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Abstract: This paper examines the influence of childhood cultural exposure on educational and occupational outcomes, with a particular focus on gender norms and self-expression. By combining the epidemiological approach with a mover design, I leverage rich administrative data on immigrant households to estimate the effects of cultural assimilation. Using variation in exposure to the culture of the country of origin among same-sex immigrant siblings, I explore how country-specific differences in gendered beliefs impact educational segregation, particularly in major choice. I further assess how collectivist cultural norms influence occupational choice, studying whether siblings exposed to different cultural environments pursue careers with varying occupational prestige. The analysis also extends to household-level decisions such as parental leave preferences and income disparities between older and younger female siblings, allowing me to estimate the childbirth penalty. Lastly, I compare immigrant siblings' labor market performance to that of native-born peers to observe possible misallocation of talent, which shapes our understanding of how ingrained cultural norms can shape labor market outcomes across generations.
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.