Dr. Christopher L Atkinson

Purpose
Despite government efforts to increase the number of bids submitted on contracts, many bids receive a limited number of responses and a significant number of bids receive no offers. While the literature has identified various reasons why businesses do not submit bids, previous research has not empirically validated nor systematically examined these reasons. This study applies transaction cost theory to understand bidding barriers from both buyer and supplier viewpoints.

Design/methodology/approach
After systematically reviewing the literature to identify reasons businesses claim why they don’t bid on government contracts, we use US federal contracting data to determine if those stated reasons are empirically supported.

Findings
Validation of business criticism concerning the accessibility of government contracting opportunities is mixed, suggesting governments strategically tailor contracting opportunities across sectors and policy choices to increase or optimize market competition.

Originality/value
In linking buyer and supplier perceptions of bidding, findings from our mixed methodology propose that future public procurement research focus on how solicitation barriers, government bidding strategies and industry sectors shape transaction costs for both buyers and suppliers.

This essay reviews four recent books on topics related to trust and relative truths in the public space: Green Finance in the European Union, by Marta Postula and Mariusz Lipski; Fighting Falsehoods: Suspicion, Analysis, and Response, by Irene Rubin; The Myth that Made Us: How False Beliefs About Racism and Meritocracy Broke Our Economy (and How to Fix It), by Jeff Fuhrer; and Mapping Behavioral Public Policy: Citizens’ Preferences and Trust, by Paolo Belardinelli.

This essay reviews three recent books on topics related to inequality: The Great Polarization: How Ideas, Power, and Policies Drive Inequality, edited by Rudiger L. von Arnim and Joseph E. Stiglitz; Key Concepts and Contemporary Approaches to Structured Inequality: Capital, Power and Status, by Carl Bankston III; and Conflict, Demand and Economic Development: Essays in Honour of Amit Bhaduri, edited by Deepankar Basu and Debarshi Das.

This review examines current knowledge in the literature on informal settlements, specifically those contributions that include emphases on governance and the role of public administration. Given that informal settlements task the public sector with specific challenges that test the limits of infrastructure, while also presenting considerable human demands, there is a need to better understand how informal settlements and governments’ capacities to respond to such phenomena potentially deepen concerns with already vulnerable populations. After an introduction to the concept of informal settlements, the paper considers the approach to the literature review, which included an initial group of 272 papers from peer-reviewed, English-language journals, from the period 2019 to June 2024. Major themes are discussed, with opportunities for future research identified. Informal settlements are still an emerging topic within the larger land use and urban planning literature, but the significance of this research extends beyond the immediate areas of the settlements themselves to critical areas of governance and vulnerability study.

This chapter explores the roles of elected officials, political parties, and interest groups in impacting public service design. The public sector environment is fraught with political challenges, competing priorities, and resource limitations, which together affect public service design decisions and outcomes. First, the matter of policy design in the public interest is addressed. The roles of administrators are discussed next to provide context. Elected officials and political parties may feign interest in public participation for short-run gains, but the reality is that public participation in government is limited; some reasons for the limitations are valid, others are less so. For interest groups, involvement is similarly limited beyond single-issue participation, for all but the most involved and highly funded interests. Public participation and co-production rhetoric may serve symbolic functions, instead of allowing for public inclusion and empowerment. The potential of symbol and the spectacle of reform in public policy raise serious concerns with not only the process of involvement in policy design, but in the outcomes of such activities. Still, benefit exists for public involvement in public service design, making its pursuit worthwhile.

This theme-based book review considers four recent titles related to governments? role in development and public finance: Sustainable Urban Futures in Africa, edited by Patrick Brandful Cobbinah and Michael Addaney; Research Handbook on Public Financial Management, edited by Komla D. Dzigbede and W. Bartley Hildreth; Decisions, Preferences, and Heuristics: An Introduction to Economic Psychology and Behavioral Economics, by Pere Mir-Artigues; and China?s Economic Development: Implications for the World, by Cai Fang.

For decades, academic freedom and shared governance have stood as cornerstones of higher education in the United States, but these principles face unprecedented challenges. Recent developments point to a disturbing decline in these critical values, stirring debates on the future viability of the higher education system. This study delves into the problematic trajectory of modern higher education, spotlighting the rise of corporate practices within academic institutions, the swelling ranks of university administration, and the disproportionate weight given to student evaluations in assessing faculty. These factors have converged to push academia into an unstable transition, a liminal phase fueled by external and internal forces. This study examines the evolving landscape of academic freedom within the corporatized university model. Utilizing the concept of liminality, it explores the transitional challenges faced by academia in balancing traditional scholarly values with emerging market-driven paradigms, arguing that the corporatization of universities represents a liminal phase, wherein the identity and purpose of academic institutions are in flux, significantly impacting the notion of academic freedom. The shift toward a consumer-oriented ethos endangers the foundational principles of higher education, risking substituting educational substance with the mere transaction of educational services. The study concludes by issuing a call to action for all stakeholders in higher education to acknowledge and confront these detrimental trends, thereby safeguarding the principles of academic freedom, shared governance, and the educational system's overall integrity and dynamism.

This study analyzes insurance claim data from an 11-county area in the Florida Panhandle following the landfall of Hurricane Michael. The data includes 1467 non-mobile home structures, with 902 (61.5%) storm-damaged structures in Bay County. The analysis focuses on Wind Mitigation form 1802. Specifically, building design variables were analyzed via linear regression as to their influence on the percent claim loss. The building design variables included total square footage, dwelling construction type, age of the building, roof type, roof cover type, roof deck attachment type, roof to wall attachment, the presence of secondary water resistance (or sealed roof deck), opening protection type, and roof shape. Results show that building design variables for insurance claims have a high predictive value relative to a Category 5 hurricane event. However, the predictive values of building design variables are also dependent on the dwelling’s proximity to the coast, its location relative to the strong or weak side of the storm, the diameter of the storm, and other wind field variables.

While the definition of resilience is disputed or even fuzzy, due in no small part to the diversity of its applications, the concept generally involves the ability to withstand and bounce back from shocks; vulnerability as a related concept involves the tendency to suffer from shocks, given existing characteristics that may prevent resilient responses. Vulnerabilities put individuals, groups, and societies at greater risk and disadvantage, suggesting a need not only for disaster response and recovery, but mitigation and preparedness. Resilience and vulnerability research has recently focused on the role of government, the COVID-19 pandemic, and flood hazards; topics of interest have also included resilience of rural and urban areas, development and sustainability, and displacement and migration.

This theme-based book review considers three recent titles focusing on public administration in China: Handbook of Public Policy and Public Administration in China, edited by Xiaowei Zang and Hon S. Chan; Governance and Public Administration in China, edited by Toby S. James, Wei Liu, and Caixia Man; and Public Administration and Governance in China: Chinese Insights with Global Perspectives, by Leizhen Zang and Yanyan Gao.