Increasing personal data contributions for the greater public good: a field experiment on an online education platform

Personal data increasingly serve as inputs to public goods. Like other types of contributions to public goods, personal data are likely to be underprovided. We investigate whether classical remedies to underprovision are also applicable to personal data and whether the privacy-sensitive nature of personal data must be additionally accounted for. In a randomized field experiment on a public online education platform, we prompt users to complete their profiles with personal information. Compared to a control message, we find that making public benefits salient increases the number of personal data contributions significantly. This effect is even stronger when additionally emphasizing privacy protection, especially for sensitive information. Our results further suggest that emphasis on both public benefits and privacy protection attracts personal data from a more diverse set of contributors.

“Now I Feel a Little Bit More Secure”: The Impact of SNAP Enrollment on Older Adult SSI Recipients

In June 2019, California expanded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility to Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries for the first time. This research assesses the experience and impact of new SNAP enrollment among older adult SSI recipients, a population characterized by social and economic precarity. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 SNAP participants to explore their experiences with new SNAP benefits. Following initial coding, member-check groups allowed for participants to provide feedback on preliminary data analysis. Findings demonstrate that SNAP enrollment improved participants’ access to nutritious foods of their choice, contributed to overall budgets, eased mental distress resulting from poverty, and reduced labor spent accessing food. For some participants, SNAP benefit amounts were too low to make any noticeable impact. For many participants, SNAP receipt was associated with stigma, which some considered to be a social “cost” of poverty. Increased benefit may be derived from pairing SNAP with other public benefits. Together, the impacts of and barriers to effective use of SNAP benefits gleaned from this study deepen our understanding of individual- and neighborhood-level factors driving health inequities among low-income, disabled people experiencing food insecurity and SNAP recipients.

Sweat Equity: Student scholarships in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Universities

This paper responds to calls from past and present students to increase the value of postgraduate scholarships in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here we provide context for understanding the scholarship landscape in Aotearoa, including how scholarships are understood in relation to dominant neoliberal framings of higher education and persistent inequities within the sector. We present data which provides insight into the current inequities in Summer, Masters and PhD scholarship values. The average value of PhD scholarships has remained stagnant between 2011 and 2019 resulting in the average being $11,238 less than the Living Wage in 2019. We show that the average length of time full-time PhD students take to complete their doctorates exceeds the three-year tenure of scholarships. We argue the status-quo of low scholarships, supplemented by postgraduate ‘sweat’, excludes people from participating in postgraduate education, preventing them and their communities from realising the public benefits that such an education can produce. We suggest that these inadequacies could be addressed through 1) raising Summer, Masters and PhD scholarships to the living wage; 2) extending tenure of PhD scholarships; and 3) reinstating the postgraduate student allowance.

Menopause and the Menstrual Equity Agenda

I was in fifth grade, the year 1978, and the weathered purple- and orange-covered paperback copy of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. was finally mine to check out of the school library for an entire week. I read it cover to cover that first night, and surely a dozen times over in the years that followed. I have since reflected upon the extraordinary gifts Judy Blume bestowed in Margaret: enabling children to be seen, respected, and met right when and where it mattered. She validated the most mundane, yet oddly prolific, questions about periods that were clearly on the minds of many. Four decades later, it is fair to say that the most meaningful moments of my legal career have been spent considering the very same topic—menstruation—in a quest to ensure its political centrality to issues of social justice, democratic participation, and gender equality. For my own part, commitment to menstrual equity has entailed examining our current laws and systems to see where discrimination and bias exist and persist—from public benefits to tax codes to education—and then forging the arguments to reverse that. And then, importantly, reimagining, crafting, and advancing new and more equitable policies in their place.

Modeling of the Potential Effect of Revaccination against Whooping Cough in Children Aged 6–7 and 14 years within the Framework of the National of preventive vaccinations

Relevance. Currently, the national calendar of preventive vaccinations does not provide for revaccination against whooping cough in children over the age of 18 months. At the same time, the epidemiological and economic feasibility of revaccination against whooping cough in children aged 6–7 years, as well as adolescents, has been demonstrated in world practice. Aim. Based on a mathematical model, develop a forecast of pertussis morbidity dynamics and assess the potential socio-economic damage under the current and expanded vaccine prophylaxis algorithms.Methods. Mathematical modeling of the potential effect of revaccination against whooping cough in children aged 6–7 years (scenario 1) and at 6–7 years and 14 years (scenario 2) was carried out within the framework of the national calendar of preventive vaccinations. A simulation dynamic mathematical model is constructed that allows predicting the development of the epidemiological process of whooping cough on the basis of the dynamics of the main indicators of its prevalence in the population that developed in previous years. The model took into account dynamic changes in the preventive effectiveness of vaccinations and the potential level of underestimation of morbidity. The obtained arrays of indicators served as the basis for extrapolating trends in morbidity and mortality until 2034.The calculation of epidemiological benefits was carried out in the metrics of prevented loss of years of life under the two scenarios under consideration in comparison with the current vaccination algorithm. The calculation of the economic effect was carried out on the basis of the obtained indicators of epidemiological benefits in the metrics of the monetary equivalent of the average cost of a year of life, taking into account the projected inflation coefficients until 2034.Results. The projected decrease in the number of years of life lived in a state of illness, in comparison with the current situation, will total 44.5 thousand years for the period 2019–2034 under scenario 1 and 66.7 thousand years under scenario 2. The socio-economic damage from prevented cases of the disease, expressed in the monetary equivalent of the average cost of living, will decrease by 28.6% (scenario 1) or 42.0% (scenario 2).Conclusions. A comparison of the received public benefits with the costs of vaccination shows that the expansion of the NCPP with additional revaccinations against whooping cough (at 6–7 years or at 6–7 and at 14 years) is advisable both in epidemiological and economic aspects.

Import of Scientific Policy Instruments in Contemporary Russia

Characteristic features of contemporary scientific policy of Russia in the context of its instruments import are highlighted in the article. Instruments are analyzed as institutions according to the D. North interpretation. It was revealed that the main imports are the instruments those ensure the accountability of the academic community (academia). Grant funding system, scientometrics and academic excellence programs are these instruments. In the conditions of contemporary Russia the accountability of scientists and scholars to society turns into accountability to the vertical of power. The motivation of its representatives includes both the idea of public benefits as well as the task of private efficiency maximizing when to select the goals and instruments of scientific policy. It is shown that the selection process includes three main levels: political, governmental and departmental. Imported instruments are gradually transformed in accordance with the interests of the actors participating in the vertical administrative bargaining at all these levels. The goals set at the political level to strengthen economic and political positions of the country in the world are gradually being replaced with the tasks of maximizing the private efficiency of high-ranking participants in this bargaining. As a result, a qualitative modification of the sphere of science occurs. It is not just about the limitation of academic community autonomy, but about its incorporation into the vertical of power in the conditions of contemporary Russia. This fact leads to the changing of motivation and structure of academia. Academic researchers and scholars are gradually being replaced by politicized academic administrators and specific academic entrepreneurs. They are differ if compare them with the western academic entrepreneurs. The latter are focused on the competitive economic markets, while the first concentrate their attention on the redistribution of resources within the framework of vertical administrative bargaining.

Constrained public benefits from global catch share fisheries

Across publicly owned natural resources, the practice of recovering financial compensation, commonly known as resource rent, from extractive industries influences wealth distribution and general welfare of society. Catch shares are the primary approach adopted to diminish the economically wasteful race to fish by allocating shares of fish quotas—public assets—to selected fishing firms. It is perceived that resource rent is concentrated within catch share fisheries, but there has been no systematic comparison of rent-charging practices with other extractive industries. Here, we estimate the global prevalence of catch share fisheries and compare rent recovery mechanisms (RRM) in the fishing industry with other extractive industries. We show that while catch share fisheries harvest 17.4 million tons (19% of global fisheries landings), with a value of 17.7 billion USD (17% of global fisheries landed value), rent charges occurred in only 5 of 18 countries with shares of fish quotas primarily allocated free of charge. When compared with other extractive industries, fishing is the only industry that consistently lacks RRM. While recovering resource rent for harvesting well-governed fishery resources represents a source of revenue to coastal states, which could be sustained indefinitely, overcharging the industry might impact fish supply. Different RRM occurred in extractive industries, though generally, rent-based charges can help avoid affecting deployment of capital and labor to harvest fish since they depend on the profitability of the operations. Our study could be a starting point for coastal states to consider adapting policies to the enhanced economic condition of the fishing industry under catch shares.

Embedded Philanthropic CSR in Digital China: Unified View of Prosocial and Pro-environmental Practices

In recent decades, China has transformed from a conventional society into a digitally competitive nation. From an economic perspective, embedded corporate social responsibility (CSR) is gaining a new height where gamified charity is a trendy approach. By adopting the norm activation model from the point of view of the stimulus–organism–response framework, this research theoretically conceptualized the role of the mobile application environment (including telepresence, functional transparency, and accessibility) to map the cognition and philanthropic behavioral intentions of consumers in the gamified setting. The quantified survey comprised 669 respondents. The findings highlighted the critical role of functional transparency and telepresence of a mobile application in driving consumers’ warm glow and ascribed responsibility. The research underlined the presence of the unique DNA of Internet Plus Charity (Public Benefits) for prosocial and pro-environmental purposes in China under the umbrella of philanthropic CSR.

Local Benefits Exceed Costs For Widespread Charging Infrastructure For On-Street Urban Parking

BackgroundLack of charging infrastructure is a critical barrier to the dissemination of electric cars and many cities have started installing charging stations in public parking spaces.We do a cost-benefit analyses of installing charging stations in public parking spaces, with different assumptions for uptake of electric cars, topology of charging stations, environmental benefits, and costs for infrastructure. We use the case study of Zurich, which is representative of dense European cities.ResultsWe find that building charging stations in residential areas has net positive benefits, as long as the charging stations are used at least one-third of the daytime. Net benefits remain positive if we remove noise or climate benefits.ConclusionsAiming to equip 40% of public residential parking spaces with charging points, and then accelerating or slowing down the deployment of charging stations based on their actual use appears to be a robust strategy that will result in positive net public benefits for city residents and stimulate uptake of electric cars.

Philanthrocapitalism and the Separation of Powers

This article discusses the rise of an approach to philanthropic giving known as philanthrocapitalism. I relate it to a new paradigm in management theory that has claimed that private profit making naturally aligns with improved public welfare. I show how growing belief in the inherent “compatibility” of corporate missions and public benefits has led to new laws and contributed to major shifts in how giving practices are structured and legitimated. The original point made in this article is that the philanthrocapitalist turn is more than simply an organizational change in the structure of different philanthropic institutions. Rather, the belief that profit-making and public welfare are naturally aligned also has significant, undertheorized implications for different principles in European-American legal traditions. The ascendancy of the philanthrocapitalist approach represents a subtle but profound displacement of belief in the need for democratic checks and balances on the use of public funds for private enrichment. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 17 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.