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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Falck, Oliver; Gold, Robert; Heblich, Stephan |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of information disseminated by the Internet on voting behavior. We address endogeneity in Internet availability by exploiting regional and technological peculiarities of the preexisting voice telephony network that hinder the roll-out of fixed-line broadband infrastructure for high-speed Internet. We find small negative effects of Internet availability on voter turnout, and no evidence that the Internet systematically benefits single parties. Robustness tests including placebo estimations from the pre-Internet era confirm our results. We relate differences in the Internet effect between national and local elections to a crowding out of national but not local newspapers. |
| Keywords: | Elections; Political Economy; Instrumental Variables; Mass Media; Inte rnet |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2012-07&r=ict |
| By: | Andrew Mell |
| Abstract: | Internet commerce has made it easier to compare prices and shop online. However, it has also exposed consumers to a new kind of crime in the form of the electronic theft of payment details. However the skills required to successfully intercept payment data differ from the skills required to use that information for one’s own gain. This creates gains to trade between those who steal the data and those who know how to use it. This particular illicit market has the added disadvantage that trade takes place online and the only identification of any paticular trader comes from a username which can be changed at zero cost. This paper examines the reputation mechanisms that keep this market working and considers whether they might constitute an Achilles’ Heel that governments keen to reduce crime might exploit. |
| Keywords: | Reputation, Illicit trade, Illegal behavior and the enforcement of law |
| JEL: | K42 D02 D82 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:611&r=ict |
| By: | Chodak, Grzegorz; Suchacka, Grażyna |
| Abstract: | Contemporary Web stores offer a wide range of products to e-customers. However, online sales are strongly dominated by a limited number of bestsellers whereas other, less popular or niche products are stored in inventory for a long time. Thus, they contribute to the problem of frozen capital and high inventory costs. To cope with this problem, we propose using information on product cost in a recommender system for a Web store. We discuss the proposed recommendation model, in which two criteria have been included: a predicted degree of meeting customer’s needs by a product and the product cost. |
| Keywords: | recommendation method; recommender system; e-commerce; web store; cost |
| JEL: | L81 L86 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39542&r=ict |