Testing with many weak instruments

This paper establishes the asymptotic distributions of the likelihood ratio (LR), Anderson–Rubin (AR), and Lagrange multiplier (LM) test statistics under “many weak IV asymptotics.” These asymptotics are relevant when the number of IVs is large and the coefficients on the IVs are relatively small. The asymptotic results hold under the null and under suitable alternatives. Hence, power comparisons can be made.     

The impact of corporate social disclosure on investment behavior: A cross-national study

We examine the impact of corporate social disclosure (CSD) on investment behavior in the US, Japan, France, and Sweden using stakeholder theory as the underlying framework for our analysis. We find that there is a significant difference in investors’ reactions to CSD across countries. Using a unique stakeholder scale we also find that these reactions are related to the investors’ stakeholder orientation. These findings provide insight into cross-national differences in the perceived relevance of CSD to investors.     

Consumer intentions to engage in s-commerce: a cross-national study

Social media has reached global proportions; yet, little is known about how consumers engage with firms in ways that lead to social commerce (s-commerce) – an emerging area of importance in the literature. This study addresses this gap and extends previous research by examining factors that influence consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce in four countries: Chile, Spain, South Africa and Australia. Specifically, this study develops and tests a model of consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce through brands’ Facebook pages incorporating personal variables (involvement in brands’ products and services, satisfaction with brands’ Facebook page), trust variables (message credibility of Facebook posts, trust in firms’ Facebook) and social variables (peer communication, social media dependency, online social interaction propensity) on predicting intentions to purchase products and services through brands’ Facebook pages if s-commerce was available to them. The findings show that the main drivers of s-commerce engagement are message credibility, trust in the brands’ Facebook, involvement, peer communication and online social interaction propensity, as influencers of consumer satisfaction with brands’ Facebook and social media dependency, which in turn drive intentions to engage in s-commerce. Contributing to theory and practice, these relationships are discussed for the four countries involved in the study.     

An estimation of the aggregate educational production function for public schools in Louisiana

Data at the school district level were used to estimate the relationship between basic skills test scores and various school district, family and community educational inputs. The inputs examined in the regression analysis included expenditures per student, student-teacher ratio, years of teacher’s experience, along with other school-related and socioeconomic variables. Expenditures per student are significantly related to basic skills test results in a quadratic manner. Variables measuring family and community structure are shown to be significant to test performance. These results are important for policy-makers who are responsible for the allocation of funds in the education process. A greater reliance on economic incentives is suggested as an alternative to the present system.     

Consumer heterogeneity in the longer-term effects of price promotions

While a significant literature has emerged recently on the longer-term effects of price promotions, as inferred from persistence models, there is very little if any attention paid to whether such longer-term effects vary across different types of consumers. This paper takes a first step in that direction by exploring whether the adjustment, permanent, and total effects of price promotions, and the duration of the adjustment period, differ between consumers segmented based on their usage rates in a product category and their loyalty to a brand. We also investigate whether such consumer segmentation will improve the forecasting performance of persistence models at both product category and brand levels. Expectations are developed based on consumer behavior theory on various effects of price promotions, such as the post-deal trough, the mere purchase effect, the promotion usage effect, and responsiveness to competitor's reactions. Evidence from household-level supermarket scanner data on four product categories is provided. We find substantial differences between consumer segments and provide insights on how managers can increase the longer-term effectiveness of price promotions by targeting each consumer segment with a different promotion program. In addition, consumer segmentation is found to significantly improve the forecasting performance of the persistence model for two of the four product categories. For the other two product categories, consumer segmentation provides forecasting performance similar to that obtained from aggregate-level persistence models.