805 research outputs found
Perceptions versus Reality: Assessing Popular Evaluations of Election Quality in Africa
In this paper, I assess the determinants and validity of citizens' perceptions of election quality. First, I suggest that citizens' evaluation of the performance of election-related institutions is the most crucial determinant of their election quality perceptions; however, citizens' personal experience with electoral irregularities, and affiliation with electoral winners also matter. Second, I argue that citizens' election quality perceptions are generally indicative of prevailing trends within different stages of the election process. I expect citizens' perceptions to be correlated with other non-perception-based indicators of election quality. I test these hypotheses in the context of the 2007 Nigerian elections, using survey data from the Afrobarometer and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems along with original data coded from petitions filed in Nigerian Election Tribunals. The findings provide robust support for the hypotheses and underscore the importance of gauging citizens' perceptions of electoral quality. Most importantly, the results indicate that Nigerians were critical of the quality of the 2007 elections and demand electoral institutions with impartiality and professionalism
Innovation, Reallocation and Growth
We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth and reallocation featuringendogenous entry and exit. A key feature is the selection between high- and low-type firms,
which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the parameters of the model using
detailed US Census micro data on firm-level output, R&D and patenting. The model provides
a good fit to the dynamics of firm entry and exit, output and R&D, and its implied elasticities
are in the ballpark of a range of micro estimates. We find industrial policy subsidizing either
the R&D or the continued operation of incumbents reduces growth and welfare. For example,
a subsidy to incumbent R&D equivalent to 5% of GDP reduces welfare by about 1.5% because
it deters entry of new high-type firms. On the contrary, substantial improvements (of the order
of 5% improvement in welfare) are possible if the continued operation of incumbents is taxed
while at the same time R&D by incumbents and new entrants is subsidized. This is because
of a strong selection effect: R&D resources (skilled labor) are inefficiently used by low-type
incumbent firms. Subsidies to incumbents encourage the survival and expansion of these firms
at the expense of potential high-type entrants. We show that optimal policy encourages the exit
of low-type firms and supports R&D by high-type incumbents and entry
Innovation, Reallocation and Growth
We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth and reallocation featuringendogenous entry and exit. A key feature is the selection between high- and low-type firms,
which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the parameters of the model using
detailed US Census micro data on firm-level output, R&D and patenting. The model provides
a good fit to the dynamics of firm entry and exit, output and R&D, and its implied elasticities
are in the ballpark of a range of micro estimates. We find industrial policy subsidizing either
the R&D or the continued operation of incumbents reduces growth and welfare. For example,
a subsidy to incumbent R&D equivalent to 5% of GDP reduces welfare by about 1.5% because
it deters entry of new high-type firms. On the contrary, substantial improvements (of the order
of 5% improvement in welfare) are possible if the continued operation of incumbents is taxed
while at the same time R&D by incumbents and new entrants is subsidized. This is because
of a strong selection effect: R&D resources (skilled labor) are inefficiently used by low-type
incumbent firms. Subsidies to incumbents encourage the survival and expansion of these firms
at the expense of potential high-type entrants. We show that optimal policy encourages the exit
of low-type firms and supports R&D by high-type incumbents and entry
P4_2 Visibility of the Great Fire of London
The Great fire of London is investigated to determine whether it would have been visible from a satellite in both high and low Earth orbit, had such technology been available. Both resolving power and radiated power are tested and it is found that the resolving power is more influential than that of radiative transfer. In low Earth orbit the Great Fire would have been visible with the naked eye, but in geostationary orbit a camera with a large aperture would be required
Using blogs to make peer-reviewed research more accessible
Discipline-based education researchers produce knowledge that aims to help
instructors improve student learning and educational outcomes. Yet, the
information produced may not even reach the educators it is intended to
influence. Prior work has found that instructors often face barriers to
implementing practices in peer-reviewed literature. Some of these barriers are
related to accessing the knowledge in the first place such as difficulty
finding and understanding research and a lack of time to do so. To lower these
barriers, we created an online blog, PERbites, that summarizes recent
discipline-based education research in short posts that use plain language.
Having covered nearly 100 papers to date, we conducted a survey to see if we
were addressing the need we had originally set out to address. We posted a
23-item survey on our website and received 24 usable responses. The results
suggested that readers do generally agree that we are meeting our original
goals. Readers reported that our articles were easier to understand and used
more plain language than a typical discipline-based education research (DBER)
journal article. At the same time, readers thought that all the important
information was still included. Finally, readers said that this approach helped
them keep up with DBER studies and read about papers they otherwise would not
have. However, most readers did not indicate they changed their teaching and
research practice as a result of reading our blog. Our results suggest that
alternative methods of sharing research (e.g., non-peer reviewed publications
or conference talks) can be an effective method of connecting research with
practitioners, and future work should consider how we as a community might
build on these efforts to ensure education research can make meaningful changes
in the classroom.Comment: Published in the Proceedings of the 2022 Physics Education Research
Conference, Grand Rapids, MI, US July 13th - July 14t
Recommended from our members
Where are the sore losers? competitive authoritarianism, incumbent defeat, and electoral trust in Zambia’s 2021 election
How do electoral turnovers shape citizen perceptions of
election quality in competitive authoritarian regimes? We argue that electoral outcomes are crucial for determining perceptions of electoral quality. While detailed evaluation of electoral trust is complex in competitive autocracies with institutional uncertainty and polarized electoral environments, turnovers send strong and unequivocal signals
about election quality. Previous literature has noted a strong partisan divide in electoral trust in competitive authoritarian regimes, but turnovers can boost trust among both incumbent and opposition supporters. We test this argument in the case of Zambia’s 2021 election, a
case where a ruling party lost despite electoral manipulation and strong control over the Election Management Body (EMB). Empirically, we leverage the first-ever panel survey carried out during Zambian elections. Comparing trust in elections before and after the election, we find that perceived election quality increased after the 2021 electoral turnover among both losers and winners. We find that trust in elections increased the most among winning opposition supporters.
Moreover, despite the outgoing president’s attempt to portray the election as fraudulent, losing ruling-party supporters also increased their trust in elections after the turnover. The study has important implications for the literature on democratic consolidation and institutional trust
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