CEF.UP – WiP Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – May 24^th, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Pope Francis’ Economics of Fraternity: A Co-Evolutionary Analysis”

Fernando Oliveira – Cef.up and University of Auckland

Abstract:

“Pope Francis has criticized the economy of exclusion created by capitalism. Based on a stylized pie-sharing game, the article proposes a co-evolutionary network model, using reinforcement learning, to analyze the interaction between social classes. This article aims to answer the following questions: Why do socioeconomic classes exist? When do they increase social efficiency and individual effectiveness? What is the role of social exclusion? From a methodological perspective, the model extends the pie-sharing game to include a network of interactions and classes, social mobility, and evolving wealth. The results show that flatter societies tend to lead to higher average individual effectiveness, however social inequality emerges even in round-table societies. In flatter societies inequality decreases to the levels observed, at equilibrium, in round-table societies. In vertical societies wealth inequality persists. Furthermore, the analysis extends the network model to include the possibility of individuals changing social class (i.e., to consider social mobility), studying how it affects individual effectiveness: it increases the perceived wealth differences between classes and, in the long run, supports the status quo. Finally, the article studies societies in which social mobility seldom occurs between the upper and lower classes are a Nash equilibrium, even in the long-term. This analysis is illustrated using the process of wealth accumulation and social exclusion in New Zealand.”

CEF.UP – MaR Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – May 24^th , 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Room 631 | Online

“Internalizing Externalities: Disclosure Regulation for Hydraulic Fracturing, Drilling Activity and Water Quality”

Giovanna Michelon – Bristol University, UK (joint work with Pietro Bonetti and Christian Leuz)

Abstract:

“The rise of shale gas and tight oil development has triggered a major debate about hydraulic fracturing (HF). In an effort to mitigate risks from HF in unconventional development, many U.S. states have introduced disclosure mandates for HF fluids. In this paper, we study the effects of this important regulatory initiative on HF activity and its environmental impact. We find significant improvements in water quality, examining salts that are considered signatures for HF impact, after the disclosure mandates are introduced. We document effects along the extensive margin (less HF activity) and the intensive margin (less per-HF well impact). Most of the improvement comes from the intensive margin. Supporting this interpretation, we find that, after the introduction of disclosure, operators pollute less per unit of production, use fewer toxic chemicals, and that there are fewer spills related to the handling of HF fluids and wastewater. We also explore possible mechanisms   through which disclosure regulation can be effective and find that public pressure likely plays an important role. Taken together, our empirical assessment of a major regulatory initiative for HF provides novel evidence on how disclosure mandates can help to internalize negative and fairly widespread external effects.”

Area: Acc & MC

CEF.UP – MaR Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – May 31^st , 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

Creativity, Control and Communication in New Product Development

Hanno Roberts – Norwegian BS, Norway (joint work with Emilia Skowrońska and João Oliveira)

Abstract:

“This paper focuses on New Product Development processes as these are both ‘creativity intensive’ as well as ‘control requisite’ areas within an organization. We explore how communication as a control practice orients and affects creativity in New Product Development processes, within a creativity-centered service & product design company based in Portugal. The paper untangles the communication processes and tools used, including their effects upon their creative (design) processes.

We identify a number of communication tools deployed in different stages of the product development process. Firstly, highly visual communication tools (e.g., maps and boards), had a positive effect not only upon creativity itself, but also upon the project self-organization of the designers. Secondly, meetings performed a crucial role in terms of communication interlinkage, with an immediately visible influence on employee creativity. Thirdly, the company, implicitly and unconsciously, started building its own version of an Interactive Control System (ICS) (Simons, 1994), supporting multiple organizational learning activities and leading up to the development of traits of a learning organization.

The paper contributes to the literature on Management Control in creative industries, by examining how communication underpins and is intertwined with management control, and supporting the view that the creativity-control tension described in the literature is, in fact, a false dichotomy. The paper reveals how multiple communication tools enable creativity and control to successfully co-exist. Together, creativity and control address the articulation of this company’s key resource (its creative employees) and, subsequently, transpose that articulation into an efficient deployment.”

Area: Acc & MC