Sweeping it under the rug: How government parties deal with deteriorating economic conditions.

Party competition in advanced industrial democracies is generally characterized as a two-dimensional space consisting of an economic and non-economic dimension. This study examines (a) the extent to which parties strategically place more emphasis on one of these dimensions vis-à-vis the other, something we coin relative emphasis, and (b) the extent to which voters perceive such shifts in relative emphasis. Our specific focus here is on government parties. We expect government parties to shift emphasis away from the economic to the non-economic dimension when economic conditions deteriorate. In doing so, they aim to reduce the importance voters attach to the economy and the degree to which voters attribute responsibility for the economy to the government. By combining expert data for 232 parties with survey data for roughly 30,000 individuals in 28 European countries in 2014, our analysis shows that while government parties generally pay more attention to the economic dimension, they shift attention to the non-economic dimension when economic conditions deteriorate. In contexts where government parties have shifted attention away from the economic to the non-economic dimension, voters overall attach less importance to the economy and attribute less responsibility to the government for the state of the economy.

Prioritizing action plans to save resources and better achieve municipal solid waste management KPIs: An urban case study.

The management of municipal solid waste (MSW) in cities is one of the most complex tasks facing local administrations. For this reason, waste management performance measurement structures are increasingly implemented at local and national levels. These performance structures usually contain strategic objectives and associated action plans, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) for organizations investing their resources in action plans. This study presents the results of applying a methodology to find a quantitative-based prioritization of MSW action plans for the City Council of Castelló de la Plana in Spain. In doing so, cause-effect relationships between the KPIs have been identified by applying the principal component analysis technique, and from these relationships it was possible to identify those action plans which should be addressed first to manage public services more efficiently. This study can be useful as a tool for local administrations when addressing the actions included in their local waste plans as it can lead to financial savings.Implications: This paper introduces and implements a methodology that uses principal component analysis to analyze real data from waste management KPIs and provide municipal solid waste managers with a decision-making tool for prioritizing action plans. The methodology saves financial resources and time, as well as reinforcing the probability of reaching the meta values of the main performance system KPIs.

Sustainable selection of waste collection trucks considering feasible future scenarios by applying the stratified best and worst method.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is vital in achieving sustainable development goals. It is a complex activity embracing collection, transport, recycling, and disposal; and whose management depends on proper strategic decision-making. The use of decision support methods such as multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) is widespread in MSW management. However, their application mainly focuses on selecting plant locations and the best technologies for waste treatment. Despite the critical role played by transport in promoting sustainability, MCDM has seldom been applied for the selection of sustainable transport alternatives in the field of MSW management. There are a few MCDM studies about choosing waste collection vehicles, but none that include the most recent green vehicles among the options or consider feasible future scenarios. In this article, different engine technologies for collection trucks (diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG), hybrid CNG-electric, electric, and hydrogen) are evaluated under sustainability criteria in a Spanish city by applying the stratified best and worst method (SBWM). This method enables considering the uncertainty associated with future events to establish various feasible scenarios. The results show that the best-valued options are electric and diesel trucks, in that order, followed by CNG and hybrid CNG-electric, and with hydrogen-powered trucks coming last. The SBWM has proven helpful in defining a comprehensive framework for selecting the most suitable engine technology to support long-term MSW collection. Considering sustainability among the criteria and feasible future scenarios in waste management collection decision-making provides more comprehensive and conclusive results that help managers and policymakers make better informed and more reliable decisions.

Statistical Analysis of the Long-Term Influence of COVID-19 on Waste Generation-A Case Study of Castellón in Spain.

Existing research recognizes the COVID-19 impact on waste generation. However, the preliminary studies were made at an early pandemic stage, focused on the household waste fraction, and employed descriptive statistics that lacked statistical support. This study tries to fill this gap by providing a reliable statistical analysis setting inferential confidence in the waste generation differences found in Castellón. Repeated measures ANOVA were carried out for all the waste fractions collected and recorded in the city landfill database from 2017 to 2020. Additionally, Bonferroni's multiple comparison test (p < 0.05) was used to assure confidence level correction and identify which pairs of years' differences appeared. The longitudinal study identified trends for each waste fraction before the pandemic and showed how they changed with the advent of the crisis. Compared to 2019, waste collection in 2020 significantly grew for glass and packaging; remained unchanged for beaches, paper and cardboard, and dropped substantially for households, streets, markets, bulky waste, hospitals, and recycling centres. Total waste showed no differences between 2017 and 2019 but dropped significantly in 2020. These findings may help us better understand the long-term implications of COVID-19 and improve municipal solid waste management in a similar crisis.

Counter-Punishment, Communication, and Cooperation among Partners.

We study how communication affects cooperation in an experimental public goods environment with punishment and counter-punishment opportunities. Participants interacted over 30 rounds in fixed groups with fixed identifiers that allowed them to trace other group members' behavior over time. The two dimensions of communication we study are asking for a specific contribution level and having to express oneself when choosing to counter-punish. We conduct four experimental treatments, all involving a contribution stage, a punishment stage, and a counter-punishment stage in each round. In the first treatment communication is not possible at any of the stages. The second treatment allows participants to ask for a contribution level at the punishment stage and in the third treatment participants are required to send a message if they decide to counter-punish. The fourth combines the two communication channels of the second and third treatments. We find that the three treatments involving communication at any of the two relevant stages lead to significantly higher contributions than the baseline treatment. We find no difference between the three treatments with communication. We also relate our results to previous results from treatments without counter-punishment opportunities and do not find that the presence of counter-punishment leads to lower cooperation level. The overall pattern of results shows that given fixed identifiers the key factor is the presence of communication. Whenever communication is possible contributions and earnings are higher than when it is not, regardless of counter-punishment opportunities.

Punish and voice: punishment enhances cooperation when combined with norm-signalling.

Material punishment has been suggested to play a key role in sustaining human cooperation. Experimental findings, however, show that inflicting mere material costs does not always increase cooperation and may even have detrimental effects. Indeed, ethnographic evidence suggests that the most typical punishing strategies in human ecologies (e.g., gossip, derision, blame and criticism) naturally combine normative information with material punishment. Using laboratory experiments with humans, we show that the interaction of norm communication and material punishment leads to higher and more stable cooperation at a lower cost for the group than when used separately. In this work, we argue and provide experimental evidence that successful human cooperation is the outcome of the interaction between instrumental decision-making and the norm psychology humans are provided with. Norm psychology is a cognitive machinery to detect and reason upon norms that is characterized by a salience mechanism devoted to track how much a norm is prominent within a group. We test our hypothesis both in the laboratory and with an agent-based model. The agent-based model incorporates fundamental aspects of norm psychology absent from previous work. The combination of these methods allows us to provide an explanation for the proximate mechanisms behind the observed cooperative behaviour. The consistency between the two sources of data supports our hypothesis that cooperation is a product of norm psychology solicited by norm-signalling and coercive devices.