Internal Lunch Seminars

Internal Lunch Seminars provide an informal forum for local researchers to present their work in progress and receive feedback and criticism from colleagues. Speakers present preliminary findings of their research (ideally with paper draft available). Talks should last no longer than 30 minutes, leaving ample time for discussion. All interested parties are welcome to attend, and we encourage participants to bring their own lunch or sandwich. Small sandwiches will be provided before the seminar from 12:00 to 12:15. Talk will start at 12:15. If you wish to present your work, please drop us an email.

Upcoming seminars

Past events Show current

23 Apr

2025

Distributed and trustworthy digital twin platform based on blockchain and Web3 technologies

Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Bamakan (Masaryk University - Department of Business Management) ESF Academic Club

The fourth industrial revolution has significantly increased the adoption of Digital Twins (DTs) across various sectors, including intelligent manufacturing, automation, logistics, and medical analysis. Despite substantial progress in deploying DT projects, numerous challenges remain, such as managing distributed data flows, protecting commercial confidentiality, securing intellectual property, and ensuring privacy and security. This research introduces a novel approach to addressing these challenges by leveraging blockchain and Web3 technologies, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). The study aims to develop a distributed, tamper-proof DT cooperation platform that facilitates traceable and trustworthy data sharing while preserving intellectual property rights and enabling decentralized governance. This platform enhances idea and invention ownership, promotes collective decision-making through consensus protocols, and explores innovative solutions like blockchain-based federated learning and efficient DT project fundraising tools. Relying on security models and analysis tools, this study addresses several important security analysis methods that are known as practical analysis methods. They can strongly prove every claimed security feature of DT projects. The proposed solutions set the stage for future academic and industrial advancements, supported by a comprehensive SWOT (Strongness - Weakness - Opportunity - Threat) analysis, and outline potential future research directions.

16 Apr

2025

Causal Mechanisms of Relative Age Effects on Adolescent Risky Behaviours

Luca Fumarco (Masaryk University - Department of Economics) ESF Academic Club Personal website

We investigate the effect of students’ age relative to their classmates on adolescents’ risky behaviors across European countries. Using data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey and employing a two-stage least squares approach, we provide causal estimates that disentangle relative age effects from absolute age and season-of-birth effects. Our findings indicate that relatively younger students are generally more prone to risky behaviors. We explore two sets of mechanisms underlying these effects. First, causal mediation analyses reveal that academic self-concept, well-being, self-esteem, and peer support act as amplifiers of relative age effects on substance use. Second, additional analyses on European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs data suggest that relatively younger students perceive lower risks associated with substance consumption and believe substance use is more prevalent among their peers.

9 Apr

2025

Institutional Factors and the Extraction of Limited Health Resources

Jonathan Stäbler (Masaryk University - Department of Public Economics) ESF Academic Club Personal website

The healthcare situation in many developed countries has become precarious due to limited supply and a steadily growing demand stemming from mandatory health cover for all. As a result, health resources may get allocated inefficiently with those with potentially serious conditions not getting treated in a timely manner. In this paper, we test measures to prevent such inefficiencies, including i) instituting a co-payment for using healthcare services, ii) creating a triage system based on self-reporting one's symptoms, and iii) receiving access to more accurate signals about one's health needs. Drawing on a game theoretic framework with other-regarding preferences, we conduct an online experiment with a large, representative sample of UK adults, where participants decide whether to extract resources from a limited common pool after receiving a noisy signal about their types. Our results suggest that all measures reduce unnecessary extractions from the common pool. While both the cost and self-report triage system have the highest impact on participants extraction choices, the accuracy treatment leads to the highest efficiency, as it reduces the errors stemming from noisy signals.

26 Mar

2025

Perceived safety and hygiene: Do they induce consumer’s intention to use robot-delivered hospitality services

Kayode Kolawole Eluwole (Department of Regional Economics) ESF Academic Club

The integration of robotic services in the hospitality industry has gained significant attention, particularly in the context of safety and hygiene, which have become paramount concerns for tourists in the wake of global health crises. This study investigates the factors influencing tourists' intentions to use hotel service robots, with a focus on perceived safety, health awareness, and service assurance. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the research examines how these factors shape personal engagement and, ultimately, the intention to adopt robotic services in hospitality settings.

Using a purposive sampling technique, data were collected from 275 participants with prior experience in robotic services via the Prolific platform. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the data, revealing that perceived robotic safety and service assurance significantly positively impact personal engagement. Specifically, guests who perceive robots as safe and reliable are more likely to engage with them, leading to a higher intention to use robotic services. However, health awareness did not show a significant effect on personal engagement, suggesting that while safety and reliability are critical, health-related information may not be a primary driver of engagement with robotic services.

The findings also highlight the mediating role of personal engagement in the relationship between perceived safety, service assurance, and the intention to use robotic services. This underscores the importance of fostering trust and confidence in robotic systems through consistent performance and effective communication of safety features. Notably, female guests exhibited a higher preference for robotic services, indicating potential gender differences in the acceptance of technology in hospitality settings.

This study offers several implications for hoteliers. First, enhancing perceived robotic safety is crucial for increasing guest acceptance. Hoteliers should prioritize clear communication of the security features and capabilities of robots, ensuring guests feel safe and secure during their interactions. Second, investing in high levels of service assurance—such as reliability, responsiveness, and consistent performance—can foster trust and confidence in robotic systems. Regular maintenance, software updates, and staff training are essential to maintaining these standards. Third, hoteliers should implement strategies to enhance personal engagement with robotic services, such as providing interactive features, personalized assistance, and opportunities for guests to learn about and interact with robots. Training staff to effectively assist guests in using these systems can further enhance guest satisfaction and confidence.

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on human-robot interaction by emphasizing the role of perceived safety and service assurance in shaping user attitudes and behaviors. It also offers practical implications for hoteliers, suggesting that investments in reliable and safe robotic systems, coupled with strategies to enhance guest interaction, can significantly improve the adoption of robotic services. Future research should explore these dynamics in diverse cultural contexts and examine the long-term effects of robotic service integration on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

 

19 Mar

2025

Participatory Budgeting and Electoral Engagement: Unveiling the Impact on Election Turnout

Eduard Bakoš (Masaryk University - Department of Public Economics) ESF Academic Club

This paper examines the impact of participatory budgeting (PB) on voter turnout in local, regional, and parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic. Using panel data from over 6,200 municipalities between 2009-2022, we employ ordinary least squares regression with fixed effects and an array of control variables to analyze the relationship between PB initiatives and electoral participation. Our findings reveal that PB has a significant and positive effect on voter turnout in local and regional elections, but we found no effect in parliamentary elections. Specifically, PB implementation is associated with a 2.7-3.9 percentage point increase in local election turnout and a 1.5-2.6 percentage point increase in regional election turnout when conducted within two years prior to elections. These effects are most pronounced when PB occurs one year before elections, the effect size and significance decrease with a longer time interval from the election. Our robustness check, which is based on synthetic control method confirms the direction of these effects, albeit with smaller magnitudes and lower significance. The lack of impact on parliamentary elections suggests that PB's influence is primarily localized, while local elections turnout may be fostered by the implementation of PB initiatives to enhance voter participation in local and regional democratic processes.

12 Mar

2025

A simple and effective strategy for improving cryptocurrency portfolio optimization

Andrea Rigamonti (Masaryk University - Department of Finance) ESF Academic Club

Cryptocurrencies have experienced a tremendous growth in recent years, both in terms of market capitalization and number of existing digital assets. However, the extreme volatility and peculiar market behavior that characterize this asset class represent an obstacle for their adoption among mainstream investment instruments. In this study, we present a simple and effective way to optimize a portfolio of cryptocurrencies based on two conditioning variables whose value can predict the magnitude of price movements in the short-term. We show empirically that our strategy consistently delivers higher risk-adjusted returns and a more desirable wealth dynamics compared both to standard optimal portfolios and to a naive 1/N allocation.

5 Mar

2025

How do agency and stewardship theories explain middle manager unintended strategy implementation?

Hana Voráčová (Masaryk University - Department of Business Management) ESF Academic Club

Middle managers (MMs) implement intended strategy in both adaptive and obstructive outcomes, but prior studies have not fully examined why that happens. This paper investigates how agency and stewardship theories explain MM unintended strategy implementation, including adapted and obstructed strategy. We examined 92 unintended strategy implementations using data from interviews with 40 middle managers in 30 multinational companies. We find three explanations related to stewardship theory (lack of understanding, lack of slack, and autonomy from situational change) as well as four agency theory explanations (lack of agreement, lack of accountability, lack of incentive, and autonomy from temporary lack of top manager oversight). For practice, top managers should be aware of the many ways in which they may fall short in setting an appropriate context for MMs to implement intended strategy.

26 Feb

2025

Curbing conspicious (conspiracist and suspicious) mindset through social-psychological insights on intergroup attitudes – experiences with writing the ERC proposal and future plans

Magdalena Adamus (Masaryk University - Department of Public Economics) Academic Club Personal website

During the seminar I will share my experiences with writing the ERC proposal, describe the process and share insights into how to best plan, manage and execute the preparation process. The main focus of the presentation will be the core assumptions of the CONSPICIOUS project and discussion of alternative and available sources of funding for the research planned. The rise of the conspicious mindset at the centre stage of policy concerns has led to two major streams of research. First, research on conspiracy beliefs (CBs) has highlighted psychological risk factors and documented the extent of CBs negative behavioural consequences - e.g., fuelling violent extremism, vaccine hesitancy, support for autocrats and illiberal political parties. Second, the growing awareness of societal harms stemming from CBs has also generated a prolific research program focused on misinformation and mostly online and cognitive interventions to curb its prevalence. Contrary to research efforts to date, the current CONSPICIOUS project stems from the understanding of CBs as intergroup attitudes and hypotheses that anti-CBs interventions that focus on improving intergroup attitudes may prove more effective than the former cognitive approach. The overarching aim of CONSPICIOUS is thus to shift scholarly focus towards dealing with CBs directly as intergroup attitudes through fulfilling four specific objectives: (i) identify interventions aimed at improving intergroup attitudes and adapt them to CBs, (ii) test the effectiveness of these interventions in a large scale intervention tournament, (iii) explore generalizability of the most effective interventions in longitudinal trials across general population samples in ​​European and partner countries, and (iv) adapt the interventions to user-friendly, scalable, ready-to-deliver formats. CONSPICIOUS will rely on a large randomised controlled trial (megastudy, N≈10,000) and an international longitudinal study (N≈2,800 per country, first wave). By changing the research perspective, the current project offers an utterly new paradigm of scholarly approaches to curbing the CONSPICIOUS mindset

19 Feb

2025

From Spontaneity to Planning: Understanding Long-Distance Travelers' Mode Choice Preferences for BlaBlaCar Carpooling, Bus, and Train in Central Europe

Sorath Shah (Masaryk University - Department of Economics ) ESF Academic Club Personal website

This study examines the mode choice preferences of long-distance travelers in Central Europe among carpooling, trains, and buses. Using three months of operational data from BlaBlaCar, a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression model was applied to analyze mode choice behavior under 1-day and 10-day advance booking scenarios. The results indicate that travelers prefer buses for shorter trips, while trains are favored for longer journeys, with carpooling being the least frequent choice. Carpooling is most popular for spontaneous, long-distance travel, whereas advanced bookings are less likely to include this option. Additionally, district-level demographics significantly influence mode preferences. For instance, older travelers and pedestrians are more inclined to choose buses, while individuals without formal education exhibit a stronger preference for trains. Meanwhile, working students tend to use carpooling, particularly for planned trips. These findings highlight the potential of BlaBlaCar carpooling to complement existing public transport systems and support the development of sustainable, multimodal transportation networks.

21 Nov
2024

Cohesion Policy Grants and Corporate Performance: Insights from Slovakia

Eva Výrostová (Masaryk University) ESF Room MT205

The evaluation of the EU Cohesion policy’s effectiveness in the literature is usually macroeconomic in nature. As recent studies highlight the importance of conducting analyses also at the micro-level, this paper estimates the effect of EU Cohesion policy grants on firms’ performance in Slovakia. Our firm-level database is based on Slovak firms’ financial statements and business activities combined with a dataset of enterprises receiving EU funding from Cohesion policy grants. The difference-in-difference method is used to compare two groups of enterprises: those that obtained support from EU funds and a control group of non-participating entities. Our results show that the major differences for participating firms include a significant increase in debt ratio dynamics in the initial years, higher debt levels that are persistent over longer periods, a significant increase in total assets, and a decrease in profitability and rentability. The results are robust with respect to sample matching techniques and matched sample sizes.

24 Oct
2024

Before It’s Gone! How Travelers Respond to Time-Limited Scarcity Cues?

Dušan Mladenović (Masaryk University) ESF Room MT205

This study addresses a critical gap in the existing literature on the efficacy of time-based scarcity cues in the online travel sector. Despite extensive research on scarcity cues influencing tourism-related behaviors such as booking intentions and destination attractiveness, little is known about the real-world impact of time-based scarcity cues, especially their potential negative effects. Moreover, the role of mobile push notifications in mediating these effects remains largely unexplored. By utilizing psychological postulates of the “get-it-before-it's-gone” effect, scarcity principles, and randomized experimental design, this research note quantifies the influence of time-based scarcity cues on traveler behavior - specifically concerning push notifications affecting click-through and conversion (booking) rates. The findings provide actionable insights for online travel platforms and contribute to a theoretical understanding of mobile marketing and travel research.
Keywords: push notifications, before-its-gone effect, randomized experiments, booking, time-based scarcity cues

17 Oct
2024

Strategic uncertainty in games

Ondřej Krčál (Masaryk University) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

Strategic uncertainty is the uncertainty that people face with respect to the purposeful behavior of others in interactive situations. Previous literature measures strategic uncertainty by varying the source of uncertainty. We suggest that strategic uncertainty varies not only between strategic and non-strategic decisions but also that different games are associated with varying degrees of strategic uncertainty. We use the expected volatility of probabilities as a measurement of strategic uncertainty. Our experimental design manipulates strategic uncertainty by changing the payoff structure of a 2x2 strategic game with incomplete information. Our manipulation changes the expected volatility of probability assigned to either action. However, it does not change the equilibrium actions or equilibrium payoffs. We elicit participants' action choices and preferences with respect to the varying degrees of strategic uncertainty in a series of binary choices. Our results show that participants exhibit strategic uncertainty aversion.

3 Oct
2024

Employment Dynamics with Convex Hiring Rules

Dinara Alpysbayeva (Masaryk University) ESF Room MT205

The non-linearity of the hiring rule can generate asymmetric responses of employment growth to shocks, and, hence, stimulate significant skewness and movements in the volatility. This paper argues that the institutional setting determines the shape of the hiring rule, which endogenously transforms the distribution of employment growth, and defines whether aggregate employment growth volatility is counter- or pro-cyclical. We test the hypothesis on an economy characterized by a strong employment protection and high firing costs. To provide additional evidence on the shape of the hiring rule, we further test the mechanism on countries with different labor adjustment costs. We conclude that countries with more rigid labor markets are characterized by a convex hiring rule, and induce pro-cyclical volatility.

26 Sep
2024

Vliv prosociality na proenvironmentální chování v kontextu energetické transformace

Vojtěch Koňařík (VSB - Technical University of Ostrava) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

Cílem předkládaného výzkumu je zjistit, zda prosocialita může napříč různými behaviorálními rámci zvýšit přispívání do účelového fondu určenému k financování technologických inovací v oblasti energetických úspor. Pro tento účel je vytvořen ekonomický experiment v podobě modifikované hry na veřejné dobro (RPGG). Participanti budou náhodně rozdělení do třech skupin. První skupina je kontrolní, druhá a třetí skupina obdrží informaci o dopadech technologické inovace na životní prostředí. Zatímco první dvě skupiny budou hrát se standardní MPCR = 1.4, v rámci třetí skupiny je MPCR = 0. Hra bude mít dvě fáze. Po odehrání první fáze dojde k intervenci v podobě vrstevnického efektu. Po odehrání PGG participanti obdrží test orientace na sociální hodnoty podle Murphy et al. (2011) k určení míry prosociality. V poslední části budou zjištěny socio-demografické charakteristiky. Výzkum se může stát inspirací pro tvůrce hospodářských, environmentálních politik a výzkumníky napříč několika obory, protože: (a) předkládá dva druhy behaviorálního rámce, kde jeden rámec zahrnuje prvek nezištnosti; (b) zkoumá reakci subjektů na tyto rámce a vliv vrstevnického efektu v závislosti na hodnotové orientaci, politické orientaci aj. socio-demografických charakteristik; (c) prostředky z fondu budou použity na skutečný účel. Kromě detailnějšího prozkoumání vztahu mezi prosocialitou a proenvironmentálním chováním výzkum vzhledem k reálnému účelu fondu částečně navazuje na práce Goeschl a kol. (2020) a Weimann a kol. (2022).

5 Jun
2024

The Global Impact of the European Central Bank – Monetary Policy Spillover Effect

Klára Moravcová (Masaryk University) Academic club

The European Central Bank (ECB) is responsible for formulating and implementing monetary policy for countries using the euro. However, existing literature proposes that the monetary policy of the Eurozone has implications for non-Euro countries. In academic literature numerous studies concentrate on the spillover effects of the Euro Area monetary policies on inflation, GDP, exchange rates, and real estate prices, however, a research gap remains regarding the influence of the ECB´s monetary policy on the financial cycle of non-euro countries. Thus, using the local projection method the primary objective of the research is to address the gap in the existing literature and respond to the research question of how the monetary policy of the European Central Bank spills over to non-euro countries' financial cycles. Among other considerations, we seek to address whether an extended period of accommodating monetary policy in the eurozone could result in more pronounced spillover effects than a single easing action.

26 Mar
2024

Trust and strategic third party communication: the role of informedness and motives

Ondřej Uldrijan (Masaryk University) ESF Room P304

This study aims to provide evidence on whether and how trust may be affected by unverifiable third-party communication, corresponding to various real-world phenomena such as fake news, ill-willed gossip, or malicious reviews, in regard to the knowledge and motivation of the third party. Basing our work on the literature concerned with the efficiency of interactions, we conducted a laboratory experiment utilizing an altered trust game. We observe heterogeneity in the effect of informedness on trust: while the presence of a malevolent third party leads to lower trust than the presence of an uninformed third party, the provision of information to an indifferent third party has no significant effect on trust. Furthermore, the motives and informedness of a third party are shown to have an impact on the receiver´s trustworthiness and deceitfulness.

6 Mar
2024

Meta-analyses in Economic Psychology: A sustainable approach to cross-cultural differences

Matteo M. Marini (Masaryk University) ESF Academic Club Personal website

This manuscript is a methodological work on the state of research using meta-analytic procedures in Economic Psychology, with a focus on the investigation of cross-cultural differences. We review published meta-analyses and introduce a new classification thereof by data source, describing how the different categories relate to the study of cross-cultural differences. We also discuss related opportunities and challenges, proposing a sustainable methodological approach that is then implemented in three case studies where we re-analyze data from published meta-analyses. In doing so, the relevance of culture as a determinant is explored by relating country-level cultural indicators to experimental measures of risk aversion, tax compliance, and prosocial behavior, respectively. It turns out that, after we control for country-level cultural heterogeneity and economic development, country-level individualism predicts these economic outcomes. We discuss possible interpretations of our findings.​

29 Feb
2024

It is not true but it could be: Does misinformation about an opponent's intentions provoke conflict?

Rostislav Staněk (Masaryk University) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

The paper investigates the emergence of conflict in situations where actions are strategic complements. Misinformation regarding the malicious intent of one of the conflicting parties can potentially trigger such conflicts. We conduct a laboratory experiment wherein a third party, seeking to incite conflict, can send a public message about a player's intention. We manipulate the third party's incentive to signal aggressive intentions. Despite not providing any useful information, we observe that third-party communication increases the frequency of conflicts. To mitigate this effect, we test two interventions: providing information about the third party's interests and presenting a competing truthful message. However, we find that the effectiveness of these interventions is very limited. We argue that the mere presence of a message indicating malicious intent can disrupt coordination among conflicting parties.

13 Feb
2024

Pink revolution in women’s public transport: Impact of fare-free public bus policy for women- Evidence from Delhi

Dev Sharma (Masaryk University) ESF Room S310

In October 2019, Delhi reformed its public bus transport policy, allowing all women to travel for free. The revolutionary reform was named the Pink Pass scheme and became the world’s first gender-specific transport policy. The policy aims to improve women’s socio-economic participation and safe transport. This article descriptively evaluates the policy’s actual outcome and examines its impact on Delhi’s women. I critically discuss policy plans, rationalities, pitfalls, and the state’s pseudo-evaluation. I estimate Delhi women's pre- and post-reform transport mobility using Delhi economic survey reports, Delhi’s transport company’s data, and 2,142 observations of own survey from September 2023 on Delhi women. My findings show a positive effect of the reform on women’s social and economic welfare. The article explains gaps and suggests further improvements in the pink pass policy. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first literature to discuss the impact of free public transport on women’s socio-economic engagements.

21 Nov
2023

Occupational and public health issues

Mattia Filomena (Masaryk University) Academic club Personal website

30 May
2023

Border effect in passenger railway transport in Central and Eastern Europe

Ismail Celebi (Masaryk University) Academic club

Increasing high-speed railway planning in Central and Eastern Europe and the lack of border effect estimations in this region encouraged a border effect study in this region. Using railway data collected in 2022, border effects in railway transport between six countries were estimated separately by basing on Czechia and Slovakia. Significant border effects were found between these countries and their neighbours. However, no significant border effect was found between Czechia and Slovakia. These findings support arguments about that countries with common language, culture and history have lower border effects.

18 May
2023

Leveling Health Inequalities: Raising the School Leaving Age Reduces the Risk of Diseases and Severe Medical Conditions Related to Genetic Endowment

Jaroslav Groero (Masaryk University) ESF Room P303 Personal website

Health inequality has a significant genetic component and socio-economic factors, including education, can moderate the effects of genes. However, little is known about whether more years of education can effectively moderate the relationship between genetic conditions and severe contemporary diseases and medical conditions. I use UK Biobank data to investigate the relationship between education, genetic endowment, and four health conditions: heart attack, cancer, stroke, and type-2 diabetes. To avoid the potential endogeneity of education, I focus on the long-term health consequences of a 1972 increase in the UK school-leaving age (ROSLA). As a measure of genetic endowment, I use an index of genetic predispositions for obesity. Genetic predispositions are typically summarised by a weighted average of individual genetic markers called polygenic scores (PGS), where weights are derived from analyses performed on different populations. Furthermore, the outcomes of these analyses often differ from the outcomes the PGS is used to predict. This may skew the results of follow up studies of other outcomes, including cancer. I introduce a two-step method that adjusts the available weights to new outcomes, and show that genetic predisposition for obesity increases the risks of the four diseases I study. The results based on my new method show that the additional year of schooling driven by the ROSLA reform diminished the importance of genetic predispositions for the risks of cancer and heart attack by 40%. The results offer new evidence on how environments moderate the inequalities in health that have been tilted from birth.

13 Apr
2023

The long-term impact of religion on social capital: lessons from post-war Czechoslovakia

Štěpán Mikula (MUNI) Library, Box 1 Personal website

We exploit a historical experiment that occurred in Czechoslovakia after World War Two to study the drivers of social capital accumulation in an extremely unfavorable environment. Between 1945 and 1948, the Sudetenland became the scene of ethnic cleansing, with the expulsion of nearly three million German speakers and the simultaneous influx of nearly two million resettlers. Focusing on the areas where at least 90 % of the population was forced to leave, we show that the municipalities hosting a church built before 1945 developed significantly higher social capital under the communist rule, which persisted after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the current days.

12 Apr
2023

Unsafe temperatures, unsafe jobs: The impact of weather conditions on work related injuries

Mattia Filomena (Masaryk University) ESF Room MT205 Personal website

We estimate the impact of temperatures on work related accident rates in Italy by using daily data on weather conditions matched to administrative daily data on work related accidents. The identification strategy of the causal effect relies on the plausible exogeneity of short-term daily temperature variations in a given spatial unit. We find that both high and cold temperatures impair occupational health by increasing workplace injury rates. The positive effect of warmer weather conditions on work related accident rates is larger for men, in manufacturing and service sectors, and for workplace injuries. Colder temperatures lead to a substantial increase in commuting accidents, especially during rainy days.

23 Feb
2023

The association between cognitive abilities, economic preferences and personality traits

Renata Kosíková (Masaryk University) Academic club

This paper examines how cognitive and non-cognitive abilities relate to economic preferences. Cognitive abilities are a comprehensive structure of abilities (attention, memory, intelligence, etc.) that are interconnected. From the existing literature, it follows that the level of cognitive abilities has an influence on the decision-making of individuals and can positively or negatively affect their incomes and future economic planning. However, the level of cognitive abilities is not enough to fully understand the individual and his decisions. For this reason, we will also focus on non-cognitive abilities in the research. These are most often characterized by personality traits that are commonly measured by the Big Five test. This test assesses the following personality traits – neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Personality traits are another factor that characterizes the overall individuality of a particular individual. However, it is currently unclear how non-cognitive abilities relate to economic preferences. In the presentation, we will introduce the study design and discuss how the relationship between cognitive abilities, personality traits and economic preferences will be investigated.

16 Feb
2023

Competition in the Czech energy sector

Jakub Chini (Masaryk University) Academic club

With its current skyrocketing prices, electricity costs became one of the most discussed issues over the past year as it is an essential input for any economic activity. Unlike private businesses or consumers, public institutions cannot purchase electricity freely but are bound by a procurement framework and rules on how electricity contracts need to be concluded.

In principle, a public institution can purchase electricity through public tenders or through commodities exchanges. The key question is how the lowest prices can be achieved and which of these procurement options – competition in public tenders or trades at the commodities exchanges – prompts the desired outcome. This contribution aims to investigate this empirically.

We collected unique data on public institutions’ energy contracts in Czechia between 2013 and 2021 from the Czech public registry of procurement deals. The data allows us to distinguish between contracts concluded through public tender or through commodities exchanges, identify the size of the contract and its final price.

Our results suggest that there is generally a higher degree of competition at the commodity exchanges in comparison to public tenders and that the prices at commodity exchanges are lower. Although many factors might result in lower prices, our analyses suggest that the competitiveness of the environment in public tenders and on the commodities exchanges is the main driving factor.

Our findings have important implications for how electricity – an essential production input – should be purchased by public institutions. The results point to possible saving for public institutions when purchasing energy on commodities exchange as compared to public tenders.

7 Feb
2023

Wealth inequality – survey experiment

Filip Červenka (Masaryk University) Academic club

The research explores relationship between perceived wealth inequality and political attitudes. Based on relative deprivation theory, I assume, that information treatment showing actual level of wealth inequality may increase willingness to take part in different political activities and even lead to higher level of anti-system attitudes. The aim of the presentation is to introduce preliminary results based on collected data and discuss possibilities for further research. Crucial areas to assess are the form of information treatment, and possible narrowing of the target group (from representative sample of Czech population to its specific parts, for example people living in peripheral regions).

12 Jan
2023

Options and Limits of Central Banks’ Policies in the Context of Climate Change

Marián Suchánek (Masaryk University) ESF MUNI, Academic club

In recent years, the debate about central banking and climate change has gained significant momentum. It can be said that central bankers and regulators reached a consensus that climate change will affect central banking but there seems to be no consensus on what should central banks do in reaction. This paper analyses the current debate about the so-called green central banking. It classifies policies of European central banks and prudential regulators that were applied, discussed, or proposed as a reaction to the phenomenon of climate change. The paper is based on annual reports and other official statements of these institutions which are analyzed by textual analysis. The classification should clarify the debate in a broader socio-economic context and offer a common language for climate change-related policies of central banks.

1 Dec
2022

Motivational Effects of Feeling Trusted

Diya Abraham (Masaryk University) S310 Personal website

I investigate how workers respond to learning that a manager trusts them less than she does their peers. In a laboratory experiment, responsibility for a manager’s earnings is divided unequally between two workers. I vary whether this responsibility allocation decision is made by the manager, or by a random device on the manager’s behalf. Importantly, being entrusted with more/less responsibility for the manager's payoff does not change the workers' wages. Despite this, I find that workers are less generous toward the manager when they are intentionally, as opposed to randomly, assigned a lower level of responsibility. This effect is mediated by the emotional response to learning that the manager chose to place her trust in the other worker. I find no positive effect of being entrusted with higher responsibility. My results demonstrate that managerial decisions that are materially irrelevant for workers can generate a negative reciprocal response if they reveal to the worker that she is less trusted relative to her peers.

24 Nov
2022

The Role of Social Identity and Perceived Discrimination in Human Capital Formation: Evidence from India

Isha Gupta (Masaryk University) ESF Room S311 Personal website

This study examines the role of historically defined social identity in human capital development over time by focusing on a region from India where social identities are defined along the lines of castes and religious groups. It investigates the evolution of gaps across social groups in children’s cognitive outcomes and parental investment in children’s education from ages 5 to 15. Significant gaps in test scores and parental investment are found between children from lower and upper Hindu castes. These gaps, which originate early in childhood and persist throughout the 10 years of the study period, cannot be completely explained by the differences in socioeconomic status across social groups. Moreover, the perception of social discrimination is also found to be a significant contributor to the gaps in cognitive outcomes and parental investment across social groups. While parents’ perceived social discrimination is associated with lower parental investment throughout childhood, it is negatively associated with children’s cognitive outcomes only at later ages.

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