Social media and happiness nexus in the millennial generation

The current paper empirically examines the relationship between social media and happiness. Unlike existing works, we study this nexus from a global perspective using a cross-sectional model consisting of 140 countries on data from 2012 to 2017. Assuming that this effect may differ according to the average level of perception of happiness in each country, we use the quantile regression framework to yield more accurate inferences. The findings show that social media measured by Facebook penetration has a positive and significant relationship with happiness, and this positive nexus differs in terms of amplitude and significance throughout the conditional distribution of the happiness index. However, analysis in different samples reveal that this positive nexus is not universal and differs with the level of economic development of the countries and from one region to another. We put forward mental illness approximated by anxiety as the main transmission channel.     

Harnessing digital technologies for poverty reduction. Evidence for low-income and lower-middle income countries

This paper contributes to understanding the relationship between ICT deployment and poverty alleviation in developing countries. It assess the digital technologies contribution to poverty reduction, through different channels of impact, like education, labor market, income and ICT-trade related activities.Using the sample of 40 developing countries between 1990 and 2019, it relies on macro data extracted from the World Bank Development Indicators (2021) and the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database (2020). Methodological framework combines time trend analysis and locally weighted polynomial smoother, logistic growth model, and panel regression modelling techniques. Our major findings suggest growing ICT deployment, school enrolments, and increases in material wealth are significant drivers of poverty eradication in developing economies. However, the impact of digitalization on poverty is neither direct nor immediate. Therefore, we claim that national and local authorities, together with civil society must consider ICT as a key element of their broad development strategies.     

ICTs quality and technical efficiency: An empirical analysis

In 1987, Robert M. Solow hinted at the computer age and productivity statistics puzzle. While this puzzle persisted for many years, a growing literature has picked it up to examine the effect of ICTs on technical efficiency. However, this literature has focused mainly on quantity-based ICTs measures, which have come under severe criticism in recent times. We advance this literature in this paper by shifting the focus of analysis to quality-based ICTs measures; in this case, Internet quality. We also extend the literature by examining how the envisaged relationship between ICTs quality and technical efficiency is conditioned by a country's unique attributes. Our results show a significantly positive effect of ICTs quality on technical efficiency. We also find that the technical efficiency gains associated with ICTs quality are higher in skill-abundant countries, countries that engage more intensively in cross-border trade, have stronger contracting institutions, and are endowed with well-functioning and well-developed financial markets that ensure greater efficiency of capital allocation. We find a network effect in the nexus between ICTs quality and technical efficiency. That is, the marginal effect of ICTs quality on technical efficiency increases as the number of Internet users expands. We discuss the policy implications of our findings.     

ICT for sustainable development: Global comparative evidence of globalisation thresholds

The objectives of this paper are to investigate the effect of ICT on sustainable development and the mechanisms through which the effect is modulated. The focus is on a sample of 140 countries around the globe for the period 2000–2019. The methodology involves the: (i) Fixed Effects estimator to control for individual heterogeneity, (ii) Driscoll and Kraay estimator to control for cross-section dependence between panels, (iii) the Mean Group estimator to take into account the averages between panel groups, (iv) the system GMM to correct for unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity bias and (v) the instrumental variable Fixed Effects Tobit to take in to account the limited range in our dependent variable. The results show that ICT has a positive and significant effect on sustainable development. Whereas overall net effects are positive, the findings are contingent on the choice of the ICT measurement, the geographical location of the economy and the income group category. The study recommends policy makers to take into account ICT and the advantages it offers in the elaboration of measures for the sustainable development agenda.     

Dynamic competition in technological investments: An empirical examination of the LCD panel industry

When are technological laggards more likely to try to catch up with leaders? We offer empirical evidence on firm-level data of plant investments in the TFT-LCD panel industry, where technological competition has been intense and dynamic. We find that the followers' level of technology has a non-monotonic effect on technology-improving investments, with intermediate followers the most apt to invest in catch-ups. This result is a puzzle given the existing theory on technology race. We also find that followers' catch-up investments increase with the capacity of the leader that employs the state-of-the-art technology. These results are robust to variations in specification and alternative accounts of effects. We discuss our findings and contributions in light of the technology race literature.     

Search engines: Left side quality versus right side profits

Search engines face an interesting tradeoff in choosing the way to display their results. While providing high quality unpaid, or “left side” results attracts users, doing so can also cannibalize the revenue that comes from paid ads on the “right side”. This paper examines this tradeoff, focusing, in particular, on the role of users' post-search interaction with the websites whose links are displayed. In the model, high quality left side results boost demand from users, causing them to tolerate a search engine on which advertisers do not offer the lowest possible prices for the goods that they sell. However, because websites appearing on the left side still have an incentive to compete in the same market as advertisers, an increase in quality on the left side may reduce advertisers' equilibrium prices. I analyze the circumstances under which this will occur and discuss the model's potential implications for antitrust policy.     

Effects of innovation on employment: A dynamic panel analysis

This paper estimates the effect of innovation on employment at the firm level. Our uniquely long innovation panel data set of German manufacturing firms covers more than 20 years and allows us to use various innovation measures. We can distinguish between product and process innovations as well as between innovation input and innovation output measures. Using dynamic panel GMM system estimation we find positive effects of innovation on employment. This is true for innovation input as well as for innovation output variables. Innovations show their positive effect on employment with a time lag and process innovations have higher effects than product innovations.     

A choice experiment model for beef: What US consumer responses tell us about relative preferences for food safety,country-of-origin labeling and traceability

Several food safety issues have prompted questions regarding the role of country-of-origin labeling, traceability, and food safety inspections in consumers’ perceptions of food safety and quality. The importance of origin-labeling and traceability have been discussed in the EU for some time. North American cases of mad cow disease have led to increased discussions of these topics in the US, however, relatively little research has been conducted to examine the value US consumers place on these attributes. Choice experiments were used to analyze US consumers’ relative preferences and willingness-to-pay for these meat attributes in labeled ribeye beef steaks. Relatively speaking, consumers value certification of USDA food safety inspection more than any of the other choice set attributes, including country-of-origin labeling, traceability and tenderness. As a result, indication of origin may only become a signal of enhanced quality if the source-of-origin is associated with higher food safety or quality.     

Buyer confusion and market prices

We employ a price setting duopoly experiment to examine whether buyer confusion increases market prices. Each seller offers a good to buyers who have homogeneous preferences. Sellers decide on the number of attributes of their good and set prices. The number of attributes bears no cost to the sellers and does not affect the value of the good to the buyers but adds complexity to buyers’ evaluation of the goods. The experimental results indicate that the buyers make more suboptimal choices and that prices are higher when the number of attributes of the goods is higher. Moreover, prices and profits are higher than those in a benchmark treatment with perfectly rational (robot) buyers.     

Incentivizing R&D: Prize or subsidies?

This paper studies the optimal design of R&D contests. A “sponsor” (e.g. the US Department of Defense or the World Health Organization) wants to improve the quality of the winning products. To do so, it partitions its budget between two schemes: an inducement prize and efficiency-enhancing subsidies to the firms competing in the contest. Prizes and subsidies have different functions, and they provide complementary incentives. In the optimally designed contest, subsidies increase while the prize decreases, if the innovation process is more challenging. Further, sensible conditions are identified under which the optimal contest implements either a “handicapping” scheme (by preferentially subsidizing the “underdog”) or a “national champion” scheme (by favoring the “favorite”). Our analysis yields a number of useful implications and sheds light on an array of R&D incentive schemes, such as the DoD's design competitions and vaccine development incentives.     

Understanding pastoralists’ dynamic insurance uptake decisions: Evidence from four-year panel data in Ethiopia

Despite the demonstrated benefits of index insurance, its adoption rate remains low in many developing countries. While a growing literature explores the factors associated with insurance uptake, we still know little about its dynamic patterns. Using a unique data set covering four years and six semi-annual sales periods of an index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) product in southern Ethiopia, we examine the dynamics of pastoralists’ demand for IBLI. We find that reduced insurance premiums induce households to purchase IBLI. While a one-shot subsidy can create a price reference point that may reduce the subsequent uptake, we do not find such price-anchoring effects. We also find that overall uptake decision is positively correlated intertemporally, although there is no strong evidence for learning by doing or learning from others. Finally, we show that pastoralists are more likely to purchase IBLI when drought risk is high, consistent with the existence of spatiotemporal adverse selection. We discuss the potential of distributing discount coupons to trigger initial uptake and adjusting premium rates dynamically to avoid spatiotemporal adverse selection as effective policy tools toward sustainable livestock insurance. Overall, our study signifies the importance of an empirical analysis that considers the dynamic demand structure.     

E-commerce in Spain: Determining factors and the importance of the e-trust

This paper identifies and estimates the determinants for participating in e-commerce and developing e-trust, as well as the importance of e-trust for e-commerce in Spain. For its analysis, a national survey from 2014 to 2019 is used and the logit model is implemented. It is concluded that the e-trust is a determining factor in e-commerce, and the improvement of equality education helps the growth of online commerce and e-trust. In turn, e-trust encourages the use of all digital resources.     

Diffusion of digital mobile telephony: Are developing countries different?

Factors determining the diffusion of digital mobile telephony across developed and developing countries are studied with the aid of a Gompertz model. After controlling for other factors, the speed of diffusion per se is not significantly different between the two groups of countries. Standards competition hinders and market competition promotes diffusion in both groups. Various factors are, however, more important in a developing country context: having a large potential user base, accumulating network effects, being open, commanding a high (non-telecom) technological level, and introducing innovation(s) complementing mobile telephony. Late entrants experience faster diffusion promoting cross-country convergence.