Experience Stern | Faculty & Research

Faculty Research Brief is a periodic report designed to inform the Stern community about new faculty research, new publications, awards and grants. Please send your research news to be considered for inclusion to paffairs@stern.nyu.edu.

Featured Research

How is the Mobile Internet Different? Search Costs and Local Activities

Anindya Ghose, Robert L. & Dale Atkins Rosen Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, and his co-authors Avi Goldfarb and Sang-Pil Han explore the differences in Internet browsing behavior when using mobile devices rather than personal computers (PCs). Using customer behavior data from a microblogging service similar to Twitter, the researchers find that links appearing at the top of a screen are much more likely to be clicked, and that this effect is stronger on mobile devices than on PCs, suggesting that the smaller screen sizes of mobile devices increase the effort required, or “user cost,” for reading information. In addition, links that are geographically close to a user are much more likely to be clicked, and again this effect is stronger on mobile devices than on PCs, suggesting that mobile users have stronger local interests. The researchers propose that advertisers could be charged different rates based on the access channel used by the customer (mobile device or PC); for example, social media or search engine sites could charge higher rates for sponsored content appearing at the top of a list on a mobile device. In addition, they suggest that advertisers could benefit from providing location-based sponsored content.

“International Trade and Income Differences”

Assistant Professor of Economics Michael Waugh brings a novel approach to viewing trade frictions between rich and poor countries and their impact on differences in standards of living across countries. Poor countries import a larger volume of goods from rich countries than rich countries import from poor countries, while at the same time there is little difference in comparable price indices for tradable goods between rich and poor countries. Standard gravity models for trade costs (the models typically used to predict bilateral trade flows, based on nations’ economic size and proximity) cannot account for both of these facts. Professor Waugh argues that to reconcile bilateral trade volumes and price data within a standard gravity model, the trade frictions between rich and poor countries must be systematically asymmetric, with poor countries facing higher costs to export relative to rich countries. He provides a method to model these asymmetries. He also argues that these trade frictions are quantitatively important to understanding the large differences in standards of living and total factor productivity across countries. This paper was published in a recent issue of American Economic Review.

New Books and Publications

The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World

William R. Berkley Professor of Economics and Business Michael Spence’s newest book was published on May 10. In the book, Professor Spence provides an overview of post-World War II economic growth in developing nations and outlines the path ahead. The Industrial Revolution led Western nations to experience significant economic growth and increases in living standards, but non-developed nations did not share in this growth until after World War II. As a result, large gaps in wealth and living standards grew between developed and non-developed nations. After World War II, the pattern reversed and developing countries began to catch up with industrialized nations. Professor Spence contends that the growth of developing nations is accelerating, with the developing world on a path to converge with the industrialized nations, a phenomenon that he says will reshape the world. He discusses the drivers of economic growth in developing nations and some of the challenges it presents – in governance, international coordination and ecological sustainability – and he outlines implications for people living in industrialized nations.

Encyclopedia of Disaster Relief

Matt Statler, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations and the Richman Family Director of Business Ethics and Social Impact Programming, covers responses to disasters around the world in his new book with co-editor K. Bradley Penuel, Director of NYU’s Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response. Stressing the importance of the strategies, tactics and ethical values that contribute to effective disaster relief, the two-volume set covers key topics in an A-Z format, including government and international agencies, human-induced disasters, infrastructure, natural disasters, politics and funding, preparedness, recovery and response.

Awards, Accolades and Presentations

The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Institute has awarded a grant to the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Security and Privacy in Abu Dhabi (CRISSP-AD) to provide seed funding for a research center in Abu Dhabi that executes multidisciplinary research in computer security and privacy for both academic investigation and practical applications. Anindya Ghose, Robert L. & Dale Atkins Rosen Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, and Vasant Dhar, Professor and Head of Information Systems Group, Daniel P. Paduano Faculty Fellow and Director of Center for Digital Economy Research, have been appointed as two of the co-principal investigators for the project.

Professor Emeritus of Accounting Kashi Balachandran was honored at a dinner held in conjunction with the Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics: Accounting Symposium held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, HI, in March. The symposium, sponsored by the University of Texas-Dallas, National Taiwan University, Bocconi University and Tunghai University, honored Professor Balachandran’s service to the accounting discipline, his students and education. The symposium featured keynote speakers from the University of Illinois, Yale University and NYU.