Redistributive Politics with Distortionary Taxation

This paper proposes a first step towards a positive theory of tax instruments. We present a model that extends models of redistributive politics by Myerson (1993) and Lizzeri and Persico (2001). Two politicians compete in terms of targeted redistributive promises nanced through distortionary taxes. We solve for the case of both targetable and non-targetable taxes. We prove that there is an imperfect efficiency-targetability trade off on the tax side. Politicians prefer targetable taxes over non-targetable ones, especially when the latter are less efficient. Yet, targetable taxation is always used even when it is very inefficient compared to non-targetable t

Party Organization and Electoral Competition

We propose a model in which two parties select the internal organization that helps them win the election. Party choices provide incent

Systematic review of interventions aimed at reducing hookah pipe use: Implications for practitioners and clinicians

Background. Globally, tobacco ranks as one of the major risk factors for death, disease and disability. While strong measures have been implemented to reduce cigarette use, there are alternative ways to smoke tobacco, such as the hookah pipe. Hookah pipe use appears to pose a significant public health concern and has serious short- and long-term health consequences for users and those exposed to second-hand smoke. To date, few studies have reviewed hookah pipe interventions beyond the efficacy-based paradigm.Objectives. To systematically review interventions aimed at reducing hookah pipe use through the RE-AIM framework (reach, efficacy, adoption, implementation and maintenance of results) in order to provide a practical means of evaluating interventions.Methods. A systematic review spanning 12 databases identified studies aimed at reducing hookah pipe use. All methodological types of intervention studies that were peer reviewed and in the English language were considered for inclusion. The quality of each study was assessed. Ten studies were deemed eligible. For each study, data were extracted using the RE-AIM framework.Results. All studies focused solely on the smoker, and their recruitment strategies were described. Eight studies reported meeting their objectives. Overall, the studies presented limited information regarding adoption success. The interventions were mainly supportive, educational or counselling sessions. Only five studies reported on the maintenance of results post intervention.Conclusions. Interventions focusing on reducing hookah pipe use are limited. Counselling and educational support sessions seem to be the most feasible and potentially successful approaches for intervention.

Are we willing to give what it takes? Willingness to pay for climate change adaptation in developing countries

Climate change adaptation is gaining traction as a necessary policy alongside mitigation, particularly for developing countries, many of which lack the resources to adapt. However, funding for developing country adaptation remains woefully inadequate. This paper identifies the burden of responsibility that individuals in the UK are willing to incur in support of adaptation projects in developing countries. Results from a nationally representative survey indicate that UK residents are willing to contribute £27 per year (or a median of £6 per year) towards developing country adaptation (US$30 and$7 using the World Bank’s purchasing power conversion factors). This represents less than one third of the back-of-the-envelope $100-140 per capita per year that the authors estimate would be needed to raise the$70-100bn per year recommended by the World Bank to fund developing country adaptation. Regressions indicate that WTP is driven mostly by a combination of beliefs and perceptions about one’s own knowledge levels, rather than actual knowledge of climate change. We conclude that, to engage the many different audiences that make up the ‘public’, communication efforts must move beyond the simple provision of information and instead, connect with people’s existing values and beliefs

Mass extinctions and supernova explosions

A nearby supernova (SN) explosion could have negatively influenced life on Earth, maybe even been responsible for mass extinctions. Mass extinction poses a significant extinction of numerous species on Earth, as recorded in the paleontologic, paleoclimatic, and geological record of our planet. Depending on the distance between the Sun and the SN, different types of threats have to be considered, such as ozone depletion on Earth, causing increased exposure to the Sun's ultraviolet radiation, or the direct exposure of lethal x-rays. Another indirect effect is cloud formation, induced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere which result in a drop in the Earth's temperature, causing major glaciations of the Earth. The discovery of highly intensive gamma ray bursts (GRBs), which could be connected to SNe, initiated further discussions on possible life-threatening events in Earth's history. The probability that GRBs hit the Earth is very low. Nevertheless, a past interaction of Earth with GRBs and/or SNe cannot be excluded and might even have been responsible for past extinction events.Comment: Chapter for forthcoming book: Handbook of Supernovae, P. Murdin and A. Alsabeti (eds.), Springer International Publishing (in press

Earthing the Anthropos? From ‘socializing the Anthropocene’ to geologizing the social

Responding to claims of Anthropocene geoscience that humans are now geological agents, social scientists are calling for renewed attention to the social, cultural, political and historical differentiation of the Anthropos. But does this leave critical social thought’s own key concepts and categories unperturbed by the Anthropocene provocation to think through dynamic earth processes? Can we ‘socialize the Anthropocene’ without also opening ‘the social’ to climate, geology and earth system change? Revisiting the earth science behind the Anthropocene thesis and drawing on social research that is using climatology and earth systems thinking to help understand socio-historical change, this article explores some of the possibilities for ‘geologizing’ social thought. While critical social thought’s attention to justice and exclusion remains vital, it suggests that responding to Anthropocene conditions also calls for a kind of ‘geo-social’ thinking that relates human diversity and social difference to the potentiality and multiplicity of the earth itself

An Experimental Investigation of Colonel Blotto Games

"This article examines behavior in the two-player, constant-sum Colonel Blotto game with asymmetric resources in which players maximize the expected number of battlefields won. The experimental results support all major theoretical predictions. In the auction treatment, where winning a battlefield is deterministic, disadvantaged players use a 'guerilla warfare' strategy which stochastically allocates zero resources to a subset of battlefields. Advantaged players employ a 'stochastic complete coverage' strategy, allocating random, but positive, resource levels across the battlefields. In the lottery treatment, where winning a battlefield is probabilistic, both players divide their resources equally across all battlefields." (author's abstract)"Dieser Artikel untersucht das Verhalten von Individuen in einem 'constant-sum Colonel Blotto'-Spiel zwischen zwei Spielern, bei dem die Spieler mit unterschiedlichen Ressourcen ausgestattet sind und die erwartete Anzahl gewonnener Schlachtfelder maximieren. Die experimentellen Ergebnisse bestätigen alle wichtigen theoretischen Vorhersagen. Im Durchgang, in dem wie in einer Auktion der Sieg in einem Schlachtfeld deterministisch ist, wenden die Spieler, die sich im Nachteil befinden, eine 'Guerillataktik' an, und verteilen ihre Ressourcen stochastisch auf eine Teilmenge der Schlachtfelder. Spieler mit einem Vorteil verwenden eine Strategie der 'stochastischen vollständigen Abdeckung', indem sie zufällig eine positive Ressourcenmenge auf allen Schlachtfeldern positionieren. Im Durchgang, in dem sich der Gewinn eines Schlachtfeldes probabilistisch wie in einer Lotterie bestimmt, teilen beide Spieler ihre Ressourcen gleichmäßig auf alle Schlachtfelder auf." (Autorenreferat

Gravitational Radiation from Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors

We study gravitational radiation from various proposed gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor models, in particular compact mergers and massive stellar collapses. These models have in common a high angular rotation rate, and the final stage involves a rotating black hole and accretion disk system. We consider the in-spiral, merger and ringing phases, and for massive collapses we consider the possible effects of asymmetric collapse and break-up, as well bar-mode instabilities in the disks. We calculate the strain and frequency of the gravitational waves expected from various progenitors, at distances based on occurrence rate estimates. Based on simplifying assumptions, we give estimates of the probability of detection of gravitational waves by the advanced LIGO system from the different GRB scenarios.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

The Anthropocene, Resilience and Post-Colonial Computation

What forms of politics come with the contested ideas of the Anthropocene and resilience? Rather than taking these ideas as a given and looking at their political consequences, I will ask what politics enters at their points of construction, where they are understood as being constructed computationally. This allows me to read across from the Anthropocene and resilience to the other forms of computational anticipation that are becoming pervasive at the level of everyday life. As truth claims that depend on algorithms, I will argue that all of these constructions derive their authority from an entanglement of computation and science. Under current conditions, this entanglement brings it's own political tendencies, which can be characterised as colonial. To counter this implicit colonialism I will draw on the feminist and post-colonial approaches of standpoint theory. I believe this offers an alternative to the current entanglements of anticipatory computation, and allows us to re-work it into a post-colonial politics of algorithms and atmospheres