This paper examines investment flexibility from a commitment perspective. Firms can choose to make investments while retaining the option to terminate them prior to completion. This flexibility can mitigate uncertainty about the investment present at the time of its initial funding. However, this flexibility can also detrimentally alter actions within the firm that are necessary for the investment’s success, such as whether scarce firm resources are allocated to the investment. This paper uses a simple model to hypothesize that in some cases flexibility can worsen investment outcomes relative to commitment by changing the level of allocated resources, despite the potential benefits of flexibility. This hypothesis is empirically tested in a dataset of new US television programs, comparing programs which receive commitment in the form of a straight to series orders with programs which are flexibility developed through a piloting process. This paper thus contributes to the growing literature exploring when firms should flexibly invest.
{"title":"A Little is Not Enough: How Flexibility Affects Resource Allocation and Outcomes","authors":"Ankur Chavda","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3477199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3477199","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines investment flexibility from a commitment perspective. Firms can choose to make investments while retaining the option to terminate them prior to completion. This flexibility can mitigate uncertainty about the investment present at the time of its initial funding. However, this flexibility can also detrimentally alter actions within the firm that are necessary for the investment’s success, such as whether scarce firm resources are allocated to the investment. This paper uses a simple model to hypothesize that in some cases flexibility can worsen investment outcomes relative to commitment by changing the level of allocated resources, despite the potential benefits of flexibility. This hypothesis is empirically tested in a dataset of new US television programs, comparing programs which receive commitment in the form of a straight to series orders with programs which are flexibility developed through a piloting process. This paper thus contributes to the growing literature exploring when firms should flexibly invest.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125339739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The game theoretical and experimental literature has found ample support for the hypothesis that “face-to-face communication in presence” increases trust and trustworthiness (crucial components of social capital) and, with them, the likelihood of cooperative solutions in social dilemmas. We argue that web exposure increases the share of non-face-to-face relationships that are poorer in terms of creation of interpersonal social capital. We find support for our theoretical hypothesis with an empirical analysis on the European Social Survey since the average time daily spent on the web negatively and significantly affects interpersonal trust. The effect is nonlinear and stronger for women, for the low educated, and for individuals with poorer relational life.
{"title":"Internet Exposure and Social Capital","authors":"L. Becchetti, E. Florio, Sara Mancini","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3923612","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3923612","url":null,"abstract":"The game theoretical and experimental literature has found ample support for the hypothesis that “face-to-face communication in presence” increases trust and trustworthiness (crucial components of social capital) and, with them, the likelihood of cooperative solutions in social dilemmas. We argue that web exposure increases the share of non-face-to-face relationships that are poorer in terms of creation of interpersonal social capital. We find support for our theoretical hypothesis with an empirical analysis on the European Social Survey since the average time daily spent on the web negatively and significantly affects interpersonal trust. The effect is nonlinear and stronger for women, for the low educated, and for individuals with poorer relational life.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131139112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
How can journalist groups and media organizations challenge media capture? Previous research has documented how governments in authoritarian contexts seek to control and dominate the media sector by, for instance, introducing laws and regulations that limit free speech, corrupting licensing systems, and directing government funding and advertisement to loyal media outlets. In Uganda – as in several other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – government liberalized the media sector in the early 1990s and passed a new constitution that guarantees press freedom, but has since tightened its control of independent media through a range of legislative and regulatory measures as well as outright assaults on individual journalists. However, this raises questions about how the primary targets of such capture – journalists, press freedom groups and media houses – respond to and seek to resist media capture. In this paper, we seek to explain how journalist groups and media organizations can challenge government attempts to subvert independent media. Drawing on original fieldwork data, including a set of semi-structured interviews with journalists and media freedom activists in Uganda, we analyze mobilization strategies to counter government attempts to control the media sector. We tentatively conclude that the media sector as a collective in some cases has been able to push back government control attempts. However, since media houses and journalists in general suffer material and economic deprivation, successful resistance requires combining legal mobilization with other forms of contention.
{"title":"Resisting Media Capture: Mobilizing for Media Freedom in Uganda","authors":"Carl-Magnus Höglund, Johan Karlsson Schaffer","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3912443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3912443","url":null,"abstract":"How can journalist groups and media organizations challenge media capture? Previous research has documented how governments in authoritarian contexts seek to control and dominate the media sector by, for instance, introducing laws and regulations that limit free speech, corrupting licensing systems, and directing government funding and advertisement to loyal media outlets. In Uganda – as in several other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – government liberalized the media sector in the early 1990s and passed a new constitution that guarantees press freedom, but has since tightened its control of independent media through a range of legislative and regulatory measures as well as outright assaults on individual journalists. However, this raises questions about how the primary targets of such capture – journalists, press freedom groups and media houses – respond to and seek to resist media capture. In this paper, we seek to explain how journalist groups and media organizations can challenge government attempts to subvert independent media. Drawing on original fieldwork data, including a set of semi-structured interviews with journalists and media freedom activists in Uganda, we analyze mobilization strategies to counter government attempts to control the media sector. We tentatively conclude that the media sector as a collective in some cases has been able to push back government control attempts. However, since media houses and journalists in general suffer material and economic deprivation, successful resistance requires combining legal mobilization with other forms of contention.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"37 10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123659466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Publishing takes a long time in economics. Consequently, many authors release “working” versions of their papers. Using data on the NBER working paper series, we show that the dissemination of economics research suffers from an overcrowding problem: An increase in the number of weekly released working papers on average reduces downloads, abstract views, and media attention for each paper. Subsequent publishing and citation outcomes are harmed as well. Furthermore, descriptive evidence on viewership and downloads suggests working papers significantly substitute for the dissemination function of publication. These results highlight inefficiencies in the dissemination of economic research even among the most exclusive working paper series and suggest large social losses due to the slow publication process.
{"title":"Congestion on the Information Superhighway: Does Economics Have a Working Papers Problem?","authors":"Lester Lusher, Winnie Yang, S. Carrell","doi":"10.3386/w29153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3386/w29153","url":null,"abstract":"Publishing takes a long time in economics. Consequently, many authors release “working” versions of their papers. Using data on the NBER working paper series, we show that the dissemination of economics research suffers from an overcrowding problem: An increase in the number of weekly released working papers on average reduces downloads, abstract views, and media attention for each paper. Subsequent publishing and citation outcomes are harmed as well. Furthermore, descriptive evidence on viewership and downloads suggests working papers significantly substitute for the dissemination function of publication. These results highlight inefficiencies in the dissemination of economic research even among the most exclusive working paper series and suggest large social losses due to the slow publication process.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"146 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128538103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper reviews FreeStream, a decentralized streaming application built on the Ethereum Blockchain. FreeStream allows content-creators to live stream to audiences all over the world while also serving as a video platform for organizations. Completely decentralized, it does not track any data and enables all users to stay anonymous when exchanging or uploading their data. FreeStream was built on the LivePeer framework, uses Unlock for securing content, and leverages Textile to allow users to upload their data to an IPFS platform. FreeStream’s goal is to advance blockchain’s mission by giving more power to content creators and users.
{"title":"FreeStream","authors":"Archie Chaudhury","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3856345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3856345","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reviews FreeStream, a decentralized streaming application built on the Ethereum Blockchain. FreeStream allows content-creators to live stream to audiences all over the world while also serving as a video platform for organizations. Completely decentralized, it does not track any data and enables all users to stay anonymous when exchanging or uploading their data. FreeStream was built on the LivePeer framework, uses Unlock for securing content, and leverages Textile to allow users to upload their data to an IPFS platform. FreeStream’s goal is to advance blockchain’s mission by giving more power to content creators and users.<br><br>","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128484752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social media stars create stardom with uploads on social media pages like YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. One of the most popular platforms, especially designed to upload picture contents, is the service “Instagram” owned by Facebook. The growing social, cultural and economic power of social media star phenomenon raises the question about key drivers of success. Does body exposure drive Instagram success? Is there a difference between male and female content in this regard? This paper empirically analyses 500 top Instagram stars within the categories (1) fashion and beauty, (2) fitness and sports, (3) music, (4) photo and arts, (5) food and vegan. The unbalanced panel data set consists of 100 stars within each category over an observation period of five months. The data provides information on popularity measurements, such as subscribers, likes and comments, and most importantly, price estimates per post. Since influencers are not paid by the platform, but mainly by advertisers for promotion of their products, the estimated price per upload combined with the posting frequency serve as a valid proxy for weekly revenue and economic success. Mean comparison tests show that accounts with focus on female accounts have a significantly higher degree in body exposure, while the price per picture is higher for male content. Weekly revenues do not significantly diverge. Furthermore, using panel regressions, I estimate the effect of body exposure and sex on advertising revenue. The results show that body exposure has a positive effect, whereas the sex has no significant influence in the regression estimations. Eventually, this raises the question of a gender pay gap in social media.
{"title":"Attention Economics of Instagram Stars: #Instafame and Sex Sells?","authors":"Sophia Gaenssle","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3861486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3861486","url":null,"abstract":"Social media stars create stardom with uploads on social media pages like YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. One of the most popular platforms, especially designed to upload picture contents, is the service “Instagram” owned by Facebook. The growing social, cultural and economic power of social media star phenomenon raises the question about key drivers of success. Does body exposure drive Instagram success? Is there a difference between male and female content in this regard? This paper empirically analyses 500 top Instagram stars within the categories (1) fashion and beauty, (2) fitness and sports, (3) music, (4) photo and arts, (5) food and vegan. The unbalanced panel data set consists of 100 stars within each category over an observation period of five months. The data provides information on popularity measurements, such as subscribers, likes and comments, and most importantly, price estimates per post. Since influencers are not paid by the platform, but mainly by advertisers for promotion of their products, the estimated price per upload combined with the posting frequency serve as a valid proxy for weekly revenue and economic success. Mean comparison tests show that accounts with focus on female accounts have a significantly higher degree in body exposure, while the price per picture is higher for male content. Weekly revenues do not significantly diverge. Furthermore, using panel regressions, I estimate the effect of body exposure and sex on advertising revenue. The results show that body exposure has a positive effect, whereas the sex has no significant influence in the regression estimations. Eventually, this raises the question of a gender pay gap in social media.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125087870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Several decades of expansion in digital communications, web commerce, and online distribution have altered the U.S. labor market for IT workers. We characterize the shifts in regional IT labor markets from 2000 to 2018, and find that IT wage growth did not follow an exceptional pattern compared to broader STEM labor market trends. Digital wage inequality increased, almost entirely due to rising local premiums in a few urban metropolises, where wage spreads became narrower than elsewhere. The supply of college-educated workers accounted for a substantial share of the total wage difference between IT labor markets in top locations and other cities. Agglomeration and IT innovation explained a notably larger fraction of the top-location wage premium in more recent years.
{"title":"Digital Labor Market Inequality and the Decline of IT Exceptionalism","authors":"Ruiqing Cao, S. Greenstein","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3680099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3680099","url":null,"abstract":"Several decades of expansion in digital communications, web commerce, and online distribution have altered the U.S. labor market for IT workers. We characterize the shifts in regional IT labor markets from 2000 to 2018, and find that IT wage growth did not follow an exceptional pattern compared to broader STEM labor market trends. Digital wage inequality increased, almost entirely due to rising local premiums in a few urban metropolises, where wage spreads became narrower than elsewhere. The supply of college-educated workers accounted for a substantial share of the total wage difference between IT labor markets in top locations and other cities. Agglomeration and IT innovation explained a notably larger fraction of the top-location wage premium in more recent years.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114823170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines the impact of remittances and information and communication technology (ICT) on pension at the country level. Our empirical evidence, based on data from 96 countries, indicate a significant non-linearity between remittances, ICT and pension income coverage. First, we find a convex relation between remittances and pension income coverage, indicating that increases in remittance, initially decreases pension income coverage, but as remittance increases beyond a certain point, so too does pension income coverage. This inflection point, where the effect of remittances turns from negative to positive, is estimated to be around 3.09% of GDP. Second, we document a concave relationship between ICT (i.e. mobile subscription and internet penetration) and pension income coverage. An increase in ICT results in increased pension income coverage. However, when ICT reaches a certain point, any further increase is associated with lower pension income coverage. The estimated optimal point is found to be around 140.14 subscriptions (per 100 people) for mobile phone and 27.93 (per 100 people) for internet penetration, respectively. Other implications are discussed.
{"title":"Remittances, ICT and Pension Income Coverage: The International Evidence","authors":"David Adeabah, Simplice A. Asongu, Charles Andoh","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3668982","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3668982","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the impact of remittances and information and communication technology (ICT) on pension at the country level. Our empirical evidence, based on data from 96 countries, indicate a significant non-linearity between remittances, ICT and pension income coverage. First, we find a convex relation between remittances and pension income coverage, indicating that increases in remittance, initially decreases pension income coverage, but as remittance increases beyond a certain point, so too does pension income coverage. This inflection point, where the effect of remittances turns from negative to positive, is estimated to be around 3.09% of GDP. Second, we document a concave relationship between ICT (i.e. mobile subscription and internet penetration) and pension income coverage. An increase in ICT results in increased pension income coverage. However, when ICT reaches a certain point, any further increase is associated with lower pension income coverage. The estimated optimal point is found to be around 140.14 subscriptions (per 100 people) for mobile phone and 27.93 (per 100 people) for internet penetration, respectively. Other implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129294837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper analyzes the long-term impact of television on hate crimes in Germany. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) foreign television served as a window to the world and exposed viewers to foreign influences. But certain parts of the GDR were excluded from receiving Western television due to geographical features. I argue that this resulted in long-lasting differences in the attitude towards foreigners. Using the spatial variation in signal strength as a natural experiment, the paper tests the effect of Western broadcasts on the rate of hate crimes. Municipalities with no access to foreign broadcasts exhibit a higher degree of xenophobic violence in the period of the migration crisis in Germany between 2014 to 2017. It shows that media can lead to preference changes that persist for a long time after the exposure.
{"title":"A Window to the World: The Long-Term Effect of Television on Hate Crime","authors":"Marek Endrich","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3546864","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3546864","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyzes the long-term impact of television on hate crimes in Germany. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) foreign television served as a window to the world and exposed viewers to foreign influences. But certain parts of the GDR were excluded from receiving Western television due to geographical features. I argue that this resulted in long-lasting differences in the attitude towards foreigners. Using the spatial variation in signal strength as a natural experiment, the paper tests the effect of Western broadcasts on the rate of hate crimes. Municipalities with no access to foreign broadcasts exhibit a higher degree of xenophobic violence in the period of the migration crisis in Germany between 2014 to 2017. It shows that media can lead to preference changes that persist for a long time after the exposure.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134329481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite 10 years of research into phishing detection with machine learning, with models yielding greater than .95 F1-scores, in the past 10 years there has been a 277.51% increase in phishing attacks. In this work we examine the efficiency of a phishing detection model in terms of model drift. That is given a trained phishing detection model, how long will the model maintain the performance. It is important to examine and detect model drift for phishing detection because of the changing nature of the internet and subsequent phishing attacks. It is known that phishing URLs change intermittently, which causes models to become obsolete after a period of time.
{"title":"Temporal Resilience of Phishing Detection Models in Machine Learning","authors":"Arvind Abraham, Gilad Gressel, K. Achuthan","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3511056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3511056","url":null,"abstract":"Despite 10 years of research into phishing detection with machine learning, with models yielding greater than .95 F1-scores, in the past 10 years there has been a 277.51% increase in phishing attacks. In this work we examine the efficiency of a phishing detection model in terms of model drift. That is given a trained phishing detection model, how long will the model maintain the performance. It is important to examine and detect model drift for phishing detection because of the changing nature of the internet and subsequent phishing attacks. It is known that phishing URLs change intermittently, which causes models to become obsolete after a period of time.","PeriodicalId":378066,"journal":{"name":"PSN: Communications (Topic)","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125498318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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