SIDE EFFECTS OF CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

Because campaign finance reform is usually motivated by the concern that existing legislation cannot effectively prevent campaign contributions to “buy favors,” this article assumes that contributions influence political decisions. But, given that it is also widely recognized that interest groups achieve influence by providing political decision makers with policy relevant information, we also assume that lobbies engage in non‐negligible informational lobbying. We focus on a single political decision to be taken and offer a simple model in which the optimal influence strategy is a mixture of both lobbying instruments. Our main result is to show that campaign finance reform may have important side effects: It may deter informational lobbying so that less policy relevant information is available and as a result political decisions become less efficient. (JEL: C72, D72)     

An Institutional Contingency Perspective of Interlocking Directorates

Interlocking directorates, in which companies are linked by the directors that serve on their boards, exist globally. It is an expression of hegemonic power exercised by the elites of a society, and has been studied with great interest by organizational sociologists, management scholars and financial economists. The interest emanates from the effect that interlocks have on wealth creation and distribution, and from the perspective that interlocks can tell us how elites in a society are networked. Although diverse theoretical perspectives have informed the research on interlocking directorates, this review shows that the Anglo‐American perspective dominates. This dominance is notable not only in the volume of Anglo‐American studies, but also in theories employed by international studies. For example, most international studies use agency theory to investigate the welfare implications of interlocks, but many countries do not use the Anglo‐American legal regime, which is the basis for agency theory. This paper expands the theoretical basis of the review to include class hegemony and resource dependence, to articulate better the causes and consequences of interlocks in the international context. The paper also extends theory by showing that institutions have an important influence on interlocks, so that the latter can be welfare‐depleting in one institutional setting, while welfare‐enhancing in another. The review concludes by discussing the implication for future research.     

Political Corporate Social Responsibility: Reviewing Theories and Setting New Agendas

There has been rising interest in political corporate social responsibility (political CSR), defined as activities where CSR has an intended or unintended political impact, or where intended or unintended political impacts on CSR exist. Based on a survey and content analysis of 146 peer‐reviewed academic articles from 18 journals over the 14‐year period 2000–2013, this paper systematically reviews the existing applications of general theories (such as legitimacy theory, the resource‐based view and Habermasian political theory) within the political CSR literature. The survey indicates that the political CSR field is dominated by institutional theory and stakeholder theory, but future theory development needs to go beyond these theories in order to address a number of critical gaps. This review specifically points to several avenues for future political CSR research with regard to the individual level of analysis, domain integration and political CSR in multinational enterprises. The paper ends with a call for a new theory‐informed and pluralist research agenda on political CSR to integrate different perspectives and re‐examine the role of the state.     

TRUST,COORDINATION, AND THE INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION OF POLITICAL ACTIVISM

We study political activism by several interest groups with private signals. When their ideological distance to the policymaker is small, a “low‐trust” regime prevails: agents frequently lobby even when it is unwarranted, taking advantage of the confirmation provided by others' activism; conversely, the policymaker responds only to generalized pressure. When ideological distance is large, a “high‐trust” regime prevails: lobbying behavior is disciplined by the potential contradiction from abstainers, and the policymaker's response threshold is correspondingly lower. Within some intermediate range, both equilibria coexist. We then study the optimal organization of influence activities, contrasting welfare levels when interest groups act independently and when they coordinate. (JEL: D72, D78, D82)     

免费VS.订阅:考虑广告质量的网络内容盈利模式选择

不同于已有决策模型对网络内容质量或广告质量的忽略,本文考虑用户粘度、广告质量及其信息不对称等因素或决策情形,运用委托代理理论,分别针对免费模式与订阅模式建立博弈模型,探讨网络内容提供者的最优盈利模式选择问题及其最优的内容质量策略与广告定价策略,并设计广告合同以激励拥有私人信息的广告主"讲真话"。结果表明：（1）网络广告尤其是优质网络广告的存在有利于系统实现帕累托改进,并能缓解订阅模式的实施难度;（2）信息不对称削弱了网络广告质量对网络内容提供者与社会福利的积极作用,并且网络广告质量越高,其信息价值越大;（3）订阅模式并非始终优于免费模式,并且相同条件下,前者适宜"少而精"策略而后者适宜"广而平"策略。     

考虑溢出效应的互补品企业间广告决策模型研究

具有需求信息优势的企业常常将广告投入作为市场需求信号,有选择地向其互补品生产企业传递需求信息,以刺激其增加广告投入,通过溢出效应获取更大收益。针对这一问题,本文建立了考虑溢出效应的互补品企业间广告决策的信号博弈模型,得到了分离均衡和混同均衡的存在条件,分析了均衡状态下企业的最优广告决策和收益,讨论了企业的广告策略选择。结果表明,分离均衡下,具有信息优势的制造商无法利用广告投入信号刺激其互补品制造商增加广告投入。混同均衡下,只有当市场需求为低时,具有信息优势的制造商能够利用广告投入信号,刺激其互补品制造商增加广告投入,通过溢出效应获得更大收益。最后,通过一个数值算例验证了有关结论的有效性。     

Leadership of socio-political vanguards: A review and future directions

With the influential rise of the Alt-Right throughout the West in recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the leadership of these forms of fringe political groups. While some work on the leadership of these types of groups was done in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, less work has been done since then. Given the important role of these groups in today's political environment, a review and theoretical integration of this past leadership work, along with suggestions for future research directions, is overdue.This paper begins by reviewing what literature exists regarding the leadership of socio-political vanguards, as well as what additional literature exists that may also be relevant to better understanding the phenomenon of vanguard leadership. Vanguard leadership is then placed within the historical context and goals of past vanguard groups. This analysis then leads to further defining some of the components of vanguard leadership along with a review of typically associated leadership traits, skills and behaviours.While few theories directly address the way in which vanguard leadership operates, this paper reviews related leadership theories that might offer meaningful contributions to our understanding of socio-political vanguard leadership. Some theories, such as those related to social movements (particularly burgeoning), minor but influential mainstream political groups, and advocacy/activist collectives are particularly relevant here and are reviewed along with more general leadership theories that might also hold applicability, such as those related to leader and follower (and public) information processing and sensemaking under crises. The paper then concludes with some suggestions for future research directions.     

Do Political Institutions Shape Economic Policy?

Do political institutions shape economic policy? I argue that this question should naturally appeal to economists. Moreover, the answer is in the affirmative, both in theory and in practice. In particular, recent theoretical work predicts systematic effects of electoral rules and political regimes on the size and composition of government spending. Results from ongoing empirical work indicate that such effects are indeed present in the data. Some empirical results are consistent with theoretical predictions: presidential regimes have smaller governments and countries with majoritarian elections have smaller welfare‐state programs and less corruption. Other results present puzzles for future research: the adjustment to economic events appears highly institution‐dependent, as does the timing and nature of the electoral cycle.     

基于混合定向方式的移动定向广告投放策略研究

以移动广告为研究背景,研究地理定向和消费者产品偏好定向相结合的混合定向方式下企业的定向广告投放策略,同时通过对比企业投放定向广告与大众广告,研究企业的广告策略选择问题。研究发现,企业运用定向广告策略应针对不同的消费者群体提供差异化较大的营销策略:对属于企业近距离范围且偏好企业产品的优势市场,企业应加大广告投放力度并实行高价;为了争取部分远端劣势市场的收益,企业应向其投放一定力度的广告并实行低价;对属于双方的竞争市场,企业应选择中等程度的广告和价格。同时,通过与企业投放大众广告相比较,发现竞争企业使用定向广告策略反而不如使用大众广告策略。     

Advertising in Asymmetric Competing Supply Chains

Advertising is a crucial tool for demand creation and market expansion. When a manufacturer uses a retailer as a channel for reaching end customers, the advertising strategy takes on an additional dimension: which party will perform the advertising to end customers. Cost sharing (“co‐operative advertising”) arrangements proliferate the option by decoupling the execution of the advertising from its funding. We examine the efficacy of cost sharing in a model of two competing manufacturer–retailer supply chains who sell partially substitutable products that may differ in market size. Some counterintuitive findings suggest that the firms performing the advertising would rather bear the costs entirely if this protects their unit profit margin. We also evaluate the implications of advertising strategy for overall supply chain efficiency and consumer welfare.     

Asymptotics for Statistical Treatment Rules

This paper develops asymptotic optimality theory for statistical treatment rules in smooth parametric and semiparametric models. Manski (2000, 2002, 2004) and Dehejia (2005) have argued that the problem of choosing treatments to maximize social welfare is distinct from the point estimation and hypothesis testing problems usually considered in the treatment effects literature, and advocate formal analysis of decision procedures that map empirical data into treatment choices. We develop large‐sample approximations to statistical treatment assignment problems using the limits of experiments framework. We then consider some different loss functions and derive treatment assignment rules that are asymptotically optimal under average and minmax risk criteria.     

HOW DO ELECTORAL SYSTEMS AFFECT FISCAL POLICY? EVIDENCE FROM CANTONAL PARLIAMENTS, 1890–2000

Using a new data set on Swiss cantons since 1890, we analyze how the adoption of proportional representation affects fiscal policy. In line with economic theory, we show that proportional systems shift spending toward broad goods (like education and welfare benefits) but decrease spending on geographically targetable goods (like roads). We find little evidence that proportional representation increases the overall size of government. An analysis of the underlying theoretical mechanisms reveals that proportional representation increases electoral turnout, left‐wing representation, and political fragmentation. These changes in political representation explain a substantial share of the rise in education spending, but a small share of the rise in welfare spending or the decline in road expenditures.     

A Mobile Platform's In‐App Advertising Contract Under Agency Pricing for App Sales

Unlike advertising in traditional media, a mobile platform's in‐app advertising market exhibits two unique features—split structure of the mobile platform with a platform owner and an app developer jointly provisioning in‐app advertising, and agency pricing for app sales. We develop a two‐sided market model to analyze the role of these two unique features in determining the platform owner's optimal advertising revenue‐sharing contract. Our results reveal an interesting N‐shaped dynamic regarding the platform owner's optimal choice of her ad revenue share with respect to the overall advertisers’ valuation of in‐app ads. We identify a between‐agent subsidization strategy for the platform owner, where she finds it optimal to subsidize the developer via the advertising channel, leading to greater profits for both of them. We find that the advertising revenue‐sharing contract under agency pricing for app sales leads to a higher app price than would be offered by the integrated platform found in traditional advertising. However, the ad price is coordinated under the platform owner's optimal choice of ad revenue share when she obtains revenue from both the advertising and app sales channels, leading to an alignment of her interest with the app developer's on ad level.     

Cooperative Advertising and Pricing in a Dynamic Stochastic Supply Chain: Feedback Stackelberg Strategies

Cooperative (co‐op) advertising is an important instrument for aligning manufacturer and retailer decisions in supply chains. In this, the manufacturer announces a co‐op advertising policy, i.e., a participation rate that specifies the percentage of the retailer's advertising expenditure that it will provide. In addition, it also announces the wholesale price. In response, the retailer chooses its optimal advertising and pricing policies. We model this supply chain problem as a stochastic Stackelberg differential game whose dynamics follows Sethi's stochastic sales‐advertising model. We obtain the condition when offering co‐op advertising is optimal for the manufacturer. We provide in feedback form the optimal advertising and pricing policies for the manufacturer and the retailer. We contrast the results with the advertising and price decisions of the vertically integrated channel, and suggest a method for coordinating the channel.     

Looking Too Old? How an Older Age Appearance Reduces Chances of Being Hired

Building on theories of impression formation based on faces, this research investigates the impact of job candidates’ facial age appearance on hiring as well as the underlying mechanism. In an experiment, participants decided whether to hire a fictitious candidate aged 50 years, 30 years or without age information. The candidate's age was signalled either via chronological information (varied by date of birth) or via facial age appearance (varied by a photograph on the résumé). Findings showed that candidates with older‐appearing faces – but not chronologically older candidates – triggered impressions of low health and fitness, compared to younger‐appearing candidates. These impressions reduced perceptions of person–job fit, which lowered hiring probabilities for older‐appearing candidates. These findings provide the first evidence that trait impressions from faces are a determinant of age discrimination in personnel selection. They call for an extension of current models of age discrimination by integrating the effects of face‐based trait impressions, particularly with respect to health and fitness.     

The impact of managerial political ties on corporate governance and debt financing: Evidence from Ghana

In this study, we draw upon insights from agency theory to examine the impact of managerial political ties on cost of debt and also to explore whether corporate governance mediates this impact. We hypothesize that political ties reduce financial reporting quality, disclosure of non-financial information and board independence, and are therefore associated with higher interest rates. We also hypothesize that the negative effect of political ties on the cost of debt will be stronger if firms borrow from privately-owned banks versus government-owned banks. Using data from Ghana, we find support for our direct and moderation hypotheses; political ties are associated with high interest rates and poor corporate governance. However, we do not find evidence of mediation. Altogether, the findings reveal the dark side of political connections and highlight the cost of political embeddedness in emerging credit markets.     

招聘服务供应链中合作广告博弈

本文研究求职者投递简历量不确定性的条件下由网站招聘服务商和用人企业组成的招聘服务供应链中的合作广告对招聘效用的影响。网站服务商首先确定招聘套餐价格和广告赠送率,用人企业根据套餐及广告,确定本企业对求职者提供的职位搜索价格。运用斯坦伯格博弈模型进行合作广告效用预测显示:(1)对于用人企业,广告效用增加,求职者对本单位的招聘职位搜索价格增加,企业期望简历量和期望效用增加。(2)对于网站服务商,固定广告赠送率可确定职位价格;固定职位价格可确定广告赠送率;提高广告赠送率可激励用人企业选择更高价位广告。将上述理论运用于企业与智联招聘、前程无忧和新安人才网三家网站建立招聘服务供应链时的斯坦伯格决策,可从企业、服务商和供应链三个角度综合做出决定-若企业在安徽省内招聘则优选新安,在全国招聘则优选智联,可保证企业招聘效果和服务供应链效用最优。上述方法为中小企业选择招聘服务商提供参考,也为人才管理理论研究拓展新方向。     

Regional Headquarter’s Dual Agency Role: Micro‐political Strategies of Alignment and Self‐interest

The increased research focus on the networked perspective of the multinational enterprise (MNE) reflects a greater delegation of responsibility from corporate headquarters (CHQ) to subsidiary and intermediary units such as regional headquarters (RHQ). This shift has increased the intensity of political interactions between key actors within the MNE. Despite the recent rise in studies on the micro‐political perspective of the MNE to date, little empirical work has explored this issue in the context of the CHQ–RHQ relationship. Drawing insights from agency theory and micro‐politics, the authors focus on the context in which RHQs develop micro‐political strategies in order to manage the flow and exchange of knowledge with CHQ. They show how RHQ may exhibit a ‘dual agency’ role when dealing with CHQ, in that it is characterized as a principal and agent, each requiring different micro‐political knowledge strategies. As a principal, RHQ will develop micro‐political knowledge strategies to increase alignment with CHQ. As an agent, RHQ develops micro‐political knowledge strategies to pursue its self‐interests. Having identified different RHQ agency roles, the authors develop a conceptual model that outlines how alignment and self‐interest‐seeking behaviours from RHQ are manifest through different micro‐political knowledge strategies in its agency relationship with CHQ.     

The value of information concept applied to data systems

Cost-benefit analysis has a considerable literature in which information systems have been patently ignored. This reflects the considerable difficulties of applying the theory to information systems, and the state-of-the art remains relatively as Koopmans described it some 19 years ago (1957). A bar to further development would appear to be the lack of an applicable value-of-information concept. This paper seeks to clarify the issues and provide a robust theoretical and data analysis framework that will cover most situations. The approach here is to separate explicitly the dimensions of cost from those of information benefit, and examine the implications. The Null Information Benefit condition emerges as a special theoretical case, but potentially a most important one in applications. This case together with the Pareto optimum defines a large class of such problems that can be handled by the decision criteria and data analysis techniques tabulated and discussed here. The selection of input data techniques defines the limits of later project justification and may be crucial to the political viability of the projects throughout its life. Finally, the general management vs information systems management relationships are discussed in terms of this situation.     

Applying firm attention theory to assess the antecedents of firm participation in regulatory processes

This study applies firm attention theory to explain how factors including regulatory inspection ratings, media coverage of regulatory issues, new regulations, and the political activities of opposing interest groups influence firm participation in regulatory processes. Findings suggest that firm political participation is driven by factors that attract firm attention to political processes as well as by factors that threaten to draw stakeholder attention to political processes and firm operations. These relationships are explored by examining automobile manufacturer participation in National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration rulemaking comment periods.