David Karpa

David Karpa

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

Publications

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

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

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

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