Partial Identification of Marginal Treatment Effects with Discrete Instruments and Misreported Treatment*

This paper provides partial identification results for the marginal treatment effect (MTE) when the binary treatment variable is potentially misreported and the instrumental variable is discrete. Identification results are derived under smoothness assumptions. Bounds for both the case of misreported treatment and the case of no misreported treatment are derived. The identification results are illustrated by identifying the marginal treatment effects of food stamps on health.     

Waking the sleeping beauty: Swarovski’s open innovation journey

Even in today’s turbulent business environment, there are companies in many industries that have enjoyed decades of relatively undisturbed success. However, eventually, after such prolonged periods of calm, existing market positions are challenged. We describe such companies as ‘Sleeping Beauties’ and discuss how they can reinvent themselves through opening up of their boundaries and moving from compartmentalized exploitation and exploration efforts to a more dynamic ambidexterity model. We analyse Swarovski’s open innovation journey in this regard, instigated as a response to recent changes in its business environment. Our analysis of this process offers useful insights for companies struggling with similar problems.     

Country performance during the Covid-19 pandemic: externalities,coordination, and the role of institutions

Economics of Governance - The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the most powerful examples of negative externalities in local communities, entire countries and across the globe, calling for the...     

The joint influence of Sarbanes-Oxley and FAS123R on financial misreporting

Prior research reports that a manager's equity risk-taking incentive (vega) is positively associated with financial misreporting. FAS 123R led to a significant decrease in vega while SOX increased the cost of financial misreporting. Consistent with the original intent of the legislation, we find that SOX contributed to significant decreases in both fraud restatements and AAERs. Importantly, our results suggest that the SOX-induced decreases in fraud restatements and AAERs have endured to more recent years. On the other hand, while we find evidence that equity-incentive-motivated financial misreporting ceased to exist in the immediate years after FAS 123R, we also find that this was only temporary. In particular, we find strong evidence of a significantly positive association between vega and accrual misreporting in more recent years.     

Testing identifying assumptions in bivariate probit models

This paper considers the bivariate probit model's identifying assumptions: linear index specification, joint normality of errors, instrument exogeneity, and relevance. First, we develop sharp testable equalities that detect all possible observable violations of the assumptions. Second, we propose an easy-to-implement testing procedure for the model's validity using existing inference methods for intersection bounds. The test achieves correct empirical size and performs well in detecting violations of the conditions in simulations. Finally, we provide a road map on what to do when the bivariate probit model is rejected, including novel bounds for the average treatment effect that relax the normality assumption.     

Risk perception in housing markets: Evidence from a fighter jet crash

In this study, we investigate the capitalization of flight accident risk in housing prices near military bases in Virginia from 2003 to 2016. We focus on a localized shock caused by a fighter jet crash into an apartment complex near the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach. Although flight accident hazards were transparently disclosed by sellers and local governments years beforehand, the crash led to a temporary (approximately 3 years) decline in the prices of properties within accident potential zones (APZ) and by a lesser magnitude, properties slightly outside the APZ boundaries. This analysis sheds light on how market participants react after an extreme event, emphasizing the role of recency in the capitalization of risk.