A Developmental Approach for Measuring the Severity of Crimes

There is widespread agreement in criminology that some crimes are more severe than others, but precise definitions of crime severity and straightforward methods for measuring it have been elusive. Public perceptions of crime severity and economic estimates of crime costs to society or willingness to pay offer a variety of metrics for the public’s perceptions of severity, but they may not accurately describe severity as reflected in offender preferences. The behavior of offenders is critical for understanding developmental progressions in criminal careers, as one may assume that typically more severe offenses are not undertaken until less severe crimes have been committed. In the present paper we propose an alternative metric of crime severity, drawing on findings from developmental criminology that indicate that more severe crimes occur after less severe crimes in the criminal life course, and a method for estimating crime severity that uses the generalized Bradley–Terry model of multiple paired comparisons. We demonstrate this approach on two samples of youthful offenders: the National Youth Survey and the RAND Adolescent Outcomes Project. The results suggest that sample-specific estimates of crime severity can be derived, that these estimates provide insight into the developmental progression of crime, and that they correspond well to crime severity rankings produced by the public.

Female owners versus female managers: Who is better at introducing innovations?

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper uses firm-level survey for more than 100 countries to examine whether firms’ female managers or female owners were better at bringing...     

Corruption and government size: A disaggregated analysis

Using annual state-level data over 1983–1987, this paper examines the effect of government size on corruption by public officials by including both demand and supply side incentives for engaging in corrupt practices. Our objectives are twofold. First, we assess the relationship between the incidence of corruption and overall measures of the size of the federal government and the state-local sector in each state. Second, we explore what kinds of government activities are more likely to be successful in deterring abuse of public office. Our results are generally supportive of Becker's “crime and punishment” model. Regarding the primary focus of the paper, our results show that government size, in particular spending by state governments, does indeed have a strong positive influence on corruption.     

Corrupt encounters of the fairer sex: female entrepreneurs and their corruption perceptions/experience

The Journal of Technology Transfer - Adding to the research on the corruption and gender nexus, this paper contributes by several dimensions, including: (a) measurement of corruption across...     

Drivers of innovation productivity of academic researchers through career advancement

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper studies the innovation productivity of academic researchers across their career advancement. Taking patents and invention disclosures as indicators...     

Third Worldism and the lineages of global fascism: the regrouping of the global South in the neoliberal era

We come to an analysis of Third Worldism through an historical understanding of the development project, one that locates Third Worldism as a moment in a broader series of resistances both to capital and colonialism, and to the techniques used by the state to maintain hegemony. Viewing Third Worldism in this wider context, we argue, enables us to not only explain the failure of Third Worldism to deliver on its vision of emancipation from colonialism, but to also explain the shape of contemporary resistance to the world capitalist order. We argue that the theory and practice of development depends on a certain biopolitics, rooted in a regime of sovereign state control, and designed to mobilise citizens in ways favourable to capital. We hold that Third Worldism embraced this form of sovereignty and its biopolitics. Further, by blending cultural studies analysis with a Polanyian interpretation of the rise of fascism, we argue that Third Worldism can be situated as a moment in the maturation of ‘global fascism’. Finally, we argue that contemporary resistances to neoliberalism have recognised the complicity of the state with capital. These ‘new internationalisms’ arise from the ashes of Third Worldism, with an altered understanding of ‘sovereignty’ that challenges the trajectory of the Third World sovereign state.     

INDIA’S DEMONETISATION: MODI’S ‘NUDGE’ TO CHANGE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

This article offers an account of the impact of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s decision in November 2016 to withdraw suddenly all Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes from circulation in India with the avowed intent of combatting fraud, tax avoidance and other economic problems. The article assesses the impact from the demonetisation in November to the March 2017 Indian regional elections, where wide-scale victories for Modi’s political party, the BJP, appear to have vindicated his reforms. The article provides an analysis of the political background of the period, as well as looking at the economic and societal impact of the changes, including the way in which the behaviour of Indian citizens has been ‘nudged’ with particular regard to use of banking, transactions, social effects, and payment of tax.     

Foreign direct investment (FDI): friend or foe of non-innovating firms?

The Journal of Technology Transfer - This paper examines the incentives of firms to bypass the innovation process by not pursuing innovation, focusing specifically on whether FDI enables innovation...