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Articles 3571 - 3600 of 9289

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Robust Measures Of Earnings Surprises, Chin-Han Chiang, Wei Dai, Jianqing Fan, Harrison Hong, Jun Tu Apr 2019

Robust Measures Of Earnings Surprises, Chin-Han Chiang, Wei Dai, Jianqing Fan, Harrison Hong, Jun Tu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Event studies of market efficiency measure an earnings surprise with the consensuserror (CE), defined as earnings minus the average of professional forecasts. Even if asubset of forecasts can be biased, the ideal but difficult to estimate parameter-dependentalternative to CE is a nonlinear filter of individual errors that adjusts for bias. We showthat CE is a poor parameter-free approximation for this ideal measure. The fractionof misses on the same side (FOM), by discarding the magnitude of misses, offers a farbetterapproximation. FOM performs particularly well against CE in predicting thereturns of US stocks, where bias is potentially large, than that of international …

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Stock Market Responses To Unethical Behavior In Organizations: An Organizational Context Model, Bradford E. Baker, Rellie Derfler-Rozin, Marko Pitesa, Micheal D. Johnson Apr 2019

Stock Market Responses To Unethical Behavior In Organizations: An Organizational Context Model, Bradford E. Baker, Rellie Derfler-Rozin, Marko Pitesa, Micheal D. Johnson

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We develop and test a model that extends the understanding of how people react to news of organizational unethical behavior and how such reactions impact stock performance. We do so by taking into account the interplay between the features of specific unethical acts and the features of the organizational context within which unethical acts occur. We propose a two-stage model in which the first stage predicts that unethical acts that benefit the organization are judged less harshly than are unethical acts that benefit the actor, when the organization is seen as pursuing a moral goal (e.g., producing inexpensive medicine rather …

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Information Sampling, Judgment And The Environment: Application To The Effect Of Popularity On Evaluations, Gaël Le Mens, Jerker Denrell, Balázs Kovacs, Hülya Karaman Apr 2019

Information Sampling, Judgment And The Environment: Application To The Effect Of Popularity On Evaluations, Gaël Le Mens, Jerker Denrell, Balázs Kovacs, Hülya Karaman

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

If people avoid alternatives they dislike, a negative evaluative bias emerges because errorsof under-evaluation are unlikely to be corrected. Prior work that analyzed this mechanismhas shown that when the social environment exposes people to avoided alternatives (i.e. itmakes them resample them), then evaluations can become systematically more positive. In this paper, we clarify the conditions under which this happens. By analyzing a simple learning model, we show that whether additional exposures induced by the social environment lead to more positive or more negative evaluations depends on how prior evaluations and the social environment interact in driving resampling. We apply these …

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An Analysis Of Z-Scores And Performance: Manufacturing Companies In Hong Kong, S.L. Foo, Shaakalya Pathak Apr 2019

An Analysis Of Z-Scores And Performance: Manufacturing Companies In Hong Kong, S.L. Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Hong Kong is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market. A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for the market. Hong …

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Dare To Be Different? Conformity Versus Differentiation In Corporate Social Activities Of Chinese Firms And Market Responses, Yanlong Zhang, Heli Wang, Xiaoyu Zhou Apr 2019

Dare To Be Different? Conformity Versus Differentiation In Corporate Social Activities Of Chinese Firms And Market Responses, Yanlong Zhang, Heli Wang, Xiaoyu Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Building on the literature on optimal distinctiveness, this study explores the effects of conformity and differentiation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on the evaluations by security analysts and the responses of the financial market in general. We develop the argument that while conformity in CSR scope enhances analyst coverage, differentiation in CSR emphasis leads to more-favorable analyst recommendations and higher market value. This suggests that firms may be able to simultaneously conform in CSR scope and differentiate in CSR emphasis to achieve optimal distinctiveness. To further enhance our understanding of the variation in the relationship between conformity/differentiation and the …

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Mapping Cultural Tightness And Its Links To Innovation, Urbanization, And Happiness Across 31 Provinces In China, Roy Y. J. Chua, Kenneth Huang, Mengzi Jin Apr 2019

Mapping Cultural Tightness And Its Links To Innovation, Urbanization, And Happiness Across 31 Provinces In China, Roy Y. J. Chua, Kenneth Huang, Mengzi Jin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We conduct a 3-y study involving 11,662 respondents to map cultural tightness—the degree to which a society is characterized by rules and norms and the extent to which people are punished or sanctioned when they deviate from these rules and norms—across 31 provinces in China. Consistent with prior research, we find that culturally tight provinces are associated with increased governmental control, constraints in daily life, religious practices, and exposure to threats. Departing from previous findings that tighter states are more rural, conservative, less creative, and less happy, cultural tightness in China is associated with urbanization, economic growth, better health, greater …

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Economic Cycles As A Source Of Social Influence On Individuals, Nina Sirola Apr 2019

Economic Cycles As A Source Of Social Influence On Individuals, Nina Sirola

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The current review summarizes emerging research in psychology and associated disciplines showing that the economic cycles exert social influence on individuals across a range of psychological domains. Most research on social influence focused on how factors in the proximal environment impact individuals, while influences emanating from the state of the economy as a whole received far less attention. I review the development of different intellectual traditions examining social influence to explain the relative lack of attention to economic cycles and position emerging work on the topic relative to past research. I then review research on how economic cycles influence individuals …

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Enlarged Panels In The Court Of Appeal Of Singapore, Kwan Ho Lau Apr 2019

Enlarged Panels In The Court Of Appeal Of Singapore, Kwan Ho Lau

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

For many years the Court of Appeal of Singaporegenerally sat with no more than three judges to hear cases. Since 2014, however, quintets have increasingly been constituted in that court. This articleconsiders the recent practice in Singapore and, drawing on comparisons with theposition in some other Commonwealth jurisdictions, offers a few thoughts on its possible operation in the future.

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Random Coefficient Continuous Systems: Testing For Extreme Sample Path Behavior, Yubo Tao, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu Apr 2019

Random Coefficient Continuous Systems: Testing For Extreme Sample Path Behavior, Yubo Tao, Peter C. B. Phillips, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies a continuous time dynamic system with a random persistence parameter. The exact discrete time representation is obtained and related to several discrete time random coefficient models currently in the literature. The model distinguishes various forms of unstable and explosive behavior according to specific regions of the parameter space that open up the potential for testing these forms of extreme behavior. A two-stage approach that employs realized volatility is proposed for the continuous system estimation, asymptotic theory is developed, and test statistics to identify the different forms of extreme sample path behavior are proposed. Simulations show that the …

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Common Threshold In Quantile Regressions With An Application To Pricing For Reputation, Liangjun Su, Pai Xu Apr 2019

Common Threshold In Quantile Regressions With An Application To Pricing For Reputation, Liangjun Su, Pai Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

The paper develops a systematic estimation and inference procedure for quantile regression models where there may exist a common threshold effect across different quantile indices. We first propose a sup-Wald test for the existence of a threshold effect, and then study the asymptotic properties of the estimators in a threshold quantile regression model under the shrinking-threshold-effect framework. We consider several tests for the presence of a common threshold value across different quantile indices and obtain their limiting distributions. We apply our methodology to study the pricing strategy for reputation via the use of a dataset from Taobao.com. In our economic …

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Asymptotic Theory For Rough Fractional Vasicek Models, Weilin Xiao, Jun Yu Apr 2019

Asymptotic Theory For Rough Fractional Vasicek Models, Weilin Xiao, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper extends the asymptotic theory for the fractional Vasicek model developed in Xiao and Yu (2018) from the case where H ∈ (1/2, 1) to the case where H ∈ (0, 1/2). It is found that the asymptotic theory of the persistence parameter (k) critically depends on the sign of k. Moreover, if k > 0, the asymptotic distribution for the estimator of k is different when H ∈ (0, 1/2) from that when H ∈ (1/2, 1).

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Rank Tests At Jump Events, Jia Li, Viktor Todorov, George Tauchen, Huidi. Lin Apr 2019

Rank Tests At Jump Events, Jia Li, Viktor Todorov, George Tauchen, Huidi. Lin

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a test for the rank of a cross-section of processes at a set of jump events. The jump events are either specific known times or are random and associated with jumps of some process. The test is formed from discretely sampled data on a fixed time interval with asymptotically shrinking mesh. In the first step, we form nonparametric estimates of the jump events via thresholding techniques. We then compute the eigenvalues of the outer product of the cross-section of increments at the identified jump events. The test for rank r is based on the asymptotic behavior of the …

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Sieve Estimation Of Time-Varying Panel Data Models With Latent Structures, Liangjun Su, Xia Wang, Sainan Jin Apr 2019

Sieve Estimation Of Time-Varying Panel Data Models With Latent Structures, Liangjun Su, Xia Wang, Sainan Jin

Research Collection School Of Economics

We propose a heterogeneous time-varying panel data model with a latent group structure that allows the coefficients to vary over both individuals and time. We assume that the coefficients change smoothly over time and form different unobserved groups. When treated as smooth functions of time, the individual functional coefficients are heterogeneous across groups but homogeneous within a group. We propose a penalized-sieve-estimation-based classifier-Lasso (C-Lasso) procedure to identify the individuals’ membership and to estimate the group-specific functional coefficients in a single step. The classification exhibits the desirable property of uniform consistency. The C-Lasso estimators and their post-Lasso versions achieve the oracle …

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Building An Equitable And Inclusive City Through Housing Policies: Singapore’S Experience, Sock Yong Phang Apr 2019

Building An Equitable And Inclusive City Through Housing Policies: Singapore’S Experience, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Inequality is an age-old concern. In recent years, the rise of income inequality has received worldwide media and policy attention, beginning with the Occupy movement of 2011-2012 and a wave of notable scholastic books such as Stiglitz (2012), Piketty (2014), and Atkinson (2015). Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century, an unlikely bestseller, contained a vast amount of data showing that the rich are taking rising shares of income and wealth in the advanced economies. Piketty’s approach towards capital and wealth is an aggregative one, and he does not treat real estate or land as a different or distinct form of …

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Illusion Of Gender Parity In Education: Intrahousehold Resource Allocation In Bangladesh, Sijia Xu, Abu S. Shonchoy, Tomoki Fujii Apr 2019

Illusion Of Gender Parity In Education: Intrahousehold Resource Allocation In Bangladesh, Sijia Xu, Abu S. Shonchoy, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

A target in the Millennium Development Goals—gender parity in all levels of education—is widely considered to have been attained. However, measuring gender parity only through school enrollment is misleading, as girls may lag behind boys in other educational measures. We investigate this with four rounds of surveys from Bangladesh by decomposing households’ education decisions into enrollment, education expenditure, and share of the education expenditure allocated for the quality of education like private tutoring. We find a strong profemale bias in school enrollment but promale bias in the other two decisions. This contradirectional gender bias is unique to Bangladesh and partly …

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Robustly Optimal Reserve Price, Wei He, Jiangtao Li Apr 2019

Robustly Optimal Reserve Price, Wei He, Jiangtao Li

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study a robust version of the single-unit auction problem. The auctioneer has confidence in her estimate of the marginal distribution of a generic bidder's valuation, but does not have reliable information about the joint distribution. In this setting, we analyze the performance of second-price auctions with reserve prices in terms of revenue guarantee, that is, the greatest lower bound of revenue across all joint distributions that are consistent with the marginals. For any finite number of bidders, we solve for the robustly optimal reserve price that generates the highest revenue guarantee. Our analysis has interesting implications in large markets. …

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The Uk Summer Heatwave Of 2018 And Public Concern Over Energy Security, Shaun Larcom, Po-Wen She, Terry Van Gevelt Apr 2019

The Uk Summer Heatwave Of 2018 And Public Concern Over Energy Security, Shaun Larcom, Po-Wen She, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The UK summer heatwave of 2018 led to changes in consumer behaviour, including large increases in electricity demand due to increased use and intensity of refrigeration and air-conditioning devices1,2. Although the United Kingdom experienced its equal hottest summer on record, the extreme temperatures were concentrated in the south and east of England3. Here we exploit the regional variation to test for the effect of experiencing extreme temperatures on perceptions of resource security and on related pro-environmental behaviour. We analyse data from 2,189 individuals across the UK over a 7 day period and use a difference-in-differences estimation to compare responses of …

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Implementing Natural Capital Credit Risk Assessment In Agricultural Lending, Francisco Ascui, Theodor Florian Cojoianu Apr 2019

Implementing Natural Capital Credit Risk Assessment In Agricultural Lending, Francisco Ascui, Theodor Florian Cojoianu

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Agriculture has critical impacts and dependencies on natural capital, and agricultural lenders are therefore exposed to natural capital credit risk through their loans to farmers. Currently, however, lenders lack any detailed guidance for assessing natural capital credit risk in agriculture and are challenged by the fact that the relevant material risks vary considerably by agricultural sector and geography. This paper develops a natural capital credit risk assessment framework based on a bottom-up review of the material risks associated with natural capital impacts and dependencies for Australian beef production. It demonstrates that implementing natural capital credit risk assessment is feasible in …

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Weak Σ-Convergence: Theory And Applications, Jianning Kong, Peter C. B. Phillips, Donggyu Sul Apr 2019

Weak Σ-Convergence: Theory And Applications, Jianning Kong, Peter C. B. Phillips, Donggyu Sul

Research Collection School Of Economics

The concept of relative convergence, which requires the ratio of two time series to converge to unity in the long run, explains convergent behavior when series share commonly divergent stochastic or deterministic trend components. Relative convergence of this type does not necessarily hold when series share common time decay patterns measured by evaporating rather than divergent trend behavior. To capture convergent behavior in panel data that do not involve stochastic or divergent deterministic trends, we introduce the notion of weak σ-convergence, whereby cross section variation in the panel decreases over time. The paper formalizes this concept and proposes a simple-to-implement …

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Inference In Partially Identified Panel Data Models With Interactive Fixed Effects, Shengjie Hong, Liangjun Su, Yaqi Wang Apr 2019

Inference In Partially Identified Panel Data Models With Interactive Fixed Effects, Shengjie Hong, Liangjun Su, Yaqi Wang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper develops methods for statistical inferences in a partially identified nonparametric panel data model with endogeneity and interactive fixed effects. We consider the case where the number of cross-sectional units (N) is large and the number of time series periods (T).as well as the number of unobserved common factors (R) are fixed. Under some normalization rules, wecan concentrateout thelarge dimen-sional parameter vector of factor loadings and specify a set of conditional moment restriction that are involved with only the finite dimensional factor parameters along with the infinite dimensional nonpara-metric component. For a conjectured restriction on the parameter, we consider …

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M-Estimators Of U-Processes With A Change-Point Due To A Covariate Threshold, Lili Tan, Yichong Zhang Apr 2019

M-Estimators Of U-Processes With A Change-Point Due To A Covariate Threshold, Lili Tan, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Economic theory often predicts a “tipping point” effect due to multiple equilibria. Linear threshold regressions estimate the “tipping point” by assuming at the same time that the response variable is linear in an index of covariates. However, economic theory rarely imposes a specific functional form, but rather predicts a monotonic relationship between the response variable and the index. We propose new, rank-based, estimators for both the “tipping point” and other regression coefficients, exploiting only the monotonicity condition. We derive the asymptotic properties of these estimators by establishing a more general result for M-estimators of U-processes with a change-point due to …

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Deterrence Under Nuclear Asymmetry: Thaad And The Prospects For Missile Defense On The Korean Peninsula, Inwook Kim, Soul Park Apr 2019

Deterrence Under Nuclear Asymmetry: Thaad And The Prospects For Missile Defense On The Korean Peninsula, Inwook Kim, Soul Park

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The 2016 decision to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to South Korea has generated multitude of intensely politicized issues and has proved highly controversial. This has made it challenging to alleviate, let alone clarify, points of analytical and policy tensions. We instead disaggregate and revisit two fundamental questions. One is whether THAAD could really defend South Korea from North Korean missiles. We challenge the conventional “qualified optimism” by giving analytical primacy to three countermeasures available to defeat THAAD–use of decoys, tumbling and spiral motion, and outnumbering. These countermeasures are relatively inexpensive to create but exceedingly difficult to offset. …

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East Asian Low Marriage And Birth Rates: The Role Of Life History Strategy, Culture, And Social Status Affordance, Jose Yong, Norman P. Li, Peter K. Jonason, Yi Wen Tan Apr 2019

East Asian Low Marriage And Birth Rates: The Role Of Life History Strategy, Culture, And Social Status Affordance, Jose Yong, Norman P. Li, Peter K. Jonason, Yi Wen Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Although economic development is broadly associated with low fertility, countries with a predominantly East Asian cultural population exhibit the lowest fertility rates in the developed world. This study (N = 243) examined social status affordance (SSA) as a novel factor underlying cultural variations in marriage and childbearing attitudes. Drawing from a life history perspective, we argue that SSA reflects the availability and ease of attaining social status from the environment, which then influences people's reproductive motivations. We found that strong competition for prestigious jobs in developed East Asian countries, which is hypothesized to be an outcome of their collectivistic nature …

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Disjunctures Of Belonging And Belief: Christian Migrants And The Bordering Of Identity In Singapore, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods Apr 2019

Disjunctures Of Belonging And Belief: Christian Migrants And The Bordering Of Identity In Singapore, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Migration results in people that are different from one another living in closer physicalproximity. Proximity increases the chances of encountering difference, and can lead to boththe formation of new communities, and the strengthening of old. As a religion that claims tointegrate people into a trans-ethnic, trans-territorial faith community, Christianity encouragessuch encounters, whilst Christian groups play an important role in mediating them.Disjunctures of belonging and belief are the outcomes that arise from encounters withdifference within spaces of Christianity. Drawing on 100 interviews conducted betweenAugust 2017 and February 2018, this paper unravels these disjunctures through a focus on theinterplay between migrant and …

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Restructured Frame-Of-Reference Training Improves Rating Accuracy, Ming-Hong Tsai, Serena Wee, Brandon Koh Apr 2019

Restructured Frame-Of-Reference Training Improves Rating Accuracy, Ming-Hong Tsai, Serena Wee, Brandon Koh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The use of heuristic judgments is prevalent in organizations and negatively impacts accurate employee assessments. To minimize the negative impact of heuristic judgments (i.e., anchoring and adjustment), we aim to improve rating accuracy by restructuring frame‐of‐reference (FOR) training. We conducted five studies (N = 1,143) using different samples (three including participants with hiring experience), training environments (onsite and online), and rating contexts (evaluations of sales representatives, teachers, contract negotiation specialists, and retail store managers). Across the five studies, the average improvement in rating accuracy was at least twice as large for restructured FOR (vs. control) training as it was for …

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Why Smart Leaders Fail, David Chan Apr 2019

Why Smart Leaders Fail, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In an invited commentary, SMU Behavioural Sciences Institute Director Professor David Chan discussed leadership issues in the Singapore context. He explained how the selection and development of leaders need to go beyond academic abilities to focus on non-academic attributes, especially the ability to make effective judgements in practical situations.

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Video Gaming Can Benefit Students: Study, Andree Hartanto, Wei Xing Toh Apr 2019

Video Gaming Can Benefit Students: Study, Andree Hartanto, Wei Xing Toh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Video gaming is not inherently bad if treated as a form of leisure activity that can help young people to de-stress during the weekends.

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Review Of China’S Peasant Agriculture And Rural Society, Qian Forrest Zhang Apr 2019

Review Of China’S Peasant Agriculture And Rural Society, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Jan Douwe van de Ploeg, Jingzhong Ye and their colleagues have written an important book that will rekindle old debates and spark new discussions in the fields of critical agrarian studies and China studies. The book is a collection of 12 chapters, each coauthored by members of the research team. The two editors are also the key authors, with de Ploeg involved in all 12 chapters and Ye in eight. Together, the chapters provide a comprehensive coverage of topics central to the rural economy and livelihoods in China, and to theories in critical agrarian studies.

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The Myanmar Business Environment Index 2020: Measuring Economic Governance For Private Sector Development, Malesky Edmund, Dean C. Dulay, Jon Kesssecker Apr 2019

The Myanmar Business Environment Index 2020: Measuring Economic Governance For Private Sector Development, Malesky Edmund, Dean C. Dulay, Jon Kesssecker

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Economic Governance Index (EGI) is a tool that has become widely accepted by governments to understand economic growth, attract investors, and engage in public-private sector dialogue. EGIs have been used in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Kosovo, El Salvador, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Vietnam to offer crucial insight into governance and help guide reform efforts. The Myanmar Business Environment Index (MBEI) follows in this tradition by adapting the EGI model to the Myanmar context. The MBEI is designed to provide Union and state/region government leaders, as well as stakeholders such as business managers, with a tool to understand and address the …

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Measuring And Explaining Political Sophistication Through Textual Complexity, Kenneth Benoit, Kevin Munger, Arthur Spirling Apr 2019

Measuring And Explaining Political Sophistication Through Textual Complexity, Kenneth Benoit, Kevin Munger, Arthur Spirling

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Political scientists lack domain-specific measures for the purpose of measuring the sophistication of political communication. We systematically review the shortcomings of existing approaches, before developing a new and better method along with software tools to apply it. We use crowdsourcing to perform thousands of pairwise comparisons of text snippets and incorporate these results into a statistical model of sophistication. This includes previously excluded features such as parts of speech and a measure of word rarity derived from dynamic term frequencies in the Google Books data set. Our technique not only shows which features are appropriate to the political domain and …

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