Security policy refinement using data integration: a position paper.

In spite of the wide adoption of policy-based approaches for security management, and many existing treatments of policy verification and analysis, relatively little attention has been paid to policy refinement: the problem of deriving lower-level, runnable policies from higher-level policies, policy goals, and specifications. In this paper we present our initial ideas on this task, using and adapting concepts from data integration. We take a view of policies as governing the performance of an action on a target by a subject, possibly with certain conditions. Transformation rules are applied to these components of a policy in a structured way, in order to translate the policy into more refined terms; the transformation rules we use are similar to those of global-as-view database schema mappings, or to extensions thereof. We illustrate our ideas with an example. Copyright 2009 ACM

Payday Loans and Deposit Advance Products: A White Paper of Initial Data Findings

During the past year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has engaged in an indepth review of short-term small dollar loans, specifically payday loans extended by nondepository institutions and deposit advance products offered by a small, but growing, number of depository institutions to their deposit account customers. This review began with a field hearing held in Birmingham, Alabama in January 2012.Both at the field hearing and in response to a subsequent request for information, the CFPB heard from consumers who use these products.On one hand, some consumers provided favorable responses about the speed at which these loans are given,the availability of these loans for some consumers who may not qualify for other credit products, and consumers' ability to use these loans as a way to avoid overdrawing a deposit account or paying a bill late.On the other hand, consumers raised concerns such as the risk of being unable to repay the loan while still having enough money left over for other expenses,the high cost of the loan, and aggressive debt collection practices in the case of delinquency or default.These discussions and submissions underscore the importance of undertaking a data-driven analysis of the use of these products and the longer-term outcomes that borrowers experience. Because Congress authorized the CFPB to supervise both depository and non-depository institutions, over the past year we have been able to obtain data from a number of market participants that offer either deposit advance products or payday loans.This white paper summarizes the initial findings of the CFPB's analysis of payday loans and deposit advances. It describes the features of typical payday loan and deposit advance products. The paper then presents initial findings using supervisory data the CFPB has obtained from a number of institutions that provide these products

European Survey Data on Attitudes to Equality and Human Rights Technical Paper. Research Series

This report maps the data available on attitudes to equality and human rights issues in Ireland collected in European surveys over the period 2000 to 2018. These surveys provide a rich source of evidence for researchers and policymakers in Ireland. We identify a total of 1,509 relevant questions from a search of over 125 attitude surveys. These questions are categorised according to the groups and topics addressed. We find that attitudes towards minority ethnic/nationality groups, gender/gender roles and social welfare recipients are the most widely covered. Questions on attitudes towards religious minorities, age groups/ageism, family status, disability and sexual orientation are much less common. Moreover, while the frequency of attitude questions relating to sexual orientation has increased over the period, questions on age and disability groups have declined. Within these equality groups the surveys cover a range of topics including social distance, social contact, tolerance and policy preferences

Working Paper: Open Government Data

In diesem Working Paper sollen wesentliche Erkenntnisse und Forderungen aus der - bisher vor allem englischsprachigen - Diskussion über die webgerechte Freigabe öffentlicher Daten zusammengefaßt werden. Das Paper versteht sich als Ausgangspunkt für Diskussion und Strategieentwicklung, ohne letztere selbst leisten zu können. Die Entwicklungspotentiale von Open Government Data (OGD) sollen zunächst aus der Sicht verschiedener Beteiligter dargestellt werden. Mit den in den Sebastopol-Prinzipien formulierten grundlegenden Anforderungen an OGD wird der Begriff schließlich definiert. Anhand von Veröffentlichungen des W3C kann schließlich die Bedeutung der Verwendung und (Weiter-)Entwicklung offener Standards für OGD gezeigt werden, daneben aber auch die Hauptprobleme eines entsprechenden Change Managements im öffentlichen Sektor. Abschließend werden einige modellhafte Beispiele für die praktische Umsetzung von OGD angeführt

Strategic Investments in the Pulp and Paper Industry: A Count Data Regression Analysis

This paper analyses the effects of price and market size variables on the investment propensities in the pulp and paper industry. A panel of 15 European countries in the time period 1984 - 1997 is used in the regression analysis. We find the wages, the US/ECU exchange rate, the price of paper and the installed production capacity to be the main determinants of strategic investments in this industry. Our measure of market size have no - or only very small - effects.Lumpy investments; Prices; Market size; Agglomeration; Distance; Investment determinants