Using virtual reality to increase charitable donations

Marketer interest in using virtual reality (VR) as a persuasion tactic continues to rise. Notably, one sector at the forefront of utilizing this tactic for persuasive means is nonprofit marketing. Many charities have devoted considerable resources to creating VR appeals under the assumption that this medium will increase donations over and above present tactics. However, research has not yet examined the persuasive consequences VR may provide over more traditional channels. This research seeks to understand the opportunities and limitations this emerging tactic can offer marketers. Specifically, we examine the donation effectiveness of three real VR charitable appeals by assessing actual donation behaviors, and find that VR appeals increase donations compared to a two-dimensional (2D) format. This work addresses a timely and relevant issue for practitioners and opens doors to future research investigating VR’s applications to marketing.

     

Contingent Claim Pricing Using a Normal Inverse Gaussian Probability Distortion Operator

We consider the problem of pricing contingent claims using distortion operators. This approach was first developed in ( Wang, 2000 ) where the original distortion function was defined in terms of the normal distribution. Here, we introduce a new distortion based on the Normal Inverse Gaussian (NIG) distribution. The NIG is a generalization of the normal distribution that allows for heavier skewed tails. The resulting operator asymmetrically distorts the underlying distribution. Moreover, we show how we can recuperate non‐Gaussian Black–Scholes formulas using distortion operators and we provide illustrations of their performance. We conclude with a brief discussion on risk management applications.     

A financial stability index for Colombia

The imbalances of the financial systems have showed the vast economic and social costs generated by financial instability. As a consequence, the development of stress indexes has spread as an alternative to assess the soundness of financial systems. The aim of this paper is to construct a continuous and quantifiable index with the capacity of establishing the stress level of the Colombian financial system as a function of profitability, liquidity and probability of default. Results show that the index determines effectively the stress level of the system. In addition, we performed forecasts of the financial stability index using macroeconomics variables.     

Can health care information technology save babies?

Electronic medical records (EMRs) facilitate fast and accurate access to patient records, which could improve diagnosis and patient monitoring. Using a 12-year county-level panel, we find that a 10 percent increase in births that occur in hospitals with EMRs reduces neonatal mortality by 16 deaths per 100,000 live births. This is driven by a reduction of deaths from conditions requiring careful monitoring. We also find a strong decrease in mortality when we instrument for EMR adoption using variation in state medical privacy laws. Rough cost-effectiveness calculations suggest that EMRs are associated with a cost of $531,000 per baby’s life saved.