Quantum surveillance and 'shared secrets'. A biometric step too far? CEPS Liberty and Security in Europe, July 2010

It is no longer sensible to regard biometrics as having neutral socio-economic, legal and political impacts. Newer generation biometrics are fluid and include behavioural and emotional data that can be combined with other data. Therefore, a range of issues needs to be reviewed in light of the increasing privatisation of ‘security’ that escapes effective, democratic parliamentary and regulatory control and oversight at national, international and EU levels, argues Juliet Lodge, Professor and co-Director of the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence at the University of Leeds, U

A Comprehensive Analysis of the H-IB and L-1 Visa Programs in the U.S. From An IT Perspective

This paper analyzes the experience of the H-IB and L-1 visa programs and their impact on information technology in the United States. The topics discussed are as follows: initial justification of the programs, the relationship of the programs to outsourcing and off-shoring, who is covered by the H-IB and L-1 visa programs, utilization of the visa programs by various constituencies, the impact of the visa programs on the prevailing wage, the arguments pro and con for the program, who is on either side of the lobbying effort, protectionist legislation regarding the visa programs, fraud within the visa programs, the alleged role of body shops and the visa programs, and the impact on homeland security as related to the visa programs

The Real Homeland Security Gaps

This Article reveals the real security gaps in FPS and suggests that the enormous delegation of FPS\u27s vital security functions to private contractors should be treated as an unconstitutional delegation of an inherently governmental function. However, the current constitutional doctrine regarding inherently governmental functions is so weak that even this obvious example of a vital security function that ought to be performed by government fails to satisfy the current constitutional standard for being inherently governmental. Part II presents the FPS federal infrastructure mission and the real homeland security gaps created by post 9/11 policies that have undermined FPS security capabilities. Part II demonstrates that these homeland security gaps outweigh the structural and budgetary concerns that have been used to justify the widespread delegation of federal security to private contractors. Part III analyzes the legal authority for FPS privatization and recognizes that the current excessive privatization and its resulting homeland security gaps is inconsistent with the legislative intent of the DHS Act. Despite Congress\u27s legislative intent, the Department has broad legal authority to privatize under statutory law and this does not violate executive branch policies regarding privatization. Part IV considers the constitutional law concerns that excessive privatization raises and suggests that, despite judicial reluctance to enforce a limit on privatization based on the nondelegation doctrine, limitations should bar privatizing the FPS to the point that homeland security is severely undermined. The privatization of government-here, through the expansive and broad privatization of the FPS security functions undermines our core precepts regarding democratic governance and our constitutional structure

An Economic Analysis of Security Policies

This paper analyses public policy choices in the security economy from an economic perspective. It discusses the role of public goods for national and global security and identifies the importance of the first- and second-order indirect effects of insecurity on economic activity, which include the behavioural responses of agents and the government to security measures, akin to such effects in insurance economics. Furthermore, key public policy trade-offs are outlined, in particular between security and efficiency, globalisation, equity and freedom. The analysis identifies suitable policy options for raising security in the national and international contexts and in view of these trade-offs. A suitable balance between market and non-market instruments in achieving security should be aimed for to minimise the adverse effects of aiming for higher security. In addition, the public good nature of security implies that international coordination of security policies is important, despite this process being itself fraught with enforcement problems.Collective goods; Public policy; Regulation; Risk; Security; Terrorism

Ready for Tomorrow: Demand-Side Emerging Skills for the 21st Century

As part of the Ready for the Job demand-side skill assessment, the Heldrich Center explored emerging work skills that will affect New Jersey's workforce in the next three to five years. The Heldrich Center identified five specific areas likely to generate new skill demands: biotechnology, security, e-learning, e-commerce, and food/agribusiness. This report explores the study's findings and offers recommendations for improving education and training in New Jersey

Toward a Theory of Public Entrepreneurship

This paper explores innovation, experimentation, and creativity in the public domain and in the public interest. Researchers in various disciplines have studied public entrepreneurship, but there is little work in management and economics on the nature, incentives, constraints and boundaries of entrepreneurship directed to public ends. We identify a framework for analyzing public entrepreneurship and its relationship to private entrepreneurial behavior. We submit that public and private entrepreneurship share essential features but differ critically regarding the definition and measurement of objectives, the nature of the selection environment, and the opportunities for rent-seeking. We describe four levels of analysis for studying public entrepreneurship, provide examples, and suggest new research directions.Entrepreneurship, public administration, political economy, institutions, transaction costs

U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Trade Facilitation, Enforcement, and Security

[Excerpt] This report describes and analyzes import policy and CBP’s role in the U.S. import process. (The report does not cover CBP’s role in the U.S. export control system.) The first section of the report describes the three overarching goals of U.S. import policy and the tension among them. Second, the report provides a legislative history of customs laws, followed by an overview of the U.S. import process as it operates today. Third, the import process and CBP’s role in it are discussed. The final section highlights several policy issues that Congress may consider in its oversight role or as part of customs or trade legislation, including measures seeking to provide additional trade facilitation benefits to importers and others enrolled in “trusted trader” programs, to improve enforcement of intellectual property and trade remedy laws, to strengthen cargo scanning practices, and/or to promote modernization of customs data systems, among other issues. A list of trade-related acronyms used in the report is provided in Appendix A

The Fate of “American Prosperity” in the Age of Tech: An Analysis of the H-1B Visa Program

On April 18, 2017, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13788 calling for a review of the H-1B visa program, effectively taking the first step towards visa reforms to reverse what he dubbed the “theft of American prosperity” (Beckwith, 2016). Just over a week later, he reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to American workers, stating in a subsequent speech that his foreign policy “will always put the interests of the American people and American security above all else…. this will ensure that our own workers, right here in America, get the jobs and higher pay that will grow our tax revenues, increase our economic might as a nation, and make us strong financially again” (Beckwith, 2016). For many political pundits and average Americans alike, Trump’s call for scrutinizing the H-1B visa program was hardly unforeseen, as he echoed a sentiment common in the public discourse on employment in the United States during the primaries: “They are taking our jobs. China is taking our jobs. Japan is taking our jobs. India is taking our jobs. It is not going to happen anymore, folks” (Worstall, 2016). Trump’s assertion has become so exceedingly commonplace in the context of economic uncertainty that it has morphed into a sort of truism in the collective consciousness of many Americans who fear for their jobs. As such, it is hardly a leap of logic to regard Trump’s desire to review the H-1B program, the country’s flagship employment-based nonimmigrant visa program for attracting temporary workers in specialty occupations, as a step toward curbing the outsourcing of American labor and hobbling foreign competition from “stealing” American jobs. Yet despite the cultural fervor aimed at employing Americans first, there is little research that explores the role of the H-1B visa in this supposed phenomenon, particularly with respect to India’s role in the rapidly-evolving tech industry. That being the case, the goal of this research is to investigate trends in the volume of Indian H-1B recipients vis-à-vis economic, social, and political factors that may influence these trends in order to determine whether or not America needs H-1B labor. To this end, I will first supply a brief explanation of the genesis of the H-1B program. I will then identify and describe trends in Indians’ use of the H-1B in relation to other top recipient countries, occupational groups, leading visa sponsors, and the demand for temporary workers in specialized fields. Finally, I will attempt to draw conclusions which speak to whether or not America needs H-1B labor

Toward a Theory of Public Entrepreneurship

This paper explores innovation, experimentation, and creativity in the public domain and in the public interest. Researchers in various disciplines have studied public entrepreneurship, but there is little research specifically on the nature, incentives and constraints of public entrepreneurship to innovate in the public interest. We begin by extending concepts of the entrepreneurial firm to include greater interactions in the public domain, and then turn to the role of entrepreneurial firms in fostering institutional change. This focus points toward opportunities for integrating transaction-costs, political and international business theories to achieve a more refined institutional theory of firm-government interactions that incorporates entrepreneurial agency as a principal mechanism for innovating in the fulfillment of public and private interests.