Narrow Results

Climate change and climate mitigation policies pose significant challenges to both the economy and public finances. This paper analyzes the long-term fiscal implications of climate policies aimed at achieving net-zero emissions in Switzerland by 2050. Using a novel budget-impact projection framework, we consider four climate policy scenarios with different mixes of carbon pricing, regulation and subsidies. Our projection analysis shows that the path to net-zero emissions will put pressure on public finances in the coming decades. This result primarily follows from the projected negative impact of climate mitigation policies on economic growth, which in turn dampens the growth of tax revenues and social security contributions. We highlight the importance of compensating for revenue losses due to the erosion of the fuel tax base as a result of the electrification of the transport sector. Finally, we show that the use of subsidies in climate and energy policies exacerbates fiscal pressures on the public expenditure side. Our projections highlight the need for policy action and the importance of forward-looking climate and fiscal policies to ensure sustainable public finances during the energy transition.

In the presence of home firm's ability to make a cost-reducing investment before or after the government set its subsidy level, this paper analyzes the impact of timing on the optimal policy of the government. We find that under complete information assumption, the firm will overinvest and consequently, the government will over-subsidize, resulting in lower welfare levels than would arise under non-intervention. We extend the model to the case in which the home firm has private information about its own costs, which it may want to signal to the government through its investment choice. We find that under this setup, the low-cost firm overinvests even more than under full information case, making the policy of non-intervention even more attractive.

Cancer in Women – Trends in Singapore

Impact of Subsidies on Genetic Testing Uptake in Singapore: Is it Feasible?

The Future of Radiation Oncology

Targeted Therapies in Oncology: Where We Are and What Lies Ahead

China approves norovirus vaccine for clinical trial.

Public hospitals in China receive increasing government funds.

Tax incentives for top talents in the Greater Bay Area.

National Health Commission of China calls for production of generic drugs.

AI offers breakthrough in cancer diagnosis.

Drug-free theranostic agent for cancer treatment.

E-healthcare innovation competition finishes in Shanghai.

Bioindustry Convention held in Guangzhou.

China’s State Council publishes new regulations on the management of human genetic resources.

Chinese institutions ranked high in Nature Index.

US$120 million joint venture in China to develop innovative cell therapies for cancer.

Digital mental health strategy in China.

While the reform of environmentally harmful subsidies has often been identified as a potential means to simultaneously realise environmental, economic and fiscal benefits, little guidance is available on designing possible paths for subsidy reform. This paper aims to better conceptualise a reform process for Germany. It argues that there is room for designing a broader framework for reform moving beyond isolated and, sometimes, inefficient steps at an environmentally oriented subsidy reform. To do so, the broader policy context is described, characteristics and underlying problem structures are identified and obstacles to policy reform are mentioned. As a result, a number of critical requirements for a potentially successful reform process can be formulated. Using available impact analyses as a "tool box", we draw on experiences with Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) as a useful and sufficiently flexible organisational and procedural framework for subsidy reform. Based on SEA concepts, the paper treats various important linkages, steps and actor constellations that the reform process is likely to encounter. Finally, the critical link between assessment and decision-making is addressed and some suggestions on a follow-up for the assessment process are made.

The poor are most likely to suffer from a service provider that cannot reliably supply high-quality water through the piped network. Effectively assisting the poor is a key component of a successful tariff reform process. This paper provides practical, up-to-date advice that water utilities, municipalities, central governments, and donors can use to design and implement pro-poor policies for municipal water supply in low- and middle-income countries. After mapping contextual factors for a given situation and outlining the set of pro-poor policy alternatives, we use a simplified typology to diagnose common types of situations a water provider might be facing, provide policy recommendations, highlight potential policy mistakes, and discuss the challenges that policymakers are likely to face.

This policy note provides a snapshot of water and sanitation measures implemented by governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 14 countries in the Global South: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Panama, South Africa, Uganda and Vietnam. We find that many countries have taken action to stop utility disconnections due to non-payment. With the exception of Ghana and Vietnam, few countries are instituting new water subsidy programs, and are instead choosing to defer customers’ bills for future payment, presumably when the pandemic recedes and households will be able to pay their bills. It is easier for the utilities’ COVID-relief policies to target customers with piped connections who regularly receive bills. However, the situation for unconnected households appears more dire. Some countries (e.g., Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda) are attempting to provide unconnected households temporary access to water, but these households remain the most vulnerable. This health crisis has accentuated the importance of strong governance structures and resilient water service providers for dealing with external health, environmental and economic shocks.

Investments to rehabilitate and modernize irrigation systems as well as price subsidies to incentivize adoption of drip and sprinkler irrigation technologies are promoted to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability of on-farm water use across India. We examine the effect of these two policies on farmer irrigation choices in surface irrigated farms in Madhya Pradesh. A logistic regression based on novel survey data from 918 farmers estimates a 3% reduction in the probability that farmers will adopt drip or sprinkler technologies if they are located on farms serviced by irrigation schemes where 30% or more of the irrigated area was rehabilitated. Results also reveal that, on average, farmers are 12% more likely to continue using irrigation technologies if they had adopted them prior to the start of rehabilitation works. Quantitative results are complemented with semi-structured interviews of farmers to better understand drivers of adoption, which suggest that: (1) open, gravity canals do not always restrict drip or sprinkler adoption, (2) water scarcity appears to be a strong driver for farmers to adopt, despite financial constraints, (3) socio-economic factors such as caste, education, and house ownership does not seem to influence a farmers’ choice of adoption, and (4) social networks provide a stronger incentive for adoption as smallholders struggle to access government subsidies. Understanding the role of social networks in influencing the irrigation practices of farmers can complement supply-side infrastructure investments and financial incentive policies to enhance the water security of smallholders facing climatic risks to food production.

After intensifying in the 1980s and 1990s, the longstanding dispute between Europe and the United States over government subsidies for the commercial jetliner industry again heated up in 2004. This time, however, the stakes were higher because both nations sued each other at the World Trade Organization over government subsidies paid to their respective commercial jetliner companies. The dispute over subsidies has heightened trade tensions between the United States and Europe, as both companies spar for dominance in the highly competitive industry of commercial aircraft.

This paper provides a sequel to “Boeing-Airbus Subsidy Dispute: An Economic and Trade Perspective,” a paper written by these authors and published in the October-December 2001 issue of Global Economy Quarterly. The initial paper analyzed the trade frictions between Boeing and Airbus regarding governmental subsidies and its implications for the conduct and performance of the two companies in the commercial aircraft industry. This paper extends the analysis by discussing recent developments in the commercial aircraft industry, the subsidy dispute of Boeing and Airbus at the World Trade Organization, and the future health of the commercial jetliner industry.

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Renewable energy in the UK - the promotional mechanism

• Successes of the NFFO

• The problems of the NFFO process

• Meeting a 10% by 2010 target

• UK energy policy uncertainties

• The EU influence

• The 2nd phase

• Future policy: lessons to be learned

• Conclusion — how well has the UK done?

• References

Proponents of industrial policy argue that key industries merit subsidies because they generate beneficial externalities. We show that policy must reflect both technological linkages and market power in the target industries, the interaction of which may produce an optimal policy including both subsidies and taxes on target industries. The optimal policy combination may not be politically or administratively feasible. If so, we show that it may not be desirable to subsidize output in the externality-generating activity on either a fixed or per-unit basis. Thus, technological linkages alone do not lead to the presumption that the externality-generating activity should be subsidized.

Public economics covers the welfare economics of social (as opposed to private) interests and aspects of public finance. This chapter considers the application of two methods of social economic evaluation of tourist developments, namely, social cost-benefit analysis and economic impact analysis. The role of social cost-benefit analysis in the assessment of tourism is illustrated by its application to the evaluation of inbound tourism. This is followed by a discussion of taxes on tourism and subsidies to promote it. The principle focus is on hotel room taxes. The analysis of taxes on tourism involves both public finance and welfare economics issues. The scope for and desirability of applying the user-pays principle to tourism is then examined.