CREDIBILITY AND STRATEGIC LEARNING IN NETWORKS

We analyze a model of diffusion in a fixed, finite connected network. There is an interested party that knows the quality of the product being propagated and chooses an implant in the network to influence other agents to buy. Agents are either “innovators,” who adopt immediately, or rational. Rational consumers buy if buying instead of waiting maximizes expected utility. We consider the conditions on the network under which optimal diffusion of the good product with probability 1 is a perfect Bayes equilibrium.     

Efficiency and Equity in School Funding: A Case Study for Kansas

This study measures cost inefficiency of Kansas public school districts and applied both mathematical programming and stochastic frontier approach. The empirical study uses two-stage data envelopment analysis model and the cost inefficiency effects model proposed by Battese and Coelli (Empirical Economics 24:325–332, 1995) and applied to a panel data. The results found mean inefficiencies from these two models are very close. The results indicate that Kansas school districts, on average, exhibit cost inefficiency in their operations, however, there is a tendency for inefficiencies to decline over time. The study does not find any strong evidence for lower efficiency due to lower expenditure per-pupil. Instead, we found inconclusive evidences where lower efficiency for certain school districts could be assigned to unfavorable environmental cost conditions.

Global talent management by multinational enterprises post-COVID-19: The role of enterprise social networking and senior leadership

Multinational enterprises' (MNEs') workforce is made up of people from diverse backgrounds and different locations around the globe. The cross-border transfer of knowledge, skills, and best practices among MNE employees is important to maintain global standards and competitiveness. In the post-COVID-19 period, there is a greater need to exchange knowledge in the changing business environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the issues related to MNEs' global talent management, post-COVID-19. The study investigates the use of enterprise social networking applications for better knowledge exchange and tries to understand the moderating role of senior leadership team support in facilitating the usage of enterprise social networks for cross-border collaboration and talent management. After reviewing the literature and relevant theories, we developed a conceptual model, which is then validated using the SEM technique with 347 respondents from 12 MNEs. The study reveals the importance of using enterprise social networks for cross-border knowledge exchange in the post-COVID-19 period.     

(En-)‘lightening’ children: Assessing the impacts of access to electricity on learning achievement levels

The welfare impacts of electrification are well documented in the literature, including the effects of electricity on school enrolment. However, the spillover effects of electrification on children's achievement levels are scarce. We use three complementary but distinct econometric models to establish a causal relationship between electrification and test scores using nationally representative household panel data from India. We find positive results irrespective of the choice of econometric model, and these results seem to be mediated by changing time-use patterns of children with access to electricity. We first exploit the plausibly exogenous variation in access to electricity due to a universal electrification program in the state of West Bengal in India and we find positive effects of electrification on children's test scores. By age group, we find that younger cohorts benefit more in terms of their reading scores than older cohorts. Then, to ascertain external validity of these results, we replicate them over a nationally representative sample using fixed effects and instrumental variables estimation and find similar results. At the intensive margin, we find that access to more hours of electricity positively affects test scores. We identify an increase in time spent by children on study-related activities as the potential channel for these results.     

Anticipation in leisure—Effects on labor-leisure choice

This paper introduces the idea of a forward-looking reference benchmark on both consumption and leisure in the context of a Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans growth model by assuming that in addition to consumption and leisure the household utility also depends on reference benchmarks of future anticipated consumption and leisure. We analyze the macrodynamic equilibrium, contrasting it to the case when the reference benchmarks are backward-looking. We investigate if the presence of anticipation in leisure can lead to smoother jumps in labor under productivity shocks and what effect that has on the consumption adjustment at the time of shock. We present our results using numerical simulations that confirm the existence of parameter spaces where a dual anticipation model leads to smaller jumps in labor, albeit sometimes at the expense of higher consumption jumps.     

How do we measure the intangible? Overcoming the measurement challenge in services

Measuring service tangibility and intangibility aspects has been an interest to service researchers. While the Likert rating scale has been widely employed for measuring mental intangibility or its dimensions, it is not free from issues such as different anchoring, that is, the same words pointing to different attitudes and understanding for different individuals. The present study proposes the usefulness of a discrete choice experiment (DCE), where respondents are asked the same questions (i.e., items) and are presented with a scale while dichotomizing the possible responses for each scale item. We show that our proposed method is accurate and generalizable across contexts and samples through multiple studies. The DCE method gives managers a better way to measure intangibility or similar service constructs like service quality, which can help them manage their service offerings and make customers happier.     

The Russia–Ukraine conflict and investor psychology in financial markets

This study examines the effect of the Russia–Ukraine conflict on global financial markets and the resulting changes in investor psychology. We have analysed weekly data from January 2021 to March 2023, including indicators such as gross national income, Bitcoin historical price, Standard and Poor 500 index, US consumer price index, US dollar index, and investor psychology index, using a variety of econometric techniques. Our findings reveal a positive and significant correlation between investor psychology and market returns. These results highlight the importance of monitoring investor psychology during times of conflict as it can greatly impact investment decisions in financial markets, providing valuable insights for investors and policymakers.