Efficient Labor Force Participation with Search and Bargaining

A fixed wage is inefficient in a standard search model when workers endogenously separate from employment. We derive an efficient employment contract that involves agents paying a hiring fee (or bond) upon the formation of a match. We estimate the fixed wage and efficient contract assuming the hiring fee is unobservable, and find evidence to reject the efficient contract in favor of the fixed wage rule. A counterfactual experiment reveals the current level of labor force participation to be 9% below the efficient level, and a structural shift to the efficient contract improves welfare by nearly 4%.labor supply, unemployment, matching, efficiency wages

“I’m Lovin’ IT”: Toward a Technophilia Model of User Adaptation to ICT

This article expands the conceptual space of technophilia to encompass a broader range of positive emotions toward information and communications technology (ICT). Then, to accentuate the crucial role of technophilia in helping people proactively engage with dynamic ICT environments, we draw upon the broaden-and-build theory to illustrate how technophilia promotes momentary thought-action repertories, development and accumulation of enduring resources, and the enhancement of one’s adaption behaviors in a healthy, fruitful fashion. To fortify the existing broad-and-build theory, psychological capital is also employed to explain why a broad emotion-based technophilia concept is likely to influence user adaption behaviors. In future exploratory analyses, we hope to obtain adequate empirical results to support our nomological network of technophilia

A Meta-Analytic Review of More than a Decade of Research on General Computer Self-Efficacy: Research in Progress

In their seminal work, Compeau and Higgins (1995) provided the IS research community with a measure of computer selfefficacy (CSE) based on Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory. The use of this CSE measure has since flourished within various academic literatures. Recent research interest (Marakas, Johnson, & Clay, 2007; Thatcher, Zimmer, Gundlach et al., 2008), however, challenges the continued application and analysis of Compeau and Higgins’ (1995) measure despite its widespread adoption. This paper presents the results of a meta-analysis of general CSE provided through the foundation of technology adoption research. The results should create future dialogue regarding general CSE and its application. We show evidence of moderate associations (r = |0.32| to |0.59|) of general CSE with several technology adoption research constructs. Guidance is offered for future moderator analyses, which may likely provide empirical evidence for either the support or refutation of current research claims in regard to general CSE

Monopoly Power with a Short Selling Constraint

We show if a speculator can benefit from reducing a monopoly’s rents through short selling, then a speculator may take a short position in a monopoly, overcome the barriers to entry, and compete with the monopoly. The competition drives down the monopoly’s rents, and as a result, the short position becomes profitable and covers the cost of entry. If entry is impossible, then the speculator may coordinate and pay the firm’s counter-parties to stop trading with the monopoly rather than entering. Either way, increasing a speculator’s ability to short a firm’s rents results in a constraint on the monopoly and forces it to act more like a price taker. The mechanism is a market based approach to antitrust

Beyond Compliance: Empowering Employees’ Extra-Role Security Behaviors in Dynamic Environments

Information security policies are (ISP) used to guide employees in order to ensure information security while utilizing organizational information systems in the workplace. However, rigid compliance with ISP may not help employees and companies to confront emerging threats in the dynamic environment of modern security threats. ISP should be developed and improved according to the demands of implementers and in keeping with the changing security environment. To that end, we propose that employees\u27 extra-role behaviors - actions that may seem to go beyond requirements and limitations of security policies - can provide input into forming suitable and feasible security policies that provide insights against the emerging threats in the operating environment

Choice, Cyber Charter Schools, and the Educational Marketplace for Rural School Districts

Pennsylvania is a state with significant proportions of students who attend rural schools, as well as students who attend charter schools. This study examines enrollment patterns of students in brick and mortar and cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania and how these enrollment patterns differ across geographic locale. We analyze student-level enrollment data, controlling for demographic characteristics, and find that, in contrast to brick and mortar schools, cyber charter schools attract students from a variety of locales across the urban-rural continuum. However, rural students exhibit the greatest likelihood of attending cyber charter schools. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to educational equity, cyber charter school underperformance, and the fiscal impacts of charter schools on the budgets of small school districts

Labor force participation and pair-wise efficient contracts with search and bargaining

A “constant” wage is pair-wise inefficient in a standard search model when workers endogenously separate from employment. We derive a pair-wiseefficient employment contract that involves workers paying a hiring fee (or bond) upon the formation of a match. We estimate the constant wage and pair-wiseefficientcontract assuming the hiring fee is unobservable, and find evidence to reject the pair-wiseefficientcontract in favor of the constant wage rule. A counterfactual experiment reveals the current level of laborforceparticipation to be 9.6% below the efficient level, and a structural shift to the pair-wiseefficientcontract improves welfare by roughly 3.5%

Exploring Touch as a Positive Workplace Behavior

Whereas most research has focused on the negative aspects of touch in the workplace (i.e. sexual harassment), this study focuses upon the positive use of touch. In an effort to explain individual differences in the use of workplace touch, three sequential studies are used to introduce the concepts of workplace touch self-efficacy and workplace touch initiation anxiety. In Study 1 we develop scales to assess the constructs. Study 2 provides an initial examination of the construct validity of the measures developed in Study 1. Results of Study 3 indicate that supervisor reports of touch self-efficacy and physiological touch anxiety are related to subordinate reports of supervisor touch. Additionally, results show that supervisor use of touch is related to several indicators of supervisor social effectiveness. Finally, sex of the supervisor appears to play a role in workplace touch as female supervisors report less touch anxiety, greater touch self-efficacy and more use of touch than male supervisors

Fragmentation and the formation of primordial protostars: the possible role of Collision Induced Emission

The mechanisms which could lead to chemo-thermal instabilities and fragmentation during the formation of primordial protostars are investigated analytically. We introduce approximations for H2 cooling rates bridging the optically thin and thick regimes. These allow us to discuss instabilities up to densities when protostars become optically thick to continuum radiation (n~10^16 cm^-3). During the collapse, instability arises at two different stages: at low density (n~10^8-10^11 cm^-3), it is due to fast 3-body reactions converting H into H2; at high density (n>10^13 cm^-3), it is due to Collisional Induced Emission (CIE). In agreement with the 3D simulations, we find that the instability at low densities cannot lead to fragmentation, because fluctuations do not survive turbulent mixing, and because their growth is slow. The situation at high density is similar. The CIE-induced instability is as weak as the low density one, with similar ratios of growth and dynamical time scales. Fluctuation growth time is longer than free fall time, and fragmentation seems unlikely. One then expects the first stars to be massive, not to form binaries nor harbour planets. Nevertheless, full 3D simulations are required. They could become possible using simplified estimates of radiative transfer effects, which we show to work very well in the 1D case. This indicates that the effects of radiative transfer during the initial stages of formation of primordial protostars can be treated as local corrections to cooling. (Abridged)Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA

Modification of the halo mass function by kurtosis associated with primordial non-Gaussianity

We study the halo mass function in the presence of the kurtosis type of primordial non-Gaussianity. The kurtosis corresponds to the trispectrum as defined in Fourier space. The primordial trispectrum is commonly characterized by two parameters, $\tau_{\rm NL}$ and $g_{\rm NL}$. As applications of the derived non-Gaussian mass function, we consider the effect on the abundance of void structure, the effect on early star formation and on formation of the most massive object at high redshift. We show that by comparing the effects of primordial non-Gaussianity on cluster abundance with that on void abundance, we can distinguish between the skewness and the kurtosis types of primordial non-Gaussianity. As for early star formation, we show that the kurtosis type of primordial non-Gaussianity seems not to affect the reionization history of the Universe on average. However, at high redshifts (up to $z\simeq 20$) such non-Gaussianity does somewhat affect the early stages of reionization.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA