Hertie School Research Repository
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Repression Technology: Internet Accessibility and State Violence
No full textThis article offers a first subnational analysis of the relationship between states' dynamic control of Internet access and their use of violent repression. I argue that where governments provide Internet access, surveillance of digital information exchange can provide intelligence that enables the use of more targeted forms of repression, in particular in areas not fully controlled by the regime. Increasing restrictions on Internet accessibility can impede opposition organization, but they limit access to information on precise targets, resulting in an increase in untargeted repression. I present new data on killings in the Syrian conflict that distinguish between targeted and untargeted events, using supervised text classification. I find that higher levels of Internet accessibility are associated with increases in targeted repression, whereas areas with limited access experience more indiscriminate campaigns of violence. The results offer important implications on how governments incorporate the selective access to communication technology into their strategies of coercion
Gender Differences in Parental Well-being After Separation: Does Shared Parenting Matter?
No full textA large body of literature has examined how separation and divorce influence social and economic well-being. One consistent finding of the literature is that women and men are affected differently by divorce and separation. Women, and particularly mothers, are likely to suffer from a loss of income. Fathers frequently suffer from having reduced contact with their children, who usually continue to live with their mother after a union dissolution. This chapter uses 10 years of data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) to examine more closely the gender differences in life satisfaction after separation. In line with previous research, we show that following a separation, satisfaction with family life declines more among fathers than among mothers, and that mothers tend to experience a greater decline in their satisfaction with their financial situation than fathers. We also examine the role of shared parenting (Wechselmodell) in parents’ life satisfaction. Our findings indicate that shared parenting is positively associated with well-being, but also that the association is not stable to the inclusion of socio-economic characteristics that explain the selection into shared parenting. The results are discussed in the context of the current German policy debate on shared parenting
Government Collaboration and Digitalisation: Comparative Case Studies on Collaborative Management for Government Digitalisation and Public Sector Innovation
No full textThe effects of productivity and benefits on unemployment: Breaking the link
No full textIn the standard macroeconomic search and matching model of the labor market, there is a tight link between the quantitative effects of (i) aggregate productivity shocks on unemployment and (ii) unemployment benefits on unemployment. This tight link is at odds with the empirical literature. We show that a two-sided model of labor market search where the household and firm decisions are decomposed into job offers, job acceptances, firing, and quits can break this link. In such a model, unemployment benefits affect households' behavior directly, without having to run via the bargained wage. A calibration of the model based on U.S. JOLTS data generates both a solid amplification of productivity shocks and a moderate effect of benefits on unemployment. Our analysis shows the importance of investigating the effects of policies on the households' work incentives and the firms' employment incentives within the search process
Recoupling Economic and Social Prosperity
No full textThis paper explores a new theoretical and empirical approach to the assessment of human well-being, relevant to current challenges of social fragmentation in the presence of globalization and technological advance. We present two indexes of well-being — solidarity (S) and agency (A) — to be considered alongside the standard indexes of material gain (G) and environmental sustainability (E). The four indexes —SAGE— form a balanced dashboard for evaluating well-being. The solidarity index covers the needs of humans as social creatures, living in societies that generate a sense of social belonging. The agency index involves people’s need to influence their fate through their own efforts. While “economic prosperity” (material gain) is conventionally measured through GDP per capita, “social prosperity” can be measured through our solidarity and agency indexes, alongside environmental sustainability that is measured through the Environmental Performance Index. The SAGE dashboard is meant to provide a “sage” approach to assessing well-being, since it aims to denote sagacity in the pursuit and satisfaction of fundamental human needs and purposes. Many of the prominent challenges of the 21st century, including the dissatisfaction of population groups who feel left behind by globalization and technological advance, may be viewed in terms of a “decoupling” of economic prosperity from social prosperity.We present a theoretical model that provides a new perspective on the welfare effects of globalization and automation. The dashboard is meant to provide an empirical basis for mobilizing action in government, business, and civil society to promote a recoupling of economic and social prosperity
Understanding different perspectives on economic growth and climate policy
No full textShould economic growth continue in a world threatened by the prospect of catastrophic climate change? The scientific and public debate has brought forth a broad spectrum of views and narratives on this question, ranging from neoclassical economics to degrowth. We argue that different positions can be attributed to underlying differences in views on (a) factors that determine human well‐being, (b) the feasibility and desirability of economic growth, (c) appropriate intervention points, and (d) preferences about governance and policy options. For each of these dimensions, we propose points of agreement on which a consensus between conflicting positions might be achieved. From this basis, we distill a sustainability transition perspective that could act as a basis for a renewed debate on how to align human well‐being with environmental sustainability
The Supreme Court and EU Law: Reshuffling Institutional Balance
No full textIrish Courts are not exclusively national courts. They form an integral part of a pan-European Union legal network where domestic courts are increasingly viewed, at least by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EUCJ) as European Courts. Just as national courts are interwoven in this pan-European judicial structure, domestic laws too are interwoven with EU Law with the state under an obligation to give effect to EU law. Interpretation, including resolution of conflicts between domestic and EU norms is the responsibility of national courts. Where interpretation is unclear, the EUCJ can be approached under the preliminary reference procedure, the EUCJ being the sole authoritative interpreter of EU Law. While the role of the EUCJ a-top this pan-European network gives it the unique ability, via its case law, to affect the legislative and policy choices at the national level that relate to EU law, it conversely also has overseen national courts, including those from smaller Member States, playing an unusually significant role in the constitutional developments of the European Union itself
Book review: Private governance: Creating order in economic and social life, by Edward P. Stringham
No full textThe survival of open government platforms: Empirical insights from a global sample
No full textFor a number of years scholars have theorized about a change of paradigm in the collaborative practices between governments and citizens as a result of the newly emerged many-to-many forms of connectivity. A vibrant agenda on open government has flourished since, with critical advances on the conceptual front, but much less empirical testing of its propositions. This article makes use of a recognized typology of co-production initiatives in order to implement a Cox hazards survival analysis of 465 open government platforms from a global sample in 87 countries. Its main findings suggest that government-initiated collaborations have the lowest risk of termination and that citizen-to-government initiatives the highest. They also show that while internationally-exerted pressure for openness favors the genesis of open government platforms, it does not affect their survival chances