pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Multidimensional Skills on LinkedIn Profiles: Measuring Human Capital and the Gender Skill Gap
Authors: David Dorn, Florian Schoner, Moritz Seebacher, Lisa Simon, Ludger Woessmann
Date: 2024-09-27 00:00:00

We measure human capital using the self-reported skill sets of nearly 9 million U.S. college graduates from professional profiles on LinkedIn. We aggregate skill strings into 48 clusters of general, occupation-specific, and managerial skills. Multidimensional skills can account for several important labor-market patterns. First, the number and composition of skills are systematically related to measures of human-capital investment such as education and work experience. The number of skills increases with experience, and the average age-skill profile closely resembles the well-established concave age-earnings profile. Second, workers who report more skills, especially specific and managerial ones, hold higher-paid jobs. Skill differences account for more earnings variation than detailed measures of education and experience. Third, we document a sizable gender gap in skills. While women and men report nearly equal numbers of skills shortly after college graduation, women's skill count increases more slowly with age subsequently. A simple quantitative exercise shows that women's slower skill accumulation can be fully accounted for by reduced work hours associated with motherhood. The resulting gender differences in skills rationalize a substantial proportion of the gender gap in job-based earnings.
Anchoring UK Retail Digital Money
Authors: Lee Braine, Shreepad Shukla, Piyush Agrawal
Date: 2024-09-27 00:00:00

In the UK, the Bank of England and HM Treasury are exploring a potential UK retail CBDC, the digital pound, with one of their motivations being the potential role of the digital pound as an anchor for monetary and financial stability. In this paper, we explore three elements for anchoring money (singleness of money, official currency as the unit of account, and safety and soundness of financial institutions and payment systems) that maintain public trust and confidence in private UK retail digital money and the financial system. We also identify core capabilities (comprising on-demand interoperability across issuers and forms of private money, settlement finality in wholesale central bank money, and access to physical cash) and appropriate measures (comprising customer funds protection, robust regulation, effective supervision, safe innovation in money and payments, and the central bank as the lender of last resort) that together provide the foundations for the three elements for anchoring money. Our preliminary analysis concludes that anchoring private UK retail digital money is supported by these elements, capabilities and measures. Further work could include public-private collaboration to explore anchoring all forms of UK retail digital money.
Investigating the Impact of Sovereign Credit Rating Downgrade on the US Equity Market
Authors: Japheth Torsar Jev
Date: 2024-09-26 00:00:00

The primary objective of this study was to examine the impact of the US sovereign credit rating downgrade on its equity market. Utilizing the event study methodology, a sample of three most capitalized listed companies -- Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon -- and the equity market index -- S&P500 -- were used as the proxy for the overall equity market. Three market models were constructed within the estimation window to determine the expected daily returns on the selected companies stocks. The result showed that the sovereign credit rating downgrade of the US government debt did not have any significant effects on the US equity market.
The Cost of Climate Action: Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Climate Information on Charitable Donations to Climate Activism
Authors: Samantha Gonsalves Wetherell, Anna Josephson
Date: 2024-09-25 00:00:00

We examine the propensity of individuals to donate to climate activism, evaluating the impact of different informational treatments on an incentive compatible charitable donation and stated climate change-related concerns. Participants were evaluated on climate literacy and general climate attitudes before being randomly assigned to a treatment which provided either education or neutral language about climate change, either with or without images of protest. After the treatment, participants engaged in an incentive compatible dictator game. We find that participants gave more to climate activism than seen in previous dictator game and charitable giving experiments, in both average amount given and proportion of participants who gave their entire endowment. However, we determine that climate activism information negatively influenced the amount of money donated. We also found that protest imagery moderated this negative effect and had a positive significant effect of increasing participants' climate concern. Finally, we found that the climate concern was significantly positively correlated with donations, while being a male was significantly negatively associated with donation amounts.
The cost of uncertainty
Authors: Carlos Esteban Posada Posada
Date: 2024-09-25 00:00:00

The traditional and most common view of economists on the issue of (bad) uncertainty and its effects has been one of partial equilibrium. When the topic is approached from a macroeconomic perspective, the most frequent has been the examination of the effects of uncertainty shocks on short-term dynamics with various methods, but mainly with neo-Keynesian and statistical (vector autoregressive) models. This document responds to another concern and has two objectives: 1. to reflect on this issue with some instruments of the macroeconomist's toolbox related to a medium or long-term horizon, and 2. report a ciphering of the social cost of uncertainty in the Colombian case.
Optimal longevity of a dynasty
Authors: Satoshi Nakano, Kazuhiko Nishimura
Date: 2024-09-24 00:00:00

A standard roundabout production framework is considered in a dynastic social welfare maximization problem, incorporating critical-level utilitarianism as the guiding principle for social welfare. While critical-level utilitarianism has been established to studying the optimal population size in a static and equitable manner, we apply the same axiology in a dynamic context with respect to capital accumulation and savings and study the optimal generation size, possibly without discounting future generations. Our study is based on a finite-horizon dynamic programming technique. We apply this technique to obtain optimal consumption schedules under a given planning horizon. The findings suggest that the optimal planning horizon (i.e., the optimal generation size) is not necessarily infinite, even when future generations are treated under conditions of ultimate equity.
Does Ownership Structure Matter? A Case Study on Business Performance of Two Accounting Companies
Authors: Reetta Ghezzi, Sanni Marjanen, Teemu Laine, Tatu Virta, Hannu Vilpponen, Tommi Mikkonen
Date: 2024-09-19 00:00:00

Many public organisations procure a substantial amount of goods and services from in-house companies. When providing their goods and services, those companies are supposed to fulfil objectives set for them and for the wider entity, including in particular cost-effectiveness. This paper examines the performance of selected in-house companies both by analyzing the externally reported financial performance (top-down) and analyzing the internal operations and related performance (bottom-up). Based on the analysis, it is discussed, 1) how the in-house companies fulfil their assigned tasks as publicly owned entities and 2) how these in-house companies and their performance should be controlled by public bodies. Methodologically the paper takes advantage of two cases of accounting companies: one publicly owned in-house company and another private company. As a conclusion, in this case top-down analysis reveals inefficiencies which are further explored via bottom-up analysis. In this case, privatization leads to enhanced business performance.
Anonymity and Identity Online
Authors: Florian Ederer, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Kyle Jensen
Date: 2024-09-24 00:00:00
Tasks: Attribute

Economics Job Market Rumors (EJMR) is an online forum and clearinghouse for information on the academic job market for economists. It also includes content that is abusive, defamatory, racist, misogynistic, or otherwise "toxic." Almost all of this content is created anonymously by contributors who receive a four-character username when posting on EJMR. Using only publicly available data we show that the statistical properties of the scheme by which these usernames were generated allows the IP addresses from which most posts were made to be determined with high probability. We recover 47,630 distinct IP addresses of EJMR posters and attribute them to 66.1% of the roughly 7 million posts made over the past 12 years. We geolocate posts and describe aggregated cross-sectional variation -- particularly regarding toxic, misogynistic, and hate speech -- across sub-forums, geographies, institutions, and IP addresses. Our analysis suggests that content on EJMR comes from all echelons of the economics profession, including, but not limited to, its elite institutions.
Transportation Technology and Gentrification: Evidence from the entry of Ridesharing Services
Authors: Sumit Agarwal, Shashwat Alok, Sergio Correia, Deepa Mani, Bernardo Morais
Date: 2024-09-23 00:00:00

We analyze the staggered entry of rideshare services across U.S. metropolitan areas, estimating its effect on the spatial redistribution and real outcomes of residents. Ridesharing services gentrify urban areas-especially those with ex-ante lower housing values-causing housing prices to rise 9 percent, with the in-migration of rich-younger individuals more than offsetting the out-migration of incumbent residents and reduced in-migration of poorer individuals. Impact on incumbent residents is conditional on ex-ante homeownership. For homeowners, there is no displacement and a decline in delinquency rates. For non-homeowners, displacement and delinquency rates rise 11 percent and 42 percent, respectively. Our study emphasizes how the private provision of high-end transportation technologies can increase urbanization and exacerbate inequality.
Temperature Variability and Natural Disasters
Authors: Aatishya Mohanty, Nattavudh Powdthavee, Cheng Keat Tang, Andrew J. Oswald
Date: 2024-09-23 00:00:00

This paper studies natural disasters and the psychological costs of climate change. It presents what we believe to be the first evidence that higher temperature variability and not a higher level of temperature is what predicts natural disasters. This conclusion holds whether or not we control for the (incorrectly signed) impact of temperature. The analysis draws upon long-differences regression equations using GDIS data from 1960-2018 for 176 countries and the contiguous states of the USA. Results are checked on FEMA data. Wellbeing impact losses are calculated. To our knowledge, the paper's results are unknown to natural and social scientists.
Impact of the Three-Child Policy and Delayed Retirement on the Transfer of Surplus Rural Labor under Xi Jinping's New Population Vision: A Re-examination of China's Lewis Turning Point
Authors: Jun Dai, Guanqing Shi, Xiaoke Xie, Aitong Xie
Date: 2024-09-23 00:00:00

Chinese-style modernization involves the modernization of a large population, requiring top-level design in terms of scale and structure. The population perspective in Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era serves as the fundamental guide for population policies. The three-child policy and delayed retirement will affect the supply of labor in China and challenge the previous assessments of China's Lewis Turning Point. This study examines the rural surplus labor transfer from 2013 to 2022 based on urban and rural data. The results indicate that China's overall wage levels have continuously increased, the urban-rural income gap has narrowed, and the transfer of surplus rural labor has slowed. China has passed the first turning point and entered a transitional phase. Factors such as the level of agricultural mechanization, urbanization rate, and urban-rural income gap are more significant in influencing the transfer of surplus labor than the normal working-age population ratio. The delayed retirement policy has a more immediate impact on the supply and transfer of rural surplus labor than the three-child policy. Additionally, delayed retirement can offset the negative impact of the reduced relative surplus labor supply caused by the three-child policy, although the three-child policy could increase the future absolute surplus labor supply.
The role of gender in promotion rates in the Australian Finance Industry
Authors: Cassandra Crowe, Belinda Middleweek, Laura Ryan, Alicia Vidler, Bronwen Whiting
Date: 2024-09-22 00:00:00

We surveyed Australian finance professionals and tested whether there are statistically significant differences in promotional propensity according to gender identity. The findings indicate men and women are equally likely to ask for promotion, however, 'gifted advancements' account for the higher statistical frequency of promotions among men. These gender-based differences in behaviors have been overlooked in existing research on promotion. We call for a standardized framework for the development of promotion policies to address this industry-wide problem.
Friends, Key Players and the Adoption and Use of Experience Goods
Authors: Rhys Murrian, Paul A. Raschky, Klaus Ackermann
Date: 2024-09-22 00:00:00

This paper empirically investigates how an individual's network influences their purchase and subsequent use of experience goods. Utilising data on the network and game-ownership of over 108 million users from the world's largest video game platform, we analyse whether a user's friendship network influences their decision to purchase single-player video games. Our identification strategy uses an instrumental variable (IV) approach that employs the temporal lag of purchasing decisions from second degree friends. We find strong peer effects in the individual game adoption in the contemporary week. The effect is stronger if the friend who purchased the game is an old friend compared to a key player in the friendship network. Comparing the results to adoption decisions for a major label game, we find peer effects of a similar size and duration. However, the time subsequently spent playing the games is higher for players who were neither influenced by a peer who is a key player nor an old friend. Considering the increasing importance of online networks on consumption decisions, our findings offer some first insights on the heterogeneity of peer effects between old and key player friends and also provide evidence in consumers' biases in social learning.
Determinants of Workplace Flextime Flexibility: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Cristian Espinal Maya, Santiago Jiménez Londoño
Date: 2024-09-22 00:00:00
Tasks: regression

This study examines the factors that determine workplace autonomy in the choice of schedules, using GEIH data for formal employees from January 2023 to February 2024. A logistic regression model identified significant relationships between autonomy and variables such as company size, income, tenure, workplace, and job satisfaction. The results highlight the complexity of these factors and suggest the need for improvements in the predictive model.
Reference Points, Risk-Taking Behavior, and Competitive Outcomes in Sequential Settings
Authors: Masaya Nishihata, Suguru Otani
Date: 2024-09-20 00:00:00
Tasks: counterfactual, Decision Making, Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Sequential Decision Making

Understanding how competitive pressure affects risk-taking is crucial in sequential decision-making under uncertainty. This study examines these effects using bench press competition data, where individuals make risk-based choices under pressure. We estimate the impact of pressure on weight selection and success probability. Pressure from rivals increases attempted weights on average, but responses vary by gender, experience, and rivalry history. Counterfactual simulations show that removing pressure leads many lifters to select lower weights and achieve lower success rates, though some benefit. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity in how competition shapes both risk-taking and performance.
Empowering Abilities: Increasing Representation of Students with Disabilities in the STEM Field
Authors: Esperanza Moreno, Piyush Kumar, Richard O Adansi, Dorothy Moreno, Demy Rodriguez, Raul Baez Ramirez, Audrey R Kapsa, Arturo Rodriguez, Neelam Agarwal, Vinod Kumar, Beverley A Calvo, Vivek Tandon
Date: 2024-09-18 00:00:00

The ExploreSTEM Summer Camps 2023 were designed to deliver inclusive STEM education to students aged 14 to 22 years with disabilities. This paper presents a thorough examination of the 2023 camp program, emphasizing the pivotal role of inclusive STEM education in potentially shaping students' personal and academic trajectories. The curriculum encompassed four weeklong fundamental STEM domains: Internet of Things (IoT), Computational Engineering, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). Within Camp 1, students actively engaged with Dash robots, employing dedicated programming environments to command actions and gather sensor data, fostering interactions with the IoT platform and facilitating seamless data transmission. Camp 2 was dedicated to acquainting students with foundational computational engineering principles, establishing a robust framework for comprehending intricate engineering concepts. Camp 3 commenced with insightful presentations elucidating AI applications across multifaceted industries, including engineering, healthcare, and education, illuminating AI's pervasive influence on contemporary society. The primary aim of Camp 4 was to introduce students to the immersive domains of AR and VR, showcasing their applications beyond conventional STEM disciplines into everyday life experiences. The amalgamation of informative presentations, interactive activities, and a nurturing learning environment cultivated an engaging and enriching experience for all participants. By embracing inclusivity and harnessing innovative pedagogical approaches, the ExploreSTEM Summer Camps empowered students to explore, innovate, and excel within the dynamic realm of STEM education.
Search Prominence with Costly Product Returns
Authors: Sanxi Li, Jun Yu, Mingsheng Zhang
Date: 2024-10-09 00:00:00
Tasks: Management

Search prominence may have a detrimental impact on a firm's profits in the presence of costly product returns. We analyze the impact of search prominence on firm profitability in a duopoly search model, considering the presence of costly product returns. Consumer match values are assumed to be independently and identically distributed across the two products. Our results show that the non-prominent firm benefits from facing consumers with relatively low match values for the prominent firm's products, thus avoiding costly returns. When return costs are sufficiently high, the prominent firm may earn lower profits than its non-prominent competitor. This outcome holds under both price exogeneity and price competition. Furthermore, the profitability advantage of prominence diminishes as return costs increase. Platforms that maximize ad revenue should consider retaining positive return cost for consumers rather than fully passing it on to firms. For e-commerce platforms, it is crucial to align product return policies with broader management objectives to optimize firm profitability.
Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Environmental Quality through Technical Change: A Free Dynamic Equilibrium Approach
Authors: Van Khanh Pham, Minh Le
Date: 2024-10-09 00:00:00

In the times we live in today, humanity faces unprecedented environmental challenges. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has opened new doors in our collective efforts to address our planet's pressing problems; however, many have doubts on the actual extent of impact that AI have on the environment. In particular, AI also assisting dirty production is a drawback that is largely absent from the literature. To investigate the impact of AI on the environment, we establish mathematical models to model the economy and the production process of goods based on outdated and advanced technologies. The secondary results are stated in the form of lemmas, the main results are stated in the form of theorems. From the theorems we conclude that AI may not on its own prevent an environmental disaster, a reason of which is its concurrent contribution to dirty production. With temporary government intervention, however, AI is able to avert an environmental disaster.
Scoring Auctions with Coarse Beliefs
Authors: Joseph Feffer
Date: 2024-10-08 00:00:00

This paper studies a simplicity notion in a mechanism design setting in which agents do not necessarily share a common prior. I develop a model in which agents participate in a prior-free game of (coarse) information acquisition followed by an auction. After acquiring information, the agents have uncertainty about the environment in which they play and about their opponents' higher-order beliefs. A mechanism admits a coarse beliefs equilibrium if agents can play best responses even with this uncertainty. Focusing on multidimensional scoring auctions, I fully characterize a property that allows an auction format to admit coarse beliefs equilibria. The main result classifies auctions into two sets: those in which agents learn relatively little about their setting versus those in which they must fully learn a type distribution to form equilibrium strategies. I then find a simple, primitive condition on the auction's rules to distinguish between these two classes. I then use the condition to categorize real-world scoring auctions by their strategic simplicity.
Mechanism Design with Endogenous Perception
Authors: Benjamin Balzer, Benjamin Young
Date: 2024-09-30 00:00:00

We model endogenous perception of private information in single-agent screening problems, with potential evaluation errors. The agent's evaluation of their type depends on their cognitive state: either attentive (i.e., they correctly perceive their type) or inattentive (i.e., they might misperceive their type). The mechanism's incentives structure determines the agent's cognitive state via costly investment in cognition. We derive a general representation of attention incentives, show how they vary with the mechanism's allocation rule, and define a notion of accuracy of perception. In applications we showcase how perception both shapes and is shaped by the design of mechanisms.