Subhayu Bandyopadhyay , Arnab K. Basu , Nancy H. Chau , Devashish Mitra
{"title":"On terms of trade, offshoring ties, and the enforcement of trade agreements","authors":"Subhayu Bandyopadhyay , Arnab K. Basu , Nancy H. Chau , Devashish Mitra","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107215","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107215","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper unpacks the role of offshoring in the enforcement of trade agreements. In a two-country model of task offshoring, we show that by depressing demand and thus demand for embodied labor, own-tariff effects on factor content weighted terms of trade are: (i) negative in upstream countries, backfiring on upstream workers, and (ii) positive in downstream countries which render imported labor tasks even cheaper. This progression in own-tariff effects on terms of trade along the supply chain presents a novel challenge to the effectiveness of dispute settlement rules designed to nullify unwarranted terms of trade gains. The pros and cons of deep trade integration as a remedy, involving well-enforced labor standards both upstream and downstream as an integral part of trade agreements, are highlighted.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107215"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145004558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Utteeyo Dasgupta , Subha Mani , Joe Vecci , Tomáš Želinský
{"title":"Games of prejudice - experiments with adolescents","authors":"Utteeyo Dasgupta , Subha Mani , Joe Vecci , Tomáš Želinský","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107220","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107220","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Adolescents represent the future and have the potential for bringing in positive social change. However, they might also nurture anti-social behavior which can have dire consequences for the future of society. This paper uses a framed labor market experiment to examine the prevalence and underlying causes of discriminatory behavior among Slovak adolescents towards minority members in Slovakia. We elicit discrimination in hiring decisions (extensive margin) as well as in wage offer decisions (intensive margin). Our analysis reveals that the observed discriminatory behavior at both margins stems largely from taste-based animosity and not due to inaccurate beliefs about the productivity of minority employees. Further, results indicate that discrimination at the extensive margin vanishes with even a small cost. At the intensive margin, discrimination persists even with substantial costs and only a prohibitively high cost makes it disappear.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107220"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145004555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effects of universal free lunch provision on student achievement: Evidence from South Korea","authors":"Yoonjung Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107161","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107161","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the impact of the Universal Free Lunch Program (UFLP) on student achievement in South Korea. I leverage the staggered rollout of the UFLP across South Korean provinces and employ difference-in-differences strategies to estimate the causal effects of the program. Taking advantage of rich school-level data, I find that providing a free lunch to all students leads to improvements in academic achievement on average. I also test for heterogeneous effects and find that the benefits of the UFLP appear universally across different baseline participation rates in the means-tested lunch subsidy. After exploring numerous potential mechanisms, I find suggestive evidence that the nutritional channel is effectively absent. Instead, the findings suggest that increased household investment in education—evidenced by increased participation in and spending on academic after-school programs—is a key pathway underlying the achievement gains. These results suggest that parents redirected the saved lunch fees toward educational investment, highlighting the importance of labels attached to public assistance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107161"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145004556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Explaining switching behavior: Consumer attention and choice in car insurance market","authors":"Kaido Kepp, Kadri Männasoo","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107233","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107233","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates consumer search frictions and choices for Motor Own Damage insurance among vehicle lessees in Estonia. Using a consumer-level annual panel dataset from Estonia’s largest insurance broker that comprises policy and insurance offers for 2010–2018, we apply a two-stage discrete choice model (building upon Hortaçsu et al., 2017) to identify sources of consumer inertia by separating attention and choice decisions given the documented switches to new providers. Consumers choose from a set of pre-listed offers corresponding to the best alternatives available in the market. Our results demonstrate that strong inertia is driven by consumer inattention, with considerable heterogeneity in inattention across consumer groups. Consumers’ decisions to switch or stay with their current provider reveal substantial price elasticity and only a modest influence of brand preference. Our estimates are confirmed by multiple robustness checks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107233"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145004554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Worries about energy security and stock returns","authors":"Angelo Moretti , Caterina Santi","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107210","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107210","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper sheds light on how investors’ worries about energy security affect the returns of stocks with different levels of dependence on fossil energy. Using carbon emissions as a proxy for reliance on fossil energy, we contrast stock return behavior in energy-intensive (carbon-intensive) sectors versus sectors with lower exposure to fossil fuel risks in a cross-section of over 3,300 firms in 21 countries. To capture investor concerns, we construct a novel measure of worry about energy security using small area estimation applied to survey data. We find no significant return differences between high and low fossil-dependence firms when investor concerns about energy security are low. However, in markets with heightened concerns, firms with greater reliance on fossil fuels earn significantly higher returns, particularly in the medium to upper quantiles of the return distribution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145004557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Haoyuan Ding , Chang Li , Xingyu Lu , Huanhuan Wang
{"title":"Clan culture and supply chain resilience in China","authors":"Haoyuan Ding , Chang Li , Xingyu Lu , Huanhuan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107219","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107219","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the effect of clan culture on supply chain resilience in China. We provide evidence that firms in cities with stronger clans experience fewer supply chain disruptions. The patterns remain robust to alternative measures, various subsamples, and instrumental variable estimations. When natural disasters, tariff shocks, and unfavorable credit policies negatively impact the stability of supply chains, our results show that clans significantly enhance resilience to these shocks. Mechanism tests suggest that clans serve as a substitute for contractual institutions and particularly, stabilize the relationships with socially connected suppliers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107219"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144996187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Depth or diversity? Examining the longer run impacts of college curriculum breadth","authors":"Kelvin KC Seah , Jessica Pan , Poh Lin Tan","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107212","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107212","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing research suggests that broad versus specialized university curricula does not significantly lead to differences in earnings and unemployment outcomes shortly after graduation. This paper builds on previous work by examining the impact of curriculum breadth on medium-term labor market outcomes, up to six years after students have graduated. Exploiting a unique episode in the history of the National University of Singapore, in which a university-wide revision in graduation requirements in 2007 prompted students in a large faculty to unexpectedly read a more specialized curriculum, we find, using a difference-in-differences approach, that while taking a more specialized curriculum does not initially affect labor earnings shortly after graduation, its effect becomes negative and increases with work experience. We find no evidence that lower earnings are due to a lower propensity to switch jobs, suggesting weaker within-firm earnings trajectories among more specialized graduates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107212"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144926021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The gender gap in preferences: Evidence from 45,397 Facebook interests","authors":"Ángel Cuevas , Rubén Cuevas , Klaus Desmet , Ignacio Ortuño Ortín","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107165","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107165","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper uses information on the frequency of 45,397 Facebook interests to study how the difference in revealed preferences between men and women changes with a country’s degree of gender equality. For preference dimensions that are systematically biased toward the same gender across the globe, differences between men and women are larger in more gender-equal countries. In contrast, for preference dimensions with a gender bias that varies across countries, the opposite holds. The so-called gender-equality paradox is therefore limited to preferences that display the same systematic gender bias across societies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107165"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144926020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Artificial intelligence adoption and workplace training","authors":"Samuel Muehlemann","doi":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107206","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jebo.2025.107206","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes business processes, firms must adapt their training strategies to cultivate a skilled workforce. Using German establishment-level panel data from 2019 to 2023, this study analyzes how firms adjust their training strategies following AI adoption. Staggered difference-in-differences analysis shows that sustained AI adoption is associated with a 14% increase in new apprenticeships among training firms (intensive margin), but is not linked to the training decision (extensive margin). AI adoption is also associated with a modest increase in continuing training, with resources shifting toward high-skilled employees. The results align with AI as an automation innovation that reduces demand for simple skills as well as an augmentation innovation that increases demand for more advanced skills. The German dual apprenticeship system appears critical for firms aiming to build a future-ready workforce in the age of AI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48409,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization","volume":"238 ","pages":"Article 107206"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922039","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}