Competitive projects

• Principal Investigator: Angel Saz
• Research group: EsadeGeo
• Funding body: Erasmus +
• Funding: 30.955€
• Duration: 36 Months

The EU-VALUES Network (EU Research and Education Network on Foreign policy issues: Values and Democracy) brings together 21 outstanding higher education institutions from Europe and the world to enhance the debate and improve knowledge of values and democracy in the EU´s foreign policy. This coalition of nearly 100 academic experts from six continents was built by selecting scholarly excellence and inclusiveness criteria such as gender equality or geographic diversity. Our EU-VALUES network has identified the need to strengthen the external legitimacy of the EU as a force for good in times of contestation. The general objectives are generating and distributing novel knowledge on the nexus of EU foreign policy and the promotion of democracy and EU values and contributing to the primary objective of the Erasmus+ programme of supporting the educational, professional, and personal development of people in Europe and beyond through lifelong learning. These objectives will be reached by relying on an innovative project structure based on 7 work packages. Our network will collect, discuss & evaluate, and disseminate research on key developments in different policy areas in 4 thematic work packages. We will examine EU values and their impact on EU policies such as security, development, trade, climate, and sustainable development goals. We will collect the academic output following a triple-layered collection process based on the idea of a “network of networks”. The collected material will be discussed within the network using peer review, expert surveys, reflection papers, and two-day network conferences in Turkey, Morocco, Indonesia and Chile.

• Principal Investigator: Angel Saz
• Research group: EsadeGeo
• Funding body: MAEC
• Funding: 48.575€
• Duration: 5 months

A one-day dialogue will be organized between university researchers and opinion leaders from Spain, France and Germany. A group of Spanish representatives (researchers, opinion leaders) will meet with a delegation from France and a delegation from Germany. The delegations will be composed of a maximum of 5 persons per country. The meeting contributes to the preparation of the Spanish Presidency of the EU with partners and European civil society and contributes to project Spanish external action through Spanish opinion leaders and those from two other European countries.

• Principal Investigator: Omar Rachedi
• Research group: GREF
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 9.000€
• Duration: 12 months

This project studies the aggregate implications of climate changes risks:

1. The Carbon Adjusted Fiscal Multiplier: The fiscal multiplier crucially depends on the way in which government spending alters carbon emissions.We rationalize this evidence through an open-economy production-network New Keynesian model with an environmental block. In this setting, the reduction in carbon intensity due to defense spending abates future climate damages and raises long-run output.
2. Climate Physical Risk in the Production Network: Using granular data on climate physical risk exposure of firms in the Euro area, we provide evidence on the heterogeneous incidence of this source of risk across industries, and how this heterogeneity varies across countries, depending on the geographical concentration of sectors. 
3. Carbon Taxes, Fiscal Progressivity, and Green Innovation: We extend a model quantitative macroeconomic theory of input-saving technical change with heterogeneous agents to analyze how the energy-saving technical change amidst a surge in oil prices crucially depends on the progressivity of taxes.

• Principal Investigator: Namrata Goyal
• Research group: GLEAD
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 8.000 €
• Duration: 12 months

Over the last two decades, several political leaders have allegedly violated social norms – Bill Clinton allegedly had an extramarital affair, Donald Trump’s allegedly evaded paying his taxes, and Silvio Berlusconi allegedly paid for sexual intercourse. Public leaders mostly prefer to project the image of being “model citizens” and thus focus on their norm-conforming behaviors. For example, in 2015 when questioned about having an extra-marital affair, Bill Clinton decided to project a norm-conforming stance stating he never “engaged in sexual intercourse with Monica Lewinsky". Sometimes, however public leaders have admitted to violating norms. For example, in 2003 Sarah Palin admitted to “smoking pot” as a college student, and President Donald Trump in 2015 admitted to “owing 400 million dollars in debt to people”. Does self-disclosing a social transgression benefit a leader’s social image or devalue it? Although admitting to violations likely stain a leaders public record, one benefit of candidly making such a disclosure is that the leader in question may appear authentic (as they are being true to themselves by owning their previous transgressions), brave (as they are risking loss of face by coming clean), and honest (as they are engaging in truth-telling). Can these potential positive impressions arising from disclosing norm-violations translate to support for norm violating over norm following leaders? In this project, I plan to assess whether people perceive public leaders who admit to violating norms more positively than norm following leaders and subsequently whether people prefer to vote for norm violating leaders over norm following ones. My goal is to identify categories of norm violations that may positively influence voting and individual differences political ideals that predict support for norm violating public leaders.

• Principal Investigator: Joaquim Castañer
• Research group: Dret Patrimonial
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 13.000€
• Duration: 12 months

Within the EU context, Spain is one of the countries with the lowest rate of start-ups per capita. Among the reasons for this lower volume of startups are the financial difficulties they face, especially in the area of bank financing. There is evidence that shows the limited use made of other debt financing systems that our legal system allows, and that can complement the set of non-bank financing mechanisms for these emerging companies. Under these premises, the project focuses on the review of the business forms of credit other than the usual in banking practice and that our legal system incorporates.

• Principal Investigator: Lisa Hehenberger
• Research group: EEI-GRIE
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 10.000€
• Duration: 12 months

Gender lens investing (GLI) seeks to fuel sustainable economic growth that incorporates diversity, equity, and inclusion. It can be defined as (1) investing in women-led businesses, companies supporting gender equality, or companies developing products and services that have a positive impact on women, and (2) making investment decisions based on a process or strategy that examines potential investees with respect to gender criteria (GIIN). GLI is important because it seeks to help achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Banks and funds have taken the lead in promoting programs to support diversity, equity, and inclusion. 67% of global asset owners identify gender diversity as an area of interest. However, increased awareness has failed to translate into the accelerated growth in GLI expected by experts. This may be due to existing gender bias in the investment industry. To address this challenge, this study will conduct qualitative research to unfold the process through which private investment funds move from awareness to action and develop expertise in GLI.

• Principal Investigator: Petya Platikanova
• Research group: GREF
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 11.000€
• Duration: 12 months

Although innovation creates winners and economic growth, it has the potential to destroy the value of existing technologies. The destructive side of innovation is related to technological obsolescence, where previously advanced technologies become less valuable when newer ones emerge. We argue that the phenomenon of innovation destruction through technological obsolescence can serve as a catalyst for investing in green innovation, promoting the advancement of environmentally sustainable technologies and ultimately economic growth.

• Principal Investigator: Núria Ginés
• Research group: Conflict Management
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 5.000 €
• Duration: 12 months

The need to adapt our body of laws to comply with the New York Convention’s (2006) guidelines represents an opportunity to undertake a new line of research (both multidisciplinary and inter-university) regarding “undue influence” and other abusive conducts, opportunism and exploitation of the most at-risk groups, as well as the treatment of those concepts and fit within our legal code, among other issues. In this sense and stemming from the last adaption of our Civil Law in 2021, we propose carrying out a comparative study focused on the “unfair advantage” concept which is, though unassimilated, related to undue influence and which, though not unknown within Catalan Law, was introduced ex novo into Spanish Law through Law 8/2021 as part of the new rules governing the hiring of people with disabilities (specifically, articles 1.163, 1.765, 1.302.3 II, 1.304 and 1.314 CC). For this reason, this is the opportune moment to carefully examine the meaning of “unfair advantage” and the elements required to be able to identify it in the future and, once identified, determine its impact on the validity and/or effectiveness of concrete legal actions according to our body of law’s current structure. After completing this study and analyzing the corresponding results, it would also be worthwhile to examine if its impact is the most appropriate or, contrarily, if some changes are required. For this, analyzing this concept’s use in the Anglo-Saxon world is key for any study we aim to carry out in this respect. In sum, the repercussion that the existence or non-existence of these clear norms has on contract conditions to ensure their full validity and effectiveness in the course of trade and efficient conflict management is patently clear. In addition, it directly connects to the Law School’s and the Conflict Management Group’s priority objectives, that is, economic and business law, as well as UN SDG 16.

• Principal Investigator: Daniel Blaseg
• Research group: EEI-GRIE
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 10.000€
• Duration: 12 months

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are important for the economy, but they often struggle to get access to credit due to the challenges of assessing their creditworthiness. Traditional credit scoring models are limited for SMBs because of non-standardized documentation, lack of accounting data, and heterogeneity. Lenders use various methods to assess creditworthiness, but alternative metrics from new data sources are needed. Improving credit access for SMBs is important for economic growth, and innovative solutions are required. The hypothesis of a new project is that the required rate of return (RRR) is a powerful indicator of future business solvency and credit risk. The project plans to conduct an empirical study to investigate whether the RRR is useful for SMB credit scoring. 

• Principal Investigator: Vicenta Sierra
• Research group: BUNED
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 3.875€
• Duration: 12 months

This research proposal aims to investigate the relationship between sustainable supplier development practices and firm performance. To achieve this objective, a meta-analysis will be conducted, which will examine not only the direct effect but also the potential moderating factors that may influence this relationship. The study will draw upon a comprehensive sample of 212 papers published in the Web of Science and/or SCOPUS databases over the past decade (2002-2022).
The proposed meta-analysis can contribute significantly to the literature in several ways. Firstly, it can help to reconcile inconsistencies found in previous research by synthesizing studies with different methodologies or varying findings. Secondly, it may identify patterns or trends that can inform future research directions. Finally, the study's results can provide empirical evidence on how sustainable supplier development practices can enhance supplier performance, increase competitiveness, and improve long-term sustainability. Overall, this research project aims to advance our understanding of the relationship between sustainable supplier development practices and firm performance, which can have important implications for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers involved in the sustainability of supply chains.

• Principal Investigator: Martí Guasch
• Research group: GREF
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 10.000 €
• Duration: 12 months

The recent development of information technologies has reshaped the way information is created, disseminated, and consumed. This has been exacerbated in the corporate world, which now needs to manage new forms of decentralized communication. Existing research documents that online media platforms lower the barrier to information, therefore benefitting capital market participation. Yet, online media can also facilitate the spread of speculative information, thus creating misinformation and inducing stock price distortions.

In this project, we examine the role of YouTube as a relevant source of information. We aim to understand whether information dissemination via YouTube affects (retail) investors' trading activity. YouTube has two features that makes it unique: a) it has an unrivaled traction among individuals (we need momentum to find effects in our capital market tests), and b) it is video based, which makes it different to the broadly studied effects of textual communication (e.g., news, regulatory disclosures). Our conclusions would be meaningful to practice, since corporations are more and more required to initiate communication via video. The results would also inform the recent debate on the societal challenges that arise when unsophisticated individuals rely on social media platforms to form their investment decisions.

The project will examine investment recommendations produced by influential YouTubers—who claim to be ‘successful’ investors—and test its effect on the participation of individuals in capital markets. We plan to answer the following three research questions:
1) What is the role of stock recommendations made through informal YouTube videos? Do they help price discovery by imparting relevant information to investors?
2) Do more influential YouTube videos affect investors trading decisions?
3) Do YouTubers feed their recommendations from sell-side analysts thus allowing for a democratization of financial information?

• Principal Investigator: Laura Guillen
• Research group: GLEAD
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 8.525 €
• Duration: 12 months

The objective of this research is to study how leaders experience the fear of losing power when they are close to retirement. Examples of leaders that seem reluctant to give up their leadership roles are plentiful and since the work population is aging at unprecedent speed, this topic seems all the most relevant. Relinquishing power has potentially profound psychological and identity consequences; and it seems difficult to convince leaders that their time is up because they often measure their self-worth by their work: their identity is tighlty linked to their leadership positions. The identity literature suggests that leader identity develops and grows with time, as people progress from novice to middle to senior leadership roles. However, what happens after that point, when leaders' careers stagnate and retirement—seen by many as the ultimate professional irrelevance—constitutes a sword of Damocles hanging over senior managers’ heads. In this project, we aim to explore how senior leaders close to retirement cope with the fear of losing power and professional relevance. Doing so advances the literature in several ways. First, we explore leader identity work prior to retirement, a topic that has been often neglected in the identity literature. Second, age discrimination seems to be a serious concern in corporate life and, for example, two out of three workers above 40 years of age say they have experienced it at work. Rather than exploring how older workers are perceived by others, we give voice to the leaders themselves to explore their perceptions about ageism. Practically, our work seeks to help organizations understand and manage retirement efficiently, in less threatening ways for their senior leaders.

• Principal Investigator: Ana Valenzuela
• Research group: Esade D3
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 6.600 €
• Duration: 12 months

Generative AI is on the rise. AI has been unveiled as able to create a variety of contents for consumers, possibly including instructions and rules. Companies are widely adopting this technology already. As an example, Singapore is launching an AI traffic control robot that will regulate the circulation of cars in the city. While a few studies have examined individuals’ responses to decisions generated by an AI agent as compared to a human (Lee, 2018; Yalcin et al., 2022), little is known about whether consumers are willing to comply with rules generated by AI agents. In this proposal, we aim to examine when and why consumers decide to comply with AI (vs human) generated rules.

When individuals are told to follow a rule, judgments of how fair is the process through which the rule is made (procedural justice) and communicated (interactional justice) affects how people respond to it (Collie et al., 2002; Acikgoz et al., 2020). We posit that the type of assistant (AI vs human) generating the rule influences consumers’ perceptions of procedural and interactional justice. Perceptions of justice, in turn, affect individuals’ compliance with the rule and subsequent satisfaction with the experience. Moreover, we expect the effect to be reversed when the basis of the rule violates social norms and attenuated when the context of the rule involves high levels of complexity. Across eight studies, we will be using attitudinal and behavioral measures as well as real interactions with AI agents (robots) to demonstrate that consumers comply less and are less satisfied with the overall experience when a rule is generated by AI agents, and that the effect is driven by a decrease in perceptions of procedural and interactional justice.

• Principal Investigator: Anna Bayona
• Research group: GREF
• Funding body: URL- GENERALITAT
• Funding: 6.000€
• Duration: 12 months

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems facing humanity. There is considerable uncertainty and ambiguity about the true state of the environment, about “tipping points”, about the precise consequences of these, and about the type of response by others to this problem. In such situations, cooperation among decision-makers is crucial to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change. Unfortunately, previous studies have found that uncertainty and ambiguity reduce cooperation levels. This project aims to understand the causes behind this finding and investigate the interventions that can sustain cooperation. Tackling the climate problem has a dynamic nature which involves both mitigation and adaptation. From an economics perspective, we aim to study which policies are most effective at achieving cooperation in climate change. To achieve this, we plan to conduct a laboratory experiment where individuals make decisions in a setting which captures these tradeoffs. Our experiment will include treatments involving various elements which help promote cooperation to identify to what extent each of these features enhance cooperation in climate adaptation and mitigation. The results of our study will have policy implications for promoting cooperation among individuals in addressing the climate change problem.