David Karpa

David Karpa

Postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Social Data Science (CSDS) at the University of Helsinki

Posts by Collection

portfolio

publications

A Transparency Checklist for Carbon Footprint Calculations Applied within a Systematic Review of Virtual Care Interventions

Published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022

I co-authored this paper when I was still a student. Essentially, this paper is a systematic review on the literature in which carbon footprints for digital health interventions are calculated. In addition, we develop a transparency catalogue that seeks to make future publictions on that topic more comparable.

Recommended citation: Lange, O.; Plath, J.; Dziggel, T.F.; Karpa, D.F.; Keil, M.; Becker, T.; Rogowski, W.H. A Transparency Checklist for Carbon Footprint Calculations Applied within a Systematic Review of Virtual Care Interventions. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 7474. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127474 https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7474

Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance, and Big Data

Published in Diginomics Research Perspectives, 2022

We wrote this paper in order to capture some of the main themes in the literature regarding AI and political control. Additionally, we formulated a couple of new hypotheses with respect to future developments in an AI race between the US and China, with a particular focus on the role of creativity for research.

Recommended citation: Karpa, D., Klarl, T., Rochlitz, M. (2022). Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance, and Big Data. In: Hornuf, L. (eds) Diginomics Research Perspectives. Advanced Studies in Diginomics and Digitalization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04063-4_8 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-04063-4_8

Authoritarian Surveillance, Innovation and Growth

Published in Working Paper, 2023

How do authoritarian political institutions influence the ability of an economy to innovate? The existing literature identifies a mostly negative effect of autocracy on innovation. In this paper, we build a theoretical model to investigate if this premise still holds in autocracies that rely on digital surveillance for political control, and that use the data obtained through surveillance as a subsidy for innovation in fields such as artificial intelligence. Our model illustrates the trade-off between the negative effect of surveillance on research and creativity, and the positive effect of the availability of large amounts of data. We find that while on average the effect of authoritarian institutions on innovation remains negative, in fields such as artificial intelligence where large amounts of data are important, autocracies can – under specific circumstances – achieve better results than competitive democracies.

Recommended citation: Klarl, Torben and Karpa, David F. and Leusin, Matheus Eduardo and Rochlitz, Michael, Authoritarian Surveillance, Innovation and Growth (October 6, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract= Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract_id=4594849 https://ssrn.com/abstract_id=4594849

Authoritarian Surveillance and Public Support for Digital Governance Solutions

Published in Comparative Political Studies, 2024

This study investigates factors influencing support for digital governance solutions and compares this support between autocracies and democracies. We conduct survey experiments in Russia, Germany, Turkey, the United States, and Estonia, and find that awareness of potential misuse of digital governance tools by the government reduces support. Importantly, while this effect has previously been documented for China, we find it irrespective of regime type for an autocracy, a hybrid regime and three democracies. Individuals relying on government-controlled information sources are more likely to endorse digital governance tools. Our study challenges prior findings by indicating that gaps in public service quality do not boost support. Instead, satisfaction with government services correlates with trust in the government’s capacity to implement digital governance solutions.

Recommended citation: Karpa, D., & Rochlitz, M. (2024). Authoritarian Surveillance and Public Support for Digital Governance Solutions. Comparative Political Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140241290208 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00104140241290208

talks

teaching

Political Economy of Innovation

Undergraduate course, University of Bremen, 2022

Co-tought a course together with Michael Rochlitz on the political economy of innovation. We first introduced general concepts and later focused on the case of AI.

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Political Regimes

Undergraduate course, Vilnius University, 2022

Lecturer Summer Academy of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes in Vilnius: ”Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Political Regimes. Towards a New Systemic Competition?”

Empirical Social Sciences: Asking and answering questions with data

Graduate course, University of Bremen, 2023

The course aims to prepare students for writing their bachelor’s thesis. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to select and narrow a research topic, to formulate a research question, to do a literature review, to locate descriptive data appropriate to their research question as well as they will learn how to visualize this data using R software. Students will be prepared to design and independently carry out their own research project. The focus is on teaching the ability to independently use data from various sources as a basis for argumentation to answer social science questions. This will prepare students for writing their thesis, as well as for a future career in which data analysis plays an increasingly important role. At the end of the course, students will design their own research project, and present it to their peers.