If money talks, what does it say? Varieties of capitalism and business financing of parties

Do business contributions to political parties convey different messages in different countries, and, if so, why? This is the first cross-national study of firm behaviour in political finance. It understands motivations for contributions to parties as either ideological or pragmatic. Motivation is inferred by quantitatively relating the payments of 960 firms to variations in political competition in three countries over periods of between seven and seventeen years. In co-ordinated Germany, a small number of firms make ideological payments. In liberal Canada and Australia, large numbers of firms made pragmatic payments. Australia’s left-right party system created an awareness of policy risk, which motivated ideological payments, but there was no ideological bias in business financing of politics in Canada’s unusually non-ideological party system. The statistical analysis is supplemented by a qualitative investigation of discrete and reciprocal exchanges between businesses and political parties

The role of fiscal rules and institutions in shaping budgetary outcomes

The Workshop "The role of fiscal rules and institutions in shaping budgetary outcomes" organized by the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial affairs of the European Commission on 24 November 2006 in Brussels aimed at enriching the debate on the fiscal arrangements and improving the understanding of their functioning. This Economic Paper contains all the paper presented in this event that was organised in four sessions. A first set of papers mainly focus on the impact of numerical fiscal rules on budgetary outturns. Other paper deal primarily with the appropriate design of fiscal rules and institutions. An additional group of papers addresses the relationship between the fiscal governance approach adopted by the EU Member States and their institutional and political frameworks. Finally the remaining presentations relate more directly to policy experiences. fiscal rules, budget, institutions.fiscal rules, budget, institutions, Ayuso-i-Casals, Deroose, Flores, Moulin

Diverse politics, diverse news coverage? A longitudinal study of diversity in Dutch political news during two decades of election campaigns

Although diverse political news has been recognized as a requirement for a well-functioning democracy, longitudinal research into this topic is sparse. In this article, we analyse the development of diversity in election coverage in the Netherlands between 1994 and 2012. We distinguish between diversity for party and issue coverage, and look at differences between diversity in newspapers and television news. Results show that news diversity varies over time. Diversity for party types increased over time. We found no clear trend for diversity of issue dimensions. Compared to newspapers, television news is more diverse for party types but less diverse on issue dimensions. The question concerning whether these findings are an indicator of structural bias is discussed

The Power of Personality Traits in Allocation Decision-Making: A Secondary Analysis of a Laboratory Experiment

Individual differences have been addressed by many authors in social sciences, however personality has been neglected. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of personality in social decision-making situations. Prior researches on the role of personality either focused on how personality influences social and economic preferences or on the link between personality and influence in social decision-making. The present thesis intends to combine these two aspects with the help of a secondary analysis of a bargaining experiment. To test personality, the Five Factor Model was included and social preferences were measured with the help of social value orientation. The findings show that two personality dimensions (Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) indicate social preferences and four personality dimensions (Agreeableness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness) influence the ability to use structural power. Furthermore, it has been found that the link of personality and bargaining behavior is moderated by social preferences. The findings of the present thesis provide various theoretical and empirical implications for personality psychology, human resource management, and organizational behavior. Keywords: Social decision-making; fairness; personality; Five Factor Model; social value orientation.Individual differences have been addressed by many authors in social sciences, however personality has been neglected. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role of personality in social decision-making situations. Prior researches on the role of personality either focused on how personality influences social and economic preferences or on the link between personality and influence in social decision-making. The present thesis intends to combine these two aspects with the help of a secondary analysis of a bargaining experiment. To test personality, the Five Factor Model was included and social preferences were measured with the help of social value orientation. The findings show that two personality dimensions (Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) indicate social preferences and four personality dimensions (Agreeableness, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Conscientiousness) influence the ability to use structural power. Furthermore, it has been found that the link of personality and bargaining behavior is moderated by social preferences. The findings of the present thesis provide various theoretical and empirical implications for personality psychology, human resource management, and organizational behavior. Keywords: Social decision-making; fairness; personality; Five Factor Model; social value orientation

The Role of Public Broadcasting in Media Bias:Do People React Differently to Pro-government Bias in Public and Private Media?

People often reject new information, especially when it does not fit their prior beliefs. But do publics in advanced democracies reject information from public and private media outlets in the same way? We examine this question in the form of the media’s pro-government bias in the under-examined case of Japan. By combining unique textual data with an original survey experiment, we document that (1) people generally tend to reject pro-government biased information that overly praises government actions; but (2) the reasons why people reject the same biased information vary—based on their expectations of neutrality for public media, and on expectations derived from political ideology for private media. Our study suggests that the basis of people’s motivated reasoning differs when they evaluate content from public and private media

Data (r)evolution – the economics of algorithmic search and recommender services

The paper analyses the economics behind algorithmic search and recommender services, based upon personalized user data. Such services play a paramount role for online services such as marketplaces (e.g. Amazon), audio streaming (e.g. Spotify), video streaming (e.g. Netflix, YouTube), app stores, social networks (e.g. Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter) and many more. We start with a systematic analysis of search and recommendation services as a commercial good, highlighting the changes to these services by the systematic use of algorithms. Then we discuss benefits and risk for welfare arising from the widespread employment of algorithmic search and recommendation systems. In doing so, we summarize the existing economics literature and go beyond its insights, including highlighting further research desires. Eventually, we derive regulatory and managerial implications drawing on the current state of academic knowledge

Politische Maschinen: Maschinelles Lernen für das Verständnis von sozialen Maschinen

This thesis investigates human-algorithm interactions in sociotechnological ecosystems. Specifically, it applies machine learning and statistical methods to uncover political dimensions of algorithmic influence in social media platforms and automated decision making systems. Based on the results, the study discusses the legal, political and ethical consequences of algorithmic implementations.Diese Arbeit untersucht Mensch-Algorithmen-Interaktionen in sozio-technologischen Ökosystemen. Sie wendet maschinelles Lernen und statistische Methoden an, um politische Dimensionen des algorithmischen Einflusses auf Socialen Medien und automatisierten Entscheidungssystemen aufzudecken. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse diskutiert die Studie die rechtlichen, politischen und ethischen Konsequenzen von algorithmischen Anwendungen

Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the central concepts in a textbook that examines the role of media in the political sphere in comparative perspective. The book has a particular focus on media models, theories of news production, the journalistic profession as well as the performance of the media in elections, war, terrorism and on line. The book focuses on the media and journalists in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation

Political parties, motivated reasoning, and public opinion formation

A key characteristic of democratic politics is competition between groups, first of all political parties. Yet, the unavoidably partisan nature of political conflict has had too little influence on scholarship on political psychology. Despite more than 50 years of research on political parties and citizens, we continue to lack a systematic understanding of when and how political parties influence public opinion. We suggest that alternative approaches to political parties and public opinion can be best reconciled and examined through a richer theoretical perspective grounded in motivated reasoning theory. Clearly, parties shape citizens' opinions by mobilizing, influencing, and structuring choices among political alternatives. But the answer to when and how parties influence citizens' reasoning and political opinions depends on an interaction between citizens' motivations, effort, and information generated from the political environment (particularly through competition between parties). The contribution of motivated reasoning, as we describe it, is to provide a coherent theoretical framework for understanding partisan influence on citizens' political opinions. We review recent empirical work consistent with this framework. We also point out puzzles ripe for future research and discuss how partisan-motivated reasoning provides a useful point of departure for such work