Who Has the Time? Community College Students’ Time-Use Response to Financial Incentives

We evaluate the effect of performance-based scholarship programs for post-secondary students on student time use and effort and whether these effects are different for students we hypothesize may be more or less responsive to incentives. To do so, we administered a time-use survey as part of a randomized experiment in which community college students in New York City were randomly assigned to be eligible for a performance-based scholarship or to a control group that was only eligible for the standard financial aid. This paper contributes to the literature by attempting to get inside the “black box” of how students respond to a monetary incentive to improve their educational attainment. We find that students eligible for a scholarship devoted more time to educational activities, increased the quality of effort toward and engagement with their studies, and allocated less time to leisure. Additional analyses suggest that students who were plausibly more myopic (place less weight on future benefits) were more responsive to the incentives, but we find no evidence that students who are arguably more time constrained were less responsive to the incentives.

     

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s approach to targeted dumping: the wrong test and the wrong response

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) defines targeted dumping as a pattern of significant differences in the prices that importers charge in the U.S. to different purchasers, in different regions, or during different periods. If DOC finds targeted dumping, then it calculates the average dumping margin using zeroing, a practice that increases the calculated dumping duty. This article shows that DOC is using an inappropriate statistical test in targeted dumping investigations. The article also shows that a finding of targeted dumping does not justify the use of zeroing, an inherently flawed methodology that DOC has discarded in cases without targeted dumping.     

Robust tests of forward exchange market efficiency with empirical evidence from the 1920s

This paper provides a robust statistical approach to testing the unbiasedness hypothesis in forward exchange market efficiency studies. The methods we use allow us to work explicitly with levels rather than differenced data. They are statistically robust to data distributions with heavy tails, and they can be applied to data sets where the frequency of observation and the futures maturity do not coincide. In addition, our methods allow for stochastic trend non-stationarity and general forms of serial dependence. The methods are applied to daily data of spot exchange rates and forward exchange rates during the 1920s, which marked the first episode of a broadly general floating exchange rate system. The tail behaviour of the data is analysed using an adaptive data-based method for estimating the tail slope of the density. The results confirm the need for the use of robust regression methods. We find cointegration between the forward rate and spot rate for the four currencies we consider (the Belgian and French francs, the Italian lira and the US dollar, all measured against the British pound), we find support for a stationary risk premium in the case of the Belgian franc, the Italian lira and the US dollar, and we find support for the simple market efficiency hypothesis (where the forward rate is an unbiased predictor of the future spot rate and there is a zero mean risk premium) in the case of the US dollar.     

The role of network density and betweenness centrality in diffusing new venture legitimacy: an epidemiological approach

To survive and grow, new ventures must establish initial legitimacy, and subsequently diffuse this legitimacy through a given population. While the notion of initial legitimacy has received substantial attention in the recent literature, diffusion has not. This work endeavors to outline the legitimacy diffusion process via drawing parallels with the field of epidemiology. Ultimately, to effectively diffuse legitimacy (and grow) a firm must gain positive judgments of appropriateness from members of a given network. Importantly, as with diseases, the characteristics of the network are critical to the diffusion process. A relatively dense network is posited to invoke a normative evaluation process by its members, and can be difficult for new ventures to access, but subsequent diffusion of new venture legitimacy can be rapid. A less dense network, on the other hand, is posited to invoke a pragmatic evaluation process by its members, and is likely easier for new ventures to access initially, but may result in lower levels of new venture legitimacy diffusion in the long run. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Financial Integration in the 1920s: A Cointegration Approach

Financial Integration in the 1920s: A Cointegration Approach. - This paper applies the concept of cointegration to analyze the foreign exchange market during the 1920s. The data set consists of daily spot and forward exchange rates for the U. S. dollar, French franc, Belgian franc, Italian lira and German mark, each quoted with respect to the British pound. The authors find that the future spot and forward exchange rates for the U.S., France, Belgium, and Italy are cointegrated. Using a multivariate test for cointegration, they find no evidence of cointegration across markets. There is weak evidence of cointegration among the two neighboring economies of France and Belgium.     

The aims of management research

The dependence of management science on outside disciplines for concepts, findings, and methodologies has caused problems in management education.