Foreign monies and exchange risk in pre-modern maritime private trade - (or why did European bills not circulate outside Europe?)

By specifying the currency on which returns were to be repaid, respondentia was a ubiquitous financial instrument to carry international trade. Where multiple currencies existed and silver specie was the preferred money, imported silver performed as foreign currency. Thus, the import of foreign coins created issues for prices, profits, and exchange rates. Eighteenth-century Europeans alternatively used respondentia or bills depending on the monetary context, casting a shade of doubt on the inherent efficiency of a cashless means of payment. Until the 1820s, private bills of exchange did not circulate where cash had a premium. Europeans developed means to regulate the price of foreign coins and exchange rates. Elsewhere, respondentia allowed for hedging against exchange risk and propitiated arbitrage profits, giving an advantage over bills. The article documents the global scope of the instrument; it explains the exchange nature of the contract and explores the issues that the respondentia came to solve. It highlights the role of monies of account Europeans used in pricing foreign currencies in international trade

The youth gender gap in support for the far right

The 2024 European Parliament election showcased a surprising new trend. While progressive parties have traditionally done well among younger voters, it was far-right parties that enjoyed unprecedented electoral support among young voters in the 2024 EP elections. Analyzing data from the European Election Studies (EES) 2024, covering 27 countries and almost 25,000 voters, this paper shows that there is a sizable gender gap in voting for the far right. The electoral success of far-right parties among young voters is primarily driven by the support of young men, peaking at over 21% of all young men in 2024 compared to only about 14% among women of the same age cohort. Descriptive analyses from the EES shows that this gap can partially be explained by attitudinal differences, with young women holding more socially progressive views than young men. Age-Period-Cohort models based on EES data covering eight elections from 1989 to 2024 further reveal that this gender gap is greatest for Millennials and Generation Z. Since political attitudes and voting behaviour during the formative years may have a long-lasting effect on voting patterns and attitudes later in life, our findings have important implications for the future of European democracies

Negotiating the caring role and carer identity over time: ‘living well’ and the longitudinal narratives of family members of people with dementia from the IDEAL cohort

Longitudinal studies can provide insights into how family members negotiate the caring role and carer identity over time. The analyses of the longitudinal, qualitative interviews on 'living well' with dementia from the IDEAL cohort study aimed to identify the shifting, embedded narratives of family members of people with dementia as they negotiated the caring role and carer identity over time. Twenty semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with family members of people with dementia and 14 were repeated one year later; these interviews were analysed using cross-sectional and longitudinal thematic and structural narrative analyses. Longitudinal, interrelated themes, including the care needs and decline of the person with dementia, relationship change and variable service support, framed the narrative types of family members. Six shifting narratives, apparent as dominant and secondary narrative types, characterized negotiating the caring role over time: absent/normalizing, active role adoption / carer identity, resistance, acceptance and resignation, hypervigilance/submergence and role entrapment, and foreshadowed future. The presence or absence of a carer identity was also evident from interviewees' accounts, although, even where family members were overburdened by the caring role, they did not necessarily express a carer identity. Rather than considering transition into a carer identity, hearing different narratives within the caring role is important to understand how family members experience caring, whether they see themselves as 'carers', and when and how they need support. Timely and continued post-diagnostic support, where different caring narratives are recognized, is needed, as well as international initiatives for carer identification

Markets and new industrial policy: systemic directionality or polycentric evolutionism?

Proponents of “new industrial policy” claim that systemic directionality can be imparted to market economies in ways recognising the epistemic challenges of complexity and uncertainty. This paper evaluates these efforts to reformulate industrial policy on a more epistemically modest, evolutionary footing and argues that they fail. We contend that the focus on “systemic directionality” undercuts the emphasis placed on evolutionary learning and the epistemic limitations of centralised authority. Proper attention to these problems implies neither a laissez-faire/market fundamentalist position nor one that favours “systemic directionality.” Rather, it points towards a largely directionless environment where market-state entanglements arise through a polycentric evolutionism at multiple different scales

Rethinking governmentality and citizenship in Germany: the spiritual path of civic education

According to a dominant diagnosis, democratic citizenship is in crisis in Europe – a claim that has led to flourishing calls for increased civic education to teach ordinary people the norms of ‘good citizenship’. In this article, I develop a sociological critique of this pedagogisation of citizenship. I do so through an ethnography of the German civic education sector. I outline that, since 1945, a large state-funded civic education agenda has recast German citizenship as a project of spiritual becoming. Relying on pedagogical techniques of intimate self-exploration, affective self-revelation and physical embodiment, civic educators strive to cultivate their students’ ethical personhood. Preoccupied with enabling every citizen to display personal uprightness in the face of threats to democracy, this pedagogy runs on moralising ideals of ethical exemplarity and martyrological self-sacrifice. Theoretically, my analysis advances existing conceptualisations of contemporary European citizenship regimes. If scholars have often understood these regimes as a (Foucauldian) governmentality, crucial questions remain about how this governmentality infiltrates civic subjectivities, and how citizen-subjects agentively embrace this governmentality as authoritative for their own lives. I argue that, by drawing on Michel Foucault’s writings on spirituality and conversion, we can address these lacunae. This not only closes a gap in governmentality studies and the political sociology of citizenship, it also provides a fresh take on fundamental questions of structure and agency in the social sciences – highlighting how people agentively inhabit governing practices that spell their own subjection

The real effects of accounting on R&D alliance formations and innovation: evidence from ASC 606

I examine how Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 606 affects R&D alliance formations and innovation in the drug development industry. ASC 606 alters revenue recognition timing and increases disclosure requirements. I document that firms dependent on R&D alliance revenues accelerate revenue recognition and expand revenue-related disclosures following ASC 606 adoption. These concurrent changes reduce information asymmetry, both between firms and between managers and investors, but only when increased disclosure accompanies accelerated recognition. Consistent with these net reductions in information asymmetry, affected firms raise more equity capital and increase R&D investment. Notably, these firms, which historically acted as technology providers (principals), form more R&D alliances as technology acquirers (partners). Consequently, they exhibit higher innovation output, measured by new patents and drug candidates. This study identifies a specific mechanism through which accounting standards can stimulate innovation: reduced information asymmetry that facilitates strategic R&D alliance formation

Multivariate kernel regression in vector and product metric spaces

This paper derives limit properties of nonparametric kernel regression estimators without requiring existence of density for regressors in R q. In functional regression limit properties are established for multivariate functional regression. The rate and asymptotic normality for the Nadaraya–Watson (NW) estimator is established for distributions of regressors in R q that allow for mass points, factor structure, multicollinearity and nonlinear dependence, as well as fractal distribution; when bounded density exists we provide statistical guarantees for the standard rate and the asymptotic normality without requiring smoothness. We demonstrate faster convergence associated with dimension reducing types of singularity, such as a fractal distribution or a factor structure in the regressors. The paper extends asymptotic normality of kernel functional regression to multivariate regression over a product of any number of metric spaces. Finite sample evidence confirms rate improvement due to singularity in regression over R q. For functional regression the simulations underline the importance of accounting for multiple functional regressors. We demonstrate the applicability and advantages of the NW estimator in our empirical study, which reexamines the job training program evaluation based on the LaLonde data

A user-centric, privacy-preserving, and verifiable ecosystem for personal data management and utilization

In the current paradigm of digital personalized services, the centralized management of personal data raises significant privacy concerns, security vulnerabilities, and diminished individual autonomy over sensitive information. Despite their efficiency, traditional centralized architectures frequently fail to satisfy rigorous privacy requirements and expose users to data breaches and unauthorized access risks. This pressing challenge calls for a fundamental paradigm shift in methodologies for collecting, storing, and utilizing personal data across diverse sectors, including education, healthcare, and finance. This paper introduces a novel decentralized, privacy-preserving architecture that handles heterogeneous personal information, ranging from educational credentials to health records and financial data. Unlike traditional models, our system grants users complete data ownership and control, allowing them to selectively share information without compromising privacy. The architecture’s foundation comprises advanced privacy-enhancing technologies, including secure enclaves and federated learning, enabling secure computation, verification, and data sharing. The system supports diverse functionalities, including local computation, model training, and privacy-preserving data sharing, while ensuring data credibility and robust user privacy

Power and its discontents: The long road to systemic change in the aid sector

Power inequalities between Northern and Southern NGOs have historically plagued development cooperation. A growing momentum towards localisation, locally-led development, and shift the power is indicative of widespread efforts to respond to these inequalities. Drawing upon new survey data, we explore the nature of specific actions taken by a sample of NNGOs and SNGOs to address these power inequalities and analyse the extent to which these equalize power. We find that organisations in our sample are taking important steps toward reconfiguring traditional power dynamics and fostering more collaborative and accountable relationships between Northern and Southern actors. Yet a deeper analysis of these raises questions around whether actions are deep enough to rebalance or upturn unequal relationships and contribute to broader systems change. We find that innovations within the aid system are making incremental improvements without fundamentally shifting where decision-making power and financial power lie. Significant to scholars and practitioners alike, these findings underscore the need for more substantive and systemic changes to achieve genuine equity in development cooperation

Strengthening health systems for displaced populations: a systematic review of access to surgical care in low- and middle-income countries

There are over 122 million forcibly displaced people in the world, many of whom face complex healthcare needs. A global estimate from 2016 suggested that around three million surgical procedures are needed annually to meet the needs of refugees, internally displaced people and asylum seekers. This systematic review aims to synthesise literature on access to surgical care for displaced populations living within camp settings in low- and middle-income countries. Relevant articles were identified by searching three databases between January 2003 and June 2024, with no language restrictions, and findings were synthesised narratively. In total, 21 studies met our inclusion criteria. Findings were synthesised thematically under macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors influencing access to surgical care. Macro-level factors included political support and availability of funding, cost-effectiveness of surgical provision and interactions between displaced and host-country populations. At the meso-level, provision of surgical care within camps was constrained by limited resources. In some settings, these challenges were mitigated through task-shifting and sharing, adoption of tele-medicine and collaboration with local and international partners. Referrals to outside facilities were indispensable to treat surgical patients who could not be managed within camp settings. Micro-level factors included socio-demographic and cultural characteristics of refugees as well as patients’ ability to pay for healthcare services. Our review provides comprehensive insights into the barriers and facilitators that influence access to surgical care within these settings, which is crucial to address the pressing healthcare issues faced by displaced populations