Convex risk measures for the aggregation of multiple information sources and applications in insurance

We propose a novel class of convex risk measures, based on the concept of the Fréchet mean, designed in order to handle uncertainty which arises from multiple information sources regarding the risk factors of interest. The proposed risk measures robustly characterize the exposure of the firm, by filtering out appropriately the partial information available in individual sources into an aggregate model for the risk factors of interest. Importantly, the proposed risks can be expressed in closed analytic forms allowing for interesting qualitative interpretations as well as comparative statics and thus facilitate their use in the everyday risk management process of the insurance firms. The potential use of the proposed risk measures in insurance is illustrated by two concrete applications, capital risk allocation and premia calculation under uncertainty.     

Ethnic discrimination in hiring,labour market tightness and the business cycle - evidence from field experiments

Several studies using observational data suggest that ethnic discrimination increases in downturns of the economy. We investigate whether ethnic discrimination depends on labour market tightness using data from correspondence studies. We utilize three correspondence studies of the Swedish labour market and two different measures of labour market tightness. These two measures produce qualitatively similar results, and, opposite to the observational studies, suggest that ethnic discrimination in hiring decreases in downturns of the economy.     

Does e-government performance actually boost citizen use? Evidence from European countries

For many years, it was believed that higher-performing e-government features would boost citizen use of e-services. However, this straightforward proposition had never been tested. Using a survey of over 28,000 citizens across 32 European countries, we examined the effect of e-government performance on citizen use. Theoretically, a better-designed and maintained government website should be used more, but it was reject by multilevel model estimates. We found that performance was negatively related to citizen use of e-information and e-services, while e-participation use was insignificant. The implications of our findings on future efforts to increase the uptake of e-government are also discussed.     

Assessing strategic flight schedules at an airport using machine learning-based flight delay and cancellation predictions

To mitigate air traffic demand-capacity imbalances, large European airports implement strategic flight schedules, where flights are assigned arrival/departure slots several months prior to execution. We propose a generic assessment of such strategic schedules using predictions about arrival/departure flight delays and cancellations. We demonstrate our approach for strategic flight schedules in the period 2013–2018 at London Heathrow Airport. Together with the development of dedicated strategic flight schedule optimization models, our proposed approach supports an integrated strategic flight schedule assessment, where schedules are evaluated with respect to flight delays and cancellations.     

Information flow between prediction markets,polls and media: Evidence from the 2008 presidential primaries

Are the forecast errors of election-eve polls themselves forecastable? We present evidence from the 2008 Democratic Party nomination race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton showing that the answer is yes. Both cross-sectional and time series evidence suggests that market prices contain information about election outcomes that polls taken shortly before the contests do not. Conversely, election surprises relative to polls too Granger cause subsequent price movements. We then investigate whether the additional information in prices could come from the media coverage of these campaigns, and uncover a set of complex relationships between pollster’s surprise, price movements, and various aspects of media coverage. Prices anticipate the balance and content of media coverage, but not the volume. On the other hand, it is the volume of media coverage, not the balance or content, that anticipates the surprise element in election outcomes. Moreover, Granger causality between prices and election surprises barely changes after controlling for media coverage, and causality from media volume to surprises persists too after controlling for price movements. Taken together, the results suggest that both prices and the volume of media coverage contain independent election-relevant information that is not captured in polls.     

Using Machine Learning for measuring democracy: A practitioners guide and a new updated dataset for 186 countries from 1919 to 2019

We provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on the measurement of democracy and present an extensive update of the Machine Learning indicator of Gründler and Krieger (2016). Four improvements are particularly notable: First, we produce a continuous and a dichotomous version of the Machine Learning democracy indicator. Second, we calculate intervals that reflect the degree of measurement uncertainty. Third, we refine the conceptualization of the Machine Learning Index. Finally, we significantly expand the data coverage by providing democracy indices for 186 countries in the period from 1919 to 2019.     

湖南省森林公园旅游发展地区差异研究

森林公园旅游是森林旅游的重要组成部分,研究森林公园旅游区域协调发展对于推进森林旅游可持续发展和林业产业结构调整具有重要意义。以2010—2019年湖南省14个市州森林公园数量、面积、旅游接待人数和旅游收入数据为基础,运用位序—规模分布理论与首位分布理论,对湖南省森林公园旅游规模差异及其分布状况进行了分析。结果表明:(1)湖南各市州森林公园旅游发展的绝对差异在扩大,但相对差异变化不大。(2)湖南省森林公园旅游发展不均衡情况总体上表现为森林公园数量<森林公园面积<旅游接待人数<旅游收入的局面。(3)在排名上,大部分市州都出现了一定波动,但在旅游接待人数和旅游收入方面,张家界一直稳居首位,娄底的旅游收入排名有大幅度上升。文章最后简要探讨了这种差异形成的原因和应对措施。     

网络节点特征与城市绿色创新效率提升——基于节点枢纽性与节点聚集度视角

随着城市间创新联系的持续增强,城市创新网络的优化与发展对城市绿色创新效率的促进作用日益凸现。部分研究考察了城市绿色创新效率的空间溢出效应和城市创新网络特征的影响,但鲜有文献关注城市的网络节点特征对其绿色创新效率的影响,尤其缺乏相应的经验分析。本文认为,在城市创新网络中各个城市即网络中的节点,创新资源和活动在节点的聚集产生规模效应,创新资源和活动在节点间流动则带来溢出效应,两者都有利于城市绿色创新效率的提升。因此,反映节点在网络联系中重要性的节点枢纽性和反映网络中不同节点聚集成团程度的节点聚集度提高,均有利于城市绿色创新效率的提升。节点枢纽性的提高对城市自身的基础设施建设提出更高要求,因而可以通过改善基础设施的路径促进城市绿色创新效率提升;节点聚集度的提高为城市金融发展带来更多的需求和机会,因而可以通过增加创新投融资规模的路径促进城市绿色创新效率提升。在城市密度和经济发展水平较高的地区,城市间的创新联系较便利,节点枢纽性提高对城市绿色创新效率提升的促进作用较大;而在城市密度和经济发展水平较低的地区,创新聚集的效率相对较高,节点聚集度提高对城市绿色创新效率提升的促进作用较大。以2010—2018年中国279个城市为样本,通过引力模型构建城市创新网络,进而测度节点枢纽性和节点聚集度,分析发现：节点枢纽性和节点聚集度对城市绿色创新效率具有显著正向影响;城市交通基础设施在节点枢纽性促进城市绿色创新效率中具有显著的部分中介效应,城市金融机构存款水平在节点聚集度促进城市绿色创新效率中具有显著的遮掩效应;节点枢纽性对城市绿色创新效率的促进效应在东、中、西部地区依次减弱,而节点聚集度的促进效应依次增强。相比已有文献,本文主要从三个方面进行了拓展和深化：一是从网络节点特征角度拓展城市绿色创新效率的影响因素研究,二是从影响路径和区域异质性层面深化网络节点特征影响创新效率的机制研究,三是为通过改善网络节点特征促进绿色创新效率提升提供经验证据。本文揭示了城市创新网络进化（节点枢纽性与节点聚集度提高）对绿色创新效率提升的重要作用及其影响路径和区域异质性,有利于在新发展阶段通过优化城市网络发展格局进一步促进创新发展和绿色发展。     

Judgment aggregation in search for the truth

We analyze the problem of aggregating judgments over multiple issues from the perspective of whether aggregate judgments manage to efficiently use all voters' private information. While new in judgment aggregation theory, this perspective is familiar in a different body of literature about voting between two alternatives where voters' disagreements stem from conflicts of information rather than of interest. Combining the two bodies of literature, we consider a simple judgment aggregation problem and model the private information underlying voters' judgments. Assuming that voters share a preference for true collective judgments, we analyze the resulting strategic incentives and determine which voting rules efficiently use all private information. We find that in certain, but not all cases a quota rule should be used, which decides on each issue according to whether the proportion of ‘yes’ votes exceeds a particular quota.