{"title":"A Closer Look at the Substitution Effects between Retail Trading and National Lotteries","authors":"Qiqi Liang, Licheng Sun","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4785560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4785560","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"10 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141136786","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}
George Beknazar-Yuzbashev, Rafael J Jimenez Duran, M. Stalinski
Why do social media users spend so much time consuming content that seemingly harms them? We build a simple model to argue that advertising-driven platforms can find it profitable to display content that harms users when it is complementary to their time spent on the platform. These incentives disappear, absent network effects, in the case of a subscription-based business model because harmful content reduces the willingness to pay for the platform. Our results warn against interpreting increases in engagement on social media as welfare increases.
{"title":"A Model of Harmful yet Engaging Content on Social Media","authors":"George Beknazar-Yuzbashev, Rafael J Jimenez Duran, M. Stalinski","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4699417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4699417","url":null,"abstract":"Why do social media users spend so much time consuming content that seemingly harms them? We build a simple model to argue that advertising-driven platforms can find it profitable to display content that harms users when it is complementary to their time spent on the platform. These incentives disappear, absent network effects, in the case of a subscription-based business model because harmful content reduces the willingness to pay for the platform. Our results warn against interpreting increases in engagement on social media as welfare increases.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"24 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141137448","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}
Globally, women remain underrepresented in STEM. Our lab-in-the-field study delves into parental influence on adolescents' perceptions of scientific versus humanistic aptitude. We find that thinking about parental recommendation affects students' beliefs on their comparative advantage in a gender-stereotypical way. Girls are 23 percent less likely to choose math when they think about their mothers' recommendation before selecting their field. The paper underscores the critical role that parents play in shaping gender-specific beliefs about academic strengths, highlighting potential avenues for fostering diversity in STEM.
{"title":"Thinking about Parents: Gender and Field of Study","authors":"Michela Carlana, Lucia Corno","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4749346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4749346","url":null,"abstract":"Globally, women remain underrepresented in STEM. Our lab-in-the-field study delves into parental influence on adolescents' perceptions of scientific versus humanistic aptitude. We find that thinking about parental recommendation affects students' beliefs on their comparative advantage in a gender-stereotypical way. Girls are 23 percent less likely to choose math when they think about their mothers' recommendation before selecting their field. The paper underscores the critical role that parents play in shaping gender-specific beliefs about academic strengths, highlighting potential avenues for fostering diversity in STEM.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"49 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141134883","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}
We study a sequential experimentation model with endogenous feedback. Agents choose between a safe and risky action, the latter generating stochastic rewards. When making this choice, each agent is selfishly motivated (myopic). However, agents can disclose their experiences to a public record, and when doing so are pro-socially motivated (forward-looking). When prior uncertainty is large, disclosure is both polarized (only extreme signals are disclosed) and positively biased (no feedback is bad news). When prior uncertainty is small, a novel form of unraveling occurs and disclosure is complete. Subsidizing disclosure costs can perversely lead to less disclosure but more experimentation.
{"title":"(Pro-)Social Learning and Strategic Disclosure","authors":"Roland Bénabou, Nikhil Vellodi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4827818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4827818","url":null,"abstract":"We study a sequential experimentation model with endogenous feedback. Agents choose between a safe and risky action, the latter generating stochastic rewards. When making this choice, each agent is selfishly motivated (myopic). However, agents can disclose their experiences to a public record, and when doing so are pro-socially motivated (forward-looking). When prior uncertainty is large, disclosure is both polarized (only extreme signals are disclosed) and positively biased (no feedback is bad news). When prior uncertainty is small, a novel form of unraveling occurs and disclosure is complete. Subsidizing disclosure costs can perversely lead to less disclosure but more experimentation.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"324 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141138659","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 article discusses the process of “conceptual borrowing”, according to which, when a new discipline emerges, it develops its technical vocabulary also by appropriating terms from other neighbouring disciplines. The phenomenon is likened to Carl Schmitt’s observation that modern political concepts have theological roots. The authors argue that, through extensive conceptual borrowing, AI has ended up describing computers anthropomorphically, as computational brains with psychological properties, while brain and cognitive sciences have ended up describing brains and minds computationally and informationally, as biological computers. The crosswiring between the technical languages of these disciplines is not merely metaphorical but can lead to confusion, and damaging assumptions and consequences. The article ends on an optimistic note about the self-adjusting nature of technical meanings in language and the ability to leave misleading conceptual baggage behind when confronted with advancement in understanding and factual knowledge.
{"title":"Anthropomorphising machines and computerising minds: the crosswiring of languages between Artificial Intelligence and Brain & Cognitive Sciences","authors":"Luciano Floridi, Anna C Nobre","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4738331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4738331","url":null,"abstract":"The article discusses the process of “conceptual borrowing”, according to which, when a new discipline emerges, it develops its technical vocabulary also by appropriating terms from other neighbouring disciplines. The phenomenon is likened to Carl Schmitt’s observation that modern political concepts have theological roots. The authors argue that, through extensive conceptual borrowing, AI has ended up describing computers anthropomorphically, as computational brains with psychological properties, while brain and cognitive sciences have ended up describing brains and minds computationally and informationally, as biological computers. The crosswiring between the technical languages of these disciplines is not merely metaphorical but can lead to confusion, and damaging assumptions and consequences. The article ends on an optimistic note about the self-adjusting nature of technical meanings in language and the ability to leave misleading conceptual baggage behind when confronted with advancement in understanding and factual knowledge.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"19 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140658136","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 emergence of devolution in the United Kingdom (UK) has led to the emergence of a significant body of jurisprudence to understand its place in the UK constitution, including various conceptual frameworks to explain its operation. A problem with some of this jurisprudence is the characterisation of devolution as novel or exceptional, capable of being understood only on its own terms. An examination of the history of constitutional development within the British empire, however, reveals otherwise. Imperial history shows that the issues faced by devolved administrations in the post-Brexit UK – uncertainties about competence and the extent of dynamism and plurality, for example – have emerged before. More than that, they were dealt with by a combination of statutory text, judicial approach and political pragmatism. Some of these solutions provide a rich source from which lessons can be drawn for present-day challenges.This article explores how legislative competence was understood across the empire and the UK before the emergence of devolution in its most recent form. It looks at the political and judicial approaches to thorny questions of legislative supremacy, legislative subordination, political paramountcy and political pragmatism. This article aims not only to challenge the myth of devolution’s sui generis nature but demonstrate why the UK Internal Market Act 2020 represents a rupture in how competence was constitutionally understood. In this way, we may be better equipped to understand and resolve the problems of devolution posed by Brexit.
{"title":"Lessons from the Age of Empire: The UK Internal Market Act as a rupture in the understanding of competence","authors":"Anurag Deb","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4666749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4666749","url":null,"abstract":"The emergence of devolution in the United Kingdom (UK) has led to the emergence of a significant body of jurisprudence to understand its place in the UK constitution, including various conceptual frameworks to explain its operation. A problem with some of this jurisprudence is the characterisation of devolution as novel or exceptional, capable of being understood only on its own terms. An examination of the history of constitutional development within the British empire, however, reveals otherwise. Imperial history shows that the issues faced by devolved administrations in the post-Brexit UK – uncertainties about competence and the extent of dynamism and plurality, for example – have emerged before. More than that, they were dealt with by a combination of statutory text, judicial approach and political pragmatism. Some of these solutions provide a rich source from which lessons can be drawn for present-day challenges.This article explores how legislative competence was understood across the empire and the UK before the emergence of devolution in its most recent form. It looks at the political and judicial approaches to thorny questions of legislative supremacy, legislative subordination, political paramountcy and political pragmatism. This article aims not only to challenge the myth of devolution’s sui generis nature but demonstrate why the UK Internal Market Act 2020 represents a rupture in how competence was constitutionally understood. In this way, we may be better equipped to understand and resolve the problems of devolution posed by Brexit.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"29 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140658116","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}
We examine how financial disclosure policy affects a firm manager's strategy to innovate within a two‐period bandit problem featuring two production methods: an old method with a known probability of success, and a new method with an unknown probability. Exploring the new method in the first period provides the manager with decision‐useful information for the second period, thus creating a real option that is unavailable under exploiting the old known production method. Voluntary disclosure of the firm's financial performance provides the manager with another option to potentially conceal initial failure from the market. The interaction of these two options determines the manager's incentive to explore. In equilibrium, a myopic manager who cares about the interim market price may over‐ or under‐explore compared to the optimal exploration strategy that maximizes firm value. Our analysis shows that firms operating in an environment with voluntary disclosure early in the trial stage and mandated requirement later are most motivated to explore, while firms subject to early mandated disclosure and late voluntary disclosure are least likely to do so. We also provide empirical predictions about the link between the disclosure environment and the intensity and efficiency of corporate innovation.
{"title":"Innovation and Financial Disclosure","authors":"Hui Chen, Pierre Jinghong Liang, Evgeny Petrov","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4784334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4784334","url":null,"abstract":"We examine how financial disclosure policy affects a firm manager's strategy to innovate within a two‐period bandit problem featuring two production methods: an old method with a known probability of success, and a new method with an unknown probability. Exploring the new method in the first period provides the manager with decision‐useful information for the second period, thus creating a real option that is unavailable under exploiting the old known production method. Voluntary disclosure of the firm's financial performance provides the manager with another option to potentially conceal initial failure from the market. The interaction of these two options determines the manager's incentive to explore. In equilibrium, a myopic manager who cares about the interim market price may over‐ or under‐explore compared to the optimal exploration strategy that maximizes firm value. Our analysis shows that firms operating in an environment with voluntary disclosure early in the trial stage and mandated requirement later are most motivated to explore, while firms subject to early mandated disclosure and late voluntary disclosure are least likely to do so. We also provide empirical predictions about the link between the disclosure environment and the intensity and efficiency of corporate innovation.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"15 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140659110","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}
Influenced by the concept of the strength of a force in physics, access to markets has since the 1940s been evaluated by indicators of ‘potential’, measured as a sum of a distance-weighted of population or market size of foreign or external territories. Later development of the New Economic Geography (NEG) by Paul Krugman did not solve the problem of calculating internal market size in a way that can be used to add it to calculations for external market potential. This paper analyzes the consequences of geometrical justifications in measuring internal market potential. For a sample of European regions, the paper concludes that the literature should be more explicit about historical processes of agglomeration and methods of calculating internal market size.
{"title":"Market Potential: The Measurement of Domestic Market Size","authors":"Fernando Bruna","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4745973","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4745973","url":null,"abstract":"Influenced by the concept of the strength of a force in physics, access to markets has since the 1940s been evaluated by indicators of ‘potential’, measured as a sum of a distance-weighted of population or market size of foreign or external territories. Later development of the New Economic Geography (NEG) by Paul Krugman did not solve the problem of calculating internal market size in a way that can be used to add it to calculations for external market potential. This paper analyzes the consequences of geometrical justifications in measuring internal market potential. For a sample of European regions, the paper concludes that the literature should be more explicit about historical processes of agglomeration and methods of calculating internal market size.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"54 23","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140664415","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}
Amelia Taylor, Thokozani Liwewe, Jim Todd, Chisomo Kankhwali, Anne Mwale, S. Kiwuwa-Muyingo
Background The completion of case-based surveillance forms was vital for case identification during COVID-19 surveillance in Malawi. Despite significant efforts, the resulting national data suffered from gaps and inconsistencies which affected its optimal usability. The objectives of this study were to investigate the processes of collecting and reporting COVID-19 data, to explore health workers’ perceptions and understanding of the collection tools and processes, and to identify factors contributing to data quality. Methods A total of 75 healthcare professionals directly involved in COVID-19 data collection from the Malawi Ministry of Health in Lilongwe and Blantyre participated in Focus Group Discussions and In-Depth Interviews. We collected participants’ views on the effectiveness of surveillance forms in collecting the intended data, as well as on the data collection processes and training needs. We used MAXQDA for thematic and document analysis. Results Form design significantly influenced data quality and, together with challenges in applying case definitions, formed 44% of all issues raised. Concerns regarding processes used in data collection and training gaps comprised 49% of all the issues raised. Language issues (2%) and privacy, ethical, and cultural considerations (4%), although mentioned less frequently, offered compelling evidence for further review. Conclusions Our study highlights the integral connection between data quality and the design and utilization of data collection forms. While the forms were deemed to contain the most relevant fields, deficiencies in format, order of fields, and the absence of an addendum with guidelines, resulted in large gaps and errors. Form design needs to be reviewed so that it appropriately fits into the overall processes and systems that capture surveillance data. This study is the first of its kind in Malawi, offering an in-depth view of the perceptions and experiences of health professionals involved in disease surveillance on the tools and processes they use.
{"title":"Insights into COVID-19 Data Collection and Management in Malawi: Exploring Processes, Perceptions, and Data Discrepancies","authors":"Amelia Taylor, Thokozani Liwewe, Jim Todd, Chisomo Kankhwali, Anne Mwale, S. Kiwuwa-Muyingo","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.4721083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4721083","url":null,"abstract":"Background The completion of case-based surveillance forms was vital for case identification during COVID-19 surveillance in Malawi. Despite significant efforts, the resulting national data suffered from gaps and inconsistencies which affected its optimal usability. The objectives of this study were to investigate the processes of collecting and reporting COVID-19 data, to explore health workers’ perceptions and understanding of the collection tools and processes, and to identify factors contributing to data quality. Methods A total of 75 healthcare professionals directly involved in COVID-19 data collection from the Malawi Ministry of Health in Lilongwe and Blantyre participated in Focus Group Discussions and In-Depth Interviews. We collected participants’ views on the effectiveness of surveillance forms in collecting the intended data, as well as on the data collection processes and training needs. We used MAXQDA for thematic and document analysis. Results Form design significantly influenced data quality and, together with challenges in applying case definitions, formed 44% of all issues raised. Concerns regarding processes used in data collection and training gaps comprised 49% of all the issues raised. Language issues (2%) and privacy, ethical, and cultural considerations (4%), although mentioned less frequently, offered compelling evidence for further review. Conclusions Our study highlights the integral connection between data quality and the design and utilization of data collection forms. While the forms were deemed to contain the most relevant fields, deficiencies in format, order of fields, and the absence of an addendum with guidelines, resulted in large gaps and errors. Form design needs to be reviewed so that it appropriately fits into the overall processes and systems that capture surveillance data. This study is the first of its kind in Malawi, offering an in-depth view of the perceptions and experiences of health professionals involved in disease surveillance on the tools and processes they use.","PeriodicalId":507782,"journal":{"name":"SSRN Electronic Journal","volume":"49 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140664466","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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