CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – September 27^th, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. |Room 305| Online

“Firm Dynamics and Sectoral Reallocation with Hugo Hopenhayn and Rish Singhania”

 Julian Neira – University of Exeter, UK

Abstract:

This paper presents a tractable framework to jointly study patterns of sectoral reallocation and firm dynamics. The framework features input-output linkages across sectors, heterogeneous rates of firm creation and destruction, and common factor markets. We characterize the existence and uniqueness of the equilibrium. We present applications to sectoral reallocations in US data.

CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/Webinar

Friday – September 16^th, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. |Room 305| Online

“Public housing development and segregation: SRU law in France”

Guillaume Chapelle  – THEMA, CY Cergy Paris Université,  France

Abstract:

We study the effects of the SRU law introduced in France in December 2000 to support scattered development of public housing in cities and favor social mixity. This law imposes 20% of public housing to all medium and large municipalities of large-enough cities, with fees for those not abiding by the law. Using exhaustive fiscal data, we evaluate the effects of the law over the 1996-2008 period using a difference-in-differences approach at the municipality level. We find that the law stimulated public housing construction in treated municipalities with a low proportion of public dwellings. Within these municipalities, it decreased public housing segregation but it did not decrease much low-income segregation. We investigate their intra-municipal dynamics by running block-level regressions that include municipality fixed effects. Within these treated municipalities, the concentration of public dwellings increased to a larger extent in blocks with below-average income and below-average concentration of public dwellings.

CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – July 12^th, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. |Room 305| Online

“Social Distancing and Risk Taking: Evidence from a Team Game Show”

José de Sousa  – Université Paris-Saclay (joint work with Jean-Marc Bourgeon and Alexis Noir-Luhalwe)

Abstract:

“We examine the risky choices of pairs of contestants in a popular radio game show in France. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the show, traditionally held in person, had to switch to all remote. We find that this exogenous change in social context affects risk-taking behavior. Remotely, pairs take far fewer risks when the stakes are high than in the flesh. This behavioral difference is consistent with prosocial behavior theories, which argue that the nature of social interactions influences risky choices. Our results suggest that working from home may reduce participation in profitable but risky team projects.”

CEF.UP – MaR Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – June 7^th , 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Exploring the boundaries of open innovation: Evidence from social media mining”

José Ramón Saura – Univ. Rey Juan Carlos, Spain (joint work with Daniel Palacios-Marqués and Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano)

Area: Mkt & Strat

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

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 – WiP Webinar

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

Thursday – May 19^th , 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Online

“How to Get Published and Ensure Your Paper Achieves the Impact it Deserves?“

Hugh Scullion – University of Hull, UK 

Area: Research methods / process

CEF.UP – FIN Seminar/Webinar

Thursday – May 19^th, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. |Room 305| Online

“Negotiating Compensation“

Vladimir Vladimirov – University of Amsterdam (joint work with Florian Hoffmann)

Abstract:

“Workers can often negotiate their compensation. We develop a model showing that optimal negotiations and compensation design depend on whether capital and labor are substitutes or complements. This distinction — closely related to whether labor is low- or high-skilled — further affects whether workers can extract higher compensation by negotiating with fewer firms or by searching for additional job offers. It also affects whether cash constraints inflate or depress compensation when firms compete for workers. By solving for the optimal mechanism for workers to sell their labor, we further show how workers can compare different types of offers and negotiate with firms with different bargaining power.”

CEF.UP – MaR Webinar

Tuesday – May 17^th , 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. |Online

“Talent management in the public sector: empirical evidence from the Emerging Economy of Dubai“

Hugh Scullion – University of Hull, UK (joint work with Hessa Al Jawali, Tamer K. Darwish, and Washika Haak-Saheem)

Area: Org & HR

CEF.UP – MaR Seminar/Webinar

Thursday – May 12^th , 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Room 631 | Online

“Art of writing different types of literature reviews”

Justin Paul – Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Consumer Studies (University of Puerto Rico, USA & University of Reading, UK)

 Area: Research methods / process

CEF.UP – FIN Seminar/Webinar

Thursday – May 5^th, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. |Room 305| Online

“The Correlation Risk Premium Term Structure “

Gonçalo Faria – Universidade Católica Portuguesa (joint work with Robert Kosowski)

Abstract:

“The aim of this paper is to study the term structure of correlation risk and exploit a unique dataset of correlation swap quotes. The main empirical findings are supported by a general equilibrium asset pricing model that endogenously generates a correlation risk term structure. We analyse two alternative measures of correlation risk and their term structure, based on S&P500 correlation swap quotes and the synthetic correlation swap rates estimated from option prices. Our main empirical findings are supported by a Lucas Orchard type model with heterogeneous agents that differ in their beliefs about the probability of a systemic rare disaster. When the latter occurs, there is an increase in the dispersion in beliefs about expected consumption growth rate and in the consumption share of the more pessimistic agent. This generates a flattening of the term structure for both the risk neutral expected correlation and the correlation risk premium during periods of enhanced uncertainty.”

CEF.UP – MaR Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – May 3^rd , 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Artificial Intelligence, Data Sciences, and Optimization in Economics and Finance. Neural network embeddings on corporate annual filings for portfolio selection“

Panos Pardalos – University of Florida, USA (joint work with George Adosoglou and Gianfranco Lombardo)

Area: Op & Log

CEF.UP – ECO Webinar

Tuesday – April  26^th, 2022 1:00 p.m. | Online

“Tight and Loose, and Red and Blue: A ‘Dance’ of Macro Policies in the US”

Tatiana Kirsanova – Adam Smith Business School (joint work with Celsa Machado and Ana Paula Ribeiro)

Abstract:

“Using an optimising policy framework, we build and estimate a small-scale DSGE model of the US, and present a narrative of monetary and fiscal policy interactions in 1955-2020.  We find that fiscal policy is important to identify shifts in monetary policy preferences, and it is shaped by the political color.
We use this model to analyse the episode of zero lower bound on interest rate in 2008-15. We find that the bound constrained monetary policy, explain some observed irregularities in macroeconomic data, and demonstrate that a change to price level targeting could have generated a strong lift-off from the constraint.”

CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – April 5^th, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. |Room 305| Online

“European regional agglomeration: Central Place Theory, New Economic Geography and other geographic perspectives“

Fernando Bruna  – Universidade da Coruña

CEF.UP – MaR Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – March 29^th, 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Using a ‘lens’ to re-search business markets, relationships and networks: Tensions, challenges and possibilities“

Poul Houman Andersen – Aalborg University Business School, Denmark (joint work with Ilkka Ojansivu , Christopher John Medlin and Woonho Kim)

Area: Mkt & Strat

CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/Webinar

Friday – February  25^th, 2022 1:00 p.m. | Room 305 |Online

“Social Inequalities in Climate Change-Attributed Impacts of Hurricane Harvey”

Ilan Noy – Victoria University of Wellington

Abstract

Climate change is already increasing the severity of extreme weather events such as with rainfall during hurricanes. But no research to date investigates if, and to what extent, there are social inequalities in climate change-attributed extreme weather event impacts. Here, we use climate change attribution science paired with hydrological flood models to estimate climate change-attributed flood depths and damages during Hurricane Harvey in Harris County, Texas. Using detailed land-parcel and census tract socio-economic data, we then describe the socio-spatial characteristics of these climate change-induced impacts. We show that 30 to 50% of the flooded properties would not have flooded without climate change. Climate change-attributed impacts were particularly felt in Latina/x/o neighbourhoods, and especially so in Latina/x/o neighbourhoods that were low-income and among those located outside of FEMA’s 100-year floodplain. Our focus is thus on climate justice challenges that not only concern future climate change-induced risks, but are already affecting vulnerable populations disproportionately now.

CEF.UP – MaR Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – February 15^th, 2022 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“International employees’ adjustment research: retrospective overview using bibliometric analysis“

Vilmante Kumpikaite-Valiuniene – Kaunas U. of Technology, School of Economics and Business (joint work with Irma Baneviciene)

Area: Org & HR

CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – February 8^th, 2022 1:00 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Endogenous Market Coverage with Quality Dependent Unit Production Costs”

Sílvia Jorge – Universidade de Aveiro (joint work with Joana Pinho, Margarida Catalão-Lopes, Cesaltina Pacheco Pires, Pedro Garcês and Adriana Alventosa)

Abstract

“This paper endogeneizes the level of market coverage through competing firms’ choices in a vertically differentiated market, using a two-stage imperfect information game in which firms decide their quality-price mix. Most of the existing literature has ex-ante assumed either full or partial coverage, which is misleading. The only exceptions consider nil costs or higher fixed costs for higher quality offered, which is too restrictive since the quality choice also influences variable production costs. We set up a more realistic scenario of unit production costs increasing with quality and derive the subgame perfect Nash equilibria in terms of quality, price and coverage level. We show that either full or partial market coverage may arise in equilibrium. Partial coverage occurs when the level of the lowest valuation consumer is low. When the level is intermediate or high, full coverage subsists in equilibrium, with positive or nil surplus for the lowest valuation consumer (full coverage corner solution). Our results have important implications in terms of firms´ market positioning and pricing decisions, presenting a deeper and complete endogenous market coverage equilibrium analysis.”

CEF.UP – WiP Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – January 25^th, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Firm-level Labor Shares and Technology-driven Occupational Changes”.

Ana Oliveira – FEP

Abstract:

Technological advances have decreased labor demand for occupations with high routine task content and increased it for occupations that are either cognitively complex or require non-repetitive social interactions. Technology has also been one of the key drivers of the changes in the labor share of income. Our paper investigates whether the evolution of occupational employment shares and occupation-specific wage rates explains firm-level labor share dynamics. Using rich administrative data for Portugal, we show that the S-shaped dynamics of the aggregate labor share between 2004 and 2019 are mostly driven by changes in firms’ labor share rather than value-added reallocation across the labor share distribution. Our findings suggest that firm-specific labor shares rise due to positive growth in hourly wages, particularly high among Routine Manual and Non-Routine Manual occupations. We also show that changes in task group employment shares have limited effects on the firm-level labor shares, due to the stabilization of occupational employment shares since 2010.

CEF.UP – ECO Webinar

Thursday – December  16^th, 2021 2:00 p.m. | Online

“Why Does Risk Matter More in Recessions than in Expansions?“

Efrem Castelnuovo – University of Padova, CESifo, and Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (joint work with Martin M. Andreaseny, Giovanni Caggianoz and Giovanni Pellegrino )

CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/ Webinar

Tuesday – December 7^th, 2021 1:00 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Commitment and the Dynamics of Household Labor Supply “

Alexandros Theloudis – Tilburg University (joint work with PA Chiappori, JI Giménez-Nadal, JA Molina, J Velilla)

Abstract

“We study household labor supply, within the context of a dynamic collective model, and three prominent intra-household commitment regimes: full commitment, no commitment, and limited commitment. We propose a test that distinguishes among all three alternatives based on how contemporary and historical changes to the economic environment affect household behavior. We implement the test on recent data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics in the US. Although couples and singles behave similarly in many aspects, couples’ labor supply exhibits distinctive features that are consistent with limited commitment. We then use our results to highlight several issues and caveats that arise when testing for commitment in broad risk-sharing settings.”

CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/ Webinar

Tuesday – November 9^th, 2021 1:00 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Better Peers but Worse Rank Position: The Opportunity Cost of Joining a Selective Group”

Pilar Beneito – Universitat de València and ERI-CES

Abstract

“The sharp downgrading of the relative position in the distribution of ability experienced by those just qualifying to enter a selective group may run counter to the intended positive effects of joining better peers. I exploit variation in admission cutoffs across different cohorts and types of business majors programs within a same university to study the causal impact that joining a selective group has on the academic performance of marginal students. I first compare students just above and just below the admission cutoff using a regression discontinuity design, and then I analyse the impact of the ability rank on the academic performance of students at the threshold. I find that female students who are just above the cutoff (thus, low-ranked students in a high-ability group) underperform female students who just fail to gain entry to the selective group (thus, high-ranked students in a mixed-ability group). Conversely, I find much smaller or no significant effects among male students. I show that gender differences in the response of students to their ability rank position explain a large part of the differences found at the threshold.”

CEF.UP – WiP Seminar/Webinar

Friday – October 22^nd, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. | Room 305 | Online

“Specialists or All-Rounders: How best to select university students?”.

Pedro Luís Silva – CIPES and FEP

Abstract:

This paper studies whether universities should select their students only using specialised subject-specific tests or based on a broader set of skills and knowledge. I show that even if broader skills are not improving graduates’ outcomes in the labour market, the university chooses to use them as a criterion for selection alongside the mastery of more subject-specific tools. Empirically, I exploit the variation between subject-specific and non-specific entrance exam sets on Portuguese students’ large administrative dataset. My central finding is that, on average, universities with less specialised admission policies admit a pool of students who obtain a higher final GPA.