The influence of "industry policy" and "financial institution" configuration effect on innovation performance of China's biomedical industry-based on necessary condition analysis and qualitative comparative analysis

Biomedical industry is a strategic emerging industry in China, especially the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. The biomedical industry is characterized by high risk, high investment, high technology and long cycle, and each stage contains risks and challenges. How to optimize the policy environment and financial environment, explore the unique "policy" and "finance" model for the development of the biomedical industry, and improve the innovation performance has become an important issue. This paper analyzes the relationship among industry policy, financial institution and innovation performance in the biomedical industry from the configuration perspective, combining necessary condition analysis (NCA) and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) research methods, using the A-share listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen in the biomedical industry from 2012 to 2020 as the research objects. It is found that (1) individual policy preference or financial institution dimension cannot constitute a necessary condition for generating high innovation performance of biomedical company, but increasing tax incentive and raising the proportion of equity-based financing method play a significant role in generating high innovation performance; (2) four "political" and "financial "synergistic grouping paths can generate high innovation performance, including tax incentives, financial institutions' professional level and institutional background synergistic drive type; government subsidy, financing method and financial institutions' professional level synergistic drive type; tax incentive and financing method synergistic drive type; tax incentive and institutional background drive type. Different synergistic grouping paths represent various ways to achieve high innovation performance of biomedical enterprise. In addition, the results show that the two "political" and "financial" groupings lead to low-to-medium innovation performance, which indicates that industry policy plays a very important role in the innovation performance and that the government's support for emerging industries through policy is a significant force for the innovation development. This paper introduces the "political" and "financial" aspects to investigate the configuration effect of industry policy and financial institutions on the innovation performance of biomedical enterprise. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications for revealing the synergistic path of high innovation performance in the Chinese biomedical industry.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Global Corporate CDS Spreads

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the credit risk of companies around the world. We find that increased infection rates affect firms more adversely as reflected by the wider increase in their credit default swap (CDS) spreads if they are larger, more leveraged, closer to default, have worse governance and more limited stakeholder engagement, and operate in more highly exposed industries. We observe that country-level determinants such as GDP, political stability, foreign direct investment, and commitment to crisis management (income support, health and lockdown policies) also affect the sensitivity of CDS spreads to COVID-19 infection rates. A negative amplification effect exists for firms with high default probability in countries with fiscal constraints. A direct comparison between global CDS and stock markets reveals that the CDS market prices in a distinct set of corporate traits and government policies in pandemic times.

Impact of Government Intervention in Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to the loss of lives and had serious social and economic effects. Countries implemented various quarantine policies to reduce the effects. The countries were divided into low- and high-risk groups based on the differences in quarantine policies and their levels of infection. Quarantine policies that significantly contributed to risk reduction were determined by analyzing 11 quarantine indicators for reducing the spread of COVID-19. The cross-tabulation and Chi-square tests were used to compare the quarantine policies by the groups. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the useful quarantine policies implemented by the low-risk group to verify quarantine policies for minimizing the negative effects. The analysis showed that the low- and medium-risk groups showed significant differences for 9 of the 11 indicators, and 4 of these differentiated the low- from the medium-risk group. Countries with strict quarantine policies related to workplace closure and staying at home were more likely to be included in the low-risk group. These policies had a significant impact in the low-risk countries and could contribute to reducing the spread and effects of COVID-19 in countries included in the high-risk group.

Assessing impacts of COVID-19 and their responses among smallholder farmers in Brazil, Madagascar and Tanzania

This study investigates the impacts of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on smallholder farmers and their coping strategies in three contrasting Low- and Middle-Income Countries. The case studies include Brazil (South region), Madagascar (Atsimo Atsinanana region), and Tanzania (Morogoro/Eastern Tanzania). These countries were chosen because i) the economies are strongly influenced by the agricultural sector; ii) their national food security is strongly affected by smallholder production, and, iii) they represent a set of contrasting government responses to COVID-19 including the denial of the pandemic. Data were collected through semi-structured household interviews in all three countries in rural areas. COVID-19 induced effects were found in all three countries, including in Brazil and Tanzania where both national governments initially neglected the existence of COVID-19 and introduced few containment measures only. Here, mobility and trade restrictions of other countries impact also on agricultural trade and production in countries in which governments took less action to COVID-19 and also people remained home and practiced social distancing even if no official government policy was issued. The findings in all three countries suggest that the COVID-19 crisis had negatively affected smallholders' agricultural production, leading to a vicious cycle of low production, low incomes, and higher food insecurity. Results of this study raise the thorny issue of how best to balance containment of pandemic and future shocks against the well-being of the vulnerable rural population in lower- and middle-income countries; especially considering also the degree of global interconnected and the potential of polices to effect people beyond the national scale.

A comparison of pediatric liver transplant anesthesia practices with new organ procurement and transplant network pediatric policy requirements: A report from the society for the advancement of transplant anesthesia and the society for pediatric anesthesia

INTRODUCTION

Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN) pediatric policies on knowledge and skill requirements for key personnel failed to address the Director of Anesthesia for Pediatric Liver Transplantation. A Joint Committee representing the Society for the Advancement of Transplant Anesthesia and Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA) surveyed all pediatric anesthesia liver transplant practices to determine if practices were aligned with policies and what changes would be needed for compliance.

METHODS

A survey of the Director or equivalent at each program collected data about specialized knowledge and skill sets. Questions focused on (1) skill and knowledge of the Director and team, (2) requirements for appointment, (3) experience in pediatrics, and (4) characteristics of the program including the availability of pediatric resources.

RESULTS

Response rate was 73% (n = 63). Most responding programs had a Director (67%) with certification, selection committee, and continuing education credits outlined in existing policies. Team members met similar requirements. Alternate pathways for acquiring knowledge and skill sets were identified between programs.

CONCLUSIONS

Pediatric liver transplant anesthesiologists use knowledge and skill pathways that align with the new pediatric policies. We suggest that collaborative work with oversight agencies is needed to resolve high case volume requirements originally designed for adult programs.

SUMMARY

Most pediatric liver transplant anesthesiologists in the US have specialized knowledge and skills for expert care consistent with current oversight policies. Differences in pathways to acquire knowledge and skill sets were still aligned with the new policies for pediatric transplant surgeons and bylaws for the Director of Transplant Anesthesia. We conclude that minimal changes in case volume requirements to the existing Pediatric Transplant Anesthesiology Directorship criteria that authenticates the pediatric anesthesia Director's position would improve the safety of care without limiting access to transplantation.

Policy interventions and competing management paradigms shape the long-term distribution of forest harvesting across the landscape

Industrial economic models of natural resource management often incentivize the sequential harvesting of resources based on profitability, disproportionately targeting the higher-value elements of the environment. In fisheries, this issue is framed as a problem of "fishing down the food chain" when these elements represent different trophic levels or sequential depletion more generally. Harvesting that focuses on high grading the most profitable, productive, and accessible components of environmental gradients is also thought to occur in the forestry sector. Such a paradigm is inconsistent with a stewardship ethic, entrenched in the forestry literature, that seeks to maintain or enhance forest condition over time. We ask 1) how these conflicting paradigms have influenced patterns of forest harvesting over time and 2) whether more recent conservation-oriented policies influenced these historical harvesting patterns. We use detailed harvest data over a 47-y period and aggregated time series data that span over a century on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada to assess temporal changes in how logging is distributed among various classes of site productivity and terrain accessibility, corresponding to timber value. Most of this record shows a distinct trend of harvesting shifting over time to less productive stands, with some evidence of harvesting occurring in increasingly less accessible forests. However, stewardship-oriented policy changes enacted in the mid-1990s appear to have strongly affected these trends. This illustrates both a profit-maximizing tendency to log down the value chain when choices are unconstrained and the potential of policy choices to impose a greater stewardship ethic on harvesting behavior.

Research on the Participation of Chinese Sports Cultural Elite in Ice and Snow Sports

Governments have a responsibility to provide equal opportunities for sport and physical activity to all people of population. Chinese governments have issued many policies, such as “exhibition in the south, expansion in the West and East” of ice and snow sports to promote and stimulate the participation of the broad masses of the people. As a high-cost sport, the participants of ice and snow sports are usually socially elite groups. This study investigated the participation of cultural elite groups in ice and snow sports and investigated the social mobilization effect of ice and snow sports participation promotion policies by using binary regression and sequential regression models. The research shows that there are two different stages of one-time and continuous participation in the development of ice and snow sports in China. The one-time participation of ordinary people in ice and snow sports is mainly in response to the social mobilization of government policies. At the same time, it is positively correlated with site restrictions and knowledge of ice and snow sports. In the continuous participation group, gender, income, perception of ice and snow culture, and convenience near the site were highly positively correlated with consumption level. According to the results, low- and middle income people are less likely to participate in these activities because of their income. Therefore, this policy can increase inequalities.

How Do Government Policies Promote Green Housing Diffusion in China? A Complex Network Game Context

To reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution in the construction industry, many countries have focused on the development of green housing (GH), which is a type of green building for residential use. In China, the local governments have introduced various incentive policies to encourage the development of GH; however, its scale is still small and unevenly distributed. This implies a necessity to optimize the policies that apply to the GH incentive. To promote GH diffusion, we built an evolutionary game model on a complex network to analyze the impacts of government policies on GH pricing and demand and the profits of real estate enterprises developing GH. By implementing simulations, we further explored the incentive effect and operational mechanism of the government policies. The results show that the subsidy policy, the preferential policy for GH, and the restriction policy for ordinary housing can effectively promote the diffusion of GH to 0.6752, 0.506, and 0.5137 respectively. Meanwhile, the incentive effect of the enterprise subsidy policy and GH preferential policy gradually decreases with the increase in policy strength. In terms of the demand side, the consumer subsidy policy could promote GH diffusion to 0.7097. If the subsidy is below 120 CNY/m², the effect of the consumer subsidy policy is less powerful than that of the enterprises subsidy policy; conversely, the former is slightly more effective than the latter. The outcome of the study has managerial implications on governmental decision-making, especially on the strategy design of incentive policies for GH.

Are Stringent Containment and Closure Policies Associated with a Lower COVID-19 Spread Rate? Global Evidence

Stringent government policies, in general, and strict containment and closure policies in particular including workplace closing, restrictions on gatherings, close of public transport, stay-at-home order, restrictions on internal movement, and international travel control are associated with a lower spread rate of COVID-19 cases. On the other hand, school closures and public event cancellations have not been found to be associated with lower COVID-19 spread. Restrictions on international travel and the closing of public transport are two policies that stand out and have a consistent and slowing effect on the spread of COVID-19. The slowing effect of the containment and closure policies on the spread of COVID-19 becomes stronger one week after the policies have been implemented, consistent with the SARS-CoV-2 transmission pattern and the incubation period evolution. Furthermore, the slowing effect becomes stronger for culturally tight countries and countries with a higher population density. Our findings have important policy implications, implying that governments need to carefully implement containment and closure policies in their own countries’ social and cultural contexts, with an emphasis on the ideas of the common interest, personal responsibility, and the sense of community.

COVID-19 in aged care homes: a comparison of effects initial government policies had in the UK (primarily focussing on England) and Australia during the first wave

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact globally, with older people living in aged care homes suffering high death rates.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to compare the impact of initial government policies on this vulnerable older population between the UK and Australia during the first wave of attack.

METHODS

We searched websites of governments in the UK and Australia and media outlets. We examined the key policies including the national lockdown dates and the distribution of some important resources (personal protective equipment and testing) and the effects of these initial policies on the mortality rates in the aged care homes during the first wave of attack of COVID-19.

RESULTS

We found that both countries had prioritized resources to hospitals over aged care homes during the first wave of attack. Both countries had lower priority for aged care residents in hospitals (e.g. discharging without testing for COVID-19 or discouraging admissions). However, deaths in aged care homes were 270 times higher in the UK than in Australia as on 7 May 2020 (despite UK having a population only 2.5 times larger than Australia). The lower fatality rate in Australia may have been due to the earlier lockdown strategy when the total daily cases were low in Australia (118) compared to the UK (over 1000), as well as the better community viral testing regime in Australia.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the public health policy in Australia aimed towards earlier intervention with earlier national lockdown and more viral testing to prevent new cases. This primary prevention could have resulted in more lives being saved. In contrast, the initial policy in the UK focussed mainly on protecting resources for hospitals, and there was a delay in national lockdown intervention and lower viral testing rate, resulting in more lives lost in the aged care sector.

Power Dynamics in 21st-Century Food Systems

Food systems are central to our very planetary existence, yet they are not fit for purpose in the 21st century because of the enormous damage they do to the environment and human health. Transforming food systems to optimize human health, ecological health, social equity and economic prosperity will require major changes in power dynamics between players to shift the status quo. The purpose of this paper is to assess these power dynamics and the opportunities for the Great Intergenerational Food Transformation (GIFT)—how this current generation in power can transform food systems within one generation for future generations. The current ‘policy inertia’ preventing food policy action is due to the strong opposition from the commercial food sector, the reluctance of governments to regulate and tax, and the lack of demand for policy action from civil society. The translation of the market power of large food industries into self-serving political power is the dominant barrier to action. The most promising systemic lever for holding the major power players (governments and food industries) to account for the GIFT is increasing the power of civil society (including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), researchers, professional societies and the public) to demand changes in the political economy of food.

Monitoring and benchmarking government policies and actions to improve the healthiness of food environments: a proposed Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index

Government action is essential to increase the healthiness of food environments and reduce obesity, diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and their related inequalities. This paper proposes a monitoring framework to assess government policies and actions for creating healthy food environments. Recommendations from relevant authoritative organizations and expert advisory groups for reducing obesity and NCDs were examined, and pertinent components were incorporated into a comprehensive framework for monitoring government policies and actions. A Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) was developed, which comprises a 'policy' component with seven domains on specific aspects of food environments, and an 'infrastructure support' component with seven domains to strengthen systems to prevent obesity and NCDs. These were revised through a week-long consultation process with international experts. Examples of good practice statements are proposed within each domain, and these will evolve into benchmarks established by governments at the forefront of creating and implementing food policies for good health. A rating process is proposed to assess a government's level of policy implementation towards good practice. The Food-EPI will be pre-tested and piloted in countries of varying size and income levels. The benchmarking of government policy implementation has the potential to catalyse greater action to reduce obesity and NCDs.