W W W . AJ AS N. CO M . A U
AJASN Newsletter
December 2016
Public service (& related)
Inside
1
Public service
1
Mega-trends
2
Policy-making
2
Changing workplace
2
Assumption busting
3
The Internet & beyond
3
Science & technology
3
Interpretations
4
Society
4
Health
4
News
4
Upcoming meetings
The Senate released the final report on the future role and contribution of
regional capitals to Australia.
A report examined the literature on the value of open government, and the
policies and political contexts in which reforms to increase transparency,
participation and accountability have shown their greatest promise.
Big or small government? This meta-analysis found that there is a lot we don’t
know about the optimal size of government, and whether some parts of
government should be smaller than others.
It is not possible to show that the Crown Commercial Service has achieved
more than departments would otherwise have achieved by buying common
goods and services themselves (UK audit.)
Gary Banks, outgoing ANZSOG Dean, mentioned [certain recent
developments] … ‘are eroding the capacity of the public service to perform
key elements of its role within a Westminster system.’ And, ‘This is especially
evident in the policy sphere, with independent reviews … raising serious
questions about the extent to which decisions had the benefit of proper
bureaucratic advice.’
This working paper found that presidential elections result in increased turnover
among more senior federal employees, resulting in a major loss in institutional
memory for federal agencies. The EU Parliamentary Research Service has
identified a number of views on future US trade and foreign policy.
Paris, Berlin, Sydney, London, Zurich and Shibuya (part of Tokyo) all have ‘night
mayors.’
The U.K. has become the first country to approve a fertility treatment that
involves creating babies who have three biological parents.
An article notes ‘A good assisted-living facility might cost $80,000 a year in the
U.S., more than many year-long cruises.’ Here is a report on affordable housing
for Melbourne with policy suggestions.
Mega-trends
This
NESTA
IDEO
guide
canvasses Designing for Public
Services: a practical guide
Contact: Kate Delaney
[email protected]
This is an article on four mega-trends – they are (1) environment be damned (2)
disdain for taxes that support society (3) profiting from our health problems and
(4) blowback from our wars.
This article identifies a number of game changers that are affecting (all)
government’s ability to deliver services: (1) climate change (a rise in sea levels,
an increase in extreme weather events and a breakdown of local ecosystems),
(2) increasing demand for land, food, energy and water (that compromise
long-term resource availability), (3) risks to current economic systems (inequality,
un- and under-employment, automation),and (4)technological error and
‘terror’ (technology as a means and target of attack).
1
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AJASN 2016 DECEMBER NEWSLETTER
Policy-making
A paper Health and welfare as a burden on the state? The dangers of
forgetting history says that it is dangerous (to economic prosperity) to cut
welfare and social care budgets during times of economic hardship.
In 2017, basic income pilots to watch are (1) early next year, the Finnish
government will randomly choose 2,000 unemployed people and pay them a
regular wage for doing nothing, no strings attached, (2) in Oakland California Y
Combinator will give a 100 families $2,000 a month, free of obligation, (3) four
cities in the Netherlands are about to start trial programs, (4) The Canadian
province of Ontario is preparing to run a trial, and a national test is under
consideration.
A new Diverted Profits Tax (i.e. a ‘Google Tax’) comes into effect from July 1,
2017 in Australia (only the UK has a similar tax). Here is an in-depth analysis on
tax systems in 190 economies.
A German Politician has called for fines against social media platforms if fake
reports are not quickly deleted.
A new book argues economics
should be less dogmatic, and
embrace more views.
China is piloting a social credit system. This will determine everything from loan
eligibility to travel to education (measures include the expected e.g. payment
of rent on time and – different – e.g. filial piety and academic honesty). Several
states in the United States are now using familial DNA profiling (i.e. looking for
family ties when crime scene DNA has no direct match.)
The US introduced new federal rules that call for the creation of mandatory
insider-threat detection programs – this will favour large companies competing
for U.S. intelligence and cybersecurity contracts.
Changing workplace
A recent symposium for IT executives included a presentation that pitched the
idea of genetic screening of job applicants for traits like “honesty, leadership,
being a team player, and having a high level of emotional intelligence”. There
is no gene for leadership (etc.) and there is no way testing of this sort would be
useful to a company trying to figure out who to hire.
RAND research Why Sleep Matters: Quantifying the Economic Costs of
Insufficient Sleep puts a price tag (per cent of GDP lost) on sleeplessness In
Canada, Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
A study looked at characteristics of people likely to cut corners at work – they
found people that are morally compromised, low in conscientiousness, selffocused and impulsive are more likely to cut corners.
Assumption busting
The willingness of the United States to default on its debt is being questioned. If it
does (hypothetical), then another global financial crisis is more likely.
This is an interesting infographic
on news sources …
This article looks at research on willpower and calls into question the view that
willpower is a limited resource.
Geert Hofstede's view that culture affects management styles globally is
questioned.
Here is a website with a collection of articles from non-mainstream sources,
speculating about the future. (… some holiday reading?)
AJASN 2016 DECEMBER NEWSLETTER
PAGE 3
The Internet & beyond
A look at Chinese cyber-espionage efforts against American companies and
government properties suggests this might increase (given the change in
government and the importance of trade policy.) Here is a Booz Allen web
site on cyber security.
A document From Internet to Robotics: A Roadmap for US Robotics, presents
potential research priorities for the field and discusses the workforce
development, legal, ethical, and economic ramifications of automation
technologies.
The Internet Archive announced that it will create a copy of its cached
collection of Web pages in Canada. A new social network – GAB – promises
no censorship (it is still in testing) so it is attracting people recently banned
from other networks. This article points out that Twitter may be useful as a
predictive measure of broad sentiment (relates to Brexit and US election
voting). This website http://politicalbots.org/ has a number of articles and
working papers on social media and bots and their political influence. Here is
an overview of studies on the fake news phenomenon.
Sharing election hashtags: Dots are Twitter
accounts; lines show retweeting; larger dots are
retweeted more. Red dots are likely bots; blue
ones are likely humans (source). More on fake
news here, here,
The U.S. remains in a long-term decline in productivity, according to a pro
bono study by Gallup commissioned by the U.S. Council on Competitiveness.
While the tech sector, professional services and top universities are “world
class,” the rest of the economy – especially the healthcare, education and
housing sectors – act as drags and expenses with little value in return.
An article "Logged in and zoned out: How laptop internet use impacts
classroom learning" says it hinders and does not help students.
Science & technology
Here is an interesting twist on reproducibility published in Science – the editors
are concerned because a stolen lap top (the paper’s authors advised) had the
only data backing a recently published paper i.e. they had no back up.
This paper finds that competition from China appears to hobble innovation in
the U.S. (looking at import penetration and patent applications).
This economist argues that technology is poised to upend the humandominated service sector, eliminating far more jobs in rich countries than the
manufacturing decline has.
Interpretations
This 2016 Ipsos Perils of Perception survey highlights how wrong the public across
40 countries are about key global issues and features of the population in their
country.
This study (with counterintuitive findings) suggests that you want to pay
attention to the videos you use where science and/or scientific explanations
are involved. Shoot for ‘easy to watch’ and ‘informative’, rather than
‘blockbuster.’
This research found that when the police were metaphorically described as
‘guardians,’ people expressed a more positive view of law enforcement and
the criminal justice system than when the police were described as ‘warriors.’
This research looked at whether the tendency of journals to publish mostly
positive experimental results influences what is considered ‘scientific fact.’
Journals should publish more negative results (if scientists are willing to write
them up).
In the final three months of the presidential
campaign, the 20 top-performing fake election
news stories generated more engagement on
Facebook than the top stories from major news
outlets such as The New York Times. Source:
BuzzFeed, November 16, 2016
"I think this is a bit of a million-dollar
question right now: How can we create
a space where members of the public
have the opportunity to talk to each
other, and it doesn’t turn into a terrible
cesspool?” quoting Talia Stroud, director of
the Engaging News Project at the University of
Texas at Austin, in the 13 December Fast
Company newsletter (and related content,
and here)
PAGE 4
AJASN 2016 DECEMBER NEWSLETTER
Society
New research suggests elections and referendums may be decided by the
emotional well-being of voters (in the UK). This report is on Australian well-being.
Two studies different results on Australian volunteering - the Giving Australia 2016
project and here.
Portland, Oregon will become the first jurisdiction in the United States to levy a
10 per cent ‘city surtax’ to the tax a business owes the city each year if its chief
executive officer (CEO) makes more than 100 times the median worker’s wage.
If the CEO makes more than 250 times the median worker’s wage, the surtax
jumps to 25 percent. This Australian opinion piece says it is a dumb idea.
A research paper examined nineteen studies on giving money (cash transfers)
to the poor. Not one of the 19 studies found that cash grants increase tobacco
and alcohol consumption and many of them found that it leads to a reduction.
Is it time to consider a new safety net for the workforce with unstable earnings
(here)?
A new Department of Health and Human Services (U.S.) report recommends
schools build children's self-regulation skills – to manage their thoughts and
feelings, control impulses, and problem-solve – in order to increase wellbeing
across the lifespan.
New research says comprehensive, birth-to-age-five early childhood programs
can produce higher economic returns (better long-term outcomes in
education, health, social behaviors and employment) than those previously
established for preschool programs serving 3- to 4-year-olds.
This study done by NZ, UK & US researchers
showed that a small portion of the
population accounts for the lion's share of
social costs such as crime, welfare
dependence and health-care needs as
adults. (The researchers found they could have
predicted which adults were likely to incur such
costs as early as age 3 based on assessments of
brain health.)
Health
A paper on "Future Impacts of Hydroelectric Power Development on
Methylmercury Exposures of Canadian Indigenous Communities" says most
future hydro-electric projects (≈ 22) have varying levels of (methyl) mercury
contamination risk and they are all within 100km of Indigenous communities.
The United States announced that smoking will be prohibited in public housing
residences nationwide under a federal rule.
Research (using data from 2000 to 2014) suggests when air pollution New York is
high the stock market loses value and sends a negative signal to global
markets.
In the United States the 21st Century Cures Act (before Congress now) would
allow accelerated approval for regenerative medicines by the FDA – critics call
this fundamental change to regulation ‘inject and see’ because the approach
eliminates the need for late human trials (studies) to be done. This affects the
availability of evidence about what works.
News
Danish prosecutors have filed charges against Uber's European regional hub in
the Netherlands with ‘helping to commit illegalities.’
New Zealand issued a Science and Innovation System Performance Report.
Investors led by Bill Gates put $1 billion into clean energy innovation (including
Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma and Richard Branson.) Their new fund, Breakthrough Energy
Ventures, hopes to commercialise promising research to fight climate change.
Here is another sign that the general aviation sector is in decline in Australia – the
withdrawal of insurance services to that sector by Allianz.
UK Intelligent Transport Systems produce a useful weekly newsletter. The latest
one discusses a report on the morality of self-driving vehicles.
From the Economist Intelligence
(here) Social Innovation Index.
Unit
Upcoming meetings
Next meeting 23 March 2017