Migrant smuggling and the violence question: evolving illicit migration markets for Cuban and Haitian refugees

Comparing Cuban and Haitian migrant smuggling schemes, this article explores the relationship between violence and the social organization of migrant smuggling, including the smuggling of refugees. Levels of violence, political repression, and ethnic persecution in sending states provide an important context for understanding the origins and organization of this illicit market. Examining the violent threats and acts directed at migrants en route, we argue that violence is not a necessary part of the illicit market for unauthorized migration, attenuated by the social networks, cultural norms, and contractual relationships in which it is embedded.

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The rank,stock, order and epidemic effects of technology adoption: an empirical study of bounce protection programs

Karshenas and Stoneman (RAND J Econ 24(4):503–528, 1993) gathered four theories of technology adoption: the rank, stock, order and epidemic effects. Tests of these four effects reveal support for rank and epidemic but not the stock or order effects. Since then numerous other studies have tried to find evidence in support of the stock and order effects. But evidence has been elusive, until now. Further, a survey by Frame and White (J Econ Lit 42:116–144, 2004) concludes that much more work is needed into financial innovation. This paper accomplishes three goals: (1) evidence is found to support certain technology adoption theories (the order effects and possibly the stock effects), (2) since the technology under consideration is a financial innovation called bounce protection, the paper answers Frame and White’s call for papers, and (3) refinements are made to the Karshenas and Stoneman methodology and found to be superior to the original empirical model.

Death, dying, and domination

This Article critiques conventional liberal arguments for the right to die on liberal grounds. It contends that these arguments do not go far enough to recognize and address private, and in particular structural, forms of domination. It presents an alternative that does, which is thus more respectful of true freedom in the context of death and dying, and also more consistent with liberalism. After discussing obstacles to the achievement of a right to die that encompasses freedom from both public and private domination, the Article closes with a significant reform project within bioethics that might help bring it about.     

Forensic utility of the mitochondrial hypervariable region 1 of domestic dogs, in conjunction with breed and geographic information

The 608-bp hypervariable region 1 (HV1) sequences from 36 local dogs were analyzed to characterize the population genetic structure of canid mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Sixteen haplotypes were identified. A 417-bp segment of this sequence was compared with GenBank sequences from a geographically representative sample of 201 dogs, two coyotes, and two wolves. Sixty-six haplotypes were identified including 62 found only in domestic dogs. Fourteen of these correspond to the 16 local haplotypes and were among the most frequent haplotypes. The local sample was judged to be representative of the much broader geographic sample. No correlation was observed between local haplotypes and the owner's characterization of dog breed. A 60-bp variation "hotspot" within the canid HV1 was identified as a potentially valuable molecular tool, particularly for assaying limited or degraded DNA samples.     

Improving public services by mining citizen feedback: An application of natural language processing

Research on user satisfaction has increased substantially in recent years. To date, most studies have tested the significance of predefined factors thought to influence user satisfaction, with no scalable means of verifying the validity of their assumptions. Digital technology has created new methods of collecting user feedback where service users post comments. As topic models can analyse large volumes of feedback, they have been proposed as a feasible approach to aggregating user opinions. This novel approach has been applied to process reviews of primary care practices in England. Findings from an analysis of more than 200,000 reviews show that the quality of interactions with staff and bureaucratic exigencies are the key drivers of user satisfaction. In addition, patient satisfaction is strongly influenced by factors that are not measured by state-of-the-art patient surveys. These results highlight the potential benefits of text mining and machine learning for public administration.     

Talking the talk,but not walking the walk: A comparison of self-reported and observed prosocial behaviour

The claim that Public Service Motivation (PSM) is an antecedent of prosocial behaviour has often been empirically tested and supported. However, closer inspection of this literature reveals large disparities in relating the two constructs. One reason that could explain such differences is that the relationship between PSM and prosocial behaviours has been primarily tested using self-reported cross-sectional, single-rater and same-survey data. While all of these are widely used methodological approaches in social sciences, they are also susceptible to potential biases. We conduct two comparative studies to re-examine this relationship. Study 1 utilizes self-reported cross-sectional, single-rater and same-survey data linking PSM and prosocial behaviour, revealing a positive relationship with PSM's Compassion dimension. Study 2 involves observing actual prosocial behaviour in a real-life setting. Then, the correlation between PSM and prosocial behaviour disappears. We conclude by discussing the possible reasons that could lead to the differences found across the two studies.     

Party Competition and Government Formation in Germany: Business as Usual or New Patterns?

The process of coalition formation following the 2017 Bundestag election was the most difficult in German post-war history. For the first time, Germany saw negotiations fail, a minority government being discussed as a real possibility, and the federal president involved as formateur in coalition politics. The aim of this contribution is to explain why government formation was so intricate after the 2017 election. To this end, we trace patterns of party politics and the development of the German party system since 2013. We then study general patterns of government formation at the regional and national levels since the 1990s and evaluate whether these have changed with the advent of the right-wing populist party, Alternative for Germany. Our analysis of the 2017–2018 government formation is based on a novel expert survey of the policy profiles of German parties on various issue dimensions, conducted in 2017. The results show that the continuation of the incumbent coalition government of Christian and Social Democrats was the most likely outcome, and that the Social Democrats were indeed able to enforce a surpassing share of their policy positions in the final negotiation rounds.