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Mandatory Patient Surveys and Hospital Resource Allocation
No full textWe study whether mandatory surveys of patient experience affects patient mortality in U.S. hospitals. We exploit two settings where healthcare regulators mandated the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey: the 2003 Maryland pilot study and the 2007 nationwide adoption. Difference-indifferences analyses show increased mortality for hospitals that were subject to the mandate, relative to other comparable hospitals. We observe this effect before hospitals disclose their HCAHPS ratings, which suggests that it is attributable to measurement, rather than to disclosure. An analysis of changes in hospital expenses shows that, after the mandate, affected hospitals experienced a relative increase (decrease) in non-clinical (clinical) expenses. This finding is consistent with theories of multitasking, which predict that more incentives for one task (in this case, patient experience) cause some reallocation of resources from other tasks (clinical care)
A Consensus Statement on Potential Negative Impacts of Smartphone and Social Media Use on Adolescent Mental Health
No full textThe impact of smartphones and social media use on adolescent mental health remains widely debated. To clarify expert opinion, we convened over 120 international researchers from 11 disciplines, representing a broad range of views. Using a Delphi method, the panel evaluated 26 claims covering international trends in adolescent mental health, causal links to smartphones and social media, and policy recommendations. The experts suggested 1,400 references and produced a consensus statement for each claim. The following conclusions were rated as accurate or somewhat accurate by 92–97% of respondents: First, adolescent mental health has declined in several Western countries over the past 20 years. Second, heavy smartphone and social media use can cause sleep problems. Third, smartphone and social media use correlate with attention problems and behavioural addiction. Fourth, among girls, social media use may be associated with body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, exposure to mental disorders, and risk of sexual harassment and predation. Fifth, evidence on social deprivation and relational aggression is limited. Sixth, the evidence for policies like age restrictions and school bans is preliminary. Overall, the results of this deliberative process and the set of concrete recommendations provided can help guide future research and evidence-informed policy on adolescent technology use
Acquiring Patents in Secret: Disclosure Timing in Markets for Technology
No full textMarkets for technology provide a vibrant channel through which firms purchase ownership rights to patented inventions. Although such transactions enable firms to secure access to intangible assets originating beyond their borders, they also provide cues to competitors regarding the purchasing firm’s technological investments. This study explores the timing of strategic disclosure of patent acquisitions and the conditions under which firms trade the benefits of competitor deterrence through early recordation for those of secrecy through delayed disclosure. Using evidence on the lag between the execution and recording dates for US patents purchased by publicly traded corporations, we predict and find earlier disclosure of patent acquisitions when the buyer works on related technologies and is better positioned to enforce the patents (i.e., is large and relatively litigious). As predicted by the model, we also find that the buyer delays disclosure when the seller is a large firm, suggesting that buyers take advantage of the seller’s ability to deter competitors while keeping the transaction secret. Additional analyses reveal that (a) regulatory changes reducing the value of keeping acquisitions of patent applications secret lead to shorter recording lags, and (b) increases in the enforceability of business method and software patents further accelerate the voluntary recording of patent ownership changes. The study provides new evidence on the tradeoffs that innovating firms face when determining the timing of disclosure for patents they have purchased in technology markets
Institutional Commitment and Economic Revival: Evidence From Palace-Building in Renaissance Rome
No full textI study the recovery of the Roman economy following the papacy's sojourn in France (1309-1377). I show that a reform of inheritance laws in 1480 gave rise to an era of palace-building resulting in the construction of over 35% of palaces built in Roman history. Using a novel dataset that links information on investment projects and patrons, I provide evidence that the reform, which allowed prelates to bequeath their possessions, caused a significant increase of prelate palace-building relative to their lay counterparts (who were not directly affected by the reform). Initial prelate investment then guaranteed that the papacy would remain in Rome long-term, which eventually incentivized laymen to invest-though the return of the papacy to Rome itself had failed to induce investment. Increased confidence in Rome's future also manifested in more ambitious projects, across all patrons. I disentangle the effect of commitment to long-term presence from the effects of contemporaneous papal presence in Rome to show that the irreversibility of institutional change is a necessary condition for successful intervention
Who should pay for ESG ratings?
No full textWe model how a profit-maximizing agency decides whether to sell ESG ratings to issuers or investors. For firms in sufficiently green sectors or when the proportion of socially responsible investors is large enough, ESG ratings increase expected stock prices and the “issuer pays” business model is more profitable than “investors pay”. When all investors are socially responsible, the model coincides with a model of credit ratings, explaining why credit ratings are sold to issuers while most ESG ratings are sold to investors. Ratings boost equilibrium investment in ESG but their impact on welfare is ambiguous, even for socially responsible investors
A knowledge-centric model for government-orchestrated digital transformation among the microbusiness sector
No full textFNEGE 1, ABS 4International audienceMost prior public sector digital transformation (DT) research has examined the role of digitalization in improving either the internal operational efficiency of the government or the quality of government service delivery to external stakeholders such as citizens and businesses. Although policy-driven digitalization of specific sectors is key for promoting public value, government’s role in orchestrating extra-government digitalization initiatives to create public value has not been sufficiently investigated. To address this perceptible void in the public sector DT literature, we study a government-led DT program designed to promote digitalization among microbusinesses (MB), a sector that has major economic and social implications. Given the significant role of technical and business knowledge in facilitating enterprise DT, we examine and theorize different knowledge mechanisms through which government policy initiatives can help foster MBs’ DT. Drawing on qualitative data from a series of structured interviews and focus groups with government agents, digital champions, and MB owner-managers involved in the implementation of a government-led DT program for MBs in Ireland, among the different DT stakeholders, we identify three knowledge pathways playing different knowledge-related roles and aiming to facilitate this transformation: top-down, bottom-up, and multidirectional. Each pathway comprises distinct practices. Collectively, the identified knowledge mechanisms in the DT program knowledge ecosystem foster social value creation for both MBs and government stakeholders, and therefore for the nation as a whole. Specifically, sustenance of the DT program is achieved through “initiation” and “instantiation” knowledge routes. Our findings offer theoretical contributions to the literatures on government-led digital transformations, effectiveness of government-led digital initiatives, and digital transformation in the MB sector. Our study also has significant implications for policy and practic
The recognition of football players in the balance sheet
No full textThis chapter examines the accounting treatment of football players, focusing specifically on their recognition as intangible assets in financial statements under IAS 38. Using Juventus Football Club's 2023/24 annual report as a case study, it distinguishes between internally developed and externally acquired players. It explains why self-developed players generally do not appear on the balance sheet due to difficulties in reliably measuring development costs. In contrast, players acquired through transfers are recognized and amortized over the duration of their contracts. The chapter also explores impairment considerations and provides examples of players like Federico Chiesa, Fabio Miretti, and Paul Pogba. Furthermore, it outlines how the sale of players generates capital gains or losses and touches on the limitations of using market value for accounting purposes. This work contributes to the ongoing debate over the valuation of human capital in football and the transparency of financial reporting within the industry
Explaining with reasons: from Aristotle to machine learning classifiers
No full textInternational audienceExplanations, and in particular explanations which provide the reasons why their conclusion is true, are a central object in a range of fields. On the one hand, there is a long and illustrious philosophical tradition, which starts from Aristotle, and passes through scholars such as Leibniz, Bolzano and Frege, that give pride of place to this type of explanations, and is rich with brilliant and profound intuitions. Recently, Poggiolesi (2024a) has formalized ideas coming from this tradition using logical tools of proof theory. On the other hand, recent work has focused on Boolean circuits that compile some common machine learning classifiers and have the same input-output behavior. In this framework, Darwiche and Hirth ( 2023) have proposed a theory for unveiling the reasons behind the decisions made by Boolean classifiers, and they have studied their theoretical implications. In this paper, we uncover the deep links behind these two trends, demonstrating that the proof-theoretic tools introduced by Poggiolesi provide reasons for decisions, in the sense of Darwiche and Hirth (2023). We discuss the conceptual as well as the technical significance of this result.</div
Persistent Anomalies and Nonstandard Errors
No full textThis article presents a framework for rigorous inference that accounts for the many methodological choices involved in testing asset pricing anomalies. We demonstrate that running multiple paths on the same original dataset inherently results in high correlation across outcomes, which significantly alters inference. In contrast, path-specific resampling greatly reduces outcome correlations and tightens the confidence interval of the estimated average return. Jointly accounting for across-path and within-path variability allows the variance of the average return to be decomposed into a standard error, a nonstandard error, and a correlation term. In our empirical analysis, we identify 29 persistent anomalies for which the 95% confidence intervals of their average returns exclude zero. Our tests also indicate that, for most anomalies, nonstandard errors dwarf standard errors and, in turn, are the primary determinants of the width of confidence intervals for multi-path average effects
Engagement vs. Commitment: The Economic Trade-Offs of Polarizing News Content
No full textWe study how polarizing content shapes two economic outcomes on a major European news website: engagement (time on site) and commitment (paid subscriptions). Using advances in natural language processing, we construct deep-learning and large-language-model-based textual measures of polarization tailored to a multiparty system. We combine comprehensive supply and demand data-the full publisher-wide article inventory with user-level clicks and subscription outcomes-to track how consumers interact with polarizing articles. To identify causal effects, we use two theoretically distinct instruments: (i) a Bartik-style design that interacts users' stable topic preferences with weekly shifts in the supply of polarizing content; and (ii) an election shock that raises political salience for a subset of readers. We document a "polarization trap": exogenous increases in exposure to polarizing content raise engagement (time on site) but reduce the probability of subscribing. The negative subscription effect is driven more by the affective than the ideological dimension of polarization and is strongest during high-salience political periods. These results imply a strategic trade-off for publishers: content that maximizes short-run attention can undermine the formation of a loyal, paying subscriber base