| 1. |
- Jackson, David, 1973-
(author)
-
Enforcing Social Norms : How Economics Shapes Reputation and Social Punishment
- 2024
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis investigates how the economic environment shapes levels of trust and cooperation and the nature of norm enforcement. The idea that many social norms can be understood as an effective response to challenges presented by the economic and ecological environment has significant empirical support. However, few theoretical models study this relationship in detail.Many existing models of reputation are driven by imperfect information. However, information frictions are often assumed rather than derived. The first paper 'Reputation on Networks', uses a network model to investigate how the structure of a communication network affects the value of reputation. The results suggest an inverted U-shaped relationship between trust and the level of clustering in a network. High levels of clustering limit the number of potential partners agents have access to and lower the value of reputation. While, when networks become too open trust is undermined because agents become information gatekeepers for their reputation.The second paper 'Reputation, Punishment and the Informal Enforcement of Norms', looks at informal enforcement when reputation and costly social punishment are considered within the same framework. The results suggest a complementary relationship between these two forms of social punishment. Because reputation leverages a third-party punishment threat over many future interactions, the mechanism provides a novel and compelling explanation of costly third-party and altruistic punishment. Unlike other models, the theory provides predictions about the overall intensity of social punishment and how this varies with the combined package of behaviours a community regulates using social norms.The third paper 'Ingroup Norms and Relation Specific Punishment', considers when agents can maintain or renegotiate trust with a defector, either bilaterally or within an identifiable group. These agents will adopt an ingroup norm such that members who defect outside the group are still trusted within it. The results detail when agents are individually motivated to punish their friends and ingroup members to support reputation-based trust beyond the group. The analysis provides a novel explanation for ingroup bias and details the conditions for inter-group trust and where relation-specific or ingroup norms will be adopted over universal ones.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
- Baltrunaite, Audinga, 1985-
(author)
-
Political Economics of Special Interests and Gender
- 2016
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Political Finance Reform and Public Procurement: Evidence from Lithuania. Can political donations buy influence? This paper studies whether firms trade political contributions for public procurement contracts. To answer this question, I focus on the Lithuanian political economy. Combining data on a large number of government tenders, the universe of corporate donors and firm characteristics, I examine how a ban on corporate donations affects the awarding of procurement contracts to companies that donated in the past. Consistent with political favoritism, contributing firms’ probability of winning goes down by five percentage points as compared to that of non-donor firms after the ban. Among different mechanisms, the hypothesis that corporate donors get confidential information on competing bids prevails. The empirical results are in line with predictions from a first-price sealed-bid auction model with one informed bidder. Evidence on firm bidding and victory margins suggests that contributing firms adjust their bids in order to secure contracts at a maximum revenue. I assess that tax payers save almost one percent of GDP thanks to the reform.Gender Quotas and the Quality of Politicians. We analyze the effects of the introduction of gender quotas in candidate lists on the quality of elected politicians, as measured by the average number of years of education. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation. We find that gender quotas are associated with an increase in the quality of elected politicians, with the effect ranging from 0.12 to 0.24 years of education. This effect is due not only to the higher number of elected women, who are on average more educated than men, but also to the lower number of low-educated elected men. The positive effect on quality is confirmed when we measure the latter with alternative indicators, it persists in the long run and it is robust to controlling for political ideology and political competition.Affirmative Action and the Power of the Elderly. There is evidence that age matters in politics. In this article we study whether implementation of affirmative action policies on gender can generate additional effects on an alternative dimension of representation, namely, the age of politicians. We consider an Italian law which introduced gender quotas in candidate lists for local elections in 1993, and was abolished in 1995. As not all municipalities went through elections during this period, we can identify two groups of municipalities and use a difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the effect of gender quotas on the age of elected politicians. We find that gender quotas are associated with election of politicians that are younger by more than one year. The effect occurs mainly due to the reduction in age of elected male politicians and is consistent with the optimizing behavior of parties or of voters.Let the Voters Choose Women. Female under-representation in politics can be the result of parties' selection of candidates and/or of voters’ electoral preferences. To assess the impact of these two channels, we exploit the introduction of Italian Law 215/2013, which prescribes both gender quotas on candidate lists and double preference voting conditioned on gender. Using a regression discontinuity design, we estimate that the law increases the share of elected female politicians by 22 percentage points. The result is driven by the increase in preference votes cast for female candidates, suggesting a salient role of double preference voting in promoting female empowerment in politics.
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
- Bergström, Göran, et al.
(author)
-
Self-report tool for identification of individuals with coronary atherosclerosis : the Swedish cardiopulmonary bioimage study
- 2024
-
In: Journal of the American Heart Association. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2047-9980. ; 13:14
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Coronary atherosclerosis detected by imaging is a marker of elevated cardiovascular risk. However, imaging involves large resources and exposure to radiation. The aim was, therefore, to test whether nonimaging data, specifically data that can be self-reported, could be used to identify individuals with moderate to severe coronary atherosclerosis.METHODS AND RESULTS: We used data from the population-based SCAPIS (Swedish CardioPulmonary BioImage Study) in individuals with coronary computed tomography angiography (n=25 182) and coronary artery calcification score (n=28 701), aged 50 to 64 years without previous ischemic heart disease. We developed a risk prediction tool using variables that could be assessed from home (self-report tool). For comparison, we also developed a tool using variables from laboratory tests, physical examinations, and self-report (clinical tool) and evaluated both models using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, external validation, and benchmarked against factors in the pooled cohort equation. The self-report tool (n=14 variables) and the clinical tool (n=23 variables) showed high-to-excellent discriminative ability to identify a segment involvement score ≥4 (area under the curve 0.79 and 0.80, respectively) and significantly better than the pooled cohort equation (area under the curve 0.76, P<0.001). The tools showed a larger net benefit in clinical decision-making at relevant threshold probabilities. The self-report tool identified 65% of all individuals with a segment involvement score ≥4 in the top 30% of the highest-risk individuals. Tools developed for coronary artery calcification score ≥100 performed similarly.CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a self-report tool that effectively identifies individuals with moderate to severe coronary atherosclerosis. The self-report tool may serve as prescreening tool toward a cost-effective computed tomography-based screening program for high-risk individuals.
|
|
| 7. |
- Bergström, Göran, et al.
(author)
-
Self-Report Tool for Identification of Individuals With Coronary Atherosclerosis : The Swedish CardioPulmonary BioImage Study
-
In: Journal of the American Heart Association. - 2047-9980. ; , s. 1-13
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Coronary atherosclerosis detected by imaging is a marker of elevated cardiovascular risk. However, imaging involves large resources and exposure to radiation. The aim was, therefore, to test whether nonimaging data, specifically data that can be self-reported, could be used to identify individuals with moderate to severe coronary atherosclerosis.METHODS AND RESULTS: We used data from the population-based SCAPIS (Swedish CardioPulmonary BioImage Study) in individuals with coronary computed tomography angiography (n=25 182) and coronary artery calcification score (n=28 701), aged 50 to 64 years without previous ischemic heart disease. We developed a risk prediction tool using variables that could be assessed from home (self-report tool). For comparison, we also developed a tool using variables from laboratory tests, physical examinations, and self-report (clinical tool) and evaluated both models using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, external validation, and benchmarked against factors in the pooled cohort equation. The self-report tool (n=14 variables) and the clinical tool (n=23 variables) showed high-to-excellent discriminative ability to identify a segment involvement score ≥4 (area under the curve 0.79 and 0.80, respectively) and significantly better than the pooled cohort equation (area under the curve 0.76, P<0.001). The tools showed a larger net benefit in clinical decision-making at relevant threshold probabilities. The self-report tool identified 65% of all individuals with a segment involvement score ≥4 in the top 30% of the highest-risk individuals. Tools developed for coronary artery calcification score ≥100 performed similarly. CONCLUSIONS: We have developed a self-report tool that effectively identifies individuals with moderate to severe coronary atherosclerosis. The self-report tool may serve as prescreening tool toward a cost-effective computed tomography-based screening program for high-risk individuals.
|
|
| 8. |
- Briers, David, et al.
(author)
-
Laser speckle contrast imaging: theoretical and practical limitations
- 2013
-
In: Journal of Biomedical Optics. - : Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). - 1083-3668 .- 1560-2281. ; 18:6
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- When laser light illuminates a diffuse object, it produces a random interference effect known as a speckle pattern. If there is movement in the object, the speckles fluctuate in intensity. These fluctuations can provide information about the movement. A simple way of accessing this information is to image the speckle pattern with an exposure time longer than the shortest speckle fluctuation time scale-the fluctuations cause a blurring of the speckle, leading to a reduction in the local speckle contrast. Thus, velocity distributions are coded as speckle contrast variations. The same information can be obtained by using the Doppler effect, but producing a two-dimensional Doppler map requires either scanning of the laser beam or imaging with a high-speed camera: laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) avoids the need to scan and can be performed with a normal CCD- or CMOS-camera. LSCI is used primarily to map flow systems, especially blood flow. The development of LSCI is reviewed and its limitations and problems are investigated. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
|
|
| 9. |
- Bryhn, Andreas, et al.
(author)
-
Fisk- och skaldjursbestånd i hav och sötvatten 2020 : Resursöversikt
- 2021
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I rapporten kan du ta del av bedömningen som görs av situationen för bestånd som regleras inom ramen för EU:s gemensamma fiskeripolitik (GFP). Bedömningarna baseras på det forskningssamarbete och den rådgivning som sker inom det Internationella Havsforskningsrådet (ICES). Totalt redovisas underlag och råd för 48 fisk- och skaldjursarter.De bestånd som förvaltas nationellt baseras på de biologiska underlagen, och rådgivningen i huvudsak på den forskning och övervakning samt analys som bedrivs av Institutionen för akvatiska resurser vid Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU Aqua) samt yrkesfiskets rapportering.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
