Asset prices in an exchange economy when agents have heterogeneous homothetic recursive preferences and no risk free bond is available

We study a pure exchange economy under incomplete markets where households have heterogeneous homothetic recursive preferences and lending and borrowing are precluded. We fully characterize the properties of the efficient allocations and the equilibrium asset price. The ownership distribution dynamics reveal the emergence of a dominant agent, who after some finite time, remains the only investor that increases asset holdings until asymptotically owning the entire wealth. Investors can be ranked according to a unique parameter that aggregates agents’ preference characteristics and we show how time discount rate, attitude towards risk and intertemporal substitution contribute to capital accumulation.     

Public debt and welfare in a quantitative Schumpeterian growth model with incomplete markets

This paper quantifies the welfare effects of counterfactual public debt policies using an endogenous growth model with incomplete markets. The economy features public debt, Schumpeterian growth, infinitely-lived agents, uninsurable income risk, and discount factor heterogeneity. Two versions of the model are specified, one with households holding equity in the group of innovating firms. The model is calibrated to the U.S. economy to match the degree of wealth inequality, the share of R&D expenditure in GDP, the firms’ exit rate, the average growth rate, and other standard long-run targets. When comparing balanced growth paths, I find large welfare gains in equilibria characterized by governments accumulating public wealth. The result is robust to the mechanism used to generate a highly concentrated wealth (i.e., preference heterogeneity or “superstar” income shocks). Welfare effects decompositions show that level effects and growth effects reinforce each other. The responses of both the intermediate goods and their market conditions are key in explaining the large level effects. The version of the model without equity is computationally easier to solve, allowing to consider transitional dynamics. Taking into account the dynamic adjustment to the new long-run equilibrium, I show that the transitional welfare costs are not large enough to change the sign of the welfare effects stemming from a change in public debt. I find that eliminating public debt would lead to a 0.8% increase in welfare, while moving to a debt/GDP ratio of 100% would entail a welfare loss of 0.5%. A decomposition analysis shows that growth accounts for approximately 50% of the overall welfare effects.     

Chatbots or me? Consumers’ switching between human agents and conversational agents

With the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in organizational frontlines, customers' service experiences have begun to shift from interactions with service personnel to those with technology. However, only a few studies have explored customers' behavioral switch from human-mediated services to technology-mediated ones with regard to the application of AI in frontline services. Based on the push–pull mooring framework, this study explored the determinants that affect consumers’ behavioral switch from using human agents to using AI-based conversational agents. Data collected from 441 users of banking services were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that both push effects—namely, low empathy and low adaptability—and pull effects, including anytime/anywhere connectivity, association, visibility, and personalization, have positive influences on switching behavior. Finally, in addition to having a direct influence on switching behavior, frequency of service use positively moderated the relationship between pull effects and switching behavior.     

Abroad-at-Home: Identifying domestic tourism locations for overseas-like travel experiences by leveraging concept modeling

Some countries have places with foreign-like scenery that attracts domestic visitors to enjoy overseas-like travel experiences. However, such overseas-like travel experiences have not been widely utilized for domestic tourism development. This is likely due to the lack of awareness among the scientific community and tools for effectively identifying such travel experiences. To address the related gaps and technical challenges, this paper investigates the potential of abroad-at-home as a type of domestic tourism for promoting domestic tourism. This paper also introduces a novel technique called concept modeling that identifies abroad-at-home travel experiences from travel photos taken within a country. A case study on a large-scale dataset of more than 265,000 geotagged travel photos taken in Australia demonstrated the effectiveness of this method. The proposed method and findings are valuable for tourism organizations that use abroad-at-home travel experiences for domestic tourism development.     

Analyzing travel mobility patterns in city destinations: Implications for destination design

Understanding the features of travel activities is important in elaborating travel behaviors and segmenting travelers based on the similarity of activity patterns. This research applying mobile big data analytics suggests a novel method to classify travelers by considering the sequences of travel activity with individuals' trajectories. The result revealed five distinct travel types visiting city destinations and demonstrated dynamic travel flow among different mobility types. Recognizing that different types of travel patterns present important information in understanding destinations’ roles (or functions), this study attempts to characterize the functionality dynamics of city destinations based on travel activity types. As a result, the findings of this research provide insights into the demand-driven construct (or flow-based) of destination planning, which is the foundation of smart destination design. In addition, important methodological and practical implications that could be useful for city destination planners/designers are suggested.     

Government expenditure and economic growth: A heterogeneous-agents approach

This study examines the relationship between productive government expenditures and economic growth. An R&D-based model of endogenous growth is used, in which agents have heterogeneous entrepreneurial abilities. We show that if the number of high-ability entrepreneurs is non-negligible, then the relationship between the government expenditure/GDP ratio and the economic growth rate is depicted by an inverted U-shaped curve with a flat top. The flat top of the curve indicates that changes in the size of the government expenditures have a limited impact on growth. We calibrate the model using U.S. data and empirically confirm our theoretical predictions. The theoretical and numerical results suggest that the debate on the relationship between the size of the government and economic growth may be off the mark unless the size of the government is extremely large or small.     

How does culture influence a Country's travel and tourism competitiveness? A longitudinal frontier study on 39 countries

The greater competitiveness of a firm improves the chances of its success. Likewise, countries are constantly attempting to improve their travel and tourism competitiveness to attract global tourists. In this study, we present a theoretical framework linking the culture of a country and its travel and tourism competitiveness. We adopted the theoretical foundation of global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness (GLOBE) cultural values and practices to examine the panel effects of culture on competitiveness. We conducted a longitudinal study by using secondary data of 39 countries from 2011 to 2021. Results show that the culture of a country influence its travel and tourism competitiveness. Furthermore, we provide empirical evidence by performing longitudinal frontier analysis to determine which GLOBE model, that is, cultural practices or cultural values, is appropriate for future studies. Findings of this longitudinal study contribute to the novel understanding of competitiveness and culture.     

Enhancing Singapore travel agencies' customer loyalty: an empirical investigation of customers' behavioural intentions and zones of tolerance

The services marketing literature focuses on the measurement of service quality and its impact and consequences on businesses. Set in the context of the travel retail agency in Singapore, this study focuses on the relationship between service quality and favourable behavioural intentions. The findings revealed that improving service quality can increase favourable behavioural intentions. However, service improvements that exceed customers' minimum‐service threshold and those that exceed customers' desired‐service level were found to have mixed effect on behavioural intentions. Hence travel agencies must carefully determine the behavioural intentions they wish to foster amongst their various customers and develop service quality strategies in line with the findings of this study. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When,where, and with whom during crisis: The effect of risk perceptions and psychological distance on travel intentions

We investigate how risk perceptions and psychological distance impacted people's travel intentions during Covid-19. Our findings reveal that traveling to a high-risk destination increased people's risk perceptions of Covid-19, and their risk perceptions at the destination, which, in turn, reduced people's travel intentions. We identify temporal, spatial, and social distance (the “when, where, and with whom” of traveling) as moderators of these effects; while social distance moderates the effect of risk, on risk perceptions, temporal and spatial distance moderate the effect of risk perceptions on travel intentions. We outline theoretical contributions and implications for tourism during crisis.