Can incentives mitigate student overconfidence at grade forecasts?

Research shows that college students exhibit bias in their forecasts of exam performance. Most students are overconfident in their forecasts, academically weaker students are the most overconfident, and top-performing students are underconfident. The literature identifies negative repercussions of these biases, including inadequate preparation for exams. A recurring attribute of this literature is the absence of meaningful incentives for students to forecast accurately. We implement an extra credit scheme to incentivize accurate forecasts. Depending on how forecast bias is measured, the scheme mitigates bias by top-performing students and marginally mitigates bias by other students. Our results have several implications. First, we illustrate an extra credit tool instructors can use to incentivize students to make more thoughtful assessments of their future exam performance. Second, we show how the association between incentives and forecast bias differs across student groups. Finally, we show that results in this literature are sensitive to how bias is measured.     

Non-GAAP earnings reporting following going-concern opinions

We examine non-GAAP earnings reporting following a going-concern audit opinion (GCO). Using a propensity score-matched sample, matching first-time going-concern issuing companies with firms in financial distress that did not receive a going-concern report, we find that the likelihood and frequency of non-GAAP earnings reporting are lower following GCOs. In additional analyses, we find the negative association between the announcement of GCOs and the likelihood and frequency of non-GAAP earnings reporting stronger when GCOs are issued by industry-specialist auditors and when GCOs are unexpected, but do not find litigation risk or managers' ability to affect the association. These results are consistent with a decrease in investor demand for non-GAAP earnings disclosures following GCOs.     

The effect of stock-based incentives and governance mechanisms on voluntary disclosure of intangibles

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of stock-based incentives in encouraging more voluntary disclosures about firm-specific intangibles. I also examine whether corporate governance, previously found to be related to voluntary disclosures, is a complement to or substitute for stock-based incentives. Using content analysis of annual reports of a sample of high-tech firms, I find that stock-based incentives are positively associated with firms' voluntary disclosures about intangibles. With regard to the effect of governance mechanisms, I find that corporate governance does not have a relationship with disclosures when stock-based incentives are low. On the other hand, better governance will strengthen the positive effect of stock-based incentives on disclosures, suggesting that governance and incentives mechanisms are complements instead of substitutes. The results also show that this complementary effect primarily results from the internal monitoring provided by the board of directors.     

Contests with Multi-tasking*

The standard contest model in which participants compete in a single dimension is well understood and documented. Multi‐dimension extensions are possible but are liable to increase the complexity of the contest structure, mitigating one of its main advantages: simplicity. In this paper we propose an extension in which competition ensues in several dimensions, and a competitor that wins a certain number of these is awarded a prize. The amount of information needed to run the contest is hence limited to the number of dimensions won by each player. We look at the design of this contest from the point of view of maximising effort in the contest (per dimension and totally), and show that there will be a tendency to run small contests with few dimensions. The standard Tullock model and its results are encompassed by our framework.     

Employee Perceptions of Award and Incentive Programs

Abstract

Employee award and incentive programs have become standard practice in the business world and in many nonprofit organizations. A study was conducted to measure employee beliefs about meeting management's objectives and employee satisfaction with award/incentive programs. It was found that employee motivation-in terms of liking awards, willingness to encourage others, and willingness to work hard for awards-was the most important factor contributing to employee satisfaction with the programs and employee perception that management's objectives were satisfied by these programs.     

Effects of marketing and relationship variables on service intermediaries' promotional program participation

Many service companies sell services through independent intermediaries. Using the Taiwanese life insurance industry as a research context, the author investigates the influence of a life insurance company's marketing (product attractiveness and financial incentives) and relationship (interpersonal relationships and bargaining costs) variables on banks' participation in its promotional program. Both marketing and relationship variables significantly affect the bank's participation, though the marketing variables are more important determinants of participation. Product attractiveness dominates all other factors. Finally, these variables have independent rather than contingent effects on the bank's decisions.     

Razor-and-Blades pricing revisited

From razors and blades to printers and ink cartridges to smartphones and monthly usage charges to media devices and content, razor-and-blades pricing is commonplace. The argument for such a business model is compelling: entice consumers to adopt with a low initial price for the ‘razor,’ build up an installed base, and more than make up for the initial subsidy by charging a high price for replacement ‘blades.’ The problem is, many consumer enticement, customer lock-in, and competitive lock-out mechanisms look less and less tenable given modern-day developments such as the Internet, Google searches, social media, the hacker revolution, the ‘maker movement,’ rapidly improving technology, leaky supply chains, and global markets. This article characterizes the what, why, and how of razor-and-blades pricing; then examines the present-day tenability of such a pricing practice; and concludes with an impetus and a call for innovation—innovation in, perhaps, the pricing of and the purchasing arrangement for the initial razor; the value proposition from the razor and the razor-and-blades system; the architecture of the razor-and-blades system; and the delivery, especially in terms of customer experience, of value from the razor-and-blades system.     

挑选合适酒店工作的员工提高激励效果

挑选适合酒店工作的员工是酒店成功的前提,是创造满意客人的关键。合适的酒店员工可为客人提供满意的情感体验,提升酒店在客人心目中的地位,切实提高酒店的激励效果。因而酒店管理者对合适的员工应建设一个开放型的上下级沟通环境,鼓励员工从工作中寻找乐趣,制定高标准的服务程序,提倡酒店的合作精神,并努力促使员工自行解决问题,同时关注员工的职业生涯发展,从而进一步的提高酒店的激励成效。     

Bank credit,public financial incentives,tax financial incentives and export performance during the global financial crisis

This paper investigates the extent to which access to credit, public financial incentives and tax financial incentives affect export performance using the EU-EFIGE/Bruegel-Unicredit data set, covering firms within Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Hungary and the UK during the 2008 global financial crisis. The results show that firms receiving credit or benefiting from public financial incentives display higher export intensity and export a greater number of product lines compared to those that did not, especially in countries with better access to credit and/or financial incentives during the crisis. Further, firms benefiting from tax financial incentives show a better export performance compared to those that did not, regardless of the degree of access to credit and/or financial incentives in the country in which they operate. In addition, the effect of access to credit and public finance incentives on export performance is found to be size-dependent, while the effect of tax financial incentives is not. We suggest that governments should promote publicly funded financial incentives along with conventional schemes, such as R&D subsidies, to promote exports, particularly during a period of financial crisis.     

税收激励对企业投资决策影响研究——基于微观动态非平衡面板数据的分析

我国减税降费政策的实施,对降低企业税负、盘活企业流动资金具有积极作用,有利于促进企业高质量可持续发展。在此背景下,本文基于欧拉方程投资框架构建回归模型,给出了税收影响投资决策的现实路径,运用2008-2019年的微观动态非均衡数据进行实证检验,研究发现:税收激励依旧是影响我国企业投资决策的积极因素,而市场需求与融资约束的影响并不明显;在国有企业与非国有企业中,投资行为存在较大差异,国有企业投资对税收激励比较敏感,而非国有企业则对市场需求更敏感。基于研究结论,本文为制定税收激励政策提出相关建议。