Moral hazard among the sick and unemployed: evidence from a Swedish social insurance reform

This paper studies a specific type of moral hazard that arises in the interplay between two large public social insurance systems in Sweden, namely the sickness insurance (SI) and the unemployment insurance (UI). Moral hazard can arise from the structure of the benefit levels as for some unemployed persons benefits from the SI are higher than benefits from the UI. We use a reform of the SI system that came into force on 1 July 2003 to identify the effect of economic incentives arising from the different benefit levels. The purpose of the reform was to eliminate the difference in benefits between the two social insurance systems. Our results from a duration analysis show clearly that the higher the sickness benefits, the higher the probability of reporting sick.     

Income Per Capita Inequality in China: The Role of Economic Geography and Spatial Interactions

(1241) Laura Hering and Sandra Poncet This paper contributes to the analysis of growing income inequality in China. We apply a structural model of economic geography to data on per capita income over 190 Chinese cities between 1995 and 2002, and evaluate the extent to which market proximity and spatial dependence can explain the growing income inequality between Chinese cities. The econometric specification explicitly incorporates spatial dependence in the form of spatially‐lagged per capita income. We show that the geography of market access and spatial dependence are significantly correlated with per capita income in China. Market access is particularly important in cities with smaller migration inflows, which is consistent with NEG theory, whereas spatially‐lagged per capita income matters more in cities with greater immigration. We conclude that the positive impact of spatially‐lagged income partly results from labour mobility between neighbours, so that spatial dependence reflects the influence of migration, knowledge transfers and increasing competition between cities.     

The bull and bear market model of Huang and Day: Some extensions and new results

We develop a financial market model with interacting chartists and fundamentalists that embeds the famous bull and bear market model of Huang and Day as a special case. Their model is given by a one-dimensional continuous piecewise-linear map. Our model, on the other hand, is more flexible and is represented by a one-dimensional discontinuous piecewise-linear map. Nevertheless, we are able to provide a more or less complete analytical treatment of the model dynamics by characterizing its possible outcomes in parameter space. In addition, we show that quite different scenarios can trigger real-world phenomena such as bull and bear market dynamics and excess volatility.     

Are busy boards detrimental?

Busy directors have been widely criticized as being ineffective. However, we hypothesize that busy directors offer advantages for many firms. While busy directors may be less effective monitors, their experience and contacts arguably make them excellent advisors. Among IPO firms, which have minimal experience with public markets and likely rely heavily on their directors for advising, we find busy boards to be common and to contribute positively to firm value. Moreover, these positive effects of busy boards extend to all but the most established firms. Benefits are lowest among Forbes 500 firms, which likely require more monitoring than advising.     

Play Buddies or Space Invaders? Players’ Attitudes Toward In-Game Advertising

This article investigates beliefs that players of digital games hold toward the practice of in-game advertising (IGA), referred to as “attitudes toward in-game advertising” (AttIGA). The hedonic nature of IGA is the strongest, positive predictor of AttIGA. Beliefs about IGA as a means to lower games’ prices contribute positively, and beliefs about fostering materialism contribute negatively to AttIGA. Further, the relative importance of the belief factors determining AttIGA relates to the playing frequency of role-playing games and racing games. The results contribute to theory building and practical considerations of digital games as an important yet underutilized advertising medium.     

Multiple Resource Theory and Consumer Processing of Broadcast Advertisements: An Involvement Perspective

Abstract

In an attempt to reconcile past modality research, Leigh (1991) used Multiple Resource Theory while emphasizing the role of audio / visual congruency and task difficulty. This paper provides an alternative interpretation by reviewing Multiple Resource Theory from an involvement perspective. Past modality studies are organized and integrated based on the level of consumer involvement in the stimulus ad. Empirical findings are shown to be highly consistent with this approach. Suggestions for future modality research are presented.     

A proportionality assumption and measurement biases in the factor content of trade

This paper revisits Trefler and Zhu's (2005, 2010) (TZ) empirical examination of the factor content of trade in the presence of international differences in production techniques and trade in inputs. In this framework, knowing the bilateral details of each country's input–output structure is key to the correct calculation of the factor content of trade. Because input–output tables typically lack this detail, TZ impute the relevant input–output coefficients by making a proportionality assumption. This paper uses survey-based input–output coefficients from the Asian Input–output (AIO) tables that do provide bilateral details. Exploiting methodological differences in the compilation of the AIO tables and the data underlying TZ studies, this paper empirically assesses how well the TZ approach fits sourcing patterns of inputs and finds that it understates countries' use and relative use of foreign inputs, especially in those sectors where they are most used. As a result countries' use of domestic factors is overstated. Biases generated on exported and imported factor services cancel each other out. The net effect on the measured factor trade is small.     

The content of accounting standards: Principles versus rules

The Global Accounting Alliance has raised a call for different perspectives on principles-based accounting standards. Based on prior studies this paper identifies a number of characteristics of principles-based accounting standards. It uses content analysis to empirically test whether the asserted characteristics are consistent with the IASB and FASB standards on interest costs. We find that rules-based standards, relative to principles-based standards, have more rules, more justification, acknowledge less judgement is required, have more bright-line thresholds, have more scope exceptions, and are more verbose and complex. The main drafting difference between a rules-based or principles-based approach is whether extensional definitions or intensional definitions are used. Several policy implications are noted.     

Aggregate real exchange rate persistence through the lens of sectoral data

A novel approach to analyzing real exchange rate (RER) persistence and its sources is presented. Using highly disaggregated data for a group of EU-15 countries, it is shown that the distribution of sectoral persistence is highly heterogeneous and skewed to the right, so that a limited number of sectors are responsible for the high levels of persistence observed at the aggregate level. Quantile regression has been employed to investigate whether traditional theories, such as the lack of arbitrage due to nontradability or imperfect competition combined with price stickiness, are able to account for the slow reversion to parity of RERs.     

Valuing risk reductions: Incorporating risk heterogeneity into a revealed preference framework

Our study expands the hedonic wage framework to take advantage of the inherent differences in workplace deaths, both in type and probability of occurrence, and examines revealed preferences over these heterogeneous risks. We use data on all fatal workplace deaths in the US from 1992 to 1997 and develop risk rates that are differentiated by how the fatal injury occurred. Within sample tests of the equality of compensating wage differentials for heterogeneous risks indicate that we can reject aggregation of homicide risks with other sources of workplace fatalities. However, our results are not without qualification and highlight important nuances of the labor market as related to estimating compensating wage differentials for risks that have generally been ignored in the previous literature.