Optimality and construction of some rectangular designs

We obtain a sufficient condition forE-optimality of equireplicate designs. As an application, we proveE-optimality of certain types of three-class PBIBDs based on rectangular association scheme — in short — rectangular designs. These designs turn out to be highly efficient with respect to theA-criterion as well. We also observe that these designs, though themeselves not regular graph designs (RGD's) are yet strictlyE-better than every competing RGD, wheneverv≥26 andv=2 (mod 4). This provides an infinite series of counter examples to the conjecture of John and Mitchell (1977). We also present two methods of construction of the rectangular designs. Apart from providing infinitely many examples of the designs provedE-optimal in this paper and in Cheng and Constantine (1986), this construction also provides — as a special case — the first known infinite series of most balanced group divisible designs, which were proved optimal with respect to all type 1 criteria by Cheng (1978).     

On the (non-)lattice structure of the equilibrium set in games with strategic substitutes

This paper studies models where the optimal response functions under consideration are not increasing in endogenous variables, and weakly increasing in exogenous parameters. Such models include games with strategic substitutes, and include cases where additionally, some variables may be strategic complements. The main result here is that the equilibrium set in such models is a non-empty, complete lattice, if, and only if, there is a unique equilibrium. Indeed, for a given parameter value, a pair of distinct equilibria are never comparable. Therefore, with multiple equilibria, some of the established techniques for exhibiting increasing equilibria or computing equilibria that use the largest or smallest equilibrium, or that use the lattice structure of the equilibrium set do not apply to such models. Moreover, there are no ranked equilibria in such models. Additionally, the analysis here implies a new proof and a slight generalization of some existing results. It is shown that when a parameter increases, no new equilibrium is smaller than any old equilibrium. (In particular, in n-player games of strategic substitutes with real-valued action spaces, symmetric equilibria increase with the parameter.)      

The Role of the Business Press in Creating and Disseminating Information around Earnings Announcements

This paper investigates the role of the business press in creating and disseminating information around earnings announcements by examining different motivations of trading volume. We find that press coverage is positively associated with trading activity motivated by differential interpretation and by differential belief revision, consistent with the press playing both an information creation and information dissemination role around earnings announcements. When we divide press coverage into full articles with additional editorial content and news flashes merely repeating verbatim of firm-disclosed press releases, we find that trading volume motivated by both differential interpretation and differential belief revision increases as coverage by full articles increases, and trading volume motivated by differential belief revision increases as coverage by news flashes increases. We also report that the differential interpretation effect of full articles is more pronounced when information users’ sophistication is high. Overall, we provide new evidence to the literature by showing that each type of press coverage plays an informational role in different motivations of trading activity.     

Monotone comparative statics for games with strategic substitutes

Under some conditions, parameterized games with strategic substitutes exhibit monotone comparative statics of equilibria. These conditions relate to a tradeoff between a direct parameter effect and an opposing, indirect strategic substitute effect. If the indirect effect does not dominate the direct effect, monotone comparative statics of equilibria are guaranteed. These conditions are available for best-response functions, differentiable payoff functions, and general payoff functions. Results are extended to correspondences, the analysis applies to asymmetric equilibria, and several examples are provided.     

Effect of consumer self‐confidence on information search and dissemination: Mediating role of subjective knowledge

Consumers search for information about products to make a satisfactory purchase decision and gain knowledge about new features and updates. Consumers also use this knowledge to be vocal about their product experience because several consumers seek interpersonal recommendations. This phenomenon has contributed to the emergence of information search (IS) and information dissemination (ID) as a key research area in the field of consumer behaviour. However, the role of personal factors such as consumer self‐confidence and subjective knowledge has received little attention in the extant IS and ID literature. The major argument of this study is that information acquisition confidence and social outcome confidence enhance subjective knowledge and consequently increase the will of consumers to search and disseminate information in the context of smartphone buyers in India. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed hypotheses using a convenience sample of 259 consumers obtained through a cross‐sectional survey. The study shows that subjective knowledge is crucial in strengthening the association between consumer self‐confidence and consumer intention for IS and ID. Additionally, enhancing consumer’s social outcome confidence contributes towards high subjective knowledge and consequently accelerates information dissemination. Results suggest that firms could focus on enhancing the social outcome confidence and subjective knowledge of consumers to motivate them to disseminate information. The results also show that consumers with high confidence in information acquisition ability have the high subjective knowledge and are more likely to search for information. Overall, this study contributes to the emerging literature regarding the role of personal factors in IS and dissemination behaviour.     

When does comparability better enhance relevance? Policy implications from empirical evidence

This study investigates the user-specific contexts under which comparability better enhances relevance of accounting information. We first confirm the intuition in the FASB’s (2010) current conceptual framework by documenting that the short-window earnings response coefficient (ERC) is positively associated with the pre-determined level of comparability. Using the cross-sectional variation in the positive relation between ERC and comparability, we show that the link between ERC and comparability is more pronounced for firms with higher investor sophistication and lower information asymmetry among investors. We further support our predictions using analysts’ earnings forecast revisions and various alternative measures of earnings informativeness. In sum, our paper shows that comparability improves information users’ ability to identify similarities and differences across different firms to a greater extent when investor base is more sophisticated and private information is less prevalent. These results suggest that standard setters, regulators, and practitioners should devote more attention to the role of comparability in firms whose investors are less sophisticated and information environment is more opaque.