We combine real estate data with various types of crime data using time and geospatial information to detect discontinuities in transaction densities and pricing around crime events in Rochester, NY. Discontinuities in transaction densities invalidate causal inference for price responses implied by the regression discontinuity design (RDD) approach. However, these discontinuities also capture the liquidity response to crimes and, together with the commonly emphasized price response, provide a richer picture of how crime affects housing valuation. A calibrated match-and-bargain model reveals that house valuations decrease between 6% and 25% after a crime, depending on the type of crime. These predictions are manifolds of the estimated effect on prices documented in this paper and in the literature. The welfare effects of crime are not uniform across market participants and can elicit considerable disappointment to uninformed buyers that move into a high-crime neighborhood.
Today’s economic system and the companies operating within it are strongly oriented toward a linear pattern of value creation in which raw materials are extracted from the earth, products are manufactured, sold to customers, and end up as waste. This economic linearity causes material waste, global warming, and other environmental degradation. There is increasing pressure being put on companies to implement sustainable, material-conserving business models. An economical alternative is a circular economy (CE) in which companies focus on closed material loops implemented with so-called circular business models (CMBs). Although some research has been done in this field, there is still a significant research gap regarding the company-internal driving factors that facilitate the implementation of CBMs. This current study involved conducting interviews with 59 Swiss managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises from three industries: food and beverage, textile, and logistics. Helped by an inductive grounded theory approach, five managerial and five organizational drivers were identified and analyzed first. In the second step, the concept of dynamic capabilities (DCs) was used to explain the possible influence of drivers on the creation of CBMs conceptually and with reference to data. This study shows which company-internal drivers can act as antecedents of CBM innovation in the entrepreneurial context and how they can affect the higher-order DCs of sensing, seizing, and transforming, according to Teece (2007). This current study contributes to the analysis of factors that stimulate economic transformation toward a CE from a company perspective.
Old-age retirement benefits are a major concern among the Swiss population but estimating one’s revenue after retirement is challenging due to the Swiss social system’s complexity. In Switzerland, as with many other countries, the risk of poverty for retiree people is high, especially for women who often work part-time. The research presented in this paper proposes a methodology to enable the development of a digital platform to provide Swiss citizens the means to verify that their retirement income will allow them to live decently when retired. The aim of the platform will be to allow insured people to plan for retirement in a simplified manner. The methodology used was both qualitative (focus group) and quantitative (surveys). The main results are recommendations for the scope and functionality for a digital platform to be developed. A main conclusion is the need to limit the platform’s scope to old-age pension only (e.g., excluding survivors’ or disability pensions). Moreover, an outcome regarding the functionalities is the proposition of scenarios such as postponed retirement, additional purchases in pension fund, or changes to individual status. The development of the platform is not included in the article.
Old age retirement pensions are an important concern among the Swiss but estimating one’s income after retirement is difficult due to the Swiss insurance system’s complexity. This project’s aim is to prepare for developing a digital platform that will allow individuals to plan for retirement in a simplified manner. The main objective of the platform will be togive individuals the tools to check that their savings and retirement benefits will allow them to continue the lifestyle to which they are accustomed once they are retired. The research results from qualitative (focus group) and quantitative (survey) methodologies, recommend the scope and functionalities for a digital platform to be developed. A main outcome is the need to limit the platform’s scope to old-age pension only (excluding survivors’ or disability pensions, for instance). Furthermore, an outcome regarding the functionalities is the proposition of scenarios such as early retirement, changes to income, or modifications to personal status. The development of the digital platform will be a subsequent project.
This paper presents a solution to dismiss a digital evidence from a permissioned blockchain-based legal system, serving as evidence chain of custody. When challenged into court, a digital evidence can be entirely dismissed, as well as all the procedural acts originating from this evidence, including personal gathered data. Since a blockchain, by design, cannot be altered, this paper proposes an alternative solution based on an access control to the blockchain. This solution relies on an additional structure, linked to the blockchain, representing the history and current legal state of the case. Access to the blockchain is controlled by first interrogating this additional structure in order to serve only legally accepted evidence. Therefore, an evidence stored into the blockchain is not destroyed, but is no longer visible nor accessible. Furthermore, evidence data is separated from the blockchain transaction’s payload, that holds only metadata, and this separation reinforces privacy protection. The solution presented in this paper is explainable to all parties to a court trial.
This paper presents a case of alleged PLC (Programmable Logic controller) hacking aboard a commercial ship, and the forensic investigation of PLC components. It presents the lessons drawn from this case and the particular difficulty of investigating PLC and SCADA systems onboard. Whereas hacking is often seen as taking control of a ship, or part of a ship, it is also related to the alteration of the sensors, the PLCs, the data logger or the SCADA systems. This alteration can be done from a hacking group but in the investigated case, it is more likely an action triggered either by the ship owner, or the ship manufacturer himself. This paper also advocates for an addition of a section concerning cybersecurity in the SOLAS - Safety Of Life At Sea - convention or one of other IMO (International Maritime Organization) conventions.
Service design optimizers benefited greatly from the development of conjoint analysis, which appeared more than forty years ago. Conjoint analysis is a powerful and popular method to estimate consumers’ preferences. As this method is based on a survey, the estimated utility functions can be subject to inaccuracies. In this paper, we propose a service design optimizer that combines robust programming and conjoint analysis. This permits one to identify the optimal service, even when the utility functions are subject to uncertainties.
