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25 February, 2009

Unemployment and Subsequent Earnings for Swedish College Graduates: A Study of Scarring Effects

The purpose of this paper is to study the long term effects of the college-to-work transition. The results reveal that unemployment immediately upon graduation has substantial and permanent effects on

Type of publication: Working papers | Marie Gartell
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22 January, 2021

Deep learning diffusion by infusion into preexisting technologies - Implications for users and society at large

in: Technology in Society. 63, 101396 Abstract:Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of Deep Learning (DL) technology has diffused in the consumer domain in a unique way as compared to previous gene, i.e., by being added to preexisting technologies that are already in use. We find that DL-algorithms for recommendations or ranking have been infused into all the 15 most popular mobile applications (apps) in the U.S. (as of May 2019). DL-infusion enables fast and vast diffusion. For example, when a DL-system was infused into YouTube, it almost immediately reached a third of the world's population. We argue that existing theories of innovation diffusion and adoption have limited relevance for DL-infusion, because it is a process that is driven by enterprises rather than individuals. We also discuss its social and ethical implications. First, consumers have a limited ability to detect and evaluate an infused technology. DL-infusion may thus help to explain why AI's presence in society has not been challenged by many. Second, the DL-providers are likely to face conflicts of interest, since consumer and supplier goals are not always aligned. Third, infusion is likely to be a particularly important diffusion process for DL-technologies as compared to other innovations, because they need large data sets to function well, which can be drawn from preexisting users. Related, it seems that larger technology companies comparatively benefit more from DL-infusion, because they already have many users. This suggests that the value drawn from DL is likely to follow a Matthew Effect of accumulated advantage online: many preexisting users provide a lot of behavioral data, which bring about better DL-driven features, which attract even more users, etc. Such a self-reinforcing process could limit the possibilities for new companies to compete. This way, the notion of DL-infusion may put light on the power shift that comes with the presence of AI in society.

Type of publication: Journal articles | Engström, Emma , Strimling, Pontus
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23 September, 2024

Birth Spacing and Parents’ Physical and Mental Health: An Analysis Using Individual and Sibling Fixed Effects

Demography 61(2): 393–418 Abstract An extensive literature has examined the relationship between birth spacing and subsequent health outcomes for parents, particularly for mothers. However, this researc

Type of publication: Journal articles | Kolk, Martin , Barclay, K. & Ö. Kravdal
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26 September, 2018

The importance of protecting religious buildings in war

It has been a long and violent conflict, but the parties have finally come to an agreement to put down their weapons – now it’s time for peace to settle in society. Unfortunately, there are a limited

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19 December, 2017

Researchers wanted for a project on children's living conditions

The Institute for Futures Studies (IF), Stockholm, is appointing one or two researchers (sociologist/social scientist) to the projects: YOUNG: Children’s living conditions in a changing society: SocioeYOUNGWORK: Early labour market outcomes of young adults

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26 September, 2023

Researcher & assistant to SEMI, a research project on integration of youth in Sweden

The Institute for Futures Studies (IFFS), Stockholm, is appointing one or two researchers (sociologist/social scientist), or one researcher and one assistant, to the project SEMI, for a one- or two-ye

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21 February, 2019

Leading Swedish researchers appeal to research councils: Withdraw support for Plan S

A large number of Swedish researchers are asking the Swedish research councils in coAlition S to withdraw their support from Plan S. Plan S is an initiative to promote the immediate and open access of

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04 July, 2016

How religiosity is transmitted to new generations and what inequality has to do with it

Many things that we deeply care about are related to the topic of religion: gender norms, sexual morals, work ethics but also altruism, charity and community. It is therefore an important question to Contrary to what you might expect, religion continues to play an important role in countries all over the world, as the figure shows.

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24 October, 2016
What Future for Social Investment?

What Future for Social Investment?

In a period of deep crisis, the question arises as to what kind of new strategies should be implemented to recover stronger growth, more and better jobs, and more equality and social cohesion. Reflexi

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19 April, 2017

A popular misapplication of evolutionary modeling to the study of human cooperation

Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 38, Issue 3, Pages 421–427. Abstract To examine the evolutionary basis of a behavior, an established approach (known as the phenotypic gambit) is to assume that the b

Type of publication: Journal articles | Eriksson, Kimmo , & Daniel Cownden. Strimling, Pontus , & Daniel Cownden.
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