Long COVID? Prospects for economic scarring from the pandemic

This paper examines the potential persistent effects (scarring) of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the channels through which they may occur. Our findings from a broad set of historical recessions confirm that recessions are associated with persistent output losses and that the greatest scarring has occurred following financial crises. The amount of scarring following pandemic and epidemic recessions in the sample is in between that of typical recessions and financial crises. Results on the channels show that the productivity channel is important, as all types of recessions have been followed by persistent losses to total factor productivity.     

Geographical Proximity and Mutual Funds' Proxy Voting Behavior

This paper examines the influence of geographical proximity on mutual fund proxy voting decisions. Using mutual fund proxy voting data for the sample period July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2004, we find that fund managers vote more in favor of management of locally headquartered firms. The results are strong for proposals related to executive compensation, anti‐takeover provisions, social and political issues. We provide evidence to show that bias in proxy voting is not being driven by informational advantage; voting bias is prevalent in small as well as large size companies. Additionally, the voting pattern suggests that geographical proximity does not facilitate in better corporate monitoring as revealed in their voting decisions. We find that local fund managers vote more favorably in those proposals which do not increase shareholders' wealth and rights. Our results suggest that familiarity and social interaction between fund managers and firm executives located in the same geographic area might explain the local bias in mutual fund proxy voting behavior. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Has co-movement dynamics in emerging stock markets changed after global financial crisis? New evidence from wavelet analysis

In this article, we revisit the issue of contagion, interdependence and changes in correlation structure after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008 between developed and emerging markets in a time-frequency domain using a wavelet-based approach for the period spanning over 1 January 1999 to 8 November 2016. We report evidences of: (a) weaker contagion for Latin American emerging markets during GFC, (b) a strong contagion effect for emerging markets in Europe and the Middle East and (c) a fall in long-run co-movements after GFC, which means by investing in emerging markets, the diversification benefits can be derived in the long run. We report evidence of coexistence of contagion and permanent change in correlation structure.     

Integration of South Asian Economies: an exercise in frustration?

This paper examines the factors underlying the slow progress towards economic integration between the countries of the South Asian region, and discusses the worth and likelihood of an effective agreement. It is argued that substantial integration will only take place after further economic growth leads to increased complementarity in their economic structures.     

Estimating the recreational value of Pakistan's largest freshwater lake to support sustainable tourism management using a travel cost model

Keenjhar Lake, Pakistan's largest freshwater lake and an important Ramsar site, provides habitat for internationally important water birds. Annually, 385,000 people visit the lake. The lake is threatened by a variety of causes, including industrial and agricultural pollution. To support its sustainable management and conservation, the lake's recreational value is estimated using an individual travel cost model. Randomly selected visitors are interviewed during peak season about their recreational travel behavior and perception of lake conditions. Key issues in travel cost modeling are addressed, including the opportunity cost of time, group travel, substitution and income effects, and endogenous stratification and truncation due to on-site sampling. Poisson and negative binomial regression models produce similar results. We find significant over-dispersion, and therefore, use the more conservative truncated negative binomial model results to estimate consumer surplus. The value of this assessment method for resource managers is illustrated by comparing the consumer surplus with existing pricing and budgeting mechanisms. The annual flow of benefits from lake recreation appears to be almost 50 times higher than the average entrance fee paid by the predominantly higher-income segments visiting the lake, suggesting scope for increasing fees and reallocating government budgets to finance the necessary lake protection measures.     

Cognitive Biases and Strategic Decision Processes: An Integrative Perspective

Previous studies have not adequately addressed the role of cognitive biases in strategic decision processes. In this article we suggest that cognitive biases are systematically associated with strategic decision processes. Different decision processes tend to accentuate particular types of cognitive bias. We develop an integrative framework to explore the presence of four basic types of cognitive bias under five different modes of decision making. The cognitive biases include prior hypotheses and focusing on limited targets, exposure to limited alternatives, insensitivity to outcome probabilities and illusion of manageability. The five modes of strategic decision making are rational, avoidance, logical incrementalist, political and garbage can. We suggest a number of key propositions to facilitate empirical testing of the various contingent relationships implicit in the framework. Lastly, we discuss the implications of this framework for research and managerial practice.     

Impact of injuries on work performance among the surgical blacksmiths of West Bengal

The manufacture of surgical instruments is one of the leading small-scale industrial sectors in West Bengal, India. The present study was undertaken to assess the rate, type and cause of injury incidents among surgical blacksmiths and whether these incidents affected the work performance of the blacksmiths. A cluster of 216 skilled and 225 unskilled blacksmiths (male), engaged in the manufacture of surgical instruments, was selected from Baruipur subdivision as study subjects. The study included: 1) completion of a questionnaire; 2) measurement of physical parameters; 3) incident records; 4) statistical analysis of the data. The present study revealed that the blacksmiths suffered very frequently from work-related injuries. The number of injuries that occurred during 2004 - 2005 for skilled and unskilled blacksmiths was 1413 and 1610 respectively. Unskilled blacksmiths were disproportionately affected. These injuries resulted in a high rate of lost workdays, i.e. 517 and 742 workdays for skilled and unskilled workers respectively. The study thus indicated that surgical blacksmiths are highly prone to injuries in their occupation, mostly affecting the fingers (23% and 23%) and back region (21.7% and 22%) in both groups, which consequently affected their health, productivity and work performance.     

Logo design in marketing communications: Brand logo complexity moderates exposure effects on brand recognition and brand attitude

Although good logos are essential for creating brand awareness and brand equity, the effects of logo design features have not been tested empirically. Extending previous findings regarding the effects of design complexity and exposure in advertising to the field of brand logos, two experiments tested the effects of logo complexity and exposure on brand recognition and brand attitude. It was hypothesized that logo complexity moderates the effects of exposure on logo recognition and brand attitudes, such that exposure increases recognition and positively impacts brand attitudes in particular for complex logos. Experiment 1 (N = 68) tested the effects of six unfamiliar logos on recognition (in milliseconds) in a 2 (logo design complexity: simple vs complex) × 2 (logo exposure: one vs four) mixed design. Experiment 2 (N = 164) tested the effects of eight familiar logos on logo recognition and brand attitudes in a 2 (complexity: simple vs complex) × 2 (logo exposure: well-established vs recently established) within-subjects design. Findings showed that increases in exposure led to an increase in brand recognition and to more positive attitudes in particular for complex brand logos, suggesting short-term benefits for simple brand logos, and long-term benefits for complex logos.     

Trade,Technology and Human Capital: Stylised Facts and Quantitative Evidence

Stylised evidence on trade, total factor productivity (TFP) and skill intensity of the labour force is presented. Features emerging as salient are: growing trade in technology‐intensive products from the industrialised nations to the relatively laggard nations leads to embodied technology diffusion; the technology‐intensive sectors have larger shares of skilled workers; countries experiencing TFP growth usually have higher levels of educational attainment; also, the skilled labour payment share for a sector is positively associated with that sector’s regional trade share. These facts together help explain why endowment of more skilled labour facilitates absorption of technology ferried via trade.     

The Firm's Management of Social Interactions

Consumer choice is influenced in a direct and meaningful way by the actions taken by others. These “actions” range from face-to-face recommendations from a friend to the passive observation of what a stranger is wearing. We refer to the set of such contexts as “social interactions” (SI). We believe that at least some of the SI effects are partially within the firm's control and that this represents an exciting research opportunity. We present an agenda that identifies a list of unanswered questions of potential interest to both researchers and managers. In order to appreciate the firm's choices with respect to its management of SI, it is important to first evaluate where we are in terms of understanding the phenomena themselves. We highlight five questions in this regard: (1) What are the antecedents of word of mouth (WOM)? (2) How does the transmission of positive WOM differ from that of negative WOM? (3) How does online WOM differ from offline WOM? (4) What is the impact of WOM? (5) How can we measure WOM? Finally, we identify and discuss four principal, non-mutually exclusive, roles that the firm might play: (1) observer, (2) moderator, (3) mediator, and (4) participant.