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Abstract: This paper investigates how exposure to collectivist versus individualistic cultural values shapes earnings penalties in the labour market. Leveraging rich administrative data on immigrant households and by exploiting the variation in cultural exposure among immigrant siblings, I analyze how differential retention of collectivist cultural norms, proxied by age at migration, influences earning penalties in the labour market. I also explore potential cultural drivers of the earnings gap with a focus on tenets such as occupational prestige, social value, creative component, and the routinization of tasks in jobs. The findings reveal that exposure to collectivist cultural environments (i) leads to significant earnings penalties, with individuals earning less than their predicted wages (ii) fosters a preference for occupations with greater routinization of tasks (iii) individualistic cultural origins mitigate these gaps by enhancing the alignment between skills and wages.
Awarded: Best Student Paper Prize at the SABE/IAREP Conference, 2024
Abstract: This paper attempts to add to the literature on experimental interventions that target excessive smartphone use. Through a conceptual framework, I first explore the consumption of screen time through reference-dependent preferences, where an individual's consumption decisions are affected by the perceived reference point which is in part determined by peer behaviour. Then, I explore the model’s predictions through an online experiment that studies the screen time habits of college students. Specifically, participants are asked to rank their current screen time habits against perceived peer behaviour, and I use a randomized treatment to correct the extent to which they may have misperceived their relative position. I find that individuals are (i) uninformed about the screen time habits of their peers, (ii) misperceive their relative position in the distribution, (iii) on average, the findings suggest correcting misperceptions through social comparisons reduces daily average screen time use. Notably, this reduction is driven solely by behavioural motives. (iv) I also find suggestive evidence of a reduction in smartphone screen time being associated with an improvement in academic grades.
Abstract: This paper analyses the technology transfer problem between firms in a duopoly set-up, where firms suffer due to severe financial constraints. The firm with superior technology may transfer their technology to the other provided such transfers generate a positive surplus that can be shared amongst the firms. We show that higher stringency in financial constraints makes technology transfers more likely. However, when the firms' technologies are close in comparison, such transfers are unlikely to be profitable, contrary to the findings in the conventional literature without financial considerations. We further extend our results to a more general set-up with finite receivers of technology and with exclusive, partial or fully open access technology transfer.