Hi everyone! As I’ve mentioned, we’re rolling out an extensive promotion and outreach program under the leadership of Shirley Tang (Bocconi) and Jino Lu (Washington University in St. Louis). As part of that, we’ll start reporting on newly accepted papers as they emerge from the review process’s Platonic cave, which is evidently a different type of platonic than the one that defined my high school days. So when your paper is accepted, Gordon Scott, a PhD student at Wash U, will ask you for a short (not boring) pitch on why folks should read it. And cite it. A lot. We’re still experimenting with format, length, language, and visuals, so bear with us. To protect your inbox, we’ll send these out every two weeks in the future, but we’re going to start with doing these more often since we have not-yet published accepted articles to catch up on. I hope you’ll check these out each week to see what interests and excites you. We’ll also be including other features and columns from a mix of contributors.
Our first installment has great new papers on artificial intelligence, a proposed law on the distribution of firm profits, political shareholders, and customer improvisation in problem-solving. We hope you’ll scan to the bottom and see what great work our authors and editors are producing now. There’s even a flaming bull!
Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is rapidly reshaping the landscape for knowledge workers. Will it serve as a productivity booster, or will it replace jobs entirely? The outcome remains unclear, but early insights suggest significant disruptions ahead. This paper explores how ChatGPT is influencing freelance workers on a large online platform. Freelancers in jobs most vulnerable to AI are seeing declines in both employment opportunities and wages. Interestingly, top performers—those with a track record of high performance—are feeling the impact even more acutely than their peers. The study reveals that AI not only reduces demand for knowledge workers across the board but may also level the playing field, closing gaps between different groups of workers.
For decades, researchers have sought a simple law to explain the distribution of corporate profits, much like the periodic table does for chemical elements or the laws that govern city sizes and planetary motion. Yet, no such law had been found—until now. This paper uncovers a breakthrough: a simple law that explains the distribution of long-term profits. The findings reveal a striking imbalance—just 1% of listed firms captured 73% of value over the past 20 years, while two-thirds of companies actually destroyed value. This extreme asymmetry extends across industries, though some sectors exhibit far greater imbalances than others. Which industry leads the pack? The answer may surprise you.
Do activist investors steer clear of companies owned by Democratic politicians? While political connections have been widely studied, the potential benefits of having politician shareholders remain less understood. This study explores whether firms with Democratic politician shareholders are less likely to be targeted by activist investors. Analyzing investment patterns among S&P 1500 firms over a 15-year period, the authors find a clear pattern: firms with more Democratic politician shareholders face fewer activist investor campaigns. The effect is stronger when Democratic politician shareholders are more publicly prominent and when the firm’s board leans Democratic. This suggests that activists appear to have special concerns when politicians have large public platforms to disparage activists and when target boards are ideologically aligned with their Democratic politician shareholders. The findings reveal that individual shareholders with political influence can effectively deter activist investors.
How can organizations effectively work with customers to navigate unexpected challenges? As doing business has become increasingly uncertain, organizations need their customers to jointly improvise and solve problems together in the face of interruptions. Drawing from an in-depth study of an underground restaurant, this study shows that one path towards this "participatory improvisation”, as the author calls it, is through organizations establishing alternative conventions that emphasize expecting and embracing the unexpected. By doing so, organizations can teach customers how to behave within interactions and socialize them to respond favorably to disruptions. This collaborative approach transforms potential setbacks into opportunities for enhanced customer experiences.
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The Inaugural New Paper Report
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Hi everyone! As I’ve mentioned, we’re rolling out an extensive promotion and outreach program under the leadership of Shirley Tang (Bocconi) and Jino Lu (Washington University in St. Louis). As part of that, we’ll start reporting on newly accepted papers as they emerge from the review process’s Platonic cave, which is evidently a different type of platonic than the one that defined my high school days. So when your paper is accepted, Gordon Scott, a PhD student at Wash U, will ask you for a short (not boring) pitch on why folks should read it. And cite it. A lot. We’re still experimenting with format, length, language, and visuals, so bear with us. To protect your inbox, we’ll send these out every two weeks in the future, but we’re going to start with doing these more often since we have not-yet published accepted articles to catch up on. I hope you’ll check these out each week to see what interests and excites you. We’ll also be including other features and columns from a mix of contributors.
Our first installment has great new papers on artificial intelligence, a proposed law on the distribution of firm profits, political shareholders, and customer improvisation in problem-solving. We hope you’ll scan to the bottom and see what great work our authors and editors are producing now. There’s even a flaming bull!
-Lamar
Newly Accepted Papers:
The Short-Term Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Employment: Evidence from an Online Labor Market
Xiang Hui, Oren Reshef, Luofeng Zhou
A simple law for the distribution of long-term profit: The empirical regularity behind the 1% of firms that capture 73% of value
Phebo D. Wibbens
Shareholder Activism and the Deterrence Effect of Democratic Politician Shareholders
Mark R. DesJardine, Wei Shi, Timothy Werner
Embrace the Unexpected: How Organizations Foster Participatory Improvisation with Customers
Daphne Demetry
The Short-Term Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Employment: Evidence from an Online Labor Market
Xiang Hui, Oren Reshef, Luofeng Zhou
Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is rapidly reshaping the landscape for knowledge workers. Will it serve as a productivity booster, or will it replace jobs entirely? The outcome remains unclear, but early insights suggest significant disruptions ahead. This paper explores how ChatGPT is influencing freelance workers on a large online platform. Freelancers in jobs most vulnerable to AI are seeing declines in both employment opportunities and wages. Interestingly, top performers—those with a track record of high performance—are feeling the impact even more acutely than their peers. The study reveals that AI not only reduces demand for knowledge workers across the board but may also level the playing field, closing gaps between different groups of workers.
A simple law for the distribution of long-term profit: The empirical regularity behind the 1% of firms that capture 73% of value
Phebo D. Wibbens
For decades, researchers have sought a simple law to explain the distribution of corporate profits, much like the periodic table does for chemical elements or the laws that govern city sizes and planetary motion. Yet, no such law had been found—until now. This paper uncovers a breakthrough: a simple law that explains the distribution of long-term profits. The findings reveal a striking imbalance—just 1% of listed firms captured 73% of value over the past 20 years, while two-thirds of companies actually destroyed value. This extreme asymmetry extends across industries, though some sectors exhibit far greater imbalances than others. Which industry leads the pack? The answer may surprise you.
Shareholder Activism and the Deterrence Effect of Democratic Politician Shareholders
Mark R. DesJardine, Wei Shi, Timothy Werner
Do activist investors steer clear of companies owned by Democratic politicians? While political connections have been widely studied, the potential benefits of having politician shareholders remain less understood. This study explores whether firms with Democratic politician shareholders are less likely to be targeted by activist investors. Analyzing investment patterns among S&P 1500 firms over a 15-year period, the authors find a clear pattern: firms with more Democratic politician shareholders face fewer activist investor campaigns. The effect is stronger when Democratic politician shareholders are more publicly prominent and when the firm’s board leans Democratic. This suggests that activists appear to have special concerns when politicians have large public platforms to disparage activists and when target boards are ideologically aligned with their Democratic politician shareholders. The findings reveal that individual shareholders with political influence can effectively deter activist investors.
Embrace the Unexpected: How Organizations Foster Participatory Improvisation with Customers
Daphne Demetry
How can organizations effectively work with customers to navigate unexpected challenges? As doing business has become increasingly uncertain, organizations need their customers to jointly improvise and solve problems together in the face of interruptions. Drawing from an in-depth study of an underground restaurant, this study shows that one path towards this "participatory improvisation”, as the author calls it, is through organizations establishing alternative conventions that emphasize expecting and embracing the unexpected. By doing so, organizations can teach customers how to behave within interactions and socialize them to respond favorably to disruptions. This collaborative approach transforms potential setbacks into opportunities for enhanced customer experiences.