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The role of central bank independence and transparency in mitigating asymmetric information in sovereign debt markets
No full textUsing a comprehensive dataset of sovereign bond issuances and various measures of CBI and transparency from 1973 to 2018, we investigate the impact of central bank independence and transparency on sovereign borrowing costs. We find that higher levels of CBI and transparency are associated with lower sovereign bond coupon rates, highlighting their role as signals of institutional credibility. We also examine the interaction between CBI, transparency, and participation in International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs, documenting that being part of an IMF program further reduces borrowing costs, particularly in countries with stronger institutional frameworks. Our findings suggest that transparency and CBI act as substitutes in reducing sovereign risk premiums, with transparency playing a larger role in environments where central bank independence is weaker
The Chvátal-Gomory procedure for integer SDPs with applications in combinatorial optimization
No full textIn this paper we study the well-known Chvátal-Gomory (CG) procedure for the class of integer semidefinite programs (ISDPs). We prove several results regarding the hierarchy of relaxations obtained by iterating this procedure. We also study different formulations of the elementary closure of spectrahedra. A polyhedral description of the elementary closure for a specific type of spectrahedra is derived by exploiting total dual integrality for SDPs. Moreover, we show how to exploit (strengthened) CG cuts in a branch-and-cut framework for ISDPs. Different from existing algorithms in the literature, the separation routine in our approach exploits both the semidefinite and the integrality constraints. We provide separation routines for several common classes of binary SDPs resulting from combinatorial optimization problems. In the second part of the paper we present a comprehensive application of our approach to the quadratic traveling salesman problem (QTSP). Based on the algebraic connectivity of the directed Hamiltonian cycle, two ISDPs that model the QTSP are introduced. We show that the CG cuts resulting from these formulations contain several well-known families of cutting planes. Numerical results illustrate the practical strength of the CG cuts in our branch-and-cut algorithm, which outperforms alternative ISDP solvers and is able to solve large QTSP instances to optimality
Tax privacy concerns hamper digitization of the nanostore channel
Get PDFVarious entities, such as startups, suppliers and governments, face substantial difficulties in convincing nanostore shopkeepers to adopt digital technologies. Given the informal status of nanostores, we posit that shopkeepers experience Tax Privacy Concerns from their operational records potentially becoming transparent to the tax authorities, which hampers their inclination to digitize. Through the application of a survey and vignette experiments in the field with hundreds of shopkeepers across three cities in Latin America, we find consistent evidence for the negative role of Tax Privacy Concerns, above and beyond shopkeepers' willingness to share data with various entities, trust in the government and other entities, and general privacy concerns. Further, we show that having entities that shopkeepers trust and are willing to share data with offer technological solutions does not mitigate shopkeepers' Tax Privacy Concerns and boosts digitization. In contrast, positive word of mouth that data are unlikely to be shared with the tax authorities does mitigate Tax Privacy Concerns. Overall, our findings provide novel evidence for the existence and influence of privacy concerns for operational data among microentrepreneurs, which answers calls in the extant literature to explore privacy concerns.beyond the consumer context
Customer engagement in utilitarian vs. hedonic service contexts
No full textIn the last decade, customer engagement has become a key concept in service research. While the customer engagement literature has gained significant traction and is maturing, studies have predominantly focused on hedonic consumption contexts, such as social media platforms or brand communities. We argue that hedonic and utilitarian service services are fundamentally different. Therefore, existing research knowledge on customer engagement does not necessarily hold in more utilitarian contexts, such as healthcare or financial services, where greater customer engagement could increase societal and individual well-being. By synthesizing insights from the customer engagement literature and the literature on hedonic versus utilitarian consumption, we identify assumptions in customer engagement research that need revising. We extract five fundamental features that differ between hedonic and utilitarian services (affectivity, motivational focus, perception of necessity, role of risk, and relational focus). Based on these features, we derive propositions that describe the role of context for the drivers and outcomes of customer engagement, as well as their interrelationships, and provide guidelines for future research to augment the scope of customer engagement research. As its main contribution, this article problematizes the current premises of customer engagement research and demonstrates that assumptions held about customer engagement are not necessarily generalizable across contexts
Does this have to do with God anyhow?:The religious in contemporary Dutch Art
No full textHeeft dit überhaupt iets met God te maken? onderzoekt de subtiele en complexe relaties tussen hedendaagse kunst en religie in een geseculariseerde samenleving. De auteurs analyseren diverse Nederlandse kunstwerken, die alle verwijzen naar religie, spiritualiteit of transcendentie maar die ook de discussie aangaan met de seculiere context. Elk essay biedt een diepgaande reflectie op hoe kunst in de late moderniteit betekenisvol met het religieuze speelt. Voorbeelden uit het boek variëren van Hansa Versteegs Madonna del Mare Nostrum, waarin de christelijke iconografie wordt verbonden met de actuele vluchtelingencrisis, tot de Utrechtse Sint Maarten Parade, die gemeenschapsvorming en sacraliteit als een heilig spel presenteert. Paul Verhoevens film Benedetta wordt belicht als een intense herinterpretatie van de historische Jezus. Joep Franssens’ Harmony of the Spheres, een voorbeeld van muzikale Nieuwe Eenvoud, laat zien hoe muziek spirituele ervaringen oproept buiten een formele geloofscontext. Ook wordt Johann Sebastian Bachs Matthäuspassion onderzocht als heilzaam anachronisme dat mensen bij elkaar brengt in een samenleving onder druk van versnelling en vervreemding. Deze bundel biedt een breed en toegankelijk perspectief op hoe kunst in Nederland een nieuwe religieuze betekenis krijgt, zonder formele aansluiting bij institutionele religi
Institutional investors, alternative asset fund managers, and ESG
No full textWe survey institutional investors to understand why they integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into their investment management processes. Using a unique data set, we find that limited partners (LPs) are motivated to incorporate ESG because they believe that ESG usage is more strongly correlated with financial performance. We find that general partners (GPs) are motivated to integrate ESG factors into their investment strategies in response to increased client demand for sustainable products. Furthermore, we find that private equity (PE) uses ESG factors more intensely than venture capital (VC) regardless of geography. We also find that PE firms use voice and exit strategies more extensively than VC funds in efforts to promote ESG activities in companies. When evaluating individual components of ESG scores, we find that the investors consider the governance score the most important component, followed by environmental, and then social
Self-esteem and social interactions in daily life:An experience sampling study
No full textTheory and empirical evidence suggest that self-esteem and the quality of social relationships are mutually related, however, little is known about the dynamic short-term association in daily life. Experience sampling data of 232 Dutch Master’s students (Mage = 24.6, SDage = 2.7) was collected across four waves; each consisting of 14 days of four daily assessments (23,107 data points). We applied Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling to study the within-day associations between momentary self-esteem (assessed in the morning and evening) and social interactions (anticipated and experienced). First, results showed that quality of social interactions during the day was associated with evening, but not morning self-esteem. Second, positive anticipation of social interactions was associated with morning, but not with evening self-esteem. Third, trait self-esteem did not moderate the within-day associations. Together, results suggest that when having higher self-esteem, people anticipate more positive social interactions at the same time, but they do not experience more positive social interactions later on. Having but not anticipating more positive social interactions seems to contribute to higher self-esteem later on. Differentiating between anticipated and experienced interactions and using multiple daily assessments helps obtain a more fine-grained understanding of the dynamic processes between self-esteem and social interactions.<br/
Preventing algorithm aversion:People are willing to use algorithms with a learning label
No full textAs algorithms often outperform humans in prediction, algorithm aversion is economically harmful. To enhance algorithm utilization, we suggest emphasizing their learning capabilities, i.e., their increasing predictive precision over time, through the explicit addition of a "learning" label. We conducted five incentivized studies in which 1,167 participants may prefer algorithms or take up algorithmic advice in a financial or healthcare related task. Our results suggest that people use algorithms with a learning label to a greater extent than algorithms without such a label. As the accuracy of advice improves beyond a threshold, the use of algorithms with a learning label increases more than algorithms without a label. Thus, we show that a salient learning attribute can positively affect algorithm use in both the financial and health domain
Face to face:The eyes as an anchor in multimodal communication
Get PDFMaking eye contact with our conversational partners is what is most common in multimodal communication. Yet, little is known about this behavior. Prior studies have reported different findings on what we look at in the narrator's face. Some studies show eye gaze is usually focused on our conversational partner's eyes, other studies have shown evidence for eye gaze primarily on the narrator's mouth, and yet others find evidence for fixations on the narrator's nose bridge perhaps as a transition for eye gaze between the eyes and mouth. The current study aimed to shed light on these different findings by investigating eye gaze on a narrator's face in a fixed cognitive task. Experiment 1 monitored participants' eye gaze when looking at videos of a male and female human narrator. Experiment 2 used a virtual human, allowing manipulation of different parts of the narrator's face to validate the findings in Experiment 1. Gaze behavior on the human faces (Experiment 1) and the virtual human face (Experiment 2) of the narrator was similar, with the narrator's eyes attracting most fixations seemingly serving as an anchor for communication, particularly at the start and the end of a conversation. The mouth, in turn, served as a communicative cue when eye contact has been established. When lip movements were impaired in the virtual human, the eyes immediately took over as the anchor again. These findings can be explained by the theoretical framework of action ladders in multimodal language use. They shed light on cognitive and social psychological aspects of human-human multimodal communication, both in human and embodied conversational agents
The rise of working from home as a new privilege
No full textThuiswerken is sinds de coronapandemie voor veel Nederlandse werknemers een vaste optie geworden. Van een terugkeer naar niveaus van vóór de pandemie lijkt geen sprake. Nederland is zelfs koploper thuiswerken in Europa. De ongelijkheid in de mate van thuiswerken, tussen sectoren maar ook tussen opleidingsniveaus, is groot en roept nieuwe dilemma’s op voor organisaties en samenleving