2023 Symposium on Economics and Finance in the Asia-Pacific(The 9th Hanyang-Kobe-Nanyang Extended Conference)
Date: November 28-29, 2023
Host: Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore

Programme
Day 1 (November 28, Tuesday)
8:50-9:00 Opening Remarks
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Speaker: Qu FENG, Head of Economics Division, NTU

9:00-9:45 Keynote Speech 1
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Speaker: Xiaobo ZHANG (Peking U)
Title: Bridging the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship and Empowering Women via
Digital Technologies
Chair: Guiying Laura WU (NTU)
9:45-10:00 Coffee Break
10:00-11:30 Plenary Session 1(30 minutes for each presentation)
Session 1: Banking and Finance
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Chair: Ryuzo MIYAO, Dean of the Graduate School of Economics and Faculty of
Economics, Kobe U
Presentation 1: The Cost of Capital Market Distortions: Evidence from Chinese
Overseas IPO
Presenter: Guiying Laura WU (NTU)
1

Presentation 2: Is There an Optimal Risk-Taking in U.S. Banks?
Presenter: Ji-Chai LIN (National Central U)
Presentation 3: State-based Overconfidence: An Application to the Credit Market
Presenter: Thomas VOON (Lingnan U)
11:30-11:40 Coffee Break
11:40-12:40 Semi-Plenary Session 1(30 minutes for each presentation)
Session 2: Macroeconomics
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Chair: Young Jun CHUN (Hanyang U)
Presentation 1: The Ramsey Steady State Conundrum in Heterogeneous Agent
EconomyPresenter: Yi WEN (Shanghai Jiao Tong U)
Presentation 2: A Schumpeterian Exploration of Gini and Top/Bottom Income Shares
Presenter: Tetsugen HARUYAMA (Kobe U)
Session 3: Econometrics
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+55
Chair: Wenjie WANG (NTU)
Presentation 1: Inference in Time Series Models Using Smoothed Clustered Standard
ErrorsPresenter: Seunghwa RHO (Hanyang U)
Presentation 2: Unified Inference for Long-Horizon Predictive Regressions Including
Mildly Integrated and Explosive Cases
Presenter: Seok Young HONG (NTU)
12:40-12:50 Welcome Speech
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Speaker: Euston QUAH, Albert Winsemius Chair Professor of Economics, Director of
Economic Growth Centre, NTU, & the President of Economic Society of Singapore,
Editor of Singapore Economic Review
12:50-13:40 Buffet Lunch
Venue: HIVE Level 32

13:40-14:25 Keynote Speech 2
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Speaker: Sumit AGARWAL (NUS)
Title: Water Conservation and Household Sustainability in Singapore
Chair: Qu FENG (NTU)
14:25-14:40 Coffee Break
14:40-15:40 Semi-Plenary Session 2(30 minutes for each presentation)
Session 4: Development Economics
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Chair: Shigeto KITANO, Director of Research Institute for Economics & Business
Administration, Kobe U
Presentation 1: Cultivating Equality: The Effect of Traditional Farming Practices on
Gender Disparity in China
Presenter: James ANG (NTU)
Presentation 2: Risk Sharing and Peer Effects in Gift Spending: Evidence from Rural
China
Presenter: Juncong GUO (Shanghai Jiao Tong U)
Session 5: Microeconomics
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+55
Chair: Tat-How TEH (NTU)
Presentation 1: Persuasion under the Influence of Fake News
Presenter: Daeyoung JEONG (Hanyang U)
Presentation 2: A Simple Approach for Measuring Higher-Order Risk Attitudes
Presenter: Rachel J. HUANG (National Central U)
15:40-15:50 Coffee Break
15:50-17:20 Plenary Session 2(30 minutes for each presentation)
Session 6: Empirical Economics and Finance
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
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Chair: Henry H. HUANG (National Central U)
Presentation 1: Transitioning from a Bank towards an Equity-Outsider Financing
System in Japan: The Impact on Income Smoothing Practice over 40 Years
Presenter: Keishi FUJIYAMA (Kobe U)
Presentation 2: Big-Box Store Expansion and Consumer Welfare
Presenter: Zhonglin LI (NUS)
Presentation 3: Information Disclosure and Locations Choices: A Study of theMarcellus Shale
Presenter: Wenshu GUO (Lingnan U)
17:20-17:40 Closing Remarks
Venue: HIVE Level 3, LHS-TR+56
Closing Speech: Yohanes Eko RIYANTO, Chair of School of Social Sciences, NTU
Concluding Remarks:
Shigeto KITANO, Director of Research Institute for Economics & Business
Administration, Kobe U
Young Jun CHUN, Professor, Hanyang U
Yi WEN, Distinguished Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong U
Henry H. HUANG, Chair, Department of Finance, National Central U
18:30-20:00 Dinner
Venue: Captain’s Table Chinese Restaurant, Raffles Marina

4Day 2 (November 29, Wednesday)
9:00-11:00 Special Session for PhD Students(30 minutes for each presentation)
Chair: Wenjie WANG (NTU)
Zoom Link:
https://ntusg.zoom.us/j/88164278622?pwd=Z1hBYU5VbXNpclIzeXM4cEZhQWQvUT09
Zoom Number: 881 6427 8622
Password: 123456
Presentation 1: Identifying Growth Effect of Internet Penetration
Presenter: Mengyuan CAI (NTU)
Presentation 2: Why Some People Can’t Convey Their True Thoughts?
Presenter: Xiaoping ZHAO (Kobe U)
Presentation 3: Power of Forward Guidance when Preferences are Quasi-Hyperbolic
Presenter: Hyeongjin CHOI (Hanyang U)
Presentation 4: Carbon Tax Aversion and Macroeconomic Effects
Presenter: Liuyang SHE (NTU)

Local Hosts:
Economics Division & Economic Growth Centre
School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Programme Committee:
Qu FENG (local organizer), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Wenjie WANG (local organizer), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Junyi SHEN, Kobe University, Kobe
Songman KANG, Hanyang University, Seoul
Xi QU, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai
Henry Hongren HUANG, National Central University, Taipei
Fuhai HONG, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Local Contact and Assistant:
Ms. Yue HAN, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Email: yue.han@ntu.edu.sg
5Participants and Guests (in alphabet order):Sumit AGARWAL, National University of Singapore, Singapore
James ANG, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yeow Hwee CHUA, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Young Jun CHUN, Hanyang University, Seoul
Qu FENG, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Keishi FUJIYAMA, Kobe University, Kobe
Juncong GUO, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai
Wenshu GUO, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Tetsugen HARUYAMA, Kobe University, Kobe
Seok Young HONG, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Henry Hongren HUANG, National Central University, Taipei
Rachel Juiching HUANG, National Central University, Taipei
Daeyoung JEONG, Hanyang University, Seoul
Shigeto KITANO, Kobe University, Kobe
Zhonglin LI, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Ji-Chai LIN, National Central University, Taipei
Ling LIN, EGC Visiting Scholar, Singapore
Ryuzo MIYAO, Kobe University, Kobe
Yu QIN, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Euston QUAH, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Seunghwa RHO, Hanyang University, Seoul
Yohanes Eko RIYANTO, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Akshar SAXENA, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Swati SHARMA, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Tat-How TEH, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Thomas VOON, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Wenjie WANG, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yi WEN, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai
Guiying Laura WU, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Guangzhi YE, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Zhaoneng YUAN, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Xiaobo ZHANG, Peking University, Peking

6Introduction of Speakers and Abstracts
Keynote Speech 1
Xiaobo ZHANG (Peking U)
Bio:
Xiaobo Zhang is a chair professor of economics atGuanghua School of Management at Peking University
and senior fellow of IFPRI. He received his Ph.D. from
Cornell University. His main interests are development
economics and Chinese economy. He received Sun
Yefang Prize for Economics Research in China andZhang Peigang Development Economics Outstanding
Achievement Award. He is a co-PI of China Family
Panel Studies (CFPS) survey, PI of Enterprise Survey
for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in China (ESIEC),
and PI of Quarterly Online Survey on Micro-and-smallEnterprises (OSOME) in China. He is the Chief Editorof China Economic Review.

Title: Bridging the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship and Empowering Women via Digital
Technologies
Abstract:
Female entrepreneurs are underrepresented in many developed and developing countries forvarious cultural, historical, and economic reasons. Using primarily collected online and offline
enterprise surveys, universal business registration records, and transactions from a world
leading e-commerce platform, we document a gender gap in entrepreneurship in China andinvestigate whether digitization reduces it. Specifically, we show that the expansion of ecommerce and digital marketplaces mitigates constraints faced by female entrepreneurs andbusiness owners by enabling work flexibility, lowering working capital requirements, anddrastically amplifying the distributional channels of their companies. Consequently, female
entrepreneurial entry and performance improve, both in absolute terms and relative to men.
Moreover, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, women are more likely to adopt
e-commerce and other digital technologies, with implications for long-term business operations,performance, and resilience.

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Keynote Speech 2
Sumit AGARWAL (NUS)
Bio:
Sumit Agarwal is Low Tuck Kwong Distinguished
Professor of Finance at the Business School and a Professorof Economics and Real Estate at the National University ofSingapore. He is the Managing Director of Sustainable andGreen Finance Institute at NUS. He is also the President of
Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research. Sumit’s
research interests include issues relating to household
sustainability, financial institutions, household finance,
behavioural finance, and real estate markets. He has
published over one hundred and twenty-five research
articles in economics and finance journals among others.

Title: Water Conservation and Household Sustainability in Singapore

8Plenary Session 1

Session 1: Banking and Finance
Guiying Laura WU (NTU)
Bio:
Guiying Laura Wu is an Associate Professor in Economics from
School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. Her research centres on the effects of various distortions
and frictions on firms' investment and financing behaviour and theirimplications to economic development and resource allocation. She
is currently working on two research projects: first, the causes andconsequences of overseas listing by Chinese firms; and second, theeffect of digital infrastructure on firms’ technology adoption andproductivity. Her research has been published in leading economics
journals such as Journal of Development Economics, Journal of
Economic Behaviour and Organization, and Journal ofInternational Economics. She serves as an Associate Editor for
Economic Modelling and Singapore Economic Review.
Title: The Cost of Capital Market Distortions: Evidence from Chinese Overseas IPO
Abstract:
Both cross-border capital controls and behind-the-border capital market regulations impose acost on firms. We propose a willingness-to-pay approach to estimate the overall cost from theviewpoint of entrepreneurs, by comparing Chinese firms listed at home and abroad, that takes
into account the endogenous nature of the IPO locational choices. The estimated cost is sizable– equivalent to a haircut in firm value by over 50% - and varies systematically with the tightness of either the capital controls or domestic regulations. We also find that the overseas listings
exhibit a positive selection – they are better on average than their domestically listed
counterparts.

9

Ji-Chai LIN (National Central U)
Bio:Dr. JC Lin is a Finance professor at National Central University
in Taiwan. Before joining NCU, he was Chair Professor of
Finance and Christina Lee Professor in Accounting and Financeat Hong Kong PolyU since 2015. Before that, he was the holder
of Lloyd F. Collette Endowed Chair of Financial Services andProfessor of Finance at Louisiana State University. He obtained
his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1988. Dr. Lin has given
lectures at universities in the U.S., U.K., Finland, China, Hong
Kong and Taiwan, and won awards in teaching and research. He
has a broad range of research interests and has published his
research work in prestigious academic journals in the financeand accounting disciplines, including the Journal of Finance,
Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies,
Accounting Review, Journal of Financial and Quantitative
Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance, Financial Management, Journal of Financial Markets,
and Journal of Banking and Finance.
Title: Is There an Optimal Risk-Taking in U.S. Banks?
Abstract:
Banks should possess flexibility in adjusting their risk-taking since high liquidity of financial
assets allows banks to change their asset portfolios and risk exposures easily. To obtain higher
returns, banks have incentives to take more risks. However, to abate financial distress, whichis costly, and to attract deposits, a low-cost source of funding, banks need to curtail excessiverisk-taking. This paper addresses two fundamental yet crucial questions: Is there an optimallevel of risk-taking, which allows banks to determine excess risk and insufficient risk-taking?
How promptly do banks rectify their risk-taking and align their risk levels with the target?
We propose two partial risk adjustment mechanisms, one for individual banks’ deviations
from the norm (tracking cross-sectional variations), and the other one for the whole banking
sector (tracking time-series variations). Analyzing U.S. banks’ earnings volatility, we find that
U.S. banks appear to operate with an optimal risk level, approximately aligned with the grandmean, and that, on average, U.S. banks correct about one quarter of their risk deviations
annually and, in the long run, they fully align their risk levels with the target risk level.
Notably, the adjustment process for over risk-taking occurs at a faster pace compared tounder risk-taking, implying that excessive risk-taking carries higher costs. Most of thesector’s risk adjustment occurs during the financial crisis through write-offs.

10

Thomas VOON (Lingnan U)
Bio:Prof Voon is an associate professor of economics at theDept of Economics, Lingnan University Hong Kong.
He specializes in Public Finance, corporate finance,
Agricultural Economics, and the Chinese Economy.
His publications appear in Asian Survey, Journal of
Public Economics, American Journal of Agricultural
Economics, Journal of Comparative Economics,
Economics of Education review, Economics Letters,
Pacific Economic Review, among others.

Title: State-based Overconfidence: An Application to the Credit Market
Abstract:
Overconfidence (arrogance or overestimation of one’s ability) has often been viewed in thefinance literature as a character trait that is stable over time. This paper, however, provides afirst attempt to show that overconfidence can be state-contingent, that is, the level ofoverconfidence among overconfident individuals could be influenced by an external shocksuch as a financial crisis and a change in regulation, for example, the adoption of SarbanesOxley Act (SOX). Both our experimental (based on psychological approach on over-precision)and empirical results using more than 4500 manager-year observations through controlling
different personal and firm characteristics show that individual self-confidence can be
manipulated in psychological experiment and managerial overconfidence can be statecontingent. We apply our results to the credit market and show that since overconfident
managers are excessive risk-takers, creditors could be offering inefficient amounts of bankloans to business firms in the absence of the knowledge about state-contingent overconfidence.
However, during financial crisis and under stricter regulation, overconfident managers are still
opportunity seekers that they would still look for profitable investment or else they would haveexercised their options. Our results show that the firms under the control remaining
overconfidence chief company officers during financial crisis and after implementation of SOX
would have a significant larger loan amount than the others.

11Semi-Plenary Session 1

Session 2: Macroeconomics
Yi WEN (Shanghai Jiao Tong U)
Bio:
Professor Yi Wen received a Bachelor's degree from West China
Medical University (1982), a Master's degree in Science History
and Philosophy from Notre Dame University (1991), and a Ph.D.
in Economics from the University of Iowa (1996). Since 2005,
he has been serving as Senior Economist and Director of the
Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of the UnitedStates. In 2008, he was promoted to Assistant Vice President, andin the same year, he served as a doctoral supervisor, CCB Chair
Professor, and National Thousand Talents Program Scholar atTsinghua University School of Economics and Management.
Joined Antai School of Economics and Management at Shanghai
Jiao Tong University in August 2021 as a distinguishedprofessor. The main courses taught include advanced
macroeconomics, intermediate macroeconomics, elementary
macroeconomics, applied time series analysis, and the history of the global industrial
revolution economy. Research areas include business cycle, monetary policy, fiscal policy, andmacroeconomic issues in China. Published more than 50 academic papers in top global
economic anonymous review journals.
Title: The Ramsey Steady-State Conundrum in Heterogeneous-Agent Economies
Abstract:
In infinite horizon, heterogeneous-agent and incomplete-market models, the existence of aninterior Ramsey steady state is often assumed instead of proven. This paper makes two
fundamental contributions: (i) We prove that the interior Ramsey steady state assumed by
Aiyagari (1995) does not exist in the standard Aiyagari model. Specifically, a steady statefeaturing the modified golden rule and a positive capital tax is feasible but not optimal. (ii) We
design a modified, analytically tractable version of the standard Aiyagari model to unveil thenecessary and/or sufficient conditions for the existence of a Ramsey steady state. These
conditions are shown to be quite demanding and sensitive to structural parameter values
pertaining to the economy's fiscal space for providing full self-insurance, such as thegovernment's capacity to finance public debt, the degree of intertemporal elasticity of
substitution, and the extent of history dependence of individual wealth on idiosyncratic shocks.
12In addition, we characterize the basic properties of both interior and non-interior Ramsey
steady states and show that researchers may draw fundamentally misleading conclusions on
optimal fiscal policies (such as the optimal capital tax rate) from their analysis when an interiorRamsey steady state is erroneously assumed to exist.

Tetsugen HARUYAMA (Kobe U)
Bio:Professor Tetsugen HARUYAMA received Master of Sciencefrom University of Warwick, and then graduated from Universityof Oxford with M.Phil and D.Phil. He was a senior lecturer in
University of Glasgow from 2003 to 2004 and became a professor
in Kobe University since Apr. 2004.

Title: A Schumpeterian Exploration of Gini and Top/Bottom Income Shares
Abstract:
Data show that an increase in the Gini coefficient is associated with a falling bottom pB%
income share and an increasing top pT% income share where, e.g. pB = 40 and pT = 1. This
relationship, which we call the X inequality relationship, is pervasive in the sense that it isobserved in many countries, including the U.S., the U.K., France, and others. The purpose ofthis paper is (i) to construct a Schumpeterian growth model to explain the relationship, and (ii)to identify/quantify factors behind it via calibration of the U.S economy. Our model gives rise
to a double-Pareto distribution of income as a result of entrant and incumbent innovations. Its
advantage is that it allows us to develop iso-Gini loci and iso-income share schedules in a
tractable way. Using a double-Pareto distribution as an approximation of an underlying income
distribution, calibration analysis revels that a declining business dynamism and fiscal policychanges in the past decades played a significant role in generating the X inequality relationshipin the U.S.

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Session 3: Econometrics
Seunghwa RHO (Hanyang U)
Bio:
Seunghwa Rho is an Associate Professor at the College of Economics
and Finance, Hanyang University. Her primary research areas include
time series econometrics, with a particular emphasis onheteroskedasticity and autocorrelation robust inference, andstochastic frontier models. More recently, her work also includes
statistical methods that combine traditional econometric approacheswith machine learning algorithms.

Title: Inference in Time Series Models using Smoothed ClusteredStandard Errors
Abstract:
This paper proposes a long run variance estimator for conducting inference in time series
regression models that combines the nonparametric approach with a cluster approach. The
basic idea is to divide the time periods into non-overlapping clusters. The long run varianceestimator is constructed by first aggregating within clusters and then kernel smoothing acrossclusters or applying the nonparametric series method to the clusters with Type II discrete cosine
transform. We develop an asymptotic theory for test statistics based on these “smoothedclustered” long run variance estimators. We derive asymptotic results holding the number ofclusters fixed and also treating the number of clusters as increasing with the sample size. For
the kernel smoothing approach, these two asymptotic limits are different whereas for the cosine
series approach, the two limits are the same. When clustering before kernel smoothing, we findthat the “fixed-number-of-clusters” asymptotic approximation works well whether the numberof clusters is small or large. Finite sample simulations suggest that the naive i.i.d. bootstrap
mimics the fixed-number-of-clusters critical values. The simulations also suggest thatclustering before kernel smoothing can reduce over-rejections caused by strong serial
correlation although at a cost of power. When there is a natural way of clustering, clustering
can reduce over-rejection problems and achieve small gains in power for the kernel approach.
In contrast, the cosine series approach does not benefit from clustering.

14

Seok Young HONG (NTU)
Bio:
Seok Young Hong is an econometrician whose main research interests lie
in developing time series methods for economic and financial applications.
He is particularly interested in econometric theory, asset pricing, and highfrequency financial econometrics. He obtained a PhD in Pure Mathematics
and Mathematical Statistics in 2018 from Cambridge University, UK,
where he was a recipient of the Smith/Rayleigh-Knight Prize.

Title: Unified Inference for Long-Horizon Predictive Regressions Including Mildly
Integrated and Explosive Cases
Abstract:
We propose a unified procedure for testing the predictability of asset returns based on theempirical likelihood method. We make novel econometric contributions by allowing thepredictor variable in our unified test to be mildly integrated or mildly explosive in addition to
the usual persistence classes permitted in the literature: stationary, locally integrated, and unit
root cases. Moreover, we extend this robust procedure to study the long-horizon predictive
regression model, which has received much attention as a suitable alternative to examine return
predictability. A simulation study confirms our proposed test performs very well in finite
sample.

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Semi-Plenary Session 2

Session 4: Development Economics
James ANG (NTU)
Bio:James Ang is an Associate Professor of Economics at NTU. He
holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National
University. Prior to joining NTU, he taught for several years at
Monash University. His research has focused on answering
whether financial liberalization has an enhancing or retarding
effect, which endogenous growth frameworks can best explain
growth experiences of developing economies, and whether credit
constraints, educational achievement and international
knowledge spillovers play a role in ensuring sustained growth.
His most recent research investigates how early development canhave a persistent impact on shaping current economic
performance.
Title: Cultivating Equality: The Effect of Traditional Farming Practices on Gender Disparity
in China
Abstract:
This study examines the effect of labor demand in traditional farming on contemporary genderequality in China. We hypothesize that regions exposed to agro-climatic conditions conducive
to labor-intensive crop cultivation would have historically fostered a greater involvement offemale family members in agricultural work. The increased participation of women in farming
not only contributed to household income but also elevated their social status. To examine thishypothesis, we analyze county-level data on the labor input required for major crop cultivationin China. Our findings indicate that regions with higher agricultural manpower demand exhibit
more balanced sex ratios at birth and demonstrate other indicators of gender equity. These
results provide support for the notion that the roots of contemporary gender equality can betraced to the historical involvement of women in farming activities.

16

Juncong GUO (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Bio:
Juncong Guo is a Research Fellow in the Department of Economics at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests include
development economics, labor economics and regional economics. He
now focuses on studying spillovers and peer effects using spatial
econometric methods. His research has been published in Journal of
Development Economics, Regional Science & Urban Economics,
Economics Letters and other journals. Juncong received his Ph.D. in
Economics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2021.
Title: Risk sharing and peer effects in gift spending: Evidence fromrural China
Abstract:
This paper investigates peer effects in gift spending among households in rural China using
nationally representative survey data. Social networks serve as informal insurance mechanisms
for households, enabling risk sharing through favor exchange with others, and promoting
competition to maintain their position within the network, resulting in peer effects. Our
empirical study confirms the existence of peer effects and the mechanism of risk sharing. We
also explore the consequences of relatively insufficient gift spending and the crowding-out
effect of gift spending on other expenditures. Based on our impact analysis of formal economy,
we suggest that policymakers can mitigate peer effects by providing more access to formal
finance and off-farm employment.

Session 5: Microeconomics
Daeyoung JEONG (Hanyang U)
Bio:
I am an assistant professor at Hanyang University, College of
Economics and Finance in South Korea. I consider myself anapplied theorist with broad experimental and empirical interests. My
research focuses on Game Theory and Mechanism Design Theory,
which cover various applications including Information Economics,
Political Economy, and Industrial Organization. I received my B.S.
in Computer Science and Industrial System Engineering and B.A. in
Economics from Yonsei University in South Korea. Under the17

direction of Professor James Peck and Professor Lixin Ye, I completed my Ph.D. in Economics
at The Ohio State University in 2016. I was an Economist at the Bank of Korea from 2016 to
2018, a post-doctoral research associate at NYU Abu Dhabi from 2018 to 2019, and an assistantprofessor at POSTECH from 2019 to 2021. I have been at Hanyang University since 2021.
Title: Persuasion under the Influence of Fake News
Abstract:
We study a Bayesian persuasion game in the presence of the fake news and the uncertainty on
the news origin. A related news sender tries to persuade voters by committing a state contingent
news reporting strategy in the style of Bayesian persuasion, while a fake news sender with an
opposite bias can fabricate a state independent news. Voters receive only one of those news
stories without knowing its genuine source. We fully characterize an equilibrium byintroducing a novel method of a Rothschild-Stiglitz approach. We show that when the fakenews is sufficiently prominent, the related news sender cannot persuade voters since the fakenews sender can “dilute" the related news to make it uninfluential: The fake news sender canalways generate a prominent unrelated news to make the observed news by the voters lessrelated to the state of nature. On the other hand, when the fake news is not prominent enough,the related news sender can be influential by generating related news associated more strongly
to the state of nature against more prominent fake news. Interestingly, this "self-disciplined"
related news makes the social welfare, measured by the sum of voters’ ex-ante expected utilities,
increase in the prominence of fake news.

Rachel Juiching HUANG (National Central U)
Bio: Professor Rachel J. Huang joined National Central
University in 2014 as a professor of finance and was promoted
to the position of distinguished professor in 2018. She holds a
Ph.D. in finance from National Taiwan University. Prior to hercurrent position at National Central University, Professor
Huang was an associate professor of finance at National Taiwan
University of Science and Technology, Yuan Ze University, andMing Chuang University. Professor Huang's research has
focused on risk theory, asymmetric information, and behavioral
insurance. Her research has appeared in Management Science,
Operations Research, Journal of Economic Theory, Economic
Theory, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical
Finance, Journal of Financial Services Research, The Journal18

of Risk and Insurance, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, and Geneva Risk andInsurance Review, among others.

Title: A Simple Approach for Measuring Higher-Order Risk Attitudes
Abstract:
While the importance of the Arrow-Pratt coefficients of second order risk aversion is wellestablished in economics, the importance of higher-order risk attitudes has only recently begun
to be recognized. In this paper, we introduce a non-parametric approach to directly measure
higher-order Arrow-Pratt coefficients using choices between compound lotteries and show how
it can be easily implemented in behavioral studies. Specifically, we provide a theoretical basis
for using risk apportionment to reveal the intensity of higher-order risk attitudes, and then draw
upon our theoretical results to develop a simple, systematic, and generalizable procedure for
eliciting Arrow-Pratt coefficients of prudence, temperance, and other higher-order risk attitudes. We demonstrate our approach in a laboratory experiment and find that the modal subject
exhibits mild prudence and mild temperance in addition to mild risk aversion. Further, we findthat degrees of risk aversion are positively correlated across orders. Finally, while our approachis non-parametric, we note that behavior is broadly consistent with subjects having utility
described by the exponential-power function.

19

Plenary Session 2

Session 6: Empirical Economics and Finance
Keishi FUJIYAMA (Kobe U)
Bio:Keishi Fujiyama joined Research Institute for Economics andBusiness Administration, Kobe University in 2015. He isinterested in accounting issues on labor negotiation, foreign
ownership, earnings management, income smoothing, andaccounting for asset impairment.
Title: Transitioning from a Bank towards an Equity-Outsider Financing System in Japan: The
impact on Income Smoothing Practice over 40 years
Abstract:
This study investigates the extent to which income smoothing in Japan has changed over time
and the factors affecting this trend. International accounting literature predicts that thefinancing system in a country determines its accounting system and that as a country changes
its financing system, especially from a bank to an equity financing system, its accounting
system changes accordingly. In Japan, the financing system has been traditionally bankoriented. After the collapse of the bubble economy in 1991, it appears to have moved towards
an equity-oriented system. This study uses the unique setting of Japan to examine the above
prediction relating to accounting change. Using a pooled sample over 40 years (1977-2016),
we find that the degree of income smoothing decreased through the 1990s and early 2000s andthat this change is associated with lower levels of bank ownership along with higher levels of
foreign equity ownership thus providing evidence of the impact on accounting practice oftransitioning from a bank towards an equity financing system.

20

Zhonglin LI (NUS)
Bio:
Zhonglin Li is an assistant professor in the Department of Real
Estate, NUS Business School. She is an empirical IO economist
with research interests in the broad areas of industrialorganization and urban economics. Her current research
focuses on retailers and consumer welfare. Dr. Li obtained a
PhD degree in Economics at the University of Chicago Booth
School of Business.
Title: Big-Box Store Expansion and Consumer Welfare
Abstract:
Supercenters and warehouse clubs have grown rapidly in the US in recent decades. These bigbox retail establishments are physically large to enable one-stop shopping, offering a broad
range of product categories with relatively low prices. In this paper, we study how the entry ofthese big-box stores affect household consumption and welfare. We first present an event studyof the store entries of four major big-box retail chains to provide empirical evidence thathouseholds change various dimensions of their shopping behavior, such as product varieties
per shopping trip and prices paid, in ways that are strongly consistent with store characteristics.
We then develop a novel multi-store multi-category choice model to quantify and disentangle
the effects of product variety, prices, and other store characteristics on consumer welfare. We
show that households benefit substantially from consuming in supercenters relative tocompeting retailers, highlighting the importance of the store format.

Wenshu GUO (Lingnan U)
Bio: I am a research assistant professor of Economics at Lingnan University,
Hong Kong. My research interests are in industrial organization and antitrust.
I got my bachelor's degree from the University of Hong Kong and my PhD
degree from UCLA. Previously, I worked as an assistant professor at Jinan
University in Guangzhou, China.
Title: Information Disclosure and Locations Choices: A Study of theMarcellus Shale21

Abstract:
Information disclosure usually affects the decision-making process of both buyers and sellers
when the product quality is uncertain, with its ultimate consequence being hard to predict.
The phenomenon is particularly evident in the natural resource exploration industry, where
the true mineral recovery potential is seldomly known. This research studies the effect of
production information disclosure on shale gas operators’ lease location choices. Using anovel dataset from the Marcellus Shale, this article finds that the disclosure of production
information makes shale gas operators lease more productive parcels despite higher cost,leading to a more efficient resource allocation. A theoretical model is then proposed to
explain the learning process of the firms. While the finding of the article justifies the cost ofcollecting and distributing the production information by the regulating agency, it also showsthat centralized information disclosure facilitates learning among firms, creating room forpotential strategic behaviors in the long run.

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