Behind and beyond a shared definition of ecological rationality: A functional view of heuristics

Observing human behavior in laboratories reveals time and again the undeniable influence of social components, even in the isolation of carefully designed experiments. Clearly, social and cultural constructs shape human cognition. The study of ecological rationality recognizes the importance of specifying these and other characteristics of the environment as a basis of cognition. In this paper, we compare the views of Vernon Smith and Gerd Gigerenzer, the founders of two leading research programs on ecological rationality, one in economics and one in psychology. Based on their written work and on interviews conducted by one of the authors, this article brings together for the first time the essence and principles of the study of ecological rationality in these two traditions. This conjoint presentation poses important questions and clarifies methodological challenges in the understanding of actual human behavior from experimental data. Smith sees ecological and constructivist rationality as two complementing versions of economic rationality, while Gigerenzer regards the study of fast-and-frugal heuristics as the appropriate scientific method for exploring real-world rationality. Drawing a connection between forms of rationality and emergence of experimental knowledge, we note that a theory of behavior cannot be deducted from observations alone. Establishing a theoretical framework for observed behavior starts with a search for norms that are sensitive to the context and content of the situation in which a choice is made. Studying the ecological rationality of heuristics, markets, and institutions reveals such norms.     

Key Components for Organizing Architectural Tours in Isfahan,Iran

Architectural heritage attracts many tourists due to its aesthetic features and celebrities. Architourism as a new niche tourism strives to attract those who are interested in architectural heritage. This paper highlights the introduction of Isfahan city (Iran) as a new architourism destination. This research also has three other major purposes: (1) to identify the attractions for promoting architourism in Isfahan; (2) to investigate the key components for organizing architectural tours; and (3) to introduce architectural tour packages. Using a qualitative method clearly shows that demography, visitor/tourist interest, motivation and expertise, the time and duration of the visit, providing special tourism facilities, organizing educational and research activities and marketing are key components in organizing architectural tours. The results also illustrated that Isfahan has buildings, urban collections and historical textures that can be attractions for promoting architourism. Further analysis illustrated that Isfahan city has potential to organize architectural tours with 16 themes.     

Foreign market entry,upstream market power,and endogenous mode of downstream competition

In a differentiated duopoly model of trade and FDI featuring both horizontal and vertical product differentiation, we examine whether globalization and trade policy measures can generate welfare gains by leading firms to change their mode of competition. We show that when a high-quality foreign variety is manufactured under large frictions due to upstream monopoly power, a foreign firm can become a Bertrand competitor against a Cournot local rival in equilibrium, especially when the relative product quality of the foreign variety is sufficiently high and trade costs are sufficiently low (implying higher input price distortions due to double marginalization). Our results suggest that such strategic asymmetry is welfare improving and that the availability of FDI as an alternative to trade can make welfare-enhancing strategic asymmetry even more likely, especially when both input trade costs and fixed investment costs are sufficiently low and trade costs in final goods are sufficiently large.     

Earnings management in the short- and long-term post-regulation periods

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - We examine the change in the level and significance of accrual and real earnings management over the period 1996–2018. Our univariate results...     

International entrepreneurial opportunity: A systematic review,meta-synthesis,and future research agenda

Journal of International Entrepreneurship - In recent decades, the concepts of international entrepreneurial opportunity (IEO) have attracted the consideration of many scholars and have...     

Years of life lost to revolution and war in Iran

How was life expectancy in Iran affected by the Islamic Revolution and subsequent war with Iraq? This study examines the joint effect of regime change and the war against Iraq on life expectancy in Iran between 1978 and 1988. If there had been no revolution and war in Iran, how would the life expectancy of Iranians have developed? To answer this question, we use a synthetic control model to construct a counterfactual Iran based on a weighted average of other comparable countries, which reproduces the situation of pre-revolution Iran but does not experience the revolution and war. We then compare the life expectancies of the counterfactual and actual Iran that underwent a regime change and war with Iraq. Our results indicate that an average Iranian's total life expectancy would have been approximately five years longer without the revolution and war. The revolution had a moderate long-term impact on total life expectancy at birth, with the most significant influence being attributed to the war itself, particularly on male life expectancy. Our main findings are robust to a series of tests, including placebo tests. We investigate possible reasons that may explain the impact on longevity.     

Public procurement for innovation through supplier firms' sustainability lens: A systematic review and research agenda

Public sector purchasing processes are gaining increasing prominence as a demand-side innovation tool for addressing national sustainability challenges. Accordingly, there has been growing research attention to this topic. Prior studies suggest three key rationales that underlie the use of public sector procurement to drive innovation: (i) the buyer–user rationale (for creating new needs); (ii) the market/system failure rationale (for improving suppliers' capacity to innovate); and (iii) the public services rationale (for improving public services). However, operational activities at the upstream supply chain affecting the sustainable innovation capacities of supplier firms appear to be under-researched in the public procurement for innovation (PPI) scholarship, despite knowledge about innovation capacity being critical to successfully implementing PPI. This paper adopts a systematic literature review approach to synthesise existing fragmented literature on sustainability-oriented PPI, focusing on supplier perspectives. Findings from a synthesis of 41 relevant articles suggest, among others conditions, that a procurement framework that maintains a good balance of competition and innovation, builds buyer–supplier relationship and urges strong supply networks, maintains a stable political commitment, offers security for niche markets with effective innovation risk management culture would enhance suppliers' sustainability capacity and propensity to innovate. This paper contributes to the PPI literature and the literature on determinants of sustainable innovation systems from supplier firms' sustainability lens.     

Trade dependence and stock market reaction to the Russia-Ukraine war

Using data from 83 countries, we show that the decline in the value of stock market indices in response to the Russia-Ukraine war was sharper in countries that have stronger trade ties (both exports and imports) with Russia and Ukraine. We also find the relationship between trade dependency and market drop is weaker in countries with more trade openness.     

Building and using nonlinear simulations in Excel with an application to the specific factors model

Excel simulation models have become increasingly common in the economics classroom, as their ability to combine numerical and graphical information has proved a useful support to traditional teaching methods. Recent efforts have tended to embed the solution within the Excel sheet, avoiding the need to use the Solver add-in and allowing changes in the exogenous characteristics of the model to be instantly reflected in the numerical solutions and any associated geometry. While this is quite simple in small-scale linear models, it is less straightforward in larger nonlinear models such as those that dominate the theory of international trade. We discuss various methods that can be used in building Excel simulations when it is not possible to solve the underlying model explicitly. We illustrate the ideas and describe our experiences along with a new simulation of the specific factors model.