Robust Rules Research Articles

Populism and the rule of law: The importance of institutional legacies

AbstractExisting work sees populist governments undermining the rule of law because they seek to dismantle institutional constraints on their personalistic plebiscitarian rule. We argue that populist rulers pose a greater threat to legal impartiality, equality, and compliance when they face a legacy of weak rule of law. We find empirical support for this assertion after applying synthetic control methods to a cross‐country sample that includes up to 51 populist events spanning the period from 1920 to 2019. Our results remain consistent across a range of robustness checks including, the consideration of a set of contextual variables that can potentially determine the capacity of populist governments to sweep away institutional constraints, different populist event classifications, and different ways of measuring the rule of law. In countries, like the United States, with a robust rule of law tradition, the deleterious impact of populists on institutions will be limited but not negligible.

경제안보 시대 CPTPP 가입 평가

Purpose: This study evaluates the economic security implications of Korea’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Research design, data, and methodology: Through a literature review, this paper examines the international trade environment as characterized by weakening of the multilateral trading system, the expansion of global protectionism, intensified U.S.-China strategic competition, disruptions in global supply chains, and the reconfiguration of supply chains in the Asia-Pacific region. Results: Accession to the CPTPP could contribute to the stabilization of Korea’s supply chains in the Asia-Pacific region by advancing market liberalization, attracting investment, introducing advanced standards for customs, enhancing global competitiveness, and diversifying the procurement of intermediate goods. In particular, the CPTPP’s robust rules of origin could offer regional companies’ some flexibility in managing global supply chains. Conclusions: The Korean government needs to expedite the accession process by actively engaging the National Assembly, potentially affected industries, and the general public through positive promotional efforts. It is important to advance the preliminary dialogues with CPTPP member countries. Korea should also develop a strategy that maximizes its negotiating leverage.

EU’s sustainable finance disclosure regulation: does the hybrid reporting regime undermine the goal to reorient capital to climate action?

ABSTRACT Disclosure and reporting are cornerstones of the European Union’s sustainable finance agenda with the goals of reorienting capital flows towards climate and other sustainable investments and minimizing greenwashing. A key component of the regulatory framework is the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which requires fund managers to calculate and disclose a ‘sustainable investment’ (SI) percentage, aggregating exposure to activities contributing to climate mitigation and adaptation and the other environmental and social sustainability objectives of the European Union. In turn, financial advisors must use SI percentages when advising customers under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. Defining ‘sustainable investments’ in a robust and consistent way is crucial to the effectiveness of SFDR. Based on a review of the regulatory texts and financial sector participant observations this policy analysis article explores the overlapping guidelines framing how market participants are allowed to define sustainable investments, and the implications for achieving the goals of the sustainable finance agenda. The analysis suggests that the ‘unintentionally hybrid’ SFDR regime may perversely incentivize fund managers to forgo the use of the highly detailed EU Taxonomy rules-based approach that precisely defines climate-related ‘substantial contributions’ and apply the vague principles-based approach found in SFDR Article 2.17. This would allow each financial actor to define and determine independently what constitutes a sustainable investment, circumventing the robust, if imperfect, climate-related rules of the EU Taxonomy. The SFDR regime therefore risks undermining the European Commission’s stated goals of increasing capital allocation to sustainable activities and eliminating greenwashing. Key policy insights: A sustainability disclosure regime allowing the choice between robust rules and vague principles risks creating opportunities for greenwashing and reduced comparability. Fund managers are likely to select definitions that are least difficult to apply and maximize Sustainable Investment percentages. The current EU regime risks tacitly sanctioning the use of weak metrics, in turn slowing the reorientation of capital towards climate-related and other sustainable investments. The EU must at a minimum provide binding guidance on interpreting Article 2.17, require equal prominence for both SI percentages and EU Taxonomy-alignment scores, as well as address the usability issues of the existing Taxonomy.

Rule based complex event processing forIoTapplications: Review, classification and challenges

AbstractIn recent decades, data aggregation and correlation have emerged as a significant and challenging area of research for finding useful relationships between different features of streaming data. Similarly, complex event processing (CEP) has emerged as a vital tool for aggregating and finding patterns from streaming data such as video streaming, real‐time stock trades, sensor data and more. In this context, rule‐based classifier algorithms are widely employed to discover valuable patterns from streaming data and cause‐and‐effect relationships between events. However, streaming data is dynamic and complex in nature, and it is not feasible to update the rules manually by domain experts continuously. On the contrary, dynamic data sometimes fails to adopt rules, which leads to sub optimal CEP implementation. Rule‐based CEP systems come up with their own set of challenges, which primarily includes rules adaptability for streaming IoT data. In dynamic environment, shifting patterns in data streams can impact the performance of the CEP system, as well as the correlation between events, and finding useful patterns is very much challenging. In this article, our objective is to provide a comprehensive survey for CEP using rule‐based algorithms applied across various domain and applications. We present a broad literature review using a sequential expansion of methods used for CEP, which primarily include event producers, preprocessing of events, robust rule implementation, and decision support. Additionally, we present a detailed classification of approaches used for different applications. Finally, after applying the rigorous review, it was feasible to present the state‐of‐the‐art research, which focuses on designing robust rules, application specific insights, scalable event‐driven architectures and finding the domain's trends with significant challenges and future scope.

A polygenic explanation for Haldane's rule in butterflies.

Two robust rules have been discovered about animal hybrids: Heterogametic hybrids are more unfit (Haldane's rule), and sex chromosomes are disproportionately involved in hybrid incompatibility (the large-X/Z effect). The exact mechanisms causing these rules in female heterogametic taxa such as butterflies are unknown but are suggested by theory to involve dominance on the sex chromosome. We investigate hybrid incompatibilities adhering to both rules in Papilio and Heliconius butterflies and show that dominance theory cannot explain our data. Instead, many defects coincide with unbalanced multilocus introgression between the Z chromosome and all autosomes. Our polygenic explanation predicts both rules because the imbalance is likely greater in heterogametic females, and the proportion of introgressed ancestry is more variable on the Z chromosome. We also show that mapping traits polygenic on a single chromosome in backcrosses can generate spurious large-effect QTLs. This mirage is caused by statistical linkage among polygenes that inflates estimated effect sizes. By controlling for statistical linkage, most incompatibility QTLs in our hybrid crosses are consistent with a polygenic basis. Since the two genera are very distantly related, polygenic hybrid incompatibilities are likely common in butterflies.

Robust Bidding in First-Price Auctions: How to Bid Without Knowing What Others Are Doing

We propose how to bid in first-price auctions when a bidder knows the own value but not how others will bid. To do this, we introduce a methodology to show how to make choices in strategic settings without assuming common knowledge or equilibrium behavior. Accordingly, we first eliminate environments that are believed not to occur and then find a robust rule that performs well in the remaining environments. We test our bids using data from laboratory experiments and the field and find that our bids outperform those made by real bidders. This paper was accepted by Omar Besbes, revenue management and market analytics. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4899 .

How standards support sustainability of cement and concrete in Europe

Until now, the durability design of concrete structures mainly uses a concept in which the performance is verified primarily with Deemed-to-Satisfy (DtS) rules (concrete composition, concrete cover) based on experience. A new concrete durability concept has been developed named Exposure Resistance Classes (ERC) system. The ERC-concept is discussed as an example of a performance-based approach together with the latest development in cement standards in Europe. For solving future challenges, performance concepts are seen as an opportunity to substitute prescriptive approaches by giving more flexibility in applying new technical solutions. The challenge will be to come up with an appropriate mix of descriptive regulations and performance-related approaches. Further developments in cement and concrete standardisation should provide simple and robust rules for most applications with low or moderate requirements and appropriate and safe solutions for applications under severe conditions (performance-approach for durability).

Blending Aryl Ketone in Covalent Organic Frameworks to Promote Photoinduced Electron Transfer.

Aryl-ketone derivatives have been acknowledged as promising organic photocatalysts for photosynthesis. However, they are limited by their photostability and have been less explored for photoinduced electron transfer (PET) applications. Herein we demonstrate a novel strategy to cover the shortage of aryl-ketone photocatalysts and control the photoreactivity by implanting symmetric aryl ketones into the conjugated covalent organic frameworks (COFs). To prove the concept, three comparative materials with the same topology and varied electronic structures were built, adopting truxenone knot and functionalized terephthalaldehyde linkers. Spectroscopic investigation and excited carrier dynamics analysis disclosed improvements in the photostability and electronic transfer efficiency as well as the structure-performance relationships toward N-aryl tetrahydroisoquinoline oxidation. This system provides a robust rule of thumb for designing new-generation aryl-ketone photocatalysts.

Robust Rules for Optimal Colorimetric Sensing Based on Gold Nanoparticle Aggregation.

Spurred by outstanding optical properties, chemical stability, and facile bioconjugation, plasmonic metals have become the first-choice materials for optical signal transducers in biosensing. While the design rules for surface-based plasmonic sensors are well-established and commercialized, there is limited knowledge of the design of sensors based on nanoparticle aggregation. The reason is the lack of control over the interparticle distances, number of nanoparticles per cluster, or multiple mutual orientations during aggregation events, blurring the threshold between positive and negative readout. Here we identify the geometrical parameters (size, shape, and interparticle distance) that allow for maximizing the color difference upon nanoparticle clustering. Finding the optimal structural parameters will provide a fast and reliable means of readout, including unaided eye inspection or computer vision.

Resolving content moderation dilemmas between free speech and harmful misinformation

In online content moderation, two key values may come into conflict: protecting freedom of expression and preventing harm. Robust rules based in part on how citizens think about these moral dilemmas are necessary to deal with this conflict in a principled way, yet little is known about people's judgments and preferences around content moderation. We examined such moral dilemmas in a conjoint survey experiment where US respondents (N = 2, 564) indicated whether they would remove problematic social media posts on election denial, antivaccination, Holocaust denial, and climate change denial and whether they would take punitive action against the accounts. Respondents were shown key information about the user and their post as well as the consequences of the misinformation. The majority preferred quashing harmful misinformation over protecting free speech. Respondents were more reluctant to suspend accounts than to remove posts and more likely to do either if the harmful consequences of the misinformation were severe or if sharing it was a repeated offense. Features related to the account itself (the person behind the account, their partisanship, and number of followers) had little to no effect on respondents' decisions. Content moderation of harmful misinformation was a partisan issue: Across all four scenarios, Republicans were consistently less willing than Democrats or independents to remove posts or penalize the accounts that posted them. Our results can inform the design of transparent rules for content moderation of harmful misinformation.

Usage of GAMS-Based Digital Twins and Clustering to Improve Energetic Systems Control

With the increasing constraints on energy and resource markets and the non-decreasing trend in energy demand, the need for relevant clean energy generation and storage solutions is growing and is gradually reaching the individual home. However, small-scale energy storage is still an expensive investment in 2022 and the risk/reward ratio is not yet attractive enough for individual homeowners. One solution is for homeowners not to store excess clean energy individually but to produce hydrogen for mutual use. In this paper, a collective production of hydrogen for a daily filling of a bus is considered. Following our previous work on the subject, the investigation consists of finding an optimal buy/sell rule to the grid, and the use of the energy with an additional objective: mobility. The dominant technique in the energy community is reinforcement learning, which however is difficult to use when the learning data is limited, as in our study. We chose a less data-intensive and yet technically well-documented approach. Our results show that rulebooks, different but more interesting than the usual robust rule, exist and can be cost-effective. In some cases, they even show that it is worth punctually missing the H2 production requirement in exchange for higher economic performance. However, they require fine-tuning as to not deteriorate the system performance.

Pandemic restrictions and street vendors’ right to work in India: protection through a robust rule of law framework

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the urban poor, particularly street vendors in India. The impact of the virus is worsened by the response of the Union and State governments. To evaluate the challenges faced by street vendors due to the pandemic, this paper seeks to: First, describe the legal architecture deployed in India to tackle the pandemic. Second, elaborate the human right to livelihood in international and domestic laws, and test domestic legislation on the principles constituting the rule of law. Third, assess the various executive orders issued by State governments under these laws on their fidelity to the principles of the rule of law. Fourth, identify the mechanisms which may bolster the rule of law in India by drawing inspiration from the best practices in other countries. Hopefully, these mechanisms, once imbibed, would protect India’s impoverished and the disadvantaged through any crises in the future.

Robust Linear Discriminant Rule using Double Trimming Location Estimator with Robust Mahalanobis Squared Distance

The commonly employed classical linear discriminant rule, based on classical mean and covariance, are highly sensitive to outliers. Therefore, outlier influence on location and scale estimation will affect the accuracy of a discriminant rule and lead to high misclassification rates. The past studies used classical Mahalanobis Squared Distance (MSD) to alleviate the problem. However, the highly sensitive mean and covariance shortcoming can still affect the distance computation, causing masking and swamping effects. In a previous study, researchers proposed a double trimming procedure that adopted MSD-based α-trimmed mean into MSD-based α-trimmed median to construct a robust classifier. However, the proposed procedure has an overlooked flaw because the procedure employed the MSD in the computation. Thus, this study proposed to employ a robust MSD for the distance-based trimmed median procedure. The improvised trimmed median was then used to construct a robust linear discriminant rule and compared with the classical and existing robust rules using a simulation study. The results show that this study’s proposed robust linear discriminant rule has better accuracy and consistent performance than the classical linear discriminant rule and two other robust linear discriminant rules.

Discovering Interpretable Data-to-Sequence Generators

We study the problem of predicting an event sequence given some meta data. In particular, we are interested in learning easily interpretable models that can accurately generate a sequence based on an attribute vector. To this end, we propose to learn a sparse event-flow graph over the training sequences, and statistically robust rules that use meta data to determine which paths to follow. We formalize the problem in terms of the Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle, by which we identify the best model as the one that compresses the data best. As the resulting optimization problem is NP-hard, we propose the efficient ConSequence algorithm to discover good event-flow graphs from data. Through an extensive set of experiments including a case study, we show that it ably discovers compact, interpretable and accurate models for the generation and prediction of event sequences from data, has a low sample complexity, and is particularly robust against noise.

Robust Rule Learning for Reliable and Interpretable Insight into Expertise Transfer Opportunities

Intensive care in hospitals is distributed to different units that care for patient populations reflecting specific comorbidities, treatments, and outcomes. Unit expertise can be shared to potentially improve the quality of methods and outcomes for patients across units. We propose an algorithmic rule pruning approach for use in building short lists of human-interpretable rules that reliably identify patient beneficiaries of expertise transfers in the form of machine learning risk models. Our experimental results, obtained with two intensive care monitoring datasets, demonstrate the potential utility of the proposed method in practice.

Institutional factors affecting entrepreneurship: A QCA analysis

A country's institutional framework plays a crucial role in promoting entrepreneurship, which drives economic growth. Encouraging a minimum level of certainty in ambiguous environments characterized by risk taking is important. Aware of this importance, we analyze the influence of institutional factors on entrepreneurship development. Specifically, we analyze political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, a robust rule of law, the ease of starting a new business, and the ease of obtaining credit. We develop two models to explain the presence and absence of entrepreneurship. To do so, we apply qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to a sample of 48 countries using data sourced from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and the Global Innovation Index. The results show that the effect of institutional factors on the level of entrepreneurship varies according to the socioeconomic characteristics of each country. They suggest that a wide range of institutional configurations lead to the presence or absence of entrepreneurship. Although entrepreneurship can be found in unfavorable institutional environments, future research should examine how to formalize such environments as a standardized institutional configuration to shift from necessity to opportunity entrepreneurship. Achieving this shift is relevant for innovation and economic development.

An Appraisal of The Legal Framework for The Protection of Civilians in Cyber-Warfare Under International Humanitarian Law

This research paper appraises the legal framework for the protection of civilians in cyber warfare under International Humanitarian Law. The paper examines the existing rules of IHL on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts, their applicability or otherwise to cyber warfare, the existing gap in the law, with a view to making recommendations on more effective ways to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts. In doing this, the research methodology adopted is the doctrinal approach. Both primary and secondary sources of information were consulted and utilized in the course of this work. The primary sources include the four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, the Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols, the Rome Statute etc. The secondary sources include textbooks, journals, articles, newspaper, and online material retrieved from the ICRC website and other relevant websites. This paper finds that although International Humanitarian Law provides for robust rules aimed at the protection of civilians in armed conflicts, these rules do not sufficiently afford protection to civilians in cyber warfare as the complexity brought about by these new means and methods of warfare were not captured at the time the rules were made. This work identifies some of the challenges posed to the protection of civilians in cyber warfare and establishes a case for the need for a treaty to specifically regulate cyber warfare and provide for the protection of civilians in cyber warfare. This work also recommends that International policy debates on cyber warfare should be geared towards streamlining the various national views on cyber-attacks.

Judicial Review by the People Themselves: Democracy and the Rule of Law in Ancient Athens

Abstract Modern democratic constitutions mediate the tension between democracy and the rule of law through institutions that check unrestrained popular rule with expert judicial bodies. This paper considers the alternative arrangement that existed in ancient Athens, where checks on popular rule coexisted with strong popular control. Judicial review in Athens, however, raised two additional threats to democracy and the rule of law: unpredictability and partisanship. We combine a formal model with historical exegesis to show how the strategic incentives of Athenian institutional design, along with a strong societal consensus on the value of constitutional democracy, were necessary ingredients for dispelling both threats. In Athens, institutions responsive to citizens’ demands existed alongside a robust rule of law. This case study provides empirical evidence allowing us to reflect on the feasibility of extensive democratic input to the process of constitutional review. [JEL: H11—structure, scope, and performance of government; K40—legal procedure, the legal system, and illegal behavior (general)]

Numerical fiscal rules for economic unions: The role of sovereign spreads

We study gains from introducing common numerical fiscal rules in a “Union” of model economies facing sovereign default risk. We show that among economies in the Union, there is significant disagreement about the common debt limit the Union should implement: the limit preferred by some economies can generate welfare losses in other economies. In contrast, a common sovereign spread limit produces welfare gains across economies in the Union. This result also implies that a spread limit is a more robust rule than a debt limit for a single economy that faces uncertainty about its key characteristics.

The Good Governance Quandary: The Elusive Search for Role Models

Abstract A substantial consensus has emerged in development circles that the reason why some countries are rich and others poor is largely a reflection of the quality of their institutions – political, bureaucratic, and legal – and that countries with seriously dysfunctional institutions cannot expect to pursue a successful long-term trajectory of economic and social development. Many studies support this consensus, but institutional reform efforts for developed countries have resulted in mixed to weak results; many of these efforts have failed, for example, to establish a robust rule of law to protect the rights of citizens, publicly accountable political regimes, a meritocratic, noncorrupt, and efficient bureaucracy, and an independent media. Reportedly up to 60% of donor-assisted reforms have yielded no measurable increase in government effectiveness. It is inferred from this disappointing result that institutional transplants are often ineffective, and the path dependence, caused by accretions of the particularities of given countries’ histories, cultures, politics, ethnic and religious make-up, and geography leaves each country, for the most part, “to write its own history”.