1,720,971 research outputs found
Apology of scientific reason - IV: Dilemmas of choice and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI)
No full textScience and technology are two major drivers for development in the most advanced countries. Methodologically, critical thinking, motivated reasoning and cognitive reflection provide the conceptual framework and operational toolbox for decision making under uncertainty. The inherent limits (i.e., biases) of human bounded rationality can be overcome, so that scientific rationality is enhanced even more. Two cases are discussed to support this assumption. The first is the Newcomb's paradox, a logical and philosophical thought experiment entailing a game between two players, one of whom claims to be able to predict the future. The solution to this brainteaser is based on elementary algebra involving simple probabilities. By starting from the trolley problem, the focus of the second case is on ethical issues of artificial intelligence (AI), e.g., autonomous systems, such as driverless cars, or other disruptive and pervasive AI applications. Here, the term accountability applies to a designer who considers the question of how intelligent systems should be imbued with ethical values. The underlying argument is that the two cultures - humanities and techno-science - thanks to the many intersection and cross-fertilization points, are both faces of the same coin, i.e., interdisciplinary knowledge. This type of knowledge should belong to the education and training background of any leader, executive, or opinion maker, responsible for facing the incumbent challenges of the digital society
Apology of scientific reason - III: Strategic decisions and games
No full textHomo economicus - a term for a totally made-up conceptual model - is continually facing a number of situations that challenge his/her rationality Starting from the generic framework of game theory we discuss a variety of well-known puzzling situations arising from the real world of economics, telecommunications, human society and politics. The paper main theme is that problem solving can be provided by critical thinking and rationality The available toolkit - quantitative analytics, i.e., metrics (or measurement unit), probability and statistics, scientific method and logic, engineering approach - allows us to frame, face and solve a large amount of problems that will affect the ongoing digital transformation, now and in the future. Supporting examples are from game theory and paradoxical situations, which include economic, social and voting dilemmas
Firms’ borrowing costs and neighbors’ flood risk
Full text linkThis study examines whether Italian firms exposed to physical climate risks incur additional borrowing costs due to spatial spillovers. Using a sample of 419,040 firm-year observations from 2016 to 2019, we find a positive relationship between a firm's cost of debt and its neighborhood's average exposure to climate risk. According to our findings, the costs associated with neighborhood climate risk are as relevant as those associated with a firm's direct risk, with small businesses being the only ones affected by spillover effects. These results may be explained by small enterprises' lack of financial diversification, poor bargaining power, and strong reliance on credit from financial intermediaries.Climate change promises to be massively expensive, which is already altering the financial landscape for businesses in many countries. Prior investigations into the effects of climate-induced phenomena (e.g., floods and severe weather) on borrowing costs have revealed that firms in flood-prone zones are subjected to heightened loan expenses. The burden is disproportionately heavier on smaller enterprises, which are more adversely affected by the economic repercussions associated with proximity to high-risk areas. With a focus on Italy, this study highlights the financial strain climate change imposes on businesses, emphasizing how smaller companies-crucial to local economies-face amplified risks, which could exacerbate economic inequality in areas vulnerable to climate threats. There is a pressing need for precise policy measures to safeguard and aid these at-risk businesses. Implementing such policies is vital for fostering more resilient local economies that are better prepared to navigate the financial complexities induced by climate change
Family businesses in Eastern European countries: How informal payments affect exports
No full textThis article investigates the effect of corruption on the export share of family firms in Eastern European countries. Using the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey and panel data methods, we find that, in contrast to non-family firms, family firms are rather sensitive to corruption. In particular, the export share of family firms is positively associated with informal payments that aim to facilitate business operations. There are at least three compelling explanations for these results. First, if family firms are more risk averse than non-family firms, informal payments may represent additional export risk insurance. Second, informal payments may help family firms compensate for the lack of managerial capabilities to export. Finally, when institutional inefficiencies obstruct business, corruption may be a tool for family firms to protect their socioemotional wealth
Optimal redistributive policies by publicly provided inputs and income taxation
No full textGovernments redistribute income through taxes, transfers, and public services. Using three key statistics, we characterize the conditions under which nonlinear income taxation is optimally combined with a publicly provided input in economies where individual wages are driven by households' exogenous abilities and unobservable input investments. A universal scheme in which all households opt for a large and uniform level of publicly provided input optimally compounds with nonlinear income taxation if input and ability are substitutes in households' earnings. Calibrating our model with US data, we find that this scheme represents the optimal policy regime for a wide spectrum of plausible parameter values
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Why and when do family firms invest less in talent management? The suppressor effect of risk aversion
Full text linkThis article explores the complex relationship between family firms and talent management practices. We use an international sample of medium-sized manufacturing firms to show that the relationship between family-owned firms and investment in talent management practices is mediated by the firm's level of risk aversion, which is, in turn, moderated by industry competition. Risk-averse family-owned firms tend to invest less in talent management practices when industry competition is weak. In contrast, when competition increases, family-owned firms tend to invest in talent as much as non-family-owned firms do
Family ownership and environmental performance: The mediation effect of human resource practices
Full text linkPrevious literature has found that listed family firms underperform their nonfamily counterparts in terms of environmental performance, but has not explained why this occurs. We address this research gap by hypothesizing that training and development practices (i.e., managerial practices devoted to providing training and development for the workforce) mediate the relationship between family blockholders and environmental performance. Using a sample of 33,901 firm-year observations from 2002 to 2016 distributed across 56 countries and employing the structural equation model technique, we find that investment in training and development practices explains almost half of the negative relationship between family blockholders and environmental performance. Our study contributes to the agency theory debate on principal–principal problems by explaining why family blockholders could damage other blockholders and minority shareholders
Political Narratives and the US Partisan Gender Gap
Full text linkSocial scientists have devoted considerable research effort to investigate the determinants of the Partisan Gender Gap (PGG), whereby US women (men) tend to exhibit more liberal (conservative) political preferences over time. Results of a survey experiment run during the COVID-19 emergency and involving 3,086 US residents show that exposing subjects to alternative narratives on the causes of the pandemic increases the PGG: relative to a baseline treatment in which no narrative manipulation is implemented, exposing subjects to either the Lab narrative (claiming that COVID-19 was caused by a lab accident in Wuhan) or the Nature narrative (according to which COVID-19 originated in the wildlife) makes women more liberal. The polarization effect documented in our experiment is magnified by the political orientation of participants' state of residence: the largest PGG effect is between men residing in Republican-leaning states and women living in Democratic-leaning states. JEL Classification: J16, D83, C83, C99, P16, D72
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