This study analyses the influence of the institutional environment on firms´ capital structure in the European Union (EU). Unlike other research papers we focus on private firms and include data that have been sourced from all countries belonging to the EU during the period 2010 to 2018. We split the sample between small and large firms and conjectured that institutional effects on financing policies vary with size those effects being greater for the former group as it faces more information asymmetry problems. Applied regression models also control for firm-level characteristics and relevant macroeconomic factors. Our findings reveal that high quality of the regulatory environment such as the legal rights of borrowers and lenders negatively affects firms’ leverage. Moreover, the efficiency on the enforcement of commercial contracts positively influences firms´ leverage. Lastly, the development of the financial system and bank concentration seem to directly affect firms´ financing policies.
Thomas Dobbelstein, Professor Baden Württemberg Cooperative State University, Germany. Title: The Influence of Personality Traits of Millennials on the Buying Behaviour during the Covid 19 Pandemic – A Comparative Study between South Africa and Germany.
Germany, as a developed country, and South Africa as a developing country felt devastating impacts during COVID—19, especially in the retailing industry. The research analyzes the changes in shopping behaviour of millennials, born 1980 – 2002, before, during and after the lockdown in South Africa and Germany. It takes a look at different product categories, like groceries, toiletries, personnel protective equipment and alcohol. General personality traits of the millennials like well-being & optimism or self-consciousness are measured based on exploratory factor analysis, also corona specific personality traits like fear & hurdle or stress. Based on regression analyses the influences of the general and Corona specific personality traits on buying behaviour in the selected product categories before, during and after lockdown are analyzed. The data was collected online between 30.07.20 and 21.08.20 using an online access panel in South Africa and a convenience sample in Germany. In Germany the population consists of all millennials, in South Africa it concentrates on millennials belonging to the wealthier LSM (Living Standard Measure) groups 7 – 10. Quotas for age, gender and income are used in both countries. The final analysis after quality checks is based on 949 participants in Germany and 676 in South Africa. The shopping behaviour of the millennials shows significant changes during the three stages for many product categories (partly based on legal regulations during the lock down stage), as well as significant differences between the countries. Salient results are e.g.: In both countries, food & groceries are generally purchased more, in South Africa significantly more than in Germany. The volume of food & groceries purchases in both countries is declining throughout the course of the pandemic. In both countries clothing is generally purchased less. The volume of clothing purchases in both countries is declining before and during lock down and increasing afterwards, but not reaching the level before Corona. Personal Protective Equipment and Medical supplies are generally purchased more during all three stages. The volume of purchase in Germany is – after a high start before lock down – declining in the course of the pandemic, while South Africa reaches its peak during the lockdown. Corona specific personality traits show very different results. The fear & hurdle dimension is much higher in South Africa than in Germany; stress slightly higher. Fear and hurdle also have a highly significant influence on the buying behaviour of different product groups like groceries, toiletries, personnel protective equipment and alcohol– with high differences between Germany and South Africa. During all three stages fear & hurdle show a positive, highly significant influence on buying alcoholic beverages. Referring to the personality trait stress, results are contrary: higher levels of stress lead to higher purchase of alcoholic beverages in all three stages. The better understanding of the buying behaviour of millennials and the personality traits which drive their behavior guides retailers in their marketing, e.g. by addressing specific personality traits to increase sales during a pandemic. It is also the foundation for governments for creating legal restrictions during a pandemic.
Stephane Fotis Roume, Assistant Lecturer, University of West Indies, France. Title: Security Bubble Over.
As Constant rightly told us in the XIXth century, the liberty of the Moderns is a special kind of liberty. This liberty ¬¬– we will keep in mind for all the paper – is a right to be subjugated only by Laws and to be able to conduct our own affairs in security which is, in this point of view, progress. We will not discuss here about the interrelation between one’s own interests and Laws. Our main point will be focused on the idea of this security which, from a medium to achieve our interests, seems to have become an end in itself. This can even be contradicting its original purpose. Then, we will focus on this concept of security in two points concerning a representation of security (I) and some effects of its overweighting (II). For this paper, we were highly inspired by classical authors ( Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, David Hume, Etienne de la Boétie…) but their light can be ever more brighter as their reflexions or observations can be more and more contemporary. I – Security : a liberty’s present… As we told it, in Constant’s perspective, liberty is a right guaranteed by Laws. This kind of liberty cannot be possible if there is no security with it. How could we be sure achieve our interests if we are not secure? Therefore, Laws are a protection of each of our own sphere. Then the phenomenon of security in the world we live can be represented like a bubble in which each person is. A perfect security or a perfect bubble is as much a part of the Champagne as a contradiction of this same. In it, we can live safely, healthy and do what we want, organising and ordering everything: indeed, in a system of laws, all what is not determinated is allowed. Like this, each can achieve his interests without greatly disturbing the other’s ones – and we can still have the Legislation or the Legislator as the arbitrator. Currently, security is a foundation of a viable economic system. However, it is also highly dependent of its own context. It is an answer as well a way of living inside and outside the ‘real’ world. This approach is simply utilitarianism, an approach of fictions where bureaucracy has a solely positive role. This approach of fictions, according to David Hume and Jeremy Bentham, does not mean that nothing is real but that everything we use to live, by habit, can become real. Then, a story of causalities can be told – and it really matters who narrates – in which we can believe until we live new experiences. II – … or an omnipresence This habit of a continuous story in a confined place can even make us lose our own liberty of judgment, in which we are ruled without recognizing it. We can also lose our martial spirit, a kind of new bond in this bubble of contentment. At the same time, we can forget the reason of existence of this bubble world, just needing new tales, positive or negative – without martial spirit, we have forgotten that each can be part of the narrowing for protecting his interests for example. Instead of that, while each bubble seems to constrict more and more, we are living probably a different level of security, with which Constant would disagree. In his speech, he emphasised the possibility of use and abuse of our own property as a guarantee, which is hardly imaginable today. Even choosing our own industry is more and more a struggle at least in France, where education is more and more predestined for example. Even for our grammar or our style or our thinking, the politiquement correct is already present in our writing programs… What we have lived for months for our own sanitary security is just the continuation of this evolution.
Lazar Djurovic, Teaching Assistant, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Miroslav Todorovic, Full Professor, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Title: Why Corporate Governance cannot be Improved Easily: A Behavioural Perspective.
Despite more than two decades of intense efforts to improve the functioning of the board of directors as a proclaimed essential mechanism of corporate governance for value creation and/or prevention of value destruction by management, fierce criticism of the role of this key control mechanism of a modern corporation is not rare. Criticism goes to extremes that the boards are declared as unusable and guilty of destroying the American economy, which cost citizens trillions of dollars. In this paper, we consider the most significant behavioural phenomena which can significantly affect the behaviour of each board member, but also the behaviour of the board as a group. Excessive self-confidence of board members, group thinking, the casino effect of prospect theory, aversion to loss, etc. can seriously jeopardize the effectiveness of the board on both fields: performing the monitoring function and shaping incentives for management. Moreover, the dynamics of the group that connects board members can often make them blind to their mistakes and failures. The board may be prone to make obviously wrong decisions due to the mere tendency to maintain the cohesion and homogeneity of the group. Studying behavioural perspective is very important, because a better understanding of the cognitive biases and psychological traps that board members fall into could remove the obvious obstacles that undermine the improvement of corporate governance today.
Viktar Dudzich, PhD Student, Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic. Title: The FDI Home Country Impact on the Productivity of the Hosts.
Timothy M. Young, Director, Center for Data Science (CDS) & Professor and Graduate Director, The University of Tennessee, USA. Ampalavanar Nanthakumar, Professor, State University of New York at Oswego, USA. Title: ‘Copula’ Based Quality Control Charts in the Presence of Positive Autocorrelation.
Advanced manufacturing for a multitude of continuous processing applications in the era of automation and ‘Industry 4.0’ is focused on rapid throughput with products of acceptable quality to customer specifications. Monitoring the stability and statistical control of key process parameters using data acquired from online sensors is fundamental to manufacturing automation. This study addresses the significant problem of positive autocorrelation in data collected from online sensors which may impair assessment of statistical control. Sensor data collected at short time intervals typically have significant autocorrelation and traditional statistical process control (SPC) techniques cannot be deployed. There is a plethora of literature on techniques for SPC in the presence of positive autocorrelation. This paper is unique and contributes to the literature by investigating the performance of a ‘Copula’ based control charts by assessing the average run length (ARL) when the subsequent observations are correlated and follow the AR(1) model. The conditional distribution of yt given yt-1 is used in deriving the control chart limits for three different types of Copulas: Gaussian, Clayton, and Farli-Gumbel-Morgenstern Copulas. Preliminary results suggest that the overall performance of the Clayton Copula and Farli-Gumbel-Morgenstern Copula are better compared to other Archimedean Copulas. The Clayton Copula is the more robust with respect to changes in the process standard deviation as the correlation coefficient increases.
Farida Said, Associate Professor, LMBA Laboratory, University of South Brittany, France. Title: Towards Generating Real-World Datasets for Teaching Statistics in Industrial Engineering. 10. Sheikh Sha.
Introduction : Driven by digital transformation, companies are nowadays producing large amounts of data. In industrial activities, for example, the increasing use of connected devices or interconnected machines contributes to this data abundance. However, very few enterprise datasets are made freely available which results in a serious lack of open real data for research and education. In this paper, we present a simulation tool that was developed to simulate different scheduling scenarios in a manufacturing environment. The generated data may be used for the purpose of designing a more cost-effective strategy for optimizing some type of performance measure, such as reducing production time, improving quality, eliminating wastes, maximizing profit… We propose to present some practical cases of use of this tool to support industrial engineering students in their learning of statistics and data mining techniques.
Sheikh Shahriar Ahmed, Graduate Research Assistant University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, USA. Title: Accounting for Multilayered Unobserved Heterogeneity in Bivariate Probit Modeling with the Grouped Random Parameters Bivariate Probit Model with Heterogeneity in Means.
In the statistical and econometric modeling literature, the analysis of two interdependent binary dependent variables is usually conducted through a bivariate probit modeling approach. In this modeling framework, two separate equations are estimated while accounting for the contemporaneous cross-equation error correlation arising from the presence of commonly shared unobserved characteristics affecting both dependent variables. However, the traditional fixed parameters approach is inherently incapable of accounting for several methodological challenges arising from the presence of systematic unobserved variations across the data (also known as unobserved heterogeneity), as well as from the presence of unbalanced panels across the data. Not accounting for these issues may result in model misspecification and biased parameter estimates, and subsequent misleading inferences. To address these methodological challenges, we propose the incorporation of grouped random parameters with heterogeneity in means in the bivariate probit modeling framework. The grouped random parameters approach allows for estimating observational unit specific coefficients, which account for unbalanced panel effects. Furthermore, the heterogeneity in means approach allows for unveiling the effects of explanatory parameters on the mean values of the random parameters. The proposed approach is demonstrated by analyzing public perceptions towards safety and security related concerns that may arise from the future use of autonomous vehicles. The data consist of survey responses from 584 participants from the United States collected through an online survey, which was distributed by 34 individuals. The number of collected responses by each of the 34 survey collectors varied between 2 and 33, thus forming unbalanced panels in the collected data. The model estimation results indicated that the proposed grouped random parameters with heterogeneity in means approach results in statistically significant improvements in model fit, and sheds additional light on the collector-specific heterogeneity through the estimated grouped random parameters and heterogeneity in means coefficients.
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:30 Codruta Simona Stoica, Head, Mathematics & Statistics Unit, ATINER & Professor and Vice-Rector, Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania. Title: An Alternative Approach to Difference Equations by Evolution Cocycles.
Given the results of recent years, the mathematical models for various phenomena issued from economics, engineering or biology, which are constantly growing in sophistication, can be also approached by studying the associated evolution equations and discrete-time dynamical systems by means of evolution families. One of the important steps in the domain of evolution equations is due to D.B. Henry, who, in 1981, studied the property of dichotomy in the discrete setting. In the spirit of O. Perron’s classical theory initiated in 1930, D.B. Henry characterizes the existence and invariance at perturbations of the property of exponential dichotomy for families of evolution operators in terms of input-output type conditions. With respect to the results obtained in this field, we consider in this paper the notion of discrete-time evolution cocycle in Banach spaces. A unified treatment for some uniform asymptotic properties, such as growth and stability, is emphasized. We also propose a new concept of exponential dichotomy. The main results are extensions in the discrete setting for some well-known results of the stability theory.
14:30-15:00 Milica Stojanović, Professor, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Title: 3-Triangulations of P-toroids.
There are examples of non-convex polyhedra showing that it is not possible to make their decomposition into tetrahedra. Opposite, it is known that we can always divide convex polyhedra into tetrhedra. Such process is known as 3-triangulation. Polyhedra topologically equivalent to sphere with p handles, shortly p-toroids, could not be convex. So, here we shall investstigate possibilities of their 3-triangulations and if some exists, its properties. It is of interest the minimal necessary number of tetrahedra for the 3-triangulation of a 3-triangulable p-toroid. For that purpose we shall develop the concepts of piecewise convex polyhedra and of graph of connection. Also, some interesting examples will be shown.
15:00-15:30
Erh-Tsung Chin, Associate Professor, National Chunghua University of Education, Taiwan. Shih Yu Yang, Graduate Student, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan. Hui-Ling Lee, Junior High School Teacher, Taiwan. Title: Action Research of the Influence of Class Group Division Teaching on the Mathematical Learning Motivation and Achievements of Junior High School Low-achievers.
This study is a portfolio record of the process about the class group division teaching from a junior high school mathematics teacher. It explores the difficulties encountered by low-achieving students as well as the corresponding teaching strategies, and addresses the influence on their mathematical learning motivation and achievement during the class group division teaching. The research subjects are 22 mathematics low-achieving students in the researcher’s teaching school. They are from three tutors including another two mathematics teachers of the same grade. Student mathematics scores are ranked from high to low, and the low achievement group comes from the lower quarter of the whole samples. A one-year, one-class-per-week, and two-stages action research from the seventh to the eighth semester is conducted. Data collection and analysis are mainly based on quantitative data, supported by qualitative data. The quantitative data include a mathematics learning motivation questionnaire and the student mathematics sectional examinations, while the qualitative data include student worksheets, teacher reflective diary, and semi-structured interview record. The results of the analysis also present evidence from quantitative and qualitative data to provide a detailed explanation of the research questions in this study. Three major research findings show that: 1. Under the class group division teaching, teachers can design classroom activities through different teaching strategies, which can help both teaching and learning for students. 2. The class group division teaching can enhance the mathematics learning motivation of low-achieving students. 3. The class group division teaching can improve the mathematics learning achievements of low-achieving students. According to the results of the study, suggestions are made for school administration, parents of students, the class group division teaching, low-achieving students’ teaching and future research, and references are given to teachers and researchers who want to conduct the class group division teaching.
15:30-16:00
Miemie Struwig, Professor, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. Title: Working Capital Management Research in South Africa During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
This study provides a critical analysis of working capital management (WCM) research in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted every aspect of human life, from health to the economic system. Businesses need to respond swiftly to the extreme changes, and adopt a proactive approach to working capital, to ensure a greater chance of successfully overcoming the many challenges. This research uses five stages to investigate WCM research and critically analyses and proposes ways to deal with WCM during each stage. The first stage deals with the global recession of 2008 and thereafter. The second involves managing working capital during the pandemic; thirdly during extreme change; and fourthly post-pandemic. It concludes with managing working capital in the new economic order. Samples of research outputs for each stage were used for critical analysis through a systematic analysis process. The results show that research into WCM after the 2008 global recession mostly focused on how businesses could mitigate the impact of the crisis itself and buffer themselves against future crises. During pandemics, there are three key steps that should be considered by management teams who seek to stabilise their cash positions. When experiencing extreme changes, such as economic downturns and sudden demand or supply shocks, businesses need to cushion them. Post pandemic working capital research focus is on demand volatility and workforce safety. Finally, in a new economic order, digital transformation shifts as well as effective cash management necessary to alleviate volatile supply chains, are important. The global coronavirus pandemic has produced a humanitarian crisis unlike anything before, with sudden and dramatic disruptions across all industries and markets. This research produces some insight into how to manage the short-term finances of a business during these phases.
16:00-16:30
Stavroula Kalogeras, Associate Professor, University of Plymouth, UK. Title: SmartBrands: The Story of Purpose and Mindful Branding in a Digital World.
The study explores how brands can become learning cultures and deliver knowledge products through conversations, connections, and community. The research considers how social networking sites and transmedia storytelling can support social learning. The work examines the concept of learning content developed by enterprises to provide a competitive and sustainable advantage while benefiting society. The future brands will achieve sustainable development through business practice, innovation, digital technologies, and transmedia branded stories. Brands that create meaningful conversations and deliver informative and educational content can be considered SmartBrands. SmartBrands leverage the digital space, and that includes networks and platforms. Human development is far more critical than possessions characterized by consumerism, which encourages goods and services. Yet, the two can coexist for the positive evolution of humankind. The discourse considers brand purpose, brand value, coherency, and resilience. The attributes of purpose driven companies are the leaders behind them interested in raising the bar and making a difference in people’s lives. The story of purpose resides at the intersection of a company’s authentic reason for being and the unmet needs of humans. Brand leadership is vital in divided times, and it is imperative to create a new narrative that unites. High character leaders build SmartBrands with a mission beyond monetary profit, and these brands focus on self-development and intellectual growth where all of humanity can thrive.
16:30-17:00
Radmila Janicic, Professor, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Title: Strategic Marketing Planning in Brand Building of Arts and Cultural Institutions.
17:00-17:30
Aarron Toal, Research Associate, Durham University, UK. Title: Examining the Country-of-Origin Effect Through the Lens of Evolutionary Psychology.
17:30-18:00
Marilia (Maria) Kountouridou, PhD Candidate, European University, Cyprus, Cyprus. Title: Brand Building in Higher Education: A Grounded Theory Investigation of the Impact of “Positive Visualisation Courses Upon Brand Identity”.
Globalisation has rapidly changed the business environment and inevitable as it was, managed to affect the university sector as well. The higher education sector is comparable to businesses and as a result, they face the same challenges. It is a key implication for universities to focus on developing a strong and successful brand image. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether ‘‘positive visualization courses in brand identity’’ can affect a freshmen’s perception towards a university brand image. Taking into consideration the research question, a qualitative approach has been selected as the most suitable for this study. The proposed methodology for the study of the aforementioned area is Grounded theory. In order to collect data, an experiment will be carried out where positive visualization courses in brand identity will be conducted among first-year university students where the brand personality, past achievements, its values, its philosophy, and its mission will be highlighted.
18:00-18:30
Jerome Henry, Principal Advisor, European Central Bank, Germany. Title: Reflections on Macroprudential Reverse Stress-testing.
The Corona crisis has unique features, eg its severity went far beyond previously conducted system-wide stress test scenarios, and it is characterised by an exceptionally high level of uncertainty on forward-looking developments. This connects to theoretical work on worst case scenarios and reverse stress-testing. While a supervisory requirement in many jurisdictions – as recommended by EBA or the BIS, reverse stress testing has not been to date part of the toolkit for system-wide or macroprudential stress-testing. In this paper we envisage objectives the latter could be assigned to and accordingly how its implementation could be designed. Based on the existing literature, we also suggest practical options for conducting such exercises top-down, ie using simulations from authorities’ own models. We moreover illustrate how a complex macroprudential stress-test model could be run for that purpose, in a parsimonious but effective manner, ie without necessarily requiring fully-fledged and extensive stochastic simulations. While rank-reduction techniques help solve the dimensionality problem, the assumed probabilistic distribution of shocks remain a critical element in the analysis.
18:30-19:00
Samaneh Raiss Shaghaghi, PhD Student, University of Szeged, Hungary. Title: Poverty Alleviation in China: An Example of Jiangxi Province.
Poverty is a universal issue, and anti-poverty measures are historical tasks taken by all the societies as well as civilizations from thousand years ago. China is extensively known for its achievements in reducing absolute poverty since the reforms in the late 1970s. Fast economic growth, together with a well-funded national poverty reduction program, has led to a massive reduction in rural poverty during the past 25 years. Winning the battle against poverty is the most challenging task for building a well-off society in an all-round way. Under the current standard, the poverty-stricken rural population decreased from 98.99 million at the end of 2012 to 16.6 million at the end of 2018, with an average annual poverty reduction of 13.73 million. By 2020, the rural poor population will be moving up out of poverty under the current standards of China, and all poor counties will take off their hats to solve the overall regional poverty. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the polity measures applied by the Chinese government in order to combat and eliminate poverty and the standards they apply. Measures and standards will be exemplified by counties and villages located in Jiangxi province.
19:00-19:30 Constantin Colonescu, Associate Professor, MacEwan University, Canada. Title: Price Markups: The Invisible Hand in your Pocket.
Much of the current economic wisdom assumes that markets are competitive and that prices do not significantly depart from marginal costs. In reality, prices in most markets include substantial markups, a finding that may inform research on economic inequality. World input-output data allow calculating price markups by country and sector.
19:30-20:00 Stavroula Malla, Associate Professor, University of Lethbridge Canada. Title: Assessing the Effects of Health Claim Regulations on Food Demand.
20:00-20:30 Gustavo Bittencourt Machado, Associate Professor, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Title: Productivist Agricultural Systems to Multifunctional Agriculture in the Cocoa Agrarian System, in Bahia, Brazil.
10:30-11:00 Giedre Dzemydaite, Associate Professor, Vilnius University, Lithuania. Title: Economic Specialization, its Changes and Impact on Regional Economic Development in the European Union.
Recently, there is a sharply growing interest in specialization and industrial change in the European Union both from governmental institutions and academic society. The smart specialization concept was implemented in the EU innovation policy in 2014, stating that regions have to find their path to regional development and to specify areas where to concentrate efforts and to specialize for developing innovative activities. More specialized region supposes to have a comparative advantage in that field. However, there are different arguments linking specialization to regional economic development. This research follow these thoughts and gives insights into specialization changes in the EU and its impact for economic development. Location quotient (LQ) index was calculated for evaluating the level of specialization. Herfindahl index of geographical concentration and LQ index were used to select tradable sectors. Overall, 48 sectors of NUTS1 regional level were involved in a panel data analysis. This research supported the idea that a majority of European regions were comparatively more diversified than specialized. Higher specialization rates in the EU regions were inconsistently associated with higher gross value added with positive but statistically insignificant effects.
11:00-11:30
Chia-Hao Tsai, Graduate Student, National Chunghua University of Education, Taiwan. Title: Pupil’s Fraction Learning Based on Board Game Playing.
Mathematics is considered as the subject most difficult to understand for primary school students in Taiwan. Pupils would think mathematics is a boring and non-meaningful subject if the teacher always stresses arithmetic rules and constant practice, which makes mathematics leaning just the skills for understanding and training of calculation, but not for the abilities of problems solving. Therefore, the researchers try to integrate the preliminary concept of fraction learning into the board game designing. The students participating in the board game will play the role of magicians and use mathematical magic spells to attack in a specific for establishing the sense of fraction and related numeracy. The board game about fraction is applied to students from grade one to grade six (approximately ages 7 to 12 years old). Some questions are exploited with interviews to analyse the players’ dispositions. The results show that most students possess productive dispositions toward playing this board game. Even if they have not learned fraction, they can still participate in the game together and use correct fraction vocabulary to communicate with others during the game. This research study has made some discoveries about the game-based learning instructional design, and it has also produced some limitations worthy of further research.
11:30-12:00
Ya-Lan Huang, Postgraduate Student, National Chunghua University of Education, Taiwan. Title: The Change of Participants’ Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching in a Primary School Teacher Professional Learning Community.
A teacher professional learning community [PLC] should effectively operate through sharing teaching resources, professional dialogues, and collaboration to reduce pupil’s learning achievement gap and make teaching close to their learning experiences through providing suitable learning scaffoldings. This study adopts a qualitative research method to investigate the change of participants’ Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching [MKT] of a primary school teacher PLC which has been running for three years. The three research subjects are experienced teachers with more than ten years of teaching, and none mathematics or science majors. According to the framework of MKT (Hill, Ball, & Schilling, 2008), the collected qualitative data, which include PLC meeting videos, lesson observation sheets, interviews, and learning feedbacks, are analyzed and triangulated by the researchers and other mathematics educators. The results show that PLC may help teachers improve their MKT. utilizing the in-depth discourse within the PLC meetings, collaborative lesson preparation, peer lesson observation, and analyzing exam items, the participants could transfer the sharing resources to their own teaching practices, and manage to learn actively. At the beginning of the PLC, the discourse was mainly related to the teacher’s Knowledge of Content and Curriculum [KCC] and Knowledge of Content and Teaching [KCT]. It reveals that the participants ought to be energized in KCC and KCT, and the PLC activities should be specially arranged in these two aspects. After the continuous professional dialogue and teaching practices, the teacher’s KCC, Knowledge of Content and Student [KCS], and Special Content Knowledge [SCK] are improved most significantly, which also promotes the student learning achievements.
12:00-12:30
Wanting Zhao, PhD Student, Shanghai International Studies University, China. Title: Analysis on the Differences of the Main Global Epidemic Fighting Models – Based on the Deep Research of Glacial Model.
Abstract: The Covid-19 epidemic in late 2019 and early 2020 has spread worldwide. The international community is facing challenges from life security, economy, politics and society. In the context of global epidemic fighting, anti-epidemic strategies and effects of various countries are quite different. So far, the most typical three models include: the Chinese model characterized by strong management and strict guard; the British and American model characterized by the survival of the fittest and respective responsibility burden; the Japan and South Korea model with precise control and economic non-stagnation. Important political, economic, social and cultural codes can be explored in these different models. This article focuses on three countries that have been fighting the epidemic: China, the United States and South Korea. From a cross-cultural perspective, this paper uses “glacier model”( The glacier model based on the “onion model”, “Lotus model” and “iceberg model” is proposed to describe the civilized environment on which a management model depends and a new analytical framework based on institutional civilization) to explore the important three aspects: the national control system in the “snow layer” containing the structural characteristics of the national political system and economic system; the normalization system in the “frozen layer” including values, such as consciousness, thought and moral limits; the cultural cognitive system in “river layer” including the philosophical basis of civilization thought formation and the basic assumption of world cognition. Through comparative analysis of the above differences, this paper proposes three different epidemic fighting models in order to achieve a real sense of cross-cultural understanding, communication and cooperation. They are the Global standardized epidemic fighting model which is formed basing on sum-ups of the same and successful anti-epidemic methods via mutual leaning from different countries; the localized epidemic fighting model formed respectively according to countries comfits and contradictions. ;the Global localized epidemic fighting model characterized by unique strategies which are suitable for one’s domestic social conditions while integrating the successful local anti-epidemic modes with local, political, economic and cultural characteristics of its own country.
12:30-13:00 Marco Mazzoli, Associate Professor, University of Genova, Italy. Simone Lombardini, Research Fellow, University of Genova, Italy. Title: Business Cycle in an Oligopolistic Economy with Entry and Exit.
13:00-13:30
Nikolai Brosch, Researcher, Technical University of Munich, Germany. Title: Practice the Purpose Preach: Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Corporate Purpose on Workers Willingness to Go the Extra Mile.
Commercial organizations increasingly (re)define their corporate purpose beyond profit maxim ization to create value by contributing to the welfare of society and planet . In this context, the present paper employs a two phase natural field experiment to investigate whether, when and how corporate purpose influences workers willingness to complete unrequired extra work. The main findings show that receiving information about an employer’s corporate purpose causes workers to complete more extra work. Workers whose personal preferences match with the organization s purpose are most responsive. For th ose workers the co mmunication of a corporate purpose in combination with an authentic purpose practice further increases their additional work performance , whereas a non authentic purpose practice backfires. Furthermore, we find evidence that the underlayi ng mechanism is pr imarily driven through an increase in workers meaning of work. In a broader context, the finding s that workers are willing to go the extra mile working for an organization with purpose provide some empirical indications in support of th e theoretically pr oposed business case of purpose.
13.30-14:00 Emilie Sartre, Phd Student, CREST-ENSAEI, France. Gianmarco Daniele, Assistant Professor, University of Milan, Italy. Title: Toxic Loans and the Rise of Populist Candidacies.
The role of financial crises in boosting populism has been well documented. Yet the specific mechanisms through which this occurs remain elusive. This paper studies how populist candidacies were fueled by a public financial scandal, triggered by market volatility and financial deregulation. Using an instrumental variable strategy, we exploit the leak of a list of French municipalities which contracted “toxic” loans prior to the crisis as a source of identification. During the subsequent municipal elections, using an instrumental variable strategy, we show that i) populist parties were the main political parties experiencing an increase in vote share, while the incumbent’s political party was electorally punished, ii) both far-right and far-left populist candidacies were more likely in municipalities affected by the scandal, leading to a rise in electoral competition, iii) for the populist far-right, these results were stronger in economically fragile municipalities and in cities with a higher growth of the immigrant population. Importantly, the findings are not driven by the economic aftermath of the scandal and suggest that public finance mismanagement disclosure contributes by itself to the rise of populism during financial crises.
14:00-15:00 Lunch
15:00-15:30
Leonida Correia, Associate Professor, Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies, Portugal. Title: The Macroeconomics and the Construction Sector: Evidence from Portugal.
15:30-16:00
Paloma Lanza-Leon, Researcher, University of Cantabria, Spain. Title: The Role of Social Exclusion and Vulnerability: An Approach before the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain.
16:00-16:30
Sofía Ruiz-Palazuelos, Researcher, University of the Basque Country, Spain. Title: The Impact of Network Cycles on Employment And Inequality.
Efficient unemployment assistance is tailored to workers’ individual skills. Since skills are difficult to infer, assistance is provided on the basis of their expected level, unless workers are profiled and their actual level of skills is therefore detected. A profiling program establishes (i) whom to profile, (i i) to which level of accuracy and (iii) at what stage of the program. The paper identifies the determinants of optimal profiling along these three dimensions in a principal -agent framework with moral hazard. Two are the main findings. First, workers with higher expected skills should initially be incentivized to privately search for a job, thanks to larger returns on search effort, and profiled only at a successive stage of the unemployment spell. Second, in choosing how accurately to detect high skills, the government trades off the savings realized on the incentive cost to private search, which are larger when profiling is more accurate, against the savings realized on low-skilled workers who are referred to private search and denied more expensive forms of assistance, which instead are decreasing in accuracy. However, partial detection of skills leaves room for future downward revisions of expectations, following failed search attempts, and demands larger payments to workers, in order to compensate for such additional risk. For this reason, assistance programs mixing profiling and private search should detect high skills with full accuracy.
17:00-17:30
Joshua Cova, PhD Candidate, Hertie School and Humboldt University, Germany. Title: The Convergence Trajectories of European Minimum Wages: From ‘Antiquated Anti-Poverty Tool’ to Indicator of Changing Power Structures in Industrial Relations?
The agricultural sector is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. How can food consumption choices reduce emissions? I estimate a model of meat demand using purchasing data of meat and other protein rich products from a European retailer. I combine the purchasing data with data on production and transport emissions. In several counterfactual exercises, I analyze the reaction of consumers to some popular, supposedly eco-friendly food consumption policies. Contrary to popular belief, I find that buying local increases emissions by around 5% compared to the status quo. While vegetarianism decreases emissions by around 17%, consuming no beef and cheese yields the highest decrease in emissions of around 34%. My results show that consumer behavior can have a large impact on the emissions of food consumption.
18:00-18:30
Arpita Nehra, Graduate Student, Utah State University, USA. Title: Regional Water Transfer and Economic Growth: A Synthetic Control Analysis.
18:30-19:00
Laura Lambdin, Clinical Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina, USA. Title: Teaching University Gen Z Business Students in Synchronous Online Professional Business Courses.
The tedium increases dramatically; students who are normally classroom rock stars begin under performing; absence rates increase. These are the issues facing my colleagues and myself now that our face to face interactions with our business students have been curtailed because of COVID-19. How do we make online synchronous course time more compelling for our Gen Z students? This study intends to clarify and then judge the effectiveness of several sorts of quick and simple methods of engagement by using four or five different types during each class period. This is part of a twenty year personal evaluation of using “ice breaking games” and fun activities at some point during every class meeting to encourage students to know one another better and to encourage everyone to think of the course as fun (although the learning outcomes remain challenging). Varieties of small groups are constant and meet every other course period so that students can get to know the other four people in these groups of five fairly well. These include a project team, book club, major within business group, and writing group. These assigned groups are constant and stable all semester. Short answer questions are answered within groups who report back after seven minutes (because five minutes was too short and ten minutes felt too boring.) Other “short bursts of time” activities have been more prepared like an opening microphone and camera check in with each student at the beginning of every class. Preplanned and fast check in ideas combined with the mic/camera check that have worked well are wear your favorite hat/costume, let us meet your pet/roommate, superhero day, wear your pajamas, and show and tell. Games like Kahoot, word search, anger management, and ethical issue discussions have worked well, as has sudden polling. Another way of keeping the atmosphere light and hearing from everyone is to ask a question that everyone must answer differently. This forces all to tune in and listen to the other responses. Helicopter mom isn’t my teaching style so keeping track of teams is done with the leader sending me and all members an agenda. This is followed up by a weekly email from each student about what was useful and significant from their meetings that week. There are also 15 weeks of common ground prompts like find three foods everyone in your group likes or three music artists everyone enjoys. My current favorite bonding activity is having five group members share a funny, G-rated story, pick the best one, and share that one with the whole class. Thinking through ideas for games and activities that will allow online synchronous classes a better experience has become my passion project. Although quick games were always part of my pedagogical style, not everything translates well to online teaching. I am determined to continue culling these ideas because of the richness these details add to the student experience.
19:00-19:30 Aradhana Kumari, Assistant Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York (CUNY), USA. Title: A Partial Nonlinear Extension of Lax-Richtmyer Approximation Theory.
In the paper “Survey of the Stability of Linear Finite Difference Equations (1956) Peter Lax and Robert Richtmyer develop a theory to approximate numerically the solution of the initial value problem that guarantees, under certain circumstances, the convergence of a numerical solution of linear initial value problem. Their assumptions are first that the algorithms approximate the differential equation under study (this is called consistency and, secondly, that the initial value problem is well-posed (which means that the solution exists, are unique and depends continuously on the initial data). Under these assumptions, the stability condition (which requires that errors in the algorithm do not accumulate nor increase as one iterates the algorithm) is necessary and sufficient for convergence in a certain uniform sense for arbitrary initial data. In this work, we will extend certain aspects of their work to the nonlinear context. We drop the PDE and well-posedness assumptions at first and add the “β-axioms” that will guarantee convergence of algorithm orbits in a projective limit of finite-dimensional vector spaces. We formulate a conjecture for a partial converse that some stability is a consequence of convergence for a natural class of nonlinear algorithms where deviation of these algorithms from being linear are bilinear maps. We define a new notion of a numerical solution. We prove that a numerical solution obtained from a consistent difference algorithm that lies in the domain of the operator on the right hand side is a true solution of the PDE.
19:30-20:00
Ampalavanar Nanthakumar, Professor, State University of New York at Oswego, USA. Title: A Diagnostic Test based on a Mixture of Gaussian Copula Model.
Here in this paper, we investigate the performance of a diagnostic test based on a mixture Gaussian Copula which incorporates a Markov Chain. Suppose that in the context of an infectious disease, there are 3 states; Susceptible (S), Infected (I), or Recovered (R). We believe that these three states follow a transition pattern according to the following matrix, 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 b b c c Say that at time = 1, the state space has the probability distribution given by 1 . Let 1 S be a health related pre-treatment measurement taken at time =1 from a subject who lives in the region where the infectious disease is prevalent. Moreover, let us suppose at time = 1, for those who are susceptible, the distribution is 2 11 11 N , ; for those who are infected, the distribution is 2 12 12 N , ; for those who have recovered, the distribution is 2 13 13 N , . Similarly, let 2 S be a health related post-treatment measurement taken at time =2 from the same subject who lives in the region where the infectious disease is prevalent. Moreover, let us suppose at time = 2, for those who are susceptible, the distribution is 2 21 21 N , ; for those who are infected, the distribution is 2 22 22 N , ; for those who have recovered, the distribution is 2 23 23 N , . We are using the probability 2 1 p P S S to estimate the effectiveness of the treatment. In other words, we are evaluating the diagnostic ability of the measurements. The set of measurements that yield a higher probability constitute a better diagnostic test. But computing this probability involves the joint distribution of S1,S2 . This is where we need the Copula. Here, we use a mixture Gaussian Copula which captures the transition among the states and at the same time gives a fairly approximate estimate of this probability 2 1 p P S S . The details will be shared during the ATINER conference June 28 – July 1, 2021.
