Projekty badawcze

Działanie I.3.9. IDUB 'Mobilność i nierówności przez pryzmat nowych cyfrowych źródeł danych'

01/IDUB/2019/94 - IDUB

The main objective of the action is to create a research programme at the UW using new types of data in innovative research dedicated to the determinants, measurement and consequences of territorial mobility, social mobility and economic inequality.

These issues are among the most pressing societal challenges of modern times. Developing research on them would improve UW's global standing in the social sciences and sustainably enhance publication opportunities in areas of great and growing interest. 
The primary outcome of the action is to consolidate and significantly strengthen the capacity of researchers already working or encouraged to work with the UW in three key areas:

• the ability to publish in high-impact journals in areas related to the study of mobility and inequality using new digital data sources;
• ability to form consortia able to compete and win in the most prestigious national (NCN MAESTRO) and international (Horizon Europe) competitions requiring an interdisciplinary approach;
• establishing by the consolidated team from the University of Warsaw research cooperation with the best academic centres in the world, which deal with the problems of mobility and inequality.  

Additionally, we assume that by consolidating existing resources it will be possible to achieve purely scientific goals, e.g. developing new theoretical or methodological approaches.
The action is to make use of previous scientific experience in this field of researchers from, among others, the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Centre of Migration Research, DELab, EUROREG, Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Social Reintegration, Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations and several other units of the University of Warsaw. 

Działanie II.2.1 IDUB Program dla naukowców wizytujących:

01/IDUB/2019/94 - IDUB

The measure consists in creating small scientific teams consisting of an invited researcher with outstanding scientific achievements in a given discipline and researchers from the Warsaw University. In particular, stimulation of individual cooperation (tandem) is preferred. 

The measure is of horizontal nature and therefore open to all research disciplines at the University. However, particular emphasis will be placed on actions whose effectiveness in increasing scientific excellence of a given discipline is potentially the highest, taking into account the relation between the level of research of a given discipline in Poland and the state-of-the-art represented by the best units in the world (e.g. the field of social sciences, where a large part of research is of local or regional character). The indicative budget breakdown is 40% for POB activities, 60% for open access applications. 

Systemic Excise Risk Analyzer (Systemowy Analizator Ryzyk Akcyzowych (SARA)

GOSPOSTRATEG-II/0001/2020-00 - GOSPOSTRATEG

Application of hybrid Gibbs processes to firm location forecast

UMO-2020/37/N/HS4/02061 - PRELUDIUM

Importance of geo-location is obvious for businesses. Properly chosen location guarantees positive cash flows,easy access to resources and clients. Forecast of location for a new business plant is difficult, since a lot ofthings have to be taken into account.

As a base of such forecast, one should estimate a model explaining firmlocations. Already existing models and methods (Discrete Choice Modelling, count models etc.) useaggregated data, which do not seem to be appropriate for such problem, since they do not reflect spatialnature and distribution of data, do not consider spatial factors and existence of spatial dependence andheterogeneity.

These models either estimate a probability that a new point will appear in a certain region withspecific characteristics or explore how different factors impact on number of a new-born business plants in agiven region.Point pattern analysis seems to be more appropriate tool to investigate the determinants of firms’ locations andforecast location of new ones. There are couple of studies using various instruments to study businesslocations (Ripley’s K function and related, point process models), however do not try to predict a location of anew point.Aim of the project is development of method, which allows to predict exact location of a new point and takesinto account individual characteristics of point, its neighbours and spatial covariates.

Project can be consideredas a contribution to development of spatial micro-econometrics.Within the project, the following hypotheses (H) will be checked:H1: Spatial econometric models allow to model business location better, than a-spatial.H2: Hybrid Gibbs processes allow to capture not only individual features of points and their neighbours, butalso take into account existence of unobservable spatial effects within several radii.H3: Models estimated with hybrid Gibbs processes give more precise forecast of a new point than alreadyexisting methods.

Project aims not only to develop new method, but also to compare it with already existing ones and to give asuggestion of the possible use.

Aggregate and redistributive effects of non-income related cash benefits

UMO-2019/35/D/HS4/02043 - SONATA

Vengeance, gender and demographical characteristics - research withusage of experimental and behavioral economics methods

UMO-2019/35/N/HS4/04048 - PRELUDIUM

The objective of the  project is to contribute to understanding of negative reciprocity. In general,reciprocity can affect the relationships in groups, by strengthening the norms accepted by environment.However it could be a hard task, for an outside observer, to identify the patterns for this phenomenon on thebasis of observations from e.g. workplaces or any other real-life environments focused on team-work. To overcome this difficulty experimental methods might be used, as they provide an easier way to quantify allobserved decisions.

The project will consist of empirical analysis of the decisions of the participants of the "Ten to One" quiz showand a laboratory experiment which will help to understand how reciprocity might affect delegation of unwantedtasks. The usage of game show data allows for a much larger and more diversified sample than available inthe lab.

The greater heterogeneity of the sample is evident especially in terms of age, occupational status, andeducation. Thanks to its clear rules, decisions made by players are easily observable and quantifiable. Inaddition, the researcher has full knowledge of the information on which these decisions have been based.What's more, the stake for which contestants compete in the trivia game show is much higher than what isachievable in the lab. Because in the case of using this data source, the researcher has no influence on thedesign of the game itself, laboratory experiments in economics are a complementary method, allowing forbroadening the analysis of conditions that could potentially modify the behavior of individuals, which were notobservable during the game show. In addition, confirming the results from the field in a laboratory experimentprovides additional validation of the conclusions.Decisions in “Ten to one” consist of nominations of the participant who will answer the next question. Since thisreduces one’s probability of winning the episode, nomination of a player who has previously nominated thedecision maker can be considered as a case of negative reciprocity or simply: revenge. In addition, the resultsof the behavioral analysis of the participants’ decisions taken in the game show will be supported by alaboratory experiment in order to investigate how the gender composition of a group affects that type ofbehavior. A theoretical model of negative-reciprocity, established as a part of this project, will be then used totest how that phenomenon can influence decisions on allocation of unwanted tasks. For this purpose, alaboratory experiment will be conducted, in which participants will face the problem common in every team-oriented work – how to delegate tasks differing in attractiveness and profitability amongst group members.3. Expected impact of the research project on development of science.In some labor market conditions, the presence of described attitudes might be significant, thus it is useful toknow the relationship between the characteristics of individuals and the probability of negative reciprocity andits link with delegating unwanted tasks.

To the author’s best knowledge, this is the first study of negativereciprocity based on game show data. Time horizon of the sample may also allow for an attempt to identifychanges in the negative reciprocity patterns over the past 25 years, which may be particularly interesting froman interdisciplinary perspective. What is more, although the subject of unwanted tasks was previouslyinvestigated, it was rarely analyzed whether there are any factors which might attract decision-makers to paymore attention to the optimal task allocation. Therefore, the value added of this project is the attempt to fill thisgap in state of the art.

The knowledge on how to improve the effectiveness of allocation of unwanted tasks(expressed as overall performance reached by a team in which tasks were varying from attractive to unwantedones) might also improve the decisions in the area of managing teams at workplace. The project, due to itsinnovative potential, could be presented at foreign academic conferences and international conferencesorganized in Poland. Potential places to publish the results are good field journals

Trade and economic cooperation effects of Eurasian Economic Union

UMO-2021/41/N/HS4/00759 - PRELUDIUM

The main goal of the project is to investigate international trade and economic cooperation effects of the Eurasian Economic Union (EUEA) in the context of trade partnership between China and the European Union (EU). Due to the increased efforts of China to facilitate international trade through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the study of the EUEA and its members has become an important topic of economic and political research. This is because a considerable number of important trade routes between the EU and China run through territories of the EUEA members, in particular Russia, and Belarus, the most notable of which is the Trans-Siberian corridor.

Government-subsidized old-age saving instruments with voluntaryparticipation: effective or not. Reconciling the conflicting empirical data onthe crowd-out effect

UMO-2019/35/N/HS4/03286 - OPUS

The nature of saving for old age is elusive to economists because it may take many forms. A household mayaccumulate assets which they plan to consume when old and unable to work in the form of real estate, whichis also durable consumption good. People may invest not only in financial markets, but also considerable effortand assets may be invested into one’s human capital, or into the human capital of one’s children. Hence, thevery nature of old-age saving makes it difficult to draw causal relationships between incentives to save andhousehold saving behavior (for an extended review of those issues see Engen et al., 1994). The primarymotivation to accumulate assets in life-cycle models is to smooth consumption between periods with high andlow income. Overlapping generations models (OLG) allow placing this mechanism in the context of the entireeconomy (see Auerbach et al., 1987). Fully rational homo oeconomicus sets the optimal level of savings basedon his time preference and interest rates. Such consumer will not respond to instruments whose objective is toraise savings, because they have already optimized their lifetime consumption and leisure paths (see Gale andScholz, 1994; Conesa and Garriga, 2008; Kitao, 2014). If the incentives provided in the instrument make itmore advantageous than saving in other forms, households will simply transfer their assets to the instrument(see Poterba et al., 1995; Butler, 2001). Hence, unless the method of implementation generates strong generalequilibrium effects, instruments aiming at raising voluntary savings for the old-age have a neutral effect on boththe whole economy and households’ savings for the old age.Meanwhile, empirical studies investigating the crowd-out effect caused by the introduction of government-subsidized old-age saving instruments with voluntary participation report a significant and very diversifiedimpact of such instruments on total household savings.

Only a few studies indicate the so-called full crowd-out(for example Gale and Scholz, 1994, data from Survey of Consumer Finance and analysis of IRAs in the USA).Relatively high crowd-out is suggested also by Engen and Gale (2000) related to the 401(k) plans in the USA.Other estimates suggest a significantly lower crowd-out. Poterba et al. (1995) evaluate the net effect of  401(k)contributions on personal saving by comparing the financial assets of families who are eligible for 401(k) withthe assets of those who are not eligible and find little evidence that 401(k) contributions substitute for otherforms of personal saving. Venti and Wise (1990) analyze crowd-out in IRAs based on Consumer ExpenditureSurveys data and report it to amount only 4%-5%. Messacar (2018) and Yang (2016) estimate the crowd-outeffect caused by employee pension programs in Canada and Taiwan, respectively, indicating the crowd-out ofaround 50%-60%.The hypotheses are as follows:

1. Introduction of the instruments leads to an increase in pension wealth of incompletely rational households.

2. The instruments introduce positive effects for the whole economy.3. The instruments may affect the economic inequality in the society in both directions decrease it, as well asincrease it.The most important expected theoretical outcome of this project is the analysis of how different types ofincomplete rationality impact the effectiveness of the instruments. An in-depth analysis within the frameworkproposed will make it possible to determine the conditions which the households’ decision-making process hasto fulfil for such instruments to be effective (e.g. increase the amount of accumulated old-age savings).

Also, amechanism will be proposed which is the source of conflicting empirical estimates of the crowd-out effect. Thediscussion regarding the size of the crowd-out effect of the instruments (e.g. 401(k) and IRAs) slackenedwithout clear resolution. Most of the studies involved in this discussion were empirical (see Engen et al., 1994;Hubbard and Skinner, 1996; Ayuso et al., 2007; Engen and Gale, 2000; Poterba et al., 1995). Using astructural model of economy allows for full tractability of all the effects of the instruments. Therefore,pinpointing possible sources of conflicting empirical evidence may be possible

From Knowledge Networks to Inter-Regional Innovation Systems in the context of Devolution of Powers to Regions

UMO-2019/35/B/HS5/04010 - OPUS

Regional Knowledge is essential in order to remain competitive and economically resilient in a globalised business environment. Intra and inter-regional knowledge exchange and networks have recently gained attention particularly given the devolution of power to local governments across Europe.

So far, these studies have focused on networks of individual organisations from different regions rather than on knowledge exchange in networks of collective regional groups of organisations. Therefore, this project will examine knowledge exchange in networks of regional groups of organisations from different regions, which are defined as Knowledge Networks of Regions (KNoRs). It will also examine whether and how these networks behave as systems, which will enhance our understanding of how to improve knowledge exchange between regions.

The project’s outcome will feed into a wide range of fields including economics, sociology, governance, regional and organisational studies. It will build on concepts of regional innovation systems, cross border regional innovation systems and relevant studies undertaken by the applicant. It will also suggest the new concept of Inter-Regional Innovation Systems (IRIS), which will provide a novel contribution to the conceptualization of how regions exchange knowledge and pursue joint innovation processes. It will enhance our understanding of interregional knowledge exchange and the ramifications for both economic and societal challenges. To increase the generalisability of the project representation of two different contexts KNoRs in two different geopolitical contexts; where devolution is relatively at its beginning (Poland) and the UK, where devolution is at an advanced stage, will be examined. The impact of devolution of power on the participation and engagement in knowledge networks and systems will be identified. Finally, it will suggest some policy implications for the management and operation of knowledge networks and systems in general and advancing knowledge exchange and innovation among regions in particular.

Birth spacing and women’s labor market outcomes

UMO-2019/35/B/HS4/01535 - OPUS