Search results for "Policy Analysis"
showing 10 items of 46 documents
Vocational education and training in Spain: steady improvement and increasing value
2020
In this study, we argue that vocational education and training in Spain have increased their status and value over the past four decades at a steady and consistent pace. This pace has been perhaps ...
Contemporary Role of SMEs in Employment in Manufacturing and Service Industries
2017
Abstract. Analysis made in the article allows to conclude that the SME sector of high-tech manufacturing industries plays growing role in solving the problems of employment in developed countries. However, the major problem is that it is capable for only partial compensation of the loss of jobs in labour intensive sectors of the economy. Accumulation of knowledge of the population in industrialized countries together with high levels of computer literacy contributes to the revitalization of business services sellers that are mainly small sized businesses. In the era of fast growing technology industries, in particular related to IT sector, the role of SMEs in economy is increasing as they a…
Do general innovation policy tools fit all? Analysis of the regional impact of the Norwegian Skattefunn scheme
2017
Background: The paper examines the regional effects of a general innovation policy, i.e. a policy tool that does not target specific industries or subnational regions. General policy tools are an important part of the portfolio of innovation policy measures. However, there is a question over whether general tools are equally relevant for all types of firms, irrespective of their size, sector and location. Findings: The economic geography and innovation study literature, as well as the EU’s Smart Specialization approach, are based on the view that innovation policy tools must be adapted to specific regional conditions. General policy tools are insufficient unless they are adapted to individu…
A laboratory for education reform or a battlefield of donor intervention?
2010
Abstract This article deals with the politics of aid partnerships in the education sector of Benin following an anthropological policy research approach based on empirical data. I present local debates on primary education and the New Study Programmes, the latest education reform introduced nationwide in 1999. The different perceptions of the reform content, its implementation process and its outcomes, articulated by education experts, policy makers, donors, intellectual critics, teachers and parents, illustrate the complexity of educational policy making and, implicitly, of state-building in transnationalised arenas.
Testing for a Political Bias in Freedom House Democracy Scores: Are U.S. Friendly States Judged To Be More Democratic?
2012
Several scholars have criticized the Freedom House democracy ratings as being politically biased; do countries indeed incorrectly receive better ratings that have stronger political ties with the United States? Starting from the assumption that other indices of democracy can be used as benchmark data, different estimation strategies are employed to gauge whether differences between a number of alternative indices of democracy and the FH ratings can be explained in a systematic manner by variables that record relationships between the U.S. and the countries under investigation. Differentiating between the period before 1989 and after 1988, I obtain consistent evidence of a substantial bias i…
Explaining the Difference between Policy-Based Evidence and Evidence-Based Policy: A Nexus Analysis Approach to Mobilities and Migration
2019
Abstract In this policy analysis, we explain the difference between policy-based evidence (PBE) and evidence-based policy (EBP). We argue that better, evidence-based understanding, explanations, and questions can be sought by problematizing the challenging forms of twenty-first century migration and mobilities. We emphasize that this can be done by not confusing PBE with EBP, especially when each is needed as a basis for specific types of action. By focusing on topics often viewed as “unrelated” or confused with one another, we underline the social dynamics that are unfamiliar to many policy actors, professionals, and stakeholders, who rely on scholars for actionable analyses. Our mode of i…
Innovation policy mix in a multi-level context: The case of the Baltic Sea Region countries
2014
Innovation policies are no longer the responsibility of national-level governments alone, because regions and supra-national organizations also implement these policies. This paper aims to identify the character of the relations between different government levels which implement innovation policy in six Baltic Sea Region (BSR) countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania). Expansion of innovation policy to different government levels may create a risk of overlapping between various initiatives, therefore a distribution of tasks and policy coordination is important. The theoretical background of the paper focuses on the concept of policy mix which emphasizes the role o…
Position of text and discourse analysis in higher education policy research
2008
The article sets out to address the position of text and discourse analysis in higher education policy research, both from theoretical and methodological points of view. Theoretically, the article presents policy processes as discursive processes, arguing that higher education policies are constructed discursively. Methodologically, the article suggests that when policy documents are used as data, as is often the case in higher education policy research, text analytical tools should be applied more systematically than is the case now. To support these views, the article presents two cases of applications of a textual approach in higher education policy studies.
Europeanisation of VET – the Spanish Vocational Education and Training system and the influence of European education policy
2021
The paper discusses the development of Spanish Vocational Education and Training (VET) over the past four decades and the extent to which and ways in which joining the European Economic Communities...
Foreign Aid to Education in Sub-Saharan Africa : How Useful Is It?
1988
International audience