Research

Published articles

1. Chowdhury, S.M., Esteve-González, P., and Mukherjee, A. 2022. Heterogeneity, Leveling the Playing Field, and Affirmative Action in Contests. Southern Economic Association, 1-51.   The heterogeneous abilities of players in various competitive contexts often lead to undesirable outcomes such as low effort provision, a lack of diversity, and inequality. A range of policies is implemented to mitigate such issues by enforcing competitive balance, that is, by leveling the playing field. Some of those policies, known as affirmative action (AA) policies, are practiced in ethical response to historical discrimination against particular social groups, and are also aimed at increasing competition. This survey summarizes the rapidly growing literature on contest theory regarding AA and other policies that level the playing field. Using a general theoretical structure, we outline the theoretical, experimental, and empirical research findings on contest outcomes under a multitude of policy mechanisms, and in doing so, we touch upon some of the common debates in the AA literature. https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12618  

2. Bispham, M., Creese, S., Dutton, W.H., Esteve-González, P., and Goldsmith, M. 2022. An Exploratory Study of Cybersecurity in Working from Home: Problem or Enabler? Journal of Information and Policy, 12. This article explores the implications of a shift to working from home (WFH) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature and news coverage of this topic focuses on rising concerns over cybersecurity. Based on in-depth exploratory interviews with cybersecurity experts, it is apparent that cybersecurity problems do arise, but the advances in cybersecurity have enabled this shift and the scaling up of WFH. This qualitative research suggests the need for survey research and selected case studies to gain a more empirically anchored perspective on the degree that cybersecurity has raised problems but also enabled WFH. https://doi.org/10.5325/jinfopoli.12.2022.0010 

3. Shillair, R., Esteve-González, P., Dutton, W.H.,  Creese, S., Nagyfejeo, E., and von Solms, B. 2022. Cybersecurity Education, Awareness Raising, and Training Initiatives: National Level Evidence-based Results, Challenges, and Promise. Computers & Security, 119.  This paper assesses the impact of cybersecurity education, awareness raising, and training (CEAT) on the vitality of internet use and services at the national level. CEAT encompasses one of five dimensions of a larger cybersecurity capacity building model (CMM) that was developed by the Global Cybersecurity Capacity Centre. The paper describes this dimension of capacity building within the CMM, and its indicators of education, awareness, and training in cybersecurity capacity. The paper then presents a cross-national analysis of the outcomes of CEAT on internet use based on comparative data from 80 nations. Controlling for contextual variables, such as the wealth of the nations and scale of internet use, the analysis shows a positive and statistically significant impact of CEAT on the vitality of internet use and services, as well as a distribution of CEAT scores that indicates key issues for low-income and developing nations. A qualitative analysis of responses from these nations is used to identify key reasons for their levels of maturity in this area. While recognising key limitations of these findings, it offers suggestions for policy and practice to meet the need for effective programs for education, awareness raising, and training. In addition, the research suggests the need for more detailed indicators of CEAT initiatives in more nations and over time to assess the validity of the findings and the recommendations for policy and practice in this area of capacity building offered in this paper. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2022.102756 

   • • Article adapted as chapter 22 in Cybersecurity for Decision Makers, Ed. Vajjhala, N.R. & Strang, K.D. 2023. CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003319887

4. Creese, S., Dutton, W.H., Esteve-González, P., and Shillair, R. 2021. Cybersecurity Capacity Building: Cross-National Benefits and International Divides. Journal of Cyber Policy, 6(2): 214-235. The growing centrality of cybersecurity has led many governments and international organisations to focus on building the capacity of nations to withstand threats to the public and its digital resources. These initiatives entail a range of actions that vary from education and training to technology and related standards, as well as new legal and policy frameworks. While efforts to proactively address security problems seem intuitively valuable, they are new, meaning there is relatively little research on whether they achieve their intended objectives. This paper takes a cross-national comparative approach to determine whether there is empirical support for investing in capacity-building. Marshalling field research from 73 nations, the comparative data analysis: (1) describes the status of capacity-building across the nations; (2) determines the impact of capacity-building when controlling for other key contextual variables; and (3) explores the factors that are shaping national advances in capacity-building. The analysis finds a low status of cybersecurity capacity in most of the nations studied and also shows that relatively higher levels of maturity translate into positive outcomes for nations. https://doi.org/10.1080/23738871.2021.1979617

5. Creese S., Dutton W.H., and Esteve-González P. 2021. The Social and Cultural Shaping of Cybersecurity Capacity Building: A Comparative Study of Nations and Regions. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 25: 941-955. This paper presents an empirical study of the social and cultural aspects of cybersecurity capacity building in 78 nations. While nations within geographically defined regions might be expected to share similar attitudes, values, and practices around cybersecurity, this analysis finds that regional differences can be explained largely by cross-national differences in development and the scale of Internet use. These results question the centrality of regions in shaping social and cultural attributes directly tied to cybersecurity capacity. However, the analysis identifies some countries with greater and some with lesser levels of maturity in capacity building than expected only on the basis of their development and scale of Internet use. Further research focused on the dynamics of under- and over-performance of different nations might illuminate where regional contexts could place a brake on, or provide an impetus for, under- or over-performance in cybersecurity capacity building. That said, national development and the scale of Internet use are the most explanatory of cultural attitudes, values, and practices of societies tied to cybersecurity, such as trust on the Internet. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-021-01569-6

6. Esteve-González, P., Herwartz, H., and Theilen, B. 2020. National Support for the European Integration Project: Does Financial Integration Matter? Economics & Politics, 33(2): 357-378. We analyse in how far market perceptions of actual financial integration affect EU integration support at the country level. As indicators of realized states of integration in financial markets we rely upon yield differentials of long-term government debt. To identify particular situations that could undermine the integration process, we suggest a new measure of EU integration risks that fulls a number of properties which are desirable to ensure its informational value. Our results indicate that tensions to finance public debt in integrated financial markets are the main contributor to weakened support for EU integration. Particularly, large yield spreads increase the polarization on this issue at the country level. Moreover, as a confirmation of a-priori expectations, we find that the national support for EU integration sees a fostering in times of economic upswing and under benecial structural EU funding. These results indicate that it becomes crucial to monitor increasing international yield differences as they could prepare the ground for claims for EU disintegration policies, thereby, threatening future advances of the EU integration project. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12166

7. Dahm, M., and Esteve-González, P. 2018 (September). Affirmative Action through Extra Prizes. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 153: 123-142. This paper studies some affirmative action policies that establish that a set of disadvantaged competitors has access to an extra prize. We analyse the effects of creating an extra prize by reducing the prize in the main competition. Contestants differ in ability and agents with relatively low ability belong to a disadvantaged minority. All contestants compete for the main prize, but only disadvantaged agents can win the extra prize. We show that an extra prize is a powerful tool to ensure participation of disadvantaged agents. Moreover, for intermediate levels of the disadvantage of the minority, introducing an extra prize increases total equilibrium effort compared to a standard contest. Thus, even a contest designer not interested in affirmative action might establish an extra prize in order to enhance competition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2018.06.016

8. Esteve-González, P., and Theilen, B. 2018 (July). The economic determinants of party support for European integration. Acta Politica, 53(3): 348-366.       This article considers the political parties’ support for European integration as a strategy to win elections. We examine the impact of both economic factors and institutional context on party support for European integration. We find that party support from right-wing parties is larger in countries with greater financial benefits from the EU budget. On the contrary, benefits from trade creation by the introduction of the euro as a common currency show no significant influence on party support. In the period after the introduction of the euro, we find that right-wing parties were much more Euro-sceptical than left-wing parties when their country did not fulfil the Maastricht debt or deficit criteria. We also observe more support for European integration by left-wing parties in countries that would benefit from welfare state convergence due to European integration.  https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-017-0055-z. A comment on our earlier findings was published on the LSE blog EUROPP, available at http://bit.ly/QSCK6p

9. Esteve-González, P. 2016 (September). Moral hazard in repeated procurement of services. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 48: 244-269. This article analyses repeated procurement of services as a two period model with a potential repeated agency relationship. In the first period, there is an incumbent who provides a service. In the second period, there is a contest stage in which the principal selects the next service provider. The agents’ effort is non-contractible and the contest stage is the mechanism to mitigate potential moral hazard problems. The principal takes account of the past service effort in the contest stage by choosing the weight of past effort and the degree of substitutability between past and current efforts. The results show that, when the principal does not value contest effort, considering past effort as the relevant effort in the contest is optimal. When the principal values contest effort and effort cost increases, decreasing substitutability between efforts is optimal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2016.06.008