Regional Regulations and Public Safety Perceptions of Quality-of-Life Issues: Empirical Study on Food Safety in China

Food Safety Governance in the Age of COVID-19: How Does Employees' Attitude on Public-Private Governance System Affect Their Willingness to Blow the Whistle on Food Violations?

Online food delivery increases dramatically during the COVID-19 era and has grown into a global marketplace worth more than $150 billion dollars, necessitating a more effective and responsive governance system. Public-private governance systems with whistleblowing to the public are seen as an effective tool for addressing the formidable challenges of food security in modern society. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the determinants of whistleblowing intentions and to propose policy policies for the whistleblowing system to fully utilize the advantages of public-private governance systems. Through empirical research, this paper finds that employees' perceived effectiveness of government authorities, as well as their familiarity with whistleblowing systems, positively affect their intentions to blow the whistle. However, the whistleblowing intent of restaurant employees is adversely affected by the online platform's focus. The root cause lies in the employee's trust in both the government sector and corporate sector. This study thus argues that a suite of measures to promote individual trust in public-private governance systems is desired and that this is an effective means of better mitigating food safety governance challenges in terms of capacity and resources.

Defining Food Safety Inspection

Food safety inspections are a key health protection measure applied by governments to prevent foodborne illness, yet they remain the subject of sustained criticism. These criticisms include inconsistency and inadequacy of methods applied to inspection, and ineffectiveness in preventing foodborne illness. Investigating the validity of these criticisms represent important areas for further research. However, a defined construct around the meanings society attributes to food safety inspection must first be established. Through critical examination of available literature, this review identified meanings attributed to food safety inspection and explicates some of the key elements that compose food safety inspection as a social construct. A total of 18 meanings were found to be attributed to food safety inspection. Variation in meanings were found between consumers, food business associates and food safety inspectors. For some, inspection meant a source of assurance, for others a threat to fairness, while most view inspection as a product of resources and inspector training. The meanings were then examined in light of common criticisms directed at food safety inspection, to expound their influence in how food safety inspection is realized, shaped, and rationalized. This review highlights the influence of sociological factors in defining food safety inspection.

Are Pueblos Mágicos Really Magic? Tourism Development Program in the Context of the Quality of Life of Town Residents

Among the countless attractions awaiting tourists in Mexico are towns characterized by an exceptional atmosphere, which in conjunction with natural environmental attractions, leads one to believe that these places are magical. The promotion of tourism in Mexico rests on the principle of cultural and environmental diversity and includes a development program called Pueblos Mágicos. This program is designed to help expand small towns’ tourism offering and to create new jobs in the service sector that normally accompanies tourism. This growth in the employment level is supposed to produce a direct impact on the lives of members of the local community in terms of their standard of living and quality of life. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effects of the implementation of this program in a comprehensive manner. The viewpoint examined is that of the local population and its living conditions. Employment levels in towns designated Pueblos Mágicos are examined in the paper, as is the rate of business development. A comprehensive index is used in the study to analyze these issues. The index of exclusion in the study also varies from town to town—both statically and over time. The paper also examines a number of other studies that have focused on the benefits and downsides of this program. Thus, the aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the effects of the introduction of the tourism development program Pueblos Mágicos (PPM) from the perspective of its impacts on the quality of life of the residents of the affected towns, based on statistical data such as job growth rates and marginalization, as well as a review of existing studies. Research has shown that the Pueblos Mágicos program has not substantially improved the quality of life of residents in Mexican towns designated Pueblos Mágicos. In fact, in some cases, the quality of life has, in some respects, declined over the course of the program’s functioning. However, it is conceivable that with a proper town vetting process the program may yet produce better results in terms of improvements in the quality of life of Pueblo Mágico town residents.

Does Government Intervention Ensure Food Safety? Evidence from China

Food safety is related to public health, social welfare, and human survival, all of which are important and pressing areas of concern all over the world. The government plays an increasingly important role in the supervision of food safety. The role of the government, however, is also controversial. Using provincial panel data of China from 2005 to 2015, the present study intends to shed light on the associations between government intervention and food safety performance under two scenarios of local government—competition and noncompetition. This will be accomplished through an exploratory spatial data analysis and a spatial econometric model. The results reveal negative associations between food safety performance and government intervention without considering local government competition. As was also observed, government intervention not only inhibits the improvement of food safety in the region, but also has a negative spatial spillover effect on food safety in neighboring provinces. This is the result after considering government competition, thus, showing the competitive strategic interaction of the “race to the bottom”. Further analysis reveals that, if geographically similar regions are selected as reference objects, the food safety performance of each province will have a stronger tendency to compete for the better. If regions with similar economic development levels are selected as reference objects, food safety performance will have a stronger tendency to compete for the worse. This work provides new evidence for the relationships between government intervention and food safety, and, also, proposes some insightful implications for policymakers for governing food safety.