Models and Methods Commons^™

Challenges For Estimating Policy Preferences: Announcing An Open Access Archive Of Political Documents, Kenneth Benoit, Thomas Brauninger, Marc Debus

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We provide a comparative perspective on the contributions of the special issue with regard to their applied methods and findings. In addition, we discuss problems that arise when using ‘wrong’ or at least ‘incorrect’ versions of election manifestos by presenting replications of estimated policy positions of German parties. We show that the latter can result in biased estimates that may affect the outcome of theoretical models. On the basis of those findings, we present the idea of the open access archive polidoc.net to build up a common database for political texts.

Research On Scf Model Under Financial Crisis : An Integrated Sc Project In China Based On Financing, Rui Liu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

New Eurasian Continental Bridgehead Lianyungang, Qiaoqiao Wu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Analysis On Development Of Empty Container Distribution Center In Shanghai Port, Jieyua Xu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Research On Optimization Of Liner Route Between China To Middle East, Tingyi Chen

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Research On Value-At-Risk In International Crude Oil Shipping Market, Xiaoyin Cui

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Research On Brand Strategies Of Cdl Company, Wei Gu

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Research On Risk Evaluation Of Shanghai Lng Import Program, Chao Lin

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Study On Empty Container Allocation, Yu Sun

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Research On The Supply Chain Inventory Management To Gen Garment Co. Ltd, Wei Wang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Research On Decision-Making On Take-Back Models In Reverse Logistics For End-Of-Life Electronic Products, Yiwei Wang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Feasibility Analysis Of The Third Euro-Asia Continental Bridge, Tongyou Weng

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Researchs On Coal Logistics Center Site Selection In Guizhou Province, Yiye Xiang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Research On The Establishment Of Food Supply Chain Traceability Systems, Jianmin Zhang

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Research On The Cost Control System Of Sq Corporation, Yang Zhao

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Politics, Policies, And Poverty In Latin America, Jennifer Pribble, Evelyne Huber, John D. Stephens

Political Science Faculty Publications

Why do Latin American countries exhibit stark differences in their ability to protect citizens from falling into poverty? Analysis of poverty levels measured by ECLAC in eighteen countries shows that political factors-including the democratic record, long-term weight of left-of-center parties in the legislature, and investment in human capital-are significant and substantively important determinants of poverty. These findings contribute to the growing literature that emphasizes the importance of regime form, parties, and policies for a variety of outcomes in Latin America, despite the weaknesses of democracy and the pathologies of some parties and party systems in the region.

The Social Evolution Of War And Transformation In Political Organization, Talon J. Powers

Political Science Honors Projects

Until recently, international relations theory has treated the territorial state as a transhistorical constant. The post-positivist turn, however, revives the question of the state’s origins and future sustainability. By drawing together the contributions of historical sociologists and social theorists of war, this thesis provides a model for change in political organization stemming from foundational transformations in warfare. This model considers not only warfighting practices, but the social and broader historical context in which war is embedded. Through analysis of the feudal and modern cases, I demonstrate why warfare is the best lens through which to evaluate change in political organization.

Why Urbanists Need Religion, Joshua D. Ambrosius

Political Science Faculty Publications

This essay summarizes a conference paper presented at the October 2008 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. The paper was reviewed by several leading scholars.

Treating Words As Data With Error: Uncertainty In Text Statements Of Policy Positions, Kenneth Benoit, Michael Laver, Slava Mikhaylov

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Political text offers extraordinary potential as a source of information about the policy positions of political actors. Despite recent advances in computational text analysis, human interpretative coding of text remains an important source of text-based data, ultimately required to validate more automatic techniques. The profession's main source of cross-national, time-series data on party policy positions comes from the human interpretative coding of party manifestos by the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP). Despite widespread use of these data, the uncertainty associated with each point estimate has never been available, undermining the value of the dataset as a scientific resource. We propose a …

Social Networks And Correct Voting, Scott D. Mcclurg, Anand E. Sokhey

Working Papers

Decades of research suggest that social interaction influences opinion formation and affects voting behavior. However, recent work concerning the nexus between deliberation and democratic practice--particularly in the American context--has re-focused attention on the normative consequences of socially-driven political behavior. Among the most common criticisms of interpersonal networks are that most people have very insular social circles, and that when they do not they are unlikely to engage in politics. In this paper we provide evidence that such pessimistic assessments are unwarranted, though for somewhat unexpected reasons. Using data from the American Component of the 1992 Cross-National Election Project and the …

Beyond Corporatism And Liberalism: State And Civil Society In Cooperation In Nicaragua, Hannah Pallmeyer

Hispanic Studies Honors Projects

The Nicaraguan state has historically attempted to control Nicaraguan civil society using corporatist and liberal-democratic frameworks. This has created a difficult organizing environment for civil society organizations to struggle for social change. In this thesis, I argue that civil society organizations, operating in 2008 in a corporatist or liberal framework, were less effective in achieving national social change than organizations that worked cooperatively with the state, yet maintained some autonomy. This hypothesis is developed using the case study of three water rights organizations, and is further tested using the case of corporatist-structured Citizen Power Councils, created in 2007.

Of Government, Innovation And The Social Sector: An Interview With Ngiam Tong Dow, Tong Dow Ngiam

Social Space

With homelessness and unemployment looming large in the 1960s, the pioneer public service team turned the situation around within a span of 10 years. Veteran civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow shares his insights from the days of coming nose-to-nose with social breakdown – a time when creative resourcefulness was the only option. Retired and with the benefit of hindsight, he shares with Social Space his thoughts on innovation, government and the way forward for the social sector.

Using Documents: A Figurational Approach, Paddy Dolan

Books/Book chapters

Notwithstanding significant changes in the research cultures of many social science disciplines, there remains a certain orthodoxy in the selection of qualitative methods for consumer research in particular. In this field, focus groups and depth (or qualitative) interviews reign supreme, while the use of documentary evidence is sparse. The obvious exception is the growing number of studies written by historians of consumer culture (see for example, Cohen, 2003; De Grazia, 2005; Donohue, 2006). Historians have traditionally used documents as evidence of particular events, values, ideas and practices at specific times and places. These events can then be organised into a …

Connected Coordination: Network Structure And Group Coordination, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Ramamohan Paturi, Nicholas Weller

Faculty Scholarship

Networks can affect a group’s ability to solve a coordination problem. We utilize laboratory experiments to study the conditions under which groups of subjects can solve coordination games. We investigate a variety of different network structures, and we also investigate coordination games with symmetric and asymmetric payoffs. Our results show that network connections facilitate coordination in both symmetric and asymmetric games. Most significantly, we find that increases in the number of network connections encourage coordination even when payoffs are highly asymmetric. These results shed light on the conditions that may facilitate coordination in real-world networks.

Competition In The Courtroom: When Does Expert Testimony Improve Jurors’ Decisions?, Cheryl Boudreau, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

Many scholars lament the increasing complexity of jury trials and question whether the testimony of competing experts helps unsophisticated jurors to make informed decisions. In this article, we analyze experimentally the effects that the testimony of competing experts has on (1) sophisticated versus unsophisticated subjects' decisions and (2) subjects' deci- sions on difficult versus easy problems. Our results demonstrate that competing expert testimony, by itself, does not help unsophisticated subjects to behave as though they are sophisticated, nor does it help subjects make comparable decisions on difficult and easy problems. When we impose additional institutions (such as penalties for lying …

Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction Into Development Planning In Egypt. Case Study: The Impact Of Avian Influenza Crisis On Traditional Poultry Keepers' Livelihoods In Fayoum, Shahdan Arram

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The study provides an overview of the literature on disaster risk reduction, its relation with various development approaches and the livelihood framework. The study also examines the theoretical debates surrounding the relation between disasters and sustainable development. In addition, the study explores the various disasters that occurred in Egypt between 1990 and 2008. The study explores â rapid onsetâ natural disasters in Egypt (earthquakes and floods), a number of frequent human-made disasters (road, maritime, train accidents and fires), and â slow onsetâ hybrid disasters (Avian and Human Influenza and landslides) and their scope, causes, and implications on the livelihoods of …

The Coevolution Of Networks And Political Attitudes, David Lazer, Brian Rubineau, Carol Chetkovich, Nancy Katz, Michael Neblo

Working Papers

How do attitudes and social affiliations co-evolve? A long stream of research has focused on the relationship between attitudes and social affiliations. However, in most of this research the causal relationship between views and affiliations is difficult to discern definitively: Do people influence each other’s views so that they converge over time or do they primarily affiliate (by choice or happenstance) with those of similar views? Here we use longitudinal attitudinal and whole network data collected at critical times (notably, at the inception of the system) to identify robustly the determinants of attitudes and affiliations. We find significant conformity tendencies: …

How The Dissent Becomes The Majority: Using Federalism To Transform Coalitions In The U.S. Supreme Court, Tonja Jacobi, Vanessa A. Baird

Faculty Articles

This Article proposes that dissenting Supreme Court Justices provide cues in their written opinions about how future litigants can reframe case facts and legal arguments in similar future cases to garner majority support. Questions of federal-state power cut across most other substantive legal issues, and this can provide a mechanism for splitting existing majorities in future cases. By signaling to future litigants when this potential exists, dissenting judges can transform a dissent into a majority in similar future cases.

We undertake an empirical investigation of dissenting opinions in which the dissenting Justice suggests that future cases ought to be framed …

Ideology And Exceptionalism In Intellectual Property: An Empirical Study, Matthew Sag, Tonja Jacobi, Maxim Sytch

Faculty Articles

In this Article, we examine the effect of judicial ideology on IP case outcomes before the Supreme Court from 1954 to 2006. We find that ideology is a significant determinant of IP cases: the more conservative a justice is, the more likely he or she is to vote in favor of recognizing and enforcing rights to intellectual property. We also find evidence that the relationship is more complex than a purely ideological account would suggest; our results suggest that law matters too. We find that a number of factors that are specific to IP are also consequential. Additionally, we show …

Viewpoint Diversity And Media Consolidation: An Empirical Study, Daniel E. Ho, Kevin M. Quinn

Faculty Articles

One of the central predicates of legal regulation of media ownership is that ownership consolidation reduces substantive viewpoint diversity. Appellate courts and, in turn, the Federal Communications Commission have increasingly demanded evidence for this convergence hypothesis, but extant empirical measures of viewpoint diversity sidestep the problem, ignoring diversity, viewpoints, or both. Our Article develops and offers a finely tuned, time-varying statistical measure of editorial viewpoint diversity, based on a new database of over 1600 editorial positions in twenty-five top newspapers from 1988-2004. Using this new measure, we assess the validity of the convergence hypothesis by examining the evolution of editorial …