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Campaign contributions and legislative behavior: evidence from U.S. congress
No full textWhat is the relationship between campaign contributions and legislative behavior of elected representatives? In this paper, I find that more concentrated donations negatively correlate with three costly legislative endeavors of members of Congress: bill sponsorship, speechmaking on the floor and witness appearances before committees. For bill sponsorship, the negative correlation is stronger for topics related to redistribution, such as health and social welfare bills. To interpret these results, I argue that a more skewed structure of contributions makes members of Congress more dependent on their top donors and thus potentially more inclined to represent their interests. By reciprocating favors to donors, by seeking to secure their continued financial support, or simply by enjoying more leisure time as a result of feeling secure in their financial backing, federal legislators are less active in activities related to the Congressional agenda and public policy. Overall, I contend that campaign contributions distort the incentives of elected representatives to allocate legislative effort in Congress
Automated enforcement and traffic safety
No full textTraffic safety poses a persistent challenge for society and public policy. Conventional law enforcement by human police is often cost-ineffective because of information asymmetry and negative externalities of unsafe driving behaviors. Automated enforcement, in the form of traffic cameras on the road, has gained prominence in recent decades, yet its effectiveness and underlying mechanisms remain debated. This study examines the impact of traffic cameras on road safety using longitudinal data from a metropolitan city in China. We distinguish between advanced cameras, which use machine learning to detect various traffic violations and constantly record video, and conventional cameras, which rely on triggered image capture for a limited number of violations. Using an event study design with staggered camera installations at road intersections, we observe a significant and sustained reduction in accidents near advanced cameras, compared with locations with no cameras or only conventional cameras. Further analysis identifies three key mechanisms driving the effects of advanced cameras: (i) automated detection effect—superior technical capabilities to automate violation detection; (ii) real-time recording effect—continuous monitoring and recording capability to augment accident cause identification; and (iii) driver learning effect—technology-enabled deterrence that increases driver awareness of these cameras and encourages behavioral adjustments to mitigate accident risks. This study contributes to information systems, transportation economics, and criminology, offering policy insights into the effective design and deployment of automated enforcement to improve traffic safety
Translating measurement into practice with PHQ-9 calculator: an open tool to assess depression levels in the Brazilian population
No full textWe aim to create a web-based calculator for assessing depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), utilizing IRT-based standardized scores, to improve measurement precision, standardization, and practical application in clinical practice. This study developed a web-based calculator using a graded response IRT model for assessing depressive symptoms with the PHQ-9, using data from the Brazilian National Health Survey 2019 (n = 90,846, aged 15 to 107 years old, 52.8% female). The tool calculates latent depressive symptoms and converts them into T-scores, with stratification by sex and age groups. The application respects patient confidentiality by deleting sensitive information postcalculation. Estimated models resulted in a mean sample size of 3244.5 participants in each group (SD: 1066). The calculator can be accessed at https://mheg.shinyapps.io/phq9-score. The development of an IRT-based web calculator for the PHQ-9 represents an advancement in depressive symptoms' assessment, offering precision and potential clinical utility. By standardizing scores into a common metric, this tool facilitates the interpretation of depressive symptoms and comparison across different instruments. The study's scope is limited to the Brazilian population and external validity for other contexts is warranted. Future studies should evaluate the clinical validity and the threshold of the tool for predicting real life problems
Green energy transitions as climate action?
No full textAn emerging consensus among scientists and policymakers puts green energy transition at the center of climate mitigation as a comparatively efficient and inexpensive way of quickly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, suitable for countries at every level of development. This chapter presents that view and the evidence for it, noting the rapid expansion of green energy and its many potential “co-benefits,” or benefits beyond decarbonization. These include the promise of economic growth, innovation, and good green jobs. From there, the chapter turns to two of the most obvious problems with this scenario. The first is that green energy transition is often conceived as the simple expansion of renewable energy as a win-win solution without fully taking on the need to also shut down fossil fuel production for a full energy transition, a losing proposition for often very powerful—and resistant—political and economic actors. The second is that even green energy transition may bring numerous costs for already-vulnerable actors, from the communities where supporting minerals will be mined to the labor forces and communities that will bear transition costs
A practical guide to shift-share instruments
No full textA recent econometric literature shows two distinct paths for identification with shift-share instruments, leveraging either many exogenous shifts or exogenous shares. We present the core logic of both paths and practical takeaways via simple checklists. A variety of empirical settings illustrate key points
Urban theory in anti-theoretical times
No full textThis commentary engages with Robert W. Lake's cautionary piece ‘on resisting the seductions of theory’. It highlights points of agreement with Lake's argument, particularly on the place of theory within urban analysis, before outlining two broader concerns the piece raises. The first has to do with where and by whom theory is ‘done’; the second with how Lake's argument sits in a crudely anti-theoretical moment in which the risks of taking certain theoretical positions are more serious than the danger of going out of intellectual style
When breaking the law gets you the job: evidence from the electronic dance music community
No full textWhy would a law-abiding occupational community support members engaged in legally prohibited actions? We propose that lawbreaking can elicit informal support when it is construed as a disinterested action—intended to serve the community rather than the perpetrator. We study how illegal remixing (“bootlegging”) affects an artist’s ability to secure opening act and other performance opportunities in the electronic dance music (EDM) community, whose members endorse the substance of copyright law but whose norms about bootlegging are ambiguous. Data on 38,784 disc jockeys (DJs) across 97 countries over 10 years reveal that producing bootlegs is associated with more opportunities to perform, compared to producing official remixes or original music. This effect disappears when community members view bootlegging as a self-serving action—primarily designed to benefit the perpetrator. An online experiment and an expert survey rule out the possibility that bootlegs are considered more creative, of higher quality, or better able to attract attention. We shed additional light on our proposed mechanism by analyzing data from 34 interviews with EDM professionals. This helps us to explain how a lawbreaker can paradoxically be perceived as serving the community, thereby eliciting active community support for their action
Ethnic wealth inequality in England: surprising shifts from 1858 to today
No full textWhat is the historical relationship between wealth and ethnic background in the UK? Until now, there has been little empirical work in this area. But by matching surnames to likely ethnic groups, Neil Cummins uncovers five surprising facts about the evolution of ethnic wealth inequalities over time
Intelligent monitoring of industrial equipment: a study on fault prediction based on deep learning
No full textPredictive maintenance is gaining increasing attention in the field of industrial equipment management as an effective strategy to enhance equipment reliability and reduce maintenance costs. Deep learning has become a focal point due to its exceptional ability to process time series data and recognize complex patterns. To address challenges related to accuracy and robustness in predicting equipment failures, this study proposes a novel model that combines deep reinforcement learning (DDPG) with gated recurrent units (GRU), alongside Bayesian Optimization for hyperparameter tuning. The DDPG component learns the dynamic interactions between actions and states, adapting to the specific characteristics of different devices. The GRU module is designed to capture temporal dependencies in sensor data
Are equitable remedies discretionary?
No full textEquitable remedies are often said to be ‘discretionary’ by nature. This feature is said to distinguish them from common law remedies, such as orders to pay damages and orders to pay agreed sums, which are available ‘as of right’. This paper explores what exactly is meant by ‘discretion’ in this context. It argues that simply describing equitable remedies as ‘discretionary’ may be misleading, for it conceals importantly distinct senses in which equitable remedies can engage discretion-like considerations. The sense in which equitable remedies are ‘discretionary’ should not be overstated, and we should be slow to generalise about the distinctiveness of equitable remedies simply on the basis that they are ‘discretionary’