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on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Economy |
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Issue of 2021‒09‒06
four papers chosen by Laura Ştefănescu Centrul European de Studii Manageriale în Administrarea Afacerilor |
| By: | Armin Falk; Thomas Neuber; Philipp Strack |
| Abstract: | We study response behavior in surveys and show how the explanatory power of self-reports can be improved. First, we develop a choice model of survey response behavior under the assumption that the respondent has imperfect self-knowledge about her individual characteristics. In panel data, the model predicts that the variance in responses for different characteristics increases in self-knowledge and that the variance for a given characteristic over time is non-monotonic in self-knowledge. Importantly, the ratio of these variances identifies an individual’s level of self-knowledge, i.e., the latter can be inferred from observed response patterns. Second, we develop a consistent and unbiased estimator for self-knowledge based on the model. Third, we run an experiment to test the model’s main predictions in a context where the researcher knows the true underlying characteristics. The data confirm the model’s predictions as well as the estimator’s validity. Finally, we turn to a large panel data set, estimate individual levels of self-knowledge, and show that accounting for differences in self-knowledge significantly increases the explanatory power of regression models. Using a median split in self-knowledge and regressing risky behaviors on self-reported risk attitudes, we find that the R2 can be multiple times larger for above-than below-median subjects. Similarly, gender differences in risk attitudes are considerably larger when restricting samples to subjects with high self-knowledge. These examples illustrate how using the estimator may improve inference from survey data. |
| Keywords: | survey research, rational inattention, lab experiment, non-cognitive |
| JEL: | C83 D83 C91 D91 J24 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1142&r= |
| By: | Andrés F. Castro Torres (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Diego Alburez-Gutierrez (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Keywords: | World |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2021-014&r= |
| By: | Bukvić, Rajko; Petrović, Dragan |
| Abstract: | In modern science it is generally accepted that ICT (information and communication technologies) are important drivers, which ‘enables’ technologies that have a broad impact on many sectors of the economy and social life. In this framework, the measuring the level of ICT development, their economic and social impact, and the country’s readiness to use them must be of great importance, especially for the estimation of the building of the information society. In the first part of the paper some indicators of the use of ICT technologies in Serbia are presented. Further, we present some data of the ICT sector of Serbian economy (number of employees, share in the GDP, foreign trade and foreign direct investments, as well the number of companies). At the end we present the results of a research (Goloventchik and Zhyrkevich), in which the composite index of the digital transformation was constructed on the basis of nine broad used indicators. In the conclusion we emphasize that the building of information society in Serbia is not yet on the satisfactory level. |
| Keywords: | digital economy, information and communication technologies, small European economies, Serbia, households, manufacturing |
| JEL: | D80 O11 O31 O52 O57 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:109550&r= |
| By: | Mattea Stein (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | Micro-enterprise owners in developing country industrial clusters interact through networks of horizontal business collaboration, information-sharing, and friendship links, despite the potential for close competition inherent in this setting. This paper explores how such business links change, and specifically whether they can be endogenous to a public policy intervention that provides training to some network members but not others. Using a randomized training for micro-entrepreneurs in Kampala, Uganda, together with novel panel network data, I find a positive effect on linking likelihoods, driven by untreated entrepreneurs to whom links with treated entrepreneurs become more desirable. As predicted by a bilateral network formation framework, it is the relatively lower-status treated who attract new connections with relatively higher-status untreated. Furthermore, links within clusters of treated enterprises are strengthened, which is not due to a strategic replacement of untreated with treated partners out of a competition motive but seems to be an effect of jointly attending the training. Together, my findings show that public policy interventions can cause networks to re-wire, with important implications both for research and policy. |
| Keywords: | network formation, network change, social networks, firms, micro-enterprises |
| Date: | 2021–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:622&r= |