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Dear colleague,
join us for the upcoming MUES seminars. All seminars are conducted in English and are comprised of a 50-minute presentation followed by a 10-minute discussion session. These seminars are open to the public, and we warmly welcome spontaneous attendance. If you would like to have a bilateral conversation with any of our guests, join us for lunch, or attend the dinner with guests, please let us know in advance.
With best wishes,
MUES team
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Internal Research Seminar - Finance | 08 October - 12:00 PM | ESF Academic Club | Štefan Lyócsa | Department of Finance
The Corporate Undead: Governance, Gender, and Foreign Capital in Zombie Firms
We examine the determinants of zombie firms in Slovakia using almost 500,000 firm–year observations. Zombie status is identified under two definitions (Favara and Storz), and we apply cost-weighted logistic regression, double machine learning, and heterogeneity analysis by sector and firm size. We find that financial performance is decisive – low returns on assets, low efficiency, low effective tax rates, and high reliance on tangible collateral significantly increase the probability of zombification. Governance factors play a secondary but still relevant role. Foreign ownership and multiple directors raise zombie risk, while owner–director overlap consistently lowers it. These effects are concentrated in small firms, particularly in manufacturing and services sectors, whereas large firms show weaker patterns. Finally, the choice of definition matters – under Favara, governance effects are largely absent, but under Storz, they become substantial and policy-relevant. Our findings suggest that regulators and lenders should monitor both financials and governance, especially in small firms with high collateral, to limit resource misallocation and reduce zombie survival.
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Research Seminar - Economics | 09 October - 2:00 PM | Hybrid meeting room (2nd floor) | Yuval Arbel | Personal website | Western Galilee College
Does Obesity Create a relative sense of excess poverty?
Background: This study investigates the potential relationship between obesity and self-ranking of poverty, as a proxy for self-awareness and happiness. To the best of our knowledge, this issue has not been previously explored based on self-ranking of poverty when income is controlled. Method: Ordered Probit Regressions. We propose a new measure for the influence of western social values and norms associated with discrimination against obese women. Results: Based on a follow-up survey after two years, findings demonstrate a drop in the projected probability of self-ranking as “not poor” with the BMI from 0.73 to 0.37 (females) – 0.48 (males) when the level of income is controlled. Similar outcomes are obtained when the independent variables are lagged and thus avoid endogeneity concerns. Finally, additional outcomes support the conclusion that the lagged BMI Granger-cause self-ranking of poverty for women, but not for men. Findings support the awareness of more obese women to lower prospects of finding a job. Conclusion: Since according to twin studies, approximately 80% of obesity emanates from genetic factors, research findings stress the need to educate the public against prejudices on the grounds of obesity. In particular, our study seeks to evoke awareness among potential employers, which, in turn, might motivate avoidance of, or at least reduction in, an implicit wage penalty against obese women.
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Research Seminar - Economics | 16 October - 2:00 PM | Hybrid meeting room | Marc Kaufmann | Personal website | Central European University
TBA_
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Research Seminar - Economics | 23 October - 2:00 PM | Hybrid meeting room | Ernesto Reuben | Personal website | New York University Abu Dhabi
Gender biases in job referrals
Job referrals through informal networks are an essential channel for disseminating information about the qualifications of job candidates. As such, they play a crucial role in determining the outcomes of hiring and promotion decisions. In this paper, we study gender biases in the referral process. We investigate this question through an online experiment in which university students are asked to nominate their highest-scoring classmates in either a math or a verbal task. Using administrative data, we reconstruct the students’ co-enrollment network. This allows us to identify who is chosen as well as everyone else who was not. In other words, we can measure the quality of the referrals and the characteristics of candidates who are better but not chosen. We find that participants are more likely to refer men than equally qualified women in the math task but not in the verbal task. This difference is partly explained by gender differences in network structure, i.e., who is linked with whom. However, equally important are gender biases in the referral of known contacts.
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Research Seminar - Economics | 30 October - 2:00 PM | Hybrid meeting room | Wieland Müller | Personal website | University of Vienna & Tilburg University
Distinguishing Non-Stationarity from Inconsistency in Intertemporal Choice
We investigate whether departures from stationary intertemporal preferences, as identified in parametric estimations, reflect genuine nonstationarity in time preferences or arise from inconsistent or error-prone choice. Using data from a controlled lab experiment with a large number of intertemporal choices per subject, we applied nonparametric revealed preference tests to evaluate whether subjects’ behavior satisfies utility maximization and stationarity. We find that apparent violations of stationarity in parametric estimations are often better explained by misidentification due to inconsistency of choices with utility maximization or misspecification of the functional form, rather than by true nonstationary time preferences.
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Research Seminar - Economics | 30 October - 3:00 PM | Hybrid meeting room | Liliana Harding | Personal website | University of East Anglia
Transit Countries Become Refugee Destinations: Insights from Central and Eastern European countries
This paper examines how refugees' destinations and preferences evolve, focusing on Central and Eastern European countries. While our research findings are focussed on Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary—regarded as ‘transit only countries’ prior to the Ukraine refugee crisis - we consider potential lessons to be drawn for more recent refugee inflows. Using a mixed-methods approach we show that prioritising safety significantly increases the likelihood of asylum seekers reconsidering a transit or temporary migration country as a settlement destination. Other influential factors include asylum conditions, migration costs, and educational background, with more educated individuals more likely to revise initial plans. Although our primary focus is on asylum seekers, we find that high migration costs affect decisions on destinations, suggesting a need to ‘recover’ investments through settlement in more stable or economically attractive countries. The qualitative findings support the results, highlighting the role of legal stability, social networks, and perceived opportunity in shifting preferences for settlement. Finally, as the Czech Republic hosts most Ukrainian refugees per capita relative to its population, with a high share of women migrants, we add a reflection on the gendered aspects of migration, linking our research to the wider literature on the topic.
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