rates in sustaining economic growth. Full article
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