TWO-TIMED: SELF-IDENTIFICATION STRATEGY

Abstract Why do states build new international organizations (IOs) in issue areas where many institutions already exist? Prevailing theories of institutional creation emphasize their ability to resolve market failures, but adding new IOs can increase uncertainty and rule inconsistency. I argue that institutional proliferation occurs when existing IOs fail to adapt to shifts in state power. Member states expect decision-making rules to reflect their underlying power; when it does not, they demand greater influence in the organization. Subsequent bargaining over the redistribution of IO influence often fails due to credibility and information problems. As a result, under-represented states construct new organizations that provide them with greater institutional control. To test this argument, I examine the proliferation of multilateral development banks since 1944. I leverage a novel identification strategy rooted in the allocation of World Bank votes at Bretton Woods to show that the probability of institutional proliferation is higher when power is misaligned in existing institutions. My results suggest that conflict over shifts in global power contribute to the fragmentation of global governance.

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Let’s Call their Bluff: The Politics of Econometric Methodology

Peace Economics Peace Science and Public Policy ◽

10.1515/peps-2019-0029 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Jean-Paul Azam

Keyword(s):

Foreign Aid ◽

Instrumental Variables ◽

Local Governments ◽

Causal Analysis ◽

Short Paper ◽

Government Interventions ◽

Econometric Methodology ◽

Armed Violence ◽

Choice Of Instruments ◽

Identification Strategy

AbstractThis short paper focuses on econometric issues raised by intentional government interventions aimed at influencing some politically sensitive outcomes. It first presents an example where multiple regression analysis provides quite a misleading diagnosis about foreign aid and immigration that can be rectified by using a causal analysis based on instrumental variables. It then offers a simple theoretical framework to bring out the basic information asymmetries affecting the game between the econometrician and the policy maker and their implications for the choice of instruments in a near-identification strategy. This approach is shown to provide a strong political judgement in the case of the armed violence between local governments and “Maoist” insurgents in eight states of India. Proper econometric analysis shows that the initiative of the insurgency cannot be blamed on the rebels.

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Parameter identification strategy for online detection of faults in smart structures for energy harvesting and sensing

Procedia Structural Integrity ◽

10.1016/j.prostr.2020.11.036 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 ◽

pp. 2104-2109

Author(s):

Claudio Maruccio ◽

Pasquale Montegiglio ◽

Adnan Kefal

Keyword(s):

Energy Harvesting ◽

Parameter Identification ◽

Smart Structures ◽

Online Detection ◽

Identification Strategy

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Value of High-Quality Logistics: Evidence from a Clash Between SF Express and Alibaba

Management Science ◽

10.1287/mnsc.2019.3411 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 66 (9) ◽

pp. 3879-3902 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ruomeng Cui ◽

Meng Li ◽

Qiang Li

Keyword(s):

Operations Management ◽

Economic Value ◽

Product Variety ◽

Star Products ◽

High Quality ◽

Long Tail ◽

Online Retail ◽

Delivery Service ◽

Product Delivery ◽

Identification Strategy

Consumers regard product delivery as an important service component that influences their shopping decisions on online retail platforms. Delivering products to customers in a timely and reliable manner enhances customer experience and companies’ profitability. In this research, we explore the extent to which customers value a high-quality delivery experience when shopping online. Our identification strategy exploits a natural experiment: a clash between SF Express and Alibaba, the largest private logistics service provider with the highest reputation in delivery quality in China and the largest online retail platform in China, respectively. The clash resulted in Alibaba unexpectedly removing SF Express as a shipping option from Alibaba’s retail platform for 42 hours in June 2017. Using a difference-in-differences design, we analyze the market performance of 129,448 representative stock-keeping units on Alibaba to quantify the economic value of a high-quality delivery service to sales, product variety, and logistics rating. We find that the removal of the high-quality delivery option from Alibaba’s retail platform reduced sales by 14.56% during the clash, increased the contribution of long-tail to total sales—sales dispersion—by 3%, but did not impact the variety and logistics rating of sold products. Furthermore, we also identify product characteristics that attenuate the value of high-quality logistics and find that the removal of SF Express is more obstructive for (1) star products as compared with long-tail products because the same star products are likely to be supplied by competing retail platforms that customers can easily switch to, (2) expensive products because customers need a reliable delivery service to protect their valuable items from damage or loss, and (3) less-discounted products because customers are more willing to sacrifice the service quality over a price markdown. This paper was accepted by Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, operations management.

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A robust identification strategy for rate-dependent models in dynamics

Inverse Problems ◽

10.1088/0266-5611/24/6/065006 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 065006 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Hong-Minh Nguyen ◽

Olivier Allix ◽

Pierre Feissel

Keyword(s):

Robust Identification ◽

Rate Dependent ◽

Identification Strategy

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Has NCLB Encouraged Educational Triage? Accountability and the Distribution of Achievement Gains

Education Finance and Policy ◽

10.1162/edfp_a_00189 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 77-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Dale Ballou ◽

Matthew G. Springer

Keyword(s):

No Child Left Behind ◽

Mathematics Achievement ◽

Adequate Yearly Progress ◽

High Stakes ◽

Achievement Gains ◽

Left Behind ◽

Before And After ◽

Closing The Gap ◽

Reasonable Prospect ◽

Identification Strategy

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has been criticized for encouraging schools to neglect students whose performance exceeds the proficiency threshold or lies so far below it that there is no reasonable prospect of closing the gap during the current year. We examine this hypothesis using longitudinal data from 2002–03 through 2005–06. Our identification strategy relies on the fact that as NCLB was phased in, states had some latitude in designating which grades were to count for purposes of a school making adequate yearly progress. We compare the mathematics achievement distribution in a grade before and after it became a high-stakes grade. We find in general no evidence that gains were concentrated on students near the proficiency standard at the expense of students scoring much lower, though there are inconsistent signs of a trade-off with students at the upper end of the distribution.

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