The power ranking of the members of the Agricultural Committee of the European Parliament

We aim to identify the most influential members of the Agricultural Committee of the European Parliament (COMAGRI). Unlike previous studies that were based on case studies or interviews with stakeholders, we analyse the voting power of MEPs using a spatial Banzhaf power index. We identify critical members: members whose votes are necessary to form winning coalitions. We found that rapporteurs, EP group coordinators and MEPs from countries with high relative Committee representations, such as Ireland, Poland or Romania are powerful actors. Italy emerges as the most influential member state, while France seems surprisingly weak.

Digitalizing 360 Degree Employee Competency using Banzhaf Power Index and CDF

Traditionally, 360 degree evaluation of employee competency has been done using ratings given by Subordinates or Direct Reports, Peers, Manager and Self. Based on the rating by all rating group, the competency of the employee is determined. The gap between self-rating and ratings of all other group determines whether an employee has hidden strength or has blind spot in each competency variable. However, whenever larger number of subordinates or peers rates an employee, there is inherent bias and the employee’s overall competency rating can be low if the larger group holds grudge against the employee. To avoid bias and determine true rating, this paper proposes innovative use of Banzhaf Power Index. The complete computation and digitalization of Banzhaf Power Index for Chennai based Wind Energy Company is carried out and presented in this paper. The interactive Wolfram Computable Document Format (CDF) has also been created for wider use by personnel managers of other companies.

The Visegrád Group – A Rising Star Post-Brexit? Changing Distribution of Power in the European Council

The portmanteau Brexit describes the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) which will cause a shift of power in the European institutions. The departure of one of the largest EU members will affect the voting power of member countries in the European Council significantly. This Council is the central hub of political decision making in the EU, defining the overall political direction and priorities and setting the policy agenda for the entirety of the EU. Using the Banzhaf power index, we have measured the voting power before and after the Brexit and analyzed the increasing power of the members of the Visegrád Group compared to other European states. We have found that there is growth in the voting power of all Visegrád states, with Poland experiencing the biggest increase. However, the extent by which the Visegrád Group will profit from this statistically growing power depends on the coordination of their voting behavior in the future.

Valuation of voting scheme changes the cases of Electrolux AB and SKF AB

This paper studies the effects of the change of voting scheme on the market prices of Electrolux and SKF AB using standard event study methodology and a clinical approach. The economic effect of the voting scheme change is assessed using the market model. We investigate the loss of control due to the change of the voting scheme. The degree of the change of power is calculated using Shapley power index (SPI) and Banzhaf power index. There is a wealth transfer from the high vote shareholders to low vote shareholders in the process since in both cases the high power shareholders required no compensation. We expect that share price to have a positive response to such an announcement due to the reduced power discount and corporate governance improvement. The magnitude of the response on the event day depends also on the information structure of the period leading to the announcement.

Assessment of Political Power in the Israeli Knesset

Immediately after the election to the tenth Israeli parliament (Knesset), 21 students of political science, 24 Knesset members, and seven parliamentary correspondents were each asked (a) to assess the political power ratios of the 10 parties represented in the Knesset and (b) to judge the ideological similarity between them. As ascertained by Saaty's analytic hierarchy scaling technique, the power ratio judgments proved sufficiently consistent to justify the construction of individual ratio scales of perceived political power. The ideological proximities were adequately represented by two-dimensional ideological spaces. Analyses of the derived power measures showed that the higher the political sophistication of the subject, the higher the combined power attributed to the religious parties and the lower the combined power assigned to the two largest parties Likud and Labor. The derived power measures were then compared to the predictions of six power indices, three of which only consider the ideological space. Of the six models, the generalized Banzhaf power index best accounted for the perceived power of 62% of the subjects, whereas the classical Shapley-Shubik index provided the best fit for 31% of the subjects. The generalized power indices were found only partly satisfactory with a need for further revision.