Western Michigan University
SelectedWorks
University of Kentucky
University of Warwick
Cornell University
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
University of the Sunshine Coast
Connecticut College
Iowa State University
Wesleyan University
An Examination Of The Stock Market's Effect On Economic Inequality,
2019
The University of Akron
An Examination Of The Stock Market's Effect On Economic Inequality, Nicholas Golina
Honors Research Projects
The economic literature on economic inequality has shown that it can negatively impact aggregate demand because it indicates a higher concentration of wealth in the hands of the top 10% as opposed to the poor and middle class, who are more likely to consume. The literature has identified many factors that can lead to increasing inequality. The stock market could be one of those factors since it can either create an upward redistributive effect towards the top 10% or redistributive effect towards the middle class. This paper tested the effect of the stock market on inequality. This study contributes to ...
Slow-Fast Analysis Of A Multi-Group Asset Flow Model With Implications For The Dynamics Of Wealth,
2018
Chapman University
Slow-Fast Analysis Of A Multi-Group Asset Flow Model With Implications For The Dynamics Of Wealth, Mark Desantis, David Swigon
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
The multi-group asset flow model is a nonlinear dynamical system originally developed as a tool for understanding the behavioral foundations of market phenomena such as flash crashes and price bubbles. In this paper we use a modification of this model to analyze the dynamics of a single-asset market in situations when the trading rates of investors (i.e., their desire to exchange stock for cash) are prescribed ahead of time and independent of the state of the market. Under the assumption of fast trading compared to the time-rate of change in the prescribed trading rates we decompose the dynamics of ...
On Booms That Never Bust: Ambiguity In Experimental Asset Markets With Bubbles,
2018
Chapman University
On Booms That Never Bust: Ambiguity In Experimental Asset Markets With Bubbles, Brice Corgnet, Roberto Hernán-González, Praveen Kujal
ESI Working Papers
We study the effect of ambiguity on the formation of bubbles and on the occurrence of crashes in experimental asset markets à la Smith, Suchanek, and Williams (1988). We extend their framework to an environment where the fundamental value of the asset is ambiguous. We show that, when the fundamental value is ambiguous, asset prices tend to be lower than when it is risky although bubbles form in both the ambiguous and the risky environments. Additionally, bubbles do not crash in the ambiguous case whereas they do so in the risky one. These findings regarding depressed prices and the absence ...
Prophylactic Merger Policy,
2018
University of Pennsylvania Law School
Prophylactic Merger Policy, Herbert J. Hovenkamp
Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law
An important purpose of the antitrust merger law is to arrest certain anticompetitive practices or outcomes in their “incipiency.” Many Clayton Act decisions involving both mergers and other practices had recognized the idea as early as the 1920s. In Brown Shoe the Supreme Court doubled down on the idea, attributing to Congress a concern about a “rising tide of economic concentration” that must be halted “at its outset and before it gathered momentum.” The Supreme Court did not explain why an incipiency test was needed to address this particular problem. Once structural thresholds for identifying problematic mergers are identified there ...
Conditional Independence In A Binary Choice Experiment,
2018
Chapman University
Conditional Independence In A Binary Choice Experiment, Nathaniel Wilcox
ESI Working Papers
Experimental and behavioral economists, as well as psychologists, commonly assume conditional independence of choices when constructing likelihood functions for structural estimation. I test this assumption using data from a new experiment designed for this purpose. Within the limits of the experiment’s identifying restriction and designed power to detect deviations from conditional independence, conditional independence is not rejected. In naturally occurring data, concerns about violations of conditional independence are certainly proper and well-taken (for well-known reasons). However, when an experimenter employs contemporary state-of-the-art experimental mechanisms and designs, the current evidence suggests that conditional independence is an acceptable assumption for analyzing ...
Selection In The Lab: A Network Approach,
2018
Chapman University
Selection In The Lab: A Network Approach, Aleksandr Alekseev, Mikhail Freer
ESI Working Papers
We study the selection problem in economic experiments by focusing on its dynamic and network aspects. We develop a dynamic network model of student participation in a subject pool, which assumes that students' participation is driven by the two channels: the direct channel of recruitment and the indirect channel of student interaction. Using rich recruitment data from a large public university, we find that the patterns of participation and biases are consistent with the model. We also find evidence of both short- and long-run selection biases between males and females, as well as between cohorts of students. Males tend to ...
A Theory Of Conservative Revivals,
2018
University of Colorado, Boulder
A Theory Of Conservative Revivals, Murat Iyigun, Jared Rubin, Avner Seror
ESI Working Papers
Why do some societies fail to adopt more efficient political and economic institutions in response to changing economic conditions? And why do such conditions sometimes generate conservative ideological backlashes and, at other times, progressive social and political movements? We propose an explanation that highlights the interplay--or lack thereof--between productivity, cultural beliefs and institutions. In our model, production shocks that benefit one sector of the economy may induce forward-looking elites to provide public goods associated with a different, more traditional sector that benefits their interests. This investment results in more agents generating cultural beliefs complementary to the provision of the ...
Revisiting The Foundations Of Dominant-Strategy Mechanisms,
2018
Singapore Management University
Revisiting The Foundations Of Dominant-Strategy Mechanisms, Yi Chun Chen, Jiangtao Li
Research Collection School Of Economics
An important question in mechanism design is whether there is any theoretical foundation for the use of dominant-strategy mechanisms. This paper studies the maxmin and Bayesian foundations of dominant-strategy mechanisms in general social choice environments with quasi-linear preferences and private values. We propose a condition called the uniform shortest-path tree that, under regularity, ensures the foundations of dominant-strategy mechanisms. This exposes the underlying logic of the existence of such foundations in the single-unit auction setting, and extends the argument to cases where it was hitherto unknown. To prove this result, we adopt the linear programming approach to mechanism design. In ...
On Incentive Compatible, Individually Rational Public Good Provision Mechanisms,
2018
Singapore Management University
On Incentive Compatible, Individually Rational Public Good Provision Mechanisms, Takashi Kunimoto, Cuiling Zhang
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper characterizes mechanisms satisfying Bayesian incentive compatibility (BIC) and interim individual rationality (IIR) in the classical public good provision problem. Many papers in the literature obtain the results in the so-called standard model of ex ante identical agents with a continuous, closed interval of types. Although the standard model and more generally a continuum type space are widely used in the literature, it is nonetheless an abstraction of reality. Given that the public good provision problem has occupied a central application in the theory of mechanism design, we propose a "stress test" for the results in the standard model ...
Agglomeration And The Extent Of The Market: An Experimental Investigation Into Spatially Coordinated Exchange,
2018
Chapman University
Agglomeration And The Extent Of The Market: An Experimental Investigation Into Spatially Coordinated Exchange, Jordan Adamson
ESI Working Papers
How and why do agglomerations emerge? While economic historians emphasize trade and economic geographers emphasize variety, we still don’t understand the role of coordination. I fill this gap by extending the model of Fudenberg and Ellison (2003) to formalize Smith’s (1776) theory of agglomeration. I then test the model in a laboratory experiment and find individuals tend to coalesce purely to coordinate exchange, with more agglomeration when there is a larger variety of goods in the economy. I also find that tying individuals to the land reduces agglomeration, but magnifies the effect of variety.
The Supply Side Determinants Of Territory And Conflict,
2018
Chapman University
The Supply Side Determinants Of Territory And Conflict, Jordan Adamson, Erik O. Kimbrough
ESI Working Papers
What determines the geographic extent of territory? We microfound and extend Boulding’s “Loss of Strength Gradient” to predict the extensive and intensive margins of conflict across space. We show how economies of scale in the production of violence and varying costs of projecting violence at a distance combine to affect the geographic distribution of conflict and territory. We test and probe the boundaries of this model in an experiment varying the fixed costs of conflict entry. As predicted, higher fixed costs increase the probability of exclusive territories; median behavior closely tracks equilibrium predictions in all treatments.
Transactive Energy Design For Integrated Transmission And Distribution Systems,
2018
Iowa State University
Transactive Energy Design For Integrated Transmission And Distribution Systems, Hieu Trung Nguyen, Swathi Battula, Rohit Reddy Takkala, Zhaoyu Wang, Leigh Tesfatsion
Economics Working Papers
The increasing deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) is disrupting every aspect of power system operations, from retail distribution to wholesale production and transmission. This paper reports on the development of an agentbased test system enabling the study of new transactive energy system (TES) designs to ensure the reliable efficient operation of integrated transmission and distribution (ITD) systems with growing DER penetration. This ITD test system is used to explore the ability of a non-profit Distribution System Operator (DSO), participating within an ITD system, to use an innovative TES design to manage the power usage of DER devices in accordance ...
Experimental Research On Contests,
2018
Chapman University
Experimental Research On Contests, Roman M. Sheremeta
ESI Working Papers
Costly competitions between economic agents are modeled as contests. Researchers use laboratory experiments to study contests and test comparative static predictions of contest theory. Commonly, researchers find that participants’ efforts are significantly higher than predicted by the standard Nash equilibrium. Despite overbidding, most comparative static predictions, such as the incentive effect, the size effect, the discouragement effect and others are supported in the laboratory. In addition, experimental studies examine various contest structures, including dynamic contests (such as multi-stage races, wars of attrition, tug-of-wars), multi-dimensional contests (such as Colonel Blotto games), and contests between groups. This article provides a short review ...
The Distribution Of Information And The Price Efficiency Of Markets,
2018
Chapman University
The Distribution Of Information And The Price Efficiency Of Markets, Brice Corgnet, Mark Desantis, David Porter
ESI Working Papers
Apparently contradictory evidence has accumulated regarding the extent to which financial markets are informationally efficient. Shedding new light on this old debate, we show that differences in the distribution of private information may explain why informational efficiency can vary greatly across markets. We find that markets are informationally efficient when complete information is concentrated in the hands of competing insiders whereas they are less efficient when private information is dispersed across traders. A learning model helps to illustrate why inferring others’ private information from prices takes more time when information is more dispersed. We discuss the implications of our findings ...
Causal Versus Consequential Motives In Mental Models Of Agent Social And Economic Action: Experiments, And The Neoclassical Diversion In Economics,
2018
Chapman University
Causal Versus Consequential Motives In Mental Models Of Agent Social And Economic Action: Experiments, And The Neoclassical Diversion In Economics, Vernon L. Smith
ESI Working Papers
"In this paper I want to begin with the neoclassical supply and demand model of markets (SDM), whose static equilibrium consequences predicted outcomes far more accurately than were anticipated in laboratory experimental tests of the theory actuated by Jevons (1862, 1871; Smith, 1962). The observed predictive accuracy of SDM was not anticipated because complete information on supply and demand was widely believed, thought and taught to be a necessary condition for finding equilibrium. 1 Jevons’ model required him to have complete information in any particular market, as he only articulated a model of market optimal outcomes, and no model of ...
A Two-Round In-Class Trading Game On The Principle Of Comparative Advantage And The Theory Of Reciprocal Demand,
2018
Singapore Management University
A Two-Round In-Class Trading Game On The Principle Of Comparative Advantage And The Theory Of Reciprocal Demand, Bei Hong
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper outlines a classroom trading game that explores equilibrium terms of trade using the principle of comparative advantage and theory of reciprocal demand. Students are divided into eight groups. Each group is assigned a country with hypothetical productivity and each country seeks its trading partner based on comparative advantage. Students simulate the trading of goods between countries with the objective of achieving the best possible terms of trade. The game encourages students to reflect on their learning of the principle of comparative advantage, consider improvements in trade terms through negotiation, and summarize the conditions for mutually beneficial terms of ...
Identifying Treatment Effects In The Presence Of Confounded Types,
2018
Iowa State University
Identifying Treatment Effects In The Presence Of Confounded Types, Desire Kedagni
Economics Working Papers
In this paper, I consider identification of treatment effects when
the treatment is endogenous. The use of instrumental variables is a popular
solution to deal with endogeneity, but this may give misleading answers when
the instrument is invalid. I show that when the instrument is invalid due to
correlation with the first stage unobserved heterogeneity, a second (also
possibly invalid) instrument allows to partially identify not only the local
average treatment effect but also the entire potential outcomes distributions
for compliers. I exploit the fact that the distribution of the observed
outcome in each group defined by the treatment and ...
Younger Federal District Court Judges Favor Presidential Power,
2018
Chapman University, Fowler School of Law
Younger Federal District Court Judges Favor Presidential Power, Tom Campbell, Nathaniel T. Wilcox
ESI Working Papers
From 1960 to 2015, Federal District Court opinions involving challenges to Executive Branch authority show that U.S. Federal District Court judges (trial judges) support such authority less as they age, with a sharp decline beginning near age 57. We argue that District judges know that elevation to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals becomes increasingly improbable, and hence have less reason to ‘cooperate’ with the Executive, with advancing age. Political variables (and other variables) introduced as extra regressors do not reverse our main results. When there are contemporaneous vacancies on their Circuit courts, District judges in the eleven State ...
Essays In New Keynesian Monetary Policy,
2018
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Essays In New Keynesian Monetary Policy, Tzu-Hao Huang
All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The dissertation consists of three Chapters. I consider New Keynesian models which involve tradeoffs between output gap and inflation variances. Such policy strategy is often referred to as flexible inflation targeting rules (e.g., Lars Svensson 2011, pp.1238-95). Taylor rules, in general, have the symbolic expression 𝑖t=𝜑x𝑥t+𝜑𝜋𝜋t+𝜑g𝑔t, where 𝑖t is the nominal interest rate at period t, 𝑥t is the target variable output gap at period t, 𝜋t is the target variable inflation rate at period t, 𝑔t is realized shock to ...
Big Data In Economics,
2018
University of California, Irvine
Big Data In Economics, Matthew Harding, Jonathan Hersh
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
Big Data refers to data sets of much larger size, higher frequency, and often more personalized information. Examples include data collected by smart sensors in homes or aggregation of tweets on Twitter. In small data sets, traditional econometric methods tend to outperform more complex techniques. In large data sets, however, machine learning methods shine. New analytic approaches are needed to make the most of Big Data in economics. Researchers and policymakers should thus pay close attention to recent developments in machine learning techniques if they want to fully take advantage of these new sources of Big Data.
