Research
Blockchain-based Digital Asset Market
- with Alok Gupta, Teng Ye
- Potential job market paper
- Targeting Management Science Special Issue on Digital Finance
Abstract coming soon...
- YoungJin Kwon, Teng Ye, and Alok Gupta
- In preparation for a submission to Information Systems Research
- Presented at WISE 2024
- Presented at INFORMS ISR - ISS Paper Development Workshop 2024
- Presented at WITS 2023
As digital technologies create new products and services, new market participants exhibit diverse sets of behaviors that are rarely predicted by the singular theoretical lens. IS research has taken the lead in examining user behaviors and developed new measures and even theoretical paradigms to examine emerging products and markets (Bapna et al., 2004). The rise of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has attracted global attention and significant investment; however, collector/investor strategies and their investment performance in this nascent market remain largely unexplored. This paper systematically analyzes the performance of different collector groups in the NFT market using transaction data from prominent NFT art collections. We examine portfolio returns and realized returns across several collector groups, identified through cluster analysis, where the emphasis was on identifying and interpreting distinct behaviors that might indicate different strategic or tactical investor goals. The study discovers and analyzes trader activities through a significant boom-bust cycle that is discernible through overall market valuation, turnover, volatility, and trading characteristics. The key findings of our study reveal that NFT markets do not show a close resemblance to art collector markets, nor do they exhibit the characteristics of investing markets. In particular, we find: i) Contrary to expectations from traditional art economics, art collectors who prioritize holding NFTs for an extended period (Buy-and-Holder investors) outperform speculators who chase popular NFTs (Popularity Investors); ii) collectors who concentrate their investments in extremely high-priced NFTs (Masterpiece Collectors) underperform, despite the high demand for such NFTs; iii) collectors with extensive trading experience (Active Traders) tend to outperform, but this advantage is limited to those who entered the market during pre-boom or boom periods; iv) outperforming collector groups tend to minimize extrapolation of past returns but maximize participation in early NFT sales. Overall, our research provides valuable contributions to the growing literature on blockchain-based digital asset markets and art economics, offering insights into investor behavior, market efficiency, and the dynamics of boom-bust cycles.
- YoungJin Kwon, Agnes Yang, Gautam Ray
- In preparation for a submission to a top-tier journal
- Presented at WITS 2024
- Presented at CIST 2024
- Presented at INFORMS Annual Meeting 2024
Abstract coming soon...
GenAI Creativity and Productivity
- YoungJin Kwon
- Analysis in progress
Large language models (LLMs) have garnered significant attention for their potential to enhance knowledge worker productivity. In this study, we present the first empirical evaluations of the impact of LLMs on researchers’ productivity. Leveraging a comprehensive dataset of 4,582 computer science scholars from 194 top universities in U.S. and analyzing 251,124 research papers published between 2018 and 2024, we find that the introduction of LLMs is associated with a 3.4% increase in publication output. Our regression discontinuity in time (RDiT) analysis further reveals that LLMs not only shifted the average publication level but also accelerated the growth rate of productivity. Recognizing that the benefits of LLMs may not be uniformly distributed, we also investigate their impact on non-native English-speaking (NNES) researchers, who have historically faced disadvantages in academic writing (Liao et al., 2024). Our difference-in-differences and generalized synthetic control analyses indicate that, following the introduction of LLMs, native English-speaking (NES) researchers produced 4.6% more papers than their NNES counterparts—a gap that remains robust across alternative measures, including a 3.5% gap in first-author publications and a 1% gap in top-tier conference papers. These findings suggest that while LLMs contribute to overall productivity gains, they may also exacerbate existing disparities among researchers.
- with Alok Gupta
- Analysis in progress
Abstract coming soon...
Sharing Economy
- YoungJin Kwon, Agnes Yang, Sang-Yong Tom Lee, and Seung Hyun Kim
- Presented at WISE 2019
- Best paper award at Post-ICIS KrAIS Research Workshop 2019
App-based bike-sharing platforms are rapidly transforming urban transportation. This study investigates how bike-sharing platforms influence demand for ride-sharing services, with a focus on platform interaction. To measure this effect, we use spatiotemporally staggered expansions of Citi Bike, New York City’s largest bike-sharing service, as a natural experiment. We examine the treatment effects on ride-sharing services (Uber, Lyft) and Yellow taxi demand across the city. Our novel identification strategy, geographically nearest neighbor matching, is based on 0.38 billion individual trip records. This research contributes to the sharing economy literature in Information Systems (IS). To our knowledge, it is one of the first studies to explore interactions between app-based sharing platforms. Understanding how people connect different shared mobility services has never been more important. We argue that this study lays the foundation for future research on sharing-to-sharing mobility interactions.