MOBILE WALLETS AND CONSUMER SPENDING IN SINGAPORE: AGARWAL et al. REVISITED

Agarwal et al. ( 2019 ). Mobile wallet and entrepreneurial growth. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109, 48–53 analyze the impact of the introduction of quick response (QR) codes for mobile payments in Singapore. They find that this not only resulted in a significant increase in the use of mobile wallets, but that there was also a positive spillover effect on debit and credit card payments — in particular at small and new businesses. This note argues that the increase in card sales cannot have been driven by the QR code technology. I also proffer an alternative explanation, namely, that Agarwal et al. simply capture the concurrent increase in popularity of contactless cards.

Spillover Benefits and Achieving Sustainability of Age-Friendly Communities

As the age-friendly movement grows in its second decade, urgent questions of initiative sustainability have taken hold in the academic literature and among advocates implementing age-friendly changes. The creation of authentically age-inclusive environments requires not just the continuation of the initiative itself, but that its principles become embedded in formal and informal organizational processes, across sectors and beyond familiar networks focused on older populations. This paper argues that sustainability of age-friendly initiatives is enhanced by “spillover” effects, in which a behavioral or policy change in one environment spurs change in another environment. Evidence for such spillover and an understanding of how and when it occurs is currently limited in the context of age-friendly environments. This paper draws on the experiences of Age-Friendly Boston, which has been working towards age-friendly goals for more than five years. Based on Boston’s experience, we identify, describe, and exemplify three pathways to positive spillover across environments: 1) branding positively; 2) publicizing successes; and 3) embarking on new relationships, while strengthening existing ones, in pursuit of shared goals. We also draw conclusions about what positive spillover means for the sustainability of age-friendly environments.

Spillover Effects of Institutions on Cooperative Behavior, Preferences, and Beliefs

Most institutions are limited in scope. We study experimentally how enforcement institutions affect behavior, preferences, and beliefs beyond their direct influence over the behaviors they control. Groups play two identical public good games, with cooperation institutionally enforced in one game. Institutions generally have economically significant positive spillover effects to the unregulated game. We also observe that institutions enhance conditional cooperation preferences and beliefs about others’ cooperativeness, suggesting that both factors are drivers of observed spillover effects. In additional treatments, we provide evidence for several factors, including characteristics of institutions, that enhance or limit the effectiveness and scope of spillover effects. (JEL C92, D02, D83, D91, H41)

Research Insights: Can Salient Penalties and Enforcement on Tax Bills Increase Compliance Across Taxes?

An analytical model and a field experiment in Argentina proved that salient enforcement messages on one type of tax could increase compliance with another tax. Salient messages of penalties and enforcement for the property tax had positive spillover effects on declaration of the gross sales tax, with taxpayers in the treatment group increasing their reported tax by 2 percent. Taxpayers appear to assume that higher enforcement of one tax implies higher enforcement for others, thereby increasing their compliance across taxes.

Towards Sustainable Cities: The Spillover Effects of Waste-Sorting Policies on Sustainable Consumption

The increasing amount of waste in cities poses a great challenge for sustainable development. Promoting waste sorting is one of the priorities for various levels of public authorities in the context of the rapid growth of waste generation all around China. To achieve this goal, waste-sorting policies should be precisely designed to ensure successful waste reduction at all stages. Previous studies have neglected the spillover effects of different regulatory policies, which may affect the overall goal of reducing waste by influencing different waste production stages. This paper fills this gap by comparing the spillover effects of two typical waste-sorting policies on sustainable consumption behaviours through a survey conducted in Shanghai and Beijing (control group). By combining quasi-natural experiment and questionnaire methods, this paper analyses data through a mediation test to explore the spillover effects between different regulatory policy groups and the effects of the mediation psychological factors. Results show that a penalty policy significantly decreases people’s sustainable consumption behaviours through a negative spillover effect, while a voluntary participation policy significantly increases sustainable consumption behaviours through a positive spillover effect. Results can provide implications for policymaking in waste management and other pro-environmental fields to help cities become more sustainable by shifting multiple behaviours.

EXPRESS: Online Training of Salespersons: Impact, Heterogeneity, and Spillover Effects

Data from a field study concerning an online salesperson training program is used to investigate: (1) the overall impact of program participation on sales performance for two kinds of products, Focus and Other (the direct impact); (2) heterogeneity in the impact of program participation across salespersons; and (3) spillover effect of program participation by others in the vicinity on salesperson performance (the indirect impact). The program contains short-duration training modules accessed via an online platform. Salespersons choose whether to take any module, how many modules to take, and when to take them. Results show that while training improved sales performance, the average impact of training on Other product sales was immediate, significant, and positive, and that on Focus product sales was delayed. Further, the impact of training diminishes over time. The authors find significant heterogeneity in the impact of training across salespersons and regions. Finally, the results show a mixed spillover effect of training by peers. There is a positive spillover effect on sales of the focal salesperson with an increase in the total number of trainings taken by peer salespersons, and a negative or no spillover effect with an increase in the number of peer salespersons taking training.

Entrepreneurship, innovation, and internationalization: The moderating role of the institutions

The favorable effects of innovation and internationalization on the development of the economies of countries have been prominent factors in multiple management studies. The objective of this document is to make a theoretical review of the studies contained in the ScienceDirect (Elsevier) and ResearchGate databases, to offer an integrating framework of those institutional factors in the countries that favor the positive spillover of these two strategic actions carried out by companies: innovation and internationalization. As a result, we observed that an institutional framework characterized by a simplification of bureaucratic administrative procedures to access the financial resources necessary to undertake growth and innovation in companies, a favorable climate for collaboration between companies and universities or an institutional commitment to favor transparency and technological support for companies, are institutional key elements to address growth strategies by companies.

Facemask Wearing and Social Distancing: A Test of Risk Compensation Theory

Studies suggest facemask wearing and social distancing are convenient ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. However, people might feel an unwarranted sense of safety when engaging in these COVID-prevention behaviors, as predicted by risk compensation theory. Our field research evaluated whether risk compensation influences facemask wearing and social distancing. The evidence-based theory of risk homeostasis presumes individuals will take more risks when they feel more protected. Therefore, someone wearing a facemask should feel safer and subsequently stand closer to others. Research students tested this theory by observing facemask wearing and social distancing in various locations. These students recorded three different observations in a Qualtrics survey: 1) an individual’s gender, 2) mask-wearing behavior (wearing a facemask, wearing a facemask incorrectly, or not wearing a facemask), and 3) the estimated distance between the individual and the nearest person within a six-foot radius. Our field observations of 2,068 individuals revealed that people wearing a facemask maintained greater social/interpersonal distances than did people not wearing a facemask or wearing a facemask incorrectly. This finding supports response generalization or a positive spillover effect rather than risk compensation.