Suchergebnisse

Don't expect, in the dying days of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards'
misrule over Louisiana, that we won't see more attempts to lock in bigger and
more redistributive government than just attempting to create
generous paid parental leave that incoming governor Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry needs to curtail.

Starting in 2024, almost 38,000 classified state
employees will gain this perquisite at taxpayer expense. It allows up to six
weeks of this following the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child. That
comes through regular channels: the State
Civil Service Commission, which quietly promulgated
the rule in September, then somewhat more publicly
signed off and expanded by Edwards earlier this month.

Another roughly 4,000 unclassified employees which
includes the other two branches of government, those of other statewide elected
officials, and non-civil service employees in higher education, Edwards included
through executive
order, leaving just under 27,000 uncovered in the executive branch. All in
that branch could be covered at the discretion of elected officials and higher education
management boards, and the several hundred in the other branches could be
covered by assent of the two chamber leaders of the Legislature or of the
Louisiana Supreme Court.

Landry, having won succession to Edwards the previous
month, has voiced ambivalence over the rectitude of this policy, and rightfully
so. Federal law grants 12 weeks of unpaid leave for this kind of event, and statistics
show where paid leave (including other reasons than just new children in
the household) is offered – just over half of all statutorily-required worksites
offer any kind of pay for leave and only 15 percent offer full pay – the same
proportion of workers, 15 percent, utilize it as where nonpaid leave is
offered. Thus, its addition would have little impact for recruitment and
retention since employees take leave in similar proportions whether paid.

It's also an unnecessary added cost to taxpayers.
Assuming that 15 percent rate among classified workers who make the average
fiscal year 2023 salary of $53,684 and take the full six weeks, this will
cost the state over $36 million annually, assuming replacement temporary or
full-time workers must be hired to take up the slack. If not, that much worth
of productivity is lost to Louisianans. And, only
11 states offer it (and New York optionally) to its public employees.

Naturally, the Edwards Administration tried to
avoid admitting the idea's many shortcomings. In a recent public appearance,
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne dodged the question of cost by
claiming Louisiana could "afford it" and that there wouldn't be in his judgment
"a huge negative impact on the state."

It's a move to try to garner through disingenuity favorable
publicity to lock in the gimme through the executive order. Landry needs to
rescind that upon taking office and immediately, for the longer it exists the more
pressure builds to maintain it. But that still leaves higher education,
constitutional officers, and the classified system saddled with it.

Landry can apply pressure by telling system board
members he would frown upon their reappointment if they permitted this. That
would have less effectiveness on the SCSC to get it to reverse, because the
governor chooses six of them from nominations made by private university
presidents, and Landry will only be able to replace three in his first term,
with a seventh voted in by classified civil servants. And he can't control
other constitutional officers at all.

So, with a like-minded Legislature which will have
public support to fight this especially as many in the public will see this as
a giveaway benefit to government employees that they have to pay for and don't
have themselves, the best tactic to reverse this may be to hit state government
in the wallet. The Legislature could reduce agency budgets by a proportional amount
given away in paid leave the previous year as long as the SCSC rule remains in
effect, or if any other agency adopts it. As well, it could cut the SCSC budget
as additional inducement to get it to rescind the rule. Or, perhaps most
simply, it could pass a law prohibiting any state agency from paying taken
leave for this purpose.

With a state government that has exploded in dollar
size some 80 percent over the past seven years while Louisiana's private sector
has scuffled near the bottom among the states in economic development and
growth, it's unwise to bloat government more and foist that cost onto
taxpayers. The incoming governor and Legislature should act to prevent that.

Purpose
This study aims to address the question of what coordination mechanism can be used for cultural production and, in particular, for the governance of music culture production. The authors locate their reflection within the specific institutional innovations introduced in Italy in 2017, focusing on the idea of shared administration and the public–private collaboration instituted in Trentino (a province located in northern Italy) in support of its cultural policy.


Design/methodology/approach
This study focusses on the Trentino's music school system. This includes 13 organisations (musicians' cooperatives as well as associations of musicians and students, plus one municipal school which do not overlap with the public school system). To analyse shared administration features, the authors rely on selected information from 50 interviews with Trentino Music Schools (TMS) teachers and administrators, and on the proceedings of the 1994 music school conference organised by the schools at the time when this novel educational system was created.


Findings
To offer an innovative educational service, the public actor (Provincia Autonoma di Trento [PAT]) and the schools (TMS) have developed a strong interdependence at the different levels of decision-making: PAT needs organisations that are sufficiently structured and organised to respect requirements of transparency and accountability, as well as educational standards, whereas TMS need public funding to maintain their service accessible for users, good labour conditions and be financially sustainable. Likewise, the success of TMS in educating thousands of students every year, including additional teaching programmes funded by PAT within general public schools, has contributed to decrease the exclusion from music education, raise interest in young people for music and fed enrolment in TMS as well as in the public schools related to the conservatoire filière. Conclusions emphasise the existence of a polycentric system of music culture production which needs to acknowledge the risk of being trapped in a static disequilibrium, while recognising change and the need to support and promote a culture of cooperation among schools and across layered institutional levels over time.


Research limitations/implications
Further research can observe this system of cultural production over time, to appreciate changes and organisational tranformations, while introducing comparative analysis with other systems in different regions.


Practical implications
The relationship between the public and private sectors to design, organise and manage activities of collective interest (in the social, cultural, sporting and other fields) can increasingly become an effective and efficient alternative to the traditional bureaucratic as well as to the competitive method. For this to happen, however, all actors involved must be aware not only of areas of efficiency but also of inefficiency. To remedy the latter, corrective measures will have to be introduced. For example, fostering and improving "co-programmazione" and "co-progettazione" means giving all stakeholders involved the opportunity to actively participate. Should the number of participants increase, more discussion fora could be set up because one alone may not be sufficient to foster maximum involvement, to enhance different points of view, to allow for intersectoral and multidisciplinary interpretations and responses.


Social implications
The system governance based on co-programming and co-design has allowed – despite limitations – to pursue educational purposes and thus well-being for the users, as well as for the teachers and the community as a whole. The continuity of this educational and cultural action has been guaranteed by the economic and financial sustainability of the schools, which is highly dependent on the public actor funding personnel costs, and in turn tied to the number of students (demand) attending each school. Actors embedded in the system need to build awareness of industry and cultural changes and knowledge of how to introduce more adaptive capacity. This points towards the need for strengthening networking capacity and collaboration among schools and other relevant stakeholders.


Originality/value
The case presented is a unique system of music culture production in Italy, and its governance has never been addressed by previous studies. It provides an application of shared administration to which public administrations and communities can learn to improve access to music culture and education. For public and private organisations to take advantage of the method of "co-programmazione" and "co-progettazione", to make the production of a meritorious good more efficient and to favour its maximum accessibility, this study considers the strengths and weaknesses of this approach, or the areas of efficiency and inefficiency, for which new measures will have to be introduced.

Rather than driving Louisiana energy customer bills
sky high, the new Legislature and incoming Republican Gov. Jeff Landry Administration need to cut
off at the pass special interests and rent seekers.

Regarding accelerating use of offshore wind-generated
power to meet arbitrary goals applauded by climate alarmists, both Democrat
Pres. Joe
Biden and Democrat Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
haven't had a good few months. Biden
wanted 30 gigawatts of power capacity nationally from wind by 2030, and
Edwards shot for 5
GW by 2035. At present, U.S. capacity stands at 150 MW at one location off
of Rhode Island.

The story goes that these installations provide lots
of jobs to build and few costs to maintain, staying out of almost everybody's
way. To
jag along this development, Biden had a then-Democrat-controlled Congress
lard up almost $11 billion dedicated to offshore wind expansion and dangle
various tax credits from 10 to 30 percent for those involved in production and
support of offshore wind power generation. Some states, but not Louisiana, added
their own incentives.

Neither aspiration ever has been regarded as a realistic
goal for a number of
reasons. Undeveloped technology getting more costly by the minute after Biden
economic policies unleashed large inflationary pressures, expensive backup battery
needs, an insufficient power grid, and heavier reliance on unfriendly regimes
for resources such as Red China all already make such projects economically unviable.

Yet lately news has become more pessimistic than
ever nationally as one by one companies have put expansion plans for offshore
wind power on hold. In fact, the economics have become so bad just this month firms
walked away from two large-scale projects on the east coast, preferring to
forfeit huge tax incentives already collected. Meanwhile, equity prices for
firms with large exposure to disappearing possible future wind power revenues have
cratered this year. Reflecting this, a much-ballyhooed maiden auction of leases
for this purpose offshore Lake Charles sold
exactly one tract for a relative pittance.

There are only two tactics that reverse this to
make offshore wind power anywhere close to financially viable for firms: taxpayer-borne
financial incentives subsidizing production and ratepayer-borne artificial restrictions
boosting wind production at the expense of other forms of energy. Thus, as
offshore wind power goals officially become unattainable, ideologues and market
beneficiaries of it preach a simple solution: more government subsidization through
grants and tax exceptions and more ratepayer subsidization by making them foot
the higher costs for equipment and infrastructure (which
would have to include transmission lines, meaning other state regulatory
changes to promote interstate cooperation and coercing building and maintenance).

Fortunately, Louisiana hasn't done much to feed
this mania. It has a tax credit for residential properties and offshore wind
concerns could use the state's Industrial Tax Exemption Program to finagle local
breaks. But it doesn't subsidize and the Public Service Commission, unlike
states with a heavy wind power presence and almost all of those now engaged in
trying to drum up offshore business, doesn't have an imposed renewable energy
portfolio standard specifying a minimum proportion of wind and other renewable
sources of power, although New
Orleans which regulates it own power provider has one
that vaguely commits the provider to generating power at net zero carbon emissions
by 2040 and no emissions by 2050 but not setting in stone the proportion of
renewables.

The state's incoming government can avoid taking more
from the people to assuage climate alarmists and those wanting to make a buck
through political influence by adhering to the policy of no subsidies or tax
breaks (as for local governments using ITEP as a form of subsidization, overall
property tax reform can remove this possibility). As for the potential
imposition of a renewable portfolio standard, powers of the LPSC are granted entirely
by law, so the new government should pass one prohibiting the LPSC from
establishing such a portfolio.

Louisianans shouldn't have their pocketbooks
pilfered for a needless transfer of wealth to government-identified winners.
Let the idea of anything but free market-determined wind power provision twist
in the wind.

The song remains the same as Wilson and the Four Dwarves
battled among themselves
futilely to keep Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Landry from an expected eventual
gubernatorial victory.

Not a band but gubernatorial aspirants Democrat
former cabinet member Shawn Wilson;
independent trial lawyer Hunter Lundy;
and Republicans state Sen. Sharon Hewitt,
Treas. John Schroder, and former gubernatorial
appointee Steven Waguespack – all met in
a candidate forum for the office televised by the Louisiana Public Broadcasting
consortium of stations and affiliates. Noticeably absent was Landry, who the
latest polls make the clear front runner, followed distantly by Wilson, with
the other four unable to crack single digits of support.

For that reason, any analysis of the efforts insofar
as specific answers to issues is meaningless without Landry's responses. General
impressions of each will suffice from the forum that won't change the dynamics
of the contest that will put Landry and Wilson into a runoff, with Landry the
clear favorite.

As such, Wilson made the most overtures towards
attacking Landry, as if aching for a head start and needing quite a one if he has
any chance of achieving the dramatic improvement in fortune necessary to win.
That he has a long way to go echoed from the noticeable lack of quality and effectiveness
of these sorties, such as the lame assertion that Landry's absence meant
anything more meaningful than a front running strategy of playing it safe.

In the meantime, he also managed to convey,
despite the polished nature of his rhetoric, his visible shortcomings as a
candidate for statewide election in Louisiana. At one point, when Lundy called
him an extremist liberal, he ridiculously suggested that his issue preferences
on the whole weren't really liberal, much less sharply to the left – this
coming from somebody who advocated throughout the forum for much bigger
government and thereby the higher taxes to fund it, for abortion on demand, for
allowing government mandates to trample constitutional rights, and for allowing
medical mutilation of children, and who has a history of consistently stumping
for all of the above. Good luck in keeping that information from the state's center-right
voting majority.

Predictably most of the fire he got was from
Lundy, the placeholder for white liberal populist Democrats who retain social
conservatism. He needs to convince black voters – Wilson is black – that he has
a better chance than Wilson in a runoff against Landry.

Lundy's biggest hurdle to surmount in this long
shot task is himself. The other half of the time when he's not blaming
insurance or fossil fuel companies for everything wrong in the state he comes
off as a dunce. Halfway through the debate, in a discussion that brought in
both his whipping boys, Hewitt and Waguespack had had enough of his act and in their
replies in turn schooled him on the intricacies of insurance rate-setting and
the current threat of salt water intrusion up the Mississippi River. The very
few voters watching were reminded that his platform long on demagoguery and
short on facts chock full of raising taxes, spending more money, and punishing
his enemies – the same agenda that has put the state so far behind others in economic
development.

Hewitt's answers showed a good, and unapologetic,
grasp of policy as more than the others she challenged liberal orthodoxy.
Waguespack wasn't far behind if more restrained. For his part, Schroder
concentrated more on what in retrospect has become a failed strategy of trying
to invoke a crusade against corruption as a central theme to his campaign that
has failed to generate any excitement for his candidacy.

Just as Lundy needs to detach votes from Wilson,
each of the Republicans needs to abscond with a good portion of Landry's intended
haul to vault over everybody but Landry into a runoff, and they took a minor
potshot at him here and there. Their problem is they don't differ much with him
on the issues, leaving little ground on which to criticize and to the extent
they need to make the runoff, and the ordnance they tried to deliver wasn't
nearly enough nor powerful enough.

Something major needs to explode on the hustings to
change this election's trajectory from a Landry win upon dispatching Wilson in the
runoff. This forum wasn't it, nor sowed any seeds to cause that.

Adam N. Michel


In addition to raising revenue, the tax code is used by politicians to subsidize myriad private activities, including politically popular energy sources, charitable giving, children, research, and housing. Congress and the Administration measure these programs through tax expenditure reports or lists of items that deviate from a "normal" income tax base.
A new report by Cato's Chris Edwards explains why the way government scorekeepers tabulate tax expenditures biases the tax code against investment and growth and toward progressive forms of redistribution. Congress can fix this bias by reforming the definition of tax expenditure in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (1974 Act).
Current tax expenditure lists are misleading because they lump together two separate phenomena. Some tax expenditures move the tax code toward a consumption tax base by decreasing harmful economic distortions of double taxation built into the normal income tax system. Many other tax expenditures are true special interest carve‐​outs and loopholes that grant privileges to some at the expense of others. Edwards estimates that about 48 percent of tax expenditure dollars are this type of special interest spending in the tax code.
As Congress considers additional reforms to the tax code, ways to lower tax rates, or increase revenues, it is critical to start with a definition of tax expenditures that does not confuse true loopholes with pro‐​growth improvements. Edwards explains:
To guide reforms, policymakers need an accurate tabulation of loopholes in the tax code. The current Treasury and JCT tax expenditure lists fall far short. They depend on the faulty Haig‐​Simons definition of income, which endorses the double taxation of saving and investment, and they depend on ad hoc rules reflecting a redistributionist bias. Claims that high earners gain the most from tax loopholes are off base. The claims stem from arbitrary choices made in producing the official tax expenditure lists.

Defining the tax base from which to measure expenditures is critical. The Haig‐​Simons income tax base includes earned income plus other changes in net worth. This system taxes saved income at a higher effective rate than income that is spent immediately. A consumption tax base fixes this problem by taxing all income that is consumed only once.
I encourage you to read the entire report, which includes the history of how the long‐​running academic debate over how to define the tax base still dictates current budget scoring. The report applies the discussion of the appropriate tax base to a series of proposed tax reforms, including the tax treatment of business investment, personal savings, health care, housing, and state and local finances.
I will highlight one point Edwards makes in passing: Treasury and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) should change how they present tax expenditures. To facilitate this shift, Congress should amend the 1974 Act to specify that tax expenditures are to be measured from a comprehensive consumption tax base rather than from "gross income," which currently guides the inconsistently defined normal income tax base used by JCT.
Section 3(3) of the 1974 Act (2 U.S.C. 622(3)) states:
The term "tax expenditures" means those revenue losses attributable to provisions of the Federal tax laws which allow a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction from gross income or which provide a special credit, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability; and the term "tax expenditures budget" means an enumeration of such tax expenditures.

By replacing "gross income" with "consumed income," Congress could ensure that future tax expenditure reports only include those provisions which are truly loopholes in the tax code.
Alternatively, Congress could add a sub‐​section requiring any agency that produces a tax expenditure report also produce a companion report measuring tax expenditures from a comparable consumption tax baseline. A second expenditure report could also be done at the request of the committees of jurisdiction or rule changes. As Edwards notes, the current federal tax code is a hybrid of the consumption and income tax systems. At a minimum, tax expenditures should be measured from the two tax bases and presented on an equal footing.
A better understanding of tax expenditures—the good and the bad—is critical in any discussion of future tax reform. Congress can ensure that future tax policy debates are better informed by clarifying how scorekeepers define deviations from the normal tax base.

The Conservative Party fought three general elections promising to slash immigration to the tens of thousands. Today's net migration statistics show that after thirteen years in government the Conservatives have failed utterly to achieve this. The Office for National Statistics confirmed this morning that net migration for 2022 is at a new all-time record high of 606,000. This is more than twice its peak of about 270,000 in 2007 under Labour and nearly seven times what the Tories pledged when entering Downing Street in 2010. This news leaves the government's credibility in tatters. The ONS data shows that long-term immigration to the UK reached a high of 1.2 million in 2022. Almost 80% of this was from non-EU nationals. These are citizens whose work, family and study visas have always been under the full control of the government long before David Cameron announced there would be a referendum on the UK's EU membership. While the government claimed it got Brexit done and that this ensured full control of the borders, it has not brought numbers down as was repeatedly promised. The key reason for this is the Conservatives have not made good on what they said. It is not a matter of lacking powers to act, as four in five long-term arrivals are non-EU national anyway. Nearly thirty percent of long-term immigration is from work visas, mainly in areas like highly skilled visas for occupation shortages like in health and social care. At yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Keir Starmer was bang to rights to say that the current work visa system set up by the Conservatives has undercut wages and a failure to properly invest in education and skills here today so we can fill the skills gaps exposed on the shortage occupancy list in the medium to longer term. Instead, the government has allowed the UK to become dependent on overseas workers coming here. This dependence has meant the government has never enacted a cap on work visas as it needs more and more to come support the flagging economy. The largest migrant group are overseas students. They play a clear role in providing significant economic benefit to the wider economy, as well as the institutions where they are enrolled. As student fees have remained frozen, there has been an increasing dependence as well on overseas students and the extra funding support they bring with them. (I know. I was an international student.) The government has claimed that they will take action by enacting a new policy of preventing overseas students from bringing dependents, but the effect will not be significant and won't make an impact for some time. It does not affect postgraduate research students and not in place until January 2024. This is after most students will have started their studies. There will likely be little impact until the end of 2025 – and long after a general election. Moreover, the Home Secretary's ability to do this did not require Brexit nor any of the laws passed by the Tories since 2010. Like in the Wizard of Oz, Suella Braverman had the powers all along. She simply didn't know or want to use them. Today's figures leave the Conservative Party's reputation for any competence on immigration in complete disarray. For over a decade, the public has heard increasingly tough talk from Go Home vans as part of a hostile environment to removal flights to Rwanda as part of a plan to stop small boats. These gimmicks have made headlines, but no more. The evidence is none of this nonsense on stilts was ever required to deliver the big net migration cuts promised. After years of new laws, regulations and speeches, the Conservatives could act but chose not to. The problem is primarily with their promises. These have been made and accepted by the public in good faith. Today, this is exposed for the shambles it is and, in my view, represents an existential threat to the government. It has lost control over immigration and soon control altogether. Trust matters in public life. Labour has a once in a generation opportunity to fill this gaping void – and elsewhere I have offered a vision for how Keir Starmer might achieve this. The public deserves better. It's time we had a government that had the competence and compassion to deliver what it promises.

The aim of this dissertation is to broaden our current knowledge of the effects of teachers and their qualifications, as key school inputs, on the human capital accumulation of kindergarten and primary school children in Ecuador, a developing economy, and Germany, a developed one. Even though these two countries are vastly different in their economic, scientific, social and cultural characteristics, their contexts are similar in that little research has been conducted there on teachers in the framework of the education production function, and particularly of research with causal interpretation. This dissertation consists of an introduction and three independent scientific articles organized into Chapters. Introductory Chapter 1 reviews theoretical and empirical literature on teachers as a school input affecting students' human capital accumulation in the education production function framework. In Chapter 2, I evaluate whether Ecuador's new teacher recruitment process, which requires teacher candidates to pass national entrance tests before they are allowed to participate in merit-based competitions for tenure at public schools, has served as an effective screening device and ultimately helped to improve student achievement in the first grades of primary school. To answer these questions, I analyze data from a unique Ecuadorian survey of schools in the academic year 2011-2012, which I match to individual teacher recruitment records from Ecuador's Ministry of Education. I first estimate a value-added to student achievement model using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). I then use Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to simulate a random assignment of students to teachers and estimate causal treatment effects. The evidence suggests that teachers awarded tenure through the new policy (test-screened tenured teachers) were no more effective overall in improving students' achievement in reading or math. Nonetheless, the OLS and PSM results also suggest that these teachers had a significant positive effect on reading achievement for students from poor households. The PSM estimations show an average treatment effect of about a 9 percent of a standard deviation in reading achievement for students living in poverty. In Chapter 3, Guido Heineck, Yyannú Cruz-Aguayo and I implement an experimental evaluation of the impact of Ecuador's new teacher recruitment process for kindergarten. We link administrative teacher information from Ecuador's Ministry of Education to data from a unique experimental study where almost 15,000 kindergarten children were randomly assigned to their teachers in the 2012-2013 school year. Our results show positive and significant effects of test-screened tenured teachers of at least an 11 percent of a standard deviation for language, and a 9 percent of a standard deviation for math. These effects persist even after controlling for teacher academic degree, experience, cognitive ability, personality traits and classroom practices. In addition, our estimations show that tenured teachers significantly outperform contract teachers in Ecuador, which contrasts with recent evidence on the positive effects of fixed-term contract teachers in other developing countries. Furthermore, we confirm that the effects of test-screened tenured teachers on language learning are stronger for vulnerable children who started the school year with lower baseline test scores or came from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Johanna Sophie Quis and I also study the effect of teachers on skill formation in Chapter 4, but in the context of a developed country, Germany. We use primary school data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) to estimate classroom effects on mathematical and language competence development, which are driven by teacher quality differences across classrooms. We estimate a value-added model with individual classroom fixed-, as well as random effects. Both model specifications apply empirical Bayes shrinkage to adjust the classroom effects' estimates by their level of precision. Our results show substantial classroom effects and quality differences across the first grades of German primary school. One standard deviation increase in classroom effectiveness is associated with at least a 12 percent of a standard deviation increase in student mathematical competence scores, and at least 14 percent of a standard deviation increase in language competence scores. In addition, we find that none of the teacher characteristics typically used in teacher recruitment processes significantly explain the classroom quality differences. Interestingly, as parental assessment of teacher quality is the only indicator significantly associated with classroom effectiveness in language competence development, parents seem to be able to identify more effective language teachers.

Abstract This thesis discusses the political geographies of the 'changing' Arctic from the perspective of regional theory. Concurrently it explores the contributions that empirical research on these geographies can provide for regional theory and political geographical research. The starting point of this thesis is the often heated discussion that has revolved around the Arctic region during the past few decades. This discussion has been exacerbated by the increasingly taken-for-granted image of the Arctic as a 'changing' region, which has arguably acted as the key propeller in driving an increasing number of actors to articulate their interests regarding the region. Building on regional theory, it is argued that rather than taking this understanding of the Arctic as a 'changing' region as a representation of a region that is 'out there', we should instead focus on how knowledge production and the associated political discussion themselves serve to produce and perform the region as 'changing'. This enables a perspective on the process of the Arctic region as effected through the production of regional knowledge, and how this knowledge itself acts as a key driver for the plethora of policies and strategies that various actors have recently developed in relation to the region. Examining these policies and strategies together makes it possible to explore how the Arctic region is performed through them, and why this is politically relevant. The research articles incorporated into this thesis approach the political geographies of the 'changing' Arctic through case studies of the Arctic policies and strategies of the selected states of Finland, France, Japan, and the sub-national state of Alaska. The selection was made on the basis that the policies and strategies of these states have not received sufficient attention in political geographic research on the Arctic. At the same time the case of Finland provides a perspective on the strategy of an 'Arctic state' beyond the prevailing emphasis on the territorial politics of the Arctic Ocean coastal states; the case of France and Japan provides an opportunity to approach the policies of 'non-Arctic states' and how they relate to the institutional dynamics of the Arctic Council; and the case of Alaska brings to light the 'sub-national' dimension of Arctic politics. The individual cases act as an empirical base for an analysis regarding how and why different institutional actors have attached their interest to the Arctic region and how and why they contribute to the process of the region through these policies and strategies. Simultaneously, of crucial concern is how these states are positioned as spatio-political entities in relation to the Arctic region. The empirical case studies that constitute this thesis illustrate how geographical knowledge feeds into political agency, and how this political agency itself serves to perform the region further. By this emphasis, the cases elucidate the key argument of this thesis regarding regional theory, which is that we should treat regions as continuously performed processes and, consequently, focus on why various actors contribute to them in specific ways. Concurrently, by building on this argument, the case studies provide empirically grounded contributions to political geographic research. The case of Finland illustrates how the Arctic region figures into attempts to secure competitive advantages, and what repercussions the political facilitation of these advantages may have regarding state spatiality. The case of France and Japan shows how geography contributes to inclusions and exclusions in supranational institutions, and to the ways in which such institutions are established and challenged. Finally, the case of Alaska accentuates how a supranational region feeds into contestation over power relations between sub-national and national governments. A key aim of this thesis is thus to foreground the political and spatial implications of regional geographical knowledge as it becomes incorporated into the agency of various actors. In the empirical context of the Arctic region, this entails a corollary call for increasing reflexivity on the part of researchers but especially policy makers regarding the production of 'regional' knowledge and its utilization in political practice. Through this reflexivity, we could bring into question the purported inevitability of 'Arctic change' and perhaps envision alternative futures for the region that do not rely on its perceived economic 'opening'.

Formulation of the problem: Kyiv Commercial Institute, founded at the beginning of the 20th century, is a valuable object of historical research. After all, it was the first higher education institution of economic profile in Ukraine in which there were no entry restrictions along ethnic, gender and even confessional indication, and which carried out a particular democratic policy regarding the student body. Accordingly, broader reconstructions and generalizations can be made, in particular, about the society of Ukraine of that time by exploring this institution. This is facilitated by the good preservation and significant volume of Kyiv Commercial Institute's archive. However, in practice, this archive remains unknown to modern scholars. Characteristic of the main theme: the attempt of creation of the Hellenic (Greek) community at Kyiv Commercial Institute, as well as the circumstances of the student period in the life of his pupils-Greeks is being investigated. The relevance of the study is due to reliance on archival documents, which are introduced for the first time to the scientific circulation and also allow us to show different aspects of the public everyday life at that time. Such generalizations are explained by the «no-significance» of the studied persons, since such personalities reflect a general background of society, even with a small number of such objects of study. Scientific novelty of the study — the introduction of previously unexplored archival materials to the scientific circulation pertaining to students-Greeks of Kyiv Commercial Institute and the attempts to establish their own national organization in this institution. Purpose: To analyze discovered archival materials in order to reconstruct the components of student period of the Greeks life, who studied at Kyiv Commercial Institute. The obtained results are to be checked to their conformity with available experience in historical science on the life of student body and the Greek community of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century. The main methods: scientificity, objectivity, comparison, synthesis, induction and other general scientific and special historical methods. Conclusions: the Hellenic (Greek) community was unable to function due to the small number of students-Greeks at the commercial institute. However, the draft of its statute and the very fact of attempts to create it showed a high level of consolidation and national consciousness of Greek youth. Instead, they demonstrated at least an indifference to the Russian Empire, which was especially evident in their unwillingness to perform military service of armed forces, and during the First World War to fight for this empire. This trait characterized the majority of the student body of that time and was constantly increasing, which could be explained by the poor financial situation of the student body and by the unwillingness of the authorities to address their actual needs. So, students-Greeks quite fit into the life of most studentship of that time. Also in accordance to available research on the history of the Greek diaspora there is a conclusion that the vast majority of them are from the Sea of Azov and partly about the prominent role of the Church in their lives. Therefore, the revealed facts do not violate the existing developments of domestic historical science in the field of studentship studies and the Greek community in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century. However, they complement it with new interesting facts that allow us to deepen these studies and to speak about the necessity to continue. In doing so, the need of creating a general research on the topic of studentship place and role in political life of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century is being violated. Keywords: the history of Ukraine at the beginning of the XX century, Greek diaspora, national minorities, personalities, student organizations. ; Дослідження побудоване в рамках вивчення студентства Київського комерційного інституту, оскілки його архів становить цінне джерело вивчення українського суспільства початку XX ст. Це обумовлено особливим демократизмом цього вишу в політиці щодо викладацьких кадрів і студентства, зокрема першістю в доступі до вищої освіти представників одразу обох статей, фактичній нівеляції станових та етно-конфесійних обмежень для абітурієнтів тощо. Як результат — його студентство являло концентрований зріз цілого суспільства українських земель, що перебували в складі Російської імперії. У цій розвідці досліджуються документи з архіву Київського комерційного інституту, що пов'язані з навчанням у ньому греків та справою заснування ними Еллінського (грецького) земляцтва. Ключові слова: історія України початку XX ст., грецька діаспора, національні меншини, персоналістика, студентські організації.

Formulation of the problem: Kyiv Commercial Institute, founded at the beginning of the 20th century, is a valuable object of historical research. After all, it was the first higher education institution of economic profile in Ukraine in which there were no entry restrictions along ethnic, gender and even confessional indication, and which carried out a particular democratic policy regarding the student body. Accordingly, broader reconstructions and generalizations can be made, in particular, about the society of Ukraine of that time by exploring this institution. This is facilitated by the good preservation and significant volume of Kyiv Commercial Institute's archive. However, in practice, this archive remains unknown to modern scholars. Characteristic of the main theme: the attempt of creation of the Hellenic (Greek) community at Kyiv Commercial Institute, as well as the circumstances of the student period in the life of his pupils-Greeks is being investigated. The relevance of the study is due to reliance on archival documents, which are introduced for the first time to the scientific circulation and also allow us to show different aspects of the public everyday life at that time. Such generalizations are explained by the «no-significance» of the studied persons, since such personalities reflect a general background of society, even with a small number of such objects of study. Scientific novelty of the study — the introduction of previously unexplored archival materials to the scientific circulation pertaining to students-Greeks of Kyiv Commercial Institute and the attempts to establish their own national organization in this institution. Purpose: To analyze discovered archival materials in order to reconstruct the components of student period of the Greeks life, who studied at Kyiv Commercial Institute. The obtained results are to be checked to their conformity with available experience in historical science on the life of student body and the Greek community of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century. The main methods: scientificity, objectivity, comparison, synthesis, induction and other general scientific and special historical methods. Conclusions: the Hellenic (Greek) community was unable to function due to the small number of students-Greeks at the commercial institute. However, the draft of its statute and the very fact of attempts to create it showed a high level of consolidation and national consciousness of Greek youth. Instead, they demonstrated at least an indifference to the Russian Empire, which was especially evident in their unwillingness to perform military service of armed forces, and during the First World War to fight for this empire. This trait characterized the majority of the student body of that time and was constantly increasing, which could be explained by the poor financial situation of the student body and by the unwillingness of the authorities to address their actual needs. So, students-Greeks quite fit into the life of most studentship of that time. Also in accordance to available research on the history of the Greek diaspora there is a conclusion that the vast majority of them are from the Sea of Azov and partly about the prominent role of the Church in their lives. Therefore, the revealed facts do not violate the existing developments of domestic historical science in the field of studentship studies and the Greek community in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century. However, they complement it with new interesting facts that allow us to deepen these studies and to speak about the necessity to continue. In doing so, the need of creating a general research on the topic of studentship place and role in political life of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century is being violated. Keywords: the history of Ukraine at the beginning of the XX century, Greek diaspora, national minorities, personalities, student organizations. ; Дослідження побудоване в рамках вивчення студентства Київського комерційного інституту, оскілки його архів становить цінне джерело вивчення українського суспільства початку XX ст. Це обумовлено особливим демократизмом цього вишу в політиці щодо викладацьких кадрів і студентства, зокрема першістю в доступі до вищої освіти представників одразу обох статей, фактичній нівеляції станових та етно-конфесійних обмежень для абітурієнтів тощо. Як результат — його студентство являло концентрований зріз цілого суспільства українських земель, що перебували в складі Російської імперії. У цій розвідці досліджуються документи з архіву Київського комерційного інституту, що пов'язані з навчанням у ньому греків та справою заснування ними Еллінського (грецького) земляцтва. Ключові слова: історія України початку XX ст., грецька діаспора, національні меншини, персоналістика, студентські організації.

A year has passed, and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world. Apart from its direct devastating health consequences, voices have been raised about decreasing mental health. The introduction of social distancing measures and lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 led to a sudden change of routine, a drastic change of the physical and social environment (e.g., reduced social contacts and connection), a change of working conditions and economic losses, all are known to be important drivers for mental health and mental disorders. Evidence from previous studies that have examined the psychological impact of disaster and outbreaks, shows that such health emergencies have its toll on mental health. In Hong-Kong, for example, suicide rates rose sharply during the 2003 SARS epidemic. Given that measures taken during the SARS epidemic interfered much less with normal life and for a shorter period, it is not far-fetched to assume that the COVID-19 pandemic, in one way or another, will affect mental health. In fact, surveys conducted so far, using contemporary data from national surveys, show that since the start of the pandemic, mental health has deteriorated. Current research suggests that poorer mental health is associated with increased fear of illness, social distancing policies and social adversities (e.g. loss of employment), housing conditions as well as loss of support from health and other services. As a consequence of the lockdown and social distancing measures, psychosocial services as well as in- and out-patient mental health care facilities greatly interrupted, reduced and changed their services. Many services switched from face-to-face to digital services and check-in phone calls. However, due to lack of access or ability to use technology and a lack of privacy, remote care is not always considered sufficient. Additionally, people at risk, might feel stigmatized due to the perceptions of being a burden to society. The epidemic may shatter personal goals and way of living and undermine a sense of meaning in life and trust in others. Meaning making, however, is a predictor of resilience and mental health. Resilience is a multidimensional concept which can be defined as being able to adapt to stressful (e.g., family and relationship problems, workplace and financial stressors) and extraordinary threatening events, such as a pandemic. The factors, which contribute to resilience, are manifold, including individual, interpersonal and community factors. At the individual level, very recent research suggests that healthcare personnel, youth and older individuals, and those with a current or past medical history, especially a history of mental illness, are at risk. Additionally, we learnt from other disasters that at the interpersonal level, social isolation, and lack of trusting relationships and at the society level lack of trust in the government might put people at risk. While evidence about the effects of COVID-19 on resilience and mental health is emerging, at this point, no accurate assumptions about the extent of the pandemic on mental health can be made. Furthermore, the mental health responses to the pandemic and the trajectories of mental health and resilience remain unknown. Approaches to mental health and psychiatric care in such outbreaks remain poorly understood, outlined or covered by existing research and there is virtually no substantial knowledge of the mental health impact of rapidly spreading outbreaks of infectious diseases. International cooperation is essential for building appropriate mental health prevention and promotion strategies. Identifying factors that may contribute to better mental health and greater psychological resilience at an international level and sharing experiences and information is of utmost importance. Therefore, a comprehensive assessment of the prevalence, risk and protective factors, of mental health is necessary. For that reasons the international Public Mental Health Section of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) initiated this study and worked together with the consortium members to set up the Coping with COVID-19 with Resilience (COPERS) study. The consortium includes members of 10 countries all over Europe. COPERS aims to grasp longitudinally the extent of mental health and resilience across Europe, to identify mental health, and resilience trajectories of adults aged 18 years and older and to detect factors that potentially influence mental health and resilience in the different countries. The researchers also aim to conduct a living mapping review to identify, analyze, and present mental health policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and contribute to better knowledge on how to support personal and community resilience in times of a pandemic.

Since the end of the 2000s, measures to protect marine biodiversity have been progressively implemented in the oceans leading to the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs). States have started to take on this final frontier and began to set up MPAs in their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones. A global maritime ecofrontier has opened up under the impetus of a group of stakeholders - the eco-conquerors - who are advocating the replacement of unsustainable ocean exploitation methods with more environmentally friendly ones. This thesis focuses on France, compared with South Africa. The originality of the analysis lies, on the one hand, in the comparison between these two States, and on the other hand, in an approach of the French policy as seen from the perspective of its overseas territories, considered as socio-economically and politically marginal. The work is based on several case studies: first, carried out in the Indian Ocean, in Mayotte (Mayotte Marine Natural Park [PNMM] and National Nature Reserve [RNN] of the M'bouzi islet) and in Reunion Island (Reunion Island Marine Nature Reserve [RNMR]), and second, in South Africa, in the Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area (TMNP MPA) around the Cape Peninsula and in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park (iSWP) in KwaZulu Natal. These areas were complemented by an analysis of the Glorieuses Marine Natural Park (PNMG) and the French Southern Lands National Nature Reserve (RNN TAF).The thesis documents the way in which the maritime ecological front has opened up and has become sustainable at different scales and the role played by administrations, NGOs and scientist's mobilisation. It highlights the originality of the merritorialities, the political orientations chosen by the two States and the forms of national maritime ecofrontier development. A resistance movement born from the field has led to a "dotted line" maritime ecological front made up of reduced, shifting, unstable conservation merritories based on an incomplete and dissonant governmentality. The analysis highlights the importance of the postcolonial history of the studied territories in the way national policies have been negotiated by local actors - the eco-creators – in order to produce hybrid policies and to give birth to original competing conservation merritories. ; Les océans se couvrent progressivement, depuis la fin des années 2000, de dispositifs de protection de la biodiversité marine : les aires marines protégées (AMP). Les États se sont lancés à la conquête de cette ultime frontière et ont commencé à mettre en place des AMP dans leurs eaux territoriales et leur zone économique exclusive. On observe ainsi l'ouverture d'un front écologique maritime global sous l'impulsion d'un groupe d'acteur∙rices – les écoconquérant∙es – prônant le remplacement d'un mode d'exploitation non-durable des océans par des modalités plus respectueuses de l'environnement. Cette thèse s'intéresse à la France, mise en regard avec l'Afrique du Sud. L'originalité de l'analyse réside, d'une part, dans la comparaison entre ces deux États, et d'autre part, dans une approche de la politique française vue depuis ses outre-mer, territoires socio-économiquement et politiquement marginaux. Le travail prend appui sur plusieurs études de cas : d'une part dans l'océan Indien, à Mayotte (Parc naturel marin de Mayotte [PNMM] et Réserve naturelle nationale [RNN] de l'îlot M'bouzi) et à la Réunion (Réserve naturelle marine de La Réunion [RNMR]), d'autre part en Afrique du Sud, à la Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area (TMNP MPA) autour de la Péninsule du Cap et dans l'iSimangaliso Wetland Park (iSWP) au KwaZulu Natal. Ces terrains ont été complétés par une analyse des cas du Parc naturel marin des Glorieuses (PNMG) et de la Réserve naturelle nationale des Terres australes françaises (RNN TAF).La thèse documente la manière dont s'est ouvert et se pérennise le front écologique maritime à différentes échelles et le rôle joué par la mobilisation des administrations, des ONG et des scientifiques. Il met en avant l'originalité des merritorialités, les orientations politiques choisies par les deux États et les formes de développement des fronts écologiques maritimes nationaux. Des résistances nées du terrain résulte un front écologique maritime « en pointillés » formé de merritoires de la conservation réduits, mouvants, instables et reposant sur une environnementalité incomplète et dissonante. L'analyse met en évidence l'importance de l'histoire postcoloniale des territoires étudiés dans la manière dont les politiques nationales ont été négociées par les acteur∙rices locaux∙ales – les écocréateur∙rices – pour produire des politiques hybrides et former des merritoires de la conservation concurrents et originaux.

According to the EU policy, a future-proof broadband supply for all European households is to be achieved by 2025. There is already a wide range of fibre deployment in Europe. However, the expansion of fibre-based access networks in Europe to date has taken place mainly in large cities. In other areas, the expansion is sluggish or non-existent. As a result, a digital divide between urban and rural areas in Europe is arising. The spatial disparity in fibre roll-out is often justified by market stake holders with significant regional cost differences. In the absence of private-sector investment, government subsidy programmes are often used to improve broadband coverage. Thus, politicians have to deal with the question about the level of investment required and the spatial distribution of subsidy needs. In this paper, we will therefore investigate the question of how significant the heterogeneity in the costs of Very High Capacity (VHC) networks in Germany actually is and whether and how the costs for Very High Capacity (VHC) networks differ between urban and rural regions. In the first part of the paper, we will analyse the regional cost differences of access network areas on the basis of bottom-up calculated investment figures. In the second part of the paper, we establish statistical estimation models that explain these regional cost differences. For this purpose, we use publicly available data. As a reference value for regionally differentiated costs of Very High Capacity (VHC) access networks, we use the results of a detailed bottom-up modelling of an FTTH network carried out for the whole of Germany. The model uses georeferenced household and business location data and optimizes the access network routes along the street network in a bottom-up manner. This model allows us to determine regionally differentiated FTTH investment at the level of access areas. By matching this data with the EU-wide standardized EUROSTAT urban/rural typology classification (predominantly urban, intermediate and predominantly rural), we determine whether and to which extent significant regional cost differences can be found in Germany applying these classifications. One focus is on determining the spread of investment requirements, especially among rural areas. Based on our experience, these areas exhibit the lowest economic viability of a network roll-out and, thus, the highest need for funding. By using statistical indicators, we analyse the suitability of the EUROSTAT classification as a differentiation criterion for regional cost differences. Here, we are particularly interested in whether the areas defined as rural form a sufficiently homogeneous group, and whether they show comparable levels of required investment. Our findings confirm that the differentiation criterion used, namely EUROSTAT urban/rural typology classification, is not satisfactory in measuring regional cost differences. It cannot sufficiently account for a large share of observable differences in fibre-based access network costs. Since it is desirable to answer questions regarding the required funding for selected regions based on publicly available data, we apply regression models to identify alternative influencing factors on the basis of publicly available data, in order to better explain observable regional cost differences. Here, we find that a handful of geographical factors are capable of explaining 95% of the geographical differences in fibre investment requirements, the most relevant being the number of connection lines, the number of households per kilometre of road in built-up areas, the main road length per built-up area and the share of built-up area in relation to overall area. In the last part of the analysis, we examine whether the derived results are also meaningful in a political and regulatory context. Discussions about the necessity of promoting high-speed networks usually take place at the level of local authorities. Therefore, in a final step, we address the question whether the statistical relationships derived from the regression model at the level of access areas also apply at a higher aggregated, i.e. NUTS3, level. In summary, we show that for Germany, classifications based on subscriber density exhibit a significant spread in the investment costs of Very High Capacity (VHC) access networks, which is most pronounced in rural clusters. Statistical analyses using regression models can improve the result if geographical elements of the settlement structure are considered in the analysis.

Abstract The Covid-19 Handling Drama is a national leadership test event. On the other hand, society will depend on its leader and as a leader, he must meet the high expectations of himself. The Covid-19 pandemic is a threat in itself for the Government of Indonesia, if it cannot balance between encouraging economic activity (political interests) and public health (an urgent situation). This article explores the phenomenon of the central role of adaptive leadership in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic based on constitutional rights taken to save people's lives, but the potential for corruption by using the Normative Juridical approach that prioritizes secondary data. The conclusion that can be drawn from this article is that there is no single best cure for winning this battle because the "opponent" of the current government is a growing virus. In handling the covid-19 virus pandemic, an adaptive leader is needed, namely a Leader who has authority as a consequence of the President's authority as head of state and head of government. President Joko Widodo uses his constitutional right to issue Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perpu) number 1 year 2020 concerning State Financial Policy and Financial System Stability for Handling the 2019 Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic and / or in the Context of Facing Threats that Endanger the National Economy and / or Financial System Stability. Adaptive Leadership is a form of Adaptive Governance in Handling Covid-19 but is prone to corruption. Keywords: Adaptive Leadership and the Constitutional Rights of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prone to Corruption Abstrak Drama Penanganan Covid-19 adalah ajang uji kepemimpinan Nasional. Disisi lain, masyarakat akan sangat tergantung pada pemimpinnya dan sebagai seorang pemimpin, dia harus memenuhi tingginya ekspektasi terhadap dirinya. Pandemi Covid-19 merupakan ancaman tersendiri bagi Pemerintah Indonesia, bila tidak dapat menyeimbangkan antara mendorong aktivitas perekonomian (kepentingan politik) dan kesehatan public (keadaan mendesak). Artikel ini menelusuri fenomena peran sentral kepemimpinan adaptif dalam menangani pandemic covid-19 berdasarkan hak konstitusional yang diambil untuk menyelamatkan jiwa masyarakat, namun potensi korupsinya dengan menggunakan pendekatan Juridis Normatif yang mengutamakan data sekunder. Kesimpulan yang dapat ditarik dari artikel ini bahwa tidak ada satu obat yang paling mujarab untuk memenangkan pertempuran ini sebab 'lawan' pemerintah kali ini adalah virus yang terus berkembang. Dalam melakukan penanganan pandemic virus covid-19 dibutuhkan seorang pemimpin yang adaptif yaitu Leader yang mempunyai Otoritas sebagai konsekwensi dari kewenangan Presiden sebagai kepala Negara dan kepala pemerintahan .Presiden Joko Widodo menggunakan hak konstitusionalnya untuk menerbitkan Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-undang (Perpu) nomor 1 tahun 2020 tentang Kebijakan Keuangan Negara dan Stabilitas Sistem Keuangan untuk Penanganan Pandemi Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) dan/atau dalam Rangka Menghadapi Ancaman yang Membahayakan Perekonomian Nasional dan/atau Stabilitas Sistem Keuangan. Adaptive Leadership ini merupakan bentuk Adaptive Governance dalam Penanganan Covid-19 namun rawan terjadinya korupsi. Kata kunci: Adaptive Leadership dan Hak Konstitusional Presiden RI, Rawan Korupsi ; Drama Penanganan Covid-19 adalah ajang uji kepemimpinan Nasional . Disisi lain, masyarakat akan sangat tergantung pada pemimpinnya dan sebagai seorang pemimpin, dia harus memenuhi tingginya ekspektasi terhadap dirinya. Pandemi Covid-19 merupakan ancaman tersendiri bagi Pemerintah Indonesia, bila tidak dapat menyeimbangkan antara mendorong aktivitas perekonomian (kepentingan politik) dan kesehatan public (keadaan mendesak) . Artikel ini menelusuri fenomena peran sentral kepemimpinan adaptif dalam menangani pandemic covid-19 berdasarkan hak konstitusional yang diambil untuk menyelamatkan jiwa masyarakat, namun potensi korupsinya dengan menggunakan pendekatan Juridis Normatif yang mengutamakan data sekunder . Kesimpulan yang dapat ditarik dari artikel ini bahwa tidak ada satu obat yang paling mujarab untuk memenangkan pertempuran ini sebab 'lawan' pemerintah kali ini adalah virus yang terus berkembang. Dalam melakukan penanganan pandemic virus covid-19 dibutuhkan seorang pemimpin yang adaptif yaitu Leader yang mempunyai Otoritas sebagai konsekwensi dari kewenangan Presiden sebagai kepala Negara dan kepala pemerintahan .Presiden Joko Widodo menggunakan hak konstitusionalnya untuk menerbitkan Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-undang (Perpu ) nomor 1 tahun 2020 tentang Kebijakan Keuangan Negara dan Stabilitas Sistem Keuangan untuk Penanganan Pandemi Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) dan/atau dalam Rangka Menghadapi Ancaman yang Membahayakan Perekonomian Nasional dan/atau Stabilitas Sistem Keuangan . Adaptive Leadership ini merupakan bentuk Adaptive Governance dalam Penanganan Covid-19 namun rawan terjadinya korupsi.

Digital ; La pandemia generada por la Covid-19 llevó a declarar a Colombia en un estado de emergencia económica, social y ecológica en todo el territorio nacional, esta situación afectó considerablemente al sector inmobiliario; El Gobierno Nacional Colombiano, para mitigar su impacto, promulgó dos decretos legislativos como medidas transitorias durante el 2020 para el mismo sector. Las precisiones anteriores dan origen al presente proyecto que se desarrolló a través de una metodología que aplica investigación de tipo exploratoria y descriptiva, con criterio cuantitativo, cuyo objetivo es analizar y caracterizar el comportamiento de los servicios de arriendo habitacional y comercial de abril a octubre de 2020 en el departamento de Santander. La presente investigación presenta las características del comportamiento del sector inmobiliario, en la cual se mostrarán datos con relación a los empleados despedidos, contratos laborales modificados, contratos de arriendo suscritos con contrato de fianza o con póliza de seguro, contratos objetados por las afianzadoras o aseguradoras, contratos que suscribieron acuerdos de pago y cuántos de ellos lo cumplieron, así como la cancelación, terminación anticipada y modificación de los mismos, entre muchas otros datos que permiten obtener dicha información del sector inmobiliario en Santander. Esta caracterización, resulta del trabajo de campo realizado con apoyo de la Cámara de Comercio de Bucaramanga y La Corporación Lonja Propiedad Raíz de Santander, el cual permite proponer una hoja de ruta como plan de acción, que incluye las ayudas ofrecidas por el Gobierno Nacional a empresarios y demás acciones, que propendan por la pronta recuperación del sector inmobiliario de Santander. ; The pandemic generated by Covid-19 led to the declaration of Colombia in a state of economic, social and ecological emergency throughout the national territory, this situation considerably affected the real estate sector; The Colombian National Government, to mitigate its impact, promulgated two legislative decrees as transitory measures during 2020 for the same sector. The previous details give rise to this project that was developed through a methodology that applies exploratory and descriptive research, with quantitative criteria, whose objective is to analyze and characterize the behavior of residential and commercial rental services from April to October of 2020 in the department of Santander. This research presents the characteristics of the behavior of the real estate sector, in which data will be shown in relation to the dismissed employees, modified employment contracts, lease contracts signed with a surety or insurance policy, contracts objected to by surety or insurers. , contracts that signed payment agreements and how many of them fulfilled them, as well as their cancellation, early termination and modification, among many other data that allow obtaining such information from the real estate sector in Santander. This characterization results from field work carried out with the support of the Bucaramanga Chamber of Commerce and the Corporación Lonja Propiedades Raíz de Santander, which allows proposing a roadmap as an action plan, which includes the aid offered by the National Government to entrepreneurs and other actions that promote the prompt recovery of Santander's real estate sector. ; Introducción . 177 1. Objetivos . 20 1.1. Objetivo General . 20 1.1.1. Objetivos Específicos. 20 2. Justificación . 21 2.1. Pregunta de investigación. 22 3. Marco Referencial . 23 3.1. Marco Conceptual . 23 3.2. Estado del Arte . 25 3.3. Marco Teórico . 28 3.4. Marco Contextual . 31 3.5. Marco Legal . 31 4. Metodología . 33 4.1. Método de Estudio . 33 4.2. Tipo de Investigación . 35 4.3. Población . 36 4.4. Muestra . 37 4.4.1. Diseño del Instrumento. . 39 4.4.2. Actividades Realizadas. . 40 5. Diagnóstico Socio-económico de Santander y de su Mercado Inmobiliario . 41 6. Resultados de la Investigación con Base a Diseño y Aplicación del Instrumento . 511 6.1. Procesamiento del Cuestionario . 51 6.1.1. Sección 1: Diagnóstico Financiero del Sector Inmobiliario. . 51 6.1.2. Sección 2: Diagnóstico Económico del Sector Inmobiliario. . 65 6.2. Análisis de las Variables . 79 7. Hoja de Ruta Según Plan de Acción Para la Recuperación del Sector Inmobiliario de Santander. 83 7.1. Fundamentos del Plan de Acción . 83 7.2. Ayudas Ofrecidas por el Gobierno Nacional a los Empresarios . 86 8. Conclusiones . 88 9. Recomendaciones . 92 Apéndices . 95 Apéndice A. Instrumento de Investigación . 95 Apéndice B. Agenda de Reuniones Realizadas . 107 Apéndice C. Listado de Plataformas Para Aplicación de Encuestas . 109 Referencias Bibliográficas . 110 ; Maestría ; Magister en Finanzas ; 1 ed.