Gastón P. Fernández’s research while affiliated with KU Leuven and other places

This paper examines whether personality influences the allocation of resources within households. I model households as couples that make Pareto-efficient allocations and divide resources according to a distribution function. Using a sample of Dutch couples from the LISS survey, which includes detailed individual-level data on consumption, labor supply, and personality traits, I investigate two structural channels through which personality can affect intrahousehold allocations. First, I show that personality, acting as a taste shifter, significantly influences preferences for consumed goods and leisure time. Second, by testing distribution factor proportionality and the exclusion restriction of a conditional demand system, I find that personality can act as a distribution factor. Specifically, differences in personality traits between spouses shape resource allocation by influencing the bargaining process within households. For example, women who are relatively more conscientious and engage more cognitively than their male partners receive a larger share of intrafamily resources. This paper thus provides empirical evidence on how personality traits can contribute to consumption inequality within families.

This paper examines whether personality influences the allocation of resources within households. I model households as couples that make Pareto-efficient allocations and divide resources according to a distribution function. Using a sample of Dutch couples from the LISS survey with detailed information on consumption, labor supply, and personality traits at the individual level, I find that personality affects intrahousehold allocations through two channels. Firstly, the level of these traits act as preference factors that shape individual tastes for consumed goods and leisure time. Secondly, by testing distribution factor proportionality and the exclusion restriction of a conditional demand system, I observe that differences in personality between spouses act as distribution factors. Specifically, these differences in personality impact the allocation of resources by affecting the bargaining process within households. For example, women who are relatively more conscientious and engage more cognitively than their male partners receive a larger share of intrafamily resources. JEL Classification: D1, J12, J22, J24

This paper analyses the link between the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and innovation performance in firms. Based on firm-level data from the German part of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2018, we examine the role of different AI methods and application areas in innovation. The results show that 5.8% of firms in Germany were actively using AI in their business operations or products and services in 2019. We find that the use of AI is associated with annual sales with world-first product innovations in these firms of about €16 billion (i.e. 18% of total annual sales of world-first innovations). In addition, AI technologies have been used in process innovation that contributed to about 6% of total annual cost savings of the German business sector. Firms that apply AI broadly (using different methods for different applications areas) and that have already several years of experience in using AI obtain significantly higher innovation results. These positive findings on the role of AI for innovation have to be interpreted with caution as they refer to a specific country (Germany) in a situation where AI started to diffuse rapidly.