Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Labor Migration and People’s Political and Economic Views in Transition Countries

In this study, we focus on the effects of labor migration on the economic and political views of people in European, Caucasian, and Central Asian transition countries. During 30 years of transition, people’s views towards transition have demonstrated substantial variations from supports to oppositions. Labor migration can play roles in shaping their views. It can promote supports for transition by providing knowledges and norms related to liberal and democratic systems from foreign countries, a mechanism known as social remittances. However, transition countries also receive immigrants and the economic pressure associated with immigrants can reduce the supports. With survey data covering 27 transition countries and three years, 2006, 2010, and 2016, and remittance flow data as proxies for labor migration intensities, we empirically examine how sending and receiving labor migrants affect the preferences for a market economy and democracy. Our main findings are (i) that sending labor emigrants increases people’s preferences for a market economy but (ii) that receiving immigrants reduces those for a market economy and democracy. The former effect is observed in countries from which labor emigrants head to Western European countries, suggesting the roles of social remittances. Conversely, with immigrants, people increase their demand for governmental interventions and skeptic views towards democracy.
Inter-Platform Competition in a Regulated Ride-Hail Market With Pooling

Abstract This paper studies an aggregate ride-hail market in which two platforms compete with each other, as well as with transit, under different supply and regulatory conditions. The duopoly is built on a general market equilibrium model that explicitly characterizes the physical matching process, including pairing two passengers for a pooling ride. Depending on whether drivers’ work affiliation with a platform is exclusive or not, the duopoly is said to have a single- or multi-homing supply mode. We describe the outcome of the duopoly pricing game as a Nash Equilibrium (NE) and solve it by transforming it into a variational inequality problem (VIP). When a regulatory constraint is imposed, the duopoly equilibrium becomes a generalized NE, which corresponds to a quasi VIP. We show that multi-homing may lead to disastrous outcomes in an unregulated duopoly and demonstrate it through numerical experiments constructed using data from Chicago. Specifically, passenger and driver surplus, as well as platform profits, are all significantly lower in a multi-homing duopoly than in a single-homing counterpart. This disaster arises because (i) the multi-homing duopoly is locked in a self-destructive pricing war analogous to the tragedy of the commons; and (ii) the competition among passengers limits economy of scale in trip production. We show that the negative consequences of this tragedy can be mitigated by (i) discouraging multi-homing behavior; (ii) imposing a minimum wage on both platforms; and (iii) encouraging the platforms to specialize in different services. The results also show the efficiency in matching passengers and drivers is a crucial asset for a platform’s competitiveness, more so in a multi-homing duopoly. In general, the platform with a higher matching efficiency ends up making more money and providing a better level of service.
The Cross-Sectional Determinants of Post-IPO Stock Performance: Evidence from China

This paper examines the cross-sectional determinants of post-IPO long-term stock returns in China. We document that the aftermarket P/E ratio has the most robust negative association with post-IPO stock returns. The negative relation indicates that the market corrects the aftermarket overvaluation of IPO firms in the long run. Underwriter reputation has a positive effect on post-IPO stock returns while board size has a negative impact, consistent with the views that reputable underwriters mitigate the information asymmetry in IPO pricing and over-sized boards reduce the effectiveness of corporate governance. However, we find little evidence indicating that the equity ownership structure is significantly associated with post-IPO stock returns.
The Double-Edged Effects of E-Commerce Cart Retargeting: Does Too Early Retargeting Backfire?

As consumers often abandon e-commerce carts, companies are shifting their online advertising budgets to immediate e-commerce cart re-targeting (ECR). They presume that early reminder ads, relative to late ones, generate more click-throughs and web revisits. We develop a conceptual framework of the double-edged effects of ECR ads and empirically support it with a multi-study multi-setting design. Study 1 involves two field experiments on over 40,500 customers who are randomized to either receive an ECR ad via email and app channels (treatment) or not receive it (control) across different hourly blocks after cart abandonment. We find that customers who received an early ECR ad within 30 minutes to one hour are less likely to make a purchase compared to those who did not receive it in the control. These findings reveal a causal negative incremental impact of immediate re-targeting. In other words, delivering ECR ads too early can engender worse purchase rates than without delivering them, thus wasting online advertising budgets. By contrast, a late ECR ad in one to three days has a positive incremental impact on customer purchases. In Study 2, another field experiment on 23,900 different customers not only replicates such double-edged impact of ECR ads delivered by mobile SMS, but also explores cart characteristics that amplify both the negative impact of early ECR ads and positive impact of late ECR ads. These findings offer novel insights into customer responses to online re-targeted ads for researchers and managers alike.
Asset Growth Effect and Q Theory of Investment

We extend the standard q theory of investment into a two-capital setup in which firms use both physical capital (long-term asset) and short-term capital (current asset) as production inputs. We find this simple extension is capable of explaining the stronger return predictive power of total asset growth than current and long-term asset growths. A novel asset imbalance channel creates negatively correlated comovement between current and long-term asset growths that are unrelated to the discount rate effect. Part of this comovement is cancelled out in the total asset growth, giving rise to its stronger return predictive power. Empirically, once controlling for this comovement, the return predictive power of current and long-term asset growths substantially improves. Furthermore, we document compelling evidences for the model's prediction that the asset growth effects are more prominent among firms with low asset imbalance. Our results support the q-theory based explanation for the asset growth effect.
Behavioral Finance Perspectives on Pakistan Stock Market Efficiency: A theoretical review

The study is based on historical and hypothetical syntheses in understanding the sagacity of investors, stock returns, and stock market efficiency behavior in the theoretical frame of behavioral finance patterns. This research is guided by multidisciplinary behavioral related theories. This study explored Philosophy, theories, methods argument, and difference of opinions along with finance scholars in modern and behavioral finance paradigms. The perspectives on market efficiency studies between the two paradigms are discussed here based on interconnected theoretical perspectives.
Firms of a Feather Merge Together: The Coordination Benefits of Compatible Cultures

In this paper, I argue that the culture compatibility acquirer and target exhibit at the time of a deal announcement — defined as the strength of the overall culture they would form, if combined — entails coordination benefits, positively affecting M&amp;A outcomes. By parsing the recombination and coordination effects of an organizational culture and theorizing about the coordination benefits that strong cultures engender (while controlling for the recombination potential), this paper reconciles the mixed evidence found so far when studying the effect of cultural differences on M&amp;A performance. I measure organizational culture using text reviews employees post on Glassdoor.com about their companies. I develop an approach based on topic modeling, a machine learning algorithm for natural language processing, to measure culture compatibility based on the distribution of reviews in the space of topics that individuals consider important when writing about their companies. Using a sample of 349 technology acquisitions, matched to counterfactual “pseudo-deals,” and about 780,000 Glassdoor text reviews, I find that pre-deal acquirer-target culture compatibility is positively associated with the likelihood of a deal to be announcement and with superior stock returns. The effect is stronger for cross- border deals, in which coordination is more challenging to achieve than in domestic deals.
Is the Diversification Discount Caused by the Book Value Bias of Debt?

We analyze whether the diversification discount is driven by the book value bias of corporate debt. Book values of debt may be a more downward biased proxy of the market value of debt for diversified firms, relative to undiversified firms, as diversification leads to lower firm risk. Thus, measures of firm value based on book values of debt undervalue diversified firms relative to focused firms. Our paper complements recent literature which uses market values to test the risk reduction hypothesis for a subsample of firms for which debt is traded. Alternatively, we employ market value of debt estimates for the whole firm universe. Consistent with the above hypothesis, we show that the use of book values of debt underestimates the value of diversified firms. There is no discount for mainly equity financed firms and lower distress risk and equity volatility for diversified firms. More concentrated ownership increases firm valuation.
Return Spillovers Between Currency Factors

In this paper we suggest that currency factors carry informational value by disentangling the effect each currency has on exchange rate dynamics. First, we confirm the existence of a geographical factor driving American, European and Pacific exchange rates. Second, we reveal two novel stylized facts: 1) The euro and swiss franc factors are highly correlated and exposed, serving as major channels of shock propagation from and to other currencies; 2) The pound factor and, to some extent, the yen factor are the most secluded in the G10 network and have been net absorbers of spillovers from other currencies. Finally, we show that aggregate currency return spillovers peak in consonance with key economic and financial events.
Volatility Measurement with Pockets of Extreme Return Persistence

Abstract Increasing evidence points towards the episodic emergence of pockets with extreme return persistence. This notion refers to intraday periods of non-trivial duration, for which stock returns are highly positively autocorrelated. Such episodes include, but are not limited to, gradual jumps and prolonged bursts in the drift component. In this paper, we develop a family of integrated volatility estimators, labeled differenced-return volatility ( DV ) estimators, which provide robustness to these types of Ito semimartingale violations. Specifically, we show that, by using differences in consecutive high-frequency returns, our DV estimators can reduce the non-trivial bias that all commonly-used estimators exhibit during such periods of apparent short-term intraday return predictability. A Monte Carlo study demonstrates the reliability of the newly developed volatility estimators in finite samples. In our empirical volatility forecasting application to S&P 500 index futures and individual equities, our DV -based Heterogeneous Autoregressive (HAR) model performs well relative to existing procedures according to standard out-of-sample MSE and QLIKE criteria.
Does Inflation Targeting Help Information Transmission?

This paper studies the informational impact of inflation targeting on financial market volatility in an emerging market context by using a novel monetary policy regime-switching approach. We find that the changeover to inflation targeting in India did not result in a greater impact of monetary policy surprises on bond and equity market volatility. We rule out financial frictions as a factor driving our results. Our evidence-based textual analysis of central bank policy announcements shows an increased focus on inflation, but not on growth, possibly explaining why the equity market impact of monetary policy announcements remained weak even after inflation targeting.
Philanthropy in Israel: An Updated Picture

In the last few decades, philanthropy in Israeli society has changed and along with the traditional charitable giving, a new kind of modern philanthropy has emerged. This empirical study aims to profile modern Israeli philanthropists, and to present the characteristics that are linked to donation amounts, donor generosity, and the link between donor characteristics and the likelihood to donate. The study results show differences in Israeli philanthropic behavior that are linked to a variety of economic and socio-demographic variables.First, everything else being equal, female-headed households tend to be more generous in terms of donation as a percent of income. However, male headed households contribute higher amounts on average. Second, new immigrant philanthropists contribute significantly higher amounts than their Israel-born counterparts and long-time residents. With each additional year of residence in Israel, assimilating and integrating into its society, giving generosity decreases, converging to the level of Israel-born donors. Philanthropists originating from the United States and Western Europe contribute the highest amounts and are found to be the most generous donors compared to those originating from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.The gap between these groups has widened considerably since 2000.Merging philanthropists’ data with the Central Bureau of Statistics Household Expenditure Survey, shows that philanthropist households differ from the general population in virtually every category examined. All of the results are statistically significant and robust to alternate specifications.
Overlapping Negotiations, Conflicting Interests? EU-Singapore Negotiations

In 2013, the European Union (EU) concluded its first comprehensive trade agreement with a Southeast Asian partner. The EU-Singapore agreement (EUSFTA) was meant as a blueprint for further negotiations in the region and indeed it was paralleled by trade talks between the EU and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Given the significant challenges and roadblocks the EU faced in concluding both inter-regional and bilateral trade deals in Asia prior to the EUSFTA, the conclusion of this agreement can be understood as a significant success. However, this success has come at the cost of a shift in EU external relations away from the promotion of its own foundation norms of human rights, rule of law and democracy. This shift has had a deleterious effect on the EU’s legitimacy, founded on upholding these norms, both internally and in the Asian region. As a blueprint agreement, the EUSFTA can be analyzed to understand how this shift in the EU’s external relations will shape the EU’s wider trade policy in East Asia as well as the future of EU-Asia trade relations. This working paper will explore these negotiations and argue that the EU unbundled trade policy from its rights-based foreign policy in the EUSFTA. We argue that this creates significant opportunity for Singapore and other Asian states, but also presents a critical risk to the EU’s foundation norms, which were compromised in the EU’s negotiation of the EUSFTA.
Systemic Risk Channels of Asset Managers: Evidence from Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds

Using a sample of hedge funds and mutual funds, I examine two channels through which asset managers can contribute to systemic risk: the service channel when funds act as liquidity suppliers and the asset liquidation channel when funds act as liquidity demanders. Consistent with the latter channel being more important, I find that contributions to systemic risk increase significantly when hedge funds demand liquidity. Conversely, no such effect exists for mutual funds. A decomposition of systemic risk reveals that the higher level of systemic risk for liquidity-demanding hedge funds can be explained by a higher degree of interconnectedness. Providing further evidence for the asset liquidation channel, I document that systemic risk is considerably larger when hedge funds demand liquidity in times of low funding liquidity and during stock market boom and bust phases.
Firm Exports and Processing Trade under Credit Constraints

We provide ﬁrm-level evidence that processing trade helps relax the restriction of credit constraints on exports. We show that ﬁrms with higher processing trade share have better export performance than those with lower processing trade share in ﬁnancially more vulnerable sectors. The results are not driven by ﬁrm size, time, or other sector characteristics. Our ﬁndings are consistent with the fact that processing trade is less credit-constrained because it entails lower upfront costs and thus has less working capital needs. Our ﬁndings, thus, highlight the importance of processing trade in ﬁrm exports, particularly in developing countries with imperfect capital markets.
Gray Skies and Blue Moms:The Effect of Air Pollution on Parental Life Satisfaction

We investigate the effects of air pollution on individuals’ life satisfaction, uncovering important heterogeneity in the impact. Using self-reported life satisfaction data from South Korea, we show that individuals report, ceteris paribus, lower life satisfaction in response to worsening air quality if young children are present in the household. This observed impact is driven heavily by the sub-population of mothers, and the impact on mothers attenuates as their children grow older. We conclude that mothers’ disproportionate responsibility for child rearing and children’s higher vulnerability to air pollution are the likely channels mediating the impact of air pollution on life satisfaction.
Can Work Sharing Sustain Employment During Economic Downturn? Evidence from Brazil

Work sharing policies seek to reduce the work schedule of individuals as a means to preserve their jobs. This paper assesses the impact of the short-lived Employment Protection Program (EPP), the Brazilian work sharing program that was active between 2015 and 2018, on employment. Using administrative data of the program, the results show that establishments that participate in the program present higher employment levels than non-participant establishments after the program. Furthermore, the effect of EPP on employment is not immediate and increases overtime.
Does Monetary Policy Action Have Significant Impact on the Real Economy? A Critical Look at the Aggregate Demand Function for Ghana

This paper examines the impact of monetary policy on real economic activities using a modified open-economy New Keynesian aggregate demand function for Ghana over the period 2000Q1-2016Q4. Our analysis shows that all the determinants of aggregate demand have the expected theoretical signs. We observed that tighter monetary policy dampens economic activities in Ghana, as the elasticity of domestic output gap to changes in real monetary condition index – which is a combination of real exchange rate and interest rate gaps - were all negative and significant. The results also show that lag and lead domestic output gap, foreign output gap and structural fiscal gap have positive impact on current output gap. In particular, the weight of real exchange rate in the output gap equation appears to outweigh that of real interest rate and lagged output gap in the case of Ghana. This accentuates the relevance of real exchange rate in Ghana's monetary policy transmission mechanism.
More than Meets the Eye: Public Perceptions and Misperceptions of China

How is China viewed by citizens of other countries? Popular polling data based on the feeling thermometer scale can reveal overall patterns of the public sentiment toward China, but they do not necessarily capture the multidimensional preferences of the public. In this article, I explore both perceptions and misperceptions of China held by the Canadian public through a series of surveys that cover a wide range of topics from trade and investment to international leadership. Two broad conclusions follow. First, public perceptions of China are much more nuanced and conflicted than can be quickly gleaned from the simple dichotomy of “favorable vs unfavorable”. Second, misperceptions of China are widespread but they may be remedied by corrective information. At a time when countries around the world are grappling with the rise of China and its expanded global footprint, failure to account for either of these features in the public opinion of China may lead to misguided policies.
Diversification and the Distribution of Portfolio Variance, Part 2: Volatility Stability as a Measure of Diversification

We introduce a new framework for understanding portfolio diversification that provides a coherent basis for comparing methodologies and offers a new approach to portfolio construction. The primary argument is that measures of diversification based only on a covariance matrix are ambiguous because in such a risk setting only the overall portfolio variance is of any import. To resolve this we propose that the purpose of diversification is most helpfully viewed as reducing the variance of portfolio variance itself, which in turn is only meaningful when one accounts for excess kurtosis. Connecting diversification and the variance of variance provides a natural extension to the ubiquitous mean-variance approach. Examples are provided to demonstrate the intuitive nature of portfolios that maximize diversification through minimizing kurtosis. Furthermore, we introduce portfolio dimensionality as a transformation of kurtosis that allows us to interpret diversification in terms of an equivalent number of assets with independent and identically distributed (IID) returns.