Bulletin of Economic Research最新文献

The ratchet effect is an economic phenomenon where agents strategically restrict their efforts to conceal information on their characteristics under the dynamic setting. This study experimentally examines the effect of the probability of proceeding to the next stage on ratcheting behavior. We find evidence that if the probability is smaller than 1, the ratchet effect is mitigated.

As the pivotal figure of information transmission in the capital market, the mainstream financial press has a significant impact on the operation of the stock market. Based on the mainstream financial press, this study obtains the news reports of 945 China A-share listed companies in 2010–2019 and analyzes the relationship between the attention of the mainstream financial press and the efficiency of stock pricing. Further, we explore the mediating effect of corporate governance in this correlation. The empirical results show that the more reports on listed companies from the mainstream financial press the lower the delay level of the stock price of listed companies. At the same time, the characteristics information of the stock price increases, the higher the stock pricing efficiency. The attitude of press reports of listed companies also has an impact on the efficiency of stock pricing. The improvement of pricing efficiency will be achieved through neutral reporting. Mainstream financial press reports indirectly improve the efficiency of stock pricing by reducing the agency costs of the two types, and corporate governance plays a significant intermediary role in it. Finally, compared with market-oriented media, the effect of policy-oriented mainstream financial press on pricing efficiency is more significant.

This study examines whether managerial overconfidence coupled with self-attribution bias distorts the investment decisions of firms. To this end, we investigate the impact of overconfidence on asymmetric investment cash flow sensitivity (ICS). We find that managerial overconfidence affects ICS in a downward-sticky direction, which is reinforced by overconfidence coupled with managerial self-attribution. The results for both unconstrained and constrained firms are qualitatively consistent with those for the overall sample; however, the constrained subsample provides slightly weaker results. Thus, our findings indicate that managerial overconfidence and self-attribution to recent successes may induce managers to make excessive investment commitments.

This paper investigates the effect of digital transformation on the employment of low-skilled labor. Using a large sample of Chinese listed firms for the 2008–2021 period, we find that digital transformation reduces the employment of low-skilled labor. This result is robust to a battery of sensitivity tests and is attenuated for firms located in regions with higher unemployment rates and for small enterprises. Mechanism tests show that digital transformation affects the employment of low-skilled labor through the wage effect channel and the substitution effect channel. The paper deepens our understanding of the economic effect of digital transformation on the labor market.

This paper examines the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements for an industry in an n-oligopolistic model and investigates the relationship between the degree of industry concentration and the degree of ESG requirements. It is shown that the factors influencing the degree of ESG requirements include the number of firms, the elasticity of market demand, and the market concentration ratio. In the case of linear market demand, the degree of requirements is negatively affected by firm number only, regardless of the elasticity of market demand or market concentration ratio. In addition, the degree of ESG requirements is positively (negatively) related to the industry profit/concentration, when market demand is convex (concave). This paper demonstrates that the degree of ESG requirements is sensitive to firm number, market demand, and market concentration ratio and serves as a pragmatic reference for the government.

This meta-analysis examines the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and earnings. The results reveal that openness to experience, conscientiousness, and extraversion exhibit positive correlations with earnings, whereas agreeableness and neuroticism are inversely correlated with earnings. Overall, personality has a modest-to-small effect on earnings, with variations in results depending on econometric models used. Accounting for publication bias, socioeconomic background, and cognitive ability in models affects effect sizes. The findings also underscore the potential for omitted variable bias in the reported personality effects on earnings when relevant factors are omitted from the earnings equation.

In an industry with homogeneous goods, this note compares the standard incumbent's strategic capacity choice versus the incumbent's pre-emptive payment (profit) transfer (PPT) strategy (i.e., pre-entry acquisition). It is shown that via the transfer option, the incumbent holds its monopoly position “dissuading” the potential competitor entry for a range of fixed costs larger than under strategic capacity. Moreover, in that range, at least one firm is better off under PPT, while the other is indifferent between PPT and capacity choice. That is, in contestable markets, the incumbent can keep its dominant position in an easier way than standard models predict.

This paper provides novel evidence of nonlinearities in the formation of preferences for redistribution by uncovering evidence of multiple regimes consistent with the presence of multiple equilibria and multiple steady states. Using threshold regressions that account for the endogeneity of the threshold variable, countries are classified into three groups that share common characteristics. Finally, our analysis reveals substantial evidence of parameter heterogeneity in the coefficient estimates of threshold regressions.

This study aims to determine and compare the impact of four different types of European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy communication events on euro area sovereign yields on an intraday basis since 2014. Our paper distinguishes it from similar studies in that we analyze a broad range of ECB communication types. The results reveal that ECB decisions and press conferences have the most substantial intraday impact on normalized sovereign yields while the impact of speeches and accounts appears to be much weaker. Countries with the highest debt levels (such as Italy, Spain, and France) experienced the most robust changes in fiscal costs, while the period encompassing the economic shock induced by the Covid-19 pandemic shows weaker effects.