The prevalence of false and misleading news has become an issue of great concern in recent years. Academic researchers, policymakers, and social media firms all continue to seek effective solutions to reduce the sharing of misinformation. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of two policies in particular: competition among media firms and fact-checking of published news articles by independent organizations. We first develop a theoretical model that predicts the effect of each policy and then conduct a behavioral experiment to test those predictions. Our experimental findings indicate that media competition is most effective at nipping misinformation in the bud because media firms spend significantly more resources on improving the accuracy of their news when readers obtain news from multiple sources. We also find that fact-checking improves the overall quality of news available to viewers; however, it does not incentivize firms to improve the accuracy of their own news articles. Last, our results from an interaction treatment suggest that under competition, fact-checking adversely affects firms’ investment in news accuracy.

Este artículo examina una entidad financiera marginada completamente por la historiografía: el Banco Prendario Municipal de Bogotá (BP). Analizando su historia se aborda el crédito prendario o pignoraticio durante la Gran Depresión en perspectiva regional. Este tipo de organización financiera emergió en diferentes partes de América Latina hacia finales del S.XIX y comienzos del S.XX con el propósito de atender a los más necesitados. El argumento sostiene que el BP fue una entidad atípica, siendo diseñado con una estructura accionaria mixta (público-privada) del ámbito local. Además, el BP cobraba los intereses más altos de la región, generando controversias sobre su rol benéfico (o usurero) en la sociedad capitalina. El análisis de desempeño se hace desde una perspectiva regional que permite contextualizar e identificar su lugar en la historia. Los hallazgos señalan que el BP prosperó durante la crisis, expandiendo sus operaciones, reduciendo la cartera morosa y fortaleciendo el patrimonio.

While the Dodd–Frank Act (DFA) mandates board risk committees for large banks, we argue that such committees do not benefit all banks. Banks forced by the DFA to adopt a board risk committee do not experience a reduction in risk following adoption. In contrast, banks that voluntarily established risk committees before the DFA exhibit lower risk, especially when these committees possess greater risk expertise. Using unique interview data, we find that board risk committees serve as active monitors rather than merely rubber-stamping management proposals. However, regulatory-mandated tasks limit their monitoring role.

Much of economics is dedicated to studying conflicts of interest. What is less well studied is the question of how to make sense of conflicts of interest involving non-individuals like social institutions or social collectives. However, the latter is very important, too: from the occurrence of institutional corruption to the creation of workplaces with much internal conflict, understanding clashes between the interests of individuals and non-individuals is an important social phenomenon. How, though, can this phenomenon be studied? What, exactly, are the ‘interests’ of social institutions or collectives? To make progress with this, this paper uses recent work in social functionalism to develop a theory of cooperation and conflict involving non-individualist social entities. To make the discussion precise, the paper focuses on principal/agent problems (though it is not restricted to the latter). The paper ends by applying this theory to cases of internal conflicts in social collectives.

This article offers new data on women and men’s occupations in Spain at the end of the nineteenth century. Our main source is the Censo de la Población de España 1887, which we combine with other sources to correct for women’s under-recording (different statistics and social reports). The main occupations of men and women based on the 1887 census are identified. By combining demographic data with other sources, we correct the under-recording of women’s work and show women’s high labor participation rates—more than 50 percent—in different judicial districts specialized in food processing, textiles, tobacco, and footwear industries. Furthermore, we provide a spatial analysis of the distribution of women’s employment.

The Social Security Pension System of Northern Cyprus faces a significant deficit, with structural imbalances needing urgent policy interventions. The annual deficit is approximately equal to 50% of current pension payments, or 3.2% of GDP. Without a reform, this deficit is expected to continue and may pose a critical obstacle to Cyprus’s EU integration aspirations. The objective of this article is to design a reform to finance this component of the pension system that will address both current and longer-term sustainability. The paper employs a methodology of public sector budgetary accounting and actuarial estimation of the pension deficit under various scenarios. The findings show that the employees’ Provident Fund assets’ vulnerability to the rate of inflation provides an opportunity to combine the contributions of both components of the public-administered pension systems. Such a measure, along with some parametric reforms like increasing the retirement age, would address the current crisis and ensure the future sustainability of the Social Security Pension System.

Climate-related transition risks are expected to escalate in the coming years, posing potentially significant threats to the banking system. This paper employs a DSGE model that incorporates heterogeneous firms and financial frictions to demonstrate the need to explicitly address climate-related risks in the prudential framework. Our findings indicate that failing to acknowledge transition risk can lead to excessive risk-taking by banks, thereby increasing the volatility of lending and output. With the introduction of climate-related prudential policies, banks are less exposed to transition risk and more efficient in allocating capital.

This systematic review examines the relationship between psychological contract breach (PCB)/fulfilment (PCF) and employee well-being, with a specific focus on mediating and moderating mechanisms. A systematic search in four databases yielded 59 empirical studies published between 1990 and 2024. The findings indicate that PCB hinders employee well-being, whereas PCF supports a range of well-being outcomes, and there is no consensus on whether PCB or PCF has a greater impact on employee well-being. Evidence also suggests that PCB and PCF are related but distinct constructs. Synthesising mediators and moderators, the review advances a contingent and process-based understanding of how psychological contract evaluations shape employee well-being. The evidence further indicates that the relative impact of PCB or PCF on employee well-being is conditional rather than universal. These findings extend conservation of resources and social exchange theories, and highlight the need for more theoretically rigorous and causally robust future research.

Global mortality rates continue to decline, and life expectancy continues its upward trend. Besides mortality levels, policymakers and providers of financial and health services would also be interested in disability prevalence and its potential future trajectories. The length of time in good health versus the duration with major disabilities or long-term illnesses has significant financial implications for both individuals and society. In this paper, we develop Bayesian common factor models to analyse Australian age- and sex-specific disability prevalence rates. In particular, there are one or more common factors shared by both sexes, as well as specific factors for each sex. Retirement villages are purpose-built residential complexes designed for relatively healthy retirees to live as neighbours and share a communal lifestyle. We apply the model forecasts and simulations to valuate a typical retirement village contract. The cost of this accommodation service is determined by the resident’s total length of stay, which can be estimated using forecasted and simulated disability prevalence rates and mortality rates from our proposed models.