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The impact of partner organizational structure on innovation
Full text linkInter-organizational partnerships can spur innovation, but their value may be diminished by frictions in knowledge flows between firms. We consider how the knowledge accessible via partnerships may be impacted by a partner’s organizational structure. We focus on how a partner’s structure trades-off localized autonomy for its managers, which facilitates timelier decisionmaking, and unified control, which facilitates integration. By shaping this balance, centralization of decision-rights within the partner organization shapes access to its knowledge. Centralized structures generate wide-ranging internal knowledge pathways that enable access to a greater breadth of a partner’s knowledge. However, the reduced managerial autonomy afforded by centralization makes decision-making more cumbersome, which constricts the rate of access to a partner’s knowledge. We find evidence of this trade-off in the context of corporate venture capital relationships between incumbents and startups in the pharmaceutical industry. An increase in the diversity of knowledge possessed by the incumbent or in that required by the startup enhance the value of a greater breadth of access. Whereas the degree to which the startup can leverage social ties (affinity) or hierarchical fiat (authority) alleviate the costs of a reduced access rate. Each of these makes centralization of the incumbent organization more valuable to the startup
Some asymptotic properties of the Erlang-C formula in many-server limiting regimes
Full text linkThis paper presents asymptotic properties of the Erlang-C formula in a spectrum of many-server limiting regimes. Specifically, we address an important gap in the literature regarding its limiting value in critically loaded regimes by studying extensions of the well-known square-root safety staffing rule used in the Quality-and-Efficiency-Driven (QED) regime
The Connectedness Features of German Electricity Futures over Short and Long Maturities
Full text linkThis research provides an extensive characterization of the contagion between electricity, energy commodities, financial assets and economic indicators across several maturities. Despite the widespread importance of electricity futures, this has been an under-researched topic. The evolution of connectedness is investigated between 2006 and 2023. With a special focus on electricity forward base and peak contracts, results show that the contagion effects are moderate but evolve through time, with greater impacts observed during the crisis years. We confirm that electricity forward prices are more sensitive to operators’ future expectations on fundamental market conditions than to financial and economic shocks
Highly Skilled Professionals Want Your Work But Not Your Job
No full textFreelancers are in huge demand today, and they know it. It’s time for new rules of engagement
A research program on monetary policy for Europe
No full textEuropean macroeconomies remain under-researched. There are compelling reasons for this to change. European issues pose significant economic challenges, are theoretically intriguing, and provide ample data for empirical studies. In this call to action, we outline a research program focused on monetary policy questions relevant for Europe
A Gendered View of Risk Taking in Venture Philanthropy
Full text linkRelying on gender-role congruity theory, this paper investigates the relationship between the gender of the top management teams of venture philanthropy firms and their business risk-taking orientation. The research also assesses if and how experience moderates this relationship. Using a combination of survey data to capture the venture philanthropy firm’s risk orientation and biographical data to identify managers’ gender and experience, it finds that only gender affects business risk-orientation in these firms. Surprisingly, this is the opposite direction than expected, whereby teams with a higher proportion of women have a higher risk-taking profile. This suggests the need to revise the applicability of gender role congruity theory, the existence of a gender-bind dilemma, and the relevance of context in venture philanthropy
A Fundamental Connection: Exchange Rates and Macroeconomic Expectations
Full text linkWe disprove the exchange rate macroeconomic disconnect puzzle by showing that macroeconomic news can explain most variation in exchange rates at monthly and quarterly frequencies, accounting for up to 91 percent of the quarterly exchange rate variation during US recessions and 65 percent over all periods. The main driver of the reconnect is exchange rates responding to past news—a result inconsistent with the theory of uncovered interest rate parity under full information rational expectations (UIP-FIRE). We discuss theoretical models that can explain this surprising result, including models featuring currency risk premia, regulatory or institutional frictions, or deviation from FIRE
Optimization Automates Emergency Department Nurse Scheduling at Hartford Hospital
Full text linkTo optimize nurse staffing in the Emergency Department (ED), Hartford Hospital has been collaborating with academics and consultants to schedule nurse-shifts over each 6-week staffing cycle. We develop and implement two-phase optimization models: a robust optimization model to find optimal staffing levels given the uncertainty in patient demands, followed by a pair of mixed-integer problems to generate individual schedules including work, trainee, and preceptor shifts for each nurse. Our approach leads to less costly (5–8%) staffing with better coverage of patient care (8–25%) and higher nurse satisfaction (5%). Moreover, nurses can work fewer shifts on week-ends (17%), holidays (14%), and overtime (85%) as well as be assigned to more diverse positions (3.6) and more daily training opportunities (0.95). We implement our framework into an automated end-to-end scheduling optimization software, deployed for use at Hartford Hospital since March 2023. The software collects preferences from over 200 ED nurses and enables managers to optimize schedules with guided dynamic adjustments. This transformative implementation streamlines a previous labor-expensive staffing process (currently taking over 88 manual hours per cycle) and delivers schedules that are more suitable for patients and nurses together, with an annual projected cost saving of around $720,000
Labor Supply and M&A in the Audit Market
Full text linkUsing labor supply shocks from the 150-Hour Rule, I find that a reduction in the labor supply of accountants increases audit firms’ mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and the audit market concentration. These M&A deals connect audit firms serving clients in the same states and lead to greater industry specialization of the merging firms. Although both small and large auditors generally engage in labor supply–driven M&A deals, large audit firms’ engagement in M&A is restricted to markets with a tight supply of accounting labor. Attenuations of the labor supply restrictions tend to limit the heightened M&A activities and mitigate the rise in the audit-market concentration from the 150-Hour Rule. I conclude that labor supply reductions affect the boundaries of audit firms, potentially changing the structure of the entire audit market
A Joint Account With My Future Self: Self-Continuity Facilitates Adjustment of Present Spending to Future Income Changes
Full text linkIs consumers’ present spending influenced by future changes in their income? From an economic perspective, consumers should reduce present spending when anticipating a future income decrease and boost spending when anticipating a future income increase to maximize their welfare. We find that although consumers tend to adjust their spending to a future income decrease, they are less likely to do so to a future income increase. We show that this is in part due to a low sense of self-continuity, a tendency to view the future self whose income increases as if it were a different person and, as a result, to categorize present and future income into two separate mental accounts. Enhancing self-continuity leads consumers to combine present and future income in a single mental account, and thereby facilitates adjustment of present spending to a future income increase. Whereas prior work linked high self-continuity to reduced present spending, we identify a context in which high self-continuity can boost present spending. We discuss the implications of these findings for consumer well-being