Inefficiencies in Digital Advertising Markets

Digital advertising markets are growing and attracting increased scrutiny. This article explores four market inefficiencies that remain poorly understood: ad effect measurement, frictions between and within advertising channel members, ad blocking, and ad fraud. Although these topics are not unique to digital advertising, each manifests in unique ways in markets for digital ads. The authors identify relevant findings in the academic literature, recent developments in practice, and promising topics for future research

A Fruitful College Campus Ministry: A Mixed-Method Case Study of Vassar Christian Fellowship at Vassar College

Given the increased scrutiny and difficulty Christian student organizations are encountering on secular college campuses, study is needed to aid in forming a way forward for fruitful campus ministry. This article presents a case study of a student campus ministry that is currently thriving in its secular liberal arts environment. It utilized a mixed-method approach to discover seven factors that led to vibrancy for Vassar Christian Fellowship, a student ministry at Vassar College. Application is focused on campus ministries and local churches

Impact of increased scrutiny of High Value High Risk Projects

This audit identified gaps and inconsistencies in Victoria\u27s approach to identifying projects to be subject to High Value High Risk (HVHR) review, and the need for improved management of the process. Overview The Victorian government adopted the High Value High Risk (HVHR) process in late 2010 because of past cost overruns of over 2 billion attributed to inadequate management of project business cases and procurements. The process covers all public sector infrastructure and information and communications technology investments that are likely to draw on Budget funding and are over 100 million or assessed as high risk. The goal of the HVHR process is to achieve more certainty in the delivery of intended benefits, in line with planned costs and time lines, through extra scrutiny by the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF), together with additional Treasurer\u27s approvals at key milestones covering the business case, procurement and monitoring after the procurement decision. DTF\u27s increased scrutiny through the HVHR process has made a difference to the quality of the business cases and procurements underpinning government\u27s infrastructure investments. However, these improvements have not lifted practices so that they consistently and comprehensively meet DTF\u27s better practice guidelines. This means government is still exposed to the risk that projects fail to deliver intended benefits on time and within approved budgets. A robust HVHR process is critical to effectively managing this risk. DTF\u27s scrutiny of HVHR projects was best in relation to project costs, time lines and agencies\u27 approaches to risk management. The quality of scrutiny applied was more mixed for procurement, governance and project management and clearly inadequate when providing assurance about the expected project benefits. None of the business cases examined in the audit adequately justified the benefits of the respective projects. The audit identified gaps and inconsistencies in DTF\u27s approach to identifying projects to be subject to HVHR review, and the need for improved management of the process. In addition, DTF is yet to evaluate the impacts of the HVHR process on project outcomes. The VicRoads RandL registration and licensing system project is the type of complex project that HVHR is meant to deal with and an example where significant negative deliverability risks have materialised. While the project commenced well before the HVHR process was introduced, it has been monitored through HVHR since late 2011. The government has now paused the project until February 2015. RandL is currently running at least 18 months late, has cost around 102 million and VicRoads has proposed additional expenditure of up to 135 million more than the approved budget of $158 million

New directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty

Over the last four decades, academic and wider public interest in inequality and poverty has grown substantially. In this paper we address the question: what have been the major new directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty over the last thirty to forty years? We draw attention to developments under seven headings: changes in the extent of inequality and poverty, changes in the policy environment, increased scrutiny of the concepts of ‘poverty’ and inequality’ and the rise of multidimensional approaches, the use of longitudinal perspectives, an increase in availability of and access to data, developments in analytical methods of measurement, and developments in modelling

Institutional Variation in Enrollment of Low-Income Students: The Role of Prices, Financial Aid Policies and Selectivity

Socioeconomic diversity in tertiary education has come under increased scrutiny over the past few years. Policy makers and practitioners within higher education have devoted greater attention to encouraging more low-income students to pursue a college degree. This paper estimates the influence of prices (both sticker-price and net price), financial aid policies, and selectivity on the matriculation decisions of low-income students, across postsecondary institutions. All three factors are significant in determining the representation of Pell grant recipients as a percent of an institution’s entering class. A focus on net price, while important, ignores the significant influence of sticker-price (shock), selectivity, and financial aid policies on low-income students’ enrollment decisions, particularly at private institutions

Side-channel based intrusion detection for industrial control systems

Industrial Control Systems are under increased scrutiny. Their security is historically sub-par, and although measures are being taken by the manufacturers to remedy this, the large installed base of legacy systems cannot easily be updated with state-of-the-art security measures. We propose a system that uses electromagnetic side-channel measurements to detect behavioural changes of the software running on industrial control systems. To demonstrate the feasibility of this method, we show it is possible to profile and distinguish between even small changes in programs on Siemens S7-317 PLCs, using methods from cryptographic side-channel analysis.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures. For associated code, see https://polvanaubel.com/research/em-ics/code

Out of the Shadows: The Need for Increased Scrutiny of Shadow Banking in China

Zhongrong International Trust Co., a Chinese investment trust with significant real estate exposure, has missed payments on dozens of corporate trust products since late July. Retail investors are left with frustration and panic as they fear they may have lost their life savings. Regulators are concerned they may have to further tame an already faltering economy. It may be time to question the free reign with which shadow banks have enjoyed for decades. This post was originally published on the Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review on November 14, 2023. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty

Over the last four decades, academic and wider public interest in inequality and poverty has grown substantially. In this paper we address the question: what have been the major new directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty over the last thirty to forty years? We draw attention to developments under seven headings: changes in the extent of inequality and poverty, changes in the policy environment, increased scrutiny of the concepts of ‘poverty’ and inequality’ and the rise of multidimensional approaches, the use of longitudinal perspectives, an increase in availability of and access to data, developments in analytical methods of measurement, and developments in modelling.inequality, poverty, distribution of income

New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty

Over the last four decades, academic and wider public interest in inequality and poverty has grown substantially. In this paper we address the question: what have been the major new directions in the analysis of inequality and poverty over the last thirty to forty years? We draw attention to developments under seven headings: changes in the extent of inequality and poverty, changes in the policy environment, increased scrutiny of the concepts of 'poverty' and inequality' and the rise of multidimensional approaches, the use of longitudinal perspectives, an increase in availability of and access to data, developments in analytical methods of measurement, and developments in modelling.Inequality, poverty, distribution of income

Full-field implementation of a perfect eavesdropper on a quantum cryptography system

Quantum key distribution (QKD) allows two remote parties to grow a shared secret key. Its security is founded on the principles of quantum mechanics, but in reality it significantly relies on the physical implementation. Technological imperfections of QKD systems have been previously explored, but no attack on an established QKD connection has been realized so far. Here we show the first full-field implementation of a complete attack on a running QKD connection. An installed eavesdropper obtains the entire 'secret' key, while none of the parameters monitored by the legitimate parties indicate a security breach. This confirms that non-idealities in physical implementations of QKD can be fully practically exploitable, and must be given increased scrutiny if quantum cryptography is to become highly secure.Comment: Revised after editorial and peer-review feedback. This version is published in Nat. Commun. 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl