Seminars in 2020
Speaker: Professor Michael Wheeler (University of Stirling)
Date: 18 March 2020
Research Field:Philosophy
Title: "Time, Space, Dwelling: Heideggerian Thought and the Crisis of the Anthropocene"
Abstract: Martin Heidegger is a massively controversial individual, most obviously in relation to antisemitism and his links with Nazism. Some philosophers have turned their backs on his thinking altogether, arguing that one cannot disentangle his abhorrent socio-political standpoint from his philosophical work. In this talk, I’ll develop and defend the view that Heideggerian philosophical thought, although not always as wielded by Heidegger himself, is in truth a fertile source of concepts and analyses that delivers a rich tool-kit of ideas for understanding the present crisis-point in human existence, a point at which ecological disaster and smart technology threaten our established ways of being and perhaps our very being. As I shall argue, rethinking things in Heideggerian terms provides a new and valuable window on the relationship between the environment, technology and human well-being.
Speaker: Dr Damian Damianov (Durham University)
Date: 25 March 2020
Research Field:Economics and Finance
Title: "Time horizon and diversification benefits of Japanese REITs"
Abstract: Since their inception in 2001, Japanese REITs (J-REITs) have experienced rapid growth both in terms of a number of entities and total market capitalization. Investors are attracted to JREITs due to their liquidity, transparency, and simplicity in terms of management, but do these advantages come at a cost? In this paper, we assess the diversification potential of REITs for stock market investors and investors in direct real estate assets. We develop a novel methodology for deriving the correlation between the cumulative returns of assets over different time horizons from a framework that accounts both for their long-run relationship and short-run dynamics. We establish a link between cointegration and correlation analysis by adapting long-run equilibrium analysis to the standard mean-variance portfolio choice framework. This allows us to study the portfolio implications of investors holding cointegrated assets. We find that J-REITs and direct real estate assets are positively correlated; their correlation increases in the time horizon and approaches unity for holding periods of ten or more years. The correlation between J-REITs and the stock market is non- monotonic and turns negative for some sector and holding periods. The implications of these findings for portfolio choice are discussed.
Speaker: Dr Sonal Kumar (Bryant University)
Date: 29 July 2020
Research Field:Management
Title: "Obstacles Beyond Glass Ceiling: Occupational Minority CEOs and firm performance"
Abstract: We extend the literature on how social and organizational discrimination in the form of glass ceil- ing, interact with managerial traits in shaping observed leadership effectiveness. We show that when the population of CEOs is stratified by ethnicity and gender, the colored female CEO emerges as the best performing while the white male CEO is consigned among the worst performers. Addi- tionally, the transition from male to female CEOs seems to follow corporate downturn and precede an upturn. Furthermore, the upswing is strongest following a transition from white male to colored female CEO. We attribute these observed differences between the groups to the existence of the glass ceiling. Discriminatory selection and promotion process potentially imposes much higher demands on candidates belonging to the discriminated group. Thus, the level of ability of the suc- cessful average colored female is much higher than those of the average white male CEO. These results potentially have important implications for both policy and research.
Speaker: Dr Aoran Zhang (Nottingham University)
Date: 18 November 2020
Research Field:Finance, Risk and Banking
Title: "Political Connections and Media Bias: Evidence from China"
Abstract: This paper studies the effects of firm’s political connections on media bias using a large sample of corporate news articles on publicly listed non-SOEs in China. We document that politically connected non-SOEs receive more favourable news coverage. The results are robust to instrumental variable analysis. Furthermore, the political connections – media tone relationship is strengthened in provinces where non-SOEs’ chairmen or CEOs worked or were born and the newspapers are located. Our difference-in-difference analysis shows that local media tone increases before the turnover of provincial officials and politically-connected non-SOEs and non-politically-connected non-SOEs behave differently around the turnover of provincial officials. Finally, using two additional difference-in-difference analyses, we show that politically connected non-SOEs have more positive tone in news articles after CSRC violation announcements and before they tap into the public debt market. Our findings highlight the social costs of rent-seeking by politically connected firms.
Speaker: Dr Christoph Görtz (University of Birmingham)
Date: 03 December 2020
Research Field:Economics
Title: "Is There News in Inventories?” (jointly with Christopher Gunn and Thomas Lubik)"
Abstract: We identify total factor productivity (TFP) news shocks using standard VAR methodology and document a new stylized fact: in response to news about future increases in TFP, inventories rise and comove positively with other major macroeconomic aggregates. We show that the standard theoretical model used to capture the effects of news shocks cannot replicate this fact when extended to include inventories. To explain the empirical inventory behavior, we therefore develop a framework that relies on the presence of knowledge capital accumulated through a learning-by-doing process. The desire to take advantage of higher future TFP through knowledge capital drives output and hours choices on the arrival of news and leads to inventory accumulation alongside the other macroeconomic variables. The broad-based comovement we document supports the view that news shocks are an important driver of aggregate fluctuations.
Seminars in 2021
Speaker: Professor Ilena Steccolini (University of Essex)
Date: 15 March 2021
Research Field:Accounting
Title: "A Users’ Perspective on Evaluating Infrastructure in Schools: From Assessing Reading Skills to Opening Up new Worlds and Unveiling New Identities."
Abstract: Responding to calls for more explorations on evaluative infrastructures (Power, 2015; Kornberger et al., 2017), our paper adopts a users’ perspective to explore (i) the multiple ways in which users engage with evaluative infrastructure and (ii) how this contributes to (re)shape the identities of teachers, pupils and parents. Studying the case of Antolin, a platform used in German Schools, we add new nuances to our understanding to the concepts of protocol, relationality, and generativity proposed by Kornberger et al (2017), especially by describing how evaluative infrastructures educate, socialise and gamify users into specific ways of evaluating and conceiving of the identities, and abilities of themselves and others. Our study problematises a general lack of critical awareness of the potential risks associated with introducing evaluative infrastructures in primary schools.
Speaker: Professor Steve Machin (LSE)
Date: 31 March 2021
Research Field:Economics
Title: "Labour Market Shocks during the Covid-19 pandemic, Inequalities and Child Outcomes"
Abstract: The lockdowns enacted in many countries around the world as a response to the health risk posed by the COVID-19 virus have produced an unprecedented shake-up of the labour market. Many firms have experienced negative demand shocks and have responded with layoffs and furloughing of workers. In Britain, a country hit particularly hard by the pandemic by international comparison, around one in four workers have been furloughed, with 8.4 million workers from a million firms claiming £15 billion through the government’s Job Retention Scheme. Many others have lost their jobs already, as signalled by rising numbers claiming unemployment benefits through Universal Credit (Elliot Major and Machin, 2020).
Against the background of this unprecedented episode of layoffs and furloughing, we analyse spillover effects of parental labour market experiences on their offspring’s skill formation, noncognitive skills and well-being. Specifically, we pose the following research questions:
- What is the impact of parental labour market shocks that cause employment and earnings inequalities to magnify due to the Covid-19 pandemic (i.e. job losses, increased job insecurity, entry into long-term unemployment) on children’s cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes?
- What are the mechanisms driving these effects? We study impacts on parental income, housing conditions, parent’s mental and physical health, parental time-use, as well as resources invested in children’s education following a deterioration of labour market conditions.
We answer these questions exploiting a uniquely suited data set. The UK Household Longitudinal Study – Understanding Society (USoc) – offers panel information on, among others, employment histories and child and youth cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. USoc has fielded special Covid-19 questionnaires on how the pandemic has affected employment, parenting and health and mental wellbeing. Moreover, the survey data of USoc can be linked to administrative pupil records of the National Pupil Database which allows to track survey participants throughout their educational career and to observe nationally comparable standardised tests (taken at different key stages).
Speaker: Dr Hyejin Ku (UCL)
Date: 05 May 2021
Research Field:Human Resources
Title: "Competition and Career Advancement"
Abstract:Employees may compete not just on work effort but along dimensions unrelated to their job requirements or performance evaluation criteria. We investigate whether such informal or implicit competition matters for young workers’ careers, focusing on the case of paternity leave. Detecting the competition effect in observational data is not straightforward: workers who have the least to lose from it may disproportionately select into leave. Moreover, leave-taking may be most common in workplaces in which competition matters the least. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel strategy in which we exogenously vary the focal worker’s ranking in a contest, not via his own leave status but that of his competitors, exploiting a policy reform. We provide evidence consistent with the existence of the competition effect. Our findings have important implications for a variety of public and workplace policies including normalization of remote work and mandated leave benefits.
Speaker: Professor Lindsey MacMillan (UCL)
Date: 19 May 2021
Research Field:Economics and Education Policy
Title: "Is it all about school? Intergenerational income mobility in England and the importance of education’"
Abstract:We use newly linked UK administrative to estimate absolute income mobility for children born in England in the 1980s. We find important differences in mobility rates across the country, with a North-South gradient. Children from low-income families who grew up in the lowest mobility areas - overwhelmingly in the North - are expected to end up at the 32nd percentile of the income distribution as adults, while those from the highest mobility areas overwhelmingly in the South-East are expected to end up at the 45th percentile. This corresponds to substantial differences in earnings of more than £6,000, relative to average age 28 earnings for this group of £12,000. More than 40% of the variation in absolute mobility within the country can be explained by differences in average educational achievement across areas. This indicates that education policy has an important role to play to equalise opportunities of children from low-income families across the country, though will not be sufficient to fully do so on its own. High mobility is further strongly related to lower poverty, a stronger labour market, a higher share of skilled jobs and higher inequality. The latter finding implies that the “Great Gatsby curve” does not hold within England, unlike in the US or Italy.
Speaker: Dr Silvia Salazar (Curtin University, Australia)
Date: 09 June 2021
Research Field:Human Resources
Title: "Claim to Fame: The return of self-promotion"
Abstract:There is little evidence on the effects of self-promotion into the labour market due to data availability. Self-promotion could lead to higher wages and career advancement if performance is poorly observed, there is lack of information and managers value workers with strong confidence. However, people can also be penalized if performance does not match expectations and there is intolerance for ‘bragging’ behaviours. This paper looks to address this gap by using a unique dataset of professional male and female surfers. "Claiming" a wave in surfing is the equivalent of self-promotion and it can be easily recognized by the public. Because each wave is judged by a panel, we can identify if self-promotion is rewarded by means of an increased score. Our paper finds that "claiming" increases the judges scores of a wave, however female surfers claim at a much lower rate than their male colleagues. This has potential implication in the labour market if such attitudes are similar in more conventional work places and it can also contribute to the wage gap between men and women in the labour market.
Speaker: Professor Shanjun Li (Cornell)
Date: 23 June 2021
Research Field:Economics
Title: "Attribute-based Subsidies for Energy Efficient Products with Market Power"
Abstract:Attribute-based subsidies are commonly used to promote the diffusion of energy-saving technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels or more efficient home appliances. Markets for these products often exhibit market power. The effectiveness and welfare impacts of these subsidies hinge not only on consumer preferences for product attributes and firm costs but also on the interaction of the subsidies with the market power. This paper examines consumer demand, product attribute choices, and welfare consequences under different subsidy designs. We first develop a stylized model to illustrate the interaction of attribute-based subsidies with market power and it implications on optimal policy choices. We then estimate an equilibrium model of vehicle market with endogenous product attributes using comprehensive data on China's vehicle market where EV subsidies are based on driving range.
Our analysis shows that relative to flat subsidies, range-based subsidies incentivize automakers to downsize EVs, leading to a modest environmental gain at the expense of a large consumer welfare loss. In contrast, subsidies based on battery capacity or vehicle weight could have a large welfare gain by reducing the under-provision of these attributes due to market power. Our paper highlights the importance of incorporating market power considerations in designing attributes-based policies.
Speaker: Dr Karen McBride (Portsmouth University)
Date: 15 October 2021
Research Field:Accounting
Title: "Fumifugium: Or the Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoake of London Dissipated’: Emancipatory social accounting in 17th century London"
Abstract:This paper extends the nature and relevance of exploring the historical roots of social and environmental accounting by investigating an account that recorded and made visible pollution in 17th century London. John Evelyn's Fumifugium (1661) is characterised as an external social account that bears resemblance to contemporary external accounting particularly given its problematising intentionality.
Speaker: Professor Nick Hanley (University of Glasgow)
Date: 20 October 2021
Research Field:Accounting
Title: "Improving the design of Payment for Ecosystem Service schemes: some new results"
Abstract:Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) policies incentivise private landowners to increase the supply of a non-market ecosystem service – or biodiversity conservation – which is valued by society. PES schemes are now applied globally in a wide range of policy contexts. In this paper, I look at four innovations which are designed to improve the economic efficiency and/or environmental effectiveness of such schemes, in a setting of asymmetric information. These are (i) paying for outcomes rather than actions (ii) making use of non-monetary incentives, and changes in the choice architecture (iii) collective action schemes and (iv) incentivising spatial coordination.
Speaker: Professor Douglas Cumming (Florida Atlantic University)
Date: 27 October 2021
Research Field:Finance
Title: "Covid, Work-from-Home, and Securities Misconduct"
Abstract:We consider whether traders are more likely to commit securities violations when trading at home, a new form of working induced by the Covid pandemic. We examine data pre- and post-Covid, during which some traders were unexpectedly forced to work at home. The data indicate the presence of both a treatment and a selection effect, where work at home exhibits fewer misconduct cases. Work at home is associated with fewer cases of trading misconduct, although no difference in communications misconduct. The economic significance of working from home on trading misconduct is large for both the treatment and selection effects.
Speaker: Professor Shaoyu Li (South China Normal University)
Date: 03 November 2021
Research Field:Finance
Title: "Competition, Rating Shopping and Yield Spread: Evidence from Chinese Enterprise Bond Market"
Abstract:Booming markets are a time of high returns and high risk, including the risk of misrepresenting the quality of an investment. The Chinese bond market has recently been going through a boom period, and we document evidence of ratings shopping in the enterprise bond market. Our evidence shows that some firms get higher credit ratings than they should, resulting in a lower cost of debt financing. We also find that investors become aware of this after multiple financing rounds and punish all clients of the ratings inflators, resulting in a lemons market in bonds for certain firms.
Speaker: Professor Thanos Papdopoulos (University of Kent) and Professor Donald Hislop (University of Aberdeen)
Date: 10 November 2021
Title: "Meet the Editors session"
Abstract:The webinar will commence with a short overview by the editors that cover critical information about each journal (such as types of articles sought) and what they expect from good submissions (do's and don'ts). The editors will then discuss specific issues concerning conceptual development, research methods, data analysis and how to demonstrate your paper's added value (answering the 'so what' question). The session will be open for colleagues to share both positive and negative experiences of researching, writing, revising and publishing.
Speaker: Professor Sofia Johan (University of Aberdeen)
Date: 10 November 2021
Research Field:Finance
Title: "Governance and Success in U.S. Equity Crowdfunding"
Abstract:We propose three governance mechanisms pertinent to equity crowdfunding and campaign success through mitigating pronounced information asymmetries and agency problems. First, unlike IPOs for which the effect of Delaware incorporation has declined or disappeared over time, we propose Delaware incorporation matters a great deal for success in the new setting of equity crowdfunding. Second, we propose that security design is a critical tool for equity crowdfunding success and even more important than the limited 2-year financial statement disclosure. Third, we propose that platforms as intermediaries between entrepreneurs and investors play an important role in mitigating and sometimes exacerbating information asymmetries and agency problems. The population of equity crowdfunding campaigns from market inception in May 2016 to Q2, 2021 in the United States provides strong support for these propositions.
Speaker: Professor Aatur Belal (University of Sheffield)
Date: 15 November 2021
Research Field:Management
Title: "Organisational Management of Institutional Complexity: The Emergence of Sustainability Reporting in a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise"
Abstract:Nowadays organizations operate in pluralistic and increasingly more complex institutional environments that are characterized by the presence of multiple and often competing institutional logics (ILs, hereafter) at society- and field- levels. Prior studies have substantially increased our understanding of the (field, organizational and individual) factors/determinants, the strategies (e.g., defiance, combination and blending) and the effects on organizations (e.g. structures, practices, identity) that are related to the mechanisms of response to institutional complexity. Nevertheless, there is still a need to further investigate how these response mechanisms occur and are managed over time in- and by- organizations. In particular, there is a need to understand how these multiple/competing ILs work on the ground and to examine how these response-related mechanisms emerge by considering in particular the interplay between fields’ conditions, organizational factors and individuals’ strategic actions.
Speaker: Professor Thijs van Rens (Warwick University)
Date: 17 November 2021
Research Field:Economics
Title: "How Distorted Food Prices Discourage a Healthy Diet"
Abstract:Public policy-making for the prevention of diet-related disease is impeded by a lack of evidence on whether poor diets are a matter of personal responsibility or a choice set narrowed by environmental conditions. An important element of the environment are market imperfections in food retail that distort prices. We use a rich dataset on quantities and prices of food purchases in the US and a structural model of dietary choices to examine variation in diets across household that have different levels of income and live in different neighborhoods. We find that price distortions account for one-third of the gap between the recommended and actual intake of fruits and vegetables. A feasible fiscal intervention that remedies these distortions makes all consumers better off.
Speaker: Dr Hanwen Sun (University of Bath)
Date: 24 November 2021
Research Field:Management
Title: "Product Market Threats and Corporate ESG Performance"
Abstract:We examine the role of product market threats in influencing corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Notwithstanding the strategic view argues that ESG can help promote product differentiation, we find that product market threats, measured by product fluidity, are negatively related to corporate ESG manifestation. Our results suggest as the competitive pressure from the product market increases firms’ profit and objective uncertainty, firms tend to reduce their environment investment and expenditure. In addition, the negative effect is more pronounced among firms with financial constraints and overconfident CEOs. To address the endogeneity issue, we conduct a difference-in-differences estimation using the reduction in import tariffs as a quasi-natural experiment. Our findings offer new insights on how product market dynamics shape corporate ESG strategies.
Speaker: Dr Hanwen Sun (University of Bath)
Date: 01 December 2021
Research Field:Finance
Title: "Controlling Shareholder Share Pledging and the Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from China"
Abstract:We propose and test the incentive view—that the margin call pressure and ownership-control discrepancy associated with insider share pledging increase investors’ perceived risk, and thus also the cost of equity capital, in an emerging market. Using a controlling shareholder share pledging sample for Chinese listed firms, we find that firms with share pledging have a cost of equity capital that is 23.7 basis points higher than firms without share pledging. Further, share pledging increases the cost of equity capital through the information risks and agency conflicts channels. Cross-sectional analyses show that share pledging has a stronger effect on the cost of equity capital in non-state-owned enterprises, firms without monitoring of multiple large shareholders, firms with controlling shareholders assuming the position of chairperson, and firms with a weak institutional environment. In addition, using the global financial crisis and the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) as quasi-natural experiments, we disentangle the potential confounding effect of firm fundamentals and show that share pledging is positively associated with the cost of equity capital. Overall, the results are consistent with our incentive view that share pledging increases the cost of equity capital in an emerging market.
Speaker: Professor Shameen Prashantham (CEIBS, Shanghai)
Date: 08 December 2021
Research Field:Management
Title: "Gorillas can dance: Lessons from Microsoft and other corportions on partnering with startups"
Abstract:This presentation draws upon my recent book synthesizing insights for multinational corporation managers on challenges associated with partnering with startups and associated strategies to overcome these. The talk will also highlight spatial differences I have uncovered in my fieldwork spanning both advanced market (e.g. the US and UK) and emerging market (e.g. China and India) settings. Thus this talk is less about a single academic study and more about how a research programme spanning over a decade can yield actionable ideas. From an academic perspective, it is hoped that the talk will stimulate further research on open innovation in multinational corporations, a relatively under-researched area of study.