Michael Polanyi and Thomas Kuhn: priority and credit

The article argues that Polanyi was a likely source of influence on the theory of science that Kuhn developed in his The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). The striking similarity between Kuhn’s idea of incommensurability and Polanyi’s rendering of scientific controversy in Personal Knowledge is featured here, and is used to expose a tension between Polanyi’s notions of scientific controversy and unfolding truth.

Domain-driven classification based on multiple criteria and multiple constraint-level programming for intelligent credit scoring

Extracting knowledge from the transaction records and the personal data of credit card holders has great profit potential for the banking industry. The challenge is to detect/predict bankrupts and to keep and recruit the profitable customers. However, grouping and targeting credit card customers by traditional data-driven mining often does not directly meet the needs of the banking industry, because data-driven mining automatically generates classification outputs that are imprecise, meaningless, and beyond users' control. In this paper, we provide a novel domain-driven classification method that takes advantage of multiple criteria and multiple constraint-level programming for intelligent credit scoring. The method involves credit scoring to produce a set of customers' scores that allows the classification results actionable and controllable by human interaction during the scoring process. Domain knowledge and experts' experience parameters are built into the criteria and constraint functions of mathematical programming and the human and machine conversation is employed to generate an efficient and precise solution. Experiments based on various data sets validated the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed methods. © 2006 IEEE.

Small amount credit contract reforms in Australia: household survey evidence & analysis

A review of small amount credit contract regulation in Australia began in 2015 as mandated under s 335A of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth). The review panel sought comprehensive data on industry and consumer characteristics and trends. To provide such evidence, consumer groups commissioned original empirical research using data collected from a longitudinal survey that monitors the financial position and attitudes of Australian households. This data on household use of small amount credit contract loans was extracted for the last decade, allowing detailed analysis of the historical patterns and developing trends. The data indicates that overall demand for small amount short duration credit is growing in Australia, the consumer base is broadening, and the predominant form of lending today is online. Deeper analysis highlights the varying motivations of borrower households and their different stages and levels of financial difficulty. It also confirms the socio-economic, employment, educational and financial disadvantages of most households using these loans and their vulnerability to adverse changes in personal circumstances and negative external shocks.