Variety in the video game industry: An empirical study of the Wundt curve

This study analyzes the effect of variety on consumer utility using historical behavioral information for 1,397 consumers participating in 729,049 unique rounds of play. We show that consumers generally exhibit a preference for variety as part of their gameplay utility. The relationship between variety and utility is nonlinear and follows, at least for some types of variety, an inverted u‐shape as predicted by the Wundt curve. Our results represent the first such evidence on the importance of variety in video gaming, which has significant implications for consumption through optimization of gameplay utility to satisfy the demand for variety.     

Modelling Hospital Admission and Length of Stay by Means of Generalised Count Data Models

For a large heterogeneous group of patients, we analyse probabilities of hospital admission and distributional properties of lengths of hospital stay conditional on individual determinants. Bayesian structured additive regression models for zero‐inflated and overdispersed count data are employed. In addition, the framework is extended towards hurdle specifications, providing an alternative approach to cover particularly large frequencies of zero quotes in count data. As a specific merit, the model class considered embeds linear and nonlinear effects of covariates on all distribution parameters. Linear effects indicate that the quantity and severity of prior illness are positively correlated with the risk of hospital admission, while medical prevention (in the form of general practice visits) and rehabilitation reduce the expected length of future hospital stays. Flexible nonlinear response patterns are diagnosed for age and an indicator of a patients' socioeconomic status. We find that social deprivation exhibits a positive impact on the risk of admission and a negative effect on the expected length of future hospital stays of admitted patients. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Charts and demand: Empirical generalizations on social influence

Social influence on consumer behavior has long been a subject of academic research in various scientific fields. According to research by Salganik, Dodds, and Watts (2006), music demand is a function of social influence between consumers. Market concentration tends to increase when information on demand becomes publicly available. In addition, stochastic agglomeration caused by social influence decreases the predictability of market success. These heavily cited findings challenge traditional market research and provide important insights on the impact of social media and sales charts. We test the stability of their results by replicating the study on music demand in a slightly different setting. We further investigate the generalizability of findings by probing other product categories and different phases of purchase decisions, i.e., interest, consideration, and actual demand. Across all categories and across all dependent variables, we are able to replicate the direction of the effects. We do, however, consistently obtain smaller effect sizes than reported in the original paper.     

Altruism and egoism in investment decisions

We provide survey evidence that personal values have an impact on individual investment decisions, in particular preferences for socially responsible investing. Our findings show that there is a positive link between altruistic values and the relative importance of social responsibility. This effect is stronger when individuals believe that they can make a positive social or environmental impact with their investments, or when they feel morally obliged to invest responsibly. If altruistic individuals associate responsible investments with higher returns, it decreases their motivation to invest responsibly. Egoistic values are negatively associated with the decision to invest responsibly, unless individuals associate responsible investing with higher returns.     

An empirical investigation of the impact of audit and auditor characteristics on auditor performance

We use a unique and confidential database of 15,392 tax audits performed by the Croatian Tax Administration during the 2002–2006 period to examine the impact of task complexity, auditor experience, and auditor effort on audit performance. We provide external validation to prior experimental and analytical research showing that task complexity decreases while auditor experience and effort increase audit performance. We also extend this literature by examining the roles of task complexity and experience in moderating the impact of the effort on audit performance. We find that task complexity mitigates, while experience enhances the positive relationship between auditor effort and performance. However, we also find that auditor experience reinforces the positive effect of auditor effort on performance to a greater degree when complexity is high. Taken together, our findings provide new evidence on how audit and auditor characteristics impact audit performance, and new insight into how task complexity and auditor experience separately and jointly moderate the impact of auditor effort on performance.     

论世界经济发展的区域集团化及其影响

在经济全球化过程中,世界经济区域集团化成为当代世界经济的重要特征之一。资本主义基本经济规律的作用导致世界生产力的迅速发展,必然会导致国际生产关系的改变。谋取超额利润是世界经济区域集团化的基本动力。因此,有必要正确认识世界经济区域集团化对世界经济和各国经济的影响,抓住机遇,迎接挑战。     

灵活化时代的就业稳定性分析

科技与全球化的迅速发展使灵活化成为了西方工业化国家劳动力市场的一个基本特征和发展趋势。从理论上来讲,劳动力市场的灵活化将从内外两方面增加就业的不稳定性。但是,对就业任期和离职率等就业稳定性指标的实证研究表明,工业化国家的就业稳定性并没有发生大的变化,长期性稳定就业仍然是这些国家劳动力市场的标准就业关系。这种理论分析与实证研究之间的矛盾,可从三个方面来解释:内部劳动力市场的灵活化程度、企业专用性人力资本等因素的稳定作用和媒体报道与一些相关研究的负面影响。