Calendrier du 16 septembre 2019
Roy Seminar (ADRES)
Du 16/09/2019 de 17:00 à 18:30
salle R1-09, campus Jourdan - 75014 Paris
HE Junnan (Sciences Po)
Rational Contextual Choices under Imperfect Perception of Attributes
The classical rational choice theory proposes that preferences are context-independent, e.g. independent of irrelevant alternatives. Empirical choice data, however, display several contextual choice effects that seem inconsistent with rational preferences. We study a choice model with a fixed underlying utility function and explain contextual choices with novel information friction: the agent’s perception of the options is affected by an attribute-specific noise. Under this friction, the agent learns useful information when she sees more options. Therefore, the agent chooses contextually, exhibiting intransitivity, joint-separate evaluation reversal, attraction effect, compromise effect, similarity effect, and phantom decoy effect. Nonetheless, because the noise is attribute-specific and common across alternatives, the agent’s choice is perfectly rational whenever an option clearly dominates others.
Texte intégral
Régulation et Environnement
Du 16/09/2019 de 12:00 à 13:00
salle R1-13, camppus Jourdan - 75014 Paris
MANARESI Francesco (Bank of Italy)
Born in Hard Times: Startups and Intangible Capital During the Financial Crisis
We show that the credit crunch of 2007-2013 favoured the adoption by startups of more efficient, intangible-intensive technologies. Using data for the universe of Italian corporations, we document that the cohorts of firms born during the crisis significantly increased their share of intangible capital relative to both incumbents and comparable young firms born before the crisis. Moreover, the entry rates of intangible-intensive startups decreased by less than those of other firms. We estimate that this selection is directly linked to the tightening of credit conditions. We use a firm dynamics model to unveil the mechanism behind these patterns.
Intangible goods make firms more efficient and profitable, reducing their demand of total capital and, crucially, their leverage at entry: this increases their resiliency to a financial shock. In the aggregate, a credit tightening changes the composition of new cohorts in favor of intangible-intensive producers, resulting in a persistent increase in their intangible capital accumulation.