In competitive societies, educational products represent significant purchase decisions for families. As noted by HKUST’s Qihui Chen and her coauthors, “Parents’ preferences when purchasing educational products for their children are primarily shaped by their values, beliefs, and observations of society.” Their research shows that the choice between ... 閱讀更多

How large should the reward be for corporate whistleblowers? This question was explored in novel research by HKUST’s Chao Tang and colleagues. Their study shows that while larger bounties do not increase the value of whistleblowing information, they do make the absence of whistleblowing a more informative signal for regulators. Some firms exaggerate their ... 閱讀更多

Cumulative innovation—building on existing ideas to create new innovations—is key to technological and economic development. Unsurprisingly, the process is geographically localized: innovations tend to be developed by innovators located nearer to their predecessors. Yet research has thus far failed to account for the strengthening of this effect in recent ... 閱讀更多

Do credit rating actions predict accounting fraud? The answer is yes, according to Allen H. Huang and Shiheng Wang of HKUST and their colleague. Their study also suggests that evidence of fraudulent accounting is strongest when it comes from issuer-paid credit rating agencies (CRAs); their investor-paid rivals are less able to detect fraud signals ... 閱讀更多

Limited information sharing between retailers and their suppliers represents a critical bottleneck in the performance of supply chains. Working with a colleague, HKUST’s Hongtao Zhang proposes a novel wholesale pricing mechanism that will benefit both retailers and manufacturers and ultimately enhance supply chain efficiency. “Advances in information ... 閱讀更多

Implementing financial sector policies that promote financial inclusion and growth is one of the key goals of developing economies. However, the outcomes are often spatially and temporally uneven. Yan Ji of HKUST and co-researchers develop an innovative model to examine the economic impacts of such policies across space and time, taking as a case study the ... 閱讀更多

Structural economic changes over time have increased the value of digital technologies. Recent advances in this area, such as analytics, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, have led nontech firms to follow the tech industry’s lead and invest in digital technologies on a large scale. How has this increased uptake of digital technology ... 閱讀更多

Artificial intelligence is no longer just processing language—it’s making decisions. A new study led by HKUST’s Professor Songfa Zhong and his colleagues examines whether large language models (LLMs) like GPT exhibit economic rationality, a fundamental principle in decision-making. The findings? GPT’s choices are not only rational but, in many cases, more ... 閱讀更多

Is a “want” superior to a “need” when requesting financial help? Shedding light on this topic, HKUST’s Jaideep Sengupta and colleagues offer insights into the persuasive power of language in crowdfunding appeals. Their study has important practical implications for fundraisers, marketers, and policymakers alike. Although the terms “want” and “need” are both ... 閱讀更多

Weather risk, amplified by climate change, is posing an increasingly severe threat to agricultural production. Index insurance is a promising tool to hedge against weather risk, but traditional contracts face key limitations. Tapping into recent advances in machine learning, HKUST’s Zhanhui Chen and colleagues introduce a novel method of managing weather ... 閱讀更多