Migration and geopolitical preferences

This paper investigates the impact of work experience abroad on migrants’ geopolitical preferences. For this purpose, I analyze representative survey data from Moldova, a country caught in an ideological battle between Russia and the West, with high emigration rates to both destinations. In a first step, I show that return migrants from the West are significantly more likely to support European Union (EU) accession than non-migrants, while return migrants from the East are more likely to support closer ties with Russia, controlling for economic, demographic, and ethnic confounding factors. In a second step, I use district-level variation in migrant networks as an instrument for individual migration. Second-stage regressions show that work experience in the West increases support for EU accession, while no evidence of causal effects is found for work experience in the East. Differences in information exposure and migration policies between the EU and Russia may explain this asymmetry.     

Land grab/data grab: precision agriculture and its new horizons

ABSTRACT

Developments in the area of ‘precision agriculture’ are creating new data points (about flows, soils, pests, climate) that agricultural technology providers ‘grab’, aggregate, compute and/or sell. Food producers now churn out food and, increasingly, data. ‘Land grabs’ on the horizon in the global south are bound up with the dynamics of data grabbing, although hitherto researchers have not revealed enough about the people and projects at issue. Against this backdrop, this paper examines some key issues taking shape, while highlighting new frontiers for research and introducing the concept ‘data sovereignty’, which food sovereignty practitioners (and others) need to begin considering.     

Issues and Actors in African Nonstate Conflicts: A New Data Set

Armed nonstate conflict without the direct involvement of the state government is a common phenomenon. Violence between armed gangs, rebel groups, or communal militias is an important source of instability and has gained increasing scholarly attention. In this article, we introduce a data collection on conflict issues and key actor characteristics in armed nonstate conflicts that provides new opportunities for investigating the causes, dynamics, and consequences of this form of organized violence. The data builds on and extends the Uppsala Conflict Data Program Non-State Conflict data set by introducing additional information on what the actors in the conflict are fighting over, alongside actor characteristics. It covers Africa during the time period 1989–2011. The data set distinguishes between two main categories of issues, territory and authority, in addition to a residual category of other issues. Furthermore, we specify sub-issues within these categories, such as agricultural land/water as sub-issue for territory and religious issues for other issues. As actor characteristics, the data set notes whether warring parties received military support by external actors and whether religion and the mode of livelihood were salient in the mobilization of the armed group. The article presents coding processes, key features of the data set, and point to avenues for new research based on these data.     

This time it was different? The salience of the Spitzenkandidaten system among European parties

The Lisbon Treaty (2009) introduced key institutional changes to increase the relevance of elections to the European Parliament (EP). Among others, major political groups nominated different lead candidates, the so-called Spitzenkandidaten, for the 2014 EP elections. The aim of this article is to investigate how national political parties react to this new institutional setting. Using data from the 2014 Euromanifesto study, the article examines if and under what conditions political parties put emphasis on the Spitzenkandidaten system in their party manifestos and whether they take positive or negative stances when talking about it. The findings reveal that parties put little emphasis on the issue. Moreover, the factors promoting the Spitzenkandidaten system suggest that parties decide strategically upon emphasising that topic or take a positive stance on it if they expect to benefit from this.     

Appeals to the Hispanic Demographic: Targeting through Facebook Autoplay Videos by the Clinton Campaign during the 2015/2016 Presidential Primaries

By looking at the autoplay videos posted and shared on Hillary Clinton’s Facebook account during the 2015 Facebook. 2015. “The Value of Video for Brands.” Webpage Accessed 28 April 2017. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/value-of-video [Google Scholar]/2016 Clinton, H. 2016. “A Special Moment during a Meeting with the Union of Peasants. Yes You Can! Watch the Video. Facebook Status Update.” Retrieved 20 November 2016. https://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton/posts/1090969694292892 [Google Scholar] primary election season, this article offers much needed insight into the communication aspect of campaign targeting. Using data analysis extracted from the leading social media platform, the article examines what groups of Hispanic Facebook users were attracted to Clinton’s targeted autoplay videos, what elements within these videos best enticed these people into liking the videos, and if the Clinton campaign appeared to learn what types of autoplay videos were most effective over the course of the primary season.     

Unemployment and voter turnout revisited: A brief note

This brief study revisits the issue of whether higher unemployment rates elicit an increase in the voter participation rate. Using a state-level panel dataset for all five of the Presidential election cycles of this century, it is hypothesized that, following Cebula (2008) and Burden and Wichowsky (2014), the higher the unemployment rate, the greater the degree to which eligible voters, whether unemployed or employed, show up at the polls, arguably because they are expressing the concerns and fears regarding prevailing economic policies and conditions and because by voting they are expressing the desire for changes to address those concerns and fears. The estimation implies that a one percentage point higher unemployment rate leads to a nearly 1.0% higher voter participation rate. This result is in principle compatible with and supportive of the hypothesis that higher unemployment rates motivate voters and the empirical finding of a positive voter turnout/unemployment rate association obtained in the studies by Cebula (2008) and Burden and Wichowsky (2014). Moreover, this finding is potentially important because it implies that elected officials are, to at least some degree, held accountable by the electorate for a weakly performing economy.     

The counterterrorism agreements of Europol with third countries: Data protection and power asymmetry

This article investigates empirically the impact of power asymmetry and interest formation in the European Union’s (EU) external relations with third countries in the context of the Europol data exchange and counterterrorism agreements. It focuses on three countries, namely the United States, Turkey, and Morocco, which each have a different level of counterterrorism cooperation with the EU. This article argues that the EU acts as a pragmatic actor with regard to Europol’s data exchange agreements with third countries, and that the power asymmetry between the EU and the third country under question determines the extent of the EU’s flexibility. If the power asymmetry favours the EU, then it insists on its data protection demands. Otherwise, the EU is more flexible towards its counterparts on data protection issues.     

人身损害赔偿案件以“一审辩论终结时上一年度的公布数据”确定赔偿计算标准之我见

针对《最高人民法院关于审理人身损害赔偿案件适用法律若干问题的解释》中人身损害赔偿各相关数据按照＂上一年度相关统计数据确定＂的规定,从审判实践出发,分别从＂辩论终结时间＂和＂一审＂这两个关键点分析该标准在实际运用中的不确定性及其所造成的后果,包括增加诉讼成本,对负有赔偿义务的一方当事人不公平以及当事人对案件的结果没有准确预期等,从而提出各相关数据应当以＂事故发生当年度＂公布数据为标准。     

证券公司非现场稽核系统的研究

证券公司从事的是复杂而充满风险的金融活动,必须有一套严密的内部稽核体系。非现场稽核系统目标明确,节约人力和费用,能及时发现错误和弊端,为现场稽核提供线索,使现场稽核能够有目的、有重点的开展。非现场稽核系统的实现途径包括经纪业务等5个子系统,各软件子系统之间接口明确,实现管理和监督功能。     

论电子数据作为证据使用的法律障碍及其解决思路

在科技日益发达的今天,电子商务,作为一种新型的交易形式应运而生,而在发生纠纷时,电子数据能否作为证据,如果成为证据又应当如何确定其证据力、证明力,如何进行质证、认证,适用怎样的审查判断规则,都成为证据学当中研究的新问题。而现行的法律规定不能适应当前司法实践的要求,法律规范明显滞后,这是一个无法回避而又必须加以正视的现实问题。电子数据在现行法律体系下作为证据使用,还存在着一定的法律障碍。各国对解决这一问题都进行了非常有益的探索,我国也从实体和程序上进行了一定的努力,对此,文章从法理基础、证据归类、电子数据的真实性认定以及如何在司法实践中进行最终的审查判断进行了探讨。