Raising the Bar: Causal Evidence on Gender Differences in Risk-Taking From a Natural Experiment

We investigate the risk-taking behavior of women and men in high-stakes jumping competitions. Results indicated that female and male athletes differ in the timing and extent of their reactions to an increase in the risk of failure. Male competitors increased risk-taking in the more risky environment immediately after the changes. Female athletes, however, increased risk-taking two years after the rule change. Over time, female athletes revert to pre-reform risk-taking levels, and male athletes’ continued to make more risky decisions in the new environment. We attribute our findings to gender differences in competitiveness and risk preferences.

Policy Implications

This chapter offers a short summary of policy implications raised by the book’s historical research. It comments on the speed and nature of change; the importance of context and state formation; the vital role of public deliberation as well as official compliance; the politics of anti-corruption; and the socio-cultural dimensions that frame what constitutes corruption in office. It is argued that policies should be bottom-up and deliberative as well as top-down and formal; that anti-corruption is a protracted, political and contested process which involves personal, institutional and systemic issues as well as extensive public discussion of ethical questions; that rule-change is easier to achieve than culture-change but reform requires both; that the art of governance is a balance between trust and distrust of office-holders, and between formal and informal modes of accountability; and that history is useful in offering data about the process of anti-corruption and influence of the past.

Central Counterparties and Liquidity Provision in Cash Markets

This paper investigates increased liquidity provision by market makers resulting from their ability to reduce balance sheet encumbrance through the use of central counterparties (CCPs). The introduction of the Basel III leverage rule constitutes a shock to market makers’ balance sheets and thus affects their capacity to intermediate trades. Using trade-by-trade data from sovereign bond markets, we show that liquidity provision by CCP members decreased to a lesser extent following the rule change. We attribute these findings to balance sheet reductions due to the netting enabled by CCPs, thereby highlighting their importance in cash markets.

Parliamentary Debates in Canada (1901–2015)

This article analyzes the effect of procedural rule change on the dynamics of parliamentary speeches in the Canadian House of Commons between 1901 and 2015. During this period, several new rules were introduced to reduce the opportunities for private members to speak during the debates so that the government could get its business done within an acceptable amount of time. Our analysis looks at the impact of these rule changes on the content and orientation of all individual speeches made by members of Parliament. The results indicate that parliamentary rules had an important effect on the topic and duration of debates. Our findings also confirm that procedural changes contributed to a heightening of partisan polarization in the Canadian Parliament over time and disproportionately reduced the influence of government backbenchers in the legislative process.

For Farmers or the Environment? The European Parliament in the 2013 CAP Reform

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was the last policy field to be placed under the Ordinary Legislative Procedure and its 2013 reform was the first to be decided under this rule. This article analyses how rule changes following the Lisbon Treaty have shaped policy outcomes related to ‘greening,’ i.e., making agricultural policy more environmentally friendly. Measuring the policy ambitions of amendments during the different phases of the legislative process (the processing phase within the Parliament and the negotiating phase during trilogues), we find that the European Parliament weakened the Commission’s greening proposals—but did so to support an alternative greening agenda built on different policy instruments. This means that rule change has altered the power balance between the institutions, making the Commission more dependent on the European Parliament. In the 2013 reform, this new balance of power came at the cost of greening the CAP.

Resilient Institutions: The Impact of Rule Change on Policy Outputs in European Union Decision-Making Processes

The evolution of the inter-institutional balance of powers has been a constant feature of the European integration process. Therefore, this thematic issue reopens these theoretical and empirical discussions by looking at an underexploited angle of research, namely the impact of rule change on policy outputs. We offer a discussion on how to theorise rule change, actors’ behaviour, and their impact on policy outputs. We also examine the links between theory and methods, noting the strengths and weaknesses of different methods for the study of institutional and policy change. We draw on the contributions of this thematic issue to delineate further paths to push forward the current frontiers in EU decision-making research.

Citizen Assessment of Electoral Reforms: Do Evaluations of Fairness Blunt Self-Interest?

A large literature shows that citizens care about the procedural fairness of rules and institutions. This body of work suggests that citizen evaluations of institutional changes should be constrained by fairness considerations, even if they would personally benefit from the reforms. We test this expectation using two panel studies to examine whether citizens become more accepting of proposals rated as unfair (in wave one) after we experimentally manipulate (in wave two) whether the proposals aid their party’s electoral prospects. Using this approach, we are able to establish what citizens see to be fair or unfair separate from their evaluation of a given rule change. We find that supporters of both parties are consistently more favorable toward reforms their fellow partisans and, crucially, they themselves, claim reduce electoral fairness when framed as advancing their partisan interests. The results provide important insights into how citizens evaluate electoral processes, procedural fairness, and, hence, the acceptable limits of institutional change.

Intuitive versus theoretical approaches to visual communication to facilitate knowledge transfer

During the start of the 2002-2003 Ontario youth hockey season, Hockey Canada lowered the age of allowable bodychecking from 12-13 years of age to 9. Dr.Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon from St. Michael’s hospital, investigated the neurological impact of this rule change on youth players in an effort to educate hockey parents on the dangers of bodychecking. Using Dr. Cuismano’s research data, the investigator created three information graphics through three different design approaches: intuitive, theoretical and content-theoretical. Through a 5-Step practical-based methodology, the investigator sought to understand whether Dondis’basic elements of design and Gestalt theory would guide the design process to create a visual solutions geared towards educating hockey parents. The theoretical checklist played played an important role in the creation of the theoretical and content-theoretical designs. Furthermore, the process determined that richness of data generated more robust design solution. When comparing the three designs, it is evident that there is a continual evolution, with each new design extracting strong graphical elements and colour schemes from its predecessor. A blind test was conducted on Dr. Cusimano to determine the success of the visual solutions for the intended target audience. Selected designs included the intuitive and content-theoretical solutions, which Dr. Cusimano felt best represented his research and effectively captured the attention of hockey parents. This experimental design provides a solid foundation, which can be taken further; the three recommendations made by the investigator are to experiment with data-driven parameters, examine the impact of culture on the information design process or hold a focus group with hockey parents to test the impact of the three information graphics created.

Intuitive versus theoretical approaches to visual communication to facilitate knowledge transfer

During the start of the 2002-2003 Ontario youth hockey season, Hockey Canada lowered the age of allowable bodychecking from 12-13 years of age to 9. Dr.Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon from St. Michael’s hospital, investigated the neurological impact of this rule change on youth players in an effort to educate hockey parents on the dangers of bodychecking. Using Dr. Cuismano’s research data, the investigator created three information graphics through three different design approaches: intuitive, theoretical and content-theoretical. Through a 5-Step practical-based methodology, the investigator sought to understand whether Dondis’basic elements of design and Gestalt theory would guide the design process to create a visual solutions geared towards educating hockey parents. The theoretical checklist played played an important role in the creation of the theoretical and content-theoretical designs. Furthermore, the process determined that richness of data generated more robust design solution. When comparing the three designs, it is evident that there is a continual evolution, with each new design extracting strong graphical elements and colour schemes from its predecessor. A blind test was conducted on Dr. Cusimano to determine the success of the visual solutions for the intended target audience. Selected designs included the intuitive and content-theoretical solutions, which Dr. Cusimano felt best represented his research and effectively captured the attention of hockey parents. This experimental design provides a solid foundation, which can be taken further; the three recommendations made by the investigator are to experiment with data-driven parameters, examine the impact of culture on the information design process or hold a focus group with hockey parents to test the impact of the three information graphics created.