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31. Heterogeneous consumer preferences for product quality and uncertainty

Author:
Wolfgang Maennig and Steffen Mueller
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Chair for Economic Policy, University of Hamburg
Abstract:
We provide evidence for heterogeneous consumer preferences for product quality and game outcome uncertainty (GOU) in Major League Baseball. Using attendance data from 2013 to 2019, we explore func-tional data clustering techniques to detect common patterns in predictive margins of team-specific win-ning probability. As a central result, we identify five groups of teams with similar GOU effects. However, only a few teams’ fans show GOU preferences that resemble the typical hump-shape that is postulated by the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis; the largest cluster is comprised of teams with fans whose at-tendance behavior is relatively insensitive to differences in GOU.
Topic:
Economics, Data, Consumer Behavior, and Uncertainty
Political Geography:
Global Focus

32. Towards efficient information sharing in network markets

Author:
Georgios Petropoulous, Bertin Martens, Marshall Van Alstyne, and Geoffrey Parker
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Bruegel
Abstract:
Digital platforms facilitate interactions between consumers and merchants that allow collection of profiling information, which drives innovation and welfare. Private incentives, however, lead to information asymmetries resulting in market failures both on-platform, among merchants, and off-platform, among competing platforms. This paper develops two product-differentiation models to study private and social incentives to share information within and between platforms. We show that there is scope for ex-ante regulation of mandatory data sharing that improves social welfare better than competing interventions, such as barring entry, break-up, forced divestiture or limiting recommendation steering. These alternate proposals do not make efficient use of information. We argue that the location of data access matters and develop a regulatory framework that introduces a new data right for platform users, the in-situ data right, which is associated with positive welfare gains. By construction, this right enables effective sharing of information together with its context, without reducing the value created by network effects. It also enables regulatory oversight but limits data privacy leakages. We discuss crucial elements of its implementation in order to achieve innovation-friendly and competitive digital markets.
Topic:
Markets, Science and Technology, Data, and Information
Political Geography:
Global Focus

33. Diving Deeper: Under the surface of Intermediary Funding

Author:
Global Philanthropy Project (GPP)
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Global Philanthropy Project (GPP)
Abstract:
Diving Deeper: Under the surface of Intermediary funding data compares data on different types of intermediaries in order to provide greater understanding to the field about how, where, and to whom intermediaries are distributing resources. The brief also examines how government, multilateral, and private foundation funders partner with intermediaries to support global LGBTI rights and development.
Topic:
Development, Human Rights, LGBT+, Data, Philanthropy, and Funding
Political Geography:
Global Focus

34. Diving Deeper: Under the Surface of Embassy Funding

Author:
Global Philanthropy Project (GPP)
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Global Philanthropy Project (GPP)
Abstract:
Diving Deeper: Under the surface of LGBTI embassy funding data examines the extent to which embassies are providing resources for local LGBTI movements, the types of organizations and issues that are supported, as well as best practice examples. At a time when major development assistance streams supporting LGBTI issues are being stretched and in some instances reduced, and when LGBTI organizations face funding shortages, this brief provides government donors and other advocates with evidence about how embassy funding can be used to support and strengthen local movements.
Topic:
Development, LGBT+, Data, Funding, and Embassies
Political Geography:
Global Focus

35. Civil War Violence and Refugee Outflows

Author:
Andrew Shaver
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC)
Abstract:
Conflict forces millions of individuals from their homes each year. Using a simple structural model and new refugee data, we produce the first set of estimates relating outflows to annual conflict magnitudes. The theory underlying the structural model implies that standard panel data approaches will underestimate the impact of conflict violence, by differencing out the effect of prior and expected levels of violence on the decisions to flee. We estimate that whereas a shock that doubles conflict deaths in one year increases outflows in that year by 40% on average, doubling conflict deaths in all years increases annual outflows by 100%. We further estimate an average of 30 refugees per conflict death (median 18), with higher rates for conflicts closer to an OECD country and possibly for ethnic wars and in lower income countries. The analysis illustrates a broader methodological point: It can be hazardous to try to identify a causal effect using shocks to a presumed causal factor if the outcome variable is the result of decisions based not only on shocks but also on levels.
Topic:
Political Violence, Civil War, Refugee Issues, Refugees, Refugee Crisis, Data, Armed Conflict, and Models
Political Geography:
Global Focus

36. Data Science Teams: Evolution of the Full-Contact Sport

Author:
Colleen McCue and Brandon Daigle
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Fletcher Security Review
Institution:
The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Abstract:
No one today questions whether data science can confer competitive advantage to organizations effectively adopting these capabilities. Considerable attention has been paid to technology, talent, and training as organizations attempt to build data science programs in an effort to convert aspiration to practice; moving from simply counting and reporting what happened to datainformed prediction and prescription. As understanding of the various and specific data science roles has evolved, talent development, management, and leadership are emerging as new frontiers. Organizations now work to create data science capacity where effective and responsible use of advanced analytics makes the whole truly more than a sum of the parts. Organizations increasingly recognize data science as a “must have” capability and are scrambling to recruit and hire data science talent. Data literacy programs are also proliferating given growing empirical research demonstrating the importance of upskilling across the organization in order to optimize data science talent and efforts. At the same time, the community is moving away from the data science “unicorn” concept in favor of a data science ecosystem. This is built through aggregation and assembly of complementary data science skill sets in support of meaningful, scalable, and sustainable breadth and depth of capacity. The challenge many organizations now face is how to organize and manage this disparate yet complementary talent? While the data science Venn Diagram has become ubiquitous, recent analysis suggests we are actually looking at something with far greater complexity and depth– more akin to a data science “tapestry” where unique data science capabilities and roles are intricately interwoven across the enterprise.297 Although aesthetically appealing, the tapestry construct is inherently static. Experience increasingly suggests that fixed data science resource allocation constructs are inflexible and even brittle; breaking in response to rapid evolution or change. Moreover, fixed or otherwise inflexible organizational constructs may have limited capacity to adjust on the fly to address unanticipated challenges and opportunity alike. What is needed, therefore, is data science capacity that is relatively fluid, agile and dynamic. It should be able to rapidly pivot in response to changing conditions, including unforeseen shortcomings or failures, while also setting the conditions to fully capitalize on unexpected windfalls in support of true competitive advantage. With this evolving understanding of high-performing data teams, we propose that analytically competitive organizations actually operationalize data science as something closer to a full-contact team sport where no one rides the bench.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Leadership, Data, and Management
Political Geography:
Global Focus

37. A “Hidden Front” in the Battle Against COVID-19: How Behavioral Data is Helping Contain the Pandemic and Improve Policy

Author:
Paul von Chamier and Neil Martin
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
COVID-19 has provided a sharp reminder of the key role citizens’ perceptions and attitudes play in shaping the outcomes of public policy. This experience is changing the way governments use data to combat the pandemic and set priorities for the recovery.
Topic:
Health, Recovery, Data, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

38. TESEV Interviews: Data Sharing for Urban Governance Part 2

Author:
Rob Kitchin
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
With the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNS), the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) has been running the program titled “Supporting Sustainable Cities” since 2016. This year’s project is designed to highlight the need for effective networks that connect key actors for maintaining a workable “data-ecosystem”. In order to bring expert opinion to the discussion, TESEV has conducted a video interview with Prof. Rob Kitchin of Maynooth University with the aim of producing a series of short clips providing key insights. Having served as the principal investigator in the project that gave rise to the Dublin Dashboard among numerous other data initiatives that he led, and as a widely published scholar in open data and data-ecosystems, Kitchin’s comments serve as a guide for potential models of partnership to build effective data-ecosystems. Key pieces of information from our interview are presented in this eight-part mini-series. Part 2: Given that different institutions may be storing data in various formats, and the fact that some data may not always be shared as open-data, how did you manage the sharing of data among the partners involved? Did you run into bureaucratic or other difficulties in acquiring data?
Topic:
Governance, Urbanization, Urban, Sustainability, Data, and Digital Policy
Political Geography:
Turkey and Global Focus

39. NATO and 5G: what strategic lessons?

Author:
Andrea Gilli
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
NATO Defense College
Abstract:
Thanks to their higher speed, larger data volume, lower latency, and capacity to sustain very high density connections (including machine-to-machine communications), 5G networks are set to unleash a major economic revolution, potentially adding trillions of dollars to the global economy (at least according to recent forecasts). From smart cities to Artificial Intelligence (AI); telemedicine to driverless cars; virtual reality to the Internet of Things (IoT); Industry 4.0 to all manner of applications that will comprise this new ecosystem, 5G ushers in enormous opportunities. 5G communications still require significant investments, both for research and development of key technologies, and for building the supporting infrastructure. Moreover, the next generation of telecommunications raises several important questions about the political economy of spectrum allocation and standard definition, their military applications, the role of Chinese companies and the attendant cybersecurity risks. These are all relevant topics for NATO from which the Alliance can draw some strategic lessons.
Topic:
NATO, Military Strategy, Data, 5G, and Internet of Things
Political Geography:
Europe, North America, and Global Focus

40. Assessing Asia: Sub-Saharan Africa Global Value Chain Linkages

Author:
Heiwai Tang, Douglas Zhihua Zeng, and Albert Zeufack
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Abstract:
This paper studies the relationship between Asia’s economic engagements in Africa and individual African nations’ participation in global value chains (GVC) over the past two decades. We find that while overall exports from Africa to Asia are still highly concentrated in resource-intensive sectors, a few African countries have exploited the emerging opportunities to diversify export portfolios through exporting to Asia. Each African nation has a distinct main trade partner in Asia, in contrast to the common view that China has become the dominant trade partner of most African nations. Using a panel data set for 46 African countries over 16 years from 2000 and 2015, we find that exports to Asia are positively correlated with exports to the rest of the world, suggesting that in contrast to trade diversion, trade with Asia complements exports to other countries. Asian economic engagement in the continent is associated with countries’ exports “moving up the value chain”, as measured by the upstreamness index proposed by Antras et al. (2012). However, such process was accompanied by a reduction in the length of their production chains, implying that fewer stages and countries are now involved in the production of exported goods.
Topic:
Development, International Political Economy, Natural Resources, Partnerships, Exports, Trade, Global Value Chains, and Data
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, and Global Focus