More Bang for the Buck: Media Coverage of Suicide Attacks

ABSTRACT

This paper provides empirical evidence that suicide attacks systematically draw more media attention than non-suicide terrorist attacks. Analyzing 60,341 terrorist attack days in 189 countries from 1970 to 2012, I introduce a methodology to proxy for the media coverage each one of these attack days receives in the New York Times. Suicide attacks are associated with significantly more coverage. In the most complete regression, one suicide attack produces an additional 0.6 articles—a magnitude equivalent to the effect of 95 terrorism casualties. This link remains robust to including a comprehensive list of potentially confounding factors, fixed effects, and country-specific time trends. The effect is reproduced for alternative print and television outlets (BBC, Reuters, CNN, NBC, CBS), but remains weak for Google Trends (worldwide and in the U.S.), a more direct proxy for people’s interests, and is non-existent for C-SPAN, a television station dedicated to broadcasting political discussions directly. Thus, the media appears to cover suicide missions in an extraordinary fashion, which may in turn explain their prominence among terrorist organizations.     

Towards the Law &; Economics of development: Ragnar Nurkse (1907–1959)

The purpose of this essay is, first, to suggest Ragnar Nurkse as a Law & Economics thinker, and second, yet more importantly, to demonstrate the possibility and desirability of a Law & Economics of Development along Nurksean lines. Ragnar Nurkse (1907–1959), whose 100th birthday is celebrated in 2007, is one of the founding fathers of classic development economics. Given the recent interest in the Law & Economics of development, showing how a classic figure in the field successfully used such an approach might be of considerable interest, especially as development economics is a very emotional field which may well profit from the ‘objectivizing’ function of Law & Economics. Nurkse’s economics-based realism, his focus on what effect a program really has, rather than what it is supposed to have, and on what a policy can steer or change and what not, based on a typically Stiglerian attention to aggregate welfare, seem especially productive. Finally, the essay suggests a set of Nurkse-based principles or theses for a Law & Economics of Development.

中国转轨经济的特点与成功探索--兼论中国学人向诺贝尔经济学奖冲刺的突破口

中国共产党人把社会主义公有制与市场经济结合起来的成功探索,是旷世未有的伟大的制度创举,是中国转轨经济成功的关键,也是中国转轨经济的本质特征,是中国特色转轨经济学和社会主义经济学对当代世界的巨大贡献,因而必将是中国学人向诺贝尔经济学奖冲刺的突破口。     

Identification and analyses of female civilian victims of the 1991 war in Croatia from the Glina and Petrinja areas

Introduction

The process of recovering and identifying human remains from individual and mass graves has proven to be the most effective method of resolving the fate of missing individuals in the former Yugoslavia. These efforts have two primary objectives: medicolegal—to identify the cause of death, and humanitarian—to bring closure to living family members, thus supporting the human rights of both the living and the deceased. From 1996 to the present, the remains of 388 individuals killed during the 1991 War in Croatia were recovered from the Glina and Petrinja areas (Sisa?ko–Moslova?ka County). The purpose of this paper is to report on the demographic and taphonomic characteristics of the recovered remains, and identify factors responsible for the discrepancy in the identification ratios.

Methods

To identify factors potentially responsible for the noted discrepancy, data were collected on the taphonomic characteristics of the recovered remains, the types of burials, as well as the factors responsible for positive identification. These factors included: forensic DNA testing, dental criteria, special signs (healed fractures, etc.), clothing and personal artifacts.

Results

The age distributions between males and females in the sample are significantly different. The mean age-at-death for males is 51.6 years, for females 67.0 years. In both sexes the majority of identifications (62.9% in females and 45.9% in males) were established through a combination of biological and non-biological features. In terms of the types of graves from which the bodies were recovered, positive identification in both sexes was lowest in mass graves (61.2% for males, and 84.2% for females). Females from mass graves were, however, better preserved than males—36.6% of males recovered from mass graves were completely skeletonized, while the same was true for only 19.3% of females (χ² = 7.06, P < 0.029). Completely skeletonized remains were identified in only 65.1% of cases, while partially skeletonized and saponified bodies were identified in 80.1% of cases.

Conclusion

Since positive identification in both sexes is strongly correlated with preservation of the bodies, the reason why female identification frequencies in the Glina and Petrinja regions are higher than male frequencies lies in the fact that females recovered from mass graves were better preserved than males recovered from mass graves. Identification of the factors responsible for this is a challenge that needs to be resolved in future studies.     

Religious market structure and democratic performance: Clientelism

Is there a connection between government intervention in religious competition and partisan clientelism in democratic systems? Drawing on the economics of religion, we argue that alongside commonly examined population-level religious processes (religious diversity), state-level religious processes (government regulation of competition in the religious market) affect institutional performance in electoral democracies. Linking comparative indicators of religion-state relations with measures of partisan clientelism, statistical analysis suggests that uncompetitive religious markets, such as those where a dominant religion is sponsored by the state, create incentives, infrastructures and opportunities that favour clientelism. The study emphasises the importance of light-touch regulation of religion not merely as a normative principle narrowly related to religious freedom, but also as a potential remedy that can enhance the quality of political institutions.     

经济适用房存在的必要性分析——基于福利经济学与人性假设理论的解释

运用福利经济学、人性假设理论，对经济适用房实现资本循环、拉动内需等方面的作用进行论述；运用人性假设理论，对住房保障对象的心里需求进行分析。经济适用房能够实现在为保障对象提供社会住房福利的同时，使投资于福利事业的结果给社会带来更大的收益；并且充分尊重和保护了保障对象的福利选择权益。因此经济适用房是我国住房保障体系中不可或缺的一部分。     

灾难新闻积极性效果的多层次分析

灾难新闻是新闻报道中较为敏感的门类,给人们增加警惕与防范意识,现阶段虽已得到加强,但报道过程中仍有不少障碍和限制,并使公众知情权受到损害。传媒对灾难危机所持的立场应代表社会的公正性,不能漠视公众知情权的满足,应努力披露事实,促进事态妥善解决;发挥警示作用,使公众认知灾难;提供信息情报,发挥决策借鉴与防灾减灾的作用;思考道德、人性、价值等观念,延伸社会意义;适应和促进媒体竞争的发展,积极营造更大的社会效果。     

PIGS or not? Economic voting in Southern Europe

Economic voting has been little studied in the nations of Southern Europe. Here we examine economic voting in the Southern European countries of Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Greece – the PIGS. Through the analysis of a large, ten European nation survey pool, we establish that economic voting exists in the PIGS, with a strength that significantly exceeds that in non-PIGS of Northern Europe. The explanation for such a difference, we suggest, lies in the generally less complex governing coalitions and the poorer economic performance that characterize these Southern European nations. This relatively greater strength of the economic vote in the PIGS implies their electorates will hold government tightly accountable for management of the ongoing economic crises they face.     

当前形势下促进山东省农民持续增收的对策思考

改革开放30年来，山东省农民收入迅速增加，生活质量显著改善，农村经济社会持续保持了良好发展态势。但是，在当前国际金融危机持续蔓延的复杂严峻形势下，国内经济环境也随之不断恶化，这无疑会对提高我省农民收入水平带来不利影响，出现的新困难与历史形成的老问题互相叠加，保持农业稳定发展、农民持续增收的难度明显加大。为了有效应对当前的不利形势，必须创新促进农民收入持续增长的思路，从而保证我省农村经济的持续健康发展和农村社会的稳定。     

我国居民储蓄动机的实证研究

经济学家很早就对“人们为什么储蓄”进行了理论探讨。用1998年到2004年的季度数据对我国居民的储蓄动机进行实证分析得出的结论是:该期间人均可支配收入、利率、房屋销售价格是影响居民储蓄的主要因素,而物价变动、股票收益等为次要影响因素。从而验证了西方经济学家关于“人们的储蓄受到收入、利率的替代效应和收入效应、预防性动机等因素影响”的理论。我国居民储蓄过度,政府应对此加以引导和控制。