| 1. |
- Ahlin, Christian, et al.
(författare)
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Loan contract structure and adverse selection : Survey evidence from Uganda
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 172, s. 180-195
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- While adverse selection is an important theoretical explanation for credit rationing it is difficult to quantify empirically. Many studies measure the elasticity of credit demand of existing or previous borrowers as opposed to the population at large; other studies use cross-sectional approaches that may confound borrower risk with other factors. We circumvent both issues by surveying a representative sample of microenterprises in urban Uganda and by measuring their responses to multiple hypothetical contract offers, varying in interest rates and collateral requirements. The two seminal theories on selection provide contradicting predictions following a change in the contractual terms. Under adverse selection, a lower interest rate or a lower collateral obligation should increase take up among less risky borrowers. By contrast, advantageous selection implies that take up should increase among the riskier borrowers. We test these two predictions by examining if firm owners respond to changes in the interest rate or the collateral requirement and whether higher take up varies by firms' risk type. We find support for the presence of adverse selection as contracts with lower interest rates or lower collateral obligations increase hypothetical demand - especially for less risky firms. Our results imply that changes to the standard loan product available to microenterprises may have substantial effects on credit demand.
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| 2. |
- Akay, Alpaslan, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Offshoring and well-being of workers
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 200, s. 388-407
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using long panels of industry-specific offshoring information and subjectively reported well-being datasets mainly from Germany, which is also supported by datasets from the UK and Australia, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between offshoring and workers' subjective well-being in the source country. We employ panel data fixed-effects models with time-variant personality measures and industry-specific measures to alleviate the bias stemming from the non-random sorting of individuals in industries. Our findings suggest that offshoring negatively relates to workers' subjective well-being. The result is unexceptionally consistent across Germany, the UK, and Australia, and the effect is larger in business services and among high-skilled workers. We extensively discuss how contextual "fear-factors" prevailing in the source countries interact with the angst generated by the negative framing of offshoring. To single out such angst, we first show that objective and subjective job security concerns, job characteristics, and labor market conditions only marginally relate to the well-being effect of offshoring. Then, we investigate how the effect of offshoring on well-being is amplified by a larger set of contextual factors pertaining to temporary economic shocks, negative narratives about offshoring during electoral cycles, partisan political preferences, and high immigration rates. Finally, we show that a recent skill upgrade significantly diminishes the negative effect of offshoring on well-being.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )
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| 3. |
- Aldén, Lina, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Culture and the gender gap in choice of major : An analysis using sibling comparisons
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 201, s. 346-373
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We study if there is an association between culture on gender roles and the gender gap in choice of major. For this purpose, we use the epidemiological approach and sibling comparisons. We find that the gender gap in STEM is smaller for individuals who originate in countries where women are more likely, relative to men, to major in STEM. We observe a similar pattern when we study the probability to major in a male- or female-dominated field. We present suggestive evidence that cultural beliefs explain our results. Thus, to limit gender segregation in education this study points to the importance of changing gendered beliefs about educational choices. However, the results indicate that the gender convergence in STEM and male-dominated fields is driven by the fact that men, not women, choose less gender-typical majors. This suggests that to increase women’s participation in STEM and male-dominated fields, policies in other areas, e.g., directed towards changing workplace characteristics, may also be necessary.
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| 4. |
- Angelova, Vera, et al.
(författare)
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Competition and fatigue
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 198, s. 236-249
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We study how subjects deal with fatigue in a sequence of tournaments that are linked through fatigue spillovers. We develop a model that allows us to predict the consequences of varying the severity of competition as well as the ease of recovery over time. Even in the presence of fatigue, effort should positively respond to an increase in incentives in a single tournament. A less obvious consequence is the need for strategic resting before and after that tournament. We test our theory using a chosen-effort experiment. While an increase in incentives in the second of three tournaments does lead to higher effort in that tournament, we observe only a tendency for the predicted strategic resting before and after. The increase in incentives does not yield the predicted higher total effort. When recovery is made harder, effort responds negatively as predicted. We complement our study with a real-effort task. Subjects seem to have difficulties simultaneously dealing with physical fatigue as well as the cognitive problem of allocating effort over time.
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| 5. |
- Arvaniti, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Temptation in consumption and optimal taxation
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 205, s. 687-707
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article aims to integrate temptation preferences into the theory of optimal taxation with heterogenous agents and asymmetric information. Consumers are tempted to over-consume a commodity which may lead to an over-supply of labor. Resisting this temptation implies a utility cost and any policy that reduces this cost is welfare improving. We uncover novel channels for government intervention and the interaction between the welfare improving and redistributive roles of public policy. We also identify a commitment mechanism that works through the endogenous labor choice and affects the design and effectiveness of the optimal tax policy.
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| 6. |
- Arvaniti, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Time-consistent renewable resource management with present bias and regime shifts
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 207, s. 479-495
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigate the extraction plan of present-biased decision makers managing a renew-able resource stock whose growth is uncertain and which could undergo a rapid and sig-nificant change when stock falls below a threshold. We show that the Markov-Nash equi-librium extraction policy is unique, time consistent, and increasing in resource stock. An increase in the threshold leads to increased resource extraction, rather than the precau-tionary reduction in extraction often observed with exponential discounting. An increase in the degree of present bias also leads to an increase in resource extraction. Our analy-sis suggests that accounting for and appropriately dealing with resource managers' present bias may be important to understand resource use sustainability.
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| 7. |
- Berg, Heléne
(författare)
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On the returns to holding political office (Is it worth it?)
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 178, s. 840-865
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper estimates causal effects of being elected in a local election on monetary returns. The claim for causality is made in a research design where the income of some candidate who just barely won a seat is compared to that of some other candidate who was close to winning a seat for the same party, but ultimately did not. This research design is made possible thanks to a comprehensive, detailed data set covering all Swedish politicians who have run for office in the period 1991-2006. The analysis establishes that monetary returns from local politics are absent both in the short and long run. By relating this null result to effects on the future political career, the paper provides suggestive evidence that local politicians are not primarily motivated by money.
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| 8. |
- Breig, Zachary, et al.
(författare)
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Agency breadth and political influence
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 188, s. 253-268
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We study, theoretically and empirically, legislative influence over executive agencies, focusing on the breadth of agency responsibilities. We model interest groups, the legislature, and agencies. Politicians exert costly effort to influence agencies in exchange for interest groups' campaign contributions. Effort, however, can only be imperfectly targeted. When effort is spent on behalf of one group, some spills over to benefit other interest groups. This creates externalities of influence that are larger in broad agencies, deterring legislative influence. Empirically, we develop a novel lobbying-based measure of breadth and combine it with survey data on influence in 70 US federal agencies. Broad agencies report less influence, and we rule out several alternative explanations. These results are important for understanding how to insulate divisive tasks from political influence.
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| 9. |
- Cappelen, Alexander, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding the resource curse : A large-scale experiment on corruption in Tanzania
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier. - 1879-1751 .- 0167-2681. ; 183, s. 129-157
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Corruption is considered an important driver of the resource curse in developing countries. Based on a large-scale field experiment in Tanzania, this paper studies how the salience of future natural resource revenues shapes beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. We find some evidence that information about the discovery of natural gas causes people to expect more corruption in the future, but no evidence of the information making people at present more willing to engage in corruption and dishonest behavior or less trusting. The findings do not support the idea of self-fulfilling expectations about future corruption. The paper provides a rich set of results on the determinants of corruption and trust in a development context, which may contribute to a better understanding of the micro-foundations of the resource curse.
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| 10. |
- Cipullo, Davide, et al.
(författare)
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Electoral cycles in macroeconomic forecasts
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. - : Elsevier. - 0167-2681 .- 1879-1751. ; 202, s. 307-340
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper documents the existence of electoral cycles in GDP growth forecasts released by governments. In a theoretical model of political selection, we show that governments release overly optimistic GDP growth forecasts ahead of elections to increase the reelec-tion probability. The bias arises from lack of commitment if voters are rational and from manipulation of voters' beliefs if they do not expect the incumbent to be biased. Using high-frequency forecaster-level data from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Swe-den, we document that governments overestimate short-term real GDP growth by 0.1-0.3 percentage points.
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