ATLANTIC ECONOMIC JOURNAL最新文献

This study examines whether the preferences and behaviors of traditional community leaders change depending on their leadership experience. Using data from a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, in which participants were village leaders in traditional communities of these tracts, this study focused on competitiveness, dishonest behavior, and altruism, which are crucial factors in the fair governance of communities. The results of a pedometer-shaking game to measure competitiveness, a dice-casting game to extract dishonest behavior, and a simple dictator game are reported. The experimental results reveal that the longer the leader’s term, the less competitive they are and the less likely they are to engage in dishonest behavior, although experience as a leader does not have any significant effect on altruism. This study contributes to the literature as it adds experimental evidence regarding the preference change of leaders in traditional communities. Preferences change in the direction of conformity to the norms and benefits of other community members as leaders gain experience. Thus, changes in leader preferences should be considered when evaluating the governance systems of traditional communities.

This paper empirically examines the learning-by-exporting theory from a new angle: how firms innovate. Two different innovation strategies are studied. One is independent innovation if a firm conducts in-house research and development activities on its own and the other is spillover innovation if a firm adopts external technologies and knowledge from the others. Global firm-level data were acquired from the latest 2017–19 Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey. The learning-by-exporting effect is interpreted as a positive effect of firms’ exports on their productivity, which is estimated semi-parametrically. After implementing a three-step estimation method that addresses endogeneity, the learning-by-exporting effect was found to be importantly subject to firms’ innovation strategies. Learning-by-exporting can only be significantly and robustly detected among firms with spillover innovation, whereas exports cannot always enhance independent innovators’ performance. Further heterogeneity tests support this finding. This paper suggests that the learning-by-exporting effect is essentially a technology spillover process, and it highlights the importance of both independent and spillover innovation that must be implemented and regulated properly.

Employing a unique approach to household utility maximization, this paper explores the implications of vehicle carbon taxation and subsidies in the context of household choice for urban transportation mode where there exist two private characteristics of travel: comfort and time efficiency, and a third public negative characteristic, carbon emissions. Two policies to reduce carbon emissions are examined in this framework; (1) subsidizing public transportation and imposing a tax on vehicle emissions, (2) increasing the cost of private vehicle travel, and providing a rebate of the tax collected to the consumer. The results suggest that the latter policy may have little impact on carbon emissions and could possibly lead to an increase in emissions.

The technology (tech) sector outperformed all other sector stock price averages in 2023. This paper addresses two issues regarding the tech sector. First, relative to other firms, are there any managerial areas in which the tech sector outperforms to explain their superior performance relative to all other firms? Second, within the tech sector, what managerial practices lead to higher profits? Four areas of managerial performance are considered: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, and social responsibility. This paper utilizes Bloomberg data and takes the novel approach of utilizing the Drucker Institute Indexes to assess performance in the tech sector. The Drucker Institute has computed a Corporate Effectiveness Index since 2017. The overall effectiveness index is based on performance regarding five dimensions: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength. The firms they track are United States companies whose shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Stock Market and meet certain size requirements. Among the four dimensions tested, customer satisfaction is the one dimension that is positive and significant when comparing across tech firms. Second, employee engagement is more important for tech firms than for other firms. The major contribution of this paper’s findings is that while innovation may be the hallmark feature of tech firms, innovation for its own sake does not drive firm performance. A focus on people (customers and employees) is the key to earning higher profits in the tech sector.

Based on a dynamic panel data model, this paper estimates the impact of lockdown policies on inflation with U.S. metropolitan-level data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. After controlling for the unit/time fixed effects and several aggregate demand/supply shifters, lockdown policies created a mild inflationary effect nationwide, though the individual effect was heterogeneous. This study novelly analyzes the political economy of coronavirus disease policy and the subsequent economic outcomes. In particular, the inflationary impact was most pronounced for Republican-governed states that switched votes from President Trump in 2016 to President (elect) Biden in 2020, suggesting price stability is a source of voting behavior. On the contrary, lockdown policies caused deflation in Democratic-governed states where unemployment rates and public compliance with lockdown measures were presumably higher. The results indicate that the economic consequences of public policies depend critically on the political partisanship of the region.

This paper investigates the relationship between the international oil market and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI)—Western Canadian Select (WCS) price differential. Monthly data were collected for January 2005 to September 2023 from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the Canada Energy Regulator, and the Government of Alberta. The paper finds that a negative oil supply shock increases the differential with a delay. On the other hand, a positive oil-specific demand shock increases the WTI-WCS differential with a delay, while a positive aggregate demand shock increases the differential persistently. Overall, the three shocks in the international oil market account for 61% of the variability in the price differential in the long run. The aggregate demand shock is the most substantial factor in explaining the variation in the WTI-WCS differential in the long run. This indicates that the global oil market demand has an asymmetric effect on WTI and WCS prices.

This paper presents a model that examines sports teams’ strategic choices about the extent of offense/defense to adopt in competing with other teams. The mathematical formulation adopted permits the derivation of a team’s optimal strategy under different game scenarios (current score and time left to play), and team characteristics (playing at home or away, and each team’s quality). A novel feature of the model is that teams can choose a strategy at several moments in the game, thereby incorporating a comprehensive dynamic element. The National Hockey League is used as an application. Optimal coaching behavior is derived in this setting, and the impact of rule changes is assessed. The study found that removing the overtime period, disproportionally increasing the rewards for a win, or removing the point that is currently awarded to the team that loses the shootout at the end of overtime, would all lead to the adoption of more offensive strategies during the game. That outcome is aligned with higher fan interest and team revenue.

This study compares the relationship between National Basketball Association player career performances and their market values as revealed by their rookie card prices and their career salaries. This permits a novel identification of the similarities and differences between card collectors and team owners in how they value the same sample of 185 players. The analysis includes all players who began their careers in 1993 or after and completed their careers by 2019, and who renegotiated their rookie contract so that their card price and salary values are based on their National Basketball Association performances. Offensive statistics largely determine a player's salary and card value. Team owners place greater value on team attributes such as tenure with the team and games started, while card collectors place greater relative value on individual performance.