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421. Where Will Work Come from in the Era of the Cloud and Big Data?

Author:
John Zysman and Martin Kenney
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
Will the digital revolution, and its current manifestation in Cloud computing and platform-based work, inexorably lead to the elimination of jobs and work due to automation. Are new opportunities for work opening? Should we be thinking in terms of conventional work or is value creation the key? Certainly, nearly all firms are experiencing intense competition leading to commoditization based principally upon price. In the first section of this paper, we explore the pathways opened as cloud computing, transforms the way both goods and services are innovated, produced, and distributed. Production now has two aspects; classically understood manufacturing and ICT-enabled services, activities and virtual goods, both of which can be transformed to escape a commodity trap. As firms in advanced countries seek to sustain advantage in global markets, their efforts alter not only the terms of competition, but the character of work. The second section speculates upon the ways in which the cloud, as a platform, is transforming the nature of work, jobs, and employment. The emergence of cloud-based platforms such as, Airbnb, the Apple app store, Github, Google, LinkedIn, and Uber is redefining the forms and nature of value creation. Paradoxically, given that Google monetizes peoples’ searches, Facebook and LinkedIn monetize posts, Github monetizes open source software creation, and App stores monetize software creations, it is also possible to argue that more value than ever is being created, even while traditional notions of employment are being challenged. This suggests that as a consequence of the implementation of cloud-based strategies; an entirely new category of work organization, which we term, the “Platform Economy” is emerging.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Communications, Labor Issues, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

422. Awaiting the Second Big Data Revolution

Author:
Mark Huberty
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
“Big data” has been heralded as the agent of a third industrial revolution–one with raw materials measured in bits, rather than tons of steel or barrels of oil. Yet the industrial revolution transformed not just how firms made things, but the fundamental approach to value creation in industrial economies. To date, big data has not achieved this distinction. Instead, today’s successful big data business models largely use data to scale old modes of value creation, rather than invent new ones altogether. Moreover, today’s big data cannot deliver the promised revolution. In this way, today’s big data landscape resembles the early phases of the first industrial revolution, rather than the culmination of the second a century later. Realizing the second big data revolution will require fundamentally different kinds of data, different innovations, and different business models than those seen to date. That fact has profound consequences for the kinds of investments and innovations firms must seek, and the economic, political, and social consequences that those innovations portend.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Science and Technology, Communications, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

423. Awaiting the Second Big Data Revolution

Author:
Mark Huberty
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
“Big data” has been heralded as the agent of a third industrial revolution–one with raw materials measured in bits, rather than tons of steel or barrels of oil. Yet the industrial revolution transformed not just how firms made things, but the fundamental approach to value creation in industrial economies. To date, big data has not achieved this distinction. Instead, today’s successful big data business models largely use data to scale old modes of value creation, rather than invent new ones altogether. Moreover, today’s big data cannot deliver the promised revolution. In this way, today’s big data landscape resembles the early phases of the first industrial revolution, rather than the culmination of the second a century later. Realizing the second big data revolution will require fundamentally different kinds of data, different innovations, and different business models than those seen to date. That fact has profound consequences for the kinds of investments and innovations firms must seek, and the economic, political, and social consequences that those innovations portend.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Science and Technology, Communications, and Global Markets
Political Geography:
Global Focus

424. Combatting Cyber Threats: CSIRTs and Fostering International Cooperation on Cybersecurity

Author:
Samantha Bradshaw
Publication Date:
12-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
This paper examines the role of computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) in the emerging cyber regime complex and asks what might be driving the lack of trust and information sharing within the community. ThePow commercialization of cyber security and threat vulnerabilities, the Internet’s development as a new power domain, the growth of the CSIRT community and the emergence of a cyber regime complex are examined as factors that are giving rise to and exacerbating existing problems around information sharing and trust.
Topic:
National Security, Science and Technology, International Security, and Cybersecurity
Political Geography:
Global Focus

425. Global Patent Pledges: A Collaborative Mechanism for Climate Change Technology

Author:
Bassem Awad
Publication Date:
11-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
Access to and timely diffusion of green technologies required for adaptation and mitigation are among the major challenges faced by the international community. The role of the patent system has become the subject of increased attention in climate change discussions on technology transfer. New mechanisms for collaborative innovation are required to foster the green technology sector.
Topic:
Climate Change, Economics, Environment, Markets, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Global Focus

426. Contagion Exposure and Protection Technology

Author:
Deigo Cerdeiro
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
People adopt diverse measures to protect from contagion. I propose a taxonomy of protection technologies, and present a model to study the implications of the technology on the prevalence of infections and on welfare at different levels of exposure. People adopt diverse measures to protect from contagion. I propose a taxonomy of protection technologies, and present a model to study the implications of the technology on the prevalence of infections and on welfare at different levels of exposure. I find that the effect of aggregate exposure on prevalence and on protection inefficiencies depends crucially on the characteristics of the available protection technology. For example, under certain conditions the existence of a vaccine will lead to lower infection rates and smaller welfare costs of decentralization as the society becomes denser. I discuss the implications for disease eradication, the equilibrium consequences of antigenic drift, the desirability of interventions in the absence of universal vaccines, and coordination failures in protection.
Topic:
Health, Science and Technology, Infectious Diseases, and Medicine
Political Geography:
Global Focus

427. Leveraging the network: a stress-test framework based on DebtRank

Author:
Stefano Battiston, Guido Caldarelli, Marco D'Errico, and Stefano Gurciullo
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
We develop a novel stress-test framework to monitor systemic risk in financial systems. The modular structure of the framework allows to accommodate for a variety of shock scenarios, methods to estimate interbank exposures and mechanisms of distress propagation. The main features are as follows. First, estimate and disentangle not only first-round effects(i.e. shock on external assets) and second-round effects (i.e. distress induced in the interbank network), but also a third-round effect induced by possible fire sales. Second, monitor at the same time the impact of shocks on individual or groups of financial institutions as well as their vulnerability to shocks on counterparties or certain asset classes. Third, estimate loss distributions, thus combining network effects with familiar risk measures such as VaR and CVaR. Fourth, in order to do robustness analyses and cope with incomplete data, generate sets of networks of interbank exposures coherent with the total lending and borrowing of each bank. As an illustration, we carry out a stress–test exercise on a dataset of listed European banks over the years 2008-2013. We find that second-round and third-round effects dominate first-round effects, therefore suggesting that most current stress-test frameworks might lead to a severe underestimation of systemic risk.
Topic:
Debt, Science and Technology, Inequality, Finance, and Innovation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

428. Input Diffusion and the Evolution of Production Network

Author:
Vasco Carvalho and Nico Voigtlander
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
The adoption and diffusion of inputs in the production network is at the heart of technological progress. What determines which inputs are initially considered and eventually adopted by innovators? We examine the evolution of input linkages from a network perspective, starting from a stylized model of network formation. The adoption and diffusion of inputs in the production network is at the heart of technological progress. What determines which inputs are initially considered and eventually adopted by innovators? We examine the evolution of input linkages from a network perspective, starting from a stylized model of network formation. Producers direct their search for new inputs along vertical linkages, screening the network neighborhood of existing suppliers to identify potentially useful inputs. A subset of these is then adopted, following a tradeoff between the benefits from input variety and the costs of customizing new inputs. Guided by this framework, we document a novel stylized fact at both the sector and the firm level: producers are more likely to adopt inputs that are already used – directly or indirectly – by their current suppliers. In particular, using disaggregated input-output data, we show that initial network proximity of a sector in 1967 significantly increases the likelihood of adoption throughout the subsequent four decades. A one-standard deviation decrease in network distance is associated with an increase in the adoption probability by one third to one half. Similarly, U.S. firms are significantly more likely to develop new input linkages among their suppliers’ network neighborhood. Our results imply that the existing production network plays a crucial role in the diffusion of inputs and the evolution of technology.
Topic:
Economics, Science and Technology, Microeconomics, and Emerging Technology
Political Geography:
Global Focus

429. Las armas biológicas. Perspectivas de futuro

Author:
Nieva Machín
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
La valoración de bajo riesgo de sufrir un ataque con armas biológicas realizada por la estrategia nacional de seguridad resulta errónea ya que España como miembro de la OTAN debería recoger en su estrategia nacional de seguridad del año 2013 esta amenaza ya considerada como tal por la OTAN en el año 2002. Para una valoración efectiva del nivel de esta amenaza resulta preciso considerar que esta ha trascendido el ámbito militar. En el presente artículo se presentará la vulnerabilidad de España derivaba de las políticas y protocolos de seguridad de carácter reactivo y no preventivo establecidas en España así como aspectos mutidimensionales que requieren un replanteamiento y mejoras acordes a una valoración de riesgo más precisa.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Science and Technology, Terrorism, Treaties and Agreements, Chemical Weapons, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotechnology
Political Geography:
Europe, Spain, and Global Focus

430. Primer: Support Technologies for Human Rights Lawyers

Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
This study looks at the place that technologies may have in helping human rights lawyers work most effectively. It looks at three classes of technologies: 1. Case and practice management tools, for managing the day­to­day flow of information around a case, such as the exchange of documents, task management and dates. 2. E­Discovery tools for digitizing, organizing and reviewing collections of documents, data or other material that could be evidence in a case. 3. Investigation and case building tools for organizing and analyzing the facts of a case or group of cases, providing visual overviews on maps, network charts and timelines. The goal is to provide an understanding of the problems that the available tools target, a framework for thinking about how these technologies may fit into to your work, and a good understanding of the costs involved.
Topic:
Human Rights, Science and Technology, Law, Digital Policy, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus