Digital Commons Network^™

Life Satisfaction Changes And Adaptation In The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From Singapore, Terence C. Cheng, Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide novel evidence on how COVID-19 affected overall life satisfaction using a monthly longitudinal survey of middle-aged and older Singaporeans. We study how the subjective well-being of individuals evolves over the course of 18 months including the outbreak of the pandemic, the implementation of the lockdown and the spike of cases due to the delta variant in a country where COVID-19 is controlled in a sustained manner. Using an event-study design framework, we find large declines in overall life satisfaction in the lead-up to and following the lockdown. Fifteen months after the outbreak of the pandemic, and 13 months …

Obfuscation And Rational Inattention, Aljoscha Janssen, Johannes Kasinger

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the behavior of duopolistic firms that can obfuscate their prices before competing on price. Obfuscation affects the rational inattentive consumers' optimal information strategy, which determines the probabilistic demand. Our model advances related models by allowing consumers to update their unrestricted prior beliefs with an informative signal of any form. We show that the game may result in an obfuscation equilibrium with high prices or a transparency equilibrium with low prices and no obfuscation, providing an argument for market regulation. Obfuscation equilibria cease to exist for low information costs and if one firm seems a priori considerably more attractive.

Empowering Voices: Exploring The Career Trajectories Of Women Of Color Hr Professionals Amid Disruptive Change, Brandi R. Muñoz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated strategies to enhance diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives in organizational leadership, focusing on supporting women of color in the workplace. The specific problem addressed was the underrepresentation and barriers faced by women of color in leadership positions despite their potential contributions to organizational success. The study employed a qualitative approach, combining qualitative interviews with socioeconomic data analysis. Data collection methods included semistructured interviews with women of color and a survey to gather demographic and employment information. The sample consisted of 16 women of color human resource professionals working in various industries and organizational settings across the …

Within-Development Density And Housing Prices In Singapore, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu, Louisa Poco

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper measures how much more households pay for less density in their immediate surroundings. Using transaction and administrative data and exploiting the introduction of a regulation that restricted the number of housing units for certain land lots, we find that households discount density: a 10% increase in within-development density decreases the price per square meter by 5%. Further, the mean price per square meter of the average development increased by 1%–3% after the regulation was introduced, while the amount of built-up space remained constant. The increase in total revenue suggests developers may underestimate the externality caused by density.

Rebung Garden : Blooming Dreams, Hasni Binti Mohd Hanafi, Azman Bin Jantan

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Rebung Garden, a family business established in 2019, has grown into a thriving enterprise dedicated to cultivating and selling rose plants. The garden's expertise lies in not only growing exquisite roses but also providing comprehensive plant care solutions using organic practices. In order to address the challenge of limited rose availability during the Covid-19 pandemic, Rebung Garden started cultivating their own-root roses, ensuring a steady supply and maintaining quality and variety. However, the garden faces additional challenges such as low brand awareness and operating within limited space.

A Conceptual Framework For Acceptance Of Autonomous Vehicle In Malaysia, Jen Sim Ho, Lily Yuzrina, Booi Chen Tan

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Mobility is evolving globally. Automated vehicle technology is consistently advancing with the development of Artificial Intelligence and information communication technology. The Autonomous Vehicle is acknowledged with the benefits of reducing traffic fatalities, reduced emissions and convenience. If autonomous vehicles are widely adopted, the Sustainable Development Goals could be achieved. Various studies have been conducted to investigate the psychological factors (internal) as well as assess the efforts of institutions (external) in promoting the adoption of autonomous vehicles. Nonetheless, there is very few studies examined the impacts of internal and external factors on the acceptance of autonomous vehicles simultaneously. Therefore, this study …

A Qualitative Study Of Factors That Influence Entrepreneurial Intention Among Students Of Private Higher Education Institutions In Selangor, Kyra Law Ley Sy, Norizan Jaafar

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Entrepreneurship as a field of study has different sub-dimensions due to its usefulness in society, which makes it difficult to gain a holistic understanding of its key due to practical applications. A shift in generations creates a different yet unique business environment, especially in new business ventures. Younger generations have a different view and insight about entrepreneurship in small business. Thus, this study aims to seek deeper insight into entrepreneurial behaviour and intention among younger generations. Twenty semi-structured interviews with students from a higher private university in Malaysia were performed using the qualitative method. Using Nvivo 12, the interviews' transcriptions …

Effect Of Social Media Influencers On Generation Y Purchase Intention: Evidence From Men’S Skincare Products In Malaysia, Siew Yong Leong, Man Yee Yip, Chi Hau Tan, Man Seong Chan

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Although the demand for men’s skincare products is becoming increasingly popular in Malaysia, previous studies of social media marketing have shed little light on the effect of social media influencers on men’s skincare purchase intention. Therefore, this research investigates the effects of social media influencers’ attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertise, likability, similarity, and familiarity on purchase intention in men’s skincare products among Generation Y in Malaysia. An online questionnaire was implemented, and 279 respondents were gathered using the snowball sampling technique. After obtaining the desired responses, multiple regression analysis was adopted to examine the research model and hypotheses. The findings showed that …

Unpacking Qalb Behavioral Traits Through The Lens Of Maqasid Al-Shariah: A Pathway To Foster Inclusive Entrepreneurial Intentions In The Muslim Community, Mhd Louai Sarhan, Kamarulzaman Ab Aziz

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

In Malaysia, a worrisome trend is emerging as an increasing number of individuals find themselves trapped within the poverty bracket and the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) socioeconomic groups. To address the economic and social challenges faced by these marginalized communities and to contribute significantly to poverty reduction and overall well-being, inclusive entrepreneurship has emerged as a pivotal strategy. This study delves into the critical imperative of inclusive entrepreneurship, which often eludes existing quantitative measurements of societal well-being. These measurements frequently overlook the fundamental dimensions of social and psychological well-being inherent to inclusive entrepreneurship. Drawing from the Islamic framework of …

Ranking Up The Social Media Factors On Purchasing Decision Of Malaysian Generation Y Customers, Yi Ling Chan, Rohaizan Ramlan

International Journal of Management, Finance and Accounting

Social media platforms offer marketing, information dissemination, direct customer contact and optimised availability of product and service information, which influences consumer behaviour, especially among Generation Y. Therefore, this study ranking up the social media factors such as electronic word of mouth (e-WOM), customer engagement, trust, brand image and advertising on the purchasing decisions of Generation Y consumers in Malaysia. 193 data were collected using Google Forms and face-to-face questionnaires. The data was then analysed using the Best-Worst method, which ranks the most important factors according to respondents' gender, income, and education level. One response was rejected because the value of …

Digitalization And Economies Of Oic Countries, Mohsin Ali, Urooj Anwar, Mudeer Ahmed Khattak, Muhammad Umar Islam

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This paper studies the impact of digitalization on the Organization of Islamic countries (OIC) economies. The study is conducted to see whether digitalization is playing its role in enhancing economic growth. We employ a panel dataset consisting of twenty-one years from 2000 to 2020 for 57 OIC countries. We use the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator. The results indicate that digitalization positively impacts the economies of OIC countries. As for policy implication, this study recommends governments of OIC member countries to invest in digital infrastructure in order to foster economic growth.

Firm-Level Political Risk And The Cash Flow Sensitivity Of Cash, Hui Liang James, Hongxia Wang, Nilakshi Borah

Finance and Economics

We examine the impact of firm-level political risk on the cash flow sensitivity of cash. Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 2003 to 2018, we find that the cash flow sensitivity of cash decreases in political uncertainty and the impact of political risk is asymmetric to cash flow types (positive versus negative). Intensified political uncertainty induces positive/negative cash flow firms to reduce savings out of cash flows to finance investment opportunities/terminate unprofitable projects to retrieve cash. The results are robust to various model specifications, alternative variable definitions, and the control for non-political risks. In addition, we show that …

Covid-19 And Labor Shortage In France: Exploring The Contribution Of Tunisian Migrant Workers In Bridging The Labor Shortage, Sana Gasmi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employed a qualitative approach, combining both desk research and in-depth interviews with 11 participants: nine Tunisian migrant workers and two Tunisian migrant experts. The thesis examined labor shortage in France during the pandemic and the extent to which Tunisian migrant workers managed to bridge the labor shortage relying on the Segmented Labor market theory which was originally developed by Piore (1979), and the two concepts: System Effects and Systemic Resilience. Findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic unveiled several weaknesses in the French labor market system including the acute labor shortage. Faced by labor shortage, France turned to migrant …

The Missionary And The Pea: An Anthropological Study Of The French Mep Economy, Michel Chambon

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper discusses how the French missionaries of the Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) are linking humans and material objects to support their religious agenda. Revisiting the long history of this organization in Hong Kong and Thailand, but also its distinct recruitment and assignment policies, I highlight how these Catholic missionaries rely on their French cultural background to interconnect people and goods. While theological principles and political pragmatism shape their functioning, I argue that their economy is distinctively rooted in the French notion of terroir –the taste of place— an embodied relation to land that acts as a cultural mechanism …

From Canonical Law To Offshore Finance: Confessing To Priests And Bankers In Luxembourg, Samuel Weeks

Journal of Global Catholicism

In this article, I address two recurring tendencies that I heard during a recent period of research on banking secrecy in Luxembourg. First, my banker interviewees frequently mentioned personal transgressions for why many of their clients hide assets “offshore.” The wrongdoings my interlocutors cited included not only clients’ tax evasion, bankruptcy, and avoidance of liability – but also divorce, adultery, and the existence of out-of-wedlock children. Second, with a similar frequency, my interviewees drew parallels between the secrecy laws covering bankers and those afforded to other professionals in the country. Article 458 of Luxembourg’s Penal Code, dating from the nineteenth …

Justice, Inclusion, And Incentives, Ghislain Herman Demeze-Jouatsa, Roland Pongou, Jean-Baptiste Tondji

School of Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

How does justice affect individual incentives and efficiency in a political economy? We show that elementary principles of distributive justice guarantee the existence of a self-enforcing contract whereby agents non-cooperatively choose their inputs and derive utility from their pay. Chief among these principles is that your pay should not depend on your name, and a more productive individual should not earn less. We generalize our analysis to incorporate inclusivity, ensuring basic pay to unproductive agents, implemented through progressive taxation and redistribution. Our findings show that without redistribution, any self-enforcing agreement may be inefficient, but a minimal level of redistribution guarantees …

Terminology Related To Ocean And Coastal Economic Activity, Nicole Leboeuf, Ralph F. Rayner, Carl Gouldman, Zack Baize, Monica Grasso, Brittany Croll, Kate Quigley

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

This communication paper considers the definition and usage of terms describing ocean and coastal economic activity and the provision of the ocean data, information and knowledge needed to support its evolution and development.

Economic Effects Of Pandemic On Us And Indian Economies With Policy Actions In 2019-2023: A Comparative Analysis, Kishore Kukarni Dr., Amitabh S. Dutta

International Review of Business and Economics

COVID 19 pandemic that started in February/March 2019, with happenings in Yuwan, China spread like a wildfire all over the world. All countries faced one of the worst economic challenges in recent centuries if not ever in the history of the mankind. Early predications were so severe and devastating that some forecasters predicted a death-toll of 100 million all over the world, as the virus was not only spreading fast but also had no solution for its serious fatal effects. It was evident that the patients were dying before getting any effective treatments and many of them were elderly individuals. …

Horizontal Economic Inequality And Mass Atrocity Risk: A Large-Sample Empirical Inquiry, Charles H. Anderton, Roxane A. Anderton

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Our research question is: Does inter-group horizontal economic inequality elevate state-perpetrated mass atrocity risk? Theoretical perspectives in genocide studies show how economic and other forms of discrimination against ethnic or religious groups can elevate the risk of government violence against them. Among the approximately five dozen large-sample empirical studies of mass atrocity risk, only a few consider the effects of economic discrimination. Moreover, no large-sample empirical studies, to the best of our knowledge, test hypotheses related to how inter-group horizontal economic inequalities (as distinct from vertical economic inequalities based on GINI coefficients or quantile income or wealth measures) affect mass …

Earnings Dynamics And Firm-Level Shocks, Benjamin Friedrich, Lisa Laun, Costas Meghir, Luigi Pistaferri

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We use matched employer-employee data from Sweden to study the role of the firm in affecting the stochastic properties of wages. Our model accounts for endogenous participation and mobility decisions. We find that firm-specific permanent productivity shocks transmit to individual wages, but the effect is mostly concentrated among the high-skilled workers. The pass-through of temporary shocks is smaller in magnitude and similar for high- and low-skilled workers. The updates to worker-firm specific match effects over the life of a firm-worker relationship are small. Substantial growth in earnings variance over the life cycle for high-skilled workers is driven by firms. In …

Essays On Cancer Patients, Quality Of Life, And Social Support: Evidence From Nepal, Muhammad Adnan Shahid

Economics ETDs

This dissertation is organized in five chapters. The first chapter provides a summary of the three research articles that are combined in this dissertation. It highlights the goals of each research paper, and outlines their contribution to the existing literature and the field of economics. Chapters 2 and 3 are based on a field study that I conducted on cancer and non-cancer patients in various cancer hospitals in Nepal. Chapter 4 uses data from field survey conducted by scholars of the Nepal Study Center, UNM, including me, in Sindhupalchok district of Nepal after the devastating earthquake of 2015. The final …

Early Childhood Intervention For The Poor: Long Term Outcomes, Alison Andrew, Orazio Attanasio, Britta Augsburg, Lina Cardosa, Monimalika Day, Michele Giannola, Sally Grantham-Mcgregor, Pamela Jervis, Costas Meghir, Marta Rubio Codina

Discussion Papers

Early childhood interventions aim to promote skill acquisition and poverty reduction. While their short-term success is well established, research on longer-term effectiveness is scarce, particularly in LDCs. We present results of a randomized scalable intervention in India, that affected developmental outcomes in the short-term, including cognition (0.36 SD p=0.005), receptive language (0.26 SD p=0.03) and expressive language (0.21 SD p=0.03). After 4.5 years, when the children were on average 7.5 years old, IQ was no longer affected, but impacts persisted relative to the control group in numeracy (0.330 SD, p=0.007) and literacy (0.272 SD, p=0.064) driven by the most disadvantaged.

Misgivings In Measuring Happiness, Sudhanva Char

International Review of Business and Economics

According to a resolution of the UN General Assembly (Resolution 66/281), March 20^th is observed annually as International Day of Happiness. A nation’s overall success is measured by people’s happiness, the litmus test. The World Happiness Report (WHR) states there is consensus about measuring happiness, whereas, happiness is idiosyncratic and its connotation differs from culture to culture, language to language, and even person to person. Personal ‘space’ in all spheres matters, and so do democracy or dictatorship, all factors leading to mismeasures of happiness scores. And so, there are paradoxes in happiness rankings in WHR. Economists have yet to …

Fiscal Administration Versus Fiscal Policy: An Investigation Into The Determinants Of The Real Tax Revenues From Consumption Tax In Egypt, Nariman Zahran

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis highlights the importance of fiscal administration relative to fiscal policies. It presents a broad view of the developments in both fields and tests their effects on real revenues from consumption tax in Egypt from fiscal year 2002 till 2023. It initially explains the proxies used for fiscal administration: the size of the tax base and the collection lag. The major fiscal policy change in Egypt was shifting from sales tax to Value-Added Tax (VAT) during fiscal year 2016/17. The effects of fiscal administration and fiscal policy on real tax revenues will be assessed using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag …

Minimum Wage Increases Reduce Racial Disparities During Hiring, Alec Brandon, Justin E. Holz, Andrew Simon, Haruka Uchida

Employment Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Late Globalization: A Commentary On Theorizing And Theoretical Deepening, Romeo V. Turcan, Michael Fast

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Sleep Restriction Alters The Integration Of Multiple Information Sources In Probabilistic Decision-Making, Jeryl Y. L. Lim, Johanna M. Boardman, Clare Anderson, David L. Dickinson, Daniel Bennett, Sean P. A. Drummond

ESI Publications

The detrimental effects of sleep loss on overall decision-making have been well described. Due to the complex nature of decisions, there remains a need for studies to identify specific mechanisms of decision-making vulnerable to sleep loss. Bayesian perspectives of decision-making posit judgement formation during decision-making occurs via a process of integrating knowledge gleaned from past experiences (priors) with new information from current observations (likelihoods). We investigated the effects of sleep loss on the ability to integrate multiple sources of information during decision-making by reporting results from two experiments: the first implementing both sleep restriction (SR) and …

Relationship Over Time Between Drug Price News And U.S. Pharmaceutical Companies' Financial Performance And Capitalization, Teresita Mulero-Mulero

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Border Confinement And Assistance Markets In Tijuana: Mexican Deportees’ Experiences Of Labor And Violence Between Mexico And The United States, Christian Pacheco-Gómez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is an ethnography of deportation and describes how Tijuana’s (Baja California, Mexico) border redevelopment and spatial redesign has impacted in Mexican job seekers’ mobilities, incorporation, and stigmatization after experiencing forced removals from the United States. The dissertation explores three processes interwoven in the deportees’ class experiences of migration and deportation.

First, I trace Mexican job seekers’ trajectories of labor and migratory movement before, during, and after deportation as well as their incorporation stories in Tijuana. Second, I reconstruct the political economy of reception immigrant subjects encounter after being deported from the United States and subjected by Tijuana’s border …