Counterfactual analysis of bank mergers

We introduce a counterfactual analysis of banks mergers, combining the pre-merger equilibrium setting with post-merger environmental characteristics, while accounting for endogenously propagated changes in market structure. Using this procedure we are able to estimate the effects on loan flows and interest rates that would have been observed if the pre-merger equilibrium was not altered. Results are obtained for firms, households, and banks inside and outside the merging circles separately. We find that mergers increased firms’ access to credit, but had an opposite effect on households and led to a widespread decrease in interest rates.     

Secrecy and fairness in plea bargaining with multiple defendants

I consider a model of plea bargaining with multiple codefendants. I mainly compare the equilibrium outcomes under joint negotiations whereby both defendants can observe both plea offers and under separate (secret) negotiations whereby they can observe only their own respective offer. Contrary to the widespread perceptions, the prosecutor is made worse off under secret negotiations or at best as well off as under joint negotiations. I also discuss the implication of equilibrium offers on fairness.      

Effects of work–family and family–work conflicts on flexible work arrangements demand: a gender role perspective

In recent years, a growing number of firms have adopted flexible work arrangements (FWAs) to help managers balance their work–family demands. Based on a sample of 1336 married managers in Korea, we found that work–family conflict increased the FWAs demand more for female managers than for male managers. When facing work–family conflict, the absence of family-supportive supervision increased the demand for FWAs, particularly among female managers. No such effect was found for family–work conflict. In addition, having a female supervisor led to an increased demand for FWAs from company managers. These results suggest that firms should pay close attention to gender difference and supervisory roles in predicting the demand for FWAs to alleviate work–family conflicts.     

A day without a search engine: an experimental study of online and offline searches

With the evolution of the Web and development of web-based search engines, online searching has become a common method for obtaining information. Given this popularity, the question arises as to how much time people save by using search engines for their information needs compared to offline sources, as well as how online searching affects both search experiences and search outcomes. Using a random sample of queries from a major search engine and a sample of reference questions from the Internet Public Library (IPL), we conduct a real-effort experiment to compare online and offline search experiences and outcomes. We find that participants are significantly more likely to find an answer on the Web (100 %), compared to offline searching (between 87 % and 90 %). Restricting our analysis to the set of questions in which participants find answers in both treatments, a Web search takes on average 7 (9) minutes, whereas the corresponding offline search takes 22 (19) minutes for a search-engine (IPL) question. Furthermore, while raters judge library sources to be significantly more trustworthy and authoritative than the corresponding Web sources, they judge Web sources as significantly more relevant. Balancing all factors, we find that the overall source quality is not significantly different between the two treatments for the set of search-engine questions. However, for IPL questions, we find that non-Web sources are judged to have significantly higher overall quality than the corresponding Web sources. In comparison, for factual questions, Web search results are significantly more likely to be correct (66 % vs. 43 %). Lastly, post-search questionnaires reveal that participants find online searching more enjoyable than offline searching.     

Comparative advantage and unemployment

Worker heterogeneity in productivity and labor supply is introduced into a matching model. Workers who earn high wages and work high-hours are identified as those with strong market comparative advantage—high rents from being employed. The model is calibrated to match separation, job finding, and employment in the SIPP data. The model predicts a big drop in employment for workers with weak comparative advantage during recessions. But the data show that workers with strong comparative advantage also display sizable employment fluctuations, implying that aggregate employment fluctuations are not explained by the responses of workers with small rents to employment.     

销售要找到＂关键人物＂

作为一个商业新手,你不得不为每一笔销售而拼尽全力。如果情况变成有一群稳定的、连续的、热情的准客户群主动找上门来,是不是很美妙呢？来自于客户和其他企业家的推荐能帮你把你的新公司列入备选名单。但要想达到上述效果,只是散发名片、在家人和朋友中间口口相传是远远不够的。你必须与影响者（influencers）建立关系那些有能力影响对你公司看法的人、或那些和你的最佳准客户一对一地打交道时能进行直接推荐的人。     

On the Exportability of Korean Movies

The authors investigate factors that may affect the exportability of Korean films released from 1996 to 2002. They employ a binary probit model to test the exportability. The findings indicate that the number of screens, action genre, and year dummies of 2000 and 2001 are important determinants of exportability in the overall model. The authors tried to capture the dynamic aspect of exportability by holding outside factors constant. Over the previous years (1996–99), they found that factors that reduce the asymmetric information problem are important predictors of exportability. On the other hand, the star power and number of screens exhibited in the domestic market are strong predictors of exportability during the recent period. This result confirms that the recent expansion and success of the Korean movie industry (such as the effect of Hallyu ) serves as an effective signal to the international film market. Their analysis of cultural discount is inconclusive.     

Coming attraction

Francesca Cornelli, Richard D'Aveni, Andrew Kakabadse, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Markus Reitzig, Fons Trompenaars and Kim Warren share their latest research.