Motivating through Managing by Walking Around

In this paper, we analyze the motivational effects of managing by walking around (MBWA), a management style that emphasizes managers’ unstructured visits to the rank and file of the company. We do so by conducting a field experiment in the retail division of a medium-sized bank located in Latin America. We find that branches increase their sales productivity by a significant ten percent in the window following the management visit, an effect that persists for at least a month after the event. Contrary to our expectations, we do not find that the incentive effect of the visit is stronger for those branches located further away from the bank’s headquarters

The Geography E-Commerce: Evidence from eBay and MercadoLibre

We analyze geographic patterns of trade using transactions data from eBay and MercadoLibre, two large online auction sites. We find that distance continues to be an important deterrent to trade between geographically separated buyers and sellers, though at a lesser extent than has been observed in studies of non-Internet commerce. We also find a strong 'home bias' towards trading with counterparties located in the same city. Further analyses suggest that cultural factors and the possibility of direct contract enforcement in case of breach are the main reasons behind the same city bias

The Geography E-Commerce: Evidence from eBay and MercadoLibre

We analyze geographic patterns of trade using transactions data from eBay and MercadoLibre, two large online auction sites. We find that distance continues to be an important deterrent to trade between geographically separated buyers and sellers, though at a lesser extent than has been observed in studies of non-Internet commerce. We also find a strong 'home bias' towards trading with counterparties located in the same city. Further analyses suggest that cultural factors and the possibility of direct contract enforcement in case of breach are the main reasons behind the same city bias