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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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22 April - 2:00 PM | ESF Room S311 | Ellie Ismagilova | Personal website | Swansea University
“Climate Change Is Not Real!” – Investigating the Role of Social Media Message Formats in Climate Change Misinformation
In today's world, social media is a major source of information for many people. However, not all information on social media is accurate, and misinformation can spread quickly, especially on important topics like climate change. This study aims to examiner how social media message formats (text, picture and video) affect climate change perception and behaviours. A mixed-method study with participants from UK and Mexico was conducted. The study found that misinformation reduces the credibility of social media posts in all formats (text, picture, video). Accurate posts about climate change prompted people to think about taking action to protect the environment. In contrast, misinformation posts made some people believe that climate change is not caused by humans and therefore not their problem to fix. Finally, it was found that higher social media literacy generally helps people recognise misinformation, especially in pictures. However, surprisingly, those with higher social media literacy might find video misinformation more credible. The study significantly advances our understanding of the interplay between message formats, misinformation, and social media's impact on climate change perceptions.
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23 April - 11:00 AM | Online | Han Zhou | Monash Business School, Department of Banking and Finance
Shifting Paradigms in Bank-Firm Relationships: Post-GFC Dynamics in the Syndicated Loan Market
This paper examines post-Global Financial Crisis changes in the relevance of bank capitalization and firms’ unrated status in determining bank-firm matching in the U.S. syndicated loan market. Since 2010, the expansion of the bond market and persistently low interest rates have weakened the traditional ties between unrated firms and well-capitalized banks. Improved bond market access reduces the incentive for unrated firms to borrow from well-capitalized banks, while lower-capitalized banks, in search of higher yields, increasingly lend to these firms. Notably, during the COVID-19 crisis, matching with well-capitalized banks did not influence unrated firms’ credit access, as stricter capital requirements had enhanced the lending capacity of lower-capitalized banks.
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23 April - 12:00 PM | ESF Academic Club | Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Bamakan | Masaryk University - Department of Business Management
Distributed and trustworthy digital twin platform based on blockchain and Web3 technologies
The fourth industrial revolution has significantly increased the adoption of (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 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 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.
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24 April - 11:00 AM | ESF Large Conference Room | Andrea Piano Mortari | Personal website | Tor Vergata University of Rome
Microsimulation as a tool for policy making: Insights from the EUFEM model
Microsimulation models have become indispensable tools in evaluating the dynamic impact of policy interventions across Europe, the United States and other countries. This seminar introduces the principles and advantages of policy microsimulation, with a particular focus on the European Future Elderly Model (EUFEM).
EUFEM enables the integration of longitudinal and cross-sectional data to simulate the consequences of policy interventions in healthcare, labor markets, and social protection systems.
Drawing on results from recent applications—including disease burden estimation, LTC policies and prevention startegies—this talk illustrates how EUFEM supports policy evaluation in a controlled, data-rich environment. Particular attention will be paid to methodological choices, validation strategies, and the challenges of aligning health and economic models with real-world applications, e.g. in heart disease, diabetes, obesity and other areas.
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24 April - 2:00 PM | ESF Room MT205 | Flaurent Laroche | Personal website | Universite Lumiere Lyon 2
Goodbye monopoly: the effect of open access passenger rail competition on price and frequency in France on the High-Speed Paris-Lyon Line
The Paris-Lyon line is the busiest High-Speed Line in Europe and has been open to competition in open access since December 18, 2021. The main objective of the paper is to explore the effects for users with respect to price and frequency compare with the existing literature. The analysis is based on a large database (n = 1243) collected by web scraping from September 2019 to October 2022. The method relies on a descriptive analysis with a similar route without competition (Paris-Bordeaux) in the comparison group. The results highlight an increase of frequency by 15% and a decrease in price by 23%. The prices charged by the newcomer are lower than those of the incumbent (−30% to −50%). The comparison with the control route suggests a positive effect on price that moderates the economic catch-up effect following the COVID-19 pandemic in an inflationary context. More specifically, SNCF appears to take a wait and see attitude to competitive pressure from Trenitalia. It has moderated its prices since the new offer was introduced and has maintained its trains.
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25 April - 10:00 AM | ESF Room P302a | Jiaqi Zhao | Personal website | Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
Shareholder activism: Blessing or affliction for incumbent CEOs?
We examine the CEO career consequences following shareholder activism in their companies. To address endogeneity, we employ a control function approach, using expected mutual fund flow-induced sales and purchases as exclusion restrictions. We show that CEOs targeted by activists are more likely to be dismissed earlier and less likely to retain internal executive board positions than non-targeted CEOs. We also find significant decreases in their remuneration, while their outside board seats remain unaffected. These effects vary across campaign hostility, activist types, and CEOs’ ex-ante resistance. Hostile campaigns and campaigns involving hedge funds impose more adverse career effects, though anticipated CEO resistance deters activism and mitigates negative effects from hedge fund involvement in non-hostile campaigns.
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29 April - 12:00 PM | ESF Room S311 | Ugo Fratesi | Personal website | Politecnico di Milano
On the mechanics of S3: firm competitiveness and territorial employment growth
Smart specialisation strategies involve selective interventions in firms, expecting that these will spread to the wider local economic system (“entry” mechanism). This mechanism is tested here, examining the link between firm competitiveness, industry specialization, and territorial growth at a small functional spatial scale. With a novel counterfactual methodology, this analysis supports that it is meaningful to target firm competitiveness to improve territorial employment, since, in places and industries where individual firms are more competitive, more jobs are created locally. Furthermore, while specialisation in general is not significant, positive effects exist for sectors involved in regional S3.
Authors: Federico Fantechi and Ugo Fratesi
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29 April - 1:00 PM | ESF Large meeting room of the Dean's Office (2nd floor) | Joacim Larsson von Garaguly, Victoria Kihlström, Ravi Dar | Dalarna University
Case Studies in Commercialization and Institutional Evolution
This joint presentation of four research projects explores how institutions and markets evolve through processes of commercialization, innovation, and adaptation. The first study examines the transformation of a traditional nonprofit ski race into a major commercial event, highlighting the commercialization and professionalization of sports. The second study investigates how state interventions in solar energy markets both disrupt traditional market mechanisms and create new opportunities, focusing on how market actors respond to these transitions. The third study explores the concept of "hype" in management, using the case of Business Intelligence to illustrate the tension between technological control and market-driven innovation. The fourth study analyzes the introduction of digital reporting in Swedish road construction projects, where state-led environmental requirements elicit mixed reactions from contractors—ranging from proactive engagement to skeptical resistance.
- The commercialization and professionalization of sports: The Vasaloppet case (Joacim Larsson von Garaguly)
- Market construction for solar energy – actors and activities (Victoria Kihlström)
- What is a Hype? (Ravi Dar)
- The State as a driver of Innovation (Ravi Dar)
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29 April - 5:00 PM | Mendel Museum´s Augustinian Abbey Refectory at Mendel Square | Roland Sturm | Personal website | RAND Corporation
Advances in Healthcare Modeling: Microsimulation as a Tool for Applied Research
Although the concept of using individual-level simulations to analyze economic and demographic trends dates back to the 1950s, it was only after advances in computing that microsimulation became a practical tool for research. Today, microsimulation is not just a fallback when traditional methods do not work—it has become a key approach for studying issues related to health care, labor markets, demography, employment, public finance. This method naturally fits with economic theories that focus on individual decision-making instead of broad aggregates. In this presentation, we will review the evolution of dynamic social science microsimulation, discuss situations where it offers valuable insights, and explore some current applications in RAND research in areas such as aging, diabetes care, lifestyle interventions, drug policy, and climate change.
More information about the event : https://hepii.econ.muni.cz/udalosti/roland-sturm-advances-in-healthcare-modeling-microsimulation-as-a-tool-for-applied-research-muni-seminar-series
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15 May - 2:00 PM | ESF Room MT205 | Caterina Pavese | Personal website | ifo/LMU Munich
Integrated vs. Separated Schooling for Refugee Children: Long-Term Effects on Education and Assimilation
The large influx of refugees over recent decades challenges many Western countries to devise effective policies for long-term integration. A key policy question is whether refugee children should be directly integrated into native schools or initially separated into migrant schools. In the Netherlands, refugee children arriving at primary-school age are taught either in integrated or separated schools depending on their randomly assigned municipality, whereas all secondary-school-aged arrivals are initially separated. We exploit this setting in a novel difference-in-differences framework, leveraging rich administrative data. Results indicate that on average, integrated primary schooling increases cultural assimilation as measured by hormonal-contraceptive usage but decreases educational outcomes at age 18. The negative educational effects are restricted to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, whereas the positive assimilation effects are strongest for children from advantaged backgrounds.
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