infonet-economy

We examine how the numeracy level of employees influences the quality of their on-the-job decisions. Based on an administrative dataset of a retail bank we relate the performance of loan officers in a standardized math test to the accuracy of their credit assessments of small business borrowers. We find that loan officers with a high level of numeracy are more accurate in assessing...

Generous behaviour is known to increase happiness, which could thereby motivate generosity. In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging and a public pledge for future generosity to investigate the brain mechanisms that link generous behaviour with increases in happiness. Participants promised to spend money over the next 4 weeks either on others (experimental group)...

Not since the London Summit of in April 2009 has protectionism had such a high profile in the run-up to a G20 Leader’s Summit. President Trump’s America First policies have drawn sharp criticism from leaders of other G20 governments. Accusations and counter-accusations of unfair trading practices have become a regular occurrence. So as to shed light on competing claims, this Global...

We examine in this paper the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and CSR performance on firm value for S&P 500 firms from 2011 to 2014. We find that CSR disclosure is positively associated with firm value and that the effect of CSR disclosure on firm value is larger than the effect of CSR performance. On average, the overall firm value increase for one...

The aim of the paper is to foresee the constitutional and international status of Scotland and Northern Ireland following the triggering of the art. 50 Treaty of the European Union's (TEU) mechanism by the British Government, with a special focus on the possible termination of the free movement of goods within the British Isles.

Countries can challenge potential trade violations using the WTO's dispute settlement system, yet many policies that appear to violate WTO rules remain unchallenged, even when they have a significant economic impact. Why is this? We argue that the likelihood that a country challenges a protectionist policy is linked to how concentrated or diffuse the policy is. When a policy is...

Sowohl in der EU als auch in der Schweiz erfährt das Datenschutzrecht grundlegende Veränderungen. In der EU gilt die neue Datenschutz-Grundverordnung ab dem 25. Mai 2018, in der Schweiz wird es noch etwas länger dauern. Nach einem Überblick über die wichtigsten Neuerungen liegt der Fokus dieses Referats auf dem "Recht auf Datenübertragbarkeit". Nach der Datenschutz-...

This paper reviews the empirical literature on the links between finance and growth with a special focus on the empirical literature that has shown that the marginal contribution of financial depth to economic growth becomes negative in countries with large financial sectors (the "too much finance result"). It then assesses the empirical and theoretical validity of recent...

In one of his publications Aristotle states ”All human beings by their nature desire to know” [Kraut 1991]. This desire is initiated the day we are born and accompanies us for the rest of our life. While at a young age our parents serve as one of the principle sources for knowledge, this changes over the course of time. Technological advances and particularly the introduction of the...