HEC Montréal

About: HEC Montréal is a education organization based out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Vehicle routing problem. The organization has 1221 authors who have published 5708 publications receiving 196862 citations. The organization is also known as: Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal & HEC Montreal.

The Political Determinants of the Cost of Equity: Evidence from Newly Privatized Firms

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the political determinants of the cost of equity using a unique data set of 236 firms privatized between 1987 and 2006 in 38 countries. We find robust evidence that the cost of equity is increasing in government ownership. We also show that the cost of equity is significantly related to political orientation and the extent of government expropriation. Furthermore, we report a less pronounced effect of state ownership on the cost of equity in more populist governments and in more financially developed countries, in addition to a more pronounced effect of state ownership on the cost of equity when the risk of government expropriation is higher. Results from an event study examining the replacement of left-wing

Child Work and Schooling: The Role of Household Asset Profiles and Poverty in Rural Ethiopia

Abstract: Child labour is commonly associated with poverty. This is consistent with the expectation that the supply of child labour will fall as incomes increase. However, the empirical evidence for this link is weak. We thus seek to extend the theoretical and empirical framework to better address demand determinants for child labour. We argue that this demand is household-specific given that in Ethiopia, as in most other developing countries, child labour is overwhelmingly performed for the child's own household in the absence of a smoothly functioning child labour market. A simple agricultural household model with a missing labour market shows that household asset portfolios and household composition are the principal determinants of child labour demand. Multinomial logit, mixed logit and simultaneous equation models are used to analyze child time use decisions in the context of rural Ethiopia while addressing issues of income endogeneity and the failure of the independence of irrelevant alternations hypothesis. Our results suggest that the demand for child labour plays a major role in child time-use decisions and that this demand varies substantially between households according to their asset profiles and household composition. In addition, by adequately addressing the demand side, we actually find support for a poverty--child labour link. These results imply that in pursuing asset accumulation-based poverty alleviation policies, attention should be paid to the possibility that this will encourage households to withdraw their children from school in order to take advantage of the increased returns. Copyright 2007 The author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

Using Recommendation Agents to Cope with Information Overload

Abstract: Integrating the traditional and structural approaches to information load measurement, this research investigates the impact of information overload on decision strategy. Decision strategy refers to whether a consumer uses a recommendation agent and the consumer's reactance behavior to the agent advice (whether the chosen product was the same or different from the recommended product). The research further shows the effects of information overload and decision strategy on choice quality, choice confidence, and e-store interactivity. The experiment, which involved 466 consumers, had three levels for the number of alternatives (6, 18, and 30), three levels for the number of attributes (15, 25, and 35), and two different attribute distributions across alternatives (proportional vs. disproportional). The results contribute to the literature of information overload and decision support systems by underscoring that (1) the relationship between information load and perceived overload is curvilinear, (2) informat...

Contestation about Collaboration: Discursive Boundary Work among Professions

Abstract: We examine how professions responded to a potential change in jurisdictional boundaries by analyzing the written submissions of five professional associations in reaction to a government proposal to strengthen interprofessional collaboration, relating these responses to the professions’ field positions. We identify four foci for framing used by the professions to discursively develop their boundary claims: (1) framing the issue of interprofessional collaboration (issue framing), (2) framing of justifications for favored solutions (justifying), (3) framing the profession’s own identity (self-casting), and (4) framing other professions’ identities (altercasting). We find that professions employed these foci differently depending on two dimensions of their field positions – status and centrality. Our study contributes to the literature by identifying distinctive ways through which the foci for framing may be mobilized in situations of boundary contestation, and by theorizing how field position in terms of status and centrality influences actors’ framing strategies.