Applied econometrics, innovation, labor mobility, text data processing, semiconductor industry, economics education, sports economics
Carole South-Winter and Sebastian Wai (2025). The Effectiveness of C*A*R*E Training in Increasing Empathy. Athens Journal of Health and Medical Sciences 12(2), 85-100. (https://doi.org/10.30958/ajhms.12-2-1)
Demands facing healthcare providers include heavy caseloads, limited control over work environment, and changes in reimbursement lead to systems in transition and provider stress. Other conditions of increasing stress and symptoms of burnout as self-reported by clinicians include apathy. Lack of empathy affects the quality of patient care. Lack of empathy is a symptom or a red flag to burnout. Rising burnout rates correspond with rising suicide rates among providers. Compassionate Aging: Reimagining Empathy (C*A*R*E) is an empathy-raising experience regarding the unique challenges faced by an aging patient population. This paper empirically examines the effectiveness of C*A*R*E in promoting empathy among healthcare providers. The program uses an escape room-type experience in which participants adopt personals with challenges associated with aging. The participants perform daily tasks with simulated impairments. Pre and post surveys show significant effects on participants’ likelihood to help patients and feeling that they can relate to them.
Sebastian Wai (2024). Managerial Economics in the MBA Program. Journal of Economic Insight 50(2), 1-20 (available online at https://journalofeconomicinsight.com/index.php/joei/article/view/1332; download pre-publication draft).
This paper explores the place that managerial economics courses hold within MBA programs and the content of the most popular textbooks on the market. Using newly collected data from business school websites, I show that about half of MBA programs require managerial economics. I identify the books used by these courses and ascertain to what extent there is consensus among the authors in the field about what topics make up a managerial economics course. I compare the books and offer guidance on which books would be appropriate for which kinds of courses.
Michael Allgrunn, Christopher Douglas, and Sebastian Wai (2024). Optimal Timeout Choices in Clutch Situations in the NBA. Journal of Sports Economics 25 (2), 217-230 (https://doi.org/10.1177/15270025231217961).
When down by a possession in fourth quarter with the shot clock off and possessing the ball, NBA coaches face a decision: take a timeout and draw up a play or let play continue. Utilizing play-by-play data for 16,839 NBA games, we find taking a timeout lowers a team’s chances of winning. Coaches might view taking a timeout as the safe decision, since blame for the loss would fall on the players for not executing the play, not on the coach for failing to call one. This suboptimal behavior suggests there is a principal-agent problem between team owners and coaches.
Sebastian Wai (2023). Inventor Mobility and Spillovers in the Early Semiconductor Industry. Technology in Society 75, 102331. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102331)
This paper examines the role of inventor mobility to drive innovation spillovers in the early semiconductor industry. I employ self-collected patent data from the infrequently studied period prior to the industry's shift to Silicon Valley (1946–1959) to track inventor movement across firms and regions. I utilize patent assignments to identify inventor moves and test for increased patenting activity for firms on both sides of a move. The results show increases to patenting after a move on both sides which taper off over a period of several months. I also use the dataset to discuss the broader patterns in the industry during this period, including overall geographic and patenting trends.
Sebastian Wai (2023). Econometrics with YouTube Data: A Time Series Teaching Case. Journal for Economic Educators 23(2), 31-39. (view online at https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jfee/article/view/2446/1437; download dataset and code)
This paper explains a teaching case I have designed for econometrics and business analytics courses. Time series remains a difficult topic to teach, in part because existing textbooks lack examples using real data and applicable to business problems students may encounter. This case uses data from my own YouTube channel to give students an opportunity to practice time series analysis. Issues include endogeneity, seasonality, and unit roots. I also include discussion on how the case can be adapted for different course levels.
Sebastian Wai (2022). Software Quality and Backward Compatibility in the Video Game Industry. Journal of Industrial and Business Economics 49(3), 545-570. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40812-022-00224-2; view online at https://rdcu.be/cRWjH)
The video game industry is a platform market in which consumers derive value from a console based on the availability of software. This article examines the role of the quality of software in determining sales of associated hardware. I investigate this using data on the seventh generation of video game consoles (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii). Using aggregated review scores from Metacritic, I build a novel measure of accumulated quality for both current-generation and backward compatible software for each console. Using an instrumental variables approach, I estimate the effects of these quality measures on weekly console sales. I find that overall software quality has a significant positive impact on hardware sales, while backward compatible software has a much smaller positive effect. Additionally, I incorporate a reliability measure into the estimation and discuss the console industry in the context of platform markets and durable goods.
Beer, Bourbon, and Bertrand: An Experimental Analysis (with Noah Dixon)
In this this paper, we investigate the relationship between binge drinking behavior and economic performance in a standard Bertrand-style game. We find that binge drinking, when paired with poor protective behavioral strategies, increases cooperative pricing in a Bertrand-style game, with this result persisting across contextual frameworks. In the aggregate, this study contributes to the literature by being the first of its kind to evaluate the effect of observational binge-drinking meta scores on performance in a Bertrand-style game. To measure economic performance in the market, participants play the 2/3 average game and a Bertrand game with zero marginal cost, both implemented using z-Tree. By employing a targeted binge-drinking questionnaire (DBQ and PBS) and controlling for personality (AB5C and the NEO5-20), we identify the effect of binge drinking on participants' performance in a standard Bertrand-style game.
Experimental Game Theory (2023). National Collegiate Honors Council Sample Syllabi. (Download)
A sample syllabus for a junior/senior-level honors seminar on game theory and experimental economics. Based on my UHON 390 course at USD.
RESEA Profiling Model (2023), with Ed Gerrish
I designed and implemented the updated profiling model for the RESEA program for the state of South Dakota's Department of Labor, administered by the Government Research Bureau at the University of South Dakota.
Semiconductor Patent Database
I am currently building a comprehensive database of semiconductor patents starting in the 1940s and going forward year by year. The work involves scripted regular expression searching through OCR (optical character recognition) text data and manual inspection of scanned images. The goal is to identify semiconductor patents and their inventors' names, locations, and employers.