Abstract : The seminar will introduce participants to the irace package, an automated algorithm configuration tool. Modern optimization and machine learning algorithms often require a large number of parameters to be set in order to maximize their performance. Determining the parameter values through automatized methods helps increase the transparency of the configuration procedure and allows to enlarge the scope of testing. The talk presents irace capabilities and the underlying iterated racing approach. Key statistical elements of the configuration procedure are discussed.

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Abstract : Normative control, or ‘control through organisational culture’, has been widely discussed over the last sixty years in the management literature. Optimists, critics, sceptics, innovators; different currents of literature have succeeded one another in highlighting both its opportunities and its threats. The result is an abundant and divergent literature, often focused on a specific type of organisation. In this context, normative control is a difficult subject to grasp in its multiple facets. There is a risk for scholars and practitioners to approach the subject in a partial and partisan way. In this article, we use the integrative literature review method (Torraco, 2005, 2016) and a literature review protocol adapted to management control (Lueg & Radlach, 2016) to propose a unique holistic synthesis of the opportunities and threats of normative control. We identify and describe on the one hand behavioural levers and organisational accelerators that encourage the use of normative control, and on the other hand operational side-effects and behavioural inhibitors that discourage its use. In this, way, we wish to transcend ideological debates and bring clarity, nuance and pragmatism to a subject that could better inform current business challenges.

Abstract : Chaque jour, nous pouvons percevoir les dysfonctionnements d’une économie centrée sur la croissance : crises financières à répétition, inégalités extrêmes de revenus et d’accès aux ressources, exploitation destructive de l’environnement, etc. Nous avons besoin d’un autre modèle pour imaginer à la fois notre bien-être et celui de la planète. La théorie du Donut, proposée par l’économiste anglaise Kate Raworth (Raworth, 2017), remplace l’objectif général de croissance par un objectif de prospérité. L’image du Donut représente un plancher social et un plafond écologique—les deux limites entre lesquelles il nous faut redéfinir notre bien-être. La théorie du Donut se veut une boussole pour le 21e siècle, un cadre théorique à la fois holistique et inspirant. Cependant, il n’y a pas de recette unique pour appliquer cette théorie. Et c’est aussi une bonne chose ! Chaque réalité est différente, et il s’agit donc d’inventer de nouvelles manières de penser, de faire, et d’agir, qui soient adaptées à chaque contexte et à ses besoins et aspirations. De nombreux mouvements, organisations, et villes à travers le monde expérimentent l’application du Donut à leur réalité. Bruxelles fait également partie de ce mouvement international. Depuis aout 2020, BrusselsDonut (Asbl Confluences et ICHEC Brussels Management School) cherche à adapter la théorie du Donut à la réalité concrète de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale. L’objectif du projet est de disposer d’un cadre de réflexion adapté à la réalité bruxelloise pour imaginer ensemble, orienter et prendre des décisions cohérentes en faveur de la transition écologique et solidaire vers une société soutenable. La réflexion, menée conjointement par l’équipe de BrusselsDonut et différents acteurs bruxellois, a déjà permis d’aboutir à de nombreux résultats bien que le projet soit toujours en cours d’activités. Cette présentation permettra de faire l’état des lieux des résultats et ambitions du projet BrusselsDonut à l’heure actuelle.

Abstract : The cumulative vehicle routing problem with time windows (CumVRP-TW) is a new vehicle routing variant that aims at minimizing a cumulative cost function while respecting customers’ time windows constraints. Mathematical formulations are proposed for soft and hard time windows constraints, where for the soft case, violations are permitted subject to penalization. By means of the cumulative objective and the time windows consideration, routing decisions incorporate the environmental impact related to CO2 emissions and permit obtaining a trade-off between emissions and time windows fulfillment. To solve this new problem variant, we propose a matheuristic approach that combines the features of the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) with the exact solution of the optimization model. The solution approaches are tested on instances proposed in the literature as well as on a new benchmark suite proposed for assessing the soft time windows variant. The computational results show that the mathematical formulations provide optimal solutions for scenarios of 10 and 20 within short computational times. That performance is not observed for medium and large scenarios. In those cases, the proposed matheuristic algorithm is able to report feasible and improved routes within seconds for those instances where CPLEX does not report good results. Finally, we verify that the fuel consumption and carbon emissions are reduced when the violation of the time windows is allowed in the case of soft time windows.

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Tackling sustainability issues and grand challenges requires transdisciplinary collaboration and co-production of robust and actionable knowledge. By co-locating researchers within non-academic organisations and individuals, embedded research allows translating existing knowledge from research into policy and practice and vice versa, and to develop shared knowledge around sustainability issues. Embedded impact happens when research is produced in dialogue with the research recipients, who can embed and expand the knowledge through their networks and everyday practice.

Although it is this kind of impact that major funders now expect from financed research projects, methods of data collection and analysis underlying embedded research (such as participatory research designs) hardly fit the standards of high-tier journals. Does this mean that producing impact research is incompatible with high-level publication goals? Of course not! Prominent scholars such as Anne-Claire Pache demonstrate the opposite. During this seminar, Anne-Claire will share with us her tips and tricks about how to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable!

Abstract : This paper examines the relationship between firm-level offshoring and the prevalence and intensity of labor market power at the firm level. For this purpose, use Belgian and Dutch manufacturing firm-level data over the period 2009-2017 from Business registers and VAT declarations combined with information in the Transaction Trade database that reports values and volumes of international transactions at the firm, country and product level. Our data allows to distinguish between firm-specific and industry- wide imports by country of origin and between firm-level offshoring of finished versus intermediate goods. In both countries, labor market imperfections mainly stem from workers’ bargaining power forcing employers to pay a wage markup, that is real wages above the marginal product of labor. Irrespective of the nature of imports, offshoring benefits employers, which is most pronounced in the Netherlands. Both imports of finished and intermediate goods are associated with a smaller prevalence of wage markups and a larger prevalence of wage markdowns, that is real wages below the marginal product of labor arising from firms’ monopsony power. In both countries, such relation also holds at the intensive margin of firms’ labor market power as offshoring is accompanied with higher monopsony power of firms. In Belgium, we also observe that offshoring is negatively related to the intensity of wage markups measured by workers’ bargaining power. The origin of imports matters for Belgian companies but far less so for Dutch firms, which could be explained by the more global focus of Dutch companies and the more global scale of the vertical chain in which they operate. Our TSLS results, using world exports and weighted exchange rates as instruments for our offshoring variables, confirm our core findings.

Abstract :  We try to understand how and why family firms act philanthropically to respond to sudden and urgent community needs in a crisis context. This research is based on a qualitative abductive approach and a multiple case study design. Whereas literature on philanthropy is ample, very few empirical studies are conducted across limited disciplines of organizational behavior. What we don’t know remains vast. The problem is twofold. First, there is a complex and challenging relationship between family firms and the ultimate target stakeholders (beneficiaries of their giving) in times of crises which needs to be further clarified. Second, until now scholars could not provide any common explanation for the rising phenomenon of family firm philanthropy. A standard definition for “family firm philanthropy” is still lacking. To address these interrelated issues, we pose the question of How do family firms perceive their role of giving back to the community when a crisis occurs? And the sub-question Why is the crisis context important in shaping the philanthropic strategies of family firms? The main contribution goes to the literature on philanthropy by the ability to address the topic in previously untapped context as well as organizational domain, being crisis and family business respectively.

Abstract :The Monthly Marketing Seminars foster knowledge exchange and constructive discussions around cutting edge marketing research and teaching subjects. For this edition, we welcome our former professor and visiting professor Allard Van Riel from the University of Hasselt, who will present alongside the members of our team, Cécile Delcourt and Claire Gruslin.

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Abstract : We examine whether firm management caters to investor demand for environmental investment. Using a sample of Swedish firms, we find evidence that firms cater to investor demand for environmental investments. Further, the apparent catering depends on a firm’s ownership structure, with more catering primarily in firms with family ownership, dual class share structures, a greater weighting of the firm in the largest shareholder’s portfolio, and more concentrated ownership. Our findings suggest catering to investor demand for environmental investing varies with firm-specific ownership characteristics.

Abstract : The time needed to traverse a set of river segments on the inland waterways depends not solely on the speed of the vessel under consideration, but is also heavily influenced by the interaction with other vessels near river obstacles (such as locks). During the seminar we will consider the perspective of the lock operators as well as the individual skippers and discuss the impact of collaboration on the efficiency of inland waterway operations. Moreover, we will set the stage for ongoing/future research on the idea of intertemporal collaboration.

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Among the many challenges that poses the digital economy in the protection of competition, practitioners and academics have become increasingly worried about “killer acquisitions” by the GAFAM platforms. This term refers to the practice of buying up (potential) market entrants with the goal of reducing future competition. However, empirical evidence on the existence and significance of killer acquisitions in the digital sector is scarce.

This paper contributes to filling in the gap by looking into the fate that awaits patent-protected technologies acquired by the GAFAM platforms. We create a dataset of all public GAFAM acquisitions since 1996. For each of these acquisitions, we collect information on the acquired intellectual property. Our focus on patent data allows us to identify signs of killer acquisitions. First, we can identify when the acquired technology is discontinued using information on whether the new patent holder pays the renewal fees to keep the associated patents alive. We then test whether acquisitions that lead to the discontinuation of the acquired technologies are consistent with the killer motive. Second, because ‘prior art’ is included in a patent by citations to previous patents, studying the evolution of the number of forward citations by the acquirer to the acquired technology around the acquisition time will help us shed light on the motivations driving GAFAM acquisitions.

Abstract : The recent release of the 6th report of the IPCC reminds once again the global north of the urgent and indispensable transition of our society towards sustainable lifestyles. In addition to the climate issues continuously raised by this consortium of experts since its birth in 1988, the United Nations (UN) have addressed the debate of « sustainability » by adopting in 2016 a broader approach through the framework formed by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), integrating to it other key societal issues such as access to education, the use of natural resources or the reduction of inequalities. Today, all the actors of the society are mobilized behind this international Agenda meant to be met by 2030. Despite the theoretical advantages inherent to the actors of the social economy sector in achieving the SDGs, the latters suffer from a lack of legitimacy which impedes the development of the institutions they need to prosper and play their « social influencer » role within society at large.

Abstract : The joint-hypothesis problem casts doubt on the resluts of market efficiency research. Specifically, it is hard to assess to what extend financial markets reflect economic fundamentals or mispricing. To address this issue, we study price formation in a large virtual asset market of well-established deteminants of returns from the real world also affect asset prices in this market, despite the absence of systematic risk. The results suggest that prices in real financial markets include a substancial behavioral component, which is likely underestimated in canonical asset pricing tests.

Abstract :  The current health crisis has particularly affected the elderly population. Nursing homes have unfortunately experienced a relatively large number of deaths. On the basis of this observation and working with European data (from SHARE), we want to check whether nursing homes were lending themselves to excess mortality even before the pandemic. Controlling for a number of important characteristics of the elderly population in and outside nursing homes, we conjecture that the difference in mortality between those two samples is to be attributed to the way nursing homes are designed and organised. Using matching methods, we observe excess mortality in Belgium, France, Germany Luxembourg, Switzerland, Estonia and Czech Republic but no statistically significant excess mortality in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Italy or Spain. This raises the question of the organisation and management of these nursing homes, but also of their design and financing. Link to the paper : https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp9572.pdf

Abstract : The Netherlands has a strong third sector and a long tradition of organizations pursuing social and/or environmental goals, often considered social enterprises. However, the country lacks a common definition and framework for social enterprises, and rather considers social entrepreneurship as a particular branch of entrepreneurship, leaving aside social enterprises incorporating as non-profits and cooperatives. Because of this narrow approach, many social enterprises not incorporated as social businesses are overlooked by the Dutch government but also by scholars.  In this seminar, we reflect on the place of social economy in the Netherlands. We also present ongoing legal developments for a better institutionalization of social enterprises in the Netherlands.

Abstract : An event study assesses the economic impact of an event. In corporate finance, the event is usually of a regulatory or economic nature and may affect a single economic agent, a sector of the economy, or the entire economy. In most applications, event studies are concerned with the impact of an event such as an earnings announcement or a change in fiscal policy on the valuation of financial securities.
We will focus on the design, methodology, and interpretation of event studies. The seminar will emphasize best practices as well as the main steps involved in carrying out an event study successfully. The seminar will review various econometric techniques used to disentangle as much as possible the impact of a specific event on the price of an asset from all the other competing sources of price fluctuations.   We will review the notion of normal or anticipated prices, which estimates what prices, would counterfactually have been if the event had not occurred. The estimates are important inputs for computing the economic impact of a given event.
To get the most of out the seminar a basic understanding of linear regression using matrix notation is recommended.

Abstract : Platform design plays a key role in sellers’ access to consumers. In this paper, we study how an e-commerce platform can optimally design its marketplace to assign prominence to a seller, which becomes the default seller, and how this choice efficiently mitigates, and possibly removes, a vertical negative externality. We find that designing a competitive prominence scheme induces the high-quality seller to become prominent, reduces sellers’ prices, and allows the platform to set a near-monopoly commission rate. We compare the market outcomes with the classic assignment of prominence via an auction, and with direct and random prominence allocation. Competition for prominence generates foreclosure of the low-quality seller, consumers and the platform are always better off, whereas the prominent high-quality seller is not necessarily better off.

Abstract : Our new collaborator, Maren Ulm, will introduce herself to all interested members of QuantOM – BA&SCM. This meeting/lunch talk will provide an opportunity to welcome Maren specialised in statistical consulting for applied research projects, and to have a first exchange regarding the needs of our research group, or even your individual needs.

Abstract : Carbon emissions are priced in Europe in two ways: first, the EU emission trading system puts a price on carbon in form of a cap-and-trade-system. Following prior literature, this price is determined by energy prices, the macroeconomic development, weather and renewables. We analyse these interactions by a monthly smooth transition SVAR model identified by non-Gaussianity and narrative sign restrictions and find heterogeneous effects over two regimes of economic activity. Second, individually set carbon taxes cover a certain share of emissions in the separate member countries. We study these tax effects in a panel SVAR model which accounts for the joint market development. Joining the two models brings the development and effects of the identified structural carbon price/tax shocks on EU and country level together. This allows to study the interaction and separate development of the two carbon pricing tools over time and enables to set further country specific environmental policies in relation to the European macroeconomy.

Abstract : Over the past three decades, many countries reformed the institutional framework governing their central banks to increase their operational independence from the executive and elected politicians. Collecting systematic biographical information, international press coverage, and independent expert opinions, we show that over the same period appointments of central bank governors have become more politically motivated, especially after significant institutional reforms aiming to insulate central banks and their governors from political interference. We show that such politically motivated appointments are positively correlated with lack of de facto independence, as measured by expert opinions and central bank governor turnover.

Abstract :  Le séminaire consiste en la présentation d’un manuel de gestion des ressources humaines (GRH) adapté au contexte de l’Afrique subsaharienne et de l’Afrique du Nord. Il est le résultat de la collaboration de 5 professeurs d’université venant du Cameroun (Emmanuel Kamdem), du Burundi (Alexis Hakizumukama), du Maroc (Manal El Abboubi), de la RDC (Pascal Sem) et de la Belgique (Annie Cornet). Il couvre l’ensemble des thématiques de la gestion des ressources humaines (GRH). On y présente des outils mais aussi de plus de 40 cas, élaborés à partir du vécu d’académiques, de professionnels et d’étudiants.

Abstract :  Preventing rising economic inequalities in a non-growing economy is a major challenge to which no clear solution has emerged from postgrowth studies yet. In this context, the idea to manage inequalities with policies involving caps on wealth and income have surprisingly been poorly studied. To fill this gap, an explorative and multiple case study is conducted to identify the variables of such policies and the context in which they appear. Three political experiences are investigated in the USA (1929), in Switzerland (2013) and within the Roman Empire (400 BC). First findings indicate that such policies should be linked to social measures to increase population support and could be therefore a key leverage to finance eco-social policies and to lead our societies to more sustainable pathways.

Abstract :  Professor Le Pendeven and his Phd student Maya Tira will present during the seminar an ambitious research program. They closely work with ADEME (ecological transition public agency) for launching a group of Environmental Impact Bonds (the ecological version of the Social Impact Bonds, SIBs) and to study this phenomenon. A series of four academic papers is planned, based on this unique empirical playground with a such precious access to public actors, the sustainable entrepreneurs, the funders, and the all counterparts of those contracts.

Abstract :  In order to kick-off a transition towards more sustainability in the clothing sector, new economic models such as clothing libraries have sprung up these last few years. Drawing on an analytical framework coupling the Multi-Level Perspective and Practice Theory, the aim of this paper is to thoroughly depict the relative depth of different lock-ins currently preventing the adoption of PSS-related offers in the clothing sector and thereby broadening the reflection on their wider uptake.

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Abstract :  Dr. Puyou from the St Andrews Management School will reflect on his journey as a scholar in management, with a focus on his publication expertise and the publishing/reviewing processes that he went through. Departing from a presentation of Dr. Puyou’s personal experience with management journals, the seminar will then take the form of an open discussion between the participants and their thoughts on publishing research in the fields of social sciences and management.

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Abstract :  In this paper, we examine how the introduction of network externalities impact an open and vertically integrated platform’s post-merger contractual relationship with third-party sellers distributing through its marketplace. Regardless of whether the platform uses linear contracts or two-part tariffs, we find that, provided these contracts are public, the platform has no incentive to exclude its non-integrated rivals and that the latter’s market share rises as network effects gain importance. Vertical integration serves as a commitment device that open platforms can use to convince potential customers that their ecosystem will be large and compelling. Interestingly, when the open platform competes with a closed rival, i.e., with a fully integrated ecosystem, it may find it profitable to subsidize independent third-party sellers to strategically steer demand away from the competing ecosystem. These results have novel managerial implications on the incentives of a platform to open up its ecosystem to third-party sellers, as well as for the regulation of vertical integration in the presence of network effect and when different platforms operate alternative business models.

The SSRN link for this paper is included below.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3933646

Abstract :  The transition to a more sustainable society is one of the major challenges humanity will face in this century. The role of sustainable finance in this process seems obvious. Indeed, the financial sector is seen as an important lever for the transition to a more sustainable society. By focusing on the process of reviewing the methodology applied by the Belgian Towards Sustainability Initiative, we aim to understand how niche actors can have an impact on the sustainable transition of the financial regime.

Abstract : Using BoardEx (2000–2017), we create a dynamic network connecting firms and board directors for the United States. We use the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory to measure environmental performance at the director and firm-level. We examine how a candidate’s environmental performance and networks affect director appointments. This allows us to endogenize the effect of directors’ environmental experience when studying the impact on firms’ chemical releases. We show that firms are likely to appoint influential directors with good environmental records and similar characteristics. Further, boards with good environmental performance and with diverse environmental backgrounds improve firms’ environmental performance.

Abstract : Because of the surging interest, scholars are increasingly investigating the effect of gamification in many domains. While most studies report the positive effects of gamification on users’ motivations and behaviors, the literature is not free of debates. Some researches show no effect or even counterproductive impacts. The presentation investigates the impact of consecutive participation in gamified activities on users’ experience and engagement.

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Abstract :  We build a database of families of scholars, measure their publications, and develop a general method to disentangle two determinants of occupational persistence: nepotism vs. inherited human capital. This requires jointly addressing measurement error in human capital and selection from nepotism. Exploiting multi-generation correlations and parent-child distributional differences, we identify the structural parameters of a Markov process of intergenerational transmission with nepotism. The human capital elasticity is lower than in standard multi-generation estimates ignoring nepotism. Nepotism was lower in science vs. law, in Protestant institutions, and declined during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment—testifying to the rise of meritocracy.

Abstract :  Data availability (and accessibility) and fast reaction to new information are becoming paramount in the airline industry. Airlines and passengers demand data intelligence solutions to update diagnostics and prognostics dynamically, rapidly adapting operations plans reacting to new information. On the other hand, airline operations are becoming more integrated and complex, and optimal solutions are increasingly hard to compute. By the time traditional optimisation models compute and communicate the ’optimal solution’, the world has again changed, and new disruptive factors have been added to the table, jeopardising the value of the solution computed.This seminar will discuss some of the challenges currently faced by airlines (and not only), including the need for an adaptive decision process. The discussion will be complemented with the presentation of some of the work being developed at the Air Transport & Operations group at the Delft University of Technology, combining machine learning techniques with optimisation methods. Topics will eventually include the development of mathematical tools for disruption management at the time of operations, managing the acceptance of cargo bookings under items’ size uncertainty, and the definition of aircraft maintenance schedules for a fleet of aircraft following probabilistic aircraft health prognostics.

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Abstract : What are the determinants of philanthropic and political giving? Are donations to charities and parties driven by the same incentives? In this article, we use new administrative household panel data to quantify empirically the motivations for giving, depending on donors’ characteristics and tax incentives. Our dataset includes all the households filling their income tax and/or their wealth tax returns in France between 2006 and 2019. In France, both charitable and political donations benefit from income tax deductions, but only the charitable ones are eligible to the wealth tax credit. We exploit the 2018 wealth tax reform – a change in the taxable base that led to a drop by two thirds in the number of liable households – to estimate the cross-price elasticity of charitable and political giving at different levels of the income and wealth distributions. We provide new evidence of substituability between charitable and political donations: according to our estimates, a one-percent increase in the price of charitable giving leads to a 19 to 25% increase in political donations. The magnitude of this effect is particularly strong among the top 20% of the wealth taxpayers.

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This research aims at boosting the understanding of the growing role of philanthropy in family business especially in times of crisis. The motives behind practicing philanthropy, coupled with the way philanthropy is structured within a family business is worth exploring.

Abstract : Our research aims at assessing the benefits of horizontal cooperation in logistics and at analysing how these benefits depend on the markets and partners characteristics. In the past recent years, researchers have presented horizontal cooperation as an efficient and unique way to reduce costs (e.g., transportation, inventory, facility) and CO2 emissions. The literature on horizontal cooperation demonstrates a high variation in benefits related to the collaboration, regarding the markets and the partners characteristics as they impact the design of the supply chain network. These benefits are therefore difficult to predict, which can be a significant obstacle for companies considering forming a cooperation. In order to promote horizontal cooperation to companies, it was thus crucial to assess these benefits for each partner. Moreover, while horizontal cooperation has mainly been analysed at an operational level with transportation decisions in the current literature, the present thesis examines horizontal cooperation at tactical and strategic levels, using location-inventory models to decide the number and location of facilities, the delivery network and the inventory decisions. From different sets of experiments, we present useful insights to companies wishing to collaborate. Our research also provides valuable tools to select the more favourable partners and to define markets characteristics that should motivate companies to collaborate. Finally, we integrate companies’ individual expectations in our models to understand why some companies leave a collaboration and, therefore, try to improve the long-term stability of collaboration.

Abstract : La recherche en management en Afrique a longtemps connu une très forte influence des cadres conceptuels et théoriques, des paradigmes épistémologiques et méthodologiques, des discours académiques et universitaires élaborés en dehors des contextes africains. Cette situation a principalement pour conséquence de limiter considérablement l’impact managérial des publications africaines. Le défi de la contextualisation est une interpellation pour le renouvellement de la recherche enracinée en management en Afrique, dans un contexte de crise pandémique.

Abstract : Extant literature assumes a certain homogeneity among organizational populations – and in particular established organizations – with regard to boundary-setting. Yet, when facing newcomers, established organizations may differ in their interactions with newcomers and, subsequently, in their conceptualization and implementation of their field’s symbolic and social boundaries. To see how and why, we investigated the issue field of Belgian philanthropy and the distinctive strategies of philanthropic organizations facing the emergence of disparate and uncoordinated social-mission platforms.

To do so, we conducted an abductive qualitative research relying from 2017 to 2021. We show that although all established organizations share a common diagnosis regarding philanthropy’s failure and its necessity to renew itself, their opinion differs regarding how this renewal is to be brought about. While a first group of established organizations adopts a strategy of proactively affiliating newcomers as a way to bring about renewal into philanthropy, a second group of established organizations reacts by adopting a counterstrategy of distinguishing newcomers from philanthropy and highlighting their capacity to renew their own field. Our findings show that both strategies occur at two different levels: (1) organizations undertake direct actions at the level of the field; and (2) they undertake indirect actions at their organizational level. Their direct and indirect actions influence both the symbolic and the social boundaries . Eventually, as the two strategies co-exist within the field and as newcomers appear to be more than a temporary trend, the second group of established organizations begins to reconsider its distinguishing strategy and revises it to recognize the relevance of certain newcomers regarding philanthropy’s renewal and to selectively affiliate them to the field . Doing so, it adjusts its conceptualization of field’s boundaries and moves closer to the first group’s strategy. Our findings contrast with the popular vision of established organizations as a relatively homogeneous populations. More particularly, we distinguish between and explain different visions and practices regarding boundary-setting and collaboration with newcomers among established organizations.

Abstract : Le but de ce séminaire sera d’articuler deux papiers sur la carrières de travailleurs atypiques: travailleurs des plateformes ou indépendants en portage salarial. Nous montrons que plusieurs dynamiques apparaissent. Si certains choisissent leur carrière d’autres la subissent. Ces dynamiques s’expliquent par des facteurs personnels et un contexte particulier.

Abstract : We study how changes in interest rates affect the borrowing of households and the distribution of debt within the population. In a model of household borrowing with credit constraints and endogenous house prices, we show that less constrained households with more pre-existing housing wealth increase their borrowing most when interest rates fall. We then use unique loan level data on the universe of household credit in Belgium to document a shift in the distribution of debt over age, with older households borrowing more as interest rates fell in the last decade. First-time borrowers, who are more likely to be constrained, do not contribute to the rise in household debt. To identify the elasticity of household debt to the interest rate, we use regulatory data on foreign exposures of banks and on the location of bank branches. We find that a 1 percentage point fall in the interest rate is associated with a 15% growth in household debt.

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Abstract : In the course of the energy transition towards sustainable and renewable sources, district heating systems are evolving to comprise regenerative and partly decentralized technologies. The underlying investment and operation decisions exhibit combinatorial structures for which methods from operations research are beneficial. We consider a large-scale, mixed-integer linear program representing a real-world expansion planning problem. Direct fuel-to-heat conversion technologies, renewable resources, as well as combined heat and power plants are included. The model expands a time horizon of 25 years with a four-hour resolution and contains hundreds of millions of variables and constraints. The problem is defined by a major heat energy provider in Berlin using a state-of-the-art software tool to optimize the financial costs. Currently, it is only feasible to solve the problem in a restricted model’s horizon and degrees of freedom. Against this backdrop, we develop a coarse-to-fine hierarchical framework with three decision levels: investment, production planning and unit commitment level. The basic idea is to solve simplified (coarser) models and to infer variable fixings for the more detailed (finer) models, such that these models become computationally tractable. To solve the corresponding optimization problems, a combination of column generation and rolling horizon techniques is foreseeable. Additionally, we consider an extension of the framework to comprise the non-trivial trade-off between the environmental and energetic benefits of the target portfolios, on one hand, and the economic expenses, on the other. Namely, we incorporate the CO₂ emissions and the primary energy factor within the optimization objectives. An algorithm is proposed based on the classical Epsilon-constraint method in order to approximate the Pareto frontier and provide the decision maker with a range of efficient solutions to select from according to the actual business and societal interests. Finally, we consider enhancement techniques to dynamically adapt the objective bounds in the interest of avoiding redundant or weakly-dominated solutions.

Abstract : Postal services are an integral part of our daily life. We used them to send Christmas letters or deliver products right to your door. This service is provided by couriers who make daily rounds in fixed areas called districts. Each district is then defined according to the expected demand on that area so that the workload of couriers is balanced. In this seminar, we will present some of the challenges encountered modeling real transport networks as well as in modeling workload balancing with stochastic service times.

Abstract : An event study assesses the economic impact of an event. In corporate finance, the event is usually of a regulatory or economic nature and may affect a single economic agent, a sector of the economy, or the entire economy. In most applications, event studies are concerned with the impact of an event such as an earnings announcement or a change in fiscal policy on the valuation of financial securities.
We will focus on the design, methodology, and interpretation of event studies. The seminar will emphasize best practices as well as the main steps involved in carrying out an event study successfully. The seminar will review various econometric techniques used to disentangle as much as possible the impact of a specific event on the price of an asset from all the other competing sources of price fluctuations.   We will review the notion of normal or anticipated prices, which are estimates what prices, would counterfactually have been if the event had not occurred. The estimates are important inputs for computing the economic impact of a given event.
To get the most of out the seminar a basic understanding of linear regression using matrix notation is recommended.

Abstract : I was fortunate that my doctoral research was based on a real case of a transport problem for people with disabilities.
At first I did not think about starting a business (at least in the short term) but the insistence of one of my colleagues to create something together made me change my mind in the end. It’s been almost two years since we started. We have won some promising contests in France and a 500k collaborative project but we are just at the start of a promising adventure. We made some mistakes and gathered some take out along the way. In this seminar, I would share some of them that might be useful if you want to go this route. »
Oscar Tellez got his PhD in industrial engineering at INSA Lyon, he is currently a postdoctoral researcher at HEC Liège within the Business Analytics and Supply Chain Management strategic research field. He is co-founder of Nomad (www.nomad-opt.com), a company that provides transport optimization services for people with disabilities in medical care.

Abstract : Doing research in the Operations Research field means two different things. On the one hand, it means doing theoretical research by looking to generate new knowledge with respect to modeling, solution
techniques and algorithms, important to the advance of the field itself.
On the other hand, it means solving practical problems with a clear purpose of improving the efficiency of real-life systems, contributing to an overall better world. Neither is possible without the other.
Theoretical developments most often arise from the necessity of solving new, bigger and more complex real problems, whereas practical applications require a solid understanding of modeling and algorithms.
In this talk, we present both sides of the coin, from theoretical formulations for multi-depot vehicle routing problems to practical models of Operations Research applied to health care.

Abstract : The objective of this study consists in analyzing the determinants of the internal mobility of refugees in Turkey. We track down this mobility relying on geolocalized mobile phone calls data and bring these measures to a micro-founded gravity model inorder to estimate the main drivers of refugee mobility across 26 regions in 2017.

Our results show that the movements of refugees are sensitive to income differentials and contribute therefore to a more efficient allocation of labor across space. Comparingthese findings with those of individuals with a non-refugee status, we find that refugees are more sensitive to variations of income at origin and to distance, while less responsive to changes in income at destination.

These findings are robust to the way mobility is inferred from phone data and to the choice of the geographical unit of investigation. Further, we provide evidence against some alternative explanationsof mobility such as the propensity to leave refugee camps, transit through  Turkey, social magnet effects and sensitivity to agricultural business cycles.

Abstract : “Grand challenges” are specific critical barrier(s) that, if removed, would help solve an important societal problem. Grand Challenges, by their very nature, require coordinated and sustained effort from multiple and diverse stakeholders toward a clearly articulated problem or goal. Solutions to Grand Challenges typically involve changes in individual and societal behaviors, changes to how actions are organized and implemented, innovative public policies and public management, and progress in technologies and tools to solve these problems. Thus, tackling Grand Challenges can be seen as a managerial/organizational and scientific problem. This presentation has the double objective of:

Offering a presentation of how two researchers are considering questions of “Grand Challenges of Society” in their work

Providing two different examples of how to anchor your research question or agenda within an overarching theme, which in this case may either be a perspective or topic.

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Abstract : It is important for management academics to publish their research in top journals in the scholarly domain of business. No doubt, publishing in an A+/A journal is a crowning achievement in our profession and it also highly valued by research based business schools. On the other hand, the top journals accept only 5-10% of the submitted papers which are accepted after a long and rigorous review process. Given the intense competition for space in the pages of these journals and their high academic standards, especially in terms of theoretical contribution, publishing in these journals might be frustrating at times. Yet, there are certain strategies, or rather tried and tested techniques, that can increase the probability of publication. Based on his own experience with journals, editors and reviewers, Shoaib will present some of the strategies that have worked for him and for people he knows. Ideally, the participants should borrow these ideas and transmogrify them for their own purposes and peculiar styles.

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Abstract : The content of the seminar is the presentation of the interdisciplinary study on mentoring entrepreneurs that explores why entrepreneurial mentors provide assistance and support to new ventures, and how these different motives affect the advisory process, i.e., the mentoring functions.
Although mentoring services have been advanced as an important mechanism of incubator and accelerator programs for overcoming the resource constraints of commercial and social new ventures, it has traditionally focused on the entrepreneur’s perspective and neglected the mentor’s perspective, particularly the examination of mentors’ motivations and behavior. The present study employed a qualitative research strategy for examining mentoring from the perspective of the mentor. A total of 18 mentors from accelerator and incubator programs located in Belgium participated in in-depth interviews regarding their experience as a mentor. Given the distinctive and similar dimensions of social and commercial new ventures, this study reveals a more comprehensive view of various mentor motives related to the provision of functions, identifying similarities and distinctions between both types of new ventures mentoring motivations and functional differences of these types of motivation.

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Abstract : Il est de plus en plus fréquent, dans les discours sociétaux et professionnels de tous horizons, de retrouver la « participation » comme un objectif stratégique prometteur. D’un côté, la participation citoyenne à l’élaboration de politiques publiques et au design de villes intelligentes constituerait la nouvelle pierre angulaire de la démocratie locale. En parallèle, de nouvelles méthodes de gestion du changement dites participatives et agiles prônent l’implication d’un grand nombre d’acteurs dans les processus de changement comme une condition essentielle de leur succès. Enfin, de multiples entreprises, dans des perspectives coopératives ou de « libération », promeuvent activement la participation de leurs travailleurs à la gestion et/ou au financement de l’entreprise. Au-travers de ce séminaire croisé co-organisé par trois centres de recherche de l’UER Management – le LENTIC, le Smart City Institute et le Centre d’Economie Sociale -, des chercheurs de différents horizons se proposent de redécouvrir les défis et les paradoxes de la participation.

Abstract : This article studies competition between different types of ad-funded platforms attracting consumers with free services. Consumers often find advertisements a nuisance on such platforms. We study how under a competitive setting platforms balance the tension between attracting consumers and rent extraction from the advertising side. We propose a flexible yet simple model that studies competition between standard platforms and social media platforms (with same-side network effects). We find that an increase in either positive same-side network effects or an increase in consumer disutility from advertisements leads to a reduction in the number of ads on that platform. When competing platforms merge, consumer side network effects do not impact prices and the number of ads is higher resulting in lower consumer surplus. In a setting where consumers present a negative (congestion) externality on each other, competition fails to protect consumer welfare and behaves erratically. Finally, we present a few extensions and discuss some policy implications.

Abstract : Paper connected to the topic: https://dox.ulg.ac.be/index.php/s/yL0SPoHITo8dd5M

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Abstract : How exactly do individuals approach financial decisions? Do they apply sophisticated formulas, back of the envelope math, do they guess or something else? We show that literally asking individuals to explain their approaches generates new insights about those questions that are reliable and have predictive power out of sample. We find, for example, that when assessing the value of an annuity 40% of individuals use some math with some using formulas similar to actuaries; the other 60% apply guessing strategies. Valuation approaches predict valuation results, valuation precision, and behavioral reaction to a priming intervention designed to match one approach discovered. Our method opens new pathways to understanding financial decision making as well as designing effective policy interventions.

Abstract : This article studies competition between platforms that attract consumers with « free » services and are funded by advertisements. Consumers often find advertisements a nuisance on such platforms. We study how under a competitive setting, platforms balances the tension between attracting consumers and rent extraction from the advertising side. We propose a flexible yet simple model that studies competition between standard platforms ( without same-side network effects) and social media platforms (with same-side network effects). We find that an increase in either same-side network effects (consumers valuing the presence of other consumers) or an increase in consumer disutility from advertisements leads to a reduction in the advertisements on a platform. We then look at a setting when competing platforms merge and find that networks effects (same side or cross side advertisement disutility) do not impact prices and advertisements are higher (unambiguously). Finally, we discuss multiple extensions such as multi-homing consumers, monopolist platforms and the case of consumer congestion (negative same side utility).

Abstract : We investigate the strategies of a data intermediary selling customized consumer information to firms for price discrimination purpose. We analyze how the mechanism through which the data intermediary sells information influences how much consumer data he will collect and sell to firms, and how it impacts consumer surplus. We consider three selling mechanisms tailored to sell customized consumer information: take it or leave it offers, sequential bargaining, and auctions. We show that the more data the intermediary collects, the lower consumer surplus. Consumer data collection is minimized, and consumer surplus maximized under the take it or leave it mechanism, which is the least profitable mechanism for the intermediary. We discuss several regulatory tools – price caps and symmetric offers – that can be used by data protection agencies and competition authorities to limit consumer information collection and increase consumer surplus.

The paper is available at : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02288708/document

Abstract : De nombreux progrès ont été réalisés sur l’égalité F/H mais mais les différences de statut entre hommes et femmes subsistent dans de nombreux domaines et certains stéréotypes perdurent. La reconnaissance d’une place à part entière pour les femmes joue un rôle majeur dans celle de l’égalité de toutes les différences. Les progrès dans le domaine du droit des femmes améliorent aussi les droits des hommes. Ainsi, la prise en compte de la parentalité par l’entreprise favorise la présence des hommes dans la sphère privée. Mener une politique en faveur de la diversité, c’est d’abord favoriser la mixité, la parité dans tous les métiers et dans l’ensemble de la hiérarchie. L’entreprise a un rôle majeur à jouer dans cette évolution sociale à venir.

Biographie de l’auteur
Patrick Banon est écrivain, essayiste, spécialisé en sciences des religions et systèmes de pensée, notamment dans l’étude des monothéismes (EPHE-École Pratique des Hautes Études), chercheur affilié à la Chaire Management & Diversité de l’université de Paris-Dauphine, Patrick Banon est expert auprès de l’APM (Association Progrès du Management) et conseiller auprès d’entreprises et d’institutions en gestion de la diversité culturelle et religieuse. Il est spécialisé dans les systèmes de pensées et engagé dans la défense du droit des femmes dans le monde. Il a publié une vingtaine d’ouvrages dont notamment : Il était une fois les filles – Mythologie de la différence chez Actes Sud , Ces femmes martyrs de l’intégrisme chez Arnaud Colin , Dieu et l’entreprise chez Eyrolles

Livre Osons la mixité, Editions Prisma 2015: https://www.amazon.fr/Osons-mixit-Patrick-Banon/dp/2810413673

Abstract : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3438627 – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2323064

Abstract : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3438627 – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2323064

Abstract : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3438627 – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2323064

Abstract : Who Holds Positions in Agricultural Futures Markets
We use non-public data regarding all trader-level futures positions, reported to the U.S. grain and oilseed derivatives market regulator (the CFTC), in order to describe the nature of market participants, the maturity structure of their holdings, and the aggregate position patterns for nine different categories of traders that we separate based on their main lines of business. We provide novel evidence about the overall extent of calendar spreading and about the contribution of commercial traders to total spreading activity.

Our sample’s 3,854 traders account for 86 to 93 percent of the total futures open interest at the end of an average day in 2015–2018. Well over 90 percent of their positions have maturities of less than a year. Among our nine trader categories, just three (hedge funds and commercial dealers/merchants, plus commodity index traders on the long side) account for about four fifths of all reported trader positions. In fact, fewer than 200 “permanent” large traders (overwhelmingly from these three categories) make up the bulk of the daily open interest in the four largest agricultural futures markets.

In the aggregate, the positions of commercial dealers and hedge funds (including commodity pool operators, commodity trading advisors, managed money traders, and associated persons) are highly negatively correlated. This correlation is strikingly strong for short positions: as a result, the sum total of commercial dealers’ and hedge funds’ respective shares of the short open interest fluctuates relatively little over time.

We show, for the first time, that calendar spreads account for more than a third of all large trader positions; that much of the intra-year variation in the total futures open interest can be tied to changes in the extent of calendar spreading; that about half of all spread positions involve contracts expiring in 4 to 12 months (either spreading with shorter-dated contracts, or involving only maturities of 4 to 12 months); and that commercial traders who are not swap dealers (dealers and merchants, mostly) make up from a quarter to two fifths of all calendar spread positions. Again, commercial dealers’ and hedge funds’ shares of the spread open interest are negatively correlated. None of these patterns can be inferred from public data, as the CFTC’s Commitments of Traders Reports (COT) do not break out spreads for commercial traders in general and commercial dealers and merchants in particular. “https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3438627”

The Financialization of Food
Commodity-equity return co-movements rose dramatically during the Great Recession. This development took place following what has been dubbed the “financialization” of commodity markets. We first document changes since 1995 in the relative importance of financial institutions’ activity in agricultural futures markets. We then use a structural VAR model to ascertain the role of that activity in explaining correlations between weekly grain, livestock, and equity returns in 1995-2015. We provide robust evidence that, accounting for shocks which are idiosyncratic to agricultural markets, world business cycle shocks have a substantial and long-lasting impact on the latter’s co-movements with financial markets. In contrast, changes in the intensity of financial speculation have an impact on cross-market return linkages that is shorter-lived and not statistically significant in all model specifications.
“https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2323064”

Abstract : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3438627 – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2323064

Abstract : https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3438627 – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2323064

Abstract : Recent technological developments have raised concerns about threats to democracy because of their potential to distort election outcomes: (a) data-driven voter research enabling political microtargeting, and (b) growing news consumption via social media and news aggregators that obfuscate the origin of news items, leading to voters’ unawareness about a news sender’s identity. We provide a theoretical framework in which we can analyze the effects that microtargeting by political interest groups and unawareness have on election outcomes in comparison to “conventional” news reporting. We show which voter groups suffer from which technological development, (a) or (b). While both microtargeting and unawareness have negative effects on voter welfare, we show that only unawareness can flip an election. Our model framework allows the theory-based discussion of policy proposals, such as to ban microtargeting or to require news platforms to signal the political orientation of a news item’s originator.

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Abstract : There is an accepted idea that risk measurements are pro-cyclical: in times of crisis, they overestimate the future risk, while they underestimate it in quiet times. We lay down a methodology to evaluate the amount of pro-cyclicality in the way financial institutions measure risk, and identify two main factors explaining this pro-cyclical behavior: the clustering and return-to-the-mean of volatility, as it could have been anticipated but not yet quantified, and, more surprisingly, the very way risk is measured, independently of this return-to-the-mean effect. We provide CLTs and FCLT’s for functionals of quantile and dispersion estimators to support theoretically those empirical findings.

Abstract : In this paper, we consider a market where a platform has private information about which product markets are profitable. We study under which conditions the platform benefits from selling its market information exclusively to one participating seller rather than to any interested seller. We show that exclusive dealing is the preferred data monetization strategy if the relative value of operating as a monopoly seller in a profitable market is sufficiently high. In this case, we show that the platform also prefers selling exclusively its data to a seller rather than vertically integrating into the product market.

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Abstract : Change-point (CP) VAR models face a dimensionality curse due to the proliferation of parameters that arises when new breaks are detected. To handle large data sets, we introduce the Sparse CP-VAR model that determines which parameters truly vary when a break is detected. By doing so, the number of new parameters to estimate at each regime is drastically reduced and the CP dynamic becomes easier to interpret. The Sparse CP-VAR model disentangles the dynamics of the mean
parameters and the covariance matrix. The latter is driven by an infinite hidden Markov framework while the former uses CP dynamics with shrinkage prior distributions. A simulation study highlights that the framework detects correctly the number of breaks per model parameter, and that it takes advantage of common breaks in the cross-sectional dimension to more precisely estimate them. Our applications on financial and macroeconomic systems highlight that the Sparse CP-VAR model help interpreting the detected breaks. It turns out that many spillover effects have zero regimes meaning that they are zero for the entire sample period. Forecasting wise, the Sparse CP-VAR model is competitive against several recent time-varying parameter and CP-VAR models in terms of log predictive densities.

Abstract : Feature selection is receiving increasing attention in Machine Learning and Statistics. In the context of linear regression, feature selection is often formulated as a regularization problem, where the regressors are selected with the help of a term associated with the size of the regression coefficients. Such approach has led to the well-established Ridge and Lasso methods. More recently, approaches based on Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) have been introduced to directly control the size of the active set. Although computationally demanding, such approaches exhibit interesting properties and are gaining popularity due the increasing power of solvers. In this talk I will introduce the basic concepts of regularization in regression and a recent MIP-based method with reduced computational burden and improved performances in the presence of feature collinearity and signals that vary in nature and strength.

Abstract : The question of data has been at the center of recent debates around competition policy in the digital era. Concerns in this area are wide-ranging, and encompass privacy, collusion, barriers to entry, exploitative practices, and data-driven mergers.
Data can serve several purposes: for instance it can be used to improve algorithms, to target advertising, or to offer personalized discounts to consumers. While this heterogeneity of uses for data has sparked a large literature in economics, the multiplicity of models makes it difficult to draw general conclusions about the competitive effects of data.
In this paper we introduce data into a competition-in-utility framework à la Armstrong and Vickers (2001). The three key features of data are that (i) it allows to generate more revenue for a given level of utility, (ii) it is a byproduct of firms’ economic activity, and (iii) it is a club good (non-rival and excludable).
We provide a sufficient condition for data to be pro-competitive, and apply it to several environments illustrating the variety of uses for data. This analysis sheds light on the tension between the static and the dynamic effects of data: this is precisely when data increases short-term equilibrium consumer surplus that it can be used as a barrier to entry or that it can result in market-tipping.
We then use this framework to study data-driven mergers. We consider two data-connected markets A and B: the data obtained as a byproduct of firm A’s activity can be used by firms in market B. While the concerns expressed so far by antitrust authorities revolve around the idea of input foreclosure, we show that a merger between firms in the A and B markets also affect the incentives to collect data. A critical condition for the merger to be desirable is for data-trade to be impossible absent the merger.

Abstract : This article studies incentives for a premium provider (Superstar) to offer exclusive contracts to competing platforms mediating the interactions between consumers and firms. When platform competition is intense, more consumers subscribe to the platform hosting the Superstar exclusively. This mechanism is self-reinforcing as firms follow consumer decisions and (some) join exclusively the platform with the Superstar. Exclusivity always benefits firms and may benefit consumers. Moreover, when the Superstar is integrated with a platform, non-exclusivity becomes more likely than if the Superstar was independent. This analysis provides several implications for managers and policy makers operating in digital and traditional markets.

Abstract : Shortages are highly costly in retail, but are less of a concern for store managers, as their exact amounts are usually not recorded. In order to align incentives and attain desired service levels, retailers need to design mechanisms in the absence of information on shortage quantities.
We consider the incentive design problem of a retailer that delegates stocking decisions to its store managers who are privately informed about local demand. The headquarters knows that the underlying demand process at a store is one of J possible Wiener processes, whereas the store manager knows the specific process. The store manager creates a single order before each period. The headquarters uses an incentive scheme that is based on the end-of-period leftover inventory and on a stock-out occasion at a prespecified inspection time before the end of a period. The problem for the headquarters is to determine the inspection time and the significance of a stock-out relative to leftover inventory in evaluating the performance of the store manager. We formulate the problem as a constrained nonlinear optimization problem in the single period setting and a dynamic program in the multiperiod setting. We show that the proposed “early inspection” scheme leads to perfect alignment when J=2 under mild conditions. In more general cases, we show that the scheme performs strictly better than inspecting stock-outs at the end and achieves near-perfect alignment. Our numerical experiments, using both synthetic and real data, reveal that this scheme clearly outperforms centralized ordering systems that are common practice and can lead to considerable cost reductions.

Abstract : We investigate hedge funds’ unobserved performance (UP), measured as the riskadjusted return difference between a fund firm’s reported return and the hypothetical portfolio return derived from its disclosed long equity holdings. We find that high UP is (i) positively associated with measures of managerial incentives, discretion, and skill, and (ii) driven by a fund firm’s frequent trading in equity positions, derivatives usage, short selling, and confidential holdings. Fund firms with high UP outperform fund firms with low UP by more than 6% p.a. after accounting for typical hedge fund risk factors and fund characteristics.

Abstract : Data protection legislation such as the European GDPR uses publicity, fines and a new consumer opt-in requirement to incentivise firms to protect personal data. We argue that the significance of the opt-in requirement is best understood by taking account of consumer loss aversion. Digital firms attract consumers by offering service enhancements and data security which require separate types of investment. We set out the conditions under which opt-in increases both types of investment and when security comes at the expense of service quality. We also study the welfare consequences of regulation for different types of consumer. We show that data protection legislation which includes the opt-in requirement may dilute the effect of fines but also be less harmful to investment in service enhancement.

Abstract : Introduction the research topics « Kidney exchange problem » (Marie Baratto) and « Food Waste » (Anaïs Lemaire) in the context of the advanced course « Advanced Topics in Supply Chain Management » given by Yasemin Arda.

Abstract : The Smart City discussion increased during last years. Along with changing urban challenges the discussions concentrates on different topics and – most of all – on different methodologies of implementation and shows a shift in its objectives. Generally spoken, today we can increasingly distinguish between the understanding of Smart City 1.0, SC 2.0 and recently of SC 3.0.
In this contribution, I want to look at these changes, discuss some examples with respective advantages and disadvantages. Finally, I will discuss and argue that the concept so called urban living labs are supporting the idea of ‘open Innovation’ – and therefore provide new possibilities and obstacles for the inclusion of local actors with local knowledge.

Abstract : We offer an overlapping generations equilibrium model of cryptocurrency pricing and confront it to new data on bitcoin transactional benefits and costs. The model emphasizes that the fundamental value of the cryptocurrency is the stream of net transactional benefits it will provide, which depend on its future prices. The link between future and present prices implies that returns can exhibit large volatility unrelated to fundamentals. We construct an index measuring the ease with which bitcoins can be used to purchase goods and services, and we also measure costs incurred by bitcoin owners. Consistent with the model, estimated transactional net benefits explain a statistically significant fraction of bitcoin returns.

Abstract : En Belgique, la représentation des acteurs socio-économiques et leur participation à la prise de décision politique sont organisées par l’entremise de la concertation sociale. Historiquement, les organisations représentatives des travailleurs et les organisations représentatives des employeurs se rassemblent au sein d’instances spécifiques, afin de dégager des accords consensuels qui porteront potentiellement effet dans le processus de décision politique. Il s’agit dès lors d’explorer les possibilités pour les acteurs portant les intérêts de l’économie sociale d’être représentés et de prendre part à ce système. La recherche doctorale menée à ce sujet met au jour les intentions des acteurs de l’économie sociale face à la concertation sociale et éclaire les positions marginales qu’ils occupent actuellement dans les instances belges, bruxelloises, flamandes et wallonnes, qui y sont relatives.

Abstract : E-commerce is a thriving market around the world and suits very well the busy lifestyle of today’s customers. In 2016 consumers in US were purchasing more things online than in stores. Meantime. This growing e-commerce poses a huge challenge for transportation companies, especially in the last mile delivery that hefty share in total parcel delivery cost often reaches or even exceeds 50%, making it a top concern for many companies. In order to gain a competitive advantage, companies are exploring creative and innovative solutions to improve the efficiency of the last mile delivery. Nowadays, the most common delivery service is home delivery. Customers wait at home to get their orders. Besides home delivery, companies like Amazon, Fedex, etc., develop locker delivery. When customers shop online, they can choose a nearby locker as a pickup location. In the recent two years, there is a new concept called trunk delivery that allows to deliver goods to the trunk of a car. Volvo launched its in-car delivery service in Sweden in 2016 which allows the owners of Volvo to choose their cars as delivery locations. What interests us is to combine all these delivery services and study an efficient last mile delivery system. The problem that arises in this context is a vehicle routing problem with synchronization characteristics since when the order is delivered to a customer’s car, it requires the simultaneous presence of the shipper and the car at the same location. In this seminar we will formally introduce the problem and the mathematical formulation. We then present the algorithms that we developed to tackle the problem and the results that we obtain on benchmark instances.

Abstract : We propose a generic framework for Bayesian inference in distributional regression models in which each parameter of a potentially complex response distribution and not only the mean is related to a structured additive predictor. The latter is composed additively of a variety of different functional effect types such as nonlinear effects, spatial effects, random coefficients, interaction surfaces or other (possibly nonstandard) basis function representations. To enforce specific properties of the functional effects such as smoothness, informative multivariate Gaussian priors are assigned to the basis function coefficients. Inference can then be based on computationally efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation techniques where a generic procedure makes use of distribution-specific iteratively weighted least squares approximations to the full conditionals. We will discuss practical aspects of distributional regression along different applications concerning for example the analysis of income inequality in Germany.

Abstract : This study investigates the export behavior of SMEs in an emerging country, Russia. Instead of isolating individual conditions that lead companies to export, we focus on the conjunctural causation of exporting and the presence of equifinality and asymmetry in the decision to export. This last causal pattern is explored by contrasting the sufficient and necessary conditions for non-exporting SMEs with those that export. For performing our analysis, we selected frequently used independent variables in the export literature and study the export behavior of private manufacturing Russian SMEs in 2013. The outcome of our empirical analysis shows the importance of considering causal complexity when assessing exporting behavior. In particular, we were able to identify sufficient and necessary conditions for nonexporting behavior, but only necessary conditions related with exporting.

Abstract : We introduce a new statistical methodology to form portfolios of private market funds with similar risk-return profiles, which we interpret as private factors. We find that two private factors are priced. The first priced factor, dominated by European Buyout funds, is well spanned by commonly used public equity factors. The second priced factor is dominated by valueadd real estate and mezzanine funds, is unspanned by public equity factors. A non-priced factor, dominated by natural resources funds, provides significant diversification benefits and an inflation hedge despite being well spanned by public equity factors.

Abstract : Un nombre croissant de théoriciens et d’acteurs soutiennent le développement d’une conception participative et délibérative de la démocratie pour pallier le malaise contemporain du gouvernement représentatif. Cette tendance est marquée par le développement de dispositifs où des citoyens, recrutés suite à un processus de tirage au sort, prennent part à une expérience de délibération publique. Les exemples les plus standardisés sont les panels citoyens, les conférences de consensus et les sondages délibératifs, mais également les jurys d’assises qui ont une histoire plus ancienne. Le séminaire propose d’explorer ces pratiques en traitant deux questions: (1) Les citoyens sont-ils intéressés par un tel mode de participation (2) quelles sont les conséquences externes de ces dispositifs?
Inscriptions auprès d’Elodie Dessy: edessy@uliege.be

Abstract : En Europe, une entreprise sociale se livre à une activité économique tout en poursuivant une finalité sociale et en mettant en œuvre une gouvernance inclusive. À suivre le discours des instances internationales, dans une optique favorable à leur développement et à leur pérennité, les entreprises sociales ne devraient pas être taxées comme les entreprises commerciales, dans la mesure où une telle charge fiscale pourrait, à long terme, menacer leur viabilité (nécessité d’un « cadre fiscal approprié et cohérent »). Par le biais d’une étude rétrospective, descriptive et prospective, nous pouvons conclure que, en matière d’impôts sur les revenus, ce cadre fiscal approprié et cohérent n’existe pas en Belgique (première partie) et que la mise en place d’un tel cadre nécessiterait un changement de paradigme : ce n’est plus la réalisation de profits qui devrait déterminer le régime de fiscalisation mais l’affectation réservée à ces profits (deuxième partie). Ce séminaire permettra notamment d’évoquer des évolutions quasi-croisées entre droit des personnes morales et droit fiscal : alors qu’au fil du temps le régime de fiscalisation des revenus des entreprises sociales s’est orienté vers une sanctuarisation du critère de l’activité (pour une même activité réalisée, un même impôt doit en principe être appliqué), sous l’effet du Code des sociétés et des associations, le droit des personnes morales connaitra une sanctuarisation du critère de la finalité (association, fondation et société se distingueront uniquement selon leur finalité).

Abstract : Over its history, organization studies has too rarely interrogated a fundamental, yet deceptively simple, question: What is an organization? Although the lion’s share of scholarship in management and organization studies conceives of organizations as entities within which communication occurs, “Communication Constitutes Organization” (CCO) scholarship has attracted interest because it makes a productive reversal, that is, by asking how organization happens in communication. CCO scholarship holds that organizations, as well as organizational phenomena, come into existence, persist, and are transformed in and through interconnected communication practices. The presentation aims to resituate CCO theorizing within the linguistic turn and to position CCO with respect to other lines of scholarship underwritten by a rich conception of language and discourse. We contribute to CCO scholarship with reflections on three theoretical orientations and provide a set of possibilities for its further development.

Abstract : This paper examines the relation between the information contained in the two first Greeks of ATM options – Delta and Gamma – and the pricing of stocks. Specifically, I sort the cross-section of US stocks on a Probability Adjusted Implied Volatility Spread (PAVS), defined as the difference in the normalized Delta/Gamma ratio of a zero-delta straddle strategy. I show that a zero-cost trading strategy on this measure provides statistically significant average monthly returns. In particular, the new metric improves the spread from the put-call parity deviations of Cremers and Weinbaum (2010), as it implicitly recovers the probability distribution of stock returns contained in the option pricing model, to obtain market participants’ views about future stock prices.

Abstract : We investigate the characteristics of infrastructure as an asset class from an investment perspective of a limited partner. While non U.S. institutional investors gain exposure to infrastructure assets through a mix of direct investmentsand private fund vehicles, U.S. investors predominantly invest in infrastructure through private funds. We find that the stream of cash flows delivered by private infrastructure funds to institutional investors is very similar to that delivered by other typesof private equity, as reflected by the frequency and amounts of net cash flows. U.S. public pension funds perform worse than other institutional investors in their infrastructure fund investments, although they are exposed to underlying deals with very similarproject stage, concession terms, ownership structure, industry, and geographical location. By selecting funds that invest in projects with poor financial performance, U.S. public pension funds have created an implicit subsidy to infrastructure as an assetclass, which we estimate within the range of $730 million to $3.16 billion per year depending on the benchmark.

Abstract : Team as a Service (TaaS) is a new outsourcing service that enables on-demand creation and management of distributed teams for fast growing companies. The companies that use the TaaS model form a team according to the needs of a given project and provide managerial service throughout. Motivated by this new application, we study the Team Formation Problem (TFP) in which the quality and cost of communication is taken into account using the proximity of the potential members in a social network. Given a set of required skills, TFP aims to construct a capable team that can communicate and collaborate effectively. We study TFP with two measures for communication e ffectiveness: sum of distances and diameter. We compare the quality of solutions using various performance measures. Our experiments indicate the following: First, considering only the sum of distances or the diameter as the communication cost may yield solutions that perform poorly in other performance measures. Second, the heuristics in the literature fi nd solutions that are signifi cantly far from optimal whereas a general purpose solver is capable of solving small and medium size instances to optimality. To fi nd solutions that perform well on several performance measures, we propose the diameter constrained TFP with sum of distances objective. To solve larger sizes, we propose a novel branch and bound approach: we formulate the problem as a quadratic set covering problem, use the reformulation-linearization technique and relaxation to be able to decompose it into a series of linear set covering problems and impose the relaxed constraints through branching. Our computational experiments show that the algorithm is capable of solving large sizes that are intractable for the solver. Finally, we study a two stage stochastic variant of the problem with uncertain communication costs and report the results of preliminary experiments.

Abstract : Deep Learning methods have revolutionized the field of AI, and have shown much promise in applications such as computer vision and natural language processing. In this talk, we will focus on the legal domain. Specifically, we will present our current research (algorithms and results) on deep learning methods applied for analyzing legal texts. These latter texts are particularly problematic to classical NLP algorithms as they are syntactically complex and long, which makes it hard to create computational models of the underlying language. We will describe how deep learning helps in overcoming some of these challenges.

Abstract : Conventional finance models indicate that the magnitude of stock prices should not influence portfolio choices or future returns. This view is contradicted, however, by empirical evidence. In this paper, we report the results of an experiment showing that trading prices, in experimental markets, are processed differently by participants, depending on their magnitude. Our experiment has two consecutive treatments. One where the fundamental value is a small number (the small price market) and a second one where the fundamental value is a large number (the large price market). Small price markets exhibit greater mispricing than large price markets. We obtain this result both between-participants and within-participants. Our findings show that price magnitude influences the way people perceive the distribution of future returns. This result is at odds with standard finance theory but is consistent with: (1) a number of observations in the empirical finance and accounting literature; and (2) evidence in neuropsychology on the use of different mental scales for small and large numbers.

Abstract : In Wallonia (Belgium), the public support for residential solar photovoltaic panels has two interesting features. First, the subsidies for solar production, in the form of tradable green certificates, were particularly generous which encouraged households to have large installations. Second, the region used a net metering system to record power exchanges with the grid. With net metering, the meter runs backwards when power is supplied to the grid. But, if production exceeds consumption on a yearly basis, the production surpluses are freely available for consumption. In this context, we test for a possible rebound effect. Based on a large sample of residential PV installation in Wallonia, we observe in our data and estimations, that a large proportion of households oversize their installation to benefit from the subsidies and, later consume most of their excess production. The effect is highly significant and production surpluses are almost entirely consumed. There are thus evidence of a strong increase in energy consumption by residential PV owners.

Abstract : TBA

Abstract : The promotion of “energy democracy” in low carbon transitions has become a significant topic for energy social science research. Furthermore, research on community energy has tended to assume that grassroots energy initiatives lead to citizen involvement and shared local benefit, despite limited empirical evidence. Here we report the results of cross-national research examining civic participation amongst the members of two renewable energy cooperatives, one based in the UK and the other in Belgium. Results show that levels of participation beyond financial investment varies markedly, with higher levels for relatively low cost, less active activities (e.g. reading newsletters) and lower levels for more active, timeconsuming activities (e.g. attending the Annual General Meeting, volunteering). Social identification is the most important factor explaining multiple forms of participation, with environmental and economic factors less important. The concept of “stealth democracy” is used to discuss the findings and draw out the benefits and risks associated with the importance of social factors for engaging communities in energy transitions.

Biography : Thomas Bauwens is an economist specialized in environmental and energy issues with a pronounced interest in multi-disciplinarity. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. He is conducting research on the roles of circular start-up hubs in the transition towards a circular economy within the framework of a research project funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. He holds a PhD in economics from the Centre for Social Economy within HEC-Management School of the University of Liège (Belgium) and a master in economics from the Economic School of Louvain. During his PhD, he conducted a long-term stay as a visiting researcher at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford. After that he completed a post-doctoral research stay at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) within the Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS) Laboratory.

Abstract : Following the development of decentralized generation and smart appliances, energy communities have become a phenomenon of increased interest. While the benefits of such communities have been discussed, there is increasing concern that inadequate grid tariffs may lead to excess adoption of such business models. Furthermore, snowball effects may be observed following the effects these communities have on grid tariffs. We show that restraining the study to a simple cost-benefit analysis is far from satisfactory. Therefore, we use the framework of cooperative game theory to take account of the ability of communities to share gains between members. The interaction between energy communities and the DSO then results in a non-cooperative equilibrium. We provide mathematical formulations and intuitions of such effects and carry out realistic numerical applications where communities can invest jointly in solar panels and batteries. We show that such a snowball effect may be observed, but its magnitude and its welfare effects will depend on the grid tariff structure that is implemented, leading to possible PV over-investments.

Abstract : Nous vivons dans un monde digital où la technologie permet de transformer en profondeur de nombreux processus de gestion. Machine et deep learning, blockchain, machines intelligentes et véhicules autonomes, digital twins, IoT, e-textiles, immersion via réalité virtuelle, augmentée et mixte sont quelques-unes des technologies les plus prometteuses pour les entreprises. Dans cet exposé, nous nous concentrerons essentiellement sur les technologies immersives et les présenterons brièvement. Avec la réalité virtuelle, (presque) tout est possible ! En coiffant un casque de réalité virtuelle, l’utilisateur se déconnecte momentanément du monde réel pour être immergé dans un environnement graphique et sonore qui devient sa nouvelle réalité. Dans ce nouvel univers entièrement contrôlable, il peut expérimenter différentes tâches, parfois délicates, en toute sécurité et à moindre coût. Grâce à sa cousine, la réalité augmentée, une personne peut enrichir son environnement (réel) avec des couches d’information et ainsi être aidée dans ses prises de décision et dans le pilotage de processus.
Au HEC Digital Lab, dans le cadre de nos missions d’enseignement, de recherche et de service à la communauté, régulièrement pour répondre à des demandes d’entreprises partenaires, nous concevons de tels environnements et testons comment les rendre les plus immersifs et efficaces. Nous sommes également un membre fondateur du groupe Teaching With VR qui, au niveau de l’Université, prépare de nouvelles formes d’enseignement basée sur ces technologies.
Lors de cette séance, nous utiliserons des casques Oculus, Vive et Hololens pour présenter quelques-uns de nos environnements: apprentissage d’une langue étrangère, validation d’un projet de construction (HEC), gestion d’un entrepôt logistique, sensibilisation à la sécurité sur chantier et aux procédures d’urgence, formation au pilotage d’un Boeing 737, guidage pour la conception de palettes, tourisme et marketing, visite de sites…

Abstract : « Les cas de dommage causés par une multiplicité d’auteurs en droit de la responsabilité civile laissent souvent la jurisprudence comme la doctrine dans une position délicate. De nombreux paradoxes – comme la surdétermination causale par exemple – ont fait douter de la pertinence des notions de causalité juridique appliquées à ces cas. L’article se propose de montrer qu’une modélisation en termes de jeux coopératifs permet de lever un certain nombre de ces paradoxes en fournissant des clefs de répartition entre co-auteurs tout en maintenant une approche cohérente de la causalité juridique. »

Abstract : Invoking the scale invariance property used by most option pricing models, Bates (2005) presents a model-free method to compute the delta and the gamma from the shape of the volatility smile. That promising approach yields hedging strategies which solely rely on market information and whose performance had, to the best of our knowledge, yet to be tested on a large-scale sample. That is what this paper does using roughly 6 million daily hedges of S&P500 calls and puts from January 1996 to April 2016.
Our first major finding is that smile-implied delta-neutral and delta-gamma-neutral hedging strategies cannot outperform their Black-Scholes counterparts neither in a mean-variance framework, nor with a tail risk metric.
In light of these disappointing results, we turn our attention to managing volatility-related Greeks. We extend the relation that holds in the stochastic implied volatility model to build smile-implied vegas, vannas and volgas from smile-implied gammas. We find that the smile-implied delta-gamma-vega neutral hedging strategy strongly outperforms its Black-Scholes counterpart, especially for put options. Adding the vanna or the volga into the hedging strategy does not improve the quality of replication. All in all, our findings suggest that option market information is particularly worthwhile for managing volatility risk, not underlying price risk.

Abstract : While digitalization is not new as such, its rapid and extensive impacts transform deeply many aspects of life, including work and employment. Both very pessimistic and optimistic scenarios about the future of work predict the end of working as we know it. In the context of digitalization, shifts are apparent in how work and employment are carried out, such as the emergence of new types of work organization and labour (for instance, through new means of allocating work such as crowd employment and the sharing economy); occupation shifts and new identities (including de-professionalization and user-generated content) and new work relationships arising from geographical dispersion of labour (which involve strategic use of location, potential pressure on regulation regimes). This presents new challenges for policy actors and stakeholders and complicates the potential and arenas for regulation. The objectives of the presentation are to critically discuss the theoretical debates in sociology related to the digitalization of work and employment and to address policy challenges related to digitalization of work and employment. The presentation is based on the recently published book: Meil, P., Kirov, V. (eds.), (2017), “Policy Implications of Virtual Work”, Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Abstract : There is ample evidence that Governmental Venture Capital (GVC) funds exert a negligible role on the performance of target ventures, except when they syndicate with private Venture Capital (PVC) investors. Yet, the origination of PVC-GVC syndicates still received no academic attention. Interestingly, very often lead PVC investors decide to invite GVC in their syndicate. In this paper we study the reasons why PVC would chose to do so. While most of the motivations for syndication highlighted by existing literature do not seem to explain the choice of PVC to syndicate with a GVC, we identify three motivations that instead could be relevant. PVC investors could decide to partner up with GVC to i) build a track record, if they do not have one, 2) to diversify their portoflio and invest outside of their industry “comfort zone”, and 3) to invest in risky opportunities, exploiting GVC as a way to lower the exposure to the venture’s risk. We provide evidence on these three causes for syndication with GVC based on a unique international sample of syndicates in which PVC is the lead investor. We show that less experienced PVC investing in industries where they are less comfortable are more likely to invite a GVC partner. In first rounds, also the industry riskiness seems to motivate such choice. We also show that PVC that in the first years of their life partner up with GVC more often, later are able to build a track record faster, and syndicate more with other PVC. Interesting differences emerge across geographical locations: the track record argument is more strongly supported in Europe, while the comfort zone argument effect is driven by US-based syndicates. This result suggests that GVC has a role in the development of VC markets, but such role is different in different economies.

Abstract : We consider a single-machine scheduling problem with release dates and inventory constraints. Each job has a deterministic processing time and has an impact (either positive or negative) on the central inventory level. We aim to find a sequence of jobs such that the makespan is minimized while all release dates and inventory constraints are met. We show that the problem is strongly NP-hard even when the capacity of the inventory is infinite. To solve the problem, we introduce two mixed integer programming (MIP) formulations, a dynamic programming (DP) approach and also a branch-and-bound (B&B) algorithm.
This problem has some interesting applications in scheduling load/unload operations of warehouses. In a loading/unloading terminal, trucks arrive in a loading/unloading dock either to deliver (unload) or to pick up (load) a certain number of final products. The terminal include a storage space that is used to store these final products in inventory.

Abstract : Data brokers collect customer information from several sources and sell them to other firms. We propose a simple model of the sector, in which two data brokers can sell customer level information to a downstream firm. The information enables the downstream firm to price discriminate. The optimal strategy of the data brokers depends on the nature of the information available. In particular, we show that when data are « additive » or « supra-additive », both brokers find it optimal to compete and the downstream firm acquires information from both. However, when data are « sub-additive », with the combined value being lower than the sum of the value of the two datasets, data brokers prefer to share data and sell it jointly.

Abstract : User Stories (US) are the most commonly used requirements artifacts within agile methods such as eXtreme Programming (XP) and Scrum. They are written in natural language using prose or following a specific template. In practice, many templates have been proposed with no semantic for each syntax used in these templates. Within this research, we first propose the unified model for US templates and provide semantic of each syntax. Then, we adapt the goal-oriented modeling language for analyzing US sets; it is called Rationale Tree (RT). It allows identifying dependencies between US and provides a global view of the systems which allows improving the planning activities, and therefore the development life cycle of agile methods.

Abstract : 
A streaming platform obtains contents from content providers and offers paying commercial spaces to advertisers. Users value contents’ variety and are heterogeneously bothered by ads. When the size of the market is large, the platform offers only a paying subscription, whereas a small market results in the offer of a menu of subscriptions, with ad-intolerant users paying a positive price and moderately-averse users opting for a free-of-charge solution.

Abstract : 
Within psychological contract framework, this research examines employment relationships of contingent workers. To do so, it introduces contingency-related psychological contracts, which focuses on unique needs and motivators of contingent workers. The central aim is to investigate the relationship between contingent employees’ perceptions of breach/fulfillment of contingency-related psychological contracts and their work outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, turnover intention, organizational identification, and organizational citizenship behavior). This research gives special attention to one particular group of contingent workers, who are involved in any form of triangular employment relationships (e.g., agency workers, platform workers, and etc.).

Abstract :  In this paper, we take a new look at the relationship between interest rate differentials and exchange rates.
To do so, we introduce a forecasting approach that accounts for high-order dependencies in daily exchange rates.
Our model relies on a GARCH-in-mean specification where the innovations are assumed to follow a sinh-arcsinh (SH) ditribution with a time-varying asymmetry parameter, depending on interest rates. This model is used to predict the direction of change of three major currency pairs (USD/EUR, USD/GBP and USD/CHF) over the period 1999-2016. We find a dynamic asymmetry specification to be significant and driven by the interest rates. Economically speaking, we show that, notwithstanding a better in-sample performance compared to benchmark models for all pairs, weare able to obtain a positive out-of-sample performance for the USD/CHF pair.

Abstract : not available

Abstract :In particular, this paper explores different two-stage semi-parametric methods to determine technical efficiency in long-term care provision in Ireland.  Technical efficiency (TE) scores in the health sector literature are often estimated using either a non-parametric conventional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) or the fully parametric Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) approach.  While the SFA technique accounts for noise in the data and also allows for an unbiased estimation of the factors affecting efficiency, this method requires specification of the functional form of a production or cost function.  On the other hand, DEA does not impose these restrictions.  However, the estimation of the efficiency determinants using the conventional DEA scores in the second stage may lead to biased estimates of both the TE scores and the efficiency determining variables.  This paper tries to fill the gap between the conventional DEA and SFA approaches and applies alternative semi-parametric methods.  The methods considered do not impose any functional form restrictions on the data, and they also account for random sampling variability and reduce the bias in both the estimated TE scores and the estimated efficiency determinants.  In this paper, we model TE in terms of an input distance function which allows us to estimate input-oriented technical efficiencies by investigating how much the input vector can be proportionally reduced while holding the output vector fixed.  Output is measured as total patient days, while inputs are measured as medical staff, non-medical staff and the number of beds in long-term care units. Furthermore, we use several efficiency determining variables which are divided into objective quality characteristics and conventional determinants such as size, ownership, location, chain, case mix and the age of the nursing home facilities.  Additionally, we split the sample into different groups: private and public nursing homes; chain and non-chain private units; and nursing homes located in rural and urban areas.  We find notable differences in the results between the conventional DEA and the semi-parametric methods.  We also derive some conclusive findings with respect to the estimated TE scores and the efficiency determining variables for the long-term care sector in Ireland.

Abstract :We estimate international factor models with time-varying factor exposures and risk premia at the individual stock level using a large unbalanced panel of 58,674 stocks in 46 countries over the 1985-2017 period. We consider market, size, value, momentum, profitability, and investment factors aggregated at the country, regional, and world level. The country market in excess of the world or regional market is required in addition to world or regional factors to capture the factor structure for both developed and emerging markets. We do not reject mixed CAPM models with regional and excess country market factors for 76% of the countries. We do not reject mixed multi-factor models in 80% to 94% of countries. Value and momentum premia show more variability over time and across countries than profitability and investment premia. The excess country market premium is statistically significant in many developed and emerging markets but economically larger in emerging markets.

Abstract :The U.S. is experiencing unprecedented economic, social and ideological stratification linked in part to rapid technological change, economic restructuring, and the growth of « narrowcast » media. All of these contributes to a fragmentation of the very knowledge base of society. We can learn how to address growing inequality and insecurity from certain metropolitan regions that have overcome fragmentation by building diverse knowledge communities and embracing a common regional destiny. Recognizing the importance of collectively produced information and knowledge serves as a basis for rethinking the future of work and employment. This can help us develop a range of new income strategies  and policies—including perhaps a universal technology dividend—to address the high levels of inequality and insecurity we currently face.  

Abstract :Moving beyond initial notions of ‘disability’, ‘ageing’ and ‘physical accessibility’, inclusive design needs to embrace wider contemporary contexts and explore the full spectrum of ‘human diversity’. Thus, moving from ‘physicality’ to overall ‘quality’ of live and exploring non-physical and ‘psycho-social’ elements of inclusivity. This talk explores this concept and its dimensions, exploringthe way forward.

Abstract :This presentation examines the use of transformational technologies and innovative services to enhance mobility and accessibility in Smart Cities. It explores current examples and possible future opportunities to provide improved services to all segments of society and addressing environmental concerns.