Cognitive sophistication and deliberation times

Experimental Economics - Differences in cognitive sophistication and effort are at the root of behavioral heterogeneity in economics. To explain this heterogeneity, behavioral models assume that...     

A note on the implied volatility of floating strike Asian options

Decisions in Economics and Finance - In this paper, we study the short-time behavior of the implied volatility for short-time floating strike Asian options. Our method is based on Malliavin...     

Work, Identity and Self: How We Are Formed by The Work We Do

Because work looms so large in our lives I believe that most of us don't reflect on its importance and significance. For most of us, work is well – work, something we have to do to maintain our lives and pay the bills. I believe, however, that work is not just a part of our existence that can be easily separated from the rest of our lives. Work is not simply about the trading of labor for dollars. Perhaps because we live in a society that markets and hawks the fruits of our labor and not the labor itself, we have forgotten or never really appreciated the fact that the business of work is not simply to produce goods, but also to help produce people. We need work, and as adults we find identity and are identified by the work we do. If this is true then we must be very careful about what we choose to do for a living, for what we do is what we'll become.     

Did crisis alter trading of two major oil futures markets?

The paper analyzes how traders in two major oil futures markets: New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Intercontinental Exchange, reacted to the 2008 financial crisis, particularly whether they shifted their trading pattern and whether the relative information role of the two markets changed. Using trade-by-trade data, the paper analyzes several trading characteristics including trading volume, trade size, volatility, bid–ask spread, and relative information share. On average, NYMEX is characterized by greater volume, trade size and slightly greater spread. Before the crisis, NYMEX leads the process of price discovery, and volatility and trade size are significant factors explaining this leadership. However, following the financial crisis of 2008, the leadership role of NYMEX declines and trade size and volatility are no longer significant factors. Contrary to results of most equity market research, bid–ask spread is not a significant factor in information share and causality tests indicate that causality runs from spread to information share before the crisis but the opposite holds during the crisis period.     

Work–family conflicts and job attitudes of single women: a developing country perspective

This study addresses work–family conflicts and job attitudes of white-collar single women and the ensuing work-related attitudes in a developing country context. After an overview of gender roles in Arab society, several hypotheses were advanced and tested. Although married females reported higher family–work conflicts than single females, the latter group faced a host of strains, which are presented and analyzed. Despite being educated, single females were underpaid and their upward mobility seemed to be significantly hampered. They reported lower job satisfactions and had high intentions to leave their organization. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.     

Culture,Wasta and perceptions of performance appraisal in Saudi Arabia

This article explores the relationship between Arabic culture and employees’ perceptions of performance appraisal in a Saudi Arabian company named SACO. Using an interpretive and qualitative methodological framework, the article suggests that Western models of performance appraisal rooted in rationality and objectivity conflict with aspects of Saudi Arabian culture. Specifically, the personal relations implicated in the social practice of Wasta. However, the article also shows how SACO employees are beginning to reject Saudi Arabian cultural norms and adopt alternative values which are linked to notions of organisational justice and individual egalitarianism. These values are compatible with Western models of performance appraisal.     

The integration of sustainability within value management practices: A study of experienced value managers in the GCC countries

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprises the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the states of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. These countries are fairly similar in terms of socioeconomic, commercial, and infrastructural development. Disappointingly perhaps, their thriving construction industries continue to score poorly in terms of sustainability. Although value management (VM) has been proposed as a potential mechanism for delivering sustainable construction projects in some countries, this idea has not yet been widely put into practice around the world. The aim of this article is to investigate this potential in the GCC countries through interviewing 17 experienced value managers from the GCC. The primary conclusion, derived from the viewpoints of these value managers, is that such an endeavor might be unviable at present, largely due to a lack of awareness with regard to sustainability issues in the GCC. Proposals are therefore provided to assist in a successful integration of sustainability into VM practices in the GCC region.     

Transformational leadership and job involvement in the Middle East: the moderating role of individually held cultural values

This study examines whether individually held cultural values moderate the relationship between transformational leadership behavior of supervisors and the job involvement of subordinates in the Middle Eastern organizational context. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze survey data from 229 employees of 10 organizations in the United Arab Emirates. In line with the findings of studies in Western countries, transformational leadership was found to influence job involvement positively. In addition, the cultural value orientations of individuals were found to moderate this relationship. Collectivism positively influenced the relationship between transformational leadership and job involvement, whereas uncertainty avoidance had a negative effect. These findings provide an insight into how transformational leadership may be used to motivate culturally diverse groups of employees within the Middle East. To enhance job involvement, organizations need to realize that the attitudinal response of subordinates to transformational leadership can depend on their cultural values. This has significant implications regarding the training and effective deployment of transformational leaders within Middle Eastern organizations.     

Penalty and related estimation strategies in the spatial error model

Spatial autoregressive models are powerful tools in the analysis of data sets from diverse scientific areas of research such as econometrics, plant species richness, cancer mortality rates, image processing, analysis of the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data, and many more. An important class in the host of spatial autoregressive models is the class of spatial error models in which spatially lagged error terms are assumed. In this paper, we propose efficient shrinkage and penalty estimators for the regression coefficients of the spatial error model. We carry out asymptotic as well as simulation analyses to illustrate the gain in efficiency achieved by these new estimators. Furthermore, we apply the new methodology to housing prices data and provide a bootstrap approach to compute prediction errors of the new estimators.