Every Book You Take: Evaluating Compliance Behavior in an Information Commons

Abstract : There has been a heated debate related to the effects of business background on ethical behavior. According to some authors, students majoring in business courses – such as accounting, economics, and management – would be more likely to free ride or defect from coalitions in collective action situations, given the emphasis of such courses on individualistic values. Other authors have challenged that view, presenting empirical evidence that questions the link between business education and opportunistic behaviors. The present paper revisits this debate, by studying the impact of business education on rule compliance in a specific type of information commons (libraries). Employing a novel dataset related to more than 700,000 library transactions during a 10-year period (2006-2015), I correlate business background with users’ compliance behavior, while controlling for their time-invariant characteristics. I find no evidence of a significant effect of business education on rule compliance in this specific setting. The results reported in the paper have important implications for ethical theories in business and economics, with an emphasis on standard explanations of organizational behavior.

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The Economic Costs of Conflict: a Production Network Approach

Abstract : We provide new evidence on how conflict adversely affects economic outcomes. Specifically, we ask whether and how the production network is a first-order determinant of the propagation of conflict to firms outside of conflict zone. Using microdata on Indian manufacturing plants and geo-coded information on Maoist insurgency, we first provide an estimate of the direct exposure to conflict. Firms located in conflict affected areas suffer a loss of approximately 8% of their output. Estimating structurally a general equilibrium model of production networks, we then obtain an estimate for the overall macroeconomic impact of the Maoist insurgency by taking this propagation effects into account. We find that the Maoist insurgency resulted in an average yearly 1.5% decline in aggregate output of Indian’s manufacturing sector. Only the 40% of this loss is due to direct exposure to conflict, whereas the remaining 60% explained by the indirect exposure to conflict through the network production.

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Mitigating Negative Externalities Through Platform Governance: the Case of a Dock-less Bike Sharing in São Paulo City

Abstract : Urban mobility free-floating sharing services (e.g. cars, bikes, scooters) have recently emerged in several metro cities of the world, providing alternative individual transportation and affecting their citizens’ daily routine. In order to preserve the advantages and the sustainability of this typical self-service, opportunistic behaviors of its users must be constrained and collective actions incentivized. The governance of these services, enabled by new advances in information technology, has made the means available for the implementation of several strategies. But which are the most efficient to mitigate the negative externalities and improve the creation of value for the community of users and the entrepreneur? To answer this question this study analyzes the effects of changes in the rules of use of a dock-less bike sharing service in São Paulo city, Brazil, by adapting the Institutional Analysis Development (IAD) framework. A scientific insight enabled the empirical test of this new service through this traditional analytical tool to explain how its governance is capable of orchestrating exogenous and endogenous factors that influence its economic results. Apart from extending Polycentric Governance scientific practices to this new field of business strategy, this study also provides managerial contributions.

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