A recommendation method for online dating networks based on social relations and demographic information

A new relationship type of social networks - online dating - are gaining popularity. With a large member base, users of a dating network are overloaded with choices about their ideal partners. Recommendation methods can be utilized to overcome this problem. However, traditional recommendation methods do not work effectively for online dating networks where the dataset is sparse and large, and a two-way matching is required. This paper applies social networking concepts to solve the problem of developing a recommendation method for online dating networks. We propose a method by using clustering, SimRank and adapted SimRank algorithms to recommend matching candidates. Empirical results show that the proposed method can achieve nearly double the performance of the traditional collaborative filtering and common neighbor methods of recommendation.

Mapping intermedia news flows : topical discussions in the Australian and French political blogospheres

The growth of technologies and tools branded as =new media��� or =Web 2.0��� has sparked much discussion about the internet and its place in all facets of social life. Such debate includes the potential for blogs and citizen journalism projects to replace or alter journalism and mainstream media practices. However, while the journalism-blog dynamic has attracted the most attention, the actual work of political bloggers, the roles they play in the mediasphere and the resources they use, has been comparatively ignored. This project will look at political blogging in Australia and France - sites commenting on or promoting political events and ideas, and run by citizens, politicians, and journalists alike. In doing so, the structure of networks formed by bloggers and the nature of communication within political blogospheres will be examined. Previous studies of political blogging around the world have focussed on individual nations, finding that in some cases the networks are divided between different political ideologies. By comparing two countries with different political representation (two-party dominated system vs. a wider political spectrum), this study will determine the structure of these political blogospheres, and correlate these structures with the political environment in which they are situated. The thesis adapts concepts from communication and media theories, including framing, agenda setting, and opinion leaders, to examine the work of political bloggers and their place within the mediasphere. As well as developing a hybrid theoretical base for research into blogs and other online communication, the project outlines new methodologies for carrying out studies of online activity through the analysis of several topical networks within the wider activity collected for this project. The project draws on hyperlink and textual data collected from a sample of Australian and French blogs between January and August 2009. From this data, the thesis provides an overview of =everyday��� political blogging, showing posting patterns over several months of activity, away from national elections and their associated campaigns. However, while other work in this field has looked solely at cumulative networks, treating collected data as a static network, this project will also look at specific cases to see how the blogospheres change with time and topics of discussion. Three case studies are used within the thesis to examine how blogs cover politics, featuring an international political event (the Obama inauguration), and local political topics (the opposition to the =Cr��ation et Internet���, or HADOPI, law in France, the =Utegate��� scandal in Australia). By using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, the study analyses data collected from a population of sites from both countries, looking at their linking patterns, relationship with mainstream media, and topics of interest. This project will subsequently help to further develop methodologies in this field and provide new and detailed information on both online networks and internet-based political communication in Australia and France.

Tax evasion, inequality, and progressive taxes : a political economy perspective

The standard approach to tax compliance applies the economics-of-crime methodology pioneered by Becker (1968): in its first application, due to Allingham and Sandmo (1972) it models the behaviour of agents as a decision involving a choice of the extent of their income to report to tax authorities, given a certain institutional environment, represented by parameters such as the probability of detection and penalties in the event the agent is caught. While this basic framework yields important insights on tax compliance behavior, it has some critical limitations. Specifically, it indicates a level of compliance that is significantly below what is observed in the data. This thesis revisits the original framework with a view towards addressing this issue, and examining the political economy implications of tax evasion for progressivity in the tax structure. The approach followed involves building a macroeconomic, dynamic equilibrium model for the purpose of examining these issues, by using a step-wise model building procedure starting with some very simple variations of the basic Allingham and Sandmo construct, which are eventually integrated to a dynamic general equilibrium overlapping generations framework with heterogeneous agents. One of the variations involves incorporating the Allingham and Sandmo construct into a two-period model of a small open economy of the type originally attributed to Fisher (1930). A further variation of this simple construct involves allowing agents to initially decide whether to evade taxes or not. In the event they decide to evade, the agents then have to decide the extent of income or wealth they wish to under-report. We find that the ���evade or not��� assumption has strikingly different and more realistic implications for the extent of evasion, and demonstrate that it is a more appropriate modeling strategy in the context of macroeconomic models, which are essentially dynamic in nature, and involve consumption smoothing across time and across various states of nature. Specifically, since deciding to undertake tax evasion impacts on the consumption smoothing ability of the agent by creating two states of nature in which the agent is ���caught��� or ���not caught���, there is a possibility that their utility under certainty, when they choose not to evade, is higher than the expected utility obtained when they choose to evade. Furthermore, the simple two-period model incorporating an ���evade or not��� choice can be used to demonstrate some strikingly different political economy implications relative to its Allingham and Sandmo counterpart. In variations of the two models that allow for voting on the tax parameter, we find that agents typically choose to vote for a high degree of progressivity by choosing the highest available tax rate from the menu of choices available to them. There is, however, a small range of inequality levels for which agents in the ���evade or not��� model vote for a relatively low value of the tax rate. The final steps in the model building procedure involve grafting the two-period models with a political economy choice into a dynamic overlapping generations setting with more general, non-linear tax schedules and a ���cost-of evasion��� function that is increasing in the extent of evasion. Results based on numerical simulations of these models show further improvement in the model���s ability to match empirically plausible levels of tax evasion. In addition, the differences between the political economy implications of the ���evade or not��� version of the model and its Allingham and Sandmo counterpart are now very striking; there is now a large range of values of the inequality parameter for which agents in the ���evade or not��� model vote for a low degree of progressivity. This is because, in the ���evade or not��� version of the model, low values of the tax rate encourages a large number of agents to choose the ���not-evade��� option, so that the redistributive mechanism is more ���efficient��� relative to the situations in which tax rates are high. Some further implications of the models of this thesis relate to whether variations in the level of inequality, and parameters such as the probability of detection and penalties for tax evasion matter for the political economy results. We find that (i) the political economy outcomes for the tax rate are quite insensitive to changes in inequality, and (ii) the voting outcomes change in non-monotonic ways in response to changes in the probability of detection and penalty rates. Specifically, the model suggests that changes in inequality should not matter, although the political outcome for the tax rate for a given level of inequality is conditional on whether there is a large or small or large extent of evasion in the economy. We conclude that further theoretical research into macroeconomic models of tax evasion is required to identify the structural relationships underpinning the link between inequality and redistribution in the presence of tax evasion. The models of this thesis provide a necessary first step in that direction.

Critical discourse analysis and political economy of communication : understanding the new corporate order

This article uses critical discourse analysis to analyse material shifts in the political economy of communications. It examines texts of major corporations to describe four key changes in political economy: (1) the separation of ownership from control; (2) the separation of business from industry; (3) the separation of accountability from responsibility; and (4) the subjugation of ���going concerns��� by overriding concerns. The authors argue that this amounts to a political economic shift from traditional concepts of ���capitalism��� to a new ���corporatism��� in which the relationships between public and private, state and individual interests have become redefined and obscured through new discourse strategies. They conclude that the present financial and regulatory ���crisis��� cannot be adequately resolved without a new analytic framework for examining the relationships between corporation, discourse and political economy.

Australian copyright regimes and political economy of music

In this chapter I review the history of copyright in Australia through a singular and exemplary ruling of the Australian High Court made in 2012 and then relate that to the declining fortunes of Australian recorded music professionals. The case in point is Phonographic Performance Company [PPCA] of Australia Limited v Commonwealth of Australia [2012] HCA 8 (hereafter, HCA 8 2012). The case encapsulates the history of copyright law in Australia, with the judicial decision drawing substantive parts of its rationale from the Statute of Anne (8 Anne, c. 19, 1710), as well as copyright acts that regulated the Australian markets prior to 1968. More importantly the High Court decision serves to delineate some important political economic aspects of the recorded music professional in Australia and demonstrates Attali���s (1985) assertion that copyright is the mechanism through which composers are, by statute, literally excluded from capitalistic engagement as ���productive labour���.

Copyrights and copyfights : copyright law and the digital economy

This paper will consider questions around the reform of copyright law, and how they are increasingly being framed by the challenges of the digital economy. It discusses the review of copyright and the digital economy being undertaken by the Australian Law Reform Commission, with particular reference to the costs and benefits of copyright law to consumers and creative producers. We argue that there is a pressing need to develop fair copyright rules that encourage investment in the digital economy, allow widespread dissemination of knowledge through society, and support the innovative reuse of copyright works. To better align copyright law with these goals, we recommend that Australia introduce an open ended ���fair use��� style copyright exception, and encourage the development of a digital copyright exchange of the sort discussed in the UK by the Hargreaves and Hooper Reports.

Redistribution and technology adoption under uncertainty : a political economy perspective

We examine the role of politico-economic influences on macroeconomic performance within the framework of an endogenous growth model with costly technology adoption and uncertainty. The model is aimed at understanding the diversity in growth and inequality experiences across countries. Agents adopt either of two risky technologies, one of which is only available through financial intermediaries, who are able to alleviate some of this risk. The entry cost of financial intermediation depends on the proportion of government revenue that is allocated towards cost-reducing financial development expenditure, and agents vote on this proportion. The results show that agents at the top and bottom ends of the distribution prefer alternative means of re-distribution, thereby effectively blocking the allocation of resources towards cost-reducing financial development expenditure. Thus political factors have a role in delaying financial and capital deepening and economic development. Furthermore, the model provides a political-economy perspective on the Kuznets curve; uncertainty interacts with the political economy mechanism to produce transitional inequality patterns that, depending on initial conditions, can unearth the Kuznets-curve experience. Finally, the political outcomes are inefficient relative to policies aimed at maximizing the collective welfare of agents in the economy.

Essays in the political economy of voting and reforms

This thesis presents four essays in the political economy of elections and reforms. The first study exploits discontinuities around school entry cut-off dates to show that early childhood conditions can impact the probability to become a top-flight politician. The second study provides empirical estimates of the effect of sequential voting on turnout and bandwagon voting outside the laboratory. The third work describes a novel nonparametric strategy to identify tactical voting patterns directly from balloting results using British election data. Finally, a study is put forward that examines the political feasibility of reforms.

Local exchange in the southern levant during the early bronze age: a political economy viewpoint

Trade and relations between the southern Levant and other regions of the Near East (mainly Egypt) during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3,600���2,300 BC) have been the subject of many studies. Research concerning the exchange of local commodities was almost ignored or was discussed in parochial studies, focusing on specific archaeological finds. It is the intention of this paper to present the results of recent research of the exchange of commodities provided by archaeological data from excavations in the Southern Levant with regard to economic theories on the exchange-value of goods and exchange networks. Conclusions regarding the type of society and the forms of government in the Southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age are also presented.

Terrorism and the World Economy

Published as an article in: European Economic Review, 2008, vol. 52, issue 1, pages 1-27.

O sistema internacional p��s-crise de 2008 e as rela����es China- Estados Unidos: uma an��lise em tr��s frentes

As rela����es sino-americanas passaram a desempenhar um papel ordenador fundamental na condu����o dos assuntos internacionais neste s��culo XXI, ao ponto de alguns analistas criarem o termo G-2. A crise financeira de 2008, por representar um golpe profundo nos pa��ses desenvolvidos e nos direcionamentos de valores do est��gio atual de desenvolvimento do sistema, levou a rela����o China-Estados Unidos a um outro patamar. Ao passo que os norte-americanos tiveram de se preocupar em resolver as turbul��ncias causadas na economia dom��stica, o pa��s asi��tico passou a desempenhar um papel crucial no processo de recupera����o da economia global. O presente trabalho tem o objetivo, ent��o, de analisar de que forma a crise de 2008, tamb��m chamada de crise do subprime, impactou os ordenamentos centrais do Sistema Internacional neste per��odo de recupera����o e como as rela����es sino-americanas podem ser usadas para uma melhor compreens��o deste fen��meno. Na busca por tra��ar respostas mais s��lidas, a pesquisa delineia-se em tr��s frentes principais de an��lise: as rela����es diretas entre China e Estados Unidos; as rela����es dos dois pa��ses com um terceiro ator, a saber, a ��frica; e os posicionamentos adotados por ambas as partes nas institui����es multilaterais. Para tal, primeiro buscou-se aliar an��lises qualitativas e quantitativas, baseadas em instrumentais matem��ticos e tamb��m na Ci��ncia Pol��tica, Hist��ria e Economia Pol��tica Internacional, para alcan��ar os resultados definidos nos objetivos da pesquisa. A disserta����o �� dividida em cinco cap��tulos, onde os tr��s primeiros tratam de introduzir o assunto estudado e as principais vertentes te��ricas utilizadas ao longo do trabalho. Os ��ltimos envolvem a aplica����o pr��tica dos conceitos interdisciplinares escolhidos como aliados do trabalho emp��rico e a apresenta����o dos resultados finais. Em linhas gerais, concluiu-se que a crise acentuou os aspectos de interdepend��ncia entre China e Estados Unidos em todas as frentes estudadas. Avaliando as rela����es sino-americanas e os rumos do sistema internacional p��s-crise em tr��s facetas, conclu��mos tamb��m que tal exerc��cio anal��tico ofereceu recursos mais palp��veis no fornecimento das respostas procuradas pela disserta����o.